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Under the agreement, the United States can still penalize Iran for behavior such as its development of ballistic missiles or support for terrorism, but it cannot simply reapply the same sanctions that were lifted under a different guise. Iran has the right to appeal to a joint committee and make the argument that the United States is in violation.
European officials have long argued that the agreement was intended only to restrict Iran’s nuclear program, not the panoply of other issues. If the international community were to do more to confront Tehran over its efforts to destabilize neighbors in the Middle East, European officials have said, it would be better to face an Iran without nuclear weapons. They have shown little enthusiasm for revisiting the deal, much less undercutting it.
That Mr. Trump’s actions will satisfy conservatives who have been urging him to rip up the Iran deal seemed unlikely. In a column in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, John R. Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations who has interviewed with the president for several jobs in the administration, argued that the nuclear agreement “remains palpably harmful to American national interests.” Withdrawing from it, he said, “should be the highest priority.”
Israel and its supporters in Washington have also bristled at a new cease-fire in southwest Syria that was brokered by Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, fearing it will leave Iran as a major player on the ground in the six-year civil war. Mr. Spicer said the administration would address that with Israel. “There’s a shared interest that we have with Israel, making sure that Iran does not gain a foothold, military base-wise, in southern Syria,” Mr. Spicer said.
Tehran’s clerical government argues that Mr. Trump has already violated the nuclear agreement by pressuring businesses not to engage with Iran even though the nuclear sanctions have been lifted. “That is violation of not the spirit but of the letter of the J.C.P.O.A. of the nuclear deal,” Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday, using the initials for the agreement.
Mr. Zarif, visiting New York, told a gathering of the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday that he has yet to talk with Mr. Tillerson, unlike his frequent conversations with former Secretary of State John Kerry, with whom he negotiated the nuclear accord.
In an interview on Monday with Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest, a foreign policy journal, Mr. Zarif raised the prospect that Iran would be the one to back out. “If it comes to a major violation, or what in the terms of the nuclear deal is called significant nonperformance, then Iran has other options available, including withdrawing from the deal,” he said. |
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Austrian town: The name is thought to derive from a sixth century noble called Lord Focko
An Austrian political party has defended a decision to promote a local beer called F***ing Hell - named after a village in the country and the German word for 'lite'.
The extraordinary brand name was initially banned when the product was released in 2010 but the company took the fight all the way to the EU's trademark authority who eventually overturned the decision.
And the beer was recently promoted on the website of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria, for the district of Schaerding - which neighbours F***ing.
Both districts are found in the northern Austrian province of Upper Austria and the Freedom Party say the promotion was a way of showing solidarity with their neighbours.
The advert on the homepage leads to a website where it is possible to buy the alcohol on order from the neighbouring village of 'F***ing'.
In 2010 the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union ruled that although it might be an obscene swearword in the English language, in German it was simply the name of the village - and a light 'hell' type of beer.
They said in a statement that it had rejected a complaint that the trade mark 'F***ing Hell' was upsetting, accusatory and derogatory.
They added: 'The word combination claimed contains no semantic indication that could refer to a certain person or group of persons.
'Nor does it incite a particular act. It cannot even be understood as an instruction that the reader should go to hell.'
Battle: The extraordinary brand name was initially banned when the product was released in 2010 but the company took the fight all the way to the EU's trademark authority who eventually overturned the decision
Endorsement: An advert for the beer appeared on the website of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria
German marketing executives Stefan Fellenberg, 38, and Florian Krause, 32, who own the rights to the brand name, said they had referred to the town of F***ing in their application to register it.
THE VILLAGE OF F***ING Location: Upper Austria Population: 104 Origin: Founded in the 6th century by nobleman called Lord Focko
The recent publicity earned by the Freedom Party is likely to boost the controversial beer brand's sales - bringing money to a town that often falls victim to trophy-hunters.
Franz Meindl, the village's mayor, said: 'Twelve or thirteen F***ing town signs have been stolen. We've taken to fixing them with concrete, welding and rivets.'
The Bavarian towns of Kissing and Petting have the same problem, as does the eastern German town of Pissen. But so far, there are no plans to name a beer after them.
F***ing's unusual name is thought to derive from the sixth century noble called Lord Focko.
The first known use of the English verb in a vulgar context was in 1475.
The advert on the homepage goes to a website where it is possible to buy the alcohol from the neighbouring village of 'F***ing'
Franz Meindl, the village's mayor, said: 'Twelve or thirteen F***ing town signs have been stolen. We've taken to fixing them with concrete, welding and rivets'
The word has also been found in a dictionary dating back to 1598 - and even turns up in Shakespeare's Henry V.
In 2012 residents of F***ing attempted to change the name of the village to Fugging but their bid was rejected as the suggestion was already taken.
F***ing mayor Franz Meindl said that if it was not for their unfortunate name the village with just over 100 residents would be a rural paradise. |
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump made much of his $1 trillion infrastructure promises. Today, the specifics remain largely ambiguous and ill-defined, with one exception: the desire to cut away pesky layers of bureaucratic red tape and streamline the permitting process for taxpayer-funded federal infrastructure projects.
True — streamlining byzantine permitting requirements doesn't sound too egregious. Anyone who has waded through the mountain of paperwork often involved with building projects knows that could mean one less hoop to jump through, one less night of lost sleep, one less cent diverted away from the project at hand. Ostensibly, it's not a bad thing. And when it comes to lagging American infrastructure, there are few out there who would argue against fixing or replacing crumbling highways and bridges in a more expeditious manner.
In some instances, speedier is a bad thing.
But at the core of the current administration's efficiency-focused infrastructure agenda is a rollback of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, a revised set of common sense building requirements established by President Barack Obama in a 2015 executive order that are geared to protect those living in flood-prone and low-lying coastal areas.
"It is the policy of the United States to improve the resilience of communities and Federal assets against the impacts of flooding," reads the executive order. "These impacts are anticipated to increase over time due to the effects of climate change and other threats. Losses caused by flooding affect the environment, our economic prosperity, and public health and safety, each of which affects our national security."
Former President Barack Obama visits flood-ravaged Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in August 2016. (Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
Sometimes slower is better
Central to the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard was a focus on safeguarding both the lives and the pocketbooks of those who inevitably end up footing the bill to rebuild after a major natural disaster: taxpayers. Implemented to "ensure that projects funded with taxpayer dollars last as long as intended," the standard required projects to be built safely out of harm's way in accordance to scientific flood risk data or other criteria.
This way, public buildings in high-risk flood areas won't need to be repaired or rebuilt altogether using federal funding after suffering damage during major coastal storms and flooding events. Per Reuters, the U.S. incurred $260 billion in flood-related damages between 1980 and 2013.
And so, even if the permitting process was more bogged down than projects unburdened by such requirements, a whole lot of headache, heartache and spending was to be avoided down the line. It's simple, practical foresight during an era when the waters around coastal communities, contrary to the presiding belief of the Trump administration, are indeed rising.
Some found the standard to be onerous and rallied against the added time and cost required to push flood-vulnerable federal projects forward, projects including everything from public housing to hospitals to highways. The National Association of Home Builders was perhaps the most notable opponent of the 2015 order, which otherwise received widespread bipartisan support. After all, it's difficult to imagine building requirements established to protect infrastructure from seismic activity facing the same sort of pushback in earthquake-prone areas.
But as the New York Times makes clear, the rollback of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, which had actually yet to take effect even though issued two years ago, has less to do with fiscal prudence and actual infrastructure and more to do with the wholesale elimination of existing environmental regulations, many of them meant to shield Americans from the impacts of climate change.
Hurricane Sandy cost taxpayers billions. The rolled-back Federal Flood Risk Management Standard was enacted so that public buildings wouldn't need to be replaced following storms and major flooding events. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Move greeted with flood of criticism
Critics of all stripes — not just environmentalists and climate scientists but many conservatives as well — have been quick to condemn the nixing of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard as part of an executive order signed on Aug. 15 at Trump Tower. They include Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican congressman from Florida.
"This executive order is not fiscally conservative," Curbelo explained in a statement. "It's irresponsible and it will lead to taxpayer dollars being wasted on projects that may not be built to endure the flooding we are already seeing and know is only going to get worse."
In no other part of the country does sea level rise pose as much of a threat as it does in South Florida, including the city of Miami and Curbelo's own district, which includes the Florida Keys and southwest Miami-Dade County.
Rafael Lemaitre, former director of public affairs at Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), took a similar stance to Curbelo, telling Reuters that "eliminating this requirement is self-defeating; we can either build smarter now, or put taxpayers on the hook to pay exponentially more when it floods. And it will."
Trump's infrastructure plan includes rollng back Obama era flood standards. Superstorm Sandy called and wants another shot at NY and NJ. — Mike 🇺🇸 One-Term Trump 🇺🇸 (@thedecider99) August 15, 2017
Reversing policies protecting NYers from sea level rise is dangerous. We listen to scientists and will #ActOnClimate https://t.co/8KLT9enMHN — NYClimate (@NYClimate) August 15, 2017
The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, which Lemaitre had a hand in creating and which was built upon previous work devised by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, applied only to taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects and provided federal agencies heading up such projects with three options when building in flood-prone areas. Flood-proof elevations for new construction were either required to be based on best-available flood level predictions based on science; two or three feet above the national 100-year flood elevation standard depending on the "criticality" of the building; or elevated safely above the 500-year flood plain.
FEMA spent a total of $48.6 billion in repairing or replacing storm- and flood-damaged public buildings, utilities, roads and highways and water-control facilities in addition to clean-up and emergency actions between 1998 and 2014, prompting Joel Scata, a project attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, to lay out the basics of how the standard worked:
Under the standard, Federal agencies were directed to use more protective siting and design requirements for infrastructure projects that receive federal funding, like affordable housing, hospitals, and emergency response facilities. Projects were to be located outside of low-lying areas vulnerable to flooding whenever possible or, if not possible, buildings and facilities were to be raised so they were less likely to be damaged by rising flood waters.
For example, if the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is funding the construction of public housing, then the flood protection standard would require that the homes be built on higher ground, rather than low lying areas prone to flooding. But if no other site was available, then the homes would need to be elevated to reduce the potential for floodwaters to cause damage and leave people stranded.
As reported by the New York Times, with the Obama-era Federal Flood Risk Management Standard rescinded, the previous federal flood management standard — a standard established in 1977 by the Carter administration, well before climate change became a global concern, and amended in 2015 — takes effect. This reversal does not prevent local and state agencies facing the impacts of sea level rise and severe storms by pursuing more rigorous, cautious and, yes, slower standards if they choose to do so.
Here's hoping they do.
Why coastal communities should be worried about new flood risk building standards
Building permitting can be a massive headache. But in areas impacted by sea level rise, the tougher the permitting the better. |
In the aftermath of the Second World War, with much of Europe in ruins, millions of people displaced, the horrors of the Holocaust a recent memory and an uneasy peace splintering the European continent, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded.
NATO tied the security of European democracies to American military power in order to deter then Soviet expansion and aggression. On May 6th, 1955 West Germany joined NATO and the Soviet Union retaliated with the Warsaw Pact coalition eight days later. For decades, Europe was fractured by ideology, economic systems and outlook.
Today, NATO remains the most important alliance in the world. Unlike other international bodies and forums, NATO has proven its ability to influence global affairs by not only shaping military outcomes but also buttressing a stable world order by virtue of its very existence. While the European Union looks increasingly shaky, and the prospect of a Brexit adding to the instability, NATO is a rock upon which diplomacy and military planning remains constant.
Predicated on consensus, NATO, as a political forum and a military organization, engages its members with three pillars: Collective defence, cooperative security and crisis management.
For Canada, NATO provides a forum to express Canada’s position on the most important international security issues. Be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Europe, the Seas surrounding the Horn of Africa or the ongoing war against extremists, NATO coalitions enable Canada to project Canadian power and Canadian values abroad.
Canada’s position is in stark contrast to that of certain American politicians: We need more NATO, not less of it. In a past life, I was a passionate advocate for NATO expansion. I still am. The inclusion of Georgia and Macedonia into NATO should occur in the near term and I look forward to one day welcoming those two nations sharing the protective umbrella of NATO.
The exclusion of Ukraine in the Alliance was to our collective shame. With a concentrated push, Ukraine’s path to membership would have united large swaths of that nation and what most see as the illegal Russian invasion of Crimea would not have occurred.
As it is, Russia’s Prime Minister has declared a new Cold War against NATO and Russian rhetoric has once again regressed to a tone of antagonism. NATO, with it’s combined and interdependent strength, has acted as an effective deterrent to many forms of invasion, aggression and violence and will continue to do so.
The present challenge is that all three of NATO’s pillars are stressed. NATO’s collective defence is being challenged by an uneven, unfair burden sharing where the United States pays over 70% of the costs and, worse still, only five member states are able to muster the minimal spending target for defence.
While contributing mightily in recent efforts such as Afghanistan, Canada has a tainted legacy of meeting that minimal standard of 2% of GDP dedicated to National Defence. NATO’s cooperative security is being challenged by the incoherence of needs, perspectives and expectations.
It is easy for the Alliance to trust in close partners like Australia and a number of Scandinavian partners. Much harder is how to navigate relations with unpredictable rogue states and non-state actors, enforcing non-proliferation of weaponry and cyber warfare tools and identifying enemy combatants in counter insurgency operations. NATO’s crisis management abilities rest with the organization’s preparedness and readiness to act.
Article 5 of NATO’s founding charter reads, “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” Canada has traditionally played a key role in alliance operations with military efforts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, in Afghanistan for over a decade and now in Iraq. Canada has also provided leadership within the alliance in drafting a new strategic concept and preparing for disaster relief operations.
NATO is having its next leaders summit in Warsaw this July against the backdrop of an unpredictable – and often surreal – American presidential election. While some have questioned the future of NATO, I believe Canada and its closest allies need to prepare a concise narrative about the importance of the Alliance to the Euro-Atlantic area and our partners around the world.
That narrative needs to clearly state our commitment to the alliance and to working to deliver collective defence, cooperative security and crisis management. We need to back that commitment up with action and money. That means a commitment to funding our militaries with predictable and stable increases as agreed at the Wales Summit. Canada can and should lead that effort. For if we were to lose NATO, Canada’s well-earned position as a trusted partner in international security and stability as well as our ability to affect positive change in the world would be adversely and irreversibly affected.
– Peter MacKay is a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Minister of National Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs. This article reflects his personal views. |
Two years ago, researchers at Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab discovered their corporate network was infected with malware that was unlike anything they had ever seen . Virtually all of the malware resided solely in the memory of the compromised computers, a feat that had allowed the infection to remain undetected for six months or more. Kaspersky eventually unearthed evidence that Duqu 2.0, as the never-before-seen malware was dubbed, was derived from Stuxnet, the highly sophisticated computer worm reportedly created by the US and Israel to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program.
Now, fileless malware is going mainstream, as financially motivated criminal hackers mimic their nation-sponsored counterparts. According to research Kaspersky Lab plans to publish Wednesday, networks belonging to at least 140 banks and other enterprises have been infected by malware that relies on the same in-memory design to remain nearly invisible. Because infections are so hard to spot, the actual number is likely much higher. Another trait that makes the infections hard to detect is the use of legitimate and widely used system administrative and security tools—including PowerShell, Metasploit, and Mimikatz—to inject the malware into computer memory.
"What's interesting here is that these attacks are ongoing globally against banks themselves," Kaspersky Lab expert Kurt Baumgartner told Ars. "The banks have not been adequately prepared in many cases to deal with this." He went on to say that people behind the attacks are "pushing money out of the banks from within the banks," by targeting computers that run automatic teller machines.
The 140 unnamed organizations that have been infected reside in 40 different countries, with the US, France, Ecuador, Kenya, and the UK being the top five most affected nations. The Kaspersky Lab researchers still don't know if a single group of individuals is behind the attacks, or if they're being carried out by competing hacker gangs. The use of the fileless malware and command-server domains that aren't associated with any whois data makes the already difficult task of attribution almost impossible.
Password harvesting
The researchers first discovered the malware late last year, when a bank's security team found a copy of Meterpreter—an in-memory component of Metasploit—residing inside the physical memory of a Microsoft domain controller. After conducting a forensic analysis, the researchers found that the Meterpreter code was downloaded and injected into memory using PowerShell commands. The infected machine also used Microsoft's NETSH networking tool to transport data to attacker-controlled servers. To obtain the administrative privileges necessary to do these things, the attackers also relied on Mimikatz. To reduce the evidence left in logs or hard drives, the attackers stashed the PowerShell commands into the Windows registry.
Fortunately, the evidence on the domain controller was intact, presumably because it hadn't been restarted before Kaspersky Lab researchers began their investigation. An analysis of the dumped memory contents and the Windows registries allowed the researchers to restore the Meterpreter and Mimikatz code. The attackers, the researchers later determined, had used the tools to collect passwords of system administrators and for the remote administration of infected host machines.
"We're talking about a lot of incidents" that often varied in the way they were carried out, Baumgartner said of the infections the researchers found in the months following their initial discovery. "We're looking at the common denominator across all of these incidents, which happens to be this odd use in embedding PowerShell into the registry in order to download Meterpretor and then carry out actions from there with native Windows utilities and system administrative tools."
The researchers don't yet know how the malware initially takes hold. Possible vectors include SQL-injection attacks and exploits targeting plugins for the WordPress content management application. Kaspersky Lab plans to provide more details in April about how the infections were used to siphon money out of ATMs. For now, company researchers are providing indicators of compromise and other technical details here. |
The almost 1 million young undocumented people who have applied for Daca protections gave the federal government their addresses, fingerprints and more
Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program from next March will leave almost a million young immigrants in fear that the personal information they voluntarily handed the federal government in signing up for the scheme could now be turned against them to facilitate their own deportations.
Tuesday’s announcement by the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, that the Obama-era protections against deportation for the young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers” would begin to be dismantled in March 2018 puts the spotlight on the huge government database that has been compiled over the past five years. The records contain highly sensitive information on every individual who has applied for legal protection under the scheme, as well as relatives who might also be vulnerable to removal from the US.
The latest federal statistics show that 936,394 young undocumented immigrants, all of whom were brought to the US as children, have applied for temporary permission to live and work in the US under Daca. Almost 800,000 have been accepted.
My colleague Maria was deported. I saw the void she – and others – leave behind | Nick Nelson Read more
In the process, those young people were required to divulge a large range of personal data, including home addresses, educational history, fingerprints and photographs. Such rich intelligence would provide the Trump administration with a potentially powerful surveillance tool were it to decide to round up and deport people as their Daca permits expire from next spring.
The storage of the home addresses of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers alone could make the work of federal immigration officers vastly easier in deporting them. That knowledge in turn is likely to spread alarm among Daca recipients that their voluntarily divulged information may now be exploited against them, rendering them vulnerable even in their own homes.
The database is currently under the control of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Under present rules, the data is not shared with the agency responsible for deportations – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) – but as both outfits fall under the same Department of Homeland Security, the potential for data sharing remains.
“It would not be easy, but nor would it be impossible, for Ice to get hold of this data,” said Cecilia Muñoz, vice-president of policy and technology at the New America thinktank.
Muñoz was director of Barack Obama’s domestic policy council and in that role she took the lead within the White House in 2012 during the introduction of Daca. She told the Guardian that at the time Obama officials were fully aware of the vulnerabilities inherent in the Daca database, which they attempted to communicate clearly to Dreamers as they considered whether to apply for the scheme.
“When President Obama announced Daca in 2012, he made it clear that it was not a permanent protection. We offered as much assurance to people as we could – telling them that we would never use the data on our watch – but we couldn’t assure them about what future administrations would do with it.”
An added concern for many Daca recipients is that in filling out the requisite forms, they were forced to give information that could reveal the locations of their undocumented parents, thus putting them also at risk. Julián Gustavo Gómez of the advocacy group Define American applied for protection under the program soon after it was set up, and in so doing gave the federal government intelligence on his school history, bank accounts, birth certificate and every home address for the past 20 years.
At the time he was living in his parents’ home, and thus revealed their home addresses in his Daca form. As it happens, his parents have since become US citizens and he has acquired a green card, so the risk to the family has been removed, but many other Dreamers have not been so fortunate.
“We outed ourselves – we presented ourselves to the government and said: ‘Look, I’m here in the country illegally, here’s all my information.’ Until then, the government didn’t have any way of knowing who I was or whether or not I was documented,” Gomez said.
In December 2016, shortly before leaving office, Obama’s homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson released a public letter in which he set out the historic convention adhered to by successive administrations that erected a wall between USCIS and immigration enforcement. In the letter, Johnson pointed out that the US government had promised Daca applicants that “the personal information they provided will not later be used for immigration enforcement” unless there were evidence of a threat to national security or public safety.
Johnson’s letter could provide a way for civil rights and immigration advocacy groups to sue the Trump administration should it begin to use the Daca database to help Ice round up Dreamers for deportation. Several prominent legal groups are already preparing strategies for trying to protect the young immigrants should the database be breached in this way.
Lorella Praeli, Hillary Clinton’s national Latino vote director in the 2016 presidential race and now director of immigration policy and campaigns at the ACLU, said that the Johnson letter underscored what a radical departure it would be were Trump to take the personal information that Dreamers had voluntarily given the federal government and use it against them. “We will take all action necessary to hold the government to its word and ensure the rights of Dreamers are protected,” she said. |
UPDATE 04.07.12 -- We are both humbled and excited to announce that we've made our goal! We are absolutely touched by the support we've received from everyone who encouraged this campaign to succeed. Every single one of your contributions helped us surpass this milestone, and now we know with absolute certainty that "Battle Lizard" will very shortly see the light of day. A tremendous THANK YOU from Keegan, Eric and the Battle Lizard team for generously giving us the resources we need to finish our film!
Though we have succeeded in raising enough funds to complete the film itself, there are still many more aspects to the entire project that require even more funding out of pocket. As of today, we still have 5 days left. So, let's keep it going! That's 5 more days to raise funds to cover everything else, including our recent and final pickup day, the Kickstarter and Amazon fees (10%), official website design, festival submission fees, DVD / Blue-Ray printing, distribution, and costs to produce the Kickstarter video. That's close to $4,000 worth of additional expenses, on top of what we already raised to finish the film. We know it's a lot to strive for, but with the campaign still going strong, we really believe we can jump this final hurdle.
Help us over the next 5 days spread the word, post the link to facebook, twitter, blogs and newsletters. This is our final attempt to reach for the stars, and we're going to get there!
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UPDATE 04.02.12 -- A big shout out to Edward Fonseca for coming aboard as our first official Associate Producer / Velociraptor! We're so amazed by all the contributions we've received so far from friends and supporters, we're confident that means things will start to pick up this week before the deadline. Edward, thank you for your courageous pledge and we look forward to seeing you at the Premiere!
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UPDATE 03.26.12 -- Sweet! 1,600+ likes on the Battle Lizard Kickstarter page! Some AMAZING friends from around the world have bravely stepped forward and pledged to help us complete our film. We won't forget your generous offer. Thank you.
There's still a ways to go - more than 80% within 17 days - but we KNOW it's possible. If everyone else who liked our page pledges $10, we'd reach our goal instantly. It's that easy!
So in the meantime, we're working hard to press forward. We have a little pick-up shoot day scheduled for Thursday - we'll make sure to take some pictures to share with you here and on facebook. We almost have old Mr. Battle Lizard fully 3D-modeled and painted, we just need your support to breathe some life into him and finish the story. So...
Let's do this! 17 DAYS LEFT AND COUNTING.
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UPDATE 03.15.12 -- Shouting out a big Thank You to our first backers. It's the confidence we've needed to continue painting our 3D model of old 'Mr. Battle Lizard'. We have a little over 10% of our $15,600 goal pledged, with only 27 days left to go, but we're putting 100% faith in our supporters. Already with 900+ Facebook likes, just think, if every one of those likes donated $15 right now, Battle Lizard post-production would be a GO! Thank you for taking us these few important steps closer.
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THANK YOU for taking the time to visit our Kickstarter page. We know there are a billion other interesting ways to spend your cyber-time and we're glad you chose us to liven your day!
Hopefully our video was fun to watch and communicated the heart of our message. We're not asking anyone to help fund a pipe dream or reach unrealistic goals. We're asking everyone, our fans and movie lovers alike, to help us complete a film that's already in the can.
When we started this project almost a year ago, we had just enough cash in our pockets to finish principal photography. We knew the remaining funds needed for post-production might never come from our day jobs. So like any brave artist unwilling to compromise, we decided to take that leap of faith and go ahead and shoot. Now we’re beginning to understand what they mean by ‘risk equals reward’.
Many of you have already sent us kind messages or posted compliments about our previous short, Porcelain Unicorn. So many in fact, it's taking a while to personally thank all of you. We hope the success of that film and its resonance with people around the world set a precedent for our future work. Although our next project is quite different in subject matter and tone, we are equally as passionate about it, and we strive to have the same impact through a larger cinematic experience.
So what is 'BATTLE LIZARD'?
Well, that's the affectionate working title of our newest project. It’s the 5-minute segment of a grander story set during a time-twisted post-apocalypse, where a calvary soldier (played by Gil Darnell) tries to lure his steed out of hiding so they can confront their fate together. And by ‘steed’, we mean dinosaur.
We definitely have more than one reason for making this film. For starters, we want to tell the kind of stories we love, and in the classic style we always loved watching them - no unnecessary sex or violence, no preachy themes, no ‘found footage’. Just quality cinematic storytelling. More specifically, we want to create something that aspires to ‘Big Hollywood’ stature, and here’s why: when the time comes to raise financing for feature films that are culturally significant or personal to us, like Porcelain Unicorn, we want investors or studios to feel secure taking that creative risk, having proof that we understand our audience.
So what exactly are you donating to? Well, in a nutshell, our post-production - the other half of our film. Like the video explains, we have to complete visual effects, sound design, score, mixing, coloring and various publicity and marketing materials, without which a film never sees the light of day. The good news is we’ve been working at this filmmaking thing long enough to know realistically how to make the most of our talent and resources. We also know what it means to aim for the stars, and actually reach the stars. Like creating an estimated quarter-million dollar (market price) ILM-quality visual effect package for the cost of a new Honda Civic, with automatic windows. It’s a killer deal made possible by the tireless dedication and ingenuity of our industry friends.
Where’s the money going specifically? We’ve budgeted exactly what we need to finish ‘Battle Lizard’ down the dollar. Below you’ll find a breakdown of how we plan to allocate your donations and tackle each element of post-production at the highest quality possible (because we won't settle for anything less)...
POST-PRODUCTION BREAKDOWN:
• Visual Effects: This makes up the vast majority of our budget, a whopping $8,500, and even that’s not everything we need. But there’s an advantage to living in Los Angeles, the entertainment capitol of the world, and that is our neighbors. We have an A-list visual effects duo already working tirelessly to bring our ‘Battle Lizard’ to life. Together we’ve set the bar high, planning to match the technical quality of Jurassic Park or Peter Jackson’s King Kong, as opposed to what you might find on your typical science fiction-themed channel. And so far what we've created is headed in that direction.
Visual effects for any film is like an entirely separate and complex production in itself, made up of its own hierarchy of departments, only everything happens on the computer. Aside from sculpting, rigging, animating, texturing and lighting our dinosaur, we also have to work on...
• Background – Mattes
• Rotoscoping/Garbage Matte/Wire Removal
• Match Moving
• Compositing
• Environmentals
• Particle Simulations and Elements
• Rendering
In short, creating a photo-realistic dinosaur is no simple task. It’s like giving birth to a living, breathing creature!
• Original Score: As former musicians, we truly believe 50% of any good movie is a great score. That’s why we’re dedicating $3,500 to record with a live orchestra in a reputable recording studio. No synthesized instruments allowed! Our composer has already begun sharing some of his incredible ideas. And we didn’t tell you this, but he’s probably going to get a few world-renowned musicians to jam for a day, bringing unparalleled emotion to our story. We just need to throw them a bone as a token of our appreciation.
• Sound Editorial / Mixing: Often the unsung hero of Hollywood, sound can make the movie, especially when more is left up to the imagination. Our supervising sound editor and his team are ready to pull the trigger, currently discussing innovative ideas on how to design our dinosaur’s unique vocals. Absolutely NO ‘stock’ sounds will be used in the making of this short; that’s not how we roll.
The final rerecording mix is just as critical as the sound design itself. It’s the quality control for all audio. These funds allow us to bring on a professional engineer to ensure that our film sounds nothing short of remarkable in both theaters and on television. We’ll also finish in both surround sound and stereo so you have the option of enjoy either one. All this for a modest $2,500.
• Color Grading: One of the final ingredients that gives big movies their polished touch. It’s the distinct visual palette or ‘look’ of our film. Strong, expressionistic tones create the overall feeling of being completely immersed in our post-apocalyptic world. $1100 flat. For as much time as we need to get it right at a professional coloring house. That’s an amazing deal!
... and we still have to find money for festival submissions, website creation, DVD / Blu-Ray printing, distribution, and online promotion. (Even this kickstarter video wasn’t free.) Oye! There’s a lot left to do, but your support guarantees the most important part gets finished first: our film. And shrewdly applying every penny of your donations to post-production, we'll be able to make this happen.
There are definitely some cool, fun, one-of-a-kind gifts to be had for supporting this project, including but not limited to original concept art, props used in the film, and your own personal short film produced by us. Take a quick scroll through that column to the right. Anyone who pledges $25 or more will get their name in the credits. Not only in the film itself, but under thank-yous on our imdb page, our official website, and any other publicity materials displaying credits. We want to share with the world our generous fans and supporters who made this dream (/ nightmare) a reality.
We know the economy has seen better days, and filmmaking happens to be the most expensive art form. But movies are also one of those rare things that are depression-proof. Take a moment to ask yourself what cinema means to you, how you’ve enjoyed it on those rainy days, when you needed an escape or longed to feel a connection. That’s the spirit of what we do. We truly love making movies and always have. The real reward however comes from doing it for EVERYONE.
If we manage to surpass our fundraising goal, we’ll be able to cover ancillary costs (described above), AND if we even further exceed that number, anything extra will go directly to our next project. Making movies is always, always the objective. So look at this as not only a one-time fundraiser for ‘Battle Lizard’, but a contribution to our future work. A good faith investment, if you will, in our promise to deliver quality, thought-provoking and meaningful content... with the occasional fun flick in between. In the end, with your support, we’ll be able to deliver better films to YOU, our audience, our muse.
Thank you.
-Keegan, Eric, Gil and team
PS. If we meet our fundraising goal, we can all expect a June 2012 release.
PPSS. Roger has something to say...
Check us out on Facebook to see how it's all coming together, new updates, videos and pictures. |
There is a thought I have been mulling over about romantic relationships as well as what sort of audience I would like to reach with this site. How can we create the relationships we desire? We all know people in clearly unhealthy and dysfunctional relationships, what are the things they are doing that make them dysfunctional? And conversely when we look at an example of a healthy relationship, what are they doing to continue their success? I believe the secret to successful interpersonal relationships has to do with actively creating the interaction together. In this article I would like to take you on an adventure of consciousness, and give you some activities to try with your partner. These do not have to be done with a romantic partner by any means. Anyone who is willing to take a moment to practice raising their awareness in their interaction with you is a perfect participant for these exercises.
Often people express their displeasure with their relationships to me. And I notice a few recurring themes: Boredom, resentment, distrust, immature communication. incongruities in the verbal vs. behavior and jealousy, to name a few. I find that often people are not mindful of the types of interactions they want to have with others, and have a laissez faire sort of approach to the relationships that are formed. And while spontaneous connections with incredible people who mirror your goals and values do happen I find people surround themselves with people they are close to in proximity more than similar interests or ideals. I theorize that the trouble begins at the inception of an interaction, this sort of falling into the company of whatever rift raft happens to be around. An example being those who take people home from the bar and then seem shocked that the person drinks heavily and enjoys an active social life picking up people in bars. That would be akin to bringing an opossum home and lamenting that he does not act like a cat. It is ludicrous to ask an opossum to behave like a cat, he cannot be other than what he is. By and large people seem to like those who express interest in them, and begin spending large amounts of time with the interested parties because “Why not?” This is a very passive way to interact I believe, and I think will often lead to incongruity in your own behavior down the line. Consider this; if we are not the master of our choices, if we do not make them consciously, then who is responsible for the places we end up in life?
I know several very clever people who were with romantic partners that seemed highly in-congruent with their lifestyles, which was often a source of discord between these couples. A highly motivated woman with a high paying job was dating a man who was chronically unemployed, and a man with strict ideas about monogamy repeatedly returned to a partner that was unfaithful and openly expressed their disinterest in settling down, are two prime examples. When I inquired what common ground they had with their partner and what sort of interaction they were hoping to achieve together, in both cases these people looked at me as though I had sprouted a third eye.
“Well I mean…I don’t know. We just kind of hang out, I guess we haven’t really talked about that.”
“I am afraid to have that conversation. What if we are not that serious?”
Their answers baffled me. Both of these couples had been together for years, it seemed very odd they would not have discussed their goals together. The idea of having such a conversation seemed to horrify both parties, as though discussing this would highlight the incompatibility. Taken a step further, when I inquire why they are spending their time with these people, what drew them together, and how they met their partner, I received an interesting answer.
“They hung around the same people I did.”
Or “He was at a party and he said he was interested in me. I didn’t have anything else going on so…”
In these answers not only do I perceive a lack of energy I see a lack of enthusiasm. I hypothesize this goes with the flow, devil may care attitude is actually victim mentality in disguise. I wonder if perhaps seeing the word through the lens of a victim, allows a certain freedom to blame others for the occurrences. This sort of thinking is categorized by the sentiment that everyone they have dated is an asshole, or all their previous romantic partners were crazy. By not taking responsibility for your own choices in company you allow yourself to be flotsam washed up on the shores of your own life through no fault of your own. And i think that is a load of malarkey. I do not think that physical proximity and someone expressing interest is a good enough reason to become involved with another human. Through our choices we carve out a future for ourselves. If you are not actively participating in those choices what sort of life would you expect to live in? One in which you feel powerless? One in which we feel like you float on tides of events that just happen to you? I encourage you to put on the brakes, and stop seeing yourself as a victim. Relationships, romantic or otherwise, are not something that just happen. We must treat them like any other area in which we desire success. So how do you bring the process of cocreation in the interactions with those around you? A great place to begin would be by sharing the idea of co created relationships with your partner. Express a desire to try the ideas on for size. Share this piece of writing with them, or summarize the idea in your own words. But I find the results to be most productive if both parties are aware and actively participating.
Exercise One: Intention
The practice of setting your intention is a powerful goal setting tool. It is akin to meditation in that you are seeking to quiet the chatter of the mind for a moment to find clarity. In this exercise you are trying to build a cohesive statement for your intention of an interaction with another person. Find a quiet space to think about your intention within the context of the interaction. You may want to write these things down, or simply have some moments of meditation over the ideas. Whatever your method, take this moment seriously. Examine the thoughts that come to you, and then share them with your partner. Some questions you might ask yourself may be something like the following: What kind of interaction do you have with this person currently? What sort of interaction would you like to have moving forward? In what ways is this interaction successful? In what areas does the interaction need improvement? What are your expectations in this interaction?
Exercise Two: Observation
Set a timer for two minutes and sit facing your partner. During this two minute period I want you to maintain eye contact with the other person. For the first two minutes one person is going to describe the observations they have about your interaction. At the end of the two minute period the other partner will do the same. The catch is while one person is speaking the other partner is to remain silent. Your jobs as the silent partner is to listen and absorb as much as you can, and your role as the speaker to convey your perspective as clearly as you are able. How did that feel? Which was easier for you, speaking or listening? After the time is over I want you to spend a moment trying to look at your relationship from an objective perspective. Pretend if you like, that you do not know the intricacies of all the moments you have shared together. Try to observe yourself from a third person perspective if only for a few moments. Perhaps make notes at this stage of the process if that helps you. What does your mental state feel like when you encounter this person? What physical sensations do you notice when preparing to encounter this person? These thoughts are not something you have to share with your partner, although it is certainly an interesting point of conversation if you so desire. This is something that can be done with an existing interaction, or with new people you meet.Feel free to continue these practices with your partner or with new people. I have found there are new things to discover about your partner at various times, and these are a great place to begin a dialogue. Brainstorm ways in which you can be fully present in your interactions with each other, even if it is only for ten minutes at a time. Carve out time to craft your interactions.
I encourage you to take an active role in your interactions with those around you, be present in the moments, and actively participate. I imagine you will begin to notice a change in the texture of these encounters, in how you communicate and respond as well as how you approach changes in your relationship. A quick word about expectations before moving forward, it is important to introspect and investigate your inner values, and ask yourself if someone existing in a different frame of mind upsets your expectations. However herein lies the dangers of expectations. There is nothing at all wrong with having wants and desires in a relationships, but it is quite detrimental to hang your personal expectations on another person as though they are a coat rack. Without clear communication and honesty one party is bound to feel resentful, and begin throwing of the weight of your expectation coats. I want to caution you here about expectations. They belong totally to you, they are your thoughts. Just because you have them does not mean your partner is responsible for upholding them. Keep in mind the purpose of this is accepting responsibility for your own emotional state. Remember, you are the one steering your own life. |
Searchers are scouring Lemon Creek area for a Juneau woman missing since Sunday afternoon.
Kristina Elizabeth Young, 36, may have been wearing a green top when she disappeared. She’s described as white, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 140 pounds, blond hair and blue eyes.
Lt. Dave Campbell of the Juneau Police Department said Monday morning that at least 20 people are participating in the search.
“Currently, we have SEADOGS, Alaska State Troopers, we notified the Coast Guard, we have some helicopter requests out there,” Campbell said. “So, right now, we have an active search going on in the Lemon Creek area for Kristina.”
Campbell said they’re also trying to get a jet boat on site.
Young is the sister of George Benjamin Young, 40, whose body was discovered face-down Sunday afternoon. He was found near Egan Drive’s Lemon Creek Bridge at the edge of the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge.
Police said there were no obvious signs of foul play. His body has been sent to the medical examiner’s office in Anchorage for an autopsy.
Campbell said they found personal items belonging to the siblings on the banks of Lemon Creek.
“The area where we found their personal effects just north of the Lemon Creek bridge on Glacier Highway is an area that is frequented by people that will go sit in the area, drink alcohol, and just kind of enjoy the creek,” Campbell said. “We were told that by some residents that live in the area that it is a fairly common place to go.”
Campbell said alcohol bottles were found in the area. Campbell said Kristina Young was observed buying alcohol at a liquor store earlier in the afternoon before she disappeared. |
We suggest that signal convergence between the sexes may reflect strong selective pressures on kin recognition, whereas signal convergence within the sexes may arise as its by-product or function independently to prevent competition between unfamiliar relatives. The link between an individual's genome and its olfactory signals could be mediated by biosynthetic pathways producing polymorphic semiochemicals or by carrier proteins modifying the individual bouquet of olfactory cues. In conclusion, we unveil a possible olfactory mechanism of kin recognition that has specific relevance to understanding inbreeding avoidance and nepotistic behavior observed in free-ranging primates, and broader relevance to understanding the mechanisms of vertebrate olfactory communication.
Despite derivation from different genital glands, labial and scrotal secretions shared about 170 of their respective 338 and 203 semiochemicals. In addition, these semiochemicals encoded information about genetic relatedness within and between the sexes. Although the sexes showed opposite seasonal patterns in signal complexity, the odor profiles of related individuals (whether same-sex or mixed-sex dyads) converged most strongly in the competitive breeding season. Thus, a strong, mutual olfactory signal of genetic relatedness appeared specifically when such information would be crucial for preventing inbreeding. That weaker signals of genetic relatedness might exist year round could provide a mechanism to explain nepotism between unfamiliar kin.
Like other vertebrates, primates recognize their relatives, primarily to minimize inbreeding, but also to facilitate nepotism. Although associative, social learning is typically credited for discrimination of familiar kin, discrimination of unfamiliar kin remains unexplained. As sex-biased dispersal in long-lived species cannot consistently prevent encounters between unfamiliar kin, inbreeding remains a threat and mechanisms to avoid it beg explanation. Using a molecular approach that combined analyses of biochemical and microsatellite markers in 17 female and 19 male ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), we describe odor-gene covariance to establish the feasibility of olfactory-mediated kin recognition.
We sampled 17 sexually mature females year round, during the extended nonbreeding season and the relatively limited breeding season, following published protocols [ 35 ]. Our comparable male data (on n = 19 adults) derived from a prior study [ 27 ]. We used a sequential approach to determine if genital secretions encode information about relatedness within and between the sexes. For the first analysis involving all female-female (FF) dyads, we related differences in the semiochemical secretions between dyads of females to their pairwise genetic distance. This analysis is particularly relevant to examining olfactory mechanisms guiding nepotistic or competitive behavior between members of the same sex. For the second analysis involving all mixed-sex (MF) dyads, we related differences between the semiochemical secretions and pairwise distances in MM, FF, and MF dyads using a subset of semiochemicals shared by the sexes. For the last analyses of odor-gene covariance, we focused exclusively on MF dyads. These latter analyses are of primary relevance to examining olfactory mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance.
Ring-tailed lemurs live in multi-male multi-female groups, characterized by a promiscuous breeding system, as well as by female philopatry and male-biased dispersal [ 28 , 29 ]. As a long-lived species that also experiences female eviction [ 30 ] and repeated male migration [ 29 ], they face the risk of consanguineous mating with unfamiliar kin. When it occurs, inbreeding may have dire consequences, including depressed immune function and reduced life expectancy [ 31 ]. Olfactory communication is critical to lemur social interaction, as evidenced by their unique set of specialized scent glands or glandular fields, their elaborate scent-marking repertoire, and the intensity of response these scent signals elicit from conspecifics [ 28 , 32 - 34 ]. Here, we focus on the genital secretions derived from the labial glandular fields and the scrotal glands because, beyond encoding identity, these secretions are the most comparable between the sexes [ 34 , 35 ].
Research on kin discrimination is typically focused on documenting its occurrence. For instance, under natural conditions, researchers have coupled field observations with genetic analyses to show non-random spatial associations or preferential treatment between unfamiliar kin [ 7 , 14 , 15 ] and avoidance of unfamiliar relatives as mates [ 16 - 19 ]. In the laboratory, researchers have relied on behavioral bioassays or cross-fostering experiments to assess an individual's ability to differentiate unfamiliar kin from non-kin [ 3 ]. Here, we focus instead on deciphering a putative olfactory mechanism of kin recognition by showing odor-gene covariance, which occurs when the similarity between the olfactory signals of two individuals reflects their genetic similarity at specific or multiple loci [ 20 ]. In inbred mouse lines, for example, at least two gene families (e.g., the major histocompatibility complex or MHC and mouse urinary proteins or MUPs) influence the olfactory profiles of an individual's urine [ 21 - 23 ] and underlie conspecific recognition [ 24 ]. Only a handful of studies have begun to examine if similar results might obtain in non-model vertebrates that have different signaling systems or if additional genes may be involved in creating individual odor profiles. Indeed, the interaural secretions of bats relate to maternal lineages [ 25 ], the anal secretions of beavers encode pedigree relationships [ 26 ], and the scrotal secretions of male ring-tailed lemurs reflect individual genetic diversity (i.e., neutral, whole-genome heterozygosity) and genetic relatedness among males [ 27 ]. The latter results have significant implications for olfactory-guided female mate choice and male-male competition, suggesting that odor-gene covariance in this species merits further investigation. Here, we complement our prior findings by examining if the olfactory cues common to female and male genital secretions relate to genome-wide relatedness within and, more importantly, between the sexes. If so, olfactory cues could provide a reliable mechanism of kin recognition to guide nepotistic behavior and inbreeding avoidance.
Most vertebrates recognize their close relatives (kin recognition), either to avoid mating with them or to identify the most appropriate recipients of nepotistic behavior (kin discrimination) [ 1 - 3 ]. Although the benefits of kin recognition may be clear, the mechanisms by which it operates are often less evident. In primates, for instance, researchers typically credit associative, social learning in the discrimination of familiar kin [ 2 , 4 ], but the discrimination of unfamiliar kin (e.g. [ 5 , 6 ]) defies explanation via associative learning [ 7 ]. As sex-biased dispersal cannot consistently prevent kin encounters, particularly in long-lived species, inbreeding between unfamiliar kin remains a real threat and carries potentially disastrous fitness consequences [ 8 - 10 ]; consequently, mechanisms to avoid it beg explanation. Indeed, a deeper understanding of communicatory signals demands integration of 'why' questions about ultimate function with 'how' questions about proximate mechanisms [ 11 ]. As olfactory-mediated kin discrimination is gaining appreciation in other taxonomic groups [ 3 , 12 , 13 ], we propose that primates might also use odor cues to assess kinship or genetic relatedness, particularly to identify unfamiliar kin. As a first step to addressing this question, we merge biochemical and genetic analyses to test if olfactory signals offer a reliable means of kin recognition in a strepsirrhine primate, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).
Next, we extracted from the 630 dyads those pairs involving males and females only (n = 323 MF dyads, Figure and ). As we could not use the Mantel test for the MF dyads alone (because the corresponding MF matrix would not have been square), we instead used a permutation test to compare the empirical correlation coefficient (Spearman's r) against a distribution of correlation coefficients generated by resampling events [ 37 ]. With this analysis, we detected a significant pattern of odor gene-covariance during both the nonbreeding (r = 0.12, P = 0.018) and the breeding (r = 0.24, P = 0.001) seasons. According to these tests, the odor-gene covariance appeared to be expressed in mixed-sex pairs throughout the year, but was stronger during the breeding season. For a more conservative analysis, we categorized the 323 MF dyads into five classes of genetic distances (Figure and , as for FF dyads in Figure and and as for MM dyads in [ 27 ]), which we compared using permutation tests based on class means [ 38 ]. During the nonbreeding season, the mean semiochemical distance between members of MF dyads did not vary across classes of genetic distance (all pairwise Ps > 0.05); olfactory cues in the nonbreeding season did not reflect the genetic relationship between males and females (Figure ). During the breeding season, however, the mean semiochemical distances between members of MF dyads were significantly differentiated across nearly all classes (pairwise Ps < 0.001, except for class 0.3-0.4 vs. class 0.4-0.5, P = 1.0), increasing systematically with genetic distance (Figure ). According to this analysis, and consistent with within-sex patterns (Figure , [ 27 ]), the olfactory cues encoding relatedness between the sexes were evident only during the breeding season.
Representative chromatograms of related and unrelated MF pairs during the breeding season illustrate the greater semiochemical similarity between, for example, brother-sister and mother-son pairs than between two unrelated individuals born to different colonies (Figure ). To statistically examine the relationship between chemical and genetic distances between mixed-sex pairs, we first ran a partial Mantel test, as above, but for all possible dyads (n = 630 MM + FF + MF dyads). Overall, chemical and genetic distances did not correlate during the nonbreeding season (partial Mantel test, r = 0. 01, P = 0.76), but did correlate during the breeding season (partial Mantel test, r = 0.13, P = 0.002), consistent with the patterns found independently for same-sex analyses (males: [ 27 ]; females: Figure ).
We found that, complementing the pattern in males [ 27 ], the olfactory cues present in female genital secretions encoded information about female relatedness in a seasonally dependent fashion. In particular, the chemical distance between members of FF dyads showed no relationship to their genetic distance during the nonbreeding season (partial Mantel test, r = -0.07, P = 0.39; Figure and ), but correlated significantly with their genetic distance during the breeding season (partial Mantel test, r = 0.22, P = 0.02; Figure and ).
The sexes also differed in their seasonal patterns of semiochemical diversity, as reflected by three indices, including Richness (which refers to the number of observed semiochemicals) and the Simpson and Shannon indices (which both correct for semiochemical abundance, see Methods and [ 36 ]). In males, genital scent signals showed a consistent decline in semiochemical diversity, across all indices, from the nonbreeding to the breeding season [ 27 ]. By contrast, the semiochemical diversity of female scent secretions either increased during the breeding season (Richness index, paired t-test, t 16 = 2.43, P = 0.03) or remained stable across seasons (Shannon index: t 16 = 1.25, P = 0.23; Simpson index: t 16 = 0.27, P = 0.79), potentially because those compounds gained during the breeding season contributed only a small proportion (less than 0.5%) to the total chromatogram area. Thus, during the breeding season, whereas signal complexity was compromised in most males, females maintained or enhanced their signal complexity.
Females expressed a greater number of semiochemicals in their genital secretions than did males (total compounds overall: females = 338, males = 203; mean ± SD compounds in the breeding season: females = 217.8 ± 20.0, males = 135.0 ± 13.5; t-test, t 34 = 14.7, P < 0.001; mean ± SD compounds in the nonbreeding season: females = 200.1 ± 19.3, males = 154.4 ± 10.5; t-test for unequal variance, t 24 = 8.7, P < 0.001). This sex difference was typically accounted for by the presence in females of additional low-molecular weight compounds, such as fatty acid alcohols. Despite this sex difference in overall expression and despite their distinct anatomical derivation [ 34 ], labial and scrotal secretions shared a total of 170 compounds, defined as those compounds expressed in at least one female and one male (representing 50.3% and 83.7% of total female and male compounds, respectively; Figure ). These shared compounds included fatty acid esters (49%), unknown hydrocarbons with identified molecular mass (25%), fatty acids (10%), compounds related to cholesterol (2%), long-chained alcohols (2%), squalene (< 1%), farnesol (< 1%), and 1,6,10-dodecatriene,7,11-dimethyl-3-methylene (< 1%).
Discussion
By integrating genetics and biochemistry, we provide the first molecular evidence that the scent secretions expressed by the genital glands of male and female lemurs contain olfactory markers of genetic relatedness within and, more importantly, between the sexes. To date, convergence in olfactory profiles between relatives had been reported only for same-sex dyads [26,27]. Moreover, although semiochemicals common to both sexes have been identified in the secretions derived from the same gland in other species [12,13], we report on signal convergence in the secretions derived from comparable, but anatomically distinct glands or glandular fields [34,39]. Lastly, although the sexes diverged seasonally with respect to their signal complexity, mixed-sex (and same-sex) convergence in the olfactory signals of related individuals appeared most strongly (or only) during the breeding season, suggesting that genital secretions are 'mutual signals' [40] that encode information primarily relevant to inbreeding avoidance, with potentially secondary or independent implications for facilitating nepotism year round. The convergence of olfactory signals within and between the sexes likely underlines strong selective pressures on kin recognition.
Whereas for many females the benefit of inbreeding avoidance may be clear (e.g. to avoid the high energy investment of pregnancy and lactation if the offspring produced would be of low quality), the benefit to males may be less apparent, given their seemingly reduced investment in reproduction. What then might be the selection pressures operating on males to explain olfactory convergence between the sexes? In some species, the olfactory profiles of certain males converge on those of the females to dupe conspecifics in sex communication [41-43]. Such duplicity is unlikely, however, in members of individualized societies. Moreover, it is not supported in ring-tailed lemurs by olfactory evidence, given that sex and individual identity are chemically encoded [35] and detected [33,34] in scent cues throughout the year. An alternate explanation may be found in a broader application of sexual selection theory. Increasing evidence of female-female competition and male mate choice suggests that various species may not conform to a dichotomized pattern of 'expensive eggs' and 'cheap sperm' [44]. Indeed, in socially complex species characterized by slow life histories, males may face significant reproductive costs that increase the benefits derived from being choosy. Thus, female and male lemurs may share similar selection pressures to avoid inbreeding.
Odor-gene covariance also raises the possibility that odor cues could serve to prevent outbreeding, again with similar benefits to both sexes. Outbreeding depression, although less well documented than inbreeding depression, can also produce negative consequences on fitness [45,46]. In only a few studies have researchers tested if odorants offer reliable cues that could serve to identify an optimally dissimilar mate and thereby help individuals avoid the fitness consequences of either inbreeding or outbreeding. In humans, individuals tend to pair with mates that are not too dissimilar at functional loci [47], but the sensory mechanism that may drive the avoidance of dissimilar mates remains unclear. In more extreme cases, odor-gene covariance could facilitate species or subspecies recognition. In callitrichid primates, for instance, the scent gland secretions from two subspecies (Saguinus fuscollis fuscollis and S. f. illigeri) contained distinctive chemical markers [48] and elicited discriminative responses by members of either subspecies [48,49]. Thus, it may be possible that odor-gene covariance mediates outbreeding avoidance within and between species [20]. Given that Lemur catta's nearest sister taxon belongs to a different genus (Hapalemur) [50], the threat of hybridization would seem less likely than the threat of inbreeding. Future studies could address the issue of outbreeding by comparing the scent gland semiochemistry of individuals derived from several populations or subspecies and measuring the behavioral responses the various mixtures of semiochemicals may elicit [20].
Although fascinating, it is unclear why the signal of genetic relatedness appears to be largely seasonally dependent. Consistent with the scent secretions of other mammals [51,52], including other primates [48,53,54], the labial and scrotal secretions of ring-tailed lemurs are extremely complex [35] and encode multiple messages [34]. Our permutation analyses suggest that the message of genetic relatedness between males and females may exist during the nonbreeding season also, but as a weaker signal. Perhaps, during the extended nonbreeding season, the message of genetic relatedness may become masked by the expression of compounds encoding other messages. Nonetheless, it could facilitate nepotism year round: Behavioral bioassays show that certain discriminatory responses of lemurs to the scent of conspecifics are limited to the breeding season and may be related to the selection of an appropriate mate, whereas others occur year round and may be related to nepotism (Charpentier MJE, Crawford JC, Boulet M, Drea CM: Lemurs Detect the Genetic Relatedness and Quality of Conspecifics via Olfactory Cues, submitted). Although we have not yet identified any specific semiochemicals responsible for broadcasting genetic relatedness, we have identified seasonal variation in semiochemical expression [27].
Also unclear is the manner by which olfactory signals come to represent an individual's genome. One possible mediating mechanism implicates genetic polymorphism in the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of semiochemicals. For instance, semiochemical diversity could result from the action of desaturases [55,56] or elongases [57] that modify hydrocarbon-based semiochemicals. While deciphering the biosynthetic pathways of insect pheromones [58], researchers have linked an individual's olfactory profile to the activation of various enzymes [56,58] and have shown that semiochemicals, such as long-chained hydrocarbons, play a role in kin recognition and inbreeding avoidance [57-60]. As most of the semiochemicals found in lemur genital secretions are not present in their monkey chow (Sacha C, Dubay G, Boulet M, and Drea CM; unpublished data), they appear to be endogenously produced and may be derived from common biosynthetic pathways (e.g., squalene is a precursor of cholesterol). Notably, the secretions of lemurs [35] share the diverse hydrocarbon-based semiochemicals found in other mammals [52]. Therefore, the enzymes involved in the synthesis of polymorphic semiochemicals could reflect genome-wide variation and be involved in mammalian chemical communication of genetic relatedness.
Alternatively, or in addition to biosynthetic pathways, an individual's semiochemical profile could be linked to the availability of polymorphic binding proteins that modify the bouquet of semiochemicals emitted by scent glands [61]. Lipocalins represent a large class of extracellular proteins that have the property of binding diverse hydrophobic molecules, such as fatty acids and fatty alcohols [62]. The lipocalin family includes MUPs, a group of binding proteins functioning as semiochemical transporters [63] and notably linked to inbreeding avoidance in mice [23]. These binding properties render lipocalins suitable candidate molecules for kin recognition. Interestingly, two MUP-related genes have been recently detected in the genome of the grey mouse lemur, Microcebus murinus [64].
Other candidates include the highly polymorphic MHC genes that are known to affect vertebrate mate choice and kin recognition through their influence on individual odor [21,22,65-68], although the pathway from MHC genes to individual odor profiles may not be completely resolved. In ring-tailed lemurs, specific MHC alleles may correlate with the abundance of some fatty acids present in scent secretions [69]. Data of this sort raise the possibility of an association between MHC genes and the pathways producing semiochemicals [67,70]. The relevant signal of genetic constitution could derive from the semiochemical profile alone or in conjunction with these various binding proteins, and could function in primates and other vertebrates to reveal genetic relatedness. The present findings have clear relevance to strepsirrhine primates and other mammals with functional vomeronasal organs (VNO), including platyrrhines (i.e., New World monkeys [71]). Given the functional overlap between the VNO and main olfactory epithelium [63,72], however, these findings are also likely to extend to catarrhines (i.e., Old World monkeys and apes, including humans) that arguably lack a functional VNO [73,74]. Anthropoid primates produce a diversity of odorous substances (including scent-gland secretions, urine, and axillary sweat) [12,52,54], the functional significance of which remains obscure and underappreciated. Nonetheless, human semiochemicals have been implicated in mother-infant recognition [75], recognition of familiar kin or non-kin [76], and possibly quality/compatibility-based mate choice [68,77,78]. We suggest that an olfactory mechanism could also function in various species to explain the scarcity of mating between unfamiliar kin (e.g. [18]), as well as paternal recognition and protection of offspring (e.g. [79-82]). |
Both of these are fixable -- the first problem can be fixed by intercepting NM_CUSTOMDRAW and forcing it to return 0, thus restoring the built-in redraw code, and the second one by sending another LVM_SETTEXTBKCOLOR message to restore an opaque background color. With these two fixes, the C# app runs as smoothly as the C++ app. I don't know why the WinForms team chose such poor defaults.
The way I ended up debugging this involved parallel C++ and C# apps. Both were fairly vanilla apps made using the built-in app wizards, the C++ one containing a dialog with a list view, and the C# one being the same but with a WinForm. Okay, I'll admit that the C++ one was more annoying to write, because programming a Win32 list view directly is a lot of gruntwork. However, out of the box, the C++ app updated much more smoothly and didn't flicker madly. I'll spare you the debugging details -- which include ILDASM, WinDbg, Spy++, two instances of Visual Studio, and tracepoints in x86 assembly while debugging in mixed mode -- but I managed to figure out what was going on. The WinForms ListView is indeed a Win32 ListView with heavy subclassing, but it turns out the poor performance is caused by two bad design decisions on the part of the WinForms team:
Therefore, I had to sit down tonight and figure out how you could make a standard Win32 ListView update so slowly that a 1541 drive could almost keep up with it.
It seems that a perpetual affliction of .NET WinForms-based applications is slow and flickery repainting. Part of the problem is .NET's insistence on using GDI+, which is not hardware accelerated to any useful extent. That still doesn't explain why so many controls flicker all of the time, even though they're based on Win32 controls that don't have the same problem. Today I hit this problem yet again in a tool, this time with ListView. It drives me absolutely nuts to see a system with a 3GHz Core 2 and a GeForce 8800 take four seconds to redraw a list view that has three columns and a hundred entries when I drag a column, and even worse, flicker the entire time.
Comments
Comments posted:
Custom draw (WM_NOTIFY, NM_CUSTOMDRAW) != Owner draw (LVS_OWNERDRAWFIXED, WM_DRAWITEM)
pingpong - 15 09 09 - 22:18
Use a DataGridView instead, it sucks much less.
leppie - 16 09 09 - 00:41
AFAIK there's no GDI+ used within Windows.Forms at all. Certainly all of the standard control classes are simply wrappers around underlying windows API controls. But yes, GDI+ is very slow and thus effectively useless for use in professional interative controls or animation. Not that it isn't used in expensive software suites, Infragistics being a notable example I'm aware of (redraw speed is appalling).It can be used but it's a poor solution IMHO.
locster - 16 09 09 - 02:19
fortunately wpf finally becomes usable in .net 4 thanks to proper text rendering.
tobi - 16 09 09 - 02:36
You can also get relatively good performance out of a .NET ListView if you set these styles:this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint | ControlStyles.Opaque, true);And then do your own painting using your own backbuffer. A backbuffer the size of the entire list is expensive and sluggish on resize, so I use a buffer that's the size of a single list item, and render items to it one at a time so that they don't flicker on repaint.Probably not nearly as fast as a fully native ListView but it at least lets you keep owner-draw and get rid of flicker.
Kevin Gadd (link) - 16 09 09 - 05:15
I too hate the flicker. Best and easiest way to really fix this issue is to create a buffered listview like so.You will be amazed at the perf increasepublic class BufferedListView : ListViewpublic BufferedListView() : base()SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer, true);
Scott (link) - 16 09 09 - 06:33
DataGridView is more powerful than ListView, but in my experience its performance is awful due to similar painting problems. The ListView is OK enough that you could still use it, but I don't consider the DataGridView to be usable in shipping code. It's simply unacceptable IMO to have a window take more than four seconds to repaint.Windows.Forms does use GDI+. In fact, it's the library behind the Graphics class. It's true that the system controls don't use GDI+, but the WinForms wrappers that are based on them do heavy amounts of subclassing and at times substitute System.Drawing.Graphics based rendering for the normal GDI-based system rendering. That's the main cause of the problem here and why you see rendering bugs in the WinForms controls that don't manifest in the system controls. The situation changed somewhat in .NET 2.0 when WinForms started using GDI via TextRenderer to bypass text rendering problems in GDI+, but unfortunately that causes problems where alternating between GDI and GDI+ for rendering produces poor performance.As for double buffering, that's the lazy way. It works somewhat and is sometimes easy to do, but in my experience the refresh rate is still poor and CPU usage is high if the update code is still non-incremental. When writing a control from scratch, I always put in incremental update code first before resorting to double buffering of any kind. It's the only way you can hit interactive scrolling speeds and it's also much better over a remote link.
Phaeron - 16 09 09 - 15:44
Hey Phaeron, does the Mono implementation of System.Windows.Forms.ListView have the same issue as the Microsoft .NET Framework implementation?
King InuYasha (link) - 16 09 09 - 17:51
Wow... what a /mess/ the Mono repository is!The Mono implementation of ListView has very different performance characteristics because it is implemented as custom UI elements on top of a cross-platform drawing/theming layer. That's kind of cool in that you can retarget it much more easily and you aren't limited by crappy platform UI libraries. The downside is the risk that your UI doesn't match the native look and feel and lacks platform specific features (see also: Swing). As such, it definitely isn't affected by the peculiarities of the Win32 control like the .NET version. In terms of column scrolling, I'm afraid that the Mono implementation of ListView doesn't attempt to do anything special and simply invalidates the whole control (Redraw(true)). Whether or not it flickers, I couldn't say without actually running it; simply drawing a row at a time would largely avoid the problem even without double-buffering, as the flicker window is then limited to a single cell. In fact, it appears to just redraw itself any time any change to the item collection occurs, which is a bit disappointing. However, it does at least use graphics layer scrolling commands when scrolled.
Phaeron - 16 09 09 - 18:36
That's pretty slick except MS is all into WPF. Too bad because WinForms could have been a decent API to visually design form apps using Win32 controls.I think WinForms was mainly produced to counter Borland's Delphi/Builder RAD products (they hired the same guy too). Oh well.
Rich - 17 09 09 - 16:00
WPF does fix a number of problems with WinForms, but has a couple of issues on its own:1) The acronym only has a Hamming distance of 1 from WTF. Newbie mistake.2) Too much of an emphasis on device independent rendering. Device independent rendering is good when you're drawing a map, not so much when you want a high-quality desktop UI.As far as I'm concerned, Visual Studio 2010 is kind of the make-or-break for WPF -- they've been forced to fix long standing problems like the text rendering quality, and if Microsoft can't make it work well, it'll cast some doubt on WPF's usability for production applications.
Phaeron - 17 09 09 - 17:19
WPF was supposed to be the next great thing in the Windows API world, finally MS gets to ditch Win32. It came to being for both web app and desktop app development, complete with fancy graphics to compete even withFlash. Well, didn't happen, everyone still used Flash and there were plenty of holdouts in the desktop (XP and below). Heck, even I agree that Win32 still works.In any case, WinForms and Win32 aren't going away just yet, three cheers for legacy apps, LOL.
Rich - 18 09 09 - 05:03
Dig thru the listview code sometime with reflector and you'll see some amazing things relating to icon lists. You'll see how adding one icon can create 4 or 5 allocations and copies. How loading an ICO file gets converted to a bitmap, and then BACK to an icon. There is a line that essentially says "if large icon view, reload the entire icon list every time one is added".
Greg - 21 09 09 - 00:21
@Phaeron: Thanks for some really useful information on building high performance custom controls. I'm building my own special purpose listview and your tips helped a lot. I particularly like your point about adding double buffering only after everything else has been done to ensure high performance.
Avery (link) - 17 06 10 - 19:12
@Phaeron: Yes, great stuff, and I share your philosophy on how to get drawing fast and flicker-free. I recently spent two days trying to get fast, clean, flicker-free screen updates as I resized a window that had a several child windows. The best step I took was to start by *removing* all of the "helpful stuff" I had added to try to reduce flicker. I could then see what the original problems were, and when I started adding helpers back in, I got to flicker-free with almost none of them. I did add the offscreen bitmap (double buffering) for a graph I was drawing, but only after I had cleaned up everything else. On another page of the property sheet, I'm going to have to replace the Win32 edit control, because it flickers an amazing amount. With 10 lines of text, it will repaint 28 times on one resize. Ouch! |
(NaturalNews) The Veterans Administration (VA) is issuing a warning that the popular anti-smoking drug Chantix has been linked to an elevated risk of suicide. This warning comes months after the FDA first expressed concerns over the psychiatric effects of the drug.Chantix helps people quit smoking by simulating the effects of nicotine in the brain, while at the same time making real nicotine less effective. As early as November 2007, the FDA warned that many people were experiencing changes in emotions and behavior, including depression and suicidal thoughts, within weeks or even days of starting the drug. By February, the agency had strengthened its message, saying, "it appears increasingly likely that there may be an association between Chantix and serious neuropsychiatric symptoms."At least 40 cases of suicide and another 400 attempted suicides have been reported among those taking Chantix. In February, the FDA asked Chantix manufacturer Pfizer to make warnings about suicidal and other psychiatric side effects more prominent on the drug's label. But consumer advocacy groups have insisted that this measure does not go far enough. Public Citizen wants the FDA to put a stronger "black box" warning on the drug, while researchers from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices have expressed concern over non-psychiatric side effects such as loss of consciousness and seizures.When the FDA issued its first warning in November, the VA had already begun a study into the behavioral effects of Chantix on hundreds of Iraq war veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Participants in this ongoing study are being paid $30 per month.The VA did not pass the FDA's first warning on to study participants. When it finally warned them about potential psychiatric side effects after the second FDA announcement in February, the VA failed to mention the risk of suicide.The agency says that it will now send warning letters to all 940 study participants, plus an additional 31,000 veterans who have been prescribed the drug . The study will continue, but no new participants will be enrolled.Sources for this story include: www.newsinferno.com |
Every team needs a scapegoat, a hacktastic hitter or struggling reliever. Remember Gregor Blanco last year? Sure you do. If you're in the mood for some yuks, scroll through the #FreeGaryBrown movement, being careful to weed out the ironic mentions. People were so very mad at Blanco, mad enough to completely forget how valuable he was in the previous two seasons. It's like Voltaire tweeted that one time: If the Giants didn't have someone worthy of being scapegoated, it would be necessary to invent him.
This year's goat is Ehire Adrianza. Because, hoo, has he been bad. He has a .476 OPS, which is just below Chris Heston and just above Tim Hudson. As such, he has become a cause célèbre among the grumbling set. What's he's doing out there? Why is he still on the 40-man roster?
I hope to answer these questions with a little explainer. What in the world are the Giants thinking by continuing to employ Ehire Adrianza?
1. He's almost certainly not this bad
That isn't to say that he's very good, or that he's good at all. He's just not a .476 OPS guy. He's not Hal Lanier with dropsy, even if he's looked like that at the plate. And this isn't to say that Adrianza's dreadful hitting hasn't messed the Giants up, because it certainly has. With a merely bad offensive performance from their backup, the Giants might have an extra win. That's important.
But while complaining what Adrianza has done in the past is valid, most of the complaints have to do with him screwing up the team in the future. His true talent, though, isn't so low that the Giants can immediately replace him with someone clearly better. Adrianza's career line in Triple-A is .317/.400/.434. I'll eat a plate of cilantro if he ever tops a .400 OBP in the majors in more than 200 at-bats, but at least it's evidence of some latent skills. It beats any evidence for the players brought up most often as replacements.
I'll agree that his bat looks awfully slow and he's often overmatched, but I'll stick by the evaluation that he's not a true .400 OPS guy. He's probably closer to a true .600 OPS guy, which isn't good at all, but nothing that's worse than what the Giants could replace him with.
Nick Noonan's career OPS in Triple-A, by the way: .677. League adjusted, it isn't miles away from what Adrianza has done, but if you think Adrianza can't hit in the majors, boy, have we got the ex-prospect for you ...
2. He has at least one average skill
If Adrianza were hitting a little more, you would notice his defense less. You're basically a Gold Glove voter, shame on you. But his defense is fine. You're used to Brandon Crawford, which skews your evaluation of his less-talented backup. That's understandable. But in the broader evaluation of major league shortstops, Adrianza is probably average. Maybe a tick below, but not by much. He has the range, instincts, and arm to be quite okay.
Folks clamoring for Joaquin Arias are forgetting that he doesn't have an average skill. Not a one. Name a tool, and he's below average. He's quietly competent at short, and he doesn't make completely dunderheaded mistakes, but that's about the best thing you can say about him. Arias doesn't field better than the average shortstop, he doesn't run better than the average position player, and he certainly doesn't throw or hit better than the average shortstop.
Adrianza fields as well as the average shortstop, and he probably throws a touch better. As such, I'll take Adrianza in a direct competition with Arias (or Noonan). When it comes to someone like a healthy Brandon Hicks, whose above-average skill is raw power, I'm listening. But one skill is better than none, so long as it isn't dragged down by a hitter so lousy, he isn't even talented enough to out-hit Chris Heston. I don't think Adrianza is that hitter, as explained above, but if you didn't buy that one, I guess you don't have to buy this section, either.
3. Backup shortstops are almost always awful, which is why they're backups
Do you know who would make a great backup shortstop for the 2015 Giants? Troy Tulowitzki. He could fetch Crawford some coffee between innings, and when a lineup opening or pinch-hitting appearance came up, he could do his thing. That would be optimal.
If that's not possible, though, all of the best shortstops are spoken for. In the imaginary fantasy draft of shortstops, the ones who can hit and field are taken first. The ones who can hit and kinda field are taken next. That's followed by the ones who can field and kinda hit. The middle rounds are filled with shortstops who can kinda do one or the other. That's where the backups live.
The Cardinals have Pete Kozma, who is possibly the world's best comp for Adrianza, except he's never hit as well in the minors. The Dodgers have Kiké Hernandez, but that's because the Marlins are dingbats. The only outstanding backup shortstops are blocked prospects, usually. And if the Giants released Adrianza today, they would have a lousy backup shortstop, just like 25 other teams.
This isn't all to say that Adrianza is invaluable, or that he should win the backup job next year, or that it's impossible for the Giants to do better. None of that is true. He's a fringe player, and the Giants should always look to upgrade from fringe players. But if you're pretty sure he's not the worst hitter in baseball history -- which is what he would be if he kept hitting like this -- then he's perfectly serviceable. The real scapegoat is Brandon Crawford's oblique and the jerk who threw a baseball at his calf. Once that happened, the Giants were hosed.
I mean, that bunt attempt on Monday night was the worst thing I've ever seen, and after he popped it up, I threw my aquarium on the ground, rolling around in the water, shattered glass, and dying fish, screaming about being forgotten and alone and unloved, but we're talking the big picture here.
I enjoy a good scapegoat as much as the next fan. Blaming someone specific makes every loss that much easier to understand. I'm not going to pretend that Noonan/Arias/Frandsen/Burriss/Bocock would make the Giants immediately better, though. Neither should you. |
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station during general elections in Jaunmarupe on October 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ilmars Znotins)
Riga (AFP) - Latvia's ruling centre-right coalition led by Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma scored a resounding majority in Saturday elections overshadowed by alarm over a resurgent Moscow and a Kremlin-allied party popular with the country's sizeable Russian minority.
An exit poll by the SKDS agency gave three parties in her coalition 63 seats in the 100-member parliament, while their Kremlin-allied leftist rival took 23.
"This is a vote of confidence in (Straujuma's) Unity party and in the coalition... it means people want us to continue our work," parliamentary speaker Solvita Aboltina and Unity party chair told Latvian public broadcaster LTV.
Unity scored 25 seats while its coalition partners National Alliance and the Greens and Farmers scored 19 seats each respectively, according to SKDS.
Nils Ushakovs, leader of the Kremlin-allied leftist opposition Harmony Party -- which exit polls showed came second with 23 seats -- called the result "positive" but told LTV "we shouldn't rely on exit polls."
"This is more of the same coalition, but it's slightly changed in the balance of power and that makes Unity more powerful," University of Latvia Professor Ivars Ijabs told AFP.
"The probability that we will see someone other than Straujuma as prime minister is quite high," he added.
It was not immediately clear whether President Andris Berzins would ask the 63-year-old Straujuma, a pragmatic technocrat, to form a fresh coalition government.
Analysts in Riga believe Berzins could tap her Unity party colleague, outgoing EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs, for premier as Latvia is poised to take over the European Union's rotating six-month presidency in January.
- Geopolitical jitters -
Russia's annexation of Crimea and meddling in eastern Ukraine have sent shudders through this NATO and eurozone member of two million people where many retain vivid memories of the Soviet occupation that ended just a quarter-century ago.
With Europe now in its worst standoff with Russia since the Cold War, many Latvians fear Moscow could attempt to destabilise its Soviet-era Baltic backyard.
Straujuma has called for more NATO troops and extra air patrols in the region and the alliance has responded with increased troop rotations and exercises.
Casting her ballot near Riga on Saturday, she slammed Ushakovs who recently said that given the choice of Russian politicians "the best thing possible right now is President Vladimir Putin".
"Security is crucial... I can't support the view that Putin is the best possible president for Russia," Straujuma said.
The Harmony Party is popular among ethnic Russians -- who make up a quarter of Latvia's population -- and actually topped the poll in 2011.
But it has always failed to find coalition partners among the ethnic Latvian parties and been relegated to the opposition.
"If Harmony ever got in, it would be a disaster for the country. They would sell it to Russia," Karlis Kalnins, a musician, told AFP in the capital Riga.
Pensioner Leonids, an ethnic Russian who declined to give his last name, told AFP at a Riga polling station that Harmony got his vote for their generous approach to social spending.
- Sanctions woes -
Concern is also running high over the impact that tit-for-tat sanctions between Moscow and Brussels over the Ukraine crisis could have on this tiny Baltic state, heavily reliant on trade with Russia.
Latvia made a spectacular recovery from the world's deepest recession in 2008-09, when output shrank by nearly a quarter during the global financial crisis.
A painful austerity drive by a centre-right government then paved the way for entry into the eurozone in January.
The sacrifices paid off and growth in Latvia topped the 28-member EU for a third consecutive year in 2013, with a 4.0 percent expansion.
Forecasts had pointed to nearly five percent growth this year, but the escalating sanctions war could hit Baltic trade, transit and tourism.
"I voted for Unity on the basis that they are the best among the bad options," Maris Skrastins, 25, told AFP in Riga. "I trust them with the economy more than the others."
Turnout stood at 57 percent, according to the state elections commission. Official results are expected Sunday afternoon |
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With all of the Windows 8, Xbox One, and Microsoft tablet-based news circling the Internet lately, it’s easy to forget that Microsoft also has a dedicated research sector that is always dabbling in new and innovative technologies. Today, via IEEE Spectrum, we’re getting a glimpse at one such Microsoft Research project – a robotic, moving, interactive touchscreen.
Normally, these types of projects would contain intense development cycles and the introduction of new technologies. This is a rare case though, as Microsoft Research discovered it could create its desired effect by simply snapping a display onto a robotic arm (okay, so it’s a little more technical than that).
The screen is able to sense the intensity of a user’s touch and react accordingly. In the demonstration video, shown below, principal researcher of Microsoft Research, Mike Sinclair, showcases the device’s ability to create “life like” tension by pushing on some virtual blocks. Each block is made from a different substance, and they all vary in weight. Pushing on the “metal block,” in this instance, provides much more tension than pushing on the “wooden block.” The screen moves back and forth accordingly, pushing back against Sinclair’s finger in order to simulate return force. This makes for a much more interactive touchscreen experience.
The screen is also capable of virtually mimicking the shape of an object. Sinclair shows this by pushing on the rounded edges of a beach ball. Each touch causes the screen to adjust itself forward or backward, and, according to Sinclair, the effect causes the beach ball to retain a virtual surface where it actually feels as if the ball is round, even though you are aware that you are touching a plane that is completely flat.
Microsoft has no immediate plans for the discovery, although the video does showcase how doctors could use this technology to better understand MRIs and scans. This could also prove to be a very unique tool for entertainment purposes. Microsoft already has some creative features for its Xbox with Kinect, so it’s not entirely far-fetched that the group could implement this into its gaming system somehow (although its probably unlikely we’ll see this anytime soon). |
They say 'new 'do, new you' and that certainly seems to be the case with Taylor Swift. The Shake It Off singer has been flashing a lot more flesh since chopping off her flowy locks into a shaggy bob.
From the plunging Alexandre Vauthier gown she slipped into for the Vanity Fair Oscar party to the bandeau top and matching mini skirt she sported out in LA with DJ boyfriend Calvin Harris, the songbird has been revealing a sexier side of herself from head-to-toe.
While the style icon always manages to wow us on the red carpet, FEMAIL shines a spotlight on her current smoldering ensembles (pictured right) as compared to her more modest pre haircut looks (pictured left). Enjoy!
LONG BLACK DRESS: THEN AND NOW
In a long sleeve, black Julien Macdonald dress, T-Swift (left) was covered from head-to-toe at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar party. Post haircut (right), she slayed the red carpet in a thigh-skimming Alexandre Vauthier gown and plunging neckline
In a long sleeve, black Julien Macdonald dress, T-Swift (above) was covered from head-to-toe at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar party. Without showing a hint of skin, the star still managed to sparkle.
After chopping her tresses, the blonde bombshell slayed the red carpet at the same event in a thigh-skimming Alexandre Vauthier gown and plunging neck, complete with Giuseppe Zanotti sandals.
At the Giver premiere in 2014 Swifty (below) looked sugary sweet in a modest crimson and cream color-blocked gown by Monique Lhuillier and nude Casadei pumps.
She donned another two-tone ensemble this past February, but this time with her tummy and undies on display in Atelier Versace. Strappy Stuart Weitzman stilettos finished her sexy crop top look.
COLOR-BLOCKING: THEN AND NOW
At the Giver premiere in 2014 Swifty (left) looked sugary sweet in a crimson and cream color-blocked gown by Monique Lhuillier and nude Casadei pumps. She donned another two-tone look this past February, but this time with her tummy and undies on display in Atelier Versace. Stuart Weitzman stilettos finished her sexy ensemble
Taylor (below) posed for photographers at Macy's Herald Square in 2011 wearing a striped Tracy Reese A-line frock. She completed her retro look with an updo and House of Lavande jewels.
With her shorter 'do she sizzled in stripes at Hyde night club last month in a Balmain tube top and matching mini skirt, complete with a swipe of her signature red lip. Muah!
The pop princess (below) couldn't look any cuter at the launch of her Wonderstruck perfume in 2011 wearing a prim and proper metallic A-line with a bowtie belt.
Post haircut, the fresh faced beauty donned an Aqua metallic spandex two-piece with cutouts while dining in Beverly Hills. She's short and sexy!
STRIPES: THEN AND NOW
Taylor (left) posed for photographers at Macy's Herald Square in 2011 wearing a striped Tracy Reese A-line frock. She completed her retro look with an updo and vintage House of Lavande jewels. With her shorter 'do (right) she sizzled at Hyde night club in a Balmain tube top and matching mini skirt
METALLIC MINI: THEN AND NOW
The pop princess (left) couldn't look any cuter at the launch of her Wonderstruck perfume in 2011 wearing a metallic A-line with a bowtie belt. Last week, the fresh faced beauty donned a metallic spandex mini by Aqua while dining in Beverly Hills
Her shoes are sexy, too! Shop the stilettos she rocked recently on the red carpet. |
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Application Design with PHP
How to design applications with PHP: making them modular, maintainable and best-practice. Basic procedural, functional and object-oriented aspects of the language are covered in 'accelerated' segments, however the focus is not PHP but how to use it effectively. This course will serve in an 'Intermediate to Professional' fashion for current PHP programmers or as an extremely accelerated introduction to PHP for advanced programmers in other languages. Start Date: POSTPONED (Check Back Next Week) End Date: Sunday August 28th
Lectures
no lectures added
Prerequisites
Knowledge of day-to-day PHP would be extremely helpful. Setting up a PHP environment will not be covered, seek help elsewhere if you are new to PHP. General programming knowledge in primarily procedural or object-oriented languages is required. Python, Ruby, C++, C#, etc. are all suitable, however note that PHP is a dynamic interpreted language.
Syllabus
Accelerated Introduction to Function-Oriented Programming in PHP Procedural and Functional Programming in PHP (5.3) Function-Oriented Design: Encapsulation Separation of Logic Framework Design Accelerated Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming: Objects and Classes Design Patterns Object-Oriented Design: Encapsulation Separation of Logic Framework Design Practical Implementation: a Blog (Possible: 11. A Short Introduction to Popular PHP Frameworks) There are ten sessions in total, making this a ten-week course this may shorten or extend if necessary, however the entire syllabus - at least - will be covered.
Additional information
A video lecture will be released on Mondays with a follow-up workshop on the next Sunday evening (GMT, afternoon EST) via skype or possibly paltalk. I may pre-record or webcast live and record, an announcement will be made before-hand in any case. At the end of the first lecture I will ask for people interested in marked assignments to email me (michael mjburgess.co.uk): the first twenty emails will be placed on an credit list, the next twenty will go on a priority list. Assignments will be due any time Monday. Failure to hand in an assignment without notice will drop you off the credit list and I will upgrade a person on the priority list.
Teacher qualifications |
Successfully engaging students often requires educators to perform a tricky balancing act. Oversimplifying a lesson may cause students to tune out, but planning a lesson that students find too difficult could lead them to become frustrated and give up.
A special report from Indiana University revealed that 2 out of 3 students are bored in class every day, while 17 percent say they are bored in every class. Additionally, 75 percent of the students surveyed said they were bored because the material "wasn't interesting,” and nearly 40 percent were bored because they felt the material being taught “wasn't relevant."
How can teachers work to eliminate boredom from their classrooms, and what strategies can they use to motivate and excite students? Greg Toppo, K-12 Education Reporter at USA Today, and Kurt Squire, Professor of Informatics at UC Irvine, say technology is part of the solution.
Specifically, they believe that the technology used in video games and simulations is uniquely positioned to meet students where they are while challenging them at the optimal level.
Failing is not fun, but not failing is even worse. For something to be a game… we expect something to push back at us. --Greg Toppo, K-12 Education Reporter, USA Today, and author of The Game Believes in You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter
If School Were a Game, Would Students Want to Play It?
This is the question that fueled Greg Toppo and Kurt Squire during their presentation at MIND's 2017 Deeper Learning Symposium. Both Greg and Kurt shared their expertise and experiences from observing the use of games in classrooms. In their presentation, Greg and Kurt discussed several features that make for an engaging game, including:
The need for failure
Intrinsic motivation
A design for success
You can watch the full presentation below:
Games and Meaningful Student Engagement
Length:39:29
MIND's Director of ST Math Content Ki Karou knows that for games to provide a true learning experience, they must offer meaningful engagement. In the latest episode of the Inside Our MIND podcast, Ki Karou offered some insights from his recent trip to the 2018 Game Developers Conference.
Ki talked about the difference between gamification and meaningful engagement, and offered some ways educators and administrators can ascertain whether an educational product is offering a true game-based learning experience.
You can listen to the episode right here:
Additional Resources: |
Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece. I understand everyone has had different experiences with parenting.
This is a post trying to raise awareness of the struggles single dads go through. Discrimination against dads as legitimate parents has been going on too long. Coming from someone who was raised by her dad from the age of 12, I know how amazing dad’s are, and they do not get enough credit.
Dads come in all shapes and sizes, big, small, short, tall, fat, skinny, all races, gay, straight, transgender, and we love them all. This post is to raise awareness about the special hardships dad’s go through to help their kids. Often with no thank you or appreciation in sight.
Men are twice as likely to commit suicide than women. This is due to many different factors, however the pressure dads have on them, some of them not even being able to see their kids, surely contributes to this horrifying statistic.
Dads are often at the mercy of the child’s mother. She dictates when he can see them, how long for, what they can do, how she parents and for the dad to stick to her rules. This gives the child a one-sided view and delegitimises the father’s authority, and right to be his own person and parent to the child.
Due to this, mother’s often forcibly create a wedge between the father and child. The child hears the mother’s complaints about the dad, while the dad has to hold his tongue about how he may have been hurt from the mother, because he may have all visitation rights taken away. However mother’s can basically shit-talk a child’s dad with no real consequence to themselves. This hurts the child, and confuses them, because as they get older and understand more, they do not know who to believe.
There are so many problems that are individual to fathers who are no longer in a relationship with the mother. Some of these are:
How people described as ‘deadbeat dads’ to their kids may have been emotionally abused by their child’s mother, so they had no choice but to leave and leave all relationships behind for their own wellbeing.
We don’t even know dads. We hear most things about dads from mums or from children. Dads points of views are important to hear, and when we do hear it, we need to listen – this is his situation – it does not matter how your dad acted when you were a child, every dads’ experience is different. One person’s experience does not apply to everyone.
Men do not talk about their feelings as much as women do, and it’s twice as likely that he will be keeping his hurt and sadness to himself. Many dads are so actively selfless, but many others cannot see through their own pride to acknowledge it.
The default thought that ‘mother knows best’ is actively hurting children who would be better off with their dad. Mums have just as much likelihood of being distant, abusive, drug or alcohol addicted and so on.
The fact that many dads do not receive child support, when the mother would in the same situation is appalling. Dads are going broke because they are paying for everything in their child’s life while mother’s have no pressure on them to find a job at all for a lot longer, it is inherently unfair.
The family courts are sexist towards men. This is because women have an image of being nurturing and caring, and men don’t. To put it bluntly. This is unbelievably untrue. Assessing custody battles on a case by case basis with more research and more actual care put into each case will be ultimately much more beneficial for the child, the father, and even the mother.
Dads are often guilt tripped into doing more than their share because even though a lot of women are fighting so hard for equality, a lot of others don’t want to admit that it takes two incomes to live comfortably these days and go back to work. So all of dad’s hard earned coin goes on his kids because of course he loves them, but he’s barely getting by on his own. It’s unfair and it’s selfish
The fact that dads are supposed to sacrifice their entire lives to pay for everything for their kids, and if they dare to have a good time on their own or spend money on something else, it’s seen as almost a crime.
Dads deserve as much recognition as mums. Just because they are not at home 24/7, without their hard work a lot of us would starve. It’s time to see the work that dad’s do as important, and necessary, and an expression of love to their kids.
Whatever situation they’re in, dads, this is your thank you! |
The Kremlin critic was leaving to get a train to the provincial city of Nizhny Novgorod to hold a rally when he was arrested (AFP Photo/Evgeny FELDMAN)
Moscow (AFP) - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who aims to unseat Vladimir Putin in presidential elections next year, was detained by police ahead of a rally on Friday and could face up to a month in jail.
In the latest attempt to thwart the Kremlin critic's campaign, police held Navalny after he left his apartment with the aim of attending a meeting in the provincial city of Nizhny Novgorod.
Moscow police said Navalny was detained "over multiple calls to participate in an unauthorised public event."
Navalny was released in the evening, telling journalists waiting for him outside the police station, "I feel fine."
"We are not going to stop what we do, whatever the obstacles," he said, adding that he would to fly to Orenburg in southwestern Siberia on Saturday and to the northern city of Archangel on Sunday.
The 41-year-old stands accused of repeatedly violating a law on organising public meetings -- punishable by up to 30 days in jail. His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said he had been instructed to appear before a judge at 1200 GMT on Monday.
Navalny was detained prior to arriving at his last two rallies in Moscow on March 26 and June 12, serving sentences of 15 days and 25 days for organising unauthorised protests.
Navalny said earlier he did not receive any official explanation for being held.
"I am sitting in a reception room and looking at a portrait of Putin," he said on Twitter.
The anti-corruption crusader linked his detention with another -- bigger -- rally scheduled in Saint Petersburg, Russia's second city and Putin's hometown, on October 7, the president's birthday.
Navalny's campaign chief, Leonid Volkov, was detained in Nizhny Novgorod ahead of the rally, saying on Twitter he would be held overnight before a court hearing Saturday.
The city authorities said they had refused Navalny permission to hold the event. Some 200 to 300 people turned up, an AFP photographer at the scene saw.
- Underdog -
Navalny has said he wants to stand for president next March, but the authorities have said he is ineligible because he is serving a suspended sentence for fraud.
Putin, who has led Russia since 1999, is widely expected to seek and win another six-year Kremlin term.
Despite his underdog status, Navalny has travelled across Russia, drawing crowds of supporters.
Many applaud Navalny -- whose ally Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in 2015 --- for keeping up the fight when many other dissenters have chosen to leave the country or stay quiet.
Political observers say that verbal threats from Kremlin supporters against Putin's critics is giving way to physical attacks.
After one such assault, Navalny was left almost blind in one eye and had to go to Spain for surgery.
The human rights commissioner at the Council of Europe, Nils Muiznieks, urged Russia on Friday to revise its laws on public events, saying it violated the country's international obligations and its own Constitution.
The council's decision-making body, the Committee of Ministers, last week urged Russia to allow Navalny to stand for election despite his "arbitrary and unfair" conviction for fraud. |
Sabbath mode, also known as Shabbos mode (Ashkenazi pronunciation) or Shabbat mode, is a feature in many modern home appliances, including ovens[1] and refrigerators,[2] which is intended to allow the appliances to be used (subject to various constraints) by Shabbat-observant Jews on the Shabbat and Jewish holidays. The mode usually overrides the usual, everyday operation of the electrical appliance and makes the operation of the appliance comply with the rules of Halakha (Jewish law).
Background [ edit ]
Halakha forbids Jews from doing creative work on the Shabbat. Observant Jews interpret this to include various activities including making a fire, preparing food, or even closing a switch or pressing an electronic button. A range of technology solutions have been created for those who need to use electronic (or electronic-controlled) devices on the Shabbat,[3][4][5] including a special "sabbath mode" for otherwise standard appliances.
Use of the term Sabbath mode has been made by manufacturers and does not always guarantee full compliance with religious requirements. Appliances sold with certification from a halachic certification authority will have been audited and judged to be compliant with that authority’s requirements.
Appliances [ edit ]
Oven [ edit ]
Oven with Sabbath mode
While according to Halakha, raw food may not be cooked on the Shabbat, food that was already cooked beforehand may be kept warm until mealtime.[6] In the past, the Sabbath observant would leave their food heating on the stove where it had been covered with a blech (metal sheet), or in the oven in which had been cooked before the onset of Sabbath. Contemporary consumers seek to use their kitchen’s oven to keep food hot for Sabbath consumption, but must be assured that in opening the door to retrieve food, no Sabbath laws will be inadvertently contravened. An example of this would be ovens which are programmed to remove power from their heating element when the door is opened – use of this oven would not be possible on the Sabbath without making modifications.
On weekday holidays (Yom Tov), food may be cooked, but turning the heat on is prohibited.[7] On these festive days the domestic needs of the Sabbath observant consumer may require that their oven be heated over a period of as much as 72 hours to allow for cooking during the festival. In the past, one would simply light a stove or oven before the festival began, and its heat was used over the course of the coming days. In recent decades, however, appliance manufacturers have instituted safety features which present a challenge to festival use. One typical challenge is the auto-shut-off which automatically shuts off the heat after a predetermined number of hours.
For an appliance to be compliant with religious requirements when Shabbat mode is operating, the standard six- or twelve-hour automatic shutoff should be overridden, and all lights and displays (for example, a light that might go on when the door is opened) should be disabled.[8] However, a number of manufacturers have not dealt with the issues caused by the heating elements and the thermostats, which in some sabbath modes continue to operate as normal, which is in contradiction to normative halachic opinion.[9] Some models do not even take care of the issue of the lights.[10]
In more recently designed ovens, Shabbat mode will often feature the ability to adjust the temperature of the oven without any feedback to the operator of the oven.[11] According to the prevailing Orthodox opinion and the minority Conservative view, this is not relevant to the Shabbat, but is useful on some holidays, when adjusting the heat is allowed, but changing a digital readout on the control panel is not.
With some Shabbat mode ovens that are controlled using a keypad to set the temperature, there is a random delay triggered after a button is pressed before the temperature change takes place.[12]
In June 2008, nine Haredi poskim signed a public pronouncement (Kol Koreh) stating that it was forbidden to raise or lower the temperature by reprogramming on Yom Tov using the Star-K Kosher Certification approved Shabbat Mode feature.[13] The pronouncement referred to the differing opinion of Rabbi Moshe Heinemann[14] (although without explicitly mentioning Rabbi Heinemann by name) as a minority opinion (Da'as Yachid) that should not be relied upon. However, Rabbi Heinemann said that he continued to stand by his opinion that it is permissible.[13]
Refrigerator [ edit ]
A refrigerator displaying the Sabbath Mode.
A Shabbat mode refrigerator includes, at a minimum, the ability to disable all lights or other electrical activity from occurring when the refrigerator door is opened. Some Shabbat mode refrigerators include a timer for the compressor so that opening the door, which would normally indirectly cause the compressor to turn on as soon as the temperature rises, will have no immediate effect on the electrical operation of the appliance.[15]
Lamp [ edit ]
A Shabbat lamp is a special lamp that has movable parts to expose or block out its light so it can be turned "on" or "off" while its power physically remains on.
See also [ edit ]
39 categories of activity prohibited on Shabbat
Blech – a metal sheet used to cover a stovetop on Shabbat
Cholent – a long-simmered stew often eaten for lunch on Shabbat
Grama (halacha) – something that was caused by something else but whose outcome is not guaranteed
Shabbat elevator – an elevator with an automatic mode to allow observers to abstain from operating electric switches on Shabbat |
Story highlights A common criticism against Obamacare is that the federal law mandates that "essential health benefits" be covered
"You can figure out a way to change the state that you live in," Mulvaney said
(CNN) President Donald Trump's budget director said Friday that Republicans' health care bill would shift decisions such as whether to cover maternity care to states -- and if voters don't like them, they should change their state laws.
"States not only have the ability to require those services -- many of them already do," Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on CBS's "This Morning." "What we're doing is taking away the federal controls of the system."
A common criticism of Obamacare is that the federal law mandates 10 "essential health benefits," including maternity and newborn care, mental health services and prescription drugs, be covered, often resulting in requiring recipients to pay for coverage they don't need.
"If you live in a state that wants to mandate maternity coverage for everybody, including 60-year-old women, that's fine," added Mulvaney, a former congressman from South Carolina.
"But what if you live in a state that doesn't do that?" asked CBS's Alex Wagner.
Read More |
(CNN) There were wild celebrations in the Zimbabwean capital Harare when Robert Mugabe bowed to the inevitable and resigned as President on Tuesday . But as Zimbabweans feted his demise, it was unclear whether they would welcome the man in line to succeed him with such enthusiasm.
Until Mugabe fired him as vice president earlier this month, Emmerson Mnangagwa's entire political career had been hitched to Zimbabwe's 93-year-old former leader.
But Mnangagwa has been eying the presidency and maneuvering to dethrone Mugabe for some time. Sources told CNN that he was instrumental in the military's apparent coup that led to Mugabe's political demise.
Mnangagwa is expected to be sworn in as president by Thursday, according to Simon Khaya Moyo, the spokesman for Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
'From one tyrant to another'
It is not the first time that Mnangagwa has been in line to lead Zimbabwe
A core member of Mugabe's ruling circle and a combat-hardened veteran of the struggle for liberation from white-minority rule, Mnangagwa was mooted as a potential presidential successor in leaked US diplomatic cables as far back as 2000.
Those cables, part of a huge cache leaked to whistleblowing website Wikileaks by US army soldier Chelsea Manning, paint a picture of a canny political operative, who has surfed the waves of Zimbabwean politics, navigating periods both in and outside of Mugabe's trusted inner circle.
JUST WATCHED Robert Mugabe: What you need to know Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Robert Mugabe: What you need to know 01:58
They also hint at Mnangagwa's dark past. In late 2000, a cable written by Earl Irving , then a US diplomat in Harare, described Mnangagwa as "widely feared and despised throughout the country," warning he could be "an even more repressive leader" than Mugabe if he were to succeed him.
Fear of Mnangagwa stems from his position as Mugabe's enforcer and head of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), or secret police, and his alleged role in the 1983-84 massacres of the Ndebele ethnic group in Matabeleland, a region in Zimbabwe's southwest that was a center of political opposition to Mugabe's regime.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), an international nonpartisan organization, estimate at least 20,000 civilians were killed by the CIO and the armed forces.
"Most of the dead were shot in public executions, often after being forced to dig their own graves in front of their family and fellow villagers," IAGS said in a 2011 report.
Kate Hoey, a British Labour MP who has campaigned for years to highlight oppression under the Mugabe regime, described Mnangagwa in a parliamentary debate last week as "probably the one person in Zimbabwe who inspires even greater terror than Mugabe."
Responding later in the debate, Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary, called for elections to choose a new leader. "Nobody wants simply to see the transition from one unelected tyrant to the next," he told the House of Commons, hinting at years of allegations that Mugabe only won elections by rigging the votes.
"We want to see proper free and fair elections next year and that's what we will be working towards."
From low to high
Nicknamed the "Crocodile" on account of his political longevity and survival skills, Mnangagwa has for years been thought to be biding his time, ready to takeover from Mugabe when the nonagenarian finally stepped aside, or died.
His impeccable revolutionary credentials, coupled with his strong support among key parts of Zimbabwe's elite -- specifically within the military and security services -- singled him out as an obvious, and non-controversial, successor.
Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Robert Mugabe is sworn in for his seventh term as Zimbabwe's President in August 2013. He resigned Tuesday, November 21, after nearly four decades in power. Hide Caption 1 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe gestures towards the media in Geneva, Switzerland, at a 1974 conference convened to address the civil war in Rhodesia. After being imprisoned for 10 years in Rhodesia, Mugabe attended the peace talks as a leader of the guerrilla movement ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front). Rhodesia was the state that eventually became Zimbabwe. Hide Caption 2 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe speaks to the press in Geneva in 1976. The following year he was elected president of ZANU-PF and commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army. Hide Caption 3 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe holds a news conference in Salisbury -- now Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe -- in March 1980. He had just been elected as the first prime minister of Zimbabwe, helping to form the new country after British rule of Rhodesia came to an end. Hide Caption 4 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe From left, NBC News moderator Bill Monroe, Newsday's Les Payne, the Chicago Sun Times' Robert Novak and NBC News' Garrick Utley speak with Mugabe during an episode of "Meet the Press" in 1980. Hide Caption 5 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe speaks with his first wife, Sally, during an event in Salisbury in 1980. The pair were married until Sally died in 1992. They had one son, who died at age 4. Hide Caption 6 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe holds hands with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi at the Organization of African Unity summit in August 1982. Hide Caption 7 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe meets with French President Francois Mitterand in Paris in 1982. Hide Caption 8 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe is seen with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi in 1983. Hide Caption 9 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe walks hand in hand with American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson during the Summit of Non-Aligned Countries, which Harare hosted in 1986. Hide Caption 10 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe delivers a speech in Harare in August 1986. Hide Caption 11 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe poses for a photo with other leaders at a Commonwealth of Nations meeting in London in 1986. Pictured from left, in the back row, are Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Commonwealth Secretary-General S.S. Ramphal, Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke and Mugabe. In the front row, from left, are British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Bahamian Prime Minister Lynden Pindling and Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda. Hide Caption 12 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Britain's Queen Elizabeth II toasts Mugabe during a banquet in the Queen's honor in Harare in October 1991. The Queen had last visited the territory that became Zimbabwe in 1947. Hide Caption 13 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe US President Bill Clinton gestures while talking to Mugabe after a White House meeting in Washington in May 1995. Hide Caption 14 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe marries Grace Marufu on August 17, 1996. Earlier in the year, he was re-elected President after all of his opponents dropped out of the race. Hide Caption 15 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe British Prime Minister Tony Blair talks with Mugabe in October 1997, before the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Hide Caption 16 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe speaks during the Southern Africa trade and investment summit in Windhoek, Namibia, in October 2000. Earlier in the year, he implemented a controversial land-reform program that saw the seizure of land from some 4,000 white farmers. Hide Caption 17 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe and Cuban President Fidel Castro are seen in Havana, Cuba, in September 2005. Hide Caption 18 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe South African President Jacob Zuma walks with Mugabe at Harare International Airport in March 2010. Hide Caption 19 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe addresses the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2010. Hide Caption 20 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe cuts his birthday cake with his wife, Grace, and son Bellarmine Chatunga during celebrations in Harare in February 2011. Mugabe was turning 87. Hide Caption 21 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Robert and Grace Mugabe arrive at the Vatican for the beatification ceremony of John Paul II in May 2011. Hide Caption 22 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe delivers a speech at his party's annual national conference in December 2012. He vowed to overhaul business laws to require 100% black ownership of firms. Hide Caption 23 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe The Mugabes attend Pope Francis' inauguration Mass in March 2013. Hide Caption 24 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe and Chinese President Xi Jinping participate in a signing ceremony in Beijing in 2014. Hide Caption 25 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe speaks at the ZANU-PF party's annual conference in December 2016. The party endorsed Mugabe as its candidate for the 2018 election. Hide Caption 26 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe reviews the guard of honor during Zimbabwe's 37th Independence Day celebrations in April 2017. Hide Caption 27 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe kisses his wife during Independence Day celebrations in April 2017. In early November, the sacking of Mugabe's longtime ally and vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was seen as a move to potentially clear the way for Grace Mugabe to succeed her 93-year-old husband. Hide Caption 28 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe arrives to preside over a student graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University in November 2017. It was his first public appearance since the military seized control of the nation and placed him under house arrest. Hide Caption 29 of 30 Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe Mugabe meets with generals in Harare on November 19. Military leaders had been in talks with Mugabe over his exit. Hide Caption 30 of 30
But this was to dramatically change two weeks ago, when Mugabe sacked Mnangagwa , in a move to shore up the power of his wife and chosen successor, Grace Mugabe.
A statement from the country's information ministry accused Mnangagwa of "disloyalty, disrespect, deceitfulness and unreliability," sending him into hiding amid reports he was attempting to build a coalition to take on Grace Mugabe in the next election.
"One after the other, (Mugabe's) vice presidents and people around him were estranged by Grace Mugabe," said Geoff Hill, author of "What happens after Mugabe?".
"Nobody knows whether it was her, or whether he wanted a safe pair of hands. Either way it was a very unpopular move."
After senior army figures criticized Grace Mugabe's growing power earlier this month, they have succeed in removing her -- and her husband -- from the picture altogether.
"The army very quickly promised to restore the country to democracy, something Zimbabwe hasn't seen for a long time," said Hill. "They want to have a very inclusive government, possible even with (opposition leader) Morgan Tsvangirai coming in as vice president."
After Mugabe's resignation on Tuesday, it was not immediately clear how events would unfold. But one thing seems clear: After three decades waiting in the wings, Mnangagwa is in pole position to ascend to the country's top job. |
RIYADH, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian man suspected of having contracted the Ebola virus during a recent business trip to Sierra Leone died early on Wednesday in Jeddah, the Health Ministry said.
Saudi authorities and international laboratories certified by the World Health Organisation are testing samples from the man for Ebola and other diseases after he showed symptoms of viral haemorrhagic fever, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said it was working to trace the man’s route of travel and identify people he was in contact with.
Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases known in humans with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. The death rate in the current outbreak in West Africa, which has killed close to 900, is around 60 percent.
The kingdom has suspended pilgrimage visas from West African countries to counter the further possible spread of the disease. (Reporting By Angus McDowall, editing by John Stonestreet) |
Gear Flashback: Our Flat Cat Gear Bobcat Titanium Stove System
When we were preparing for our PCT thru hike in the spring of 2012, we were looking for an alcohol stove that would give us great performance and utility while still being packable and durable. We experimented with several homemade options including the well known Fancy Feast/tuna can stove that is popular with a lot of thru hikers because of its size and weight. We decided to go with a Bobcat titanium stove system purchased online from Flat Cat Gear.
We initially purchased the stove because of the complete system approach: We knew it would integrate perfectly with our 1.3 liter Evernew Pot and that the screen, stove, and all other accessories would nest neatly inside the pot. We also purchased and tested out a Trail Designs Caldera Cone stove, but really liked the packability of our Flat Cat and found it to be equally efficient. The Caldera we looked at had to be stowed in its separate plastic container/caddy which was a deal-breaker for us because we like our cooking system to be one unit including the pot. The Flat Cat pulls this off beautifully.
After 5 months of daily use on the PCT (we typically only cooked dinners) and a week-long test hike in the Smoky Mountains, we’re still sold on the stove. One add-on piece that we did not initially see ourselves using that much was the simmer ring. We had some snap trouble with the windscreen and Jon, the Flat Cat gear guru, gave us a simmer ring to try while working out the windscreen issues. The ring really helped us with rice and pasta meals and made the titanium stove run about triple as long on the same amount of fuel. The minimal weight gain of the simmer ring paid off dividends as we could adjust from “full boil” mode and dial back the intensity of the stove for other dishes.
Overall, the Bobcat system did an admirable job coping with the rigors of an extended trip (156 consecutive days). The stove itself is really a work of art and this lends to its durability as it is one solid piece of metal. Although the stove and screen could have easily held up inside a small storage sack or loose in our packs, we liked how it nested in our pot and it shared the space with the simmer ring, dish rag, lighter, and fuel measuring cup with room to spare!
We can recommend both the product and the company because Jon at Flat Cat is committed to making great products and he is always trying to make his designs better. A perfect example of this is how he repaired and replaced our original Flat Cat windscreen. Our snaps were failing because of their position on the windscreen and the fact that the titanium version of the stove runs hotter. He spent a lot of time rooting out the cause of the problem and adjusted the design as a result. We loved the stove to begin with, but his changes and willingness to improve has made the stove even better.
We hope to finally fill in some details on our “Gear” page on this site showing what we used for our PCT thru hike, and the Flat Cat Bobcat will certainly find its place among our items! |
Tehran: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden visit to Iran, Indian refiners have made first euro payments in four years to clear a part of the $6.4 billion in past oil dues.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has paid $500 million and Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC) $250 million over the past two days, people with direct knowledge of the development said. Private sector refiner Essar Oil Ltd is to pay $500 million.
The refiners cleared part of their outstanding towards crude oil they buy from Iran through Union Bank of India which in turn transmitted the payment to National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) through HalkBank of Turkey. They bought US dollars and deposited with Union Bank, which did an onward transmission in euros.
This the first payment by Indian refiners in a foreign currency since lifting of sanctions against Iran in January this year. This also comes days ahead of Modi’s two-day visit to Tehran beginning Sunday during which re-establishing credible banking channels between the two nations is likely to figure prominently during talks.
The people cited earlier said the remaining outstanding dues will be cleared in instalments to avoid a run on the rupee. The Reserve Bank of India is coordinating the repayments, they said.
With sanctions blocking banking channels, Indian refiners have since February 2013 paid nearly half of the oil import bill in rupees while keeping the remainder pending opening of payment routes. The dues on the count now total to $6.4 billion.
MRPL owed $2.6 billion, out of which it has now paid $500 million. After paying $250 million, IOC is now left with outstanding dues of $310 million. Essar Oil owes Iran about $2.6 billion, while HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd has to pay $60 million. PTI |
Abortion-rights advocates said the law would shut more than half of the clinics remaining in the state. Supreme Court blocks Texas abortion law ruling
The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily halted two Texas requirements that would have forced more than half of the state’s abortion clinics to close on Wednesday.
Without the emergency action, only nine clinics would have remained opened, according to abortion-rights advocates. The provisions blocked by the justices are part of a law that has shut down approximately 20 clinics since taking effect in 2013. They require that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a local hospital and that abortion clinics meet the building standards of ambulatory surgical centers.
Story Continued Below
The stay will remain in effect while providers seek a full review of Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole by the high court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit had upheld most of the law earlier this month and then declined to suspend its ruling.
Five justices agreed to issue the emergency stay, one more than would be necessary to take the case on its merits. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito voted to deny the action, the court said.
“We are confident that the justices will make clear once again that the constitutional protections for safe and legal abortions are real,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the case on behalf of the abortion providers and clinics.
During a call with reporters, Northup noted that the latest action is the second time the Supreme Court has intervened on the Texas law, H.B. 2. Last fall, it reinstated a district court’s ruling to block the admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements.
The soonest the justices could decide whether to take the case would be when they come back into session in October, CRR attorney Stephanie Toti said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expressed confidence Monday afternoon that the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold the law.
“H.B. 2 was a constitutional exercise of Texas’ lawmaking authority that was correctly and unanimously upheld by the 5th Circuit,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas will continue to fight for higher-quality health care standards for women while protecting our most vulnerable — the unborn.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry faulted the justices’ decision to keep the law from fully taking effect this week. “The Supreme Court’s stay unnecessarily puts lives in danger by allowing unsafe facilities to continue to perform abortions,” he said in a statement.
In the state’s latest filing, opposing any delay, Texas Health Commissioner Kirk Cole contended that there still would be abortion clinics open in nearly every area of the state after the law takes effect. “Perhaps recognizing this reality, plaintiffs have shifted to the allegation — unsupported by any competent record evidence — that these remaining abortion facilities will lack the capacity to handle the demand for abortions,” he argued.
The state of Mississippi has also asked the high court to consider a case involving a similar admitting privileges requirement. A panel of the 5th Circuit blocked the Mississippi law, which abortion-rights advocates say would shutter the state’s only remaining clinic. |
Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, was overthrown in 1974, and his downfall was caused to a considerable extent by his regime’s failure to confront the famine that year. A decade later, famine swept the north of Ethiopia once again. For most of 1983, it went on without much of the rest of the world paying it any noticeable heed. It was this famine that galvanized Geldof, Bono, and the Live Aid movement. A part of the reason for this was that the Derg, the Stalinist regime then in power in Addis Ababa, forbade almost all coverage of what was going on. This is not to say there was no coverage at all—Gill, who unlike most of the foreign journalists covering the famine at the time is actually an Ethiopia expert, points out with understandable exasperation that in July 1984, ITV ran a documentary called Seeds of Despair, and an appeal launched in its aftermath raised 10 million pounds for Ethiopian famine relief; but it was only in October 1984, when a BBC TV team led by Michael Buerk and Mohamed Amin were allowed to film what was going on, that Ethiopia became the focus of widespread public attention in the rich world.
The result was that before very long, the Ethiopian catastrophe had gone from being one of the world’s most forgotten crises to perhaps its best known. Geldof’s single, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” the first blast of what would become the Band Aid/Live Aid juggernaut, came out that November and raised five million pounds, though, as Gill comments acidly, Ethiopians “did of course know it was Christmas because the starving were mostly Christian.”
Neither Geldof nor Bono has ever been willing to accept that, however wellintended, the premise of Live Aid was flawed from the start. Amid criticism of the ways in which the monies from Live Aid were being used by international relief agencies to fund programs connected with resettlement, Geldof told The Irish Times that “the organizations that are participating in the resettlement effort should not be criticized.... In my opinion, we’ve got to give aid without worrying about population transfers.” The way in which both men have capitalized on their new status as global consciences to rescue their pop music careers has been grotesque, but their sincerity is beyond doubt. Yet their competence to hold the opinions that they peddle is another matter. What is so great about sincerity if it leads not to understanding but to mystification? And what transpired in Ethiopia between 1983 and 1986 has been abundantly mystified.
We know with some certainty that famines have occurred everywhere in the world, with regularity, since the beginning of recorded history. But as the great contemporary authorities on famine—among them Amartya Sen, Cormac Ó Gráda, and Alex de Waal—have shown, modern famines are almost invariably political in the larger sense of the term. Another way of putting this is to say that whereas before the nineteenth century most famines were largely the result of climate—flooding or drought, most commonly—today they are largely the result of anti-democratic or at least non-democratic practices by the authorities and the dominant elites in the countries where they take place. History will remember Amartya Sen when Malthus is long forgotten, or thought of no more seriously than we think of nineteenth-century phrenologists. What Sen showed in his work on the West Bengal famine of 1943 was that the problem was not absolute food supply but the access to that food supply by disfavored groups. In other words, what appeared like a food crisis was really, to use Sen’s term, an entitlements crisis.
Sen’s insight is borne out by the history of famine in the twentieth century. The great famines have taken place under colonial regimes (as in British India in 1943), or under regimes where the government was ruled by groups unsympathetic to other groups in the famine zone (the famines and near-famines in Tuareg areas of Mali are good illustrations of this), or, most commonly of all, as the result of vast misguided efforts at social engineering undertaken by socialist regimes, notably in Soviet Russia under Lenin and Stalin, and, in the worst modern famine of all, in Mao’s China during the so-called Great Leap Forward. The Ethiopian famine of 1983 - 1984 was an example of this most terrible variety of man-made famine. The definitive account of it is to be found in Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia, the report that Alex de Waal prepared for the Africa Watch division of Human Rights Watch in 1991. De Waal was unequivocal. “The famine killed in excess of 400,000 people,” he wrote. “The human rights abuses made it come earlier, strike harder, and reach further. Most of these deaths can be attributed, not to the weather, but to the government’s gross violations of human rights.”
And yet Michael Buerk’s first BBC report from the famine zone opened with the words, “Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plains outside Korem, it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the twentieth century.” Apart from the facts that it was dawn and there was a famine, nothing in what Buerk said was right. It was precisely not a biblical famine, in the locusts/great flood/visitation-from-God sense that Buerk was evoking. It was, rather, a man-made famine—the direct and in all likelihood inevitable result of deliberate policies in Addis Ababa by the Stalinist government of Mengistu Haile Mariam. That is to say, it was a famine that was more likely to occur in the twentieth century—the heyday of man-made famines—than at any other time in human history.
Gill, for reasons that elude me (he knows de Waal’s work well enough to cite it, and is as far removed from being an apologist for the Mengistu regime as it is possible to be, speaking of Mengistu’s “Red Terror”), argues that Buerk’s report was “a model of evocative precision.” He could not be more in error. Buerk has as much as conceded the point, admitting later that while he had of course known of the Ethiopian government’s role in the famine at the time, he had chosen to present the famine to his audience in the tried and true vernacular of the classic “natural” disaster so as not to complicate the situation too much for his viewers—a decision that Rony Brauman has rightly compared to Sartre’s famous admission that he had known about the Gulag all along but had not wanted to admit it publicly so as not to make the French working class give up hope (“pour ne pas désespérer Billancourt”).
Gill is on firmer ground in his account of the Ethiopian government’s policy of forced population transfer of people from the famine zone of the country’s northern highlands to lowland areas in the south. He is in no doubt that the Derg used this policy as part of its war against the forces of the Tigrayan secessionists in the north—and not as part of famine alleviation, as the government and some of its apologists among U.N. and foreign NGO officials, and the representatives in Addis Ababa of important donor governments, claimed at the time, at least publicly. As Gill notes, the Mengistu regime was quite frank in admitting that “food is a major element in our strategy against the secessionists.” That strategy was not just brutal, it was immensely sanguinary. De Waal concluded that “resettlement certainly killed people at a faster rate than the famine.” Credible estimates of the deaths range from fifty thousand (de Waal) to a hundred thousand (MSF).
As the full implications of this became clear to at least some people in the relief world, above all to MSF/France, a bitter fight erupted over whether or not the international NGOs should participate in the resettlement effort. For most of the agencies, notably Oxfam International and the Irish relief organization Concern Worldwide, it was imperative that the NGOs stay and do what they could, regardless of the political context—that, indeed, the duty of relief agencies was to stay, thus at least trying to bring a measure of humanity into situations that they were powerless to alter. This fight spread to the donor governments, with Washington taking the hardest line against resettlement (but not hard enough). Here Gill rather misstates MSF’s argument. As Brauman has pointed out, the reason the public silence of mainline agencies such as Oxfam and Concern was so grave is that “neither the Reagan administration nor the European Commission would ever have agreed to underwrite forcible population transfers.... The Derg could never have resisted a critique coming from [all] the NGOs ... [and had they been forthcoming] the transfers might have been halted.” Instead MSF was expelled, and the remaining NGOs, while remonstrating privately with the Derg, did not suspend their assistance with the program.
Gill’s for the most part studiously neutral, he-said-she-said approach to the controversy (there are occasional hints of British-style condescension to the French relief agencies) is quite useful—particularly for readers who are not familiar with the period. Gill pursues this somewhat tentative approach throughout his book, and while this can be frustrating at times—probably more frustrating the more you know about the subject—on balance he was right to do so. For one thing, there surely was a question of access. Gill makes the point in his introduction—many observers pay lip service to this point but rarely seem as informed by it as they should be—that “poor countries will emerge from poverty only when they take full charge of their own destiny.” His book is not just a look back at the great controversies of the famine years of the mid-1980s, but also an attempt to understand whether, as he puts it, “beyond the challenges of famine forecasting and hunger relief, are there [now] Ethiopian political institutions and policies in place to deliver the transformation known as ‘development’?”
Let’s be grown up about this. Ethiopia is a tyranny. It was a dictatorship under Haile Selassie, and then under the Derg, and it remains one under the regime of Meles Zenawi, the erstwhile leader of the Tigrayan rebels, and once the poster child for a supposedly new, uncorrupt, and dynamic generation of African leaders. (Paul Kagame in Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni in Uganda were the others most frequently cited.) At the G8 Gleneagles Summit on Africa, called by Tony Blair in 2005, the podium at which the final communiqué was announced included Blair, then - Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, Geldof, Bono, and Meles. Two years later, when it had become impossible to deny the dictatorial nature of Meles’s regime, Bono would admit regretfully in an interview in New York magazine that “Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia is somebody I thought was an amazing character, and now he’s gone very reactionary, closing down civil society. But he was a brilliant macroeconomist. I went with Jeff Sachs to see him, and I asked him how he became this great economist when he’d fought a guerrilla war against the communists for 70 years.” Yes, that’s seventy years, which would take Meles’s struggle against the Derg back to 1937, that is, the year after Ethiopia fell to Mussolini—but hell, who’s counting? And what’s all that rot about pop stars not being qualified to speak on these subjects?
The admiration for Meles was not restricted to official circles in Washington, London, and Brussels. Joseph Stiglitz, hardly a regurgitator of neoliberal pieties, was an early ally and supporter of Meles—an episode that Gill recounts at length and with great acumen. Stiglitz told Gill that he was struck by Meles’s level of insight into macroeconomic structures, and championed the Ethiopian regime during the 1990s against its critics at the IMF. That the British government could put Meles forward at the Gleneagles Summit as the model of the forward-looking African leader less than two months after national elections in Ethiopia that, as Gill rightly records, ended in “violence and repression,” and in the arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of anti-Meles activists, demonstrates how low Western expectations are about African leadership, not to mention the superficiality of the West’s commitments to democracy on the continent. All Tony Blair was ever willing to say, six months later in South Africa, was that while Meles’s government had won the election fairly, it had “over-reacted” to the protests against its victory. Geldof’s response was typically childish. “Behave!” he said, when asked by a reporter what Meles should do.
Clearly neither Meles, nor his colleagues in the African Union (of which he was chairman at the time of Gleneagles), nor the leaders of the principal Western donor governments, were listening. Since the summer of 2005, Meles has represented Africa at one international forum after another, from the G8 and G20 summits to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009. And the Ethiopian elections of 2010 (which took place after Gill had finished his book but certainly would not have surprised him) were, if anything, even more questionable than the ones held five years earlier. Human Rights Watch described them as “multi-party theater staged by a single-party state.”
The importance of this does not derive from some sentimental attachment to free elections, let alone a “Western” desire to impose democracy and good governance. As Gill points out, in the development world, Sen’s celebrated argument in Development as Freedom that “no famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy,” and its corollary, “that a free press and an active political opposition constitute the best early-warning system a country threatened by famines can have,” is considered to be proved, no longer open to dispute. But for Meles, as Gill reports, it is a neo-liberal myth, “not validated by historical facts.”
The threat of a major famine returned to Ethiopia in 2003. This time the government response was infinitely more effective than Mengistu had been in 1983 - 1984 or Haile Selassie had been in 1973. Proud as they were of their accomplishments, Ethiopian officials realized that their success had been due at least partly to good luck, an important point that Gill is right to emphasize. The famine had come at a moment when the levels of food aid Ethiopia was receiving, above all from the United States, were at historic highs. These levels were not sustainable, as Meles understood, and in response the Ethiopian authorities began to emphasize agricultural development—something that had consistently been under-resourced and treated very much as a stepchild by governments all over sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia—and growth in the economy. In terms of GNP growth, Ethiopia has been remarkably successful, achieving rates somewhere between 7 percent and 11 percent since 2004 (the latter figure reflects official government statistics, which are in all likelihood exaggerations). The problem is that the food security of poor Ethiopians is anything but more assured today than it was a decade ago, and it is anything but clear that the country is any less dependent than it ever was on food aid from foreign donors.
Although he does say that outdated farm technology combined with periodic drought played a role in Ethiopia’s inability to banish hunger on a durable basis, Gill believes that the main reasons for this are not failures of agricultural policy but Ethiopia’s vertiginous rate of population increase. A country that numbered 40 million in 1984 now numbers 80 million and is on track to double again over the next twenty-five years. And unlike most of those countries where population is projected to rise steeply in the next two decades, the demographic transition has not even begun in Ethiopia. To the contrary, fertility rates are rising, not falling. Gill argues that this is at least partly due to the dramatic shift away from population control as an essential element in international development policy, which he dates back to the 1970s. He attributes this partly to “China’s one-child policy and the excesses of India’s sterilization drive [having] undermined the international consensus around an emphasis on the merits of birth control.” In this century, he says, “it was the AIDS disaster that deflected the international consensus away from population growth.” And he cites astonishing statistics from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that show that out of the four principal program areas—family planning, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and research—the percentage of funds allocated to family planning has decreased from 40 percent in 1997 to 5 percent in 2007. In this matter, he says, Ethiopia “has taken its cues from the development community at large,” seemingly in the belief that “patience and the development process itself will bring about sufficient falls in the birth rate and so stabilize population growth.”
The problem is that, as critics on both the right and the left have shown from their oddly complementary perspectives, the development process is in shambles: its theories are incoherent, and based as much on wishful thinking—the triumph of hope over experience—as on empirical research. As for its implementation—well, anyone who has observed directly how the development business actually unfolds in poor countries can only laugh so as not to weep. One of the great contributions of Gill’s book is to show, by means of observant, well-informed reporting on the ground in rural Ethiopia, just how vain a promise development has been to date.
Gill tries hard to be optimistic. He even writes hopefully of the role that China, now the most transformative player on the African scene, might play in Ethiopia’s better future. To have gotten Chinese officials in Africa to speak with candor and in depth is a considerable journalistic accomplishment, but quoting a Chinese official in Addis Ababa about China directing “some of their surplus savings to infrastructural development in Africa” is the thinnest of thin reeds on which to place one’s hopes. My sense is that Gill knows it.
This pessimistic note is confirmed in a vignette about Jeffrey Sachs, the former economic shock-therapy man who re-invented himself as the intellectual avatar of the Millennium Development Project and the author of a book (complete with a preface by Bono, naturally) called The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, in which he confidently predicted that if the rich world would dramatically increase its aid commitments, there could be no global poverty to speak of by 2025. Gill visits a benighted village called Koraro, chosen to be one of Sachs’s so-called Millennium Villages, which were meant as demonstration projects to prove that foreign aid can really work. He asks a local man whether he has ever met Sachs, to which the man replies, “I have met the owner twice,” which in itself is worth a dozen U.N. development assessments and a hundred NGO field reports. And when Gill himself finally meets Sachs, he discovers that he, too, is grasping at the Chinese straw. “They are doing something,” he tells Gill, “where we are not there at all.” But Sachs also says that “unless the fertility rate comes down sharply I’m running out of ideas.” When Gill tells him that Ethiopia’s population has doubled in a quarter-century and will likely double again in the next twenty-five years, Sachs can only reply that “it is absolutely unmanageable ... beyond any of our [development] tools right now.” The end of poverty, indeed.
David Rieff’s upcoming book on chronic malnutrition and the global food crisis will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2011. This piece ran in the October 28, 2010, issue of the magazine.
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elcome to First Step, a video series featuring athletes engaging the communities most affected by today’s social issues, from education and unemployment, to child hunger and homelessness among LGBTQ youth. In this second installment, former Packers wide receiver Donald Driver takes a first step to help the unemployed of Milwaukee.
It doesn’t matter who you are: Hard times always come up. As a kid growing up, I saw my mom not eat at night because she was trying to make sure that her children had enough food. We slept on a mattress on the floor because we couldn’t afford furniture. My goal was that, if I had the opportunity to become successful, I was going to find a way to get my family out of poverty.
The Donald Driver Foundation started back in 2000. I wanted to make sure to give other people the opportunity to be successful. I believe that God put me on this earth not to be a football player, but to give me the platform to do what I’m doing today: inspire, motivate and change lives. |
?GoBots are the Rodney Dangerfields of ’80s toys: they get no respect… and they’re completely dead and never coming back. They’ve never been able to escape the reputation of being low-rent Transformers knockoffs, despite hitting U.S. toy shelves first and being a popular line that outlasted many other ’80s toylines.
Nerdy historians have debated exactly why GoBots sucked for years. Some think it was because the Hanna-Barbera Challenge of the GoBots cartoon was apparently written for particularly slow 4-year-olds. Others think it was because the toys provided almost no information about the characters kids were buying, so kids never got as emotionally attached as they did to their Optimus Prime. It might even be that some GoBots were so simple that they transformed by just folding in half. But, whatever the exact reason was for their suckage, GoBots don’t have a tenth of the nostalgic appeal of Transformers and we certainly aren’t going to see them on the big screen peeing on John Turturro any time soon. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t sometimes occasionally interesting. Here are the eight instances of them being interesting we could find.
8) They’re Not Actually Robots
?While you’d assume that GoBots are actually robots by the fact that their slogan “Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles,” it turns out GoBots are actually part meatbag. Yep, the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon established that they were originally organic aliens identical to humans, but after an asteroid collided with Gobotron, they were forced to put their brains into robot bodies (why they put them in bodies that transformed into limousines and dune buggies is anyone’s guess). The cartoon even introduced two GoBots who had been put into cryogenic suspension before falling prey to the disease who still had most of their fleshy bits. So, it should be “Mighty Cyborgs, Mighty Vehicles”… although the “mighty” part is up for debate.
7) The Cartoon Was Written by Putzie from Grease
?Like all ’80s shows, there were a bunch of freelance writers that contributed to the simplistic mess that was Challenge of the GoBots, but 22 episodes were written by Kelly Ward, who is best (or only) known for playing the blonde T-Bird in the movie Grease. Ward was also associate story editor for the series, as well as the voice of Fitor (above). He stopped acting after the movie Rock Lords: War of the Rock Lords (can you ever top playing opposite Margot Kidder and Telly Savalas?) and ended up becoming a voice director on Legion of Superheroes and the Watchmen motion comics. Take that, Travolta!
6) They’re Transformers Now
?In 1991, Hasbro bought up Tonka, and the rights to the GoBots toyline. But before mind fills with dreams of reissues, they don’t own the rights to the toys themselves, which had been licensed from Bandai. But Hasbro has used GoBot names on Transformers, first with the 1993 G2 “GoBots” figure, then with a whole line of “GoBots” in 1995. Takara later made E-hobby exclusive re-deco of mini-cons in Go-Bots colors, although they dropped the specific Go-Bot names for fear of annoying Bandai. Since then, a bunch of GoBot-inspired Transformers figures like Leader-1, Bugbite and Cop-Tur. In fact, the Wal-Mart exclusive figure Fracture is clearly based on the GoBot Crasher and would’ve been called that, if they could’ve trademarked the name. If only they could have included put in that fingernails-on-blackboard voice of hers, too!
5) In Britain, They Murdered an Entire Town
In the U.K., GoBots were released under the Robo Machines name and a Robo Machines comic strip ran in the comic magazine Eagle that featured a story line that was more 2000 A.D. than Hanna-Barbera. The strip starts on the planet Robotron, where the humanoid scientist Stron-Domez created two transforming robots, Cy-Kill and Tank, and used them to try to assassinate Robotron’s president. After he fails, he flees to Earth and security leader Ex-El follows him and creates modifies robots to fight him: Leader-1, Hans-Cuff and Dozer. So far, so good. But then Stron-Domez sends his robots out to start murdering British civilians, destroying the village of Cholkham. So if you ever thought it was a shame that Cy-Kill never lived up to his name, let’s see what you think of him setting someone on fire.
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4) You Were Buying Some Girl GoBots
?While the Transformers only featured female Transformers in one or two episodes of the series, GoBots came right out and had strong female bots from the start, most notably the Renegade Crasher, although it should be noted that she spoke in a voice that would’ve made any Hollywood & Vine drag queen proud. Now of course, you couldn’t tell from the toys (although Sparky always seemed looked a little femme to me), but you have to give them credit for actually making some female regular characters like Small Foot, Pathfinder and Snoop. And despite what you’re thinking, we’re pretty sure Scooter was a boy… but we sure ain’t checking under his hood.
3) Psycho Is Short for Psychoroid
The weirdest entry from the Super GoBots line is easily the futuristic super car Psycho, which puzzled kids back in the ’80s as to just what it was and also why it was called Psycho. Well it turns out Psycho is based on the space car Psychoroid from the anime Cobra: Space Adventure. Interestingly, the original car didn’t transform, that was added by Bandai when they added it to the Machine Robo DX line. Looks like a car that just flies through space just wasn’t sci-fi enough for Bandai.
2) They Were Voiced by Transformers
?To make a living as a voice actor in the ’80s you really had to hustle…and by hustle, we mean you took any job you could. So, it’s not surprising that there was some overlap between the Transformers and GoBot series, although it’s a little surprising who did it. Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) and Frank Welker (Megatron) were both regular voice actors on Challenge of the GoBots, with Cullen playing Pincher, Spoiler and Tank and Welker playing Blaster, Rest-Q, Zeemon and that annoying little bastard Scooter. In the Rock Lords movie, they even had the two voice one two-headed Rock Lord, Sticks and Stones (above), with the two heads arguing constantly with each other. Other crossovers were Arthur Burghardt (GoBots: Cop-Tur, Turbo; Transformers: Devastator), Phillip L. Clarke (GoBots: Dr. Go, Herr Fiend, Tork; Transformers: Dead End, Tantrum), Richard Gautier (GoBots: Klaws; Transformers: Rodimus Prime/Hot Rod). Now, of course Gautier was the TV Rodimus… Do you think Judd Nelson would stoop to appear in a GoBots film? Well, sure he would now, but we mean 1980s Judd Nelson.
1) The Go-Bots Included Robotech Vehicles and, Uh…Turbo Teen?
?One of the licensees that jumped on the GoBots money train was Monogram model kids, who put out a line of transforming GoBots model kits. Yep, rather than just buying a regular and durable GoBot, you could build a same size fragile model kit and watch it be destroyed. What a bargain! But rather than sculpt Leader-1 and Cy-Kill models, Monogram just repainted some models from Genesis Climber Mospeada (the Invid Invasion part of Robotech for you non-anime nerds) and slapped the character names on them. Leader-1 kind of works (in a super futuristic way), but it’s hard to ignore the rider you need to build into the Cy-Kill kit. The finished model ends up looking like someone who put together an unconvincing Cy-Kill cosplay outfit (note: if you hate being laughed at, do not attempt to go to comic con in a Cy-Kill outfit).
And perhaps the oddest moment of the GoBots history was when Monogram took the mold of the “Trans Am” GoBot model kit, slapped a kid’s head on it and made a Turbo Teen model kit. Which is the only Turbo Teen merchandise ever made… and I think everyone’s okay with that. |
Speaking as both a fan and a critic, I'm of the opinion that fanservice is like a spice; just the right amount in the right recipe and it's fantastic, but too much overpowers the dish. Not every anime series needs to be a subtle masterpiece of moving, insightful screenwriting. There's room on the shelf for risque pleasures and bawdy fun. Sometimes we all just want to ogle handsome dudes or hot ladies in skimpy outfits, or maybe we need to shout corny catchphrases as a giant robot goes through a ten-minute launch sequence. A little populist entertainment is good for the soul, but that doesn't mean that we should be willing to put up with lousy anime in order to get it. To that end, I've put together a few modest requirements for the best animated comfort food of choice. For the sake of brevity, I'll be focusing on the most traditional (and most maligned) definition of fanservice : good-looking ladies or gentlemen in revealing outfits and suggestive situations.
Consistency is Key
The first step in making fanservice work is to ensure that it fits reasonably well into the context of the series. Different shows can get away with different things depending on their tone and subject matter. For example, a hot springs episode is a much easier sell in a goofy romantic comedy than it would be in a super-serious war drama. Fanservice scenes are almost always a detour from the more important parts of a series, but the change of direction is less jarring when the audience can reasonably imagine the characters getting caught up in silly, raunchy antics. As long as the creators are honest with themselves about what kind of show they're making, it isn't too hard to keep the tone consistent.
Keeping the style and level of fanservice consistent is also important. When a show suddenly goes off the deep end after several tame episodes, the audience ends up feeling blindsided. I criticized an episode of Gourmet Girl Graffiti earlier this year for this exact problem: after half a season of odd but mild fanservice , the series abruptly tossed in a suggestive bath scene. It was hardly the most tasteless piece of animation out there, but it was way out of place in a slice of life series about girls freaking out over delicious food.
Ultimately, all this talk about consistency boils down to one simple idea: let the viewers know what they're getting into so they can make their best judgment about whether the show works for them. The image above is one of two title cards that appear halfway through the first episode of High School DxD , and it's easily the more restrained of the two. High School DxD is brutally honest about its intentions. It takes about two minutes for the screen to be filled with cleavage, and one of the hero's first lines is a remark about how much he likes boobs. Anyone who doesn't share his sentiments can safely walk away with no more than five or ten minutes down the drain. Personal taste makes a big difference with these kinds of shows, so the least that creators can do is help the audience decide whether or not to stick around.
Fanservice is No Excuse for a Bad Story
Anime can bluntly appease its perceived audience all it wants, but a series still needs a halfway decent plot if it's going to hold up for more than a handful of episodes. It doesn't take much; even a simple story can act as the glue that holds all the beach episodes and shower scenes together. Free! is clearly not aimed at me, but I still enjoyed it because there's a solid piece of sports fiction under all the well-defined muscles. By the same token, characters are more memorable when they're more than just models for skimpy outfits. Alien cat-girls alone would've been enough to sell Cat Planet Cuties , but it's a noteworthy series because those cat-girls are also surprisingly well-written characters.
Clever comedy also goes a long way, since not many fanservice shows can get away with taking themselves seriously (sincere, serious high drama is a tougher sell when the show is insisting you ogle the dramatic heroine's scantily-clad butt during her impassioned speech). This means moving beyond the old harem routines, or at least taking a fresh approach to them. If a male protagonist is going to fall face-first into a girl's breasts, it had better be the end result of a high-altitude parachute jump worthy of a Red Bull publicity stunt. Better yet, why not just ditch the old punchlines altogether? Anyone looking for proof that sex appeal and humor can get along should track down Yamada's First Time , which uses a sex-fueled premise as a springboard for genuinely funny jokes. The best fanservice shows can work even if you're not interested in seeing animated underwear.
Know How to Draw Humans
Look at Rin. Look at him. Dude's looking good, and I just took this screenshot on the fly without searching for the perfect image. Fanservice is often used to cover up a weak story or flat characters, but it only brings a show's production values out into the spotlight. A few layers of clothing can help cover up iffy body proportions, but there's nowhere to hide when everyone's down to their swimsuits. If I'm going to spend half an hour looking at half-naked anime characters, they'd better be well drawn. Nobody really wants ogle subpar character art.
All Things in Moderation...
In my experience, this is the point that drives most arguments on this subject. Poor writing and cheap animation are harder to defend, but the idea of good taste is subjective enough to fuel a lifetime of debates. What I consider palatable could easily strike another viewer as pointlessly tame or obnoxiously inappropriate. Individual preferences may vary, but I think most folks want to feel comfortable watching their trashy series of choice, based on whatever "comfortable" means to them. There's a big difference between enjoying questionable content and feeling like a giant sleazeball for watching something that takes it all too far. A little moderation on the creators' part helps take the "guilt" out of your "guilty pleasure".
Exercising restraint can also give fanservice more impact. If every shot in a series is packed with spurious amounts of two-dimensional skin, the audience will eventually grow numb to it. There's a lot of traditional fanservice in Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend , but what impressed me about that show was its ability to bring out the sexual tension in a scene through clever writing and direction. Filling the screen with animated cleavage is the easy road to take, but the more challenging route can leave a more lasting impression.
...But It's Okay To Go Over the Top
Cleverness and subtlety are good traits for a series to have, but sometimes the best thing to do is jump as high and far over the shark as humanly possible. This whole topic is a bit silly to begin with, and a fanservice -heavy show can succeed by embracing its inherent absurdity. Monster Musume strikes me as a series with the potential to make this approach work. By replacing the cast of a harem comedy with centaurs, harpies, and other half-human characters, it immediately calls itself out as something too ridiculous to take seriously.
The issue with taking the crazy approach is that it can backfire immediately if it's not done right. The key is to balance blatant excess with a healthy dose of self-awareness. There's a scene in the first season of Free! that does this well enough to make me laugh uncontrollably every time I watch it. A shopping trip goes completely off the rails as the guys get caught up in trying on new swimsuits. The scene goes on for so long that even the character whose sole purpose in the show is to admire the guys' physiques gets bored and walks away. The show lets us know that it's in on the joke, and that admission makes the scene fun even if you're not watching it for shirtless hunks. |
We should have seen this one from a mile away.
Sports Illustrated's Peter King reported Wednesday that the NFL's locked-out officials have been preparing for their eventual return.
One lingering concern about the referees is how much prep time they'd require to get back on the field. Estimations have placed that anywhere from one to three weeks, but that's doomsday talk, thanks to the legwork of the increasingly mythical -- but entirely real -- Ed Hochuli.
The world's most popular burly armed official has been getting his men ready with regular Tuesday night rules-related conference calls. King was told by an officiating source that between 90 and 110 NFLRA members have attended these meetings. Hochuli then drops pop quizzes on the gang to ensure his men are prepared (this sounds terrifying).
"That's one of the reasons why the officials will be up to date and ready to go," the source told King. "Ed grabbed the bull by the horns and made sure that whenever this thing ended the regular officials would be ready to go back to work immediately."
Let's say, for example, a deal was struck by late Thursday. The Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns would be out of luck, but we'd likely see the 121 members of the NFL Referees Association on-field Sunday.
King reported the officials would first be required to meet as a group to ratify any deal accepted by the NFLRA's board of directors. Once that's signed -- and thanks to looming national hero Hochuli -- order would be restored to Sundays (and Monday and Thursday nights) forevermore.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL. |
The German team stands behind its national flag at the start of the group-stage match of the FIFA U-20 World Cup between Germany and Vanuatu in Seogwipo, South Korea, on May 26. (Wallace Woon/European Pressphoto Agency)
For decades after the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II, Germans had trouble defining themselves as a nation. But the arrival of hundreds of thousands of newcomers appears to have thrust the country into a new, full-fledged identity crisis.
Recently, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière listed 10 Martin Luther-style “theses” on what all Germans have — or should have — in common. The article published by the German daily Bild sparked a heated debate about the controversial term “leitkultur” (“guiding culture” or “leading culture”).
Along with less-controversial qualities, such as the typically German trait of valuing education not simply as a means to an end, the interior minister seemed to suggest that Muslim newcomers should be willing to adapt to local customs.
“We say our name. We shake each other’s hand when we greet,” he wrote. “ . . . We are an open society. We show our face. We are not burqa.”
Some accused de Maizière of blatant populism and attempting to co-opt the anti-immigrant message of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of federal elections in September.
Others mocked the text by creating their own lists, relishing in German stereotypes, such as a love for excessive bureaucracy. “If there’s no form for it, it doesn’t really exist” was among the “100 points Thomas de Maizière forgot” offered by writer Kathrin Wessling.
Social-media users began posting pictures of many German tourists’ favorite footwear alongside the caption: “We are not burqa, we are socks and sandals.”
Despite the criticism, a recent poll published by the Focus newsmagazine found that more than half of Germans think their country is in need of a “leitkultur.”
“German society due to the migration of recent years has a need to reassure itself and to define what’s indispensable for it,” said Jens Spahn, a lawmaker for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party. “A healthy patriotism . . . is something that Germans are struggling with based on their history, something they are slowly and carefully developing.”
Spahn acknowledged that the number of Muslim women wearing the full-face veil is low in Germany, but he said: “People who think their wife should be fully veiled should go find another country. I don’t want to see fully veiled women. Those who want that should stay in Saudi Arabia.”
German Integration Commissioner Aydan Ozoguz said such arguments are missing the point.
“Nobody in this country considers himself a burqa. It’s shocking that such important issues are discussed in such a tone,” she said. “People should be given the chance to participate in society instead of being excluded by imposing rules on how to behave. If I think about how many Germans don’t look at one’s face, it would never occur to me to deny them their Germanness.”
The term “leitkultur” is not new and has popped up in the German political sphere before. But the massive task of integrating the several hundred thousand migrants who have arrived since 2015 lends a sense of urgency to the debate this time.
Other European countries may also have felt a need to define what makes them unique — Denmark’s Culture Ministry last year published a “Denmark Canon,” including the concept of “hygge,” or “a special way of being together in a relaxing, nice atmosphere.” But Germany seemed to grapple harder with the issue.
Literature professor Dieter Borchmeyer, author of a more than 1,000-page tome titled “What is German?: A Nation’s Search for Itself,” says that Germany’s struggle with identity has to do with the fact that, compared with other European countries, it took longer for Germany to become a nation state. “The definition of what is German used to be only based on culture, since politically Germany didn’t exist until 1871,” he said. “This explains the uncertainty when it comes to determining what is German.”
And although Germany may not “be burqa,” a moderate version of Islam is anything but incompatible with its culture, according to Borchmeyer. “Just think of Goethe’s ‘West–Eastern Divan,’ the most magnificent lyrical creation of German literature. . . . It’s a total homage to Islamic poetry.”
Read more:
Germany’s far right preaches traditional values. Can a lesbian mother be its new voice?
German army officer disguised himself as refugee to carry out terrorist attack, investigators say
In Germany, right-wing violence flourishing amid surge in online hate
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news |
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A federal grand jury in Texas returned a two-count indictment for wire fraud against Charles Banks, a financial adviser who is alleged to have mishandled more than $20 million in investments of his ex-client, retired San Antonio Spurs All-Star Tim Duncan.
The indictment was unsealed Friday in a San Antonio courtroom, where Banks surrendered himself and was led into the courtroom in handcuffs. Banks surrendered his passport and a $1 million bond was issued for his release pending trial. He is facing a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in federal detainment.
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“I originally filed my lawsuits against Charles Banks to stop him from doing to others what he had done to me and my family,” Duncan said in a release through his attorneys. “The U.S. Department of Justice has just taken a big step in exposing and stopping his illegal activities. I thank the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI for working tirelessly to bring Banks to justice.”
In a lawsuit filed in 2015, Duncan, a five-time NBA champion, alleged that Banks steered him toward multiple investments in hotels, wineries and beauty products despite not revealing his own financial conflicts of interests in the businesses.
Court records and documents show that Banks had ownership stakes or financial interests in the investments.
Tim Duncan accused Banks of defrauding him on a $7.5 million loan. (Getty)
Duncan accused Banks of defrauding him on a $7.5 million loan to Gameday, a company that Banks maintained control over. Gameday also received a bank loan with what Duncan says he believed was his signature on a document that would get him $1.5 million in cash back and lower his guarantee exposure. Banks is alleged to have used that signature to increase Duncan’s guarantee exposure to $13.5 million at Comerica Bank instead of $6 million.
Story continues
Duncan earned over $240 million in salary in his 19-year NBA career.
Banks has also been tied to Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Kevin Garnett through his financial advice.
“We are gratified that the United States Attorney and the FBI discovered Banks’ criminal conduct on the Gameday issue and concluded that Banks, beyond a reasonable doubt, unlawfully extracted money to fund his lavish lifestyle at the expense of Tim Duncan and his family. We thank them for working to discover and expose Banks’ misconduct,” Duncan’s attorneys, Tullos Wells and Michael Bernard, said in a statement.
“Banks insisted when our civil cases were filed that this was just Tim being ‘impatient to get out of a bad deal.’ His comments were simply another effort to keep his criminal activity hidden. We believe that the trial of this case will confirm his unlawful activity. We look forward to continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI as they bring him to justice.” |
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One day after Uganda’s President signed into law a bill making homosexuality punishable with life imprisonment, several countries have already said they will cut aid to the country.
President Yoweri Museveni signed the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill in front of politicians and reporters on Monday at State House, his official residence in Entebbe.
The law calls for repeat offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in prison and makes it a criminal offence not to report someone for being gay.
Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands have become the first three countries to cut their aid to Uganda following the decision to sign the bill by Museveni.
The Netherlands has stopped around £6 million in aid money which was intended for Uganda’s legal system, as the country did not want to contribute to the persecution of gay people.
Norway and Denmark have also said they will redirect aid directly to human rights groups, rather than the government.
This is the same policy which the British Department for International Development, which provides aid directly to organisations such as the UN, World Bank and Amnesty International.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry today said his country is now reviewing its relations with Uganda, following President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to sign anti-gay legislation.
Sweden has also said it will review its aid spending.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have called for an end to a political agreement with Uganda over the law.
EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton described the move as “draconian”.
Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it was “an abhorrent backwards step for human rights”.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “deeply saddened and disappointed”.
A tabloid newspaper in Uganda today published a list of the “200 top” gay people. |
Image copyright AFP Image caption Thousands of Catalans took part in the demonstration, held on Catalonia's National Day
Thousands of Catalans have rallied in Barcelona, Spain, demanding the right to hold a referendum on independence.
Participants, waving Catalan flags and wearing the flag's red and yellow colours, stood in a V-shape formation, indicating their desire for a vote.
Protesters were energised by Scotland's forthcoming independence referendum - and many also waved the Scottish flag.
The regional government has called a referendum for 9 November. The Spanish government says the vote is illegal.
"We want to decide our future. We don't understand why that is constantly denied," Victor Panyella, a professor taking part in the rally, told Reuters.
Ana Melendez, another participant, told the BBC she was "jealous" of Scotland, which has a referendum on independence from the rest of the United Kingdom on 18 September.
Catalonia is one of Spain's richest and most highly industrialised regions, and also one of the most independent-minded.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Participants formed a large "V" in central Barcelona
Image copyright AFP Image caption The Scottish flag could also be glimpsed among the Catalonia flags in the crowd
Until recently, few Catalans had wanted full independence, but Spain's painful economic crisis has seen a surge in support for separation.
The national government is opposed to any move towards independence. According to the Spanish constitution, the central government's blessing is required to make a referendum legal.
At the scene: Tom Burridge, BBC News, Barcelona
Image copyright AFP
On Catalonia's national day, or La Diada, as it's called here, a huge crowd formed the thin red and yellow stripes of the Catalan flag, creating a giant 'V' for vote.
Look closer and you could see an endless number of pro-independence Catalan flags, which have a blue triangle and a silver star.
There were also a handful of Scottish flags fluttering in the wind.
Each year, the atmosphere at the La Diada celebrations is electric and it's easy to imagine the event being infectious for some.
The Catalan national anthem rings out, as do the deafening chants of "independence". People's dogs wear flags and people's faces are painted, party-style, in the Catalan colours.
The true numbers present in Barcelona today will be disputed, but a large chunk of the Catalan population turned out.
However another large number did not. The opinion polls are complex depending on the question, but if it's a simple "yes/no" to independence, the Catalan public are pretty evenly split. |
For the fourth year running, here are some of my favorite articles, videos, games, photography, discussions, and design pieces that I linked to in 2007. After you’re done with these, try the lists from 2004, 2005, and 2006.
The streets of Portland are an ice skating rink for cars in this video.
Reconsidering the original three Star Wars movies in light of the prequels. R2D2 = top rebel spy.
Adam Gadahn’s journey from rural California teen and death metal fan to a trusted member of Osama bin Laden’s team of operatives.
Chris Jordan’s photo series, Running the Numbers.
Michael Poliza’s aerial photos of Africa. More here.
Malcolm Gladwell on Enron and the difference between puzzles and mysteries, investigationally speaking.
Smashing Telly, a collection of TV on the web, with an emphasis on documentaries and factual programs. I liked David’s post on Zeitgeist and FEBLs.
Video of an autistic person describing the language she uses to communicate with her surroundings.
Good People, a short story by David Foster Wallace.
Nicholas Felton’s personal annual report for 2006.
A pair of posts from Neatorama on photography: 13 Photographs That Changed the World and The Wonderful World of Early Photography.
The 51 Smartest, Prettiest, Coolest, Funniest, Most Influential, Most Necessary, Most Important, Most Essential Magazines Ever.
Susan Orlean on Robert Lang, former physicist and current world-class origami master. Here’s my post on Lang.
A Line Rider masterpiece. (Line Rider?)
Kremlin Inc., a story of Vladimir Putin’s de facto dictatorship of Russia.
2007 was the year of book art: Thomas Allen’s pulp cutouts, Cara Barer’s water-crumpled books, Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books whose spines tell small stories, and Brian Dettmer’s book sculptures.
Joel Johnson’s great post on Gizmodo scolding the site’s writers, gadget makers, and the site’s readers “for supporting the disgusting cycle of gadget whoring”.
Denis Darzacq’s photographs of people seemingly floating above the pavement.
Panoramic photos from the Apollo missions. These are stunning.
Michael Pollan on the rise of nutritionism. His advice for healthy eating: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Desktop Tower Defense. This would top my Ten Best Games of the Year list if I’d done one.
On Conscientious, several photographers answer the question “What makes a great photo?”
Shorpy, a photoblog of old photographs, and FFFFOUND!, an image bookmarking site. Neither is probably legal in the strict sense, but they’re both great online curated galleries.
Alberto Forero has collected a staggering amount of photography and design imagery and posted it to his Flickr account.
Social Explorer, interactive demographic maps.
Hypermilers try to wring as many miles per gallon out of their cars as they can. (My post.)
Darwin’s God. Are humans biologically wired to believe in God?
Dan Hill reviews Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, a film that follows soccer star Zinedine Zidane through a single game.
Minority Kart, possibly the GAGOAT (greatest animated gif of all time).
Miranda July’s wonderful handcrafted web site for her book No One Belongs Here More Than You.
An article on commuting, this crazy thing that most Americans do too much of.
The graph of US home prices from 1890 to the present as a rollercoaster.
As a social experiment, the Washington Post arranged for internationally acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell to play outside a DC subway station. Would anyone notice?
The New Yorker on David Belle and parkour, the sport he invented.
Maciej Ceglowski reports on the Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel.
NB: Studio’s map of London constructed entirely out of type.
Trulia Hindsight, a map of property development through time.
Movies showing a closeup view of the Sun’s surface.
Video footage of Joseph Kittenger’s record jump from 102,800 feet up. Photo from Life magazine and a Boards of Canada music video that uses the footage.
Alex Reisner’s site, especially the baseball section. (My post.)
Interview with journalist Jonathan Rauch.
The greatest long tracking shots in cinema, including those in Touch of Evil and Children of Men.
Meg Hourihan took a bunch of different chocolate chip recipes, averaged the ingredients, and made cookies from the resulting meta-recipe.
The infamous four guys humping an ottoman video.
Does the Piraha language upend the theory of universal grammar?
Vimeo’s sign in page is lovely.
Tim Knowles’ drawings by trees. (My post. And more.)
How a woman randomly bumped into the person that stole her identity and chased her around until the police showed up to apprehend her.
Portraits of breaking sculpture by Martin Klimas.
Photo gallery that shows families from around the world and the amount of food they eat in the course of a week.
Errol Morris’ investigation of a pair of Roger Fenton photographs in three wonderful parts.
Roger Federer’s conservation of energy and attention helps him perform when it counts.
Jay Parkinson M.D. makes house calls, visits with patients via IM, and is generally trying to find new ways of doctoring.
Anthony Lane’s appreciation of the Leica.
Kohei Yoshiyuki’s photos of voyeurs watching lovers in a Japanese park. (My post.)
A restaurant review from the NY Times, circa 1859. My post about the review and lots more from the archives of the Times.
The story of Oscar the Cat, who comforts the dying at a Rhode Island nursing home.
Portraits of bears by Jill Greenberg. More photos at Greenberg’s site.
Long New Yorker profile of David Simon and The Wire.
Elizabeth Kolbert on bees and colony collapse disorder. And bee space.
Photoshopped pictures of people’s faces combined.
A video round (turn on the sound).
Optical illusion: is the woman rotating clockwise or counterclockwise?
From the excellent xkcd web comic: Little Bobby Tables.
Aicuña is a small secluded town in Argentina with an extremely high percentage of albino residents.
David Foster Wallace’s wonderful introduction to The Best American Essays 2007.
Video depicting several ways to melt a chocolate bunny.
Tyler Cowen on some of the opportunity costs of the war in Iraq.
Beautifully terrifying photos of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
Standing witness to a Guitar Hero wunderkind playing the game’s most difficult song on expert level.
How America Lost the War on Drugs.
God’s Eye View is an art project by The Glue Society depicting four Biblical scenes as they would have been captured by Google Earth.
The best way to deflect an asteroid turns out to be reflecting sunlight on it with a swarm of mirror bees.
Paul Otlet presages the web in 1934, calling it the “radiated library” or “televised book”. (More context.)
This was my favorite post of the year. I hope you’ll excuse the self-link.
Oh, and maybe the best thing I didn’t link to this year: Daft Hands.
Thanks for reading kottke.org for the past year. Happy new year to you and yours. |
Senator Mary Landrieu: South Dakota Borders on Canada, You Know
I'm pretty sure that South Dakota implies a more northerly Dakota.
Remember, these people are all super-smart, per the media, who are all super-smart themselves (Also per the media.)
Some possible movies:
In a land of mystery and confusion, one intrepid soul attempts to find a way. Senator Mary Landrieu in...
T H E
L O S T
D A K O T A
Or, how 'bout:
When a state goes missing, Detective Mary Landrieu is on the case. Can she discover....
W H I C H
W A Y P I S P U P
Or even:
In the world of the future, the evil Canadian Empire has annexed North Dakota.
But resistance fighter Mary-6 Landrieu will put things right.
B L O O D
O F S T H E
M A P L E S
Or even:
Mary Landrieu just wanted a day-trip to Canada. But thanks to a wondrous map and a GPS system that had a mind of its own, she wound up in a magical world of cattle and corn.
S T R A N G E
G E O G R A P H Y
Or finally:
They tried following her.
They tried anticipating her every move.
They got hopelessly lost. Because Senator Mary Landrieu went in a direction They couldn't have foreseen.
Mary Landrieu stars in...
N O R T H P B Y
S O U T H W E S T |
The Senate health care bill, being drafted by Republicans behind closed doors, finally came to light.
The Washington Post got a draft of the legislation Wednesday afternoon, which was being passed among lobbyists and aides.
The bill would repeal most of the taxes that pay for Obamacare, roll back expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, reshape its subsidies, give states wider latitude to opt out of its regulations and eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can only lose two members of his Republican caucus, as no Democrats are expected to vote in favor of the GOP-led health care bill
President Trump, in a meeting with tech titans, reportedly told them he wanted to see a Senate GOP health care bill with 'more heart'
The Senate legislation would link federal insurance subsidies to income, a change from a House-passed bill that tied them to age, the Post reported.
The Senate bill also cuts off Obamacare's Medicaid expansion more gradually than the House legislation, which passed on May 4.
It removes language restricting federally subsidized health plans from covering abortions.
Before this draft came to light, President Trump said in a private meeting with tech CEOs that he wanted to see a Senate health care bill with with 'more heart,' according to CNBC, after complaining behind closed doors that the House GOP Obamacare repeal bill was 'mean.'
The discussion on Capitol Hill, however, was focused on meeting a Fourth of July deadline.
'I expect to have a discussion draft on Thursday,' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., confirmed Tuesday afternoon, according to the Washington Examiner. 'And we'll go to the bill obviously once we get a CBO score. Likely next week.'
A publicly-released draft is still expected Thursday, with McConnell presenting it to senators at a morning meeting, the Post reported.
The bill has been crafted in private – much to the chagrin of the Democrats who have been complaining about it for weeks.
Trump's comments suggest he'd like to see a more moderate bill coming out of the Senate, as the Congressional Budget Office forecasted that the House-passed American Health Care Act would cause 23 million more Americans to be uninsured than if the government stuck with Obamacare.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer agreed that the president wanted a bill with 'more heart,' though wouldn't talk specifically about what President Trump might dislike in terms of a bill
HARD TO GET: The Washington Post suspects that it will be difficult to sell the bill to libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (left), R-Ky., and moderate Sen. Susan Collins (right), R-Alaska
But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, (right) has also expressed hesitations, saying she wants the expansion of Medicaid to continue and Planned Parenthood funding to go untouched
During Monday's off-camera White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer wouldn't confirm or deny Trump had called the House iteration of health care reform 'mean.'
'I'm not going to comment on rumors that came out of a private meeting,' Spicer told reporters.
But on Tuesday, Spicer said, 'the president clearly wants a bill that has heart,' confirming CNBC's reporting.
'He believes that health care is something that is near and dear to so many families and individuals,' Spicer said.
'He made it clear from the beginning that that was one of his priorities and as the Senate works its way through this bill as the House did, any ideas are welcome to strengthen it, to make it more affordable, accessible and deliver the care that it needs, but this is an area that the president believes passionately about,' the press secretary continued.
'He cares. He understands the role that health care plays in their lives and their families' and he wants to make sure we do everything we can to provide the best option for them as Obamacare continues to fail,' Spicer added.
Spicer then moved away from giving specifics, saying he wouldn't 'get into the private discussions that occurred.'
Like House Speaker Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has had to balance the interests of conservatives and moderates within his caucus.
Democrats have not been privy to the health care negotiations and none are expected to support the GOP-led health care bill, as Republicans try to drown President Obama's signature legislative accomplishment.
Now they fear, as the new bill won't go through committee, that Republicans will quickly pass it without time allotted for amendments and discussion.
'Will we have time – more than 10 hours, since this is a complicated bill – to review the bill?' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., asked McConnell Monday from the Senate floor. 'Will it be available to us and the public more than 10 hours before we have to go vote for it?'
'Since our leader has said – our Republican leader – that there will be plenty of time for a process where people can make amendments,' Schumer continued. 'You need time to prepare those amendments.'
McConnell didn't make any promises.
'I think we’ll have ample opportunity to read and amend the bill,' the Senate majority leader said twice, the second time after Schumer, again, asked about the 10 hours.
'I rest my case,' Schumer replied.
At the White House, Spicer dismissed Democrats' complaints that they weren't included in writing the Senate bill.
'They have chosen ... to not make themselves part of this process,' Spicer said, pointing to comments made by Schumer in which the minority leader said the Democrats would never take part of dismantling Obamacare.
Spicer explained that it differed from similar complaints Republicans made when Obamacare was being authored because, 'I think we wanted to be part of the process back then,' the press secretary said.
Because Republicans are using a process called reconciliation, arguing the bill is budget-specific, only a simple majority is needed to get the legislation through the Senate.
Still, with the Senate divided 52-48, McConnell can only afford to lose two votes, with Vice President Mike Pence coming in and placing a tie-breaker.
The Washington Post suspects that McConnell will lose a Republican on each end of the spectrum, pointing to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a libertarian who was the one 'no' vote on the budget resolution that initiated the whole process, along with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, by far the most moderate senator in the GOP caucus.
However, other Republicans seem to be wavering too.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., said she supported a number of components already found in Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, that the Senate Republican health care bill would likely strip away.
'I am committed to ensuring that important provisions of the ACA, such as covering those with pre-existing conditions, continued support for Medicaid expansion, coverage for dependents and no lifetime limits, and funding for Planned Parenthood remain intact,' she said in a constituent letter, obtained by Politico.
The 151-member Republican Study Committee of House members sent a letter to McConnell making their own demands, according to the Washington Examiner, which are practically opposite of everything Murkowski called for.
The group, which was once chaired by Pence, is worried that the Senate bill will be too moderate for their tastes, as they support phasing out the Medicaid expansion beginning in 2020, along with barring federal family planning funds from going to clinics that perform abortions, which would impact Planned Parenthood.
Eventually the House bill, which passed in early May, and the Senate version will have to be reconciled. |
Whiskey lovers are more full of it than they seem, and may be exaggerating their ability to even tell rye and bourbon apart, a study by Drexel University found. Instead, the average consumer is more swayed by brand, age and alcohol content.
The fashion for drinking whiskey appears to be overtaking people’s knowledge of it, assistant professor at Drexel’s Center for Hospitality and Sport Management, Jacob Lahne, found. He arrived at the results by carrying out a simple blind sorting exercise.
"There is definitely a tendency for bartenders to talk about how some drinks should absolutely be made with bourbon or rye, and I think it's clear now that there is more flexibility," Lahne says. “In a way it’s fun and exciting – it gives you a bigger universe to play with.”
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While the two spirits have their distinct traditions, chemical and taste differences (try telling a Scotsman something about the merits of Bourbon), the only legal difference between rye and bourbon is that the latter is for the most part fermented corn mash, while rye is grain. The mash bill – or the collection of raw materials used for a specific blend – could be different by a small fraction and still cause a drink to be pigeonholed into another category.
For his sample Lahne used 21 participants and trays with 10 mystery whiskeys – half of them bourbon, the other half rye. The order was random. The subjects were instructed to only smell, not taste. This exercise basically matches the testing procedures for Scotch whiskey evaluation.
Days later the subjects came back and were told to reorder the previously smelled whiskeys into groupings. The order in which the whiskeys were presented was exactly the same. The difference was that this time around the whiskeys all got fancy brand names and specially-designed labels.
The next part is a bit more complex. The researchers had to use statistical analyses to interpret the participants’ choices. Eventually the conclusion Lahne and team arrived at is that the average participant did not order his poisons according to mashbill, but was instead swayed by the flashy label and all the cool information it gave – such as years aged, the type of cask and so on.
It was noticed that Jim Beam whiskeys were often grouped together, something Lahne attributed to the established tell-tale signs of house brands. Jim Beam, for instance, is known for making both bourbons and rye whiskeys, both of which give off a roasted peanut smell.
Lahne’s theory is that while precise explanations are inconclusive, there is little mystery here: people tend to look to tradition; and it is thought that ryes and bourbons had bigger taste differences before than they do now.
Lahne hopes to further delve into the whiskey world by next finding out how exactly specific aromas correspond to the person’s perception of the beverage’s aging, chemical makeup and other factors.
The results are published in the Journal of Food Science. |
Remember when the internet fittingly lambasted the ridiculous Catwoman zero cover? Then the artist, Guillem March, even poked fun at his work with an R. Crumb style parody? DC Comics took the hint and replaced the cover with a less anatomically-challenged version of Catwoman (also drawn by Guillem March). The new, superior version is on the right in the picture above, in case the whole not-being-a-piece-of-crap part didn’t make it clear.
A reader tipped me that the cover to the issue had been changed. And indeed it has and the changes are noticeable:
– She’s zipped up
– Her butt is in proportion to the rest of her body
– You can now see both her legs
– And her face has been changed [DCWKA]
Also, she appears to now have a torso that isn’t 100% boobs and her body weight is no longer 40% butt and 30% thighs (and 0% calves). So that’s progress.
[via] |
Two administrators' wives among those traveling on the university's tab
This Aug. 28, 2014, photo shows the Elliott Tower on the campus of Oakland University in Oakland County. An event is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, to dedicate the bell tower in the heart of campus. (Photo: Oakland University / AP)
Oakland University spent $155,000 to fly board members, administrators and other staff to Florida in early February for a private board meeting and winter event for donors at a gulf coast resort, according to more than 700 pages of expense records obtained by the Detroit Free Press.
Among those flying down on the university's tab were the campus golf pro and the wives of the school's top two administrators.
The money for the trip came from various general fund budgets. The general fund is largely made up of money from state aid and tuition.
The trip came less than seven months after the Rochester school raised tuition by 8.4% for the current school year, the largest percentage hike in that time period among Michigan’s 15 public universities. The hike exceeded a state tuition cap and forced OU to give up some state aid, but officials said they needed the money to adequately fund increasing needs for professors and infrastructure at the growing school.
In total, the university paid $88,000 for plane tickets, dining out and drinks and lodging for 42 university employees and board members to attend the two-day, private board retreat, followed by the annual two-day Winter College attended by 110 employees, donors and alumni. Officials spent another $62,000 on banquet rooms, conference rooms and catered meals at the resort.
Among the expenses:
$1,600 for airfare and food for the wives of President George Hynd and Chief Operating Officer Scott Kunselman, a former board member.
$1,141, including $212 on liquor and wine, for a dinner attended by 13 people, including the school's provost and academic deans. Guests at the dinner dined on oysters, $44 Chilean sea bass and $40 scallops.
A watch party for an OU men’s basketball game against Youngstown State, at which Athletic Director Jeff Konya bought $79 worth of alcohol, for which he was reimbursed. Konya has a special exemption from the university to purchase alcohol and be reimbursed.
The board retreat and Winter College were held at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa in Bonita Springs, Fla., a resort described on its website as being located on “26 lush, tropical acres overlooking Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.”
In an interview with the Free Press, Hynd said he stands by the tuition hike — noting more faculty have been hired and infrastructure improvements are ongoing — but agreed the timing of the trip was bad.
Detailing the charges
The administrators, deans and board members made their way from Rochester to Detroit Metro Airport in waves.
Several carpooled, submitting one expense request for the nearly 50-mile trip from campus to the airport and parking there.
Others — including Hynd — used a car service. Hynd and his wife were driven in a sedan by Aristocat Chauffered Transportation from their campus residence to the airport for $111.15, records show.
Some folks, including board member Ronald Robinson, didn’t ask for any reimbursement for getting to the airport.
“I did not request any additional reimbursement for personal reasons,” he told the Free Press in an e-mail. “I think most if not all trustees incur miscellaneous expenses all the time in their duties as trustees and do not ask for reimbursement.”
OU ended up spending nearly $19,000 in airfare for 43 people to travel. Hynd reimbursed the university for an upgrade to comfort class on Delta.
Hynd said having his wife and Kunselman’s wife along was helpful.
“Part of the first lady’s job is to represent the university,” Hynd said. “She has no official role or job, but she is called on to represent the university.
“Both my contract and Mr. Kunselman’s contract allow for (travel with their wives) when appropriate to further the work of the university.”
Once in Florida, the OU employees and board members used taxis, car services and rental cars to make their way to the hotel.
The school spent more than $51,000 on hotel rooms and charges to the room. Some of the hotel charges were covered by the attendees, including a massage for the school’s golf pro, who was flown to Florida for a variety of events, including rounds of golf with donors.
The board retreat took place on Feb. 3 and 4.
It was held behind closed doors, and board members and top administrators discussed various topics related to the school’s future.
OU isn’t the only school to travel off campus for board retreats. The University of Michigan’s Board of Regents has traveled to New York and Los Angeles for board meetings and to spend time with donors. The Free Press has sued, claiming such meetings are a violation of the Open Meetings Act. Courts have so far sided with U-M, saying boards can hold “informal” meetings behind closed doors. The case is expected to end up before the state Supreme Court.
Those U-M trips cost about $28,000 each. No money from the general fund, which comes from state aid and tuition, was used to pay for the trips.
OU's Winter College took place from Feb. 4-Feb. 6 and offered a chance for donors and alumni to hear from various deans and other school employees about the school.
“We knew that the provost was going to have a retreat with the deans around this time and we thought we would have them come in and give lightning-round updates to Winter College attendees about what was going on in their colleges,” Hynd said. “It was very well received.”
The Winter College also was a chance for the university to hit attendees up for donations. More than $2.7 million in "asks" were made during the entire trip, Hynd said.
'Doesn't smell right'
Last July, when OU announced it was hiking tuition 8.4%, Tim Maskill was upset. The 52-year-old has a son entering his junior year at OU, a daughter at Western Michigan University and a son who is a junior in high school.
“We’ve carefully planned out budgets and tried to help our kids with the cost so they don’t get buried in student loans,” Maskill said, recently while on OU’s campus waiting for his son. “That big of an increase all at once just meant my son had to borrow more money. I don’t think they needed to raise it this much.”
As for this trip?
“I know $100K is probably just a drop in the bucket in terms of their overall budget, but it just rubs me the wrong way. A trip to Florida after asking us to pay more? Just doesn’t smell right.”
Hynd understands that.
“I agree that the timing was not optimal,” he said. “It is very likely that next year’s Winter College will be substantially different.
“What we look at (with the trip) is return on investment. It will take a while to see exactly what that return is. It can take a while for gifts to come through.
“We made $2.7 million worth of asks. If half the asks we made come to fruition, that will be good.”
Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1TNl6Nv |
It has been revealed, though unofficially, that an anime adaptation of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan is currently in production. The news was revealed visiting the Haruhi website via an android device. The anime has been reported to air in April 2014. Additionally, another series titled The Jump of Asahina Mikuru will also air during that time. Information on both these anime is scarce.
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan is a spin-off manga in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, where it stars the eponymous character Yuki Nagato. The series takes place in the alternate universe established in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The series is written and drawn by Puyo, which started in February 2010. To date, the series has a total of 5 volumes with the 6th volume releasing on December 26th this year.
There is very little information regarding the anime announcement of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, including whether or no Kyoto Animation will produce it. Two other spin-off manga were also produced into anime: The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoron Churuya-san.
Source Article – Anime.dkmt
Source Article – Hayabusa.2ch
Source Image – Ikura.2ch
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Gnostics, Gnostic Gospels, & Gnosticism
Gnostics, Gnostic Gospels, & Gnosticism
A one-sentence description of Gnosticism: a religion that differentiates the evil god of this world (who is identified with the god of the Old Testament) from a higher more abstract God revealed by Jesus Christ, a religion that regards this world as the creation of a series of evil archons/powers who wish to keep the human soul trapped in an evil physical body, a religion that preaches a hidden wisdom or knowledge only to a select group as necessary for salvation or escape from this world.
The term "gnostic" derives from "gnosis," which means "knowledge" in Greek. The Gnostics believed that they were privy to a secret knowledge about the divine, hence the name. (Huxley coined "agnosticism" on the basis that all knowledge must be based on reason. We cannot rationally claim to have access to knowledge that is beyond the powers of the intellect.)
There are numerous references to the Gnostics in second century proto-orthodox literature. Most of what we know about them is from the polemic thrown at them by the early Church Fathers. They are alluded to in the Bible in the pastorals (spurious Paulines of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus), for example 1 Tm 1:4 and 1 Tm 6:20, and possibly the entirety of Jude. Ignatius of Antioch writes against them as well as Docetism, a doctrine closely related to Gnosticism that stated that Christ was pure spirit and had only a phantom body. Second Clement is a document aimed at refuting early second century Gnosticism. Marcion was the most famous of the Gnostics, and he established a "canon" of the Pauline epistles (minus the pastorals) and a "mutilated" Luke (presumably considered so because it lacked proof-texts such as Lk 22:43-44). Justin Martyr mentioned him c. 150 CE, and Irenaeus and Tertullian wrote against him extensively in the late second century (in Against Heresy and Against Marcion, respectively).
Besides Marcion, other important Gnostics were Basilides and Valentinus. Some Gnostic documents are the Gospel of Truth, the Letter to Rheginus, Treatise on the Three Natures, Apocalypse of Adam, the Gospel of Matthias, Gospel of Philip, Acts of Peter, and Acts of Thomas. Although the Gnostics were prolific writers, most of their works have been burnt or lost in favor of proto-orthodox writings (and known only through patristic references).
Some scholars have theorized that Gnosticism has its roots in pre-Christian religions, instead of being merely an offshoot of Christianity.
The following are writings by Gnostics of the second century according to some scholars, although some others dispute this classification for writings such as the Gospel of Thomas.
All of the above documents and more are presented on the Early Christian Writings web site.
Here are some books about Gnostics and Gnosticism.
Here are some web pages about Gnostics and Gnosticism.
Thank you for visiting the Early Christian Writings web page. |
Pet thefts are on the rise, according to the American Kennel Club. (credit: CBS 2)
— Dogs are being stolen out of cars, yards, off sidewalks and even out of shelters at an alarming rate, according to the American Kennel Club.
“It only takes a minute for a theft to occur,” American Kennel Club spokeswoman Lisa Peterson told CBS 2’s Dave Carlin on Friday.
Making any pet owner think twice is surveillance video from last week that showed “Marley” the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel being menaced by a stranger, who picked up the frightened dog and walked off with him, leaving 7-year-old Mia Bendrat heartbroken the day before Christmas.
“You knew that was somebody’s dog and it was Christmas Eve. I mean really?” Bendrat said.
Marley was sold to a woman in Greenwich Village, who thought the situation was fishy.
Marley was checked for a microchip and Mia and her best friend were reunited.
But happy endings are rare as dognapping cases rise nationwide by almost 70 percent, according to the American Kennel Club.
“Last year for example we tracked more than 432 pet thefts and that’s just scratching the surface,” Peterson said. “For the first time ever we’ve seen a trend now where shelters are being broken into and purebred and mixed breed dogs are being stolen.”
Dognappings from stores, shelters and backyards and off sidewalks are preventable.
Experts say to safeguard your pet as you would a child.
“Don’t leave it unattended,” Peterson said.
There are products available so you don’t let your pet out of your sight.
The American Kennel Club recommends doing anything you can do, but most importantly to get your pet microchipped.
“Because that’s the only way you can prove ownership and get your dog back should it turn up at a vets office or shelter,” Peterson said.
And if you are running errands, experts advise keeping your pets home to stop making things so easy for a new breed of criminals.
The American Kennel Club tracked 432 pet thefts in 2011, compared to 255 thefts in 2010.
Share your thoughts in the comments section below… |
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THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — Flying almost under the radar last week in the midst of headlines of attacks on numerous trans women in the city, the Washington DC Council unanimously approved a simplified process of changing gender markers on birth certificates.
The amendment, the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013, was named after Deoni Jones, a DC trans woman who was murdered in 2012. Both the DC Trans Coalition and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Transgender Civil Rights Project had a hand in getting this enacted.
There is one more vote before final approval then the mayor needs to sign off on it, but signs indicate it is on way to becoming law and likely will take effect this fall.
More on the murder of Deoni Jones: https://lexiecannes.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/trans-woman-stabbed-to-death-in-dc-during-a-bus-stop-altercation/
More on the DC equality amendment: D.C. Council Unanimously Passes Birth-Certificate Bill :: EDGE Boston.
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SUPPORT TRANS ADVOCACY by donating $9 and get a DVD of the award-winning trans-themed feature film Lexie Cannes: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332 Or via PayPal: http://www.lexiecannes.com/id13.html
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/
Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
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Categories: Deaths, Murder, Discrimination, Equality, Civil Rights, Legislative, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans |
"California is once again the sixth-largest economy in the world. If you add the GDP’s of Washington and Oregon, California would surpass the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world."
Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles and 2018 Democratic candidate for California governor, recently called for the state to unite with like-minded cities and states on the West Coast to oppose "dangerous policies advanced by a Trump administration."
California’s large economy, Villaraigosa said in a Dec. 8, 2016 op-ed in the Sacramento Bee, gives it leverage in any possible showdown.
In making this call, Villaraigosa repeated a favorite claim by California politicians that the state’s economy ranks as the sixth largest in the world -- a claim PolitiFact California rated Mostly True in July. He then took the economic comparison further -- all the way to the Pacific Northwest.
"California is once again the sixth-largest economy in the world," Villaraigosa said. "If you add the GDP’s of Washington and Oregon, California would surpass the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world."
"That’s power – power we must use to protect our people against any dangerous policies advanced by a Trump administration," he added.
We decided to fact-check the part of Villaraigosa’s claim that if the GDPs of California, Washington and Oregon were somehow combined, they’d represent the fifth largest economy on the planet, ahead of the United Kingdom.
Gross domestic product, or GDP, is used to measure the health of a country’s or state’s economy. It’s the total value of all goods and services.
Our research
A campaign spokeswoman for Villaraigosa pointed us to 2015 GDP figures from the International Monetary Fund.
We used the same data in July to verify that California, with a GDP of nearly $2.5 trillion, had the sixth-largest economy behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.
California Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration released GDP figures in June showing the state had jumped two spots in these unique world rankings ahead of France and Brazil and into sixth place behind the United Kingdom.
In our July fact check, we noted that when adjusted for California’s very high cost of living, the state’s GDP drops several places. This led us to our Mostly True rating for the claim, which we define as "accurate but needs clarification or additional information."
To come up with a combined GDP for three West Coast states, we added California’s nearly $2.5 trillion to Oregon’s $217 billion and Washington’s $445 billion, using 2015 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Together, their GDPs add up to $3.1 trillion.
This hypothetical West Coast powerhouse economy would be larger than the United Kingdom’s $2.8 trillion GDP.
Villaraigosa’s claim, however, needs the same disclaimer about high cost of living. California, Oregon and Washington are all expensive places to live.
We realize Villaraigosa’s comparison is hypothetical -- and it looks like he got his numbers right. But to do this, he creates a fictional California economy that magically annexes the GDPs of two nearby states.
Our ruling
Antonio Villaraigosa recently said: "California is once again the sixth-largest economy in the world. If you add the GDP’s of Washington and Oregon, California would surpass the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world."
We rated the first portion of this claim Mostly True in a separate fact check in July. We crunched the numbers on the second part of Villaraigosa’s claim, about a combined and hypothetical California-Oregon-Washington economy. At $3.1 trillion, it would surpass the United Kingdom’s $2.8 trillion GDP and would rank fifth in the world.
It’s important to note that some economists factor in cost-of-living when assessing a state’s or country’s GDP. Expenses are high in all three states, which means this mega-economy could be knocked down a few spots in the rankings.
The former mayor’s statement needs this clarification.
Overall, we rate Villaraigosa’s claim Mostly True.
MOSTLY TRUE – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/5b83a74d-fde6-48d9-9c72-c93824f92b4e |
When Shell launched its drilling operations off the Alaska coast in 2012, it promised to employ “world-class technology and experience to ensure a safe, environmentally responsible Arctic exploration program.” What the world got instead was an epic failure:
“Shell experienced a series of problems and accidents last year, among them the grounding of a drilling rig, the Kulluk, which was stuck for several days off Kodiak Island. The Coast Guard said it found 16 safety and environmental violations on the other drilling rig used by Shell, the Noble Discoverer…Regulators also charged that both drilling rigs violated air pollution permit limits. The Environmental Protection Agency imposed more than $1 million in fines in a settlement agreement.”
The dramatic breakdown of the project had many, including the National Wildlife Federation, hoping that Shell would see the error of its ways and abandon plans to drill in this delicate environment. The Chukchi Sea, the area off the Alaska coast where Shell has focused its drilling operations, is one of the most pristine, breathtaking and unique settings on the planet—ringed seals, whales, polar bears, walruses and millions of shorebirds, seabirds, and waterfowl call the Chukchi home. Unfortunately, despite the accidents and mishaps of 2012, Shell a few weeks ago announced plans to resume exploratory drilling operations in 2014.
Risky Business for Arctic Wildlife
National Wildlife Federation has long opposed drilling in the Arctic—the potential for disaster is simply too high. While drilling always comes with the potential for a major spill, the chance of this happening in Arctic waters is much greater. Icebergs, hurricane-force winds, extreme cold and darkness are all major threats to drilling operations. In the likely case of an oil spill, no technology currently exists to cleanup oil in the Arctic’s icy waters. Even if the technology did exist, it is unclear how quickly responders would be able to reach the spill to begin the cleanup process. Despite Shell’s claims that it is “Arctic Ready,” the simple truth is that an oil spill in this region could cause long-lasting and devastating impacts to this habitat and its wildlife.
For the plants and animals that call the Chukchi Sea home, a drilling disaster or spill could destroy vital denning, hunting and migratory habitat. For the ringed seal and polar bear, two animals currently listed as “threatened” on the Endangered Species Act list, the impacts of drilling will be felt even if a spill does not occur. That’s because climate change, which is already having a dramatic effect on Arctic wildlife, will only worsen if Shell is allowed to drill, extract and burn the “multibillion barrel prize” that exists in the Chukchi.
Help Ringed Seals and Other Arctic Wildlife
The combination of Arctic sea-ice loss and exploratory drilling in their habitat is a double whammy for ringed seals. Arctic sea ice has contracted dramatically over the last decade, and climate models predict that continuing sea ice decline may soon lead to conditions insufficient to support seals. Ringed seals seldom come ashore, depending almost exclusively on sea ice for their reproduction and livelihood. Less ice means fewer seals.
Help National Wildlife Federation fight for ringed seals and and at-risk wildlife across the nation by making a donation today. With your help, we can continue fighting against dangerous and dirty fuel projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline and Shell’s exploratory drilling in the Chukchi. |
Now that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ NBA Championship is behind us, it’s time to slowly start working ourselves back into thinking about the Browns (although that might still be tough for some, considering the streak the Indians are on right now). That means it’s time to kick off our annual training camp preview, where we go position-by-position until we have looked at all 90 players who will take part in training camp.
We’ll start with the quarterback position. In part 1 of this preview, we’ll look at the three players who have the best chance at winning the starting job for Week 1: Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, and Cody Kessler. On Tuesday, we’ll talk about Austin Davis and Connor Shaw to wrap up the quarterbacks and then move on to running backs.
1. ROBERT GRIFFIN III - PROJECTED TO BE THE STARTING QB
Robert Griffin III (#10)
Height: 6-2 | Weight: 222
Age: 26 | Experience: 5 years
College: Baylor
Note: Highly coveted by Browns in 2012 before
6-2 |22226 |5 yearsBaylorHighly coveted by Browns in 2012 before Redskins got him ... Great rookie year, has battled knee injuries ... Looking to start fresh.
Hue Jackson is no stranger to working with reclamation projects at the quarterback position. When he was the head coach of the Raiders in 2011, he and Jason Campbell helped lead the team to a 4-2 start. Campbell's injury in that sixth game (against the Browns) made the team give up a lot to acquire Carson Palmer. The team was 7-4 at one point before a floundering finish that saw them end the year with an 8-8 record.
After the release of Johnny Manziel for obvious reasons, and with veteran Josh McCown still on the roster, Jackson felt compelled in his second head coaching gig to grab a quarterback who many had/have written off in Robert Griffin III. Most of us know Griffin's backstory as it relates to the Browns. Cleveland fans had their heart set on him back in 2012, but the Redskins completed a pre-draft trade with the Rams, leaving Cleveland to sit back and settle for Brandon Weeden.
Griffin had a great rookie year in Washington, completing 65.6% of his passes for 3,200 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. He also ran 120 times for 815 yards and 7 touchdowns. Unfortunately, he suffered multiple knee injuries -- likely coming back sooner than he should have -- and has not been the same since. Besides trying to come back from injury, though, he's also had to play the game of battling through a head coaching change and a quarterback who that coach (Jay Gruden) preferred in Kirk Cousins. While Griffin didn't look the same when he did play in 2013 and 2014, he wasn't terrible and there is optimism that he can benefit from a fresh start in Cleveland. Griffin's accuracy during a workout wowed Jackson so much that the team pretty much signed him on the spot.
The question now is whether Jackson will see enough from Griffin at training camp to name him the starting quarterback. Pat McManamon of ESPN said that during OTAs, Griffin displayed a lot of inconsistencies when team drills kicked in. We also have to understand that Jackson is trying to mold Griffin into a bit of a different quarterback -- a little more conservative when it comes to protecting himself, as well as changing up his mechanics, as Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer recently pointed out.
I think the team has committed too much time to Griffin for him to be truly "competing" for a spot. The only way I see him not starting in Week 1 is if he suffers an injury. As far as expectations go, I don't think this team is far enough along yet to start worrying about that. I trust Jackson's work with quarterbacks, and I think Jackson has a vision for where he wants Griffin to be by the start of the regular season. He wasn't there yet through the offseason programs, but I get the impression that this was to be expected. I'm optimistic that Griffin can show glimpses of being a former No. 2 overall quarterback of the draft again, so we'll see how far that takes us.
Final Roster Odds: 98%
2. JOSH MCCOWN - VETERAN QB IN CASE RG III SUFFERS AN INJURY
Josh McCown (#13)
Height: 6-4 | Weight: 218
Age: 36 | Experience: 14 years
College: Sam Houston St.
Note: Set several records with Browns last year ... Suffered multiple injuries that cut season short ... Doesn't look like a 36-year-old QB.
6-4 |21836 |14 yearsSam Houston St.Set several records with Browns last year ... Suffered multiple injuries that cut season short ... Doesn't look like a 36-year-old QB.
Last year, Josh McCown was the best player on the Browns. In 8 starts, he threw for 2,109 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions while also setting a couple of franchise records. At 36 years old, there is no doubt that he still has what it takes to step in and be a very competent quarterback in the NFL. Last year, I said the Denver Broncos would've been better off with McCown than Peyton Manning, and I still stand by that.
Despite only being in the second year of a three-year deal, I thought Hue Jackson would start over at the quarterback position after acquiring Griffin. As the months went by, though, it became more and more evident that McCown isn't going anywhere. I believe he's serving as an insurance policy to Griffin in case his knee acts up again, and so the team wouldn't have to be forced in to throwing Cody Kessler into action right away if that were to happen. It sounds a bit crazy to call McCown an insurance policy because his injury history has been well-documented too. If we're talking about negatives with McCown, he took a lot of sacks last year and wasn't afraid to put his body on the line (while the warrior-like mentality was appreciated, was it worth it at the expense of him then missing several weeks?). He also lost six fumbles, the most he's lost in any year of his career.
Although the signs are pointing toward Griffin being the team's starting quarterback, last year, I praised McCown for being one of the most competent-looking quarterbacks I'd seen in the years I've been going to training camp in Berea, and that carried over to the regular season. If we are several weeks in to training camp and Griffin gets frustrated by not being where he wants to be in terms of productivity (i.e. too many tipped passes or a lack of comfortability deciding when to run vs. slide) while McCown is still steady-as-can-be, I don't think Jackson's allegiance to Griffin will be so dead-set that he'll turn a blind eye to McCown.
Final Roster Odds: 80%
3. CODY KESSLER - ROOKIE QB WITH AN OUTSIDE SHOT
Cody Kessler (#5)
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 224
Age: 23 | Experience: Rookie
College: USC
Note: 3rd round pick by Hue Jackson ... Known for his accuracy ... Draws comparisons to
6-1 |22423 |RookieUSC3rd round pick by Hue Jackson ... Known for his accuracy ... Draws comparisons to Andy Dalton ... Penciled in as backup for 2016.
If you want to bury a storyline that wasn't even a big deal in the first place, the Cavaliers winning a Championship will certainly help with that. The storyline I am referring to is the drafting of QB Cody Kessler to close out the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Of the Browns' 14 selections, Kessler was the most polarizing one for fans and one who nobody saw coming. Back when I reviewed the draft, I said that as long as the team didn't take a quarterback in the first two rounds, I'd be content -- after that, I felt they were free to toy around with taking whoever they wanted.
Listening to Hue Jackson speak about Kessler after the draft, I became more and more convinced that he was "his guy." The team reportedly liked both Kessler and QB Jacoby Brissett, and when the Patriots pulled off a surprise by taking Brissett at No. 91 overall, Cleveland didn't want to take any chances on missing out on both of them, so they pulled the trigger at No. 93 overall.
DBN's Mike Krupka did a thorough analysis of Kessler's USC performance against Wisconsin last year. When the pick was made, some people quipped that Jackson now has his version of Andy Dalton in Cleveland, and Krupka came to a similar conclusion: "What I see when I look at Kessler is a carbon copy of Dalton, both physically as well as mentally." The Dalton we saw in 2015 was the one who I felt finally turned the corner, in large part thanks to Jackson. Kessler's odds of starting in Week 1 are very slim because he'll be working as a third- or fourth-string quarterback for several weeks, which will reduce the amount of reps necessary to lead the first-team unit. With a really impressive showing, though, he might be able to take the No. 2 spot away from McCown -- not because McCown isn't fit for the job, but because it'd also support the movement towards youth.
Here is a link to PFF's scouting report on Kessler, where accuracy is listed as his top strength.
Final Roster Odds: 100%
Feel free to discuss your thoughts on the Browns' top three quarterbacks below. Our poll asks whether you feel the Griffin experiment will pay off, and to what extent. Choose the option that is closest to how you feel. |
Sartaj Aziz, the prime minister's adviser on foreign affairs and the government's de facto foreign minister, shared the state's charge sheet against Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and a timeline of his trial in a media briefing on Friday.
At the occasion, Aziz also asked why Jadhav, who was handed the death sentence on Monday by a Field General Court Martial for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in the country, had been carrying official documents under an alias at the time of his arrest.
"I would like to ask India why he [Yadhav] was using a fake identity and masquerading as a Muslim," Aziz asked.
"Why would an innocent man possess two passports — one with a Hindu name, and one with a Muslim name," he added.
"Since India has no credible explanation about why their serving naval commander was in Balochistan, it has unleashed a flimsy propaganda campaign," he said.
The adviser also condemned what he called India's "baseless allegations", adding that the country's lack of cooperation and refusal to provide Pakistan legal assistance were the reasons Jadhav had not been granted consular access.
"Inflammatory statements and rhetoric about 'pre-meditated murder' and 'unrest in Balochistan', will only result in escalation, serving no useful purpose," he added.
The charge sheet
Aziz stated that Jadhav had been held responsible for the following terrorist activities in Pakistan:
Sponsored and directed Improvised Explosive Device and grenade attacks in Gwadar and Turbat.
Directed attacks on a radar station and civilian boats in the sea opposite Jiwani Port.
Funded subversive secessionist and terrorist elements through hawala/hundi for subverting the Pakistani youth against the country, especially in Balochistan.
Sponsored explosions of gas pipelines and electric pylons in Sibi and Sui areas in Balochistan.
Sponsored IED explosions in Quetta in 2015, causing massive damage to life and property.
Sponsored attack on Hazaras in Quetta and Shias en route to and back from Iran.
Abetted attacks through anti-state elements against law enforcement agencies, the Frontier Corps and Frontier Works Organisation in areas of Turbat, Punjgur, Gawadar, Pasni and Jiwani during 2014-15, killing and injuring many civilians and soldiers.
Steps taken to ensure transparency
Aziz reassured critics that steps had been taken to ensure transparency during the trial of the Indian spy under Pakistan's laws and the Pakistan Army Act.
Elaborating on these steps, the adviser said Jadhav's confessional statement had been recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, whereas the proceedings had been conducted under the Law of Evidence.
Jadhav was also appointed "a qualified legal officer to defend him in court proceedings," Aziz said.
Witnesses recorded their statements under oath in front of the accused, who was allowed to question them, Aziz added.
"It should be clear from these details that Kulbhushan Jhadav was tried under the law of the land in a fully transparent manner," Aziz said.
"His sentence is based on credible, specific evidence proving his involvement in espionage and terrorist activities in Pakistan."
"A Letter of Assistance requesting specific information and access to certain key witnesses was shared with the Government of India on 23 January, 2017. There has been no response from the Indian side so far," Aziz revealed.
Legal recourse
Aziz clarified, however, that Kulbhushan Jhadav still has the right to appeal within 40 days to an appellate court.
He may also lodge a mercy petition to the Army chief within 60 days of the decision by the appellate court and may file a mercy petition to the President of Pakistan within 90 days after the decision of COAS on the mercy petition.
Timeline of the trial
Aziz also provided a timeline of the trial and proceedings against Jadhav:
Confessional video statement of Kulbushan Jhadav — March 25, 2016
Initial FIR in Counter-Terrorism Department Quetta — April 8, 2016
Initial interrogation — May 2, 2016
Detailed interrogation — May 22, 2016
Joint Investigation Team constituted — July 12, 2016
Confessional statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code — July 22, 2016
Recording of summary of evidence — September 24, 2016
1st proceeding — September 21, 2016
2nd proceeding — October 19, 2016
3rd proceeding — November 29, 2016
4th proceeding — February 12, 2017
Death sentence endorsed — April 10, 2017
"In conclusion of this statement, let me re-emphasize two points," Aziz said.
"First, all political parties are unanimous that the award of death penalty after due process and overwhelming evidence to a foreign spy, who was not only carrying out subversive activities in Pakistan but actually promoting terrorism, is the correct decision.
"Second, the whole nation is solidly united against any threat to Pakistan’s security." |
Microsoft says it has sold 40 million Windows 8 licences in its first month - a statistic that compares favourably with 60m sold in the first two months of Windows 7 in 2009.
The announcement by Tami Reller, the new head of the Windows division following the defenestration of Steven Sinofsky, comes as Microsoft faces increasing challenges from tablets made by Apple and Android manufacturers, from the rapid growth of smartphones, and from a global slowdown in PC sales.
The figure for licences sold does not necessarily translate into machines running Windows 8, because corporations which buy Windows enterprise licences also get the right to downgrade to Windows 7. Microsoft hasn't split out what proportion of the sales are to corporate customers, and does not do so. However, as a proportion of buyers, they are likely to be small.
The figure for licences sold may also include PCs that have been manufactured, but are not yet in the hands of users.
In the first three quarters of 2009, PC shipments ran at about 72m per quarter; for the same period in 2012 they are running at 87m per quarter, a 21% increase. That suggests a proportionally greater number of licences sold so far.
Speaking at a Credit Suisse conference, Reller said: "The journey is just beginning, but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far."
The figures for licences sold in the first month aren't reflected in statistics collected by Net Applications, which showed that there had been a smaller proportion of machines running Windows 8 a month after its launch than there was for Windows 7 at the same time. Net Applications said that Windows 8 made up just 1.01% of users visiting the sites it monitors; in 2009 the figure for Windows 7 a month after its launch was 3.67%. |
News
Monmouth University has been named alongside 104 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, including Yale University, Princeton University, and Oxford University, in the Paradise Papers, a leak of documents and files that indicate the institutions named had affiliations with offshore accounts, most often, to avoid tax liability.
While the University’s connection to the Papers may not indicate any wrongdoing or illegality on their part, the business practice’s commonality among institutions of higher education raises a question of ethics and moral duty.
The Paradise Papers are the second-largest data leak in history, following the 2016 release of the Panama Papers. Both leaks were obtained by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, who then shared the material with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a United States based organization that won a Pulitzer Prize for their work on the Panama Papers.
The ICIJ published the Papers in 2016, exposing the methodology behind how wealthy citizens, organizations and institutions avoid paying taxes by keeping funds in offshore accounts.
George Yager, a CPA who specializes in tax compliance and family wealth planning, and provides consultation on tax advisory services to a broad range of clients including management companies and their owners in the alternative investments industry, as well as energy and real estate clients, explained tax avoidance as an action taken to reduce one’s tax liability and maximize after-tax income.
“Tax avoidance is perfectly legal and involves the practice of maximizing deductions, adjustments to income and use of tax credits to lower tax liability within the Tax Code and Regulations. While the legality of tax avoidance is clear, the ethics of it are not. Most taxpayers use some form of tax avoidance to legally lower their taxes such as contributing pre-tax income to a 401(k) retirement plan,” said Yager.
“This would be viewed as both a legal and ethical practice to reduce one’s taxes. But when a tax avoidance strategy entails the use of loopholes in the Tax Code, the question of whether that is ethical may be raised,” Yager continued.
Yager added that taxpayers using this strategy would be legally reducing their tax liability, but it could be argued that by using loopholes they may not be paying their fair share and therefore, not be ethical. “As there is no single definition of ethics or specific rules, the ethical determination must be made by the taxpayer depending on the circumstances,” he continued.
The practice of storing funds in these offshore accounts is not new, and a New York Times article suggests that universities are continuing to use these offshore accounts to avoid taxes and perhaps in some cases even hide investments, while growing increasingly larger endowments. While the purpose of holding money in these accounts varies, the general theme and rationality for holding these funds in these accounts are primarily for tax avoidance.
According to William Craig, Vice President for Finance at the University, the school’s involvement in offshore accounts began in the 1980s, and the company used was liquidated in 2001.
“You have to go back to the 80s for this one,” Craig explained. “Back in the 80s, there was basically an insurance crisis where it was becoming very difficult for corporations to get certain kinds of liability coverage at all, and if you did, it was extremely expensive. One of the solutions at the time was for groups of corporations to get together and essentially form their own insurance companies. These were all done because of the way the US laws were at the time. That’s where this comes in in the Paradise Papers – that there were offshore investments.”
According to Craig, two corporate groups were formed, with about 100 of the top corporations in the United States investing in them. The two companies, Ace Ltd. and Exel Capital LTD, were based in Bermuda, according to a 1999 article in The New York Times. According to Craig, these companies influenced the creation of a similar company for schools to get insurance.
“The company formed by the colleges was called something like ‘School, College, and University Underwriters Liability (SCUUL),’” said Craig. “Because of the success of the corporate ones that had been set up, they used a similar model in order to get capital to establish the insurance ‘cooperative’ – that probably isn’t the right legal name, but it’s a group of schools that got together to do it.”
“You had to become a stockholder in the company,” he continued. “That gave you the right to buy insurance, initially, from them. That’s the ‘investment’ that Monmouth had. We were in it until they liquidated the company, around 2001.”
SCUUL was created in 1986 as a response to a liability crisis that was making it difficult to purchase insurance. Reinsurance firms are generally used to avoid risk and financial loss and to provide long term fiscal stability. Bermuda is a popular location for the reinsurance industry because it has no corporate tax and no capital gains tax, according to the New York Times.
Craig said that the University was involved until the company liquidated due to US laws that changed, and a new company replaced the SCUUL, named United Educators, a Vermont based reinsurance company. “We showed up on the list because we were investors in the company,” he added.
Craig is unsure of the total endowment fund invested in the offshore accounts, but explained that at the time administrators and trustees would have had to sign off on this decision. “This was done less as an investment and more a way to get insurance, the risk of not having insurance was great. Excess liability coverage - highest level of insurance coverage - was to protect from that risk of a catastrophic event,” said Craig.
Two major investment pools of money are talked about for the University, according to Craig. “The one talked about most often is the endowment invested for the long-term - the idea of the endowment is to generate income that can then be used for specific university purposes a lot of that money comes from people who make donations - endow a professorship, scholarship fund money gets invested, hopefully forever generates money to be used for those purposes every year,” he said.
The intention behind those monies, is to keep it invested to earn more money, so can be invested in a broader range of types of investments. “Some of it can be in fixed income investments - government bonds, corporate bonds, things that are just going to give you a return of interest - can also be invested in equities - stocks, bonds, things of that nature, they can be invested in real estate and private capital - firms that invest in new businesses, providing financial support to businesses that need additional monies, things like that - can be a very broad range of investments,” said Craig.
The second pool is used for the operating funds of the University and of reserves that the school is setting aside for capital projects, such as new construction, and renovations. “These funds only invest in fixed-incomes since they have less risk of loss, and includes the monies used to operate the school. Tuition comes in and is invested in those accounts, and the pool also pays salaries and utilities. If the board decides to set money aside for a construction project and a contract is signed for the contractor to come and start building, they don’t want to have to worry about their investments turning south and not allowing them to continue the project.” Craig continued.
“As far as how do we invest, in both cases, outside managers are used to invest. In the case of the endowment, there is a firm called ‘Commonfund’ which was formed back in the 80’s from a grant to try and help colleges establish a better way of investing their endowment money; they actually are the school’s chief investment officer - they handle all the details of investing,” said Craig.
The Board of Trustees has an investment committee, who have overall responsibility for oversight of investments of both endowment and operating capital, the pool two funds, and set overall investment policy, and what the University can invest in. During the course of the year, they review those firms, and provide oversight of what they’re doing. The board also maintains oversight regarding the day to day decisions on what is being invested in those outside firms.
Paul Savoth, JD, an associate professor of accounting, believes that Craig’s explanation of how the University ended up in in the Papers indicates the school had a legitimate reason for investing in an off-shore company, different from the reasoning mentioned in the Paradise Papers story.
“I think the Paradise Papers story focuses on tax avoidance strategies and the ability to avoid public scrutiny of the type of investment being made,” Savoth said. “Mr. Craig indicates that the investment was motivated by the need to obtain cost-effective insurance. I don’t understand the legal structure well enough to criticize what the University has done, either legally or ethically.”
Savoth believes that the University practiced a legitimate strategy for several reasons, and does not believe that the usage of these accounts was for any personal financial gain. “The initial investment was made decades ago by a consortium of universities for a legitimate business reason. From what we know, the arrangement has never been challenged by the IRS or another government agency,” he continued.
“The investment has been overseen for decades by our board of trustees, the membership of the board has changed during that time, and yet the arrangement has been consistently approved. This does not appear to be the type of decision that the board members would have personally benefitted from.”
Savoth explained that Monmouth is different when it comes to tax rules because it is a nonprofit corporation that wouldn’t normally pay tax on general income, and that the school may be taxable on certain types of investment income.
“The general benefit to people of moving money into tax havens is that you can move that money out of the jurisdiction of the US tax system and move it into a lower tax jurisdiction in legal ways. As a lawyer and accountant, in terms of the ethics, that’s a little bit of a complicated question - they’re moving money offshore, even though that may sound clandestine, if it’s legal, then it seems to me that they have an obligation to try to maximize the return on those monies and to me the administration has a responsibility to do what they can to generate the greatest after-tax way of return.”
On whether there are negative repercussions or penalties for universities that practice tax avoidance, Savoth believes that legality is key, and the only negative is a tarnished reputation.
“Assuming it’s legal, the publicity is an issue because people will associate that with some kind of unethical behavior, and that’s negative publicity. For-profit corporations are finding that out and moving their HQ’s out of US for tax purposes, and suffer negative publicity because of that.”
While the strategy used was apparently legal at the time, there were some differences of opinion concerning its ethical boundaries.
“To me, doing something like this is not unethical,” said John Buzza, a specialist professor in management and decision sciences department who teaches a course on ethics, diversity, and social responsibility. “In business today, you’ve got to take advantage of any loophole that’s out there, as long as it’s legal – that’s the key. There’s a very thin line between legality and illegality, but offshore investing is done by hundreds upon hundreds of corporations in the USA for various reasons. In this particular case, it’s insurance. If i can get cheaper insurance overseas than I can get here, why wouldn’t I do that?”
Buzza also outlined some of the benefits of offshore investing, some of which included not having to worry about compliance and regulation standards from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confidentiality, diversification of money, and the potential tax benefits.
“It’s legal, so take advantage of it,” Buzza said.
“This practice is legal,” said Stuart Rosenberg, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of management and decision sciences. Rosenberg also teaches a course on business ethics.
“It is acceptable and appropriate. Endowments are tax-exempt, but because they work with private equity funds that borrow money to invest, the money that they earn is taxable. By moving the money to offshore accounts, they are benefiting from existing laws in order to avoid paying taxes,” he said.
“If we separate what's truly ethical and what's legal, some people might view this all very differently,” Rosenberg continued. “They might argue that it is not morally right to receive a benefit from something if it's not being paid for. In the case of higher education, perhaps the question of fairness could be addressed by demonstrating how endowments are being used to provide a public good. Need-based scholarships are one example.”
Kenneth Mitchell Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Political Science and Sociology and an associate professor of political science, believes that in a globalized society that is becoming increasingly difficult to tax, a tarnished reputation shouldn’t exist from these business practices.
“What you see is the ability to tax capital that is so mobile has become incredibly difficult. It’s not surprising that this is going on. When this information came out [The Paradise Papers]. This boundaryless world is increasingly visible and on display for us. Gone are the days of just taxing everybody’s wealth. I don’t think anyone cares. I don’t think anyone won’t buy their product or not go to Harvard or Monmouth because they turned up on these papers. I don’t think it’ll impact anyone’s decisions,” Mitchell said.
“The idea of how you want to tax yourself and spend your money - these are choices. I think that most people have seen for quite a long time that it’s going to be impossible to tax wealth. Monmouth isn’t any different than anyone else on the long list of for-profit and non-profit institutions that turn up on these things. I don’t think they did anything wrong - this is so widely practiced,“ he concluded.
“In theory, the law is supposed to follow what society believes is ethical,” Rosenberg continued. “As long as tax shelters are within the law, however, organizations will surely exploit that.”
PHOTO TAKEN by Coral Cooper |
Rocket 5 Studios, a Canada-based development studio, have recently launched their latest iOS game, The Phantom PI Mission Apparition, onto the iOS App Store for only $1.99 just hours after winning the Indie Prize Critics Choice – Best In Show Award at Casual Connect. At Phantom PI Mission Apparition‘s core, it is a spooky and puzzling adventure game where you play as Cecil Sparks, a Paranormal Investigator who specializes in helping ghosts who are being bullied in the afterlife. Throughout the game players explore a huge haunted mansion, solve puzzles and avoid traps on your way to helping the deceased rock’n’roll legend Marshal Staxx escape the torment of a ghost named Baublebelly.
Features:
20 levels filled with challenging puzzles and 4 hours of gameplay.
Charming, hand-animated characters.
A gallery of 25 collectible cards.
A detailed scrapbook holds 100 collectibles.
Original soundtrack with 20 haunting songs and 100’s of unique sound effects.
Game Center achievements.
Interested? During launch week, The Phantom PI Mission Apparition is available to download for both iPhone and iPad at $1.99 then will go up to $3.99.
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Stephen Paddock’s arsenal included explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition, authorities say as emergency declared in county
Las Vegas suspect had more than 40 firearms in hotel and home, police say
The suspect in the Las Vegas shooting that has left at least 59 people dead had amassed an arsenal that included more than 40 firearms, police said on Monday night, as officials declared a state of emergency for the county encompassing the Las Vegas strip.
Authorities found 23 guns, including a handgun, in the hotel room of the gunman, identified earlier by police as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock. At least some were equipped with scopes, devices that help the shooter identify targets at a range, police said.
Nevada town where Vegas suspect lived catered to gamblers and gun lovers Read more
They also recovered 19 firearms plus explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition from Paddock’s home in Mesquite, Nevada, a town near the border with Arizona, Joe Lombardo, the Las Vegas police sheriff, said. He also said police found “electronic devices” but would not describe them.
Several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a material used to make explosives, were also found in Paddock’s car. Later on Monday, a Swat team searched a residence in northern Nevada believed to be associated with the gunman.
At an afternoon news conference, officials also updated the latest casualty figures, saying that at least 59 people were dead and 527 more injured. The gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel on the thousands of concertgoers attending the Route 91 country music festival on Sunday night.
Play Video 2:25 Who was Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock? – video
Islamic State on Monday claimed that the gunman was “a soldier of the Islamic State”, but authorities have said that there was no evidence to substantiate that claim and that the group had falsified its role in attacks.
The shooting turned an American city known for its nightclubs and casinos into a war zone as thousands of concertgoers ran for cover from the bullets pouring down on them. The attack was the latest in a grim list of mass shootings, and the carnage surpassed the death toll at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016, when 49 people were killed.
The first reports of the shooting came just after 10pm local time, as the country music star Jason Aldean, one of the festival’s final performers, played. As the bullets began to spray the crowd, Aldean stopped playing and ran off stage, prompting chaos in the crowd.
“They’re thinking it’s fireworks or it’s part of the technology of the music being played. They were thinking it’s coming from different areas,” Carolyn Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, said at the press conference.
At least 527 people were injured – some were wounded by gunshots and shrapnel while others were trampled or hurt trying to jump fences and flee the site, police said.
In pursuit of the gunman, officers scoured the hotel floor by floor until arriving at Paddock’s suite, Lombardo said. Paddock engaged officers through his hotel room door, injuring a security guard in the leg, he said. The guard is expected to recover. Swat officers then broke down the door and swarmed the room, where they found Paddock dead.
“We believe the individual killed himself prior to our entry,” the sheriff told reporters.
Play Video 2:12 Las Vegas shooting: Donald Trump says 'it was an act of pure evil' – video
In Washington, Donald Trump called the attack an “act of pure evil”. He said he planned to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday and ordered the flags to be lowered to half-mast. In a response that has become a ritual, Democrats demanded lawmakers take action on gun control measures they believe will prevent – or at least reduce the number of casualties – of a future mass shooting, while Republicans blamed them for politicizing the moment.
'This isn't supposed to happen here': hush falls over Las Vegas after shooting Read more
In Clark County, the coroner’s office worked to identify the victims and notify families, as residents wound around blocks to donate blood for the survivors. A number of evening vigils were planned around the city as donations and well-wishes poured in from around the country in support of the victims and their families.
By late Monday night, police said they still had no idea what motivated a retired accountant with no criminal history to carry out this attack.
Lombardo said Paddock appeared “reclusive” but cautioned that authorities were still combing through his background. The sheriff said it was possible that the gunman had attended a three-day music festival called Life is Beautiful in downtown Las Vegas one week ago.
He also said Marilou Danley, whom he described as Paddock’s girlfriend, was currently in Tokyo and that police intended to talk to her when she returns.
A brother of the suspect living in central Florida, Eric Paddock, told CBS he was “dumbfounded”. He was “not an avid gun guy at all”, the brother said. “The fact that he had those kind of weapons is just … he has no military background or anything like that.” |
It's now been a year since the Obama administration announced their plans for the naive Iranian nuclear deal. Despite multiple warnings about how Iran would not comply with the legislation, the White House moved forward with the signatures and, as expected, Iran has not been a cooperative partner as they promised. For instance, they have reportedly continued their ballistic missile program, even just as recently as this past week, and have been uncooperative when it comes to American officials wanting to inspect their nuclear facilities.
This context justifies the need for the Iran Sanctions Act. The legislation, introduced this week on a bipartisan basis by Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Bob Corker (R-TN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Joe Manchin (D-WV), would expand sanctions for ballistic missile development, support for terrorism, sanction transfers of conventional weapons to or from Iran and codify the prohibition on “U-turn” transactions involving Iran, according to a press release from Sen. Sullivan's office.
“Since its signing, we’ve seen attempt after attempt by the Iranian regime to undermine, circumvent or blatantly disregard the conditions they agreed to exactly one year ago. Ignoring clear violations of the deal without reproach only emboldens the regime to act further. For the sake of U.S. national security and the global fight against terrorism, Congress must act when the Obama administration is not prepared to. That is why I am pleased to have worked with my colleagues on a bill that recognizes that the Iranian threat still exists.”
Three other measures to rein in Iranian aggression passed last week. The U.S. Financial System Protection Act (H.R. 4992) prevents Iran from gaining access to the U.S. financial system and GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Iran Accountability Act of 2016 (H.R. 5631) will impose new sanctions on Iran in response to its continued illegal development of ballistic missiles. The No Heavy Water From Act would stop the U.S. from purchasing Iran's heavy water.
In other news, a resolution has been introduced demanding Iran release Iranian-Americans who were jailed without proper cause. |
The world's first transgender beer will be sold at a bar in London, having been produced using hops that have undergone a 'sex change' prior to harvest.
The new beer, called No Label, is described by brewers as a 'Kolsch' which is neither strictly a lager nor an ale.
It is made with Jester hops during the brewing process which are naturally prone to change sex.
Traditionally, only female hop plants are used in brewing, with male hop bines discarded because flowers do not grow into the full cones usually required.
But craft ale firm BrewDog worked with a hop farmer to obtain bines that had undergone this change and grown male flowers.
The brewers say it was important to incorporate these hops into the brewing process to add diversity, rather than discard them.
"No Label is a new level of innovation in beer - it is smashing stereotypes surrounding the brewing process," James Watt
The 4.6 per cent ABV beer is set to go on sale at the opening night of BrewDog's latest venue in Soho on November 6. They say the new club is a step to "take back" an area previously renowned for its diversity.
Profits from the non-binary beer will go to LGBT events organisation Queerest of the Queer which aims to celebrate the diversity and talent of LGBT Londoners.
• Belgium beer business at risk 'because of climate change'
They plan to donate the funds to a variety of chosen charities supporting young people struggling with gender identity issues.
James Watt, BrewDog co-founder, said: "No Label is a new level of innovation in beer, smashing stereotypes surrounding the brewing process and using hops discarded by the brewing industry due to their 'gender issues'.
"Producing this non-binary, post-gender beer has been a long and careful process and we're sure that many so-called beer purists will question its legitimacy; but we care more about freedom than labels. Diversity makes everyone and everything richer." |
Bottoms' brothers - Timothy, Joseph and Ben - also became actors
US actor Sam Bottoms, best known for his role as surfer-turned-soldier Lance B Johnson in Apocalypse Now, has died of brain cancer at the age of 53.
The third of four actor brothers, he was remembered as "handsome, tall... and very sweet-natured" by that film's director Francis Ford Coppola.
"Sam was a good actor who seemed right for that part," he continued.
Bottoms, who died on Tuesday, made his film debut at 15 alongside his brother Timothy in The Last Picture Show.
While visiting his sibling in Texas, he was spotted by director Peter Bogdanovich and cast as a disabled boy forced to lose his virginity to a prostitute.
Producer
Bottoms went on to appear in Clint Eastwood westerns The Outlaw Josey Wales and Bronco Billy before reuniting with Coppola on Gardens of Stone.
In recent years he was seen in Seabiscuit, Shopgirl and SherryBaby, in which he played the father of Maggie Gyllenhaal's troubled title character.
Born in Santa Barbara, California in 1955, Bottoms began acting in local theatre productions at the age of 10.
He is survived by second wife Laura Bickford, a producer whose films include the Oscar-winning Traffic and two-part biopic Che. |
Chaucer depicts three priests: The Friar, the Summoner, and the Pardoner. All of the them are corrupt and avaricious. The Summoner and the Pardoner are low testosterone gays, and the Pardoner is a predatory pedophile gay. The Friar has seduced many women, and been forced, therefore, to pay dowries to get them married off.
The Moldbug canon is that the professors rule, with the mass media as the mid-level priesthood. But lately Donald Trump and the alt-right have been giving the mass media a hard time.
Which tells me that the world is starting to lose faith in the superior virtue of our priesthood.
The disturbances in Hong Kong were a good example of priestly power. Cathedral astroturf protestors were able to disrupt the city because backed by police. The police did what was virtuous, (they supported democracy and all that) rather than what their duty required. (The police should have arrested criminals and troublemakers, and kept the roads open. It was police, rather than protestors, that closed the roads. When a tiny handful of protestors declared a road closed, if police had walked away, drivers would have driven over the protestors.)
Had the same thing happened in Tiananmen Square, the Cathedral would have successfully mounted a “democratic” takeover of China, and Wall Street would have looted China the way it looted Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Contrary to Cathedral myth, nobody got killed in Tiananmen Square. The authorities, having the warriors cheerfully obey them, were able to quell the protests with very little fuss. You only get real violence when the priests succeed in sowing disunity among the warriors. Recall what happened when “Occupy Wall Street” ran into Wall Street rentacops.
What happened, I hear you ask?
Answer: Absolutely nothing happened, because Wall Street rentacops were certain of their duty and the righteousness of performing their duty. If you are a rentacop, you believe in private property rights. It is part of your training, and if you don’t believe in private property rights, you fail your training. So when Occupy showed up to violate private property rights, the rentacops said “No” and Occupy failed to violate private property rights. And similarly, nothing happened in Tiananmen Square.
Priestly power rests on moral authority, on superior virtue, while warrior authority rests on the ability to kick ass. We know the priesthood is virtuous because they are ceaselessly nagging us to be virtuous. All of us white males are racist and misogynist, and should be ashamed. Our evil thoughts lower black and female self esteem, and thus cause black and female misbehavior and underperformance. All black and female misbehavior is evidence of just how bad we white males are, and how ashamed we should be. Similarly the extremely high death rate among gays from disease, suicide, and gay-on-gay violence is all our fault. HIV is a heterosexual disease because it is caused by heterosexuals thinking bad thoughts about gays and denying them the opportunity to make blood transfusions. When blacks burn down the cities built by white people that they stole from white people, and drive out the few remaining whites, that demonstrates what evil racists we whites are. Whenever females get in trouble through underperformance and bad behavior, in particular when they render children fatherless, we males should pay the costs of female decisions.
All of which goes to show how much more virtuous the priesthood is than you and me. Their standards are so very very high that it is very difficult for sinners like myself to live up to such high standards.
I notice that the going price for refusing to take rapeugees in Europe is about 250 000 US$ per rapeugee rejected. Diversity is good for you and if you don’t want the immense benefits of diversity you have to pay 250 000 per diversity. Which is about the same as the price that our priests pay to live far away from the victims of white oppression. Which, realistically, sets the value of diversity as negative US$250 000 per browner person. It is harder to perceive prices for avoiding single women, since men like to meet them and visit them while not living too close to them, but I would guess the price for living away from women lacking male supervision to be about US$100 000. The traditional connotations of the word “bastard” implies that female misconduct has substantial negative externalities, and residential patterns suggest a willingness to pay a substantial amount of money to avoid these externalities.
Remember all that indignation about blacks being forced to go to the back of the bus? Well now, we don’t force blacks to go to the back of the bus … and whites don’t ride buses where they are likely to encounter significant black ridership, for excellent, obvious, and entirely unmentionable reasons.
In the time of Chaucer, summoners had the job of punishing people for their sins against religion, pardoners had the job of selling people indulgences for their current and future sins, while friars had the easier and more popular job of forgiving people their recent sins, supposedly conditional on repentance – thereby giving them immunity against the summoner. Of course, you found the friar more easily impressed by your repentance if you made a small donation, but this was generally cheaper than buying an indulgence or bribing a summoner. So friars, summoners, and pardoners were in competition and did not much like each other.
Chaucer’s Pardoner cheerfully admits to his own evil and corruption. Chaucer’s Friar exposes the corruption of summoners, whereupon the Summoner gets vehemently stuck into friars, root and branch. The summoners excessive interest in assholes becomes apparent. Recall the conspicuous lack of testosterone and the popularity of gay sex amongst our priesthood today.
And then in due course we had the protestant reformation and the wars of religion.
Fertile age women should always be under the supervision and control of husbands or fathers, and if due to misfortune or misconduct, a fertile age woman is not under such supervision, she should be placed under male supervision one way or another. If you don’t believe this, you will find it hard to handle women, will be inclined to credit our priesthood with immense virtue, and will be ashamed of your irresistible sinfulness.
People whose misconduct adversely affects other people’s property values should suffer various forms of exclusion, segregation, and apartheid. Persistent petty criminals and vagrants, people profoundly disinclined to earn a living, should be enslaved. In profiling individuals for their likely adverse affect on property values, and their likely future criminality and potential for productive free employment, race, sex, and ancestry (such as bastardy) should be legitimately part of the profile. The deserving poor should be taken care of. The undeserving poor should be dealt with. Since the apple does not fall far from the tree, it should be legitimate to discriminate in favor of the children of productive people raised by their parents, and against the children of unproductive people and people who caused problems. If you don’t believe this, property prices and living patterns make no sense, you will unnecessarily expose yourself to danger, will be inclined to credit our priesthood with immense virtue, and will be ashamed of your irresistible sinfulness. Why won’t your ride the bus, you wicked man? |
MEGYN KELLY HAS downplayed her war of words with Fox News colleague Sean Hannity, putting it down to their Irish roots.
Kelly and Hannity made headlines this week after a back-and-forth over Donald Trump.
The former kicked things off when she said the Republican presidential nominee preferred going on Hannity’s show because he doesn’t ask difficult questions.
“Donald Trump, with all due respect to my friend at 10 o’clock, will go on Hannity and pretty much only Hannity, and will not venture out to the unsafe spaces these days,” Kelly said on air.
She also criticised Hillary Clinton, the Democratic party nominee, for failing to do tough interviews.
In response, Hannity claimed Kelly was a supporter of Clinton.
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Kelly attempted to draw a line under the spat today, tweeting a photo of her and Hannity with the caption: “We’re Irish. It’s complicated.”
Graham Linehan, among many others, wasn’t buying it.
Trump and Kelly famously fell out last year after the presidential candidate claimed she treated him unfairly in a television debate.
At the time, Trump said Kelly had “blood coming out her eyes” and “blood coming out of her … wherever.” He later denied this was a reference to her being on her period.
Earlier this year, things further soured when he skipped another debate moderated by Kelly and called her “highly overrated” and “crazy” on Twitter.
The pair later made up following a meeting at Trump Tower in New York. |
Downtown Cleveland looms beyond the Tremont neighborhood, where old factories and warehouses are quickly being replaced with new housing and businesses.
Downtown Cleveland looms beyond the Tremont neighborhood, where old factories and warehouses are quickly being replaced with new housing and businesses. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
What Cleveland looks like as it prepares for the Republican National Convention
What Cleveland looks like as it prepares for the Republican National Convention
When Democrats gather for their national convention in Philadelphia, the list of speakers praising Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy is expected to feature the president, the vice president, the first lady, a former president and a galaxy of well-known political luminaries.
But when the Republican convention opens next week in Cleveland, presumptive nominee Donald Trump will showcase an assortment of family members, defeated primary opponents and politicians whose names barely register with the general public. Many of the GOP’s past, current and future leaders are staying away from the spotlights at the Quicken Loans Arena.
The star-power disparity between the conventions speaks volumes about the state of the two parties — one is united and marching together toward what it hopes will be its fifth win of the past seven presidential elections, while the other remains divided and still not fully accepting its new standard bearer.
“Republicans have always had a terrible star-power deficit — the Democrats have the latest hip-hop or pop act and we’ve got Lee Greenwood and the Oak Ridge Boys — but now it’s going to be even more pronounced,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist who is not supporting Trump.
Looking ahead to Philadelphia, Wilson said of the Democrats, “Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren — they’re all going to be out there swinging for the fences. But the Republicans, it’ll be like a hostage video of people forced on stage.”
View Graphic Trump picked Pence for VP. Here’s who he passed up.
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who is considered a finalist to be Clinton’s running mate, is expected to give a major address, as are two other vice presidential prospects, Sens. Timothy M. Kaine (Va.) and Cory Booker (N.J.). Other expected speakers include Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), who on Tuesday ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Clinton after weeks of holding out.
On the Republican side, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) looks to be the highest-profile party leader. He will officially chair the convention and plans to give a speech in addition to his ceremonial duties. His remarks are expected to center on his conservative House agenda, “A Better Way,” and a call for Republican unity.
The highlight performances next week could come from members of Trump’s family. His wife, Melania Trump, rarely speaks in public, but has been preparing remarks, and his three adult children, especially daughter Ivanka Trump, could open a window into their father’s character. Four years ago, Ann Romney delivered one of the most memorable speeches of the GOP convention in Tampa when she spoke of the love story with her husband, Mitt.
[This is the last stand for the ‘Never Trump’ movement. Here’s what might happen.]
Still, the absences in Cleveland will be notable.
The past two Republican nominees, Mitt Romney and John McCain? Not coming.
The party’s only two living past presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush? They’re skipping, too, as is Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor who lost to Trump in the early primaries.
A whole host of influential Republicans have decided not to attend July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
What about the diverse constellation of stars oft-promoted by the GOP in the six years since they swept into office, including South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.)? You won’t see them speaking in Cleveland, either.
“The fact that the party elders aren’t willing to come make his case says a lot about the state of the Republican Party,” said Bill Burton, a Democratic strategist. “To the extent that Trump is having trouble getting speakers who can tell his story and tell the story he wants to tell about Hillary Clinton — it’s a larger lift.”
Russell Schriefer, a longtime Republican strategist who helped run the party’s 2012 convention, said, “You don’t hear of any major Democratic figures saying they’re staying home because Hillary Clinton’s the nominee. That is the case with Trump.”
But Schriefer said the absence of more established luminaries presents “an opportunity for Republicans for stars to be born at the convention.” He noted that Barack Obama’s breakout turn came at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, when he was an Illinois state senator.
For months now, Trump has promised that his convention would be unlike any other — a dazzling, spectacular affair that soars above traditional political theater. In an April interview with The Washington Post, he said the Tampa gathering four years ago was “the single most boring convention I’ve ever seen.” He vowed to bring a “showbiz” quality to Cleveland.
“It’s very important to put some showbiz into a convention, otherwise people are going to fall asleep,” he said.
[While the GOP worries about convention chaos, Trump pushes for ‘showbiz’ feel]
Trump has teased various plans for Cleveland, such as a “winner’s night” starring sports heroes and cultural icons of decades past. But he and his campaign team have been tight-lipped about a lineup.
A list of speakers still had not been released as of Wednesday afternoon — a full week since Trump promised to do so — suggesting a last-minute scramble to book speakers. Republican operatives have complained privately this week that likely speakers have not been given final word on when they will address the delegates or what themes the Trump team would like them to discuss in their remarks. Such late uncertainty is unusual, as political conventions tend to be tightly scripted and highly choreographed.
Members of the Republican National Committee, which puts on the convention and is meeting in Cleveland this week, said they have been kept in the dark about the convention program.
“Donald Trump’s run an unconventional campaign from the get-go, and he said right from the outset he wanted an unconventional program with not the usual speakers,” said Steve Duprey, an RNC member from New Hampshire. “Frankly, it might stir up more interest than parading out past luminaries of a party. Maybe the Trump way will work.”
The celebrities planning to be in Cleveland next week include Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympian, reality television star and transgender advocate, and musical acts Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rascal Flatts and Big & Rich.
The Democrats traditionally draw more A-list celebrities, and this year will be no different. Among the actors and recording artists planning to attend are Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Fergie, Lenny Kravitz, Idina Menzel and Bryan Cranston.
In Cleveland, Republicans who have been supportive of Trump will get top billing. They include Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa), who burst onto the scene in 2014 with a playful campaign ad vowing to apply her hog-castration skills in Washington to “make ’em squeal.” Trump eyed her as a possible vice-presidential running mate, and they met on July 4, although she later took herself out of consideration.
Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), who also joined the Senate last year, plans to speak as well. Cotton is among a handful of young Republicans considered likely future presidential candidates. Another is Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.), although he is a vocal Trump critic and will not be in Cleveland. Instead, Sasse plans to “take his kids to watch some dumpster fires across the state,” his spokesman provocatively told reporters.
At least two of Trump’s primary opponents — Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — are planning to address delegates in Cleveland.
Cruz and Walker are trying to rebuild their profiles after being wounded in the nomination battle, looking to another run in four years. Yet neither has fully endorsed Trump, and it is unclear whether either plans to vouch for him.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, another 2016 contender, also plans to speak.
Among the former Trump rivals not planning to address the convention is John Kasich, who as governor of Ohio is something of a host for the week-long gathering. He has said that he plans to be in Cleveland next week but that he does not intend to step foot in the convention hall or speak on Trump’s behalf.
[Trump closes in on running mate, says he seeks experience to unite GOP]
Trump’s vice-presidential running mate will give a formal address, although the runners-up also could have a turn on stage. A trio of finalists — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) — have been top supporters of Trump, as have Sens. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.).
Some Republican strategists worry, however, that the Cleveland convention will not showcase the full breadth of the GOP’s diversity, both racially and generationally. In addition to Rubio and Martinez, two rising stars, Reps. Mia Love (Utah) and Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), are staying home.
“On Earth 2,” Wilson said, “you’d be showing the Republican Party isn’t this stupid white boys’ club. But Donald Trump has rejected everybody who’s not in the stupid white boys’ club. At this point, we might as well have a giant cross burning out front.”
An antidote to that picture of the party are two Republicans from South Carolina: Haley, the state’s first Indian American governor, and Sen. Tim Scott, its first black senator. Both will be in Cleveland for the festivities — but neither plans to take the stage. |
When you sentence a person to prison, you are sentencing their families as well, says a woman whose life went into a ''tailspin'' after her partner was imprisoned.
The Hastings resident, who is using the pseudonym Helen to protect her former stepchildren, is speaking out to draw attention to the ''second sentence'' families face.
''We knew he might go to jail for the assault, but thought we would have time to prepare. Instead he was just suddenly gone.
''I was in a tailspin. It was suffocating. I was trapped.''
Her comments are backed up by University of Auckland masters student Ivana Mlinac, who has just released her thesis on how the criminal justice system affects offenders' families.
Ms Mlinac found children of prisoners struggle with anxiety, bullying at school and grief over losing a parent, while the family suffers from the loss of income.
Those children had higher dropout rates for school and employment, over-representation in the criminal justice system, and there were detrimental effects to their health and wellbeing.
An estimated 23,000 children in New Zealand are affected by a parent in prison.
''It's a huge, huge list of what goes on in a child's life,'' Ms Mlinac said.
Helen was living with her fiance, his two daughters and her daughter, all aged under 8, when he was sentenced to nine months in prison for assault in 2010.
The household income had gone down, but expenses went up.
Helen was able to go on a benefit for herself and her daughter but could not get any financial assistance for her partner's children for six weeks. She said Work and Income eventually allowed her to add the other children to her benefit and backpaid her.
She also supported her partner while he was in jail. She sent him $50 a week for phone cards and cigarettes. It used to cost $1/minute for him to call home.
But the hardest part was helping the children cope.
''It was as birthdays came and he wasn't there, over Christmas as well. They had to do all of that without him.''
They would speak to him on the phone but his phone card would often run out a few minutes into the conversation. She tried to take them for visits when they could get transport.
Helen said more contact would have helped. |
In the previous post, we took a look at the Blackhawks’ penalty kill, so now let’s take a look at what’s viewed as the other end of the style of play spectrum: the power play.
Once again, there is a list of abbreviations listed at the bottom under “Resources” with brief explanations for your convenience. All charts can be clicked on to enlarge.
From this data, we can gather that Chicago has had 33 successful power-plays (success here being defined as goal-producing), and five wildly unsuccessful ones (power-plays which actually produced opponent’s shorthanded goals). To put those numbers into context, for the season, CHI has had 177 power-play opportunities, making their success rate 18.6%, which ranks them 14th in the league (DET ranks 1st with a 25.6% success rate, BUF ranks last with an 11.4% success rate).
So what’s the issue here? Should we be expecting better results?
Activity
As you can tell from the chart, DET, the top ranked team, puts in an above average amount of work, bringing in about 475 Corsi-for events. CHI’s Corsi-For total ranks a little higher than DET, but with less success. Why?
CHI’s shooting percentage is 12.6%, whereas DET’s is 17.6%. In comparison, their shooting percentages for even-strength play are about equivalent, with CHI’s being 7.7% and DET’s being 7.6%.
So what keeps CHI from becoming DET on the power-play?
Shot location
While CHI’s chart is not the inverse of DET’s, you should recognize that DET’s chart reads as high production yield areas being where the most shot attempts are generated, followed by medium-yield, and finally low-yield. Conversely, CHI’s goes from low-yield, high yield to medium-yield.
Now let’s look at their success in these areas:
HOW TO READ THESE CHARTS
For the Shooting Rate and Percentage charts, with For it is better to have areas in red, green being average and blue being worse than average. The Relative Shot Rates are compared to league averages for those zones and can be read as per 1, so higher numbers are better here.
Considering CHI’s shooting percentage is about average at this medium-yield area, it would be beneficial to figure out how to increase shots taken in that area. As you can see from DET’s chart, overall the shooting percentage is not something spectacular when placed in the league context. Obviously there are players with higher percentages in these areas, as this is an average, it might be important to look at the individual players that make up these units.
FIRST UNIT: Jonathan Toews (C), Patrick Kane (RW), Patrick Sharp (LW), Duncan Keith (D), Andrew Shaw (C)
HOW TO READ THESE CHARTS
For the Differential charts, with For it is better to have areas in red, green being average and blue being worse than average. The Shot Rate Differentials are per 60 minutes with 0 being equality (The numbers on the chart represent Shots For for the Player minus Shots For League Average). Negative numbers indicate less shots for taken by the player than league average, positive numbers indicate more than average. |
Encoding Statistical Independence, Statically
Jared Tobin Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 15, 2016
Applicative functors are useful for encoding context-free effects. This typically gets put to work around things like parsing or validation, but if you have a statistical bent then an applicative structure will be familiar to you as an encoder of independence.
In this article I’ll give a whirlwind tour of probability monads and algebraic freeness, and demonstrate that applicative functors can be used to represent independence between probability distributions in a way that can be verified statically.
I’ll use the following preamble for the code in the rest of this article. You’ll need the free and mwc-probability libraries if you’re following along at home:
{-# LANGUAGE DeriveFunctor #-}
{-# LANGUAGE LambdaCase #-}
import Control.Applicative
import Control.Applicative.Free
import Control.Monad
import Control.Monad.Free
import Control.Monad.Primitive
import System.Random.MWC.Probability (Prob)
import qualified System.Random.MWC.Probability as MWC
Probability Distributions and Algebraic Freeness
Many functional programmers (though fewer statisticians) know that probability has a monadic structure. This can be expressed in multiple ways; the discrete probability distribution type found in things like the PFP framework, the sampling function representation used in the lambda-naught paper (and implemented here, for example), and even an obscure measure-based representation that doesn’t have a ton of practical use.
The monadic structure of probability allows one to sequence distributions together. That is: if some distribution ‘foo’ has a parameter which itself has the probability distribution ‘bar’ attached to it, the compound distribution can be expressed by the monadic expression ‘bar >>= foo’.
At a larger scale, monadic programs like this correspond exactly to what you’d typically see in a run-of-the-mill visualization of a probabilistic model:
Graphical notation for simple Gaussian mixture model.
In this classical kind of visualization the nodes represent probability distributions and the arrows describe the dependence structure. Translating it to a monadic program is mechanical: the nodes become monadic expressions and the arrows become binds (I’ll provide a simple example in a moment).
The monadic structure of probability implies that it also has a functorial
structure. Mapping a function over some probability distrubution
will transform its support while leaving its probability density structure
invariant in some sense. If the function ‘uniform’ defines a uniform
probability distribution over the interval (0, 1), then the function ‘fmap (+
1) uniform’ will define a probability distribution over the interval (1, 2).
I’ll come back to probability shortly, but the point is that probability
distributions have a clear and well-defined algebraic structure in terms of
things like functors and monads.
Recently free objects have become fashionable in functional programming. I won’t talk about it in detail here, but algebraic ‘freeness’ corresponds to a certain preservation of structure. Preserving and exploiting this kind of structure is a useful technique for writing and interpreting programs.
Just to list a few examples of recent discussion: Gabriel Gonzalez famously wrote about freeness in an oft-cited article about free monads, John De Goes wrote a compelling piece on the topic in the excellent A Modern Architecture for Functional Programming, and just today I noticed that Chris Stucchio had published an article on using Free Boolean Algebras for implementing a kind of constraint DSL. The last article included the following quote, which IMO sums up much of the raison d’être to seek out and exploit freeness in your day-to-day work:
.. if you find yourself re-implementing the same algebraic structure over and over, it might be worth asking yourself if a free version of that algebraic structure exists. If so, you might save yourself a lot of work by using that.
If a free version of some structure exists, then it by definition embodies the ‘essence’ of that structure, and you can encode specific instances of it by just layering the required functionality over the free object itself. Focus on the differences that matter, and reuse the rest.
A Type For Probabilistic Models
Back to probability. Since probability distributions are monads, we can use a free monad to encode them in a structure-preserving way. Here I’ll define a simple probability base functor for which each constructor is a particular ‘named’ probability distribution:
data ProbF r =
BetaF Double Double (Double -> r)
| BernoulliF Double (Bool -> r)
deriving Functor
type Model = Free ProbF
Here we’ll only work with two simple named distributions — the beta and the Bernoulli — but the sky is the limit. The ‘Model’ type wraps up this probability base functor in the free monad, ‘Free’. In this sense a ‘Model’ can be viewed as a program that is parameterized by the probabilistic instruction set defined by ‘ProbF’ (a technique I talked about recently).
Expressions with the type ‘Model’ are terms in an embedded language. We can create some user-friendly ones for our beta-bernoulli language like so:
beta :: Double -> Double -> Model Double
beta a b = liftF (BetaF a b id)
bernoulli :: Double -> Model Bool
bernoulli p = liftF (BernoulliF p id)
Those primitive terms can then be used to construct expressions.
In particular, the beta and Bernoulli distributions enjoy an algebraic property called conjugacy that ensures (amongst other things) that the compound distribution formed by combining the two of them is analytically tractable. Here’s a parameterized coin constructed by doing just that:
coin :: Double -> Double -> Model Bool
coin a b = beta a b >>= bernoulli
By tweaking the parameters ‘a’ and ‘b’ we can bias the coin in particular ways, making it more or less likely to observe a head when it’s inspected.
A simple evaluator for the language goes like this:
eval :: PrimMonad m => Model a -> Prob m a
eval = iterM $ \case
BetaF a b k -> MWC.beta a b >>= k
BernoulliF p k -> MWC.bernoulli p >>= k
‘iterM’ is a monadic, catamorphism-like recursion scheme that can be used to succinctly consume a ‘Model’. Here I’m using it to propagate uncertainty through the model by sampling from it ancestrally in a top-down manner. The ‘MWC.beta’ and ‘MWC.bernoulli’ functions are sampling functions from the mwc-probability library, and the resulting type ‘Prob m a’ is a simple probability monad type based on sampling functions.
To actually sample from the resulting ‘Prob’ type we can use the system’s PRNG for randomness. Here are some simple coin tosses with various biases as an example; you can mentally substitute ‘Head’ for ‘True’ if you’d like:
> gen <- MWC.createSystemRandom
> replicateM 10 $ MWC.sample (eval (coin 1 1)) gen
[False,True,False,False,False,False,False,True,False,False]
> replicateM 10 $ MWC.sample (eval (coin 1 8)) gen
[False,False,False,False,False,False,False,False,False,False]
> replicateM 10 $ MWC.sample (eval (coin 8 1)) gen
[True,True,True,False,True,True,True,True,True,True]
As a side note on the topic of freeness: encoding probability distributions in this way means that the other ‘forms’ of probability monad described previously happen to fall out naturally in the form of specific interpreters over the free monad itself. A measure-based probability monad could be achieved by using a different ‘eval’ function; the important monadic structure is already preserved ‘for free’:
measureEval :: Model a -> Measure a
measureEval = iterM $ \case
BetaF a b k -> Measurable.beta a b >>= k
BernoulliF p k -> Measurable.bernoulli p >>= k
Independence and Applicativeness
So that’s all cool stuff. But in some cases a monadic structure is more than what we actually require. Consider flipping two coins and then returning them in a pair, for example:
flips :: Model (Bool, Bool)
flips = do
c0 <- coin 1 8
c1 <- coin 8 1
return (c0, c1)
These coins are independent — they don’t affect each other whatsoever and enjoy the probabilistic/statistical property that formalizes that relationship. But the monadic program above doesn’t actually capture this independence in any sense; desugared slightly, the program actually proceeds like this:
flips =
coin 1 8 >>= \c0 ->
coin 8 1 >>= \c1 ->
return (c0, c1)
On the right side of any monadic bind we just have a black box — an opaque function that can’t be examined statically. Each monadic expression binds its result to the rest of the program, and we — programming ‘at the surface’ — can’t look at it without evaluating it. In particular we can’t guarantee that the coins are truly independent — it’s just a mental invariant we have that can’t be transferred over to an interpreter.
But this is the well-known motivation for using applicative functors, so we can do a little better here by exploiting them. Applicatives are strictly less powerful than monads, so they let us write a probabilistic program that can guarantee the independence of expressions.
Let’s bring in the free applicative, ‘Ap’. I’ll define a type called ‘Sample’ by layering ‘Ap’ over our existing ‘Model’ type:
type Sample = Ap Model
So an expression with type ‘Sample’ is a free applicative over the ‘Model’ base functor. I chose the namesake because typically we talk about samples that are independent and identically-distributed (‘iid’) draws from some probability distribution, though we can also use ‘Ap’ to collect samples that are independently-but-not-identically distributed as well.
To use our existing embedded language terms with the free applicative, we can create the following helper function as an alias for ‘liftAp’ from ‘Control.Applicative.Free’:
independent :: f a -> Ap f a
independent = liftAp
And with that in hand, we can write programs that statically encode independence. Here are the two coin flips from earlier, rewritten using the standard applicative combinators:
flips :: Sample (Bool, Bool)
flips = (,) <$> independent (coin 1 8) <*> independent (coin 8 1)
The applicative structure enforces exactly what we want — that no part of the effectful computation can depend on a previous part of the effectful computation. Or in probability-speak: that the distributions involved do not depend on each other in any way (they would be captured by the ‘plate’ notation in the visualization shown previously).
To wrap up, we can reuse our previous evaluation function to interpret a
‘Sample’ into a value with the ‘Prob’ type:
evalIndependent :: PrimMonad m => Sample a -> Prob m a
evalIndependent = runAp eval
And from here it can just be evaluated as before:
> MWC.sample (evalIndependent flips) gen
(False,True)
Conclusion
That applicativeness embodies context-freeness seems to be well-known when it comes to parsing, but its relation to independence in probability theory seems less so.
Why might this be useful, you ask? Because preserving structure is mandatory for performing inference on probabilistic programs, and it’s safe to bet that the more structure you can capture, the easier that job will be.
In particular, algorithms for sampling from independent distributions tend to be simpler and more efficient than those useful for sampling from dependent distributions (where you might want something like Hamiltonian Monte Carlo or NUTS). Identifying independent components of a probabilistic program statically could thus conceptually simplify the task of sampling from some conditioned programs quite a bit — and that matters.
Enjoy! If you’re interested in playing with the code in this article yourself, I’ve dumped it into a gist. |
Articles
It is hard to believe that just three weeks ago the entire corporate media was in uproar over Syria; specifically, about the need to 'do something' in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Khan Shaykhun, Idlib, Syria, on April 4. Guardian commentator George Monbiot summed up the corporate media zeitgeist:
'Do those who still insist Syrian govt didn't drop chemical weapons have any idea how much evidence they are denying?'
Monbiot linked to evidence supplied by Bellingcat, an organisation hosted by Eliot Higgins. In a 2014 letter to the London Review of Books, Richard Lloyd and Ted Postol, described by the New York Times as 'leading weapons experts', dismissed Higgins as 'a blogger who, although he has been widely quoted as an expert in the American mainstream media, has changed his facts every time new technical information has challenged his conclusion that the Syrian government must have been responsible for the sarin attack [in Ghouta, August 2013]. In addition, the claims that Higgins makes that are correct are all derived from our findings, which have been transmitted to him in numerous exchanges'.
Professor Postol, a professor emeritus of science, technology, and national-security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has an impressive record of fearlessly debunking propaganda. For example, the Pentagon declared the Patriot missile system no less than 98% successful at intercepting and destroying Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War. After careful examination, Postol found that the Patriot's success rate was rather less impressive:
'It became clear that it wasn't even close to intercepting any targets, let alone some targets.' (Postol, quoted, Great Military Blunders, Channel 4, March 2, 2000)
Postol has now challenged a White House report on the alleged chemical weapons attack in Idlib. He notes:
'The only source the document cites as evidence that the attack was by the Syrian government [air force] is the crater it claims to have identified on a road in the North of Khan Shaykhun.'
But Postol claims that the White House's photographic evidence 'clearly indicates that the munition was almost certainly placed on the ground with an external detonating explosive on top of it that crushed the container so as to disperse the alleged load of sarin'.
He adds:
'I have reviewed the document carefully, and I believe it can be shown, without doubt, that the document does not provide any evidence whatsoever that the US government has concrete knowledge that the government of Syria was the source of the chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria at roughly 6 to 7 a.m. on April 4, 2017. 'No competent analyst would assume that the crater cited as the source of the sarin attack was unambiguously an indication that the munition came from an aircraft. No competent analyst would assume that the photograph of the carcass of the sarin canister was in fact a sarin canister. Any competent analyst would have had questions about whether the debris in the crater was staged or real. No competent analyst would miss the fact that the alleged sarin canister was forcefully crushed from above, rather than exploded by a munition within it. All of these highly amateurish mistakes indicate that this White House report... was not properly vetted by the intelligence community as claimed.'
Postol's conclusion could hardly be more damning:
'I have worked with the intelligence community in the past, and I have grave concerns about the politicization of intelligence that seems to be occurring with more frequency in recent times – but I know that the intelligence community has highly capable analysts in it. And if those analysts were properly consulted about the claims in the White House document they would have not approved the document going forward.' 'We again have a situation where the White House has issued an obviously false, misleading and amateurish intelligence report.'
Postol recently told The Nation:
'What I think is now crystal clear is that the White House report was fabricated and it certainly did not follow the procedures it claimed to employ.'
He added:
'My best guess at the moment is that this was an extremely clumsy and ill-conceived attempt to cover up the fact that Trump attacked Syria without any intelligence evidence that Syria was in fact the perpetrator of the attack.... It may be that the White House staff was worried that this could eventually come out—a reckless president acting without regard to the nation's security, risking an inadvertent escalation and confrontation with Russia, and a breakdown in cooperation with Russia that would cripple our efforts to defeat the Islamic State. 'If that is not an impeachable offense, then I do not know what is.'
Robert Parry, an investigative reporter who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s, comments:
'On April 11, five days after Trump's decision to attack the Syrian airbase, Trump's White House released a four-page "intelligence assessment" that offered another alleged motivation, Khan Sheikhoun's supposed value as a staging area for a rebel offensive threatening government infrastructure. But that offensive had already been beaten back and the town was far from the frontlines. 'In other words, there was no coherent motive for Assad to have dropped sarin on this remote town. There was, however, a very logical reason for Al Qaeda's jihadists to stage a chemical attack and thus bring pressure on Assad's government. (There's also the possibility of an accidental release via a conventional government bombing of a rebel warehouse or from the rebels mishandling a chemical weapon – although some of the photographic evidence points more toward a staged event.)'
We have no idea who was responsible for the mass killings in Idlib on April 4; we are not weapons experts. But it seems obvious to us that arguments and evidence offered by credible sources like Postol should at least be aired by the mass media. As Parry writes:
'The role of an honest press corps should be to apply skepticism to all official stories, not carry water for "our side" and reject anything coming from the "other side," which is what The New York Times, The Washington Post and the rest of the Western mainstream media have done, especially regarding Middle East policies and now the New Cold War with Russia.'
Our search of the Lexis database (April 26) finds that no UK newspaper article has mentioned the words 'Postol' and 'Syria' in the last month. In our April 12 media alert, we noted that former and current UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix, Scott Ritter and Jerry Smith, as well as former CIA counterterrorism official Philip Giraldi, had all questioned the official narrative of what happened on April 4. Lexis finds these results for UK national newspapers:
'Blix' and 'Syria' = 0 hits
'Ritter' and 'Syria' = 0 hits
'Jerry Smith' and Syria = 1 hit
'Giraldi' and 'Syria' = 0 hits.
It is remarkable that, even after the deceptions of Iraq and Libya, journalists are so unwilling to report credible evidence challenging the US government's version of events. This is made even more shocking by the fact that Trump has not, of course, been treated with the respect and deference usually reserved for US presidents. Rather, he has been subjected to a barrage of relentless and damning criticism. And yet, in response to his illegal bombing of a foreign country, the press has not only dropped its usual criticism, but showered Trump with praise while suppressing reasoned criticism. Yet more evidence that corporate journalism is dangerously corrupted by political and economic forces demanding Perpetual War.
DE |
The next phase of Qatari investment in the global game is coming, and television rights are the new target
Why PSG and the World Cup will not be enough for football-hungry Qatar
When Paris Saint-Germain defeated Chelsea at Parc de Princes on Wednesday, they did so as a club reborn.
Chelsea, themselves transformed a decade ago by a cascade of cash from a then unknown overseas investor, had labelled their Champions League opponents as "dark horses" on their own website in the buildup to the quarter-final first leg. Yet that would only have been accurate if the black steed in question was wearing a bright pink feather boa and leaving a trail of high denomination Euros in its wake.
Qatar's trolley dash around world sport could not have been more eye catching, even without the controversy and turmoil that has surrounded its successful World Cup 2022 bid.
The PSG purchase was just one of a number that have been marked down as an attempt to both secure the Gulf state's future beyond the point when its natural gas and oil reserves run dry, and afford it international profile.
That process reached its natural conclusion with the vote in December 2010 to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a decision that remains mired in controversy as Fifa and organisers grapple with the desperate plight of the 1.4m migrant workers and questions still swirling around the bidding process.
Yet it goes much broader and deeper, also encompassing a hitherto largely ignored parallel network of sports TV channels, branded BeIn Sports, that also play a significant strategic role. Fans in France watched the Champions League game live on Canal Plus, but the French broadcaster now shares rights to the competition with its Qatar-owned rival.
From the shirts of fellow quarter-finalists Barcelona emblazoned with Qatar Airways to the Bayern Munich side that regularly troop to Doha for their winter training breaks, and the network of Aspire Academies that criss-cross the globe, the emirate is transforming itself into a sporting superpower.
Most noticeably, the trajectory blazed by PSG since the club was bought in April 2011 by Qatar Sports Investments, an arm of the $115bn Qatar Investment Authority that has stakes in a global portfolio that stretches from Credit Suisse to the owner of Heathrow airport, is even steeper than those other grand projects at Stamford Bridge and Manchester City's Etihad Stadium.
The official reason why PSG were seized upon by QSI and their president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, was their huge potential in what is the biggest one-club city in Europe. Since then, partly through acquisitions including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani and David Beckham, the club has been successfully rebranded in the eyes of the world and – perhaps as importantly – in the eyes of Parisians. A once down‑at-heel, down-on-its luck club playing in front of two factions of home fans who used to fight one another after each game has been transformed into an upmarket lifestyle choice. "We have a very clear vision, to be honest," Khelaifi told the Financial Times last week. "In five years, we want to be one of the best clubs in Europe and to win the Champions League. And our brand to be worth €1bn. And we will be there."
The ambition is to become one of the top 10 "franchises" in any sport on the planet and they are unafraid to spend big to do it. PSG expect annual revenues to top €500m this year but a large chunk of that will come from a much-questioned €200m-a-year sponsorship deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority, backdated to 2012. The unprecedented deal will stretch the fine print of Uefa's financial fair play rules to their limit.
L'Equipe was the latest publication to wonder last week how the club, which has already been heavily subsidised by its owners, will cope with the FFP restrictions. Rivals are queuing up to see how tough Uefa will be.
The unofficial reason that Qatar alighted upon PSG lies in the already close links between the two countries and a much-discussed lunch between the then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, Uefa's president Michel Platini and Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who has since succeeded his father, Hamad, as the Qatar's emir.
Platini has admitted that Sarkozy wanted the Qataris to buy PSG and secure his vote – and with it his influence in the looming World Cup vote over other members of the European bloc – but denies he was influenced by him. The Uefa president's son, Laurent, was subsequently offered the job as chief executive of Burrda, the QSI-owned sports clothing company, which Platini Snr says is completely unconnected to him voting for Qatar.
Sarkozy later became a passionate advocate of the Qatar World Cup and was one of the first to lobby for the football calendar to be changed to allow it to take place in winter rather than the searing summer heat.
The high-profile Qatari spending spree has been well-documented. But the parallel attempt to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in a global network of TV channels is also key to its ambitions. The same man, the suave Khelaifi, oversees both the PSG project and the global suite of sports channels.
As with PSG, it is in France where its impact has been felt most keenly, sparking a bitter battle with the incumbent Canal Plus that has parallels with the fierce bidding war for top-flight football between Sky and BT in the UK.
Arriving on the scene in France in 2012, a year after the PSG acquisition, the rebranded al-Jazeera Sport surprised Canal Plus with a clever bidding strategy. It left it with eight of the 10 weekly Ligue 1 games – albeit not the first-choice matches – for a third of the price paid by its rival. Between them, the two broadcasters pay a total of €607m over the course of the three-year deal. BeIn Sports subsequently landed Champions League rights, prompting a competition complaint to regulators from Canal Plus, the establishment player that believed the brash newcomer was being run at an uncompetitive loss. The BeIn Sports channels massively undercut the existing player but it insists it has long‑term ambitions to become profitable – the rhetoric is not unlike that surrounding PSG.
To take advantage of the rivalry, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the body that runs the French league, has brought forward the auction for its 2016 to 2020 rights – prompting another complaint to regulators from Canal Plus.
"The football league sold us rights for four years, until June 2016. We want to benefit from it serenely. I do not understand this precipitation," said the Canal Plus chief executive, Bertrand Meheut. Three days after the LFP auction, Uefa will sell the rights to the Champions League for 2015 to 2018 in France.
If the two auctions go BeIn Sports' way, it would strengthen Qatar's grip on French sport, as owner of the biggest club in the country and of the most influential sports broadcaster.
When Sky attempted a similar strategy in England, launching a bid for Manchester United, it was stymied by a fan backlash and competition regulators. In France, they have been largely ushered in with open arms.
BeIn Sports also launched aggressively into the US, using the rights for the Spanish and Italian leagues to put it on the map. In Canada, it has jumped through complex regulatory hoops to acquire a Canadian subsidiary and satisfy licence conditions.
It has also launched operations in Hong Kong and Indonesia. During the last Premier League rights auction it thought carefully about entering the £3.1bn battle between Sky and BT before concluding there was better value, and potentially more leverage, to be found elsewhere.
That could yet change, with the Premier League also considering launching an early auction to take advantage of the likely competition.
Rumours persist that BeIn Sports could take a substantial stake in Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset, which would give it a foothold not only in Italy but also in Spain, where Mediaset owns 41% of the broadcaster that has the rights to the games played by the national side.
Sports broadcasting insiders believe that its ambitions are limitless and that it is engaged in a race with Fox International and, to a lesser extent, Discovery, to establish a network of sports channels around the world to rival ESPN and Star Sports.
"They are voracious with their ambition and they have all the money in the world to match it. There is nothing they can't do," said one. "What drives it is their need to be one of the top five broadcasters in the world by 2022."
It has not all been plain sailing. Some Italian clubs are now wondering whether BeIn Sports gives them enough profile in the US, seen as a key growth market. Others wonder what would happen if the Emir, who is said to be close to Khelaifi, decided that its sporting investments were having the opposite of the desired effect and doing more harm than good to the country's global image.
Such a scenario is considered unlikely but, if it has to carry on subsidising large losses, the sports arm does not have the protection that al-Jazeera's news network would probably enjoy given its use as a diplomatic tool. In the meantime, on the pitch and in its studios, the Qatari incursion into global sport will continue.
Sitting by his pool in Doha, Richard Keys – the former Sky Sports anchor who resigned amid a series of sexism allegations – considers the ambition of the company that hired him to front its Premier League coverage in its native Middle Eastern markets.
"When I came over here, I realised there were other broadcasters in the world. They showed el clásico in America, in France, in Spain, here and in Indonesia. That suggests to me that what they want to do is what [Rupert] Murdoch has always wanted to do, and become the global broadcaster."
Events in France over the coming weeks, assuming the LFP auction takes place, and in Switzerland, where Uefa's lawyers and accountants are scrutinising PSG's books, will help shape the immediate future of an unprecedented global experiment in sport and television that could have as yet unappreciated ramifications for both. |
We still don’t know exactly when the latest series in Marvel and Netflix’s ongoing comic book saga The Punisher is going to arrive, but the streaming service is slowly but surely revealing a few hints of what to expect from Frank Castle’s return... including a new look for Frank.
Netflix has released the first batch of images from the show, giving us our best look yet at the series beyond the cryptic teaser that played at the end of The Defenders last month. We get glimpses of Frank’s military past:
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Present-day Frank meeting up with Karen Page (Deborah Ann-Woll), with Frank bearded and low-key, presumably because as someone who’s infamous for going on a mass-murder spree, you want to avoid people recognizing you:
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A look at David Lieberman, a.k.a Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Frank’s longtime hacker ally in the comics, and his wife, Sarah (Jaime Ray Newman):
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Big bad Billy Russo, a.k.a. Jigsaw (Ben Barnes), the gunman in the comics hired to cover up the botched assassination attempt that got Frank’s family killed in the crossfire—but included in the show as a former combat vet friend of Frank’s who now runs a private military company:
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A few more military figures, including another member of Frank’s old Marine unit, Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore), and Lewis Walcott (Daniel Webber), a new character for the show described as a young veteran struggling to adapt to civilian life:
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And finally, a few more new characters for the series: Sam Stein (Michael Nathanson) and Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah), Homeland Security Agents tasked with tracking down the bloody path carved by the Punisher:
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The Punisher is set to drop on Netflix later this year. |
China isn’t part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, but viewers of Tuesday’s Republican debate might not have realized that if not for Rand Paul.
Paul’s quick quip about China not being part of the 12-nation trade deal — made in response to an anti-China rant by Donald Trump — was the most replayed moment of the debate, according to TiVo.
“We might want to point out China’s not part of this deal,” said Paul, a Kentucky senator. Watch the clip:
Trump didn’t in fact say China was part of the deal, the text of which was released last week. He said the agreement “was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone.” Trump regularly bashes China over currency and says on his website he would declare Beijing a manipulator on his first day as president.
While China isn’t part of the deal, which Congress will vote on, President Barack Obama has said Beijing could eventually join it.
Trump said it’s a “disaster” that currency manipulation isn’t discussed in the TPP, which aims to lower trade barriers among member nations including the U.S., Japan and Vietnam.
U.S. manufacturers and some members of Congress have also decried the lack of a currency segment. But there is a side currency pact in which countries confirm they are bound by the International Monetary Fund not to manipulate exchange rates for unfair advantage.
A comment by Trump about Democrats and Republicans agreeing on bringing U.S. corporations’ overseas earnings back home was the No. 2 moment, according to TiVo TIVO, +0.09% , the digital-video recorder maker.
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Image copyright IWM
Approximately 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in World War One, and over 74,000 of them lost their lives. But history has mostly forgotten these sacrifices, which were rewarded with broken promises of Indian independence from the British government, writes Shashi Tharoor.
Exactly 100 years after the "guns of August" boomed across the European continent, the world has been extensively commemorating that seminal event. The Great War, as it was called then, was described at the time as "the war to end all wars". Ironically, the eruption of an even more destructive conflict 20 years after the end of this one meant that it is now known as the First World War. Those who fought and died in the First World War would have had little idea that there would so soon be a Second.
But while the war took the flower of Europe's youth to its premature grave, snuffing out the lives of a generation of talented poets, artists, cricketers and others whose genius bled into the trenches, it also involved soldiers from faraway lands that had little to do with Europe's bitter traditional hatreds.
The role and sacrifices of Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and South Africans have been celebrated for some time in books and novels, and even rendered immortal on celluloid in award-winning films like Gallipoli. Of the 1.3 million Indian troops who served in the conflict, however, you hear very little.
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Shashi Tharoor is a former minister in India's Congress party and a former UN diplomat. He is the author of a number of books on the history, culture, politics, and foreign policy of India.
Delhi - Parting Words broadcasts on BBC Radio 3's The Essay: World War One Round the World on Thursday 2 July at 22:45 BST as part of a global year-long partnership between the British Council, BBC World Service and BBC Radio 3 called The War That Changed the World. You can catch up via the BBC iPlayer.
As many as 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war and a comparable number were wounded. Their stories, and their heroism, have long been omitted from popular histories of the war, or relegated to the footnotes.
India contributed a number of divisions and brigades to the European, Mediterranean, Mesopotamian, North African and East African theatres of war. In Europe, Indian soldiers were among the first victims who suffered the horrors of the trenches. They were killed in droves before the war was into its second year and bore the brunt of many a German offensive.
It was Indian jawans (junior soldiers) who stopped the German advance at Ypres in the autumn of 1914, soon after the war broke out, while the British were still recruiting and training their own forces. Hundreds were killed in a gallant but futile engagement at Neuve Chappelle. More than 1,000 of them died at Gallipoli, thanks to Churchill's folly. Nearly 700,000 Indian sepoys (infantry privates) fought in Mesopotamia against the Ottoman Empire, Germany's ally, many of them Indian Muslims taking up arms against their co-religionists in defence of the British Empire.
The most painful experiences were those of soldiers fighting in the trenches of Europe. Letters sent by Indian soldiers in France and Belgium to their family members in their villages back home speak an evocative language of cultural dislocation and tragedy. "The shells are pouring like rain in the monsoon," declared one. "The corpses cover the country, like sheaves of harvested corn," wrote another.
Image copyright IWM Image caption King George V inspecting Indian troops at Le Cateau in 1918
These men were undoubtedly heroes - pitchforked into battle in unfamiliar lands, in harsh and cold climatic conditions they were neither used to nor prepared for, fighting an enemy of whom they had no knowledge, risking their lives every day for little more than pride. Yet they were destined to remain largely unknown once the war was over: neglected by the British, for whom they fought, and ignored by their own country, from which they came.
Part of the reason is that they were not fighting for their own country. None of the soldiers was a conscript - soldiering was their profession. They served the very British Empire that was oppressing their own people back home.
The British raised men and money from India, as well as large supplies of food, cash and ammunition, collected both by British taxation of Indians and from the nominally autonomous princely states. In return, the British had insincerely promised to deliver progressive self-rule to India at the end of the war. Perhaps, had they kept that pledge, the sacrifices of India's First World War soldiers might have been seen in their homeland as a contribution to India's freedom.
But the British broke their word. Mahatma Gandhi, who returned to his homeland for good from South Africa in January 1915, supported the war, as he had supported the British in the Boer War. The great Nobel Prize-winning poet, Rabindranath Tagore, was somewhat more sardonic about nationalism. "We, the famished, ragged ragamuffins of the East are to win freedom for all humanity!" he wrote during the war. "We have no word for 'nation' in our language."
India was wracked by high taxation to support the war and the high inflation accompanying it, while the disruption of trade caused by the conflict led to widespread economic losses - all this while the country was also reeling from a raging influenza epidemic that took many lives. But nationalists widely understood from British statements that at the end of the war India would receive the Dominion Status hitherto reserved for the "White Commonwealth".
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Troops on the beach on Cape Helles as stores are being unloaded during the Gallipoli Campaign
It was not to be. When the war ended in triumph for Britain, India was denied its promised reward. Instead of self-government, the British imposed the repressive Rowlatt Act, which vested the Viceroy's government with extraordinary powers to quell "sedition" against the Empire by silencing and censoring the press, detaining political activists without trial, and arresting without a warrant any individuals suspected of treason against the Empire. Public protests against this draconian legislation were quelled ruthlessly. The worst incident was the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre of April 1919, when Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to fire without warning on 15,000 unarmed and non-violent men, women and children demonstrating peacefully in an enclosed garden in Amritsar, killing as many as 1,499 and wounding up to 1,137.
The fact that Dyer was hailed as a hero by the British, who raised a handsome purse to reward him for his deed, marked the final rupture between British imperialism and its Indian subjects. Sir Rabindranath Tagore returned his knighthood to the British in protest against "the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India". He did not want a "badge of honour" in "the incongruous context of humiliation".
With British perfidy providing such a sour ending to the narrative of a war in which India had given its all and been spurned in return, Indian nationalists felt that the country had nothing to thank its soldiers for. They had merely gone abroad to serve their foreign masters. Losing your life or limb in a foreign war fought at the behest of your colonial rulers was an occupational hazard - it did not qualify to be hailed as a form of national service.
Image copyright British Library Image caption English and Indian soldiers of the Lucknow Cavalry Brigade relaxing in a farmyard at HQ, 1915
Or so most Indian nationalists thought, and they allowed the heroism of their compatriots to be forgotten. When the world commemorated the 50th anniversary of the First World War in 1964, there was scarcely a mention of India's soldiers anywhere, least of all in India.
India's absence from the commemorations, and its failure to honour the dead, were not a major surprise. Nor was the lack of First World War memorials in the country: the general feeling was that India, then freshly freed from the imperial yoke, was ashamed of its soldiers' participation in a colonial war and saw nothing to celebrate.
The British, however, went ahead and commemorated the war by constructing the triumphal arch known as India Gate in New Delhi. India Gate, built in 1931, is a popular monument, visited by hundreds daily who have no idea that it commemorates the Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting in World War One.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption India Gate memorial to WW1 soldiers, Delhi
In the absence of a national war memorial, many Indians like myself see it as the only venue to pay homage to those who have lost their lives in more recent conflicts. I have stood there many times, on the anniversaries of wars with China and Pakistan, and bowed my head without a thought for the men who died in foreign fields a century ago.
As a member of parliament, I twice raised the demand for a national war memorial (after a visit to the hugely impressive Australian one in Canberra) and was told there were no plans to construct one here. It was therefore personally satisfying to me, and to many of my compatriots, when the government of India announced in its budget for 2014-15 its intention finally to create a national war memorial. We are not a terribly militaristic society, but for a nation that has fought many wars and shed the blood of many heroes, and whose resolve may yet be tested in conflicts to come, it seems odd that there is no memorial to commemorate, honour and preserve the memories of those who have fought for India.
The centenary is finally forcing a rethink. Remarkable photographs have been unearthed of Indian soldiers in Europe and the Middle East, and these are enjoying a new lease of life online. Looking at them, I find it impossible not to be moved - these young men, visibly so alien to their surroundings, some about to head off for battle, others nursing terrible wounds. My favourite picture is of a bearded and turbaned Indian soldier on horseback in Mesopotamia in 1918, leaning over in his saddle to give his rations to a starving local peasant girl. This spirit of compassion has been repeatedly expressed by Indian peacekeeping units in United Nations operations since, from helping Lebanese civilians in the Indian battalion's field hospital to treating the camels of Somali nomads during the UN operation there. It embodies the ethos the Indian solider brings to soldiering, whether at home or abroad.
Image copyright IWM Image caption Indian cavalryman hands rations to starving Christian girls
For many Indians, curiosity has overcome the fading colonial-era resentments of British exploitation. We are beginning to see the soldiers of World War One as human beings, who took the spirit of their country to battlefields abroad. The Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research in Delhi is painstakingly working to retrieve memorabilia of that era and reconstruct the forgotten story of the 1.3 million Indian soldiers who served in the First World War. Some of the letters are unbearably poignant, especially those urging relatives back home not to commit the folly of enlisting in this futile cause. Others hint at delights officialdom frowned upon - some Indian soldiers' appreciative comments about the receptivity of Frenchwomen to their attentions, for instance.
Astonishingly, almost no fiction has emerged from or about the perspective of the Indian troops. An exception is Mulk Raj Anand's Across the Black Waters, the tale of a sepoy, Lalu, dispossessed from his land, fighting in a war he cannot understand, only to return to his village to find he has lost everything and everyone who mattered to him. The only other novel I have read about Indians in the war, John Masters' The Ravi Lancers, inevitably is a Briton's account, culminating in an Indian unit deciding to fight on in Europe "because we gave our word to serve".
Dear Father...
Image copyright Other
This letter was written by an Indian soldier, Ram Singh (soldier in the Garhwal Rifles) from the Kitchener Indian Hospital in Brighton, to his father. The original letter (pictured) was censored and is held by Professor KC Yadav, Gurgaon/India. The British Library has put the translations of a number of letters from Indian soldiers online, including this one.
Ram Singh acknowledges that letters are being censored. "We're not allowed to write about the war," he writes. He complains how difficult the war was proving to be. He writes that the information printed in the newspapers was lies, implying that the stories of progress made in capturing ground were exaggerated, when in fact they had "only captured 400 yards of trenches".
Source: British Library
But Indian literature touched the war experience in one tragic tale. When the great British poet Wilfred Owen (author of the greatest anti-war poem in the English language, Dulce et Decorum Est) was to return to the front to give his life in the futile First World War, he recited Tagore's Parting Words to his mother as his last goodbye. When he was so tragically and pointlessly killed, Owen's mother found Tagore's poem copied out in her son's hand in his diary:
When I go from hence
let this be my parting word,
that what I have seen is unsurpassable.
I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus
that expands on the ocean of light,
and thus am I blessed
---let this be my parting word.
In this playhouse of infinite forms
I have had my play
and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.
My whole body and my limbs
have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch;
and if the end comes here, let it come
- let this be my parting word.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains war cemeteries in India, mostly commemorating the Second World War rather than the First. The most famous epitaph of them all is inscribed at the Kohima War Cemetery in North-East India. It reads, "When you go home, tell them of us and say/ For your tomorrow, we gave our today".
The Indian soldiers who died in the First World War could make no such claim. They gave their "todays" for someone else's "yesterdays". They left behind orphans, but history has orphaned them as well. As Imperialism has bitten the dust, it is recalled increasingly for its repression and racism, and its soldiers, when not reviled, are largely regarded as having served an unworthy cause.
But they were men who did their duty, as they saw it. And they were Indians. It is a matter of quiet satisfaction that their overdue rehabilitation has now begun.
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By Alexi Lalas At 15, wrestling was not my thing. Singlets and those lace-up shoes that looked like ballet shoes seemed like a silly way to spend two hours of my then-still-short life. However, pretty girls and rock music were an easy sell. Definitely worth $6.50 at the Showcase Cinemas in Pontiac, Michigan, a few miles from where I grew up. But Vision Quest, even two and a half decades later, is about a lot more than pretty girls and rock music. It’s about more than wrestling, for that matter. It’s about the teenage desire to live a life with meaning, even for a moment, and about the ambition that small-town reality tries to put in a headlock and pin before it has a chance. Based on Terry Davis’s solid 1979 novel, the story is simple enough: Louden Swain, played by Matthew Modine, is a high school wrestler in Spokane who decides to wrestle the state champion. He wants more from life than what his father and his teachers have. He wants greatness, not the usual. He wants to know that he has it inside himself to be something. In short, he’s Holden Caulfield in a singlet. And he wants a woman, not a girl. Of course, the woman arrives, in the form of Carla, a mysterious and beautiful drifter, played by Linda Fiorentino, who rents a room at the Swain house. And we’re off. Modine hits a good balance of awkwardness and pretention as Louden, and Fiorentino is able to overcome some hellacious hair to still look thoroughly smokin’ hot. How many of us sat at home wondering if it’s true that a pair of good-looking hands will get us a woman like that? Michael Schoeffling, fresh off of playing Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles, provides needed doses of comic relief as Kuch, Louden’s simpleton sidekick. As does Elmo, the line cook played by J.C. Quinn, who gives a memorable monologue about a soccer game in a faraway land that, for obvious reasons, resonated with me. But Vision Quest isn’t a coming-of-age chucklefest like Can’t Buy Me Love and Weird Science. It’s a gritty, emotionally honest movie whose texture and authenticity set it apart from its teen-flick contemporaries in the same way The Outsiders was different than Risky Business. The other differentiating factor that made Vision Quest hum was an unstoppable soundtrack. All killer and no filler. Tunes that would go on to be 80s classics from Journey, Red Rider, Sammy Hagar, John Waite, Dio and of course Madonna in her first screen appearance singing “Gambler” and “Crazy For You.” Ultimately, Vision Quest lacked the full-throttle 80s polish and angst to make it as timeless as Say Anything or The Breakfast Club (the wrestling probably didn’t help). But it did resonate. It’s not really a sports movie although sports provides the inevitable crescendo. Instead, it’s the right combination of good music, small-town authenticity and understated acting that makes it worthwhile. |
Most great songs climb the charts, peak and eventually descend into the valley of cherished classics. Yet, the popularity of "Rocky Top" has continuously soared in the 50 years since it was written in August 1967. The song struck a rare chord that still resonates with music fans and was adopted as a sports anthem for fans of the University of Tennessee.
BURNOUT BEGINNINGS
For husband and wife Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, writing "Rocky Top" was merely a brief and refreshing distraction in August 1967. The songwriting team was hunkered down in room 388 of the Gatlinburg Inn working on a large country music project when Felice was feeling burned out.
Songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
"They checked in and were working on a project called 'The Golden Years' for Archie Campbell," said Greg Bailey, general manager of the Gatlinburg Inn. "Felice was getting tired of working on so many slow songs and wanted a break. She wanted to do something different. Boudleaux wanted to keep working on the main project."
In interviews with WBIR in the 1980s and 1990s, Felice Bryant described the brief bickering before Boudleaux finally appeased her with the short diversion that resulted in "Rocky Top."
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"I said I want to write something 'up.' Something with a beat. Something about the mountains. How about a bluegrass [song]? Anything. I started coming up with words, he came up with words, he finished the tune and we had the song," said Felice Bryant in 1991. "He asked what did I think we should call it and I said I didn't know. He said, 'How about Rocky Top?'"
A recreated copy of the sheet music for the song "Rocky Top."
Many have assumed the inspiration for the song's title came from a peak in the Tennessee portion of the Great Smoky Mountains known as Rocky Top. The site is a sub-peak of Thunderhead Mountain and overlooks Cades Cove. Although the songwriters were in a hotel next to the national park when they wrote the song, their son says the couple knew nothing about an actual location named Rocky Top.
"They had no idea there was a place called Rocky Top when they wrote the song," said Del Bryant. "It's sort of like 'Muddy Bottom,' which was another single done by the Osborne Brothers. There's no real place I know of called Muddy Bottom, but if you search the records you can probably find one. To them, Rocky Top was just a place they imagined in the mountains where corn would not grow and you could get moonshine."
RELATED STORY: 50 years of Rocky Top fun for songwriters' family
The Historic Gatlinburg Inn in downtown Gatlinburg.
The Bryants wrote "Rocky Top" in around 10 minutes, set it aside and went back to working on their main project of slow-tempo songs for Archie Campbell. A few months later, the Bryants sent "Rocky Top" to The Osborne Brothers for the bluegrass group's upcoming record.
FROM OSBORNES TO VOLUNTEERS
The song "Rocky Top" was originally recorded by the Osborne Brothers and released on Christmas Day of 1967. The rip-roaring bluegrass tune climbed as high as number 33 on the Billboard Country charts.
The song broke the top 20 in 1970 when it was recorded by country music star Lynn Anderson. A slew of other performers recorded "Rocky Top," including Conway Twitty, Buck Owens, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.
While the original "Rocky Top" recordings conjure up thoughts of banjos, the song did not become a cultural icon until it was played with flutes and trombones. The University of Tennessee's Pride of the Southland Marching Band performed "Rocky Top" as part of a medley of country music tunes at halftime of a home game at Neyland Stadium in 1972.
Dr. Don Ryder shows a copy of the Rocky Top sheet music on display at the UT band offices.
"There was an arranger for the band by the name of Barry McDonald who was very familiar with country music because he had also been an arranger for the Johnny Cash Show," said Dr. Don Ryder, director of bands for the University of Tennessee. "It hit a spark with the crowd during halftime event and the band realized it. Then they started playing it in the stands. It was like a snowball growing into an avalanche. It was something the fans grabbed ahold of and here we are celebrating 50 years of a song that became deep-rooted in the University of Tennessee."
"Rocky Top" became the unofficial fight song for fans of the Volunteers. Despite its unofficial status, ESPN and other outlets have named Rocky Top the best fight song in college football.
Ryder said the song is deserving of the top spot due to the emotion it brings out of everyone in nearly all stadiums.
UT's Pride of the Southland Marching Band plays in the stands of Neyland Stadium in 2016.
"Our freshmen in the band cannot wait for their first chance to actually play Rocky Top," he said. "It's exciting for the band. If you add up the amount of times the song is played at all our sporting events and during practice, a graduating senior probably plays the song more than 5,000 times. It doesn't matter how many times you play it, the song is a crowd-mover. It always gets the fans going. It is the most loved song by Tennessee fans and the most hated song when you go to other stadiums. The other fans boo when we play it, that gets us fired up to play it even louder, then our fans feed off it, and it's always a song full of emotion."
In 1982, the song echoed through the halls of the state capitol. The Osborne Brothers performed the song live on the floor of the legislature when the tune was approved as one of Tennessee's official state songs.
The Osborne Brothers perform "Rocky Top" for the legislature in 1982 when it was voted an official state song of Tennessee.
In an interview with WBIR in 1982, both Boudleaux and Felice Bryant expressed great joy and surprise at the ongoing success of the song.
"Every time something new and wonderful happens to it, it is a source of amazement to me because I really didn't think much of it at the time we did it," said Boudleaux.
ROCKY TOP LOVE AND LEGACY
Five decades after the song was written, hardly any modern bluegrass musician can take the stage without someone in the crowd requesting "Rocky Top."
"We were playing at a festival recently and someone asked us to play Rocky Top," said Alex Leach, banjo player for the Clinch Mountain Boys and longtime host of the WDVX radio station's Bluegrass Special program. "Bobby Osborne, the man who sang and played on the original recording of 'Rocky Top,' was coming up later at the same festival. We said it's best to let the man who actually did the song play it, because nobody can play it like Bobby Osborne and The Rocky Top Express. Bobby is in his mid-80s and still does an awesome job singing and playing the mandolin. But that just shows how popular the song is. Even with Bobby Osborne coming up, somebody will ask the band before them to play 'Rocky Top.' It's just a classic song that everyone around the country knows. When they think of bluegrass, they think of Rocky Top."
Alex Leach holds an original copy of The Osborne Brothers album featuring the song "Rocky Top."
The room where the song was recorded has become an attraction at the historic Gatlinburg Inn. The hotel placed a small plaque on the wall of the room noting the song was written there in 1967. The room also features a large print of the sheet music for the song, photos of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, and maintained much of the same décor.
"Other than new carpet, we've tried to preserve it. We have the same furniture that was in the suite when the Bryants wrote the song. We kept the original lighting. It is something people are interested in because it's such a big part of music history," said Bailey.
The rate for the room where "Rocky Top" was written runs between $169 to $219 per night, depending on the time of year and the day of the week. The suite is slightly larger than the other rooms at the historic inn and has two double beds.
Room 388 where "Rocky Top" was written at The Historic Gatlinburg Inn.
Countless businesses have latched onto the Rocky Top name as part of their identities. In 2014, the community of Lake City, located around 25 miles north of Knoxville, changed its name to Rocky Top in an effort to attract new businesses. The name change resulted in lawsuits and eventual settlements.
The song "Rocky Top" hardly made the careers of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. The prolific duo wrote thousands of songs, had more than 800 recorded and sold more than half a billion copies worldwide. Their hits include songs such as "Love Hurts," "Bye Bye Love," "Wake Up Little Suzie" and "Raining In My Heart."
While other songs were more profitable during the Bryants' careers than "Rocky Top," it is unlikely any tune in their catalog is more likely to be widely-played 50 years from now.
"It is just engrained in people in Tennessee to love this song. You see little kids barely old enough to walk and talk and they can sing the song. They even know when to yell, 'Woo!' There's just so much passion and tradition with 'Rocky Top.' As long as there's a state of Tennessee, that passion for 'Rocky Top' will live on forever," said Ryder.
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant during a 1982 interview with WBIR.
"The song is a juggernaut and it keeps getting more popular over time," said Del Bryant. "It is something my parents were really proud of and we're all still proud of today."
Boudleaux Bryant died in 1987 and Felice Bryant died in 2003. Del Bryant and his brother, Dane Bryant, own House of Bryant Publishing. House of Bryant owns the rights to the song "Rocky Top" and the rest of the Boudleaux and Felice Bryant catalog.
Dane Bryant forged a successful real estate career in the Nashville area. Del Bryant retired as CEO of BMI in 2014 after more than 40 years of growing the company into a giant in the world of handling music rights and royalties.
ROCKY TOP 50TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
The Historic Gatlinburg Inn is hosting a free concert on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, to celebrate 50 years since Rocky Top was written in room 388. Musical guests will be Jimbo Whaley and Greenbrier, Kenny and Amanda Smith, and Confederate Railroad. A commemorative ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. with entertainment to follow on the "Rocky Top" stage at the front of the inn. The inn is located at 755 Parkway in the heart of downtown Gatlinburg. Food and beverage vendors will be selling concessions. Free water and Pepsi products will be available while supplies last.
The front desk of the Gatlinburg Inn has copies of the anthology of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. |
Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China at Tiananmen Square during a military parade in 2015 marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Reuters Amid a productive phone call between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese state-run media reported that 150,000 Chinese troops went to North Korea's border.
Both China and the US have pushed back on the claims of troops massing, however.
International observers fear that North Korea may conduct another nuclear test this weekend on the anniversary of the founding of Kim Jong Un's regime, but the US has broadcast loud and clear that nuclear posturing in the Korean peninsula will no longer be tolerated.
In March, Business Insider talked to Sim Tack, a North Korea expert at Stratfor, a geopolitical-analysis firm, who speculated how Chinese forces could stop North Korea's nuclear program without firing a shot.
Tack predicted China would "definitely react to and try to prevent" a US strike on North Korea. The US increasingly has touted military strikes as an option against the Kim regime, even going as far as positioning an aircraft carrier off Korea's coast.
"The overt presence of Chinese forces would dissuade the US from going into that territory because they would run the risk of inviting that larger conflict themselves," Tack said.
Chinese forces in North Korea would "be in a position to force a coup or force Kim's hand" to disarm, Tack said.
Ultimately, China, North Korea's biggest backer, would attempt "to make sure North Korea still exists and serves Chinese interests while it stops acting as a massive bullseye to the US," he added.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Korean People's Army Tank Crews' Competition 2017. Reuters/KCNA KCNA
In this way, China could preserve its buffer state from falling to Western influence, prevent a US military strike on its borders, and even prevent a nuclear war.
Besides its possible troop buildup, China also seems willing to apply pressure to the Kim regime in other ways. Last week, Beijing ordered its customs authorities to reject coal imports from North Korea — a big hit to the regime's wallet, since coal makes up about 40% of its total exports. |
GRAINS
grains – /grāns/ – noun
Aside from water, the most abundant ingredient in the most delicious beverage on earth is malted grains. Particularly malted barley. Yes, you can create a beer without malted barley (and most gluten free beers do so, using sorghum primarily) but odds are if you’re not ordering gluten free, malted grains are all up in your pint glass. The fun part about these grains is that you can use a lot of different grains in a single batch of beer, creating complex and diverse colors, flavors, aromas and even mouthfeel. So grab a cold one and fill your glass because it’s learning time.
Per the usual, my typical disclaimer about the fact that this is a general overview of the topic mentioned above and not an in-depth science lesson applies.
The Malting Process
There are plenty of grains that are used to make beer but the most common is barley (2- row barley and 6-row barley to get specific) so let’s focus on that. The malting process for grains has a lot of science behind it but the 10,000 foot view is this:
Steeping Grains are made warm and moist to start their germination process
Germination Enzymes work to produce more enzymes and expose starches that the plant would use for food The kernels start to sprout (this small stem is called an “acrospire”)
Drying Once the acrospire is about the same length as the kernel itself, the grains are heated and dried to stop further growth locking in those starches and enzymes
Now you have a kernel packed with enzymes and starches. The kernels are then heated to specific temperatures (by a kiln) with specific moisture control to create specific colors (measured in SRM) and flavors among other things. During the brewing process the enzymes convert the starches into sugars, then those sugars get eaten by yeast which then produces alcohol. These enzyme and starch packed kernels are a very good thing for beer.
How this impacts your beer’s ingredient list
The lighter the roast, the lighter the color of beer it makes and with darker malts…..you get the idea. However, the lighter malts have a lot more “diastatic power” than the darker malts. Diastatic power is a measure of the malt’s ability to break down starches into sugars during the brewing process. The darker a malt gets, the less diastatic power it has. Therefore, using all dark malts to make a dark beer would result in a LOT of grain use to get enough sugars for the yeast to eat. More simply put: To create a dark beer, like a stout, brewers actually use 80-85% light malts and the rest will be the darker “specialty” malts.
How this impacts your beer’s taste
When you heat things up and they turn brown, the flavor profile changes. This is evident in toasted bread, grilled hamburgers, roasted marshmallows and everything else you cook with a flame. Since the malts you use in brewing were heated up and changed color, their flavor profile changed, too. Light malts can be described as bread and bread dough. As the malt colors darken, those flavors become more pie crust, bread crust and caramel. When those colors get to their darkest, they’re described as roasted, chocolate and coffee. We can lump aromas into these descriptions, too.
How this impact’s your beer’s…..other stuff
Aside from color, aroma, and flavor, malts also contribute in ways you may not even notice or expect. Does that beer of yours have good head retention? It’s probably because the brewer used a malt high in proteins and dextrines which contribute to that sexy, white, frothy cap. Does that beer feel nice on your tongue? Thankfully your brewer knew to add some crystal malts (sweet malts with a caramel color) or something similar which helped to add body to your beer.
Other Grains That Aren’t Malted
We did a whole article on adjuncts (read it here) but the bottom line is that other grains that are not malted are used in beer as well. You can add rice, corn, wheat (malted or unmalted) and oats, among others. These grains do not have anywhere near the diastatic power as their malted counterparts so they’re used sparingly and primarily for flavor and body, not so much for color or to help add sugars.
Holy cow, this was much harder to summarize than I expected but that’s the 5 minute read on malted grains that I lovingly packaged together. In the next 60 seconds, you can close this browser window as a slightly smarter human. You know what malted grains are, how they’re made, how they taste and what they add to your beer. I’m sure you’ll take umbrage with some of the things I omitted but I did my best, and in today’s “participation trophy” culture, I’m told that’s all that matters. Yay me.
Do you have a beer term that you’d like to know more about? Email me at [email protected] or comment below with something you’d like to see explained in a future Vocabrewlary Lesson. |
Mani Shankar Aiyar, who wears his bleeding heart liberalism for all things Pakistan on his sleeve, found himself in a combative situation with an unlikely panelist when he appeared as the guest of a television channel in Islamabad on Thursday.
Currently on a private visit to Pakistan, Aiyar perhaps reckoned it would be sweetness and sunshine all the way, given his reputation as a "friend of Pakistan". But he had not counted on the fact that the host of the news program would invite Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba and masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack (and now heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, which fronts for the baned LeT) to be his fellow panelist.
If that visibly bothered him, Saeed's hate-filled rantings against India rankled even more. Saeed said that he disfavoured the grant of Most Favoured Nation trading status to India, given that there many unresolved issues between the two countries, including - ahem! - Kashmir.
Saeed then accused India of not being serious about resolving problems with Pakistan - and said that Indians in general were reluctant to acknowledge the very existence of Pakistan.
Aiyar counterjected to claim that he accepted Pakistan "one lakh per cent". Even that mathematical stretch didn't seem adequate, so Aiyar said India did not want Pakistan to be split up or be destroyed. "We want Pakistan to be strong, prosperous and we want friendship with Pakistan. We want to face the world shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan and not oppose each other."
Aiyar then claimed that Saeed was part of a "small group" that opposed better ties with India, whereas in fact ordinary people in Pakistan wanted relations between the two countries to grow.
"There are," he said, "some persons like Hafiz Saeed in our country who do not want things to move forward but thankfully the ordinary people want our ties to improve. We can improve our relations irrespective of what his (Saeed's) opinion is."
Watch the episode on YouTube:
But the point, Mr Aiyar, is that those who oppose normalisation of relations with Pakistan have a very small expectation of Pakistan: stop sending terrorists into India and setting off bombs in our cities. Give up your blood lust for Kashmir, and your patronage of jihadi snakes that are now turning on their own masters in Pakistan.
And unlike Saeed, those in India who want normalisation of relations to be put off until Pakistan meets these elementary conditions don't, in the meantime, send suicide bombers to be blown up in Pakistani cities.
Your equating of Saeed with those in India who disfavour normalisation of relations with Pakistan until it renounces sponsorship of jihadi violence is thus patently absurd. It is precisely because of people like Saeed that peace talks with Pakistan don't make any sense.
And unlike Saeed, who enjoys state patronage even as he conducts his terror campaigns in Pakistan, those in India who oppose bleeding-heart peacenik normalisation with Pakistan of the sorts you seek don't enjoy state patronage - and are in fact perennially vilified (including by you).
Perhaps now that you've seen the enemy, tugged at his beard and experienced first-hand the depths of his jihadi hatred, you'll feel differently about those who don't exactly share your "one lakh percent" ebulliance about pandering to Pakistan.
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This post details the process for aligning VMDK files properly. There’s a great post from Duncan Epping on why you need to do this here. In these notes, we’re dealing with NetApp storage. Duncan’s post details some other tools for other storage vendors (like UberAlign from Nick Weaver).
Before beginning this process, ensure that:
– VM with misaligned VMDK is powered off
– VM has no snapshots
Acquire the file “mbrtools_esxi.tgz” and SCP it to the host the VM lives on at /tmp
SSH to the host at unarchive the file, then copy the folder to the /opt directory
Change directory to /opt/ontap/ and view the files
Change directory to the datastore where the misaligned VM lives
Run /opt/ontap/mbrscan -flat.vmdk and note that the VMDK is misaligned
Run the alignment command – “/opt/ontap/mbralign -flat.vmdk
Say ‘y’ to the prompt to confirm that no snapshots exist
When operation completes (time will vary based on size of disk) run ‘mbrscan’ again to confirm that the disk is now aligned
Linux VMs
If the VM being aligned is a Linux VM, this tool will mess up the bootloader. Grub needs to be repaired.
Mount System Rescue CD ISO to VM before powering on. Once booted, run ‘grub’
In the grub prompt, run ‘root (hd0,0)’
Then run ‘setup (hd0)’
Type ‘quit’ to exit, then reboot the VM |
One of the best features of Apple Watch is how customizable it is. There are millions of watch faces variations to play with, and of course, you can use a multitude of watch bands to make your device stand out or blend in, depending on your mood.
If customizing your watch faces doesn’t cost anything, buying bands from Apple can turn out to be expensive, with each band selling for hefty prices, especially if you don’t want to settle for the fluoroelastomer bands.
An alternative Apple Watch users might want to look into is the knockoff bands available online. They appear to be exact replicas of Apple’s official bands, and sell for a fraction of the price. I was curious about the price/quality ratio of these bands so I decided to purchase seven of them (two of which are still on back order) and see for myself if they are worth the money.
In this post, I will give a brief overview of each band that I received, as well as personal thoughts regarding the quality and whether or not it’s a smart buy.
Note that my comments about these bands are related to these specific bands only. My views about each item is not a generalization of knockoff products in general. I am aware that there may be better or worse knockoff alternatives.
Milanese Loop
My wife owns the official Milanese Loop band so I’ve had plenty of hands on time with it. I know how it feels and look, and for the most part, the replica is very close to the official band. To the untrained eye, it could easily pass for the real deal, but for the nitpicker like me, it just won’t do it.
The pattern of the woven stainless steel appears to be exactly the same as the official band, except this one is not as tight, with fraction of millimeters making a small difference in the appearance of the band. It’s not bad, but it is noticeably different when you hold both the real and knockoff bands in your hands.
Besides this, the magnetic closure works perfectly and I haven’t had any problem with it loosening up through the day, as my wife has experienced on her own Milanese Loop.
It must be noted that the lugs don’t fit quite perfectly. It works good, but it is not perfect.
Knockoff on the left, real on the right
With all that said, of all the knockoffs I received, this is without a doubt my favorite and the one that I believe will give you the best price/quality ratio.
Milanese Loop on Amazon: $40 – 4.5 stars out of 555 review.
Black Stainless Steel Link Bracelet
This was the band I was the most excited about. Already owning the official link bracelet, I also had my doubts. Unlike Apple’s official link bracelet, this one comes with a handy tool that allows you to remove each link to adjust the size of the bracelet.
The act of removing links isn’t hard in itself, but when you have used the official link bracelet as I have, it definitely feels like a bad experience. The kicker was when the link remover tool broke in my hand, a first sign that you really get what you pay for. I didn’t really get discouraged and finished the job, then proceeded on putting the bracelet on my watch.
This whole process was finicky at best, because the lugs aren’t perfectly fitted for the band slot on the watch. After several trials and errors, I finally got it in and put the bracelet around my wrist.
Once again, quality is lacking and it’s very obvious with the butterfly closure that doesn’t fold perfectly within the bracelet. At first sight, you might think it’s securely locked in together, but it’s not. You have to press a little firmer to really close the mechanism.
I would love to be able to tell you about how this bracelet feels on your wrist, but unfortunately, because part of one of the lugs broke, I wasn’t even able to try it on for more than a couple minutes.
Broken lug makes it impossible to use
So, besides the broken tool, the broken lug, the shaky butterfly closure, I must say this band looks decent. Reviews on Amazon did mention you can still see the silver coating between each link, which I verified, but I don’t think this is an issue at all. The issue is rather the poor overall craftsmanship.
From my experience, I wouldn’t be able to recommend this specific bracelet, but I’m also thinking I might have just received a bad unit, especially considering this band is getting ok reviews on Amazon.
Black Stainless Steel Link Bracelet on Amazon: $70 – 3.5 stars out of 60 reviews
Black Modern Buckle
Apple doesn’t make the Modern Buckle band for 42mm Apple Watch, so if that’s the watch size you have, you will have to settle for a replica.
At first sight, this might look like a great replica of the official band, but once again, when you look closely, you start realizing that it is just a cheap knockoff. I’ll pass the details of the lugs not fitting properly into the watch slot because this is a recurring feature of all these bands.
What really got me is the gap between each piece of magnetic closure. Even though it does seem secure enough to keep the watch in place, I must admit that I was worried about this closure eventually unlocking without me noticing.
That gap makes me really worried
The leather also looks pretty cheap, and to be honest, I believe it’s actually plastic. It doesn’t look good, and it doesn’t really feel good either.
Black Modern Buckle on Amazon: $40 – 4 stars out of 1 review
Blue Sport Band
I could have told this band apart from a real Sport band as soon as I took it out of the box. If the texture of the plastic used feels very similar to that of Apple’s, the thickness of the band is the first thing that gives its origin away.
Because it is noticeably thinner than an original Sport band, it doesn’t feel as sturdy in your hand, and as a matter of fact, I do wonder how this band will fair in the long run. That it is thinner isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but because it is thinner, it does feel a little less solid.
The thickness of the band wouldn’t really be a turn off if it wasn’t for the band being just a tiny bit too wide for the band slot, making the plastic stick out on each side of the slots. It’s not by much, and again, most people wouldn’t even notice, but it’s worth noting. Despite that flaw, the lugs were the best of all the knockoff bands I have tried. They slide in and out easily, and feel like they are securely locked in, unlike most bands I have tested here.
Can you see the band sticking out on the right?
For that price, this really isn’t a bad purchase, but I don’t know how long it will be before it actually breaks, which seems inevitable. Regardless, this is still one of the few I would recommend in this list.
Blue Sport Band on Amazon: $17 – 4.5 stars out of 912 review
Blue Leather Loop
I already own a black Leather Loop so I also had high expectations for this knockoff.
Right off the box, and without putting it side by side with the real deal, this band looks great. Pretty much everything about it resembles at 100% what Apple has done with the Leather Loop. Although the leather feels a little too supple, it is extremely similar to Apple’s, and it would likely successfully fool anyone who hasn’t held a real Leather Loop.
It all looks like a winner until you start sliding the lugs into the slots. At this point, it is clear that the bands were poorly manufactured as they don’t fit the slots properly. Because the lugs are slightly too thin for the slots, you can hear this rattling sound when you move the band. The gap between the slot and the lugs is big enough that it doesn’t look perfect, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about the band detaching from the watch. As with all these bands, there is a very thin balance between price and quality, and it shows.
That gap
If you can’t really afford a real Leather Loop, then this one isn’t a bad option at all.
Blue Leather Loop on Amazon: $41 – 4 stars out of 182 reviews
Overall thoughts and feelings
You never really know what you are going to get with knockoffs. For example, all these bands came with good reviews on Amazon, yet they definitely didn’t meet my minimum quality standards. Of course, I didn’t expect any of them to be perfect at this price, but I did expect better quality.
I think my main problem is that I have spent time with the real Apple Watch bands before, so I know exactly how they look, how they feel, and how they fit. This situation alone could be why I am so disappointed by the majority of these bands. I suspect that if I hadn’t seen the real bands in person before, my expectations wouldn’t be so high, because I would have nothing to compare to.
On paper, the math is fairly straightforward: these bands usually sell for a quarter of the price of the official Apple bands. But are Apple bands four times better than these? No, I don’t think so. So technically, you get more bangs for your bucks by buying knockoffs, so to speak.
All in all, I could probably find these bands good enough for my use if it wasn’t for the terrible lugs that don’t fit the band slots properly. This really is the deal breaker for me, but take this with a grain of salt because I’m known to be extremely picky when it comes to these kind of details.
At the end of the day, it really comes down to a simple question: how much money can you spend? If you don’t have much money but do want additional bands, then going the knockoff way is your best option, but don’t get your hopes too high. Personally, after going hands-on with these bands, I feel like I’d rather save up my money and treat myself to one high quality band, rather than buy several of them for cheap.
Have you purchased knockoff bands for your Apple Watch, and are you satisfied with them? Tell us more about your experience in the comments section. |
Oddly enough, I don't think I ever mentioned my PhD research on this blog. Part of the reason is that I easily get fascinated by technical questions, but I find it less natural to explain what I do in non-technical terms. However, I have to write the introduction to my PhD thesis, so I thought it was a nice excuse to start by summarizing here what I am doing.
For readers who don't know, I'm doing my PhD in Télécom ParisTech, in the DBWeb team. Before this, I stayed for some months in Tel Aviv to work with Tova Milo, and in Oxford to work with Michael Benedikt, which explains some of my current collaborations.
The general context: Uncertain data
The great success story of database research is the relational model. It is a rare example of something that is both extremely relevant in practice and nice from a theoretical perspective, with close connections to logics and finite model theory. The relational model gives an abstract model of how data should be represented and queried, which allows people to use databases as a black box, leaving fine but domain-agnostic optimisations to database engines. Relational databases, like compilers, filesystems, or virtual memory, have become an abstraction that everyone relies on.
One thing that the relational model does not handle is uncertainty and incompleteness in the data. In the relational semantics, the database is perfectly accurate, and it contains all facts that may be of interest. In practice, however, this is rarely satisfactory:
Some values may be missing : for instance, the user did not fill in some fields when registering, or some fields were added since they registered.
: for instance, the user did not fill in some fields when registering, or some fields were added since they registered. The data may be incomplete : for instance, you are constructing your database by harvesting data from the Web, and you haven't harvested everything yet; but you still wonder whether the data that you have allows you to give a definitive answer to your query.
: for instance, you are constructing your database by harvesting data from the Web, and you haven't harvested everything yet; but you still wonder whether the data that you have allows you to give a definitive answer to your query. Data may be outdated : for instance, the user moved but they did not update their address.
: for instance, the user moved but they did not update their address. Data may simply be wrong.
Indeed, nowadays, people manage data that may have been inferred by machine learning algorithms, generated by data mining techniques, or automatically extracted from natural language text. Unlike a hand-curated database, you can't just assume mistakes will not happen, or that you will fix all of them when you find them. The data is incomplete and contains errors, and you have to deal with that.
These important problems are already being addressed, but in unsatisfactory ways. The general domain-agnostic solutions are fairly naive: e.g., set a confidence threshold, discard everything below the threshold, consider everything above the threshold as certain. In domains where uncertainty is paramount and where simple solutions do not suffice, e.g., in character recognition (OCR) or speech recognition (ASR), people use more elaborate solutions, e.g., weighted automata. The problem is that these solutions are often domain-specific, i.e., they are tailored to the domain at hand. The vision of uncertain data management is that there should be principled and generic tools to manage such noisy and incomplete data in all domains where it occurs; in the same way that relational databases today are both highly optimized and domain-agnostic tools.
For now, the most visible aspect of uncertainty management in concrete databases are nulls, which are part of the SQL standard. NULL is a special value that indicates that a record does not have a value for a specific attribute: for instance, the attribute did not exist when the record was created. Of course, there are many problems that NULLs do not address:
NULL can only represent missing values in a record, not missing records ("There may be more entries that I don't know about"), or uncertainty about whether the record exists altogether ("I think I know this, but it may be wrong.")
NULL just means that we know nothing about the value, it doesn't allow us to say that there are multiple possible values, or to model them using a probability distribution, or that two unknown values must be the same.
The semantics of NULLs (as defined by the SQL standard) are very counter-intuitive. For instance, trying to select all values which are either equal to 42 or different to 42 will not return the values marked NULL. This is because NULLs are understood as a three-valued logic, but it still does not make sense in terms of the possible worlds : NULL represents an unknown value, and no matter the value, it must be equal to 42 or different from 42...
The semantics of NULLs for SQL databases are now set in stone by the standard, even though people have complained about their imperfections as early as 1977, and even though they still confuse people today. There is still much debate about what the semantics of NULLs could have been instead, see, e.g., the keynote by Libkin, which contains more counter-intuitive examples with NULLs, a review of other theoretical models of NULLs to address some of these problems, as well as proposed fixes.
Research is also studying uncertainty management approaches that have nothing to do with NULLs. For instance, incompleteness can be managed by designing a different semantics to evaluate queries on databases, which is called the open-world assumption, and posits that all missing data is unknown rather than being wrong. To represent uncertainty about the existence of tuples, one can use, e.g., tuple-independent databases: they are standard relational databases, but with records carrying an independent "probability of existence". This formalism cannot represent correlations between tuples (if this tuple is here, then this tuple must be here, or cannot be here), and the result of queries on such databases may not be representable in the same formalism, but more expressive formalisms exist, such as pc-tables. There are also formalisms that can represent uncertainty on other structures, such as XML documents.
The goal would be to develop a system where relations can be marked as incomplete, and data can simply be marked as uncertain, or inserted directly with probabilities or confidence scores; the system would maintain these values during query evaluation, to be able to tell how certain its answers are. For now, though, real-world uncertain database systems are quite experimental. There are many reasons for that:
It's hard to define principled semantics on uncertain data.
It's hard to find ways to represent uncertainty about any kind of data.
Somewhat surprisingly, probabilistic calculations on data are often computationally expensive, much harder than without probabilities!
This is why we are still trying to understand the basic principles about the right way to represent uncertainty and query it in practice, which is the general area of my PhD. The main way in which it differs from existing work is that I focused on restricting the structure of uncertain data, so that it can be queried in a decidable and tractable fashion. More specifically, my PhD research has studied three main directions:
Connecting approaches for incomplete data reasoning that originated in various communities, to query incomplete data whose structure is constrained by expressive but decidable rule languages. Representing uncertainty on new structures, namely, on order relations, which had not been investigated before. Achieving computational efficiency for query evaluation, when we add qualitative uncertainty in the form of probabilistic distributions, by restricting the structure of data, e.g., imposing bounded treewidth.
Connecting different approaches to reason on incomplete data
The first direction deals with incompleteness in databases, and reasoning about an incomplete database in an open-world setting: What is possible? What is certain? The challenge is that this problem has been studied from various communities. On the one hand, database researchers have studied how to reason about databases. On the other hand, people who study reasoning and artificial intelligence are interested in drawing inference from data, and have tried to make their approach work on large data collections.
An important such community is that of description logics (DLs). The goal of description logics is to do reasoning, with the following goals:
Separate the data and the rules used to reason about the data.
Remain computationally tractable when the data is large, as long as the rules remain manageable.
Study precisely how the computational cost varies depending on which kind of reasoning operators you allow in the rules.
The data managed in the DL context differs from relational databases, however. The semantics is not exactly the same, but, most importantly, the data representation is different:
DLs represent data as a graph , where relations connect at most two objects. For instance, "John lives in Paris."
represent data as a , where relations connect at most two objects. For instance, "John lives in Paris." Relational databases, on the other hand, are a tabular formalism, where each row has a fixed schema that relates multiple objects at once. For instance, "John was born in Paris in 1942".
A different formalism, that works with relational databases, is that of existential rules (or tuple-generating dependencies in database parlance). Such rules allow you to deduce more facts from existing facts: "If someone was born in France and they have a parent born in France, then they are French." However, they cannot express other constraints such as negation: "It is not possible that someone is their own child." Further, existential rules can assert the existence of new objects: "If someone wrote a literary prize, then they wrote some book."
For people from databases, DLs, and existential rules, the goal is to design languages to reason about incomplete data, imposing the following properties:
principled , though the languages may make different semantic assumptions;
, though the languages may make different semantic assumptions; expressive , so they can accurately model the rules of the real world;
, so they can accurately model the rules of the real world; decidable , so that they are not so expressive that it would be fundamentally impossible to reason about them;
, so that they are not so expressive that it would be fundamentally impossible to reason about them; efficient, so they machines can reason with them with reasonable performance.
Description logics and existential rules
A first part of my PhD research is about bridging the gap between these communities. The goal is to design languages to reason about incomplete data that combine rules from these various communities. My work with Michael Benedikt (Oxford), Combining Existential Rules and Description Logics, connects the two formalisms I presented.
Say that you have a database, which you know is incomplete, and you have rules to reason about the implicit consequences of the data. Our work studies hybrid languages where you can express both existential rules and DL constraints. More precisely, we determine when such languages are decidable, and when they are not, i.e., it is fundamentally impossible to reason about them. The goal is to have the "best of both worlds": on parts of the data that can be represented as a graph, we would use the expressive DL rules; on parts of the data which are more naturally described as a relational database, we would have less expressive constraints inspired by existential rules.
In our work, we pinpointed which features of these two languages are dangerous and give an undecidable language if you mix them. The big problematic feature of DLs are functionality assertions: being able to say that, e.g., a person has only one place of birth. If we want to express such constraints, we must do away with two problematic features of existential rules. The first is exporting two variables: "If someone was born in some country, then that person has lived in that country." What we deduce should only depend on one element from the hypothesis: "If someone won a literary prize, then they wrote some book." The second is a restriction on the facts which the rules can deduce, which shouldn't form complex cyclic patterns in a certain technical sense.
Apart from these problematic features, however, we show that we can combine existential rules and expressive DL rules. This gives us hope: it could be possible to reconcile the two approaches and design very expressive languages that capture both kinds of constraints.
Open-world query answering and finiteness
I have explained how we connected two non-database approaches to reason about incomplete data. I also worked with Michael on reasoning about relational databases, in our work Finite Open-World Query Answering with Number Restrictions.
The general context is the same: we have incomplete data and we want to reason about its consequences, using logical rules. This time, however, our rule language is just defined using classical integrity constraints from relational database theory. Indeed, people have designed many ways to constrain the structure of databases to detect errors in the data: "Any customer in the Orders table must also appear in the Customers table". We use these as rules to reason about the complete state of the data, even though our database is incomplete and may violate them.
The language of constraints that we use includes functional dependencies, which are like the functionality assertions in DLs that I already mentioned. We also study unary inclusion dependencies, which are existential rules but of a very restricted kind.
The main problem comes from the semantics. In database theory, people usually assume databases to be finite. In particular, when using the rules to derive consequences, the set of consequences should be finite as well. This is justified by common sense ("the world is finite") but this problem is usually neglected in works about DLs and existential rules. So we studied finite reasoning in this database context, for the open-world query answering task of reasoning with our rules and incomplete information.
It is not hard to see that assuming finiteness makes a difference in some cases. Consider the following information about an organization:
Jane advises John (the database)
Each advisee is also the advisor of someone (an inclusion dependency)
Each advisee has a single advisor (a functional dependency)
Is it true, then, that someone advises Jane? The rule allows us to deduce that John, as he is advised by Jane, advises someone else, say Janice; Janice herself advises someone else, say Jack. In general, this could go on indefinitely, and we cannot deduce that someone advises Jane. However, if we also assume that the organization is finite, then it has to stop somewhere: someone along this chain (Jennifer, say) must advise someone that we already know about. And by the rule that no one is advised by two different people, we deduce that Jennifer must be advising Jane.
As we show in our work, the only difference that finiteness makes is that it causes more rules of the same kind to be added. Once this is done, it turns out that we can essentially forget about the finiteness hypothesis, because we can no longer distinguish between finite and infinite consequences. This is surprisingly difficult to show, though; and to establish this correspondence, we need much more complex tools that those used in the infinite case to actually do the reasoning!
Representing uncertainty on ordered data
The second part of my PhD research deals with the representation of uncertainty on new kinds of data, namely, ordered data. Order can appear at different levels: on values ("retrieve all pairs of people when one is born before the other") or on records ("retrieve all page views that occurred yesterday"). In SQL databases, order is supported with the standard comparison operators on numbers ("WHERE length > 4200"), with sorting operators ("ORDER BY date"), and with the LIMIT operator to select the first results.
Order on facts
Why is it important to have uncertain ordered data? Well, an interesting phenomenon is that combining certain ordered data may cause uncertainty to appear. Consider a travel website where you can search for hotels and which ranks them by quality. You are a party of four, and you want either two twin rooms, or one room with four beds; but the website doesn't allow you to search for both possibilities at once. So you do one search, and then the other, and you get two ordered lists of hotels. In real life you would then browse through both lists, but this is inefficient! What you would really want, in database parlance, is the union of these two lists, i.e., the list of hotels that have either two twin rooms or one 4-bed room. But how should this list be ordered? This depends on the website's notion of quality, which you don't know. Hence, the order on the union is uncertain. It is not fully unspecified, though: if two hotels occur only in one list, then their order relation should probably be reflected in the union. How can you formalize this?
To solve this kind of problems, people have studied rank aggregation: techniques to reconcile ordered lists of results. However, these methods are quantitative, i.e., if something appears near the top in most lists then it should appear near the top in the result. What we set out instead is to represent what we know for sure, i.e., the set of all possible consistent ways to reconcile the order, without trying to make a choice between them.
Couldn't we just use existing uncertainty representation frameworks? If you try, you will realize that they do not work well for ordered data. You don't want tuple-level uncertainty, because you know what the results are. You could say that the position of each result is uncertain: "this result is either the first or the third". Yet, when you know that hotel a must come before hotel b, you must introduce some complicated dependency between the possible ranks of a and b, and this gets very tedious.
With M. Lamine Ba (former fellow PhD student in Télécom, now in Qatar), Daniel Deutch (from Israel) and my advisor Pierre Senellart, we have studied this question in our work, Possible and Certain Answers for Queries over Order-Incomplete Data. We use the mathematical notion of a partial order as a way to represent uncertain ordered data. More precisely, we explain how we can apply to partial orders the usual operators of the relational algebra (select, project, union, product). We extend this to accumulation, to answer queries such as "is it certain that all hotels in this district are better than all hotels in that district?"
This poses several interesting challenges. The most technically interesting one is that of efficiency: how hard it is to compute the result of such queries? Somewhat surprisingly, we show that it is intractable (NP-hard). In fact, it is already hard to determine, given such a partially ordered database, whether some totally ordered database is possible. In other words, it is intractable already to determine whether some list is a consistent way to reorder the data! To mitigate this, we study "simplicity measures" of the original ordered relations (are they totally ordered, totally unordered, or not too ordered, not too unordered?), and we see when queries become tractable in this case, intuitively because the result of integrating the relations must itself be simple.
Order on values
I also work on uncertainty on orders with Tova Milo and Yael Amsterdamer (from Tel Aviv). This time, however, the partial order itself is known, and we want to represent uncertainty on numerical values that satisfy the order.
Our work, Top-k Queries on Unknown Values under Order Constraints, is inspired by crowdsourcing scenarios. When working on data that you collect from the crowd, every query that you make introduces latency (you need to wait for the answers to arrive) and monetary costs (you have to pay the workers). Hence, you cannot simply acquire data about everything that you are interested in: instead, you must extrapolate from what you can afford. Following our earlier works on similar questions, we are interested about classifying an items in a taxonomy of products. In this example application, the order is induced by the monotonicity property: shirts are more specific than clothing, so if we classify an item as being a shirt, it must also be a piece of clothing.
The underlying technical problem is to interpolate missing values under total order constraints, which I think it is an interesting question in its own right. We study a principled way to define this formally, based on geometry in polytopes, and study again the computational complexity of this task. Why is this computationally intractable in general, and what are circumstances where it can reasonably be done? For instance, we can tractably perform the task when the taxonomy of products is a tree.
Reasoning about order
More recently, I also started working with Michael Benedikt on open-world query answering tasks that involve order relations. Again, this is useful in practice, because order often shows up in queries and rules; however it is challenging because it is hard to talk about orders in rules. Essentially, to write a rule that says that something is an order, you have to express transitivity: if a < b and b < c then a < c. Unfortunately, such rules are prohibited by many existing rule languages, because they could make the rules too expressive to be decidable. Hence, we study in which cases the specific axioms of order relations can be supported, without causing undecidability. We are still working on it and the results are not ready yet.
Tractability of probabilistic query evaluation
The last direction of my PhD research, and indeed the only one I really started during the PhD, is about the tractability of query evaluation on probabilistic database formalisms.
In fact, apart from the work with Tova and Yael and Pierre that deals with numerical values, everything that I described so far was about uncertainty in a logical sense, not in a quantitative sense. Things are either possible or impossible, either certain or not, but there is no numerical value that quantifies how likely something is over something else.
There are multiple reasons to focus on logical uncertainty. The first reason is that defining a set of possibilities is easier than additionally defining a probability distribution on them. It is hard to define meaningful and principled probabilities over the space of all possible consequences of an incomplete database, or over the linear extensions of a partial order. This is why people usually study probability distributions on comparatively simple models, e.g., tuple-independent databases (TID). With TID, the set of possible worlds has a clear structure (i.e., all subsets of the database) and a simple probability density: the probability of a subset is the probability of keeping exactly these facts and dropping the others, assuming independence.
The second difficulty is that, even on the TID model, computing probabilities is computationally intractable. Imagine that a dating website has a table indicating who sent a message to whom, in addition to a table indicating in which city users live. We pose a simple query asking for pairs of users that live in the same city, such that one messaged the other. On a standard relational database, this is easy to write in SQL, and can be efficiently evaluated. Now, imagine that we give a probability to each fact. Say, e.g., we are not sure about the possible cities a user may be in, and we only look at messages expressive a positive sentiment: in both cases we use machine learning to obtain probability values for each fact. Now, we want to find the probability that two people live in the same city and one sent the other a positive message.
As it turns out, this is much harder than plain query evaluation! The problem is that correlations between facts can make the probability very intricate to compute: intuitively, we cannot hope to do much better than just enumerating the exponential number of possible subsets of the data and count over them. An important dichotomy result by Dalvi and Suciu classifies the queries (such as this example) for which this task is intractable, and the ones for which it is tractable.
With my advisor and Pierre Bourhis from Lille (whom I met at Oxford), we wondered whether everything was lost for hard queries. We had hope, because the result by Dalvi and Suciu allows arbitrary input databases, which is quite pessimistic: real data is usually simpler than the worst possible case. We thought of this in connection with a well-known result by Courcelle: some queries which are generally hard to evaluate become tractable when the data has bounded treewidth, intuitively meaning that it is close to a tree. In the probabilistic XML context, it had already been noted that probabilistic evaluation is tractable on trees, e.g., on probabilistic XML data, even for very expressive queries. We thought that this could generalize to bounded treewidth data.
We show such a result in our work Provenance Circuits for Trees and Treelike Instances, which studies the more general question of computing provenance information. The field of provenance studies how to represent the dependency of query results on the initial data; it relates to probability evaluation because determining the probability of a query amounts to determining the probability of its provenance information, or lineage. Intuitively, the lineage of my example query would say "There is a match if: Jean messaged Jamie and Jean lives in Paris and Jamie lives in Paris, or..." To determine the probability that the query has a match, it suffices to evaluate the probability of this statement (which may still be intractable).
We rephrase probabilistic query evaluation in terms of provenance because there is a very neat presentation of provenance in terms as semiring annotations manipulated through relational algebra operators. Our work shows that how an analogous notion can be defined in the context of trees and automata, and can be "transported" through Courcelle's correspondence between bounded treewidth graphs and trees. As it turns out, the lineages that we can construct are circuits and themselves have bounded treewidth, so we incidentally obtain that probability evaluation is tractable on bounded treewidth instances. We extended this to show the tractability of many existing database formalisms, and the existence of tractable lineage representations.
In a more recent work, Tractable Lineages on Treelike Instances: Limits and Extensions, we show that bounded-treewidth tractability essentially cannot be improved: there are queries which are hard to evaluate for any restriction on input instances which does not imply that the treewidth is bounded (or that the instances are non-constructible in a strong sense). This lead us to investigate questions about the extraction of topological minors, using a recent breakthrough in this area. We developed a similar dichotomy result for other tasks, including a meta-dichotomy of the queries that are intractable in a certain sense on all unbounded-treewidth constructible instance families, a result reminiscent of the dichotomy of queries by Dalvi and Suciu, but with a very different landscape.
The hope would be to develop query evaluation methods on probabilistic data which use the structure of both the instance and query to achieve tractability, or to make well-principled approximations. We hope that such techniques could lead to realistic ways to evaluate queries on probabilistic databases.
Other things
This post only presents my past or current work that fits well with the general story that I plan to tell about my PhD research. I'm sorry to my past and current collaborators who are not featured in the list. In particular, some of my other collaborators are: |
At the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Obama urged rejection of policies that ‘target people because of religion’ – now congregants are anxious the ban is exactly that
Every March since 2014, the Islamic Society of Baltimore has organized a minor pilgrimage for as many as 60 of its congregants to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holy city for Muslims and birthplace of the prophet Muhammad.
This year, the trip was canceled amid fears that Donald Trump’s travel ban on certain Muslim-majority countries might bar re-entry even to those who call the United States their home.
Washington state seeks to expand travel ban injunction to cover revised order Read more
“With the community being comprised of a large number of immigrants, we felt it was important to put things on hold until we had more clarity,” said Saad Malik, a member of the Baltimore area mosque who helps facilitate the annual event.
“It was better to be safe than sorry.”
On the Friday before the second version of Trump’s travel ban was to take effect, congregants shuffled in and out of the three-story prayer space in suburban Baltimore.
It seemed a distant memory to many that one year ago, at the height of a Republican primary season overrun by hostile rhetoric against Muslims, Barack Obama chose the community for his first visit to a US mosque as president.
Although it took Obama until the last year of his presidency to finally mark the occasion, many who attended now look back upon the encounter almost wistfully.
Dr Ed Tori, who serves on the Islamic Society of Baltimore’s leadership committee, recalled it as “an epic speech that really energized our local community”. In recent months, following Trump’s election, he has instead wondered what fate awaits the 3,000 who worship at the mosque and estimated three million Muslims in the US.
“Could it get as bad as us wearing yellow Ms on our shirts and having to go to a camp? Yeah, it could get that bad,” he said.
“But I hope that our legal system and the checks and balances and the surrounding community would prevent that.”
Inside the Islamic Society of Baltimore, classrooms have emptied for the weekly service. A loudspeaker carries the sermon of an imam who encourages attendees to be the best version of themselves and give back to their communities.
In February 2016, it was the president who offered such words of encouragement. In a speech that celebrated the everyday contributions of Muslims, Obama pointedly denounced election-year hyperbole that painted Muslims with a broad brush.
“We can’t be bystanders to bigotry,” Obama said. “We have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias, and targets people because of religion.
“Let me say as clearly as I can as president of the United States: you fit right here,” he added to the hundreds in attendance. “You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America too.”
Although he did not refer to any candidate by name, Obama’s remarks came less than two months after then candidate Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. Few in the audience would have predicted then that Trump would win the Republican nomination, much less be elected president.
“Sometimes it’s hard to believe that it happened, because the rhetoric became much more negative on the campaign trail,” said Danette Zaghari-Mask, an English teacher at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, of Obama’s visit. “It was an affirmation … recognizing aspects of our community that we’ve always known.
“Now we have a president who has a very different tone, a very different message. As a parent it’s very concerning to me.”
At the time of Obama’s remarks at the mosque, Trump dismissed its significance while hinting at debunked conspiracy theories that the president was himself a Muslim.
“I don’t know, maybe he feels comfortable there,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “There are a lot of places he can go and he chose a mosque.”
The travel ban against seven Muslim-majority countries was among Trump’s first acts as president and one his administration vigorously defended by serving up falsehoods about the vetting process for those seeking to immigrate into the country. While making the case for his policy in his first joint address to Congress earlier this month, Trump employed the phrase “radical Islam” against the guidance of his new national security adviser, HR McMaster.
The president’s attitude has been amplified by his staff, who have made few efforts to recast or clarify his thinking, even as the ban was blocked by courts and his second, narrower ban faces new legal challenges. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, recently ducked a question about a report that found the number of anti-Muslim hate groups in America tripled last year. Rather than address the Southern Poverty Law Center’s findings, Spicer launched into a canned rebuke of “radical Islamic terrorism”.
The approach stands in contrast not just to Obama, but also to Trump’s Republican predecessor. George W Bush, just days after the attacks on 11 September 2001, memorably went to a mosque in Washington in an attempt to quell backlash against Muslims in America.
“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam,” Bush said in his speech. “That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”
Since Trump took office, two mosques in Texas were burned to the ground while several people were killed in a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City. None were addressed by Trump directly – although Spicer offered his condolences for the Quebec attack before holding it up as a rationale for the administration’s travel ban on certain Muslim-majority countries, even though those targeted were Muslims.
“When you talk about the policies being harmful, that’s one thing,” said Ahmed Mahmoud, a native of Maryland who attends prayer services at the Islamic Society of Baltimore.
“But the discourse that they use to justify and facilitate the creation of [Trump’s] policies – that in and of itself has been harmful and you see that manifesting in the increase in hate crimes, targeting especially not just Muslims but anybody who shares the physical traits of Muslims.”
For Zaghari-Mask, insecurities about the current political climate have meant tough conversations with her students about scapegoating and other moments in history when groups have been subject to discrimination based on religion or nationality. It has also meant protecting her 10-year-old daughter from alienation.
Last week, Zaghari-Mask’s daughter was crying when she was picked up from school. She said one of her friends told her she “wasn’t allowed to be friends with people who wear those things on their heads”.
“My daughter doesn’t wear a scarf, I do,” said Zaghari-Mask. “We’re really concerned about normalizing hatred and suspicion.”
A January survey found that about half of Americans think at least some US Muslims are anti-American.
The Islamic Society of Baltimore, like other mosques across the country, has enhanced its security since the election and also taken active steps to respond. Its school recently started a committee with a focus on how to combat Islamophobia and antisemitism.
But there is also an outpouring of support that has stemmed from Trump’s election.
Whereas mail was once equally divided between positive and negative messages, Tori noted, it’s now “off the charts positive”.
ACLU launching People Power to resist Trump immigration policies in 'freedom cities' Read more
There have been offers to go shopping for Muslim women who might be reluctant to go out in public. Tori’s daughter was even stopped on her way out of the mosque by someone who asked her how to wear a hijab (headscarf) “so that she could wear one in solidarity”.
Some faith leaders have issued public invitations to Trump to visit a mosque as president and learn more about his Muslim constituents. The congregants at the Islamic Society of Baltimore have a simpler request.
“We are a representation of American values when it comes to people who work hard, who practice their religious liberties, who come out and stand up for what this country believes in,” said Mahmoud.
“That’s our community. Don’t count us out just because we’re Muslim.” |
Society says that once a woman becomes a wife, has kids or reaches a certain age then they are no longer allowed to express their sexuality. Women who breach this outdated social norm are slut-shamed, condemned, criticised and judged for the way they dress, act and speak.
They say ‘Is that dress really appropriate for a mom to wear? What kind of example are you setting for your daughter?’ They say ‘you’re 60, you should cover up.’ They say ‘how does he [the husband] allow his wife to dress like that let alone go out in public.’ They say ‘you’re a bad role model for young women.’ They say ‘you have no self-respect.’
Well, the star who needs no introduction. The one and only Madonna recently posted a number of semi-nude photos onto her Instagram under the caption “Still Acting my Age!!!” accompanied by some choice words:
“How do i know I’m still acting my Age? Because its MY age and its MY life and all of you Women Hating Bigots need to sit down and try to understand why you feel the need to limit me with your fear of what you aren’t familiar with. You know what happens to Bigots? NOTHING! Nothing happens to people who. Think in a limited way. Facts… ” wrote Madonna.
Yaassss girl Yasssss!
Thank you for living your life how you want and not how society says you must. Thank you for fighting against this sexist expiry date that dictates when a woman can or cannot express their sexuality. Thank you for fighting to dismantle the sexist social expectations placed upon women.
But at a time where women need the support of other women to fight the patriarchy and these sexist social expectations- unfortunately, in many cases it’s other girls who are doing the hating. Let’s be real. Girl on girl hate exists. And it sucks.
Girl on girl hate, however unfortunate, is unsurprising. We live in a culture where girls are constantly pinned against each other as rivals. It’s always a ‘Who Wore it Better’ between two women, instead of a ‘They Both Slayed.’ As prominent novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pointed out in her personal essay We Should All Be Feminists and in Beyoncé’s song ‘Flawless’:
“We raise girls to see each other as competitors —
not for jobs or for accomplishments,
which I think can be a good thing,
but for the attention of men.
We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings
in the way that boys are.”
So, it really is unsurprising that girl on girl hate exists. Seriously though, why does society, men and other women, think it’s okay to police what women do with their bodies? The same doesn’t happen for men, so why women?
What is it about a woman embracing herself that is so disgraceful and so difficult for society to understand? Isn’t there enough self-hate already? So many people are struggling with learning to love themselves, with body dysmorphia, eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. Yet when a woman shows an ounce of body positivity, confidence and actually embraces herself, society is so ready to bring her down and keep her down.
Another woman who has spoken out about society trying to dictate her sexuality is Kim Kardashian West. Just one scroll through the comments on one of Kim’s photos and you can see the hate for yourself. And you’ve got to hand it to her, despite all the hate, she’s still fighting the good fight for female empowerment and women’s sexual liberation. Earlier this year, on International Women’s Day, Kim posted an essay and hit us all with some truth bombs. She wrote:
“I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin. I am empowered by showing the world my flaws and not being afraid of what anyone is going to say about me. And I hope that through this platform I have been given, I can encourage the same empowerment for girls and women all over the world.”
How are these women bad role models? They teach young girls: that there is no shame in expressing themselves. That there is no shame in their sexuality. That they shouldn’t be ashamed of their bodies. That there is no shame in loving themselves and being confident. That they should live their lives on their terms rather than trying not to offend the delicate sensibilities of some people. That they shouldn’t be afraid of being judged by not conforming to sexist expectations of how a woman should dress, act and speak. To me, that’s the message, the fight and the resolve of a powerful role model.
If we believe in personal autonomy, then there shouldn’t be ANY limit on expressing one’s sexuality. Regardless of whether you’re a wife, mother or an older woman, ALL women should be allowed to decide on their own terms what they want to do with their bodies, free from judgement. If that means wearing a ‘burqini’ on the beach, wearing a sheer outfit or being completely covered, turtle-neck and all- Then more power to you.
So how do we change these sexist social expectations on women? Well for a start we need a lot less girl on girl hate and a lot more #GirlLove. Lilly Singh, the popular YouTuber, also known as IISuperwomanII, launched a campaign earlier this year to give the world more of what it needs #GirlLove, a campaign that is ‘Dedicated to ending and reversing the culture of girl-on-girl hatred.’ Check out her video on YouTube titled ‘Goodbye Hate, Hello #GirlLove!’
But for now, keep fighting the good fight against ‘Women Hating Bigots’ and fighting for more #GirlLove. |
(I am the only female working in the parts department in our store. Note: at my previous job, I was involved in a violent fight against a male coworker who tried to assault me. They guy ended up at the hospital and no charges were pressed against me since I acted in self-defense. This story is well known by my current coworkers and my boss and I’m teased mercilessly about being a “man-beater.” This particular day, I’m training a new guy to work on the floor and I’m also acting as the shift supervisor since the department manager is off.)
Customer: *to my coworker* “I need to find this.” *shows a trailer connector*
Coworker: “It’s my first week here and I’m not sure if we carry this. However, let me ask my coworker here; she’ll tell me if we have some.”
Customer: “Her? How can she know something about trailers? She’s a girl. Girls don’t know s*** about trailers!”
Coworker: “Let me assure you, sir, she is the most knowledgeable employee we have here.”
Customer: “Well, if she think she can do a man’s job, let’s ask her.”
(I take a look at his connector.)
Me: “I’m sorry sir, but we do not carry this kind of connector. I could order some, but it will take over two weeks before they come in. May I suggest you go over [trailer store] or [another trailer store]? Both are down the road. They are more specialized than us, and they’ll probably have one in stock.”
Customer: *to my coworker* “I told you she’ll be useless.”
Coworker: “Sir, I don’t know what she can tell you more. We don’t keep that kind of stuff in stock, and she suggested two other other store where they sell those kind of products. I think you’ve gotten all the help you need.”
Customer: *suddenly starts screaming* “Why do you refuse to serve me?! I AM A MAN! I AM A CUSTOMER! I deserve RESPECT and OBEDIENCE! Now you will tell me where the f*** you keep those f***ing connectors!”
Me: “Sir, I already told you; we do not carry them. Those other stores will happily sell one to you, but I can’t because I don’t have any on hand.”
Customer: “You useless b****! Find me a manager with something between his legs so we can discuss man things between men!”
Me: “I am the shift supervisor today, so you’ll have to deal with me. I’ll need you to remain polite or you’ll have to leave.”
Customer: “Well, I will just stay behind you and get on your nerves! You’ll crack and resign from your job and find yourself a man that will teach you what is it to be a good woman! You’ll find a guy who will beat you into a submissive b****, like any good woman should be!”
(I send my coworker, who is on the verge of tears, to call the store manager so we can remove the customer from the store.)
Me: “Okay, sir, the store manager is on his way. I need to ask you to leave the property.”
(At this point my coworker returns, saying the store manager has called the police and is coming as fast as he can. Meanwhile, the customer starts acting very aggressively toward me; he tries to push me and effectively prevents me from going anywhere. He then turns his attention on my coworker, who doesn’t want to leave me alone with this freak. I’m really fearing for our safety, so I drop down and catch the longest, heaviest draw bar I can find. I smile at my coworker and put on the best “death stare” I can do towards the customer.)
Customer: *suddenly scared* “…What are you doing? Stop that! You’re scaring me, b****!”
Me: *grinning but saying nothing*
Customer: “What are you doing with the bar? Put it down! I am a man… I am the customer… I demand obedience and respect!” *to my coworker* “What the f*** is she doing?! Tell her to stop looking at me like that. She gives me the creeps!”
Coworker: “I don’t know sir, but around here, she’s known as a ‘man-beater.’ That’s because she sent a man to the hospital… a man that was trying to assault her at her previous job.”
Customer: “How could they let a crazy woman like this work in a store and deal with customers?!”
Coworker: “Well, she’s pretty handy for customers like you.”
Customer: *very frightened* “Um, I’ll just go now, okay? I’ll go to those other stores and see if they have any in stock.”
(As the customer turns around and starts walking out, he walks directly into the store manager, who is a very tall and broad-shouldered guy.)
Customer: *to store manager* “Your employees are crazy! Women shouldn’t beat men! It’s the other way around! You should break her and make her obedient and submissive, like any good woman!”
Store Manager: “Get out of my store now, or I’ll lock you in my office with her!”
(The customer starts heading towards the exit, but runs straight into two police officers who have just arrived.)
Customer: *to the police officers* “You gotta protect me! She’s crazy! She’s a man-beater!”
Police Officer #1: *sarcastically* “Get into our car. You’ll be safe there.”
(The customer was arrested then and there, which was a good thing: it turned out he was wanted for multiple cases of domestic violence. After his arrest, several ex-girlfriends came out and testified against him, putting him away for good.) |
An army of build-it city dwellers, funded by the CEO of Yelp, is heading to court to force a sleepy East Bay suburb to go dense.
The San Francisco Bay Area Renters’ Federation — which goes by the name SFBarf — is suing the city of Lafayette, demanding that it resurrect a scrapped plan to build high-density housing on a 22-acre knoll of Deer Hill Road, just north of Highway 24. It’s the first legal challenge in what SFBarf has promised will be a “Sue the Suburbs” campaign to push places like Lafayette to help the Bay Area build its way out of the shortage of housing.
The case is making a central Contra Costa County town known for good schools and cow-dotted hillsides a battlefront in a regional housing war.
“Why Lafayette? It’s on BART, it’s right next to Walnut Creek, and yes, people want to live there,” said SFBarf’s 34-year-old founder, Sonja Trauss, a full-time activist with a master’s degree in economics who lives in West Oakland.
“It’s a nice place,” said SFBarf’s lawyer, Ryan Patterson.
Now Trauss is trying to force Lafayette to do what she sees as its fair share. Her organization sued the city in September after hearing that a developer had tabled plans to build 315 moderate-income apartments on a stretch of open space, instead opting for 44 single-family homes with a dog park, sports field and parking lot.
City Manager Steven Falk deemed that plan a fair alternative after residents criticized the original proposal in 2013, saying it would desecrate the landscape and clog the city’s roads. The revised “Homes at Deer Hill” plan got a warm reception in City Hall, and the City Council unanimously approved it in August.
SFBarf filed a revised lawsuit in March, saying that officials had violated the state’s Housing Accountability Act, which bars cities from rejecting development for arbitrary reasons — in this case, because a vocal faction of Lafayette residents wanted to preserve the city’s “semirural” character.
Trauss said city officials had strong-armed the developer, O’Brien Homes, into redesigning the project at a lower density.
Seeking to make a statement
The suit seeks to invalidate the 44-home plan and force the city to issue permits for the original 315-apartment development, regardless of whether O’Brien Homes still wants to build it, Patterson said. A spokesman for the company declined to comment until the SFBarf lawsuit and a competing one are resolved.
Mostly, SFBarf’s idea is to make a statement.
“The goal here is to discourage municipalities in the future from breaking the law just because they think the public won’t stand up and push back,” Patterson said.
“It’s such a dramatic story, but it’s an example of what cities try to do a lot,” Trauss said. To her, Lafayette had become an allegory for all cities that resist new construction and housing growth.
“The name (Lafayette) makes the place sound fancy and exclusive — which it is,” she said.
According to 2010 U.S. census data, Lafayette is 81 percent white, and data from the real estate tracking site Zillow show the median home price is almost $1.4 million. Still, the city’s population is on an upswing, increasing from 23,794 in 2010 to 25,473 in 2014.
Some Lafayette homeowners say they’ve witnessed plenty of new development over the last few years, to the point that cars are clotting the city’s main arteries.
“It’s awful, it’s dangerous,” said Michael Griffiths, a 67-year-old software salesman who has lived in Lafayette since 1989. “The biggest shopping mall, where they have Safeway and Whole Foods, is a disaster.”
Like Trauss, Griffiths opposes the plan to build 44 homes at Deer Hill — albeit for the opposite reason. Where she sees a dearth of development, he sees an overload.
“You take 22 acres of prime land that faces Mount Diablo,” he said. “And then you want to add 44 homes, and 10 acres of sports fields, and a parking lot that holds 70 or 80 cars for those who want to visit the sports fields.”
Griffiths sees SFBarf’s lawsuit as little more than a stunt by outsiders with no stake in the town’s future.
SFBarf is, indeed, a new kind of political animal. Over the past year, its 50 volunteers — most of them young renters, like Trauss — have popped up at city council meetings throughout the Bay Area, pressing officials to build everything from low-income apartments to high-end condos.
Funding from Yelp CEO
In December, SFBarf ran its own slate of candidates for the San Francisco chapter of the Sierra Club — a brazen and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to change the chapter’s opposition to high-rise projects.
Reviled by many homeowners and old-school preservationists, SFBarf has won support from 38-year-old Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, who has become its main benefactor. He says the Bay Area’s housing shortage has “choked off the growth potential” for companies in San Francisco, which can’t attract new employees if there aren’t enough reasonably priced places to live.
“It’s very basic,” Stoppelman said. “It’s not about luxury versus non-luxury. It’s just about the units. We have to focus on the numbers.”
This year, Stoppelman donated $100,000 to SFBarf, much of which has helped fund the lawsuit against Lafayette.
It was such housing battles that prompted state legislators to pass the Housing Accountability Act — also dubbed the “anti-nimby law” — in 1982, said Patterson, the SFBarf lawyer.
“There’s a perhaps natural tendency to want to keep things as they are,” he said. “So cities were squishing or downsizing projects that they didn’t want to see, because they didn’t want change.”
But the law is seldom enforced, and as a result, cities usually have the upper hand when they ask a developer to scale back and build something smaller, the attorney said.
“Developers have this terrible choice between fighting to have the city approve something it doesn’t want, or cutting a deal and agreeing to build the project at a lower density,” Patterson said.
In the case of the Lafayette development, it was easier for the builder to compromise and downsize than duke it out with the city, he said.
“I think SFBarf saw an injustice taking place, with no one else to make it right,” Patterson said.
Griffiths and other residents see it differently.
“They showed up within four weeks of this (project) being approved,” Griffiths said. “They’re a bunch of not-very-well-informed people who are funded by a software executive.”
Infuriated, Griffiths corralled several like-minded residents to form the group Save Lafayette. On March 17, they filed their own lawsuit against the city, demanding a ballot referendum that would allow voters to rescind the zoning plan for Deer Hill.
If passed, the measure would “make it considerably more complicated for the development to happen,” said Griffiths’ lawyer, Stuart Flashman.
Downtown development
Lafayette officials wouldn’t comment on the odd-couple lawsuits, though City Manager Falk defended the strategy of concentrating development downtown, near the BART station, about 2 miles away from the proposed Homes at Deer Hill.
The city has about 500 units either recently completed or in the construction pipeline, Falk said. Most of them are downtown, intended for commuters and renters.
“This is one of the ironies of the lawsuit brought by SFBarf,” Falk said. “Succinctly stated: They’re suing the wrong suburb.”
Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @rachelswan |
This article is inspired by Dmitry Ledentsov’s blog post: C++ version of ruby’s Integer::times via user-defined literals.
In this post Dmitry (aka DLed) is inspired to replicate Ruby’s syntax for repeating actions. In Ruby we can write:
42.times do ...
Where … is some bit of code to be repeated, in this case, forty-two times. Dmitry’s blog shows off the Modern C++ feature of user-defined literals.
But I’m a bit old school on this and I don’t care for that syntax. But the post did inspire me to play around with how I’d implement this with a more traditional syntax. Along the way we’ll touch on decltype, template function overloading, SFINAE, variadic template parameters, assert(), type functions, perfect forwarding, and, of course, trying to write our code as generally as possible.
First cut
So the first cut is pretty straight forward. We want to write this:
int main() { times(3, []{std::cout << "bla/n";}); }
So we need this:
#include <iostream> template <class Callable> void times(int n, Callable f) { for (int i{0}; i != n; ++i) { f(); } }
We could avoid the template by writing the function like this:
void times(int n, void(*f)()) { for (int i{0}; i != n; ++i) { f(); } }
Or, more clearly:
using Callable = void(*)(); void times(int n, Callable f) { for (int i{0}; i != n; ++i) { f(); } }
But this would only work for functions and function pointers that are a perfect match for this signature. A function that returns a non-void return type, couldn’t be passed, even though it would work for our purposes.
But more importantly, this approach would only work for functions and function pointers. It would not work for function objects and, most importantly of all, it wouldn’t work or lambdas.
Of course we want to be as general as possible, so we’ll do this:
#include <iostream> template<class Count, class Callable> void times(Count n, Callable f) { for (Count i{0}; i != n; ++i) { f(); } }
But just as Dmitry does, we want to be able to also support a version where the Callable takes a parameter that is the loop iteration. This is one thing that I miss when using the Modern range based for syntax–sometimes I want to know what iteration we are on.
Iteration count
So we want to be able to write this:
int main() { times(3, [](int i){std::cout << "counting: " << i << "/n";}); times(3, []{std::cout << "bla/n";}); }
We use the trick suggested by Kirk Shoop (and improved by Alberto Ganesh Barbati) to implement this:
#include <utility> // #1 without argument template<class Count, class Callable, class Enable = decltype(std::declval<Callable>()()) > void times(Count n, Callable f, ...) { for (Count i{0}; i != n; ++i) { f(); } } // #2 with argument template<class Count, class Callable, class Enable = decltype(std::declval<Callable>()(Count{0})) > void times(Count n, Callable f) { for (Count i{0}; i != n; ++i) { f(i); } }
Notice that the variadic parameter pack (…) is introduced to prevent the compiler from objecting to the fact that we are essentially defining the same template twice with the only difference being the default type of the Enable parameter.
By introducing the parameter pack argument we make the two definitions of times different so that the compiler will accept them both as overloads. (Two definitions that only differ in a default value are a redefinition, not an overload.) But because a parameter pack can be empty (and will be in this use case), the two definitions are really the same in practice. It doesn’t matter which definition gets the parameter pack because, as we just discussed, it will be empty.
The reason that the compiler rejects a redefinition is because it won’t know which function to call, the original or the redefinition. By using the empty parameter pack trick to fool the compiler into thinking that these are two different definitions when in practice they really aren’t, aren’t we just setting ourselves up for failure when we try to call the function? How will the compiler know which definition to use when we make a class for which the parameter pack is empty?
The trick here is that we are using something called SFINAE. If you don’t know about enable_if and/or SFINAE, then you can either just chalk this up to template magic that you’ll learn later, or you could watch this talk and learn it now.
In this code we aren’t using enable_if, which is the typical go to tool for SFINAE, instead we have the Enable parameter which is functioning like enable_if. That is to say that if the Callable doesn’t take a Count argument (initialized by 0) then the definition that I’ve labeled #2 with argument gets SFINAE’ed out and if the Callable can’t be called without arguments, then the definition that I’ve labeled #1 without argument gets SFINAE’ed out.
Since the Enable parameter is only used for SFINAE, we never pass it a value and only use the default. The default value expression uses std::declval, which added to C++11 specifically for this type of situation. If we didn’t have it, we’d end up using something like this:
class Enable = decltype((*(Callable*) nullptr)())
declval just creates a reference type of its template arguments to it can be used in expressions in unevaluated contexts like decltype().
Exploiting the generality
So far we haven’t done anything that Dmitry didn’t accomplish and some people might prefer his (Ruby inspired) syntax. But I prefer the traditional syntax because I think it is more general. Here is why I think so:
Now that we are taking an iterator count, we might want to play games with that. We’d like to index between any two arbitrary values. We could index between 10 to 15. We could even handle indexing in reverse order:
int main() { times(10, 16, [](int i){std::cout << "index: " << i << "/n";}); times(15, 9, [](int i){std::cout << "index: " << i << "/n";}); times(3, [](int i){std::cout << "counting: " << i << "/n";}); times(3, []{std::cout << "bla/n";}); }
The implementations is the same as before with the addition of these definitions:
#include <utility> // #1 without argument template< class Count, class Callable, class Enable = decltype(std::declval<Callable>()()) > void times(Count start, Count end, Callable f, ...) { if (start < end) { for (auto i(start); i != end; ++i) { f(); } } else if (start > end) { for (auto i(start); i != end; --i) { f(); } } } // #2 with argument template< class Count, class Callable, class Enable = decltype(std::declval<Callable>()(Count{0})) > void times(Count start, Count end, Callable f) { if (start < end) { for (auto i(start); i != end; ++i) { f(i); } } else if (start > end) { for (auto i(start); i != end; --i) { f(i); } } }
Notice that if the Callable doesn’t take the index argument, we don’t really care what order we index, but we still need to get the direction correct in order to know if we need to increment or decrement.
Next step
Now that we’ve done this, I’d guess that you see the next step coming. We’d like to increment (or decrement) by values other than one. So we’d like to be able to do this:
int main() { times(10, 20, 3, [](int i){std::cout << "i: " << i << "/n";}); times(20, 10, 3, [](int i){std::cout << "i: " << i << "/n";}); times(10, 16, [](int i){std::cout << "index: " << i << "/n";}); times(15, 9, [](int i){std::cout << "index: " << i << "/n";}); times(3, [](int i){std::cout << "counting: " << i << "/n";}); times(3, []{std::cout << "bla/n";}); }
The implementations is the same as before with the addition of these definitions:
#include <utility> // #1 without argument template< class Count, class Callable, class Enable = decltype(std::declval<Callable>()()) > void times(Count start, Count end, Count delta, Callable f, ...) { assert(delta != 0); if (delta < 0) { delta = 0 - delta; } if (start < end) { for (auto i(start); i < end; i += delta) { f(); } } else if (start > end) { for (auto i(start); i > end; i -= delta) { f(); } } } // #2 with argument template< class Count, class Callable, class Enable = decltype(std::declval<Callable>()(Count{0})) > void times(Count start, Count end, Count delta, Callable f) { assert(delta != 0); if (delta < 0) { delta = 0 - delta; } if (start < end) { for (auto i(start); i < end; i += delta) { f(i); } } else if (start > end) { for (auto i(start); i > end; i -= delta) { f(i); } } }
If the delta parameter is zero, this is a logic error, so we assert(), as is appropriate for logic errors. That means that we also need:
#include <cassert>
The direction of the delta is ambiguous in normal conversation. One could say “Count from twenty to ten by threes.” and not be expected to say “Count from twenty to ten by negative threes.” So we’ll take it as given that the direction of the delta is determined by the start and end values of the indexing range.
Note that we need to change our terminating condition. Up until now we’ve followed the STL inspired practice of terminating with the general:
i != end
but now that we have non-monatomic incrementing, we need the less general loop termination to avoid overshooting the end point.
Arbitrary parameters
The last generality I want to address is to allow us to pass arbitrary values to be used as parameters to the Callable. We see this pattern in the call to std::async(). We’d like to be able to write:
int main() { times(3, 6, 1, [](int i) {std::cout << "4: " << i << "
";}, 4); times(3, 6, 1, [](int i, float f) {std::cout << i << " " << f << "
";}, 4, 0.4); times(3, 6, 1, [] {std::cout << "no params
";}); times(3, 6, 1, [](int i) {std::cout << "count: " << i << "
";}); }
That is to say, we want to be able to pass any number of any type of parameters after the Callable and these parameters should be perfect forwarded to the Callable.
We don’t want to break any of our existing functionality (which depends on using the empty variadic parameter pack trick) and we don’t want to cause any ambiguity if we happen to pass a parameter of the same type as the Count parameter.
For our implementation we just need to add a new definition that will only be enabled (using our friend std::enable_if) when there are parameters passed after the Callable. That is, when the parameter pack is not empty.
Here is our implementation. Note that we need to add this same definition for the flavors that have one and two Count parameters before the Callable.
template< class Count, class Callable, class... Args > auto times(Count start, Count end, Count delta, Callable f, Args&&... args) -> std::enable_if_t<(sizeof...(args) > 0)> { assert(delta != 0); if (delta < 0) { delta = 0 - delta; } if (start < end) { for (auto i(start); i < end; i += delta) { f(std::forward<Args>(args)...); } } else if (start > end) { for (auto i(start); i > end; i -= delta) { f(std::forward<Args>(args)...); } } }
In the previous versions, we didn’t need to name the parameter pack type or value because we didn’t ever use it. (It was only used to prevent the compiler from complaining about our redefinition of times().) But here we are going to use the parameter pack (we are going to perfect forward it to the Callable), so we need to give it a type (our template parameter Args&&) and a name, args.
The && following the template type means that this is a forwarding reference. It has the same syntax as an rvalue reference, but due to the magic of reference collapsing, args is a pack of lvalue and rvalue references depending on what was deduced from what is passed. When we pass them on with std::forward<Args>(args)… the compiler will pass them to the Callable so that each parameter is the type (rvalue or lvalue) that the reference is bound to.
This is the secret of perfect forwarding. How this happens is really beyond the scope of what I want to talk about here, but I did want to show how to perfect forward an arbitrary set of parameters à la async(), emplace(), and make_shared().
We are also using std::enable_if to disable this definition when the parameter pack is empty.
Template type functions, which is what enable_if is, are templates that take types (and compile time constant values) as parameters and return a type (as a nested type named type). enable_if takes two parameters, one a compile time Boolean constant and the other a type. If the constant is true, then the type function returns the passed type. If the constant is false, the function definition is disabled, that is it is SFINAE’ed out of the overload set. The overload set is the set of functions that the compiler will consider when, in this case, we call times.
Since enable_if is a type function, we would need to write it like this:
typename std::enable_if<(sizeof...(args) > 0), void>::type
except there are some short cuts. The second parameter (the type) defaults to void which is what we want in this case, so we don’t need to specify it. Also we can use enable_if_t. This is a type alias to the type defined by the nested type referred to as ::type, so we end up just writing:
std::enable_if_t<(sizeof...(args) > 0)>
Note that we need the parentheses around the compile-time constant Boolean expression because it contains the “>” character which will be seen as closing the template parameter block if it is not in parentheses.
The magic of enable_if is that it makes a function template definition “go away” (when the Boolean value is false) no matter where it is in the definition. It can be any of the parameter types, a default value of a parameter type, or the return value. Since I’m using it as the return value here and because it depends on an identifier defined in the parameter block (args), we need to use the trailing return type syntax:
auto times(...) -> return_type
The Boolean compile time constant that we are passing to enable_if is sizeof…(args) > 0. This use of sizeof takes a parameter pack (that’s what the … is for) and, instead of returning a number of bytes as sizeof usually returns, it returns the number of parameters in the parameter back. In our case we don’t care about the number, we only care that it is non-zero, that is to say, that the parameter pack is not empty. If the parameter pack is empty for a particular call, the compiler ignores this definition for that particular call, because of enable_if. If the parameter pack is not empty (there are parameters after the Callable) then the definition is used and its return value is void.
Comments
This exercise was, to me, less about a useful implementation (unlike Dmitry, I’ve not used Ruby or times and don’t crave them) than about playing with implementing a simple library that explores some nice implementation techniques.
If you’d like to share your thoughts, please comment on the reddit post.
Updates
This post has been updated based on the reddit comments. My thanks to the all the commenters.
mark_99 pointed out that the ellipsis trick is classic varargs, not the modern variadic template parameter feature.
Bobby Graese? (TrueJournals) pointed out that I was needlessly using decltype to declare i.
Thanks to Alberto Ganesh Barbati (iaanus) for teaching me about declval.
The comments also contain an application of if constexpr by Vittorio Romeo (SuperV1234) that really cleans up this exercise. I didn’t update for this because if constexpr is a C++17 feature.
Vittorio also suggests that “You should also consider passing f by forwarding-reference, in order to avoid unnecessary copies for non-zero-sized callable objects.” This is not consistent with the standard practice in the STL of just passing callables by copy. That is based on the assumption that callables are usually cheap to copy. There is a readability trade-off. You be the judge. Here is this suggestion applied to the first cut:
#include <iostream> template <class Callable> void times(int n, Callable&& f) { for (int i{0}; i != n; ++i) { std::forward<Callable>(f)(); } }
And thanks to Louis Dione for reminding us that Hana does it better.
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The CDU would be excluded from the event this year because of certain politicians' "undignified" and "indecent" remarks arguing against marriage and equality for gay couples in recent debates, said parade organizer Robert Kastl in a statement on Tuesday.
The chancellor's conservative party reject same-sex marriage and have been dragging its feet over implementing a demand by Germany's highest Constitutional Court to grant gay and lesbian couples the same tax breaks and adoption rights as straight married couples.
On Saturday June 22, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the Christopher Street Day parade in Berlin, along with smaller events across Germany and Switzerland. Last year, organizers said 700,000 people attended in the German capital alone.
And this year's parade, set to take place just three months ahead of national elections, could get highly political, said Kastl in his statement, released on the day politicians voted to legalize gay marriage in neighbouring France.
In protest against the CDU's stance, this year's parade will be motto: "No more empty speeches! Demonstrate! Vote! Change!"
Same-sex marriage supporters have celebrated several successes this year, with not only France, but also Uruguay and New Zealand becoming the latest to join 14 countries worldwide in which gay and lesbian couples can marry.
British MPs voted in February for a bill allowing same-sex marriage in the UK, even though the Conservative Party is in power.
In Germany at the end of March, the Bundesrat upper house of parliament passed an initiative to allow gays to marry, which has yet to be put before the Bundestag lower house of parliament.
While the CDU will be denied its usual big float, organizers welcomed members of the LSU gay and lesbian party sub-group and all those who clearly reject their party's position to participate.
The Christopher Street Day parades commemorate the Stonewall uprising of June 28, 1969, when police harassment at a New York gay bar sparked five days of rioting that launched the US gay rights movement.
The Local/jlb |
0 Former Stanly Co. deputy may not go to jail after guilty plea of taking photos of young girl
STANLY COUNTY, N.C. - Roddy Tomberlin may not have to spend any time in jail if he completes 18 months of supervised probation.
Tomberlin, who was captain at the Stanly County Sheriff's Office, pleaded guilty to taking inappropriate photos of a young girl.
The district attorney told the court that Tomberlin's wife found pictures of a teenage girl in her underwear on a home computer last December, and went to his co-workers who are investigators at the sheriff's office.
The sheriff immediately requested the SBI to investigate.
The state’s computer crimes unit took over and when questioned by a state agent, Tomberlin admitted to sticking his cell phone under a door and taking pictures of a teenage girl.
Channel 9 found out that Tomberlin had a 21-year career in law enforcement that included working as a school resource officer, a patrol deputy and detective.
In addition to working his way up the ranks at the Stanly County Sheriff's Office, Tomberlin also worked with Mint Hill Police and as an officer at the Charlotte airport.
Tomberlin has since resigned from the Stanly County Sherriff's Office.
“It was surprising in light of who was charged,” said Stanly County District Attorney Lynn Clodfelter. “I've known Mr. Tomberlin in his role in law enforcement and I was very surprised, as was I think, everyone involved with his office, in law enforcement, the district attorney's office as well."
Channel 9 anchor Liz Foster asked Tomberlin’s attorney, Charles Parnell, if Tomberlin has any remorse for his actions.
“Sure. He obviously made a mistake by doing what was done,” Parnell said.
In addition to probation, Tomberlin is required to get a mental health assessment, do community service and have no contact with the victim.
But Tomberlin will not have to register as a sex offender. That's because the judge said he has no prior criminal history and is not a danger to others.
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"It's official the Ice Rink Canary Wharf is the best ice rink in London." - Qype
Ice Rink Canary Wharf
Get your skates on, Ice Rink Canary Wharf has returned to Canada Square Park for 15 magical weeks of ice skating beneath the twinkling lights. Open seven days a week, it's the perfect place to enjoy one of London's most loved winter traditions.
Take a turn on the ice, skating around the main 1200 sq m rink.
If you want to eat, drink and shop all in one go, Canary Wharf is the spot. Stay close to the action at the rink-side bar, or choose from the array of restaurants, bars, and shops surrounding the ice rink. And it's not just during Christmas that you can take a spin on the ice, Ice Rink Canary Wharf opens seven days a week from November 2018 through to February 2019. |
The U.S. military has begun providing Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces with equipment and weapons, according to a new report.
The provisions are aimed at helping Kurds in the SDF fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), NBC News reported Tuesday.
NBC confirmed the aid with two U.S. defense officials, one of whom noted that America began giving the tools in the past 24 hours.
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Neither of NBC’s sources provided details on what equipment the U.S. is sending to SDF Kurds or how the items are being delivered.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this month strongly criticized President Trump’s decision to arm Syrian Kurds in the fight against ISIS. Turkey considers the SDF Kurds to be terrorists and an extension of outlawed Kurdish insurgents within its borders.
“I hope very much that this mistake will be reversed immediately,” he said, according to Foreign Policy.
“We want to believe that our allies would prefer [to] be side by side with ourselves rather than with the terror groups.”
U.S. officials announced earlier this month that Trump had signed off on a plan “to equip Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces” in the fight to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from ISIS.
“The SDF, partnered with enabling support from U.S. and coalition forces, are the only force on the ground that can successfully seize Raqqa in the near future,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.
NBC earlier this month reported that some of the items headed to SDF Kurds include ammunition, armor, bulldozers, communication gear, engineering equipment and rifles.
The SDF is a coalition of Arab and Kurd fighters in Syria that has been working to retake Raqqa, ISIS’s de facto capital since 2014. |
Manama: A recruitment company has waded into controversy and will face tough action after it displayed three of its domestic helper staff at a mall in the Eastern Province city of Dhahran.
The company made the three women stand next to their pavilion it set up inside the mall for promotional purposes on Saturday.
However, several Saudis reported the show as a humiliation to the domestic workers and condemned it as a form of trafficking in persons. Saudi officials criticised the action by the company.
“We are investigating the matter, and if the facts support the complaints, we will apply the code of punishment against the company,” Khalid Abul Khail, the spokesperson for the labour and social development ministry, said. “The display of domestic helpers at a shopping mall is totally rejected and there will be accountability,” he said, quoted by Saudi daily Al Riyadh on Monday.
A spokesperson for the human rights commission said that a seven-member committee was looking into the transgressions by the recruitment company.
“We have held several events to promote awareness about the illegal trafficking in people and about the rights of domestic helpers.”
The committee includes representatives from the labour ministry, the interior ministry, the foreign ministry, the culture and information ministry, the justice ministry, the investigation and prosecution bureau and the commission for human rights.
A source told the daily that the company was duly licenced to operate in the recruitment sector, but added that its promotion campaign last weekend was “totally wrong for it violated the rights of the helpers.”
“The criteria to uphold and protect the dignity and privacy of the helpers were not respected,” the source said.
Activists reacting to the report about the campaign called for holding both the company and the mall that allowed the promotion accountable and to apply the regulations regarding trafficking in people.
“The company abused its power over the helpless employees and resorted to an action akin to modern slavery,” Abdul Rahman Bin Ruwaita, an activist, said.
Such actions could result in 15 years in jail and a one million Saudi riyals fine, he added. |
Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist and former campaign adviser to Sen. John McCain, tore into GOP leadership in the wake of President Barack Obama's victory on Tuesday, urging them to speak out more aggressively against the most extreme voices in the party.
Appearing on MSNBC, Schmidt referenced a recent Twitter tirade by Donald Trump as evidence that something needs to be done about toning down the rhetoric from certain elements of the GOP.
"Now, people calling for revolution and these extreme statements -- when I talk about a civil war in the Republican Party, what I mean is, it's time for Republican elected leaders to stand up and to repudiate this nonsense, and to repudiate it directly," he said. "There has been a culture of fear and intimidation, that you are not a real conservative if you won't, you know, if you won't, you know, stand -- if you stand up to these extreme statements, whether it's Rush Limbaugh calling that young lady a slut or a hundred other examples over the last four years."
Controversial statements by Republican candidates became devastating campaign issues in a number of races this year. Senate elections in Missouri and Indiana in particular were rocked when the GOP nominees made eyebrow-raising remarks about rape. Missouri Rep. Todd Akin and Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock lost, but not before forcing party officials to make tough decisions about continuing support of their candidacies.
Schmidt has been happy to run against the Republican grain as Election Day approached. Earlier this week, he claimed that popular GOP arguments about alleged widespread voter fraud were simply part of the party's "mythology." |
Cigarettes, damn cigarettes and statistics
We cannot rely on correlation alone. But insisting on absolute proof of causation is too exacting a standard
It is said that there is a correlation between the number of storks’ nests found on Danish houses and the number of children born in those houses. Could the old story about babies being delivered by storks really be true? No. Correlation is not causation. Storks do not deliver children but larger houses have more room both for children and for storks.
This much-loved statistical anecdote seems less amusing when you consider how it was used in a US Senate committee hearing in 1965. The expert witness giving testimony was arguing that while smoking may be correlated with lung cancer, a causal relationship was unproven and implausible. Pressed on the statistical parallels between storks and cigarettes, he replied that they “seem to me the same”.
The witness’s name was Darrell Huff, a freelance journalist beloved by generations of geeks for his wonderful and hugely successful 1954 book How to Lie with Statistics. His reputation today might be rather different had the proposed sequel made it to print. How to Lie with Smoking Statistics used a variety of stork-style arguments to throw doubt on the connection between smoking and cancer, and it was supported by a grant from the Tobacco Institute. It was never published, for reasons that remain unclear. (The story of Huff’s career as a tobacco consultant was brought to the attention of statisticians in articles by Andrew Gelman in Chance in 2012 and by Alex Reinhart in Significance in 2014.)
Indisputably, smoking causes lung cancer and various other deadly conditions. But the problematic relationship between correlation and causation in general remains an active area of debate and confusion. The “spurious correlations” compiled by Harvard law student Tyler Vigen and displayed on his website (tylervigen.com) should be a warning. Did you realise that consumption of margarine is strongly correlated with the divorce rate in Maine?
We cannot rely on correlation alone, then. But insisting on absolute proof of causation is too exacting a standard (arguably, an impossible one). Between those two extremes, where does the right balance lie between trusting correlations and looking for evidence of causation?
Scientists, economists and statisticians have tended to demand causal explanations for the patterns they see. It’s not enough to know that college graduates earn more money — we want to know whether the college education boosted their earnings, or if they were smart people who would have done well anyway. Merely looking for correlations was not the stuff of rigorous science.
But with the advent of “big data” this argument has started to shift. Large data sets can throw up intriguing correlations that may be good enough for some purposes. (Who cares why price cuts are most effective on a Tuesday? If it’s Tuesday, cut the price.) Andy Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, recently argued that economists might want to take mere correlations more seriously. He is not the first big-data enthusiast to say so.
This brings us back to smoking and cancer. When the British epidemiologist Richard Doll first began to suspect the link in the late 1940s, his analysis was based on a mere correlation. The causal mechanism was unclear, as most of the carcinogens in tobacco had not been identified; Doll himself suspected that lung cancer was caused by fumes from tarmac roads, or possibly cars themselves.
Doll’s early work on smoking and cancer with Austin Bradford Hill, published in 1950, was duly criticised in its day as nothing more than a correlation. The great statistician Ronald Fisher repeatedly weighed into the argument in the 1950s, pointing out that it was quite possible that cancer caused smoking — after all, precancerous growths irritated the lung. People might smoke to soothe that irritation. Fisher also observed that some genetic predisposition might cause both lung cancer and a tendency to smoke. (Another statistician, Joseph Berkson, observed that people who were tough enough to resist adverts and peer pressure were also tough enough to resist lung cancer.)
Hill and Doll showed us that correlation should not be dismissed too easily. But they also showed that we shouldn’t give up on the search for causal explanations. The pair painstakingly continued their research, and evidence of a causal association soon mounted.
Hill and Doll took a pragmatic approach in the search for causation. For example, is there a dose-response relationship? Yes: heavy smokers are more likely to suffer from lung cancer. Does the timing make sense? Again, yes: smokers develop cancer long after they begin to smoke. This contradicts Fisher’s alternative hypothesis that people self-medicate with cigarettes in the early stages of lung cancer. Do multiple sources of evidence add up to a coherent picture? Yes: when doctors heard about what Hill and Doll were finding, many of them quit smoking, and it became possible to see that the quitters were at lower risk of lung cancer. We should respect correlation but it is a clue to a deeper truth, not the end of our investigations.
It’s not clear why Huff and Fisher were so fixated on the idea that the growing evidence on smoking was a mere correlation. Both of them were paid as consultants by the tobacco industry and some will believe that the consulting fees caused their scepticism. It seems just as likely that their scepticism caused the consulting fees. We may never know.
Written for and first published at ft.com. |
Uber is having a hard time finding enough people with cars willing to work for them.
To solve that problem, the company has raised $1 billion to start Xchange Leasing, a sub-prime lender with the sole purpose of getting poor people into new cars so they can drive for the ride-hailing service.
If you've got a license and are willing to drive, Uber will hook you up with a new car, no matter how bad your credit. To make sure you make your payments, though, Uber will automatically deduct them weekly from what you earn as a driver. If you don't drive enough, or you fail to make your lease payment, Xchange has folks to take the car back.
As for the terms, well, here's what Mark Williams, a lecturer at Boston University's business school told Bloomberg News: "The terms, the way they're proposed, are predatory and are very much driven toward profiting off drivers."
Uber, which is now valued at $62.5 billion, can only make money if tens of thousands of people sign up as drivers. That's because 50 percent of Uber drivers quit after just six months.
Xchange wants to address that by striking deals with automakers and Wall Street backers to lease 100,000 cars to new Uber drivers. Uber says they are providing a pathway for poor people to buy a new car.
Unfortunately, Xchange Leasing sounds more like a payday-loan racket built into a company store. The lease increases the company's control over the driver, who Uber still insists is nothing more than an "independent" contractor.
How is someone independent when Uber controls access to customers, sets the billing rates, demands a minimum number of hours and owns the car and the predatory lease on it?
Some amoral, Ayn Rand-loving sociopaths in Silicon Valley will insist that drivers should know what they are doing when they sign up. After all, the terms of service are sufficiently explanatory.
But here's the truth about human beings: not all of us are equally-well educated, and not everyone understands lease terms. We know from exploitative lending practices throughout history that poor people are the most likely to be suckered, often because they are so desperate to escape poverty that they will try almost anything.
Uber initially claimed to be part of the "sharing" economy, a marketing term that masks the unsavory nature of these exploitative business plans. But as we learn more about what companies like Uber must do to enrich the venture capitalists who back them, it becomes clear that old-fashioned exploitation of the desperate is at the heart of the enterprise.
Companies can throw around words like innovation all they want, but if recruitment means taking advantage of the desperate, then there's something wrong. Sometimes people forget that not everything that is shiny and new is necessarily good. |
Law enforcement sources have identified the man who attempted a bombing at the Port Authority Bus Terminal subway station in New York City on Monday morning as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah.
“Ullah is from Bangladesh and had been living in Brooklyn. He was injured when the device apparently went off prematurely and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He suffered burns to his hands and other lacerations,” reported CBS News in New York.
According to Police Commissioner James O’Neill, Ullah had two explosive devices, one of which was “affixed to his body with velcro and zip ties.”
The New York Times quoted a “senior city official” who said police had to strip Ullah naked to remove the device affixed to his body.
CBS described one of these devices as “crudely-made” with “wires protruding from it.” The New York Post wrote of a “5-inch metal pipe bomb and battery pack strapped to his midsection.”
“Investigators briefly spoke to the alleged bomber, who told them he made the explosive device at the electrical company where he works,” according to the New York Post report.
By all indications, Ullah was planning a mass-casualty attack, evidently hoping to detonate his bombs in a crowded area. One anti-terrorism officer quoted by the NY Post said he “could have killed a lot of people” if one of his bombs had not detonated prematurely.
There was a good deal of initial confusion about Ullah’s status, with some early reports stating that he was killed or mortally wounded in the explosion, but later reports indicated his injuries were not life-threatening and mostly consisted of burns on his hands and abdomen. Photos released of the suspect in custody display no indication of severe injuries from a bomb blast:
Several sources have described Ullah as “ISIS-inspired” or acting in the name of the Islamic State, a claim most prominently made by former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton in an MSNBC appearance on Monday morning. Rukmini Callimachi, a New York Times correspondent specializing in Islamic State news, noted that pro-ISIS channels on social media are celebrating him as an Islamic State jihadi:
2/ The suspect has been identified by police as a 27-year old of Bangladeshi descent with a last known address in Brooklyn. His name is Akayed Ullah. Already pro-ISIS channels are celebrating him as an “istishadi” attacker. pic.twitter.com/IkrO6kZm7E — Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) December 11, 2017
At the time of this writing, there has been no official statement about Ullah’s motives and no details officially released about what he said to the police.
Update: Reuters reports that Ullah “had a black cab/limousine driver’s license from 2012 to 2015, now expired.”
CNN has posted a clear photograph of Akayed Ullah:
CNN obtained a picture of NY suspect Akayed Ullah — @CNN pic.twitter.com/l8VpvTMsC0 — AnneClaire Stapleton (@AnneClaireCNN) December 11, 2017
A law enforcement source told CNN that Ullah stated “recent Israeli actions in Gaza” are the reason he carried out his attack.
ABC News states that Ullah “entered the U.S. on an F4 visa, a family-based visa.” According to the ABC report, Ullah described himself to the authorities as “self-inspired from ISIS online propaganda.” |
The Sihuanaba, La Siguanaba, Cigua or Cegua is a supernatural character from Central American folklore. It is a shape-changing spirit that typically takes the form of an attractive, long haired woman seen from behind. She lures men away into danger before revealing her face to be that of a horse or, alternatively, a skull.
The Siguanaba and its variants may have been brought to Latin America from Spain during the Colonial Period, used by the colonists as a means of exercising control over the indigenous and mestizo population.[1]
Appearance [ edit ]
When encountered, she is a beautiful woman who is either naked or dressed in flimsy white; she usually appears bathing in a public water tank, river, or other water source,[2] although she may also be found washing clothing.[3] She likes to lure lone men out late on dark, moonless nights, without letting them see her face at first.[4] She tempts such men away from their planned routes to lose them in deep canyons.[4]
In Guatemala, the Siguanaba appears as a beautiful, seductive woman with very long hair. She will not reveal her face until the last moment, when it is revealed as either the face of a horse or, alternatively, a human skull.[5] If her victim (usually an unfaithful man) does not die of fear then he is driven mad by the sight.[6] From afar the Siguanaba can imitate the appearance of a man's girlfriend in order to lead him astray.[6]
When appearing to children, the Siguanaba will take on the appearance of the child's mother in order to lure her victim into her grasp; once touched by the Siguanaba the child is driven mad and she will lead her victim into the wilderness to leave the child lost and insane.[7]
Defence [ edit ]
Traditional methods are said to ward off the Siguanaba. In the border regions between Guatemala and El Salvador, those who see the Siguanaba make the sign of the cross upon her or bite their machete, while simultaneously banishing both the evil spirit and the fear that grips the victim.[8]
Etymology [ edit ]
The word siguanaba or sihuanaba has its origin in the indigenous languages of Mesoamerica. Various words have been suggested as its source. In parts of Mexico the Siguanaba is known as macihuatli, a Nahuatl word that can be broken down to two elements; cihuatl (meaning "woman") and matlatl (meaning "net"). This "net-woman" encompasses the figurative idea of a woman capturing men in her metaphorical net of attraction.[9]
Likewise, cigua or cegua, names for the spirit in Honduras and Costa Rica, also have their origin in the Nahuatl word cihuatl, simply meaning "woman". Guatemalan historian and folklorist Adrián Recinos gave two possible origins for the word siguanaba. In one of the 20+ languages of Guatemala, he claimed ciguanaba meant "naked woman" but he failed to identify the exact language of origin. In another source he claimed that its origin is the Nahuatl ciuanauac or ciguanauac, meaning "concubine".[9]
In Guatemala, the word siguanaba has been linked to siwan, a K'iche' Maya word meaning a cliff or deep ravine, and Guatemalan folk etymology gives this as the origin of the word, although scholars such as Recinos and Roberto Paz y Paz disagree.[9][10]
Regional variations [ edit ]
The Siguanaba is sometimes viewed as a naked woman combing her hair
In Guatemala the Sihuanaba is known as La Siguanaba; she is known as Cigua in Honduras, Ciguanaba in El Salvador and as Cegua in Costa Rica. Although the name varies from place to place, the appearance and actions of the Sihuanaba remain unchanged.[11]
El Salvador [ edit ]
The Salvadoran legend of La Siguanaba says that the woman, originally called Sihuehuet (beautiful woman), was a peasant girl that ascended to queen using her charms (and a witch's brew) to lure into marriage Tlaloc's son, Yeisun, who was a Nahuatl prince. After marriage, when her husband went to war, she had affairs with other men, and Cipitio was the child of this relationship. Sihuehuet was a bad mother, neglecting her son, leaving him alone to meet her lovers. To inherit the throne she concocted a plot to use another magic potion to poison Yeisun during a festival, and so claim the throne for her lover.
But the plan worked too well. Yeisun was converted in a savage giant monster with two heads, who ravaged the attendants to the palace's feast. The guard struggled and defeated the creature, ending Yeisun's life. When Tlaloc found out about this, he sought the help of the almighty god, Teotl whom condemned and cursed Sihuehuet: She would be called Sihuanaba ("hideous woman"); she would be beautiful at first sight, but she would turn into a horrible abomination after luring her victims to isolated gorges. She was forced to wander the countryside, appearing to men who travelled alone at night. She is supposed to be seen at night in the rivers of El Salvador, washing clothes and always looking for her son, Cipitio, who was also cursed by Teotl to remain a boy for eternity.[citation needed]
Guatemala [ edit ]
In Guatemala, the Siguanaba is said to be encountered washing her hair with a golden bowl and combing her hair with a golden comb.[2] She is said to wander the streets of Guatemala City, luring away men who are in love.[12] In Guatemala, the legend is more common in Guatemala City, Antigua Guatemala (the old colonial capital) and the eastern departments of the country.[13] The most common variant in these areas is that where the spirit has the face of a horse.[13] In Guatemala the Siguanaba is often said to appear to men who are unfaithful in order to punish them.[1]
A Kaqchikel Maya version of the Siguanaba from San Juan Comalapa describes her as a woman with enormous glowing eyes and a hoof for a hand. She wears a glittering dress and has very long hair and haunts the local rubbish dump, frightening disobedient children and drunken husbands.[14]
On the Guatemalan side of Lake Güija, in Jutiapa Department, the Siguanaba is able to take on many forms but the most common is that of a slim, beautiful woman with long hair who bathes herself on the banks of the Ostúa River, although she may also appear by other water sources or simply by lonely roadsides.[8] To lustful men she appears just as a beautiful woman, while to lovestruck men she takes the form of the object of the man's affections.[8] A tale from San Juan La Isla relates how a man went to meet his wife who was returning on horseback from El Salvador, and after accompanying her for a while his "wife" flung herself from her mount and revealed herself to be the Siguanaba.[8] In this same region, the Siguanaba is said to appear on moonlit nights to horseriders on lonely roads, asking to ride pillion. After riding with her victim for a short while, she reveals her fingernails as fearsome claws and her face as that of a horse, causing the rider to die of terror.[8] Those lucky few that manage to flee find themselves lost in the wilderness.[8]
Costa Rica [ edit ]
In Costa Rica, the Cegua is largely a rural apparition.[11] As well as repeating the typical actions of the Sihauanaba in its nocturnal bathing habits, the Cegua also appears mounted among herds of horses, sowing panic.[11]
Other spellings are: Cihuanaba, Sihuanaba, Ciguanaba, Ciguapa.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
a b Fernández-Poncela 1995, p.107. a b Lara Figueroa 1996, pp.28-29. ^ Lara Figueroa 1996, p.32. a b Lara Figueroa 1996, p.29. ^ Lara Figueroa 1996, p.30. a b Barnoya Gálvez 1999, p.139. ^ Molina et al 2006, p.31. a b c d e f Molina et al 2006, p.30. a b c Lara Figueroa 1996, pp.38-39. ^ Christenson. a b c Lara Figuaroa 1996, p.33. ^ Lara Figueroa 2001, p.37. a b Lara Figueroa 1996, p.31. ^ Staikidis 2006, pp.49, 58.
References [ edit ] |
Can Physics Rewrite History?
A compilation of physical impossibilities & overlooked evidence
in the official explanations for the destruction of the
World Trade Center Complex
[email protected]
This report is divided into the following sections:
My independent research efforts into this matter are of a volunteer nature and are motivated by a desire to learn the truth about these events. Even if you disagree with my conclusions, I hope you will at least share my intentions. This report offers a close look at physical evidence. It is NOT a “conspiracy theory.”
I hope this report will function as an assist for others who may also be looking into these important questions on their own. The information that is presented here can be easily verified and/or expanded upon with simple internet searches. I have provided many links to good sources of data and analysis on both sides of the issues. Independent research is a healthy exercise for anyone's critical and logical faculties — it is also a profound opportunity to reclaim possession of our understanding and perspective. How can we hope to control our future if we are guided by important beliefs about the past that are untrue?
How were three steel frame high-rise structures completely destroyed on 9/11? Many conflicting theories have been put forward, but unlike most of history's unanswered puzzles, the destruction of the WTC Towers and the mysterious collapse of WTC Building 7 are matters of physics. We cannot even begin to define the crime of 9/11 until we have a basic understanding of the physical events that we all witnessed. The consideration of who had the means, motive and opportunity can only begin once we know what actually happened!
Existing photographic and video evidence that has undisputed authenticity and is a part of the public record presents a number of striking problems with the belief that the airplane impacts initiated a chain of events that ultimately destroyed the Towers, and of course WTC Building 7 was not hit by an airplane. To clearly see these problems, it is helpful to first have a basic understanding of materials behavior and the design of the Towers, and then to become aware of the distinct and remarkable features of the events themselves. This report includes a critical evaluation of the leading "official" theories, followed by an examination of compelling forensic evidence that is consistently either ignored or misrepresented by these proposed explanations.
The Structures:
Structural steel has been used in the construction of buildings, bridges, towers, etc., for well over 100 years and its characteristics and behavior under adverse conditions have been well tested and analyzed over this long period of time. The greatest risks to modern highrise buildings (apart from military attacks and severe earthquakes) are fire, high winds and accidental airplane collisions. Consequently, the engineering and design of tall buildings must guarantee that they can successfully withstand these adversities.
The World Trade Center Towers were the world's tallest buildings when they were officially dedicated on April 4th, 1973. Historic innovations in high-rise design were conceived and implemented in order to safely reach such unprecedented heights. Structural steel buildings up to this time had typically been designed with vertical columns evenly spaced in a grid-like arrangement in order to support the horizontal beams that would carry the floor above. This would be repeated from one floor to the next to create a tall building. One undesirable consequence of this type of design is that the interior office spaces in these buildings are periodically interrupted by the support columns. The Towers were designed using a type of architecture that was relatively new at the time and is referred to as a "tube within a tube." Closely-spaced columns are positioned around the perimeter of the structure while other columns are concentrated in a heavily reinforced central core. The photos below show the dense spacing of the columns that make up the perimeter walls and the relative size of the core structure, which also contained the elevator shafts. The office floors were suspended in between with no other vertical support. This provided a column-free office environment and also produced a very strong, flexible and relatively lightweight structure with tremendous sheer strength. The Towers could be 100 stories high and still withstand hurricane force winds and multiple high-speed collisions from large commercial jet aircraft.
Engineering News-Record reported in 1964 that the specially manufactured high strength steel perimeter columns had strength significantly greater than the 5 X load requirement of standard building codes, stating that "live loads on these columns can be increased more than 2000% before failure occurs." From the book City in the Sky (Times Books, Henry Hold and Company, LLC, 2003, page 133), we learn that the calculations of the engineers working on the Tower design showed that ALL the columns on one side could be cut, along with the two corners and some of the columns on each adjacent side, and the building would still be strong enough to withstand a 100-mile-per-hour wind! http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/design.html Post-9/11 assertions that the Towers were either poorly designed or poorly built do not square with the historical record. They were built to be incredibly strong and were considered to be engineering marvels. John Skilling, the lead designer, won prestigious awards for their design excellence.
Considerations Regarding Fire:
1) In order for structural steel to literally melt and change state into a flowing liquid, its internal temperature (as opposed to the surrounding temperature) must be raised to 1538˚C (2800˚F).
2) The strength of steel is determined by its internal temperature (regardless of fire temperature) at a given moment. While internal temperature will gradually rise during prolonged exposure to constant high temperature, if the temperature stabilizes, the steel will not continue to weaken as a cumulative effect. As its temperature changes — either up or down — its strength also changes accordingly.
3) At high internal temperatures below the melting point, steel can lose its load bearing strength and rigidity and become subject to bending, sagging, etc. Much well documented testing has been done over the years to determine this temperature threshold. The ability to predict the behavior of steel during intense fires is fundamental to its use as a construction material. To summarize the significant consensus of these tests, the strength of steel is reduced to 20% of normal when it reaches an internal temperature of around 720˚C (1328˚F).
This is significant because, as mentioned above, standard building design specifications require that structures be able to bear five times their maximum theoretical load (20% = 1/5). This means that even if all the steel in a building reaches an internal temp of 720˚C, the building will still be able to carry its maximum load. Since maximum theoretical loads rarely occur (extremely large crowds of people or concentrations of heavy equipment, for example), the steel temperature in a typical situation could probably go significantly higher before failure would occur.
4) Fire tests carried out in the 1990's at the Building Research Establishment test facility at Cardington in Bedfordshire, UK showed that the performance of whole buildings can exceed the performance of its parts, when tested separately. An 8-story closed test structure was subjected to atmospheric temperatures of 1200˚C (2192˚F), causing unprotected steel beams to eventually reach internal temperatures over 1100˚C (2012˚F). This caused deformations in some of the steel, but the structure did not collapse. Keep in mind that real fires in closed spaces cannot be sustained due to oxygen starvation. http://911research.wtc7.net/mirrors/guardian2/fire/SCI.htm
5) In addition to being relatively lightweight in proportion to its strength, one of steel's best qualities and a major reason why it is used so commonly in building construction is its ability to dissipate heat quickly and stand up unscathed in even the worst "towering inferno" conflagrations on record. The steel at the location of a fire within a building will be constantly cooled as the heat is drawn away into the surrounding framework. Open test structures were subjected to prolonged and intense fires of up to 1200˚C (2192˚F) in an international study of structural steel car parks, but internal steel temperatures never reached higher than 360˚C (680˚F). http://www.corusconstruction.com/ Fire temperature and internal steel temperature are NOT the same. This is why meat thermometers were invented. Remember 360˚C for later when we look at the various theories and claims based on the unproven assumption that the Towers "collapsed."
6) The Towers were designed to withstand impacts from the largest commercial aircraft that were in use at the time they were built. Contrary to initial reports, the airplanes on 9/11 were not significantly larger than this, and the jet aircraft of those days carried jet fuel just like they do now. Building survival is accomplished through redundancy and dynamic redistribution of loads to the surviving parts of the structure.
According to John Skilling, the lead designer of the Twin Towers (from a Seattle Times interview from February 27, 1993), an impact from a Boeing 707 traveling at 600 mph "would result in only local damage" and that “our analysis indicated the biggest problem would be the fact that all the fuel (from the airplane) would dump into the building. There would be a horrendous fire. A lot of people would be killed.” But, he says, “The building structure would still be there.” http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/design.html
7) Prior to 9/11 (or since) no steel-frame highrise has ever collapsed from fire. There have been numerous cases of high-rise fires far more severe than those observed on 9/11. Here are a few examples:
• Caracas, Venezuela, Oct, 2004, 56 story building burned for 17 hours over 26 floors
• LA, May 1988, 1st Interstate Bank, 62 stories, 5 floors burned for 3.5 hours
• Philadelphia, Feb, 1991, Meridian Plaza, 38 stories, 8 floors burned for 18 hours
• New York, Aug, 1970, New York Plaza, 50 stories, burned for six hours
• Madrid, February 2005, Windsor Bldg, 32 stories, burned for 24 hours
All of these fires were true "towering infernos" with dramatic, raging emergent flames bursting out from entire floors of the building through shattered windows. None of these buildings collapsed. 8) In 1975, an arson fire burned for three hours in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, eventually spreading to portions of six floors. 132 firefighters were involved in the effort to bring it under control and the fire captain reported that it was "like fighting a blow torch." The fire began in a wiring closet in the central core area and grew until the flames burst out through the windows on the 11th floor. The steel structure was not damaged by this fire, which was longer lasting and arguably more severe than the fires in the South Tower on 9/11. http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/history/fire.html
Fuel for the Fires:
Jet fuel (refined kerosene) is a hydrocarbon and will burn at a maximum temperature of approximately 1000˚C (1832˚F) in an open fire when supplied with unlimited amounts of air (as opposed to pure oxygen). This information is easily available from any physics desk reference. Temperatures are lower if the fire is oxygen-starved, as evidenced by black smoke. Significantly higher temperatures are possible only with forced mixing of pure oxygen. Early reports on 9/11 wildly overestimated the amount of jet fuel involved based on tank capacity. The planes were designed for intercontinental flight, but carried only the fuel needed for their domestic flight plans.
It is now acknowledged, even by the official theories, that most of the jet fuel was consumed in the first few minutes by the huge fireballs at the time of impact. The idea that large pools of jet fuel could be burning for the entire 1-2 hours preceding the Towers' destruction is not consistent with the behavior of a volatile and highly flammable liquid in a high temperature environment. It would have either ignited, or — if inadequate oxygen was available to support combustion — it would have left the building as a vapor along with the smoke. The smell of jet fuel was indeed reported over a wide area.
The burning jet fuel did of course start the fires inside the buildings, which were more severe in the North Tower where more of the jet fuel was carried inside the building. But the jet fuel could not have been a significant ongoing fuel for the fires. Known combustible materials within the buildings (carpets, desks, paper, plastics, etc.) are also mostly hydrocarbon in nature and can produce combustion temperatures no higher than jet fuel. House fires typically produce temperatures in the 500 - 650˚C range.
The Tower Impacts:
1) The airplane impacts were quite dramatic, with the huge fireballs that we all saw over and over again on TV. After the first few minutes, however, we simply had office building fires with some amount of structural damage. Interior damage is hard to determine based on visual evidence. The investigative report released by NIST in 2005 claims that 14-15% of the core columns in each Tower were severed. While sometimes repeated as fact, this is an estimate derived from questionable computer simulations. Even if true, this amount of damage would leave the buildings well within their load-bearing redundancy. More on the NIST Report later.
2) Airplanes are made of aluminum, which is a much lighter and weaker material compared to structural steel. Airplanes may look big and substantial, but they are actually made to be as lightweight as possible. The thickness of their aluminum skin is only 2 mm.
3) Both buildings quickly re-stabilized after impact and showed no observable signs of instability or evidence of structural failure prior to the sudden onset of their destruction.
4) The North Tower, unlike the South Tower, took a direct hit with the airplane completely disappearing inside the building. If the load bearing central core of the building (see construction photos, above) had been severed by the impact of the plane, structural distress would have been evident immediately. Apart from the fires, the North Tower remained stable until the sudden onset of destruction, almost two hours after impact.
5) The South Tower took a glancing blow at the corner which created a very dramatic fireball, but this apparently did little damage to the structural core (in spite of speculations to the contrary from the NIST report). Less fuel was taken inside the building compared to the North Tower, and people were evacuated from the upper floors through the impact zone via stairwells in the central core area prior to the onset of destruction. The fires were smaller in this Tower, but its destruction occurred first, 56 minutes after impact. Firefighters who reached the 78th floor sky lobby reported only "two pockets of fire." http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/fires/severity.html
The Official Theories:
The destruction of the WTC Towers has been attributed by official investigators, and various "experts" promoted by the mainstream media, primarily to fire — causing one form or another of structural failure leading to "total progressive collapse." While most of these theories allow that impact damage was probably a contributing factor, few have suggested that this damage alone caused the total failure of the buildings. While we look at these so-called "collapse" theories, it must be clearly understood that the use of the word "collapse" is a misnomer. What these theories are REALLY saying is that the upper part of the building above the impact zone CRUSHED the lower undamaged portion of the building. Remember that the structural integrity of the Towers was undiminished below the impact zones and much heavier and stronger materials were used in the lower parts of the building in order to support the much lighter upper floors.
1) One of the first explanations was put forward only two days after 9/11 (on September 13, 2001) by the American Society of Civil Engineers in a paper titled "Why Did the World Trade Center Collapse? — A Simple Analysis," by Zdenek Bazant and Yong Zhou. One might wonder how they were able to come up with such a seemingly confident and fully developed theoretical explanation for a shocking, unprecedented and inexplicable occurrence within such a short period of time. Like the voluminous and complex "USA Patriot Act," which appeared full blown in October 2001, it almost seems to have been prepared ahead of time. In any case, their theory depends on the simultaneous failure of at least half the support columns on a "given floor," which they say would allow the upper part of the building to fall freely onto the lower part, thus allegedly triggering a sequence of events that would "doom" the entire tower. http://www-math.mit.edu/~bazant/WTC/ They claim that this "triggering" condition would be achieved if more than half of the column steel on a "given floor" reached temperatures exceeding 800˚C (1472˚F), but they fail to distinguish between fire temperature and internal steel temperature and offer no explanation for how this could possibly occur. This assertion (based on the failure of only half the support strength) also reveals that they are either unaware of or are ignoring the 5 times maximum load strength requirement for building design. This is surprising, considering that they are representing the American Society of Civil Engineers.
An obvious fallacy with theories of this type is that column strength and heat conductivity in the Towers were NOT segmented by the vertical spacing of the office floors. During a fire, the heat produced by burning material on a particular office floor would be dissipated by the steel framework over a multi-story region of the building. Also, the load-bearing strength of the columns was vertically continuous over many "floors" for any region of the building. The columns in the core structure were specially fabricated to be multiple stories in height and were joined together by welded connections. Dense cross-bracing interconnected the core columns and created a monolithic entity that was structurally independent of the office floor attachment locations, which were on the outer perimeter of the core structure. Therefore, it really makes no sense to talk about column behavior on a "given floor." The columns didn't have "floors." The clustering of the core columns in the center of the building also places most of them at a significant distance away from the vicinity of any conceivable office fire. Bazant and Zhou's theory apparently assumes that the Towers were built according to the old-fashioned "post and beam" column grid arrangement. Like others to follow, they use complicated equations and obscure concepts to create an intimidating aura of authority, while overlooking or misrepresenting the fundamental features of the scenario.
In addition to these theoretical fallacies, we've already seen that high internal steel temperatures are very difficult to achieve over a wide area in a large structure. Not only is Bazant and Zhou's so-called triggering condition clearly impossible given the test data presented earlier, but the results of the examination of steel recovered from the fire zones, as reported by NIST in 8/04, shows no evidence of temperatures over 625˚C (1157˚F) and only rare instances of temperatures over 250˚C (482˚F)! This is consistent with the international fire test results mentioned earlier. (See the section below for more on the NIST report.)
A more detailed critique of Bazant and Zhou's paper can be found by following links from here: http://911research.wtc7.net/disinfo/experts/comments/bazantzhou.html 2) Another theory was put forward by Thomas Eager, a professor of materials engineering from MIT. It appeared in JOM, the journal for the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and was also presented in a NOVA interview that many people have seen. The transcript is available online. Eager claims to believe that the Towers were not designed to withstand a fire covering an entire single floor! He doesn't say where he gets this idea, but we know from the comments presented earlier that Skilling certainly DID allow for this possibility. Because the spilling of the jet fuel may have caused this to happen, Eager suggests that the heat from this type of fire scenario caused the floor slab truss connections ("clips" he calls them) to fail — "unzipping" almost simultaneously around an entire floor — causing a pancaking sequence that also somehow pulled down the vertical support structures. http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/Eagar/Eagar-0112.html
"Pancaking" collapses are sometimes seen in Third World countries where badly designed and poorly reinforced structures with heavy concrete floors are subjected to earthquakes. Modern American buildings (including the WTC Towers) are designed and built according to robust standards and specifications that require structural unification of horizontal and vertical assemblies. This is done specifically to prevent pancaking floor collapses under any circumstances. Eager also ignores the continuous vertical strength of the core structure and its heavily cross-braced and unified design. Even if some of the floor connections had somehow broken loose, the more heavily built and potentially free-standing column structures would have remained in place. While the floor assemblies interconnected the core with the perimeter columns and added strength and flexibility to the structure as a whole, they were also designed to be as lightweight as possible. A detailed evaluation of Thomas Eager's analysis can be found here: http://911research.wtc7.net/disinfo/experts/articles/eagar_nova/nova_eagar1.html
3) Two highly produced, made-for-television specials have been particularly influential in determining many people's beliefs about the destruction of the WTC Towers. Unfortunately, the non-commercial reputation and credibility of PBS and NOVA have been exploited as a vehicle for the presentation of deliberately false information and analysis. To a traumatized television audience in 2001 this was not so apparent. But now, in the sober light of a better understanding, the fraudulent nature of these presentations is painfully obvious. Below are two graphics used in the NOVA program "Why the Towers Fell." The one on the left misrepresents the structural core of the building to look like mysterious floating slabs with no vertical support! The one on the right is from an animated sequence of falling floor trusses that is also very misleading. Missing from the floor truss animation are at least three major components that would have prevented the alleged behavior: 1) the perpendicular cross trusses, 2) the welded-plate wall connections, and 3) the steel floor pan that is connected to the trusses, onto which the concrete slab is poured. The floor pan interconnects the trusses and provides stiffness and strength to the entire floor system.
This diagram shows a more truthful view of a typical truss assembly: Another TV special titled "Anatomy of the Collapse" was produced for the Discovery Channel and also appeared shortly after 9/11. These two programs are similar and include numerous fraudulent statements. We are told, for example, that jet fuel had not been considered in the design of the Towers, that jet fuel had fully saturated both buildings, and that steel temperatures had reached 2000ºF. None of these statements are true.
We are also told that the buildings would "collapse" without the floor trusses, that the floor trusses were connected by only two bolts, that the perimeter walls were comparable to sheets of cardboard and that the columns were like free-standing wobbly sticks. The perimeter and core column structures were, in fact, highly robust and independent structures unto themselves, each fully capable of standing on its own. And the biggest lie of all? We are told that total destruction was inevitable.
3) The first major government report was issued by FEMA, and it uses these misleading diagrams to make it look to the casual, non-technical reader like there was no central core at all!
A careful reading of the fine print reveals that the vertical members on the right side of these diagrams are core columns, so we are only looking at a portion of the structure, but this is not obvious at a glance. There is also no indication of the immense strength and dense cross bracing of the central core assembly. Many people seem to believe that the Towers were supported only by the perimeter walls. It is easy to imagine how a building could collapse if it were built to look like this diagram! http://www.fema.gov/rebuild/mat/wtcstudy.shtm http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/official/fema.html Even the 9/11 Commission Report, on page 558, claims that: "The interior core of the buildings was a hollow steel shaft…" This is a blatantly false statement with no conceivable explanation other than the desire to intentionally deceive. The 9/11 Commission Report includes many other outright lies, distortions and critical omissions. See David Ray Griffin's book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, for a comprehensive and thoroughly documented examination of over one hundred of these deliberate departures from truth.
Below is another view of one of the Towers during construction. Compare it to the diagrams above and to the statement by the 9/11 Commission. This gives a good look at how much of the footprint of the building was taken up by the core structure and its massive design.
America used to be a nation that was proud of its capability on every level, but we now hear endless pleading of incompetence, including the projection of incompetence back into the past. Forgetting about the jet fuel and the possibility that an entire floor might catch fire was bad enough, but now listen to this:
4) Hyman Brown, construction manager of the WTC and University of Colorado civil engineering professor made this statement in 2004 (quoting from the Boulder Weekly):
"It is correct that the towers did not collapse because of the airliners hitting it. But we do know how it collapsed and it has nothing to do with conspiracy," says Brown. "What caused the building to collapse is the airplane fuel and the fire-suppression system that we now have, which basically blocks off five-floor blocks, so the fire can’t go up and the fire can’t go down. You now have a fire confined to a five-floor area, burning at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The steel in that five-floor area melts. All the tonnage above the five-floor area comes straight down when the steel melts. That broke all the connections, and that caused the building to collapse."
Who could have guessed that the fire suppression system, instead of causing the fires to die from lack of oxygen and depletion of flammable material like everyone expected, would actually cause the fires to grow hotter! So hot that they melted all the steel in a five floor region of the building! To fuel this fire, Hyman Brown apparently assumes that unlimited quantities of jet fuel — AND oxygen — were available on all five floors of both buildings for up to two hours, in a supposedly 2000˚F environment! As we saw earlier, this would obviously be impossible. All the jet fuel was either ignited or vaporized within the first few minutes of impact.
When Hyman Brown says that the steel "melted," I think he means to say that it failed. The melting point of steel, as we've seen, is 1538˚C (2800˚F). But failure is also a clear impossibility. Remember the open steel test structures? They were subjected for a longer time to a fire even hotter than the one he imagines, but the highest recorded internal steel temperature never reached beyond 360˚C (680˚F) — far below the temperature where failure could occur. Hyman Brown's imaginary fire may have been confined to a five story region, but the steel was still free to dissipate heat throughout the entire building framework.
Also, to match his own description, if a fire of such heat and severity fully engulfed five floors, we would see large emergent flames bursting from every window on all sides of the building. In the photograph below of both Towers, we see only lots of black smoke with flames here and there. Black smoke is an indication of oxygen starvation, incomplete combustion and relatively lower temperatures. And the "tonnage" he's speaking of is simply the upper part of the structure that the lower part was designed to support. It would not "come straight down" through five floors. If the steel spanning those five floors did somehow lose strength from fire, the failure would begin gradually and occur asymmetrically.
Hyman Brown's highly improbable theory is hardly deserving of so much attention, except that it was associated by the media with findings reported by NIST, the US government science agency that has now completed a $20,000,000 investigation into the destruction of the WTC Towers. Media reports in 2004 stated that Hyman Brown's views were supported by the preliminary findings of the NIST investigation!
5) The final report released by NIST in 2005 (http://wtc.nist.gov/) is indeed based on the assumption, for both Towers, that the structure below the area where the airplane hit simply "collapsed" on its own, once impacted from above by a "block" of floors that allegedly "fell" through the impact zone. This explanation depends on fire to "soften," "shorten," "buckle" and "snap" core and perimeter columns and floor trusses where necessary in order to create a plausible sounding "collapse initiation" sequence. But the NIST scientists do not explain how the combustion of typical office contents could possibly produce enough heat at a high enough temperature to cause the extensive steel deformations necessary to support their hypothesis. And they also do not explain how they reconcile this hypothesis with their own investigative data from 8/04, which reports that most perimeter steel "saw no temperature" greater than 250˚C!
The final NIST report also fails to account for the fact that they were unable to duplicate failure in their post-9/11 floor model fire tests. They would like us to believe that loss of fire-proofing from flying jet debris somehow explains this glaring discrepancy, but this is almost pure speculation. NIST provides no scientifically verifiable data to support this conclusion. The following article by Kevin Ryan describes these issues in detail. Kevin is a courageous whistle-blower who was fired from his senior position at Underwriters Laboratory. After being stonewalled in his efforts to resolve these obviously crucial contradictions, he finally brought these issues to the public's attention as a last resort. UL was responsible for the fire testing of the steel assemblies that were used in the construction of the World Trade Center. http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2006/911-WTC-NIST-Lies30mar06.htm
Like Hyman Brown, NIST simply ASSUMES that once the alleged "collapse" begins, it will completely destroy the entire structure. Why, in fact, this would happen is apparently supposed to be so obvious that it needs NO explanation. Out of all the thousands of pages in NIST's supposedly exhaustive report, the actual destruction of the buildings is dismissed with ONE SENTENCE: "Global collapse then ensued." That's it! That's all they have to say about it. What actually happened to the intact portions of each building is the key issue and it should have been the focus of the entire report! NIST's failure to look at evidence or to carry their analysis beyond the point of "collapse initiation" is extremely suspicious and highly unscientific. Their inability or unwillingness to PROVE their a priori assumption that the Towers were destroyed by a so-called "progressive gravitational collapse" invalidates the entire report.
Also in the October 2005 report (updated by a FAQ in August 2006), we find a stunning reversal that would put even a star NFL running back to shame. Not only has NIST officially backed away from the "pancaking collapse" theory (with no apology), but those much-maligned floor truss connections (remember the "two bolts"?) that were originally blamed for just about everything, are now of such Herculean strength that they somehow conspired with alleged floor sagging to pull on the specially manufactured, high-strength steel perimeter columns (remember the 2000% load capacity?) with enough force to cause an entire face of the building to "snap" from inward bowing! As Kevin Ryan aptly points out, sagging does not make floors heavier… And NIST still does not explain how even this fantastic scenario (which is not confirmed by available video recordings) would cause the inevitable destruction of the lower portions of the buildings. http://911research.wtc7.net/reviews/nist/WTC_FAQ_reply.html
After hearing the astonishing comments by S. Shyam Sunder, Ph D, the lead investigator for NIST, made during an interview about "conspiracy theories" with NOVA and available on their website, I feel compelled to question either his competence or his honesty, or both. Among other bizarre statements, he claims in a matter-of-fact sort of way that the Towers "fell" at the rate of free-fall because they were "70% just air in volume" (as if that explains anything) and because the columns weren't made of "solid steel" but were "steel boxes" with walls only 1/4" - 3/4" thick! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wtc/
Buildings have NEVER been constructed with solid steel members. The very idea is absurd! They would be excessively and unnecessarily heavy. Box columns, I-beams and H-beams of comparable strength are much lighter. Large box columns were indeed used in the core structure. At the base of each Tower they measured 52" x 22" and the steel was, in fact, FOUR INCHES thick!
"NIST Data Disproves Collapse Theories Based on Fire," a paper by Frank Legge Ph D, uses data from the NIST report itself to show that NIST's conclusions contradict their own findings. This simple and straightforward refutation is presented purely within the terms and context of the NIST investigation. It is posted at this link, and also includes a number of useful reference links: http://911research.wtc7.net/papers/ Detailed critiques of the NIST Report can be found at these links: http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/nist/index_0.98.html http://911research.wtc7.net/reviews/kevin_ryan/newstandard.html 6) Popular Mechanics magazine, in its March 2005 issue, attempted to discredit legitimate questioning of the WTC destruction with sarcasm and intimidation tactics, and by presenting long lists of experts. This effort was continued in 2006 with the release of Debunking 9/11 Myths, a book-length presentation of similar material. While the authors and their band of "experts" claim to have exhaustively debunked 9/11 skepticism, they have in fact only attacked long-discredited claims and "straw man" arguments while ignoring the serious questions. They fail, for example, to satisfactorily address any of the observations described in the next section of this report. A detailed critique of the Popular Mechanics article can be found here: http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/pm/index.html
Paul Craig Roberts has this to say about the origins of the Popular Mechanics article: "Perhaps it is merely a coincidence that just prior to 9/11 Cathleen P. Black, who has family connections to the CIA and Pentagon and is president of Hearst Magazines, the owner of Popular Mechanics, fired the magazine’s editor-in-chief and several senior veteran staff members and installed James B. Meigs and Benjamin Chertoff, a cousin of Bush administration factotum Michael Chertoff. It was Meigs and Benjamin Chertoff who produced the Popular Mechanics report…" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17422.htm
All of the Popular Mechanics "experts" apparently forgot their high school physics since they, like gullible members of a new cult, "believe in" the free fall progressive collapse theory — a ridiculous impossibility. See "The elapsed time of the destruction" section, below. The Popular Mechanics experts also claim to believe (of course) that the Towers "collapsed" because fire weakened and distorted the steel. I believe that all the above theories (and all similar ones) have to be rejected from the outset for at least two reasons:
a) They all claim that office fires have done something that fire is not able to do, and has never done before or since: heat structural steel to the point of causing a total building failure.
b) The intact lower portion of the building would have arrested or deflected any conceivable "collapse" (crushing) process.
Dramatic Features of the Destruction that are Ignored by the Official Theories:
1) The Towers look like they are exploding, complete with enormous rising mushroom clouds (below left and center) that appear before any debris reaches the ground, indicating tremendous heat release. We also see the lateral ejection of material with great force to great distances. In the photo on the right, below, steel perimeter column sections are thrown into the air like toothpicks. Bill Biggart, the photographer who captured this remarkable view of the South Tower destruction, gave us some of our closest views of these events. He was sadly overtaken and killed by the rapidly expanding dust clouds from the North Tower less than thirty minutes after taking this photograph. It was found in the camera that was with his body.
Massive sections of structural steel column assemblies were ejected as far as 500 feet — a distance greater than 1.5 football fields! The blast wave alone shattered windows in buildings 400 feet away from the Towers, and multi-ton sections of heavy steel column structures were lodged into the sides of neighboring buildings! ABC News correspondent N. J. Burkett was standing more than a block away from the WTC Towers on 9/11 when the South Tower destruction suddenly began. He interrupted his live TV commentary by shouting as everyone ran for cover: "...A HUGE EXPLOSION NOW — RAINING DEBRIS ON ALL OF US! WE"D BETTER GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
2) The destruction of each Tower began suddenly and was not preceded by obvious buckling or other visible deformations. There were no reports from firefighters of sagging, creaking or twisting steel that might signal impending failure.
3) No one has ever seen a "natural" collapse of a steel frame high-rise building (because it has never happened), so no one knows what it ought to look like! Earthquakes sometime topple modern buildings, but they retain their shape, even if distorted, and they don't explode or disintegrate.
If the Towers did experience gravitational collapse due to global structural failure, you would expect to find a huge heap of identifiable parts of the building piled within and spilling outside of the original footprint. It would include sections of floor slabs, floor pans, large chunks of concrete, glass and the remains of identifiable building contents, including office equipment and the bodies of the occupants.
This is not what happened. Both Towers almost entirely disintegrated into rather short (30 ft or less) pieces of steel, other metal debris, dust and paper. Hundreds of tiny human bone fragments have been discovered on the roofs of neighboring buildings, and the remains of over 1000 bodies disappeared completely. Were they vaporized out of existence? Or obliterated into particles too small even for DNA analysis? How could this possibly happen? http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/evidence/nydailynews_400bits.html
The photo above was taken looking straight down within the footprint where one of the Towers once stood. The elevation of this area is not significantly higher than the original street level and we see only metal and dust. Search and rescue workers were stunned that so many bodies had apparently vanished — along with the desks, the computers, the file cabinets and all the other building contents. Joe Casaliggi of Engine 7, one of the early emergency workers who dug through the wreckage where the Towers once stood, put it this way: "You have two 110-story office buildings: you don't find a chair, you don't find a telephone, a computer... the biggest piece of a telephone I found was half a keypad, and it was this big [holds up thumb and forefinger]. The buildings collapsed to dust." http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/collapse update/collapsed to dust.mpg Also note that the photo above includes no intact identifiable portions of the building itself. Of particular interest is the fact that the corrugated steel floor pans are all apparently missing — along with the concrete floors. There is no stack of "pancaked" floors piled up within the footprint of the former building.
4) Almost all of the non-steel building materials and contents were pulverized, much of it into talcum powder size (sub 100 micron) dust particles. This took the form of the dense pyroclastic dust clouds that expanded to enormous size as they raced down the surrounding streets at tremendous velocity and with clearly defined boundaries, depositing most of the mass of both buildings outside the perimeter of their original footprints. Concrete and gypsum, along with large amounts of asbestos and countless other dangerous materials, were all part of these huge toxic dust clouds that spread over lower Manhattan and poisoned the air at Ground Zero. All of the trained rescue dogs that were used in the search for survivors have died, and many of the cleanup workers have also died or are now seriously and permanently ill. If you dropped a large chunk of concrete from 1000 ft onto the pavement far below, it would certainly break apart, but it wouldn't be pulverized into microscopic particles. In the case of the Towers, the disintegration into dust somehow took place in mid-air, long before any debris reached the ground.
5) Both the nearly total pulverization of the building materials and contents and the rapid expansion of the dust clouds to great elevations and distances from the building locations would require the release of tremendous amounts of heat energy. The photo on the right, below, was taken only 30 seconds after the start of the destruction of the North Tower. The only energy source that is presumed to be available to explain these phenomena is the elevated mass of the buildings themselves, which is inadequate by at least an order of magnitude according to conservative estimates: http://911research.wtc7.net/papers/dustvolume/volumev3.html
6) The elapsed time of the destruction was nearly identical to the time it would take a free-falling object to reach the ground from the same height. If the lightweight upper part of the building had somehow dropped onto the intact structure below, common sense tells us that the strength and resistance of the more heavily built lower portion of the building would not only slow the process, it would arrest it altogether or deflect it to one side. Several scientific papers supply proof for this intuitive conclusion. See the following websites for an abundance of bona fide analysis. http://www.journalof911studies.com/ http://www.stj911.com/ And IF the structural support for the upper part of the building actually DID give way because of damage and high temperature, it would have exhibited gradual deformations as it approached its failure threshold. The interconnected framework, even if it began to bend or sag, would still prevent a sudden drop of the upper floors. (See Cardington fire tests, mentioned earlier.) What we see instead looks as if the presence of structural support is instantly obliterated as the wave of destruction begins.
Based on video and photographic evidence, and FEMA's mapping of the widespread debris field, each Tower appears to have been progressively and systematically exploded from the top down, starting from the impact zone. The explosive sequence was apparently timed to occur at a pace close to free-fall, thus allowing the falling debris to blanket over and partially hide the continuing explosions.
The Bazant & Zhou paper mentioned earlier, and other papers by Frank Greening and Manuel Garcia, all claim to have mathematical models that show how a high-rise steel structure can crush itself at the rate of free-fall. http://www.counterpunch.org/physic11282006.html http://www.911myths.com/html/other_contributions.html These theoretical "pancaking" scenarios do not take into account the strength of specific structural features, like the continuous verticality of the core column assemblies, or the fact that much stronger and heavier materials were used in the lower part of the building. They also employ the entire mass of the structure to drive the process while ignoring the fact that most of this mass is actually landing outside of the original footprint and would therefore be unavailable. In Garcia's article, for example, We See Conspiracies That Don't Exist, available at the Counterpunch link above, he repeatedly makes reference to a falling "block of floors" that is supposedly impacting the structure below like a "hammer." Where is this alleged "block of floors"? All we can see in the photos above is an ever-expanding slurry of pulverized debris that is somehow being propelled far beyond the original perimeter of the structure. Greening's paper is posted at 911myths.com (a "debunker" website, linked above) and, like Garcia, he tries to build a theory around the idea of "momentum transfer." The equations he uses assume impacts from solid masses like you see with billiard balls, but in the case of the Towers, a rigid falling mass is nowhere to be found.
Even if we forget all of these objections, something else about the notion of a progressive collapse occurring at the rate of free fall defies intuition. An obvious problem with this idea is that it does not allow time or energy to overcome the INERTIA of the materials in the lower part of the building that must be instantly accelerated up to the rate of free fall in order to join the already falling material from above without slowing it down. In fact, each of these encounters with stationary mass WOULD require an energy expenditure from the falling material, which WOULD slow it down — and, when combined with the strength of the structure, quickly stop the process altogether.
There are only two ways a building can be destroyed at the rate of free fall:
a) All structural support is simultaneously removed at the foundation level. All other parts of the building will then begin to fall at the same moment and at the same rate. This method is commonly used in controlled demolitions of large buildings. One advantage of this approach is that it minimizes damage to neighboring buildings. WTC7 is a textbook example.
b) Or, something (like timed explosives) progressively destroys the building from the top down at the rate of free fall, while simultaneously removing resistance in advance of the falling debris. This is NOT the way controlled demolitions are normally done, although tall chimneys are sometimes destroyed this way (see end of report). See the following two links for thorough examinations of Garcia and his theories: http://911review.com/reviews/counterpunch/markup/physic11282006.html "Garcia not only works for the government, he works for a very interesting organization in terms of the best hypothesis for what happened that day. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Garcia's employer, appears to be where explosive thermite was invented, and it continues to be a focus of research there." http://911review.com/articles/ryan/garcia.html
7) Oxidation, sulfidation and intergranular melting were observed by FEMA in their metallurgical examination of steel samples from the Towers. They describe this as "evidence of a severe high temperature corrosion attack." Edges of a one inch column were described as having been thinned to "almost razor sharpness," while a formerly solid flange had "gaping holes—some larger than a silver dollar." http://www.wpi.edu/News/Transformations/2002Spring/steel.html http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/metallurgy/WTC_apndxC.htm
These findings were reported in The New York Times, where they were described as "perhaps the deepest mystery uncovered in the investigation." Deposits from a previously molten liquid mixture containing iron and sulfur have also been found in the same locations. These, according to Dr. Steven Jones, a PhD physicist from BYU, are the chemical signature for the types of reactions caused by thermite and Thermate — incendiaries and explosives sometimes used in building demolitions for cutting through heavy steel.
8) Intense hotspots persisted at sub-basement levels at Ground Zero for weeks, in spite of 24/7 drenching of the site with water. The boots worn by workers at Ground Zero had to be constantly replaced due to the melting of the soles. Several days after 9/11, NASA conducted an infrared aerial survey of Ground Zero and detected hot spots in the rubble that were over 1300ºF! The image on the left, below, is from their report. Molten metal was later found at these locations. What was the source of this heat? Again, the use of incendiaries, or some other type of high energy method of destruction, appears to be the only plausible explanation.
9) Dr. Steven Jones has also discovered the presence of previously molten iron microspheres in the dust that blanketed lower Manhattan in the wake of the destruction. The "atomizing" of molten iron can be explained only as a byproduct of explosives and incendiaries. Dr. Jones, a Physicist and Archaeometrist, has written a detailed scientific paper analyzing the destruction of the WTC buildings. It is available at this link: http://wtc7.net/articles/stevenjones_b7.html
10) The upper part of the South Tower begins to tip during the initiation of its destruction. Instead of continuing this rotation as would be expected from a rigid structure according to the law of conservation of angular momentum, the rotation stops as it begins to disintegrate before falling into the structure below. Without this unexplained disintegration, this upper block of floors would have toppled to the side and crashed to the ground as an intact structure.
11) The debris distribution from both Towers exhibited almost perfect radial symmetry as the wave of destruction moved rapidly down each building, spewing cladding, structural steel and pulverized material in all directions like a giant fountain.
12) The huge outward arching dust plumes exhibited during the destruction of each Tower not only defy gravity, they are an unmistakable signature characteristic of explosions. 13) The destruction of the Towers followed the path of greatest resistance. In natural materials failures, like a broken window or the collapse of a burning wooden building, even small variations in stress and material strength are amplified into highly asymmetrical breakage patterns, while the process inherently seeks the path of least resistance. 14) The tremendous size of the primary debris field (measured before hitting the ground) is not consistent with the downward pull of a gravity-driven event. 15) A number of small explosions with forceful lateral ejections can be seen occurring many floors below the leading edge of the destruction. These are visible in the photo below, and also in the right-hand photo on the first page. These have exactly the same appearance as cutter charges (squibs) used in controlled demolitions to remove structural supports within a building at strategic points in a timed sequence. Popular Mechanics would have us believe that this is just air being forced out as a bellows effect by pancaking floors. But where are the pancaking floors? And why would this occur so far down the building?
16) In the immediate aftermath of the destruction, aerial views of ground zero show smoking craters where the Towers once stood, with debris scattered for blocks in all directions.
17) Many eyewitnesses reported explosions before and during the destruction. Firefighters, for example, recollected their experience as they were running from the South Tower:
fireman2: It was as if as if they had detonated, det..
fireman1: yea detonated yea
fireman2: as if they had planned to take down a building,
boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom ...
fireman1: All the way down, I was watchin it, and runnin'
The New York Times, in August 2005, released over 12,000 pages of oral histories from 9/11. These included statements from 503 first responders, including firefighters, emergency medical workers and others. More than a hundred of these accounts included reports of explosions. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/WTC_histories_full_01.html
18) The Towers had stabilized after impact, the fires were no more serious than a typical office fire and no steel-frame highrise had ever before collapsed from fire — yet there were several reports of warnings that "collapse" was imminent. For example, from the 9/11 Commission Report:
"At about 9:57, an EMS paramedic approached the FDNY Chief of Department and advised that an engineer in front of 7 WTC had just remarked that the Twin Towers in fact were in imminent danger of a total collapse."
Who was this "engineer" and how or why did he know this? NY Mayor Rudi Giuliani also revealed in a live interview that he had been warned that the Towers would "collapse." Who could have told him this? And why didn't anyone bother to tell the firefighters inside the buildings? 19) Isolated pockets of inexplicably burned and melted vehicles were discovered at various distances from the site of the WTC. These two photos were taken on Barclay Street, about two blocks away from the Towers. The next two photos show a wilted fire truck and another badly melted vehicle. What possible explanation could account for these peculiar phenomena and their seemingly random locations in relation to the World Trade Center?
The Mysterious Collapse of WTC Building 7:
And then of course there is Building 7, which many people have forgotten. It fell later in the day and from the beginning was treated like an insignificant footnote. WTC7 was an imposing 47-story structure and was more modern than the Towers. It was not hit by an airplane and was a block away from the Towers, with another lower building in between. According to the debris distribution data contained in FEMA's 2002 report, WTC7 was not seriously battered by heavy debris from the Towers. The lighter orange rings in the diagram below indicate the range of light debris, while the darker orange areas indicate the reach of heavier debris, like steel column sections. WTC7 is the trapezoid-shaped darker blue building in the upper part of the diagram.
WTC7 did have fires of uncertain origin and extent. Official reports suggest that fires in WTC7 had been "raging out-of-control" all day, but there is no convincing photographic evidence of this. The fires in the photo above, taken on the afternoon of 9/11 shortly before the collapse, are minor, and clear images (below) from the moment of onset of the destruction do not even show emergent flames, let alone any other evidence of an all-consuming inferno.
WTC7 came down in 6.5 seconds, imploding perfectly within its footprint, collapsing straight downward from all points and looking just like a perfect controlled demolition. Even the "kink" in the roof line seen in the second image in the sequence above is evidence of a demolition technique that is used to make sure the walls collapse inward, thus minimizing damage to neighboring structures. The homepage of the website for Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth includes a video of the collapse of WTC7: http://www.ae911truth.org/
The straight-down, vertical collapse of Building 7 could not have happened and with such perfect symmetry unless all 58 perimeter columns and all 25 core columns were somehow cut almost simultaneously at the foundation level. In the three-image sequence above, notice in the first image the light and dark mottled pattern of small clouds of smoke that appeared at the initiation of the destruction. These look like evidence of explosive cutter charges that are used in controlled demolitions to break up the internal structure of a building as it begins to fall.
Large amounts of fuel oil were reportedly stored in WTC7, but even if this oil was burning it could not have caused the simultaneous structural failure of all the support columns — or any of them for that matter. As we have seen, open-air hydrocarbon fires are incapable of creating enough heat at a high enough temperature to cause the failure of steel-frame high-rise structures. The fact that WTC7 was built over a pre-existing three story substation also does not explain the perfect symmetry of the collapse, or the collapse itself.
Official investigators and "conspiracy theory debunkers" are now claiming that a section of the lower facade of WTC7 was "scooped out" by flying debris from the North Tower. This of course contradicts the detailed debris distribution mapping contained in the FEMA report produced shortly after 9/11. But even if true, this cannot account for the symmetry of the collapse since it would create an overhanging mass. And it can't explain the collapse itself since these new damage estimates still leave the building as a whole well within its load-bearing redundancy.
The site diagram above shows the distance that heavy steel would have to be propelled in order to cause serious damage to WTC7. More than anything else, this would be evidence of explosive force used in the destruction of the Towers!
The failure of WTC7 was attributed to "progressive total collapse" brought on by fire in FEMA's 2002 report, but with the caveat that their hypothesis "has only a low probability of occurrence." See this link for a review of the FEMA report: http://911review.com/coverup/fema_wtc.html WTC7 was not even mentioned in the 911 Commission Report!
NIST has more recently released a much-delayed report on WTC7, but it has no more credibility than the earlier FEMA report or NIST's final report on the Twin Towers. See this link for a sampling of critical public comments: http://911research.wtc7.net/letters/nist/WTC7Comments_JCole.html
And, most revealing of all, none of the official theories have been able to explain the live news coverage from British television announcing the collapse of WTC7 while it was still standing in the background of the live video feed from NYC! Somebody was reading their script a little too soon! http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2007/280207timestamp.htm http://wtc7.net/foreknowledge.html
And Finally, Consider This:
What would it be like if every steel frame high-rise in existence was likely to collapse as a result of a not-too-serious fire, or even a serious fire? No one would set foot in them! As a matter of fact, no one would build them — they would be too dangerous. If the WTC buildings DID collapse from fire, these unprecedented failures would be extremely significant and ought to have aroused the most profound forensic analysis (the painstaking reassembly of crashed aircraft comes to mind).
This did not happen. The steel from all three buildings was quickly removed — over the strenuous objections of scientists, engineers, firefighters and the families of the victims — and most of it has been melted down in overseas markets. Access to Ground Zero was forcefully restricted and study of the final blueprints for the Towers has not been permitted.
Two groups have been extremely vocal in their protest of the destruction of evidence and lack of real forensic investigation: the families of those killed and firefighters. Fire Engineering Magazine — the primary journal for firefighters everywhere — ran a scathing editorial in January 2002 in which they referred to the official investigation blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a "half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure." http://www.fireengineering.com/index/articles/display.articles.fire-engineering
This is obviously a big concern for firefighters because they have to go into burning buildings! Prior to 9/11 there was no precedent to caution them against entering the WTC Towers to go about their work of rescuing people and putting out the fires. Surviving audio recordings of firefighter communications from the South Tower, as mentioned earlier, show that they had reached the 78th floor sky lobby and found only "two pockets of fire." They called for "two lines" and began to implement their evacuation plan just before the destruction suddenly began! http://911research.wtc7.net/mirrors/guardian2/wtc/firefighters.htm
Now what are firefighters supposed to do? In this new world, fires in high-rise steel structures can apparently trigger a "total progressive collapse" at any moment with no clear warning conditions. And this can happen not only in stable damaged structures, but in fully (or nearly) intact structures as well!
I wonder how much fear this adds to the lives of our firefighters and if high-rise fire rescue efforts have been curtailed in any way since 9/11, perhaps even causing unnecessary loss of life, due to this new uncertainty over entering burning steel-frame structures.
And This:
If the "official" story is true, then companies that offer controlled demolitions using explosives are clearly going to have some new competition. Thanks to those wily hijackers, we now have a much cheaper solution. If a structural steel high-rise needs to be removed, all that is necessary is to pick a floor somewhere in the upper portion of the building, saw off a few columns, flood the floor with jet fuel, light a match and stand back.
The building will then (about 1 or 2 hours later) miraculously explode, shattering all of the steel in the building into tidy 12-30 ft sections. The rest of the building and all of its contents will be conveniently converted into a fine dust that will be spread over a large area so that somebody else will have to clean it up!
And This:
This photo shows the start of an explosive demolition of a large brick chimney.
Look familiar?
Characteristic features indicating the use of explosives:
1) Outward arching dust plumes
2) Formation of debris cloud that is symmetrical around the vertical axis of the structure
3) Heavier material is propelled out ahead of the dust
Conclusion:
We have to find the courage to think for ourselves, open our eyes and look — and keep looking. The truth will not go away. Once we see that most of what we were told about these events is actually false, we can finally get to work on discovering the real story of 9/11... |
It looks like Whispers of the Old Gods will indeed be the next expansion for Hearthstone. Whispers of the Old Gods will be the third expansion for Hearthstone, and will be the first official set added to the new Standard format. The set will include 134 new cards, 4 Old God legendaries, and 16 cards (cultists) that intract with C'Thun. Whispers of the Old Gods has a planned release date of late April or early May.
You can start theorycrafting decks with our Hearthstone Deck Builder!
Quick Information
134 New collectible cards
Release date: April 26th, 2016
April 26th, 2016 Whispers of the Old Gods will be launched alongside the new Standard format
You get 3 free packs for logging in during the Promotional period (we don’t know how long this will be)
Your first pack will contain C'Thun and 2 copies of Beckoner of Evil
and 2 copies of C’Thun and the 16 cultist cards will NOT be available in Arena, but all the other cards will be.
Whispers of the Old Gods Pre-Order
Everyone will receive 3 free Whispers of the Old Gods packs for logging in during the release event. You will also receive a C'Thun card along with 2 copies of Beckoner of Evil for free. The Pre-Order starts on March 14th.
You will also be able to Pre-Purchase 50 Whispers of the Old Gods card packs for $49.99 (you can purchase these at a discount with Amazon Coins). Along with receiving the 50 packs at a discount, you will also receive this new C’Thun card back:
Whispers of the Old Gods Card List
Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 3.0/5. From 1595 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 3.2/5. From 1534 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 2.4/5. From 1397 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card
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Whispers of the Old Gods Release Date
Late April/Early May officially.
Whispers of the Old Gods Media/Trailer
Whispers of the Old Gods Key Art
Check out more art and information on the old gods after the jump!
Learn More About the Old Gods
If you don’t know much about WoW Lore you can read some of snippets below to learn more!
Old Gods
The Old Gods (also known as the Old-Gods, old lords of the earth, Gods Below, Old Ones, Elder Gods, elder beings, dark elders, dread elders, or Shath’Yar in their own language) are a group of eldritch horrors — closely connected to the Void — who ruled the planet of Azeroth as lords of the infamous Black Empire in the days before the titans arrived to shape and order it. The Pantheon shattered the Old Gods’ citadels and chained the five evil gods far beneath the surface of the world. If the Pantheon would have killed the Old Gods, then Azeroth would have been destroyed, possibly in an event that manifested as the Cataclysm. C’Thun feigned death and was sealed in a titan research station near Uldum. Yogg-Saron was imprisoned in Ulduar. At least Y’Shaarj was killed by the Pantheon, although its heart was preserved and later resurrected, but destroyed during the Siege of Orgrimmar. The titans could not defeat N’Zoth, whose exact location is unknown. Though chained or dead, their influence still corrupts mortals, and even immortals, to this day. [Source]
Old God: C’Thun
C’Thun is an Old God that created the qiraji and resides within the city of Ahn’Qiraj in Silithus. [Source]
Old God: Yogg-Saron
Yogg-Saron is a named Old God, one of the mysterious and dreaded elder beings that were defeated and sequestered by the Titans during Azeroth’s primordial ages. Upon their fall at the hands of the Pantheon countless millennia ago, Yogg-Saron was imprisoned inside a Titan complex within the depths of what would become the continent of Northrend. [Source]
Old God: N’Zoth
N’Zoth is an Old God, one of several malefic beings that were sequestered by the Titans during Azeroth’s primordial ages. [Source]
Old God: Y’Shaarj
Y’Shaarj (pronounced Yah-Sha-Raj) was the most powerful and wicked of the Old Gods, eldritch horrors who threatened the world of Azeroth millennia ago. Y’Shaarj was said to be the only Old God to have been killed by the Titans. Its heart was imprisoned in a vault beneath the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and later found and restored by Garrosh Hellscream, who then transported it to Orgrimmar’s Underhold. The heart was used by Garrosh to increase his power during the final battle of the Siege of Orgrimmar. As Garrosh was defeated, the heart and its power dissipated, leaving nothing left of Y’Shaarj’s corrupting influence. [Source]
Whispers of the Old Gods Leaks
This is an even more significant leak, as found by Reddit user oskuro! A Spanish website published an article a bit too early, and with it came some new information that adds to what we already know.
They have taken down the article, but you can view it via Google Cache.
Here are the most relevant parts of the article:
134 new cards
4 God cards with C’Thun as the “Head” God (Other gods likely Yogg-Saron, N’Zoth, and Y’Shaarj)
The Whispers of the gods will “contaminate” other minions (possibly minions already on the board or in your hand)
16 cards will interact and/or buff the God cards
Standard Mode will be introduced next week! (This likely means after the announcement on March 11th.)
Edit: Blizzard has given word to the moderators of the Hearthstone subreddit that Standard and Wild Mode will actually come out with the expansion: “PSA: I just received word from Blizzard clarifying that the Standard and Wild formats ARE NOT going live with next week’s patch. The formats will only be added along with the release of the expansion, which, as mentioned in the post, is late April/early May.” [Source]
Blizzard has given word to the moderators of the Hearthstone subreddit that Standard and Wild Mode will actually come out with the expansion: “PSA: I just received word from Blizzard clarifying that the Standard and Wild formats ARE NOT going live with next week’s patch. The formats will only be added along with the release of the expansion, which, as mentioned in the post, is late April/early May.” [Source] God cards (C’Thun at least) are 10 Mana, 6 Attack with 6 Health and will be buffed by the other cards
The expansion release date will be late April/Early May
New Image
An image of the side of the mural has been found by Reddit user Panqueque!
The image looks based upon the Faceless Mauler which is found in the Abyssal Depths of World of Warcraft!
Whispers of the Old Gods Logo
We got confirmation when Reddit user That_Azzin found this hand painted advertisement of the new expansion in Brooklyn and posted it on Reddit:
Whispers of the Old Gods Speculation
Clues Found on the Official Hearthstone Site
Just about every time an adventure or expansion is released there’s a clue on the website in one shape or another. The Grand Tournament had a falling sword appear, Curse of Naxxramas had cobwebs on the site, and Blackrock Mountain had a floating elemental. The other thing Blackrock Mountain had, was a change in the cards that appeared on the home page:
This was changed recently which was discovered on Reddit: |
Earlier this week, Red Bull announced that the 15-year-old from Mount Kisco would become part of its young driver programme – as it bids to get a full-time American back on the F1 grid for the first time in a decade.
For Verhagen, whose successes in karts and the US Formula 1600 Championship brought him to the attention of Red Bull's Helmut Marko, news of the energy drink giant's interest came at the most unexpected of times.
"I was in school when he [Marko] first called, in maths class," Verhagen told Motorsport.com.
"Obviously, the number wasn't recognised as I'd never talked to him before. I let it ring, but then I was sitting in there and I was kind of thinking more and more 'OK, this obviously shows an area code which was Austria'.
"I'm sitting there and thinking... and then there is a voicemail now. So I ended up going to the bathroom and listening to it and hearing it was Dr. Marko.
"From that point, I called my father and had him take me out so that I could make a proper phone call to him back at the house.
"That was probably the most exciting phone call I've ever received before. The entire week after that was absolutely amazing for me."
Verhagen's success in stepping up to single-seaters, which included nine wins last year in F1600, allied to Red Bull's backing to move him to Formula Renault 2.0 in 2017, means he could be American's next best hope of a full-time F1 driver.
The United States has been without a full-time F1 racer since Scott Speed in 2007, although Alexander Rossi did five races in 2015.
Verhagen admits is more determined to make the move to F1 than he is the local IndyCar category.
"The original goal from the beginning has always been Formula 1 for me," he said. "I've enjoyed watching Formula 1, and IndyCar would have been satisfying for me, it's a really professional series, but everybody's ultimate goal has always been F1.
"That's the best of the best. I would have been happy with IndyCar but I'm just amazingly happy right now being in the position I am. To have a chance to get to F1 is an amazing feeling."
Dutch links
With a Dutch-born father, and now living in Holland to help with his 2017 season, Verhagen obviously is well aware of fellow Red Bull man Max Verstappen.
"He's obviously an amazing talent," explained Verhagen. "He has shown he should be there. I think with the [Red Bull] programme, it not only brings in the best drivers but also develops the drivers further to make them the best they can possibly be so that they are prepared to get to F1."
F1 is still a long way away though and the immediate target is to make a success in Formula Renault 2.0 with MP Motorsport, where he will be competing against highly-rated teammates Jarno Opmeer and fellow Red Bull junior Richard Verschoor.
"Obviously I'd like to win, that's what I'm here to do, I'm here to win," says Verhagen. "I think for a first year racing in Europe I'd be happy with a podium finish at the end of the year, but obviously I'm going for race wins and I'm going for the championship at the end of the year, as well as all the other drivers."
But it's not just racing in Europe that will be different either, for moving continents means new cultures and new experiences too.
"It's for sure quite a difference already," he said. "I've already made the transition as I have an apartment here, and I figured out a couple of things with school.
"For sure for me it's a lot easier in America, as I know everybody there. I can interact and hang out with people there. Living in Holland and not speaking Dutch makes it a little difficult to try to make friends and hang out with people.
"But I have two amazing teammates this year so we hang out quite a bit as well, so at least there is somebody I can hang out with. But definitely that's going to be challenging, it much different to America over here."
And of course, maths classes will never be as good again.
Interview by Tim Biesbrouck |
Dodd-Frank curbed lending and contributes to the ongoing decline in the home ownership rate, but the lending that Dodd-Frank prevents is the toxic lending that caused the housing bubble and crash that pummeled the home ownership rate.
For nearly 100 years, Presidential administrations crafted housing policies to maximize the rate of homeownership and the rate of home price appreciation. Both Democrat and Republican administrations touted homeownership as the best investment a middle-class family could make, and home ownership became synonymous with the American Dream.
We reached peak American Dream in the early 00s. At the time, the surface conditions appeared great: house prices appreciated rapidly, mortgage equity withdrawal fueled an economic boom, subprime lending provided homeownership opportunities to nearly everyone, and record numbers enjoyed the American Dream of homeownership. Unfortunately, it was all an illusion.
The “innovative” loan products turned out poisonous to millions of borrowers who subsequently lost their homes in foreclosure. In a surprising example of legislators devising an intelligent law that actually fixes the problem, Congress enacted Dodd-Frank, which prevents lenders from making bad loans to unqualified borrowers.
Homeownership is not right for everyone, a lesson most policymakers learned from the housing mania. As a society we can’t achieve 100% homeownership, and we shouldn’t pursue policies that seek to maximize homeownership. Many Americans are better served by the freedom of movement that accompanies renting; young people in particular may want to move for career advancement. Further, many Americans lack the financial management skills necessary to sustain homeownership. Those who lack these requisite skills must be excluded because if lenders bestow homeownership to those unable to sustain it — which they did during the housing mania — the result is a heart-wrenching price crash and 10 million foreclosures.
During the housing boom, everyone was able to ignore the reality that homeownership is a privilege and not a right. Everyone considered themselves a homeowner, even those who didn’t pay for their houses.
Diana Olick, Thursday, 28 Apr 2016
After gains in the second half of 2015, the homeownership rate fell to just 63.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, in the first quarter of this year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Homeownership hit a high of 69.4 percent in 2004, during one of the biggest housing booms in history. That was also when mortgage lending was arguably at its loosest level in history. The homeownership rate is now just one-tenth of 1 basis point higher than its all-time low in the second quarter of 2015.
(See: Is home ownership still the American Dream?)
Economists continue to point to a recovering job market as fuel for growth in the housing market, but for young Americans, just having a job does not translate to homeownership. High levels of student loan debt, tight mortgage underwriting standards and overheating home prices are all contributing to very low homeownership rates among the nation’s youngest workers. Homeownership among those aged 25-34 today is nearly 10 percentage points lower than it was a decade ago. First-time homebuyers are still barely 30 percent of today’s buyers; traditionally, they comprise 40 percent of homebuyers.
(See: First-time homebuyer rate falls, Millennial homebuying myth shattered)
“Rental affordability remains a big problem in many places, and that makes it harder to save for a down payment,” said Jed Kolko, an independent economist and senior fellow at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at University of California, Berkeley.
(See: Potential homebuyers can’t save for down payments with high rents)
“We’re still seeing relatively few first-time homebuyers because young people are buying homes later than they used to. Some of this is a long-term shift toward marrying and having children later in life. Some of this is that the recovery has been slow among young adults.”
(See: Do Millennials reject the American dream of homeownership?)
Is Dodd-Frank to blame?
Legislators in the US could have maintained a 70% homeownership rate. They could have banned foreclosures, forgiven mortgage principal, and allowed the 10+ million delinquent borrowers to keep their homes without making further payments. The federal reserve could have printed money to buy every bad mortgage in the United States. Of course, such radical policy initiatives would have serious repercussions and long-term effects, so legislators and the federal reserve looked for other solutions.
When millions of borrowers stopped paying their mortgages, a great many foreclosures were bound to follow. Borrowers who could sustain homeownership with a lower interest rate or a longer amortization schedule were provided loan modifications; the rest were put out of their misery on the courthouse steps.
The millions of foreclosures that followed the millions of mortgage delinquencies inevitably lowered the homeownership rate. There were not enough qualified borrowers to replace those who weren’t up to the challenge of maintaining homeownership. If Dodd-Frank weren’t in place, lenders could have saddled the next generation of would-be owners with the same toxic loan products that pushed the homeownership rate so high in the early 00s, but what good would that accomplish? Instead of one generation of washout homeowners, we would have two.
Dodd-Frank is responsible for the lower homeownership rates in as much as it prevented the next generation from repeating the mistakes of the previous one. Many people claim that Dodd-Frank is preventing the Millennial generation from becoming homeowners, but in reality, Dodd-Frank is only preventing Millennials from becoming temporary homeowners like those in Generation X were.
(See Which generation was hurt the most by the housing bust?)
The homeownership low is caused by failed housing policy
The low home ownership rate is a direct result of failed policies that put people into homes under circumstances where they couldn’t sustain ownership. It’s not the direct correlation through the GSEs that political right would have us believe. Boosting home ownership by insuring loans to low-income borrowers was not the cause of the housing bubble. (See: The big right-wing housing bubble lie and Dodd-Frank works well, so financial elites hate it)
Failure to regulate derivatives caused a massive amount of capital to flow into unregulated toxic loan products. It was a double failure of the Greenspan federal reserve exacerbated by government subsidies and policies that encouraged too many people to buy houses they could not afford.
Dodd-Frank was crafted to address the real causes of the housing bubble. Through Dodd-Frank’s effective ban on interest-only and negative amortization loans, borrowers can’t leverage their income beyond their ability to repay, so their collective action doesn’t push housing market pricing beyond the reach of everyone except those using toxic financing. Dodd-Frank provides stability to the housing market by preventing people from obtaining the short-term illusion of homeownership, and although this makes the homeownership rate lower than the housing bubble heyday of 2005, those that own homes today are much more stable, and so is the housing market.
[listing mls=”NP16092218″] |
In set theory, the cardinality of the continuum is the cardinality or "size" of the set of real numbers R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } , sometimes called the continuum. It is an infinite cardinal number and is denoted by | R | {\displaystyle |\mathbb {R} |} or c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} (a lowercase fraktur script "c").
The real numbers R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } are more numerous than the natural numbers N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } . Moreover, R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } has the same number of elements as the power set of N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } . Symbolically, if the cardinality of N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } is denoted as ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} , the cardinality of the continuum is
c = 2 ℵ 0 > ℵ 0 . {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}=2^{\aleph _{0}}>\aleph _{0}\,.}
This was proven by Georg Cantor in his 1874 uncountability proof, part of his groundbreaking study of different infinities; the inequality was later stated more simply in his diagonal argument. Cantor defined cardinality in terms of bijective functions: two sets have the same cardinality if and only if there exists a bijective function between them.
Between any two real numbers a < b, no matter how close they are to each other, there are always infinitely many other real numbers, and Cantor showed that they are as many as those contained in the whole set of real numbers. In other words, the open interval (a,b) is equinumerous with R . {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} .} This is also true for several other infinite sets, such as any n-dimensional Euclidean space R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} (see space filling curve). That is,
| ( a , b ) | = | R | = | R n | . {\displaystyle |(a,b)|=|\mathbb {R} |=|\mathbb {R} ^{n}|.}
The smallest infinite cardinal number is ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} (aleph-null). The second smallest is ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}} (aleph-one). The continuum hypothesis, which asserts that there are no sets whose cardinality is strictly between ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} and c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} , implies that c = ℵ 1 {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}=\aleph _{1}} .
Properties [ edit ]
Uncountability [ edit ]
Georg Cantor introduced the concept of cardinality to compare the sizes of infinite sets. He famously showed that the set of real numbers is uncountably infinite; i.e. c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} is strictly greater than the cardinality of the natural numbers, ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} :
ℵ 0 < c . {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}<{\mathfrak {c}}.}
In other words, there are strictly more real numbers than there are integers. Cantor proved this statement in several different ways. See Cantor's first uncountability proof and Cantor's diagonal argument.
Cardinal equalities [ edit ]
A variation on Cantor's diagonal argument can be used to prove Cantor's theorem which states that the cardinality of any set is strictly less than that of its power set, i.e. | A | < 2 | A | {\displaystyle |A|<2^{|A|}} , and so the power set ℘ ( N ) {\displaystyle \wp (\mathbb {N} )} of the natural numbers N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } is uncountable. In fact, it can be shown[citation needed] that the cardinality of ℘ ( N ) {\displaystyle \wp (\mathbb {N} )} is equal to c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} :
Define a map f : R → ℘ ( Q ) {\displaystyle f:\mathbb {R} \to \wp (\mathbb {Q} )} rationals, Q {\displaystyle \mathbb {Q} } x {\displaystyle x} { q ∈ Q : q ≤ x } {\displaystyle \{q\in \mathbb {Q} :q\leq x\}} x {\displaystyle x} Dedekind cuts, this is nothing other than the inclusion map in the set of sets of rationals). This map is injective since the rationals are dense in R. Since the rationals are countable we have that c ≤ 2 ℵ 0 {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}\leq 2^{\aleph _{0}}} Let { 0 , 2 } N {\displaystyle \{0,2\}^{\mathbb {N} }} sequences with values in set { 0 , 2 } {\displaystyle \{0,2\}} 2 ℵ 0 {\displaystyle 2^{\aleph _{0}}} bijection between the set of binary sequences and ℘ ( N ) {\displaystyle \wp (\mathbb {N} )} indicator function). Now associate to each such sequence ( a i ) i ∈ N {\displaystyle (a_{i})_{i\in \mathbb {N} }} interval [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle [0,1]} ternary-expansion given by the digits a 1 , a 2 , … {\displaystyle a_{1},a_{2},\dotsc } ∑ i = 1 ∞ a i 3 − i {\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^{\infty }a_{i}3^{-i}} i {\displaystyle i} a i {\displaystyle a_{i}} 3 {\displaystyle 3} Cantor set. It is not hard to see that this map is injective, for by avoiding points with the digit 1 in their ternary expansion we avoid conflicts created by the fact that the ternary-expansion of a real number is not unique. We then have that 2 ℵ 0 ≤ c {\displaystyle 2^{\aleph _{0}}\leq {\mathfrak {c}}}
By the Cantor–Bernstein–Schroeder theorem we conclude that
c = | ℘ ( N ) | = 2 ℵ 0 . {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}=|\wp (\mathbb {N} )|=2^{\aleph _{0}}.}
The cardinal equality c 2 = c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}^{2}={\mathfrak {c}}} can be demonstrated using cardinal arithmetic:
c 2 = ( 2 ℵ 0 ) 2 = 2 2 × ℵ 0 = 2 ℵ 0 = c . {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}^{2}=(2^{\aleph _{0}})^{2}=2^{2\times {\aleph _{0}}}=2^{\aleph _{0}}={\mathfrak {c}}.}
By using the rules of cardinal arithmetic one can also show that
c ℵ 0 = ℵ 0 ℵ 0 = n ℵ 0 = c n = ℵ 0 c = n c = c , {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}^{\aleph _{0}}={\aleph _{0}}^{\aleph _{0}}=n^{\aleph _{0}}={\mathfrak {c}}^{n}=\aleph _{0}{\mathfrak {c}}=n{\mathfrak {c}}={\mathfrak {c}},}
where n is any finite cardinal ≥ 2, and
c c = ( 2 ℵ 0 ) c = 2 c × ℵ 0 = 2 c , {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}^{\mathfrak {c}}=(2^{\aleph _{0}})^{\mathfrak {c}}=2^{{\mathfrak {c}}\times \aleph _{0}}=2^{\mathfrak {c}},}
where 2 c {\displaystyle 2^{\mathfrak {c}}} is the cardinality of the power set of R, and 2 c > c {\displaystyle 2^{\mathfrak {c}}>{\mathfrak {c}}} .
c = 2 ℵ 0 {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}=2^{\aleph _{0}}} Alternative explanation for [ edit ]
Every real number has at least one infinite decimal expansion. For example,
1/2 = 0.50000...
1/3 = 0.33333...
π = 3.14159....
(This is true even when the expansion repeats as in the first two examples.) In any given case, the number of digits is countable since they can be put into a one-to-one correspondence with the set of natural numbers N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } . This fact makes it sensible to talk about (for example) the first, the one-hundredth, or the millionth digit of π. Since the natural numbers have cardinality ℵ 0 , {\displaystyle \aleph _{0},} each real number has ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} digits in its expansion.
Since each real number can be broken into an integer part and a decimal fraction, we get
c ≤ ℵ 0 ⋅ 10 ℵ 0 ≤ 2 ℵ 0 ⋅ ( 2 4 ) ℵ 0 = 2 ℵ 0 + 4 ⋅ ℵ 0 = 2 ℵ 0 {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}\leq \aleph _{0}\cdot 10^{\aleph _{0}}\leq 2^{\aleph _{0}}\cdot {(2^{4})}^{\aleph _{0}}=2^{\aleph _{0}+4\cdot \aleph _{0}}=2^{\aleph _{0}}}
since
ℵ 0 + 4 ⋅ ℵ 0 = ℵ 0 . {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}+4\cdot \aleph _{0}=\aleph _{0}\,.}
On the other hand, if we map 2 = { 0 , 1 } {\displaystyle 2=\{0,1\}} to { 3 , 7 } {\displaystyle \{3,7\}} and consider that decimal fractions containing only 3 or 7 are only a part of the real numbers, then we get
2 ℵ 0 ≤ c . {\displaystyle 2^{\aleph _{0}}\leq {\mathfrak {c}}\,.}
and thus
c = 2 ℵ 0 . {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}=2^{\aleph _{0}}\,.}
Beth numbers [ edit ]
The sequence of beth numbers is defined by setting ℶ 0 = ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \beth _{0}=\aleph _{0}} and ℶ k + 1 = 2 ℶ k {\displaystyle \beth _{k+1}=2^{\beth _{k}}} . So c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} is the second beth number, beth-one:
c = ℶ 1 . {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}=\beth _{1}.}
The third beth number, beth-two, is the cardinality of the power set of R (i.e. the set of all subsets of the real line):
2 c = ℶ 2 . {\displaystyle 2^{\mathfrak {c}}=\beth _{2}.}
The continuum hypothesis [ edit ]
The famous continuum hypothesis asserts that c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} is also the second aleph number ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}} . In other words, the continuum hypothesis states that there is no set A {\displaystyle A} whose cardinality lies strictly between ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} and c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}}
∄ A : ℵ 0 < | A | < c . {\displaystyle
exists A\quad :\quad \aleph _{0}<|A|<{\mathfrak {c}}.}
This statement is now known to be independent of the axioms of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice (ZFC). That is, both the hypothesis and its negation are consistent with these axioms. In fact, for every nonzero natural number n, the equality c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} = ℵ n {\displaystyle \aleph _{n}} is independent of ZFC (the case n = 1 {\displaystyle n=1} is the continuum hypothesis). The same is true for most other alephs, although in some cases equality can be ruled out by König's theorem on the grounds of cofinality, e.g., c ≠ ℵ ω . {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}
eq \aleph _{\omega }.} In particular, c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} could be either ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}} or ℵ ω 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{\omega _{1}}} , where ω 1 {\displaystyle \omega _{1}} is the first uncountable ordinal, so it could be either a successor cardinal or a limit cardinal, and either a regular cardinal or a singular cardinal.
Sets with cardinality of the continuum [ edit ]
A great many sets studied in mathematics have cardinality equal to c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} . Some common examples are the following:
Sets with greater cardinality [ edit ]
Sets with cardinality greater than c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}} include:
the set of all subsets of R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } P ( R ) {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}(\mathbb {R} )}
the set 2 R of indicator functions defined on subsets of the reals (the set 2 R {\displaystyle 2^{\mathbb {R} }} isomorphic to P ( R ) {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}(\mathbb {R} )}
of indicator functions defined on subsets of the reals (the set isomorphic to the set R R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\mathbb {R} }} R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }
the Lebesgue σ-algebra of R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } Lebesgue measurable sets in R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }
Lebesgue measurable sets in the set of all Lebesgue-integrable functions from R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }
the set of all Lebesgue-measurable functions from R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }
the Stone–Čech compactifications of N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } Q {\displaystyle \mathbb {Q} } R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }
the set of all automorphisms of the (discrete) field of complex numbers.
These all have cardinality 2 c = ℶ 2 {\displaystyle 2^{\mathfrak {c}}=\beth _{2}} (beth two).
References [ edit ]
This article incorporates material from cardinality of the continuum on PlanetMath, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. |
My dad went on his first American road trip to the South in 1979, from New Hampshire to Mobile, Alabama. This was his first Thanksgiving and the first time his white hosts had seen an Indian man. Before dinner, he was invited to the grocery store and his friend’s father grabbed a rifle off the shelf and placed it in the bed of his truck. This was the South, my dad was told, and others might not like him because of the color of his skin. So he went to the store and faced a few mean stares, but was ignored. Welcome to America.
Indian Americans are lucky. Police aren’t killing us in unprecedented numbers, and government policy isn’t designed to kick us out. Some of the insults hurled my way growing up—sand nigger, camel jockey, raghead—show a lack of understanding of who we are by clumping us with others who are more persecuted. Our history in this nation is not marked by civil rights milestones. Perhaps because of this, we are often seen as soft, a minority that should be pleased with its good position in America.
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I thought about this a few months ago at a Donald Trump rally in Chicago. It was as advertised: a white supremacist fever dream, like a hyper-stylized cartoon version of hate. Mobs of white men and women yelled at crowds of young black and Muslim and Mexican protesters who told me they felt like caged animals on display at the zoo. To first-generation Indian Americans like me, Trump is that racist white guy: a villain in a Bollywood movie making life unsafe for those with brown skin. He’s tapped into a fear that despite growing up in this nation, we still don’t belong. And yet, in a campaign dripping with explicit xenophobia, he’s done all this while mostly ignoring us.
“We are from India,” Trump said in Delaware, pretending to be a call center worker in an accent that was actually not that bad, more Amitabh Bachchan than Kwik-E-Mart. Our only other mention came earlier this year when he said that “India is doing great. Nobody talks about it.” Well, yeah. (Likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was photographed carrying to-go bags of tandoori and chicken makhani, but that doesn’t count.)
If you listen closely, though, Trump’s said some things. He’s proposed a ban on Muslim immigration (10% of Indian Americans are Muslims, and there are 180 million Muslims in India); mocked a Sikh man in a red turban who was kicked out of a rally (“He wasn’t wearing one of those red hats, was he?”); and answered a town hall question about hate speech against religious minorities like Sikh Americans by talking about ISIS. “I was stunned,” Brian Murphy, a police lieutenant who survived a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin despite being hit 15 times, and who asked Trump the question, told me. “It really had nothing to do with the question whatsoever.”
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But for a man preoccupied with size, we’re just not big enough. Asian Americans only made up 3% of voters in 2012, and Indian Americans—despite being one of the largest immigration populations, with 3.2 million people (1% of the nation)—only constitute a fraction of that number. Campaigns are also less likely to court citizens who haven’t voted in past elections, and the overwhelming majority of Indian American adults are first-generation immigrants, who vote at a lower rate than second- and third-generation immigrants. And historically, we’ve been overwhelmingly Democratic: A whopping 84% of Indian Americans voted for Obama in 2008.
Still, Indian Americans possess characteristics that would make them natural Republicans: a high level of income (in 2010, the median income was $88,000) and culturally conservative views. A study by the National Asian American Survey after the 2012 election found that “if either major party made significant investments to engage with Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, they could reap significant advantages over the next decade.” (I’m not including the sort-of-real PAC Indian Americans for Trump, whose leaders told me they don’t raise money, are “loose” with membership numbers, and peddle conspiracy theories about Clinton and Huma Abedin being in bed with Pakistan.)
In another study, Asian Americans were pushed to the left by racial micro-aggressions, or harmless statements that implied that they are not true Americans (“You would love my Indian friend!” for example), or when clumped under restrictive legislation with other minorities (like when reminded of a law that requires immigration checks for both Mexicans and Indians). “The Republican Party could try to capitalize on divisions between Asian Americans and other minorities, emphasizing how Democratic policies benefit other groups at their expense,” the paper concluded. “But doing that successfully would require a level of political dexterity that Republicans haven’t shown much of late.” Neil Malhotra, a professor of political economy at Stanford and one of the authors, told me that Republican rhetoric, especially on immigration, makes Indian people feel unwelcome.
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Jay Caspian Kang wrote in The New York Times that immigrant populations like us, who believe they are on the “march to whiteness,” “seldom engage in the sort of political advocacy and discourse that might explain, or even defend, our odd, singular and tenuous status as Americans.” As we defend this fragile position as Americans while also finding our own political voice, the illusion that Indian Americans stand squarely on the side of African Americans and Muslims and Mexicans will be challenged. Was Peter Liang, the Chinese American cop who shot an unarmed black man to death, a scapegoat because he was Asian, or was his lack of prison time an injustice? Is keeping ISIS and jihadis out enough of a reason to racially profile Muslims? Is immigration—where Indians have accounted for more than 56% of all H1-B visas, or visas for specialized jobs like science and tech—a common racial justice issue, or are voters held hostage by Democrats fighting to pass legislation for low-skilled immigration?
What does this mean for 2016? Trump is not the man to win any Indian American voters. But since both candidates stand to gain few votes by engaging us nationally, the best political course is to ignore us. As the saying goes, Indians don’t complain, we adjust and assimilate.
Remember, November is not a referendum on racism. If we consider the Trump campaign as not just a means to the presidency, but an end itself, then he has already made his mark. Sure, he’s damaged the way we talk about race in this country. But he’s also accurately displaying the level of racial discourse in America right now. He has shown us so clearly that a huge portion of this country is stuck in 1916. Black people are thugs. Mexicans take jobs and are rapists. Muslims should be kept out, and Sikhs and Indians look like Muslims. Asians are good and obedient.
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In the setting of a Make America Great Again rally, this obedience means shutting up and letting the audience soak up Trump’s vision of exclusivity. It means shaving before to look less Middle Eastern, and thinking that Trump supporters would recognize a “harmless” Indian, when I looked every bit as brown as those there to protest. It means, even for a moment, buying into the idea that any hard-earned progress made in this country will be wiped away by standing up against discrimination that doesn’t include me.
For a people who are at once too “white” and whose self-identity crisis is too inconsequential to be visible in the national conversation about race, Trump has done something spectacular. For the first time in my lifetime, at least, the hate my parents warned of has a name. It’s in big letters on a skyscraper on the Chicago River a few dozen miles from where I grew up. It hung outside a high-rise I lived in years ago by the Hudson River—a tiny one-bedroom apartment turned into two by the construction of a wall that cut the living room in half, blocked the windows, and blotted out the sun. It’s a reminder of how my dad felt at that grocery store 37 years ago, and every single slight since. Soon, it might be in the White House. |
Delegate outcomes; not actions by Evan Leybourn on
The difference between leadership and management
There’s a particular form of leadership that has difficulty in delegating. I’m not talking about micro-managers (although they would fall into this category as well), but those who delegate actions. The “I need you to put a presentation together by Friday” type of manager.
This management model shows an implicit lack of trust. And while it may not be verbalised (or even thought of in this way), trust between managers and their staff is demonstrated in how we interact with each other.
Rather, leaders should be delegating outcomes - and leave the choice and implementation of the relevant actions to their staff.
For every “I need a presentation on X” there is a “We need to make our clients aware of the new products.”
For every “I need you to sell this car” there is a “We need to increase sales by 10% this quarter.”
For every “I need you to upgrade Microsoft Office to 2013” there is a “I need you to maintain all systems and ensure they are up to date.”
If you do not trust your staff, either because they have proven themselves incompetent (as in the literal definition of not-competent) or they are new, then certainly be specific. But if, as an agile leader, you’re hiring people smarter than you, let them do their job. And if, as should happen, they find a better way to do the job, your act of delegating should not limit them.
Do you delegate actions or outcomes? Why? Let me know below. |
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