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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bouthaina Shaaban, an advisor to President Assad, tells the BBC a joint meeting will no longer happen
A UN negotiator is meeting members of both Syria's government and the opposition on Friday, in an effort to end the three-year civil conflict.
But despite hopes of a joint meeting between the two sides, mediator Lakhdar Brahimi is holding talks with each in a different room at a different time.
Both sides blame the other for the separate meetings.
The Damascus delegation has complained about defiant remarks made by the opposition chief Ahmed Jarba.
On Thursday Mr Jarba called President Assad and his regime a "political corpse" which could not be part of Syria's future.
For its part, the opposition has said it will not meet government delegates face-to-face until they have signed a written commitment accepting the Geneva communique drafted 18 months ago, which calls for a transitional government.
Syria's civil conflict has claimed well over 100,000 lives, the UN says.
The violence has also driven 9.5 million people from their homes, creating a major humanitarian crisis within Syria and for its neighbours.
Unprecedented talks
This is the third day of the conference, but the first in which negotiations get under way in earnest.
Mr Brahimi is meeting representatives for the Assad regime in the morning, and will hold talks with opposition delegates later on Friday.
The talks are ostensibly about the implementation of the Geneva I communique, but the views of the government and the opposition are so diametrically opposed that Friday's discussions may get no further than preliminary attempts to set a common agenda, the BBC's Bridget Kendall in Geneva reports.
She says even that may prove difficult: The government is expected to insist on the importance of fighting what it sees as terrorism, while the opposition wants a high priority to be put on the removal of Mr Assad. And now the two sides are no longer going to meet face-to-face at the beginning of the discussions - and perhaps throughout the whole conference.
Diplomats say the setback is not surprising and is not a sign of the talks collapsing.
And analysts are still hopeful that at least some progress can be made.
While the two sides are opposed on many issues, they have both indicated a willingness to talk about concrete steps like local ceasefires, prisoner exchanges and establishing safe corridors for the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Fighting on the ground in Syria is still continuing
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Millions of Syrians have fled the conflict to neighbouring countries
Image copyright Reuters Image caption It is hoped the two sides may at least make progress on local ceasefires
Image copyright AP Image caption Syria's National Coalition head Ahmed Jarba insists there can be no future role for Mr Assad
Assad's role
One of the main sticking points between the government and the rebels is the role of Bashar al-Assad.
Geneva Communique A UN-backed meeting in 2012 issued the document and urged Syria to: Form transitional governing body
Start national dialogue
Review constitution and legal system
Hold free and fair elections Syria summit in words More on the Geneva communique Geneva's key role
The opposition demands his removal from office as a condition for peace.
It is supported in this by many key foreign observers: US Secretary of State John Kerry has called Mr Assad "a one-man super-magnet for terrorism".
But Syrian officials have flatly rejected any suggestion of Mr Assad stepping down, and he has even suggested he will run for president again in elections due this year.
The Syrian government also has its supporters: Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has told the BBC that nobody other than Mr Assad can run Syria at the moment.
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Revolutionary Girl Utena is a series about a high-school girl who challenges gender roles and society’s view on women during the ’90s.
Director Kunihiko Ikuhara Studio J.C.Staff Genre Drama, romance, action, shoujo Original run 1997 Number of episodes 39 Purchase Blu-Ray (Student Council Saga) Purchase from Amazon. Purchase Blu-Ray (Black Rose Saga) Purchase from Amazon. Purchase Blu-Ray (Apocalypse Saga) Purchase from Amazon.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of those anime series that I heard of in passing, rather than hearing it talked about often. While the show had a short run in the ’90s, it was often cited as a significant series for its time. So why is it that I heard very little of it in anime circles? Did it just end up being forgotten in time, where only a few people had actually seen it?
Maybe it was too avant-garde. Maybe its popularity dwindled when other anime came out. Maybe its symbolism flew past people’s heads and it ended being judged as a mediocre anime.
Though I have to admit, viewing this anime left me speechless at times. It’s a strange concoction that appears to have a straightforward premise. It was worked on by some of the same production staff as Sailor Moon, including writer/director Kunihiko Ikuhara. But as it continues, you can’t help but question what actually happened. While being considered a shoujo series, there’s something about it that transcends the stereotypes of a typical shoujo anime. It’s hard to explain, but I’ll do my best here.
The Pink-Haired Prince and the Rose Bride
Titular character Utena Tenjou is one of the most popular girls at Ohtori Academy. She is a sports superstar, a good student, a noble soul, and an all-around great gal. The other female students idolized her and some of the male students took romantic interest in her.
*coughs*
Mary Sue…
*coughs*
God, that’s a nasty cough…
Alright, that’s not entirely true. But we’ll explain in a sec.
Utena meets a bespectacled, dark-skinned girl named Anthy Himemiya, who just so happens to be the most unpopular girl in school. Students physically and verbally abuse her, refuse to socialize with her and even blame her for their own personal problems. Unlike Utena, Anthy is submissive, gentle, has a tendency to smile a lot, and is quite harmless. But after witnessing Anthy’s apparent boyfriend (Kyouichi Saionji) assaulting her, Utena challenges Saionji to a kendo match in order to stand up for Anthy’s sake.
However, things take a weird detour. Utena confronts Saionji at a strange arena, where she defeats Saionji in a fencing match instead, unknowingly having entered a specific pact—the winner of a Duel becomes “engaged” to Himemiya, also known as the Rose Bride. This event sets the plot forward, putting both Utena and Anthy into a series of trials.
Now, let’s go over Utena’s characteristics since her personality is among the most important factors of the show and a subject of debate.
Utena Tenjou was often cited as one of the most progressive anime characters in the ’90s. For one thing, she’s a strong, independent girl who defies the damsel-in-distress trope. She’s a good student, a star athlete who could defeat the boys in matches, and is a tomboy who takes shit from no one.
Yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “I am a strong, independent Japanese high school girl who don’t need no man! Yatta!”
Her brief backstory is crucial to her character. Utena was a princess who lost both of her parents. Then the Prince appeared before her, encouraging her to “never lose your strength or your nobility”—indicated by his gift of the Rose Signet to her. Since then, Utena took his advice to heart and aspired to be a Prince herself.
Yeah, you read that right. She wanted to be a prince, not a princess. And no, it’s not because she wants to become male. She views the role of prince as a courageous, noble soul who protects and inspires others. In other words, she wants to fit into what is typically a male role model: a knight in shining armor. So she cross-dresses into typically male uniforms to stand out from her peers.
Utena lived her life to the fullest, becoming accomplished and gaining the attention of her peers. The Rose Signet is precious to her, as it symbolizes the strength of the Prince. And she would like to meet him one day, in an opportunity to get close to him.
Then there is the mysterious Rose Bride herself, Anthy Himemiya. At first, the anime was ambiguous on what it means to be a Rose Bride. But from what we’ve seen, Himemiya views herself as nothing more than a possession. An object to be desired. She is the main damsel-in-distress in the show, but for reasons you wouldn’t expect. While she comes across this polite and soft-spoken girl, it’s possible that this is merely a facade and that she is fully aware of the trouble she caused. It’s hard to get ahold of what her true nature is. Whoever wins her in a Duel, she will be “engaged” to that person. And the person currently engaged to the Rose Bride will gain the power to “revolutionize the world.”
What does it mean to “revolutionize the world?” Even that is hard to answer.
But whatever it means, Utena’s victory over Saionji draws the ire of the Student Council, a small group of students who desire the Rose Bride for various reasons. The group consists of president Touga Kiryuu, vice-president Kyouichi Saionji, captain of the fencing team Juri Arisugawa, child prodigy Miki Kaoru, and Touga’s little sister Nanami Kiryuu. All of these people became Duelists to possess Anthy Himemiya. But because Utena inadvertently took away Anthy, the Student Council often challenges Utena to a Duel.
Through their allegorical motto, we can get some idea on what the Student Council desires:
If it cannot break its egg’s shell,
a chick will die without being born. We are the chick.
The world is our egg. If we don’t crack the world’s shell,
we will die without being born. Smash the world’s shell!
For the revolution of the world!
Student Council Saga
Episodes 1 – 13 compose the Student Council Saga, starting with Utena defeating Kyouichi Saionji in a Duel. At some point or another, the Student Council members develop a strong desire for something (usually something related to relationships), prompting them to desire the Rose Bride’s power.
The Duels take place at the top of a tower with a rose statue, only accessible by people who possess a ring called the Rose Signet. Every member of the Student Council has one. However, Utena received hers from the Prince she met long ago. As if destiny is calling out to her, Utena climbs a circular tower to the top, where a giant castle floats upside-down in the sky. And at the area, she will fight her opponent in a fencing match.
Each person wears a colored rose on their chest. And whoever can take the opponent’s rose out is the winner and becomes “engaged” to the Rose Bride.
While the Student Council is the antagonistic force here, they’re not necessarily evil. They’re all people who feel trapped by something, such as a toxic relationship or a desire to be a better person. Despite their skill as fencers and Duelists, they all eventually lose to Utena in a match, who was never seen practicing fencing even once in the series.
And thus the Revolutionary Girl Utena series follows an episodic formula: the episode focuses on a secondary character and explores that character’s backstory and relationships. Eventually, that character falls into despair and desires the Rose Bride, therefore challenging Utena into a match. Utena confronts her challenger at a Duel and claims her victory.
You might say Utena in this case is OP since she doesn’t practice fencing at all (she even claims she doesn’t enjoy fencing), but even these Duels might be considered more allegorical than literal. Duels appear to be a test of willpower over skill, which may explain the bizarre location of the arena and random desks/cars sprouting about. Utena rarely feels doubt and despair throughout the series, giving her a clear advantage over her opponents. And most of her opponents lose in a Duel because they were distracted by their personal issues. The Student Council was composed of clearly skilled fencers, but their willpower wasn’t strong enough to defeat Utena. That’s why she’s always the victor, no matter who she faces against.
Spoilers Utena lost once to Touga Kiryuu, because he reminded her of the Prince. This is one of the few times where Utena truly felt weak and powerless, to the point where she was ready to sacrifice her unique traits and personality to revert to a typically more feminine role. But her close friend Wakaba Shinohara reminded her that she changed for the worse and that it is unlike Utena to act like this. Utena eventually complied, her willpower renewed, and defeated Touga in the next Duel. Utena also lost to the final antagonist of the show, Akio Ohtori, after Anthy betrayed her. Not only was this ending shocking, but it actually became Utena’s own undoing. This loss may have been her last. [collapse]
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Black Rose Saga and Onward…
At this point, you should be catching on to the surreal nature of this show.
In the middle of an episode, you will see these mysterious shadows of girls named E-ko and F-ko, a duo that composes the Kashira Shadow Players—named after their habit of saying かしら (meaning “I wonder”). On the surface, they appear to be stereotypical gossip girls or drama students. But sometimes, their cryptic dialogue is thematic of the current episode or even foreshadows a new kind of threat to happen later in the series.
Even Ohtori Academy feels off, with its more European-style architecture and rooms full of stone and mirrors. The school itself feels like it could come out of a fairy tale. And whenever Utena passes through the door with the rose statue, it’s like she entered a different realm: a spiral staircase leading to an arena, with a floating castle in the sky. And sometimes, desks, shadows of human bodies and red cars litter the arena.
The strange part is that the characters of the show don’t really treat these things as a big deal, as if it’s normal. The plot is mostly treated as straightforward and serious with some subtle elements here and there. But Utena questioned the strangeness only once and she just sort of accepts it.
I should probably mention that Kunihiko Ikuhara is a fan of David Lynch, to the point of wanting to work with him someday. I think that speaks for itself.
The show also seems to draw inspiration from a ’70s-’80s manga/anime called The Rose of Versailles, a clearly French-inspired series. Interestingly enough, Ikuhara denied this was the case. かしら! かしら!
The Black Rose Saga (ep. 14 – 24) brings in a new antagonist, a pink-haired man named Souji Mikage. Souji spent time in brainwashing some of the students (including relatives and friends of the Student Council), using their own despair to transform them into Black Rose Duelists. And instead of capturing the Rose Bride, they blame her for their problems and want to kill her. While potentially interesting because it served to develop new character arcs while resurrecting old ones, the events overall felt inconsequential. Utena even had to face her friend, a brainwashed Wakaba Shinohara, in a Duel. But this Duel doesn’t seem to affect their relationship in the least. Also, Souji vanished from the plot after his Duel with Utena. It seems like the Student Council is the only group of people suffering from Souji’s actions.
The Akio Ohtori Saga (ep. 25 – 33) introduces a new antagonist… named Akio Ohtori. Not only is he the older brother of Anthy Himemiya, but he is also the chairman of the Ohtori Academy. The plot takes an interesting turn here since Akio has a strong resemblance to the Prince and that he romances Utena throughout the season—yeah, this older man is romancing a 14-year old girl. Figure that one out. And using his adult charms, Akio manipulates Utena to keep fighting in the Duels.
However, the problem with this saga is that it pits Utena against the Student Council AGAIN, making the Duel encounters feel redundant. This goes true when Utena herself doesn’t have a personal stake in these Duels, other than keeping Anthy Himemiya as her friend.
These episodes are particularly notable for having a new segment, where Akio and Touga in a shiny, red car with a Duelist. Akio and Touga use their charms to tempt the Duelist with the power and freedom of adulthood, and the Duelist challenges Utena the next day.
There is also a notable episode where Utena fights Ruka Tsuchiya, the previous captain of the fencing team. Notable, mainly because he was a new character at the time. Do you see why repetition is harmful to the show?
The Apocalypse Saga (ep. 34 – 39) is by far the best saga, simply because it moves the story forward and doesn’t linger on old concepts. It’s also a show of noticeable character development and some plot twists.
So with that said, I think you know what’s the biggest issue with Revolutionary Girl Utena: the seemingly endless repetition.
Here’s the formula for a typical episode:
Slice-of-life segment between Utena, Anthy and maybe other characters. Episode introduces a character and his/her dilemma. Occasionally, we see the Student Council on an elevator while Touga Kiryuu recites their motto. Things are not going the character’s way, eventually leading him/her to despair. Random Kashira Shadow Players short. Additional segment: Starting from Black Rose Saga, character enters elevator and spills out all his/her problems to Souji Mikage. Then that character becomes a Black Rose Duelist. Starting from the Akio Ohtori Saga, a segment of a Duelist during an evening drive with Akio and Touga. Character challenges Utena to a Duel to win (or kill) the Rose Bride. Stock footage with stock music plays of Utena climbing the tower to the Duelist arena. Stock footage of Utena summoning the Sword of Dios, which magically appears from Anthy Himemiya’s chest—which probably inspired the “pulling-weapons-out-of-girls’-chests” thing in the anime Guilty Crown. Short battle with swords clashing. The spirit of Dios appears to merge with Utena. Then, Utena deals the final blow and defeats her opponent. Things are either okay again or even worse.
By operating on this formula, you pretty much know what to expect from most episodes. And when you keep on doing this, you’re giving little room for innovation and tension. Anime series like Pokémon and Sailor Moon also suffered from this same problem, a trope called Monster of the Week. In this case, Revolutionary Girl Utena is Duelist of the Week.
And because of that, watching this show can be a real chore sometimes. It can get dreadfully boring in certain parts, because it felt like you’ve seen it all before.
Another flaw is the Duels themselves. They’re not terribly interesting because of the stock footage and reused animations. And since Utena wins pretty much every time, you already know the outcome of the Duels.
Art and Symbolism
Noticeably, every major character in the show is portrayed as either handsome or gorgeous. No, seriously. Look at how many times we’ve seen Akio Ohtori and Touga Kiryuu shirtless. Look at the number of attractive women who gained a major role for at least one episode. Even Anthy Himemiya, who was often a target of abuse and bullying, is a dark-skinned beauty who looks even more gorgeous with her hair down.
The setting of Revolutionary Girl Utena feels like a young girl’s bizarre fairy tale. The backgrounds look like saturated illustrations from a child’s book and the characters are bright and colorful, with the soundtrack being close to classical music. Furthermore, the premise is about a princess wanting to become a prince, just so she could meet the Prince who inspired her to continue living.
When Utena lost her parents, she also lost her will to live. A young Touga Kiryuu and Kyouichi Saionji even found her resting inside a previously empty coffin, awaiting her own death. It wasn’t until Prince Dios appeared before the young Utena that she found a new purpose in life.
And in a world like this, it seems perfectly natural for Utena to make good on her promise to become a prince, turning her into a natural-born winner. She freely pursues her passions, keeps a moral code, retains her nobility and uses her image to inspire those around her. She defies gender stereotypes—even going as far as defying school authority—to prove that societal views on gender shouldn’t restrict a person’s potential. The world seems to revolve around her ideals, making her a seemingly perfect candidate to “revolutionize the world.”
The interesting thing about Utena’s character is that she doesn’t reject her feminine qualities in favor of the more masculine qualities she adapted to over time. It’s even implied that Utena may be bisexual, since she clearly expresses her interest in boys and has no qualms in hugging/kissing/touching other girls—don’t take that the wrong way, though. The way the anime portrays it is quite implicit. Utena fearlessly embraces both her male and female qualities, and she can’t be herself any other way. She’s a girl, but one with a strong sense of chivalry and the need to protect other girls—just as the Prince had done so for her.
And this is what draws Utena towards Anthy. Before Utena, Anthy had no friends to support her. No shoulder to cry on. So Utena volunteered to be Anthy’s “prince” and befriended her, in hopes that Anthy would develop the courage to break free from restrictions that her schoolmates placed upon her. Though their relationship never extends beyond platonic in the anime series, they seem to be made for each other. This is why Utena does her best to win every Duel—Anthy completes her. Anthy gave her a reason to continue fighting.
But alas, every rose has its thorns.
Anthy Himemiya herself is like a rose: a symbol of promise and hope, but also loss and thoughtlessness. Throughout the series, every Duelist (including Utena herself) becomes obsessed with taking possession of the Rose Bride. The desires of the Rose Bride will sway to the desires of those she became engaged to. Behind Anthy’s kindly smile and display of beauty is a more savage side.
The anime makes it painfully clear that you need to understand the rose symbolism. We often see Anthy tending to a rose garden in the school. The Duelists wear a ring with a rose insignia on it. Anthy herself is called the Rose Bride.
Anthy Himemiya is hope incarnate. She will become the winning Duelist’s hope, while the losing Duelist will feel empty afterward. She will only remain friends with Utena just as long as she is still engaged to Utena. The Duelists want to gain possession of her, so that they would move past their own struggles.
The anime also features some surreal humor, with the main culprit being Nanami Kiryuu. Nanami is very much the image of the rich, spoiled girl: vain, petty, immature and obsessed with popularity. As a result, she forms a one-sided rivalry with Utena. But to complicate matters even more, Nanami’s brother Touga had a romantic interest in Utena. Nanami, harboring a deep love for her brother to possibly the point of incest, became jealous and resentful as a result. Nanami’s reason for living is to maintain the affection she receives from her brother. Anyone (or any cat) that comes between her and Touga is a threat.
And while there is some serious drama to Nanami, she’s also the main target for humor. There is one weird episode where she literally turns into a cow, possibly as a metaphor for her personality. She’s like a stubborn cow, get it? And in another weird episode, she had apparently laid an egg.
…You read that right. What the fuck.
Nanami was a naive child who would hold grudges over petty reasons. But as the series progresses, she receives some character development: learning to be more considerate of others and making more rational decisions. Eventually, she even learns to become independent from Touga, slowly inching forward towards adulthood.
Quite a few characters, especially those of the Student Council, undergo this journey as well. Touga is seeking a significant other to match his own talents. Kyouichi desires a loyal partner and something to defeat his rival Touga once and for all. Juri wants to move away from her past grief from a toxic relationship. Miki wants someone that he can relate to in order to compensate for his lonely life as a child prodigy, in the form of true love. All of these characters are aware that they’re still children (hence the chick and the egg motto) and they desire to become adults. This is why Akio Ohtori was able to easily influence them. He manipulated this one desire so he could pit them against Utena.
Generally speaking, there’s a LOT to Revolutionary Girl Utena that you can easily miss if you don’t pay attention. This, in itself, can be a challenge, considering the tedious nature of the story arcs, the redundant conflicts, and the overbearing motifs—more than I’m willing to talk about in this review. Seriously, if I do, this review would turn into a giant research paper and I don’t want that.
And despite my grievances with the anime, Revolutionary Girl Utena is a unique experience and a work of art. On its surface, it’s a basic story about a teenage girl seeking her life’s ambitions and coming to grips with reality as she comes of age. On an intellectual level, it’s a challenging and complicated show that needs to be analyzed in order to gain a deeper appreciation for its story choices and characterizations. It’s a story that challenges gender roles and tackles more specific topics such as feminism, love, sexuality, abusive relationships, social constructs, desires, loss and future goals. Even something more taboo like (implicit) incest.
Yes, it’s a lot to take in. But just pull off an Utena and bravely charge forward with eyes ahead. This is a good classic series if you’re seeking an anime with a lot of subtext.
Alas, there’s more to discuss for later. After all, there’s a movie called Adolescence of Utena. Whew, boy…
Revolutionary Girl Utena Price Varies 8.4 STORY 8.0/10
CHARACTERS 8.0/10
ART & ANIMATION 9.0/10
SOUNDTRACK 8.5/10
Pros Utena Tenjou is a likable, strong female protagonist and her character arc is both deep and unique.
Plenty of interesting side characters with backstories that tackle adult issues.
The unique blend of art styles based on shadow puppetry, Takarazuka theater, and classic douseiai-style shoujo manga.
Pleasant soundtrack mixing classical with the occasional rock music.
The amount of depth into the motifs and themes. Cons The show is very repetitive and the plot tends to take a while to move forward.
The Duels aren't terribly interesting because of the stock footage and reused animations.
Anti-climactic and ambiguous ending. Amazon (Student Council Saga) Amazon (Black Rose Saga)
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Preview: Noisy Red Menace
The eagerly awaited Hawaii GPU got its official brand last month and now it’s finally official and available for less than 500 euro, or 549 greenbacks. The big kahuna, the faster of two cards based on Hawaii XT is known as the Radeon R9 290X, while the Hawaii Pro version is the R9 290.
The new Hawaii XT chip is the first significant "big core” GPU from AMD since the launch of the Radeon 7000 series in Q4 2011. It took a while before the Tahiti 28nm chip got a serious successor that could step on Nvidia’s toes. Not only that, but in many cases the R9 290X can bring the fight to Nvidia’s new Geforce GTX 780 Ti, and keep in mind that NV’s new card is quite a bit pricier. Even the Geforce Titan ends up slower than the R9 290X in Über mode, but we can pretty much forget about the Titan from a gaming perspective. We reckon it will be discontinued soon.
A year ago people started talking that AMD will simply pull out of the big core business both in the graphics space and in CPUs. People predicted that the future is in smaller, more flexible cores, like GK104 and Pitcairn XT chips that will perform well and won’t end up with 4+ billion transistors. Nvidia designed the GK110 for the compute market and then introduced it to gaming with whopping 7.08 billion transistors and a year later AMD has introduced Hawaii, yet another immense GPU.
AMD’s Hawaii is a 438 mm2 chip with 6.2 billion transistors, 2816 stream processors (44 Compute Units x 4 SIMD-Units x 16 Slots), 176 Texture mapping units (44 Compute Units x 4 Texture units) and 64 Render outputs (4-Shader engines x 4-ROP-Partions x 4-ROPs), texture fill rate of up to 175 GT/s and up to 64Gpixels a second. It has a new 512-bit memory interface (8x 64-Bit-Controller) coupled with 4GB of GDDR5, ensuring a data rate up to 5 Gbps and 320GB/s data bandwidth.
If you look at the table below, this means that the chip is roughly twice as powerful as the old R9 270X.
DirectX 11.2 is supported along with OpenGL 4.3 and AMDs own new low level programming interface known as Mantle (which is also supported on all AMD cards based on GCN).
During its latest event AMD also announced TrueAudio, but this hardware-accelerated audio processing feature is not supported by older GPUs, including Tahiti parts. At the moment, only Bonaire and Hawaii XT/PRO based cards support TrueAudio. Lichdom, Murdered, Star Citizen and Thief will the first games with TrueAudio support, according to AMD.
AMD’s Radeon R9 290X works up to 1000MHz depending on how hot it gets in the process. Overall, it is a rather hot card as its target temperature is just 5 Celsius of short of water boiling point 100 degrees Celsius, but the card runs stable. And no, you can’t use it to brew an espresso. It will be remembered as the first reference card in a while that comes with dual bios settings: Über, a noisier setting that will allow overclocking and enable super-fast performance and the Normal bios that will keep the GPU a bit cooler and result with slightly lower performance.
The surprisingly low $549 suggested retail price made it instantly very competitive with Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 780 card as well as the Titan. Nvidia responded with the Geforce 780 Ti, making things more interesting. Nvidia’s card is cooler and quieter but at $699 it’s quite a bit more expensive. We will leave this part for later discussion after we run some benchmarks.
Radeon R9 290X was born in Hawaii and got quite a lot of coverage from top gaming and hardware outlets around the world. It came at the right time, just as the PC gaming reboot kicking off with some great games that came out earlier this year and the ones that are rolling out in time for the holidays. Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Batman Arkham Origin as well as Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty Ghost make for a very impressive line-up. Some great driving games such as Dirt Showdown came out too and we won't forget GTA 5 that generated a billion dollars of revenue practically overnight. Assassins Creed for all Jonny Depp lovers is another awesome looking game.
Despite the fact that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are rolling out, GPUs and PC gaming have never been stronger. The reason is simple - the Radeon R9 290X and Geforce 780 Ti are much faster than the graphics part inside of these great consoles and deliver visual quality you’ve never seen before, at a price of course. Let's see how they compare.
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Dota 2 Viewers Guide For SC2 Fans August 3rd, 2013 19:50 GMT Text by tree.hugger Graphics by shiroiusagi
Table of Contents
Why would I be interested in Dota
The Very Basics
The International 2013
Advanced Viewer Concepts
Follow TI3 on
Liquipedia Follow TI3 on
Dota 2 Viewers Guide
For The StarCraft Man By Tree.Hugger
So you've heard about The International 3. Perhaps you have some friends who've been begging you to play Dota 2, and they've convinced you to watch TI3 with them. Perhaps you heard about TI3 when Blizzard scheduled the WCS finals for the same days. Perhaps you follow organizations who have teams going to the event. Perhaps you just heard about it somewhere along the line and are tuning in because you're looking to give Dota 2 a chance.
But you're a Starcraft fan. You like RTS games. You like the strategy and speed and mechanics that come with the genre. You're not so sure about these other types of games (MOBA? ARTS? what to even call them?) and are a bit annoyed that they sometimes take the hype away from the Starcraft series.
Still, you're here. You're reading this. You're willing to give Dota 2 a shot. You may not know all 100+ heroes or 100+ items. But you're not daunted. It's free to play. It's the most popular game on Steam. If so many people can love this game, maybe you can too.
This guide is for you, wayward Starcraft fan. Dota 2 is a superb game and this is going to be an incredible tournament. Give it just a bit of your time this weekend and you'll be hooked.
Why would I be interested in Dota 2?
There exists a connection between the Starcraft community and the Dota 2 community that is unlike any other two games. Teams like Team Liquid and Alliance who have been very selective about which games to invest in have chosen just those two titles. Players like BabyKnight have gone from Dota to Starcraft, and players like SeleCT have gone from Starcraft to Dota 2 (and then back again).
It starts with the history. The very first game in the ARTS genre (ARTS; Action Real Time Strategy, is the term preferred by the Dota 2 community) was a Broodwar custom map entitled "Aeon of Strife". It gained quite a bit of popularity worldwide among BW players. When Warcraft 3 came out, the entire concept was rebuilt in that game. The result was DotA - Defense of the Ancients. It became the most popular custom game in WC3, and is the exact model for Dota 2.
What attracts many modern day Dota 2 players to it is that it is as much a game of skill and strategy as Starcraft. When Team Liquid
Dota is a game with incredible depth. Just like in StarCraft where you can play one race all your life and never truly master it, Dota is a game where you are always learning new things. The game has a harsh and brutal skill curve that requires many of the same qualities out of top players as Brood War and StarCraft 2. It requires practice, experience, and knowledge. Ultimately, it comes down to the ability to think strategically and make fast, smart decisions.
Dota 2 is a game that is as brutally unforgiving as Starcraft. A single mistake from one player can lose a game. From the opening draft of heroes to the endgame, each player must maintain an unbreakable focus on the details of each moment, while at the same time keeping in mind a larger objective and strategy. In that sense, it mirrors the dual nature of macro and micro that will be familiar to any Starcraft player. While Starcraft certainly has a higher physical and mechanical demand, Dota 2 at times demands more from a player mentally. A split second lapse in concentration can lead to a player being out of position, and can swing the result of a series.
Starcraft 2 and Dota 2 share more than just a common ancestor; they both are games where it is impossible to play perfectly, where the skill ceiling is miles away, and where strategic thinking and execution reigns supreme.
The Very Basics
Chances are, you know something of the basics of Dota 2. But just in case you're totally unfamiliar with the concept, what follows is a basic introduction to the way Dota 2 works. Many readers will be justified in skipping over this part. But for those of you for whom this is useful, you probably won't enjoy TI3 without a rudimentary knowledge of how the game functions.
The Objectives
The point of a game of Dota 2 is to destroy the opposing team's "ancient", which is a structure in the middle of each team's base. There are three entry ways to each team's base, and a path that leads to each, which is called a "lane". Along each lane are three "towers" which are pieces of static defense like photon cannons. Each team in Dota will try to knock down the opposing team's towers, break into their base, and destroy their ancient. How each team goes about achieving this in the face of the other team's opposition creates the conflict in the game.
The map of Dota 2
In Dota 2, the opposing sides are "The Radiant", who begin in the bottom left, and "The Dire", who begin in the top right. It is easy to tell which side of the map you are on at all times. The Radiant side is bright, with green grass and trees, with white stone. The Dire side is dark and foreboding, with a burned out forest and cinder-covered ground. There is only one map used in Dota 2, but it has a lot to offer and is considered quite balanced. Yet while both sides have the same amenities, they are asymmetrical and there are unique but small advantages to either side. At the level of most Dota players, these edges are insignificant, but at the pro level you may see a certain team pick one strategy only on the Radiant or Dire side.
The map and both factions is split by a river, which runs from the top left to the bottom right. The river is a crucial map element as it provides the quickest way to move from lane to lane. It also contains the one obvious difference between the Radiant and Dire sides. On the Dire side of the river, slightly down/right of center, is a big red opening. This is the lair of Roshan, a large monster who can be killed by either side with significant benefits. It is considered easier for the Dire team to kill Roshan.
The Gameplay
Just like in Starcraft how players work to mine minerals and vespene gas to build bigger and bigger armies, players in Dota 2 work to "farm" "gold" and "experience" for their heroes. How they do this is unique, however. At the start of the game, three groups of units (called "creeps") are created at each of the entrances to the bases of both teams. They then charge across the map at the other team's base, one in each lane ... until they meet the enemy creeps. Of course, the fights are quite even, and without the imposition of the heroes both bases would continue throwing units at each other until the end of time.
But in Dota 2, players begin the game by standing in each lane and attempting to get the last hit on enemy creeps. Each last hit gives that hero gold. Every enemy creep that dies nearby will give the hero experience. Thus, the game begins with both sides attempting to time their attacks to get the final hit on dying units to collect their bounty. Gold and experience are also gained when one team kills off a hero on the other team, or takes down Roshan. A team will globally gain gold, but not experience, if they destroy an enemy tower. Gold is also passively gained by all players throughout the game, but the rate is quite slow.
Each side of the map also has several "camps" outside of the lanes which are locations that contain neutral creeps that spawn every minute. The area outside of the lanes is called the "jungle", and some heroes can fight the creeps in the jungle at level one. Thus, they may begin the game in the jungle killing creep camps, and avoid lanes entirely. This is called "jungling", and heroes that do this are called "junglers".
The point of collecting gold and experience is so that the player can buy powerful weapons or armor, and gain levels and increase the strength of their spells. Each hero may hold six items at a time, and each hero my progress all the way to level 25. The more last hits you land, and the more creeps that are killed in your vicinity, the more powerful and versatile your hero can be.
The Heroes
Not all heroes are created equal, and the differences between the 100+ unique characters is a huge part of what makes the game interesting. Some heroes have powerful magic spells or physical abilities. Others have abilities which buff the entire team. Still others have few spells or abilities, but may hit their opponents very hard with basic attacks. Each of these heroes has a role to play in different teams.
For the purposes of competitive Dota, heroes are generally understood to be divided into two roles: support and cores. These are not always hard and fast divisions. Some heroes are capable of playing multiple roles. Throughout TI3, you will doubtless see different teams using the same hero in different ways. Each team however, WILL draft at least one hero to support, at least one hero to carry, and likely one to three core heroes.
The distinctions between heroes come from the amount of farm (gold and experience) that they need to be effective. There is a limited amount of space on the map, and limited opportunities to get gold and experience. When two players occupy the same space, and try to get last hits on the same creeps, they will end up sharing the spoils. Every Dota 2 team, from the professionals to the amateurs, will make choices about which heroes will be allowed to gain the most gold and experience.
Support heroes are given the least farm on the team. This is because they usually have a diverse toolkit of spells that are useful throughout the game. They do not need items or as much experience to be useful. Support heroes tread a dangerous path. On one hand, they must defer to all of their teammates, actively avoiding last hits and occasionally even staying out of experience range. On the other hand, they must find some farm as to avoid being too weak in the late game. New players often assume that supports are the worst players on the team because they appear to fill the weakest role. Nothing could be farther from the truth. All the teams at TI3 field support players who know how to change the game early, when their heroes are relatively the strongest, and late game when they can be easily killed by the enemy if they make a single wrong step. Good teams often win games entirely because of their supports making tough plays.
Cores are heroes that need at least some farm to be successful. There are several subcategories that fall under this, such as "initiator", "ganker", "semi-carry", and "carry". It is easy to identify heroes being played as a core because they usually start the game all alone in one lane (usually the middle and one of the side lanes), or receive most of the farm in a lane with multiple heroes.
Carry heroes are one type of core hero and are given the most farm on the team. They are almost always heroes that hit hard and fast with their basic attack ("right-click or auto-attack damage", the equivalent of "1a") and benefit the most from bigger and stronger items. The later the game goes, the more important the carry heroes become. If the game goes late enough, you may see carry heroes become strong enough to defeat the entire opposing team singlehandedly...unless the enemy carry is also present. You can identify carry and support players at the beginning of many games because they will usually begin in the same lane. The (often two) support players will stay close to the carry ("babysitting") and protect him from harm while he gets last hits and experience.
How to watch
At its most basic, keep track as players accumulate gold and experience. Most casters will use Dota 2's interface options to show either "CS" (meaning "creep score" or the last hits of each player), the hero levels, or the "networth" of each hero, which is somewhat analogous to checking the army supply and worker supply tabs. See which team has more gold and experience. Chances are they're leading the game.
Also notice which teams are close to each other's base. Is one team constantly invading the other team's territory? Keep track of which team has destroyed more towers on their enemy's side.
Finally, watch the big numbers at the top of the screen, which count the number of hero kills achieved by either side. While it is more than possible to win a match with less kills, in most cases the winning team does end up killing the other heroes more often.
The Tournament
The International 2013 is the largest tournament in the history of esports. The winning team will receive a grand prize of over $1,350,000. This prize is partly created by the purchases of the TI3 "
This is the third annual "International". The first was held in 2011 and was contested by many DotA 1 teams who had barely touched the game. The finals (and $1 million top prize) was won by the Ukrainian team Natus Vincere (Na`Vi) over the Chinese team EHOME. In 2012, the tournament was much larger and was held offline in Benaroya Hall in Seattle, where it is being held again this year. The winning team was the Chinese squad Invictus Gaming (iG), who defeated Na`Vi in the finals.
This year, the prize pool has grown, the game is finally out of beta, the players are better, the scene is stronger, and as a result, the hype is at a crescendo. Many view this tournament as Dota 2's coming out party, a tournament that will attract fans (like yourself) of every other esport and sell them on Dota 2. The stakes for everyone involved are incredibly high.
Pick a Team!
The International 3 will be much more fun for you if you pick a few teams to cheer for. Below is the cliff notes version of each of the fifteen teams invited to TI3, as well as the two squads who will be competing in the play-in game.
Invictus Gaming
+ Show Spoiler + The champions of TI2 are returning with the same line-up that they won with a year ago, one of only two teams to do so (LGD.cn being the other). Presumed the best team in the world until this spring, they were shockingly destroyed at the G-1 League finals (a major Chinese offline event) and have looked shaky ever since. Rumors of internal divisions, strategic dysfunction, and poor play continue to dog them heading into TI3. Once the presumptuous favorites, now nobody knows where they will finish - though it is important to know they were considered to be on shaky ground before last year's event as well.
Player to Watch: Chuan (Support)
You'll like them if you like: Tortured genius
+ Show Spoiler + The winners of TI1 and the runner-up of TI2, Na`Vi is the most popular and revered Western team. Known for sometimes weak online performances, Na`Vi has established a reputation for bearing down and delivering huge results in a LAN setting. Coming into TI3, however, they have looked extremely strong both offline and online. They recently went to China and stunned the top Eastern teams to win a major event and won The Defense, a large European league, immediately after. While they went through a bit of roster turmoil this year, picking up two new players, their core three of captain Puppey, midlaner Dendi, and carry XBOCT are unchanged since TI1. They are considered one of the favorites to win TI3.
Player to Watch: Dendi (Mid)
You'll like them if you like: Fan favorites
LGD.China
+ Show Spoiler + After a perfect 16-0 run in preliminaries last year at TI2, LGD finished in third place. They are the only other team to return their entire line-up from TI2, although they did experience some roster drama that saw their invite to TI3 revoked. They were forced to qualify instead, which they did easily. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride of Chinese Dota, they have eagerly stepped into the void created by the recent fall of iG. LGD is known for their patient, methodical, defensive style of play. It gets big results. They are thought to be among the favorites to win TI3.
Player to Watch: Sylar (Carry)
You'll like them if you like: Perseverance, consistency
DK
+ Show Spoiler + DK placed fourth at TI2. The Chinese team is talented all throughout the line-up, but is known especially for just one of their players: BurNing, their carry. A legend of Chinese DotA, BurNing has said that he will retire after TI3. That means it's now or never for the 24 year old veteran. DK is sometimes described as a favorite for TI3, and sometimes as a dark horse.
Player to Watch: BurNing (Carry)
You'll like them if you like: Final shots at redemption
Zenith
+ Show Spoiler + The Singaporean/Malaysian side finished tied for 5th at TI2. They have undergone two major roster shuffles since, although their central core of iceiceice, xy-, and xFreedom has remained constant. Zenith has always been an elite team in Southeast Asia, and they have long remained competitive with the best teams in China, even if they are not usually the favorites. They're a cocky team, with plenty of skill and smarts. Famously, they won a recent game while refusing to ban any heroes from the pool. They are thought to be dark horses to win TI3.
Player to Watch: iceiceice (Offlane)
You'll like them if you like: Trendy picks
Orange Esports
+ Show Spoiler + Orange finished tied for eighth at TI2. The Malaysians are one of the most unpredictable teams at TI3. They play aggressively, led by their attention grabbing captain Mushi and the brilliant support play of Net. They are capable of taking games off the top teams at TI3, but they are also capable of getting spectacularly upset. They are on par with Zenith, and most people have them as dark horses for TI3.
Player to Watch: Mushi (Carry/Mid)
You'll like them if you like: The Dutch National Football Team
TongFu
+ Show Spoiler + Tied for eighth, TongFu has usually been the least glamorous, least interesting, and least sexy of the Chinese teams. That's often because they've also been the least successful. But something may have just clicked in TongFu recently. Earlier in the year, they began to make waves, and when iG collapsed, they occasionally looked like they might be the best Chinese team. Going into TI3, TongFu is again somewhat ignored, but they are not far behind their peers at all. All it could take is one big run to gain the attention they have long deserved.
Player to Watch: Hao (Carry)
You'll like them if you like: Woongjin Stars
Mousesports
+ Show Spoiler + Mousesports is the only organization who did not finish in the money rounds at TI2 that has been able to return to TI3. However, the line-up is almost completely different, with only a single member, carry player Black^ (sometimes called "The BurNing of the West") returning. The current Mousesports line-up has four German players and is captained by a very well known and respected Danish player and sometimes commentator, syndereN. They emerged from roster turmoil to win the Western qualifiers (the second time syndereN has done this). Occasionally they have posted top results among other Western teams, but these spells have been fleeting in the past. They have never really been regarded among the elite of the West. Mousesports could play a spoiler at TI3, but they are very unlikely to win.
Player to Watch: Black^ (Carry)
You'll like them if you like: Germany, Underdogs
Alliance
+ Show Spoiler + Alliance is a new team to The International, but they have been around the Western scene for a while under the name "No Tidehunter". The Swedes made one controversial roster change earlier this year, removing their Canadian captain and adding a completely untested Swedish player as a support. Yet the move worked wonders, and Alliance has soared to tremendous heights with the all Swedish line-up and official sponsorship. They have excelled in LAN events, winning the last two Dreamhacks. Their greatest moment was stunning the Dota 2 world by going to the G-1 League Championships in Shanghai and winning the event without dropping a game at a time when Western teams were believed to be hopelessly inferior to Chinese teams. They are known for developing entirely unique early game plays (almost cheese) to gain an early advantage. Although they haven't been quite as dominant in the past month as they were previously, they are considered one of the favorites to win TI3.
Player to Watch: s4 (Mid)
You'll like them if you like: Sweden, Winners
Liquid
+ Show Spoiler + A familiar name to Starcraft fans, Liquid was assembled after TI2 from the wreckage of several North American teams. While immediate success did not come to Liquid, things eventually came together and the team dominated for several periods this year. However, each period of success was followed by a period of more mediocre results. The team is best known for their cerebral approach to the game and for pioneering several heroes that have since become standards. One concern for Liquid has been their underwhelming performances at LAN events. Although they have LAN experience, they have yet to translate it into a deep offline run. They have the potential to go far, or the potential to bomb out. They are not considered very likely to win.
Player to Watch: Korok (Carry/Mid)
You'll like them if you like: Unrealized potential, USA! USA! USA!
Dignitas
+ Show Spoiler + Another organization with deep roots in Starcraft, Dignitas' Dota 2 team dates back to before TI2, when they were playing under the name Potm Bottom and were one of the snubs for the Western qualifiers. Since then, the North Americans have grown into a team that was directly invited to TI3. While they lack any first place finishes, they have a number of near misses. Dignitas has often played a different style from most Western teams, sometimes shifting into a strategy that is devoted to protecting their carry, Aui_2000, who is known for unorthodox numbers based item and skill builds. Other times they play a strategy that revolves entirely around counter-attacking. Regardless of how they play, Dignitas is frequently one of the most frustrating teams for other teams to go up against. They are not, however, a favorite to advance far in TI3.
Player to Watch: Fogged (Support)
You'll like them if you like: USA! Or Canada, too, I'm sorry.
MUFC
+ Show Spoiler + MUFC is the third SEA team at this event, and also the least hyped of the bunch. While Orange and Zenith have traded blows for a while, the Malaysians of MUFC completely overhauled their roster at the beginning of this year. The current MUFC line-up has not been together for very long, and have not achieved remarkable results within the Eastern scene. They do have some popular players, especially their captain WinteR, who is well known and respected in the Western scene for his casting cameos. While sympathetic favorites, they are not expected to go far at TI3.
Player to Watch: WinteR (Support)
You'll like them if you like: Nice guys who finish last.
LGD.International
+ Show Spoiler + After TI2, the management behind LGD.China approached several top Western players about forming a team. The result was LGD.International, a group of five players from five different countries who have dedicated themselves to a Chinese teamhouse training regime alongside LGD.China. (Imagine the SC2 roster of Mousesports going to Korea and training in a house for a year.) Initially, the results were spectacular. The team eclipsed their Chinese brothers, making it to the finals of the G League, which was probably the most hyped event in the past year of Dota outside of the Internationals. They lost to iG, 1-3, but the result was seen as the stepping stone to bigger and better things. Since then, however, they have tumbled dramatically in results, and now must be counted among the weaker Eastern teams. At one point months ago considered a possible TI3 contender, they're a now a very fringe pick to grab the championship.
Player to Watch: God (mid)
You'll like them if you like: Dedication, candidates for redemption, the most International team at... wait for it... The International
Fnatic
+ Show Spoiler + The global esports organization Fnatic sponsors the other team that is not country based, although all their players are European. Fnatic's roster is used to success. They were the undisputed kings of HoN, another ARTS-type game, and switched to Dota with immediate domination in mind. But it ended up taking a very long time before they were able to find their footing in the new game. When they finally reached the top level, Fnatic established themselves as one of the scene's most consistent performers. Even if they struggled to actually take any championships, they were always in the mix. They are known for their risky and greedy drafts, as well as having a very flexible line-up in terms of heroes and positions. Recently, the team fell out of their consistent good form for the first time in months, and they have yet to climb out of their slump, which has led to many bearish predictions of how the team will perform.
Player to Watch: n0tail (Support)
You'll like them if you like: HoN, but then again, this is for SC2 players about Dota 2, so you probably don't like HoN...
Virtus.Pro
+ Show Spoiler + Every region has a strangely unloved team. For Eastern Europe, it's Virtus.Pro. Despite performing at the highest level for the entire year post TI2, they were almost always rated behind their peers Na`Vi and Empire, even when either of those teams slumped. They won The Defense 3, one of the biggest online events of the year, and still they didn't get much hype. They're not full of anonymous players either; S
support ARS-ART played with Na`Vi's runner-up squad last year and for Moscow 5 with captain NS before that. Go figure. They survived the indifference this far, making it to TI3, while Empire disbanded and other Eastern European teams like RoX.KIS and iCCup got knocked off in the qualifier. Now they're one of just two teams from a proud region that sent three squads (granted, two of them were awful) last year. Recent results have not been superlative, but underestimate VP at your own risk...just don't predict them to go very far at TI3.
Player to Watch: ARS-ART (Support)
You'll like them if you like: Being a hipster
Quantic Gaming
+ Show Spoiler + right before invites to TI3 started to go out was one of the biggest surprises in the scene. While two players remained with the former team and that squad struggled, the captain Goblak and Silent threw their lot in with the French vets, and the results were superb. Goblak is regard as something of a genius, and Quantic has become known for pioneering new heroes. Between Goblak and Team Liquid, you'd explain a significant amount of the metagame shifts in the Western scene in the last year. Quantic plays a very fluid and unpredictable style, with the position of carry somewhat up in the air. They went to Seattle but lost in the Wildcard match against Rattlesnake, and as such have had their TI3 hopes dashed.
Player to Watch: Goblak (Support)
You'll like them if you like: Dividing by zero The first of two teams in the play-in game. Under their original name of DD (they used this as their logo) the team finished second in the Western qualifiers and was promptly picked up by the Quantic organization. The line-up is itself a combination of two previous teams: three French players from TI2 team mTw mixed with Goblak and Silent from Team Empire. The dissolution of Empirebefore invites to TI3 started to go out was one of the biggest surprises in the scene. While two players remained with the former team and that squad struggled, the captain Goblak and Silent threw their lot in with the French vets, and the results were superb. Goblak is regard as something of a genius, and Quantic has become known for pioneering new heroes. Between Goblak and Team Liquid, you'd explain a significant amount of the metagame shifts in the Western scene in the last year. Quantic plays a very fluid and unpredictable style, with the position of carry somewhat up in the air. They went to Seattle but lost in the Wildcard match against Rattlesnake, and as such have had their TI3 hopes dashed.: Goblak (Support): Dividing by zero
RaTtLeSnAkE
+ Show Spoiler + The other team in the play-in game, Rattlesnake (their capitalization is absurd) finished a surprise second in the Eastern Qualifiers, upsetting a team called Vici Gaming. They are the fifth team to represent China at TI3, and they are by far the least likely to do well. They're also the least "Chinese" team of the bunch. They show little of the conservatism and safe play typical of their counterparts. Known for drafting "Western" line-ups, they can be unpredictable and should be the team most familiar with both styles of play at the tournament. They defeated Quantic badly in the game for the final wildcard slot though they are not generally seen as a team likely to go far in the main event.
Player to Watch: LaNm (Support)
You'll like them if you like: Half court shots
For the non-casual viewer
So now you've got a basic grasp of how Dota 2 works, you know the histories of the teams and the tournament, and you're ready to watch some Dota 2! Reading everything up until now won't make someone understand the game in an instant, but it's intended to give the new viewer enough of a foundation so that they can watch without being completely lost. Once you start watching, you'll pick up a bunch of things along the way.
After you've watched a few games and understand the mechanics of the game, you'll want to start watching for some of the things that experienced Dota players are on the look out for. Pick a game and then pick an aspect of the game explained below to follow. See if you can see it in action!
Key Items
No hero in Dota 2 has a linear progression of strength. Some heroes, especially carry and cores, grow exponentially stronger after they pick up certain items. Watch for several key items that make a huge difference. Three of the most common are listed below.
Blink Dagger
The Blink Dagger is a midgame item that allows the player to "blink" a short distance away, just like a Stalker in SC2. It cannot be used if the hero that holds it has taken damage from an enemy hero recently. This item is absolutely pivotal to some heroes like
Black King Bar (BKB)
An absolutely pivotal item on most carries, BKB makes the hero that uses it immune to most magic spells for a period of time. Each successive use of the BKB lowers the duration of the time, all the way from 10 seconds to 4 seconds. There are some spells that still work on targets that have BKB active, and they are highly prized. Most spells, however, do not work on a target using BKB. Carry heroes like
Battlefury
The Battlefury is a big axe that gives a good amount of damage, but unlike the Blink Dagger or a BKB, it is not an item a hero gets if they want to fight. Battlefury's best attribute is that it gives the user a cleave on melee attacks, meaning a hero that relies on close range combat does damage to a cone in front of them with each attack. This item makes it much easier for carry heroes like
A couple other cliff notes:
- Allows the user to become invisible and faster for a short period
- On some heroes, it buffs their strongest spell (called their "Ultimate") in a unique way.
- Often referred to as a "sheepstick", this item allows the user to turn an enemy hero into a pig (it was a sheep in Dota 1) for a limited amount of time. This renders them unable to attack or cast spells, and they move very slowly.
Map Vision and Space
Just like in Starcraft, map vision is absolutely essential in Dota 2. If you can see a lot of the map, you're much less likely to be caught unprepared and killed, and you will know which parts of the map are safe to be in. Additionally, just like in SC2, invisible units can ruin your day in Dota 2, so you need not just sight on the map, but "Truesight" to catch invisible units.
The primary form of map vision comes from your towers, two of which stand in each lane. Towers grant a large field of vision, and they also grant truesight. You also get vision from your creep armies as they run down each lane. Thus, teams can deny their opponents a lot of map vision by pushing their creeps far back and by destroying towers. Certain towers are said to control certain areas of the map, simply by providing vision to the entrances to these areas, and also a place for reinforcements to teleport to quickly via the use of Teleport Scrolls. Destroying these towers can make these areas of the map seem dangerous, and can restrict the area a team feels safe in. That means they may not be able to farm everywhere they want, and their heroes grow at a slower rate as a result. You can see how simply denying vision alone can be a powerful strategy, because it constricts the enemy's space.
To see into areas that are not protected by towers, teams may plant "wards", which are like temporary Xel'Naga towers. You can put them anywhere, and they provide a large field of vision around them. There are two types of wards: "Observer Wards", which provide sight over that area, and "Sentry Wards", which provide truesight. Wards themselves are invisible, so you need truesight to see enemy wards. Professional teams will often plant sentry wards in popular locations for observer wards in order to "deward" them. Denying vision in this way can allow your team to move secretly to set up kills.
In game, watch the battle of vision and watch the battle for space on the map. The best teams know when to fan out and all play independently (maximizing the experience and gold gained) and when to quickly contract and fight as one. Notice as supports on both teams attempt to control the map through planting wards. Notice how teams that don't have good map vision move closer together, in a smaller area, and less confidently, than teams that can see more of the map. Notice as well how some heroes can control large areas of space even if they are on the other side of the map, simply by threatening to attack. Wisp is a hero whose Ultimate allows him to grab an allied hero and bring them anywhere on the map for a 12 second duration, making him an extremely strong ganking hero. See if you see a difference in how the opposing team plays.
Tempo
Dota players and casters will often talk about the "tempo" of the game. This is a fairly abstract concept, so it can be fun trying to find it while watching matches. The game tempo might also be called the "feel" of the game. If one team wants to play an aggressive game with lots of teamfights and lots of kills, and the other team wants to play a passive game with their carry safely farming, then they both desire the game to be played at a different pace. If the game becomes a slugfest with many kills, the first team can be said to have set the tempo of the game, and visa versa.
Most teams have a player or will pick a hero that they intend to set the tempo of the game. Often that heroes comes out of the middle lane, because the mid lane hero has an early advantage in gold and experience as well as easy access around the map that they can use to dictate how the game plays out once the players begin to leave their lanes. If the mid lane heroes remain in their lane for a long time, then the game may slow down a considerable amount. But if the mid lane heroes aggressively move from lane to lane, searching for kills, then they can set a fast paced game where the teams blow right past the farming stages and begin moving together as five much earlier. Supports can also give the game a certain feel by moving out of their lane (called "rotating") and showing up to surprise an enemy hero in a different lane.
Watch for the mastery that the best teams in Dota have over other teams in dictating the game tempo. You might notice that when a top-level team plays a weaker team, the game will hinge entirely upon how the better team chooses to play it. They may set a slow pace, then suddenly group together as five and kill a hero and push down a tower, only to go back to farming. A team that falls behind in reading the tempo of the game is a team that will constantly be picked off and will always be seconds too late to prevent a kill or a tower being destroyed. A team that sets the tempo has an amazing advantage.
So you've heard about The International 3. Perhaps you have some friends who've been begging you to play Dota 2, and they've convinced you to watch TI3 with them. Perhaps you heard about TI3 when Blizzard scheduled the WCS finals for the same days. Perhaps you follow organizations who have teams going to the event. Perhaps you just heard about it somewhere along the line and are tuning in because you're looking to give Dota 2 a chance.But you're a Starcraft fan. You like RTS games. You like the strategy and speed and mechanics that come with the genre. You're not so sure about these other types of games (MOBA? ARTS? what to even call them?) and are a bit annoyed that they sometimes take the hype away from the Starcraft series.Still, you're here. You're reading this. You're willing to give Dota 2 a shot. You may not know all 100+ heroes or 100+ items. But you're not daunted. It's free to play. It's the most popular game on Steam. If so many people can love this game, maybe you can too.This guide is for you, wayward Starcraft fan. Dota 2 is a superb game and this is going to be an incredible tournament. Give it just a bit of your time this weekend and you'll be hooked.There exists a connection between the Starcraft community and the Dota 2 community that is unlike any other two games. Teams like Team Liquid and Alliance who have been very selective about which games to invest in have chosen just those two titles. Players like BabyKnight have gone from Dota to Starcraft, and players like SeleCT have gone from Starcraft to Dota 2 (and then back again).It starts with the history. The very first game in the ARTS genre (ARTS; Action Real Time Strategy, is the term preferred by the Dota 2 community) was a Broodwar custom map entitled "Aeon of Strife". It gained quite a bit of popularity worldwide among BW players. When Warcraft 3 came out, the entire concept was rebuilt in that game. The result was DotA - Defense of the Ancients. It became the most popular custom game in WC3, and is the exact model for Dota 2.What attracts many modern day Dota 2 players to it is that it is as much a game of skill and strategy as Starcraft. When Team Liquid announced that we would begin to cover Dota 2 , Nazgul wrote;Dota 2 is a game that is as brutally unforgiving as Starcraft. A single mistake from one player can lose a game. From the opening draft of heroes to the endgame, each player must maintain an unbreakable focus on the details of each moment, while at the same time keeping in mind a larger objective and strategy. In that sense, it mirrors the dual nature of macro and micro that will be familiar to any Starcraft player. While Starcraft certainly has a higher physical and mechanical demand, Dota 2 at times demands more from a player mentally. A split second lapse in concentration can lead to a player being out of position, and can swing the result of a series.Starcraft 2 and Dota 2 share more than just a common ancestor; they both are games where it is impossible to play perfectly, where the skill ceiling is miles away, and where strategic thinking and execution reigns supreme.Chances are, you know something of the basics of Dota 2. But just in case you're totally unfamiliar with the concept, what follows is a basic introduction to the way Dota 2 works. Many readers will be justified in skipping over this part. But for those of you for whom this is useful, you probably won't enjoy TI3 without a rudimentary knowledge of how the game functions.The point of a game of Dota 2 is to destroy the opposing team's "ancient", which is a structure in the middle of each team's base. There are three entry ways to each team's base, and a path that leads to each, which is called a "lane". Along each lane are three "towers" which are pieces of static defense like photon cannons. Each team in Dota will try to knock down the opposing team's towers, break into their base, and destroy their ancient. How each team goes about achieving this in the face of the other team's opposition creates the conflict in the game.In Dota 2, the opposing sides are "The Radiant", who begin in the bottom left, and "The Dire", who begin in the top right. It is easy to tell which side of the map you are on at all times. The Radiant side is bright, with green grass and trees, with white stone. The Dire side is dark and foreboding, with a burned out forest and cinder-covered ground. There is only one map used in Dota 2, but it has a lot to offer and is considered quite balanced. Yet while both sides have the same amenities, they are asymmetrical and there are unique but small advantages to either side. At the level of most Dota players, these edges are insignificant, but at the pro level you may see a certain team pick one strategy only on the Radiant or Dire side.The map and both factions is split by a river, which runs from the top left to the bottom right. The river is a crucial map element as it provides the quickest way to move from lane to lane. It also contains the one obvious difference between the Radiant and Dire sides. On the Dire side of the river, slightly down/right of center, is a big red opening. This is the lair of Roshan, a large monster who can be killed by either side with significant benefits. It is considered easier for the Dire team to kill Roshan.Just like in Starcraft how players work to mine minerals and vespene gas to build bigger and bigger armies, players in Dota 2 work to "farm" "gold" and "experience" for their heroes. How they do this is unique, however. At the start of the game, three groups of units (called "creeps") are created at each of the entrances to the bases of both teams. They then charge across the map at the other team's base, one in each lane ... until they meet the enemy creeps. Of course, the fights are quite even, and without the imposition of the heroes both bases would continue throwing units at each other until the end of time.But in Dota 2, players begin the game by standing in each lane and attempting to get the last hit on enemy creeps. Each last hit gives that hero gold. Every enemy creep that dies nearby will give the hero experience. Thus, the game begins with both sides attempting to time their attacks to get the final hit on dying units to collect their bounty. Gold and experience are also gained when one team kills off a hero on the other team, or takes down Roshan. A team will globally gain gold, but not experience, if they destroy an enemy tower. Gold is also passively gained by all players throughout the game, but the rate is quite slow.Each side of the map also has several "camps" outside of the lanes which are locations that contain neutral creeps that spawn every minute. The area outside of the lanes is called the "jungle", and some heroes can fight the creeps in the jungle at level one. Thus, they may begin the game in the jungle killing creep camps, and avoid lanes entirely. This is called "jungling", and heroes that do this are called "junglers".The point of collecting gold and experience is so that the player can buy powerful weapons or armor, and gain levels and increase the strength of their spells. Each hero may hold six items at a time, and each hero my progress all the way to level 25. The more last hits you land, and the more creeps that are killed in your vicinity, the more powerful and versatile your hero can be.Not all heroes are created equal, and the differences between the 100+ unique characters is a huge part of what makes the game interesting. Some heroes have powerful magic spells or physical abilities. Others have abilities which buff the entire team. Still others have few spells or abilities, but may hit their opponents very hard with basic attacks. Each of these heroes has a role to play in different teams.For the purposes of competitive Dota, heroes are generally understood to be divided into two roles: support and cores. These are not always hard and fast divisions. Some heroes are capable of playing multiple roles. Throughout TI3, you will doubtless see different teams using the same hero in different ways. Each team however, WILL draft at least one hero to support, at least one hero to carry, and likely one to three core heroes.The distinctions between heroes come from the amount of farm (gold and experience) that they need to be effective. There is a limited amount of space on the map, and limited opportunities to get gold and experience. When two players occupy the same space, and try to get last hits on the same creeps, they will end up sharing the spoils. Every Dota 2 team, from the professionals to the amateurs, will make choices about which heroes will be allowed to gain the most gold and experience.heroes are given the least farm on the team. This is because they usually have a diverse toolkit of spells that are useful throughout the game. They do not need items or as much experience to be useful. Support heroes tread a dangerous path. On one hand, they must defer to all of their teammates, actively avoiding last hits and occasionally even staying out of experience range. On the other hand, they must find some farm as to avoid being too weak in the late game. New players often assume that supports are the worst players on the team because they appear to fill the weakest role. Nothing could be farther from the truth. All the teams at TI3 field support players who know how to change the game early, when their heroes are relatively the strongest, and late game when they can be easily killed by the enemy if they make a single wrong step. Good teams often win games entirely because of their supports making tough plays.are heroes that need at least some farm to be successful. There are several subcategories that fall under this, such as "initiator", "ganker", "semi-carry", and "carry". It is easy to identify heroes being played as a core because they usually start the game all alone in one lane (usually the middle and one of the side lanes), or receive most of the farm in a lane with multiple heroes.heroes are one type of core hero and are given the most farm on the team. They are almost always heroes that hit hard and fast with their basic attack ("right-click or auto-attack damage", the equivalent of "1a") and benefit the most from bigger and stronger items. The later the game goes, the more important the carry heroes become. If the game goes late enough, you may see carry heroes become strong enough to defeat the entire opposing team singlehandedly...unless the enemy carry is also present. You can identify carry and support players at the beginning of many games because they will usually begin in the same lane. The (often two) support players will stay close to the carry ("babysitting") and protect him from harm while he gets last hits and experience.At its most basic, keep track as players accumulate gold and experience. Most casters will use Dota 2's interface options to show either "CS" (meaning "creep score" or the last hits of each player), the hero levels, or the "networth" of each hero, which is somewhat analogous to checking the army supply and worker supply tabs. See which team has more gold and experience. Chances are they're leading the game.Also notice which teams are close to each other's base. Is one team constantly invading the other team's territory? Keep track of which team has destroyed more towers on their enemy's side.Finally, watch the big numbers at the top of the screen, which count the number of hero kills achieved by either side. While it is more than possible to win a match with less kills, in most cases the winning team does end up killing the other heroes more often.The International 2013 is the largest tournament in the history of esports. The winning team will receive a grand prize of over $1,350,000. This prize is partly created by the purchases of the TI3 " Interactive Compendium ", which is a feature in the game that allows players to make predictions, win items, and have more to follow and cheer for throughout the tournament. 25% of the cost of every compendium has gone into the prize pool. In total, the community has purchased over 400,000 compendiums.This is the third annual "International". The first was held in 2011 and was contested by many DotA 1 teams who had barely touched the game. The finals (and $1 million top prize) was won by the Ukrainian team Natus Vincere (Na`Vi) over the Chinese team EHOME. In 2012, the tournament was much larger and was held offline in Benaroya Hall in Seattle, where it is being held again this year. The winning team was the Chinese squad Invictus Gaming (iG), who defeated Na`Vi in the finals.This year, the prize pool has grown, the game is finally out of beta, the players are better, the scene is stronger, and as a result, the hype is at a crescendo. Many view this tournament as Dota 2's coming out party, a tournament that will attract fans (like yourself) of every other esport and sell them on Dota 2. The stakes for everyone involved are incredibly high.The International 3 will be much more fun for you if you pick a few teams to cheer for. Below is the cliff notes version of each of the fifteen teams invited to TI3, as well as the two squads who will be competing in the play-in game.So now you've got a basic grasp of how Dota 2 works, you know the histories of the teams and the tournament, and you're ready to watch some Dota 2! Reading everything up until now won't make someone understand the game in an instant, but it's intended to give the new viewer enough of a foundation so that they can watch without being completely lost. Once you start watching, you'll pick up a bunch of things along the way.After you've watched a few games and understand the mechanics of the game, you'll want to start watching for some of the things that experienced Dota players are on the look out for. Pick a game and then pick an aspect of the game explained below to follow. See if you can see it in action!No hero in Dota 2 has a linear progression of strength. Some heroes, especially carry and cores, grow exponentially stronger after they pick up certain items. Watch for several key items that make a huge difference. Three of the most common are listed below.The Blink Dagger is a midgame item that allows the player to "blink" a short distance away, just like a Stalker in SC2. It cannot be used if the hero that holds it has taken damage from an enemy hero recently. This item is absolutely pivotal to some heroes like Batrider and Magnus , who have spells that are fantastic for starting a fight. The Blink Dagger allows them to hide at a relatively safe position far away from the action, and then suddenly jump into the middle of the fight and cast their spells when the time is right.An absolutely pivotal item on most carries, BKB makes the hero that uses it immune to most magic spells for a period of time. Each successive use of the BKB lowers the duration of the time, all the way from 10 seconds to 4 seconds. There are some spells that still work on targets that have BKB active, and they are highly prized. Most spells, however, do not work on a target using BKB. Carry heroes like Luna and Gyrocopter absolutely need a BKB, because otherwise they can be rendered ineffective by magic spells that lock them down, stun, or slow them.The Battlefury is a big axe that gives a good amount of damage, but unlike the Blink Dagger or a BKB, it is not an item a hero gets if they want to fight. Battlefury's best attribute is that it gives the user a cleave on melee attacks, meaning a hero that relies on close range combat does damage to a cone in front of them with each attack. This item makes it much easier for carry heroes like Anti-Mage Alchemist , and Faceless Void to farm, because they do more damage to more targets. Once a carry completes a Battlefury, they often can remain in their own jungle farming creep camps for a huge portion of the game, accumulating gold and experience at a rapid rate and daring the other team to interrupt them.A couple other cliff notes: Shadow Blade - Allows the user to become invisible and faster for a short period Aghanim's Scepter - On some heroes, it buffs their strongest spell (called their "Ultimate") in a unique way. Scythe of Vyse - Often referred to as a "sheepstick", this item allows the user to turn an enemy hero into a pig (it was a sheep in Dota 1) for a limited amount of time. This renders them unable to attack or cast spells, and they move very slowly.Just like in Starcraft, map vision is absolutely essential in Dota 2. If you can see a lot of the map, you're much less likely to be caught unprepared and killed, and you will know which parts of the map are safe to be in. Additionally, just like in SC2, invisible units can ruin your day in Dota 2, so you need not just sight on the map, but "Truesight" to catch invisible units.The primary form of map vision comes from your towers, two of which stand in each lane. Towers grant a large field of vision, and they also grant truesight. You also get vision from your creep armies as they run down each lane. Thus, teams can deny their opponents a lot of map vision by pushing their creeps far back and by destroying towers. Certain towers are said to control certain areas of the map, simply by providing vision to the entrances to these areas, and also a place for reinforcements to teleport to quickly via the use of Teleport Scrolls. Destroying these towers can make these areas of the map seem dangerous, and can restrict the area a team feels safe in. That means they may not be able to farm everywhere they want, and their heroes grow at a slower rate as a result. You can see how simply denying vision alone can be a powerful strategy, because it constricts the enemy's space.To see into areas that are not protected by towers, teams may plant "wards", which are like temporary Xel'Naga towers. You can put them anywhere, and they provide a large field of vision around them. There are two types of wards: "Observer Wards", which provide sight over that area, and "Sentry Wards", which provide truesight. Wards themselves are invisible, so you need truesight to see enemy wards. Professional teams will often plant sentry wards in popular locations for observer wards in order to "deward" them. Denying vision in this way can allow your team to move secretly to set up kills.In game, watch the battle of vision and watch the battle for space on the map. The best teams know when to fan out and all play independently (maximizing the experience and gold gained) and when to quickly contract and fight as one. Notice as supports on both teams attempt to control the map through planting wards. Notice how teams that don't have good map vision move closer together, in a smaller area, and less confidently, than teams that can see more of the map. Notice as well how some heroes can control large areas of space even if they are on the other side of the map, simply by threatening to attack. Nature's Prophet , a hero with a global teleport, can push any lane at any time. See if you can see how that forces the other team to adjust.is a hero whose Ultimate allows him to grab an allied hero and bring them anywhere on the map for a 12 second duration, making him an extremely strong ganking hero. See if you see a difference in how the opposing team plays.Dota players and casters will often talk about the "tempo" of the game. This is a fairly abstract concept, so it can be fun trying to find it while watching matches. The game tempo might also be called the "feel" of the game. If one team wants to play an aggressive game with lots of teamfights and lots of kills, and the other team wants to play a passive game with their carry safely farming, then they both desire the game to be played at a different pace. If the game becomes a slugfest with many kills, the first team can be said to have set the tempo of the game, and visa versa.Most teams have a player or will pick a hero that they intend to set the tempo of the game. Often that heroes comes out of the middle lane, because the mid lane hero has an early advantage in gold and experience as well as easy access around the map that they can use to dictate how the game plays out once the players begin to leave their lanes. If the mid lane heroes remain in their lane for a long time, then the game may slow down a considerable amount. But if the mid lane heroes aggressively move from lane to lane, searching for kills, then they can set a fast paced game where the teams blow right past the farming stages and begin moving together as five much earlier. Supports can also give the game a certain feel by moving out of their lane (called "rotating") and showing up to surprise an enemy hero in a different lane.Watch for the mastery that the best teams in Dota have over other teams in dictating the game tempo. You might notice that when a top-level team plays a weaker team, the game will hinge entirely upon how the better team chooses to play it. They may set a slow pace, then suddenly group together as five and kill a hero and push down a tower, only to go back to farming. A team that falls behind in reading the tempo of the game is a team that will constantly be picked off and will always be seconds too late to prevent a kill or a tower being destroyed. A team that sets the tempo has an amazing advantage. EffOrt, Snow, GuMiho, and Team Liquid
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Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture
Introduction:
In this blog, I am going to talk about Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture. HDFS & YARN are the two important concepts you need to master for Hadoop Certification. From my previous blog, you already know that HDFS is a distributed file system which is deployed on low cost commodity hardware. So, it’s high time that we should take a deep dive into Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture and unlock its beauty.
The topics that will be covered in this blog on Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture are as following:
HDFS Architecture:
Apache HDFS or Hadoop Distributed File System is a block-structured file system where each file is divided into blocks of a pre-determined size. These blocks are stored across a cluster of one or several machines. Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture follows a Master/Slave Architecture, where a cluster comprises of a single NameNode (Master node) and all the other nodes are DataNodes (Slave nodes). HDFS can be deployed on a broad spectrum of machines that support Java. Though one can run several DataNodes on a single machine, but in the practical world, these DataNodes are spread across various machines.
NameNode:
NameNode is the master node in the Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture that maintains and manages the blocks present on the DataNodes (slave nodes). NameNode is a very highly available server that manages the File System Namespace and controls access to files by clients. I will be discussing this High Availability feature of Apache Hadoop HDFS in my next blog. The HDFS architecture is built in such a way that the user data never resides on the NameNode. The data resides on DataNodes only.
Functions of NameNode:
It is the master daemon that maintains and manages the DataNodes (slave nodes)
It records the metadata of all the files stored in the cluster, e.g. The location of blocks stored, the size of the files, permissions, hierarchy, etc. There are two files associated with the metadata: FsImage: It contains the complete state of the file system namespace since the start of the NameNode. EditLogs: It contains all the recent modifications made to the file system with respect to the most recent FsImage.
It records each change that takes place to the file system metadata. For example, if a file is deleted in HDFS, the NameNode will immediately record this in the EditLog.
It regularly receives a Heartbeat and a block report from all the DataNodes in the cluster to ensure that the DataNodes are live.
It keeps a record of all the blocks in HDFS and in which nodes these blocks are located.
The NameNode is also responsible to take care of the replication factor of all the blocks which we will discuss in detail later in this HDFS tutorial blog.
In case of the DataNode failure, the NameNode chooses new DataNodes for new replicas, balance disk usage and manages the communication traffic to the DataNodes.
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DataNode:
DataNodes are the slave nodes in HDFS. Unlike NameNode, DataNode is a commodity hardware, that is, a non-expensive system which is not of high quality or high-availability. The DataNode is a block server that stores the data in the local file ext3 or ext4.
Functions of DataNode:
These are slave daemons or process which runs on each slave machine.
The actual data is stored on DataNodes.
The DataNodes perform the low-level read and write requests from the file system’s clients.
They send heartbeats to the NameNode periodically to report the overall health of HDFS, by default, this frequency is set to 3 seconds.
Till now, you must have realized that the NameNode is pretty much important to us. If it fails, we are doomed. But don’t worry, we will be talking about how Hadoop solved this single point of failure problem in the next Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture blog. So, just relax for now and let’s take one step at a time.
Secondary NameNode:
Apart from these two daemons, there is a third daemon or a process called Secondary NameNode. The Secondary NameNode works concurrently with the primary NameNode as a helper daemon. And don’t be confused about the Secondary NameNode being a backup NameNode because it is not.
Functions of Secondary NameNode:
The Secondary NameNode is one which constantly reads all the file systems and metadata from the RAM of the NameNode and writes it into the hard disk or the file system.
It is responsible for combining the EditLogs with FsImage from the NameNode.
It downloads the EditLogs from the NameNode at regular intervals and applies to FsImage. The new FsImage is copied back to the NameNode, which is used whenever the NameNode is started the next time.
Hence, Secondary NameNode performs regular checkpoints in HDFS. Therefore, it is also called CheckpointNode.
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Blocks:
Now, as we know that the data in HDFS is scattered across the DataNodes as blocks. Let’s have a look at what is a block and how is it formed?
Blocks are the nothing but the smallest continuous location on your hard drive where data is stored. In general, in any of the File System, you store the data as a collection of blocks. Similarly, HDFS stores each file as blocks which are scattered throughout the Apache Hadoop cluster. The default size of each block is 128 MB in Apache Hadoop 2.x (64 MB in Apache Hadoop 1.x) which you can configure as per your requirement.
It is not necessary that in HDFS, each file is stored in exact multiple of the configured block size (128 MB, 256 MB etc.). Let’s take an example where I have a file “example.txt” of size 514 MB as shown in above figure. Suppose that we are using the default configuration of block size, which is 128 MB. Then, how many blocks will be created? 5, Right. The first four blocks will be of 128 MB. But, the last block will be of 2 MB size only.
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Now, you must be thinking why we need to have such a huge blocks size i.e. 128 MB?
Well, whenever we talk about HDFS, we talk about huge data sets, i.e. Terabytes and Petabytes of data. So, if we had a block size of let’s say of 4 KB, as in Linux file system, we would be having too many blocks and therefore too much of the metadata. So, managing these no. of blocks and metadata will create huge overhead, which is something, we don’t want.
As you understood what a block is, let us understand how the replication of these blocks takes place in the next section of this HDFS Architecture. Meanwhile, you may check out this video tutorial on HDFS Architecture where all the HDFS Architecture concepts has been discussed in detail:
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Replication Management:
HDFS provides a reliable way to store huge data in a distributed environment as data blocks. The blocks are also replicated to provide fault tolerance. The default replication factor is 3 which is again configurable. So, as you can see in the figure below where each block is replicated three times and stored on different DataNodes (considering the default replication factor):
Therefore, if you are storing a file of 128 MB in HDFS using the default configuration, you will end up occupying a space of 384 MB (3*128 MB) as the blocks will be replicated three times and each replica will be residing on a different DataNode.
Note: The NameNode collects block report from DataNode periodically to maintain the replication factor. Therefore, whenever a block is over-replicated or under-replicated the NameNode deletes or add replicas as needed.
Rack Awareness:
Anyways, moving ahead, let’s talk more about how HDFS places replica and what is rack awareness? Again, the NameNode also ensures that all the replicas are not stored on the same rack or a single rack. It follows an in-built Rack Awareness Algorithm to reduce latency as well as provide fault tolerance. Considering the replication factor is 3, the Rack Awareness Algorithm says that the first replica of a block will be stored on a local rack and the next two replicas will be stored on a different (remote) rack but, on a different DataNode within that (remote) rack as shown in the figure above. If you have more replicas, the rest of the replicas will be placed on random DataNodes provided not more than two replicas reside on the same rack, if possible.
This is how an actual Hadoop production cluster looks like. Here, you have multiple racks populated with DataNodes:
Advantages of Rack Awareness:
So, now you will be thinking why do we need a Rack Awareness algorithm? The reasons are:
To improve the network performance: The communication between nodes residing on different racks is directed via switch. In general, you will find greater network bandwidth between machines in the same rack than the machines residing in different rack. So, the Rack Awareness helps you to have reduce write traffic in between different racks and thus providing a better write performance. Also, you will be gaining increased read performance because you are using the bandwidth of multiple racks.
To prevent loss of data: We don’t have to worry about the data even if an entire rack fails because of the switch failure or power failure. And if you think about it, it will make sense, as it is said that never put all your eggs in the same basket.
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HDFS Read/ Write Architecture:
Now let’s talk about how the data read/write operations are performed on HDFS. HDFS follows Write Once – Read Many Philosophy. So, you can’t edit files already stored in HDFS. But, you can append new data by re-opening the file.
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HDFS Write Architecture:
Suppose a situation where an HDFS client, wants to write a file named “example.txt” of size 248 MB.
Assume that the system block size is configured for 128 MB (default). So, the client will be dividing the file “example.txt” into 2 blocks – one of 128 MB (Block A) and the other of 120 MB (block B).
Now, the following protocol will be followed whenever the data is written into HDFS:
At first, the HDFS client will reach out to the NameNode for a Write Request against the two blocks, say, Block A & Block B.
The NameNode will then grant the client the write permission and will provide the IP addresses of the DataNodes where the file blocks will be copied eventually.
The selection of IP addresses of DataNodes is purely randomized based on availability, replication factor and rack awareness that we have discussed earlier.
Let’s say the replication factor is set to default i.e. 3. Therefore, for each block the NameNode will be providing the client a list of (3) IP addresses of DataNodes. The list will be unique for each block.
Suppose, the NameNode provided following lists of IP addresses to the client: For Block A, list A = {IP of DataNode 1, IP of DataNode 4, IP of DataNode 6} For Block B, set B = {IP of DataNode 3, IP of DataNode 7, IP of DataNode 9}
Each block will be copied in three different DataNodes to maintain the replication factor consistent throughout the cluster.
Now the whole data copy process will happen in three stages:
Set up of Pipeline Data streaming and replication Shutdown of Pipeline (Acknowledgement stage)
1. Set up of Pipeline:
Before writing the blocks, the client confirms whether the DataNodes, present in each of the list of IPs, are ready to receive the data or not. In doing so, the client creates a pipeline for each of the blocks by connecting the individual DataNodes in the respective list for that block. Let us consider Block A. The list of DataNodes provided by the NameNode is:
For Block A, list A = {IP of DataNode 1, IP of DataNode 4, IP of DataNode 6}.
So, for block A, the client will be performing the following steps to create a pipeline:
The client will choose the first DataNode in the list (DataNode IPs for Block A) which is DataNode 1 and will establish a TCP/IP connection.
The client will inform DataNode 1 to be ready to receive the block. It will also provide the IPs of next two DataNodes (4 and 6) to the DataNode 1 where the block is supposed to be replicated.
The DataNode 1 will connect to DataNode 4. The DataNode 1 will inform DataNode 4 to be ready to receive the block and will give it the IP of DataNode 6. Then, DataNode 4 will tell DataNode 6 to be ready for receiving the data.
Next, the acknowledgement of readiness will follow the reverse sequence, i.e. From the DataNode 6 to 4 and then to 1.
At last DataNode 1 will inform the client that all the DataNodes are ready and a pipeline will be formed between the client, DataNode 1, 4 and 6.
Now pipeline set up is complete and the client will finally begin the data copy or streaming process.
2. Data Streaming:
As the pipeline has been created, the client will push the data into the pipeline. Now, don’t forget that in HDFS, data is replicated based on replication factor. So, here Block A will be stored to three DataNodes as the assumed replication factor is 3. Moving ahead, the client will copy the block (A) to DataNode 1 only. The replication is always done by DataNodes sequentially.
So, the following steps will take place during replication:
Once the block has been written to DataNode 1 by the client, DataNode 1 will connect to DataNode 4.
Then, DataNode 1 will push the block in the pipeline and data will be copied to DataNode 4.
Again, DataNode 4 will connect to DataNode 6 and will copy the last replica of the block.
3. Shutdown of Pipeline or Acknowledgement stage:
Once the block has been copied into all the three DataNodes, a series of acknowledgements will take place to ensure the client and NameNode that the data has been written successfully. Then, the client will finally close the pipeline to end the TCP session.
As shown in the figure below, the acknowledgement happens in the reverse sequence i.e. from DataNode 6 to 4 and then to 1. Finally, the DataNode 1 will push three acknowledgements (including its own) into the pipeline and send it to the client. The client will inform NameNode that data has been written successfully. The NameNode will update its metadata and the client will shut down the pipeline.
Similarly, Block B will also be copied into the DataNodes in parallel with Block A. So, the following things are to be noticed here:
The client will copy Block A and Block B to the first DataNode simultaneously .
Therefore, in our case, two pipelines will be formed for each of the block and all the process discussed above will happen in parallel in these two pipelines.
The client writes the block into the first DataNode and then the DataNodes will be replicating the block sequentially.
As you can see in the above image, there are two pipelines formed for each block (A and B). Following is the flow of operations that is taking place for each block in their respective pipelines:
For Block A: 1A -> 2A -> 3A -> 4A
For Block B: 1B -> 2B -> 3B -> 4B -> 5B -> 6B
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HDFS Read Architecture:
HDFS Read architecture is comparatively easy to understand. Let’s take the above example again where the HDFS client wants to read the file “example.txt” now.
Now, following steps will be taking place while reading the file:
The client will reach out to NameNode asking for the block metadata for the file “example.txt”.
The NameNode will return the list of DataNodes where each block (Block A and B) are stored.
After that client, will connect to the DataNodes where the blocks are stored.
The client starts reading data parallel from the DataNodes (Block A from DataNode 1 and Block B from DataNode 3).
Once the client gets all the required file blocks, it will combine these blocks to form a file.
While serving read request of the client, HDFS selects the replica which is closest to the client. This reduces the read latency and the bandwidth consumption. Therefore, that replica is selected which resides on the same rack as the reader node, if possible.
Now, you should have a pretty good idea about Apache Hadoop HDFS Architecture. I understand that there is a lot of information here and it may not be easy to get it in one go. I would suggest you to go through it again and I am sure you will find it easier this time. Now, in my next blog, I will be talking about Apache Hadoop HDFS Federation and High Availability Architecture.
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Two leading Brexiters went to Berlin this weekend to woo German businesses in the hope of undercutting Angela Merkel’s hostility to Brexit.
But the trip did not go anywhere near as well as they hoped.
Leading it were the Tory MP headbanger Owen Paterson (pictured) and John Longworth, co-chair of Leave Means Leave.
They came to Berlin to try and get German businesses to lobby Merkel to give Britain a better deal during Brexit negotiations.
Instead they were subjected to sniggers, rolling eyes and sarcastic laughs.
A BBC journalist reports:
The laughter from the audience quickly turned to sniggers as they heard the UK described as “a beacon of open, free trade around the world”. […]
When Europe was blamed for spending cuts and a lack of British health care provision, there were audible mutters of irritation from the audience.
The occasional light-hearted attempts at EU-bashing – usually guaranteed to get a cheap laugh with some British audiences – was met with stony silence. […]
When the audience was asked how many of them welcomed Brexit, only one hand went up – and it turned out that belonged to a businessman who wanted more EU reform and was fed up with Britain slowing things down.
This isn’t surprising at all.
In fact, as Political Scrapbook has repeatedly pointed out, German firms aren’t dreading Brexit like many the newspapers here think.
In fact they would rather protect the EU Single Market.
Why? Because the EU is a far bigger market than the UK, and preserving the EU makes more sense to them, financially and politically.
Paterson and Longworth’s shock at how they were treated shows how delusional they were
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Structured Abstract Introduction The dramatic events of meiotic recombination culminate in the exchange of genetic information between parental chromosomes and ensure the production of genetically distinct gametes. Recombination is initiated by the formation of programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), and most DSBs occur at discrete hotspots defined by the DNA binding specificity of the PRDM9 protein. The tandem array of PRDM9 zinc fingers that binds DNA is highly polymorphic, and different variants have different DNA binding preferences. Subsequent to binding, PRDM9 is thought to modify the local chromatin environment and to recruit SPO11 for DSB formation. Meiotic DSBs are predominantly repaired through homologous recombination, giving rise to either genetic crossovers, where a reciprocal genetic exchange occurs between homologous chromosomes, or noncrossovers. Meiotic DSB maps in human male individuals. In meiotic cells, the formation of programmed meiotic DSBs facilitates the subsequent exchange of genetic material between parental homologous chromosomes. All current methods to study the sites of meiotic recombination rely on detection of these genetic exchanges. The DMC1 protein binds to DNA around meiotic DSBs, and in this work, we used testis biopsies from individual males to pull down the DNA bound by the DMC1 protein. We thus identified the sites of meiotic DSBs in five individual males. Analysis and comparison of the resultant PRDM9-specific, personal genome-wide maps offers insights into the mechanisms that initiate meiosis, genome evolution, crossover formation, human population structure, and predisposition to genomic disorders. Rationale Despite recent progress in our understanding of recombination hotspot formation, the initiation of recombination remains poorly understood. Current approaches to study the early steps of meiotic recombination in humans primarily detect genetic crossovers, only one of the possible outcomes of DSB repair. Furthermore, these methods are limited by resolution, by sex and population averaging, or by an inability to extend the analysis genome-wide. To overcome these limitations, we built and analyzed high-resolution, individual-specific maps of meiotic DSBs in the human genome. Results We report the maps of meiotic DSBs in five males: two homozygous for the most common PRDM9 allele (PRDM9 A ) and three heterozygous for the PRDM9 A allele and for the less frequent PRDM9 B or PRDM9 C alleles. We find that PRDM9 A and PRDM9 B define similar DSB hotspots, whereas the PRDM9 C allele has a distinct specificity. A comparison of DSB hotspot maps with linkage disequilibrium (LD)–based estimates of recombination rates in the human population indicates that the LD map is a superimposition of PRDM9 allele-specific DSB maps and that the contribution of individual maps is proportional to the PRDM9 allele frequency in modern Africans. In individuals with identical PRDM9 alleles, over 5% of DSB hotspots vary in strength, yet less than half of this variation could be explained by sequence variation at putative PRDM9 binding sites. We also find that PRDM9 heterozygosity affects hotspot strength. In human males, DSBs, like crossovers, occur more frequently at subtelomeric regions, and the crossover rate is directly proportional to our estimate of DSB frequency. This indicates that DSB initiation frequency is a major driver of the crossover rate in human males. We detect distinct signatures of GC-biased gene conversion and of recombination-coupled mutagenesis at DSB hotspots. In addition, DSB hotspots are enriched at the breakpoints of copy number variants that arise via homology-mediated mechanisms. Such variants may give rise to genomic disorders, and indeed, we find that meiotic DSBs defined by PRDM9 A often coincide with disease-associated chromosomal breakpoints. Conclusions Our genome-wide recombination initiation maps in individual human males offer unprecedented resolution of recombination initiation sites defined by specific alleles of the PRDM9 protein. Our analysis indicates that DSB frequency is a primary determinant of crossover frequency, and that factors other than PRDM9 modulate the frequency of recombination initiation. We also find that meiotic DSB repair and subsequent recombination affect the genome sequence both locally and at the level of structural rearrangements. Taken together, these data provide a foundation for future studies of genetic recombination, meiosis, and genome stability.
Abstract DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are introduced in meiosis to initiate recombination and generate crossovers, the reciprocal exchanges of genetic material between parental chromosomes. Here, we present high-resolution maps of meiotic DSBs in individual human genomes. Comparing DSB maps between individuals shows that along with DNA binding by PRDM9, additional factors may dictate the efficiency of DSB formation. We find evidence for both GC-biased gene conversion and mutagenesis around meiotic DSB hotspots, while frequent colocalization of DSB hotspots with chromosome rearrangement breakpoints implicates the aberrant repair of meiotic DSBs in genomic disorders. Furthermore, our data indicate that DSB frequency is a major determinant of crossover rate. These maps provide new insights into the regulation of meiotic recombination and the impact of meiotic recombination on genome function.
Mapping recombination in individual human males Sperm and eggs form from diploid cells that contain two copies of our genomic DNA. The haploid germ cells must undergo a special cell division, meiosis, which halves their DNA content. Meiosis involves a DNA recombination step between parental chromosomes. Recombination is initiated by a DNA double-strand break, which can exchange DNA between the chromosomes, a process that drives human genetic variation. Pratto et al. mapped meiotic recombination sites in individual human males (see the Perspective by de Massy). Recombination hotspots were influenced by variants of the histone-lysine N-methyltransferase protein, PRDM9, as well as by other factors. The recombination sites also influence genome evolution and the incidence of genetic disease. Science, this issue 10.1126/science.1256442; see also p. 808
Genetic variation in humans is shaped by homologous recombination. Meiotic recombination itself is required for correct chromosome segregation in gametes; however, the initiation of recombination in humans remains poorly understood. Recombination events are tightly clustered in 1- to 2-kb-wide hotspots whose position is primarily determined by the histone-lysine N-methyltransferase PRDM9 protein (1–6). PRDM9 is one of the most rapidly evolving genes in humans, for which dozens of variants have been described (7–9), and allelic variants have been shown to specify different sets of hotspots (4). The PRDM9 protein binds DNA through a highly polymorphic tandem array of zinc fingers (ZnF) and is then thought to recruit the recombination initiation complex that includes meiotic recombination protein SPO11, the protein that introduces meiotic double-strand breaks (DSBs). These DSBs are subsequently repaired by homologous recombination to give rise to either genetic crossovers, in which a reciprocal genetic exchange occurs between homologous chromosomes, or noncrossovers (10). Designation of a subset of events as crossovers is a tightly regulated process, but the determinants of whether any particular DSB will become a crossover or not remain largely unknown (11).
Several approaches have been used to study recombination hotspots in humans. The most detailed maps of human recombination have been generated by means of computational inference of recombination rates from patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the human population (12–15). These maps do not, however, provide information about recombination rates in individuals. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping in human pedigrees has been used to identify crossovers, but the precision of crossover mapping is tens of kilobases (16–20). Until recently, the study of meiotic recombination hotspots in individuals required sperm genotyping (21), a method that can define crossover sites with nucleotide resolution but cannot be used for genome-wide analyses. Single-cell sequencing techniques have facilitated the construction of genome-wide crossover maps from individual sperm and oocytes (22–25); however, such approaches currently lack the resolution to perform fine-scale analysis and hotspot detection. Furthermore, these approaches rely on the identification of crossovers, which are just one of the possible outcomes of recombination. In mammals, only ~10% of DSBs are repaired as crossovers (26); therefore, the vast majority of recombination events in meiosis remain unexplored.
We overcome these limitations by generating genome-wide maps of meiotic recombination initiation sites in individual human males. Our approach combines hotspot resolution that is comparable with sperm genotyping, with the gender, individual, and PRDM9-allele specificity that LD-based methods lack. In addition, we detect all sites where recombination can occur, independent of the subsequent repair pathway. Although PRDM9 dictates hotspot locations, we find that ~5% of hotspots are polymorphic between individuals with identical PRDM9 alleles. Sequence polymorphism at PRDM9 binding sites explains less than half of this variation. Through analysis of the DNA polymorphism spectrum at hotspots, we identified distinct signatures of GC-biased gene conversion and of recombination-mediated mutagenesis. We find evidence for a role of ectopic recombination in gross chromosomal rearrangements and identify 726 new potential rearrangement breakpoints. Last, this first analysis of the recombination initiation landscape establishes that like crossovers, DSBs occur more frequently at subtelomeric regions. This suggests that initiation frequency is a major driver of crossover rate in human males.
Genome-wide DSB hotspot map in humans To create a representative overview of the recombination initiation landscape in human males, we generated high-resolution maps of meiotic DSB hotspots from four unrelated individuals (Fig. 1, fig. S1, and table S1). We performed chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by single-stranded DNA sequencing (SSDS) (27) to identify DNA fragments associated with DMC1 (meiotic recombination protein DMC1/LIM15 homolog), a specific marker of meiotic DSBs. The number of DMC1-associated single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) fragments provides an estimate of DSB frequency, although this estimate could be affected by the relative lifetime of ssDNA intermediates and by differences in DMC1 loading at individual hotspots. Two men in our sample set were homozygous for the most common PRDM9 allele (PRDM9 A ; individuals AA 1 and AA 2 ), and three were heterozygous for the PRDM9 A allele and for the less frequent variants PRDM9 B (AB 1 , AB 2 ) and PRDM9 C (AC). In total, we identified up to 38,946 DSB hotspots per individual (Fig. 1B and table S1). This number is substantially higher than the 15,000 to 20,000 hotspots identified in mouse (4), which is perhaps a reflection of the twofold higher recombination rate in humans (28). The SSDS signal was three- to sevenfold higher on the sex chromosomes than on the autosomes (fig. S1), and this may reflect continuous DSB formation (29) or extended DSB life span on the sex chromsomes (30, 31). Autosomal DSB hotspot strength varied by over three orders of magnitude (fig. S2), and ~100 hotspots (fig. S2, table S3, and data file S1) were stronger than the recombination hotspot with the highest known crossover rate (9, 32). Fig. 1 Genome-wide distribution of DSB hotspots in human individuals. (A) ZnF array structure of PRDM9 alleles in individuals from this study. Population allele frequencies are taken from (9). (B) The overlap between autosomal hotspots found in different individuals. AA hotspots are the hotspots found in either AA 1 or AA 2 individuals. (C) DSB hotspots from AA 1 , AA 2 , AB 1 , and AC individuals in a 300-kb region on chromosome 17. (Top four) Normalized ssDNA coverage in fragments per kilobase per million (FPKM), smoothed by using a sliding window (window, 1 kb; step, 0.1 kb). The baseline of the y axes is 0 FPKM. (Second from bottom) The recombination rate calculated from the population-averaged HapMap data (15). (Bottom) PRDM9 A - and PRDM9 C -defined DSB hotspots and LD-defined hotspots. The PRDM9 protein defines most hotspot sites in mice (4). Consistent with this role, 89% of human DSB hotspots were found at the same locations in the two AA individuals (fig. S3). A similar proportion of hotspots in the AB individual overlapped AA 1 /AA 2 hotspots (88%), suggesting that the PRDM9 A -like PRDM9 B allele does not specify a distinct set of hotspots (33) (fig. S3). Only 43% of DSB hotspots in the AC individual overlap PRDM9 A -defined hotspots (Fig. 1B); therefore, the remaining 56% (19,330) are likely PRDM9 C -defined. At the local level, many properties of hotspots, regardless of the PRDM9 allele, remain conserved between human and mouse (figs. S4 and S5) (33). Common hotspot features include a purine-pyrimidine skew around hotspot centers and a local increase in GC content. Furthermore, as in mouse and consistent with the role of PRDM9 as a histone H3K4 trimethyltransferase (34), most human DSB hotspots coincide with H3K4me3 in testis (57%) (fig. S6). Consistent with the different DNA binding specificities of the PRDM9 A and the PRDM9 C alleles, we identified distinct consensus motifs enriched at the centers of PRDM9 A - and PRDM9 C -defined hotspots (fig. S7). Each motif matches the predicted PRDM9 binding site for the respective PRDM9 allele but not that of the other allele (fig. S7). Furthermore, the PRDM9 A motif, but not the PRDM9 C motif, is highly similar to a 13-oligomer motif previously found to be enriched at recombination hotspots (LD-hotspots) (fig. S7) (13, 35). This is consistent with the widespread predominance of the PRDM9 A allele in human populations [84% in European, 50% in African populations (9)]. In turn, the PRDM9 C motif is highly similar to a 17-oligomer motif, found at LD-defined recombination hotspots used in the African American but not in the European population (20, 35). This agrees with the increased prevalence of the PRDM9 C allele in Africans (13%) as compared with Europeans (~1%) (9). To ensure proper segregation of the sex chromosomes during male meiosis, a crossover must form in the short regions of sequence homology shared between the X and Y chromosomes [pseudoautosomal regions (PARs)]. In mouse, there is a broad and extremely intense DSB signal adjacent to the pseudo-autosomal boundary (PAB) Furthermore, this signal and several hotspots outside of the PAR but immediately adjacent to it appear to be formed independently of PRDM9 (4). Unlike in mouse, we did not observe a prominent DSB cluster near either human PAB (Fig. 2, A and B), and PRDM9 allele–specific hotspot formation was observed in both PAR regions (Fig. 2, C and D). Thus, it is unlikely that PRDM9-independent DSB formation near the PAB is a conserved mechanism to ensure a mandatory crossover in the PAR. It is possible, however, that PRDM9-independent DSB clusters are located in the very distal part of the human PARs close to the telomere. These regions are poorly assembled and replete with repetitive DNA and therefore cannot be analyzed by using high-throughput sequencing. Fig. 2 PRDM9-defined hotspots are found in the human PARs. (A and B) Overview of ~1-Mb regions on chromosome X overlapping the (A) PAR1 and (B) PAR2 pseudoautosomal boundaries (PABs). Normalized ssDNA coverage is shown as FPKM, smoothed by using a sliding window (window, 1 kb; step, 0.1 kb). The baseline of the y axes is 0 FPKM. Coverage is shown for the AA 1 , AA 2 , AB, and AC individuals. Red and green bars depict PRDM9 A - and PRDM9 C -defined hotspots, respectively. (C and D) Closeup of a (C) 330 kb region of the PAR1 and (D) the entire ~330 kb PAR2 illustrating the presence of PRDM9 C -defined hotspots (highlighted by gray bars) in both PARs.
Contribution of individual PRDM9 alleles to the LD-based recombination rate map LD-based methods have provided the most comprehensive maps of human recombination to date (12–15). Because these maps are intrinsically sex- and population-averaged, they cannot distinguish between hotspots defined by different PRDM9 alleles. In contrast, our approach directly measures DSB frequency in a single male with a known combination of PRDM9 alleles. We thus explored the contribution of individual PRDM9 alleles to the LD map. Overall, we found a good agreement between our individual-specific DSB maps and the LD map (Fig. 3A), with 68% of LD-hotspots coinciding with a DSB hotspot. Consistent with the high frequency of the PRDM9 A allele across human populations, 56% of LD-hotspots coincided with PRDM9 A -defined hotspots (Fig. 3A) (9). The less frequent PRDM9 C allele has also left a considerable footprint on patterns of linkage disequilibrium because 12% of LD-hotspots overlapped PRDM9 C -defined hotspots. These proportions are very close to the frequencies of these PRDM9 alleles in modern Africans (Fig. 1A) (9), suggesting that the PRDM9 allelic distribution in modern Africans is similar to that in ancestral human populations. Nevertheless, 32% of LD-hotspots do not overlap a DSB hotspot in any of our maps (Fig. 3A). These “LD-only” hotspots are likely the products of minor PRDM9 alleles, hotspots that vary between individuals and hotspots that are used more frequently in females than in males. Fig. 3 Comparison of LD-based recombination maps and DSB hotspots. (A) The proportion of LD-hotspots that overlap PRDM9 A - or PRDM9 C -defined DSB hotspots. Most LD-hotspots are detected in the DSB hotspot maps. (B) The percentage of PRDM9 A - (left) and PRDM9 C -defined (right) hotspots overlapping LD-hotspots in the CEU (European) and YRI (African) populations. Most DSB hotspots are found in the LD maps. (C) Violin plots showing the population-averaged recombination rate at DSB hotspots that overlap or do not overlap LD-hotspots defined in the CEU and YRI populations. 85% of PRDM9 A -defined and 82% of PRDM9 C -defined hotspots that do not overlap an LD-hotspot have a recombination rate above random expectation. We next asked what proportion of DSB hotspots can be seen in LD data. Overall, 51.1% of DSB hotspots overlap population-averaged LD-hotspots (15). Because there are substantial differences in PRDM9 allele frequencies between human populations, we used LD-hotspots inferred from population-specific subsets of HapMap II data (19) [Utah residents with ancestry from northern and western Europe (CEU); Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria (YRI)] to assess the DSB overlap. In agreement with the higher prevalence of PRDM9 C in African as compared with European populations, the PRDM9 C -defined DSB hotspots are better represented at YRI-specific hotspots (33% overlap) (Fig. 3B) than at CEU-specific hotspots (4% overlap) (Fig. 3B). Furthermore, at PRDM9 C -defined DSB hotspots, the mean YRI-derived recombination rate is higher than the mean CEU-derived recombination rate (fig. S8). In contrast, PRDM9 A -defined DSB hotspots are well represented in both CEU- and YRI-specific LD-hotspots, with 52% overlapping hotspots in both populations (Fig. 3B). Although the majority of DSB hotspots for each PRDM9 allele are found at LD-hotspots, 27% of PRDM9 A -defined and 44% of PRDM9 C -defined DSB hotspots are not found at a LD-hotspot in either population (Fig. 3B). We did find, however, that >80% of these DSB hotspots were located in a region with an elevated recombination rate (Fig. 1C, “a,” and Fig. 3C), suggesting that these hotspots have been active in human populations but were simply below the detection thresholds used for LD-hotspot detection. Together, the DSB maps for different PRDM9 alleles clearly show that the population-averaged LD map is a combination of allele-specific maps.
Interindividual variability in hotspot strength Although hotspot strength has been shown to vary between individuals sharing the same PRDM9 genotype (8, 9), these analyses were based on comparisons of crossover frequency at a limited number of strong hotspots, and the extent of this variation genome-wide is not known. To explore variation in hotspot strength on a genome-wide scale, we compared our DSB maps between the AA 1 and AA 2 individuals (Fig. 4A) (33). Conservatively, we estimated that at least 3.2% (1146) of hotspots varied in strength (1.25- to >30-fold) (fig. S9), although the true proportion may be higher (fig. S9A). Fig. 4 Variation in hotspot strength between the AA 1 and AA 2 individuals. (A) A comparison of PRDM9 A -defined hotspot strength in the AA 1 and AA 2 individuals. Variable hotspots that satisfy our statistical criteria are shown in red. (B) Example of a variable hotspot between the two AA individuals in which a homozygous SNV disrupts a PRDM9 motif near the hotspot center. The PRDM9 motif match is better in AA 1 than in AA 2 , and the change in hotspot strength is codirected with the change in motif score. (C) Motif-affecting SNVs are enriched around hotspot centers. The SNV density was smoothed by using a Gaussian kernel estimation and is shown for variants that change the motif score at a strong putative PRDM9 binding site (red, score > 10), at a weak putative PRDM9 binding site (blue, 0 < score ≤ 10), or that do not change a putative binding site (green). Only changes >1 bit are considered. The y axis is expressed in arbitrary units (AU). Separate plots for stable (left, n = 35,228 hotspots) and for variable (right, n = 1146 hotspots) hotspots from the AA 1 /AA 2 comparison are shown. (D) The proportion of variable hotspots that contain a codirected motif-affecting SNV near the hotspot centers. (E) PRDM9 A -defined hotspot strength in the AA 1 , AB 1 , and AC individuals compared with the AA 2 individual. We used 15,051 PRDM9 A -defined hotspots common to all four individuals. (F) Quantification of variable PRDM9 A -defined hotspots between individuals. Bar colors indicate fold change. Multiple factors may affect the DSB initiation frequency at a given hotspot. These include the DNA binding affinity of PRDM9, accessibility of the PRDM9 binding site, and modulation of SPO11 recruitment and DNA cleavage. To determine how interindividual sequence variation at PRDM9 binding sites affects DSB hotspot strength (Fig. 4B), we performed whole-genome sequencing of the AA 1 , AA 2 , and AB individuals and identified 6.3 million sequence variants that differed from the reference genome (table S4). We then calculated the PRDM9 DNA-binding motif match scores associated with each variant. Motif-changing sequence variants were strongly enriched around the center of variable hotspots (Fig. 4C), and changes in motif score were positively correlated with changes in hotspot strength genome-wide (fig. S10). Furthermore, the enrichment of motif-score changing single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) around hotspot centers is primarily driven by “codirected” SNVs, in which the change in motif score matches the direction of change in hotspot strength (fig. S11). To estimate the proportion of variable hotspots likely explained by sequence variation at PRDM9 binding sites, we first evaluated the spatial distribution and strength of putative functional PRDM9 sites (sites found inside hotspots). We estimate that >70% of functional PRDM9 binding sites lie within 250 nucleotides (nt) of hotspot centers, while >92% lie within 500 nt (fig. S12A). 99% of hotspots contain a PRDM9 motif match with a score >10 within 250 nt of center (fig. S12, B and C). However, analysis of PRDM9 motif loss through evolution suggests that even motifs with a score between 0 and 5 have been functionally active (fig. S12D). In total, 88% of variable hotspots differ in at least one sequence position between the genomes of AA 1 and AA 2 (table S5), providing an upper limit of proportion of variable hotspots caused by variation at PRDM9 binding sites. More realistically, between 23% (score > 10 within 250 nt from center) and 44% (score > 0 within 500 nt from center) of variable hotspots are likely explained by sequence differences at PRDM9 binding sites (Fig. 4D). Because sequence variation explains less than 44% of variable hotspots, other factors such as binding site accessibility must strongly affect DSB initiation frequency. The relatively minor impact of sequence variation at DNA binding sites is not unique to meiotic DSB hotspots; for transcription factors, sequence changes at putative DNA binding sites only explain a small fraction of differential transcription factor occupancy (36, 37). Next, we asked whether variable hotspots detected in the AA 1 /AA 2 comparison were specific to these individuals or rather were polymorphic among humans. Individual-specific hotspots will not have left a footprint on historical recombination rates, and therefore, we compared the LD-defined recombination rate between variable and stable hotspots. We observed little difference between the mean recombination rates (fig. S13), suggesting that few variable hotspots are specific to AA 1 or AA 2 . In addition, over 60% of codirected SNVs within 250 nt from center are commonly found (minor allele frequency of >0.05) in both the CEU and YRI populations (fig. S14), suggesting that most variable hotspots driven by variation at the PRDM9 binding site are polymorphic in humans.
PRDM9 heterozygosity modulates hotspot strength DSB hotspots can vary in strength between individuals homozygous for the PRDM9 A allele. We next asked whether a heterozygous combination of PRDM9 alleles contributes to hotspot strength variation at PRDM9 A -defined hotspots. We compared hotspot strength in the AA 1 , AB, and AC individuals to the strength in AA 2 and found a much higher proportion of variable PRDM9 A -defined hotspots in the AB and AC individuals (8.5 and 24.0%, respectively) compared to AA 1 /AA 2 (3.5%) (Fig. 4, E and F, and fig. S15). This difference is unlikely to be caused by sequence variation in PRDM9 binding sites because the number of potential motif-disrupting sequence variants is similar in the AA and AB individuals (fig. S16 and table S5). In the case of the PRDM9 A /PRDM9 B heterozygous individual, it is possible that the PRDM9 B ZNF array has slightly different binding preferences compared with PRDM9 A , and therefore, the apparent hotspot strength variation might be just a reflection of these changes in binding affinity. However, we do not observe any substantial changes in PRDM9 B binding specificity (fig. S3) (33), and such a model cannot account for increased hotspot variation in the PRDM9 A /PRDM9 C individual. One way to explain the increased hotspot variability in the AC individual is interference between neighboring hotspots. Indeed, correlated changes in crossover frequency at neighboring hotspots have been observed in humans (38). In Saccharomyces cerevisae, there is also abundant evidence that the activation of a nearby hotspot can affect DSB frequency at other hotspots in its vicinity (39–42). Chromatin modifications following DSB formation could provide a mechanistic basis for such effects. For example, H2AX phosphorylation occurs rapidly after DSB formation and can span megabase-sized domains in mammals (43). This distance is clearly sufficient to affect nearby hotspots. Alternatively, interactions between PRDM9 monomers, either direct or mediated by cofactors, may affect the DNA binding activity of PRDM9 and thus explain the increased hotspot strength variance in individuals heterozygous for PRDM9. Such cooperative interactions could modulate hotspot strength without changing binding specificity and may result in partial dominance (44). In the case of PRDM9 binding, we have clear partial dominance of one allele over the other (fig. S17) (4). Although we cannot clearly establish the mechanism of hotspot strength modulation, this effect is not restricted to humans. In a mouse hybrid derived from a 9Rx13R F1 cross, we also observe increased variance in hotspot strength in heterozygous F1 animals relative to PRDM9 homozygotes (fig. S18). Taken together, these observations suggest that the presence of a second PRDM9 allele can influence DSB hotspot strength.
The mutagenic effect of meiotic recombination Meiotic recombination influences genome evolution through the shuffling of parental alleles, and broad-scale recombination rates are positively correlated with genetic diversity (45). At finer scales, the recombination rate has also been found to positively correlate with genetic diversity in humans (46, 47). However, the use of polymorphisms themselves to infer LD-defined recombination rates may confound such analyses (15). In order to better understand how meiotic recombination influences genome diversity at a local scale, we explored the patterns of DNA variation around DSB hotspots. Our initial analyses revealed a local increase in SNP density in the ~3-kb region around both PRDM9 A - and PRDM9 C -defined hotspot centers (Fig. 5A). This local increase in SNP density is likely a direct consequence of meiotic DSBs because the magnitude of enrichment was positively correlated with hotspot strength (Fig. 5B). In addition, SNP enrichment reflects historical hotspot usage, as enrichment at PRDM9 A -defined hotspots was three times greater than at PRDM9 C -defined hotspots. To account for the effects of selection and population history, we investigated the distribution of SNPs with different derived allele frequencies (DAFs) around DSB hotspots. In general, common SNPs represent relatively old mutations that have become established in the population as a result of selection or genetic drift. Rare variants are less likely to be influenced by selection; therefore, they will more accurately reflect the spectrum of mutagenesis events (48). Parsing by DAF revealed two distinct spatial profiles of SNP enrichment, each of which was correlated with hotspot strength (figs. S19 and S20); a signal in the central ± 0.5 kb derived primarily from common variants, and a broader signal extending to the ± 1.5-kb shoulders of hotspots derived from rare variants. Fig. 5 Signatures of increased genetic diversity at DSB hotspots. (A) A local increase in SNP density is observed at both PRDM9 A - (red) and PRDM9 C -defined (blue) hotspots. All SNPs from the 1000 genomes project were used. (B) The magnitude of SNP enrichment at hotspots is positively correlated with hotspot strength. SNP enrichment is calculated as the SNP density in the central ± 1.5 kb relative to the mean SNP density in the region from 4 to 5 kb from the hotspot center. (C) Common AT>GC and GC>CG variants are enriched in the ± 0.5-kb region around the hotspot center. (D) Rare variants are enriched in a region ±1.5 kb around the hotspot center. Only variants enriched at hotspots are shown. Variants exhibit rotational symmetry around the hotspot center. Among common variants (DAF >0.01), AT>GC, AT>CG, and GC>CG variants were enriched in the narrow central ±0.5-kb region of hotspots (Fig. 5C and fig. S21). This polymorphism spectrum is indicative of GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC) (49), and the 1-kb extent of this signature closely approximates recent measurements of gBGC at mouse hotspots (50). Consistent with gBGC, we observe fixation of and enrichment for GC nucleotides at the hotspot center (fig. S22). The polymorphism spectrum of enriched rare variants (DAF < 0.01) was quite different from that observed for common variants. Among rare variants C>T (G>A) transitions, T>C (A>G) transitions, and to a lesser extent C>G (G>C) transversions were enriched in the broad ±1.5-kb region around the hotspot centers (Fig. 5D and fig. S21). Like DNA resection, the rare polymorphism spectrum exhibited 180° rotational symmetry around the hotspot center (Fig. 5D and figs. S21 and S23). Together with the strength-dependence of enrichment (fig. S19), this symmetry suggests that these variants arose directly from DSB repair processes. A more detailed analysis of the trinucleotide context of SNPs shows that a majority of rare C>T and G>A variants occurred at ancestral CpG dinucleotides (fig. S24, A and B). Nevertheless, the polarity of these variants around DSBs makes it unlikely that cytosine deamination, a major mutagenic mechanism affecting methylated CpG dinucleotides (51), was the mechanism of their formation (fig. S24C). Exactly which mechanism drives this diversity remains unclear; however, error-prone DNA synthesis by trans-lesion polymerases may have a role in meiotic DSB repair (52). Together, our data show unequivocally that meiotic DSB repair processes increase local genetic diversity through both gBGC and mutagenesis.
DSB frequency is a major determinant of crossover rate In meiosis, a DSB can be repaired as either a crossover or as a noncrossover (Fig. 6A) (26). Because the proportion of DSBs resolved as crossovers might vary from hotspot to hotspot (11), the frequency of crossing over need not necessarily reflect the DSB formation rate. We thus asked whether the crossover landscape is largely shaped by variation in crossover/noncrossover resolution or whether it is mostly determined by the DSB frequency. Fig. 6 DSB frequency is correlated with the crossover rate. (A) Meiotic DSBs can be repaired as either a crossover or a noncrossover. (B) The distribution of PRDM9 A -defined DSBs from the AA 2 (red) individual and broad-scale distribution of (blue) male- and (pink) female-derived crossovers from (18). (C) The average DSB frequency from the two AA individuals is correlated with crossover frequency at 22 PRDM9 A -defined hotspots (P < 10−4, two tailed t test). Crossover frequency is taken from (9) and (32). (D) The CO:DSB ratio is not strongly dependent on the distance to the telomere. The CO:DSB ratio for each of the hotspots analyzed in (C) is plotted against the absolute distance of the hotspot to the closest telomere. The shaded region represents the SE for the linear fit line. (Right) Boxplot illustrating that the CO:DSB ratio is highly variable among individual hotspots. It has been well established that crossovers in human males are enriched in subtelomeric regions (Fig. 6B and fig. S25) (16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 53). We found that DSB hotspots were also stronger and more densely spaced in the distal parts of chromosomes (Fig. 6B and figs. S1 and S26). This enrichment spans ~10 Mb, independent of chromosome size (fig. S27). Quantitavely, at the megabase scale the SSDS signal was strongly correlated to the male (Pearson R2 = 0.90, n = 22 intervals of 5 Mb averaged across all chromosomes, P < 0.0001) but not to the female crossover frequency (18) (R2 = –0.07, n = 22 intervals, P = 0.36) (Fig. 6B). Furthermore, at PRDM9 A -defined hotspots we also found a positive correlation between the SSDS signal and the LD-defined recombination rates (Spearman R2 = 0.2) (33), despite the influence of female recombination and hotspot erosion on these rate estimates. The relationship between crossover frequency and SSDS signal remains strong at the level of individual hotspots. We found that the mean SSDS signal in AA individuals is strongly correlated with the mean crossover frequency determined with sperm genotyping (Pearson R2 = 0.58; P < 0.0001) (Fig. 6C and table S3) (9, 32), although the CO:DSB ratio varies among individual hotspots. The preferential resolution of DSBs as COs near telomeres may also contribute to the observed CO distribution, and we therefore analyzed the relationship between CO:DSB ratio and proximity to telomeres. On the basis of the limited set of available hotspots, we found no strong evidence that the CO:DSB ratio depends on the distance to the telomere (Fig. 6D), although nonlinear fitting suggests that the CO:DSB ratio may be higher near the telomere (fig. S28A). This increase could be driven by stronger CO hotspots (fig. S28B), which are themselves known to be enriched near telomeres; therefore, more data will be required to establish whether the CO:NCO ratio is elevated in telomere-adjacent regions. Taken together, although biased CO/NCO resolution may contribute, our per-hotspot and genome-wide observations collectively indicate that crossover frequency is largely determined by the rate of DSB formation. The SSDS signal is a reflection of DSB frequency, but it may be influenced by the rate at which DSBs are repaired. To obtain an independent estimate of DSB frequency, we performed immunostaining for DMC1, a marker for meiotic DSBs, and quantified the distribution of DMC1 foci with respect to telomeres. We compared the density of DMC1 foci in the telomere proximal area with foci density in interstitial regions and found that early in meiosis, when DMC1 foci are first detected (early zygotene), there is a ~1.8-fold excess of DMC1 foci in the telomere-proximal region (fig. S29A). Later in zygotene, although the number of DMC1 foci remains similar [early zygotene: 185 ± 37 (SD); late zygotene: 166 ± 41 (SD); P = 0.27, two-tailed Mann Whitney], the proportion of telomere-proximal DMC1 foci decreases (Fig. 7, A and B, and figs. S29 and S30). Although we cannot rule out that some subtelomeric DSBs have extended life span, our consistent observation of a decrease in DMC1 foci density near telomeres using different approaches indicates that most of these DSBs do not persist as meiosis progresses. Taken together, our observations suggest that increased DSB formation close to telomeres in early zygotene shapes the global DSB distribution in our genome-wide maps (Fig. 7C and fig. S31). Fig. 7 Increased frequency of DSB formation near telomeres. (A) Early and late zygotene spermatocytes stained with SYCP3 (which detects axial elements) in gray, DMC1 (a marker of DSBs) in green, and TRF2 (a marker of telomeres) in red. DMC1 foci are clustered near telomeres at early zygotene. (B) Telomere-proximal DMC1 density is about twofold higher in early as compared with late zygotene cells. For each cell, we manually traced all chromosome axes that unambiguously initiated at a TRF2 focus. We defined telomere-proximal regions as the 1 μm of axis adjacent to the TRF2 focus (fig. S30A). For each cell, the telomeric density of DMC1 foci (F) was calculated as [(∑ DMC1 foci in telomere proximal 1-μm regions)/(total DMC1 foci)/(total TRF2 foci)]. We do not count DMC1 foci adjacent to TRF2 foci that could not be unambiguously attributed to a particular chromosomal axis. This is particularly punitive for early cells, as the DMC1 density appears highest in regions where TRF2 foci are clustered and individual axes are difficult to distinguish. Error bars indicate mean ± SD. P-values are calculated using a Mann-Whitney U-test. (C) Cartoon showing the distribution of DMC1 foci in early and late zygotene spermatocytes. Forty-eight percent of zygotene cells are at the early stage, where they show significantly higher frequency of DSB formation near telomeres. At late zygotene, DSBs are more evenly distributed. The combined signal from these two populations may result in the telomeric bias we observe in our genome-wide maps. Last, we explored other aspects of DSB formation that may contribute to increased hotspot strength in subtelomeric regions. The PRDM9-dependent H3K4me3 peak intensity from chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) experiments is correlated with hotspot strength in mice. (4, 54); therefore, we examined the H3K4me3 ChIP-seq signal at human hotspots. We found that despite increased hotspot strength in distal regions (figs. S26B, S27, and S32A), the H3K4me3 signal at hotspots did not increase (fig. S32B). Furthermore, the correlation between hotspot strength and H3K4me3 signal decreased in distal relative to interstitial regions (fig. S32C). This suggests that in subtelomeric regions, PRDM9 may define DSBs independent of its methyltransferase activity, or that in these regions, other factors such as the chromatin environment and/or proximity to the nuclear envelope may modulate hotspot strength. Given the biased distribution of crossovers in males but not in females, such modulation may be acting only in the male germ line.
Meiotic recombination drives genome instability Meiotic recombination has been implicated as a potential source of gross structural variants (SVs) (55); therefore, we examined the association between meiotic DSBs and SVs. We found that SVs generated by homology-based mechanisms [nonallelic homologous recombination (NAHR) or shrinking or expansion of variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR)] (55) were enriched at PRDM9 A -defined hotspots (table S6). Structural rearrangements derived from unequal crossovers are known to cause genomic diseases (56); therefore, we asked whether disease-causing SV breakpoints occur at DSB hotspots. We found that 14 out of 27 disease-associated breakpoints that have been mapped to <1.5 kb coincided with a PRDM9 A -defined hotspot (table S7). These hotspot-associated breakpoints include those responsible for X-linked ichthyosis (fig. S33A), Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and Hunter and Potocki-Lupski/Smith-Magenis syndromes (fig. S33B), among others (table S7). No disease-causing SV breakpoints coincided with PRDM9 C -defined DSB hotspots. This implies that individuals homozygous for the PRDM9 C allele are not at risk for these and highlights the utility of PRDM9 genotyping for future studies of genomic disorders. Most of these disease-associated breakpoints occur within directly paralagous low copy repeats (DP-LCRs) or inverted paralagous LCRs (IP-LCRs), genomic regions that are susceptible to NAHR-mediated recombination events (57, 58). The 726 PRDM9 A -defined hotspots that occur at DP/IP-LCR regions (file S1) represent targets for future research into human genetic disease.
Conclusions We have generated comprehensive maps of meiotic recombination initiation in human individuals. Our comparison of recombination initiation maps between individuals sharing PRDM9 alleles clearly demonstrates that the recombination initiation frequency varies between individuals on a hotspot level. We can explain less than half of the variation in hotspot intensity by sequence changes at PRDM9 binding sites. This suggests that the chromatin environment or other factors mediate the rate of recombination initiation. Our maps allowed us to deduce genome-wide sets of human hotspots defined by different alleles of the PRDM9 protein. A comparison of DSB hotspot maps with LD-based map suggests that an LD-based recombination map is an apparent superposition of allele-specific maps and indicates that a sizable proportion of LD-defined hotspots are defined by minor PRDM9 alleles. Unlike previous methods that rely on the detection of only crossovers, we mapped hotspots by directly identifying the sites of early DSB repair intermediates. Our observations indicate that the DSB frequency itself is largely shaping the crossover distribution. The high resolution of DSB hotspot mapping allowed us to carefully evaluate the impact of meiotic recombination on genome evolution. We have found clear evidence for GC-biased gene conversion and recombination-associated mutagenesis at sites of DSB hotspots. SVs associated with genomic disease are clearly associated with DSB hotspots defined by the PRDM9 A but not by the PRDM9 C allele, suggesting that the PRDM9 genotype should be considered in assessing predisposition to genomic disorders. Taken together, our data open a broad window into future studies of human recombination, meiosis, and genome evolution and provide a rich data source for future research into human genomic disease.
Methods Summary We performed SSDS (27) using antibodies against DMC1 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Dallas, TX; C-20, sc 8973) in order to identify meiotic DSB hotspots in testis tissue from five individual human males. The genotype at the PRDM9 locus was established in each of these individuals by using the primers and method described in (9). SSDS samples were compared with a matched control, and DSB hotspots were defined by using MACS 2.0.10 (59). Whole-genome sequencing libraries were prepared for three individuals according to an established protocol (Illumina, San Diego, CA). GATK best practices (60) were followed to identify variants using the GATK Genome Analysis Toolkit v2.3.9 (61). ChIP using antibodies against H3K4me3 (Abcam; ab8580) followed by high-throughput sequencing was performed to identify sites of trimethylated H3K4 in one individual. Peaks in H3K4me3 data were called by using SICER v1.1 (62). All high-throughput sequencing was performed on an Illumina HiSEq 2500. Spermatocyte spreads were prepared for immunofluorescence microscopy by using the method described in (63). Detailed methods are available in (33).
Supplementary Materials www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6211/1256442/suppl/DC1 Materials and Methods Figs. S1 to S33 Tables S1 to S7 References (64–103) Data File S1
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A mysterious substance called dark matter and its equally mysterious counterpart, dark energy, were hypothesized almost a century ago to explain a number of otherwise inexplicable astronomical phenomena, such as the accelerating expansion of the universe and anomalies in the gravitational effects of large cosmic objects. And since these concepts came to be largely accepted in the scientific community, a large number of scientific experiments have been dedicated to conclusively identify either of the two hypotheses, with no success yet.
A new theory by an astronomer from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, claims the cosmic phenomena that led to the need of hypothesizing dark matter and dark energy can be explained without using those concepts, thereby removing any need for the concepts to exist. In other words, according to André Maeder, honorary professor in the Department of Astronomy at the university’s Faculty of Science, dark matter and dark energy may not really exist at all.
To arrive at this startling conclusion, Maeder created a model for the expansion of the universe since the Big Bang. In his model, he incorporated a factor which he said hadn’t been accounted for by current models.
Maeder explained in a statement Wednesday: “In this model, there is a starting hypothesis that hasn’t been taken into account, in my opinion. By that I mean the scale invariance of the empty space; in other words, the empty space and its properties do not change following a dilatation or contraction.”
In Einstein’s equations of general relativity, empty space plays an important role in the universe model, being an important operator in the quantity known as the “cosmological constant,” which can be thought of as the measure of vacuum energy.
The results from cosmological tests on Maeder’s model matched real-life observations, according to the statement. Significantly, his model did not account for any dark matter or dark energy, suggesting that the physics we know already is enough to explain the acceleration of our expanding universe.
The concept of dark matter was undermined when Maeder applied a slightly modified version of Newton’s laws to galaxy clusters — large conglomerations of galaxies grouping together in space — and used his invariant empty space hypothesis.
He conducted three tests, one of which showed dark matter was not needed to explain the high speeds at which galaxies in the clusters were moving. Another found the hypothesis could predict the high speeds of stars in outer regions of galaxies without invoking dark matter. And the third test offered an explanation for the dispersion of the speeds of stars oscillating around the Milky Way’s plane.
But will this astounding new theory stand scrutiny by other astronomers, most of whom believe the dark matter and dark energy hypotheses? Only time can answer that, but Maeder was hopeful it would lead to better science and astronomy.
“The announcement of this model, which at last solves two of astronomy’s greatest mysteries, remains true to the spirit of science: nothing can ever be taken for granted, not in terms of experience, observation or the reasoning of human beings,” he said.
His research appears in the Astrophysical Journal.
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Skeen v Blacktown Workers Club Ltd [2016] FCCA 246 (23 February 2016)
Last Updated: 24 February 2016
FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT OF AUSTRALIA
PRACTICE & PROCEDURE – Whether the proceeding should be summarily dismissed pursuant to r.13.10 of the Federal circuit Court Rules 2001 (Cth) – whether the applicant’s claim for relief has reasonable prospect of success – whether the applicant’s claim for relief is frivolous. Catchwords:PRACTICE & PROCEDURE – Whether the proceeding should be summarily dismissed pursuant to r.13.10 of the Federal circuit Court Rules 2001 (Cth) – whether the applicant’s claim for relief has reasonable prospect of success – whether the applicant’s claim for relief is frivolous.
Applicant: BRUCE ROBERT SKEEN
Respondent: BLACKTOWN WORKERS CLUB LTD
File Number: SYG 977 of 2015
Judgment of: Judge Emmett
Hearing date: 10 February 2016
Date of Last Submission: 10 February 2016
Delivered at: Sydney
Delivered on: 23 February 2016
REPRESENTATION
The applicant appeared in person.
Counsel for the Respondents: Mr Colin Magee
Solicitors for the Respondents: Thomson Geer Lawyers
FEDERAL CIRCUIT
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
SYDNEY
SYG 977 of 2015
BRUCE ROBERT SKEEN
Applicant
And
BLACKTOWN WORKERS CLUB LTD
Respondent
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
This is an Application in a Case filed by the respondent, Blacktown Workers Club Limited (“the Club”) on 17 September 2015, seeking, inter alia, that the applicant’s Statement of Claim filed on 23 June 2015 be dismissed generally pursuant to r.13.10 of the Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001 (Cth) (“the Rules”), or be stayed, or struck out by reason of the claim for relief having no reasonable prospect of success and being frivolous. Rule 13.10 of the Rules is as follows: “ Disposal by summary dismissal
The Court may order that a proceeding be stayed, or dismissed generally or in relation to any claim for relief in the proceeding, if the Court is satisfied that: (a) the party prosecuting the proceeding or claim for relief has no reasonable prospect of successfully prosecuting the proceeding or claim; or (b) the proceeding or claim for relief is frivolous or vexatious; or (c) the proceeding or claim for relief is an abuse of the process of the Court.”
On 9 April 2015, the applicant (“Mr Skeen”), filed an application seeking a range of orders, including compensation and acknowledgement by the Club of certain conduct which Mr Skeen alleges involved discrimination against him by the Club by reason of his alleged disability, namely, coeliac disease. Essentially, Mr Skeen contends that by not providing him with gluten-free gravy with his main meal at a particular function held by the Club, the Club failed to comply with s.5(2)(a) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (“the Disability Discrimination Act”). Mr Skeen alleges further breaches in respect of the Club’s conduct following that incident. Section 5 of the Disability Discrimination Act is as follows: “ Direct disability discrimination
(1) For the purposes of this Act, a person (the discriminator ) discriminates against another person (the aggrieved person ) on the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if, because of the disability, the discriminator treats, or proposes to treat, the aggrieved person less favourably than the discriminator would treat a person without the disability in circumstances that are not materially different.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, a person (the discriminator ) also discriminates against another person (the aggrieved person ) on the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if: (a) the discriminator does not make, or proposes not to make, reasonable adjustments for the person; and (b) the failure to make the reasonable adjustments has, or would have, the effect that the aggrieved person is, because of the disability, treated less favourably than a person without the disability would be treated in circumstances that are not materially different.
(3) For the purposes of this section, circumstances are not materially different because of the fact that, because of the disability, the aggrieved person requires adjustments.” The background facts are summarised in submissions filed by the Club on 29 January 2016, as follows: “ Background facts
12. The Respondent relies upon affidavits by Ms Vivienne Young sworn 10 September 2015 (‘ Young Affidavit ’) and Mr James Morgan Stewart sworn 27 January 2016 (‘ Stewart Affidavit ’) in relation to the background facts. These are summarised below.
13. The Applicant was member of the Respondent.
14. On 11 December 2013, the Applicant attended a function at the Respondent’s premises (‘ Function ’). Some 870 members of the Respondent attended the Function.
15. The Respondent offered gluten-free main meal options (including a ‘roast dinner’) and a gluten-free dessert option for Function attendees. In addition, the Respondent made provision for attendees who wished to order gluten-free gravy with their gluten-free main meal, and such gluten-free gravy could be pre-ordered by the member at no extra cost.
16. The Applicant pre-ordered a meal with the Respondent’s staff prior to the Function. The Applicant ordered a gluten-free main meal and a gluten-free dessert.
17. At the Function the Respondent provided the Applicant with a gluten-free main meal (a ‘roast dinner’) and a gluten-free dessert. The gluten-free main meal was not accompanied by any gravy.
18. The Respondent contends that at the time the Applicant ordered his meals he did not request that the main meal be served with gluten-free gravy. The Applicant asserts that he specifically ordered a gluten-free main meal with gluten-free gravy.
19. However, the undisputed facts are that the Applicant attended the Function, and was provided with a main meal and a dessert which were both ‘gluten-free’ and thereby the Respondent catered for the Applicant’s claimed disability.
20. On 11 December 2013, after being served his main meal, the Applicant complained that his meal did not have gravy. The Respondent then sought to ascertain whether there was ‘gluten-free’ gravy available at the Function. None was able to be found.
21. As a result of being informed of this information, the Applicant behaved in an angry and disruptive manner. The Applicant was asked to cease his behaviour. The Applicant then went to another part of the Club and purchased another main meal, which he ate. The Applicant then returned to the Function and consumed the gluten-free desert. A summary of the key events that occurred on this day are set out in the Stewart Affidavit at paragraphs [9], [22] – [23].
22. The Respondent did not take any disciplinary action against the Applicant on this occasion in relation to his conduct or behaviour. Nor was he requested or required to leave the Club (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [23]).
23. On 18 December 2013, the Applicant attended the Club and placed an order with the Club’s staff for a ‘gluten- free’ meal for a New Year’s Eve function. At this point the Applicant specifically ordered ‘gluten-free’ gravy with his main meal at the New Year’s Eve function (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [26]).
24. Subsequently, on 18 December 2013, the Applicant behaved in a physically and verbally aggressive manner towards the Respondent’s staff and behaved disruptively to both other Club members and the general public. The Applicant’s behaviour led to his temporary suspension from the Club. A summary of the key events that occurred on this day are set out in the Stewart Affidavit at paragraphs [25] – [76], [78] – [105].
25. On 21 December 2013, the Applicant re-entered the Premises despite being aware that he had been suspended until further notice. The Applicant refused to comply with requests that he not enter the Premises, and subsequently with requests that he leave the Premises. A summary of the key events that occurred on this day are set out in the Stewart Affidavit at paragraphs [106] – [106].
26. In early 2014 the Respondent took disciplinary proceedings in relation to the Applicant’s conduct as a member of the Respondent, which conduct occurred on 18 and 21 December 2013. The outcome of those disciplinary proceedings was that the Applicant was found guilty of the matters alleged and the Respondent resolved to expel the Applicant from membership of the Respondent. The circumstances in which the disciplinary proceedings arose are set out in more detail in the Stewart Affidavit at paragraphs [114] – [131].”
The Club’s submissions are as follows:
“33. In order for an unlawful act of discrimination to have occurred the ground or characteristic in question, that is, the Applicant’s disability, must have a causal effect on the decision to commit the discriminatory act. An aggrieved person has to be able to show a relationship of cause and effect between the relevant characteristic and the action of the discriminator. That causal connection is described under sections 5(2), 24 and 27 of the DD Act as ‘on the grounds of’.
34. It is apparent in light of the decision of the High Court in Purvis v New South Wales (Department of Education and Training) [2003] HCA 62; 217 CLR 92 at [166], which considered the expression “because of” in the DD Act, that the appropriate approach to expressions such as ‘on the grounds of’ and ‘because of’ is to question the “true basis” or “real reason” for the act of the alleged discriminator.
35. It appears from the terms of Particular 1 of the Statement of Claim, that the Applicant contends that by not providing gluten free gravy with his ‘gluten-free’ main meal, the Respondent failed to comply with s.5(2)(a) in that it failed to provide ‘reasonable adjustment’ for him in relation to his main meal at the Function.
36. Therefore, in order to succeed on the allegations contained in Particular 1 of Statement of Claim the Applicant must prove: (i) That the Applicant had a ‘disability’ within the meaning of that term in s. 4 of the DD Act;
(ii) That a certain ‘act’ or ‘conduct’ occurred;
(iii) That the conduct related to the provision of ‘goods or services’;
(iv) That the ‘conduct’ was discriminatory in relation to the terms or conditions the goods or services are made available, or the manner in which they are made available to the Applicant;
(v) That the Respondent failed to make a ‘reasonable adjustment’ for the Applicant’s disability in relation to the terms or conditions the goods or services are made available, or the manner in which they are made available to the Applicant;
(vi) The failure to make the reasonable adjustment in relation to the provision of the ‘goods or services’ had the effect that the Applicant was: a. because of his disability;
b. treated less favourably than a person without the disability would be treated in circumstances that are not materially different;
(vii) The real or true reason that the ‘act’ or ‘conduct’ was done was on the grounds of his disability;
37. Whilst the Statement of Claim does not plead the nature of the Applicant’s alleged disability, it is noted for the purposes of this application that the Applicant asserts that he has either ‘coeliac disease’ or is ‘gluten intolerant’.
38. The Applicant’s focus on the absence of gravy on his ‘gluten-free’ main meal is misplaced. The service being provided by the Respondent was not the provision of ‘gravy’. The relevant ‘service’ the subject of the Applicant’s claim is the provision by the Respondent of the ‘Function’ being a combination of entertainment and refreshments.
39. It is apparent that even on the Applicant’s version of the events relating to the Function that the Respondent did not refuse to permit the Applicant to attend the function or impose terms or conditions upon which he could attend the function in a manner that that was ‘discriminatory’ in any sense.
40. Nor could it objectively be concluded that the manner in which the Respondent provided the relevant service ‘Function’ to the Applicant was discriminatory. The Respondent provided the entertainment and refreshments to the Applicant, including access to the Premises, provided a main meal and a dessert, and the Show in the same manner as was provided to persons without the Applicant’s disability. The Applicant was not treated less favourably than persons without the disability he claims to suffer.
41. In order to comply with its obligations under the DD Act, the Respondent provided persons who wished to attend the Function and who suffered a disability involving gluten intolerance with options for ‘gluten-free’ meals, which would enable them to attend the Function and consume the same categories of meals, main meal and dessert, as was provided to persons who did not suffer the disability, and thereby, not treat them in a disadvantageous manner.
42. Indeed the Respondent made provisions for the availability of gluten-free meals and gluten-free desserts that catered for persons with the disability the Applicant claims to suffer, in order to ensure that persons with such a disability were not treated less favourably. The provision of such meals amounted to a reasonable adjustment to the Respondent’s food menu for the Function. As did the Respondent having available, on request and for no extra charge, gluten-free gravy for main meal.
43. Indeed on the date of the Function the Respondent provided the Applicant with a ‘gluten-free’ main meal and dessert, which he was able to consume in light of his disability. Thus he was not treated less favourably than persons without the disability were treated in the same circumstances, who were also provided with a main meal and a dessert to consume at the Function.
44. From the content of Particular 1 of the Statement of Claim it is apparent that the Applicant does not (and could not) contend that that there was discrimination against him because he was being treated less favourably than those attending the Christmas Function who did not have his disability. It is apparent that the Applicant was not treated differently to any other person who attended the Function. He was not treated less favourably than persons without his disability were treated in circumstances which were not materially different. The Applicant was able to attend the Function by paying the same fee ($1.00), was provided with a main meal and dessert, as were the other attendees, and he was able to attend the Show. The absence of gravy on the Applicant's main meal did not have the effect that the Applicant was treated less favourably than a person without the disability would have been treated in circumstances that were not materially different.
45. Even on the Applicant’s own version of the events relating to the ordering of the meals for the Christmas function, as contained in paragraphs 13 – 16 of his affidavit dated 7 January 2016, it could not be said that the failure to provide the ‘gluten-free’ gravy with his main meal was done on the grounds of his disability. It is apparent that on the Applicant’s version the Respondent agreed to provide gluten-free gravy with the main meal for the function. Thus it agreed to reasonably adjust the goods to be provided in order to accommodate his disability.
46. Even if the Applicant’s version is accepted, the failure on the date of the Function to provide the gluten-free gravy was not done on the grounds of his disability, but at its highest was due to either: (i) a miscommunication between the Applicant and the Respondent’s staff at the time he ordered the meal; or
(ii) an administrative error on the part of the Respondent’s staff in entering the special requirements for the Applicant’s main meal into its system;
47. Therefore, on none of the potential circumstances in which it came to be that the Applicant’s main meal was not provided with gluten-free gravy, was that conduct done on the grounds that he suffered from the particular disability claimed.
48. Therefore, the Applicant cannot on any version of the facts establish, on an objective basis, the critical element required to make out such a claim, namely the causal nexus between the conduct and the suffering of the disability.
49. There is no basis in the pleadings or the evidence before the Court, upon which it could be concluded that the Respondent determined that it would not provide ‘gluten-free’ gravy at the time of the Christmas Function to the Applicant because he suffered from coeliac disease or was gluten intolerant.
50. Indeed, as at 11 December 2013, the Respondent was not aware, and had no reason to be aware (save for the Applicant's pre-ordering of a gluten-free meal for the Function), that the Applicant suffered from a disability in respect of gluten intolerance. The Respondent's records indicate that the Applicant had not previously requested the provision of food or beverages that did not contain gluten. Indeed, the Applicant's purchase history shows that both before and after the Christmas Function, the Applicant purchased food and beverage items, including bulk beer which to the best of the Club's knowledge, is not gluten-free. (Stewart Affidavit at [17] and Annexure MS-2 being a copy of the Member Sales Audit showing a transaction history in respect of food and beverage purchases made on the Respondent's point of sale system using the Applicant's membership card).
51. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, despite some factual controversy as to the circumstances in which there came to be no ‘gravy’ supplied with the Applicant’s gluten free main meal.
Particular 2
52. The Applicant appears to plead in Particular 2 of the Statement of Claim that the same conduct amounts to indirect discrimination pursuant to section 6 of the DD Act.
53. The basis of the alleged indirect discrimination is difficult to ascertain from the Statement of Claim, however, it is assumed for the purposes of this application that this also relates to the ‘failure’ to provide ‘gravy’ with his main meal at the Christmas Function.
54. Section 6 is in the following terms: 6 Indirect disability discrimination
(1) For the purposes of this Act, a person (the discriminator) discriminates against another person (the aggrieved person) on the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if: (a) the discriminator requires, or proposes to require, the aggrieved person to comply with a requirement or condition; and (b) because of the disability, the aggrieved person does not or would not comply, or is not able or would not be able to comply, with the requirement or condition; and (c) the requirement or condition has, or is likely to have, the effect of disadvantaging persons with the disability.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, a person (the discriminator ) also discriminates against another person (the aggrieved person ) on the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if: (a) the discriminator requires, or proposes to require, the aggrieved person to comply with a requirement or condition; and (b) because of the disability, the aggrieved person would comply, or would be able to comply, with the requirement or condition only if the discriminator made reasonable adjustments for the person, but the discriminator does not do so or proposes not to do so; and (c) the failure to make reasonable adjustments has, or is likely to have, the effect of disadvantaging persons with the disability.
(3) Subsection (1) or (2) does not apply if the requirement or condition is reasonable, having regard to the circumstances of the case.
(4) For the purposes of subs (3), the burden of proving that the requirement or condition is reasonable, having regard to the circumstances of the case, lies on the person who requires, or proposes to require, the person with the disability to comply with the requirement or condition.
55. Section 6 of the DD Act provides that indirect discrimination occurs where: (i) the discriminator requires or proposes to require the person with a disability to comply with a requirement or condition
(ii) the person cannot comply because of the disability
(iii) the requirement has or is likely to have the effect of disadvantaging people with the disability.
56. Section 6 of the DD Act imposes a duty to make reasonable adjustments to avoid indirect discrimination.
57. It is not apparent from the terms of Particular 2 of the Statement of Claim, what ‘requirement’ or ‘condition’ it is alleged that the Respondent required the Applicant to comply with, how it is said he was not able to comply with it or them due to his disability, or how it is said to have had the effect of disadvantaging the Applicant.
58. It is apparent that even on the facts of the case as asserted by the Applicant, that ss 6 (1) and (2) of the DD Act is not engaged. No condition was imposed upon the Applicant which, because of his disability, he did not or would not comply or was not able to or would not be able to comply. There was no condition imposed upon him which required him to do anything in particular. He was required to pay $1.00 to attend the Christmas Function by the Respondent, but there was no condition attached to the payment or his attendance.
59. Indeed there was no requirement that he attend the Christmas Function, or having attended that he consume the meals provided. It is apparent that the meal provided was one that he was able to consume despite his disability, as it was in fact a ‘gluten-free’ meal.
60. It is also apparent that there is no objective basis upon which the Applicant's claim on the grounds of indirect discrimination has a reasonable prospect of success because he cannot demonstrate discrimination, on the grounds of a disability for the purposes of 6 of the DD Act.
61. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success.
Particular 3
62. It is apparent that Particular 3 of the Statement of Claim, in essence makes the same claim as that contained in Particular 1 of the Statement of Claim.
63. For the reasons set out above in relation to Particular 1 of the Statement of Claim, this claim does not have reasonable prospects of success.
Particular 4
64. The Applicant also alleges that the Respondent has breached the provisions of s.27(2)(c) of the DD Act. Section 27(2)(c) of the DD Act provides that it is unlawful for a club to discriminate against a person who is a member of the club on the ground of the member's disability by denying the member access, or limiting the member’s access to any benefit provide by the club.
65. It is unclear from the terms of Particular 4 what the ‘benefit’ is that the Applicant says he was denied access to by the Respondent.
66. The term ‘benefit’ is not defined in the DD Act. In the context of Section 27(2)(c) of the DD Act ‘benefit’ would appear to mean ‘something that is provided by the club of value to the member, but not a monetary amount, or a good or service provided for commercial gain.’
67. The essential elements of such a breach are that: (i) the existence of a relevant ‘benefit’ provided by the club;
(ii) the conduct of denying or limiting the member’s access to the benefit;
(iii) that the reason for the club’s action in denying or limiting the member’s access to the benefit, was on the grounds of the member’s disability;
68. It is apparent from the factual material before the Court, that to the extent that it could be said to be any relevant ‘benefit’ provided by the Respondent, it was the opportunity for the Applicant to attend the Christmas Function, at a heavily subsidised rate, and be provided with entertainment and refreshments.
69. The factual material before the Court supports a finding that the Respondent did not deny or limit the Applicant’s access to the Christmas Function. Indeed by providing the option of a gluten free meal, it took steps to remove any potential limit to his access to the ‘benefit’ that may have arisen due to his disability.
70. It would stretch the bounds of credibility for the ‘benefit’ being contemplated by s.27(2)(c) of the DD Act, to be the provision of ‘gluten-free’ gravy with an otherwise ‘gluten-free’ meal.
71. Even if it were accepted that the provision of ‘gluten-free’ gravy was the relevant ‘benefit’ for the purposes of the DD Act, it could not objectively be found that the Respondent ‘denied or limited’ the Applicant’s access to ‘gluten-free’ gravy on the grounds of the member’s disability. The fact that he was ‘gluten intolerant’ was not the reason he was not provided with the ‘gluten-free’ gravy.
72. As discussed above, the reason that the Applicant was not provided with ‘gluten-free’ gravy, was due to one of the following reasons: (i) the Applicant failed to request ‘gluten-free’ gravy when ordering his meal; or
(ii) a potential miscommunication between the Applicant and the Respondent’s staff at the time he ordered the meal; or
(iii) a potential administrative error on the part of the Respondent’s staff in entering the special requirements for the Applicant’s main meal into its system.
73. Further, when the Applicant requested of the Respondent’s staff on the day of the Christmas Function that he be provided with ‘gluten-free’ gravy, attempts were made to ascertain whether any such gravy was available, and it can be inferred if it was it would have been provided (Stewart Affidavit at [20] –[21]). Therefore, far from the fact of his disability being the reason the gravy was not supplied, it appears that unavailability of ‘gluten-free’ gravy on the day of the Christmas Function (it not having been pre-ordered) was the final reason it was not provided.
74. As set out above, the Applicant cannot on any version of the facts establish, on an objective basis, the critical element required to make out such a claim, namely the causal nexus between the conduct and the suffering of the disability.
75. There is no basis in the pleadings or the evidence before the Court, upon which it could be concluded that the Respondent determined that it would deny or limit the Applicant access to ‘gluten-free’ gravy at the time of the Christmas Function because he suffered from coeliac disease or was gluten intolerant.
76. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, despite some factual controversy as to the circumstances in which there came to be no ‘gravy’ supplied with the Applicant’s gluten free main meal.
Particular 5
77. This particular alleges a breach of s.10 of the DD Act by the Respondent. It is asserted that the relevant discriminatory conduct was the Applicant being directed to leave the Premises on 11 December 2013 by an officer of the Respondent.
78. There are two bases upon which this allegation has no reasonable prospects of success.
79. First, section 10 of the DD Act is not a provision that can be breached by a person. It is a facilitative provision in relation to proof of an act of ‘discrimination’ in circumstances where there were two or more reasons for the impugned conduct, one of which was due to the disability of the person.
80. This provision is not applicable to the circumstances of the Applicant’s claim as it cannot be objectively demonstrated on the facts that the Applicant was asked to leave the Club by an officer of the Respondent on 11 December 2013. Indeed the evidence demonstrates that the Applicant remained in the Premises throughout the evening of 11 December 2013, attended the Christmas Function and was not subject to any sanction (Stewart Affidavit at [22] –[23]).
81. It cannot therefore be said that the Applicant has established that he has suffered any loss, injury or damage as a consequence of any action on the part of the Respondent in relation to this allegation.
82. Even if it could be established that he was “told to leave the club” there is no material to demonstrate that one of the reasons he was told to leave the Club was on the grounds of his disability. Even on the Applicant's version of the events he was asked to leave “because he was talking to staff” (Particular 5 of the Statement of Claim) and not because of his disability.
83. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, regardless of any factual controversy as to the circumstances of his conduct and his interaction with the Respondent’s officers and staff on 11 December 2013 at the Christmas Function.
Particulars 6 and 7
84. The Applicant’s allegation in particular 6 is one of ‘victimisation’ pursuant to section 42 of the DD Act. The particular asserts as a factual basis for the alleged breach an allegation that he was “required to leave the Club”. It is not clear on what date this conduct is alleged to have occurred, but it has been assumed for the purposes of this application that it was on 11 December 2013.
85. Section 42 is in the following terms: Victimisation
(1) It is an offence for a person to commit an act of victimisation against another person.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 6 months.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), a person is taken to commit an act of victimisation against another person if the first-mentioned person subjects, or threatens to subject, the other person to any detriment on the ground that the other person: a) has made, or proposes to make, a complaint under this Act or the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 ; or b) has brought, or proposes to bring, proceedings under this Act or the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 against any person; or c) has given, or proposes to give, any information, or has produced, or proposes to produce, any documents to a person exercising or performing any power or function under this Act or the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 ; or d) has attended, or proposes to attend, a conference held under this Act or the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 ; or e) has appeared, or proposes to appear, as a witness in a proceeding under this Act or the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 ; or f) has reasonably asserted, or proposes to assert, any rights of the person or the rights of any other person under this Act or the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 ; or g) has made an allegation that a person has done an act that is unlawful by reason of a provision of this Part;
or on the ground that the first-mentioned person believes that the other person has done, or proposes to do, an act or thing referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) (inclusive).
86. There is no evidence before the Court that the Applicant, at the time at which the purported conduct alleged in particular 7 occurred (which is not admitted), had directly or indirectly made the Respondent aware that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
87. Further, neither the Statement of Claim or the evidence discloses any material facts which could support a finding that the Respondent subjected, or threatened to subject, the Applicant to any detriment on any of the grounds set out in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive), or, on the ground that the Respondent believed that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to many of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
88. Further, the material before the Court does not establish that the Respondent subjected, or threatened to subject, the Applicant to any detriment.
89. Detriment is not defined in the DD Act. In ordinary usage detriment means “loss, damage or injury” (Macquarie dictionary, 2006): Mulchahy v Minchinton [2012] FMCA 380 at [29]. As set out above, there is no evidence that the Applicant was in fact required to leave the premises on 11 December 2013, as a result of the alleged conduct (Stewart Affidavit at [23]). Nor is there any evidence that he suffered in the other detriment arising in relation to this alleged conduct (Stewart Affidavit at [24]).
90. Even if the Applicant could prove that he was advised that he was required to leave the Club (which is not admitted), there is no material upon which it could be objectively determined that this ‘act’ was done on the ground that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) (inclusive) on 11 December 2013.
91. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, regardless of any factual controversy as to whether the alleged conduct of the Respondent’s officers and staff on 11 December 2013 at the Christmas Function actually occurred.
92. Particular 7 of the Statement of Claim appears to refer to the same ‘act’ as alleged in Particular 6. In particular 7 the Applicant alleges a breach of s.122 of the DD Act.
93. Section 122 is in the following terms: Liability of persons involved in unlawful acts
A person who causes, instructs, induces, aids or permits another person to do an act that is unlawful under Division 1, 2, 2A or 3 of Part 2 is, for the purposes of this Act, taken also to have done the act.
94. It is apparent that this section does not of itself create a basis for an allegation of breach of the DD Act, by the Respondent, but is a facilitative provision designed to permit persons not directly responsible for the impugned act to be deemed to have also breached the relevant provision of the DD Act.
95. This provision is therefore not applicable to the Applicant’s application before the Court, as the Respondent is the only ‘party’ joined to the proceedings.
96. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success.
97. Further, when regard is had to what is at the core of the Applicant’s complaint in respect to particulars 1-7 of the Statement of Claim, namely the non-provision of ‘gluten-free’ gravy, in the context of the overall ‘goods or services’ or ‘benefit’ provided by the Respondent, in circumstances where he was otherwise able to attend the Christmas function was provided with the gluten-free meal, his claim could only be seen as frivolous or vexatious.
Particular 8
98. In particular 8 of the Statement of Claim the Applicant alleges that the conduct of Mr Stewart in “dismissing my remarks...in a cavalier manner” amounted to victimisation as defined in section 42 of the DD Act by the Respondent.
99. First, it is denied that Mr Stewart undertook the conduct alleged. Mr Stewart’s version of the events of this meeting are set out in paragraphs [26] to [61] of the Stewart Affidavit, and in particular at paragraphs [51] and [52].
100. Secondly, there is no evidence before the Court that the Applicant, at the time at which the purported conduct alleged in particular 8 occurred (which is not admitted), had directly or indirectly made the Respondent or Mr Stewart aware that he had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
101. Indeed there is no evidence that the Applicant had in fact taken any such steps at the relevant time.
102. Further, the material before the Court does not establish that the Respondent subjected, or threatened to subject, the Applicant to any detriment. The Statement of Claim does not identify what, if any detriment the Applicant is said to have suffered as a result of the alleged conduct.
103. However, even if the Applicant could establish that he suffered some detriment from the conduct, neither the Statement of Claim or the evidence discloses any material facts which could support a finding that the Respondent subjected, or threatened to subject, the Applicant to the detriment on any of the grounds set out in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive), or, on the ground that the Respondent believed that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to many of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
104. There is no material upon which it could be objectively determined that this ‘act’ was done on 11 December 2013, on the ground that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) (inclusive).
105. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, regardless of any factual controversy as to whether the alleged conduct of Mr Stewart on 18 December 2013 actually occurred.
Particulars 9, 10, 11, 12 13 and 14
106. Particulars 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of the Statement of Claim, all relate to incidents that occurred on 18 December 2013 at the Respondent’s Premises. The Applicant primarily alleges that each of the actions taken were alleged to have been taken by the Respondent, its employees or officers on that date amounted to ‘victimisation’ pursuant to section 42 of the DD Act (although Particulars 12 and 14 are pleaded as breaches of s.122).
107. The allegations primarily relate to the circumstances in which employees of the Respondent directed that the Applicant leave the Premises and not be permitted to re-enter until further notice.
108. The Respondent’s version of the events of this date is set out in paragraphs [66] to [88] of the Stewart Affidavit. It is not in dispute that the Applicant was directed to leave the Respondent’s premises, and that steps were taken to have the Applicant removed from the Premises and to prevent his return later that evening.
109. Whilst, the Statement of Claim does not identify the relevant ‘detriment’ alleged to have been suffered by the Applicant, in relation to each allegation, it is assumed for the purposes of this application that it was the Applicant’s ‘removal’ from the Premises.
110. The Applicant must establish that he was subject to the relevant detriment(s), on the grounds that he had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive) of the DD Act.
111. As set out above, there is no evidence before the Court that the Applicant, at the time at which the purported conduct alleged in these particulars occurred, had directly or indirectly made the Respondent, Mr Stewart or other officers or employees of the Respondent aware that that he had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive) of the DD Act.
112. Indeed there is no evidence that the Applicant had in fact taken any such steps at the relevant time.
113. It is apparent from the material before the Court that the conduct alleged on the part of the Respondent, was taken by the Respondent as a direct response to the behaviour and conduct of the Applicant in the Premises of the Club. Whether or not the conduct occurred as alleged by the Respondent or as alleged by the Applicant, the underlying causal factor was the Respondent’s perception of the inappropriateness of the Applicant’s behaviour and conduct at that time.
114. Neither the Statement of Claim or the evidence discloses any material facts which could support a finding that the acts of Respondent were done on any of the grounds set out in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive), or, on the ground that the Respondent believed that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to many of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
115. At paragraph [77] of the Stewart Affidavit, the Respondent states that the decision to require the Applicant to leave the Respondent’s premises was not taken on the grounds that the Applicant had a disability, or that the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully, or proposed to make a complaint, or take proceedings under the DD Act.
116. Further, at paragraphs [104] of the Stewart Affidavit, the Respondent states that the decision taken on the evening of 18 December 2013, to attempt to prevent the Applicant from entering the Respondent’s premises, and the decision to require the Applicant to leave the Respondent’s premises and suspend him from returning to the premises until further notice, were not taken on the grounds that the Applicant had a disability, or that the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully, or proposed to make a complaint, or take proceedings under the DD Act.
117. There is no material upon which it could be objectively determined that these ‘acts’ were done on the ground that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) (inclusive) on 18 December 2013.
118. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, regardless of any factual controversy as to whether the alleged conduct on the part of the Applicant occurred as he alleges or as alleged by the Respondent.
Particulars 15, 16, 17 and 18
119. Particulars 15, 16, 17 and 18 of the Statement of Claim, all relate to incidents that occurred on 21 December 2013 at the Respondent’s Premises. The Applicant primarily alleges that each of the actions taken were alleged to have been taken by the Respondent, its employees or officers on that date amounted to ‘victimisation’ pursuant to section 42 of the DD Act (although Particulars 16 and 17 are pleaded as breaches of s.122).
120. The allegations primarily relate to the circumstances in which employees of the Respondent directed that the Applicant leave the Premises and called the Police to provide assistance with the removal of the Applicant from the Premises.
121. The Respondent’s version of the events of this date is set out in paragraphs [106] to [113] of the Stewart Affidavit. It is not in dispute that the Applicant was directed to leave the Respondent’s premises, and that steps were taken to have the Applicant removed from the Premises, including calling the Police to escort the Applicant from the Premises when he refused to leave.
122. Whilst, the Statement of Claim does not identify the relevant ‘detriment’ alleged to have been suffered by the Applicant, in relation to each allegation, it is assumed for the purposes of this application that it was the Applicant’s ‘removal’ from the Premises.
123. The Applicant must establish that he was subject to the relevant detriment(s), on the grounds that he had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive) of the DD Act.
124. As set out above, there is no evidence before the Court that the Applicant, at the time at which the purported conduct alleged in these particulars occurred, had directly or indirectly made the Respondent, Mr Stewart or other officers or employees of the Respondent aware that that he had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive) of the DD Act.
125. Indeed there is no evidence that the Applicant had in fact taken any such steps at the relevant time.
126. It is apparent from the material before the Court that the conduct alleged on the part of the Respondent, was taken by the Respondent as a direct response to the behaviour and conduct of the Applicant in the Premises of the Club. Whether or not the conduct occurred as alleged by the Respondent or as alleged by the Applicant, the underlying causal factor was the Respondent’s perception of the inappropriateness of the Applicant’s behaviour and conduct at that time.
127. Neither the Statement of Claim nor the evidence discloses any material facts which could support a finding that the acts of Respondent were done on any of the grounds set out in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive), or, on the ground that the Respondent believed that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to many of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
128. At paragraph [109] of the Stewart Affidavit, the Respondent states that neither the decision to require the Applicant to leave the Respondent’s premises on 21 December 2013, or the decision to request the attendance of the Police to assist with the Applicant’s removal from the premises were taken on the grounds that the Applicant had a disability, or that the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully, or proposed to make a complaint, or take proceedings under the DD Act
129. There is no material upon which it could be objectively determined that these ‘acts’ were done on the ground that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) (inclusive) on 21 December 2013.
130. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, regardless of any factual controversy as to whether the alleged conduct on the part of the Applicant occurred as he alleges or as alleged by the Respondent.
Particular 19
131. The Applicant alleges in paragraph 19 that his removal from the Premises on 18 December 2013, resulted in a breach of s. 27(2)(c) of the DD Act.
132. In particular the Applicant claims that his removal from the Respondent’s premises on the evening of 18 December 2013 prevented him from participating in the Director’s ‘Draw’ for members that was to occur that evening.
133. The Respondent’s version of the events in respect to this issue are set out in paragraphs [70] to [76] and [78] – [79] of the Stewart Affidavit. Whilst the Applicant had been directed to leave the Respondent’s premises earlier that day, it is undisputed that he returned to the Premises at or around the time that the ‘draw’ was made (at 7:00 pm) on 18 December 2013.
134. There is no evidence before the Court that the Applicant was in fact denied access, or that his access was limited to any ‘benefit’ provided by the Respondent.
135. Even if the Applicant could establish that he was denied access to the ‘benefit’, the Applicant would still have to establish that this was done on the ground of his disability.
136. The factual material before the Court supports a finding that the Respondent did not deny or limit the Applicant’s access to the ‘draw’ due to the fact that he suffered from coeliac disease or was ‘gluten intolerant’. The grounds for the denial or limiting of access to the benefit (if any) were due to the opinion formed by the Respondent as to the inappropriate nature of the Applicant’s conduct earlier that day.
137. The Applicant cannot on any version of the facts establish, on an objective basis, the critical element required to make out such a claim, namely the causal nexus between the denial of access to the benefit and the suffering of the disability.
138. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, despite some factual controversy as to whether in the circumstances the Applicant was in fact denied access to the ‘draw’.
Particulars 20 and 21
139. The Applicant alleges in paragraphs 20 and 21 further breaches of s. 27(2)(c) of the DD Act.
140. In particular the Applicant claims that he was prevented by the Respondent from attending two functions which he had intended to attend at the Respondent’s premises on 21 December 2013 and New Year’s Eve.
141. There is no dispute that due to the Respondent’s decision to suspend the Applicant’s membership of the Club, he was thereby prevented from attending the relevant functions. It is also not in dispute that the Respondent refunded the Applicant the costs of tickets that the Applicant had purchased for each function.
142. At paragraph [112] of the Stewart Affidavit, the Respondent states that it did not ‘deny’ the Applicant’s access to the show on the evening of 21 December 2013 on the grounds that the Applicant had a disability, namely due to the fact that he suffered from coeliac disease or was ‘gluten intolerant’.
143. Similarly, at paragraph [113] of the Stewart Affidavit, the Respondent states that it did not ‘deny’ the Applicant’s access to the New Year’s Eve function on the grounds that the Applicant had a disability, namely due to the fact that he suffered from coeliac disease or was ‘gluten intolerant’.
144. It is apparent from the content of the Stewart Affidavit that the grounds for the denial or limiting of access to the benefits, in both cases, were due to the Respondent’s decision to suspend the Applicant’s membership of the Club, which was based upon the opinion formed by the Respondent as to the inappropriate nature of the Applicant’s conduct on 18 December 2013.
145. The Applicant cannot on any version of the facts establish, on an objective basis, the critical element required to make out such a claim, namely the causal nexus between the denial of access to the benefit and the suffering of the disability.
146. This part of the Applicant’s claims in these paragraphs are therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claims.
Particulars 22, 23 and 24
147. Particulars 22, 23, and 24 of the Statement of Claim, all relate to the disciplinary proceedings taken by the Respondent, arising from the incidents that occurred on 18 and 21 December 2013 at the Respondent’s Premises. The Applicant in essence alleges that the disciplinary proceedings, instituted by the Notice of Charge, and the outcome of the proceedings, being his expulsion from the membership of the Respondent, amounted to victimisation in breach of s.42 of the DD Act.
148. The Respondent’s version of the events in relation to the Disciplinary proceedings are set out in paragraphs [114] to [131] of the Stewart Affidavit.
149. It is apparent that the relevant detriment alleged to have been suffered by the Applicant, is respectively his suspension (particular 23) and his ‘expulsion’ from the membership of the Respondent (particular 24).
150. The Applicant must establish that he was subject to the relevant detriment(s), on the grounds that he had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive) of the DD Act.
151. The Notice of Charge alleged that the Applicant engaged in conduct which was unbecoming of a member; and that the Applicant engaged in conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Respondent (Stewart Affidavit at [115] and Annexure MS-8). The particulars of the charges contained in the Notice of Charge, clearly relate to the alleged conduct on the part of the Applicant on 18 December 2013 and 21 December 2013.
152. In relation to the Applicant’s claims as set out in particulars 22 and 23 of the Statement of Claim, the Respondent asserts (at paragraph [116] of the Stewart Affidavit) that the Notice of Charge was not issued in respect of the Applicant's behaviour at the Christmas Function, the meals ordered by the Applicant for either the Christmas Function or the New Year's Eve function or any potential disability affecting the Applicant.
153. The Respondent asserts that the decision of the Respondent’s Board to issue the Notice of Charge, was not taken on the grounds that the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully, or proposed to make a complaint, or take proceedings under the DD Act (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [117]).
154. Further, the decision of the Respondent’s Board to suspend the Applicant from all privileges of membership of the Respondent (as conveyed in the Notice of Charge) until the charges were heard and determined, was not taken on the grounds that the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully, or proposed to make a complaint, or take proceedings under the DD Act (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [118]).
155. Neither the Statement of Claim, nor the evidence discloses any material facts which could support a finding that the issuing of the Notice of Charge by Respondent was done on any of the grounds set out in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive), or, on the ground that the Respondent believed that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to many of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
156. It is apparent from the material before the Court that the issuing of the Notice of Charge by Respondent, was taken by the Respondent as a direct response to the behaviour and conduct of the Applicant in the Premises of the Club. Whether or not the conduct occurred as alleged by the Respondent or as alleged by the Applicant, the underlying causal factor was the Respondent’s perception of the inappropriateness of the Applicant’s behaviour and conduct at that time.
157. There is no material upon which it could be objectively determined that issuing of the Notice of Charge by Respondent was done on the ground that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) (inclusive).
158. Therefore, the Applicant’s claims as set out in particulars 22 and 23 of the Statement of Claim are without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, regardless of any factual controversy as to whether the alleged conduct on the part of the Applicant occurred as he alleges or as alleged by the Respondent.
159. In respect to the allegation in particular 24 in relation to the findings and determination of the Respondent’s Board in regards to the Notice of Charge, the Respondent asserts (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [125]) that at the Citation Meeting the Respondent’s Board did not consider the circumstances of the Applicant's behaviour at the Christmas Function, the meals ordered by the Applicant for either the Christmas Function or the New Year's Eve function or any potential disability affecting the Applicant.
160. Nor did the Respondent’s Board, as part of its consideration of the matters before it at the Citation meeting, have regard to, or take into consideration, any circumstances in which the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully or proposed to make a complaint or take proceedings under the DD Act (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [126]).
161. This is supported by the contents of the Board Minutes for the Citation Meeting (Annexures MS-13 and 14 of the Stewart Affidavit).
162. The decision of the Respondent’s Board to find the Applicant guilty of the two charges alleged in the Notice of Charge, was not taken on the grounds that the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully, or proposed to make a complaint, or take proceedings under the DD Act (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [128]).
163. The decision of the Respondent’s Board on 11 March 2014 to resolve to expel the Applicant from membership of the Respondent, was not taken on the grounds that the Applicant had made an allegation that the Respondent had acted unlawfully, or proposed to make a complaint, or take proceedings under the DD Act (Stewart Affidavit at paragraph [130]).
164. Neither the Statement of Claim or the evidence discloses any material facts which could support a finding that the findings of guilt in respect to the charges contained in the Notice of Charge, or the sanction imposed by Respondent were done on any of the grounds set out in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive), or, on the ground that the Respondent believed that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to many of the paragraphs in section 42(2)(a) to (g) (inclusive).
165. It is apparent from the material before the Court that the findings of guilt in respect to the charges contained in the Notice of Charge, or the sanction imposed by Respondent, were determined by the Respondent based upon the information provided to them in respect to the alleged behaviour and conduct of the Applicant in the Premises of the Club on 18 and 21 December 2013. Whether or not the conduct occurred as alleged by the Respondent or as alleged by the Applicant, the underlying causal factor in relation to the relevant ‘acts’ were the allegations of inappropriate behaviour and conduct on the part of the Applicant on those dates.
166. There is no material upon which it could be objectively determined that that the findings of guilt in respect to the charges contained in the Notice of Charge, or the sanction imposed by Respondent were done on the ground that the Applicant had done, or proposed to do, an act or thing referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) (inclusive).
167. This part of the Applicant’s claim is therefore without reasonable prospects of success, in that there is no substance to the underlying claim, regardless of any factual controversy as to whether the alleged conduct on the part of the Applicant occurred as he alleges or as alleged by the Respondent.
Particular 25
168. Particular 25 contains an allegation of discrimination pursuant to section 123 of the DD Act. This allegation is essentially one alleging that the conduct of the Respondent’s officers and employees who participated in the alleged discriminatory conduct and victimisation of the Applicant amounted to a breach of s.123 of the DD Act.
169. This allegation has no reasonable prospects as the facts as pleaded in the Statement of Claim cannot constitute a breach of section 123 of the DD Act, as Section 123 of the DD Act does not of itself impose a duty or obligation which can be breached by Respondent. It is a provision to facilitate proof of the state of mind of a body corporate.”
For completeness, I also refer in full to Mr Skeen’s submissions handed up at the hearing of this application, as follows: “ APPLICANT'S OVERVIEW OF CASE STATUS
As it pleases the Court, I advise that I have noted firstly that in its reference to Section 17A(2) of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999(Cth), the Respondent seems to defining itself as the FIRST PARTY, when in fact the Respondent is the second party. The Respondent points this out by quoting the section of the FCCA Act thus. Relevantly, s. 17A of the FCCA Act provides:
17A Summary judgement (2) The Federal Circuit Court of Australia may give judgement for one party against another in relation to the whole or any part of a proceeding if: (a) the first party is defending the proceeding or that part of the proceeding; and ...........................
As it pleases the Court, the First Party is prosecuting the proceeding and it is the Respondent that is defending.
The 'matter' before the Court today, your Honour, is the not the proceeding as originally listed APPLICATION - Human Rights alleging unlawful discrimination under section 46PO of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 and accordingly was accepted by the Federal Circuit Court of Australia as alleged breaches of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) as investigated by the administrator of the Act, the AUSTRALIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION. The matter today, your Honour, is the Respondent's Application in a Case.
This Application in a Case was brought by the Respondent after I, as the Applicant, complied with orders by Registrar Hannigan on 14 May 2015 that the proceeding continue by way of pleadings. I, the applicant was ordered to file and serve a fully particularised Statement of Claim (SOC) – complied with; the Respondent was ordered to file and serve any Defence to the SOC – complied with; and the Applicant was given the opportunity, by way of order, any Reply to any Defence by the Respondent – complied with.
As its pleases the Court, your Honour, on receiving, by way of service, the Respondent Application in a Case, it appeared to me at the time, that the respondent was attempting to reverse the roles. It was being implied that it was the Respondent that was the victim.
I sought some legal advice through a 'consultation' with a pro bono lawyer supplied by Justice Connect on the Application in a Case and, I was advised that it was all about the 'fact' that I had not described my disability in my Statement of Claim.
In my research pertaining to how the making of my Statement of Claim came about, I referred to the various ‘Instructions’ issued by the Sydney Registry of the Federal Court of Australia as to my APPLICATION – Human Rights in the Court alleging unlawful discrimination under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, and I noted a reference to Rule 41.02A(1) Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001 . Not having a copy of the 'Rules' I completed the Application Form in the best way I could as a layperson. I also noted a reference to Rule 6.02 Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001 but again, I could not refer to a copy of the 'Rules’. Further on in the 'Instructions' for 'commencing an application' I noted, in paragraph 4 a reference to Part 16 of the Federal Court Rules 2011 which dealt with a need to file either a pleading by way of statement of claim or points of claim, or an affidavit setting out the evidence supporting my application; but only if the Application form is not fully completed .
Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001 The above does, of course Your Honour, bring us back to May 14 2015 with the issue of orders by Registrar Hannigan for the completion of the Statement of Claim. In making the orders Registrar Hannigan ensured that I received a copy of Federal Court Rules 2011 Part 16 Pleadings, Division 16.1 General, 16.2 Content of pleadings - general (1) (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f), and (2) (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f).
No where, Your Honour, in these 'instructions' could I find any requirement for an applicant in making either an Application (for a hearing) or in making a Statement of Claim, in a Human Rights matter, in particular one relative to an applicant's disability under the Disability Discrimination Act and on that basis, I filed and served my response to the Respondent's Application in a Case.
I do believe, Your Honour, that it would be appropriate for me to address the Respondent's 'Reply' which I note has been given a title of Outline of Submissions.
Your Honour, the first five paragraphs of this 'Respondent's Outline of Submissions comprise an introduction. There are references to 17A(2) of the Federal Circuit Court Act 1999 (Cth) and rule 13.10 of the Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001. The Application in a Case was filed only pursuant to r 13.10 of the ' FCCR ' with no reference to s 17A(2) of the ' FCCA '.
Federal Circuit Court Act 1999 (Cth) Paragraphs 6 to 11 deals with the power of the Court to ‘ dispose by way of summary dismissal ’ the proceeding. In paragraph 6. the respondent quotes the actual section 17A Summary judgement but then includes the (2) sub-section as if the 'first party' is the respondent when it is fact that the first party is the applicant. In P. 6, the respondent also refers to section of 31A of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) (‘ FCA Act ’). Paragraphs 8 to 11. refers to particular cases, George v Fletcher and Spencer v Commonwealth.
Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) Well, of course Your Honour, am I, as a layperson and without any representation, expected to know all about these Federal Court Acts, Federal Court Rules, and have access to all the information as Counsel for the Respondent does?
In paragraphs 12 to 26 under the sub heading of Background facts , the lengthy detail seems to be not a 'reply' to the Applicant's 'response to the Application in a Case' but as making an attempt at submitting further 'defence' to the Applicant's Statement of Claim.
Paragraphs 27 to 169 also appear to be a further attempt to 'defend' the respondent against the Applicant's Statement of Claim. As stated by Counsel for the Respondent, under Background facts , the Respondent relies on upon affidavits by Ms Vivienne Young sworn 10 September 2015 (' Young Affidavit ') and Mr James Morgan Stewart sworn 27 January 2016 (' Stewart Affidavit '). Relative to the 'Young Affidavit’, Your Honour will no doubt recall her own remarks in regard to the affidavit having objectionable content.
Relative to the 'Stewart Affidavit’, all 18 pages of it, surely the Court will consider it in the same light as the Applicant. Not an affidavit in support of the Respondent's Application in a Case, but like paragraphs 27 to 169 of the Outline of Submissions by Counsel for the Respondent, one more further attempt at a defence.
Your Honour, the Respondent appears to want to take me for a fool. It does so at its peril for I am extremely adept at picking up on anomalies both in verbal and written discourse.
In your orders of 1 December 2015, Your Honour, both parties were 'invited’ in this matter before the Court today, namely the Respondent's Application in a Case, to “file and serve any evidence by way of affidavit and any submissions."
My filing and serving related mainly to the main thrust of the Application in a Case - that I failed to describe the relative disability. I submitted that there was no requirement for me to do so. In the 'reply', I cannot find anywhere where the Respondent is saying “Oh yes, you do.” I do have to ask the Court to consider whether I got it right or if I got it wrong because it does not appear that the Respondent is able to decide.
However, Your Honour, there appears to be a glimmer of truth beginning to appear whereby the Respondent seems to acknowledge the possibility that my allegations, particularly my reference to breaches of Sections 5 and 6 of the Disability Discrimination Act ('DDA'), based on ‘ reasonable adjustment ’ could apply, depending on whether the Court believes the 'version' of the Applicant or the version of the Respondent as now, over two years after the occurrences, we are able to read words (P. 11 of 'Stewart Affidavit' ......... If the person buying a ticket (for the Christmas Function), had any special dietary requirements, they were required to contact the Club (Applicant's note: that would be via the Eventsfifty5 section of the Club) to make arrangements with the Respondent's staff to pre-order their meals. The Respondent's staff were trained not to enquire about the reasons behind a person's dietary requirements..........
Paragraph 32. of the Respondent's Outline of submissions, as a further 'defence' to the allegations in the Applicant's Statement of Claim that the Respondent did make reasonable adjustment, the words “in respect to the pleadings relating to the absence of 'gluten-free gravy’, (note to the Court: it was a case of no gravy at all when the request was for the serving of gluten-free gravy instead of gravy containing gluten), it is apparent that section 24 of the DD Act could potentially have application to the circumstances of the applicant's claim” are indicative of a success of the allegations of breaches of sections 5 and 6 being dependent on the Respondent being able to prove, without any doubt, that the Applicant did not specifically order a meal that was to be reasonably adjusted by the replacement of gravy containing gluten with gravy not containing gluten.
The Respondent has been unable, right from the start of the proceeding, to present any substantial form of evidence.
I repeat Your Honour, that I believe I have good prospects of successfully prosecuting my claim and that it ought to be determined that the proceedings are not frivolous or vexatious.
I submit my Overview of Case Status to the Court.”
(Errors in original.) For all the reasons referred to by the Club in its written submissions cited in paragraph 23 above, I accept and adopt in their entirety the accuracy of those submissions as to the lack of prospect of success of Mr Skeen’s proceeding against the Club as disclosed in the Statement of Claim which should, otherwise, be struck out. I am satisfied that Mr Skeen has pursued a frivolous claim that has no, or no reasonable, prospect of success. Moreover, Mr Skeen has no more than a fanciful prospect of success, even if Mr Skeen’s version of events was to be accepted. The Club did not contend that Mr Skeen’s proceeding is an abuse of the Court’s process or that his claim is vexatious. On that basis, I have considered only the Club’s contentions that Mr Skeen’s proceeding has no reasonable prospect of success and is frivolous. Accordingly, in all the circumstances, and having regard to the overall interests of justice, I am satisfied that the proceeding before this Court, commenced by way of application filed on 9 April 2015, should be summarily dismissed pursuant to r.13.10 of the Rules.
I certify that the preceding twenty-eight (28) paragraphs are a true copy of the reasons for judgment of Judge Emmett
Associate:
Date: 23 February 2016
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The world’s first Welsh language phone will be launched later this year by Orange and Samsung.
The Samsung S5600 will be available exclusively through Orange from 1 September on both pay-as-you-go and pay monthly contracts.
Samsung created software for the device which includes over 44,000 words allowing for menus and predictive text in Welsh.
Alun Ffred Jones, Wales’ Minister for Heritage, said: “It’s important to be able to have services and technology available in the language so that people can live their lives through the medium of Welsh.”
The Samsung S5600 will be available for free on 24 month Orange contracts at £19.57 per month or £14.98 per month, as well as for £129 on Orange Pay As You Go. It will only initially be available in Welsh stores, but will be rolled out online at a later date.
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This blog post is way overdue. It was meant to be posted on Pi Day (March 14th, thanks to the screwed up date format the Americans have). Anyhow, my partner and I celebrated Half-Tau Day with a dinner full of pies. We had shepherd’s pie for dinner, and for dessert, we had a strawberry pie/tart. The shepherd’s pie on 3.14159266 Day was pretty run-of-the-mill, but the strawberry pie/tart was a little novel, and so we documented us making it. (You can jump straight to the shepherd’s pie recipe if you’re interested)
Strawberry Pie
First off, here’s a picture of all the ingredients:
Yes, you saw that right: Balsamic vinegar AND coriander were in the pie. I did say it was novel didn’t I? My partner and I don’t normally eat sugar, and we had to buy some for 3-as-defined-by-the-Bible Day.
Ingredients for a Strawberry Pie
Strawberries (I used 250 grams)
Sugar (I used 20 grams – mainly because I try to cut down my sugar intake)
Coriander leaves (I used 1 gram)
Water (I used 180 ml)
Balsamic vinegar (I used 15ml * I actually used 1 tablespoon, marked at 15 ml, but that is assuming balsamic vinegar has the same viscocity and density as water )
) Xanthan gum (I used 1.1 gram, which I thought was a bit too much)
Gelatine (I used 0.7g which I thought was a little too little)
Instructions to Make Strawberry Pie
Make a short cut pastry (use your favourite recipe). Blind bake your tart/pie crust. Mix xanthan gum with half the water. Mix thoroughly. Put cut strawberries, sugar and remaining water into a pot and turn on heat. When boiling (and strawberries are soft and sugars dissolved), put in chopped coriander leaves and balsamic vinegar Remove from heat and use stick blender to puree all the strawberries and coriander to make a coulis While blending, slowly add gelatine and xanthan gum mixture to the coulis. The resulting mixture should be thick and jelly-like. When satisfied with blending, pour the coulis through a sieve. Use stick blender to blend the sieved mixture to get more bubbles in. Alternatively you can use a cream whipper to make it foamy. Do not use egg beaters as they can’t get to high enough a frequency to cause bubbles to form in the strawberry mixture. Pour the strawberry mixture into pie/tart shells. Chill. The mixture will set and the bubbles will remain intact (thanks to the gelatine). As a result, light tasting strawberry tart. Serve with ice cream (vanilla bean)
This is our final result (well, one variation that was pretty enough for a photo):
Verdict on the Strawberry Pie
The partner didn’t like the pie much. She didn’t like the texture of the filling being slightly gooey. I agree with her that I used a little too much xanthan gum. We made a lot of the pies, so I brought extras to the office the next day, and I don’t know if they were being polite about it, but I get the feeling that everyone who tasted it was pleasantly surprised and liked it. One lady in the office told me she thought the coriander was a little too subtle, and another demanded to know where the accompanying ice cream was.
As for me, I loved the pie. It smelled like strawberries but has a sharp tang to the smell; and tasted like strawberries but its flavours are suddenly lifted by the subtle presence of the coriander upon touching the tongue. Coriander in my opinion does go well with strawberries. Would I make it again? Yes, but I’d have more gelatine and less xanthan gum. I personally had expected biting into a cloud of strawberry smelling air bubbles, but due to having only 0.7 grams of gelatine, not all the bubbles held out well.
Commander Shepard’s Pie
That was the original name we wanted to call our shepherd’s pie on [latex]\frac{22}{7}[/latex] Day — and yes it would have the N7 logo painted on the pie. Yes, you could tell that we were planning celebrations for [latex]\frac{\ln -1}{i}[/latex] Day for a long time. Of course, then Mass Effect 3 came out and had a pretty damn lame ending. Due to bad time planning, more time was spent preparing the the strawberry pie, and we had very little time to prepare a proper shepherd’s pie. As a result, it was pretty run-of-the-mill.
Dissatisfied, we decided to prepare the awesome version of it yesterday and cooked today.
Instead of using mashed potatoes, we opted to use mashed sweet potatoes instead, in attempt to eat a more paleo diet* No, sweet potatoes are not entirely paleo either – they were food our paleolithic ancestors ate on an occasional basis . So, how do you make a mean awesome shepherd’s pie? It takes about 14 hours in total.
It was highly coincidental that today’s My Kitchen Rules’ surprise ingredient was mince meat. I’ve been critical of the show before, mainly for the malinformed guest judges. But today I think I’ve been abusing the MKR hashtags fairly liberally, ragging on the contenstants.
Instructions to Cook Commander Shepard’s Pie
The first thing we did was to cook the tomato paste that will go into the pie. I boiled 8 extra large tomatoes in sherry (not a lot, just enough to cover the base of the pot). When the tomatoes are soft, a stick blender is used to pulverize the tomatoes into paste. It was quite liquid, and I simply boiled it down. But wait! That’s not all! If you follow me on Twitter, you might have read my tweet last night about 10pm, where I mentioned that my tomato paste smelled like grilled steak but tastes very very strong. So what did I add? I added: fish sauce (3 tablespoons), Worcestershire sauce (3.5 tablespoons), soy sauce (1 tablespoon), seaweed (nori), and most importantly, to give it that smoky smell, a bag of Lapsang Souchong tea. Combined, these flavours smell like meat that has been grilled, but tastes very very strongly of tomato and umami.
The next thing I did was to cook the onions and the carrots. I used 1.5 large onions. I fried the onions in butter with a star anise until they were soft. The matchsticked carrots were blanched and dried and fried in butter. I then set aside the onions and carrots.
The mince meat was next. Normally shepherd’s pies are cooked with lamb mince, but as we only had 1kg of beef mince, we decided to go with it anyway* For reference, it’s called a cottage pie if it’s made with beef, but hey, let’s keep the Commander Shepard’s Pie theme going eh . The beef was quickly browned in a pan with very high heat. If when browning the meat, you see it getting wet, you’re doing it wrong. The idea is that there should be no liquid when browning the mince – the reason will be explained later. The meat is browned with the same star anise that went into cooking the onion.
So, with the mince, onion and carrots cooked, I then combined all three ingredients into a pot with some defrosted and sieved frozen peas (sieved to get rid of the access water when defrosting). While the meat, onion and carrots are still hot (the pot should be off the heat), stir in the peas, and a good knob of butter. Then in comes the tomato paste. If done right, 8 extra large tomatoes should reduce to about 5 ladelfuls of tomato paste – just enough for 1 kg of mince.
This is how it looks like:
Before you shout “Where’s the stock?”, I know it looks rather dry. But remember when I browned my meat without allowing liquids to escape the meat? Guess what’s going to happen when I put the shepherd’s pie into the oven to bake? The fats will rend in the oven, and form a creamy delicious mixture in the pot. You’ll also noticed that I didn’t season the meat very much when browning it. This was to prevent osmotic pressure differentials to force liquids out of the meat (i.e. when you add salt, water comes out from the meat). So, with this pot, the meat will have to be marinated in the sauce it will be cooked in. I put this pot into the fridge for about 8 hours (well, I had to go to work. Ideally I’d only marinate the meat for about 4-6 hours, as extended periods in the fridge would dry out the meat). It was wrapped in many many layers of cling wrap of course, to prevent liquid loss from the fridge.
The mashed sweet potatoes were next on the order of business. It was pretty easy – I heated some water to about 80 celcius, turn off the heat, put in chopped sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes, trying to keep water at about 80 celcius. Then rinse the starch off the sweet potatoes, and refill the water, and bring it to boil. The sweet potatoes should go soft in about 5 minutes after being put into hot boiling water. Remove them, and mash them with a masher until smooth. You may elect to put them through a sieve if you want to make them smoother. I added a dash of milk (about 2 tablespoons) and 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of sour cream to make the mash even smoother. I would add more, but I was already weighing the consequences of not eating a more paleo diet. I also added a large pinch of nutmeg (it was a large sweet potato), and the regular seasonings (salt and pepper) were also added.
And finally, combine them! This was how they looked like when I combined them:
To serve, bake them at 200 Celcius for about 30 minutesand top it off with a grill. I would usually put parmesan cheese on top after roughing up the surface a little, but today I forgot to. The result is this pie:
What you get is a delightfully crusty brown/orange top that tastes smooth upon biting, and the richest meat flavoured explosions you can ever imagine that follow underneath. The meat had a smoky flavour to it, while retaining its superbly rich taste.
All in all, I loved this shepherd’s pie (which I dub Commander Shepard’s Pie in honour of her work in the Citidel). Although I had intended to get “N7” in there somewhere (by strategically placing parmesan cheese on top before baking), I totally forgot, which was too bad. Maybe when I make another of this pie, I’ll put it in.
And if you’re STILL reading after 1700 words, congratulations. Now tell me a) what you think of the recipes; b) which way do you prefer me presenting future recipes (Strawberry Pie or Commander Shepard’s Pie)
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Look, we get it. What better time to trot out an infamously unsolved murder that captivated the nation at the time than its 20th anniversary? The renewed interest in the tragic tale of a little pageant princess gone missing, only to be found dead in the basement of the very home she was supposedly snatched from, however morbid, makes sense. Hot off the heels of Serial, The Jinx, Making a Murderer, and The People v. O.J. Simpson, a reexamination of the tragedy and its ensuing tabloid fodder is exactly the sort of thing you'd pounce upon. And pounce you did.
A&E kicked things off in September with a two-hour special that, like many that would come after it, seemed to promise a delivery of facts heretofore unearthed in the case. In the special, entitled The Killing of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered, the truth was, in a portentous sign of things to come, predictably not uncovered.
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At Christmas I tend to get attacked by my philosophical ghouls who want to play around with me. I begin thinking of our religious beliefs since religion plays such an overwhelming part in the lives of a majority of Americans. And it did with our forefathers as well, who, having suffered persecution at the hands of a power structure that sponsored a set of differing religious beliefs, braved the stormy Atlantic to settle in the wilderness of America where they could worship as they pleased, and kill the Indians. Then they went to war with England, and sculptured a constitution, and there you have it, presto! the First Amendment that guarantees freedom of religion.
Perhaps you believe that the First Amendment to the Constitution will protect you to embrace whatever religion sings to your soul. Well, it will, of course, if you are a Presbyterian or Lutheran or even one of those who have been mocked and belittled from the time I was a child — a “Holly Roller” they were called. But they were rolling for Jesus.
In my day the Catholics prayed to God in Latin because, obviously, He only understood Latin, and the priests were all dressed up in glittering nighties and wore strange crowns and rang bells. And even they were talking to Christ through his mamma. I thought that was smart, knowing as I did, the power that mammas have.
And the Baptist dumped you in a tub and near drowned you to wash away your sins, which meant to me that Baptists had more sins than Methodists, the church I grew up in, because in the Methodist Church the preacher just dipped his soft, white, uncalloused fingers into a silver bowl, got a drop or two on his fingers, and then sort of pressed the drops on your head, which told me right off that Methodists didn’t have as many sins to be washed away as Baptists.
Then there were those who had the days of the week all mixed up and went to church on Saturday instead of Sunday, and, if you could scrape up a dime, how could you see Hopalong Cassidy at the Saturday afternoon show if you had to go to church instead?
And then there were those who were trying to put doctors out of business because they left all healing to Jesus – some sect called Christian Scientists, which didn’t seem very scientific at all. I thought Jesus probably liked doctors. If Jesus was too busy to hear your prayers, there was always a doctor to back Him up. But none of these belief systems caused any serious problems because the First Amendment said that in America you could worship as you pleased.
I don’t know what they would do to us if we were teaching our children from the time of first thought that Santa Claus was a lying fiction that represented the degenerate corporate money structure and was created only so Americans would buy a lot of junk at Christmas for their kids in order to insure the profits of the corporate king.
And what would happen if you taught your kids that Jesus and Santa were in competition with each other—as a matter of fact, as it turns out, Christmas is not the celebration of the birth of Christ, but it’s the time when Santa comes and, if you are a kid from a poor family trying to scrape enough together to eat, it is obvious that Santa does not love you as much as he does the rich kid, because the rich kid got a new bike and you got nothing, which teaches that money and virtue are somehow related, and that being poor is the first sin.
I have no problem with the various religions or with Santa. The human species is born with that overriding instinct of all instincts – survival — the other side of which is the fear of death. So we invent whatever belief systems are necessary to cope with that omnipotent fear, and we are born Baptists or Catholics or Muslims depending on the parents we drew out of the big basket in the sky. Doesn’t seem like much of a basis to kill each other because of the parents, along with their beliefs, that we, and they, drew out of said big basket in the sky.
Yours for a fine holiday,
Gerry
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Department of Justice officials diverted millions of dollars slated for victims of the 2008 housing meltdown to politically favored third parties, including “left-wing radical groups,” according to the chairman of a House of Representatives oversight subcommittee.
Rep. [crscore]Sean Duffy[/crscore], a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Financial Services oversight and investigations subcommittee, said Friday the officials “skimmed” off three percent from mortgage-related bank settlements. This created what he called a $500 million “slush fund” that could be steered toward favored groups.
“The first objective of a settlement is to make sure that we have victims who are made whole,” Duffy said, referring to millions of Americans who lost their homes during the meltdown that led to the Great Recession of 2009. “If you’re diverting money away from victims and sending it to third-party activist groups, you have victims who are being harmed not just once, but a second time.”
Justice officials were long able to “skim 3 percent of any settlement money into their own account to for the most part spend it the way they see fit,” Duffy told participants in the media briefing hosted by the Cause of Action Institute, a nonprofit legal watchdog group.
“Many of us in Congress were alarmed when we found out about the bank settlements and the fact that money was not just going to victims and to the Treasury but there was a setup for settlement dollars to go to third-party groups,” he said.
Cause of Action questions the legality of the diversion of settlement funds to activists groups but has been repeatedly rebuffed by officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Justice Department. Duffy also believes the diversions are illegal and unconstitutional.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a report Thursday showing a major year-to-year increase in the size of the three percent funds, going from $158 million in 2013 to $526 million in 2014.
Duffy charged that Justice and HUD officials “at a high level” cooperated in shutting out conservative housing and community organizations from access to federal funds set aside for housing assistance.
Under terms set by the Justice Department, Duffy said he could read documents about the bank settlement disbursements but could not reproduce them for public dissemination.
“It became clear to us that as this deal was structured, there was a keen eye to make sure that conservative groups could not access any money through these settlements,” he said.
Among the political activist groups favored favored by the settlements is La Raza, the nation’s largest Hispanic activist organization that routinely supports Democratic candidates and causes. Cecilia Munoz, a La Raza senior vice president, was appointed by Obama in 2012 to head the White House Domestic Policy Council.
La Raza is flush with money, reporting in 2013 to the IRS assets of $55 million. Janet Murguia, the group’s president and CEO was paid $417,000 that year, according to the group’s IRS tax return. Even so, La Raza is slated to receive at least $1 million from the Bank of America settlement and $500,000 from the Citigroup settlement.
Lisa Navarrete a spokeswoman for La Raza told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the group is one of 37 certified housing counseling agencies approved by HUD since 1998 during the Clinton administration. She said La Raza would pocket about 10 percent of the funds and the balance will go to local groups affiliated with La Raza to provide counseling for distressed Hispanic homeowners.
The Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA) is also slated to receive $50,000 from the Bank of America settlement, according to Cause of Action.
In an oversight committee hearing held Thursday, Duffy said Justice officials in 2013 did not require mandatory donations to third party groups when it announced a record $13 billion mortgage bank settlement with J.P. Morgan Chase.
The rules apparently changed in July 2014, because as part of a $7 billion settlement with Citigroup, Justice officials “required a minimum of $10 million in donations to HUD-approved housing counseling agencies,” Duffy said.
A February 2016 independent monitor report about a Bank of America settlement, obtained by TheDCNF, showed that $125 million had been “donated” by the bank in 2014 to 147 “community” groups and “housing counseling agencies.”
To “incentivize” the donations to third party groups, federal officials permitted the banks to receive a two-dollar tax credit for every dollar they gave to community groups, twice as much as was credited for “principal forgiveness” for homeowners hardest hit by the economic collapse.
Cause of Action President and CEO Alfred J. Lechner Jr. said his group has filed a petition for rule-making with Justice and Treasury Departments concerning “whether the DOJ discretionary disbursements unlawfully directed settlement funds outside of the Treasury and unconstitutionally allocates taxpayer dollars.”
Lechner, who was appointed in 1986 to a federal judgeship, said the rule-making petition addressed “whether political cronyism motivated the terms of these residential mortgage-backed security settlements.”
“We’re looking at how routing of third-party settlement money to third-party groups without congressional authorization violates the power of Congress to appropriate funds. It appears this money would be better spent, better used for the victims of this mortgage crisis at the time,” he said.
A spokesman for La Raza did not respond to a request for comment.
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A settlement stemming from a lack of gluten-free foods available to students could serve as a precedent.
Millions of people are buying gluten-free foods because they say they make them feel better, even if they don't have a wheat allergy. (Photo11: M.L. Johnson, AP) Story Highlights Settlement requires Mass. university to serve gluten-free foods
People with celiac disease can get sick from gluten
Colleges and universities are making accommodations
WASHINGTON — People with severe food allergies have a new tool in their attempt to find menus that fit their diet: federal disabilities law. And that could leave schools, restaurants and anyplace else that serves food more vulnerable to legal challenges over food sensitivities.
A settlement stemming from a lack of gluten-free foods available to students at a Massachusetts university could serve as a precedent for people with other allergies or conditions, including peanut sensitivities or diabetes. Institutions and businesses subject to the Americans With Disabilities Act could be open to lawsuits if they fail to honor requests for accommodations by people with food allergies.
Colleges and universities are especially vulnerable because they know their students and often require them to eat on campus, Eve Hill of the Justice Department's civil rights division says. But a restaurant also could be liable if it blatantly ignored a customer's request for certain foods and caused that person to become ill, though that case might be harder to argue if the customer had just walked in off the street, Hill says.
The settlement with Lesley University, reached last month but drawing little attention, will require the Cambridge, Mass., institution to serve gluten-free foods and make other accommodations for students who have celiac disease. At least one student complained to the federal government after the school would not exempt the student from a meal plan even though the student couldn't eat the food.
"All colleges should heed this settlement and take steps to make accommodations," says Alice Bast, president and founder of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. "To our community this is definitely a precedent."
People who suffer from celiac disease don't absorb nutrients well and can get sick from the gluten found in wheat, rye and barley. The illness, which affects around 2 million Americans, causes abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea, and people who have it can suffer weight loss, fatigue, rashes and other problems. Celiac is a diagnosed illness that is more severe than gluten sensitivity, which some people self-diagnose.
Ten years ago, most people had never heard of celiac disease. But awareness has exploded in recent years, for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Some researchers say it was under-diagnosed, others say it's because people eat more processed wheat products like pastas and baked goods than in past decades, and those items use types of wheat that have a higher gluten content.
Gluten-free diets have expanded beyond those with celiac disease. Millions of people are buying gluten-free foods because they say they make them feel better, even if they don't have a wheat allergy. Americans were expected to spend $7 billion on gluten-free foods last year.
With so many people suddenly concerned with gluten content, colleges and universities have had to make accommodations. Some will allow students to be exempted from meal plans, while others will work with students individually. They may need to do even more now as the federal government is watching.
"These kids don't want to be isolated," Bast says. "Part of the college experience is being social. If you can't even eat in the school cafeteria then you are missing out on a big part of college life."
Under the Justice Department agreement, Lesley University says it will not only provide gluten-free options in its dining hall but also allow students to pre-order, provide a dedicated space for storage and preparation to avoid cross-contamination, train staff about food allergies and pay a $50,000 cash settlement to the affected students.
"We are not saying what the general meal plan has to serve or not," Hill says. "We are saying that when a college has a mandatory meal plan they have to be prepared to make reasonable modifications to that meal plan to accommodate students with disabilities."
The agreement says that food allergies may constitute a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act, if they are severe enough. The definition was made possible under 2009 amendments to the disability law that allowed for episodic impairments that substantially limit activity.
"By preventing people from eating, they are really preventing them from accessing their educational program," Hill says of the school and its students.
Mary Pat Lohse, the chief of staff and senior adviser to Lesley University's president, says the school has been working with the Justice Department for more than three years to address students' complaints. She says the school has already implemented most parts of the settlement and will continue to update policies to serve students who need gluten-free foods.
"The settlement agreement provides a positive road map for other colleges and universities to follow," Lohse says.
Joan Rector McGlockton of the National Restaurant Association says that restaurants have taken notice of an increasing demand for gluten free options, "drawing attention to the importance of providing these options as well as the preparation methods involved in serving these options."
The group has a training program for restaurants so they will know what to do when food allergy issues arise.
Some say the Justice Department decision goes too far. Hans von Spakovsky, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who worked in the civil rights division of the Justice Department under President George W. Bush, says food allergies shouldn't apply under the disability act. He adds that the costs could be substantial when schools are already battling backlash from high tuition costs.
"I certainly encourage colleges and universities to work with students on this issue, but the fact that this is a federal case and the Justice Department is going to be deciding what kind of meals could be served in a dining hall is just absurd," he says.
Whether the government is involved or not, schools and other food service establishments are likely to hear from those who want more gluten-free foods. Dhanu Thiyagarajan, a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, says she decided to speak up when she arrived at school and lost weight because there were too few gluten-free options available. Like Lesley University, the University of Pittsburgh requires that on-campus students participate in a meal plan.
Thiyagarajan eventually moved off campus so she could cook her own food, but not before starting an organization of students who suffer from wheat allergies like hers. She says she is now working with food service at the school and they have made a lot of progress, though not enough for her to move back on campus.
L. Scott Lissner, the disability coordinator at Ohio State University, says he has seen similar situations at his school, though people with food allergies have not traditionally thought of themselves as disabled. He says schools will eventually have to do more than just exempt students from a meal plan.
"This is an early decision on a growing wave of needs that universities are going to have to address," he says of the Lesley University agreement.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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AdaptiveTrigger: What are Mario's best relevant match ups in the tournament scene?
Ally: Anyone who plays close-combat is generally good for Mario, characters like Diddy, Pikachu, Ness are good examples.
AdaptiveTrigger: What are Mario's bad match ups?
Ally: In my opinion, Corrin, Sonic, Cloud, and Mewtwo are his worst.
AdaptiveTrigger: Any thoughts on the Mario vs. Mega Man match up? Mega Man players tend to say that Mario and Sheik are among his worst match ups.
Ally: I thought it was pretty easy for Mario but I've been playing another Mega Man player who has been going even against me. I feel like Mega Man still have a lot to learn vs Mario.
AdaptiveTrigger: Who is the Mega Man player that's been going even with you?
Ally: His tag is Smasher1001. Hes a Mario/Mega Man user from Michigan lol. I play him all the time.
AdaptiveTrigger: Why do you think other Mega Man players have difficulties with the match up? Is there anything in particular that Smasher1001 does with Mega Man that you think other Mega Man players don't in regards to the Mario match up?
Ally: Smasher1001 plays Mario so he knows how to approach him and space around him, he always brings me to last hit but I always clutch it out.
AdaptiveTrigger: Ah, so he understands how Mario works, because he plays him?
Ally: Basically, yeah. It made me wonder if other Mega Man players aren't good vs Mario.
AdaptiveTrigger: Do you have or plan on getting a secondary that covers Mario's bad match ups? Which characters do you think does this best?
Ally: I'm thinking of having my Diddy Kong back online and with practice, I think he covers most of Mario bad MUs. And maybe Cloud.
AdaptiveTrigger: Do you see yourself ever replacing your main Mario with a stronger character?
Ally: No, Mario has been my Smash 4 go to character.
AdaptiveTrigger: How confident were you about winning EVO 2016?
Ally: Not very, I had rough opponents who beat me in the past a ton (Dabuz beat me pretty much every time we fought) and Abadango had beaten me pretty badly at Pound 5. After getting to Winners Finals I thought I was going to win though.
AdaptiveTrigger: This is a ways off, but how confident are you about winning EVO 2017 as of this moment?
Ally: I say it's all about the bracket, but if I end up having a solid secondary, I could take it or at least do super well, only time and practice will tell!
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Iraq's parliament has voted to take "reciprocal measures" in reaction to the new US travel ban on citizens from several predominantly Muslim countries.
The majority vote - which is binding - means parliament will ask the government to retaliate by implementing visa restrictions on Americans visiting Iraq, a parliamentary official said on Monday.
It is not immediately clear whether the vote will impact American civilians and military already living and working in Iraq, as well as those who seek to enter. No details were offered by parliamentary spokespeople.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
It is also not understood how the measures will affect cooperation in the ongoing battle against Isis.
Around 5,000 US troops are currently deployed in the country to assist Iraqi forces in the fight against the jihadi militants.
The vote follows Sunday's recommendation from the Baghdad's government's foreign affairs committee to take action.
“Iraq is in the frontline of the war of terrorism... and it is unfair that the Iraqis are treated in this way,” the committee said in a statement.
Iraq is among the seven countries affected by the executive order on immigration signed into law by US President Donald Trump on Friday.
Among other measures, the new legislation temporarily suspends the US’ refugee resettlement programme, and bars even valid visa-holding citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has not yet reacted to the ban.
Several parts of the legislation have already been struck down by federal judges amid worldwide protests and outrage at all of the US’ major airports over the weekend.
Baghdad officials are due to meet with the US ambassador on Monday or Tuesday to convey their "dismay" at the ban, Reuters reported.
Two members of parliament - speaking on background - said that Iraq planned to lobby against the decision.
Iraqi refugees and immigrants who settle in the US are already subject to extensive vetting and background checks. Many worked alongside the US army and government agencies during the US’ invasion of 2003 - 2011.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
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Beware of the Robot Pharmacist In tech-driven medicine, alerts are so common
that doctors and pharmacists learn to ignore
them — at the patient’s risk. Bob Wachter Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 31, 2015 Unlisted This is part 2 of The Overdose. Read part 1 here. On the afternoon that 16-year-old Pablo Garcia was admitted for a routine colonoscopy to the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center’s Benioff Children’s Hospital — an admission that would later be complicated by a grand mal seizure as a result of a 39-fold overdose of a common antibiotic — Benjamin Chan was working in a small satellite pharmacy on the seventh floor, directly adjacent to the wards. As the pediatric clinical pharmacist, it was Chan’s job to sign off on all medication orders on the pediatric service. The chain of events that led to Pablo’s catastrophic overdose unfolded quickly. The medication orders from Jenny Lucca, Pablo’s admitting physician, reached Chan’s computer screen moments after Lucca had electronically signed them. Pablo had a rare genetic disease that causes a lifetime of infections and bowel inflammation, and as Chan reviewed the orders, he saw that Lucca had ordered 5 mg/kg of Septra, the antibiotic that Pablo took routinely to keep infections at bay. Chan immediately noticed a problem with this Septra order: the dose of 193 mg the computer had calculated (based on the teenager’s weight) was 17 percent greater than the standard 160-mg Septra double-strength tablets. Because this discrepancy exceeded 5 percent, hospital policy did not allow Chan to simply approve the order. Instead, it required that he contact Lucca, asking her to enter the dose corresponding to the actual pill size: 160 mg. The pharmacist texted Lucca: “Dose rounded by >5%. Correct dose 160 mg. Pls reorder.” Of the scores of medications that the resident would order — and the pharmacist would approve — that day, this was probably the simplest: an antibiotic pill dispensed by corner drugstores everywhere, being taken as a routine matter by a relatively stable patient. Neither the doctor nor the pharmacist could have anticipated that this text message, and the policy that demanded it, would be a lit match dropped onto a dry forest floor. Both Chan and Lucca knew that Pablo weighed less than 40 kilograms (38.6 to be exact, or about 85 pounds). But here is where worlds — the worlds of policy, practice and computers — collided. The 40 kilogram policy required that Lucca’s original order be weight-based (in milligrams of medication per kilogram of body weight), but the 5 percent policy meant that Chan needed Lucca to reorder the medication in the correct number of milligrams. What should have been a simple order (one double strength Septra twice daily) had now been rendered hopelessly complex, an error waiting to happen. And so one did. After receiving Chan’s text message, Lucca reopened the medication-ordering screen in Epic, the electronic health record system used by UCSF. What she needed to do was trivial, and she didn’t give it much thought. She typed “160” into the dose box and clicked “Accept.” She then moved to the next task on her long checklist, believing that she had just ordered the one Septra tablet that she had wanted all along. But she had done something very different.
Do you spot the problem? Perhaps not, since it is hiding in the middle of this dense screen, which faithfully replicates the one seen by Lucca. Focus your attention on the line that begins with the number “160” inside a rectangular box. Since doses can be ordered in either milligrams or milligrams per kilogram, the computer program needs to decide which one to use as the default setting. (Of course, it could leave the unit [mg versus mg/kg] box blank, forcing the doctor to make a choice every time, which would actually require that the physician stop and think about it, but few systems do that because of the large number of additional clicks it would generate.) In UCSF’s version of Epic, the decision was made to have the screen default to milligrams per kilogram for all kids weighing less than 40 kilograms, in keeping with the weight-based dosing policy. That seemingly innocent decision meant that, in typing 160, Lucca was actually ordering 160 mg per kg — not one double-strength Septra, but 38½ of them. Computer experts call this type of problem — when the same action can result in two very different results — a “mode error,” and it is especially problematic when the user is not focused on the mode (in this case, mg versus mg/kg) and the interface offers no obvious clues as to its current status. The most common mode error in day-to-day computing is activation of the caps lock key, which changes the output of all the other keys. Computer designers try hard to avoid having any modes at all, but the caps lock key is a major convenience, and so it has survived. When you’re stuck with a mode problem, user-centered design principles dictate that the mode should be made obvious to the user. And so most computer manufacturers incorporate a light into the caps lock key to show when it’s activated, and they signal (with a little up-facing icon) that the caps lock key is on, thus explaining why you’re having no luck with your password. Unfortunately, the Epic interface provides no guidance to alert the user that she is in mg/kg mode. I have shown a picture of the “160 mg/kg” screen to several thousand people — including many experienced physicians, pharmacists and medical computer experts — during lectures over the past year. “Please raise your hand,” I ask, “if you’re 100 percent sure you would have noticed the mg/kg setting.” (Had Lucca noticed it, she could have changed it to “mg” with two clicks.) Not a single hand has gone up. Of course, both Epic and First Databank, the company that created the rules that govern UCSF’s alerts, know full well that a dose of 6,160 mg of Septra is inconceivable; it would be like seeing a street sign saying the speed limit is 2,500 miles per hour. After Lucca signed the order an alert fired, warning her that this was an overdose.
Whether an automated system is monitoring the status of a nuclear power plant, a commercial jetliner, or your washing machine, perhaps the most challenging decisions revolve around what to do with alerts. On an average day at UCSF Medical Center, we prescribe about 12,000 medication doses, and order thousands more x-rays and lab tests. How should the doctor be informed if the computer thinks there is — or might be — a problem? Because many academic medical centers installed Epic before 2012, UCSF had the advantage of learning from these early adopters. One near-universal recommendation was to be sparing with alerts, because every alert makes it less likely that people will pay attention to the next one. Heeding this feedback, the medical center chose to disable thousands of the alerts built into the drug database system that the hospital had purchased along with Epic. Despite this decision, there were still tons of alerts. Of roughly 350,000 medication orders per month, pharmacists were receiving pop-up alerts on nearly half of them. Yes, you read that right: nearly half. The physicians were alerted less frequently — in the course of a month, they received only 17,000 alerts. The alert problem was especially daunting in pediatrics. Given weight-based doses and the narrow therapeutic range for many medications, alerts fired on several of the 10 to 15 medications ordered by the doctors for the typical hospitalized youngster, and on the vast majority of orders processed by the pediatric pharmacists. Computerized medication alerts represent only a small fraction of the false alarms that besiege clinicians each day. Barbara Drew, a nurse-researcher at UCSF, has been studying a similar problem, alarms in the ICU, for decades. During that time, she has seen them grow louder, more frequent, and more insistent. She has witnessed many Code Blues triggered by false alarms, as well as deaths when alarms were silenced by nurses who had simply grown weary of all the noise. A 2011 investigation by the Boston Globe identified at least 216 deaths in the U. S. between January 2005 and June 2010 linked to alarm malfunction or alarm fatigue. In 2013, The Joint Commission, the main accreditor of American hospitals, issued an urgent directive calling on hospitals to improve alarm safety. The ECRI Institute, a nonprofit consulting organization that monitors data on medical errors, has listed alarm-related problems as the top technology hazard in healthcare in each of the last four years. There are many reasons for false alarms: misprogrammed thresholds; dying batteries; loosening of an electronic lead taped to the patient’s chest. But plenty of alarms are triggered by the activities of daily hospital living. Liz Kowalczyk, who led the investigation for the Globe, spent a morning in the cardiac unit at Boston Children’s Hospital. She observed, [The nurse] hurried into Logan’s room — only to find a pink-cheeked, kicking 3-month-old, breathing well, cooing happily. Logan was fine. His pumping legs had triggered the crisis alarm again. The red alarm is the most urgent, meant to alert nurses to a dangerously slow or fast heart rate, abnormal heart rhythm, or low blood oxygen level. But on this morning . . . infants and preschoolers activated red alarms by eating, burping and cutting and pasting paper for an arts and crafts project. In the face of growing nationwide concern about alert fatigue, Barbara Drew, the UCSF researcher, set out to quantify the magnitude of the problem. For a full month in early 2013, she and her colleagues electronically tapped into the bedside cardiac alarms in UCSF’s five intensive care units, which monitored an average of 66 patients each day. Mind you, this is just the bedside cardiac monitor, which follows the patient’s EKG, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation. It does not include the IV machine alarms, mechanical ventilator alarms, bed exit alarms, or nurse call bell. Nor does it include any of the alerts in the computer system, such as the Septra overdose alert that Jenny Lucca overlooked. Drew’s findings were shocking. Every day, the bedside cardiac monitors threw off some 187 audible alerts. No, not 187 audible alerts for all the beds in the five ICUs; 187 alerts were generated by the monitors in each patient’s room, an average of one alarm buzzing or beeping by the bedside every eight minutes. Every day, there were about 15,000 alarms across all the ICU beds. For the entire month, there were 381,560 alarms across the five ICUs. Remember, this is from just one of about a half-dozen systems connected to the patients, each tossing off its own alerts and alarms. And those are just the audible ones. If you add the inaudible alerts, those that signal with flashing lights and text-based messages, there were 2,507,822 unique alarms in one month in our ICUs, the overwhelming majority of them false. Add in the bed alarms, the ventilators, and the computerized alerts . . . well, you get the idea. Like many other physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, Jenny Lucca found alerts to be a constant nuisance. Even giving Tylenol to a feverish child every four hours triggered an alert that the dose was approaching the maximum allowed. Every training program has a “hidden curriculum” (the way things are actually done around here, as opposed to what the policies say or what the administrators told you during that interminable orientation). One of them — passed down from senior residents to the newbies — was, “Ignore all the alerts.” While Lucca was slightly uncomfortable with that as a governing philosophy, she was convinced that most of the dozen or more alerts she received each day could be safely ignored, and she knew that doing so was the only way she could get her work done. With her task list brimming with dozens of unchecked boxes and more sick kids in need of her care and attention, Lucca assumed that the alert she received after signing the Septra order was yet another annoying one with no clinical significance, and so she clicked out of it. With that, the order for 38½ Septras now ricocheted back to the pharmacy, having been signed and validated by a licensed physician. When I spoke with Jenny Lucca months after Pablo Garcia’s overdose, I asked her how she could have clicked out of the Septra overdose alert, knowing now that by doing so, she had confirmed an order for 38½ Septra tablets. She blamed part of it on alert fatigue, of course. But she also pointed to the appearance of the alerts in Epic. “There is no difference between a minuscule overdose — going 0.1 milligram over a recommended dose — and this very large overdose. They all look exactly the same.” In fact, the Epic alert that Lucca received is a model of bad design (in the updated version of the software, it is a bit better). There are no graphical cues, no skull and crossbones — nothing that would tell a busy physician that this particular alert, unlike the dozens of others that punctuate her days, truly demanded her attention. Once Lucca signed the Septra order and clicked out of the alert, it boomeranged to Benjamin Chan’s computer within a matter of minutes. The pharmacists at a place like UCSF serve as a crucial layer of protection, and Chan was an experienced professional who prided himself on his carefulness. But, on this particular day, the deck was stacked against him. First, Chan had been on the wards with Lucca in the past. “I have worked with her, we know each other, and I trust her,” he told me. In retrospect, Chan said, it’s likely that this personal relationship was one of the reasons he let his guard down. Second, the seventh-floor satellite pharmacy, where Chan works, is a frenzied place. In an 8 × 18-foot room (about the size of a parking space), four individuals — two doctorally trained clinical pharmacists like Chan, and two pharmacy techs — buzz around, bouncing into each other like pinballs. In addition to the bodies, the room is packed tight with equipment, including two ventilated hoods for mixing volatile or toxic medications, a sink, shelves lined with bins stocked with medications, a label printer, IV bags, syringes, needles, and a locked cabinet for storing narcotics. On the day I visited, several months after Pablo Garcia’s overdose, one of the technicians was carefully mixing up medications, her arms sheathed in rubberized sleeves that penetrated a clear plastic tent. In the midst of this bustle, the pharmacists were checking every order that appeared in a computerized queue (often making several follow-up calls to determine whether the order was correct), while simultaneously answering the phones, supervising the technicians, and dealing with visitors who periodically appeared at the Dutch door to pick up medications. “The phones just never stop ringing,” Chan told me. “There are always nurses coming to the window to pick up their narcotics; the respiratory therapist comes looking for his meds. In going through one patient’s medication orders, I’ll be interrupted six or seven times, at least.” It sure seemed risky to me, and a 2010 Australian study confirmed that it is. The investigators observed 98 nurses while they prepared and administered 4,271 medications. Every interruption increased the risk of a medication error by 13 percent. When a nurse was interrupted four times, the rate of errors likely to lead to permanent harm or death doubled. Abundant research has demonstrated that the term multitasking is a misnomer — performance degrades rapidly when people try to do several things simultaneously, whether it’s your kids doing homework while texting or a pharmacist checking orders while answering the phone. Psychologists speak of the concept of “cognitive load” — the overall volume of things a mind is grappling with at a given time. While there are some individual differences in the ways we manage cognitive load, one thing is clear: none of us does this as well as we think we do. With all of these social, logistical, and cognitive land mines to sidestep, it’s little wonder that Chan didn’t notice the “mg/kg” when he saw “160” only a few minutes after texting Lucca to order just that dose. Also, by a terrible coincidence, when you multiply 160 mg/kg by 38.6 kg, you get 6,160 mg (after rounding to the nearest tablet size), which contains the number “160,” another opportunity for what psychologists call “confirmation bias”— seeing what one expects so see. So Chan accepted Lucca’s order for 160 mg/kg. And then he went on to click out of his own alert screen, which looked as bland and busy as the one that Lucca received and — for good measure — contains the number “160” in 14 different places.
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: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By ABBY ELLIN
It's hard to imagine that there are people who might confuse Nutella-a gooey, chocolaty spread laden with sugar, palm oil and hazelnuts - with a health food. But apparently that's exactly what Athena Hohenberg, a San Diego mother of a 4-year-old daughter, did.
Last February, Hohenberg sued Ferrero USA, Inc., the makers of Nutella, for false advertising. In her suit, she claimed that she "was shocked to learn" that Nutella "was the next best thing to a candy bar."
She argued that TV ads falsely promoted Nutella as a healthy breakfast option, while omitting the fact that a few tablespoons contains 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (3.5 grams saturated), and 21 grams of sugar. She sought an order preventing Ferrero from marketing Nutella as "healthy," "balanced nutrition," and said her goal was to pursue a class-action suit.
Hohenberg got all sorts of flack for her apparent nutritional naiveté, but she won.
The suit has been settled for $3.05 million, $2.5 million of which will be divided among consumers. Anyone who bought Nutella between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 3, 2012, (or Aug. 1, 2009 and Jan. 23, 2012 in California) can file a claim.
Not that they'll get rich: Consumers can receive up to $4 per jar of Nutella that they purchased during the specified time period, with a maximum allowance of $20 per household. But Ferrero also agreed to modify the Nutella label and certain marketing statements about the product, create new television ads and change their website.
So now consumers can take their winnings, buy more Nutella, and know for sure they're not eating tofu.
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Jan 30, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Washington Wizards center Emeka Okafor (50) celebrates scoring during the first quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
After working out 34-year-old Nazr Mohammed Thursday, it is clear the Miami Heat are looking to add a backup center to the roster and, according to the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson, are most interested in another big man.
Among free agent centers, the Heat is most intrigued by Emeka Okafor. But ESPN said he might not play until midseason because of a herniated disk. The Heat also has inquired about 6-11 free agent center Andray Blatche, who has a home here.
Okafor, however, missed all last season and will likely miss much of the upcoming season with a herniated disk. Still, he’s the most talented of the remaining free agent centers and could create interesting lineups by allowing Chris Bosh to move to power forward. But he can’t do that if he isn’t healthy, and that is teams’ primary concern right now with Okafor.
Mohammed would be a solid pick up, but wouldn’t do much other than spot minutes here and there. Okafor would push Josh McRoberts for a starting slot if healthy. When he is healthy, he tends to play upwards of 70 games per season.
Okafor was selected No. 2 overall by the expansion Charlotte Bobcats and has spent five seasons there until signing with the New Orleans Hornets and then with the Washington Wizards two years ago. He’s averaged 12.3 points and 9.9 rebounds per game over his nine-year career.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinians expect wider recognition of their statehood in the coming year and it will mean more than the mere “Facebook state” predicted by an Israeli minister, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday.
Fayyad said recognition by many countries would “enshrine” the Palestinians’ right to a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured along with East Jerusalem in a 1967 war.
Seventeen years of peace efforts had failed to deliver this promise, he told reporters. The current Israeli coalition’s stated commitment to a two-state solution could not be relied on “given the erosion that has taken place,” he said.
Jewish settlement of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem has doubled since the interim Oslo accords of 1993. Direct peace talks revived by Washington in September after a year’s suspension collapsed within weeks. A U.S. drive to keep the process alive via third-party talks is currently in limbo.
The Palestinians reject further negotiation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until Jewish settlement of West Bank land is frozen and Netanyahu states clearly what size and shape of state he envisages agreeing to eventually.
“It is very important for that to be defined,” Fayyad said.
DOMINO EFFECT
Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador announced recognition of Palestinian statehood in the past month. Chile, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua are reported to be weighing the same move.
“These are welcome developments,” Fayyad said.
He declined to comment on what countries might act and when. But he said there was a growing international consciousness that it was time for Israeli occupation to end and for the political process to deliver.
The diplomatic drive is part of Fayyad’s two-year plan to establish all institutions and attributes of statehood by the middle of 2011. Analysts speculate the aim is to create momentum for a diplomatic domino effect leading to a bid for recognition at the United Nations General Assembly next September.
Netanyahu on Monday said if talks on core issues of the dispute such as borders, refugees and the status of East Jerusalem should reach a dead-end, then a long-term interim agreement might by the only viable alternative option.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lists going to the United Nations as one of his options should the peace process collapse, rejected this idea outright.
The late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, declared statehood in 1988, winning recognition from about 100 mainly Arab, communist and non-aligned states. But it had no direct impact on efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict.
Israeli media report, however, that Israel is taking the diplomatic risks seriously and has instructed its embassies globally to put the case against recognition to their host governments, warning only a negotiated settlement can hold.
But some Israelis play down the significance of recognition by distant countries not involved in Middle East peacemaking.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon dismissed it in advance, saying it was no more serious than clicking the “like” option on the Facebook social networking site and would yield only a “Facebook state,” without sovereignty or recognized borders.
Fayyad dismissed the comment.
“Definitely, I am not looking for ‘a Facebook-state’, or as I call it myself a Mickey Mouse state,” he said. “If it doesn’t matter, why did he (Ayalon) bother to write a comment on it?
Wider recognition would amplify the Palestinian state that is now being built up daily with European Union economic and political support, Fayyad said, turning an abstract concept into a reality the world would soon acknowledge.
“I think it does matter. International recognition of our right to live as free people on territory occupied in 1967, the right to statehood .. is very important.”
MOCHILA INSERT FOLLOWS BELOW
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Guarantees offered to voters in the Netherlands after they reject trade and political deal approved by rest of the bloc
EU leaders have attempted to rescue a landmark treaty with Ukraine, which was rejected by Dutch voters, plunging ties with Europe’s eastern neighbour into uncertainty.
In a bid to assuage Dutch concerns, European leaders have spelled out that Ukraine has not been promised EU membership, nor any help from European armies in the event of invasion, as a result of signing an association agreement.
The treaty has already been signed by the 27 other EU member states, approved by the Dutch government and has partly come into force. But Dutch voters rejected the full version of the treaty in April, following a campaign that led many to believe Ukraine was on a fast-track to EU membership.
'Lonely Theresa May' video at EU summit is Brexit in a nutshell Read more
After six months of uncertainty, EU leaders on Thursday agreed written guarantees to the Dutch that EU membership was not on the cards for Ukraine, nor would its citizens be gaining rights to live and work in Europe.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, who is trailing the far right in polls ahead of March elections, hailed the outcome. But he stressed he could offer no guarantees that the agreement would be ratified by the Dutch parliament.
“I can’t give my colleagues a guarantee that with this binding decision the EU-Ukraine agreement will be signed by the Netherlands. But I give myself a good fighting chance. I will fight for it.
“I realise I asked a lot of my colleagues, I’m grateful for their understanding, also from [Ukrainian] President Poroshenko with whom I was in close contact the last weeks.”
Earlier in the day, Rutte said “taking the agreement off the table would be the biggest present ever we could give to Vladimir Putin”.
The EU-Ukraine association agreement, signed in March 2014, creates a free-trade area and expands cooperation on foreign policy and crime-fighting, from Ireland to the borders of Russia. The deal was seen as a victory for pro-western Ukrainians, who forced Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014, after he abandoned the EU pact under Russian pressure. Although it never contained explicit promises of EU membership, many Dutch voters felt Ukraine was on an unstoppable journey to joining the bloc.
Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuania’s blunt-speaking president, described the process undertaken by the EU as “a creative exercise to explain what is not in the treaty and this will hopefully be satisfactory”.
The text that will be put to the Dutch parliament spells out Ukraine will not be offered “security guarantees or other military assistance”, while Ukrainians will not have rights to live and work in the EU. In another nod to Dutch critics, it stresses the importance of fighting corruption and strengthening the rule of law, features of the original agreement.
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said the EU was counting on the Dutch. “The ratification is important not only for Ukraine, but also for Europe’s geopolitical standing and credibility.”
At the late-running EU summit in Brussels, leaders also agreed to roll over sanctions against Russia into mid-2017 to keep the pressure on Moscow for destabilising eastern Ukraine and invading Crimea.
Angela Merkel and François Hollande pressed to keep punitive measures in place, after the failure to uphold a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. The German and French leaders have called for more progress to implement the Minsk peace agreement, an attempt to settle the conflict that has killed nearly 10,000 people since 2014.
The decision to extend sanctions, which target Russian banks, energy companies and arms makers, was a foregone conclusion, against a backdrop of rising tensions between Russia and the west over Syria. But EU countries remain split over how to deal with their eastern neighbour, with Italy pressing the case to begin unwinding sanctions and improve business links.
Tusk said some countries had called for sanctions to be extended for one year, but it had been clear there was no majority to do so.
Pressure for a softer approach to Russia could build if François Fillon is elected to the Élysée Palace in 2017. The French conservative, the frontrunner to become president in May, has stressed he wants to mend fences with Russia.
“I’ve always said whether Russia’s leader is called Vladimir, Boris or Igor, he is the leader of the biggest country in the world,” he told journalists at a conference of centre-right leaders in Brussels on Thursday. “Europe must have a long-term strategy with Russia and not just act emotionally.”
In contrast, Hollande has blamed Russia, chief backer of Bashar al-Assad, for escalating the conflict in Syria.
The decision to roll over sanctions was taken over a long lunch, where leaders also debated how to handle record numbers of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe, as well as plans to beef up Europe’s common defence policy.
Theresa May took part in the full day of meetings, but had not been invited to the final part of the evening, where EU leaders discussed Brexit without her. When it became clear the summit was running late, with a planned Brexit dinner among the EU27 cancelled, May excused herself telling fellow leaders she had better go.
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Apple and Google are reportedly offering mobile game developers a bevy of incentives — including premium promotional positions in their respective app stores — in order to secure exclusive rights to hot titles.
That’s according to a Wall Street Journal report which — citing sources — says that Apple used incentives to land a two-month window of exclusivity for EA’s ‘Plants vs Zombies 2’ game last year, and to secure a three-month exclusive for Zepto Lab’s ‘Cut the Rope’. Both titles featured prominently in the App Store’s featured sections, making them more visible to users.
Neither Apple nor Google is said to offer money — instead they help companies market their games more efficiently — but the fact that Apple has upped its efforts shows the progress that Android has made as a platform, not to mention how lucrative mobile gaming is today.
➤ Apple, Google Vie to Offer Exclusive Game Apps [Wall Street Journal]
Thumbnail image via PhotoAtelier / Flickr
Read next: Samsung's new museum educates visitors about electronics and promotes its role in the industry
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Sahab Jamshidi will stand trial for the drowning death of a four-year-old St Lucian boy, a High Court Judge on the Caribbean island ruled Thursday.
Jamshidi, 34, is charged with causing death by gross negligence or recklessness in the case of Terrell Joshua Elibox.
His lawyer, Alberton Richelieu, had asked the court to dismiss the charge on the grounds that there was insufficient proof to identify his client as the perpetrator in the case.
However, the judge said she is satisfied that witness statements presented by the prosecution sufficiently ties Jamshidi to the events that unfolded.
Following the ruling, Mr. Richelieu said all was not lost.
"It appears that she's (the judge) suggesting that that kind of submission ought to be left for the trial where everything would be explored and then we're going to do the necessaries at the trial," Richelieu said.
"I think it gives me sufficient ammunition to make a no case submission at the trial and succeed."
Prosecutors allege that Jamshidi took the boy into the water on a surfboard and caused his death on February 22.
Jamshidi has said he unsuccessfully tried to save the boy from drowning after seeing the boy's head bobbing in the water.
Jamshidi will return to court on November 28 for arraignment.
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On Monday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose cited how Hillary Clinton once referred to Bashar al-Assad as a "reformer", but didn't use the former secretary of state's name in his question to the Syrian despot. When al-Assad asked to specify who had called him a "reformer, " Rose vaguely replied, "People who write about you; people who talk about you; people who analyze Syria and your regime." [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
The veteran PBS host continued, "Now, they say – their words – a 'butcher' – comparisons to the worst dictators ever to walk on the face of the earth...Everything they could say bad about a dictator, they're now saying about you." The Middle Eastern dictator answered by bizarrely likening himself to a doctor:
BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA: ..[Y]ou have a doctor who cut the leg to prevent the patient from the gangrene, if you have to – we don't call him butcher. We call him doctor, and you – thank you for saving their lives...when you have a war, you always – always have innocent lives that could be the victim of – of any war.
Back in March 2011, during an interview on CBS's Face the Nation, then-Secretary of State Clinton denied that the U.S. would get involved in the Syrian civil war, like it had in Libya. Host Bob Schieffer asked her to explain:
BOB SCHIEFFER: ...How can that be worse than what has happened in Syria over the years, where Bashar Assad’s father killed twenty-five thousand people at– at a lick. I mean, they opened fire with live ammunition on these civilians. Why is that different from Libya? This is a friend of Iran, an enemy of Israel?
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, if there were a coalition of the international community; if there were the passage of a Security Council resolution; if there were a call by the Arab League; if there was a condemnation that was universal, but that is not going to happen – because I don't think that it's yet clear what will occur – what will unfold? There is a different leader in Syria now. Many of the members of Congress – of both parties, who have gone to Syria in recent months – have said they believe he's a reformer.
The transcript of the relevant portion of Charlie Rose's interview of Bashar al-Assad from Monday's CBS This Morning:
[CBS News Graphic: "One-On-One With Assad: Charlie Rose Interviews Syrian President"]
GAYLE KING: Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is breaking his silence, in his first TV interview since President Obama asked Congress to authorize a strike against Syria. Assad spoke with Charlie Rose in Damascus on Sunday. Charlie asked the Syrian president how he's changed over the years, and why many consider him to be a butcher.
[CBS News Graphic: "A Changing Leader: Syrian President On Being Called 'The Butcher'"]
CHARLIE ROSE (from pre-recorded interview): When I first interviewed you, there was talk of 'Bashar al-Assad – he's the hope. He's the reformer.' That's not what they say anymore.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA: Who?
ROSE: People who write about you; people who talk about you; people who analyze Syria and your regime.
AL-ASSAD: Exactly. So, the hope for American is different from the hope of Syrian. For me, I'm the hope of – I should be the hope of the Syrian, not any other one – not American, neither – no American – neither French, or anyone in the world. I'm president to help Syrian people. So, this question should start from the hope of the Syrian people. And if there's any change regarding that hope, we should ask the Syrian people, not anyone else in the world.
ROSE: But now, they say – their words – a 'butcher' – comparisons to the worst dictators ever to walk on the face of the earth – comparing you to them – using weapons that go beyond warfare. Everything they could say bad about a dictator, they're now saying about you.
AL-ASSAD: First, the following: you have a doctor who cut the leg to prevent the patient from the gangrene, if you have to – we don't call him butcher. We call him doctor, and you – thank you for saving their lives. When you have terrorism, you have a war – when you have a war, you always – always have innocent lives that could be the victim of – of any war.
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Colin Farmer hit by stun gun in Chorley, Lancashire, by PC Stuart Wright, who mistook his white stick for a samurai sword
A police officer has been asked to apologise to a blind man whom he shot with a Taser when he mistook his white stick for a samurai sword.
Colin Farmer, 64, was hit by the stun gun in Chorley, Lancashire, by PC Stuart Wright in October 2012 as he walked to his local pub.
Farmer, who thought he was suffering a stroke, was then handcuffed by the officer, who had responded to reports of a man in the town centre with a sword.
He was walking away from PC Wright at the time and posed no threat, an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found.
Farmer was handcuffed while lying on the ground and was not released until the arrival of another officer, whom Wright told: "I think I've got the wrong person," said the IPCC.
A report from the police watchdog found Wright failed to take reasonable steps to ascertain if Farmer was carrying a sword before he discharged the Taser.
He had used a level of force that was "unnecessary and disproportionate to the circumstances" and caused further distress to Farmer by detaining him in handcuffs despite it being obvious he had the wrong man, it added.
Wright also ignored instructions and radio transmissions about how to deal with the incident, and failed to comply with local and national guidelines on the use of a Taser.
Lancashire constabulary held a two-day disciplinary hearing that concluded on Tuesday, following a recommendation from the IPCC that the officer had a case to answer for gross misconduct.
That meeting concluded that Wright was not guilty of gross incompetence but should be issued with a performance improvement notice and that he be told to apologise personally to Farmer.
The IPCC commissioner, James Dipple-Johnstone, said: "Farmer was subjected to what must have been a terrifying ordeal. Our view was that Wright could and should have listened to instructions from his force controller and taken greater steps to ascertain whether Farmer was the sword-carrying man that had been reported by members of the public and when he realised his mistake should have acted quicker to put things right.
"There is public concern about use of force, and, particularly, Taser. Incidents such as this do little to ease that concern. I hope that the personal apology to Farmer allows the officer to reassure him that he will learn lessons from these events and that the improvement plan for the officer and measures taken by the force to improve its training and communications prevent further incidents such as this."
In a statement, Lancashire constabulary said: "The officer was dealt with under stage 3 of the Police (Performance) Regulations 2008 for gross incompetence by a panel made up of Assistant Chief Constable Tim Jacques, Chief Supt Richard Goodenough-Bayly and Mr Ashley Judd, the constabulary's head of human resources.
"The panel found that the officer failed to perform his duties to a satisfactory standard on October 12, 2012, though his actions did not amount to gross incompetence.
"The officer will be issued with a written improvement notice and be required to demonstrate specific performance improvements over a set timescale. Additionally, the officer has expressed considerable regret over this incident and arrangements will be made for him to offer a personal apology to Mr Farmer."
Jacques added: "First and foremost I would like to sincerely apologise to Farmer on behalf of the constabulary for what happened that evening and the resulting distress and anxiety he undoubtedly suffered.
"The officer made a dreadful mistake when he discharged his Taser, but was acting on a reasonable and honestly held belief that his actions were necessary to protect the public. The officer did not perform his duties to a satisfactory standard but we did not feel that this amounted to gross incompetence.
"In addition to the findings relating to the individual officer, this investigation has raised a number of issues for the constabulary to consider including the training given to officers carrying Taser."
Farmer was unavailable for comment. Last year, his lawyers said they had lodged a civil claim at the high court for damages on grounds of assault and battery, false imprisonment and suffering inhumane and degrading treatment.
Last August, the Crown Prosection Service said it would not take any criminal action against the officer as there was insufficient evidence to prove he had not been mistaken.
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Photo: The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Image 2 of 14 Stephen Curry (30) and head coach Mark Jackson talk during a timeout in the first half. The Golden State Warriors played the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif., in Game 5 of the first round NBA Playoffs on Tuesday, April 29, 2014. less Stephen Curry (30) and head coach Mark Jackson talk during a timeout in the first half. The Golden State Warriors played the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif., in Game 5 of the ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 3 of 14 General Manger Bob Myers, makes comments to the news media, on the Golden State Warriors' decision to fire head coach Mark Jackson, during a press conference at the Warriors' training facility in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday May 6, 2015. less General Manger Bob Myers, makes comments to the news media, on the Golden State Warriors' decision to fire head coach Mark Jackson, during a press conference at the Warriors' training facility in Oakland, ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 4 of 14 General Manger Bob Myers, makes comments to the news media, on the Golden State Warriors' decision to fire head coach Mark Jackson, during a press conference at the Warriors' training facility in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday May 6, 2015. less General Manger Bob Myers, makes comments to the news media, on the Golden State Warriors' decision to fire head coach Mark Jackson, during a press conference at the Warriors' training facility in Oakland, ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 5 of 14 Image 6 of 14 General Manger Bob Myers, makes comments to the news media, on the Golden State Warriors' decision to fire head coach Mark Jackson, during a press conference at the Warriors' training facility in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday May 6, 2015. less General Manger Bob Myers, makes comments to the news media, on the Golden State Warriors' decision to fire head coach Mark Jackson, during a press conference at the Warriors' training facility in Oakland, ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 7 of 14 Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, right, and then-assistant coach Darren Erman share a lighthearted moment while playing against the Memphis Grizzlies during an NBA basketball game Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013, in Memphis, Tenn. less Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, right, and then-assistant coach Darren Erman share a lighthearted moment while playing against the Memphis Grizzlies during an NBA basketball game Saturday, Dec. ... more Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS Image 8 of 14 Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson (center) looks as his notes as he questions a prospect during a roundtable interview with team executives during the NBA draft combine in Chicago on Thursday, June 7, 2012. less Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson (center) looks as his notes as he questions a prospect during a roundtable interview with team executives during the NBA draft combine in Chicago on Thursday, June ... more Photo: Special to The Chronicle Image 9 of 14 File photo: Joe Lacob, the Golden State Warriors team owner, left, and Warriors General Manager, Larry Riley, right, introduce their new Head Coach, Mark Jackson, middle, during a press conference at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, CA Friday, June 10, 2011. less File photo: Joe Lacob, the Golden State Warriors team owner, left, and Warriors General Manager, Larry Riley, right, introduce their new Head Coach, Mark Jackson, middle, during a press conference at the St. ... more Photo: Special to The Chronicle Image 10 of 14 Image 11 of 14 File photo: The Golden State Warriors new Head Coach, Mark Jackson, shakes hands with his assistant coach, Michael Malone, left, before a press conference at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, CA Friday, June 10, 2011. less File photo: The Golden State Warriors new Head Coach, Mark Jackson, shakes hands with his assistant coach, Michael Malone, left, before a press conference at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, CA Friday, ... more Photo: Special to The Chronicle Image 12 of 14 Pastor Mark and Desiree Jackson lead a prayer during a worship service at the True Love Worship Center in Van Nuys, CA on Sunday, July 31, 2011. Pastor Mark and Desiree Jackson lead a prayer during a worship service at the True Love Worship Center in Van Nuys, CA on Sunday, July 31, 2011. Photo: San Francsico Chronicle Image 13 of 14 Pastor Mark Jackson delivers a sermon during a worship service at the True Love Worship Center in Van Nuys, CA on Sunday, July 31, 2011. Pastor Mark Jackson delivers a sermon during a worship service at the True Love Worship Center in Van Nuys, CA on Sunday, July 31, 2011. Photo: San Francsico Chronicle Image 14 of 14 Mark Jackson fired by Golden State Warriors 1 / 14 Back to Gallery
Mark Jackson will not be back as the Warriors’ head coach after a meeting with management Tuesday morning failed to repair a strained relationship.
“It’s never easy to make a decision of this nature,” general manager Bob Myers said in a statement. “Mark has accomplished many good things during his three years with the organization, including his role in helping elevate this team into a better position than it was when he arrived nearly 36 months ago. We’re appreciative of his dedication and commitment since his arrival and are extremely grateful for his contributions. However, as an organization, we simply feel it’s best to move in a different direction at this time.”
Jackson, who had one season left on his contract, turned around the franchise’s losing ways, but he also turned off many in management during the process.
For every player who has publicly backed Jackson, there is someone among the Warriors’ brass who has beefed with the coach during his three seasons with Golden State.
“Mark Jackson has had a big impact on the improvement of our team and the success that we’ve had over the last couple of years,” owner Joe Lacob said. “Nonetheless, we must make some difficult decisions in our day-to-day operations of the club and this would certainly qualify as one of those examples. We wish Mark the best of luck in his future endeavors and thank him for his contributions over the last three years.”
Lacob hired Jackson in 2011 against the advice of executive board member Jerry West, who backed and then hired Michael Malone as the team’s lead assistant. Jackson and West have been on tenuous terms ever since, and the head coach has always been paranoid about his assistants getting credit.
There were two shady situations within the coaching staff this season, one leading to the demotion of assistant Brian Scalabrine and the other leading to the firing of assistant Darren Erman. The Warriors’ management is high on both of the assistants and wanted Jackson to hire an experienced X’s-and-O’s guy going forward.
Jackson refused, much like he did when most anyone made suggestions that were against his way of thinking. The coach wouldn’t move fulltime to the Bay Area, instead basing his family out of Southern California – where he and his wife lead a non-denominational church.
He thought he was set for an extension in 2013 after the Warriors overachieved, but management simply picked up an option for the 2014-15 season. Jackson tried to get his name mentioned as a candidate for the Nets’ and Clippers’ jobs.
Being set in his ways annoyed the Warriors’ management, but it also helped jumpstart a moribund franchise.
In his first run as a head coach on any level, Jackson took the Warriors to consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2006-08, consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since 1990-92 and consecutive 45-win seasons for the first time since 1975-77.
But more was expected this season, when the Warriors added Andre Iguodala to a team that advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2013. Instead, the team matched its No. 6 Western Conference seed in 2014 and may have backtracked in a first-round loss to the Clippers.
Still, the Warriors’ players supported their coach – a man who imbued confidence in their play, advised them like a father and stirred their souls as a pastor. The team’s next coach will have an uphill climb trying to claim a locker room that was tied together under Jackson.
Though the Warriors say that haven’t reached out to potential replacements yet, the candidates are likely J.B. Bickerstaff, Kaleb Canales, David Fizdale, Alvin Gentry, Fred Hoiberg, Lionel Hollins, Steve Kerr, Nate McMillan and Stan Van Gundy.
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Banks and pharmaceutical companies are on a secret list of blue-chip firms that hired private investigators who break the law, The Independent has learned.
The revelation that firms from two of this country’s biggest industries may have commissioned corrupt PIs – without facing prosecution – will fuel concerns that corporations potentially involved in the unlawful trade in private information have so far escaped proper investigation
This newspaper has previously revealed that law firms, insurance companies and financial services organisations have used PIs for years to obtain a range of private data.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
Information on the banks and pharmaceutical companies is contained in an explosive list of corrupt PIs’ clients handed to a parliamentary committee by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). The list of 101 clients also includes some wealthy individuals.
Following weeks of damaging revelations in The Independent, Soca finally bowed to political pressure earlier this week and privately released to MPs the historical details which its investigators ignored for years.
However, the agency has classified the material as secret to safeguard individuals’ human rights and protect the “financial viability of major organisations by tainting them with public association with criminality”.
The decision comes as the newspaper industry is at the centre of the largest criminal investigation in British history over practices including the hiring of corrupt PIs.
Asked this evening if the classified information contained details of banks and pharmaceutical companies, Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “This affects all manner of organisations.”
Mark Lewis, the lawyer who represents the Milly Dowler family and a long-time scourge of Fleet Street, said: “Consistency demands that the same rules apply to all, whether you run a newspaper, a pharmaceutical company or a law firm.
“As soon as you depart from the equal applicability of law to all, then the law really does become an ass.”
Trevor Pearce, the director-general of Soca, decided to classify the details of blue-chip companies, in line with Cabinet Office guidelines about sensitive material.
He demanded the list be “kept in a safe in a locked room, within a secure building and that the document should not be left unattended on a desk at any time”.
However, in what would amount to a remarkable snub, the committee is so angry with Soca that it is considering releasing the information under parliamentary privilege.
Mr Vaz said: “We will come to a view as to whether or not we will publish this list. These events took place up to five years ago. Those companies or individuals who either instructed private investigators to break the law or did nothing to stop them must be held to account.”
It is understood other members of the committee are furious that they are being asked to participate in the cover-up. One source said: “This is bigger than the phone-hacking scandal and the committee does not want to be held accountable when all this comes out in the wash.”
Last month The Independent revealed that Soca compiled a dossier in 2008 that outlined how firms, individuals and organised crime bosses hired criminal PIs.
The investigators broke the law to obtain sensitive information, including mobile phone records, bank statements and details of witnesses under police protection.
Soca was analysing intelligence from mostly Scotland Yard investigations that had also failed to prosecute the offenders for the most serious offences – and completely ignored the blue-chip clients who may have profited from their crimes.
The report – which showed the practices went far wider than the newspaper industry – was dismissed by Lord Justice Leveson, who considered it fell outside the narrow terms of reference for his inquiry into the media.
One of five police investigations reviewed by Soca found private detectives listening in to targets’ phone calls in real time. During another police inquiry, the Soca report said officers found a document entitled “The Blagger’s Manual”, which outlined methods of accessing personal information by calling companies, banks, HM Revenue and Customs, councils, utility providers and the NHS.
Illegal practices identified by Soca investigators went well beyond the relatively simple crime of voicemail hacking and also included police corruption, computer hacking and perverting the course of justice.
Meanwhile, in an extraordinary joint admission on the Soca website, Mr Pearce and Commander Neil Basu of the Metropolitan Police admit the agency sat for years on evidence of criminality, until it was finally forced to act in May 2011 by former British Army intelligence officer Ian Hurst whose computer was allegedly hacked by corrupt private investigators.
Mr Hurst told The Independent: “For reasons that remain unclear, the Leveson Inquiry did not touch the sides with regard to the police. In the final analysis, law enforcement agencies are going to have to justify why they conspired for years to protect the offenders and their clients, which extend way beyond the media.”
The joint statement also failed to address why Soca has still not passed all its historical evidence to Scotland Yard, which is currently investigating the crimes that the agency ignored.
Tom Watson, the campaigning Labour MP, said: “Why is the Met Police not in possession of all the information it would usually require to investigate criminal wrongdoing? Why did Soca not give all the physical evidence in the form of the original hard drives to the Met?
“The Yard and Soca need to provide an urgent explanation as to why the latter is still sitting on a bank of data that any decent police investigator would require to do a proper job.”
Rob Wilson, a senior Conservative MP, has written to Home Secretary Theresa May calling on her to sack Mr Pearce and Soca chairman Sir Ian Andrews over their refusal to publish the list of blue-chip clients.
A Soca spokesman said: “Trevor Pearce provided the chair of the committee with further confidential information on 22 July 2013. Soca is unable to comment further on that detail. However, as stated in the DG’s covering letter – which is published on the Soca website – the information provided does not allege, either expressly or by implication, that the individuals and companies named in it, or any individuals working for those companies, have or even may have committed a criminal offence.”
Media experts: What they think
Neil Wallis, former deputy editor of the News of the World
"When I was arrested and questioned over alleged phone hacking, none of the evidence produced was anything remotely other than circumstantial at the very strongest.
"I spent 19 nightmare months unemployable on bail before being cleared. So why is it that executives on the Soca list are not being treated in the same way?
"Because I can’t see the difference between me and a posh lawyer who worked for companies who allegedly paid private investigators to break the law. Except, of course, I’m a tabloid journalist and apparently not a respectable businessman.”
James Clappison, a senior Conservative MP who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee
"This vast intrusion into peoples’ lives is unacceptable. It appears to be worse than the phone-hacking scandal, yet nothing has been done about it.
"If the police and Soca aren’t going to pursue the matter, the committee should ensure openness and transparency and make this information available to the public.”
Nick Cohen, campaigning journalist
"The police can’t pick and choose how they enforce the law. If hacking is illegal for tabloid newspaper journalists, it should be illegal for big business.
"Soca’s defence that publication might damage company balance sheets goes against the rule of law. The commercial interests of Rupert Murdoch have been damaged by the Leveson Inquiry and the prosecution of his journalists.
"But that is not a reason not to hold the Leveson Inquiry and not to prosecute alleged criminals. The law comes first.”
Professor Charlie Beckett, London School of Economics
"I find it difficult to accept that this should be kept secret, and I’m encouraged by Keith Vaz’s remarks.
"I cannot understand why we shouldn’t know which companies hired private investigators that break the law.
"We know which media organisations commissioned them and I can’t quite see what the difference is here.”
Q&A: What Soca does
Q What is the Serious Organised Crime Agency?
A national policing organisation dealing with serious crimes. It also runs live telephone intercepts on dangerous offenders for police forces in England and Wales.
Q What has it done?
Handed MPs secret details of companies and individuals that its investigators knew for years were hiring corrupt private investigators that break the law.
Q Why did it finally hand over the information?
The Independent exposed the cover-up last month, moving MPs to ask Soca for its confidential details.
Q Why has it not prosecuted the clients?
Soca says it cannot prove the firms knew the private detectives were breaking the law on their behalf. It also says releasing their names into the public domain would breach individuals’ human rights and damage their commercial interests.
Q But aren’t police currently prosecuting journalists for exactly the same thing?
Yes.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
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There are many evocations of hunting in Romansh literature (Keystone)
Folklore and literature seek to plumb the mystery of the hunter’s encounter with his prey. This is particularly true in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, with its isolated peaks and valleys where hunters roam free.
“Hunter and hunted form a circle,” says Herbert Schönhart, who has hunted in Graubünden among other places, and who finds the sport a profound experience.
“You are hunting, but you could be hunted. You are face to face with death. Hunting means getting in touch with your own transience.”
It is also metaphor for so many things in life, he finds, whether it be love, the pursuit of success, or something else ardently desired. “Man is a hunter by nature – even if he doesn’t admit it.”
There is a belief too that the right animal will “reveal” itself to a hunter. This animal is somehow meant for you, and the shot goes home just as it should. There are hunters who do not shoot anything for years at a stretch because no animal “reveals” itself to them, Schönart tells swissinfo.ch.
He mentions the many eerie legends among hunters about particular animals that have a charmed life and can’t be shot. When hunters try to shoot them, they unaccountably miss, or the rifle jams.
Like many philosophical hunters, Schönhart refers to José Ortega y Gasset’s classic treatment “Meditations on hunting”.
The contemporary Spanish philosopher writes that “the essence of recreational hunting is not raising the animal to the level of man, but something much more spiritual than that: a conscious and almost religious humbling of man which limits his superiority and lowers him toward the animal”.
Ortega y Gasset does take a rather aristocratic approach, insisting that hunting is a noble pursuit if it is for sport, not if it is for subsistence. Yet subsistence is what has made most people hunt over the centuries.
Tall tales
Hunting is rooted in Graubünden, and in the tradition of the canton’s Romansh people. Clau Solèr, professor of Romansh at Geneva University, tells swissinfo.ch “the hunt is very present just about everywhere” on the Romansh scene.
Solèr evokes folktales about the hunt, which often involve eerie encounters with the supernatural, particularly what he calls the “woman/fox” motif.
This recurrent theme concerns a hunter encountering a fox or other game animal who turns out to be a woman, in fact, a witch. It was believed that witches went to their covens in the guise of some animal such as a fox.
In one story, the hunter shoots the animal, which is wounded but gets away. On returning to the village, he finds that a woman there has been taken ill with the very same injury. She is a witch. In one version it is his own grandmother, who curses him from her sickbed before dying.
In another widespread story the hunter encounters a fox tied to a tree. Instead of shooting it, he is moved with compassion and sets it free. It turns into a woman, or later reveals itself as a woman. She was a witch, who had been punished by her coven for some transgression.
On the other hand, there are stories of miraculous hunters whose success is due to them having a pact with the Devil. And in one story from German-speaking Graubünden, a high-ranging hunter is warned by the spirit of the mountain not to hunt his chamois herds. In compensation, he gets a chamois delivered regularly to him. However, the hunter is greedy and cannot resist going back up the mountain to hunt. The angry spirit hurls him over a precipice to his death.
There are also many evocations of hunting in Romansh literature, says Solèr, at first in the Engadine, but more recently in the Surselva region with the writer Leo Tuor.
Debunking the myth
Tuor has written a lot about hunting, including the successful novel “Settembrini”. Asked if he was going hunting as usual, the writer and part-time herdsman told swissinfo.ch: “I’ll hardly have time to hunt this year, seeing as our Alp will be ‘unloading’ in the middle of September.” The herds of animals have to be brought from the Alpine pasture down into the valley, which is itself a tradition.
Tuor talks about the special place the hunt has in the hearts of locals, and the fierce pride that is associated with it.
“Since 1526 the Graubünden hunt has been a right of the people, probably unique in Europe. Hunting has meant freedom with us for just about 500 years. Graubünden folk are proud of that privilege and of being able to go around the countryside with a rifle.”
“I use mythology and tradition as material for my writing about the hunt,” Tuor says. But he tends to debunk any aristocratic pretensions about hunting. This goes with his insistence on the democratic nature of the hunt in Graubünden.
“Real Graubünden folk went hunting so they could have meat to eat, not for sport” he says. “Hunting was something pragmatic. There was no tradition of hunting as such – special vocabulary, special outfits, blowers of horns…”
He dismisses it as “all really just embarrassing imported folklore”.
Peter Egloff, who translated Leo Tuor’s novel into German and is himself a hunter in Surselva, sees little in the way of that kind of grand hunting tradition either.
“At most you could say that Graubünden, due to its large area and the large number of hunters, is a special case in Switzerland” he tells swissinfo.ch.
“About 20 per cent of Swiss hunters are hunters from Graubünden. Even this is a fairly recent development – by the second half of the 19th century game stocks were almost extinct, except for a few chamois and marmots. Despite this, early tourists [such as the English] liked to think of hunting in Graubünden and in the Alps as something exotic.”
History of hunting in Graubünden In Roman law, game was “res nullius”, no man’s property. For the first time in the Middle Ages, hunting, at least hunting larger game, was monopolised by the aristocracy. In 1050, for example, the Bishop of the eastern Swiss city Chur, a feudal prince in his own right, was awarded exclusive hunting privileges on a large swathe of what is now north Graubünden by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III. It seems the sporting bishops were particularly keen on falconry. The revolutionary Articles of Ilanz in 1526, which put an end to the old feudal order in Graubünden, awarded the privilege of hunting to all the people. The communes now ran their own game preserves and only locals could hunt there. This free-for-all was disastrous for game stocks. The ibex, Graubünden’s heraldic animal and tourist mascot, was hunted to extinction by the 17th century and had to be reintroduced later. The wolf and the bear were gone by the early 19th century, and have only staged a comeback in the past few years. Meanwhile, in 1805, the new canton Graubünden abolished the communes’ privilege and introduced open hunting for all. For the first time, too, a hunting season was specified. The first federal law on hunting (1875) was followed by a cantonal one (1876). In 1878 the Graubünden people voted to have licensing with an affordable fee. The cantonal act was last revised and approved in 2006, taking account of advances in the science of wildlife management. (Source: Lexicon Istoric Retic) end of infobox
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In my previous post, I have explained about one of the first four features of C# 8.0 which has been announced by Microsoft recently.
In this post, I will explain one more future feature which is Default Interface Methods.
This feature will allow interfaces to fully define methods just like abstract classes. However, interfaces will still not be able to declare constructors or fields.
Let us see what it is:
Let us take one example of an interface, like IMessage and it has one method named Message as shown below:
interface IMessage { void Message(); }
And a class will implement it as below:
Class Test : IMessage { }
Now imagine we want to add a new method to the interface, it will result in lots of errors in all the classes which have inherited IMessage interface.
Here comes the new feature which changes some basic functionalities of C# language.
We will create a method with the implementation in the interface. Yes, you read it right, we will be able to write the implementation of the method into the interface as below:
interface IMessage { void Message(); void MessageAll(IEnumberable<MyClass> myClass){ foreach(var i in myClass) { //// Your code } } }
So no need to write newly added method into all the classes which inherit IMessage interface.
It is cool, isn’t it?
One basic question would come in the mind is, what is the difference between this and the abstract class?
They are bit similar but there are some major differences.
One of the difference is:
The interface can be used for multiple inheritances but Abstract class can not be used
Interfaces will still not be able to declare constructors or fields.
Some useful points for Default Methods feature:
“Full abstraction” where we used to have plain interfaces and all classes were forced to have its own implementation. Now we are polluting classes with some default implementation for methods which they don’t even know those exist.
It also breaks interface segregation principle, if we have to change an interface in future and it should not break all the classes but some of the classes need to have the new method added means, the interface is not granular enough and it’s time to introduce new interface and implement for the required classes.
Java announced almost similar feature with 8.0 version earlier and it is becoming so famous among Java developers and it will soon become famous between .Net developers as well 🙂
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The founders of AimSteady, John Daly and John Aherne, have the 61 million handgun owners in the US firmly their sights.
The former Army colleagues joined forces last year to develop a technology-driven training aid that helps those shooting handguns overcome the inaccuracy caused by recoil anticipation. During the product’s validation tests, those using AimSteady improved their accuracy by 70 per cent over a two-day period compared with those who underwent the same training without it.
Top-class shooters barely move when firing, and the challenge for most handgun users is to reach a point of minimal movement The device is an unobtrusive ring made from durable plastic and can be worn on any finger. It is linked to a smartphone app, which in turn is linked to the shooter’s ear protection. When a shot is taken the shooter is given real-time feedback in the form of an audible tone that tells them if they have flinched too much in anticipation of the recoil. Top-class shooters barely move when firing, and the challenge for most handgun users is to reach a point of minimal movement. Those using AimSteady set their own movement goal and work towards achieving it.
Our device provides feedback on every shot without the firer having to look away from the gun sights “It was clear during our time spent training people in handgun marksmanship that anticipating the recoil was the main cause of poor results. This is what makes the handgun the hardest of all small arms weapons to fire,” Daly says. “But by constantly being made aware of the recoil, the firer’s brain is conditioned at a much quicker rate than normal. It is essentially a brain hack. It takes an estimated 10,000 rounds for someone to overcome the effects of recoil anticipation and most people don’t have the time or ammunition to do this.
Competent shot “AimSteady dramatically cuts down the time it takes to become a competent shot. It works for all level of firers, from beginners to those who shoot for recreation or in competitions. Our device provides feedback on every shot without the firer having to look away from the gun sights. This makes it much more effective than anything else available on the market. Our product also intersects two major growth markets: wearables and gun accessories.”
Daly and Aherne met when they joined the Army at the same time in 2000. They were buddied during their 21-month training period and while they ended up in different units, they stayed in touch and both became involved in training soldiers to shoot handguns. John Daly trained multiple teams for competitions and John Aherne spent over three years with the elite Army Rangers.
When I was training teams I was constantly searching for a product that would help people get over recoil anticipation Daly, who is on a career break from the Army, has a background in electronic and computer engineering and a master’s in communications technology management. John Aherne, who left the forces in 2015, has since developed a new career in retail and hospitality management.
“When I was training teams I was constantly searching for a product that would help people get over recoil anticipation. There were some basic tools available but they were ineffective as they only provided feedback on one shot during a practice session and they were not suitable for practices involving time limits where firers are given maybe 10 rounds and two minutes in which to fire them,” Daly says.
“Then one day when I was watching a Ted talk on technology to measure movement, something clicked for me and the idea for the device began to take shape. I tapped into a network of ex-Army colleagues who shared their advice and experience and subsequently applied for a patent on the idea.”
“AimSteady dramatically cuts down the time it takes to become a competent shot. It works for all level of firers, from beginners to those who shoot for recreation or in competitions." File photograph: An Garda Punch Handguns are tricky to fire as the weapon is held out in front of the shooter with no physical support from the body. “When the gun recoils it’s like someone throwing a punch and you have to be able to take it without blinking. It takes a great deal of training to get a handgun under control,” says Aherne.
“Once someone using AimSteady has finished shooting, they can review their performance on their phone, and this information can be used to make adjustments to their technique or to highlight lapses in concentration,” he adds. “Feedback includes total number of shots, total time taken, time between shots and errors in movement. Firers can save their results to track their performance over time and we have also included features such as challenges for people to try. They can also create their own challenges. This is an important feature because a firer’s degree of flinch will increase when movement and time pressure are introduced. The app also has training tips, so the firer always has a trainer in their pocket.”
The company’s first target is those who shoot competitively and spend regularly on gun accessories AimSteady was set up in January 2016. To get the ball rolling the company used an Enterprise Ireland innovation voucher in conjunction with University College Cork to get help developing the app and its unique feedback feature. AimSteady, which now employs four, is part of the NDRC’s Catalyser accelerator for technology and deep know-how start-ups with global market potential. The business has received funding of €100,000 from the NDRC and the cofounders are in the process of raising €500,000 to underpin manufacturing and product launch costs.
October launch The device, which is nearing its final iteration, is due to launch this October. It will retail at $150 (€142) and the company’s first target is those who shoot competitively and spend regularly on gun accessories. “We have set ourselves quite an aggressive timeline, but we believe we can achieve it,” Daly says. “We will sell directly to independent gun stores and online initially, and expand into major retail chains in year two.”
During their participation in the Catalyser accelerator, the founders have worked on honing their business plan and Daly says this has kept them focused on managing their cash flow and prioritising their goals.
Their next step is to finalise the manufacturing. At the moment, however, the jury is out on where the product will be made.
The two locations in contention are the US and China and the fact that the company’s first market is North America may play a part in the final decision. Once AimSteady gains a foothold in the US, the company will be turning its attention to India, where recreational shooting is a fast-growing pursuit. In worldwide terms, the founders estimate their total addressable market for individual buyers at around 112 million people.
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Giving police powers to investigators from the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office could help with everyday drug enforcement, supporters of the bill told a legislative committee Tuesday night.
"Do you know what 'testers day' is?" Sen. Joan Carter Conway, a Baltimore Democrat speaking in support of the bill, asked members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings committee. The question referred to the day drug dealers offer samples of new product.
"When they throw testers out, you may have 300 people out in the street. If the police are not available, you can send somebody else to get them. You don't just need the Baltimore City police, or wait on the Sheriff's Department."
Al Marcus, a retired Baltimore Police homicide detective who works as an investigator for the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office, said he recently saw brazen drug dealing in West Baltimore, but couldn't take action.
"If I had arrest powers, I would've locked up the dealer," Marcus said. "Things are starting to shatter in Baltimore City. We're just an added, extra dimension to arrest criminals and take them off the street."
Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby is pushing for the increased powers for her office, and has previously cited the need for her office to have independent investigators in light of conflicts that arose during the investigation into the 2015 death of Freddie Gray.
The office's director of legislative affairs and policy, Lisa Smith, told the senators that three other rural prosecutors' offices in Maryland — Talbot, Dorchester, and Garrett County — have such powers. A spokeswoman for the office said Wednesday that prosecutors' offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Manhattan also have investigators with police powers.
Smith told the committee their primary function would be to write search and seizure warrants, serve arrest warrants, and obtain writs to collect people from jail.
"It's really in the interest of time in many of these cases," Smith said.
Some legislators expressed concern that the increased authority would raise concerns about separation of powers.
"To me, this sort of smacks of a Praetorian Guard," said Sen. Robert G. Cassilly, a Harford County Republican, referring to elite Roman troops that gained political power, often appointing emperors or murdering opponents. "God, doesn't that scare you?"
Sen. Michael J. Hough, a Republican who represents Carroll County, said legislators there quashed a similar bill being sought by Carroll prosecutors.
"There's separation of powers, and that helps prevent abuse of power. To me, we're eroding that by giving more powers to one agency, and that could lead to more potential abuse," Hough said.
But Sen. C. Anthony Muse, a Prince George's County Democrat, said that if three other jurisdictions in the state have such expanded powers, Baltimore should be allowed to as well, or none should have them.
The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office has 11 investigators, most of whom are retired police officers. The bill would also allow them to carry firearms while on the job. Supporters said they would have to meet the standards of the Maryland Police Training Commission.
Sen. Bobby Zirkin, chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, said the bill raised a number of questions, such as what would happen if citizens made complaints against the office's investigators as they carry out police powers.
"This bill clearly has an 11-person police force that doesn't seem to be accountable to anybody except for the State's Attorney of Baltimore City," Zirkin said.
Marcus said: "Your point is well taken. When I worked drugs in the Northwest District, if I locked up 10 drug dealers, eight of them made a complaint on me whether it was justified or not."
[email protected]
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Police say a woman in her 80s was carjacked outside of the Meadowlands Best Buy on Thursday, robbed by her assailant, and forced to drive around at gunpoint.
Police said it all started just before 4:00 p.m. when the Ancaster woman got in her car in the parking lot of the Best Buy at 14 Martindale Crescent, and unbeknownst to her, the suspect was already in the back seat. Police say he put a black, snub nosed gun into her side and demanded she drive around. Meanwhile, he began rummaging through her purse.
At one point, says the police report, the suspect got the woman to withdraw money from an ATM, and also drove the car himself at one point, while keeping the gun pointed at the victim.
Ultimately, the suspect, who is thought to be an older teenager around 17, left the vehicle at Rebecca and Mary Streets downtown, and the woman was not physically injured, said police.
The report also says the suspect made another carjacking attempt 15 minutes prior to this one, but was unsuccessful.
Police are warning the public that the suspect is considered armed and dangerous.
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A sheriff in Louisiana has been railing against the state’s new prisoner release program, saying many of those “good” inmates need to stay behind bars for the free labor they provide.
A sheriff in Louisiana has been railing against the state’s new prisoner release program, saying many of those “good” inmates need to stay behind bars for the free labor they provide.
Last week, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator blasted the state’s Justice Reinvestment Package, a series of bills passed in June that could reduce Louisiana’s prison population by 10 percent and save more than $260 million over the next decade by slowly releasing nonviolent offenders. The legislation is set to go into effect on Nov. 1 and would authorize the early release of 1,400 prisoners across 21 parishes in the state.
Just 35 prisoners would be immediately released in Caddo Parish, but that seems to be too many for Prator, who said the state needs them to “wash cars.”
WATCH.
In 38 seconds Steve Prattor, Sheriff of Caddo Parish in Louisiana, tells you why he REALLY likes keeping "good" Black men in jail. pic.twitter.com/7YtxixE1rU — Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 12, 2017
“In addition to the bad ones ... they’re releasing some good ones that we use every day to wash cars, to change oil in the cars, to cook in the kitchen, to do all that where we save money,” he continued. “Well, they’re going to let them out ― the ones that we use in work release programs.”
Marjorie Esman, executive director for the ACLU of Louisiana, told HuffPost that Prator’s desire to keep prisoners purely for their free labor is “essentially slavery.”
“The purpose of the criminal justice system is to keep the community safe and to make sure that nobody is incarcerated any longer than necessary,” Esman said. “It’s certainly not to provide free labor for law enforcement officials ― that is essentially slavery. It is obviously not only ludicrous but a gross violation of people’s rights.”
It's almost as if he forgets that he's talking about human beings -- like he's speaking about animals or cattle. Angel Harris, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Prator went on to say that the state is “risking our safety for bragging rights and to save money.”
The “bragging rights” Prator might be referring to is Louisiana’s desire to relinquish its spot as the U.S. state with the highest incarceration rate.
“Louisiana is somewhat of a special case just because it has such a substantial proportion of its state prison population being held in local jails,” Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, told HuffPost. “This has been going on for a very long time, and many of the local sheriffs welcome it because it’s bringing more money into their jurisdictions. It’s one of a number of factors that have contributed to Louisiana being a national leader in its use of imprisonment, and that’s nothing to be proud of.”
Angel Harris, assistant council for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said she was “shocked” that an elected official like Prator would make such a “callous” and “disturbing” comment.
“[Prator] is talking directly about economic exploitation of human beings, which is one of the biggest issues in our criminal justice systems,” Harris told HuffPost. “It’s almost as if he forgets that he’s talking about human beings ― like he’s speaking about animals or cattle.”
“It brought on images of slavery, quite frankly,” she said. “You think about the demographics of who is he actually talking about. It is overwhelmingly black and brown bodies ... [who] are being housed in his jail and in those prisons.”
In a statement from the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick doubled down on the sheriff’s statements while criticizing Intercept reporter Shaun King for tweeting that Prator “likes keeping ‘good’ Black men in jail.”
statement from office of Sheriff Prator in response to @ShaunKing. pic.twitter.com/bIFr74H8DN — Sebastian Murdock (@SebastianMurdoc) October 12, 2017
“It is a fact that state inmates serving a hard-labor sentence can be required to work as part of their court-ordered sentence in Louisiana,” the statement read in part. “Those jobs may include picking up trash on parish roadways, preparing meals for inmates at the jail, or working for non-profits and public agencies in our community. The term ‘good’ inmates was in reference to state prisoners who are eligible to work but have lesser felony charges compared to others facing release who have criminal histories including murder, domestic violence, and battery.”
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TBogg is Tom Boggioni, a writer based in San Diego, Ca. More specifically in Pacific Beach. Okay, in Crown Point, if you must know. Happy now? He was once known as a "somewhat popular blogger" back when blogs were a 'thing'. He is writing the Great American Novel, minus the 'great' part.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
A long time ago San Diegans were told that they could have only two of three things in life: exceptional weather, a world class zoo with pandas, or a world class newspaper. If you haven’t figured out which ones we selected, here is a hint: on Sunday I will be having brunch on a restaurant outdoor patio before going to the zoo to watch pandas acting adorably.
Sorry, world class newspaper. Maybe next time.
In the meantime we have as a “newspaper” the San Diego Union-Tribune or, as it called the ‘UT’ or mostly ‘the Pennysaver with Family Circle’. At one time the UT aspired to the low end of the mediocrity scale and was quite successful in that regard, but then newspapers started dying off, and the publisher who had no interest in the paper sold it and then it was sold again to local homo-hater, sleazeball, monstrosity developer Doug “Papa Doug*” Manchester who has turned the once-never-venerable newspaper into a combination developers newsletter/World Net Daily but with a sports section. Having assumed the captains chair, Manchester then introduced novel ideas such as using the front page for editorials endorsing candidates who lose anyway and for turning part of the UT building into a garage for his bitchin’ Camaros so his employees can pose on them during lunch hour while wearing daisy dukes and tube tops. Hawt.
Recently Papa Doug has taken time out from cheerleading for a new football stadium that will cost the local taxpayers upwards of around $300 to 500 million (the same taxpayers who were awarded the NFL’s first blacked-out game of the year this past Sunday because the Chargers were 5000 seats short of a sell-out, so yeah, let’s give a franchise worth close to a billion dollars a helping hand) to take a stand for those poor beleaguered taxpayers (and the businesses those taxpayers subsidize) who are being kept down by The Man and The State. So what’s his plan?
Make a new state:
It may not be necessary to destroy California in order to fix it. But it may be necessary to cut it in two, carving out a 51st state of New California where taxes are low, regulations are few and where politicians are not the lap dogs of the public-employee labor unions.
I am intrigued, do go on….
In the far northern reaches of the state, counties along the border with Oregon have been in various degrees of secessionist activism since 1941, clamoring for the new state of Jefferson. As recently as September, the Modoc County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 in support of the new state. That followed a 4-1 vote in August by the Board of Supervisors in neighboring Siskiyou County to do the same. Officials have said that if they can get 10 more counties to join the effort, they will formally appeal to the Legislature for statehood. Another idea floated among secessionist proponents is for a smaller 51st state that would only take in the counties of San Diego, Riverside, Imperial and San Bernardino.
Can I just add here, that Riverside, Imperial, and San Bernardino counties are the counties that no one would ever ask out on a date. Not even with the promise of a tender and loving hand job at the end of the evening.
Regardless of which counties might ultimately be included, The U-T San Diego ownership thinks secessionist proponents are onto something. In the end, New California ought to include any counties seeking a new beginning without the tax and regulatory burdens and the Nanny State mentality of the existing California — and that could end up being just about the entire state other than the coastal strip from Los Angeles through Mendocino or Humboldt counties, along with Sacramento. Since early June, the U-T’s Fixing California project has published nearly three dozen commentaries and staff editorials exploring the many problems burdening California. Together, they make a mockery of the head-in-the-sand claims by the state’s dominant leadership that California has turned the corner on the Great Recession and is now an economic model for the rest of the nation.
We believe that virtually all of those problems stem from a state tax structure that is horribly out of whack, a regulatory culture that is anti-business and a strong impediment to economic growth [ED: Uh, yup, Horrible] , and the chokehold over state government and politics by organized labor. We believe that a state unshackled from those burdens would flourish, with existing business and industry encouraged to expand and new businesses encouraged to start up. Jobs and tax revenues would grow as never before, benefiting the new state government as well as all local governments.
…and here comes their proposal/manifesto/thing scrawled on the inside of the garage door in red Sharpie for a Libertarian Paradise that can be summed up as: rules and regulations, who needs them, open up the door.
A Constitution for New California • A part-time legislature with strict term limits. • Governor required to propose, and the legislature required to approve, a budget certified as balanced by an independent state auditor. • Prohibition on traditional pensions for all government workers, instead providing 401(k)-style retirement plans and Social Security. • No state tax on personal income. • Low tax rates on business. • Strict limits on the power of state and local regulatory agencies. All regulations must be justified through an accounting of costs and benefits and all regulations would sunset after five years. • Prohibition on mandatory membership of state and local government employees in public-employee unions. Prohibition on automatic payroll deduction of union dues from members’ paychecks. And a prohibition on unions using members’ dues for political purposes without members’ expressed consent. • Encourage the development of all energy resources — nuclear, renewables such as wind and solar, and fossil fuels, including “fracking” of oil and gas reserves. • Prohibition on tenure for public school teachers in the K-12 system. Teacher pay based in part on student performance, which would be based in part on standardized testing. • Encourage educational choice, including expanded public charter schools and voucher programs for private and parochial schools.
The only thing that seems to keep Manchester & Co. from calling for complete secession from the Union Of Black Kenyan Socialist States is the almost $25 billion federal dollars (from beleaguered taxpayers) pumped into the region which accounts for 22% of the employment. After blowing up the local economy, destroying our underground water supply with fracking, and under the leadership of our new Paper-Owning Developer Papa Overlords, we’d probably become Mogadishu.
But with a better climate and pandas.
Who really are adorable and quite tasty too which you will learn after the food riots come…
*True fact: Doug Manchester signs checks from the UT with “Papa Doug”. Also, that is what UT employes are supposed to call him. Creepy, right? I know…
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I’ve had a pretty long week. As many of you know, I’ve been out of town and attending to family issues. This morning, I woke up to find an email that Twitter sent me from the day before. In it, they threaten to take my account down for “nonviolent threats.” They refused to cite the offending tweet, or offer any other explanation. It appears as if the WAM censors are almost fully in control.
Here’s the email below:
Just saw this from email. What does this Orwellian gibberish even mean? Nonviolent threat? No tweet cited #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/YLfkVkqbno — Ethan Ralph (@TheRalphRetort) November 22, 2014
It’s fairly obvious that Randi Harper is the one who is trying to get me kicked off Twitter. I guess she’s mad that I alluded to her being tens of thousands of dollars in debt with the IRS, among other creditors. I wasn’t even going to publish it, but now I will:
This was handed to me by a source, and I cannot verify it 100%. But it certainly would explain her sudden interest in becoming a professional loudmouth radical feminist. That can be a pretty lucrative line of work. She’s an idiot who can barely string three coherent sentences together, though. That’s the only flaw in her plan. Other than that, I would say it’s a pretty good one, unfortunately. Maybe McIntosh can teach her up like he did Anita?
This woman has went after RogueStar, Mike Cernovich, and now me. She’s desperate to get famous off her shitty blocklist, that doesn’t even fucking work correctly half the time. Harper’s whole existence is a cosmic joke that she’s oblivious to. I’m not gonna bow down to this headcase, and neither will GamerGate.
These liens are public record. If someone doesn’t like me posting them, I really don’t care. Randi Harper can’t code worth a shit, and is a disgusting, censorship loving, windbag. The more people know about her motives, the better. She wants to go to war with GamerGate? Let’s do it.
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday all but admitted that he revealed “highly classified” information while meeting with Russian officials last week, contradicting his administration’s earlier attempts to deny the story.
Early Tuesday morning, Trump proclaimed that he has “the absolute right” to share any information he wants:
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
The Washington Post reported Monday that Trump “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State” with disclosures to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. The Post said it wasn’t reporting what the president told the Russians, “at the urging of officials who warned that revealing them would jeopardize important intelligence capabilities.”
BuzzFeed and The New York Times later confirmed the Post report.
The president also indicated he’s eager to determine who gave information to reporters.
I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
Administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, criticized the reporting.
In disputing the story, McMaster told reporters that “at no time were sources or methods discussed.” But the Post’s story did not report that Trump revealed sources or methods.
Watch McMaster's statement carefully: “at no time were sources or methods discussed.” WaPo report never said Trump revealed sources/methods. pic.twitter.com/SF3rWDqKFi — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 15, 2017
The bombshell allegation, which drew concern from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, came amid intense scrutiny over the president’s ties to the Russian government.
The day before his meeting with the Russians, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, whose agency had been investigating whether the president’s campaign colluded with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election.
The White House also faced criticism for allowing a photographer for a Russian state news agency to cover the Oval Office meeting, while members of the American press were barred.
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Introduction to Typography
Explore basic concepts of typography through interaction with the reddit community. This 10 week course covers topics starting from the ground up - from letter forms to grid compositions. Arranged to promote learning, the course is taught with two components: personal discovery and critique. All resources for the course are available free online.
Lectures
This week's reading introduces us to font families.
This week's reading is on letter anatomy, size and scale. It's a terminology, identity, sketchology mash-up and a great ease into our packed 10 week course.
Prerequisites
Ability to remain open minded and professional, treat others with respect and seriousness (especially concerning critique of others' work).
Syllabus
This course is structured most basically around Ellen Lupton's Thinking with Type, available free online.
Each Monday, recommended reading and exercises will be provided.
Each Thursday, posting and discussion/critique will open.
The course will provide outcomes ranging from a typographic journal to finished poster design.
Below is the basic outline of course topics.
Week 1: Recreating inspiration
Week 2: Typefaces on a grid
Week 3: Typeface prototyping
Week 4: Word composition
Week 5: Kerning, tracking
Week 6: Paragraphs - leading, spacing, indenting
Week 7, 8: Grids
Week 9, 10: Poster design
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There is “clear evidence” that Russia interfered directly in UK elections, a Labour former minister has said.
Chris Bryant told Parliament some of the top-level decisions affecting security in Britain had also been “compromised by Russian infiltration”.
The former Europe minister’s comments came after it emerged that political parties in the UK have approached the security agencies for help following a cyber attack during the 2015 British general election.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
“There is now clear evidence of Russian direct, corrupt involvement in elections in France, in Germany, in the United States of America, and I would argue also in this country,” said Mr Bryant.
“Many believe that some of the highest level decisions affecting security in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in France and in the United States of America are now compromised by Russian infiltration.”
The head of the UK’s new National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin, said that “informal” talks had been held with the parties and a programme to protect their sensitive online information will be put in place in the near future.
Attempted cyber attacks in the run-up to the May 2015 elections, with a rise in clandestine online activity by Russia across the UK at the time, have been reported by security sources.
There had been persistent and rising reports of the Kremlin’s interference in the West’s political system using cyber attacks, including the hacking of the Democratic Party emails as part of an alleged campaign by Vladimir Putin’s government to help Donald Trump win the US presidential elections.
There are also fears that coming elections in Holland, France and Germany, with right-wing populist parties which have varying degrees of Russian support, may be vulnerable.
Emmanuel Macron, the favourite to become the next French president, has also accused Russia and its state-owned media of using hacking and fake news to interfere with the French presidential race.
These claims of interference have been rejected by the Kremlin.
Mr Martin said: “Across the West we are on the alert and looking at defences in that sort of areas of the electoral process. This is obviously an area of concern.”
Labour former minister Ben Bradshaw has previously claimed it was “highly probable” Russia interfered in the EU referendum through cyber warfare, a claim the Government says there is no evidence for.
Mr Bryant repeated these concerns as MPs considered new powers to tackle money laundering, which many have seen as a crackdown on corrupt money flowing into the UK from Russia and other countries.
Mr Bryant, who was Labour’s Minister of State for Europe between 2009 to 2010, went on to criticise both British and US policy towards Russia in recent years.
He said: “My personal perception was that both David Cameron and President Obama were very reluctant to show a strong arm to Russia, because they thought by pressing the reset button, that was Obama's view, somehow or other you would manage to get major concessions out of Putin.
Shape Created with Sketch. Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara Show all 13 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara 1/13 The unnamed gunman gestures after shooting the Russian Ambassador to Turkey AP 2/13 The gunman opened fire at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey AP 3/13 Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was delivering a speech when the gunman opened fire AP 4/13 The gunman addressed the room after shooting the Russian Ambassador AP 5/13 The gunman spoke in Arabic after opening fire on the Russian ambassador to Turkey AP 6/13 The gunman stands over the body of Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey AP 7/13 People in the art gallery react moments after the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot dead AP 8/13 Turkish police secure the area near the art gallery where Andrei Karlov was shot REUTERS 9/13 The gunman reportedly shouted "Aleppo" and "revenge" after shooting Mr Karlov dead AFP/Getty Images 10/13 The gunman stands over the body of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov AP 11/13 The gunman, a Turkish policeman, can be seen standing behind the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, before he opened fire AP 12/13 An ambulance leaves the area near the art gallery where the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was shot dead REUTERS 13/13 Guests leave as the gunman holds his weapon behind them AFP/Getty 1/13 The unnamed gunman gestures after shooting the Russian Ambassador to Turkey AP 2/13 The gunman opened fire at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey AP 3/13 Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was delivering a speech when the gunman opened fire AP 4/13 The gunman addressed the room after shooting the Russian Ambassador AP 5/13 The gunman spoke in Arabic after opening fire on the Russian ambassador to Turkey AP 6/13 The gunman stands over the body of Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey AP 7/13 People in the art gallery react moments after the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot dead AP 8/13 Turkish police secure the area near the art gallery where Andrei Karlov was shot REUTERS 9/13 The gunman reportedly shouted "Aleppo" and "revenge" after shooting Mr Karlov dead AFP/Getty Images 10/13 The gunman stands over the body of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov AP 11/13 The gunman, a Turkish policeman, can be seen standing behind the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, before he opened fire AP 12/13 An ambulance leaves the area near the art gallery where the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was shot dead REUTERS 13/13 Guests leave as the gunman holds his weapon behind them AFP/Getty
“I have to say, that has simply not proved to be an effective strategy.
“In every single regard, Putin has simply taken those moments as a sign of weakness and preceded to use force in greater degree.”
Press Association contributed to this report
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
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CALGARY -- The CEO of TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) says he doesn't see the oil industry's appetite for new pipelines faltering even though crude prices have skidded to the lowest point in more than five-years.
In an interview in his downtown Calgary office, Russ Girling said he's seen ups and downs far more drastic over his career and expects the oilpatch will come out of the latest downturn in reasonably good shape.
"There's a tremendous need to build irrespective of the price of the commodity right now," Girling said.
"We're being pressed to get these facilities online as quickly as we possibly can."
U.S. benchmark crude has fallen by about half since the summer, settling at US$54.11 a barrel on Thursday. In recent weeks, there have been a bevy of announcements from producers signalling that next year's activity in the oilpatch will be subdued.
"I think some have made that connection that, with low oil prices, you might need less infrastructure, but I guess our view would be it's the exact opposite," said Girling, noting that one of the reasons prices are so low is the burgeoning North American oil output, much of which has been moving by rail while pipelines are stalled.
He expects low fuel prices will spur consumer demand. As well, a "silver lining" from the downturn could be lower construction costs for oilsands producers that choose to invest at a low point in the cycle.
Girling said most in the industry see prices of US$80 to US$100 a barrel in the long run, given that world energy demand will continue to grow.
And he points out that when TransCanada first filed its application for Keystone XL in September 2008, it wasn't exactly a good time for the oilpatch, either. After hitting record highs around US$147 that summer, crude prices swiftly cratered below US$40 a barrel as the Great Recession took hold.
"I'm not saying this is easy at all, but the business is resilient and the world is demanding more oil every day," said Girling
Girling said anyone who believes that US$60 oil -- even if it's for a year or two -- is going to cause the oilsands to come to a screeching halt "hasn't been in this business very long."
"So the notion that somehow as we hit this new low that this business is over in Canada, I think one only needs to look at the last 30 years of production to say that theory doesn't work."
Keith Brooks, clean economy program director at Environmental Defence, disagrees that the oilsands will be developed no matter what.
"It's not inevitable because there are any number of risks and barriers that challenge the plans for the rapid expansion of the tarsands," he said.
Low oil prices are but one headwind for "some of the most expensive oil reserves in the world," said Brooks. On top of that, environmental opposition and legal challenges from First Nations and municipalities are throwing a wrench into plans to build new pipelines to bring oilsands crude to market.
"Clearly, pipelines are one of the constraints on the growth of the sector," he said.
TransCanada has been waiting on a permit to build its Keystone XL pipeline for more than six years. The US$8-billion project would enable 830,000 barrels per day to flow south of the border, connecting with an existing network that today delivers Canadian crude to the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast.
Keystone XL would cut diagonally from the Saskatchewan-Montana border to Steele City, Neb. The most recent holdup has centred on a court case in Nebraska over who has the authority to approve the pipeline's route through the state.
Opposition to Keystone XL has been focused on local concerns, such as what would happen if oil were to spill into a key aquifer, as well as on broader issues, such as the pipeline's role in enabling oilsands growth and the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
Because the pipeline would cross the Canada-U.S. border, it requires presidential approval. So far, President Barack Obama has declined to make a decision, but he's recently expressed skepticism about the project's benefits to the U.S.
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As Kyle Richards’ daughter Alexia Umansky recovers from a bite from Kim Richards’ dog, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that she left college after the vicious attack.
Umansky’s recovery from the dog bite she received last year has been far worse than has been previously reported, and not only did she have to leave college for treatment, insiders said that “the recovery is an intense, long road.”
The vicious attack by Kim Richards’ dog on her niece has been a focal point on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills this season, and a source told Radar that Kyle feels that her sister has let her down in dealing with the situation.
“Kim is being a hypocrite,” the source said, after Radar’s extensively reporting that she refuses to have the dog put down — and that the “rehab” the animal received has not been helpful. “If it were one of her kids, she’d be p*ssed.”
PHOTOS: 9021-Oh No They Didn’t! 25 Scandals and Controversies ‘The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills’ Would Rather You Forget
The source also revealed to Radar that Umansky moved home, and is living in Los Angeles to heal.
“She is missing an entire year of college because of it now, and she may have to reapply and go somewhere else — it was BAD.”
For the first time, Radar is revealing the extent of her injuries.
“It was really serious, and a few millimeters deeper, she would have lost a finger or need amputation,” the source explained. “Alexia had to get physical therapy and reconstructive surgery.
PHOTOS: Doggone! Kardashian Family Pets Disappear Into Thin Air, Gone From Social Media And Reality Show!
“This changed the whole course of her education and really her life … [she] may still need future treatment.”
However, the source said her caring mother has been monitoring her progress.
“The recovery is an intense long road — she’s healing though, and naturally, Kyle had the top plastic surgeons treat her.”
As Radar previously reported, an insider revealed: “Kim accepts absolutely no responsibility for the dog biting incident, which makes Kyle absolutely nuts.
PHOTOS: 15 Housewives Acting Like Divas — Their Craziest Requests REVEALED!
“Kyle gets understandably very upset after Kim suggests that the dog bite was Alexia’s fault.”
Watch: Kyle Richards Wants Another Baby: ‘I Would Love To Have 10 Kids’
Check out what the other Housewives are saying right now.
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First appeared on Food Riot, by Caitlin Van Horn
You know, there are only so many PR events in strip clubs that a girl can take.
For this girl, that number tops off at about one. One craft beer preview event in a strip club was, trust me, more than enough.
You could definitely say I knew what I was getting into-the invitation listed the venue, after all. So why did I go? Because I love craft beer. Because a great date for me is one where I get to try beers I've never even heard of. Because I check Untapp'd more than my Gmail. Because I'm lucky enough to be able to write about beer, so, despite my romantic overtures, this was really about work.
But here's the thing-I don't get the feeling that craft beer takes me seriously, or values what I have to say. Mostly because I'm a chick.
How else am I supposed to feel when I'm at an event and most everyone there of my gender is seen as the equivalent of, at best, decoration, and, at worst, porn? I get it-craft beer is an old boys club, and maybe I should count myself lucky that at least when we think about women in craft beer, some of the time our minds go to ladies that are kicking asses and kegs like Kim Jordan of New Belgium, and Lauren Carter of Grimm Ales, the women behind BitchBeer.org and Annie Johnson, who won the Homebrewer of the Year Award-which has been all dudes since Reagan was president.
These are some fierce women, don't get me wrong, and they're all definitely a step-up from the St. Pauli girl and Coors' ubiquitous twins, but I'm going to go ahead and expect better from craft beer than I do from Coors-which is what I do every time I step into a bar. I expect to have a beverage that was carefully made, with respect for both the ingredients and the consumer. Which means: treat me with respect. Don't, for the love of god, have an event in a strip club.
Oh, and also? Don't do this.
Yeah, just in case you thought all this humorless feminist finger-wagging was directed solely at the males in the room.. well, it's not.
Starting off an article entitled "Best Beers For Women To Order" (Spoiler: any/all) with "Let's face it, sometimes, beer can be so confusing!", following up with "Other times, ordering the perfect beer can be a piece of cake, especially since some of the best beer experts out there are women!", and then not deigning to interview any of them and instead opting to get some dude to man-splain is not the best choice.
Furthermore, this article picks for us delicate, confused, swooning lady-folk:
Raspberry lambics for their "much sweeter taste, which women tend to gravitate towards,"
"Belgian ales" (pale ale? tripel? huh?) because they're a "very sweet beer because they add sugar during the fermentation process" and, Cider because it's "fruity", even though it's not actually beer at all.
Oh, and we can also add "sweet garnishes." Whipped cream and caramel for me, please!
Even though we haven't cracked the glass ceiling, I thought we'd all pretty much smashed the Sex-and-the-City-fueled idea that women only drink things resembling the shit I put in my mom's hummingbird feeder. While my taste has moved from Imperial IPAs to sessionable Berliner Weiss beers, that doesn't mean I'll ask you for half a packet of Splenda to throw in my glass, and it's kind of insulting to assume that all women are searching for liquid candy when they crack a beer.
I just want to have a beer where someone won't treat me like a piece of meat or like they're explaining the Pythagorean formula to a toddler. Is that so much to ask?
Because here's the thing, PR people, bartenders, brand reps, food writers, mom, event planners, etc:
We're here. We drink beer. Get over it.
(And get us another, while you're up.)
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The Boston Red Sox are shaking things up.
After an anemic showing in a 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night, the Red Sox’s lineup will look a bit different for Thursday’s series finale at Fenway Park.
Left fielder Hanley Ramirez is back in the lineup but will bat second for the first time this season, while center fielder Mookie Betts will hit seventh for the second consecutive game. Betts has just one hit in his last three games.
Shortstop Xander Bogaerts moves up to fifth in the Red Sox’s batting order, perhaps as a reward for tallying eight hits in his last four contests. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval will take Bogaerts’ place in the six hole.
Rusney Castillo returns to the lineup batting ninth and playing right field, while Blake Swihart will bat eighth and catch for knuckleballer Steven Wright.
Check out the lineups for Thursday’s afternoon slate below.
RED SOX (24-30)
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Hanley Ramirez, LF
David Ortiz, DH
Mike Napoli, 1B
Xander Bogaerts, SS
Pablo Sandoval, 3B
Mookie Betts, CF
Blake Swihart, C
Rusney Castillo, RF
RHP Steven Wright (2-2, 3.90 ERA)
TWINS (31-21)
Brian Dozier, 2B
Torii Hunter, DH
Joe Mauer, 1B
Trevor Plouffe, 3B
Eddie Rosario, RF
Eduardo Escobar, SS
Kurt Suzuki, C
Shane Robinson, RF
Aaron Hicks, CF
LHP Tommy Milone (2-1, 4.76 ERA)
Thumbnail photo via Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports Images
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Chronicle archives/1965
Since we started the Let’s Go to the Morgue! series, the most frequent request has been BART photos. I’ve received separate suggestions to search the archives for Transbay Tube assembly images, photos of construction on Market Street and confirmation of the legend that Richard Nixon once rode on BART during a campaign stop.
You can see all of the above in this week’s special Let’s Go to the Morgue! extended BART edition — the perfect way to kill 19 minutes while you wait for the next Dublin/Pleasanton train! Thanks to Chronicle photo editor Rick Romagosa for cleaning up the photos — note that every other one no longer looks like I spilled a cup of coffee on it. You can buy most of these images and more in the Chronicle Pictopia photo store.
I’m planning to post a few early BART concept photos later today or early Friday, featuring BART trains in Burlingame and underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. (Which Burrito Justice wrote about two years ago. That guy always beats me …)
Enjoy this flashback. Your BART memories in the comments.
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Bill Young/Chronicle 1965
June 27, 1965: According to the photo, this is the unveiling of the first BART car. The logo on the front of the train looks like it says “BARTO,” but I’m guessing that’s a “D” for Bay Area Rapid Transit District. Kudos to the team that designed the BART logo, which has changed very little in almost 50 years. And thumbs up to my 1960s journalism colleagues, who wore cool hats and suits to press conferences! (I’m guessing at least one of those guys has an ascot. These days even the TV guys are wearing fleece vests and ball caps.)
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Art Frisch/Chronicle 1966
March 11, 1966: This is Martin Kelley and C.L. Gallimore, two of the head engineers behind the BART Transbay Tube, displaying some plans. I’m really liking Gallimore’s double finger point move. I have every confidence that he blew imaginary smoke off his index fingers, holstered his hands and then said “BART — coming to you on time and under budget in 1969!”
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Chronicle archives/1966
Oct. 7, 1966: This photo shows the enormity of the Transbay Tube sections. The dozens of construction workers in this photo look like ants on a Ho-Ho. The Transbay Tube was completed in 1969. I showed this to my son, to prove that BART doesn’t actually go underwater. Whenever he rides through the tube he keeps looking for fish.
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Jerry Telfer/Chronicle 1966
Oct. 24, 1966: BART construction was a trial for commuters throughout the Bay Area, but I’m betting workers in the Financial District were more pissed off than anyone. Market Street was especially hard hit, because they had to reroute all of the infrastructure underneath the street before they put in the subway. This photo was taken at the corner of Market & Montgomery. Notice the glory of the Pig & Whistle bar (on the left), still at its Market Street location.
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Art Frisch/Chronicle 1967
July 24, 1967: This looks like a bunch of lazy adults exploiting child labor, but I’m pretty sure it was part of a kid-friendly groundbreaking ceremony of some sort. According to the BART timeline the official construction of the Market Street subway began a day later on July 25, 1967. “Cool Hand Luke” wouldn’t come out until November of the same year, robbing these children of that obvious pop culture reference.
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Chronicle archives/1968
April 28, 1968: This 324-foot-long section of Transbay Tube gets towed past a train bridge, about a year before the tube was completed. I’m impressed that two boats could drag a chunk of steel and concrete longer than a football field.
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Chronicle archives/1968
Sept. 30, 1968: Don Hughes rides a bike through a BART tunnel during construction. If there’s one binding theme in this Let’s Go to the Morgue! series, it’s the fact that half the men in the 1960s and 70s looked like Ron Swanson from “Parks and Recreation.”
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Peter Breinig/Chronicle 1969
Nov. 7, 1969: This is what I’ve always imagined the line to hell is going to look like — enhanced by the fact that someone in the 1960s messed with the photos to take everyone look ghostly. (Except the guy on the front/left, who looks like O.J. Simpson.) It’s one of several photos I found featuring Bay Area citizens on a walking tour through the unfinished tunnels.
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Barney Peterson/Chronicle 1972
Sept. 12, 1972: This was taken on the second day of passenger service. At the time, BART only served from Fremont to Oakland, with eight trains that were two or three cars long. In the earliest BART photos, it’s neat to see grown men and women staring out the windows like little kids. Fast forward to 2011 … I noticed only one guy looking toward the window during my afternoon commute yesterday, and he was asleep with his face pressed against the glass.
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Associated Press/1972
Oct. 18, 1972: You can find a second Nixon BART photo if you search around on Google, but this one is much better. From the caption: “This was the scene in Lan Leandro (sic) today as President Nixon and General Manager B.R. Stokes … got set to board a BART train for a ride to Oakland. The President was in California for a day of campaigning.” Nixon would later walk off the train at the Lake Merritt station.
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Dave Randolph/Chronicle 1973
Nov. 6, 1973: People still find BART confusing. I see this scene pretty much every week in 2011, usually at the Powell Street station. But I’m guessing that in 1973, going through a BART turnstyle was like you or me being teleported to the moon.
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Clem Albers/Chronicle 1974
Sept 14, 1974: This was taken at the Montgomery Street station less than a year after service from Daly City to San Francisco started, and two days before the beginning on transbay service. Note how sharp everyone is dressed — even the Allman Brothers Band-looking dude near the front left is wearing a tie. Looking through these photos, it’s also surprising how clean and advertising-free the walls are in the stations.
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Jerry Telfer/Chronicle 1978
Feb. 2, 1978: Sporting a single black leather glove on BART free ride day is Davis Damian, then 15 years old, of Richmond. If anyone knows Davis (it’s possible the photo credit is switched and his name is Damian Davis), please have him contact me at [email protected]. I have so many questions. Starting with what was playing on the radio …
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Mike Maloney/Chronicle 1982
Jan. 26, 1982: This pair of Ford trucks (The caption identifies them as King Cabs!) are combing the BART tracks for a periodic cleaning and maintenance. The re-placement of the license plate to the front of that metal roller is what intrigues me the most. Is that in case the truck gets in a high-speed chase through the BART tunnel? Is there a police car on the tracks a few hundred feet behind? UPDATED! I’m told by commenter “schaffner” that these trucks ride on the street as well, thus the need for a license plate. Apologies for not figuring that out on my own.
Sorry to end on an anticlimax. We’re going with trains next week. Or stewardesses. Or skateboarding. I haven’t decided yet.
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Let’s Go to the Morgue!
C/O Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94103.
Include your city of residence, plus your first name and last initial — or full name if you’re comfortable with that. Make sure my name is on the postcard, otherwise it will never get to me.
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A mosquito’s high turbo whine pierced through my slumber. It persisted despite my thrashing hands, each assault lifting me up out of that valley of sleep only to be lulled back by the intervening silence. Eventually it was morning, the light seeping in around my makeshift curtains, outlining the boxes and bags around me. I’d need a mosquito net. Maybe a couple battery-operated fans — I’d read mosquitoes can be deterred by even a 15 mph wind. But for the moment, I’d have to tolerate their incessant pestering.
Arlo, curled on the passenger seat, sensed I was awake. He peered around the divider, ears alert, waiting for the familiar cues that presaged his usual routine: a morning scratch, walk, breakfast. Would I even be city car camping if not for his constant companionship?
I adopted him twelve years ago. He was my third foster, after another Catahoula, Motley already bound for adoption, and a year-old boxer—name forgotten — who died unexpectedly of a heart attack while at the vet’s.
My friend, Anne, dropped off Arlo (née Bob Barker) after picking him up from the Pennsylvania turnpike. He’s yours if you want him, she said. No one had dibs on him yet, like they’d had with Motley. I wasn’t convinced though. I’d never owned a dog before and my perfect archetype had his hunter’s body, but a black nose, maybe brown eyes instead of his fair nose and amber eyes. He looked strange, maybe even rather ugly.
But I knew he was mine that first night when I spritzed him with a water bottle and he stopped whining for Anne. A complete communication. I’d expressed disapproval and he’d taken the hint. He looked at me with those sad puppy eyes, a small kernel of understanding taking root. That kernel bloomed (germinated?) into unquestioning loyalty, a mutual simpatico. He looked to me when he was nervous, leaned on me for comfort, and I took comfort from his depending on me.
So I gave the okay, and he hopped off the passenger seat, up onto my sleeping platform, and plopped next to me for a morning snuggle before we faced the day.
Those first few days, I boondocked near a playground by the north Brooklyn waterfront. Each morning, I rose with the sun and crawled out of the van sheepishly, like an underground troll trying to blend in among the freshly scrubbed fairies. I filled my water bottles at the park, showered at the Y, brushed my teeth at a coffeeshop after my morning coffee and a breakfast of granola. I found a cafe that offered a dollar-twenty-five cup when I brought my own mug — the savings barely offsetting the expense of takeout sandwiches and dinners since I hadn’t set up a proper kitchen in the van. Not that I had room for anything like that.
View of Manhattan from Greenpoint
Afternoons were spent in the park or at a coffeeshop with wifi, where I scrolled job listings, mapped out my route, planned final get-togethers. There was little energy left for the writing I thought I’d accomplish. Evenings I washed up at bars, brushed my teeth under filthy dim lights, and wondered if I should just admit to myself that I was basically homeless.
Bar bathroom brushing
One night, a guy walked in on me at a bar bathroom, while I had my shirt off. It was a hot day and a paper towel bath seemed in order. I’d left my shirt off while I brushed my teeth and charged my phone. I heard the music get louder and turned toward the sound. Crap. I’d forgotten to lock the door. The guy, startled, shut it quickly, mumbling an apology. The embarrassment singed, but I also wondered what he thought. Was he weirded out, embarrassed, sympathetic? Did I look like some down-and-out vagrant? A gutter punk who didn’t give a shit? Was he regaling his buddies at this very moment, “You’re not going to believe what I just saw.”
Regardless, I walked out, head held high. What did it matter?
In this big wide world, there were worse things than being half naked in a semi-public bathroom brushing your teeth and trying to get by.
After my evening routine, I’d crash onto my pillow burrito exhausted. Having to fetch water and take care of my basic biological needs outside a regular home took way longer and more energy than I’d anticipated. So this was why third-world citizens couldn’t get ahead. Who had time to read and learn when they spent all their energy just trying to get a drink of water?
Sleep was a mental dance. Ignore the mosquitoes. No, you don’t have to pee. Only drink enough water to wet mouth, but not enough that it would actually filter down to your bladder. Too hot, too cold. Feet out. No, in, because of the mosquitoes.
At some point, I reorganized, purged a bit more, gave myself a little more thinking room. But what I really needed was to get out of the city, to see how this vandwelling worked elsewhere and also test the van’s viability on a shorter trip before I headed west. So I booked an RV campsite in Montauk, which lay at the easternmost tip of Long Island, a three hours’ drive from Brooklyn. A beach town made sense for a van lifestyle. Even if it was a rather ritzy beach town.
I filled the diesel tank en route. Only then realizing that gas and diesel prices had flip flopped since I last owned a diesel car. While diesel had been the cheaper fuel then, it was now the pricier one. I hadn’t known exactly how much more, so after I filled up at one station, I saw that it was a dollar cheaper everywhere else. Because of course.
Next, groceries. I turned in to the first store I passed. Something familiar, a Trader Joe’s, but not my first choice. I rather loathed the place for its plastic obsession. Everything came pre-packaged, ready to cook, perhaps for people who liked to cook, but needed things to be uncomplicated and spelled out. I was only there to buy dry goods anyway (granola, dried fruit, nuts, coffee), so I felt slightly less guilty about my carbon footprint.
By the time I reached the campground, after a late departure and all my excursions, it was well past dark and the sentry had left for the day. I pulled into the parking lot opposite the only other vehicle in the lot, a white Vanagon, curtains drawn, surfboards resting on its roof—a slight needle of envy piercing my reverie.
Once parked, I debated what to do. I didn’t want to get in trouble for trespassing, but I was too tired to keep driving. I felt like I always did when I felt afraid of coming up against authority, like a kid who knew she was in the wrong, but incapable of changing course. But there wasn’t anyone else around to ask, and I had no cell service to look up alternatives anyway. Sleep beckoned. I had no choice.
Come morning, no one even noticed that I was there early. While I waited for the clerk to arrive so I could check in, I showered, had breakfast, fed Arlo. When they finally did arrive, two hours late, I found that I’d miss my reservation start date by two days so I only had one night left to actually make use of my site (cut short by those two hours!).
It was a a grassy plot lined with shrubs, behind which grassy dunes dropped down to the beach. The neighboring site showed signs of life: wetsuits drying, a picnic table littered with bottles and burger bun bags. A grill. Tents, zipped. I imagined little clouds of snores filling them and puffing them up.
Arlo whined with excitement and leapt down with glee. The morning sun was breaking through clouds, a cool breeze floated up from the ocean. The perfect day to… reorganize some more! I pulled out the topmost boxes in the van and surveyed my belongings. My brain had been in overdrive the past few days trying to make sense of the chaos. Two hours later, with things a bit more in order, walking along the beach, I finally felt like I could relax for the first time since I began the move out. So what if I was somewhat homeless. So what if my roommate wasn’t returning my security deposit that I was really counting on, so what if I was unemployed. I could still appreciate this moment.
This, here, now, feet on wet sand, dog galloping wild, breezy and sunny, felt pretty nice.
The next day I ventured into town. I stopped in at a low key restaurant bar and treated myself to beer and hot food—fried zucchini. Not what I’d needed to supplement my all carb and nut diet, but still a welcome enough break. At another bar, I serendipitously met Vaughan Cutillo, one of the partners of Montauk Brewing Company, a rare brand I thought would be cool to have as a sponsor because their beers are good and their branding is spot on.
Here drinking the Watermelon Session Ale, home of my first beer sponsor
That night, my reservation up, I boondocked on a quiet street near a public bathroom and headed back home the next day. Even though I wished I’d gotten to my campsite on time, I didn’t feel any need to stay longer. I’d gained a little bit of serenity and a fresh perspective on my strange new life. Yes, it was weird, but it was going to be worth figuring out.
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Ricardo Quaresma has cleared the way for a proposed move to Liverpool after rejecting Besiktas’ latest contract offer.
Portuguese international Ricardo Quaresma has already had one spell in English football with Chelsea
The 28-year-old Portuguese winger has less than 12 months left to run on his current deal with Besiktas, with whom he has endured a fractious relationship following his £6 million move from Inter Milan in June 2010.Quaresma is currently training with the club’s youth team after an ugly spat with chairman Fikret Orman last week, in which Orman told the player he would ‘finish his career’ during a row over the winger’s refusal to pen a contract extension.It’s just the latest in a long line of incidents troublesome Quaresma has been involved in, with his first year at Besiktas marred by an on-pitch fight with team-mate Nihat.
Three weeks later he was officially suspended after an altercation with then-manager Carlos Carvalhal in the dressing room following a Europa League defeat to Atletico Madrid.The indiscipline has not put off Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers though, who tried to rescue the Sporting Libson product from his Turkish nightmare during the summer, only to baulk at Besiktas’s £7 million asking price.However, with Quaresma refusing to sign on after rejecting their latest contract offer over the weekend, Rodgers is ready to open talks over a pre-contract agreement in January.Quaresma is desperate to try his luck in the Premier League once again, having failed to earn a permanent deal at Chelsea despite impressing during a six-month loan spell at Stamford Bridge in 2010.The Reds could offer the winger attractive terms on a two-year-deal, with no transfer fee meaning they could match his current £80,000-a-week wages in Turkey.
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Life is too complicated and too confusing for any one mind to fully grasp it.
It’s even more complicated and confusing if you suffer from depression, anxiety disorders, or mood disorders – which often make you feel that you have even less control over your life than the average person.
It often seems that reality does what it wants to do and we are just here for the ride. There’s no sense in trying to control it. There’s no sense in trying to explain it. There’s no sense in trying to find meaning in it. It just is what it is.
The philosophy of existentialism tells us that there’s no inherent meaning in the universe or life itself, thus it’s up to us to create our own meaning. There’s a branch known as “absurdism” that takes this idea to an extreme: because life has no inherent meaning and it’s impossible to explain why anything happens, we have no choice but to embrace the absurdity of life itself.
At times, I think it’s healthy to embrace the absurdity of life too. There’s so much of it that we can’t explain and can’t control, so why not step back, observe it, and think to ourselves, “Wow, what the hell is really happening here?”
In fact, I find the absurdness of life to be a great source of entertainment and humor when it’s properly embraced – I like to call it “existential silliness.”
There’s a popular chapter in Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms… where Allie Brosh describes her own experiences with depression. Many people say it’s one of the best things they’ve ever read on the subject, and I think she perfectly hits on the value of embracing “absurdity” and “existential silliness,” especially in the face of debilitating depression.
For those unfamiliar with her style, she’s known for making comics with a very simple and crude Microsoft Paint-type feel to them. They are often super silly and funny, but they also have some amazing kernels of truth and insight.
Here are just a few snippets of Allie Brosh’s depression story in Hyperbole and a Half:
I really want to share some of the wisdom in Allie’s depression story. Here are some slides from her comic, as well as some of my own thoughts on each of them.
Allie begins her depression story by depicting just how pointless and meaningless everything felt in her life:
People with depression often have trouble enjoying things, even simple fun activities with friends become deep moments of questioning everything and wondering what it all means.
Allie then goes on to show the banality of most advice people get from others:
Of course, it might be true that Yoga and spending time in nature can have a positive influence on one’s mental health.
However, when people with clinical depression try these recommended activities and don’t feel a change in their mood, it often just makes them feel that much worse. They begin thinking, “Why are these things that work for everyone else not working for me?”
But wait! Have you tried being more positive?
This is one of my favorite slides in the story. One of the most common pieces of advice people get when they are depressed is to just “be more positive” or “only focus on the good.”
These “feel good” statements can often feel cheesy and superficial to people who suffer with clinical depression. At worse, it makes them feel that they are to blame for their depression because they simply aren’t thinking the right things.
As good intentioned as this advice may be, it often only makes things worse.
Allie Brosh wonderfully describes in the book how you can’t just magically overcome depression by willing yourself to not be depressed anymore. It doesn’t make sense, “…it’s like a person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their hands grow back. A fundamental component of the plan is missing and it isn’t going to work.”
For those with depression like Allie, tapping into their “existential silliness” was a healthy way to deal with their problems. Much of her depression didn’t make sense and was completely uncontrollable, her best option was to embrace the absurdity of it – and even try to find some humor in it.
Perhaps the ending of her depression story embodies this “existential silliness” the most, where she discover a shriveled up piece of corn under her fridge while crying on the floor, and then starts hysterically laughing.
Her laughter at the tiny piece of corn was completely beyond her control – and didn’t make any sense whatsoever – but it felt good and she embraced it, even though she had trouble explaining it to anyone else. It didn’t matter.
Existential silliness
Life is frequently unexplainable and it will always be a bit absurd. “Existential silliness” is an attitude that allows us to embrace life’s absurdities and turn them into a source of entertainment and humor.
Many of the short stories throughout Hyperbole and a Half tap into this “existential silliness.” Allie shares many hilarious stories of everyday problems like overcoming procrastination and motivation troubles, taking care of unruly dogs, dealing with sugar addiction as a kid, trying to be a responsible adult, and struggling with morality and personal identity.
Her brand of humor may not be for everyone. It’s often very silly, weird, and “absurd” – but that’s also the beauty of it. I think anyone can relate to the small struggles Allie mentions throughout the book, and her unique and refreshing perspective on these struggles can provide some valuable insight (or just a few healthy laughs).
Stay updated on new articles and resources in psychology and self improvement:
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As it turns out, I don't like Sherlock Holmes very much. The idea? Some of the writing? The kernel of the character and Watson and 221B and Mrs. Hudson and so on?
Absolutely. Holmes himself and his mysteries?
Oh, God.
I'm sure it was in some small part down to the fact that I listened to the entire blessed Holmes canon in an Audible "Complete" edition. I was happy about it, because it was narrated by Simon Vance, who has done such a magnificent job voicing Holmes in sequels by other authors. And
As it turns out, I don't like Sherlock Holmes very much. The idea? Some of the writing? The kernel of the character and Watson and 221B and Mrs. Hudson and so on?
Absolutely. Holmes himself and his mysteries?
Oh, God.
I'm sure it was in some small part down to the fact that I listened to the entire blessed Holmes canon in an Audible "Complete" edition. I was happy about it, because it was narrated by Simon Vance, who has done such a magnificent job voicing Holmes in sequels by other authors. And I can in no way fault the audio. Simon Vance was excellent (except when he tried to sound American). The production was dandy. It just … seemed… endless.
And apparently I had never read some of the canon before. I was under the impression I had, but I can state for fact that when suddenly "A Study in Scarlet" wandered off (for an eternity) into what was supposed to be the American Wild West… put it this way: if I had been reading this in print I would have been constantly checking the number of pages until the story got back to where it should be, Victorian London. It wasn't terrible – but dear lord was I uninterested.
Then it happened again in "The Valley of Fear" – in some ways, almost identically: good man mixed up in a cult of heartless killers, but prevails to win the love of his woman – and I thought I'd lose my mind. Again, it might not have been so bad on paper, but listening to these two stories set in a poorly imagined and (I love you, Simon Vance, but) rather horribly accented America was stultifying. Too-late note to all the dead British authors I've been reading lately: all Americans didn't speak like that. (And, particularly, black Americans did not speak like that.)
The biggest thing I find I do not like about Sherlock Holmes, the canon, is… Sherlock Holmes. I lost track of how many times listening to these stories that I muttered "You bitch!" under my breath. He is an obnoxious piece of work, Holmes is. Yes, of course he's brilliant. Yes, of course he is capable of levels of observation that most people are not. Know how I know this? BECAUSE HE TOLD ME. Over and over. Usually in the context of pointing out to someone either how pathetically inferior a third party was – or, often, pointing out to someone how pathetically inferior THEY were. Tact? Not Holmes's strong suit. To put it mildly. In fact, by the end of this long slog I decided that Holmes's strongest character trait was not his skill at observation or deduction but his pure hubris.
He swans through these stories pointing out how he has developed his skills by working at them and honing them – and then constantly uses that as a brickbat with which to pummel those around him, especially the police, and most especially Watson. Modern adaptations aside, as I listened to his arrogance in his dealings with the police I kept picturing him in the setting of a modern non-Holmes adaptation cop show. Ever seen the tv show Blue Bloods? I'm picturing Donny Wahlberg's character faced with Holmes's high-handedness and insistence on primacy and contempt for everyone operating at a lower level. (Try it – it's funny.)
And, in the end, it hit me: where exactly did all this much-touted supremacy get him? If these tales purportedly selected by Watson are the choicest among Holmes's non-classified cases, I'm … not impressed. Where Holmes's gifts seem to be most showcased is in his introductions to clients and police, and in showing off for the always admiring Watson: you came in on this train, you have a medium-sized dog, you play the harpsichord. But his case track record … isn't great, is it? I don't have the time or energy to run down the list to make an accurate count, but I was astonished at the number of cases in which Holmes's client does not survive the story. It seemed to happen over and over – nice young man comes to 221B, frantic and afraid; Holmes tells him all about himself before letting him tell his story, during which Holmes acts bored; Holmes tells him that yes, there is some interest in your story, I'll get around to it in a day or two, keep me posted on developments; young man goes off reassured that the great man is on the case (rather than utterly pissed off over the way he's been treated), and shortly dies. Then and only then does Holmes descend from his ivory tower to find the killer.
Then there were a surprising number of cases in which Holmes does not actually contribute that much to discovering the solution to the mystery. Facts emerge independently of anything he does, or someone confesses, and he stands back nodding smugly – he knew that.
And even in the cases where he does put his finger on the Bad Guys … they have a terrible tendency to get away. Of course, in those cases the finger of justice smooshes them like bugs – their ships sink or they otherwise pay the Ultimate Penalty.
All in all, though, the main reason I dislike Holmes is his treatment of Watson. Dr. John Watson is a man who served his country in war, was wounded, became a physician good enough to build a booming practice … but when he is around Sherlock Holmes he is like a bullied child anxious not to be left out. Holmes abuses him regularly. He consistently denigrates Watson's "little pieces", which he writes to glorify his friend (and possibly for a few extra pounds, but the only reason he ever mentions is that he wants to publicize his friend's abilities); they are ill-written, unnecessary, concentrate on all the wrong things, and really he doesn't want publicity, he works for the sake of the work. But he obviously preens himself over the praise, and it sure felt like when Watson gave up the writing Holmes was a little put out. Oh, and then of course after years of Watson saying "Well, fine, write 'em yourself", Holmes finally does – and spends a good deal of time saying how Watson would have done it better. (Ah, but did he ever say that to Watson? Pfft.)
In several cases Holmes sends Watson off to gather information. And the good doctor works his stolid behind off trying to follow Holmes's methods and cover every base. Only for Holmes to tell him A) a blindfolded chimpanzee could have done better, but B) that's okay because Holmes did it himself anyway. In some of these situations Watson was taking time away from his wife and his medical practice to oblige his friend – because any time his friend crooked a finger said medical practice and wife dwindled in importance – and the whole time was wasting his time.
The last point in this part of my rant is a large part of the "love" in my love-hate relationship with BBC's "Sherlock". Holmes disappeared two years ago, allowing the world – and Watson – to believe he was dead. And he pops up at John's side in a ridiculous disguise, and expects his old sidekick to be nothing but happy. In the tv episode, John knocks him down. And I couldn't agree more. For two years – two years – starting on that very first day the "Reichenbach Fall" happened – Holmes has left his best (only) friend to grieve, and grieve he does, book and tv series. On tv he sees a counselor. In the stories he just eats his heart out, replaying if-onlys. And the reason he is left in pain for two years? The same reason Holmes didn't share vital information with him other times: in the great detective's opinion Watson is not a good enough actor/liar to pull off a situation where he knows the truth. And okay, I get it: Holmes was in danger, and playing dead seems to have been necessary. But – really? "I almost told you but I figured you'd blow it"? I'd like to pop him in the nose myself. ("I have given you a serious shock by my unnecessarily dramatic reappearance." And suddenly Sherlock Holmes morphs into Captain Obvious.)
The phrase "healthy relationship" was not in common usage in the late 1890's and early 1900's. This relationship? Isn't healthy.
(However, I begin to understand where all the 'shippers come from. "Intimacy" had a different tenor then, but Watson does say it an awful lot. And Holmes does seem to grab his hand, put his hands on the doctor's knees, and whisk his friend off into dark corners an awful lot. The Empty House: "Holmes's cold, thin fingers closed round my wrist and led me forwards down a long hall … There was no lamp near and the window was thick with dust, so that we could only just discern each other's figures within. My companion put his hand upon my shoulder and his lips close to my ear." That's a quote that launched a thousand 'ships.)
Something else that stuck with me all through the stories: all of these illustrious clients come to Holmes, requiring utmost confidentiality … with Watson sitting there to the side taking notes?
Now that it's (finally) over, now that I've (finally) listened to all the stories… I feel a little like the child at the end of The Emperor's New Clothes: "But…" Holmes isn't naked, but pretty close, and spinning some tassels and waving some feathery fans to distract the reader.
And I wholeheartedly apologize for that image, especially to anyone with Jeremy Brett or Basil Rathbone as the Holmes in their head. Cumberbatch fans probably enjoy it.
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No good deed goes unpunished in the U.S. police state.
From WRAL:
DURHAM, N.C. — A 20-year-old sophomore communications major at North Carolina Central University, Lewis James Little sat in the Durham County jail for a month last year after he did what he says he thought was the right thing.
He and several friends had been visiting the home of a childhood friend on Melbourne Street in east Durham on the night of June 21, 2013, when, he says, they discovered 25-year-old Michael Lee dead in the middle of the road.
"I called the police – when none of the other guys were even thinking about it – trying to do the right thing, and it pretty much started from there," Lewis said.
Twenty minutes after officers arrived, he was handcuffed and later jailed under a $1.425 million bond on burglary, kidnapping and several other criminal charges in connection with a break-in at a nearby home.
"You can do good your whole life and like that, (you're in jail under) a million-dollar bond," he said. "It was kind of like a dream. I kept waking up, like, 'I can't believe I'm in here.' I kind of felt defeated."
Then, on July 15, a corrections officer told him he was free to go. The Durham prosecutor working the case dropped the charges and apologized to Little.
A witness in the home invasion had identified Little as one of three men who broke in, but statements to police called into question that identification, authorities say.
"You can assume a lot just from looking at my face and dreads. I was in basketball shorts and flip flops," Little said. "Something like that happening to them – I can kind of understand that maybe they would jump to conclusions." Never call police.
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Perry said that she did not think that Japan would respond to the decision because it occurred in an Australian court, not a Japanese one. "But on the other hand, it's another nail in the coffin of whaling," she said.
"I think the court case outcome is great news," said Clare Perry, the senior campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based environmental organization. "It seems clear that Japan, or at least the whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, will not take any notice of that court case."
Environmentalists were pleased with the decision, but said that it was unclear whether or not Japan would continue its whaling program and remained skeptical of the science that Japan uses as justification for its whaling.
The plaintiff in the case is the Australian branch of Humane Society International, which opposes Japan's practice of whaling in the Antarctic.
A Japanese whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, has been hit by AU$1 million fine for hunting whales in Antarctic waters that Australia says is part of a marine sanctuary. The fine, ordered by an Australian federal court this week, is the equivalent of US$717,600.
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A Japanese whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, has been hit by AU$1 million fine for hunting whales in Antarctic waters that Australia says is part of a marine sanctuary. The fine, ordered by an Australian federal court this week, is the equivalent of US$717,600.
The plaintiff in the case is the Australian branch of Humane Society International, which opposes Japan's practice of whaling in the Antarctic.
Environmentalists were pleased with the decision, but said that it was unclear whether or not Japan would continue its whaling program and remained skeptical of the science that Japan uses as justification for its whaling.
"I think the court case outcome is great news," said Clare Perry, the senior campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based environmental organization. "It seems clear that Japan, or at least the whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, will not take any notice of that court case."
Perry said that she did not think that Japan would respond to the decision because it occurred in an Australian court, not a Japanese one. "But on the other hand, it's another nail in the coffin of whaling," she said.
Commercial whale hunting has been under a moratorium since 1986; that moratorium was agreed to in 1982 by the member countries of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), an intergovernmental organization that focuses on the conservation of whales and the regulation of their hunting by traditional indigenous groups.
However, according to Simon Brockington, the executive secretary to the IWC, individual countries, as sovereign nations, can give themselves the permits they need to carry out whale hunting under scientific grounds. That's what Japan has done.
"This has been the subject of quite considerable debate," Brockington said.
Related: Japan Says It Will Resume Whaling in the Antarctic
The last time Japan hunted whales in Antarctic waters, it killed 252 of the creatures, all of them minkes, according to data published by the IWC. That was during the Antarctic summer season of 2013-2014. (It also whales in the coastal waters around Japan and in the northwest Pacific, killing 224 cetaceans in those areas in 2013.) Japan didn't kill any whales in the Antarctic during the subsequent 2014-2015 season, following a ruling by the International Court of Justice, telling it to cease hunting activities. It's unclear whether they will resume the practice in Antarctica this coming season, which occurs during the northern hemisphere's winter.
Mark Simmonds, the senior marine scientist for Humane Society International, said his organization was pleased with the decision, and that they see it as "a further signal that what Japan is doing is not acceptable."
"We've believed for a long time that what Japan has really been doing has been a commercial take thinly disguised as a scientific research program," Simmonds said.
Japan's latest plan calls for them to take 333 minke whales a year in Antarctica. "What we're all anticipating, sadly now, is that Japan will return to Antarctica and will resume its whaling activities starting this December," Simmonds added.
Patrick Ramage, the director of the whale program for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said that Japan's whaling program has taken over 14,000 whales in Antarctica in the years following the moratorium on commercial whaling.
"The judgement, handed down by the Australian court, is very welcome," Ramage said. "It's one in a series in important rulings against Japan's needless and ill-conceived scientific whaling program. I think it's an important victory in principle. Whether it affects Japanese practices remains to be seen."
The Japanese company was not at the trial, according to Donald Rothwell, a professor of international law at Australian National University College of Law in the country's capital. He said the company is also unlikely to pay the fine.
"Japan does not recognize Australian sovereignty over Antarctica, and as a result, any Australian law applying in the waters offshore that part of the Antarctic continent is not recognized by Japan and obviously [not] by Kyodo," Rothwell said.
Related: Graphic Video Shows Faroe Islands Whale Slaughter
The court ruled that the company violated Australia's Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which established the sanctuary.
Paul Wade, a biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, used to run its cetacean program, and has followed Japan's scientific whaling program. He said that he doesn't think Japan needs to kill the whales to accomplish the science it wants to do.
"Where they really just don't meet international standards of science, is that they haven't justified the need for lethal sampling to accomplish the science they're doing," he said. "It's very clear to us that they could accomplish just about everything that they are saying they're trying to do scientifically without lethal sampling."
"There's no other place," he added, "where people say, 'Oh, we have to kill the whales to do any research on them.'"
Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger
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Yep, you read that title right.
Toronto developer Massive Damage Inc. has been working on a title called Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander. This title was part of the Square Enix collective, which is described as “your chance to shape games development and champion ideas that you’d like to become reality”. Involving the community and the general gaming public has become more common over the last several years with the rise of indie gaming, but bigger publishers and companies have also been getting into the act as well, even if they they don’t have creative control, and the game will be self published. Square Enix does provide some feedback and PR support to the game, which is nice to see. In particular, that’s the case for Halcyon 6, the game that was kickstarted for $187,706 CAD, despite only targetting $40,000 CAD. But with it comes an interesting twist to the normal pre-order bonus.
If you pre-order Halcyon 6 right now for $19.99, you’ll be able to play the beta weeks before the game comes out…..to early access. Yes, the game will be an early access title as well, with it’s first act being available on launch in Early 2016 (as no specific date has been announced). It is hinted that the Backer Beta will be in late Feburary (with an alpha that seems to be concluded), which seems to be the same as what the pre-order of the game will give you (as said by the kickstarter update). The second and third act will come as updates to be included as development of the game continues. It’s worth noting that the first Act is said to be largely complete for that portion of the game. It includes the storyline quests, 4 alien factions, a tech research tree with unlockable base and ship upgrades, randomized officers/galaxy/events, and officer specialization and progression, along with other items listed on the steam store page.
Linux users will have to wait until the official launch, as the early access will be PC/Mac only. However, as with all early access game, be cautious as the game is still in developmental phases. Massive Damage has indicated that they will have a roadmap for development that people can see and follow along with however. The price has risen from original estimates for the game, but the project did expand in scope considerable due to the amount financed via the kickstarter, allowing for stretch goals to expand the game, and the price will, according to the Early Access page, raise further on full release.
The game is expected to have base building, exploration, and roster management elements, along with combat and story events that will play out in Terran space. Halycon 6 refers to a derelict starbase left behind by a mysterious race, and the player’s mission is to grab it and rebuild it. A gameplay preview has been released on Massive Damage Inc’s YouTube channel, as seen below.
Quick Take
I consider myself the indie guy of the TechRaptor family. I dedicate my Youtube channel to pretty much everything but triple A titles. But even this leaves a foul taste in my mouth. It feels like another step toward segmenting the production and development process, breaking it into pieces even when the finished product isn’t ready. Early Access already asks a lot of a consumer to pay for blind trust in the developer, but to add a pre-order on that….It immediately turns me off to the title.
Do you think that pre-ordering an early access game is reasonable? Or is it taking it one step too far? Leave your comments below!
Share Have a tip for us? Awesome! Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll take a look!
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KIDS tooth decay is on the rise - and drinking the wrong kind of water is to blame.
While tap water is treated with fluoride, which prevents decay, the trend for drinking bottled water has seen the number of children with problem teeth by age six jump to 49 per cent.
The situation has become so bad that tooth decay in children is now at its highest level since fluoridisation was introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, and many youngsters are needing hospital treatment to remove damaged milk teeth.
Sugary drinks, too many snacks and irregular or poor brushing are all contributing factors, but the Australian Dental Association said that exclusively giving kids bottled water or water that has had the fluoride filtered out is only making matters worse.
ADA chairman of oral health Dr Peter Alldritt said: "Children are being admitted to hospital every day to have general anaesthetic to have baby teeth removed.
"Bottled water is not 100 per cent to blame. It is also sweetened drinks, lollies and cakes and brushing once rather than twice a day."
Pediatric dental surgeon Dr Philippa Sawyer said a decade ago 60 per cent of five-year-olds had healthy, decay-free teeth.
"Using bottled water is one of the factors,'' she said. ``If you drink a bottle of water when you are at the shops, that's not a problem.
``If you do that continuously every day and the child is always drinking bottled water, that's going to be a problem."
Before drinking water began to be treated it was not unusual for children entering their teens to have a dozen decayed teeth, according to Adelaide University dentistry professor Kaye Roberts-Thomson.
"Before there was fluoride children were having an average of seven teeth effected, now it is about one," Prof Roberts-Thomson said. "Baby teeth in particular are being effected."
But she added that sugary drinks were responsible for more tooth decay than bottled water.
"It's better to drink bottled water than soft drinks and fruit juice, but the best thing to drink is tap water," Prof Roberts-Thomson said.
Alex Bowen, 43, said she always ensured her two sons, Henry, 4, George, 2, drank tap water.
"Luckily they've been really good," Ms Bowen, from Queens Park, in Sydney's east, said. "We've always tried to avoid giving them too many sweet things.
"At Daycare they had a dentist come in and talk to them about how to look after their teeth. They were taught to drink lots of water."
The anti-fluoridation lobby, which claims the additive is toxic, had mandatory fluoridation overturned in Queensland last year and councils there are gradually removing it.
But Prof Roberts-Thomson said was "absolutely no evidence" that it was harmful to health.
Dr Alldritt said most domestic water filters did not remove fluoride from tap water but reverse osmosis filters did.
Large bottles of spring water and small bottled water products usually had no fluoride content, he said. The ADA wants legislation making it compulsory for the fluoride content of bottled water to be clearly labelled.
When Giulia Mazzocca was six her doctor discovered decay in four teeth and told her mother Lorella she would need hospital treatment to remove one tooth and put crowns on the other three.
Ms Mazzocca said she chose to have her treated under general anaesthetic rather than being conscious in the dental chair.
"Had she had it done in the chair I think she would have probably done one (procedure) and not gone back for a long, long time," Ms Mazzocca said.
Bottled water was never part of Giulia's diet, but sweets and juices were.
Since the operation three years ago Ms Mazzocca has not cut out sweets for her daughter but has stepped up the amount of water from the tap, filtered with a jug that does not remove fluoride.
"It's really not something you stop in children,'' she said. ``You have to be wary of it and careful, but it is not to excess."
Ms Mazzocca said she would prefer it if there were no fluoride in tap water: "It is just having more chemicals going through your body."
media_camera Brothers, George (2) and Henry Read (4). Picture: Bradley Hunter
FIGHTING DECAY
- Children must brush their teeth no matter how young they are
- Try to avoid sticky foods as bacteria tends to cling to them a lot more and stick to the teeth
- If your child likes sugary or acidic drinks, like lemon or orange juice, get them to drink through a straw
- Chewing sugar-free gum after a meal can help avoid food getting caught in teeth
- Children should floss once or twice a week, or do it for them
- Try to drink tap water with fluoride
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About
Undead P.O.W. An explosion....You wake up and see a way to escape. Can you survive long enough in a world where everyone is starting to turn? You need to find those responsible for the horrors that are happening all around you. You will move through the open world environment and achieve objectives to progress and discover the truth. A truly open world first person shooting experience combining elements of a RPG. This is truly a experience that is worthy of a place on your shelf next to the likes of call of duty and battlefield! Your help with this project will allow us to get things we need to move this project faster and more efficiently. There is allot of things we could use to pull off the next great game. We are a small but driven group that have grown up around and watched as games like this evolved and grew in scope and grandeur. Let's get together and we won't just create this experience but we will Rock It!!!!!!
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READ THE TRANSCRIPT
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to this week’s broadcast and the “troublemaker” of the year. That’s right, my guest is the first recipient of a new award that singles out teenagers who are not afraid to speak their minds on major issues, even when everyone else around them disagrees. Not afraid, in other words, to stir up trouble for a good cause. That’s what Zack Kopplin was doing just the other day at a Save Texas Schools rally in Austin, the state capital:
ZACK KOPPLIN: Do we want Texas tax dollars being used to fund private schools teaching creationism? Say no Texas!
ATTENDEES: No!
BILL MOYERS: Zack Kopplin was chosen to receive the first “troublemaker” of the year award because he’s made waves fighting on behalf of science and against laws making it easier to teach creationism in public schools.
Today’s fundamentalists, with political support from the right wing, are more aggressive than ever in crusading to challenge evolution with the dogma of creationism. But they didn’t reckon on Zack Kopplin.
Starting at the grass roots in his home state of Louisiana, he’s become a formidable adversary nationally, speaking, debating, button-holing politicians, and winning the active support of Nobel laureates, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The New Orleans City Council and tens of thousands of students, teachers and others around the country who have signed on to his campaign. Troublemakers all. Zack is now 19 and a history major at Rice University in Houston. He’s with me now. Welcome to the show.
ZACK KOPPLIN: Thank you so much for having me on.
BILL MOYERS: What was it about the Louisiana Science Education Act that you didn't like?
ZACK KOPPLIN: Well, this law allows supplemental materials into our public school biology classrooms to quote, "critique controversial theories," like evolution and climate change. Now, evolution and climate change aren't scientifically controversial, but they are controversial to Louisiana legislators. And basically, everyone who looked at this law knew it was just a backdoor to sneak creationism into public school science classes.
BILL MOYERS: Who was behind it?
ZACK KOPPLIN: Nationally, there's this group called the Discovery Institute. They're a creationist think tank that's been pushing these types of laws all around the country for years and years. They even tried to get one nationally included in George Bush's No Child Left Behind with the Santorum amendment. And so they wrote this law and they passed it on locally to the Louisiana Family Forum, which is our affiliate of Focus on the Family. Senator Ben Nevers, who sponsored it, said the Louisiana Family Forum suggested the law to him because they wanted creationism discussed when talking about Darwin's theory. So we know from the horse's mouth exactly what this law is about.
BILL MOYERS: What's your understanding now of creationism? What essentially does it hold?
ZACK KOPPLIN: Essentially it's a denial of evolution, mainly based off a literal interpretation of Genesis.
BILL MOYERS: That God created the earth, a supernatural power intervened, and that's where we and the universe came from?
ZACK KOPPLIN: Yes. And so there're some versions that say the earth is less than 10,000 years old. There're some where they've, creationists have adapted and said, "Well, we got in trouble in the court case when we said that, so we'll say it's millions of years old. But evolution still doesn't happen. We were created in our present form." And that's intelligent design creationism. Intelligent design creationism is still creationism dressed up to look like it's scientific, but it's really not.
BILL MOYERS: When did you collide with this notion?
ZACK KOPPLIN: So the Louisiana Science Education Act passed back in 2008. It was the summer before my sophomore year in high school. And so I knew about it. My dad's been involved in Louisiana politics my entire life, so it was a dinner conversation. We'd be, like, "We can't believe this bad law is just, like, it's passing. But Governor Jindal will never sign it." We knew Governor Jindal. He's a very smart man. He's a Brown University biology major. And so we decided, "Okay, when it gets to him, he'll veto it."
BILL MOYERS: He's also a Rhodes Scholar.
ZACK KOPPLIN: He's a Rhodes Scholar, yeah. And so it got to Governor Jindal with overwhelming support. And Governor Jindal started voicing his support for intelligent design creationism, he signed the law and he's defended it ever since. And we were shocked. So for about two years I sort of stewed over this law. I wanted to fight it. I talked to all my friends. And my friends knew I couldn't stand this law. But I never really knew how to take it on at that point. I was still too young to really recognize I had a voice.
BILL MOYERS: At what point did you say that to yourself, "This is so important to me for my own reasons of conscience, that I'm going to make it my life as a young man.”
ZACK KOPPLIN: So, my senior year of high school, I had to do a senior project. And I had friends who learned how to cook healthy food, learned a new language. And I was just, like, none of that interests me. But you know what? But what got my attention was this law. And so on a whim, I sent an e-mail to Dr. Barbara Forrest, who's an expert about, an expert on this issue. She—
BILL MOYERS: Teaches philosophy, doesn't she?
ZACK KOPPLIN: She teaches philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana. So she was an expert witness at the Kitzmiller versus Dover trial, where—
BILL MOYERS: In Pennsylvania.
ZACK KOPPLIN: In Pennsylvania, where intelligent design creationism was ruled unconstitutional. And while it's not a Supreme Court case and doesn't have holding across the entire United States, it essentially has put a stop to intelligent design as a serious method of sneaking creationism into the classroom.
But, so she was an expert witness there and she happens to live 30 minutes away from me in Livingston Parish, a local hotbed of creationism. And so I sent an e-mail to her and said, "I'm a student at Baton Rouge Magnet High and I really want to fight this law." And so she apparently looked me up to make sure I wasn't a creationist plant and then set up a meeting with me. And we got going from there—
BILL MOYERS: A mole.
ZACK KOPPLIN: Yep. I didn't really ever expect it to actually take off the way it did. I sent one e-mail, and suddenly this whole campaign began.
BILL MOYERS: Who else helped you?
ZACK KOPPLIN: I set up a meeting with Barbara and I asked her, “who should I talk to locally?" We worked out Senator Karen Carter Peterson, who represents a district in New Orleans. And she was one of the few votes against the law when it first passed. So I got her to agree to sponsor a repeal bill. And that was a great meeting. She just said, "Okay, like, when do we get started?" And that was just her response to me, "When do we get started." So, I talked to her and I also talked to Barbara about if we wanted to bring some big names on board, who should I, like, who should I talk to? And one of the people she recommended was Sir Harry Kroto, who is a Nobel Laureate chemist at Florida State. And so I sent him an e-mail. And he immediately called, he sent me an e-mail back and said, "Hey, do you have time to talk on the phone, like, on Friday?" And so we set it up where I had written a letter for Nobel Laureate scientists to our state legislature. I talked to him. And I woke up the next morning with him and about ten other Nobel Laureates having signed the letter. And we just started building from there. And so we have 78 Nobel Laureate scientists onboard.
BILL MOYERS: But you haven't repealed the law. It's still in place.
ZACK KOPPLIN: I mean, we would, I would've liked the law to be repealed two years ago, or even five years ago now. But it's going to be a long, tough fight. And I think we know that at this point.
BILL MOYERS: You realize that you're bucking public opinion. The latest findings from Gallup last June are that 46 percent of Americans believe in creationism. 32 percent believe in evolution guided by God. I guess they would call that a form of intelligent design. And 15 percent believe in evolution without God's help. You're definitively in the minority.
ZACK KOPPLIN: I would say we've got about 54 percent that are in the majority because there's a difference between intelligent design and what I think that second option about God guided evolutionists, which be theistic evolution. And there's a lot of people who say that God has caused evolution to happen. But they don't, that's not actually intelligent design. Intelligent design specifically rejects evolution, especially on a large scale. Creationists like to break it up into micro, macro evolution. That's not a legitimate thing. That's not what scientists do. But that's how they say, "We can't accept change over millions of years." And—
BILL MOYERS: And the theistic theory?
ZACK KOPPLIN: Theistic evolution is to say what the Catholic Church accepts, where Pope John Paul II said there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of faith. And they just say, "We think God started evolution. And it's run the way scientists say it's run."
BILL MOYERS: Do you think the Gallup poll is simplistic?
ZACK KOPPLIN: I think it's very simplistic.
BILL MOYERS: Doesn't recognize the varieties of ideas on this subject—
ZACK KOPPLIN: Yes, having said that, the 46 percent who think the earth was formed in the last 10,000 years is a very scary number for me.
BILL MOYERS: Let me play you a clip from Representative Paul Broun of Georgia. He's a member of Congress. You've heard of him, I'm sure. And this was his appearance at an event organized by the Liberty Baptists Church in his own state.
PAUL BROUN: God's word is true. I've come to understand that all that stuff I was taught about evolution, and embryology, and big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior. You see there are a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young earth. I don’t believe that the earth’s but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the bible says.
BILL MOYERS: Representative Broun is a medical doctor. He is a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. If he were sitting here instead of me, what would you say to him?
ZACK KOPPLIN: We need to change that attitude. I mean, we need to be teaching evolution and embryology and the big bang theory because, you know, while he may think they're lies from the pit of hell, they're not. They're good, established science. And if our students don't learn it, they're going to be at a disadvantage to the rest of the world, to China, to Britain to France. And we're not going to do what we need to really make the advances to keep our way of life and ensure the survival of the human race, if we don't teach our students science.
He has the freedom to be educated and educate his children the way he sees it. But, we have to make a specific distinction. Not in the public schools, not in publicly funded private schools, like voucher schools. And definitely not educating other people's children.
BILL MOYERS: You've taken this fight beyond the Louisiana law into the fight against school vouchers. Why?
ZACK KOPPLIN: I didn't initially really care about school vouchers because I was fundamentally a science advocate. And I was worried about evolution. And then last summer I got, a friend sent me an article by Alternet that had exposed a school in Louisiana in this voucher program that was apparently using curriculum that taught the Loch Ness Monster disproved evolution, and the Loch Ness Monster was real.
And so it caught my attention. And I said, "Well, let me look into this more." And so I pulled a list of the voucher schools off our department of education's website and just started going through them. And I'd look up a school and look up its website. And I'd go find a school that said, "Scientists are sinful men." And we are—
BILL MOYERS: Sinful?
ZACK KOPPLIN: Sinful. And they rejected the things like theories like the age of the earth and anything else they said anything that, like, that that goes against God's word is an error. And so I found a school like that. I found a school that put in their student handbook that students had to defend creationism against traditional scientific theory. And so these are schools receiving millions in public money.
BILL MOYERS: Through vouchers—
ZACK KOPPLIN: Through vouchers—
BILL MOYERS: --transferring public funds from public schools to private religious schools.
ZACK KOPPLIN: And recently we, I exposed with MSNBC that over 300 schools in voucher programs in nine states and Washington DC are teaching creationism. We have schools that call evolution the way of the heathen. And so it's become pretty clear if you create a voucher program, you're just going to be funding creationism through the back door.
BILL MOYERS: Neal McCluskey at the Cato Institute writes, "Were Kopplin's argument fundamentally that taxpayers should not have their money taken against their will to schools with which they might disagree, it would be one thing: vouchers do transfer taxpayer money, though they provide far more overall freedom than does public schooling. But Kopplin's argument, like the arguments of so many people on numerous education issues, isn't ultimately about freedom. It's about prohibiting others from learning something he doesn't like."
ZACK KOPPLIN: I think Neal McCluskey is forgetting about the First Amendment fundamentally. We have a separation of church and state in this country. And creationism is fundamentally religious. And evolution is just science and is not religious.
And I think as you probably have discussed on the show, the free exercise of religion includes religion and non-religion. So this country is fundamentally secular. And there shouldn't be, you, we shouldn't bring in one specific, not even just Christianity, but one specific version of Christianity that would not teach what the Catholics, or the Hindus or the Muslims or the atheists believe in the public schools and teach it instead of established science.
BILL MOYERS: Do you ever wake up in the morning and say, "Hey, I'm only 19. I've got Rice, tough school to get out of and get started in my life, in my work. Why am I doing this?"
ZACK KOPPLIN: I don't think it's a choice. I think it's something that has to be done. And I'm the one who's in the right position to do it, so I'm going to do it.
BILL MOYERS: Well, Zack, I've enjoyed this conversation and I wish you well. Thank you for coming.
ZACK KOPPLIN: Thank you so much for having me on.
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OTTAWA (Reuters) - Chinese authorities are likely to further crack down on dissent in the restive Xinjiang region after a bloody train station knife attack that Beijing blames on militants, an exiled Uighur leader said on Tuesday.
Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer delivers a speech in front of a East Turkestan flag at the fourth General Assembly of the World Uighur Congress (WUC) in Tokyo May 14, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
China says separatists from the far western region launched the attack last Saturday, killing at least 29 people and wounding about 140. Police shot dead four of the assailants.
The assault by masked and identically dressed assailants took place at the railway station in Kunming, some 1,500 miles southeast of the Xinjiang capital Urumqi.
Xinjiang is home to the Uighur Muslim minority, who have long complained about what they say are Chinese restrictions on their culture and religion. Relations between Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese are increasingly tense.
Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uighur Congress, said she feared Beijing planned to clamp down further on the region and called on Uighurs to keep calm.
“I am very much afraid the Chinese government is doing so and the first orders of the central government is an iron fist crackdown,” she told Reuters in an interview.
“(Beijing) never says ‘We will investigate the root cause of the problem and we will solve it (through) peaceful dialogue’,” she said.
Unrest in Xinjiang - which can involve gangs attacking police stations - has killed more than 100 people in the past year. China says it is battling separatists who want to turn Xinjiang into an independent state called East Turkestan.
China says the militants were responsible for a fatal car crash in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square last October in which five people died.
“(The) response of an iron fist crackdown will increase the hatred and increase the contradictions between people in East Turkestan,” said Kadeer, who spoke through an interpreter.
Beijing has not explicitly accused Uighurs of carrying out the attack. Kadeer, who testified to a Canadian parliamentary committee on Tuesday, said she did not believe Xinjiang militants were responsible.
Instead, she said the assault was more likely “the desperate action of those people who lost their hope in the government”.
She added: “If the situation goes on like this, more and more atrocities like this will happen in East Turkestan.”
The Congress, a Munich-based organization that includes various exiled Uighur groups, stresses it is a peaceful movement. Kadeer called on Uighurs to act lawfully and “to calm down instead of playing with fire ... any violence brings more violence so I urge my people, stay away from any acts of violence”.
The Congress has in the past blamed what it says are China’s restrictive policies for the unrest.
In July 2009, nearly 200 people were killed in riots pitting Uighurs against ethnic Chinese in Urumqi.
Kadeer accused Beijing of wanting to crush what she called the Uighur’s legitimate demands and grievances.
China, which dismisses Kadeer as an “anti-Chinese splittist”, says the Uighurs enjoy broad freedoms.
Kadeer is a former Chinese political prisoner accused of leaking state secrets in 1999. She was later allowed to leave on medical grounds and now lives in the United States.
Asked whether she had seen any change in policy toward Xinjiang since Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in March 2013, she replied: “The Chinese government’s attitude has continued to be the same, just repression, strike hard.”
(This story was corrected to make clear 29 people killed in attack and four assailants shot dead by police in paragraph 2)
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*A year ago to the day, China knocked a weather satellite out of orbit, and threw the international community into panic. Some figured the satellite-killer test was the harbinger of a future war in space – the kind of conflict that could cripple a tech-dependent United States military. Geoffrey Forden, PhD – an MIT research associate and a former UN weapons inspector and strategic weapons analyst at the Congressional Budget Office – examines the possibilities of an all-out Chinese assault on American satellites. This is part one. Click for parts two and three.
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High above Asia, as the bars and clubs of Beijing begin to fill up at the end of another work day, a US early warning satellite spots the tell-tale plume of a missile streaking out of the wastes of Western China. Warning bells sound all through the Pentagon. Tensions have been running high between China and the United States, as the two countries struggle to resolve the latest installment of the Taiwanese crisis. And China has had a run of unprecedented activity in space: the past two days have seen China launch four large missions into deep space, three within the last six hours.. Fortunately, a high-resolution American spy satellite will be over that second launch site within minutes, giving the US a unique ability to determine what is going on. But even though tasking orders are given to photograph the suspected launch site, none are returned. The satellite, code-named Crystal 3, no longer responds to commands. Within minutes, US Space Command reports that four NAVSTAR/GPS satellites—used to guide American drones and precision bombs—have stopped broadcasting. China’s space war against the United States has started.
For years, the American armed forces have worried about an attack on US satellites; this could be how it begins. The United States military has become increasingly dependent on space. It uses photo-reconnaissance satellites to observe potential adversaries, GPS satellites to guide munitions with pin-point accuracy, communications satellites to handle the flow of information into and out of a theater of operations, and early warning satellites to detect and track enemy missile launches to name just a few of the better known applications. Because of this increasing dependence, many analysts have worried that the US is most vulnerable to asymmetric attacks against its space assets; in their view US satellites are “sitting ducks” without any sort of defense and their destruction would cripple the US military. China’s test of a sophisticated anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon a year ago, Friday – 11 January 2007, when it shot down its own obsolete weather satellite – has only increased these concerns. But is this true? Could a country—even a powerful country like China that has demonstrated a very sophisticated, if nascent, ability to shoot down satellites at all altitudes—inflict anything close to a knock-out blow against the US in space? And if it was anything less than a knock-out, how seriously would it affect US war fighting capabilities?
The answers to these questions should influence how the US responds to the threats China’s ASAT represents. There is at least one way to answer these questions: “war-gaming” a massive Chinese attack on US satellites, where China is only limited by the laws of physics and the known properties of their ASAT, and see how much damage could be done. Such an exercise also reveals what the US could do, and what it could not do, to minimize the consequences. The results of my calculations are reported here. They assume that China launches a massive attack and that everything works exactly as planned: every ASAT launches, the US does not respond until after the attacks are launched even though it will have overwhelming evidence ahead of time, and every ASAT hits its target. Thus, this is a worst case scenario for the United States. In the end, we'll show, the US would still has sufficient space assets to fight a major conventional war with China, even after such an attack. America's military capabilities would be reduced, for a few hours at a time. But they would not be crippled. Back in 2001, a commission lead by Donald Rumsfeld warned of a "space Pearl Harbor," a single strike that could cripple America's satellite network. It turns out, there is no such thing.
Let's start with what we know about China's ASAT capabilities today. And we know quite a bit. Because there are few, if any, secrets in space. Amateurs around the world track most, if not all, of the classified US military satellites from their backyards, posting their positions on the internet. NORAD,is capable of tracking objects as small as four inches across. In fact, NORAD's measurements of the debris caused by China’s January 2007 test were posted on the web. In the case of the Chinese test, the orbital tracks of that debris can be used to reveal the capabilities and limitations of China’s ASAT weapon by reconstructing the collision – much like forensic scientists reconstruct a crime scene. By backtracking the debris to the point where they all converge, we can determine the two most important aspects of the Chinese ASAT: how China destroyed that satellite, and just how capable its satellite-killer really is.
The interception was almost head on at a combined speed of almost 18,000 miles per hour. The pieces of debris wound up with the greatest speeds—much higher than the original satellite. This means that China accomplished the most sophisticated of space maneuvers: a hit-to-kill interception, the equivalent of hitting a bullet with a bullet. This is equivalent to what the US is trying to develop in its national missile defense system and is much more sophisticated than the ASAT the Soviet Union was working in the 1980s: little more than a space mine that slowly snuck up on its target and detonated near by.
We also know that the ASAT was highly maneuverable. Yes, the target satellite’s orbit was known well ahead of the interception. However, that does not mean that the satellite’s position was known well enough that the ASAT did not need to steer itself to hit the target. In fact, it is very likely that the interceptor needed to maneuver at high speeds, perhaps as much as six times the acceleration of gravity, to hit its target.
The orbital speed of the target satellite, which is determined by its altitude, also provides us with significant insight into the interceptor’s capability. The closing speed of the interception, which is a combination of the target satellite’s orbital speed and the speed of the interceptor, determines how much time is available to make final adjustments. For instance, just one second before the collision on January 11th, the interceptor and target were five miles apart. During that one second, the interceptor had to make any final adjustments to its trajectory to hit a target smaller than six feet across. Any decrease in the closing speed makes the attack that much easier. Since orbital speeds decrease with increasing altitudes, the Chinese interceptor would find it considerably easier to hit a target in higher orbit.
Finally, the interceptor needed to track its target, so that it could determine where it should move to place itself in front of the obsolete weather satellite; we have a good sense of how that was done, too. The most likely method it employed to track the oncoming satellite was an on-board telescope using visible light. Locking onto a target this way – as opposed to focusing on the infrared light emitted by the heat of the target, the way the US missile defense interceptor does – imposes significant limitations on the system. In particular, until it develops a far-infrared capability, which is probably decades away, its ASAT will be forced to attack satellites while they are in bright sunlight. Indeed, even though the site from which the interceptor was launched was cloaked in darkness, the target satellite was high enough to be brightly illuminated by the sun. Until China does develop better sensors, this imposes a very severe constraint on how and when it could attack other satellites: it must wait to attack low Earth orbit satellites when they are in bright sunshine. Attacks against satellites in significantly higher orbits, such as GPS or geostationary satellites, are less constrained by this requirement since they are almost always in direct sunlight.
China has informally stated a number of times that it will “never do this again.” But after having paid a very high price for testing the system once, both in resources and in political capital, it seems unlikely that they would abandon it altogether. Fortunately for China, it can continue to develop the system—including its on board tracking, guidance, and control systems—in the guise of a missile defense system. Such interceptions could be arranged at similar, or even greater, closing speeds as the January 2007 test. Only now, China could arrange to have both the target and the interceptor collide when they are both in downward portions of their trajectories, much like the US does during its missile defense tests. That way, they can test their system again – without creating orbital debris that might harm their own and other nation’s satellites.
– Geoffrey Forden
End of part one. Click **for parts two and three.
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A group of far left leaning grad students decide to start affecting real change in the world by murdering those who oppose their political beliefs. Kind of sounds insufferable, doesn’t it? It’s actually really great. 1995’s The Last Supper is a charming, smirking dark comedy that looks at personal political beliefs in America without all the usual blaring rhetoric and the ultimate message is one Americans should all be a little more eager to get behind – especially these days when pointless partisanship is a constant and deliberate distraction from the much larger problems sucking their country into a cultural and civil abyss. But I digress… for now.
Written by Dan Rosen and deftly directed by Stacy Title, this movie is tonally exactly what it needs to be. Pete (Ron Eldard), Paulie (Annabeth Gish), Luke (Courtney B. Vance), Marc (Jonathan Penner) and Jude (Cameron Diaz), all grad students, live together in house that is delightfully functional; they hang out, make elaborate dinners for themselves and ruminate endlessly on their social ethoi, what they would do if liberals really ran the world and the usual hypotheticals about going back in time to kill Hitler. There is a hint of smugness to their little group but it is forgivable and their ultimate idealism is very sweet. It’s the kind of bleeding heart utopian homestead every philosophy or poly-sci major would love to settle into until real life came around to brutalize them.
Then, one dark and stormy night, Pete is given a ride home by a truck driver named Zachary after his car breaks down on the side of the road. Zachary (Bill Paxton at his scenery devouring best) is invited to stay for dinner. Sooner than later the topic turns to politics and it comes out that Zachary is a Desert Storm vet with a republican bent and a disdain for Jews. Things get heated and in a purely defensive move Zachary is killed. Knowing that the media will not look favourably upon a group of privileged kids murdering a war hero they bury him in the backyard and try to resume their lives. But Luke can’t shake the idea that they’ve actually done the world a favour. They’ve finally taken action instead of just arrogantly spouting their ideals and ridden the world of a fundamentally bad man. Luke proposes this become a regular occurrence: they invite a member of the community whose politics they deem dangerous or counter-intuitive to their vision of a perfect society and, if they can’t change that person’s world view, they fucking murder them. After some discussion they decide to put the plan to action – and the fun begins.
There are some inspired cameos in here. Charles Durning, Jason Alexander and Mark Harmon all show up as dinner guests to be summarily (and unwittingly) judged and sentenced according to the laws of the house. They all know what archetypes they are meant to portray and do so playfully. Special mention to Charles Durning, a catholic priest who believes that AIDS is god’s ultimate solution for the ‘scourge of homosexuality’. He hits a perfect balance of piousness and menace that is fascinating and unsettling.
Throughout the piece there are a few subplots that are woven in; a police officer looking for a missing girl; a Rush Limbaugh type television personality (a brilliant Ron Perlman) comes to town. These little subplots are simple enough and tie quite nicely into the overarching plot.
The last act creates a genuine tension and culminates in such a satisfying way that it is seemingly impossible not to like this film. The humour and darkness blend perfectly and every actor in the piece knows what movie they’re in. Even Cameron Diaz! The performances can get a little hammy time to time, but the tone is just heightened enough that it more often than not comes off as intentional.
I can’t recommend this movie enough. It’s a small movie that knows what it wants to do and does it without a lot of overstatement or melodrama, which are both things I’ve come to expect from Americans expounding on their own politics. Please check it out and maybe you can wonder incredulously along with me why this capable director’s only other notable directing credit is Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror.
Casey Lyons
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Image caption The New Year's Eve fireworks display was first staged on the South Bank in 2003
London's New Year's Eve fireworks display is to be limited to a viewing area of 100,000 ticketed spectators for the first time.
The event's popularity made it "untenable" to strain the transport and safety infrastructure with a larger number, the Mayor's office said.
The display was first staged at the London Eye in 2003 and attendance grew from 100,000 then, to an estimated 500,000 at last year's event.
The tickets will cost £10 each.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "London's New Year's Eve fireworks are phenomenally popular, not just in the capital, but across the world and we want to ensure it continues to be a safe, enjoyable and sustainable event for the long-term."
Image copyright PA Image caption Visitor numbers to the capital's fireworks have risen fivefold to half a million in 2013
A spokesman said last year's display had put "enormous strain on transport and safety infrastructure", and after consulting emergency services and Transport for London the event in its current form was found to be "untenable".
Its increasing popularity meant capacity was often being reached by early evening, leaving hundreds of thousands of people unable to get a good view, with even the early arrivals facing a wait of several hours and cramped conditions.
It would be a scandal if any families were denied access Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group
Visitors have also faced long delays after the close of the event to find their way home on public transport.
But Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, criticised the plans, saying the fireworks "should be accessible to all" and warned of "the potential for serious crowd management issues outside the 'pay' zone".
"It would be a scandal if any families were denied access to the event due to the introduction of ticket prices," she added.
Barriers have been used to form viewing areas for the fireworks in previous years, but for the first time people will be denied entry to those areas unless they have a ticket.
The viewing areas are located on Westminster Bridge, on the north embankment of the Thames between Westminster and Waterloo bridges and on the Southbank behind the London Eye.
People wishing to attend this year's event will be able to book up to four tickets from 26 September at 12 noon.
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For an op-ed meant to convince Republicans to dump Trump, TV producer and media mogul Norman Lear sure talked a lot about himself.
Lear tried to portray himself as an average, patriotic American in an Aug. 15, guest column in The Hollywood Reporter, but it was all a ruse.
In between discussing his own WWII service, and revealing that he swears at the news, the liberal attacked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump calling him a “demagogue” and “that human middle finger to the American Way.” Borrowing an iconic phrase from American politics, Lear charged Republican Trump supporters to look in the mirror and ask themselves “Have you left no sense of decency, Sirs?”
But no matter how much he portray himself that way, Lear isn’t just like every other American. His overachieving $50 million net worth aside, Lear has built his life around attacking and belittling conservatives — first with TV shows like All in the Family — and then by founding People for the American Way (PFAW).
PFAW started as a 1980 TV spot arguing that Christianity shouldn’t (and couldn’t) say certain political views were “right” or “wrong.” It has since blossomed into a haven for liberal Hollywood figures attack the so-called “extreme agenda” of the “Radical Right.”
An offshoot of PFAW, Right Wing Watch, tracks conservative groups and individuals. Media outlets often pick up Right Wing Watch’s conservative attacks, even when they’re wrong.
In April 2015, Politico, Salon, Huffington Post, The Washington Post and Mother Jones all claimed Scott Walker said ultrasounds should be mandatory since they’re “a cool thing:” a false accusation first circulated by Right Wing Watch.
Right Wing Watch also accused HGTV’s Flip it Forward stars David and Jason Benham of being “anti-gay, anti-choice extremist[s].” Thanks to outside media attention, the brothers lost their show.
While Lear is the largest donor to People for the American Way, its agenda also attracted a host of liberal donors including George Soros and the Ford Foundation, as well as celebrities like Barbra Streisand and Hugh Hefner.
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Photo Credit: Hatzalah Ukraine / Hillel Cohen
Rabbi Hillel Cohen, the chairman of Hatzalah Ukraine was attacked and stabbed in Kiev, according to a report by Rotternik.
Cohen was on his way to the Kiev hospital to visit a sick Jewish tourist who had been hospitalized a few weeks earlier.
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Passing through an alley on the way to the hospital, Cohen was attacked in broad daylight by two youths, at 10 AM on Thursday.
Cohen was hit hard by the attackers, who yelled “Zhid” (Jew) at him, and other words in Russian.
Cohen was knocked down, injuring his hand in the fall. At that point the attackers began to stab him in the leg and back.
After the attackers ran away, Cohen managed to drag himself to the main street and catch a taxi which took him to the hospital.
In January of this year, an Orthodox student in Kiev (picture above) was also attacked in a violent antisemitic attack. The attack was part of a series of attacks that were specifically targeting Jews.
The photographer who took the photo attached to this article was Rabbi Hillel Cohen of Hatzalah Ukraine.
In an interview published Thursday in the Jewish Daily Forward, Ira Forman, the Obama administration’s special envoy on anti-Semitism, disputed claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukrainian revolutionaries were spreading hatred of Jews. Forman said Putin’s assertions were not credible.
“We have no indication that what President Putin has been saying about anti-Semitism has been a true reflection of what’s happening on the ground,” he said.
Tell that to Rabbi Cohen.
While there are Shelichim (emissaries) in the Ukraine doing important work, last week JewishPress.com reported on a group of Jews who want to make Aliyah. Maybe it’s time.
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A "positive development." That's how Ottawa described a recent deal between Bombardier and European aerospace stalwart, Airbus. Under the deal, Airbus gets controlling interest in Bombardier's latest offering, the C Series aircraft. The airplane has been a source of friction between Canada and the U.S. The reason? Subsidies.
Bombardier rival and American manufacturing giant Boeing had previously accused Bombardier of accepting millions in "unfair" subsidies: subsidies that allowed Bombardier to undercut Boeing on price, thereby stealing market share. The Trump Administration recently sided with Boeing, slapping Bombardier with steep duties.
Bombardier's dependence on subsidies from Ottawa is long-standing.The aerospace giant has, for over half a century, relied on taxpayer cash to boost its balance sheets. Ottawa justifies its actions citing the national interest; subsidy-backed growth – we are told – benefits all Canadians. Unless of course, other countries follow suit. That's when our politicians sing a different tune.
Agreement with United Arab Emirates
The aviation dispute with the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) proves this point. The Arab nation inked an air service agreement with Canada in 1999. Under the agreement, Emirati carriers — all of which are state owned — could service Canadian cities six times a week. Canadian airlines were free to reciprocate.
Shortly after the agreement was signed, the U.A.E. pushed for more access, citing increasing demand. Ottawa resisted and a diplomatic stalemate ensued: one that continues to this day.
Ottawa's explanation for its refusal was that capacity was meeting demand. The real reason? Subsidies.
Air Canada convinced lawmakers that its balance sheets were threatened by state-owned Emirati airlines. More competition would, after all, force Air Canada to drop its fares meaning less revenue. Lawmakers acquiesced and the status quo was preserved.
Governmental support of subsidized growth is, it would seem, a selective affair. Handouts to local businesses are acceptable, while handouts to foreign ones are not. Opposing subsidy-backed Bombardier is "protectionist." But the same reasoning doesn't apply where Emiratis airlines are concerned.
For better or worse, subsidies and aviation are inextricably linked. National governments — owing to national pride or politics — have long backed the aviation sector using loan guarantees, equity infusions, tax exemptions and grants.
Lack of competition
Air Canada in particular has received considerable state support over the years, both directly and indirectly. It partners with airlines that are themselves subsidized, such as Air China and Air India. And many of Air Canada's airplanes exist largely because of manufacturing subsidies. Yet when foreign companies follow Air Canada's lead, regulatory protectionism ensues.
Canadians deserve better than such duplicity. On a per kilometre basis, Canada ranks as one of the most expensive countries to fly into. One reason for its poor showing is the lack of foreign competition. Two carriers – Air Canada and Westjet – maintain a duopoly on the market which ultimately means high fares. No wonder millions of Canadians opt to fly out of U.S. airports instead of Canadian ones.
'We've got to talk to one another, we've got to engage,' says Navdeep Bains. 7:58
This must change. If Ottawa wants to embrace subsidy backed ventures, it should do so wholeheartedly. No more carving out exceptions. Local politicians can start by signing expanded air service agreements with countries like the U.A.E. This would afford Canadian travellers more competitive choice.
Of course, Ottawa could disavow aviation subsidies altogether. Government handouts to some firms ultimately disadvantage others. Yet subsidies are the norm rather than the exception. From the United States to France to China, the list of countries that prop up their local aerospace sector is endless. This makes Ottawa's repudiation of state support unlikely anytime soon.
That's good news for Bombardier. But consumers will continue paying the price.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.
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Image caption Mark Sutton (centre) doubled for Daniel Craig's James Bond last summer
The stuntman who parachuted in to the London 2012 opening ceremony as James Bond has been killed in an accident.
Mark Sutton, 42, from Surrey, died while wingsuit flying near Martigny, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
Swiss police investigating the Briton's death said it appeared he had died after crashing into a ridge of rock.
Mr Sutton doubled for Daniel Craig's James Bond as he and a stuntman playing the Queen jumped from a helicopter over the Olympic Stadium last summer.
Wingsuit flyers wear special suits that are designed to allow them to glide through the air at high speeds, before a parachute is opened for landing.
We were all honoured to have him worked with him and to have known him as a friend and a professional Danny Boyle
Mr Sutton, a former army officer, jumped from a helicopter flying at 3,300m (10,800ft) with a fellow wingsuit flyer - described by police as a "close" friend. They had intended to descend close to the mountainside and land at a village just across the border in France.
Mr Sutton had reportedly been staying in Chamonix with his partner.
Jean-Marie Bornet, from the Valais police service, said the Briton was the first wingsuit pilot to die during a jump in the region.
"The weather was good but when a pilot takes part in this sport, the aim is to fly very close to the ground or mountain side," he said.
"If you do this at speeds of 200km/h (125mph), the margin for error is very small."
Footage examined
The stuntman had been invited by Epic TV to take part in the three-day wingsuiting event with about 20 other experienced flyers, who were to be filmed on their descents.
Trey Cook, editor-in-chief at the company, described the incident on the first day of the event as "devastating".
"It was a really casual event," he said. "They had gone up in helicopters and they were jumping. They were choosing their own courses. We were filming them as they were flying."
He said the stuntman who jumped with Mr Sutton had had a camera to film the descent.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Stuntman Steve Truglia explains the risks involved in wingsuit flying
Police are studying video footage of the jump, but Mr Cook said the moment of impact was not captured on film.
Epic TV make "extreme sports" videos for broadcast online.
In a statement, it added: "Rescue services arrived quickly and determined that Mr Sutton had immediately died upon impact.
"Mark Sutton's death is a tragic loss for the global wingsuit community. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends at this time."
Stuntman Steve Truglia told the BBC there was a growing trend for wingsuit pilots to fly extremely close to the ground, mountains and cliffs. He added the practice was at the "cutting edge" of the sport.
"The route has to be planned. It's not like an ordinary sky-dive - the risk level is much, much higher...
"It's quite normal for those of us that do those kind of sports to want to push things a bit and sometimes your luck runs out."
'None finer and braver'
Gary Connery, the stuntman who played the Queen during the Olympic ceremony, tweeted what appeared to be a grieving message following his friend's death.
He wrote: "All you jumpers/flyers out there, stay safe, make wise choices and know your limits and your locations. Live to tell your stories. One love."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage of Mark Sutton jumping in to the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony
Danny Boyle, who directed the opening ceremony, told the Evening Standard that Mr Sutton had been a "gentle and thoughtful" man and his death would be "a huge loss to his profession".
"The show was built from so many contributions from so many people, none finer and braver than Mark Sutton's," he told the newspaper.
"On behalf of everyone in the show, we were all honoured to have worked with him and to have known him as a friend and a professional.
"All our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues."
Lord Coe, who chaired the committee that organised London 2012, said he was "shocked to hear the desperately sad news".
The peer, now chairman of the British Olympic Association, said: "The cast and volunteers in London became a very close-knit family. We are all thinking of Mark and his family at this incredibly difficult time.
"Mark was a consummate professional and team player. He will be widely missed."
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This week, USA Today and the Orlando Sentinel deem The Walking Dead one of the year’s best shows, while the Los Angeles Times and Newsday memorialize Hershel. Plus, The Walking Dead is helping to prop up cable numbers. Read on for more:
• The Walking Dead is one of the shows “that made the TV year brighter,” according to USA Today.
• One of the Orlando Sentinel’s favorite TV shows of the year was The Walking Dead, which “retained its visceral, violent verve, but it was more powerful in its quiet moments.”
• The Los Angeles Times bids farewell to Hershel (remembered for his “wisdom and guidance”) and the Governor (“perhaps the year’s greatest villain, and the most cheered death”).
• Newsday’s top 10 TV deaths include “good, decent” Hershel.
• Merle had one of the year’s best TV deaths, according to Comic Book Resources: “Merle wasn’t always a good guy, and he certainly wasn’t ever a nice guy, but that doesn’t mean he deserved to have his fingers chewed off by the Governor.”
• Greg Nicotero speaks in-depth with Channel Guide Magazine about Season 4 and shares, “I’m dying for people to see the next eight episodes because there’s so much good stuff!”
• USA Today cites The Walking Dead, the most-watched original cable series in 2013, as an example of cable TV holding its own with viewers.
• In naming 2013’s top TV moments, the Chicago Sun-Times says the “long-awaited prison showdown in the recent midseason finale didn’t disappoint.”
• One of the best lines on TV in 2013 was Hershel instituting “spaghetti Tuesdays every Wednesday,” in Season 4’s “Internment,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
• One of the most anticipated shows in 2014 includes the rest of The Walking Dead’s Season 4, according to International Business Times.
• The continuing success of Steven Yeun, a Kalamazoo College graduate, on The Walking Dead is one of the year’s top Kalamazoo-centric stories on Michigan’s MLive.
• International Business Times checks out 2013’s “epic” The Walking Dead moments, from meeting Morgan again in Season 3’s “Clear” to the prison war in the Season 4 midseason finale.
• ComicBook.com and Wetpaint highlight a new The Walking Dead-themed personality test called “How Long Would You Survive in a Zombie Apocalypse?”
• Wetpaint and Moviepilot feature AMC’s Q&A with Carrie Cottrill, the owner of The Woodbury Shoppe in Senoia, Georgia, that’s devoted to all things related to The Walking Dead.
• To stay up-to-date on all the latest news about The Walking Dead, sign up for the weekly Dead Alert newsletter.
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54 cards of permaculture information. Each card represents many hours of arguing over the tiniest details.
One of the questions we are asked repeatedly is "How do you tell people what permaculture is?" If you give them a book, they might look at a few pictures. If you send them a link to something they tend to save it for later. The idea of the deck of cards is that they might browse it like a book - but this is all pictures and just a few words. Much easier to browse. And hopefully convey a bigger picture in a smaller package.
permaculture cards
When you are bonkers about permaculture, your friends and family tend to think you are crazy .... if only there were a way to help them understand your passion better ..... while at the same time resolving your winter gift giving obligations. :)
The primary product we want to sell is the "brick": a box of 12 decks. We are thinking that somebody would buy a brick or two before the holidays and hand them out.
One of the rewards includes this poster of all the cards:
permaculture poster
And our latest devious reward is the idea of hiding one name within each card. First take a look at this card:
wildcrafting card
Do you see it? Can you find the name?
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Here is a closeup of the hidden name in the card. On the right is another idea for hiding the name.
wildcrafting card hidden name
Here is the Ace of Diamonds featuring Rocket Mass Heaters. Alternative energy stuff is a big part of permaculture:
Rocket Mass Heater Card
In permaculture we deal with weeds, bugs, funguses and microorganisms in our food crops in a very different way:
Bugs, Weeds, Funguses and Microorganisms
Stretch Goal #0 - Double Brick
If we reach $90,000, everybody that has selected a reward which includes a brick will get a double brick. People that did the add-on will get a double brick for each add-on.
Stretch Goal #1 - Three Queens
If we reach $100,000, all four of the queen cards will be the most prominent women in permaculture. Currently, one of the queen cards is in this state. Nominations and voting start with this thread at permies.com.
Stretch Goal #2 - Double Brick
(used to be $150,000 - now moved to stretch goal #0)
Stretch Goal #3 - Warm Climate Cards
If we reach $200,000, we will create a warm season deck. Everybody that has selected a reward which includes a brick will be able to select warm climate, cold climate or half and half.
Add on - $100 per brick
If your pledge is $100 greater than the reward you have selected (which already includes a brick), we will toss in an extra brick. $200 over is 2 bricks, etc.
Thanks!
Thanks to Barthelemy Glumineau from studiomelies.com for putting together this snazzy video!
Artwork by Alexander Ojeda of alexanderandblack.com - you can see the mugs and t-shirts that Alexander and I worked on before at homesteadgear.com
Paul Wheaton's world domination empire:
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Fear and loathing of income inequality is both totally understandable and ultimately misplaced.
It’s understandable because everywhere around us it seems as if top income earners—those latter-day kulaks vilified as the “1 Percent” by the Occupy crowd and populist politicians—are gaining while the rest of us seem barely able to hang on to a lower-middle-class standard of living.
It’s misplaced because it glosses over strong evidence that the ability to rise above your starting place—the American Dream, by most accounts—is better than it was 40 years ago.
There is no doubt that the spread between top earners and those below them has grown over time. The share of income earned by the top 1 percent in the United States has doubled since the early 1970s. The top 20 percent’s share has risen, too, though the increase is much smaller and has leveled off since the 1990s.
Yet it is far from clear that inequality is a bad thing when it’s the result of market forces. Think about it: Do Bill Gates’ billions take bread from your mouth, or have Microsoft products allowed you to put bread in your wallet by making you more productive and the goods and services you buy cheaper?
As important, it’s not clear how to “compress” incomes even if we want to. The same trend toward greater inequality is happening in most advanced economies, across different tax and regulatory systems. Despite spending $1 trillion a year on the poor, federal and state governments report increases in poverty and need. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that President Barack Obama’s proposed tax increases on individuals making over $200,000 and joint filers making over $250,000 would raise just $42 billion in 2013 and $39 billion in 2014. That’s not enough either to strip the wealthy of their booty or lift the poor up—especially given the bad track record that government programs have in boosting the prospects of the least skilled among us.
Which isn’t to say that government policies don’t redistribute income and opportunity. They do in all sorts of ways, but typically in ways that work against leveling opportunity.
For instance, in terms of total compensation (salary plus benefits), federal workers earn 16 percent more on average than private-sector workers with the same experience, education, and responsibilities. They are paid out of your current and future taxes, not corporate profits. In what some have seen as an echo of the setting for The Hunger Games, the growing power of the federal government to dispense favors and direct whole industries has transformed the Washington, D.C., metro area into the nation’s wealthiest, boasting 10 of the top 20 counties for median household income.
Then there is generational inequality, which is also goosed by government policy. The Pew Research Center finds that in 1984, households headed by someone 65 years or older possessed on average10 times the wealth of a household led by someone under 35. By 2010 that gap had widened to 22 times. Part of that disparity is the result of payroll taxes that take about 12.4 percent (half from the worker, half from the employer) of every dollar of earned income up to $110,000 to pay for Social Security (for the past two years, the worker’s share of Social Security taxes has been reduced by 2 percentage points, a break that will expire at year’s end). Another 2.9 percent of all wages—again split between employee and employer—goes to Medicare.
Payroll taxes take a relatively bigger bite out of the paychecks of younger and poorer Americans even as old-age benefits are disbursed generally without regard to need. To add insult to the situation, Social Security will be paying out fewer dollars than new and future retirees will have put into the system. So at the very time when younger Americans have lost ground to their elders, they are compelled to pay into a fund that will shortchange them when they become eligible for it. Given the already unsustainable benefits levels of both Social Security and Medicare—their major trust funds will be exhausted by 2033 and 2024, respectively—it’s likely that those of us retiring in 20 or more years time will face even more sharply curtailed payouts. Would that we could use some of the 15 percent of our income that goes to payroll taxes to build for our futures.
However, all is not darkness, even in the Great Recession. A June study from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project finds that 84 percent of Americans have “higher family incomes than their parents did.” Among people raised in the bottom income quintile, the figure was 93 percent.
These findings are widely accepted. Brookings Institution scholar Scott Winship, who worked on the Pew study, has documented that even as the rungs on the income ladder have spread out, mobility has not diminished since the early 1970s. In fact, he argues that over the past four decades, “upward mobility from poverty to the middle class rose from 51 percent to 57 percent.” As he told me in an interview earlier this year, “You can be concerned that there’s not enough mobility or enough opportunity, but you don’t have to also believe that things are getting worse.”
That is good news, even as Winship and others grant that there is no simple, obvious way to increase mobility, especially for the poorest Americans.
But rather than looking at ways to slice money off the top of the income distribution and funnel it into government programs with spotty records of success, we should address the ways in which government is already stacking the deck against the younger and poorer among us.
This article originally appeared at Reuters.
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The "your papers, please" hysteria spreading through the Republican Party has reached a new low. Now, they want to corrupt the U.S. Constitution to promote their opposition to immigrants and immigration. Senior leaders in the House and Senate are introducing legislation and calling for hearings to explore whether we should change the U.S. Constitution to ensure that more people in the United States are denied citizenship or legal immigration status. Specifically, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined an array of Republican lawmakers who feel we should examine whether to rescind all or part of the 14th amendment to the Constitution to prevent some children born in the U.S. from being granted U.S. citizenship. The pro-life, pro-family Republicans are now pro-neonatal detention and deportation. It isn't enough to drive out the people not born here, now they want to drive out the ones that were.
Actually, I agree with Senator McConnell. We absolutely should hold hearings as soon as possible to discuss whether we should amend the U.S. Constitution to make newborns deportable. We need a high-level national discussion in both Houses of Congress on the issue of whether to station federal ICE agents in every maternity ward and delivery room right between the OB-GYN and the expectant father.
Imagine a United States where every birth initiates an investigation to determine the citizenship and immigration status of each parent. Let's have the hearing so we can take careful notes when the Republican's witness explains how this government intrusion into maternal and child health -- burdening our health care system and discouraging pregnant women from seeking medical care (while perhaps discouraging claims of paternity) -- is justified to secure our borders and protect the core liberties of America. I would love to hear the opening remarks of Judiciary Committee Members Lindsey Graham in the Senate or Lamar Smith in the House broadcast live from coast-to-coast on C-SPAN. I can hear it now. "Mr. Chairman, I would like to express my support for a full federal background check and proof of citizenship for every precious human life."
While we are at it, I think we should subpoena prominent Republicans like Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico to explain how they have ruined our country with their automatic U.S. citizenship. Under at least some of the legislative proposals supported by the Republicans, neither one would be citizens because one or more of their parents were not permanent legal residents of the U.S. at the time of their birth. Let's get Olympic Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo and NASA Astronaut Jose "Astro Jose" Hernandez on the witness stand to defend all that they have robbed from the United States by usurping U.S. citizenship. At long last, the GOP has come up with the legislative strategy to guarantee that no man or woman can rise from humble origins, with a father who is legally present on a student visa, to sit in the Oval Office as President of the United States.
I really want to hear the Republican argument. Let's hear why the 14th amendment, which guarantees citizenship and equal protection under the law regardless of the race or nationality of your parents, is a law whose time has come and gone. Please explain to the American people how the 14th amendment that resolved the issue of African-American citizenship after emancipation and was the critical underpinning of the civil rights movement in the United States, ought to be cast off now because the parchment paper it is written on has grown yellow and curled. Just the expressions on the faces of my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus during such a hearing would make the whole exercise worth it to me.
The federal government won a preliminary injunction against Arizona's SB1070 immigration law on the grounds that the federal government's authority over immigration matters preempts the states from such intrusions. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, I say. I think the Senate and the House ought to call immediate hearings as soon as we reconvene in September to put the Republican's immigration proposals up against Democratic ones and see which side is serious about rules, enforcement, legality and cracking down on employers. Which side is for immigrants taking personal responsibility and getting right with the law and which side is just blowing smoke in an election year.
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This article is over 2 years old
Issa Saharkhiz sentenced to three years, and now faces more political charges
A revolutionary court in Tehran has sentenced a prominent Iranian journalist, Issa Saharkhiz, to three years in jail for “insulting the supreme leader” and spreading propaganda against the state.
According to his lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, who spoke to Associated Press, the sentence was passed down on Monday (8 August) and Saharkhiz was given 20 days to appeal.
The journalist, who contributed to the opposition news website Rooz Online, has been in prison since he was arrested last November. He recently spent time in hospital because of a heart problem.
Saharkhiz spent nearly five years in prison on similar charges before being released in 2013. He had previously served as Iran’s deputy minister of culture.
Although the authorities have not stated in public the specific reasons for the new offences, Saharkhiz’s son, Mehdi, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in March this year that he believed his father was arrested because of his pre-election reporting and analysis.
Mehdi Saharkhiz also told the CPJ that his father, who was taking medication for kidney and blood pressure problems, was in critical condition while in custody in Evin prison.
In March, Saharkhiz was reportedly taken to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. Two months before, he started a hunger strike to protest against his prolonged detention.
He faces yet more charges, so-called political crimes, and it is expected that they will heard in front of a jury.
The CPJ’s Midddle East and north Africa programme coordinator, Sherif Mansour, said: “The Iranian authorities should ensure that Issa Saharkhiz receives robust medical attention... The obscure handling of the legal charges and the poor treatment in prison reinforce our view that the case against Saharkhiz is politically motivated.”
Saharkhiz’s detention came amid a campaign that resulted in the arrests of three other journalists: Saman Sarfarzaee, Afarin Chitsaz, and Ehsan Mazandarani.
As the Guardian reported, they were given lengthy prison sentences in April after being delclared guilty of spreading propaganda against the ruling system, conspiring against officials and insulting the authorities.
Chitsaz, who worked for the government’s official newspaper, Iran, was sentenced to 10 years; Mazandarani, editor-in-chief of the daily Farhikhtegan, got a seven-year sentence; and Saman Safarzaee, of the monthly Andisheh Pouya, was given five years. They are to appeal.
All the outlets are considered sympathetic to the administration of the moderate president, Hassan Rouhani.
Sources: Associated Press via ABC/CPJ/The Guardian
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From QQ:
Foreign Media: Chinese Anti-Corruption Campaign Continues, Once High-Priced Tibetan Mastiffs Now Being Used for Hot Pot
Not long ago, Chinese people had gone crazy for Tibetan Mastiffs, where dogs like Nibble here, with drooping eyes and drooling mouths on their big heads, fetched prices upwards of 200,000 USD, roaming around the suburban houses of coal bosses.
But at the beginning of 2015, Nibble and 20 other Tibetan Mastiffs down on their luck found themselves locked in cages, with 150 other dogs, on the back of a truck.
If this truck had not been intercepted by Beijing animal rights activists, Nibble and the other dogs would have been taken to a slaughterhouse in the Northeast and sold for about 5 USD a head as hot pot ingredients, imitation fur, and linings for winter gloves.
Tibetan Mastiffs aren’t the only luxury goods that went from popular to the poorhouse in China. Black Audis, Omega watches, high-end baijiu sorghum liquor and high-rise apartments in third－tier cities are all victims of the slowing economy, and some are also victims of the ongoing campaign against corruption.
In the past, the clumsy Tibetan Mastiffs from the Himalayan Plateau were a necessary accessory for any Chinese person who valued their social status. 4 years ago, a red purebred Tibetan Mastiff named Big Splash sold for 1,600,000 USD, though cynics believe the price was artificially manipulated. A self-proclaimed professional said buyers at the time who had lost their senses would spend over 250,000 USD to purchase a high-quality breed.
Today, breeders of Tibetan Mastiffs are dealing with the consequences of over-breeding. Buyers have disappeared, and the price of the dogs has shrunk to only a small fraction of what it once was, hovering at around 2000 USD. Many disheartened breeders are willing to sell for even less.
Gombo, an expert breeder from Qinghai said, “If I had other opportunities, I would definitely get out of this business.” He said feeding a 160 pound Tibetan Mastiff costs 50-60 USD a day, which is causing significant stress for breeders.
According to information divulged from the Tibetan Mastiff Society, between 2013 and the present, out of 95 Tibetan Mastiff breeders, almost half of them have gone bankrupt. The once bustling purebred Tibetan Mastiff market in Chengdu has become a pet and aquarium exhibition.
From a certain perspective, the loss of interest in Tibetan Mastiffs reflects the fickle nature of consumers. Liz Flora, the chief editor of market research company Jing Daily, stated that fads are a huge driving force in China’s luxury market, that Han Chinese consumers were willing to spend money on anything related to the romanticized Tibetan Mastiff.
Nomadic herdsman have always used Tibetan Mastiffs as watchdogs, to guard against attacks from wolf packs. They have a piercing bark, and are adapted to the cold, thin air of the high plains. Like wolves, female mastiffs can only give birth once a year. Gombo said “they fearlessly protect their owner and owner’s property. Owners are proud of their dogs.” There were 3 mastiffs tied up in his courtyard, barking at and trying to charge strangers.
At the peak of the Tibetan Mastiff’s popularity, some breeders would inject silicon into their dogs to make them look stronger. At the beginning of 2013, one breeder sued a Beijing veterinarian, and was compensated 14,000 USD because his dog died on the operating table while undergoing cosmetic surgery. The owner explained, “If my dog looks stronger, the owners of female dogs would spend even more money to have their dogs breed with my dog.”
Li Qun, a professor and Tibetan Mastiff expert from Nanjing Agricultural University said that speculating businessmen were partially responsible for the corruption of a good market. However, following the spike in prices, unscrupulous breeders began to breed Tibetan Mastiffs with other breeds, diluting the value of the breed and driving away potential customers. By 2013, the market had already been overrun by mixed-breeds.
News reports of Tibetan Mastiffs attacking people, and even stories of people being killed also put off people’s enthusiasm for the breed. One professional said that although they are not naturally vicious, their extreme loyalty adds to the risk of them attacking strangers.
In recent years, many Chinese cities have prohibited Tibetan Mastiffs, further suppressing the demand for them, and increasing the risk of people abandoning their dogs.
The people who saved Nibble and the other dogs said that the animals were being transported under horrible conditions. Many of the Tibetan Mastiffs had injuries on their legs, and had already gone days without food or water. As the dogs were taken out of the cages (volunteers paid for their release), a third of them were already dead.
When Anna Li isn’t intercepting trucks carrying dogs on the highway, she operates a hedge fund. She said, “It makes you feel hopeless, that even when what they’re doing is illegal, even the police will not come help you stop them.”
Animal rights activists say many of the dogs were snatched off the streets, and some were sold by breeders anxious to get rid of imperfect specimens. From the swollen nipples on the female dogs, its obvious that they were abandoned during the lactation period.
Mary Peng, the founder of the Beijing International Veterinary Clinic, has seen many similar cases during her 25 years in China. She said, “Ten years ago, it was German Shepherds, then Golden Retrievers, then Dalmatians, then Huskies. When I think of how expensive they were a few years ago, I never would have thought they would end up on a meat truck.”
Reasons why “Tibetan Mastiff Fever” has disappeared
Since ancient times, Qinghai has been the principal location for the production, gathering and buying of Tibetan Mastiffs. However, data from Tibet’s Tibetan Mastiff Society indicates that between 2003 and 2013, there were 95 mastiff breeders. Currently that number has dropped to only 66. At the peak of the mastiff trend, they would sell nearly 10,000 Tibetan Mastiffs each year, but in the last two years (2014, 2014) they only averaged around 3000.
At the same time, data from Qinghai’s Tibetan Mastiff Society proves that China’s “Tibetan Mastiff Fever” continues to cool. From 2010 to 2012, there were 3000 breeders, and now there are less than 1000. Yearly totals of Tibetan Mastiff sales dropped from 2 hundred million RMB to around 50 million RMB. Aside from the Qinghai/Tibetan high plains, the market has also frozen in other areas. Wang Zhankui from the Henan Central Plains Tibetan Mastiff Research Center said that 90% of the Tibetan Mastiff breeders in Henan are losing money and that there has been a 60% reduction in the number of breeders.
Besides reasons involving the anti-corruption campaign, the market’s lack of regulation, mixed-breeding, and cities prohibiting large-breed dogs have all contributed to the Tibetan Mastiffs fall from popularity. An industry insider believes after the “bubble” pops, the industry will be re-born, and this time investors will be more rational.
Specifically, while the “Tibetan Mastiff Fever” that started in the 1990s led to a rapid increase in the number of Tibetan Mastiffs, the number of purebreds actually became fewer and fewer, to the extent that they have even become endangered. Wang Yonggang, president of Tibet’s Tibetan Mastiff Society believes that the market is in an adjustment period, that the market of the past few years had been too speculative, with many people not understanding this kind of animal, and didn’t treat the industry rationally. Driven by the promise of greater profits, mixed-breading became more and more serious, leading to the nature and appearance of the dogs to change. Following their marketization, people are gradually becoming more knowledgeable about these rare animals from the snow covered plateau, and the price of ordinary Tibetan Mastiffs continue to drop. In addition, the cooling market is also related to many cities beginning to strictly enforce bans on large-breed dogs.
Comments from QQ:
星晴的爸
5 Dollars? I’m not very educated, but even if the exchange rate were 1:20, I’d like to see you buy a meat-eating dog for 100 RMB.
[no name]
Tibetan Mastiffs are the kings of the snowy plateau. Shepherds see them as their best friends, and the strong ones able to kill several wolves. They belong in the grasslands. But some people blindly worship their fierceness, use them to make money or as a symbol of social status. If you don’t respect them, you aren’t qualified to raise one. All I can say to those who use them as food is that ignorance is bliss, it’s sad and stupid.
Kwei ,謉
I may not be very educated, but don’t lie to me! If 5 dollars can buy one, I’ll take 20. I’ll keep them in my house and zhuang bi.
Cindy
Just as I thought, the dog being so expensive was because these assholes were manipulating things behind the scenes [speculating, hyping the market]. It’s just sad that these dogs have fallen to become mere dishes. What a waste.
奔跑
If a dog bothers you, can’t you just not keep it? Why do you need to eat it?
周狒狒
If I had this much money to spend on a dog, I would buy a purebred Labrador rather than these long-term oxygen-deprived garbage Tibetan Mastiffs who not only eat a lot but have low intelligence.
~奔·奔~
Fuck, I can’t accept eating dog meat!
站直了别爬下
I’ve always been puzzled by whether or not dogs are protected animals. Say they are and yet you can see them everywhere and there are no relevant legal ordinances; say they aren’t and yet you still have those people all day calling on people to not eat dog meat and that dogs should be protected. Who can explain this for me?
苏格拉没底
If we don’t get rid of the maggots, they’re going to destroy the world!!!
某月某日
Tibetan Mastiffs are like ebony, artwork, and such stuff, their prices all hyped-up [artificially inflated]. People who like it will pay anything for it, while people who don’t won’t even take it for free.
龙舞苍穹
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The wrinkles on her face may indicate her age, but her eyes give nothing away. Bright and full of life, it is hard to believe that Madam Goh Gwek Eng is McDonald's oldest employee.
The 88-year-old, who lived through the Japanese Occupation, has been working at the fast food chain for the past 18 years.
With three children, nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, Madam Goh was kept busy as a housewife for a large part of her life.
"Now that most of them are working or have their own families, the house is very quiet," said Madam Goh.
When the boredom became too much, she sought help from a granddaughter who found her a job at a McDonald's outlet at Bedok Interchange in 1998. The restaurant is 20 minutes' walk from her home.
At McDonald's, Madam Goh's years of experience in the kitchen came in handy.
She picked up the skills with no difficulty, and became adept at preparing anything on the menu.
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On the challenges she faces at work, she said "frying fries is the most difficult, as I get very hot from standing in front of the fryer".
Fortunately, help is available.
She said: "My colleagues help me when they see me carrying heavy things or when I can't keep up with orders." Though her job may be repetitive and physically draining, Madam Goh enjoys what she does as it keeps her active.
"I plan to keep working for as long as I am healthy," she said.
Correction note: We have edited this report for accuracy.
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SHANGHAI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Temperatures in China have plunged to their lowest in almost three decades, cold enough to freeze coastal waters and trap 1,000 ships in ice, official media said at the weekend.
Since late November the country has shivered at an average of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees colder than the previous average, and the chilliest in 28 years, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday, citing the China Meteorological Administration.
Bitter cold has even frozen the sea in Laizhou Bay on the coast of Shandong province in the east, stranding nearly 1,000 ships, the China Daily newspaper reported.
Zheng Dong, chief meteorologist at the Yantai Marine Environment Monitoring Center under the State Oceanic Administration, told the paper that the area under ice in Laizhou Bay was 291 square km this week.
Transport around the country has been severely disrupted.
Over 140 flights from the state capital airport in central Hunan province were delayed, while heavy snowfall forced the closure of some sections of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, the China Daily said.
Temperatures in the northeast fell even further, reaching a 43-year low of minus 15.3 degrees Celsius, about 3.7 degrees below the previous recorded average.
One truck driver in southeastern Jiangxi province, caught in a 5 km (3.1 miles) queue caused by a pileup that happened after heavy snowfall, told China Daily the snow and extreme cold had caught him unawares.
“I didn’t expect such a situation, so I’ve brought no warm coats or food. All I can do now is wait,” trucker Yao Xuefeng told the paper. (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
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Party members did their best to appear less threatening and less foreign-inspired even as they still praised all things Soviet, proclaiming that Communism was simply “20th-century Americanism.” Communists also reached out to groups they had previously scorned, like the New Deal Democrats, and to politicians they had previously denounced, like Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
For a while, it worked. In cities around the country, from Detroit to Seattle to Los Angeles, Communists began to play a visible and effective role in politics, both local and national. But nowhere were they as successful as in New York.
By 1938, the party counted 38,000 members in New York State, about half its national membership, and most of those lived in New York City. Communists were increasingly native-born (although many were the children of immigrants). Party-organized mass meetings in the old Madison Square Garden were packed with as many as 20,000 participants; the annual May Day parades drew tens of thousands, too.
Some neighborhoods in New York could be likened to the “red belt” surrounding Paris: Communist-organized cooperative parties on Allerton Avenue in the Bronx were a strong base of party support, as were parts of East Harlem, Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. In Harlem, the party’s strong commitment to fighting racism (still quite rare, even on the liberal left) helped it to attract the support of African-Americans across the social spectrum, including some leading artists like actor and singer Paul Robeson.
Communists were central to spreading the gospel of unionism from the garment trades to a host of previously unorganized industries and workplaces, as organizers and officials in the Transport Workers Union, the National Maritime Union, the Teachers Union and the American Newspaper Guild, among others. Ben Gold, the president of the Fur Workers Union, was one of the few labor leaders in the United States who openly avowed his Communist beliefs. A Communist candidate for the presidency of the city’s board of aldermen received nearly 100,000 votes in 1938; and during World War II, two open Communists, Peter V. Cacchione of Brooklyn and Benjamin Davis of Harlem, held seats on the City Council. At City College, Brooklyn College and Columbia University, there were hundreds of members of the Young Communist League, and thousands of students who joined Communist front groups like the American Youth Congress.
In the end, the decade or so that New York City “spent” in Russia came to nothing. The Communist Party’s ties to the Soviet Union, which forced it into the role of apologist for the worst crimes of the Stalin regime, from the Moscow Trials to the Nazi-Soviet Pact, limited its appeal even at the height of its success. With the onset of the Cold War, and of a second Red Scare more pervasive and longer-lasting than the original, Communists found themselves persecuted and isolated.
In 1956, with a hard core of 20,000 or so surviving members, the party was dealt a fatal blow when the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, delivered a “secret speech” to the 20th party congress in Moscow, denouncing his predecessor, Stalin, as a bloody mass murderer. The speech leaked. So did the disillusioned membership of the Communist Party U.S.A., reduced to a few thousand members by 1958, and never recovering much beyond that in decades to come. It did, however, survive the collapse of its political inspiration, the Soviet experiment.
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Thursday night's "Daily Show" featured Jon Stewart doing what he does best: calling out hypocrisy in the media. After a segment on the intensified battle between Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin unions, Stewart took a look at how Fox News was reporting on the story, specifically compared to how they covered similar threats to the Bush tax cuts and bailed-out bank CEOs' salaries.
Stewart showed plenty of pundits saying that when it comes to taxing those who make $250,000 a year, you're taxing people who are "not rich" and even "close to poverty" if they have a family of four with kids in college. But when it comes to teachers in Wisconsin, the same pundits say they, as government employees, should expect to see cuts in their ample $50,000 a year salary plus benefits.
In other discussions on Fox News, cuts in teachers' salaries were compared to those of Wall Street executives. Megyn Kelly argued teachers don't deserve as much money because they "don't work as much." Stewart totally understood:
"See the difference? Regardless of the greed-based, almost slightly sociopathic job bankers did wrecking our economy, those people were there every single day, 12 months a year. Not that nine month bullsh*t!"
Stewart took it even further by showing another level of hypocrisy. Clips showed the same people on the network who agreed with the government limiting teachers' benefits also said that limiting the salaries of government bailed-out CEOs would be detrimental to the industry and "isn't a good way of attracting talent in the future."
"Absolutely, we have got to pay those bailed-out firm CEOs top dollar! Otherwise, those companies could wind up being run by a couple of jacka**es who f**k things up so royally, it torpedoes the entire global economy!"
We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we? Watch the full segment below.
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Gennady Golovkin has what they call a moon face: Open, apple-cheeked, with wide lips and a toothy grin and a haircut that looks like a buzz cut that's been allowed to grow too long. Moon faces imply guilelessness. Such faces seem at home on simpletons. Less so on one of planet Earth's most feared humans.
"Golovkin" is a word long invoked in boxing gyms in the same way that "Keyser Soze" was invoked in The Usual Suspects. Keep your head down and your mouth shut, or else we'll have you spar with Golovkin. Golovkin is an undefeated professional fighter, yes, and one of the top-ranked middleweights in the world, sure, but his real buzz started with all of the whispered legends about what he did to other men sparring, in dingy gyms. This or that undefeated young buck was made to look like an amateur; this or that world champion had to quit; this other one is flat out scared to spar him at all. Though he fights at 160 pounds, he tends to spar guys who fight at 175 or 180. And they wear body armor around their torso, the same kind that NFL quarterbacks wear. And he is not allowed to hit them in the head during sparring, lest they get hurt so bad they refuse to come back.
Golovkin has knocked out 89 percent of his pro opponents, the highest rate in the sport. He's not a flashy fighter. He doesn't throw blinding 10 punch combos or wound-up bolo punches or huge swinging hooks that look like he's trying to punch down a house. It's not how his punches look so much as it is what happens to people who get hit by his punches: they fall down. Often they look shocked, even offended, when they feel his first punch, as if their promoter sneakily signed them up to fight a grizzly bear. Aggressive fighters often turn meek immediately after being touched by the most routine Golovkin jab. Soon afterwards—a round, or two, or five—they fall down unconscious. Golovkin punches like Cartoon Man. Opponents go flying backwards or fall straight down like the fake fights in movies, the one-hitter-quitters that never really happen too much in real life, outside of Golovkin fights.
Golovkin, 31, had 350 amateur fights. Of those, he lost five. Each of his last half dozen professional opponents has been absolutely smashed—flat on the back from a left hook, laid out like a cadaver from an overhand right, bent over struggling to breathe from a body shot, or otherwise. The only one to make it longer than five rounds was Gabriel Rosado, in January, who lasted seven before his cornerman, aghast at the blood streaming down Rosado's face, exclaimed, "I gotta stop it. He's gonna die, man!" and threw in the towel. Golovkin was seriously ill with the flu during that fight.
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Golovkin, the most avoided fighter in boxing, sat on a couch on the roof deck of the Refinery Hotel yesterday in a soft peach-colored sweater over a white collared shirt, light blue fabric pants, and cream patent leather shoes with a matching belt. He looked like a kid whose mom had dressed him ambitiously for the first day of school. He was, by far, the least threatening-looking man in the room.
He also wore a smile. Golovkin always smiles. It's a sort of knowing smile, though, a smile turned inward, stemming no doubt from the knowledge that he has plenty to say, but not necessarily the words to say it. His English is a work in progress. He is learning it, for the sake of his career and his PR, but he still has a translator, and he still struggles to find words. This, like his moon face, can make him appear to be a simpleton, which he is not.
"I'm not mad, just, this is boxing," he explained to a reporter asking him about his upcoming fight with Brooklyn badass Curtis Stevens. "I think… a couple rounds, first, just… easy fight." The reporter looked up from his notes. "Sorry Gennady, did you mean to say this will be an easy fight?" "No. Not an easy fight," Golovkin replied. Then he smiled.
I asked him about the source of his mythical power. Was it a natural gift? A special training method? Unlocking the key to such strength would be priceless. "It's my coach," Golovkin replied. "Work hard. It's… class. Distance, I can. Speed, I can." I nodded. The secret of his power cannot be unlocked so easily.
In nearly 400 fights, and countless thousands of rounds sparring in the gym, Golovkin has, he says, has never been knocked down. Though he does not look that big, if you peer closely, you can see his forearms are thick as baseball bats, and his neck is the same width as his head, and he walks with the bowlegged stance of those whose hamstring muscles are tight like guitar strings. He attributes his imperviousness to his upbringing. "Bad school. Every week, every second day, I have street fight. Seventeen. It was crazy time." But, he adds, "Boxing is sport. Is good. Not just for bad guy. First is sport."
Curtis Stevens, Golovkin's opponent on November 2, is more of the bad guy type. (Reformed bad guy now, having found God.) He's from Brownsville, just like Mike Tyson, and he has a wide variety of tattoos, and he wears his hat backwards, and he's aggressive and a big puncher, and that's all it really takes for boxing writers to slot the two guys into their respective spots in the narrative. Despite Stevens' intimidating aura, he is, like all of Golovkin's opponents, generally regarded in the same way that visitors to a pet store regard the mice being lowered into a snake's cage at feeding time. During the press conference, his promoter, Kathy Duva, seemed to be digging his grave even as she was talking him up. "Curtis has come so far. He's changed so much... sometimes, someone just has to find the right team... he's a diamond in the rough." They were not particularly encouraging words. "Superman does have a weakness—and it's up to Curtis to find it!" she said brightly. Stevens seemed to twitch a bit in his chair.
When Golovkin's turn to speak came, after all of the promoters and trainers and permatanned announcer Michael Buffer had had their say about his mindboggling potential to save boxing and change the game and make lots and lots of money for Madison Square Garden, he leaned forward into the mic. "I remember long traditional big history for box, in New York City," he said. "Thank you. November second, Madison Square Garden. Welcome. Guys. Thank you." He leaned back, satisfied.
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After the press conference, Golovkin, the man with the iron fists, dutifully struck various humiliating poses at the direction of the assembled photographers, never appearing to get annoyed even as these rumpled men ordered him to move here, then there, now face this way, now, Gennady, mime some punching, you know, punch punch PUNCH. Golovkin quietly did as he was told. The most fearsome person in the room, destroyer of men, who laid waste to opponents, rendered them senseless, and made hard men slink away in fear, was the man in the peach sweater, with the nice open face, and the endearing accent, and the stilted English. And the toothy smile. Always the toothy smile. Golovkin only slipped into eloquence once all day. It was when I asked him what his fighting style was. He paused for a moment and looked down into his lap, struggling to find the words. Then he looked up. "Predator style," he said.
He smiled the toothy smile. And all the teeth were fangs.
Hamilton Nolan writes for Gawker and writes about boxing for places besides Gawker. Photo via AP.
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Further reading
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They must not have received the memo.
The U.S. Navy approved a re-design of their uniforms and allowed sailors to wear “Don’t Tread on Me” flag patches on some uniforms.
As you’ll recall, Barack Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made waves when it suggested that the Gadsden Flag – the yellow banner with the coiled snake about to strike and the words” Don’t Tread On Me” (DTOM) below – might be racist
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As of October 1, any sailor who is wearing the “NWU Type III” uniform can wear the Gadsden Flag patch. Seals and other special units may also wear the patch, WeAreTheMighty.com is reporting.
“During garrison and non-tactical exercises or operations, the non-tactical DTOM and Reverse Flag patches may be optionally worn at the discretion of the unit commanding officer and at the expense of the Sailor,” the Navy announced in Navy Administrations Message 174/16. “During tactical deployment exercises and operations, a tactical DTOM and Reverse Flag patch may be worn at the discretion of the unit commander and approval from the Task Force or Joint Task Force Commander.”
The Navy’s permission for sailors to wear the Don’t Tread On Me patches puts to rest a controversy prompted by a Republican congressional candidate two years ago who said SEALs had been barred from wearing the popular patch over fears it had a political connection to the conservative Tea Party.
On Thursday, we reported that the EEOC ruled that an employee who was wearing the Gadsden Flag might be engaging in “racial harassment” after a black co-worker complained. This, even though the flag has nothing at all to do with slavery or racism.
The only connection between the Gadsden Flag and racism is that the creator of the flag – Christopher Gadsden – owned slaves. That’s it. The flag was first used during the Revolutionary War aboard ships assembled by the Continental Congress to counter British blockades.
That it was used by ships during the Revolutionary War makes it poignant that sailors can use the patch today.
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.
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GENEVA, N.Y. — Every spring, a host of unwelcome visitors descends on the Hansen farm in upstate New York. Diamondback moths blown in from the South threaten rows of cabbages to be sold for slaw and sauerkraut.
The moths can’t be fought off with a single insecticide. Workers must spray a series of chemicals throughout the growing season to keep the moths’ numbers in check.
“You have to rotate what chemical you use so you don’t get a buildup in resistance,” said Ed Hansen Jr., whose family has farmed the land for nearly a century. This adaptability, he said, makes the moths one of the worst pests to deal with each season.
At a university laboratory down the road, scientists are hoping to substitute sex for sprays. They have genetically modified thousands of diamondback moths, infusing them with DNA designed to kill female larvae. In August, the researchers began introducing the altered moths into outdoor cages in a field, where their mating habits will be monitored.
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NEW YORK (December 5, 2007, 2007) - In the wake of a study that documented for the first time the use of weaponry by Cross River gorillas to ward off threats by humans, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced today new field surveys to better protect this most endangered great ape.
The study, published earlier this year in the Journal of Primatology, found several instances of gorillas throwing sticks and clumps of grass when threatened by people. Gorillas usually flee and rarely charge when encountered by humans.
Cross River gorillas are restricted to Nigeria and Cameroon. They number only around 300 individuals, making them the most endangered of the four gorilla sub-species.
The Wildlife Conservation Society, which has studied Cross River gorillas since 1999, will begin new field surveys next month in an attempt to catalogue all potential gorilla habitat.
The surveys are being funded in part by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Earlier this year, the Wildlife Conservation Society released an action plan to safeguard Cross River gorillas that included creating additional protected areas and raising awareness of this little known great ape. The observations of weapon-use took place in the proposed Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary in Cameroon - one of the new protected areas recommended in the report.
In 2005 the Wildlife Conservation Society documented the first case of tool use among gorillas when researchers discovered individuals using sticks to check the depth of streams before crossing them.
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The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild lands through science, international conservation, education and management of the world's largest system of urban parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. With hundreds of scientists at work in over 60 countries, it is a leader in the race to save the last of the wild. Learn more at www.wcs.org.
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In a meeting with several reporters this afternoon, House Minority Leader John Boehner outlined the top three measures he’d pursue if he becomes Speaker of the House next Congress to create new jobs. But, those who thought he’d outline specific programs and how they would create jobs were disappointed with a familiar litany of wish-list items: repeal health care reform, eschew climate legislation, and renew the Bush tax cuts.
In other words, repeal a program that largely hasn’t yet taken effect; prevent new legislation that is also not in effect; and keep a current tax structure in place. Step four: profit. Or jobs.“The first thing I would do is repeal Obamacare,” Boehner said at the Christian Science Monitor luncheon. “It is a giant impediment for employment. Not only will it ruin the best health care system in the world, it will bankrupt our country.
“Secondly, no cap and trade,” Boehner added. “You raise the cost of energy, you raise the cost of doing business.”
“Thirdly, not raise people’s taxes,” he concluded. “You want to get the economy going, give some people certainty about what the tax rates are going to be.” Democrats hope to let the Bush tax cuts on wealthy Americans expire before the end of the year — Boehner wants the tax cuts to continue across the board.
He also argued that any unspent stimulus funds ought to be reclaimed.
So lets take stock. Republicans will create jobs by:
1). Rolling back comprehensive health care legislation. (Notably, Boehner also supports repealing financial reform).
2). Simply promising not to do something. An anti-initiative, if you will.
3). Keeping current tax rates in place.
Doing all of these things, which technically represent the status quo pre-Obama, would apparently inspire companies to start hiring.
Boehner was unusually confident of Republicans chances of retaking the House — what he described as “the greatest deliberative body in the history of the world.” (FYI.)
He boasted that Republicans might well run candidates in all 435 Congressional districts) and made no secret of his desire to be Speaker of the House — a feat he says he can accomplish with the help of Tea Partiers, whom he described, perhaps accidentally, in a less than flattering light.
“Seventy-five percent of these people who show up at these events are the most average, every day Americans you’ve ever met. None of whom have ever been involved in political process, and I’d guess half of them have never voted,” Boehner said. “These people have been driven off their couch, they’ve been driven off their EZ-chair, driven away from their TV, and into the streets of America to demonstrate against their own government.”
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The first reaction a VR virgin usually exhibits is, within 10 seconds:
“OMG, this is the coolest thing ever!”
Within 10 seconds of that, after knocking a few things off the desk and smacking the wall, they exclaim, with a mix of wonder and fear:
“um, where are my hands?!?”
This is the challenge of modern consumer VR : The optical stimulus is so intense, so realistic, that once the player gets used to the fact that they have been teleported to a new universe, they expect to be able to interact with that universe much like they do in the Real World, on planet earth.
In real life, our agency with other humans, and with the Earth, is expressed primarily through hands .
In videogame design, we call this concept Agency. Agency is simply defined as: a players ability to interact with their environment. For instance, in PacMan, your agency is to move up, down, left, and right… and once you gobble the magic yellow dot, to be able to devour glowing ghosts. In a more modern first person shooter, your agency is the ability to rapidly traverse 3d landscapes, to “pick up” objects by running over them, and to shoot at enemies with a variety of weapons.
In real life, our agency with other humans, and with the Earth, is expressed primarily through hands. Our hands are our primary tools, both for manipulation of objects, for creation, for crafting, and both powerful and subtle gesturing during verbal communication with others. Imagine being in the Real World without arms and hands. How would you feel? How would you behave differently? What would you miss?
This is why Oculus bought a great little KickStarter company called NimbleVR, and why they are investing millions into the esoteric discipline of Computer Vision: to ’see’ a players real hands, and to insert virtual copies into the virtual world with near-zero latency.
Of note, hands are what we use to pick up and inspect objects… what we use to augment our verbal communication… and importantly, what we use to wield tools. Tools, in fact, give *additional* agency in the world : screwdrivers to attach, swords to cut, cups to drink from, paintbrushes to create with, a violin bow to make music with, a steering wheel and shifter to drive a car. An interesting aspect of tools is that almost every tool has a handle… the physical extension of the tool designed specifically to be held in the hand. Humans are intimately familiar with the handle metaphor, and supplied with a given tool, will naturally adapt hand position to the tool and purpose at hand.
So while free hands solutions like Oculus and LeapMotion are wonderful for gestures, they leave something to be desired where grasping, manipulation, and tool usage are involved. For those actions and agencies, we might wish to have something like a generic handle that could actively simulate the surface of any given tool. Further, there should be one handle per hand, and the hands should have total freedom of movement about the body.
Such a solution does, in fact, exist:
Our friends at Sixense have been working on the challenge of pro-grade consumer 3D hand input for perhaps longer than anyone else. They created the product launched as the Razer Hydra, a novel and empowering way to explore the videogame worlds of Portal. Now, as VR mania takes hold, developers are scouring eBay and paying 400% retail for the hardware, in anticipation of the consumer release of the Sixense STEM, a much improved, modular, totally wireless version. They’re already intermittently shipping developer units and are set to put out the full release July 2015.
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The fast-growing technology industry in New York is often cited as a magnet for graduates of the nation’s top universities. But a new report to be discussed in a speech by a deputy mayor on Wednesday found that almost half of the technology jobs in the city are filled by people without college degrees.
The report was commissioned to show just how important the tech sector has become, estimating that it accounts for nearly 300,000 jobs in the city, more than half of them at companies in nontechnology businesses, such as finance and advertising.
Alicia Glen, the city’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, is expected to highlight that overall finding when she speaks to the Association for a Better New York.
The rising importance of technology companies and the corporate use of technology have been well documented. But less noticed is how broad a range of opportunities technology has created for people seeking work in the city, said Andrew Rasiej, the chairman of NY Tech Meetup, one of the sponsors of the report.
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As the backhoe gently lifted the 400-pound block of ice above a gap in the tower, retired bricklayer Dick Kentzelman could see it was a bit too big for the space. He grabbed a long-handled tool that looked like a steel spork and with a few well-placed chops, the block slid home.
All around him in Rice Park, volunteers from the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades were moving, lifting, cutting, chopping and stacking more than 1,500 blocks of ice in preparation for Thursday’s kickoff of the 131st St. Paul Winter Carnival. There will be a mini ice palace, an ice bar and even an ice-framed music stage. It might not be the 25,000-block palace anticipated to coincide with next year’s Super Bowl, but Kentzelman and his volunteer co-workers hustled just the same.
“I love being a part of this,” Kentzelman said, pointing to crewmates Tom McCarthy, Dean Gale and Jeff Huberty.
Rice Park is center stage for the 2017 Winter Carnival, featuring live music, ice carvings, outdoor happy hours and even a family fun day. The State Fairgrounds will host events as well, including a Snow Park Polar Plunge to benefit Special Olympics. In all, 60 events will fill the carnival’s 10 days, Jan. 26 through Feb. 5. Last year, an estimated 250,000 people attended carnival events.
Like parades? The Moon Glow Pedestrian Parade will get things rolling Thursday, starting at 6 p.m. at the Securian Building. The McDonald’s King Boreas “Grand Mac” Day Parade will start at 2 p.m. Saturday. And the Vulcan Victory Torchlight Parade will start at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 4.
Fans of ice carving should get to the park Thursday evening to Saturday evening if they want to see ice chips fly as carvings take shape, said Rosanne Bump, festival president and CEO.
Greg Schmotzer of Hastings will be there. The banquet chef at Treasure Island Casino started ice-carving at the Winter Carnival in 2000 and has captured 11 first-place awards. In the multi-block contest, he is carving a 10-foot unicorn in front of a wall of fire — without any help. In the single block, with his son, Schmotzer is carving a phoenix. “If you win, it’s $2,000,” he said. “So it’s a big deal.”
The annual overthrow of King Boreas by the Vulcan Krewe will be acted out Feb. 4 among nine ice towers in Rice Park built by McCarthy, president of the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades, and about 50 other volunteers.
It will take many more than that to raise the palace anticipated in 2018 for the Super Bowl, Bump and McCarthy acknowledged.
McCarthy said his volunteers are eager for the challenge. “When they ask us to come out and lend a hand, we want to lend a hand,” he said.
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“It’s not over till the last vote, but approval looks likely at this point,” Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor relations at the University of California, Berkeley, said Sunday. “The early locals voted their anger, and the later locals voted based on what their alternatives would be.”
Mr. Shaiken said he also expected the Chrysler agreement to pass, because the terms of that company’s 2009 bankruptcy mean a rejection could lead to the contract’s being settled in binding arbitration, a process seen as less favorable to workers.
About 65 percent of G.M. workers voted to ratify their new contract last month.
The biggest U.A.W. chapter at Ford, Local 600 in Dearborn, Mich., favored the deal by 62 percent to 38 percent. The local represents 14 percent of Ford’s 41,000 workers, and its resistance to concessions that Ford sought in 2009 helped assure their defeat. Also on Sunday, 90 percent of voters at a plant in Kansas City, Mo., supported the contract.
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Those results, on top of overwhelming support for the deal from workers in St. Paul, and three other Michigan plants since Friday, overcame opposition at three large plants that were among the first to vote last week.
The intensity of Ford workers’ opinions toward the contract has been apparent in that at least 80 percent of workers have voted at most of the locals where results were released. In contrast, many of the large G.M. locals reported turnout of less than 50 percent.
Chrysler workers will begin voting this week on a separate deal that follows a similar framework as the Ford deal but provides smaller bonuses, among other differences. Voting there is expected to conclude Oct. 26.
The Ford contract, which calls for creating 5,750 jobs that the company had not previously announced, is the most financially generous of the three deals. It calls for signing bonuses of $6,000 for most workers this year and bonuses in later years totaling at least $6,000.
G.M. workers get $5,000 immediately and at least $3,000 more in subsequent years. Chrysler, meanwhile, agreed to pay only $1,750 upon ratification; its workers would get another $1,750 when the company meets certain financial targets and additional bonuses based on vehicle quality and other factors.
All three companies agreed to increase their pay scale for entry-level workers by several dollars an hour, but workers hired before 2007 will not receive raises.
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Union officials at Ford plants began preparing for a strike after the early voting was unexpectedly negative last week. They warned workers that Ford could refuse to return to the bargaining table if the deal was turned down, leading to a potentially lengthy walkout or lockout.
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AN affectionate dad-of-one has gone to extreme lengths to transform himself into Captain America's nemesis the Nazi supervillain Red Skull.
Henry Rodriguez, from Caracas, Venezuela, splashed out £30,000 on multiple procedures in a bid to turn himself into his the Marvel comic book madman.
mediadrumworld.com 9 A dad-of-one has spent £30k on transforming himself into the fictional Nazi supervillain Red Skull
Red Skull was first introduced into the Marvel comic book series in 1947 as the Nazi arch-enemy to Captain America.
The supervillian has also made a more recent appearance in the 2011 movie Captain America: The First Avenger which starred Hugo Weaving as Red Skull and Chris Evans as the hero.
mediadrumworld.com 9 Henry Rodriguez has undergone drastic procedures to become his idol, including having his nose cut off of and his face tattooed black and red
Now, Henry has undergone drastic surgery to look like his idol, including having subdermal implants on his forehead, part of his nose cut off and his eyeballs tattooed.
The 38-year-old, who now calls himself Red Skull, has also inked his face with red and black and it's unlikely he will stop the body modifications any time soon.
mediadrumworld.com 9 But despite his scary look, Henry, who now calls himself Red Skull, is still an affectionate and loving dad to son
mediadrumworld.com 9 Henry and his three-year-old son live together in Venezuela
But despite his scary appearance, Henry is still a loving husband and dad to three-year-old son, Aaron as these sweet family snaps show.
It's clear from the photos that family still lead a normal life, with Henry taking Aaron out for meals, carrying him on his shoulders and reading to him in bed.
mediadrumworld.com 9 The two still live a normal day-to-day life with Henry taking Arron to school
mediadrumworld.com 9 While his appearance is unusual his little boy doesn't seem to see him as anything else other than dad
Speaking of his surgery, Henry's friend Pablo Hernandez, said: “He has loved comic books since he was a kid and always dreamed of being Red Skull, but never got round to doing it.
“Then he met up with a brilliant surgeon who specialises in extreme body modifications and just knew that this was his opportunity.”
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Before Henry could undergo any modifications, his 'surgeon', med-school dropout Emilio Gonzalez, said he had complete a number of physical and psychological tests.
"Henry aka Red Skull is a physically and intellectually healthy person," said Emilio.
mediadrumworld.com 9 According to Henry's friend he's 'always dreamed of being Red Skull' and thanks to his 'surgeon' Emilio Gonzalez he's finally been able to do it
mediadrumworld.com 9 Before Henry was allowed to undergo the body modification he had to complete a number of physical and psychological tests, which he passed says Emilio
"He's an excellent son, husband and father, who has an extreme taste for body modification.
"Most of my customers know that body modification is the last step of body art, everyone knows very well what they want and as well as Henry, many of them are waiting for me for many years to make their dreams a reality."
Reuters 9 Earlier this year the cast and filmmakers of Marvel's Avengers gathered for European press conference ahead of a new movie release in July 2017
Earlier this year, Marvel fans would have been pleased to see the Avengers assemble in London for the ultimate press conference ahead of the European release of Captain America: Civil War.
The plot for this new comic book-inspired sequel centres around political interference in the Avengers’ activities, causing a rift between former allies Captain America and Iron Man and it's due to be released on July 28 2017.
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Irish soldiers working as peacekeepers with the UN have brought “pride, praise and prominence” to Ireland, Minister for Defence Alan Shatter said at a ceremony to remember those killed on duty.
Over a dozen wreaths were laid at the Irish-UN memorial garden, on Mount Temple Road in Dublin, in front of 200 military personnel, UN veterans, gardaí, politicians and family members of those killed in service abroad.
Some 91 Irish UN Peacekeepers have lost their lives since 1960 serving as peacekeepers in the Congo, Cyprus, Lebanon, Somalia, Bosnia, East Timor, Liberia, Syria and Haiti.
“These many operations have brought pride, praise and prominence to the defence forces and to Ireland… this is a unique record and one in which the Defence Forces and the Irish people are justifiably very proud,” said Mr Shatter.
Mr Shatter added he had seen first-hand the role Irish peacekeepers play when he visited the Lebanon with President Mary McAleese earlier this year.
“[We saw] the high esteem in which the Defence Forces are held by the local Lebanese who are used to us coming out there and helping to maintain peace in what is a difficult and volatile region.”
He also praised the role played by An Garda Síochána in peacekeeping missions, which he said “has developed significantly over the past couple of decades” since they were first sent to assist in Libya in 1989.
The chairman of the Irish-UN Veterans Association, Michael Butler, called November 8th a “very significant date” for Ireland as it is the anniversary of the Niemba ambush, in which nine Irish soldiers died in 1960 while serving in the Congo.
Among those who laid wreaths were Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague, relatives of the dead soldiers and veterans of peacekeeping tours, including Tom Kenny, one of only two Irish peacekeepers to survive the Niemba ambush 51 years ago.
While the names of all of 91 Irish peacekeepers who lost their lives on tour were read out in a roll of honour, special mention was made the 10 men who died in 1961 while serving in the Congo.
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A longtime U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer has been convicted of stealing mail from the International Mail Facility in Torrance and arranging to have an accomplice deposit checks obtained from the stolen mail, prosecutors said Friday.
Carlos Canjura, 54, of Van Nuys was convicted in U.S. District Court court on Wednesday of nine counts conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and possession of stolen mail.
Canjura, who examined mail and packages coming into the United States for illegal goods, stole personal checks, traveler’s checks and money orders from international mail. He then gave the stolen checks to an accomplice, who fraudulently endorsed or altered them and deposited them. Canjura stole more than 100 checks totalling $65,000.
Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell is expected to sentence Canjura on March 6 to up to 145 years in prison.
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Another horrific attack emanates from the shattered, shredded Middle East into the beating hearts of Western civilization. It is impossible to miss what it means that the City of Light, the justified pride of the French, was the scene of Friday’s spree of violence, hostage-taking and murder. We cannot any longer watch the tragedies befalling Middle Eastern societies and shut the television off when supper is ready. Their tragedies are ours—a point that was destined to be forced upon us sooner or later.
By the most recent count available at writing, 127 are dead in Paris and who knows how many are wounded or traumatized. The Pentagon and the Strangeloves who run it, it turns out, are not the only ones who can pull off a shock-and-awe assault. If the French and all the rest of us are smart, we will dwell long and hard upon the implications of this stark reality.
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“This is not just an attack on Paris, it’s an attack not just on the people of France,” President Obama said in a glumly presented statement Friday night. “This is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.” There is something perfectly right in this, and then something perfectly wrong.
Yes, what has just occurred in Paris is an affront to all of us. But to invoke universal values is to sustain the error of understanding, of recognition, of acknowledgement, that lies at the heart of all this incessant hatred, attack and counterattack. We—and hardly least the French and the Americans—have articulated such values well and often enough since the late 18th century. But there is little ground to claim that they have determined how we have acted in the Middle East and treated its people for roughly the same period of time.
To put the point another way, a wounded civilization, borrowing Naipaul’s phrase for India, has wounded ours.
The number of fatalities in this, the second strike perpetrated by Islamic extremists this year, do not come close to those counted after the events in New York and Washington a dozen Septembers ago. But numbers rarely tell us much in the way of meaning, and we must not get lost in them now. “Is this a September 11 for the French?” my other half asked as we watched the news last night. “Let there be no question,” I replied.
François Hollande, the French president, was in attendance at the sports stadium where one explosion, apparently a suicide bomb, was detonated. Immediately afterward he termed the attacks together “an act of war.” I have never accepted Bush II’s declaration of “a war on terror” and do not now. But Hollande appears to be right. “What you are doing in Syria, you are going to pay for it now,” one of the gunmen declared as a massacre ensued in the Parisian concert hall also attacked.
Given French jets have recently flown beside American formations on bombing sorties across Syria, it does not get much clearer: If we term what is going on in Syria and Iraq a war, it would follow that we must count Friday’s events in Paris another theater in it.
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What has followed since Friday is familiar enough. Hollande declared a state of emergency and closed France’s borders; the French military is mobilized and the police’s powers are to be increased. Obama pledged “to provide whatever assistance that the government and people of France need to respond.” If the past is any guide, this surely refers to America’s surveillance and intelligence capabilities and all the technologies associated with these.
What has not followed is too familiar. No one, once again, asks the simple question, “Why?” This line of inquiry is so obvious, and so obviously of use in devising an effective response—know your enemy and his motivations, as any military strategist will tell you—that our avoidance of it amounts to a pathology at this point.
In the face of tragedy after tragedy and a security situation that worsens without letup, we in Western societies resolutely decline to enter upon the subject of causality. We do not even wonder why it is the so-called “major Western powers”—not Brazilians, say, not Tanzanians or New Zealanders—who are almost always the targets of what we now have to call terror in what we may now have to call a war. Above all, in their presentations on these topics our leaders make no reference whatsoever to history.
It occurs to me now that we live in the very world one of Bush II’s best-known theorists urged upon us even before the September 11 events and incessantly after them. I have mentioned Richard Perle, a longtime intellectual charlatan, in this space before. “We must decontextualize terror,” Perle famously and often declared—meaning, make no effort to identify the context from which terrorists arise. “Any attempt to understand the roots of terrorism is an attempt to justify it,” Perle continued. “It simply must be fought and destroyed.”
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As Johann Hari, one of Perle’s countless critics, put it, “Perle invites us to participate in a strange, willful ignorance of cause and effect. How can this be a serious response to our problems”? Hari, a once-controversial British journalist, posed his question in 2004. It remains a good one.
In my regular column this coming week I will explain why.
For now, the phrase “thought and prayers” having been devalued to the point it is little better than saying, “Let’s have lunch,” only this: Let the police and the intelligence services do their work. The best way, I would say the only way, we can properly honor those just killed or wounded or now suffering trauma is to ask why they have met this fate—and then begin constructing the effective response that has so far eluded all of our leaders.
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Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said Thursday that Bill and Hillary Clinton are "proud" to have presided "over the incarceration of a whole generation of young black men" in comments singling out mass incarceration as "the new Jim Crow."
The senator from Kentucky is an advocate for making changes to the criminal justice system and has co-sponsored legislation with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker to help keep nonviolent criminal offenders out of prison.
"Bill Clinton presided over the incarceration of a whole generation of young black men," Paul said on The Wilkow Majority. "We are putting young black men in jail at a rate never before seen in history and it's because of this war on drugs."
Paul said Hillary and Bill Clinton were "proud to do this."
Hillary Clinton spoke earlier this year of ending "the era of mass incarceration." Clinton's remarks rejected the "tough-on-crime" mantra and legislation advocated by her and her husband during his time as president which included signing the 1994 crime bill.
"And so Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, they were all proud to do this," said Paul. "But now that I've been speaking out and saying that mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow, now all of a sudden the Clintons are saying, 'oh wait a minute, we are going to be back on the other side of this issue right now.'"
Paul said Democrats saw him as "a threat to Hillary Clinton" because he goes to communities like Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland and says "what have the Democrats done for you?"
"And I hate to tell you this, but someone from the Democrat National Committee is listening to our radio interview right now and they are looking for ways to attack me, because they see me as a threat to Hillary Clinton, because I'm going to the south side of Chicago, I'm going to the inner city of Philadelphia, I'm going to Baltimore, I'm going to Ferguson, and I'm saying, what have the Democrats done for you? What have they done to alleviate poverty? What have they done for crime? What have they done for the young men in your community and you know why? It's starting to gain traction, and that is why we lead her in several states that Obama won."
Paul said he that understands marijuana isn't good for people, but the law needs to be fair and not incarcerate one race more than another.
"I think that the law needs to be fair and that we shouldn't incarcerate one race more than another and I think the law should be fair in the sense that the penalties should be proportionate to the crime," said Paul.
"You can kill someone in Kentucky and be eligible for parole in 12 years, but we have people in jail for marijuana sales for 55 years, life, 20 years, 25 years. We've gone too far in all of this and then when you add up the numbers, even the white kids and black kids use marijuana at about the same rate and in national surveys the arrests and incarceration rate is four times greater for black males than it is for white males."
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FUN FACTS about The Forbes 400: Donald Trump's wealth is trumped by 120 billionaires, most of whom (unlike Trump) started their companies from scratch. The growth of Trump's wealth since 1985, his maiden solo year on The 400, has lagged the growth of the S&P 500. Trump may be a promotion genius, but he's a lousy steward of capital.
At his present rate of relative decline Trump will be turfed out of The Forbes 400 during the next ten years. He likely won't make it back, even if Trump, 69, were a younger man. The growth of his wealth can't keep pace with the disruptive new sources of wealth.
Between now and 2025 most of the new entries on The Forbes 400 (and its cousin, the World's Billionaires list) will come from fields that make up the "Disruptive Dozen." Credit for this clever categorization goes to McKinsey & Co. and Richard Dobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan Woetzel, authors of the excellent new book No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends (PublicAffairs). Here's what the Disruptive Dozen have in common: They all exploit the exponential advances in digital technology.
--GENOMICS. Would you like to be smarter, quicker to see opportunity and more robust in seeing your plans through? Would you then like to live a long life and be healthy in body and mind, have meaningful and memorable experiences with friends and family and leave a legacy? Who wouldn't want these things? Most of us will need a little biological assistance. Advanced genomics will deliver.
--NEW MATERIALS. As a pilot and owner (over the years) of five single-engine piston airplanes, I've always lusted for a jet. But ownership costs, even for the smallest jets, are an order of magnitude higher. Why? Jet engines, for one. Fuel consumption, for another. Pressurized cabins, for a third. In theory all can be made vastly cheaper and better with new materials that are coming soon.
--ENERGY STORAGE. Batteries need a breakthrough beyond today's lithium-ion standard. Is graphene the answer? Billions await whoever cracks this code.
--ADVANCED RECOVERY OF OIL AND GAS. Who saw the fracking revolution coming? You did if you were paying attention to the marriage of traditional drilling, electronic sensors and satellite imagery. This trend will keep trending.
--RENEWABLE ENERGY. Solar energy cost-efficiency is steadily sneaking up. In sunny locations it will be price competitive at the retail level within ten years.
--ROBOTICS. Google recently reorganized into the holding company Alphabet Inc. Why? To separate Google's moneymaking search and phone businesses from its investment R&D into robotics. This means that Alphabet, which has purchased more than half a dozen robotics companies in the past few years, is more serious about robotics than you could possibly have imagined.
--AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES. How far we've come! In 2004 the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored a driverless car race covering 150 miles. The best car made it only 7 miles. Fred Smith, founder and CEO of FedEx , likes to say that the FedEx plane of the future will have a pilot and a dog in the cockpit. "The dog will bite the pilot if the pilot touches any controls."
--3-D PRINTING. Additive manufacturing has been around since 1984, but progress for consumer printers has been slow. Look again. GE uses 3-D printers to produce parts for jet engines. Research hospitals print body parts for surgical training. The consumer boom will happen.
--MOBILE INTERNET. Five billion phones, 40% of which are Web-enabled, populate the world today. In five years it will be 6 billion and 60%. India and Africa are sleeping giants. Smartphones will continue to enable the rise of companies like China's Alibaba and Tencent.
--INTERNET OF THINGS. I just bought a new Ford Edge Sport, which has 21 computers in it. Great car, though the steering, v1.0, is too loose for my taste. But no worries--it only awaits an easy software fix, v2.0, that will be adjustable, on the fly, to road conditions. I also want my Nikes to notice an Achilles problem before I do--and to recommend treatment options.
--CLOUD COMPUTING. The big debate in computer circles is whether Moore's Law is running out, defeated by the cost of manufacturing atom-size parts. It may not matter. The economics of Moore's Law--the 30% annual drop in computing costs--will keep going, thanks to the cloud.
--AUTOMATION OF KNOWLEDGE WORK. Law firms, beware. That's a trillion-dollar disruption we can all cheer for.
Rich Karlgaard is the publisher at Forbes. his latest book, team genius: the new science of High-performing organizations, came out in july. For his past columns and blogs visit our website at www.forbes.com/karlgaard.
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In a democracy We the People pitch in and build public infrastructure that We the People all get to use equally.
So when people talk about our country’s infrastructure, they usually mean our public roads, bridges, mass transit, water and sewer systems. All of these are good for all of us and our economy. We share in the investment and we share in the return on that investment.
Likewise, when people think of infrastructure projects, they think of government projects hiring people, purchasing supplies and building or maintaining something. They think of lots of good, union jobs with good benefits and lots of good, local American construction companies and American suppliers getting contracts.
This is what Republicans have obstructed since they got enough votes in the senate to obstruct with. A few examples:
● 2011, Republicans filibuster Obama infrastructure bill
● 2013, Bipartisan Transportation and Housing Bill Filibustered
● 2015, $478B Infrastructure Bill Blocked by Senate GOP
Public Dollars, Private Profits
So now Donald Trump is proposing a “$1 trillion infrastructure plan.” Sounds great, right? Yum, infrastructure.
The Hill has the story, in “Five things to know about Trump’s infrastructure plan:”
A 10-page white paper posted on Trump’s campaign website last month makes private financing the cornerstone of his infrastructure plan. The proposal would offer $137 billion in federal tax credits to private investors who want to back transportation projects, which the blueprint says would unleash up to $1 trillion worth of infrastructure investment over 10 years.
Trump’s plan does not call for public investment in public infrastructure, nor does it call for hiring local construction companies using American suppliers and creating jobs for American union workers. Trump’ plan is for the government to spend money giving tax breaks to giant, multinational corporations and calling it infrastructure investment. Any actual infrastructure investment that does occur will bring a return on that investment of taxpayer money to a few 1%-ers and not to We the People.
Ronald A. Klain oversaw the team implementing Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Renewal Act, known as the “Stimulus.” Klain wrote an op-ed appearing in the Washington Post, titled “Trump’s big infrastructure plan? It’s a trap.” Klain explained that the plan isn’t even really even about infrastructure:
First, Trump’s plan is not really an infrastructure plan. It’s a tax-cut plan for utility-industry and construction-sector investors, and a massive corporate welfare plan for contractors. The Trump plan doesn’t directly fund new roads, bridges, water systems or airports, as did Hillary Clinton’s 2016 infrastructure proposal. Instead, Trump’s plan provides tax breaks to private-sector investors who back profitable construction projects. These projects (such as electrical grid modernization or energy pipeline expansion) might already be planned or even underway. There’s no requirement that the tax breaks be used for incremental or otherwise expanded construction efforts; they could all go just to fatten the pockets of investors in previously planned projects.
And the jobs? Nope:
Second, as a result of the above, Trump’s plan isn’t really a jobs plan, either. Because the plan subsidizes investors, not projects; because it funds tax breaks, not bridges; because there’s no requirement that the projects be otherwise unfunded, there is simply no guarantee that the plan will produce any net new hiring. Investors may simply shift capital from unsubsidized projects to subsidized ones and pocket the tax breaks on projects they would have funded anyway. Contractors have no obligation to hire new workers, or expand workers’ hours, to collect their $85 billion.
And even if there are jobs, will they be union jobs with benefits? Or will the employees be called “contractors’ who get minimum wage and no benefits, like so many other new jobs today?
Buried inside the plan will be provisions to weaken prevailing wage protections on construction projects, undermining unions and ultimately eroding workers’ earnings. Environmental rules are almost certain to be gutted in the name of accelerating projects.
What about the return on investment from that spending of taxpayer dollars? Trump is proposing “public-private partnerships.” Pay attention to that word, “private” here. Politico explains, in “Trump’s $1 trillion plan hits D.C. speed bumps,” what that means, “In one version, the investors would get tax credits to build a project and could recoup their money by charging fees for its use, such as tolls.” WE pay for the roads with tax credits, the companies get the return on that investment.
Infrastructure privatization doesn’t even work. A few examples include, Fox News, 2014, Failed toll road privatization leaves Indiana in driver’s seat. Or Bloomberg, 2913, Private Toll Road Investors Shift Revenue Risk to States:
The first private road in modern years, called the Dulles Greenway, opened in 1995 in the Virginia suburbs of Washington. Initial traffic on the 14-mile Greenway was less than forecast, forcing a refinancing in 1999. Other privately backed roads in California, Colorado Illinois, Indiana, South Carolina, Virginia and Texas have had bankruptcies, restructurings, credit downgrades or less traffic than projected. In some cases, anticipated development near the roads didn’t materialize.
What Trump’s plan will do is push taxpayer dollars to profit-making “infrastructure” projects that companies are planning to do anyway. Oil pipelines, for example.
But Wait, There’s More Scams
Not only does Trump’s plan shuffle billions – maybe hundreds of billions – to corporations to pay for investment that they collect the return from, it doesn’t bring about the kind of infrastructure investment the country needs right now.
The Hill’s report explains:
Critics of Trump’s private financing plan, however, say that private investors would only fund projects that have tolls or user fees that can recoup investment costs. Therefore, critical infrastructure needs like repairing aging pipes, deepening ports or fixing existing roads and bridges without tolls may go neglected under Trump’s plan. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) “only work on projects that create revenues,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “The vast majority of the national highway system, and our bridge problems and all our transit problems, do not generate revenues. It will not help them.”
Learn To Look For The Con
Our country cut back on maintaining our infrastructure after the Reagan tax cuts for the rich forced cutbacks in the things government does to make our lives better. What is needed now is fixes for roads and bridges that are breaking down around the country.
Trump’s infrastructure-privatization plan does nothing to help fix the roads in our neighborhoods, the bridges in our cities or the highways in our states. Giant corporations aren’t going to take the tax break to do that because it doesn’t make them a profit. Cities like Flint need their water systems upgraded and giant multinational companies aren’t going to take a tax break to do that, either.
Giant, multinational companies are going to take Trump’s infrastructure tax breaks to do things they are already planning on doing anyway. And that’s not about making We the People’s lives better — not by a long shot.
The moral of the story is: Don’t just be for something because it’s called “infrastructure.” What the country needs is actual public investment in actual infrastructure like actual water and sewage systems and actual roads and actual bridges that fixes problems the actual public actually has, and that the actual public can actually all use without having to pay private companies to do so. And we need to tax the rich and giant corporations to get that done. Trump’s plan is exactly the opposite. It’s nothing more than another con.
The lesson to be learned is: If Donald Trump and Republicans are proposing something that sounds good on the surface, we all need to look deeper and figure out what con game they are running this time. It’s a good idea to learn this lesson now because it is going to be a long four years of con games, gimmicks, tricks, fraud and outright dishonest frauds.
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With the AHL and NCAA regular seasons getting kicked off this past week now nearly every Jets prospect has seen game action. In this prospects update we’ll take a look at how the first weekend went for the Moose 2.0 as well as the rest of the hopeful future Jets.
AHL
After a 4 year lapse the Manitoba Moose regular season got under way this past weekend with a pair of games against the Toronto Marlies.
Though the Moose ended up losing both games they were able to take one to a shootout against a strong Marlies team and showed a marked improvement in play from the beginning of the first to the end of the second.
The Moose were heavily outshot in both games and required a very strong game from Comrie along with a late 3rd period goal to wrestle a single point away from the Marlies. While things didn’t go quite as well for Hellebuyck in his game, he’s already shown to be capable of carrying the load at this level and the Moose look to have a great goaltending tandem with these two.
Up front we saw some of the Jets camp standouts continue to bring their strong play in the AHL. JC Lipon, Ryan Olsen, and Chase De Leo all stood out in my viewings while others like Armia, Kichton, and Kosmachuck were able to chips in points as well.
This Moose team is quite young and has no real established AHL scorers so it will likely have to be a bit of a group effort unless one of the kids really steps up.
Europe
Sami Niku continues to log minutes on the senior team and establish himself in the professional game. For Kraskovsky the points aren’t there yet but the ice time is creeping up which would indicate he’s becoming more comfortable and being afforded more trust by his coaches. Nothing noteworthy to report with Telegin, he continues to play a depth role in the KHL.
CHL
Lemieux saw his suspension finish and he was able to get into a couple games. While he hasn’t shown up on the scoresheet yet, he is generating shots and with the ice time he’s getting its only a matter of time.
Spacek’s hot play continued as he was able to pick up an assist in each of the games he played and kept his point streak dating back to the beginning of his season alive. Nogier saw his ice time cut into with the return of Haydn Fluery but is still heavily leaned upon by Red Deer and will continue to play an important role in the team’s top 4 defense.
Gennaro was able to pick up his first couple points of the season and continues strong play in a somewhat limited role for the Raiders.
Harkins had a strong weekend with 3 points in 2 games and should see his offense continue to improve the amount of time he plays.
NCAA
Though the NCAA season has begun not all of the Jets prospects have seen game action yet. Kyle Connor, C.J. Franklin and Jamie Phillips all had the weekend off while Erik Foley sat out his team’s games after suffering an injury during pre-season play.
For those who did play it was a strong start for recent first rounder Jack Roslovic. Roslovic scored a goal and added an assist in 2 games played while displaying the hockey IQ that earned him such a high selection.
Also drafted this past offseason, Mason Appleton was able to make a quick contribution picking up 2 assists in his first two NCAA games. In addition to them, two defense prospects in Jack Glover and Tucker Poolman got into their first game action though they recorded no points.These two will be interesting to follow this year as they both should be given more time to play at their natural position this season, after spending time last season playing forward due to strong defensive depth.
Other
Marcus Karlstrom got in to a couple more games with the Austin Bruins but was unable to record any points. It’s obviously still early in the season and things could change but given that he was already a long shot, it’s looking less and less like Karlstrom will be able to earn himself a contract with the Jets organisation.
Note: All stat data sourced for this article comes from chlstats.com or eliteprospects.com.
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“Following the Security Council's consultations and given the developments on the ground in Ukraine, the Secretary-General is dispatching Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson to the country this evening,” a spokesperson for UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a statement .
“While in Ukraine, the Deputy Secretary-General will be personally apprised of the facts on the ground and will subsequently brief the Secretary-General on the next steps the United Nations could take to support the de-escalation of the situation,” the spokesperson added.
Ukraine has been witnessing violent unrest for several months and last week saw the removal by Parliament of President Viktor Yanukovych. Tensions have been mounting in recent days in the Crimea region, where additional Russian troops and armoured vehicles have reportedly been deployed.
Today's announcement comes a day after Mr. Eliasson briefed an urgent meeting of the Security Council, the second in two days held by the 15-member body on the growing crisis in Ukraine.
Mr. Eliasson, as well as the Secretary-General, his Senior Advisor Robert Serry and the Council have all called for calm and direct dialogue between all concerned to avoid a further escalation of the crisis.
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Alex Vitale, Producer - (WTNH) -- Gallup's Job Creation Index for 2014 was recently released, showing the rankings for each state. Connecticut ranked last, followed closely by Alaska.
Gallup's Job Creation Index is derived from full- and part-time workers' reports of whether their employer is hiring and expanding the size of its workforce, not making changes, or letting people go and reducing its workforce.
In North Dakota, the state that ranked first, 48% of workers in 2014 said their employer is hiring and 12% said their employer is letting workers go, resulting in a +36 Job Creation Index score. By contrast, Connecticut's +16 index score reflects 33% of workers saying their employer is hiring and 17% letting go.
The 2014 state-level findings are drawn from 201,254 interviews with employed adults nationwide, conducted throughout the year as part of Gallup Daily tracking. The full results by state are provided in the table at the end of this article.
Connecticut and Rhode Island tie for compiling the worst collective job creation scores since 2008 and are the only states to have ranked in the bottom 10 each year. New Jersey is not far behind, ranking among the lowest states for net hiring in all but one year.
Connecticut's position at the bottom of the list in 2014 highlights that four of the six New England states had among the lowest Job Creation Index scores last year -- the others being Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island. All four also ranked in the bottom 10 in 2013. New Hampshire has occasionally appeared in the bottom tier for job creation, leaving Massachusetts as the sole New England state that has avoided this unwelcome distinction.
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Welcome to another episode of Snack Time with Mike and Ant. Snacktime! In this episode, Mike and Ant talk with Yichao and show a preview card for Eternal Masters!
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Mexico City (CNN) -- While an estimated 10,000 women are victims of human trafficking in Mexico's capital, there were only 40 investigations of the crime and three convictions in the city last year, according to a report issued this week.
The discrepancy is an "alarming figure" that shows a need to improve laws and policies, according to a study on human trafficking and sexual exploitation from Mexico City's human rights commission, which calls the phenomenon a "new form of slavery."
"The authorities are not investigating, nor are they asking witnesses," said Eva Reyes, investigation coordinator at the Antonio de Montesinos Center for Social and Cultural Studies, one of the partners of the study.
Cultural norms and social stigma prevent people from realizing that many prostitutes lingering in dark alleys of Mexico City are victims, officials said as they presented the report Wednesday.
"They are seen as people who are doing it freely. That is the first obstacle to justice," Reyes said.
More on modern-day slavery: The CNN Freedom Project
Authorities in Mexico City announced Monday that they had rescued 62 victims of a forced-prostitution ring -- including a 13-year-old girl.
Five men and two women who police say ran the ring were arrested after an investigation that started when a minor involved reported the suspects to authorities.
One victim told investigators that she was forced into prostitution in Mexico City after meeting two men in Oaxaca, a city more than 460 kilometers (288 miles) away.
"After chatting with her, the victim told him that she was a domestic worker and the accused offered her a more comfortable life with well-paid work, and in a second encounter he convinced her to come live with him," the statement said.
Such approaches are a common tactic for those involved in human trafficking, who frequently target women and girls in smaller cities outside the capital, Reyes said.
In the southern border state of Chiapas, Central American women are frequently a target, Reyes said.
But regardless of where victims are recruited, she said, they often pass through -- or end up -- in Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of more than 21 million people.
"In one case, 107 trafficking victims, both Mexican and foreign citizens, were freed from a factory disguised as a drug rehabilitation center in Mexico City; many of them had been kidnapped, and all were subjected to forced labor," according to 2010 report on human trafficking from the U.S. State Department.
The State Department report noted that authorities had conducted raids on brothels suspected in human trafficking and a special prosecutor for trafficking in Mexico City sentenced one offender to 10 years in prison last year, "the first sentence under Mexico's federal anti-trafficking law and Mexico City's local anti-trafficking law."
But more needs to be done, this week's human rights commission report said.
"The high number of women who are victims of human trafficking are not achieving access to judicial resources and because of this, the large majority of these incidents remain in impunity. ... Their rights remain unprotected," it said.
CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.
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Stoke City and England goalkeeper Jack Butland has returned to see a specialist after experiencing more discomfort from an ankle injury that has already kept him out for seven months.
Butland, 23, fractured his ankle during England's 3-2 victory against Germany in an international friendly in March and underwent surgery at the start of this season to try and clear up the problem.
Yet abortive attempts to return to training have led to more pain forcing the 'keeper to put his comeback on hold again and return to the doctors who oversaw his operation.
Jack Butland made a return in pre-season but then got injured again in Stoke City training
Butland won't be involved in Stoke's game against Swansea City on Monday night and there is no fixed timetable for his comeback although it looks clear he won't be available for England's World Cup qualifier against Scotland on November 11.
He signed for Stoke from Birmingham City in a £4million deal in 2013 establishing himself as first-choice after the departure of Asmir Begovic to Chelsea.
He was England under-21s captain under the current interim senior manager Gareth Southgate and has won four full caps.
Butland has been sidelined for seven months after he fractured his ankle against Germany
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SPIEGEL: Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), believes that pro-Russian separatists shot down the aircraft with surface-to-air missiles. A short time ago, several members of the German parliament were presented with relevant satellite images. Are you familiar with these photos?
Westerbeke: Unfortunately we are not aware of the specific images in question. The problem is that there are many different satellite images. Some can be found on the Internet, whereas others originate from foreign intelligence services.
SPIEGEL: High-resolution images -- those from US spy satellites, for example -- could play a decisive role in the investigation. Have the Americans provided you with those images?
Westerbeke: We are not certain whether we already have everything or if there are more -- information that is possibly even more specific. In any case, what we do have is insufficient for drawing any conclusions. We remain in contact with the United States in order to receive satellite photos.
SPIEGEL: So you're saying there hasn't been any watertight evidence so far?
Westerbeke: No. If you read the newspapers, though, they suggest it has always been obvious what happened to the airplane and who is responsible. But if we in fact do want to try the perpetrators in court, then we will need evidence and more than a recorded phone call from the Internet or photos from the crash site. That's why we are considering several scenarios and not just one.
SPIEGEL: Moscow has been spreading its own version for some time now, namely that the passenger jet was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet. Do you believe such a scenario is possible?
Westerbeke: Going by the intelligence available, it is my opinion that a shooting down by a surface to air missile remains the most likely scenario. But we are not closing our eyes to the possibility that things might have happened differently.
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Sherman said, “as set forth in my letter to my colleagues: As the investigations move forward, additional evidence supporting additional Articles of Impeachment may emerge. However, as to Obstruction of Justice and 18 U.S.C. § 1512 (b)(3), the evidence we have is sufficient to move forward now. And the national interest requires that we do so.”
Sherman continued, “I act not for partisan advantage. Having served with Mike Pence in the House for twelve years, I disagree with him on most issues of public policy. But we must move forward as quickly as possible to ensure a competent government that respects the Constitution and the rule of law, even if we end up with a President who is effective and dedicated to regressive policies.”
Sherman concluded, “I have no illusions. Articles of Impeachment will not pass the House in the near future. But given the risk posed to the Republic, we should move things forward as quickly as possible.”
View the Draft Article of Impeachment: here.
View my Dear Colleague: here.
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CLOSE Rihanna is set to receive an award for her commitment to charity. The 29-year-old singer has been named Harvard University's 2017 Humanitarian of the Year. USA TODAY
Rihanna arrives at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards (Photo11: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY NETWORK)
Rihanna may not have won at this year's Grammy Awards, but she's winning with the Ivy League.
The singer has been named 2017 Harvard University Humanitarian of the Year. She'll head to the campus outside Boston on Tuesday to accept the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award.
The announcement cited Rihanna's charitable work including helping to build a breast cancer screening and treatment center in Barbados, where the singer is from. “She has also created the Clara Lionel Foundation Scholarship Program (named for her grandmother and grandfather) for students attending college in the U.S. from Caribbean countries," Harvard Foundation director S. Allen Counter said in the announcement. "And supports the Global Partnership for Education and Global Citizen Project, a multi-year campaign that will provide children with access to education in over 60 developing countries, giving priority to girls and those affected by lack of access to education in the world today.”
The singer has been busy recently, celebrating her 29th birthday this past Monday. She is also expanding her acting career, appearing on the final season of Bates Motel on A&E and in next year's highly-anticipated Ocean's 8, alongside Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and more. Rihanna also took an HIV test alongside Britain's Prince Harry in Barbados to raise awareness on World AIDS Day as part of her philanthropic work.
Rihanna is not the first honoree from the world of pop culture. Actor James Earl Jones and tennis player Arthur Ashe are both former recipients.
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HONG KONG — The streets around Centre Street, in the Hong Kong neighborhood of Sai Ying Pun, are a microcosm of the vibrant, small-business life that makes this city as colorful as it is. There are shops selling large, wobbling blocks of fresh tofu, bean sprouts and papayas. There are tiny stalls selling fish balls, pork, noodles or copy books to local schoolchildren. There are hardware stores, cheap clothing outlets and clattering car repair shops, whose shrines to the Chinese Earth God provide a colorful counterpoint to the oil-stained floors inside.
Much of this life, however, is in the process of disappearing, as a new architectural addition to Centre Street — an outdoor escalator that grinds up the street’s steep incline under a modernist roof — takes its toll on the neighborhood’s commercial ecosystem.
Hong Kong is an exceedingly hilly city. The high-rises that house its residents and the offices that have turned the former British colony into an international financial hub are wedged between the sea and steep peaks. In days of yore, wealthy residents had themselves carried in sedan chairs when they wanted to travel to the higher reaches of the city. In 1888, a tram began trundling up and down the steep incline to Victoria Peak.
More recently, urban planners hit upon the concept of outdoor escalators to make uphill districts more accessible, especially during the hot and humid months. A little over two decades ago, an escalator that winds uphill in about 20 segments and has become a tourist attraction in its own right began operations in an area now known as Soho.
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Arrested Turkish journalists released after 92 days in prison
ISTANBUL
AA Photo
Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and the daily’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül, were released early on Feb. 26 following 92 days in prison on terrorism charges, hours after the country’s top court’s ruled their arrest had violated their rights.
Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled on Feb. 25 that the fundamental rights of Dündar and Gül had been violated. Following the decision, Istanbul 14th Court of Serious Crimes ordered their release but subjected them to an overseas travel ban.
Dündar and Gül were met by a group of supporters, including their family and two Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies, when they left Silivri Prison near Istanbul at 3:15 a.m.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting this long,” Dündar told reporters waiting outside the prison. “You know, the 26th is President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s birthday. We are happy to celebrate his birthday with this release decision.”
Recalling that he was arrested on his wedding anniversary, Dündar said, “We wanted to give [President Erdoğan] a birthday present.”
Dündar praised the Constitutional Court’s decision, saying it was “historic” in terms of the state of freedom of expression in Turkey.
“The Constitutional Court’s ruling today opened the way, not just for us, but for all our colleagues in terms of press freedoms and freedom of expression,” he said.
“We do not hold a grudge, we are not angry, but we are very determined to fight. We will continue to defend ourselves and our voices will be louder,” he said.
Dündar added that the price they paid, three months of imprisonment, was nothing compared to what some other Turkish journalists went through and provided the example of the assassinated editor-in-chief of daily Milliyet, Abdi İpekçi.
In his speech, Dündar also expressed appreciation to their supporters, especially members of the press who volunteered to keep watch in front of Silivri Prison as part of a protest called “Hope Watch.”
“First of all, we would like to thank our hope watchers for giving us hope from that tiny tent,” he said. “We witnessed that a tiny tent can bring a giant palace to its knees,” Dündar added, referring to the controversial presidential palace in Ankara.
Dündar underlined that their case, which is of importance to press freedoms in Turkey, is set to continue.
“We are out but over 30 of our colleagues are inside. I hope this decision will clear the way for them as well,” he said, pledging to follow their cases in the name of freedom of expression.
Dündar also touched upon their story on Turkish intelligence trucks bound for Syria in early 2014, saying they wanted to warn against the dangers that had become clearer over time.
“I wish that story had not been swept under the carpet at the time and that Turkey could have avoided the quagmire [in Syria],” he said, arguing that recent remarks by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and President Erdoğan on al-Nusra in Syria constituted “confessions.”
“[The confessions] were in fact proof of our story,” he said, adding they believed they did the right thing and would continue to do what they believe to be right.
Gül also made a brief statement to reporters, arguing that the Constitutional Court deserved a “thank you,” while noting that there was a need to overcome the barriers obstructing freedoms.
Gül also expressed regret that the local court did not reach a similar verdict earlier instead of issuing an arrest decision.
“We have been released but this does not mean that the issue of arrested journalists is over,” he said. “We have friends behind bars and our battle needs to continue for them. From now on, this unity should continue in the face of pressures against the press.”
Turkish political parties also welcomed the court decision starting with a statement from main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Kılıçdaroğlu posted a tweet from his official Twitter account, saying the decision meant that “telling the truth is not a crime.”“I hope for freedom for Can Dündar, Erdem Gül and all journalists,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.Similarly, CHP group deputy chairman Levent Gök said they “welcomed” the decision with regards to the “unjust arrest that implicitly hindered freedom of information” and the freedom to make news.Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) group deputy chairman Bülent Turan also expressed his “happiness” over the Constitutional Court’s ruling while adding that it was not right to accuse the AKP of interference in legal proceedings.“We will consider the local court’s decision as lawful, just like the Constitutional Court’s ruling,” he said, underlining the essentiality of trial without arrest.The group deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Erkan Akçay, said no one could reveal a secret that was already known by all, referring to the intelligence trucks story that lies at the heart of Dündar and Gül’s case.“We need to form a structure supporting objectivity, honesty and truthfulness,” he said, in addition to the right to information.Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) group deputy chairman İdris Baluken said the “unjust arrest and isolation” of Dündar and Gül had hurt the conscience of world public opinion.U.K. Ambassador to Ankara has also praised the court ruling and the release of Dündar and Gül.“I welcome the Constitutional Court’s ruling of yesterday, ending 3 months pre-trial detention for Can Dundar and Erdem Gul,” Richard Moore said in a tweet.“Freedom of press and expression is a fundamental right forming the cornerstone of any functioning democracy,” he added.Meanwhile, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland has also welcomed the top court's decision in the case.“I was glad to hear the judgment of the Turkish Constitutional Court today which found that the rights of Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Can Dündar, and its Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül, had been violated. I welcome their release. The judgment demonstrates the importance of an independent Constitutional Court in Turkey which bases its decisions on the European Convention on Human Rights,” Jagland said.On the other hand, Presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın was cautious in commenting on the decision and compared the case of Dündar and Gül with the cases of Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.Drawing parallels between the cases by arguing that all are cases of “espionage,” Kalın said it was “unacceptable” to evaluate the legal proceedings differently in Turkey and in Western countries.Kalın said the United States had brought cases against these individuals and that they would receive major punishments in the event they were apprehended and tried.“The case is ongoing; this is a discharge decision, not an acquittal,” he added. “We will follow the legal proceedings closely.”Turkey’s Press Council, which organized the “Hope Watch,” also released an official statement, defining the Constitutional Court ruling a “historic turning point” which will establish a precedent.“Arresting journalists for journalistic activity is a shame on democracies,” the council said, adding that the decision “enlivened hopes” in the Turkish judiciary.“While we welcome the decision to free Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, we hope no other members of the press are victimized for their journalistic activities, warning against [such actions],” it said.Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) also issued a statement on Dündar and Gül’s release, defining the decision as one that “lifts the heavy pressure” imposed upon journalists.Defining the ruling as “historic,” TGC said the decision would help strengthen Turkey’s democracy.“The Constitutional Court applied the criteria of the European Convention of Human Rights. This is hopeful for our 30 arrested or convicted colleagues,” it said. “This is a step to reverse the state of emergency being imposed upon press freedoms and freedom of expression in Turkey over the past 10 years.”“We want the Constitutional Court decision to serve as a persistent reminder to politicians that journalistic activities serve people’s right to information and cannot be linked to espionage or terrorism,” it said.The journalists made personal applications to the top court to demand their release on Dec. 6, 2015, on the grounds that their pre-trial arrests were against the constitution. They also said in their application that their lawyers had so far been unable to examine their files due to a lower court’s “limitation” decision.Dündar and Gül were accused of espionage threatening state security and supporting an armed terrorist organization due to stories published in Cumhuriyet about Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MİT) trucks that were allegedly bringing weapons to unknown groups in Syria.The duo was arrested by an Istanbul court on Nov. 26 last year, triggering reactions from press organizations, NGOs and many Western countries.The indictment, which was completed on Jan. 27, carries the penalty of life in prison, penal servitude for life and 30 years in prison for both Dündar and Gül.
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Image caption The Nasa landers did plenty of science but did not see much of the planet
Nuclear decay-driven machines could gather gases from the atmosphere of Mars, giving future robotic missions leaps of a kilometre, researchers say.
A design concept in Proceedings of the Royal Society A outlines an approach to compress CO2 and liquefy it.
The liquid would then be heated much as in a standard rocket, expanding violently into a gas to propel exploratory craft great distances.
The authors suggest this is a better strategy to see more of the Red Planet.
While the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been outstanding science successes, providing far more data than was initially planned, as vehicles that are powered by the sun and get around on wheels they are limited in their overall range of exploration.
For example, the Opportunity rover, which has been on the Martian surface for nearly seven years, passed the 25-kilometre mark this week.
As a result, researchers have been looking into means of getting farther with future robotic missions to Mars. Ideas including landers with wings or lighter-than-atmosphere balloons have been proposed, or even "inflatable tumbleweeds" that are blown across the landscape.
Because you're collecting your propellant from the Martian atmosphere you're not limited by having to take propellant out from Earth Hugo Williams, University of Leicester
However, Hugo Williams and his colleagues Richard Ambrosi and Nigel Bannister at the University of Leicester - working on the propulsion ideas for a lander project that includes the aerospace giant Astrium - argue that a lander that can gather up its own propellant is best.
In the proposed hopper design, heat from the decay is gathered and used to run a compressor, collecting the CO2-rich Martian atmosphere into a tank and compressing it until it turns into a liquid.
At the heart of the idea is a radioisotope-based generator - a few-kilogram piece of radioactive material that heats up as it regularly spits out tiny subatomic particles.
"Nuclear batteries" employing the same principle have been in use in long-term space missions since the Pioneer craft of the early 1970s.
Some of the heat is channelled to another block of material that is used as a storage heater. When a boost is needed the liquid is allowed to contact the block, quickly turning back into a gas and heating up.
When passed through a standard rocket nozzle, the expanding CO2 gas provides thrust that can launch a lander and provide a soft landing when it "hops" to its new locale.
Propulsion on the basis of compressed CO2 is not a new idea; programmes by firms including Pioneer Astronautics have carried out some development work on the concept.
But Dr Williams and his co-authors brought together the radioisotope generator and CO2 propulsion ideas and can now begin to come to firm conclusions about how a system would perform on Mars.
"The advantage is that the radioisotope source is long-lived and not dependent on solar energy," Dr Williams explained to BBC News.
"You can operate for a long time, and in areas of Mars where the amount of sunlight is relatively small. Because you're collecting your propellant from the Martian atmosphere you're not limited by having to take propellant out from Earth."
The concept design would require a week to gather sufficient propellant for a hop of about a kilometre, but eventual designs will accommodate the needs of exploratory missions, pausing less or more time at each landing site.
Manuel Martinez-Sanchez, director of the Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the idea seemed sound but raised one concern about its potential robustness.
"Radioisotope generators are intrinsically dangerous... and they contain materials -not only radioactive, but highly poisonous - that should never be released to the environment," he explained to BBC News.
"It does not seem wise to place one of these things on a 'bouncer', subject to periodic impact loads on unpredictable terrain."
The team admits the idea is very much in the formative stages, and is in the process of refining it.
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