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I know, right, what’s with the question mark? Do we know or do we not know? Honestly, it’s almost impossible to tell. So this is what we have and I’ll let you decide.
A source sent over the set of pictures you are seeing below, claiming that we are looking at an LG prototype. It could be the LG G5, which we are expecting to see at MWC in a month, or it could be something else. It’s obvious that we are looking at a “NOT FOR SALE” phone that has been placed in a dummy box to hide its identity as it goes through testing. There are no LG markers, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an LG phone. I say that because just over a month ago, a now “deleted” user on reddit, opened up a thread to say that he had an LG G5 in a dummy box, ran through a list of specs, and then peaced out without us ever hearing from him again. He also posted this picture.
That small picture looks very close to the pictures we have below, plus he said that the phone has dual rear cameras of 16MP and 8MP. If you take a look at the picture of the backside that we have, you will also see a dual camera setup. Not only that, but the design here matches up very nicely to previous mock-ups done by CNET, who claims to have seen the actual device. According to that report, the back of the phone features a camera housing with this shape, along with a fingerprint reader just below it. An additional report by VentureBeat suggests that the G5 will have dual cameras as well.
Camera housing aside, the rest of these pictures match up to other previous reports on the G5, including that reddit thread. We are seeing a volume rocker taken from the back and moved to the left side, the SIM and SD card tray on the lower right side, and a USB Type-C port on the bottom next to a single speaker.
You tell me – is this the LG G5?
Update: Based on additional information we have received, I believe this is the LG G5 in a dummy box that is meant to conceal its identity. Title has been tweaked to reflect this.
Update 2: Not that we ever really get excited about the cases we see on Amazon, but some of the cases popping up for the LG G5 are matching up exactly to the images we have here. Here are two of them. You can see the top dual camera setup, along with the fingerprint reader and placement of volume buttons.
Update 3: ETnews has also reported this morning that they are expecting dual cameras in the LG G5. |
Gilbert Burns (12-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) and Olivier Aubin-Mercier (10-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) are looking to make life easy for UFC matchmakers.
With no trash talk needed, the two UFC lightweights are simply hoping to book a clash at the recently announced UFC on FOX 27 event, which takes place Jan. 27 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.
Burns recently issued the challenge, and Aubin-Mericer happily accepted. Now the two simply need to get UFC brass to offer up a few bout agreements.
Sup bro @oliaubin anything line up? How about Charlotte NC Jan 27?? UFC FN — GILBERT BURNS (@GilbertDurinho) November 7, 2017
Yes lets do it — Olivier Aubin (@oliaubin) November 7, 2017
Burns saw action most recently at September’s UFC Fight Night 116 event, scoring a second-round knockout of Jason Saggo. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist has shown moments of brilliance, earning four stoppages in his five UFC wins to date, though he’s struggled to gain consistent results, alternating wins and losses over his past four appearances.
Meanwhile, Aubin-Mercier fought the same night in September, taking home a split-decision win over Tony Martin. The result was the Canadian’s third consecutive victory, improving his record to 6-1 in his seven outings since falling short in the tournament final of “The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia.”
For more on UFC on FOX 27, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site. |
Czech police on Tuesday requested that prospective Prime Minister Andrej Babis' immunity to be lifted by the lower house, the Prague district attorney's office revealed has revealed.
Babis, a billionaire farm products and media tycoon, stands accused of hiding ownership of his Stork's Nest farm and convention center almost a decade ago to illegally tap into some €2 million ($2.34 million) in European subsidies aimed at small businesses.
Read more: Opinion: Czech voters more than simply right-wingers
The Czech parliament had already voted back in September to allow Babis' prosecution. However, Babis won immunity again when his populist ANO party became the runaway winner in last month's parliamentary election, taking 78 out of 200 seats.
Most parties have indicated they would vote to lift his immunity once again, although it remains unclear if a majority of parliamentarians will vote that way.
Both Babis and ANO deputy chairman Jaroslav Faltynek, who is also implicated in the prosecution's graft investigation, have denied any wrongdoing, with the prospective prime minister dismissing the charges as politically motivated.
The European Anti-Fraud Office has said it is also investigating the case.
Czech Republic's coalition dilemma
Babis has been tasked by Czech President Milos Zeman to form a coalition government, but all eight other parties elected to the lower house have stated that they will not work with him if he faces criminal charges.
Instead, Babis is set of forming a minority government, even though he is far from assured of surviving a vote of confidence. Nevertheless, Babis has said he is no rush to form a government, adding that he has even already picked many of ministers.
Despite by snubbed by the more traditional parties, Babis' ANO swept to victory on an anti-corruption, anti-euro and anti-migrant ticket. Other anti-establishment parties, such as the Pirates, the far-right SPD and the far-left communists, have all signaled their openness to governing with the ANO, although Babis' fate remains a major caveat.
Watch video 04:01 Share Euroskepticism in the Czech Republic Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1JFE7 Euroskepticism in the Czech Republic
dm/rt (Reuters, dpa) |
Hungry? You will be eventually. And when those grinding stomach noises rise up from within, you'll have this list printed out at the ready.
Here are 10 restaurants that I've dined in, reviewed, or otherwise written about and enjoyed in recent months. Put them in your regular rotation, and never go hungry for great food again.
CBD Provisions (pictured above) This downtown ode to pig parts offers one of the best hunger busters in Dallas. Order the carnitas and receive half the face of a young pig, while the other half undoubtedly rests on nearby table. Both will be gone in a flash so grab a tortilla and tear in. This is uncommonly good and primal eating.
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*****
Village Kitchen Need to have your Louboutins re-soled? Craving a sloppy burger? Admittedly, those two events will likely never simultaneously occur, but if they do and you're in Highland Park Village, you're set. Whatever you're shopping for, when the need for a sloppy gut-bomb of a burger arises, Village Kitchen is your best bet.
*****
Boulevardier Come to Boulevardier to get in touch with your inner Francophile. Sit at the bar, order some oysters and be sure to wash them down with a glass of something briny and white from the impressive wine list. The restaurant has become a bit of a neighborhood staple in the less than two years that it's been open.
And if your hunger is of the hangover variety, the brunch here is killer.
*****
FT33 A meal at FT-33 speaks for itself. This is arguably the hottest reservation in Dallas right now. And it likely will be for some time. Vegetarians rejoice: Matt McCallister's treatment of produce can sway even the most devout of carnivores.
*****
True Food Kitchen Too many Village Kitchen burgers, huh? Come to the other kitchen to feel better about your caloric transgressions. There's kale running through the juicer as you walk through the door, and if you weren't all that serious about taking it easy, there is beer and beef.
*****
El Come Taco Meet your new favorite taqueria. Luis Villalva's simple restaurant straddles the gritty taquerias that have the best tacos, and the gringo taquerias that have the best dining rooms. Start with the suadero and the pastor. And don't stop till you're ready to bust.
*****
Monkey King Noodle Co. Apparently winter in Texas is a thing. And when the weather is cold there's nothing like steaming broth to warm and comfort you. Get your soup in little dumpling purses or in a big cup with noodles and you won't be thinking about the mercury's decent for at least a little while.
*****
Mesero Miguel Tired of enchiladas that land like a brick? Mesero Miguel isn't billed as a Tex-Mex restaurant but you'll find plenty of it on the menu. Grab a margarita and pretend it's Friday. It is Friday, isn't it?
*****
Zoli's Zoli's is like a time machine that will take you back to the pizzerias of your youth. (Provided your parents weren't sadists with a penchant for grease and Pizza Hut.) Grab some friends, some cans of beer and order a pie cooked extra crispy. Get ready for bliss on a 20" round of well-blistered crust.
*****
Chennai It's not just Dallas. Ethnic restaurants are chasing cheaper rent into the 'burbs all over the country -- even the really good ethnic restaurants. Chennai sits in a strip mall way up in Plano, and if you drive by with your windows down you can smell the earthy spice of curry. Follow the scent. It will lead you the best byriani within a few hours drive, inside the city or out. |
Update: Whoops, I thought I posted a story about Volcanion’s event a few months ago but it looks like it slipped my mind. I’ve added its text below too. Following the reveal of Diancie’s event in February, hackers have now uncovered a hidden Hoopa event in X and Y‘s coding. It is activated when you have a special Hoopa in your party and talk to a man in the Parfum Palace Library. We’ve transcribed the conversation with the man here. To discuss this news, check out this forum thread! “The Pokémon called Hoopa is linked to many of the unexplained supernatural events that have occurred in this world. My search for Hoopa has led me to this library.” “No way! Could that be the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa that you have there with you?” Options: Yes | No No: “Oh, I was mistaken? Sorry about that…” Yes: “Whoaaa! I can’t believe it’s true! See, I travel around the world, trying to solve its many mysteries. I’ve been researching supernatural events that have occurred over the last 100 years. One thing I’ve found is that the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa is connected to many of these strange events! I’ve also managed to come across some information about the mysterious power that Hoopa appears to wield. So, without further ado, I’d like to share my findings with you! After all, you’re actually traveling with Hoopa–the very subject of my research!” Options: Its mysterious rings | The secret of its lair | Its deeds and exploits | Nothing Its mysterious rings: “It’s said that Hoopa can use the power of the three rings it adorns itself with to move objects about as it pleases… That’s not all! I’ve also heard that when Hoopa unleashes its full power, the size of the rings can grow up to multiple miles in length! With such massive rings, apparently it can transport even entire islands!” The secret of its lair: “It’s said that Hoopa’s lair is overflowing with the objects and treasures it nabbed over the years, claiming them for its own. Rumor has it that there are mountains of gold and silver treasures that it took from ancient kings and wealthy land barons. I hear that Hoopa’s lair is in an oasis in the desert, but no one’s been able to find the place!” Its deeds and exploits: “There’s a tale about an organization that tried to manipulate Hoopa’s power for their own benefit. After a while, certain objects that belonged to the organization mysteriously began to disappear. Everything from weapons and vehicles to money… It all began to vanish one by one. The organization got scared and decided to hole up inside of their headquarters. Once they did, things stopped disappearing! Just like that! Relieved that it was finally over, the organization finally decided to step outside. It was then that they discovered their headquarters had been transported wholesale to somewhere in the middle of a desert! Terrified of what they had unleashed, the organization promptly disbanded.” “Whether Hoopa becomes a trustworthy partner or ends up bringing about great misfortune depends entirely on the Trainer. I hope you don’t forget that. I think Hoopa’ll turn out right as rain with you at its side, though! You look like a Trainer who knows how to take care of his Pokémon and treat ’em right. Well, I hope you end up having lots of fine adventures with Hoopa! Have fun!” Finally, I got to know our editor in chief. She finished her research about the Mythical Pokémon Volcanion and came back to the office. Whoa! S-sorry! I was so surprised! I’ve been looking for Volcanion for 15 years. And finally, finally, I met a Trainer who’s traveling with it! I traveled everywhere to gather the information about Volcanion and put together a memo. I’ll let you read the memo. But just for you, because it’s top secret. Do you want to read the top-secret memo about Volcanion? Which part of the memo do you want to read? My top-secret memo about Volcanion… If you’re Volcanion’s Trainer, I wouldn’t mind you reading it. A memo marked as “Top Secret” is on the desk. On the XXth day of the XXth month at the Pokémon Day Care on Route 7: About the extraordinary power that Volcanion is said to possess. Discussed it with a top Breeder who’s very familiar with the ecology of Pokémon and drew the following deduction. In order to cause a steam explosion powerful enough to blow up mountains, the Pokémon must have an organ with extremely high temperature that can instantly vaporize water to steam. That kind of organ is unheard of in the ecology of Pokémon, but Volcanion may have it… On the XXth day of the XXth month at the Pokémon Center in Camphrier Town: Interviewed a Trainer who says he witnessed a Pokémon that could be Volcanion when he was stranded in a mountain. According to the Trainer, a huge Pokémon’s shadow appeared suddenly. Two huge armlike limbs that could crush even the land extended from its back, and from their tips, something that looked like smoke belched out and made the fog around the Pokémon even thicker. The Trainer said the Pokémon’s shadow slowly disappeared into the fog. On the XXth day of the XXth month at Café Kizuna in Lumiose City: In the southern part of the Kalos region, there seems to be a custom to revere Volcanion as a nation-building Pokémon. People seem to believe that a steam explosion caused by Volcanion created the plain where they live. As a matter of fact, a huge mountain range suddenly disappeared due to an unexplained explosion in that part of the region in the past… If you feel like reading my memo, come visit me anytime. Volcanion seems to trust you. I want you and Volcanion to travel together as good partners to each other! And just for completion’s sake (since we already posted about it back in February)… Please wait, (sir/miss). I apologize for stopping you suddenly. But the Pokémon you just received is surely the Mythical Pokémon Diancie, isn’t it? Diancie… A sudden mutation of a Carbink. The probability and mechanism of its origin are still veiled in mystery. The Pokémon Diancie is synonymous with beauty. Its body absorbs light with a perfect balance and gives off a radiance that looks like nothing in this world. In order to see that beauty, our master has been looking for Diancie for a long time. We are also very keen on taking Diancie to our master… That desire kept us going and led us here. Let me get straight to the point. Would you kindly give us your Diancie? No way! All right… Is there some way we can persuade you? Hmmm… Is there any way… Oh! I’m so glad you’re so understanding. Then… Wait. M-master?! I’m sorry for troubling you. You… I truly appreciate your efforts in seeking Diancie for me. But… What you can truly value is not something you can get by depriving somebody of a relationship. You should get it by your own actions, by your own efforts, or sometimes simply by your own luck. Then it will have true value. To be honest with you, I envy you. But more importantly, I’d like to congratulate you on meeting Diancie and becoming travel partners. Congratulations. Legend has it that Diancie protects its travel partners from accidents and illnesses. I wish you good luck and hope you can keep traveling together. You two… Sorry, I shouldn’t keep relying on you, but please help me find my Diancie. |
Marin Cogan is a writer based in Washington D.C.
When retailers Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus announced earlier this month that they’d no longer carry Ivanka Trump’s fashion line, the decision provoked outrage at the White House, infuriating the designer’s Twitter-happy father and inspiring an ethics breach from one of his top advisers. But the news wasn’t a surprise to readers of Cosmopolitan: Back in October, Cosmo writer Michelle Ruiz profiled the women behind the boycott of Ivanka Trump’s products. And when the first daughter posted an uncaptioned photo of herself posing in a silvery Carolina Herrera gown alongside her tuxedo-clad husband, one day after her father signed his controversial immigration order, Harper’s Bazaar jumped to cover the fallout, noting, “While activists and influencers took to social media to express their outrage over Trump’s ban and show support for the afflicted refugees and immigrants, the first daughter used her public platform to show off her glamorous outfit.”
It was a long way from the happy tales of Ivanka, the “do-it-all mom … who never ceases to inspire us,” that appeared in publications like these early last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. Beautiful and polished, the head of her own fashion line and an advocate for her own personal brand of women’s workplace empowerment, Trump once seemed built in a lab to be covered by the high-gloss world of women’s fashion media, perfectly crafted to the specifications of editors looking for safe, easy and attractive content.
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But that was before Ivanka became her father’s most powerful campaign surrogate and closest adviser, using her talents for public presentation time and again to smooth over criticisms that he was anti-women in both agenda and disposition. “My father is a feminist,” she told the Sunday Times in July. “He’s a big reason I am the women I am today.” She said her father was “not a groper”—a few months before the Access Hollywood tape revealed Donald Trump boasting about exactly that and before a dozen women came forward to accuse him of the same. Since then, like many publications who have long benefited from the Trump celebrity machine, women’s magazines have been trying to figure out just what to do with the glamorous first daughter.
High-minded political journalism and fashion coverage have existed side by side in glossy women’s magazines—titles from Cosmopolitan to Glamour to Vogue—for at least a half-century, but Ivanka Trump’s political ascendance has forced the usually parallel tracks of fashion and politics together like never before. And it’s left the genre, which has grown more political in recent years, taking stands on abortion and equal pay, questioning some of its long-held traditions. Is the gauzy, soft-hitting profile—those full-page spreads featuring high-powered, attractive women like Samantha Power or Michelle Obama in glamorous designer gowns—still ethical in the era of Trump? And is it possible even to cover the fashion of the first family without getting political?
“It was certainly much easier to cover Michelle Obama’s amazing gown on one page and then argue for abortion rights on the next page,” says Prachi Gupta, who reported for Cosmopolitan during the campaign and currently works for Jezebel. Now, she says, if you cover what Ivanka is wearing, “you are contributing to the normalization of a man embraced by white supremacists who wants to ban immigration from Muslim countries, who brags about sexually assaulting women, and all sorts of other things.”
***
The woman’s magazine has always been a political object. The first in the United States were founded in the pre-Civil War era as an expression of female empowerment, and some of the longest running, like Ladies’ Home Journal, Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, date back to the late 1800s. One of the first, Godey’s Lady Book, founded in 1830, forbade explicitly controversial articles, but crusaded for women’s education and employment rights. Just as articles about fashion and domestic life changed depending on the generation, so did the political coverage: The magazines ran serious articles on politics in the Progressive Era, supported the war efforts that introduced many women to the world of work in the 1940s, and mirrored the cultural conservatism of the 1950s. Betty Friedan’s seminal 1963 work, The Feminine Mystique, which is broadly credited with kicking off the Second Wave feminist movement, was based in no small part on a critique of the male-run women’s magazines that pushed the image of the “happy housewife heroine” on its readers.
Women’s publications have been covering feminist issues in a serious way since at least 1976, when Cosmo, Glamour, Seventeen, Vogue and Essence all coordinated to publish features in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment. But even then, the political activity in the pages tended to be intermittent and overlooked. It’s only been in the new millennium, as feminism has become more mainstream, in part thanks to the rise of feminist alternative media like Sassy and Rookie, that women’s magazines have become more strident on issues like abortion rights and equal pay.
“People keep saying, ‘Oh, you’ve made the magazine much more political,’ but I feel that these are about lifestyle issues for women,” Joanna Coles, executive editor of Cosmopolitan, told Politico in 2014, after the magazine announced a new political push, #CosmoVotes, that included endorsing abortion rights candidates during the midterms. “The biggest single decision which will impact your life is when you have a child," said Coles. "I want women to have control over that, not a bunch of old white guys sitting in D.C.” Amy Odell, the website’s editor, added. “[P]eople say that’s a liberal thing, but in our minds it’s not about liberal or conservative, it’s about women having rights.”
The coverage did tend to skew liberal. Not only did the platform echo a progressive one, the publications covered plenty of Democratic women, from Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton to Huma Abedin and Wendy Davis—complete with glossy photo-spreads of these power players dressed in couture and posing at the Texas state Capitol, at the White House, at the State Department, in campaign headquarters. The magazines featured Republican women on occasion too—Sarah Palin was photographed in her snowy backyard for Vogue in 2007—although the coverage was less frequent, perhaps in part because there were fewer high-profile GOP women to cover in the first place.
Even as these magazines embraced politics as well as fashion and celebrity, they were able to cover the two worlds without much conflict. Ivanka Trump, for example, existed solidly as a fashion icon. She first debuted on the cover of Seventeen magazine in 1997, alongside a story about the relationships between celebrity mothers and daughters, and has been a favorite of the genre since, appearing on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar in 2007, Redbook in 2013 and Shape in 2014. In the first half of 2015 alone—all before her father formally announced his candidacy for president—she was interviewed about “her definition of success” by Glamour, profiled as a paragon of the modern millennial in Vogue, gave Allure an exclusive on her Met Gala prep and offered recommendations for her favorite restaurants and businesses in New York, also to Vogue. The coverage even continued into 2016, as her father’s campaign unfolded, with largely favorable profiles in publications like Harper’s Bazaar and Town and Country.
Cover Girl The fashion mogul has been a staple of glossy magazines since she first appeared on the cover of Seventeen in 1997. Seventeen, May 1997 Harper's Bazaar, September 2007 Town and Country, July 2008 Elle Decor, October 2012 Forbes Life, April 2013 Redbook, April 2013 Shape, May 2014
The articles weren’t exactly hard-hitting. They described Ivanka’s “perfect eyebrow,” her “hottie husband,” her “stylish and sexy” apartment. She is “standing like … a magnificent statue, in a Carolina Herrera gown, with a baby on one shoulder and a cell phone in the other.” Her voice is “soft, mellifluous.” She “doesn’t bark. She coos.” In one photo, Ivanka sits dressed in tweed at a gleaming piano and leans over the toddler playing on a miniature piano at her feet. In another, she relaxes in front of a stack of what appears to be crisp blueprints, her cobalt stilettos propped up on the glossy table. And then there’s the photo shoot, timed to the release of her new jewelry line, that has her oiled and clad in bathing suits and gowns and diamonds while she alternately blasts rubble and lounges on it at a construction site. This is “wonder woman,” or “superwoman,” these profiles all seem to say; actually, two literally say that.
But these days, this is not all that women’s magazines have to say about Ivanka Trump, whose spokespeople declined to comment for this article. 2016 was the year Ivanka discovered that the genre couldn’t be relied upon to provide uniformly flattering coverage. As a powerful surrogate for her father’s campaign, Trump saw her public profile change—and the coverage of her, both throughout the presidential race and in the first few weeks of the new administration, has reflected that shift.
It was a Cosmopolitan interview that marked the inflection point. Last September, when then-Cosmo reporter Prachi Gupta landed an opportunity to question the eldest Trump daughter on the child care and maternity leave plan she spearheaded for her father, she pressed Trump hard on the details, asking why the policy didn’t address fathers in same-sex relationships and inquiring about how it fit her father’s previous statements calling pregnancy a liability in the workplace. Trump didn’t expect that line of questioning, nor did she like it. “I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions, and I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues,” Trump said, before cutting the interview short. The contentious exchange made headlines (from “Ivanka Trump gets testy in Cosmo interview” to “Where Ivanka’s Cosmo interview went off the rails”), partially because few people expected tough questions from the kind of magazine often stereotyped for publishing features like “Seven Ways to Turn on Your Man (and You)” and “These Disney-Inspired Dresses Are Almost too Beautiful for Words.”
It’s really not that complicated, says Lori Fradkin, executive editor of Cosmpolitan.com, which has more recently published headlines such as “14 Biggest Political Controversies Involving Ivanka Trump” and “This Photo Of Ivanka Trump In The Oval Office Is Proving Controversial” alongside pictures of the first daughter’s inauguration outfits. Gupta simply did “what a good journalist should do—she asked specific questions about the policy Ivanka was representing and followed up when she didn’t get an answer.” Fradkin says the magazine’s mission remains the same as it has always been. “Politics is a core part of the content mix on Cosmopolitan.com, and the fact that Donald Trump is in the White House doesn’t change that,” she says.
Their approaches might vary, but most women’s magazines agree that one thing has changed: They cannot continue to cover Ivanka as if she is solely a fashion mogul, or even a glamorous nonpolitical member of the first family. “We’ve covered Ivanka Trump, the entrepreneur,” explains Riza Cruz, executive editor of Marie Claire. “Since she’s stepped away from the day-to-day of her company, we would consider how her new role affects women across the country and around the world.” So far, the magazine has been publishing a mix of hard news and opinion pieces about Ivanka’s turn to politics alongside shorter items focused on her fashion choices. It’s not quite the same as the aggressively political path Cruz’s colleagues south of the border have taken. In July, the eldest Trump daughter appeared on the cover of the Mexican and Latin American edition of Marie Claire, alongside the headline “Hasta cuando defenderas a tu padre?” How long will you defend your father? “It is hard for me to think that you, a privileged and educated woman, tolerates his dangerous ideas,” editor-in-chief Daniela Von Wobeser wrote in the opening letter.
Then there’s Allure’s approach: The magazine has been busy covering the ups and downs of the first daughter’s clothing, fragrance and accessories empire, but has steered clear of the kind of “what she’s wearing” feature they might have published in years past. “We don’t really have future plans to cover Ivanka in the magazine,” says Michelle Lee, editor of Allure, who believes that beauty and Allure are inherently political. “We would consider covering her if there were a story that were truly newsworthy, but her personal fashion/beauty/lifestyle are not something on our radar. It’s impossible to cover Ivanka without getting entangled in politics.”
Gupta, whose blowup with Ivanka made headlines (and who is also a friend), is one of a vocal group of writers who insist that women’s magazines have to get entangled in politics. “The Trumps should not appear on any magazine covers in a fawning, look-at-how-beautiful-they-are kind of way—editors should avoid these editorials or images where we’re just talking about their fashion,” she says. And that especially goes for the first daughter, not in spite of the fact that “Ivanka is very, very polished, media savvy and glamorous”—but because of it, Gupta says.
Candidate Trump deployed his daughter as an “ambassador” to Republican women when his campaign feared they would flee to Hillary Clinton en masse, Gupta notes. Even as Ivanka insisted she was “not focused on politics,” she gave interviews defending her father’s controversial remarks about women and promoting child care and maternity leave. She sounded practically like a column ripped from the pages of Cosmo or Marie Claire as she spoke at the convention, insisting that Trump would support equal pay for equal work (he hasn’t said whether he does yet). She campaigned for her father in the Philadelphia suburbs, helping to sway a crucial bloc of female swing voters in a state that helped decide the election.
In the election, Ivanka “played a huge rule for a certain type of woman, especially within that 53 percent of white women that voted for [Donald Trump],” notes Lauren Duca. | Getty Images
That all makes her ripe for criticism, says Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca, the author of a searing column about Trump’s manipulation of the truth that went viral in December. Ivanka “played a huge rule for a certain type of woman, especially within that 53 percent of white women that voted for him,” Duca notes. Any coverage of the first daughter, she says, should be done “rigorously and critically and with an eye for her political involvement above all else. To do anything else, to use any other mode of coverage, is irresponsible and anti-feminist.”
Duca goes one step further: “All women’s media should be inherently political. Of course you can hold serious and non-serious interests, and sometimes posts are allowed to just be about what’s cute—that’s OK. But overall, the holistic goal of any publication geared towards women should be concerned with the political, and that goes beyond who’s running for office.”
If this is where women’s magazines are headed, it’s definitely the beginning of a new era for the genre, one that not everyone likes. After Duca wrote in a tweet in December, “Ivanka Trump is poised to become the most powerful woman in the world. Don’t let her off the hook because she looks like she smells good,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson took offense, inviting Duca on his show for one of his signature dressings-down. When Duca argued that the future first daughter had, in fact, played a large and active role in the campaign and was thus fair game, Carlson responded by mocking Duca for covering both politics and fashion. “You should stick to the thigh-high boots,” he said, finishing the segment. “You’re better at that.”
The exchange—in particular Duca’s insistence that women could care about both politics and fashion—made her a hero on the left, rocketing her to more than 180,000 Twitter followers and earning her a profile in the New York Times.
But demeaning as Carlson’s remarks were, there might be readers out there who want their magazines to steer clear of politics. Most of the women’s magazines mentioned above appeal to a younger, unmarried, urban audience, and thus a liberal-leaning one. Would readers of the cluster of magazines known as the “Seven Sisters,” titles from Good Housekeeping to Redbook that have traditionally catered to married women and older audiences, agree with the politicization of the genre?
And there are also powerful figures in the magazine world who don’t feel the Trump women should be shunned for their relationship to Donald Trump. Vogue editor Anna Wintour—a major Hillary Clinton backer and fundraiser—recently said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the magazine would likely cover first lady Melania Trump just as they’d covered previous first ladies. She didn’t mention the first daughter, who is more political. But so far the magazine’s Ivanka repertoire has been mixed, including articles that are critical and those that are purely fashion or lifestyle focused. Powerful and alluring, the first daughter will continue to be an attractive subject for magazine editors—especially as she begins to craft a political role for herself in Washington.
On the other hand, many writers at women’s magazines seem adamantly opposed to giving Ivanka Trump a second chance to win them over—no matter how much she tries to sand down her dad’s rough edges. “We should be very worried about Ivanka’s taking on such a prominent role in the White House,” wrote Glamour’s Hillary Kelly in December. “Not because her politics are especially dangerous—in reality we don’t know much about them. And not because she lacks the intelligence or capability to act as a decision maker—if nothing else, she seems to compose herself with aplomb as a businesswoman, and her acumen has earned her high praise. What we should worry about is Ivanka’s role as the ultimate normalizer of her father’s behavior.” |
Former US Attorney Preet Bharara blasted President Trump for inviting “admitted killer” Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to the White House.
“Admin attacks crime approach of NYC — America’s safest large city — then invites admitted killer, Philippine Pres Duterte, to White House,” Bharara tweeted Sunday.
see also Trump invites Duterte to the White House President Trump spoke by phone Saturday with Philippines President Rodrigo...
Bharara, who was fired by Trump in March when he refused to hand in his resignation after President Obama left office, wrote that the invitation of Duterte, who has been accused by rights groups of executing drug suspects in the Philippines, stunned the White House staff.
“On Duterte visit: DJT is ‘still ready to say and do things that leave people, even on his staff, slack-jawed,'” Bharara wrote, referring to a line in a New York Times story about Trump’s phone call to Duterte.
The former federal prosecutor’s tweet included a link to a New York Times story from December 2016 that showed Duterte boasting of how he killed three people when he was the mayor of Davao City.
“I killed about three of them because there were three of them. I don’t really know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies. It happened. I cannot lie about it,” the newspaper quoted Duterte as saying.
But Duterte himself may have defused a controversial meeting with Trump, saying his schedule may prevent him from traveling to Washington.
“I am tied up. I cannot make any definite promise. I am supposed to go to Russia, I am supposed to go to Israel,” he said on Monday.
Trump’s Justice Department criticized the NYPD for not doing enough to stop immigrants from committing crimes in a dispute over funding for sanctuary cities.
The White House on Sunday defended having Duterte visit Trump, saying he can help the US curtail North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.
“There is nothing right now facing this country and facing the region that is a bigger threat than what’s happening in North Korea,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told ABC’s “This Week.” |
Relationships are built upon trust! As an AD administrator, there is no relationship more important than the one between Domain Controllers and workstations. We have all dealt with errors like “The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed.” But why does this occur? In short, the secure channel has been broken and we need to fix it. Here is how:
“Why can’t you look me in the eyes without crying?”*
As you probably know, computer accounts have passwords. When the computer account is first configured, it’s default password is COMPUTERNAME$. It will change the password and continue changing the password every 30 days. But what happens if a computer is offline for more than 30 days?
To quote Microsoft:
Machine account passwords as such do not expire in Active Directory. They are exempted from the domain’s password policy. It is important to remember that machine account password changes are driven by the CLIENT (computer), and not the AD. As long as no one has disabled or deleted the computer account, nor tried to add a computer with the same name to the domain, (or some other destructive action), the computer will continue to work no matter how long it has been since its machine account password was initiated and changed.
If password expiration isn’t the issue, why would a trust relationship be broken? Here is a nice starter list for you:
Duplicate Computer Names: If you have two physical computers with the same name, you are going to have problems. You can use this script to help find potential duplicates.
Resetting the AD Account: For clarification purposes, this is not a fancy “Restart Computer button”. That fancy button can be found here.
Duplicate SIDS: This last reason is still in question. If you are properly imaging your machines, you won’t have any issues here though.
Infidelity: Some have reported that repeatedly joining/unjoining different domains can cause this issues – why they were even trying this, I do not know.
“How can I move on with my life?”*
Remote Desktop is your best friend on this problem! Connect to the computer as the local administrator. Because local users do not authenticate against the domain, you should not have any issues logging in. If you are unable to resolve the name of the computer, you can use DHCP to locate the IP address.
Once connected, just open System Properties and proceed through the Network ID Wizard. If you are using PowerShell 3.0+, you can use the Test-ComputerSecureChannel cmdlet. Here is an example:
Test-ComputerSecureChannel -Repair -Credential (Get-Credential) -Verbose 1 Test-ComputerSecureChannel -Repair -Credential ( Get-Credential ) -Verbose
Hopefully, this post will give you some closure on why your trust relationships sometimes fail. If you have any questions (or tips on troubleshooting this problem), please let me know in the comments below! If you want to learn more and learn how to make your IT life easier, then subscribe to DeployHappiness. As a bonus, you will get a free guide on making your own Windows 8 administrative menu!
*All sub-headings are strictly fictional and are in no way taken from 2:00 AM fights that my neighbors regularly have. |
Equipped with a hybrid car and a camera, photographer Seph Lawless travels the country snapping pictures of abandoned shopping malls. The empty structures are perhaps not the first thing that would come to one's mind when searching for worthy photographic structures, but in front of Lawless' lens, the eerie spaces become moving portraits of America's past.
From unused escalators surrounded by fallen ceiling tiles to faded customer service centers flanked by shriveled indoor plants, the photographs offer a glimpse into oft-ignored aspects of contemporary suburban sprawl. Located throughout parts of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Rust Belt relics are the byproducts of job loss, Lawless explained to HuffPost. As manufacturing opportunities continue to decline and town populations fluctuate in the wake of the economic downturn, the mammoth shopping malls become unsustainable. When they evade demolition, they become ghostlike monuments of better times.
"I wanted Americans to see what was happening to their country from the comfort of their suburban homes and smartphones," Lawless, who goes by a pseudonym, said. "I didn't think the problems we face as a country would change unless we faced these problems, and I thought we could start by simply looking at them."
Lawless admits that gaining access to the shopping malls has been a challenge, as he's had to remove boards and climb facades throughout his journeys. But the results seem worth it to the artist, who has translated his haunting photographs into a book and Instagram account. You can check out a selection of his work, "Black Friday," here, and head over his Facebook page to see more. |
How Union-Busting Bosses Propel the Right Wing to Power
Pinkerton's detectives escort strikebreakers in Buchtel, Ohio, 1884. (Photo: Library of Congress)
U.S. bosses fight unions with a ferocity that is unmatched in the so-called free world. In the early days of the republic, master craftsmen prosecuted fledgling unions as criminal conspiracies that aimed to block their consolidation of wealth and property. During modern times, corporations threaten the jobs of pro-union workers in over half of all union elections—and follow through on the threat one-third of the time. In between, bosses have resorted to spies and frame-ups, physical violence, court injunctions, private armies of strikebreakers, racist appeals and immigrant exploitation.
The labor question has never been a genteel debate about power and fairness in America.
A new book from the University of Illinois Press’ “The Working Class History in American History” series offers a broad survey of how bosses have historically engaged in union-busting. Against Labor: How U.S. Employers Organized to Defeat Union Activism is a collection of scholarly essays edited by Rosemary Feurer and Chad Pearson.
The essays that comprise Against Labor cover a period that stretches from the late 1880s to the Clinton era. Elizabeth Esch and David Roediger explore the racist assumptions that were built into so-called “scientific management.” The men with the stopwatches who broke production down into ever smaller tasks had ethnic preferences for each: Lithuanians for grinding steel, “American Poles” for forging, never Mexicans for the night shift and so on. A happy (for management) side effect of this speed up was the simmering resentment between different nationalities that hindered workplace solidarity.
Chad Pearson shines a light on Progressive-era worker organizations that were created and propped up by employers to help workers resist “union monopolies.” In other words, they created unions for scabs to break strikes and open up closed union shops.
Robert H. Woodrum looks at the use of the Ku Klux Klan and employer-sponsored vigilantism to run union organizers out of the Alabama docks and reverse the modest gains southern workers made during World War I. Michael Dennis updates the southern picture by documenting the UFCW’s sustained, large-scale organizing drive in non-union Virginia supermarkets in the early 1990s. Already facing enormous competitive pressure from Walmart, the supermarkets dug in for a years-long fight with little concern for the law. The story is a perfectly concise example of just how broken the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was as a venue for protecting workers by the time Bill Clinton took office.
None of these stories are particularly earth-shattering revelations to people who study unions and union-busting. What’s most notable is how employer tactics get recycled and adapted from era to era, and that no era was free from union-busting. That’s a key point of Against Labor. Editors Feurer and Pearson place their collection squarely within the new body of scholarship on the “rise of the right.”
Contrary to a popular narrative that has an activist right wing resurging in the years between Nixon’s 1968 election and Reagan’s firing of the air traffic controllers in 1981, the modern right wing began rising in reaction to the New Deal. Many employers simply never accepted the legitimacy of state intervention on behalf of union rights that was enshrined in the original National Labor Relations Act. These employers—mostly small and mid-sized firms—acted as an advance guard against union rights.
They pressed against the edges of the law, testing their ability to fire union activists for cause, replace strikers, lockout recalcitrant unions and restrict organizers’ access to the job site. They learned to love making the NLRB go to court to enforce orders against bosses’ union busting, for in the courts they found far more sympathetic arbiters of management’s rights. The biggest holes in labor law’s protections of workers rights, exploited in the anti-union drives of the 1980s, mostly come from bad court decisions in the postwar years that some people like to kid themselves were a golden age of labor-management cooperation.
Sure, there were employers who talked a good game about their (junior) “partners” in labor, kept their pensions and healthcare plans funded and mostly avoided knock-down, drag-out contract fights. But, clearly in retrospect, they were ready to beat down and bust their own unions just as soon as the advance guard of reactionaries created a political environment where it was possible.
The most fascinating story in the collection, “The Strange Career of A.A. Ahner: Reconsidering Blackjacks and Briefcases,” comes from Feurer. It tells of a hired gun whose career bridged two very different eras of labor-management relations in the Kansas City area. Scholars have referred to the advent of the NLRB as a kind of transition from blackjacks to briefcases for anti-union employers. It’s commonly assumed that the Pinkertons, thugs and company “unions,” employers’ first line of defense against unions in the 1920s, were muscled out of the way by a new generation of lawyers who promised to “work the system” to represent their clients’ interests at the NLRB. But in Ahner we find a direct, lineal connection between the two approaches.
Ahner ran his own detective agency beginning during World War I. For the right price, he would spy on workers, plant bombs and frame union activists (he had lots of friends in law enforcement at a time when there weren’t terribly rigid boundaries between local business and police). This work continued into the 1930s, when he was investigated by a Senate committee probing how employers were violating the new labor act.
Recognizing that times had changed, Ahner improved his image, if not his underlying philosophy. Working with a local priest, he became co-chair of the St. Louis Labor-Management Committee, which counseled conciliation and arbitration. Through this “volunteer” work, he lined up consulting gigs with unionized employers. Mostly this was for bargaining and grievances, where union representatives who knew his history would be aghast to find him sitting across the table with an air of respectability. But occasionally—even in the 1950’s—he was called on for union avoidance work, where he pressed the limits of employers’ rights to their own free speech and to squelch their workers’.
Ahner’s story enriches our understanding of the real roots of today’s anti-unionism. One wishes Rosemary Feurer had expanded her research on Ahner and others like him and made that the subject of her book.
It also serves as a warning that today’s union-buster will claim to have “always” had a “productive working relationship” with unions when we begin to win again. But the only “always” that applies to American capitalists is that they are always against labor. |
This video is no longer available
This video was hosted on Vidme, which is no longer in operation. However, you might find this video at one of these links:
Video title:
DUO (full movie) Part 1 of 6
Upload date:
October 10 2017
Uploaded by:
TJ_Excursion_Cinema
Video description:
Part 1 of 6 for my first feature film, DUO. The story is about former prizefighter Ole Anderson and the dangerous low-lives who are out to get him. Made when I was 19 years old while in college and with pretty much no money or resources, production for this film was one of the best experiences of my life- I learned so much from the filmmaking process and wouldn't change a thing about it. Part 2 will be uploaded next Monday! Hope you all enjoy it and don't forget to leave a comment if you have any compliments or even criticisms for that matter!
Total views:
126 |
The flags at Wrigley are raised and lowered on a single rope for each division (and include only the N.L. teams); raising and lowering the flags at Yankee Stadium feels more like a mountaineering expedition. Once the workers’ harnesses are secured, the men lean out over the upper deck to reach the crank that sends the flags up or down.
“Obviously these guys don’t have a fear of heights,” said Doug Behar, the Yankees’ vice president of stadium operations. “I don’t love being up high. I like to look at the standings from second base, not up on the roof.”
Some days, the elements come into play. There is wind and rain, which sometimes complicate matters by wrapping the flags around the rope, and there is a menacing peregrine falcon that has a favorite perch on an antenna atop the roof in left field. But the reward is sublime: a 360-degree view of the city and a platform so high it renders the hustle and flow of the South Bronx and Harlem all but silent.
“This is an artist’s dream to be up here,” Thomas said Friday, a sunny, springlike day that offered a clear view of the Midtown skyline. “If you can paint, you can see anything.”
Thomas, 59, has worked for the Yankees since 1989. Having grown up across the river at 154th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, he remembers peeking out his bedroom window when his mother would ask him what time it was: He had a clear view of the Longines clock sign that stood for years outside the old Yankee Stadium.
Long before information was available with the click of a phone button, ballparks had ways to disseminate information — be it the time of day or whether the home team had won or lost. Before lights were installed at Wrigley Field, a W or L flag was raised near the scoreboard so that people passing by on the elevated train would know the Cubs’ result. In the early days of Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., the old Big A sign, visible from three nearby freeways, would light up if the Angels had won. |
Near Daily Oil Spills Continuously Contaminate the Environment
By: CDC
Environmental degradation comes in all shapes and sizes- but no matter the size, it adds up. As people that give a shit, it is imperative we be critical of where and how much attention is paid to the occasional “major” catastrophe while globally, nationally and most importantly, locally, extraction industries trash the world around them.
In his article, “As BP Battles in Court over Deepwater Horizon, Oil Spills are Happening All Over the Place,” John Upton highlights the media’s tendency to ignore frequent small spills, allowing environmentally destructive incidences to appear infrequent and preventable.
BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill was notable because of the huge number of barrels leaked, the economic and environmental devastation wrought, and the number of people directly affected. But oil spills are not an aberration. Spills are a constant and poisonous cost of the world’s dependence upon fossil fuels.
Little attention is paid to this steady stream of spills. That’s in part because company and government officials often labor to convince us that each single spill is minor, unimportant, and environmentally benign.
This week, while BP was defending itself in court against claims and potential fines stemming from the 2010 disaster, emergency responders were kept busy dealing with new oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world.
Upton goes on to list lesser known spills that have happened in Louisiana, Texas, the Philippines and Nigeria in the recent past. Each spill contaminating water, air and soil and damaging the lives of humans and non-humans for years to come.
For another example of the small scale destruction that happen everyday under our petrol-aucracy we turn to Commerce City (outside of Denver, Co). Within a five mile radius of the historically African-American/immigrant residential community we find the Suncor refinery (which processes tar sands), a waste-water management facility, Colorado Serum Company (manufactures livestock antibiotics, etc), Cherokee Coal Plant, National By-Products and the Purina dog chow factory. All these factories pollute directly into the South Platte River which transects the area. Additionally, Sand Creek, which runs confluence to the Platte River, flows directly between the Suncor refinery and the coal plant. It goes without saying the water here is far from safe or life-sustaining, yet few understand and fewer resist the contamination of one of Denver’s most important rivers.
Then to top things off, approximately one year ago, the tar sands piped down from Canada to the Suncor refinery began to leak into Sand Creek and continued to leak for an undetermined amount of time. In response, The Denver Post published the article, “Toxics from Suncor refinery spill still seeping into water; Colorado vows to “accelerate” response,” which briefly depicted the spill, unnoticed by many of the folks living in direct vicinity.
Black goo is still seeping into waterways from Suncor Energy’s oil refinery north of Denver, and the latest tests show benzene levels 48 times the limit for drinking water, even downstream of the point at which Sand Creek flows into the South Platte River…
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment data — from samples taken by Suncor — showed benzene concentrations at 720 parts per billion on Jan. 9 at the point where Sand Creek meets the South Platte, up from 190 on Jan. 6, and 144 times higher than the 5 ppb national drinking-water standard. Benzene is a chemical found in crude oil that is classified as cancer-causing, especially affecting blood.
The South Platte River is the main water source for northeastern Colorado and the Denver area.
Spilled contaminants from decades of refinery operations at the site have seeped underground, “and it is snaking through. The pressures change. It finds the path of least resistance, and that’s apparently what has happened: It has found the path of least resistance to get into Sand Creek,” Colorado health department environmental-programs director Martha Rudolph said in an interview last week.
The Suncor oil spill in not an isolated incident, neither are the recent spills noted by Upton. Upton concludes his article by sarcastically relating the spills to the pressing matter of TransCanada and the Keystone XL pipeline.
But don’t you worry about the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada assures us it will be safe: Each year, billions of gallons of crude oil and petroleum products are safely transported on pipelines. If they do occur, pipeline leaks are small; most pipeline leaks involve less than three barrels, 80% of spills involve less than 50 barrels, and less than 0.5 percent of spills total more than 10,000 barrels.Safety of the public and the environment is a top priority for TransCanada.
First, bullshit. Second, no matter the size of an oil spill, any spill is a bad and unsafe spill, no ifs, ands or buts.
We must remember to fight and shed light on small oils spills as well as large spills; not only because of their cumulative effects on the environment but also because of their near constant occurrence in traditionally oppressed communities. To stop smaller more intricate parts of the system is to better understand and resist the whole. Any small fight contributes to the larger effort to resist the extraction industry and system of destruction..
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NBC’s roster for the Rio Olympics continues to expand, with the network following up the announcement of Mary Carillo and Jimmy Roberts as correspondents with a release this week outlining the big names they have lined up for men’s basketball. Marv Albert will call Team USA men’s games, with Doug Collins on color and Craig Sager on the sidelines. NBC also announced that Marc Zumoff, Ann Meyers and Ros Gold-Onwude will be working the Team USA women’s games. From the release:
Legendary basketball play-by-play broadcaster Marv Albert returns to the Olympics to call Team USA men’s basketball for the first time since the U.S. men captured gold in Atlanta in 1996. He will be joined by former NBA head coach and 1972 U.S. Olympian Doug Collins, and reporter Craig Sager, working his fifth consecutive Olympics for NBC. NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad begins from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, August 5. The 2016 Rio Olympics mark Albert’s fifth NBC Olympics assignment and third calling men’s basketball, as he was courtside to chronicle the gold medal-winning U.S. “Dream Team” in Barcelona in 1992. Albert also called Olympic boxing for NBC in 1988, 1996, and 2000. Collins and Sager each take on his fifth consecutive Olympic broadcasting assignment, since the 2000 Sydney Games. Coverage of Team USA women’s basketball will be handled by CSN-Philadelphia’s Marc Zumoff (play-by-play) and 1976 U.S. Olympian Ann Meyers (analyst). They will be joined by reporter Ros Gold-Onwude, who works Golden State Warriors telecasts for CSN-Bay Area. Zumoff, the play-by-play voice of the Philadelphia 76ers since 1994, makes his Olympics debut. Meyers, a 1993 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and a silver medalist as a member of the first-ever U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team (1976), works her fifth consecutive Olympics for NBC (since 2000). Gold-Onwude, who competed in three Final Fours and was 2010 Pac-12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year while playing for Stanford, makes her Olympics debut.
There haven’t been a lot of sport-specific lineups announced by NBC yet, but this is a significant one. Albert, Collins and Sager are all big gets, and it’s particularly interesting that Sager has signed on despite his cancer no longer being in remission. It’s also notable to see Albert returning to Olympic men’s basketball after a 20-year absence; he obviously has plenty of experience with the sport from working as Turner’s lead NBA announcer since 1999, but it will be interesting to see him calling the international game again. The women’s lineup looks solid as well. Basketball will likely be one of the big-draw sports this summer, and it seems like NBC has lined up plenty of top talent to handle it.
[NBC Sports Pressbox] |
Because I often work with students, I’m always on the look-out for a simple CPU, preferably in Verilog, in the Goldilocks zone. That is, not too easy and not too hard. I had high hopes for this 16-bit RISC processor presented by [fpga4student], but without some extra work, it probably isn’t usable for its intended purpose.
The CPU itself is pretty simple and fits on a fairly long web page. However, the details about it are a bit sparse. This isn’t always a bad thing. You can offer students too much help. Then again, you can also offer too little. However, what was worse is one of the modules needed to get it to work was missing! You might argue it was an exercise left to the reader, but it probably should have been pointed out that way.
At first, I was ready to delete the bookmark and move on. Then I decided that the process of fixing this design and doing a little analysis on it might actually be more instructive than just studying a fully working design. So I decided to share my fix with you and look inside the architecture a bit more. On top of that, I’ll show you how to get the thing to run in an online simulator so you can experiment with no software installation. Of course, if you are comfortable with a Verilog toolchain (like the ones from Xilinx or Altera, or even free ones like Icarus or CVer) you should have no problem making that work, either. This time I’ll focus on how the CPU works and next time I’ll show you how to simulate it with some free tools.
The Design
Let’s start with a block diagram of the CPU. It isn’t much different from other RISC architectures, especially any that don’t use a pipeline. A program counter (PC) drives the instruction memory. There’s a dedicated adder to add four to the PC for each instruction because each instruction is four bytes. A mux lets you load the PC for the next instruction or with a jump target (actually, an absolute jump, a computed branch, or a return address). There’s another dedicated adder for the computed branches.
The processing occurs in an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that performs different operations. The destination can be main memory or one of the registers. The register file uses an old trick to avoid a common problem. Suppose you can read one register per cycle. If you only allow one register in an instruction, that’s fine. But if you allow an instruction to do something like add two registers, you’ll have trouble loading both of them unless you stretch out the instruction time. That’s why the register file has two output ports.
The truth is, the register file is at least one spot where the design would not synthesize to real hardware as well as it could. For one thing, there’s a for loop in the initial block to zero the registers. Most synthesis tools would just throw that away. You’d be better off with a reset signal. The other possible issue depends on what exact FPGA you will target and what tools you use.
The designer provides two read ports to the registers, but the underlying storage is the same. This would make it difficult to use specialized RAM cells if they were available. Another common technique is to simply use two separate register blocks, one for each read port. A write will send data to both blocks so from the outside you can’t tell the difference. Frequently, though, this will result in a faster and more compact design.
It would be interesting (and not very difficult) to rewrite the register file to do this. However, if you aren’t going to build down to hardware you probably won’t notice any difference.
Like most similar CPUs, the whole control works out to muxes selecting what data gets sent where. In particular, there are four muxes in the processor’s data path:
PCSrc – Routes the “next” PC value to the program counter
RegDst – Selects what register to write from two fields in the instruction (the diagram shows three inputs, but that appears to be an error)
BSrc – Selects the second argument to the ALU (either an immediate value or a register value)
WBSrc – The “write back” mux selects what data is set back to the registers for writing
Design Tables
The rest of the design shows the thirteen instructions, the five instruction formats, and the control signals required for each of the formats. The nuances of the instructions in each category depend on what the ALU is set to do. In other words, an add instruction and a subtract instruction are exactly the same except for what the ALU does. As you might imagine, the ALU takes two inputs and an operation code and produces an output.
The original post doesn’t actually say which instructions are in which category, but it is pretty easy to puzzle out. The Load and Store instructions are in the memory access formats. The Branch on Equal and Not Equal instructions are in the branch category. The Jump instruction has its own format. All the other instructions are “data processing.” The one table shows a “hamming distance” op code, but this doesn’t appear anywhere else–including in the code–so I suspect it is a cut and paste error.
The two tables do a good job of summarizing the operations need to make the CPU work. There are nine distinct control signals:
RegDst – This corresponds to the mux in the diagram of the same name and selects if the destination is a register (shows up as reg_dst in the code)
ALUSrc – Selects the source of the ALU argument (same as the BSrc mux in the diagram, and shows up as alu_src in the code)
MemtoReg – Active when a memory to register transfer occurs (mem_to_reg in the code)
RegWrite – Set when write should go to a register (reg_write in the code)
MemRead – Set when a memory read is the source data for the instruction (mem_read in the code)
MemWrite – Set when memory is the write destination (mem_write in the code)
Branch – Active when a branch is in progress (combination of beq and bne signals in the code)
ALUOp – Combined with part of the instruction, selects the operation to perform in the ALU (alu_op in the code)
Jump – Active when a jump is in progress
The table corresponds directly to Verilog in the control unit except for the name changes, which is unfortunate as it makes the table a little harder to follow. For example, here is the code for a data processing instruction with opcode 0010:
4'b0010: // data_processing begin reg_dst = 1'b1; alu_src = 1'b0; mem_to_reg = 1'b0; reg_write = 1'b1; mem_read = 1'b0; mem_write = 1'b0; beq = 1'b0; bne = 1'b0; alu_op = 2'b00; jump = 1'b0; end
Compare that to the table in the original post and you’ll see it maps directly. In English, the instruction is a read from two registers that writes back to the registers with an ALU operation code of 0 and it isn’t a jump or a branch.
Inexplicably, this block is duplicated for all the data processing instructions even though it shouldn’t be necessary. Luckily, for simulation, it won’t really matter and most synthesis tools will figure it out and merge the identical code for you.
Next Time
In the next installment, I’ll show you how to load the design into one of my favorite quick design tools, EDA Playground. There was a missing file and some massaging necessary to get it to work with the online tool. However, the CPU does work as promised, once you figure out a few peculiarities. If you want a sneak peek at the simulation, you can check out the video, below. |
The Musqueam Indian Band has chosen Polygon as the developer for the first phase of a massive residential development that will spread over more than 21 acres of its own land near the University of British Columbia.
The band announced Thursday that Polygon will work alongside the band’s economic development arm — the Musqueam Capital Corporation — which will oversee the project and be responsible for building roads, services and parks.
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The development, which includes four 18-storey highrises, several rows of townhouses and mid-rise apartment buildings, has also been given a name — Lelem, which means home in the Musqueam language.
The band’s choice of Polygon was based on its “leadership in design and development across all of their projects,” said Chief Wayne Sparrow in a news release. The band has said Musqueam history and art will be featured in the development.
Polygon’s chairman, Michael Audain, has a strong connection to First Nations and he features many works of artists in his art gallery in Whistler. Audain was also behind the commissioning of the "reconciliation pole" at UBC, which was carved by Haida artist James Hart and his apprentices.The pole was raised in April on the main mall of the campus.
As the Courier reported earlier this year, the band made history in February in breaking ground on the project. That’s because it was the first time in the histories of the city and University Endowment Lands that a First Nation was behind a major development on its own land in Vancouver.
The provincial government gave the project the green light last fall after an extensive process that included public meetings. Vancouver city council did not have a say in the project because the endowment lands are the jurisdiction of the provincial government.
The land, which runs along University Boulevard and is bounded by Acadia Road, Toronto Road and Ortona Avenue, was returned to the band in 2008 by the provincial government as part of a reconciliation package. The nearby University Golf Course lands and the land on which the River Rock Casino was built in Richmond were included in the deal.
The housing planned for the development will create space for an estimated 2,500 residents, who will have access to a community centre, child care facility, a grocery store, restaurants, a public plaza, a large park and wetlands area. “Affordable workforce housing” and a mix of rental units will also be built into the project.
Last year, the Courier took a detailed look at the Musqueam's foray into economic development and its agreement to work with Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations on future projects. You can read it here.
[email protected]
@Howellings |
Lick the Force! Lightsaber lolly for sugar-fueled fans of Star Wars
Choose: Luke (blue), Vader (red), or Yoda (green)
Press the button to light up the blade
Three Saber Pops per order. Share them or eat 'em all yourself!!
The Force may be all around us, but sometimes we need a helping hand to find it. Luke had Yoda to help with his training, but not all of us are so lucky. Instead, we hired a candy company to distill the Force into a sugary sweet that could be lapped up like morning dew on the side of an X-Wing Fighter.
If you're a Star Wars fan that is fueled by sugar, you're going to love the Light up Candy Lightsaber. These lightsabers are the perfect size for a Force-filled snack. Choose your weapon: Luke's blue saber, Vader's red saber, or Yoda's green one. Press the button on the hilt to light up the blade. It's surprisingly bright! It's almost too sweet to eat, but we'll let you make that decision.
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At the end of 2017, one of the NSA’s most important legal powers is set to expire. Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act gives the director of national intelligence and attorney general the authority to target anyone outside the US for surveillance, but that authority has to be reauthorized by Congress every few years. With old congressional allies like Dianne Feinstein newly skeptical of the NSA — and President Trump openly feuding with the intelligence community — surveillance reformers are seeing their best chance in years to make real changes to the US surveillance apparatus.
And yet, just two months away from the renewal deadline, the options for reform are already narrowing. There are three bills working their way through Congress (there’s a good comparison here), but one of them takes reauthorization as a chance to expand, not curtail, the NSA’s power. After a closed-door markup, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a reauthorization bill this morning that would codify backdoor searches, along with the “about” collection that the NSA supposedly discontinued earlier this year. Even where reformers can make progress, they’re limited to specific collection and search practices, and seriously hindered by NSA secrecy.
WHAT’S AT STAKE IN 702 REAUTHORIZATION Backdoor searches Intentionally or not, the NSA collects a lot of messages sent to and from US citizens — and right now, it’s allowed to search that database for US citizens with just a rubber stamp from the FISA court. But two of the three 702 renewal proposals would tighten that process, requiring a judicial warrant for any query involving US citizens. “About” collection In theory, the NSA collects information in order to monitor foreign intelligence targets, not Americans. But for years, the agency collected emails and other communications that sent between US citizens that were about a target. (Say, if you sent your friend wrote an email that mentioned Osama bin Laden.) The Goodlatte-Conyers and Wyden-Paul bills make the practice explicitly illegal, although another sponsored by Burr would open the door for that collection to start up again. Target notification Groups like the ACLU have been trying for years to challenge the NSA in court, but without clear proof that a person was targeted, it’s been extremely difficult to prove standing. According to the existing 702 language, the NSA has to provide notice to targets any time their information is used in a proceeding, but those notifications have been extremely rare in practice. If a stronger requirement makes it into law, it would give reformers a powerful new tool for reining in the NSA.
The broad problem is a familiar one: the NSA is using foreign surveillance systems to spy on Americans. The FISA Act was meant for targeting non-US citizens, just like the NSA was meant to collect foreign intelligence — but those restrictions have become almost meaningless. As the NSA sweeps up emails and web traffic in bulk, countless Americans end up in the agency database. (Literally countless: the NSA refuses to give Congress even a broad estimate.) All that’s needed to search the database is a rubber stamp approval from the FISA court.
In the years since the Snowden leaks, researchers have started to map out the various loopholes that let it happen — and figure out how to close them where possible. It’s an exhausting list: upstream collection (i.e., cable tapping) and downstream collection (i.e., PRISM), along with backdoor searches and frontdoor searches. Some surveillance is justified under the FISA Amendments Act (specifically section 702), but the Patriot Act is cited by others (specifically section 215), and in the background is executive order 12333, a pre-internet directive that’s become a kind of catchall for surveillance authorization.
In most cases, the end result is the same: more data for the NSA. “It’s become this kabuki dance of surveillance,” says Thomas Drake, a former NSA executive who has become one the agency’s fiercest critics. “Which mask do we wear today? Which authority are we going to use?”
One of the main targets for reform is the practice known as a backdoor search. Even though US citizens aren’t supposed to be targeted for collection, there are no restrictions on searching the NSA’s database for US communications that have already been swept up. Once you’ve found that data, there are few restrictions on sharing it with the FBI and other law enforcement, who can admit it into evidence in court at their own discretion. The result is a clear path for using NSA surveillance to prosecute everyday domestic crimes — all without a warrant.
Elizabeth Goitein, who co-directs the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security program, says the practice stands out as a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. “The two things that make section 702 constitutional, according to the courts, are that the government has a foreign intelligence purpose for the collection and that its only targets are foreigners are overseas,” Goitein says. “So allowing the government to go looking for Americans communications to use against them in cases that have nothing to do with foreign intelligence is insane.”
If reformers like Goitein have made progress on reining in the NSA, it’s because they’ve known what to look for — but that information is still in short supply. Three years after the Snowden leaks, the NSA still refuses to give the most basic information about its systems for collection and search, even in classified briefings to Congress. For six years, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has been asking the NSA for an estimate of the number of Americans swept up in what the agency calls “incidental collection,” a request that was echoed by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) asked earlier this year. Neither member has gotten an answer, and questions about the number of backdoor searches have been met with the same silence.
“One of the frustrating things is that Congress is being asked to vote on this authority in the dark,” says the Neema Singh Guliani, who issued similar requests with the ACLU. “We don’t have basic information on these programs. And when I say ‘we,’ that’s not just the public, but also members of Congress.”
That secrecy puts reform efforts in a difficult place. Like the Patriot Act renewal in 2015, this year’s fight over 702 will close the NSA’s most egregious legal loopholes, but even the best scenario leaves other loopholes open. Even worse, it’s likely there are other techniques and legal habits that have never been seen outside NSA headquarters. Is the NSA using the FISA court to compel companies to help break their own encryption, as some have suggested? We don’t have any hard evidence that it’s happening, but with similar provisions popping up in a recent bill, it’s hard to dismiss. Unless the NSA starts opening up to Congress, it might take another Snowden to know for sure.
“We don’t have the necessary transparency to know if it’s true,” says Goitein. “If such a thing were to happen, how would we know?” |
My husband, Eric and I have a farm and maple syrup operation situated on 1,000 acres of mostly wooded land in northern Vermont. I had walked a quarter mile through the forest to our house to retrieve our truck and upon my return, a medium-sized black bear ambled out of the woods and strode across the driveway right in front of me. I was stunned and enthralled since I had just five minutes previously passed by on foot. As I sat in the truck marveling, two young cubs popped out of the brush and hurried to catch up to her.
They passed under the tubes that carry sap from the trees to our sugarhouse where it is processed and then continued through the forest and up the mountain. The bears pay no attention to the tubing and neither do the fisher cats or ermine or flying squirrels that make a home here. Though we have a presence in this forest tapping these trees for our livelihood, it only takes crossing paths with a bear to remind me that this land is still feral. While most crops are now harvested out of tidy rows in managed fields, the untamed northeastern woods have always been inseparable from the production of maple syrup. But a new discovery in harvesting sap may change that and bring big changes for those of us in the industry.
Vermont leads the United States in total maple production, pumping out 1,320,000 gallons of maple syrup in 2013. Maple syrup is produced by collecting sap from maple trees and boiling it down to syrup. In late winter as temperatures rise, sugarmakers, as we are known, will drill a hole in a mature tree and place a tap in the hole which drips the sap into a bucket or, more commonly these days, into tubing that leads directly to a reservoir or the sugarhouse where the syrup is processed. For those of us who use tubing, we usually have it under vacuum to keep the sap moving through the network.
Once in the sugarhouse, most large scale operations are now equipped with a reverse-osmosis machine that then removes a large portion of the water from the sap, making the final step of boiling it down to syrup more efficient. The process has been modernized considerably since pioneers learned the practice from Native Americans several centuries ago. The one thing that has not changed is the necessity of a mature forest, preferably with a large concentration of maple species.
But all that might change.
They realized that their discovery meant sugarmakers could use saplings, densely planted in open fields, to harvest sap. In other words, it is possible that maple syrup could now be produced as a row crop like every other commercial crop in North America.
In October 2013, Drs. Tim Perkins and Abby van Den Berg of the University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center, revealed the findings of a study at a maple syrup conference in New Brunswick, Canada that sent waves through the industry. In 2010, they were studying vacuum systems in sap collection operations. Based on the observation that one of the mature trees in the study that was missing most of its top was still yielding high volumes of sap, they hypothesized that the maples were possibly drawing moisture from the soil and not the crown. Previously, they had presumed that the sap dripping from tap holes was coming from the upper portion of the tree. But, if the tree was missing most of its crown then, they surmised, it must be drawing moisture from the roots.
In order not to destroy the mature maples in the research forest to test their theory, they went to the maple saplings planted near the lab which are often used to gather data. They lopped off the top of the small trees, put caps on them with a tube inserted, sealed the cap and put them under vacuum. The young trees produced impressive quantities of sap, even without the benefit of a crown.
“Initially with the mature tree we didn’t think much of it other than this is a really interesting observation of the importance of vacuum in pulling sap out of the trees,” says Perkins. “But after we cut the top off the sapling we thought ‘This is unusual enough that we should look at it some more.’”
The pair thought that they may have hit on something big.
“We were looking to see, do we really need the top of the tree to function? Can we still get sap and more importantly sugar from a tree without its top and we did,” says van den Berg.
They realized that their discovery meant sugarmakers could use saplings, densely planted in open fields, to harvest sap. In other words, it is possible that maple syrup could now be produced as a row crop like every other commercial crop in North America.
In a natural forest, which varies in maple density, an average 60 to 100 taps per acre will yield 40 to 50 gallons of syrup. According to the researchers’ calculations, an acre of what is now called “the plantation method” could sustain 5,800 saplings with taps yielding 400 gallons of syrup per acre. If the method is realized, producing maple syrup on a commercial scale may no longer be restricted to those with forest land; it could require just 50 acres of arable land instead of 500 acres of forest. Furthermore, any region with the right climate for growing maples would be able to start up maple “farms”. The natural forest would become redundant.
1 A crew heads into the woods to tap and fix lines on the author's farm. 2 Near empty syrup sample bottles. 3 The author and crew member William Burt (foreground), high up in the mountains, tapping trees. 1 A crew heads into the woods to tap and fix lines on the author's farm. 2 Near empty syrup sample bottles. 3 The author and crew member William Burt (foreground), high up in the mountains, tapping trees.
Perkins and van den Berg, who have devoted their careers to the maple industry since 1996 and 1999 respectively, are optimistic the plantation system will benefit existing sugar makers.
“The amount of good well-stocked maple forests out there, in Vermont at least, is getting low because maple is going through this very rapid growth,” says Perkins. “If you can’t buy land near you that can be rapidly developed into a producing area this offers sugarmakers a chance to grow their operation.”
According to Perkins over 50 percent of the Vermont stands of forest with a viable sugar bush are in production at the moment. Given the robust price of maple syrup in the past decade, the value of remaining maple forests have risen considerably so anyone looking to get into the business or add to their holdings will have to put up considerable capital. With the plantation maple system, they can increase production using fields they may already have.
Another benefit, which actually keeps production in the woods, is that sugar makers can use the technology to get production out of areas that have a very young forest or have experienced catastrophic damage. Occasionally, tornadoes, fire or ice storms devastate a standing forest and a producer will have to wait several decades for the forest to recover before that parcel is productive again. This technology allows them to get back into production with regenerated growth using trees that are just seven years old.
The plantation system could also be a hedge against climate change. The flow of sap will always be reliant on the seesaw of freeze-thaw cycles no matter what size tree. Sap flows when temperatures rise above freezing but will diminish over several days unless it freezes again and then rethaws. The smaller saplings are quicker to start thawing as temperatures rise which gets the sap flowing sooner. Perkins and van den Berg also found that the sap flowed from the saplings for nearly ten days without needing the “recharge” of a freeze cycle the way larger trees do. A more reliable flow of sap could make all the difference for a profitable season if weather patterns continue to stray from the norm.
Finally, the sapling system is unappealing to the voracious Asian longhorn beetle, an invasive species that threaten to devastate the maple forests of North America. The beetles have been found in Montreal, Ontario and Massachusetts and are a constant bogeyman to sugarmakers. But the beetles prefer mature trees for their habitat and tend to spare the saplings.
The plantation method certainly comes with enough appealing advantages, that it seems like a obvious choice for a sugarmaker to adopt the practice as a supplemental source of sap. But what if the plantation system replaced the current method completely?
If maple does head in that direction, the change would not happen immediately. Perkins notes that their initial data showed that the cost of labor and materials for the new system was the same as a traditional system if you did not include the price of the land. In other words, despite the significantly higher yields from a smaller area, it would still take a great deal of time to hook up the saplings and a capital investment in more taps. Furthermore, the actual gadgetry needed to install the plantation system does not exist yet. Perkins and Van den Berg “hobbled together” the system using parts from their lab. But they’re anticipating that sugarmakers will want it – they’ve applied for a patent on the method and devices.
So what do sugarmakers think?
Dave Folino, owner of Hillsboro Sugar Works in Starksboro, Vermont echoed what many other sugar makers I spoke with said; it could be a game changer.
“I’m torn,” says Folino.
“I could see how it would be very efficient and replace the wild crop. I’m tied to the old images but it is tantalizing the thought of controlling things. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the shrinking of the dairy industry [in Vermont]. I would hate to see the same for the wild crop but it is probably economically inevitable.”
Folino puts in 14,000 taps over 200 acres of his steeply sloped land. He notes that he is almost 60 and the thought of working on flat land in a more controlled space is tempting. But he also worries that the industry will shift to more workable land such as the fertile, northern Midwest.
Personally the thought of taking maple out of the forest and turning into another row crop saddens me. We have been in the maple business since 2009 and our sugarhouse has a reputation for utilizing the most modern technology available to maximize efficiency of production. Nevertheless, the news of the plantation system has been a lot to chew on since we learned of it. We are relatively new to the trade but have come to love it, one of the principal reasons being our interaction with the thousand acres of forest behind our home. Like Dave Folino, I fear that the industry will no longer be special to New England but will be usurped by entrepreneurs anywhere with the right climate. And on a more visceral level, I feel that maple syrup is and should remain a product of the wild. Aside from mushrooms and game meat, the woods of Vermont hardly yield anything edible. And yet, this exquisite sugar can be extracted from the trees while still leaving them healthy and the forest a home to everything from rare wildflowers to bob cats. For me, knowing its origins elicits an amount of pleasure equal to tasting its unique flavor when I drizzle it over morning pancakes. Finally, I ponder what will happen to the acres of working forests if landowners are no longer making an income from them through tapping the trees. It would be unrealistic to expect all of those landowners to choose conservation.
I am aware that change will come to the industry over the next few decades whether we adapt or not. There has always been a romantic notion of the tradition of gathering sap in buckets with horse drawn sleighs and boiling it down over a wood-fired pan. That image has already been replaced by tubing instead of buckets, four-wheelers instead of horses and sugar houses that resemble modern factories. This could be considered just another innovation to make the process of producing the amber gold easier and more profitable.
When I ask Perkins if he is worried that the discovery will threaten the traditional industry he replies, “There is always that concern and I don’t think we should discount it. That said, anytime you talk about a new technology there are always people who say, ‘It’s going to kill the industry.’” He mentions several technologies, such as reverse osmosis and tubing which were met with skepticism when they were first introduced and are now considered essential to large scale production.
Van den Berg doesn’t see it as a threat to the industry at all but as a means of improving existing operations. The spirit of the study, she says was to give sugar makers a new tool in the toolbox.
Perhaps the researchers are right, and the plantation system is just another tool. In the meantime, I know change won’t come overnight. The 2014 season is already well underway and due to an early thaw, we are getting our first sap runs. We have been tapping the lower elevations near the sugarhouse but each day we’ll be heading up higher, going deeper into the woods.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that an average 60 to 100 taps per acre will yield 40 to 50 gallons of sap, and that the plantation method using 5,800 saplings with taps would yield 400 gallons of sap per acre. In both cases it should have read “syrup” and not “sap.” Also, Davide Folino’s name was incorrectly spelled as “Felino.” |
What would it look like if the Marines were sales people? You know the Marines. The folks who get up at 0:DARK:30 and run 10 miles, do 100 push-ups, practice the obstacle course and ready themselves and their teams for any eventuality?
They do all of this before the rest of the world has even felt for the snooze button in a half-conscious state.
In any endeavor, discipline is the key.
Here are 5 things that you can do before the rest of the world wakes up:
1. DON’T. Being truly disciplined is deciding what not to do, and every day you have an opportunity to decide what NOT to do. Our favorite – email – is one of the biggest time-wasters we battle with. Email can wait until the world wakes up, so do not open it.
2. Prepare. Instead of churning through e-mail, read two or three blog posts or short articles on a skill you need to improve, a piece of industry knowledge that will help your prospects or clients or a high-stakes project you are working on.
3. Prospect. Take the insights you just gained from getting prepared and do some proactive pursuit. Send very short, custom notes to high-potential prospects sharing an insight and making an “ask.” (DON’T look at your inbox)
4. Delight. Since you know your clients’ challenges, send them the same very short, custom notes that get at something they are working on. And don’t ask for anything in return. They will be surprised that you thought of them even before they have gotten their day started.
5. Invest. In yourself. What is a long-term goal that you can use 30-60 minutes chipping away at right now? Long-term goals come into near-term focus when you tackle them day-in, day-out. Devoting time to your own personal goals gives you the internal fortitude to churn through the work that may be less enjoyable.
And always remember that as you are doing these 5 things, the Marines are practicing too.
Written by Craig Wortmann. You can find him on Google + and Twitter. |
In a move that puts the “R” in regressive, a group of Republican lawmakers in Wyoming just launched a bill that would effectively ban selling wind and solar power in the state. The measure proposes to fine utilities for purchasing energy produced by large-scale renewable power projects.
According to Inside Climate News, the bill is chiefly sponsored by representatives from the state’s main coal-producing counties. If enacted, it would force utilities to use power from only approved energy sources like natural gas, nuclear power, hydroelectric, oil – and of course coal. Your average homeowner could still install a rooftop solar, backyard wind or other renewable energy setup, but the state’s utilities would get slapped with big fines for buying power from renewable projects.
According to Inside Climate News, the move is confusing some locals who know the lay of the land. “I haven’t seen anything like this before,” said Shannon Anderson, director of local organizing group, Powder River Basin Resource Council. “This is essentially a reverse renewable energy standard.”
But Inside Climate News adds that Republican Senator David Miller, the bill’s sponsor, says the goal of the legislation is to make sure Wyoming residents have access to inexpensive power.
Related: Judge orders Exxon-Mobil to disclose 40 years of climate change documents
“Wyoming is a great wind state and we produce a lot of wind energy,” Miller said. “We also produce a lot of conventional energy, many times our needs. The electricity generated by coal is amongst the least expensive in the country. We want Wyoming residences to benefit from this inexpensive electrical generation. “He added that he doesn’t want to see Wyoming “averaged into” other states that require utilities to supply “more expensive” renewable energy.
The proposed bill would allow renewable energy producers in the state to sell power to customers outside Wyoming without a penalty. The cost of selling power in their own state would be $10 per megawatt hour of energy sold.
Republicans significantly outnumber Democrats in both the state’s House and Senate, but Miller still puts his chances of passing the bill at “50 percent or less.”
Via Inside Climate News
Images via Flickr Creative Commons, Jeremy Buckingham and CGP Grey, Wikimedia Commons |
ETHNews spoke with Vinay Gupta, one of blockchain’s most capable thinkers and long-time proponent of cryptocurrency, to gain insight into when and how the US Government might finally adopt either technology.
It’s taken a decade for the world to catch up with Satoshi Nakamoto and the revolutionary ideas held within the bitcoin whitepaper. The blockchain and the cryptocurrency it supports have spent the post-Satoshi years crawling out of the shadows of their inception into the mainstream. Today, these symbiotic technologies have earned them rightful places alongside some of our most foundational systems of societal organization, particularly state-backed money and digital technology.
Big business has already recognized the potential in these new decentralized technologies, as evidenced by organizations like the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Now, governments and international organizations around the world are beginning to comment with greater regularity and specificity about both blockchain and crypto. To better understand when the US might act, and what that could potentially look like, ETHNews spoke with Vinay Gupta for his take on the intersection of government, technology, and disruption.
Using Enterprise to Drive Change
“Getting this kind of stuff going is sort of one part science, maybe four parts money, and about twenty-five parts political will,” said Gupta. “It’s not hard to guess which one of these things happens to be the weak link right now. This is actually a big part of what led me to the Ethereum space.” Gupta knows a thing or two about political will and has been generating it in regard to the blockchain and cryptocurrency for years. Although his experience goes back as far as the cypherpunks of the 1980s, Gupta has maintained a cutting-edge understanding of how these technologies have evolved. As such, Gupta was responsible for explaining “how to sell ideas” at the original Ethereum Devcon. Moreover, as the anchor that the blockchain community relied upon to explain the tech’s potential to the European Union Parliament, Gupta gets how and why governments need to grasp this tech as soon as possible. But instead of waiting for change to come from them, he takes his lead from one of the United States’ most popular businessmen, Elon Musk.
“I had closely watched Elon Musk’s stuff unfold. It was obvious that he was being incredibly effective, relative to everything else being done. To the extent his success is replicable, I guess you build a capital base and then from that base of capital, you go out and start self-sustaining businesses to solve the problems you want to solve. You build your global problem-solving machinery in the marketplace rather than attempting to build it inside academia or government.” Like Musk, Gupta is a foreign-born technologist who came to the states and, like Musk, Gupta is a renaissance man. While Musk’s interests span from space exploration to electric cars, Gupta has businesses centered on venture capitalism, consultancy, and the future of legal property rights. Gupta continued elaborating about governments adopting these new technologies, “It is fundamentally about power. You need power to solve problems and, right now, power has gotten spread so thin across the world that it’s very difficult for anybody – no matter how well-intentioned – to assemble enough resources to get things to change. Even very powerful people inside the government can’t get government to do what they want government to do.”
Outlook of Adoption
“The US has not taken a federal position on any of this stuff,” remarked Gupta. “The states are largely being left to fend for themselves. Some states are more progressive, some are more regressive, some states are basically ignoring it. I don’t think the federal government has come to an opinion but I would not be surprised if you saw things like social security on blockchain in five or ten years, probably ten. You could take all the social security spending, stick it on chain and it makes it really easy to see where all the money is going, creating the kind of radical transparency that could then be used for cutting costs.”
Although several countries are exploring these new technologies with so-called “regulatory sandboxes,” Gupta believes the US is biding its time for a reason. “The US kind of does have a sandbox. It’s called the rest of the world ... It’s not unrealistic that US regulators have decided that they’re going to go last because they can use existing regulations to keep Americans out of trouble. The SEC patrols very judiciously ... The US can see how things go everywhere else and then they make a decision how they want to do it. Once the US has decided where they’re going with this, the global standard is established. In that sense, you could see why US regulators would want to give things some time to mature.”
A Theoretical US Blockchain
Gupta continued, “In a US context, what does a blockchain do that the US government can’t do with a big database? I think the answer is that the government is not really a well-integrated item. Imagine a situation where you had a US chain and all of the state governors had signing keys. You’d wind up with something, run by the state, for transparency in the federal budget. It’s not that you simply wind up with the only equilibrium in America being a federal chain, you could have a chain run by the state governors which would be used to track and manage federal spending.” According to Gupta, there could even be fifty distinct varieties of chains, one for each state. Since America has a relatively complicated legal framework between the federal and state levels, Gupta asserts that this area is ripe for disruption. “A lot of the weirdness [between the federal and state legal systems] has been banned flat using interstate commerce legislation ... so you could imagine a kind of push back on that level from the states. They are clearly capable of setting up a national chain, which they could use to run a whole bunch of things that states want to organize without having to go through the federal government. [America] would be relying on the semi-independent nature of the states to give you the political diversity required for the chain to be secure. This to me is what a uniquely American solution would look like. It would take its place on the stage of the long-term arch of American politics in which individual states, municipalities, counties, and the federal government are all wrestling across levels for independence, autonomy, and control ... Consequently, I think that it would be short-sighted for anyone to suggest jumping straight to a federal system. There’s a lot of other ways it could go.” |
The United Nations formally endorsed and approved numerous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate groups which encourage terrorism and violence against Jews, according to a new The United Nations formally endorsed and approved numerous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate groups which encourage terrorism and violence against Jews, according to a new report
Human Rights Voices, a watchdog group, exposed the U.N. for accrediting non-profit organizations that are hate groups by granting them privileged status, which is a potential violation of the U.N.’s own bylaws, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Human Rights Voices, a watchdog group, exposed the U.N. for accrediting non-profit organizations that are hate groups by granting them privileged status, which is a potential violation of the U.N.’s own bylaws, thereported.
Anne Bayefsky, senior editor of Human Rights Voices, told the WFB that there are scores of anti-Semitic groups that are protected by the U.N. and are given credibility by the international body:
The United Nations was founded as a global pact among states, but over the decades—in the name of transparency and openness, and in order to further the aim of globalization—the U.N. has opened its doors to non-governmental organizations. More than 6,200 NGOs [non-governmental organizations] have been invited to participate on a year-round basis in U.N. activities, and have thus been handed a coveted global megaphone. An examination of these NGOs, however, reveals that both by design and gross negligence on the part of U.N. member states, the NGOs' ranks include bigots, anti-Semites, and terrorist advocates who are now spreading hatred and inciting violence from the world stage.
The report provided pictorial evidence of these groups spreading anti-Semitic propaganda and promoting terrorism against Israel and Jews, similar to the type of propaganda spread by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler:
The UN accredits and associates with NGOs that espouse antisemitism. The antisemitism takes various forms: demeaning remarks about Jews, abhorrence of the presence of Jews or so-called “Judaization,” minimizing the Holocaust, claiming antisemitism is feigned or grossly exaggerated, attempting to appropriate the language of Jew-hatred and apply antisemitism to Arabs, analogizing Israelis to Nazis, denying that anti-Zionism or the denial of the right of Jewish self-determination is a form of antisemitism, and equating Zionism with racism (see also Section III). One favorite of UN-accredited or associated NGOs is to highlight self-hating Jews or Jewish antisemites, or to represent that this tiny minority are the only liberal and decent Jews.
Several photos from the report are featured below: |
MARANELLO Italy (Reuters) - Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, chairman of Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari, is quitting to be replaced by the boss of parent group Fiat FIA.MI after the two men clashed over strategy and the Formula One team’s poor results.
Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), gestures during a news conference in Turin in this March 31, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Giorgio Perottino/File
Montezemolo, one of Italy’s best-known and most colorful businessmen and a protégé of Fiat’s founding Agnelli family, will leave on Oct. 13. That day, the newly merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is due to be listed in New York.
Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne hopes the allure of Ferrari, one of the world’s strongest luxury brands, will help drive U.S. investor interest in the new automaker. Longer term, however, the question is whether the 62-year-old Italian-Canadian, whose pedigree is in the mass-market world of Fiat and Chrysler, can maintain the cachet of the Ferrari brand.
Ferrari has so far kept a tight lid on volumes, limiting production to 7,000 cars per year as a way to preserve the exclusivity of its cars. But Marchionne said during a news conference on Wednesday this number could be raised gradually.
Under Montezemolo, whose penchant for exquisitely tailored suits is a stark contrast to Marchionne’s casual, no-tie college student look, Ferrari raced to the top of the Formula One grid.
The glow of Ferrari’s victories on the racetrack increased revenues tenfold and tripled sales volumes, helping the Italian family business whose blood-red cars were snapped up by the super-rich become one of the world’s most powerful brands.
But Montezemolo’s relationship with Marchionne had soured in recent years, because of disagreements over the role of the luxury sports car business within the Fiat group, people with knowledge of the situation said.
Chairman since 1991, Montezemolo has wanted to keep Ferrari autonomous, while Marchionne has pushed to better integrate the business within Fiat to boost the group’s move into the premium end of the car market as it seeks to rival the likes of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and BMW (BMWG.DE).
Marchionne said on Wednesday that he and Montezemolo, who has been tipped to become chairman of airline Alitalia, had discussed the future of Ferrari at length.
“Our mutual desire to see Ferrari achieve its true potential on the (Formula One racing) track has led to misunderstandings, which became clearly visible over the last weekend,” he said, referring to the lack of a Ferrari driver in the top three at an Italian Grand Prix for the first time since 2008.
For Montezemolo, meanwhile, the Chrysler marriage clearly played its part.
“Today I am leaving serene and proud. There is no doubt that a new phase begins for both Ferrari and the whole group,” Montezemolo said during a joint news conference with Marchionne on Wednesday at Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello.
The two men sounded conciliatory tones before reporters. But Montezemolo quipped: “Marchionne has been arguing with me since 2002.”
INVESTOR APPEAL
Marchionne, who has been running Fiat since 2004 and revived its fortunes through the tie-up with Chrysler, now wants to flash the Ferrari card to attract U.S. investors when the group makes its debut on Wall Street.
Fiat shares rose 2.6 percent to 7.89 euros by 0641 EDT on Wednesday, with the market speculating that Montezemolo’s exit could open the door for a spin-off and listing of Ferrari, a move Marchionne has repeatedly ruled out. Analysts value Ferrari at 4-5 billion euros ($5.17 billion to $6.47 billion).
At the news conference, Marchionne said there were no plans for a Ferrari IPO nor to fold Ferrari into the Fiat group. He also said that winning on the Formula One track was “an essential part” of the Ferrari brand and a “non-negotiable target” for the group.
Montezemolo, who has often toyed with the idea of entering politics, was a protégé of Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli and became Ferrari’s sporting director at the age of 26, helping its driver Niki Lauda to two of his three world titles and helped make Ferrari’s symbol - the prancing horse - one of the world’s most recognizable status symbols.
However, Ferrari has not won a drivers’ or constructors’ title since 2008, and Marchionne said on Sunday that the team’s performance was “unacceptable”. That was widely seen as a public sacking of Montezemolo.
Insiders said there was never any love lost between the two exuberant businessmen, each ambitious and powerful.
But their differences became more apparent in recent months as Fiat completed its buyout of Chrysler and prepared to move its headquarters away from Italy, the carmaker’s home for the past 115 years. In recent months, their showdown became a battle of wills and of egos.
It was one of the few lost battles for Montezemolo, whose mane of hair and aquiline nose make him instantly recognizable in a crowd of often bland businessmen.
Montezemolo organized the 1990 World Cup in Italy, was himself chairman of Fiat, managed Italy’s America’s Cup challenge team, headed the powerful business lobby Confindustria and created a start-up that ended the state railway system’s monopoly on high-speed train service.
Though he was reappointed Ferrari chairman in March, Montezemolo did not travel to Detroit in May when Fiat presented a business plan for the next five years. He was also excluded from the board of the new FCA.
Montezemolo, however, leaves with much of the credit for having rebuilt the Formula One team after Enzo Ferrari’s death in 1988, his hiring of Jean Todt as principal leading to the arrival of Michael Schumacher and a string of successive constructors’ and drivers’ titles between 1999 and 2004. Schumacher’s 2000 success ended a 21-year-wait for a Ferrari champion.
Ferrari, which sells about 7,000 cars a year, made a record 2.34 billion euros in revenue last year with an operating profit margin of 15.6 percent.
Fiat owns 90 percent of Ferrari, with the remaining 10 percent held by Piero Ferrari, the group’s vice chairman and son of the carmaker’s founder Enzo Ferrari.
Montezemolo once called himself “an apostle of risk,” a characteristic that is definitely not engrained in the psyche of a country where many people still would rather seek a low-paying but secure civil service “job for life” than take a chance in the marketplace.
Slideshow (3 Images)
He founded a think-tank called Italiafutura that promotes competition in the marketplace and political debate.
(1 US dollar = 0.7735 euro) |
Comedian Tom Arnold has vowed to release a tape of Donald Trump using the N-word and referring to one of his sons as a retard after apparently receiving a voicemail from the president-elect's team threatening to sue him.
Arnold described remarks allegedly made by the billionaire in an Apprentice outtakes reel last week. He said he would have released it before the election but did not have the approval of producers who made it and gave it to him, he said.
But the actor changed his tune on Wednesday, taking to Twitter to pledge war against Trump.
'Wife told me there's house line VM from Trump Camp about defamation suit so it's on! Open Apprentice vaults 4 discovery! Miss Universe too!!' he said.
Trump's team would not comment on Arnold's claims but an administration source told DailyMail.com there was no truth to them.
'It's on!': Tom Arnold vowed to release a tape which he claims shows Donald Trump (right in Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday) using the N word and calling one of his children a 'retard'
The comedian announced his pledge on Twitter after apparently receiving a phone call from a member of Trump's team threatening legal action
Arnold said he had approached the producers who made the tape for their approval but they were scared for their safety.
He also suggested he'd been plotting the tape's release, musing: 'Been talking/working on this 3 months but 1 random Seattle stand-up interview. Plan is working.'
The comedian also made hurried mention of 'nazis and libs' and 'taxes and Russia 2013' in his flurry of posts.
The 57-year-old made an appearance on Kiro Radio, a Seattle radio station, on Friday, during which he described the tapes in detail.
' I have the outtakes to The Apprentice where he says every bad thing ever, every offensive, racist thing ever.
Arnold suggested he had been plotting the tapes' release as he described how his 'plan is working'
Arnold said Trump was filmed making the comments while filming The Apprentice for NBC (above)
Arnold said he was contacted by both Arnold Schwarzenegger's team and aides working for Hillary Clinton who he said urged him to go public with the tape
'It was him sitting in that chair saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard, just being so mean to his own children,' Arnold said.
He claimed to have been given the footage, which had been packaged together and edited, by senior NBC editors and a producer.
They saw no need to release it before the election because they were certain Hillary Clinton would win, he said.
As election day approached, Arnold claims he was contacted by both Clinton's team and representatives of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the show's new host, urging him to go public.
'The Sunday before the election, I get a call from [Schwarzenegger's] CAA agent, sitting next to [Clinton]. They said, "I need you to release him saying the N-word,"' he said on the radio show.
The president-elect hosted his General Mark Flynn, his national security adviser (center) and Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida on Wednesday
He was also seen having discussions with chief strategist Steven Bannon inside the resort
President-elect Trump will be sworn in to office on January 20. He is spending Christmas in Florida
He refused to protect the people who gave it to him, he said.
The comedian's representatives did not respond to DailyMail.com's requests for a copy of the apparent voicemail on Wednesday. Nor did they share any more detail of who or what exactly was said.
While Arnold launched his Twitter spree on Wednesday, Trump held meetings with members of his cabinet at Mar-a-Lago where he is spending the Christmas break.
National Security Adviser Lt. General Michael Flynn, his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon were all present for the talks. |
Why humans are not naturally nasty and more likely to be kind than cruel
Study 'debunks myth' that morality is modern idea
It was long assumed prehistoric man was brutish and – away from this state of nature - his modern equivalent had only a veneer of morality.
Yet new research show that we are actually more likely to be kind than cruel - and claims to debunk the myth that we have evolved into aggressively competitive beings.
‘Humans have a lot of pro-social tendencies,’ said Frans de Waal, a biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.
Tough world: Humans in a state of nature of often thought to be brutish with morality a modern construction. Yet research suggests we are naturally kind and cooperative
He claims that research shows that there is a biological basis for cooperative behaviour because otherwise it would be much harder to reproduce and pass on our genes.
Dr de Waal said his research disproved the view espoused by 19th century biologist Thomas Henry Huxley that morality is absent in nature and something created by humans.
He also said common assumptions that this view was promoted by Charles Darwin were also wrong, he said.
The father of social evolution theory wrote that animals that developed ‘well-marked social instincts would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience’.
At a meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, Dr de Waal showed the audience a series of videos of how animals in nature can have empathy.
One revealed a rat giving up chocolate in order to help another rat escape from a trap.
Helping hand: Two boys climbing show the cooperation that it vital to our survival, according to biologist Frans de Waal
Such research shows that animals are prone to ‘reciprocity, fairness, empathy and consolation,’ Dr de Waal told Discovery.com.
‘Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.’
However, he admitted that our softer sides are unlikely to come out in a big world full of competition.
‘Morality’ developed in humans in small communities, added the author of The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society. |
AFTER its first clear success at the Republican primaries in Wisconsin on April 5th, the Never Trump alliance sought to replicate its triumph in Indiana, which goes to the polls on May 3rd. Wisconsin’s Republican grandees, conservative talk-show hosts and the efficient campaign machine of Ted Cruz, the Texas senator spearheading the Never Trump brigade, managed to persuade Republican primary voters that Mr Cruz was the true conservative in the mould of Scott Walker, the governor still very popular among Wisconsin Republicans, and they voted in droves for Mr Cruz. In Indiana an equivalent coalition pushed even harder to portray Mr Cruz as the bearer of the conservative flame—and Donald Trump as a vulgar impostor. For a while, their efforts seemed to bear fruit. Yet after Mr Trump’s triumphs in five primary elections in the north-east on April 26th, his gravitational pull seems stronger than ever. According to a poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist, released on May 1st, Mr Trump holds a 15-point lead over Mr Cruz in Indiana with 49% of the votes compared with 34%.
For weeks Mr Cruz has sought to portray Indiana as the all-important turning point in the campaign, so a poor result would be a devastating blow for the pugnacious Cuban-American. His jam-packed schedule on May 2nd shows how hard he is trying with Hoosiers. After a breakfast stop in rural Osceola, he visited Marion alongside Indiana’s governor, Mike Pence, who has endorsed him, albeit belatedly and unenthusiastically. Then Mr Cruz raced to a rally in Fort Wayne, a stronghold of evangelicals, still with Governor Pence in tow. His next stop was in Bloomington, one of the state’s big cities and the home of Indiana University. The day ended with a rally in Indianapolis, the state capital.
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Mr Cruz also dispatched Carly Fiorina, whom he anointed as his running mate last week in Indianapolis, to five different events around that city. He called to arms Mike Lee, the Utah senator who seems to be his only friend in the Senate, as well as Louie Gohmert, a Congressman from Texas who backs him, Glenn Beck, a conservative radio host, and Heidi Cruz, his steadfastly supportive wife. And he deployed his father, Rafael Cruz, an evangelical minister, to tour in churches in parts of Indiana where evangelicals and Christian conservatives hold enormous sway.
Indiana, which calls itself the “crossroads of America”, offers 57 delegates, the biggest haul besides California, which will vote on June 7th. Thirty of its delegates are winner-takes-all; 27 are awarded proportionally, according to results in nine congressional districts, which means that the state’s winner gets a sizable chunk of the 57. Indiana is also the only state to vote on May 3rd, setting the tone for remaining contests.
In many ways Indiana seems to be a perfect state for the Cruz-Fiorina duo. It has an unusually high population of evangelical Christians fiercely supportive of Governor Pence, who recently signed the most restrictive legislation on abortion in the country. It also has a relatively high proportion of well-educated middle-class whites, who tend to favour Mr Cruz over Mr Trump, though mainly because they are told this is the politically expedient choice. Their real favourite is John Kasich, the only other candidate still in the Republican race, but the governor of Ohio has ceased campaigning in Indiana thanks to a recent pact with Mr Cruz. (In return Mr Cruz ceased campaigning in Oregon and New Mexico.) In addition, the local Republican elite has a visceral dislike of Mr Trump. “Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the United States,” said John Hammond, one of Indiana’s two members of the Republican National Committee, in an interview a couple of months ago. Mr Hammond accuses Mr Trump of destroying the GOP brand.
Yet Mr Trump has a big fan club among the state’s blue-collar workers in places such as Elkhart County in northern Indiana, where nearly half of all jobs are in manufacturing (mostly recreational vehicles). On the evening of May 2nd Mr Trump made an appearance in South Bend, a former industrial city now mainly known for its Notre Dame University, which sits in the county next to Elkhart. His supporters began lining up in front of the Century Centre in South Bend, where Mr Trump was scheduled to appear, before noon. Lou Holtz, a legendary Notre Dame football coach, endorsed Mr Trump, as has Bobby Knight, a once very popular Indiana University basketball coach with a famous temper. Mike Tyson, a boxer, also recently endorsed Mr Trump. (“All the tough guys endorse me, I like that,” commented Mr Trump.)
Mr Trump is playing to his blue-collar audience. For months he has attacked Carrier Corporation, a maker of heating and air-conditioning systems, which announced in February that it would close two Indiana factories and transfer about 1,400 heating and air-conditioning jobs to Mexico. "If I was in office, Carrier wouldn't be leaving," Mr Trump said at a recent rally in Indianapolis, without much of an explanation. "Do you like the idea of taxing the hell out of those air conditioners?" he asked a couple of Carrier workers in the audience.
On the Democratic side, meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is soldiering on. He held rallies at several locations on May 2nd: Evansville in the morning, Fort Wayne in the early afternoon and Indianapolis in the evening. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, held her last rally in Indiana on May 1st and then embarked on a tour of Appalachia, with stops in West Virginia and Kentucky, two states that will vote in the Democratic primary this month. Most polls show Mrs Clinton narrowly ahead of Mr Sanders in Indiana. Mr Sanders tends to do well in largely white states, such as Indiana, but culturally Hoosiers, especially in the state’s southern parts, have much in common with southerners who have overwhelmingly voted for Mrs Clinton.
Mr Trump is hoping to land a knock-out blow to Mr Cruz on May 3rd, paving a safer path to the 1,237 delegates required to clinch the nomination. (At the moment Mr Trump is past the mark of 1,000 delegates, but some of them are not “bound”, which means they are not required to vote for him.) Mrs Clinton is hoping to do the same, though with less bellicose rhetoric than the Republican front-runner. |
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, for the second time in as many days, has delivered a stern warning to Ethiopia over a dam it is building after the two countries along with Sudan failed to approve a study on its potential effects.
Ethiopia is finalizing construction of Africa's largest hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile. Egypt fears that will cut into its water supply.
Cairo said last week that the three countries had failed to approve an initial study by a consultancy firm on the dam's potential effects on Egypt and Sudan.
Ethiopia has repeatedly reassured Egypt, but Cairo's efforts to engage in closer coordination have made little headway.
El-Sissi sought to reassure Egyptians in televised comments Saturday, but stressed that "water is a matter of life or death." |
Facebook has just sent out an invite to press with the text ‘come see a new look for News Feed’. The event will be held at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters on Thursday March 7th, 2013 at 10am PST and we’ll be on site.
The last time that Facebook officially launched a major change to its News Feed was in September of 2011, though it has tweaked and prodded it many times since. The iOS app recently got a faster News Feed and timeline. Facebook also shared some insights last November about how people interact with the feed. In January of this month, it started showing larger images and longer previews of links to some users in the News Feed in order to increase engagement.
There are some indications that the News Feed redesign could be centered around a more image-centric feed that looks a similar to news readers like Flipboard. A report from Techcrunch last month showed off crude mockups of such a timeline.
We’ll be at the event to bring you the news as it’s announced.
Read next: StormFly hits $100k Kickstarter funding goal, hopes you'll wear its 'PC on your wrist' [Video] |
Lego changes stance on bulk orders after Ai Weiwei exhibition controversy
Updated
Toy company Lego has done an about-turn on bulk orders, after facing a storm of criticism for stopping the practise because its "bricks" were to be used in an exhibition by a dissident Chinese artist.
Key points: Lego to allow bulk orders again after denying controversial artist
The company faced international backlash
Lego says bricks are about 'freedom of expression', but won't endorse future artworks
The controversy was sparked last year when artist Ai Weiwei revealed he had been denied an order for use in an artwork to be exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria.
The piece, currently on show, features portraits of a number of prominent Australians including Australian of the Year and anti-domestic violence campaigner Rose Batty, formerly imprisoned journalist Peter Greste, Aboriginal rights activist Gary Foley and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Lego had refused to fulfil a bulk order for the artist, saying it had a long-held policy of not endorsing political statements.
Mr Ai described the stance as censorship and discrimination, a slew of negative headlines ensued in the run-up to the Christmas sales period, and a social media campaign with the hashtag #legosforweiwei was born.
It led to Australians and others around the world offering to donate their bricks to Mr Ai, who only had his passport returned last year after having it confiscated by Chinese authorities in 2011.
A Lego spokesman said they will now fulfil bulk orders regardless of their purpose, if the buyer agrees to state that the company does not endorse the resulting work.
"In future we are not going to ask for what we call the thematic purpose of the build," Lego spokesman Roar Rude Trangbaek told the ABC at company headquarters in Billund, Denmark.
"Instead we are going to ask the purchaser to make it clear that we are not endorsing or supporting the activity as a company."
On Wednesday the artist welcomed the decision on Twitter, describing it as a "nice move".
Lego refraining from engaging in 'political activities'
Lego said it wanted to clear up what it described as confusion over its position on human rights and freedom of expression.
"We make Lego bricks and Lego bricks are all about freedom of expression because anybody can take Lego bricks and build whatever they can imagine," Mr Trangbaek said.
"This is really at the core of who we are as a company, so we don't want that confusion."
That is not to say that Lego is now endorsing the current work by Mr Ai.
"We have adjusted a guideline for bulk purchase, but we are still refraining as a company from engaging in political activities," Mr Trangbaek said.
"Before you could also buy Lego bricks and build whatever you could imagine or want to without us having any say in that.
"So this only goes for those few cases where we get these requests for massive amounts of Lego bricks, hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks for public display.
"And in these cases we are then asking them to say [that] the Lego group is not supporting or endorsing the project that [they] are using the bricks for, but we will gladly supply them."
With members of the public now donating their Lego to Mr Ai, the artist may no longer need the help of the Danish company for future projects, but Lego said if he places an order it will be met.
"Anyone contacting us to buy bulk purchase will be treated according to our adjusted guidelines," Mr Trangbaek said.
Lego denies the controversy has harmed the brand, saying sales results due out in early March will prove that point.
Topics: contemporary-art, lifestyle-and-leisure, arts-and-entertainment, library-museum-and-gallery, denmark, melbourne-3000
First posted |
You should know this about offensive line coaches: they are large, demanding men with Falstaffian appetites, jutting jaws, and no governors on their speech engines. They eat titanic portions. They cram their lips full of dip in film study like they are loading a mortar. They drink bottled water like parched camels, and in their leisure time would consider a suitcase of beer to be a personal carry-on item for them, and them alone. They are terrifyingly disciplined in the moment, and nap like large breed dogs when allowed.
They can be vicious and exacting to the point of near-cruelty. One currently employed and well-regarded offensive line coach was so demanding of one player that finally, at the point where rage exceeded restraint, the player picked him up and shook him like a rag doll demanding to know: can I do anything right for you? Anything? The player had him pressed overhead and could have snapped him like a twig. The coach considered it a success: the player now cared, and was properly motivated.
They are deeply profane, blunt, and intolerant of pain. More perversely, they are often beloved for exactly these things.
They are also creatures of fear. At every step, an offensive line coach has to be concerned with threats. The left tackle must hold his own against a defensive end, or the quarterback is broken in half in an instant. Read an inside shade the wrong way, and risk letting a 300 pound man bellyflop onto your 180 pound running back. During the 2013 Outback Bowl, Michigan made one crucial missed call on a run blocking assignment between the tight end and left tackle. Vincent Smith's helmet is still in orbit somewhere over Tampa.
Kurt Vonnegut said that his chief objection to life in general was that it was "too easy, when alive, to make horrible mistakes." This is what offensive line coaches live with: the notion that for every five simple circles drawn on a board, there are a nearly infinite number of possible threats looming out in the theoretical white space. Offensive plays give skill players arrows. Those arrows point down the field toward an endzone, a stopping point, a celebration. Those five simple circles stay on the board in the same place, and are on duty forever.
They are rough men in the business of protection.
Herb Hand is an offensive line coach at Vanderbilt University, where he might not even be were it not for a long line of random events. Hand got a job at Glenville State under Rich Rodriguez in 1994, a team whose base offense--the spread option that redefined modern football--depended on a play that in itself was the result of an accident, the zone read. A quarterback simply pulled the handoff from the running back, read the defensive end, and turned a mistake into deliberate and deadly strategy. Other coaches might have dismissed it entirely. Rodriguez did not, and now it is run at every level of the game from Pop Warner to the NFL.
Hand would work under Rodriguez at Clemson, and then followed him to West Virginia when Rodriguez was hired to replace Don Nehlen. Hand would recruit, coach tight ends, and recruit, and do all of that in exactly that order, because recruiting is an important activity that sometimes is interrupted by bouts of college football. One of the places Hand recruited was the talent-glutted state of Florida, including Orlando, where on April 27th, 2006 something would hit him in the back of the head with an axe.
The axe blow to the back of the head was a different kind of pain than normal. Offensive linemen have an intimate relationship with pain. Herb Hand has the grinding knees of a former lineman, and once tore a pec in a bench press contest with former West Virginia offensive coordinator Calvin Magee. Hand hadn't touched a weight in years, but he couldn't say no to a dare. On the way up he felt something rip in his chest. The torn pectoral left black bruises all the way down his arms to the tips of his fingers. He did what he did whenever pain was involved: he took some Advil, and went back to work.
His work on April 27th, 2006 involved recruiting in Orlando. Breakfast would be the universal sad prefab buffet of the American business hotel: a spit shield covering some powdered eggs and link sausages, a few bushels full of tiny muffins, an open waffle iron hissing and surrounded by spots of splattered batter. He worked his way down the line when he felt the sudden urge to sneeze. He turned quickly to avoid sneezing on the man next to him, and when he did something went terribly wrong in his brain.
That was the first sign something was awry: he did not want to eat. A splitting headache bloomed in his skull, and crept down his neck. Hand could barely hold his head up. He tried to get in his car and get on with his day, but for some reason remembered something he'd read in the in-flight magazine about cardiac incidents. You'd sweat profusely if you were having a stroke or heart attack, it said. He checked the mirror. He was drenched.
Herb called his wife Debbie, and then tried to explain to the people behind the desk that he needed an ambulance. The hotel clerks did not speak English. He handed the phone to them. 900 miles away in Morgantown, Deb Hand sat in her car with her three kids on the way to daycare, trying to tell total strangers that something was very wrong with her husband. She told him to stay on the phone. He did, thinking about how much ridicule he'd get when he got back to the football offices.
They got to the hospital. Nothing happened for a while. Then, nurses and techs began to shuffle equipment and move things in a way that suggested something was happening, and in a serious fashion.
An E.R. doctor came into the room.
"We got the results of your CAT scan. They're not good. You're having a subarachnoid hemorrhage, probably as a result of an aneurysm."
"Am I gonna die?"
"We're gonna do everything we can for you."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that we're gonna do everything we can for you."
"I thought you were gonna say no!"
"..."
"Should I call my wife and kids?"
"You should probably do that."
She was in the parking lot of the day care, in her work clothes. Herb wanted to talk to the kids. He did. He then got the doctor to explain to Debbie what was happening: that he would be shipped out of Sand Lake Hospital, and sent to a larger hospital where a neurosurgeon was prepping to open his skull and see what, if anything could be done for him. He got back on the phone with his wife. They told each other "I love you."
Herb went into surgery prep; Debbie got on the phone.
Things also started happening in a serious way in West Virginia. Debbie got in touch with Dr. Julian Bailes, the team's neurosurgeon and a leading authority on head trauma, who forwarded her to Dr. Max Medary, a former student of Bailes. Medary was in surgery at the same hospital Hand was about to be transferred out of in Orlando. In a matter of minutes, Hand's transfer was stopped: he would stay at Sand Lake (known now as Dr. P. Phillips Hospital), and Medary would take over his care. Rich Rodriguez arranged for Debbie to take a booster's private plane to Orlando, and for a member of the team staff to travel with her to the hospital. When she arrived, a sheriff's escort met them at the airport. The coaches' wives would take care of the kids for as long as they needed.
Sedated and with a catheter running into his femoral artery, Hand lay on an operating table. The catheter ran all the way up his femoral artery and up to his neck, feeding dye into his brain for imaging. He'd somehow landed in a Florida hospital where three out of the four people in the room--two nurses and an anesthesiologist--were from West Virginia. In the fog, Hand remembers one of them leaning over and telling him: "I don't know who you know, but you have the Heisman Trophy winner of neurosurgeons working on you today."
Hand got lucky. Instead of the balloon like bulge and rupture of an aneurysm, he'd blown a blood vessel in his head, which healed nicely on its own. There was no lasting damage to the brain, and after almost being transferred to another hospital where he would have had traumatic brain surgery, he would instead need none thanks to an audible called on his behalf somewhere in West Virginia, where others' hands had gotten his wife to his bedside in hours, and taken his kids safely into their homes without a word.
There was blood on the brain, which had to seep down the base of his skull and out his spine over the course of six weeks. The pressure lit up every nerve on the same line of longitude along the way. Terrified of the vicodin he was prescribed, Hand took as few painkillers as he could. Sometimes the pain would become so intense he had to army crawl to the bathroom in the night. Sometimes he just sat on the internet looking at the survival rates telling him that 15% of all patients who suffered subarachnoid hemorrhages died before they ever got to the hospital, with 25% dead within 24 hours, and a total mortality of 40% for all patients after a span of one week.
Half of all patients who suffer a subarachnoid hemorrhage die within six months. When Hand asked about his long-term prognosis, Dr. Medary told him: Look, you can live the rest of your life worrying that this is going to happen, or you can live the rest of your life. And that, as the pain had finished its long march down his spine, is what he did. He made recruiting calls from his house. He watched Food Network. When the kids were home, he made time for them.
Later, he'd visit Dr. Medary, who invited him to watch a surgery he was about to perform. "You wanna sit in on a surgery? I'm gonna take a tumor out of a guy's head. It'll be cool."
Hand would leave West Virginia after the 2006 season. He would go to Tulsa, where he ran the offensive line and served as co-offensive coordinator. Had he stayed at West Virginia, Hand would probably be in Arizona now, and not at Vandy working with James Franklin, the coach who led Vanderbilt to their first nine win season since 1915. He would not have told me how good the tater tots at South Street Restaurant were, giant balls of fried starch that were creamy and peppery on the inside. He would not be on the sidelines tonight in the West End of Nashville, trying to get five people to anticipate angles and threat as a unit, those five little circles on the whiteboard defending their turf for a theoretical eternity.
When Hand had to have the impossible conversation--the one where you, with cellphone, stuck in a hospital far away from home, might have to say the last words you ever say to your children--he did what he was trained to do. He told them that he loved them, and that everything would be okay. The second part of that might not have been true at the time. The emergency room doctor certainly didn't think so, and neither did Hand. But standing between harm and others is what linemen do, even if there's little hope to be had in the face of numbers, size, and speed. There is a dot on the board, and a shield held against whatever slings and arrows lurk in the ether. It stands against harm until it cannot any longer.
That is the business of protection, and it is never, ever about you. |
European share indexes have ended flat after a week of volatile trading.
The main indexes in the UK, France and Germany rose slightly on Friday, but over the week the FTSE fell 3.6%, the Cac 40 shed 4.4% and the Dax lost 4%.
The volatility prompted the G20 to put out a statement late on Thursday reassuring that it was ready to take action to stabilise markets.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the challenge the world faced "could not be more urgent".
"There are dark clouds over Europe and there is huge uncertainty in the US," she said in an address to the annual meeting of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington.
"And with that we could risk a collapse in global demand.
"We are all in it together and nobody should be under any illusion that there could be a de-coupling."
Capitalisation problem
Global shares had slumped on Thursday, sparked by a Federal Reserve warning late the previous day about the outlook for the US economy.
Gloomy comments about weak global growth from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank knocked sentiment further.
On Thursday, IMF head Christine Lagarde said the global economic situation was entering a "dangerous place", while World Bank president Robert Zoellick said he thought the world was in a "danger zone".
Doubts about the strength of European banks also resurfaced on Friday, after the head of France's markets regulator, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, said "there is indeed a problem with the capitalisation of banks".
He said 15 to 20 banks needed additional funds, none of which were based in France.
Image caption John Frary was approaching retirement and faced a tough financial choice That money had just gone in two or three weeks due to a very sharp downturn in a very short period of time John Frary from Bedfordshire has seen his retirement fund fall by £7,000 in value in four weeks Pensions and Isas hit by turmoil
Meanwhile, Greece has denied media reports it was contemplating defaulting on its debts, with creditors taking a 50% hit on Greek government bonds.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said Athens was focusing on reducing its debt levels.
"All other discussions, rumours, comments and scenarios which are diverting our attention from this central target and Greece's political obligation... do not help our common European task," he said.
On Friday, credit rating agency Moody's downgraded eight Greek banks due to concerns about Greece's ability to pay back its debts.
Two of the Greek banks downgraded, the Emporiki Bank of Greece and General Bank of Greece, are majority-owned by France's Credit Agricole and Societe Generale respectively.
'Bold action'
The IMF and World Bank comments, following the Fed's warning about "serious downside risks" to the US economy, helped to push global markets sharply lower on Thursday, with the main European indexes falling about 5%, and the Dow Jones on Wall Street closing down 3.5%.
Overnight, Asian shares fell sharply, with South Korea's main Kospi index slumping 5.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 1.4%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a public holiday.
The European and US falls sparked the G20 to announce a commitment "to take all necessary actions to preserve the stability of banking systems and financial markets as required".
Which way now for Greece? Make your way through the maze of Greece's debt decisions Greece's debt crisis dilemmas
It said it would follow up this pledge with a "bold action plan" at the beginning of November.
Analysts said investors were unimpressed by the announcement.
"The statement from the G20 last night may have taken the edge off the current bitter market sentiment, but the reassurances from the finance ministers lack substance," said Jane Foley at Rabobank.
"Until politicians back their actions with words in respect to moving closer to a solution to the eurozone debt crisis, markets will continue to worry about a messy and painful outcome from the eurozone debt crisis."
The G20 has given little hint of what action it may take, but markets have long been calling for a substantial increase in the eurozone's communal bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), from its agreed level of 440bn euros ($596bn; £385bn).
Many investors also want the eurozone to issue bonds guaranteed by every one of the 17-member nations - so-called eurobonds. However, a number of policymakers, particularly those in Germany, have resisted the idea.
In July, European finance ministers proposed making the EFSF more flexible, allowing it to buy individual government bonds - which would bring down the cost of borrowing for heavily indebted nations - and to offer emergency credit lines to banks. However, the proposals have not yet been ratified.
'Drip feed'
Analysts say far swifter action is needed in order to soothe investors' jittery nerves.
"Markets work on a second by second basis, while politicians seem to be working to a monthly calendar," Jeremy Stretch from CIBC told the BBC.
He highlighted the "drip feed effect" of this week's IMF downgrade of global growth, the Fed's warning, the further comments from both the IMF and World Bank and Thursday's weak figures on eurozone private sector growth as undermining investors' confidence even further.
Gerard Lyons at Standard Chartered Bank also highlighted political inertia, telling the BBC: "My biggest worry is that there is not the sense of urgency that there really needs to be to force policymakers to take decisive action".
The G20 is gathering later in Washington, a meeting which Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, suggested could mark the beginning of concerted action to tackle the debt crisis in Europe which is the cause of so much stock market volatility.
"The thing that really brought the world to a better place in 2008 was genuine collective action involving both the developed and the developing world through the G20," he told the BBC.
"The fact that they're all there together in [Washington] DC this weekend should lay the framework for thoughts about quite significant actions... sometime between now or possibly at the November G20 in France." |
Warner Bros. is holding its breath as the studio prepares to unveil “Justice League” this weekend.
The costly superhero team adventure carries a production budget of more than $250 million, according to several sources, and with it, the hope that DC’s interconnected cinematic universe of comic book heroes and villains can deliver huge audiences around the globe.
When tens of millions of dollars in worldwide marketing and distribution costs are added in, “Justice League” would have to bring in a lofty sum of around $600 million from ticket sales alone and additional revenue from ancillaries like pay-TV and home entertainment in order to turn a profit.
Warner Bros. executives are already concerned that the movie’s debut this weekend — projected to be $110 million — is less than what they had hoped for. In comparison, last year’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” opened to $166 million. The film will also face some competition over the upcoming holiday weekend from another big release, Disney/Pixar’s “Coco,” though the animated film skews younger. So far, early reaction to “Justice League” has been mixed both among critics and fans. Some have panned it, while others have praised its lighter tone.
Also weighing on the picture is whether audiences will embrace new characters, the Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman, all of whom appear on the big screen for the first time. The trio will get their own standalone films, starting with Aquaman in December 2018. The Flash and Cyborg films are set for release in 2020.
DC’s cinematic universe has had a bumpy roll-out in recent years. While last year’s “Suicide Squad” and “Batman v Superman” collectively grossed $1.6 billion worldwide, they drew poor reviews and scorn by some comic book fans. Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman,” however, provided a much-needed jolt of success to the DC franchise, bringing critical acclaim, as well as $822 million at the global box office.
A “Justice League” dud would be sure to deflate DC’s sails and renew efforts at the studio to focus on individual films rather than on continuity between movies and characters.
“When you have iconic characters like this and a brand like ‘Justice League,’ and even the individual brands of those characters, there’s pressure on the movie to deliver,” said the film’s producer Chuck Roven. “We were really happy with the response creatively, critically and financially on ‘Wonder Woman.’ It would be great if this film could deliver some level of the same kind of response in those same areas. The fans are going to have to tell us.”
“Justice League” has a lot to live up to as 2017 has featured a slew of well-reviewed superhero films like Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnorok” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” both of which had Rotten Tomato scores above 90%. Rotten Tomatoes, which delayed releasing its score of reviews of “Justice League” until Thursday, reported a score of 40%. Rotten Tomatoes delayed the release of the score to reveal it on its new Facebook show, “See It/Skip It,” early Thursday morning. The movie ratings site, which is part-owned by Warner Bros., also recently held back the score for “A Bad Moms Christmas” to reveal it on the new Facebook program.
“The pressure is on to keep the perfect 2017 superhero track record alive,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst for ComScore. “There’s a lot of pressure on many fronts. (“Justice League”) is a key building block of the future of DC.”
In promoting the film, Warner dealt with the conundrum of Ben Affleck as Batman. Affleck’s turn as the Caped Crusader has not been received with the same enthusiasm as past Batmans. Warner Bros. has instead focused its marketing on Gal Gadot, capitalizing on her newfound popularity from “Wonder Woman.” Speculation persists that Affleck’s appearance in future Batman films will end with “The Batman,” the Matt Reeves-directed film that was originally set to be directed by Affleck. Studio insiders say privately that they are ready to cast a new Batman, and in a recent interview with USA Today Affleck said he would like to find a “graceful and cool” way to exit.
“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why ‘Wonder Woman’ is front and center in all of the marketing,” Deragarabedian said, adding: “Any time you’re changing casting, it always presents challenges. While we’ve always seen iconic characters change casting, it is always tricky because you like to have a consistency there.”
The almost decade-long effort to bring “Justice League” to bear comes amid an evolution in style and tone for the superhero genre as a whole. It seems that sometime during the making of “Justice League,” the ground shifted beneath the feet of DC. “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Deadpool” started to bring a levity to films that had previously seen superheroes take themselves too seriously.
Fast-forward to “Ragnarok,” the Marvel entry that dialed up the funny with slapstick humor and witty writing, becoming the best-reviewed Marvel film to date.
DC films are adjusting, too, starting with Jenkins. “Wonder Woman” teemed with themes like love, hope and friendship – a stark contrast to the “Dark Knight” trilogy, as well as “Batman v Superman,” which explored far more darker views of humanity.
This past summer, Warner brought in Joss Whedon, known for his wry writing style, to take on “Justice League” after director Zack Snyder stepped away in May to deal with the death of his daughter. Re-shoots, made complicated by the competing schedules of all the actors, lasted two months and cost $25 million. Roven, however, said the film will be an amalgam of Snyder and Whedon’s styles.
“The DNA of the movie was already set, and Joss was working on script re-shoot pages with Zack,” Roven said. “Everybody kind of knew for the most part what was going to be shot. Of course, Joss is his own creative entity so he’s going to put some of his DNA into it also, but the vast majority of it was already set.”
Brent Lang contributed to this report. |
“We are deeply concerned that women will be coerced into diverting milk that they would otherwise feed their own babies,” the Black Mothers’ Breastfeeding Association wrote in an open letter in January. Medolac, which said it was working with the Clinton Foundation and wanted to encourage breast-feeding by making it financially attractive, abandoned its plan.
Defenders of payments say that if companies are going to profit, it is only fair for them to pay the suppliers for their raw material, especially since pumping takes considerable time and effort. (Prolacta, which started paying only last year, was accused previously of not making clear to women that their milk donations were going to a for-profit company). Moreover, they say, the commercialization of breast milk could increase the supply available.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says that because of the “potent benefits of human milk,” all premature babies should receive breast milk, preferably from their mothers, but if not, then from donors. But there is not enough donor milk for that, experts say, partly because many women do not know that they can donate or sell excess milk.
Mr. Elster said Prolacta processed 2.4 million ounces, or 18,750 gallons, of milk last year and aimed to do 3.4 million this year. That compares to the 3.1 million ounces dispensed in 2013 by all 18 nonprofit milk banks that belong to the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Those milk banks do not pay women for milk but do charge hospitals a few dollars an ounce to cover the costs of screening donors and pasteurizing the milk.
Some women give milk directly to other mothers who need it, using milk-sharing sites like Eats on Feets. Some sell their milk to other mothers (or in some cases to male body builde rs who believe it builds muscle), through websites like Only the Breast, hoping to receive more than the $1 an ounce that Prolacta and Medolac pay. Some health authorities say direct sales or sharing pose risks because the milk is usually unpasteurized.
Image Prolacta’s product being packed. Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times
Prolacta’s products are intended for extremely premature infants who weigh less than 1,250 grams, or 2.76 pounds, at birth, babies who can fit in the palm of a hand. Those babies need more nutrition than they can receive from breast milk alone. |
The role of carbohydrates on mood and cognition is fairly well established, however research examining the behavioural effects of the other macronutrients is limited. The current study compared the effects of a 25 g glucose drink to energetically matched protein and fat drinks and an inert placebo. Following a blind, placebo-controlled, randomised crossover design, 18 healthy young adults consumed drinks containing fat, glucose, protein and placebo. Cognitive performance was examined at baseline and again 15- and 60 min post drink. Mood was assessed at baseline and then 10-, 35- and 80 min post drink. Attention and speed were enhanced 15 min following fat or glucose ingestion and working memory was enhanced 15 min following protein ingestion. Sixty minutes post drink memory enhancements were observed after protein and memory impairment was observed following glucose. All drinks increased ratings of alertness. The findings suggest that macronutrients: (i) have different windows of opportunity for effects (ii) target different cognitive domains.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
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Zhang Miao was detained nine months ago after covering the Hong Kong democracy protests for Die Zeit newspaper
A Chinese journalist will be freed without charge following nine months in detention after she helped cover the Hong Kong democracy protests for a German publication, her lawyer has said.
Hong Kong protests bring crisis of confidence for traditional media Read more
Prosecutors in Beijing decided not to bring charges against Zhang Miao, who was a news assistant for Die Zeit, said lawyer Zhou Shifeng.
Zhou said Zhang was scheduled to be released on Thursday night after being detained in October on a disturbance charge.
Her detention highlights the precarious situation for Chinese nationals working for foreign media, as they often become targets of police harassment and intimidation.
Angela Köckritz, the Beijing correspondent for Die Zeit, left China after she also felt pressure from authorities following Zhang’s detention.
Zhou said he had argued to prosecutors that the evidence against his client was obtained through coercion and torture and should be considered illegal. “We had expected her release because we believed the evidence was invalid and could not be used,” he said.
Köckritz and Die Zeit could not be immediately reached for comment. |
For the past few months, my team have been working on a project to improve the way we host some of our smaller services and tasks. We have a growing portfolio of small services and tasks (dare I say micro-services…) that had been deployed in a less than efficient manner. Both in terms of maintainability and cost. We investigated a few options to see if we could come up with a way to streamline this process of developing, delivering and maintaining these services but eventually we settled on docker and ECS.
Docker in its own right was extremely promising to us because of the analogy that docker themselves use to describe the benefits of deploying applications in containers. A simplified version of that analogy is that containers standardize the process of getting your containerized cargo from point A to point B; we do not need to know what is containerized to be able to ship containers. This idea (apparently) revolutionized the shipping industry and is making waves in the software industry for exactly the same reasons. While the analogy is good enough, it is not perfect. As you will see by reading on.
The first service we approached was our logging service. A very simple Node.js API that our clients use for logging and diagnostics. Dockerizing this API was extremely simple first we created the DockerFile as follows:
FROM mhart/alpine−node:7.3 #create app directory RUN mkdir −p /app WORKDIR /app #Install app dependencies COPY package.json /app RUN npm install #Bundle app source COPY . /app #create non root user and set ownership RUN groupadd −r logging && useradd −r −g logging loggingusr RUN chown loggingusr /app USER loggingusr EXPOSE 10010 CMD ["npm", "start"] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 FROM mhart / �� node : 7.3 #create app directory RUN mkdir − p / app WORKDIR / app #Install app dependencies COPY package .json / app RUN npm install #Bundle app source COPY . / app #create non root user and set ownership RUN groupadd − r logging && useradd − r − g logging loggingusr RUN chown loggingusr / app USER loggingusr EXPOSE 10010 CMD [ "npm" , "start" ]
To build the image:
docker build −t logging . 1 docker build − t logging .
To run the app locally (or indeed in any environment):
docker run −p 10010:10010 −it logging 1 docker run − p 10010 : 10010 − it logging
This is great! Everything contained. We can configure everything we want in code without any heavy machine setup. So how do we get this into AWS? AWS have a platform for exactly this purpose – ECS.
ECS
ECS is the AWS container orchistration solution. It has tools and APIs for managing the deployment and running of containers. I won’t go into all of the details right now,
if you want to read more you can do here. What I will say though is that ECS has some of its own concepts/language around the management of containers
I’ll explain a few of them.
Task Definition
In ECS a task definition is a description of the resources required for one or more tasks to run and how they are related to each other.
It can be thought of as roughly equivalent to a docker-compose file. In a task definition you describe links, volumes, containers, networking etc.
Task
A task is an instance of an application stack started from any given task definition. You can think of it as a stack created from a given docker-compose file.
Service
A service is the management wrapper for on or more of your tasks. It’s the Service that links your tasks to the rest of the AWS infrastructure. The service describes any auto scaling policies, load balancing, placement strategies and also manages restarting/replacing failed tasks. The deployment of an updated task is managed at this level from a new task definition.
Back to our logging API…
Once we had our logging service up and running on ECS we were ready to switch over our client traffic. This is the point where we realised that we had a problem in terms of how we managed our incoming traffic.
Our problem was that the old service was an elastic beanstalk application (not a problem on its own) and public traffic was hitting the beanstalk load balancer directly. The only control we had over this traffic was using DNS.
Our only option at this point was to do a DNS switch to the new logging service that is deployed to ECS
This would be risky though. It could take up to 48 hours before we could be sure that all traffic was where we needed it to be. In addition, rolling back would be just as sluggish and unpredictable. So at this point, we realised that what we needed was an edge service of some description. Something that would allow us to do the following:
At this point, we could wait the 48 hours that might be necessary but all of our traffic would still end up at the same service internally. What we’ve introduced is something that will give us full control over where our traffic ends up without having to rely on DNS. Once we think were ready to switch we do the following:
Now all of our traffic is immediately hitting our new service and if there is a problem, we can immediately roll it back. Once were happy we can remove the legacy service completely.
This was something we decided we needed. We didn’t, however, want to couple it with the logging service. So what should we use?
Spring Cloud and Netflix Zuul
While attending a talk by Coburn Watson of Netflix at AWS re:invent in Las Vegas 2016 I decided to investigate the use of zuul as a potential candidate. I did investigate other solutions like NGINX and HAProxy but zuul looked much more lightweight and easier to extend and mutate being essentially a java app. Also, spring cloud publish a zuul library that makes it extremely easy to get up and running with a simple zuul implementation that had the proxy-ing functionality we needed (more info on spring cloud netflix here).
What we ended up with was an app that was essentialy a couple of lines of code and a couple of lines of config:
import org.springframework.cloud.netflix.zuul.EnableZuulProxy; @EnableZuulProxy public class Application { public static void main(String[] args) { SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args); } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 import org . springframework . cloud . netflix . zuul . EnableZuulProxy ; @EnableZuulProxy public class Application { public static void main ( String [ ] args ) { SpringApplication . run ( Application . class , args ) ; } }
and the config:
#logging zuul.routes.logging.serviceId=logging zuul.routes.logging.stripPrefix=false logging.ribbon.listOfServers=internal-lb-logging.api.com 1 2 3 4 #logging zuul .routes .logging .serviceId = logging zuul .routes .logging .stripPrefix = false logging .ribbon .listOfServers = internal - lb - logging .api .com
This gave us exactly what we needed. We could deploy this as a service at the edge of our network and have it behave as a proxy for our logging service. Moving the traffic from the legacy logging API to the ECS version would take as long as it takes to update zuuls config.
The only problem is that we would be blind as to the level of traffic that the proxy was handling. We needed to have visibility of the throughput and health of the logging service particularly for the initial deployment.
Hystrix
Another library available from spring cloud and netflix was Hystrix. Hystrix is essentially a command wrapping library that provides circuit breaking and resiliency functionality for any command it wraps.
Zuul makes it possible for all proxied calls to be wrapped in hystrix commands without writing any code when using the config syntax above. When using this configuration syntax spring cloud also creates a /hystrix.stream endpoint on zuul which is an SSE stream of the current state of all services being proxied in terms of performance and circuit health. Hystrix streams can be visualized in a hystrix dashboard which is a tool developed by netflix and enabled in spring by doing the following:
import org.springframework.cloud.netflix.hystrix.dashboard.EnableHystrixDashboard; @EnableHystrixDashboard public class Application { ... } 1 2 3 4 5 6 import org . springframework . cloud . netflix . hystrix . dashboard . EnableHystrixDashboard ; @EnableHystrixDashboard public class Application { . . . }
Once an app is started with this attribute you can navigate to /hystrix and be presented with the Hystrix dashboard.
Here you can paste in the URL to your /hystrix.stream endpoint and watch zuul processing requests for your services in real time.
Turbine
Obviously, we wanted the option to let the proxy scale out and in based on the levels of traffic that it processes. How do we keep track of all of the different /hystrix.streams? Again, Netflix have already thought of this in a library called turbine and spring have made integration into a spring app easy. Turbine is a Hystrix stream aggregator. You let Turbine know where your Hystrix streams are and it will aggregate them and give you another stream that will give you an aggregated view of all of your proxies.
Turbine automatically discovers any Hystrix streams using Eureka. Eureka is a Netflix developed service discovery service that integrates with all of things very easily, particularly when using spring cloud.
Conclusion
What we ended up with was a powerful, flexible, extensible, elastic edge service that is easy to monitor in real time. It allows us to manipulate our internal traffic with precision using filters that we can run our traffic through based on any rule we wish.
It also gives us a single consistent logical entry point into our network. We can choose where to send traffic internally based on any rule we want so we can re-route traffic without the client needing to be aware.
It is possible to use this edge service for far more than just proxying and I recommend that you take a look at the Netflix Zuul repo in github for some interesting use cases. |
Hillary Clinton is getting a great deal of advice on whom she should select to be her running mate for her presidential run. Pundits and party enthusiasts suggest that Secretary Clinton should pick a progressive firebrand like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to unite the party. Either would be an exciting choice, but neither would be wise. The better pick is Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
It's true that Kaine does not electrify the Democratic base. His career demonstrates political choices that are more steadfast than stimulating. Kaine hasn't even gathered 50,000 followers on Twitter. Nor has he exchanged verbal taunts with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump through social media platforms. As politicians go, former Gov. Kaine is a steady Democrat whose best case future probably is to be more liked than loved.
However, there is far more to being a good running mate than media celebrity. Kaine brings a great deal to the ticket. Kaine's career includes executive experience as mayor of Richmond as well as lieutenant governor and governor of Virginia. On the national stage he is well-liked, and he sits on the important Foreign Relations Committee. His experience effectively demonstrates the most important quality any vice presidential nominee must have: If needed, he is prepared to step in as president.
Editorial Cartoons on the 2016 Presidential Elections View All 596 Images
Kaine's nomination would avoid the risks associated with popular candidates who can go off message and even hurt the top of the ticket. Kaine is not likely to imitate someone like former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin by going rogue, or by drowning out the campaign message with media gaffes. As the former head of the Democratic National Committee, Kaine understands how to deal with national media, stay on message and be a team player. In an election cycle driven by repeated media blunders, having a candidate who can handle the spotlight is vital.
In addition to his experience, Kaine's popularity in Virginia would put pressure on the Republicans. He is well-known in his home state, and his ability to reach voters in Virginia could keep that state in Democratic hands and make the electoral challenge for Republicans even more difficult. Indeed, his ability to reach working-class white voters could help Clinton outside Virginia in both the South and the Midwest.
Kaine also is a leading proponent for immigration reform, an issue that may be pivotal in the upcoming election. Kaine was the first to deliver a Senate floor speech entirely in Spanish when he spoke in favor of immigration reform. Kaine learned to speak fluent Spanish in Honduras where he lived for a year working as a missionary while taking a year off from his studies at Harvard. His ability to speak to millions of Hispanic voters directly will be a significant asset in the race.
Some will surely view Kaine as too safe and too establishment a candidate in a year of upheaval and change. Safe and recognized candidates have struggled through the nomination process for both parties. Clinton managed to win the nomination, but it was a fight to the end with a candidate who many pundits originally believed would not be credible. Indeed, many of those same pundits now argue that voters are frustrated and looking for someone to channel that anger and dissatisfaction with the government like Sanders or Warren.
Knee-jerk reactions to short-term political pressures can make for poor choices. Hurt feelings in primaries abate. Progressive voters will find their way home with the help of progressive leaders like Sen. Warren without placing her on the ticket. Successful presidential campaigns are defined by careful consideration and long-term strategic planning. Clinton would be wise to acknowledge, and even consider, the importance of leading progressive figures like Warren and Sanders. But she has a far better option for her ticket. Sen. Tim Kaine is the clear choice. |
Are scientists any good at judging the importance of the scientific work of others? According to a study published 8 October in the open access journal PLOS Biology (with an accompanying editorial), scientists are unreliable judges of the importance of fellow researchers' published papers.
The article's lead author, Professor Adam Eyre-Walker of the University of Sussex, says: "Scientists are probably the best judges of science, but they are pretty bad at it."
Prof. Eyre-Walker and Dr Nina Stoletzki studied three methods of assessing published scientific papers, using two sets of peer-reviewed articles. The three assessment methods the researchers looked at were:
Peer review: subjective post-publication peer review where other scientists give their opinion of a published work;
Number of citations: the number of times a paper is referenced as a recognised source of information in another publication;
Impact factor: a measure of a journal's importance, determined by the average number of times papers in a journal are cited by other scientific papers.
The findings, say the authors, show that scientists are unreliable judges of the importance of a scientific publication: they rarely agree on the importance of a particular paper and are strongly influenced by where the paper is published, over-rating science published in high-profile scientific journals. Furthermore, the authors show that the number of times a paper is subsequently referred to by other scientists bears little relation to the underlying merit of the science.
As Eyre-Walker puts it: "The three measures of scientific merit considered here are poor; in particular subjective assessments are an error-prone, biased and expensive method by which to assess merit. While the impact factor may be the most satisfactory of the methods considered, since it is a form of prepublication review, it is likely to be a poor measure of merit, since it depends on subjective assessment."
The authors argue that the study's findings could have major implications for any future assessment of scientific output, such as currently being carried out for the UK Government's forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF). Eyre-Walker adds: "The quality of the assessments generated during the REF is likely to be very poor, and calls into question whether the REF in its current format is a suitable method to assess scientific output."
PLOS Biology is also publishing an accompanying Editorial by Dr Jonathan Eisen of the University of California, Davis, and Drs Catriona MacCallum and Cameron Neylon from the Advocacy department of the open access organization the Public Library of Science (PLOS).
These authors welcome Eyre-Walker and Stoletski's study as being "among the first to provide a quantitative assessment of the reliability of evaluating research," and encourage scientists and other to read it. They also support their call for openness in research assessment processes. However, they caution that assessment of merit is intrinsically a complex and subjective process, with "merit" itself meaning different things to different people, and point out that Eyre-Walker and Stoletski's study "purposely avoids defining what merit is."
Dr Eisen and co-authors also tackle the suggestion that the impact factor is the "least bad" form of assessment, recommending the use of multiple metrics that appraise the article rather than the journal ("a suite of article level metrics"), an approach that PLOS has been pioneering. Such metrics might include "number of views, researcher bookmarking, social media discussions, mentions in the popular press, or the actual outcomes of the work (e.g. for practice and policy)." |
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Rothschild’s 25 Point Plan For World Domination
“In 1770, Mayer Amschel Rothschild married Gutta Schnapper. In that same year, he retained Jewish-born, Adam Weishaupt, an apostate Jesuit-trained professor of canon law, to revise and modernize Illuminism, the worship of Satan, with the objective of world domination and the imposition of the Luciferian ideology “upon what would remain of the human race” after a final orchestrated social-cataclysm. In 1773, Mayer summoned twelve wealthy men to Frankfort and asked them to pool their resources, then presented the 25-point plan that would enable them to gain control of the wealth, natural resources and manpower of the entire world.
Those 25 points are:
1. Use violence and terrorism rather than academic discussions.
2. Preach “Liberalism” to usurp political power.
3. Initiate class warfare.
4. Politicians must be cunning and deceptive – any moral code leaves a politician vulnerable.
5. Dismantle “existing forces of order and regulation.” Reconstruct all existing institutions.”
6. Remain invisible until the very moment when it has gained such strength that no cunning or force can undermine it.
7. Use Mob Psychology to control the masses. “Without absolute despotism one cannot rule efficiently.”
8. Advocate the use of alcoholic liquors, drugs, moral corruption and all forms of vice, used systematically by “agenteurs” to corrupt the youth.
9. Seize properties by any means to secure submission and sovereignty.
10. Foment wars and control the peace conferences so that neither of the combatants gains territory placing them further in debt and therefore into our power.
11. Choose candidates for public office who will be “servile and obedient to our commands, so they may be readily used as pawns in our game.”
12. Use the Press for propaganda to control all outlets of public information, while remaining in the shadows, clear of blame.
13. Make the masses believe they had been the prey of criminals. Then restore order to appear as the saviors.
14. Create financial panics. Use hunger to control to subjugate the masses.
15. Infiltrate Freemasonry to take advantage of the Grand Orient Lodges to cloak the true nature of their work in philanthropy. Spread their atheistic-materialistic ideology amongst the “Goyim” (gentiles).
16. When the hour strikes for our sovereign lord of the entire World to be crowned, their influence will banish everything that might stand in his way.
17. Use systematic deception, high-sounding phrases and popular slogans. “The opposite of what has been promised can always be done afterwards… That is of no consequence.”
18. A Reign of Terror is the most economical way to bring about speedy subjection.
19. Masquerade as political, financial and economic advisers to carry out our mandates with Diplomacy and without fear of exposing “the secret power behind national and international affairs.”
20. Ultimate world government is the goal. It will be necessary to establish huge monopolies, so even the largest fortunes of the Goyim will depend on us to such an extent that they will go to the bottom together with the credit of their governments on the day after the great political smash.”
21. Use economic warfare. Rob the “Goyim” of their landed properties and industries with a combination of high taxes and unfair competition.
22. “Make the ‘Goyim’ destroy each other so there will only be the proletariat left in the world, with a few millionaires devoted to our cause, and sufficient police and soldiers to protect our interest.”
23. Call it The New Order. Appoint a Dictator.
24. Fool, bemuse and corrupt the younger members of society by teaching them theories and principles we know to be false.
25 Twist national and international laws into a contradiction which first masks the law and afterwards hides it altogether. Substitute arbitration for law.”
http://www.spingola.com/before_rockefeller.htm#_edn5
Posted by Simon Smith at 11:49
Labels: Rothschild’s 25 Point Plan For World Domination
The New World Order, The Satanic Underground, and Adam Weishaupt’s 25 Point Plan
Has humanity been colonized by a satanic cult ?
DISCLAIMER: Eating Babies? We don’t know about that.
But it is a fact that more than 500,000 children under the age of 5 died because of US Sanctions on Iraq, with the full knowledge and compliance of the US Government under the Bush’s. This is a Fact, not denied by the US Government.
So the death of children and babies to these people are “Not A Problem”, at all.
[ Nationalist Truth1 Blog: Rothschild’s 25 Point Plan For World Domination ] |
Zach Callison (born October 23, 1997) is an American actor, singer, songwriter and voice actor.
Career [ edit ]
Callison is known for voicing the titular character of Steven Universe. He is also noted for his roles in Disney shows including Prince James from Sofia the First,[1] Billy from I'm in the Band and additional voices from Kinect Disneyland Adventures. He is also noted for King Tut in Mr. Peabody & Sherman,[2] Young Jiro in The Wind Rises,[3] and Billy Batson in the direct-to-video movies Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (2010)[4] and Justice League: War (2014).[5]
In January 2018, Callison released his debut single, "War!", followed by the singles "Curtain Call" and "She Don't Know". On August 3, 2018 he released his debut EP, A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak. The EP is a concept album about celebrity life and mental illness revolving around the protagonist's breakup with a mysterious woman named Juanita, as well as his thoughts of suicide and substance abuse.[6] Callison detailed his inspiration behind the album, saying "It's also a commentary on a lot of young actors and artists who have lost the battle; there's been a lot of dead 20 and 21 year olds in the industry this year, some of whom I knew or admired. I don't know how we fix the problem, but I needed to say something."[7]
Personal life [ edit ]
Zach Callison is fluent in Italian. He is also a singer and can play the piano. Callison is a youth representative for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.[8] In January 2019, Callison announced he would be taking time off to deal with a mental illness, stating that "Life more often than not feels meaningless and not worth living, but as of now I am safe and working on it."[9]
Filmography [ edit ]
Callison in January 2015
Video games Year Title Role Notes 2018 Lego DC Super-Villains Billy Batson (voice)
Discography [ edit ]
EPs [ edit ]
List of albums, with selected information Title Album details A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak Released: August 3, 2018
Label: Self-released
Formats: CD, digital download
Soundtrack album [ edit ]
Singles [ edit ]
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
Callison was nominated for "Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role (Television) - Young Actor" category in the 34th Young Artist Awards which he shared with Jake Sim. He was also nominated in the "Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor" for his role in "Rock Jocks". In 2012, he was nominated in the "Best Performance in a TV Series - Guest Starring Young Actor 11-13" for his role in Disney's I'm in the Band. |
Toronto FC revealed on Friday that veteran defender Drew Moor was discovered to have an irregular heartbeat during a medical examination following a training session this week.
The club also said Moor will undergo further testing next week. As a precaution, Moor will not travel with the team for Saturday’s road game against the Columbus Crew.
Moor, 33, has played every minute of all five games this season, quarterbacking a three-man defence that has kept three clean sheets and conceded just four goals.
Last season, his first in Toronto after joining the club as a free agent, Moor played in 32 of 34 regular season games (all as a starter) and was a major reason why the Reds posted the second-best defensive record in MLS, with just 39 goals against – the year before, without Moor, Toronto gave up a league-high 58 goals.
Moor’s absence for Saturday’s game could mean another start for Chris Mavinga, who cracked the starting 11 for the first time in last week’s 2-2 draw at home against Atlanta United FC, although he was subbed out in the second half after a poor outing. Jason Hernandez, who recently signed as a free agent, could fill in and make his debut for TFC.
Another possible option would be to go with a four-man defence, featuring Eriq Zavaleta and Nick Hagglund (Moor’s regular defensive partners) in the middle, and dropping fullbacks Justin Morrow and Steven Beitashour into the back line.
TFC is undefeated through its first five games of the campaign, with one win and four draws. After the Columbus trip, the Reds return home for three consecutive home games at BMO Field vs. the Chicago Fire (April 21), Houston Dynamo (April 28) and Orlando City (May 3). |
Nurse Natalie Mortimer, 25, (pictured outside Aberdeen Sheriff Court in January) has been struck off after being jailed for fabricating sex abuse claims
A nurse has been struck off after being jailed for falsely accusing her grandfather of rape in a bid to claim his inheritance money.
Natalie Mortimer, from Aberdeen, was disciplined at a one-day standards hearing at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in London.
The 25-year-old was jailed for 22 months at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in January after being convicted of wasting 175 hours of police time by fabricating claims that her grandfather Gordon Ritchie sexually abused her.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard at the time how she had falsely accused her grandfather of raping her when she was a child so she could get her hands on inheritance money.
She eventually admitted she had made up the sex attack claims - but only after her innocent grandfather had spent time in a police cell following the allegations.
The false claims wasted dozens of hours of police time and cost taxpayers more than £3,000.
At the time, s heriff Graeme Buchanan told her: ‘False allegations of rape and other sexual offences are very serious because they put doubts in the minds of jurors in genuine cases and they subject innocent people such as Mr Ritchie to a terrifying ordeal of suspicion and investigation by police.
‘What you did to Mr Ritchie was truly evil and despicable and there is only one appropriate sentence for this behaviour and that is imprisonment.’
During her sentencing, she showed no remorse as she left the court dock in handcuffs - smiling at her friends in the public gallery.
Today, the NMC confirmed she had been struck off from her position as a staff nurse at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for the offence.
Mortimer lived with her grandfather and grandmother until July 2011 when she packed her bags and moved to London.
She later went to a police station in Chiswick on numerous occasions between August 2012 and March last year and lodged complaints with police about her grandfather.
She claimed to have been raped by Mr Ritchie over two years when she was at primary school.
When Mr Ritchie, who used to be a foster carer, was first contacted by police he was on holiday with Mortimer's 15-year-old half-sister.
He had to cut short his holiday and was asked not to have any contact with children aged under 16.
Mortimer was disciplined at a one-day standards hearing at the Nursing and Midwifery Council in London (above). The Council ruled that the staff nurse at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary should be struck off immediately
As part of the investigation, previous foster children were also questioned and inquiries had to be made with social services and the health service, the court heard.
Over the course of many months, Mortimer spoke to numerous detectives and called Mr Ritchie her abuser and a paedophile.
The court heard how officers had been made aware that she had lied only after Mortimer's mother, Susan Simpson, began to doubt her story. |
A makeshift memorial for Noah Katz, 2, at the intersection of Giddings Avenue and Central Avenue, where he was struck by a van Sunday. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin
JEFFERSON PARK — Ald. John Arena (45th) is plunging into an effort to slow down traffic along the stretch of Central Avenue where Noah Katz, 2, was struck and killed by a man driving a van Sunday.
Just after 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Noah and his mother were crossing Central at a crosswalk when Alexander Vasquez, 48, made a left turn from Giddings Street and struck both of them, according to police.
On Monday, Arena pledged to revive a proposal to extend sidewalks out into Central, a strip residents have long decried as a dangerous thoroughfare in a residential neighborhood. The alderman had submitted a plan in 2015 for the "pedestrian bump-outs" on Leland Avenue — a block south of where Noah would be killed — but city transportation officials shot it down, according to his chief of staff, Owen Brugh.
As a first step, Arena proposed a measure in the City Council this week to strip away parking restrictions along Central during rush hour, which would turn the avenue into a permanent one-lane street. He hopes to see the measure approved by the end of December and the bump-outs built by the spring, Brugh said.
But complicating the process is the boundary that ends Arena's ward, straddling Central itself and placing a large chunk of the area in question into the control of Ald. Nick Sposato (38th).
And Sposato, unlike Arena, expressed caution over potential changes to the streetscape.
"This is a complicated issue, and it's not as simple as just being able to say 'Let's immediately lift the parking restrictions,'" Sposato said Thursday. "For every action there's an opposite reaction ... do I want to see bumper-to-bumper [traffic] on that street?"
"I can assure you, if I lift those restrictions, people are going to park on those streets forever, and businesses are going to be upset about that," he added.
Sposato also balked at the cost of the bump-outs, which Brugh said would be about $125,000 to install at Central and Giddings.
Sposato will meet with representatives from the Chicago Department of Transportation to discuss possible projects, he said. But at the end of the day, he puts the burden of safety on drivers, not the streets they travel.
"I get calls every day about how we need to get more speed bumps, or more stop signs," he said. "But how do you get people to stop blowing stop signs? How do you get them to stop cutting through alleys?"
After he hit Noah, Vasquez was arrested and ticketed for violations including disregarding a stop sign and failing to yield at a crosswalk, according to police.
The strip of Central Avenue has long been a point of concern for residents, according to Bob Bank, president of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association. Staggered with three-way intersections, it can be hard to get drivers to look out for pedestrians, he said.
"It's very difficult to cross over there — cars can build up some pretty good speed," Bank said. "Even at Lawrence [Avenue], people will just roll through making a right on red."
The neighborhood has been "broadly supportive" of methods to increase safety, like installing flashing stop signs or electronic speed signs, but it hasn't taken a position on pedestrian bump-outs, he said.
Arena, like Sposato, promised to meet with city transportation officials to hash out possible solutions. Also like Sposato, he acknowledged that it wouldn't be enough to guarantee safety.
"All of the tools we have will not be effective unless drivers adjust their behavior," Arena wrote in a Monday Facebook post. "Minding stop signs, reducing our speed, and staying focused on driving by actively looking for pedestrians and cyclists will have the biggest effect on safety in our city."
As of Thursday night, a fundraising page for Noah's family had collected more than $27,500.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here. |
Over 5,000 women from both Israel and the Palestinian territories have arrived in Jerusalem after a two-week march through Israel and the West Bank. They are calling for a peace deal.
The event was organized by the group dubbed Women Wage Peace, which also includes women that have been personally affected by the decades-long violence between Arabs and Jews in Palestine.
"We are women from the right, the left, Jews and Arabs, from the cities and the periphery and we have decided that we will stop the next war," said one of the founders, Marilyn Smadja.
Several thousand, mostly Israeli women arrived in Jerusalem late on Sunday. They were dressed in white and carried placards calling for peace.
"Israeli women want to prevent the next war if possible and try as soon as possible to reach an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians," said Smadja.
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Her fellow organizer, Huda Abuarquob, a Palestinian from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, said: "This march is not just another protest, but a way of saying that we want peace, and together we can obtain it."
Read more: Fatah and Hamas are rivals with unique goals
'To not believe in peace is to not believe in God'
The march comes at a time of deep divide between Palestinian and Israeli leaders
The peace march started on September 24 in several locations across Israel and the West Bank.
"We must come together to be able to reach the peace that we all want," said Michal Froman, who was stabbed by a Palestinian in January 2016 while pregnant. "As a religious woman, I say that to not believe in peace is to not believe in God."
Read more: Netanjahi says Israel will not accept 'bogus' reconciliation deal
The Women Wage Peace group was established after the latest Israeli-Palestinian war in 2014 which killed around 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Israel estimates the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.
In 2015, the group fasted in relays over 50 days, the length of the war.
This year's event was aimed at sending a message to leaders on both sides to seek peace and ensure that women are represented in the talks, organizers say.
dj/jm (Reuters, AFP, AP) |
The number of people leaving the UK has fallen to its lowest level according to statistics released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The change is significant because, as the ONS note, "the fall in emigration is driving an increase in net migration". Net migration is important because it tends to be focused-on (and often misused) in immigration debates.
Emigration fell by 29,000 between June 2012 and June 2013 which was more than the 14,000 fall in immigration during this period. As a result, net migration has risen over the past year as more people entered the country than left it.
Who is staying?
The long-term international migration statistics show that 320,000 people left the UK in the year-ending June 2013. The following chart shows the nationality of the people that left.
141,000 British citizens departed the country in the year-ending June 2013, which was a slight fall of just over 10,000 on the previous year. However, there are far fewer leaving than there were in the mid-2000s. Between June 2005 and June 2006, 207,000 decided to leave the UK.
A similar decline has been seen in emigration of EU8 citizens; people from the central and eastern European countries such as Poland and Latvia that joined the EU in 2004. However, a look at the migration patterns of these countries show that emigration was higher when immigration spiked in the late 2000s.
The numbers may suggest that the loosening of restrictions on EU8 migrants entering other major European economies such as Germany and France may have weakened the migration flows in and out of the UK. The ONS release stated:
From May 2011 transitional controls that applied to EU8 citizens seeking work in other EU countries expired (these were never applied in the Irish Republic, Sweden and the UK). This may have had the effect of diverting some EU8 migration flows to other EU countries, such as Germany, which in 2012 experienced its highest net migration since 1995.
Net-migration to the UK from countries within the EU has shown a significant rise from 72,000 in the year-ending June 2012 to 106,000.The spike in EU net migration has been particularly pronounced in the western European nations that make up the EU15 with 52,000 more entering the UK than left between June 2012 and June 2013 (up 38% from the previous year).
The international passenger survey suggests that the vast majority of those travelling from the EU have entered for work-related reasons, a figure which it puts at 118,000. Fewer EU citizens departing the UK for work-related reasons put net work-related migration into the UK at 54,000, a huge rise of 36,000 on the previous year.
Also interesting was the increase in the number of people coming to the UK form EU15 countries to work, which went up from 41,000 to 59,000. That rise helped offset the fall in the number of students coming from EU15 countries to study which dropped from 27,000 to 17,000.
Though emigration may be at its lowest level since 2001, a look at the wider history of UK migration shows that the number of people leaving the UK has fluctuated considerably since 1964 and that it reached its lowest level in 1981.
Immigration and emigration from the UK since 1964. Source: Long-term international migration, Office for National Statistics Photograph: /ONS
Where are people emigrating to and immigrating from?
Changing migration trends since 1922 are about geography as well as rising numbers. Almost 100 years ago, Germany and New Zealand are among the top destinations for people leaving the UK. Now, they've been replaced by China and India.
There are two major datasets released showing migration statistics, the International Passenger Survey (IPS) and long-term international migration (LTIM). The IPS figures are derived from sampling the responses of travellers entering and departing the UK.
Although the IPS statistics are the main source for LTIM data, the latter also uses supplementary sources to give a more accurate measure of immigration and as a result LTIM figures are generally higher than those from the IPS.
Other key changes
The number of people entering the UK to work (202,000), has overtaken the number of people entering the UK for formal study (176,000) for the first time since 2009.
The 33,747 family-related visas issued was the lowest number since 2005.
15% more visitor visas were issued taking the total to 1.9m, including 80,000 more Chinese people.
Get the data |
There’s a lot that I love about summer. The additional hours of daylight, awesome fireworks festivals, and the chance to wear a summer kimono are all big plusses in my book.
Still, even I have to admit Japan can get uncomfortably hot at this time of year. A cold beer or cup of sake are both refreshing ways of beating the heat, but there are times when chilled alcohol isn’t an option, such as when I have non-drinking related work to do and/or am already hung-over.
So in order to stay both sober and cool, I eat as much watermelon as I can every summer. And while I don’t think Japanese chain Bagel & Bagel designed their new watermelon bagel just for me, I figured I’m still in the target demographic, and decided to try it out.
While there’s not much variety in the chain’s name, Bagel & Bagel actually has a pretty varied menu, with items such as muffins and cream cheese. Bagels are of course their (ring-shaped) bread and butter. Like a lot of Japanese restaurants and snack makers, the chain regularly spices up their product lineup with limited-time specials, which this summer includes the Suika Bagel (suika being Japanese for “watermelon”).
According to Bagel & Bagel’s press release, only a limited number of the Suika Bagels are available each day. Still, the branch inside the Lumine department store attached to Yokohama Station had plenty in stock when we stopped by on a Saturday a little before 2 in the afternoon.
▼ Some of Bagel & Bagel’s other offerings
There are tables for customers to sit and eat at, but since they were all full when the cashier rang us up, we opted to get our 190-yen (US $1.88) Suika Bagel to-go rather than wait for a seat to open up.
As we unwrapped the bagel, there was a faint but inviting scent of watermelon, a result of the fruit’s juice that Bagel & Bagel mixes into the batter.
Personally, I’ve always been a big fan of seedless watermelon, since I don’t like having to watch out for seeds as I chew, spit them out, or in general do anything that slows down the process of eating more watermelon. For aesthetic purposes, the Suika Bagel does have little black dots mixed in with the dough, which had me worried until it became clear that they’re actually chocolate chips.
▼ Swallow as many as you like. A cocoa plantation won’t grow inside your stomach.
But while the Suika Bagel certainly looks the part, if you were blindfolded and took a bite, you wouldn’t mistake it for a slice of watermelon. There’s a mild and pleasant fruitiness to it, and while it’s pretty sweet by bagel standards, even the chocolate chips don’t pack quite the punch we’d expected from looking at them.
Perhaps knowing that some people might be looking for a more intense flavor experience, Bagel & Bagel also recommends slicing the Suika Bagel and adding either coconut milk or almond jelly, called annindofu in Japanese. Taking their advice, we ran to the store for a pack of the latter.
Almond jelly is eaten chilled, and the extra moisture it imparted brought the sensation a little closer to that of real watermelon. We can’t really say the flavor of the almond jelly and the Suika Bagel do much to blend together, though. What you get is closer to the flavor of the bagel chasing after its more flavorful condiment, giving you two enjoyable, if disconnected, tastes.
Judged as what it is though, instead of a fruit or a dessert, this isn’t a bad bagel at all. It’s tasty, and a good choice if you’re looking for something different or a little more decadent than, say, Bagel & Bagel’s 11-grain bagel made with rye and sorghum. Just make sure to save some room for some actual watermelon later if that’s what you’re really craving.
Related: Bagel & Bagel
Photos: RocketNews24 |
VOTERS IN THE states of Washington and Colorado recently voted to legalise cannabis for recreational use for people who are over 21-years-old. Along with these two states, another fifteen as well as the District of Columbia approve and regulate its medical use.
In the aftermath of the Washington and Colorado ballot, The Journal.ie ran a poll. Eighty-two percent said they were in favour of cannabis legalisation in Ireland for either recreational or medicinal use. This of course is in no way scientific – but is it now time for our government to take a closer look at our cannabis prohibition laws, and ask whether they are benefiting our society or causing more harm than good?
We need to ask: does cannabis prohibition work? The simple answer is no. We only have to look back in history to the era of Prohibition in the 1920s to understand why. Al Capone and his violent mob made millions of dollars from the illegal sale of alcohol. Today we are witnessing a similar trend in Ireland, with ruthless criminal gangs making a fortune (tax-free of course) from the sale of cannabis. Sadly, the monies raised often go on to fuel much more serious crimes such as gun crime, hard drugs and prostitution.
Legalising cannabis would automatically cut off this valuable revenue stream. Instead we could generate an unthinkable amount of tax revenue, which could be spent on much needed public services such as health, education and drug rehabilitation.
Prohibition
Cannabis prohibition also leaves market regulation in the hands of criminals – and unfortunately the health and wellbeing of the end user is the least of their concerns. It’s a serious issue that in Ireland today a 14-year-old can obtain cannabis more easily than they can alcohol. If cannabis was legalised the market could be regulated properly with an age restriction of 18 or 21 applied to it, making it safer than it currently is today.
Prohibition causes a major drain on our criminal justice system: how much valuable time and money is spent on chasing down and convicting cannabis growers and distributors in this country? If cannabis was legalised it would free up time and money which could then be used to target more serious crimes.
We also need to factor in the medicinal benefits of cannabis. The first recorded medicinal use of cannabis by Chinese emperor Shen Nung dates back as far as 2737 BC. In more modern times, it’s been put forward as a treatment or symptom reliever for a huge range of medical conditions including multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, cancer, arthritis, asthma, epilepsy, digestive diseases, depression and many more. It’s hard to believe that we have a plant which has so many apparent benefits, yet we deny those who are suffering from these illnesses the opportunity of relief.
In my mind, prohibiting this substance whilst allowing people to suffer is the biggest crime of all. Now, let’s take a look at the reasons people give for why they oppose cannabis legalisation and the misconceptions people have about the prohibition laws they favour.
Regulation
People say it’s harmful to your health. This seems to be the number one reason given for opposing legalisation. Yet if cannabis is already freely available and commonly used within our society, shouldn’t we be striving to limit its harmful effects?
As already mentioned above, a regulated market place is much safer than one controlled by the criminal underworld. Curbing underage use should be seen as a top priority, as studies have shown a link between persistent adolescent cannabis use and mental health problems in later life – yet they’ve found that people who didn’t take up cannabis until they were adults did not show similar negative effects as those who began at an earlier age.
Secondly, people say that legalising it will cause a huge uptake in the number of people who choose to smoke it. This isn’t necessarily true. A friend of mine recently said to me “cannabis just wouldn’t be as much fun if it was legalised” and there’s some truth in that. Experts will tell you that more teenagers try cannabis because of the glamour of the ‘forbidden fruit’ than are deterred by any other factor. Cannabis use is actually more prevalent in Ireland than it is in either Portugal or the Netherlands, two European countries who have decriminalised its use. In fact, contrary to common belief the Dutch are among the lowest users of cannabis in Europe; despite the Netherlands’ well known tolerance of the drug.
Others state that it is a gateway drug that will lead users onto harder drugs. But there’s nothing in cannabis that makes the user want to try harder drugs. The fact that it’s illegal and often sourced from dealers who also sell other drugs could be seen as a problem, but again if it was legalised we wouldn’t have this problem.
With so many benefits to be gained by legalising cannabis and so many obvious disadvantages to prohibition, why are our government choosing to ignore this issue? It’s time to ask questions and demand answers.
The author of this article wished to remain anonymous to avoid being identified in their workplace. |
Strategic bombing during World War I (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) was principally carried out by the United Kingdom and France for the Entente Powers and Germany for the Central Powers. All the belligerents of World War I eventually engaged in strategic bombing, and, excepting Rome and Washington, the capital city of each major belligerent was targeted. A multi-national air force to strike at Germany was planned but never materialized. The aerial bombing of cities, intended to destroy the enemy's morale, was introduced by the Germans in the opening days of the war.
Early strategic bombing attempts led to the development of specialized bomber aircraft, during World War I. Initially bombs were dropped by hand and aimed by the naked eye, but by the end of the war bombsights had been developed. The introduction of air raid warnings and shelters can be dated to World War I, as can the design of anti-aircraft artillery and the development of methods for coordinated aerial defence. Many of the advocates of strategic bombing during the interwar period, such as Italy's Giulio Douhet, America's Billy Mitchell, and Britain's Hugh Trenchard, had commanded aircraft during World War I. The improvements in aircraft technology during and after the war convinced many that "the bomber will always get through", and this belief influenced planning for strategic bombing in World War II.
Germany [ edit ]
The first strategic bombing in history was also the first instance of bombs being dropped on a city from the air. On 6 August 1914 a German Zeppelin bombed the Belgian city of Liège. Within the first month of the war, Germany had formed the "Ostend Carrier Pigeon Detachment", actually an airplane unit to be used for the bombing of English port cities. During the First Battle of the Marne, a German pilot flying aerial reconnaissance missions over Paris in a Taube regularly dropped bombs on the city. The first raid dropped five small bombs and a note demanding the immediate surrender of Paris and the French nation. Before the stabilisation of the Western Front, the German aircraft dropped fifty bombs on Paris, slightly damaging Notre Dame Cathedral.
February 1915 poster warning of the possibility of air raids on the English city of Hereford
The first extended campaigns of strategic bombing were carried out against England by the German Empire's fleet of airships, which were then the only aircraft capable of such sustained activities so far from their bases. This campaign was approved on 7 January 1915 by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who forbade attacks on London, fearing that his relatives in the British royal family might be injured. These restrictions were lifted in May, after British attacks on German cities. The first attacks on England were on 9 January, and struck the Yarmouth area and King's Lynn. In Britain, fear of the Zeppelin as a weapon of war preceded its actual use: even before the war the British public was gripped by "zeppelinitis".
The Zeppelin proved too costly compared to airplanes, too large and slow a target, its hydrogen gas too flammable, and too susceptible to bad weather, anti-aircraft fire (below 5,000 feet) and interceptors armed with incendiary bullets (up to 10,000 feet) for the Imperial German Army (Reichsheer), which abandoned its use in 1916. The Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine), whose airships were primarily used for reconnaissance over the North Sea, continued to bomb the United Kingdom until 1918. In all, fifty-one raids on Great Britain were carried out, the last by the Navy in May 1918. The most intense year of the airship bombing of England was 1916. Germany employed 125 airships during the war, losing more than half and sustaining a 40% attrition rate of their crews, the highest of any German service branch.
In May 1917 the Germans began using heavy bombers against England using Gotha G.IV and later supplementing these with Riesenflugzeuge ("giant aircraft"), mostly from the Zeppelin-Staaken firm. The targets of these raids were industrial and port facilities and government buildings, but few of the bombs hit military targets, most falling on private property and killing civilians. Although the German strategic bombing campaign against Britain was the most extensive of the war, it was largely ineffective, in terms of actual damage done. Only 300 tons of bombs were dropped, resulting in material damage of £2,962,111 damage, 1,414 dead and 3,416 injured, these figures including those due to shrapnel from the anti-aircraft fire. In the autumn of 1917, however, over 300,000 Londoners had taken shelter from the bombing, and industrial production had fallen.
Britain [ edit ]
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNS) undertook the first Entente strategic bombing missions on 22 September 1914 and 8 October, when it bombed the Zeppelin bases in Cologne and Düsseldorf. The airplanes carried twenty-pound bombs, and at least one airship was destroyed. On 21 November the RNAS flew across Lake Constance to bomb the Zeppelin factories in Friedrichshafen and Ludwigshafen. On 25 December the Cuxhaven Raid was the first attack by sea-based airplanes launched from ships against a strategic target.
When William Weir, the President of the Air Council in 1918, told Hugh Trenchard that it was not necessary to worry about accuracy during strategic bombing raids, the general replied that "all the pilots drop their eggs into the centre of town generally." After the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George promised to repay Germany for its air raids "with compound interest". On 19 July, the first aircraft carrier-based air raid in history, the Tondern raid, was launched against the German Zeppelin base at Tondern.
On 6 June 1918 the British formed the Independent Force under Major General Hugh Trenchard to engage in long-range bombing directed at industrial targets deep in German territory. Missions were undertaken with De Havilland DH9s and Handley Page O/400s, but the war ended before Britain's four-engined Handley Page V/1500 bomber, designed to drop 7,500 lbs on Berlin, entered service. Ultimately, retaliatory bombings on German cities provoked German retaliation against not British but French cities, which led to disagreement between British and French leadership concerning the strategy of such bombing and allocation of resources away from the Western Front. Still, the British dropped 660 tons of bombs on Germany, more than twice what Germany had managed to drop on England.
France [ edit ]
German airship bombing Calais on the night of 21–22 February 1915
France formed a strategic bombing unit, the Groupe de Bombardement No. 1 (GB1), in September 1914. The French were reluctant to bomb targets on their own soil, even if occupied by the Germans, and were more wary of German retaliation than the British,[citation needed] because French cities were within range of German bombers. Nevertheless, GB1 raided far behind the front, concentrating on the German supply network and troop concentrations, a strategy designed to directly aid the French Army on the Western Front. The French favoured light bombers, often modifying reconnaissance craft for the purpose. The Breguet 14 of 1917 remained in production until 1926.
On 4 December 1914 French pilots carried out the first Entente bombing of a city when they dropped bombs on Freiburg im Breisgau.
Italy [ edit ]
On 1 November 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, the Kingdom of Italy had carried out the first aerial military mission in history, when Giulio Gavotti dropped bombs by hand on Turkish positions in the Libyan desert. During World War I Italy, like France, did not wish to bomb centres of civilian population, because many of the obvious targets had a high number of Italian residents or were in territories Italy had plans to annexe after the war. Like Russia, Italy possessed heavy bombers before its entry into the war, Giovanni Caproni having built the multi-engine Caproni Ca.1 in 1914.
In August 1915, the Ca.1s were placed in the 21° Squadriglia of the Corpo Aeronautico Militare. In October–November 1915, the Ca.1s attacked Austro-Hungarian railroads and supply depots. Later in the war, photographic reconnaissance and offensive actions were conducted by Ansaldo SVA aircraft, which launched a four-aircraft strike from Ponte San Pietro against Innsbruck on 28 February 1918, strafing and bombing railroad marshalling yards. Innsbruck, along with Bolzano, was again the target of an air strike by SVA bombers on 29 October 1918.
Russia [ edit ]
The Russian Empire possessed the only long-range heavy bomber to be operational in the first year of the war, the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets (IM). This could carry 1,100 lbs of bombs, and remain in the air for up five hours with a reduced bomb load. In August 1914 the Russians grouped their four Sikorskys in a unit dedicated to strategic bombing and based them near Warsaw in December. Cities were not the main targets on the Eastern Front: the principal targets were supply depots, troop concentrations and transportation networks, especially railway yards and stations. By March 1918, when Russia left the war, around seventy Ilya Muromets had been constructed, and they had flown over 350 bombing or reconnaissance missions along the entire Eastern Front.
Strategic bombing by Austria–Hungary was limited, mostly confined to Italian targets on the Adriatic. Nonetheless, Austro-Hungarian pilots based at Pula flew forty-two bombing missions over Venice after the Italian Front had advanced to within a few miles of the city. The Chiesa degli Scalzi, near the Ferrovia train station, was damaged, including two ceiling frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. A particularly severe raid was carried out on 27 February 1918, hitting central Venice and sending many Venetians to take refuge in Giudecca and the Lido. A letter from Ralph Curtis to Isabella Stewart Gardner written in September 1915 explains how the Venetians instituted blackout during the bombings:
The mosquitos from Pula come buzzing over nearly every fine night, and drop bombs for half an hour or so. . . . Venice is like a lovely prima donna in deep mourning. All the gilded angels wear sack-cloth painted dirty grey. Anything that shines is covered. At night all is as black as in the dark ages. "Serrenos" call out "all is well" every half-hour. But when danger is signalled the elec[tric] light is cut off, sirens blow, cannon firebombs explode and the whole city shakes on its piles. All the hotels but the Danieli's are hospitals.
The Venetian writer Alvise Zorzi attributes "the final rupture of the continuity of Venetian customs and culture" to the Austro-Hungarian bombing campaign.
Notes [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Harvey, A. D. (2000). "Bombing and the Air War on the Italian Front, 1915–1918". Air Power History . 47 (3): 34–39.
Cole, Christopher; Cheeseman, E. F. (1984). The Air Defence of Britain, 1914–1918 . London: Putnam. ISBN 0-370-30538-8.
Doody, Margaret (2007). Tropic of Venice . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-81223-984-9.
Lamberton, William Melville (1962). Reconnaissance and Bomber Aircraft of the 1914–1918 War . Aero Publishers. OCLC 462209026.
Madison, Rodney (2005). "Air Warfare, Strategic Bombing". The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social and Military History . 1 . Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 45–46. ISBN 1851094202.
Gray, Peter; Thetford, Owen (1962). German Aircraft of the First World War . London: Putnam. OCLC 2310617.
Tilford Jr., Earl H. (1996). "Air Warfare: Strategic Bombing". The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 13–15. ISBN 0-81533-351-X.
Further reading [ edit ]
Kennett, Lee (1982). A History of Strategic Bombing . New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-68417-781-1.
Kennett, Lee (1991). The First Air War, 1914–1918. London: Putnam. ISBN 0-02917-301-9.
It ended in 1918 |
by Chip Ainsworth
Shortly after finishing his three-month, 3,312-mile run from the coast of Oregon to the Rhode Island shore, Glenn Caffery visited his physician and complained that his feet were numb.
“What’d you expect?” the doctor replied.
Caffery, a 49-year-old data management teacher at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, lives in Leyden, a small town in the Connecticut River Valley that borders Vermont. His cross-country pilgrimage was to raise awareness about the Alzheimer’s disease that killed his father at age 68.
“He was diagnosed at 55,” said Caffery, “but it was symptomatic at least two years prior to that.”
On May 19, Caffery stuck his foot into the Pacific Ocean and began his long, arduous journey across Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Minnesota on toward the Northeast and into New England. On Aug. 17, surrounded by friends and family, he splashed into the Atlantic Ocean at Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island.
Along the way he had jogged through towns named Mud Butte and Faith and avoided roads with rumble strips that rattled the three-wheeled stroller he kept packed with supplies and camping gear. “It was kind of comfortable to have it with me. I never gave it a name. I’m glad it never came to that.”
His wife, Colleen, shipped Asics DS running shoes and multivitamins to designated truck stops every 350 miles. Truckers learned of his cause and gave him leeway on the highway. Railroad engineers leaned on train whistles for encouragement.
South Dakota was the most grueling part of the journey, a daunting 560-mile trek in 100-degree weather through desolate territory where the state mammal is the coyote.
“It got discouraging,” said Caffery. “There was no shelter. There were no trees. I was by myself and totally dependent on the people around me.”
He was grateful for people like the owners of the Ace Motel in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, who gave him a roof over his head and a fresh bar of soap in the shower stall. “Ceramic tile, toilet, shower … Compared to sleeping on the side of the highway, it couldn’t have been better.”
A nasty case of shin splints set him back a week, but his arthritic hip never barked and he was able to average 50 miles a day while burning 600 calories an hour.
“I was amazed with my body’s ability to bounce back every morning,” he said. “My left hip was pain free and my right arm wasn’t sore from pushing the stroller, but my left shoulder bothered me. It did nothing, but a person’s body responds to work.”
Most weight-conscious people try to maintain a caloric intake under 2,000, but Caffery needed 7,000 calories day to keep up his energy level.
“Food was the single hardest part of the trip,” he said. “The problem was, I had no appetite and the stuff I ate was high calorie and not particularly healthy. Mostly I got sick of things. They had really gross ice cream (in South Dakota) called Blue Bunny, and another problem was I was a vegetarian in one thousand miles of beef country. But I did eat a lot of eggs and drink a lot of chocolate milk.”
Jogging on thoroughfares built for fast-moving vehicles provided a shocking, near slow-motion perspective of death on the highway.
“Dead things were horrible, so many dead things in the road,” he said. “The stench was a constant companion. Cars are so disruptive, and I saw so much killing…. Two Canada geese crossing the road with their offspring and I thought how beautiful, and a car went smashing through them, just a swirl of feathers. The car never slowed. That was hard.”
At night in the West, snakes came to bask on the warm roads.
“I had to be careful. The really big snakes were the bull snakes and they camouflaged well on the road,” said Caffery. “When I saw my first prairie rattler I knew I had to keep getting fresh batteries for my head lamp.”
In Ohio his father-in-law died. He rented a car and drove to the memorial service in Easton, Pa., then returned to where he’d left off.
“It made me wonder whether my run was truly separate from my life or really just the same,” he said. “I don’t think it was as separate as it seemed.”
The country’s diverse geography didn’t affect him so much as the people he met.
“They have forever changed me,” he said. “I feel really blessed they brought me into their world. I came to learn that the U.S. is a big community and I’d never thought of it that way. I was given two flags along the way. I’ve never had a flag in front of my house but I cherish these two flags.”
Life has returned to normal for Caffery. He’s back teaching at UMass and on Oct. 18 he spoke at an Alzheimer’s symposium in Boston. Although he’s raised $25,000, he said, “Alzheimer’s been a part of my life but I don’t consider myself an activist, surprising as that sounds.”
His feet still hurt and his weight is down and he’s quick to admit, “I’m in pretty bad shape right now.”
Yet he’ll recover physically and keep the memory.
“It was the classic step-a-time and big things happen,” he said. “It’s changed my attitude about life and adversity, and I’m a better person for having done this.”
Monies raised by Caffery’s effort go to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund in Wellesley, Mass. “They’re a lean and mean operation and have the top Alzheimer’s scientists,” said Caffery. “Every dollar goes to research and it’s a very efficient operation with a very deliberate roadmap. They redirect every single dollar. If they donate $100,000 to a university researcher, they won’t allow the university to take any overhead.”
Contributors can donate by going to alzrun.org or curealz.org or by calling the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund at 781-237-3800.
Photos from Glenn Caffery’s website, http://alzrun.org/. |
CTV British Columbia
Surrey Mounties are urging smartphone owners to treat their pricey devices like a purse or wallet after a vicious theft left a man battered and bruised earlier this week.
A surveillance video showed the victim being followed by three assailants into his Surrey apartment building on Thursday.
One of the attackers punches the man in the head before the rest of the group jumps in, roughing up the victim then allegedly stealing his iPhone and fleeing.
“It’s pretty horrific. You’ve got an individual that’s just allowing somebody into their apartment building…and then suddenly they’re attacked from behind,” said Surrey RCMP spokesman Sgt. Dale Carr. “And over what? A cell phone. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Mounties are now telling the public to treat smartphone like you would any valuable item – and that means being aware of your surroundings and not prominently displaying the device when walking alone.
“Cell phones have become a very trendy thing to rob people of,” Carr said. “People that are in the business of taking cell phones are watching for the opportunity, and if you present that opportunity to them by being distracted, you’re going to become a victim.”
Carr also cautioned people selling phones on online classified sites like Craigslist to always meet with potential buyers in a public place.
TransLink has stepped up its campaign to warn riders to keep their smartphones hidden, especially when sitting near doors on transit.
Mounties are still trying to identify the attackers in the surveillance video.
Those with information are asked to contact Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers 1-800-222-8477. |
U.S. Forces Out of Vietnam; Hanoi Frees the Last P.O.W. By Joseph B. Treaster Special to The New York Times RELATED HEADLINES Thousands Watch 67 Prisoners Depart Former P.O.W.'s Charge Torture by North Vietnam OTHER HEADLINES Nixon Sets Meat Price Ceilings at Both Wholesale and Retail; Asserts Costs 'Should Go Down': Acts to Stop Rise: He Will Ask Authority to Cut or Suspend Food Imports Curbs President Warns Hanoi to Comply With Truce Pact: Holds Out the Threat of U.S. Retaliations Against North in Event of Violations McCord Testifies His Fellow Plotters Linked High Nixon Aides to Watergate: Tells Senate Unit Mitchell Was Identified as 'Boss' of Political Espionage No Strike Accord Reached on Steel: Union and Major Companies Agree to Avert a Shutdown for at Least 4 Years S.E.C. White Paper Seeks Stock Market-Restructure Consumers Rally for Meat Boycott: Mobilization On- Midwest Farmers Plan to Withhold Cattle in Countermove Council Votes 3-Year Extension of Rent Control for Million Units Saigon, South Vietnam, March 29 -- The last American troops left South Vietnam today, leaving behind an unfinished war that has deeply scarred this country and the United States. There was little emotion or joy as they brought to a close almost a decade of American military intervention. Remaining after the final jet transport lifted off from Tan Son Nhut air base at 5:53 P.M. were about 800 Americans on the truce observation force who will leave tomorrow and Saturday. A contingent of 159 Marine guards and about 50 military attaches also stayed behind. The fighting men were gone, but United States involvement in South Vietnam was far from ended. When Gen. Frederick C. Weyand presided over the furling of the colors of the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, this afternoon, he told a handful of American servicemen, "You can hold your heads up high for having been a part of this selfless effort." In a second address later on in the afternoon, delivered in halting Vietnamese, General Weyland declared: "Our mission has been accomplished . I depart with a strong feeling of pride in what we have achieved, and in what our achievement represents." As the last American commander in Vietnam said good-bye to the huge white tropical building that was sometimes called Pentagon East, a force of 7,200 American civilians employed by the Department of Defense was standing under the eaves. A majority of these civilians are technicians who are already at work with the South Vietnamese armed forces, trying to fill the gap in special skills that the Vietnamization program has been unable to provide. Many are repairing helicopters, jet fighter-bombers, radar systems and computers, and some are instructing the Vietnamese in these tasks. This afternoon at Tan Son Nhut, while waiting for his plane to take off, Col. Einar Himma, a naturalized American from Estonia, talked of his two tours in Vietnam. He had grown fond of the Vietnamese, he said, and he felt sad about their future. "There's going to be a full blown war starting up after we leave," he said. "The fighting has never stopped anyway." As he spoke a Government officer downtown was reporting that more than 100 military incidents had occurred in the last day- almost double the number reported in the last weeks before the cease-fire was proclaimed on Jan. 28. Across the airport, 30 coffins with the bodies of Government soldiers had just been unloaded from trucks. A Vietnamese woman knelt weeping beside her husband's coffin. Colonel Himma's candid talk was unusual for a military man. Many of his colleagues refuse to admit that in eight years, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, millions of tons of bombs, a panoply of deadly devices and billions of dollars, they had not won the war. Many offices still contend that the Army never lost a battle in Vietnam; their reasoning is that, at whatever price, the troops always took or held the terrain in question. But now the places where some Americans consider that the greatest victories of the war were achieved- Khe Sanh, Dak To, Hamburger Hill, the Ia Drang Valley, the rises and hollows south of the demilitarized zone- are controlled by the Communists. Army publications and some officers describe the Tet offensive of 1968 as an allied victory even though many others say that its impact on the American public triggered the beginning of the United States' disengagement from Vietnam. Admiral Moorer's Regret Still, one general said the other day: "The Army leaves with its chin out and its chest high. It's done a commendable job." Today, there were congratulatory messages from Washington and the Pacific headquarters and a fleeting note of regret from Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the war had not enjoyed "the full measure of support it deserved." When the first big American fighting units began arriving in South Vietnam in 1965, there was a standard explanation for the United States presence. "We've come here to stop the spread of Communism," the soldiers would say without hesitation. "If we don't stop them here we may be fighting them in San Francisco next." Sometimes the soldiers also mentioned giving the South Vietnamese the opportunity to live under a democratic system. One officer who has been involved in Vietnam for several years conceded in an interview earlier this week that what the United States had achieved here was "certainly less than any of us planned in the beginning." He said that the United States had succeeded in giving the South Vietnamese "a reasonable chance to survive." "Now," he continued, "it becomes a matter of will and determination on the part of the South Vietnamese." To reach this point, the cost to the United States has been almost 46,000 men killed and more than 300,000 wounded. The military has become controversial, its self-confidence has been reduced and it has been forced into a new mold- a volunteer army spruced up to attract enlistees but anathema to many old regulars. North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Vietcong have lost a million men on the battlefield. No one on the allied side knows how many Communist soldiers have been wounded, but it is doubtful that the number is fewer than the 400,000 South Vietnamese hurt in combat. American officials estimate that perhaps a million South Vietnamese civilians have been killed in the war and that more than 40 per cent of the 16 million survivors have been uprooted by the fighting, their homes and belongings lost, their families scattered. From the beginning American military men felt that the fighting in Vietnam would be like the fighting in Korea. But there were seldom front lines or large formations of troops to assault. "In this war," a colonel said, "a squad of 10 or 12 men was considered an excellent target for wings of aircraft and battalions of artillery." The Americans used such tactics partly out of frustration, but also because commanders were under pressure from Washington to keep their casualties down in an unpopular war. Many Vietnamese civilians became victims. Wide areas of territory used by the Communists were declared "free-fire zones." These were places where bombs could be dropped or artillery fired at any time without special clearance. Peasants living in the areas risked death if they did not leave. Under Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the American commander in Vietnam when the troop build-up began, there were "search-and-destroy" operations, in which sometimes thousands of soldiers would push through an area, often in tanks and armored cars. The ambush was the greatest enemy tactic and the booby-trap was his most effective weapon until last spring, when the Russians began supplying 130-mm. guns that could fire a shell 17 miles. One way that the Americans tried to overcome the ambush tactic was to expose the enemy's hiding places. The did this by defoliating thousands of acres and plowing down great stretches of rubber plantations and forest land bordering the roads. But the favorite weapon of the Americans was the helicopter. This, as one general liked to say, freed the men from the "tyranny of the terrain." In the early days the most popular helicopter tactic was the air assault. A general would pick a trouble spot, soften it up with artillery and air strikes for 15 or 20 minutes and then load up 400 or 500 men in helicopters and set them down on the edge of the objective. Toward the end of the American experience in Vietnam, helicopters were mainly used for armed reconnaissance in which they would scout a suspicious area and shoot at anything that moved. In Da Nang last June a couple of helicopter pilots bragged about how they had made a farmer "dance" in his rice field and how another time they had shot down a boney cow. As United States troops strength moved downward from its 1969 peak of 543,000, the pressure increased to keep down American losses and the use of bombers increased. This added to the cost of the war and almost certainly led to more inadvertent casualties. My Lai Most Damaging The most painful memory for the Army was the My Lai massacre. But an incident in which eight Green Berets were accused of killing a Vietnamese double agent in the fall of 1969 hurt the Army too. The eight- six commissioned officers, a warrant officer and a sergeant- were arrested and charged with shooting Thai Khac Chuyen in June, 1969, and dumping his body in the South China Sea. A little later all Special Forces soldiers were pulled out of Vietnam. Often when American military men talk about the mistakes of the war, they conclude that more force should have been used. Many think that North Vietnam should have been invaded. Failing that, they would have preferred to march deep into Laos to try to cut the Ho Chi Minh supply network. Early Training of Vietnamese There is general agreement that the United States should have started building the Vietnamese armed forces from the beginning, instead of assuming the main combat role until it became clear that the American public would no longer support the war. There is little question that in four years the Vietnamese armed forces have made strides forward, but they still have shortcomings. General Weyand declared today that the Government forces had proved "their readiness, determination and capability to defend their ideals" during the North Vietnamese offensive of 1972. In that campaign, several South Vietnamese units broke and ran, others suffered devastating casualties and, in some cases, entire battalions were captured. American and South Vietnamese officers said that the massive use of American air power had saved the country. Although American advisers to Vietnamese units and Special Forces Soldiers often lived close to the Vietnamese, and often ate Vietnamese food, most American servicemen lived in isolation in compounds and barracks that were as much like home as they could make them. Air-conditioners, soft drinks, beer, ice cream, the latest movies, television, tape recorders and pin-ups were standard. Most of the food was shipped from the United States. Generals prided themselves on elaborate messes. Junior officers and noncoms took pride in building fancy clubs. The Air Force club in Pleiku was known for its huge crystal chandelier. One of the most popular clubs in Saigon used to be the top of the Rex Hotel, where the officers held barbecue cookouts every Sunday night. In the beginning there were slot machines everywhere, but they abruptly disappeared one day. Heavy Ratio of Support Men in support jobs outnumbered combat troops by more than 7 to 1. But there were line units with many helicopters, like the First Cavalry Division, where the "grunts," or fighting men usually got two hot meals a day and sometimes had ice cream and soda in the field. The tour of duty in Vietnam was one year. Its brevity made the separation from family more bearable but it created great turbulence in the armed forces. Many officers felt that this short tour weakened the services structurally and created a situation in which, as one officer said, "We didn't have 8 years or 12 years, or whatever it was of experience- we had one year of experience eight times." Officers spent six months in combat duty and six months in administrative or support jobs. This gave everyone some exposure to the war and increased his chances for promotion, but it also kept everyone in unfamiliar jobs. With all the amenities, though, morale began to fall in 1970 and 1971. Drug use became endemic. A few units refused orders to go into combat and enlisted men occasionally "fragged" their officers- throwing fragmentation grenades. Soldiers began to wear love beads and peace symbols and let their hair run shaggy. It was only after units had gotten down to a hard core of "lifers," specialists and technicians that the American forces in Vietnam regained some of the lost discipline. Today, as the last men were heading home, a reporter asked whether they were happy or sad. Several majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels glared fiercely and snapped, "No comment!"
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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Global oil prices need to be fairer and more realistic to encourage investment and OPEC members should reach an agreement to bring price stability, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told an energy congress on Monday.
“OPEC members should reach an agreement and should work for the stability of the oil industry. Prices must be fairer, more realistic, and they should be an incentive for investors. For that we need fair prices,” Maduro told the World Energy Congress in Istanbul, according to a translation of his comments.
He said he hoped an agreement could be reached at a meeting of energy ministers next Wednesday and that Venezuela was ready to be part of any alliance among producers.
Price hawk Venezuela, which is suffering a deep economic crisis worsened by a fall in oil prices, has been pushing for a deal to stabilize prices for months and has said it expects non-OPEC countries to support efforts to boost oil prices. |
The Vatican Monday mourned the brutal murders of three elderly Italian nuns in their convent in Burundi in two separate attacks.
According to reports on the Italian state wire agency ANSA, the three missionaries were raped and had their throats slit. One was reportedly decapitated
The bodies of two nuns, Sister Olga Raschietti, 75, and Lucia Pulicin, 82, were found Sunday afternoon by a third nun, Sister Bernadetta Boggian, 79. She was then later raped and decapitated following a second overnight attack on the premises, according to reports by the Italian missionary news agency Misna.
The Saverian missionary superior in the east African nation, the Rev. Mario Pulcini, told Misna that during the night, other nuns telephoned to say they feared the attacker was still in the convent. When help arrived, the nun who had found the first two victims was herself found slain, Pulcini said.
A botched robbery attempt was an early theory for the attack, but was reportedly dismissed because nothing appeared to have been stolen.
In a telegram to the the nuns' superior, Pope Francis said he hoped that their spilled blood "may become the seed of hope to build true fraternity between peoples."
A Burundi convent employee was also murdered during the attack.
The Italian nuns had spent the last seven years helping the poor and sick in their convent in Kamenge, a district north of Burundi's capital Bujumbura that has long been a hotspot of ethnic violence, ANSA reported.
Over 60% or people in Burundi are Catholics and it is described as one of the five poorest countries in the world.
Tensions have recently increased in the eastern African country, which is still reeling from a 1993-2006 civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. |
× SC official suggested his employees commit suicide if they are unhappy
RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — An official in Richland County, South Carolina, is under fire for making an appalling comment during a staff meeting, WSOC reported.
Several emergency medical service workers said Assistant County Administrator Kevin Bronson suggested his employees commit suicide if they are unhappy, after some complained about work conditions.
“If it’s that bad, you can leave. You can leave or go kill yourself,” Bronson told his employees.
It happened in a room full of about 100 workers.
“The room erupted in emotion,” said an employee who didn’t want to be identified. “People were crying. People were yelling at him. One, we just lost a deputy because of suicide. Two, I don’t think he understands the gravity of the situation. We’re not here for the money, we’re here because we love what we do.”
When attempts were made to confront Bronson about what he said, the county’s public information officer said, “If you want to speak with anyone in the administration, you need to make an appointment. We are not going to comment on something that was said at an internal employee meeting.” |
Strategy
Before telling the world about their innovation-in-progress, companies should carefully weigh the costs and benefits.
As a company nears completion on what it hopes will be a major innovation, its leaders will likely feel tugged in two distinctly opposite directions. On one side, there will be the strong temptation to crow about their impending accomplishment, on the other a perhaps-judicious inclination to secrecy.
A wise strategist would weigh the choice carefully. Preannouncements can have a significant impact on the value of the firm - for example, on its stock price - and on its long-term market penetration. Knowing whether and how to preannounce is one of the essential competencies for long-term innovation, as detailed in my new book Making Innovation Last (co-authored with David Gotteland and Christophe Haon of Grenoble Ecole de Management).
Risks vs. benefits
Besides seizing bragging rights, there are strategic reasons for announcing products or services that may not be market-ready for months or years. Firms preannounce to customers to (1) stimulate demand for the innovation, (2) access the most efficient distribution systems, and (3) build a favorable reputation for being an innovative firm. Academic research has focused mainly on demand stimulation.
By raising consumers’ prior-to-launch expectations even a modest amount - especially when those expectations are low to begin with - preannouncements have been shown to boost penetration rates. This boost is still discernible after an innovation has been on the market for ten years.
However, the potential benefit of preannouncements needs to be considered against four main risks isolated by researchers: (1) competitive reactions, (2) cannibalisation of existing products, (3) inability to deliver preannounced product specifications on time, and (4) antitrust concerns. Risks 1 and 3 have received the most attention from researchers.
Competitive reactions
Lifting the veil of secrecy can be dangerous in that it gives catch-up time to competitors. The likelihood of serious response is, on the whole, higher when the preannouncing firm is seen to be pushing aggressively into rival turf. It may surprise you to learn, for example, that preannouncements are also more likely to provoke retaliation in industries with high patent protections and in high-growth markets, i.e. in arenas where companies should feel that they are on relatively solid footing. No matter how supposedly secure their position, firms will tend to answer forcefully to perceived threats within areas where they have made strong commitments.
The form of response can vary depending on context. Where patent protections run high, for instance, competitors may react with marketing mix variables rather than products, because the patent protections reduce the benefits of launching new products.
Inability to deliver
The research around preannouncements is nearly unanimous on at least one point: You really don’t want to end up missing a preannounced release date, thus delivering what is known as “vaporware”. This is frequently true even when the date was a deliberate fake-out meant to pre-empt competition.
Sending false signals or “bluffs” to competitors is a dubious trick that sometimes works. It is more likely to be effective in markets where information is expensive, and getting at the truth can be difficult. Big companies, however, don’t often bluff because of the risks involved: In addition to competitive reactions, feigning firms may face antitrust actions, as signaling the innovation to competitors may be seen as a form of collusion. You could also wind up unwittingly faking out potential buyers, causing them to postpone their purchase to get a better product or service.
But unintentional vaporware may be even more common (a 2001 study of the software industry found that more than half of the product delays surveyed were not intentional) than the underhand variety, not to mention costly. One study found that delay announcements negatively affected stock returns by more than five percent in nearly 30 percent of observed cases.
So you want to preannounce…
If a firm resolves to preannounce, the strategizing shouldn’t stop there. Designing an effective preannouncement requires at least two complementary decisions:
· Timing of the preannouncement: A preannouncement can occur any time after the alpha test of the innovation, varying from a few days to several months. According to a 2011 study, firms should preannounce early when (1) the preannouncement would create pent-up demand, (2) the market share of the existing product is low, (3) the quality of the new product is high, (4) the profit margin of the new product is high, and (5) the firm expects its competitor to preannounce early.
· Content of the preannouncement: There is evidence that the language used in preannouncements can influence new product success. Timing and content should be in sync, as firms that preannounce first face higher trial resistance from consumers. Early preannouncements may be more successful if they emphatically downplay the risk to consumers of adopting the new product. Conversely, late announcers have the luxury of being able to refer to customers’ reactions to existing products, and can use their preannouncements to emphasise the relative advantages of their forthcoming innovation.
Conclusion
Although some studies posit that preannouncements may not be beneficial, the loose consensus among researchers is that under certain conditions preannouncements benefit the firm. It is also important to remember that the benefits are not guaranteed to last—one study noted no net effect on monthly stock returns from preannouncements. Moreover, the rapt anticipation generated by preannouncements may backfire if you aren’t able to deliver. Once you preannounce, the game is yours to lose.
Hubert Gatignon is the Claude Janssen Chaired Professor of Business Administration at INSEAD.
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BLACKBURN – Blackburn Muslims have paid a special visit to St Silas C of E church ahead of the Christmas season, amid efforts to “build a stronger faith relationship and bring neighbors from both communities together.”
“At a time when communities appear to be divided, hate crime and lack of social inclusion is increasing, the Beardwood Muslim and Christian communities of St Silas and Sacred Heart have once again come together to celebrate their faith similarities and to respect their differences,” Imam Fazal Hassan, Muslim Chaplain Royal Blackburn Hospital, told Lancashire Telegraph.
“This local interfaith gathering saw over 100 people from both the Christian and Muslim communities come together to honor the life achievements and sacrifices of Mother Mary.
“I believe coming together on matters of faith will help promote friendship, and love and remove fear and mistrust between communities.
“Interfaith events like these are important to help strengthen community cohesion, aid social inclusion and pave the way for a peaceful co-existence.”
The visit to the church is not the first by the Muslim community. Earlier this year, Muslims were invited to `Eid celebrations hosted by their Christian neighbors.
“For the second time in three months local Christians and Muslims people came together in the spirit of peace to share their faith in an atmosphere of friendship and fellowship,” Reverend Sheelagh Aston and Father James McCartney of St Silas Church and Sacred Hearts Church said in statement.
“The ground breaking event in September held at St Silas Church lead to a further event hosted at Sacred Hearts RC Church with over 100 people gathering to learn how each revere Mary, the mother of Jesus.
“Once again the event was jointly organized by members from both faith communities.
“These events are providing a safe environment for people to share the diversity and commonality of their faiths as well as develop friendships based upon mutual trust, respect and a desire to live in harmony together side by side.” |
The Taiwanese company Asustor, specializing in the production of storage-with-networking, has introduced a new series of consumer products segment. Opened its model Asustor AS1002T AS1004T, and became the first NAS Asustor, which use processors based on the architecture ARM. More precisely, in the AS1002T and AS1004T used dual-core Marvell Armada-385 operating at a frequency of 1.0 GHz.
AS1002T and AS1004T configuration includes 512 MB of RAM, one Gigabit Ethernet port and two-port USB 3.0. While reading the repository reach speeds up to 110 MB / s in write mode – up to 95 MB / s.
The junior model is designed for two drives size 3.5 inch SATA interface 6 Gb / s, the eldest – four. Accordingly, the maximum storage capacity of 16 and 32 TB respectively. If AS1002T possible inclusion of drives in the configuration of RAID 0/1, Single, and JBOD, in the case of AS1004T added options RAID 5/6/10. Work storage operating system ADM 2.5.
Dimensions AS1002T models are 165 x 102 x 218 mm, weight – 0.99 kg. The older model dimensions 165 x 164 x 218 mm and weighs 1.5 kg.
Category: Hardware, Technology |
CLOSE Sgt. Vince Lewis of the Phoenix Police Department talks about a shooting that left one woman dead and another critically injured Aug. 2, 2017. Kelsey Mo/The Republic
Police were investigating at a west Phoenix home where a man forced himself inside and shot two women, killing one and leaving the other in critical condition early Aug. 2, 2017. (Photo: Kelsey Mo/The Republic)
Phoenix police have identified 55-year-old Maria Castillo as the woman who died in a double shooting that left a family member critically injured Wednesday in west Phoenix.
Castillo was dead by the time police arrived. The other victim, who police say had been in a relationship with the man suspected of shooting them, remained hospitalized Thursday.
Police on Thursday were still looking for shooting suspect 44-year-old Jorge Luis Valerio, according to Sgt. Vince Lewis with the Phoenix Police Department.
The shooting happened in the area of 9800 West Horse Thief Pass, near 99th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road.
Jorge Luis Valerio (Photo: Phoenix Police Department)
Lewis said gunfire erupted after the shooter forced his way into the home just after 12:30 a.m.
Three children inside the home at the time of the shooting were unharmed.
Officers previously responded to multiple reports of domestic violence at the home, Lewis said. Neighbors said they saw police vehicles outside the house on Sunday, but Lewis could not immediately say why officers had been called there.
According to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, there have been 31 domestic-related deaths this year in Arizona as of June 12 and in 2016, there were 100 domestic-related deaths.
Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call Phoenix police or Silent Witness. Callers can remain anonymous and earn up to $1,000 upon arrest of the suspect.
Return to azcentral.com for more details.
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2wltYmJ |
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Rising in the House of Commons on Monday, interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose ventured a preview of what MPs will hear Tuesday from Finance Minister Bill Morneau, or at least of what she already is prepared to say in response.
"(Tuesday's) economic update is going to unveil even more expensive promises Canadians can't afford," Ambrose said.
Awhile later, Morneau offered a competing setup.
"What we're going to do tomorrow is talk about our long-term plans to make a real difference for middle-class Canadians for the future of themselves and their families," the minister explained.
The basic parameters of Tuesday's debate are set. but the details will be significant.
How big is the deficit?
The fall economic statement, inaugurated by Paul Martin in 1994, is functionally an update on the fiscal situation — a tally of what has changed, or not changed, since the spring budget.
In that regard, the most immediately interesting number will be the budgetary balance for the current fiscal year. In the spring, Morneau forecast a deficit of $29.4 billion. But slower-than-expected growth could increase the shortfall.
Fiscal update: CBCnews.ca coverage
CBCnews.ca will have live coverage of today's fall economic statement beginning after 3 p.m. ET, including a livestream of Finance Minister Bill Morneau's speech, stories and highlights.
Then watch a special Power & Politics with Rosemary Barton, live on Facebook and livestreaming at cbc.ca/politics.
TD Economics has projected that the deficit will come in at $34 billion, while Scotiabank suggests it will be $30 billion. TD also projects higher deficits in future years.
Morneau was chided in the spring for booking a "prudence factor" of $6 billion into his projections — that cushion could minimize, or even eliminate, any difference now.
What else does Bill Morneau have to offer?
The Conservatives will be happy to note any new amount of debt, but early reports also suggest something more than a simple update of deficit and GDP projections. As the finance minister said, he wants to talk about the long-term plan.
The Liberals came to office promising to stimulate economic growth with new spending, particularly on infrastructure, and they have spent the past year adding to that economic vision with new attention to foreign investment, immigration and innovation.
Morneau comes to today's statement loaded with suggestions from his council of economic advisers, such as calls for a new agency focused on attracting foreign investment and an independent infrastructure bank.
And there remain loose ends to be tied from the spring budget, including a significant second phase of infrastructure spending.
Some of that could factor into Morneau's presentation.
Can the Liberals show economic progress?
Interim Leader of the Conservative Party Rona Ambrose is shown in the House of Commons on Oct. 18. Yesterday, she asked 'Is he going to table a new plan that will actually create jobs?' (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press) As much as the Liberals announced in new spending in their first budget, the Canadian economy remains sluggish — a fact Ambrose was happy to remind the Liberals of at question period on Monday.
"Tomorrow, is he going to table a new plan that will actually create jobs?" Ambrose asked, declaring the Liberal approach a failure, "or can we expect the same old, same old, billions of dollars in spending and higher taxes?"
In response, the prime minister said he was looking forward to a plan that would put Canada on a "positive growth trajectory."
On Tuesday, Morneau gets to continue making the case for the Liberal vision, perhaps ask for patience, and explain what he's going to do next.
It will presumably involve more spending, or at least not immediately returning the budget to balance.
But even if the Liberals are thinking long-term, they surely must hope that this is building to something that will show real progress by 2019. |
Colorado’s recreational marijuana edible manufacturers face tougher rules on potency, serving size and packaging of their products under stopgap rules adopted by state regulators Thursday.
The new guidelines, crafted in response to concerns about overconsumption by inexperienced consumers, will do away with bite-sized products that pack in 100 milligrams of the psychoactive chemical THC — the maximum allowed by state law.
Products still may contain up to 100 milligrams of THC, but they must be easily broken off into pieces that have 10 milligrams or fewer — the standardized edible serving size under state law.
In another change, manufacturers will be required to put single-serving edibles in child-resistant packaging before shipping them to stores, instead of relying on stores to provide the packaging as customers leave with their purchases.
Liquid edibles, such as sodas, also must be put in child-resistant containers that clearly mark each serving size.
The rules — which still must be made permanent in a process that will include public comment — would go into effect Nov. 1. They grew out of meetings with health officials, regulators, industry representatives and activists on both sides.
“The Marijuana Enforcement Division’s primary concern is to ensure public safety,” Natriece Bryant, a spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue, wrote in an e-mail. “…The Marijuana Enforcement Division feels that clear serving size requirements within the industry is a vital part of responsible regulation.”
Rachel O’Bryan, a founding member of SMART Colorado, which supports tighter restrictions on marijuana, said the rules are a step in the right direction, but time will tell whether they go far enough.
Edibles manufacturers, responding to public demand, already have shifted to lower-potency edibles since recreational sales began Jan. 1, said Mike Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group.
“The free market has largely addressed this problem,” he said. |
This holiday season, Pizza Hut is giving cheese fanatics the ultimate present. From November 13 through January 1, the Ultimate Cheesy Crust Pizza will be featured on menus across the country. The Ultimate Cheesy Crust Pizza is a large one-topping pizza with 16 pockets overflowing with a 5-cheese blend. Each pocket is filled to the brim with a medley of Mozzarella, Provolone, White Cheddar, Asiagom and Fontina.
In conjunction with the news of the Ultimate Cheesy Crust Pizza, Pizza Hut has created limited edition ‘Tis the Cheese’n Holiday Starter Packages. The packages are filled with an assortment of pizza-inspired items, including: Cheese’n Sweaters and Beanies, Cheese’n Holiday Cards, a Pizza Mug, Pizza String Lights, a Pizza Blanket, and much more.
Customers can enter for a chance to win a ‘Tis the Cheese’n Holiday Starter Package by tweeting the pizza slice emoji + gift emoji and the hashtag #TisTheCheesen and mentioning @PizzaHut on Twitter. |
Advertisement First home delivery of medical-grade marijuana made in Florida Patient suffering from dystonia gets delivery Share Shares Copy Link Copy
The first organization approved to dispense medical-grade marijuana in Florida made its first home delivery Saturday.Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve, said her company has delivered low-THC medical cannabis to a patient in Hudson who is suffering from dystonia, a neurological movement disorder marked by chronic muscle spasms and seizures.Download app: iOS | AndroidTrulieve and a dispensing organization for Northwest Florida, Hackney Nursery, was given processing and dispensing authorization from the Department of Health on Tuesday.Trulieve will begin in-store sales Tuesday at a dispensary in Tallahassee.Trulieve will have medical-grade marijuana available in many forms such as a concentrated oil, tincture, gel capsule and vape cartridge.The Legislature approved an extension of the Right to Try, a law that lets patients with terminal conditions like dystonia to buy cannabis with high-THC levels, in March. Rivers said Trulieve expects to be able to sell marijuana with high-THC levels as early as next month.Alpha-Surterra, the dispensing organization for Southwest Florida, completed a harvest of its medical marijuana plants last week and is awaiting dispensing authorization.Marijuana legalization in Florida slowed down by special interest groups & subcommitteesWhile the legalization of marijuana is slowed down by special interest groups and subcommittees, the dispensing and delivery of medical marijuana continues to thrive in Florida because angel investors.Mel Sembler, a St. Petersburg developer, put down another $500,000 toward efforts to win a ballot initiative that would legalize medical marijuana in Florida, the News Service Florida reported July 15.Sembler contributed to the Drug Free Florida Committee on July 6. Before that he also donated $500,000 in May. The committee has $896,000 on hand as of July 8. The majority of its funding for this year came from Sembler, the News Service Florida said. The committee is fighting a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would legalize medical marijuana for a wide range of patients.A similar ballot initiative failed to pass in 2014. People United for Medical Marijuana, a political committee led the effort to pass the amendment, raising $4,840 from July 2-8, the News Service Florida said. The committee is funded by John Morgan, an Orlando lawyer.By Florida law, marijuana that is allowed to be sold to patients must be low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which produces the euphoric state for users, but high in cannabidiol (CBD) which has been effective in preventing seizures.According to a webinar held last month by the Office of Compassionate Use, dispensaries will be available in 18 cities by the time all organizations are running. Dispensing organizations can do mail delivery throughout Florida. While six approved organizations have received cultivation approval, Trulieve is the only organization that was given dispensing authorization.Patients suffering from cancer, epilepsy, chronic seizures and muscle spasms can order medical marijuana through their physician. However, both the patient and physician must be listed in a Florida registry.Mara Gambineri, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, said only 15 doctors are eligible to dispense marijuana in Florida.Christian Bax, director of the Office of Compassionate Use, said he expected medical marijuana to be available in September at a hearing held by the Florida Senate's Regulated Industries subcommittee.Despite the Legislature giving an approval with limits to medical marijuana in 2014, many people expected it to become available as early as 2015.In November during the general election, voters will decide on a proposed constitutional amendment which would legalize marijuana for medical purposes.Patients can call 1-844-878-5438 to schedule delivery. For further information go to Trulieve’s website, www.Trulieve.com. |
“Outsourcing New Zealand – National’s Economic Plan!”
Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Leader NZ First
Address to: Hastings
Hastings Baptist Church
300 Karamu Road South
Date: June 24th 2011
Time: 1 pm
“Outsourcing New Zealand – National’s Economic Plan!”
Today let us talk about the future and about hope.
The reason for these words – future – and hope – is because of a sad headline in the NZ Herald newspaper this week.
The headline read “Record Kiwi Exodus to Oz”.
Never did we dream that one day we would see droves of New Zealanders going overseas to seek a better life.
Admittedly the figures have been boosted by the Christchurch earthquakes but the really sad fact is that New Zealanders are losing their faith in the future of this country that was once known as “God's Own”.
And when faith in the future of a country is lost – hope fades. Hope that keeps a country alive.
If we look back over the centuries we see that hope brought humanity to New Zealand.
For hundreds of years intrepid travellers crossed storm tossed seas in leaky boats to reach this country and to make new homes.
Our history says that Maori travelled across the Pacific Ocean in giant canoes guided by the stars to reach a better land.
They were followed by the settlers from the British Isles – many of whom were escaping the poverty and degradation of Victorian England.
These people formed an alliance with the original settlers and went about building a new nation.
The alliance was a bit uneasy at times but there was a lot of goodwill and together these people put together a place that was known as “God's Own Country”.
Throughout our short history we have been blessed with many able leaders.
We have had men and women of great vision.
They set up communication systems, roads, railways, power stations, hospitals and centres of learning that equalled any in the world.
These people knew that New Zealand could not afford to remain a colony of Great Britain.
They knew that wealth is created through local ownership as well as hard work and ingenuity.
And unlike many of the upper crust back in the old country, these people of vision believed that the wealth created should be shared.
There was a belief that all citizens were entitled to food, shelter, healthcare and free education and that there should also be equal opportunity for everybody.
In this they never quite achieved nirvana but they got closer than any other people or nation.
During these decades the citizens of New Zealand had faith in their country and they held out great hope for their young people.
Sadly that has all changed. Look at what is happening.
Under recent collective economic genius we are exporting the lifeblood of our country – our people.
Now if you start looking at all the official figures about immigration you will hear all sorts of terms and explanations but the simple fact is that well over 400,000 people who were born in New Zealand are now living in Australia.
And that doesn’t include those who stopped for lunch on the way through.
In Australia there is a future for them and in Australia there is hope for them.
We might make jokes about Australians but Australia has clearly shown up the stupidity of New Zealand's policies over the past three decades.
Thousands of New Zealanders are voting with their feet.
They are being replaced by people from other places and many of them do not share the same values of tolerance and fair play that we grew up with.
It is simply a numbers game.
And speaking of numbers it's time to ask the government about where the 170,000 new jobs promised in the Budget are coming from.
That's right – 170,000 new jobs over the next four years.
It was simply part of the giant con job these people specialise in.
Since Budget day last month thousands of people have been given their marching orders, from railway shop workers to hundreds in our defence force announced just yesterday.
They have been thrown on the scrap heap of broken promises and failed policies.
This government will go down as one of the worst in the history of New Zealand.
Yet it will also go down as having the best public relations team.
When some serious problems arise they create maximum confusion on a number of fronts and then duck for cover.
The public smiley face of the government drops a few well thought out platitudes and then retreats behind a wall of minders, spin doctors, consultants and bloggers.
This gives the appearance of action and concern but the government is actually floundering; running the country on a week by week basis.
We have learned – direct from the horse's mouth how a lot of policy is made.
First a plan is leaked to certain compliant branches of the media.
Government ministers keep a respectful distance from it so they can adopt a position of what the Americans call “plausible deniability”.
The next step comes when teams of pollsters and focus groups test public reaction to the leaked idea.
If the policy meets the approval of a majority it gets announced.
If it is too hard for the public to swallow the policy gets dumped.
There is one major exception to this rule and that is the sale of taxpayer owned assets.
The vast majority of people do not want their assets sold and they particularly don’t want their assets sold to foreigners.
But this National led government is supported by big business and many foreign owned companies.
It is payola time for them.
And it is also payola time for the companies owned by the communist state of China.
The government started out by saying that shares in Air New Zealand and a number of our power stations would be made available to “Mum and Day” investors.
They conveniently forgot that Mum and Dad already own these assets – thanks to some farsighted leaders of yesteryear.
Now the government is gradually starting to admit that foreign ownership is more than a possibility.
It means that in less than two centuries New Zealand is doing a complete turnaround.
It has gone from being an economic colony of Great Britain, to prosperous nationhood, and is now going back to being an economic colony of China, Australia and other countries that are prepared to exploit us to the max.
You will all no doubt recall the great wisdom of the finance minister Bill English when he announced to the world recently that New Zealand is a great place for overseas investment because of the low wages that are paid here.
He said this before he went around Asia looking for buyers for our state assets like some shameless door to door panacea salesman.
What he was saying was come and buy our state assets and our farmland because we have our workers under control on low wages.
Make no mistake China is waiting to pounce.
The communist government already owns dairy processing plants and a number of other assets like major servicing companies to our farming industry.
They are waiting patiently until after the election to buy thousands of hectares of our dairy farmland.
Already – the Crafar farms are earmarked for overseas ownership and that ownership will lie with an investment company owned lock, stock and barrel by the communist government of China.
Now we want to make an important point here. We have no enmity with China even though we don’t agree with the way the place is run.
And it is true that the communist government has lifted the standard of living of many of its people.
But the people have no rights, they have no freedoms and many are enslaved to the growing industrial might of their country.
There are many ethnic Chinese in New Zealand.
Some families have been here since the gold rush days.
These people have been and still are loyal, law abiding, hardworking and trustworthy New Zealanders.
They have told me of their great concern about what is happening to their country. And their country is New Zealand.
They don’t want it sold overseas.
So, if the people of New Zealand dont want their airline and their power stations owned overseas, who is driving all this?
The answer is simple. It's the big business and foreign owned interests behind the National party.
These are the people who orchestrated the takeover of the Act party.
These are the people who want to get rid of the MMP electoral system.
These are the people with little foresight for the future of their country.
These are the people who would let outsiders pillage it.
These are the people who want to pay bread line wages to workers.
These are the people who are only interested in making vast sums of money and to hell with the rest of us.
If you are in any doubt about the motives of this government just look at the way they have handled changes to taxation.
We will use the boss of the Australian bank Westpac as a shining example.
He gets paid $5.6 million dollars a year.
The present government became worried about the level of his take home pay so they gave him a tax cut.
This tax cut amounted to just over $5,300 a week – that's true a tax CUT of more than $5,000 a week.
The government had to pay for these tax cuts to the rich so they increased the level of GST from 12.5 percent to 15 percent.
To help workers through these hard times, this government lifted the minimum wage by 25 cents an hour to $13 an hour.
That means an extra $10 a week. Big deal!
The Australian bank boss, whose job it is to extract maximum profits from New Zealanders gets an extra $5,300 a week.
A New Zealander on the minimum wage got an extra ten dollars.
Is that fair?
And we'll tell you something else that is not fair.
It's not often that we spring to the defence of the media but we learned this week that Fairfax media are laying off more staff.
Australian based Fairfax media own newspapers such as the Dominion Post and The Press. These papers were of course, once owned by New Zealanders.
They have previously laid off journalists and editorial staff and now they are taking the axe to advertising staff.
Forty five jobs are going and they are going to India.
There is a term for this and it is called “outsourcing”.
So the whole thing works like this:
A foreign company buys a New Zealand firm.
It does not want to pay New Zealand wages – low as they are – so it lays off the Kiwi workers and sends their jobs to a country where the pay is even lower.
Eventually the NZ firm gets closed down and all the work gets sent overseas.
The present government is resigned to this situation.
It is called globalisation and free trade and everybody is supposed to benefit from it.
The real beneficiaries are the money and paper shufflers that live in glass towers gazing intently into computer screens.
They are called “the market” and apparently market forces are very good for all of us.
These free marketeers, free traders and globalisers are the worst leeches the world has ever seen.
In recent years they brought many Western democracies to the edge of ruin.
They have no ethics and no feeling for suffering humanity and no loyalty to their countries. Their greed is unsustainable and knows no bounds.
These are the people behind this government.
And this government in turn has shown very little loyalty to New Zealanders.
The great poet Sir Walter Scott wrote these great lines about patriotism.
“Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself has said
This is my own my native land...”
Sadly New Zealanders elected a government that does not truly care about the country it governs.
It sees New Zealand as one big opportunity for a bargain sale.
We, a once proud people are being ignored and cast on the scrap heap as the jobs we are so good at are gradually but surely out-sourced around the world.
Our wealth is in our land, our strength is in our own people, and a government that cannot see that is guilty of treason.
Our jobs are being taken away, our environment is being trashed, our fisheries are under further threat, and our people are fleeing in droves.
Our ancestors fled the kind of economic tyranny now being contemplated, so we their descendants would have a better life.
And so the question for all of us.
Will we let these politicians take that away from our children and grandchildren?
You have an answer to these questions.
We respectfully suggest that answer is New Zealand First.
We are New Zealanders who believe in our country and in our people.
The name of our party means what it says. And it says New Zealand First – and New Zealanders First!
This will be a watershed election. Once our public assets and farmland have been sold there will be little future here. There will be little hope.
But there is still a chance to save it - with New Zealand First. We urge you to grab your chance with both hands on Election Day.
We won’t let you down.
ENDS
© Scoop Media |
In addition, the elite Khamis Brigade continued on Monday to batter the opposition-held city of Zawiyah, west of Tripoli, with tanks, artillery and snipers, residents there said. With cellphone and Internet communications cut off, virtually the only source of information on events there was a lone reporter for Sky TV, a British television channel. She said the heavily armed government troops attacked in the morning and inexplicably withdrew after several hours, even though their tanks seemed to have taken control of the city’s central square.
Government forces also attacked the rebel-held city of Misurata, Libya’s third largest, which lies about 100 miles east of Tripoli.
The rebels have rejected any foreign invasion of the country but would welcome a no-fly zone, saying they can handle Colonel Qaddafi’s soldiers, tanks and rockets, but not his warplanes and helicopter gunships. On Monday, Britain and France said they would seek United Nations authority for a no-fly zone, but Russia , which holds veto power, has already rejected any form of military intervention.
Video
The United States ambassador to NATO , Ivo Daalder , said the organization had established 24-hour surveillance of Libya with Awacs reconnaissance aircraft.
In Tripoli, the Libyan foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, held an extraordinary news conference in which he accused the United States and Britain of “yearning for the colonial era” and seeking to divide the country. Continuing the government’s string of improbable claims, he maintained that a force of about 300 Qaeda fighters formerly held by the United States at Guantánamo Bay was backing rebel forces.
“They are now fighting in eastern Libya. Their methods and approaches are clear,” Mr. Koussa said. “When they were released, they started moving again, and they have taken weapons.”
Mr. Koussa also became the first government official to admit that the government was meeting resistance in Zawiyah. But whereas news reports and interviews with residents have described a grim, large-scale battle, he said the violence was caused by a group of 30 to 35 rebels who were “hiding in the streets.”
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The correspondent for Sky News — the only news organization present in Zawiyah for the height of the battle on Friday — reported Monday in a British newspaper on what appeared to be a massacre there. She said she saw soldiers fire on residents who were marching toward a funeral, and someone told her a column of 25 tanks shelled the town for three hours and a young rebel man learning how to fire a rocket-propelled grenade in defense. The correspondent, Alex Crawford, said government forces had shot at an ambulance she was riding in.
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In a second attack Saturday morning, Ms. Crawford reported that government soldiers were firing randomly into buildings. “There were horrific injuries,” she wrote. “A boy of 10 was hit by several bullets outside his house. One young man came in with an antitank grenade in his thigh, the fins sticking out. He was still conscious.”
She added: “An hour later, we saw the military column racing away — another attack had been beaten off. It was the third in two days. When we left, there were eight tanks destroyed or captured, and the rebels still held the center.”
The streets of Ras Lanuf were quiet on Monday, troubled only by cars and minivans filled with families leaving the city, including many foreign workers. On Sunday, troops loyal to Colonel Qaddafi attacked rebel troops in Bin Jawwad and pushed them east. Rebel fighters expected those troops to continue on toward Ras Lanuf.
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On a grassy hill overlooking the sea, teenagers — volunteers from Benghazi — placed branches around an antiaircraft gun as a young rebel soldier watched. Hamed Sardina, a retired harbormaster, drank tea with a friend next to the gun and said he was not planning to leave. “We’re here to defend the area,” he said, pointing to the white houses across the street. And in case the fighting became too fierce, he owns a few boats, he said.
Nearby, opposition soldiers replaced the staff at the city’s main hotel on Monday morning. In a cafe with a view of the sea, a rebel fighter tried, in vain, to prepare a cappuccino. His comrades commandeered smart-looking rooms where they could shower and watch the news on television. Outside, a young rebel from the town of al-Marja, in eastern Libya, watched the scene inside.
“We are the richest country, and we have the poorest people,” he said.
At an intersection at the entrance to the town, rebel fighters with itchy fingers manned antiaircraft guns, firing them sporadically all day, then furiously when they heard the airplanes. Filipino workers wheeling suitcases walked past young men napping in cars and a man making tuna sandwiches for the fighters. On the road east, graffiti on a wall, not far from the site of an airstrike, said: “Army of the People.” |
Once again, France woke to news of a string of dawn raids against suspected Islamists across the country, from the old industrial heartlands of the north to Marseille on the southern coast. Days earlier, rolling TV-news and breakfast bulletins broadcast dramatic images as elite anti-terrorist squads in black body armour smashed windows and bashed down doors shouting "Police!", emerging with hand-cuffed suspects with their faces covered, on residential streets from Nantes to Toulouse.
Less than three weeks before the first round of the presidential election, France is gripped by one of its biggest crackdowns on suspected radical Islamists in recent memory. Amplified by TV coverage, it has been led by an unrelenting Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also battling for re-election. Opposition politicians now openly question whether the timing and TV crews are as much linked to electioneering as anti-terrorist crime prevention.
France is still in a state of shock and confusion after Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old unemployed panelbeater from Toulouse, went on a 10-day killing spree across south-west France, executing three paratroopers and shooting children and a rabbi at the gates of a Jewish school. Following a dramatic 32-hour siege at his flat, Merah died in a hail of police bullets as he leapt from the balcony. But questions remain over how Merah – who claimed inspiration from al-Qaida, was heavily armed, on police intelligence files and had been under surveillance – was not picked up earlier and his attacks prevented. Some commentators warn that the new anti-terrorist crackdown, which included the deportation of a handful of preachers, should not be used as a smokescreen to distract from potential failings in the Merah operation.
The right-wing Sarkozy had long ago seen his election strategy compared to that of his friend George W Bush's 2004 fight for re-election in the US: styling himself as the only trustworthy protector of the nation in the face of serious threat. A month ago, the danger was impending financial meltdown. Now, it is closer to Bush's own target: Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism. Sarkozy last week likened the Toulouse killings to France's 9/11. The scale of the attacks maybe different, he said, but the national "traumatism" was the same.
The justice system will have the last word on the arrests, which were not directly linked to Merah. Preliminary charges have been filed against 13 alleged members of a banned fundamentalist group. An intelligence chief suggested militants were planning a kidnapping. The 10 arrested on Wednesday were suspected of links to Islamist websites and of threatening violence in online forums.
But in an election more than ever determined by TV coverage, Sarkozy's opponents queried the "spectacle" of the raids and their timing in the wake of the Toulouse killings. "I'm not questioning all that's being done. I'm simply saying that we should have perhaps done more before," said François Hollande, the Socialist candidate. The government insists the arrests had nothing to do with the elections, but with the security and protection of France.
The "Toulouse effect" on the presidential race has so far been limited. Crucially, it allowed Sarkozy, during a week of national mourning, to regain presidential stature. Before Toulouse, he had been heckled so badly on the campaign trail in the Basque country that he took refuge in a bar. Now, over 70% of French people approve his stance at the time of the Toulouse killings. His poll ratings have lifted giving him a narrow lead in the first-round, but Hollande remains ahead in the final 6 May run-off.
Yet the shootings have not changed French voters' chief topics of concern: crippling unemployment and the difficulty making ends meet. Crime and terrorism remain low on their list. Indeed, many French people feel disappointed that the presidential debate isn't addressing their everyday worries, and abstentionism could be high. But the extreme-right Front National's Marine Le Pen has used Toulouse to hammer home her rhetoric on fears about Islam, terrorism, immigration and what she warned were fundamentalists festering on France's notorious suburban high-rise estates (even if the raids were often carried out on smart semi-detached houses). To win the election, Sarkozy knows he must court Le Pen's voters. Politicians and religious leaders, have warned against stigmatising French Muslims – a long-held fear following Sarkozy's recent Front National-inspired election crusade against halal meat. |
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. MSNBC
In a fiery "Morning Joe" segment on Thursday, the MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski accused President Donald Trump of being "mentally unstable" a day after Trump promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that Scarborough was involved in the 2001 death of an intern in his congressional office.
The two media personalities, who used to be friendly with Trump and regularly interviewed him during the first months of his 2016 presidential campaign, called on his Cabinet officials to stand up to him.
"I'm just kind of wondering, what's the Cabinet waiting for?" Scarborough said. "What are Republicans in the House and Senate — because it's never going to get more deadly serious than it is now."
Scarborough called the president "completely detached from reality" and later claimed that "everybody around Donald Trump knows he's not stable."
"We are facing a showdown with a nuclear power, and you have somebody inside the White House that the New York Daily News says is mentally unfit, that people close to him say is mentally unfit, that people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia," Scarborough said.
"When are we supposed to say this?" he continued. "After the first nuclear missile goes? Is that when it's proper to bring this up in polite society?"
During the Thursday segment, Brzezinski read from a New York Daily News editorial published Wednesday that called Trump a "madman."
"Only those completely under his spell can deny what growing numbers of Americans have long suspected: The president of the United States is profoundly unstable," the editorial said. "He is mad. He is, by any honest layman's definition, mentally unwell."
In a Wednesday tweet, Trump called for Scarborough — as well as MSNBC's president, Phil Griffin — to be fired, citing an unfounded conspiracy theory that Scarborough was somehow implicated in the death of an intern in his congressional office in 2001, when he was a US representative from Florida.
A medical examiner at the time determined that the staffer, 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, had an undiagnosed heart condition that caused her to lose consciousness, collapse, and hit her head on a desk in Scarborough's district office, resulting in a fatal blood clot. Her death was ruled an accident.
Scarborough responded to Trump's tweet on Wednesday, saying the president was "not well." Brzezinski called Trump's tweet a violation of "basic moral judgment" in a statement.
"Today the president crossed another deeply disturbing line," Brzezinski's statement said. "With his attack on Joe this morning, the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America advanced a false conspiracy theory to intimidate the press and cause a chilling effect on the 1st Amendment. Joe and I are not intimidated and his bizarre behavior contravenes both the Constitution and basic moral judgment."
A New York Times report on Tuesday described sources as saying Trump had continued to publicly and privately entertain conspiracy theories, including the long-debunked claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the US. Trump also continues to falsely claim that undocumented immigrants helped Hillary Clinton win the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, the report said.
Another Times report published over the weekend said Trump had suggested the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape in which he boasted about groping women isn't real — though Trump publicly acknowledged its authenticity during the presidential campaign. |
FaZe managed to close out the series against Renegades 2-1 (Nuke 16-7, Mirage 19-22, Train 16-10) to grab the second spot in group B and qualify for IEM Oakland.
The series to decide the last spot at IEM Oakland started on Nuke, Renegades pick. The Australians lost the pistol round, but Aaron "AZR" Ward quickly replied with four Deagle kills in the following one to win the force buy for his team.
Unfortunately for Renegades, Aleksi "allu" Jalli showed some of his own Deagle skills in the next round and got three quick kills on the B site to put FaZe back in the driver's seat.
Yaman "yam" Ergenekon was denied a 1v2 clutch by allu in round 7, but his team managed an eco round win in the following one—only to lose to another force buy in the next round, making it 6-4 for FaZe.
The European team got to a 9-4 lead before a silent walk behind the outside smoke wall allowed Renegades to take the B site courtesy of three kills from Ricardo "Rickeh" Mulholland, and they followed it up with another round to make it 9-6 for the first half.
kioShiMa was looking good after his stint on the bench
Even though they were only three rounds down moving onto the favored side, Renegades couldn't get the ball rolling on CT as they lost the first three rounds, won the first gun round but a loss in the following round left their economy shattered.
Their second and very limited CT buy round came at a 14-7 lead for FaZe, but Finn "karrigan" Andersen's troops dealt with it successfully and closed out their opponents map pick 16-7.
Renegades got the much needed good start on Mirage, but a reckless anti-eco proved costly as they lost round 5—allowing FaZe to slowly take over the momentum.
karrigan's team focused on mid control and utilized their map control by going for site splits that Renegades struggled to deal with. In the end of the half, Karlo "USTILO" Pivac made the most of the saved AK-47—getting three entry kills and setting his team up for an 8-7 halftime finish.
A five-man A rush got Renegades the pistol round as they ran away with the lead in a similar fashion to what FaZe did on Nuke. After the first three, the Australian team lost one round—only to reset Philip "aizy" Aistrup and co. in the following one.
To get their 14th round on the board, Renegades did a fast A hit with USTILO and AZR leading the charge out of palace. The play caught FaZe off guard and Renegades followed it up with another round win to get to match point at 15-8.
USTILO had a number of high-impact plays on Mirage
FaZe didn't let go however, as they squeezed out tight rounds to fight against 7 map points and force overtime. In the added rounds, Renegades once again reached map point but Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey continued with strong plays to tie it up and extend the map even more.
yam's team was in the lead once again in the second overtime, with AZR's double-kill on the lurk finally sealing the deal for Renegades, making it 22-19 in the end.
On Train, Renegades had a great start on the CT side, controlling the economy early on, but FaZe recovered by focusing on the outer site and utilizing their utility to negate the effect of the double AWP setup the Australians were concentrating on.
At 6-5, the CT's decided to push up more aggresively towards pop-dog and T main, stopping the A pushes early and grabbing an 8-7 half because of it.
Another pistol round went Renegades way, but FaZe bounced straight back with a B site force-buy lockdown and powered on towards victory with a strong CT side on Train. In the end it was 16-10, and 2-1 for FaZe for them to take the second spot in group B and qualify for IEM Oakland.
After this match, IEM Oakland's groups will look like this:
Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter. |
Consumers that have been eyeing up a new virtual reality (VR) focused system may want to look towards Nvidia and Oculus today, as the two companies have announced the launch of a free content deal with certain purchases.
Starting today, anyone buying a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1070 or GTX 1060, a system or a laptop alongside an Oculus Rift with Touch kit will get The Unspoken, SUPERHOT VR and Wilson’s Heart for free.
Insomniac Games’ The Unspoken was an original launch title for Oculus Touch, putting players in a magical world where they have to use spell casting techniques to defeat each other. They can wield fireballs, create arcane shields and summon all sorts of creatures to defeat their opponent.
While SUPERHOT VR aims to challenge the first-person shooter (FPS) genre with time manipulation. If a player moves then so does time, stay still and everything goes into slow motion. The title doesn’t feature health bars or safe areas to reload, it’s an all out action experience where players dodge bullets and grab whatever they can to shoot, slice and out manoeuvre their enemies.
Wilson’s Heart offers a completely different experience to the previous two. A first-person psychological thriller, players find themselves in a 1940’s hospital as Robert Wilson. Upon waking up Wilson makes a grim discovery, his heart has been replaced by a mysterious device. As players wander the hospital they’ll discover increasingly maddening corridors, environmental hazards, and sinister inhabitants whilst trying to recover their heart
This isn’t the first time Nvidia and Oculus have teamed up to promote VR. For the launch of Oculus Touch in December they ran two competitions for gamers to win GeForce cards and Oculus Rift’s. For US and Canadian VR fans there’s the recently announced Unspoken VR Tournament set to take place in May, giving away hardware, software and cash prizes.
Nvidia launched the 10-series cards (GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060) last year. While these last few months have seen the release of the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and the flagship TITAN Xp.
For all the latest Oculus and Nvidia news, keep reading VRFocus. |
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Set to hit free agency, veteran wideout Kenny Britt hopes to see his happy union with the St. Louis Rams continue.
"I definitely want to come back here," Britt said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "This is a young team. It's a great young team. They've just scratched the surface on what their abilities could be. ... I want to see 'em grow even more. I hope I can be a part of that."
After five seasons in Tennessee littered with off-the-field issues, Britt produced a career-high 48 catches over 16 starts in 2014. We don't expect teams to come running for him on the open market, especially if Rams coach Jeff Fisher is intent on keeping him around.
St. Louis has burnt a rash of high draft picks on young receivers, but the franchise has struggled to find a bona fide No. 1 target. Behind Britt -- the team's leading wideout with 748 yards -- Stedman Bailey, Brian Quick, Tavon Austin and Chris Givens all finished the year with fewer than 450 yards.
It would help, of course, for the Rams to finally find a franchise quarterback.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast recaps every Wild Card game and looks ahead to the Divisional Round. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW. |
Google Brand Black Belt Google makes over USD $20 billion per quarter from selling ad space with programs like AdWords and YouTube – the majority of which comes from Google’s ad sales teams, who sell millions of dollars worth of ad space to agencies and brands every day.
In 2016, Google NYC developed Brand Black Belt: an elite training program for their most senior advertising executives and the people responsible for Google’s financial success. Google tasked me with the design and launch of the Brand Black Belt identity. The instructions were simple:
“For the first time ever, don’t make it ‘Googley’. Black Belt should stand out from it’s colorful, playful Google surroundings. It must be simple, bold, disruptive (in a positive way) and most importantly – empowering.
– Google
The deadline for completion: 2 weeks.
The name Black Belt – while perhaps a little corny in this context – is really just a metaphor for a skill that comes from years of practice. Whether in business or in martial arts, skills don’t mean anything if you don’t have a stage on which to practice them. So what matters isn’t the belt itself, but what it enables you to do – what truly matters is the ring. In many martial arts, this comes in the form of the Tatami Mat; the arena where fighters compete. This would become the foundation of the identity.
For Google employees, the Black Belt should be a literal badge of honor to wear with pride – so an abstract, instantly recognizable icon was created from the core brand metaphors: the Belt, the Ring and the color: Black. The result is a logo that effortlessly localizes and translates across borders.
When developing a disruptive new brand, I always try to ask: what would this look like in the future, if it were 10x bigger and more successful than anybody expected? What if we made it that way now? The result of this thinking is a brand identity built to represent the elite in every Google team, representing every product.
The Belt System also cascades down to existing Green and Blue Belt (Beginner and Intermediate) levels.
Stark black and white brand colors were chosen to drastically distinguish Black Belt from it’s playful Google surroundings, while making use of a single typeface: the beautifully legible, versatile Roboto V2.
Custom iconography was created by applying Brand Black Belt’s bold, hard edges to Google’s Material System Icons.
The Brand Black Belt Identity Guidelines were designed to be concise and easy to update over time, and most importantly – designed to be actually be read and remembered.
Launch events were arranged at Google offices in major cities around the world, with senior advertising executives from each office receiving invites. Each Google location differs significantly, leading to restrictions in what can be customized for the event in each locale, while turnaround for the events needed to be fast.
The Belt System extends to city identities, using abbreviated city codes paired with the Tatami icon to ensure the brand remains recognizable and consistent around the world.
Launch event materials were designed to need little to no localization. The Black Belt’s Tatami stands out within Google as a literal badge of honor to be carried with pride – when other Googlers see it, they want to become Black Belts.
Google offices can be quite large (the NYC office clocks in at 2.9 million square feet, taking up two entire city blocks), so the custom iconography was extended to event way-finding, with vinyls designed to be easily and quickly applied in Google offices around the world – no hard to translate words or signage necessary. |
ifanr, is a higher resolution sneak peak at the M8 Ace's rear. The render of the device shows a seemingly curvy, polycarbonate body that differs from the M8 that we know in a few ways. For starters, the 4MP Ultrapixel Duo Camera seems to have missed the train this time around, and the power button has been centered on the top side. Moreover, while the aluminum One M8 has a horizontal curvature as to help with your grip, the M8 Ace goes a step further, and its back is also vertically curved, or so it would appear. In fact, less than two weeks after first hearing about the Ace M8, evleaks gave us the first pixelated look at the supposed plastic-fantastic flagship , further fueling speculation about its connection to the M8 top shelfer. Thankfully, what we have today, courtesy of Chineseis a higher resolution sneak peak at the M8 Ace's rear. The render of the device shows a seemingly curvy, polycarbonate body that differs from the M8 that we know in a few ways. For starters, the 4MP Ultrapixel Duo Camera seems to have missed the train this time around, and the power button has been centered on the top side. Moreover, while the aluminum One M8 has a horizontal curvature as to help with your grip, the M8 Ace goes a step further, and its back is also vertically curved, or so it would appear.
More beautiful curves coming soon. pic.twitter.com/sEhw3xqX79 — HTC (@htc) May 20, 2014
Now, don't jump the gun just yet, and keep in mind that this render is, strictly speaking, unconfirmed. That said, it is rather convincing, especially if you consider the latest tweet posted on HTC's official Twitter handle (as of this writing), seen above. It's hard to argue that HTC is hinting a device that fits the above profile in terms of design. In any case, it would appear that it won't be long until we know for sure, given how HTC seems confident we'll be seeing more curvy beauty "soon".
Shortly after HTC outed its refresh to its One series in the M8 almost two months ago, we first started hearing whispers of another handset from the company -- the M8 Ace. First indicated by leaker-extraordinaire, evleaks, the Ace initially was a big question mark, though we've subsequently come to expect the still mysterious device to come packing Galaxy S5-like specs ( according to one report ), but forgo its premium aluminum build. The idea, we suppose, is to lower production costs, and then pass those onto consumers. That would make sense -- HTC certainly has been unable to match Samsung's success with its S series, even though its own flagships are nothing to sneeze at. |
It’s gin o’clock for Theresa (Picture: Getty Images)
Most of us settle for a quick pint down the Crown (or wherever) with a few of our closest colleagues when we leave our jobs.
But more than 18,000 people are planning to go to ‘Theresa May’s leaving drinks’ later this month.
We wonder why everyone’s so keen?
Police rake in £1,700,000 after selling seized items on eBay
On June 30, tens of thousands of people will descend on The Red Lion pub near the Houses of Parliament to bid farewell to the PM.
‘It has been a difficult year for Theresa as PM,’ the Facebook event says. ‘Let’s all give her a happy send off.’
One attendee, Steve Harcourt, wrote on the event page: ‘The Red Lion landlord has asked that we are patient with the bar team, as if all 18,000 people turn up who have confirmed then it might be worth ordering double rounds when you get to the bar.’
And Saad Aljabar added: ‘Gonna be a messy one. Boris has put his card behind the bar.’
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But others were asking after the menu.
‘Can you put me down for the wheat-fed fox option please?’ Rachel McGladdery asked.
Mark Stott, who set up the page, told Metro.co.uk that he was ‘absolutely delighted’ by the Tories’ terrible general election result.
‘I would also like to say that I think any “neutral” observer of what has happened this week must appreciate how poetic this has been,’ he said.
‘To see someone so arrogant who wanted to destroy their opposition be absolutely humiliated, and to lose on their own terms so badly, is just pure Schadenfreude!’
People protesting against Theresa May outside Downing St (Picture: WENN)
This has arguably been one of the most disastrous weeks in British politics for generations.
After taking a massive gamble with a general election based on the assumption everyone would vote for her ‘just because’, Theresa May ended up losing her party’s majority by winning just 318 seats (eight seats short of the 326 needed for a majority) on June 8.
In the days that followed, the PM desperately clung to power by attempting to cobble together a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party of Ulster – a party that, controversially, is against abortion and same-sex marriage, and believes in creationism.
Protest against Theresa May in London’s Whitehall post election result (Picture: Wenn)
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On Sunday evening Downing Street declared that the confidence and supply deal had been reached with the DUP.
Coward, 25, left son and girlfriend in overturned car after crashing in police chase
But then just a few short hours later, at around midnight, the DUP released its own statement saying no such deal had been made.
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Downing Street quickly released a second statement, claiming that the one they initially put out was sent ‘in error’.
Amidst all this chaos, May’s two chiefs of staff were forced to resign, and senior ministers were apparently on the phone to Boris Johnson begging him to take over the helm. |
(which contains no body information at the time of posting)
---UPDATE 29/6/2016 11:17---
Article updated to reflect confirmation from Microsoft regarding the Anniversary Update
For months now, Microsoft has only been quoting 'Summer 2016' for the new Windows 10 Anniversary update but it looks like we finally have a definitive date as to when the update will be released. According to a blog post on Microsoft's Windows Blog,the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will be available beginning August 2.Microsoft announced the Windows 10 Anniversary update a couple months back during Build 2016 and the update will be available to all Windows 10 devices as a free upgrade. Keep in mind that the free Windows 10 upgrade from Windows 7/8.1 ends July 29 and beginning July 30, Windows 10 upgrades will cost $119. Read about all the new changes that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will bring here ORIGINAL SOURCE: WINDOWS CENTRAL |
[COMPLETE] Unscheduled Maintenance - 3/17/2016
MAINT
Dear Players,
Mabinogi will have an unscheduled maintenance on Thursday, Mar. 17 to address a widespread issue with NPC animations. During this time, the game will be unavailable. Maintenance is expected to begin at 12:30 PM PDT and last approximately 2.5 hours.
Thursday, Mar. 17, 2016
Please note that the estimated length of time for each maintenance is subject to change without notification.
Pacific (PDT, UTC-7): 12:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Eastern (EDT, UTC-4): 3:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Sydney (AEDT, UTC+11): 6:30 AM - 9:00 AM, Friday, Mar. 18
Paris (CET, UTC+1): 8:30 PM - 11:00 PM
Server Restart
Fix animation issue that affected multiple NPCs across Mabinogi
Begin 3x AP Event Event Duration: End of Maintenance - Sunday, Mar. 20
- The Mabinogi Team |
General Michael Flynn’s embarrassing resignation has provoked a resurrection of the Democratic Party’s Russian hysteria. In the wake of this wave of negative publicity for the Trump administration, Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff desperately attempt to breathe life into their sinking careers. As though the presidential election never ended, the Clinton campaign is the opposition against Trump.
Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook appeared on CNN to push for more investigations into Trump’s connection with Russia. “There’s a real question now, were members of Donald Trump’s campaign aiding, abetting, or encouraging this to take place?” Mook asked.
CNN interviewed Clinton campaign Press Secretary Brian Fallon as well. “It’s an attempt to distract, Chris, from very serious allegations that are just the latest shoe to drop in what is becoming an unraveling narrative for the Trump campaign that really threatens the legitimacy of his election,” Fallon told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
Clinton Super PAC operative David Brock told NBC News that “subpoenas would be flying left and right,” if Clinton was in the same position that the Trump administration is in now.
Pro-Clinton CNN contributor Sally Kohn tweeted a call for a coup to take down the Trump administration and elect Clinton instead. The tweet, which read “Straightforward from here: 1. Impeach Trump & Pence 2. Constitutional crisis 3. Call special election 4. Ryan v Clinton 5. President Clinton” went viral.
Kohn’s tweet is reminiscent of failed calls to recount votes and push electors of the Electoral College to defect from Trump to Clinton. A Mediaite article and thousands of other pro-Clinton sites reverberated Kohn’s call to instill Clinton as president. Of course, these sources fail to acknowledge the reasons why Clinton lost to Trump even though her campaign and the DNC elevated Trump’s candidacy so that she would have an easily beatable opponent. Democrats’ hysteria about Russia is entirely predicated on the Party pushing for investigations into alleged Russian election interference while simultaneously giving the Clinton campaign and the DNC a free pass for cheating to help Clinton’s campaign.
Renewed calls for Clinton to be president are nothing more than an extension of Clinton’s entitlement. “It’s her turn,” is still the Democratic establishment’s ethos. The same mainstream media journalists who lavishing her campaign with endorsements and stories that legitimized her campaign’s arrogance, have provided Hillary and Chelsea Clinton with favorable post-election coverage. Rumors have circulated over whether Chelsea Clinton will run for Congress or Senate, and Hillary Clinton has been pushed to run again for president in 2020 or for mayor of New York City. Every tweet from Hillary Clinton is widely reported and Chelsea’s are treated as substantive resistance to Trump.
The resurrection of praise for Hillary Clinton is not only poor opposition to Trump—given Clinton’s low favorability—but it further undermines efforts to reform the Democratic Party. During the race for DNC chair, Clinton partisan and former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez is likely benefiting from the Russian narrative against Trump because it provides the Democratic establishment with a scapegoat for losing elections nationwide. The Russian narrative provides the opportunity for Clinton partisans and the Democratic Party to avoid reform, as they double down on the same failed strategies that got Trump get elected. |
Anti-smoking activists are urging Ottawa to follow Australia's lead after its highest court upheld the world's toughest tobacco law on Wednesday.
The so-called plain packaging law will bar tobacco companies from displaying their brand designs and logos on cigarette packs. Instead, they will all come in a drab shade of olive and feature graphic health warnings and images of cancer-riddled mouths and blinded eyeballs.
Four major tobacco companies challenged the new rules on the grounds that they violate intellectual property rights and devalue their trademarks, but the High Court of Australia dismissed the claims.
The regulations take effect in December.
Canada's anti-smoking advocates say they hope the decision will set an international precedent.
"The decision by the Australian high court is just the first domino to fall and we're going to see many, many other countries follow suit," said Melodie Tilson, director of policy for the Non-Smokers' Rights Association.
She noted that the United Kingdom recently held a public consultation of plain packaging laws, while New Zealand is currently in the process. Tilson said other countries are also expressing interest.
Health Canada said it is watching with interest to see what effect the plain packaging legislation has in Australia, and hasn't ruled out recommending similar regulations if they're successful there.
'Important defeat for the tobacco industry'
Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society, called the ruling an "important defeat for the tobacco industry."
"The industry knows that plain packaging is a massive threat and that if Australia implements plain packaging, then other countries are sure to follow," he said, adding that such laws are "inevitable" in Canada.
But the country's major tobacco companies disagree.
In a statement released Wednesday, Caroline Ferland, vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs for Imperial Tobacco Canada, said she was "extremely disappointed" in the court ruling.
"There is no proof to suggest plain packaging of tobacco products will be effective in discouraging youth initiation or encouraging cessation by existing smokers," she said.
Ferland also insisted that the court decision would have no impact in Canada.
"Canada and Australia are two very different countries with different constitutions … As such, today’s decision only concerns Australian constitutional law and in no way suggests a similar law would be constitutional in Canada."
Canada's labelling regulations
Tilson, on the other hand, argues that Canada's constitution is "based on the same principles" as that of Australia and said that a similar law would be upheld here.
She called plain packaging laws the "next important step in tobacco control" and said the government has a responsibility to limit branding on cigarette packs, which she referred to as the "biggest form of advertising."
In 2000, Canada became the first country to introduce graphic warning labels on cigarette packs. At the time, the labels covered half of both sides of the pack.
Federal rules introduced in September 2011 increased the size of warning labels to 75 per cent of all cigarette and cigarillo packages. The regulations took effect in June 2012.
Canadian companies Imperial Tobacco Canada and JTI-Macdonald Corp. both launched constitutional challenges over the regulations.
In court documents obtained by CBC, both companies argued that the current rules infringed on freedom of expression.
Imperial Tobacco's statement of claim said the law "restricts tobacco manufacturers' ability to convey their trademark and brand information to their customers and to protect the value of their trademarks and brands."
The companies also argued that the larger labels don't lead to any change in public awareness or people's smoking behaviour.
Tilson dismissed that claim. "If it wouldn't make a difference, why are the tobacco companies fighting tooth and nail against this initiative?," she said.
A Health Canada report released last year suggested that larger warning labels did make communicating the health risks of tobacco use more effective.
Tilson and other anti-smoking advocates are adamant that Ottawa has a responsibility to discourage new smokers and encourage current smokers to quit — and that standardizing the sizes, shapes, colours and logos of cigarette packages ought to be an important goal.
"Death should not be sold in a little perfume pack like it is now." |
Libya and Western media manipulation
It is by now obvious that the monstrous illegal and murderous NATO attack against the people of Libya and their guide is failing and that this evil military organisation is getting increasingly desperate. The 150 terrorist strikes per day every day bear witness to this. The increasing lies and brainwashing propaganda by western media backs this up.
When SKY News accompanied the US troops on their illegal romp into Iraq - this was before the blatant acts of mass murder, mass rape, mass kidnapping, illegal detention, torture, sodomy, urinating in food and so on were discovered (thank God this rabble is not allowed in Libya under Resolutions 1970 and 1973) - its correspondent crawled up to a group of GIs and asked in a sickeningly grovelling voice: "Hey you guys! Are you looking for some revenge for 9/11?"
It was a stupid question, which received a stupid answer: "Yeah!" and that, ladies and gentlemen, was enough to confirm the utterly false impression that the gullible and unthinking western public had been fooled so easily into believing - that Saddam Hussein had perpetrated 9/11 or was in some way linked to it. Supposedly intelligent people reiterated this "statement of fact" without batting an eyelid time and time again.
No thought of how Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were at opposite ends of opposing ideologies, no thought of the fact they hated each other. And this afternoon, Thursday June 16, 2011, right on cue and also on SKY News, in one and the same statement, the reference to "Colonel Gaddafi and the Taleban" being buoyed by the mention of Prince Harry rushing off to war in an Apache helicopter.
It was a very clever piece of sublime information yet for those with an iota of instruction, an affirmation of either sheer and total crass stupidity, or else unadulterated pure white-hot evil. The common link is that Apache helicopters are being deployed in Libya (because spreading "Freedom and Democracy" from 30.000 feet is committing a tad too many murders) and also in Afghanistan.
There is another common link between Libya and the Taleban - the enemies of Colonel Gaddafi, led by an Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi and the Taleban/Al_Qaeda worked together. This Hasidi gentleman, who NATO supports so vehemently, has himself admitted he belonged to Al-Qaeda, recruited the Benghazi terrorists (well-known in Libya as being Islamist fanatics) to fight against Britain and the USA in Afghanistan and also recruited record numbers of suicide bombers from Benghazi to use against British and American forces in Iraq. That is the common link.
No mention of the fact that Colonel Gaddafi was the first international leader to issue an arrest warrant against Osama bin Laden, no mention of the fact that Colonel Gaddafi was the first international leader to issue a writ against Al-Qaeda, no mention of the fact that the Taleban and Colonel Gaddafi are like oil and water, hate each other and no mention of the fact that while the West was gallivanting with Islamist criminals, Colonel Gaddafi had already pronounced himself against them.
The sheer idiocy of today's SKY statement underlines how powerful the western media machine is. It is none other than a factory of lies, a bulwark of total bullshit, a monster of manipulation which churns out swayed public opinion like a sausage factory. It also underlines the collective stupidity of the fools who believe what their TV, radio and newspapers shove down their throats, a daily dose of massified ignorance hastily and eagerly swallowed and digested. It is the massification of stupidity and they fall for it hook, line and sinker without so much as even questioning the bilge they are being fed.
Like geese being fattened with funnels shoved down their throats by the cynical and cruel producers of foie gras, the gullible western public guzzle their daily dose of chicken-shit down with ever-increasing ease, like battery hens fed on their own excrement and yes I do hope they are reading this while looking at a juicy blood-red steak on a plate, because this is the same colour splattered by NATO around the walls of Libyan hospitals, shops, schools, universities, museums and private homes, the same colour washed from the walls of the home of Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif Al-Arab al-Qathafi, where three of Colonel Gaddafi's grandchildren were slaughtered by a NATO pilot enforcing a no-fly zone to protect civilians, sorry, armed terrorists.
So, if the western media is intent on telling lies, someone has to tell the truth. I appeal to the intelligence inside these easy-to-dupe western minds and request just three minutes of their time as they curl up giggling helplessly to the sound of farts and belches on The Simpsons.
Firstly, I would urge you to take a look at the photos in this article. Now, a simple question: Are these the photos of innocent civilians being slaughtered or are they armed Islamist terrorists running amok committing acts of terrorism, aided and abetted by Washington and its poodles in Europe? Why is your Government siding with terrorists and interfering in an armed insurrection in a sovereign nation, against international law?
Secondly, please consider why Colonel Gaddafi was about to be awarded with a humanitarian prize by the United Nations Organization, this year, just when mayhem broke out in his country with marauding gangs of terrorists (see the photos) going around beheading black Libyans in the streets, attacking Government property, torching buildings, raping young girls and impaling a small boy with a metal rod.
Thirdly, has anyone bothered telling you why he was going to receive this prize? Have you considered the UNO does not just say "Hey! See that guy over there? Let's give him a prize!!" And have you seen the reasons why he was to receive the prize? It was for his excellent human rights record taking into account gender rights, the protection of women, religious minorities, his inclusion programmes, respect for the law and his speaking out against the murder of homosexuals because they are gay, against the stoning of women by Islamist courts and against the dress code imposed upon women by fundamentalists.
Fourthly, has your media told you about Muammar Al-Qathafi's work in Africa and his tremendous energy behind the African Union? His cultural programmes? His scientific programmes? His education programmes? His telecommunications projects? His Green programme? His respect for the ecology, the Mr. Green of Africa?
Have they told you he is behind the Pan-African e-learning programme enabling all Africans to learn for free while your governments were shooting them, holding them down and denying them access to education, keeping them ignorant while they stole their resources? Have they told you about his telemedicine programme, bringing medical treatment to all Africans everywhere, even in the desert? Have they told you about his financing of African satellites, while your countries were holding the poorest continent on earth to ransom, saddled with a 500 million dollar a year charge to use your satellites?
Fifthly, just think for a second. If he is such a dictator as your media insinuate, how come only a small minority of his country is against him, and these in the endemically separatist Benghazi? What dictator educates people for free? What dictator walks around his capital city being greeted with love and enthusiasm? These images they do not show you do they?
Sixthly, how do you feel about your countries bombing children? Would you like your children or grandchildren to be bombed? How would you feel? You would complain if a terrorist blasted the faces and limbs off your family wouldn't you? What would you say if someone murdered three two-year-old kids in their own home? Well, that is what your countries have done. Don't tell me they didn't tell you.
Seventhly, have you stopped to question why the "air strikes against civilians" referred to by your countries were wholly refuted by evidence from Russian satellites, which proved there was no such thing? Have you stopped to question why when the West said Libyan Air Force pilots had bombed civilian buildings in Tripoli, a visit to the sites showed it was a tissue of lies?
Eighthly, and finally, how do you feel about your governments spending 300 million pounds (483.7 million USD) to date, each, on this illegal act of slaughter, these war crimes?
Sorry to have interrupted your dinners. Get back to The Simpsons (BELCH) oh and the nine o'clock news follows. I bet you they won't mention Hasidi, what? Maybe if you ask your Congressman or MP exactly what he/she thinks your Government is doing? Or are you happy to sit back in your callous ignorance as innocent civilians are being slaughtered by your Governments which is supporting Islamist terrorists?
See the photos.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru |
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The murder of Kim Jong-nam has dramatically soured ties between Malaysia and North Korea
Two UN workers who were among 11 Malaysians banned from leaving North Korea have flown out of the country, the UN says.
The pair, who are employed by the World Food Programme (WFP), arrived in Beijing on Thursday.
North Korea and Malaysia on Tuesday banned each other's citizens from leaving, in a row over the killing of the North Korean leader's half-brother.
Kim Jong-nam was killed with a potent nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur airport.
Malaysia has not directly blamed North Korea for this, but there is widespread suspicion Pyongyang was responsible.
Investigators have demanded North Korea hand over suspects, three of whom are thought to be hiding in North Korea's embassy in Malaysia.
North Korea has fiercely denied culpability and the row over the killing - and who has the right to claim Mr Kim's body - has rapidly escalated over the past two weeks.
'Return home safely'
In a brief statement, WFP confirmed its employees were now in China.
"The staff members are international civil servants and not representatives of their national government," it said.
A government official told AFP news agency Malaysia did not play a role in securing the release of the pair, who hold UN travel documents.
Their departure leaves nine Malaysian nationals in North Korea. The Malaysian authorities say there are about 1,000 North Koreans currently in Malaysia.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak wrote on Facebook that he had spoken to Encik Mohd Nor Azrin, counsellor at the Malaysian Embassy in North Korea.
"I have given him my assurance that the government will do everything we can to ensure that they return home safely soon," he wrote.
"Even though they are refrained from leaving the country, the North Korean government have assured us of their safety and they are free to go about their daily lives."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kim Jong-nam was poisoned with an extraordinarily potent chemical weapon called VX
North Korea enacted its travel ban first, saying Malaysians could not leave until "the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved".
Malaysia described Pyongyang's move as an "abhorrent act" and put in place a reciprocal ban. Immigration officials in Sarawak, Malaysia have since detained dozens of North Koreans, saying their work permits have expired.
But Mr Razak said on Thursday that diplomatic ties between the two sides would not be cut. "We need to continue communicating with them to find a solution," he said.
On Wednesday he said officials were still trying to get DNA samples from Mr Kim's immediate family to formally identify his body, saying maybe they were "scared to come forward''.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kim Han-sol: 'My father has been killed'
A video emerged on Wednesday of Kim Han-sol, the son of Kim Jong-nam. Officials at South Korea's Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service confirmed his identity.
In the short clip, he said he was with his mother and sister but did not say where. It was his first appearance since the death of his father.
"We hope this gets better soon," he said. |
A 53-year-old man was wounded after being shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago's Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side Monday morning, according to police. Chris Hush reports.
A 53-year-old man was wounded after being shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago's Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side Monday morning, according to police.
The shooting happened just before 6:20 a.m. in the 6100 block of West Grand, Chicago police said. Family identified the wounded man as Felix Torres. ICE said they were not initially at the residence to arrest Torres.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents were attempting to make an arrest when someone pointed a weapon at them, officials with the department said in a statement.
Chicago police said the agents were executing a federal enforcement initiative when the shooting took place.
The man was transported to an area hospital and listed in serious condition.
Family members of Torres claim he did not have a gun and is in the United States legally. His daughter, Carmen Torres, told NBC 5 the family was not told why agents were at the home Monday. She said her father was shot as three children, including a 5-month-old, stood nearby.
"My dad doesn't have any guns, my dad just went to see what's going on," Torres said. "He just opened the door and they just shot him."
Her family has leived legally at the home for nearly 30 years, she said.
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said the raid "is exactly why the City of Chicago should refuse to collaborate with ICE."
"This guns blazing ICE raid deepens my resolve to organize my community so we can keep each other safe from the threat posed by ICE," Ramirez-Rosa said in a statement. "The City and State should not wait until another Chicagoan is shot by ICE to act on strengthening the Welcoming City Ordinance and passing the TRUST Act (HB 3099)."
Exclusive ICE Arrests 26 Parolees Doing Community Service in Forth Worth
Neighbor Gabriela Lucatero said her husband captured cellphone footage of authorities telling Felix Torres and other bystanders to get down on the ground.
"One of the cops was saying to come out with his hands up," she said.
The shooting remained under investigation by ICE as of Monday afternoon. |
The Republicans were euphoric over Sarah Palin ’s debate performance, particularly the part in which she stood tall and refrained from falling off the stage. “There are conservatives and Republicans across America who are ... breathing a sigh of relief,” said Pat Buchanan on MSNBC, adding that “of the four debaters we’ve seen, she was the most interesting, attractive of them all.”
Palin did indeed answer each question with poise and self-confidence, reeling off a bunch of talking points that were sometimes totally unrelated to the matter at hand. When she was asked to respond to Joe Biden ’s critique of the McCain health care plan, she announced: “I would like to respond about the tax increases,” cheerfully ignoring the fact that tax increases had never been mentioned.
After the recent Katie Couric unpleasantness, Palin told the viewers that this time they were getting a chance to hear her “answer these tough questions without the filter.” And, indeed, her answers were murky in the extreme. She railed repeatedly about government regulations getting in the way of the private sector, then announced that the financial rescue plan “has got to include that massive oversight that Americans are expecting and deserving.” She said that she didn’t want to discuss what caused global warming , only how to ease its impact.
She appeared to agree with Dick Cheney ’s manic theory that the vice president is a member of both the executive and legislative branches, although it’s hard to tell since she began her answer this way: “Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president’s agenda in that position.”
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When the moderator, Gwen Ifill , asked under what circumstances the candidates would consider bringing America’s nuclear weapons into play, Palin said: “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period.”
Photo |
HOMER - An Atlanta Hawks player faces felony drug charges after the vehicle he was riding in ran from Banks County deputies about 9 a.m. Thursday.
Hawks forward James Michael "Mike" Scott, 27, of Smyrna was the passenger in a 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe that failed to yield to officers on Interstate 85
Banks County Sheriff's Sgt. Carissa McFaddin said deputies attempted to stop the vehicle after noticing the driver following too close to other vehicles.
"As deputies attempted to make the traffic stop, the driver sped up to 98 mph and failed to stop," McFaddin said. "The driver continued for two miles and finally stopped near mile marker 156."
McFaddin said deputies made contact with the driver, 20-year-old Antonn Imhotep Scott of Acworth, and his passenger, James Michael Scott.
"The occupants advised that they did have marijuana in the vehicle," McFaddin said. "Deputies located over an ounce of Marijuana in the vehicle along with approximately 10.9 grams of MDMA, known as 'Molly'."
Both suspects were arrested and transported to Banks County Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Center.
Antonn Imhotep Scott was charged with fleeing and attempting to elude law enforcement officers, following too closely, felony possession of marijuana, and possession of Schedule I drug.
James Michael Scott was charged with felony possession of marijuana and possession of Schedule I drug. |
CHAPTER 10: Introduction to the Lithosphere (d). Composition of Rocks A rock can be defined as a solid substance that occurs naturally because of the effects of three basic geological processes: magma solidification; sedimentation of weathered rock debris; and metamorphism. As a result of these processes, three main types of rock occur: Igneous Rocks - produced by solidification of molten magma from the mantle. Magma that solidifies at the Earth's surface conceives extrusive or volcanic igneous rocks. When magma cools and solidifies beneath the surface of the Earth intrusive or plutonic igneous rocks are formed. Sedimentary Rocks - formed by burial, compression, and chemical modification of deposited weathered rock debris or sediments at the Earth's surface. Metamorphic Rocks - created when existing rock is chemically or physically modified by intense heat or pressure. rocks are composed of minerals. Minerals are defined by geologists as naturally occurring inorganic solids that have a crystalline structure and a distinct chemical composition. Of course, the minerals found in the Earth's rocks are produced by a variety of different arrangements of chemical elements. A list of the eight most common elements making up the minerals found in the Earth's rocks is described in Table 10d-1. Mostare composed ofare defined by geologists as naturally occurringsolids that have a crystalline structure and a distinct chemical composition. Of course, the minerals found in the Earth's rocks are produced by a variety of different arrangements of chemical. A list of the eight most common elements making up the minerals found in the Earth's rocks is described in Table 10d-1 : Common elements found in the Earth's rocks. Element Chemical Symbol Percent Weight in Earth's Crust Oxygen O 46.60 Silicon Si 27.72 Aluminum Al 8.13 Iron Fe 5.00 Calcium Ca 3.63 Sodium Na 2.83 Potassium K 2.59 Magnesium Mg 2.09 Over 2000 minerals have been identified by earth scientists. Table 10d-2 describes some of the important minerals, their chemical composition, and classifies them in one of nine groups. The Elements Group includes over one hundred known minerals. Many of the minerals in this class are composed of only one element. Geologists sometimes subdivide this group into metal and nonmetal categories. Gold, silver, and copper are examples of metals. The elements sulfur and carbon produce the minerals sulfur, diamonds, and graphite which are nonmetallic. Figure 10d-1 : Silver. Figure 10d-2 : Copper. Figure 10d-3 : Graphite. The Sulfide Group are an economically important class of minerals. Many of these minerals consist of metallic elements in chemical combination with the element sulfur. Most ores of important metals such as mercury (cinnabar - HgS), iron (pyrite - FeS 2 ), and lead (galena - PbS) are extracted from sulfides. Many of the sulfide minerals are recognized by their metallic luster. Figure 10d-4 : Pyrite. Figure 10d-5 : Galena. The Halides are a group of minerals whose principle chemical constituents are fluorine, chlorine, iodine, and bromine. Many of them are very soluble in water. Halides also tend to have a highly ordered molecular structure and a high degree of symmetry. The most well-known mineral of this group is halite (NaCl) or rock salt. Figure 10d-6 : Halite or rock salt. The Oxides are a group of minerals that are compounds of one or more metallic elements combined with oxygen, water, or hydroxyl (OH). The minerals in this mineral group show the greatest variations of physical properties. Some are hard, others soft. Some have a metallic luster, some are clear and transparent. Some representative oxide minerals include corundum, cuprite, and hematite. Figure 10d-7 : Corundum Figure 10d-8 : Hematite The Carbonates Group consists of minerals which contain one or more metallic elements chemically associated with the compound CO 3 . Most carbonates are lightly colored and transparent when relatively pure. All carbonates are soft and brittle. Carbonates also effervesce when exposed to warm hydrochloric acid. Most geologists considered the Nitrates and Borates as subcategories of the carbonates. Some common carbonate minerals include calcite, dolomite, and malachite. Figure 10d-9 : Calcite. Figure 10d-10 : Dolomite. The Sulfates are a mineral group that contain one or more metallic element in combination with the sulfate compound SO 4 . All sulfates are transparent to translucent and soft. Most are heavy and some are soluble in water. Rarer sulfates exist containing substitutions for the sulfate compound. For example, in the chromates SO 4 is replaced by the compound CrO 4 . Two common sulfates are anhydrite and gypsum. Figure 10d-11 : Gypsum. The Phosphates are a group of minerals of one or more metallic elements chemically associated with the phosphate compound PO 4 . The phosphates are often classified together with the arsenate, vanadate, tungstate, and molybdate minerals. One common phosphate mineral is apatite. Most phosphates are heavy but soft. They are usually brittle and occur in small crystals or compact aggregates. The Silicates are by far the largest group of minerals. Chemically, these minerals contain varying amounts of silicon and oxygen. It is easy to distinguish silicate minerals from other groups, but difficult to identify individual minerals within this group. None are completely opaque. Most are light in weight. The construction component of all silicates is the tetrahedron. A tetrahedon is a chemical structure where a silicon atom is joined by four oxygen atoms (SiO 4 ). Some representative minerals include albite, augite, beryl, biotite, hornblende, microcline, muscovite, olivine, othoclase, and quartz. Figure 10d-12 : Albite. Figure 10d-12 : Biotite. Figure 10d-13 : Hornblende. Figure 10d-14 : Olivine. Figure 10d-15 : Orthoclase. Figure 10d-16 : Quartz. The Organic minerals are a rare group of minerals chemically containing hydrocarbons. Most geologists do not classify these substances as true minerals. Note that our original definition of a mineral excludes organic substances. However, some organic substances that are found naturally on the Earth that exist as crystals that resemble and act like true minerals. These substances are called organic minerals. Amber is a good example of an organic mineral. Table 10d-2 : Classification of some of the important minerals found in rocks. Group Typical Minerals
(and information link) Chemistry Elements Gold Au Silver Ag Copper Cu Carbon (Diamond and Graphite) C Sulfur S Sulfides Cinnabar HgS Galena PbS Pyrite FeS 2 Halides Fluorite CaF 2 Halite NaCl Oxides Corundum Al 2 O 3 Cuprite Cu 2 O Hematite Fe 2 O 3 Carbonates
(Nitrates and Borates) Calcite CaCO 3 Dolomite CaMg(CO 3 ) 2 Malachite Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2 Sulfates Anhydrite CaSO 4 Gypsum CaSO 4 -2(H 2 O) Phosphates
(Arsenates, Vanadates, Tungstates, and Molybdates) Apatite Ca 5 (F,Cl,OH)(PO 4 ) Silicates Albite NaAlSi 3 O 8 Augite (Ca, Na)(Mg, Fe, Al)(Al, Si) 2 O 6 Beryl Be 3 Al 2 (SiO 3 ) 6 Biotite K (FE, Mg) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (F, OH) 2 Hornblende Ca 2 (Mg, Fe, Al) 5 (Al, Si) 8 O 22 (OH) 2 Microcline KAlSi 3 O 8 Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(F, OH) 2 Olivine (Mg, Fe) 2 SiO 4 Orthoclase KAlSi 3 O 8 Quartz SiO 2 Organics Amber C 10 H 16 O Study Guide Additional Readings Internet Weblinks Citation: Pidwirny, M. (2006). "Composition of Rocks". Fundamentals of Physical Geography, 2nd Edition. Date Viewed. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10d.html |
FOUR glass panels have shattered and fallen from the 52-storey former Bankwest tower in the past six months — prompting an inquiry and the installation of covered scaffolding to protect pedestrians.
Brookfield, the owner of 108 St Georges Terrace, said no one had been injured by falling glass but an investigation was under way into what caused the breaks and whether any other panels were at risk.
The company also warned neighbouring St George’s Anglican Grammar School to temporarily close its open rooftop recreational area.
Building Commissioner Peter Gow said yesterday the incidents were concerning and there was clearly a risk if “glass falls out of the sky”.
But he said he was told it had not been whole sheets of glass falling out but rather toughened glass panels had shattered in their frames and the pieces had fallen.
“If you get a large chunk of glass coming out of the sky from many storeys up, it’s clearly potentially lethal,” Mr Gow said. “However, if what you’re getting is toughened glass shattering in situ into little small pellets and they fall down, it’s unlikely to kill anyone.
“But obviously you could get cuts, bruises and abrasions, so it’s not to be taken lightly.”
Camera Icon A temporary covered walkway has been erected to protect pedestrians. Picture: PerthNow, Danella Bevis.
He said Brookfield appeared to be taking the matter seriously by installing the gantry last month to protect pedestrians and launching an inquiry.
While such incidents were not common, toughened glass was known to be vulnerable to defects and the Building Commission had received reports about similar incidents with windows, balustrades and shower screens, Mr Gow said.
He said he was not surprised it had happened to several panels in one building because it was likely the glass had come from the same batch. |
Many have argued that Donald Trump won the presidency because the political establishment ignored the plight of white working class Americans. Everyone from the far right to far left, including Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden has suggested that the Clinton campaign didn't pay enough attention to this group's legitimate economic grievances.
A few astute analysts, however, have noted that the sympathetic focus on white America's problems stands in stark contrast with conservatives' lack of empathy for communities of color. Indeed, when African Americans protest against profound racial inequality--unequal conditions that are directly traceable to discriminatory governmental policies--they are often condemned by the right as "whiners" who should simply try harder to remedy their own situations.
Such different portraits of white and non-white Americans' grievances have their origins in what social psychologists call "ultimate attribution error." This error means that when whites struggle, their troubles are generally attributed to situational forces (e.g., outsourcing); but when non-whites struggle, their plight is more often attributed to dispositional traits (i.e., poor work ethic). Consequently, whites are considered "more deserving" than blacks.
To quantify this double standard in deservingness we embedded an experiment in a new HuffPost/YouGov survey. We asked half of our respondents if they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: "Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve." The other half of the sample was provided with the exact same statement, except we changed "blacks" to "average Americans"--a group that psychology research shows is implicitly synonymous with being white.
The results show a very strong public divide in the perceived deservingness of average Americans and African Americans:
A clear majority (57 percent) in the survey said that average Americans aren't getting their fair share in society. But only 32 percent agreed when that same statement applied to African Americans.
The display further shows that this disparity in the perceived deservingness of average Americans and African Americans was even more pronounced among whites. Whites were thirty percentage points more likely to say that average Americans aren't getting what they deserve, compared to African American Americans (58 percent to 28 percent respectively).
The biggest double standard in deservingness, though, occurred for Trump voters. Almost two-thirds of Trump voters said that average Americans aren't getting as much as they deserve; only 12 percent of Trump supporters said blacks have gotten less than they deserve.
Meanwhile, there was a much smaller gap in the two groups' perceived deservingness among African Americans and Clinton voters. African Americans and Clinton voters were equally likely to say that both average Americans and blacks have gotten less than they deserve over the past few years.
Perhaps most importantly, the display shows that the main dividing line between Clinton and Trump voters was on the question black deservingness. Most voters, regardless of who they supported in the presidential election, thought that average Americans are getting less than they should. Yet, Clinton's voters were a great deal more likely than Trump's to say that blacks have also gotten less than they deserve (57 percent to 12 percent respectively).
It appears, then, that Trump voters weren't simply motivated by their widespread belief that average Americans are being left behind. Rather, their strong suspicion that African Americans are getting too much--a belief held by the overwhelming majority of Trump voters--was a much stronger predictor of their vote choices in last month's election.
Racially resentful beliefs that African Americans are getting more than they deserve were so strongly linked to support for Trump, in fact, that their impact on both the 2016 Republican Primary and the general election were larger than they had ever been in before.
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Use the widget below to further explore the results of HuffPost/YouGov's survey. You can select survey questions using the menu at the top, and filter data by subgroups using the buttons at the bottom: |
In other news, just to keep Kossacks up to date on the great work Congressman Grayson is doing:
Anticipating a Supreme Court decision that could free corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) introduced five bills on Wednesday to choke off the expected flood of corporate cash. "We are facing a potential threat to our democracy," Grayson said in an interview with HuffPost. "Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the government is up for sale and that the law itself will be bought and sold. It would be political bribery on the largest scale imaginable." Grayson introduced a handful of bills on Wednesday -- the Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act, the Corporate Propaganda Sunshine Act, the End Political Kickbacks Act, and two other measures. The Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act would impose a 500 percent excise tax on corporate contributions to political committees and on corporate expenditures on political advocacy campaigns. The Corporate Propaganda Sunshine Act would require public companies to report what they spend to influence public opinion on any matter other than the promotion of their goods and services. The End Political Kickbacks Act would restrict political contributions by government contractors.
The other measures would apply antitrust regulations to political committees and bar corporations from securities exchanges unless the corporation is certified in compliance with election law. "This case is basically about an effort to get around that. Citizens United took corporate money and tried to influence an election," said Lisa Gilbert of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "These are all pieces of good policy. I hope they draw attention to the potential frightening implications of Citizens United."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
BTW: One of my 'insane right wing crazy associates' that I work with sent me the below video in an email. Talk about re-writing history, this is the most horrifying thing I have ever seen. Has anyone else been sent this video? Does anyone know who sponsored it? I think we should find our pretty damn quick who the heck is putting this shit out there...
Just wanted to let you know that there is some crazy shifting of the entire mess that Bush left us right onto our own party, and this rewriting of history seems like this is the way the Republicans are going to 'write many of their upcoming political ads'....if you get my drift.
Thanks...its getting scary out there. Thank god Congressman Grayson has our back and stands up and reminds America every chance he gets, on the bullshit that the Republicans try to pull over on people. The Karl Rove rule of thumb: Just keep repeating lies over and over again, and then the 'lies' somehow 'morph' into the 'new truth' is alive and well in the Republican party, and the new 'meme'....that our nation got where it is today because of President Obama and the Democratic party, seems to be the way the Republicans are going to try to take back 'our country'. We have to figure out a way to fight this message, and I hope someone in President Obama's public relations office is working out a significant strategy to stop this insane blame game before it catches up with us. I think that this may come down to President Obama turning the tables on Wall Street BIG-TIME and conducting a very strong campaign against the same 'shadow elite' that are now willing to cross over to candidates like Scott Brown. Wall Street holds no loyalty to any political party, and the last thing Wall Street cares about are the American people. I hope that President Obama sees the light because I believe that is where the next few election cycles will take us: It's either Wall Street or the American people.....it really is that simple.
Don't cha just love Grayson?
UPDATE: Thanks for your comments....two things: first of all I know a lot of us are giving to both Haiti and working our butts off in the Coakley camp, but just wanted to remind everyone of the Act Blue for Grayson..
http://www.actblue.com/...
Second,the Utube video that is so scary at the end of this diary is posted because I wanted to make certain everyone on our side of the isle (Democrats) understood what we are up against right now, and I personally would like to find out what organization is responsible for producing this video. It is absolutely horrifying.
Thanks. |
"That was horrible," Shallan finally said, hand still held to her breast. "It was one of the most awful things I've ever experienced. You killed four men."
"Four men who were planning to beat, rob, kill, and possibly rape us."
"You tempted them into coming for us!"
"Did I force them to commit any crimes?"
"You showed off your gemstones."
"Can a woman not walk with her possessions down the street of a city?"
"At night?" Shallan asked. "Through a rough area? Displaying wealth? You all but asked for what happened!"
"Does that make it right?"
I'm running out of superlatives.Seriously, after praising The Well of Ascension as a reader's dream book, I was worried. What would I say if The Hero of Ages was better? Even finding the perfect GIF for that book didn't solve the problem - because soon enough, there'll be The Alloy of Law , and I still haven't read Elantris And then this book came along.Now, I'll admit that I took my sweet time. About six months, off and on, actually. For a lot of that, I wasn't sure what I was getting into. There were flashes of the sort of brilliance and depth I've come to expect from Sanderson, but it was nowhere near as fast-paced and engrossing as Mistborn: The Final Empire , and it took even longer for me to get interested than it did for Warbreaker . Part of that comes from how little time I dedicated to it. On a good day, I might get through a single chapter, and I could easily go a week or more without reading any at all, simply because I had other books at hand. And part of it comes from the fact that this book is, quite simply, ridiculously dense. There's a payoff, yes, but that didn't come for me until past the halfway point, and until it hits you're struggling under the weight of names, places, religions, histories, and even ecology.After that point, whatever it may be for you, things start to... well, not to make sense, necessarily, but to be confusing in a perfectly acceptable fashion. You know enough about the world and the characters to start going with the flow and trusting that eventually, all will be revealed. Even if 'eventually' isn't in this book.You see, at a certain point, you realize that Brandon Sanderson has never really demonstrated his writing ability before. He reminds me of a scene from The Princess Bride - the swordfight between Inigo Montoya and the Man in Black on the cliff. You've seen it, right? You remember the moment when Inigo switches hands in the middle of the fight and - even though he's been fencing beautifully up until that point - he seems to get even better?(I wanted a GIF, but couldn't find one.)That's what Brandon Sanderson has just done. He's been holding out on us all this time and here, finally, in this massive masterpiece, is a glimpse of what he's really capable of. Warbreaker is a great piece of work. The Mistborn trilogy managed to balance serious themes and reconstructing tropes of fantasy. I've no doubt that Elantris is, as well, a fantastic novel. Well, The Way Of Kings is going to redefine epic fantasy, and that is that.I'm guessing this book is going to be compared to one more than all others: The Eye of the World , the first entry in the Wheel of Time series. Now, I've read the first three WOT books, and I'm not a huge fan. They weren't horrible, and maybe the rest of the series changes things, but I found them dreadfully. Anyone who didn't know that Rand Al'Thor was the Dragon Reborn by a few chapters into the first book wasn't paying attention. And the worldbuilding - don't get me started. Suffice it to say that Jordan ripped some things off and didn't even pretend to hide it.You cannot imagine how relieved I was to find neither of those problems here. Oh, sure, it was slow for a while, but it was never predictable - well, except for one bit at the end, where there was only a single solution that kept one character alive and allowed personal growth in another, but it was so damned awesome that I really didn't mind. In fact, it was one of my favorite scenes.And as for worldbuilding... well. This is what will make it or break it for a lot of readers. If you don't like worldbuilding, there's no way around it:. You've gotta love it to love this book. But if fantasy that is literally built from the ground up appeals to you,. The worldbuilding is the backbone of this novel and oh, what a strong thing it is. Even the ecology is stunning! The basic concept is pretty simple: on a fairly regular basis, the world of Roshar is scoured by incredibly powerful 'highstorms'. Being outside in one is a death sentence. That life even exists in this place is amazing, but it has clearly adapted. Plants retract into the rock or bend over to avoid the full brunt of the gale. Animals have thick, crustacean-like carapaces. It's a savage place in many ways, and yet so clearly filled with beauty and wonder - one has only to look at the gorgeous sketches sprinkled through this book to see that. Now, I'm a biology nerd, so I'm biased, but I loved this concept beyond all expression.The mythology! Holy shit, the mythology! I can't even - gah. The fact that the first of three prologues (yes, there are three; suck it up because they're all awesome) is set 4,500 years before the rest of the book should hint at how incredible the mythos of Roshar is. I hesitate to use the words 'epic' or 'sprawling', because they're kind of cliche, so instead: it's. One of my developing pet peeves in fantasy is the idea of the bajillion year-old prophecy that has somehow been retained without a word being changed, despite language shifts and translation errors and disasters and this and that and the other thing. That is not the case here. Shit Went Down in the past but. Did the Knights Radiant betray humanity? Well... maybe. But they don't even know what the Radiants were in the first place, so that's kind of begging the question. And oh, by the way, the first prologue seems to indicate - possibly, maybe, there's an off chance - that instead of the Radiants being the betrayers, it might have been the Heralds. Who are still revered by the religions of Roshar. Hmmm. I do believe I've spotted a Sanderson theme here - the fragility of religion. We'll see how it develops.But anyhow, I was raving about the mythology. Right. I can't say too much, though, because a lot of it is revealed very very slowly and carefully and frankly, I'm not sure how much I even understand yet. So maybe I should move on...Okay, how about characters. No doubt you've heard that this book has loooooooads. Believe that. It's true. Don't worry about it, though. There are four that you really need to know: the three protagonists (Shallan, Kaladin, and Dalinar) and Szeth-son-son-Vallano, who doesn't get nearly as much page time but is at least as important as any of the other three.Here's the rundown:is a young woman with more than a few secrets who, for less than honorable reasons, desperately needs to get apprenticed to Jasnah Kholin, a famous heretic and scholar. She's got a deep love of learning and a keen wit, which makes her an enjoyable protagonist just because she's fun to read about. Her internal conflict and her naivete make her more interesting and give her depth, and her relationship with Jasnah is fascinating and complex.is a slave in a war-camp, son of a surgeon, who's hit rock bottom. He is also my favorite, and the one I can tell you least about because every bit of his character development plays into the larger plot. What Isay is that I was afraid he was going to be Kelsier the Second, and he was not - the critical difference being that when Kelsier was faced with a setback, he got angry; when Kaladin is faced with one, he breaks down. Not only does this make more sense, given Kaladin's age, it makes him a little more sympathetic since he's less inclined towards "KILL THEM ALL" speeches.is the king's uncle, and he's seen better days. Once a famous warrior, he's now suspected by many to be losing his edge, if not outright insane. Strange visions haunt him, as does the guilt of failing to protect his brother, the current king's father, who was assassinated several years ago. He's caught in several wars, both political and violent, and doesn't seem to want to fight any of them. Dalinar did the most to shed light on the history and mythos of Roshar, though even that wasn't much, and sometimes his sections were boring... but not too often.is the man who killed Dalinar's brother, though not for any reason of his own. He's essentially a human tool, even a weapon in the hands of someone who knows his capabilities, and the brief scenes with him in them seem inconsequential until near the end, when it all builds into something that will no doubt fuel the next several volumes. All I'll say about Szeth is that I feel really, really sorry for him.There are, of course, a bevy of supporting characters. Shallan's brothers; Jasnah; the priest who tries to convert Jasnah through Shallan; Kaladin's fellow slaves and the family he left behind long ago; Dalinar's two sons, Adolin and Renarin; his brother's widowed wife, Navani; the young king, Elkohar; the king's other adviser, Sadeas. And more. Many of the negative reviews mention the one-shot characters who appear in the 'Interlude' sections as useless fluff, but I respectfully disagree. Part of their virtue is for worldbuilding, but no doubt we'll be seeing more of the characters and areas they introduce later in the series, and as far as I'm concerned that makes them worth it.I am an atheist. So, it would seem, are a lot of fictional characters, if only because their author hasn't bothered to create believable religions in their world at all. You get your standard Christianity rip-offs, the evil flesh-eating cult or two, and maybe some basic Greek-style polytheism or the occasional animist. Main characters, it seems, very rarely have a defined relationship with religion, which I often read as atheism by default. And that's fine. I'd rather slot a character into my personal default than go through something ham-handed like the discussion of faith in Eldest . If the writer doesn't want to include religion in their worldbuilding, that's okay. It's hard to do right and can ruin everything if done wrong.Brandon Sanderson does it right. We know this already - from Mistborn, if you've read nothing else of his. Think of Sazed, always able to list off another faith and explain their beliefs in a perfectly plausible, tolerant manner. Think of the way a religion cropped up around a brutal tyrant. It's part of the world and it works.But just because he can do religion right doesn't mean he can do atheism right. It's hard for people who hold one belief strongly to create detailed, well-rounded, authentic characters with directly contrasting beliefs. Fantasy gives a level of removal from that problem, but it's still there: how can you write someone if you can't see from their point of view?I don't know. I honestly don't. Sanderson does, though. Jasnah is a very believable atheist, and she can argue her points eloquently and intelligently, as befits someone as renowned for intelligence as she is. I was so, so worried she was going to be a strawman, set up just to be knocked down by TEH TRUTH ABOUT GAWD but she wasn't, she wasn't, she wasn't! and I cheered, a little bit, in my head, because she was so awesome. I love the way she thinks. I love her intelligence, her devotion to research, her snappishness, her ideas about justice. I love the idea of this strong, beautiful, powerful, confident, courageous, wise, good-hearted woman. Oh, she's flawed, but despite that - or maybe because of it -Particularly worth noting is this conversation, after Jasnah and Shallan go looking for trouble, find it, and Jasnah obliterates it:Victim blaming: addressed, debated, PUT IN ITS PLACE, and then later framed in the context of one of the themes of the book: justice.She is the kind of character that makes me think,Now... the plot. Well, it's not fully hatched yet. It kind of pupated for the first 400+ pages, which is fine, really, because big plots need big expositions. When it gets going, it's properly high-stakes and awesome.The shifting focus can get frustrating, just because at the end of a chapter about one character, all you want is to know what comes next - but then you read the next chapter, which is about someone else, and you finish it wanting to know what happens toand almost having forgotten about the other one until you get into their chapter and get absorbed again and, well, it keeps repeating. I'll admit, I flipped ahead sometimes to skim the first few paragraphs dealing with whichever character I was most worried about and find out a bit of what happened. This was particularly prevalent in Part Three, which alternated only between Kaladin and Shallan right as really important, exciting things were happening to them both. And being without Shallan's narration for all of Part Four was difficult, even though what happened to the others was still intensely interesting.I can't say too much about the climax because, of course, that would give away tons and tons of important information. I will say that it was what cemented Kaladin as my favorite - in particular, that he had a serious badass moment when he was all:and everyone, even really high-ranking people, just did it because he is really that awesome.Oh, and about twenty pages from the ending, we get a little more Shallan, which is when Sanderson decides is a good time to drop a tremendous reveal on us. My experience of it went something like this.Never fear, though, because it's not a nasty cliffhanger. Indeed, the various plot threads are wrapped up pretty satisfactorily, with plenty of room and impetus for a sequel. It's a complete book, not the first half/third/tenth of one. Thank goodness.There are going to be nine sequels to this, right? And if I guesstimated correctly, we'll be waiting at least two years for the next one. Hopefully it won't be much longer. But anyhow, nine sequels.And to those of you who didn't like this book and maybe think I'm crazy to be showering it with praise, that's your problem.There's a part of me that thinks if you don't like this book, maybe epic fantasy just isn't the right genre for you, because this is epic fantasy at its best. But, you know, whatever floats your boat, I guess. You can call it bloated and boring all you like. I will be over here eagerly awaiting the next one and crossing my fingers that Sanderson goes on tour soon. |
Advertisement New Orleans FBI chief calls political corruption in Louisiana 'robust' Share Shares Copy Link Copy
New Orleans FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Jeffrey Sallet has only been on the job in the Crescent City for six months, but he's already seen enough to call political corruption "robust.""This office has more special agents and employees working corruption per employee in the division, than any other division in the country. Corruption here is profound," Sallet said.Before coming to Louisiana, the 19-year FBI veteran was section chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section of the Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI.The New Orleans District of the FBI has played a key role in recent high-profile federal convictions, including former Washington-St. Tammany District Attorney Walter Reed, and retired St. Charles District Attorney Harry Morel.And Sallet said such investigations are not over. "This office is working very hard to insure that we hold corrupt public officials accountable. You will be seeing a lot more investigations, a lot more high profile investigations, and there will be zero tolerance for corruption in government," Sallet said.Sallet's background reads more like a movie from taking on mob bosses in New York to playing a key role in the 9/11 investigation. While Sallet emphasizes that all investigations are team efforts, he headed up the search and capture of those responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings.A forensic accountant himself, Sallet said fighting corruption in Louisiana is much like fighting organized crime."We're going to make consensual recordings, we're going to do Title III's, we're going to use undercover operations, and we are going to use historical information because you can't hide from your past," Sallet said.At the same time, Sallet and his team are working with local law enforcement authorities to get a handle on the violence plaguing New Orleans through the use of task forces dealing with gangs and violent crime."One is based on group,one is based on crime, so, for example, the uptown robberies, those were crimes that were being committed. Our violent crimes task force was instrumental in catching the folks in the uptown robberies," Sallet said.Sallet admits that the safety of the people in his district, no matter what the threat, will keep him awake some nights, but when it comes to political corruption investigations, he has no trouble sleeping."We have lots going on, and there are a lot of people that are nervous right now," Sallet said.The FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans District gives the credit to his team working diligently to keep the people across his district safe.Keep up with local news, weather and current events with the WDSU app here.Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news right in your inbox. Click here to sign up! |
Halifax Mooseheads hold top spot in CHL Top 10 Toronto, ON – The Canadian Hockey League today announced the ninth edition of the BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings for the 2012-13 regular season. The weekly rankings of the Canadian Hockey League’s Top 10 teams are selected by a panel of National Hockey League scouts. BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings – Week 9 Rank Team (Record) Last Week Rank Number of Weeks Ranked
1 Halifax Mooseheads (17-2-0-1) 1 9
2 Portland Winterhawks (16-3-1-0) 6 9
3 Owen Sound Attack (14-3-1-2) 4 6
4 Kamloops Blazers (17-5-0-1) 2 8
5 Quebec Remparts (15-4-0-0) 3 9
6 Blainville-Boisbriand Armada (15-5-0-2) 5 9
7 Barrie Colts (14-5-0-1) 7 5
8 Baie-Comeau Drakkar (14-4-0-2) – 1
9 Mississauga Steelheads (14-5-0-1) – 1
10 Edmonton Oil Kings (13-5-1-2) 9 6
Honorable Mention
Calgary Hitmen (13-5-1-2) – 2
Kitchener Rangers (13-5-1-1) – 3
Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (13-6-0-1) 8 3 SHARE TWEET |
Story highlights Leanne Hecht Bearden is missing after she went for a walk from relative's home
She and her husband just spent 22 months traveling world
Police don't believe there's foul play
Family hires helicopters to conduct search; police will do search Saturday
She traveled the world with her husband for 22 months without major mishap, but a month after returning to the United States, Leanne Hecht Bearden is missing after she went for a walk.
A search is under way in Texas, northeast of San Antonio, for the Denver woman who took a stroll almost a week ago and has not returned to her in-laws' residence where she and husband, Josh, were staying.
"While we are very concerned for Ms. Bearden's welfare, there is no indication at this time that this is criminal in nature," the Garden Ridge Police Department said in a statement
Bearden, 33, went missing Friday in the early afternoon, and police are encouraging the public to provide any information.
While family and friends and say "police are engaged" in this case and are being "diligent in their efforts," they have decided to take the search into their own hands and have hired private helicopters to help look for Bearden.
Her brother, Michael Hecht, told CNN two helicopters searched for nearly three hours Thursday following ground searches the previous two days.
"It's baffling right now about what happened. Maybe she fell and hurt herself. You start thinking about things. I don't think she had any enemies. She is loved very much," Hecht said.
Bearden and her husband had just returned to the United States in December after spending nearly two years traveling around the world. They documented their journey in a blog . She and her husband of four years were supposed to fly to their home in Denver on Tuesday to resume job searches.
Hecht said upon returning to the United States the couple had spent a short time in Georgia, then went to Texas for a few weeks to visit Josh's family. He said they were working to find jobs in Denver, where the couple was married and had settled.
"Her poor husband is just devastated," said Hecht.
Josh Bearden told CNN affiliate KENS-TV, "She left on her own free will. That is what she did. That is absolutely true, but what happened after she left the house on her own free will I don't know."
Garden Ridge police have sent out a "Missing Person Alert." According to the department's website, they were contacted January 17 at about 5:20 p.m. when Bearden didn't return home.
Garden police said a formal search in the community will occur Saturday.
"Officials are asking that private volunteers and volunteer organizations refrain from searching this immediate area so not to interfere with the search or contaminate the area," police said Thursday. "Garden Ridge Police Department, Comal County Sheriff's Office, Comal County Constables, Schertz Police Department, Texas Rangers and Bracken First Responders will be supporting with the rescue."
Lt. Mark Reynolds of the Comal County Sheriff's Office said his agency is " assisting in any way we can" but couldn't provide details. |
The sight of former Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds “dabbing” his way through a bunch of Ravens fans dressed in Army fatigues onto the field at M&T Bank Stadium Monday night might have made some his old teammates and coaches in Annapolis blink in disbelief.
Even Reynolds admitted after the first of two open scrimmages this week in Baltimore that it might have been a “weird” part of what was billed as “Military Appreciation Night,” but it's a part he is getting used to as he tries to make the Ravens' 53-man roster.
“It's pretty rare [getting cheered by those in the Army], but since I'm not playing Army anymore, they don't have a problem cheering me on,” Reynolds said with a smile after practice.
Reynolds, whose record-setting college career put him on the level of Midshipmen legends Roger Staubach and Joe Bellino, has received an enthusiastic welcome from Ravens fans in all branches of the military since he was drafted in the sixth round in April.
“I've met a lot of Ravens fans and they're wishing me good luck playing for them,” Reynolds said. “This is awesome, to see the [military] network around this area, having played for four years and being in the military.”
Reynolds said he is grateful for the overwhelmingly warm response, yet he's still mindful that some who have served their country might not look at him so positively in being the poster boy for the Navy's recent policy change when it comes to professional athletes.
In May, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter gave Reynolds and fullback Chris Swain, as well as long snapper Joe Cardona (in his second year with the Patriots), permission to serve in the Ready Reserve in order to satisfy their five-year post-graduate commitments.
Swain is in training camp with the San Diego Chargers. Another former Navy athlete, Joseph Greenspan, who plays for the Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer, was released from active duty after one year and will serve in the reserves while playing.
The Ravens have only had four training camp practices, but it’s not too early for a five up and five down.
“I understand how those who have served their commitment feel, and I respect their opinion,” Reynolds, who has been assigned to a reserve unit out of Fort Meade, said after a recent practice in Owings Mills. “I know everyone is not going to feel the same way, and I am happy that many are supporting me in my pursuit of an NFL career.”
The first week of training camp might not be as rough as Reynolds' plebe summer four years ago, but the learning curve is still steep for a player trying to make the transition from quarterback to wide receiver and return specialist following a college career in which he broke several Navy records, as well the NCAA mark for rushing touchdowns (88).
Reynolds appears to be in a roster battle with Michael Campanaro, whose Howard County roots (River Hill) have also made him something of a local fan favorite. After missing most of his first two NFL seasons with injuries, Campanaro has had a strong start to training camp.
A few of those in the military who were appreciated Monday night in Baltimore showed support for Reynolds in his pursuit of an NFL career. For the most part, they know how much having Reynolds and others wearing the uniform of an NFL team will mean to those wearing Army fatigues or Navy whites.
“Being that there's surplus [of Navy officers] right now, which is one of the reasons he was probably given a deferment, it's great that he's been given an opportunity to even try out for the Ravens right now. I'm happy for him,” said Army Staff Sgt. Clint Larkins, who works out of a Reisterstown recruiting station.
Larkins said he was “shocked” when he heard that the Ravens drafted Reynolds in the first place.
“You don't see draft picks typically coming out from any of the armed forces academies,” Larkins said.
Army Spc. Evan Andrew, who also works as a recruiter in Reisterstown, also said he was excited for Reynolds. “I think he's talented. I'm anxious to see what he can do on the field. It will be fun to watch.”
Andrew used to root against Reynolds on the field, given the Army-Navy football rivalry. But he sounded like any other Ravens fan when talking about cheering for a player now on his team.
“As long as he produces on the field,” Andrew said.
One 38-year-old reservist attached to a unit in Aberdeen who attended Monday's practice believes that the current policy is not much different than what the Navy did in the early late 1980s and early 1990s with basketball star David Robinson, who transitioned from the Naval Academy to the San Antonio Spurs.
“They did it for promotional purposes and let him out early,” said the reservist, who would not provide his name. “You know when you go to an academy, that's the deal” of serving the five-year post-graduate commitment.
When the Ravens drafted Reynolds, it wasn't a sure thing he'd be able to play around his military commitment. This reservist had mixed opinions on the situation, but ultimately doesn't mind how it played out.
“If the military wants to stand firm, I'm cool with that,” he said. “If they want to let them go early to self-promote the branch, that's OK. I guess I'm more so leaning that if the government is paying for your degree, you need to go serve. But I'm not going to throw a fit if they let them play some football.”
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1. The Duquesne Spy Ring
The 33 convicted members of the Duquesne Spy Ring. (Library of Congress)
The most sophisticated German espionage operation in the United States was established—and busted—before America even entered the war. The Duquesne spy ring included 30 men and three women operating under the direction of Frederick “Fritz” Joubert Duquesne, a flamboyant South African adventurer and soldier who had also spied for the Germans during World War I. Starting in the late 1930s, members of Duquesne’s clandestine cell found their way into key civilian jobs in the United States. Some operatives served as couriers by working aboard American merchant vessels and airlines, while others gathered information by posing as military contractors. In its first several months, the Duquesne spy ring gained significant intelligence on American shipping patterns, and even stole military secrets regarding the bombsights used in American aircraft.
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Despite its early successes, the Duquesne spy ring was toppled in 1941 when a new recruit named William G. Sebold became a double agent for the United States. In addition to funneling dummy radio messages to the Nazis, the FBI provided Sebold with an office in New York outfitted with hidden recording devices and a two-way mirror. Once Sebold had gathered enough evidence, the FBI arrested Duquesne and 32 of his operatives in the biggest espionage bust in American history. Just days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, all members of the group were convicted and sentenced to a total of over 300 years in prison.
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2. The Bombing of Ellwood Oil Field
Soldiers inspect a crater caused by the Japanese attack at Fort Stevens. (National Archives and Records Administration)
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, a small contingent of Japanese submarines was dispatched east to patrol the California coastline. On February 23, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-17 slinked into a channel near Ellwood Oil Field, a large oil well and storage facility outside of Santa Barbara. After surfacing, the submarine lobbed 16 shells at Ellwood Beach from its lone deck gun before submerging and fleeing to the open ocean.
The brief shelling only caused minor damage to the oil field—a pump house and a single oil derrick were destroyed—but its implications were severe. The bombardment at Ellwood was the first shelling of the mainland United States during World War II, and it sparked an invasion panic among an American populace not used dealing with war on the home front. A day later, reports of enemy aircraft led to the so-called “Battle of Los Angeles,” in which American artillery was discharged over Los Angeles for several hours due to the mistaken belief that the Japanese were invading.
3. The Bombing of Fort Stevens and the Lookout Air Raids
Soldiers inspect a crater caused by the Japanese attack at Fort Stevens.
The only attack on a mainland American military site during World War II occurred on June 21, 1942, on the Oregon coastline. After trailing American fishing vessels to bypass minefields, the Japanese submarine I-25 made its way to the mouth of the Columbia River. It surfaced near Fort Stevens, an antiquated Army base that dated back to the Civil War. Just before midnight, I-25 used its 140-millimeter deck gun to fire 17 shells at the fort. Believing that the muzzle flashes of the fort’s guns would only serve to more clearly reveal their position, the commander of Fort Stevens ordered his men not to return fire. The plan worked, and the bombardment was almost totally unsuccessful—a nearby baseball field bore the brunt of the damage.
I-25 would later make history again when it executed the first-ever bombing of the continental United States by an enemy aircraft. In what became known as the Lookout Air Raids, I-25 returned to the Oregon coast in September 1942 and launched a Yokosuka E14Y floatplane. After flying to a wooded area near Brookings, Oregon, the floatplane dropped a pair of incendiary bombs in the hope of starting a forest fire. Thanks to light winds and a quick response from fire patrols, the bombing failed to have its desired effect, as did a second bombing over Brookings later that month. The pilot of the Japanese floatplane, Nobuo Fujita, would later make several goodwill visits to Brookings during the 1960s, and was even proclaimed an honorary citizen of the town upon his death in 1997.
4. Operation Pastorius
The trial of the Nazi saboteurs
The largest invasion of American soil during World War II came in the form of eight Nazi saboteurs sent to the United States on a doomed mission known as Operation Pastorius. The men—all naturalized American citizens who were living in Germany when the conflict began—were tasked with sabotaging the war effort and demoralizing the civilian population through acts of terrorism. In June 1942, U-boats secretly dropped the two four-man crews on the coast of Amagansett, New York, and Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Each team carried up to $84,000 in cash and enough explosives to wage a long campaign of sabotage.
The men had orders to attack transport hubs, hydroelectric power plants and industrial facilities. But before a single act of sabotage could ever take place, the mission was compromised when George John Dasch, one of the saboteurs from the New York group, chose to turn himself in to the FBI. Dasch was heavily interrogated, and after two weeks the FBI successfully rounded up the remaining saboteurs. Six of the men were executed as spies, while Dasch and an accomplice were jailed for six years before being deported by President Harry Truman.
5. Japanese Fire Balloons
One of the most unusual military actions of World War II came in the form of Japanese balloon bombs, or “Fugos,” directed at the mainland United States. Starting in 1944, the Japanese military constructed and launched over 9,000 high-altitude balloons, each loaded with nearly 50 pounds of anti-personnel and incendiary explosives. Amazingly, these unmanned dirigibles originated from over 5,000 miles away in the Japanese home islands. After being launched, the specially designed hydrogen balloons would ascend to an altitude of 30,000 feet and ride the jet stream across the Pacific Ocean to the mainland United States. Their bombs were triggered to drop after the three-day journey was complete—hopefully over a city or wooded region that would catch fire.
Nearly 350 of the bombs actually made it across the Pacific, and several were intercepted or shot down by the U.S. military. From 1944 to 1945, balloon bombs were spotted in more than 15 states—some as far east as Michigan and Iowa. The only fatalities came from a single incident in Oregon, where a pregnant woman and five children were killed in an explosion after coming across one of the downed balloons. Their deaths are considered the only combat casualties to occur on U.S. soil during World War II. |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis"
The crisis over the US addiction to painkillers - opioids - is a national emergency, says President Donald Trump.
"It's an emergency, it's a national emergency. We are going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis," he said.
The number of deaths from the drugs - prescribed to a third of Americans in 2015 - has quadrupled in 20 years.
Declaring a national emergency means the issue can get prioritised funding and resources from Washington.
"There's never been what's happened to this country over the last four or five years," said President Trump.
Mr Trump spoke to reporters on Thursday from his golf resort in New Jersey, where he has been taking a 17-day "working vacation".
The declaration came in response to a reporter's question, and was not announced through an official White House press release or statement.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The heroin-ravaged city fighting back
On Tuesday during a meeting at his golf course to discuss the opioid crisis, Mr Trump took a moment to threaten North Korea with "fire and fury" if it continued to engage in provocative nuclear behaviour.
Opioids, according to the US National Institute of Drug Abuse, include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic medications such as fentanyl, or pain relievers that are available by prescription, such as oxycodone, morphine, codeine, and many others.
Many of the victims of drug addiction were initially prescribed legal drugs by doctors to combat pain, but then later switched to the illegal version after their prescription expired.
Patients who are no longer receiving opioids as medication sometimes turn to street drugs such as heroin, which in many cities is cheaper than beer.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nashville mayor talks about son's drug overdose
Mr Trump had previously been urged by the White House Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis to declare the emergency.
The commission said this would "awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will".
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who chairs the commission created by Mr Trump, applauded the announcement, saying the group looks forward "to working with this President to address the approximately 142 deaths a day from drug overdoses in the United States".
But on Tuesday, Health Secretary Tom Price suggested that Mr Trump already had the necessary authority to tackle the crisis.
"We believe at this point that the resources that we need or the focus that we need to bring to bear to the opioid crisis at this point can be addressed without the declaration of an emergency," he said.
Mr Trump campaigned partly on a promise to tackle the drug epidemic which has claimed lives in urban, suburban and rural America.
Last week transcripts revealed that Mr Trump referred to the state of New Hampshire, where he campaigned often, as drug-infested.
"I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den," Mr Trump told the president of Mexico, according to a leaked transcript of the January phone call.
More on the US drugs crisis
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption America's new generation of addicts
As an open-air heroin camp is closed, options narrow |
Photo by Baishampayan Ghose via Flickr Creative Commons
Rob Gronkowski would love it if you joined his weekly fantasy football league. First place pays $5,000. it took decades, but the NFL has finally escaped the ghost of its past gambling scandals—so much so that Gronkowski's affiliation with a pseudo-gambling ring registers as no big deal. Still, it took decades.
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Until its closure in 2002, Lindell A.C. was a revered part of Detroit's sporting culture. The sports bar, once festooned with hockey sticks signed by Gordie Howe and baseball bats signed by Al Kaline, was the place to be for anybody in or around Detroit's sports scene.
In 1963, that included Alex Karras, a gigantic defensive lineman who opened the 1960s with three consecutive Pro Bowl seasons for the Lions. Karras was such a big fan of Lindell he became a part owner. His partners were two brothers, one of whom was a known gambler, and on January 7, 1963, the Detroit News reported Karras had been seen at Lindell with a number of known Detroit gamblers.
Read More: A Brief History of Performance Enhancing Drugs
When Karras' connection to the gamblers who frequented and co-owned Lindell became public, the NFL demanded Karras sell his interest in the bar or face expulsion from the league. The NFL had faced a number of game fixing scandals in the two decades prior. The most prominent came in 1946, when Merle Hapes and Frank Filchock of the New York Giants were bribed to throw the NFL Championship game against the Chicago Bears. In exchange for their cooperation, the pair was to receive $2,500 and a $2,000 bet on the game, the profits of which would go to them.
Karras, however, held fast. He explained why to Dan Moldea, author of the 1989 book Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football:
"The NFL asked me to leave the bar because of the unsavory characters who walked into the bar. I said, 'Fine, I'll do that, just as long as you don't let the unsavory characters come into the stadium.' The NFL did not reply to that. I never worried about whether the league gave me permission or not. I was making nine thousand dollars a year playing football and eighteen thousand with the bar. It didn't make much sense to leave the bar to go play football."
Karras (who later had an acting career that saw him star in Blazing Saddles, among other films) eventually relented. He sold his interest in Lindell and was reinstated prior to the 1964 season. But in Karras' story, the incentives for NFL players to gamble on and even fix games becomes clear. NFL players had one of the most precarious jobs in the country, one with an average career length under five years and low salaries. Meanwhile, large amounts of money were flowing through gambling markets contingent on game results controlled by those very workers. What, then, did a player truly have to lose?
Some exceptionally well-dressed casino patrons engaging in sports gambling. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
But by the 1980s, according to multiple bookmakers, gamblers, and other sources interviewed by Moldea, players fixing games was a thing of the past. An oddsmaker named Bobby Martin said, "There were a lot of fixed games during the 1950s, but there's nothing like that anymore… now the players are paid too much money. There's too much of a spotlight on them. Oddsmakers want honest football. We don't want anything dishonest. It interferes with our handicapping if the games are fixed. I can't get a true picture of the value of the teams."
Mort Olshan, whom Moldea called "perhaps the most renowned football handicapper in the United States," affirmed Martin's conclusion and added, "To make the risk worthwhile, the high-salaried athlete would expect a sizable payoff."
Thanks to increases in television revenue, competition from the United States Football League, and the labor fights of the NFLPA, the average NFL player salary exploded from $27,500 in 1972 to $90,102 by 1982 and all the way to $299,616 by 1989, the year Moldea published Interference. The award promised to Hapes and Filchock to fix the 1946 NFL Championship Game comes out to roughly $30,000 in 1989 dollars according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—less than the league's minimum salary.
The minimum salary in today's NFL stands at $420,000 for rookies and is no less than $645,000 for any player with at least three year's experience, according to the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement. The result is a completely different world for athletes than the one Karras lived in, where his part ownership of a local bar paid out twice as much as his All-Pro NFL labor.
Such an environment makes coordinating a fix nearly impossible. Even if a rogue gambler could cobble together the likely six-figure sum (or higher) required to turn a player towards fixing, he would need to find a bookmaker—or enough bookmakers—willing to take the large bets necessary to make a profit.
Those bookmakers won't be found in legal betting areas, either offshore or in Las Vegas. "The way the limits work for something like the NFL at the most respected offshore books (i.e. Pinnacle, Bookmaker) is they start off pretty small (low four figures) early in the week, and then as they take some bets and are more confident they're dealing a reasonable line, the limits go up throughout the week, getting to mid-to-high-five figures (sometimes $100K) by gametime," says Jacob Wheatley-Schaller via email, a sports gambling expert and the author of vegaswatch.org, a blog devoted to exposing misleading and misinformed treatments of gambling in sports journalism. "Other offshore shops mirror that general approach, although generally on a smaller scale."
Wheatley-Schaller says bet limits in Vegas work similarly, "although their limits at the higher end are more dependent on if they think you are any good or not (thus Mayweather being able to bet $2 million, which is an amount one casino would never agree to take on an NFL game if they thought the bettor was getting the best of it)." Fixing multiple games and taking profits over a long period of time at a single book would be difficult as well. "No matter where you bet, you're going to have a hard time staying under the radar if you're betting huge amounts and consistently winning," Wheatley-Schaller says. "Eventually the people taking your bets will either stop doing that, or figure out you're providing them with really valuable information and want to bet it themselves."
A bettor or a group of bettors could spread relatively small bets across a number of casinos. However, Wheatley-Schaller says such a strategy is "easier said than done, since offshores, Vegas shops and bookies tend to pay pretty close attention to what the line is at other shops with high limits." The concentrated bets on a single team would create enough movement in the betting lines to create suspicion.
This isn't to say game fixing and point shaving are completely dead. But when it has popped up in the new millennium, it has been concentrated in low-major college basketball or football games with double-digit point spreads. According to a March story in ESPN The Magazine on University of San Diego basketball player Brandon Johnson, who received a six-month prison sentence for his role in a sports bribery conspiracy in 2012, several NCAA football and basketball players have either been prosecuted or kicked off their teams for their parts in point shaving schemes.
These low-major football and basketball leagues, full of players plying their craft for free with little chance of going pro, are more analogous to the NFL of the 1940s-1960s than the NFL of today. Fewer books offer action on these games, with lower betting limits, and less attention paid to the lines.
Still, the NFL fears the influence of gamblers and game fixers, at least publicly. In his 2001 book The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers, and the Death of Their Las Vegas, Chad Millman cites then-NFL Security Vice President Milt Aherlich, who called betting "the hydrogen bomb of the leagues." Section 15 of the standard NFL player contract, "INTEGRITY OF GAME," allows for the fine, suspension, or termination of a contract for any player "if he accepts a bribe or agrees to throw or fix an NFL game; fails to promptly report a bribe offer or an attempt to throw or fix an NFL game; bets on an NFL game; [or] knowingly associates with gamblers or gambling activity."
But despite the NFL's protests, the problem of game fixing doesn't appear to be one the NFL needs to think too hard about any time soon. Now that the league pays its players like they are the best in the world at what they do—despite its best efforts since the players first unionized in 1956—what was once the league's biggest problem has, ironically enough, solved itself. |
BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government said on Monday nobody should try to make political capital out of a criminal case involving an Afghan refugee suspected of raping and murdering a German university student.
The case could bolster support for anti-immigrant groups such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which have already gained ground after Germany admitted nearly a million mostly Muslim migrants and refugees last year.
Last Friday police detained a 17-year-old Afghan schoolboy who arrived in Germany last year and a test determined that his DNA matched that found near the site where a 19-year-old female student died in the southwestern city of Freiburg on Oct. 15.
Police said an autopsy found she had been a victim of sexual crime and violence before she drowned in a river.
“We must not allow this abominable crime to be misused for rabble-rousing and conspiracy propaganda,” German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Facebook.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said the Afghan refugee “must be punished with the full force of our laws” if found guilty.
“But we must not forget that we are talking then about a possible crime by one Afghan refugee, not a whole group of people who are Afghan or refugees,” Seibert added.
Their comments reflect the political sensitivity of crimes involving migrants after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy triggered a sharp fall in her popularity. She wants to seek a fourth term in next year’s federal election in Germany.
Some Germans also suspect their government and mainstream media of trying to hush up incidents involving migrants to avoid a political backlash.
When hundreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed by men of North African and Arab appearance during New Year celebrations in Cologne on Dec. 31, national news outlets did not report them until several days later, prompting strong criticism from anti-immigrant groups.
German public broadcaster ARD came under fire on social media for not including a report in its Saturday night news broadcast on the case involving the Afghan migrant suspect, with some accusing it of being too politically correct.
ARD Chief Editor Kai Gniffke defended the decision, saying in a blog that journalists were not “emotionless” but ARD seldom reported on individual crime cases and chose instead to focus on “events of social, national and international relevance”. |
This 1977 Rolls Royce Camargue is a Franco Sbarro modified car built for Moroccan King Hassan II. Reportedly used as what the German language ad calls a Jagdwagen or “hunting car”–in this case the weapon was a trained falcon. It’s bizarre, expensive and probably of questionable taste, but we dig it anyway. Find it here on mobile.de in Mettmann, Germany for 248k euros (~$267k USD today). Special thanks to BaT reader Smokin’ G. for this submission.
Apparently re-branded as a Sbarro UNIKAT, we’re assuming it was a one-off. Widened, deep dish OEM Crewe wheels with partially body colored barrels and RR logo covers are pretty wild, especially in combo with fat, raised white letter balloon tires–the latter presumably good for traction on soft sand. Modifications are extensive, including flared wheel arches, reshaped, door-less side apertures, rear, side-exit exhaust pipes, and a slatted rear fascia. Note also the fold-down windshield and grab rail. Regardless of how you feel about the finished product, build quality looks to be excellent.
Butterscotch leather seats with dark blue piping and lighter blue harnesses complement what appears to be a blue stained burl wood dash, and condition looks to be excellent throughout the open, four seater cabin. Whether this is because the car was a rarely used toy or due to a recent restoration isn’t specified, though either seems plausible. The surprisingly generic looking aftermarket steering wheel is shown below with what may have been a royal seal, but seems to have been replaced with a plain black center pad and RR logo in other photos.
Unfortunately, no engine shots are provided. It’d be great to read about mechanical modifications or see a few historical photos, but we’re still flabbergasted that such a thing was built in the first place. Bring a big bird of prey and some long leather gloves. |
Migrants at an asylum centre in Rees-Haldern, Germany, trashed their accommodation with iron bars after becoming enraged by the poor mobile phone reception in the building’s lobby area.
The Daily Mail reports the eight men from Ghana and Togo, aged between 18 and 28, also tried to break into the secure room where guards had been forced to take shelter.
Two dozen armed police were required to quell the riot, one of whom was hospitalised suffered a “complicated break” in his foot.
The migrants will stand trial for actual bodily harm, serious breach of the peace, criminal damage, property damage, and resisting arrest.
Migrant riots have become a regular feature of life in Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that there was “no limit” on the number of people the country would take in September 2015.
Turks and Kurds fought running battles on the streets of Frankfurt later that month, bringing a long-running Anatolian conflict to the heart of Europe.
Mass brawls broke out between migrants at asylum centres in Spandau and Tempelhof in November 2015, resulting in buildings being evacuated “in fear and panic”.
Afghan migrants tried in March 2016 for attacking police officers en masse and wrecking their asylum centre in claimed they had been behaving according to Afghan custom and did not understand German law.
In October 2016, migrants rioted at a centre in Reinickendorf, north Berlin, destroying property and attacking, injuring, and robbing security staff.
Breitbart London reporting on mass disorder in Dortmund on New Year’s 2016 was officially denied by German authorities, but the substantive details involving illegal fireworks and a fire at one of the city’s oldest churches were largely corroborated.
Beyond these examples, German police confessed last year they have had to respond to hundreds of violent incidents at asylum centres, with the federal police admitting that a massive spike in crime has been driven by migration in a much-delayed November 2016 report.
The Berlin Senate has launched an official inquiry into the sheer scale of migrant crime in the German capital, while police in Munich report that almost half of suspects are now “non-German”. Police in the city of Ludwigsburg have even had to establish a specialist “migrant crime team”. |
Fans have been asking for a continuation of 2012’s Dredd ever since it’s home video release after it’s initial disastrous theatrical run. People still felt the stigma of the Sylvester Stallone film and just figured this new Karl Urban version would suck. They figured wrong, and have been clamoring for more ever since.
In a recent tweet, Karl Urban had this to say about the possibility of doing a Dredd series:
Dredd 2 : I’d do it !! @netflix or @Amazon . There’s a gold mine of Awesome Mega city 1 stories ! https://t.co/5KeUAizPNS — Karl Urban (@KarlUrban) April 21, 2016
As far as this goes, a series would probably be the best route. As we’ve seen with Daredevil and other shows, there’s a place for this kind of storytelling, and it’s much better over episodes rather than condensed into one 90-120 minute movie. After watching Dredd, I found myself wanting to see more of Mega-City One, so here’s hoping it’ll happen.
The synopsis for the 2012 film reads:
Mega City One is a vast, violent metropolis where felons rule the streets. The only law lies with cops called “judges,” who act as judge, jury and executioner, and Dredd (Karl Urban) is one of the city’s most feared. One day, Dredd is partnered with Cassandra (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie with powerful psychic abilities. A report of a terrible crime sends Dredd and Cassandra to a dangerous area controlled by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), a drug lord who will stop at nothing to protect her empire.
What do you think of this? Would you like to see more Dredd? Sound off below! |
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