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Popole Misenga (born 25 February 1992) is a judoka originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who has been selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Personal life [ edit ] Misenga was born on 25 February 1992.[1] He is from the Bukavu area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an area severely affected by the Second Congo War.[1] After his mother was murdered when he was six years old, he fled to a nearby rainforest and wandered for a week, before being rescued and taken to a home in Kinshasa.[2] He sought political asylum in Brazil after travelling there to compete in the 2013 World Judo Championships along with fellow judoka Yolande Mabika.[1][3][4] The pair claimed that their coaches confined them in their hotel room while leaving with their money, passports and meal tickets. After two days barely eating, Mabika escaped, and Misenga waited more days only for the staff to arrive on the day of the competition, smelling of alcohol. The following day, Mabika returned to the hotel and convinced Misenga to desert, and both were taken by an Angolan to the African immigrant-heavy neighborhood of Brás de Pina.[5] They also stated that back in Africa, their judo coaches deprived them of food and locked them in cages when they did not perform well.[2][6] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officially granted him refugee status in September 2014.[1] He is now married to a Brazilian woman and has a son born in the country.[2] Judo [ edit ] Misenga first took up judo at a centre for displaced children in Kinshasa.[6] In 2010 he won a bronze medal at the African under-20 Judo Championships.[2] At the 2013 World Judo Championships held in Brazil he was eliminated in the first round of his competition after losing to Islam Bozbayev of Kazakhstan.[7] Following this tournament he sought asylum in Brazil and remained in the country.[6] In Brazil he started training at the Instituto Reação, a judo school founded by Olympic bronze medallist Flávio Canto, and now trains under coach Geraldo Bernardes in Rio de Janeiro.[1][2][6] Before being taken by Reação, Misenga had odd jobs at truck crews.[5] He received support and funding from the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity programme.[2] On 3 June 2016 the IOC announced that Misenga would be part of a team of ten athletes selected to compete as part of a Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[8] In the men's 90 kg event, Misenga won his first bout against Avtar Singh of India, but lost against South Korea's Gwak Dong-han.[9]
“We expect the Colorado Rapids match on Saturday night against FC Dallas to proceed as scheduled at 7:00 p.m. at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, as the stadium and surrounding parking lots have not suffered any damage. As always, we will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that our event is safe for fans, staff and players. We will be updating our website (www.ColoradoRapids.com) and social media sites (www.facebook.com/ColoradoRapids and www.twitter.com/ColoradoRapids) throughout Friday and Saturday to keep fans informed about travel routes and road closures, parking options, and any other pertinent information about the match.” ========================= UPDATE 9/13 5:00 p.m. :: With local authorities working throughout the day on Friday, combined with sunny and warm weather throughout the day in the area, we anticipate few road closures in the area ahead of Saturday night’s match between the Colorado Rapids and FC Dallas. However, we do encourage fans to leave extra time to travel to the stadium. One anticipated closure on Saturday will be the eastbound off-ramp at Quebec St. on I-70, with alternate exits either before the Quebec exit at Colorado or Monaco, or after at Central Park Blvd. A section of I-70 further east, between Pecos and I-25, is also expected to be closed due to previously scheduled construction. We will provide another update on Saturday afternoon with additional information, if available. ========================= UPDATE 9/14 4:15 p.m. :: With improved conditions on Saturday morning, there are no further updates to the previous message. The eastbound I-70 off-ramp at Quebec St. remains closed, as expected, as does I-70 between Pecos and I-25 due to previously scheduled construction. Earlier today, Colorado Department of Transportation tweeted the following:
Local elections 2014: The TUSC results in full Election Report 2014 A COMPREHENSIVE account of the TUSC results from last week's local elections is now available at www.tusc.org.uk/txt/307.pdf A total of 554 candidates, standing in 507 wards in 86 councils, contested the local council elections on May 22nd under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) umbrella. In addition, TUSC stood candidates in the directly-elected mayoral contests in Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets, and in five by-elections in three councils without scheduled elections this year, that were held on the same day. In total 68,152 votes were cast for these candidates. Scheduled elections took place in 161 local authorities in England, to fill 4,216 seats in around 3,000 wards. The TUSC challenge, contesting 12% of the seats and 17% of the wards, was greater than anything attempted before in the four-year history of our coalition. In 2011, the first local elections seriously contested by TUSC, we fielded a candidate in 2% of the seats. In 2012 it was 4% and in 2013, when it was mainly county councils which were up for election, TUSC had a candidate in 5% of the seats, 120 in total. This year was on a different scale. But it was also on a different scale to any historical left-of-Labour comparator. The highest number of candidates ever stood by the Socialist Alliance, for example, was in 2002, on the same four-yearly local elections' cycle as this year's contests (including the London boroughs). The Socialist Alliance stood 204 candidates in those elections, in 187 wards. This really was, as we said, the biggest left-of-Labour electoral challenge since the immediate aftermath of world war two. Trade unions Another significant feature was the breadth of the candidates who came forward to stand. There were 53 candidates who were members of the RMT transport workers' union, one of the constituent organisations, of course, of TUSC. But then there were 19 Communication Workers' Union members who were candidates, 18 members of the National Union of Teachers, 16 PCS members, and 20 members of the University and College Union. From the big Labour-affiliated unions, there were 74 Unison members standing for TUSC and 130 members of Unite. There was also political breadth, around the agreed TUSC core policies (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/policy ). The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is, as the name states, a coalition. Alongside leading trade unionists and individual socialist councillors sitting in a personal capacity on the national steering committee, there are five organisations with official delegates to the committee: the RMT transport workers union, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Resistance, and the TUSC Independent Socialist Network, representing unaffiliated members of TUSC. These latter are an important component of TUSC - there were 141 candidates (25%) who, when completing the TUSC Authorisation Application form question, 'are you a member of a political party or group?' entered 'none'. But there were also candidates who are members of more socialist organisations than those currently participating on the national steering committee - as has been the case since TUSC's formation. This year there were candidates standing under the TUSC umbrella who were members of DayMer (a socialist Turkish-Kurdish community group), the Pan-African Congress, the United Socialist Party, the Labour Representation Committee, and nine members of Left Unity and two Respect members, all with the rights guaranteed in the TUSC rules to promote their own organisation in their election campaign as they so wished (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/16861/14-11-13/How-TUSC-Functions on the TUSC website). Media boycott However, despite being the sixth biggest party in these elections, there was an almost total boycott of TUSC in the national broadcasting and print media, with just one item on the BBC's Daily Politics show, a 20-second clip on the News At One, a similar length item on Radio Four, but nothing on ITV, Sky or Channel Four. The only national newspaper to mention TUSC was The Independent. The BBC, acting on behalf of all the broadcasting companies, produces 'guidance' for how each election should be reported, including a minimum threshold of the number of candidates a party must stand before they qualify for 'fair coverage'. Unfortunately, although we ended up with candidates in nearly 17% of the wards - above the BBC's criteria - this time TUSC fell short of the seat number threshold and the steering committee is resolved that, if it is at all possible, this should be the last set of elections where this happens. The election report includes the full results for each ward where a TUSC candidate stood, including the votes of all the other parties' candidates, and the results of the TUSC candidates in the three directly-elected mayoral contests. It also presents, for the first time in our election reports, the TUSC results aggregated on a local authority basis - once again showing the scale of this year's effort to build an anti-austerity alternative to the establishment parties.
Brazil - The Last WC Before FIFA Abandons Morality? For all the problems that will accompany the World Cup in Brazil, we should at least be able to savor a tournament in a free and peaceful football-loving country. Enjoy it, because it will be at least 12 years before we get to do it again. We've all grown weary of reading the stories about how the World Cup in Brazil has the potential to be a disaster. How many headlines can you read about unfinished airports and stadiums, grotesquely over-priced hotels, political and social discontent and the risk of street crime before you finally tune-out? We comfort ourselves with the knowledge that every major soccer tournament, just like every Olympics, is heralded by media warnings of impending disaster that are quickly forgotten once the action gets underway. Then we see the images of singing fans bedecked in team colors, sunning themselves in city squares, knocking back a few beers and we wonder what all the fuss was about? After all, we were all going to be robbed and attacked in South Africa in 2010 but ended up enjoying a wonderful month in the country. The problems the fans will face in Brazil though, real and annoying as they will be, are of a practical nature – finding an affordable bed to sleep in, managing to get a flight to a second round venue, trying to change plans when your team unexpectedly makes it to the quarter-finals. It is going to take planning and plenty of cash to have fun in Brazil. But for those with the resources it will probably be just about do-able. Those fans should enjoy it while they can for the World Cups in 2018 and 2022 are going to be of a very different kind. Whatever goes wrong for fans in Brazil, at least they will return home with clean consciences having done nothing other than try to have a good time in a country that, imperfect as it may be, is a democracy and a football-loving one at that; the kind of place where a World Cup should be held. The next time that opportunity will come around will be 2026 – at the earliest. There can be no doubt Vladimir Putin and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani will have the hotels built on time. Dictators get things done, especially when they have the combined resources of a state and oligarchy they control. Vast resources will be thrown at new stadia, airports and other infrastructure. Annoying social movements are unlikely to hold large, disruptive protests. But how can it be a 'global party' when morally, football, will be mired in compromise with regimes that give us no cause to celebrate? The leaders of the game have adopted in recent years a strange double-speak when it comes to issues of human rights. The governing bodies make plenty of platitudes about opposing racism, sexism and homophobia, handing out symbolic small sanctions to European clubs who fail to keep in line their more xenophobic fans, while at the same time they cut multi-million dollar deals with regimes that simply laugh at the mere mention of human rights. So Bayern Munich had to close a 700 seat section of the Allianz Arena for the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United because of a silly 'Gay Gunners' banner some fans unfurled against Arsenal in the previous round? Yet the leaders of the game are preparing to hold a Word Cup in Russia where gays are harassed and face a specific law targeting 'homosexual propaganda' and in Qatar where male homosexuality is actually illegal.
Fighters step inside the octagon hoping to win their respective bouts so they can get some bonus money and a hefty fight purse. Joe Lauzon wasn’t on this past Saturday’s UFC on FOX 5 fight card, however he stepped inside the octagon and walked away with $6,000 in bonus money. The Boston native was in Seattle, Washington to corner his training partner Joe Proctor, but prior to the FOX card he had an exhibition grappling match against Nick “The Tooth” who is a friend of UFC President Dana White. White offered Lauzon $1000 for every time he could submit Nick and Nick $2500 for every time he could submit Lauzon. Lauzon explained the story on this weeks episode of MMASucka Radio. “I got in a grappling match in the cage with Nick The Tooth. He’s actually a friend of Dana’s. It’s actually going to be in one of Dana’s video blogs coming up pretty quick here. Basically, the premise was that every time I submitted Nick, I got $1000 and if Nick could submit me then he got $2,500. So, I had three minutes to grapple with him and I banged out six submissions. So, I had a very good weekend.” Proctor didn’t pick up the victory on Saturday night, but Lauzon came away a winner in Seattle. Lauzon is set to take on Jim Miller on December 29 at UFC 155 in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can listen to the entire Lauzon interview on this week’s edition of MMASucka Radio.
Silver Spur Drive in is reviving the drive in movie just in time for summer fun. Three movies have been announced for the Edmonton drive in, perfect for those nights when you’re just not sure what you want to do – or those nights when you want to plan an out of the ordinary date night. The schedule was just released on Twitter – and has made the list for a fun (and cheap) double date idea in the future. The late night movies start at 9:45, and come with a price per car of $30 ($20 on Sundays for date night). I see a double date in our future, kicking it old school with the performance of Ferris Bueller’s Day off. You know, until this moment I’ve never seen a use for those tailgate seats that switch around in the back of our Flex. Now, I know they’re for backing up into the drive in and having a comfortable and airy place to sit to watch the show. July Silver Spur Drive-In Schedule July 2, 2015: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off July 4, 2015: Mastermind July 5, 2015: 500 Days of Summer Though the prices are per car load, you’re welcome to bring chairs or blankets and sit outside of the vehicle. The location of the Edmonton drive in movies is at the North parking lot at Telus Field. Get more information at www.silverspurmovies.com NOTE: The drive in plans were put off – and the rest of the shows for the summer have been cancelled.
Russian opposition member and blogger Maxim Efimov, who has been granted asylum in Estonia, said he is willing to return to Russia and face charges if abducted Estonian official Eston Kohver is released in exchange. “In my opinion Russian authorities have committed a horrific crime against an Estonian citizen. I think the innocent Eston Kohver should be released immediately and sent back to Estonia. Is the FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] ready for it? If not, I propose a swap,” Efimov wrote in his blog. “I am a Russian citizen, a political refugee, wanted by the federal government, I am also on the list of extremists and terrorist and have lived in the Republic of Estonian for three years, I am ready to return to Russian and for immediate arrest,” he said. “Eston Kohver has a wife, who is waiting for her husband, and four children, who are waiting for their father. So I am ready to put my life in danger and return to Russia right now, but only on one condition – that in return, the innocent Estonian citizen Eston Kohver is released immediately,” said Efimov. Efimov led a youth organization named Agora in Russia, which criticized Russian authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church on corruption in 2012, saying the rebirth of the church has come hand-in-hand with increased corruption and authority of Russian special services. The Russian Prosecution began a criminal investigation against Efimov on hate crimes and extremism paragraphs. Efimov received asylum in Estonia in May 2012.
GambleX Offline Activity: 70 Merit: 10 GambleX Exchange/Gambling MemberActivity: 70Merit: 10GambleX Exchange/Gambling [ANN][Invest]-=Gamblex=- LAST CHANCE TO INVEST TODAY! JOIN NOW!! March 03, 2014, 02:08:55 PM Last edit: March 31, 2014, 03:38:40 PM by GambleX #1 Where online gambling meets crypto exchange! Multicurrency Gambling/Exchange Hybrid BTC LTC DOGE NMC PPC FTC WDC QRK XPM MEC PTS NVC Official Link: http://gamblex.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gamblex/614328488648345 Twitter: https://twitter.com/GamblexOrg Contact us: [email protected] Multicurrency Gambling/Exchange Hybrid UPDATE: NR.3 We have added the following currencies to our site: NXT AuroraCoin DarkCoin UltraCoin VertCoin That means all those will be traded on our exchange and there will be games for them. Also we opened the share program to those currencies! See below to find the corresponding Investment-addresses. UPDATE: NR.2 We added Mintcoin to our site. That means it will be traded on our exchange and there will be games for it. Also we opened the share program to that currency! MINT: 0.00 TOTAL MsggmUh5Yyx6AiUiJuAaZAExogGLomNKGL - 250,000,000 MINT CAP - 50,000 MIN http://mintcoin-explorer.info/address/MsggmUh5Yyx6AiUiJuAaZAExogGLomNKGL UPDATE: We will now accept investments via PM to make it much easier to participate! Also we introduce a investmentreward program: From March 10th - March 16th you will get 30% extra shares for your investment. From March 17th - March 23th you will get 20% extra shares for your investment. From March 24th - March 30th you will get 10% extra shares for your investment. On March 31th you will get 0% extra shares for your investment. How to invest? Send money to one of the following addresses and PM me the transaction ID. That is all!The investment will be credited to your BitcoinTalk account. This is an additional way to invest, you can still do everything per email. Investment addresses: BTC: 0.733075 TOTAL 1CaScLJ8VixaNcw8YmvJ2LDogC8fUTUiCq – 500 BTC CAP – 0.01 MIN https://blockchain.info/address/1CaScLJ8VixaNcw8YmvJ2LDogC8fUTUiCq LTC: 18.37 TOTAL LcbCLXoTiwDZAafYUNwBeYToj1UN4CxaUF – 2,500 LTC CAP – 1.00 MIN http://block-explorer.com/address/LcbCLXoTiwDZAafYUNwBeYToj1UN4CxaUF DOGE: 84,999.00 TOTAL DPXWWhBSE6ctgpMBNrAPv95whbqEabQmng – 35,000,000 DOGE CAP – 10,000.00 MIN https://dogechain.info/address/DPXWWhBSE6ctgpMBNrAPv95whbqEabQmng NMC: 0.00 TOTAL Njuy783kiq4dLiFVnEvP5AZaQr8txEdMPV – 7,000 NMC CAP – 5.00 MIN http://explorer.anoncoin.net/address/NJuy783kiq4dLiFVnEvP5AZaQr8txEdMPV PPC: 0.00 TOTAL PegMN7RiVEKpLJkiBU9zv42AfdL8DABx8M – 7,500 PPC CAP – 5.00 MIN http://ppc.cryptocoinexplorer.com/address/PEgMN7RiVEKpLJkiBU9zv42AfdL8DABx8M FTC: 44.50 TOTAL 6iveN3ks3Qu8erQJimkvvB7QKQ2ybDP4SB – 75,000 FTC CAP – 25.00 MIN https://explorer.feathercoin.com/address/6iveN3ks3Qu8erQJimkvvB7QKQ2ybDP4SB WDC: 2322.00 TOTAL WfJKZTDN1KuxR3Fye9P2FQD5pozZEymkq5 – 150,000 WDC CAP – 50.00 MIN http://wdc.cryptocoinexplorer.com/address/WfJKZTDN1KuxR3Fye9P2FQD5pozZEymkq5 QRK: 1000.00 TOTAL QprjGLiHgrMGFBhK7FqhUE5fnCE3wuPt3a – 350,000 QRK CAP – 100.00 MIN http://qrkblock.com/address/QPrjGLiHgrMGFBhK7FqhUE5fnCE3wuPt3a XPM: 95.00 TOTAL AafFGLpCBKM3WRRsCsEEwTKJvjgfRgwE74 – 20,000 XPM CAP – 5.00 MIN https://coinplorer.com/XPM/Addresses/AafFGLpCBKM3WRRsCsEEwTKJvjgfRgwE74 MEC: 45.00 TOTAL MA4NA68TnBdPDjthicTQ6JbaxJSn1V6R1b – 50,000 MEC CAP – 15.00 MIN http://mega.rapta.net:2750/address/MA4NA68TnBdPDjthicTQ6JbaxJSn1V6R1b PTS: 1.80 TOTAL PvpPBvgmjmipw3PZcmKK4qFUXYoMWgo9nb – 2,000 PTS CAP – 1.00 MIN https://coinplorer.com/PTS/Addresses/PvpPBvgmjmipw3PZcmKK4qFUXYoMWgo9nb NVC: 10.00 TOTAL 4JnpDFF69X9aRpssSacWok31mPGNDdBFZr – 5,000 NVC CAP – 2.00 MIN https://coinplorer.com/NVC/Addresses/4JnpDFF69X9aRpssSacWok31mPGNDdBFZr MINT: 935,607.20 TOTAL MsggmUh5Yyx6AiUiJuAaZAExogGLomNKGL - 250,000,000 MINT CAP - 50,000 MIN http://mintcoin-explorer.info/address/MsggmUh5Yyx6AiUiJuAaZAExogGLomNKGL NXT: 10,773.00 TOTAL 763266322960050886 - 500,000.00 NXT CAP - 250.00 MIN http://87.230.14.1/nxt/nxt.cgi?action=3000&acc=763266322960050886 AUR: 0.00 TOTAL AJY5QNnF83BpmKbAdNPXd9Hn59zgh3ugop - 10,000.00 AUR CAP - 1.00 MIN http://blockexplorer.auroracoin.eu/address/AJY5QNnF83BpmKbAdNPXd9Hn59zgh3ugop VTC: 30.50 TOTAL VqsUVJUMSJRZrtSvJEwjpuPCjzrJGJNtCV - 50,000.00 VTC CAP - 10.00 MIN https://explorer.vertcoin.org/address/VqsUVJUMSJRZrtSvJEwjpuPCjzrJGJNtCV DRK: 116.90 TOTAL XgUbHo1F5uoJAh2hFyhCRZkSX5f4fqDnUo - 75,000.00 DRK CAP - 15.00 MIN http://explorer.darkcoin.io/address/XgUbHo1F5uoJAh2hFyhCRZkSX5f4fqDnUo UTC: 0.00 TOTAL UQEoigVX4noUJDQLghzjUuvD3wG72r2LGQ - 1,000,000.00 UTC CAP - 100.00 MIN http://bitgo.pw:3731/address/UQEoigVX4noUJDQLghzjUuvD3wG72r2LGQ Status: 173 Free Giveaway Participants Hint: 4/18 Currencies have no Investment stake at all!!! Hello BitcoinTalk-Users, I am David, project manager, and today I introduce our newest project: Gamblex. Who are we? See here: What is gamblex? Main article: http://gamblex.org/concept/ Gamblex is an innovative platform that uses the synergy effects of combining an exchange with a social gambling site to increase our revenue. Using state-of-the-art technology, we will offer a platform, where people can trade, play, chat and have fun. The exchange will be amazingly fast with order types, that are unique in the bitcoin world. The gambling section will offer three adicting games that can be either played or invested in(site bankroll consists of investor funds). To increase the traffic on our site we introduce a stimulus plan, that will keep players, traders and investors involved with the site. Feature Overview Three addictive Games Provable Fair Stimulus Plan Social Gaming Invest into the bankroll State-of-the-art Exchange Market Maker System Broad APIs Hourly Faucet Multiple Chatrooms with personal Messages Experienced Team Fast and beautiful Website The Giveaway and Investment provides a broad user-base starting from the launch All details can be found on our homepage: Why do we want to sell stake in this project? The funds raised here will be used to speed up the development process and pay our staff. Furthermore the investment process will help us build a big userbase, so that our site can flourish from the start. That is also the reason why we giveaway 2% of the stake for free! What exactly do the stakeholders receive? Basically the income that will be distributed to stakeholder consist of the following sources: Tradingfees of the exchange; 50% of all trading fees will be distributed to the stakeholders (25% reserved for costs and 25% are for the founders) Investment-gain-fees; 80% of those fees will be distributed (This fee occurs when the site-bankroll increases) Hint: 100% of those funds will be used to pay dividends. The operating costs and wages will not be subtracted. Fees Structure (Exchange) Modern Market-Maker system Buying/Selling Coins will be subject to 0.2% – 0.3% fee (only market orders and limit/stops over the market price will pay this) The adding of liquidity to the order book will be rewarded with 0% trading fee! (limit/stop orders) Fees Structure(Sitebankroll) Only net gains of the Investors will be subject to a 10% fee What have we finished so far? Overall Concept Details of the IPO Deposit/withdrawal of Bitcoin and clones Share system and the distribution of dividends Faucet Gambling algorythm Logos / Design studies Part of the exchange code Social Gaming System Chat system Realistically speaking we have finished about 30% of the core work. If we switch to working full-time on this project, we could finish it within two months. This includes testing and a closed beta phase. We need to make sure that everything works flawlessly to not risk any flaws in our system that could hurt our customers/investors. How we plan to move forward? March 3rd – Start Investment-period March 31st – End of Investment-period May 1st – Start of Stress testing May 16th – Closed Beta starts June 1st – Launch of Platform How many shares are there for sale? There will be 100.000 shares for each of the twelve currencies. We will never issue any new shares. Details of this can be found here: How can I invest? Visit: What about escrow? Yes, it is possible to use an escrow. Note that there are some restrictions though: Read this: How can I contact you? Please visit Bounties: Translate this opening post and post it to the following communities: 0.05 BTC - Russian Community: To claim the bounty, simply send me a private message with the link to the new thread. We will now accept investments via PM to make it much easier to participate! Also we introduce a investmentreward program:The investment will be credited to your BitcoinTalk account. This is an additional way to invest, you can still do everything per email.: 0.733075 TOTAL1CaScLJ8VixaNcw8YmvJ2LDogC8fUTUiCq – 500 BTC CAP – 0.01 MIN: 18.37 TOTALLcbCLXoTiwDZAafYUNwBeYToj1UN4CxaUF – 2,500 LTC CAP – 1.00 MIN: 84,999.00 TOTALDPXWWhBSE6ctgpMBNrAPv95whbqEabQmng – 35,000,000 DOGE CAP – 10,000.00 MIN: 0.00 TOTALNjuy783kiq4dLiFVnEvP5AZaQr8txEdMPV – 7,000 NMC CAP – 5.00 MIN: 0.00 TOTALPegMN7RiVEKpLJkiBU9zv42AfdL8DABx8M – 7,500 PPC CAP – 5.00 MIN: 44.50 TOTAL6iveN3ks3Qu8erQJimkvvB7QKQ2ybDP4SB – 75,000 FTC CAP – 25.00 MIN: 2322.00 TOTALWfJKZTDN1KuxR3Fye9P2FQD5pozZEymkq5 – 150,000 WDC CAP – 50.00 MIN: 1000.00 TOTALQprjGLiHgrMGFBhK7FqhUE5fnCE3wuPt3a – 350,000 QRK CAP – 100.00 MIN: 95.00 TOTALAafFGLpCBKM3WRRsCsEEwTKJvjgfRgwE74 – 20,000 XPM CAP – 5.00 MIN: 45.00 TOTALMA4NA68TnBdPDjthicTQ6JbaxJSn1V6R1b – 50,000 MEC CAP – 15.00 MIN: 1.80 TOTALPvpPBvgmjmipw3PZcmKK4qFUXYoMWgo9nb – 2,000 PTS CAP – 1.00 MIN: 10.00 TOTAL4JnpDFF69X9aRpssSacWok31mPGNDdBFZr – 5,000 NVC CAP – 2.00 MIN935,607.20 TOTALMsggmUh5Yyx6AiUiJuAaZAExogGLomNKGL - 250,000,000 MINT CAP - 50,000 MIN10,773.00 TOTAL763266322960050886 - 500,000.00 NXT CAP - 250.00 MIN0.00 TOTALAJY5QNnF83BpmKbAdNPXd9Hn59zgh3ugop - 10,000.00 AUR CAP - 1.00 MIN30.50 TOTALVqsUVJUMSJRZrtSvJEwjpuPCjzrJGJNtCV - 50,000.00 VTC CAP - 10.00 MIN116.90 TOTALXgUbHo1F5uoJAh2hFyhCRZkSX5f4fqDnUo - 75,000.00 DRK CAP - 15.00 MIN0.00 TOTALUQEoigVX4noUJDQLghzjUuvD3wG72r2LGQ - 1,000,000.00 UTC CAP - 100.00 MIN: 173 Free Giveaway Participants4/18 Currencies have no Investment stake at all!!!I am David, project manager, and today I introduce our newest project:See here: http://gamblex.org/the-team/ Gamblex is an innovative platform that uses the synergy effects of combining an exchange with a social gambling site to increase our revenue. Using state-of-the-art technology, we will offer a platform, where people can trade, play, chat and have fun. The exchange will be amazingly fast with order types, that are unique in the bitcoin world. The gambling section will offer three adicting games that can be either played or invested in(site bankroll consists of investor funds). To increase the traffic on our site we introduce a stimulus plan, that will keep players, traders and investors involved with the site.All details can be found on our homepage: http://gamblex.org The funds raised here will be used to speed up the development process and pay our staff. Furthermore the investment process will help us build a big userbase, so that our site can flourish from the start.Basically the income that will be distributed to stakeholder consist of the following sources:100% of those funds will be used to pay dividends. The operating costs and wages will not be subtracted.Modern Market-Maker systemRealistically speaking we have finished about 30% of the core work. If we switch to working full-time on this project, we could finish it within two months. This includes testing and a closed beta phase. We need to make sure that everything works flawlessly to not risk any flaws in our system that could hurt our customers/investors.There will be 100.000 shares for each of the twelve currencies. We will never issue any new shares.Details of this can be found here: http://gamblex.org/invest/ Visit: http://gamblex.org/invest/ Yes, it is possible to use an escrow. Note that there are some restrictions though:Read this: http://gamblex.org/escrow/ Please visit http://gamblex.org/ before asking any question, nearly everything is answered there.Translate this opening post and post it to the following communities:0.05 BTC - Russian Community: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=10.0 To claim the bounty, simply send me a private message with the link to the new thread.
About This Game Hit the dirt in Colin McRae Rally - the classic off-road racing experience Colin McRae Rally features the car and track list from last year’s top selling mobile title and features THIRTY amazing rally stages in three environments taken from the PlayStation classic Colin McRae 2.0. for this PC and Mac edition. With a combined distance of over 130km, go flat out through the dirt and the dust of the Australian outback, take on dramatic climbs through the mountains of Greece and get sideways on the tight and twisty roads of Corsica. THE CARS Get behind the wheel of four legendary rally cars, the Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, Lancia Stratos and Colin McRae’s Ford Focus. Pace notes read by professional rally co-driver Nicky Grist help you fully commit through each and every stage. THE CONTROL Feel the thrill of putting pedal to metal across different surface types and blast through beautiful, challenging environments. Race with a range of pads, including Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers. THE CHALLENGE Take on different game modes including quick races, full rallies and Championships, post your best time to the leaderboards and unlock achievements. COLIN MCRAE RALLY – THE CLASSIC RALLY EXPERIENCE RACES ONTO PC AND MAC
Vinicius Vacanti is co-founder and CEO of Yipit. Next posts on how to acquire users for free and how to raise a Series A. Don’t miss them by subscribing via email or via twitter. Note: This post is loosely based on our experience 2 years ago when TechCrunch covered Yipit’s launch. You wake up earlier than normal, grab your iPhone which you slept on top of and do a twitter search for your startup name. Boom. A tweet every 5 minutes. People are re-tweeting the TechCrunch article covering your startup’s launch. TechCrunch just said you might be the next big thing. You even see a few random people recommending your startup to their followers. You giddily open your email and you’ve got a bunch of messages from your friends at the co-working space congratulating you on the TechCrunch piece. One of your friends says “you’re famous!” Your parents respond with “Congratulations!” after they read the email where you explained to them that TechCrunch was a really big deal. You crawl over to your laptop and pull up Google Analytics. You’ve never seen anything like this. Your previous traffic looks like a flat line next to yesterday’s huge 8,253 visits. After months of toiling away in obscurity, you feel like you’ve finally made it. People know what you’re working on now. People all over the world are now using your product. Paul Graham should have never rejected you from YC. You then you pull up your event log in SQLPro to see what all these new users are doing. Hmm. That’s weird. Even though you had 8,000+ visits, you only signed up a little over 1,000 users. “Sounds like we need to do some work on that landing page”, you think. You start looking at the emails of the users who signed-up and get annoyed with some of the fake emails: [email protected], [email protected]. “Ugh. Going to be hard to retain those users since they won’t be getting notification emails,” you mutter to yourself. 1,000 new users is still really good except a bunch of them didn’t really go through the full sign-up process. A bunch of people didn’t put in their interests. How are they supposed to have a good experience without customizing their interests? You run a quick SQL query and the number of users that made it through the sign-up flow: 200. You send off a quick text to your co-founder asking if he was really sure that sign-up flow bug had been fixed. And, while you don’t want to do it, you force yourself to see how many people came back today. The answer: 3. Really? Just 3. It’s still early, but can you really expect more than 50 to come back today? You are happy to see people are still signing-up via the TechCrunch article but way less than yesterday. You do some quick math and then it hits you. When it’s all said and done, TechCrunch, best case scenario, will have given you a grand total of 200 active users. Was that our big launch? Why didn’t more people sign-up? Why didn’t people complete the sign-up flow? Why weren’t people coming back? Now that people covered our startup, how are we supposed to get more press? Why aren’t our users pushing their actions to Facebook and Twitter? We got some users to invite their friends but why aren’t their friends accepting the invite? How are we supposed to get a viral coefficient greater than 1.0 when people won’t share on Facebook or accept their friends’ invite? Should we try SEO? Chris Dixon said 10 million users is the new 1 million users. 10 million?! We have 400 active users. Now what? Welcome to startups. Vinicius Vacanti is co-founder and CEO of Yipit. Next posts on how to acquire users for free and how to raise a Series A. Don’t miss them by subscribing via email or via twitter.
A spokesperson for the Salafi movement in Alexandria has said that the religious minority of Baha’is poses a threat to Egypt's national security. Abdel Moneim al-Shahat, a prominent Salafi leader and former parliamentary candidate, said that the state should move to protect itself from those who claim that the Baha'i faith is a religion. Shahat has previously claimed that watching and playing football is prohibited under Islam, in the wake of violence following a Port Said football match. "We will prosecute the Bahai's on charge of treason," Shahat said, in a telephone call with al-Haqiqa (The Truth) TV program host Wael al-Ibrashy on Dream 2 channel. "We as Salafis refuse to deal with Baha'is, because they do not exist by virtue of their faith.” According to Shahat, Bahai’s are not entitled to rights under Islam because they do not belong and are not recognized by the religion, and any new constitution should not include an amendment protecting their rights. He cited an Al-Azhar ruling that said Baha’is are not Muslims. Baha'is, who number between 500 and 2,000 in Egypt, call their faith's 19th-century founder, Bahaa, a prophet — sacrilege to Muslims who believe Mohamed to be God's final messenger. Rights activists say Baha'is face systematic discrimination in the conservative Arab country, which does not officially recognize the faith. In 2008, Baha'is won the right to obtain government identity papers so long as they omit any reference to their faith.
AUSTIN—The City of Austin has a one in seven chance at winning $50 million. City leaders are working on their final bid to woo judges of the Smart City Challenge. It promises to bring innovative solutions to traffic problems. Mayor Steve Adler said becoming the nation’s official "Smart City" has the potential to attract money from across the country to address congestion. "Mobility is such a key component of how we see ourselves and how we see our future," Adler said. Earlier this year, the US Department of Transportation whittled its list from 78 applicants to seven finalists. Austin is competing with San Francisco, Portland, Denver, Kansas City, Columbus and Pittsburgh. "Most importantly, anything we try here needs to be scalable and transferrable to other cities," Austin Transportation Director Robert Spillar said. "We are supposed to be the test bed for the future transportation system." Federal delegates arrived Monday to review the second part of Austin's Smart Cities application. It is due May 24, and it will be reviewed by DOT officials in June. -- Testing Tomorrow’s Solutions -- Former Mayor Lee Leffingwell knows the value of being a testing ground. While mayor, Austin became the first US city to have Car2Go. Uber and Lyft also began operating in Austin during Leffingwell’s tenure. "I think we have to do everything," Leffingwell said. "We need better mass transit; we need better roads. We need better technology." Leffingwell is worried policies that Uber and Lyft oppose could have unintended consequences. Last December, the Austin City Council approved requirements for transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft. The most contentious part of the ordinance is a requirement for all drivers to undergo fingerprint background checks. -- Election Pending -- If May 7th's ballot measure fails, fingerprint background checks will be required of ridesharing drivers. Leffingwell said that could negatively impact Austin’s Smart City application. "This wouldn't be something in our favor if we rejected Proposition 1 and we lost Uber and Lyft as ridesharing companies," he said. Uber and Lyft are the only two groups funding May's ballot measure. The companies have given more than $2 million to the campaign. Ridesharing Works for Austin, which is behind the effort, plans to set up a way for individual supporters to donate. On Monday, Leffingwell announced he was partnering with the campaign to support the May 7 ballot initiative. Leffingwell said he wants to educate the public due to what he calls confusing ballot language. The campaign said in January it collected more than 65,000 signatures from Austin voters to support its petition. District 5 Council Member Ann Kitchen, who authored much of the city's pending ordinance regulating TNCs, replaced ballot language submitted with the petition because it did not refer to fingerprinting requirements.
David French at NRO (wait, it’s good): Our national political polarization is by now so well established that the only real debate is over the nature of our cultural, political, and religious conflict. Are we in the midst of a more or less conventional culture war? Are we, as Dennis Prager and others argue, fighting a kind of “cold” civil war? Or are we facing something else entirely? […] I’d argue that we face “something else,” and that something else is more akin to the beginning stages of a national divorce than it is to a civil war. Also this: The Internet brings all of human knowledge to our smartphones, but rather than using it as a tool for outreach and understanding, we’re using it to find and live with people just like us. In other words, we’re sorting. And: A civil war results when the desire for unification and domination overrides the desire for separation and self-determination. …] … I don’t believe a civil-war mentality will save America. There are simply too many differences and too many profound disagreements for one side or the other to exercise true political dominance. Red won’t beat blue in the same way that blue beat gray. Adopt the civil-war mentality and you’ll only hasten a potential divorce. We’re getting there.
Welcome to a city built with one goal: to be the greenest of bergs. I aimed to use the Cities: Skylines simulator to provide the residents of my little city (current population: 78k) with 100% renewable electricity, effective mass transportation and well-paid jobs in clean industries and high-tech sectors. This is not a vision of some utopic future. The Danish capital Copenhagen, by some accounts the greenest city on Earth, uses today’s technologies and is en route to sustainability. Could I go one better? Welcome to Hopenhagen. Electricity Pop: 5,000. Hopenhagen survives solely on wind power. Citizens are happy, pollution negligible The first order was to provide power for my would-be denizens. The game allows you to start with wind or coal power. Coal is significantly cheaper than wind, but environmentally the choice is a no-brainer. Coal is the dirtiest of dirty fuels and there is no place for it in the cities of the future. By tapping its own enormous wind power resources, Copenhagen aims to become the first carbon neutral city in the world by 2025. Eventually my city grew enough to build a solar power plant. The game is a little ahead of its time in making solar the cheapest form of electricity production - although this could happen within a decade. The fall in solar prices has been vertiginous. Power from large-scale solar is half the price it was five years ago and is approaching parity with coal and other fossil fuels. Luckily my city had constant sunlight as well as wind. The game does not account for the dips in renewable supply that occur at night or on still or cloudy days. But also it does not give the option of exporting and importing power from a national grid to even out the peaks and troughs. Population 20,000: solar power reaches Hopenhagen Transport Transport is the thorn in every city council’s side - desperately expensive, dirty, noisy and terrible for the climate. And so it proves in this game. In an effort to provide my residents and industries with mass transport alternatives to roads, I spent hugely on metro systems, bus routes and rail connections. I planned neighbouring high-density residential and commercial spaces, so commuters had only short distances to travel between their office and apartments. Yet still cars dominated, with Hopenhageners clinging to their gas guzzlers. Roll on the electric vehicle: in Denmark, one in 20 cars sold is battery-powered. “Rip up all city streets with jackhammers… sod the streets at once.... All public movement would be by foot and a fleet of bicycles, maintained by the city police force.” Had the game allowed, I would have adopted Hunter S Thompson’s promise during his unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Aspen. Bike transport is sorely overlooked in Cities: Skylines. Copenhagen’s Strøget, a central pedestrianised shopping area, has shown that with good mass transport and bike paths, major business districts can be magnificently car-free. By 2025, city officials say 75% of all journeys will be by foot, cycle or public transport. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pop: 30,000. Trains bring people and goods to and from surrounding cities, cutting down traffic and reducing carbon emissions Energy-efficient housing The single most effective policy I adopted was a green housing initiative. It was costly, but was immediately repaid through a housing boom, as land value increased and owners invested in their homes. This was pleasing because energy efficiency is often overlooked when it comes to greening cities. Despite its lack of sexiness, reducing energy demand through insulation, smart meters, double-glazing and efficient appliances “offers the best and most cost-effective chance to mitigate the worst effects of climate change”, according to the UK Green Building Council. In Copenhagen, a study found that heat demand from buildings could be reduced by up to 76%. I also ensured that every street was lined with trees. Recent studies show that having 10 or more trees in your street makes you feel seven years younger. Waste management The biggest struggle for my city was rubbish. I resisted and resisted installing incinerators to burn the trash in my overflowing landfills. But eventually I had to relent, after thousands of people began deserting my trash- and (presumably) rat-infested city. This is indeed a serious real-world stumbling block for all would-be eco-cities, including Copenhagen. Even though Danes create more household waste than any other EU country, they have one of the lowest landfill rates: much of the waste is burned instead, to create energy. Copenhagen dumps just 3% of its waste into the ground and incinerates 39%. Recycling advocates say incinerators are an outmoded technology, one that locks us into the waste cycle and pumps out dangerous gases, including CO2, NOx, N2O and ammonia. Faced with a plan to build an incinerator, residents of the Italian town of Capannori decided to bypass the technology and employ a citizen-powered recycled programme. Landfill rates dropped from 60% to less than 20% in a decade. Unfortunately, Cities: Skylines does not give the option for such enlightened leadership. Pop: 50,000. Hopenhagen’s landfills begin to overflow. Trash collectors stop collecting trash. Citizens begin leaving in droves. Incinerators it is The greenest? Eventually, I think I probably came out on a par with Copenhagen. My electricity system was blessed by low cost and unrealistically favourable weather for renewable energy. But my transport system lagged far behind Denmark’s. For both the real Copenhagen and my simulated version, failure to develop a long-term solution to waste management remains a big hurdle. The Guardian Cities: Skylines challenge – can I build a truly anti-capitalist city? Read more I had one big advantage over my Danish peers, too. Unlike Copenhagen, my city begins on unpopulated plain, with plentiful resources and open spaces to plan and craft the most efficient city possible. The residents of Greensberg in Kansas were able to achieve something similar after a calamitous tornado destroyed 95% of their buildings in 2007. The town has since rebuilt as the greenest in the US. As for the rest of the world’s cities, most were vast and unmanageable before we even knew what ecological trouble we were making for ourselves. Hopenhagen stats Population: 78,577 Electricity from renewable sources: 100% Resident happiness: 88% Mass transit passengers: 4862/week Water pollution: 0% Ground pollution: 7% Health: 79% Cost of social policies (mostly green): $101,137.39 (40% of total expenditure)
Last week I asked you to vote for the subject of my next painting. I wanted to paint something heavily inspired by one of the more successful paintings from my portfolio and your vote dictated that the inspiration should be " Fields of Gold ". I also wanted to record the whole painting process so I could share it onfor whoever was interested.Here is the result! I tried to retain the main qualities from the main painting (fiery orange, vast landscape, small scale subject vs large building) while introducing/changing a few different things. I believe the main difference from Fields of Gold is the sense of movement. Whereas the source is a vast and calm scenery this one has a sense of urgency.Before anyone starts saying they prefer the other onelet me just say my aim here was not create a better (or worse) version but to use something as inspiration while creating something new.I will release this reward (video, original PSD, brushes, step by step, explanatory diagram) on Patreon on the 15th December, so, if you are interested, pledge until then. Thanks!
Australian Company Processes $1 Million Worth of Cryptocurrency in Bill Payments Weekly Living Room of Satoshi, an Australian company that allows its customers to make payments via credit card, direct bank, or BPAY using eleven different cryptocurrencies, has revealed that the company is now processing approximately $1 million AUD (roughly $ 756,000 USD) worth of bill payments each week. Also Read: Australian Bitcoin Adoption Increases Following Regulatory Amendments Using Bitcoin to Conduct Bill Payments Despite bitcoin’s recent price surge triggering widespread use of the cryptocurrency as a speculative instrument, one Australian company is reporting increased usage of bitcoin as a means of payment. Living Room of Satoshi, a Brisbane-based cryptocurrency payment provider, has told Australian media that it now processes over $1 million AUD worth of bill payments each week. 63.3% percent of Living Room of Satoshi’s payments are conducted via bitcoin. The second most utilized cryptocurrency is Ethereum – accounting for 19.3% of the company’s business. Litecoin is third, representing 7.5% of total payments, followed by Bitcoin Cash (4.0%), Dash (3.3%), Monero (0.8%), Zcash (0.7%), Ethereum CLassic (0.6%), Dogecoin (0.4%), and Steem (0.1%). The majority of the company’s payments are for credit card expenses, with electricity/gas, phone/internet, water, council rates, tax, shopping, and insurance expenditures also comprising a significant portion of the company’s transactions. Bitcoin Payments Comprise More Than Half of Living Room of Satoshi’s Transactions Living Room of Satoshi’s chief executive, Daniel Alexiuc, attributes his company’s increasing popularity to growing coverage of cryptocurrency in the mainstream media. “A lot of the media attention has focused on bitcoin’s increasing value because it just had to happen,” he said. “It’s different to other currencies in that there’s a fixed amount of it, not like gold or fiat currency … so it’s always going to have that deflationary aspect, rather than the inflationary aspect.” Speaking to local media, Mr. Alexiuc described bitcoin as “a better form of currency… because it’s not issued or controlled by the government. It can’t be shut down, it can be sent cross-border without anyone’s permission. A lot of people are attracted to that.” Despite his enthusiasm, Mr. Alexiuc concedes that “when it comes to day-to-day usage, it’s still very early… We’re still trying to demonstrate its usefulness. $1 million sounds like a lot but compared to how many bills get paid in Australia every day it’s a drop in the bucket.” Some Bitcoiners Are Regularly Transacting With Cryptocurrency David Larkin, a 32-year-old Melbourne IT worker who uses Living Room of Satoshi to pay his bills, told media of his decision to eschew speculation in favor of using bitcoin to conduct many of his day-to-day transactions. “For me, it’s a revolutionary thing. I spend regularly and I’m happy to because, in my opinion, that’s what keeps the market going,” he stated. “I choose to make a point that bitcoin has real-world application — you can do things with it.” Mr. Larkin describes the majority cryptocurrency adopters as fitting into one of two camps: those who wish to “get-rich-quick,” and the “true bitcoiners” who value the utility of cryptocurrency. “I’m more into the technology behind it and the way it works,” he said. “People like us believe in the technology going forward. If people want to get rich off bitcoin they can, that’s their choice. [But] it’s not intended for that. That’s why the creator [Satoshi Nakamoto] is still a mystery.” Do you use bitcoin as a means of payment, or do you HODL instead? Tell us how you use cryptocurrency in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Living Room of Satoshi The Bitcoin universe is vast. So is Bitcoin.com. Check our Wiki, where you can learn everything you were afraid to ask. Or read our news coverage to stay up to date on the latest. Or delve into statistics on our helpful tools page.
CCIG stands for California Capital and Investment Group, the commercial real estate firm Tagami heads and which in 2012 won the right to develop the city's portion of the old Oakland Army Base. By early this year, CCIG's stance on "coal-related operations" at the new facility had changed from "no interest" to very interested. 'You have been awarded the privilege and opportunity of a lifetime to develop this unique piece of land. You must respect the owner and public's decree that we will not have coal shipped through our city.' Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Email to developer Phil Tagami That happened after four Utah counties said they'd like to invest in part of the port project called the Oakland Bulk and Oversize Terminal. The counties want to help pay for the terminal as a way of guaranteeing their ability to ship the "energy commodities" they produce -- coal -- to overseas markets. In April, a state community investment board approved a $53 million loan to the counties, which they plan to use to become partners in the Oakland bulk terminal. The board's meeting featured a brief appearance by Mark McClure, a principal in Tagami's CCIG. McClure actually spoke after the Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund Board had voted to approve the $53 million loan and pointed out virtues of the new port relative to rival facilities elsewhere on the West Coast. "One of the key components that people forget is that you can have the product, and you can have an outlet on a port, but we're very dependent on the rail lines to move the product from one place to another," McClure told the board. He added that the two railroads serving the port, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern, both have direct routes west to the Bay Area from Utah. Details of the Utah counties' investment in the port -- they are supposed to get an equity stake in the port in return for their cash -- still remained to be worked out after the vote. But the deal gradually made its way into the media -- first in Utah and by late April in the Bay Area. Tagami, who had earlier dismissed concerns about development of a coal-shipping facility at the new port facility, now suggested that the matter was out of his hands. That's because his company, CCIG, had transferred its rights to develop and operate the planned Oakland bulk cargo facility to another party, Terminal Logistics Solutions. The firm was created last year and is headed by Jerry Bridges, a former executive director of the Port of Oakland. On May 11, Schaaf attended a breakfast of the city's business and community leaders. During the get-together, Bridges apparently talked about coal coming to the new bulk cargo terminal -- again, something that Schaaf and a majority on the City Council were already on the record as opposing. We don't know what Schaaf said to Bridges during breakfast. But thanks to the Sierra Club, we know just what she had to say to Tagami. In an email written immediately after hearing Bridges, Schaaf started with the subject line "stop all mention of coal now." Then she wrote: Dear Phil, I was extremely disappointed to once again hear Jerry Bridges mention the possibility of shipping coal into Oakland at the Oakland Dialogue breakfast. Stop it immediately. You have been awarded the privilege and opportunity of a lifetime to develop this unique piece of land. You must respect the owner and public's decree that we will not have coal shipped through our city. I cannot believe this restriction will ruin the viability of your project. Please declare definitively that you will respect the policy of the City of Oakland and you will not allow coal to come through Oakland. If you don't do that soon, we will all have to expend time and energy in a public battle that no one needs and will distract us all from the important work at hand of moving Oakland towards a brighter future. Best, Libby Schaaf was not addressing a stranger. Tagami is an Oakland native who endorsed Schaaf's mayoral run last year. He has also become a larger-than-life figure in the city by leading a couple of the downtown area's signature redevelopment projects: the Rotunda Building, the landmark building that his California Capital and Investment group owns and manages, and the Fox Oakland theater. He has also served on the city's Planning Commission and on the Port of Oakland board of directors. 'I respectfully request that the City, including members of the City Council, refrain from any issuance of press releases or irretrievable public statements or actions. ...' Port developer Phil Tagami, Letter to Mayor Libby Schaaf In a letter on May 13, Tagami told Schaaf that for the new cargo terminal to be financially viable, it "needs to handle whatever legal bulk goods the potential customer may need to pass through the facility." What's more, Tagami said, the city's earlier approvals have essentially given him permission to go ahead as he sees fit. Tagami urged the city -- especially Schaaf and members of the City Council -- to "keep its proverbial powder dry for the moment" and refrain from making "any irretrievable public statements or actions" until discussions had taken place. Nearly two months later, the matter appears to be unresolved, and now, neither Schaaf nor Tagami have much to say about the dispute publicly. In a statement last week, Tagami said no commitment has been made yet to ship "any particular commodity" -- presumably including Utah coal -- through the new bulk cargo facility. But he repeated his earlier insistence that developing the bulk facility as he wants to is necessary "to ensure the viability of the entire revitalization plan for Oakland’s working waterfront." In her own written statement, Schaaf would only say, "I am working with our business partners on the redevelopment of the former Oakland Army Base to find a mutually acceptable way to move forward that respects our city policy and honors Oaklanders' commitment to protecting our environment and the health and safety of this community." That's not enough for the local chapter of the Sierra Club, which wants the issued aired publicly. Jess Dervin-Ackerman, the group's conservation program manager, says not only are port developers "doing something that clearly Oakland doesn’t want, but they’re also doing it very sneakily, where there’s no opportunity for the public to weigh in." She says the city will lose its leverage to stop coal shipments through the new port once the terminal operator signs a deal with the Utah counties that would like to ship coal through the new facility. West Oakland Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney has planned to bring a resolution to the City Council “to consider the health and safety impacts of a possible deal to bring thousands of coal-filled rail cars from Utah to be shipped out of the Port of Oakland.” But nothing’s on the schedule yet.
[Update Below] Teens have long been dedicated to wreaking havoc upon NYC's most historic institutions, whether it is 114-year-old Civil War memorials or the 9/11 Museum & Memorial. It's one thing for a few individuals to get kicked out of a place because of some childish shenanigans—it's another thing for an entire high school to be banned. But that's just what allegedly happened at the Guggenheim. According to the Post, a group of 80 kids from Science Skills Center High School in Brooklyn was kicked out of the museum last month after 20 minutes inside because "a student allegedly spat off the museum’s swirling rotunda lobby and another threw a penny off its winding walkway." The Post says that school officials were subsequently informed that they weren't welcome back anytime soon. [Update: the Guggenheim denies this] If that sounds like a bit of an extreme response to a case of kids-will-be-kids, then the Post agrees with you. They interviewed several sympathetic adults, and a couple kids, who all imply that there's an undercurrent of racism to the decree. "This is the first time since I have been there that there are a majority of black students...and the first time I am hearing about a school being banned," Asha Walker, who has distributed audio guides at the museum for the last two years, told them. "But it’s not the first time I am hearing about kids being rowdy in the museum or there being a behavior issue in the museum." Walker added that she didn't see the spitting or horseplay, but they were yelling at each other and generally under-supervised by chaperones or teachers. Another anonymous Guggenheim employee added, "I think it’s a real shame that the Guggenheim’s automatic reaction was to say no and ban the school, instead of considering that maybe the students haven’t been there before. It’s a pretty dramatic step to me." At the start of the month, the Guggenheim was essentially shut down for May Day as artists and activists dropped red and white leaflets through the spirals of the museum, demanding better conditions for workers at Guggenheim's future Abu Dhabi satellite location. Update: A spokesperson for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum gave this statement, denying that the school has been banned for life:
The head of Ontario's securities watchdog says its new whistleblower program can play a role in identifying misleading financial disclosures amongst the growing number of Canadian companies that have veered away from standardized reporting methods. OSC chair and CEO Maureen Jensen said she's "very worried" about companies using non-standard methods -- referred to as "non-GAAP measures" — to report earnings. Using customized reporting techniques can sometimes make a company's financial performance appear rosier than it really is. In some cases, Jensen said the practice can veer into the realm of securities violation, if the reports are misleading in such a way that materially impacts the company's stock price. "If the disclosure isn't accurate then how can investors understand what they're investing in?" she told reporters Tuesday following her speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade. "As you move further and further away from standardized reporting, investors can understand it less and less." Jensen said the OSC already has all of the tools it needs to enforce such cases -- it's just a matter of identifying misleading disclosures, something that the whistleblower program can help with. Rewards of up to $5 million Since its launch in July, the Ontario Securities Commission's whistleblower program has already garnered more than 30 tips detailing the kinds of securities law violations that the regulator is targeting in its enforcement actions, Jensen said Tuesday. "Some of them are the kinds of tips that we really wanted — serious offences or serious potential offences in areas that we would never be able to find, such as misstatements in accounting and disclosure violations," she said. Under the program, the securities regulator offers rewards of up to $5 million for tips that lead to successful prosecution of serious securities law violations. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press) "Those are the types of things that we're looking for, and that's what is in some of those tips." Under the program, the securities regulator offers rewards of up to $5 million for tips that lead to successful prosecution of serious securities law violations such as insider trading, accounting tricks and market manipulation. Several components of the OSC's program were hotly debated during the consultation process, including how much to pay whistleblowers and whether those involved in the wrongdoing should be eligible for a reward. The OSC had originally planned to cap maximum reward payments to $1.5 million, but it raised that after experts suggested that was too little to compensate senior executives who risk losing high-paying jobs and being blacklisted from their industries. Possible ban on embedded mutual fund fees In her first keynote speech since taking the helm of the OSC, Jensen also talked about the need to beef up investor protection, reduce the regulatory burden on publicly traded companies and encourage more companies to improve gender diversity on their boards. Jensen highlighted an initiative by the Canadian Securities Administrators, a coalition of provincial securities regulators, to explore the possibility of banning embedded mutual fund fees. She argued that embedded fees encourage financial advisers to choose funds with higher fees, regardless of how well they are performing. The practice, which she deemed "unacceptable," amounts to advisers putting their own needs ahead of their clients. The CSA will be publishing a consultation paper at the end of the year that will set out the possible impacts of prohibiting the use of embedded fees in mutual funds. Britain and Australia have banned the fees. "We know this would be a major change not only for advisers and firms, but also for investors," Jensen said. "And so we must be confident that any reforms are appropriate for the Canadian market. That's why input from all our stakeholders is necessary throughout this process."
Uncredited/Associated Press Of all the mysteries surrounding the New York Giants since their disappointing 2014 season ended, perhaps the biggest and still as of yet unsolved one is why the team retained special teams coordinator Tom Quinn. It’s a legitimate question, especially considering that the Giants special teams as a whole have been inconsistent in their year-end ranking every year since Quinn was promoted to his current role following the 2006 season. NY Giants Special Teams Rankings Under Tom Quinn Year Overall Ranking 2014 15 2013 28 2012 10 2011 15 2010 30 2009 26 2008 26 2007 11 Source: FootballOutsiders.com So why did head coach Tom Coughlin retain Quinn after yet another year of his not being a difference-maker in the team’s second straight losing season? Let’s sort through the rubble for clues. Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images The Good: Brown and Beckham Without a doubt, two Giants special teams players who had a big hand in making the special teams somewhat respectable were kicker Josh Brown and receiver/punt returner Odell Beckham Jr. The first is kicker Josh Brown, 35, the ageless wonder who finished with a 91.3 field-goal conversion rate, a career-best and the fourth-best mark among NFL kickers in 2014, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). On kickoffs, Brown had 46 of his 80 kickoffs go for touchbacks (57.5 percent). Some may argue—and perhaps rightfully so—that eliminating any chance for an opposing kickoff returner to do damage helped the kickoff coverage’s final numbers. The proof was in the pudding. The Giants kickoff coverage allowed an average of 18.3 yards per return, the second best in the NFL, behind the Chicago Bears. Besides giving credit to Brown for his often-spectacular kickoffs, there were numerous other players on that kickoff coverage unit who graded out positively. Those include Damontre Moore, Nat Berhe, Devon Kennard, Henry Hynoski, Orleans Darkwa, Spencer Paysinger, Dallas Reynolds and Chandler Fenner, a group that accounted for 42 of the 78 (53.8 percent) special teams tackles that PFF recorded for the Giants in 2014. Kathy Willens/Associated Press The other major player who potentially helped Quinn’s case was Beckham, who took over the punt return duties. Beckham returned 21 punts for 171 yards, a respectable 8.1 yards per return and the best production, per PFF, from a Giants punt return group that included Preston Parker, Rueben Randle, Michael Cox and Quintin Demps. However, it does need to be said that the punt return unit hasn’t been pristine, and that’s evident by the fact it’s been five years since the Giants had a punt returned for a touchdown. (Domenik Hixon was the last Giant to do so, that happening in the 2009 season.) The Giants weren’t as productive on kickoff returns, where they finished 17th in the NFL with their 23.3 team average. Parker, who took over those duties for Demps, the latter of whom was signed as a free agent in part for his kickoff and punt return abilities, finished with a team-high 24.2 average, with Cox coming in a close second with a 23.7 average. The Bad: Punt Coverage A legitimate beef against Quinn and the special teams in general lies in the punt coverage unit, where, per PFF, five players—Zack Bowman, Paysinger, Moore, Rashad Jennings and Mike Harris—finished with positive overall grades. However, the punt coverage unit allowed a punt return for a touchdown (the Arizona Cardinals' Ted Ginn Jr. in Week 2) and allowed a blocked punt for a touchdown in Week 17’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. In fact, the Giants have given up four punt returns for touchdowns over the last two seasons alone. USA TODAY Sports What went on with the punt coverage team? “Just the consistency of the location, the hang times aren’t all matching with guys being in their spots,” Quinn had told reporters before the Giants wrapped up the season against the Eagles. “But then it also comes down to just tackling and coverage runs that have not been as good as it needs to be.” Let’s talk about the coverage itself. According to PFF, the Giants special teams were charged with 21 missed tackles this year, down from the 27 they had in 2013. Interestingly, the 21 missed tackles by the Giants were less than the league’s top special teams unit, per Football Outsiders—the Philadelphia Eagles, who, per PFF, had 22, and the second-best special teams unit, the Baltimore Ravens, who had 30. The Ugly: Musical Chairs Another issue with special teams is the lack of consistency in the execution, a result of the “musical chairs” game that Quinn has had to go through now for at least two seasons. With the injury bug tearing through the Giants roster in each of the last two seasons, guys Quinn might ordinarily count as staples in his punt coverage unit might have had their special teams snaps reduced or eliminated because those players were needed on offense or defense given the injury situation. A good example of that is Herzlich, the Giants' top special teams player (not counting Brown or punter Steve Weatherford) in 2013. Al Bello/Getty Images According to data gathered from the official NFL game books of the last two seasons, Herzlich saw a 9.4 percent reduction in his special teams snaps from 2013 to 2014. Still, a top-notch special teams coach should be able to adjust to the personnel he gets every week. Quinn tried and at times had some success, but it wasn't as much as some of his colleagues around the league who also had to go through the musical-chairs game due to injuries—per Football Outsiders, some examples include the Ravens (second place) and the Buffalo Bills (fourth place). The other factor that has to be examined is Weatherford, the affable punter who in 2014 gutted out a difficult season that included a severe ankle injury and a back issue. Duane Burleson/Associated Press Weatherford, who had 52.7 percent of his punts returned, finished with a 39.1 net average, tying him for 19th in the league among those who punted at least 30 times this season. While that net average isn’t all on Weatherford—again, his coverage guys are partially responsible—it is legitimate to wonder just how much of a factor his injuries were in contributing to the Giants punt coverage unit allowing 391 return yards, the sixth most in the league. Did Coughlin Make the Right Call? With that all said, it’s possible Coughlin realized that not only did Quinn improve the special teams in several areas from a year ago, but he did so despite the fact that injuries were tearing through the roster on both sides of the ball. The fault, though, in the logic of keeping Quinn is in the consistency. In looking at the first table in this article, the Giants special teams units have been a mixed bag—one never seemed to know what to expect from the unit. The lack of consistency over the body of his work probably should have been more than enough evidence to go in another direction. The reason why this was not a factor might be twofold. First, the NFL always has been a “what have you done for me lately?” league. Today’s heroes can easily become tomorrow’s goats and vice versa. When the stock continues to drop, that is when it’s time to move on. A closer look at the stats indicates that Quinn has managed to keep his head above water—barely at times, though. That leads into the second reason why Quinn was likely retained. Coughlin is in a “win or else” mode. If he’s going to have his feet put to the fire, he’s going to do so with his handpicked assistant coaches. Given that Quinn still has a job with the Giants, it’s apparent that Coughlin is willing to roll the dice on his ability to get the special teams unit back to being a top-10 overall unit. All stats and grades courtesy of Pro Football Focus (subscription required) unless otherwise sourced. Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced. Follow me on Twitter @Patricia_Traina.
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Speaking yesterday at an Iowa town hall event, Ben Carson pined for the good old days of DADT and denounced soldiers who “have to go around flouting their sexuality.” Carson’s statement was triggered by a question about military service for transgender Americans. “You know, we have too many important things to do,” Carson said at a “Veterans and Military Town Hall” hosted by the Concerned Veterans for America. “When our men and women are out there fighting the enemy, the last thing that we need to be doing is saying what would it be like if we introduced several transgender people into this platoon.” “You know, give me a break. Deal with the transgender thing somewhere else,” Carson said before saying he prefers the old “don’t ask, don’t tell” military philosophy that ended in 2011. “I mean, why do you have to go around flouting your sexuality? It’s not necessary, you don’t need to talk about that, we need to talk about how we eliminate the enemy,” Carson said at the town hall. Carson’s polling numbers have nosedived in several recent surveys. (Tipped by JMG reader DM)
BANGALORE: Here’s some bad news for adventure buffs from Bangalore. Nandi Hills and surrounding hillocks will be off-limits to the general public after dusk.Following the year’s second accidental death on Saturday when a techie slipped and fell to his death at Skandagiri near Nandi Hills, police have decided to act tough against those who trek in the area after sunset, set up campfires and consume alcohol A special team comprising Chikkaballapur Rural and Town police officers will conduct regular beats on weekdays and make surprise visits during weekends. The patrolling will be increased on New Year’s Eve and similar occasions when revellers flock to the area in large numbers. Drive against drunken driving and checking of vehicle documents will also be intensified in the area. Additional superintendent of police-Chikkaballapur Kumaraswamy told TOI that they were taking all precautionary measures to avoid untoward incidents in the area.“It is a picnic spot and visitors should enjoy the nature. But things turn bad when they try adventurous things. All activities other than picnic will be strictly banned from here onwards,” he said. Ayyanna Reddy, sub-inspector of Chikkaballapur Rural police station held a meeting with villagers of foothills, asking them to advice trekkers and revellers not to take risks. Villagers of Kaluvaru, Mylappanahalli, Suddahalli and Ganteganahalli took part in the meeting held at the Rural police station on Sunday.“We have directed the villagers to inform police about trekkers and others indulging in mischief,” Ayyanna Reddy told TOI. According to police, a temporary check-post will be set up at the foot of Nandi Hills. “Visitors will not be permitted to go up after 6 pm. Also, the police will be patrolling atop at nights,” Ayyanna Reddy added.
New Zealand Bitcoin Company Possibly Stealing Millions From Associates A New Zealand-based website, called WeGrowBitcoins, is raising some eyebrows as it becomes more popular, enticing people with a get-rich-quick sentiment. This is causing some to sound off the alarms, accusing the site of being a pyramid scheme. Also read: In the Next Financial Crisis, What Assets Should You Hold? We Grow Bitcoins: Scam or Legitimate Operation? The New Zealand- based news outlet Newshub did an investigative report on the matter, with their investigation centering around truck driver and investor Daniel Tepania . According to Tepania, he he got involved with the organization because it sounded like a good way of making money despite it being only about a month old. The site promises up to NZD $200,000 (approximately USD $140,000) in profits, but the problem is that it depends on more and more people joining the scheme, making some weary of the site. The money model works like this: You make a donation of 0.1 BTC to the site, then you get 5 other people to sign up as well — having them donate the same amount to you. Next, you continue to pay a little bit more to reach higher levels, pay in a bit more and 25 “associates” donate to you and once more to reach level 3 where 125 people will then donate to you. All in all, this exponential increase in associates can eventually land you about 62 bitcoins a month Consumer Law Specialist: New Zealand Business “A Simple Scam” When Newshub asked the country’s commerce commission about the matter they responded by saying that they had not yet received any complaints involving wegrowbitcoins.com, but referred them to its definition of a pyramid scheme anyway. As it happens, the commission’s legal definition of a pyramid scheme fits with most people’s intuitions as well as describing the site’s model quite well. It says a pyramid scheme is one that “offers a financial return based on the payments made by new recruits”. Prajna Moodley, a consumer law specialist, thinks it’s just a simple scam, justifying his claim by pointing out that it “involves investing money and never hearing from the company again.” He also goes on to say that the company’s address looks generic, 1234 street, Amsterdam and generic Gmail addresses or .RU email addresses, which are Russian. Even more suspicious, the web site owner — who NewsHub identifies as “Charles Wurster from Texas” — is very difficult to get in contact according to Moodley. He says the only way you can even try to contact him is via Email. According to Newhub, We Grow Bitcoins currently has a membership of 1300 people and is still growing. What do you think of the We Grow Bitcoins, is it a scam or something more benign? Let’s hear your thoughts. Images Via Popular Fortune and SPOT
Go to top Buying a Dog Crate – A Comprehensive Guide! Why do you need to well verse yourself with crates before buying a pet cage? Owning a Pet is not a simple responsibility. They need time and attention. This is not limited to only taking the right steps in their growth in terms of food, hygiene or training. You have to put the right resources in place when it comes to buying the best crates that follow up with validating reviews. Dogs kennels are like a home inside a home for this species of animals. They thrive on human love and conditioning. Doggy cages are available for cheap to the highest available prices. Truth remains, when you one, they have to transcend to becoming a sort of sanctuary for your beloved pet. You want to be choosing one that last for most of their lifetime; enabling high quality items features that ensure comfort and safety as top priority. Pet Crates are Designed to: Train your dog, contain it for safety and transporting it. Pet kennels are a great way to house-train your new puppy (or puppies). It in the long-run becomes an important part of your dog’s life. A pooch in a cage will recognize it to be their own “special spot” amongst all the things in their vicinity. You have to make sure that the cage is not only comforting, but inviting as well. How to make your doggy space nothing short of a private room totally depends on the size, material and portability. In addition to these factors, you cannot have an overly spacious cage, thinking it is the best one for your dogs. When considering pet cages, large cages is a good idea, but you cannot go overboard. This means that the preliminary element to consider is size of the animal and the cage in accordance. Choosing the perfect one for your pet will require you to consider the advantages and disadvantages. The pet crates come in different types depending on the material, design and comfort. You have ones designed for small tailwaggers, kennels for great Danes and even Midwest life stages dog crate. It really depends on how you would wish to use the cage. If you know your pet is a tee-wee bit on the destructive side or loves to laze around, you can choose from the following list of collapsible pet crates, kennels with divider for larger breeds. This also depends how a certain style adapts to your home décor and theme. They’re very similar to a den.. Dogs are very close in genetics to their ancestral wolves. When it comes to identifying a protective haven, wolves choose to raise their off-springs and protect them from danger in dens. Similarly, training your pet to instinctively identify “their space” as a den for shelter is rather important. Your pet will naturally try to seek safety and comfort in that enclosed area, eventually becoming a habit. The crate only mimics a den, presenting for your pooch a natural environment to call it their “own room”, a private space in a way. A puppy kennel becomes extremely helpful as it catalyses the “house-breaking process”. You will find that it discourages your puppy from destructively chewing down objects. Doggy or puppy crates are best used for travel and transportation. Before embarking on longer road trips or travels, make sure to correctly secure the crate. In addition, you might want to remove their collars so it does not get stuck or hooked to the exteriors of the cage. This might trap or cause choking to your pet. Pet Crates are Great for Safety! Your home has precious furniture and other objects that could be harmful for your pet dog. While you might have to be away from home, a cage serves best for your pup to keep them safe from potentially harmful or dangerous situations. This is especially when you won’t be around to supervise. Cage Sizing is the Most Important Factor While Choosing Crates for Dogs: What size dog crate is perfect for you? When buying a pet crate, ensure that you do not indulge in an overly spacious model. Keep the large pet crate for bigger dogs. The space inside the crate for dogs should give your pooch enough room to move and turn around with ease. This means that, the pooch should not find himself hitting the sides or the top (ceiling of the crate). Basically it is important for your pet to be able to sit straight up without banging their head. Invest in folding dog cages where they can lay down on the surface with their paws stretched out. Take special care with small dog cage and puppy crates. Make sure that the crate does not end up cramping up your dog. The only way it will love their new “den” is if they seek natural comfort and don’t feel caged. Generally, people buy a large sized crate assuming their pooch will luxuriously lay inside content. However, this assumption is wrong. Crates are meant for house training and to take advantage of the fact that a dog’s natural instinct is to not soil their sleeping area. So when you are seeking crates for dogs, make sure it’s not so big that your puppy ends up making one end a bathroom and the other a bedroom. Appropriately sized crates give your dog, especially the older one’s a feeling of safety and security. Dogs will enjoy a properly sized crate rather than feeling as if they are rattling around in an empty room. This completely misses the point of giving them a “snug” feeling of belonging. How are you going to select the correct size? Understanding your dog’s body measurements for pet crate sizes can only do this. You might wonder if their weight is important. Well, it is certainly influential towards your decision. Considering this you have to take into account that the crate should have an allowance that is Six inches longer than your dog’s body and six inches taller that their shoulder height. The main purpose of this measurement is to give your pooch just enough room to stand up, turn around and stretch out while they rest or lie down in their new room. Plenty of space to move is adequate without offering extra room. If you are buying this crate for a puppy, make sure to take their full-grown size into consideration. Choose a crate the puppy can eventually grow and fit into. Go to top Guidelines to choose your dog crate sizes: Extra Small Size: Affenpinscher Bichon Frise Boston Terrier Brussels Griffon Chihuahua Maltese Papillon Pomeranian Pug Shih Tzu Toy Fox Terrier Yorkshire Terrier Small Size: Affenpinscher Australian Terrier Border Terrier Cairn Terrier Fox Terrier Havanese Jack Russel Miniature Dachshund Miniature Poodle Norfolk Terrier Pekingese Scottish Terrier Skye Terrier Toy Poodle West Highland White Terrier Medium Size: American Pit Bull Terrier American Staffordshire Terrier Basenji Cocker Spaniel Dachshund French Bulldog Keeshond King Charles Spaniel Lhasa Apso Miniature Pinscher Miniature Schnauzer Shetland Sheepdog Tibetan Terrier Welsh Springer Spaniel Welsh Terrier West Highland Terrier Large Size: Australian Cattle Basset Hound Beagle Belgian Sheepdog Bull Terrier Bulldog Chinese Shar-Pei English Setter English Springer Spaniel Finnish Spitz Harrier Norwegian Elk hound Portuguese Water Standard Schnauzer Welsh Corgi Whippet Extra Large Sized: Airedale Terrier Australian Shepherd Bearded Collie Belgain Malinois Border Collie Boxer Chesapeake Bay Retriever Chow-Chow Dalmatian Doberman Pinscher German Shepherd Golden Retriever Irish Setter Labrador Retriever Poodle Siberian Husky XXL Sized: Afghan Alaskan Malamute Anatolian Shepherd Bernese Mountain Dog Bloodhound Briard Bull mastiff Giant Schnauzer Gordon Setter Great Dane Great Pyrenees Greyhound Irish Wolfhound Komondor Neapolitan Mastiff Newfoundland Old English Sheepdog Otter hound Rottweiler St. Bernard Puppy Crates with Dividers may be a Good Idea.. Divider panels are a good investment along with metal or plastic puppy crates. They allow for the crate to grow along with your pet. Always choose crates that give you the ability to fold, collapse or disassemble. This works well for circumstances for storage and travel. Go to top Types of Crate for Dogs Available: Wire Dog Crates (also known as metal crates for dogs) Whenever someone mentions a dog crate, this type generally comes to our mind. The wire crates are most extensively used by pet consumers as it is more commonly seen. A single standard door comes with this crate. Certain types will also have multiple doors. These are present for access through the side and the roof. Multiple doors are perfect for little puppies as they need constant lifting and initial training to use their crates. These are best for large dogs, easy to assemble. A tray for the dog crate ensures ease of cleaning. The advantage of Wire crates is that they are easy to clean and provides for substantial airflow. This works very well in hot climatic conditions. Your pooch will never feel locked in or caged-up as it provides with a large amount of visibility. Dogs love to be part of their world around them. The Wire crate will ensure it does not feel isolated. You can fold the crate flat, that means it is a collapsible pet crate. This makes it highly portable. If you have a growing puppy, adjust the size with the help of divider panels. Slide the tray out from the bottom to easily clean the crate. A puppy can receive best training to understand acceptable home-friendly behaviours when training in the house through the right crate. Since dogs do not adhere to soiling their own “dens”, crates help in limiting their access and making them understand by way of instincts to areas off-limit to them. Metal dog crate can also be rather heavy. These are not too home décor-friendly. Collapsible dog crates you might find them to be noisy. Plastic Dog Crate: Plastic cages prove to be the best Travel crates for dogs. Within an enclosed large plastic kennels, the possibility of few Dog’s finding them overly confined and isolated has been noticed with plastic kennel. They do tend to whine back in protest when crated in plastic crates. However, this completely depends on your dog’s breed, overall health and how often it gets to come out or play. Smaller models are portable cages. These are sized to come with a top handle. Plastic ones can insulate better than wired. Airlines generally by law, considering pet safety approve plastic dog kennels over metal crate pan. Your mutt might feel intimidated in a condition where there are many animals around it. Cheap pet cages are not always the best to travel with. Dog Crates that are Stylish: Stylish Dog crates are designed to blend into your home décor. Well if you are type who cannot stand the sight of a wired dog crate or a plastic one in your home, a stylishly designed cage might be exactly what you need. You can also double this crate up as a sleek piece of furniture. Perfect for your kid’s bedroom. The doggy has a comfortable place to nap in the company of your children without the crate standing out of place but in fact blending into the furniture. Apart from the plastic and wire cages you have option amongst niche styles of crate custom made to enhance the luxury quotient for your dog’s new space. Of course at the stem, the need of the pooch is of utmost importance in determining which of these styles will suit. You can go for soft-sided nylon cages. These are in fact very light in weight, included with a convenient carry bag which makes it highly portable. If your pooch is a handsome overly large Braun boy, a strong aluminum dog crate will help in containing an aggressive nature. To keep your doggy fastened to their crate by a chain, you can buy a chain link type cage as well. These are best for outdoors. The crate will restrain your pooch from straying out of the yard. Wooden cages are considered best by those looking purely at physical appearance. Matching to your home interiors in style, these are available in various types of hardwoods. A very chic alternative to plastic and wire crates, wooden crates are meant for the regal borne dogs. Remember that if you have bought a little pup, the crate you buy should in fact be in accordance to its adult size. Simply use a divider to reduce the size of the crate. Dogs love to scratch and chew irrespective of their ferociousness. Some do it more than often, some do it when in a playful mood. Chew toy objects also keeps them pre-occupied rather than destructive. Anyone who owns a tailwagger would understand. If you have owned a doggy u have definitely had fight breaking something apart from their teeth, they weren’t supposed to bite. So until the time your pet is completely house-trained, a practical idea would be to use a collapsible wire crate. The wire crate fulfills all requirements till your pet can completely get over their destructive chewing stage. The Wire crate is all the easiest to clean when compared to other crate style. This applies most in the case of an accident. The wire crates are long-lasting and higher durability wise. Wire crates can be subjected to a large amount of scratching and chewing by a more destructive pooch. However, if portability is your primary requirement, the plastic crates are a great option. These shinier crates can be folded flat as well. They are transportable, only a little heavier than wire crates. So if you are going to have to be traveling with your pet in a car or by air, a plastic crate will prove to be your best choice. Constant movement during a trip can extend rattling of a wire crate, which might cause your pet to panic. Most dog’s find it hard to travel for this reason. If it might be affordable for you, choosing to go for a wired dog crate at home and a plastic one for during travels is the best practical way. Dog’s and their behaviors are sometimes unpredictable in different conditions away from home. Their crate gives them a sense of recognition, territory and belonging that cannot be replaced too soon. In case of the wire crates, you would have to use a crate cover for insulation during colder weather conditions. Wired crates might not give your pet that regal, luxurious feeling of a personal den as much as the stylish or wooden crates. Though these are reasonably inexpensive, as well tough, which helps them out last longer than other crate styles. Wooden crates are definitely in and many pet owners/lovers alike are choosing to pamper their dog’s with a luxurious looking den. However, it is best that you wait until you know your doggy is completely house trained. Once they are over their destructive chewing habits, preserve the overall look of your home with the many stylish woodwork options available. If your mutt is just still too aggressive, you might want to wait, else the crate is never lasting too long. Useful accessories! Cheap dog crates can still be customized to your dog’s impending needs. Using a Bedding or Crate Pad, Crate cover, Toys and treats indoor the dog kennels is something crate reviewers say really makes for a friendly atmosphere for your dog. FAQ’s I do not want to cage my dog! Why should you buy crates for dogs? Pet crates are a way to condition your dog into feeling they have a room of their own. More like a “den” or an icrate. Through their life stages, a crate helps not only in house-training but also providing comfort and safety. Where can I find portable dog crates? What size crate is meant for your dog can be well-judged at a local pet store or through shopping online. You can look up the best possible reviews to choose between metal, plastic or stylish cages. Are 2 door dog crates better? Crates for smaller dogs can have one door. For larger dog, you can use with divider when they are a puppy. Remove the divider, a 2 door pet cages for dogs gives them more freedom. My puppy won’t stay inside his dog cage. How to make my dog stay in his cage without having to hear him cry? Puppies are like small children. They want to play and run around. However, they need to accept certain restriction for their own benefit. Once they begin to accept their crate as a home, they will be conditioned into using it. Go to top
Metasploit creator HD Moore confirms that a spoofed fax order sent to its registrar led to the defacement of the Metasploit and Rapid7 homepages. A pro-Palestine hacker collective went old-school in its takedown of the Metasploit and Rapid7 websites today. Metasploit creator and HD Moore confirmed via Twitter that Metasploit.com was hacked via a spoofed DNS change request sent via fax to its registrar, Register.com. “Hacking like it’s 1964,” Moore tweeted a short time ago. The hacking group known as KDMS hijacked DNS records and replaced the two sites’ respective homepages with a note claiming responsibility for this attack and similar hacks against other security companies. “You are one of our targets,” the group wrote. “Therefore, we are here.” The group also left a politically charged statement regarding Palestine liberation. The DNS hijacking attack was resolved within an hour, Moore said. “We have taken action to address the issue and both sites are now locked down,” Rapid7 said in a statement. “We apologize for the service disruption, and do not anticipate any further implications for our users and customers at this time. We will keep everyone posted as we learn more, and let the community know if any action is needed.” Moore cautioned in a another set of Twitter messages that this group has the ability to change any domain registered with Register.com. He also confirmed the Metasploit and Rapid7 DNS settings temporarily pointed to 74[.]53[.]46[.]114. Earlier this week, KDMS claimed responsibility for a similar attack on another registrar Network Solutions. The group was able to change the DNS records managed by Network Solutions for a number of security companies and redirect traffic to a hacker-controlled domain. Leaseweb, a large hosting provider, disclosed on Monday that it detected malicious activity on its network and hackers managed to redirect traffic from leaseweb.com to another domain its DNS records were changed. “No internal systems were compromised,” Leaseweb wrote on its blog on Monday. “One of the security measures we have in place is to store customer data separately from any publicly accessible servers; we have no indication that customer data was compromised as a result of this DNS hijack.” Initially, it was believed the Leaseweb hack was related to an exploit of a WHMcs vulnerability, but Leaseweb said that was not the case. “Right now, it appears the hijackers obtained the domain administrator password and used that information to access the registrar,” Leaseweb said. This article was updated at 11 a.m. ET with a statement from Rapid7.
Story highlights China has had to deal publicly with a major scandal, a U.S. analyst says Bo Xilai had been one of China's most prominent politicians His wife and a family aide are charged with killing a British businessman Communist leaders want the scandal over before their next party congress, an expert says Chinese authorities announced murder charges Thursday against the wife of disgraced Communist Party figure Bo Xilai, a new step in a scandal China's ruling hierarchy is scrambling to put behind them. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, is accused of killing British businessman Neil Heywood in November, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Gu and a family aide have been accused of poisoning Heywood, who died in November. Heywood died in the southwestern Chinese metropolis of Chongqing, where Bo was the Communist Party chief and a rising star in the party -- the son of one of the "eight immortals" of the revolution that created modern China. The case has forced the Communist leadership to confront allegations of wrongdoing by a high-ranking member in an unusually public way, said Douglas Paal, a top China analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "The disruption of his departure from office and his wife's crimes have made it difficult to present a facade of unity to their people," Paal said. JUST WATCHED Bo Xilai's wife arrested in Briton death Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Bo Xilai's wife arrested in Briton death 01:37 That united front has been key to ruling China for 2,000 years, he said. The current generation of leaders has been particularly sensitive to maintaining it since 1989, when the party hierarchy split over how to deal with the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Instead, the scandal surrounding Bo and his family "showed what people suspected was high-level corruption at high levels of government," Paal said. Now, the leadership is trying to resolve the affair before its once-in-a-decade leadership transition at the Communist Party Congress meeting later this year, said Joseph Fewsmith, an international relations professor at Boston University and a longtime China watcher. "There was a desire on the part of the Chinese Communist Party to get this case settled. It's not yet, but it is out of the party and into the hands of criminal courts -- well before the 18th Party Congress," Fewsmith said. With the issue now before the courts, the case could be resolved "within the next couple weeks," he said. "With these cases being dealt with at this time, I expect there to be smooth sailing to the 18th Party Congress," he said. "There may be some bargaining to go, but most of it has been done." Heywood, 41, was found dead in his hotel room in Chongqing, a city of more than 30 million. Officials quickly blamed his death on "excessive consumption of alcohol," according to media reports, and his body was cremated without an autopsy. But the matter blew open in February, when Bo's longtime lieutenant, Wang Lijun, sought refuge at the U.S. Consulate in nearby Chengdu. Wang, the former police chief who managed Bo's anti-crime push, wanted political asylum, apparently fearing for his life and allegedly holding incriminating information against his boss. Media reports and online posts claimed Wang clashed with Bo after suggesting Heywood had been poisoned amid a business dispute with Bo's wife -- an allegation that appears in the charges announced Thursday. Gu Kailai is suspected of killing British businessman Neil Heywood, pictured here in an undated photo. Gu and family aide Zhang Xiaojun were arrested in early April. The same day, Xinhua announced that Bo had been stripped of his seats on the Communist Party's Central Committee and Politburo, the nation's ruling organs, for an unspecified "serious breach of regulations." But Paal said Wang, not Bo, "is probably the most hated" figure in the affair for going to the Americans. Wang was taken into custody once he left the consulate for entering the diplomatic post without authorization. Paal said his gambit forced China to deal with the scandal with an unprecedented level of transparency, prodded along by social media. "That's keeping them honest in a lot of places where they could be dishonest in the past," he said. Meanwhile, the party has painted Bo as an outlier who violated party discipline and has been "very careful" not to use his case to purge the party of most of his supporters. Gu and Zhang are awaiting trial in Hefei, in eastern China. A Bo family friend told CNN that Gu's lawyers were chosen by the government, not the family. The friend, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, also said the Bo family was not notified of Gu's whereabouts until last week. Authorities say Gu and her son came into conflict with Heywood over "economic interests," and she regarded Heywood as a threat to her son's safety. Fewsmith said that allegation is the "one real surprise" in the charges. "This had not previously been reported," he said. Britain, which had asked China to investigate the matter further after being informed of growing concern about Heywood's case, said it welcomed the charges. "The details of the ongoing investigation are a matter for the Chinese authorities," a Foreign Office spokesman said in a statement Thursday. "However, we are glad to see that the Chinese authorities are continuing with the investigation into the death of Neil Heywood. We are dedicated to seeking justice for him and his family and we will be following developments closely." Speculation has been rife about the nature of Heywood's work in China and his ties to Bo's family. Heywood had lived in China for more than a decade and was married to a Chinese woman. Among the companies Heywood advised was Hakluyt and Co., a consulting firm founded by former officers of the British spy agency MI6. That link fueled rumors that Heywood might have had connections to British intelligence services. But in a rare public statement on such matters in April, British Foreign Secretary William Hague denied that possibility "Mr. Heywood was not an employee of the British government in any capacity," he said in a letter. He said the British government would usually neither confirm nor deny those accounts, but that he was making an exception "given the intense interest in this case."
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – Washington state’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in nearly 10 years, dropping to 4.7 percent last month. The latest numbers released by the Employment Security Department Wednesday show that March’s rate dropped from February’s rate of 4.9 percent. March’s rate is the lowest the state has seen since August 2007. The state also added 10,700 nonfarm jobs last month. The national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent last month. The unemployment rate in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area was 3.3 percent. The industries that saw the greatest job growth last month were leisure and hospitality up 2,700, education and health services up 2,500 and professional and businesses services, which gained 2,300 new jobs. Wholesale trade saw the biggest reduction in March, losing 1,400 jobs. ___ This story has been updated to correct that March’s rate is the lowest since August 2007.
CLOSE The House voted 425-0 to restore death benefits for military families, moments before the Fisher House Foundation announced it will cover the payments until the shutdown is over. VPC The U.S. House voted to provide military families with death benefits delayed by the government shutdown, but prospects for the same action in the Senate remained unclear. An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Pfc. Cody J. Patterson at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Wednesday. According to the Department of Defense, Patterson, 24, of Philomath, Ore., died Oct. 6 in Zhari district, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. (Photo11: Steve Ruark, AP) Story Highlights Death benefits for families of fallen servicemembers likely to be restored quickly Defense Department had said government shutdown prevented benefits from being paid Families due to receive $100,000 to pay for funerals and other costs associated with loved one's death in war Outrage over a delay in death benefits to families of fallen servicemembers prompted Congress and the Pentagon on Wednesday to hastily restore the payments as the latest unintended fallout from a government shutdown embarrassed leaders on both sides. The Pentagon reached an agreement with the non-profit Fisher House Foundation to restore for military families $100,000 death benefits that have been stalled by the shutdown, which enters its 10th day today. The House voted 425-0 to restore the benefit, but prospects for the same action in the Senate remained unclear. The actions came as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel flew to Dover Air Force Base, Del., to meet, before television cameras, the remains of four soldiers killed Sunday in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. Along with a 19-year-old Marine and a 27-year-old Army specialist who both died Saturday, they are among the first whose families faced delays of the $100,000 death gratuity along with other expenses unless funding was restored or the government reopened. "I am offended, outraged and embarrassed that the government shutdown had prevented the Department of Defense from fulfilling this sacred responsibility in a timely manner," Hagel said in announcing the contract with Fisher House. He said the foundation, best known for building family residences at military hospitals, will be reimbursed by the Pentagon after the shutdown ends. As he made the announcement, Congress worked to restore the delayed payments, which have become a symbol of government paralyzed by opposing political views, unable to provide earned benefits even for those who have given their lives for their country. The death benefits actions were the latest policy shift in the shutdown. About half of the Defense Department's civilian employees were furloughed, but Hagel ordered nearly all 350,000 back on the job. An estimated 450,000 federal workers are idled at agencies responsible for items as diverse as food inspection and national parks, although all employees are eventually expected to receive full back pay. Other furloughed federal employees are trickling back to work. Even as the death benefits issue was resolved, a broader threat continues. A total of $6.25 billion in veterans benefits could be delayed to more than 5 million veterans, troops, families and children of deceased military members if the shutdown continues through the end of October, according to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. "I just didn't think you would allow this to happen," Shinseki told members of Congress during testimony Wednesday. "This is not a game." As Congress grappled with how to keep earned benefits flowing to those who have served in uniform, events became a mix of political theater, recriminations and a litany of dire consequences should the shutdown continue. Shinseki, a retired four-star general who took the VA helm in 2009, said the budget standoff comes as younger veterans are suffering complex health and behavioral issues after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Members of this latest generation of veterans are enrolling in VA at higher rates than ever before," Shinseki testified. "They, along with the veterans of every preceding generation, will be harmed if the shutdown continues." As the shutdown continues, House Republicans have passed legislation that would fund individual government departments or specific needs while Democrats argue that the full government should be reopened. "What's happening now is the House of Representatives — which refuses to reopen the government — is scurrying to pass a little bill to take care of these families," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said. "It isn't nearly enough, because the embarrassment of this government shutdown goes beyond this grievous situation with these bereaving families." According to Durbin, 17 servicemembers have died since the shutdown began, including five over the weekend. House Republicans have approved piecemeal funding bills that would reopen popular government programs and facilities, but only one measure — to ensure the U.S. military is paid during the shutdown — has been approved by the Senate and signed by President Obama. In an emotional floor debate, House Republicans blamed the Obama administration for the lapse in death benefits. "This is a disgrace. An intentional policy of pain," said Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a veteran. "They broke a sacred trust with our U.S. men and women who are on the front lines," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., also a veteran. House Democrats joined with Republicans in support of the measure, but Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the top Democrat on the Defense Appropriations panel, called on the House to reopen the entire federal government. Shinseki said 70% of the VA — devoted to providing veterans with health care — remains open because of advanced funding approval. But departments dealing with benefits and the operation of national cemeteries remain unfunded, and money is running out. About 7,800 benefits workers were placed on furlough this week, and 13,000 more will be sent home later this month, leaving a skeleton crew of about 1,100 if government operations are not fully restored, Shinseki testified. At that point, he said, monthly checks for compensation, pension, vocational rehabilitation, education and other benefits might not go out as scheduled Nov. 1. That could affect the 5.18 million veterans, servicemembers, orphaned children and spouses of troops who have lost their lives, he said. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, a retired Navy rear admiral, used his daily opening prayer in the Senate chamber to criticize lawmakers for the lapse in death benefits, underscoring the emotional tenor of the debate. "Lord, when our federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of children dying on faraway battlefields, it's time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough." Contributing: Associated Press Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1amZ2kF
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) says President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE made the wrong call on his Agriculture secretary. Trump formally picked former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) for the role Thursday, filling his last Cabinet-level appointment with an announcement that predicted Perdue would do "great things" in the position. But Schwarzenegger, who has feuded with Trump since taking over his role on NBC's "The Apprentice" reality show, wasn't happy with the pick. Instead, Schwarzenegger wanted Trump to choose former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado (R), who was also in contention. ADVERTISEMENT “Obviously, the choice wasn’t based on substance,” Schwarzenegger said through a spokesman Thursday, according to Politico. “Because if it was based on substance, Abel would have gotten the job hands down,” he added. “[Maldonado] knows agriculture at every level and he’s built an incredible agriculture business from the ground up as well as being a fantastic public servant.” Schwarzenegger's criticism comes two weeks after Trump slammed the ex-governor for getting "destroyed" in TV ratings compared to Trump's version of the show. The "Terminator" star didn't support Trump during the presidential campaign, first backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican presidential primaries and then refusing to endorse in the general election. Maldonado, who was appointed lieutenant governor by Schwarzenegger, was considered a top contender for Agriculture. Maldonado actively lobbied for the position and had ties to a member of Trump’s transition team, according to Politico. Maldonado acknowledged news of Perdue’s selection Wednesday evening, praising Trump’s decision-making process as “honorable, thorough and transparent.” “America can be rest assured that the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] will be in good hands with Governor Sonny Perdue,” he added in a statement. Maldonado’s unsuccessful bid for Agriculture secretary follows three other political failures, Politico added. Maldonado, who currently co-owns Runway Vineyards, lost a 2010 election to hold his lieutenant governor position. He also tasted defeat in a 2012 congressional race and in California’s gubernatorial campaign in 2014. Perdue’s selection, meanwhile, disappointed Hispanic groups who hoped Trump would name a Hispanic Cabinet member. Maldonado was one possibility for that honor, as were former Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas) and Elsa Murano, a former Agriculture undersecretary for food safety. Critics have questioned the diversity of Trump’s Cabinet, noting, for example, that it seems poised to become the first since 1988 without a Hispanic official.
Not long ago, Isaac Wingold gave us a great perspective on how the internet age has played a huge part in the recent growth of the mechanical watch industry. Watch Get-Togethers (GTG’s) have been popping up all over, and I decided to get in on the action. I’ve already done somewhat of a trip report on the Omega Boutique in Natick, MA, but that was a spontaneous, one-off drop by. This GTG was organized through the WatchUSeek forums by a bunch of local, like-minded watch lovers. Overall, the event went incredibly well, and there will certainly be more in the near future. The Omega staff was kind enough to put together light hors d’oeuvres, a fine selection of drinks, and hands-on access to nearly every watch. In honor of our event, Omega turned it up a notch by throwing in a couple of bonuses: exclusive access to one of five 45th Anniversary Apollo Speedmasters currently in the US, and pulling in one of the foremost experts on early NASA spaceflight, Larry McGlynn. Larry is an oracle of NASA information, and has endless stories to tell, most of which are only known by him and the astronauts that actually flew on the missions. He was nice enough to bring a small part of his insane collection, including the all-gold Speedmaster presentation watch given by NASA to Walter ‘Wally’ Schirra — you know, one of the original seven astronauts, and the first to fly in space three times. It was all-you-could-handle Omega , and hopefully we can spin this off into something more frequent, à la Red Bar Crew in NYC. Enjoy the photos below, and if any of you are local Bostonians, and would like to get in on some meetup action, please leave a comment below to stay in touch. Omega Speedmaster 45th Anniversary Apollo Omega Speedmaster 45th Anniversary Apollo Omega Speedmaster 45th Anniversary Apollo Omega Speedmaster 45th Anniversary Apollo Omega Speedmaster 45th Anniversary Apollo Larry McGlynn’s Moonphase Speedmaster WatchUSeekers enjoying the festivities The helpful Omega staff Omega Speedmaster Z-33 Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200M Mark III Speedmaster Omega Seamaster 300 ref 165.024 Great trio of Omegas Omega Seamaster 300 ref 165.024 Mark III Speedmaster Omega Seamaster Bullhead wrist shot Speedmaster Mark II with racing dial Tandem of Mark II Speedmasters Transitional Pre-moon Speedmaster Pair of MkII’s, a Paradive and LRRP Trio of Omega Speedmaster ’57s Omega Seamaster Soccer Timer McGlynn’s Captain Eugene Cernan display Omega DeVille Central Tourbillon — the only central tourbillon in the world Omega DeVille Central Tourbillon Wally Schirra’s Speedmaster Panerai 507 Bronzo Vintage Omega Pocketwatch Vintage movements, an 861 and bumper automatic Business end of my Soccer Timer Opening up some casebacks WUS user collection Wally Schirra’s Speedmaster Larry McGlynn’s Apollo-Soyuz Speedmaster with Tom Stafford’s autograph — Commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Mission by
Below is the Full MMORPG Terms Glossary. Don’t know what an MMO Term means? Just look it up here! We have all common MMO Phrases and lingo defined here. — # — 1337 A numerical translation for “elite” pronounced “leet,” 1337 is a slang developed by hackers in the ’80s used over the internet. Many words from the slang have leaked to popular culture today (“kidz” is an example; using a z instead of an s is an element of 1337). It is mostly prevalent in the gaming world online where people can interact textually. — A — AE Area Effect. Used to refer to area-effect spells or abilities. E.g. fireball, smoke grenade. AFK Away from keyboard Aggro As a verb, it refers to a hostile mob that has noticed a player and is actively trying to attack that player. As a noun, it refers to the amount of “hostility” the player has generated on the mob. In typical combat strategy, the fighter tries to take as much aggro as possible away from weaker players such as healers and mages. Alt Short for “alternate”. It refers to the alternate character a player has from their main character. This is not a stable category as sometimes alts can out level mains and sometimes mains become moth-balled. AO Abbreviation for Anarchy Online. An online game. AOE Same as AE. Area of Effect. Attribute e.g. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc. — B — Bind In certain MMOs, characters are teleported back to a safe spot when they die. This spot is predetermined by the user. The act of determining the safe spot requires an explicit action by the user. That action is known as a bind. The spot is typically referred to as a bind spot. Bio Short for biological. Usually used to indicate bathroom break. BoE Short for “bind on equip” – a term popularized by World of Warcraft. This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after they have been equipped. In other words, the item can be traded as long as no one equips it. BoP Short for “bind on pickup” – a term popularized by World of Warcraft. This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after it has been picked up from a monster. In other words, the item cannot be traded once a player picks it up. BoP items commonly cause looting conflicts and disputes during game-play. BRB “be right back” Bot Generally illegal and discouraged form of gameplay, where actions of a character can be automated to perform actions repeatedly in order to gain experience and level without actual user intervention. This practice is continually monitored by GMs and will cause suspension of service if one is suspected of botting. BRT “be right there” BTW “by the way” Buff Temporary boost to character attribute or combat ability — C — Camp(ing) The act of waiting in an area to hunt a specific mob or a specific spawn CoH City of Heroes, a super hero based MMORPG by NCsoft Class Professional archetypes. In D&D games, these would be warrior, healer, rogue and mage. The most typical class types are: close-range damage, ranged damage, healing, crowd control, support. Cleric Typical healing class in D&D style fantasy games. Corpse In certain MMOs, a corpse appears where the player died. Sometimes all the player’s items and money are left on the corpse and the player is teleported back to their bind spot. Corpses typically will decay after a certain time proportional the character’s level. Corpse Run The act of retrieving your corpse after you have died. This is typically a dangerous thing because people tend to die in dangerous places rather than safe places. Crafting A general category of skills that allows players to manufacture objects from raw resources Crit “To crit” refers to landing a critical hit either with melee or spells. Effective damage is usually increased from a base of 150% to upwards of 250% with extra talents/skills/buffs. Crowd Control Refers to a set of spells / abilities that temporarily paralyze or stun other mobs or players. Crowd control is an important group support ability when fighting multiple mobs. Usually abbreviated as CC. Applies to both MMOs and MMORPGs. — D — DAoC Abbreviation for Dark Age of Camelot. An online game. DD Direct Damage. Used to refer to a class of spells and abilities that allow players to damage enemies from a distance. The firebolt is the archetypal DD. Debuff The opposite of a buff. An offensive spell cast on enemies that weakens an attribute or combat ability. Dex An important stat for rogues and archers. Dex usually relates to attack speed, dodge rate, and/or defense. Dirt Nap Slang for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed. DKP Dragon kill points. A fairly elaborate score-keeping system used by guilds to fairly distribute loot based on participation and contribution to the guild. DoT Damage over time. Refers to a class of spells that deals damage over a period of time. These spells typically do more damage than DD spells overall. DPS Damage per second. Used when figuring out weapon speed and damage. Druid Hybrid class in D&D style games – part healer, part support, part fighter. — E — Eating Grass Vernacular for dead. Most players lie on the ground face down when killed. Epic(s) A class of items or equipment that are very powerful and difficult to acquire. Usually found in the hardest dungeons and have the lowest probability to drop. EQ Abbreviation for EverQuest, one of the first MMORPGs. Experience A quantity gained when completing tasks/quests, killing mobs, or discovering new locations in games. Characters level up when they gain enough experience points. — F — Farm(ing) The act of accumulating currency or items by constantly killing a mob or repeatedly performing a series of actions. FTL Acronym meaning ‘for the lose’. Similar to FTW but refers to a failture. For example, ‘afk FTL : ( ‘ meaning the player’s afk status caused him or her to lose. FTW Acronym meaning ‘for the win’. Refers to the act, ability or event that’s responsible for a victory. For example, “Stun FTW!!” with stun being a skill or spell that temporarily immobilizes an opponent. — G — Gank Verb. To be ganked is a term referring to one player being overwhelmed and killed by a large group. Can be either by a group of other players doing player-kill or a group of NPC monsters. Used in a sentence, “I got ganked yesterday in Fel.” Typically has the connotation that the other people had an unfair advantage (in number or level). GM Game Master. GM’s are characters in an MMORPG who are used by employees of the game’s creator company. They monitor the actions of the game world and answer the questions and complaints of the players. They have absolute control and power within the game. If the crime (breaking a law of the game, not the real world) committed is serious enough, they could even expel players permanently from the game. Griefer Title for a player who enjoys inflicting pain upon other players needlessly. If you kill newbies in a PvP game when you are level 50, you will gain no experience or benefit from the victimization beyond the pure joy of knowing you have given the player “grief.” Though griefers are almost always PKers, PKers are not necessarily griefers. Guilds Semi-permanent player groups. In typical games, players must use a substantial amount of capital to start the guild. GTG “good to go” and “got to go” – can be confusing when context is unclear — H — Heal A spell or skill that restores the health of the target. Could also be a call for help. If a player yells ‘heal me’ or even ‘heal!’ it means they are about to die unless another player restores their health. Health A common attribute, also called hit points or HP, that signifies the character’s life. Usually when health runs out, a player dies. IMHO Simply means ‘in my humble opinion.’ — I — INC Abbreviation for ‘incoming’. When a player pulls for a group, he will use this as warning that a mob is incoming. INT A common stat that stands for intelligence. Often the primary attribute for spell casters, it usually relates to spell damage and/or mana pool. IRL Stands for ‘in real life.’ Instance A copy of a particular dungeon for a group of players. Instanced dungeons are parallel worlds which let different groups of players explore the same dungeon in separate groups. — J — JK, j/k Short for ‘just kidding.’ Popular in most online chat environments including MMORPGs. Jump(ing) Most games allow the player controlled character to jump abnormally high in a reptitive fashion (WoW) though some games penalize players with a stamina cost for jumping (EverQuest) — K — K / KK / Kay All variants have the same meaning: okay. Used to confirm a statement made by another player. Example: “Can I have this loot? K.” Kite To lure a mob or player around while attacking or allowing allies to attack. A player usually draws aggro by casting a mobility reduction spell on the target. The monster tries to follow the target but cannot catch up, leaving it open to attacks or the effects of DoT (damage over time) spells. KoS Acronym for “Kill on Sight”. Usually refers to characters who are disliked by a particular faction. E.g., “I killed too many guards, now I’m KoS in town!” KS Kill Stealing. When one player attacks the same creature as another player and receives the reward for the kill instead of the person who originated combat. Newer games have mechanisms for discouraging this behavior. — L — LD Link dead – when a player is disconnected from the game, usually caused by lag or a faulty internet connection. Leet Slang for “elite” Ex: ‘I’m leet’ LFG “looking for group” Used in a sentence; “Lvl 60 Mage LFG!” LFM “looking for more”, i.e., after a group has been formed and more members are needed. LFT “looking for team” LMAO “laugh(ing) my ass off” LOL “laugh(ing) out loud” LOM ‘Low on Mana.’ Usually said by casters to inform the rest of the group that they are running low on mana and should not expect heavy healing or offensive spells. LoS Line of sight. A requirement of most ranged abilities, the view of the target must not be obstructed by any fixed obstacle such as a wall. Loot Currency or items that are dropped by a mob when it’s defeated. — M — Medding Resting in order to gain back mana in EQ was called Meditating. This is the commonly used abbreviation, also shortened to Med, as in, “Don’t pull yet, I need to med.” Mez Short for mesmerize. A short-hand for a collection of abilities that temporarily stun or immobilize enemies. Falls into the more general category known as crowd control. Min-Maxing When players attempt to create their characters as powerful as they can be by crunching statistics, planning their future routes, and any other methods in order to make their characters the statistically best character possible. Optimization. MMORPG Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game MMO Massively-Multiplayer Online. Typically refers to online games without the RPG elements. Games like MicroVolts and Chaos Heroes Online for example. Mob An AI controlled monster. ‘Mob’ originally comes from the MUD era, where it was short for ‘mobile’, to differentiate monsters that would patrol a set of rooms as opposed to monsters which would stay in one place until killed. Mod Abbreviation of modification. Used as both a verb and a noun. As a noun, refers to add-ons by 3rd party programmers designed to augment the game (e.g., the self-cast mod). As a verb, refers to the act of performing this modification (e.g., he’s modding the interface). MOO MUD Object Oriented. Users in MOOs are able to create their own content – both static and dynamic objects. MT “mistell”. Mistells occur frequently because of typing in the wrong name before sending a message. Also because of auto-reply features. MUD Multi-User Dungeon, although some prefer Multi-User Domain. These were the original textual online worlds. Mule In many games, due to long travel times or inventory limits, it is helpful to create a character explicitly for the purpose of being able to check auction houses or store extra items. These characters are seldom actually played and are referred to as mules. — N — Nerf To reduce the power of an ability, item, player, or action. Usually this is a term applied when a power or ability is reduced because it is perceived to be too powerful. Mostly used in the past tense, for example – “I can’t believe they nerfed rogues again, now I can’t kill anything!” Newbie A new player to a particular game. Newbie is usually the nicer version of noob or nub. Ninja (Looting)/ Ninjaing Ninjaing refers to the purposeful looting of a drop from a monster that doesn’t follow the rules set by the group. This can take different forms in different games due to game-specific game looting mechanisms. In World of Warcraft, ninja looting refers to rolling for a BoP drop that a person should not have rolled on. Because WoW warns players when they roll for a BoP object, it is assumed that such behavior cannot be accidental. The player exhibiting such behavior is typically branded as a ninja looter. Used in a sentence: “Hey tom where did you get that epic sword for your hunter?” “I ninjaed it last night than /gquit!!” Noob The pejorative form of newbie. NP “no problem” NPC Non-player character ie. a character controlled by the A.I Nuke A spell type that deals the highest damage. Mages usually have the most nukes. — O — OMG “oh my god” Used in exclamation or to convey surprise. OMW “on my way” OOC out-of-character – used to refer to OOC chat. OOM “out of mana” Said by casters who’s mana supply is depleted. OST Original Sound Track. Refers to the game’s music. “This game has great music, I want to buy the OST!” In MMOs, Games like Ragnarok Online, Granada Espada, World of Warcraft, and ArcheAge are known for their excellent soundtracks. Ownz Derived from the original word “own,” both words have the same meaning: to defeat some other entity in battle or other form of competition. The “pwnz” origin is probably from the fact that the “o” and “p” keys are adjacent on the standard qwerty keyboard, and were used interchangeably by mistake in games and stuck around since then. — P — Pat Short for patrol, a term used for mobs that have a set wandering path. In a dungeon, people will usually say “Wait for the pat” or “Watch the pat”. PB Point blank. Used to refer to a class of spells that originates in a radius around the caster. Typically, these spells are dangerous to the caster because they require proximity to the enemy. Specific spells are typically concatenated with the ability, i.e. pbae mez, pbae stun. PBAOE Point blank area of effect. These are a line of spells that effect an area around the caster. They can be either offensive or healing spells. Spells in this category are usually over powered like the Enchanter’s pbaoe in Dark Age of Camelot. PC Player Character. PK Player Killing. PKer Player Killer – a person who primarily plays to kill other players. Port Short for teleport. Used as a noun and a verb. Power Level When a higher level player tries to help a lower level player level faster. Most games have mechanisms that prevent power leveling. Proc Abbreviation of “programmed random occurence”, refers to the benefits of added damage or other buffing enhancement that occurs randomly when an item strikes or is used. PuG Pick up Group – a group assembled on the spot for a quest, a PvP battle, or an instance raid. Pull A standard hunting strategy where a player lures a single or a group of mobs to the group so that the group can hunt from a safe area instead of hunting in areas where new mobs may spawn. PvE Player vs. Environment. Environment stands for all monsters (mobs) in the game world. PvP Player vs. Player combat. pwnz same as ownz. — Q — Quest Tasks that players must complete for NPCs in games. May be referred to as missions in some games. QQ Represents a pair of tearing eyes. Often used as an insult towards a player who complains about a game feature or turn of events. Used in a sentence: “QQ more nub.” Qwerty The stardard type of keyboard used across the world. The first five letters spell out the type: Q, W, E, R, T, Y. — R — Race Refers to the playable races in a game. Most fantasy MMORPGs have fantasy races such as Elves, Trolls, and Orcs. Other genres may have unique races such as neohuman. Raid A more substantial engagement involving a large organized group of players typically set in a dungeon and involving difficult bosses. Regen Short for regeneration of health, mana, or other attributes. Also a common healing spell. Respec At certain high levels in some games, you are given the chance to “respec” your character. When you respec, you recreate your character from level 1 until the present level in terms of skills/powers/abilities/etc. Rez Short for resurrection. Refers to abilities that revive players that have just died. Typically only available to healer classes. ROFL “rolling on floor laughing” Usually said in response to a joke or funny situation. “ROFL he got killed by a lowbie!” Rogue A common class archetype that relies on speed and stealth over brute force or spells. Variants of this class are found in all genres but in slightly different names such as; thief, agent, or assassin. RMT Abbreviation for Real Money Trade – selling virtual currency or items for real currency. Roll To “roll” on an item means to type “/random 100″, where the server’s random number generator puts out a number between 1 and 100, the most generally accepted “fair” way to distribute loot and settle disputes. Root Can refer to a class of abilities as well as its effect. A root spell immobilizes a target. The target is then said to be rooted. Early versions of these abilities involved references to plants, hence “root”. RvR Realm vs. Realm. A type of player vs player combat that involves large numbers of players who belong to different factions or realms. — S — Server Due to technical reasons, each server can only support a limited amount of players. Each MMORPG typically has several servers. Players cannot interact with players on other servers though they can usually transfer for a fee. Shard Synonymous with server, originally used to refer to servers in Ultima Online. Solo The act of playing alone, hunting mobs by yourself. Soulbound An item-control mechanic where an item cannot be traded. In other words, only one person can own the object and it cannot be traded. See also BoE and BoP. Spawn Mobs typically appear (spawn) on a given schedule. This is both a verb and noun. Spec Short for specification. When used in games, it usually refers to the build/specifications of your character in terms of skills/abilities/magic/powers/etc. Spirit An attribute in many MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft. Spirit controls a character’s passive mana regeneration ability. Stun A typical form of crowd control that immobilizes an enemy. Skills, spells, and other abilities may have the power to stun. SWG Abbreviation for Star Wars Galaxies. An online game based on the Star Wars universe and published by Sony. — T — Tank As a noun, refers to character classes that can take a lot of damage. As a verb, refers to the act of drawing aggro from mobs before other team members strike with their abilities. Train(ing) Duel meanings. 1) A large group of monsters stacked near each other all following one player. 2) Training can refer to the act of killing monsters to gain experience or increasing your skills. Twink As a verb, the act of giving currency or valuable items to a newbie. As a noun, refers to a character that is twinked. In many games, twinked characters are visually marked by their level-inappropriate gear. Twisting To rapidly change from one type of ability to another where the abilities overlap momentarily. In DAOC a bard sings a song that gives a buff. By rapidly changing the song several songs will overlap due to the duration of the songs continuing for a short period of time. — U — UO Abbreviation for Ultima Online. One of the first MMORPGs, released back in 1997.”UO Rocks!” Uber Slang form of super from the German word. Ex: “Dude this sword is UBER!” USA Short for United States of America, the greatest country in the world. All other countries are lame. In a sentence: “Hey Mike, where you from? “I’m from Romania, you?” “I’m from the USA.” “GG, you win.” — V — Vanguard A failed fantasy MMORPG by Sony. It was released with high hopes but quickly faded away. Used in a sentence “Hey I just bought Vanguard!” “Dude you got robbed!” “*#%#” — W — WB “welcome back” Wipe To “wipe” means for the entire group whether party or raid to all die. However, party or raid can only continue if there is a class that can resurrect oneself, thereby avoiding the time consumed from running back from the the graveyard and regrouping at the beginning of the instance. WOOT Synonymous with “hooray” or “way to go”. WoW Abbreviation for World of Warcraft. An online game. WTB “want to buy” WTG Abbreviation of ‘way to go.’ Meant to provide encouragement but often used in sarcasm. Example: “I just died again to this boss!” “WTG, nub!” WTS “want to sell” — X — Xp Short for experience points. Often earned by killing monsters, completing quests, or other achievements. When enough xp is acquired, players often level up or become stronger. xD A face with the tongue sticking out. Usually used in informal conversations of comedic situations. Example: “We should mess around on our alts xD” — Y — Ygdrassil The tree of life found in many RPGs. Ragnarok Online in particular has many references to this magic tree. — Z — Zerg A combat strategy where a large group of players rush in at the target. Seen as a simple-minded strategy that requires no skill. Zombie The living dead. These trash mobs are found in most MMORPGs as low level fodder. Zone In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to.
Reviews “DCS: A10C Warthog is a tremendously – and at times obscenely – demanding game. You will experience cranial overload, and you will, unless you're a devout ED disciple, curse the developer for being so damned cryptic. But for those who favor stepping into the shoes of a real pilot who flies but a single plane, and for those who are willing to commit fully to a program that may well take months to evolve, this is the current peak of the genre.” 8/10 – IGN “DCS: A-10C Warthog isn’t for everyone—this is a simulation that demands dedication to reveal its true worth, and only those prepared to put in the time and effort to mine its treasure trove of avionics challenges will see that reward. The Hog is a relatively easy aircraft to fly, but doing so while battling armed forces with this brutally realistic weapons delivery platform is one of the most challenging—and intensely satisfying—undertakings you’ll ever face in a PC flight sim.” 92/100 – PC Gamer
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the implementation of the "sanctuary cities" ban Senate Bill 4, a ruling that marks a major victory for opponents of the controversial law that has been a rallying cry for Republican lawmakers across Texas and the nation. Judge Orlando Garcia’s ruling on Wednesday will hold up the law from taking effect as it was set to do so on Sept. 1. It puts in place a temporary injunction that would require a higher court to overturn in order for the law’s implementation to be put back on track. Otherwise, SB 4 could remain in purgatory for months until the federal lawsuit clears Garcia’s court. THE BACK STORY: Austin to sue state over SB 4 ban on ‘sanctuary cities’ Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to appeal the ruling as soon as possible. "Today’s decision makes Texas’ communities less safe," Abbott said. "Because of this ruling, gang members and dangerous criminals, like those who have been released by the Travis County Sheriff, will be set free to prey upon our communities." Attorney General Ken Paxton also said his legal fight to defend SB 4 will continue. "Senate Bill 4 was passed by the Texas Legislature to set a statewide policy of cooperation with federal immigration authorities enforcing our nation’s immigration laws," Paxton said in a news release. "Texas has the sovereign authority and responsibility to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens. We’re confident SB 4 will ultimately be upheld as constitutional and lawful." SB 4 would have given local law enforcement the power to inquire about a person’s immigration status during routine police interactions with the public, including traffic stops. It also requires local law enforcement to comply with all requests from federal immigration authorities to hold local jail inmates suspected of living in the country illegally and creates civil as well as criminal penalties for elected officials enacting policies against SB 4. Critics argue that the law encourages racial profiling, frays relations between police and immigrant communities, violates the First and Fourth Amendment and will breakup immigrant families. Proponents say the law will eliminate crime and remove criminals from the streets. ALSO READ: Advocacy groups brace for implementation of SB 4 Garcia’s ruling bars the state from implementing a provision of the law that would require local law enforcement to comply with so-called detainers federal authorities place on inmates suspected of illegal immigration. Travis County is the only county in Texas with such a policy. Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez had been set to undo a policy that ignored most detainers that Immigration and Customs Enforcement places on inmates at the Travis County Jail. The ruling will allow her policy to remain in place for the time being. "I am pleased by the court’s ruling today," Hernandez said in an emailed statement. "I believe that local communities are stronger and safer when justice and security are a reality, not for some, but for all. I look forward to the ultimate resolution." Abbott made SB 4 a top priority of the State Legislature after Hernandez put in the policy on Jan. 20. Abbott said he would "hammer" Travis County, cut $1.5 million from local crime prevention programs and vowed on national television to have Hernandez tossed from office. Abbott then called for a state law that would dismantle Hernandez’s and prohibit any other local lawmaker from attempting something similar. What state lawmakers delivered was a stricter version of the law with a provision added at the last second giving local cops the ability to inquire about a person’s immigration status based on their own intuition. COUNTDOWN TO RULING: Austin police, Travis County sheriff prepare to comply with SB 4 As news of the injunction spread, Democrats cheered the ruling. "This ruling is good for Austin because SB 4 if ever implemented would make Austin less safe," Mayor Steve Adler said in a news release. "This week’s crisis with Hurricane Harvey is just the most recent example why people need to feel safe approaching our local police and support groups, no matter what. If people in Austin do not feel safe asking for help, they become more vulnerable to crime, not just natural disasters." Council Member Greg Casar said the ruling was a major victory, but that much more lie ahead. "I think it is a testament to the organizing and advocacy of regular people that this law has been blocked," Council Member Greg Casar said. "I’m grateful." Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said he was not surprised by the ruling. "I’m confident that ultimately, this unjust measure will be deemed unlawful," Castro said in a statement. State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, said the ruling allows local law enforcement to concentrate fully on the ongoing rescue and recovery efforts in Hurricane Harvey’s aftermath. "Thanks to this ruling, we can put an end to the dangerous rumors scaring people away from shelters and preventing them from seeking help," Rodriguez said. Now our first responders can do their jobs and focus on saving lives." Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said in a news release that Harvey reinforced the need to stop treating immigrants as political pawns or a threat. "Judge Garcia correctly realized that SB 4 is an unconstitutional ‘solution’ in search of a problem that would ultimately make Travis County and all of Texas less safe," Eckhardt said. "Hopefully this is the first step in consigning SB 4 to the dustbin of history." Despite the ruling, the legal fight is far from over. The first suit arose just hours after Abbott signed the bill into law when Paxton sued the city of Austin in a suit that sought to have the law declared constitutional. Austin federal District Court Judge Sam Sparks dismissed that case on Aug. 9. But within 24 hours, the small border town El Cenizo became the first in what would become a cascade of cities to sue to block the law. They argue that the law is over broad, violating free speech by possibly disallowing local elected officials from making statements against the law. They have also argued ICE detainers keep inmates in jails illegally because they are not court orders, but rather civil requests. And, they argue that SB 4 an immigration law that can only be created by lawmakers at Capitol Hill and is preempted by the Constitution.
(CNN) Through thick and thin, the small Brazilian town of Chapeco has stood by its football team. And on Saturday, even in the most extraordinary of circumstances, the supporters were there for their heroes again. They had waved them off a week ago for what was going to be the biggest game in the history of Chapecoense football club, hoping for a victory in the Copa Sudamerica final. But the dream died and the town was shattered in that devastating plane crash on Monday night when 19 players and another 19 club staff were killed. They wouldn't be returning with a trophy, they'd be coming home in coffins. Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players A military guard of honor receives the coffins of members of the Chapecoense soccer team who were killed in a plane crash as they arrive at the airport in Chapeco, Brazil, on Saturday, December 3. The football club was traveling to compete in the Copa Sudamericana final when its charter plane crashed near Medellin, Colombia , on Monday, November 28, killing 71 people on board. Six people survived, including three Chapecoense players. Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players Relatives of the players wait for the arrival of the bodies at the Chapeco Airport on December 3. Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players Despite heavy rainfall, people line the road to watch the passage of the funeral cortege in Chapeco on December 3. Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players A child peers through a window of his home in Chapeco as the funeral procession passes on December 3. Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players Fans wait at Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco for the arrival of the players' coffins on December 3. Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players Soldiers carry the coffins of team members into Arena Conda stadium on December 3. Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players Somber fans in rain gear watch coffins enter Arena Conda stadium. Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players Heavy rain doesn't deter mourners at the Chapeco stadium. Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Brazil fans mourn Chapecoense players Relatives mourn over the coffin of one of the Chapecoense players at the stadium. Hide Caption 9 of 9 At 8 AM, while the bodies of their beloved stars were still being flown back from Colombia, the fans were waiting at the stadium, chanting, cheering and clapping in the pouring rain. But the seemingly festive atmosphere was deceptive, many of the supporters were openly weeping. Some were praying. Enilson Dos Santos told us "I have been here for all the games, so now I want to say goodbye. I am shocked and I'm just so sad." Another supporter Sandra Gonzalez wiped away the tears as she said "I'm feeling lots of emotion. They were our idols, I can't understand what's happened. I only feel pain." Images of the military transport planes touching down at the local airport were beamed onto the large screens within the stadium, the removal of each casket drawing a dignified round of applause. The arrival of the bodies at the stadium a short time later was greeted by a deafening roar, but then the reality hit home. No longer could anyone be in denial as the coffins were unloaded. It was a visceral sight, the sheer volume - dozens and dozens - illustrating the magnitude of the disaster A photo posted by Don Riddell (@donriddell) on Dec 2, 2016 at 6:08pm PST For a small club of modest means, It had been a monumental effort bringing their heroes home and the last few yards seemed to be hardest. The rain was now torrential, the field waterlogged, and with 8 soldiers carrying each casket, they waded through a guard of honor to deliver these loved ones to their families. I cannot imagine what kind of emotions they must have been experiencing. The wife of Danilo, the goalkeeper whose last-gasp save took Chapecoense to the final, cried as she placed his photograph in the goalmouth. The Godfather to her son pounded the crossbar with Danilo's gloves. For Amanda Machado, the grief must have been almost crippling. She had been due to marry her fiancée Dener Braz the previous day. He wanted to take his wedding ring to Colombia with him but Amanda wanted to keep it safe, it now hangs around her neck. Three players survived the crash but all are too sick to have traveled home so soon. JUST WATCHED A Close Call for Chapecoense's Demerson Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH A Close Call for Chapecoense's Demerson 03:30 Eleven players were at the ceremony though, they were disappointed to be missing out on the game of their lives, but they turned out to be the lucky ones. The defender Demerson was among them, wearing the shirt of his best friend Bruno Rangel, he told me that he's heartbroken he's gone. The emotion was raw inside the stadium and even for observers with no direct connection to the tragedy it was hard not to be moved. For many reporters though, the emotion was real, many of their of their close colleagues, traveling to report the match, died on the plane. Many were friends. Grief counsellors were on hand to offer comfort where needed. It truly was an extraordinary end to the most awful week. The agony continues though; in the coming days, dozens of funerals will be held across Brazil - a country in mourning. And soon, Chapecoense will commence the the difficult task of rebuilding a shattered club. For much of the day in Chapeco, the rain poured down from the sky. Most of the rudimentary stadium is uncovered and so almost everybody both inside and outside the ground was soaked. But nobody was complaining, everybody knows that Chapecoense always played best in the rain.
A man who was caught hurling oranges at planes at Mesa's Falcon Field municipal airport admitted to officers that he had been sniffing spray paint, police said. Police responded to a disturbance call at the airport and found 33-year-old Brian Henio sitting in an orange grove next to the airport, holding a green jug to his lips. Officers said it appeared that Henio had been drinking from the jug. Police recognized the smell of spray paint and noticed paint on Henio's upper lip, police said. Henio admitted throwing oranges at the planes and said he didn't know why it was a big deal. He also said he wanted to go to New Mexico, police said. Police said Henio was "extremely jittery" and was unable to answer questions. When police told Henio that he was trespassing he responded, 'I know, I want to go to New Mexico." Police told Henio to put his hands on his head, he refused and tried to walk away. Police moved to handcuff him, but he resisted and had to be wrestled to the ground. Henio was taken to the Mesa City Jail where he was booked on charges of possession of a vapor releasing substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and trespassing.
(Image: Dougal Waters/Getty) The fastest thing in the universe has come to a complete stop for a record-breaking minute. At full pelt, light would travel about 18 million kilometres in that time – that’s more than 20 round trips to the moon. “One minute is extremely, extremely long,” says Thomas Krauss at the University of St Andrews, UK. “This is indeed a major milestone.” The feat could allow secure quantum communications to work over long distances. Advertisement While light normally travels at just under 300 million metres per second in a vacuum, physicists managed to slow it down to just 17 metres per second in 1999 and then halt it completely two years later, though only for a fraction of a second. Earlier this year, researchers kept it still for 16 seconds using cold atoms. Stripy light To break the minute barrier, George Heinze and colleagues at the University of Darmstadt, Germany, fired a control laser at an opaque crystal, sending its atoms into a quantum superposition of two states. This made it transparent to a narrow range of frequencies. Heinze’s team then halted a second beam that entered the crystal by switching off the first laser and hence the transparency. The storage time depends on the crystal’s superposition. A magnetic field extends it but complicates the control laser configuration. Heinze’s team used an algorithm to “breed” combinations of magnet and laser, leading them to one that trapped light for a minute. They also used the trap to store and then retrieve an image consisting of three stripes. “We showed you can imprint complex information on your light beam,” says Heinze. Tens of seconds of light storage are needed for a device called a quantum repeater, which would stop and then re-emit photons used in secure communications, to preserve their quantum state over long distances. It should even be possible to achieve longer light storage times with other crystals, says Heinze, as they have pushed their current material close to its physical limit. Journal reference: Physical Review Letters, doi.org/m86
“Undoubtedly, the White House statement explicitly revealed US involvement and complicity in the crimes of Saudi Arabia against Yemen,” asserted Bahram Ghasemi, the Spokesman of Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement late on Saturday. His remarks came after a White House statement, on Friday, which praised Saudi Arabia for allowing humanitarian aid to enter Yemen through a port and via air to the nation's capital city, while accused Iran of exploiting "the grave humanitarian crisis” to “advance its regional ambitions.” Besides rejecting the accusations leveled at the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Ghasemi described the Saudi announcement of opening a port to humanitarian aids as a political pose. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will spare no effort to reflect the echo of Yemeni’s cries for justice and the oppression suffered by the wronged people of Yemen to the ears of the world and international community,” underlined the Iranian diplomat dismissing the claim that Iran has violated the United Nations Security Council resolution on blocking arms to Yemenis. “We have repeated and re-stated at different occasions that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no military relation with Yemen and the missile or defensive capabilities of Yemenis are entirely of their own domestic issues,” reiterated Mr. Ghasemi. He condemned US measure for levelling “baseless accusations” against the Islamic Republic of Iran as an effort “politically motivated and malignly intentioned,” to deviate the attentions of the public opinion and the international community from the “anti-humanitarian and inhumane” war crimes happening in Yemen. “Instead of urging Saudi Arabia to end the bombardment of civilian targets and killing the innocent and defenseless people of Yemen, they blatantly continue their support for this country to continue its horrendous crimes,” Mr. Ghasemi slammed US approach in supporting Saudi Arabia in war against Yemenis. “As we have said before, the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes any initiative aimed to send humanitarian reliefs to Yemen and alley the pain and sufferings of the people of this country,” he announced the support of the Islamic Republic of Iran for rescuing the civilians in Yemen. “We remain committed to supporting Saudi Arabia and all our [Persian] Gulf partners against the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ aggression and blatant violations of international law,” reads the Friday statement issued by White House Office of the Press Secretary. “Backed by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Houthi rebels have used destabilizing missile systems to target Saudi Arabia—systems that were not present in Yemen before the conflict,” the statement says in stark contrast with UN report reassuring no link between Iran and Yemeni forces. The Trump administration praise is rolled out at the time that aid groups are saying they are cut off from humanitarian reliefs and the war-torn country is still blocked despite promise from Saudi Arabia to lift blockade. Obstructing deliveries of fuel to the war-ravaged country, has put the water treatment facilities out of service which has led to the outbreak of cholera in a country suffering from medicine and food blockade. YNG/4154955
Much of urban America, and New York City in particular, is in crisis. Cities are becoming desirable again, but planning is still stuck in the post-war mentality of decline. Rents are skyrocketing as new housing supply pales against incoming demand, and while politicians and planners might see what’s going on, they are powerless to stand up to the NIMBY forces and stop it. From Palo Alto to Williamsburg back to Santa Monica, our wealthiest and most in-demand neighborhoods remain in their stunted states, walled off to growth, radiating everything from gentrification to global inequality. Our inner suburbs don’t densify, and the only other option for a growing population is to sprawl. There is, however, another way: ignore “the community.” Not the community writ large, but “the community” as a euphemism for those who are already lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that others want to move to, whether it’s a hip, gentrifying neighborhood or an uptight, leafy suburb. Land use governance should be shifted from the local level to the city, state or national level, where governments seem to be more willing to let cities grow. The movement toward local control in planning made sense two generations ago, when higher powers were raining highways and urban renewal onto declining cities. But now that urban fortunes have turned so dramatically, the effect of local control has turned sinister. It’s not obvious why – perhaps people are just better at telling others that they should be accepting new housing than they are at taking their own advice? – but higher level planning seems to yield more development, and community control tends towards much more conservative outcomes. In New York and Chicago, you can see divergent attitudes towards development at different levels of government even within the current structure. The cities’ mayors – whether Bloomberg, de Blasio or the Daleys – are more pro-development than council members and community groups. The push to rezone for growth almost always comes from the mayor and his planning department, while local council members tend to want to scale back plans, or restrict development through downzonings. Greg Morrow deftly documents the downzoning of Los Angeles in his 2013 dissertation, when planning was turned over to “the community” in the 1970s. Local planning resulted in the city losing 60 percent of its zoned residential capacity during those years, and wealthy, white communities on the city’s in-demand Westside were most resistant to new supply. And Silicon Valley has perhaps the ultimate in local control, since its cities are minuscule, functioning more like neighborhoods than true cities. In San Francisco, the city government is at least willing to overlook the anti-growth views of some of the 11,000 or so current South of Market residents and and allow a crop of towers to rise in the formerly industrial neighborhood. But in Atherton, the few thousand people who would be most immediately impacted by development – not even enough to merit their own school district – are the only ones who have a say in planning, and they’ve never allowed a single apartment to be built. But in the Pacific Northwest, the housing situation is much brighter. In 2014, Oregon and Washington both permitted around four new homes for every 1,000 existing residents – twice as many housing units as the two approved for every 1,000 Californians. Both Portland and Seattle set permitting records last year, with approvals in both cities for more units than in any year since at least 1980, the earliest we can find data. Oregon and Washington, it turns out, are also the two states in the U.S. that have most strongly embraced state-level planning. The states’ sprawl-restricting urban growth boundaries are the most famous example, but the states also have ways to force their cities to accept densification. Even notoriously unzoned Houston – which set a record along with Oregon and Washington last year for units permitted – has its own way of elevating land use decisions above petty, local NIMBY concerns. According to the city charter, zoning in Houston must be approved in a citywide referendum, avoiding what’s known in Chicago as aldermanic privilege, by which local elected officials have veto power over issues like development that occur solely within their district. Houston has voted on zoning a few times, most recently in 1993, but it’s never passed. Fast-growing cities in other developed countries also have higher-level planning. Canada offers the closest examples, with Toronto having the most prominent provincial controls. The locally despised Ontario Municipal Board has the unchecked power to approve real estate projects that Toronto’s city council rejects, setting the tone for Toronto’s torrid rate of construction. And then there’s the undisputed king of the mega-cities: Tokyo. In Japan, it’s not the provinces, but the central government that wields the most influence. National politicians have always been very eager to boost construction for the sake of the economy, and the result is very loose zoning. An incredible urban building machine is growing Tokyo’s already enormous housing stock at a rate many times that of London and New York, with much lower housing costs than other developed megacities. Back to the United States, between New York and California, the latter seems like the likelier candidate for progress on land use governance. There’s clear concern at the state level about the cost of housing that is noticeably absent in Albany, and there have already been some attempts, albeit largely failed, at holding local governments accountable for housing their populations. California already has a mandated Regional Housing Need Allocation process, which looks superficially like something you might find in Washington or Oregon, but is unfortunately not effective. There have also been a few attempts in the state legislature to ban cities from requiring developers to build excessive amounts of parking near transit, but they’ve never passed. In the New York area, however, it’s harder to see any hope on the horizon for any state or regional housing production mandates. New Jersey has the Mount Laurel doctrine, with courts ruling that municipalities must zone some land to accommodate subsidized housing development, but there’s no similar requirement for market-rate growth. And even the tepid Mount Laurel doctrine is being weakened by Chris Christie, with the New York Times writing that the governor has shown “utter contempt” for Mount Laurel, and is standing in the way of its implementation. With housing production in New York City near the bottom nationally and building in its in-state suburbs almost nonexistent, it’s clear that the status quo is not working. When Bill de Blasio fails to solve the city’s affordable housing crisis – which his own chief planner has admitted he probably will – it may be time to consider appealing to a higher authority. Talk about this topic on the YIMBY Forums Subscribe to the YIMBY email newsletter and receive the latest new development news in your inbox. Follow the YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews For any questions, comments, or feedback, email [email protected]
Super simple and satisfying Oatmeal Raisin Scones are perfect for a cold Saturday morning or anytime when you want a great breakfast bread! These Oatmeal Raisin Scones is a guest post from my youngest daughter Ella. This is the first in her series. So my youngest daughter Ella came to me last week and said she wanted to learn how to cook. I told her to go talk to her mother. LOL Just kidding Christie. She said she wanted to learn, not just help. I was thrilled. I have three very large binders filled with recipe’s I have collected over the years, plus a huge library of cookbooks. I handed them to her and told her to pick out 10 recipes she found interesting to get us started, This was last Friday so Saturday she came to me and wanted to make Oatmeal Raisin Scones from one of the best cookbooks “Joy of Cooking“. This was one of my first cookbooks and one that I think every young cook should own. Scones are also commonly served with jam and clotted cream (commonly known as a cream tea). The scone is a British snack of Scottish origin. A scone is a small quick-bread made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, usually with baking powder as a leavening agent. I was busy remodeling my office over the weekend, but when your daughter asks you to show her how to cook, you find the time to teach. I think teaching our kids how to cook and fix things around the house is one of the most important jobs as a good parent. She wanted to do it all and wanted me there as a guide. That is not easy for me, but I am learning. One of the first lessons was how to read recipes in Joy of Cooking. They are written in a different style which can be a little difficult to follow if you are not used to it. Luckily Ella is sort of a perfectionist so she asked lots of questions and made sure she understood before moving on to the next step. Her Oatmeal Raisin Scones were fabulous. Slightly crunchy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. They had a great biscuit texture with just the right amount of sweetness. Ella did a great job and we have already made our next cooking project, Chicken Enchilada Puffs. I am going to start a new segment to the Dad Whats 4 Dinner called “Cooking with Ella” or “Ella’s Cooking Corner”. What name do you like best? Ella will be guest posting by-weekly or at least once a month. So enjoy the inaugural installment in the series with this awesome recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Scones. I hope you enjoy Ella’s selection and please spend time with your kids teaching them how to cook. Be sure to sign up for my weekly emails so you can share with your kids what Ella makes next. Follow me on Facebook – Pinterest – Twitter – Google + – Instagram Pin It Last weekends office remodel. Painted the walls a light grey-blue. Painted the desk with black chalk paint. The plan is also to use the office as my studio for food photography. Plenty of natural light and I added 5000 K natural daylight bulbs to the overhead fixture. I will post a longer DIY of what all we did and how it is working. Print Oatmeal Raisin Scones Prep Time 10 mins Cook Time 12 mins Total Time 22 mins Super simple satisfying Oatmeal Raisin Scones are perfect for a cold Saturday morning! Course: Breakfast Cuisine: Scottish Servings : 12 Author : Ella Caudill Ingredients 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour such as King Arthur 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 tbsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/4 cups old fashion rolled oats, not instant 1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates 1 large egg 10 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (about 1 1/4 sticks) 1/3 cup milk 1/2 tsp vanilla Instructions Position rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper, set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in oats and raisins making sure to separate the raisins with your fingers before adding to flour mix. In a small bowl whisk together egg, butter, milk and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until moistened. Do not over mix. Batter will be sticky. Transfer batter to a lightly floured surface. Pat down dough, with floured hands, into a 8 inch round by 3/4 inch thick circle. Cut dough into 12 wedges. Using a spatula, carefully transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet. Keep wedges at least a 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving warm. Serve with butter or jelly. Recipe Notes First published by Quinn Caudill for DadWhats4Dinner.com ©2016 Recipe adapted from The Joy of Cooking cookbook, ©1997, pg. 792 More breakfast bread for you to try; Banana Streusel Coffee Cake Cranberry White Chocolate Scones for Christmas Morning
Download the complete report by Jeffrey A. Miron (requires Adobe® Reader®) • Print the report The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition Jeffrey A. Miron Visiting Professor of Economics Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 781-856-0086 [email protected] The Marijuana Policy Project provided funding for the research discussed in this report. Daniel Egan provided excellent research assistance. Executive Summary Government prohibition of marijuana is the subject of ongoing debate. One issue in this debate is the effect of marijuana prohibition on government budgets. Prohibition entails direct enforcement costs and prevents taxation of marijuana production and sale. This report examines the budgetary implications of legalizing marijuana – taxing and regulating it like other goods – in all fifty states and at the federal level. The report estimates that legalizing marijuana would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $5.3 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $2.4 billion would accrue to the federal government. The report also estimates that marijuana legalization would yield tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Whether marijuana legalization is a desirable policy depends on many factors other than the budgetary impacts discussed here. But these impacts should be included in a rational debate about marijuana policy. I. Introduction Government prohibition of marijuana is the subject of ongoing debate. Advocates believe prohibition reduces marijuana trafficking and use, thereby discouraging crime, improving productivity and increasing health. Critics believe prohibition has only modest effects on trafficking and use while causing many problems typically attributed to marijuana itself. One issue in this debate is the effect of marijuana prohibition on government budgets. Prohibition entails direct enforcement costs, and prohibition prevents taxation of marijuana production and sale. If marijuana were legal, enforcement costs would be negligible and governments could levy taxes on the production and sale of marijuana. Thus, government expenditure would decline and tax revenue would increase. This report estimates the savings in government expenditure and the gains in tax revenue that would result from replacing marijuana prohibition with a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods. The report is not an overall evaluation of marijuana prohibition; the magnitude of any budgetary impact does not by itself determine the wisdom of prohibition. But the costs required to enforce prohibition, and the transfers that occur because income in a prohibited sector is not taxed, are relevant to rational discussion of this policy. The policy change considered in this report, marijuana legalization, is more substantial than marijuana decriminalization, which means repealing criminal penalties against possession but retaining them against trafficking. The budgetary implications of legalization exceed those of decriminalization for three reasons.[1] First, legalization eliminates arrests for trafficking in addition to eliminating arrests for possession. Second, legalization saves prosecutorial, judicial, and incarceration expenses; these savings are minimal in the case of decriminalization. Third, legalization allows taxation of marijuana production and sale. This report concludes that marijuana legalization would reduce government expenditure by $7.7 billion annually. Marijuana legalization would also generate tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. These budgetary impacts rely on a range of assumptions, but these probably bias the estimated expenditure reductions and tax revenues downward. The remainder of the report proceeds as follows. Section II estimates state and local expenditure on marijuana prohibition. Section III estimates federal expenditure on marijuana prohibition. Section IV estimates the tax revenue that would accrue from legalized marijuana. Section V discusses caveats and implications. II. State and Local Expenditure for Drug Prohibition Enforcement The savings in state and local government expenditure that would result from marijuana legalization consists of three main components: the reduction in police resources from elimination of marijuana arrests; the reduction in prosecutorial and judicial resources from elimination of marijuana prosecutions; and the reduction in correctional resources from elimination of marijuana incarcerations.[2] There are other possible savings in government expenditure from legalization, but these are minor or difficult to estimate with existing data.[3] The omission of these items biases the estimated savings downward. To estimate the state savings in criminal justice resources, this report uses the following procedure. It estimates the percentage of arrests in a state for marijuana violations and multiplies this by the budget for police. It estimates the percentage of prosecutions in a state for marijuana violations and multiplies this by the budget for prosecutors and judges. It estimates the percentage of incarcerations in a state for marijuana violations and multiplies this by the budget for prisons. It then sums these components to estimate the overall reduction in government expenditure. Under plausible assumptions, this procedure yields a reasonable estimate of the cost savings from marijuana legalization.[4] The Police Budget Due to Marijuana Prohibition The first cost of marijuana prohibition is the portion of state police budgets devoted to marijuana arrests. Table 1 calculates the fraction of arrests in each state due to marijuana prohibition. Column 1 gives the total number of arrests for the year 2000.[5] Column 2 gives the number of arrests for marijuana possession violations. Column 3 gives the number of arrests for marijuana sale/manufacturing violations. Columns 4 and 5 give the ratio of Column 2 to Column 1 and Column 3 to Column 1, respectively; these are the percentages of arrests for possession and sale/manufacture of marijuana, respectively. The information in Columns 4 and 5 is what is required in the subsequent calculations, subject to one modification. Some arrests for marijuana violations, especially those for possession, occur because the arrestee is under suspicion for a non-drug crime but possesses marijuana that is discovered by police during a routine search. This means an arrest for marijuana possession is recorded, along with, or instead of, an arrest on the other charge. If marijuana possession were not a criminal offense, the suspects in such cases would still be arrested on the charge that led to the search, and police resources would be used to approximately the same extent as when marijuana possession is criminal.[6] In determining which arrests represents a cost of marijuana prohibition, therefore, it is appropriate to count only those that are “stand-alone,” meaning those in which a marijuana violation rather than some other charge is the reason for the arrest. This issue arises mainly for possession rather than for trafficking. There are few hard data on the fraction of “stand-alone” possession arrests, but the information in Miron (2002) and Reuter, Hirschfield and Davies (2001) suggests it is between 33% and 85%.[7] To err on the conservative side, this report assumes that 50% of possession arrests are due solely to marijuana possession rather than being incidental to some other crime. Thus, the resources utilized in making these arrests would be available for other purposes if marijuana possession were legal. Column 6 of Table 1 therefore indicates the fraction of possession arrests attributable to marijuana prohibition, taking this adjustment into account.[8] The first portion of Table 2 uses this information to calculate the police budget due to marijuana prohibition in each state. Column 1 gives the total expenditure in 2000 on police, by state. Column 2 gives the product of Column 1 with the sum of Columns 5 and 6 from Table 1. This is the amount spent on arrests for marijuana violations. For 2000, the amount is $1.71 billion. The Judicial and Legal Budget Due to Marijuana Prohibition The second main cost of marijuana prohibition is the portion of the prosecutorial and judicial budget devoted to marijuana prosecutions. A reasonable indicator of this percentage is the fraction of felony convictions in state courts for marijuana offenses. Data on this percentage are not available on a state-by-state basis, so this report uses the national percentage. Data on the percentage of possession convictions attributable to marijuana are also not available, so this report assumes it equals the percentage for trafficking convictions. In 2000 the percent of felony convictions in state courts due to any type of trafficking violation was 22.0%.[9] Of this total, 2.7% was due to marijuana, 5.9% was due to other drugs, and 13.4% was unspecified. This report assumes that the fraction of marijuana convictions in the unspecified category equals the fraction for those in which a specific drug is given, or 31.4% [=2.7%/(2.7%+5.9%)]. The report also assumes that the percentage of possession convictions due to marijuana equals this same fraction. These assumptions jointly imply that the percentage of felony convictions due to marijuana equals the fraction of felony convictions due to any drug offense (34.6%) multiplied by the percentage of trafficking violations due to marijuana (31.4%). This yields 10.9% (=34.6%*31.4%).[10] The second portion of Table 2 uses this information to calculate the judicial and legal budget due to marijuana prohibition. Column 3 gives the judicial and legal budget, by state. Column 4 gives the product of Column 3 and 10.9%, the percentage of felony convictions due to marijuana violations. This is the judicial and legal budget due to marijuana prosecutions. For 2000, the amount is $2.94 billion. The Corrections Budget Due to Marijuana Prohibition The third main cost of marijuana prohibition is the portion of the corrections budget devoted to incarcerating marijuana prisoners. A reasonable indicator of this portion is the fraction of prisoners incarcerated for marijuana offenses. As with the percentage of prosecutions due to marijuana, state-by-state information on the percentage of prisoners incarcerated for marijuana offenses is not available. Appropriate data do exist for a few states, however, and this percentage is likely to be similar across states. This report therefore computes a population-weighted average based on the few states for which data exist; it then imposes this percentage on all states. This percentage is 1.0%, as documented in Appendix A. The third portion of Table 2 calculates the corrections budget due to marijuana prohibition.[11] Column 5 gives the overall corrections budget, by state. Column 6 gives the product of Column 5 and 1.0%, the estimated fraction of prisoners incarcerated on marijuana charges. This is the corrections budget devoted to marijuana prisoners. For 2000, the amount is $484 million. Overall State and Local Expenditure for Enforcement of Marijuana Prohibition As shown at the bottom of Table 2, total state and local government expenditure for enforcement of marijuana prohibition was $5.1 billion for 2000. This is an overstatement of the savings in government expenditure that would result from legalization, however, for two reasons. First, under prohibition the police sometimes seize assets from those arrested for marijuana violations (financial accounts, cars, boats, land, houses, and the like), with the proceeds used to fund police and prosecutors.[12] Second, under prohibition some marijuana offenders pay fines, which partially offsets the expenditure required to arrest, convict and incarcerate these offenders. The calculations in Appendix B, however, show that this offsetting revenue has been at most $100 million per year in recent years at the state and local level. This implies a net savings of criminal justice resources from marijuana legalization of $5.0 billion in 2000. Adjusting for inflation implies savings of $5.3 billion in 2003.[13] [14] [15] III. Federal Expenditure for Marijuana Prohibition Enforcement This section estimates federal expenditure on marijuana prohibition enforcement. There are no data available on expenditure for marijuana interdiction per se; existing data report expenditure on interdiction of all drugs, without separately identifying expenditure aimed at marijuana versus other drugs. It is nevertheless possible to estimate the portion due to marijuana prohibition using the following procedure: Estimate federal expenditure for all drug interdiction; Estimate the fraction of this expenditure due to marijuana interdiction based on the fraction of federal prosecutions for marijuana; Multiply the first estimate by the second estimate. This provides a reasonable estimate of federal expenditure for marijuana interdiction so long as this expenditure is roughly proportional to the variable being used to determine the fraction of total interdiction devoted to marijuana.[16] Table 3 displays federal expenditure for drug interdiction. This was $13.6 billion in 2002 (Miron 2003b), and it is the figure that applies for all drugs.[17] [18] [19] To determine expenditure for marijuana interdiction, it is necessary to adjust for the fraction of federal expenditure devoted to marijuana as opposed to other drugs. Table 3 next shows possible indicators of the relative magnitude of marijuana interdiction as compared to other-drug interdiction. These indicators include use rates, arrest rates, and felony convictions for marijuana versus other drugs. For the purposes here, the most appropriate indicator is the percentage of DEA arrests or convictions for marijuana as opposed to other drugs.[20] The data therefore indicate that $2.6 billion is a reasonable estimate of the federal government expenditure to enforce marijuana prohibition in 2002. As with state and local revenue, this figure must be adjusted downward by the revenue from seizures and fines. Appendix B indicates that this amount has been at most $214.2 million in recent years, implying a net savings of about $2.39 million. Adjusting for inflation implies federal expenditure for enforcement of marijuana prohibition of $2.4 billion in 2003.[21] IV. The Tax Revenue from Legalized Marijuana In addition to reducing government expenditure, marijuana legalization would produce tax revenue from the legal production and sale of marijuana. To estimate this revenue, this report employs the following procedure. First, it estimates current expenditure on marijuana at the national level. Second, it estimates the expenditure likely to occur under legalization. Third, it estimates the tax revenue that would result from this expenditure based on assumptions about the kinds of taxes that would apply to legalized marijuana. Fourth, it provides illustrative calculations of the portion of the revenue that would accrue to each state. Expenditure on Marijuana under Current Prohibition The first step in determining the tax revenue under legalization is to estimate current expenditure on marijuana. ONDCP (2001a, Table 1, p.3) estimates that in 2000 U.S. residents spent $10.5 billion on marijuana. This estimate relies on a range of assumptions about the marijuana market, and modification of these assumptions might produce a higher or lower estimate. There is no obvious reason, however, why alternative assumptions would imply a dramatically different estimate of current expenditure on marijuana. This report therefore uses the $10.5 billion figure as the starting point for the revenue estimates presented below. Expenditure on Marijuana under Legalization The second step in estimating the tax revenue that would occur under legalization is to determine how expenditure on marijuana would change as the result of legalization. A simple framework in which to consider various assumptions is the standard supply and demand model. To use this model to assess legalization’s impact on marijuana expenditure, it is necessary to state what effect legalization would have on the demand and supply curves for marijuana. This report assumes there would be no change in the demand for marijuana.[22] This assumption likely errs in the direction of understating the tax revenue from legalized marijuana, since the penalties for possession potentially deter some persons from consuming. But any increase in demand from legalization would plausibly come from casual users, whose marijuana use would likely be modest. Any increase in use might also come from decreased consumption of alcohol, tobacco or other goods, so increased tax revenue from legal marijuana would be partially offset by decreased tax revenue from other goods. And there might be a forbidden fruit effect from prohibition that tends to offset the demand decreasing effects of penalties for possession. Thus, the assumption of no change in demand is plausible, and it likely biases the estimated tax revenue downward. Under the assumption that demand does not shift due to legalization, any change in the quantity and price would result from changes in supply conditions. There are two main effects that would operate (Miron 2003a). On the one hand, marijuana suppliers in a legal market would not incur the costs imposed by prohibition, such as the threat of arrest, incarceration, fines, asset seizure, and the like. This means, other things equal, that costs and therefore prices would be lower under legalization. On the other hand, marijuana suppliers in a legal market would bear the costs of tax and regulatory policies that apply to legal goods but that black market suppliers normally avoid.[23] This implies an offset to the cost reductions resulting from legalization. Further, changes in competition and advertising under legalization can potentially yield higher prices than under prohibition. It is thus an empirical question as to how prices under legalization would compare to prices under current prohibition. The best evidence available on this question comes from comparisons of marijuana prices between the U.S. and the Netherlands. Although marijuana is still technically illegal in the Netherlands, the degree of enforcement is substantially below that in the U.S., and the sale of marijuana in coffee shops is officially tolerated. The regime thus approximates de facto legalization. Existing data suggest that retail prices in the Netherlands are roughly 50-100 percent of U.S. prices.[24] [25] The effect of any price decline that occurs due to legalization depends on the elasticity of demand for marijuana. Evidence on this elasticity is limited because appropriate data on marijuana price and consumption are not readily available. Existing estimates, however, suggest an elasticity of at least -0.5 and plausibly more than -1.0 (Nisbet and Vakil 1972).[26] [27] If the price decline under legalization is minimal, then expenditure will not change regardless of the demand elasticity. If the price decline is noticeable but the demand elasticity is greater than or equal to 1.0 in absolute value, then expenditure will remain constant or increase. If the price decline is noticeable and the demand elasticity is less than one, then expenditure will decline. Since the decline in price is unlikely to exceed 50% and the demand elasticity is likely at least -0.5, the plausible decline in expenditure is approximately 25%. Given the estimate of $10.5 billion in expenditure on marijuana under current prohibition, this implies expenditure under legalization of about $7.9 billion.[28] Tax Revenue from Legalized Marijuana To estimate the tax revenue that would result from marijuana legalization, it is necessary to assume a particular tax rate. This report considers two assumptions that plausibly bracket the range of reasonable possibilities. The first assumption is that tax policy treats legalized marijuana identically to other goods. In that case tax revenue as a fraction of expenditure would be approximately 30%, implying tax revenue from legalized marijuana of $2.4 billion.[29] The amount of revenue would be lower if substantial home production occurred under legalization.[30] The evidence suggests, however, that the magnitude of such production would be minimal. In particular, alcohol production switched mostly from the black market to the licit market after repeal of Alcohol Prohibition in 1933. The second assumption is that tax policy treats legalized marijuana similarly to alcohol or tobacco, imposing a “sin tax” in excess of any tax applicable to other goods.[31] Imposing a high sin tax can force a market underground, thereby reducing rather than increasing tax revenue. Existing evidence, however, suggests that relatively high rates of sin taxation are possible without generating a black market. For example, cigarette taxes in many European countries account for 75–85 percent of the price (US Department of Health and Human Services 2000). One benchmark, therefore, is to assume that an excise tax on legalized marijuana doubles the price. If general taxation accounts for 30% of the price, this additional tax would then make tax revenue account for 80% of the price. This doubling of the price, given an elasticity of -0.5, would cause roughly a 50% increase in expenditure, implying total expenditure on marijuana would be $11.85 billion (=$7.9 x 1.5). Tax revenue would equal 80% of this total, or $9.5 billion. This includes any standard taxation applied to marijuana income as well as the sin tax on marijuana sales. The $9.5 billion figure is not necessarily attainable given the characteristics of marijuana production, however. Small scale, efficient production is possible and occurs widely now, so the imposition of a substantial tax wedge might encourage a substantial fraction of the market to remain underground. The assumption of a constant demand elasticity in response to a price change of this magnitude is also debatable; more plausibly, the elasticity would increase as the price rose, implying a larger decline in consumption and thus less revenue from excise taxation. The $9.5 figure should therefore be considered an upper bound. These calculations nevertheless indicate the potential for substantial revenue from marijuana taxation. A more modest excise tax, such as one that raises the price 50%, would produce revenue on legalized marijuana of $6.2 billion per year. Distribution of the Marijuana Tax Revenue The estimates of tax revenue discussed so far indicate the total amount that could be collected summing over all levels of government. In practice this total would be divided between state and federal governments. It is therefore useful to estimate how much revenue would accrue to each state, and to state governments versus the federal government, under plausible assumptions. Table 4a indicates the tax revenue that would accrue to each state and to the federal government under the assumption that each state collected revenue equal to 10% of the income generated by legalized marijuana and the federal government collected income equal to 20%. This is approximately what occurs now for the economy overall, except that the ratio of tax revenues to income varies across states from the 10% figure assumed here. The table indicates that under these assumptions, the federal government would collect $1.6 billion in additional revenue while on average each state would collect $16 million in additional tax revenue. These calculations ignore the fact that marijuana use rates differ across states, so application of identical policies would yield different amounts of revenue per capita. Wright (2002, Table A.4, p.82), for example, indicates that the percent of those 12 and over reporting marijuana use in the past month ranged in 1999-2000 from a low of 2.79% in Iowa to a high of 9.03% in Massachusetts. Table 4b therefore shows the breakdown of revenue by state under the assumption that tax revenue is proportional to state marijuana use rates. A third possibility, which cannot easily be examined with existing data, is that revenue by state differs depending on the distribution of marijuana production. V. Summary This report has estimated the budgetary implications of legalizing marijuana and taxing and regulating it like other goods. According to the calculations here, legalization would reduce government expenditure by $5.3 billion at the state and local level and by $2.4 billion at the federal level. In addition, marijuana legalization would generate tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. References Baicker, Katherine and Mireille Jacobson (2004), “Finders Keepers: Forfeiture Laws, Policing Incentives, and Local Budgets,” manuscript, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College. Bates, Scott W. (2004), “The Economic Implications of Marijuana Legalization in Alaska,” Report for Alaskans For Rights & Revenues, Fairbanks, Alaska. Caputo, Michael R. and Brian J. Ostrom (1994), “Potential Tax Revenue from a Regulated Marijuana Market: A Meaningful Revenue Source,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 53, 475-490. Clements, Kenneth W. and Mert Daryal (2001), “Marijuana Prices in Australia in 1990s,” manuscript, Economic Research Centre, Department of Economics, The University of Western Australia. Durose, Matthew and Patrick A. Langan (2003), Felony Sentences in State Courts, 2000, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justices Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 198821. Easton, Stephen T. (2004), “Marijuana Growth in British Columbia,” Public Policy Sources, Fraser Institute Occasional Paper #74. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2002), Annual Report 2002, available at (http://annualreport.emcdda.eu.int/pdfs/2002_0458_EN.pdf). Gettman, Jon B. and Stephen S. Fuller (2003), “Estimation of the Budgetary Costs of Marijuana Possession Arrests in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Center for Regional Analysis, George Mason University. Harrison, Lana D., Michael Backenheimer, and James A. Inciardi (1995), “Cannabis use in the United States: Implications for Policy,” in Peter Cohen and Arjan Sas, eds., Cannabisbeleid in Duitsland, Frankrijk en do Verenigde Staten, Amerstdamn: Centrum voor Drugsonderzoek, Universiteit van Amsterdamn, 231-236. Lewis, Minchin (2004), Report on the Syracuse Police Department Activity for the Year Ended June 30, 2002, Department of Audit, City of Syracuse. MacCoun, Robert and Peter Reuter (1997), “Interpreting Dutch Cannabis Policy: Reasoning by Analogy in the Legalization Debate,” Science, 278, 47-52. Miron, Jeffrey A. (2002), “The Effect of Marijuana Decriminalization on the Budgets of Massachusetts Governments, With a Discussion of Decriminalization’s Effect on Marijuana Use,” Report to the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts, October. Miron, Jeffrey A. (2003a), “Do Prohibitions Raise Prices? Evidence from the Markets for Cocaine and Heroin,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 85(3), 522-530. Miron, Jeffrey A. (2003b), “A Critique of Estimates of the Economic Costs of Drug Abuse,” Report to the Drug Policy Alliance, July. Miron, Jeffrey A. (2003c), “The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Legalization in Massachusetts,” Report to Change the Climate, August. Murphy, Patrick, Lynn E. Davis, Timothy Liston, David Thaler, and Kathi Webb (2000), Improving Anti-Drug Budgeting: Santa Monica, CA: Rand. Nisbet, Charles T. and Firouz Vakil (1972), “Some Estimates of Price and Expenditure Elasticites of Demand for Marijuana Among U.C.L.A. Students,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 54, 473-475. Office of National Drug Control Policy (1993), State and Local Spending on Drug Control Activities, Washington, D.C.: ONDCP Office of National Drug Control Policy (2001a), What America’s Users Spend on Illegal Drugs, Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates. Office of National Drug Control Policy (2001b), The Price of Illicit Drugs: 1981 through Second Quarter of 2000, Washington, D.C: Abt Associates. Office of National Drug Control Policy (2002), National Drug Control Strategy, Washington, D.C.: ONDCP. Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo, Michael Grossman, Frank J. Chaloupka, Patrick M. O’Malley, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Matthew C. Farrelly (2000), “Marijuana and Youth,” NBER WP #7703. Reuter, Peter, Paul Hirschfield, and Curt Davies (2001), “Assessing the Crack-Down on Marijuana in Maryland,” manuscript, University of Maryland. Schwer, R. Keith, Mary Riddel, and Jason Henderson (2002), “Fiscal Impact of Question 9: Potential State-Revenue Implications,” Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. US Department of Health and Humans Services (2000), Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of the Surgeon General, Tobacco Taxation Fact Sheet. Accessed at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_2000/factsheets/factsheets_taxation.htm. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2004), Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Highlights – 2002, Washington, D.C.: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Statistics. Wright, D. (2002), State Estimates of Substance Use from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Volume I, Findings (DHHS Publication No. SMA 02-3731, NHSDA Series H-15), Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Statistics. Table 1: Percentage of Arrests Due to Marijuana Prohibition Total Arrests MJ Possession MJ Sale/Man. Poss % S/M % Poss % /2 1 2 3 4 5 6 Alabama 215587 11501 258 0.053 0.001 0.027 Alaska 40181 1239 200 0.031 0.005 0.015 Arizona 304142 16288 1233 0.054 0.004 0.027 Arkansas 218521 6846 928 0.031 0.004 0.016 California 1428248 50149 12338 0.035 0.009 0.018 Colorado 282787 12067 604 0.043 0.002 0.021 Connecticut 146992 6751 773 0.046 0.005 0.023 Delaware 41515 2151 131 0.052 0.003 0.026 D.C.* 4009 32 0 0.008 0.000 0.004 Florida* 0 0 0 0.043 .006 0.022 Georgia 429674 24321 4093 0.057 0.010 0.028 Hawaii 64463 1110 167 0.017 0.003 0.009 Idaho 76032 2949 219 0.039 0.003 0.019 Illinois* 319920 0 0 0.043 0.006 0.000 Indiana 270022 14484 1806 0.054 0.007 0.027 Iowa 113394 6054 551 0.053 0.005 0.027 Kansas 78285 3277 594 0.042 0.008 0.021 Kentucky* 160899 10669 1188 0.066 0.007 0.033 Louisiana 297098 14941 2526 0.050 0.009 0.025 Maine 57203 3294 554 0.058 0.010 0.029 Maryland 318056 17113 2711 0.054 0.009 0.027 Massachusetts 160342 8975 1365 0.056 0.009 0.028 Michigan 413174 14629 2050 0.035 0.005 0.018 Minnesota 269010 9325 6782 0.035 0.025 0.017 Mississippi 202007 9925 1054 0.049 0.005 0.025 Missouri 322775 13202 1338 0.041 0.004 0.020 Montana 30396 384 35 0.013 0.001 0.006 Nebraska 97324 6787 326 0.070 0.003 0.035 Nevada 148656 3828 933 0.026 0.006 0.013 New Hampshire 50830 3706 550 0.073 0.011 0.036 New Jersey 375049 20285 3058 0.054 0.008 0.027 New Mexico 112829 2966 325 0.026 0.003 0.013 New York 1295374 101739 11309 0.079 0.009 0.039 North Carolina 523920 21179 2539 0.040 0.005 0.020 North Dakota 27846 896 137 0.032 0.005 0.016 Ohio 533364 25420 1863 0.048 0.003 0.024 Oklahoma 166004 11198 1302 0.067 0.008 0.034 Oregon 157748 6336 283 0.040 0.002 0.020 Pennsylvania 493339 16471 5057 0.033 0.010 0.017 Rhode Island 35733 2200 293 0.062 0.008 0.031 South Carolina 216451 14348 2370 0.066 0.011 0.033 South Dakota 41615 2449 153 0.059 0.004 0.029 Tennessee 232486 12869 2586 0.055 0.011 0.028 Texas 1074909 55509 1926 0.052 0.002 0.026 Utah 125553 4192 311 0.033 0.002 0.017 Vermont 17565 632 65 0.036 0.004 0.018 Virginia 303203 13140 1443 0.043 0.005 0.022 Washington 298474 13146 1329 0.044 0.004 0.022 West Virginia 51452 2618 248 0.051 0.005 0.025 Wisconsin 322877 45 16 0.000 0.000 0.000 Wyoming 34243 1633 164 0.048 0.005 0.024 * Quoting http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/crime/2000cb.pdf : “(3) No arrest data were provided for Washington, DC, and Florida. Limited arrest data were available for Illinois and Kentucky.” Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports accessed at http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/crime/.
France's head of the armed forces resigned Wednesday, according to a statement from his office. The shock announcement came days after Gen. Pierre de Villiers had a public dispute with President Emmanuel Macron over proposed defence budget cuts. ADVERTISING Read more De Villiers said he had sought to maintain a French defence force able to do an increasingly difficult job within the financial constraints imposed on it. "In the current circumstances, I see myself as no longer able to guarantee the robust defence force I believe is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people, today and tomorrow, and to sustain the aims of our country," he said. He said that as a result he had tendered his resignation to Macron and that it had been accepted. ‘I am the boss’ The unprecedented public row between the French president and military chief erupted last week after Macron announced a €850 million cut to the defence budget in an effort to meet the EU’s requirement that member states maintain their deficits at 3 percent of GDP. De Villiers, 61, reportedly complained about the cuts to a parliamentary committee and followed it up with a Facebook post that criticised the measure without naming Macron. His public remarks -- unusual in France which has a tradition of military chiefs refraining from comments about civilian governments – sparked a rebuke from Macron. "I am the boss," Macron told the French weekly, Journal du dimanche, over the weekend, adding that if there was a difference of opinion, "it is the chief of the defence staff who will change his position". De Villiers said Wednesday that throughout his career, he had believed it was his duty to tell politicians "of my reservations". The row has provoked a debate about whether 39-year-old Macron had humiliated his military chief or whether he had no choice but to exert his authority just two months into his presidency. (FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Almost 500 people have been killed in rebel-held eastern Aleppo in the past month, the UN says UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein has described the Syrian city of Aleppo as a "slaughterhouse". In a speech, he said the siege and bombardment of Aleppo's rebel-held east were among the "crimes of historic proportions" being committed in Syria. Almost 500 people have been killed and 2,000 injured since government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, launched an assault on the east a month ago. Syria's government has said civilians are suffering because of "terrorists". Meanwhile, the UN said a lack of security guarantees had forced it to delay plans to carry out medical evacuations from Aleppo on Friday during the second 11-hour "humanitarian pause" declared unilaterally by the government and its ally, Russia. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Russia has told civilians to leave rebel-held Aleppo through several corridors Russia has said it will also suspend air strikes between 08:00 and 19:00 local time (05:00-16:00 GMT) on Saturday to allow civilians and rebels to leave the city via safe corridors. However, very few people have reportedly taken advantage of the offer, with rebel factions asserting that it would amount to forced displacement and surrender. Aleppo, once Syria's largest city and the country's commercial and industrial hub, has been devastated by fighting since 2012. It has been left divided roughly in two, with President Bashar al-Assad's forces controlling the west and rebels the east. At the start of September, troops and Iranian-backed militiamen severed the rebels' last route into the east and placed its 275,000 residents under siege. Two weeks later, following the collapse of a nationwide truce brokered by the US and Russia, the government launched a ground offensive to take full control of the city, accompanied by an aerial bombardment of unprecedented scale and intensity. At an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday, Mr Zeid warned that "crimes of historic proportions" were being committed in eastern Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria. "The ancient city of Aleppo, a place of millennial civility and beauty, is today a slaughterhouse - a gruesome locus of pain and fear, where the lifeless bodies of small children are trapped under streets of rubble and pregnant women deliberately bombed," he said. Image copyright EPA Image caption Zeid Raad Al Hussein said the failure to protect civilians in Syria "should haunt everyone of us" Mr Zeid added that his staff had "documented violations of international humanitarian law by all parties in Aleppo". "Armed opposition groups continue to fire mortars and other projectiles into civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo, but indiscriminate air strikes across the eastern part of the city by government forces and their allies are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties. "These violations constitute war crimes. And if knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against civilians, they constitute crimes against humanity." Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Zeid said rebel fighters were targeting civilians in government-held areas of Aleppo The commissioner said the failure of the international community - particularly the UN Security Council - to protect civilians and halt the bloodshed "should haunt everyone of us". Syria's permanent representative to the UN, Hussam al-Din Ala, made a visibly angry statement afterwards, insisting that the Syrian government was waging a battle against terrorism. Later, the charity Save the Children warned that aid workers and medical professionals in eastern Aleppo were reporting the widespread use of cluster bombs, which are banned under international law. It cited the Violations Documentation Centre, an activist-run site, as recording 137 cluster-bomb attacks in Aleppo between 10 September and 10 October - a 791% increase on the average of the previous eight months.
Heavy Rotation Heavy Rotation: 10 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing Loading the player ... Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. Seinabo Sey, 'Hard Time' Authenticity is one of those mysterious yet crucial intangibles that can mean the difference between "good" and "great." Swedish artist Seinabo Sey hasn't invented something new when she sings of personal struggle in the soulfully stomping "Hard Time," but the song is undeniably unique. Sey's effortless voice is powered by the legacy of her West African father, Afropop star Maudo Sey, and intersects with the Swedish pop sensibilities of her peers (Robyn, Tove Lo, Lykke Li). This is Seinabo Sey's birthright, and she owns it when she sings, "This time I will be louder than my words." —Carmel Holt, WFUV The Weepies, 'No Trouble' Loading the player ... No Trouble It was a year that felt "otherworldly, hopeful, terrible." That's how Steve Tannen, one half of The Weepies, describes 2014. At the end of 2013, his wife Deb Talan (the other half of the folk duo) was diagnosed with breast cancer. She spent the next year fighting it with the help of her husband and musical partner. The end result? A new recording called Sirens — the duo's first full-length release in five years — and a cautiously optimistic clean bill of health for Talan. As you might expect, Sirens is intensely personal, incredibly emotional, triumphant and fearful at the same time. And that, The Weepies' members say, is exactly how 2014 felt to them. Some of the songs were written at the couple's home, while others came together at the hospital during Talan's treatment. And some, like "No Trouble," were written before the two learned of Talan's diagnosis, which lends them even more poignancy. "I don't need no trouble," Tannen sings in this modern-day prophecy, "but sometimes trouble needs me." The good news is that, like the end of The Weepies' tumultuous year, "No Trouble" concludes on a hopeful note: "The more you look for love, the more you're gonna find." —Elena See, Folk Alley The Chemical Brothers, 'Go' The Chemical Brothers' return accompanies what could easily be the jam of the forthcoming summer: "Go," from Born In The Echoes. It's the duo's first new album in five years, and it marks a return to the groundbreaking dance-party efforts of The Chemical Brothers' early years. "Go" features former A Tribe Called Quest member Q-Tip — who, as some may recall, was featured in 2005's "Galvanize." The official music video for "Go" was directed by Michel Gondry, who's known both for Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and for several memorable Bjork videos. —John Richards, KEXP Sam Outlaw, 'Keep It Interesting' Loading the player ... Keep It Interesting For the last several years, singer-songwriter Sam Outlaw has been at the forefront of the modern L.A. country scene. Drawing on the musical spirits of Dwight Yoakam and Georges Jones and Strait, Outlaw has crafted an instant classic with his new album, Angeleno. To help him, he enlisted a top-of-the-class group of musicians as his collaborators — including co-producers Ry Cooder and Joachim Cooder, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Bo Koster of My Morning Jacket and Gabe Witcher of Punch Brothers. Outlaw, whose real name is Sam Morgan (Outlaw is his mother's maiden name), is a soulful crooner, and in the upbeat "Keep It Interesting," he offers a fresh take on pure country. —Bruce Warren, WXPN Gay Nineties, 'Hold Your Fire' Loading the player ... Hold Your Fire One of my tests for a great song is whether the melody pops up in my head days or weeks after I first hear it. That was the case with Vancouver band Gay Nineties and its high-energy single "Hold Your Fire." I had to dig around to remember what band had that catchy chorus, not to mention a guitar riff so searing-hot you could fry bacon with it. But I found it, and I'm sharing it with you now. Gay Nineties' music has been compared to Arctic Monkeys and The Kooks, but whatever the comparison, it rocks with an irresistible swagger. —Grant Lawrence, CBC Music Coliseum, 'We Are The Water' Loading the player ... We Are The Water I lost my dad late last month, and reorienting has been a tough, strange process. During the last few weeks, the presence of life-affirming music has not only helped me put one foot in front of the other, but also inspired me to start running full speed ahead. The new Coliseum record, Anxiety's Kiss, is full of that propulsive energy. Every time I put the needle down on "We Are The Water," my eyes get wide and my body feels recharged. On a less personal note, this might just be Coliseum's best album yet. The band has grown into its sound after years of experimenting, and "We Are The Water" is a phenomenal example of that. —Sean Cannon, WFPK Bishop Nehru, 'User$' Bishop Nehru's "User$" is essential "backpack rap" — and I mean that in a good way. Hearkening back to early-'90s hip-hop, the song features a melodic, non-rump-shaking beat and soothing rhymes that urge listeners to be true to themselves and follow their own path. (Keep in mind that this advice is coming from an 18-year-old New York MC who's already managed collaborative albums with MF Doom and a European tour with the Wu-Tang Clan.) I can't wait to hear more head-nodding tracks from Nehru's upcoming solo LP — executive-produced by Nas — later this year. —The C.M.E., Youth Radio's ADP.fm Elvis Depressedly, 'New Alhambra' Loading the player ... New Alhambra Under the punny moniker Elvis Depressedly, Mat Cothran has churned out a steady stream of songs defined by atypical recording techniques, a hodgepodge of junk gear and the use of only a single microphone. Cothran's latest, New Alhambra, still hews to a lo-fi aesthetic, but the Asheville, N.C., songwriter — along with his bandmate and fiancée Delaney Mills — presents Elvis Depressedly's most polished and affecting work yet. The album's title track sets the scene with a staticky snippet of a man chanting "Forever!" amid noisy cheers — a clip that sounds lifted from an old TV broadcast or a decaying VHS tape left out in the sun. Considering that the title name-drops a South Philadelphia arena that frequently hosted professional wrestling, that eerie, echoing crowd noise serves as a perfect mood-altering intro for a reflective pop song that ruminates on the past. "Break these wild horses, I have wasted my whole life / Cavities caving to numbness, I am never going to die," Cothran sings amid a swirl of shimmering synth textures and an icy drum-machine beat. Grappling with pain, religion and love, "New Alhambra" is the sound of an artist in search of happiness and deeper meaning. —Mike Katzif, WNYC Rhodes, 'Turning Back Around' Loading the player ... Turning Back Around We first heard Rhodes after he was featured on his local BBC Introducing show. He's released just a couple of singles, and we think he's got an incredible voice, which you'll hear in "Turning Back Around." Rhodes is also one of the latest to play the Radio 1 Piano Sessions; you can watch his performance, along with stripped-down sets from Chilly Gonzales, SOAK, Aquilo and Little Simz, on the Radio 1 YouTube channel. —Huw Stephens, BBC Music Moses Sumney, 'Seeds' Loading the player ... Seeds When I listen to Moses Sumney's delicate, graceful songs, time stops. He creates his music in solitude, using his voice, a guitar, a looping pedal and little else. Some of Sumney's songs swell into uplifting gospel choruses, but in "Seeds," he remains mostly alone, his dark verse offset by harmonies and gentle guitar. Sumney is a tender soul who opens his heart fully in his songs, seemingly incapable of anything less than complete emotional candor. —Anne Litt, KCRW JavaScript is currently disabled.Please enable it for a better experience of Jumi. Every month, we ask some of our favorite public-radio hosts to share the one new song they can't get enough of. This month, our panel came up with an eclectic mix of new music that includes tracks from Swedish R&B singer Seinabo Sey, rising L.A. country star Sam Outlaw, young New York rapper-producer Bishop Nehru and more. Hear all the picks below.409717356409755258409719768409708312409718021409722043409977427
A breezy rectangle is all that's left where the window was removed from Sweet Creations during the great pie caper. (Photo: Herman Patton) The premeditated pilfering involved pies. Eight pies were taken from Sweet Creations pie store on Monroe Street in Germantown sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. It was mostly pecan pies lifted from the now-empty wire racks. And a couple of sweet potato pies, too. "I can't even be mad. It's comical," says Herman Patton, Sweet Creations co-owner "They came in through a real hard window. It was shatterproof, so they took the whole window out. It was done very neatly," laughs Patton. The burglars took a television set and some loose change, but that was just a crime of opportunity. Patton is thoroughly convinced that it was those tins of crusty goodness that the hungry thieves were after. "There were no papers shuffled around, they weren't looking for anything. The register wasn't even jimmied. They crawled in and there wasn't even a crumb on the floor," he says. "I'm telling you, it was a big pie caper. That's the only conclusion a rational human being comes up with. They must have had a team, like 'Ocean's Eleven.' " (Note: Check to see if that was George Clooney in the corner booth at the bar in Le Sel Saturday night.) More disturbing than the pie heist itself was the getaway method. "They hauled it off in a trash can. I'll bet they were a little stanky," Patton says, "Maybe they bagged them up first." Though this comes on the vapors, if not the heels, of Nashville's last reported pie robbery from Arnold's Country Kitchen in January, it's too early to feed speculation of a trend. Despite suffering the loss a day before his birthday, Patton remains mindful of what happened. "You talk about having a good pie." Reach Jim Myers at 615-259-8367 and on Twitter @ReadJimMyers. Read or Share this story: http://tnne.ws/1XEnd5W
Why the bridge is being built has a lot to do with the economic activity in the megalopolis called the Pearl River Delta, one of China’s fastest growing regions. The delta is home to over 56 million people, spread out across urban centres including Hong Kong, Macau, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan. Yet the transport links between Hong Kong and the western reaches of the Delta have long been regarded as weak. Since there are no roads that directly connect Zhuhai and Macau with Hong Kong, cars have no choice but to take a long detour via the Humen Bridge located further up north – a 200km journey that takes four hours. As a result, to reduce transportation cost and time, the governments of Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong decided to build a highway over the Pearl River estuary now known as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
You know? I think the mere fact that Joey and I have been able to make this comic, and reach out to readers, and work together on one project for twelve whole years, makes this the best possible timeline.If you miss us, you can sign up to our newsletter, and we'll let you know when Anatomy of Melancholy is available to buy, and when we start new projects! Emily and I started A Softer World in 2003, and it has been so much fun, and so wonderful working on the comic together, making friends with other comic creators and readers. Today is the last day of the comic, but tomorrow someone new will find these archives and read each comic with fresh eyes. I like that idea. The comic will still be here. And what about Emily and I? Well, we're finally free. Maybe we'll get old now. We'll get old and our children, or our grandchildren will find this site like a dusty old chest in an attic. And they'll read through more than a thousand comics, and tell themselves the best stories about who we used to be.
The Family of Man by Bill Blakemore Fans found it surprising in 1980 when Kubrick turned out a movie that was apparently no more than a horror film. The action took place at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado, where the winter caretaker, a chilling Jack Nicholson, became progressively madder and tried to murder his wife and his telepathic son. But The Shining is not really about the murders at the Overlook Hotel. It is about the murder of a race -- the race of Native Americans -- and the consequences of that murder. The Calumet Connection If you are skeptical about this, consider the Calumet baking powder cans with their Indian chief logo that Kubrick placed carefully in the two food-locker scenes. (A calumet is a peace pipe.) Consider the Indian motifs that decorate the hotel, and the way they serve as background in many of the key scenes. Consider the insertion of two lines, early in the film, describing how the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground. These are "confirmers" such as puzzle-makers often use to tell you you're on the right track. The Shining is also explicitly about America's general inability to admit to the gravity of the genocide of the Indians -- or, more exactly, its ability to "overlook" that genocide. Not only is the site called the Overlook Hotel with its Overlook Maze, but one of the key scenes takes place at the July 4th Ball. That date, too, has particular relevance to American Indians. That's why Kubrick made a movie in which the American audience sees signs of Indians in almost every frame, yet never really sees what the movie's about. The film's very relationship to its audience is thus part of the mirror that this movie full of mirrors holds up to the nature of its audience. Bloody Empire The film is about how the all-male British military establishment, itself forged in bloody empire-building, passed on to its off-spring continental empire, the United States, certain timeworn army-building methods, including separating weak males from the balancing influence of their more sensitive womenfolk and children. The Shining is also about America's current racism, particularly against blacks. Stuart Ullman tells the caretaker's wife Wendy in the only lines in the film in which the Indians are mentioned. Ullman says, "The site is supposed to be located on an Indian burial ground, and I believe they actually had to repel a few Indian attacks as they were building it." This bit of dialogue does not appear in Stephen King's novel The Shining. The first and most frequently seen of the film's very real American "ghosts" is the flooding river of blood that wells out of the elevator shaft, which presumably sinks into the Indian burial ground itself. The blood squeezes out in spite of the fact that the red doors are kept firmly shut within their surrounding Indian artwork embellished frames. We never hear the rushing blood. It is a mute nightmare. It is the blood upon which this nation, like most nations, was built, as was the Overlook Hotel. No Actual Indians Indian artwork appear throughout the movie in wall hangings, carpets, architectural details and even the Colorado state flag. Yet we never meet an actual Indian. But we do get to know, and like, and then see murdered, a powerful black character, Chef Hallorann -- the only person to die in the film other that the protagonist, villain and victim, Jack. The murdered black man lies across a large Indian design on the floor -- victim of similar racist violence. Kubrick carefully controls every aspect of his films' releases, including the publicity. The posters for The Shining that were used in Europe read across the top, "The wave of terror which swept across America," and centered below that, the two word "is here." At first glance this seemed to be a poster bragging about the film's effect on America. But the film wasn't out yet when the posters first appeared. The wave of terror that swept across America was the white man. As manager Ullman says in the opening interview, after telling Jack of the horrible murders that took place earlier in the Overlook, "It's still hard for me to believe it actually happened here, but it did." The type of people who partied in the Overlook included, as Ullman tells Jack and Wendy, "four presidents, movie stars." And when the impressed Wendy asks, "Royalty?" Ullman replies simply, "All the best people." King's novel has nothing to do with any of these themes. As he has with other books that gave their titles to his movies, Kubrick used the general setting and some of the elements of King's novel, while drastically altering other elements and ignoring much of it, to suit the needs of the multi-film oeuvre about mankind's inhumanity to man that he's been making at least since Dr. Strangelove. Visual Puzzle As with some of his other movies, Kubrick ends The Shining with a powerful visual puzzle that forces the audience to leave the theater asking, "What was that all about?" The Shining ends with an extremely long camera shot moving down a hallway in the Overlook, reaching eventually the central photo among 21 photos on the wall. The caption reads: "Overlook Hotel-July 4th Ball-1921." The answer to this puzzle, which is a master key to unlocking the whole movie, is that most Americans overlook the fact that July Fourth was no ball, nor any kind of Independence day, for native Americans; that the weak American villain of the film is the re-embodiment of the American men who massacred the Indians in earlier years; that Kubrick is examining and reflecting on a problem that cuts through the decades and centuries. Sound of Moviegoers And in a final stroke of brilliance, Kubrick physically melds the movie audience leaving his film with the ghostly revelers in the photograph. As the credits roll, the soundtrack ends, and we hear the 1920s audience applaud, and then the gabble of that audience talking among themselves -- the same sound the crowd of moviegoers itself is probably making as it leaves the theater. It is the sound of people moving out of one stage of consciousness into another. The moviegoers are largely unaware of this soundtrack, and this reflects their unawareness that they've just seen a movie about themselves, about what people like them have done to the American Indian and to others. Thus to its very last foot, this film is trying to break through the complacency of its audience, to tell it, "You were, are, the people at the Overlook Ball." The opening music, over the traveling aerial shots of a tiny yellow Volkswagon penetrating the magnificent American wilderness, is the "Dies Irae". At the end of the movie, in the climactic chase in the Overlook Maze, the moral maze of America and of all mankind in which we are chased by the sins of our fathers ("Danny, I'm coming. You can't get away. I'm right behind you"), the little boy Danny escapes by retracing his own steps (an old Indian trick) and letting his father blunder past. Maze and Hotel Kubrick carefully equates the Overlook Maze with the Overlook Hotel, and both with the American continent. Chef Hallorann emphasizes to Wendy the size and abundance of the kitchens, remarks upon the extraordinary elbow room (so attractive to early settlers) and begins his long catalog of its storerooms' wealth with those most American of items: rib roast, hamburger and turkey. The Calumet baking powder can first appears during Hallorann's tour of the dairy goods storage locker. In a moment of cinematic beauty, we are looking up at Hallorann from Danny's point of view. As Hallorann tells Wendy about the riches of that locker, his voice fades as he turns to look down at Danny and, while his lips are still moving with words of the abundant supplies, Danny hears the first telepathic "shining" from Hallorann's head as he says, "How'd you like some ice cream, Doc?" Visible right behind Hallorann's head in that shot, on the shelf, is one can of Calumet baking powder. This approach from the open, honest and charismatic Hallorann to the brilliant young Danny is an honest treaty, and Danny will indeed get his ice cream in the very next scene. The other appearance of the Calumet baking cans is in the scene where Jack, locked in the same dry-goods locker by his terrified wife, is talking through the door to the very British voice of ghost Grady. Grady speaking on behalf of the never identified "we," who seem to be powerful people, is shaming Jack into trying to kill his wife and son. ("I and others have come to believe that your heart is not in this, that you haven't the belly for it." To which Jack replies, "Just give me one more chance to prove it, Mr. Grady.") Visible just behind Jack's head as he talks with Grady is a shelf piled with many Calumet baking powder cans, none of them straight on, none easy to read. These are the many false treaties, revoked in bloody massacre, that the U.S. government gave the Indians, and that are symbolically represented in this movie by Jack's rampage to kill his own family -- the act to which Grady is goading Jack in this scene. Nor is the treaty between Grady and Jack any less dishonest. For Jack will get no reward for doing Grady's bidding, but rather will reap insanity and death. Weak Males Kubrick has sought to expose in several of his movies before this one the delusionary tricks by which big powers get weak males to do brutal and ultimately self-destructive battle. We never see ghost Grady in this scene, but if we're wondering whether the voice of Grady is just in Jack's head or comes from the "real" ghost who can do real damage, we are chillingly convinced when we hear the pin being pulled out on the outside latch of the locker door. All ghosts in this movie are real horrors in America today, and indeed in most cultures present and past. The second set of ghosts seen in the movie is that of the British twin girls -- Grady's murdered daughters, alike but not quite alike. The represent, quite simply, duplicity, and not only the duplicity of the broken treaties with the Indians. Only young Danny sees these twins; children have a sensitivity to duplicity in the adult world around them. Kubrick is examining in this movie not only the duplicity of individuals, but of whole societies that manage to commit atrocities and then carry on as though nothing were wrong. That's why there have been so many murders over the years at the Overlook; man keeps killing his own family and forgetting about it, and then doing it again. This is why, too, Jack has such a powerful sense of deja vu when he arrives at the Overlook, as though "I'd been here before." Later Grady tells him, "You are the caretaker (who murdered his children). You've always been the caretaker." ("Born to kill" perhaps, as the ads for Full Metal Jacket proclaim?) Kubrick is not a moralist. He's an artist, a great one, and along with the greatest artists he is holding the mirror up to nature, not judging it. Though he has made here a movie about the arrival of Old World evils in America, he is exploring most specifically an old question: Why do humans constantly perpetuate such "inhumanity" against humans? That family is the family of man.
1. Have an outline Having an outline to guide you is much better than reading your presentation. Thus, you can look at the outline as a guide at times and then to be more interactive with the people you are sharing your information. 2. Pay attention to time If you have a time limit, it is best to check with your Smartphone or your watch at times, if there is not a clock available in the room. 3. Inspire knowledge If available, have a stool or a chair to sit on in front of others. This allows others to feel that you are being casual, although they know that you as the speaker knows the subject matter. 4. Project your voice with small groups If it is a small group of people to be presented to, it is best to project your voice. 5. Use and test a mic with large groups If it is a large group of people to be presented to, it is best to have a mic and to test it out before the actual presentation so that it is not too loud or too soft. 6. Let people know you care about the topic Before even indicating who you are, it is best to allow the people hearing you to know why the topic is important to them. 7. Be an authority After presenting why the subject is important to them, it is best to show you are an authority of this subject and why this subject is important for them and to you. 8. Ask questions In order to be an informative speaker and in order to have an interactive discussion with the people, it is best to ask questions during the presentation if it is a relatively short presentation or to allow enough time at the end of the presentation to allow for questions. Asking questions of the people and listening to what they have to say in response can be very informative for the people as well as for yourself. 9. Give contact information If desired, it is a good idea to give your contact information. This can be a good idea for people who wish to have you share your knowledge with their fellow workers and/or for follow-up questions and comments. 10. Engage at the end of presentation A nice way to connect with the people at the end of your presentation is to either shake hands with them and/or to go to any gathering, such as for drinks and snacks. In this way, they get to know you for who you are that much more individually. Find out more Public Speaking Certification Course – Dr. Steve Jones provides you the best course in this area. Delete your fears, know your audience, build self-confidence to achieve your dream job, close more sales, and speak with conviction in any public environment. Video lessons and workbooks available. You obtain an AUNLP certification. TRY IT NOW >>
US analytical scientists have used non-polar solvents for the paper spray ionisation of polar compounds. Polar compounds are normally ionised in mass spectrometry using a desorption ionisation method, such as MALDI, or from solution in a polar solvent using electrospray ionisation (ESI). However, ESI does not usually tolerate non-polar solvents and, as many reactions or purifications of compounds occur in non-polar solvents, this can present some difficulties. Graham Cooks and co-workers from Purdue University have extended the scope of the recently developed paper spray ionisation technique to allow the use of non-polar solvents. When a low voltage is exposed to a triangle of paper wetted with a solvent such as hexane or toluene, droplets of that solvent are produced. Polar compounds that are deposited on the paper are transported by the non-polar solvent compounds despite being sparingly soluble in them. This technique can be applied to biological compounds, such as nucleotides, phospholipids and peptides, and avoids a typical problem associated with ESI where there capillary may clog when a non-ideal solvent is used. Furthermore, compounds may be analysed simply by ionising spots separated via TLC. If you want to find out more then download the ChemComm article today. For wider look at analytical chemistry, why not check out these papers in our sister journal Chemical Science?
The Rust team is happy to announce the latest version of Rust, 1.12. Rust is a systems programming language with the slogan "fast, reliable, productive: pick three." As always, you can install Rust 1.12 from the appropriate page on our website, and check out the detailed release notes for 1.12 on GitHub. 1361 patches were landed in this release. What's in 1.12 stable The release of 1.12 might be one of the most significant Rust releases since 1.0. We have a lot to cover, but if you don't have time for that, here's a summary: The largest user-facing change in 1.12 stable is the new error message format emitted by rustc . We've previously talked about this format and this is the first stable release where they are broadly available. These error messages are a result of the effort of many hours of volunteer effort to design, test, and update every one of rustc s errors to the new format. We're excited to see what you think of them: The largest internal change in this release is moving to a new compiler backend based on the new Rust MIR. While this feature does not result in anything user-visible today, it paves the way for a number of future compiler optimizations, and for some codebases it already results in improvements to compile times and reductions in code size. Overhauled error messages With 1.12 we're introducing a new error format which helps to surface a lot of the internal knowledge about why an error is occurring to you, the developer. It does this by putting your code front and center, highlighting the parts relevant to the error with annotations describing what went wrong. For example, in 1.11 if a implementation of a trait didn't match the trait declaration, you would see an error like the one below: In the new error format we represent the error by instead showing the points in the code that matter the most. Here is the relevant line in the trait declaration, and the relevant line in the implementation, using labels to describe why they don't match: Initially, this error design was built to aid in understanding borrow-checking errors, but we found, as with the error above, the format can be broadly applied to a wide variety of errors. If you would like to learn more about the design, check out the previous blog post on the subject. Finally, you can also get these errors as JSON with a flag. Remember that error we showed above, at the start of the post? Here's an example of attempting to compile that code while passing the --error-format=json flag: $ rustc borrowck-assign-comp.rs --error-format=json {"message":"cannot assign to `p.x` because it is borrowed","level":"error","spans":[{"file_name":"borrowck-assign-comp.rs","byte_start":562,"byte_end":563,"line_start":15,"line_end":15,"column_start":14,"column_end":15,"is_primary":false,"text":[{"text":" let q = &p;","highlight_start":14,"highlight_end":15}],"label":"borrow of `p.x` occurs here","suggested_replacement":null,"expansion":null}],"label":"assignment to borrowed `p.x` occurs here","suggested_replacement":null,"expansion":null}],"children":[],"rendered":null} {"message":"aborting due to previous error","code":null,"level":"error","spans":[],"children":[],"rendered":null} We've actually elided a bit of this for brevity's sake, but you get the idea. This output is primarily for tooling; we are continuing to invest in supporting IDEs and other useful development tools. This output is a small part of that effort. MIR code generation The new Rust "mid-level IR", usually called "MIR", gives the compiler a simpler way to think about Rust code than its previous way of operating entirely on the Rust abstract syntax tree. It makes analysis and optimizations possible that have historically been difficult to implement correctly. The first of many upcoming changes to the compiler enabled by MIR is a rewrite of the pass that generates LLVM IR, what rustc calls "translation", and after many months of effort the MIR-based backend has proved itself ready for prime-time. MIR exposes perfect information about the program's control flow, so the compiler knows exactly whether types are moved or not. This means that it knows statically whether or not the value's destructor needs to be run. In cases where a value may or may not be moved at the end of a scope, the compiler now simply uses a single bitflag on the stack, which is in turn easier for optimization passes in LLVM to reason about. The end result is less work for the compiler and less bloat at runtime. In addition, because MIR is a simpler 'language' than the full AST, it's also easier to implement compiler passes on, and easier to verify that they are correct. Other improvements See the detailed release notes for more. Library stabilizations This release sees a number of small quality of life improvements for various types in the standard library: See the detailed release notes for more. Cargo features The biggest feature added to Cargo this cycle is "workspaces." Defined in RFC 1525, workspaces allow a group of Rust packages to share the same Cargo.lock file. If you have a project that's split up into multiple packages, this makes it much easier to keep shared dependencies on a single version. To enable this feature, most multi-package projects need to add a single key, [workspace] , to their top-level Cargo.toml , but more complex setups may require more configuration. Another significant feature is the ability to override the source of a crate. Using this with tools like cargo-vendor and cargo-local-registry allow vendoring dependencies locally in a robust fashion. Eventually this support will be the foundation of supporting mirrors of crates.io as well. There are some other improvements as well: See the detailed release notes for more. Contributors to 1.12 We had 176 individuals contribute to 1.12. Thank you so much!
Parents should sing to their children every day to avoid language problems developing in later life, according to a consultant. Too much emphasis in the early years is placed on reading, writing and numeracy, and not enough on the benefits of singing, according to Sally Goddard Blythe, a consultant in neuro-developmental education and director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology. Singing traditional lullabies and nursery rhymes to babies and infants before they learn to speak, is "an essential precursor to later educational success and emotional wellbeing", argues Blythe in a book. "Song is a special type of speech. Lullabies, songs and rhymes of every culture carry the 'signature' melodies and inflections of a mother tongue, preparing a child's ear, voice and brain for language." Blythe says in her book, The Genius of Natural Childhood, to be published by Hawthorn Press, that traditional songs aid a child's ability to think in words. She also claims that listening to, and singing along with rhymes and songs uses and develops both sides of the brain. "Neuro-imaging has shown that music involves more than just centralised hotspots in the brain, occupying large swathes on both sides," she said. Growing numbers of children enter nursery and school with inadequate language and communication skills, according to the National Literacy Trust, often because their parents have not helped them develop communication skills. Blythe believes that singing to and, later, with a child is the most effective way to transform their ability to communicate. "Children's response to live music is different from recorded music," she said. "Babies are particularly responsive when the music comes directly from the parent. Singing along with a parent is for the development of reciprocal communication." Beverley Hughes, the former children's minister who established a national curriculum to set down how babies are taught to speak in childcare from the age of three months, agreed that nursery rhymes can "boost child development". Hughes cites research showing that music and rhyme increase a child's ability in spatial reasoning, which can enhance a child's mathematical and scientific abilities. "Singing nursery rhymes with young children will get them off to a flying start," she said. Daniel Dwase, editor of the online Child Development Guide, agreed that nursery rhymes set to music can aid a child's development. But, he added, teaching a child to dance is also important. "Music assists in the development of a child's speech," he said. "Singing nursery rhymes and simple songs teaches children how language is constructed and assists with the acquisition of language. Singing songs with your child will also teach them about tone, beat and rhythm. "Even better than just singing, though, is to teach songs with actions and encourage your child to dance along to the music, they will learn balance, co-ordination, body awareness and rhythm," he said.END
As part of President Obama’s initiative to make America a magnet for jobs by building a 21st century infrastructure, today he signed a Presidential Memorandum that will speed the modernization of the nation’s electric grid. This will help make electricity more reliable, save consumers money on their energy bills, and support homegrown American clean energy jobs and industries by making renewable energy easier to access across the country. Transmission projects often cover hundreds of miles and involve multiple federal, tribal, state and local jurisdictions with diverse interests and responsibilities. Collaborating early to minimize duplication and delays is vital to getting critical projects to construction to better serve American homes and businesses. Today’s Presidential Memorandum directs federal agencies to create an integrated pre-application process across the Federal government to help identify and address issues before the formal permit application process begins, and streamline the coordination of permitting processes across the federal, state, and tribal governments. The memorandum also directs agencies to identify and improve the use of energy corridors on federal lands that are most suitable for siting electric transmission projects, to help expedite permitting while improving environmental and community outcomes. These energy corridors are designed to reduce regulatory conflicts, minimize negative impacts on natural and cultural resources, and address concerns of local communities, decreasing the potential for permitting delays. For these corridors, agencies will work together to integrate new and innovative ways to avoid, minimize and mitigate the impact on environmental and cultural resources. The memorandum also prioritizes meaningful engagement with stakeholders and the public to arrive at the best quality projects with the least conflicts and most support. These steps build on the best practices identified by the Administration’s interagency Rapid Response Team for Transmission, which since 2011 has brought together Federal agencies to identify ways to improve efficiencies and coordination in the permitting and review processes for transmission projects. Upgrading our nation’s electric transmission grid is critical to advancing the President’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to build an economy fueled by homegrown and clean energy sources produced by American workers. With the help of the Administration’s unprecedented investments in clean energy, we have already met the bold goal the President laid out in 2008 to double renewable energy generation in this country. Improving our electrical transmission grid will make electricity more reliable, save consumers money, improve U.S. competitiveness, and move us a step closer to achieving the President’s goal of doubling domestic renewable electricity again by 2020. Nancy Sutley is Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. Sally Jewell is Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Tom Vilsack is Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ernest Moniz is Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy For more information:
Clean water for all THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO 25 OCT 2012 New technology developed in New Zealand cleans and disinfects bore water, making it safe to drink. The new system called PEFT (perforated electric flow through) could be used in developing nations to provide people with clean and affordable water. Image: trout55/iStockphoto Two chemists from the University of Waikato have come up with an innovative method for treating bore water on Waikato farms. They’re currently trialling the system on a Waikato farm and may have hit upon a low-cost solution for developing countries, where many people have limited access to clean and affordable water. Using electrochemistry Associate Professor Alan Langdon and post-doctoral researcher Dr Hilary Nath decided to try using electrochemistry to remove the iron and manganese prevalent in bore water from Waikato’s peaty soils. The residues give the water its typical browny-orange colour, and generally make it undrinkable without expensive treatment using aerators, filters, ion exchangers and tanks. The researchers came up with a simple system that uses electric current passing between two perforated titanium electrodes to turn naturally occurring chloride ions in the water into chlorine. The chlorine then oxidises and precipitates out the metal contaminants, and also disinfects the water passing through the system, making it safe to drink. Best of all, the whole system can be powered by a car battery. “By bringing the electrodes closer together than anyone else has been able to we can reduce electrical resistance and consume less power,” says Dr Nath. “And because the flow path through the cell is very short, we can achieve good water flow at modest pressure.” The system is known as PEFT – perforated electric flow through – and is patented in New Zealand with international patents filed. A prototype will be on show at the University of Waikato stand at Equidays next month; the university is a strategic partner of Equidays which runs from 2-4 November, 2012. Langdon and Nath are now testing the prototype, and getting good results – they've seen total oxidation of iron during their trial. “The initial focus will be disinfection of harvested rain water, disinfection of water supplies derived from surface water and bore water contaminated with iron – we need to be very sure our technology is robust before contemplating overseas markets, particularly in developing nations.” The researchers noticed that the closer together the two electrodes were positioned, the higher the electric field generated between them. And the higher the electric field, the more potent the chlorine being produced. The two together were so powerful they could kill bugs in the water at much lower chlorine levels than normally required – the electric field was able to puncture the membrane of a bug making it 100 times more susceptible to the disinfecting effect of the chlorine. At slightly higher applied voltages the PEFT cell can also disinfect water by the electric field alone, with no need to produce any chlorine. “It’s low technology, but it’s very clever nevertheless,” says Dr Langdon. WaikatoLink, the University of Waikato’s commercialisation arm, is helping with the commercialisation of the technology. The Kiwi Innovation Network (KiwiNet) – a collaboration focused on research commercialisation – is also providing support as well as investment from the Ministry of Science and Innovation’s PreSeed Accelerator Fund (PSAF).]
How to build a simple neural network in 9 lines of Python code Milo Spencer-Harper Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 20, 2015 As part of my quest to learn about AI, I set myself the goal of building a simple neural network in Python. To ensure I truly understand it, I had to build it from scratch without using a neural network library. Thanks to an excellent blog post by Andrew Trask I achieved my goal. Here it is in just 9 lines of code: In this blog post, I’ll explain how I did it, so you can build your own. I’ll also provide a longer, but more beautiful version of the source code. And I’ve created a video version of this blog post as well. But first, what is a neural network? The human brain consists of 100 billion cells called neurons, connected together by synapses. If sufficient synaptic inputs to a neuron fire, that neuron will also fire. We call this process “thinking”. Diagram 1 We can model this process by creating a neural network on a computer. It’s not necessary to model the biological complexity of the human brain at a molecular level, just its higher level rules. We use a mathematical technique called matrices, which are grids of numbers. To make it really simple, we will just model a single neuron, with three inputs and one output. We’re going to train the neuron to solve the problem below. The first four examples are called a training set. Can you work out the pattern? Should the ‘?’ be 0 or 1? Diagram 2 You might have noticed, that the output is always equal to the value of the leftmost input column. Therefore the answer is the ‘?’ should be 1. Training process But how do we teach our neuron to answer the question correctly? We will give each input a weight, which can be a positive or negative number. An input with a large positive weight or a large negative weight, will have a strong effect on the neuron’s output. Before we start, we set each weight to a random number. Then we begin the training process: Take the inputs from a training set example, adjust them by the weights, and pass them through a special formula to calculate the neuron’s output. Calculate the error, which is the difference between the neuron’s output and the desired output in the training set example. Depending on the direction of the error, adjust the weights slightly. Repeat this process 10, 000 times. Diagram 3 Eventually the weights of the neuron will reach an optimum for the training set. If we allow the neuron to think about a new situation, that follows the same pattern, it should make a good prediction. Formula for calculating the neuron’s output You might be wondering, what is the special formula for calculating the neuron’s output? First we take the weighted sum of the neuron’s inputs, which is: Next we normalise this, so the result is between 0 and 1. For this, we use a mathematically convenient function, called the Sigmoid function: If plotted on a graph, the Sigmoid function draws an S shaped curve. Diagram 4 So by substituting the first equation into the second, the final formula for the output of the neuron is: You might have noticed that we’re not using a minimum firing threshold, to keep things simple. Formula for adjusting the weights During the training cycle (Diagram 3), we adjust the weights. But how much do we adjust the weights by? We can use the “Error Weighted Derivative” formula: Why this formula? First we want to make the adjustment proportional to the size of the error. Secondly, we multiply by the input, which is either a 0 or a 1. If the input is 0, the weight isn’t adjusted. Finally, we multiply by the gradient of the Sigmoid curve (Diagram 4). To understand this last one, consider that: We used the Sigmoid curve to calculate the output of the neuron. If the output is a large positive or negative number, it signifies the neuron was quite confident one way or another. From Diagram 4, we can see that at large numbers, the Sigmoid curve has a shallow gradient. If the neuron is confident that the existing weight is correct, it doesn’t want to adjust it very much. Multiplying by the Sigmoid curve gradient achieves this. The gradient of the Sigmoid curve, can be found by taking the derivative: So by substituting the second equation into the first equation, the final formula for adjusting the weights is: There are alternative formulae, which would allow the neuron to learn more quickly, but this one has the advantage of being fairly simple. Constructing the Python code Although we won’t use a neural network library, we will import four methods from a Python mathematics library called numpy. These are: exp — the natural exponential array — creates a matrix dot — multiplies matrices random — gives us random numbers For example we can use the array() method to represent the training set shown earlier: The ‘.T’ function, transposes the matrix from horizontal to vertical. So the computer is storing the numbers like this. Ok. I think we’re ready for the more beautiful version of the source code. Once I’ve given it to you, I’ll conclude with some final thoughts. I have added comments to my source code to explain everything, line by line. Note that in each iteration we process the entire training set simultaneously. Therefore our variables are matrices, which are grids of numbers. Here is a complete working example written in Python: The code is also available here: https://github.com/miloharper/simple-neural-network. Please note that if you are using Python 3, you will need to replace the command ‘xrange’ with ‘range’. Final thoughts Try running the neural network using this Terminal command: python main.py You should get a result that looks like: We did it! We built a simple neural network using Python! First the neural network assigned itself random weights, then trained itself using the training set. Then it considered a new situation [1, 0, 0] and predicted 0.99993704. The correct answer was 1. So very close! Traditional computer programs normally can’t learn. What’s amazing about neural networks is that they can learn, adapt and respond to new situations. Just like the human mind. Of course that was just 1 neuron performing a very simple task. But what if we hooked millions of these neurons together? Could we one day create something conscious? Are you interested in learning more? Due to the huge success of this blog post, I’ve created an online course “How to build a neural network in 77 lines of Python code”. For readers of this blog post, I’ve created a special discount code MEDIUM77, which will give you 76% off: https://www.udemy.com/machine-learning-build-a-neural-network-in-77-lines-of-code/?couponCode=MEDIUM77
Governor Jerry Brown waded further into the national debate over transgender rights Thursday as he signed a bill requiring that all single-stall toilets in California be designated as gender neutral.The measure requires that businesses and governments post non-gender-specific signs on single-occupant restrooms by March 1, 2017. Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco said his legislation would establish the nation's most inclusive restroom-access law and "chart a new course of equality for the nation.""This simple concept is oddly cutting-edge when compared with the discrimination being enacted in other states," Ting said earlier, while urging the Democratic governor to sign the bill, AB1732.Lawmakers sent the legislation to Brown in August, a day after a federal judge temporarily blocked an order by President Barack Obama requiring that public schools let students use bathrooms that correlate with their gender identity.California students can already do so under a law Brown signed in 2013. He also approved adding gender identity to the state's anti-discrimination laws in 2011.Supporters of the new legislation said 19 states considered restricting access to restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities based on the user's biological sex, including North Carolina, which passed a law requiring people to use restrooms based on their gender at birth.The U.S. Supreme Court will consider reviewing whether a transgender Virginia high school senior should be permitted to use the boys restroom.Supporters say gender-neutral restrooms also would help parents with children of a different gender and adults caring for aging parents. It would not affect restrooms that have multiple stalls.Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a nonprofit conservative organization, pointed to potential conflicts arising from gender-neutral facilities."What woman wants a man poking his head in the restroom door that somehow didn't shut or lock? How many women want to use a urine-stained toilet seat?" he wrote in urging Brown to veto the bill.He fears that what he called a "radical state takeover of the private sector's restroom policies" could affect religious schools and home businesses.Opponents said in December that they had failed to collect enough signatures to advance a proposed ballot measure that would have asked voters to require transgender people to use the public restrooms that correspond with their biological sex.
Even if you don’t care about the privacy implications of tracking cookies and other technologies sites use to identify us online, you might want to turn on Tracking Protection in Firefox anyway for a potential big speed boost. Former Mozilla software engineer Monica Chew and Computer Science researcher Georgios Kontaxis took a look at the top 200 news sites (according to Alexa) and found a median 44% reduction in page load time, as well as a 39% reduction in data usage when the optional Tracking Protection is turned on. Advertisement Tracking Protection actively blocks domains known to track users. You might not see huge performance benefits for all sites, depending on how much each site relies on third-party content and similar extras from tracking domains. Still, with a range of between 20% and 90% decreased page load times according to the study—and better privacy control—it’s worth a shot. To turn on Tracking Protection in Firefox: Type in about:config in the location bar and hit enter. You’ll see a warning about possibly voiding your warranty. Hit “I’ll be careful, I promise!” to continue. Search for privacy.trackingprotection.enabled. Double-click that to toggle the value to true. You can read the researchers’ paper (PDF) here. Tracking Protection for Firefox at Web 2.0 Security and Privacy 2015 | Monica at Mozilla via Venture Beat and Boing Boing
The United States confirmed no changes to plans for THAAD deployment in South Korea after Seoul's constitutional court agreed to remove President Park Geun-hye from office. File Photo courtesy of U.S. Missile Defense Agency March 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department reaffirmed the bilateral alliance with Seoul in the wake of a South Korea court decision to remove President Park Geun-hye from power, Yonhap reported Friday. The statement was made as the U.S. House of Representatives gathered 93 signatures for a proposal condemning North Korea's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the need to immediately deploy THAAD in South Korea. According to Voice of America, the House resolution calls for the prompt deployment of the U.S. missile defense system. THAAD parts began arriving at a U.S. military base in South Korea this week, and deployment is to take place as planned despite Chinese retaliatory measures against South Korea. RELATED Seoul reviews North Korea policy after Park removed from office H. Res. 92, which was introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., also condemns North Korea's ballistic missile program because it "demonstrates an increasing ability to reach the United States, and constitutes a credible threat to the security of the American people." The resolution also "supports continued bilateral security cooperation between the United States and South Korea," a statement reaffirmed by the State Department on Friday after the South Korean court decision was announced. In a statement to Yonhap, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said there are no changes to THAAD deployment plans and that the U.S.-South Korea alliance is a linchpin to U.S. and regional security interests. A productive relationship is expected to prevail for the remaining term of acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, and with whoever is elected as the next president, the U.S. statement read. THAAD parts began to arrive in South Korea this week. North Korea's missile threats prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to warn of "very dire consequences" for Pyongyang, should Kim Jong Un engage in further provocations.
“Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of St. John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comparison.” — Heinrich Heine, Lutetia In A Nutshell Many mainstream publications recently posited that Yellowstone National Park, which is effectively situated on top of a supervolcano, might soon erupt in a manner which would destroy America and civilization as we know it. The story was widely covered (because fear is easy to sell), but the real story hasn’t received the same coverage. Analysis of the seismic activity around the area indicates that there will not be any supervolcanic eruptions for hundreds of millennia. The Whole Bushel If you’re a doomsayer, Yellowstone National Park was a perfect potential cause for the apocalypse. There was the irony that a place considered such an American touchstone would cover America in dozens of feet of ash and the irony that such a tranquil place (geysers aside) would bring about so much destruction. There was also what seemed to be an unusual degree of scientific credibility to it as far as doomsday scenarios go. Every 600,000 years, the Yellowstone National Park caldera had a super eruption. These eruptions were extraordinarily huge: They ranged in size from 1,000 to 6,000 times the size of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption. The Yellowstone super eruptions generated so much ash that Denver, Colorado would be buried in several feet of it, with piles of the stuff drifting to an estimated 19 states. Due to being superheated, this ash would not merely pile up but has been shown to actually fuse together. So it would not only asphyxiate countless people, make travel over a vast region impossible, and disrupt the climate, but it would essentially put a layer of asphalt over 19 states of the US. Crops would be destroyed, and great tracts of land would be unusable for farming for generations. The last time something like this happened was 630,000 years ago, supposedly indicating that if anything, another one is overdue. At worst, however, that won’t happen for a period of time longer than human civilization has existed. At best, it won’t happen at all. The National Park Service, US Geological Survey, and National Science Foundation are all in agreement that there is not evidence that an eruption is imminent. The cycle of eruptions based on past supervolcanic activity indicates that Yellowstone is actually becoming less seismically active over time. The National Park Service states that at most there will be increased lava flow activity in the near future, which would be a manageable threat—even people in Yellowstone could be safely evacuated. The Geological Survey states that it will be at least one million years before such an eruption would be likely, possibly as many as two million. Of course, some will offer that it’s possible that the people monitoring the seismic activity around Yellowstone Park are horribly wrong. After all, the aforementioned Mt. St. Helens eruption caught experts by surprise. But if it turns out Yellowstone ever does erupt, presumably the embarrassment will be the least of our concerns. Show Me The Proof CBS Denver: The Risk Of Yellowstone’s Mighty Volcano National Geographic: When Yellowstone Explodes National Science Foundation: Will the Yellowstone Supervolcano Erupt in Our Lifetime? National Park Service: Volcano Questions & Answers USGS: Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Mount St. Helens Still Shrouded in Secrets
The British revealed their new five-pound note this week, and its durability is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before currency-wise. Because of its plastic composition, the notes are nearly tear-proof and supposed to last twice as long as the paper ones they’re replacing. Its incredible sturdiness also helps give the new money perhaps its most impressive quality: It can actually play vinyl records. In a new video, a UK native can be seen using the tough fiver like a turntable needle to play a 7-inch single of ABBA’s “Money, Money, Money” (a very apt choice of tune). The resulting sound isn’t exactly flawless, but the note does its intended job nonetheless, seemingly making it worth far more than just five pounds. The person behind the video described his little experiment thusly: “The new polymer five pound notes have a rather curious ability of being just about able to play vinyl records (with the aid of a contact microphone and small amplifier not shown on screen). As the corners on these new banknotes are more durable and sharper than its paper counterpart it acts like a very crude record needle.” Check out the video up above.
Running out of money, unanticipated circumstances, and market shifts are among the most common entrepreneur excuses when a startup fails to take off. Indeed, there can be numerous obstacles you will need to overcome in order to become successful. However, it can’t be right to blame only outside difficulties. Many businesses fail because of the owners’ mistakes. It’s easier to look out for excuses to justify your failures than look inside at your own flaws. Following point will help you determine the possible missteps you are making. Get rid of them and make your business strive! Business Loans Overpromising to Your Customers Fine-tuning is something that is present during the take off of a new business and gradually vanishes as you start to pick up steam. First, you’ve spent all your time trying to perfect and refine every aspect from your logo and messages to brand’s identity. However, it all changes once you start getting plenty of customers. It becomes so tempting to overpromise and the owners start spreading themselves too thin. This is a mistake you should definitely try to avoid at all costs because it can create a lot of unwanted pressure. When the business owners start spreading themselves too thin, it leads them to over-promising and under-delivering. It’s certainly not good to start your business like that. You simply can’t afford to let such mistake ruin your business. How to avoid it? Don’t try to become all at the same time. You can’t run yourself ragged and please everybody at once. That’s why being the CEO, CIO, CFO, CMO, receptionist and social media manager in one is impossible. All you can do is prioritize your duties and concentrate on the most important day-to-day tasks and activities. Also, do not forget to apply for unsecured business loans to boost your business. Making a Shortcut One of the most common entrepreneur mistakes is thinking that a particular strategy that worked for one business will necessarily work for your business as well. But a one-size-fits-all model of work isn’t for everyone, which means taking shortcuts may be not the best idea after all. When owners start to experience certain difficulties and their business isn’t running smoothly anymore, they believe playing a catch-up game can save the situation. However, experienced entrepreneurs know that the key to success is to work smarter, not harder. It’s not the best way to maintain your business if you only want to catch up by making shortcuts. Rather than doing so, design a process that you can replicate. Let’s take McDonald’s. When you come into any of its fast food restaurants in any city or country, it looks and feels the same. Creating your own image is the key here. Even if your own business is small now, you should think long-term. If you don’t have processes that can be easily repeated and replicated yet, your company won’t be able to expand and grow. Getting Arrogant The list of entrepreneur common mistakes wouldn’t be complete without this widespread misstep. If your startup is currently successful and is running smoothly, it’s easy to get a little arrogant and cocky. Don’t think you will always be able to ride that wave without crashing. The higher you climb the more it will hurt once something gets wrong and you fall down. Remember this and stay always humble and connected with every part of your business. To sum up, don’t take your current business success for granted. There is no secret recipe for success, but make sure you avoid these entrepreneur mistakes to keep your company afloat. P.S.:Check, if you need merchant cash advance for your business
©- @TL_Peanuts​ ©- @TL_Peanuts​ Introduction ​ Explaining the Vicious Circle ​ Saving the Best for Last? ​ Then and Now ​ Conclusion ​ Disclaimer: The views of the writer in no way reflect the views of Smashboards as a publication or the Smashboards team, they are solely their opinion.This editorial is in regards to The Big House 6 and how Fendrick "Fendy" Lamar intends to take care of the commentators at the event. What we have in front of us is a sloppy step in the right direction for the future of Super Smash Bros. as a competitive eSport. It has plenty of problems however, and that's more of a matter of logistics and experience that comes from a different set of skills than what has carried the Smash scene forward for years. My personal issue, and really the only front I can fight on is the fact that what they're doing for TBH6 further perpetuates the problem with Smash commentators only being a select pool of enough individuals to count on one hand. It's a vicious circle I've had an issue with ever since I got into commentating and will continue to be against until we as a community figure out a solution.The experienced commentators get more screen time because they're experienced commentators and will continue to build experience, while the newer commentators aren't allowed to commentate because there is a demand for experienced commentators to occupy screen time. It creates a cycle where no one new can grow and unfortunately, this mindset trickles down to a lot of local scenes causing the problem to be even worse. Super Smash Con did something great for commentators, and that was provide a large variety of commentators with a lot of combinations we hardly ever see. It gave some of the more known but not as shown off commentators plenty of room to adapt and show their skills, giving them further experience and making it more likely for us as viewers to see and hear from them future.What TBH6 intends to do if Fendy has worded right to what he means, is close off that opportunity even further. It ensures we'll get people like Terrance "TKBreezy" Kershaw, we'll get EE, we'll probably get D'Ron "D1" Maingrette, but we won't get people like Gunblade, we won't get Day, or DireOnFire, or even people like Stephen "InfernoOmni" Silver who want to expand their brand and knowledge sharing in a different format than Youtube videos. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing but it keeps the pool shallow. And that’s a problem.Commentary for Super Smash Bros. for WiiU on a national scale is stuck in the same bubble that Super Smash Bros. Melee is and has been in for many years. That being said, Smash 4 has a chance to change and adapt. It's a different animal from Melee and it needs to be treated as such. Because it's so accessible and because there's so much talent all over the world, it leads to a lot more talented but lesser known individuals who won't get the chance to go big because they don't have the experience in large scale events. It needs to be from either connections or a stroke of luck to break through and that's not a fair deal to those who aspire to commentate. Think of it this way, when was the last time you cared about commentary during pools of a national tournament? Unless you have a case of terrible seeding that would lead to Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios vs Jason "Anti" Bates Round 2 winners, or you get an anomaly where a random character specialist well known in their home region beats a top level player, no one cares about pools except for the players and the TOs.This is the perfect time to let fledgling commentators get their feet wet, to give them a chance to commentate at a big event. It's the perfect situation for commentators on the rise. It's not the place for D1+TK or TK+EE, It's nice to hear them but during pools, big name commentators know what they commentate is inconsequential in the grand scheme of the event, and so they talk about anything else BUT the match going on. There's a major difference in how commentary works during pools and once you rise up to top 32 or something of that nature. Because when you weed through the chaff of lesser level players, you get people who know what they're doing and are determined to bring home the gold. THAT's where we want experienced commentators, to tell us why what we're watching this late into bracket is different from what we we're watching in pools.Melee is much more grassroots, that's how it started and ultimately that's how it will stay. The people who fought tooth and nail to support it remain at the top because that’s where the effort and time they’ve put into it says they belong. But Smash4 is born to a new era of competitive gaming, right on the forefront of mainstream media and support. It needs to grow differently. We have a global community actively at our disposal, instead of the hoops and ladders that the EU or Japan needed to leap through in order to represent themselves in Melee, it's already all there and now is the time to start using it. And on the international front, there's a wide representation to further the idea that this is a global community. Right now, can you name a commentator not from the United States that is notable in Smash4?This isn't a rhetorical question, I know for a fact that non-US readers can. Because they're notable in their own scenes, they're notable in the ways we don't often get to hear or see. And if given the right stage, they'll be memorable to those outside of those scenes. This is one of the major reasons I look forward to Astra, because we get to see Smash WiiU from a perspective that isn't the US but is still informed, a pleasure that is often overlooked or not given the credit it deserves. For everything that Super Smash Bros. Brawl and its community leaders accomplished, their efforts helped lay the foundation for a stronger future of a global Smash community. Smash 4 built something grand upon that foundation. For TOs, for players, and for commentators.Commentators are like the MC to a live show, they're the ones presenting the entertainment to you and in their own way are entertainment as well. And in a market where the bulk of the money comes from online views, commentary is more important than ever before. The vicious circle of exclusivity needs to end in Smash4's commentating circle so that we don't have grow to have the same issues as Melee did in the past, or how many competitve games have before us. Smash4 is still young and it's rapidly growing. Give it time and we'll have notable representatives all over, it's all matter of giving them the right stage. But so long as there persists a bubble of experience feeding the experienced, that growth will be stunted.The problem with commentary in the Smash community doesn't begin with a clear cut answer. But it does begin by asking the very question of "how should we fix it". By discussing it openly and acknowledging this vicious circle I've discussed, we can begin to take the steps to involve both people who want to get in to commentary and people who want to make money off of commentary. For commentators who want to build up experience, to establish a portfolio, and further hone their craft, consider letting the ones who have a passion for it commentate pools. They get the experience they thirst for, while entertaining people who sit around and enjoy pools. And for the more seasoned veterans of the mic, treat them with the respect they deserve. The intense amount of pressure put on a select few figures for both knowing a ton of niche information about a game while presenting it in a manner that's entertaining and follows a strict flow needs to be appreciated for what it is and compensated appropriately. The idea of compensation is an issue not just within the Smash community, but competitive gaming as a whole and even something that stretches into other established sports. But when we look at what we have now and the body of individuals that either want to get involved or get recognized for how much work they put in, we need to start the discussion and keep it moving forward.
Former first lady Michelle Obama on Friday criticized Trump administration efforts to roll back her signature program to provide healthy school lunches, asking parents why anyone would want their kids to eat unhealthy food. Obama, speaking at a health conference in Washington, didn’t mention Trump by name, but asked why school lunches had become a partisan issue. “You have to stop and think, ‘Why don’t you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you?’ And why is that a partisan issue?” Obama said. “Moms, think about this: I don’t care what state you live in, take me out of the equation ― like me, don’t like me ― but think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap.” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced this month that the Trump administration would undo requirements that school cafeterias serve whole grain and reduce the amount of sodium in lunches. Purdue also said he would allow flavored, 1-percent fat milk in cafeterias. As first lady, Obama championed the requirements that schools serve healthy foods. She said allowing unhealthy foods at schools is against the interests of children.
We’re less than a month from Opening Day for the 2017 MLB season, and the new ballpark menus have been set. Over the past few years, baseball teams have battled for the most outrageous food items. It’s a race that continues into the 2017 season. Let’s take a look at the 10 craziest food items set to debut at MLB stadiums. 10. Churro “Dessert” Poutine – Toronto Blue Jays Who said crazy had to mean bad? I certainly did not because the Churro “Dessert” Poutine looks absolutely delicious. This treat heading to Rogers Centre includes churros served with vanilla ice cream and warm caramel sauce. Typical poutine has cheese curds and gravy, but this version sounds infinitely better. 9. Taco Dog – Miami Marlins It’s a taco AND a hot dog, but is it a sandwich? Who knows — but it looks great. The Taco Dog is a Nathan’s frank topped with chili, pepper jack cheese, pico de gallo, shredded cabbage and jalapeños. 8. Lobster Poutine Stak – Boston Red Sox Lobster at a ballpark? Because, of course. The Lobster Poutine Stak includes fries covered with fresh lobster meat, cheese curds, bisque and chives. 7. Tuna Poke Bowl – Los Angeles Dodgers Poke is awesome. And if you want to order raw fish at a ballpark, Dodger Stadium is the place to be. The Tuna Poke Bowl is ahi tuna served in a bowl with vegetables, edamame and a soy dipping sauce. 6. Sunrise Dog – Kansas City Royals There is a hot dog under that, apparently. The Sunrise Dog is a hot dog topped with fried eggs, bacon, cheddar cheese and white sausage gravy. Sounds perfect for those Sunday day games at The K. 5. SPAM Grilled Cheese Sandwich – Houston Astros Anything with SPAM automatically makes the list. The SPAM Grilled Cheese Sandwich is exactly what it sounds like — a grilled cheese sandwich served with a cut of SPAM on Texas toast. 4. Miami South Beach Dog – Washington Nationals Nothing screams South Beach quite like the, uh, Washington Nationals (¯\_(ツ)_/¯). The Miami South Beach Dog is an 18-inch hot dog topped with condiments, pineapple and onion strings, served with a side of french fries. Sounds like a great meal for beach season. 3. Bao to the Pork – Chicago Cubs Honestly, I just really liked the name of this item. The Bao to the Pork is hickory-smoked pulled pork, Asian sauce, pickled daikon and carrot, cucumbers and jalapeño relish on a steamed bao bun. That’s a championship sandwich right there. 2. Pulled Pork Patty Melt – Kansas City Royals Yes, this is real. The Pulled Pork Patty Melt is a funnel cake with BBQ pulled pork, fried onion, shredded cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheese WITH bacon, and a jalapeño skewer. That is a lot of food, Royals fans. 1. Chicken Funnel Cake Sandwich – Arizona Diamondbacks New at @Dbacks Games: Chicken Funnel Cake Sandwich with garlic black pepper cheddar, strawberry jam & maple syrup ($11) pic.twitter.com/oA7Ol0Nvqb — Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 20, 2017 The Diamondbacks basically lead the league with their crazy ballpark food creations, and that dynasty isn’t going to end in 2017. The Diamondbacks introduced a Chicken Funnel Cake Sandwich, which includes garlic black pepper cheddar, strawberry jam and maple syrup.
It was only last week that Naughty Dog sent the internet into meltdown over the possibility of The Last Of Us 2 by saying the immortal words 'the first Last Of Us'. Now, in the brand new issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, The Last Of Us creative director Neil Druckmann sets things straight and it's pretty exciting. Druckmann's reaction to Nolan North saying earlier in the year that there definitely was a sequel inbound for the post apocalyptic series was just like ours. Surprise. "I can say that was kind of a surprise for us for him to say that," he tells OPM. "I was like 'Oh he knows more than we know [about] what we're doing next.' We joked about it afterwards during shoots and stuff." "The answer is - and this is totally honest, and I've said this in the past - that when Bruce (Straley) and I moved over to Uncharted 4, we were brainstorming ideas for The Last Of Us 2 with new characters; ideas for TLOU 2 with Joel and Ellie; ideas for a sci-fi game; ideas for a fantasy game, and building prototypes for each one of those ideas. And just as we were getting close to settling or narrowing that list down, we were asked to work on Uncharted 4." Gosh it's like being stuck between a really good rock and an excellent hard place, isn't it? Druckmann goes on to explain that a small team had been working on those prototypes and then everyone moved over to Uncharted 4. "You know, there's a part of me that's really looking forward to going back to those things, but I have no cycles left in my mind even to be thinking about that right now!" he says. "So, I guess he (North) was kind of right in that we were working on stuff, but we don't know what we're doing next and we won't know until probably a few months after we finish Uncharted 4." You can read the rest of the in depth interview with Neil Druckmann in OPM's massive Uncharted 4 feature. The new Official PlayStation Magazine celebrates 20 years of PlayStation and includes a celebratory look back at the last two decades of Sony goodness and has a very special secrets of PlayStation feature. It will be on shelves on Friday September 25th. Alternatively you can download ithereorsubscribeto future issues.
The California university is being accused of censorship after paying a firm to try to hide references to the incident in which police sprayed protesters in 2011 Students pepper-sprayed by campus police at the University of California at Davis have reacted in anger at the “vastly inappropriate” and “insulting” decision by their university to contract firms to systematically scrub mentions of the story on the internet. The university is being accused of censorship after quietly seeking to hide web references to a widely reported incident in which police sprayed student activists from the then nascent Occupy movement four years ago. The photograph and video went viral across the world, prompting a major backlash against the California university and its chancellor Linda PB Katehi, who was accused of using heavy-handed tactics against peaceful activists Students are once again calling for Katehi’s resignation. Details of the attempt to remove references of the pepper-spraying incident were revealed by the Sacramento Bee, which reported that UC Davis hired a communications firm on a $15,000-a-month contract with a goal of eradicating “references to the pepper spray incident on Google”, including “negative search results” for Katehi. The information was obtained through a Public Records Act request and is part of a broader investigation by the paper into Katehi’s affiliation with private corporate boards. “It’s not surprising,” said Ian Lee, who was an 18-year-old freshman when he was pepper-sprayed during the peaceful protest. “It’s consistent with what [Katehi] has done and she should resign.” “It bothers me because it’s personal,” he added. “It’s a personal thing that changed my life. They’re trying to erase the history of resistance at UC Davis.” Tom Zolot, who was a senior when he took part in the protest and was also hit with pepper spray, said it was “insulting” to attempt to bury mention of the protest and its handling. “This was a moment of resistance,” he said of the 2011 campus-wide protests and pepper-spraying incident. “This was a moment of shame.”He described the decision to spend public money on hiring PR firms to seek to conceal the incident from search results was “vastly inappropriate”. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ian Lee during the UC Davis protests. Photograph: Ian Lee via Facebook The Bee investigation found that the university, a state-funded institution that has faced severe budget cuts in recent years, paid the Maryland-based Nevins & Associates communications firm $92,971 to work on its online reputation management relating to the November 2011 spraying incident and surrounding controversy. The contract signed in January 2013, over a year after the incident, promised “an online branding campaign designed to clean up the negative attention the University of California, Davis and Chancellor Katehi have received related to the events that transpired in November 2011”. The university subsequently entered into multiple five-figure contracts with another firm to improve its online image. In total, there were more than $175,000 in contracts to address issues with the university’s online reputation. Multiple contracts were with Sacramento-based IDMLOCO, which was awarded its first six-month contract in June 2014 for the amount of $82,500, for “search engine results management” that involved creating new content to push “negative” results lower in searches. In a statement on Thursday, UC Davis said: “Increased investment in social media and communications strategy has heightened the profile of the university to good effect. As part of this overall communications strategy, it is important that the excellent work underway at UC Davis with respect to educating the next generation of students, pursuing groundbreaking research, and providing important services to the State is not lost during a campus crisis, including the crisis that ensued following the extremely regrettable incident when police pepper-sprayed student protesters in 2011.” The pepper-spray incident occurredafter students associated with the Occupy movement were ordered to remove a tent encampment in the university’s quad. Students gathered to protest against the closure, and a number of them sat down with their arms linked in a peaceful demonstration across a concrete walkway. Campus police in riot gear arrived, and one officer doused the seated protesters at close range with pepper spray while bystanders shouted: “You don’t have to do this.” Lee, who was among the students pictured in the image, sheltering from the spray, said the attack was “extremely painful”. “My entire face felt like it was on fire,” he said. “For a couple months afterward I wasn’t even involved in the student movement,” he added. “I was just too scared.” The incident was videoed by multiple bystanders and quickly went viral, becoming the top trending topic on Google and broadcast on TV news programs across the world. Though Katehi was not directly in charge of the police department and has said she was unaware that force would be used in the removal of the campers, she had ordered the removal of the students and, at the time, much of the criticism was directed at the controversial chancellor. On campus, she acquired a number of nicknames, including Chemical Katehi. A few days after the pepper-spray incident, Katehi was once again the focus of a firestorm of criticism after another video involving student protests went viral. This one occurred after students surrounded a small building where she was holding a press conference. The students refused to let her leave, and a campus minister, Kristin Stoneking, was called in to help negotiate a solution. Hours later, Katehi was allowed to exit by walking past a gauntlet of students seated silently along the sidewalk. This video quickly became dubbed the “walk of shame” and has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. Katehi has been under a new wave of public scrutiny in recent weeks over her service on multiple corporate boards. She was forced to resign from the for-profit educational institution DeVry Education Group, which paid her $70,000 a year plus stock. Katehi, who earns $424,360 in her official capacity as chancellor, has also served on the board of textbook company John Wiley & Sons, earning about $420,000 in pay and stock, according to SEC filings. After that appointment received public attention, she donated some of the proceeds to a scholarship fund at UC Davis. Students have occupied the foyer of her administrative offices on campus for weeks to protest about the board positions and other issues, and to call for her resignation. State lawmakers have questioned her judgment, with at least one also calling for her resignation. Zolot and Lee both said that they felt the university and Katehi failed to make meaningful changes after the pepper-spraying and that the recent allegations of misconduct by the chancellor are part of a larger pattern of “privatization” of the university that is not in students best interests. “Nothing systemic really changed,” Lee said. “UC Davis is trying to paint itself as this institution that really cares about its students and that really cares about its workers [but] by trying to erase this history they’re misleading people.”
On the night of August 10 Barkha Dutt was vociferously asking BJP member OP Sharma why he had called Alka Lamba a “drug addict”. The man replied that the behaviour of Lamba at his sweet shop made him believe she was “under influence” of some drug or alcohol. It’s a hyperbolic answer but what is interesting is that the questions were being directed at Sharma instead of to the one who committed the crime. Alka Lamba, for whatever her problems in life, had no business barging into a shop and damaging cash registers and other items. This Goondagiri first started in the media as an attack on her (with which she later played victim with frivolous fake bandages) till the CCTV exposed both Lamba and the media. Just imagine what would have happened if the CCTV footage wasn’t available: Arvind Kejriwal & Co. would be more sober after getting a huge majority in the Delhi assembly. On the contrary, their MLAs seem to indulge in more lawlessness than ever before. Here’s what MJ Akbar wrote sometime back and I The woman claims she was hit by a stone on her head. Though no major injuries were visible in the pics circulated on Twitter she bandaged herself and refused to undergo a medical test offered by the Delhi Police. And she also claimed her vandalism was reaction to her injury. Seriously, if one gets injured he or she would attack property inside a shop? One would have thought& Co. would be more sober after getting a huge majority in the Delhi assembly. On the contrary, their MLAs seem to indulge in more lawlessness than ever before. Here’s what MJ Akbar wrote sometime back and I quoted him earlier too: AK is less interested in delivering on promises (500 schools, colleges, more hospitals, power, water etc.) and is now talking mundane crap like getting a Film City in Delhi. The AAP hunger for more and more power to be concentrated in their hands is never-ending. The greed is insatiable. Confrontation with LG, PM and others seem to be the order of their lives. At another corner, former member of AAP, Yogendra Yadav, was on his own trip of street agitations with tractors. One doesn’t really know what his problem in life is either – other than being out of news for long. The media also went on another trip of kicking and screaming over the hanging of Yakub Memon as if India had hanged a freedom fighter or hero. The I&B ministry has sent notices to a few channels on their coverage of the event. Although this may not amount to much it is clear that a new regulatory body is a must. Self-regulation by media is as much nonsense as Tihar prisoners wanting to have their own set of wardens from among the inmates. Rahul Kanwal of India Today even relays message on behalf of the terrorist to assemble at his funeral, with the time, while agencies are keeping a watch. If this is not inciting some kind of untoward incident or violence, what is it? This, and others, claim GOI is imposing another Emergency on media. This cannot pass under any journalistic license. I don't see why inciters like Rahul Kanwal shouldn't be arrested: The idea is to create a climate of chaos in the country – to make the world believe that India has gone into deep disrepair under a new dispensation when the facts indicate otherwise. That was AAP which is now in power in Delhi; imagine when they’re out of power. In another corner of Delhi, the two ChineseGandhis are doing more than all these put together to ensure India doesn’t move forward, India doesn’t get reforms and are doing all they can to stall India through their rioting in the Parliament. They don’t have any genuine cause to disrupt parliament. Even as they claim Sushma-Lalit Modi is an issue, it certainly doesn’t warrant such extended disruption of parliament. The only thing hanging in the balance for Congress is the bruised ego of SoniaG and her duffer son RahulG. The major political and electoral losses the Congress has suffered in the last year or so has left this duo clueless on how to revive the party. Sample this nonsense from the little moron: Pappu says SS must reveal her financial transactions with Lalit Modi. And the BJP or SS are supposed to answer such stupid, imaginary nonsense? If he has any information, it is for RG to table that and demand answers. There were many media reports on billions worth of assets of SoniaG. The Congress and its lawyers worked hard to have those articles deleted when there isn’t any such article published yet about SS or her financial deals with Lalit Modi. So these bogus excuses are used by Sonia and Rahul to stall the parliament. And the headless wonder even calls SS a “criminal” for no reason other than empty blabber. I have no hesitation in making this statement: “Sonia and Rahul want India to fail” They are behaving like monkeys whose bananas have been taken away. One can find many faults with the GOI but not one single issue claimed by the Congress is really worth holding up the parliament for. And the objective is simple – don’t allow any Bills to be passed. And I have stated this many times earlier SoniaG doesn’t want any Bills to be passed whatsoever. And her duffer son, who is mostly abroad, goes around and agitates with FTII students or some group while ignoring dying farmers in the Congress state of Karnataka. Beyond street-theatre these two have nothing to offer to our parliament or to our country. They offered nothing to our parliament even when Congress was in power. Here is a summary of some major They want India to fail because of their extreme contempt for Narendra Modi and their unbearable loss of power at the Centre and in many key states. Of course, the poor, the farmers and all are just there for them to exploit not to serve.. One can find many faults with the GOI but not one single issue claimed by the Congress is really worth holding up the parliament for. And the objective is simple –. And I have stated this many times earlier SoniaG doesn’t want any Bills to be passed whatsoever. And her duffer son, who is mostly abroad, goes around and agitates with FTII students or some group while ignoring dying farmers in the Congress state of Karnataka. Beyond street-theatre these two have nothing to offer to our parliament or to our country. They offered nothing to our parliament even when Congress was in power. Here is a summary of some major Bills held up in parliament, of a total of 64: On August 10 Arun Jaitley slammed the Chair in Rajya Sabha on the latter’s inability to conduct the House properly. It is true that both Kurien and Ansari have not shown the slightest wish to discipline the house. The LS Speaker at least took the step of suspending 25 rioting members of Congress. I use the term rioting for these members because they weren’t at their seats shouting and protesting. They had carried placards like a street rally into the Well of the house. This is nothing short of rioting on a daily basis. They did so even when a Bhutanese delegation was in parliament to witness proceedings. And the BJP has an equal amount of blame to share because they have all along treated these ChineseGandhis with kid-gloves and ignored how vicious and vindictive they really are. It is time that the PM and his party realised that these folks are only interested in their favourite “poison” called power. Without power, they have shown what gutter-levels they can stoop to. If the BJP has made a start then they must continue exposing the misdeeds of these Gandhis every week. Now then, the question that comes up in mind is why these Gandhis are into such belligerent, lumpen behaviour. I have no doubts whatsoever that some of the Congress MPs and other members of the party would be embarrassed by their churlish behaviour. I consider SoniaG the “Congotri” of corruption which has destroyed India. Many other actions of hers which were anti-majority have also caused social ruptures in a decade. In rioting the way these two Gandhis do like spoilt kids what do they lose? NOTHING! They lose nothing but they are making sure India loses a lot.
wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 31 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 242,356 times. Learn more... In this Article:Value what matters to geeksAvoid superficialityBe fair and inclusiveRecognize and reward good workRespect creativityReap what you sowCommunity Q&AReferences When the geeks threaten to go on strike, everyone is impacted; from ATMs and electronic salary payment to smooth restaurant orders and airplane check-ins, IT has become so central to almost all corporations, that any disruption is likely to cost a lot of time and money. This simple reality means that keeping the geeks happy at work is an absolute requirement for a modern business. Happy geeks are effective geeks usually. The main reason IT people are unhappy at work is bad relations with management, often because geeks and managers have fundamentally different personalities, professional backgrounds and ambitions. Some people conclude that geeks hate managers and are impossible to lead. The expression “managing geeks is like herding cats” is sometimes used, but that’s just plain wrong. The fact is that IT people hate bad management and have even less tolerance for it than most other kinds of employees. So where does it go wrong? Here are some top ways that managers can lead geeks effectively and respectfully.
One of the questions that has perhaps been central to my own research in blockchain technology is: ultimately, what is it even useful for? Why do we need blockchains for anything, what kinds of services should be run on blockchain-like architectures, and why specifically should services be run on blockchains instead of just living on plain old servers? Exactly how much value do blockchains provide: are they absolutely essential, or are they just nice to have? And, perhaps most importantly of all, what is the "killer app" going to be? Over the last few months, I have spent a lot of time thinking about this issue, discussing it with cryptocurrency developers, venture capital firms, and particularly people from outside the blockchain space, whether civil liberties activists, people in the finance and payments industry or anywhere else. In the process of this, I have come to a number of important, and meaningful, conclusions. First, there will be no "killer app" for blockchain technology. The reason for this is simple: the doctrine of low-hanging fruit. If there existed some particular application for which blockchain technology is massively superior to anything else for a significant portion of the infrastructure of modern society, then people would be loudly talking about it already. This may seem like the old economics joke about an economist finding a twenty dollar bill on the ground and concluding it must be fake because otherwise it would already have been taken, but in this case the situation is subtly different: unlike the dollar bill, where search costs are low and so picking up the bill makes sense even if there is only a 0.01% chance it is real, here search costs are very high, and plenty of people with billions of dollars of incentive have already been searching. And so far, there has been no single application that anyone has come up with that has seriously stood out to dominate everything else on the horizon. In fact, one can quite reasonably argue that the closest things that we will ever have to "killer apps" are precisely those apps that have already been done and recited and sensationalized ad nauseam: censorship resistance for Wikileaks and Silk Road. Silk Road, the online anonymous drug marketplace that was shut down by law enforcement in late 2013, processed over $1 billion in sales during its 2.5 years of operations, and while the payment-system-orchestrated blockade against Wikileaks was in progress, Bitcoin and Litecoin donations were responsible for the bulk of its revenue. In both cases the need was clear and the potential economic surplus was very high - before Bitcoin, you would have no choice but to buy the drugs in person and donate to Wikileaks by cash-in-the-mail, and so Bitcoin provided a massive convenience gain and thus the opportunity was snatched up almost instantly. Now, however, that is much less the case, and marginal opportunities in blockchain technology are not nearly such easy grabs. Total and Average Utility Does this mean, however, that blockchains have hit their peak utility? Most certainly not. They have hit peak necessity, in the sense of peak utility per user, but that is not the same thing as peak utility. Although Silk Road was indispensable for many of the people that used it, even among the drug-using community it's not indispensable in general; as much as it befuddles this particular author how ordinary individuals are supposed to get such connections, most people have somehow found "a guy" that they know that they can purchase their weed from. Interest in smoking weed at all seems to strongly correllate with having easy access to it. Hence, in the grand scheme of things, Silk Road has only had a chance to become relevant to a very niche group of people. Wikileaks is similar; the set of people who care about corporate and governmental transparency strongly enough to donate money to a controversial organization in support of it is not very large compared to the entire population of the world. So what's left? In short, the long tail. So what is the long tail? This is where it gets hard to explain. I could provide a list of applications that are included in this "long tail" of applications; however, blockchains are not indispensable, and do not even offer extremely strong fundamental advantages for each one. For each individual case, an advocate of either the "blockchain applications are overrated, it's the Bitcoin currency that matters" or the "blockchain tech as a whole is useless" position can quite reasonably come up with a way to implement the scheme just as easily on a centralized server, replace blockchain governance with a legal contract, and apply whatever other replacements to turn the product into something much more similar to a traditional system. And on that point, they would be completely correct: for that particular use case, blockchains are not indispensable. And that's the whole point: those applications are not at the top of the distribution, up there with Wikileaks and Silk Road; if they were, they would have been implemented already. In the long tail, blockchains are not necessary; they are convenient. They are simply marginally better than the next available tool for the job. And yet, because these applications are much more mainstream, and can benefit hundreds of millions of users, the total gain to society (which can be seen from the area on the above chart) is much larger. Perhaps the best analogy to this line of reasoning is to ask the following rhetorical question: what is the killer app of "open source"? Open source has clearly been a very good thing for society, and it is being used for millions of software packages around the world, but nevertheless it is still hard to answer the question. And the reason is the same: there is no killer app, and the list of applications has a very very long tail - basically, just about every kind of software imaginable, with particular emphasis on lower-level libraries that end up reused by millions of projects many times over and critical cryptographic security libraries. Blockchains, Redefined... Again Now, what are the specific benefits of blockchains that make the long tail worthwhile? To start off, let me provide the current description that I use of what a blockchain is: A blockchain is a magic computer that anyone can upload programs to and leave the programs to self-execute, where the current and all previous states of every program are always publicly visible, and which carries a very strong cryptoeconomically secured guarantee that programs running on the chain will continue to execute in exactly the way that the blockchain protocol specifies. Notice that this definition does NOT: Use financially-charged terms like "ledger", "money" or "transactions", or indeed any terms geared toward a particular use case Mention any particular consensus algorithm, or indeed mention anything about the technical properties of how a blockchain works (except for the fact that it's "cryptoeconomic", a technical term roughly meaning "it's decentralized, it uses public key cryptography for authentication, and it uses economic incentives to ensure that it keeps going and doesn't go back in time or incur any other glitch") Make a restriction to any particular type of state transition function The one thing that the definition does well is explain what a blockchain does, and it explains it in such a way that any software developer will be able to fairly clearly have at least an intuitive grasp of its value proposition. Now, in practice, sometimes the programming language that the programs run in is very restrictive; Bitcoin's language can be seen as requiring a sequence of DESTROY COIN: <txid> <index> <scriptsig> statements followed by a sequence of CREATE COIN: <scriptpubkey> <value> statements, where scriptpubkey is a restricted mathematical formula, scriptsig must be a satisfying variable assignment to the formula (eg. {x = 5, y = 7} satisfies 2 * x - y = 3 ), and an attempt to destroy a nonexistent coin or destroy a coin without supplying a valid scriptsig for that coin's scriptpubkey, or an attempt to create more coin value than you destroyed, returns an error. Other programming languages, on the other hand, can be much more expressive. It's up to the software developer to analyze what programming language is right for their task, much like it is a software developer's task today to decide between python, C++, NodeJS and Malbolge. The one thing that the definition emphasizes extremely well is that blockchains are not about bringing to the world any one particular ruleset, whether it's a currency with a fixed-supply monetary policy, a name registry with a 200-day re-registration time, a particular decentralized exchange design or whatever else; rather, they're about creating the freedom to create a new mechanism with a new ruleset extremely quickly and pushing it out. They're Lego Mindstorms for building economic and social institutions. This is the core of the more moderate version of the "it's the blockchain that's exciting, not the currency" position that is so prevalent in mainstream industry: it is indeed true that currency is necessary to make cryptoeconomic blockchains work (although NOT blockchain-like data structures following the Stellar subjective consensus model), but the currency is there simply as economic plumbing to incentivize consensus participation, hold deposits and pay transaction fees, not as the center-stage point of speculative mania, consumer interest and excitement. Now, why are blockchains useful? To summarize: You can store data on them and that data is guaranteed to have a very high degree of availability You can run applications on them and be guaranteed an extremely high uptime You can run applications on them, and be guaranteed an extremely high uptime going very far into the future You can run applications on them, and convince your users that the application's logic is honest and is doing what you are advertising that it does You can run applications on them, and convince your users that your application will remain working even if you lose interest in maintaining it, you are bribed or threatened to manipulate the application state in some way, or you acquire a profit motive to manipulate the application state in some way you lose interest in maintaining it, you are bribed or threatened to manipulate the application state in some way, or you acquire a profit motive to manipulate the application state in some way You can run applications on them, and give yourself the backdoor key if it is absolutely necessary, BUT put "constitutional" limiations on your use of the key - for example, requiring a software update to pass through a public one-month waiting period before it can be introduced, or at the very least immediately notifying users of application updates You can run applications on them, and give a backdoor key to a particular governance algorithm (eg. voting, futarchy, some complicated multicameral parliament architecture), and convince your users that the particular governance algorithm in question is actually in control of the application You can run applications on them, and those applications can talk to each other with 100% reliability - even if the underlying platform has only 99.999% reliability - even if the underlying platform has only 99.999% reliability Multiple users or companies can run applications on them, and those applications can interact with each other at extremely high speed without requiring any network messages, while at the same time ensuring that each company has total control over its own application You can build applications that very easily and efficiently take advantage of the data produced by other applications (eg. combining payments and reputation systems is perhaps the largest gain here) All of those things are valuable indirectly to billions of people around the world, potentially particularly in regions of the world where highly developed economic, financial and social infrastructure currently simply does not work at all (though technology will often need to be combined with political reforms to solve many of the problems), and blockchains are good at providing these properties. They are particularly obviously valuable in finance, as finance is perhaps the most simultaneously computationally and trust-intensive industry in the world, but they are also valuable in many other spots in internet infrastructure. There do exist other architectures that can also provide these properties, but they are slightly to moderately less good than blockchains are. Gavin Wood has started describing this ideal computing platform as "the world computer" - a computer the state of which is shared among everyone and which a very large group of people, which anyone is free to join, are involved in maintaining. Base Layer Infrastructure Like open source, by far the largest opportunity for gains out of blockchain technology are out of what can be called "base-layer infrastructure" services. Base-layer infrastructure services, as a general category, are characterized by the following properties: Dependency - there exist many other services that intimately depend on the base-layer service for functionality - there exist many other services that intimately depend on the base-layer service for functionality High network effects - there are substantial benefits from very large groups of people (or even everyone) using the same service - there are substantial benefits from very large groups of people (or even everyone) using the same service High switching costs - it is difficult for an individual to switch from one service to the other Note that one concern that is not in there is any notion of raw "necessity" or "importance"; there can be fairly unimportant base layers (eg. RSS feeds) and important non-base-layers (eg. food). Base-layer services have existed ever since even before the dawn of civilization; in the so-called "caveman days" the single most important base-layer service of all was language. In somewhat more recent times, the primary examples became roads, the legal system and postal and transportation systems, in the 20th century we added telephone networks and financial systems, and at the end of the millennium emerged the internet. Now, however, the new base-layer services of the internet are almost entirely informational: internet payment systems, identity, domain name systems, certificate authorities, reputation systems, cloud computing, various kinds of data feeds, and perhaps in the near future prediction markets. In ten years time, the highly networked and interdependent nature of these services may make it such that it is harder for individuals to switch from one system to another than it is for them to even switch which government they are living under - and that means that making sure that these services are built correctly and that their governance process does not put a few private entities in positions of extreme power is of utmost importance. Right now, many of these systems are built in a highly centralized fashion, and this is in part simply due to the fact that the original design of the World Wide Web failed to realize the importance of these services and include defaults - and so, even today, most websites ask you to "sign in with Google" or "sign in with Facebook", and certificate authorities run into problems like this: "A solo Iranian hacker on Saturday claimed responsibility for stealing multiple SSL certificates belonging to some of the Web's biggest sites, including Google, Microsoft, Skype and Yahoo. Early reaction from security experts was mixed, with some believing the hacker's claim, while others were dubious. Last week, conjecture had focused on a state-sponsored attack, perhaps funded or conducted by the Iranian government, that hacked a certificate reseller affiliated with U.S.-based Comodo. On March 23, Comodo acknowledged the attack, saying that eight days earlier, hackers had obtained nine bogus certificates for the log-on sites of Microsoft's Hotmail, Google's Gmail, the Internet phone and chat service Skype and Yahoo Mail. A certificate for Mozilla's Firefox add-on site was also acquired." Why shouldn’t certificate authorities be decentralized at least to the point of an M-of-N system again? (Note that the case for much more widespread use of M-of-N is logically separable from the case for blockchains, but blockchains happen to be a good platform to run M-of-N on). Identity Let us take a particular use case, "identity on the blockchain", and run with it. In general, what do you need in order to have an identity? The simplest answer is one we already know: you need to have a public and private key. You publish the public key, which becomes your ID, and you digitally sign every message you send with your private key, allowing anyone to verify that those messages were produced by you (where, from their point of view, "you" means "the entity that holds that particular public key"). However, there are a few challenges: What happens if your key gets stolen, and you need to switch to a new one? What happens if you lose your key? What if you want to refer to other users by their names, and not just a random 20-byte string of cryptographic data? What if you want to use a more advanced approach for security such as multisig, and not just a single key? Let us try solving these challenges one-by-one. We can start off with the fourth. A simple solution is this: instead of requiring one particular cryptographic signature type, your public key becomes a program, and a valid signature becomes a string that, when fed into the program together with the message, returns 1. Theoretically, any single-key, multi-key or whatever other kind of ruleset can be encoded into such a paradigm. However, this has a problem: the public keys will get too long. We can solve this by putting the actual "public key" into some data store (eg. a distributed hash table if we want decentralization) and using the hash of the "public key" as the user's ID. This does not yet require blockchains - although, in the latest designs, in the limit scalable blockchains are really not that different in design from DHTs and so it is entirely possible that, in ten years time, every kind of decentralized system used for anything will accidentally or intentionally converge into some kind of scalable blockchain. Now, consider the first problem. We can think of this as the certificate revocation problem: if you want to "revoke" a particular key, how do you ensure that it gets around to everyone who needs to see it? This by itself can once again be solved by a distributed hash table. However, this leads to the next problem: if you want to revoke a key, what do you replace it with? If your key is stolen, you and the attacker both have it, and so neither of you can be convincingly more authoritative. One solution is to have three keys, and then if one gets revoked then require a signature from two or all of them to approve the next key. But this leads to a "nothing at stake" problem: if the attacker eventually manages to steal all three of your keys from some point in history, then they can simulate a history of assigning a new key, assigning further new keys from there, and your own history is no longer more authoritative. This is a timestamping problem, and so here blockchains can actually help. For the second problem, holding multiple keys and reassigning also works reasonably well - and here, blockchains are not needed. In fact, you do not need to re-assign; with clever use of secret sharing you can actually recover from key losses simply by keeping your key in "shards", such that if you lose any single shard you can always use secret sharing math to simply recover it from the others. For the third problem, blockchain-based name registries are the simplest solution. However, in practice most people are not well-equipped to securely store multiple keys, and there are always going to be mishaps, and often centralized services play an important role: helping people get their accounts back in the event of a mistake. In this case, the blockchain-based solution is simple: social M-of-N backup. You pick eight entities; they may be your friends, your employer, some corporation, nonprofit or even in the future a government, and if anything goes wrong a combination of five of them can recover your key. This concept of social multi-signature backup is perhaps one of the most powerful mechanisms to use in any kind of decentralized system design, and provides a very high amount of security very cheaply and without relying on centralized trust. Note that blockchain-based identity, particularly with Ethereum's contract model, makes all of this very easy to program: in the name registry, register your name and point it at a contract, and have that contract maintain the current main key and backup keys associated with the identity as well as the logic for updating them over time. An identity system, safe and easy-to-use enough for grandma, done without any individual entity (except for you!) in control. Identity is not the only problem that blockchains can alleviate. Another component, intimately tied up with identity, is reputation. Currently, what passes for "reputation systems" in the modern world are invariably either insecure, due to their inability to ensure that an entity rating another entity actually interacted with them, or centralized, tying reputation data to a particular platform and having the reputation data exist under that platform's control. When you switch from Uber to Lyft, your Uber rating does not carry over. A decentralized reputation system would ideally consist of two separate layers: data and evaluation. Data would consist of individuals making independent ratings about others, ratings tied to transactions (eg. with blockchain-based payments one can create an open system such that you can only give merchants a rating if you actually pay them), and a collection of other sources, and anyone can run their own algorithm to evaluate their data; "light-client friendly" algorithms that can evaluate a proof of reputation from a particular dataset quickly may become an important research area (many naive reputation algorithms involve matrix math, which has nearly cubic computational complexity in the underlying data and so is hard to decentralize). "Zero-knowledge" reputation systems that allow a user to provide some kind of cryptographic certificate proving that they have at least x reputation points according to a particular metric without revealing anything else are also promising. The case of reputation is interesting because it combines together multiple benefits of the blockchain as a platform: Its use as a data store for identity Its use as a data store for reputational records Inter-application interoperability (ratings tied to proof of payment, ability for any algorithm to work over the same underlying set of data, etc) A guarantee that the underlying data will be portable going into the future (companies may voluntarily provide a reputation certificate in an exportable format, but they have no way to pre-commit to continuing to have that functionality going into the future) The use of a decentralized platform more generally to guarantee that the reputation wasn't manipulated at the point of calculation Now, for all of these benefits, there are substitutes: we can trust Visa and Mastercard to provide cryptographically signed receipts that a particular transaction took place, we can store reputational records on archive.org, we can have servers talk to each other, we can have private companies specify in their terms of service that they agree to be nice, and so forth. All of these options are reasonably effective, but they are not nearly as nice as simply putting everything out into the open, running it on "the world computer" and letting cryptographic verification and proofs do the work. And a similar argument can be made for every other use case. Cutting Costs If the largest value from blockchain technology comes at the long tail, as this thesis suggests, then that leads to an important conclusion: the per-transaction gain from using a blockchain is very small. Hence, the problem of cutting costs of consensus and increasing blockchain scalability becomes paramount. With centralized solutions, users and businesses are used to paying essentially $0 per "transaction"; although individuals looking to donate to Wikileaks may be willing to pay even a fee of $5 to get their transaction through, someone trying to upload a reputation record may well only be willing to pay a fee of $0.0005. Hence, the problem of making consensus cheaper, both in the absolute sense (ie. proof of stake) and in the per-transaction sense (ie. through scalable blockchain algorithms where at most a few hundred nodes process each transaction), is absolutely paramount. Additionally, blockchain developers should keep in mind that the last forty years of software development has been a history of moving to progressively less and less efficient programming languages and paradigms solely because they allow developers to be less experienced and lazier, and similarly work to design blockchain algorithms that work around the principle that developers are really not going to be all that smart and judicious about what they put on the blockchain and what they keep off - though a well-designed system of transaction fees will likely lead to developers naturally learning most of the important points through personal experience. Hence, there is substantial hope for a future that can be, to a substantial degree, more decentralized; however, the days of easy gains are over. Now is the time for a much harder, and longer, slog of looking into the real world, and seeing how the technologies that we have built can actually benefit the world. During this stage, we will likely discover that at some point we will hit an inflection point, where most instances of "blockchain for X" will be made not by blockchain enthusiasts looking for something useful to do, coming upon X, and trying to do it, but rather by X enthusiasts who look at blockchains and realize that they are a fairly useful tool for doing some part of X. Whether X is internet of things, financial infrastructure for the developing world, bottom-up social, cultural and economic institutions, better data aggregation and protection for healthcare, or simply controversial charities and uncensorable marketplaces. In the latter two cases, the inflection point has likely already hit; many of the original crowd of blockchain enthusiasts became blockchain enthusiasts because of the politics. Once it hits in the other cases, however, then we will truly know that it has gone mainstream, and that the largest humanitarian gains are soon to come. Additionally, we will likely discover that the concept of "the blockchain community" will cease to be meaningful as any kind of quasi-political movement in its own right; if any label applies at all, "crypto 2.0" is likely to be the most defensible one. The reason is similar to why we do not have a concept of "the distributed hash table community", and "the database community", while existent, is really simply a set of computer scientists who happen to specialize in databases: blockchains are just one technology, and so ultimately the greatest progress can only be achieved by working on combination with a whole set of other set of decentralized (and decentralization-friendly) technologies: reputation systems, distributed hash tables, "peer-to-peer hypermedia platforms", distributed messaging protocols, prediction markets, zero-knowledge proofs and likely many more that have not yet been discovered.
MSNBC has fired the employee who sent out a controversial Tweet involving a Cheerios commercial that features a biracial family. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, MSNBC president Phil Griffin called the Tweet "outrageous and unacceptable." STORY: Republicans Boycott MSNBC Over Cheerios Tweet "We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it," the statement continued. "We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet. I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At MSNBC we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change." MSNBC anchor Ari Melber read Griffin's statement at the end of the network's 3 p.m. hour. The tweet prompted Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus to call for a Republican boycott of the network. The full tweet, sent at 8:06 p.m. from the MSNBC Twitter account, read: "Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/biracial family." The Cheerios ad is the second spot to feature a biracial couple and their daughter, "Gracie." When General Mills premiered the first spot last May, social media erupted with vitriolic, racist comments. The company disabled the comments section on the ad's YouTube site, though the spot also received much praise. Priebus sent a letter Thursday morning to Griffin denouncing what he characterized as "demeaning attacks" that "have become a pattern" at MSNBC. "With increasing frequency many of your hosts have personally denigrated and demeaned Americans -- especially conservative and Republican Americans -- without even attempting to further meaningful political dialogue," wrote the RNC chairman. It is the latest embarrassing gaffe for MSNBC, which has already parted ways with Martin Bashir and Alec Baldwin, while weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry issued a tearful apology for belittling Mitt Romney's adopted African-American grandson. In an e-mail to "interested parties," RNC communications director Sean Spicer, noted that Priebus and Griffin spoke by phone on Thursday. "We appreciate Mr. Griffin’s admission that their comment was demeaning and disgusting, and the Chairman accepted his apology," wrote Spicer, adding that the RNC "will aggressively monitor the network to see whether their pattern of unacceptable behavior actually changes." He continued: "We don’t expect their liberal bias to change, but we will call them out when political commentary devolves into personal and belittling attacks." In an interview earlier this month with The Hollywood Reporter, Griffin acknowledged past mistakes, but vowed to move forward. "These were judgment calls made by some of our people," he said. "We quickly took responsibility for them and took action. They were unfortunate, but I'm not going to allow these specific moments of lack of judgment to define us."
Whitney Thore, whose web videos “fat girl” became viral hits, is the subject of a new TLC reality series titled My Big Fat Fabulous Life, premiering Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 10pmET/PT. The refreshingly upbeat Whitney made a visit to the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour in Pasadena where she reinforced her message that size doesn’t matter when it comes to finding and doing things that make you happy. In her case, it’s her passion and love for dance. Whitney’s unapologetic approach to her body size is an inspiration. The series is a heartfelt look into her life — including the prejudices and challenges she faces as a result of her obesity. The once 130-pound dancer/prom queen gained over 200 pounds in a short time as a result of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. She’s now 380 pounds. “Obesity in America is such an issue that no one wants to talk about, and it’s filled with so much shame that even my family and my friends, nobody said anything, and I was too ashamed to say anything, so if we could speak a little bit more candidly about obesity, which is something that I hope My Big Fat Fabulous Life will accomplish,” Whitney said. The upcoming premiere of the show, as well as her videos, have already generated plenty of support to her “no body shame” way of life. Tearing up at the session, she expressed the hardships of her size. “I think that fat prejudice is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices that we have in America, and I think that’s really a shame because if you want to pursue a life of happiness and health, you can’t do it when you hate yourself,” she says. “I lived in so much shame and darkness and depression for over a decade that I wasted 10 years of my life, and it wasn’t until I finally learned that I had to love myself regardless. I have to claim my joy and my happiness, because there are people out there who don’t want me to be happy, but I have one life.” Whitney’s a welcome wake up call and reminder to all on how to treat people. The nine-part series will follow her life in Greensboro, North Carolina. My Big Fat Fabulous Life airs on TLC Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT.
It has been 14 months since our first public announcement. The effort of 25+ developers, untold gallons of coffee, making thousands of new friends, and putting in tens of thousands of hours of gameplay testing, and were about to make our momentous launch on Steam, this December 15th, 2015. The time has come, the Founders have laid claim to their titles, have rolled with us through thick and thin, and now we march out together to bring this to the world. As of Midnight PST November 30th 2015, we are ending pre-purchasing of Squad. You have between now and the end of the month to pre-purchase the game at the Squad Leader Founder level, which grants you access to the following perks on Steam: Founder Patch in-game on your soldier (Delivery date TBD) Founder Tag in the Community Forums Exclusive Alternate Weapon Skins (AK74 and M4) Digital copy of the Squad soundtrack In-game name in Credits Or at the Rifleman level, for USD 30.00. We would like to thank every backer and founder that has helped us up to this point, without the financial and moral support of each and every one of you, development would have not been possible. This next very important step to Steam Early Access launch will rely very heavily on this community to ensure all the newcomers experiences are as great as the ones we have already had over the Alpha period. On Steam launch, those that have not pre-purchased will be able to purchase Squad and all future content for USD 39.99 via Steam. Going forward all content, past and present, will be open to all players. For those that have backed us and pre-purchased, you will be receiving your Steam key via Email to redeem on Steam. So please check your Emails closer to release date. In summary, there are 2 dates for you to remember: 30th November – End of all Pre-Purchasing 15th December – Release of Squad on Steam Early Access, retailing at USD 39.99. Christmas is coming early this year. Offworld out.
One of the more interesting topics discussed in my high school health class – among the usual suspects of sexually transmitted diseases and the required viewing of the birth of a child – was the “placebo effect” and its relationship with alcohol consumption. First coined by T.C. Graves in 1920, but studied far earlier in the 18th century by physicians and pharmacists, the effect describes the alleviation of whatever symptoms a patient may have without receiving any actual medicinal treatment while believing that they have. The belief is important – “placebo” comes from the Latin “I will please” – as the results depend on the patient’s conviction more than the treatment itself. By definition, it is a medicine that pleases the patient more than it benefits them. With alcohol consumption, the placebo can be used to display the expectancy of the effects of alcohol without actually having consumed it. In other words, if I expect to be drunk and know the typical actions of one who is drunk, then I will display those actions when I believe myself to be drunk, regardless of the amount of alcohol I have, or have not, consumed. This varies from person to person, and there are variances in expectancy based on type of alcohol along with many other personal factors (i.e. people who have the same blood alcohol content can behave in drastically different ways). Additionally, this is not to take away from the fact that alcohol is a depressant and has specific psychoactive effects. However, the idea that intrigued me the most in high school, and continues to pique my interest to this day, was the idea that if one wants to be drunk, then they will be. Chisaki Hiradaira desperately wants to be drunk. She has deliberately stunted her own emotional growth in an attempt to both preserve her love for Hikari Sakishima, and force herself to hibernate like the rest of her friends and family of Shioshishio in stasis beneath the sea. Her body continues to grow; however, she refuses to move forward emotionally. As her friends, including Hikari, wake and appear on the surface looking exactly the same as the day they went to sleep, Chisaki continues to stubbornly hold herself back. Episode 19 of Nagi no Asukara shows Chisaki unable to stop herself from feeling any longer, thanks in large part to Manaka Mukaido’s return to the surface. In spite of the fact that Manaka refuses to wake, her presence provides the last bit of pressure to crack Chisaki’s mask. Chisaki wears many different outfits in this episode and none of them seem to fit her. Her old Nami High uniform is too small to be comfortable, and she has yet to grow into her nurse’s outfit. Despondent that her only option is to embrace her older self and more forward, Chisaki attempts to drown her sorrows in alcohol. “You probably do lose a lot, but that just means you need to fill what you lost with new things.” -Tsumugu Kihara to Chisaki Hiradaira on becoming an adult, Nagi no Asukara, episode 19 The “alcohol” that Chisaki consumes is not actually alcohol but plum juice. However, she believes it to be alcohol and displays the symptoms of one who has imbibed too much, while Tsumugu knowingly watches over her and coaches her through her own feelings. One of the last things that Chisaki thinks to herself before passing out is that she wants to return to Shioshishio. The next morning, before embarking on her journey, she remarks on how she doesn’t have a hangover, which allows her to think that she may be stronger than she had previously thought. Chisaki is stronger than she gives herself credit for, but the lack of a hangover is hardly indicative of this fact. Instead, becoming “drunk” without fully experiencing the physical aftereffects allows her to finally believe in her own strength. She expected to be drunk and therefore was. In spite of the fact that it was only a placebo, the event serves as enough of a salve for her wounds. Chisaki will now be able to fill her life with new things equally, if not more so, emotionally affecting than alcohol, like the rekindling of an old love, now on her terms. Advertisements
Story highlights Chinese Christians keep watch to protect cross on Wenzhou church Authorities have demolished churches and removed more than 300 crosses They say the demolitions are part of a broader campaign to target illegal structures Chinese church leaders say it's the worst anti-Christian crackdown in decades At a gray church on the outskirts of Wenzhou in eastern China, Christians from across the county keep a nervous watch. Some stand behind the iron gate; others sit just inside the church door. For more than two months they've waited, preparing themselves to protect the cross on top of their church. "If I have to, I am going to hold it in my arms and protect it," one elderly man says. "They have no right to tear it down, that is why we have to defend our church." Like many here, it's too risky for him to give his name. JUST WATCHED China blacks out CNN's report Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH China blacks out CNN's report 04:36 Wenzhou is known as the "Jerusalem of China" and throughout this year the local Communist Party authorities have demolished scores of churches and forcibly removed more than 300 church crosses. Chinese church leaders say it's the worst anti-Christian crackdown in decades. "What the government here is doing is so barbaric, they're like bandits and we are furious with them," says Chen Zhi'ai, a respected church leader in the Wenzhou area. "Today we've seen the fundamental symbol of our faith violated and it hurts us deep inside our hearts." Crackdown The local authorities are mostly targeting state-sanctioned churches, long tolerated by the ruling Communist Party and often touted as a sign of religious freedom in the officially atheist country. The cross of the Salvation Church in Pingyang County in Wenzhou was removed earlier this year. Scores have been injured in the crackdown, as congregations throughout the region try to stop the government teams. In late July, hundreds of police tried to storm the gates of the Salvation Church in Pingyang County in Wenzhou. Like other attempted demolitions, they moved in in the middle of the night, and scenes of extraordinary defiance unfolded on the church's CCTV video as club-wielding police beat their way in. They appear to lose their resolve when an older man is rushed away by ambulance. A blow to the head fractured his skull, say church activists. But several weeks later, they came back with reinforcements and tore down the cross. It now lies under a cheap plastic shroud at the foot of the church's stairs. "They wanted to drag it away," says a church caretaker who wouldn't give his name. "But we refused. Now it is too big for us to move." Illegal structures? The local government denies the crackdown on Christianity. They say the demolitions are part of a broader campaign to target illegal structures in the province. They say church demolitions represent only a tiny fraction of their work. But leaked party documents single out churches and folk religious sites in the so-called "three rectifications and one demolition" campaign. And church leaders like Chen say that the demolition campaign is merely a front for a crackdown to curtail Christianity's influence in the region. Church leaders say that the central government has ignored all their complaints and petitions. They fear that the Wenzhou demolitions could be a test case for the party, an opening salvo in what could become a wider national campaign. "The leaders think Christianity is a foreign religion and it is part of a foreign culture, which they define as 'western' culture," says Chen. "They see our growth as an invasion of western culture into China." Since Chairman Mao's death in 1976, Christianity has taken hold in China. Though it is still a minority religion. "Christianity has been growing very rapidly in China in the last several decades," says Fenggang Yang of Purdue University in Indiana. "There is very little sign that it is slowing down." The cross now lies under a cheap plastic tarpaulin at the foot of the church's stairs. "It moved from a largely rural religion, came into the cities and became very popular with entrepreneurs. Many converts are now the youth." He estimates that in a few years China will have more Christians than Communist Party members, which stood at more than 85 million in the last count. And in just 15 years, China could overtake the U.S. as the country with largest Christian population in the world. Chinese state media have disputed those claims. 'Social glue' Back at the gray church, the Christians have managed to keep the demolition crews away for now. Their striking red cross sits above the church's spire. They often sing hymns to steel their resolve. "The Cross Is My Glory" by a Taiwanese composer has become a rallying cry in Wenzhou. The congregation don't look like typical Chinese activists. There are elderly faithful with their grandchildren, wealthy-looking businessmen and clean-cut students. Chen says, far from hurting the party, Christianity has been a refuge and social glue for many Chinese as income gaps rise and Chinese look for meaning. "We help promote social harmony," he says. But Chen has a warning. "If they keep doing things this way, there is a saying 'those who play with fire will get burned,'" he says.
Turns out that no-strings-attached sexy times are good for you, so don’t let the haters stop you from doin’ your thang. A recent study conducted by researchers from NYU and Cornell dispels the popular notion that casual hookups — defined as sexual activity outside the context of a romantic relationship — will leave you with low self-esteem and depression. The research, published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, involved a group of NYU students who kept a weekly diary over the course of 12 weeks documenting any and all adult snuggles — and the effect those instances had on their overall well-being. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now Sociosexually unrestricted students reported higher well-being after having casual sex compared to not having sex, the researchers found. Also, those who were sociosexually unrestricted reported lower stress and greater overall emotional health after casual sex. (This is … maybe not super surprising.) Although past reports have shown that women are less likely than men to orgasm during casual sex, this particular study showed few overall differences between genders. The study’s authors explained that “the effects of casual sex depend on the extent to which this behavior is congruent with one’s general personality tendencies.” So, in other words: if you want to have casual sex, you definitely should. If you do not want to have casual sex, you shouldn’t. The main takeaway of this study? You do you. Contact us at [email protected].
The Raiders selected safety Shalom Luani with the 221st pick in the 7th round of this year’s draft. If his performance Saturday’s preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals is any indication, the Raiders have another late round steal on their hands. The 6 foot, 200-pound rookie out of Washington State was everywhere in Saturday’s game. He played special teams, in-the-box safety, 2-deep safety, and single high safety. He showed the ability to stop the run as well as play deep coverage like in this play from the second quarter. Playing deep on this Man-2 coverage, Luani has perfect position on this seam route. This should have been an interception and the cherry on top of a very impressive performance. Even though he did not make the catch, simply being in the right place is an upgrade to the Raiders safety play at times last season. Watching him live, he really stood out on the field, I’m sure the Raiders coaching staff noticed him as well. With 5 tackles, a pass defense that should have been an INT, and a fumble recovery, it would be hard not to. Most 7th round players can expect to get their start playing on special teams. Special teams is one of those areas that great play only really shows up on tape and tend to lack the fan fare that comes with playing other positions. Luani will certainly play on special teams, though he found a way to make a big play there as well. Already down 14-0, Raiders returner Jaydon Mickens fumbled on the kickoff return. Luani was there to snag the fumble recovery that could have given the Cardinals a first down in the Raiders red zone. Some players just have a knack for ending up around the football, Luani looks like one of them. The most impressive part of Luani’s game wasn’t simply how fast he looked on the field but the power he brought with it. It’s not uncommon for a rookie to lack some “pop” until they have spent some time in a professional strength and conditioning program. Luani doesn’t seem to have that issue. Take a look at the pre-snap movement before this great run stop. The Raiders were playing a lot more 2-deep safety looks in this game than they did last season. They were also disguising their single high looks with 2-deep looks like they did here. Having a safety like Luani that can play in the box or in deep coverage allows greater flexibility in coverage disguise as the offense doesn’t know which safety will drop deep. They Raiders coaching staff being able to rotate either safety into the box also opens blitz opportunities from either side of the defense. Luani’s reaction and closing speed really stood out. He was possibly the best player on the Raiders defense in this game. Look how fast he recognizes and closes on this draw play. It cannot be understated that a rookie in his first game action doesn’t typically show this level of awareness. Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie has once again shown his prowess for finding good players in the later rounds. With three more preseason games left, Luani has plenty of opportunities to push for playing time in the Raiders defense. He is off to a great start and needs to follow up this performance with another one this Saturday against the Rams. If he keeps this up, the Raiders may just have to find ways to get him on the field this season. Also see: Raiders preseason week 1 Ballers & Busters
Contracts for almost 400 NHS services, worth a quarter of billion pounds, were signed this week resulting in the "biggest act of privatisation ever seen in the NHS", Labour's health spokesman Andy Burnham has said. In a briefing before his speech to the Labour party conference, Burnham said he had "evidence of accelerating privatisation" – citing a rash of examples across England which he said showed the government was committed to a "market in healthcare". Burnham pointed out that non-emergency ambulance services in the north-west would soon be run by the bus group Arriva and that Lancashire county council had awarded the contract to run patient advocacy groups to a private firm, Parkwood Healthcare. However the "biggest privatisation" so far was in community services – those areas of healthcare offered outside of hospitals. Labour used freedom of information requests to survey England's NHS primary care trusts on the range and value of community services being offered to the private and voluntary sector under the government's "any qualified provider" policy. In the first wave, 398 contracts were signed this week in eight NHS areas – including musculoskeletal services for back pain, adult hearing services in the community, wheelchair services for children and primary care psychological therapies for adults. Labour says £262m of services have drawn bids from 37 private healthcare companies. In about a quarter of the cases – 110 times – the health trusts stated "they had no plans to tender before the government instruction". Burnham said he was "against the market in the NHS, not private companies". He said the use of markets had seen "care being fragmented and services becoming disjointed". For example, in Lincolnshire six private providers compete to offer patients diagnostic tests as well as the NHS. The shadow health secretary also highlighted the fact that "some private providers have failed to deliver the standard of service required, yet could be bidding for similar contracts in other parts of the country". He cited the case of Serco's out-of-hours doctor services in Cornwall, which had "falsified data" to the NHS raising "fundamental questions about the outsourcing of NHS services to the private sector". Burnham said this was only the beginning. In 2013 the coalition will force another £750m of NHS services to be opened to competition from private companies and charities. The government argues that it has only put services out for "competition on quality not price" and if the policy is judged successful non-NHS bodies will be allowed to deliver more complicated clinical services in maternity and "home chemotherapy" from next year. The coalition's Health and Social Care Act also in effect allows hospitals to treat as many private patients as NHS patients – raising fears that the "paying ill" may be able to jump the queue in healthcare. Burnham said the government had created a "financial climate that will incentivise hospitals to look at the new rules on private patients as a source of much-needed income". Labour said it had examined hospital trust papers – and found a number planning to increase income by attracting paying patients. Buckinghamshire healthcare trust, which provides care to over half a million patients, says it aims to "double its private income over the next year". The Chelsea and Westminster hospital trust admits there is "considerable scope to ramp up its private patient work". Even in Burnham's own constituency his local hospital in Wrightington was "establishing a new private patient unit". Burnham said he would revive Labour's 2009 plan that NHS organisations were to be the service's preferred provider of care. This policy collapsed after a legal challenge by private companies just before the last election. However, the shadow health secretary said that in government Labour would "strip out the competition oversight" from the economic regulator Monitor. "We have taken legal advice from a senior QC that if you build the system around NHS agreements you can insulate the system from competition law. Healthcare is essentially a public service and EU member states can protect public services in that way." In his speech to the party, Burnham said the "next Labour government will repeal Cameron's [Health and Social Care] Act. We will stop the sell-off, put patients before profits, restore the N in NHS." Burnham admitted that in office Labour had gone too far in promoting competition in the health service. He told the conference that "while [Labour] brought waiting lists down to record lows, with the help of the private sector, at times we let the market in too far. Some tell me markets are the only way forward. My answer is simple: markets deliver fragmentation; the future demands integration." He also said the party had signed off on some "PFI deals [that] were poor value for money" and "at times, care of older people simply wasn't good enough". Sources close to the Tory health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said Labour was being disingenuous about its role in promoting competition in the NHS – with the party introducing market-based reforms almost a decade ago. "Burnham is promising another bill to replace the existing structures. That's a Labour promise of massive upheaval in the system again."
Nintendo's 3DS line might only have a year or two of vitality left with the advent of the hybrid Switch console, but that hasn't stopped the company loosing yet another iteration of the hardware: the slick-looking and budget friendly New Nintendo 2DS XL. There are literally hundreds of great games playable on these machines, and they're only falling in price, so it's a great time to jump in. But since this is the sixth member of the 3DS family released in as many years, it can be tough to gauge where they all fit. Coming in black and blue or white and orange, the New 2DS XL is both an upgrade and cut-back version of previous devices. The original 2011 3DS was followed by the larger 3DS XL. Then the New 3DS and New 3DS XL updated the machines with new features and better hardware. There was also the 2DS, a kid-focused budget device that stripped back some features — including the eponymous stereoscopic 3D screen — but still played all the games. This newest device packs all the hardware improvements of the New systems, the big 4.88-inch LCD screen of the XLs (with a secondary 4.18-inch touch screen) and a lower price, and wraps it all up in a brand new dual-tone look, reinstating the folding clamshell design the first 2DS lacked. And, confusing marketing aside, this might just be the nicest 3DS yet.
The two emails on Hillary Clinton’s private server that an auditor deemed “top secret” include a discussion of a news article detailing a US drone operation and a separate conversation that could point back to highly classified material in an improper manner or merely reflect information collected independently, US officials who have reviewed the correspondence told the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton campaign hit by setbacks as Sanders surges in New Hampshire Read more The sourcing of the information could have significant political implications as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up. Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, agreed this week to turn over to the FBI the private server she used as secretary of state, and Republicans in Congress have seized on the involvement of federal law enforcement as a sign that she was either negligent with the nation’s secrets or worse. On Monday, the inspector general for the 17 spy agencies that make up what is known as the intelligence community told Congress that two of 40 emails in a random sample of the 30,000 emails Clinton gave the State Department for review contained information deemed “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information”, one of the government’s highest levels of classification. The two emails were marked classified after consultations with the CIA, which is where the material originated, officials said. The officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity work in intelligence and other agencies. They wouldn’t detail the contents of the emails because of ongoing questions about classification level. Clinton did not transmit the sensitive information herself, they said, and nothing in the emails she received makes clear reference to communications intercepts, confidential intelligence methods or any other form of sensitive sourcing. The drone exchange, the officials said, begins with a copy of a news article that discusses the CIA drone program that targets terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere. While a secret program, it is well-known and often reported on. The copy makes reference to classified information, and a Clinton adviser follows up by dancing around a top secret in a way that could possibly be inferred as confirmation, they said. Several officials, however, described this claim as tenuous. But a second email reviewed by Charles McCullough, the intelligence community inspector general, appears more suspect. Nothing in the message is “lifted” from classified documents, the officials said, though they differed on where the information in it was sourced. Some said it improperly points back to highly classified material, while others countered that it was a classic case of what the government calls “parallel reporting” – different people knowing the same thing through different means. The emails came to light on Tuesday after Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa reported that McCullough found four “highly classified” emails on the unusual private server that Clinton used while she was secretary of state. Two were sent back to the State Department for review, but Grassley said the other two were, in fact, classified at the closely guarded “Top Secret/SCI level”. In a four-page fact sheet that accompanied a letter to Clinton supporters, Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri stressed that Clinton was permitted to use her own email account as a government employee and that the same process concerning classification reviews would still be taking place had she used the standard “state.gov” email account used by most department employees. The State Department, meanwhile, stressed that it wasn’t clear if the material at issue ought to be considered classified at all. Still, the developments suggested that the security of Clinton’s email setup and how she guarded the nation’s secrets will remain relevant campaign topics. Even if the emails highlighted by the intelligence community prove innocuous, she will still face questions about whether she set up the private server with the aim of avoiding scrutiny, whether emails she deleted because she said they were personal were actually work-related, and whether she appropriately shielded such emails from possible foreign spies and hackers. Clinton says she exchanged about 60,000 emails in her four years as secretary of state. She turned over all but what she said were personal emails late last year. The department has been making those public as they are reviewed and scrubbed of any sensitive data. The State Department advised employees not to use personal email accounts for work, but it wasn’t prohibited. But Clinton’s senior advisers at the State Department would have been briefed upon basic protocol for handling classified information and retaining government records. In Clinton’s time, most officials saved their emails onto a separate file or printed them out when leaving office. Only recently has the department begun automatically archiving the records of dozens of senior officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry. In the emails, Clinton’s advisers appear cognizant of secrecy protections. In a series of August 2009 emails, Clinton aide Huma Abedin told Clinton that the US point-man for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, and another official wanted “to do a secure” conversation to discuss Afghan elections. Clinton said she could talk after she received a fax of a classified Holbrooke memo, also on a secure line. Later, Abedin wrote: “He can talk now. We can send secure fax now. And then connect call.” But other times, the line was blurred. Among Clinton’s exchanges now censored as classified by the State Department was a brief exchange in October 2009 with Jeffrey Feltman, then the top US diplomat for the Middle East. Both Clinton and Feltman’s emails about an “Egyptian proposal” for a reconciliation ceremony with Hamas are marked B-1.4, classified for national security reasons, and completely blacked out from the email release. A longer email the same day from Clinton to former senator George Mitchell, then Mideast peace envoy, is also censored. Mitchell responds tersely and carefully that “the Egyptian document has been received and is being translated. We’ll review it tonight and tomorrow morning, will consult with the Pals [Palestinians] through our Consul General, and then I’ll talk with Gen. S again. We’ll keep you advised.”
Loving Somnia Hai there you nommy candy hearts, ♥ I’ve got a couple lovey releases for you guys out now at the Love Festival! There is also a free gift for you at the Love Festival!! I love these sweatshirts purrfect for everyday as well as those of you who aren’t into all the lovey dovey stuff for Vday! Super sweet dresses purrfect for your valentines plans! Each set is only 95L each! Only at Somnia at the Love Festival ♥ New release for The Theme Park!! These jeans have music notes playing down the leg and are purrfect fit for the Rock and Roll Theme! Only at Somnia at the Theme Park ♥ The Thrift Shop is still open so be sure to grab your gifty as well as these items at 50% off! Only at Somnia @ The Thrift Shop ♥ The February round of 25 for 25 has a few more days to go so be sure to grab this rainbowy dress before it is gone! Hint: Silleh pillows are for sleeping on not for hiding! Only at Somnia Main Store ♥ The Jack or Jill hunt has a few more days so grab this set free! Hint: Have a seat and relax for a bit. Only at Somnia Main Store Whew all done I hope you enjoy everything! All my love and thanks ❤ Sanura
Photo by Sebastian Matthes Indie rock's place in mainstream music is in a precarious place. Each guitar riff seems to be begging for relevancy; trying to remind us of the ways a traditional four or five piece band could stir us up enough to let loose on the dance floor or thoughtfully challenge ourselves. Yet, good indie rock looks at that looming question of relevance square in the eye and asks how it can push itself forward. On their fifth record, Big Balloon, Manchester's Dutch Uncles swerve toward a funkier art-rock approach; still on the heels of David Bowie, with a little David Byrne, and added touch of contemporaries Franz Ferdinand. It's not subtle, it's soaring, which is it what makes it good. "I doubt the bands at the top will ever push anything forward, they'll just get cozy like the Kaiser Chiefs and make an album/do a tour when they want some money," says Dutch Uncles lead singer Duncan Wallis. "But I'm not sure what the flourishing underground troupes will do to separate themselves from the situation other than politely decline the shortsighted offers handed down from the top. Hopefully they'll do just that." Big Balloon is a classically twitchy art-rock; breathy on "Hiccup", fast-paced and earnest on "Baskin'" before launching into the swelling ballad-esque "Achameleon." It would seem too easy to simply cite the group's influences of Bowie or Kate Bush (which they happily do) but Big Balloon is more nuanced than just the big names of the 80s. Each song sounds like a tribute to something the band loved from the genre's heyday; dedicating itself to production and composition of a good song, narrowing their focus on the singular rather than a narrative or cohesive piece. On title track "Big Balloon" one is most struck by the deft bass intro that steadies the track through its entirety; the synths on "Sink"; "Combo Box" moves between taut riffs; and "Oh Yeah" is more a power pop track than a rock song. This allows for some flexibility and experimentation on the part of the group. "Our last two albums had been very stiff in a narrative sense and, in some cases, you needed to listen to one song to make sense of another. So this time around we wanted ten separate entities that also complimented each other," says Wallis. Big Balloon is out Feb. 17 via Memphis Industries but listen to a premiere stream of it below and see where you can catch them live: 18 Feb. - Manchester, Low Four Studio, Piccadilly Records Out Store 20 Feb. - Nottingham, Rough Trade In Store 21 Feb. - London, Rough Trade East In Store 22 Feb. - Bristol, Rise In Store 01 March - Edinburgh, Electric Circus 02 March - Newcastle, The Cluny 03 March - Leeds, The Wardrobe 04 March - Nottingham, Bodega 06 March - Birmingham, Hare and Hounds 07 March - Sheffield, The Plug 08 March - Oxford, O2 Academy2 09 March - Bristol, Fleece 11 March - Brighton, The Haunt 12 March - Southampton, Talking Heads 13 March - London, Village Underground 15 March - Manchester, Dancehouse Theatre 27 Jul – 30 Jul 2017 – Hertfordshire, Standon Calling Festival Sarah MacDonald is a staff writer for Noisey Canada. Follow her on Twitter.
In our LinkedIn Project Management 2.0 group (you can join us here!), we asked experienced project managers to divulge their #1 tip for newcomers to the field. Not surprisingly, these process fanatics shared a plethora of great tips to help newcomers succeed in this ever-changing area of work. Read through their project management advice below, and see what you can learn as you walk into your first, second, or even tenth PM role. "I think that all the important tips could be summarized with a metaphor: You should be like an Orchestra Director for your team, with a detailed project plan as score." — Jose Ignacio Bernaldo de Quiros Ochoa Everyone Agrees — Excellent Communication is the #1 Indicator of Success Understand the culture Communication is key, and much of that will be informal, so building your network and understanding culture and dynamics are key. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP Be accessible to learn more Always allow people to come to you. Be accessible and listen to what project team members will ask or comment all the time. The more you know, the better you are able to make decisions. Buy knowledge and sell solutions unless you want to pay for project deviations. Fábio Issao Watanabe Communicate to identify changes quickly I think that success depends on communication and focus on the goal. Good communication with the team identifies deviations in a timely manner. Good communication with customers can quickly identify changes in scope. Oscar Teran Keep detailed project notes to share Follow up on tasks and Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Keep detailed notes and make sure everyone on the team is aware of what is happening. Monteau (Montee) Outlaw Discuss challenges, roadblocks, & risks Make sure to be transparent within your core and your extended project team, as well towards your managers, owner, sponsor. Communicate roadblocks, challenges, and risks clearly and in advance for everyone to see. Know and accept: no one cares for, or is as committed to your project as much, as you are/must be. Janos Veres Listen to opinions from everyone, even if you reject them later Keep communication channels open for all stakeholders: the team, the sponsor, the customer, the end user, your boss, etc. I am not saying that you let yourself be manipulated by every party, just try to listen before making decisions. Hear every opinion, then make your route. Mehmet Degirmencioglu Respect every opinion as if it were your own Train communication, create empathy with your stakeholders. Respect and value everybody's opinions, even if you don't completely agree. João Rodrigues Challenge ideas to make them better You are hired to manage projects; your team is hired to be the technical expertise to deliver that project. Therefore, if they are telling you something, it's usually a good idea to take in what they're saying and, in some cases, challenge it. If you're not technical, ask for clarification on points you genuinely don't understand. That's normally enough for technical teams to make them think through their explanations, so they'll carry out an internal check to ensure their thinking is sound. Andrew Hudson Build rapport and trust with clients Build rapport with the client. Build trust and then never lose it. Under promise and over deliver. Plan and communicate. Marc Hammoud Don’t Pretend You Know Everything on Day One Always ask "that question" You may not have the experience needed to do things 100% correct the first time, so keep it real and allow people to give you suggestions. My #1 suggestion to newbies is: Always ask "that question". Finding a balance between asking questions or following up offline is a talent you will learn over time, but for now, don't be shy. You might harm your own project by not speaking up until it becomes a show stopper near implementation time. Speak up and you will find your team is truly on your side! John Skowronski, PMI-ACP, PMP Don't isolate your team with overconfidence Do not think you know everything. I've seen too many project managers take a hard line and push things through because they think they know best. That breeds resentment in the project team. I've seen project managers exert their supposed technical or subject authority on a project, only for that project to ultimately remove those additions at a later and more expensive stage. Andrew Hudson Learn from every experience You don't have to know everything about everything — it's ok to ask questions and learn from each experience. Ann Lynne Dodson To Be the Best, Hone Your Leadership & Management Skills Make sure you motivate and lead your team Soft skills are very important. The people involved make the difference between success and failure. You can have knowledge and methods, but you need skills to motivate and lead. Maarten Verreck Manage your people, not just your documentation Following the PM process and keeping up with all the communication tools like the risk log, issue log, schedule, and deliverables should all take a back seat to leading your team. For years I prided myself in being really good at the documentation side of project management, but it never really mattered that much. The most important skill a project manager must master is Leadership! Larry Sparkman Build a bridge for two-way trust Trust is the biggest thing for me, because if I don't trust my technical team then I'm inherently suspicious of them and vice versa. Building a relationship of trust, and therefore openness, is crucial if you are to deliver multiple successful projects. Andrew Hudson Stay flexible to take on every challenge Keep your knowledge constantly updated, trying to develop new capabilities and remaining flexible in terms of project management methodologies to use, etc. Things can change very rapidly in this field, and as the leader of your team, flexibility and a listening ear are most important to manage the risks and change. Nirmal Singh Delegate wisely and lead by example Learn what you can delegate. Learn who you can delegate to. Lead by example. Work harder than anyone else. Treat everyone you touch with respect and kindness. Lori Galster Train your people to be future leaders It should always be remembered that delegation is not purely about sharing workload. Also it gives the team member a sense of ownership and liability and allows them to learn... Today's team member can be tomorrow's PM. Andy Nelson, AMBCS, P2 Cert Practitioner Think outside the box The key for successful PM is communication, problem-solving, and decision-making. Working smarter and offering solutions. Thinking outside the box and strategically looking at the bigger picture. Kassim Toorawa Protect your team You "Protect" the project team, they do the rest. Onur Karabulut And don't forget to proactively celebrate success! The most important part: celebrate with your team who made it possible! Puneet Gulati, MSP, PMP, ITIL v3 Be the Person Who Keeps Work Organized & Meetings Focused Use templates to stay organized Try to stay as organized as you can, use templates and other tools provided by PMI (you can find them on PMI's website). Bhawna Mundotia, PMP Document! Document! Document! Always keep a track record of the work being done. Pietro Cecere Step up and capture ideas during meetings If you are in a meeting that needs focus because people are talking in circles, step up to the white board or large note pad and start scribing their ideas, requirements, comments, issues, etc. — preferably into actionable categories. Do not speak! Just scribe. If they start to focus on what you are writing, then you can ask them if they want to identify owners for each actionable item. Jerry B. Fisher Learn What Inspires Your New Team, Then Achieve Success Together Know the working culture before you introduce change First understand the work/culture/situation, and then make your moves/changes. PMs always want to do something new and different based on their experiences, which is a good thing, but do it smartly. You can't just jump in and start making changes to the system without understanding it; every company has their own limitations, constraints, and culture. Make changes in such a way that they get absorbed in the right attitude. Santosh Maurya Understand everyone's motivations Learn that project management can be as much about politics as handling projects. Remember that not everyone working on the project is actually for the project. Learn the motivations and intentions of not just your team, but also upwards to the stakeholders and business users. Andy Nelson, AMBCS, P2 Cert Practitioner Build a culture of sharing and innovation to build a strong team Foster a culture where everyone's ideas are heard to allow more innovation to take place. The added bonus is that the project team itself becomes a lot stronger — team members are far more open to suggesting and working through ideas if they know they'll be heard, rather than thinking they'll be shouted down all the time. Andrew Hudson Know the Limitations of Your Project Team — And Yourself Don't forget the human The methodologies are great if well-used, but they won't work if you do not remember that you are working with other people. Human responses are not always logical or predictable. Tiago Prado Know your team's strengths Understand the skill set & mind set of the people that you're going to handle in your team. Prabhu M Leave egos behind Be aware of strengths and limitations in your team and, more importantly, yourself. There is no room for egos. Louie Turcotte, Jr Find what sets you apart Determine your specialization and go for it. The best thing you can do is to decide what sets you apart and make that shine. Remember you are turning concepts into realities and it takes creativity to get you there. Develop thick skin and never fall in love with your first draft, no matter what it is. James L Thompson, PMP, CSM, Executive MBA, ITIL Ask Questions to Understand Current Processes, & Keep Them Simple Ask follow-up questions When someone makes a suggestion, I like to follow up with background questions: When and under what circumstances have you implemented that in the past? Why was that approach successful? What made it more efficient, cost effective, etc.? Then I broaden my scope of understanding. Lori Galster Don't make mountains out of molehills DON'T make a huge mind-numbing deal out of the project. Newbies are generally so eager to implement their knowledge or are so psyched up about being in the shoes of a PM, they generally end up overcomplicating simple things. I have seen "accidental" project managers perform better than those who come to the job armed with the whole pedigree of PM tools, techniques, and strategies. It's better to keep work simple and streamlined so that attention can be devoted to planning, actual implementation, and overall scope and quality control, instead of waiting for the heavens to open up and rain down! Trina Moitra Make progress the priority Do not always look at things from a process perspective. Governance is important, but when it impedes progress then there is an issue. Dave Regan Clarify Everyone's Roles & Responsibilities on Every Project Understand your own role first Clearly understand your role and responsibilities and your delegated authority. This will depend on the type of organization you're operating under. Also understand your key stakeholders and their level of influence. Kassim Toorawa Analyze project heartbeats daily I suggest accidental managers follow the RACI model and analyze project heartbeats daily. R- Who is Responsible to do the work A- Who is Accountable for final decisions and ultimate ownership C- Who is Consulted before a decision or action is taken I- Who is Informed that the decision or action has been taken The RACI model is helpful to define/identify/clarify roles and responsibilities. Once you have those, match them up with processes. It's especially useful in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional processes. For example, an organization may have a person who performs the role of project manager, and may also perform the role of test manager. Hambirrao Patil Beware of role creep Watch for ROLE creep, which is similar to scope creep in a project. In role creep, your role as a PM might be under constant pressure — from academics, LinkedIn groups, co-workers, and especially those working above you. This is because there are so many forces at work around a substantial project, especially in a non-projectized organization where there is no discipline to comply with standardized and repeatable project management processes. There will be pressure to be innovative, be creative, and be an agent of change, and you will have managers asking you to list all your accomplishments. Your ultimate role is always to deliver what is in the WBS and project plan, use a designated process for scope change, risk monitoring, and issue management, and maintain good communication. Michael Ayres MS, PMP, CISSP, CSEP Make Sure You Have a Full Understanding of the Project Objectives, Assets, & Risks Know the project inside out Understand the project — so the planning, objectives, results that the project wants to achieve, and of course know the monitoring plan: what are the indicators, its tools, etc. Marta Acero Set the goals first Establish the goal and objectives (SMART) of your new project. Once this is done well, I would immediately do the PESTEL analysis and build the SWOT analysis. Then, it's planning, communication, and organization. For your project setup plan, you can also use the What, When, Who, Which, Where, etc. model. Osvaldo Mirante, PhD Understand the project needs Having a clear understanding of both the functional and technical definition/needs of the project upfront, with stakeholder buy-in, is extremely important. Muqtader MBA Make sure the project achieves its original goal Focus on specified project objectives! Muqtader MBA Control the project scope Knowing your exact scope of work very well is the key to controlling the rest. Mohammad Hamdan, PMPⓇ Think about what can outside forces could affect your project — positively or negatively Look for organizational process assets that are available to you. Identify the environmental factors that will influence your projects and how they'll be delivered. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP Make work actionable Make sure everything is actionable and responsibilities are assigned and transparent. Henriette Ebbesen Laidlaw Allow time for multiple iterations Plan and drive project activities according to strategic guidelines. Allow the project team a few iterations over viable and plausibly valid alternative solutions. Never be afraid to ask the project owner for clarification or adjustment of target, timeline, resources, or scope. Janos Veres Don't forget to manage potential risks You need to understand the organization's culture to make a roadmap and deliver projects on time and within budget. You should also keep an eye on risks arising during the course of project implementation, with a risk mitigation plan in place. Puneet Gulati, MSP, PMP, ITIL v3 Get Buy-In From Stakeholders Early & Manage Their Expectations Along the Way Identify every stakeholder Identify all stakeholders and develop terms of references. This will align all roles of different individuals in the project and make it easier to relate with them. Lesiba Noah Konaite Sell the project to all necessary parties Involve as many as possible stakeholders at the beginning of a project to gain broader buy-in. Andries Venter, Inclusive Project Manager Hold 1-on-1 project feedback sessions Before kicking off the project, connect with all the key stakeholders in 1-on-1 sessions to get their input on the project, their goals, their level of support, etc. This will uncover hidden "gotchas" and misalignment that may come up later if you don't do this. Tom Treanor Make stakeholders believe in the goal, not just the budget Getting stakeholder buy-in on the outcome and benefit of completing the project is more important than stakeholder acceptance of the scope, schedule, and budget. If decision-makers believe in what the project will achieve, they will be more likely to accept changes to the scope and tolerances if you can show that it will lead to a better outcome. If all you've sold is a budget and a delivery date, you're doomed to failure. Chris Cox Continually manage expectations as the project goes on Manage the stakeholders' expectations within given limits. That would encompass all the necessary requirements such as deliverables, scope, etc. John Mpungu Don't Be Afraid of Failure, Learn From It Fail fast, recover faster Failure is an option. Fail fast so you can recover quickly and learn. Sreekumar Govindan Turn mistakes into learning opportunities Don't be afraid of mistakes — learn from them. They are the building blocks for future success in this challenging and dynamic profession! Susan Kirkpatrick, PMP, CSSBB Deliver what the business actually needs A high percentage of projects fail because they don't deliver what the business needs. Even when you have that nice 400-page requirements document that was signed off on, it does not mean everyone understands what is being delivered. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP Ultimate Success Comes From Careful Management, Not Just Careful Planning Manage the problem, not just the Gantt chart Reality drives the schedule, not the other way around. It's not about wrangling Gantt charts, it's about wrangling people and problems. James Radvan Plan to succeed & persevere Every day there is a chance that you will have your back to the wall. Plan to succeed. Coordinate your priorities, delegate to those in your team, and make the project work. Paul Alwood Keep your eye on the overall objectives No one on the business side cares about the Gantt chart or status reports or the PM deliverables. What they are looking for is the capabilities to achieve the business objectives your project will deliver. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP And Remember: Nothing Beats Hands-On Experience You can't fake experience Experience is the most valued ingredient of the perfect PM brew, and that can either come with the salt and pepper of years or from a very competent mentor. There is no way to fake experience. Trina Moitra Expose yourself to real-life situations early on Gain as much experience in project management as you can. Books, theory, and concepts are all fine, but real-life situations are much tougher. The more you face these situations, the smarter you become. There is no better way to learn project management than to expose yourself to real-life situations. Mangal Pandya Rely on your people skills, and push for the success at the end of the project Don't give up. A Project Manager position is not a rewarding job every day. You have to work really hard to get things done (especially in a Matrix environment), so you have to rely on your people skills a lot. (Keep those sharp!) In the end, you will persevere, and when the project finishes successfully, you will love that feeling of success. Bhawna Mundotia, PMP What advice can you share? Let's keep the conversation going here! Share your advice and thoughts in the comments below. Tell us what you'd add to this list, or expand upon a piece of advice that really resonated with you. *Note: Some of the above responses have been slightly modified for clarity, grammar, and length.
Deborah Borda, the president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said: “Things have really changed radically. In the old days, even 10 years ago, you might have one woman who would come for an assistant conductor audition, and now it might be half.” When Ms. Jackson became music director of the Reno Philharmonic in Nevada in 2009, there were three women among the five finalists for the position. But the industry still needs to do more to encourage women who study conducting to remain with the daunting career. A post on the blog of the magazine Mother Jones said that the percentage of women among those completing doctoral degrees in conducting still significantly exceeded their presence in the field as practitioners. The young Lithuanian conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, recently a Dudamel Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, told me that more of the male students she studied alongside in Austria had ended up serious conductors than the women. Even for those able to make the career work, there have been the complications of how, exactly, to conduct when the physical models have been male. “When men make forceful gestures, they come off as being masculine and virile,” Ms. Alsop said. “Sometimes when women do that, they’re interpreted as being pushy and bossy. I’ve really worked hard at trying to, sort of, de-genderize my gestures.” It helps that the image of conducting has broadened in recent decades from the imposing, patriarchal model of Toscanini and von Karajan. Men like Simon Rattle have flourished with easier-going personalities and an emphasis on community building, a landscape that makes the idea of women on the podium seem more natural to audiences, institutions and donors. “He showed that you could be informal,” Sian Edwards said of Mr. Rattle. “You didn’t have to have this authoritarian, rather grand image that had been peddled by Deutsche Grammophon.”
"Yeah, 4-2 we lost, but I think we played a little bit better than San Jose," Malkin said after practice Saturday. "They're a good team, but they were a little bit lucky." SAN JOSE -- Evgeni Malkin simply said what is on his mind, and probably on the minds of all of his Pittsburgh Penguins teammates, in the aftermath of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. Surely, the Sharks feel differently, but Malkin's point is well taken. The Penguins outshot the Sharks 46-22 and had a 76-36 edge in total shot attempts, including 66-29 at even strength. The series is here for Game 6 on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports) because of Sharks goalie Martin Jones and his 44 saves in Game 5. Video: SJS@PIT, Gm5: Jones makes 44 saves in Game 5 win But the fact that the series has returned to SAP Center doesn't mean anything changes for the Penguins. And why would anything change? The opportunity hasn't changed. Win one more game against the Sharks and the Stanley Cup is theirs. That's it. Simple. Straightforward. There's no need to overanalyze what's at stake Sunday. "We felt terrible after the last game," Penguins left wing Patric Hornqvist said. "There was a lot of disappointment, but we met on the plane [Friday] and everybody was refocused. Today in practice, everybody was energized and ready to go. We just want to play the game." The same question was asked of a number of Penguins on Saturday: If you play the same way you played in Game 5, will it be good enough to win Game 6? Video: Sidney Crosby talks to the media after practice The answers didn't change much. "Yeah, I don't think you can ask for more," Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said, "especially the scoring chances against and the scoring chances for." "We need to start a little bit better, but aside from that, we played a solid game," center Matt Cullen said. "We created a lot of offense and didn't give up a whole lot." The "start" part is key. The Sharks had a 2-0 lead less than three minutes into Game 5. That the Penguins had it tied by 5:06 of the first period didn't erase the fact that they had to chase in this series for the first time. They hated it. Video: Murray talks to the media after practice in San Jose "We got pissed off after our start last game and played the way we can," Cullen said. "We have to carry that chip on our shoulders and go after it." Cullen didn't think the Penguins did in Game 5. He called it a missed opportunity. "This is one of those situations where we feel like we did enough good things to win, but I don't think that we made sure," Cullen said. "I think we have a group here that can make sure. And if we play the way we can for 60 (minutes), we feel really good about what happens. But I think we have to have that little bit of pissed-off attitude and go after it and take it." Provided they do, there's a feeling around this series now that Jones will have to be dominant again for the Sharks to force Game 7. Can he be? Video: SJS@PIT, Gm5: Kessel hits both posts on one-timer "You never know, right?" right wing Phil Kessel said. "Obviously, the way he's playing, he's playing great. We just gotta keep doing the same things. If we put a lot of pucks on net and go to the net hard, hopefully we'll find the back of the net." But back to the start for a moment, because it's clearly on the Penguins' minds. What happened? "I think it's too much energy," Malkin said. "We were excited playing at home, first time we could get a Stanley Cup win at home. Lots of noise around team, and we did not think we [started] right." Video: Evgeni Malkin talks to reporters following practice Malkin is talking about the hype that surrounded the Penguins leading into Game 5 for what could have been the first major pro sports championship won in Pittsburgh by a Pittsburgh team in almost 56 years. Maybe it was paralyzing to the Penguins. Goalie Matt Murray admitted he was nervous. He played like it. So did his teammates. "Leading up to it, there obviously was a lot of hype," Murray said. The Penguins don't have to be concerned about that now. They're far more insulated here in Northern California. There will be craziness in Pittsburgh again, including a watch party inside Consol Energy Center, but the Penguins are in Sharks territory with the same goal in mind. "Find a way to finish," captain Sidney Crosby said.
Driving a Comet Through the Desert, Flashing Lights, and Aliens Photography by Josh Clason for Petrolicious Mr. Michael Anderson gave the seller a half hour to get the car running while he went into the Peppermill Casino to try his luck, “If I have money left after some blackjack and the car is running, I’ll think about buying it.” The car in question, which at that moment was little more than a 3400 pound sculpture, is the one pictured here, a 1963 ½ Mercury Comet with a V8. The seller and his wife jumped in her car and headed to the store to buy some jumper cables. Apparently, he’d left his lights on while waiting for Mike to show. They hurried back from the Wal-mart, jump-started the Mercury and drove it around the block a few times to charge the battery a bit. He was anxious to get rid of the car as he needed more room. Mike had been watching the Mercury for a while in a small, classified news rag and its price had dropped from when it was first listed. Mike finally called and scheduled to come take a look in Reno, Nevada. It was only five hundred miles (~800km) and two flights away, after all. At first glance the car appeared as described but when Mike tried to fire it up, well, you know what happened. After a little while and with some money left over, Mike came back out to find the Comet rumbling and the seller eagerly waiting. With the battery charged and everything appearing the way it should, they settled on a price. Mike “told [the seller] he was throwing in the cables,” they shook hands, and he began the long drive home. About three or four hours into the drive, Mike began looking for a motel along the lonely road. The car was running well, but it was dark and late. He stopped at a couple of spots in small towns on the way, but everything was closed. It was the off-season and the middle of the night; Mike realized that there was no hope of finding a room. He decided to press on, tuning the AM radio dial to Art Bell, host of the paranormal and alien-themed radio show Coast to Coast AM. On California route-395, in the high-desert valley just east of the Sierra Nevadas around midnight, Mike began seeing glimmers of light way out in the distance. But there was nothing around for miles. The irregular flashes hung just above the horizon for a moment then vanished as he urged the Comet through the still night. Then the absurdity struck him: here he was driving a Comet through the black desert night, listening to a radio show about aliens with lights flaring in the distance. It wasn’t an alien mothership he was seeing though, it was a thunderstorm between San Diego and Los Angeles, maybe two hundred miles away. He chuckled to himself, rubbed his eyes, and kept pushing. He wouldn’t be abducted tonight. That was almost five years ago and, yes, he did make it home safely that night at about four in the morning. Since then, he’s driven the car extensively, including a drive to a national Mercury Comet meet in Tennessee. But he felt like having some fresh crab cakes afterwards and so he headed for Virginia (what’s an extra few hundred miles anyway?) and the Atlantic Ocean. Join the Conversation
Idee: mok, jko; dan, ssi; Foto: Shutterstock Nürnberg (dpo) - Der mutmaßlich in Anschlagsplanungen involvierte Bundeswehrsoldat Franco A. ist schon bald kein Fall für die deutsche Justiz mehr: Wie das Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF) in Nürnberg heute mitteilte, ist der Flüchtlingsstatus des offenbar rechtsextremistischen Oberleutnants im Eilverfahren aberkannt worden. Somit wird der 28-Jährige schon in den nächsten Tagen nach Syrien abgeschoben."Der Mann hat sich zu Unrecht als syrischer Flüchtling registriert. Durch diesen Asylmissbrauch hat er sein Bleiberecht verwirkt", so eine Sprecherin des BAMF. "In Damaskus wird er viel Zeit haben, darüber nachzudenken, was er sich hier als Gast in Deutschland geleistet hat."Eigentlich gelte Syrien nicht als sicheres Herkunftsland, doch in diesem Fall mache man eine Ausnahme: "Als Bundeswehrsoldat sollte sich Herr A. zu wehren wissen."Ob Franco A. nach seiner Abschiebung auch von den syrischen Behörden für seine mutmaßlichen Anschlagspläne in Deutschland strafrechtlich belangt wird, ist noch unklar: "Die syrischen Kollegen haben sich bis jetzt leider noch nicht bei uns zurückgemeldet."Deshalb wird der Bundeswehrsoldat zunächst auf dem Flughafen von Damaskus abgesetzt. "Wir hoffen, er findet sich mit seinen Arabischkenntnissen dort zurecht", erklärt die Sprecherin. "Zur Not kann er ja exzellent Französisch."
Those damn kids with their damn K Street careers waiting for them while I slave away listening to goddamn John Boehner... Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) lamented in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that his staff can get rich as lobbyists while he is "stuck here making $172,000," according to the National Review Online. NRO Jonathan Strong reports that Gingrey said that staff may not make a lot of money on Capitol Hill, “but in a few years they can just go to K Street and make $500,000 a year. Meanwhile I’m stuck here making $172,000.” Oh, the sadness. I think we all need to get together tonight and light a candle for Rep. Phil Gingrey That does sound horrible. Well, I can think of several ways to get out of your dead-end $172,000 per year job, Rep. Gingrey, so give me a ring if you'd like some advice. For a small fee, of course.
Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email A police officer from South Wales was left red-faced in front of colleagues after mistaking chocolate buttons for Class B drug cannabis. According to industry publication Police Magazine, the PCSO was sent to investigate a factory after its HR boss said he had evidence a drug dealer was operating on the premises. The officer from the Caerphilly Neighbourhood Policing Team seized the 'evidence' and passed it to senior officers in Caerphilly. The substance was carefully sealed in an evidence bag and labelled as a 'small brown piece of vegetation, possibly cannabis'. But on closer inspection, the sweet, brown substance was discovered to be a melted chocolate button. A colleague said: “He’s had quite a ribbing since.”
CNN Erin Burnett and Kellyanne Conway -- (CNN screen grab) Appearing on CNN with Erin Burnett, Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway attempted to sidestep questions over the GOP presidential candidate using his foundation to pay off $258,000 in lawsuits — as reported in the Washington Post — before being cornered and blurting, “There’s are many lawsuits.” Covering a wealth of issues that have cropped up for the Trump campaign in the past few days, the Trump campaign manager — who acts more like as his spokesperson — dismissed the WaPo report by using the article’s use of the expression “may have” when it discussed illegality in the payments. Conway then attempted to spin the payment as “classic Donald Trump,” stating the money was attached to a charity benefiting veterans. “He wanted to raise the American flag as high as he could over Mar-a-Lago,” she explained. “I think a lot of Americans would appreciate that.” Host Burnett didn’t let her off the hook, noting that an attorney with extensive experience in non-profits called the lawsuit payoffs, “as blatant an example of self-dealing as I have seen in awhile.” “The idea that money went for — when people hear ‘self-dealing,’ Erin, you know what they think of immediately,” Conway parried. “That it’s going for plane rides and fancy hotels and expensive meals and certainly salaries and overhead, and that sounds to me like the Clinton Foundation,” before Burnett cut in. After Burnett pointed out that that Trump’s personal business benefited by the foundation using other people’s money to pay off lawsuits, Conway professed confusion. “Well there are many lawsuits everyday against people,” Conway said said before becoming accusatory. “That’s a bridge too far, I think you’re making things up not based on facts not reported in this story that uses a lot of conditional phrasing” According to a USA Today report in June of this year, Trump has been involved in over 3,500 lawsuits. Watch the video below via CNN:
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham blasted news reports that Jared Kushner wanted a backdoor channel with Russians, saying Americans are “chasing our tails” over unverified reports about Russia. On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, host Dana Bash asked Graham what he thought of reports that Kushner wanted to have secret communications with the Russian government. “Well number one we’re chasing our tails as a nation when it comes to the Russians,” Graham said. “I don’t know who leaked this supposed conversation, but just think about it this way: you got the ambassador of Russia reporting back to Moscow on an open channel, ‘hey Jared Kushner’s gonna move into the embassy.'” “I don’t trust this story as far as I can throw it,” Graham snarked. He said further that he thinks the Russians probably planted a false story about Kushner by using a communications channel they know is being monitored by the United States. “I think it makes no sense that the Russian ambassador would report back to Moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we’re monitoring. The whole thing is suspicious.” WATCH: Follow Amber on Twitter
A Suffolk County, N.Y., judge has ruled that a contractor's filing of amended tax returns claiming $1.6 million of additional income on the eve of his divorce trial was simply a malicious attempt to prevent his wife from recovering marital assets, and therefore has refused to apportion the couple's approximately $500,000 to $1.2 "It is well settled that expenses (including unpaid taxes) incurred prior to the commencement of a divorce action constitute marital debt which, under normal circumstances, should be equally shared by the parties. However, in those rare instances where a party's conduct in creating a debt is so egregious, shocking, fraudulent or malicious, the Court can exercise its discretion and refuse to apportion the debt," Acting Supreme Court Justice Andrew A. Crecca (See Profile) wrote in Maria C. v. Dominick C. , 04775/08. "Under the facts and circumstances of this case," the judge concluded, "this is one of those rare instances." ... Shortly before the divorce went to trial in March, the defendant-husband, Dominick C., unilaterally filed marital tax returns for the years 2004 through 2007. In the amended returns, the husband admitted earning more than $1.6 million in unreported income over those four years. The husband filed the returns on his own initiative, as the couple was not being audited or under investigation, and without his wife's signature. He included on the cover page a list of assets the government might consider attaching, including the couple's house. The husband stated the house's value ($1.2 million), the size of the mortgage and the name of the bank that held the loan. After hearing testimony from a variety of fact and expert witnesses, including the husband's accountant and the wife's forensic accountant, the court determined that the husband had a single, illegitimate reason for belatedly reporting his business' income. "The court sees no legitimate reason for this outrageous and despicable conduct, which the court finds is based solely on malice and revenge, with no other goal than to prevent his wife from any recovery in equitable distribution," the judge concluded. "Accordingly, as a result of such shocking and egregious conduct on the part of the defendant-husband, the Court declines to apportion any tax liability to the plaintiff-wife in connection with the amended personal returns and directs that the defendant-husband should bear full responsibility for any such additional tax liability."
I can't make people understand. The indictment of former Alabama Rep. Oliver Robinson - and his agreement to plead to conspiracy and bribery and cooperate with the feds - is bigger than him. It's a bomb. It's not just that some House member took cash to betray his poorest constituents. Sure, that's gross, but it's just the tip. In the grand scheme of this potential political unraveling, Robinson is the equivalent of the Watergate burglars. Who were those guys again? This - this is far bigger that Robinson. Or it could be. In his indictment, the feds point to Balch & Bingham and Drummond Co. as bribers. If proven, it'll be a body check to the very systems that run Alabama politics and fund the ugliest parts of them. It just depends on what Robinson will spill to keep his sentence to a minimum. It depends on what the unnamed co-conspirators at Drummond and Balch are willing to say, and whether the actions outlined in the federal documents can be quarantined. Because these players - and those they associate with - provide the grease that makes Alabama run. Balch & Bingham lawyer Will Sellers swearing now-Gov. Kay Ivey in as lieutenant governor in 2011. (Joe Songer) Drummond did not respond to questions about its involvement. Balch & Bingham says it is taking the Robinson allegations seriously, and is cooperating with authorities. "Honesty and integrity are core values at Balch & Bingham, and they will guide us as we evaluate these allegations," firm spokeswoman Julie Wall said. Balch & Bingham is one of Alabama's most powerful firms. You can't follow a political story - as the recent drama at the state board of education shows -- without tripping on a Balch lawyer or lobbyist. Gov. Kay Ivey just appointed Balch lawyer Will Sellers - a longtime confidante - to the Alabama Supreme Court. And several Balch lawyers sit in positions to advise U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Balch and Drummond both contribute heavily to political campaigns inside and out of Alabama. Each gave more than $215,000 in last year's federal election cycle, which was enough to put them in the state's top 10 donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. But this is not just about those tainted by the Oliver Robinson scandal. This is about the way political money is spent. Both Balch and Drummond have substantial ties to another Top 10 giver -- Southern Company, parent to Alabama Power. Alabama Power owns the building that houses part of Balch & Bingham's Birmingham office, and partner Eason Balch is a registered lobbyist for Alabama Power. Years ago, when federal reporting rules required utility companies to tell exactly how they spent money on politics and lobbying, Alabama Power paid Balch hundreds of thousands a year for political work. In 1999, for instance, it paid Balch $829,601 for political work, along with $922,054 to Perkins Communications, run by strategist Joe Perkins of the political dark arts group Matrix. Federal rules have changed, so Alabama Power no longer must report that. Political spending is now filed under the umbrella "Certain Civic, Political & Related Activities," which the company has said includes money for "a wide range of community and nonprofit organizations" as well as for politics and lobbying. Still, Alabama Power spreads that money around in a volume that dwarfs many utilities. In the last six years the company spent $126 million on civic and political activities, or more than $21 million a year, according to data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Pacific Gas & Electric, the largest power company in the U.S., spent $11.4 million in that category last year. Alabama Power has been adamant that the money comes out of shareholder pockets, and not that of customers. It is unknown how much Alabama Power money continues to go to Balch & Bingham. What is clear is that money from entities supportive of coal and power - and other interests - have flowed through Balch and into the hands of those who change opinions. Balch has employed Perkins' Matrix group, which worked with entities such as the Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy (PACE), which lobbied hard in 2013 to prevent the Public Service Commission from holding formal utility rate hearings - which Alabama Power opposed. Understand, Alabama. What happened in north Birmingham is not about Birmingham. What happened to Robinson is not just about Robinson. Alabama's political status quo is at risk. For the first time in a long time. That's a good thing.
The case is due to be heard next Wednesday when the court sits in Melbourne. It is expected to take at least two days. The court could take up to a month to make a decision, but it is expected to rule next week after the second day of hearings. Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act, the counting of votes must be finished and the writs returned within 100 days. With the new Senate scheduled to sit from July 7, writs for a fresh election would have to be issued no later then March 28. The commission has argued it is not possible to ''conclude with certainty, or on the balance of probabilities'' who has been elected out of the WA vote. There were two counts of the Senate vote in the state. The first count saw Palmer United Party candidate Zhenya "Dio" Wang and Labor's Louise Pratt elected in the fifth and sixth spots. But after the second count - declared on November 4 - the Sports Party's Wayne Dropulich and the Greens' Scott Ludlam edged out Mr Wang and Senator Pratt. There have been petitions to the court arguing that the original result should be upheld. On Tuesday in Melbourne, Justice Kenneth Hayne ruled that a petition from Greens Senator Scott Ludlam did not meet the criteria to be included in the case and ordered him to pay costs. Senator Ludlam's submission did not dispute the result of the election. It argued that if his position was to be declared void then the whole ballot should be nullified. His petition to the court contained similar arguments to the AEC petition that will be considered next week. "All eyes are on next week when the substantial matters will be heard," Senator Ludlam said on Tuesday. Senator Ludlam said that if court sent WA back to the polls it would be a test of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's performance as prime minister. Newly-elected Labor senator Joe Bullock said he wanted a decision on whether there would be a fresh election as soon as possible. Mr Bullock - who was elected in the second spot - said he expected Labor's vote to rise if a fresh election was held, arguing WA voters had already delivered a protest vote at the September election. But he questioned the AEC's push for a fresh election and said the 1370 votes lost by the commission should be counted. "As I understand the position of the AEC, they say their needs to be a fresh election because 1300 people were denied to vote. I find that difficult to accept,'' he said. "It may be well be that if there is a 2014 election, the result might be totally different, but that's not what we are trying to do. We had a general election in September 2013 and we are trying to work out what the result should have been." "We would pick up more votes, no doubt, the ALP would do much better. But that doesn't mean I think we should have one." with Judith Ireland Follow us on Twitter
Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces. Today we look at that imperfect clone of Peter Parker turned hero and successor to Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider/Kaine Appearances in Heroclix: Amazing Spider-Man First Appearance: Web of Spider-Man#119 Team Affiliations: New Warriors Kaine began life as a particularly powerful imperfect clone of Peter Parker. Though Kaine began degenerating faster than other clones, and was discarded by the Jackal because of this, he survives in this scarred form for much longer than any other clone. This degeneration also enhances some of the spider-powers he inherited as a result of the cloning process. Kaine feels like a spurned son because of the Jackal’s casting off of him and goes through the Jackal’s files after the villain goes into hibernation. Unknown to either man, Norman Osborn had files shifted so that the Jackal’s files indicated his successful Spider-clone (calling himself Ben Reilly) was the real Peter Parker and the Peter Parker heroing in New York was a clone. Having a hatred for the real Parker, Kaine followed Reilly during his years traveling the country and tormented him. During this time, Kaine also acted as a bounty hunter and battled Kraven the Hunter. Though Kaine had attempted to frame Ben Reilly for crimes (as all the clones have the same fingerprints), they eventually came back to haunt Peter Parker. After Parker is arrested, Ben arranges to take his place in prison, thereby fulfilling Kaine’s original plans. Meanwhile, Kaine scours New York defeating and executing many of Spider-Man’s villains. Around this time, Peter and Kaine are pulled to a mock trial where Parker is charged with crimes by his villains and Kaine is to act as his defense attorney. Though they make it out of this situation, the pair continue to argue as Parker wants Kaine to stand responsible for his crime and Kaine does not (feeling that the “real” Parker, Ben Reilly, is getting justice; while the “clone” Peter Parker deserves a good and free life). It is only when Peter threatens to reveal that he is Spider-Man that Kaine relents and confesses to the crimes but eludes authorities. Kaine eventually helps Ben Reilly battle a number of Spider-clones in the Jackal’s lab before being impaled by a massive spike. The Jackal, feeling momentarily fatherly for one of his “sons” places Kain in a regeneration pod. Kaine is later released from the pod, fully healed, during a most dangerous game type situation involving super-beings. He ends up the unlikely ally of Ben Reilly (who had taken on the mantle of Spider-Man) as the two manage to avoid their fellow competitors and the sponsor of that Great Game. Later, Kaine makes peace with Ben and hands himself over to the law in order to redeem himself. Kaine later escapes his prison upon learning that Norman Osborn was behind the clone saga and had killed his “brother” Ben. Kaine battles many of Osborn’s operatives before being believed killed by the Green Goblin. Kaine returns much later as an ally of Raptor, who promised Kaine that he could cure his cellular degeneration. This brings Kaine into conflict with Peter Parker, as Kaine believes that Peter is still a clone of Ben and, perhaps as a result of his disease, has grown to have rage towards the dead Ben Reilly again. When Raptor eventually reveals that he was lying, Kaine seemingly kills him. Kaine is eventually hunted by Ana and Alyosha Kravinoff, who are seeking Spider-Man to sacrifice him and bring back their father, Kraven. Though Kaine is able to warn Peter before he faces the offspring of the hunter, this does not stop Spider-Man from running off to battle the pair. Parker is not strong enough, however, and is badly beaten. Kaine eventually knocks Peter out and puts on his costume, battling and losing to the Kravinoffs. He is then sacrificed to resurrect Kraven, which results in Kraven being an imperfect, undead version of himself. This results in Kaine transforming into a man-spider like version of himself and rising from the grave. Jackal manages to control this form of Kaine and gives him the name, “Tarantula.” He falls under the control of the Spider Queen and is sent to Horizon Labs to tamper with a cure for the “Spider-Virus.” There, he battles with Peter and ultimately falls into a vat of the concentrated cure. After a few moments, Kaine rises from the vat and is human once more; not only that, but his scars are gone and he seems to be as perfect a clone as Ben Reilly. With the mental link to the Spider Queen broken and in a superior form of himself, he helps defeat the Spider Queen. Kaine moves to Houston, Texas and takes on the mantle of the Scarlet Spider. While there he faces the Roxxon Corporation, Bella Donna, a human trafficking operation, the Armadillo, as well as the resurrected Kraven the Hunter. After several months helping the people of Houston, Kaine eventually joins the New Warriors. He is attacked by Daemos, a member of the Inheritors that are hunting down every multiversal form of Spider-Man. He manages to make Daemos feel pain and is suddenly saved by other versions of Spider-Man: including the Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider.
Every Marvel thing you need to know before seeing 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' CLOSE Baby Groot steals the show in 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.' USA TODAY NETWORK Get ready for more Marvel. We're getting yet another one of those movies this weekend with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which brings back our space super friends Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) for another round of adventures. It's the 15th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But what, casual action-movie fans may be asking, is the "Marvel Cinematic Universe"? We present: The answers to all your Marvel Cinematic Universe questions that you were maybe too embarrassed to ask. Once you've read this, you'll be 100% prepped for Guardians 2 and anything else Marvel throws at Hollywood. So, what's the deal with the Marvel Cinematic Universe? CLOSE At the premiere of 'Captain America: Civil War,' 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' star and Marvel super-fan Clark Gregg explains, to our reporter's mother, what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is. The MCU, as the fans call it, is a really clunky way of describing the 15 existing movies and many TV shows made by Marvel Studios, starting with Iron Man in 2008. What makes them different than various other superhero movies and shows is that they are all connected, much like the comics themselves. And, which superheroes are in the MCU? Some of the biggest ones are Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk. Marvel gets to pick from a pool of its comic-book heroes (except for certain ones for legal reasons, like the X-Men, whose movies are produced by 20th Century Fox). The more movies Marvel makes, the further it digs into the vault of heroes. In addition to movies around those four heroes, we now have two Guardians of the Galaxy flicks, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, and films starring Black Panther, The Wasp, Captain Marvel and more in the works. Definitively not part of the MCU: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Suicide Squad and their friends. They're all from DC Comics and have their own cinematic universe onscreen. Which movies do I need to see before Guardians 2? Don't worry, you don't need to see every single Marvel movie to understand the latest. But you should probably watch the first Guardians to understand how the team comes together and why they're so interested in Star- Lord's dad, played in the new movie by Kurt Russell. How do the Guardians movies connect to everything else? Here's where it gets a little complicated. While you can see both movies without having seen anything else in the MCU, they do have connections and Easter eggs that relate to the other films. The first Guardians movie has Thanos (Josh Brolin) in it, a villain who was introduced in a post-credit scene for the first Avengers film. Thanos will show up in future Avengers movies because he's after the infinity stones, super-powerful gems that have popped up in multiple Marvel films. In the original Guardians film, Star-Lord and the rest are attempting to prevent an infinity stone they find from falling into the wrong hands. Those future Avengers films will also include the Guardians, because Marvel loves nothing more than putting its heroes together. Should I stay after the Guardians 2 credits? Yes. There are multiple post-credit scenes so make sure you stay until the very last credit rolls if you want to catch all of them. Some hint at the future of the MCU, but some are just amusing. How many more Marvel movies are coming? Um, a lot. Marvel is one of the hottest names in Hollywood right now, between its box-office returns and action-figure sales, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Highlights of the upcoming slate include the universe's first solo film led by a black superhero, Black Panther, in 2018; the first solo film led by a female superhero, 2019's Captain Marvel; and more from the Avengers in Infinity War in 2018 and an untitled film in 2019. It's a lot to, well, marvel at. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/1SYmtc2
'Mystery aircraft' over Texas draws speculation of real spy plane The A-12 reconnaissance aircraft was built by Lockheed and tested in 1962. Photo: CIA.gov The A-12 reconnaissance aircraft was built by Lockheed and tested in 1962. Photo: CIA.gov Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close 'Mystery aircraft' over Texas draws speculation of real spy plane 1 / 17 Back to Gallery If the unidentified aircraft photographed over Amarillo turns out to be a new U.S. spy plane, it wouldn't be the first time. Aviation Week & Space Technology journalist Bill Sweetman has posted photos taken March 10 by two veteran sky watchers, Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett. In his blog post of March 28, Sweetman writes that he and two Aviation Week editors agree that the photos depict "something real." In other words, these pictures aren't easily explained away by reports of known military flights or the work of someone who got carried away with Photoshop. So what can aviation experts say about the object in the photos? "The photos tell us more about what the mysterious stranger isn't than what it is," Sweetman writes. The size is hard to determine, Sweetman says, but its relationship to the contrails suggests it's bigger than the Northrup Grumman X-47B, which has a 62-foot wing span, according to Wikipedia. Whatever it might be, the aircraft was accompanied by two others, and Douglass picked up some radio traffic suggesting the plane had a pilot, Sweetman's blog post states. Although it's logical to expect that classified U.S. aircraft programs exist, due to the number that have been revealed in "all sorts of ways," it's uncommon for them to be exposed by civilian photos, Sweetman writes. In 1956, when the Lockheed U-2 plane was making some of its first spy flights over the Soviet Union from an air base in England, British magazines started receiving "eyewitness accounts and grainy photos" from the public, he writes. But the only other spy plane photographed before it was declassified was the RQ-170 Sentinel seen at Kandahar in 2007-09, Sweetman's blog states.
The FBI’s once-secret report on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email system reveals that messages sent to aides were compromised by hostile foreign actors. The FBI did not elaborate on the identity of foreign cyberattacks that normally refer to activities of sophisticated foreign intelligence services or criminal groups. The bureau was also unable to “conclusively” say whether classified information sent on Mrs. Clinton’s emails and mobile phones was compromised by “cyber means,” the report said. FBI cybersleuths blamed their inability to obtain all Mrs. Clinton’s old devices and computers for the inconclusive results. However, the FBI did conclude that Mrs. Clinton sent emails to people with computer systems that were penetrated by foreign hackers. “The FBI did find that hostile foreign actors gained access to the personal email accounts of individuals with whom Clinton was in regular contact, and, in doing so, obtained emails sent to or received by Clinton on her personal account,” the report noted. Mrs. Clinton used 13 handheld devices and several nongovernment computer servers in an apparent bid to evade federal record-keeping laws that require senior government officials to preserve their communications. Most of the classified information found in Mrs. Clinton’s thousands of private emails sent and received between 2009 and 2013 was relatively low-level “confidential” classified information. The most serious potential national security damage, however, was related to the discovery of extremely sensitive intelligence that was found on some of the emails. Additionally, Mrs. Clinton used the unsecure email while traveling outside the United States and sent numerous emails to the president that may have been intercepted by foreign intelligence services. The FBI confirmed that the Clinton emails included information classified at the highest security level, known as “Top Secret/Special Access Program.” The information probably involved the very secret internal discussions used in nominating and conducting missile-armed drone strikes against terrorists. The issue of target nomination and internal debate over the targeting is mentioned in the FBI report. FBI Director James B. Comey, in announcing he would not recommend prosecuting Mrs. Clinton for the security lapses, criticized the former secretary and current Democratic presidential nominee as “extremely careless” in the “handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” Mr. Comey said Mrs. Clinton also used the unsecure email system while on the territory of “sophisticated adversaries,” usually a reference to China and Russia. “Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account,” Mr. Comey said in July. Special Access Programs are used to protect intelligence, defense and foreign policy information considered so sensitive that it requires extraordinary security above the top secret level. SAPs, as they are called, limit access to the extremely sensitive information to a few people who are cleared for access based on their need to know. An example would be the military planning and preparations for the 2011 special operations raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The electronic and digital communications of senior U.S. leaders are known to be targets of foreign intelligence services, including those of Russia and China. Disarmer in chief President Obama’s legacy-building efforts to be remembered as a leader on the issue of nuclear disarmament suffered a setback recently when senior officials dissuaded him from adopting a controversial and, according to some experts, dangerous “no first use” nuclear policy. A U.S. official confirmed a New York Times report this week that both Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Secretary of State John F. Kerry opposed the nuclear policy change. “No first use” is a policy that includes a public declaration that the United States would not be the first state to use nuclear weapons in a conflict. Nuclear strikes would be limited to retaliation for an initial nuclear attack. The White House suggested in July that the nuclear policy shift, advocated by anti-nuclear activists, was under consideration. Ned Price, a White House National Security Council official, said the president was continuing to seek policies outlined in his 2009 speech in Prague calling for eliminating all nuclear weapons. Mr. Price, who is traveling in Asia, could not be reached for comment. An NSC spokesman did not respond to emails seeking comment on the decision not to endorse the no-first-use doctrine. Rejecting the nuclear policy shift was based on the large-scale nuclear weapons and missile buildup by both Russia and China. Both nations are engaged in comprehensive strategic nuclear forces modernization programs, including new nuclear weapons, missiles and other delivery systems. In addition, Russia has adopted a new military doctrine that calls for using nuclear weapons during conventional wars under a policy called “escalate to de-escalate.” Defense officials have called the escalatory nuclear doctrine dangerous. Obama’s mixed message on China As he has done throughout his presidency, President Obama continued to send mixed signals to China during a speech in Vientiane, Laos, on Tuesday. Praising U.S.-China economic cooperation, Mr. Obama stated that serious differences with Beijing remain. “Our two governments continue to have serious differences in important areas,” the president said, without outlining what those differences are. Mr. Obama then stated that the United States would continue to be “unwavering in our support for universal human rights, but at the same time, we’ve shown that we can work together to advance mutual interests.” Washington and Beijing, he said, are working to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms and seeking to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons. And the president emphasized what he said was “historic leadership” by both countries to address the issue of global warming. “So I will say it again: The United States welcomes the rise of a China that is peaceful and stable and prosperous and a responsible player in global affairs, because we believe that that will benefit all of us,” Mr. Obama said. The president avoided all mention of the most serious issue facing the region: creeping Chinese maritime hegemony over disputed islands. As the president met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou this week, China deployed 11 ships near the disputed South China Sea feature known as Scarborough Shoal. The shoal has been declared a red line by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who warned Beijing that any militarization on Scarborough Shoal, like the artificial island-building at three nearby reefs, would bring serious consequences and isolation for Beijing. Mr. Obama’s diplomacy-oriented policies have translated into few shows of military strength in the region, and the lack of American power projection has rattled many countries in the Asia-Pacific region who fear the United States is withdrawing from its decadeslong role as regional peacekeeper. “We’re here to stay,” Mr. Obama said. “In good times and bad, you can count on the United States of America.” Mr. Obama then asked rhetorically whether the future will see disputes resolved peacefully or “lead to conflict.” However, the problems the president outlined in his remarks made no mention of Chinese island-building and militarization. Instead, the regional dangers he outlined include terrorism, arms proliferation, climate change and human trafficking. The only reference to the Chinese threat to the region was the oft-stated claim that the United States “will continue to fly and sail and operate wherever international law allows, and support the right of all countries to do the same.” Mr. Obama canceled a meeting in Laos with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte after Mr. Duterte referred to Mr. Obama a “son of a bitch” when asked by a reporter how he would respond to any questions about extrajudicial killings of drug dealers targeted in a Manila government anti-crime program. The snub is a setback for efforts to bolster U.S.-Philippines defense ties that are focused on thwarting Chinese militarization of some of the Spratly Islands. The two reportedly met “informally” in a holding room before the summit’s gala final dinner, Philippine officials said late Wednesday, although there was no word of any substantive discussions in the brief meeting. — Contact Bill Gertz on Twitter at @BillGertz. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
An international research team has used a "thermal metamaterial" to control the emission of radiation at high temperatures, an advance that could bring devices able to efficiently harvest waste heat from power plants and factories. Roughly 50 to 60 percent of the energy generated in coal and oil-based power plants is wasted as heat. However, thermophotovoltaic devices that generate electricity from thermal radiation might be adapted to industrial pipes in factories and power plants, as well as on car engines and automotive exhaust systems, to recapture much of the wasted energy. In new findings, researchers demonstrated how to restrict emission of thermal radiation to a portion of the spectrum most needed for thermophotovoltaic technology. "These devices require spectrally tailored thermal emission at high temperatures, and our research shows that intrinsic material properties can be controlled so that a very hot object glows only in certain colors," said Zubin Jacob, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at "The main idea is to start controlling thermal emission at record high temperatures in ways that haven't been done before." " said Zubin Jacob, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University The thermal metamaterial - nanoscale layers of tungsten and hafnium oxide - was used to suppress the emission of one portion of the spectrum while enhancing emission in another. Metamaterials are composite media that contain features, patterns or elements such as tiny nanoantennas that enable an unprecedented control of light. Under development for about 15 years, the metamaterials owe their unusual abilities to precision design and manufacture on the scale of nanometers. "They have been used mainly to manipulate coherent light, as in a laser, but the ability to manipulate infrared thermal radiation at 1,000 C opens up new areas of research," Jacob said. "The technique we used to achieve this thermal suppression and enhancement is fundamentally different from existing thermal engineering approaches and harnesses a phenomenon called topological transitions." The research represents the first time the approach was used for thermal emission in high-temperature metamaterials, also called refractory metamaterials. Findings were detailed in a research paper published earlier this year in the journal Nature Communications. The work was performed by researchers at Purdue, the Hamburg University of Technology in Germany; University of Alberta in Canada; and Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research in Germany. The co-lead authors were Hamburg University of Technology postdoctoral researcher Pavel Dyachenko and University of Alberta doctoral student Sean Molesky. The basic operating principle of a photovoltaic cell is that a semiconducting material is illuminated with light, causing electrons to move from one energy level to another. Electrons in the semiconductor occupy a region of energy called the valence band while the material is in the dark. But shining light on the material causes the electrons to absorb energy, elevating them into a region of higher energy called the conduction band. As the electrons move to the conduction band, they leave behind "holes" in the valance band. The region between both bands, where no electrons exist, is called the band gap. "If you have energy below the band gap, that is generally wasted," Jacob said. "So what you want to do for high-efficiency thermal energy conversion is suppress the thermal emission below the band gap and enhance it above the band gap, and this is what we have done. We have used the topological transition in a way that was not done before for thermal enhancement and suppression, enhancing the high-energy part of the emission spectrum and suppressing the low-energy thermal photons. This allows us to emit light only within the energy spectrum above the band gap." The paper's other authors were Jacob; Hamburg University of Technology researchers Alexander Yu Petrov, Slawa Lang, Manfred Eich, T. Krekeler and M. Ritter; and senior research scientist Michael Störmer from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research. Future research will include work to convert heat radiation from a thermal metamaterial to electron-hole pairs in a semiconducting material, a critical step in developing the technology. The thermophotovoltaic technology might be ready for commercialization within seven years, Jacob said. Source and top image: Purdue University
Jurgen Klopp has lost only one of his first eight games as Liverpool manager When Liverpool appointed Jurgen Klopp as successor to Brendan Rodgers, it was regarded as a powerful statement of intent. Two statements made since by the new manager carry even more weight. Liverpool looked like a team that had lost its identity and inspiration under Brendan Rodgers, a manager who had almost won their first title in 24 years only 18 months before his dismissal. Since he walked into Anfield, Klopp has re-energised Liverpool. The home defeat by Crystal Palace was a sharp jab of reality but away wins at Chelsea and now Manchester City have shown what the 48-year-old German is capable of inspiring. How has Klopp changed Liverpool? Brendan Rodgers drew five of his final six games as Liverpool manager Liverpool are experiencing the 'bounce' most clubs enjoy when a new manager arrives - but Klopp's effervescent, positive approach is being allied to sound common sense that has put them back on the road to recovery. Rodgers did much fine work at Liverpool and it should always be remembered that he was within a Steven Gerrard slip of bringing the Premier League title back to Anfield, a feat that would have written him a chapter in the club's legend. This season Liverpool, under Rodgers, looked stale and uninspired. Even the manager's confidence and belief and his positive approach seemed to have deserted him as they became conservative and cautious, almost frightened of defeat. Klopp, a manager rich in pedigree from his Bundesliga successes with Borussia Dortmund, has started putting his own pieces in place. Media playback is not supported on this device Liverpool boss Klopp says win feels perfect The victory at Manchester City, as well as the win at Chelsea at the end of October, had Klopp's stamp all over it. Liverpool pressed City from the first whistle, spreading anxiety around Etihad Stadium on and off the pitch and unrest in their opponents' ranks. It makes them a very dangerous proposition away from home, harassing opponents intent on attack high up the pitch and hitting them rapidly on the counter. Klopp has brought a positivity back to Liverpool, a bundle of energy on the touchline, urging his players forward, applauding the good and reacting furiously to the bad. Liverpool's players reflected the attitude of their manager at City - perpetual motion, positive and bristling with intent. Manuel Pellegrini's motionless discontent was a sharp contrast. Klopp has also brought the best out of Philippe Coutinho, who is back to creating havoc for opponents and scoring the goals that make a difference, here at City as he did at Chelsea. Roberto Firmino, the Brazilian brought in under Rodgers for £29m from Hoffenheim, has always been a Klopp favourite. The manager's faith - selecting him ahead of £32m Christian Benteke at Stamford Bridge and Etihad Stadium - has brought out the best in him. The results prove the wisdom of that choice. Klopp has lost just once in seven games in charge at Liverpool Klopp also knew Emre Can well from when he played at Bayer Leverkusen and made what should have been the relatively simple choice of playing him in his best position in midfield. Can struggled at right-back and in a three-man central defence. There was a good reason for this. He is not a right-back or a central defender. He is a midfield player, Klopp has played him there and Can proved his class and vision with a brilliant backheel that allowed Coutinho to set up Firmino for Liverpool's third. So while the new coach has brought a big managerial personality to Liverpool, he has also applied sound logic. Together it makes a potent combination. Beating rivals brings a new belief Klopp has not had an easy introduction at Liverpool, but away from Anfield he has made light work of a daunting list of fixtures. He opened his reign with a goalless draw at Tottenham but the wins at reigning champions Chelsea and title favourites Manchester City have spoken most eloquently of how he has quickly instilled belief into a team that had lost its way in the 18 months before his arrival. Rodgers did not beat a top-four team until his ninth attempt and had only one win in his first 12. Furthermore, it took until his eighth attempt to beat a top-four side away from home. Klopp has won his first two. Klopp's reputation as one of Europe's premier coaches brings belief and confidence of its own and one of his early successes is how quickly he has been able to transmit it to players who were so short on those precious commodities. Rodgers' first eight games against the 'big four' Liverpool 2-2 Man City Drew Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal Lost Liverpool 1-2 Man Utd Lost Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool Drew Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool Lost Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool Drew Man City 2-2 Liverpool Drew Liverpool 2-2 Chelsea Drew How far behind the top teams are they? The loss to Crystal Palace and the draw against Southampton at home must act as the warning signs against getting carried away - and, despite the carnage of Saturday, Manchester City still possess more star quality and strength in depth when all of their players are fit. City, Chelsea and Manchester United also possess more financial firepower than Liverpool - as do Arsenal should manager Arsene Wenger ever choose to use it. What is clear, though, is that Liverpool are in a position to take advantage of the inconsistency and unpredictability in the top half of the Premier League to make a push for the top four. There will be other teams of similar standing, such as Tottenham and Everton, who will also have the same sort of designs. Liverpool's defence can still look vulnerable under pressure and at set-pieces, while Klopp rightly asked a journalist "are you crazy?" when he was asked could they win the title. Klopp will need to keep the lid on the expectations just in case Liverpool's fanbase get carried away with the upturn in fortunes - but the smiles they shared together at the final whistle on Saturday showed things are on the up again at Anfield.
Fuel for India’s nuclear ambitions 7 April 2017 Saurav Jha gives an update on India’s plans to use its abundant thorium resources for nuclear power production. Endowed with modest uranium reserves alongside relatively abundant thorium bearing monazite deposits, India has long pursued the ambition of setting up large scale nuclear generation capacity utilising a Th-232/U-233 cycle. The means to this end has been the three-stage nuclear programme (TNSP), which looks to sequentially build-up a sizeable fissile inventory that can support a sustainable fleet of thorium breeders. However, owing in part to its nuclear isolation during the period 1974-2008, India’s pursuit of a thorium-based programme has only yielded credible semi- industrial capability across a closed Th- 232/U-233 fuel cycle and India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) currently projects large scale thorium use as being some decades away. Nevertheless, an industrial scale demonstrator called the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is projected to be built soon and an Indian molten salt breeder reactor (IMSBR) programme has been launched to provide the mainstay for a future thorium-based fleet. It seems climate change considerations and water desalination needs, could drive a push for earlier deployment, though this could be contingent on India’s ability to obtain fissile material internationally. DAE’s accelerator driven sub-critical system (ADSS) research and development (R&D) programme, if successful, could also provide a pathway for faster thorium-based capacity deployment. Three stage programme DAE’s Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration & Research (AMD) has to date established that India has some 12 million tonnes of monazite which contains about 1.07 million tonnes of thorium, likely the world’s greatest repository of Th-232. In contrast India has only 0.25 million tonnes of Triuranium Octoxide (U3O8) deposits. Regardless, like all others, India too had to start its nuclear programme using uranium based reactors, due to the absence of a preexisting fissile inventory. But it never gave up its strategic objective of ultimately setting up large scale thorium-based generation capacity and that is how TNSP was born. The TNSP envisages the use of all three major fissile isotopes U-235, plutonium-239 and U-233, with only the first occurring in nature, and the other two being ‘bred’ from the fertile isotopes U-238 and Th-232, respectively. TNSP involves the setting up of both natural uranium and enriched uranium using thermal reactors in the first-stage, plutonium driven fast breeder reactors in the second stage and Th-232/U-233 cycle based ‘thermal breeders’ in the third stage. The FBRs of the second stage will be loaded with plutonium and depleted uranium from the first stage as fuel. After sufficient FBR capacity has been built up via a closed U-238/ Pu-239 cycle, Th-232 will be introduced in the blanket regions of FBRs to breed U-233. The U-233 thus bred will serve as fuel for third- stage thorium breeders. As can be imagined, this elaborate scheme requires significant enrichment and reprocessing capability to enable a fissile build-up. Unfortunately, owing to India’s nuclear isolation post its first weapons test in 1974, the country was not able to source either equipment or fissile material that could have allowed it to meet any realistic timeline for TNSP goals. Nonetheless, India carried on thorium related research and with the end of its nuclear isolation is now looking for ways to hasten the process. Current status India’s thorium cycle activities though creditable, are still at a semi-industrial level. DAE has mined thousands of tonnes of monazite and extracted thorium oxide (ThO2) out of it to produce nuclear grade ThO2 powder, which in turn has been used to fabricate fuel pins for irradiation in both power generation as well as research reactors. Since the late 1980s, six Indian Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (IPHWRs) have each been loaded with thirty-five 19-element ThO2 pellet bundles at different points in time. The ThO2 bundles were irradiated up to 600 FPDs, while achieving a maximum burnup of over 13,000 Megawatt-days per ton (MWd/t). Notably, DAE says that there were no fuel failures in these experiments. The design of these ThO2 bundles was similar to the standard natural uranium (NU) bundles used in IPHWRs. These irradiation experiments were conducted not only to gain insights into reactor physics and fuel design but also for the purposes of flux flattening in the initial cores of the selected IPHWRs. Further studies have also been conducted with fuel bundles made of both ThO2 and slightly enriched uranium (SEU) elements. DAE is currently mulling over a move to use ThO2 on a regular basis in future IPHWRs in order to build a U-233 inventory. In any case, these studies have given DAE the confidence to develop heavy-water-reactor designs that utilise large thorium loads with enriched uranium as a driver. Experiments related to Th-Pu mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for boiling water reactors have also been undertaken. Overall, DAE’s examinations seem to suggest that ThO2 based fuels exhibit better thermo- mechanical properties and slower fuel deterioration than UO2 based fuels. Aluminium clad ‘J’ rods containing ThO2 pellets have also been irradiated in the CIRUS research reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay. In addition to this, Zircaloy clad test–pin assemblies made of Th-Pu MOX pellets containing 4–7% PuO2 have also been successfully irradiated in dedicated engineering loops in CIRUS to a burn-up of 18,000MWd/t without any failure. These irradiated rods have been subsequently reprocessed in DAE’s Uranium Thorium Separation Facility using the THOREX process for obtaining U-233. The U-233 obtained has been used to fabricate U-Al alloy plate fuel to drive the 30kWt KAMINI research reactor in operation at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam since 1996. Incidentally, KAMINI is the only operating reactor in the world which uses U-233 as its primary fuel. Of late, irradiated ThO2 bundles from IPHWRs have also been reprocessed in the Power Reactor Thorium Reprocessing Facility commissioned in 2015 to obtain U-233. In the past, ThO2 bundles have been irradiated in the blanket region of the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) located in Kalpakkam. Moreover, design pins containing (U-233, DU, Pu) MOX meant to be used in India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) scheduled to achieve criticality by late 2017 have also been irradiated in FBTR. Essentially, most facets of a ‘closed’ thorium based fuel cycle have been demonstrated, albeit at a semi-industrial scale. An Industrial Scale Demonstrator To take things to an industrial level, DAE is in the final stages of validating the design of a 300MWe (920MWt) Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) through large scale engineering experiments in test facilities set up specifically for AHWR. Various activities related to obtaining the necessary site selection approvals and associated regulatory clearances for AHWR construction are also underway. Actual construction work on AHWR is expected to begin sometime in 2018, probably at an existing plant site such as Tarapur in India’s Maharashtra State. In terms of design features, AHWR is a vertical pressure tube type reactor that uses boiling light water as coolant and heavy water as moderator. Its 452 coolant channels can receive both U-Th MOX and Pu-Th MOX bundles. Capable of on-power refuelling, AHWR has a design life of 100 years and uses natural circulation for core cooling and has a negative void coefficient of reactivity. AHWR’s equilibrium core will utilise Th-U-233-Pu MOX fuel in closed cycle mode. In equilibrium about 60% of the power generated by AHWR will come from U-233 bred from Th-232. AHWR is also meant to demonstrate Indian capability in state of the art nuclear safety features, since the plan is to build thorium based reactors on the site of old semi-urban coal power plants, to eschew land and water sourcing issues. As such, the AHWR design incorporates several passive safety systems which include core cooling by natural circulation under normal operation, transients and accident scenarios. Additionally, AHWR uses passive systems for containment cooling following a loss of coolant accident. Passive safety systems have been adopted even for non-cooling applications such as a reactor trip in case of wired shut-down system failure, containment isolation and automatic depressurisation following an accident. Interestingly, an AHWR-low enriched uranium (AHWR-LEU) variant is also being developed with a view to offering this design for export. The AHWR-LEU core will be made of Th-LEU MOX bundles and is designed to operate in once through mode. Average discharge burn-up for the AHWR-LEU is 60MWd/t as compared to 40MWd/t for the baseline AHWR. The discharged fuel from AHWR-LEU will also have much less fissile content than what is discharged by AHWR. Under 40% of the power generated by AHWR- LEU will come from U-233 bred in situ. India is offering this design as a proliferation- resistant option for countries looking to build nuclear generation capacity for the first time on their soil. The Indian Molten Salt Breeder Reactor Nevertheless, the staple of the third-stage of India’s TNSP is likely to be whatever is the outcome of the IMSBR programme. DAE has validated the simulation methodology it is using for various IMBSR designs by analysing and producing some of the key results of a French molten salt fast reactor concept. Early IMBSR designs rated at 850MWe of both ‘loop’ and ‘pool’ type using varied lithium- fluoride, thorium-fluoride, uranium-fluoride combinations as fuel salt and lithium-fluoride thorium-fluoride combinations as blanket salt are being explored. DAE’s design goals will include online refuelling and reprocessing, continuous removal of gaseous fission products, high breeding ratios, low level of long-lived actinide waste generation, and large negative feedback and void coefficient of reactivity – basically the entire roster of features that are supposed to recommend MSR designs. Incidentally, thermal neutron IMSBR designs are also being considered in addition to fast neutron designs. The IMSBR programme is expected to yield a ‘mainstay’ design for the future. The thermal breeders will have lower fissile requirements but their breeding ratios will lead to basic self- sustainment and not allow for the growth of the fleet. The fast IMSBRs on the other hand have much higher fissile requirements but could exhibit breeding ratios that may lead to a growing fleet of the type over an extended period. Obviously, for a given fissile inventory, a bigger fleet of thermal IMSBRs can be set up initially. The critical pathway Either way, a large U-233 inventory will have to be created, whatever the preferred IMSBR type. TSNP envisions the use of Pu-239 fuelled FBRs for this purpose wherein Th-232 will be introduced in the blanket region of FBRs to breed U-233 using neutrons released by the fast fission of Pu-239. However, DAE intends to do this only after a large fleet of FBRs with short ‘doubling’ time has been built up. Here ‘doubling’ time refers to the time taken by a breeder reactor to generate enough fissile material that can be used to drive another such reactor. FBRs that are fuelled by plutonium and uranium in pure metallic form rather than oxide form have shorter doubling times. But metallic FBRs (MFBRs) of 1000MWe capacity are likely to be introduced only in the mid-2020s, with Th-232 blankets being put into them only in the third decade after the launch of the first such MFBR. This is why DAE does not envision significant thorium deployment before 2050. The delayed introduction of Th-232 indicates that DAE intends to build up a large Pu-239 inventory first, as it might, since FBRs on their own are intended to give India some 200GWe of installed capacity and will be the mainstay of India’s overall reactor fleet by the mid-2030s. Nevertheless, given that India is gradually committing itself to emission targets and its peninsula requires potable water, earlier deployment of thorium is also under consideration. DAE also has thorium-based high temperature reactor (THR) designs that are suitable for water desalination purposes. Alternatives? TNSP’s timescales are essentially based on the use of only domestic fissile resources to build an inventory of Pu-239 and U-233 to attain a large thorium based fleet. But, if Pu- 239 were to become available from overseas, either from decommissioned weapons or by being allowed to reprocess the large stocks of accumulated spent fuel, thorium deployment could happen sooner. With India’s re-entry into global nuclear trade, there is a move underway to explore the possibility of sourcing fissile material from partner countries abroad to utilise in designs that burn plutonium while breeding U-233. Essentially India is positing thorium as a better candidate for disposing strategic fissile material compared to inert matrix carriers. ‘Imported’ Pu-239 could be ‘burned’ in emerging new designs, which though not really breeders have high ‘conversion’ ratios and will generate a lot of U-233 in lieu of the Pu-239 which is consumed. This would suit those countries that are looking to dispose of their large Pu-239 stocks due to proliferation concerns such as Japan. Of course, imported Pu-239 could also be used to set up more FBRs under ‘safeguards’, though it remains to be seen if other countries would agree to such an arrangement. A sub (critical) route? Simultaneously, India is also pursuing accelerator-drive system technology as an alternate pathway for thorium utilisation as well for the transmutation of nuclear waste in a dedicated minor actinides burner reactor with ‘inherent safety against power excursions’. According to DAE, ADSS could allow faster breeding of U-233 via spallation and achieve thorium utilisation via a once through cycle. DAE’s ADSS R&D activities are currently focused in two key areas. The first is the development of technologies that go into superconducting radio frequency (SCRF) cavity based linear accelerators (LINACs). The key technologies here include cryostats, niobium resonators, RF electronics, among others. The other area where DAE is focusing efforts is the indigenisation of previously imported equipment common to both normal and superconducting type LINACs, such as klystrons etc. At the moment a 20MeV 30mA proton LINAC is being set up in project mode at BARC, Trombay and a high energy SCRF cavity based accelerator is set to come up in a new BARC campus in Vishakapatnam on India’s East Coast. It is difficult to project any timelines for India successfully mastering ADSS technology. However, if that were to indeed happen, India would have found for itself a potential pathway for accelerating its cherished goal of large scale thorium utilisation.