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It was a heart-pumping, stomach-churning roller-coaster ride for opponents of Canada’s Wonderland in the village of Maple in Vaughan. Debates heated up faster than a strawberry-and-vanilla-ice-cream-topped funnel cake left out in the August sun. Canada’s Wonderland opened on May 23, 1981, following years of controversy and acrimony. Its creation also resulted in infrastructure improvements, kick-starting more regional development.
The caption for this July 21, 1980 reads: Study in contrast: The mystical mountain of Canada's Wonderland overshadows a dilapidated barn in Vaughan Township, signalling the beginning of the end for farming in the area. One real estate agent says land that sold for $5,000 an acre just a few years ago is now fetching at least $15,000 as hotels, motels and fast-food outlets scramble for sites near the park. ( Ron Bull / Toronto Star Archives )
“You could say Yogi Bear won and Maple lost,” Vaughan councillor James Cameron told the Star in March 1978. On one side were homeowners in Maple and residents organizations such as SAVE (Sensible Approach to Vaughan’s Environment) who opposed the theme park off Hwy. 400, as well as other suburban encroachments. The CNE, Ontario Place and the Royal Ontario Museum were fearful of the competition it would create. Then there were the developers: Family Leisure Centres, a division of U.S.-based Taft Broadcasting Co., and Canada’s Great-West Life Assurance Co., who thought their plans were smarter than the average bear. The developers purchased 330 acres (130 hectares) of land in 1975 at the intersection of Hwy. 400 and Major Mackenzie Dr.
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The caption for this 1980 photo reads: Bird's eye view: Construction of Canada's Wonderland, a theme park going up on 320 acres near Maple right on schedule for its scheduled opening in May 1981 though right now the site looks more like the product of a deranged mind. ( David Cooper/Toronto Star Archives )
In March 1978, Canada’s Wonderland was approved by the Ontario Municipal Board. The report recommended that the province’s Ministry of Culture and Education force the park to maintain a high level of Canadian content. “Toronto is the last good theme park area left in North America,” William Bieberbach, Yogi Bear’s ambassador and director of marketing for Taft, told the Star following the deal’s approval. His company operated similar parks in Cincinnati and Richmond, Va. “You’ve got the population, the money and the highway access. There are 22 of these parks in North America — Disneyland starting it all in the ’50s — so the market is covered, if not saturated. The Maple site is ideal.” Well, tell that to the residents of York Region. “For God’s sake, Disneyland isn’t the real world. We don’t need a place like this. We have everything we need in Metro Toronto … It’s an abomination and I don’t want my children exposed to more of this kind of hucksterism,” said an enraged Margaret Britnell, mayor of King Township and mother of three children.
Cameron couldn’t understand why the developers “think they’re doing us a favour by building a plastic replica of the Canadian frontier when we have Black Creek Pioneer Village two miles down the road.” He also expressed serious concerns about the effect of increased traffic and the tourist dollars the American theme park would steal from more established entertainment centres, such as the CNE, Ontario Place and the Metro Zoo.
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But then Vaughan mayor Garnet Williams thought it was a great idea. “All this anti-American feeling is baloney. Building this park is no different than watching American television,” he said. With approvals in place, preparations began for the megaproject, which would feature several rides and five themed areas: Frontier Canada, Hanna-Barbera Land, International Street, Medieval Faire and World Expo 1890. Wonder Mountain, with its Victoria Falls, would be the centrepiece.
This April 9, 1980 photo caption reads: Mountainous job: These workmen may look like spiders clinging to netting stretched over a skeleton of steel but what they're doing is making a mountain. The mountain will emerge as they spray the meshing with a cement roughed up to look like rock. ( David Cooper/Toronto Star Archives )
The cost for the project came to $120 million ($307 million in today’s dollars), tipping the decision to delay Frontier Canada’s construction for a year. The park would run daily from May through Labour Day and on weekends through September. The ticket package was set at $11.95 per adult, with access to 18 attractions. “Resignation has been the real response of the people,” a representative from the residents group SAVE told the Star in 1980. “It means we’ll be living between two dumps,” referring to Canada’s Wonderland and the Keele Valley Landfill.
An old fashioned roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland in 1981, the year it opened. ( Canada's Wonderland Company )
On May 23, 1981, Ontario Premier Bill Davis and Taft Broadcasting president Dudley Taft officially opened Canada’s Wonderland. The ceremony included 10,000 helium balloons, 13 parachutists, a pipe band and 350 white doves. Four children each poured a vial of water from their home regions into the park’s fountain. Hockey great Wayne Gretzky helped raise the Canadian flag over the park, which received 12,000 guests that summerlike Saturday, out of an estimated 40,000 attendance on opening day.
The Drgagon Fyre roller coaster on opening day 1981, with intrepid Toronto Star reporter Kevin Scanlon front and centre. He gave the ride an 8 out of 10. ( Toronto Star Archives )
The Star sent reporter Kevin Scanlon to test three nausea inducers during media previews. “The Dragon Fyre gave me a sensation I hadn’t felt since rolling a speeding Volkswagen Beetle four times in a Perth County ditch nine years ago,” Scanlon said of the ride, which he described as “1,800 feet of tubular steel that is twisted pretzel-like into two 50-foot loops and a double barrel-roll.” The reporter gave it an 8 out of 10, docking points for its short duration. The Wilde Beast earned a 9 (it bruised his elbows) and the Mighty Canadian Mine Buster scored a perfect 10 for its high drop and speed (up to 84 kilometres an hour).
Then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau with his three sons, from left, Sacha, Justin and Michel at Canada's Wonderland in 1983. ( TORONTO STAR ARCHIVES )
That first year, Canada’s Wonderland grossed more than $45 million, with an attendance of nearly 2.2 million. It did more than Taft’s most successful park in its first season, according to William Baumann, Taft’s director of investor relations. Paramount Parks acquired ownership from 1993 to 2006, renaming it Paramount Canada’s Wonderland. Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. purchased the park in 2006 and dropped Paramount from the title. In 1983, Canada’s Wonderland added the Kingswood Music Theatre, a 15,000-seat amphitheatre that has hosted popular concerts. Park hours were extended into October when Fearfest (later known as Halloween Haunt) was introduced in October 2005.
The Behemoth at its launched in April 2008. It drops 70 metres and reaches speeds of up to 125 km/h. ( Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star )
New rides joined the lineup, including the roller-coaster Leviathan, billed as “the tallest and fastest in Canada” when it rolled out in 2012. “Leviathan’s 1,672 metres of blue painted steel, like ribbons in the sky, either entrance or horrify at first sight. There’s nothing subtle about it,” said the Star. Leviathan offered an initial drop of 93.3 metres, reaching speeds of 148 km/h and knocking the park’s Behemoth — no baby at 70 metres with speeds climaxing at 124 km/h — out of first place.
Take flight with Canada's Wonderland's new thrill ride, Skyhawk, which is new in 2016. ( Canada's Wonderland Company )
Canada’s Wonderland has remained the most visited seasonal amusement park in North America for several years. It offers more than 200 attractions, with a total of 69 rides, 16 roller-coasters and eight themed areas. Its eight-hectare water park Splash Works includes waterslides and Canada’s largest wave pool, White Water Bay. Two new rides were opened for the 2016 season: Flying Eagles for the kids and the Skyhawk, which takes riders 41 metres off the ground, where they perform like pilots, spinning their seats 360 degrees.
Earlier this month, the Star's Ben Rayner (front left) rides along with Canadian pop starlet Alyssa Reid (2nd from front left) on the Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland while she attempts to set a Guiness World Record for the most rollercoaster rides in an hour, which she and Ben did. ( Randy Risling/Toronto Star )
Unfortunately, the U.S.-owned amusement park kept a big chunk of the Maple Leaf Forever out of Maple: the Canadian-themed Frontier Village remained unsettled. Story idea? Share your story suggestions at [email protected] . To search more about this story or your story go to thestar.com/archives . To purchase or browse more photos go to starstore.ca/collections/once-upon-a-city , or visit us on Facebook at facebook.com/TorontoStarArchives or on Twitter: @StarHistoricPix. |
You’ve likely seen rankings of the best cities in Canada to find a job, and rankings of the most affordable housing markets around.
The problem is, they're not the same places. Toronto and Vancouver are creating tons of jobs, but are now seriously unaffordable. Lots of cities in Canada have much cheaper houses than those two, and few jobs to go with it. But people need both jobs and homes, don’t they? So what about the best cities for both?
We compiled data from Bank of Montreal’s Labour Market Report Card, and from home affordability indexes from Royal Bank of Canada and Caisse Desjardins, to figure out which cities are the best on both measures.
None of the cities that top this list are the best places to find work in Canada; nor are they the places with the least expensive homes, for the most part. These are the cities that have the best balance of the two.
The biggest surprise? The top two cities in Canada on this metric are both in provinces suffering from the oil crash.
Here are the top 10, and the bottom worst. The methodology can be found at the bottom of this story.
#10: Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. (57%)
(Photo: Alan Marsh via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 5.5% (Year ago: 5.5%)
Average house price: $378,248
BMO labour market ranking: 4 out of 33
Desjardins affordability ranking: 15 out of 20
This southern Ontario tech hub has one of the strongest job markets in the country, and while house prices are rising, they are still far lower than in the Toronto area an hour to the east.
#9: St. John's, Nfld. (58.75%)
(Photo: Abstractstudio.ca via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 6.8% (Year ago: 6.5%)
Average house price: $324,300
BMO labour market ranking: 15 out of 33
RBC affordability ranking: 2 out of 14 (tied with Regina)
Newfoundland's largest city isn't known for its economic might, but the city has a much lower jobless rate than the rest of the province, it's creating some jobs (if not many), and house prices fall within the affordable range.
#8: Oshawa, Ont. (59.5%)
(Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 5.6% (Year ago: 7.5%)
Average house price: $531,051 (for all of Durham Region)
BMO labour market ranking: 1 out of 33
Desjardins affordability ranking: 17 out of 20
Oshawa tops BMO's labour market report card, no doubt in part thanks to the Toronto suburb enjoying some of that strong economic growth the region has been seeing. But house prices are still considerably lower on average than in other suburbs closer to Toronto.
#7: Winnipeg, Man. (60.75%)
(Photo: Panoramic Images via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 6.3% (Year ago: 6.1%)
Average house price: $278,200
BMO labour market ranking: 12 out of 33
RBC affordability ranking: 5 out of 14
Desjardins affordability ranking: 14 out of 20
Winnipeg hasn't churned out many jobs lately, but it still has a high employment rate (i.e., a large share of the population has a job) and some of the most affordable homes of any major city in Canada.
#6: Kingston, Ont. (63.5%)
(Photo: Panoramic Images via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 6.3% (Year ago: 7.2%)
Average house price: $305,155
BMO labour market ranking: 19 out of 33
Desjardins affordability ranking: 10 out of 20
Kingston jumped 12 spots on BMO's labour market report card in the past year, thanks to a 0.9-per-cent increase in new jobs.
#5: Halifax, N.S. (67%)
(Photo: Walter Bibikow via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 6.4% (Year ago: 6.7%)
Average house price: $289,600
BMO labour market ranking: 6 out of 33
RBC affordability ranking: 4 out of 14
Halifax has 2.6 per cent more jobs today than it did a year ago, and with average house prices below $300,000 you can live well here.
#4: Trois-Rivieres, Que. (69.5%)
(Photo: Yves Marcoux via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 7.4% (Year ago: 5.9%)
Median house price: $147,000 (for detached home; condo prices n/a)
BMO labour market ranking: 26 out of 33
Desjardins affordability ranking: 1 out of 20
You should only consider moving to Trois-Rivieres if you have a job offer in hand. The city has a very weak job market, but if you were to find work there, consider yourself amazingly lucky — at $147,000 for an average house, you will be able to afford more real estate here than in just about any other urban area in the country.
#3: Windsor, Ont. (80%)
(Photo: Mike Kline via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 6.4% (Year ago: 8.9%)
Average house price: $227,870
BMO labour market ranking: 8 out of 33
Desjardins affordability ranking: 4 out of 20
The long-suffering auto capital of Canada has had one of the strongest job markets in the country over the past year, adding 1.6 per cent new jobs. But house prices haven't caught up, making the city eminently affordable.
#2: Edmonton, Alta. (81.75%)
(Photo: Holger Mette via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 7% (Year ago: 5.9%)
Average house price: $391,500
BMO labour market ranking: 3 out of 33
RBC affordability ranking: 6 out of 14
Desjardins affordability ranking: 3 out of 20
Like Regina, Edmonton is a city in a province that's suffering from the oil crash. But, like Regina, Edmonton is creating jobs (four per cent more of them in the past year) and house prices there are stable.
#1: Regina, Sask. (82.75%)
(Photo: Ben Krut via Getty Images)
Jobless rate: 5.4% (Year ago: 4.2%)
Average house price: $312,000
BMO labour market ranking: 5 out of 33
RBC affordability ranking: 2 out of 14 (tied with St. John’s)
The overall job market in Saskatchewan is very weak right now, due to the oil price rout, but Regina is hanging in there, adding 1.2 per cent net new jobs over the past year. Add to that an average house price that's less than half of Toronto's, and this is the best city in Canada to find a job and an affordable home.
And now... the worst city in Canada for a job and an affordable home:
St. Catharines, Ont. (21.5%)
(Photo: Balcer via Wikimedia Commons)
Jobless rate: 8% (Year ago: 6%)
Average house price: $321,595
BMO labour market ranking: 31 out of 33
Desjardins affordability ranking: 16 out of 20
St. Catharines house prices soared 18 per cent in the past year, thanks to its proximity to Toronto, but the city's rust-belt economy isn't creating many jobs. It's the worst of all worlds.
And in case you're curious, Toronto scored 39 per cent in the index and Vancouver scored 48 per cent — not good enough to be in the top half of the 26 cities surveyed.
How we calculated this
The scores given to cities are a percentage based on three existing indexes: The BMO Labour Market Report Card; the RBC housing affordability index; and the Caisse Desjardins index of housing affordability.
Only cities covered by the BMO labour report card and at least one of the affordability indices were included. Thus some cities are missing, including Barrie, Guelph and Peterborough, Ontario; Abbotsford and Kelowna, B.C.; and Moncton, N.B.
Cities were given a percentage score based on their relative rank in the labour market and another based on housing affordability. The final score is the average of a city's ranking in both measures.
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Kickstarter Update Video - 70% funded, only 2 weeks to go!
We Made A Game will be a free online documentary that will follow the story of two aspiring independent game development teams, Deco Digital & Bevel Studios, as they partner up to create a new exciting and innovative video game for the Xbox One through Microsoft's ID@Xbox self publishing program.
The feature length documentary will take viewers through the whole game development pipeline from start to finish, highlighting the trials and tribulations of the young people who are risking their financial security and personal relationships to achieve the dream of creating their own independent games studio.
This Kickstarter project has been created as we need your support if this is something you would like to see produced. A full breakdown of why your backing is needed can be seen further down this page!
We Made A Game is being made to show people the reality of working for a small start up indie company from the perspectives of the employees themselves. The documentary aims to cover multiple aspects of indie game development, such as the benefits of being a self publishing studio, the emotions of working in a highly creative & rewarding environment and the exciting yet stressful personal lives of those putting it all on the line to create their dream.
We believe this will appeal to anyone who has even a slight interest in video game production, from gamers who want to know more about the game development pipeline to even parents who have young children who aspire to work in the industry, We Made A Game will be for everyone who loves games and wants an insight into how they're made. If you're reading this page, this documentary is aiming to appeal to people like you.
Deco Digital are a new startup independent studio based in Derby, United Kingdom. We're partnering up with an established developer Bevel Studios to bring you a new and unique gaming experience. Our combined team is made up of two programmers, three artists, and one aspiring intern.
Throughout the documentary you will get to know us all as professionals and individuals as we take you though our experiences and provide insight into how indie game production pipeline works in our studio.
Programmers Kevin & David of Bevel Studios.
We're not giving away specific details about the game itself just yet, we're still in the initial design & conception phase of pre-production so a lot of details about the game are changing frequently. A few hints about the game's direction are shown in the trailer through a few early concept pieces, so we hope you enjoy speculating about it up until a future official announcement from us!
What I can tell you for certain is that we're creating a new and innovative game to be released on the Xbox One through the ID@Xbox program. We're also planning to release on other (unannounced) platforms in the future depending on the game's initial success.
The documentary will be following us over our production period of 6 months and will be edited throughout. We plan to have our game released on the Xbox One marketplace within the 2014 Christmas period. This is when we shall wrap up all filming and finish the production of the documentary.
The film will be released for free to watch online after the game's release, early January 2015.
Note for backers - We will be producing exclusive physical DVD copies for any backers who pledge over £25. These will be individually made in the studio and will be sent out to backers after the film releases online. We've stated the estimated delivery to be March 2015 but we hope to have the DVD's produced and mailed out before that date. The March 2015 estimated delivery date is there only to avoid disappointment if we're delayed for any reason. Our backers will always be extremely important to us and we promise to always do our best to put you first.
Phoenix Cosmic is a director, cinematographer, and recent graduate of the University of Derby, specialising in film and television. Her latest short film 'Oneirataxia' is due to premiere at various festivals across the UK throughout the upcoming year. She is very excited to be involved in such a challenging yet rewarding project as she follows the team of game designers intently throughout the next six months.
'We Made A Game' director Phoenix Cosmic.
We are making this documentary as we really believe this is something that people who love games would want to watch. As gamers ourselves we know it's rare for companies to open up and show what happens behind closed doors. We have a unique opportunity as an independent developer with a film production company backing us to show you exactly what it's like to work in an independent game studio from the perspective of the programmers & artists themselves.
The purpose of this project isn't for financial gain as the product will be released and available to watch online for free on any internet-enabled device. The main purpose of this Kickstarter project is to help us create something that people would want to watch and help enlighten and educate viewers about multiple aspects of the industry.
The project requires your support as without your backing we will not be able to produce the full documentary. As a start-up studio our limited funds are reserved either for the company or our own living costs to enable us to produce our game. It'd be unfair for us to ask our local film production team to work on this 6-month long documentary without financial support for equipment & travel expenses. We really want to seize this opportunity and create this documentary for you alongside the production of our game but this will require time, effort and expenses.
Without you, our backers, this project will not go forward. Everyone who backs us will be a part of our journey and be able to say "we made a game". If this is something you want to watch and to share with others, your support is vital and will receive sincere thanks from the entire team.
How you will be supporting us (Funding Breakdown)
The money that will be generated from this Kickstarter campaign will be used to make sure we can fulfill our promise of producing the entire feature length documentary in full 1080p.
We can commission a team to film and edit footage for the full duration of the 6 month game production. [ £1,000 ]
] We can commission a separate sound engineer to increase the overall quality. [ £500 ]
] A composer will be needed to make the soundtrack for We Made A Game. We've currently been using royalty-free music but we would like to have some original music pieces unique to We Made A Game. [ £400 ]
] Physical DVDs (backer rewards) to be made in the studio and shipped worldwide [ £300 ]
] Kickstarter fees and taxes. [£300]
Stretch Goals
£2,500 - Initial Funding Goal. At this point the documentary will get made and will be released online for all to see.
£4,000 - GDC, Cologne. We will be able to send our producer and film crew to Cologne, Germany with us to film footage from our stand at the European Game Developers Conference to include within the documentary. Going to GDC to present our game alongside other ID@Xbox titles will be a great achievement for us as a studio and we would love to share it with you.
£7,000 - Extra Content & Tutorials. We'll be able to film in a much wider variety of locations across the UK. We will be able to film extra footage such as mini online tutorials & advice videos for getting into indie development and working in the games industry. We'd love to hear what our backers would like to see as extras alongside the movie if we reached this stretch goal.
Definitely Yes! We really want to build a community around this project who want to help shape it's future into something they want to watch and become a part of making. We're planning on allowing this through our various forms of social media.
We have a lot of plans for the content that will run alongside the main story of the documentary such as interviews and special features but we're also looking for suggestions from our backers as to what you want to see and learn from this documentary.
If you have an areas you really want us to cover or have any unique suggestions and/or ideas, feel free to contact us either through our Kickstarter page, our social media pages or through our community managers email at: [email protected]
Our community manager will do his best to respond to any questions/queries and suggestions that backers and supporters may have.
All backers who pledge above £7 will receive an optional invite into an 'invite only' Facebook group where they can directly contact the members of our studio and become a part of the 'We Made A Game' insider development community. This is separate from our public facebook page. We plan to interact and engage on a regular basis with our backers, taking suggestions and answering any questions you may have. We will also post exclusive content that may not be released publicly, such as preview stills and artwork. We hope you will enjoy being a part of this community and following the development of the documentary & our game.
You can also follow our studio and projects through our dedicated public Facebook page which is open to everyone (not just backers!) and will be kept up to date with updates on the progression of the documentary alongside screenshots and previews.
We hope you'll visit us, give us a 'like' and help share the word about our project by clicking the image below.
You're helping us fulfill a project that we're very passionate about and we can't wait to start full production with your backing. No matter what contribution you give we will be extremely grateful just to know there are people who believe in this project just as much as we do, and that want to watch this documentary. Thank you sincerely to every single one of you.
- The Deco Digital Team |
The body's "feeding clock" may over-ride our natural sleep cycles Adjusting meal times can help travellers recover from jet lag, a study suggests. Harvard University researchers believe the brain has a second "feeding clock" which keeps track of meal-times, rather than daytime, after studying mice. When food is scarce, the feeding clock overrides the master clock, keeping animals awake until they find food. Thus, shift workers and travellers can keep tiredness at bay by not eating, they suggest in the journal Science. Our daily sleep cycles, behaviour and metabolism are governed by a powerful master clock, which resides in an area of the brain known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It's never going to make the symptoms of jet lag disappear entirely, but it could certainly make them a lot more manageable
Dr Neil Stanley, of Norwich University Hospital Disruption of these "circadian" rhythms have been shown to be linked with insomnia, depression, heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. This "circadian" clock is highly sensitive to daylight. But scientists have for several years been aware of a second "feeding" clock which is sensitive to our eating patterns. To understand the relationship between the two clocks, a Harvard team studied mice which were missing a key clock gene, Bmal1. By restoring this gene to different parts of the brain, one at a time, they were able to pinpoint the "feeding clock" to an area of the hypothalamus known as the dorsomedial nucleus. What is more, by observing the mice's behaviour, they found that the "feeding clock" could supersede the circadian master clock, keeping the mice awake until they had the opportunity to eat. Beneficial Lead researcher Clifford Saper suggested travellers and shift workers may be able to use the feeding clock to adapt to changes in time zones and night-time schedules which leave them feeling groggy and jet-lagged. "If, for example, you are travelling from the US to Japan, you are forced to adjust to an 11-hour time difference. "Because the body's biological clock can only shift a small amount each day, it takes the average person about a week to adjust to the new time zone. "And, by then, it's often time to turn around and come home. "A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock. "So, in this case, simply avoiding any food on the plane, and then eating as soon as you land, should help you to adjust and avoid some of the uncomfortable feelings of jet lag." Dr Neil Stanley, a sleep expert at Norwich University Hospital, said the discovery was "potentially very beneficial" to travellers and people who work unsociable hours. "It's never going to make the symptoms disappear entirely, but it could certainly make them a lot more manageable," he said.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — The man has witnessed key stages of Kevin Durant’s NBA trajectory as a promising young star in Oklahoma City toward an NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors. In between, Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams saw a transformation as noticeable as Durant’s imposing wing span.
“He’s become a much more consistent defender here,” Adams said. “He’s played and showed defensive brilliance throughout his career. But I think his consistency here has been really good. That’s really helped our program.”
The Warriors (13-4) enter Wednesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder (7-9) with seemingly all eyes centered on Durant facing his former team for just the second time since leaving the Thunder franchise for Golden State as a free agent in the 2016 offseason. The most pressing question: will Durant play after the Warriors listed him as questionable with a sprained left ankle that left him sidelined during Sunday’s win in Brooklyn? The next pressing question: will Durant encounter the same hostile environment that awaited him from fans that once showered him with praise?
As a Warriors assistant that specializes on defensive schemes and honest feedback, Adams has become more consumed with another question. After seemingly accomplishing everything with an NBA championship, a Finals MVP, a regular-season MVP and eight NBA All-Star appearances, can Durant land on an All-Defensive NBA team or better yet win the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award?
“Kevin will be the deciding force on that,” Adams said. “If that is an important thing for him, he will get it done. It is important. He is kind of meeting a certain benchmark. That all depends on Kevin. It’s wholly within his grasp to get that done if that’s a goal of his.”
Durant has outlined that as a goal of his in the 2017-18 season. Durant has made early steps toward reaching that goal. He has ranked second in the NBA in blocks per game (2.27), and also had seven in what marked a career-high last month in New Orleans. Durant has held opponents to a 39 percent clip, according to NBA.com. And Durant’s 6-foot-9, 240-pound frame and long wingspan has forced teams to alter their offensive sets and their shot attempts.
Oh, and Durant has done that while also remaining the Warriors’ second-leading scorer. He has averaged 24.9 points, while shooting 53.3 percent from the field, 42.2 percent from 3-point range and 86.5 percent from the free-throw line. Durant has also posted 6.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game.
“Kevin is a type of guy that can score a lot of points with his eyes closed,” Adams said. “It comes very natural to him. The other things I think he’s taking great pride in is his defense. I think when he does that, he can be as good as anyone out there. I think at times he has shown that this year.”
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Adams has become impressed with Durant’s improvement in blocking shots, guarding his man and helping out on rotations. Adams attributes those improvements toward Durant having increased awareness stemmed through 10 NBA seasons. But just as Adams prodded a young Durant as a former Thunder assistant from 2008 to 2010, Adams has done the same thing with Durant in Golden State for the past two seasons.
Adams has called on Durant to improve with being a “spontaneous defender” that can make split-second changes that Adams says Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala do so well. After praising Durant for his practice regimen that ensures sustained offensive consistency, Adams asked for the same thing for the other side of the court.
“Kevin is just a marvelous basketball player. When he makes up his mind to do something for a season or on any given night, he’s one of those guys where it’s possible to achieve those goals,” Adams said. “He’s a marvelous defender. The only thing I think can help you is focusing on the consistency aspect of game after game trying to do the same stuff. He did that last year. I think he’s doing that this year. He’s still in a process of getting to his highest level of play. That’s probably reflective of many individuals on this team.”
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Bieber, Gosling and Lavigne share a common family connection that goes back 400 years to some of Quebec's earliest settlers, according to the Ancestry experts.
Bieber and Gosling are 11th cousins once removed, while Bieber and Lavigne are 12th cousins through common relatives Mathurin Roy and Marguerite Biré. As for Dion, she and the Biebs are 10th cousins three times removed through Jacques Vézina and Marie Boisdon.
Sounds kinda confusing, but, as with most things, a diagram helps.
"Discoveries like this are rare, so the fact that some of Canada's top entertainment industry stars are all related is especially fascinating," says genealogist Lesley Anderson.
"There's something special about discovering a shared connection, and to be able to go so far back in history to do so is one of the most satisfying aspects of family history research." |
The Obama administration cannot be sure of the whereabouts of thousands of foreigners in the U.S. who had their visas revoked over terror concerns and other reasons, a State Department official acknowledged Thursday.
The admission, made at a House oversight hearing examining immigrant vetting in the wake of major terror attacks, drew a sharp rebuke from the committee chairman.
“You don’t have a clue do you?” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Michele Thoren Bond, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
Bond initially said the U.S. has revoked more than 122,000 visas since 2001, including 9,500 because of the threat of terrorism.
But Chaffetz quickly pried at that stat, pressing the witness about the present location of those individuals.
"I don't know," she said.
The startling admission came as members of the committee pressed administration officials on what safeguards are in place to reduce the risk from would-be extremists.
At issue is how closely the U.S. government examines the background of people seeking entry to the country, including reviews of their social media postings.
Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told committee members that such checks aren't being done in an abundant manner, and he was not specific about when or how it would occur.
Lawmakers are trying to ascertain which safeguards are in place to ensure that extremists are not exploiting a variety of legal paths to travel to the United States.
One of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters came to the U.S. on a K-1 fiancee visa last year despite the fact that the FBI believed she was already radicalized.
Tashfeen Malik came to the U.S. on a K-1 fiance visa in July 2014 and passed multiple background checks and at least two in-person interviews, one in Pakistan and another after she married Syed Farook. FBI Director James Comey has said Malik and Farook communicated privately online about jihad and martyrdom before they married.
Lawmakers at times angrily pressed officials on why even public social media wouldn't routinely be looked at for vetting those trying to enter the country.
"If half the employers are doing it in the United States of America, if colleges are doing it for students, why wouldn't Homeland Security do it?" said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. "We don't even look at their public stuff, that's what kills me."
DHS did launch three pilot programs specifically aimed at reviewing social media postings as part of the immigration vetting process.
"There is less there that is actually of screening value than you would expect, at least in small early samples, some things seem more ambiguous than clear," Rodriguez told lawmakers Thursday. He said foreign alphabets frequently used in social media posts were a challenge to translate.
"We all continue to believe there's a potential for there to be information of screening value ... particularly in high risk environments," he added.
Both DHS and the State Department are reviewing the process for vetting visa applications, including the K-1 program, and have been directed by the White House to create specific recommendations for improvements.
DHS is specifically reviewing policies on when authorities at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can look at social media posts as part of the process for evaluating applications for certain visas.
"There are some legal limits to what we can do," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday. He added that he thinks reviews of social media should be done more often, but did not provide specifics.
During his opening remarks Chaffetz, said: "It is unclear how someone who so openly discussed her hatred of our country and way of life could easily pass three background checks. We need to understand how the breakdown happened with Malik and what we are doing to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Lawmakers have also pressed for changes to the Visa Waiver Program, which allows many citizens from 38 countries to travel to the United States without being subjected to the in-person interview required to receive a visa. Many fear that foreign fighters who carry western passports will be able to exploit that system to travel freely to the United States.
Earlier this month the House voted overwhelmingly to tighten controls on that program and require visas for anyone who has been to Iraq or Syria in the last five years. Security changes to the program were also included in the Senate version of a massive spending bill expected to be approved later this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
The Republicans are gathering on Capitol Hill to celebrate their great victory of robbing the middle class to enrich the ultra-wealthy through a legislation that will also screw up healthcare for tens of millions of Americans
Aaron Maté of the Real News spoke with Bill Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri, about the biggest robbery against the US middle class in history, made by the Republicans and the Trump administration, to satisfy the plutocrats.
The GOP tax bill is propagated through the common, now obsolete, but biggest fairy tale that the neoliberal regime has sold to the working class: Trickle-down economics.
Key points by Black:
It is the biggest [tax cut for the wealthy] ever done through tax legislation in any country at any time in history. And it comes at a time when the United States already has record income inequality, record profits for corporations and record wealth for the top 1,000 of 100% in the world. The bill is absolutely indefensible on any of the grounds claimed and therefore, essentially all of the major claims for it have been outright lies. Of which we should highlight, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, one of the asserted adults, by the way, who is supposed to protect us from President Trump under some fairy tales.
Mnuchin said that there were good studies, study after study, that showed this bill was actually going to make money. By reducing taxes, we would actually increase tax revenue because we would spur economic growth. And then he doubled down on it and said that there were over 100 people at treasury working on those analyses. Well, of course, that was a complete lie. There was no one working on the analyses. There are no analyses that could attempt to show that.
US companies have trillions of dollars and they don't want it to be officially located in the United States because then they'd have to pay taxes on it so they keep it offshore. Now, the Republican logic of all of this is we'll have a really low rate to bring them tax money back in. We'll have more tax money and there'll be much more investment. The last part doesn't work at all and it doesn't because the money isn't actually sitting in the Cayman Islands because what would the Cayman Islands do with it? It wouldn't pay you interest and such. It's actually brought into places like New York banking system, in truth.
So, it's not going to spur the economy but what it does mean is those companies that did those special scam deals with places like the offshore islands and Ireland, they are going to get a super low tax for bringing the money back, having scammed it first. So, scamming wins. You don't even get the reduced tax rate under the statute that you were talking about. You get an extra special low tax rate to reward for being the kind of folks who spend all your money avoiding taxes.
The Republicans have also allowed to expire one of the programs that you would've thought would be absolutely, no one would go after. This is the Child Health Insurance Program, CHIP, which covers eight million American poor kids and they've allowed this to lapse. And what the Republicans are signaling is that they're going to use the excuse that there's no more money because of their tax cuts to have full Medicare and Medicaid and such. And that therefore, because of their giveaways to the wealthy, they have to slash healthcare protections for the poor, including the poorest kids.
The tax cuts for the wealthy are permanent. The tax cuts for the middle class are temporary and they're front loaded so that it looks like you're getting a reduction in your taxes if you're middle class. Most middle class folks in the early years will have small reductions. But that will reverse and most middle class folks will actually end up with higher taxes under this bill. So, it's a redistribution bill that takes mostly from the middle class, certainly from the working class as well and redistributes to the absolute wealthiest Americans.
The last poll I've shown showed that only 8% of Americans believed the Republicans that this was a tax bill primarily for the middle class. In other words, the Republicans have taken something, a massive tax cut, which intrinsically should be immensely popular with the population, and turned it into something that in the polls is one of the least popular things the Republicans are doing. And the Republicans, as we speak, are gathering on Capitol Hill to celebrate their great victory of robbing the middle class to enrich the ultra-wealthy through a legislation that will also screw up healthcare for tens of millions of Americans. And they think that is the best thing they've done during Trump's entire term. |
A previously deported Mexican national wanted for aggravated homicide was deported from the United States on Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Servando Camacho-Velazquez (aka “El Baron”), 47, was transferred to ICE custody on Feb. 16 after serving 18 months in the Arizona Department of Corrections for a felony drug smuggling conviction, the agency said. Camacho-Velazquez is named on a warrant issued in November 2015 by a judge in Hermosillo, and ICE said he was transferred to the custody of Mexico’s Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) and Mexican immigration officials at the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz. on Feb. 21. ICE added that Department of Homeland Security databases showed Camacho-Velazquez was deported in January 2014 through Del Rio, Texas.
“ICE will not allow fugitives who’ve fled their countries seeking to elude justice to find a safe haven here,” said Enrique Lucero, field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Phoenix. “Not only will we continue to aggressively seek out these dangerous criminals, but those found to have active warrants abroad will be turned over to the authorities in their respective countries through our well-coordinated removal efforts.”
Since October 2009, ERO has removed more than 1,700 foreign fugitives from the U.S. who were sought in their native countries for offenses that include kidnapping, rape and murder. ICE said they removed approximately 240,000 individuals during the 2016 fiscal year. “Ninety-two percent of individuals removed from the interior of the United States had previously been convicted of a criminal offense,” ICE said in their release. |
US-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has announced its support of The DAO token sale, enabling users to trade Ether for The DAO Tokens.
The Merkle noted that the move seems to have been made in the anticipation of the imminent increase in the price of the DAO token on May 14, 2016. The DAO's creation phase commenced on April 30th and there will be subsequent increases in the price of DAO token creation:
For the first 14 days: 100 DAO tokens for 1 ETH
For the 10 subsequent days: An increase of .05 ETH per 100 DAO per day
For the last 4 days: constant 100 DAO tokens for 1.5 ETH
The DAO, or Decentralized Autonomous Organization, leverages smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to enable anyone, anywhere in the world to create their own autonomous organization.
The Merkle reported that the first DAO to be released to the public has now gathered 5.57 Million Ether (approximately $57 million at the current Ether price) and the DAO token sale will run till May 28. The DAO tokens allow the holder to vote on any expenditure The DAO could make; are fully transferable and can be traded peer-to-peer or on an exchange; and represent a relative portion of The DAO's crypto assets at any given time.
In order to buy DAO tokens, users need to send ether to the provided address on the project’s website. The web page says that users must not send ether to the address directly from an exchange, and are advised to use the Ethereum wallet or the wizard given on the website.
Poloniex is the latest to join other major cryptocurrency exchanges that have announced their support for The DAO token sale, including Bity, Bittrex, and Gatecoin. Users will not be able to move their DAO tokens until the creation phase ends and the market is open for trading. |
Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The Las Cruces police detective in charge of investigating the Tai Chan case says she was "denied resources" because she had previously reported sexual misconduct within the Las Cruces Police Department.
In her lawsuit against the city, Irma Palos said she was retaliated against after telling one of her supervisors about Michael Garcia -- a now-former LCPD detective who was convicted of raping an intern.
According to court documents, as part of the retaliation against her, she was denied resources to aid in a "high-profile murder investigation," specifically “the assistance of a forensic investigator.”
News of the pending lawsuit surfaced during a hearing Monday in district court, about five weeks before Chan's second trial.
According to a spokesperson with the Dona Ana County District Attorney's Office, they are now considering bringing in an independent investigator to see if Palos' allegations are true and, if so, what kind of impact that would have on the case.
As NewsChannel 9 previously reported, police say the former Santa Fe County Deputy Tai Chan shot and killed his partner Jeremy Martin at a Las Cruces hotel on Oct. 28, 2014.
Chan was charged with first-degree murder.
However, a jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision and the judge was forced to declare a mistrial.
Chan's second trial is scheduled for May 8 in Las Cruces.
NewsChannel 9 reached out to LCPD for comment.
A spokesperson said they do not comment on pending litigation. |
Two Years ago, the country did what at the time seemed to be he unthinkable. It made Barack Obama, our first African American President a one term, lame duck and elected Mitt Romney. Despite a long and often times petty campaign, the country came together and rallied around the guy who made his career on Wall St. based on the promise of a new and brighter America, tired of empty soaring rhetoric. It was a similar promise George W. Bush made just one President ago. Romney vowed to be a different kind of Conservative. More moderate and someone who could reach across the aisle.
However only two short years in it’s becoming more and more tragically clear every day that this is George W. Bush’s third term.
The economy is on the verge of recession, again. He has yet to carry through on his campaign promise of overturning Obamacare but has passed out waivers and taken action to delay parts of the law that could benefit millions. Vladimir Putin, who at the time candidate Romney called America’s number one geopolitical foe, has gone ignored and unchecked, most recently with pro Putin rebels shooting a passenger airliner out of the sky killing 295 innocent people. Romney’s response was tepid at best. Just last week, Not President Bush announced new airstrikes in Iraq. Even though this is the President who blamed his predecessor for removing troops in the first place, Romney made it clear that this is not a new war and that there will be no ground troops. Experts disagree.
And now there’s Ferguson, Missouri.
A community was torn apart and racial tensions boiled over when an unarmed teenager named Michael Brown, about to start college, was shot by a police officer in an incident reminiscent of the Trayvon Martin’s shooting. It has all but erupted into a symbolic conflict of the current state of poverty,race and the militarization of local police forces. Shortly before the 2012 election, Barack Obama urged calm and unity surrounding the death of Martin, urging protesters to allow the system to work. The country rejected him for it. Now we have another Republican President and another dead youth of color and a national community angry and searching for answers.
Hurricane Ferguson.
This was the last thing a new President dealing with a world unraveling needed, especially after allegations of voter fraud and election rigging by the Koch Bros and the protests that followed, or “Kochtests”as they were referred to by former Majority Leader Harry Reid. President Romney is already running out of chances.
Most Presidents would realize the bad optics from a situation like election protests and apply them to the similar protests in Ferguson. Apparently, Mitt Romney hasn’t learned. While police officers were firing off tear gas canisters and arresting reporters (more on that later), Romney was not in the White House situation room, or meeting with Attorney General Portman or Vice President Ryan (Who is halfway across the world meeting with Netanyahu). No, the President who overcame his image as an out of touch one percenter was having dinner at a golf club on Martha’s Vineyard.
Let that sink in.
To make matters worse, as President Romney partied with the richest 1% and people marched under the threat of sniper rifles, a White House Deputy Press Secretary sent out a tweet about what a good time was ‘being had by all’. It was a staggering failure of juxtaposition for the White House still learning the ropes of social media savviness, something the Obama White House mastered.
Romney of all people should have realized how this might look. While he is busy dancing to every song and dining on lobster, businesses were being torched and innocent people being targeted.
This was the President we were told would not be the evil money burning Gordon Gecko clone he was made out to be by the Obama campaign, yet at almost every chance he gets he goes out of his way to prove that he is in fact looking out for Wall St. and not citizens who did not vote for him. Romney is a President who doesn’t understand how hanging out with celebrities like Jimmy Fallon or riding bikes around Nantucket looks to people struggling to find jobs, or in cases like Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, walk down the street without being shot.
But it’s not just unarmed black teenagers being targeted in Romney’s America.
Earlier in the day, as police geared up in Missouri, Fox News was more focused on the anticipated meeting at Martha’s Vineyard between Hillary Clinton and President Romney. Mrs. Clinton recently made remarks endorsing Romney’s strategy on Syria and the handling of ISIS in Iraq. Right Wing pundits however seemed perplexed wondering why Romney would be seen at what Sean Hannity dubbed a “Hug Summit”.
The President seemed to be calcifying his reputation as a liberal loving Massachusetts Moderate that can’t please his base, despite deporting 7 million immigrants and expanding the police state while preaching transparency.
But the euphoric mood the media had over the meeting of two people universally opposed to Barack Obama‘s policies quickly turned sour when the almost unthinkable happened in America in 2014. Two reporters were arrested and water boarded (allegedly) by police in Ferguson. Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of The Huffington Post were forcefully removed from a Ferguson McDonalds without the unnamed officer asking them to leave once.
Members of media, who already feel targeted by the Romney Administration took to Twitter to alert their followers of what was happening. What followed was a firestorm of journalists uniting unlike anything seen since Occupy Wall St. Reporters facing tear gas were somehow still miraculously able to tweet and some bravely blocked tear gas with their bodies.
Mic News editor Stefan Becket took it upon himself to remind Ferguson Police and the Romney Administration of special rights and protections journalists are provided under the Constitution that don’t apply to ‘average citizens’. A spokesperson for the DOJ hailed the loyalty?of reporters (4th Estate anyone?) to the admin before being rudely chastised by hack puppet Jake Tapper.
Michael Brown’s tragic death and the circumstances surrounding it no longer matter. An increasingly hostile administration has clearly set their eyes on members of the media.
One thing is clear. The optics coming out of the Romney Administration are disastrous and arresting reporters certainly won’t help. They are bound to turn on the President. An American city up in flames from 3 days of rioting and looting while he golfs and parties. Another white Republican President who “Doesn’t care about black people”.
Remember why Mitt Romney was elected in the first place.
He promised to heal the country after seven long years of depression and division and just two years in already seems out of touch and exactly what critics warned about. He could cancel his vacation and board Air Force One tomorrow. He could be in St. Louis in a matter of hours. Instead, just as Bush opted, he chooses a flyby. A man who claims to be humble despite the size of his bank account could bring the country together and ask that we seek truth, not anger. But this is the kind of situation that calls for the deft touch of someone familiar with organizing communities. A community organizer if you will. Someone with experience dealing with the harsh realities of being poor and black and afraid for your life in America. Someone who could empathize with African American communities dealing with Michael Browns every day. This is 2014 not 1965.
If only there was someone like that the country could have elected in 2012.
Instead, just like the last Republican President, Romney chooses to release cryptic statements in between rounds of golf and commenting on the tragic loss of Hollywood comedians. What is it going to take to get this President to interrupt his precious vacation schedule, a vacation schedule during his campaign he promised he would not take.
Perhaps media should have done more due diligence to find out who Mitt Romney really was. Perhaps a more down to earth candidate who understands real urban struggles will emerge in 2016. Elizabeth Warren or Cory Booker come to mind. But for now, we’re stuck.
As the world and more importantly the country plunges deeper into chaos that seems to be above Mitt Romney’s pay grade, the recent tragedy in Ferguson only reinforces recent polls that suggest the country made a mistake in 2012. Hypotheticals and ‘what ifs’ are meaningless at this point.
It’s just too bad we can’t go back in time.
– SM – |
Experts say breech births can be handled safely Some babies are born bottom-first because of genetic traits inherited from either their mother or father, Norwegian researchers have said. Fewer than one in 20 is delivered this way up, but a natural breech birth carries extra risks to the child. A study of 387,000 births, in the British Medical Journal, found a baby had double the chance of being breech if their mother or father was too. But midwives said parents should not worry too much. We always tend to ask mothers if they know how they were delivered, and some midwives will ask the partners as well
Mervi Jokinen
Royal College of Midwives As many as one in four babies are in the wrong position at the mid-point of pregnancy, but all but 3% or 4% are head-down by the time they are delivered. The precise reasons why a baby might be in the breech position are not known, although the anatomy of the mother - in particular the shape of her womb - can play a strong role. Babies are designed to be born head-first, and coming out the other way round increases the chance of breathing problems at the moment of delivery. For this reason, many women with full-term breech babies opt for caesarean sections. Gene trait The researchers from the University of Bergen looked at the records of more than 387,000 parents and their first-born children born between 1967 and 2004. They found an identical increase in risk passed from both male and female parents born in breech position. While a mother might be able to pass on the increased risk through inherited differences in her physical makeup, any risk passed from a father raises the possibility of a genetic trait carried by the baby rather than the mother. However, other specialists say the picture is less clear. Professor Janet Hardy, from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said that there could be a separate, undetected factor that was increasing the chance of a breech birth in these families. She said: "Clinicians should continue to gather information during early prenatal care on maternal and paternal birth presentation and other potential risk factors for breech delivery." Antenatal care Mervi Jokinen, from the Royal College of Midwives, said the findings were "intriguing". "We always tend to ask mothers if they know how they were delivered, and some midwives will ask the partners as well, just to record this in the notes. "But on the whole, women should not be too concerned about the possibility of a breech baby, as long as she is receiving proper ante-natal care." Henry Annan, a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that having a breech delivery approximately doubled the risks of complications to the baby. "Having a breech baby does increase the dangers, although, with proper management, the chances are that the baby will be born healthy. "I think a lot of parents will be unaware of whether they were born breech or not, but this is still an interesting study."
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I’m a proud advocate and defender of capitalism for the simple reason that it is a system that is consistent with human freedom while also producing mass prosperity that was unimaginable for much of human history.
Jurisdictions that embrace capitalism enjoy great progress while nations that veer in the other direction suffer economic decline, as vividly demonstrated by comparisons such as the relative performance of Hong Kong and Argentina.
And, for what it’s worth, the Princess of the Levant even says capitalism is “a sexy word.”
But not everybody agrees.
A column by Greg Sargent in the Washington Post has some very depressing poll numbers.
…the Harvard Institute of Politics has released a new poll of young voters… One key finding in the poll, which surveyed over 3,000 people from ages 18-29, is that these young people see a robust role for government in guaranteeing a right to a basic standard of living, and majorities of them see a large or moderate federal role in regulating the economy and access to health care and higher education. …A narrow majority of respondents in Harvard’s poll said they did not support capitalism.
Writing for Mic, Marie Solis looks at these recent poll numbers and wonders if the real issue is whether “capitalism” is simply an unpalatable word.
A new Harvard University survey found 51% of the participants between the ages 18 and 29 said they do not support capitalism. …The university’s results echo recent findings from Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who surveyed 1,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 26 and found that 58% of respondents believed socialism to be the “ compassionate” political system . …the results may be more indicative of a shifting connotation for the word “capitalism” itself. “The word ‘capitalism’ doesn’t mean what it used to,” he said. “You don’t hear people on the right defending their economic policies using that word anymore.”
Not so fast. I still use “that word.”
But should I? James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute is sympathetic to the notion that there’s a perception problem. He speculates that the real problem is that capitalism now has a negative connotation.
America’s millennials are hardly some fifth column of communist sympathizers. Nor are they idiots. But they are at least a bit skeptical of “capitalism.” …Yet, oddly, many of those same capitalism skeptics also hold views similar to those of any Ayn Rand-loving free marketeer. For example: Less than a third believe government should play a large role in regulating the economy, reducing income inequality, or stimulating economic growth. Likewise, just a third said they supported socialism.
I fear Pethokoukis is being too optimistic in his reading of the polling data. When you review the questions in the poll and add together those who want a “large” role for government with those who favor a “moderate” role for government, they overwhelm the advocates of laissez-faire who say government should play “little to no role.”
Though maybe I’m just being a pessimist since the folks who want a “moderate” role may think the government today already is playing a “large” role and therefore would want to reduce the size and scope of Washington (though the fact that many people actually blame deregulation for the financial crisis, notwithstanding all the evidence to the contrary, makes me think that would be a Pollyannish interpretation of the polling data).
In any event, let’s return to the issue of whether capitalism is akin to a toxic brand.
Maybe one problem here is the word “capitalism” and what it evokes in the aftermath of the Great Recession and Wall Street bailout. Maybe “capitalism” really isn’t the right word for the free enterprise system, the deep magic that has made America the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. Indeed, wherever and whenever there’s been a bit of economic freedom, amazing things have happened — from Europe in the 1800s to China and India in the late 20th century. …Maybe millennials aren’t capitalists as much as they are “innovists” or “innovationists.” They believe the same dynamic economic system that created those amazing panes of internet-connected glass in their pockets will also create a better world.
It galls me that young people blame capitalism for the financial crisis. Have they ever heard of the Federal Reserve? Or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Blaming capitalism for the recent mess is like blaming the Red Cross for tornadoes. Sounds like millennials don’t know the difference between capitalism and cronyism.
But I’m digressing again. Time to get back to the central topic. Elizabeth Nolan Brown weighs in with a column for Reason.
…this new poll finds young people torn between “capitalism” and “socialism,” with perhaps little—or, to be more charitable, an ahistorical—understanding of what either means.
I definitely agree with her than millennials are confused about what these terms mean.
But grousing about their lack of knowledge doesn’t solve the problem. But maybe we can make progress if we learn why young people think the way they do.
…words—especially big, emotionally-laden words describing controversial or complicated concepts—connote different things to different people. When pollsters probe young people further about socialism and capitalism, they tend to find that respondents don’t have clear concepts of these economic philosophies. To many millennials, “socialism” doesn’t mean a government-managed economy but something like what we have now, only with more subsidized health care, student-loan forgiveness, and mandatory paid parental leave. …”Capitalism,” meanwhile, doesn’t simply mean private, for-profit enterprise. …Capitalism is Big Banks, Wall Street, “income inequality,” greed. It’s wealthy sociopaths screwing over the little guy, Bernie Madoff, and horrifying sweatshops in China. …However incomplete or caricatured, these are the narratives of capitalism that millennials have grown up with.
She basically comes to the same conclusion as Pethokoukis.
We certainly need to consider whether and how the word can be reclaimed, or if we’re better served talking about the “market economy,” “private enterprise,” “free trade,” or “entrepreneurship.” Millennials love the word entrepreneur… Unlike anti-capitalists of yore, young people today don’t seem to see a tension between turning a profit and living righteously. …As John Della Volpe, polling director at Harvard, puts it, millennials aren’t “rejecting the concept” of capitalism. “The way in which capitalism is practiced, in the minds of young people—that’s what they’re rejecting.”
Indeed, she shares some 2014 polling data that shows there is 2-1 support for free markets, which is significantly better than the level of support for capitalism.
This analysis is persuasive. If we can convince more people to support good policy by talking about “free markets” rather than “capitalism,” then I have no objection to using a more effective phrase or word.
For what it’s worth, opponents of economic liberty such as Karl Marx were among the first to use the term “capitalist” and they obviously meant it as a slur. Which is another reasons why advocates of economic liberty shouldn’t feel obliged to use that word.
That being said, I’m not sure whether using a different word or phrase will make a big difference. I remember when Social Security reform was a big issue between 1995-2005. Proponents were repeatedly told that “private” and “privatization” were words to avoid, so we all dutifully said we were for “personal retirement accounts.”
Which was fine, but it didn’t stop leftists from using “privatization.” Moreover, polling data showed considerable support for the idea, notwithstanding demagoguery from advocates of the status quo.
Now that we’ve discussed whether “capitalism” is a bad word, let’s shift gears and look at whether “liberal” should be a good word.
Professor Daniel Klein says the word has been hijacked by statists.
Here I make a plea, addressed to conservatives and libertarians, regarding the word liberal: please do not describe leftists, progressives, social democrats, or Democrats as “liberal.” …Words have deep-seated cognates and connotations; they have character and history. …The term liberal has always had an abundance of positive connotations: generous, open-minded, tolerant, big-hearted. …to oppose “liberals” almost seems tantamount to opposing modern, open civilization.
And “liberal” originally was linked to economic liberty and free markets.
The inception of liberal as a political term should be credited to the Scottish historian William Robertson, who published a book in 1769 that uses the term repeatedly to mean principles of liberty and commercial freedom. Adam Smith…used the term repeatedly in a signal way to refer to the sort of policy he advocated, a system that gives a strong presumption to individual liberty, and hence commercial and market freedom. …The principles of Adam Smith spread throughout Europe, as did the name he used for them, “liberal.” …so “liberal” political movements were born.
But then the statists began to call themselves liberals.
At the end of the nineteenth century, and thereafter, there came a dramatic shift. Collectivism or statism was on the rise. …Especially during the period 1880 to 1940, there came great changes in the meanings of words, changes in semantics. …people started using words in new ways, and often even announced and emphasized the newness of their usage and meaning. …the statists arrogated the term liberal to themselves… The literature of the so-called New Liberals declaimed openly against individual liberty and in favor of state collectivism and socialistic reform.
Interestingly, the bastardization of “liberal” has primarily occurred in the United States and Canada.
…when we step outside North America, we see that, by and large, liberal still means liberal…read and listen to European Parliament member Daniel Hannan, who often uses liberal proudly in its original sense, and who never calls leftists “liberal,” or to read the journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs (London)—Economic Affairs: A Journal of Liberal Political Economy. …In Prague, for example, the leading freedom-oriented organization is called the Liberal Institute. Where liberal still means liberal, such as in Europe and Latin America, leftists have no reluctance in calling their imaginary bogeyman “neoliberalism.”
I can vouch for that. I’m often accused of being a “liberal” or “neo-liberal” when speaking overseas. It took a while to get used to it, but now I smile and say “yup, that’s me.”
And I’ll sometimes use “classical liberal” and “libertarian” interchangeably when speaking in the United States. But given the way the meaning of the word has changed over time, I don’t think it would make sense to the average person if I referred to myself as “liberal.”
That being said, I fully agree with Professor Klein that we shouldn’t let leftists get away with using that term to describe themselves. I prefer to describe them as “statists.”
P.S. Tom Sowell has a more controversial, but technically accurate, term to describe modern leftists. |
"After an entire summer with the cloud of a shutdown hanging over the industry's head, I am bewildered that certain members of the Texas Senate appear to have blocked the release of essential funds to the Texas Racing Commission," Sam Houston Race Park President Andrea B. Young said in a prepared statement of Eyewitness News. "We thank our friends in the Legislature and other branches of government who have fought to protect the Texas racing industry and the hard-working individuals it employs. The legislature did not intend this result, which will now shutter Texas racing facilities, putting thousands of jobs at risk. We believe that this result is irresponsible. We urge the Lieutenant Governor to stand up for 36,000 jobs now before this goes any further.
In the meantime, we will continue to examine our legal options. We plan to continue our fight for all the hardworking Texans that make up the Texas Horse industry."
Caught in the middle of a legal and funding war, the Sam Houston Race Park is being forced to close its doors at midnight.The last televised race airs at 11:50pm.The park's imminent closure comes as a result of the battle happening at the Texas Legislature over how much money to give the Texas Racing Commission after it recently approved a controversial form of gambling.Last week, commissioners voted to let Texas horse and dog tracks install "historical racing" terminals. That allows people to bet on already-run races stripped of identifying information. That move cast doubt on whether the Legislative Budget Board, consisting of Senate and House members, would authorize funding for the racing commission.If no deal is struck by midnight, the commission ceases operations, and as a result, the Sam Houston Race Park loses its ability to import simulcast wagering, live racing and export live signals.Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced earlier Monday that the board's Senate members agreed to fund the commission temporarily, for at least the next three months. But its House members balked, saying they'd like to see the commission fully funded. Negotiations expire at midnight. |
Share. Lots of info on what to expect. Lots of info on what to expect.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles panel at New York Comic Con tonight was a big crowd-pleaser, with fans cheering and screaming for Ciro Nieli (executive producer), Brandon Aumen (head writer), Greg Cipes (Michaelengelo), Rob Paulsen (Donatello) and Hoon Lee (Splinter). The entire Season 2 premiere was shown - but we'll have more about that this weekend, after you all see it, in Max Nicholson's review.
However, plenty of other new details were revealed, along with a lot of glimpses at what was to come via early, animatic footage.
The classic -- albeit not exactly ominous -- character Pizza Face will be introduced, in a very funny way. Sounding much like Wario, when he’s first called Pizza Face, he responds, “I lika-that. Because I got-a pizza for a face!” One sequence showed Pizza Face having taken control of Raph, Leo and Don, making them attack Mike. As Mike is forced to fight his brothers, he apologies as he hits them, “Sorry, Don! Sorry, Leo!” Until he gets to Raphael and says, “Not sorry, Raph!”
There will an upcoming episode near the end of the season set entirely in Dimension X. However, Nieli promised, “Even before that we get into some inter-dimensional problems.” His big reveal was that at one point, an inter-dimensional rift will tear open to a 1980s universe with some familiar characters – the 1980s animated Ninja Turtles! Nieli stressed it was just a cameo, but that yes, Rob Paulsen will speak to himself, via current Don and classic Raph.
Exit Theatre Mode
April’s psychic abilities will be further explored, as we meet a character named Kurtzman, voiced by none other than Robert Forster, fresh off his appearance on Breaking Bad. We saw a scene in which Kurtzman tells the Turtles and April that the Kraang have been attempting to terraform the Earth for thousands of years, but needed a “specific chain of human DNA.” He then takes out a photo of a baby girl, making April stare in shock.
Shredder will go on a journey of his own, leaving Karai in charge. He will meet up with Tiger Claw, who was mutated as a boy into a tiger creature, growing up as a circus performer before becoming part of the underworld. Nieli said Tiger Claw gave them an opportunity to finally have “The cat vs. the rat,” and we saw an animatic of Tiger Claw facing off with Splinter and the two leaping at each other. |
The most disappointing team in the National Football League this season has to be the Baltimore Ravens. Sure, the Seahawks aren’t living up to expectations. The Chiefs were supposed to be better than this. And the Dolphins were bad enough to fire Joe Philbin before Halloween. They’re all disappointments.
The Ravens, though, are two missed Josh Scobee field goals away from starting the season 0-6. The Ravens! This is a team that’s lost more than six games in an entire season only twice during the John Harbaugh era, one that went 10-6 last year before nearly beating the eventual Super Bowl–winning Patriots in Foxborough. They’re perennial contenders, and there was little reason to think they would be anything but that in 2015.
And yet, we’re here in Week 7 and the Ravens are 1-5. They’re about to head to Arizona for a game against a pissed-off Cardinals team that has taken great pleasure in stomping dysfunctional, disappointing opponents this season. ESPN’s Football Power Index gives the Ravens a better chance of finishing with the first overall pick in the upcoming draft (3.6 percent) than making the playoffs (2.2 percent). Baltimore’s season is essentially lost.
There’s a quirk about how the Ravens have performed that I’ll get into in a bit, but if you want to cast aspersions on one particular facet of this Baltimore team, it’s pretty obviously going to be the defense. Baltimore has allowed 27 points per game, the sixth-worst rate in the league, after allowing a mere 18.9 points per game as the league’s sixth-best scoring defense a year ago. Last year, the Ravens defense made their average opponent look like the 49ers on offense; this year, their average opponent has looked more like the Packers. Yikes.
Take a deeper look at how the Ravens have struggled on defense and you’ll gain a greater insight into what’s gone wrong for this team. All of that starts with personnel woes, some of which were clear before the season.
Dignified and Old
It was reasonable to expect that Baltimore’s front seven was going to decline in 2015, thanks to the departure of two meaningful contributors for financial reasons. Longtime star defensive tackle Haloti Ngata went to Detroit for two midround draft picks when the Ravens couldn’t come to terms with the veteran on a restructured deal, leaving Baltimore with a $7.5 million dead-cap charge in 2015.
The more crucial loss in hindsight may have been when talented young linebacker Pernell McPhee played so well during the final year of his rookie deal that he priced himself out of Baltimore’s range. After three relatively anonymous seasons, McPhee broke out with 7.5 sacks and a whopping 26 quarterback hits in limited time in 2014, giving the Ravens a devastating interior pass-rusher to go with their edge combination of Elvis Dumervil and Terrell Suggs. The 26-year-old McPhee rode his success to a five-year, $39 million deal with Chicago, where he has four sacks and 10 knockdowns in six games.
The Ravens have let players like McPhee go in the past; it was only a couple of years ago that Paul Kruger went through a similar career arc, and the Ravens let him leave for the division-rival Browns without regretting their decision very much at all. They seemed set at outside linebacker with Suggs as an every-down edge rusher on one side and Dumervil platooning with run-thumper Courtney Upshaw on the other.
And then, in Week 1, disaster struck. Suggs tore his left Achilles during the fourth quarter of Baltimore’s narrow loss to Denver, three years after tearing his right Achilles during the 2012 offseason. That injury left the Ravens perilously thin on the edge, and things haven’t gotten much better. The loss of Suggs forced Dumervil and Upshaw to go from platoon-mates playing about 50 percent of Baltimore’s defensive snaps to starters playing in the 80 percent range, and, unsurprisingly, they’ve suffered. Dumervil is also dealing with a balky groin that’s cost him snaps, leaving the Ravens down to raw rookie Za’Darius Smith and veteran special-teamer Albert McClellan as their outside linebackers on some plays. That’s a far cry from how deep they were at the same spot last season.
Look at the pass-rush numbers, interestingly enough, and there’s not much evidence of a drop-off. The Ravens pressured opposing quarterbacks on 25.5 percent of dropbacks and sacked them on 7.4 percent of dropbacks in 2014. This year, they’re pressuring the opposition on 26.1 percent of dropbacks and sacking quarterbacks 7.1 percent of the time. Those are virtually identical figures, suggesting there’s been no drop-off without Suggs in the lineup. Right?
Not so fast. The Ravens might be getting to the quarterback as frequently as they were last year, but without Suggs or McPhee, they’re forced to throw extra resources toward the pass rush to generate those figures. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees didn’t need to blitz frequently last year, sending extra pressure on just 28.5 percent of dropbacks. This year, while the Ravens aren’t exactly a Todd Bowles blitz machine, Pees has sent a blitz on 35.6 percent of opposing pass attempts.
There’s nothing wrong with blitzing if you can back it up. Bowles’s Jets have one of the league’s deepest, most talented secondaries lurking behind those blitzes, which makes it easy to send pressure on close to half of opposing pass attempts. It would have been reasonable to expect the Ravens to enjoy a similarly talented secondary in 2015.
While Baltimore’s hopes of a deep playoff run unraveled at the hands of an injury-riddled secondary last year, this was supposed to be a healthier, deeper unit. Budding no. 1 corner Jimmy Smith was back after missing the second half of 2014 with a Lisfranc injury. Safety Will Hill was onboard for his first full season with the team after being suspended for the first six games of last season. And the Ravens made their typical late-spring foray into free agency to come away with slot cornerback Kyle Arrington from the Patriots. If Pees needed to blitz, he was supposed to have a secondary that would allow him to do so freely.
That hasn’t worked out. Smith has struggled badly in his return from what can be a difficult foot injury. Arrington has been beaten for big plays and was losing snaps to Dolphins castoff Will Davis before the latter tore his ACL. Even incumbent Lardarius Webb has looked dreadful for most of the season. Webb missed Sunday’s game against the 49ers with a thigh injury, and the Ravens replaced him with newly acquired Shareece Wright, who had failed to win a job with those same 49ers.
Wright was cut by San Francisco on October 10 without playing a single snap this season. He signed with the Ravens on October 12. On October 18, he played 42 snaps against the team that just cut him. If you think this sounds like it didn’t go well, you’re not wrong. Wright had a rough game, and the biggest play came when the Ravens left him one-on-one against their own former player, wideout Torrey Smith:
If “smdh” could be a coverage, this would be it. The Ravens have no deep safety on the play and send five men after Colin Kaepernick without really getting close. They have defenders in intermediate zones, but Wright has to know he can’t get beat deep by Smith, because there’s absolutely no help behind him. That’s exactly what happens, even as Wright tries to interrupt the double move with illegal contact. This is asking a lot out of Wright in his first game this season, and truthfully, it was too much.
That bomb isn’t an isolated incident: The Ravens have been torched by teams throwing downfield. The NFL defines deep passes as those that travel 16 yards or more in the air. The Ravens have faced 47 of those passes, the fourth-highest total in the league, and on those throws, the Ravens have allowed quarterbacks to rack up a 99.3 QBR, which is also the fourth-worst total in the league. Opposing quarterbacks are 26-of-47 (55.3 percent) for 866 yards with six touchdowns and one interception on those passes. With that combination of frequency and failure, nobody is being hurt more by passes downfield than the Ravens defense.
As much as that sounds like a recipe for failure, it’s a survivable problem. Know how I’m sure of that? The 2014 Ravens were just as bad in the same spots. Teams threw 114 deep passes against them, the fifth-highest frequency in the league. And those passes went for a 99.0 QBR, which was dead last. They were the fourth-best team against long passes in 2013, so it’s not a trend, but the Ravens were terrible against downfield passing teams last year and managed to put up a pretty good defense anyway.
The biggest difference between this year’s terrible Ravens defense and last year’s above-average Ravens defense, then, isn’t that they can’t get to the quarterback or that they’re giving up big plays. It’s that they can’t get off the field. Last year, the Ravens allowed opposing teams to convert 40.3 percent of their third downs, which was 17th in the league, essentially league-average. This year? That figure is up to 47.8 percent, and only the Jaguars (an even 50 percent!) have been less effective on third down. Nobody’s faced more third downs (92) than the Ravens.
It would also help if they could force takeaways again. Last year’s team forced turnovers on 12.0 percent of drives, a relatively middling 21st in the league. That wasn’t impressive, but this year’s defense has forced turnovers on just 5.7 percent of drives, with four takeaways on 70 possessions and none since Week 3, when they strip-sacked Andy Dalton and took their lone fumble recovery of the season to the house. They haven’t exactly been playing Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, either: This is a group that’s faced Peyton Manning, Derek Carr, Michael Vick, Josh McCown, and Kaepernick. The Ravens should be feasting on takeaways against that group. They are starving.
As bad as they’ve been on defense, you can also make a pretty strong case that the Ravens are unlucky to be 1-5. While they required a staggering amount of luck to come back and win that Steelers game, they were within a fourth-quarter possession — or in other cases, even one play — of winning every other game. Steve Smith Sr. memorably dropped a touchdown pass against the Broncos in Week 1. Oakland and Cincinnati drove for game-winning scores in the final three minutes. Cleveland converted three third downs to kick a clinching field goal in overtime. Their five-point loss to the 49ers was probably the furthest the Ravens came from victory, and they finished that game on the San Francisco 35-yard line.
The Ravens have seen each of their first six games decided by one score or less. That happens, but it’s rare: Just 13 teams have done that since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. If you regularly read this space, you know that teams tend to split those close games 50/50. The Ravens have not. Every one of those other teams that started with six one-score games managed to win at least two of those contests. The 12 previous teams went a combined 35-37 in those one-score games.
Playing all of those one-score games suggests you’re a pretty average team, which doesn’t leave much hope for the Ravens. There were some success stories from those 12 teams, like the 1999 Vikings, who started 2-4 in six one-score games and then promptly went 8-2 over their final 10 contests to make the playoffs. It’s not crazy to think the Ravens could suddenly find a groove and start winning, especially because, you know, they’re the Ravens.
It’s not likely, though. Those 12 teams looked average through their first six games and played average the rest of the way. Their combined record in the final 10 games was 60-60. If the Ravens split the rest of the way, they would finish 6-10. And that will be a wildly disappointing season for a veteran team with perennial expectations of making it deep into the playoffs. It’s hard to take too much issue with what the Ravens do in football operations, given how consistently successful Harbaugh and Ozzie Newsome have been over the past decade. After an unlucky 1-5 start, though, a disappointing defense and some poorly timed injuries appear to have sunk the Ravens in 2015. |
The Banff International Research Station will be receiving $12.5 million in funding over the next five years from agencies in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The station brings together scientists and mathematicians to study solutions to challenges in sectors such as energy, technology and health at the Banff Centre.
"The station has been so successful. We started getting hundreds of applications for workshops from all over the world and we only had 50 weeks to assign, so we were declining many, many excellent proposals," said Nassif Ghoussoub, scientific director at the research station.
Alberta's provincial government is putting in $4 million.
The research station attracts international experts to Alberta, and will help universities attract and retain talented people, say provincial officials.
"It is incredibly exciting to have one of the world's best mathematical institutes here in Alberta. Students and mathematicians come from across the globe in order to learn new methods and participate in ground-breaking discoveries," said Minister of Veterans Affairs Kent Hehr in a press release.
Including the funding from Alberta, the research station will receive $12.5 million total from the province, the federal government, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia.
MORE ALBERTA NEWS | Entire Bow River watershed infected with whirling disease, CFIA says
MORE ALBERTA NEWS | Notley highlights strategies to improve Alberta-U.S. trade |
Please note the review below may contain minor spoilers - I've done my best to keep them to a minimum.
After giving series favourite Brian (Paul Walker) a fitting sendoff in the last outing, F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) takes over the high-octane helm, to deliver another action-packed instalment of the Fast franchise, or is that the Furious franchise? Well, whatever it is, its called Fast & Furious 8.
Much like nearly every movie in its arsenal thus far, Fast & Furious 8 begins with a street face, this time in the beautiful streets of Cuba where every woman is wearing daisy dukes, all the guys are lazing around with their car bonnets open and nobody seems to be in work - its boy racing heaven. In this Havana haven are Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) enjoying their romantic honeymoon together, whilst partaking in a bit of endangering pedestrians on the side. With fast cars and beautiful women adorning themselves on every street corner, this is either a prostitute-filled dream or a new Fast & Furious film.
Back in the States meanwhile, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is enjoying some downtime, coaching the local girls football (Im not saying soccer) team, of which his young daughter is a part of. Hobbs isnt exactly the best father mind you, spending weeks out of each month in shootouts and high speed chases across the world in exotic locations, then coming home for a single day of barbecue - and his daughter knows as much. Sadly, said work comes a-calling with a new job- securing an EMP in Germany - planted at his feet, so its time to round up the A-Team and blow some expensive stuff up - oh and invite Roman (Tyrese Gibson) along for the ride too just for the running commentary he provides because well, hes useless at pretty much everything else isnt he?
Absurd. Its what runs through my mind after watching the 50th car do the impossible, defy all worldly physics then turn into a mangled, fiery mess only for our heroes to emerge unscathed - back lit by a mushroom cloud in their wake of course. But absurd has become the cornerstone ingredient of the Fast & Furious franchise - which now sits at eight strong - and likely still has plenty more of that absurdity-fuelled nonsense left in its tank to dole out to fans for years to come. This particular instalment of the franchise attempts to tease the biggest threat yet, stalwart wheelman Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) himself, who has seemingly gone rogue and turned against his adrenaline-adopted 'family. What could be big enough to warrant him to leave a path of destruction in his wake, putting his so-called loved ones in harm's way? Well dont expect to be surprised, because, well, remember that word earlier? Youll find a more sensical and cohesive plot in an episode of Power Rangers from the 90s, with the slight semblance of Fast & Furious 8s reasoning fading away when you ask yourself why havent any of these people got Facebook? But heck, fans arent watching this series for any kind of riveting story, well I hope not anyway. Speaking of Power Rangers though, its kind of ironic that Fast & Furious 8 feels far closer to the original 90s Power Ranger series than the actual recent Power Rangers teen angst re-imagining ever came close to. With the camaraderie amongst the shifting team and the corny, on screen shenanigans feeling right at home, now becoming a staple of a franchise that many have come to love. Aided by a returning cast - such as Furious 7 bad guy turned fellow driver-in-arms Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) in particular - creating a broader dynamic, and even a shock cameo appearance of a now British icon sure to surprise cinemagoers - with the studio smartly keeping it all under wraps. And when it all gels together, it oddly works, with individual parts that would be demonstrably terrible creating an enjoyable whole that keeps chugging along and even attempts to pull at your heartstrings here and there - though mostly failing, because well this film is absurd. But alas I hear you say, how does the action stack up in Fast & Furious 8? Well on that front, its mainly what you have come to expect from bald-headed, muscle-clad men seemingly killing scores of bystanders and henchman alike with nary a bloody, dead body in sight. The issue with the Fast & Furious franchise from around 5 onwards, is its incessant need to up the ante on previous outings, resulting it not only everything becoming far more absurd (have you been counting yet?) but losing a lot of its bluster in the process because of it. So yes, Fast & Furious 8 does indeed contain some impressive set pieces - New York and Russia in particular - but when alls said and done, nothing will truly stand out amongst a franchise which jumped the shark many quater miles ago.
Fast & Furious 8 continues the series trend of being dumb fun, stretching the limits of its corniness and absurdity further than ever before, with a plot that dreadingly treads the waters of the recent Mechanic instalment (and you should definitely check that review out if you want a laugh). And oh, did I mention this film is absurd?
But when its firing on all cylinders, Fast & Furious 8 becomes exactly what fans of the franchise have come to love; with jovial camaraderie and intense yet stakeless action filling each and every frame. For everyone else, if you havent been pulled in by the one-time racing franchise by now, then Fast & Furious 8 will do nothing to change that. |
California solar power plants recently hit a new electricity output record for electricity from utility-scale solar power plants. It hit 4.813 gigawatts of output on August 15 at 12:03pm.
The data comes from CAISO, which only tracks utility-scale output. It can’t track behind-the-meter rooftop output, which had the potential to add another 2.6 gigawatts.
To put things in better perspective, utility-scale solar power (from PV & CSP) produced about 5.1% of California’s electricity demand in July and 6.4% of California’s electricity demand in June.
Of course, these records will be broken year after year, often several times a year, as solar power is growing fast in the Golden State. Nonetheless, bringing attention to the growth through new records is a good way to wake more people up to the cost competitiveness of solar power, as well as California’s leadership installing solar power.
For more details on the California solar market, check out this report.
Image Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District |
The quirky superhero film passes up 'Maleficent' and 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'
Pulling off the biggest box office surprise of the year, James Gunn's August tentpole Guardians of the Galaxy has become the top grossing film of the summer in North America, outsmarting the likes of Transformers: Age of Extinction and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
The Marvel Studios and Disney movie is expected to finish Saturday with a domestic total of roughly $246 million, eclipsing the $243.3 million grossed by Age of Extinction. By Sunday, Guardians' North American cume will have climbed to $251 million or more (and it's poised to win the weekend ahead of new YA film adaptation If I Stay).
On Friday, Guardians of the Galaxy passed up fellow Disney title Maleficent ($237 million), until then the summer's No. 2 title in North America.
Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past ranks No. 4 on the domestic summer chart with $232.6 million, while Fox's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man are all but tied at No. 5 with $202.9 million.
Worldwide, Paramount and Michael Bay's Age of Extinction remains the summer leader by far, with a global gross of $1.05 billion.
Guardians' global total to date is $430.7 million and climbing.
Heading into summer, no one predicted that Gunn's quirky superhero tentpole would emerge the victor in North America. Opening Aug. 1, the movie amazed with a record domestic debut and continued to impress from there.
Featuring a ragtag group of unlikely galactic heroes, Guardians stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace and Bradley Cooper, who voices the role of Rocket the raccoon. Vin Diesel, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close and Benicio del Toro also star.
Guardians wasn't a cheap proposition and cost $170 million to produce. Marvel and Disney have already announced plans for a July 28, 2017 sequel, with Gunn returning to direct.
Twitter: @PamelaDayM |
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Visit our community app page on the Google Play Store. Scroll down to the “Become a beta tester” section of the page. Click “I’M IN” and you’ll be on your way to becoming one of our awesome beta testers! Learn more about the Beta program here.
Hi everyone,It has been a while since we first introduced our official community app to you. Our community app team has been gathering your feedback and working on new features and tweaks. Today, we’re excited to offer you an improved version – Community app v1.9. You can download or update it on the Google Play Store.We'll put more resources to support this app, which will largely be thanks to your feedback. So please join the community app beta program. Share your opinion with us to help us bring better and faster improvements!Thank you for helping us make this community app better. What feature you would like to see in this app in the near future? Or is there any suggestion about this app? Feel free to share your idea in the comments! Our app team is watching! |
Three British lads with a thirst for adventure (as well as for booze and attention, it seems) set out last weekend in search of some fun after partying all night in Cyprus.
According to the men, as of two days ago, fun was found in spades — until they wound up on a boat bound for Syria, hungover, terrified and without Wi-Fi.
"We ended up in some f--king place called Tartus or something and literally had no idea where this f--king place was," said 19-year-old Alex McCormick to News.com.au on Tuesday, referring to Syria's second-largest port city on the Mediterranean coast.
McCormick, who reportedly works as a club promoter in the Cypriot resort town of Ayia Napa, also told the news outlet that he and his friends almost defecated in their pants when Russian military officers arrived and took them away for questioning.
As it turns out though, he was lying — and not just with the "almost" part of that sentence above.
McCormick and his buddies, Lewis Ellis, 25, and James Wallman, 23, faked the entire thing. They did not drunkenly "blag [their] way onto a random boat," spend nine hours at sea with men who shouted at them in a foreign language, or pose for selfies and eat stew with the Russian soldiers who detained them.
It's not even clear at this point if the British men, who all claim to be working at nightclubs in Ayia Napa, did anything but go to bed after partying on Sunday night.
What is clear, based on what they're saying now, is that the guys are delighted with what their fake words and elaborately staged Snapchat photos accomplished.
"We have literally trolled the world media and we are so proud of ourselves," Ellis, who runs a YouTube channel devoted to pranks, told the Independent on Wednesday. "They report bollocks all the time and people never check the facts. As soon as they posted it that was it — it went viral."
Viral might be a stretch, but a solid handful of mainstream media outlets and reporters, including CBC's Derek Stoffel, did pick up the story, particularly in the U.K.
Idiotically, idiotic Brits abroad make up idiotic Syria story. The laughs we had..... <a href="https://t.co/jYrEN317Z1">https://t.co/jYrEN317Z1</a> —@jondonnisonbbc
On Wednesday morning, screenshots from Ellis's personal Facebook page began circulating on Twitter.
The University of Chester marketing grad has been delightedly sharing links to news articles about the story with comments like "hahahaha" and "yesssss" since they started bubbling up, and in the comments section of one such post he appeared to admit the hoax.
"Hahaha what a prank," he wrote to a friend, who replied, "So u didn't get on wrong boat?"
"Naaa we just made it up for fun," typed Ellis.
A separate status update on Wednesday was even more blatant.
"Okay so we trolled the world … agreed with Alex McCormick thank you media outlets you've made great victims. James Wallman … just goes to show how often people report without checking facts."
(Lewis Ellis/Facebook)
If the trio's intention was to teach journalists a lesson, it may have worked on some level for those reporters who took the time to speak with them, transcribe their words, process their images, write out full articles, and trust them enough to tell their story.
Those resources could very well have been devoted to other Syria-related news stories, after all — like those of the more than 8,000 refugees who have died since 2014 while trying to cross the very same sea that Ellis, McCormick and Wallman used for prank fodder. |
The world chess championships are under way in Russia, where Vishwanathan Anand defends his title. His success is widely credited for the growing popularity of chess in his home country, India, the nation widely believed to have given the game to the world.
He's been described by some as the Sachin Tendulkar of chess, a role model to thousands of Indian school children and arguably one of the country's most successful sportsmen.
Vishwanathan Anand is India's biggest chess star, and was the first in the country to secure the game's highest honour, by becoming a grandmaster.
Anand gained international acclaim in 2007 after he became world chess champion, a title he has now won three times.
The 42-year-old from Chennai is currently in Moscow, competing against Israel's Boris Gelfand for his fourth title. The score is currently three points apiece after six draws.
Image caption Anand began playing aged six and is now ranked fourth in the world
His moves are being watched closely by chess enthusiasts in his home country, where the games are being screened on a national sports channel and large sections of the sports pages are devoted to it.
Chess has a particularly strong following in Delhi, Calcutta and across the south of India. The state of Tamil Nadu, where Anand is from, was even in the bidding to host the current world championships, losing out to Russia.
Chess boom in numbers Vishwanathan Anand, men's world champion four times. Koneru Humphry, women's world number four Eight Indians in the world top 100 (three men, five women) 27 grandmasters, a title awarded by the world governing body 24,694 Indians have a world rating issued by the chess federation, meaning they play competitively 30,000 registered players with the India chess federation
Chess has risen in popularity in the years following Anand's first triumphs, says Bharat Singh, the secretary of the All India Chess Federation.
"The game has really grown in the past six or seven years particularly," he says, highlighting the fact the number of grandmsters (GMs) in India has tripled in that time frame, to 27 GMs today. The number of international chess masters in the country has also tripled (to 76) in the same period, and India is in the world top 10 in rankings.
The latest Indian to pick up the grandmaster title is 15-year-old Vaibhav Suri, who won the accolade last month.
Success has been equal for both men and women in India, Koneru Humpry is the country's most accomplished female player, who holds the world number four spot.
The opening up of India's economy in 1991 enabled more players to travel abroad and play tournaments and achieve rankings, says Devangshu Datta, a chess commentator and journalist.
Chess helps you take good decisions in your life Shubangi Tekukar, Mother of four-year-old chess player
"Increasing internet use is another reason why India jumped several levels so fast and why Anand and his generation broke through. From the early 90s onwards, you had databases where, at the click of the mouse, you could work your way through millions of games."
The game is growing at the grassroots, and is now on the curriculum in the states of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and is taught at schools across the country. Chess coaching clubs are springing up at a fast pace too.
"We get as many as 50 calls a day from interested parents," says Dhanajay Ramraje, who runs the Chanakya Chess Club in Mumbai. Ramraje coaches children in the game at their houses and in schools, charging as much as $30 (£19) an hour.
At one such session, a group of children is gathered around a dining room table. Their eyes are fixed in concentrated, accompanied by hard stares at the black and white pieces in front of them. As they take turns to move them across the board, the silence in the room is punctuated with the tapping of clocks, and the occasional gasp.
Asia's first chess champion Malik Mir Sultan Khan (1906-1966) was a domestic servant to an Indian ruler, the nawab, Umar Hayat Khan. Mir Sultan Khan was a talented chess player who travelled with his master from India to Britain to play the game. He surprised the chess world by winning a number of British championships, beating some of the world's greatest to became known as one of the best chess players of his time. He learnt the Indian version of the game himself when he grew up in the Punjab region, now part of Pakistan, before learning to play the Western variation, which has slightly different rules.
"I like chess because it helps my brains sometimes," says Namya Kumar, who is six years old and one of the three girls in the group. She is competing against four-year-old Aadya Tekukar, who started playing at the age of two and despite being so young, has already won trophies.
Looking on is Aadya's mother, Dr Shubangi Tekukar, who says: "Chess helps you take good decisions in your life.
"It is a game in which there are many moves and out of that you choose one best move. Like that, in your life also chess helps to improve your ability to make the best decisions."
The educational value of the game is why many Indian parents are encouraging their children to play the game, says Singh. Indians place a huge emphasis on their children's learning, and chess is seen as a welcome addition.
"The general perception is that if you play chess it will help with your studies, especially in logical reasoning, mathematics, physics, and there are surveys which prove that chess players are better mathematicians," he adds.
Another reason why some say Indians have an affinity for the game is because it is widely believed it began in the country.
"I think we Indians have some kind of a knack for the game, maybe it's because it originated here," says Manuel Aaron, India's first international chess master, who is writing a book on the history of the game.
One theory is that chess evolved from the Indian game Chaturanga, meaning four units of an army, which began in the country in the 6th Century.
Top 10 chess countries 1. Russia (213 grandmasters)
2. Ukraine (79)
3. China (29)
4. Armenia (33)
5. France (46)
6. Hungary (51)
7. US (71)
8. India (27)
9. Israel (39)
10. Azerbaijan (20) Source: World Chess Federation (FIDE), based on average rating of country's top 10 players See full FIDE list
"It was not an ordinary people's game," says Aaron. "It was a game to train people in the art of warfare. The pieces were elephants, horses, camels and foot soldiers, symbols of the army."
Many people also believe the Mughal emperor Akbar played live chess in the courtyard of his palace, Fatehpur Sikri, in Agra.
Legend has it he would sit in a high place, and watch real animals and soldiers move around a giant board, says Aaron.
Today chess is attracting more money and corporate sponsorship, but it is still difficult to make a full-time living from playing the game, says Pravin Thipsay, another chess grandmaster.
Thipsay, who runs coaching workshops, still works in banking and believes more needs to be done to encourage people to take up the game at the top level.
"We've had more world junior champions than any other country... but at a really senior level, aside from Anand, we will struggle to overtake countries like Russia. It'll take 10 to 15 years to do that."
Image caption Clubs like Chanakya report increased interest
Thipsay says while India has embraced the game, it still hasn't fully accepted chess as a profession.
"Chess players gets a lot of respect from their colleagues, but you cannot make a living out of it. At a senior level it's hard to find someone who could replace Anand.
"At the grassroots, progress is great but progress at the top is not." |
Edmonton city councillors are demanding to know why a key composting facility in Edmonton had such structural damage that it had to close suddenly, forcing food waste to be sent to the landfill for the winter.
Engineers discovered structural problems with the roof of the aeration hall in the composting facility, creating safety problems for staff working at the 270,000-square-foot building.
"The roof can't hold a live snow load, that's why we made the decision to suspend processing organics in the processing facility," said Mike Labrecque, branch manager of waste services.
"What happens next? It's too early to speculate," he said, adding it's also too early to say how much it would cost to fix the facility.
Coun. Michael Walters wants to know why a previous assessment didn't detect problems sooner at the composting facility. (CBC) However, a report in front of the city utility committee Tuesday says the financial implications may "potentially be significant."
Michael Walters is one of several councillors wondering why past inspections didn't reveal the problems sooner.
"The project-management and asset-management challenges we've had in the last number of years are no secret," he said.
"How this asset turned from being in good condition to being in very poor condition very quickly — we're still waiting to understand."
Labrecque said the waste services department is looking at other options for composting, such as other locations in or around the Edmonton area.
"It's a massive facility — we handle 150,000 tonnes of material every year."
Waste services staff are being asked to report back to council with a detailed plan on how to fix the composting facility or possibly demolish it. There will also be a review of the previous assessments.
Those reports are due Feb. 23.
In the meantime, all food waste in Edmonton is being sent to the landfill.
Composting organics comprises 16 per cent of the materials diverted from the landfill. |
“We need to be realistic,” Head Coach Barry Trotz said recently. “The moons have to absolutely align for us to somehow get in.”
If they win tonight, break out your telescopes.
The Nashville Predators tallied an unexpected win over the Pacific Division-leading Anaheim Ducks last night, 5-2. In doing so, they extended their hopes of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the eighth time in 10 years.
Don’t get too excited, though. They extended their hopes. Not their likelihood.
Headed into Saturday’s game against the 49-20-9 San Jose Sharks, the Preds are seven points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Thanks to their shootout loss to the lowly Edmonton Oilers last night, the Phoenix Coyotes hurdled the Dallas Stars for said eighth spot. Phoenix sits on 86 points with four games left. Dallas has 85 with six left.
Nashville has 79 with five remaining.
Put another way, the Predators have 10 points still on the table. The interesting thing about those 10 points, however, is that almost half of them will go to some combination of Nashville, Phoenix or Dallas.
Cliche would suggest that they’re “must-win games” but, while that’s true, they have to get through San Jose first. Headed into their final 10 games of the year, even an optimist would have pegged the Preds to lose both the Anaheim game and the San Jose game. But, with the win last night and a possible win tonight, all of a sudden, the games in Dallas on Tuesday and at home against the Coyotes on Thursday become gigantic events when it comes to Nashville’s playoff hopes.
Were the Preds to win tonight, they could wind up just five points back and staring at an opportunity to close the gap to one with success over the teams they need to hurdle, the Coyotes and Stars. Obviously, that’s all fantasy but, with a win tonight out in the Bay Area, it would become the main focus.
Even if they win, they’ll still need help, there’s no question about that. Just because they’re ahead of the 10th place Vancouver Canucks and 11th place Winnipeg Jets today doesn’t mean it’ll finish that way. Heck, even the surging Calgary Flames can catch them if the Flames run the table and the Preds collapse.
Other than Nashville, the Coyotes still have games against a desperate Columbus Blue Jackets team who may actually make the playoffs, the mighty Sharks and then a season finale showdown against — who else? — Dallas. The Stars will face a playoff-bound Tampa Bay Lightning club, the league’s second worst team in the Florida Panthers, the Central Division-leading St. Louis Blues and then that Phoenix closer. In short, only the Florida game looks like an easy win for either team.
On top of their tough schedules, the Coyotes are 0-2-2 in their last four while the Stars are 5-2-0 in their last seven. For comparison, the Predators are 5-1-1 in their last seven and have even scored 29 goals during that span (4.14 goals/game average).
Nashville is surging at the right time. But is it too little, too late? We’ll find out tonight.
—
PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Fuqua (used with permission) |
Mike Rowe just gave the perfect response to a “lost fan” who attacked him for his appearance on Tuesday night at a gun show in Las Vegas.
The host of “Somebody’s Got To Do It” dealt with criticism this week for hanging out with a “bunch of gun nuts” and participating in the 2017 Shot Show State of the Industry Dinner. In the letter the person called him out for participating in the promotion of “faux patriotism surrounding the second amendment” and said he was risking his “good name” before signing off that he had lost a fan. (RELATED: Mike Rowe: Media Wants To Impact Election By Labeling Trump Voters ‘Uneducated)
“It’s true, I’ll be in Vegas this week, addressing a roomful of people who like to shoot guns,” Rowe wrote on his Facebook page. “I’m not sure what I’m going to say yet–probably the same thing I tell anyone who invites me to discuss the various ways we might close America’s skills gap. But one things for sure–while I’m at there, I’m going to make sure I see my friends at The SEAL Family Foundation.” (Mike Rowe: Celebrities Only Encourage Their Fans To Vote So Liberals Will Get Elected)
Rowe then said he asked the SEAL team to walk his employees through a small training session and said how incredible it was to watch people who were uncomfortable holding a gun to being very comfortable and “empowered” by the opportunity.
“One day Marla [the irate fan], I hope you’ll have the opportunity to experience something similar, and listen to the stories of people who use guns to protect us,” Rowe said. “Obviously, you and I have a difference of opinion regarding the role of the second amendment in modern society. But thanks to the first amendment, we can express our differences in whatever way we prefer.”
“We can criticize those with whom we disagree, or we can try to persuade them,” he added. “We can make a case as to why we believe what we believe, or we can simply announce our disappointment to the world, as though our feelings alone are enough to justify our beliefs. As for you Marla — you can either stomp off in a cloud of righteous indignation, or you can accompany me to the SHOT Show as my guest, and see what all the fuss is about.”
“Either way, it’s nice to have choices, don’t you think?” |
In recent months, the Western world has been pulled into a state of shock and panic as the repercussions of its actions have come starkly into view, due to an intensifying refugee crisis from Eritrea to Libya to Syria and around the globe. The mainstream media would have you think that this crisis materialized overnight. However, it has roots in the terrible atrocities the West has engaged in over the last several years – atrocities that cause people to have to flee their homes in the first place.
The situation at hand is a harbinger of a much deeper crisis that will come if the reigning empires of the world do not change their ways. The unsustainable nature of capitalism will ultimately destroy the entire planet – but many of the plants, animals and people who live on it will go first. To understand the roots of the refugee crisis, one has to focus in on the ongoing global disasters that are consistently hurting those who are disadvantaged globally.
It’s the business of forcing people to come to you by making their parts of the world unlivable.
The unfortunate irony of the Western world’s policies toward refugees is that they actually exacerbate the root causes of migration. While purporting to “address” the plight of refugees, the West simultaneously implements policies that inflame climate change and wars, destabilizing regions with populations already facing turmoil. The acknowledgement of the refugees’ suffering comes – as do most acknowledgments from the world of white-dominated Western politics – in the form of fully blaming the home countries of those refugees. Western powers are acknowledging the crisis – but they are not acknowledging that it is a problem they played a major role in creating. They are acting as if it’s the fault of evil, anti-Western apparitions (like, the terrorists) or convenient enemies (like, “people smugglers”), and they are drumming up new propaganda against these apparitions. These sorts of narratives are convenient tools for these governments and far-right factions of the public.
This attitude of brutal relentlessness is intricately woven into the decision to take military action in areas that have already been decimated through war or let corporations profit at home. The Wall Street Journal reports of the refugee crisis in Europe:
There are also profits to be made. In Germany, Air Berlin PLC was paid some $350,000 last year operating charter flights to deport rejected asylum seekers on behalf of the government. In Sweden, the government paid a language-analysis firm $900,000 last year to verify asylum seekers’ claims of where they were from. In Athens, a Western Union branch has been disbursing €20,000 a day (about $22,600) to migrants, reaping fees on each transaction.
This process of “dealing” with refugees could easily be likened to destroying a country and then paying your own people or friends to rebuild it. It could be likened to corporations in the United States like Corrections Corporation of America, which similarly detains undocumented immigrants in detention centers after this country has used their labor where they are moved around for further exploitation. It’s the business of forcing people to come to you by making their parts of the world unlivable.
As the planet slowly decays, people are moving because of climate change. The “safe” level of carbon concentrations, 350 parts per million, was passed decades ago. This year, the globe reached a terrible milestone. Now, for the first time since the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory began recording, the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached over 400 globally for a month. Countries like Algeria and Pakistan have recently seen deadly rises in heat waves. Places throughout the global South, which will suffer the most, contribute the least to the problem of polluting emissions. And while sea levels rise, there is less water to sustain life in the many parts of Middle East and Africa. The World Resources Institute recently highlighted how the progression of climate change directly correlates with the war in Syria:
Drought and water shortages in Syria likely contributed to the unrest that stoked the country’s 2011 civil war. Dwindling water resources and chronic mismanagement forced 1.5 million people, primarily farmers and herders, to lose their livelihoods and leave their land, move to urban areas, and magnify Syria’s general destabilization.
People of the world are already fighting over the dwindling resources while the West endlessly plunders to fuel its capitalist interest of exploiting natural resources. The ongoing and future refugee crisis will largely be caused by the irresponsibility of the Western world. The violence of destroying the environment further stokes the violence that humans are capable of committing against one another. But the West makes places unlivable in other ways as well.
People from the Caribbean and South and Central America have fled to the United States after their countries have been devastated by the foreign policy and economic onslaught of the Western world, just like many in the Eastern Hemisphere. For instance, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) destroyed local economies and negatively affected millions of communities by increasing unemployment. Two million farmworkers alone lost their jobs from the trade deal. Hillary Clinton can laugh about the US role in Honduras just like she laughed about killing Muammar el-Qaddafi and destabilizing Libya. The ensuing violence after a US-backed post-coup government gave its loyalists powerful positions is no laughing matter. Countries across the ocean could soon be reeling from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, just like Mexico and other parts of the Americas were devastated by NAFTA and neoliberal economic policies. But when people flee violence fueled by joblessness, poor economies and regime change, they are not welcomed with open arms by the empires that caused much of that chaos.
We’ve seen how people leaving countries like Somalia, Iraq and Mexico become members of al-Shabab, ISIS and the cartels that fill the talking points of far-right xenophobes. But despite this, bombing these countries and killing civilians – thus inevitably driving people to flee – is seen as a necessary and unrelated course of action. Refugees are framed as less than human, a strand we see in the dehumanizing political rhetoric of the West that comes to life at protests to deport child refugees from El Salvador or in images of the foot of a bigot kicking a refugee father carrying a child.
These abuses are not committed exclusively by the West; China, Russia and other Eastern nations are capable of just the same as they kick around their unwanted Muslim populations, such as the Rohingya and Uighurs, among others. They follow the same methods of repression against ethnic minorities or otherwise politically isolated, unwanted and scapegoated communities.
When people flee violence fueled by poor economies and regime change, they are not welcomed by the empires that caused much of that chaos.
Amid all of this, the racial nature of the refugee crisis is present in the racial hierarchies of travel. Countries like Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina have agreed to settle Syrians, who have seemingly become more favored by some than their darker-skinned refugee counterparts. The hypocrisy is blatant in the terrible way that a nation like Brazil or Canada seeks to look merciful in the media by accepting Syrians, while expelling Haitians who seek refuge. Even the United States has agreed to take some Syrians in, after deporting millions of people seeking asylum and stability in the past few years. At the same time, the closest ally and biggest recipient of US funds, Israel, is deporting African refugees after detaining them in desert camps, while consistently hounding Palestinians who are made refugees by the expansionary existence of the Israeli state.
The entire spectacle has become a game of politics. No powerful country wants these people, whom they have placed in a position of desperation. And given the racism shown in who is and isn’t welcomed in minuscule numbers by these empires, it’s clear that some refugees are seen to deserve asylum even less than others.
However, the West and other nations that have chosen to act like the West are at a turning point in history. They all have a choice. They can change their ways or wait for the world to collapse on them. A world away, there are people whose blood is spilled by wars fueled by Western governments, people whom Western oppressors can’t hear scream when they go to sleep at night. The dispossessed know where you are. If Western nations have any desire to preserve themselves, they will seek out ways to preserve their infrastructures outside the realms of capitalism, conquest and colonialism. Otherwise, the “first world” can keep doing what it’s doing and wait for the moment when the rest free themselves and the last become first. That time is inevitable. |
"With a 67 percent rise in Brand Value to $247 billion, Apple returned to number one in the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking. Success of the iPhone 6 and the related excitement surrounding the Apple brand drove the increase. Apple also led in the rate of brand value growth over 10 years – 1,446 percent."
Apple was named the most valuable global brand in market research firm Millward Brown's tenth annual BrandZ brand value report PDF ], seeing a 67% rise in brand value to $246.9 billion. The Cupertino-based company surpassed Google, which ranked first in the 2014 report , to reclaim the top ranking in the study for the fourth time in the past five years. See BrandZ's annual reports in 2011 2012 and 2013 for reference.The top ten most valuable global brands in the report is made up almost entirely of technology and telecom companies, with Microsoft, IBM, Visa, AT&T, Verizon, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Marlboro rounding off the top ten after Apple and Google. Other notable technology companies on the list include Facebook (12th), Amazon (14th), HP (39th), Oracle (44th), Samsung (45th) and Twitter (92nd).Millward Brown explains that its brand valuation methodology is based on three million consumers and more than 100,000 different brands in over 50 markets, with brand appeal measured against actual sales performance. The overall brand value of BrandZ's index saw a 14% year-over-year increase and 126% growth over the past decade. |
Raja Gemini sewed, danced, cat-walked and lip-synced her way to victory on season three of Logo TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race — beating out 12 other fierce and fabulous contenders on the drag-queen competition show in 2011.
Born Sutan Amrull, the 39-year-old Los Angeles native had already made his name in Hollywood as both a makeup artist for celebrity clients like Tyra Banks and Adam Lambert as well as a renowned L.A. drag performer before the drag legend RuPaul crowned him the queen with the most charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent.
Since then, the Dutch-Indonesian chameleon has headlined drag shows at clubs across the country, while working on followups to his first pop single, “Diamond Crowned Queen” and blogging at artofraja.com.
Raja recently chatted with Hyphen about sex, drag and what it’s like to be your own power couple.
How did you learn about the birds and the bees?
I don’t think my parents and I ever really had the birds and the bees talk. I basically learned it all on my own. I was very aware of sexuality at a very young age and was curious about it. There was a book that my parents owned — I don’t remember what it was called, just that it was written in the ’60s about sexuality, and it described all the medical and technical terms.
I learned about the structure of a penis and vagina, but I didn’t really know what those things meant. I knew that semen came out and babies were made! There were all these Latin terms like coitus and coitus interuptus. You talk to your friends, and I think that’s really how kids learn.
How did you feel about all of that?
I was always a little bit fearful because I didn’t really want to do this with a girl. I just kind of avoided it. I pretended that it didn’t exist, and I focused on being crazy and kooky and dressing cool and going out to clubs — it was a really big distraction from the insecurities I had about sexuality.
I’m a late bloomer; I didn’t even kiss a boy or a girl until I was in college, and I was about 19. And I actually didn’t lose my complete virginity until I was 22 or 23. It was never a really big priority for me to have sex, but once I lost my virginity, it all changed! (Laughs)
When did you know that you were gay?
I think I’ve known all of my life. I never looked at girls sexually or as being something that I would desire sexually. The girls that I had crushes on in high school were usually the most stylish girls in school or the coolest, most rebellious girls. Those were the ones I really liked because I wanted to be that. I wanted to be a powerful girl who didn’t care and got to wear whatever she wanted and was cool.
In the season 3 finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race, you said, “For the first time in my life, I can say I’m a beautiful person. It’s taken a long time, and it’s been a treacherous journey.” Tell me a little bit about that journey.
I started out in a very religious household and that kind of stifled me. And I went through a lot of bullying in high school. But, there was no stopping me; I dressed the way I wanted to, and I got a lot of harassment in school. Then, when I discovered drag, I just jumped right into it. It was exactly what I needed. I focused my entire life, really, around that image. And I focused more on the feminine than the masculine.
But I made a lot of sacrifices. I got into some relationships with men who only loved me because I was a beautiful woman. And there were guys who wouldn’t date me because I was too effeminate as a male. I walked around with really long hair, tall and thin, and I just kind of looked like this marginal gender every day because I felt like I was living for the drag.
Now, I’m getting older, and I’m embracing the fact that I have this masculine side of me — that’s how I got to the point I am at today. It’s finally realizing who you are as a person and I think [the show] actually helped a lot of people understand that you don’t have to be just a pageant queen, you don’t have to follow any sort of template. You can make it individual and make it all your own.
How do you balance your two personas?
It’s really about how I pack my luggage! I usually travel with one pair of black jeans, one pair of blue jeans, some T-shirts, but Raja gets to have the dresses and the coat and jewelry and the shoe options. Sutan doesn’t really get to do that.
I am a Gemini, so there’s a duality to me. When I’m feeling like I want to be in the public eye and I want to be around a bunch of people screaming at me and having a good time and partying, that’s where Raja comes in. In my actual day-to-day life, I like to be alone. I paint and I draw and I’m starting a blog now — I do a lot of things on my own. I sew, I hang out with friends. It’s actually very simple. So there is that side of me, but again, it is all one person.
What’s your sexiest quality?
I feel fearless, and I think that’s pretty sexy. That confidence has only come over time. It’s come out of wisdom and experience — it’s not anything I’ve had before. I definitely feel a lot sexier now that I’m older and in my 30s.
You have to believe that you are hot. I think that’s what drag queens have represented over thousands of years. It just has everything to do with you being a free human being, using full expression, constantly.
Lauren Kawana is a student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Read more in Issue 27: The Sex Issue, available now. Subscribe to Hyphen or pick up a copy at a newsstand near you. |
The Reading Fightin Phils (62-26) recorded new seasons highs and hit milestones they haven't seen in years as they beat the Bowie Baysox (37-50) 21-4 on Friday night. Reading recorded it's first 20-plus run performance and five home run game since 2007.
The Fightin Phils jumped to an early 3-0 lead against Baysox starter David Hess (3-9) in the bottom of the first. Andrew Pullin hit a one-out single to extend his hitting streak to 21 games (16 with Clearwater) then scored on a two-run home run by Rhys Hoskins. Dylan Cozens homered in the next at-bat for his 24th of the season.
Bowie got a run off Tom Eshelman (2-0) in the top of the second as Joey Terdoslavich scored on a groundout by Chris O'Brien. The Fightin Phils opened up the game by scoring six runs off Hess in the bottom of the second to take 9-1 lead. KC Serna led off the inning with a home run then Pullin hit a RBI double. Hoskins followed with a RBI single then Cozens walked. Jake Fox reached on an error then Harold Martinez walked with the bases loaded. Serna ended the scoring with a RBI single.
Eshelman gave up three runs in the top of the third as Bowie cut Reading's lead to 9-4. The Fightins scored two runs in the bottom of the third against Baysox reliever Jon Keller. Pullin hit a two-run home run with one out, his third of the season. Reading scored five more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 16-4 lead. Osmel Aguila hit a two-run single. Hoskins hit a sacrifice fly then Cozens hit a RBI triple. Aguila also scored on a wild pitch.
Reading scored five more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 21-4 lead. Gabriel Lino hit a RBI double then scored on a three-run home run by Aguila. Cozens added a RBI single in the inning.
The Fightin Phils saw five players hit home runs and record multi-hit games. Jeremy Bleich and Alexis Rivero both pitched two scoreless innings in relief. Osmel Aguila recorded the first five-RBI game of his career in the United States.
The Fightin Phils and Bowie Baysox meet again on Saturday night. First pitch is at 6:35 pm from FirstEnergy Stadium. Fans can listen to the game on Sports Radio AM 1240/FM 98.5 and fightins.com beginning at 6:05 pm. Fans can watch the game on MiLB.tv beginning at 6:35 pm.
Tickets for the 2016 season are available online at Fightins.com, by phone at 610-370-BALL, and in-person at FirstEnergy Stadium. |
Houston police: Driver fires back at other car, hits 3 inside No charges in north Houston freeway gunshot exchange
No charges have been filed so far in a fatal shooting earlier this week on Interstate 45.
Houston police said a man killed one man and wounded two others after they fired at him while driving in the 9400 block of North Freeway about 12:20 a.m. Wednesday.
Officers were called to a gas station in the 7400 block of North Shepherd because three males had been shot. Investigators determined that the men had been shot at the freeway and drove to the Shell station.
According to police, they were driving a white Pontiac Grand Prix when they fired gunshots at the driver of a truck. Then they exited the freeway at West Gulf Bank.
The truck driver stopped on the West Gulf Bank overpass and got a rifle from his back seat for protection, police said. As he looked over the side of the freeway to see the license plate of the Pontiac, he saw the car's driver's side window open and feared the suspects would shoot at him again.
He fired several shots at the Pontiac, hitting the passenger who was sitting in the front seat and another man who was in the back seat.
The front-seat passenger, 17, was taken to Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital, where he later was pronounced dead.
The Ponitac's driver, who was cut in the face by flying glass and shrapnel, and rear seat passenger were treated at the hospital. Their conditions are not immediately known.
A 19-year-old man who was passenger in the car ran away, but was later found and questioned.
[email protected] |
Fast-food workers hold placards in support of an increase of the fast-food workers' minimum wage in New York on May 15, 2014. Fast-food workers around the world staged a global protest actions to demand an increase of their minimum wage to $15 an hour. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND, AFP/Getty Images)
The fast-food walkouts Thursday are part of a broader nationwide effort to raise the minimum wage for millions of low-income workers, a campaign that's notching growing success in states and cities across the USA.
Supporters say that raising wages would address growing inequality between the rich and poor as the nation continues to recover too slowly from the Great Recession. Opponents say pay hikes would mean lost jobs and could slow a fragile recovery.
PROTESTS: Fast-food workers strike for higher wages
A bill, backed by President Obama, to raise the federal minimum hourly wage from $7.25 to $10.10 by late 2016, has stalled in Congress due to Republican opposition.
But seven states have passed legislation this year to raise the minimum wage. Four have approved increases to at least $10.10 an hour — Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii and Vermont. Three others — Minnesota, West Virginia and Delaware — have passed smaller increases.
Proposals to increase the minimum wage have been introduced in at least 30 other states, according to the Associated Press.
Cities are also taking action. San Francisco, Santa Fe, San Jose and Washington are among cities that have voted to increase the minimum wage above the proposed $10.10 federal level. Others are weighing increases, including New York, San Diego and Portland, Maine. Seattle is considering setting the nation's highest minimum wage — $15 an hour, which would match what the striking fast-food workers are seeking.
Proponents say a minimum wage increase would bolster an economic recovery that has mostly benefited the wealthy who own stocks even as job gains have been dominated by low-wage sectors. Low-wage industries such as restaurant and retail accounted for 22% of jobs lost in the recession but 44% of jobs added in the past four years, according to a recent study by the National Employment Law Project. Mid- and high-wage sectors, meanwhile, still have far fewer jobs than they did before the recession.
"The economy has not been working for most workers," says David Cooper, economic analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "Most people are still struggling."
The federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009, and increases in recent decades have not kept pace with inflation, Cooper says. The current $7.25 federal minimum is 27% below the 1968 rate after accounting for inflation.
An EPI study found that raising the minimum federal rate to $10.10 would raise pay for 28 million workers. Those include workers earning $7.25, others earning from $7.25 to $10.10, and some paid $10.10 or slightly above who would benefit from a higher pay scale.
"It's not going to drastically change lifestyles, but it's the difference between being able to afford a new car payment and moving into a better apartment with an extra bedroom for your kids," Cooper says.
The wage increases would pump an additional $22 billion into the economy, Cooper says, noting that low-wage workers tend to spend most of their paychecks, while higher-wage employees save more.
But Michael Saltsman, research director for the Employment Policies Institute, says minimum wage increases would force businesses to lay off workers or hire fewer people.
"When their costs increase, they either have to pass them off through higher prices or produce a product or service at a lower cost," Saltsman says. "That means doing it with fewer workers."
Fast-food restaurants, he says, would be more prone to replace employees with new technology, such as touch-screen ordering devices.
A study released in February by the Congressional Budget Office found that boosting the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty but reduce employment by about 500,000 workers.
Cooper notes that the report analyzed other studies of minimum wage increases and that more recent studies have found minimal job losses.
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On May 23, 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) trade show in Tampa, Florida to share her vision of “smart power” and to explain the State Department’s crucial role in extending the reach and efficacy of America’s growing “international counterterrorism network.”
First, there is such a thing as a “Special Operations Forces Industry Conference trade show.” Without some keen reporting by David Axe of Wired, that peculiar get-together might’ve flown completely under the radar much like the shadowy “industry” it both supports and feeds off of like a sleek, camouflaged lamprey attached to a taxpayer-fattened shark.
Second, “special operations” have officially metastasized into a full-fledged industry. United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and, therefore, conveniently located near the special operations trade show, which happened again this year at the Tampa Convention Center. The theme was “Strengthening the Global SOF Network” and the 600,000-square-foot facility was filled with targets of opportunity for well-connected and well-heeled defense contractors.
According to the SOFIC website, this year’s conference afforded attendees “the opportunity to engage with USSOCOM Program Executive Officers, Science and Technology Managers, Office of Small Business Programs and Technology & Industry Liaison Office representatives, and other acquisition experts who will identify top priorities, business opportunities, and interests as they relate to USSOCOM acquisition programs.”
Third, Hillary’s widely-ignored speech marked a radical departure from the widely-held perception that the State Department’s diplomatic mission endures as an institutional alternative to the Pentagon’s military planning. Instead, Secretary Clinton celebrated the transformation of Foggy Bottom into a full partner with the Pentagon’s ever-widening efforts around the globe, touting both the role of diplomats in paving the way for shadowy special ops in so-called “hot spots” and the State Department’s “hand-in-glove” coordination with Special Forces in places like Pakistan and Yemen.
Finally, with little fanfare or coverage, America’s lead diplomat stood before the shadow war industry and itemized the integration of the State Department’s planning and personnel with the Pentagon’s global counter-terrorism campaign which, she told the special operations industry, happen “in one form or another in more than 100 countries around the world.”
If this isn’t entirely unexpected, consider the fact that under then-Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the State Department fought attempts by the Pentagon to trump its authority around the globe and, as reported by Washington Post, “repeatedly blocked Pentagon efforts to send Special Operations forces into countries surreptitiously and without ambassadors’ formal approval.”
But that was before Hillary brought her “fast and flexible” doctrine of “smart power” to Foggy Bottom and, according to her remarks, before she applied lessons learned from her time on the Senate Armed Services Committee to launch the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which she modeled on the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review. That Pentagon-style review spurred the creation of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations to “advance the U.S. government’s foreign policy goals in conflict areas.”
According to a Congressional Research Service analysis, the initial intent of the Conflict Bureau was to replace the ineffectual Office of the Coordinator of Reconstruction and Stabilization, which was created in 2004 to help manage “stabilization” efforts in two nations the US was actively destabilizing Afghanistan and Iraq.
But the new, improved bureau does more than just react to messes made by unlawful invasions or direct costly remediation efforts in war zones it also collaborates with “relevant partners” in the Department of Defense and NATO “to harmonize civilian and military plans and operations pertaining to conflict prevention, crisis response, and stabilization.”
This integrated relationship between State and Defense was confirmed by US Special Operations chief Admiral William McRaven shortly after Hillary’s speech. When asked about the “unlikely partnership,” McRaven assured DefenseNews that SOCOM has “an absolutely magnificent relationship with the State Department” and that SOCOM doesn’t “do anything that isn’t absolutely fully coordinated and approved by the US ambassador and the geographic combatant commander.”
As David Axe aptly described it in Wired, “Together, Special Operations Forces and State’s new Conflict Bureau are the twin arms of an expanding institution for waging small, low-intensity shadow wars all over the world.”
In fact, during Hillary’s time as America’s chief diplomat, the State Department embraced the shadowy edge of US foreign policy where decision-makers engage in activities that look like war, sound like war and, if you were to ask civilians in places like Yemen and Pakistan, feel a lot like war, but never quite have to meet the Constitutional requirement of being officially declared as war.
The Whole-of-Government Shift
Once upon a time, “low-intensity shadow wars” were the Congressionally-regulated bailiwick of the Central Intelligence Agency. But 9/11 changed everything. However, the excesses of the Bush Administration led many to hope that Obama could and would change everything back or, at least, relax America’s tense embrace of “the dark side.”
Although the new administration did officially re-brand “The War on Terror” as “Overseas Contingency Operations,” Team Obama employed an increasingly elastic interpretation of the 9/11-inspired Authorization for Use of Military Force and expanded covert ops, special ops, drone strikes and regime change to peoples and places well-beyond the law’s original intent, and certainly beyond the limited scope of CIA covert action.
Obama’s growing counter-terrorism campaign involving, as Secretary Clinton said, “more than 100 countries” took flight with a new, ecumenical approach called the “Whole-of-Government” strategy. Advanced by then-Secretary of Defense Bill Gates and quickly adopted by the new administration in early 2009, this strategy catalyzed an institutional shift toward interagency cooperation, particularly in the case of “state-building” (a.k.a. “nation building”).
During remarks to the Brookings Institution in 2010, Secretary Clinton explained the shift: “One of our goals coming into the administration was…to begin to make the case that defense, diplomacy and development were not separate entities, either in substance or process, but that indeed they had to be viewed as part of an integrated whole and that the whole of government then had to be enlisted in their pursuit.”
Essentially, the Whole-of-Government approach is a re-branded and expanded version of Pentagon’s doctrine of “Full-Spectrum Dominance.” Coincidentally, that strategy was featured in the Clinton Administration’s final Annual Report to the President and Congress in 2001. It defined “Full-Spectrum Dominance” as “an ability to conduct prompt, sustained, and synchronized operations with forces tailored to specific situations and possessing freedom to operate in all domains space, sea, land, air, and information.”
In 2001, Full-Spectrum Dominance referred specifically to 20th Century notions of battlefield-style conflicts. But the “dark side” of the War on Terror stretched the idea of the battlefield well-beyond symmetrical military engagements. “Irregular warfare” became the catchphrase du jour, particularly as grinding campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq exposed the reality that the full spectrum still wasn’t enough.
An assessment by the Congressional Research Service identified the primary impetus for the Whole-of-Government “reforms” embraced by Team Obama as the “perceived deficiencies of previous interagency missions” during the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those missions failed to address a myriad of problems created culturally, economically and politically by the wholesale bombing and occupation of those countries. The Full-Spectrum was half-baked. Lesson learned.
But the lesson wasn’t that the US should avoid intervention, regime change or unleashing nascent civil, ethnic or religious conflicts. Instead, the lesson was that the “Whole-of-Government” must be marshaled to fight a worldwide array of Overseas Contingency Operations in “more than 100 countries.”
This Whole-of-Government shift signaled a renewed willingness to engage on variety of new fronts particularly in Africa but in a “fast and flexible” way. With other agencies like the State Department integrated and, in effect, fronting the counter-terrorism campaign, the military footprint becomes smaller and, therefore, easier to manage locally, domestically and internationally.
In some ways, the Whole-of-Government national security strategy is plausible deniability writ-large through the cover of interagency integration. By merging harder-to-justify military and covert actions into a larger, civilian-themed command structure, the impact of the national security policy overseas is hidden or at least obfuscated by the diplomatic “stabilization” efforts run through the State Department whether it’s the Conflict Bureau working against Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa, “stabilizing” post-Gaddafi Libya or spending $27 million to organize the opposition to Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime.
The Pass Key
The cover of diplomacy has traditionally been an effective way to slip covert operators into countries and the State Department’s vast network of embassies and consulates still offers an unparalleled “pass-key” into sovereign nations, emerging hot spots and potential targets for regime change. In 2001, the Annual Report to the President and Congress foresaw the need for more access: “Given the global nature of our interests and obligations, the United States must maintain the ability to rapidly project power worldwide in order to achieve full-spectrum dominance.”
Having the way “pre-paved” is, based on Hillary’s doctrinal shift at State, a key part of the new, fuller-spectrum, Whole-of-Government, mission-integrated version of diplomacy. At the SOFIC’s Special Operations Gala Dinner in 2012, Hillary celebrated the integration of diplomatic personnel and Special Operations military units at the State Department’s recently created Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications a “nerve center in Washington” that coordinates “military and civilian teams around the world” and serves “as a force multiplier for our embassies’ communications efforts.”
As with most doors in Washington, that relationship swings both ways and mission-integrated embassies have served as an effective force multiplier for the Pentagon’s full spectrum of activities, particularly around Africa.
In his 2011 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Africa, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Don Yamamoto noted the “significantly expanded the number of DoD personnel who are integrated into embassies across the continent over the past three years,” and read a surprisingly long laundry list of collaborative efforts between State and the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), including: “reduction of excess and poorly secured man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS); Defense Sector Reform in Liberia, DRC, and South Sudan; counterpiracy activities off the Somali coast; maritime safety and security capacity building; and civil-military cooperation.”
It seems that “civil-military cooperation” is a primary focus of the State Department in Africa. Most notably, Yamamoto told Congress that “embassies implement Department of State-funded Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and International Military Education and Training (IMET) programs, which further US interests in Africa by helping to professionalize African militaries, while also assisting our African partners to be more equipped and trained to work toward common security goals.”
As the ever-vigilant Nick Turse recently reported, US presence on the continent has only grown since that testimony was given in 2011. On TomDispatch.com, Turse identified the infamous attack on Benghazi on September 11, 2012 as the catalyst for “Operation New Normal” the continent-wide response to, quite ironically, the political potboiler still simmering around Secretary Clinton. Whether or not Congressional Republicans find anything more than incompetence at the root of Benghazi, the US military certainly finds itself in a “new normal” of increased activity in response to the forces and the weaponry unleashed by U.S.-led regime change in Libya. According to Turse, the US is “now conducting operations alongside almost every African military in almost every African country and averaging more than a mission a day.”
Those missions are, of course, integrated with and augmented by the State Department’s Conflict Bureau which has used a variety of state-building programs and its diplomatic “pass key” in places like Libya, Nigeria, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and six other African nations, all to develop a growing roster of “host country partners.”
Establishing “host country partners” is the nexus where the State Department, its Conflict Bureau and the AFRICOM meet implementing the Whole-of-Government strategy in emerging or current conflict zones to fuse a mounting counter-terrorism campaign with stabilization, modernization and state-building initiatives, particularly in oil and resource-rich areas like the Niger River Delta, Central Africa and around AFRICOM’s military foothold on the Horn of Africa.
As Richard J. Wilhelm, a Senior Vice President with defense and intelligence contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, pointed out in a video talk about “mission integration,” AFRICOM’s coordination with the Departments of State and Commerce, USAID is the “most striking example of the Whole-of-Government approach.”
And this is exactly the type of “hand-in-glove” relationship Secretary Clinton fostered throughout her tenure at State, leveraging the resources of the department in a growing list of conflict areas where insurgents, terrorists, al-Qaeda affiliates, suspected militants or uncooperative regimes threaten to run afoul of so-called “US interests”.
Ultimately, it became a hand-in-pocket relationship when Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates developed the Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF) to “incentivize joint planning and to pool the resources of the Departments of State and Defense, along with the expertise of other departments, to provide security sector assistance for partner countries so they can address emergent challenges and opportunities important to US national security.”
Although he’s been criticized as feckless and deemed less hawkish than Secretary Clinton, President Obama’s newly-proposed Counterterrorism Partnership Fund (CTPF) is the logical extension of the Clinton-Gates Global Security Contingency Fund and epitomizes the Whole-of-Government shift.
The $5 billion Obama wants will dwarf the $250 million pooled into the GSCF and will, the President said at West Point, “give us flexibility to fulfill different missions including training security forces in Yemen who have gone on the offensive against al Qaeda; supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia; working with European allies to train a functioning security force and border patrol in Libya; and facilitating French operations in Mali.”
That “flexibility” is exactly what Hillary Clinton instituted at State and touted at the SOFIC conference in 2012. It also portends a long-term shift to less invasive forms of regime change like those in Yemen, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, and an increased mission flexibility that will make the Authorization for the Use of Military Force functionally irrelevant.
Normalizing the War on Terror
The ultimate outcome of this shift is, to borrow from Nick Turse, yet another “new normal” the new normalization of the War on Terror. What the adoption of the Whole-of-Government/mission integration approach has done is to normalize the implementation of the re-branded War on Terror (a.k.a. Overseas Contingency Operations) across key agencies of the government and masked it, for lack of the better term, under the rubric of stabilization, development and democracy building.
It is, in effect, the return of a key Cold War policy of “regime support” for clients and “regime change” for non-client states, particularly in strategically-located areas and resource-rich regions. Regimes whether or not they actually “reflect American values” can count on US financial, military and mission-integrated diplomatic support so long as they can claim to be endangered…not by communists, but by terrorists.
And because terrorism is a tactic not a political system or a regime the shadowy, State Department-assisted Special Ops industry that fights them will, unlike the sullen enthusiasts of the Cold War, never be bereft of an enemy.
JP Sottile is a freelance journalist, radio co-host, documentary filmmaker and former broadcast news producer in Washington, D.C. His weekly show, Inside the Headlines w/ The Newsvandal, co-hosted by James Moore, airs every Friday on KRUU-FM in Fairfield, Iowa and is available online. Visit his website.
Read more by JP Sottile |
Over the years we’ve worked with countless voice artists to record voiceovers for all kinds of clients. And one of the most important parts of the process is choosing the right voice for their projects. So it’s a good job we know a thing or two about how the right voice can influence listeners.
Today, we thought it might be interesting to ask what your voice says about you and the influence it has on others. We will see what techniques they use in the voice-over industry, but also get you personally thinking about every word you say.
The effects of familiar voices
In the advertising world, it’s a well-established concept that familiar voices come across as more trustworthy and in-turn effective at selling. This is why so many voiceovers feature celebrities or veteran voice actors – because we trust what we know.
That’s not the only effect familiar voices can have on people. When people say you sound really similar to some famous actor or actress, there could be more at play.
Familiar voices stand out from other noises, meaning we hear them easier
They’re easier to understand
Familiar voices trigger memories and the emotions we associate with them
Familiar voices are also easier to ignore if we want
Deeper voices are more memorable
What qualifies as a deep voice for men and women may be distinct but there’s a consistent theme for both. Studies have shown that deeper voices are more memorable, while others suggest they sound more authoritative.
This is indubitable for women listening to male speakers but actually the same trend exists regardless of gender.
It’s especially important in the political arena, but also the workplace or anywhere that voices are competing or information needs to be remembered – e.g: debates, speeches, presentations, etc. It’s usually the overpowering voices that are heard but they also need to be careful they don’t become irritating.
Women are attracted to deeper voices
Okay, so this won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone, but bear with us. Women have been found to be attracted to deeper voices in men, but it’s not always a case of deeper being better.
Guys with deep voices also sound like they are more likely to cheat
Deep voices can sound more intimidating
Deep male voices are found to be more attractive and memorable
They evoke a sense of leadership, making them more dominant
We associate deep voices with physical size and strength
That first point is particularly interesting and it comes down to the fact that deeper voices in men are linked to higher testosterone levels. In fact, all of the features above can be attributed to ideas we associate with testosterone and masculinity. Studies have also found men with deeper voices (unsurprisingly) get more action too, so it’s not a groundless assumption.
Somewhat ironically, separate studies have found men with deeper voices are more likely to have a lower sperm count. #Matinéefunfact
And guys prefer higher voices in women
Equally unsurprising is the revelation that men prefer higher voices in women. Once again, it comes down to preconceived (and slightly sexist) ideas that higher voices signal smaller bodies, a more submissive nature and femininity.
There’s chemistry at work here as well, because higher voices in women are teamed with higher oestrogen levels. And on a similar note, women with higher voices are also considered more likely to cheat, based on elevated hormone levels and attractiveness to the opposite sex.
Foreign accents can be less trustworthy
This one sounds awful, but the science behind this reaction isn’t so much a question of prejudice. Scientists say foreign accents are less believable because they tend to be less familiar to us. There’s also the theory that the more difficult it is to understand a speaker, the less faith we have in what they say. These two factors combined make an unfortunate, but sometimes drastic impact on how we interpret accents.
Stereotypes are hard to escape
As you can see from the points we’ve mentioned so far, stereotypes play a pretty big role in how we interpret voices. This isn’t limited to how we speak, of course, but one of many signals we use to make quick assumptions about people we don’t know.
We’ve mentioned accents, depth of voice, familiarity and a few gender assumptions so far. But that doesn’t even scratch the surface of voice stereotypes our minds use without us even realising. Age, intelligence, social class, sexuality and so many more assumptions can be made about us by nothing more than our voices.
Your voice says a lot about you
So, as you can see, you voice says a lot about you – mostly subconscious signals listeners pick up on without even realising. Studies have also found we’re pretty good at interpreting those signals too, and some of us can even match unknown voices to the corresponding photos, which is kind of scary!
The presence of so many stereotypes in this process is a slightly touchy subject, but the science largely backs them up. This helps explain why it took voice industries so long to break out of traditional stereotypes and explore new options. It turns out our subconscious can be a pretty ruthless
So here’s a fun little game your can try. Listen to these two audios and create an image in your head of what you think the voice looks like. Click below to see how accurate you were.
Show-reel
Narration (Northern accent)
Reveal pictures of English Voice Talents Michael & Cromerty. |
You may be able to get the scoop on the discovery of a planet near another star if you can unscramble this anagram:
Huge Applet, Unsearchable Terrestrials!
This anagram was posted by the astronomer Gregory Laughlin of the University of California at Santa Cruz. While Dr. Laughlin runs computer models to confirm his discovery, he’s apparently preserving priority for it by following a long and distinguished astronomical tradition, as Eric Hand explains in Nature,:
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei embedded his discovery of Saturn and of the phases of Venus in anagrams; Dutch astronomer Christopher Huygens used the same trick to describe his recognition of Saturn’s rings (see ‘Planetary games’). The device enabled them to stake a claim to a discovery while they slogged through the months of tough observational work needed to confirm the initial idea. Only then would the solution be revealed.
Since posting the anagram last month, Dr. Laughlin has given several more clues: it contains a German name, and doesn’t contain the words “super” and “Earth.” You can read Dr. Laughlin’s original post here and check out some of the proposed solutions by his readers. (They’ve been suggesting that the German word might be a star named Gliese.) And then if you can solve the mystery, feel free to share it with the Lab. |
Half of the residents of Illinois would like to leave the state. It's about the same in Connecticut.
Meanwhile, few wish to move out of Hawaii, Montana or Maine.
That's according to a new Gallup poll released today, a poll that finds Alabama atop fellow southern states.
Gallup asked: "Regardless of whether you will move, if you had the opportunity, would you like to move to another state, or would you rather remain in your current state?"
In Alabama, just 31 percent of respondents said they would like to move away. That tied Florida for the fewest in the South. But when the question was flipped, Floridians were less certain.
In Alabama, 69 percent of residents asserted they want to remain in Alabama. And 67 percent said so in Florida.
Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas were close behind, all ranked with slightly more favorable responses than the national average. Mississippi and Georgia were closer to the bottom of the list, as 39 percent of residents would leave Mississippi and 38 percent said the same in Georgia.
On the whole, most of the South tended to fall near the national average. One third of people across the country want to leave the state they live in. But there is greater variation in other regions.
In Maine, Montana and Hawaii just 23 percent of residents would move if they could. Close behind are Oregon, Texas and New Hampshire.
At the other of the spectrum, more than 40 percent of residents want to leave Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Nevada and Maryland.
And at the very bottom of the list, in Connecticut and Illinois, less than half of the residents would stay if moving was an option. |
We’ve just made finding moments for mindfulness easier than ever.
Exhale, our new mindfulness game, asks you to focus on the breath for just 8 seconds. That’s it.
After the round ends, we ask if you were able to keep your focus. If you did, we gradually increase the length of the next round. If not, we slightly reduce the length of the next round.
Your response, truthful or not, decides what happens next. There are no high scores, no bragging rights. This is about you and your development.
Exhale is free for all Pocket Clarity users. Check out our video above that explains the game, then open Pocket Clarity to try it out! (If you don’t see Exhale right away, go to “Menu > Settings > Refresh Pocket Clarity” within Pocket Clarity)
We’re excited to see all the additional mindfulness practice that will happen because of Exhale. We’re committed to helping you develop your practice in ways that fit your life so you can be the more skilled, more centered person you want to be! |
It isn't just developments in Environmental Health laws that make a mockery of the old adage about today's newspapers being tomorrow's chip paper. In the new digital age, more than ever before, reputations stick. Type into a well-known internet search engine the words 'selfish' and 'Suarez' and you can get more than 292,000 results.
Many of those articles are in reference to his off-the-field actions. In particular, the machinations of the summer in which the Uruguayan appeared to agitate for a move away from Anfield after Liverpool had waded into murky waters in endeavouring to support the striker. But his playing style came under scrutiny too. One high-profile website asked the question: 'Is Suarez too selfish to fit in at Real Madrid?'
The popular theory was rooted in the view that he frequently eschewed the opportunity to play in Liverpool team-mates, instead opting to go for personal glory himself. Some of the statistics backed up that opinion. In the 2011/12 season, only two players averaged more shots per game than the Reds forward. They were Robin van Persie, who scored 30 goals, and Wayne Rooney, who netted 27 times. By way of comparison, Suarez found the goal on just 11 occasions.
Of course, that says little for the quality of chances Suarez was working with. Ambitious efforts from distance and unlikely attempts from tight angles had become something of a calling card. Moreover, it also ignores the fact that many of these opportunities were fashioned by his own unique efforts - an instep turn here, a wriggle in the box there.
Even so, it is no huge leap to suggest his performances reflected a lack of complete trust in his Liverpool colleagues. This looked an awful lot like a player who'd come to the inevitable conclusion that an off-balance shot on the half-turn was nevertheless preferable to setting up Stewart Downing for a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
Conversion
And so, there is a certain irony in the fact that the perceived selfishness of the summer preceded the completion of his conversion into a wholly selfless player. The goals have continued to flow. Indeed, there have been more of them than ever - an amazing 23 in just 20 Premier League appearances so far this season. But that barely scratches the surface of his contribution.
"What's been brilliant this season has been the maturity of the man," said Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers in January. The casual observer might raise an eyebrow at such claims, recalling instead the theatrical reaction to Daniel Sturridge's refusal to pass during the Merseyside derby win earlier this month. In fact, Suarez's frustration is merely evidence of the high quality decision-making he expects from others.
"I don't blame him," admitted Sturridge afterwards. "I was fuming with myself too." It's understandable that the England international should have adopted a conciliatory attitude once he'd calmed down. After all, his strike partner Suarez is not only the Premier League top scorer but also the division's star creator of opportunities for his team.
Opta defines a big chance as follows: 'A situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score usually in a one-on-one scenario or from very close range.' Suarez has created 16 such opportunities in the current Premier League campaign. That's as many as Chelsea's Eden Hazard and Manchester City's David Silva have managed between them. In fact, nobody else has created more than 10 big chances.
Saturday's spectacular 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal was an obvious example of Suarez's importance in this regard. Ostensibly, the four-goal first-half blitz that saw off the visitors had little to do with Liverpool's star man as Martin Skrtel headed home two Steven Gerrard corners before Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge grabbed a goal apiece.
But there was the measured pass for Sterling's goal that left it trickier for the youngster to fend off the advancing Sturridge for the tap-in than miss the target. Sturridge himself should've been on the scoresheet by then anyway if he'd beaten Wojciech Szczesny with a clearcut chance after being sent through courtesy of a delicious first-time volleyed pass from that man Suarez.
It was the fifth match this season in which the 27-year-old has created two or more big chances - nobody else has done that more than twice - and it's characteristic of the new Suarez. Notably, there was the lay-off to Sterling when clean through against Cardiff in December too. "He's through on goal and you don't see too many strikers do that," said Rodgers. "It shows you the team player that he is."
With 13 matches remaining and only 10 goals required to break the Premier League record for a 38-game season, there is ample time for the individual awards to come his way. The search matches for 'selfish Suarez' might even hit 300,000 before the campaign has concluded. But don't be fooled. It's selfless Suarez leading the way for this Liverpool team. |
What follows is my new method of addressing someone who doesn’t create sound arguments during a debate, i.e. those backed by fact, data, or some type of objective evidence. Once you suspect that you’re arguing with someone like this, directly probe to see if they have any evidence whatsoever to support themselves.
If they can’t offer any–and especially if they look genuinely confused by your request–respond with something like this:
Well, if you are someone who holds beliefs without regard for actual evidence then I have no interest in continuing this conversation. Basically, if facts don’t sway your beliefs, then there’s no reason I should believe I will be successful either.
This approach will yield one of two responses:
a renewed interest in listening to your evidence an angry retreat back to his/her beliefs, with no offer of evidence
Either way, you benefit. You either get to have a real conversation or you get to save energy for someone worthy of one. :: |
Connor Mullen is a high schooler from Portland, Maine. Based on his social media alone, he seems to be a relatively “normal” high school kid. But he’s currently making waves in the media after wearing a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” hat to school. Seems harmless, right? I mean, it’s a hat — he wasn’t burning people at the stake. But alas, that didn’t stop students and teachers from bullying him relentlessly when he wore it.
“I knew kids would pick on me about it, that’s just kids being kids, but when the adults started doing it I thought that’s problematic,” Mullen recently told the Press Herald. “This is a school that preaches equality.”
Unfortunately, it’s less than surprising. NYU students recently came out quoting similar concerns — they hid their political agenda from students and teachers in an effort to not be the center of political crossfire. But with the primaries and debates constantly being mainstreamed by local media, how could you keep your opinion to yourself? And why should you be degraded by others when you don’t?
According to Mullen, the bullying has been going on for quite some time — students have repeatedly knocked the hat off of his head and even thrown it in the garbage. A teacher even got in the middle of everything and berated him, saying “Thank God you can’t vote.”
Yikes. Teachers too? That’s just f*cked up. It’s literally your job to not declare your opinions in front of your students. Yet despite the incessant ridicule, Mullen refuses to not stop wearing the hat.
From the Press Herald,
Mullen says he’ll keep wearing the hat everywhere. He says if he stops, then those who belittled him for expressing a political opinion will have won. “And I don’t want them to win,” he said.
Connor Mullen, ridiculed at Maine high school for wearing 'Make America Great Again' cap in support of #DonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/Pdg3MehwS7 — Urbane Gorilla (@Urbane_Gorilla_) April 12, 2016
[H/T: Mic] |
Arcen Games, famed for AI War, financial troubles, and causing a shortage of iron, have announced their new game: A Valley Without Wind. It’s quite the concept: survival in a procedurally generated world, exploration, magic, and… perma-death? Interesting. Read on to find out more. (So much more, that there’s another instalment tomorrow.)
RPS: Can you start by explaining who Arcen Games is, and the basic premise of A Valley Without Wind?
Park: Arcen Games is a small indie development studio that I founded in 2009, and our first title was AI War: Fleet Command. That grew to be something of a cult classic in the hardcore strategy niche, and so now we’ve just released our third expansion for AI War, as well as bringing it up to version 5.0. In 2010 we worked on our second full game, a block-based puzzler called Tidalis — knowing that we didn’t want to get stuck in any one genre permanently. A Valley Without Wind (or AVWW for short) is thus our third full game, and our third genre to work in, as well.
AVWW is an adventure game with a focus on exploration and discovery in huge, procedural 2D worlds. There are a few JRPG inspirations here and there, such as having concepts like stats and levels, but in gameplay it’s all action-adventure. There’s a fair emphasis on traps and magic and monster avoidance, though — it’s not a hack and slash, and while combat is quite important it’s definitely secondary to exploration.
RPS: What’s the premise for AVWW? What’re the threats, how does the magic work?
Park: Your first character, who is selected from a small stable of randomly-generated characters when you start a new world, is just one of many low-level survivors in the world. The character is alone, surrounded by monsters like everyone else, and just kind of scraping by. This has been just the way of life for most characters in the world for as long as they can remember, for generations.
You the player are put in charge of this character’s well being. What will you do? You can certainly just continue scavenging, and hanging around the starting area. But as you explore around you’ll build some basic traps and weapons, and you’ll find a few caches of small odds and ends. Before too long, you’ll inevitably meet another NPC of some sort, and can start talking to them to make use of their crafting abilities.
Eventually as you continue to explore new places and meet new people, larger conflicts become apparent. Various Bad Things are going on in the immediate area, and you can choose to do something about it… or not. As you’re doing all of this, of course, your character is gaining in levels, gaining new equipment, and picking up all sorts of odds and ends for crafting. At some point you’ll find a good location for your first settlement, and you can start inviting NPCs there. At some point you’ll likely have your first character die, and you’ll choose a replacement to control from among the NPCs you’ve met.
The threats are a variety of monsters and mutated animals and plants, as well as occasionally other humans. There isn’t a broad way to classify this, as it isn’t a “zombie game” or anything like that. Depending on the region, the types of monsters are different. Above-ground, it’s heavier on the mutated animals, and occasionally undead type things. Underground, it trends more to the fantastical with a lot of evil stuff lurking there. Basically anything from fantasy, sci-fi, or any mix is something we consider fair game. There will be a few high-technology futuristic encampments, and not all of them are benevolent.
This mix of magic and technology is something I’ve really loved ever since encountering it in the classic NES game Crystalis. Certainly it’s been explored in many games since then, but there’s a specific feel to those 80s Japanese games and movies that really feels different to me. I’m hoping to recapture at least some of that feel with AVWW.
Magic power is granted by special gems that can be found underground. Each gem enables the wielder to use a specific spell, although the gem has to be prepared first by an Enchanter (one of the five classes of crafter in the game) before it can be used. The raw gems actually can be prepared in one of several ways, granting one of several spells, and so during the crafting process you choose which one you want to make the permanent end result of the raw gem.
In terms of using spells, some the low-level those will be simply recharge-based, so that you can use them repeatedly, but just not too close behind one another. We might use a similar system for the higher-level spells, or we might use a mana/magic points system. That part honestly hasn’t been fully figured out yet, because we really need to have some internal playtesting before we figure out what feels like the most fun. We know we want to have some unlimited-use low level spells so that you’re never completely out of “ammo” on your long treks. But at the same time you’re never meant to feel like a godlike powerhouse just roaming everywhere and blasting everything at will. So the final spellcasting design will probably evolve some, but that’s the end effect we’re aiming at.
RPS: Originally, AVWW was announced as a tower defense game, with Alden Ridge being announced along side it. What happened?
Park: Alden Ridge was the project I was working on by myself back in 2008, before ever founding Arcen or having any kind of team. I spent a solid 8 months on it and then got stuck with one aspect of the design that wasn’t working out like I hoped, and so started occupying myself with the “side project” of AI War. Then of course AI War became this all-consuming thing and I haven’t had a chance to return to Alden Ridge in the intervening years.
AVWW-the-tower-defense-game was something we talked about in late 2009 and all through 2010, and it was something that we’d planned to be our next full project after Tidalis. Problem was, when we hit that point of actually starting on the tower defense game, we were less enthused about it. There are just so many tower defense games these days, and meanwhile a lot of other design ideas had been coalescing in my mind and with the team. We’re always just full of ideas, and so when a year passes between the concept of a game and actually getting to implement it, the implementation tends to be radically different!
RPS: Is Alden Ridge gone?
Alden Ridge isn’t completely gone, but that’s not the game we’re making at the moment. About 80ish levels for Alden Ridge are actually complete, so it would be a shame to throw those away, but I still don’t yet have the solution for the design issue that’s been stymieing me on that project. So for now it’s shelved, and AVWW has changed so much that it bears almost no resemblance to what we announced in late 2009. The general post-ice-age setting is the same, and… I think that’s it? The new concept for AVWW ties together our favorite ideas from Alden Ridge, the setting from the original AVWW concept, and adds in a whole lot of new ideas we’ve had in the meantime.
RPS: With games set in a post apocalyptic environment, there’s always a heavy sense of survival and survivors in the world, even if the games themselves don’t always play towards that. How have you made the setting affect the game?
Park: Actually, it’s pretty central to the gameplay, underpinning pretty much every aspect of it. There’s no economy in a post-apocalyptic setting like this, so it’s all a matter of making what you need. To that end, when you’re out exploring on your own, you’ll be picking up materials from caves, old office buildings, factories, and so on. Then you can do some crafting yourself to make weapons, armor, consumables, traps, and magic items. But for a lot of that crafting, you have to seek out other survivors (NPCs) and have them do the crafting for you.
One of the big themes of this game is going to be making the world a less depressing place for the characters to inhabit. Everyone is alone or in really tiny bands, and in constant danger. As you explore around, you can find settlement locations and encourage the characters you meet to go and live there in larger groups. This is useful in terms of having all your allies and crafters in a centralized location, but it also changes the landscape of the world in other ways. A lot of these settlement-related mechanics are something that will be built in after we hit the point of public alpha with the game, but we’ve been undergoing intensive design on these aspects and are really excited about them.
RPS: There’s a very nature-heavy focus from what I’ve read about AVWW, not least because it’s the sort of world reclaiming type of post apocalypse, where the traces of man are getting wiped out by biology.
Park: There’s really a mix of nature and technology here, that’s very true. In most places, the technology is old and outdated (and most importantly, broken). For the most part, you won’t be driving around in cars, though you will see them stranded on old highways, in suburban driveways, etc. And the plants and grass are all unruly, growing up everywhere, crossing the boundaries of roads and things and basically making a mess of the whole terrain. Going along with that, chasms are a big thing, and having these huge holes and cliffs in disconcerting places is definitely a theme. Often there are strange plants or even monsters crawling out of these.
RPS: Is this having mechanical effects on how the game plays as well?
Park: Mechanically, this whole state of ruin has a lot of effects. When you are dealing with enemies, if you are outside, often they will be somewhat camouflaged by all the plant life. That’s not something you see in a lot of 2D games, but it’s a staple of a number of first person shooters I’ve enjoyed. I thought that would be really interesting to see here. Plus, all the plant life is constantly moving slightly, blowing in the breeze, so that even masks the movement of enemies to a small degree, creating a greater sense of unease and exposure when being out in the wild.
By contrast, this lets the indoor areas, which will be largely dark and filled with trash, feel even more sterile. You go from this really lush, constantly moving outdoor area to this dark, dingy, very still internal area with different moods of music. A little movement in the corner might just be some small harmless animal, or it might be something much worse.
RPS: Does that mean you’re creating a deliberately hostile environment and putting the player on edge?
Park: Fear isn’t something we’re intentionally cultivating in the sense of a horror game — there’s no blood or gore or anything — but I think that to really feel like you’re a brave adventurer out in the wilds, there has to be a certain gravitas, a certain the-world-is-larger-than-me feeling to the surroundings. The combat mechanics also emphasize this, as your prowess in hand-to-hand combat is somewhat questionable, and you’re better off using ranged attacks or traps to deal with enemies — or to avoid them entirely when possible on long treks. You’re not just Hero Dude out there slaughtering everything that moves, you’re actually in very real danger the entire time, and have to make your way through each area accordingly.
RPS: Is this tying into the use of permanent character death? Creating a consequence for failure beyond merely being set back five minutes?
Park: The tendency when one hears “perma-death” is to think of the uber-hardcore — but that isn’t where we’re trying to go at all. In a lot of respects our system is more forgiving, because it is literally impossible to lose at this game. You will die, and you will have massive tragic graveyards of fallen characters you liked, and you can have the game be quite a difficult beast if you want to push to the limits of where your levels and equipment will let you travel.
On the flip side, you can stay closer to home and play the game more casually, with vastly lower difficulty. Sure, the game gives out less rewards in that fashion — fortune does favor the bold — but there’s a very natural difficulty curve in there. The perma-death aspects are something that I’ve personally been really worried that players will misunderstand as a sign of “this game is ultra hardcore and not forgiving.” I explained it to my wife, expecting a negative reaction, but was really surprised that she took to it immediately, in the context of the larger mechanics of this specific game.
It boils down to why we have perma-death: it’s about grounding the characters in the world, and creating a real sense of consequences. We aren’t out to punish the player — there’s no purpose or fun in that. But one of the big problems with some games is that there is just no sense of reality, or of danger. I really admired Demon’s Souls for how it created fear in the player via its death mechanic. Granted, that was an uber-hardcore game, and I eventually gave up on it after a few areas. I still thought it was worth the money for the lessons it taught me, though.
In the case of AVWW, we wanted a really forgiving system where you never have “wasted time” by being out and adventuring. If you go out on a long haul and gain a bunch of experience and levels, then by god you get to keep those no matter what happened. That said, if there are no consequences to death, then it winds up feeling way too tame and uninteresting no matter how far you travel. I absolutely adore Zelda games, but it’s definitely a lighthearted series where no matter where you go exploring, you don’t ever feel in mortal danger if you’re pretty good at the game. You can always run away or otherwise escape. That’s not at all the tone I wanted for AVWW.
Therefore, when you die your character is gone permanently, but they also leave a lasting mark on the world and are remembered. Isn’t it annoying when games act like past events never happened? Whatever inventory and equipment the character was carrying is not lost, but is dropped in a “magic bag” or similar where the character fell. So if you had a Legendary Sword of Awesomeness, and your character dies, that sword isn’t lost — it just might be inaccessible for a while. Or you can make a run into the dangerous area with your new character and an inferior weapon, grab your old character’s stuff and hightail it out of there. Another example of not needing to fight every monster you run across, that would be a specific example of when avoidance might be best.
The character-death aspect is something we’re trying to push in a new direction, where it creates the appropriate mood and atmosphere to the game without leading to a sense of player punishment and frustration. That’s tricky to convey when using off-hand phrases like “perma-death,” which have entirely the wrong connotations, so I’m really glad you asked me about that.
RPS: Can you explain about how the difficulty is tied to the terrain and direction?
Park: AVWW will have an overworld system, where there are specific “region tiles” that you can venture into and explore. Each one of those regions is potentially enormous, and the type of tile on the overworld speaks to the type of region it will be. So, it might be snowy woods, or a desert, or an old city, or an office park, suburbs, volcano, mountain, beach, whatever. You see these things on the overworld, and you can go into anything you can see.
The world map itself expands infinitely in all directions, so you’ll wind up skipping most regions on the map and just going to the ones that interest you at the time. One key component of each region tile, aside from just what type of region it is, is what Difficulty Level it is. You as a player have a level in a JRPG sort of sense, and whatever character you are controlling at the time takes on that level (individual characters are permanently gone when they die, so this player-persistence-of-stats is really important).
The world map is arranged such that you can get the difficulty level you want to play at at any given time. If you travel east from your starting location, the difficulty levels go up linearly. Travel west from your starting location, and it’s a rather mottled affair: it’s mostly a lower difficulty, but with pockets of very high difficulty. Travel north or south, and the difficulty level stays generally constant with whatever your x coordinate is.
RPS: Overworld Travel?
Park: Overworld travel itself is dangerous, I should add, so you can’t just go infinitely in any direction with ease. Every few tiles on the overworld, you wind up “getting lost in a windstorm,” which is part of the theme talked about in the title of the game. When you get lost in a windstorm, you’re sucked into that region at some random location far in, with atypically harsh weather (rain, snow, sandstorm, whatever), and atypically difficult monsters roaming about in larger numbers. In some cases, it may also be night, or other similar effects. Once you escape the region, you can continue traveling on the overworld as normal.
Of course, there needs to be a way to fast-travel once you’ve explored a bit, so one key mechanic is building “wind shelters” on individual region tiles. These shelters get built when you accomplish special objectives in the region in question (the objectives varies from region to region). Over time, you can therefore have these networks of wind shelters on the overworld map, which let you avoid getting lost when the windstorms come up. It makes travel in known areas quite safe and fast, but travel in the more uncharted regions quite a bit more dangerous. There’s a lot of room for some strategy on how to set up wind shelter networks for the players to figure out, too. Lots of room for player choice and individualized playstyles.
Tune in for part two of this discussion tomorrow!
Trees! |
''People smuggling is a curse. It is an evil trade … the promises that people smugglers offer are promises of death, not life,'' he said. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has defended giving Sri Lanka two patrol boats to combat people smuggling. Credit:Andrew Meares Critics have condemned the gift, which will cost Australia about $2 million. Greens leader Christine Milne said: ''The Prime Minister's silence on human rights abuses in Sri Lanka was inexcusable complicity but this is nothing less than collaboration and it is abhorrent. ''I am devastated and heartbroken at the thought of Australia assisting a disgraced government to suppress and control its citizens.'' Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said he wanted to see the detail of the agreement on the use of the ships at sea. Speaking on the ABC's Insiders he said: ''I'm not sure how it works … because you are not dealing with a transit country. There may be some people who claim to be directly seeking asylum.''
The details of the agreement, what materiel the ships could carry, and how they could be deployed, has not been made public, and on Monday, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison refused to say what, if any, limitations Australia had placed on the use of the boats. "I'm here as the representative of the country that wants to do the right thing by Sri Lanka: Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Credit:AFP ''We'll work through those arrangements with the Sri Lanka government,'' he told ABC Radio. ''That is the appropriate place to have those discussions. Contrast: British Prime Minister David Cameron criticised reconciliation efforts. Credit:AFP
''I make no apologies for the fact that we are endeavouring to work with the Sri Lankan Government to stop boats coming to Australia. That is the point.'' Mr Morrison said on a visit to Sri Lanka in December last year, then foreign minister Bob Carr gifted surveillance equipment to the Sri Lankan government to monitor people smuggling activity. This is nothing less than collaboration. He said Senator Carr had discussed providing other assistance, including the kind of patrol boats the Abbott government was providing. "I don’t recall any great hubbub about that at the time from the government and members of the Labor Party. We’re continuing that approach,’’ he said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he was not "specifically aware'' of the outcome of the former Labor government's discussions with Sri Lanka. Responding to Greens criticism that the gift represents Australian collaboration in Sri Lankan human rights abuses, Mr Morrison said he would not take advice from the party. ''The Greens' approach was tried by the previous government. The softening of our borders and all of that, they tried it all and over 1100 people ended up dead. I am not going to repeat the mistake of the previous government in being led around by the Greens,'' he said. Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said on Monday that Labor supported co-operation with neighbours, but it was ''deeply concerning'' that there appeared to have been no limits placed on how Sri Lanka used the vessels. While acknowledging ''progress'' on human rights in the country, Mr Marles said the boats must be used only to combat people smuggling.
''There needs to be a clear understanding with the Sri Lankan government about the terms on which these vessels will be used,'' he said. The chief of Sri Lanka's Navy, Vice-Admiral Jayanth Colombage, said the ships would improve its surveillance capabilities. ''The ships will be put into good use to maintain the freedom of the Indian Ocean from any kind of maritime crime,'' he said. Mr Abbott dismissed concerns that Sri Lanka could not be trusted as a partner in stopping people smuggling. Four Sri Lankan sailors including a senior officer are under arrest on suspicion of being key players in the country's largest - and most profitable - smuggling racket. More are being investigated.
Sri Lanka, as host of the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the weekend, has faced intense scrutiny over its human rights record, particularly allegations of war crimes committed by government forces at the end of its civil war in 2009, and of continuing abuses, including abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings by state forces, land seizures and repression of political dissent. A report by the United Nations found in the final months of fighting credible allegations of violations, ''some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity'', committed by Sri Lankan government forces and the rebel Tamil Tigers. And Australia told Sri Lanka at the UN last year that it must ''take action to reduce and eliminate all cases of abuse, torture or mistreatment by police and security forces … and eliminate abductions and disappearances''. But Mr Abbott said he had come to Sri Lanka ''to praise as much as to judge'' and that significant progress had been made since the conflict. ''I welcome the opportunity that Sri Lanka has had to showcase itself to the world. ''Sri Lanka has come through many troubles but today there is more freedom and more prosperity. I'm here as a friend, I'm here as the representative of the country that wants to do the right thing by Sri Lanka.''
By contrast, Mr Cameron criticised reconciliation efforts and continuing abuses, allegedly at the hands of state security forces. Loading He infuriated President Mahinda Rajapakse by visiting the former war zone city of Jaffna, meeting the families of people who had disappeared, and those whose land the military had seized. Mr Cameron said Sri Lanka had enormous potential but the Commonwealth had a responsibility to speak frankly to its members. |
The "so what?" feminism plateau is familiar to us in the west: 40 years after the second wave, the standstill is obvious. Western women are stuck populating middle management and pink-collar ghettos. A small fraction of elite women have fabulous careers, supported by the low-wage childcare and domestic work of other women. In news coverage, women remain pegged at about 15% of bylines and subjects. They run no more than 5% of Fortune 500 companies. And so on. The wage gap has narrowed by a few points, but men still out-earn women by about twenty percentage points for the same work. Men do a few hours more domestic work a week than they used to.
Legally, the gains are stronger. Abortion rights and equal access law are established in most western countries. Recently in the US, though, a new legislative push to subject women to intrusive vaginal ultrasound scans, if they contemplate abortion, has come in to play. Many European countries have daycare and family leave – but not the US. Rape and sexual harassment are almost never prosecuted successfully – 6-12% of reported rapes in the UK and the US ever go to trial at all. The mainstream media are more filled than ever with rigid fashion and beauty ideals.
Data for anorexia and bulimia in the west are static. Young western women report less and less interest in identifying themselves with "the- F-word" – feminism; they say that the movement seems a relic of their mothers' era – humorless, sexless, hostile to men and judgmental of young women. There is a lot of exciting new online publishing activity, from Feministing, to Bust, to Bitch; but the next generation still lacks strong institutions or a clear feminist political agenda.
The malaise is widespread: in 2009, sociologist Marcus Buckingham reported than since second-wave feminism, women in the west who "have it all" have become actually less satisfied. The most educated, privileged, affluent women I know – women whose lives give them a million great "choices" – that buzzword of "our" feminism – do not generally say they are happy. They feel a vague sense of lack of fulfilment: "Is that all there is?"
This stasis has to do with a flaw in how we in the west see "feminism", where we are raised to believe that the feminism we inherit "is" feminism. But I argue that it is just one of several possible intellectual framings of feminism – and it is not necessarily the best of the choices for us for this historical moment. "Our" feminism descends from three main sources: the 19th-century ideal of the "Angel in the House", existentialism and advanced capitalism. These turn out to fail, over time, as matrixes for a satisfying, effective feminism.
Modern western feminism was codified by middle-class white suffragists in Britain, and crossed to the United States. These women, though they struggled against it, were immersed in an ideology described by the poet Coventry Patmore as the "Angel in the House": women's influence was to be emotional, not logical; they were to create a "separate sphere", apart from the rigors of the male world; women were to be higher, purer and less sexual than men; and their role was to exert moral judgment. Unsurprisingly, Victorian feminists framed their arguments in just this language, making the case that the vote for women would "elevate" society; and showcasing female sexual victimization at the hands of men as a way to push for laws to address the sexual and legal double standard, as well as reform in divorce and property law.
Thus they focused on the emotions felt by victims of male oppression and appealed to men's sense of justice. This approach was, in many ways, successful: in 1864, 1866, 1885, 1894, until they gained the vote in 1919-20. Even subsequently, they used this framing to make laws more equitable.
The trouble is that this way of pushing for equality is now seen as western feminism's template. It leads to what I have called elsewhere a withdrawal into "victim feminism" – at the expense of aggregating women's equally real strengths. It led to feminism's reluctance to soil its hands, in Victorian terms, with the "male" material of money, or of the media, or of hardball legislative work. It also leaves us with a tendency to be judgmental about other women's choices – excluding from the feminist "sisterhood" women who have different backgrounds or policy goals from "ours" (such as women in the military, or conservative or "pro-life" women).
The 19th-century tradition also leads to organizational paralysis, as women's groups fetishize "consensus". It has led to feminism being so afraid of offending anyone that we have ironically recapitulated the voicelessness of the original "angel in the house". A discomfort with conflict has reproduced conventional feminist wisdom at the expense of bracing and productive debate.
That has led to a kind of passivity in many western democracies, where a tradition of seeing oneself as being at the mercy of a powerful authority leads women in EU countries, or nations that have "women's rights officers", to yield the job of female assertion to official, even government, bodies. Western women have been left ill-prepared to do what is urgently needed: to field their own candidates, run for office themselves, to raise their own money, start their own institutions, draft their own laws and inaugurate their own media.
The Contagious Diseases Acts were a formative experience for the framing of western feminism. In Britain, in the 1860s, a push by the military to stop the spread of sexually transmitted disease led to a campaign: disguised officials were empowered to kidnap any woman who looked as though she might be a prostitute. Since prostitution was so casually defined then, any woman was subject to detention by the state – especially women who looked as if they might have sexual experience. In "lock hospitals", they were forcibly vaginally examined in front of strangers, and held against their will for up to nine months. The sweep was so broad that the official in charge of bringing the system to London warned that it would take the equivalent of 12 full-scale hospitals to house all the women to be abducted. The campaign lasted for years.
Josephine Butler, a middle-class feminist, fought the acts successfully: this was the first organized feminist action. The acts were repealed in 1886. But those laws and Butler's success was imprinted on western feminism. Many women still feel, rightly, that they are vulnerable to a lack of state protection – say, in a rape case – if there is any sexual agency in their background. And because of this fight, a strong strain of Puritanism, and difficulty in dealing with female sexual agency, are part of our western feminist legacy.
There is a second unfortunate antecedent: 20th-century existentialism. Second wave feminism descends in the US from the 1949 book by Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. Betty Friedan's 1963 bestseller, The Feminine Mystique, drew on it heavily. French existentialism is an unhelpful philosophy in which to couch modern feminism: born from the ravages of the second world war, it is a cynical, individualistic school of thought that posits the self and personal choice as the measure of life's entire meaning. It defines the self in isolation from the world of families, social roles, mutual obligations and concerns for one's childrens' future. It was this powerful individualism that led De Beauvoir to her radical notion that women, too, had autonomous selves, which were not to be defined by others. But existentialism's focus on the individual's choice at the expense of everything else led western feminism down a destructive path.
Friedan popularized that stark worldview for the masses: she called it the "Problem That Has No Name", as women with degrees questioned their roles while they loaded laundry:
"Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even of herself: is this all?"
So, from two accidents of intellectual history, our version of feminism was born. Added to this was the great consumer push of postwar advanced capitalism, when all those products sought consumers, who needed to be obsessed by individual choice. The fact that this materialist wave swept up women and men simply meant that both sexes had freedom redefined as "freedom for the self's choices over all". And for women, this liberation was labelled "feminism": and so, the personal was political – but to the exclusion of other ideals.
Western women became very good at identifying what was crying out in their souls and kicking away the hindrances to self-fulfilment. That had value. Unfortunately, however, this message of self-assertion above all dovetailed neatly with the needs of consumer capitalism. From the 1970 onwards, our culture told both sexes that individual expression was paramount. And for women, that was defined as the right to choose an interesting a career, a high-status mate, the desirable handbag or vacation, the perfect family size, and a definitionally fruitless quest for "perfection". This focus is why so many "feminist" debates tend to become lifestyle discussions: should women have facelifts? What about hiring nannies? What about stay-at-home moms versus working mothers? Frankly, if I – as a passionate feminist – am bored by two decades of such discussions, it is no surprise that everyone else is, as well. Lifestyle choices are not meaningful if no bigger questions are being asked.
Given that history, is it any wonder now that so many women report a sense of being unfulfilled? Here is my proposal.
We need to look outward to non-western feminisms – as well as back to a hidden wellspring of our own true inheritance. I would say the "truest" intellectual heritage of western feminism – though one often buried or misunderstood – is the Enlightenment. The same impetus that led Mary Wollstonecraft to write Vindication of the Rights of Women is the same wellspring that led Tom Paine to write Common Sense, and Jefferson to phrase the declaration of independence in terms of natural rights bestowed by God, making all men (sic) equal. This antecedent places feminism as a natural position on the spectrum of rights in the global struggle for freedom and democracy.
This inheritance orients feminism towards the clamor for self-determination and democracy that has recently occurred in Tahrir Square – an uprising that, unsurprisingly, was led by young women – and in similar struggles in Syria, Bahrain, Greece and Spain. Feminism understood in the Enlightenment tradition is not a set of policy outcomes. It does not say, you must be pro-choice or vegetarian; it says, simply, you must be free, all of you. It seeks, as the Enlightenment ideals did, for type of government and society that will provide the fullest expression not of individual lifestyle choice, but of popular self-determination. It sees the struggle for free speech and freedom of expression as an inherent part of feminism, because feminism simply says that just as all people must be free, women, who are the majority of people, must be free. And so they must be free to speak as they wish, worship as they wish, and choose representation in government to reflect their priorities in a democratic manner.
This feminism is not special pleading, or even partisan. It is simply the very basis of democracy. True democracy, though, will have many different outcomes in policy. Victorian feminists made the mistake of making membership of the sisterhood conditional on signing up to a particular policy agenda. Marxist feminists made a similar mistake of saying, you can't be a real feminist unless you join with miners, the unions, the vegans … Those are all great issues, but they are not this feminism's necessary coalition partners.
This feminism's coalition partner is the great movement for democracy and human rights around the world. This feminism – which I will call Enlightenment Feminism, with the caveat that the Enlightenment does not belong to Europe, or the Europeans, but to anyone who now lays claim to its ideals and its constitutional language – belongs to everyone globally. Enlightenment feminism's coalition would include those who are fighting for democracy and freedom for the disabled, for journalists, for women who are trafficked; for indigenous peoples whose rights are denied, for women working in sweatshops in China who are forbidden to unionize or voice their complaints … Enlightenment feminism looks at how gender is used to silence and oppress women but its matrix of values and associations is that of universal human rights.
Global feminism gets this, which is why you are seeing emerging global feminist leaders fighting for economic rights in western Africa, for instance, to end genital mutilation in Mali, to publish blogs in Cairo, to bring traffickers to justice in Bosnia, and so on. Most instructive is the image scarved and bareheaded, religious and secular young women fighting hard for Enlightenment freedom and Enlightenment feminism in Muslim countries – without feeling that the headscarf or religious affiliation divides them. Indeed, feminists in India, Pakistan, Bosnia, Liberia and other developing or traditional societies are creating discourses about raising the status of women that are completely integrated with family and community life. Unlike us, they have not inherited the existentialist opposition between individual and community that we have.
I believe that feminism in the developing world has charm and excitement, cachet and intellectual vigor, and is immensely attractive to young women – even as feminism in the west remains static and intellectually stale. The Enlightenment framing that underpins global feminism offers a truly radical future: who wouldn't like this definition of feminism? Who wouldn't want to embrace it, male or female?
If we redefine our feminism in this way, we will immediately become far more relevant, far smarter and far more powerful. We, as western women, will be aligned, rather than at cross purposes, with the cutting-edge feminisms emerging in the developing world. We can lay to rest forever the absurd notion that feminism is anti-male or that it posits a war between the sexes. And we can get on with the exciting task of engendering freedom.
• The article originally gave the date of repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts as 1866; this was amended to 1886 at 4:30pm (EST) on 14 March 2012 |
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Nov. 12, 2016, 3:25 PM GMT / Updated Nov. 12, 2016, 6:51 PM GMT By Erik Ortiz
An Ohio judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a white former police officer accused of murdering an unarmed black driver during a traffic stop last year.
The jury on Saturday was unable to reach a verdict for Ray Tensing, 26, charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of 43-year-old Samuel DuBose — an incident caught on police bodycam.
Related: What to Know in Case Against Cincinnati Cop
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Megan Shanahan accepted the jury's deadlock Saturday morning. The case is now back in the hands of prosecutors, who must decide whether they will retry the case or dismiss it.
In the meantime, Tensing remains free on a $1 million bond.
Al Gerhardstein, an attorney for DuBose's family, said they are "incredibly upset" and will ask for another trial.
"They are at their wit's end. They have been on hold since Sam was killed," he said after the verdict.
"With the video evidence as clear as it was, [jurors] should not have been stuck," Gerhardstein added.
Tensing, who was fired from the University of Cincinnati's police force, faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the murder charge.
The decision came on a fourth day of deliberations by 10 white and two black jurors, who were tasked with weighing whether the shooting was a justifiable use of force after Tensing testified he feared for his life.
Related: Officer Who Fatally Shot Black Motorist Called 'Extremely Proactive'
The trial was a rare example of a police officer being charged in such a case — after several high-profile deaths of African-Americans at the hands of cops has caused deep divisions between law enforcement and communities of color.
Protesters chant outside the Hamilton County Courthouse after a mistrial was declared due to a hung jury in the murder trial against Ray Tensing on Nov. 12 in Cincinnati. John Minchillo / AP
The defense said Dubose used his car as a weapon, and Tensing pulled his gun when he feared for his life when he was dragged.
Prosecutors, however, maintained he was not dragged — and bodycam footage doesn't show that key point, they argued.
Dubose, a father of 13, was pulled over after Tensing said he noticed his car was missing a front license plate. DuBose was shot once in the head.
The city of Cincinnati, on edge during the trial, was placed on high alert Friday in the event of impromptu demonstrations. Protesters affiliated with Black Lives Matter planned to gather in response on Saturday afternoon and Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley called for peaceful protests.
After the verdict, the University of Cincinnati's interim president said in a statement: "We cannot and will not let the outcome of this trial divide us."
"Our campus and our community will come together to listen, to heal and to partner for positive and lasting change," Beverly Davenport said. "More than ever, our communities need us — and we need each other — to be beacons of a better and brighter future." |
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SACRAMENTO -- Authorities are investigating a fire at a local sushi restaurant that ignited in its kitchen early Friday morning.
The Sacramento Fire Department responded to the fire around 3 a.m. at the Sushi Hook at 807 Howe Avenue, at the Howe Avenue Plaza.
Eight trucks and 31 firefighters responded to the fire, getting it under control within 45 minutes.
Smoke crept through the attic area into three businesses next door to the restaurant in the strip mall.
Crews say the wind made this fire challenging to control, and was the reason why the smoke was able to travel through the attic to neighboring businesses.
The fire was spotted by two men driving by who noticed dark clouds of black smoke coming from the building.
Firefighters say that call was crucial since the building doesn't have fire sprinklers.
Firefighters say the neighboring businesses should be able to be open today once efficiently aired out. As for the Sushi Hook, it suffered pretty severe damage to its kitchen and seating area. |
Obama: 'Original'
Another new negative Obama ad -- unreleased by the campaign -- pops up on YouTube.
No word on where it's airing on when it went up, but it's a sharp rejoinder to McCain's new spot claiming he's "the original maverick," again linking McCain to Bush and suggesting he's "just more of the same."
The reader who posted it said it was cut from MSNBC last night.
Script after the jump.
Narrator: He's the original maverick.
Silent Super: Really?
McCain: "The president and I agree on most issues. There was a recent study that showed that I voted with the president over 90% of the time..."
Narrator: John McCain supports Bush's tax cuts for millionaires, but nothing for a hundred million households.
He's for billions in new oil company giveaways, while gas prices soar.
And for tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.
The original maverick?
Or just more of the same?
Obama: I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message |
For further proof the new-construction condo building isn't totally extinct in Atlanta, see the corner of Piedmont Avenue and 15th Street in Ansley Park. Miller Lowry Developments and Kim King Associates plan to build a condo community of just six homes across the street from Piedmont Park called "Ansley Green," with prices for two-bedroom units starting in the low $600,000s, a rep tells Curbed Atlanta. Elsewhere in Midtown, another modestly sized building called "Seventh" is offering 23 condos, with prices starting in the same neighborhood (mid-$600,000s). As with the Ansley development, units in the nine-story Seventh will have at least two bedrooms, developers Robin Loudermilk and Dwight Bell have said.
Plans call for Ansley Green to offer a leafy rooftop terrace with a resident lounge and bar. At roughly 1,800 square feet, units will be roomy. Abby Perez, a King Real Estate Advisors broker, said the project is in permitting phases and has yet to break ground. Perez said she secured a reservation Monday and is expecting two more this week. Could it be proof that the condo market is heating up again, little by little?
· More details [Ansley Green]
· Luxury Condo Project Planned for Peachtree and Seventh [Midtown Patch] |
Exploring the unknown
We’ve been promised a whole list of newness for Episode 2 of Guild Wars 2‘s latest Living World season, which will be with us by the end of the month, so I wanted to dedicate this edition of Flameseeker Chronicles to outlining what we can expect on September 20th. I can’t wait to get my hands on the new episode in two weeks time, and I’m very curious as to where the story will pull us to, especially after such a big reveal at the end of episode 1.
The new zone will be another jog down memory lane for Guild Wars players since it is set within the Ring of Fire island chain that we all know from the Prophecies campaign. My mind is blown by the return: The new zone’s being set in an entire region that we’ve never set foot on in GW2 is exceedingly brave considering that other offerings are extensions of somewhere that we already have some sort of foothold in. Even Heart of Maguuma, which I always think of as quite an extensive, technically impressive region, was familiar to us by extension from the other Maguuman areas.
Speculation was already brewing over the Ring of Fire due to an NPC who’s been trekking in this general direction for a while now. I’m hoping that the zone evolves in a similar pattern to Orr, with some tentative footholds being secured via the Ember Bay zone during the next episode and deeper exploration happening into connected Ring of Fire zones as the season continues. I am noticing on the map that there are two very small outer islands that look as though they’d make a great landing space before hitting the larger island chain, and there are plenty of curves and crevices along the coastline that could make for some fantastic underwater exploration.
We really don’t know much so far, so I’m expecting that the next two weeks will be filled with little teasers and promo reels as we approach launch. This is definite encouragement for us all to stay glued to ArenaNet livestreams, people: You don’t want to miss any new information at all as and when it drops. I have heard whispers of September 13th being a key date for those wanting to learn more, and the new PvP map will be revealed during the 2016 Grand Finals on September 17th. There wasn’t an Ember Bay area in the original game, so we really are going in blind here! The islands themselves look so different that I’m definitely predicting that more crazy magical tomfoolery has occurred here, changing the landscape significantly from what we might remember.
New inclusions for Ember Bay
As you might expect for a new zone, we’ll see a new achievements and mastery development in episode 2. I’m also hearing quite a lot about this episode being a break in the tension for players that should serve to cut through the doom and gloom of the White Mantle and dragon story arcs with a much-needed injection of good old-fashioned ArenaNet fun. Pirates, raw magical overspills, and lava everything does sound like fun, right?
I’ve read several recommendations for players to max out those gliding masteries before the month is out due to the size and scope of the map. Ancient Magic is getting a second tier: Thermal Propulsion will help us to navigate the vast area as well since it lobs out from place to place across the bay. Finally, heart quests have made a sort of comeback here as a form of repeatable daily, though there’s no word on what those rewards will look like just yet. I read some fantastic asides coming from the hearts demo about a baby mega sloth and skritt pirates, for example, in which players must face off against some empowered mega-destroyers while placating a rather angry and confused sloth baby. Hilarious, quirky, and authentically Guild Wars 2!
New PvP map!
We’re also being treated to a new conquest PvP arena name the Eternal Coliseum that will be rather similar in design ethos to Revenge of the Capricorn and will be introduced firstly to unranked play in a similar way as well. Gladiatorial themes and plenty of verticality should make this a compelling offering to the usual PvP lineup, especially when some hard-to-access capture points are involved. Just as in Capricorn, a secondary objective is triggered every three minutes, so players will be scrambling across the rather large map to gain the granted bonus for their side.
One majorly cool new feature for this PvP map is an interactive crowd that has very particular tastes in competitors depending on where they’re sat. Should you crush your foes in front of the friendly crowd surrounding your side of the arena, you’ll be rewarded with progressively louder cheers, with the inverse occurring if you do the same on the enemy side of the arena. I can’t wait to hear that immersive cheering and jeering for myself!
Jumping puzzle guesses
I am loving the idea of a volcanic island jumping puzzle (heck, I just like the idea of any new jumping puzzle, really!), especially if the new jumping puzzles capitalise on the movement masteries to up the challenge and tie in those skills. I would love to see us zip across the centre of a volcano after jumping from craggy basalt protrusions and gliding to avoid lava spew. A girl can dream, right? The jumping puzzle is apparently located in the heart of a Mursaat fortress, so I doubt I’ll get the lava jumping dreamboat I’ve concocted in my head, though with Josh Foreman behind it and the new focus on uncontrolled magic messes, I reckon I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the theme and complexity anyway.
Over to you!
I will be getting my hands on the content for myself rather soon, so expect a fuller what-to-expect piece for my next Flameseeker Chronicles. At this point, I’m impressed at just how much content seems to have been packed into this episode, especially considering the previous lack of development on the story front before this season. I was just writing about what to do to bridge the short wait but it now seems as though the gap between the episodes will be even shorter than I had envisioned (eight weeks between episodes). I’m glad to see some armour being created that is drop-only as well, so I’ll definitely want to nab those pieces and support the development of non-gem gear.
To me, the division of teams is working really well for ArenaNet right now, with all areas of the game seeing slow and steady development right around the clock. I most definitely appreciate that some proof of the pudding now lies in our laps at this point in 2016, especially after the WvW debacle that is still being teased out and the content drought that preceeded this dedication to regualr content.
What do you think is going to happen in episode 2? Have you a list of predictions to share? Were you expecting to see hearts making a comback? Are you looking forward to the Ring of Fire? Let me know in the comments! |
The interview with Walter Kohl, the eldest son of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, appeared in the online edition of "ZEITmagazin" on Wednesday.
"For me," said Kohl, "Mrs. Merkel played a not-insignificant part in my mother's death."
Kohl's mother, Hannelore, committed suicide in 2001, less than two years after her husband - Chancellor Kohl - was involved in a scandal that revealed he had accepted a cash donation from unknown sources.
Merkel, then Christian Democrat (CDU) party general secretary, wrote a guest column in the "Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung" calling on Kohl to reveal more information about the payments. It was seen as the end of their amicable partnership. In the article, Merkel wrote that it was time for the CDU to "learn to stand on its feet" without Kohl, saying the chancellor's silence during the scandal "has done damage to the party."
"As an experienced politician, Mrs. Merkel knew she was starting an avalanche that would also damage our mother and our family," Walter Kohl said, adding that at no point did Merkel ask that Helmut Kohl's family be left out of the spotlight, despite knowing that Hannelore Kohl was quite sick with an allergy to light.
Merkel's rise to power
According to Walter Kohl, Merkel's behavior at the time was "sleazy," made worse by the fact that she and his mother had become friends.
Watch video 02:12 30 Years of Helmut Kohl
His mother "became persona non grata. For her it was even worse because she felt betrayed by Merkel."
Kohl added in the interview that his father "probably did a lot to escalate the donation affair," but that speaking about it now is more about "something much more fundamental: Angela Merkel's behavior in a party power struggle."
The affair eventually toppled Helmut Kohl from his role at the head of the CDU. He has never revealed where the money came from, despite heavy pressure, and the affair saw Merkel turn on her mentor and assume leadership of the party in 2000. Kohl insisted that breaking his silence would harm the party.
This was, according to Kohl, despite the fact that at the beginning of the scandal, Merkel had spoken within the party about protecting Helmut Kohl, and his family in particular, for all he had done for the party.
Estranged son
Walter Kohl and his brother have not spoken to their father for years, and a book written by Walter in 2011 revealed the struggles Walter faced living as the son of Germany's longest-serving chancellor.
In the interview with "ZEITmagazin," Walter Kohl said his father's visit in 2016 with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of the most vocal Merkel critics outside of Germany for her refugee policy, was out of character.
"He's not who he was with the things he says today," Walter Kohl said. "The Helmut Kohl of old would never have given an autocrat like Orban such a friendly reception."
mz/msh |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption People smoking at the scene may have sparked the fire
The death toll from a lorry fire in Pakistan last week has risen sharply, with more than 200 people killed.
The tanker carrying fuel burst into flames near Ahmedpur East on 25 June.
Villagers had gathered, reportedly to collect fuel leaking from the crashed tanker, when it caught fire. Dozens are being treated in hospital.
The death toll in the hours after the fire hit 150, but local officials now say it is at least 206, after more victims died in hospital.
The fire was sparked by a passer-by lighting a cigarette, a rescue services spokesman told the BBC.
Some of the victims may only be identified by DNA sampling, as the bodies were so badly burned in the incident, reports said.
A mass funeral for 125 of the victims was held last week.
Police sources told Pakistani news agency APP that the tanker had been transporting 25,000 litres (5,500 gallons) of fuel from Karachi to Lahore. It appears the tanker blew a tyre while rounding a sharp bend in the road.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Charred motorbikes littered the road
Police sources said that people in nearby villages had rushed to the scene to collect fuel in pots, and also made phone calls to their relatives in other villages to come to collect fuel.
Traffic police had tried in vain to keep the crowds away from the tanker as local people, including women and children, continued collecting fuel, the sources said.
A huge fire then erupted, engulfing all the people standing around the vehicle, they said.
Emergency services struggled to find burns units to treat the injured, APP reported.
Motorway police spokesman Imran Shah told the AFP news agency that a government inquiry had concluded five police officials were guilty of concealing information after the fire. |
The Community panel wasted no time in addressing the departure of Dan Harmon this morning.
“The only thing we care about is keeping it the weird wonderful gem it always has been, said new producer David Guarascio to applause from the packed ballroom. “We’re not going to screw it up,” the other new showrunner Moses Port added later. Guarascio and Port became Community’s showrunners after Harmon was fired by NBC in May. Cast members Danny Pudi, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Joel McHale, Yvette Nicole Brown, series writers Megan Ganz, Andy Bobrow and executive producer Russ Krasnoff joined the showrunners on the panel. Chevy Chase, Ken Jeong, Donald Glover and Jim Rash were not there.
RELATED: ‘Community’s’ Joel McHale Wanted Ousted Creator Dan Harmon Back
Beyond joking about how close the show came to ending, plugging the new DVD release and who would play McHale’s father on the upcoming season (“Pluto Nash himself, Eddie Murphy,” laughed McHale), the panel was very much for hard-core fans of the show. Guarascio did tease out the upcoming season for a bit. “This is a family that will continue to exist whether they’re in school or not,” he said noting that some cast members would be graduating from the community college that stands as the series’ setting. Guarscio also told fans that “We are going to get to go to an Inspector Space Time convention.” The panel closed after some cast freestyle hip-hop rhymes, with questions from the audience.
(Photo: Getty Images) |
Security fencing is seen at the White House in Washington November 27, 2015. A man who jumped the White House fence on Thursday, triggering a lockdown of the presidential mansion, was quickly caught and now faces criminal charges, the U.S. Secret Service said. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A person jumped over a bike rack in a buffer zone in front of the White House on Saturday while President Trump was in Florida, but was not able to make it over the fence into the grounds, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Twitter.
CNN reported that two Secret Service agents tackled the individual. The area is the start of a buffer zone between the main White House fence and the sidewalks.
The Secret Service was earlier criticized after it said a man who scaled the White House fence last week was on the property’s grounds for 16 minutes before being detained.
Separately, the Secret Service said on Friday a laptop was stolen from an agent’s car in New York City but that such agency-issued computers contain multiple layers of security and are not permitted to contain classified information.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s incident. |
Woman with webbed feet found wet, mostly naked on road, claims she's a mermaid Copyright by WISH - All rights reserved The woman calls herself Joanna and claims she's a mermaid (Fresno Police Department) [ + - ] Video
KSEE Staff Reports - FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE) - A woman was found near Table Mountain on Tuesday morning, and she doesn't seem to know who she is, the Fresno Police Department said.
"She was wet, she said she had been in the lake, said she needed help and needed to be taken to the hospital," said Fresno Police Lt. Mark Hudson.
Copyright by WISH - All rights reserved (Provided Photo/Fresno Police Department)
The woman was found about 3:15 a.m. walking in the middle of the street on Millerton Road (Friant Road) about a mile south of Table Mountain.
When she was found, her hair was wet, and she was mostly naked. She told officers she had been in the water.
She answers, "I don't know" to most questions, police said. She has claimed to be a mermaid named "Joanna."
"We did go through records after fingerprinting her and we still did not come up with her identity," said Hudson.
She is 5-foot-4, weighs 150 pounds and has webbed feet.
"There are some strange things that happen up here," said neighbor Karon Renwick. "We're in the mountains."
Anyone with information on this woman should call (559) 621-2455 or email the missing persons unit Detective Paul Hill at [email protected]. |
Spotify today dominates the market for music streaming services for consumers. Now a new startup, started by Spotify’s ex-head of business development Andreas Liffgarden and co-founder of Beats Music Ola Sars — and backed by Spotify itself — wants to transform that same music platform into a B2B service.
Soundtrack Your Brand plans to sell Spotify music subscriptions to businesses like bars, restaurants, shops and other public venues. Launching today in Sweden, the company counts not only Spotify itself as an investor, but also Spotify’s own VCs Northzone, Creandum, Wellington and HMP.
According to Liffgarden, who is chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand, the idea behind the startup is to draw on the popularity of Spotify for music streaming as a way to disrupt the current market for music in public venues. “The general consensus is that two-thirds of all customers are being served by CD music in public spaces,” Liffgarden told me. “It’s a hugely interesting space to go into from a business point of view.”
And a legal point of view, as it happens: Most venues would prefer to be on the right side of the law when it comes to music royalties, he says, and they are starting to “look to streaming services to provide those solutions.” But at the same time, it’s an opportunity that Spotify itself has not tapped, since the licensing that Spotify has with labels and other rights holders restricts music streaming to individuals.
Although CDs and other physical music products (records! tapes! 8-track!) are the very old-school music service that is getting disrupted here, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other companies also looking to provide digital music services in public venues. Other companies include Mood Media (owner of much-mocked Muzak, but also DMX and other brands), Image Sound and Play Networks.
Soundtrack Your Brand is hoping for an edge not just with the Spotify association — which is a significant edge on its own — but also added services. They include unlimited streamed music, scheduled playlists that can be customised at different venues, social features to share the music across Facebook, Twitter and stream it on your website; business support; and offline mode.
Pricing is at two tiers, 349 Swedish Kronor per month ($53) for “Spotify Business” for small and independent venues, and 799 SEK ($121) for “Spotify Enterprise,” which has yet to launch and will be aimed at larger deployments.
If Soundtrack Your Brand’s business model sounds slightly familiar to you, that’s because it is: another Nordic startup called Soundrop also once had designs on developing a legal way to stream Spotify in public venues. Since then it seems to have pivoted away from this idea to focus mainly on branded, multi-person virtual listening rooms, leaving the target of streaming in physical venues for someone else to tackle.
Enter Liffgarden and Sars, who is SYB’s CEO. “Ola and I had been trying to hire each other for a while [when one was at Spotify and the other at Beats],” Liffgarden told me. “We pitched each other a lot on the idea of what’s next in streaming music, what is the new frontier? We both thought B2B, so we decided that we needed to do this.”
For the record, any and all of my questions about Apple were met with stony silence from Sars, all the more ominous when delivered over Skype (I’m in London; they’re in Stockholm).
Liffgarden also would not comment on the relationship today between Soundrop and Soundtrack Your Brand, but we understand from another source that in fact there is a link, in that the technology in Soundtrack Your Brand is at least partly coming from Soundrop, although the startup certainly has its own cadre of developers on board working on the business as well.
As for why Spotify decided not to roll this service out itself and instead invest in a third-party to pursue the opportunity, this is not entirely clear yet, either.
It may be because Spotify itself is very focused right now on how to scale and monetise its own consumer product with premium subscriptions and advertising that diluting that with a B2B offering didn’t seem palatable. It may be that it’s simply waiting to see how well this flies first. But the fact that Spotify, along with its own VCs, has invested in the company is a sign, though, that the project is not entirely out of Spotify’s reach today and possibly even more so in the future.
We will apparently be hearing more about Soundtrack Your Brand’s bigger plans and backstory in the coming months. Listen to this space. |
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In late January, President Obama met some two dozen CEOs at the White House to discuss the plight of the long-term unemployed. Frustrated by the refusal of congressional Republicans to extend unemployment insurance benefits, Obama persuaded several hundred companies to sign a “best practices” hiring pledge promising not to discriminate against those who have been unable to find work for a lengthy period of time. Ad Policy
Among the executives present was Don Thompson, who made nearly $14 million in 2012 as the CEO of the McDonald’s Corporation, and whose restaurant workers are paid so little that they must rely on $1.2 billion in public assistance each year. Also present was Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, who earned $23.3 million in 2013 while threatening to move his company to a right-to-work state if the machinists’ union did not accept a contract that froze pensions and limited future raises. Walmart, which last year chose to buy back $7.6 billion of its own stock when it could have raised employee pay by more than $5 an hour instead, signed the agreement, as did JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, whose fraudulent mortgage practices helped tank the economy and destroy decades of middle-class wealth. “I was really grateful to all of them for stepping up in this way,” Obama said.
The confab neatly illustrated the Democratic Party’s current predicament. As public disgust with rising inequality and a protracted jobs crisis compels a populist approach to governing and campaigning, the party remains inextricably tied to some of the elites responsible for the underlying problems. Publicly, the party seems united—but who is truly dedicated to reversing the country’s alarming descent into oligarchy, and who is just using the issue of the day to burnish their credentials or troll for votes?
* * *
At first blush, it might seem difficult to discern pretenders from true populists. Almost everyone who identifies as even an inch left of center acknowledges the need to address income inequality. The centrist Democratic think tank Third Way is a notable exception: it issued a lonely warning in a December Wall Street Journal op-ed that economic populism is “a dead end for Democrats.”
But look everywhere else: Chuck Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate and one of the party’s biggest recipients of Wall Street campaign donations, laid out an unmistakable populist offensive in a January speech. “We must focus, this year, on four or five simple but compelling examples of where government can help the average family,” he said. Schumer suggested that Democrats pick and choose from a range of issues that includes extended unemployment insurance, raising the minimum wage, college affordability and other education assistance, infrastructure spending, equal pay for women, universal pre-school, job training and closing corporate tax loopholes. Obama echoed Schumer’s populist pitch days later in his State of the Union address. Even folks like former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers are declaring income inequality “a major economic issue in the United States and beyond.”
The gloss of consensus, however, obscures deep divisions about inequality—including the explanation for its origins. Progressives like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren explain concentrated wealth as the result of a rigged system that funnels the gains from workers’ productivity to their bosses. On the other hand, a competing story of American inequality has emerged—one that “basically says it’s something happening out there, to us, and if we are at fault, it is only that we have been slow in responding to what’s happened,” observes economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
This is the narrative Barack Obama frequently offers. “Over more than three decades, even before the Great Recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on,” he said in his recent State of the Union address. Robert Borosage, the co-director of the progressive think tank Institute for America’s Future, calls this “passive-voice populism”—a version of events that neatly elides talking about the deliberate policy decisions that have led to increasingly unchecked corporate power.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, for example, argues that when it comes to inequality, there is “a powerful story to be told about how technology, globalization, and declining American education and skills have contributed to the stagnation of wages for the median worker.” The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman also repeatedly blames an untrained workforce for the country’s widespread unemployment, despite lacking evidence of a labor shortage.
Proponents of this viewpoint rarely, if ever, mention the declining bargaining power of the American worker—one of the chief causes of income inequality. The Economic Policy Institute found that the decline of unions accounts for about three-quarters of the increased wage gap between white- and blue-collar male workers from 1978 to 2011. Yet that fact remains virtually unmentioned in the “inevitable globalization” version of events.
This is not to say there’s nothing to the argument that globalization and technological change have driven the inequality crisis. “But,” Stiglitz cautions, “each of those have been shaped by our policies. So, for instance, with globalization, the rules of the game have all been set by legislation, treaties—NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement], the WTO [World Trade Organization]—and tax laws that made it easy to outsource jobs…. The way we made globalization work, with all the volatility—it didn’t have to be that way.”
* * *
Not surprisingly, people who perceive wealth at the top as being disconnected from the losses in the middle and at the bottom have put forward solutions that fail to address the structural basis of the inequality crisis. In fact, the center-left’s inequality agenda depends on a modified trickle-down model, in which special treatment for the corporate class—people like Don Thompson and Jim McNerney—is the solution, rather than part of the problem.
Summers, though he has identified inequality as a major issue, has some crucial qualifiers. “Reducing inequality is good, but it’s fifty times better to do it by lifting those up who are low than by tearing down those who are high,” he said in March. Democratic strategist Paul Begala has similarly called on the Democrats to “focus on the aspirational side of this—lifting people up—not on just complaining about a lack of fairness.”
Former New York Times editor Bill Keller, a self-appointed spokesman for the center-left, called for an inequality agenda aimed at “unleash[ing] the energy of the private sector.” Similarly, Al From, founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, claims that “without private sector growth, a redistribution strategy is self-defeating. That’s why Democrats cannot afford to lose our appreciation for business and the private sector.” While From ostensibly welcomes a populist campaign, he nevertheless advocates slashing Social Security and Medicare in his recent memoir.
The president himself has made a subtle shift in language, moving away from talking about inequality explicitly and instead speaking in terms of “opportunity.” The Obama economic agenda outlined of late has many echoes of the Keller approach: he wants revenue-neutral tax reform that would lower overall rates and bring home the money that corporations have stashed overseas at a fraction of the standard tax rate. The Obama administration is also pushing hard for more liberalized trade in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (leaked drafts of which indicate that it contains substantial deregulatory language, including for the financial sector), while maintaining a stubborn insistence on deficit reduction. Although it took Social Security cuts out of its recent budget, the administration has expressed a desire to enact them should Republicans come to the table.
Most Democrats, from Obama to Summers, do favor some laudable measures to reduce inequality, such as closing tax loopholes that benefit the very wealthy, raising the minimum wage and strengthening the safety net for the very poor. Those are good policies, but they are not aimed at fundamentally changing the structure of the increasingly skewed economy. “Some of this is just getting back what we lost—just recently lost, not since 1968,” says Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “It’s not a game-changer.” CEOs would be forced to spread a bit more of their profits around, but they’d still be winning the game.
Essentially, such proposals square with the strategy advocated by Zakaria. “This strikes me as the right approach: how to get people to move up and thus create a thriving middle class. If, in the process, the Google guys stay rich, so be it,” he has said.
Incidentally, the “Google guys” constitute an emerging power center in the Democratic Party. A group of Silicon Valley moguls—led by Sean Parker, a Facebook investor and one of the founders of FWD.us; Ro Khanna, a lawyer and former Commerce Department deputy assistant secretary; and Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist—are at the forefront of a concentrated effort to increase the clout that the tech sector wields on a broad range of issues. Citing a sense of social conscience, they are funding political advocacy groups, advising the White House, writing legislation, spending millions on lobbying and even—in the case of Khanna—running for office themselves. “We need to put our heads together and seize control over this system, quickly and stealthily, before incumbent players wake up to what’s happening,” Parker said last year.
But it’s not clear that this Silicon Valley “populism” extends far beyond the tech sector’s specific interests. Even the moguls who acknowledge inequality seem blithely oblivious to its scale—and to their own complicity. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, for example, acknowledged that companies like his bear some responsibility for the deepening economic divide in San Francisco; he has also said that one of the remedial efforts he was most proud of was starting a weekly neighborhood outing to pick up the trash.
Then there’s the main “Google guy,” chairman Eric Schmidt (net worth: $8 billion), a major Democratic donor who said in 2012 that he was “very proud” of his company’s tax practices, which shield billions annually from the federal government.
Schmidt took up the inequality conundrum during his address at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in March. He proposed three ways for the government to close the gap: shore up the safety net for the poorest citizens; invest in education, particularly in science and technology; and give more support to fast-growing start-ups, which he dubbed “gazelles.”
But even with the favoritism Schmidt is calling for, past results suggest the gazelles will not live up to their promise as job creators. Silicon Valley has generated only 30,000 tech-related positions since 2008, while the region lost more than 40,000 manufacturing jobs in little more than a decade. Google’s $380 billion market cap is about seven times greater than General Motors’, but GM employs more than four times as many workers. Meanwhile, WhatsApp—which Facebook bought in February for $19 billion—employs just fifty people.
Schmidt sees no problem with the imbalance. As he said at SXSW, “Let us celebrate capitalism: $19 billion for fifty people? Good for them.” Schmidt’s inequality agenda is opportunism at its most crass: it may make him and his friends even richer, but it’s no prescription for full employment or higher wages for the masses.
* * *
These days, every politician wants to be a populist, but few want a class war. The essential question for Democrats is whether or not an effective policy response demands one. Unserious contributions like Schmidt’s, if accepted as “populist” policy, threaten to reduce a question of justice to a discussion of how the 1 percent can have its cake and put its fingers in the populist pie, too. But when progressives like Warren talk about breaking up the “too big to fail” banks, reforming corporate governance structures or tying wages to productivity, they are calling for a deep rupturing of the pact that Democrats have made with the corporate elite.
Many party centrists aren’t ready to end the affair. “The essential problem with the Democratic Party is that you have, for a variety of reasons, a wide number of Democrats who are also dependent on corporate interests for their funding and their support and, you know, have not come down clearly on the side of working families,” says Bernie Sanders, one of the Senate’s most stalwart progressives.
Of serious concern now is the prospect that those who don’t really want to address fundamental inequities will push Washington away from even modest reforms at the first possible opportunity. The backlash could come after the fall’s midterm elections, in which Democrats are forecast to fare poorly, due in large part to gerrymandering and a number of Senate swing races happening almost exclusively in red states.
The critical task, then, lies in building a national movement strong enough to convince the Democrats that making a real commitment to workers and the poor is not only a moral but a political imperative. Heather McGhee, the president of the social justice policy organization Demos, notes that “politicians are opportunists—we just have to keep telling them this is the best opportunity, over and over again.” The willingness of tens of thousands of low-wage workers to walk off the job is what pushed the Democrats to embrace a wage hike as a rallying cry for 2014, and Obama to raise the minimum wage for federal contractors.
“There is only so far that a technocratic approach can take us,” McGhee adds. “I think that the story we tell about the future of our country and what’s gotten us to this place has to have heroes; it has to have redemption; it has to have a sense of what’s right and what’s wrong.”
It must also have villains. Senator Sherrod Brown, who won a tough 2012 race in Ohio with a pro-labor message and harsh words for Wall Street, showed that voters far from the liberal coasts are ready for stronger stuff. “Republicans commit class warfare every day,” he notes, but when Democrats point it out, “they accuse us of class warfare. And too many of us shrink from the discussion—and from the battle. Once we get over that fear, we not only govern better; we win elections.” |
Big week for AGT alumni! This coming Friday, November 3, Season 11 Champion Grace VanderWaal‘s debut album, Just the Beginning, will be released, as well as her new accessory line with Charming Charlie. (Photo from Just Jared Jr.)
“Amercia’s Got Talent: Live!” featuring Season 12 fan favorites Darci Lynne Farmer, Angelica Hale, Light Balance, and Preacher Lawson is happening in Las Vegas this weekend. The two initially planned performances sold out so quickly they added two or three more, and then those went fast as well, so they should get a good turnout. Unfortunately, I won’t be attending (though I did get to see Season 11’s Tape Face do his thing up here in Canada this past Saturday) but I’ll be sure to update with a roundup of social media, pictures, and any other fun stuff from the event next week! (Photo from Darci’s Twitter).
Lastly, I’ve been meaning to cover Mandy Harvey’s book Sensing the Rhythm, which was released about a month ago and is currently available in bookstores and online.
Sensing the Rhythm mostly covers Mandy’s life from around the time she lost her hearing to the present as of when the book was being written (a little less than a year ago from when I’m posting this in October 2017) though there are a few stories from her high school days and before peppered in. The book has an easy-to-follow, feel-good format with each chapter starting with an anecdote from Mandy’s life, followed by the lesson(s) she learned from the experience and advice to readers who may be facing similar challenges and does a great job at translating these takeaways to other situations people may be dealing with. So while the stories mostly focus on her hearing loss and music career, the book overall is about overcoming adversity, and that’s a challenge virtually everyone in the world faces at one point or another.
Since the book was finished before her season of AGT began, there isn’t any juicy behind-the-scenes dirt on her experience competing on the show. However, we do get some interesting and insightful background information on her family and love life (SPOILERS: she’s married, so sorry to crush the dreams of all the people who ship her with certain other AGT contestants :P). These sections of the book are the most personal and raw of all; I was surprised she even opted to discuss some of the things she did, though I think they probably helped paint a more authentic picture of Mandy as a person, and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Mandy on AGT or are just curious to know more about how she was able to continue composing and performing music after losing her hearing.
That’s about it for now. I’ll be back next week with some AGT Vegas show coverage, so see you then! 😀 |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US President Barack Obama: "There is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence"
The US ambassador to Libya is among four Americans killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, President Barack Obama has confirmed.
Unidentified armed men stormed the grounds overnight amid uproar among Muslims over a film produced in the US said to insult the Prophet Muhammad.
They shot at buildings and threw handmade bombs into the compound.
It has not been confirmed how the ambassador, J Christopher Stevens, and the others died.
Protesters against the film also attacked the US embassy in Cairo on Tuesday night.
'Asphyxiated'
It is almost inevitable that this attack will put President Obama's foreign policy centre stage in the election campaign, at least for a while
Speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House, President Obama told reporters the attack would not break the bonds between the US and the new Libyan government.
But he added: "Make no mistake - justice will be done."
The US is deploying a marine anti-terrorism team to Libya to bolster security after the attack, a US defence source told reporters in Washington.
Libya's interim leader, Mohammed Magarief, apologised to the US over the killings, which he called "cowardly criminal acts".
Reports say a militia known as the Ansar al-Sharia brigade was involved in the attack, but the group has denied the claim, the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says.
Reports suggest that Ambassador Stevens and his staff went to the consulate in an attempt to evacuate the site after it was attacked.
Analysis The killing of the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, along with three other US embassy staff, raises a host of questions about security, the prevalence of armed militias in the country and the whole trajectory of Libya's democratic project. The Obama administration in Washington will want answers from the Libyan government about the scale of the security measures in place at its consulate in Benghazi and how demonstrators were able to get into the building. More broadly, the ambassador's death highlights the continuing instability in Libya as the country struggles to establish security and the rule of law. The country is awash with weapons and armed militias. Some, of a Salafist or extreme Islamic fundamentalist outlook, hold sway in many areas.
They were reportedly trying to leave the consulate building for a safer location when gunmen launched an intense attack, apparently forcing back security guards.
"The American ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets in their direction," a Libyan official in Benghazi told Reuters news agency.
The Libyan doctor who treated Mr Stevens in hospital said he had died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke inhalation, with no other injuries, and that he had tried for 90 minutes to revive him.
He was the only American brought into the Benghazi Medical Centre and initially nobody realised he was the ambassador, Ziad Abu Zeid told the Associated Press news agency.
A second US man killed in the attack was named as Sean Smith, a father of two who was employed as an information management officer.
The names of the remaining two victims have not yet been released.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Mr Smith in a statement as "one of the best".
Speaking to reporters later, Mrs Clinton said many Americans were asking how such an attack could have happened in a country America had helped to liberate.
"This was an attack by a small and savage group, not the people and government of Libya," she said.
The attack was condemned by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague as "brutal and senseless".
Mitt Romney, Mr Obama's Republican challenger in the forthcoming presidential election, criticised the US administration's response to the attacks in Benghazi and Cairo, saying it had appeared to "sympathise with those who waged the attacks".
Mr Obama's team, he said, had sent "mixed signals to the world" in the face of violence.
Safety concerns
Our correspondent says many people in Libya are still armed following the conflict that overthrew Gaddafi.
Analysts say the attack will raise serious new concerns about stability in the country and the ability of the new Libyan administration to maintain security.
In June, two British bodyguards were injured in an attack in Benghazi on a convoy carrying the British ambassador to Libya. Red Cross and UN staff also came under attack this year.
US ambassadors killed in line of duty John Gordon Mein - Guatemala, 1968: Shot dead by rebels who ambushed his car
Shot dead by rebels who ambushed his car Cleo A Noel Jr - Sudan, 1973: Shot dead along with senior US and Belgian diplomats by Palestinian militants, after being taken hostage in Saudi embassy
Shot dead along with senior US and Belgian diplomats by Palestinian militants, after being taken hostage in Saudi embassy Rodger P Davies - Cyprus, 1974: Killed by sniper gunfire during a protest at US embassy by Greek Cypriots
Killed by sniper gunfire during a protest at US embassy by Greek Cypriots Francis E Meloy Jr - Lebanon, 1976: Kidnapped and shot dead by Palestinian militants in Beirut with another senior US official
Kidnapped and shot dead by Palestinian militants in Beirut with another senior US official Adolph Dubs - Afghanistan, 1979: Killed in exchange of fire after Afghan and Soviet forces tried to free him from kidnappers in hotel Obituary: J Christopher Stevens In pictures: US film protests Film outrages media
Correspondents say the film at the heart of the row, which appeared on Youtube translated into Arabic, is highly provocative and insulting to Muslims.
A demonstration in Cairo on Tuesday saw protesters breach the US embassy and tear down the US flag, which was flying at half-mast to mark the 9/11 attacks.
An Islamic tenet bans the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.
On Wednesday, the Afghan government gave orders for Youtube to be closed to the public until the offending film was removed but the site was still visible to internet users in the capital, Kabul.
Cartoons featuring the Islamic religion's key figure sparked violent unrest among Muslims in 2005 when they were published by a Danish newspaper.
Mrs Clinton said the attack on the consulate in Benghazi "should shock the conscience of people of all faiths". |
McConnell: 'No evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue'
There are fiscal theories that I disagree with, and that I think are cruel, and that make me upset. But very few actually make me sad. Sen. Mitch McConnell, however, hit my sore spot today. "There's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue," he told Brian Beutler of TPMDC. "They increased revenue because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy. So I think what Senator Kyl was expressing was the view of virtually every Republican on that subject." In other words, this is why Republicans don't think tax cuts need to be paid for. They pay for themselves.
Why does this make me sad? Because it's hard to see the country prospering when one of its two major political parties is this economically illiterate. McConnell isn't some backbencher. He's Senate minority leader. And he thinks there's "no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue."
There's an ontological question here about what, exactly, McConnell considers to be "evidence." But how about the Congressional Budget Office's estimations? "The new CBO data show that changes in law enacted since January 2001 increased the deficit by $539 billion in 2005. In the absence of such legislation, the nation would have a surplus this year. Tax cuts account for almost half — 48 percent — of this $539 billion in increased costs." How about the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget? Their budget calculator shows that the tax cuts will cost $3.28 trillion between 2011 and 2018. How about George W. Bush's CEA chair, Greg Mankiw, who used the term "charlatans and cranks" for people who believed that "broad-based income tax cuts would have such large supply-side effects that the tax cuts would raise tax revenue." He continued: "I did not find such a claim credible, based on the available evidence. I never have, and I still don't."
There is some stimulative affect from tax cuts. They increase economic activity somewhat, and that means there's somewhat more taxable revenue for the government to pick up. But not much. Not nearly enough to cancel out the cost of a tax cut. It's important to remember that the Laffer Curve is actually a curve. You can no more drop taxes to 1 percent and make up the difference in revenue than you could increases taxes to 100 percent and sustain enough economic activity to fund the government. You'll recall that the last time we saw budget surpluses was under Clinton -- and higher taxes.
Further, if tax cuts don't need to be paid for because they generate so much taxable economic activity that they pay for themselves, then neither do unemployment checks. After all, the two work very similarly: A tax cut puts more money in your pocket. Unemployment insurance puts more money in an unemployed person's pocket. The difference is that the unemployed person is likelier to spend that money, which will generate more taxable economic activity than if that money is saved. That's why Mark Zandi, an adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign, estimated (pdf) that a dollar spent extending the Bush tax cuts would generate .32 cents of taxable economic activity, while a dollar spent on unemployment benefits would generate $1.61 of taxable economic activity.
In other words, using the theory under which tax cuts pay for themselves, unemployment benefits are a lot likelier to pay for themselves. But John Cornyn, another member of the GOP's Senate leadership, hasn't run the numbers. "I think the urgency of deficit-neutral extension of unemployment insurance has increased because of the size of the deficit and the size of the debt," he said. It's enough to make you very, very sad.
Photo credit: By J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press |
On Wednesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” CNN Political Commentator and former Obama administration official Van Jones criticized DNC Chair Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) for the “malpractice” “coming in harder for Hillary Clinton than she is for herself.” And declared, “I wish Reince Priebus was my party chair.”
Jones stated, “You may have a leadership failure in both lanes of the party, and then Debbie, who should be the umpire, who should the marriage counselor, is coming in harder for Hillary Clinton than she is for herself. That is malpractice. I wish Reince Priebus was my party chair. He did a better job of handling the Trump situation than I’ve seen my party chair handle this situation, and I’m ashamed to say that. Yeah, I said it.”
Earlier, Jones said that he doesn’t think the conflict between Clinton and Sanders will be resolved in a few months, although he doesn’t think there will be “violent conflict” during the Democratic National Convention, or a lot of disruption inside the convention, “Unless, they keep rubbing people’s nose in it.”
He further criticized the “below subpar” diplomacy from Clinton to Sanders’ supporters.
(h/t Mediaite)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett |
The trucks ran out of diesel and drivers didn't have money to refuel. Each driver was handed Rs 2,000 cash for fuel, which is apparently over.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had flagged off these trucks fron New Delhi on Monday.
In a major embarrassment for the Congress, trucks carrying relief material for Uttarakhand flood victims, which were flagged off with much fanfare by party chief Sonia Gandhi and scion Rahul Gandhi on Monday, are yet to reach the victims. The vehicles have, can you believe it, run out of diesel and are stranded in Rishikesh and Dehradun.
According to reports, the trucks ran out of diesel and drivers didn't have money to refuel. Each driver was handed Rs 2,000 cash for fuel, which is apparently over.
In a ceremony organised at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Monday, Sonia Gandhi had flagged off 24 trucks in addition to 125 carriers for the flood-ravaged state.
Taking a dig at Congress over the mess, BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said the party's seriousness towards the calamity can be understood from this incident. Javadekar said no party should try to gain political mileage from the flood.
BJP president Rajnath Singh also attacked the Congress for indulging in vote-bank politics. |
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's senior aide Gerald Butts took to Twitter to defend the appointment of his friend to a diplomatic post in San Francisco at a pay rate nearly double the official salary scale, arguing his compensation is in line with others the Liberals have recruited from outside the government – and that they took pay cuts to serve their country.
Rana Sarkar, a former Liberal candidate who is close to Mr. Butts, was appointed as Canada's consul-general to San Francisco on Aug. 2. The Liberal cabinet set his salary range at $221,300 to $260,300 for a post classified at a level that carries an official pay range of $119,600 to $140,700.
Opposition politicians called that "cronyism," and said ordinary Canadians won't be impressed by Mr. Butts's assertion that a political appointee took a pay cut to make more than $200,000 in a plum post.
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Read more: Liberal-named consul-general Rana Sarkar to make nearly double office's official salary (subscribers)
On Monday, Mr. Butts argued in a 15-part twitter thread that Mr. Sarkar's pay is in line with three others the Liberals have recruited for diplomatic posts from outside government – but the only one on the list in a comparable position as a consul-general, Phyllis Yaffe, earns significantly less.
Mr. Sarkar's salary range is now higher than that of two former senior Liberal ministers who left Mr. Trudeau's cabinet for diplomatic posts touted as "superambassador" roles.
Former minister of immigration John McCallum, appointed ambassador to China in March, and former foreign affairs minister Stéphane Dion, now ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the European Union, are both paid a salary ranging between $214,200 and $252,000. The San Francisco appointment makes Mr. Sarkar one of the highest-paid Canadian diplomats in the foreign service.
Mr. Butts argued on Twitter that the government recruited Mr. Sarkar because he has experience and skills that are an "excellent fit" for a job that notably includes efforts to attract investment from Silicon Valley.
He wrote that Mr. Sarkar and others the Liberals have recruited for diplomatic posts "took substantial reductions in their income to serve their country."
Mr. Butts pointed to three other people Mr. Trudeau's Liberal government has recruited to serve in diplomatic posts: David MacNaughton, former chairman of StrategyCorp and co-chair of Mr. Trudeau's Liberal election campaign in Ontario, as ambassador to the United States; Marc-André Blanchard, former chairman of law firm McCarthy Tétrault and a long-time Liberal who served on Mr. Trudeau's transition team, as ambassador to the United Nations in New York; and Ms. Yaffe, former chief executive officer of Alliance Atlantis Communications and board member of Torstar Corp., as consul-general in New York.
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"Rana Sarkar's salary as CG [consul-general] is completely in line with those other appointments from the private sector," Mr. Butts tweeted.
Mr. MacNaughton and Mr. Blanchard, who hold two of the highest-stature posts in the Canadian foreign service, are both paid a salary between $247,900 and $291,600, a range roughly $30,000 more than Mr. Sarkar's, according to the order-in-council formalizing their appointment.
Ms. Yaffe – who, like Mr. Sarkar, is a consul-general, but at a New York post that is generally viewed as having greater stature – is paid a salary between $153,600 and $180,600 – roughly 70 per cent of Mr. Sarkar's pay range.
Mr. Sarkar is a former president of the Canada India Business Council and more recently was KPMG's national director for high-value markets.
New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen said what will make the larger salary rankle with ordinary Canadians is that the recruit who got it is a Liberal with close ties to the Prime Minister's closest confidante.
"I think there's lots of qualified people who are also not best friends with the Prime Minister's [aide]," Mr. Cullen said. "This seems to be the blind spot with the Liberals. When appointing friends to positions, they just have no ability to see how the general public will perceive friends helping friends."
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Conservative MP Peter Kent said Mr. Sarkar, who ran for the Liberals in the 2011 federal election and unsuccessfully sought the Liberal nomination in 2015, appeared to be willing to accept a Member of Parliament's salary. MPs current earn $172,700 a year. He said political appointments aren't always wrong, but this one smacks of "classical Liberal cronyism."
Mr. Cullen said that Mr. Butts's tweets about Mr. Sarkar taking a pay cut won't play well with ordinary Canadians. The consul-general in San Francisco gets the use of a five-bedroom house and also covers Hawaii, and so travels there regularly, he noted.
"Oh, you poor guy," Mr. Cullen scoffed, quipping that Mr. Butts is making it sound "as if [Mr. Sarkar] were volunteering in a Médecins sans frontières outpost in Sudan." |
Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison is out with a dishy piece titled "The Inside Story of the Kushner-Bannon Civil War." While none of Ellison's top sources are named, the story clearly reflects the perspective of the moderate camp inside the West Wing — Jared, Ivanka, and Gary Cohn — and contains some brutal anonymous quotes hitting Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway in particular.
Between the lines: Ellison's story is a useful guide to the shifting power dynamics within the West Wing: the loss of power of the Bannonites and the imminent "normalization" of staff.
Why this matters: The West Wing's leak war is still very much alive, despite the President telling his senior staff to knock it off and work together. This situation is unsustainable and Bannon's job security isn't looking great. |
Dagenham & Redbridge make annual Christmas trip to local hospitals
Dagenham & Redbridge players (from left) Corey Whitely, Joe White, Sam Ling, Jordan Maguire-Drew and Jimmy Shepherd visit the children's ward at King George Hospital (pic: David Simpson) Archant
Daggers squad visited children’s wards at King George Hosptial and Queen’s Hosptial
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Dagenham & Redbridge player Paul Benson during the Christmas hospital visit (pic: Dave Simpson) Dagenham & Redbridge player Paul Benson during the Christmas hospital visit (pic: Dave Simpson)
Dagenham & Redbridge brought some Christmas cheer to the children’s wards at King George Hospital, Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital, Romford by making their annual visit on Monday.
Dagenham & Redbridge players (l-r) Magnus Okuonghae, Joe Widdowson and Chris Assombalonga during the Chrismas hospital visit (pic: Dave Simpson) Dagenham & Redbridge players (l-r) Magnus Okuonghae, Joe Widdowson and Chris Assombalonga during the Chrismas hospital visit (pic: Dave Simpson)
After training at M&B Sports Ground in the morning, Daggers split into two groups to visit the hospitals, with one half heading to King George and the other making the trip to Queen’s.
Dagenham & Redbridge players and staff pose with hospital staff during their Christmas visit (pic: Dave Simpson) Dagenham & Redbridge players and staff pose with hospital staff during their Christmas visit (pic: Dave Simpson)
The squad visited every patient on the respective children’s wards and also provided gifts such as ticket vouchers, copies of Football Manager 2017 and signed programmes to be used in raffles.
The players also posed with children, their parents and staff and signed autographs during their visit.
The trip was well received, with Barking, Havering & Redbridge Trust paediatric nurse Sophie Hart taking to Twitter to thank Daggers.
“Thank you to Dagenham & Redbridge for visiting Clover ward & bringing gifts for the children - made their day!” Hart posted on the social media site. |
Japan’s Abe Shinzo government is commonly held to be in thrall to nuclear power, not least because it came into office in December 2012 committed to nuclear restarts and other policies promoted by the nuclear village. Yet clearly much has changed over the past three years. The Abe government’s repositioning on energy is evident in an accelerating shift away from support for the nuclear village, in spite of a few restarts, and towards an increasingly impressive commitment to energy efficiency and renewable energy. The evidence is striking: On top of proposing massive increases in its fiscal 2016 expenditures on energy efficiency and renewables, which we reviewed in October,1 the cabinet is about to undertake an administrative review targeting billions of yen in controversial nuclear-related expenditures.
Specifically, from November 11 to 13, 2015 Japan will undergo an administrative review of YEN 13.6 trillion worth of expenditure requests in the over YEN 102 trillion proposed budget for fiscal 2016. This “Fall Review” (Aki no rebyuu) will be open to the public and broadcast online, as was the case with previous administrative review processes.2 But among the many unusual aspects of this year’s initiative is that the review will be overseen by the resolutely antinuclear Liberal Democratic Party cabinet minister (since October 7, 2015) Kono Taro. Kono’s team of outside advisors will also include such explicitly antinuclear experts as the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation’s (JREF) Director Ohbayashi Mika3 and JREF Senior Research Fellow, Fujitsu Research Institute Research Fellow and Tsuru University Professor Takahashi Hiroshi.4 Kono and his colleagues in the LDP have been working hard in advance of the review to draw attention to its focus on nuclear-related expenditures, resulting in significant and steadily increasing press coverage. In addition, Kono has taken the apparently unprecedented step of producing a 1-hour video, released on November 9, to explain the process and its focus on nuclear-related expenditures. He prefaces his detailed arguments about the content of the review with (at the 5:50 mark) an unambiguous declaration that he not only cleared the substance of the review with Prime Minister Abe, but also received the latter’s encouragement.5
The Administrative Review
These “Fall Review” procedures were initiated by the Democratic Party of Japan Government, in 2010. They also matter, as is evident from the fact that the Fall Review of 2014 (for the FY 2015 budget) resulted in over YEN 360 billion in cuts and repayments to public funds.6 The previous year had seen even deeper cuts, amounting to roughly YEN 500 billion in expenditure reductions.7
Of the Japanese central government’s over 5000 spending programs, 55 have been chosen for this year’s review. While that number may seem small, as noted earlier these programs total over YEN 13.6 trillion and thus represent over 10% of the proposed YEN 102 trillion fiscal appropriations for the 2016 budget. Given that Japan’s public debt load of 226% of GDP is unprecedented in the history of the OECD,8 the pressure for cuts is likely to be stronger than in previous years. Particularly significant is the fact that the items slated for review are heavily oriented towards energy. Indeed, fully 24 of the 55 items are energy- and environment-related, and the vast majority of those are devoted to nuclear facilities as well as to measures related to achieving the recycling of nuclear waste in breeder reactors.9
One target that is ripe for scrutiny is the Kaieimaru, a nuclear fuel ship built in 2006 and used four times to transport a total of 16 tonnes of spent fuel to the Tokai Mura facility10 in Ibaragi Prefecture. Since the vessel has not been used to transport fuel since its most recent trip in 2009, Kono has included it in the review. Between 2010 and 2014, the cost of its upkeep totalled just under YEN 5.8 billion, and its projected costs to 2031 would see an additional YEN 18.1 billion spent on it. The ship has been featured in recent television broadcasts, including a TBS broadcast on November 9, and has featured in the Japanese Wall Street Journal,11 the Tokyo Shimbun,12 and other national and local press. Kono has skillfully chosen a striking symbol of extravagance for review.
An additional nuclear-related facility targeted by Kono’s review is the “Recycle Equipment Test Facility (RETF).” This is yet another costly and risky element of Japan’s very controversial accumulation of infrastructures and programs to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The RETF’s construction began in January 1995, and has received tens of billions of yen worth of investment even though it has not been used. Precisely 20 years ago, Shaun Burnie, Senior nuclear campaigner with Greenpeace Germany, warned that the true importance of the RETF, and the great risk that it poses: “is that it and the facilities that will follow will give Japan access to plutonium that is even purer than weapons-grade. The reason for this is that the plutonium produced in the uranium blanket of FBRs (ed. “fast breeder reactors”) and reprocessed by the operators is what is called supergrade. With a large-scale deployment of FBRs in Japan, and the reprocessing facilities to support the reactors, large quantities of weapons grade material will be available for non-peaceful use.”13
In their 2010 book In Defence of Japan: From the Market to the Military and Space Policy, Saadia M. Pekkanen (Professor, University of Washington) and Paul Kallender-Umezu (PhD Candidate, Keio University) cite Burnie, showing that his concern remains quite relevant. Indeed, they add to the warning by emphasizing that “the point about supergrade plutonium is that very little is required to produce nuclear warheads (possibly 800 to 900 grams); it is thus especially suitable for miniaturized nuclear warheads like MRIV-type ICBMs.14
The above examples are especially noteworthy, but are only two of the nuclear–related items up for consideration in this administrative review. Others include subsidies for securing uranium from overseas projects, storing the uranium, locating and constructing nuclear facilities, as well as funds for PR supporting nuclear power in the Japanese public debate.15
What is almost as impressive as the focus on nuclear is the complete absence of any targeting of expenditure programs for efficiency and renewables. Japan’s FY 2016 budget allocations for these items show dramatic increases over the current fiscal year. So one would hardly be surprised to see at least a couple of renewable-related programs put on the table, if only to placate the presumably outraged nuclear interests. But the only clearly non-nuclear energy programs included in the review relate to carbon-capture and storage (CCS). And if putting CCS on the block indicates that Japan is backing away from coal, that is another reason for applause.
Let us conclude with a note on Kono Tarohimself. He is a major figure in the Liberal Democratic Party, first elected in 1996. Like many LDP members, he comes from a family of politicians. But unlike most LDP politicians, he is resolutely antinuclear and is a strong internationalist. His website comes with Korean and Chinese versions as well as an English version.
In the wake of March 11, 2011 (3-11) natural and nuclear disasters, centred on the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Kono became well-known among international observers as a strong opponent of the domestic nuclear village and its plans to increase Japan’s dependence on nuclear to over 50% of power by 2030 as well as recycle waste in breeder reactors.
In addition to numerous public appearances, books, and interviews in which he was critical of the nuclear village and its dominance of the Japanese power industry, he maintained a blog with regular contributions critical of the Fukushima incident and its aftermath. He also criticized the Abe government’s efforts to restart nuclear reactors.
But when Abe undertook his October 7, 2015 cabinet revision, Kono surprised many by entering the cabinet as Minister in charge of Administrative Reform as well as Civil Service Reform, Consumer Affairs and Food Safety, Regulatory Reform and Disaster Management (the latter three portfolios being Minister of State positions).16
Upon entering the cabinet, Kono’s blog posts became inaccessible. Not a few observers interpreted Kono's simultaneous entry into the cabinet and suspension of his heavily antinuclear blog as an indication that he had been effectively silenced as an exponent of abandoning nuclear and ending Japan's dangerous and expensive effort to create a plutonium-based nuclear economy.
However, this interpretation ignored Kono's argument that he could be more effective in achieving his objectives from within the cabinet than from without.
The proof of the pudding is, as they say, in the eating. It would appear that Kono is setting up a feast this week. And it certainly merits attention from those interested in Japan’s fiscal sustainability, its energy policy on the eve of climate talks in Paris, its plutonium problem, and the ongoing transformation of the LDP.
Andrew DeWit is Professor in Rikkyo University’s School of Policy Studies and an editor of The Asia-Pacific Journal. His recent publications include “Climate Change and the Military Role in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response,” in Paul Bacon and Christopher Hobson (eds) Human Security and Japan’s Triple Disaster (Routledge, 2014), "Japan’s renewable power prospects," in Jeff Kingston (ed) Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan (Routledge 2013), and (with Kaneko Masaru and Iida Tetsunari) “Fukushima and the Political Economy of Power Policy in Japan” in Jeff Kingston (ed) Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan: Response and Recovery after Japan's 3/11 (Routledge, 2012). He is lead researcher for a five-year (2010-2015) Japanese-Government funded project on the political economy of the Feed-in Tariff.
Recommended citation: Andrew DeWit, "Japan’s Dangerous Nuclear Waste on the Cutting Board? Towards a Renewables Future", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 45, No. 4, November 9, 2015.
Related articles
• Andrew DeWit, Japan’s Bid to Become a World Leader in Renewable Energy
• Thierry Ribault, Japan Crushes Resistance to Restart Nuclear Power Plants
• John Mathews and Hao Tan, A ‘Great Reversal’ in China? Coal continues to decline with enforcement of environmental laws
• Nadine Ribault and Thierry Ribault, The 'Bright Future' of Japan's Nuclear Industry
• Andrew DeWit and Sven Saaler, Political and Policy Repercussions of Japan's Nuclear and Natural Disasters in Germany
• Eric Johnston, Kyoto forum’s leaders warm up to renewables.
Notes
1 On the budget increases and other green measures, see Andrew DeWit, "Japan’s Bid to Become a World Leader in Renewable Energy", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 39, No. 2, October 5, 2015.
2 An introduction (in Japanese) to this and previous years’ administrative review processes is available at the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat’s website.
3 Ohbayashi’s JREF profile is here.
4 On the participation of Ohbayashi and Takahashi, see (in Japanese) “List of 30 Participants in Administrative Review Released,” Nikkei Shimbun, November 11, 2015.
5 The broadcasts (in Japanese) are available at: (part 1), (part 2)
6 See (in Japanese) “Reflection of the Fall Review in the FY 2015 Budget (Outline),” MOF Budget Bureau, January, 2015.
7 Kansai University Professor (Public Finance) Uemura Toshiyuki explains the 2013 process and its outcome in detail (in Japanese) in “Towards a half-trillion yen in cuts to the 2014 budget,” January 30, 2014.
8 See p. 4 OECD Economic Surveys, Japan, April 2015. OECD.
9 On this, see (in Japanese) “Power Facility Location Disbursements and others are the focus of Administrative Review,” Denki Shimbun, November 9, 2015.
10 On the facility, see Japan Atomic Energy Agency, “Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories,” (no date).
11 See (in Japanese) “Nuclear-related budgets slated for review: Monju, Nuclear Fuel Ship,” October 30, 2015.
12 See (in Japanese) “Maintenance for Spent-Fuel Ship Costs YEN 5.9 Billion,” Tokyo Shimbun, October 29, 2015.
13 See p. 38 in Shaun Burnie, “50 Years after Nagasaki: Japan as Plutonium Superpower,” in (ed by Douglas Holdstock and Frank Barnaby) Hiroshima and Nagasaki: retrospect and prospect. Frank Cass: London, 1995.
14 See their footnote 27 on p. 357. Saadia M. Pekkanen and Paul Kallender-Umezu, In Defence of Japan: From the Market to the Military and Space Policy. Stanford University Press: 2010.
15 The full list of items is available [in Japanese] in the “Projects for Consideration in the Annual Fall Public Review,” Cabinet Office, Japan, October 30, 2015.
16 See the list of posts at the English-language site “Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet”. |
Chris Fox, CP24.com
Convicted Maple Leaf Gardens sex offender Gordon Stuckless is facing 19 new charges in connection with the sexual assault of three boys more than 30 years ago, police announced Wednesday.
The charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred between 1978 and 1984.
Stuckless is currently serving a six-and-a-half year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 100 charges related to the sexual abuse of 18 victims.
At a sentencing hearing in April, Stuckless apologized to his victims, noting that he was ashamed of his actions.
"I know that I have caused a lot of harm, pain and shame to all of you," he said at the time.
Stuckless previously pleaded guilty in 1997 to a number of charges that were filed in connection with the sexual assault of 24 boys while he worked as an equipment manager at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens between 1969 and 1988. He ended up serving four years in prison on those charges and was released in 2001.
The new charges include four counts of indecent assault male, four counts of buggery, six counts of gross indecency, three counts of sexual assault and two counts of threatening death.
Stuckless is scheduled to appear in court at Old City Hall on Thursday. |
If you’ve ever perused an ingredient list and wondered why there’s polyglycerol polyricinoleate in your candy bar or tertiary-butylhydroquinone in your cereal–or what, exactly, those things are–a new book has the answers.
Ingredients includes close-up photos of 75 common additives, along with descriptions of their origins and use. Ethylenediaminetetracetic acid sucks up any trace metals in food to stop oxidation. Disodium inosinate multiplies the umami taste of MSG by a factor of six or eight. Carrageenen, made from seaweed flour, binds up fats and proteins in chocolate milk and is also used in everything from salad dressing to beer (and air fresheners, shoe polish, and personal lubricant).
The book, which will come out in September, wasn’t intended as a polemic on the potential evils of additives. It’s more of a simple exploration of ingredients that most of us know nothing about, even if we’re eating them on a regular basis.
Corn is used to make more food additives than any ingredient other than petroleum: Flour added to wheat flour to make it last longer, cornstarch, chemically altered “modified cornstarch,” and maltodextrin for thickening food, corn syrup, and high-fructose corn syrup, used for moisture and shelf life in addition to sweetness.
“My goal for this project from the very beginning was to take an expository stance on the subject matter,” says photographer Dwight Eschliman. “Food science has created some catastrophes for sure, but it’s also created some amazing things. Right now it’s everyone’s favorite whipping post. There are a lot of people out there with strong opinions; I simply wanted to share information.”
“Dwight and I both really are just curious guys,” says author Steve Ettlinger, who worked on the book with Eschliman and has also written the similar work, Twinkie, Deconstructed. “We’re fascinated by this stuff.”
They got to know each ingredient intimately in the studio. At one point, when Eschliman photographed an accidentally concentrated form of diacetyl, they had to evacuate the area. “Smelly stuff,” Eschliman says.
Ettlinger was fascinated to learn about taurine, named for the Latin word for bull (taurus), which was originally made from bull semen–and which happens to be part of Red Bull, whose fans like to cling to the urban legend that they’re drinking something sourced from bull testicles. |
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Below you will find part 2 of my article on hidden symbols. If you haven’t read part one yet, I would recommend going to HERE first so the information below will make more sense to you.
In part one, we looked at the sacred triangle, the inverted triangle, and the Star of David. Specifically, I discussed how these symbols represent the descent of consciousness and its ascent again as it pertains to Jesus and his genealogy. We will continue this discussion today by beginning with the symbol of a cross inside a circle. Then I will discuss a little more about the Star of David and the two trees in the Garden of Eden.
When we look at the descent and ascent of consciousness as a circle with a cross inside, we see two levels of descent and ascension at the same time.
Even though this symbol is not obviously present in the Bible, it is important to Christianity, especially in medieval times, as it was carved on many churches. The cross of the crucifixion is associated with Jesus whereas the cross inside a circle was associated with Christ’s disciples (called the Consecration or Rounded Cross). Even though this cross is associated with the disciples, we must remember that the 12 disciples represent 12 qualities of the soul. It is the same with the 12 tribes of Israel. Thus we have the same story in both the Old and New Testament.
Let’s break down the two levels of descent and ascension at the same time within this symbol.
1) First, the circle: This represents a gradual descent, the one of the ordinary human being, who slowly descends along the line of the circle and who becomes enslaved at the bottom (180 degrees); after their delivery from slavery (symbolized by Egypt) they follow under guidance (Moses, the moral nature) the ascending curve of the circle, slowly getting more control over their ego and emotions. After 40 years in the desert they still have to continue the process in the Promised Land until after the reign of David, another 40 years. Solomon finally concludes the process. He is said to belong to the eighth generation after the Exodus.
2) Second, the cross within the circle: notice the two lines are already totally in balance. Within this symbol (Jesus) the Christ Consciousness that has just been born follows its process by proceeding downwards in a straight line, conquering ego and emotions almost right away and arriving at the bottom in full command, having produced the oil for the anointment during the last and bitter phase of the descent.
The Christ Consciousness can ascend along the same line instantly, but remains with the people another 40 phases, like Moses, who guides them during the time in the desert. Moses ascends from the Nebo (’50-bo’) because the higher awareness was long since in him, while the people of Israel had to continue their journey through the Promised Land.
If you remember, according to Acts, Jesus stayed with his disciples for another 40 days before ascending from the Mountain of Olives (his consciousness having risen by producing the oil, by being put through the wringer in Gethsemane, so to speak).
Both Moses and Jesus ascend from a mountain as climbing a mountain is a symbol of raising one’s awareness. The names of the mountains describe the way of ascending (Jesus) to the fact that ascension had taken place (Moses).
Thus, the cross with arms of equal length is a symbol that describes the process of balancing on a higher level.
The cross of the crucifixion, as ‘tselav’ = ‘tsel-2’, is the world of duality, which as we saw in The Exodus and Crucifixion and How it Applies to You!, ended as ’90-lev’, the birth of the heart. It symbolizes the process of growth on a lower level.
The result of this lower process enables the one who has brought it to a successful end to engage in the process on the higher level. As such he/she can be a great help to his or her fellow man who got stuck at the bottom of their cycle by giving them the push they need in order to be able to continue ascending (even guiding them through the first upward phase).
This is not something for Jesus or Moses alone! Look at Nelson Mandela or Gandhi. And this can apply to you and me too!
*****
The Star of David also makes me think of the story of the birth of Jesus according to Matthew again. In the birth register Jesus is portrayed as the son of David and he is born in Bethlehem, the city of David. The three wise men who come to visit him after he is born were alerted to the fact of his birth by a star. Why should this then not be the Star of David?
The name Star of David emphasizes the meaning and importance of the process this symbol stands for. By mentioning the star these three wise men share that they know what the birth of this child means and by the presents they bring him they inform his parents what his task will be and what his life will bring him.
The three gifts they brought, gold, frankincense and myrrh, are called: ‘zahav’, ‘levonah’ and ‘mor’ in Hebrew.
As gold ( ‘zahav’, 7-5-2), the first gift symbolizes the first and most precious of the metals and as such the spirit, the essence of man; when you look at the numbers, you see that the numerical value is fourteen (again). As such it is the symbol of action, as it is the number of the integrating and balancing principle of David, 4-6-4.
(again). As such it is the symbol of action, as it is the number of the integrating and balancing principle of David, 4-6-4. As ‘levonah’, 30-2-6-50-5, the frankincense symbolizes the heart (‘lev’) and love; this is connected by the hook of the 6 to the number fifty (which symbolizes higher awareness and which is the fourteenth character of the Hebrew alphabet) and the final five symbolizes the longing for reunion and integration of the counterparts.
character of the Hebrew alphabet) and the final five symbolizes the longing for reunion and integration of the counterparts. ‘Mor’(40-200), the myrrh, is exactly the same word as ‘mar’, bitter. It symbolizes the bitterness that has to be eaten/digested before the growth can take place that can be considered sweet (‘tamar’, ‘400-mar’, date).
These gifts collectively symbolize the totality that Jesus will have to go through during his life before his resurrection and ascension. On another level they also symbolize the process we have to go through before the Christ can be born in us.
*****
I now want to look at some of the symbols in the Garden of Eden.
“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis: 2:9).
The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are well-known symbols, which have already been discussed on the blog in Joshua’s article called The Kabbalistic Tree of Life and the Tree in the Book of Revelations Compared, but trees themselves are important symbols as well. They are mentioned first in the Bible verse above.
Trees produce fruit, ‘pri’ in Hebrew, which became a symbol for fertility and growth, for multiplicity and descent into matter. This fruit was meant to be ‘eaten’ which is another of the hidden symbols in the Bible. These trees were good for food, which is yet another hidden symbol.
A tree is ‘ets’, 70-90. Seventy is a symbol of multiplicity and ninety symbolizes birth after a long process (Sara was 90 when she gave birth to Isaac). So a tree produces multiplicity, symbolized by the fruit, which has to be eaten and digested by man in order to finally give birth to the Christ Consciousness.
To eat is ‘achal’, 1-20-30, ‘1-kol’. To eat means literally to absorb food and secondly to digest it. Symbolically the second phase means to digest and come to terms with whatever happened in your life and with your emotions. It means to reconnect with the oneness of love by bringing ‘kol’, everything, back to it and to look at it from the perspective of love. This is what enables growth. It is not an easy process though and that is why the word good is brought into it.
is brought into it. Good is ‘tov’, 9-6-2, total numerical value 17. Seventeen is the symbol for the last bitter phase of this process, which however will lead to a bright new world. That is why it is written that Joseph was seventeen when he was sold into slavery by his brothers because Joseph went through the difficult process of crucifying his ego in order not to become a real slave and because of that he got the position of co-ruler of Mitsrajim, the realm of ego and matter.
So trees are an important symbol in themselves, but the word ‘ets’ is also an element of many other words.
When God has created a woman out of the rib/side of Adam, separating the male and the female sides, Adam says: “… This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh…” (Genesis 2:23). Bone is ‘etsem’ in Hebrew; it also means essence. You can read this as ‘ets-40’, tree of ego and emotions. It is a tree that man will have to eat from and the fruit of which he will have to digest. This process is the essence.
When man eats from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God tells both Adam and Eve that they will experience sorrow (Genesis 3, verses 16-18). In the Hebrew text two words are used for the word sorrow: ‘etsev’ and ‘itsavon’, ‘ets-2’ and ‘ets-2 and 50’.
So what does this mean? The Tree of the Knowledge can also be interpreted as the Tree of Duality. Now that man has eaten from the tree of duality, the consequence is that they will have to continue eating from it; however, in the second word for sorrow we see that a 50 has been added to it. So this is not a punishment but a promise! God says: “You will be eating from this tree of duality for a long time but in the end, when you have digested all its fruits, you will have gained higher awareness because of it.”
This is the second creation story but in the first creation story, with hindsight, it is possible to discover a similar pattern. In Genesis 1:27 it says: So God created man in his own image…
Image is ‘tselem’, in Hebrew, ‘tsel-40’. So here man is created in the shadow of the world of ego and emotions, which is also the world of the shadow of duality. The process is the same as mentioned above. The shadow of duality is ‘tsel-2’, or ‘tselav’, the cross.
Summarizing we can put this in the following formula:
The way of the first creation story is the way of the shadow of the forty and the two, of the image ( ‘tsel em’ = ‘ tsel -40’) and the cross ( ‘tsel av’ = ‘tsel -2) and results in ’90- lev’ , the birth of the heart.
of the forty and the two, of the image ( em’ = ‘ -40’) and the ( av’ = -2) and results in ’90- , the birth of the heart. The way of the second creation story is the way of the tree of the forty and the two, of the essence (‘etsem’ = ‘ets-40’) and of the tree (of the knowledge) of the duality (‘etsev’ = ‘ets-2’) and results through ‘itsavon’ = ‘ets-2 and 50’ in gaining the higher awareness of the 50.
Both creation stories lead to the same result but mention or imply different aspects.
Both examples of the formula above can be seen as the result of going through the process of eating from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: the birth of the heart of unconditional love and the knowledge of higher awareness.
The result of eating from the Tree of Life can be seen beautifully in the accompanying picture, which was called Tree of Realization by the person who made it.
We see all the colors of the seven chakras, which means they have all been opened, like in the coat of many colors that Joseph as symbol of the physical body received.
The kingdom of the world of matter is no more. The sephira Malkhut (meaning Kingdom) that normally symbolizes it at the bottom of the tree is no longer there. But the essence of it (growth of conscious awareness) has been absorbed in this light body, as the color red is still there.
In the place of the heart we see a large Star of David, which signifies that the triangles of the male and the female side of man have come into total balance.
Inside this Star of David we see the word Da’at, which means Knowledge. The knowledge, which was the result of the process of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, appears here in the place of honor on the Tree of Life.
On top we see what is called the ‘sefira Kether’. ‘Kether’ means crown. When we superimpose the image of Jesus on the cross, with on his head a crown of thorns, we see here that far from being another instrument of torture, this crown of thorns is his (man’s) crown of honour. When we look at Genesis again, at chapter 3:18, we see that God tells Adam and Eve that the earth will bring forth thorns and thistles, now that they have eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge. Thorn is ‘kots’ in Hebrew; it can also be read as the root of the verb ‘hakets’, to wake (someone) up.
is ‘kots’ in Hebrew; it can also be read as the root of the verb ‘hakets’, to wake (someone) up. The thorns and the thistles in Jesus’ life have woken him up and because he took on the process of the crucifixion of his ego, these thorns have become his crown of honour. And when we allow the thorns and thistles in our life to wake us up from our dream, instead of becoming bitter about them, and when we complete the crucifixion of our ego, they will become our crown of honour as well.
When we finally look at the culmination of both of these trees, we see with our own eyes the conclusion which also Joshua already reached in his article What does the Garden of Eden Represent? They are not two trees, but two sides of one and the same tree. |
Tell ‘em they’re dreaming! That’s what Darryl Kerrigan from the film The Castle would say when knocking back a proposal to pick up a great deal. And it’s what that most networks and utilities would have told you a year ago if you raised the prospect that battery storage would upturn their customers into competitors and threaten to upturn their business models.
Now, though, it is a different story. Tesla, in the stroke of a genius marketing ploy, has not just brought down the cost of lithium-ion battery storage, it has also changed the conversation.
Battery storage is here. We know that, because even the utilities are rushing out battery storage offers to ensure they don’t miss the market, like they did with solar.
But how competitive is battery storage right now? Would Darryl really buy a battery storage system if one was offered?
Well, that would depend on a bunch of things. Such as where Darryl lived, how much electricity he consumed, if he had solar on his roof already, and how many panels, and what sort of tariffs is he getting now, and will get in the future.
Because of that, it is impossible to be prescriptive. Battery storage will, in any case, be adopted by a large number of “early adopters” for a whole bunch of reasons such as wanting to be the first, wanting independence, wanting to save money, or just sticking it up the big boys.
Clearly, battery storage is not quite ready for widespread mass market adoption. It still has some cost falls to come, inevitable as they may seem, and generous tariffs in Queensland and South Australia that will last for more than a decade provide no real incentive.
But to give some idea of the complexity involved, we have been running a series of articles with different views of the economics and how they might apply to households.
The first came from UBS, which predicted paybacks as low as 6 years for battery storage; the second came from Morgan Stanley, which came to a similar conclusion for some states and suggested 2.4 million homes might install them.
We have also published an online calculator that might provide a guide to consumers, given the huge number of variables that can exist from location, roof size, consumption totals and patterns, and the size and position of the solar array.
The next installment comes from Craig Chambers, an energy expert with AECOM, a consultancy with strong links to the utilities industry.
Chambers agrees that while there is not much incentive for existing solar households in S.A and Queensland, there are 160,000 households in NSW that will lose their generous feed in tariffs at the end of 2016.
That, Chambers says, is a potential 1GWh market of household battery storage in that state alone, a number that would have huge implications for retailers, networks, and generators alike.
As an example of how this might work, Chambers uses the example of a “Darryl” in Bonny Doone in NSW. He’s on a tariff now of 66c/kWh for everything he produces. At the end of next year, he will get just 6c/kWh – if he’s lucky – for the energy he exports. So he will have a strong incentive to consume as much of his solar output as he can.
The problem with Darryl is that he has got an oversized system – probably built to take advantage of the premium tariff. It’s 5kW. Darryl will likely use around 2kWh most of the day, occasionally peaking to 3-4kWh.
Would the Tesla system help him? A little bit. But as this graph above shows, those batteries would likely fill up pretty quickly, meaning that in the afternoon, Darryl would still be exporting to the grid, and not getting paid much for it.
(The black dotted lines show the difference from batteries – in the middle of the day Darryl is not exporting to the grid, but he’s charged his batteries by lunchtime.Then uses battery to cover the evening peaks, effectively shifting them to later in the evening).
Of course, this is not to say that battery storage doesn’t pay dividends. Any installer will tell you that whether you install solar or storage, it is best to look at your energy consumption. Find ways of being more efficient, and in Darryl’s case here, he would be best advised to funnel more consumption, via timers, during the day.
And houses with a smaller system – say 1.5kW to 2kW – would likely find most or all their excess solar output absorbed by the battery storage.
But in the case of Darryl and others like him, it’s the peak tariffs that dictate the battery ROI (return on investment). As this graph below suggests, – it applies to NSW only – the return for those in Ausgrid’s area will get a return within 11 years, but for other areas is will be later. (It assumes $7,000 cost of the 7kWh Tesla Powerwall).
Put another way, Chambers argues that battery storage is still falling short in a bunch of metrics, as this graph below shows.
Now, not every analysis shows this because the assumptions about cost, usage and deployment may change. Chris Cooper’s excellent calculator shows a lot more depth about different scenarios for households, and over the next few weeks we’ll have a lot of differing points of view and estimates.
The one impediment that most are agreed on is the glacial pace of regulation. In the time that the regulators have recognised the need for reforms such as Power of Choice, and actually implemented them, more than 3,500MW of rooftop solar PV has been installed in Australia.
Now battery storage heralds another revolution and the regulators will struggle again to keep up. “Regulatory change is not moving far enough,” Chambers said. “The regulatory landscape is not changing as fast as the technology.” |
As a family-law attorney, it’s been my passion to meet fathers who exhibit the unyielding desire to win custody — or, at the very least, enforce their visitation and decision-making rights in the lives of their children after divorce.
This Sunday, there will be many men spending Father’s Day without the ability to visit their children. It’s a tragedy that we have so many fathers who want to be part of their kids’ lives but a legal culture that makes it hard for them to do so.
That legal culture forces single fathers to identify themselves as part-time parents whose main responsibility is to pay child support.
A mere 17 percent of single parents with custodial rights are men. Society needs to recognize they are as valuable as their co-parent in the day-to-day upbringing of their children.
In his first interaction with divorce court, a father will quickly learn that a mother’s preference — especially if she has possession of the child at the time — remains the judges’ first instinct.
So it’s important for fathers to know that New York state family law defines “custody” as encompassing two distinct concepts.
Physical custody refers to whom the child will live with on a full-time basis. Legal custody refers to the right of a parent to make decisions relating to the child’s education, religion, medical care and extracurricular activities.
The distinction between physical and legal custody is especially important to fathers who do not wish to pursue a custody battle, but instead seek greater involvement in their child’s life.
Once a father has relinquished physical custody, legal custody is the mechanism an attorney should use to maximize the father’s role in each of these areas of the child’s life.
I often seek to carve out provisions in these agreements that allow for the father to have final decision-making authority with regard to a child’s education and/or religious instruction to protect the father’s parenting rights.
New York Family Court judges are generally reluctant to make decisions and instead opt to “monitor” the battle between two parents unless one parent is clearly an unfit parent.
An unfit parent is usually one who struggles with drug or alcohol abuse or some form of substance abuse; has been found to have physically or sexually abused the child; has an extensive criminal record or is deemed to be completely unreliable as to the care of the child.
Therefore, once one parent has possession of the child, it is nearly impossible to lose custody unless the parent is deemed unfit.
This system often works against fathers by making it difficult to change any existing arrangement to allot them more custody.
As The Wall Street Journal reported in April, about 20 states are now considering legislation that would put fathers on a more equal footing.
“If dad is subject to the typical ‘Wednesday dinner and every other weekend’ arrangement, he’s not doing the kind of parenting that benefits kids, making sure the homework is done, getting them up for school,” Linda Nielsen, a psychology professor at Wake Forest University, told the Journal. In that case, she said, the father “is basically reduced to an uncle.”
One of the primary ways that fathers can be successful in a custody battle is to demonstrate a mother’s interference with the father’s visitation rights.
In Timothy Keefe v. Ginger Adams, the court held that it was wrong of the mother to interfere with the father’s visitation by not following the visitation schedule, by acting inappropriately in front of the children and by her unwillingness to foster a strong relationship between the child and the father.
Adding more insult to injury, the mother encouraged her boyfriend to act as the natural father to the child, and changed the child’s school without consulting the father.
The court found the mother’s actions to be so egregious as to warrant a change in custody in favor of the father, despite the child being separated from her maternal half-brother.
On Father’s Day, we strive to remember that dads have responsibilities but have also made sacrifices for their children. We should remember that dads have rights, too.
Jasmine Hernandez is a family-law attorney in White Plains. |
Members of semi-professional team introduced at Meet and Greet
PETERSBURG — "Please don't get it twisted," Director of Team Operations Cassandra Conover said, her voice booming through the microphone and reaching an eager audience at Petersburg's Union Station. "We are not a recreation team. We are not from the YMCA.
"We are semi-professional," Conover said, drawing a cheer from the public. Her team belongs to the East Coast Football Association. Any of the players from her team could be eligible to go to the NFL.
The team is the Petersburg Lions, a semi-pro organization made up of athletes 18 years and older.
After the players entered the room one by one until they stretched across from one end of the hall to the other, Conover said, ""Y'all didn't think we were here — what do y'all think now?"
Cheers and claps broke out among the audience.
The Lions had arrived.
And they're ready to play.
"We're here," said Lions Team Captain Darius Miles (fullback, linebacker). "We've worked hard, we're doing this for the community and for our city ... and we'll go out and prove that, our first game and the rest of the season, we're trying to bring pride back to the community and to the City of Petersburg and let everybody know that we're here to stay."
"For us to come out here and do this hard work for Petersburg Lions and for the community, it shows that we can also do anything that is possible for ourselves," runningback and linebacker Frankie Wright added.
For starting free safety Shakeel Weekes, this isn't just a team — this is a family.
"This all started with Coach Marlow (Jones) with a dream, man, and now, we're actually putting everything together," said Weekes, who's ready to hit the field with his teammates.
"I can give back to a community that I grew up in ... with Prince George being right around the corner, I can actually take this back to the younger students there and actually be like, "Even if y'all don't make it to the collegiate level, y'all can still play football and still have fun and still enjoy things you love."
Leading that team and family is Petersburg Lions Owner and Head Coach Marlow Jones.
And they're already off to a strong start, he said.
"Our dues are already paid to the League, already done. We were first paid in full since September," Jones said. "You've got teams that are just paying their dues, and we've already paid in full."
"This is my third organization that I've been a part of, and I must say: this is the best one I've ever been a part of," said Special Teams Coach Don Reichhardt, who has been coaching semi-pro football for 9 years and won the 2007 championship with the Virginia Ravens. "In the two organizations I (was part of), we'd never done anything like this at all — no publicity out in the community, no nothing. It was just show up to practice, show up to games and that was it. That's all we did, and then a banquet at the end of the year, so this is very impressive."
Lineman captain John Coard called it an honor and blessing to play for Coach Marlow whom Coard had as a coach growing up.
"It's a pleasure to play with Coach Marlow," Miles agreed, adding, "We couldn't ask for a better operations staff than what we've got now. It's just a blessing and I'm excited, we're excited. We're just going to ride this out until the wheels fall off and beyond."
The purpose of the Lions as described by its leaders is opportunity: they seek to offer a chance for the players on their roster to continue their dreams of playing football at the next level while representing their City of Petersburg on the field in the here and now.
"They've still got something left to give to the sport that they love," Jones said. "And a lot of them will be going to the next level."
For several of those players, their respective football journeys have roots in the Tri-Cities region. Wright went to Matoaca; Coard played for semi-professional teams including the Tri-Cities Bulldogs.
Miles graduated from Dinwiddie High and went straight to semi-pro, playing for the Virginia Ravens, the Tri-Cities Bulldogs and the Virginia Titans before joining the home team of the Lions. Weekes played all four years at Prince George High School, including three years on varsity, as wide receiver and cornerback. He played one year at VSU where he earned his college degree and has been in semi-pro football for three years. Johnson played football for Petersburg High School and Norfolk State.
"I'm looking to go to the next level — across seas, whatever — to pursue my career in football," Miles said. "And I'm going to keep working hard. You never know what can happen as I'm chasing a dream and I'm living my mother's dream and my dream also and my family's dream for me to be successful."
"For me — I'm from Petersburg, it's a great opportunity to come back to the city that I'm from and play football again," Johnson said.
The players' dedication and commitment has driven them to practice in the sleet and rain — offensive and defensive lineman Devonte Harris said — and to keep coming to practice on a regular basis and hold themselves accountable.
"When ... most of the people have said that 18 years and older are nothing or they're deadbeats or they're this or they're that — these guys are not that at all," Jones said. "These are young men, these are our boys, these are your boys, these are our soldiers."
Harris, who has been playing football since he was 3, said of the game, "It's not just like an everyday life choice ... I don't even have to be out here right now, but I've got my brothers with me, so I'm down, they pick me up ... we don't ever skip practice."
Sylvester Delamar Jr., who helps Jones coach the offense, sees their players doing good things in their first year.
"So far I can't wait for the season to start, and once the season starts, I think we're going to shake up a lot of teams," Delamar said.
In practice so far, Reichhardt said they've seen improvement out of the guys who haven't played any ball — and they've actually progressed very well.
Reichhardt, however, did note: "We're a good team, but we've got a long ways to go with this. I would say we're going to make a lot of noise in the league, I really do ... we're going to do very well this year for a first-year team."
Delamar pointed to the Lions' excitement for playing their home games at Cameron Field, with their first home contest to take place March 19 with the Virginia Swarm coming to Petersburg. Harris said that, as a whole, the team is very excited about hitting the road for their first game of the new season on March 12 versus the Maryland Outlaws.
"Without Coach Marlow, this would not be getting done," Harris said.
—Nicholas Vandeloecht may be reached at 804-722-5151 or [email protected] |
It’s something we learn from an early age, and it’s engrained into our minds through our education, extra-curricular programs, and even major advertisements.
Yet, people still take part in something that they know could eventually kill them. To this day, it still boggles my mind.
Why on earth do people still pick up cigarettes? You’ll never be able to explain it to me. Sure, I might be stubborn about it, but I think it’s justified. I’m forced to breathe in disgusting smoke on a daily basis on this campus. I’ve had people close to me suffer from lung cancer without ever having touched a cigarette. I can surely tell you every negative effect of smoking and secondhand smoke; however, I’m sure you’ve heard it before. If you’re unaware, just pick up your pack of cigarettes and read the Surgeon General’s Warning.
In New Jersey, smoking was banned in most public places years ago. No longer do you need to suffer from the horrible smell and feeling after coming in contact with cigarette smoke when you go to the bowling alley or even a bar. The law even affects beaches and other outdoor areas. So, needless to say, coming to a campus full of smokers was pretty eye-opening for me.
I had obviously come in contact with smokers before, but not to this degree. Simple things like walking to class and going for a jog all of a sudden became an issue because I would get stuck behind, or even just walk by, someone blowing smoke.
Like I said, I just don’t get it. I understand that there is an addictive side to it, but, I don’t see why one would even pick it up for the first time. It’s not an image thing. I can tell you right now that, for most people, smoking is a turn off. Nothing says grimy like yellow teeth and constant coughing.
I can also tell you that millions of kids across the country participate in the D.A.R.E. program. They’ve also seen the “truth” campaigns against “big tobacco.” It is common knowledge that smoking is a direct link to lung cancer. You know it’s bad for you, so why do it?
These are the thoughts behind potential plans to make Penn State a smoke-free campus. Courtney Lennartz, President of the University Park Undergraduate Association, spoke at their weekly meeting yesterday about how many other schools have smoke-free policies on campus, including several Penn State branch campuses. She said that Penn State administration might be receptive to that policy, although conversations are still in the preliminary stages.
If you can’t tell, I couldn’t be happier. This should be implemented far and wide. It’s your decision to smoke, but it should be done in a place that I, or any one else who wants to stay away, don’t have to come in contact with it. This could even become a benefit to those attempting to quit. With no place to smoke, they’ll be forced to smoke less throughout their day on campus. I am in full support of this move, and I urge this initiative to move forward.
Sure, people could argue that making this campus smoke-free would be a violation of their rights, but, what about my rights to breathe clean air that are violated on a daily basis?
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About the Author
Maddy Pryor I'm a 2013 Penn State alum with a B. A. in Public Relations as well as minors in History and Communications Arts and Sciences. I am proudly from Neptune, NJ and talk about it at any opportunity possible. I love college basketball and am a big fan of Penn State Basketball, as well as their official student section, Nittany Nation. I'm a big supporter of Relay For Life of Penn State as well as THON and Coaches vs. Cancer.
East Renovation Continues With Approval For Sproul, Geary Halls Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved the next phase of East Halls renovations at its meeting Friday, setting the stage for construction to begin on Sproul and Geary Halls. |
Jagadisan claims Monsanto had willing enablers within India's regulatory machine who Monsanto appeared eager to access.
...the company "used to fake scientific data" submitted to government regulatory agencies to get commercial approvals for its products in India. The former Monsanto boss said government regulatory agencies with which the company used to deal with in the 1980s simply depended on data supplied by the company while giving approvals to herbicides. "The Central Insecticide Board was supposed to give these approvals based on the location and crop-specific data from India. But it simply accepted foreign data supplied by Monsanto. They did not even have a test tube to validate the data and, at times, the data itself was faked," Jagadisan said.
Incredibly, Monsanto's response to the allegation appears to put the blame squarely on the Indian regulatory system for accepting the bogus data.
Asked to comment on Jagadisan's allegations, a Monsanto spokesperson said: "We have full faith in the Indian regulatory system, which has its checks and measures in place to ensure accuracy and authenticity of data furnished to them." On approval of GM crops, the spokesperson said the regulatory process was stringent and "no biotech crops are allowed in the market until they undergo extensive and rigid crop safety assessments, following strict scientific protocols".
It appears that Jagadasian's accusation has contributed to a decision that hits Monsanto where it hurts most.
The Indian Government has banned the growing of genetically manipulated (GM) eggplant. The ban will remain until independent scientific studies satisfy the public and experts that the crop has no long term negative impacts on human health and the environment. "This is a stunning victory for India's precautionary approach to GM crops," says Gene Ethics Director Bob Phelps. […] "Influencing the Indian decision was the whistle-blown by Tiruvadi Jagadisan, a former Monsanto Director, who publicly disclosed that the company had faked scientific data to gain regulatory approvals.
Based on past history, what the Indian Government actually does with the independent scientific studies bears watching.
On a side note, hopefully those magnanimous souls who were eager to express fake outrage after the IPCC email hacking will react with equal outrage toward Monsanto.
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Rec List? Are you people outta yer freakin' minds?
Thanks, my first time ever on the rec list, so I know the drill...I use this space to apologize to my wife Elin, state that I haven't made a decision on when I'll return to professional golf, yadda yadda yadda... |
Atletico Madrid are interested in Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, according to Sky sources.
Reports in recent days have linked the Leicester striker with a move to the Champions League semi-finalists, but we have been told the level of Atletico's interest doesn't extend beyond "admiration" at this stage.
And there has not yet been any official contact between the two clubs regarding any potential deal.
The 30-year-old forward was on target against Atletico in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final last month and, although Leicester went out 2-1 on aggregate, he reportedly made a positive impression on the Atletico management.
Vardy was named Football Writers' Association Player of the Year last season, as his goals helped Leicester to a memorable Premier League title triumph.
Arsenal then put in a bid for the England man's services but he elected to stay with Leicester and signed a new four-year deal.
Leicester struggled in the Premier League for much of this season, prompting the dismissal of title-winning boss Claudio Ranieri in February.
But the club have revived under new boss Craig Shakespeare with Vardy to the fore and the former Fleetwood man's hot streak has taken him to 17 goals for the season in all competitions.
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeon shakes hands with Jamie Vardy after the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter final
Any official move for Vardy from Aletico would probably require manager Diego Simeone, a confirmed admirer of the player, to remain in charge.
And Atletico would also have to be successful in their attempt to have a Fifa transfer ban lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Grab a Sky Sports Month Pass for £25pm for 2 months and capture an unmissable summer of sport on NOW TV. More live football than ever before, the British & Irish Lions tour and much, much more… |
History has not been kind to T. Dan Smith (1915-1993). Every hole in Newcastle’s 19th century architecture, every ugly building ever assembled in the city, has become the work of that notorious Labour leader of the City Council (1960-1965), Mr Dan Smith. Smith, it is said, not only destroyed significant portions of our architectural heritage for political reasons, he did so while lining his own pockets. The seven-year jail sentence awarded to this ‘villain of Tyneside’ at Leeds Crown Court in 1974 for corruption and his involvement in the Poulson Affair was justified. Smith rightly suffered for the damage he did to the city and the North East.
This story has become more or less conventional wisdom. Today, we mourn the loss of Eldon Square, the Royal Arcade and other Dobson-Grainger buildings demolished and replaced by the works of high modernism fashionable in Smith’s time. The ugliness of Eldon Square Shopping Centre, Commercial Union House, the Pearl, Swan House, Princess Square and the Central Motorway still infuriate those dreaming of appreciating Grainger’s original vision. Most of us can, however, avoid such sites; turn a blind eye to the two ugly sides of Eldon Square or choose to look down Grey St. instead of up towards the Pearl and the City Library.
More so than the loss of municipal pride experienced by the flâneurs of Tyneside, the great crime of T. Dan Smith’s legacy revolves around the destruction of traditional communities: the experience of those uprooted by Smith’s schemes and sent to live in high rise flats overlooking the now demolished traditional working class spaces of Tyneside. And this was how Smith, himself, played out the end of his life. 92 Mill House, a high rise flat overlooking the Town Moor, ultimately became his home. No longer would he live at ‘Millionaires Row’, Belle Grove Terrace. He would now suffer the same fate of those he uprooted.
His death in 1993 appeared to coincide with the beginning of the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation and the Grainger Town Project’s actions to redevelop and regenerate Newcastle and the North East region. The end of Smith’s life seemed to allow the North East to be reborn. A new chapter had begun, one that would emphasise conservation and repair, instead of demolition and replacement. The vision of a modern Newcastle, transformed by developments in political thinking and architectural practice was securely in the past.
Meanwhile, deindustrialisation and high male unemployment were crippling the local economy. It was decided that tourism would become one of the city’s key industries. Heritage became the new obsession. The T. Dan Smith era was over, the city would now look back to the 19th century, towards the days of Dobson and Grainger, Stephenson and Armstrong. They were our new heroes. Smith was a blot on the history of Tyneside. The sooner forgotten, the better.
If this is the dominant narrative of Smith’s legacy, I would like to show that things are in fact much more complex. Who was the real T. Dan Smith? How have ideas about his legacy twisted and turned throughout the last fifty years?
The Pacemakers: T. Dan Smith (1970)
Made before his fall from grace, this short film describes Smith as an ‘American-style city boss’, fighting poverty and privilege to create a ‘region of tomorrow’. He is astute to the problems of 1970s Tyneside: the looming threat of deindustrialisation, the need for the region to move away from its industrial past towards a service and tourism-oriented future. Change was his mantra and the essence of his political career. This was after all why he got into politics in the first place:
‘I think in the world Newcastle would be be famous above all else for one saying: “Bringing coals to Newcastle”. This meant to imply that it was built on coal, they mined coal, they shipped coal, everybody worked in coal. And it seemed to me as a young fellow that this had to be changed’.
He is, however, portrayed as a controversial figure, someone opposed by many of the region’s factional groups. But Smith is shown to be ahead of the curve, urging his opponents to move on and change their ways of life for a modern age. His courting of the major architectural superstars of the era, and attempts to attract Le Corbusier and Pablo Picasso to the banks of the Tyne, suggests that he wants the best of the best for his city. He will not be satisfied by second-rate planners, developers and artists.
His charisma and dreams for the city are immensely attractive. He speaks of Newcastle in the highest of terms, likening it to Athens, Rome and Brasilia. And he is a local lad turned good: a politician who has avoided the offers of Parliamentary high politics – including top jobs in Harold Wilson’s cabinet – in order to stay in the provinces and dismantle the centralised power of the Establishment from the outside.
While some of his achievements are dated – few would describe the 1960s style housing developments at Peterlee New Town today as ‘natural as a herd of cows or a flock of sheep’ – his visionary rhetoric regarding the establishment of a science campus in Peterlee is, however, compelling (‘all the miner’s sons will grow up to be scientists and computer men’).
Unmarred by his subsequent conviction, T. Dan Smith is here an uncompromising visionary, an articulate and foresighted figure, described by the film as the ‘economic overlord of the North of England’.
T. Dan Smith: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Utopia (Amber Collective, 1987)
Amber’s experimental documentary wrestles with two questions: was Smith guilty of his crimes or was he a ‘political visionary sacrificed by the establishment to protect bigger fish who escaped the scandal untouched’? The film uses arguments between two filmmakers – Murray Martin and Steve Trafford – to illustrate the different views one can have on Smith’s legacy. The impossibility of conventional documentary to arrive at ‘truth’ is here emphasised by a postmodern approach to the material.
Smith stars as himself in the film, watching and responding to a collage of interviews and short films in Amber’s editing suite. The two filmmakers join in this game of deconstruction and contextualisation by examining and interpreting his positions as they unfold. Meanwhile, dramatic sequences are juxtaposed with the interview sections, shot with a B-movie film-noir aesthetic. The seedy underworld of Tyneside politics and the Poulson affair are emphasised by such scenes.
The film repeatedly invites us to question the veracity of arguments presented by Smith, the onscreen filmmakers and the local press. It offers three major lines of interpretation which collide with one another: the often wooden dramatic reenactments of sleazy behaviour, the now omnipresent negative myths surrounding his legacy and the analysis of history offered by Smith himself.
While it appears that the film wants to avoid drawing conclusions, satisfied by the ambiguity conjured by the clash of various opposing interpretations, Smith does not escape unscathed (his contemporaries John Poulson and Wilf Burns are, however, much harshly treated). His convictions are challenged, his actions are criticised and shown to not have withstood the test of time. Ultimately, however, the filmmakers admit that they are ‘still none the wiser’. For a film which from the start does not wish to arrive at a definitive judgement, this is the natural conclusion.
Our Friends in the North (Peter Flannery, 1996)*
The T. Dan Smith of Our Friends in the North is the barely-fictionalised Austin Donahue, local politician and villain of the series. Donahue shares all of Smith’s visionary rhetoric. He begins by arguing that we can ‘no longer resist the logic of the 1960s’: the brick built terrace house is an option no more and must be replaced by ‘high quality, high rise, apartment blocks’. His dream is to ‘demolish every slum in this city and replace them with bright clean modern housing’. Like Smith, Donahue also emphasises rebuilding the city centre in order to make Newcastle an ‘international-class European city’.
His desire for the Newcastle to be at the cutting edge of change is inspiring for many characters of the series, especially the young Nicky (Christopher Eccleston) who is swept up into the world of local politics, riding the wave of Donahue’s rhetoric.
The series then moves to depict the divide between Nicky’s ideals and Donahue’s corrupt practices; the dreams of change versus the reality of local politics. The municipal socialist fantasy of defeating the centralised powers from outside the system ultimately is shown to fail.
Donahue becomes increasingly involved with the dishonest practices of John Edwards (read: John Poulson), while Tory MP Claude Seabrook also embroiled in the scandal (read: Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling) avoids imprisonment due to Parliamentary immunity.
The series does not move to suggest that Donahue was a scapegoat for a larger web of corruption, instead the Donahue of the series responds to the narrative of T. Dan Smith’s legacy outlined at the beginning of this article. Donahue uprooted the traditional working class communities of Tyneside and forced them to subsist in cheap, damp, faulty high rises. His legacy is one of betrayal and insensitivity to the needs of the people of the region.
T Dan Smith: Downfall of a Visionary by Chris Foote-Wood (2010)
Chris Foote-Wood’s book T Dan Smith: Downfall of a Visionary seeks to rescue Smith’s legacy from the mythology of conventional wisdom. For Foote-Wood Smith is ‘still the most charismatic political leader the North-East has ever produced’. The main thrust of his argument rests on the notion that his imprisonment has obscured many of his achievements. Foote-Wood earnestly believes that Smith was wrongly imprisoned and a scapegoat for a nasty web of parliamentary elites. His fall overshadowed the fates of three MPs, including Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, who were granted immunity from greater charges of corruption.
Aside from Smith’s experiences in the court room, Foote-Wood makes a number of compelling – if not exceptional – arguments for Smith’s achievements:
In five short years, T Dan Smith transformed Newcastle upon Tyne from a backward-looking, decaying and neglected city into a dynamic, modern metropolis – perhaps not quite the “Brasilia of the North” or the regional capital as Dan would have wished, but a city that had regained its pride and optimism for the future. Eldon Square secured Newcastle’s position as a major shopping city, and the Central Motorway resolved much of its traffic problems. Newcastle became the first city in Britain to clear all its slums, with the Byker Wall – recently Grade II listed – still regarded as a masterpiece of modern housing redevelopment. T. Dan Smith supported an independent University and a Polytechnic for Newcastle, and pushed through the purchase of land to help these hugely important institutions develop close to the city centre. He preserved the historic City Walls and regenerated its towers and gardens. He developed Newcastle Airport and cleaned up the River Tyne.
Foote-Wood is aware that some of these arguments – especially those regarding his redevelopment of the city centre – are particularly contentious:
Not everything T Dan Smith did was to the ultimate benefit of Newcastle – the loss of the Royal Arcade and the Eldon Square façade are blots on his record. But Dan did save the Holy Jesus Hospital (which some local architects wanted demolished!), and it was his determined action to revoke a previous planning permission for a modern office block in the middle of Grey Street that preserved the historic heart of the city that would otherwise have been blighted for ever. The majority of the much-criticised “concrete monstrosities” in and around Newcastle city centre were not Dan’s responsibility – most of them were built after his time in office, and some are now happily demolished.
T Dan Smith: Downfall of a Visionary does make a reasonable case for the re-evaluation of Smith’s legacy, but perhaps not full-heartedly on the lines that Foote-Wood proposes. What is needed is a critical account of the life of Smith, which attempts to reconcile the myths surrounding him with the direct experience of Tyneside throughout history. This piece has shown that Smith’s life has been approached by many artists, filmmakers and historians, with a lack of agreement illustrating the complexity of his life and achievements. Yet, if Foote-Wood’s book tells us anything it is that dwelling solely on the failures of his regime will not work to correct the injustices of history. We must look towards the good that was done that has now been forgotten.
* You can read my piece on Our Friends in the North here. |
Yoga has been a constant in my life for many years. Granted, it took me a long time to advance and deepen my practice. When I first began, I saw yoga as purely about the poses and getting a good sweat.
In the beginning, all I knew was that I left class feeling calmer, more grounded, and more at ease with myself than when I’d arrived. As the years progressed, I began to notice more subtle personal changes: I was less reactive, I didn’t hold on to things as I used to, and I was becoming more accepting of myself.
It wasn’t until about a year and half ago that I began toying with the idea of enrolling in a yoga teacher training. I had a growing desire to do something meaningful with my life—to help others, and to offer something to the world that would have a positive impact. After much research and introspection, I applied to the teacher training program of my choice. I was accepted, and thus my journey began.
I had a growing desire to do something meaningful with my life—to help others.
Teacher training gave me a solid foundation in yoga history and philosophy, anatomy, pranayama, and sequencing (with a heavy focus on vinyasa). What it didn’t prepare me for was the practical reality of teaching. Teaching fellow trainees in your training program is one thing, while teaching those who may never have taken a yoga class before is quite a different experience.
When I landed my first studio teaching position, I was elated! I had visions of teaching a classroom full of happy yogis. Everyone would chant a beautiful Om at the end of class, say “thank you,” and leave feeling grounded, relaxed, and open to life’s possibilities. Let’s just say my yoga ivory tower was shattered after teaching my first couple of classes. Not all of my students were happy with my class, and a couple of them voiced their opinions to me quite a few times.
Some said I needed to teach a theme or a peak pose. Others felt I wasn’t spiritual enough. They only wanted three surya namaskar A’s, instead of five. They said I taught the same poses over and over again. That my music was too loud, or they didn’t like my music choices. That my savasanas were too long, and that I should never teach pranayama after savasana.
I listened and tried to take their feedback into consideration. But as the weeks progressed, I was only met with more and more complaints! This began taking its toll on me, and I started to doubt my abilities as a teacher.
My yogi friends told me not to take it personally and to have more compassion. I tried to be more kindhearted toward my more disapproving students by always greeting them by name when they walked into the room, or by offering them nice long savasana assists to help them relax more easily—only to be met with eye rolls or expressions of their disinterest in my savasana assists.
Granted, I had some wonderful students who said they enjoyed my classes, who always had smiles to offer, and who left the studio with heartfelt “thank yous” each time. I tried to focus on the more appreciative students, although their attendance was never as consistent as the more critical ones. In some cases, my classes were full of disgruntled students who gave the impression that they’d rather be anywhere but my class. I often wondered why they kept coming back! At the time, I assumed that perhaps they just enjoyed ripping apart my class. But now having some distance on the experience, I realize that perhaps those students did actually like my classes, but simply could not express it in a positive way.
Needless to say, as the months progressed I began to dread teaching yoga. I am grateful that I had a solid network of yoga friends and mentors who listened to my experiences and offered their support and guidance. Honestly, if I hadn’t had that support, I think I would have quit teaching altogether. After four months, I came to the conclusion that perhaps the studio where I was teaching wasn’t a good fit for me, and I quit. I don’t regret my decision. Shortly after leaving that studio, I began to work with private clients. Within a month, two new studio teaching opportunities came my way at studios that were a much better fit for me.
As the months progressed I began to dread teaching yoga.
Despite the fact that my first real studio teaching gig was less than great, I came away with some powerful lessons, and the experience made me a stronger and wiser teacher. Here are some of those lessons.
1. Take control of your class.
When I first started teaching, I gave away my power to a handful of unruly students. In the beginning, I wanted my students to like me. Hence, I allowed them to pretty much do whatever they wanted. If someone asked me to turn on the fans, I turned on the fans; if they felt the music was too loud, I lowered it; if they didn’t want a long savasana, I shortened it. Eventually, I realized it was impossible to cater to every single person’s needs. In some cases, I would receive conflicting requests—some people would want the fans, while others preferred the room to be hot! In that particular class I was constantly walking back and forth to turn the fans on and then off when I should have been focused on my students. The more I tried to make everyone happy, the less structured my class became. My students were not focused, and I had concern that their safety was being compromised. Thus, I started to set some ground rules in my class.
If I saw something that challenged the safety or focus of my class I addressed it immediately, in a kind and gentle manner. For example, if I saw students checking their phones while in downward facing dog, I politely asked them to place their phones off to the side. In fact, I established a rule regarding cell phones: At the beginning of class, I asked everyone in the room to either set their phones to “silent” or turn them off (unless they were medical professionals on call).
Another time, I had a student fly up into handstand during sun salutes and nearly crash into the student in front of her. That’s when I announced to the class that we were working on warrior I—not handstand—and that because it was a large class, everyone needed to be mindful of their neighbors. I asked them to please not invert, especially if they were in the middle of the room. Know what? They listened! And that particular student did not invert again after that, and she listened to my cues and followed my sequence. In essence, I became a bit of a badass in class. I stopped being the “nice” teacher and took control of the room. If my students didn’t like my rules, they were more than welcome to find another instructor.
Lesson learned: Set guidelines, be firm. And always, always make sure your students feel safe in the room. Be the badass instructor who has safety first, rather than the “cool, nice teacher” who has no control of the room. You are the teacher. You set the rules!
2. Yoga teachers remind their students to slow down, calm the mind, and ground themselves. This advice also applies to the instructor.
I had to learn how to keep myself calm and balanced through my classes, even when I had a roomful of students who seemed to dislike me. Meditating before class helped. So did reminding myself that, yes, I am a fairly new instructor and I am still learning, and that’s okay. And regardless of this, I do have valuable things to share with my students.
You are enough, and you will attract the students you are meant to teach.
3. Your style may not resonate with everyone, and that’s okay.
There are different styles of yoga for a reason. Each student needs to find a class (and a teacher) that resonates with them, just as each instructor needs to find a teaching space (and students) they can connect with. Be true to yourself and find your own unique voice. You don’t need to be a copy of someone else. You are enough, and you will attract the students you are meant to teach.
4. If you ever have unmanageable students (i.e., students who come to class and do their own sequence in front of the room, who ignore your instructions, or maybe even give you attitude) don’t take it personally.
Remember that you never truly know what is going on in your students’ personal lives—they could be having a bad day, going through a breakup, or stressed from their job. None of these things has anything to do with you! Whatever arises during class—good, bad, or ugly—have compassion, be an observer, and then let it go. I know this can be easier said than done, particularly if you are new to teaching.
For some people it’s easy not to take things personally; others (like me) have a tendency to take things to heart. If you are one of those, it is important to have a strong support system when moments like these arise. Try not to react to the students in class or get into your head too much while you teach. Wait until you’re home, and then process your thoughts and emotions through journaling, meditating, or speaking with a friend or mentor.
5. Your students don’t care how much you know, they care how much you care.
When I first started teaching, I would get stressed when a student asked me a question and I didn’t know the answer. I was afraid they wouldn’t take me seriously as a teacher. Later, I would go home and research the question or ask my fellow teachers, determined to find an answer or solution for my students. I soon discovered that my students didn’t care whether or not I had vast knowledge at my fingertips—what they responded to was my effort. If I didn’t know an answer offhand, I told them their question was a great one, and to please give me some time to research the answer. Afterward, I would research or ask one of my teachers. Then, the next time I saw the student in class, I told him/her what I’d learned. Nearly all of my students expressed a deep gratitude and appreciation for the time and effort I took to find answers to their questions. Show your students that you care by taking their questions seriously, doing your best to answer them, and referring them to trusted sources when you can’t.
6. Pay attention to your intuition.
Landing a studio job was my goal. What I didn’t think about was whether or not the studio where I landed would be a good fit for my style, my voice, and what I had to offer as an instructor. My passion for yoga was being snuffed out by an unsupportive environment, and it affected my teaching. What was once a fun, joyful, and fulfilling experience was now becoming a dreaded chore. It took me awhile to figure this out. At first I thought my passion for yoga in general was waning, but when I began to work with private clients who were dedicated and kind, I found that work to be rewarding. The lesson I learned is this: If something becomes more work than joy, pay attention. If teaching feels draining, it may be a sign to pause, reflect, and re-evaluate. If you find yourself in a situation similar to mine, stop and assess whether what you are investing your energy in is worth your time. Your instincts are often correct. Trust them.
Your first year of teaching can be an exhilarating time of self-discovery, and it can also be a time of self-doubt. Whatever your experiences, trust yourself and remember that each class is a lesson learned. Most importantly, know that your yoga journey does not end at the completion of your teacher training. |
(SPOT.ph) Makati Cinema Square is an institution among those who live in, or are well-acquainted with, the areas surrounding Legazpi Village. It's known for being a good place to go for obscure eating spots, reliable watch repair, or even target-shooting. But hidden inside are also three art galleries currently making their presence felt in the art scene. Here are the under-the-radar art spaces worth checking out and their ongoing shows this month:
IMAGE Gwen Bautista
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From Obscura
IMAGE Gwen Bautista
From Annie Cabigting's The Whole World is Watching
Underground Gallery
Established in 2015 by entrepreneur Manny de Castro, Underground has shown some of the best in Philippine contemporary art. The gallery currently features exhibitions such as Jem Magbanua’s Garden, City, or Wilderness displaying the artist’s remarkable ability to work with pencil while delving into the process of transformation in the urban landscape. It is an investigation of how these changes affect the meaning of a “place” as defined by the vicissitudes of time and how dwellers are shaped by dwellings and vice versa. Garden, City, or Wilderness runs until May 27 along with Obscura, a group show featuring Laura Abejo, Antonia Baytion, Joven Buan, ND Harn, and Jone Sibugan. Also on exhibit is Annie Cabigting’s The Whole World is Watching.
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From Mideo Cruz' PI Paraiso
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From Mideo Cruz' PI Paraiso
Kanto Gallery
Founded by Toshihiko Uriu, along with artist Tomas Leonor as Chief Curator, Kanto Gallery serves to provoke the art establishment by bringing in artists who are interested in questioning standards. Works on display often allow us to think more about the place of art in the society other than the usual aesthetic value that comes with each piece. Currently on show is the much-anticipated return of the controversial Mideo Cruz who for the first time used acrylic as medium in his paintings. His current show entitled PI Paraiso permits us to view icons and deities through his perspective, and their effect on society is left for the viewer to answer. In this show, the artist also used excess materials from his previous shows and art residencies abroad in an attempt to shake up capitalism and oversupply by utilizing surplus as a tool to stand against its origins.
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IMAGE Gwen Bautista
"Testosterone" by Leonard Onia
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"Kombulsyon ng Tagilid Na Panahon" by Alfredo Esquillo
Eskinita Art Gallery
The newly founded Eskinita Art Gallery currently has Mutable Decay, a group show featuring esteemed social realist artists such as Ricardo Gerri Dueñas, Guerrero Habulan, Ronald Jeresano, Lotsu Manes, Rodel Omampo, Leonardo Onia, and Alfredo Esquillo. The exhibit displays works that illustrate decay in varying degrees and in forms that confront the political, social, or personal. In one of the pieces from the show, artist and professional art restorer Manes allowed decay in the form of time and water damage on an old ID photograph, in an effort to find the answer to the question: If something can be restored, can anything really last forever? The show runs until June 6.
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Underground Gallery, Kanto Gallery, and Eskinita Art Gallery are all at 2/F Makati Cinema Square, 2130 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City. |
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Reacting to the Kenyan Energy Regulatory Authority’s stern stance on withholding the License of Lamu Coal Power plant,
Greenpeace Africa’s Executive Director, Njeri Kabeberi has commended the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for withholding the licence of the proposed Lamu coal-fired power station.
Kabeberi says the decision has raised the importance of thorough Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) in ecologically sensitive regions like Lamu, and has set a clear precedent for fellow African countries.
“Kenya’s Energy Regulatory Commission has taken the right and just decision,” she said.
She added, “Greenpeace stands in solidarity with the Save Lamu Natural Justice movement in saying no to any new coal-fired power stations.”
In a statement to newsrooms, Kabeberi said over the years Greenpeace has clearly documented the vastly negative impacts of coal-fired power stations on people’s health, and the air and water quality of the surrounding areas in South Africa.
“With the abundance of renewable energy potential, it is clear that Kenya should focus more on sustainable energy alternatives and stay away from polluting and carbon-intense coal-fired power stations,” added Kabeberi.
“In light of the fact that Kenya has signed the Paris Agreement, which commits to keep global temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is essential that the government continues to take crucial steps forward such as the decision to revoke the licence for the Lamu coal-fired power station,” she said.
She commended the government for showing leadership in the clean energy sector.
“In this case, the Kenyan government is showing the kind of leadership needed on the African continent and other African leaders should learn from this example, but it is critical that Lamu does not make a reappearance, and we call for Lamu’s cancellation to remain final,” concluded Kabeberi.
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On 9th September Destiny will launch on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360 - but not PC.
It's an unfortunate situation for many who had hoped to play Bungie's next first-person shooter with a mouse and keyboard. And for many it seems like a strange omission, given the game was built on PC in the first place. Surely it wouldn't take much time or effort for Bungie to release a PC version, then?
"The truth is it's not that simple," design lead Lars Bakken told Eurogamer during a recent studio tour.
"I wish it was that simple. It's pretty complicated. That doesn't mean it can't happen in the future, it just means it won't happen right now."
Destiny is Bungie's first multiplatform game in over a decade, and its first on a PlayStation platform. The studio handles development of all the versions internally, rather than outsourcing development to other studios. It even handles quality assurance itself - one of the many reasons there are over 500 people currently working on the game inside Bungie's Bellevue, Washington base.
"The console SKUs are really important for us and that's what we're focusing on," Bakken continued. "We're doing it all internally ourselves. That's a huge endeavour. That's not something we've ever done before.
"So when I'm playtesting and I'm trying to play PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PS3, that's a lot of work. Adding another thing on there is just crazy. It's crazy to think of right now."
Bungie COO Pete Parsons echoed Bakken's response when we quizzed him on the same subject.
"I think four platforms on day one is a lot, considering we've been a one platform team for a very long time," he said.
"What is also true is that, as you might imagine, we're all hardcore PC players. We play everything. It doesn't matter if it's a phone, PC or console, we play it. And there are 500 people up there. So we care a lot about the PC.
"But this is a huge and ambitious project for us, and just getting it on one console would be a momentous challenge. Getting it on four on the same day is something we've never even tried before. We wanted to get it right, and we didn't want to add in tonnes more risk."
Parsons also said creating and releasing a PC version of Bungie's shared world shooter would not be as easy as many believe, because all versions of the game connect to the same persistent video game world, which itself extends to multiple platforms.
"It is not nearly as simple as you think," he said. "It is one central world no matter what the platform, and so that requires lots of intensive thought.
"Frankly, it's not a thought we can spend time thinking about right now. Just building up the game and putting it across generations of platforms, and working on platforms we've never worked on before with the PlayStation 3, these are very big challenges. I'm thankful we have the engineering team we do."
While it seems certain that Destiny will not launch on PC alongside the console versions, what chance post-launch? Or, perhaps, what chance of a PC version of future Destiny games?
"I look forward to our future conversations around PC," Parsons said, cryptically.
"We love the PC. We hear it too. We ask the question of ourselves."
This article was based on a press trip to Bungie's offices in Bellevue, Washington. Activision paid for travel and accommodation.
Make sure you check out our recent hands-on Destiny preview. |
On a livestream publicly to Facebook, a Peshmerga soldier proudly shows 20 Iraqi soldiers being shuffled into a utility vehicle. The Kurdish Peshmerga of Barzani’s KDP had put up Iraqi flags on their checkpoint slated to be handed over to the Iraqi government as part of Makhmour district agreements. Additionally, Kurdish vehicles were displayed Iraqi flags all in an attempt to ambush the Iraqi unit approaching. The small Iraqi unit was not anticipating any violence as they were told the checkpoint in Makhmour would be handed over as per agreements between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish Regional government. However upon arrival to the checkpoint the Peshmerga surrounded Iraqi troops and ushered them into vehicles after taking all food, supplies, ammunitions and their vehicles.
Iraqi flag visible on Kurdish Humvee used in the ambush on Iraqi troops
Iraqi government demanded the release of the prisoners and the Peshmerga command came down on the local garrison making them release the Iraqi troops, all but two of them. They were executed in cold blood after being separated from the other group. There was strictly zero shooting between the Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga, the Iraqi troops were a small unit set to take control of a checkpoint and had repeatedly said on the Peshmerga livestream “We are just here to do our job at the checkpoint”.
Shocking video was released after the livestream has ended with Kurdish Peshmerga mocking the two dead Iraqi troops. Repeatedly saying “Hey how are you” to the corpses. The Peshmerga continued in the video by stripping off their uniform and continually asked the corpses “How are you Hassan, well?” as well as cursing them. The gruesome footage was in the same location as the livestream and the soldiers identities have been verified. The bodies of the soldiers have yet to be returned to the Iraqi government and families are seeking their swift return for burial. Both Saleem and Hussam were executed because they had a verbal argument with the Kurdish Peshmerga who used Iraqi flags to deceive the unit and capture them. The ruse de guerre tactic is prohibited under Article 23 of the Hague Convention IV of which Iraq is a signatory. |
Einstein once called the speed of light “The Universe’s speed limit”. He claimed that traveling faster than the speed of light would violate the causality principle. For the layman, that means cause and effect. An example of this would be a bullet hitting a target before the trigger was even pulled.
Accelerating to light speed or exceeding it would also violate certain fundamental energy conditions. It could even allow for time travel.
So why can’t anything go faster than the speed of light?
Before we can dive into that, we have to know what the speed of light actually is, what it means, and clear up some common misconceptions regarding this “universal speed limit“.
The speed of light, (or the speed of a photon) in a near-perfect vacuum is exactly 186,282 miles per second. We perceive photons (light) traveling at this speed because they are massless, or have no ‘weight’ (but they do have kinetic energy, more on that in a bit).
Every particle in our universe (including photons) move or ‘swim’ through what scientists call “the Higgs field”. As a result of this interaction, particles acquire their mass. Different particles interact with the Higgs field with different strengths, which is why some particles are heavier (have more mass) than others. Photons move through, but do not interact at all with the Higgs field.
What does that mean?
Since photons don’t interact with the Higgs field, it means they aren’t bound by any speed limit. They’re free to move at the fastest possible speed – their own “light” speed. Why isn’t the speed of light slower or faster than 186,282 miles per second? It’s because that exact speed is a fundamental constant of our universe.
Wondering why light doesn’t travel at a different speed is like wondering why gravity isn’t reversed or what it would be like if our universe only had 2 spatial dimensions instead of 3 (4 if you include time). Those constants, along with the speed of light, were set in place when our universe was created at the moment of the big bang.
Universal Speed Limit
Particles that have mass require energy to accelerate them. The closer to the speed of light you get a particle, the more energy is required to go faster. This is because the particles themselves get more massive in proportion to the increased velocity. In short, the faster you go, the heavier you get.
Thanks to this inconvenient truth, if you wanted to accelerate a single electron to ‘light speed’, you would need an infinite amount energy due to the electron becoming infinitely heavy. There isn’t enough energy in the entire universe to propel just a single electron to the speed of light.
From A Photon’s Perspective
One of the methods Einstein used to help formulate his theory of special relativity was to visualize what the universe would look like from the perspective of a photon. Einstein saw that life as a photon would be quite bizarre. For instance, if you were a photon, time would have no meaning to you. Everything would appear to happen instantaneously.
Imagine for a moment that you are a happy little photon created by a star in another galaxy some 4 billion light years away. From my perspective here on Earth, it took you exactly 4 billion years to travel from that star till you reached my retina. From your perspective, one instant you were created and then the next, you are are bouncing off or being absorbed by my eyeball. You experienced no passage of time. Your birth and death happened instantaneously.
This is because time slows for you as your get closer to light speed, and at it, it completely stops. This is also another reason why nothing can go faster than light. It would be like slowing down a car to a stop, and then trying to go slower than completely stopped.
One should think of the speed of light as ‘infinite speed’. A common misconception is thinking the speed of light is just like any other finite speed. The speed of light is only finite from the perspective of the outside observer; from the perspective of a photon, it’s infinite. If you move at exactly the speed of light you could go anywhere, no matter how far, in exactly zero seconds.
Can light be slowed down?
There is at least one real world example of superluminal (faster than light) travel. It’s cheating a bit, but it occurs when light passes through water.
Remember, nothing can go faster than 186,282 miles per second, but the photons that normally travel at that speed can be slowed down. An example of this can be seen in water where light is slowed to 3/4th of its normal speed.
In nuclear reactors, the charged particles emitted off radioactive rods through the water they are submerged in exceed this reduced speed.
Because the particles contain an electric charge, they emit energy called Cherenkov radiation. Any particles they bump into become radioactive, giving the water an eerie, mysterious blue glow.
So what’s the speed of gravity?
It’s an interesting question that many people may not think about. Does gravity also have a speed and if so, what is it?
Gravity does in fact have a speed. The speed of gravity is technically the same as the speed of light. The reason for this speed is the same reason why light travels at the speed it does. It’s simply a fundamental property of spacetime itself. If the Sun were to disappear right this instant, the earth would continue its orbit for 8 minutes (the time it takes light to reach Earth from the Sun) before the orbit would be perturbed by the Sun’s absence.
So to sum up, nothing can travel faster than light because the speed of light can be thought of as infinite speed. To match or exceed it would be to go infinity miles per second/hour. A loop-hole does in fact exist, however. The loop-hole requires a control or warping of the fabric of spacetime itself which we’ve touched on in a previous article. (See: “Why aren’t we exploring the galaxy yet?” and “What is a warp drive?“)
Photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution license by Wikicommons. |
What's the world coming to when you can get your $1.45 million bulletproof SUV with gold trim, a ridiculously expensive Vertu cellphone and three bottles of premium vodka, but you can't get the whale-penis-skin interior?
We have environmentalists and Pamela Anderson to thank for this.
This bizarre story starts in Russia with a company called Dartz, which recently unveiled the Pombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition SUV. Yes, that's the official name of this four-ton motorized bank vault.
To say this monstrosity is opulent is like saying Oprah has money. Ostentatious doesn't begin to describe a vehicle with gold-plated window surrounds, gauges encrusted with diamonds and rubies, and an exhaust system made from tungsten. But what really stood out was the whale-penis leather seats.
Yes, you read that correctly, whale penis.
As you can imagine, greenies got more than a bit miffed by the idea, which we suspect was more of a publicity stunt than an option oligarchs and sheiks could actually tick on the order sheet. After all, we're talking about Dartz, whose website never misses a chance to drop an S in favor of a Z to spell things like "carz."
Whatever the case, Dartz has scuttled the exotic material. It's just put out a press release, signed by a fellow by the name of Leonard F. Yankelovich (no title given), with the hilarious all-caps title, "ARMORED CAR WITHOUT PENIS. LET'S SAVE THE WHALES." Yes, Leonard, let's!
Leonard goes on to explain that although Dartz got a lot of good publicity when the announced the Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition SUV, it also drew the ire of environmental groups. "As the world's resonance was very huge and Dartz got lot of angry e-mails from Greenpeace, WWF and also Pamela Anderson, Dartz make strong decision to stop their plans regarding such interior," Leonard wrote.
Smart move. Take it from us, Leonard, you most certainly don't want to get Pamela Anderson angry, especially when it comes to whale penis.
Leonard went on to lament:
We have no any ideas to kill the whale or something like that. All we want- to make just luxury car.... We just looking for most expensive products for this car – and that's why we choosed whale penis leathure when we checked it is most of most. After wave of protest we realised our mistake and make a decision not to use natural leathure at all.
That's verbatim, by the way.
That's OK, Leonard, we understand your predicament, because when we here at Autopia are looking for most of most, we know that it can get baffling.
Tip o' the Autopia hat to reader Francis J. for the tip.
Photo: Dartz |
Push Pop Press, an e-publishing startup founded by ex-Apple engineers Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, has announced its acquisition by Facebook.
Push Pop published one multimedia book for the iPad, Al Gore's Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. At that time, Push Pop, as Wired.com's Brian Chen wrote, sought to create a "publishing platform for authors, publishers and artists to turn their books into interactive iPad or iPhone apps — no programming skills required."
Facebook has no interest in publishing interactive e-books. According to Push Pop, "there are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta." Our Choice will still continue to be sold, but further profits will be donated to The Climate Reality Project. No other books will be published. Instead, "the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook."
So instead of an independent born-digital press, publishing next-generation multimedia novels (or magazines or textbooks or children's books or cookbooks), Facebook will probably get marginally better iOS apps.
I'm happy for the team at Push Pop; they're a talented and experienced group, and Facebook is lucky to have them. But as a reader, and as a technology writer who's been writing about digital publishing for as long as I can remember, this news frankly bums me out.
We sorely need independent innovation in digital publishing. We need talented people who are willing to try things. Meanwhile, all of the money, attention and technological skill is marching in the opposite direction. Most big media companies with plenty of capital and deep technical talent see few if any reasons to innovate or invest in books.
Surely there are writers with fantastic ideas for new kinds of publications. And many of them could also learn the tools to create these apps on their own. But to paraphrase W.E.B. DuBois, when God makes a writer, He does not always make the pushing sort of person who beats his way through doors thrust in her face.
The ideas are there; the talent is there; the readers are there. But when the three come together, inevitably someone else can figure out a way to use the technology for a different end. The better and more experimental it is, the more likely this is true.
This is not the only reason transforming digital publishing is so difficult today. But it is one of them.
See Also:- E-Books Are Still Waiting for Their Avant-Garde |
A Jacksonville firefighter was injured in a shooting incident Tuesday night on the city's Southside when police say an unknown shooter in a vehicle targeted a group of about six firefighters.
Lt. Jackson Short of the Sheriff's Office said the firefighters were fueling a ladder truck behind Fire Station 28 in the 9200 block of Hogan Road at about 7:35 p.m. when a vehicle drove up and someone fired five or six shots, striking one of the firefighters in the arm after the bullet ricocheted.
"It appears the firemen were targeted," Shorts said. "Because they are firefighters, they were on duty and the area is very well lit from the streetlights at the gas pump area."
The car then sped off. Police did not have a description of the vehicle or the occupants.
Short said the firefighter was treated at the scene and not hospitalized.
Additional details about the incident weren't available.
The shooting follows the ambush deaths of two New York Police Department officers and the shooting death of a Tarpon Springs police officer over the weekend. Also, Tuesday morning a Jacksonville police officer was shot at by suspected car thieves.
Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown said in a prepared statement Tuesday night that he was outraged and called the attacks in Jacksonville "cowardly."
"These attacks will not be tolerated," he said. "As mayor, I will do everything in my power to protect the firefighters and police officers who work so hard to keep us safe. … They deserve no less."
Short said police have no indication this shooting is connected to those recent incidents or to protests against grand jury decisions to not prosecute police officers in the deaths of Michael Brown or Eric Garner.
Michael Brown, 18, who's black was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo., this summer by a white police officer. Garner, also a black man, died after police attempted to arrest him for selling individual cigarettes on Staten Island.
There have been protests in several major cities across the nation since the grand juries in both cases declined to file criminal charges.
Randy Wyse, president of the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters, said the shooting Tuesday night is another example of where a small part of the job can escalate into a life-threatening situation. He said fire stations have been targeted before.
"This isn't an incident that firefighters expect to encounter," he said.
Wyse said he knows the Sheriff's Office will conduct a thorough investigation and hopes the shooter is caught soon.
Times-Union writer Dan Scanlan contributed to this report |
Want to stay on top of the latest and greatest in VR gaming? We’ve got you covered—from exclusive announcements and developer interviews to insider tips and tricks—with dedicated social media channels devoted solely to all things Rift!
Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram feed to plug directly into the pulse of VR gaming.
We’re ramping things up to celebrate The Unspoken VR Tournament. Five special guests will fly to San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Durham, and Seattle to get in on the action during the local round on May 13. Stay tuned for the big reveal so you can watch tournament highlights on their streams, or keep an eye on our Rift channels for shared content. Two lucky influencers will head to NYC for the finals on June 3, including a takeover of the Rift channels from the flagship Microsoft Store.
Can’t wait that long? Tune in during DreamHack Austin April 28 – 30, where the OGs of OpTic Gaming, aka Old Men of OpTic (Hector Rodriguez, OpTicJ, Mike Carr, and Hutch) will hang out at the Oculus booth, engage in some Oculus takeovers, and compete in an Unspoken tournament of their own for the chance to win a free Rift + Touch to giveaway to a lucky fan. Check out the practice rounds April 28 and 29 at the Oculus booth. The tournament goes down April 30—a 1v1 battle between the Old Men of OpTic, SHOUTcasted by Siefe.
We’ve been hard at work behind-the-scenes, making these new channels the go-to destination for your VR gaming needs. From influencer takeovers to exciting giveaways, there’s plenty to keep you coming back for more. We’re even hosting a Wilson’s Heart escape room challenge on Instagram now through May 2, where you can compete for a chance to win Rift + Touch plus a copy of the game.*
Moving forward, you can expect even more special guests, featured community highlights, and event coverage at PAX, E3, ComicCon, and more. We’ll keep you posted with breaking news and new content from your favorite VR games, plus early access and beta experiences to keep you on the cutting edge.
So what are you waiting for? Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
We’ll see you in Rift.
— The Oculus Team
* No purchase necessary, but restrictions apply. See ocul.us/2oH6S5y for details. |
7. Anti-corruption Reforms
John Lough
Since 2014, Ukraine has made remarkable progress in laying the foundations for reducing corruption in public life. Corruption in Ukraine is long established and deeply rooted. It remains the single biggest obstacle to successful development, creating economic inefficiencies and deterring investment. The achievements of the past three years are welcome, but to build on them and make reforms irreversible will require a further step: renewal of Ukraine’s judiciary, an institution itself riddled with graft and a pillar of the systemic corruption that has plagued the country since independence. Without a breakthrough in this area, there is a danger that the anti-corruption effort will lose momentum, leaving in place substantial elements of the ‘old’ system through which the elites have diverted much of Ukraine’s national wealth for their own purposes.
Recent reforms have significantly improved transparency, and have included the establishment of new agencies for investigating and prosecuting high-level officials suspected of corruption
For the purposes of this analysis, corruption is defined here as the misuse of public institutions and office to the detriment of the common good. It does not necessarily involve financial wrongdoing, but can involve this.
In contrast to previous anti-corruption efforts, notably after the Orange Revolution of 2004–05, recent reforms have moved beyond rhetoric: they have significantly improved transparency, have begun to restrict the scope for corrupt practices to occur, and have included the establishment of new agencies for investigating and prosecuting high-level officials suspected of corruption. Since mid-2016, stalwarts of Ukraine’s ‘old’ system have increased their resistance to these measures – a sure sign that the policies are well targeted. Taken together, the anti-corruption reforms effected so far mark an encouraging start to the process of equipping Ukraine with the institutions and culture needed to discourage corrupt behaviour in government, business and wider society.
These positive changes have been bolstered by reforms in other areas. For obvious reasons of national defence, Ukraine’s national oil and gas company, Naftogaz, has stopped importing Russian natural gas – thus suspending a trade that was the single biggest source of corruption in the economy. Whether through direct gas purchases or non-transparent intermediaries, Naftogaz was at the centre of a pernicious web of corrupt practices that widely permeated the economy and political life. On a smaller but still significant scale, changes to the procurement system at the Ministry of Health have begun to address long-standing corruption within the state system. ‘E-government’ initiatives encompassing state procurement tenders, business registration and value-added tax (VAT) registration – as well as automatic VAT reimbursement – have sharply reduced direct contact between officials and businesses, in turn limiting opportunities for abuse of the system.
Banking reform, meanwhile, has led to the closure of nearly half of the country’s 180-plus banks and the nationalization of PrivatBank, the country’s largest bank (accounting for 37 per cent of retail deposits and one-fifth of all banking assets as of December 2016). In many cases, banks were used to divert money from the state through loans never intended for repayment. Seventy per cent of PrivatBank’s loans were to companies belonging to its two owners. At the same time, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a cohort of powerful businessmen is believed to have significantly declined, reducing their ability to exercise political influence. For example, Rinat Akhmetov, one of Ukraine’s leading businessmen prior to 2014, has lost control of substantial assets in the occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas.
Despite these achievements, from the viewpoint of Ukraine’s justifiably impatient population, there is so far little to show for the reforms. The Euromaidan movement’s demands that the authorities curb corruption and put high-level korruptsioneri behind bars remain unfulfilled. There have been no convictions of senior officials from the administration of former president Viktor Yanukovych, despite overwhelming evidence that many oversaw the theft of public assets on an epic scale. Nor have there been any convictions for the Maidan shootings that killed more than 75 protesters and police. Key suspects from the ‘Berkut’ elite security force have escaped to Russia. Justice has still not caught up with members of the armed forces and security services suspected of serving Russia rather than Ukraine before 2014. With the notable exception of Naftogaz, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continue to bleed the equivalent of billions of dollars annually from the state budget through corrupt schemes.
From the viewpoint of Ukraine’s justifiably impatient population, there is so far little to show for anti-corruption reforms
In some areas, new problems have appeared: for example, in 2016, the state energy regulator set wholesale electricity prices at levels favouring domestic coal producers, in effect allowing them to receive a surcharge for their production as if they had transported it from the Netherlands (i.e. using the ‘Rotterdam +’ formula) – even though their coal is mined in Ukraine. The new anti-corruption agency is investigating possible abuses of power by officials at the regulator. At the same time, defence spending remains highly opaque, prompting speculation that the conflict in Donbas is justifying high levels of secrecy that benefit politically connected defence companies.
These shortcomings and the lukewarm support among the ruling elites for serious anti-corruption measures reinforce the widely held view in Ukrainian society that corruption levels remain as high as they were before the Euromaidan revolution and will not change. Consistent with this is Transparency International’s ranking of Ukraine in joint 131st place, out of 176 countries surveyed, in its 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index – this was down one place from 130th in 2015, and also roughly in line with the results during the Yanukovych years.
However, a degree of realism must accompany these assessments. Expectations of a rapid and genuine breakthrough in the fight against corruption in Ukraine were always destined to be disappointed, given entrenched cultural and structural factors.
The cultural dimension includes the widely engrained and still visible practice, inherited from the Soviet era, of petty bribery (blat) dressed up as ‘thank you’ payments to doctors, teachers, local officials and the like, as well as the widespread theft of public property. In Ukraine, as elsewhere in the former USSR in the 1990s, the breakdown of public services and chronic wage arrears encouraged bribery, theft and an active shadow economy. The legacy of this is a view in society, persistent to this day, that everyone engages in some form of corruption and that it is simply a way of life.
Ukraine has also inherited a structural corruption problem, the origins of which lie in the fire-sale privatizations that started in the mid-1990s and created a set of disproportionately wealthy business owners. To protect their interests, these arrivistes often brought their influence directly into government, parliament, the media and the judiciary. They quickly established networks that instrumentalized public institutions to work on their behalf rather than for the country itself. Their associates bought their way on to parliamentary lists, both to secure immunity from prosecution and to continue to enrich themselves through privileged access to state resources.
To a greater or lesser degree, this usurpation of power or ‘state capture’ has affected the majority of countries transitioning from the Soviet command-administrative system to market-based economic models. However, Ukraine has been a ‘high-capture’ state in the sense that its size and regional diversity spawned a wide range of interest groups in competition with each other for influence over state enterprises and budgets.
This has placed a considerable brake on Ukraine’s development. As the economists Joel Hellman and Daniel Kaufmann have noted, ‘state capture’ is a form of grand corruption that weakens the state and undermines its ability to provide basic public goods. The enfeebling of the state in turn limits the development of politically unconnected businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), because of the difficulties they face in upholding property rights or enforcing legal claims. It is also a powerful disincentive for businesses to invest because of the heightened risk premium associated with politically subservient courts and a generally unpredictable legal environment. In other words, state capture benefits those who do the capturing but distorts the economy as a whole and impairs national development. Ukraine provides a perfect case study of these problems. Corruption on a grand scale has not only cost the country’s citizens dearly over more than 20 years, but has cemented in place a system that is impossible to dislodge without deep changes to the operating environment.
Ukraine suffers from an inherited Soviet-era legal system and law enforcement structures that were originally designed to uphold the authority of the government rather than the rule of law
Ukraine also suffers from a problem common in transition countries that have inherited Soviet-era legal systems and law enforcement structures originally designed to uphold the authority of the government rather than the rule of law. In most such countries, these structures have proved highly resistant to change. In Ukraine’s case, the judiciary is accustomed to being politically dependent and the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) to having levels of influence not associated with a prosecutorial service in a developed democracy. In a system of this kind, the PGO can easily become a tool used for selective application of the law.
These factors, taken together, explain how the ‘old’ system in Ukraine has proved so resilient, and how it continues to resist the introduction of foreign concepts associated with preventing corruption and investigating misconduct. The Euromaidan removed Yanukovych and his associates from power and put an end to their attempts to centralize control of the country’s assets, but it did not break the underlying system. Instead, elements of Ukraine’s ‘deep state’ have regrouped with the clear goal of blocking or diluting reforms that threaten their interests. President Petro Poroshenko’s lack of commitment to establishing an independent judiciary and overhauling the PGO – even though it is his responsibility to oversee reforms in both institutions – offers a striking example of the difficulties of anti-corruption reforms.
Anti-corruption policy is thus a battleground pitting, broadly speaking, ‘reformist’ forces against the inherited system. The real impetus for anti-corruption reforms has come not from the government but from a small group of progressive government officials and members of parliament (MPs), and from an emboldened set of civil society organizations (CSOs) that carry the moral banner of the Euromaidan. Backed by the strong desire among Ukrainians for action to rein in high-level corruption, and supported by assistance from Western governments, CSOs were the driving force behind the 2014 anti-corruption law and its implementation. This move created two new agencies and featured an unprecedented effort to improve transparency and change cultural attitudes towards corruption in public service.
At the same time, representatives of the ‘old’ system in the government – including the security service, parliament, the PGO and the judiciary – have been fighting hard to limit the scope of these measures. Allied with elements of big business, these groups remain a powerful force with potentially much to lose and significant capacity to hinder anti-corruption reforms.
Anti-corruption efforts: the starting point
To assess Ukraine’s progress in tackling corruption over the past three-and-a-half years, it is important to consider the starting point for reforms. Society in Ukraine became angry at the excessive self-enrichment of Yanukovych and his associates after the presidential election in 2010, and demanded justice for the perpetrators and action to limit corruption. Paradoxically, sociological research since the Euromaidan has shown continued high acceptance of corruption in daily life, and a willingness to engage in such practices to solve problems. According to the research data, over 65 per cent of Ukrainians across all age groups believe that corruption is a fundamental part of the Ukrainian mentality.
A further problem – given the wide extent of corruption in the police, the healthcare system and the education sector, where salaries are very low – is that the number of beneficiaries of illegal blat payments remains very large. In many cases, this extra cash is vital for supporting families and extended communities. The result is that there is little appetite in these parts of society for a war on petty corruption. The expectation instead is that the state should stamp out excessive high-level corruption. For Ukraine’s reformers, this poses a dilemma: tackling low-level corruption is easier than trying to eradicate high-level graft, yet this risks being socially disruptive if not accompanied by salary increases for poorly paid public-sector workers. At the same time, the lack of progress in addressing entrenched high-level corruption increases social discontent and support for populist forces.
A Ukrainian government diagnostic study of high-level corruption, prepared with the assistance of the IMF in 2014, put in sharp relief the problems for Ukraine’s reformers. It noted the ‘pyramidal’ nature of state capture permeating the government system, featuring ‘powerful well-known elites at the top, heads of agencies in the middle and agency staff at the base’. The report described how these groups were able to control appointments in the public sector, ensure the application of regulations in line with their interests, and restrict public access to information.
Analysing the structure of corruption, the study also noted ‘a strong view that corrupt public officials often work in concert across public agencies to intimidate, harass to conduct corporate raiding and to extract bribes’. Among the agencies perceived as most corrupt, it singled out the tax administration, the police, the PGO, the State Enforcement Service and the judiciary. Among the courts, it identified the commercial courts as the worst offenders.
It is clear that the fusion of money and power since independence in 1991 transformed the role of Ukraine’s law enforcement institutions, so that their original task of protecting the Soviet system from within became one of supporting criminal activity by the new economic and political elites. Organized crime became synonymous with the functioning of the state.
This pattern extended into the judiciary, as external influence over the appointment of judges became prevalent. In some cases, positions were offered for sale by those involved in state capture. Representatives of such interest groups also sold prosecutorial appointments and other roles in the state system.
Although other transition countries in the region have encountered similar problems, there is no precedent for managing them in a country as large as Ukraine. At regional level, organized crime is deeply enmeshed with political and business interests, encouraging politicians and businesspeople to buy influence in Kyiv that can help them to assert control locally. A regional prosecutor – through close cooperation with the chairman of the regional court and the chief of regional police – is often the real source of power at regional level, rather than the regional governor.
As in other former Soviet states, over-regulation offers government officials rich opportunities for predatory behaviour. Business licensing requirements, for example, are often excessively onerous; enforcement is selective because no company can meet all the requirements. This ensures that an official can invariably find a reason to spot a regulatory violation and impose a fine or order an investigation. Small businesses have long suffered an endless procession of visits by officials, from sanitary inspectors to agents from the tax police, seeking to extort money. In the absence of a judicial system in which they can defend their rights, there is little they can do to prevent such abuses.
Results achieved
Increased transparency
The adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2014–17 in October 2014 marked a breakthrough in efforts to address corruption. Heavily influenced by civil society and Georgian reformers recruited into government, the document outlined an approach for preventing corruption in several areas, including the public sector, public procurement and the judiciary. It placed heavy emphasis on raising transparency in government and developing new law enforcement institutions. However, the strategy has faced criticism for its lack of clear performance indicators or coordination with reforms in areas such as healthcare and decentralization.
A battle for control of the new body responsible for developing and managing anti-corruption programmes, the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC), established a pattern of contest over the pace and depth of the reforms – involving, on the one hand, the government and parliament and, on the other, reformers, CSOs and international donors. The NAPC is effectively a branch of government that reports to the Cabinet of Ministers.
As a tool for exposing enrichment among officials, Ukraine’s e-declaration system is without parallel in the countries of the former Soviet Union
After considerable foot-dragging and signs of political interference, the NAPC in September 2016 launched an ‘e-declaration’ system for the assets of public-sector officials. The system initially required 100,000 senior officials in government, including the president and prime minister, to disclose their income and assets and those of their family members. The results generated outrage among the public. The level of cash holdings of officials surpassed all expectations, totalling UAH 26 billion (around $946 million). Based on the declarations, the news agency Reuters estimated that 24 members of the cabinet held nearly $7 million just in cash. Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman declared $1.2 million and €460,000 in cash, as well as a collection of luxury watches. The head of the tax service, Roman Nasirov, reported that he held $2 million in cash. Around 30 judges with annual salaries ranging from $10,000 to $13,000 owned Porsches, and many declared large cash deposits.
As a tool for exposing enrichment among officials, Ukraine’s e-declaration system is without parallel in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Those required to fill out e-declarations must also register within 10 days any income or acquisition of property of a value in excess of 50 months’ wages (UAH 80,000 as of 1 January 2017). In the view of the UN Development Programme, which provided technical and financial support, the new e-system is far from perfect but represents a major improvement on previous paper versions.
To little surprise, attempts to roll back the scale of the system came quickly: in November 2016, a caucus of 48 MPs filed a claim with the Constitutional Court arguing that compelling officials to publicize details about the assets of family members was unconstitutional. The resistance continued in March 2017 when President Poroshenko signed into law controversial requirements for anti-corruption campaigning organizations themselves to submit e-declarations. This fightback suggests that parts of the Ukraine elite are deeply uncomfortable with the new system of asset disclosures, viewing it as a measure that they can neither ignore nor respond to dishonestly. To this extent, anti-corruption reformers have scored a significant victory. On the other hand, anecdotal evidence indicates that even some officials supportive of the anti-corruption effort think the e-declaration system too intrusive, and thus counterproductive for efforts to elicit cooperation from public officials.
Despite the initial success of the e-declarations, the NAPC was heavily criticized by civil society and international donors for attempting to delay the process and prevent the timely checking of data, needed for potential criminal investigations by the newly formed agency for investigating high-level official corruption, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). There are strong indications that the NAPC’s work is vulnerable to interference from lobbies in government and parliament that wish to restrict its activities. There is little doubt that the e-declaration system would have remained on the drawing board for much longer had it not been for pressure from the EU and others. The NAPC has also attracted ridicule for its attempts to investigate suspicions of fraud on apparently trivial grounds against individuals such as Serhiy Leshchenko, an MP and prominent anti-corruption campaigner, and Yulia Marushevska, the former head of Odesa Region Customs. The latter faced investigation over a bonus equivalent to $18 that she had allegedly awarded herself.
Within two months of the filing of the e-declarations, the NABU had started 13 criminal investigations into the financial affairs of MPs, judges and prosecutors. A further 2 million officials filed e-declarations in the spring of 2017. While the scale of the effort is laudable, it is not clear how the Ukrainian authorities will be able to screen, let alone act on, such a vast volume of information. Nonetheless, the process marks a turning point in terms of increasing accountability and establishing a culture of openness from which officials cannot hide.
The widely praised ProZorro platform has placed government tendering online, ending the old practice of rigged auctions
Achievements in raising transparency have been notable in four further areas. The first is public procurement. The widely praised ProZorro platform (see Chapter 6, in particular) has placed government tendering online, ending the old practice of rigged auctions. Prime Minister Groysman has estimated that in 2016 the system saved the state budget UAH 8 billion.
The second is a new law on the financing of political parties, which came into effect in 2016. It requires parties to disclose their revenue sources and file quarterly reports, which should be publicly available. The law also provides for public financing of political parties, in an effort to limit the influence of business groups that might seek influence through representation in parliament.
Third, the law ‘On Open Use of Public Funds’, adopted in February 2015, requires all government bodies, including SOEs, to publish online their budgets and details of their spending. Although only 20 per cent of eligible organizations had published the required information by the end of 2016, the law marks a significant step towards public oversight of government spending. It also lends itself to integration with the wider decentralization reforms seeking to bring decision-making in government closer to citizens. However, large numbers of SOEs argue that they are not obliged to report to the public, and in any case the fines for non-compliance are tiny.
The fourth achievement is a law on public information in open data formats, which obliges all government organizations to make their datasets available on the government’s web portal. Ukraine also requires all legal entities to disclose their beneficial ownership in the government business registry.
New law enforcement bodies
Civil society and foreign donors strongly backed the creation of the NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), an independent entity within the PGO. Formed in 2015 with staff appointed in an openly competitive process – and paid significantly more than the average government wage for their positions – the two new structures represent an effort to establish ‘clean’ agencies that can investigate and prosecute high-level corruption without political interference. In September 2016, Nazar Kholodnitsky, the SAPO’s prosecutor, announced that his office was indicting an average of four top officials a month. However, he did not mention any successful convictions. The SAPO’s independence is open to question given the widely held view in Ukraine that the top leadership only pays lip service to fighting corruption and is prepared to sabotage investigations where necessary. Kholodnitsky reports to the prosecutor general, although the SAPO is housed in a separate building.
The NABU reported in September 2017 that it had 398 cases under investigation, involving the loss of UAH 87 billion in state funds and resulting in 131 indictments. There are signs that the NABU has started with cases involving suspects at lower levels of seniority, but that it is extending its investigations to those at higher levels. The arrest of the head of the tax service in March 2017 marked a watershed (he has denied the allegations against him, which he complains are politically motivated, and has been released on bail). This was followed shortly afterwards by the arrest and subsequent release (without bail) of Mykola Martynenko, reportedly the main sponsor of one of the ruling coalition parties, who remains under investigation. The NABU had not previously acted against an individual of ministerial level.
The NABU also reported in September 2017 that of the 86 cases sent to the courts by the SAPO, only 17 had resulted in convictions. One-third of its cases were still waiting to be heard.
Not surprisingly, the agency has come in for criticism for failing to produce faster results, and there have been orchestrated attacks on its reputation and the leadership of its director, Artem Sytnyk. However, foreign donors’ commitment to the NABU’s success has helped it to withstand attacks by detractors who appear to have much to lose from its power to investigate. It has also, at times, found itself in a turf war with the PGO and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Reliance on the SBU for wire-tapping during investigations is widely seen as a factor seriously inhibiting the agency’s effectiveness, because of the danger that information about surveillance targets will be leaked.
Box 3: Ukraine’s new anti-corruption agencies
Three new bodies were established in 2015–16 to implement state anti-corruption policy:
National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC)
The NAPC is responsible for developing and implementing the anti-corruption strategy. One of its main tasks is verifying the asset declarations of state and local government officials. It is also responsible for enforcing rules on political party financing, including the use of state-allocated support that is provided to political parties.
National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU)
The NABU is responsible for investigating corruption committed by senior officials, members of parliament, judges and managers of large state-owned enterprises. It operates independently of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO). The NABU’s director was selected in an open competition with the involvement of civil society. With the exception of its first deputy and deputy directors, all NABU positions are filled by open competition.
Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO)
The SAPO is an independent sub-division of the PGO. The SAPO oversees the NABU’s investigations to ensure that they are legally compliant, and determines whether there is sufficient evidence for the state to prosecute. All SAPO prosecutors’ appointments are made by open competition.
At the time of writing, two other new anti-corruption institutions are in the process of being established. One is the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), which will assume most of the PGO’s investigative functions for serious crimes, including corruption, but with the NABU’s role preserved for investigating corruption by high-level officials. The SBI will also be responsible for investigating crimes committed by SAPO and NABU representatives, as well as military crimes. The other new institution is the Asset Management and Recovery Office (AMRO), tasked with managing seized property and tracing assets acquired by corrupt means, including those laundered abroad. Both are due to become operational before the end of 2017. A dispute about the selection procedure for the SBI has delayed its formation. The proposed selection panel was drawn heavily from interests connected with the two main parties in the ruling coalition, and did not include any CSO representatives.
The framework law ‘On Judiciary and Status of Judges’, passed in June 2016, foresees the establishment of a third institution: a High Anti-Corruption Court. However, the court’s formation awaits the enactment of an additional specialized law, albeit without a deadline. Civil society groups are pushing hard for the establishment of this new court, which is expected to have national jurisdiction to try cases brought by the NABU. A key requirement is that it should have impartial judges free from political interference.
Setbacks have continued, however. In 2016, it became clear that first-instance courts were blocking efforts to address high-level corruption, and that the delays risked undermining the credibility of the NABU and the SAPO. As Mykhailo Zhernakov, one of Ukraine’s top specialists on judicial reform, has noted, the new framework law provides for a first-instance anti-corruption court but not a special anti-corruption court of appeal. This raises serious questions about how to prevent appeals against decisions in the new court passing back into the regular – and, so far, unreformed – court system. One option, as Zhernakov argues, is to create an anti-corruption panel in the new Supreme Court as the second-instance court for high-level corruption cases.
In July 2017, the EU appeared to accept the arguments of opponents of a separate anti-corruption court. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, stated during a visit to Kyiv that the establishment of an anti-corruption chamber within the existing judicial system would be sufficient. The NABU and anti-corruption NGOs contest this view.
The next challenge: judicial reform
Since 2014, the pace of anti-corruption reform has substantially outstripped that of judicial reform. The continued slow progress in establishing competently staffed courts free from interference threatens to undermine the entire anti-corruption effort.
In the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2016, Ukraine ranked 78th out of 113 countries for adherence to the rule of law. In the same year, it ranked 99th out of 105 countries for judicial independence in the Index of Public Integrity, an EU-supported project. A 2017 poll of public attitudes towards Ukraine’s institutions indicated that fewer than 6 per cent of respondents had any trust in the courts. In the autumn of 2014, a Judicial Reform Council was established as a consultative body reporting to the president. Judicial reform began with a presidential decree in 2015, and in June 2016 the Verkhovna Rada adopted important constitutional amendments concerning the judiciary and the professionalization of judges. However, the overall process of renewal was put in the hands of the judiciary itself, to little effect. Judges’ salaries are being raised significantly, although not all legal experts in Ukraine believe low salaries to be the reason for corruption. At the same time, their immunity from prosecution, which used to be unconditional, is now only partial. A new law has established a High Council of Justice. To limit political influence, the law provides for the Ukrainian president to appoint senior judges on the recommendation of the council, but does not give him or her the right to reject its nominees. Only the council can dismiss judges. Senior judges will be appointed for an initial term of five years. After this, they must submit to a re-attestation of their qualifications and integrity; only based on this result can they then be appointed for an indefinite term. However, many apparently corrupt judges have been reappointed. Moreover, the change in the law resulted in many court presidents being re-elected for a third or even fourth time, despite the prohibition on their holding office for more than two consecutive terms. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 judges have retired early, many of them potentially in order to avoid submitting online wealth declarations.
A 2017 poll of public attitudes towards Ukraine’s institutions indicated that fewer than 6 per cent of respondents had any trust in the courts
An entirely new Supreme Court is being set up. It will replace three specialized courts and the current Supreme Court, and will thus reduce four levels of justice to three. Obtaining a final judgment in a case should become quicker as a result. In 2016–17, under the auspices of the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ), over 1,400 applicants competed for selection on to a shortlist of 120 candidates to fill at least 65 Supreme Court positions. The candidates were screened by the Public Integrity Council (PIC), which includes members of authoritative CSOs. Although parts of the process were remarkably transparent, others were less so. It is hardly encouraging that numerous sitting judges failed the multiple-choice examination set, even though the questions were published in advance. Anti-corruption activists reported in July that over 70 per cent of the PIC’s recommendations had been ignored. However, the HQCJ later said that 80 per cent of those who received negative assessments from the PIC did not make it to the final stage (the High Council of Justice nominated 111 candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court on 29 September 2017 – 25 of the appointees had been rejected by the PIC). The lower tiers of judges will have to take similar tests as part of their re-attestation. It is estimated that the re-attestation of appeal judges, with whom many cases will end up, could take three years.
The likelihood remains that, at best, Ukraine will create a more efficient Supreme Court, but one only marginally less politically dependent than its predecessor
No country has embarked on a judicial renewal process on this scale, and with sustained political will on the part of the authorities and foreign donors, backed by continued pressure from civil society, it should be possible to make progress. However, resistance from vested interests remains strong, and the likelihood remains that, at best, Ukraine will create a more efficient Supreme Court, but one only marginally less politically dependent than its predecessor. Ukraine’s challenge is to develop a new generation of judges with a culture of independence and objectivity. Inevitably, this will be a long-term project.
In the PGO, reform is also progressing slowly, with a new cadre of prosecutors needed. In 2015, more than 3,330 external candidates applied for 155 positions as heads of local courts. Not one was successful. The institution is widely regarded as the last bastion of vested interests, and it is significant that the president nominates the candidate for prosecutor general. In a first step, the PGO has established an Inspectorate General, whose head was appointed with input from civil society, to start weeding out corrupt officials within its own ranks. However, the PGO remains a largely unreformed institution and has retained wide-ranging powers, inherited from Soviet days, of both investigation and procedural oversight of cases. These powers make it easier to bring cases to court because the organization deciding whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction is the same one carrying out the investigation. The ability to politicize an investigation and then pass it to a compliant judiciary is a recipe for embedding the corrupt practices of those in power. While the investigative functions of the PGO are due to pass to the new SBI, there are signs that the PGO’s protectors in government and parliament wish to slow down the process.
Conclusions
Under internal and external pressure – mainly from reformist forces in civil society and parliament on the one hand, and from the EU and IMF on the other – Ukraine has taken its first serious steps since independence to address high-level corruption. These achievements are considerable, indeed remarkable, by the standards of reforms over the 20-odd years before the Euromaidan. However, they are far from sufficient to anchor in place over the long term the institutions and practices required to reduce corruption significantly.
To make further progress, Ukraine must demonstrate results by ensuring the convictions of high-level figures previously regarded as untouchable. It must develop as its top priority an independent judiciary. The establishment of anti-corruption courts, or an anti-corruption chamber, staffed with judges who have undergone a rigorous selection process (also involving CSOs and foreign specialists) would provide a way to achieve rapid results, and could serve as a prototype that reformers could replicate and extend across the judicial system. Progress so far on judicial reform has been limited and could take years to reach the appeal courts and first-instance courts. The judiciary’s desire for self-preservation has coincided with the desire of the Presidential Administration (the government body responsible for judicial reform) to retain influence over the courts. The formation of a new Supreme Court, the expected influx of a new generation of judges to replace the large numbers who have left the profession since 2014, and the requirement for judges to declare their assets and income nevertheless hold promise that the culture of the judiciary may start to change and that it will adopt higher professional standards.
In addition, the remaining parts of the criminal justice system are in urgent need of overhaul. Any further deceleration of judicial reform, if accompanied by delays to efforts to scale back the functions of the PGO, is likely to leave the NABU and the SAPO politically isolated and at risk of losing credibility with the public. The Ukrainian public urgently needs to see criminal convictions. To consolidate progress, CSOs and international donors will need to stand their ground. The politically active part of Ukrainian society will need to remain mobilized against the ‘old’ system’s efforts to retain power, and will need to challenge the latter’s efforts to allow only partial ‘Europeanization’ of Ukraine’s institutions.
Further progress in reducing corruption will ultimately depend on the interaction of several factors. To begin with, it will be essential to maintain the momentum for preventing and deterring corruption by strengthening the culture of transparency and prosecuting those who have defrauded the state. To do this will require, as noted above, the establishment of anti-corruption courts or, at the least, a new part of the judicial system competently staffed and free from external interference. The security of judges and whistle-blowers will need serious consideration.
At the same time, the overhaul of the law enforcement agencies needs to continue. The culture of the NABU and the SAPO will have to be gradually transplanted into the new investigations agency, the SBI, and eventually into an entirely revamped PGO shorn of its investigative functions and resistant to political interference. Police reform must continue along the lines that led to the creation of the patrol police. This will require establishing a new ethos within the police service and raising salaries.
Clearly, parts of this agenda will depend on successful civil service reform and the development of a new culture within public administration. This will not be possible without raising salaries, in order to reduce the necessity for officials to extract bribes. Reforms must extend to the healthcare and education sectors, where corrupt practices are the norm. Improvement in these sectors is particularly important for the credibility of the anti-corruption agenda because public-sector health and education professionals have the most frequent contact with the public.
Properly conducted privatization of SOEs as well as deregulation and simplification of the business environment will further reduce the space for corruption, and will contribute significantly to the ease of doing business. Business, for its part, must improve corporate governance and increase transparency. This is particularly necessary in state-owned companies, which stand to benefit from the appointment of foreign non-executive directors.
The biggest unknown in this process is the future development of Ukraine’s ‘deep state’, the powerful interests that captured so much of its politics, government machinery and economic life before 2014. Bloodied and weakened by Euromaidan, it has retreated and partially regrouped. Its economic model is no longer sustainable, and logic dictates that the development of a larger and more powerful lobby of SMEs will cause its influence to diminish further. The prospect of new political parties appearing that are not business projects, and that genuinely connect society with its representatives, has the potential to further empower democracy, transforming the political process and the conduct of government.
For the moment, the anti-corruption effort is at an embryonic stage. It could be slowed down or partially reversed. The deeper the reforms start to penetrate, the more resistance they are likely to encounter, making it essential that civil society remains engaged and that foreign donors continue to apply conditionality to their support of the government.
The results of anti-corruption reforms in Romania and Bulgaria provide two contrasting examples that Ukraine’s reformers should consider
The results of anti-corruption reforms in Romania and Bulgaria provide two contrasting examples that Ukraine’s reformers should consider. In Romania, following the collapse of communism, it took more than 22 years for the authorities to imprison the first senior government official for a corruption offence. Since that time, the picture has improved: the Romanian anti-corruption agency has energetically pursued hundreds of high-level officials, many of whom have gone to jail. Yet resistance within the system remains, and as the demonstrations of early 2017 showed, Romanian society remains deeply dissatisfied with the ruling party’s attempts to insulate itself from anti-corruption investigations. By contrast, the situation in Bulgaria is far bleaker. Powerful economic interests, allied with organized crime, have strangled efforts to reduce corruption, deterring investment and slowing economic growth. The speed and effectiveness of anti-corruption reforms in the 1990s in Estonia, as compared with the much less successful efforts in Latvia, also provide important lessons that are applicable to Ukraine.
Ukraine does not have the luxury of time. Without a perceptible breakthrough in reducing corruption, investors will continue to stay away, social discontent will rise, and the country risks becoming politically and economically unstable. With political will, anti-corruption reforms need not be a Sisyphean task and can make this scenario avoidable. |
By Kim Se-jeong
Any foreigner seeking Korean citizenship must be able to sing Korea’s national anthem during a naturalization interview.
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of the Ministry of Justice, which declined to grant a woman born in China citizenship in 2010, citing she couldn’t sing the national anthem. She also failed two other tests during her interview.
The woman, surnamed Choi, filed a suit with the court, demanding a reversal of the decision.
“We found the interview criteria and the interviewers’ evaluation were fair. Not only did Choi fail to sing the national anthem, she also failed two other tests. Therefore, we find there are no grounds to call the ministry’s decision unfair and illegal,” said a judge.
Choi married a Korean man in 2004, and applied for citizenship in 2010.
The naturalization process has two tracks.
For marriage immigrants like Choi, it takes two years to apply, and an applicant must pass a face-to-face interview. For other immigrants, an applicant should wait five years to apply and pass both a written test and an interview. |
This week, some misaligned mirrors at the biggest solar thermal energy plant in the US caused an electrical fire that took out one of the plant's three boiler towers. The fire comes as the plant has been under pressure from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for failing to meet its productions targets in the two years since the plant opened.
The solar thermal plant, called the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, is distinct from photovoltaic solar plants in that it doesn't use solar panels. Instead, it relies on an array of 78-square-foot mirrors, known as heliostats, to direct the hot desert sun to one of three 459-foot-high boiler towers. The heat creates steam in the boiler towers, which powers generators to create energy, which is then sold to PG&E and Southern California Edison.
On Thursday morning around 9:30 am, according to the Associated Press, some poorly-aimed heliostats focused the sun's energy about two-thirds of the way up the tower instead of at the boiler at the top of the tower. This caused electrical cables to catch fire, melting and scorching steam ducts and water pipes on the tower. Even though the plant reported that its personnel put the fire out within 20 minutes, NRG Energy told the Associated Press that it did not know when the tower would be back online. A second tower is also down for maintenance, leaving only one boiler tower producing energy for Ivanpah.
The Ivanpah plant has been controversial. Back in early 2014 when the plant went online, pilots complained repeatedly of being blinded by reflections from the plant. NRG Energy mentioned at the time that the pilot-blinding may have only occurred because workers were still testing and adjusting the heliostats. Environmentalists are also torn about the project. On the one hand, the plant will theoretically be able to produce 448,000 MWh of clean energy annually. On the other hand, the reflected sun from the heliostats is so powerful that heat has killed “thousands” of birds, according to the Wall Street Journal, some of which are burned to death. Ivanpah is required to keep close track of these incidents and report bird deaths monthly.
In March, the CPUC called Ivanpah's future into question, noting that it had failed to deliver the amount of electricity it promised it would contribute to the grid since it came online in 2014. Energy from the plant has yet to become cost effective, running about $200 per megawatt hour during the summer and $135 per megawatt hour during the rest of the year. By contrast, solar power sold from traditional plants in 2015 went for about $57 per megawatt hour. According to the Wall Street Journal, the construction of the solar thermal plant was financed with $1.5 billion in federal loans, as well as investment from Brightsource Energy, NRG Energy, and Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google.
The CPUC eventually granted Ivanpah six months to a year to meet production targets for two of its towers. |
Orlando police: Robbery led to fatal shooting of violent felon
Officers responded to reports of gunshots in the 5300 block of Rosegay Court, in the Carver Shores neighborhood, about 12:05 a.m. Saturday, Orlando police Lt. Jose Velez said.
Orlando police are investigating the killing of a violent felon that they say may have been justified.
Tobias Sullivan, 21, was shot dead when he tried to rob another… (Orlando Police Department )
Witnesses gave a description of a sport utility vehicle seen leaving the scene, and an officer stopped the SUV at an apartment complex a few miles away, near L.B. McLeod Road and John Young Parkway.
The man in the SUV told investigators that Sullivan had tried to rob him, Velez said. Police have made no arrests and think the shooting may have been justified, he said. Police did not identify the shooter.
In 2009, a court ruled Sullivan at a "violent felony offender of special concern" hearing that Sullivan was a danger to society.
At the time of his death, Sullivan was awaiting trial on burglary, theft and criminal mischief charges.
He was sentenced to one year of community control and four years of probation in 2009 for burglary, grand theft of a dwelling and battery on a law-enforcement officer. The crimes were committed in 2008, when he was 17 years old.
Sullivan violated his probation and was sentenced a few months later to two years in prison. He was released in November 2010.
Sullivan also was convicted in 2009 of criminal mischief and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana.
[email protected] or 407-540-5981 |
Tim Murray put his scouting cap back on the last couple of weeks. Historically, it’s fit him well.
Before becoming the Sabres’ general manager in 2014, Murray oversaw the drafting of 61 players for Anaheim and Ottawa. More than half (32) have made it to the NHL. You may recognize some names.
Ryan Getzlaf. Corey Perry. Erik Karlsson. Mike Hoffman.
Unlike last month’s study of Darcy Regier’s drafts, a look into Murray’s selections reveals an ability to hit at the top and find sleepers in the later rounds.
Murray was in charge of the Ducks’ drafts in 2003 and 2004 as the director of player personnel, and he served as the Senators’ assistant general manager for the 2008 to 2013 drafts. He looked at future picks during his recent stay at the world junior championships. Here’s a look at his past.
2003
Numbers: The Ducks selected nine players, with four playing at least one game in the NHL. In fact, the four have played at least 500 games each.
Who they picked: Anaheim held the 19th and 28th picks in the first round, and Murray set a Stanley Cup-winning foundation. He picked Getzlaf at No. 19 and followed up with Perry.
The 2003 NHL Draft is regarded as one of the most talented pools ever, and Murray plucked the second- and third-leading scorers. Eric Staal entered the weekend with 814 points in 966 games, while Getzlaf had 771 points in 823 games. Perry was third with 693 points in 844 games.
Who made an impact: The Ducks selected forward Drew Miller in the sixth round and defenseman Shane O’Brien in the eighth. Anaheim did not have a second-round pick.
2004
Numbers: The Ducks selected eight players, with three playing a game in the NHL.
Who they picked: This was Murray’s worst draft – he missed on his second-round pick and the first of two third-rounders – but his selection of Ladislav Smid at No. 9 helped change the Ducks. Before the defenseman suited up in the NHL, Anaheim dealt the prospect to Edmonton as part of the package for Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger.
Who made an impact: Third-round pick Tim Brent played 207 games in the NHL.
2008
Numbers: The Senators selected seven players, with six making it to the NHL. That’s an impressive 85.7 percent.
Who they picked: Defensemen dominated the draft, with Drew Doughty, Zach Bogosian, Alex Pietrangelo, Luke Schenn and Tyler Myers going in the top 12. Murray found arguably the best of the bunch at No. 15, selecting Karlsson.
Who made an impact: The Sens drafted defenseman Patrick Wiercioch in the second round, forward Zach Smith in the third and blue-liner Mark Borowiecki in the fifth.
2009
Numbers: The Senators selected nine players, with five playing in the NHL.
Who they picked: Murray unearthed a gem in the fifth round with the selection of Hoffman. The forward had 56 goals over the previous two seasons and is on pace for 24 this year.
Ottawa took stay-at-home defenseman Jared Cowen at No. 9 overall, leaving first-rounders Dmitry Kulikov and Nick Leddy on the board. However, Cowen had enough potential that he was sent to Toronto as part of the trade that landed Dion Phaneuf.
Who made an impact: The Senators’ first five picks have become established NHLers, including second-round selections Jakob Silfverberg and Robin Lehner. Ottawa sent Silfverberg to Anaheim as key piece of the deal for Bobby Ryan, and the Senators acquired a first-round pick from Murray and the Sabres for Lehner.
2010
Numbers: The Senators selected four players, with one reaching the NHL. They did not have a pick in the first or second round.
Who they picked: Ottawa holds a playoff spot in part because of another late find by Murray. In the sixth round he took Mark Stone, who is Ottawa’s highest-scoring forward.
The Sens didn’t pick until No. 76 in the third round, and forward Jakub Culek is out of hockey after not reaching the NHL.
2011
Numbers: The Senators selected 10 players, with eight playing in the NHL. That’s 80 percent.
Who they picked: Murray had three first-round picks, highlighted by the selection of Mika Zibanejad at No. 6 overall. Stefan Noesen (No. 21) was part of the Bobby Ryan trade. No. 24 Matt Puempel was claimed off waivers by the New York Rangers this season.
Who made an impact: The Senators found forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the fourth round and forward Ryan Dzingel in the seventh.
2012
Numbers: The Senators selected seven players, and two have reached the NHL. Ottawa did not have a second-round pick.
Who they picked: This rivals 2004 as Murray’s worst draft. The Senators used the No. 15 selection on defenseman Cody Ceci, who is a key piece of the Ottawa blue line. Goaltender and third-round selection Chris Driedger has played three games for the Senators, but it’s likely none of the other picks will reach the NHL.
2013
Numbers: The Senators selected seven players, and three have reached the NHL. They did not have a second-round pick.
Who they picked: Ottawa drafted forward Curtis Lazar at No. 17. He entered the weekend 11th in his draft class with 160 games played. Fourth-round selection Tobias Lindberg was also part of the Phaneuf deal, while fellow fourth-rounder Ben Harpur has seen spot duty with the Senators.
It’s too early to judge Murray’s three drafts with the Sabres, but things will bode well for Buffalo if the GM can keep his success rate above 50 percent and flirt with 80 percent again.
HOLBROOK HITS WALL STREET
The New York Stock Exchange celebrated the Professional Bull Riders on Friday with cowboy Jess Lockwood opening the trading. A former Sabres employee shared the stage with him.
Jeff Holbrook, who spent 19 years with Buffalo and now runs a sports marketing agency, took part in the Wall Street event. Holbrook joined the Sabres in 1992 as a media relations assistant before advancing to a variety of jobs, including eight years on Lindy Ruff’s staff as the administrative assistant coach in charge of video. |
Nairaland Forum / Entertainment / Fashion / Weird Fashion Trends From History (PICTURES) (31760 Views)
Weird Things Some Nigerian Ladies Do Just To Have Big & Firm Boobs / Fashion Trends That Rocked 2014 / What Are The Current Nigerian Fashion Trends? (2) (3) (4)
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The iconic image of a Japanese warrior (or today, sumo wrestler) comes complete with a weird hairstyle in which the front of the head is shaved while the remaining mullet is bound up in a bun or topknot. The origin of this bizarre haircut, called "chonmage," goes all the way back to the age of the samurai, as it helped to keep a samurai's helmet on his head.
Since the samurai class were wealthy and influential nobility, it didn't take long for the style to catch on among the Japanese public, who longed to be sword-slinging badasses. Over time, it became traditional for boys turning 13 to shave the front of their heads and adopt the samurai hairstyle to signal that they had become men. Hair neatness was so important in Japan that artists usually employed messy hair as shorthand to represent someone who had been in some way disgraced.
The fashion was pretty widespread until globalization forced the Japanese to realize that the rest of the world found their hairstyles absolutely ridiculous -- which is a ballsy claim, considering everyone in the West was wearing powdered wigs at the time (but more on that later).
A story from 1863 recounts the adventures of two Japanese students who covered their chonmage hairstyles with hats while visiting Holland. When forced to remove the hats at the theater, they caused such an uproar of hilarity that the play had to be stopped, and the story made the national press the next day. It's just another example of a national pastime ruined by racism.
These days, the legacy of chonmage remains almost solely with sumo wrestlers, who are too fat to be bothered with your criticism of their hairstyles. Those Ponytails Stuck on the Top of Samurais' HeadsThe iconic image of a Japanese warrior (or today, sumo wrestler) comes complete with a weird hairstyle in which the front of the head is shaved while the remaining mullet is bound up in a bun or topknot. The origin of this bizarre haircut, called "chonmage," goes all the way back to the age of the samurai, as it helped to keep a samurai's helmet on his head.Since the samurai class were wealthy and influential nobility, it didn't take long for the style to catch on among the Japanese public, who longed to be sword-slinging badasses. Over time, it became traditional for boys turning 13 to shave the front of their heads and adopt the samurai hairstyle to signal that they had become men. Hair neatness was so important in Japan that artists usually employed messy hair as shorthand to represent someone who had been in some way disgraced.The fashion was pretty widespread until globalization forced the Japanese to realize that the rest of the world found their hairstyles absolutely ridiculous -- which is a ballsy claim, considering everyone in the West was wearing powdered wigs at the time (but more on that later).A story from 1863 recounts the adventures of two Japanese students who covered their chonmage hairstyles with hats while visiting Holland. When forced to remove the hats at the theater, they caused such an uproar of hilarity that the play had to be stopped, and the story made the national press the next day. It's just another example of a national pastime ruined by racism.These days, the legacy of chonmage remains almost solely with sumo wrestlers, who are too fat to be bothered with your criticism of their hairstyles. 3 Likes
In certain African and Asian cultures neck rings are worn to assist a woman’s matrimonial chances. Girls as young as two were fitted with spiraled metal coils, and these were gradually increased, some by as much as twenty turns.
The neck doesn’t elongate of course. That’s called execution by hanging and as such is not a very effective fashion trend. What happens is the weight of the collar depresses the collar bone and ribs down to a position forty five degrees below what is normal.
Neck RingsIn certain African and Asian cultures neck rings are worn to assist a woman’s matrimonial chances. Girls as young as two were fitted with spiraled metal coils, and these were gradually increased, some by as much as twenty turns.The neck doesn’t elongate of course. That’s called execution by hanging and as such is not a very effective fashion trend. What happens is the weight of the collar depresses the collar bone and ribs down to a position forty five degrees below what is normal. 2 Likes
The fastest way to identify a movie as a period piece is when everyone important in the film is wearing a stupid-looking wig. Kings and aristocrats, presidents, politicians and composers are always decked out in elaborate white/blond curly wigs, often adorned with plaits, ribbons and bows. In Britain and Australia, judges and barristers still wear them. So who the hell thought that was a good idea?
Blame King Louis XIII of France. The French monarchy had long suffered from a hereditary condition of embarrassing male pattern baldness, and so, tired of being mocked by the King of England, Louis wore a badass wig to show that he was the most virile king around. Before long, his unconventional style became a fashion statement in the royal court, with most of the king's men adopting the elaborate hairpieces, whether they were bald or not.
With France being the center of European culture in the 17th century, anything that was sexy in France quickly spread to the rest of Europe. As aristocrats tried to outdo one another, the wigs, called perukes or periwigs, became more and more fabulous. This led to the creation of a whole industry of wig-makers, who established their own guild in 1665. The wigs became such a part of the culture that you had to wear a wig to move upward in society. By the late 1700s, men were pouring a starch-based powder over their wigs to make them as white as possible.
The wig craze died in England when the government sensed a money-making opportunity and imposed a hefty tax on hair powder. At the same time, a minor incident in France called the French Revolution made it kind of uncool to be seen in public wearing a symbol of the aristocracy. But until then, the peruke phenomenon had been one of the most long-standing and weirdest fashion crazes in European history. All because the King of France was self-conscious about his bald spot. Huge, Ridiculous Powdered WigsThe fastest way to identify a movie as a period piece is when everyone important in the film is wearing a stupid-looking wig. Kings and aristocrats, presidents, politicians and composers are always decked out in elaborate white/blond curly wigs, often adorned with plaits, ribbons and bows. In Britain and Australia, judges and barristers still wear them. So who the hell thought that was a good idea?Blame King Louis XIII of France. The French monarchy had long suffered from a hereditary condition of embarrassing male pattern baldness, and so, tired of being mocked by the King of England, Louis wore a badass wig to show that he was the most virile king around. Before long, his unconventional style became a fashion statement in the royal court, with most of the king's men adopting the elaborate hairpieces, whether they were bald or not.With France being the center of European culture in the 17th century, anything that was sexy in France quickly spread to the rest of Europe. As aristocrats tried to outdo one another, the wigs, called perukes or periwigs, became more and more fabulous. This led to the creation of a whole industry of wig-makers, who established their own guild in 1665. The wigs became such a part of the culture that you had to wear a wig to move upward in society. By the late 1700s, men were pouring a starch-based powder over their wigs to make them as white as possible.The wig craze died in England when the government sensed a money-making opportunity and imposed a hefty tax on hair powder. At the same time, a minor incident in France called the French Revolution made it kind of uncool to be seen in public wearing a symbol of the aristocracy. But until then, the peruke phenomenon had been one of the most long-standing and weirdest fashion crazes in European history. All because the King of France was self-conscious about his bald spot. 3 Likes
The Egyptians produced so much art in their time that you can almost certainly reproduce your average Egyptian fresco from memory with a pencil and paper -- everyone in profile, standing around and staring out with one giant eyeliner-ringed eyeball.
There was a practical purpose behind the distinctive Egyptian chic. It turns out that the Egyptians' affinity for eyeliner served the same purpose as the black smears on a modern football player's cheekbones -- it helped to reduce glare from the oppressive desert sunlight.
Not only was the Egyptian desert bright enough to begin with, but as we've pointed out before, the pyramids were originally covered in a white limestone coating so that every venture outside your hut was like someone shining a spotlight directly into your eyes for 10 hours. Slapping a thick layer of black gunk around their eyes was a minor but welcome relief from the constant light assault the Egyptians were subjected to.
Also, see those little cone things on their heads? They really served as the Egyptian method for dealing with the fact that they all reeked like nothing you could imagine. The lifestyle of a desert environment comes prepackaged with the reality that most of your daily activities are going to revolve around contact with somebody else's sweat. The cones were actually composed of animal fat and perfume, which would melt during the day and produce an aroma to offset their intolerable stench.
That Dark Eye Makeup Egyptians WoreThe Egyptians produced so much art in their time that you can almost certainly reproduce your average Egyptian fresco from memory with a pencil and paper -- everyone in profile, standing around and staring out with one giant eyeliner-ringed eyeball.There was a practical purpose behind the distinctive Egyptian chic. It turns out that the Egyptians' affinity for eyeliner served the same purpose as the black smears on a modern football player's cheekbones -- it helped to reduce glare from the oppressive desert sunlight.Not only was the Egyptian desert bright enough to begin with, but as we've pointed out before, the pyramids were originally covered in a white limestone coating so that every venture outside your hut was like someone shining a spotlight directly into your eyes for 10 hours. Slapping a thick layer of black gunk around their eyes was a minor but welcome relief from the constant light assault the Egyptians were subjected to.Also, see those little cone things on their heads? They really served as the Egyptian method for dealing with the fact that they all reeked like nothing you could imagine. The lifestyle of a desert environment comes prepackaged with the reality that most of your daily activities are going to revolve around contact with somebody else's sweat. The cones were actually composed of animal fat and perfume, which would melt during the day and produce an aroma to offset their intolerable stench. 1 Like
The lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly large discs (usually circular, and made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. The term labret denotes all kinds of pierced-lip ornaments, including plates and plugs.
In many older sources it is reported that the plate's size is a sign of social or economical importance in some tribes. However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate's size often just depends on the stage of stretching of the lip and the wishes of the wearer.
Many recent sources claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as the bride price.
In recent times, facial modifications are increasingly popular.
The Lip Plate CustomThe lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly large discs (usually circular, and made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. The term labret denotes all kinds of pierced-lip ornaments, including plates and plugs.In many older sources it is reported that the plate's size is a sign of social or economical importance in some tribes. However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate's size often just depends on the stage of stretching of the lip and the wishes of the wearer.Many recent sources claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as the bride price.In recent times, facial modifications are increasingly popular.
Footbinding first became fashionable China in around the eighth century and persisted for almost a thousand years. Women were literally crippled by this custom.
A noble woman in Imperial China with normal feet was practically unmarriageable. (Only peasants had normal feet, because they needed to get about in the fields and work. A real lady showed her status by staggering around in agony or having someone carry her.)
While still a small child a rich girl had her feet soaked in a bath of urine and vinegar, then all the toes except the big one were folded under the foot, and secured with tight bandages. This soaking and binding process would continue throughout the girl’s childhood, with the result that the feet never grew more than three inches long
Often this disgusting procedure led to gangrene; this was considered a good thing as the rotting toes would then fall off and cease being a nuisance! The ideal of perfection was to have hardly any foot at all. Foot BindingFootbinding first became fashionable China in around the eighth century and persisted for almost a thousand years. Women were literally crippled by this custom.A noble woman in Imperial China with normal feet was practically unmarriageable. (Only peasants had normal feet, because they needed to get about in the fields and work. A real lady showed her status by staggering around in agony or having someone carry her.)While still a small child a rich girl had her feet soaked in a bath of urine and vinegar, then all the toes except the big one were folded under the foot, and secured with tight bandages. This soaking and binding process would continue throughout the girl’s childhood, with the result that the feet never grew more than three inches longOften this disgusting procedure led to gangrene; this was considered a good thing as the rotting toes would then fall off and cease being a nuisance! The ideal of perfection was to have hardly any foot at all.
Wow 1 Like
#1 is the most shocking and intriguing of them all.
People suffered due to what was deemed aesthetic at the time I KNOW RIGHT !!!#1 is the most shocking and intriguing of them all.People suffered due to what was deemed aesthetic at the time
But some pple dull sha o,imagine feet binding! Nd dat plate carrying lip thng?
God av mercy...weird is an understatement for all wat I jst read nd saw. 4 Likes
Vickii Ro: But some pple dull sha o,imagine feet binding! Nd dat plate carrying lip thng?
God av mercy...weird is an understatement for all wat I jst read nd saw.
I tell you!
In fact, I just googled the definition of fashion once more lol
I wonder what our generations would think about our fashion sense.
I'm yet to get over the foot binding that must have hurt!! damn!! I tell you!In fact, I just googled the definition of fashion once more lolI wonder what our generations would think about our fashion sense.I'm yet to get over the foot bindingthat must have hurt!! damn!!
aniiii:
I tell you!
In fact, I just googled the definition of fashion once more lol
I wonder what our generations would think about our fashion sense.
I'm yet to get over the foot binding that must have hurt!! damn!!
Different strokes for different folks....As long as it hurts,I aint doing it even if its d latest fashion
Wetin? To look" in d now" na by force Different strokes for different folks....As long as it hurts,I aint doing it even if its d latest fashionWetin? To look" in d now" na by force
aniiii:
However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate's size often just depends on the stage of stretching of the lip and the wishes of the wearer.
Many recent sources claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as the bride price.
.... Used to tink dis lip plate stuff was sumtin sum slave trade era sh...t by em slave masters... Din knw twas fashion..
the asian foot stuff s jst STUUUUPID!!!! .... Used to tink dis lip plate stuff was sumtin sum slave trade era sh...t by em slave masters... Din knw twas fashion..the asian foot stuff s jst STUUUUPID!!!! 1 Like
Gzus!!!... foot binding , lip plate *faints*. Gzus!!!... foot binding, lip plate *faints*.
ocephraim:
.... Used to tink dis lip plate stuff was sumtin sum slave trade era sh...t by em slave masters... Din knw twas fashion..
the asian foot stuff s jst STUUUUPID!!!!
we learn new things everyday
ikr!! It is an extremely bizarre fashion idea. we learn new things everydayikr!! It is an extremely bizarre fashion idea.
pocahontess: Gzus!!!... foot binding , lip plate *faints*.
All in the name of fashion ! All in the name of fashion !
Dats bizarre
Neck rings Dats extremly stupid
Worst of dem all, lip plates, jeeez dats nonsence, hw d hell do dey eat Foot bindingDats bizarreNeck ringsDats extremly stupidWorst of dem all, lip plates, jeeez dats nonsence, hw d hell do dey eat 1 Like
I think their lips are the only affected areas.
Surely, the ability to munch is still intact. lolI think their lips are the only affected areas.Surely, the ability to munch is still intact.
Na wa oooo 2 Likes
Blood of Abu Mikey!!!.......I sweri Gad if to say na this Modern era,dem nor go do me like dis oo...cos I nor go gree!! Fuccccck!!!
dat wan na punishment na lol i'm sure you wear male skinny jeansdat wan na punishment na
its d lip plate thing that has me roflmao,its actually making a comebak in d modern era,dis time its called d duckface phenomenon(u kno d faces most ladies make tryin to tak a pic) its d lip plate thing that has me roflmao,its actually making a comebak in d modern era,dis time its called d duckface phenomenon(u kno d faces most ladies make tryin to tak a pic) 4 Likes
yeh, I get you.
But, damn!! I would rather have my lips elongated than to lose my foot yeh, I get you.But, damn!! I would rather have my lips elongated than to lose my foot
I just might add more, great job aniii I thought this was a really cool thread when I first saw it, glad it made front page.I just might add more, great job aniii 1 Like
I think the inspiration for those elongated neck rings must have come from giraffes! 1 Like
However those mofos with gaddemn plates in their mouths must be waiting for manna from heaven.
Where they do that at? - fixing plates permanently in their mouths and shyte.
Those people must be from somewhere in the horn of Africa. I fuxx with the Egyptians - they were trendsetters.However those mofos with gaddemn plates in their mouths must be waiting for manna from heaven.Where they do that at? - fixing plates permanently in their mouths and shyte.Those people must be from somewhere in the horn of Africa. 1 Like
Is that neck for real?
BLIND FASHIONS mteeeeew
Inyanga de pain
Haha diz one na iyonu o.....no b fashion.....
Hmmmm, that foot binding is so gross, it would involve crushing the metatarsals. The lip plate is even nothing to talk about. 1 Like |
During Bellator 145, King Mo’s entry to the RIZIN FIGHTING WORLD GRAND-PRIX 2015 and Gabi Garcia vs Lei’D Tapa’s matchup was announced.
On November 6th, Bellator 145 – VENGEANCE was held at the Scottrade Center St. Louis, Missouri.
Right before the co-main event, RIZIN chairman Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Gabi Garcia, Lei’D Tapa and King Mo entered the cage.
Chairman Sakakibara announced that RIZIN will be aired on Spike TV, and that many big names will participate in the event on New Year’s Eve. The host followed by mentioning that King Mo will be participating in the RIZIN FIGHTING WORLD GRAND-PRIX 2015 tournament representing Bellator, and the matchup between Gabi Garcia vs Lei’D Tapa.
After receiving the Tournament Qualifier board, he stated that “I am happy to be able to fight in Japan. I will become king in Japan as well”. The crowd showed their support with loud cheering and applause. Gabi Garcia and Lei’D Tapa had an intense stare down and quickly got into fight mode.
During the post-fight press conference King Mo said “I am going to Japan and I am going to be the best. I am going to be the best for Japanese fans and I am going to fight hard to get that prize money.
Gabi Garcia, with a confirmed opponent, “I am glad I have a chance to fight Tapa. This is going to be a very tough fight for both of us. She is strong, but I am strong too! She is not easy, but I am ready. I am going to fight for Japan, for my family, for my soul”.
Lei’D Tapa stated “I am so excited! I know it’s is going to be a challenge for me. Gabi is a professional Jiu Jitsu fighter and I am a pro wrestler, we have different style. But I am training very hard with American Top Team in Florida, we training very hard to prepare for Japan, and I will do anything it takes for the win.
RIZIN Fighting Federation Chairman finished by mentioning “This is going to be an intense fight. This will be the fight that everybody will be wanting to witness. Tapa is a fighter with lots of potential, and is not a pushover fight for Gabi.” Who will be entitled as the “Toughest woman”?
Bellator Official Site：http://bellator.spike.com/ |
5 Shots Of Darth Talon’s Enigmatic Cosplay Will Take You Breath Away!
Darth Talon is one of the most enigmatic personalities of Sith Empire, who didn’t get a proper chance to come to the forefront. She has a seductive side that Star Wars can surely utilize in one of its stories either in animated series or the movies. There are many rumors that we may see her in upcoming movies but there is no concrete news from the Showrunners. Darth Talon is extremely famous amongst the cosplayers, and there have been many attempts to bring her character to life, but it’s quite tedious to portray her. However, an incredibly talented cosplayer named Jannet, who is primarily known for her accurate and high-quality cosplays, has brought Talon to the real world for us, and the results are beyond our imaginations. Here are some pictures from her Darth Talon cosplays to blow your minds, enjoy :-
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A House panel Thursday approved a proposal that would make it harder for voters to change the Florida Constitution.
The proposal (HJR 321), sponsored by Rep. Rick Roth, R-Loxahatchee, would require ballot measures to receive the support of two-thirds of voters before they could go into the Constitution.
That would be tougher than the current requirement that 60 percent of voters need to sign off on constitutional amendments.
Voters raised the threshold to 60 percent, from 50 percent, in 2006.
Roth's proposal was approved by the House Oversight, Transparency & Administration Subcommittee.
An identical measure (SJR 866), was filed this month by Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala. Baxley said it is too common for groups to use the constitutional amendment process when they don't get the answers they want from lawmakers.
"This is the village industry of how to go around the Legislature," Baxley said. "The answer is always, 'What do you do when they (lawmakers) are unresponsive?' Well, 'no' is a response. If it's not time, or we don't believe that is the way to go with an issue, you shouldn't be able to just go around and stick it in the state Constitution.” |
While our trusty friends from Hidden Track were all over this a week or so ago, Phish made the news official last night during their second webcast from Portsmouth, VA: The band will release an audio box set of their two shows that were played at UIC Pavilion in Chicago during the year 1994. The six-disc set is due out on July 31st, and we’ve got a few MP3 samples from the set that are mastered with Fred Kevorkian’s magic touch…
The first show Phish is featuring from the set was their June 18th show at UIC Pavilion after stopping by the Danny Bonaduce show at the Loop 97.9 Studios. Check out the “Divided Sky” below…
Phish – “Divided Sky” (Chicago ’94) [MP3]
The band then returned to the city in November to play the night after Thanksgiving; the show opened up with a scorching “Llama” which you can hear below:
Phish – “Llama” (Chicago ’94) [MP3]
There are a few bundles available for pre-order on this and the artwork for the set was done by Pollock; head over to Phish Dry Goods to see the packages.
While the set doesn’t come out for another month and we won’t have it for another week or so (at the earliest), we’re going to feature a giveaway here on Live Music Blog for the Chicago ’94 release.
If you’d like a FREE copy of the Chicago ’94 release shipped straight to your front door courtesy of our friends at Phish and JEMP Records, just drop a comment below and tell us your favorite thing about Chicago and/or a favorite memory about seeing Phish specifically in Chicago . You can say “pizza” as your answer, but that’s boring as hell. Make sure you have a “valid” email address as part of your comment submission so I can get in touch with you if you’re randomly selected to win the prize…. the winner will be notified in a week! |
The federal government might be shut down but Michigan lawmakers are hard at work protecting our right to a good value. Rep. David Knezek (D-Dearborn Heights) and Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) have written a proposal to amend the state Liquor Control Act to make sure that when a pint of beer is offered at a bar or restaurant, customers are getting an “honest pint.”
The bill would officially make it illegal to “advertise or sell any glass of beer as a pint in this state unless that glass contains at least 16 ounces of beer.”
Some bar owners are quietly objecting, arguing that a pint is more of a “description” than an actual measurement of beer. Grand Rapids bar owner Mark Sellers also argues that the law would require bar owners to buy new glassware thus making the transition from existing 12 or 14-ounce glasses very expensive.
A similar bill was proposed in Oregon in 2007 though it failed to pass in the state senate. But government-related pints aren’t uncommon: in the UK, the “Imperial Pint” (19.2 ounces) has been a “government-regulated standard for several centuries” and bars there must use officially marked pint glasses to serve customers.
[Image via Shutterstock] |
The Bethesda teenager in whose home investigators found a cache of assault rifles and bombmaking materials was compiling a list of home addresses for teachers at his former high school, police said yesterday.
Police officials said it was unclear why Colin McKenzie-Gude, 18, was making the list of teachers from St. John's College High School, a private school in Northwest Washington from which he graduated this year.
Also yesterday, police said McKenzie-Gude's father, Joseph L. Gude, 62, was charged with buying guns for his son, including at least some guns that the teenager was too young to own legally. Authorities have not said what, if anything, they think McKenzie-Gude planned to do with the weapons.
McKenzie-Gude turned himself in yesterday afternoon at a Montgomery police station in Rockville. He was charged in a warrant with five counts of possession of a firearm or ammunition by a minor, possession of a destructive device and possession of explosive material, police said.
Police said the guns at the home included assault rifles and a handgun that under Maryland law cannot be sold to anyone younger than 21.
On Tuesday, detectives and fire officials searched the family home in the 6300 block of Rockhurst Road after receiving a tip. Members of the county bomb squad found several assault rifles, two shotguns, one handgun and ammunition, police said.
They also found chemicals that could be used in making explosives, metal pipes and wires, according to fire and police officials.
Joseph Gude was charged with perjury, straw purchase of a firearm and straw purchase of a firearm for a minor not allowed to own the weapon, police said.
Police would not say how many teachers' addresses were on McKenzie-Gude's list.
Sometime yesterday, detectives met with officials at St. John's to brief them on the case, said Lucile Barr, a spokeswoman for Montgomery police. At the time, investigators were concerned for the teachers' safety because McKenzie-Gude was at large, a law enforcement source said.
St. John's officials declined to comment. An English teacher at the school, reached by phone at his home yesterday, said faculty members had been advised not to speak with reporters.
Efforts to reach McKenzie-Gude and his father were not successful yesterday. A man who answered the phone at the home last night said, "Thank you for calling, goodbye," and hung up.
McKenzie-Gude's grandfather, retired Army Col. Joseph L. Gude, 87, of Chevy Chase, said the teenager had been on the rifle team at St. John's and had earned good grades. "I always thought he was very nice, very polite," he said of his grandson, adding that he was "pretty enthusiastic about the rifle team."
Col. Gude added that his son, Joseph, served in Vietnam, spent nine years in the Air Force and has worked for the Treasury Department.
"My son is a well-disciplined man, raised by a pretty stern father," Col. Gude said.
He said that people should reserve judgment about the case and that he doesn't believe the list of teachers was connected to the weapons. "It could have been a Christmas card list or whatever," he said. "I don't think that list meant anything."
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report. |
Original Airdate: May 14, 2012
Written & Storyboarded by: Somvilay Xayaphone & Bert Youn
I’m pretty sure anyone who has seen this episode before knows it as the “rape analogy episode” and to be fair, that’s not a bad way of remembering it. The hug wolves and concept of hugging quite strongly allude to how sex, which is considered virtually good, can be twisted for very violent and inappropriate causes. It’s surprising a kid’s show is tackling a subject like this, but even more surprising to me that it’s a pretty light and humorous episode otherwise. It’s not a “very special episode” or completely dark and serious, but rather tackles a relatively heavy subject matter with plenty of silly and enjoyable scenes to carry it through.
The quest at the beginning I think is a really awesome and energetic start. Feels very mythological, while also incorporating some nice fast-paced intensity as Finn shakes off the Hug Wolf. The allusions to sexual harassment are there in the very first scene, as Finn states that the Hug Wolf “didn’t even ask for his name.”
It’s actually kind of amazing to me just how much they do with the “hugging” conflict in this episode. You have Finn, who is a relatively simple and good-hearted guy, that is completely altered once he gives into his desires, or “curse.” There’s the Candy Baby, who asks his mother why Finn is locked up because “hugs” are considered nice (much like sexual relationships themselves, and how they can turn very toxic in cases where consent isn’t involved) and his mother, who just silences him because he’s too young to understand the weight of the issue. Then there’s Cinnamon Bun, who, despite being opposed to getting hugged by Finn, constantly goes against himself, presumably because he’s lonely and enjoys the attention and idea of being loved. And throughout the episode there’s brief lines like “No hugging! Without consent!” and “uhhh, I have a wife,” that drive the whole metaphor further. These are all very realistic depictions of societal reactions and behaviors to sexual harassment that are kept brilliantly subtle and intriguing by just how many references there are, but as I mentioned, it’s made even better by the fact that all of the examples I listed are still pretty hilarious because all of them deal with hugging. No matter how heavy the implication, the idea that Finn is hugging people without their approval is just hilarious in it’s own right.
BMO’s pretty adorable in this episode, and I love the bit where he’s hiding from Finn and, instead of comforting him, Jake just simply replies “well, that plant’s not gonna protect you.” It’s a pretty hilarious one for Somvilay, with a lot of great touches when it comes to his obscure sense of humor. Like the bit where Finn’s slouched under the bridge, and we briefly see Princess Bubblegum chasing after a cat. What the fuck is the story with that?? I’m guessing that they needed a reason to not include PB in this episode, so that was their excuse. She was chasing a cat. Wonder what the story behind that was. There’s also the fly that lands on Jake’s head in the library and just chills there for like, a full 30 seconds. The reason behind this was so Jake’s expository dialogue wouldn’t seem boring, and it strangely sort of works. I dunno, that gets an odd chuckle out of me.
There’s other great moments in this one, mainly deriving from the victims at Finn’s expense. Mr. Cupcake’s monologue about his frosted drink directly before he gets attacked really cracks me up; Dee Bradley Baker rarely fails to get a laugh out of me when voicing the debonair cupcake man. I love the Pen Ward-Candy dad that protects his daughter with a candy cane gun, and most of all the general stupidity of the other Candy People. There’s the one guy that is mad at Finn but doesn’t feel like walking under the bridge, and then the fellow that solely agrees with the “last guy”, even though the last guy only said, “yeah!” It’s one that’s constantly amusing throughout, and really highlights the goofiness of the Candy People.
The ending closes on a perfect note: as Finn and the alpha hug wolf reunite, they literally “hug it out” and return to normal. The resolution of two people who have similar desires and act on them in consensual and loving way was a pretty great message to me. By the end, Finn and the woman have no intention to carry out their desires in an unhealthy way on other people because they were able to find that healthy balance that hugs are supposed to be intended for. And of course, there’s the very abrupt callback to the beginning where the woman randomly turns back into the Tree of Blight. Another great “what the fuck” moment to close it out.
I do quite enjoy Hug Wolf for a majority of the reasons I mentioned above. It doesn’t take itself too dramatically; it balances metaphorical writing with silly jokes and characters very impressively. It even kind of works as some decent folklore, with a pretty spooky mythical feeling, dark purple and gray colors, and a complimentary apprehensive atmosphere. It’s an episode that has a lot going on at once, and one that I think works well on several different levels.
Favorite line: “When you see the wicker devil in tree afterlife, tell ‘im Jake says, ‘hello.'”
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Meditation’s not some mystical ancient supernatural art for only holy men, it’s a skill that everyone’s capable of learning and should learn. This free book online gives a really good simple to understand explanation of how to accomplish this.
Mindfulness in Plain English
It goes over the various forms of meditation in the world, from prayer and contemplation of the western tradition, to yoga of the hindi tradition, and focuses on Vipassana meditation of the Buddhist tradition. There are many various forms of Buddhist meditation, most center on focusing the mind on a single point, clearing it of all unwanted thoughts. This grants temporary tranquility and peace, catharsis if you will. In Vipassana meditation, although control of the mind is needed, the goals differ. In this form, the ultimate aim is to become completely aware. By increasing awareness of yourself, your ego, your emotions, and everything that makes you who you are, you can gain lasting happiness. The main pathway for increasing awareness is mindfulness through daily meditation. This is a completely understandable and simple thing for people to do, it just needs to become a daily practice, habitual if you will, and peace will come to you in time. Being mindful is simply being aware of everything that goes on within and without. If you get angry because your brother ate the last apple, for example, in a mindful state, you realize that your brother did not make you angry, the anger arises from within you. You are the source of your emotions. Once you realize the truth of this, you do not need to fight them. Accept it as what is and your suffering melts away. It doesn’t take effort per say, just awareness. Once you realize you are the source of everything you experience, reality being in the mind as it is, you can be at peace.
This is just a very brief summary of what Vipassana meditation is, and the goals. If you are interested, please follow the link and read the text thoroughly. It isn’t very long in the grand scheme of things, and outlines a very easy to understand manual for techniques of meditation you can use in your every day life. It stresses that you need not be a holy man or live in a temple or anything to attain peace and personal enlightenment. Any person can follow these techniques in their daily lives and have a lasting shift in their mindset and happiness in life.
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Jared Remy, right, spoke with his attorney during his arraignment on murder charges of Jennifer Martel at Waltham District Court in Massachusetts on Aug. 16, 2013. Photo by Wendy Maeda/Boston Globe via Getty Images
By the time Jared Remy of Waltham, Mass., was arrested for allegedly stabbing Jennifer Martel, his girlfriend and mother of his daughter, to death, he had been a criminal defendant 19 separate times, mostly for beating or stalking various girlfriends. Despite being a familiar face in courtrooms from the age of 17 to 35, Remy—son of Jerry Remy, a local legend in Boston for his long career with the Red Sox, first as a player and then as a beloved sports broadcaster—never really paid for his crimes. Why was such a dangerous, uncontrollable man—who abused the women he dated, the men who dared be around them, and steroids—able to escape justice for so long until he allegedly committed a crime so terrible—stabbing a woman to death in front of neighbors and friends—that his violence has finally become impossible to ignore?
This weekend, the Boston Globe published an extensive investigative report, titled “For Jared Remy, Leniency Was the Rule Until One Lethal Night,” exploring that question. Reporter Eric Moskowitz unspools a lengthy trail of evidence that Remy relied heavily upon his father’s money and status. Remy’s parents reliably bailed him out of jail and provided a high-priced defense attorney for him. There’s no way to measure how much having a beloved father influences a judge’s willingness to believe a defendant didn’t mean it and won’t ever do it again, but after reading Moskowitz’s piece, it’s hard to imagine this didn’t come in to play at some point. (Remy’s lawyer, Peter Bella, had a routine he followed when Remy was arrested: “Remy would waive his right to a jury trial and hope for leniency from a judge.”)
But Remy didn’t just benefit from his family’s privilege. He also benefited from choosing his targets wisely. Most of Remy’s alleged victims are girlfriends and ex-girlfriends, and there are still a lot of cultural barriers that make it hard for the justice system to treat domestic violence with the same gravity applied to other kinds of violence. Some of Remy’s girlfriends refused to testify or, in a few cases, actually testified on his behalf after buying his story that he was sorry and would change. Judges seemed to agree with Remy’s defense that a case was overblown or that he meant it when he said he would stop bothering these women. Parental interventions, such as letting Remy move home or securing him a job at Fenway Park, helped convince judges that he was finally shaping up and would no longer be a danger. Over and over again. It was a perfect storm of wealth, privilege, and interpersonal loyalty that made it impossible for prosecutors to get any of the various charges they threw at Remy to stick.
Then came the death of Jennifer Martel, the fifth in a series of girlfriends who Remy “terrorized” over the years. Remy had been arrested for assaulting Martel in the past, and, according to Kristina Hill, Martel’s neighbor and friend, Remy’s family had been leaning on Martel to go easy on him:
Last August, after Jared Remy allegedly assaulted Martel, slamming her against a bathroom mirror, Martel spent the night at Hill’s apartment next door. Hill said she encouraged Martel to go to court the next morning to extend an emergency restraining order against Remy. But Martel told her that she had promised the Remys she would stay home, Hill said. In his statement, Jerry Remy said the family did not discourage Martel in any way from extending the restraining order. Whatever the reason, Martel did not go to court, and Jared was released. Prosecutors later acknowledged they put too much stock in Martel’s absence. The next night, she was dead.
Reading Moskowitz’s piece is an infuriating and depressing experience, and it’s easy to walk away with one simple thought: Jared Remy is a monster. But there’s so much more. Remy, who Moskowitz calls “the king of second chances,” was able to abuse so many victims without consequences for a variety of reasons: Wealthy, connected people tend to fare better in front of judges than everyone else, and domestic abusers tend to be able to convince their victims and their families that they didn’t mean it and that, if given a second (or 20th) chance, they will do better. The price of giving this man so many opportunities appears to be one dead woman and one motherless child. Now, we have to wait for his trial to see what price he will finally pay. |
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