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An extremely large sinkhole in Lynn, Massachusetts, has tied up traffic for the Friday afternoon commute. (Published Friday, Aug. 21, 2015)
An extremely large sinkhole in Lynn, Massachusetts, has tied up traffic for the Friday afternoon and evening commutes.
The sinkhole is located at Shepard and South Common Streets. It is about 12 feet in diameter.
The problems are mounting after a sewer line broke Friday afternoon. Crews on the scene Friday night were working to shut off the water.
The concern is if the water line breaks, and it’s already leaking, it could cause a gas main to rupture, which could then lead to an explosion.
City officials say the sewer line that ruptured is made of brick and dates back to the 1800’s.
The broken sewer line caused the street to give way. It happened moments after a driver drove over the same section.
Until the repairs are made, local officials are warning people who live in the area to stay away from any sewage backups.
Video Family of Bears Plays in New Jersey Pool
Several people who live in the neighborhood say they'd noticed an issue with the road.
But city officials tell necn they did not receive any complaints about the roadway or sewage back ups that may have tipped them off in advance.
Because crews are shutting off the water, several homes in the immediate area will be without water for the time being. City officials are hoping to have everything repaired by Monday if there are no complications.
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Update, December 9, 2017: This overlay still exists, but this post’s instructions don’t work on iOS 11 and later. In an update to his excellent book, Advanced Apple Debugging and Reverse Engineering, Derek Selander describes how to get the panel working in iOS 11. He’s generously posted the chapter for free here.
While browsing UIKit’s private headers recently, I came across a class that I hadn’t seen before - UIDebuggingInformationOverlay . A Google search didn’t turn up much info, so figured I’d write a short description of what I’ve found.
UIDebuggingInformationOverlay is a private UIWindow subclass created by Apple, presumably to help developers and designers debug Apple’s own iOS apps.
When enabled, the window floats over your app’s content, like so:
In this post, I’ll show you how to make it display. I’ll also summarize its features, at least as I understand them.
How to show UIDebuggingInformationOverlay
There are two steps needed to show UIDebuggingInformationOverlay in all its glory:
Call [UIDebuggingInformationOverlay prepareDebuggingOverlay] - I’m not sure exactly what this method does, but the overlay will be empty if you don’t call it. Call [[UIDebuggingInformationOverlay overlay] toggleVisibility] - This shows the overlay window (assuming it’s not already visible).
Because the class and its methods are private, you’ll need to jump through a few hoops to get the code to compile. One approach is to use the global ‘NSClassFromString’ and ‘NSSelectorFromString’ functions. In Swift, this approach looks something like:
let overlayClass = NSClassFromString ( "UIDebuggingInformationOverlay" ) as? UIWindow . Type _ = overlayClass ? . perform ( NSSelectorFromString ( "prepareDebuggingOverlay" )) let overlay = overlayClass ? . perform ( NSSelectorFromString ( "overlay" )) . takeUnretainedValue () as? UIWindow _ = overlay ? . perform ( NSSelectorFromString ( "toggleVisibility" ))
However you choose to do it, be sure that the code doesn’t make it into your App Store build, else you’re likely to get rejected.
Update, May 26, 2017: Thanks to Bryce Pauken, who discovered that once you’ve called [UIDebuggingInformationOverlay prepareDebuggingOverlay] , you can just tap the status bar with two fingers to show the console. No need to call toggleVisibility .
Update, June 2, 2017: More from Bryce:
I went through a disassembler (Hopper!) because I was curious about what prepareDebuggingOverlay did as well. Here’s part of the output. Even before parsing through it, statusBarWindow + numberOfTouchesRequired jumps out quickly enough: r14 = [[*_UIApp statusBarWindow] retain]; r15 = [UITapGestureRecognizer alloc]; rbx = [[UIDebuggingInformationOverlay overlay] retain]; r12 = [r15 initWithTarget:rbx action:@selector(_handleActivationGesture:)]; [rbx release]; [r12 setNumberOfTouchesRequired:0x2]; [r12 setNumberOfTapsRequired:0x1]; [r14 addGestureRecognizer:r12]; Another fun takeaway from Hopper — there actually is a spot in UIKit where this method is called: ( -[UIApplication _runWithMainScene:transitionContext:completion:] , seems to be called during app launch) which after some more digging, seems to enable the debug overlay if 1) CPIsInternalDevice() returns true, and 2) UserDefaults(suiteName: "com.apple.UIKit") has a value of true for “DebuggingOverlayEnabled”. No information there that makes this nicer to enable, but still fun food for thought :)
What UIDebuggingInformationOverlay can do
As you can see from the above screenshot, the overlay provides seven features. I’ll give a brief overview of the first six. I wasn’t able to get the ‘System Color Audit’ screen to show me anything, send me a message if you have better luck.
The 'View Hierarchy' screen
This screen shows what you’d probably expect; a list of views in the selected window. From here, you can inspect any view’s details, including its frame and instance variables. You can also switch between windows if you have more than one, or are just curious to see how a system window is built.
The 'VC Hierarchy' screen
You can probably predict what this screen does as well. It’s very similar to the ‘View Hierarchy’ screen, except that it shows the hierarchy of active view controllers. From here, you can inspect any view controller’s details, including its view. You can also see whether the view controller is presenting a modal or is itself being presented.
The 'Ivar Explorer' screen
This screen gives you access to the UIApplication instance’s variables. More importantly, any object variables can also be explored. This includes the app delegate which, depending on your app’s structure, might provide a handy entry point into your custom objects.
The 'Measure' screen
This is one of the cooler features of the overlay, in my opinion. It lets you measure dimensions (in points) of the screen’s elements. First, select whether you want to see measurements on the ‘Horizontal’ or ‘Vertical’ axis. Then drag your finger along the screen, using the magnified viewer inside the console to assist you. There are two modes:
The default mode ignores view boundaries. As far as I can tell, this mode treats the screen as a single rasterized image, and uses changes in color as boundaries for potential measurements. For example, in the screenshot below, I am able to measure the distance between the end of a label’s text and the edge of the screen:
“View mode”, on the other hand, displays the size of the subview in focus. Drag your finger over a view to see the selected axis’s dimension. In this screenshot, I’m measuring the height of the textfield at the top of the screen:
The 'Spec Compare' screen
I could see this being an incredibly useful tool for collaboration between development and design. Add a screenshot to your device and then select it from the Spec Compare screen. The selected screenshot will be displayed on top of the live app. You can then drag down to decrease alpha and compare the spec to the actual implementation.
Update, May 26, 2017: Patrick Balestra reminded me that I left out an important step. You’ll need to include a value for the NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription key in your Info.plist. Tapping the ‘Add’ button presents a UIImagePickerController , and doing so without setting this value will cause your app to crash.
Wrap-up
I’ve only had a few days to play with this thing but am hoping to put it to use in our next beta. The console has a few rough edges, but it seems like a promising alternative to many of the open-source tools out there. If you have a chance to use it and notice anything that I missed, please feel free to reach out. I’ll update the post as I learn more.
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Around these parts, we're generally suckers for all things related to racing simulators. As such, we're excited to learn that Fanatec has unveiled its next generation of the Clubsport pedals that we reviewed over a year ago. Dubbed as the Clubsport pedals V2, the company refers to the peripheral as an "evolutionary" update to original, offering a trio of improvements. The clutch has been retooled to have a "regressive feel" that's said to be similar to a real automobile, while the brake is now of the hydraulic variety, featuring user replaceable synthetic oil -- naturally, it still has an adjustable spring and load cell pressure sensor for the utmost customizability. The final touch is merely some visual spice in the way of black anodization. Notably, there won't be any tuning kit available initially, and V1 owners might be disappointed to know that the company has opted not to offer an upgrade kit, citing costs and potentially complicated installation. Fanatec is aiming to have the Clubsport pedals V2 out by June, bundled alongside its Clubsport wheel, with pricing set at $250 for the US (€250 in the UK). Pre-orders won't begin until May, so in the meantime, shift over to the source link below and the video past the break for all the details.
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This weekend, at UFC ON FOX 7, a powerhouse, world class fighter will make his much anticipated debut in the main event. Daniel Cormier will face Frank Mir in a bout that has been over a year in the making. I recently sat down with Daniel to get his last minute thoughts going into Saturday night, as well as a few other topics. Here's what he had to say:
Stephie Daniels: You've spoken about having some anxiety to get in there and fight Mir as you reach your last couple of weeks. Does that nervous energy help you stay focused in the gym?
Daniel Cormier: It does, because all I think about is, 'Man, I cannot wait until Saturday.' I'm ready to try out some of the stuff I've been working on in the gym, and really ready to just get in there again and test my skills. That's the best thing about fighting, to me. I get to go out there and use all my new tools on a big stage against a guy that knows what he's doing. The uncertainty of it all just adds to the feeling. It's awesome. I love it.
SD: What differences have you noticed, in terms of media obligations, between your Strikeforce career and your first big UFC event? How are you coping with those?
DC: For me, personally, I've done a lot of media. I do a lot of it anyways, and it hasn't been overwhelming, by any means. I do the same type of stuff, just more of it. I do a media tour tomorrow. With Strikeforce, it might have been three interviews, but now it will be seven. Everything has doubled. It's all part of the game, and with it just being a few days out from the fight, we're not doing that much anyway. All they're going to do is get me out of my hotel room from laying down and playing video games [laughs].
SD: You were training for Mir once before, near the end of last year, but unfortunately, that fight didn't happen then, and we're just now getting to see it. Since then, Mir has switched it up, and has been training with Greg Jackson. Has that change made any difference to your preparation this time around?
DC: No it doesn't. I appreciate that he went and trained in a different place to prepare for me. When you do self evaluation, and you think, 'I'm a professional fighter, and when I look at myself honestly, I have to wonder if I'm good enough right now for the way the sport is changing.' I guess after Frank fought for the belt last, he realized he wasn't good enough, so he went out and tried to find a better training situation for himself. That's hard to do when you've had as much success as he's had.
I applaud him for it. I know that's a tough decision to make. He knows that he has to get better in order to keep up with this division. That said, it doesn't change up my preparation. I truly believe that if I do what I'm supposed to do, and I fight the way I'm supposed to fight, it really doesn't matter what the other guy does so much. It's what I do that matters. Most guys go in there and try to have a certain game plan for a certain fighter. You've got to go out and fight your fight. If you truly believe in yourself and your skills, most times, it's enough.
SD: Do you feel this fight against Mir is a jump up in competition, or do you feel you've faced the same or better competition in the Strikeforce GP?
You know, I don't feel like it's that much of a step up, honestly. I don't know if that's just my respect for Josh Barnett and Bigfoot Silva, but those guys are really good. I don't think many guys are a step up from those two.
DC: You know, I don't feel like it's that much of a step up, honestly. I don't know if that's just my respect for Josh Barnett and Bigfoot Silva, but those guys are really good. I don't think many guys are a step up from those two. Bigfoot just beat Alistair Overeem, and Josh has long been considered one of the best in the world, and still is, in my opinion. I think anytime you start thinking about taking a step up from Josh or Bigfoot, you can only look to Cain for that position, or maybe Junior dos Santos. Really, those two are the only ones that are better than the rest of the guys in the division.
SD: Speaking of Josh Barnett, I know the two of you had great respect and admiration for each other, and ended up becoming friends. Was it a little disappointing for you, to not see him come over to the UFC?
DC: I wish he would have. Josh is one of those rare guys that knows what he's worth, and he's willing to fight for it. There aren't too many guys that are willing to do that right now. It was very disappointing for me, because I really wanted to see him fight those guys and show that he is still one of the best in the world, and is to be respected. He's got great skills and is a great fighter. I think he would have brought a lot to the organization. I still hold out hope that at some point, they can get it figured out.
SD: You are one of, if not the most decorated wrestlers in MMA at the moment. What are the major differences between freestyle wrestling and wrestling for MMA? What habits did you have to unlearn or relearn?
DC: What I had to do was almost dumb it down a little bit. Your wrestling doesn't have to be as sharp as when you compete on the level I was. You've got to tone it down a little, because these guys, for the most part, aren't thinking like the world class wrestlers I was going against.
A lot of times, when you're wrestling a guy at the elite level, and he understands the sport, you can almost anticipate where he's going to go, because he's doing everything right, in terms of his defense and offense. Most guys aren't doing that in MMA. They're kind of just reacting to situations, and a lot of their reactions aren't what you'd expect from a great wrestler.
SD: How much of an advantage for you is it, going from being a coach to a high level competitor? Do you think your own experience as a coach has made you more coachable?
DC: It definitely helps me, in terms of learning, but I also get better when I coach. Every Tuesday or Saturday when I'm teaching wrestling practice, I'm doing techniques over and over again. You definitely get better as a coach. You're constantly learning as you're teaching.
SD: Talk about the viability of your 'go behind' game in MMA. Do people even shoot in on you anymore?
Bigfoot Silva took a shot on me. I think Mir is gonna have to. If he allows me to just control the fight, he's in for a rough night. He won't want to stay in those stand up exchanges and get beat up. He'll have to get it to the ground.
DC: They do. Bigfoot Silva took a shot on me. I think Mir is gonna have to. If he allows me to just control the fight, he's in for a rough night. He won't want to stay in those stand up exchanges and get beat up. He'll have to get it to the ground.
SD: You teach both children and adults. Is there a marked difference there? Who learns better, kids or grown ups?
DC: I think older guys learn better, because they just understand positions a little bit more. I do have some kids that pick stuff up really fast. I've got a kid right now named Moses. He's seven or eight years old, and last year, this kid couldn't win a match. He was terrified, and as a result, he only won five or six matches. Even though he was scared, you could tell he was a natural. He just had no confidence. He ended up coming back the entire summer and training. He learned and absorbed everything. This year he's 56-7. He did that all in a matter of less than two years.
SD: How did you feel watching Jake Varner win Olympic gold at a weight you dominated domestically for five years?
DC: It felt good. I was coming through the airport from a wrestling clinic in Washington, and I was just watching the TV, watching Jake. I was very happy for him. Any time an American becomes an Olympic champion, I'm happy. I'm always glad to see another American have success. I know what he must have had to go through to accomplish and achieve what he did.
SD: How's your jiu jitsu coming along, and do you ever think about competing in some of the tournaments?
DC: I always loved Dave Camarillo, but when I first started out here, he was already transitioning into doing his own thing. I didn't get him like Jon Fitch and Josh Thomson and those guys got him. I didn't have as much time with him as those guys did. Now, I've got a jiu jitsu coach that's there all the time, Leandro Viera. He's there all the time, and it's great. I love it.
I have a great coach in Leandro, and I love working with him. I actually envision in the next year or so, doing some competitions. I may do no gi stuff, because I like that better. It's coming along good, and I'm learning a lot of the little details, especially ahead of this fight.
SD: There's sort of been a contingency plan in place for you to face Jones at 205 if Cain held the HW belt. Is that plan becoming more of a reality now?
DC: Not necessarily. Even though that's been the plan, and I've been very vocal about it. The thing is, as of right now, it's not really part of reality. Right now, my focus and my reality is Frank Mir. A lot of people get lost in what can happen in the future. I'm not one of those guys.
I'm supposed to go in there on Saturday and beat Frank Mir. If I don't do that, then all that Jon Jones talk doesn't mean anything. My focus is on Frank, and it has been for a really long time. I am fully aware if I don't take care of this business in front of me, all that other stuff ain't gonna happen.
I have a lot of faith in myself. That's why I've trained and prepared so hard. I'm ready to go in there and do what I'm supposed to do on Saturday, and that's get my hand raised. It's not arrogance or cockiness. It's just believing in what I've done in the gym, believing in myself and believing in my team. I think we've done everything we can possibly do to prepare for this fight, and if it doesn't happen, and I lose that fight somehow, it will just be because Frank Mir was the better man, and I will be able to admit that.
You can follow Daniel via his Twitter account, @DC_MMA
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As part of an upcoming Guardian project, we want to know how Americans aged 18-35 from all walks of life allocate their income
How do you spend your money?
As a part of an upcoming project at the Guardian, we’re asking millennials (which we are defining as being between the ages of 18 and 35) from all over the US to tell us about their spending habits. The goal of this project: to illustrate the range in lifestyles of a generation that has been described as wasteful, wussy, freeloading and feckless.
We’re looking to talk to interns, teachers, tech employees, farmers, retail workers, designers, artists, service workers, copy writers, freelancers, accountants, bankers, bloggers and everything in between. Whether you live in a big city or a small town, whether you’re employed, unemployed or underemployed – we want to hear from you.
Right now, all we need now to know is if you’re interested in participating. If you are, fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch this week about next steps, and to give you details about the project.
* None of the information you provide us with below will be shared publicly. If you have any questions, get in touch.
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– The cheers last week for Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster from his party’s base praising his decision not to challenge a court ruling forcing the state to recognize out of state same-sex marriages were joined this week by loud conservative opposition.
On Thursday, nearly a week after a Kansas City judge issued the ruling, House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, penned a letter to Koster – the Democratic frontrunner for governor in 2016 – asking him to reverse his decision and challenge a court ruling that requires the state of Missouri to recognize out of state same-sex marriages.
“Chris Koster has a duty to defend our state’s constitution, whether he personally agrees with it or not. His job is to uphold and defend our constitution, not to make policy,” Jones said in a statement. “He cannot just abandon his duties when they are politically inconvenient, and I think it is disgraceful that he is attempting to do so.”
Jones said if Koster will not challenge the court’s ruling, he should instead “appoint someone in his place who is capable and able of doing so.” If Koster does not change his course, Jones threatened to act on his own using “the powers granted to the Missouri House to ensure our state’s constitution is defended in court.”
For both of the 2016 hopefuls, the issue of LGBT marriage provides a unique opportunity to reach out to base voters. Jones has not yet announced his plans for 2016, but he has over the past year made Koster – and, more specifically, the role of the state’s attorney general – a big target of his attention, signaling an interest in the job.
Koster – who faces something of a confidence gap particularly with liberals due to his acceptance of large campaign contributions from Republican donors and most recently his support of the controversial “right to farm” ballot measure – has used the issue to gain some praise from LGBT Missourians, a key demographic in a Democratic primary.
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According to WinFuture, this chip has significantly more transistors onboard (5.5 billion) than the Snapdragon (3.1 billion). It includes a dedicated "Neural Processing Unit" that appears to consist of purpose-built silicon (as Apple is rumored to have in the works), which differs from Qualcomm's approach on the current Snapdragon 835 (which is inside the latest Galaxy S8 / Note 8 phones as well as LG's V30). There, a "Hexagon" DSP built for other types of number crunching works with the rest of the chip to improve AI performance.
Meanwhile, ARM's updated Core-A75 platform (that Qualcomm and Huawei, among others, rely on) should start rolling out next year and bring with it another boost in AI power.
However it works, the Kirin 970's 8-core CPU and 12-core GPU claims "up to 25x the performance with 50x greater efficiency" than a quad-core Cortex-A73 processor alone. Thanks to its new design, the chip can chew through data faster while using less battery power -- something we can all appreciate. There's no word about the phone or other mobile devices we'll see this inside, but the Mate 10 seems like a sure bet, and there are rumors that device (or one like it) could show up in the US on AT&T early next year.
Follow all the latest news from IFA 2017 here!
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Summer is cranking along and so is Chicago's construction scene. In case you've missed it, the city is experiencing a boom in new construction. Thousands of new apartment units and hotel rooms are on the way, and the city's skyline is littered with cranes that are helping construct these new developments. And while it seems like Chicago's construction scene has hit critical mass, things are about to get even busier as additional projects launch over the next few months. Here's a quick downtown rundown of where various projects are at as we head into August.
Starting from the south, first up is the 40-story, 1,206-room Marriott Marquis at McCormick place which is now drilling caissons:
Next door, the site has been cleared for the 13-story Center Point Properties data center at Calumet and 21st...
as well as the new arena along Cermak Road.
Further north at 1333-1345 South Wabash, CMK's 144-unit condo project is finished, while the 28-story rental project One Triple Three next door has excavated the site.
Crossing into the Loop Community Area, JDL's 1000 South Clark with 29 floors and 469 rental units is just about topped out with glazing now covering most of the facade. When the Hartshorne Plunkard-designed structure rose, many watchers were surprised that the west side facing the Rock Island Metra tracks was not glass like the more prominent eastern exposure seen here but rather is a more austere concrete wall with punch-hole windows.
The SCB-designed 1001 South State is now really starting to take off with the tower past the more complicated levels of the parking podium and amenity deck. The 40 story, 398 unit structure now reaches the 14th floor.
Also designed by SCB, the 690-unit rental tower at Block 37 is really starting to make a visual impact as it is also getting very close to topping out.
Also in the Loop, John Buck Company's MILA, the bKL-designed 402-unit rental tower at Michigan and Lake is now about 40 floors up with its first panes of glass now installed.
More crucial construction boom coverage:
Mapping Chicago's 18 Highrises Under Construction Right Now
Springtime Check-In on Construction Sites Throughout the City
Making Sense of the Construction Boom Underway in the Loop
Developers to Deliver 3,000 New Downtown Apartments in 2015
How Downtown Became the Hottest Market for Chicago Renters
At the riverfront trio to the west, crews at the Goettsch Partners-designed 150 North Riverside has been busy installing steel as the much anticipated cantilever takes shape and the tower crane has been erected.
Meanwhile across the street, the Pickard Chilton designed River Point office tower at 444 West Lake has about 30 of its 53 floors of steel now framed out.
Across the river, the bKL-designed Wolf Point West tower has just topped out its 48 floors which will contain 507 rental units.
At 85 East Wacker Drive, work crews with W.E. O'Neil construction have now almost fully fireproofed the steel framed London House hotel annex and glass has begun installation on the first three floors.
In Streeterville, Golub & Company's SCB-designed Moment with 41 floors has now climbed up to the 14th floor.
Just up McClurg, the Ability Institute of RIC jointly designed by Gensler and HDR, Inc. is now almost fully clad, however another year's worth of interior build outs is still to come
Back on Grand Avenue, the 57-story David Hovey-designed Optima City Center II remains in a holding pattern at this time after completing foundation work.
Over in River North, Magellan's new apartment tower at the old Gino's East/Planet Hollywood has gotten a demo permit for the existing building, however the roof is still in use for now as parking.
While Magellan's other Wells Street project, the bKL-designed 34-story rental tower at Superior Street to the north has caisson drilling well under way.
Also on Wells, the 11-story apartment building developed by Akara Partners is now getting its facade. For those of you who thought this was just going to add to River North's inventory of beige painted concrete, well surprise: the facade appears to be hand-laid brick!
On the Loyola Water Tower Campus, the new 10-story business school designed by SCB is just about finished, as is the 36-story, 367-unit apartment tower next door.
Just up State Street, the 34-story Hartshorne Plunkard-designed No. 9 Walton with 67 very high-end condos has begun site preparations.
Further north along State Street, the even more exclusive 4 East Elm, with 35 units in a slender 25-story SCB-designed tower has reached the 16th floor.
Further west, Gerding/Edlen Development's 18-story GREC-designed rental tower at 625 West Division is nearing completion.
And finally, two upcoming projects which will soon be starting site preparations: The Sinclair (aka The Tower of Jewel) and Chicago/Hudson:
—Shawn Ursini
·Construction Watch archives
·Apartment Boom Town archives
·Hotel Boom Town archives
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Three Challenges for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
Brandon Ballinger Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 19, 2016
Why is the world’s most advanced AI used for cat videos, but not to help us live longer and healthier lives? A brief history of AI in Medicine, and the factors that may help it succeed where it has failed before.
Imagine yourself as a young graduate student in Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence lab, building a system to diagnose a common infectious disease. After years of sweat and toil, the day comes for the test: a head-to-head comparison with five of the top human experts in infectious disease. Over the first expert, your system squeezes a narrow victory, winning by just 4%. It beats the second, third, and fourth doctors handily. Against the fifth, it wins by an astounding 52%.
Would you believe such a system exists already? Would you believe it existed in 1979? This was the MYCIN project, and in spite of the excellent research results, it never made its way into clinical practice. [1]
In fact, although we’re surrounded by fantastic applications of modern AI, particularly deep learning — self-driving cars, Siri, AlphaGo, Google Translate, computer vision — the effect on medicine has been nearly nonexistent. In the top cardiology journal, Circulation, the term “deep learning” appears only twice [2]. Deep learning has never been mentioned in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, BMJ, or even JAMA, where the work on MYCIN was published 37 years ago. What happened?
There are three central challenges that have plagued past efforts to use artificial intelligence in medicine: the label problem, the deployment problem, and fear around regulation. Before we get in to those, let’s take a quick look at the state of medicine today.
The Moral Case for AI in Healthcare
Medicine is life and death. With such high stakes, one could ask: should we really be rocking the boat here? Why not just stick with existing, proven, clinical-grade algorithms?
Well, consider a few examples of the status quo:
The most common prediction model for stroke risk was based on only 25 strokes. Source: Lip 2010
To be clear, none of this means medical researchers are doing a bad job. Modern medicine is a miracle; it’s just unevenly-distributed. Computer scientists can bring much to the table here. With tools like Apple’s ResearchKit and Google Fit, we can collect health data at scale; with deep learning, we can translate large volumes of raw data into insights that help both clinicians and patients take real actions.
To do that, we must solve three hard problems: one technical, one a matter of political economy, and one regulatory. The good news is that each category has new developments that may let AI succeed where it has failed before.
Central Problem #1: Healthcare as a Label Desert and One-Shot Learning
Modern artificial intelligence is data-hungry. To make speech recognition on your Android phone accurate, Google trains a deep neural network on roughly 10,000 hours of annotated speech. In computer vision, ImageNet contains more than 1,034,908 hand-annotated images. These annotations, called labels, are essential to make techniques like deep learning work.
In medicine, each label represents a human life at risk.
For example, in our study with UCSF Cardiology, labeled examples come from people visiting the hospital for a procedure called cardioversion, a 400-joule electric shock to the chest that resets your heart rhythm. It can be a scary experience to go through. Many of these patients are gracious enough to wear a heart rate sensor (e.g., an Apple Watch) during the whole procedure in the hope of making life better for the next generation, but we know we’ll never get one million participants, and it would be unconscionable to ask.
Unsupervised (left), semi-supervised (center), and one-shot learning (right) require less labeled data.
Can AI work well in situations where we may have 1000x fewer labels than we’re used to? There’s already some promising work in this direction. First, it was unsupervised learning that sparked interest in deep learning in 2006–2009 — namely, pre-training and autoencoders, which can find structure in data that’s completely unlabeled. More recently, hybrid techniques such as semi-supervised sequence learning have established that you can make accurate predictions with less labeled data if you have a lot of unlabeled data. The most extreme setting is one-shot learning, where the algorithm learns to recognize a new pattern after being given only one label. Fei-Fei Li’s work on one-shot learning for computer vision, for example, “factored” statistical models into separate probability distributions on appearance and position; could similar “factorings” of medical data let us save lives sooner? Recent work on Bayesian program learning (Toronto, MIT, NYU) and one-shot generalization in deep generative models (DeepMind) are promising in this regard.
The Cardiogram app for Apple Watch has let us collect 8.4 billion unlabeled HealthKit data points. Users can share digital biomarkers, like resting heart rate, with researchers at the UCSF Health eHeart study from within the app.
Underlying many of these techniques are the idea that large amounts of unlabeled data may substitute for labeled data. Is that a real advance? Yes. With the proliferation of sensors, unlabeled data is now cheap. Some medical studies are making use of that already. For Cardiogram, that involved building an Apple Watch app to collect about 8.5 billion data points from HealthKit, and then partnering with UCSF Health eHeart project to collect medical-grade labels [left, 5]. Researchers at USC have trained a neural embedding on EMR data. The American Sleep Apnea association partnered with IBM Watson to develop a ResearchKit app where anybody can contribute their sleep data.
Central Problem #2: Deployment and the Outside-In Principle
Let’s say you’ve built a breakthrough algorithm. What happens next? The experience of MYCIN showed that research results aren’t enough; you need a path to deployment.
Historically, deployment has been difficult in fields like healthcare, education, and government. Electronic Medical Records have no real equivalent to an “App Store” that would let an individual doctor install a new algorithm [8]. EMR software is generally installed on-premise, sold in multi-year cycles to a centralized procurement team within each hospital system, and new features are driven by federally-mandated checklists. To get a new innovation through a heavyweight procurement process, you need a clear ROI. Unfortunately, hospitals tend to prioritize what they can bill for, which brings us to our ossified and dirigiste payment system, fee-for-service. Under fee-for-service, the hospital bills for each individual activity; in the case of a misdiagnosis, for example, they may perform and bill for follow-up tests. Perversely, that means a better algorithm may actually reduce the revenue of the hospitals expected to adopt it. How on earth would that ever fly?
Even worse, since a fee is specified for each individual service, innovations are non-billable by default. While in the abstract, a life-saving algorithm such as MYCIN should be adopted broadly, when you map out the concrete financial incentives, there’s no realistic path to deployment.
Fortunately, there is a change we can believe in. First, we don’t “ship” software anymore, we deploy it instantly. Second, the Affordable Care Act creates the ability for startups to own risk end-to-end: full-stack startups for healthcare.
First, shipping. Imaging yourself as an AI researcher building Microsoft Word’s spell checker in the 90’s. Your algorithm would be limited to whatever data you could collect in the lab; if you discovered a breakthrough, it would take years to ship. Now imagine yourself ten years later, working on spelling correction at Google. You can build your algorithm based on billions of search queries, clicks, page views, web pages, and links. Once it’s ready, you can deploy it instantly. That leads to a 100x faster feedback loop. More than any one algorithmic advance, systems like Google search perform so well because of this fast feedback loop.
The same thing is quietly becoming possible in medicine. We all have a supercomputer in our pocket. If you can find a way to package up artificial intelligence within an iOS or Android app, the deployment process shifts from an enterprise sales cycle to an app store update.
Second, the unbundling of risk. The Affordable Care Act has created alternatives to fee-for-service. For example, in bundled payments, Medicare pays a fixed fee for a surgery, and if the patient needs to be re-hospitalized within 90 days, the original provider is on the hook financially for the cost. That flips the incentives: if you invent a new AI algorithm 10% better at predicting risk (or better, preventing it), that now drives the bottom line for a hospital. There are many variants of fee-for-value being tested now: Accountable Care Organizations, risk-based contracting, full capitation, MACRA and MIPS, and more.
These two things enable outside-in approaches to healthcare: build up a user base outside the core of the healthcare system (e.g., outside the EMR), but take on risk for core problems within the healthcare system, such as re-hospitalizations. Together, these two factors let startups solve problems end-to-end, much the same way Uber solved transportation end-to-end rather than trying to sell software to taxi companies.
Only Partially a Problem: Regulation and Fear
Many entrepreneurs and researchers fear healthcare because it’s highly-regulated. The perception is that many regulatory regimes are just an expensive way to say “no” to new ideas.
And that perception is sometimes true: Certificates of Need, risk-based capital requirements, over-burdensome reporting, fee-for-service: these things sometimes create major barriers to new entrants and innovations, largely to our collective detriment.
But regulations can also be your ally. Take HIPAA. If the authors of MYCIN wanted to make it possible to run their algorithm on your medical record in 1978, there was really no way to do that. The medical record was owned by the hospital, not the patient. HIPAA, passed in 1996, flipped the ownership model: if the patient gives consent, the hospital is required to send the record to the patient or a designee. Today those records are sometimes faxes of paper copies, but efforts like Blue Button, FIHR, and meaningful use are moving them toward machine-readable formats. As my friend Ryan Panchadsaram says, HIPAA often says you can.
Closing Thoughts
If you’re a skilled AI practitioner currently sitting on the sidelines, now is your time to act. The problems that have kept AI out of healthcare for the last 40 years are now solvable. And your impact is large.
Modern research has become so specialized that our notion of impact is sometimes siloed. A world-class clinician may be rewarded for inventing a new surgery; an AI researcher may get credit for beating the world record on MNIST. When two fields cross, there can sometimes be fear, misunderstanding, or culture clashes.
We’re not unique in history. In 1944, the foundations of quantum physics had been laid, including, dramatically, the later detonation of the first atomic bomb. After the war, a generation of physicists turned their attention to biology. In the 1944 book What is Life?, Erwin Schrödinger referred to a sense of noblesse oblige that prevented researchers in disparate fields from collaborating deeply, and “beg[ged] to renounce the noblesse”:
Except from What is Life?, Erwin Schrödinger
Over the next 20 years, the field of molecular biology unfolded. Schrödinger himself used quantum mechanics to predict that our genetic material had the structure of an “aperiodic crystal.” Meanwhile, Luria and DelBrück (an M.D. and a physics PhD, respectively) discovered the genetic mechanism by which viruses replicate. The next decade, Watson (a biologist) and Crick (a physicist) applied x-rays from Rosalind Franklin (a chemist) to discover the double-helix structure of DNA. Both Luria & DelBrück and Watson & Crick would go on to win Nobel Prizes for those interdisciplinary collaborations. (Franklin herself had passed away by the time the latter prize was awarded.)
If AI in medicine were a hundredth as successful as physics was in biology, the impact would be astronomical. To return to the example of CHADS2-Vasc, there are about 21 million people on blood thinners worldwide; if a third of those don’t need it, then we’re causing 266,000 extra brain hemorrhages [7]. And that’s just one score for one disease. But we can only solve these problems if we beg to renounce the noblesse, as generations of scientists did before us. Lives are at stake.
Notes
[1] An interesting snapshot of history can be found in the 1982 book Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, long out of print. The author’s own exasperated reflection is that many of the ideas from the 80’s are still vibrant, but “medical record systems have moved toward routine adoption so slowly that the authors would have been shocked in 1982 to discover that many of the ideas we described are still immensely difficult to apply in practice because the data they rely on are not normally available in machine-readable form.” A more recent survey is Thirty years of artificial intelligence in medicine (AIME) conferences: A review of research themes (2015).
[2] Machine Learning in Medicine (Circulation, 2015) is a good summary, particularly the last section on the relationship between precision medicine and layers of representation in deep learning:
“In a deep learning representation of human disease, lower layers could represent clinical measurements (such as ECG data or protein biomarkers), intermediate layers could represent aberrant pathways (which may simultaneously impact many biomarkers), and top layers could represent disease subclasses (which arise from the variable contributions of ≥1 aberrant pathways). Ideally, such subclasses would do more than stratify by risk and would actually reflect the dominant disease mechanism(s). This raises a question about the underlying pathophysiologic basis of complex disease in any given individual: is it sparsely encoded in a limited set of aberrant pathways, which could be recovered by an unsupervised learning process (albeit with the right features collected and a large enough sample size), or is it a diffuse, multifactorial process with hundreds of small determinants combining in a highly variable way in different individuals? In the latter case, the concept of precision medicine is unlikely to be of much utility. However, in the former situation, unsupervised and perhaps deep learning might actually realize the elusive goal of reclassifying patients according to more homogenous subgroups, with shared pathophysiology, and the potential of shared response to therapy.”
[3] The c-statistic is also equivalent to the area under the ROC curve. Original source for CHADS2-Vasc: Lip 2010.
[4] From Risk stratification for sudden cardiac death: current
status and challenges for the future and Risk Stratification for Sudden Cardiac Death: A Plan for the Future.
[5] That’s not to imply the app is just a front for research: we care deeply that Cardiogram stands alone as an engaging, well-designed, and useful app. But deciding to build an app in the first place was driven by a broader purpose. As one doctor put it, “If you want to do world-class sociology research, build Facebook.”
[6] http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/19/5-must-dos-for-succeeding-in-health-tech/
[7] Warfarin causes brain hemorrhage in 38 out of every 1000 patients.
[8] A potential future exception: Illumina’s Helix. See Chrissy Farr’s piece in Fast Company on Illumina’s ambition to create an app store for your genome.
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The food industry is “on notice” that a sugar tax is still on the table unless tactics change to tackle the obesity crisis, the chief medical officer for England has warned.
Prof Sally Davies said large food companies needed to make significant changes in their manufacturing and marketing strategies if they did not want to see a sugar tax imposed, after her annual report said obesity should be treated as a priority for the government.
The report does not mention the possibility of a sugar tax, although it notes that product labelling and placement can influence shoppers’ behaviour, but Davies said on Friday the government should impose a tax if the industry did not respond to the crisis warnings.
“I think [sugar tax] is a runner,” she told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme. “With smoking, it took 20 years for the public to believe [a tax] was needed. I think we’re at a tipping point. I think industry is on notice. If it doesn’t deliver, then we’ll have to look at a sugar tax.
“Industry could solve this without a tax on sugary drink, so if they do we won’t need it. We’ll only need it if industry don’t reformulate, resize, sort their advertising out, make healthy life an easy option.”
David Cameron has consistently ruled out a sugar tax, but the cross-party health select committee, chaired by the Conservative MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, strongly endorses a 20% levy. Jamie Oliver, who gave evidence to the committee, has also campaigned for a sugar tax.
The CMO’s annual report for 2014, which focuses on women’s health, said the government should include obesity in its national risk register of civil emergencies, which includes terror attacks, natural disasters and disease outbreaks as crises for which the country needs to prepare.
In 2013, more than half of women aged 34-44 and almost two-thirds of women aged 45-54 were classified as overweight or obese, the report found.
Davies said she was not directly likening obesity to terrorism but said elevating the problem to the risk register was a way to get the government to tackle the crisis at every level, rather than treating it solely as a health issue.
“Politicians have to know the public will be with them, and as with seat belts as well, attitudes can change,” she said. “Supermarkets have to stop cheap promotions on unhealthy food, putting it at the checkout. We have to limit advertising dramatically and particularly to children. One can of coke is more free sugar than an adolescent should have in a day.”
Davies said she believed attitudes were shifting. “I think we are getting somewhere, we’ve got polling data that shows the public see obesity as a major risk and the government has to do something about,” she said. “That is major movement on two or three years ago. We are seeing the impact of being overweight and obesity on their lives, it shortens lives.”
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Hello Friend, Darlene Here
Josh H Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 30, 2017
Re-Introducing Darlene Alderson before the Season 3 premiere of Mr. Robot
Ms. Darlene Alderson Incognito? (USA Network)
It is less than two weeks until the season three premiere of Mr. Robot so, I figured I would take a few minutes to reintroduce some of the main characters and today I am breaking Darlene down.
<If you haven’t watched the first two seasons of Mr. Robot *Spoiler Alert*>
When we first met Darlene, we knew her only as a mysterious hacker and member of fsociety who seemed to be strangely familiar with new member Elliot Alderson. So, since we have learned a great deal of information about Darlene since her introduction, it seems an appropriate time to ask:
Who is Darlene?
Darlene is an accomplished hacker
2. Darlene is Elliot Alderson’s sister
3. Darlene was the leader of F-Society
4. Darlene is a Murderer
5. Darlene Is In FBI Custody
Darlene Is an Accomplished Hacker
Darlene Is Nobody To Mess With (USA Network)
From almost the beginning of the show Darlene has been central to most of the fsociety hacks and several other important attacks. She:
Wrote the Rootkit for the DDoS attack on E-Corp
Was involved in writing the software for the China part of the Steel Mountain operation
Has been involved in the social engineering portion of several hacks
Helped Elliot break into jail (when he was trying to unsuccessfully save Shayla during Season 1)
Encrypted E-Corps data after the 5/9 hack (making it impossible for them to access their own data)
Carried out the hack of Susan Jacobs smart house
Carried out the hack that led to the money burning incident in Season 2
Helps Elliot hack the FBI computers and carry out the femtocell operation
If Darlene lacks anything, it is vision not guts. Mr. Robot himself mentions many times during the companion book Red Wheelbarrow that he wishes that Elliot was more like Darlene.
Darlene Is Elliot Alderson’s Sister
An Alderson Family Christmas (USA Network)
The big Season One twists were:
Mr. Robot IS Elliot (an Alter)
Elliot IS Darlene’s Brother <thanks to the reader who caught my error here>
The way we discovered this last truth was a bit unsettling (as Mr. Robot is not Game of Thrones), Darlene tells Elliot she “loves him” after he disables the ‘Honeypot’ protecting Allsafe’s data which causes Elliot to attempt to kiss her at which point Darlene stops him and then informs him that he has forgotten that she is his sister “again.”
Darlene is Elliot’s younger sister, she was born on November 5, 1990 (Elliot was born on September 17, 1986 and Sam Esmail’s birthday was September 17, 1977).
Darlene and Elliot’s mother Magda was often abusive towards Darlene. Magda was abusive enough that Darlene refuses to join Elliot when he goes to visit her during Season 2 despite the fact that she appears to be catatonic and all-alone at the time (Magda appears to be living in a managed-care facility).
During the Word Up Wednesday sequence (Season 2 Episode 6) Magda hits Darlene several times and there are other suggestions that abuse was a constant part of her childhood.
There is a story in the Mr. Robot companion book Red Wheelbarrow in which Elliot shares that Darlene ran away as a child after Magda insisted that she drown the kitten that she had smuggled in to the house.
During Season 2, Darlene shares that she kidnapped at an amusement park when she was 5 years old. She wistfully suggests that, at the time, she wanted to stay with the mentally ill woman who kidnapped her instead of being forced to return home to her mother’s care. Darlene suggests that the only thing that made it survivable was Elliot’s love. Darlene and Elliot would often stay out all day together and go to movies in order to avoid having to be at home.
Angela Moss and Darlene were childhood friends and there is a suggestion that sexual abuse or sexually inappropriate contact may have connected the two of them in their past as well. Darlene’s IRC screen name in Season 2 is Dolores Haze and Angela has the book ‘Lolita’ on her childhood desk during the “password whiterose” scene during that same season (Dolores Haze is the underage object of Humbert Humbert’s affections).
One interesting aside here, when Darlene tells the story about being abducted she acts as if her father was still alive (he had actually already died from leukemia at this point) and when she concludes the story, she says the following:
“My parents never asked me what I wanted… ever. It was the first time I ever really felt special. We started driving to her house, and… I definitely remember thinking that something wasn’t right, but I just looked at her and her lipstick and let it happen. And then we got to her house, and she showed me my room, and it had one of those beds with the curtains around it. And I did feel like a princess. I remember thinking that this was my new home and my new life, and I didn’t have to see my parents ever again. It was like a wish I had that all of a sudden came true.”
This indicates to me both that being kidnapped made her feel special in a way that her parents never did and also that she didn’t love her parents (plural).
I am not saying it means that her father was abusive too but it remains a possibility and we know that he threw Elliot out a window as a child.
Darlene Was the Leader of Fsociety
Everyone Wears A Mask Sometimes (USA Network)
When Elliot decided that he should get himself thrown in jail in order to hide from the consequences of the 5/9 blowback he left Darlene in charge of fsociety. As you may remember, however, the stress of trying to keep things running was getting to her from the very beginning (often, when she is alone, she breaks down and cries etc.).
Darlene was there at the creation of fsociety.
The blueprint was created one Halloween, several years prior to the main timeline of the show, while Elliot and Darlene smoked dope and watched the Careful Massacre of the Bourgeoisie. She was critical to its founding, very involved in most of its important hacks, and at times a mildly effective leader.
But, near the end of the season (during the hidden process episode), Darlene explains the problem she faced being thrust into the leadership of fsociety:
“I’m not special. It’s Elliot. He’s the one with the plan… the one they’re taking seriously. I thought there was something special about me that made it happen. But it wasn’t me, Mobley, Trenton, or Romero. It was him.”
The experience of leadership taught her that she wasn’t cut out for being in charge, that she didn’t have enough vision to run an organization, and she didn’t really enjoy it.
The experience of leadership also taught her that while it seemed like everyone in fsociety was working together as a team to mutually accomplish unified goals, the truth was that Elliot was always the one making everything happen.
When she told the story of being kidnapped she suggested that being abducted made her feel special in a way her family never did. You could read this to mean that while she loves Elliot she also resents him (“I’m not special it’s Elliot”) but I suspect what she was really saying is that she learned her lesson and doesn’t want to be that kind of special again.
Darlene Is A Murderer
Susan Jacobs Watery Grave (USA Network)
Okay, there is really no sugar coating this one, Darlene straight up murdered Susan Jacobs with a stun gun (there is a decent amount of circumstantial evidence supporting Darlene’s knowledge of Jacob’s heart condition and Darlene had the motive, means, and clearly took the opportunity).
There has been a TON of mischief and misery that have been caused by the members of fsociety but this is one of the few outright, first-hand, murders.
I am one of the last people to say that people defined entirely by their crimes so I intend no judgment at all.
I have no larger point here, but it seemed worth mentioning.
Darlene Is In FBI Custody
You Can’t Crack Me Copper (USA Network)
At the end of Season 2 Darlene was in FBI custody, had been threatened with prosecution under the Patriot Act by a Senior Agent, and had been shown the “Big Board” of suspects (including but not limited to her). Here is that board:
Not a Board You Want To Be On (USA Network)
<FYI, if you write to any of the email addresses of the people on the Big Board you will get a response>
My personal guess is that Darlene is going to be stuck trying to play the dangerous game of working with the FBI as an informant while she is also trying to protect Elliot from the FBI and the many other forces aligned against him.
I think that Darlene will not entirely be faking her assistance to Dom and the FBI because she has a HUGE personal reason to take down the Dark Army. In case you forgot, the Dark Army assassinated her boyfriend (who I am pretty sure she loved) Cisco.
Too Late Dom (USA Network)
So, she has a motive to work with Dom in good faith unless and until that work puts Elliot directly at risk.
Okay, that’s all I have for today, please feel free to let me hear your theories in the comment section or on Twitter.
Josh is a 100% reader-funded blogger and freelance writer. Please consider adding him here, following him on Twitter, throwing a tip into his hat on Patreon, or adding his blog OnPirateSatellite to your feeds.
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Houston Texans safety D.J. Swearinger has apologized more than once for his low hit that wiped out the knee of Miami Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller.
Swearinger told The Palm Beach Post on Saturday night that he dove low to avoid a blow to Keller's head, in accordance with league rules, saying: "In this league, you've got to go low. If you go high, you're going to get a fine."
Dolphins right tackle Tyson Clabo was critical of the Texans' rookie after Houston's 24-17 preseason win, and Miami wide receiver Brian Hartline wasn't buying what Swearinger was selling, either.
Hartline on Tuesday called the explanation "crap."
"I think that, me personally ... (what) you're telling me is, 'Oh, I'm still worried about going high or hurting the head,' " Hartline told WQAM-AM. "So you consciously went low then, is what you're trying to tell me."
Said Hartline: "I'm not a defensive player, so I don't sit here and assume right off the bat. But what I do know is that I have a lot of good pros on my team and, from what they have said to me, is that (there) is no place for that in the game today."
Hartline, understandably, isn't happy about losing a teammate, but Swearinger has been contrite about the tackle that ended Keller's season. Today's players are preached at to avoid hits to the head, and the NFL has gone all-in to prevent and treat concussions.
Hartline isn't required to agree with Swearinger's thinking, but judging the safety's intent on the play is, at best, a gray area.
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Lurid accounts shared on social media of wives exacting revenge on their cheating husbands have helped make dramatic - and occasionally excruciating – score-settling an increasingly common feature in marital splits in Britain, divorce lawyers say.
High profile cases of celebrity spouses getting their own back in spectacular fashion have also helped normalise the practice, they believe.
Sam Hall, a partner in family law at JMW Solicitors, calculated that around one in seven of the cases involving allegations of infidelity which his firm handles each year now feature some act of catharsis by a wronged wife upon a cheating husband.
He said recent cases he had dealt with included a number of incidents of wives applying ultra-strong glue to intimate parts of their husbands’ anatomy as they slept.
There were also examples of wives adept with a needle and thread sewing rotting seafood into furniture and even, in one case, into the lining of a motorcycle crash helmet.
One wife put her husband’s prized sports car up for sale online with an asking price of just £1 while others secreted particularly unpleasant smelling items in lavatory cisterns.
Others set out to embarrass their estranged spouse by sending packages to their new home address containing awkward items such as testing kits for sexually transmitted diseases.
Mr Hall said that while infidelity affected both men and women deeply, wives were more likely to be attracted to venting their feelings in a calculated fashion.
But he said there also appear to be generational differences in how they react upon finding out about alleged infidelity, with younger wives more likely to turn to the internet, either for inspiration or to share details of their revenge afterwards.
“In my experience, a bombshell event, such as the discovery of an affair, generates a far more passionate response than a divorce which occurs simply because a couple has grown apart over time,” he said.
“Whereas adultery might have deflated wives in previous generations, social media now provides women both with the means of uncovering infidelities and an outlet for publicising the emotions that they stir up.
“We have had cases in which women have not only attacked their husbands’ clothes and cars but have done a variety of things, such as hide seafood around the former marital home and use glue on their spouses as they lay sleeping.
“Some have even conceded that they felt they were following the lead of high-profile women who had engaged in similar behaviour.”
He added that while such incidents might seem amusing to others, they illustrate the depth of distress caused by infidelity.
“In these circumstances, it’s a case of the heart ruling the head.
“However, in the vast majority of instances with which we have dealt, it’s the wife who is still able to be more controlled and more creative than the husband in showing how upset she is.
“Even so, I have seldom encountered marital score-settling involving someone emptying a joint bank account, for example.
“I believe that is because revenge appears to be something of a reflex and not a commercial process to the people concerned.”
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It was about this time last year that Europa really began to excite us again. Following a sci-fi movie about the Jupiter moon, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope announced they had found possible water vapor near the icy moon — maybe from geysers erupting from its icy surface. (That is, if the finding was not due to signal noise, which researchers acknowledged at the time.)
As NASA ramped up (distant) plans to get close to Europa again, scientists began plumbing data from the Cassini spacecraft to see if its glance at the moon circa 2001 revealed anything. Turns out that the spacecraft didn’t see any sign of a plume. Which leads to the greater question, what is happening?
Now scientists are scurrying for a second look. Hubble is in the midst of a six-month search of the moon (from afar) to see if any more of the plumes are showing up. Now the theory is that the plumes, if they do exist, would be intermittent — at least, that’s according to the team looking at data from Cassini’s ultraviolet imaging spectograph (UVIS).
“It is certainly still possible that plume activity occurs, but that it is infrequent or the plumes are smaller than we see at Enceladus,” stated co-author Amanda Hendrix, a Cassini UVIS team member with the Planetary Science Institute in Pasadena. “If eruptive activity was occurring at the time of Cassini’s flyby, it was at a level too low to be detectable by UVIS.”
This finding was part of a greater set of observations showing that it’s not really Europa that is contributing plasma (superheated gas) to space — it’s the ultra-volcanic moon Io. And Europa itself is sending out 40 times less oxygen than previously believed to the area surrounding the moon.
“A downward revision in the amount of oxygen Europa pumps into the environment around Jupiter would make it less likely that the moon is regularly venting plumes of water vapor high into orbit, especially at the time the data was acquired,” NASA stated. This would stand in contrast to, say, Saturn’s Enceladus — which Cassini has seen sending plumes high above the moon’s surface.
The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting earlier this month and also published in the Astrophysical Journal. The research was led by Don Shemansky, a Cassini UVIS team member with Space Environment Technologies.
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Filmmaker SG Collins says the technology was not available in 1969 to hoax the moon landings.
One expert hopes to have nipped the conspiracy theory in the bud once and for amid claims it would have been impossible to hoax the moon missions.
Filmmaker SG Collins of Post War Media made a video which describes in detail how videotape technology of the late 1960s was not up to the job of making a fake moon landing.
The problem, he says, is that in 1969 there was not any video tape that could have recorded unbroken for long enough to create a fake version of the live broadcast of the mission and from the lunar surface.
The live broadcast, which was the most watched in history lasted around two and a half hours straight, with no gaps.
Mr Collins says no such video tape existed to go for that amount of time back then.
He said in the video: "Did they fake going to the moon? No, I am pretty sure they did not because they could not,
"Some people say in 1969 they were in capable of sending a man to the moon, but were able to stage the whole thing in a TV studio.
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OKLAHOMA CITY - Last weekend, an Oklahoma City neighborhood was stunned when a house suddenly exploded early Saturday morning.
In all, three people were injured in the explosion and dozens of homes were damaged in the neighborhood, located near N.W. 122nd St. and Rockwell Ave.
Initially, fire investigators said it was obvious that natural gas found its way to an ignition source inside the home, which led to the explosion.
However, an exact cause was not available.
On Wednesday, officials with the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company released the preliminary results of their investigation.
"Preliminary results indicate that a leak occurred at a weld seam in a section of the gas main. Natural gas escaped from the main and migrated underground where it entered the residence. The gas was then ignited by an unknown source," a release by ONG read.
“Why did that weld separate? That’s the root cause,” said Matt Skinner, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
Skinner says their Pipeline Safety Department will be working with ONG to determine just that, the root cause.
ONG says that natural gas escaped from the main and migrated underground where it entered the home. The gas was then ignited by some unknown source.
“The inspector’s job is to make sure that, in this case, the utility has the testing done in a manner prescribed by protocol and by law,” said Skinner.
Skinner says an independent lab will do the testing on the weld that failed. He says it was a four-inch poly line, so it wouldn’t have rusted.
They will also be looking into the issue of a sewer line out at the property.
“Apparently, at the scene, there are indications that the sewer line was somehow compromised. So part of this investigation will be to determine how did that happen, when did it happen, was it in any way related to this incident,” said Skinner.
The segment of the pipe will continue to be tested to determine what caused the separation.
There are also reports that residents in the neighborhood smelled gas for several days before the explosion.
“That’s one of the things that the investigator is looking at,” said Skinner.
ONG says the segment of pipe involved has been removed and preserved for further examination and that the gas main has been repaired and is safely back in service to the unaffected households.
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Millennials are ruining everything
Millennials: They ruin everything! Millennials: They ruin everything! Image 1 of / 40 Caption Close Millennials are ruining everything 1 / 40 Back to Gallery
Millennials!
What are they even good for anyway? All they do is eat burritos and go into debt — they're the worst and they ruin everything. It's science!
Bar soap? They don't use it! Credit cards? They hate 'em!
They don't even like things that are unequivocally great, like diamonds and sex and alcohol.
The lot of them just don't make sense.
Above is a gallery of all the things millennials are ruining and the industries they are destroying, according to unfairly generalizing scientific studies, or at least to singular journalists making unsubstantiated observations.
Alyssa Pereira is a staff writer for SFGATE. Follow her here on Twitter.
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I was nonplussed by the high dudgeon of the so-called SciBlings. The bloggers evidently write often enough for ad-free academic journals that they still fume about adjacencies, advertorial and infomercials. Most writers for “legacy” media like newspapers, magazines and TV see brush fires over business-editorial crossings as an occupational hazard. They don’t quit anytime there’s an ad that looks so much like an article it has to be marked “this is an advertisement.”
Photo
But the bloggers’ eek-a-mouse posturing wasn’t the most striking part of the affair. Instead, it was the weird vindictiveness of many of the most prominent blogs. The stilted and seething tone of some of the defection posts sent me into the ScienceBlogs archives, where I expected to find original insights into science by writers who stress that they are part of, in the blogger Dave Munger’s words, “the most influential science blogging network in the world.” And while I found interesting stuff here and there, I also discovered that ScienceBlogs has become preoccupied with trivia, name-calling and saber rattling. Maybe that’s why the ScienceBlogs ship started to sink.
Recently a blogger called GrrlScientist, on Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted), expressed her disgust at the “flock of hugely protruding bellies and jiggling posteriors everywhere I go.” Gratuitous contempt like this is typical. Mark Hoofnagle on Denialism Blog sideswiped those who question antibiotics, writing, “their particular ideology requires them to believe in the primacy of religion (Christian Science, New Age Nonsense) or in the magical properties of nature.” Over at Pharyngula — which often ranks in the Top 100 blogs on the Internet— PZ Myers revels in sub-“South Park” blasphemy, presenting (in one recent stunt) his sketch of the Prophet Muhammad as a cow-pig hybrid excited about “raping a 9-year-old girl.”
Clearly I’ve been out of some loop for too long, but does everyone take for granted now that science sites are where graduate students, researchers, doctors and the “skeptical community” go not to interpret data or review experiments but to chip off one-liners, promote their books and jeer at smokers, fat people and churchgoers? And can anyone who still enjoys this class-inflected bloodsport tell me why it has to happen under the banner of science?
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Hammering away at an ideology, substituting stridency for contemplation, pummeling its enemies in absentia: ScienceBlogs has become Fox News for the religion-baiting, peak-oil crowd. Though Myers and other science bloggers boast that they can be jerky in the service of anti-charlatanism, that’s not what’s bothersome about them. What’s bothersome is that the site is misleading. It’s not science by scientists, not even remotely; it’s science blogging by science bloggers. And science blogging, apparently, is a form of redundant and effortfully incendiary rhetoric that draws bad-faith moral authority from the word “science” and from occasional invocations of “peer-reviewed” thises and thats.
Under cover of intellectual rigor, the science bloggers — or many of the most visible ones, anyway — prosecute agendas so charged with bigotry that it doesn’t take a pun-happy French critic or a rapier-witted Cambridge atheist to call this whole ScienceBlogs enterprise what it is, or has become: class-war claptrap.
Points of Entry: This Week's Recommendations
SEMPER SCI
For science that’s accessible but credible, steer clear of polarizing hatefests like atheist or eco-apocalypse blogs. Instead, check out scientificamerican.com, discovermagazine.com and Anthony Watts’s blog, Watts Up With That?
SCIASPORA
David Dobbs, who quit ScienceBlogs, has written well about the consequences of “unbundling” the ScienceBlogs bloggers. See his blog at its new location at neuronculture.com.
(SCI)ENCE
Stanford’s Presidential Lectures in the Humanities are archived — and helpfully linked — at prelectur.stanford.edu. Don’t miss Jacques Derrida’s from the spring of 1999. You will think. You finally almost know. What deconstruction. Is.
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Mass Effect: Andromeda will sell something like 3 million copies in the first few days of release, according to EA’s estimates.
During its Q3 financial results call last night, EA revealed an interesting detail about the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda.
The game is in a unique position because it releases just days before the end of the fourth quarter, and the FY2017 as a whole. This got investors to question if the bigger part of the revenue will be calculated in the new fiscal year, as opposed to the fourth quarter.
EA executive Blake Jorgensen was asked to give an idea of how the company expects Andromeda’s sales to be allocated. Jorgensen said that sales during the fourth quarter will make up between 30 to 50 percent of the game’s lifetime total.
Mass Effect 3 sold 6 million units overall, according to Jorgensen, which means Andromeda will probably shift 3 million copies before the end of the quarter.
This is the first time EA has openly talked about the sales potential of the game, and though the executive didn’t mention expectations for the Andromeda’s lifetime sales, it’s still better than nothing.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is out March 21 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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Indiana’s 2016 recruiting class now has a fifth member.
Class of 2016 Neosho County Community College (Kan.) forward Freddie McSwain announced for the Hoosiers in a ceremony on Sunday night. McSwain picked Indiana over Kansas State.
“I’d like to thank Kansas State for everything,” McSwain said. “But I’m going to Indiana.”
In an interview with Inside the Hall prior to his announcement, McSwain cited player development as a major reason for his interest in the program.
“What stands out to me about Indiana is the player development,” he said. “I worked out with them and saw a lot of things that were new to me, that I hadn’t seen before. Coach (Tom) Crean saw a lot of things that I needed to work on in my game and I like that.”
Indiana offered McSwain a scholarship on Tuesday, March 29 and hosted him for an official visit from April 18-20. The 6-foot-6 forward joins De’Ron Davis, Curtis Jones, Devonte Green and Grant Gelon in the 2016 recruiting class.
In his second season at Neosho, McSwain averaged more than 14 points and eight rebounds per game and shot 54.2 percent from the field as the Panthers finished 30-6.
Neosho’s season ended on March 16 in the second round of the National Junior College Athlete Association national tournament in Hutchinson (Kan.) with a 73-72 loss to Gillete College. McSwain had a team-high 19 points and 11 rebounds in that contest.
McSwain said that Indiana began to show heavy interest in him right around the time of the national tournament.
A native of Hinesville, Georgia, McSwain was named the Region VI tournament MVP and was also named first team All-KJCC and first team All-region.
In a 66-58 upset win over Hutchinson (Kan.) in the Region VI final on March 3, McSwain scored a game-high 17 points, including 12 in the second half.
In addition to Indiana and Kansas State, he also had offers from Auburn, Bradley, Illinois State, Marquette, UNLV and several others, according to his profile on 247Sports.
The addition of McSwain brings Indiana to 13 scholarship players on paper, assuming junior forward Troy Williams remains in the NBA draft.
Williams, who is expected to graduate in May, announced his intentions to enter the draft earlier this month, but has not hired an agent, which leaves him the option to return for his senior season. He was in Texas over the weekend working out with John Lucas and is expected to be among the players invited to next month’s NBA draft combine in Chicago.
McSwain joins Thomas Bryant, De’Ron Davis, Juwan Morgan, Collin Hartman and OG Anunoby in what should be a deep and versatile frontcourt next winter in Bloomington.
Several preseason top 25’s have Indiana in the top 15 and the addition of McSwain should add elite athleticism and depth to the roster.
Next Year I’ll will be Attending…. INDIANA UNIVERSITY ?? pic.twitter.com/6vXmNOFWTJ — Freddie McSwain Jr. (@Mcswain_swain) April 24, 2016
Filed to: Freddie McSwain
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An anti-gay mom in Nassau County, on Long Island, New York, is so adamant in her prejudice against gay people, that she has invited the world to call her on the phone so she can explain her objections to homosexuality.
Well, either that or someone with a 516 area code number is the victim of a very cruel prank. Internet hoaxes happen all the time, and in at at least some ways, it would be better if this were one of them. But true or false, the anti-gay mom birthday party story will have hurt some some very real feelings.
Here’s the story, at least the way it’s being presented in reports circulating on line today, anyway. It started with a birthday party invitation for a 7-year-old girl named Sophia, in Baldwin, New York. That’s a community within the town of Hempstead on Long Island.
The thing is, the parents who sent out the invitation are a same-sex couple. That fact, of course, wasn’t mentioned on the invitation — why should it be? — which simply announced that Sophia’s seven-year birthday bash would be “a tie dye party.” So presumably, little kids and their parents were encouraged to show up dressed as Grateful Dead fans.
But one mom — one apparently very anti-gay mom — was so offended by the simple fact that a same sex couple would send out a birthday invite for their little girl, that she felt moved to scrawl an angry screed on the invite and return it.
Here’s what the note said, in case you can’t read it in the above photo. But stick with this story. There’s a kicker coming up.
“Tommy will NOT attend. I do not beleive (sic) in what you do and will not subject my innocent son to your ‘lifestyle.’ I am sorry Sophia has to grow up this way. If you have an issue or need to speak to me: 516-xxx-xxxx.”
As you see, “Beth” gave her phone number at the end of the note.
When the two dads, understandably offended, shared the above photograph of the note, complete with phone number with two local morning DJ’s, “Steve and Leeana” of K-98.3, the station posted the photo on its Facebook page.
And here’s the kicker. The station said that it called the anti-gay mom and she gave them permission to post her phone number to let anyone who has a problem with her anti-gay stance hear it from her own lips.
We’ve obscured the number in the photo above, because if this is a sadistic prank on an innocent person — or even if it’s not — someone is going to need new phone number in a hurry.
The Addicting Info site attempted to call the anti-gay mom, but not surprisingly just got a message, “Hello. Please state your name after the tone, and Global Voice will try to connect you.”
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Lynette White was murdered in 1988. When the three men first imprisoned for her murder were found to have been wrongfully convicted, it seemed that her killer would go unpunished. However, new technology invented in 2002 was used to analyze DNA found at the scene of the murder. The only match was to a boy too young to have committed the murder, but DNA samples were taken from his family. The youth’s uncle confessed, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003.
In criminal investigation, DNA evidence can be a game-changer. But DNA is just one piece of the puzzle, rarely giving a clear “he did it” answer. According to a consortium of forensic experts who released a report earlier this year, there are limits to what DNA can tell us about a crime. And what it can and can’t reliably prove in court needs to be much clearer.
Audio brought to you by curio.io
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a code that programs how we will develop, grow, and function. Humans are thought to have DNA that is 99.9% identical, but the remaining 0.1% makes us individuals, marking us out as unique. The fact that humans and chimpanzees have just a 1% difference in their DNA further highlights how meaningful a small difference can be. Generally, the more closely related we are to someone, the more similar our DNA will be to theirs.
The tiny part of our DNA that is unique to us can be used to generate a DNA profile. This profile is usually represented as a graph showing different peaks, which reports the patterns at different points where our DNA is most likely to be unique.
“The increasingly prominent role played by forensic science in the administration of criminal justice is due in no small measure to the meteoric rise in DNA profiling,” wrote the law professor Liz Hefferman in a 2008 article for the British Journal of Criminology.
* * *
DNA profiling has had some remarkable successes, including finally ending a two-decade long hunt for the “Green River Killer,” who strangled at least fifty women, dumping their bodies in various spots around the Green River in Washington State. However, DNA profiles are often not clean enough to conclusively identify an individual. Ideally, a DNA sample would be complete enough to examine at least 16 different “markers,” points at which an individual’s DNA fingerprint can be sketched out. But when DNA is damaged, as it often is through exposure to moisture or extreme temperatures, only some of these markers will be available, and forensics teams will generate a partial profile. Put simply, if a DNA profile is a complete description of a person’s appearance, a partial profile might describe only one of their traits—hair color, for instance.
Even full profiles may match with a person other than the culprit.
Partial profiles will match up with many more people than a full profile. And even full profiles may match with a person other than the culprit. Further complicating matters, a single DNA profile might be mistakenly generated when samples from multiple people are accidentally combined. It’s a messy world.
Realistically, then, DNA profiles should only be thought of as being likely to have come from a specific individual. Statistical approaches such as “match probability,” which is based on comparisons between crime scene DNA and a hypothetical “random” person, often are misunderstood. A more rigorous statistical approach is likelihood ratio, which directly compares two hypotheses: the likelihood of the DNA coming from the suspect vs. the likelihood of the DNA coming from someone else. If the likelihood ratio is less than one, the defense position (the DNA is not the suspect’s) is better supported; if it is greater than one, there is more support for the prosecution case. Still, the ratio at most provides scientific support for a theory, not a yes-or-no answer.
* * *
A study from the University of California published in Law and Human Behavior tested undergraduate students’ abilities to interpret statistical evidence as it would be presented in court by prosecution and defense attorneys. The researchers found that the majority of these undergraduates failed to detect errors in statistical arguments and “made judgements based on fallacious reasoning.”
“Telling a jury it is implausible that anyone besides the suspect would have the same DNA test results is seldom, if ever, justified.”
When the American Bar Association reported on DNA technology, it backed the use of DNA evidence, but urged caution in how statistics were interpreted. The ABA urged lawyers not to oversell DNA evidence and suggested that courts take the standards of the lab into account when considering DNA evidence. “Telling a jury it is implausible that anyone besides the suspect would have the same DNA test results is seldom, if ever, justified,” the report states.
In addition, the European Forensic Genetics Network of Excellence (EUROFORGEN) and the charity Sense about Science collaborated on a report released earlier this year. The report sought to clarify what DNA analysis can and cannot do within the criminal justice system. EUROFORGEN researcher Denise Sydercombe Court, based at King’s College London, said:
We all enjoy a good crime drama and although we understand the difference between fiction and reality, the distinction can often be blurred by overdramatised press reports of real cases. As a result, most people have unrealistic perceptions of the meaning of scientific evidence, especially when it comes to DNA, which can lead to miscarriages of justice.
At times, DNA evidence has been misused or misunderstood, leading to miscarriages of justice. A man with Parkinson’s disease who was unable to walk more than a few feet without assistance was convicted of a burglary based on a partial DNA profile match. His lawyer insisted on more DNA tests, which exonerated him. In 2011, Adam Scott’s DNA matched with a sperm sample taken from a rape victim in Manchester—a city Scott, who lived more than 200 miles away, had never visited. Non-DNA evidence subsequently cleared Scott. The mixup was due to a careless mistake in the lab, in which a plate used to analyze Scott’s DNA from a minor incident was accidentally reused in the rape case.
Then there’s the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth that any of us could have DNA present at a crime scene—even if we were never there. Moreover, DNA recovered at a crime scene could have been deposited there at a time other than when the crime took place. Someone could have visited beforehand or stumbled upon the scene afterward. Alternatively, their DNA could have arrived via a process called secondary transfer, where their DNA was transferred to someone else, who carried it to the scene.
Additionally, DNA technology is becoming more and more sensitive, but this is a double-edged sword. On one hand, usable DNA evidence is more likely to be detected than ever before. On the other hand, contamination DNA and DNA that arrived by secondary transfer is now more likely to be detected, confusing investigations. If legal and judicial personnel aren’t fully trained in how to interpret forensic and DNA evidence, it can result in false leads and miscarriages of justice.
National DNA databases present some ethical quandaries.
Another consideration is that people shed DNA at different rates. DNA is found in bodily fluids, such as blood, semen, and saliva, but we also lose microscopic pieces of skin and hair on a regular basis. Some people lose DNA more quickly than others—if they have a skin condition, for example. If a thief uses a particular location as a stash, and a caretaker who suffers from eczema stumbles on it and reports it to the police, the forensics alone might implicate the caretaker. The quantity of their DNA present might suggest a significant period of time spent at that place. But in fact, the caretaker’s eczema resulted in more DNA being deposited there over a shorter time period.
National DNA databases, then, present some ethical quandaries. Many cases would never have been solved if not for DNA databases. In the Lynette White case, the breakthrough came when the police obtained the DNA profile of a relative of the murderer. However, the retention of DNA details raises legitimate privacy concerns, especially in the context of familial searching. Partial matches are more likely to lead to false positive identification of suspects who are already in the DNA database. Given that less privileged groups tend to be over-represented in DNA databases, this is a serious issue.
In 2011, a group of scientists asked whether forensic DNA databases increase racial disparities in policing. They pointed out that, in the U.S., different communities are differently policed, leading to different rates of incarceration and DNA recording. According to the study authors, actual drug use is relatively higher in white communities, but “buy and bust” operations by police are more common in African American and Latino communities, leading to disproportionate arrests.
The lesson of all this research: DNA evidence is a powerful tool in criminal investigation and prosecution, but it must be used with care. It should never be oversold in court, and it should only ever be considered in light of other available evidence. For example, if DNA is recovered in a kitchen that has been broken into, it could be from the homeowner, their guests, or even a member of the CSI team (if sufficient care hasn’t been taken to avoid contamination). If a tool-mark impression reveals that a screwdriver was used to force open the window, and DNA is recovered from a screwdriver found at the scene that does not belong to the homeowner, that’s incriminating. If that DNA is a partial or full match with an individual with the same shoe size as a footprint left in the grass under the window, even more so. If that individual has a torn piece of clothing that matches cloth fibres snagged in the window, that’s more incriminating still. If digital evidence such as their mobile phone records place them at the scene at the time the break-in happened—even though they claim to have been elsewhere—then you have a more complete picture.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story contained an unclear reference to evidence seized by police investigating the murder of Meredith Kercher. The example has since been removed. We regret any error.
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Last Updated: 11 Feb 2014
Lush has taken on the might of internet giant Amazon and won. In something of a landmark case, it could now lead to internet retail giants being forced to stop promoting alternatives to products they do not sell.
The case centred on the fact that Lush does not allow Amazon to sell its products, as the husband-and-wife run company is critical of the way the US tech giant operates.
But when visitors to Amazon typed the word ‘Lush’ into its search field, they were directed to alternative cosmetic products sold through Amazon. The tech giant had also gone one step further by taking on the Google AdWord 'Lush Bath Products', despite not selling any.
Late last year, the company took action against Amazon claiming trademark infringement – Lush said that that nowhere in its advertising did Amazon make clear that it did not sell Lush’s products.
At the time, co-founder Mark Constantine said: ‘It's a way of bullying businesses to use their services. And we refused. We've been in the high court this week to sue them for breach of trademark. It's cost us half a million pounds so far to defend our business. Most companies just can't afford that. But we've done it because it's a matter of principle. They keep on forcing your hand and yet they don't have a viable business model. The only way they can afford to run it is by not paying tax. If they had to behave in a more conventional way, they would struggle.’
In a ruling yesterday the High Court found in Lush’s favour, saying the average consumer wouldn’t be aware that they were being directed away from Lush’s bath bombs and soap-based products.
The case means other online retailers could now be deterred from making suggestions for alternatives to products that they do not sell and restrict how they use Google.
It follows a similar dispute between Interflora and Marks & Spencer, which M&S lost last year after a 5 year battle. The High Court ruled that its use of ‘Interflora’ in Google AdWords to produce results for its own service infringed trademarks belonging to Interflora.
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By Andrew Ross
NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenyan police on Saturday said that they foiled a major attack in the capital Nairobi after arresting two suspects accused of belonging to a terror group.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Police Inspector General Joseph Boinett said that they had arrested Abubakar Sadiq (69) and Yassin Juma (25), accused of plotting attacks on Kenyan schools and foreigners in the country.
Boinett said that the two had given police information of whom and where they were targeting.
“These two individuals have made a number of trips to Iran; there are handlers there and they have been given targets and money and directed on the targets to case future attacks,” Boinett told reporters.
“We are aware that the two traveled to Iran last month where they met their handler and were given precise targets, with most of them being Kenyan schools,” he added.
Boinett described Sadiq as a well-respected senior figure in the Nairobi-based Shia community, claiming that Abubakar had admitted to radicalizing youth in the Kenyan capital.
Boinett added that the two were being investigated in secret by police; he described Juma as a student who had been radicalized by Abubakar.
Boinett thanked the local Shia Muslim community for aiding investigations which led to the arrest of the pair.
“We appeal to the Kenyan people to remain watchful and to continue cooperating with us as we work to defend and protect our country,” he said.
He said that UN diplomatic car plates had been stolen earlier this week and might be used to commit a terror attack.
On Nov. 20, gunmen using stolen diplomatic vehicle plates attacked a hotel in Mali’s capital.
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Ninety-nine years ago -- on October 25, 1916 -- Margaret Sanger was arrested for operating a birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. She had opened the clinic – the nation’s first – nine days earlier and had already served 448 clients. She was convicted and sentenced to a month in jail.
Sanger, the pioneering advocate for women’s rights and founder of Planned Parenthood, is back in the news, 49 years after her death in 1966.
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The renewed interest in Sanger is due to the escalation of attacks on Planned Parenthood by Republicans and anti-abortion activists.
Last week, for example, GOP presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and his fellow Texan, Congressman Louie Gohmert, led a group of 25 Republican lawmakers who sent a letter to the director of the National Portrait Gallery urging the removal of a bust of Sanger from the gallery's "Struggle for Justice" exhibit.
"There is no ambiguity in what Margaret Sanger's bust represents: hatred, racism and the destruction of unborn life," wrote Cruz. "So many of the people who have arisen out of poverty and done great things for the country and the world, if she had her way, they would have never been born," said Gohmert.
Ben Carson, another GOP candidate for president, told Fox News in August: “I know who Margaret Sanger is, and I know that she believed in eugenics, and that she was not particularly enamored with black people. And one of the reasons that you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find way to control that population.” In a speech last month in New Hampshire, Carson said that Sanger, “believed that people like me should be eliminated or kept under control. So, I’m not real fond of her to be honest or anything that she established.” At a press conference later, he specified what he meant by "people like me." He said he was "talking about the black race."
Back in March, New Hampshire Rep. William O’Brien claimed Sanger was an "an active participant in the Ku Klux Klan."
The attacks on Sanger are part of the GOP’s campaign to demonize Planned Parenthood. Speaking to the ultra-conservative Values Voter Summit last month, Cruz said that in his first day in office, if elected president, he would “instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood -- and to prosecute any and all criminal conduct by that organization.“
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Jeb Bush recently claimed that Planned Parenthood should not receive federal funding because ”they’re not actually doing women’s health issues.”
Congressional Republicans have called for the federal government to pull all funding for Planned Parenthood. Last month, the House voted 241-187 to block Planned Parenthood’s federal funds for a year. The GOP-led House has opened four investigations into the organization. Earlier this month, Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hectored Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, for almost five hours.
The campaign against Planned Parenthood has gone beyond mere rhetoric and political grandstanding. Its clinics have been the victim of a string of recent arson attacks. In August, a security guard’s vehicle was set ablaze on the construction site for a new Planned Parenthood clinic in New Orleans. Fire investigators determined that a September fire that severely damaged a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington State was arson. Last month, another fire was intentionally set at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Los Angeles.
None of this would have surprised Sanger. In her time, she was a controversial figure. She often ran afoul of the law in her quest to promote women’s health and birth control.
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She was born Margaret Higgins in 1879, the sixth of eleven children in a working-class family in Corning, New York. Her father, Michael Higgins, a stonemason, was a freethinking atheist who gave Margaret books about strong women and encouraged her idealism. Her mother, Ann, was a devout Catholic and the strong and loving mainstay of the family. When she died from tuberculosis at age fifty, young Margaret had to take care of the family. She always believed that her mother’s many pregnancies had contributed to her early death.
Sanger longed to be a physician, but she was unable to pay for medical school. She enrolled in nursing school in White Plains, New York, and as part of her maternity training delivered many babies – unassisted -- in at-home births. She met women who had had several children and were desperate to avoid future pregnancies. Sanger had no idea what to tell them.
Soon after her 1902 marriage to architect and would-be painter William Sanger, she became pregnant, developed tuberculosis, and had a very difficult birth, followed by a lengthy illness and recovery. The young family moved from New York City to the suburbs for Margaret’s health, but two babies and eight years later, Sanger insisted that they return to the city.
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In New York the Sangers were part of a left-wing circle that included John Reed, William “Big Bill” Haywood, Lincoln Steffens, and Emma Goldman. Goldman had been smuggling contraceptive devices into the United States from France since at least 1900 and greatly influenced Sanger’s thinking. Sanger joined the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World, working with other radicals to provide support for its strikes.
Sanger also returned to nursing, working as a visiting nurse and midwife at Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement in the Lower East Side. There, again, women repeatedly asked her how to prevent future pregnancies. In those days, poor women tried a range of quack medicines and dangerous methods to end pregnancies, including the use of knitting needles. After one of Sanger’s patients died from a self-induced abortion, she decided her life’s mission would be fighting for the right of low-income women to control their destinies and improve their health through family planning.
After visiting France to learn more about contraceptive use, Sanger returned to the United States and launched a newsletter, the Woman Rebel, in 1914, with backing from unions and feminists. As Sanger and her friends sat around her dining room table addressing newsletters, they brainstormed about what to call their emerging movement for reproductive freedom. From that conversation, the term “birth control” was born. Encouraging working-class women to “think for themselves and build up a fighting character,” Sanger wrote that “women cannot be on an equal footing with men until they have full and complete control over their reproductive function.”
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Sanger began writing on women’s issues for the Call, a socialist newspaper. She expanded her columns into two popular books, What Every Mother Should Know (1914) and What Every Girl Should Know (1916), and later wrote an educational pamphlet called Family Limitation that would sell 10 million copies in thirteen languages. Around this time, Sanger wrote a column on the topic of venereal disease and went up against United States postal inspector Anthony Comstock, a one-man army against all things sexual.
In 1873 Congress passed the Comstock Law, which made illegal the delivery or transportation of “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” material and banned contraceptives and information about contraception from the mail. When postal officials refused to allow the Call to be mailed with the offending column, the paper responded by leaving empty the space where Sanger’s article would have appeared, except for the title: “What Every Girl Should Know – NOTHING!” And when Comstock seized the first few issues of the Woman Rebel from Sanger’s local post office, she got around him by mailing future issues from different post offices. Thousands of women responded to the newsletter, anxious for information on contraception.
Sanger received an arrest warrant for distributing the Woman Rebel and ended up in court. With very little time to prepare her defense and faced with a judge who seemed hostile to her cause, she decided to jump bail and flee, alone, to England.
After a year in exile, Sanger returned to the United States in 1916. By then, Comstock had died, and Sanger hoped that the laws might not be so vigorously enforced and that she might not have to stand trial. A well-publicized open letter to President Woodrow Wilson, signed by nine prominent British writers, including H. G. Wells, praised Sanger and her work. She gained more sympathy when newspapers reported that her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, had died suddenly of pneumonia. In the face of public pressure, the government dropped the case, though the laws remained on the books.
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That year Sanger opened the nation’s first birth control clinic, in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, primarily serving immigrant Jewish and Italian women. Sanger, her sister Ethel Byrne (a registered nurse), and Fania Mindell (who helped translate for the immigrant patients) rented a small storefront and distributed flyers written in English, Yiddish, and Italian advertising the clinic’s services. Sanger smuggled in diaphragms from the Netherlands, but she couldn’t recruit doctors to fit them properly in her patients. Although doctors were allowed to provide men with condoms as protection against venereal disease, it was illegal to provide women with contraception.
Sanger and her sister provided the services instead. The first day the clinic opened, they saw 140 people. Women --some from as far away as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts -- stood in long lines to avail themselves of the clinic’s services. After nine days, the vice squad raided the clinic, and Sanger spent the night in jail. As soon as she was released, she returned to work. Again, the police came, and this time they forced her landlord, a Sanger sympathizer, to evict them.
Following the eviction, Sanger, her sister, and Mindell were arrested for “creating a public nuisance” and went on trial in January 1917. Sanger was convicted, but the judge offered her a suspended sentence if she agreed not to repeat the offense. She refused. She was then offered a choice between a fine or thirty days in jail; she chose jail. She appealed the decision, but a year later the New York Court of Appeals upheld her conviction. However, the judge ruled that physicians could legally prescribe contraception for general health reasons, if not exclusively for venereal disease.
Sanger continued writing and advocating for reproductive health rights, founding (in 1921) the American Birth Control League, the precursor to Planned Parenthood, and (in 1923) the Birth Control Clinic Research Bureau, the first legal clinic to distribute contraceptive information and fit diaphragms, under the direction of women doctors.
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But it was not until 1936 that a federal district court in New York City ruled that the U.S. government could not interfere with the importation of diaphragms for medical use. In 1952, Sanger helped found the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She spent the end of her career raising money for research, in efforts that contributed to the development of the birth control pill.
Feminist and progressive reformers were divided over Sanger’s crusade for birth control. Alice Hamilton, Crystal Eastman, and Katharine Houghton Hepburn (actress Katherine Hepburn’s mother) supported Sanger, but others, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Carrie Chapman Catt, thought that birth control would increase men’s power over women as sex objects.
But what about Ben Carson’s accusations – similar to ones that Herman Cain made in 2012 when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination -- that Sanger targeted black women in her birth control crusade?
Their claims are false, even though they are frequently repeated.
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In 1930, with the support of the prominent black activist and intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois, the Urban League, and the Amsterdam News (New York’s leading black newspaper), Sanger opened a family planning clinic in Harlem, staffed by a black doctor and black social worker. The clinic was directed by a 15-member advisory board consisting of black doctors, nurses, clergy, journalists, and social workers.
Then, in 1939, key leaders in the black community encouraged Sanger to expand her efforts to the rural South, where most African Americans lived. Thus began the “Negro Project,” with Du Bois, Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of Harlem’s powerful Abyssinian Baptist Church, journalist and reformer Ida Wells, sociologist E. Franklin Frazier, educator Mary McLeod Bethune, and other black leaders lending support.
Sanger explained that the project was designed to help “a group notoriously underprivileged and handicapped…to get a fair share of the better things in life. To give them the means of helping themselves is perhaps the richest gift of all. We believe birth control knowledge brought to this group, is the most direct, constructive aid that can be given them to improve their immediate situation.”
Sanger viewed birth control as a way to empower black women, not as a means to reduce the black population. And according to Hazel Moore, who ran a birth control project in Virginia in the 1930s under Sanger’s direction, black women were very responsive to the birth control education under the “Negro Project.” At the same time, however, a number of Southern states began incorporating birth control services unevenly into their public health programs, which were rigidly segregated, providing health services to blacks that were poorly funded.
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To the detriment of her reputation and to the cause of reproductive freedom, Sanger was also attracted to aspects of the eugenics movement. In the 1920s and 1930s, some scientists viewed eugenics as a way to identify the hereditary bases of both physical and mental diseases. Many people across the political spectrum –including Winston Churchill, Herbert Hoover, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and even Du Bois – believed that humanity could be improved by selective breeding.
Others, however, viewed it as a means to create a “superior” human race. But eugenics and contraception did not go hand in hand. The Nazis opposed birth control and abortion for healthy and “fit” women in their effort to promote a white master race. In fact, Nazi Germany banned and burned Sanger’s books on family planning.
Although the eugenics movement included some who had racist ideas, wanting to create some sort of master race, "only a minority of eugenicists" ever believed this, according to Ruth Engs, professor emerita at the Indiana University School of Public Health and an expert in the movement.
At the time that Sanger was active, Engs wrote, "the purpose of eugenics was to improve the human race by having people be more healthy through exercise, recreation in parks, marriage to someone free from sexually transmitted diseases, well-baby clinics, immunizations, clean food and water, proper nutrition, non-smoking and drinking."
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Race-based eugenics was practiced in the United States as well. Blacks were used as unwitting subjects for medical experiments, such as the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972. Poor and especially black women were frequently sterilized in hospitals, often without their knowledge.
Many of the eugenics movement’s leaders were racists and anti-Semites who promoted involuntary sterilization in order to help breed a “superior” race.
But Sanger was not among them. Her primary focus was on freeing women who lived in poverty from the burden of unwanted pregnancies. She embraced eugenics to stop individuals from passing down mental and physical diseases to their descendants, whatever we may think of that practice today. In a 1921 article, she argued that “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”
By today’s standards, these words are certainly troublesome, but Sanger always repudiated the use of eugenics on specific racial or ethnic groups. She believed that reproductive choices should be made by individual women. According to Jean H. Baker, a history professor at Goucher College and the author of a biography of Sanger, the women’s equality activist "was far ahead of her times in terms of opposing racial segregation."
Neither Sanger nor Planned Parenthood sought to coerce black women into using birth control or getting sterilized. In the 1920s, when anti-immigrant sentiment reached a peak and some scientists justified restricting immigration (as in the Immigration Act of 1924) by claiming that some ethnic groups were mentally and physically inferior, Sanger spoke out against such stereotyping.
Sanger wanted women to be able to avoid unwanted pregnancies. She worked for women of all classes and races to have that choice, which she believed to be a right.
Even so, over the years Sanger’s flirtation with eugenics has provided fodder for attacks from the right. As several of her biographers have documented, a number of racist statements have been falsely attributed to Sanger. Carson’s most recent anti-Sanger diatribe is simply the latest in a long string of bogus accusations against her and Planned Parenthood, designed to score political points with the GOP’s base.
And what about his claim that most Planned Parenthood clinics are in black neighborhoods? According to the Guttmacher Institute, only about 110 of Planned Parenthood’s 800 clinics are in areas where blacks make up over 25 percent of the overall population.
Planned Parenthood establishes clinics based on where medical needs—including a shortage of primary care providers and a high poverty rate—are the greatest. They provide women with birth control information and services, test women for infections, offer antibiotics, pregnancy tests, and Pap smears, and teach women how to do breasts self-exams. They also provide abortions and give women an alternative to ending pregnancies in unsafe conditions.
And what about Congressman O’Brien’s claim that Sanger was a Klu Klux Klanner? Totally false, Politifact found.
Sanger’s efforts drew many prominent supporters and had a huge impact in changing America.
In 1961, Estelle Griswold, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, opened a clinic in New Haven with Dr. C. Lee Buxton, a physician and professor at Yale’s medical school. They were arrested in November 1961 for violating a state law prohibiting the use of birth control. Their case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1965 ruled in Griswold v Connecticut that the law violated the right to marital privacy. The case established couples’ right to birth control and women’s right to privacy in medical decisions, which paved the way for Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that recognized a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
Sanger’s work with African Americans earned praise from Martin Luther King, Jr., who received Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Award in 1966. In his acceptance speech, he said “There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger's early efforts."
Through the 1960s and early 1970s, the Republican Party embraced family planning and abortion. Prescott Bush, a Republican Senator from Connecticut and father and grandfather to the two Bush presidents, was Planned Parenthood’s treasurer in the late 1940s. Senator Barry Goldwater, the GOP’s 1964 presidential candidate, supported Planned Parenthood; his wife was a board member of its Phoenix affiliate. In 1968, President Richard Nixon advocated federal funding for family planning. When he was a Congressman from Texas, George H. W. Bush argued that “We need to make family planning a household word.”
After Roe v Wade, however, Republican operatives and the Religious Right activists joined forces to promote a “family values” agenda against the political and cultural victories of the women’s rights and civil rights movements. Since then, conservatives have steadily sought to restrict a woman’s right to an abortion. In recent years, that effort has escalated into a fervent crusade, including state-level ballot measures to limit abortions and daily vigils outside clinics that perform abortions. The movement’s most extreme wing has engaged in bombings at clinics and even encouraged (and in some cases carried out) the assassination of those who work at abortion clinics.
Ironically, Planned Parenthood is more popular than any Republican candidate. According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Planned Parenthood's favorability rating across party lines is 45 percent while the GOP's approval rating is 28 percent.
The group’s popularity – despite the barrage of attacks against it – shouldn’t be surprising. One-fifth of all American women have gone to a Planned Parenthood facility. In 2013, Planned Parenthood affiliated clinics provided nearly 10.6 million services to 2.7 million women and men, including contraception, abortions, and other women’s health services, including 900,000 annual cancer screenings and millions of tests for sexually-transmitted infections. Abortion services make up just three percent of Planned Parenthood's activities, and existing federal law prevents any federal funding from going toward this portion of their work.
Planned Parenthood’s services are particularly important to poor and lower-income women. At least 78 percent of its patients have incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 650,000 women would lose access to health services if the federal government eliminated its funding for Planned Parenthood. Less access to birth control would lead to more unplanned pregnancies. In 18 states surveyed, Planned Parenthood provides 40 percent of birth control services. In 11 other states, that figure is even higher. Permanent defunding, the CBO says, would increase federal spending by $130 million over 10 years. Most of the increase would be the result of thousands of unwanted births needing to be covered by Medicaid, as well as coverage of the children’s healthcare.
Captured by its most conservative elements, the Republican Party jumped on the anti-abortion bandwagon. This explains the attacks on Planned Parenthood by the current crop of GOP presidential candidates. And it explains why Margaret Sanger -- who founded the birth control movement and Planned Parenthood to allow women to make their own reproductive decisions – is back in the news.
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Almost one-quarter of households in Ireland are classified as “jobless”, far above the EU average, according to a report yesterday by the National Economic and Social Council.
“Jobless households” are either those in which nobody is employed or in which the total working time by those able to work amounts to less than 20 per cent of their available working time. In Ireland, 23 per cent of homes fit the latter description, compared to just 11 per cent across the EU. The closest comparative countries were the UK and Belgium, which registered 13 per cent. According to the NESC, a feature of the Irish experience is the high level of children involved.
Unacceptable
“If this situation is not addressed it will perpetuate the cycle of joblessness, hopelessness and welfare dependency,” he said in a statement last night.
“The sharp increase in jobless households, from an already high level, will have lasting economic and social consequences for generations to come unless we have specific, targeted solutions.”
He said one of the Government’s strategies was to “dismantle” the passive welfare system that abandoned such large numbers of households to lifelong dependency on the State.
Helen Johnston, author of the report Jobless Households: An Exploration of the Issues, said one of three principal factors in place was the interaction between the tax and social welfare systems and the transition from welfare to work. There was also the availability of jobs and whether individual skills matched requirements.
“The third, and often overlooked, factor is the characteristics of the jobless household, such as age, level of education and skills and the health of the adults as well as the age and number of children.”
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Demonstrators protest United Airlines at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday. The protest was in response to aviation security officers physically removing passenger David Dao from his seat and dragging him off a flight on Sunday. (Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images)
United’s efforts to contain a public relations crisis that has tarnished its image and led to calls for a boycott kicked into overdrive Wednesday with its chief executive appearing on national television to apologize, saying he felt “shame” when he saw video of the incident. The airline also promised refunds to the horrified passengers who watched as a fellow flier was dragged from his seat and down the aisle off the plane.
“This is not who our family at United is,” chief executive Oscar Munoz said in his first televised remarks since the incident Sunday. “You saw us at a bad moment. This can never, will never happen again on a United flight.”
When asked if the passenger, David Dao, was at fault for the actions that led to his removal from his Louisville-bound flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Munoz said, simply: “No, he cannot be. He was a paying passenger sitting in his seat on our aircraft. No one should be treated that way.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for Dao filed an emergency bill of discovery in Cook County Circuit Court, asking that items in possession of United Airlines or the City of Chicago — which may contain information related to Sunday’s incident, including video footage of the boarding process, a passenger list and cockpit voice recordings from the flight — be preserved. A spokeswoman for the firms representing Dao said they will hold a news conference Thursday with a member of the Dao family. David Dao lives in Kentucky and was headed home when he was removed from the flight, they said.
Also Wednesday, two more officers involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave. The Chicago Department of Aviation placed one officer on paid leave Monday, pending an investigation. The officers’ names are not being released due to collective bargaining agreements, officials said.
[Video: man dragged off plane after refusing to give up his seat]
Munoz’s appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” was the first time he has spoken publicly about the incident that has led to international backlash against the airline.
The incident, and the actions by officers who boarded the plane to remove Dao after he refused a last-minute request to give up his seat to a crew member, have become a rallying cry for every traveler who has ever felt mistreated by an airline. There have been calls for a boycott of United from as far away as China, where the story has stirred outrage because Dao is Asian. United officials said that race was in no way a consideration when they chose who would be removed from Flight 3411.
In the GMA interview, a contrite Munoz apologized to Dao, his family and the other passengers aboard the plane.
He also expressed regret for initial statements in the days following the incident that appeared to blame Dao. In a letter to United employees that was leaked to CNBC, Munoz said Dao was “belligerent.”
“My initial words fell short of truly expressing what I was feeling,” Munoz said Wednesday. “That is something that I’ve learned from.”
[United’s CEO orders a review of dragging incident]
In pledging a full investigation into the matter, Munoz also suggested there will be changes in the way local law enforcement deals with passengers aboard United flights. When Dao refused to leave the flight voluntarily, police were called to remove him.
“The use of law enforcement aboard an aircraft has to be looked at very carefully,” Munoz said. “That is a policy that we absolutely have to look at.”
Munoz said United will publicly release the results of its internal investigation by April 30.
Videos shot by passengers aboard the flight show Dao screaming as he is dragged down the aisle of the plane and again a few minutes later when he returns to the plane. Dao’s face is bloody and his clothing mussed. When asked his reaction to seeing the footage, Munoz said “shame” was among the words that came to mind.
The incident has raised hopes among passenger-advocate groups such as FlyersRights.org and the National Consumers League that Congress will act on overhauls to make air travel more consumer-friendly.
The video has caught the attention of members of Congress, many of whom are frequent fliers. Nearly a dozen members have sent letters to United, officials at O’Hare and the Transportation Department demanding an explanation for why Dao was forcibly removed from the plane. Transportation officials said the agency’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings is reviewing the matter. They noted that the flight was operated by one of United’s regional partners, Republic Airlines. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) has called for hearings into the matter.
[United Airlines gets trolled by rivals]
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he is seeking support for a “Customers Not Cargo Act,” which would prohibit airlines from forcibly removing boarded passengers due to overbooking or airline staff seeking to fly as passengers.
“We were all shocked and outraged this week when United Airlines forcibly and brutally removed Dr. David Dao from Flight 3411,” Van Hollen wrote to his colleagues. “We should act immediately to ensure that airlines cannot force passengers who have already boarded to leave the plane to free up seats for others.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) also joined the fray, saying on CNN that he has asked the Trump administration to prevent airlines from overbooking flights until new guidelines are put into place.
But the Trump administration has so far expressed little desire to get involved. During a briefing Tuesday, press secretary Sean Spicer said that while the video was “troubling,” he dismissed calls for a federal investigation into what he said should be “a very local matter.”
[Thousands of travelers are forced to give up their seats every year]
There also have been calls for Munoz to step down from the job he has held since September 2015, but he dismissed the idea.
“I was hired to make United better and we’ve been doing that, and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” he said.
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You spend a lot of time at your router table doing basic shaping and edge forming operations, but ultimately it's joinery that holds your projects together. At some point in our woodworking careers, we all develop the desire to move beyond screws and biscuits and into all-wood joinery.
Our Standard LS17 Systems match either a 17" or 430mm travel LS positioner with the best INCRA accessories for joinery, and the possibilities nearly endless. The Standard Systems can take you from basics like flawless rabbets, friction-fit dadoes, and repetitive slotting jobs to literally billions of variations of box joints and dovetail joints ranging from traditional to absolutely stunning.
Have you ever wondered what makes our systems work? An INCRA Jig is a mechanical fence positioner - its job is to allow any woodworker, regardless of experience, to quickly make a fence setup on a router table within 1/1,000" (0.025mm) of a desired position. In woodworking terms, that's accurate enough to split the line from a sharp pencil into 25 equal parts! And because an INCRA positioner is mechanical in nature, every fence setup is easily repeatable hours or weeks later.
The positioning mechanics are as simple as the concept: An LS positioner has only four moving parts. A steel lead screw housed in the sliding carriage threads on 1/32" or 1mm spacing, and a matching set of threads is driven by the large clamping lever. As the lever is raised, the threads mesh, forcing the fence to index, or "center-up" on only perfect multiples of 1/32" or 1mm with no way for you to miss.
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Welcome to the Diavolo no Daibouken Wikia Edit
This is a wiki made for archiving information about the untranslated fan-made JoJo's Bizarre Adventure roguelike "Diavolo no Daibouken". If you can read Japanese or simply know a lot about the game, feel free to add to this wiki as you wish. Keep in mind that this is a very new wiki at the moment, so any help or contributions will be greatly appreciated.
Contact me at [email protected]
Diavolo no Daibouken Edit
Diavolo no Daibouken (ディアボロの大冒険) is a free Japanese fangame based off the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The game is very text-heavy, making it very hard for anyone who can't read the language to play. The purpose of this wiki is to assist anyone who wants to play by translating effects and abilities of the many items in the game and presenting them in an organized fashion.
Download the game here:
Https://mega.nz/#!F3gUzSRQ!72DeCSwRrCH1vfcm4XBfBMgq0FaiLHJWA1A0VAS2h0Y
Helpful Resources Edit
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - Read the manga. Diavolo no Daibouken includes major elements from Parts 1-7 and minor elements from Part 8.
HTML Manual - Found in the game download, a manual for the game put together by various people. A bit outdated.
https://translate.google.com/ - Multilingual translator. In the case of Japanese, it allows the user to manually draw in kanji and kana which is very helpful. Not always accurate but pretty good for small jobs.
http://jojo.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure wikia.
http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/japanese.php - Online Japanese keyboards that allow copying and pasting. Choose from kanji and kana, helpful for quickly identifying items.
Copied from the HTML Manual:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www30.atwiki.jp/jojo_diablo/%26biw%3D1536%26bih%3D731&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ja&u=http://www30.atwiki.jp/jojo_diablo/pages/2.html&usg=ALkJrhi2MwB7YIO-uxXh6zALJCQVsI4Pdg - a translated version of a Japanese wiki for the game.
http://diavolofunsub.seesaa.net/index-6.html - a fansub site.
Note from the editor - I haven't personally checked the two links from the manual; remove if defunct.
Latest activity Edit
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Compare and contrast. Here is how seriously we take civil liberties when the subject can be plausibly labeled terrorism:
[New rules] allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation. Now, NCTC can copy entire government databases—flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others. The agency has new authority to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, and to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited.
And here is how seriously we take civil liberties when gun ownership is involved in any way, shape, or form:
Under current laws the bureau is prohibited from creating a federal registry of gun transactions….When law enforcement officers recover a gun and serial number, workers at the bureau’s National Tracing Center here — a windowless warehouse-style building on a narrow road outside town — begin making their way through a series of phone calls, asking first the manufacturer, then the wholesaler and finally the dealer to search their files to identify the buyer of the firearm. ….The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, for example, prohibits A.T.F. agents from making more than one unannounced inspection per year of licensed gun dealers. The law also reduced the falsification of records by dealers to a misdemeanor….The most recent Tiahrt amendment, adopted in 2010…requires that records of background checks of gun buyers be destroyed within 24 hours of approval. Advocates of tighter regulation say this makes it harder to identify dealers who falsify records or buyers who make “straw” purchases for others.
So that’s where we are. The federal government can swoop up enormous databases, keep them for years, and data mine them to its heart’s content if it has even the slightest suspicion of terrorist activity. Objections? None to speak of, despite the fact that terrorism claims only a handful of American lives per year. But information related to guns? That couldn’t be more different. Background checks are destroyed within 24 hours, serial numbers of firearms aren’t kept in a central database at all, and gun dealers can barely even be monitored. All this despite the fact that we record more than 10,000 gun-related homicides every year.
Compare and contrast.
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Wood you wear this? Artist creates incredible clothes carved from timber
Here's an artist that likes to go against the grain - making incredible life-like clothes out of wood.
Fraser Smith, from Natchez, Mississippi, is a master woodcarver who tries to fool the eye with his intricate sculpting skills using a art technique called trompe l'oeil.
He's made almost an entire wardrobe including bomber jackets, leather jackets, quilts, baseball caps and basketball shirts.
Scroll down for video
Fraser Smith, from Natchez, Mississippi, uses an art technique called trompe l'oeil to create his masterpieces Mr Smith said: 'Each piece is carved from a single block of basswood and stained with water-based pigments.'
The 54-year-old, who has been carving since the age of 10, said: 'I make trompe l'oeil wood sculptures of items made of fabric or leather.
'My subject matter is drawn from things that we tend to save, or cherish even after they are no longer useful; an old jacket that may not fit anymore, but we still keep it in the back of the closet, quilts, farmers' hats, and other items we might want to keep simply for the memories they hold.
'I didn't necessarily go into it thinking of anything other than the object itself, but when I finished a few pieces, I realised that when you hang a coat, or a quilt (or anything) on a wall, where that object normally wouldn't be, you create all sorts of interesting things in people's minds.
'They see it, and ask themselves, "Interesting coat, but why’s it hanging in the dining room?" It has to do with the context of the coat hanging where you normally wouldn’t hang one. People will see it, and make some sort of judgment.
'A while later, they’ll learn what it's made of, or bump into it, and realise it's made of wood, and they'll have to immediately change everything they thought of it. Some are excited, like they'd just seen magic.
'As for the technique, I try to fool the eye from about 3ft, not 3in. Each piece is carved from a single block of basswood and stained with water-based pigments.
Mr Smith has made almost an entire wardrobe including bomber jackets, leather jackets, quilts, baseball caps and basketball shirts
Mr Smith's work is on display at the Russeck Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida Realistic: Mr Smith's artwork is specially stained to give an illusion to the viewer
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The best thing Sturm Brightblade ever did was die.
I did not discover literature of any kind until I was about eleven, or ten. I was, without a sliver of a doubt, a no good, lazy slacker of a child, and after I discovered literature, I was totally and utterly a no good, lazy slacker of a child who read books. A lot of books, good and bad, but my favourite—the books I read and reread in my teens—were by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Specifically, I had a deep and complete love for the Dragonlance Chronicles. First published in 1984 when I was nothing more than sticks of bone at seven, Dragons of Autumn Twilight began what would be one of the icons of my grunge stained disenchanted childhood. I know it all, back and front, left and right and, thirty years after the first book began the series, I still remember the scenes at the end of Dragons of Winter Night, where Sturm Brightblade slowly and surely, walked to the top of a tower to fight a dragon with little more than the sword his father left him.
He died, of course.
In Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Weis and Hickman presented him as the noble knight, living his life to a code referred to as the Oath and the Measure. It was, as you would suspect, fairly standard fair: don’t lie, don’t back down, try to rescue a woman if she looks vaguely in distress. For all that I love Weis and Hickman’s Chronicles, I will not claim to be immune to their faults as an adult. In their first book, Weis and Hickman did not stray far from the tropes of fantasy and role playing, and you could almost hear the book being read in a gaming sessions, somewhere between Missouri and Utah, wherever the TSR office at the time was kept. At thirty-six and twenty-eight, Weis and Hickman had not intended to become the authors of the series, but had rather been responsible for mapping the project out and managing the author who would write it. They would take control of it because of their own desire—and perhaps ambitions, as well—but it would not be until their second trilogy, Legends, that they would begin to find their feet properly in novels. But for all that, they still managed to make one irritating character out of Sturm Brightblade and his Oath and Measure.
But then, in Dragons of Winter Night, Weis and Hickman stripped him of his knighthood, revealing him as a man who clung to an ideal that was long gone, to a family history that was more a weight than a blessing—
And then he walked up into that tower, to die.
Characters die, all the time. At times, they die amongst a reader’s tears, and at others, amongst the applause, and some, still, in quiet satisfaction. Yet, the death of Sturm Brightblade was the first violent death of a character in a book I can remember. In his final moments, it made Sturm likeable. It was the last breath, desperate attempt to help your friends by the sacrifice of your life and, in that one moment, Sturm Brightblade did the best thing his character could possibly do: he died. He left a legacy within the book that, realising that it was not the act of his death that gave it such strength, but rather his mortality, Weis and Hickman let the legacy of his physical failure and demise settle into their world and their writing.
Over the remaining books, the characters who appeared in Dragons of Autumn Twilight would all touch their own mortality. Flint, Tasslehoff, Raistlin, Cameron, Tanis, Goldmoon and Riverwind—each of them would die, though in Riverwind’s case, it would be at the hands of a different author, a violation that felt somehow worse than the event itself when I was young. Indeed, perhaps it was this lack of control over their own characters that also dictated Weis and Hickman’s actions. But if that played a roll or not, Weis and Hickman, through sword, age, heroism, kindness, and cruelty led each character to their own mortality. For the last surviving member of the cast, Laurana, Weis and Hickman even return to Sturm’s death, crafting a demise that mirrored Sturm’s at the end the second book in the War of the Souls trilogy.
Thirty years after the initial publication of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, I can honestly say that Weis and Hickman have go on to write better books in terms of simple craft. The Death Gate Cycle was probably my favourite and, I believe, their best. But the Rose and the Prophet trilogy always felt to me as if it slid under the radar of a lot of people. The Darksword trilogy was always a favourite of other people, though it fell behind the other two for me. There would be a few proper missteps in their career, though. The Sovereign Stone Trilogy was a misfire, oh yes, but it was not the disaster that two Starshield novels were. Nor was the return to the series that made their name always excellent. Despite a fine finale in Dragons of Summer Flame, they returned for a tired War of the Souls trilogy, and a series called the Lost Chronicles, which I suspect, only for die-hards like myself were up for.
Weis and Hickman would write solo novels and novels with other authors, as well. Weis turned first to a science fiction series for her solo start. The Star of the Guardians was four books and I devoured each as they were released. With her now ex-husband, Don Perrin, Weis would write a trilogy in the same world called Mag Force Seven, which featured a cyborg, a transsexual, and gay poisoner with a stable drug habit. Loosely referencing the Magnificent Seven (Xris, the main character, was pronounced Chris, and his appearance to Yul Brunner did not go unnoticed by myself) it wasn’t as good as the originals it spun out of, but I loved it regardless, as I always would such a series. She would write the Dragonvarld Trilogy later, and it is a smooth and sleek trilogy from start to finish that shows her steady hand throughout. Most recently, Weis has been writing a trilogy called the Dragon Brigade with Robert Krammes.
I never quite gelled with Hickman as much on his solo projects, sadly. For me, his prose was never as accomplished or developed as Weis’, but I admired the social awareness by which he undertook to address AIDs fears in the mid nineties in the Immortals. He would eventually take to co-writing with his wife, Laura Hickman, and they would produce the Bronze Canticle Trilogy and the Annals of Drakis, and they have just begun a new series with The Eventide, which you can sample here on Tor, if you’d like.
Sadly, Weis and Hickman’s collaborations appear to have stalled somewhere around the fourth book of the Dragonships of Vindras. Originally planned to be six books, then cut to four, there has been little news of it in the last few years, though I do wait for it to be published, as I await for their next project. At thirty years in the game of fantasy fiction, they are old hands, and those original books of my youth, no matter their faults to my adult gaze, still resonate strongly in my memories with characters whose mortality was never once forgotten.
Ben Peek lives in Sydney, Australia with books, a cat, and a photographer named Nik. He has written several books and contributed to many, many anthologies. His first novel in the Children trilogy, The Godless, publishes August 19 from Tor Books in the US and Thomas Dunne in the UK.
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CAPTURED JAPANESE RATIONS MAY BE EATEN
Captured Japanese rations—particularly certain types of canned foods which were familiar items in American grocery stores prior to the war—may furnish welcome variety to U.S. troops as auxiliary rations or for emergency use. (This statement of course presupposes that the use of such captured foods has been approved by competent and proper authorities.)
Some enemy foods, such as canned crabmeat, salmon, tuna, mandarin orange sections, canned pineapple and other fruits, rice, tea, and sugar, are familiar to American tastes. These items can easily be used provided that they are in good condition. Certain other Japanese foods, including dried fish, edible seaweed, pickled radishes, and pre-cooked rice flour, are strange to most American tastes. But, if rations are short, these items may be eaten and will supply nourishment.
The Japanese soldier in adequately supplied garrisons, eating perhaps twice as well as his family at home, does not live on rice alone, although this staple, supplemented with fish and a few vegetables, is his most important food. The average Japanese family eats very little meat. The daily diet revolves around the basic rice-fish-vegetable combination, and other foods are used principally for flavoring and seasoning, or as savories and relishes.
To this basic diet, the Japanese armed forces have added some meat, fruits, extra vegetables1, and sweets. But, as at home in Japan, these extras are used chiefly to flavor and vary the rice-and-fish staple, and do not provide a complete change of ration from day to day. It is worth noting, too, that Japanese soldiers, even in rear echelons, do not have anything comparable to the American company or squadron mess; each Japanese soldier prepares and cooks his own food, usually cooking enough at one time for a 24-hour supply.
The following foods are included in Japanese field rations:
Canned meat—roast beef, corned beef, beef-and-vegetable mixture, pork-and-vegetable mixture.
Canned fish—salmon, tuna, sardines, bonito, mackerel. (Also clams.)
Canned vegetables (in the meat mixtures)—beans, bean sprouts, peas, bamboo sprouts, spinach, water chestnuts. (Also rice, in compressed cakes or cooked with red beans.)
Canned fruit—cherries, plums, peaches, pineapple, pears, mandarin orange sections.
Canned eggs—hardboiled (in one Naval Air Force emergency ration.)
Dehydrated vegetables—beans, peas, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, radishes, mushrooms, burdock, edible seaweed, taro root (a starchy tuber, from which Hawaiians make their poi).
Dehydrated fish—bonito (salt-water fish of the mackerel family).
Condiments, preserves—soy sauce (powdered or liquid), bean paste, dried plum cakes, pickled giant radishes, butter, jellies.
Staples—rice (polished or unpolished), granulated sugar, salt. Some rations contain biscuits or crackers.
Beverages—tea, milk (condensed or powdered), cider, whisky.
Sweets—caramels, hard candies, chocolate.
Most of these foods are familiar to Americans. A number of the canned foods, such as crabmeat, tuna and salmon, and the mandarin oranges, formerly were widely stocked by American grocers. The liquid soy-bean sauce is similar to that found in all U.S. Chinese restaurants, although it is saltier and "hotter." The bamboo and bean sprouts also are well known. The dehydrated vegetables can be reconstituted by American procedures, although the soaking time may be different and a certain amount of experimenting may be necessary. Rice, polished (white) or unpolished (brown), may be used in regular U.S. Army recipes. Cooked, this rice may be added to American B-ration meat items. The canned meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits may be used in the customary ways.
METHODS OF PACKAGING
All canned foods, whether in large or small cans, are encased in wooden boxes bound with grass rope.
Rice usually is packed in large burlap or straw bags. Flour, sugar, and salt are packed the same way. Rice, and occasionally barley and wheat, also are packed in cans in the form of compressed cakes (sometimes cooked and mixed with red beans).
The liquid soy sauce is packed in wooden barrels; the powdered form, in gallon cans.
Dehydrated vegetables are shipped in large, rectangular cans.
COMBAT RATIONS
The Japanese soldier going into combat usually carries rice and bags of small, hard biscuits. Whenever possible, canned meat is carried. There are also two types of especially packaged rations. One, wrapped in brown crepe paper, is a small package, 3 3/4 by 3 1/2 by 1 3/4 inches, and weighs about 9 ounces. Each package equals a Japanese meal, and consists of several rectangular cakes of compressed wheat or barley, four cakes of sugar, three brown cakes of dried fish, and one or more pink cakes of very salty dried plums. The sugar and the grain cakes are of good quality. The cakes may be eaten as they are, or, with the addition of water, made into a hot breakfast cereal.
The second type of combat ration is packed in a transparent wrapper tied at both ends with a string. This wrapper contains two paper sacks, each with identical contents: two cakes of compressed fish-and-vegetable mixture and a sack of finely milled pre-cooked rice flour. Japanese soldiers mix the flour with water to make a dough, and eat it cold. This is not palatable to Americans, but may be used in an emergency.
SPECIAL RATIONS
Several types of Japanese emergency aviation rations have been found. Examples are two for the Naval Air Force. One comprises dried fish (bonito), biscuits, pickled plum, peas, hard candy, caramels, and—last but not least—a cardboard tube containing chocolate and whisky.
Another naval air ration includes rice cakes, hard-boiled eggs, canned meat-and-vegetables, canned pineapple, cider, chocolate, and whisky.
Japanese hospital and canteen foods may be captured, and these are more likely to satisfy American palates. Among the foods are canned fruits, canned meat and fish, condensed and powdered milk, butter, jellies, and candy.
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
It is most important that a U.S. medical officer inspect and approve all captured enemy food supplies before they are eaten by American personnel. Under emergency conditions, if food supplies are short or if competent medical personnel is not available to inspect the food, the exact identification of a food item may not be important. However, it is important to know whether food is safe to eat. In such circumstances, the canned goods are safest, provided that (1) the can does not bulge, (2) the can is not seriously rusted, and (3) the contents do not yield any kind of questionable odor.
The Quartermaster General advises the fullest use of captured enemy food, after it has been inspected and approved by competent personnel. Packaged foods should not be opened—or opened, partially used, and then discarded—except when necessary. The principal thought in using captured foods should be to ease our own supply problem to some extent. To waste supplies—even enemy supplies—is foolhardy.
1 At established garrisons in occupied territories the Japanese have been cultivating gardens to supply fresh vegetables.
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UPDATE: The Canadian Broadcast Company projects a victory for the Liberal Party. More analysis tomorrow on what this means for cannabis legalization in Canada and its impact beyond its borders. From the CBC:
Justin Trudeau will be Canada’s next prime minister after leading the Liberal Party to a majority government win, dashing the hopes of Stephen Harper, who had been seeking his fourth consecutive mandate, CBC News has projected. This will be the second time Canada will be led by a Trudeau, as the Liberal leader follows in the footsteps of his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The Tories will form the Official Opposition, moving Tom Mulcair’s NDP to third-party status. It’s a stunning turnaround for the Liberals, who held only 36 seats at the time of Parliament’s dissolution. The Conservatives held 159 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons and the NDP had 95, with another 18 seats either vacant, held by Independents or shared between the Green Party (two seats) and the Bloc Québécois and a splinter group.
The United States has seen great progress across the country, with legalization measures passing in four states and our nation’s capital and polls showing majority support among voters. Several more states are poised to pass legalization in the coming years, and each state that legalizes cannabis adds more federal legislators with pressure to satisfy his or her constituents that demand true freedom and equality for the cannabis community and industry.
Several state Democratic parties have endorsed marijuana legalization, but neither the national Republican or Democratic parties have added legalization to their national platforms at this time. In that regard, Canada has advanced past the U.S., as the Liberal Party has added marijuana legalization to its agenda.
From Vice:
In an attempt to sweep up the green vote, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau announced this week that if elected, his party will work to legalize marijuana “right away.” *** Trudeau has previously said pot prohibition has resulted in 475,000 people with criminal records since the Conservatives came into power in 2006, and criminalization of the drug costs the justice system $500 million a year. But until now, the Liberal leader has kept relatively quiet on the issue while on the election trail — even when his political adversaries have taken swipes at him with pot jokes.
From the Liberal Party’s website:
We will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana. Canada’s current system of marijuana prohibition does not work. It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug. Arresting and prosecuting these offenses is expensive for our criminal justice system. It traps too many Canadians in the criminal justice system for minor, non-violent offenses. At the same time, the proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard drugs. To ensure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals, we will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana. We will remove marijuana consumption and incidental possession from the Criminal Code, and create new, stronger laws to punish more severely those who provide it to minors, those who operate a motor vehicle while under its influence, and those who sell it outside of the new regulatory framework. We will create a federal/provincial/territorial task force, and with input from experts in public health, substance abuse, and law enforcement, will design a new system of strict marijuana sales and distribution, with appropriate federal and provincial excise taxes applied.
The Conservative Party opposes legalization, providing a stark contrast with the Liberal Party. The Conservatives have held power for a decade, but polls show that Canadian voters are looking for change. The National Post reports:
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have enjoyed a surge in voter support in the closing week of the election campaign and have strong momentum as Canadians prepare to cast their ballots Monday, a new survey conducted for Postmedia suggests. The poll by Mainstreet Research, conducted Wednesday and Thursday, found that the Liberals had a five-point lead among decided and leaning voters over their nearest rivals, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. *** Mainstreet president Quito Maggi said in an interview Friday that if the polling numbers carry through to election day, the Liberals could be on the “razor’s edge” of winning a majority.
The Toronto Star endorsed the Liberal Party and its progressive agenda:
Canadians are a decent, progressive people who deserve a decent, progressive government that holds out the prospect of a better and more constructive future.
Fortunately, when they go to the polls on Oct. 19 voters will be able to choose a strong, hopeful alternative to the Harper Conservatives: Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party. They have crafted an alternative vision for the country that deserves the support of those who believe Canada can be more generous, more ambitious and more successful.
After nine and a half years of the Conservatives, the need for change is urgent. Over the course of this long campaign, Stephen Harper has offered voters simply more of the same – more regressive social policies, more whittling away at government, more settling for a stagnant economy that leaves too many behind. And, of course, more division and rancor as the Conservatives play shamelessly on public anxiety about terrorism, refugees and, of all unlikely things, the niqab.
Liberal Party leader, Justin Trudeau, the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, first announced his support for legalizing marijuana just over two years ago and admitted to using cannabis in 2010. Contrary to conventional wisdom, admitted to using cannabis and supporting legalization, have not been political liabilities for Trudeau and the Liberal Party. In fact, it looks like Canadian voters are ready for real change in marijuana policy and if the polls hold up, add to the the momentum for ending cannabis prohibition across the globe.
(Featured photo credit: Mark Blinch / Reuters)
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Epcot is getting a new fireworks dessert party focused around the Frozen Ever After attraction in Norway.
The dessert party portion of the event will take place just steps away from the current FastPass+ viewing area for IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. After guests enjoy a spread of delectable desserts, drinks, and the nightly fireworks show, they will then be whisked over to Frozen Ever After to enjoy a ride on the attraction with little-to-no-wait after normal park closing time.
The event will be offered on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting in July, replacing the IllumiNations Sparkling Dessert Party which concludes July 14th. The price will be $79 per adult and $47 per child. Bookings should open following a Disney announcement.
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CLOSE The best images of when the NBA's current and past stars were in college. USA TODAY Sports
Davidson Wildcats guard Stephen Curry (30) reacts during the Wildcats 82-76 victory against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the 1st round of the 2008 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament (Photo: Bob Donnan, USAT)
The madness of March is upon us, and as some of the nation’s top players look to advance in the Big Dance, we take a look back to see which current NBA players made an impact at college basketball's annual tournament.
Note: For players with multiple NCAA tournament appearances, the best year (deepest run, best performances, etc.) was chosen. Only active NBA players were included. Players are listed in alphabetical order.
Anthony Davis, Kentucky (2012)
Tournament statistics: 13.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, 4.8 blocks, 51% shooting (six games)
Recap: Davis, the 2012 AP Player of the Year, led the Wildcats – who finished with a 38-2 record – to the eighth championship in program history, beating Kansas 67-59 in the title game. Davis only scored six points and was held to 1-of-10 from the field in the win, but he added 16 rebounds, five assists, three steals and six blocks, and was crowned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma (2009)
Tournament statistics: 28.5 points, 15.0 rebounds, 78.0% shooting (four games)
Recap: In his second and final collegiate season, Griffin led the second-seeded Sooners to the Elite Eight, where they fell to the eventual champion North Carolina Tar Heels, 72-60. Griffin, looking like a man amongst boys, fresh off a dominant 30-point, 14-rebound performance in Oklahoma's Sweet 16 win over Syracuse, recorded 23 points (on 9-of-12 shooting) and 16 rebounds in the loss.
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma (2016)
Tournament statistics: 25.2 points, 53.2% shooting, 41.7% three-point shooting (five games)
Recap: Hield carried the second-seeded Sooners to the program's first Final Four since 2002, but it wasn't the easiest of roads. Oklahoma's Round of 32 matchup with VCU went down to the wire, but Hield — who scored 36 points (29 in the second half) and hit six threes — propelled his Sooners to victory. In the Elite Eight against Dillon Brooks and No. 1 Oregon, Hield caught fire again, scoring 37 points and knocking down eight three-pointers. But it all came to an end a few days later, when the Sooners met a much stronger Villanova team in the Final Four, Hield struggled (nine points on 4-of-12 shooting) and the Wildcats won in a 95-51 rout.
Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse (2003)
Carmelo Anthony cuts down the net after Syracuse beat Oklahoma 63-47. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USAT)
Tournament statistics: 20.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, 47.5% shooting (six games)
Recap: In his lone collegiate season, Anthony led Syracuse to the first national title in program history. He put on a show in the Final Four against Texas, scoring 33 points to go along with 14 rebounds and three steals. He finished the championship game – an 81-78 thriller over Kansas – with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, winning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award.
C.J. McCollum, Lehigh (2012)
Tournament statistics: 22.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 30.4% shooting (two games)
Recap: The Mountain Hawks only won one game in the 2012 tournament, but it was the first — and the biggest — tournament win in program history. Matching up against the second-seeded Duke Blue Devils in the first round, McCollum scored a game-high 30 points, including a clutch late-game three-pointer, en route to a 75-70 victory. Lehigh lost their next game to Xavier by 12 points, but the damage — beating a Duke squad in Greensboro, N.C., some 50 miles from Durham — was already done.
Cleanthony Early, Wichita State (2013)
Tournament statistics: 16.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 50% shooting (five games)
Recap: The year the Wichita State Shockers shocked the basketball world and advanced to the Final Four as a No. 9 seed, Early was at the heart of the history. He started off the tournament with 21 points and seven rebounds in a win over Pittsburgh, followed by 16 points and seven rebounds in an upset win over No. 1 Gonzaga. His best performance of the tournament (24 points and 10 rebounds) was his last, though the Shockers fell to the eventual champion Louisville Cardinals, 72-68. A year later, Early impressed on the national stage again in the second round against Kentucky. He scored a game-high 31 points, grabbed seven rebounds and threw down a monster dunk over Kentucky's Willie Cauley-Stein.
Deron Williams, Illinois (2005)
Tournament statistics: 14.7 points, 8.3 assists, 47.1% shooting (six games)
Recap: Williams, along with Luther Head and Dee Brown, led the Fighting Illini to the national championship game, where they lost to Sean May, Raymond Felton and the North Carolina Tar Heels by five points. But that wasn't the story. The story was how they got there. In the Elite Eight against Arizona, Williams helped orchestrate one of the most historic comebacks in tournament history. Down by 14 points with just over three minutes left, Illinois fought back, Williams hit a game-tying three-pointer in the final minute, and the game went to overtime, where the Fighting Illini held off the Wildcats.
Derrick Rose, Memphis (2008)
Tournament statistics: 20.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 51.8% shooting (six games)
Recap: During his lone collegiate season, Rose and the first-seeded Memphis Tigers, led by coach John Calipari, escaped a near upset in the Round of 32 against Mississippi State, pushed past No. 2 Texas and No. 1 UCLA, and advanced to the national championship game. Rose, who finished the game with 18 points and eight assists, caught fire in the second half, scoring 14 of his team's 16 points during one stretch. But Rose and guard Chris Douglas-Roberts missed a handful of key free throws down the stretch, and the Tigers fell to Mario Chalmers and the Kansas Jayhawks in overtime, 75-68. A little over a year later, Memphis was forced to vacate its 38-win season and serve three years probation due to an NCAA rules violation.
Derrick Williams, Arizona (2011)
Arizona Wildcats forward Derrick Williams (23) reacts after scoring a basket against the Duke Blue Devils. (Photo: Gary A. Vasquez, US Presswire)
Tournament statistics: 22.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, 47.3% shooting (four games)
Recap: In his sophomore season, Williams carried the fifth-seeded Wildcats to the Elite Eight, where they fell to the eventual champion Uconn Huskies. He scored 20 points and five rebounds in the loss, but his best performance came in the Sweet 16 against Kyrie Irving and the first-seeded Duke Blue Devils. In a 93-77 rout, Williams dropped 32 points, made five of his six three-point attempts and grabbed 13 rebounds. Now, six years and four NBA teams later, Williams plays alongside Irving, looking to find his niche with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Dwyane Wade, Marquette (2003)
Tournament statistics: 21.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 48.8% shooting (five games)
Recap: In his second and final year at Marquette, Wade carried the Golden Eagles to the program’s first Final Four trip since 1977. He was phenomenal throughout, but his most memorable performance came in the Elite Eight against No. 1 Kentucky, when he put together a 29-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist performance — just the fourth triple-double in NCAA tournament history. Marquette's run came to an end a game later against the second-seeded Kansas Jayhawks, but Wade had already captivated the nation.
Gordon Hayward, Butler (2010)
Tournament statistics: 15.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 37.3% shooting (six games)
Recap: Hayward and the fifth-seeded Butler Bulldogs, led by current Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, passed through No. 1 Syracuse in the Sweet 16 (Hayward: 17 points, five rebounds), No. 2 Kansas State in the Elite Eight (22 points, nine rebounds) and No. 5 Michigan State in the Final Four (19 points, nine rebounds) to set up a matchup with Duke in the final. Hayward had a shot to win the championship at the buzzer, but his halfcourt heave just missed, and the Bulldogs fell, 61-59.
Jameer Nelson, St. Joseph's (2004)
Tournament statistics: 24.5 points, 5.0 assists, 43.8% shooting (four games)
Recap: As a senior, Nelson — the AP Player of the Year — led the Hawks to a perfect regular-season record and the first No. 1 seed in school history. Nelson started off the tournament on the right foot, with a 33-point (on 11-of-17 shooting) performance in an 82-63 rout of Liberty. The Hawks advanced to the Elite Eight, but Nelson's 17 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals were't enough, and they fell to Oklahoma State, 64-62.
Joakim Noah, Florida (2006)
Florida's Joakim Noah celebrates in the 2007 national championship game. (Photo: Michael A. Schwarz, USAT)
Tournament statistics: 16.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 4.8 blocks, 55% shooting (six games)
Recap: Florida’s frontcourt of Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer was one of the most talented in tournament history, leading the Gators to consecutive championships for the first time since Duke went back-to-back in 1991 and '92. During Florida's first championship run in 2006, Noah — who had emerged as one of the most dominant bigs in the country — put together a 15-point, 10-rebound, five-block performance in the Sweet 16 over Georgetown, followed by a 21-point, 15-rebound, five-block outing in the Elite Eight against No. 1 Villanova. From there, the Gators rolled past George Mason and UCLA, and Noah was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Kemba Walker, Connecticut (2011)
Tournament statistics: 23.5 points, 5.7 assists, 40.2% shooting (six games)
Recap: As a junior, Walker — who also led Uconn to the Big East tournament title — orchestrated one of the most improbable March Madness runs in NCAA history. He started off the tournament with 18 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds in a rout of Bucknell, scored 33 points in the Huskies' Round of 32 matchup with Cincinnati and 36 points a round later against San Diego State and current San Antonio Spurs superstar Kawhi Leonard. When it was all said and done, the Huskies — who finished ninth in the Big East regular-season standings — won 11 straight from the start of the Big East tournament to the end of the Big Dance, where they beat Butler, 53-41, in a knock-down, drag-out final, and Walker was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Kevin Love, UCLA (2008)
Tournament statistics: 19.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.0 blocks, 57.1% shooting (five games)
Recap: Love and the first-seeded Bruins — a team with loaded with NBA talent — advanced to the Final Four, where they fell to Derrick Rose and coach John Calipari's Memphis Tigers, 78-63. Love stuffed the stat sheet in UCLA's five games, highlighted by his 29-point (on 10-of-14 shooting), 14-rebound, four-assist, four-block outing in the Bruins' 10-point win over Western Kentucky in the Sweet 16. He also tallied 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks in the Bruins' second-round win over Texas A&M.
Kyle O'Quinn, Norfolk State (2012)
Norfolk State players Kyle O'Quinn, Brandon Wheeless and Chris McEachin celebrate their 86-84 win against Missouri. (Photo: Nati Harnik, AP)
Tournament statistics: 15.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 44% shooting (two games)
Recap: O'Quinn may not be the sexiest name on this list, and the Norfolk State Spartans may not be the sexiest team. But just hours before C.J. McCollum and No. 15 Lehigh knocked off No. 2 Duke as mentioned above, the 15th-seeded Spartans pulled off an 86-84 upset over No. 2 Missouri, becoming just the fifth 15-seed to beat a two-seed in tournament history. O'Quinn finished the game with 26 points (on 10-of-16 shooting), 14 rebounds and converted a huge and-one in the final 40 seconds. With their spot in history secured, the Spartans went on to lose to Florida by 34 points in the next round.
Kyle Singler, Duke (2010)
Tournament statistics: 18.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 44.3% shooting (six games)
Recap: After two consecutive years of early NCAA tournament exits, Singler's Blue Devils finally cut down the nets in 2010. Singler, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, tallied 19 points (on 7-of-13 shooting) and nine rebounds in the win over Butler, but his best performance came in the Final Four against West Virginia (who upset the Blue Devils in the Round of 32 when Singler was a freshman). He scored 21 points (on 8-of-16 shooting), grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists to give Duke a commanding 78-57 win over the Mountaineers.
Nick Collison, Kansas (2003)
Tournament statistics: 18.7 points, 13.5 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, 65.9% shooting (six games)
Recap: After losing to Maryland in the Final Four a year before, Collison and the Jayhawks advanced to the national championship, where they fell short again, this time to Carmelo Anthony and Syracuse. Collison, a senior, scored 19 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in the loss. The game before that, he put up 12 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a 94-61 win over Dwyane Wade and Marquette. But his most dominant game of the tournament came in a 69-65 Sweet 16 win over Duke — 33 points, 19 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
Randy Foye, Villanova (2006)
Tournament statistics: 23.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.8 steals, 38.8% shooting (four games)
Recap: Alongside current Toronto Raptors All-Star Kyle Lowry, Foye led the Wildcats to the Elite Eight, where they fell to Florida, 75-62, but his most memorable performance came in the Sweet 16 against Boston College. The Wildcats won the game, 60-59 in overtime, on a goaltending call, but it was Foye who carried the team to victory. He was the only Villanova player to reach double figures, scoring 29 points, and he hit a pair of late-game free throws and a clutch jumper with under a minute left in regulation.
Shabazz Napier, Connecticut (2014)
Connecticut Huskies guard Shabazz Napier celebrate after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 in the championship game of the Final Four. (Photo: Bob Donnan, USA TODAY Sports)
Tournament statistics: 21.2 points, 4.5 assists, 46.3% shooting (six games)
Recap: A senior with one national championship (2011) already under his belt, Napier led the seventh-seeded Huskies through the gauntlet — past No. 2 Villanova (Napier: 25 points, five rebounds), No. 3 Iowa State (19 points, five assists), No. 4 Michigan State (25 points, six rebounds, four assists) and No. 1 Florida (12 points, six assists, four steals). In his final collegiate game, Napier put together a 22-point, six-rebound, three-steal performance against Kentucky, leading the Wildcats to their second title in four years and earning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award.
Shelvin Mack, Butler (2011)
Tournament statistics: 20.3 points, 43.8% shooting (six games)
Recap: A year after losing to Duke in the national championship game, Butler made it back to the final game of the Big Dance. Only this time, there was no Gordon Hayward. Mack led the eight-seeded Bulldogs past No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 2 Florida, setting up a meeting with Kemba Walker and No. 3 Connecticut. Mack struggled and the Bulldogs lost again, but the run — which was highlighted by Mack's late-game heroics against Florida — added Butler to the list of college basketball's biggest Cinderella stories. Again.
Stephen Curry, Davidson (2008)
Tournament statistics: 32.0 points, 3.3 steals, 46.7% shooting, 44.2% three-point shooting (four games)
Recap: Before he was the two-time MVP, NBA champion, best three-point shooter in NBA history Stephen Curry, he was a small, lightly-recruited sharpshooter who thrust himself into the national spotlight with mid-major Davidson. In 2008, Curry, a sophomore, carried the 10th-seeded Wildcats to the Elite Eight. He started off the tournament with a bang, erupting for 40 points (24 of which came from beyond the arc) on 14-of-22 shooting to beat Gonzaga. Next: 30 points and five assists to beat No. 2 Georgetown. After that: 33 points and four steals to beat No. 3 Wisconsin. Curry's Wildcats eventually fell to the Kansas team that would go on to win the national championship. But Curry's reign as one of the most prolific scoring point guards in college basketball history was well underway.
Ty Lawson, UNC (2009)
Tournament statistics: 20.8 points, 6.8 assists, 3.9 steals, 50% shooting (six games)
Recap: In his third and final season in Chapel Hill, Lawson helped lead a Tar Heel squad of Ed Davis, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough and Tyler Zeller to the program's fifth NCAA championship. North Carolina rolled through the field, winning each game by double digits, en route to an 89-72 win over Michigan State in the final. Lawson finished the game with 21 points, six assists and a championship-game record eight steals.
Tyus Jones, Duke (2015)
Tournament statistics: 13.0 points, 4.5 assists, 42.4% shooting (six games)
Recap: Jones entered the NCAA tournament as the fourth-leading scorer on a Duke team led by Jahlil Okafor, Quinn Cook and Justise Winslow. He left as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The Blue Devils didn't have much trouble getting to the national championship game, where they went up against Frank Kaminsky and the Wisconsin Badgers. Jones scored a game-high 23 points and hit a dagger three-pointer with just over a minute left, and Duke went on to win, 68-63.
Trey Burke, Michigan (2013)
Tournament statistics: 15.5 points, 6.3 assists, 36.6% shooting (six games)
Recap: The Wolverines would have been eliminated in the Sweet 16 against Kansas had it not been for Burke, who hit a deep three-pointer in the final seconds to send the game to overtime. They followed up the win with victories over No. 3 Florida in the Elite Eight (Burke: 15 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) and No. 4 Syracuse in the Final Four (seven points, five rebounds, four assists) before falling to No. 1 Louisville by six in the title game despite Burke's game-high 24 points (on 7-of-11 shooting).
Follow AJ Neuharth-Keusch on Twitter @tweetAJNK
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In this post I will speak about how one can implement ( or the integers modulo n) using fake dependent types in Haskell. What I want to do is to represent the modulus that characterizes the ring we are working over at the type level. To do this I use the type-level library which contains an implementation of tons of type level numbers and operations on them. The type of can be represented using a phantom type which denote the modulus:
newtype Zn n = Zn Integer deriving (Eq,Ord)
It is easy to implement a Show instance:
instance Pos n => Show (Zn n) where show (Zn n) = show n
Here Pos denote positive natural numbers. The Num instance is a bit more interesting:
instance Pos n => Num (Zn n) where Zn x + Zn y = Zn $ (x+y) `mod` toNum (undefined :: n) Zn x * Zn y = Zn $ (x*y) `mod` toNum (undefined :: n) negate (Zn x) = Zn $ negate x `mod` toNum (undefined :: n) fromInteger x = Zn $ fromInteger $ x `mod` toNum (undefined :: n)
I have left abs and signum out since I don’t know what they mean in this setting (does anyone have an idea?). Anyway, toNum is a function that only depend on its type. What I mean is that toNum for D3 (digit 3) always return 3 regardless of input, so all computations are done modulo the number encoded in the type. fromInteger is quite interesting also, it is the canonical homomorphism or natural map which takes an element and send it to its congruence class modulo n.
In fact this fit very well in the algebraic hierarchy that I discussed in my previous post.
instance Pos n => Ring (Zn n) where (<+>) = (+) (<*>) = (*) zero = Zn 0 one = Zn 1 neg = negate instance Pos n => CommutativeRing (Zn n) where
We can now check that we haven’t done anything stupid so far.
type Z6 = Zn D6 test = quickCheck (propCommutativeRing :: Z6 -> Z6 -> Z6 -> Property) *Algebra.Zn> test +++ OK, passed 100 tests. *Algebra.Zn> 2 + 2 * 4 :: Z6 4
So is a commutative ring and the basic operations seem to be working fine. But what about making it an instance of integral domain? This should not be possible since 2*3=0 in and thus it has zero divisors. In fact is an integral domain only if n is prime, but how do we test this on the type level? There is no type level primality test in the library, so I decided to hack one up myself. The only problem was that I don’t really know functional dependencies that well, but I looked at the code in the library and read some tutorials and this is what I came up with:
class (Pos x, Pos sqrt) => Sqrt x sqrt | x -> sqrt instance (Pos x, Pos sqrt, Sqrt' x D1 GT sqrt) => Sqrt x sqrt class Sqrt' x y r sqrt | x y r -> sqrt instance Sub y D2 y' => Sqrt' x y LT y' instance Pred y y' => Sqrt' x y EQ y' instance (ExpBase y D2 square, Succ y y', Trich x square r, Sqrt' x y' r sqrt) => Sqrt' x y GT sqrt sqrt :: Sqrt x sqrt => x -> sqrt sqrt = undefined class (Pos x, Data.TypeLevel.Bool b) => Prime x b | x -> b instance (Sqrt x y, Trich y D1 r, Prime' x y r b) => Prime x b class Data.TypeLevel.Bool b => Prime' x y r b | x y r -> b instance Prime' x D1 EQ True instance (Pred y z, Trich z D1 r1, Mod x y rest, IsZero rest b1, Not b1 b', Prime' x z r1 b2, And b' b2 b3) => Prime' x y GT b3 prime :: Prime x b => x -> b prime = undefined
It looks like a lot of mumbo jumbo and maybe it is, but it seems to work. The main problem though is that it is horribly slow and that it believes that 1 is a prime number… If anyone know fundeps (or type families) and sees how this can be improved, please let me know. Anyway, now I can implement the integral domain instance for .
instance (Prime n True, Pos n) => IntegralDomain (Zn n) where
So if n is a prime number then is an integral domain. Using this we can try to make ghc believe that an integral domain:
*Algebra.Zn> quickCheck (propIntegralDomain :: Z6 -> Z6 -> Z6 -> Property) Top level: Couldn't match expected type `True' against inferred type `False' ...
Woho, ghc can correct us automagically! What about giving a field instance? To do it we need to be able to compute the inverse of any nonzero element. Here Fermat’s little theorem comes in handy, it says that for any prime p and natural number x coprime to p (which in our case is any element of ) we have that . So by computing we find an element y such that xy = 1 in .
instance (Prime n True, Pos n) => Field (Zn n) where inv (Zn x) | x == 1 = Zn 1 | p `mod` x == 0 = error "Can't invert zero!" | otherwise = Zn $ x <^> (p-2) `mod` p where p = toNum (undefined :: n)
Now we can try this out on a prime number, for instance 17.
type Z17 = Zn D17 *Algebra.Zn> inv 13 :: Z17 4 *Algebra.Zn> 13 * 4 :: Z17 1 *Algebra.Zn> quickCheck (propField :: Z17 -> Z17 -> Z17 -> Property) +++ OK, passed 100 tests.
Everything seem to be working fine, but sadly it is not useful for something “real” since the typechecking is so slow for primality testing. But I think it is quite cool that you can do these things in Haskell, but of course it would be even nicer to do it in a language with real dependent types.
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by Betsy Scapicchio and Linda Brennan
Did you ever wonder why some people can train their dogs very successfully using food while other trainers’ dogs fall apart in the ring when the food is gone? Sometimes training with food gets a bad rap, but there are reasons why people get into trouble. Food is a useful tool when it’s used right.
Food Lures
Having a food lure can give you a false sense of security, because it can make you and the dog look great. Have you ever seen a dog heeling outside the ring at a show and thought “Wow, they look really good. I’m going to watch them in the ring.” Then you watch them compete and you wonder what happened? Think back—was there a cookie in the handler’s hand? Often that is the case. There is something that was different between outside the ring and inside the ring. That is the handler’s fault. It is not the dog being bad or ring-wise or only willing to work for food. Without the food, the dog literally doesn’t know how to do the behavior.
When we are teaching a new behavior, such as heeling, we often use food as a lure. However, if we don’t fade the lure and create other cues for the behavior, the dog cannot do it without the food lure. Often people think that the dog is just choosing to do it only when the food is there, but the truth is that you only taught the dog how to do it when the food is present. Removing the food lure without having paired it with other cues, results in a dog who cannot perform the behavior.
Heeling is a prime example of the need to fade the food lure. When we use the food lure in heeling, the dog is looking at the treat in our hand, but also looking up at the handler’s face (or hand for a small dog). Then the treat is moved up to our mouth and is visible there. Gradually the treat becomes less visible. Eventually the treat is hidden in the handler’s mouth and the dog is focused only on the handler’s face. For small dogs, the food lure slowly shrinks up into the handler’s hand until it is no longer visible to the dog, who is now focused on the hand. Unfortunately, many trainers continue to use the food lure without any other focal point for the dog. Then when the food is removed, the dog isn’t sure what to look at! Worse still, when the dog struggles, the handler then brings the food lure back out and the dog is now correct. However, this hasn’t helped the dog to figure out how to do it without the food.
Another example of faulty food lure training often happens on fronts. When people lure their dogs into front position with food in their hand, the dog learns to follow the food into position but does not learn how to get into front position with the handler standing as they must stand in the ring. Then the dog ends up looking at the handler’s hands and doesn’t know how to get into the correct position. When we teach fronts, we quickly move the food lure from our hands to our mouth (or to a lower focal point for small dogs). Then we make the lure less and less visible until the dog is fronting to the same picture as in the ring.
Relying for too long on a food lure for attention is particularly dangerous. If the food is the dog’s only focus, then removing it will be confusing and demotivating. If bringing back the food lure is the only way to get the dog’s attention back from distractions, then the dog will be clueless about how to handle distractions in the ring where there is no food. We are careful to fade the lure and to teach the dog about distractions. We also teach a correction so that we can make the dog responsible for paying attention and avoiding distractions. (See our previous Blog on Corrections.)
Food = Right
One of the traps that people fall into is letting the dog think that the food means that he is right. This is a problem if it is the ONLY way the dog knows that he is right. People often think that the dogs work only because they are getting the food reward, but it is not just the food that the dog wants. The dog wants to know that he is right!
For example, if the dog gets a cookie for bringing back the correct article each time, when he doesn’t get a cookie on the first article in the ring, he may think that he’s done it wrong and then have trouble doing the second article. If we have other ways of telling the dog that he is right, especially things that we can do in the ring, we can be sure that the dog will still know he is right even when we can’t give him a treat. We like to be sure that our praise and interactions with the dog are also part of the dog’s reward. Give your praise, then pet the dog, and THEN give your food! That way the first two rewards will be the same in the ring and it will only be the third thing in the sequence that we are eliminating. Remember YOU must be the primary motivator, not the food!
On heeling, if the dog only gets a cookie when you halt, but gets no other information, how bright is his heeling going to be? It is important to add praise and other interactions, like a jump up release, at various times during the heeling, so that we can let the dog know that we like each part of the exercise. Again, it is especially helpful to use thing that we can do in the ring, for example, having the dog jump up on the handler, tugging on the dumbbell, or petting and praising him. There is nothing better than when the dog really knows that you like what he has done and you didn’t need a cookie!
Are you being a lazy trainer? It is much easier to hand the dog a cookie than to take the time to play and interact with him. If you feel like you need a cookie to motivate your dog, stop! Think of some other ways that you can show him how much you like it when he does things right. Take the time and make the effort to play and have fun with your dog. Dogs are so honest. They will tell you what they like.
Randomizing the Reward
As humans, we aren’t very good at being random. Just as our dogs do, we like to fall into patterns. However, if we reward in a very predictable pattern, then when the pattern changes, the dog is left wondering what went wrong. Once the dog learns the exercise, we need to make getting the reward more like playing the slot machine and less like having a Pez dispenser. Often people say that their dog is ring-wise. But if we don’t randomize the reward in training, of course it will be different when the dog is in the ring and the food rewards don’t appear. By randomizing the reward in training, the dog learns to keep working even when the reward doesn’t come right away. The dog perseveres because he knows that the reward will come eventually.
For example, if we reward every other front in training, how many fronts will the dog do in the ring before he starts to question why he isn’t getting the cookie like he does in training. On the other hand, if we reward him only occasionally in training, the dog will do many more fronts in the ring because he will keep trying even when the cookies don’t come right away. In fact, the dog may even try harder because he is trying to earn the cookie. When we randomize the food reward, we can choose to reward the dog’s very best efforts. It almost goes without saying that when you reward, be sure you are rewarding the right behavior. We had a student who spit her dog cookies on fronts whether the dog straight or crooked. How can the dog know what you want if you reward the dog no matter what?
Sometimes in an effort to address problems with food training, people resort to taking it away completely. But that is not the answer either. We do like to use food as part of the way that we keep the dogs motivated to work. In our “Are We Having Fun Yet?” DVD program, there are many examples of how we use food to motivate the dogs in all different exercises. We don’t need to discard such a useful tool if we just use it correctly! However, it is helpful to have an occasional training session where it is just you and the dog and nothing else. This will force you to make yourself the primary motivator for your dog and to discover what the dog likes, not what you like. For example, does your dog like to be petted or to jump up on you or to speak or do other tricks? If you feel panic at the thought of training your dog without food, that is probably an indication that you are relying on it too much.
We use food in our training throughout our dog’s lives. We don’t ever take the food away completely. However, we are very thoughtful about how we use it. Make sure that the food isn’t the cue for your dog’s behavior and that it’s not the only reason for him to perform. Know how to tell your dog that he’s right without needing to give him a cookie. Pay attention to how often you are rewarding him. Used correctly food has been a great addition to dog training. We would never go back to the way it was when we first started when using food in training was frowned upon. But we put so much of ourselves into our training that we develop such a strong relationship with the dog that we don’t NEED the food because we have become more rewarding than the cookies.
Please remember that these Blogs are copyrighted by Betsy Scapicchio and Linda Brennan. If you wish to reprint them, please contact us for permission.
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Example One: Alex has a PhD in Subjectology. Jamie knows that Alex has a PhD in Subjectology, yet, during a discussion of Subject, Jamie, who has an interest in and is reasonably knowledgeable about Subject, condescendingly explains basics of Subject to Alex without regard for Alex's demonstrable proficiency. Alex expresses that Jamie's insistence on explaining basics makes Alex feel as though Jamie does not respect Alex's competency or intellectual capacity. Jamie, whose intent was actually to impress Alex, insists that hir intent was not to make Alex feel that way. Alex makes a valiant attempt to explain why Jamie behaving as though Alex doesn't know the basics of Alex's professional field is disrespectful, at which point Jamie gets miffed, reiterates that the intent was not to make Alex feel bad, accuses Alex of looking for things to get mad about, and misrepresents Alex's good faith attempt to address demeaning language as a personal attack on Jamie.
Thus, what had started out as an inadvertent slight becomes a harmful exchange, as Jamie refuses to acknowledge that the effect of the action irrespective of its intent was hurtful to Alex, and deflects accountability by casting Alex as unreasonable.
Example Two: Kelly and Terry are friends. Kelly is fat; Terry is thin. Terry routinely expresses disgust with hir body by saying things like, "I am so fat" and "This cellulite is disgusting." Kelly tells Terry that such expressions are hurtful and make hir wonder what Terry must think of hir, since zie is much fatter than Terry. Terry, whose intent was actually to solicit support and validation from Kelly, insists that hir intent was not to make Kelly feel that way. Kelly makes a valiant attempt to point out that even if it was not intended to make hir feel bad about hir body, it does, because Terry is associating fatness with something bad. Terry reacts defensively, reiterating that the intent was not to make Kelly feel bad and accusing Kelly of being jealous and oversensitive.
Thus, what had started out as a misguided attempt to connect becomes a harmful exchange, as Terry refuses to acknowledge that, despite a lack of intention to be hurtful, zie was hurtful nonetheless, and deflects accountability by projecting hir void of sensitivity onto Kelly as an abundance of oversensitivity.
Example Three: Jesse has a habit of casually using the rhetoric of sexual violence ("I got raped by that ATM fee"), even around hir friend Jordan, who was raped. Jordan has asked Jesse not to use those phrases around hir, explaining that they are triggering and make hir feel unsafe, to which Jesse agreed. Jesse nonetheless slipped up, and Jordan expressed hurt both over the use of the phrase and also over the disregard for hir previous request. Jesse, whose intent was not to hurt Jordan, responds belligerently and insists zie just forgot and hir intent wasn't to hurt Jordan and doesn't Jordan know that? Jordan says zie does know that, or else they would not still be friends, but adds that it was hurtful all the same. Jesse storms off in a huff, but not before hurling another accusation of bad faith at Jordan.
Thus, what had started out as a hurtful mistake becomes a harmful exchange, as Jesse refuses to own hir mistake or acknowledge that the effect was to disregard the feelings of an ostensibly valued friend, then further escalates the situation by attributing to Jordan accusations of ill will that Jordan did not make.
In the first example, Jamie's implicit intent was to shape Alex's perception of hir, but Jamie's explicit communication was a display of hir knowledge of Subject. In the second example, Terry's implicit intent was to elicit validation and fish for a compliment from Kelly to assuage Terry's anxiety about hir body, but Terry's explicit communication was a negative expression about fat. In the third example, Jesse's implicit intent was merely to communicate a frustration about something, but hir explicit communication went beyond that to include triggering language that broke an existing friendship agreement with Jordan.
In all three cases, there was a significant gap between intended communication and actual communication, leaving room for a grave misunderstanding.
Now, mismatches between intended communication and actual communication happen all the time, even when one endeavors to communicate as straightforwardly as possible, and it's not always a problem. (Sometimes, in fact, it is a source of great humor.) But a harmful exchange is most likely when the discord arises from seeking something for oneself without empathizing with how it's being received by the person from whom one is seeking it.
That's the danger in trying to communicate need in indirect ways. It's easy to lose sight of what you're conveying tangentially, because you're so focused on accessing approbation, reassurance, validation, support, the placation of internal distress because you know you've fucked up, or whatever else for which you're searching.
And in instances where it begets an unintentional offense, the worst possible response is to try to shift accountability to the recipient of the communication.
It's an understandable impulse: Deflecting accountability—that is, asking the listener to be responsible for the genesis of the hurt, because they misunderstood your intent—feels a lot better than being accountable.
But seeking accountability-free absolution from whom you've wronged, asking to be let off the hook so you can let yourself off the hook, only serves you—it does not serve the person that you've hurt.
It is not merely unfair (although it is that, too) to deflect accountability by casting someone to whom you've done wrong as unreasonable, oversensitive, or alleging malice ("How could you think I intended to hurt you?!"), when they are being or doing no such thing. It is abusive.
And it is abusive because it is emotionally manipulative.
That's a difficult notion to accept for most of us, because most of us have engaged in this type of harmful communication at some point in our lives, even if it's not a regular habit. Even being presented with the idea that common defensiveness can be abusive is likely to elicit, in some readers, a magical intent response: I don't intend to abuse or manipulate people, so there's no way I'm doing it!
But that's why this conversation is so important—because a lack of intent to harm doesn't guarantee that one will never harm.
The convention of magical intent seeks to oblige a harmed person into accepting accountability for our fuck-ups. It asks them to accept that their feelings are irrational, because what matters is what we intended them to feel.
Which brings us to the auditing and asserting ownership of someone else's emotions. And that will be Part Two.
[Note: It is not incidental that, in all examples provided, the harmed parties responded to unintentional offenses done by trusted people with the good faith assumption that there was no intent to harm even when harm was done. As all communications, this particular issue has two sides: One is assuming good faith in criticism when deserved, and the other is assuming good faith in response when approached thus.]
[Trigger warning for harmful language, emotional manipulation, rape culture.]This is the first post in a series about language. Specifically, harmful language.We talk about physical and emotional abuse a lot in this space, and, to some extent, we also talk about abusive language: Under the "this shit doesn't happen in a void" refrain, I've frequently addressed hate speech, and we acknowledge that bullying is abusive even without any physical violence.We also recognize, in discussions of rape culture and in conversations about institutional oppressions, that systemic harm is not limited to physical violence, but additionally manifests as harmful language in the form of rape jokes or slurs or violent rhetoric, as examples.In discussions of privilege, we also begin to get at the ways in which language that is not explicitly violent or marginalizing can also be oppressive, and we recognize how a failure to own one's privilege using accountability deflecting language extends and exacerbates the hurt, anger, and alienation caused by privilege and expressions thereof.The language of defensiveness, projection, emotional auditing, non-apology apologies, false choices, and magical intent is ubiquitous in social justice spaces—and pretty much everywhere else.This series is intended to really examine how this brand of accountability deflecting language manifests as abuse in everyday interactions with the people around us. In the same way that discussions of consent as a broad concept beyond sexual interactions have inspired people to reconsider other consent issues, even something as common as posting photographs online, I hope that this series can make us more sensitive to what we're actually communicating when we engage accountability deflecting language, and underline why it is inherently harmful.We begin withMagical Intent is the principle by which someone who has said or done something offensive, hurtful, rage-making, marginalizing, and/or otherwise contemptible argues that the person to whom they've said or done it has no right to be offended, hurt, enraged, alienated, and/or otherwise disdainful because their intent was not to generate that reaction.In other words: "I didn'tfor you to feel that way, so if you do feel that way, don't blame me! My intent magically inoculates me from responsibility for what I actually said and how it was received!"This is one of the most harmful—and common—manifestations of accountability deflecting language, rooted in the false contention thatis more important thanIt is a most curious habit, given that most of us would readily acknowledge that "I didn't mean it" isn't an excuse for not having to apologize when we bump into someone or accidentally step on someone's foot. Yet we have nonetheless created an entirely different standard for things wethat inadvertently hurt other people.Intent does not, in fact, magically render us unaccountable from the effects of our communication, no more than not intending to step on someone's toes magically renders us unaccountable from the effects of our movement. Pain caused unintentionally is still authentic pain.And, although it's true that sometimes our communication is simply misunderstood, more frequently, the (mis)communications that led to the invocation of magical intent are the result of implicit intent not actually matching what is being explicitly communicated. To illustrate what I mean, some examples:
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A U.S. drug company is taking the Canadian government to court for its attempt to lower the price of what has been called the world's most expensive drug.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals has filed a motion in Federal Court, arguing that Canada's drug price watchdog has no authority to force the company to lower its price for Soliris.
This is the single greatest threat to pricing of drugs in Canada ever. - Amir Attaran , health law expert
The company says in the court documents that the price of Soliris has not changed since it went on the market about six years ago and that the price difference between the two countries reflects the difference in exchange rates between the U.S. and Canada.
The medication is approved to treat two rare blood diseases that affect about one in every one million people. A 12-month treatment costs about $700,000 in Canada, while in the U.S. it costs about $669,000.
Both diseases — paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and atypical haemolytic uremic syndrome (AHUS) — prompt the immune system to kill red blood cells, causing anemia, blood clots, organ failure and, eventually, death.
While Soliris is not a cure, it can stop the assault on the body's tissues and organs. Since patients typically need to take the medication indefinitely, it can cost tens of millions of dollars over a lifetime.
Due to the high cost, some patients in Canada can't get the drug. Only some provinces will cover the cost of treatment and there are different criteria to qualify for coverage in various jurisdictions.
Soliris is the only drug Alexion produces, but it's earned the firm revenues of more than $6 billion over eight years.
Canada's Patented Medicine Prices Review Board is challenging the cost of the drug, saying the price could be considered excessive and that it costs more in Canada than anywhere elsewhere in the world.
The review board launched hearings in June to force Alexion to lower its price. That could force the company to reimburse Ottawa for past overpayments and provinces that have covered the drug costs could apply to recoup some of that money.
Alexion fired back on Sept. 11 by filing a motion in Federal Court, asking for the review board to be prohibited from going ahead with its hearing — or from making any order that would affect the price of Soliris.
'Greatest threat' to drug pricing
A University of Ottawa professor who specializes in health law said he was shocked that Alexion would challenge Canada's authority to regulate drug prices. If Alexion's case is successful, it could end Ottawa's ability to control the cost of patented drugs, Amir Attaran told CBC News.
"This is the single greatest threat to pricing of drugs in Canada ever," he said Thursday.
The company has not yet returned calls for comment.
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Adam God
Section 4
Quotations Dealing with the Relationship of Our
First Earthy Parents
to Our Heavenly Parents
(1830-1978)
[This document about Adam God was offered on the internet a few years ago. I do not know it's author, but would surely give them credit if they simply write me. [email protected] The Adam God document arrived to me in a Zip format and seemed to have duplicate sections. I cleaned it up as much as I could. I added the (sp. ____) where I noticed misspelled words. Also British or old world spellings were retained as in the original. Underlining is also maintained from the original. The table that is linked here and at the bottom was originally at the top, but due it's length, I put it on a separate Adam God page.]
151. J. D. 18:258-59; President Brigham Young; Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, Tabernacle, Salt Lake City; October 8, 1876.
Spirits were begotten, born and educated in the celestial world, and were brought forth by celestial bodies.
These spirits I shall leave for the present, and refer to our first parents, Adam and Eve, who were found in the Garden of Eden, tempted and overcome by the power of evil, and consequently subject to evil and sin, which was the penalty of their transgression. They were now prepared, as we are, to form bodies or tabernacles for the reception of pure and holy spirits * * *--- when the mother feels life there is an evidence that the spirit from heaven has entered the tabernacle. * * *
Having fought the good fight. . .then will they become gods, even the sons of God; then will they become eternal fathers, eternal mothers, eternal sons and eternal daughters; being eternal in their organization, they go from glory to glory, from power to power; they will never cease to increase and to multiply world's without end. When they receive their crowns, their dominions, they then will be prepared to frame earth's like unto ours and to people them in the same manner as we have been brought forth by our parents, by our Father and God.
I have often remarked that if the Latter-day Saints and all the world understood the philosophy of their own being, they would bow in humble reverence to him who is the Author of our being and the author of all wisdom and all knowledge known among the children of men.
152. L. John Nuttall Papers; BYU Special Collections, Mss 188, Letterpress copy book #4, p. 290.
MEMORANDA
---* * *---
In January 1877, shortly after the lower portion of the St. George Temple was dedicated, President Brigham Young, in following up in the Endowments written, became convinced that it was necessary to have the formula of the Endowments written, and he gave directions to have the same put in writing.
Shortly afterwards he explained what the Lecture at the Veil should portray, and for this purpose appointed a day when he would personally deliver the Lecture at the Veil. Elder J. D.T. McAllister and L. John Nuttall prepared writing material, and as the President spoke they took down his words. Elder Nuttall put the same into form and the writing was submitted to President Young on the same evening at his office in residence at St. George. He there made such changes as he deemed proper, and when he finally passed upon it said: This is the Lecture at the Veil to be observed in the Temple.
A copy of the Lecture is kept at the St. George Temple, in which President Young refers to Adam in his creation &c.
/s/ L. John Nuttall
For Presidents W. Woodruff
Geo. Q. Cannon
Jos. F. Smith
June 3, 1892
Salt Lake City
153. Journal of Wilford Woodruff ; Church Archives; 1 February 1877.
...President [Brigham Young] was present and delivered a lecture at the veil some 30 attndg (sp. attending)
154. John Lyman Smith Journal ; BYU Special Collections; Photocopy of holograph; Thurs. 1 [February 1877].
Worked at Temple giving Endowments all da. (sp. day) Took thro (sp. through) 671 B.Y. Lectured.
155. Journal of L. John Nuttall ; BYU Special Collections; Pres. Brigham Young; delivered in St. George; Wed., Feb. 7, 1877. Was the first draft of the Lecture at the Veil. Brother L. John Nuttall was the private secretary to President Brigham Young until his (Brigham's) death in 1877. He then became the private secretary to President John Taylor (1879-1887) and again to President Wilford Woodruff (1887-1892).
In the creation the Gods entered into an agreement about forming this earth. & putting Michael or Adam upon it. these things of which I have been speaking are what are termed the mysteries of godliness but they will enable you to understand the expression of Jesus made while in Jerusalem. This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. We were once acquainited [acquainted] with the Gods & lived with them but we had the privilige of taking upon us flesh that the spirit might have a house to dwell in. we did so and forgot all and came into the world not recollecting anything of which we had previously learned. We have heard a great deal about Adam and Eve. how they were formed &c some think he was made like an adobie and the Lord breathed into him the breath of life. for we read "from dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return" Well he was made of the dust of the earth but not of this earth. he was made just the same way you and I are made but on another earth. Adam was an immortal being when he came. on this earth he had lived on an earth similar to ours he had received the Priesthood and the Keys thereof. and had been faithful in all things and gained his resurrection and his exaltation and was crowned with glory immortality and eternal lives and was numbered with the Gods for such he became through his faithfulness. and had begotten all the spirit that was to come to this earth. and Eve our common Mother who is the mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world. and when this earth was organized by Elohim. Jehovah & Michael who is Adam our common Father. Adam & Eve had the privilege to continue the work of Progression. consequently came to this earth and commenced the great work of forming tabernacles for those spirits to dwell in. and when Adam and those that assisted him had completed this Kingdom our earth he came to it. and slept and forgot all and became like an Infant child. it is said by Moses the historian that the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam and took from his side a rib and formed the woman that Adam called Eve-this should be interpreted that the Man Adam like all other Men had the seed within him to propagate his species. but not the Woman. she conceives the seed but she does not produce it. consequently she was taken from the side or bowels of her father. this explains the mystery of Moses's dark sayings in regard to Adam and Eve. Adam & Eve when they were placed on this earth were immortal beings with flesh. bones and sinews. but upon partaking of the fruits of the earth while in the garden and cultivating the ground their bodies became changed from immortal to mortal beings with the blood coursing through their veins as the action of life. Adam was not under transgression until after he partook of the forbidden fruit that was nesesary (sp. necessary) that they might be together that man might be. the woman was found in transgression not the Man- Now in the law of Sacrifice we have the promise of a Savior and man had the privilege and showed forth his obedience by offering of the first fruits of the earth and the firstlings of the flocks- this as a showing that Jesus would come and shed his blood
[Four lines without any writing on them.]
Father Adam's oldest son (Jesus the Saviour) who is the heir of the family is Father Adams first begotten in the spirit World. who according to the flesh is the only begotten as it is written. (In his divinity he having gone back into the spirit World. and come in the spirit [glory] to Mary and she conceived for when Adam and Eve got through with their Work in this earth. they did not lay their bodies down in the dust, but returned to the spirit World from whence they came.
I felt myself much blessed in being permitted to associate with such men and hear such instructions as they savored of life to me-
156. L. John Nuttall Diary ; BYU Special Collections; 10-13 February 1877.
10 February 1877:
...with Bro W. Woodruff engaged in writing the lecture for the Endowments to be read to Prest Young spent the eving (sp. evening) at Prest Young's house - did not finish our work.
12 February 1877:
...I wrote on a Mode of Procedure to be observed in the giving of endowments also assisted by Bro J. D. T. McAllister & A H Raleigh - by invitation we all ate supper at the house of Bro Crane - and spent the evening with President Young reading what we had written. he accepted & corrected the same.
13 February 1877:
...At the temple...worked on the Mode of Procedure as I call it - until 6 p.m. at 7 went to Prest Youngs and read over our writing which he approved spent an agreeable evening -
157. J. D. 18:342-343; Orson Pratt; Eighteenth Ward Meeting House, Salt Lake City; Sunday afternoon, February 25, 1877.
This place, Spring Hill, is alluded to by the Lord, in this revelation, as being anciently called Adam-ondi-Ahman, because it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his children, or the place where the Ancient of Days shall sit. . . . We have then an understanding that it was the place where Adam dwelt. Perhaps you may be anxious to know what "Ondi-Ahman" means. It means the place where Adam dwelt. "Ahman" signifies God. The whole term means Valley of God, where Adam dwelt. It is in the original language spoken by Adam, as revealed to the Prophet Joseph.
158. Jans Christian Anderson Weibye Daybooks , Daybook 5th, pp. 20-22; March 1, 1877.
Byron Allred preaches at Manti on Adam as God, with the following remarks in part:
Adam was buried by God (God his Father) and was only dead like a twinkling of an eye, and his God exalted him immediately. Mary was sealed to Adam, and was his wife when she had Jesus. Mary will be the Queen to people another world; Mary was the second wife to Adam; and unless we have two wives, we can never be Gods.
Adam will worship his God and we will worship Adam, and our children will worship us.
159. Women of Mormondom ; [This book was written by permission of Brigham Young and was done by Eliza R. Snow, and Elder Edward Tullidge. Tullidge later apostatized into the Godbeite movement.]; March 1877.
"Adam is our Father and God. He is the God of the earth." So says Brigham Young. Adam is the great archangel of this creation. He is Michael. He is the Ancient of Days. He is the father of our elder brother, Jesus Christ---the father of him who shall also come as Messiah to reign. He is the father of the spirits as well as the tabernacles of the sons and daughters of man. Adam! Michael is one of the grand mystical names in the works of creation, redemptions, and resurrections. Jehovah is the second and the higher name. Eloheim--signifying the Gods--is the first name of the celestial trinity. Michael was a celestial, resurrected being, of another world. "In the beginning" the Gods created the heavens and the earths. In their councils they said, let us make man in our own image. So, in the likeness of the Fathers, and the Mothers--the Gods--created they man--male and female. When this earth was prepared for mankind, Michael, as Adam, came down. He brought with him one of his wives, and he called her name Eve. Adam and Eve are the names of the fathers and mothers of worlds. Adam was not made out of a lump of clay, as we make a brick, nor was Eve taken as a rib--a bone--from his side. They came by generation. But woman, as the wife or mate of man, was a rib of man. She was taken from his side, in their glorified world, and brought by him to earth to be the mother of a race. These were father and mother of a world of spirits who had been born to them in heaven. These spirits had been waiting for the grand period of their probation, when they should have bodies or tabernacles, so that they might become, in the resurrection, like Gods. When this earth had become an abode for mankind, with its Garden of Eden, then it was that the morning stars sang together, and the sons and daughters of God shouted for joy. They were coming down to earth. The children of the sun, at least, knew what the grand scheme of the everlasting Fathers and the everlasting Mothers meant, and they, both sons and daughters, shouted for joy. The temple of the eternities shook with their hosannas, and trembled with divine emotions. The father and mother were at length in their Garden of Eden. They came on purpose to fall. They fell "that man might be; and man is, that he "might have joy." They ate of the tree of mortal life, partook of the elements of this earth that they might again become mortal for their children's sake. They fell that another world might have a probation, redemption and resurrection. (pp. 179-180)
God the Father and God the Mother stand, in the grand pre-existing view, as the origin and centre of the spirits of all the generations of mortals who had been tabernacled on this earth. First and noblest of this great family was Jesus Christ, who was the elder brother, in spirit, of the whole human race. These constituted a world-family of pre-existing souls. Brightest among these spirits, and nearest in the circle to our Father and Mother in heaven (the Father being Adam), were Seth, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus Christ--indeed that glorious cohort of men and women, whose lives have left immortal records in the worlds's history. Among these the Mormon faith would rank Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and their compeers.
* * *
These are the sons and daughters of Adam--the Ancient of Days--the Father and God of the whole human family. These are the sons and daughters of Michael, who is Adam, the father of the spirits of all our race. These are the sons and daughters of Eve, the Mother of a world. What a practical Unitarianism is this! The Christ is not dragged from his heavenly estate, to be mere mortal, but mortals are lifted up to his celestial plane. He is still the God-Man; but he is one among many brethren who are also God-Men. Moreover, Jesus is one of a grand order of Saviours. Every world has its distinctive Saviour, and every dispensation its Christ. There is a glorious Masonic scheme among the Gods. The everlasting orders come down to us with their mystic and official names. The heavens and the earth have a grand leveling; not by pulling down celestial spheres, but by the lifting up of mortal spheres.
* * *
Woman is heiress of the Gods. She is joint heir with her elder brother, Jesus the Christ; but she inherits from her God-Father and her God-Mother. Jesus is the "beloved" of that Father and Mother--their well-tried Son, chosen to work out the salvation and exaltation of the whole human family. And shall it not be said then that the subject rises from the God-Father to the God- Mother? Surely it is a rising in the sense of the culmination of the divine idea. The God-Father is not robbed of his everlasting glory by this maternal completion of himself. It is an expansion both of deity and humanity. They twain are one God! The supreme Unitarian conception is here; the God-Father and the God-Mother! The grand unity of God is in them--in the divine Fatherhood and the divine Motherhood--the very beginning and consummation of creation. Not in the God-Father and the God-Son can the unity of the heavens and the earths be worked out; neither with any logic of facts nor of idealities. In them the Masonic trinities; in the everlasting Fathers and the everlasting Mothers the unities of creations. Our Mother in heaven is decidedly a new revelation, as beautiful and delicate to the masculine sense of the race as it is just and exalting to the feminine. (pp. 190-193)
160. "The Ultimatum of Human Life", from Poems Religious, Historical and Political , Vol. 2:8-9; Eliza R. Snow; 1877.
...'Tis not for you to pry
Into the secrets of the worlds on high--
To seek to know the first, the moving Cause,
Councils, decrees, organizations, laws--
Form'd by the Gods, pertaining to this earth,
Ere your great Father from their courts came forth,
The routine of his ancestors to tread--
Of this new world, to stand the royal head.
* * *
Adam, your God, like you on earth, has been
Subject to sorrow in a world of sin:
Through long gradation he arose to be
Cloth'd with the Godhead's might and majesty.
And what to him in his probative sphere,
Whether a Bishop, Deacon, Priest, or Seer?
Whate'er his offices and callings were,
He magnified them with assiduous care:
By his obedience he obtain'd the place
Of God and Father of this human race.
Obedience will the same bright garland weave,
As it has done for your great Mother, Eve,
For all her daughters on the earth, who will
All my requirements sacredly fulfill.
And what to Eve, though in her mortal life,
She'd been the first, the tenth, or fiftieth wife?
What did she care , when in her lowest state,
Whether by fools, consider'd small, or great?
'Twas all the same with her--she prov'd her worth--
She's now the Goddess and the Queen of Earth.
Life's ultimatum, unto those that live
As saints of God, and all my pow'rs receive;
Is still the onward, upward course to tread--
To stand as Adam and as Eve, the head
Of an inheritance, a new-form'd earth,
And to their spirit race, give mortal birth--
Give them experience in a world like this;
then lead them forth to everlasting bliss,
Crown'd with salvation and eternal joy
Where full perfection dwells, without alloy.
161. Diary of L. John Nuttall , Loose sheet in inside back cover of the 19 June 1879-16 December 1879 diary; BYU Archives and Manuscripts, Mss 188; Jan 13/80.
Pres Taylor said I heard Jan 13/80
Joseph traced the Priesthood from Adam to Peter, Ja & John - they to Joseph & all who have held a portion of the priesthood would have to give an account of their stewardship or Priesthood to the one from whom they received it - [p. 2; backside of the same sheet]
Rendering up an account of your stewardship to the one that preceded you - but you do not give up your priesthood Adam heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden. Adam had a God then . . . ( sic )
Cain heard the voice of the Lord who enquired after Abel -
referred to Peter Ja s & John conferring the Mel Pr t on Jo s Smith Moses who conferred the spirit of gathering - Elijah the sealing of the fathers & when we get to God our Father we are told to approach him in the name of Jesus Adam is the father of our bodies who is to say he is not the Father of our spirits.
Present Pres Taylor CCR. F.D.R. & W L Johnson Jr.
162. "Minutes of the High Priests Quorum", p. 86; Box Elder Stake; February 24, 1880.
Pres. Jensen referred to the condition of some of the High Priests in the Malad Ward who were contending one with another concerning some point of doctrine, which they did not understand. The point in dispute being, was Adam our God, some taking the affirmation and some the negative of the question. This was not right. We ought to allow these matters to rest until our minds were better informed regarding them. Contention leads to strife and ill feelings and eventually into apostasy. Hence how careful we ought to be in these regards.
163. Journal of Wilford Woodruff ; January 19, 1881.
...O Pratt was very feeble yet we all performed the ordinance of washing our feet against our enemies and the enemies of the Kingdom of God according to the commandment of God unto us. * * * This is the last time that the Apostle Orson Pratt will ever in this life officiate in an important ceremony in the church & probably the same with Charles C. Rich.
164. Masterful Discourses of Orson Pratt , p. 346; Salt Lake City, Utah; October 3, 1881.
... and you will fall asleep in peace, having made sure your salvation, and having done your duty well, like those whose funeral sermon we are preaching this morning; and thus you will fall asleep, with a full assurance that you will come up in the morning of the first resurrection with an immortal body like unto which Adam had before he partook of the forbidden fruit. This is the promise to them that fall asleep in Jesus.
165. Journal of Charles L. Walker , p. 39; BYU Library; April 16, 1882.
(St. George). Father Jno L. Lytle gave a very interesting account of his early experiences in the church, his travels with the Prophet Joseph and of his telling them how Father Adam chased the game and outstripped them and caught them, and his knee was never brought to the ground so great was his strength, and also showed the spot where Adam offered up sacrifice in Adam-ondi-Ahman.
166. Journal of Oliver B. Huntington , p. 207.
Joseph Smith said that our old Father Adam was such a perfect man great and stout, that he never stumbled or fell a joint to the ground. This was said in the hearing of Dimick Huntington.
167. J. D. 25:155; George Q. Cannon; Delivered in Salt Lake Tabernacle, Salt Lake Stake Quarterly Conference; Sunday Evening, May 4, 1884.
My brethren and sisters, it is a glorious truth that has been taught to us, that we are literally the children of God, that we are his literal descendants, as Jesus was literally descended from Him, and that He is our Father as much as our earthly parent is our father, and we can go to Him with a feeling of nearness, knowing this, understanding it by the revelations which God has given to us.
168. Letter to Pres. John Taylor from Scott Anderson; Salt Lake City; Sept 22nd 1884.
President John Taylor
Sir
Duty imperatively demands that as I am about to withdraw from the Church over which you preside I make known to you and to all whom it may concern the reasons which have compelled me to take this step.
When I joined the Mormon Church a little over 5 years ago I believed implicitly as I do now that the Bible was the word of God and the Rule of Faith and while the "Book of Mormon" and "Doctrine and Covenants" were referred to as additional revelation they no where contradicted the Bible but rather established it.
Before joining the Church I became acquainted with Elders Wm. Budge, John Nicholson, Francis Cope, James L. Bunting, and others. Elder Nicholson preached from the Bible only and almost entirely dwelt on what is known as the first principles claiming that these principles were what had been introduced by our Savior and preached by his immediate apostles but that men had wandered away from them and had fallen into darkness & superstition. I had heard a great many things about the Mormons that were nothing to their credit consequently the eminent social qualities and gentlemanly conduct of Elder Cope won my admiration and esteem. I was greatly pleased to find him a monogamist for while I could not deny that many good men in the past had had more wives than one, I never for one moment assented to the idea that there was any virtue in such a proceeding or that it merited or would receive any reward.
I joined your Church on the 20th of May 1879 and during the first 2 years of my membership I faithfully adhered to it and would have given my life to defend it, during all this time I never heard of Adam being God, never heard of Blood Atonement, never heard of polygamy being required of all men before they could attain to highest glory. Never dreamed that Brigham Young or any one else cooly threw the Bible overboard and preached whatever they pleased which I was bound to accept as the revelations of God. I do not and cannot accuse these men of having told my anything absolutely false, but they certainly withheld the horrible I was in the Church some five years before I heard or knew anything about these things--doctrines against which my soul revolts.
The first shock I received was from Albert Carrington who succeeded William Budge as President of the European Mission. William Budge always appeared to me in the light of a most kind gentlemanly and truly Christian man. It was not unnatural that I should look for all this in a man who was a successor of the twelve apostles of Christ and whose speeches and writings were to be received as Scripture.
Judge my horror and amazement when I found that he constantly used language which I had only heard from the lips of the lowest blackguards and that his conduct generally was something disgraceful. I saw him myself in the presence of several hundred witnesses on board a tugboat in Liverpool conduct himself so disgracefully with a young girl, then a servant in the Mission House, that every Elder present held his head down with shame. I was so disgusted that I almost left the Church then & there. Several of the Elders came to me and assured me that such conduct would not be overlooked, but would be promptly dealt with by the authorities. I believed this, and shortly afterwards left Liverpool to make my way to Utah in obedience to the command to gather. I left behind me a dear old mother, friends, associates, companions, country, everything, and with my family came to Salt Lake. God who alone judgest the hearts of men knows the sincerity and purity of my intentions. I imagined that I had come to the kingdom of God to help to build it up! What did I find? I found that God, the God of the Bible is not even worshiped by the Church over which you preside, the God you worship is Adam. Brigham Young teaches I quote his words, "When our Father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve one of his wives with him. He is our Father and our God and the ONLY God with whom we have to do." At first I could not bring myself to believe that this doctrine was accepted by the Church, but on careful enquiry found to my horror and astonishment that it was really so. It is true a great many know nothing about it and are simply in ignorance. Those who do know accept it as far more to be relied on than any portion of the Bible, for say they the Bible has been translated over and over again and may be wrong but this is the direct teaching of a Great Prophet.
I reject this as abominable and horrible idolatry and give it as one reason why I cannot remain in your Church.
Then there is the Doctrine of Blood atonement which to me is simply a doctrine of murder. Brigham Young says "I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins." Again he says, "I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance if their lives had been taken and their blood spilt upon the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty." I know of nothing so horrible as this in all the idolatries and superstitions which have cursed the human race, and it would of itself be reason more than sufficient for my withdrawal from your Church. But there are many more, far too many to mention in this letter but I will refer to a few.
As I have shown Adam is made God but you do not give him much power or rather leave him much for you do teach that he has given you the power to wield, that however matters little you hold it and he has parted with it. that is my point you teach that. If a faithful son of Adam's is called behind the vail (sp. veil) and has no priesthood God (Adam) cannot give him any. He must wait until he gets it from the earth where you have all the power. If he has no wife or wives (and you teach that he must have at least three or he cannot have the highest glory) God (Adam) is utterly unable to help him You have the keys and he must wait your leisure and pleasure.
In fact you teach that you have the power to make a God "who shall pass by the angels and the Gods" whereas God according to Mormonism can only make an angel (servant) and scarcely that without your permission. This to me is a mockery and silly superstition and I unhesitatingly reject it. I know many members of your Church whose sincerity to do not doubt and who are very good people. But generally speaking I never saw so much hypocrisy in my life as I have seen since I came to Salt Lake City. You profess to have a direct revelation from God commanding you to do no work on Sunday. But you and the people generally are steeped in Sabbath breaking. Shortly after I arrived in the city I found the Theatre open on Sunday and Bishop O. F. Whitney and a number of members of the Church rehearsing plays that they were going to perform at Conference for money. I found that here and in other parts of the Territory rehearsals are commonly held in the preaching houses of the wards upon a Sunday--that painters had been sent for by yourself and other leading members of the Church to do work on Sunday and that the business office of the Church is frequently open all that day and your clerks diligently at work. You profess to abhor drinking, smoking and swearing. One of the heaviest smokers in the city is John Smith the patriarch of the whole Church. Members of the Church in full fellowship keep saloons, and the Church organ the "Deseret News" opens its columns for the advertisements of the lowest dens in the city, and so far as bad language is concerned I say deliberately I have heard more in Salt Lake City from Latter-day Saints in one year than I heard from all the members of other churches with whom I have been acquainted in the whole course of my life. Joseph F. Smith during last conference told the Priesthood meeting that to obey the higher law they must have at least three living wives at one and the same time, and that anything to the contrary was a damned lie . You yourself in the Ogden Tabernacle speaking of what the Gentiles were trying to do said "Who the Devil cares." Surely you do not think I can believe such language from the Holy Spirit of God.
I now request you to erase my name from your books, and only add in conclusion that I have had no quarrel, no dispute, no misunderstanding with any member of your Church. I leave it from conviction and at the call of duty well persuaded that I can meet you or any member of the Church over which you preside at the bar of God and look you in the face before him as an honest man
Yours respectfully,
Scott Anderson
169. Minutes of a Bishops Court. Eleventh Ward School House Tuesday evening Jany 20th 1885.
Prayer was offered by Counselor Joseph H. Felt. The following charge was read.
Salt Lake City, Jany 17th 1885
Bishop Alexander McRae
Dear Brother
We the undersigned prefer a charge against Brother Scott Anderson for Apostasy, and ask that you appoint as early a date as practicable for the hearing of the complaint; as we understand he is preparing to leave the City permanently.
Your Brethren in the Gospel.
Mark Barnes
Thomas Simons
John Sears
Brother Scott Anderson being present. Bishop A. McRae asked him whether he was guilty of the charge or not. Bro. Anderson said "If my not being in accord with all things in the Church makes me guilty, then I am guilty."
Bp. McRae. Do you still hold to the sentiments expressed in your letter to Prest Taylor. (copy of same accompanies this) Bro Anderson said, That portion that alludes to doctrine I still adhere to but not to that referring to persons.
Bp. McRae said It is in consequence of the statement you made in your letter to Prest Taylor dissenting from the Church of the Latter Day Saints that we have cited you to appear before us here tonight you being a member of this Ward it is our duty to inquire into the matter. Bro Anderson said I have no desire to enter into any controversy, but will say that since being in Salt Lake I have been treated with the greatest of courtesy and kindness by both man woman and child : do not wish to enter into any details; except that if I was in the Bishops place I should do as he is doing in a similar case.
Bishop A. McRae said Our decision is that you be disfellowshipped from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for apostasy. Brother Anderson said "he anticipated that such would be the case and immediately left the house.
Alexander McRae Bp. 11th Ward Joseph H. Felt Counselors
Robt. Morris
Per John Coulam Clerk
170. Contributor , Vol 6, pp. 76-78; "Our Father and God", J. F. Gibbs; c. 1885.
* * * To the intelligent Latter-day Saint it [the phrase, "Our FATHER which art in Heaven"] emits a world of light and comfort. It enunciates a principle that indissolubly links the immortal past to the mortal present, and this life to the glorious and infinite future.
* * *
. . . The spirit could not be perfect without the body--could not answer the great object of its existence, and therefore, this same infinite power that called it into being and provided for its occupation a tangible body will surely at the appointed time call the atoms that formed the mortal casket from their resting place. . . .
* * *
. . . Having, while on earth complied with the requirements of the Father in relation to Celestial Marriage, he is thus qualified to become a "Father of spirits," and his immortal wives become the mothers of spirits, thus obeying the only and eternal law of reproduction.
. . . he is placed upon it [the world] and with his wives repeats the history of man on this and other planets.
The Being that has organized the world; and placed upon it the germs of animated nature; is the one most entitled to furnish mortal bodies for his spiritual children. And when the great drama of life is finished and he with his children are redeemed and glorified, is he not entitled, as the head of an innumerable posterity, to be recognized as a Father and God to those that will rise up and call Him blessed? Is there anything inconsistent or unphilosophic in the doctrine that eternal progression will eventually exalt human beings to the godhead? The reverse would be illogical, no other reason for man's existence can be adduced. In this way only can he be of service in increasing the glory of his Father and God to whom forever he will be a grateful and venerating son and subject.
171. J. D. 26:115; Elder H. W. Naisbitt; Great Salt Lake Tabernacle; Sunday afternoon, March 8, 1885.
The scriptures give an account simply of the woman Eve; declaring that this name was given her of Adam, because she was "the mother of all living;" but outside of biblical record there has been handed down from time immemorial the idea that Adam had two wives, the narrators go so far, or rather so near perfecting the tradition so as to give their names, Lilith being said to be the name of one as Eve was the name of the other, and while it may be difficult to harmonize all the Rabbinical and Talmudic versions of this matter, it is said that Joseph Smith the Prophet taught that Adam had two wives.
172. Epistle to the Church; President John Taylor; April, 1885.
Who are women? The mothers of the whole human family. They are the mothers of the whole human family. Adam was the first flesh upon the earth, and it is an office in the Priesthood. Eve was the first woman, and it is also an office in the Priesthood and should be translated "eternal lives."
173. History of Wels August Nelson , p. 41; 1885. (Scott Anderson talks about Brigham Young and the other authorities talking about it. It is Anderson's Bishop's Court.)
. . . The first question for me to solve was regarding my future inheritance. I had heard preached varied thoughts, but they did not give a logical connection. My wife and I had read the scriptures together, but still I was not satisfied. One morning about three or four, a vision of the pre-existence, and the future was shown me. It was all so clear. My parents were my brother and sister. They were simply a medium in helping God (which is Adam) in bringing his children from the spirit to the mortal stage. This is necessary that we might have the opportunity to being celestial beings like the Father. If I could so conduct myself in this stage of action, to be worthy of the celestial kingdom with eternal increase, then and only then, would I gain an inheritance of my own to be as a Father Adam, and my wife, a mother Eve. Failing this I would forever inherit in connection with others of my brethren and sisters, one of the three glories eternally without increase, hence no need of an individual inheritance. Perfection and Celestial Glory of God are definite terms, the end of all human attainment. While we become fathers and grandparents a hundred times in this world, the highest possible attainment is celestial glory with eternal increase. I know the Redeemer to be the senior of Adam, where or from whence the Prototype provides Redeemers for each planet, is not material to us in this sphere of action. All intelligence comes from the Prototype. There is not intelligence where or beyond the first (first in inconceivable) intelligible. God is not eternally progressing in the sense that we understand it. He is the same today and forever, unchangeable. He is forever increasing in heirs and worlds numerically, but one eternal circle intelligently. With this information I asked the Lord to send my way all the experiences necessary for me to attain an individual inheritance, which in itself includes eternal increase and Godhood.
174. Contributor , Vol 8:218; "Biblical Cosmogony", Thomas W. Brookbank, early pioneer; April 1887.
* * * Since our great progenitor, Adam, figures in many phases of life to which none of us have yet attained, the first portion of the parallel [between the history of man and the history of the earth], to make it more complete, will be founded upon facts connected with his history.
* * *
Before Adam fell he was a resurrected man, that is, his physical body had been disorganized, and then reorganized.---The Apostle Peter tells us plainly that this earth is to be dissolved, after which a new world is to be organized. It will be resurrected as Adam was.
Between the time of Adam's resurrection and his fall afterwards, he must have enjoyed a season of rest and peace.---the Millennium which is to give the earth a rest of a thousand years, is the corresponding state in the world's history.
175. Deseret Weekly , 38:389; Wilford Woodruff; March 3, 1889.
THE POSITION OF ADAM AND NOAH IN THE PRIESTHOOD
The Prophet Joseph taught us that father Adam was the first man on the earth to whom God gave the keys of the everlasting priesthood. He held the keys of the presidency, and was the first man who did hold them. Noah stood next to him, he being the father of all living in his day, as Adam was in his day. THESE TWO MEN WERE THE FIRST WHO RECEIVED THE PRIESTHOOD IN THE ETERNAL WORLDS, BEFORE THE WORLDS WERE FORMED. They were the first who received the everlasting priesthood or presidency on the earth. Father Adam stands at the head, so far as this world is concerned. Of course, Jesus Christ is the Great High Priest of the salvation of the human family. But Adam holds those keys in the world today; he will hold them to the endless ages of eternity. And Noah, and every man who has ever held or will hold the keys of presidency of the kingdom of God, from that day until the scene is wound up, will have to stand before Father Adam and give an account unto the lord, of the principles that we have received when our work is done in the flesh.
176. Millennial Star , Vol 51:278; President George Q. Cannon; April 7, 1889.
We believe that we are the literal offspring of Deity. We have descended from the great Being who formed this earth, and from Him we have inherited the glorious aspirations to be like unto Him. . . .
We believe in a God of revelation, who will give more and more light to us til (sp. till) we can become like Him.
We worship the Being who has revealed Himself to us. It was necessary at the outset of this work to have a revelation from Him. There were many erroneous ideas about God, and the first revelation to Joseph Smith was the appearance of the Father and the Son. I have heard that there are some among us who say that both are one person. This is a fallacy. There are two personages, the Father and the Son. God is the Being who walked in the Garden of Eden, and who talked with the Prophets. This revelation came to us in certainty.
177. Journal of Abraham H. Cannon , (Apostle); BYU Library, Special Collections; June 23, 1889.
He (George Q.) believes that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, and that Adam is His Father and our God: that under certain unknown conditions the benefits of the Savior's atonement extend to our entire solar system. . . . He asked me what I understood concerning Mary conceiving the Savior; and as I found no answer, he asked what was to prevent Father Adam from visiting and overshadowing the mother of Jesus. Then said I: "he must have been a resurrected Being." "Yes," said he, "and though Christ is said to have been the first fruits of them that slept, yet the Savior said he did nothing but what He had seen His Father do, for He had power to lay down His life and take it up again. Adam, though made of dust, was made, as President Young said, of the dust of another planet than this." I was very much instructed by the conversation and this days services.
178. The Contributor , Vol 10:265-267; "Man's Relationship to Deity", B. H. Roberts; 1889.
Then came one of the sons of God* [Footnote reads: Lest any one should doubt that Adam was one of the sons of God, I call attention to the verse of Luke, iii chapter; where, in tracing the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam, and coming to Cainan it goes on to say that "he (Cainan) was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God."] to the earth--Adam. A garden was planted in Eden and the man placed in it, and there the Lord brought to him every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and Adam gave names to them all. Afterwards was brought to Adam his wife, whom, since she was derived from man, he named woman; and she became his help-mate, his companion and the mother of his children. In this nothing is hinted at about man being made from the dust, and woman manufactured from a rib, a story which has been a cause of much perplexity to religious people, and a source of much impious merriment to reckless unbelievers. We are informed that the Lord God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb before it grew [Footnote: Genesis ii, 4,5.] on our planet. As vegetation was created or made to grow upon some older earth, and the seeds thereof or the plants themselves were brought to our earth and made to grow, so likewise man and his help-meet were brought from some older world to our own, to people it with their children. And though it is said that the "Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground"--it by no means follows that he was "formed" as one might form a brick, or from the dust of this earth. We are all "formed" of the dust of the ground, though instead of being molded as a brick we are brought forth by the natural laws of procreation; so also was Adam and his wife in some older world. And as for the story of the rib, under it I believe the mystery of procreation is hidden.
179. Manuscript History of St. George Stake ; Church Historical Department, CR/mh/7836/v. 3. See also Southern Utah Mission Historical Record 1886-1900 , Book D. Referred to as the "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission."; Church Historical Department, 84258.
November 8, 1890
Saturday, Nov. 8. High Council of St. George Stake met in St. George Tabernacle, Pres. Ivins stated that he had learned that Father Edward Bunker, of Bunkerville in this Stake had been teaching that some of the ceremonies of the Temple were wrong and erroneous teaching was given in the lecture at the vail (sp. veil). As Elder Myron Abbott, first Councilor to the Bishop at Bunkerville had given some information on this matter, it was decided to learn from him, more definitely in (next page) relation to this matter.
December 13, 1890
Saturday, Dec. 13. High Council of St. George Stake met at St. George Tabernacle. In response to invitation of the Presidency of the Stake, Bishop Edward Bunker, Jr., and Elders Myron Abbott and Jos. I. Earl were present.
Pres. McArthur invited the brethren named to express themselves on the views said to have been expressed in Bunkerville Ward and which are considered by some to be unsound doctrine.
Myron Abbott, counselor to Bishop Edward Bunker, Jr., stated that for a number of years, questions on church teachings have been agitated in Bunkerville Ward. Bishop Bunker had stated he did not believe Adam was our God, and Bishop Bunker had expressed his opinion that some teachings in the Temples were wrong, notably part of the lecture at the vail (sp. veil). That Father Bunker had the same views. Father Bunker stated to him (Bro. Abbott) a number of years ago, that adoption would be of no avail as administered in the Temple. All such work would have to be done over again.
Bp. Edward Bunker, Jr., among other things said: "In regard to the lecture at the vail (sp. veil), in the Temple, it is certainly wrong. It teaches that Eve was an immortal being and was brought here by Adam, 'did not believe this.' That Adam was not a resurrected (next page) being. In answering question of Councilor Cannon, expressed his belief that Adam was the Archangel and that Jehovah and Michael were persons of Spirit; that Eloheim was a person of Tabernacle and the head of all."
After a prolonged second session of the Council, Bp. Edward Bunker and his councilor, Myron Abbott felt that they had done wrong in contending on the subjects referred to.
May 15, 1891
Friday, May 15. The High Council of St. George Stake took up the case of Edward Bunker Sr., of Bunkerville Ward, who had been charged with erroneous views and teachings. Father Bunker's views were brought (next page) to the attention of High Council on the 13th of last December. Since then Father Bunker expressed a desire to submit his views to the Council in writing. This was granted resulting in a statement bearing date "Bunkerville, April 25, 1891 and submitted on ten pages of foolscap. After reading the document and discussion on the case Council decided "that the communication of Edward Bunker on what he believes and does not believe, together with the statement of the causes leading to the investigation which called forth is declaration, also the full action of the Council in this matter be forwarded to the First Presidency of the Church, asking their advice to the proper course for us to take, as the Presidency and High Council of this Stake."
Councilor David H. Cannon moved that the Presidency of the Stake with Councilor James G. Bleak and the clerk of the High Council act as a committee to formulate this statement, carried.
May 22, 1891
Friday, May 22. The following was prepared and subsequently approved by the High Council and forwarded to the First Presidency:
"St. George, May 22, 1891.
To Pres. Wilford Woodruff and Councilors; Brethren:
For some years there has existed a spirit of division on doctrinal points and Church teachings in Bunkerville Ward, this Stake of Zion. It was thought by the gentle corrections and teachings of the Stake Presidency to certain of the disputants, that division would gradually die out and be overcome. Such, we regret to state, has not been the case. Finding the evidences of this division more and more manifest, it was reported to the High Council here at its meeting in November last. By action of the Presidency and High Council, the chief parties to the division were invited to meet with us in council that we might learn more definitely their views.
At our high Council in December last in response to this invitation, Bishop Edward Bunker, Jr. and his councilors Myron Abbott and Jos. I. Earl met with us. Father Edward Bunker being in poor health at the time, could not attend.
Bishop Bunker and his first councilor Myron Abbott, who is also his uncle, being representatives of the diverse and unreconciled views prevailing in the Ward, stated some of their respective differences of belief and teachings.
Upon hearing these brethren it was found that they were each most pronounced in their respective views. (next page)
As a result of the investigation the following was passed as the action of the Council: It is the sense of this Council that it is an error to teach that Adam was not an immortal or resurrected being, when he came to this earth, also, that we pray to Adam as our God; and it is wrong to teach that Adam is one of the Godhead.
Father Edward Bunker was present at High Council in March last, and asked the privilege of expressing his views in writing, upon doctrines and teachings referred to in the December High Council meeting. This was granted. "The written statement has been presented to, and read in, the High Council and the Council has decided to submit it and this whole matter to you." This statement enclosed herewith, sets forth the points upon which the division in Bunkerville Ward is based and we submit it to you with a desire to receive instruction as to what you wish with us as a Presidency and High Council to do in this matter.
There is one thing more: You will notice in the beginning of Father Bunker's statement declaring his views relating to Adam, he uses the words: "That the Council has decided upon as I believe." The only Council action in deciding anything about the points in controversy is embodied in the quoted action of the Council found at the bottom of page two of this letter.
Awaiting your instruction, or decision in this matter.
We remain, dutifully yours,
/s/ DANIEL D P. MCARTHUR,
/s/ A. W. IVINS, Per D. D. MC.A.
/s/ ERASTUS B. SNOW
180. Journal of Abraham H. Cannon , Vol 16:119; May 26, 1892.
At two o'clock I was at my Quorum meeting where were present all the Presidency and myself, as also Bro. Lyman; Geo. Gibbs, clerk. Bro. Jos. F. Smith was mouth in prayer. Thereafter some conversation followed as to whether Adam is our God or not. There are some in the Church who do not accept of the statement of Pres. Young that such is the case, but to me it seems reasonable to think that Adam has at least much to do with our present condition, and will control greatly our future destiny.
181. Diary of Charles Lowell Walker , Vol II: 740-741; June 11th, 1892. [See also Typescript Copy, pp. 43-44. See also Letter of Bishop Edward Bunker, Jr. to Joseph F. Smith, Feb 9, 1902.]
St. George June 11th, 92 Attended the High Council at which Pres Woodruff presided. G. Q. Cannon was present also and a large body of the leading men of this Stake. Br Edward Bunker Sen. and others of Bunkerville, Nevada, had been advancing false doctrine. One item was, that he, Bunker, thought it was right to worship the intelligence that was in God the Eternal Father and not God, who made all things by the power of his Word. And another was that Adam was made of the dust of the earth contained in the Garden of Eden. He had also advanced some erroneous ideas concerning the resurrection. Pres Woodruff and Cannon showed in a very plain manner that it was right to Worship the true, and the Living God, and Him only, and not the intelligence that dwelt in Him; that His Son Jesus Christ, or Jehovah, never taught such doctrine, but always to worship my Father which is in Heaven, and to always pray to the Father in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Showed that Adam was an immortal being when he came to this earth and was made the same as all other men and Gods are made; and that the seed of man was of the dust of the earth, and that the continuation of the seeds in a glorified state was Eternal Lives. And after this Mortal tabernacle had crumbled to dust in the grave, that God would, in the time of the resurrection by his Matchless Power, bring together again in the form of a glorified and an immortal to the Righteous to dwell with Him forever. Also that those that were not righteous would also be resurrected, but not with a glorified body. Said it was not wisdom for the Elders to contend about such matters and things they did not understand. And not to teach such things to the children in the Sunday Schools; they could not comprehend them. Pres Woodruff spoke of the false doctrine taught by Amasa Lyman some years ago, viz, that the Atoning blood of Jesus Christ was of no more efficacy than the blood of any other man or that of a Bullock &c. Such false ideas had led him to apostasy and finally out of the church. Also of the false teachings of the late Orson Pratt, one of the Twelve, arguing that every particle of matter which composed the elements had all the attributes of the Deity in it, and that they, i.e., the particles of Matter, by some unaccountable way united together and became God. Pres Woodruff told of Orson's unyielding stubbornness, and of upbraiding the Twelve for not being manly, for not declaring their views the way he looked at it, and branding them as cowards &c &c. Spoke of the firmness of Pres Young in correcting Orson Pratt and setting him aright; Of Orson wishing to resign his position in the Quorum; of Pres. Young saying "No you wont Orson, I'll rub your ears until I get you right;" and had it not been for firmness of Pres Young in maintaining the right, and assiduously laboring and showing him his gross errors, Orson would have been out of the Church. Showed the folly of some men because they cannot look up and prove by the Bible the glorious Revelations that God has given they receive them doubtfully. Showed that God had, and would yet, reveal many glorious things that men could not prove, and Search out of the old Bible. Pres Cannon said that it was not necessary that we should or endorse the doctrine that some men taught that Adam was the Father of Jesus Christ. Counsel was given for the Elders to teach that which they knew, not that which they did not. The Meeting was in session over three hours, and much good counsel was given to the Elders present on these things by Pres Woodruff and Cannon. To me it was a feast for I had been pondering over some of these things of late.
182. Manuscript History of St. George Stake ; Church Historical Department, CR/mh/7836/v. 3; June 11, 1892. See also Southern Utah Mission Historical Record 1886-1900 , Book D. Referred to as the "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission", Church Historical Department, 84258.
June 11, 1892
Saturday, June 11. High Council of St. George Stake convened at 10 A.M. in St. George Tabernacle. Pres. Daniel D. McArthur Presiding. The Council was favored with the presence of Pres. Wilford Woodruff and his first counselor, Pres. Geo. Q. Cannon. The case of disagreement on points of doctrine between brethren of Bunkerville Ward was called up.
Father Edward Bunker and others from Bunkerville Ward were present[.]
Elder Arthur Winter, clerk of the First Presidency, then read Father Edward Bunker's views on doctrinal points, written April 25, 1891 and forwarded to the First Presidency by St. George Stake Presidency pursuant to action of St. George Stake High Council on May 15, 1891. (See "Annals, 1891" pp. 14--17 inclusive) (next page)
The result of this investigation was that all the Bunkerville parties became reconciled to each other on the points which they had been agitating for a long time and which had engendered bitter feelings between them.
183. Journal of J. D.T McAllister p. 99; BYU, Mor/M270.1/m/v. 6; June 11, 1892.
Saturday 11 -- Alvina about the same. Administered to her. 10 A.M. attended High Council. Presidents Woodruff and Cannon present. The doctrine preached, and contended for by Father Edward Bunker of Bunkerville Ward, was investigated condemned and Father Bunker set right. It was a nice time. Much instruction was given by the First Presidency present. 2 P.M. High Priests Quarterly meeting. Prests Woodruff and Cannon addressed both meetings. A glorious time.
184. Millennial Star 57:355-356; Pres. Wilford Woodruff; General Conference address of April, 1895.
Before I sit down I want to say a word to the Elders of Israel on another subject. . . . How much longer I shall talk to this people I do not know; but I want to say this to all Israel: Cease troubling yourselves about who God is; who Adam is, who Christ is, who Jehovah is. For heaven's sake, let these things alone. Why trouble yourselves about these things? God has revealed Himself, and when the 121st section of the Doctrine and Covenants is fulfilled, whether there be one God or many gods they will be revealed to the children of men, as well as all thrones and dominions, principalities, and powers. Then why trouble yourselves about these things? God is God. Christ is Christ. The Holy Ghost is the Holy Ghost. That should be enough for you and me to know. If we want to know any more, wait till we get where God is in person. I say this because we are troubled every little while with inquiries from Elders anxious to know who God is, who Christ is, and who Adam is. I say to the Elders of Israel, stop this, Humble yourselves before the Lord; seek for light, for truth, and for a knowledge of the common things of the kingdom of God. The Lord is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. He changes not. The Son of God is the same. He is the Savior of the world. He is our advocate with the Father. We have had letter after letter from Elders abroad wanting to know concerning these things. Adam is the first man. He was placed in the Garden of Eden, and is our great progenitor. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, are the same yesterday, to-day and forever. That should be sufficient for us to know.
185. Letter to the Honorable A. Saxey, Provo, Utah from Joseph F. Smith; d1325/Bk4/fd 1; Jan. 9th, 1897.
Jan. 9th 1897
Hon. A. Saxey----
Provo.
Dear Brother:---your esteemed favor of Dec. 31 st came to hand safely. Sickness in my family and consequent increased pressure upon my time have prevented an earlier reply. And even now I cannot attempt more than a cursory reply to your enquiries. I may say I submitted your letter to President Woodruff, and he partially outlined what I should say in answer to your questions. To know this might be more satisfactory to you than to suppose my statements were simply my own. I am happy to know that he and I are in accord on the subject.
With reference to Prest. B. Youngs remarks, in a discourse delivered in 1852. with reference to "Adam being the only God with whom we have to do" &c. I will say:---Prest. Young no doubt expressed his personal opinion or views upon the subject. What he said was not given as a revelation or commandment from the Lord. The Doctrine was never submitted to the Councils of the Priesthood nor to the Church for approval or ratification [p.2] and was never formally or otherwise accepted by the Church. It is therefore in no sense binding upon the Church nor upon the consciences of any of the members thereof, except perhaps only so far as some may have confidence in President Young, believing that he had light on the subject which was not given in connection with his public mention thereof. It is thought, even if there is truth in it, that the bare mention made my Prest. Young, with out indubitable evidence and authority being given of its truth, was unfortunate to say the least.
But the sure test is to be found in "the law and the Testimony" and revealed truth. Whatsoever is not in accordance with these must fall. No scripture being of any private interpretation &c. but open to the understanding of every man who possesses the Holy Ghost, anyone thus endowed may apply the tests by the light of the good spirit. While I am not authorized to sit in judgment upon Prest. Young, I am at liberty to test the truth of his words or utterances by the Revealed and accepted word of God. Anything uttered by man which is contrary to the Divine law must fall, while that only [p.3] which is in harmony with it can remain, or stand.
Generally--when the Lord speaks through his approved channel, he speaks with no uncertain sound. Yet many there be who cannot see the truth no matter how plain to the mind of the Spirit. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, (1 Cor. 2:9-11-16.) but carnal things by the natural senses. When the inspired head, speaks by the power of the spirit & he is backed up by "thus saith the Lord"--, it becomes a serious matter to reject, or lightly pass it by. There is no such responsibility attached to this statement , made by Prest. Young.
With reference to the "Manifesto" prohibiting plural marriages, I scarcely need to say more than that you expressed yourself on that matter Strictly in accord with my own views, and in harmony with the views of President Woodruff-and the facts.
The doctrine is not repealed, the truth is not annulled, the law is right and just now as ever, but the observance of it is stopped. And as to the future--no man knows, only as it may be revealed to him, and no one is authorized to foretell. We may have opinions, but it may not be wise to express them for by doing so antagonism might be engendered [p.4] Altho our belief would necessarily come within the realm of conjecture only. I am willing to let the matter rest with God for I feel I have done my whole duty, as an individual, in regard to that matter. Of course this is not germane to your question, but I trust you will pardon the digression. I certainly believe fully in the Revelation and I know the principle is sound and right. I believe those who entered into it, are as sacredly obligated today to fulfill their covenants as they ever were. The Manifesto stopped further pl. marriages in time, but it did not divorce a single wife--nor relieve a man who had entered into the Covenant, or a single responsibility. The operation of the law--as to further pl. marriages was suspended--or stopped: but the obligations already incurred were not touched.
I hope you will excuse the hasty and crude form of this letter. and that you will digest it, together with what is not said in it at your leisure. I have not had a nights sleep since last Sunday on account of sickness in my family.
With very Kind regards, I am &c. /s/ Jos. F. Smith
186. John Henry Smith "Journal" , p. 47; University of Utah Library, Special Collections-Manuscripts; Dec. 16th 1897.
Thursday. Dec 16th 1897.
Ogden City. Utah.
I returned to the City and Met with Presidents Wilford Woodruff. Geo. Q. Cannon, & Jos. F. Smith. Lorenzo Snow. Franklin D. Richards. Brigham Young. Geo Teasdale. Heber J. Grant. Anton H. Lund. and Myself with G F Gibbs as clerk in the Temple. It was agreed by all present the sealings done outside of the Temple should stand and children born after these sealings should be held as born under the Covenant. If persons so sealed visited the Temple to get their endowments their sealings might be reviewed over the Alter.
187. Brigham Young, Jr. "Journal" , Apr 4, 1897 - Feb 2, 1899 Journal, Volume 30: page 107. Church Historical Dept, Ms/f/326. Dec 16th 1897.
Salt Lake City Thurs Dec 16th 1897
Meeting at 11 am in Temple
Pres W. Geo Q Jos F S. L.S. F D R B Y Jno H S. Geo T. H J G A Lund present. Question on ceremony of marriage sealing. Couples who have never had their endowments; do their children need to be sealed to them in the Temple when they come to have their endowments. Answer No. It is all done. Adam is our father and God and no use to discuss it with Josephites or any one else. Gave in my report on Bluff, that city will be maintained for the present; . . .
188. Journal of Franklin D. Richards ; Ms/f/318/ Reel #7.
December, THURSDAY 16, 1897, a pleasant cold day. . . . At 11 at Council with WW GQC &JFS---LS, FDR, BY, J.H.S., G.T., HJG, AH Lund. After investigation it was decided by Pres. WW that children (of parents who are sealed but not Endowed) are born in the cov.t & need not to be sealed to their parents, and voted by all present.
Letter & Article by E. H. Nye was read & highly approved but no action as to the dealing with Adam our F. & God subject.
December, FRIDAY 17, 1897, A clear cold day. Drafted a letter for President Ephraim H. Nye 915 Golden Gate Avenue Fran. Cal.
December, SATURDAY 18, 1897, a clear cold day. Sent Prest E. H. Nye letter of Decision of Council about and approving his Article to the Fresno--- Republican & a copy of Prest Youngs remarks about Adam our Father as contained in Vol 1 of Journal of Discourses.
189. Letter of F. D. Richards, Richards Family Collection, Franklin Dewey Richards Letterbook; Ms/f/318/reel 11; Dec 18, 1897.
S.L. City Dec 18, 1897
President E. H. Nye, 915 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, Cal.
Dear Brother---
On receipt of your letter of the 4th inst., I conferred with Prest. Joseph F. Smith, and we concluded to present the matter to the Council of the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles. Both your letters to me, and the Article to the Fresno Republican, were read. Each of the Presidency and several of the Apostles expressed themselves well pleased with your article, that it evinced skill and valor for the Truth, and they did not see how it could be much improved. The Council did not deem it wise to lay out any line of procedure in which to deal with the subject, but felt that it is best to avoid bringing it up, and to do the best we can and as the Spirit may suggest when it is thrust upon us.
Your having got so many of the Josephites was received with marks of particular pleasure. This, like many other points of more advanced doctrine, is too precious a pearl to be cast before swine. But when the swine get hold of them, let us rescue them by the help of the Spirit as best we can. Thinking it may be convenient to you to have President Youngs sayings on that subject, I enclose a copy from his sermon in the first Volume of the Journal of Discourses.
We have been getting quite a streak of winter weather. . .
190. Journal of Wilford Woodruff ; Church Historical Department, Ms/f/115; February 23, 1898. [Made no comment on Godhead in the April 1898 General Conference.]
Wednesday Feb 23 Drove to the Office, feeling well. I thought it for the best to write my views and feelings on the matter which has been made quite clear to me in regard to the Godhead and of which I hope to be able to speak at [p.61] at (sic) the coming Conference so that I can submit the same to Bros Cannon & Smith.
191. Franklin Dewey Richards Letterbooks , Richards Family Collection; Church Historical Department, Ms/f/318/Reel #11/p. 418. March 8, 1898.
Salt lake City, Utah, March 8, 1898
Dear Brother and Sister Nye:--
It has been a long time since I had anything from you. The last I recollect was a piece in the paper that you replied to a Mr. Reverend Somebody. I read it to Bro. Jos. F. Smith and he like it so well that we tried to see if the News would reprint it, but they declined and Brother Parry said he would print it in his paper.
(five unrelated paragraphs)
/s/ F. D. Richards
192. Proceedings of the First Sunday School Convention; "Things That Should and Things That Should Not Be Taught In Our Sunday School"; General Superintendent George Q. Cannon; Salt Lake City, Utah; November 28, 1898.
* * *
Many questions come up from theological classes--questions that are, to say the least, somewhat abstruse, and concerning which there is no written revelation; questions, too, that are not pertinent at all to the work of the schools. I was stopped yesterday afternoon by a young man, who wanted to know whether Adam was the father of our Lord and Savior--whether he was the being we worshiped, etc. Now, we can get ourselves very easily puzzled, if we choose to do so, by speculating upon doctrines and principles of this character. The Lord has said through His Prophet that there are two personages in the Godhead. That ought to be sufficient for us at the present time. . . . But it has always seemed to me that we had better not endeavor to puzzle ourselves or allow our minds to be drawn out upon questions of this kind, concerning which the Lord has not revealed perhaps all that we desire. When men give themselves license to do this, they are very apt to be led along into error and imbibe ideas that are not sound.
* * * Let the teachers in the classes confine themselves to that which God has revealed, and repress as much as possible all these improper inquiries that cannot be answered from the word of the Lord. . . . but let us not try to find out mysteries. If men have received revelations concerning things that the Lord has not revealed to His people, they ought to hold their tongues about such matters; because if God gives men knowledge concerning things which He has not authorized His servant who holds the keys to reveal, they have no business to teach it as doctrine. There are many things which God reveals to His servants from time to time, but a wise person who has a revelation that is trustworthy will not go around telling it and teaching it as doctrine, because the same Spirit, if it be from the Lord, that reveals such things, would also teach that such a course would be very improper. There are many things which God has revealed that are unlawful for men to utter. No doubt, He does now reveal things of this kind from time to time to those who have faith and who are chosen vessels; but you may rest assured that where there are any of that class, they are not around propagating these ideas, whispering them and telling them to people as truths that they ought to understand; the Spirit of God will not prompt any such thing.
Concerning the doctrine in regard to Adam and the Savior, the Prophet Brigham taught some things concerning that; but the First Presidency and the Twelve do not think it wise to advocate these matters. It is sufficient to know that we have a Father--God the Eternal Father, who reveals Himself by His Holy Spirit unto those who seek unto Him; and that Jesus Christ is His Son, our Redeemer, the Savior of the world. If we confine ourselves to the facts as they are written in the word that the Lord has given unto us, we will do well. I would therefore say to all the brethren and sisters, refrain from indulging in these speculations; it does not lead to good. Do not indulge in the asking of foolish and improper questions. The Lord has revealed enough to keep us busy if we but study His word.
193. Improvement Era , Vol. 3, No. 8; "The Fatherhood of God"; Elder Attewall Wootton; 1900.
* * *
In the third chapter of Luke, we find the lineage of Jesus traced from Joseph to Adam, and in the 38th verse it concludes as follows: "Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God." It is hardly to be supposed that this language is to be understood literally up to the last statement and that that should be figurative. What object could there be in making the statement that Adam was the son of God if it were not in the same line of fatherhood as all the rest? There is no break in the statement to indicate that it should not be taken in the same literal sense as all the others?
194. W. H. Smart Diary , 1901-1902 Bk; p. 94; 28 July 1901.
At Wasatch Stake MIA Conference, remarks of Sister and President Joseph F. Smith: "Sister Smith bore a very strong testimony to the divinity of the principle of plural marriage. Pres. Smith endorsed it. He said it was taken away from the people--like the law of consecration--because the saints rejected it, and neither would be restored until there is a people prepared to live them. Anyone should beware that casts slurs upon the birth of those born under this covenant. Also that men who will not appreciate their wives and children and provide for them will lose them."
195. Joseph F. Smith "Papers"; Church Archives, Ms/d/1325/Bx 13/fd 13; [Line for line typescript typed as in the original without the use of sic . This letter was marked "Rec'd Feb 14-1902 ansd Feb 27- ". "]
Bunkerville Feb 9th 1902
President Joseph F Smith
Dear Bro
one of our recently returned
missionary from the North Western
States is advicating (sp. advocating) the Doctorn (sp. Doctrine)
that Adam is the very eternal Father
in the Godhead and the Father of
Jesus Christ and that Pres Kelch
so taught the Elders in that mission
I say the Doctorn (sp. Doctrine) is Faulse (sp. false)
and while every Person enjoying
the spirit of the Lord may know
of a Docorin (sp. Doctrine) whether it is true or
Faulce (sp. Fasle); but that they have no right
(Except the President of the Church)
to advance any Doctorn (sp. Doctrine) not clearly
set forth and defined in the written
Law, and in doing so they stand
on dngerious (dangerous) ground, and until
we are able to live up to the reveled
Law in the spirit thereoff (sp. there of). can we hope
to enjoy suficient (sp. sufficient) of the spirit
of the Lord to understand fully
the plan of life and salvation.
as a Bp my position cared
if not where in am I in error. (p. 2)
your answer through the meidim (sp. medium)
of the Juvenil (sp. Juvenile) instructor or
other wise will be greatly apreasiated (sp. appreciated)
by your Brother in the
Gospel
/s/ Edw Bunker Jr
196. First Presidency Letterpress Copybooks , pp. 26-7; Church Archives, Ms/f/271/9; Feb. 27, 1902.
Feb. 27, 1902
Bishop Edward Bunker
Bunkerville, Lincoln Co., Nevada.
Dear Brother:--
Your letter of the 9th inst. reached me on the 14th and in reply to the question therein contained, I have this to say: It is certainly unwise for the Elders or any other member of the Church to advocate doctrines that are not clearly set forth in the revealed word of God, and concerning which, in consequence, difference of opinion exist. No good can come from it, but on the contrary, much evil may result. Had the Lord desired or designed that such doctrines should be promulgated, He would have clearly and fully defined them, as he has those beautiful and simple laws and ordinances known) as "the first principles of the Gospel." While it is far from my purpose to stifle thought and free speech among the brethren, or to brand as "false doctrine" any and every mystery of the kingdom, it is nevertheless my wish and my advice, in which Presidents Winder and Lund, my counselors, heartily join, that the Elders should not make a practice of preaching upon these abstruse (sic) themes, these partly revealed principles, respecting which there are such wide differences of belief.
What is called the Adam God doctrine may properly be classed among the mysteries. The full truth concerning it has not been revealed to us; and until it is revealed all wild speculations, sweeping assertions and dogmatic declarations relative thereto, are out of place and improper. We disapprove of them and especially the public (p. 2) expression of such views. In the absence of Elder K----, and without any oral or written statement by him as to his belief regarding this doctrine, we do not feel called upon, nor would it be right to pass judgement in his case; but we will simply say that the accepted doctrine concerning our father Adam, the great sire of the human race, is as follows:
He is Michael, the Ancient of Days, the future God of this earth, when it shall become celestialized and shine like unto a sea of glass mingled with fire, the glorified home of celestial beings for ever. Hence Adam stands at the head of the human family, presides over them spiritually and temporally, and will come in due time as the Ancient of Days to call his children together, according to the scriptures, both ancient and modern. He will preside over them for ever, and be their God eternally; This, of course, after the Millennial reign of Christ. Christ is not Adam, nor is Adam Christ, but both are eternal Gods, and it may even be said Fathers, since they are the parents of eternal or spiritual children. As to the personality and position of each God, and as to which of all is greater, these are matters immaterial at the present time, and are best but an unprofitable speculation. Let us be content with what is plainly revealed on this subject, namely; That though there be Lords many and Gods many, as the Apostle Paul declares, yet to us there is but one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
With kind regards, I am your brother, and friend,
/s/ Jos. F. Smith
197. Letter of Benjamin F. Johnson to Elder George S. Gibbs, pp. 18-19; April -- October, 1903. [This letter was requested of Benjamin F. Johnson by the First Presidency in 1903. B. F. Johnson joined the Church in 1833 and died in 1903.]
In teaching us the "Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man", we could begin to see why we should "love God supremely, and our brothers as ourselves," He (Joseph Smith) taught us that God was the great head of human procreation, was really and truly the father of both our spirits and our bodies; that (we) were but parts of a great whole, mutually and equally dependent upon each other, according to conditions.
198. J. Arthur Horne, Patriarch, North Seattle Stake, 28 May 1963; see also The Elder's Journal Vol I by C. Jess Groesbeck, p. 291.
Brother Horne and I chatted again tonight about the Gospel and the Adam-God Doctrine, as we have done many times before. Brother Horne, who grew up in Salt Lake City and was the son of Richard Horne and grandson of Joseph Horne said, in reference to the Adam-God Doctrine, that when he first went through the Temple (Salt Lake) for his Endowment in 1902 before going on his mission he was surprised to hear the teachings during the Temple ceremony in the Sermon before the veil, that, 'Adam was our God ' and that ' he came here with Eve, one of his wives '. Also it was taught that 'Eve bore our spirits ' (ie the spirits of all men ). He asked his father about it but he declined to give any opinion about it. After Brother Horne returned from his mission a few years later, in 1905, he noted these teachings had been removed from the Temple ceremony. He feels that they were left over from Brigham Young's influence, but that he himself couldn't believe such doctrine. He thinks perhaps Brigham just got off in his speculation.
199. Mormon Doctrine on Deity , pp. 42-43; B. H. Roberts.
Some of the sectarian ministers are saying that we "Mormons" are ashamed of the doctrine announced by President Brigham Young to the effect that Adam will thus be God of this world. No, friends, it is not that we are ashamed of that doctrine. If you see any change come over our countenances when this doctrine is named, it is surprise, astonishment, that anyone at all capable of grasping the largeness and extent of the universe---the grandeur of existence and the possibilities in man for growth, for progress, should be so lean of intellect, should have such a paucity of understanding, as to call it in question at all. That is what our change of countenance means---not shame--- for the doctrine Brigham Young taught.
200. Liahona--The Elder's Journal , Vol. 6:33; B. F. Cummings, editor; April, 1908.
As Adam was an immortal being when placed here on earth and commanded to multiply, would not his offspring have been immortal but for the fall?
M.P.F., Logan, Utah.
Yes. But they would have had spiritual bodies only, and not bodies of flesh, blood and bone. When Adam and Eve were first placed in the garden of Eden they had resurrected bodies, in which there was no blood. A spiritual fluid or substance circulated in their veins instead of blood. Consequently, they had not power to beget children with tabernacles of flesh, such as human beings possess. The fall caused a change in their bodies, which, while it rendered them mortal at the same time gave them power to create mortal bodies of flesh, blood and bone for their offspring. This is a very brief explanation of a very important subject.
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Bhopal: At 11.10am on 13 December 2001, Harish K., a member of Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee’s Special Protection Group (SPG), was waiting in the porch of 7, Race Course Road, the Prime Minister’s residence. Vajpayee was scheduled to leave for Lok Sabha at 11.18am but Harish knew that the Prime Minister liked to be early. “He came out at 11.14am and we wired all stations to get ready for Jupiter’s movement," he recalls. Jupiter was Vajpayee’s call name. That day, however, instead of getting into the car, Vajpayee decided to wait for a few more minutes before leaving. “At exactly 11.22am, the first shot rang out in Parliament as it was stormed by the militants. I radioed control immediately to find out what was happening and we stopped all movement." Vajpayee never made it to Parliament that day.
That was exactly the kind of situation the SPG was prepared and trained for. The SPG, which is responsible for not just scrutinizing but implementing every detail of the Prime Minister’s security, now finds itself under the scanner following a Right To Information (RTI) query filed by Jashodaben, the wife of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the subsequent change in the organization’s leadership. K. Durga Prasad was stripped of his charge midway through Modi’s tour of Nepal and replaced by Gujarat Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Vivek Srivastav. Prasad says his term ended on 2 November (it did) and that he had been told he would have to stay on till a replacement was found.
In her RTI query, Jashodaben sought details of her security entourage and alleged some of its members demanded special treatment, asking to be treated as guests. “I can assure you no SPG man will ever ask for a cup of tea from his protectee. We never break bread where we work," says S. Subramanian, the founder-director of SPG. As it turns out, Jashodaben’s security detail is actually sourced from Gujarat Police though an SPG team had visited Gujarat after Modi’s swearing-in on 26 May to assess the threat perception to her. According to reports, the findings of the team were personally monitored by Prasad. “Sometimes the local police is involved and the term is loosely used by them, but the SPG is a specially trained proximate protection force," says Subramanian.
How did it begin?
The SPG was conceived as a reaction. It was 1984 and the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s security was the responsibility of the local police force. “State police, municipality, everyone had some role to play; but there was no co-ordination. So the systems were in place, but the buck stopped with no one," recalls Subramanian. After Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984, the need was felt for one organization that would provide what securitymen term “proximate" security to the Prime Minister.
Officers of senior and junior ranks were recruited from the Indian Police Service (IPS), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and standard operating procedures were laid down. This included everything from anti-sabotage checks, sanitizing of venues and personal security details. “We consolidated the responsibility. There was a person, the director-general, SPG, with whom the buck stopped," says Subramanian.
Today, nearly three decades later, much of what Subramanian put into place remains. “Every year, as SPG personnel are repatriated to their parent unit, the MHA (ministry of home affairs) sends a vacancy list to these organizations. This is forwarded to the different units who send a list of possible candidates," explains Harish, who was recruited from BSF and has guarded Vajpayee, H.D. Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh.
Apart from being physically fit and mentally sharp, SPG recruits need to be younger than 35 years and have an unblemished service record. “It is a matter of great prestige to be part of the SPG and more often than not it is professional pride which makes us volunteer. Everyone knows the recruitment process is tough and the job that follows even tougher; but then, success does not come easy," says Onkar Tiwari, who, too, was a part of both Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh’s security entourage.
The selection process
The first stage of the selection process is an interview conducted by an inspector general of police, or IG, two deputy IGs and two assistant IGs. The questions range from current affairs to why the interviewee wants to join the SPG. This is followed by a physical exam, a written test and a psychological evaluation. According to Harish, it is not unusual for an entire batch to be rejected with the process starting anew all over again.
“The relation between a personal security officer and the protectee is akin to that of a mother and a child. In times of danger, the mother will sacrifice herself to save the child, and that is the ethic we looked for," says Vijay Raman, former special director-general of CRPF and a member of the founding SPG team.
The first phase of SPG training is for three months and includes extensive lessons in unarmed and armed combat, and a weekly test. Those who fail to make the grade in training are transferred to the next batch. If they still fail to clear it, then they are returned to the parent unit. Today, the SPG provides protection to the current Prime Minister, his family members, the Gandhi family and Vajpayee. Former prime ministers are provided security for a year after giving up office; this is reviewed depending on threat perception.
Earlier this year, Aseem Takyar, a Gurgaon resident, had filed an RTI application seeking information on whether SPG recruits men only from a certain community. The application was rejected by the Central Information Commission on the grounds that SPG is exempt from having to provide any information.
“I tried to argue that denying recruitment on grounds of religion is a human rights violation, but my requests were not entertained," says Takyar. The SPG men interviewed for this story refused to answer the question. “I don’t have anything to say about this," said Tiwari.
But how does one get to be part of the PM’s entourage?
“A cool and calm demeanour, physical fitness, ability to think on your feet and being a sharp shot are some of the qualities required to be a part of the PM‘s close protection team," says D.P. Tyagi, a former CISF commandant who was part of Rajiv Gandhi’s entourage.
“Close protection team probables are sent back for a further training period of three months. Then they are assigned as understudies before they are elevated to the main entourage," says an SPG official who wanted to remain unidentified. Even when on duty, SPG men have to report for physical training. “Every month we are supposed to report for five training sessions. It’s non-negotiable," says R.P. Yadav, a former SPG officer from CISF.
The standard uniform of an SPG member is either a safari suit or a blazer and tie. The men are also trained to be polite and unobtrusive. There are detailed operational procedures in place specifying everything from how many men will accompany the PM when he alights from a car, to how many will be with him when on a dais. The SPG also maintains a strict check on who is allowed to meet the Prime Minister and who is not.
“It is not enough that the Prime Minister is good friends with a person or the visitor is a family member or a cabinet member. The SPG has complete authority to pick up the phone and ask the Prime Minister directly if he wants to meet the visitor," says Raman.
SPG members, including drivers, are rotated regularly. And if an SPG member goes for leave longer than a certain number of days, it is not unusual for the local police to carry out discreet enquiries as to his whereabouts.
“Physically, it is a taxing job. A man should be able to act in a split second; the capacity to think and react quickly is of the essence here. You need to know whether people are euphoric or antagonistic at the visit of the Prime Minister," says Subramanian.
Harish recalls a rally in Cuttack when someone from the audience threw a cloth ball at Vajpayee. He stopped it with his hand.
On the job
The decision to give SPG cover to former prime ministers was taken after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. After the election of Modi as PM in May, the SPG took over his security immediately. Every event of his, be it election rallies or state visits, sees an unprecedented security drill, including the deployment of sharpshooters.
An SPG tenure lasts for six years but extensions are not uncommon even though Subramanian believes in frequent rotation, including a fixed two-year tenure for the director. “The longer you stay, the more you take things for granted. There can be no chinks in our armour if we are protecting the democratically elected head of a country."
Apart from the prestige associated with being a part of the SPG, there are other perks, too. Members are given allowances that take their pay up as much as 50%, depending on the nature of deputation. Those who are involved in the administrative section get a hike of 25%. “Foreign tours, a comfortable lifestyle, good pay package, supportive seniors, these are the perks which make it very difficult for a SPG official to adjust with their parent unit once the tenure is over," says Yadav.
Indeed, stories of harassment at the hands of superiors in the parent unit and punishment duties are common. This combined with the siren call of politics and business means many former SPG men, including most of those Mint spoke to, end up protecting CEOs, businessmen, and political leaders.
On the job, SPG has had a significant measure of success, although there have been slips, including, if media reports are to be believed, a recent one where an individual who wasn’t supposed to be on the dias, shared the stage with PM Modi during the swearing-in of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Securitymen are only human, explains Subramanian, resorting to a statement attributed to English politician Oliver Cromwell.
All we can do, he says, “is to trust in God and keep our powder dry."
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Telltale announces King’s Quest revival and new partnerships
At a press event last night in San Francisco, Telltale announced plans for five upcoming games—some that will be new to the adventure scene, and others that should feel right at home.
Telltale has entered into an agreement with Activision, current owner of the rights to the classic Sierra On-Line adventure franchises, to create new episodic games based on these series. The first will be King’s Quest. Few details were available at the event, but Adventure Gamers will be following up with Telltale to learn more about their plans for these old favorites.
Hector: Badge of Carnage developer Straandlooper Animation will team up with Telltale to bring their acclaimed, currently iPhone-exclusive adventure to PC, Mac, and iPad. The partnership will also allow for the continuation of the Hector series, with two new episodes planned for release on all four platforms.
A partnership with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will yield games based on the apocalyptic comic book series. An Eisner-winning series that has come to television on the AMC Network, The Walking Dead “is an epic drama where personal trials are magnified against a backdrop of moment-to-moment survival.” Though no specific platforms were announced, Telltale says the agreement covers PC, Mac, console, handheld, mobile and social gaming media. More details will be announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July, with the games planned for a fourth quarter 2011 debut.
Bill Willingham’s FABLES, one of DC Comics’ longest-running series, will also get the Telltale treatment. In these award-winning comics, beloved storybook characters such as Snow White and Little Boy Blue have relocated to a “magically camouflaged New York City neighborhood known as Fabletown” where they live among us. More information will be revealed at Comic-Con.
Last but not least (and the only one with video), is a sequel to Puzzle Agent, which was released as a standalone game in Telltale’s experimental pilot program. In Puzzle Agent 2, “ace puzzle investigators will return to the snowy mid-west to help Agent Tethers solve the mystery haunting the realm.” The game is scheduled for a summer release on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and PlayStation Network. Unlike Telltale’s other episodic series, Puzzle Agent 2 will be a standalone game that provides closure to the mystery of Scoggins. The company also announced that the first Puzzle Agent game will be coming to PSN this spring.
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Psychedelia manifests itself in many different forms across music. While the original intentions of the loose genre were to replicate the experiences of ingesting psychedelic drugs, or the weightier notion of "expanding one's mind (read: taking drugs, but in a pretentious way)," its combination of pop accessibility with experimentation has transformed into a variety of different musical acts.
Those who say that psychedelic rock is "dead" may be correct, but that is a non-issue. Music changes from generation to generation and exists under its own context. Even modern bands that appear to "re-create" the styles of the 60s and 70s could only exist at this specific point in time.
Anyway, the following musicians bear traces of what can be deemed "psychedelic." Whether it is through mind-bending experimentation, or certain sounds that harken back to the first flood of psychedelic bands in the late 1960s, these artists are carrying the torch for psychedelia in music.
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Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mitsubishi proposes new salary caps
Mitsubishi Motors is proposing higher salary caps that could triple the annual pay packages of its top executives.
The new limits come as the scandal-hit Japanese carmaker prepares to appoint Carlos Ghosn as chairman.
The firm wants to raise the cash limit on executive pay from 960m yen (£6.7m, $8.4m) to 2bn yen. There could also be non-cash rewards worth 1bn yen.
The new salary caps need approval by shareholders.
They are due to vote on that at an extraordinary meeting on 14 December.
Shareholders will also be asked to approve the appointment of Nissan and Renault boss Carlos Ghosn as chairman, and three other new executives with experience at Nissan.
If approved, the total annual pay packages of all 11 executives on the company's new board could amount to 3bn yen.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mitsubishi Motors' sales have fallen since its emissions scandal
New talent
Mitsubishi Motors says the new salary caps are designed to attract outside talent to the company.
Its reputation was hit badly after it admitted in April to falsifying the fuel efficiency of several models.
The admission led to a suspension of sales of the vehicles and prompted a sharp drop in Mitsubishi Motors' share price.
Mitsubishi has suffered heavy losses resulting from the scandal. It has forecast a net loss of 145bn yen for the current financial year.
In May, Nissan helped to bail out Mitsubishi Motors by taking a 34% stake in its smaller rival.
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Close-Up On Chuck Close
If you ever have the pleasure of standing in front of a Chuck Close portrait, you will never forget it. First of all, the portraits are huge. Faces the size of your whole body -- even bigger. And the detail is unbelievable. For the past few decades, Close has been one of the most preeminent pioneers in portraiture -- experimenting in various media from photography to painting to block printing to weaving. Some call him a photorealist, but his style defies classification.
Hide caption Self-Portrait , 2006, made in collaboration with David Adamson Editions Previous Next Courtesy Pace/MacGill, New York/Images courtesy of Chuck Close and the Aperture Foundation
Hide caption Lorna Simpson , 2006, made in collaboration with David Adamson Editions Previous Next Courtesy Pace/MacGill, New York/Images courtesy of Chuck Close and the Aperture Foundation
Hide caption Philip Glass , 2006, made in collaboration with David Adamson Editions Previous Next Courtesy Pace/MacGill, New York/Images courtesy of Chuck Close and the Aperture Foundation
Hide caption Bob Holman , 2006, made in collaboration with David Adamson Editions Previous Next Courtesy Pace/MacGill, New York/Images courtesy of Chuck Close and the Aperture Foundation
Hide caption Hands diptych/Self-Portrait, 2002, made in collaboration with Jerry Spagnoli Previous Next Courtesy Pace/MacGill, New York/Images courtesy of Chuck Close and the Aperture Foundation 1 of 5 i View slideshow
One of his methods is like pointillism reinvented -- and even more painstaking, if you can imagine. He'll grid off a photograph, then translate each little square of information on a much larger canvas. And he does it all from a wheelchair; the artist was left severely paralyzed after spinal artery collapse in the late '80s.
He's been widely exhibited around the world, and his latest exhibition, organized by Aperture Foundation, opens today at the University of Hartford's Joseloff Gallery. This show, however, focuses on Close's experimentation in photography: luminous daguerreotypes and photogravures -- and even photorealistic tapestries.
He is quoted in the news release:
"The thing I love about daguerreotypes is that everything I love in photography was already there in the beginning—1840. The incredible detail. The incredible range, from the brightest highlight of white, sometimes solarized, almost bluish in color, to the deepest, deepest darkest, most velvety blacks. I love the fact that, as opposed to so many photographs that are painting-sized, which 30 people can stand in front of, each daguerreotype requires the active participation of one viewer. It's intimate, one-on-one personal."
There's not enough room here to get into Close's rich biography. (A few key words: Fulbright, MOMA, Philip Glass, etc.) Learn more in this Charlie Rose interview -- and explore his Web site.
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One leading candidate for Democratic National Committee Chair recently said, "We heard loudly and clearly yesterday from Bernie supporters that the process was rigged and it was. And you've got to be honest about it. That's why we need a chair who is transparent."
In a contest as hotly contested as the race for DNC Chair currently is, you expect this sort of talk. Only thing is, the statement didn’t come from Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison, the DNC candidate who supported Sanders in the presidential nomination race. This was actually Thomas Perez talking—who supported Hillary Clinton, served as Secretary of Labor in Barack Obama’s cabinet and has been endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden. So you figure when he says the DNC needs shaking up, he knows what he’s talking about—although he would not seem to be the obvious choice to do the shaking.
And Perez wasn’t just no bystander in all of this, by the way. An active Clinton campaigner himself, he told Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, in a WikiLeaks-published email, of warning audiences that "people don’t (sic) have the time to wait for Senator Sanders to complete his quest for the perfect health care system."
And he further offered spin advice, suggesting to Podesta that if Clinton did well among minority voters in the Nevada caucuses, "the narrative changes from Bernie kicks ass among young voters to Bernie does well only among young white liberals." And hey, let’s give credit where credit is due here—the job Perez and other spin-meisters did on divorcing Sanders’s image from a fifty year plus history of civil rights support—dating back to a 1963 arrest at a pro-Chicago school integration demonstration—was a major contributor to denying him the nomination.
But in the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you that the opening quote in this story is contested. Not that there’s any dispute as to whether Perez actually spoke the words in a public forum. It’s apparently more a question of whether he was in his right mind when he did, as the very next day he was tweeting that "I mispoke" and that "Hillary became our nominee fair and square." Hmm. Does this sound like a straight-talking independent leader for the future to you? Me neither. But unfortunately this could well be the leader the Democratic Party is going to get. If Perez is to be believed (I know, I know!), he’s got commitments for 180 of the 224 DNC votes needed to win the election for Chair this last weekend of February. And credibility questions aside, the claim does seem plausible, the DNC, after all, being the source of most of the super delegates who gave Clinton her huge lead before the first voter entered a polling place.
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Now to be fair, from everything I hear Tom Perez is a fine fellow who's liked by a lot of the people you might hope someone in public life would be liked by—he was a Secretary of Labor that labor liked. At the same time, there’s no getting away from the fact that a Perez DNC chairmanship would be a victory for the status quo, which is to say a Democratic Party that thinks it can be the party both of the unions and of the hedge funds. And you can see how that view might still play well in this little corner of the world. After all, Clinton did win the election by nearly three million votes and were it not for our bizarre Electoral College system that allowed fewer then 100,000 voters in three states to tip it the other way, there wouldn’t even be a DNC election, since these elections only happen when the Democrat doesn’t win the White House, as Democrats who are elected president get to install their personal choice for DNC chair.
So is there any hope, then, that Ellison could actually win this uphill fight to convince this small group of voters to change their ways? Actually there is. And the fact that some main stream Democrats like Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer see the logic in supporting him shows why. They understand that a Perez win in this race will make a lot of people conclude that the Democratic Party just can’t change its stripes. It will take the wind out of the sails of a lot of people the Democratic Party can’t afford to lose—the 70 percent of the under-30 voters who went with Sanders in the primaries. This may not be exactly the future that lot of people in the DNC might have preferred. It may not be one they even understand. But the Democratic Party absolutely must engage that bloc.
Tom Perez may do some very useful things in his future political career. But he is not man for this race. If the Democratic Party hopes to have a future it can believe in, it needs to choose Keith Ellison as its next chair.
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You know all those jokes about French Canada? Turns out the National Assembly of Quebec hasn't heard them yet. This is a completely bizarre story, with obvious law-breaking, party defections, and boondoggles so big you wonder if Halliburton has opened a Québec branch office.
The Montreal Gazette explains:
QUEBEC – In a new twist in the Quebec National Assembly psychodrama over Quebec City's proposed new hockey arena, Premier Jean Charest announced Tuesday that retroactive legislation to make legal a management agreement, giving Quebecor Media Inc. naming rights to the $400-million facility, will not be voted on until the fall.
You can read more about the defections here, but the gist of it is that Quebec City's mayor was so desperate to sign a naming rights contract with Quebecor (which is basically the French Canadian Kabletown) for the arena the city and province have built for a nonexistent NHL team that he broke the law, and then his allies got mad when legislators wouldn't retroactively condone the lawbreaking.
Again: Quebec City and the province of Quebec are plunking down a combined $400 million for a hockey arena. No hockey team has agreed to move there. One hockey team just moved elsewhere (to another recently vacated Canadian market, to boot), and Gary Bettman seems resolute in a) not allowing the Coyotes to leave Phoenix and b) not expanding the number of franchises. Quebec City's mayor, Regis Labeaume, was so desperate to get this boondoggle financed that he skipped a step (asking for public bids) in the naming rights process, and signed an illegal contract. And now, the National Assembly of Quebec has to vote on a bill that would retroactively make the illegal contract legal. Even better, the mayor's lawyers wrote the bill. Fuck appearances, we've got a hockey team to deliver.
Pauline Marois, the leader of the Parti Québécois (a party which aims for Quebec's national sovereignty), told her members that they had to vote for the bill making the illegal contract legal, or they had to leave the party. That is to say: get the hell out of the PQ if you're going to try to thwart our ill conceived plan to throw good loonies after bad trying to bring an NHL team here. So four members of the party—the Gazette calls them four of the PQ's "most talented"—quit. Afterward, voting on the bill was postponed until the fall. Think of all the vaguely NHL-friendly illegal contracts Mayor Labeaume can sign by then!
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All of this is to say that despite whatever governmental superiority our neighbors to the north might claim, they live in a depressingly pre-Field of Schemes world, in which shelling out for a Team To Be Named Later constitutes a good idea. Drop the romance, and get with it. Also, the official motto of Quebec is "je me souviens"—"I remember." Don't you remember? The Nordiques were terrible.
Charest plot twist: No vote on arena bill [Montreal Gazette]
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(Don't forget to sub to my channel.)...................Hello everyone,Help Hiphop and friends raise up funds monthly to make epic videos. Such as movies, funny skits, trailers, music videos etc. Your pledges will be used wisely and some of it will return to the furry fandom, but we will talk about that under the rewards section. We will try to produce 4 videos, the least we could do is 2 videos a month. It may not sound like allot, but they will be professional edited films and they do take allot of time.If you want to laugh, cry, or just be happy, then funding us monthly payments will guarantee you that. So why should you pledge to support us? Hmm, well here is an answer I hope catches your attention. We will stick to producing awesome professional skits and films anywhere or wherever we travel too. Whether it being realistic films set with stories, funny skits, music videos that you already seen on my youtube page, or even awesome trailers.Trailers you ask, let's just say there will be a second youtube channel created just for my awesome novel coming out late 2015. Professional cinematic trailers, edited and cleaned, here is a sneak peak photo.Shhh... keep that a secret! We are still working on it. x.xWhat we mean is that if you pledge, we keep are work nice and tidy. We plan to have an awesome youtube channel keeping everything pro-production like. We will never upload pointless videos ranging from 0:05 seconds to 2:00 min videos. All are videos will be above the 2:00 minute mark and the video will make sense. We will never upload first person non-edited videos, like example. I carry a camera around public and record everything I see, then I upload it raw without it being edited first. All videos will have a story or a topic.Answer to that is yes, you can trust me and yes I have video production experience. I've been filming since I was ten when I first got my tape camcorder. I also went to college for 2 years and majored in film, but sadly I had to drop out cause it was too expensive and I needed to work to survive. That is why I am here asking for pledges so I can bring an old dream back with a couple of friends that wish to do the same.3 things, your paying for awesome quality videos, paying to help me continue rapping inspirational rap, and last but not least, your pledging for an awesome novel I wrote to be published and hopefully released next year.1. Let's us cover what exactly the money will be used for in all three sections starting with filming:-We will be using the money for props-Money will be used for new equipment such as stabilizers for clean transitions, new lenses for cleaner and professional filming, even more cameras for different angel shots. Camera equipment of all things.-Money will be used for travel, such as driving to places to film there. Covers gas and incase we need to pay extras. If a scene has to be shot at a certain con, or a music video.-Special effects such as CGI or animations.-Money will be used for advertising.2. What the money will be used for in rapping:-Recording at the studio is becoming to be expensive.-Money will be used for beat production.-Buying copies to give away.-AdvertisingPicture of the album colliding worlds:3. What the money will be used for my novel:-Professional proof reading.-self-publishing-advertisingPicture of the novel. (note: Please ignore the black box over a sword, it is to keep people from stealing my idea)Extra money will be returned to the furry fandom to help others such as artists. More information about this will be posted in the rewards area.So since the video covers more on why the pledges are needed, I will leave the txt short. I am hoping you can pledge to help us, we cannot wait to begin making awesome films for you too enjoy! I hope you give us the chance to show you awesome creative work! Thanks to all who took the time to stop by here and check out what we had to offer whether you pledged or not.-Hiphop and Friends
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If you start to raise chickens to be more self-sufficient, you want them to be as productive as possible. But what if they aren’t laying as many eggs as you’d hoped?
The most common reasons that chickens aren’t laying eggs is because they are too young, too old, the hours of daylight are too short, it is molting or the feeding is not of sufficient nutritional value. You might not be able to affect those first points, but you can help contribute to a stress-free environment for your chickens while keeping them healthy and well.
Chickens will typically lay one egg or less during a day and that will decrease with age. Their egg-laying years will typically last for 2-3 years.
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If you are experiencing a low yield of eggs from your chickens, check out these tips below to see what you can do to help them lay more eggs.
1. Quality Feed
You don’t have to go crazy with some cutting-edge feed that’s guaranteed to make your chickens produce eggs the size of a garden gnome. It’s recommended that you use a diet of premium laying mash or pellet, along with occasional fresh fruit. vegetables, meal worms and other healthy treats. If you’re going to change your tin foil, do it gradually substituting it in slowly.
2. Clean Nests Boxes
One of the most important factors to helping chickens lay eggs is a clean nesting box area with comfortable bedding. You can also make a soft surface with recycled-newspaper pellets which also are easy to toss and replace.
3. Open Areas
The idea behind free-range chickens is that if they are more comfortable, they will produce more healthy eggs. While free-range chickens might not be a possibility for some urban homesteaders, it’s a great idea to have a larger area with enough area for the chickens to graze on a lawn while still being protected from hawks or other predators.
4. Calcium
Egg-laying takes a lot of calcium from a hen’s body. Be sure to provide them enough calcium in their diet to keep a steady flow of eggs. Besides a high-quality feed, you might consider mixing crushed oyster shells in a cup of of feed. Or even placing a cup of oyster shells in the coop for the chickens to eat when they need it.
5. Inspect Regularly
Try to handle your hens often checking for problems. If they have large cuts, broken bones, etc. it will give you a better idea of how you can help. Are they uncomfortable? Have they been pestered by predators? Handling your hens on a regular basis will help you know how to best help them.
6. Coop Security
Along with the previous point, make sure your coop is secure from predators. Make sure that animals like raccoon's, cats and other animals can’t burrow or find their way into the coop.
7. Fresh Water
To stay healthy, chickens need constant access to water. Change the water every day. It might be a chore to do it every day but it will lead to healthier chickens who will lay more eggs.
8. Parasite Control
Parasites love to prey on chickens. Mites are the most common and can take control of your coop without you even realizing it. Make it a habit to inspect your chickens at night when mites are most active. Mites are small, reddish-brown insect that scurry around a chicken’s head. If you do have a mite infestation, use a dose of ivermectin (available from a veterinarian) for each chicken.
What Have You Found?
How have you helped your chickens lay more eggs? Comment below to help us know what we can do to make our chickens more productive. Explore more DIY possibilities and get the supplies you need to enhance your preparation.
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eye Title Creator
Feature Films 529 529 Horror_Express movies eye 529 favorite 0 comment 0
This film has fallen into the Public Domain.
Topic: Horror Express
In this classic yet still creepy horror film, strangers hold up in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse and battle constant attacks from dead locals who have been brought back to life by mysterious radiation. WARNING - This is a graphic horror film with some gory special effects. You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page Flash Web Video FLV File (right-click to download)
Topic: horror
To come
( 1 reviews )
Topics: Horror, Horror films, Feature films
Hello and welcome back to another sick..err slick double bit of fun from your friends in the projection booth. Tonight, we are happy to present that father and son duo of fun frivolous film making - Arch Hall Sr. and Jr. First up, after some cunning coming attractions and a Tweety Bird cartoon, we bring you the pair's infamous 1962 creation "Eegah" starring Richard Kiel as a love sick caveman battling junior for the affection of Marilyn Manning. Then, following a brief intermission,...
Topics: drive in, horror, Arch Hall
Feature Films 1,548 1.5K thedevilssleep movies eye 1,548 favorite 4 comment 0
film
Topic: horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 4,558 4.6K Spider baby [videorecording] by Chaney, Lon, Jr., 1906-1973; Ohmart, Carol; Hill, Jack; Sinister Cinema movies eye 4,558 favorite 4 comment 1
A caretaker devotes himself to three children after the death of their father. Relatives arrive to lay claim to the estate but the caretaker suspects that they will put the children in an asylum. To prevent this, he destroys the estate, himself, and the children.
favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews )
Topics: horror, Horror films, Feature films
Feature Films 1,302 1.3K Bloody Pit Of Horror movies eye 1,302 favorite 2 comment 0
This film has fallen into the Public Domain.
Topic: Bloody Pit of Horror
Hello and welcome back for another trip down memory lane with more big screen thrills and chills fueled by stale popcorn and flat soda. Tonight, in honor of our 100th presentation, we are pulling out all the mad scientist stops with a vintage triple feature of the King - Boris Karloff. First up, after a few coming attractions to put you in the mood as well as a "Boogie" cartoon, we bring you "The Man Who Changed His Mind". This 1936 movie stars Boris as a scientist who...
Topics: drive in, horror, sci fi, Boris Karloff, science fiction
From "IMDb: The new science teacher Dr. Julian Olcott (Carl Schell) with a mysterious past arrives in an institutional boarding school for troublemaker girls. Along the night, the intern Mary Smith (Mary McNeeran), who is blackmailing another teacher - Sir Alfred Whiteman (Maurice Marsac) - with some love letters, is slaughtered by a werewolf. The detective in charge of the investigation attributes the crime to a wolf, while her mate Priscilla (Barbara Lass) believes she was killed by Sir...
Topic: horror
The Life...The Loves...The Crimes of Jack the Ripper!. Audio: English, Subtitles: Spanish
Topics: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hello and welcome back to everyone's favorite possessed picture palace. With the demon days of summer in full swing, what better way to beat the evening heat than in a haunted bed with a few good scary stories. First up, after the usual coming attractions and visit with Bugs Bunny, we present 1977's "Death Bed", a true wonder about a possessed bed that likes to eat people. Then, following a brief intermission, we finish up with 1978's "House of the Dead", a rather well done...
favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews )
Topics: drive in, horror, sci fi, death bed, demon, stories
Also known as "The Creeper." This higher-quality version includes all of the opening credits, and has a runtime of about 1:36. The other copy in the Archive run around 1:29. Just for fun, i have included an image of an advertisement for the movie. A large file, but half the size of the source material. "Five doctors go on vacation deep in the Canadian wilderness. After all but one pair of the party's shoes disappear, the remaining shoed camper decides to hike out and go look for...
favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 2 reviews )
Topics: stalker, horror, Hal Holbrook, serial killer
Feature Films 806 806 City of the Dead (Horror Hotel) movies eye 806 favorite 1 comment 0
This film has fallen into the Public Domain.
Topics: City of the Dead, Horror Hotel
The "dead" of Winter continues on and we here at the haunted drive in thought that a warmer climate might be nice to visit this time of year. So, what better place than the land of pasta, olives, and the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Of course, we return to Italy for two monster-pieces of celluloid calzone. After a fresh serving of coming attractions and a Universal "jazz" cartoon, we proudly present "The Atom Age Vampire" - an Italian love story about a...
Topics: drive in, horror, werewolf, vampire, stripper
People are mysteriously disappearing near a remote Cornish village, where a scientist is experimenting with reviving the dead.
( 1 reviews )
Topic: Horror
Feature Films 2,947 2.9K The Rawhide Terror by Victor Adamson movies eye 2,947 favorite 6 comment 0
Twelve renegades dressed as Indians kill the parents of two brothers. The brothers (William Desmond and Art Mix) who have similar birth marks then separate. Ten years later a man known as the Rawhide Terror is murdering the renegades who are now town citizens. Everyone is after the Rawhide Terror and the two brothers are destined to meet again.
Topics: Horror, Western
Feature Films 1,786 1.8K "The Ape Man" Originalton mit deutschen Untertiteln by Jack Dietz, Sam Katzman movies eye 1,786 favorite 0 comment 0
Nach einem Hinweis von einem seltsamen Mann begeben sich der hartgesottene Berichterstatter Jeff Carter und die beherzte Fotografin Billie Mason auf die Suche nach dem unter rätselhaften Umständen verschwundenen Drüsenfacharzt Dr. James Brewster. In der Zwischenzeit versetzt ein mörderischer Affenmann die Stadt in Angst und Schrecken … 1942 in nur 19 Tagen fertig gestellt, war „The Ape Man“ („Der Affenmann“) der sechste von insgesamt neun Monogram-Filmen mit Bela Lugosi. Die hier...
Topic: Affenmann, Science-Fiction, Horror, Bela Lugosi, Lumbalflüssigkeit, Tierversuche,...
Hello and welcome back to a cold and snowy Shocker Internet Drive In. We realize that most drive in are closed this time of year, but we are happy to present two psycho slashers to get your blood flowing and hearts pumping. First up, after a wonderful "vulture" cartoon and some bloody good coming attractions, we bring you "Savage Weekend"- a nifty little piece concerning a crazed killer taking care of business in a mask (sound familiar?) Second, after a brief intermission...
Topics: horror, psycho, killer, slasher, sci fi, drive in
The Georges Méliès Collection 1,614 1.6K Le Château Hanté (tinted) by Georges Méliès movies eye 1,614 favorite 0 comment 0
1896 Georges Méliès Le Château Hanté (The Haunted Castle) the tinted version. Le Château Hanté, 1897, 0m44s Star Film Catalogue No. 96 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213033/ A man defies warnings from his friend and prepares to spend the light in a haunted castle. He sits nonchalantly down in a chair - which vanishes and reappears on the other side of the room, causing him to fall to the ground. He gets up, looks around indignantly, walks over to the chair, reaches out to move it back, but...
Topics: Gen X, Georges Méliès, Short Film, Silent Film, Fantasy, Horror
Feature Films 238 238 Shivers (1975) by Eddie Gabis movies eye 238 favorite 0 comment 0
Shivers (1975)
Topics: Shivers, 1975, horror, mystery, thriller, drama, monster, evil, scary, old movie, old film, full...
Sci-Fi / Horror 18,280 18K Torture Ship by Ben Judell, Sigmund Neufeld movies eye 18,280 favorite 15 comment 4
A well known doctor is indicted for his experiments toward curing the criminal mind. Needing to continue his work and hoping that success will clear him, he buys a boat, loads it with several high profile criminals hoping to escape the law and heads out to sea. At least that's the plan, but things start to go wrong and things are revealed to be not what they seemed at first.
favorite favorite ( 4 reviews )
Topic: Horror
The Georges Méliès Collection 1,799 1.8K Le Château Hantée by Georges Méliès movies eye 1,799 favorite 0 comment 1
1896 Georges Méliès Le Château Hantée (The Haunted Castle) Le Château Hantée, 1897, 0m44s Star Film Catalogue No. 96 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213033/ A man defies warnings from his friend and prepares to spend the light in a haunted castle. He sits nonchalantly down in a chair - which vanishes and reappears on the other side of the room, causing him to fall to the ground. He gets up, looks around indignantly, walks over to the chair, reaches out to move it back, but is alarmed by the...
( 1 reviews )
Topics: Gen X, Georges Méliès, Short Film, Silent Film, Fantasy, Horror
The Georges Méliès Collection 4,154 4.2K Barbe-bleue by Georges Méliès movies eye 4,154 favorite 0 comment 0
A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances. Director: Georges Méliès Writers: Georges Méliès (adaptation), Charles Perrault (fairy tale) Stars: Georges Méliès, Jeanne d'Alcy and Bleuette Bernon Lord Bluebeard is looking for a woman to become his eighth wife, as his first seven wives have all passed away. Many noble families bring their daughters to meet him, but none of the young women want to marry him....
Topics: Gen X, Georges Méliès, Action, Adventure, Fairy Tale, Horror
Public Access TV show "Weirdness Really Bad Movie" hosts public domain movies and ads clean comedy sketches enjoyable for the whole family. Today's film is the 1935 Bela Lugosi film "The Phantom Ship"
Topics: Mystery, Horror, ghost, comedy, public domain, classic TV, weirdness, weird
Sci-Fi / Horror 29,677 30K Ring of Terror by Alfeo Bocchicchio movies eye 29,677 favorite 20 comment 3
Med student Lewis Moffitt (George E. Mather) harbours a secret fear of the dark stemming from a traumatic childhood incident involving a corpse. Nonetheless, he pretends to be unaffected during the first autopsy witnessed by his class, and generally affects an attitude of fearlessness. This, however, inspires his would-be frat brothers to conceive a particularly morbid initiation ritual -- one which will, inevitably, go horribly awry.
favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 3 reviews )
Topic: Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 24,578 25K Monster Maker, The by Sigmund Neufeld movies eye 24,578 favorite 18 comment 4
Mad scientist injects his enemies with acromegaly virus, causing them to become hideously deformed.
favorite favorite favorite ( 4 reviews )
Topic: Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 21,467 21K Eternal Evil by Buck Houghton, Pieter Kroonenburg movies eye 21,467 favorite 22 comment 1
A dissatisfied Montreal director of TV commercials is taught to astrally project himself by a mysterious woman. But soon he finds that he does it against his will when he sleeps, and while he does it, he commits savage acts against those in his life.
favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews )
Topic: Horror
Feature Films 735 735 The Child (1977) by Eddie Gabis movies eye 735 favorite 0 comment 0
A 1930s widower (Frank Janson) hires a governess (Laurel Barnett) for his daughter (Rosalie Cole), who can summon zombies.
Topics: The Child, 1977, 1975, 1970s, disco, old movie, old film, full movie, drama, action, monster,...
Feature Films 730 730 Mary Mary Bloody Mary (1975) by Eddie Gabis movies eye 730 favorite 0 comment 0
A artist (Cristina Ferrare) living in Mexico stabs people (David Young, Helena Rojo) in the neck because her father is a vampire.
Topics: Mary Mary Bloody Mary, 1975, 1970s, disco, old movie, old film, full movie, drama, action, monster,...
Feature Films 9,130 9.1K Horror Express (1972) movies eye 9,130 favorite 10 comment 3
Horror Express starring Christopher Lee. This is a much, much higher quality version of the film which already exists on the internet archive, which is poor quality at best. Enjoy :)
favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 3 reviews )
Topics: Horror, Express, Horror Express, Christopher Lee
An English anthropologist has discovered a frozen monster in the frozen wastes of Manchuria which he believes may be the Missing Link. Audio: English, Subtitles: Spanish
Topics: Horror, Thriller, Mistery
What better way to enjoy a cold crisp January evening then to pack up the loved one and speed off to the drive in for a "bloody" good time. We here at the old Shocker Internet Drive In are more than happy to oblige with a wonderful double feature of boobs, blood, and bad film making. First up, we are ashamed to present that mid-sixities classic example of back yard film making, "Manos - The Hands of Fate", followed by that equally inept piece of celluloid silliness,...
Topics: shocker, drive in, manos, models, horror, maniac, 60's horror
Victor Von Psychotron hosts "The Screaming Skull" from 1958. Weird-O-Rama is a horror host show from northern Indiana that features B-films, interviews with local folks, and other oddities. Part One of the first weird-cast features the first 25 minutes of "The Screaming Skull" and a vingtage Superman cartoon.
Topics: horror, horror host, screaming skull, superman, b-movie, cult film
From a slab in the morgue, a dead young woman tells the bizarre tale of how she got there, through a maze of murder involving a hypnotist⦠Audio: English, Subtitles: Spanish
Topics: Horror, Thriller, Mistery
Feature Films 21,897 22K The Little Shop of Horrors by Roger Corman movies eye 21,897 favorite 11 comment 2
Seymour Krelboin is a hapless sap working in a skid row flower shop. He loves coworker Audrey Fulquard, but is close to losing his job. Luckily, he discovers a new plant, and brings the sickly specimen to work, which impresses both Audrey and his boss, Gravis Mushnick. Mushnick makes Seymour's job contingent on the survival of the plant. While Seymour works on this, he discovers the plant responds to blood. Oh, and it talks! It tells him it needs more blood to thrive, and Seymour sets about the...
favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 2 reviews )
Topics: Comedy, Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 37,431 37K Werewolf of Washington by Stephen A. Miller movies eye 37,431 favorite 9 comment 1
Taken from IMDB : A reporter who has had an affair with the daughter of the U.S. President is sent to Hungary. There he is bitten by a werewolf, and then gets transferred back to Washington, where he gets a job as press assistant to the President. Then bodies start turning up in D.C.
favorite ( 1 reviews )
Topics: Comedy, Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 22,479 22K Invisible Ghost by Sam Katzman movies eye 22,479 favorite 11 comment 0
The town's leading citizen becomes a homocidal maniac after his wife deserts him.
Topics: Crime, Horror
Feature Films 11,748 12K The Little Shop of Horrors by Roger Corman movies eye 11,748 favorite 14 comment 7
Seymour Krelboin is a hapless sap working in a skid row flower shop. He loves coworker Audrey Fulquard, but is close to losing his job. Luckily, he discovers a new plant, and brings the sickly specimen to work, which impresses both Audrey and his boss, Gravis Mushnick. Mushnick makes Seymour's job contingent on the survival of the plant. While Seymour works on this, he discovers the plant responds to blood. Oh, and it talks! It tells him it needs more blood to thrive, and Seymour sets about the...
favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 7 reviews )
Topics: Comedy, Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 6,550 6.6K GraveOfTheVampire1974 movies eye 6,550 favorite 10 comment 0
Aka SeedOfTerror
Topics: vampire, horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 17,601 18K Frankenstein movies eye 17,601 favorite 8 comment 2
A Fragment Of The Silent Frankenstein film from 1910 Download the full film here: http://www.archive.org/details/FrankensteinfullMovie
favorite favorite ( 2 reviews )
Topics: Edison, Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 21,408 21K Mysterious Mr. Wong, The by George Yohalem movies eye 21,408 favorite 8 comment 4
Taken form IMDB : Investigating a series of murders in Chinatown, wise-guy reporter Jason Barton is captured by the megalomaniacal Mr. Wong, desperately trying to complete his collection of the twelve gold coins of Confucius, with which he will be able to acquire the power to become ruler of a large province in China.
favorite favorite favorite ( 4 reviews )
Topics: Mystery, Horror
Feature Films 7,543 7.5K Things Happen at Night by St. John Legh Clowes movies eye 7,543 favorite 14 comment 1
A young girl finds herself possessed by the spirit of a mischievous demon.
favorite favorite ( 1 reviews )
Topics: Comedy, Horror
Well hello and welcome back to your favorite Shocker Internet Drive In! Good to see that you survived the holidays. You maybe a bit dazed and confused, but we are glad you came to relax and chill out. And, what better way than to chase away those Winter blues than with a bit of chaotic film making. First up, after some coming attractions and a "Melvin The Monster" cartoon, we happily present "The Doomsday Machine" - a nifty piece of confusion started in 1967, but completed...
Topics: horror, sci fi, drive in, Ed Wood, monster
Feature Films 2,065 2.1K THE HEAD movies eye 2,065 favorite 4 comment 0
“A scientist invents a serum that keeps a dog's head alive after its body dies. When the scientist dies of a heart attack, his crazed assistant cuts off his head and, using the serum, keeps the doctor's head alive and forces it to help him on an experiment to give his hunchbacked nurse assistant a new body.”(imdb.com) Imaginatively titled for US release as “The Head,” this older German cousin of “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” is also known as “Die Nackte und der Satan” (“The...
Topics: mad scientist, head transplant, German horror, 1950s
Feature Films 7,182 7.2K Carnival of Souls by Harcourt Productions movies eye 7,182 favorite 5 comment 1
After a traumatic accident, a woman becomes drawn to a mysterious abandoned carnival where she discloses a dark secret. - IMDB Description
favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews )
Topics: Horror, 1962, Movie Powder, avi, pdmovies
Variously known as “Peopletoys” (original title), and “Devil Times Five” (elsewhere in the Archive), this print is titled “The Horrible House on the Hill.” My source claims an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It’s a clearer print, with better color reproduction, than the others already here. Stars include future teen heartthrob Leif Garrett, his mother Carolyn Stellar and sister Dawn Lyn; Shelley Morrison (“Rosario” on “Will and Grace);” and Sorrell Booke (“Boss Hogg.”)
Topics: Leif Garrett, horror, Sorrell Booke, "killer kids"
Long Chaney stars as Satan in this three part story based on a collection of episodes from the never-aired TV series No. 13 Demon St.. The Devil sends his reluctant messenger to the surface to recruit new souls. Once in Hell; the damned are instructed to prepare for the delivery of Satan's horrifying "final message" to earth.
favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 6 reviews )
Topic: Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 35,694 36K Werewolf of Washington by Stephen A. Miller movies eye 35,694 favorite 26 comment 8
From IMDb : A reporter who has had an affair with the daughter of the U.S. President is sent to Hungary. There he is bitten by a werewolf, and then gets transferred back to Washington, where he gets a job as press assistant to the President. Then bodies start turning up in D.C
favorite favorite favorite ( 8 reviews )
Topic: Horror
Sci-Fi / Horror 21,124 21K Condemned to Live by Arthur and Max Alexander, Maury M. Cohen movies eye 21,124 favorite 27 comment 7
After a series of unsolved murders, a man finds out that his mother was bitten by a vampire bat during her pregnancy, and he believes that he may be the vampire committing the murders.
favorite favorite favorite ( 7 reviews )
Topic: Horror
Feature Films 3,638 3.6K Bloodlust - Weirdness Bad Movie by [email protected] movies eye 3,638 favorite 4 comment 1
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Back-rower Lachlan McCaffrey has agreed a move to Leicester Tigers ahead of the 2015/16 season.Able to play across the back row, McCaffrey is a former Australia Under-20s cap and had spells with Super Rugby sides Waratahs, Western Force and the Brumbies before spending 2014/15 in the Aviva Premiership with London Welsh. The 25-year-old is English qualified and will join up with his new team-mates at Tigers this summer in preparation for the new season. Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: “Lachlan is an athletic, ball-playing back-rower with the ability to play in a few positions, which is important in the squad. “He’s had some experience of the English club game this season and we think there is more to come from him in this environment.” McCaffrey said: "I am delighted to be joining a club with the tradition of Leicester. Growing up back home they were always the team to watch and this a great opportunity for me to develop as a player going forward."
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This step is for the installation of the light pipe into the Lower assembly, it should be noted that you must take EXTREME CAUTION while doing this, as the light pipe is a pain to bend and there are a number of smaller portions of the reactor that are susceptible to easily breaking.
The first thing to do is paint the lower assembly with a god coat of chrome silver, let that dry for about a day!
Next thing to do is cut the 4 segments of light pipe, each segment has to be approximately cut to 11.2 cm, any shorter and it may not catch the holder, to long and you will not have room for the LED's. Fortunately, too long can be corrected with some trimming, just be sure to not cut it too short.
Once they are cut, it is time to install them, again i must state that extreme care must be taken not to damage the lower assembly, ( rest assured, I am working on a stronger version ).
First lets take a look at the lower assembly, I designed the part so that there are two clear end, which are the ends with the supports on the top. Start by inserting each segment individually, with one end inside of the support, thread the pipe carefully into the other slots by holding onto the other end, going in at a 45 degree angle you should be able to slip the other end of the pipe into the support on the opposite side of the reactor. Doing this individually you will be able to get all 4 segments into the array without damaging it, though usually there will be excess material inside of the slot where our LED's go. Not to worry though it is something we can trim
Using a Dremel tool with a cutting attachment, carefully trim the inside of the slot so that you maximize the amount of space for the LED's
Once it all looks good, the lower assembly is done!
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A “one dollar, one vote” explanation of the welfare state
Loukas Karabarbounis
Why do Europe and the US, both affluent regions, differ so much in the size of their welfare state? To answer this question, this column examines OECD countries between 1975 and 2001, finding that countries with wealthier rich- and middle-classes are associated with a smaller welfare state while those with a richer poor class are associated with a larger one – supporting the “one dollar, one vote” explanation.
Many economists and other social scientists have tried to explain the rise of the welfare state and to quantify the determinants of social redistribution. The current consensus among researchers is that the pre-tax-and-transfer distribution of income is not a key determinant of the size of the welfare state. This consensus has been formed because various studies have documented a weak link between income inequality and redistribution (Perotti 1996, Persson and Tabellini 2003, Alesina and Glaeser 2004 while Milanovic 2000 provides an exception).
Yet the striking contrast between the US and (continental) Europe illustrates this weak link. Economic theories of the welfare state predict, both on normative and positive grounds, that higher pre-tax-and-transfer income inequality should be associated with more redistribution of resources (Mirrlees 1971, Meltzer and Richard 1981). In reality however, the US distributes less than Europe despite being more unequal before taxes and transfer payments.
Typically, researchers have looked at one dimension of income inequality at a time (e.g. the Gini coefficient or the distance of median income from mean income). In my recent research (Karbarbounis 2010), I start from the observation that different income groups have conflicting goals regarding the redistribution of resources. Since income is strongly correlated with various measures of political participation, in principle a single inequality statistic is unlikely to account for all conflicting preferences regarding the size of the modern welfare state. In other words, when political influence is increasing in income and redistribution responds to the political demands of various groups of voters, we might expect the effect of inequality on redistribution to vary depending on what part of the income distribution is changing.
To empirically investigate the effects of income inequality on redistribution, I use a panel of advanced OECD countries over the period 1975-2001. The key difference from previous studies is that I include three different measures of income inequality in the same empirical framework. Inequality at the bottom of the income distribution is given by the ratio of the gross earnings of the worker in the 10th percentile of the distribution to mean gross earnings. The ratio of the gross earnings of the worker in the 90th percentile to mean gross earnings captures the relative affluence of the rich. Finally, the median to mean ratio of gross earnings measures how median income changes relative to any other income. My measure of redistribution is standard in the literature and includes expenditures on pensions, survivors and incapacity related benefits, welfare programmes for the poor families, housing, unemployment insurance, active labour market programmes, and health.
A number of important econometric issues that arise in this framework are analysed in more detail in the working paper. Here, I just note that the estimated effect of income inequality on redistribution holds constant any persistent political, cultural, or geographical factor that may cause some countries to redistribute more than others irrespective of differences in their income distributions. This is an important point since it is well known that persistent institutions (e.g. electoral rules, form of the government, judicial review, federalism), transmitted cultural characteristics (e.g. trust, social beliefs about fairness, prospects of upward mobility), the inherited ethnic and linguistic composition of a society and its legal origins, all matter for redistribution and can explain why some countries adopt more pro-redistributive policies than others.
The empirical results indicate a statistically significant and economically large effect of all inequality ratios on redistribution. Specifically, I find that a 10% increase in the gross earnings of the rich relative to mean gross earnings reduces the redistribution-to-GDP ratio by 2.25 percentage points relative to its mean value in the sample (about 21%). A 10% increase in the median to mean ratio of gross earnings is associated with a 3.05 percentage point decrease in the redistribution-to-GDP ratio. Whereas, a 10% increase in the relative earnings of the poor is associated with a 2.14 percentage point increase in the redistribution-to-GDP ratio.
This rich activity in the income distribution is consistent with a one dollar, one vote theory of the welfare state. In the one dollar, one vote equilibrium, when a group of voters becomes richer (relative to the mean), redistributive policies tilt closer to its most preferred size of redistribution. Thus, for instance, when the rich become even richer, redistribution decreases which is line with the preference of the rich because with a progressive system of taxes the rich are the ones who pay more taxes. On the other hand, when the poor become richer, redistribution increases which is in line with the preference of the poor because the poor are the ones who are more likely to benefit from increased social transfers like unemployment insurance and pensions.
The one dollar, one vote theory of the welfare state contrasts sharply with the widely used ‘‘one person, one vote’’ institution (where the median class is the decisive voter) and the ‘‘utilitarian’’ model of redistribution (where the government chooses redistribution to maximise a weighted average of citizen’s welfare). A natural explanation for the one dollar, one vote result is that political influence is not uniform across groups of voters and that political participation is increasing in income. Indeed, using data from the World Value Surveys, I show that in all countries of the sample income is strongly correlated with various indices of political participation ranging from signing petitions to discussing politics with friends and from participating in demonstrations to becoming affiliated with political parties. Since money is associated with more power, income inequality has sharply different implications for redistribution than postulated by the median voter theory and the utilitarian model.
The one dollar, one vote result provides an explanation for the increasing difference in the size of the welfare state in Europe and the US. From 1980 to 2001, the growth of European redistribution exceeded the US’ by approximately 2.7%. According to my estimates, this may be because the European poor did not become relatively as poor as the American poor while the US increased redistribution relative to Europe because the American median voter became poorer. These two opposing effects cancelled each other off. However, the growth of the rich’s income relative to the mean in the US exceeded the growth of rich’s income relative to the mean in Europe. According to the one dollar, one vote theory of the welfare state, the faster growth of the rich's income in the US allowed the rich to increaseits political influence and tilt policy closer to its most preferred redistribution which involves a smaller welfare state. As a result, the growth of redistribution in the US lagged Europe’s.
References
Alesina, Alberto and Edward Glaeser (2004), Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference, Oxford University Press.
Karabarbounis, Loukas (2010), “One Dollar, One Vote”, forthcoming in the Economic Journal.
Meltzer, Allan and Scott Richard (1981), “A Rational Theory of the Size of the Government”, Journal of Political Economy, 89:914-927.
Milanovic, Branko (2000), “The Median Voter Hypothesis, Income Inequality and Income Redistribution: An Empirical Test with the Required Data”, European Journal of Political Economy, 16(3):367-410.
Mirrlees, James (1971), “An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation”, Review of Economic Studies, 38:175-208
Perotti, Roberto (1996), “Growth, Income Distribution and Democracy: What the Data Say”, Journal of Economic Growth, 1(2):149-187
Persson, Torsten and Guido Tabellini (2003), The Economic Effects of Constitutions, MIT Press
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Lead levels in rice imported from Taiwan and China are up to 60 TIMES higher than recommended 'safe' levels for children
Czech Republic, Bhutan, Italy, India and Thailand rice also caused alarm
Children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning
Rice imported from some countries, including China (above), contains high levels of lead that could pose a health risk to children, researchers have claimed
Rice imported from some countries contains high levels of lead that could pose a health risk to children, researchers have claimed.
US experts detected concentrations of lead ranging from six to 12 milligrams per kilogram in rice from several sources.
The highest amounts were seen in rice originating from China and Taiwan.
Significantly high levels were also found in samples from the Czech Republic, Bhutan, Italy, India and Thailand.
All these countries export rice to the UK.
Infants and children consuming the rice would be exposed to lead levels 30 to 60 times higher than the tolerable safety limits set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said the study authors.
For Asian children, who consume more rice, exposures could be up to 120 times higher.
For adults, daily exposure levels were 20 to 40 times higher than the FDA guidelines.
'Such findings present a situation that is particularly worrisome given that infants and children are especially vulnerable to the effects of lead poisoning,' said study leader Dr Tsanangurayi Tongesayi, from Monmouth University in New Jersey.
The findings were presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.
The researchers are still in the process of analysing rice samples from Pakistan, Brazil and other countries.
Lead accumulates slowly in the body, and can lead to nerve and kidney damage, as well as anaemia.
One study has shown brain shrinkage in workers exposed to lead through their occupations.
Long-term lead exposure has been linked to reduced IQ and disruptive behaviour in children.
Rice is the staple food of around three billion people worldwide.
Because rice is grown in heavily irrigated conditions, it is more susceptible than other staple crops to environmental pollutants in irrigation water.
Health fears: Asian children, who eat twice as much rice on average, are most at risk
In the UK, the average person consumes around 5.6 kilograms of rice per year. Consumption in the UK is expected to increase as the ethnic population expands and food tastes diversify.
Rice imports account for only about 7% of the rice consumed in the US, which is a major producer and exporter of the grain.
Lead contamination results from the take-up of metals and other pollutants found in the soil.
It is one of several toxins which is known to have been found in rice in the past.
A spokesman for the FSA said: ‘We are not aware of any evidence or research which suggests that the levels of lead generally in rice are a concern.’
She said the European Food Safety Authority recently published a report which found that rice played only a small part in the average person’s exposure to lead through food.
She added: ‘We would welcome the opportunity to review the American research.
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Chip Knappenberger has posted about some papers, including Santer et al. (2011, Separating Signal and Noise in Atmospheric Temperature Changes: The Importance of Timescale. Journal of Geophysical Research, doi:10.1029/2011JD016263) which proves one thing: that Knappenberger doesn’t get it. In more than one way.
He doesn’t understand the Santer et al. paper, he doesn’t understand the implications of Foster & Rahmstorf (2011), he fails to comprehend the value and validity of computer models, and he is clueless about the danger posed by global warming — even in a “best case” scenario.
The reasoning to support his arguments is this:
What makes the Foster and Rahmstorf work particularly encouraging for lukewarmers is that the authors find that for periods of 30 years or so, the removal of natural variability makes little difference on the magnitude of the observed trend in the lower atmosphere. However, thinking back upon the results from Santer et al., the same is probably is not entirely true for all of the climate model runs for the 1979-2010 time period. Almost certainly, the combination of random variability has added some amount of noise to the trend distribution even at time frames of 30 years or so. What this means, is that if the modeled temperatures were also stripped of their natural variability, then the 95% range of uncertainty (the yellow area depicted in Fig. 2) would contract inwards towards the model mean (green line). The net effect of which would be to make the observed trends (red and blue lines in Fig. 2) over the past 30 years or so lie even closer to (if not completely outside of) the lower bound of the 95% confidence range from the model simulations. Such a result further weakens our confidence in the models and further strengthens our confidence that future warming may well proceed at a modest rate, somewhat similar to that characteristic of the last three decades.
This is some of the most ludicrous nonsense ever written. What Knappenberger is really saying is that since natural variability contributes to uncertainty, we can “imagine it away” — even if we don’t know what it is! This is nothing more or less than shrinking the confidence interval based on wishful thinking.
Sure, if you account for natural variation you can shrink the error range, but the mean itself will also change, and you don’t know where the confidence interval will end up unless you actually know the natural variation. Claiming that F&R2011 demonstrates that the mean will not change, and that we can safely conclude which way the confidence interval will change, is nothing more than wishful thinking. It’s utter folly to extrapolate from “we could account for natural variation if we knew what it was” to “we can therefore shrink the error range even though we don’t know what the natural variation is.” Such a claim calls to mind the classic phrase “not even wrong.”
And by the way — Knappenberger is also flat-out wrong about the yellow area in the graph from Santer et al. being the “95% range of uncertainty.” It’s the range of model results from 5% to 95%, which leaves 5% on both the high and low ends, which makes it a 90% range, not a 95% range — the actual 95% range would extend from 2.5% to 97.5% of the observed results.
The point of Knappenberger’s nonsense logic is to claim this:
But what’s worse is that a model/observation disparity could indicate that the climate models are not faithfully reproducing reality, which would mean that they are not particularly valuable as predictive tools. My conclusion (which, is different from that of the authors) based upon the research presented by Santer et al.—that the models are on the verge of failing—is further strengthened by the results of another paper published in 2011 by Foster and Rahmstorf.
The failure of Knappenberger’s logic boggles the mind. Suppose we were talking about weather models rather than climate models. There are certainly model/observation disparities, all the time, and we could easily identify something the models don’t do particularly well, focus attention on that to the exclusion of all else, and by Knappenberger’s logic conclude that “they are not particularly valuable as predictive tools.” But every weather forecaster knows that in spite of their imperfections (which are legion), computer models are by far the best predictive tools we’ve got. My guess is, that even Anthony Watts wouldn’t deny that.
Climate models, despite their imperfections (which are legion), are also the best predictive tools we’ve got. And in spite of the fact that they don’t give especially good answers to some things, they also do give especially good answers to other things. Calling them “on the verge of failing” tells us nothing about reality, but quite a lot about Chip Knappenberger’s preconception.
Here, for instance, is a comparison of surface temperature (not tropospheric temperature) from AR4 model runs simulating the 20th century, to GISS temperature data:
Not only is the GISS temperature well within the envelope of model results, it’s quite close to the multi-model mean — which needn’t be the case because reality is only one “realization” of the climate system. In fact GISS temperature is stunningly close to the multi-model mean, as is shown by the difference between them:
The only visually notable discrepancy is from 1937 to 1945, the period during which a change in the way sea-surface temperatures were measured may have contaminated the observed temperature record. We all look forward to new estimates of sea surface temperature which are designed to account for this data discrepancy. If the revised 1937-1945 data are in even better accord with model results (which I expect), it would be a spectacular endorsement of climate models — and yet another case in which the reason for model/observation disparity was that the models were right, the observed data were faulty. But I suspect even that won’t make Chip Knappenberger budge from his belief that the models are “on the verge of failing.”
The real heart of Knappenberger’s post, and perhaps the most foolish failure of his reasoning, is this:
So what I have documented is a collection of observations and analyses that together is telling a story of relatively modest climate changes to come. Not that temperatures won’t rise at all over the course of this century, but rather than our climate becoming extremely toasty, it looks like we’ll have to settle (thankfully) for it becoming only lukewarm.
We’ve already warmed (at the surface) by about 0.9 deg.C since 1900. Earth is currently warming at 1.7 deg.C/century. Over the next century it’s extremely likely that we’ll warm even faster. But even if we continue to warm at the present rate, that will add another 1.7 deg.C to global average surface temperature, making a total 2.6 deg.C. I doubt that will be the case, in fact I consider the probability to be extremely low — less than 5% — but it represents the best case we can realistically hope for. The idea that this is “lukewarm” and that it won’t spell major disaster for humanity, is ludicrous. The global temperature change from full-glacial to full-interglacial conditions is about 5 deg.C. If you really believe that heating up the planet by half the difference of a full glacial cycle would be “relatively modest climate changes,” then you’ve got no damn business influencing climate policy.
I think such a change is overwhelmingly likely to bring disastrous changes for human civilization, especially for the availability of FOOD and WATER, and it doesn’t get any more basic than that. And that’s the best we can hope for — it could be far, far worse.
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The line up of the Grand Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest is now complete and we can now reveal the order in which the 26 acts will perform on Saturday.
Ten acts from each Semi-Final have gone through to Saturday's Grand Final and join the so-called 'Big Five' — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom — and Host Country, Ukraine. The running order was proposed by UA:PBC and approved by the EBU Executive Supervisor, Jon Ola Sand and by the Chairman of the Reference Group, Dr. Frank-Dieter Freiling. The running order of the Grand Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest: 1. Israel 2. Poland 3. Belarus 4. Austria 5. Armenia 6. The Netherlands 7. Moldova 8. Hungary 9. Italy 10. Denmark 11. Portugal 12. Azerbaijan 13. Croatia 14. Australia 15. Greece 16. Spain 17. Norway 18. United Kingdom 19. Cyprus 20. Romania 21. Germany 22. Ukraine 23. Belgium 24. Sweden 25. Bulgaria 26. France
Contributors Paul Jordan Helena Nilsson
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America Flat-Out Being Invaded
Each year, according to Dr. Steven Camarata, researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies, 500,000 foreigners from all over the world jump America’s southern border with Mexico. The Mexican government aids and abets them. (Source: www.cis.org)
Annually, estimates range from 30 to 40 percent of foreign visitors overstay their visas and burrow into America’s cities, towns and countryside—already burdened with 20,000,000 illegal alien enclaves.
Each year, America accepts 1,000,000 legal refugee immigrants from 190 countries who cannot or will not provide for their own citizens. That’s been going on since 1965 when US Senator Teddy Kennedy’s Immigration Reform Act opened the flood gates to from the third world into America. That single act, never discussed with the American people, flooded this country with 100,000,000 more people within 40 years. That same act, if not rescinded, will flood America with another 100,000,000 people by 2050—a scant 33 years from now. (Source: US Census Bureau; US Population Projections by Fogel/Martin; PEW Research Center)
Annually, 350,000 pregnant women from all over the world including Mexico, China, India, South America, Africa and dozens more—visit America to birth their babies. Known as “anchor babies”, each mother enjoys pre-natal care, birthing and postnatal care paid for by US taxpayers. Additionally, once born in the USA, that mother and child enjoy 18 years of housing, food, medical care and education K-12. All of it paid for by your tax dollars.
In 2016, Barack Obama injected over 15,000 Syrian refugees on top of the normal legal and illegal immigration flow. He gave illegal alien children their DACA permits to remain in America in violation of Federal Laws. A federal court stopped his mass amnesty attempts.
In the meantime, the third world, where all these people originate, continues adding 80,000,000 (million) new babies, net gain, annually to guarantee the immigrant line grows instead of diminishes.
At the same time, Mexico sells Americans endless drugs consisting of heroin, meth-amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana laced with chemicals and other drugs. Cost: $100,000,000,000.00 and as high as $120,000,000,000.00. (billion) (Source: The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates that $100 billion worth of illegal drugs were sold in the U.S. in 2016. It estimates 200 U.S. cities in which Mexican drug cartels maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs.)
CDC: “About 570,000 people die annually in the U.S. due to drug use.”
Because of that drug invasion, 13 teen-agers die every hour, 24/7 across America from drug-alcohol overdoses.
Additionally, the State Department estimates that legal and illegal immigrants send cash transfers back to their countries in the amount of $120,000,000,000.00 annually. Thus, bleeding America financially to death. Note: we face a $19.5 trillion national debt that could collapse our society at any time.
Not only that, Congress imports moderate and radical Muslims bent on destroying and/or displacing the U.S. Constitution with Sharia Law and their Quran. Their top Muslim-American leaders state that fact daily.
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any faith, but to become dominant. The Qur’an should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.” Omar Ahmed, director of Council on American Islamic Relations.
Does anyone understand that this country faces an invasion like no other in the history of the world? Worse, the average American sits back watching it happen across all 50 states. Canada, too. In fact, both countries invite their own suicide. Along with Europe!
As President Trump promised to build the Wall between Mexico and the USA to stop the invasion and the drugs, California Governor Jerry Brown said he would fight that Wall because it reminded him of the Berlin Wall. His sanctuary state houses up to 4,000,000 illegal aliens. Southern California no longer speaks very much English, but Spanish. San Francisco looks like a foreign city filled with everyone but Americans. California runs broke and overpopulated. Its freeways resemble a cement-thick parking lot for 18 hours a day. Crime, welfare, crippled schools filled with kids from around the world overwhelm California. Americans get run out of their communities—and prisons burst with illegal aliens—but Jerry Brown invites more illegals into his state. Illegals enjoy sanctuary cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Bakersfield and dozens more. His state features more births from non-Americans than Americans.
This figure will shock you: “California grows by 1,654 people daily, net gain, 24/7. And, 98 percent of that growth stems from legal and illegal immigrants.” (Source: www.CapsWeb.org)
Nationwide, over 340 “sanctuary cities” house up to 20,000,000 (million) and as high as 31,000,000 illegal aliens. Those border jumpers enjoy protection from Immigration, Customs Enforcement, (ICE) and prosecution by outright defiance of the rule of law by our elected officials such as mayors and governors. No matter how many rapes, burglaries, killings, robberies, anchor babies, shoplifting, drunk drivers and fraudulent IDs—illegal aliens enjoy more protection and services than our military veterans. How much? You pay out $113,000,000,000.00 (billion) in services for immigrants across 15 federal agencies. (Source: US Government Finances)
This goes on year after year after year, decade after decade after decade. It’s an invasion by any definition of the word. And, Congress and every governor of every state facilitate it—because they refuse to enforce the rule of law.
It’s exasperating to watch this country being invaded while its own elected officials aid and abet all of it. And, yet, Americans continue voting back into office the exact same representatives that keep the invasion going strong. At some point, it’s all going to break down into a national disaster on multiple levels, guaranteed.
Call your senators and House rep: 1 202 224 3121 or 1 888 995 2086. Demand a stop to all immigration and stop to any Syrian immigration.
Definition of slogan: “Immigration Shutdown Now means the American people want a total shutdown on all legal and illegal immigration. That means we want all illegal immigration stopped by arresting, prosecuting and jailing employers of illegal aliens. We deport all illegal aliens by taking their jobs away and as we catch them. We want English mandated as our national language. We demand a cessation of Muslim immigration in order to protect our culture, language and way of life. We can’t save the world but we can save or destroy our civilization. We demand a stable population that allows everyone to live, work and thrive into the 21st century. Especially our children.” FHW
(Permission to republish this population graph by Roy Beck, www.NumbersUSA.org )
Muslims cannot in any way become Americans. The Koran forbids it. Their entire context of religious-political Sharia Law demands subjugation to their religion with no allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. The Koran forbids women’s rights, marital choice, free speech, gay rights and religious rights. Our way of life remains completely out of bounds to Islam. This 4-minute video explains our plight:
That’s why you need to take action. Send this series to everyone in your network. Educate them. Urge them to take action by joining these websites to become faxers of prewritten letters and phone callers. We must force Congress into an “Immigration Shutdown Now!”
Share these videos all over America:
In a five minute astoundingly simple yet brilliant video, “Immigration, Poverty, and Gum Balls”, Roy Beck, director of www.numbersusa.ORG, graphically illustrates the impact of overpopulation. Take five minutes to see for yourself:
“Immigration by the numbers—off the chart” by Roy Beck
This 10 minute demonstration shows Americans the results of unending mass immigration on the quality of life and sustainability for future generations: in a few words, “Mind boggling!” www.NumbersUSA.org
Take action by joining for free:
America: www.CapsWeb.org ; www.NumbersUSA.org ; www.Fairus.org ; www.CarryingCapacity.org
Canada:www.immigrationwatchcanada.org United Kingdom: www.populationmatters.org Australia: www.population.org.au Sustainable Population Australia
© 2017 Frosty Wooldridge – All Rights Reserved
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Jives Junkfood is a recurring character in LazyTown. He is a lethargic teenager who has no energy due to his unbalanced diet.
Contents show]
Description
In the plays, Jives is one of the younger LazyTown residents. He displays some cool mannerisms while also acting tired and sloppy. He sees Sportacus as a role model and idolizes him; this trait was given to Ziggy when Jives was removed from the main cast. Similarly, Jives' sleep troubles were reused for Pixel in "Sleepless in LazyTown." Jives' house is a very tall, yellow-colored building with a green door that appears to be bending over. Guðmundur Þór Kárason's website Wit Puppets describes Jives as "a funky dude with some teenage problems."
Jives appeared as a major character in every incarnation of LazyTown until the television series. Even though he was presumably taken out of the main cast shortly before the series' unaired pilot began production, Jives makes very brief appearances on printed items (like books and cards) throughout the show. His house is also often seen in the backgrounds and in aerial views of LazyTown, most notably in the opening theme and at the beginning of every episode. His house is located to the right of the school. A road is located between the school and Jives' house.
Since Jives is referenced numerous times throughout the television series, he is still existent within the show's fictional universe. His house is still in LazyTown, so it can be assumed that he is always sleeping inside of it.
Official bio
Jives doesn't have enthusiasm for anything; nothing excites him and he walks about as if he were sleeping. This can be traced back to his refusal to eat fish, meat, fruit or oatmeal, which leaves him with no energy. Whenever he eats something, it is a snack or cocoa balls. This lack of energy leads to him having nearly no strength; he faints easily and his gaseous diet leads to incessant wind-pain. If he ever decides to eat wholesome food like Sportacus, his real powers will come to light.
Looks
Jives' appearance changes throughout the series.
In Áfram Latibær: Jives is shown to be very tall and skinny. He has brown hair and fair skin. He wears a tight yellow long sleeve shirt, plaid shorts, suspenders, and a yellow golf cap.
In Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ: Jives is tall, but not as skinny as he was previously. He has medium length brown hair and fair skin. He wears a yellow short sleeve shirt hoodie with a red dot in the middle, green sweatpants, and a green beanie.
Wit Puppet: Jives is tall and has fair skin. He has brown hair, blue eyes, and a large nose. He usually wears a yellow sweatshirt, green pants, and a green cap. This color scheme matches his house.
Appearances
Jives appears in the following LazyTown works:
Physical
Pictured
House
Some examples of episodes featuring Jives' house are:
Every episode - Jives' house is always seen behind Robbie in the intro, just before he falls into his trap. It is also seen before and after the title cards in the aerial view of LazyTown.
"Defeeted" - Jives' house is seen throughout "Always a Way."
"Sports Day" - Jives' house is in many of the shots when Sportacus and Robbie are competing.
"Swiped Sweets" - The house can be seen behind Ziggy when he uses his lollipop to grab Robbie's key from an apple tree.
"Rottenbeard" - The house is shown during the song "You Are a Pirate", when Robbie is singing the line "We float on our boat..."
"Remote Control" - The house is seen behind Stephanie and Ziggy when Robbie threatens to freeze them.
"The Blue Knight" - Robbie flies over Jives' house in his dragon machine.
"Robbie's Dream Team" - It is seen at the beginning when Sportacus flies above the entire town.
Mentioned
"Maggi Mjói: Borðar Ekki Mat" - Jives is the main protagonist of the book from 1999, which was later adapted as "Pixel: Sleep Troubles."
Trivia
Out of all the Latibær characters who did not become main characters in LazyTown, Jives makes the most appearances.
Gallery
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6.58 pm: 'Proud that BJP ensured flag of democracy flies high'
Meanwhile, the BJP sought to take credit for the government's decision to withdraw the ordinance on convicted netas.
"We are happy and proud that the opposition (BJP) has ensured that the flag of the democracy flies high," Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP said.
Prasad also hit out at the Congress saying in the union government, only the dynasty is important and not the cabinet or the PM.
"This was the theater of the absurd. Suddenly we've seen a change... it has nothing to do with morality, legality, validity or constitutionality.... it's a sheer power of dynasty before which the PM and the cabinet have meekly submitted."
6.43 pm: Will withdraw both, ordinance and bill, says Manish Tewari
Union Minister Manish Tewari said the government has decided to withdraw both, the ordinance and the bill that seek to protect convicted MPs and MLAs.
Speaking to the press after the cabinet meeting, Tewari said there was no question of undermining the authority of the Prime Minister in a democratic country.
"The Union cabinet today met at 1800 hours and it was unanimously decided that both the ordinance with regard to certain sections of the Representation of People Act as well as the bill would be withdrawn.
The decision of the union cabinet was unanimous. As the PM articulated yesterday, democracy is not an authoritarian monolithic sysetem of government. We respect diversity of views. Yes there was a view articulated by Rahul Gandhi and possibly it was based on the widest possible feedback.. under those circumstances it was decided to take back both the bill and ordinance."
As far as the bill is concerned, it is the property of Parliament so an appropriate motion will be moved when Parliament meets, to withdraw the bill."
However, some of the allies were not happy with the government's decision to withdraw the ordinance quickly.
"It was a cabinet decision then, it is a cabinet decision now.. I'm not upset but I'm just not happy," National Conference Chief Farooq Abdullah said.
6.38 pm: Don't agree with govt's decision to withdraw ordinance, says SP
The Samajwadi Party hit out at the government for taking a U-turn on the ordinance seeking to protect convicted MPs and MLAs.
"SP does not agree with the decision, this is for the first time a govt has taken a U-turn... Now our character certificates will be written by the police and other people. We do not support it," party spokesperson Naresh Agarwal said.
6.20 pm: Cabinet decides to withdraw ordinance, bill on convicted netas
The Union Cabinet this evening decided to withdraw the bill as well as the ordinance on seeking to protect convicted MPs and MLAs.
The bill will be withdrawn when Parliament meets during the winter session. The bill is currently before a standing committee of Parliament.
Earlier in the day the Congress core group had decided to withdraw the ordinance.
At the cabinet meeting, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar reportedly said that even the BJP wanted the ordinance reversed.
5.50 pm: Ministers arrive at 7 RCR, Cabinet meeting to begin soon
Union Ministers have begun arriving at the Prime Minister's official residence - 7 Race Course - for the cabinet meeting to review the ordinance on convicted netas.
While the Prime Minister had earlier today conveyed his decision of withdrawing the ordinance to UPA allies, parties such as the NCP and Samajwadi Party are miffed at how the government has suddenly changed its stand based on the opinion of Rahul Gandhi.
NCP Chief Sharad Pawar had earlier today said he would a demand an explanation from the Congress as to how they changed their stand despite two cabinet meetings discussing the issue.
The meeting is also likely to decide how to wriggle out of the situation while still justifying the ordinance.
5.05 pm: Nitish supports govt, says nothing wrong in withdrawing ordinance
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar came out in support of the cabinet saying there was nothing wrong in it deciding to withdraw the ordinance after reviewing it again.
"If there is a mistake then there is no problem in rectifying it," Nitish told reporters.
4. 45 pm: Govt set to withdraw ordinance, seeks legal advice
The Union government has decided to withdraw the ordinance and is seeking legal advice from its Attorney General GE Vahanvati.
Vahanvati is currently meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his official residence in New Delhi.
The cabinet will meet over the ordinance at 6 pm this evening.
4.10 pm: PM speaks to allies, informs them of decision to withdraw ordinance
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken to UPA allies and has informed them about the Congress core group's decision to withdraw the ordinance on convicted netas.
According to a CNN-IBN report, most of the allies have agreed to the decision. RLD Chief Ajit Singh told the Prime Minister that there was 'nothing wrong' in withdrawing the ordinance.
4.04 pm: Convicted netas should go, but discuss bill in parliament first, says DMK
Former UPA ally DMK has said the government should withdraw the ordinance on convicted netas and have a detailed discussion in Parliament. Speaking to Times Now, a DMK spokesperson said people need to know where Parliament stands on the issue.
"We want the issue to be discussed in the house and let the people know what is happening. There also has to be some protection for victims who are facing charges of false accusations," he said.
"A person if convicted should not be in power... People who have become part of a scandal should not be there."
3. 45 pm: Rahul immature, ill-mannered, says TMC
TMC urges the government not just to withdraw the ordinance but also the bill that gives leeway to convicted politicians. TMC leader Saugata Roy said that Rahul Gandhi's comment on ordinance shows immaturity. "After a party decision has been taken, how can a party leader come and criticise it? It just shows maturity and ill manner of Gandhi," he said.
3. 40 pm: It's all drama, says AAP's Arvind Kejriwal
Now it seems the Aam Aadmi Party is trying to gain brownie points after the Congress withdrew the ordinance. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said that the Congress party is simply indulging in drama through this ordinance fiasco.
"It is impossible that the ordinance was introduced without the knowledge of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. And two days later Rahul comes and tears the ordinance. This is simply tamasha and nothing else," Kejriwal said,
Kejriwal also said that the PM must resign after all that has happened. "We have a PM who has not been voted to power by the people, he is the PM because he is close to the Gandhi. The PM must answer," he said.
3. 18 pm: Will Congress kill the bill after withdrawing ordinance?
After the Congress party decided to withdraw the ordinance to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers, reports now say that the party may now kill the bill altogether.
Government spokespersons have been maintaining that there was an all-party consensus on the need for a bill to negate the Supreme Court judgement that struck down a provision in the electoral law which allowed a convicted MP and MLA to continue in their post if they make an appeal to a higher court within three months. However, recently, in a major embarrassment to the UPA government, Rahul Gandhi on Friday denounced the controversial ordinance as "complete nonsense" and said what "our government has done is wrong".
The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 13, seeks to insert an explanation in Section 2 of the RTI Act regarding public authority. The amendments state, “Authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by any law made by Parliament shall not include any association or body of individuals registered or recognised as a political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.”
2. 40 pm: Rahul has been ill-advised, says Farooq Abdullah
Although the BJP, Left have welcome the Congress' decision to withdraw the ordinance, some of the allies of UPA are miffed.
Former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah said that the "ordinance drama was unfortunate". Taking a dig at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Abdullah said that he has been ill-advised.
"Rahul should have waited for the PM to come. He has been wrongly advised. I hope in future there will be better advisors for Rahul," he said.
2. 15 pm: BJP claims credit for ordinance rollback
Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu claims credit for ordinance rollback. He said that Congress backed off only after BJP leaders met the President and asked him not to sign the ordinance.
"Wisdom has prevailed. It's high time the Prime Minister put down his papers," Naidu said.
2:05 pm: RJD says ordinance wasn't brought about to save Lalu
The one party the ordinance was to benefit was the Rashtriya Janata Dal but they'd like us to believe that it wasn't to benefit the party supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.
"The Ordinance was not to save our leader (Lalu) it was merely a reflection of the sentiment of the all party meet on the issue," Manoj Jha, a spokesperson of the party, said.
There was near unanimous decision that the SC decision on convicted MPs was out of touch with political reality, he said.
"All parties were on board and believed that legislative capacity should engage with the court on how they look at cleaning of politics," Jha said.
2:00 pm: NCP questions Congress' decision to withdraw ordinance
The NCP has continued to question the flip flop in the Congress over the ordinance and even after the Congress core group decision isn't any happier about the decision.
Whether a co-ordination committee meeting will change their mind remains to be seen.
1:40 pm: PM-President meet over, UPA co-ordination committee meet likely
The Prime Minister's meet with the President is over and according to CNN-IBN he is likely to have told him of the likelihood that the Cabinet plans to withdraw the contentious ordinance.
Given the demand from allies like the NCP, the UPA is set to call for a co-ordination committee meet to discuss the legislation. But given the Cabinet meeting is at 6 pm, its not very clear when this will take place.
1:30 pm: Akhilesh Yadav says ordinance seems to have been withdrawn with elections in mind
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has kept with his party's line of criticising the Congress for its plan to withdraw the ordinance.
He refused to react to questions asking his opinion on the matter saying that those who brought the ordinance should be answerable for it.
"The one who brought the ordinance is now withdrawing it," he said.
If someone is in a hurry to withdraw the ordinance, it seems it could be being done keeping in mind upcoming elections, Yadav said.
12.47 pm: Will UPA find new ally in JD(U)?
In a big political move, the JD(U) has openly pledged its support to Congress after its decision to withdraw the Congress. JD(U) spokesperson told Times Now, "We have always been against the ordinance. We support this move." However, when asked if they will support UPA as an ally, he said, "We are against communal forces coming to power."
12. 39 pm: BJP, Left support withdrawal of ordinance
Left leader Sitaram Yechury welcomed the withdrawal of the ordinance and said that it should not have been brought about in the first place. "Why this hurry for an ordinance? This had to be withdrawn. It was unnecessary for Congress to go through this fiasco," he said.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj tweeted that the ordinance to save convicted netas is unconstitutional.
12. 35 pm: PM meets President Pranab
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has met President Pranab Mukherjee. The PM is likely to convey the Congress core group decision on the ordinance.
12. 14 pm: Bill likely to be withdrawn?
In quite a surprising move, Congress has reportedly decided to withdraw the bill from the Parliament.
Congress leader Rashid Alvi told ABP that the final decision has to be taken by cabinet. "Whatever decision is taken will be positive, Rahulji's view can't be ignored," he said.
12. 12 pm: Cong to call UPA meet on ordinance
Reports say Congress is likely to call an UPA coordination meeting over the withdrawal of ordinance. However, the final decision on the ordinance will be taken only after the cabinet meet.
11. 59 am: Congress to withdraw ordinance?
According to reports, Congress core group has decided to withdraw the ordinance.
Happy to see the Ordinance being withdrawn by Congress Core Group. Sad to realise that we're a country running on flippant moods of one man. — Gautam Chikermane (@gchikermane) October 2, 2013
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet the President shortly and is likely to convey the group decision to him.
According to Doordarshan sources, Congress has said that the ordinance should be withdrawn with allies on board.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi says that it is the pressure of the BJP that has won and no credit goes to Rahul Gandhi for the withdrawal of the ordinance. "It's not Rahul Gandhi who won, it is the will of the people and the Supreme Court," she said. On Kamal Nath's accusation, the BJP leader said, "We were never in favour of constitutional amendment on tainted MPS."
11. 45 am: Prakash Karat meets Mulayam Singh Yadav
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat meets Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. SP has made it clear that they are in favour of ordinance, but Karat's views are not yet known.
However, reports say the meet is not so much about ordinance as about changing allies. It is likely about building new allies and prevent communal forces from coming to power.
11. 32 am: Cong core group meet ends
The Congress core group meet at 7RCR has ended. The meeting lasted for about half an hour.
11. 15 am: Kamal Nath accuses BJP of 'doublespeak' on ordinance
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath accused the BJP of doublespeak on the ordinance on tainted MLAs and MPs. He said that in two all-party meets, BJP had agreed to change Supreme Court order on disqualification of MPs. "I have the minutes with me," he told Times Now.
"But now they are taking a different stand," he said.
"First they say something in all-party meet and then they say something else to the public. This is an old functioning of BJP," Nath added.
11. 09 am: No objection if ordinance is withdrawn, says NCP
UPA ally NCP says they have no objection if ordinance is withdrawn. "If consensus emerges for withdrawal, we have no objection," a NCP leader reportedly told Times Now.
10.50 am: Now Congress core group meeting begins
The Congress core group meeting has begun, where the fate of the ordinance on convicted MPs is expected to be discussed, prior to a cabinet meeting later this evening.
The meeting is taking place shortly after a one on one interaction between Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the former's dramatic outburst against the ordinance. Reports coming from the meeting say that Rahul had expressed regret at the manner of his actions, and had told Singh that his intention had never been to undermine the Prime Minister or cabinet. However he had also reportedly explained why he was so strongly opposed to the ordinance.
For his part, the Prime Minister had reportedly explained the note on the ordinance sent by the Law Ministry to Rahul and said that it did not shield convicted politicians.
The meeting comes even as ally pressures to not withdraw the ordinance increases.
10.41 am: Withdrawing ordinance is 'dangerous to democracy' warns SP
Senior Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal has dismissed Rahul Gandhi's opposition to the ordinance seeking to reverse the Supreme Court decision on convicted MPs as 'drama' and warned that reversing it would be 'dangerous for democracy'.
Speaking to CNN-IBN, Agarwal said, "Rahul's remark on the ordinance is drama. If PM backs on his stand, then it is dangerous for democracy. The ordinance should be brought. How can one be disqualified simply on basis of trial court verdict?"
The SP leader also demanded to know why the government's allies were being ignored in this decision. "Just because Rahul Gandhi has decided, the stand should not change", he said.
10.30 am: Rahul tells PM he 'never meant' to undermine him: reports
Rahul Gandhi has reportedly told the Prime Minister that he never meant to undermine either him or the cabinet during a 25 minute meeting that took place at 7 RCR.
The CNN-IBN television channel said that Rahul had adopted a conciliatory tone, and that he seemed to be seeking to undo the damage he had done. He had reportedly explained his stand to Singh and had requested him to take a second look at the ordinance.
There had been no clear cut apology however, the channel added.
The final decision on the ordinance will be taken by cabinet, the channel added.
Meanwhile the Congress core group meeting to discuss the ordinance will begin shortly.
10. 14 am: NCP says decision on ordinance only after Cabinet meet
UPA ally NCP has said that the decision on ordinance will be taken only after the Cabinet meet and no decision has been taken in Rahul Gandhi and PM's meet. "Whatever the decision is, it will be taken after a long discussion," NCP leader Tariq Anwar said that.
10.05 am: Rahul-PM meet on ordinance ends
The meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is over. The meeting lasted for about 25 minutes. Did the PM budge from his position on ordinance?
9. 59 am: Samajwadi Party against withdrawal of ordinance, say reports
According to reports, Samajwadi Party members have met senior leaders of Congress over the ordinance. Times Now reports that Mulayam Singh Yadav has made it clear to the Congress that the Samajwadi Party is against the withdrawal of the ordinance. There are reportedly a series of meetings being held between SP and Congress party.
9. 40 am: PM meets Rahul Gandhi
Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi has arrived at 7 RCR to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The two are likely to discuss Rahul's public outburst against the ordinance on convicted MPs.
9. 30 am: PM, Sonia pay respect to Mahatma at Raj Ghat, but where is Rahul?
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited Raj Ghat today on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti to pay respect to Mahatma Gandhi, the absence of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has raised many eyebrows.
The Congress Vice President’s absence is all the more conspicuous because it comes hours ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to discuss the ordinance on criminal MPs passed by the cabinet, which in a surprise move, Rahul slammed in public as a ‘nonsense ordinance’ that needed to be torn up and thrown away.
Manmohan Singh for his part, arrived back in India from the US in a combative mood last night. He indicated that he was unhappy with the timing of the Congress Vice President’s sudden outburst and hinted that Sonia had also been a part of the original decision
9.00 am: Will govt withdraw ordinance?
Rahul Gandhi may have spoken, but the Cabinet meet that is to take place today to deliberate on the ordinance to rescue convicted lawmakers will decide whether it should be withdrawn or if the final decision should be left up to the President.
The Congress core group will also be meeting before the Cabinet meet and is likely to discuss the matter, said reports. But given the Congress Vice President’s stance, its unlikely their view will differ in any way from his.
The Cabinet which passed the ordinance had also been hastily convened to meet today in order to discuss the legislation in light of the Congress Vice President’s vocal opposition.
As CNN-IBN reported on Tuesday, the Cabinet note which specifies the topic of discussion at the meet, acknowledges the criticism for the legislation leading to the perception that it had attempted to defend convicted lawmakers. However, it defended the cabinet saying that an impartial reading of the legislation did not imply that.
The note points out that the legislation moved in Parliament is presently before a standing committee and the ordinance is still to be signed by the president. The Cabinet note gives the ministers two options: wait for the ordinance to be passed by the president, withdraw the ordinance or await the recommendation of the standing committee.
Given Mukherjee’s reluctance to pass the legislation, and given Rahul Gandhi‘s strong views on the matter, the Cabinet is likely to act quickly and withdraw the ordinance perhaps maybe even before the President leaves for a foreign tour today. The President had earlier met with ministers, including Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Law Minister Kapil Sibal to discuss the ordinance and seek clarifications.
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Verdict on Thursday will determine whether or not the UK’s decision to leave European Union must be subject to a vote by parliament
High court to declare verdict on whether UK government has right to trigger Brexit
The lord chief justice is to deliver the high court’s momentous decision on whether parliament or the government has the constitutional power to trigger Brexit.
After less than three weeks considering the politically charged case with two other senior judges, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd will read out a summary of their decision at 10am on Thursday to a packed courtroom in London’s Royal Courts of Justice.
In order to prevent leaks of the market-sensitive ruling, which involves a large number of parties, preliminary drafts of the judgment have unusually not been sent out in advance to the lawyers.
The outcome of the case, which ventures into constitutionally untested ground, will resolve whether MPs or ministers have the authority to formally inform Brussels about whether the UK intends to leave the European Union.
What could happen if the article 50 legal challenge is successful? Read more
The legal dispute focuses on article 50 of the treaty on European Union, which states that any member state may leave “in accordance with its own constitutional requirements” – an undefined term that has allowed both sides to pursue rival interpretations.
The arguments deployed during the three-day hearing last month appear, at the very least, to have reinforced political pressure for parliament to be given a greater role in negotiating Brexit.
Whether the high court finds in favour of the claimants or Theresa May’s assertion that the prime minister has power under the royal prerogative to inform Brussels of the UK’s intention to leave, one side or the other is likely to appeal to the supreme court.
However, there has been speculation that the government could decide not to appeal if it loses, calculating that enough MPs will feel bound by the result of the referendum to vote to leave the EU. There may be stiffer opposition in the House of Lords.
A case heard in the high court would normally go up to the court of appeal, but arrangements have been made for the case to “leapfrog” directly to the supreme court if permission is granted.
Space has been cleared in the supreme court’s diary for a possible hearing on 7 and 8 December. It would be heard by at least nine justices; an odd number is required to prevent a tie.
Because the initial case was heard in the high court, it has not been televised. The three judges who considered the challenge were the lord chief justice, Lord Thomas; the master of the rolls, Sir Terence Etherton; and Lord Justice Sales.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gina Miller. Photograph: Mark Thomas/Rex/Shutterstock
The two lead claimants are Gina Miller, a businesswoman and philanthropist, and Deir dos Santos, a hairdresser. Both are British nationals.
They have been supported by other interested parties, including the crowd-funded People’s Challenge, whose members live in England, France, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It has to date raised more than £100,000 from almost 5,000 supporters to finance the case. Another group, Fair Deal for Expats, is backed by British expatriates living abroad in 10 EU states.
A related challenge heard in Northern Ireland’s courts – emphasising the complexities of devolution legislation – has already been won by the government. That challenge may also be appealed to the supreme court and joined with the London claims.
Lawyers for the claimants were relatively upbeat about their prospects at the end of the hearing in mid-October. The challenge has been described as one of the most important constitutional cases in generations.
At the the Conservative party conference, May said she intended to trigger article 50 by the end of March 2017.
Opening the case for the government, the attorney general, Jeremy Wright QC, said that the claimants were attempting to invalidate the referendum result.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeremy Wright QC. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/EPA
In their final submissions, government lawyers revealed that parliament is “very likely” to be asked to ratify any future treaty agreement with the European Union.
The lack of agreement over fundamental political principles has prompted concerns that the UK’s unwritten constitutional arrangements may need to be updated.
In a speech released on Wednesday, the president of the supreme court, Lord Neuberger, suggested that “there is undoubtedly a case for saying that the time has come for the United Kingdom to adopt a formal written coherent constitution.
“However, in that context, the typically British and pragmatic argument ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, has obvious resonance. Having said that, there are some people who feel that it is broke, and others who feel that there is a duty to act before it gets broke.
“But, even those people must accept not merely that the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence, but also that experience shows that the fact that a particular arrangement works well in one country, even in most countries, does not necessarily mean that it will work here.”
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The multi-layered effort to stave off a Greek sovereign default that could plunge Europe into one of its worst ever crises moved towards a climax last night with the Greek prime minister pleading in Athens for a vote of confidence and Europe's leaders staring into the abyss before a Brussels summit on Thursday.
Leaders in Brussels spoke of the worst crisis in Europe since the second world war as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) set ultimatums before the 17 countries of the euro single currency and international ratings agencies classified the bailout terms for Greece as a likely default.
George Papandreou, the embattled Greek prime minister, needed to win a midnight vote of confidence in his reshuffled socialist government before attempting an even bigger challenge – getting the parliament in Athens to back a radical programme of spending cuts, tax increases, and a mass assets sell-off by the end of the month.
As Athens's 300-seat parliament prepared for the vote, tens of thousands of protesters converged on Syntagma Square in a mass show of "no confidence" for politicians widely perceived to have triggered the financial mess in which the nation now finds itself.
"As long as there are squares to protest in we will be there," said Giorgos Papastathopoulos, an unemployed civil engineer gesticulating angrily towards the parliament building. "These people are thieves, they are crooks; if they were really honourable they would lead by example and take a wage cut just like everyone else before talking about austerity."
If Greece fails to agree the austerity measures, the IMF will pull the plug on the latest €12bn tranche of its €110bn bailout and Greece would be insolvent, with immense implications for European banks and the fate of the single currency.
However, the strong expectation that Papandreou would win the vote lifted stock markets all over the world. The FTSE 100 in London closed 81.92 points higher at 5775.31 and the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading shares rose 1.5%, its biggest increase for two months. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 100 points at lunchtime in New York.
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, EU governments will be under intense pressure to seal a new three-year Greek bailout worth as much as the current rescue fund. The expectation was that leaders would agree to guarantee the new bailout, leaving the details to be hammered out by 3 July.
"We're at a critical point in the most serious crisis since the second world war," warned Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for monetary affairs.
A group of 15 leading public figures, including six former EU prime ministers, warned that the EU faced a future on the international sidelines.
"Europe isn't in a good place these days," said the group, all allied with the Brussels Friends of Europe thinktank. "The drive towards closer integration is losing momentum and appears in great danger of slipping backwards … European leaders risk the EU becoming a marginal player in a globalised world whose rapid change is clearly not to Europe's advantage."
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a central figure in the crisis, voiced confidence that Europe would rise to the challenge, while reiterating German demands that Greece's private creditors should volunteer to roll over the debt as part of the rescue. "We believe some burdens can be put not only on taxpayers but that banks must also participate," Merkel said while visiting Warsaw.
"We will achieve positive results because it is in the interests of banks and of countries for the euro currency to be stable … These three components – Greece's tasks, EU solidarity and the voluntary participation of banks – are the solution."
But Fitch, one of the three big international ratings agencies, cast doubt on Merkel's optimism, warning that it would view a voluntary rollover of Greek debt as a default. "Fitch would regard such a debt exchange or voluntary debt rollover as a default event and would lead to the assignment of a default rating to Greece," said Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings with Fitch.
The jury still seems to be out on this, however, with detailed arguments raging across the EU over how, when, and whether Greece would be deemed to be in default. The process of persuading the banks, insurance companies and pension funds holding Greek debt to remain exposed after redeeming their loans is also an exacting task which could take weeks without any certainty of success.
The markets and the European business elite believe that in the end Greece will need to restructure its unmanageable debt with major writedowns for its creditors. A poll of German executives showed very few of them believed Greece could avoid a debt restructuring. Almost nine out of 10 of the 519 business people questioned in the poll for the business magazine, Capital, predicted a restructuring, while two-thirds were worried about the stability of the euro.
EU leaders appeared to be playing for time to try to avoid colossal collateral damage across the eurozone, while the IMF was urging the EU to get its act together and guarantee a copper-bottomed bailout for Greece before the fund would commit to contributing.
The IMF has taken a harder line on the European debt crisis in recent weeks since the resignation of its French chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Some European officials are also complaining that the temporary leadership of the IMF is inhibiting its capacity to act.
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He made his Bollywood debut with Rajkumar Santoshi's Barsaat in 1995. And this junior Deol became an overnight star with debut hit film. Soon enough, he went onto sign innumerable films. From love stories to gripping thrillers to actioners, Bobby Deol experimented with different genres in the first few years of his career. But with passing years and the entry of new crop of actors, Bobby's stardom slowly began to fade away.
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From playing the protagonist to a second fiddle to doing a multi-starrer, his career graph saw a downfall a decade of his Bollywood debut. The Deols did try to revive his otherwise dead filmi career, but to no avail.
And after years of disappearance, Bobby is keen to make a comeback to films. In an interview to Huffingtonpost, Bobby bared his heart on losing stardom and how he plans to revive his career.
The 48-year-old actor reveals that his inability to keep up with the changing times led his gradual disappearance from the films. "I guess I was too old-fashioned, couldn't keep up with the quickly changing times. I didn't even realize when my career started slipping away. You usually don't. Work slows down and before you know it, you are sitting at home more than hanging out on film sets. I used to ask myself: What's wrong with you, Bobby? Why aren't you getting work?," he told the website.
And the Barsaat actor admits to being depressed after losing out on doing films. He also revealed that he almost turned into an alcoholic as he couldn't deal with his career crisis anymore. "There was a particular phase where I turned to the bottle and was on the verge of becoming a total alcoholic. My wife, Tanya, who is the most beautiful person in the whole world, a source of constant support, told me, 'What're you doing? This isn't going to help. Why are you being so self-destructive?' And I am like, I was looking after myself for so long, kya hua? Did the producers and directors chase me? No. And then there was an awakening. I was like, F*** this shit. I am not going to sulk in self-pity. Not working makes you ill, sad, depressed. It ages you. I am going to bounce back no matter what," he added.
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The message from the IPCC report is familiar and shattering: it's as bad as we thought it was
Already, a thousand blogs and columns insist the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's new report is a rabid concoction of scare stories whose purpose is to destroy the global economy. But it is, in reality, highly conservative.
Reaching agreement among hundreds of authors and reviewers ensures that only the statements which are hardest to dispute are allowed to pass. Even when the scientists have agreed, the report must be tempered in another forge, as politicians question anything they find disagreeable: the new report received 1,855 comments from 32 governments, and the arguments raged through the night before launch.
In other words, it's perhaps the biggest and most rigorous process of peer review conducted in any scientific field, at any point in human history.
There are no radical departures in this report from the previous assessment, published in 2007; just more evidence demonstrating the extent of global temperature rises, the melting of ice sheets and sea ice, the retreat of the glaciers, the rising and acidification of the oceans and the changes in weather patterns. The message is familiar and shattering: "It's as bad as we thought it was."
What the report describes, in its dry, meticulous language, is the collapse of the benign climate in which humans evolved and have prospered, and the loss of the conditions upon which many other lifeforms depend. Climate change and global warming are inadequate terms for what it reveals. The story it tells is of climate breakdown.
This is a catastrophe we are capable of foreseeing but incapable of imagining. It's a catastrophe we are singularly ill-equipped to prevent.
The IPCC's reports attract denial in all its forms: from a quiet turning away – the response of most people – to shrill disavowal. Despite – or perhaps because of – their rigours, the IPCC's reports attract a magnificent collection of conspiracy theories: the panel is trying to tax us back to the stone age or establish a Nazi/communist dictatorship in which we are herded into camps and forced to crochet our own bicycles. (And they call the scientists scaremongers …)
In the Mail, the Telegraph and the dusty basements of the internet, Friday's report (or a draft leaked a few weeks ago) has been trawled for any uncertainties that could be used to discredit. The panel reports that on every continent except Antarctica, man-made warming is likely to have made a substantial contribution to the surface temperature. So those who feel threatened by the evidence ignore the other continents and concentrate on Antarctica, as proof that climate change caused by fossil fuels can't be happening.
They make great play of the IPCC's acknowledgement that there has been a "reduction in surface warming trend over the period 1998–2012", but somehow ignore the fact that the past decade is still the warmest in the instrumental record.
They manage to overlook the panel's conclusion that this slowing of the trend is likely to have been caused by volcanic eruptions, fluctuations in solar radiation and natural variability in the planetary cycle.
Were it not for man-made global warming, these factors could have made the world significantly cooler over this period. That there has been a slight increase in temperature shows the power of the human contribution.
But denial is only part of the problem. More significant is the behaviour of powerful people who claim to accept the evidence. This week the former Irish president Mary Robinson added her voice to a call that some of us have been making for years: the only effective means of preventing climate breakdown is to leave fossil fuels in the ground. Press any minister on this matter in private and, in one way or another, they will concede the point. Yet no government will act on it.
As if to mark the publication of the new report, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has now plastered a giant poster across its ground-floor windows: "UK oil and gas: Energising Britain. £13.5bn is being invested in recovering UK oil and gas this year, more than any other industrial sector."
The message couldn't have been clearer if it had said "up yours". It is an example of the way in which all governments collaborate in the disaster they publicly bemoan. They sagely agree with the need to do something to avert the catastrophe the panel foresees, while promoting the industries that cause it.
It doesn't matter how many windmills or solar panels or nuclear plants you build if you are not simultaneously retiring fossil fuel production. We need a global programme whose purpose is to leave most coal and oil and gas reserves in the ground, while developing new sources of power and reducing the amazing amount of energy we waste.
But, far from doing so, governments everywhere are still seeking to squeeze every drop out of their own reserves, while trying to secure access to other people's. As more accessible reservoirs are emptied, energy companies exploit the remotest parts of the planet, bribing and bullying governments to allow them to break open unexploited places: from the deep ocean to the melting Arctic.
And the governments who let them do it weep sticky black tears over the state of the planet.
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F10 M5 LCI Facelift Production Starts July 2013. First F10 Spy Pics. BIMMERPOST NEWS BIMMERPOST NEWS F10 M5 LCI Facelift Production Starts July 2013. First F10 Spy Pics. 100
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UPDATE 10/17: Better spy photos of the F10 LCI prototype now show a new squared off angel eyes (coronal lights) shape, which has started to appear on BMWs beginning with the latest 3 Series, 6 Series, and 7 Series..
The first F10 5 Series Sedan and F07 5 Series GT LCI (facelift) update prototypes have now been spotted. This will facelift the entire 5 Series lineup, including the F10 sedan, F11 touring, F07 GT, and the F10 M5.
We have information which shows production for the F10 LCI as beginning in July 2013, with deliveries starting in August/September of 2013.
EXTERIOR
The prototype F10 LCI shows slightly sportier side mirrors, with integrated turn signals (still camouflaged). The headlights will get LED lights, squared off angel eyes (coronal lights) and may see some additional LED lighting elements, and the tail light graphics will receive a new look.
The front and rear bumpers will also receive styling updates. We can already make out one of the biggest styling changes in the front fascia - a new character line appears between the upper part of the kidney grilles and the area right above the headlights, which should give the headlight/grille area a more aggressive look. The M Sport package aero parts will also receive a slight refresh, as well as the F10's optional M Performance accessories parts.
POWERTRAIN
The updated F10 5 Series will cure one of the F10's main complaints - poor steering. The F10's steering is being re-engineered to be more communicative. The changes will also apply to the touring and GT models.
The 535i models will receive the inline turbo 6 cylinder engine which will replace the current N55 and is expected to debut in the F32 4 Series Coupe. Expect the 550i models to be powered by the uprated V8 N63Tu (the update to the N63 engine) which recently appeared in the F07 550i GT and is good for +45hp / +30 lb-ft torque over the N63 engine.
F10 M5
The F10 M5 should see the same lighting updates (headlights, tail lights, and perhaps integrated turn signal in its mirror), and potentially the new character line between the grilles and headlights as well, but we expect it to retain its current front and rear bumper designs. Overall, the F10 M5 should receive minimal exterior updates.
Better spy photos of the F10 LCI prototype now show a new squared off angel eyes (coronal lights) shape, which has started to appear on BMWs beginning with the latest 3 Series, 6 Series, and 7 Series..The first F10 5 Series Sedan and F07 5 Series GT LCI (facelift) update prototypes have now been spotted. This will facelift the entire 5 Series lineup, including the F10 sedan, F11 touring, F07 GT, and the F10 M5.We have information which shows production for the F10 LCI as beginning in, with deliveries starting inThe prototype F10 LCI shows slightly sportier side mirrors, with integrated turn signals (still camouflaged). The headlights will get LED lights, squared off angel eyes (coronal lights) and may see some additional LED lighting elements, and the tail light graphics will receive a new look.The front and rear bumpers will also receive styling updates. We can already make out one of the biggest styling changes in the front fascia - a new character line appears between the upper part of the kidney grilles and the area right above the headlights, which should give the headlight/grille area a more aggressive look. The M Sport package aero parts will also receive a slight refresh, as well as the F10's optional M Performance accessories parts.The updated F10 5 Series will cure one of the F10's main complaints - poor steering. The F10's steering is being re-engineered to be more communicative. The changes will also apply to the touring and GT models.The 535i models will receive the inline turbo 6 cylinder engine which will replace the current N55 and is expected to debut in the F32 4 Series Coupe. Expect the 550i models to be powered by the uprated V8 N63Tu (the update to the N63 engine) which recently appeared in the F07 550i GT and is good for +45hp / +30 lb-ft torque over the N63 engine.The F10 M5 should see the same lighting updates (headlights, tail lights, and perhaps integrated turn signal in its mirror), and potentially the new character line between the grilles and headlights as well, but we expect it to retain its current front and rear bumper designs. Overall, the F10 M5 should receive minimal exterior updates.
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Bringing together a group of narrators for the purpose of hosting a discussion is always a joy. Recording in a sound booth all day long either in their home or at a publisher’s studio, means they don’t have all that many opportunities to just get together and chat after work. In 2011, I hosted a Narrators Forum over at Speaking of Audiobooks and the response was tremendous. Listeners thoroughly enjoyed hearing what narrators had to say about the industry or what happens behind the scenes. AudioGals has since hosted two Narrators Forums as well – both in 2013 – Charting a Path to Success and Hear the Narrators Talk.
Today’s forum is recorded and features audio narrations in general – of all genres. The discussion topics vary and, as you will see below, address several areas of the audio industry. The list of topics serves as an overview of the forum’s progression.
The Narrators
We are honored to have with us today six narrators who know their craft well and excel in performing audiobooks. Their combined years of experience in the audio industry is a little astonishing, especially when one considers just how young that industry is. Today’s forum was recorded on Monday night and not only was a great deal of information shared but lots of laughs as well.
AudioGals welcomes Simon Vance, Karen White, Patrick Lawlor, Tanya Eby, Luke Daniels, and Renee Raudman!
Our Six Discussion Topics
Topic 1 – We’ll start with the question we most often receive from listeners. Why aren’t the majority of audiobooks performed by both a male and female narrator interacting with one another while each performs the appropriate gender roles? And, as an extension to that question – what about the multi cast productions? At what point does an audiobook narration become more of an Audio Theatre type of production?
Topic 2 – What are methods you use to differentiate your characters? Are there times when you feel it is more appropriate to read a book without vocally distinguishing one character from another? And accents – when does a narrator choose to perform an accent? Do audiobook publishers prefer the use of accents or is that more of a narrator’s personal choice?
Topic 3 – Series – they seem to be everywhere these days but it must be a challenge to the narrator. How do you prepare for and continue working on a series? What are the special demands a series requires?
Topic 4 – Working with authors. It’s our understanding that at one time, interaction between the narrator and author was discouraged yet we hear that this type of relationship is often encouraged now. How does working with an author benefit each and have you made joint appearances with an author?
Topic 5 – Now to address what we as listeners assume are poor production issues or, let’s be honest, we might just be wondering if the narrator is responsible for those blunders. It’s those times that we repeatedly hear the narrator take a noisy breath or possibly there’s an annoying click. It’s the presence of a hum or fuzzy background noise. Also, it’s the obvious edits – repeated sentences or words left out all together or a clear change in background noise or volume level when a correction is made.
What goes into assuring a crystal clear listen? Do narrators make a conscious effort to avoid audible breathing or, are there techniques to minimize this effect? Is there advice you can offer to other narrators to avoid this type of problem?
Topic 6 – Our last discussion has to do with the inexperienced narrator. With the large influx of self-published audiobooks, we also discovered a large number of sub-standard performances. When we see that an eagerly anticipated book is to be performed by an unknown narrator, we now assume that the chances of a poor narration are significant. What advice do you have for the inexperienced/untrained narrator? Where can they start?
Note: We also discussed opportunities for narrator training in our AudioGals Charting a Path for Success forum in February 2013.
Listening to our Forum
In addition to listening from your computer or tablet, you may easily download any of our recorded talks to your MP3 player. Or, you can listen on your phone directly from AudioGals. I usually listen on my phone as I run errands.
Patrick, Tanya, Karen, Renee, Simon, and Luke will be stopping by to answer any questions you may have. So ask away.
Now for our forum!
To learn more about each narrator participating in today’s forum, follow the link in their name or photo to their AudioGals Narrator page. For other forums of interest moderated by Lea, check out our earlier article this week, Narrators Forum Coming This Week.
And a very special thanks to our behind-the-scenes technical Gal, Brenda, the producer of our recorded events. Also, I’m grateful to all of the Gals for brainstorming with me on topics for today’s forum.
Now, let us hear from you! What questions do you have for the narrators in today’s forum?
Lea Hensley
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If you're serious about fitness, you know the importance of training your muscles and your brain. Without the right prep, you won't have the physical or mental endurance to finish, whether it's a five-k or an Ironman. But it turns out that it may be just as important to train your gut—or suffer inflammatory consequences. So says a study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine. [Gill SK et al, The Impact of a 24-h Ultra-Marathon on Circulatory Endotoxin and Cytokine Profile]
Researchers sampled the blood of 17 runners before and after a 24-hour ultramarathon—where runners covered anywhere from 75 to 130 miles on foot. During the race, their guts got leaky—due to a lack of blood flow to the intestines, and the physical trauma from so many jarring miles. Gut bacteria escaped into the blood, where some released toxins. The runners' bodies then responded by launching an immune response, and inflammation set in.
Some runners actually had blood profiles identical to those of patients admitted to the hospital with blood poisoning, or sepsis.
But the most well-trained competitors avoided the problem. Their bodies launched a counterattack, unleashing anti-inflammatory compounds to tamp down their bodies' immune overreaction.
The authors say just four hours of activity is extreme enough to kick off this chain of inflammation. Suggesting it's key to gradually build up to new personal bests, even if they're not ultraworthy. As has long been said: slow and steady wins the race.
—Christopher Intagliata
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Civil War statues have prompted protests for many years
US President Donald Trump has denounced the removal of "beautiful" Confederate statues amid a heated national debate about US race relations.
"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments," he tweeted.
"You can't change history, but you can learn from it," he continued.
Mr Trump drew outrage by defending organisers of a white supremacist rally that left a woman dead and dozens hurt.
The rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, supported by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, was in protest of the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the US Civil War.
It turned deadly when a driver ploughed into a crowd of counter protesters, inflicting fatal injuries on Heather Heyer.
"Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!" Mr Trump continued in a series of tweets on Thursday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Racism in the US: Is there a single step that can bring equality?
"The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!"
The recent removal of controversial statues, including some to leaders of the pro-slavery rebellion defeated in the US Civil War, has been the latest flashpoint in racial tensions across the country.
Critics say monuments to the Confederacy are racially offensive, but supporters say they are important symbols preserving Southern heritage.
Why Trump thinks he wins on this
Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington
Donald Trump's condemnation of white supremacists on Monday increasingly feels like the guy in the bar who starts his diatribes with "I'm not a racist, but…".
While the president has felt compelled to distance himself from the hate and bigotry that many of the marchers last weekend spewed, he has come down with both feet in support of the cause for which they were supposedly rallying.
This may not be as surprising a strategy as it first seems, however. Recent polls show the American public is generally against removing the statues scattered across states of the old Confederacy.
As Steve Bannon said in his surprisingly blunt interview with the American Prospect magazine on Thursday, drawing liberals into a contentious debate about "race and identity" allows Mr Trump and his supporters to become champions of economic nationalism.
After a tumultuous several weeks, the president is trying to find his footing. While it might seem jarring for the president who boasts that Republicans are "the party of Abraham Lincoln" to speak warmly of "beautiful" statues of Robert E Lee, it wouldn't be the first time intellectual coherence has taken a back seat to political expediency.
Read Anthony's take
Follow @awzurcher
Maine's Governor Paul LePage, a Republican, said on Thursday taking down Confederate statues is "just like" removing a monument to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
But relatives of Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate leader Mr Trump mentioned in his Thursday tweets, wrote an open letter to the mayor of Richmond, Virginia, urging him to remove the statue of their great-great-grandfather and all other Confederate statues in town.
Jack and Warren Christian, Mr Jackson's great-great-sons, said removing the statues would "further difficult conversations about racial justice".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption New Orleans mayor on why Confederate monuments have to go
"While we are not ashamed of our great-great-grandfather, we are ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer," the pair wrote. "We are ashamed of the monument."
Robert E Lee V, the great-great-grandson of the famous Confederate general, issued a statement condemning the violence in the wake of the statue removals.
"While the debate about how we memorialise figures from our past continues, we the descendants of Robert E Lee decry in the strongest terms the misuse of his memory by those advancing a message of intolerance and hate," he said in a statement to the BBC.
"He never would have tolerated the hateful words and violent actions of white supremacists, the KKK, or Neo Nazis."
The president's comments came after a week of turmoil over his response to the violent clashes in the small Virginia town.
Mr Trump was criticised for blaming both sides for the violence, but belatedly condemned the white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups on Monday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Candlelit vigil held in Charlottesville
During a heated news conference on Tuesday he backtracked and again blamed left-wing counter-protesters for the incident, too.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the upper chamber, said in an interview with Vice News that the president's "moral authority" had been "compromised".
"I'm not going to defend the indefensible… [Mr Trump's] comments on Monday were strong. His comments on Tuesday started erasing the comments that were strong," Senator Scott said.
"What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. And that moral authority is compromised."
Amid the fallout over the president's response, corporate leaders and CEOs began resigning from two White House business councils.
On Wednesday, the Strategy and Policy Forum announced it would disband as Mr Trump said he would end the council as well as a manufacturing one.
More on what happened in Charlottesville
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Understanding query locking is key to using postgres concurrently. So let’s look at an example to learn more about how locking works and how to see what’s going on within your database.
Playing in the sandbox
To play around with locks let’s first create a sandbox.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CREATE DATABASE sandbox ; CREATE TABLE toys ( id serial NOT NULL , name character varying ( 36 ), usage integer NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 , CONSTRAINT toys_pkey PRIMARY KEY ( id ) ); INSERT INTO toys ( name ) VALUES ( 'car' ),( 'digger' ),( 'shovel' );
Now let’s open two postgres consoles to play in the sandbox. For clarification let’s name them Alice and Bob. You can SET the console prompt with:
1 sandbox=# \SET PROMPT1 '[Alice] %/%R%# '
Now Alice takes a look for what kind of toys there are.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [Alice] sandbox=# BEGIN ; BEGIN [Alice] sandbox=# SELECT * FROM toys ; id | name | usage ----+--------+------- 1 | car | 0 2 | digger | 0 3 | shovel | 0 (3 rows)
Note we introduce the statement with BEGIN to open the transaction explicitly and keep it open until we commit or rollback.
If Bob does the same he would get the same immediate output.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [Bob] sandbox=# BEGIN ; BEGIN [Bob] sandbox=# SELECT * FROM toys ; id | name | usage ----+--------+------- 1 | car | 0 2 | digger | 0 3 | shovel | 0 (3 rows)
That is the two SELECT statements do not interfere and can safely run concurrent without blocking each other. Well that’s what we expect from a reliable high performance database.
pg_lock
Nevertheless our transactions are still open. Let’s take a look on a third console, let’s call it Eve, what kind of locks are acquired.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 sandbox=# \SET PROMPT1 '[eve] %/%R%# ' [eve] sandbox=# SELECT locktype , relation :: regclass , mode , transactionid AS tid , virtualtransaction AS vtid , pid , granted FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks l LEFT JOIN pg_catalog . pg_database db ON db . oid = l . database WHERE ( db . datname = 'sandbox' OR db . datname IS NULL ) AND NOT pid = pg_backend_pid (); locktype | relation | mode | tid | vtid | pid | granted ------------+-----------+-----------------+-----+-------+-------+--------- relation | toys_pkey | AccessShareLock | | 6/268 | 45265 | t relation | toys | AccessShareLock | | 6/268 | 45265 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 6/268 | 45265 | t relation | toys_pkey | AccessShareLock | | 1/282 | 45263 | t relation | toys | AccessShareLock | | 1/282 | 45263 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 1/282 | 45263 | t (6 rows)
Each active lock is stored in pg_catalogs.pg_lock view. To make sure we only see locks on the sandbox database we join pg_catalog.pg_database and filter by datname=’sandbox’ OR datname IS NULL`.
To not see locks from our own query we also filter out entries from our own backend_pid. NOT pid = pg_backend_pid();
The relation column is typecast into regclass to make it human readable.
Let’s read the fifth row:
1 2 3 locktype | relation | mode | tid | vtid | pid | granted ------------+-----------+-----------------+-----+-------+-------+--------- relation | toys | AccessShareLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t
The relation toys is locked with AccessShareLock by virtual transaction 1/282 from pid 45263 and the lock is granted. That is the transaction got the lock. Everything is fine Bob and Alice are happy as they can both concurrently see what toys are available.
Note that each transaction also hold an `ExclusiveLock on its own virtualxid that is their virtual transaction ID.
Now Alice decides to grab the car:
1 2 [Alice] sandbox=# UPDATE toys SET usage = usage + 1 WHERE id = 1 ; UPDATE 1
As you can see she got it successfully. Let’s take a look at what happens to the locks:
transactionid
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 locktype | relation | mode | tid | vtid | pid | granted ---------------+-----------+------------------+----------+-------+-------+--------- relation | toys_pkey | AccessShareLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t relation | toys | AccessShareLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t relation | toys_pkey | AccessShareLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t relation | toys_pkey | RowExclusiveLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t relation | toys | AccessShareLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t relation | toys | RowExclusiveLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t transactionid | | ExclusiveLock | 24273800 | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t ( 9 rows )
Two more locks are added. Alice got a RowExclusiveLock on toys that is the car is now to here. There is also a real transactionid added for Alice on which Alice holds `ExclusiveLock. For every transaction that potentially changes the state of the database a transactionid is added.
MVCC
But as the transaction is not committed yet Bob still sees the old data.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [Bob] sandbox=# SELECT * FROM toys ; id | name | usage ----+--------+------- 1 | car | 0 2 | digger | 0 3 | shovel | 0 (3 rows)
As it is not clear whether Alice will commit or rollback her transaction Bob sees the state of the table as it was before Alice started her transaction. Postgres uses MVCC - Multi Version Concurrency Control to make sure that each transaction always sees a consistent state of the database.
Blocking Queries
Let’s say Bob also wants the car (a pattern that you can see every day in sandboxes):
1 [Bob] sandbox=# UPDATE toys SET usage = usage + 1 WHERE id = 1 ;
You realize nothing really happens because Bob has to wait until Alice finishes her transaction.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 locktype | relation | mode | tid | vtid | pid | granted ---------------+-----------+------------------+----------+-------+-------+--------- relation | toys_pkey | AccessShareLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t relation | toys_pkey | RowExclusiveLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t relation | toys | AccessShareLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t relation | toys | RowExclusiveLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t relation | toys_pkey | AccessShareLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t relation | toys_pkey | RowExclusiveLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t relation | toys | AccessShareLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t relation | toys | RowExclusiveLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t transactionid | | ExclusiveLock | 24273800 | 1 / 282 | 45263 | t tuple | toys | ExclusiveLock | | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t transactionid | | ExclusiveLock | 24273801 | 6 / 268 | 45265 | t transactionid | | ShareLock | 24273800 | 6 / 268 | 45265 | f ( 14 rows )
Now a transactionid for Bob is added and Bob is asking to get a ShareLock on Alice’s transactionid. The typical “mom I wan’t to play with the car too” pattern. As both locks conflict with each other Bob’s request is not granted and he needs to wait until Alice releases her ExclusiveLock on her transactionid by finishing her transaction.
pg_stats_activity
There is another interesting pg_catalog view called pg_stat_activity which shows you what kind of queries are going on:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT query , state , waiting , pid FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = 'sandbox' AND NOT ( state = 'idle' OR pid = pg_backend_pid ()); query | state | waiting | pid -----------------------------------------------+---------------------+---------+----- UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 1; | idle in transaction | f | 45263 UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 1; | active | t | 45265 (2 rows)
Here we see that Alice’s query is waiting for the transaction to commit while Bob’s query is active and waiting.
Now let’s combine the two to see which query is waiting for whom.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT blockeda . pid AS blocked_pid , blockeda . query as blocked_query , blockinga . pid AS blocking_pid , blockinga . query as blocking_query FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks blockedl JOIN pg_stat_activity blockeda ON blockedl . pid = blockeda . pid JOIN pg_catalog . pg_locks blockingl ON ( blockingl . transactionid = blockedl . transactionid AND blockedl . pid != blockingl . pid ) JOIN pg_stat_activity blockinga ON blockingl . pid = blockinga . pid WHERE NOT blockedl . granted AND blockinga . datname = 'sandbox' ; blocked_pid | blocked_query | blocking_pid | blocking_query -------------+-----------------------------------------------+--------------+----------------------------------------------- 45265 | UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 1; | 45263 | UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 1; (1 row)
Here we can clearly see which query is blocked by which statement.
Now if Alice decided to rollback (or commit) her transaction her ExclusiveLock would release and Bob would get the ShareLock on her transactionid. If Bob now commits his transaction, the row would get UPDATEd depending on whether Alice commited or rolled back.
1 2 [Alice] sandbox=# ROLLBACK ; ROLLBACK
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [Bob] sandbox=# COMMIT ; COMMIT [Bob] sandbox=# SELECT * FROM toys ; id | name | usage ----+--------+------- 2 | digger | 0 3 | shovel | 0 1 | car | 1 (3 rows)
Of course if Bob and Alice would have decided to take different toys no such blocking situation would have appeared.
Explicit Locking
Another typical sandbox pattern is that some kid wants to take it all without really needing it.
Let’s say Alice decides to take the access exclusive.
1 2 3 4 [Alice] sandbox=# BEGIN ; BEGIN [Alice] sandbox=# LOCK TABLE toys IN ACCESS EXCLUSIVE MODE ; LOCK TABLE
Now Bob has to wait although Alice doesn’t really grab any toy.
1 2 [Bob] sandbox=# BEGIN ; UPDATE toys SET usage = usage + 1 WHERE id = 2 ; BEGIN
And our lock table would look like this.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT locktype , relation :: regclass , mode , transactionid AS tid , virtualtransaction AS vtid , pid , granted FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks l LEFT JOIN pg_catalog . pg_database db ON db . oid = l . database WHERE ( db . datname = 'sandbox' OR db . datname IS NULL ) AND NOT pid = pg_backend_pid (); locktype | relation | mode | tid | vtid | pid | granted ------------+----------+---------------------+-----+-------+-------+--------- virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 6/284 | 45265 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 1/294 | 45263 | t relation | toys | RowExclusiveLock | | 6/284 | 45265 | f relation | toys | AccessExclusiveLock | | 1/294 | 45263 | t (4 rows)
As Alice is holding AccessExclusiveLock without (yet) changing the database state she has no transactionid and as Bob didn’t get the RowExclusiveLock on the toys table he also doesn’t have any real transactionid . Thus our above query to see blocking statements won’t help (as we join on `transactionid).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT blockeda . pid AS blocked_pid , blockeda . query as blocked_query , blockinga . pid AS blocking_pid , blockinga . query as blocking_query FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks blockedl JOIN pg_stat_activity blockeda ON blockedl . pid = blockeda . pid JOIN pg_catalog . pg_locks blockingl ON ( blockingl . transactionid = blockedl . transactionid AND blockedl . pid != blockingl . pid ) JOIN pg_stat_activity blockinga ON blockingl . pid = blockinga . pid WHERE NOT blockedl . granted AND blockinga . datname = 'sandbox' ; blocked_pid | blocked_query | blocking_pid | blocking_query -------------+---------------+--------------+---------------- (0 rows)
So for Eve it would look like everything is fine. While
1 2 3 4 5 6 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT pid , query , now () - query_start AS waiting_duration FROM pg_catalog . pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = 'sandbox' AND waiting ; pid | query | waiting_duration -------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------ 45265 | UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 2; | 00:03:16.503233 (1 row)
clearly shows that there is a query waiting. Note we added the difference between now() and query_start to see for how long the query is waiting.
So let’s take another look:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT blockingl . relation :: regclass , blockeda . pid AS blocked_pid , blockeda . query as blocked_query , blockedl . mode as blocked_mode , blockinga . pid AS blocking_pid , blockinga . query as blocking_query , blockingl . mode as blocking_mode FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks blockedl JOIN pg_stat_activity blockeda ON blockedl . pid = blockeda . pid JOIN pg_catalog . pg_locks blockingl ON ( blockingl . relation = blockedl . relation AND blockingl . locktype = blockedl . locktype AND blockedl . pid != blockingl . pid ) JOIN pg_stat_activity blockinga ON blockingl . pid = blockinga . pid WHERE NOT blockedl . granted AND blockinga . datname = 'sandbox' ; relation | blocked_pid | blocked_query | blocked_mode | blocking_pid | blocking_query | blocking_mode ----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------------+--------------+-------------------------------------------+--------------------- toys | 45265 | UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 2; | RowExclusiveLock | 45263 | LOCK TABLE toys IN ACCESS EXCLUSIVE MODE; | AccessExclusiveLock (1 row)
Here we can see again whats really going on. By joining the relation on which the lock is hold.
Now Alice has been told that it’s not nice to take an explicit lock without really needing it. So she commits her transaction without doing anything and Bob can get a toy.
1 2 [Alice] sandbox=# COMMIT ; COMMIT
1 2 UPDATE 1 [Bob] sandbox=#
Note Bob’s transaction is still open. If we take a look at the locks table we see:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 SELECT locktype , relation :: regclass , mode , transactionid AS tid , virtualtransaction AS vtid , pid , granted FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks l LEFT JOIN pg_catalog . pg_database db ON db . oid = l . database WHERE ( db . datname = 'sandbox' OR db . datname IS NULL ) AND NOT pid = pg_backend_pid (); locktype | relation | mode | tid | vtid | pid | granted ---------------+-----------+------------------+----------+-------+-------+--------- relation | toys_pkey | RowExclusiveLock | | 6/284 | 45265 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 6/284 | 45265 | t relation | toys | RowExclusiveLock | | 6/284 | 45265 | t transactionid | | ExclusiveLock | 24273819 | 6/284 | 45265 | t (4 rows)
So only after Bob got the RowExclusiveLock a real transactionid for his transaction was added. So Bob is fine and commits.
1 2 [Bob] sandbox=# COMMIT ; COMMIT
RowExclusiveLock
As Alice is undecided which toy to take and not allowed to take explicit locks she takes another approach.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [Alice] sandbox=# BEGIN ; SELECT * FROM toys FOR UPDATE ; BEGIN id | name | usage ----+--------+------- 2 | digger | 0 3 | shovel | 0 1 | car | 1 (3 rows)
That is “I want to see all toys and maybe I’ll take one but as I’m undecided I don’t want any other to take one until I made my decision.” (Another typical sandbox pattern)
Bob who has decided to take the shovel won’t get it and needs to wait:
1 [Bob] sandbox=# UPDATE toys SET usage = usage + 1 WHERE id = 2 ;
While Eve sees the following situation:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 locktype | relation | mode | tid | vtid | pid | granted ---------------+-----------+------------------+----------+-------+-------+--------- relation | toys_pkey | RowExclusiveLock | | 6 / 277 | 45265 | t relation | toys | RowExclusiveLock | | 6 / 277 | 45265 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 6 / 277 | 45265 | t relation | toys_pkey | AccessShareLock | | 1 / 288 | 45263 | t relation | toys | RowShareLock | | 1 / 288 | 45263 | t virtualxid | | ExclusiveLock | | 1 / 288 | 45263 | t tuple | toys | ExclusiveLock | | 6 / 277 | 45265 | t transactionid | | ExclusiveLock | 24273809 | 1 / 288 | 45263 | t transactionid | | ShareLock | 24273809 | 6 / 277 | 45265 | f transactionid | | ExclusiveLock | 24273810 | 6 / 277 | 45265 | t ( 10 rows )
Bob who clearly wants to change the database state got an transactionid 24273810 and again has to wait for Alice to get ShareLock on her transactionid 24273809 .
Join Locks and Activities
So this time we need our first approach to join locks and activities.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT blockeda . pid AS blocked_pid , blockeda . query as blocked_query , blockinga . pid AS blocking_pid , blockinga . query as blocking_query FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks blockedl JOIN pg_stat_activity blockeda ON blockedl . pid = blockeda . pid JOIN pg_catalog . pg_locks blockingl ON ( blockingl . transactionid = blockedl . transactionid AND blockedl . pid != blockingl . pid ) JOIN pg_stat_activity blockinga ON blockingl . pid = blockinga . pid WHERE NOT blockedl . granted AND blockinga . datname = 'sandbox' ; blocked_pid | blocked_query | blocking_pid | blocking_query -------------+-----------------------------------------------+--------------+-------------------------------- 45265 | UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 2; | 45263 | SELECT * FROM toys FOR UPDATE; (1 row)
So let’s combine both to be 100% sure:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT COALESCE ( blockingl . relation :: regclass :: text , blockingl . locktype ) as locked_item , blockeda . pid AS blocked_pid , blockeda . query as blocked_query , blockedl . mode as blocked_mode , blockinga . pid AS blocking_pid , blockinga . query as blocking_query , blockingl . mode as blocking_mode FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks blockedl JOIN pg_stat_activity blockeda ON blockedl . pid = blockeda . pid JOIN pg_catalog . pg_locks blockingl ON ( ( ( blockingl . transactionid = blockedl . transactionid ) OR ( blockingl . relation = blockedl . relation AND blockingl . locktype = blockedl . locktype ) ) AND blockedl . pid != blockingl . pid ) JOIN pg_stat_activity blockinga ON blockingl . pid = blockinga . pid WHERE NOT blockedl . granted AND blockinga . datname = 'sandbox' ; locked_item | blocked_pid | blocked_query | blocked_mode | blocking_pid | blocking_query | blocking_mode ---------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------------------------+--------------- transactionid | 45265 | UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 2; | ShareLock | 45263 | SELECT * FROM toys FOR UPDATE; | ExclusiveLock (1 row)
As Eve can’t remember this long query she decides to put that into a view;
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 [eve] sandbox=# CREATE VIEW lock_monitor AS ( SELECT COALESCE ( blockingl . relation :: regclass :: text , blockingl . locktype ) as locked_item , now () - blockeda . query_start AS waiting_duration , blockeda . pid AS blocked_pid , blockeda . query as blocked_query , blockedl . mode as blocked_mode , blockinga . pid AS blocking_pid , blockinga . query as blocking_query , blockingl . mode as blocking_mode FROM pg_catalog . pg_locks blockedl JOIN pg_stat_activity blockeda ON blockedl . pid = blockeda . pid JOIN pg_catalog . pg_locks blockingl ON ( ( ( blockingl . transactionid = blockedl . transactionid ) OR ( blockingl . relation = blockedl . relation AND blockingl . locktype = blockedl . locktype ) ) AND blockedl . pid != blockingl . pid ) JOIN pg_stat_activity blockinga ON blockingl . pid = blockinga . pid AND blockinga . datid = blockeda . datid WHERE NOT blockedl . granted AND blockinga . datname = current_database () );
Note we added the waiting_duration to see for how long the query was blocked, and added the current_database() function to automatically filter by the database the view belongs to.
Now Eve can simply fire:
1 2 3 4 5 [eve] sandbox=# SELECT * from lock_monitor ; locked_item | waiting_duration | blocked_pid | blocked_query | blocked_mode | blocking_pid | blocking_query | blocking_mode ---------------+------------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------------------------+--------------- transactionid | 00:01:02.143922 | 45265 | UPDATE toys SET usage = usage+1 WHERE id = 2; | ShareLock | 45263 | SELECT * FROM toys FOR UPDATE; | ExclusiveLock (1 row)
and is always able to see what the kids are up to. Now Eve decides to get a Latte Macchiato and read the postgres manual on explicit locking to get an idea of the different lock types and their conflict modes.
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About This Game
star Shelter
current Features:
Randomly generated environments and spaceships.
Use the crafting to build, arm and improve your Space station.
Grow plants in your spaceship to generate oxygen and fruit.
Voiced AI to guide you and keep you aware of hazards.
Destructible/Repairable base, maintaining your spaceship is as important as eating.
Innovative UI, interactive holograms to navigate menus/hack, "AR" labels on objects.
Shoot down drones and turrets that stand in your way.
Classic survival mechanics - Hunger, oxygen, power, sleep.
Roadmap
Star shelter is one of the first VR games with classic survival mechanics. You're stranded in a mysterious graveyard of abandoned ships, the only way out is to repair a broken spaceship.You have to scavenge for materials and plants to repair and arm your spaceship.Keep your oxygen, power, and hunger in the green. Grow plants, build solar panels and other objects to generate what you need.Climb around the zero gravity but don't rely on your thrusters to much, they are fueled by the same oxygen you breathe.Scavenge the wreckages of spaceships and be wary of hazards.There's a lot of things still to be added so please let us know what you want us to add or improve upon.Check out the FORUM and report any bugs or issues you encounter but also any ideas or suggestions you have.We will evaluate every idea or suggestion that is posted.Check out this SPREAD SHEET of bugs that are being worked on and add to it if you feel that something is need.We're also active on the STAR SHELTER - DISCORD if you wanna have a chat
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MELBOURNE decided to elevate Jack Viney to the co-captaincy at the start of the season because coach Simon Goodwin believed it was impossible to ignore the young midfielder's leadership qualities.
The move to promote Viney to skipper alongside incumbent leader Nathan Jones was met with criticism at the time, with some questioning whether the then 22-year-old was ready to assume such a big responsibility.
Jones was initially taken aback by the move and sought an explanation from Goodwin as to why the sole responsibility was "being taken away" from him.
Match preview: Carlton v Melbourne
Goodwin told Jones the club was trying to grow the depth of leadership at the club, a gulf that had been widening in recent seasons a key factor in why the club had not appeared in finals since 2006.
Jones and Viney symbolised the old and the new Melbourne and there was no mystery as to why Max Gawn, Tom McDonald, Jordan Lewis and Bernie Vince were part of the leadership model as the club continues to move in a new direction.
With Jones (quad) and Viney (foot) sidelined by injury for at least the next month, Goodwin's aim of broadening the leadership burden will be tested more than ever before as the Demons pursue September action.
AFL.com.au has taken a look at the contenders for the top job in Jones and Viney's absence.
Max Gawn
The big ruckman has a certain aura about him and is Pied Piper-like in the way he gets others to follow him. Gawn is a brilliant clubman – he has a great attitude towards footy clinics (he was studying to be a teacher), he is charming and humorous at club events and was awarded the James McDonald Trophy (heart and spirit award) at last year's best and fairest count. He is popular among the players – he is the man entrusted with organising the catch-ups and looks after the tunes blasted out at training – and is a standout media performer. The frontrunner for the job.
Tom McDonald
McDonald is one of the most articulate players you will come across. The key defender turned forward is a deep thinker and is very intelligent – he is studying a commerce degree at university, he took up German as a second language and is the club's AFLPA delegate. McDonald is more introverted than others, but leads by example with his actions and his words. A loyal Melbourne person.
Can't argue with this one!@TomMcDonald92 has scored a GOTY nomination for THAT goal on Saturday!
Vote for Tom ➡️ https://t.co/6CdKRmJeTn pic.twitter.com/KHoROy98ig — Melbourne FC (@melbournefc) June 26, 2017
Jordan Lewis
Experience is Lewis' biggest asset as a leader. The four-time premiership player has played in big finals and has delivered in pressure situations. Lewis is a pragmatic leader and has the attitude of getting on with things. Had he not been traded from Hawthorn to Melbourne, he was the logical candidate to take over the captaincy from Luke Hodge when he stood down from the position at the start of this season.
Bernie Vince
Although Vince is a laid-back character, he has vastly improved leadership credentials since arriving at Melbourne from Adelaide. The 2015 best and fairest winner took more ownership after he was traded by the Crows and decided to become more outspoken and set better examples for younger teammates. Vince is likeable, he has a good sense of humour and often lifts the mood of the group when it needs it. Also a polished media performer on multiple platforms.
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Originally published Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 3:54 PM
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Guest columnist Bob Jeffers-Schroder argues that the U.S. must act now to avert the challenges of climate change.
THE climate change conference in Cancún concluded last weekend, and once again no agreement was reached to reduce the heat-trapping gases that are warming our planet. That's because the United States continues to drag heels when it comes to putting a price on carbon.
At the Cancún meeting, several reports suggested there is greater urgency than ever to stop burning fossil fuels. One report predicts that the way things are going, a billion people would lose their homes by the end of the century. Another predicts that climate change will double food prices by midcentury.
The urgency appears lost on Congress, which adjourns this year without enacting climate and energy legislation.
This is astonishing. Even some energy companies recognize the need for action. On its website, Shell Oil says, "For us the debate on climate change is over ... We are calling on governments to establish policies that will encourage a reduction in CO2 emissions."
Unfortunately, many members of the fossil-fuel industry are not as enlightened. A "No Climate Tax" pledge is being circulated by Americans for Prosperity, an organization funded by oil conglomerate Koch Industries. More than 150 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed the pledge, including three from our state — Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and Jaime Herrera (newly elected).
The rest of our delegation supports at least some action. Congressman Jim McDermott sponsored a carbon-tax bill and Sen. Maria Cantwell sponsored a cap-and-dividend bill. While neither bill is ideal, each includes excellent features. The rest of our representatives should join with them to come up with legislation that includes the best features of each.
Currently, the primary objection to taxing carbon-based fuels is the claim that jobs will be lost. However, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if 20 percent of our power were to be derived from wind energy, 500,000 jobs would be created, dwarfing the 174,000 jobs supported by the coal industry. Similar proportions can be expected for our state if we phase out the coal-powered plant in Chehalis.
While the "No Climate Tax" pledge appears to make climate and energy legislation a non-starter for those who signed it, the wording of the pledge appears to allow support for a revenue-neutral climate and energy bill:
"I, [NAME], pledge to the taxpayers of the state of [STATE NAME] and to the American people that I will oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue."
Citizens' Climate Lobby proposes an act that does not include "a net increase in government revenue": carbon fee and dividend. It works by placing a steadily rising fee on carbon-based fuels paid by producers and importers. All the revenue is distributed to the public as equal dividends for everyone. It won't increase the size of government, and it gives Americans extra money needed to cover rising energy costs associated with the carbon fee.
It also provides a clear price signal for investors who are waiting for some assurance that betting on wind, solar and other forms of clean energy will pay off in the future. That confidence will create a privately funded stimulus for new jobs.
It's a solution that both political parties should be able to agree upon. Based on what the scientific reports presented in Cancún are telling us — essentially, objects in the mirror are closer than they appear — we can't afford to wait another two years to address climate change.
Bob Jeffers-Schroder is a member of the Citizens' Climate Lobby. He campaigned throughout the 7th Congressional District, reaching 60,000 homes with the message that Congress needs to act now to reduce CO2 emissions.
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A third of open ocean sharks are threatened with extinction, according to the first global study to assess the conservation status of 64 species. Tuna fisheries, already facing strong criticism for overfishing, and the practice of “finning” sharks for soup ingredients take much of the blame.
Hammerheads and giant devil rays are among the species classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as "globally endangered", while great whites and basking sharks are classed as vulnerable to extinction.
The smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena) is shown.
(Image: Wayne Levin / Getty) Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini)
(Image: Jeff Rotman / Nature Picture Library / Rex Features) Great white (Carcharodon carcharias)
(Image: Design Pics Inc / Rex Features) Advertisement Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)
(Image: Alan James / Nature Picture Library / Rex Features) Oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus)
(Image: Brian J. Skerry / Getty) Giant devil ray (Mobula mobular)
(Image: Sarah Faulwetter / sarsifa) Makos shortfin (Isurus oxyrinchus)
(Image: Andy Murch / wiki)
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When I was in university, I had to take a course called “Foundations of computer science”. Since this course was placed in the second trimester of the first year, it was an immediate roadblock for many people. Unlike others, I found the course to be very easy and passed the exam quickly with the maximum grade, with almost no studying. I am not saying this to brag, but I think there is an important lesson there.
The professor teaching that course was later my thesis supervisor. One day she was talking about the people could not pass the exam for her course. I will always remember her words: “People pass exams in the first trimester just memorizing things and then get stuck on my exam because I ask them to think”. She was spot on and that is why I passed the exam so easily. Unlike others that looked at it like some boring theoretical stuff, I took the time during the classes to understand what she was explaining, instead of just copying mindlessy what she wrote on the blackboard. Then, I just had to review the material for the exam, while the people that failed the exam just tried to memorize everthing at the end, without understanding.
I think that iOS development is like that exam. You can try to copy and memorize every tutorial you find, but if you do not take the time to understand how the platform works, you will fail the exam: making an app on your own. This is what allowed me to get to the point where I am as an iOS developer today. I always try to understand things first. Honestly I never followed a tutorial in my whole life. I definitely read a lot of material and blog posts from other developers about many topics and they usually provide very helpful exercises, but I never saw the value in following a tutorial that just shows me the how without first making me understand the concepts.
I have talked extensively about the how things work in iOS in my previous articles. Until now I have withheld practical examples on purpose. I do not want them to be just another tutorial where you just write a bunch of code and have not progressed one step at the end of it. But now that we have seen and understood how iOS apps work, it is time to see it in practice. That is why I call this an example and not a tutorial. Understanding comes first and then the example reinforces the concepts and clears doubts. There will be links to my other relevant articles through the whole example. If you have not done it yet, I advise you get familiar with them first. Otherwise this example will be just another tutorial that does not move you forward.
In this example we will build a simple app that shows your favorite quote on the screen. This quote can also be edited and saved so that the next time you open the app, it is still there. Although simple, it will cover many core concepts of iOS development:
the MVC pattern and model controllers
view controllers and their lifecycle
the view hierarchy
storyboards
basics of Auto Layout
outlets and the target-action pattern
view controller containers
communication between view controllers and delegation
As you can see, even the simplest app, if done properly, covers many of the basic concepts you need to know in iOS development.
So let’s get started. You can find the whole Xcode project for this example on GitHub.
How the model view controller pattern works in iOS
I have already talked about the MVC pattern and view controllers. Let’s have a recap of how it works in iOS. The MVC pattern divides classes in three different layers
The model encapsulated the data and the logic of the app.
Views are what you see on the screen. They present the data to the user and allow interaction.
The controller layer is responsible of mediating between the other two. Controllers connect the views to the data and are also responsible for setup, coordinating tasks and interpreting user input in the app specific way.
Of the three layers, the controller layer is the only one that knows about the other two. Views know nothing about controllers or the model and the model knows nothing about views or controllers. The boundaries between the layers of the MVC pattern are usually not sharp and indeed we find different kind of controllers there.
At the boundary between model and controllers we find model controllers. They manipulate the model and encapsulate the app logic that does not belong to the model. Examples are saving on disk or communicating over the network. Model controllers usually only know about the model or other model controllers.
At the boundary between views and controllers we have view controller. View controllers are controllers that know about the user interface in a more detailed way and know how to interpret user action according to the app logic. View controllers play a central role in iOS since they usually represent one screen each. Each view controller has an associated view that usually (but not always) fills the screen and on which the user interface for that screen is assembled.
Indeed in an usual iOS app you do not usually find pure controllers (according to these definitions), so you usually have four layers instead of three:
model
model controllers
view controllers
views
I guess that MVMCVC pattern does not sound as good as MVC.
So, let’s start creating our sample app and visualizing where these different layers are. Open Xcode and create a new project with the “Single view application” template. This template is the basis of apps with only one screen, but I always start from this template anyway and add screens when needed. We are going to make this app for the iPhone. Let’s have a look at the files we find in the project.
The two files we are interested in here are the ViewController.swift and Main.storyboard.
This is a single screen app, which means it has only one view controller at the moment. ViewController is the class that represents it. All view controllers in iOS must descend from the UIViewController.
In the Main.storyboard file we find the layout of all the screens our app has. Since our app has only one screen for now, the storyboard show only one. Scene is the name a screen of our app has in a storyboard, and thus represents one view controller. I will use these terms interchangeably in this example. This scene is empty for now.
There are two important things to know here at the moment. First, how do we know that this is the starting screen of our app? Now it is obvious, because there is only one screen, so it must be it. But a storyboard usually contains many scenes so we need to know where to start from. Look at the scene: it has an arrow on its left, pointing at it. This arrow shows that this is the initial view controller of the storyboard (and hence of our app, since there is only one storyboard). You can actually drag that arrow to another view controller when you want you app to start from another place. You can also change check the “Is Initial View Controller” checkbox in the Attributes inspector.
This scene in the storyboard represents the view attached to the view controller. The view controller itself is actually represented by the little yellow circle at the top of the scene. The important thing to know here is how this little circle in the storyboard is connected to the ViewController class in the swift file. You can specify the class of any object in a storyboard through the Identity inspector. For this view controller it is already set to the correct class because it came from the template, but for all other view controllers we will add we will have to do it ourselves.
So here we have already two of the layers that we have seen. The view layer, represented by the scene in the storyboard, and the view controller layer, represented by the ViewController class. Let’s build the other parts of the MVC pattern.
Laying out the model of the app
Model objects represent the data of our app. We want the app to display a quote on the screen, so this is the only data we need for this example. A quote has text and an author, which are both strings. We can represent this with a class.
class Quote: NSObject { let text: String let author: String init(text: String, author: String) { self.text = text self.author = author } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 class Quote : NSObject { let text : String let author : String init ( text : String , author : String ) { self . text = text self . author = author } }
Pretty straightforward (why didn’t I use a struct here instead of a class? We will see that in a minute). This is our data structure, but we need some actual data to display on the screen. I have chosen this quote from Albert Einstein:
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I am not sure about the universe.
To hold this data we have to create an instance of our Quote class. But where should we do this? Many would do it in the view controller, but hold on for a second. A view controller should only take care of moving data from the model to the user interface. It should not create the data itself. The model, on the other hand, should not be concerned of how some specific data is actually retrieved, but should only of representing it.
This data does not pop out of nowhere and it is usually retrieved from a local storage or the network. Again, this is neither a concern for the model nor it is for a view controller, so we need a specific object to take care of this. This object is a model controller. You can read more about this in my article on how to structure the code of iOS apps. Our model controller creates a new instance of the Quote class to be used by the view controller.
class ModelController { let quote = Quote(text: "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.", author: "Albert Einstein") } 1 2 3 class ModelController { let quote = Quote ( text : "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." , author : "Albert Einstein" ) }
This is a very simple example of a model controller that does not really give an idea about the separation between model and model controllers. After all, it contains only one line of code. To better show why it needs to be separated, let’s expand it. Our app will need to give the user the option of editing or replacing this quote with another quote he likes more. We want his changes to be permanent, so the next time he opens the app he will still see his new quote. Let’s add some code to the model controller to save a quote on disk.
To achieve this we are going to use the the keyed archiving functionality of iOS. The method itself is not important, so I am not going to go into the details of this. There are many ways an object could be saved on disk: keyed archiving, a property list, using an NSFileManager to create a file, Core Data, etc. I have chosen keyed archiving because it is the simplest one of all, but a more complex app could use another method.
To be archived a class needs to conform to the NSCoding protocol. This protocol requires a class to provide two methods:
an initializer to decode itself from encoded data
a method to encode itself, so that it can be saved on disk or transmitted through the network
NSCoding is a class protocol, and this is why I used a class for the quote and not a structure. Hopefully in the future this will be extended to structures too.
Encoding and decoding of an instance is pretty straightforward. What you need to do is just call the appropriate methods of the NSCoder object passed as parameter and give each property a key.
class Quote: NSObject, NSCoding { let text: String let author: String init(text: String, author: String) { self.text = text self.author = author } required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) { text = aDecoder.decodeObjectForKey(Keys.Text.rawValue) as! String author = aDecoder.decodeObjectForKey(Keys.Author.rawValue) as! String } func encodeWithCoder(aCoder: NSCoder) { aCoder.encodeObject(text, forKey: Keys.Text.rawValue) aCoder.encodeObject(author, forKey: Keys.Author.rawValue) } enum Keys: String { case Text = "text" case Author = "author" } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 class Quote : NSObject , NSCoding { let text : String let author : String init ( text : String , author : String ) { self . text = text self . author = author } required init ( coder aDecoder : NSCoder ) { text = aDecoder . decodeObjectForKey ( Keys . Text . rawValue ) as ! String author = aDecoder . decodeObjectForKey ( Keys . Author . rawValue ) as ! String } func encodeWithCoder ( aCoder : NSCoder ) { aCoder . encodeObject ( text , forKey : Keys . Text . rawValue ) aCoder . encodeObject ( author , forKey : Keys . Author . rawValue ) } enum Keys : String { case Text = "text" case Author = "author" } }
We can now change the model controller to save a quote and to retrieve it when needed. If there is no quote saved on disk yet, our model controller simply returns the default Einstein quote. We can do this in the getter and setter of the quote property.
class ModelController { let quoteFilePath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.DocumentDirectory, .UserDomainMask, true).first! + "/quote.txt" var quote: Quote { get { return NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObjectWithFile(quoteFilePath) as? Quote ?? Quote(text: "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.", author: "Albert Einstein") } set { NSKeyedArchiver.archiveRootObject(newValue, toFile: quoteFilePath) } } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 class ModelController { let quoteFilePath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains ( . DocumentDirectory , . UserDomainMask , true ) . first ! + "/quote.txt" var quote : Quote { get { return NSKeyedUnarchiver . unarchiveObjectWithFile ( quoteFilePath ) as ? Quote ? ? Quote ( text : "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." , author : "Albert Einstein" ) } set { NSKeyedArchiver . archiveRootObject ( newValue , toFile : quoteFilePath ) } } }
Hopefully this will give you a better picture of how the model and the model controllers of an app are separated in concerns. In general you can see that the Quote model class is concerned about representing the data and converting itself to and from different formats. More complex model classes might be concerned about their interaction with other model classes as well. But they are not concerned about specific data, nor they are about other concepts like saving on disk or transmitting over the network. That logic is usually contained inside model controllers.
Laying out the user interface using Auto Layout
Now that we have created the model of the app, we will go to the opposite side of the MVC pattern, the view layer, where we will create the user interface for our app. As we have seen above, the storyboard contains already a scene for the view controller in which we can assemble the user interface for the first screen of the app. We will use Auto Layout for this but this is not intended to be a complete guide to Auto Layout, since it is a quite powerful technology that can be quite complex. If you need an in-depth guide for Auto Layout, you can find one here, The point of this example is to understand how the different core concepts of iOS interact to make apps behave like we want.
First of all, let’s look at the scene in the storyboard. Why does it have a square shape? We are making an app for the iPhone, so should it not be rectangular? The reason it has this shape is that through the years iPhones have evolved to have different screen sizes and ratios. To handle this, Apple has introduced first Auto Layout, to make it easier to create dynamic interfaces that adapt to any screen size, and then size classes, to make it easier to make interfaces that change their layout depending on the screen ratio and direction. By “adapt”, in the case of Auto Layout, I mean that the interface element are moved and resized proportionally to fill the screen, while by “change”, in the case of size classes, I mean that they can completely rearrange their content and show different information based on the size and direction of the screen. The square shape of this scene in the storyboard indicates the scene works for any size class both in height and in width. This is the standard and easier case, where we want our interface to adapt to the screen but we do not want to completely change the layout.
We are not going to see size classes here, since most interfaces are designed to be the same on any screen. But using Auto Layout is a must for any interface you make nowadays. Without Auto Layout, the normal way of placing views is by giving them an absolute position and size through coordinates. This is static and does not change with the screen, so the app looks bad on some devices. With Auto Layout instead we express constraints that describe how the interface should look like on any screen. The layout engine will take those constraints and calculates the correct positions and sizes for each interface element based on the actual size of the screen they will be displayed on.
Let’s see an example that will make this much easier to understand. We want to display our quote on the screen, so we need to display both the text and the author. We want to make this interface a bit more fancy, so we will place big quotation marks at the beginning and the end of the quote text. To display static text on the screen in iOS we use a specific type of view called label. To know which standard views are available for you to use to make your user interfaces you can check Apple’s iOS views catalog.
Let’s start by placing the open quotation mark and making its font bigger to make it more visible.
We want this label to always be in the upper left corner of the screen. We have to express this description through Auto Layout constraints. This means the label needs to always have the same distance from the top and the left edges of the view. We can add these constraints from the Auto Layout Pin panel in the bottom right corner of the storyboard. Here we set the distance of the label from the top and from the left margin of the view. If you placed your label in the desired position manually when you dragged it, this panel will already contain the desired values. In this case they are both 0 because I placed the label exactly on the margins. Interface builder shows you alignment guides when you position views.
These two constraint are enough for this label. In general, you need to express four properties for each view when setting constraints:
vertical position
horizontal position
height
width
This does not mean that you have to specify four constraint for every element. Each property might be the result of one or more constraint, depending on ow complicated is your layout. It can also come from the content of the view, thus requiring no constraints. This is called intrinsic size, and Auto layout uses it together with constraints to calculate the final layout. The two constraints we placed specify the vertical and horizontal position of the label, while its height and width are automatically calculated based on the content of the label.
Now we need to place the label for the quote. To have an idea of how big a label with some text is going to be, we are going to place some Lorem ipsum text inside of it in Interface Builder.
I have placed the label where I want it to be, but it definitely does not look like the final result we want. Let’s describe with words what we want from this label. First of all, it needs to expand down based on its content, so it can always display the full quote. It also needs to always stay between the quotation marks, so it should not expand horizontally too much, or it will go out of the screen on the right. That is a quite complicated description, so it will need some layout constraint to achieve this.
Let’s start with the easy part. To make a label expand indefinitely based on its content we can set its number of lines to 0. Then we can place constraints in the same way we did for the other label to keep it always at the same distance from the top edge of the screen and from the quotation mark label on its left. Let’s also place the closed quotation mark and resize the quote label manually so that it looks approximately like the result we want to achieve.
Notice that I placed the left constraint to be from the quotation mark label and not from the left margin. This is because if we change the size of the font of the quotation marks, we want the quote label to adapt and fill the space. If we set the distance to be from the left edge, the quote text label would always stay in the same place.
Let’s now translate our description into constraints. We want the quote text to always stay in between the quotation marks, so it needs a constraint that keeps it always at the same distance from the right quotation mark. The quotation mark itself needs to always be at the same distance from the right margin, like the other one.
You will notice that the labels edges and the constraints are shown in yellow. This is how interface builder displays ambiguous constraints, which are the constraints which Auto Layout does not know to fulfil. This is because they do not express enough information to have a unique solution, so there are many different ways to satisfy them (if they are displayed in red instead, it means that some constraints are contradicting others, so they cannot all be satisfied at the same time).
Why are they yellow in this case? It is because of two reasons. First, we did not express the vertical constraints yet. Remember we have to always express the four properties listed above. We want the quote text to expand vertically, but still stay be between the quotation marks. This means that the right quotation mark needs to move up or down to adapt to the changing height of the quote label. We can do this by placing a constraint to align the bottom of the quotation mark to the bottom of the quote text label.
Even adding the vertical constraints, the yellow color does still not go away. This is because there is still a problem. This one is less evident and more subtle. It seems that we expressed all the constraints we needed, but the layout engine still cannot figure out how to place our labels. This is because in our mind we have some constraints that we think we expressed in Interface Builder, but we did not. The problem is this: the label needs to keep a fixed distance from the right quotation mark. But the label also expands horizontally to make room for its. We have a situation where the quote text label pushes from the left and the quotation mark label pushes from the right to maintain its size and be able to show the full quotation mark. Which one of the two labels should be stronger? To us it is clear that the quotation mark should be stronger and not get smaller, but to the layout engine both labels have the same importance. Thus, it cannot decide which one should give way to the other.
We can change this by making one label push stronger than the other. This is done by changing the content compression resistance priority of one of them. Now they both have a priority of 750. We can lower the priority of the text label to 749, to indicate that this one should be weaker and adapt to the size of the quotation mark label.
The constraints are now unambiguous and so they turned blue. We still have to add a small label for the author of the quote to our interface. This label should always keep the same distance from the bottom of the text label, so it can move down as the other label expands. It should also keep its distance from the right margin, to be always right aligned, regardless of the length of the author name. These are straightforward constraint, that we can place in the same way we did for all the others.
Our interface is now complete, but how do we test that it really works on any device size? One way is to run the app in the simulator for each type of iPhone, but this is tedious and takes time. It would be even more so if this screen would not be the first in the app but would only be reachable after a long series of other screens. Luckily Interface Builder has a preview in the assistant editor that allows us to see the result of the constraints we expressed.
Here you can add different iPhone screens to check how your interface behaves on all of them without having to run the app in the simulator.
To recap, we have seen how to assemble the user interface for a view controller in Interface Builder using Auto Layout. We have just scratched the surface of what Auto Layout can do, but this was not intended to be a complete guide. The important thing to understand here is how we use constraints to express the position and the size of the different elements of our interface. With a few of the constraint you can express in Interface Builder you can go a long way and make interfaces that adapt to any device screen.
Connecting the user interface to code through outlets
Now that we have both a model for our app and an interface, it is time to connect the two through the view controller. As we have seen both the model and the views should not know anything about the other layers. View controllers are responsible to make this connection between the two layers of the MVC pattern.
The first task view controllers need to carry to hold this responsibility is to make the data flow from the model to the user interface so that the user can see it. To be able to do this, a view controller needs references to the various views in the interface. At the moment our view controller has no such references. The only reference it holds is to its main view. The rest of the user interface is built in Interface Builder and contained in the storyboard, so we need a way to connect it to the view controller code.
This is done in iOS through what are called outlets. Outlets are just properties on a class, like other properties, but they are marked by the special keyword @IBOutlet that makes them visible to Interface Builder. In this way they can be connected to views in the storyboard and when the user interface is created, the system fills the outlet properties with references to the views, making it possible to access them from code. If you want to know more about this process, check the initial phases of the lifecycle of a view controller.
It is possible to write these outlets by hand and then connect them in Interface Builder, but there is a faster way. You can use the Assistant editor in Interface Builder to bring up the class for the view controller. Then you can control drag from a view in the interface to the code of the view controller. The outlet will be created with the correct declaration and connected to the view automatically.
We need an outlet for the text label and one for the author label. Having these connections we can finally fill the user interface with the data coming from the model. We do this in the viewDidLoad() method of the view controller. This is the correct place because when this method is called, we are guaranteed that all the outlets have been connected to their respective view. Before this method is called, outlets are not filled yet. Again, reference the lifecycle of a view controller to know more about this.
First of all, we need an instance of the model controller from which to get the quote. Then we can pass the quote text and author to the outlets.
class ViewController: UIViewController { @IBOutlet weak var quoteTextLabel: UILabel! @IBOutlet weak var quoteAuthorLabel: UILabel! let modelController = ModelController() override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() let quote = modelController.quote quoteTextLabel.text = quote.text quoteAuthorLabel.text = quote.author } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 class ViewController : UIViewController { @ IBOutlet weak var quoteTextLabel : UILabel ! @ IBOutlet weak var quoteAuthorLabel : UILabel ! let modelController = ModelController ( ) override func viewDidLoad ( ) { super . viewDidLoad ( ) let quote = modelController . quote quoteTextLabel . text = quote . text quoteAuthorLabel . text = quote . author } }
We have finally connected the layers of the MVC pattern to each other. Now the data flows from the model to the views through the view controller. Some tutorials show you see the view controller creating and manipulating the data to display in the user interface, but this is not what is normally done in a real app. Instead, the concerns are separated in the four layers of the MVC pattern we have seen above. In this way, the model objects and the model controllers are reusable across the app and can even be used in other apps. If you do everything in a view controller instead, that code will be hard to reuse. Your only way will be to copy and paste it. The usefulness of this approach is going to be even more evident in the next part of this example, where we will be passing this data between different view controllers.
Using a navigation controller to move between screens
We have now an app that shows our favorite quote on the screen. What we miss is a way to change this quote whenever we find a new one we like more.
To do this we need a new screen with text fields to edit the quote. A new screen means a new view controller. We can start by adding a new empty view controller scene to our storyboard, next to the one we already have.
Now, how will we move from the first screen to the second? The way to move between view controllers in iOS is to use a container view controller. A container is a special kind of view controller that manages a list of view controllers instead of managing a single screen. For this example we are going to use the most common container used on the iPhone, the navigation controller. A navigation controller enables the common right to left navigation you often see in iPhone apps, where the next view controller slides in from the right of the screen and you have a back button in the top left corner to go back to the previous view controller. I spoke more in detail about different container view controllers here.
Let’s start adding a navigation controller to the storyboard. We can place it to the left of the current initial view controller (a navigation controller comes in Interface Builder with a table view controller attached to it. We do not need that, so we can delete it). Since the navigation controller is the container that needs to manage the other two view controllers, it needs to be the initial view controller of the app. This is because, hierarchically speaking, a container needs to come on screen before the view controllers it contains, to be able to bring them on the screen when needed. You can read more about structuring an app with containers here.
After setting the navigation view controller as the initial view controller for our storyboard, we need to tell it that the view controller containing the quote is the first view controller it will have display. We can do this by control dragging from the navigation view controller to the quote view controller and selecting the “root view controller” relationship segue.
You will notice that our quote view controller gets a navigation bar at the top after making the connection to the navigation controller. Many make the mistake to think that the navigation bar is owned by the view controller and think that every view controller has its own navigation bar. This is not how it works: a navigation bar belongs to a navigation controller. Each view controller gets instead its own navigation item, which represent a state of the navigation bar and can include a title and other controls like buttons. This navigation item gets inserted in the navigation bar when the corresponding view controller is on screen.
The navigation bar in the view controller scene seems to be covering our labels, but it is just because their frames have not been updated to consider the navigation bar yet. Interface Builder takes care of this automatically. We can update the frames of the views in a view controller using the “Resolve Auto Layout Issues” panel in the lower right corner.
We now need to connect the two view controllers to each other. First of all, we need to place an edit button in the navigation bar for the quote view controller. We can drag a “Bar Button Item” from the object library to the right corner of the navigation bar and set its identifier to “edit” in the Attributes inspector. We can then control drag from this button to the next view controller to connect a “show” segue to it. This segue will be triggered when the user taps on the edit button. The next view controller will also get a navigation bar in the storyboard when we make this connection.
If you run the app, this will work already. You can navigate to the next view controller by tapping the edit button and in the next screen there will be a back button to go back to the previous screen. This is all handled by the navigation controller.
The new view controller is still blank, so let’s fill its interface. We need a text view for the quote text and a text field for the author. We can add little labels on top of these to indicate what they are for. Setting the layout constraints works the same way as we saw for the first view controller, so I am not going to go over the process again. The only difference from labels is that the text view needs to have a constraint that fixes its height. Text views do not expand when the text changes like labels do. Do not make it too long or it will go under the keyboard when it comes on screen (we could move the interface up to adjust to the keyboard, but I do not want to complicate this example too much).
We also need a button on the top right corner, in the navigation bar, to save the new quote. Tapping on the back button will be our way to cancel the editing (wether this is a good design decision can be debated, but this is just an example app). We will not be able to directly add the save button to the navigation bar, because this second view controller did not get a navigation item automatically like the first one did when we made the connection. So we first need to add a navigation item to the navigation bar for this view controller and then add the button to it. Remember that the navigation bar belongs to the navigation controller, but each view controller needs a navigation item for itself.
This is the final result:
This is the user interface of the view controller, but we still do not have any class for it. We need to create a new file for this new class (in iOS usually view controller classes are placed in their own Swift files). We can call this class EditViewController. I also renamed the ViewController class to QuoteViewController, which is a better name for it. Remember to set the class for the edit view controller in the identity inspector in the storyboard:
The edit view controller needs outlets to the text view and the text field like we did for the quote view controller. But it also needs to react to the tap on the save button. A view controller role is to connect the view layer to the model layer, so it is normal for it to know about views through outlets. Interface elements like buttons are instead meant to be generic and reusable, so the save button does not know anything about the view controller it is contained in.
Still, this button needs to communicate with the view controller to notify it of user taps. In iOS this is done through another common design pattern: the target-action pattern. In this pattern, a generic interface element like a button only needs to know a target to notify and an action to call on it when the event occurs. The action is a method that the target implements. In this way a view can still communicate with a view controller without having to know everything about it. The target and the action for a control can be set and even changed at runtime. The target can be any kind of object and the action any method that has no parameter or a single parameter through which a reference to the caller is passed. In this way a control remains generic enough to be attached to any kind of object.
We can connect actions from a button to a view controller in interface builder, in the same way we connected outlets: control dragging from the button to the view controller code. What will happen in this case though is the opposite of what happened for outlets: the button is the object that has a reference to the view controller and instead of a property in the view controller, a method will be created. The method is marked by the special keyword @IBAction, to make it visible to interface builder. Like the @IBOutlet keyword, this does nothing else. It is also possible to first type this method by hand and then connect it to the button, but control dragging is faster.
This is the code for the edit view controller.
class EditViewController: UIViewController { @IBOutlet weak var textView: UITextView! @IBOutlet weak var textField: UITextField! @IBAction func save(sender: AnyObject) { } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 class EditViewController : UIViewController { @ IBOutlet weak var textView : UITextView ! @ IBOutlet weak var textField : UITextField ! @ IBAction func save ( sender : AnyObject ) { } }
We now need to pass data between the two view controllers, so that we can edit and save the quote.
Communication between view controllers and delegation
We need to have the communication between the two view controllers go in both directions.
First we need to pass data forward to the edit view controller so it can display the current quote to be edited. At the moment the two view controllers do not know anything about each other and have no connections. The transition between the screens, both forward and backwards, is handled completely by the navigation controller, so for now the two view controllers have not needed to know about each other at all. But now they need to communicate and pass data to each other.
As I have explained in my article on how view controllers communicate, when two view controllers are connected by a segue inside of a storyboard, the only moment they have a connection is when the segue is triggered. At this moment the prepareForSegue(_:sender) method of the origin view controller gets called, and the origin view controller has a chance to get a reference to the destination view controller it can use to pass data forward.
To be able to receive data, the destination view controller needs to have a property where this data can be stored by a previous view controller. In our example, the EditViewController needs to get the quote to display.
var quote: Quote? 1 var quote : Quote ?
This property is declared as an optional because it cannot be set at the time the view controller gets initialized (to know more, read my article on the lifecycle of a view controller). Through this property we can pass the quote between the view controllers, in the prepareForSegue(_:sender) of the first view controller:
override func prepareForSegue(segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: AnyObject?) { if let editViewController = segue.destinationViewController as? EditViewController { editViewController.quote = modelController.quote } } 1 2 3 4 5 override func prepareForSegue ( segue : UIStoryboardSegue , sender : AnyObject ? ) { if let editViewController = segue . destinationViewController as ? EditViewController { editViewController . quote = modelController . quote } }
In the viewDidLoad() method of EditViewController we can populate the user interface with the quote data.
override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() textView.text = quote?.text textField.text = quote?.author } 1 2 3 4 5 override func viewDidLoad ( ) { super . viewDidLoad ( ) textView . text = quote ? . text textField . text = quote ? . author }
We now need to communicate back the data of the quote when it gets edited and the user taps on the save button. To do this, we need a delegate protocol.
Why don’t we just use a direct reference to the previous view controller? It would indeed be possible to add a new property to the EditViewController with type QuoteViewController. Though this reference the EditViewController would be able to communicate back to the previous view controller. This would indeed work, but it would create a problem. To make this work the EditViewController would need to know the type of the previous view controller. This is necessary to know which properties and methods to use. This is a very simple app and we have only two view controllers, so the problems that arise from this approach might not be evident. Let’s go over them.
The first problem would be that this two classes would become tightly coupled. The QuoteViewController knows already the interface of the EditViewController. If the EditViewController would have knowledge of the QuoteViewController too, the coupling between the classes would increase. So, when we would change the QuoteViewController code, we would have the potential to break the EditViewController.
The second problem is that In a more complex app, a view controller is likely to be reached through different paths. So the previous view controller could be of different types. If we used direct references, we would need different properties of different types, one for each view controller that could come before. This approach would require a lot more code. It would also again increase the coupling between this view controller and all the ones that could come before it.
The solution here is to use delegation. Delegation is another very common design pattern in iOS. In the delegate pattern, an object can communicate with a delegate object without knowing its type. All it needs to know is that the delegate conforms to a protocol. This limits the knowledge the delegating objects needs to have of the delegate, thus making it possible to set as a delegate any kind of object that conforms to such protocol, regardless of its type.
The delegate pattern is used to achieve many different things: passing data between objects, notifying other objects of events and even delegating certain decisions that the delegating object cannot take by itself. In this case, we are going to use it to enable backwards communication between view controllers.
First we need to define a protocol with a method to pass a new quote back. This protocol is then used as a type of a property that will contain the reference to the delegate. Through this reference we can pass the quote back in the save method of EditViewController.
protocol EditViewControllerDelegate: class { func quoteWasSaved(quote: Quote) } class EditViewController: UIViewController { @IBOutlet weak var textView: UITextView! @IBOutlet weak var textField: UITextField! var quote: Quote? weak var delegate: EditViewControllerDelegate? override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() textView.text = quote?.text textField.text = quote?.author } @IBAction func save(sender: AnyObject) { let newQuote = Quote(text: textView.text, author: textField.text!) delegate?.quoteWasSaved(newQuote) self.navigationController?.popViewControllerAnimated(true) } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 protocol EditViewControllerDelegate : class { func quoteWasSaved ( quote : Quote ) } class EditViewController : UIViewController { @ IBOutlet weak var textView : UITextView ! @ IBOutlet weak var textField : UITextField ! var quote : Quote ? weak var delegate : EditViewControllerDelegate ? override func viewDidLoad ( ) { super . viewDidLoad ( ) textView . text = quote ? . text textField . text = quote ? . author } @ IBAction func save ( sender : AnyObject ) { let newQuote = Quote ( text : textView . text , author : textField . text ! ) delegate ? . quoteWasSaved ( newQuote ) self . navigationController ? . popViewControllerAnimated ( true ) } }
Beware that in this example I called popViewControllerAnimated(_:) on the navigation controller for simplicity. Since we use storyboards, a more appropriate way to go back would be using an unwind segue.
I also did not check for empty fields. A more appropriate flow would show an error message to the user if the quote text or author were left empty.
We now have to enable the QuoteViewController to receive the new quote, by conforming to the protocol. In the protocol method, the QuoteViewController can save the new quote through its reference to the ModelController, in which we already wrote such logic. We also need to populate the delegate property of EditViewController from the QuoteViewController. We can do so again in the prepareForSegue(_:sender:) method, where data is passed forward. Do not forget to update the UI of QuoteViewController or the changes to the quote will not be visible.
class QuoteViewController: UIViewController, EditViewControllerDelegate { @IBOutlet weak var quoteTextLabel: UILabel! @IBOutlet weak var quoteAuthorLabel: UILabel! let modelController = ModelController() override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() updateUIWithQuote(modelController.quote) } override func prepareForSegue(segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: AnyObject?) { if let editViewController = segue.destinationViewController as? EditViewController { editViewController.quote = modelController.quote editViewController.delegate = self } } func quoteWasSaved(quote: Quote) { modelController.quote = quote updateUIWithQuote(quote) } func updateUIWithQuote(quote: Quote) { quoteTextLabel.text = quote.text quoteAuthorLabel.text = quote.author } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 class QuoteViewController : UIViewController , EditViewControllerDelegate { @ IBOutlet weak var quoteTextLabel : UILabel ! @ IBOutlet weak var quoteAuthorLabel : UILabel ! let modelController = ModelController ( ) override func viewDidLoad ( ) { super . viewDidLoad ( ) updateUIWithQuote ( modelController . quote ) } override func prepareForSegue ( segue : UIStoryboardSegue , sender : AnyObject ? ) { if let editViewController = segue . destinationViewController as ? EditViewController { editViewController . quote = modelController . quote editViewController . delegate = self } } func quoteWasSaved ( quote : Quote ) { modelController . quote = quote updateUIWithQuote ( quote ) } func updateUIWithQuote ( quote : Quote ) { quoteTextLabel . text = quote . text quoteAuthorLabel . text = quote . author } }
Our app is finally complete.
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NCIS is an American action police procedural television series, revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates crimes involving the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The concept and characters were initially introduced in two episodes of the CBS series JAG (season eight episodes 20 and 21: "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown"). The show, a spin-off from JAG, premiered on September 23, 2003, on CBS. To date it has aired fifteen full seasons and has gone into broadcast syndication on the USA Network. Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill are co-creators and executive producers of the premiere member of the NCIS franchise. It is the second-longest-running scripted, non-animated U.S. primetime TV series currently airing, surpassed only by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present), and is the 7th-longest-running scripted U.S. primetime TV series overall.
NCIS was originally referred to as Navy NCIS during season one; "Navy" was later dropped from the title as it was redundant (the "N" in "NCIS" stands for "Naval"). In season six, a two-part episode led to a spin-off series, NCIS: Los Angeles. A two-part episode during the eleventh season led to a second spin-off series, NCIS: New Orleans. While initially slow in the ratings, barely cracking the Top 30 in the first two seasons, the third season showed progress, consistently ranking in the top 20, and by its sixth season, it became a top five hit, having remained there since. In 2011, NCIS was voted America's favorite television show in an online Harris Poll.[3] The series finished its tenth season as the most-watched television series in the U.S. during the 2012–13 TV season.[4] On April 13, 2018, NCIS was renewed for a sixteenth season,[5] that premiered on September 25, 2018.[6] Diona Reasonover joined the main cast in Season 16,[7] following the departures of Duane Henry and Pauley Perrette.[8]
Premise [ edit ]
NCIS follows a fictional team of Naval Criminal Investigative Service Major Case Response Team (MCRT)[9] special agents based at the Washington, D.C. field office in Washington Navy Yard.[10] In real life, the field office is based at the nearby Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling[11] while the Navy Yard is home to the museum and several military commands within the Department of the Navy. It is described by the actors and producers (on special features on DVD releases in the United States) as being distinguished by its comedic elements, ensemble acting, and character-driven plots. The NCIS is the primary law enforcement and counterintelligence arm of the United States Department of the Navy, which includes the United States Marine Corps. NCIS investigates all major criminal offenses (felonies)—for example, crimes punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice by confinement of more than one year—within the Department of the Navy.[12]
Plot [ edit ]
Whenever a crime is committed involving Navy or Marine personnel, the Washington-based Major Case Response Team — an elite arm of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service — spearheads the investigation. The team, led by laconic investigator Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), has included Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander), Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), Eleanor Bishop (Emily Wickersham), Alexandra Quinn (Jennifer Esposito), and Nicholas Torres (Wilmer Valderrama). Over the course of the series, they are further assisted by allies both foreign and domestic, including Dr. Donald Mallard (David McCallum), Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), forensic specialists Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) and Kasie Hines (Diona Reasonover), British intelligence officer Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry), operational psychologist and senior special agent Dr. Jacqueline Sloane (Maria Bello), and successive NCIS Directors Jennifer Shepard (Lauren Holly) and Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll).
Cast and characters [ edit ]
Mark Harmon stars as Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
(seasons 1-16)
Production [ edit ]
The filming crew in 2009
Name [ edit ]
Prior to the launch of the first season, advertisements on CBS identified the show as "Naval CIS". By the time of the launch of the first episode, NCIS was airing under the name Navy NCIS, the name it held for the entire first season. Since the "N" in NCIS stands for "Naval", the name "Navy NCIS" was redundant. The decision to use this name was reportedly made by CBS, over the objections of Bellisario,[13] to:
Attract new viewers (particularly those of JAG ), who might not know the NCIS abbreviation
), who might not know the NCIS abbreviation Distinguish between NCIS and the similarly themed and similarly spelled CBS series CSI and its spinoffs. (The original title, for instance, was often misquoted and parodied as "Navy CSI", something the show itself referenced in the first episode.)[14]
Flair [ edit ]
From the season-two episode "Lt. Jane Doe" onwards, the series began showing two-second-long black-and-white clips. These clips are shown at the beginning of every segment depicting the last two seconds of that segment, a segment being the five or six portions of the show meant to be separated by commercials. In the season-three premiere, "Kill Ari (Part I)", a freeze-frame shot was also used with the very end of most episodes turned into a freeze frame, as well.
Crew changes [ edit ]
It was reported in May 2007 that Donald Bellisario would be stepping down from the show.[15] Due to a disagreement with series star Mark Harmon, Bellisario's duties as showrunner/head writer were to be given to long-time show collaborators, including co-executive producer Chas. Floyd Johnson and Shane Brennan, with Bellisario retaining his title as executive producer.[16] In fall 2009,[clarification needed] Gary Glasberg joined the crew and became the new "day-to-day" runner of NCIS, as Shane Brennan had to focus on his new show, the spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles.[17] On September 28, 2016, Glasberg died in his sleep at the age of 50.[18]
On April 5, 2016, long-time director Dennis Smith announced he had completed his final episode as part of the NCIS crew, though to which episode he was referring was not specified.[19]
Episodes [ edit ]
On April 13, 2018, the series was renewed for a sixteenth season which premiered on September 25, 2018.[20]
Season Episodes Originally aired Nielsen ratings[21][22] First aired Last aired Rank Rating Intro 2 April 22, 2003 ( ) April 29, 2003 ( 2003-04-29 ) N/A N/A 1 23 September 23, 2003 ( ) May 25, 2004 ( 2004-05-25 ) 23 7.8 2 23 September 28, 2004 ( ) May 24, 2005 ( 2005-05-24 ) 22 8.8 3 24 September 20, 2005 ( ) May 16, 2006 ( 2006-05-16 ) 12 9.8 4 24 September 19, 2006 ( ) May 22, 2007 ( 2007-05-22 ) 15 9.0 5 19 September 25, 2007 ( ) May 20, 2008 ( 2008-05-20 ) 11 9.2 6 25 September 23, 2008 ( ) May 19, 2009 ( 2009-05-19 ) 5 10.9 7 24 September 22, 2009 ( ) May 25, 2010 ( 2010-05-25 ) 4 11.5 8 24 September 21, 2010 ( ) May 17, 2011 ( 2011-05-17 ) 5 11.8 9 24 September 20, 2011 ( ) May 15, 2012 ( 2012-05-15 ) 2 12.3 10 24 September 25, 2012 ( ) May 14, 2013 ( 2013-05-14 ) 1 13.5 11 24 September 24, 2013 ( ) May 13, 2014 ( 2014-05-13 ) 1 12.6 12 24 September 23, 2014 ( ) May 12, 2015 ( 2015-05-12 ) 2 11.6 13 24 September 22, 2015 ( ) May 17, 2016 ( 2016-05-17 ) 1 12.8 14 24 September 20, 2016 ( ) May 16, 2017 ( 2017-05-16 ) 2 11.4 15 24 September 26, 2017 ( ) May 22, 2018 ( 2018-05-22 ) 2 10.3 16 24 September 25, 2018 ( ) TBA TBA TBA
Backdoor pilots [ edit ]
JAG [ edit ]
Two episodes of JAG season 8, "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown", serve as the back-door pilot of NCIS itself.
These JAG episodes introduced Mark Harmon as Gibbs, Michael Weatherly as Tony, Robyn Lively as Vivian Blackadder, Pauley Perrette as Abby, and David McCallum as Ducky.
Patrick Labyorteaux appears on NCIS reprising his JAG role as Lt. Bud Roberts in the first-season episode "Hung Out to Dry", and in the fourteenth-season episode "Rogue"; Alicia Coppola returned as Lt. Cmdr. Faith Coleman in "UnSEALed", "Call of Silence", and "Hometown Hero", while Adam Baldwin returned as Cmdr. Michael Rainer in "A Weak Link", and John M. Jackson appeared as retired Rear Admiral A. J. Chegwidden in the season-ten episode "Damned If You Do".
NCIS: Los Angeles [ edit ]
The two-part NCIS episode "Legend" serves as the back-door pilot of NCIS: Los Angeles.
"Legend" introduces Chris O'Donnell as G. Callen, LL Cool J as Sam Hanna, Daniela Ruah as Kensi Blye, and Barrett Foa as Eric Beale.
Rocky Carroll recurs on NCIS: Los Angeles as his NCIS character Director Leon Vance, while Pauley Perrette has appeared twice as Abby, and Michael Weatherly has appeared once as Anthony DiNozzo. NCIS guest stars reprising roles between series include David Dayan Fisher as CIA Officer Trent Kort, in the season-one finale of NCIS: Los Angeles; Kelly Hu as Lee Wuan Kai in NCIS: Los Angeles and later in an episode of NCIS.
John M. Jackson has appeared on NCIS: Los Angeles as his JAG character Admiral A. J. Chegwidden, while this series has also crossed over with Hawaii Five-0 and Scorpion.
NCIS: New Orleans [ edit ]
The two-part NCIS episode "Crescent City" serves as the back-door pilot of NCIS: New Orleans.
"Crescent City" introduces Scott Bakula as Dwayne Pride, Lucas Black as Christopher LaSalle, Zoe McLellan as Meredith Brody, and CCH Pounder as Loretta Wade.
Rocky Carroll recurs as Director Leon Vance, while NCIS series regulars Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, Sean Murray, Emily Wickersham, Wilmer Valderrama, David McCallum and Brian Dietzen have all appeared as their NCIS characters. NCIS recurring cast members Meredith Eaton, Joe Spano, Diane Neal, and Leslie Hope have all guest-starred on NCIS: New Orleans.
Release [ edit ]
Broadcast [ edit ]
NCIS airs on Network Ten and TV Hits (formerly TV1)[23] in Australia,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Global (syndicated on Showcase and Lifetime) in Canada, TV3 and The Box in New Zealand, Seriale+ (premieres), TVN (free-TV premieres), TVN7 (reruns), AXN (reruns) and TV Puls (reruns) in Poland, and Fox, CBS Action, Universal, Channel 5 and 5USA in the United Kingdom.
Home media [ edit ]
The first 11 seasons of NCIS have been released in Regions 1, 2, and 4. In Germany (Region 2), seasons 1–4 and 5–8 were released in two separate sets for each season. The first-season DVD omits the two introductory episodes from season eight of JAG, though they are featured on the JAG season-eight DVD.
Other releases [ edit ]
In 2010, CBS Interactive and GameHouse released a mobile video game, NCIS: The Game for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and BREW/J2ME. The game features five different cases written by the show's writers.[31]
On November 1, 2011, Ubisoft released a video game adaption of NCIS for the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. A Nintendo 3DS version was released on March 6, 2012. The video game was deemed as a mockery of the show by reviewers and players alike, and received a 2/10 rating on GameSpot.[32]
There's also a Facebook and mobile game called NCIS: Hidden Crimes.[33][34]
TV movies [ edit ]
In the UK, certain NCIS multi-part episodes were edited together to make a combined feature and shown on Channel 5, 5USA, CBS Action and Fox UK. These include:
Soundtrack [ edit ]
CBS Records released the show's first soundtrack on February 10, 2009.[49] The Official TV Soundtrack is a two-disc, 22-track set that includes brand new songs from top artists featured prominently in upcoming episodes of the series, as well as the show's original theme by Numeriklab[50] (available commercially for the first time) and a remix of the theme by Ministry. The set also includes songs performed by series regulars Pauley Perrette and Coté de Pablo.
A sequel to the soundtrack was released on November 3, 2009. NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack; Vol. 2 is a single-disc, 12-track set that covers songs (many previously unreleased) featured throughout the seventh season of the show, including one recording titled "Bitter and Blue" by Weatherly, as well as two songs used in previous seasons.
Reception [ edit ]
In 2016, The New York Times reported that NCIS "is most popular in rural areas", especially in rural Maine and Pennsylvania.[51]
Broadcast ratings [ edit ]
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of NCIS.
Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.
Broadcast ratings Season Episodes Timeslot (EST) Original airing Live television ratings Season premiere Season finale TV season Viewers
(in millions) Rank
(viewers) Key demographics
(18–49) 1st 23 Tuesday 8:00 PM September 23, 2003 May 25, 2004 2003–04 11.84[52] 26th N/A 2nd 23 September 28, 2004 May 24, 2005 2004–05 13.57[53] 22nd N/A 3rd 24 September 20, 2005 May 16, 2006 2005–06 15.27[54] 16th N/A 4th 24 September 19, 2006 May 22, 2007 2006–07 14.54[55] 20th N/A 5th 19 September 25, 2007 May 20, 2008 2007–08 14.41[56] 14th N/A 6th 25 September 23, 2008 May 19, 2009 2008–09 17.77[57] 5th N/A 7th 24 September 22, 2009 May 25, 2010 2009–10 19.33[58] 4th 4.1[58] 8th 24 September 21, 2010 May 17, 2011 2010–11 19.46[59] 5th 4.1[60] 9th 24 September 20, 2011 May 15, 2012 2011–12 19.49[61] 3rd 4.01[62] 10th 24 September 25, 2012 May 14, 2013 2012–13 21.34[4] 1st 4.0[4] 11th 24 September 24, 2013 May 13, 2014 2013–14 19.77[63] 3rd 3.3[64] 12th 24 September 23, 2014 May 12, 2015 2014–15 18.25[65] 3rd 2.43[66] 13th 24 September 22, 2015 May 17, 2016 2015–16 16.61[67] 3rd 2.2[68] 14th 24 September 20, 2016 May 16, 2017 2016–17 14.63[69] 3rd 15th 24 September 26, 2017 May 22, 2018 2017–18 16.71[70] 5th 16th 24 September 25, 2018 2018–19
Ever since season 7, NCIS has been the most watched scripted show on American television, but it was only in the 2012–13 season that it ranked number 1 as the most watched program of the past year, surpassing both American Idol and NBC Sunday Night Football that had ranked above it the past three seasons.
has been the most watched scripted show on American television, but it was only in the 2012–13 season that it ranked number 1 as the most watched program of the past year, surpassing both and that had ranked above it the past three seasons. On January 15, 2013, NCIS surpassed its previous series high in viewers, with the season ten episode "Shiva" attracting 22.86 million viewers.[71]
DVR [ edit ]
The show ranked number four in DVR playback (2.714 million viewers), according to Nielsen prime DVR lift data from January 5–11, 2009. [72]
The show ranked number thirteen in DVR playback (2.743 million viewers), according to Nielsen prime DVR lift data from February 9–15, 2009. [73]
The show ranked number nine in DVR playback (3.007 million viewers), according to Nielsen prime DVR lift data from April 6–12, 2009.[74]
Cable [ edit ]
The show ranked number eighteen (4.793 million viewers) in the list of Nielsen ratings top twenty most-watched cable shows for the week ending January 25, 2009. [75]
The show ranked number ten (4.535 million viewers), twelve (4.264 million viewers), thirteen (4.221 million viewers), fifteen (4,161 million viewers), seventeen (4.132 million viewers), and twenty (4.081 million viewers) in the list of Nielsen ratings top twenty most-watched cable shows for the week ending March 1, 2009. [76]
The show ranked sixteen (4.091 million viewers), seventeen (4.084 million viewers), eighteen (4.072 million viewers), and twenty (4.006 million viewers) in the list of Nielsen ratings top twenty most-watched cable shows for the week ending March 29, 2009. [77]
The show ranked number five (4.492 million viewers), six (4.467 million viewers), eight (4.394 million viewers), nine (4.214 million viewers), fifteen (3.962 million viewers), and seventeen (3.8.58 million viewers) in the list of Nielsen ratings top twenty most-watched cable shows for the week ending May 3, 2009. [78]
The show ranked number three (4.82 million viewers), six (4.38 million viewers), ten (3.82 million viewers), eleven (3.88 million viewers), and fourteen (3.87 million viewers) in the list of Nielsen ratings top fifteen most-watched cable shows for the week ending November 1, 2009.[79]
Franchise [ edit ]
NCIS has produced two spin-offs: NCIS: Los Angeles (2009–) and NCIS: New Orleans (2014–).
NCIS: Los Angeles [ edit ]
In 2009, CBS picked up an NCIS spin-off series with the title NCIS: Los Angeles,[80][81][82][83] with the backdoor pilot, "Legend", airing on April 28, 2009, and May 5, 2009.[81] The backdoor pilot introduced Chris O'Donnell as Special Agent G. Callen, LL Cool J as Special Agent Sam Hanna, Louise Lombard as Special Agent Lara Macy, Peter Cambor as Operational Psychologist Nate Getz: and Daniela Ruah as Special Agent Kensi Blye.[84] The crew for the series includes Michael B. Kaplan, Lev L. Spiro, Jerry London, Sheldon Epps, and Mark Saraceni.[85]
Following the show's official pick-up by CBS, it was confirmed that Louise Lombard had not been signed to continue her role as Special Agent Lara Macy. Linda Hunt and Adam Jamal Craig were confirmed to replace her in starring roles, playing OSP Manager Henrietta Lange and Special Agent Dom Vail respectively. Craig, who left the series in episode 21 of season 1, was replaced by Eric Christian Olsen playing Marty Deeks.[86]
Characters from NCIS have appeared in the spin-off. Rocky Carroll portrayed Leon Vance in a recurring role,[87][88] while Pauley Perrette portrayed Abby Sciuto and appeared in the season 1 episodes "Killshot"[87] and "Random on Purpose".[88]
NCIS: Los Angeles was created by Shane Brennan. In April 2011, NCIS creator Donald Bellisario sued CBS over NCIS: Los Angeles because of his contract which gave him "first opportunity" to develop a spin-off or sequel,[89] the lawsuit was dismissed by a judge in June 2012.[90] However, discussions continued between CBS and Bellisario and in January 2013 the dispute was settled outside of court a week before it was set to go to trial; the terms of the agreement were not disclosed but were described as being amicable.[91][92][93]
NCIS: New Orleans [ edit ]
In September 2013 CBS announced a planned second spin-off series set in New Orleans that would be introduced via a planted two-part backdoor pilot NCIS episode. The episodes were filmed in February 2014 and aired on March 25, 2014, and April 1, 2014. NCIS star Mark Harmon and showrunner Gary Glasberg are the executive producers, and CBS Studios produces the series.[94] "Crescent City", the two-part backdoor-pilot episode was initially "supposed to be just an idea for an episode". Glasberg discussed the idea of the episode with Harmon, who said "That's more than a[n] [...] episode".[95] The premise for the episodes are, according to Glasberg, "all about this tiny little NCIS office that's down [in New Orleans], and the kind of cases that they come across".[96]
The series stars Scott Bakula as Special Agent Dwayne Cassius Pride, Lucas Black as Special Agent Christopher LaSalle, Zoe McLellan as Special Agent Meredith "Merri" Brody, Rob Kerkovich as Sebastian Lund, and CCH Pounder as Dr. Loretta Wade.[97][98][99] Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, Shalita Grant and Vanessa Ferlito joined the main cast later, portraying computer specialist Patton Plame, Special Agent Sonja Percy, and Special Agent Tammy Gregorio, respectively.
On May 9, 2014, NCIS: New Orleans was picked up by CBS[100] and was renewed for a second season on January 12, 2015.[101]
NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans have had two crossovers.
"Sister City"—Abby's brother is suspected of poisoning the passengers and crew of a private plane flying from New Orleans to Washington, D.C.
"Pandora's Box"—A theoretical terror playbook is stolen and put up for auction on the black market when Abby's homeland security think tank is compromised.
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
NCIS has received many awards and nominations since it premiered on September 23, 2003, including the ALMA Awards, ASCAP Awards, BMI Film & TV Awards, Emmy Awards, and People's Choice Awards.
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Chinese rover has found evidences of a new type of volcanic rocks in one of the dark basins on moon’s surface.
After some 40 years since Apollo and Luna missions, Chinese Chang'e-3 is the first to touch down the northern part of Imbrium basin in December 2013, which is the most prominent, lave-filled mare on moon and is visible even from the Earth as well.
The region is of great scientific value due to its lava variations. Chang'e-3 landed on a comparatively young lava flow and collected rock and soil samples through lunar rover Yutu and compared it with compositional information detected by orbiting satellites.
“Our analysis indicates that this young lunar mare region has unique compositional characteristics, and represents a new type of mare basalt that has not been sampled by previous Apollo and Luna missions and lunar meteorite collections.” Authors wrote in the research.
Chang’e-3 lander sheds new light into the evolution of the closest neighbor and reveals diverse moon than one than the one emerged from previous studies as samples were obtained from a fresh crater, which was initially called Purple Palace and is now officially named Zi Wei.
"The diversity tells us that the Moon's upper mantle is much less uniform in composition than Earth's," said Bradley Jolliff, professor from Washington University who helped analyze Chang'e-3 mission data. "And correlating chemistry with age, we can see how the Moon's volcanism changed over time."
Moon is thought to have formed when Earth collided with a Mars-sized object. Moon cooled off but volcanic activity continues to occur in its vast area.
The American Apollo (1969-1972) and Russian Luna (1970-1976) missions sampled igneous rocks from the period of peak volcanism that occurred between 3 and 4 billion years ago while the Imbrium basin from where Chang'e-3 collected samples, contains some of the younger flows - 3 billion years old or slightly less.
The basalts returned by Apollo and Luna missions had either high titanium content or very low titanium but not the intermediate value. But basalts collected by Chang’e-3 have intermediate titanium, high levels of calcium oxide and iron. Titanium is especially important element in mapping and understanding volcanism on the Moon.
Nevertheless, new basaltic rocks are different from what have been observed in previous mission to moon almost four decades ago
“We recognize a new type of lunar basalt with a distinctive mineral assemblage compared with the samples from Apollo and Luna, and the lunar meteorites. The chemical and mineralogical information of the CE-3 landing site provides new ground truth for some of the youngest volcanism on the Moon.” Study concludes.
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This .22 caliber Bernardelli pistol was found Monday in the carry-on luggage of a Florida-bound passenger at Burlington International airport. (Photo: COURTESY TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION )
A Florida-bound traveler was cleared for takeoff Monday at Burlington International Airport — but without the handgun he said he mistakenly left in a carry-on bag, according to security and law enforcement officials.
Police filed no charges after the incident.
But the 46-year-old man faces a fine of up to $3,000 for violating air-travel regulations, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Michael S. McCarthy told the Free Press on Tuesday.
Security check-point workers detained the man and alerted police after they found an unloaded .22 caliber Bernardelli pistol in his carry-on luggage, McCarthy said.
The officers who interviewed the traveler "found all indications to suggest that this was a good citizen who made a stupid mistake," Burlington Police Deputy Chief Bruce Bovat said.
The Chittenden County resident, "a mild-mannered guy," told police that he inadvertently left the weapon in a duffel he normally takes on weekend excursions to rural areas, Bovat added.
The man, whom neither Bovat nor McCarthy would identify, caught his flight to Orlando.
He can reclaim his handgun when he next sets foot in Vermont, Bovat said.
The incident was the first of its kind at the South Burlington-based airport for this calendar year, according to a TSA news statement.
An initial disclosure of the event by the agency included guidelines for the transportation of guns:
• "Firearms are prohibited in carry-on bags, but can be transported in checked bags if they are unloaded, properly packed and declared to the airline.
• "Every time TSA discovers a firearm in a bag at the checkpoint it delays the screening process for all travelers at the checkpoint.
• "Individuals who bring firearms to security checkpoints are referred to law enforcement and are subject to criminal penalties. TSA has the ability to impose a civil penalty. Fines can range from $1,500 up to $11,000 for a single civil penalty for firearms brought to a security checkpoint."
So far this year, the agency detected more than 1,000 firearms at checkpoints around the country, the release added.
Contact Joel Banner Baird at 660-1843 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/vtgoingup.
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Milagro Alvarez holds her 5-month-old daughter, Annabeth, as she waits in line inside a Farmatodo pharmacy in hopes of buying more disposable diapers in downtown Caracas, Venezuela. The store refused to sell her diapers because of a government rationing system that allows her to buy only two packages of 20 diapers per week. (Ariana Cubillos/AP)
The sprawling street market that radiates outward from the metro station in Petare, Caracas’s largest slum, is the retail equivalent of an anti-Target.
There’s no organization to it. Tube socks and school supplies are sold beside giant pyramids of pineapple and piled yucca. Leopard-print hot pants stretch over mannequin buttocks next to the stinky stalls of fishmongers.
The bazaar was known until this month as one of the city’s biggest open-air black markets, the place to find all the scarce items that shoppers must queue up for hours to get in supermarkets, or can’t find at all. Earlier this year, toilet paper and cornmeal were scarce; lately it’s diapers and deodorant that have “gotten lost,” as Venezuelans say.
Authorities mostly turned a blind eye to the informal commerce, but late last month Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro went on TV to decree a ban on street sales of coffee, eggs, shampoo and some 50 other “regulated” items whose prices are capped by the government. He ordered the National Guard to police market stalls for such items as mayonnaise and powdered milk, and threatened to prosecute recidivist violators.
The crackdown is tricky for Maduro. In Petare and elsewhere, it risks alienating some of the poor Venezuelans who had long been loyal to Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, but are increasingly unhappy with his understudy.
People wait in line to enter a small market to try to buy hard-to-find items such as disposable diapers, laundry detergent and razors in downtown Caracas, Venezuela. (Ariana Cubillos/AP)
“Maduro ya se maduró ,” quipped vendor Maribel Nieble, with a play on the president’s last name that meant “Maduro has turned rotten.”
She had a sorry-looking pile of bananas on her stand, but it was really just a facade. Hidden underneath in a dirty fruit crate were several illicit bottles of Downy-brand laundry detergent and cooking oil. When a bus pulled up and Nieble didn’t see any troops, she quickly set out her wares, concealing them again once the crowds thinned.
“I feel like a drug dealer,” she said.
In stores, the detergent’s price was capped at the equivalent of about 60 cents, if using the government’s highest official exchange rate of 50 bolivars per dollar. Nieble was selling her Downy for twice that.
“I have six kids and two grandchildren,” she said. “I’m just trying to survive.”
Maduro says this standard type of markup is tantamount to “theft.” He blames Venezuela’s scarcities and soaring inflation on an “economic war” waged by business owners, shopkeepers and others allegedly trying to undermine Venezuela’s socialist government by hoarding, price-gouging and sneaking goods across the border for sale in Colombia.
“These right-wing contraband groups are still at work, with their anti-national and parasitic spirit, riding on the backs of the people and sucking their blood,” Maduro said Tuesday, assuring TV viewers that the government “had neutralized the perverse effects of the economic war” in 2014.
In recent months, Maduro’s Twitter feed has been a rotating gallery of seizure photos showing contraband captured along the border. The foodstuffs, which are worth far more on the Colombia side, are often arranged in the style of a narcotics bust, even though the sacks are filled with flour and sugar. One photo last week showed a pickup truck jammed with so much beef that the meat was practically falling out onto the highway.
This oil-rich country has the world’s largest petroleum reserves but also one of its highest inflation rates, at 63 percent, and shoppers have long been accustomed to store shelves stocked with imported goods. But with hard currency scarce, oil prices falling and the government more dependent on crude exports than ever, a kind of consumer psychosis has set in here.
The supermarket lines can make camping out for an iPhone look like a breeze. Outside one holiday appliance sale in Caracas last week, some shoppers said they had been waiting for two days.
Well-to-do Venezuelans shield themselves from inflation by putting their money in U.S. dollars in accounts abroad, but the poor have turned to trading in items such as cooking oil, shaving cream and hair conditioner, the stuff that often gets “lost.”
The government now requires shoppers to give their names and identification card numbers to cashiers in the checkout aisle, and Maduro has ordered the installation of fingerprint scanners to make sure Venezuelans don’t exceed their purchase limits.
Making matters worse is an endemic culture of corruption that puts an additional squeeze on the few remaining forms of local industry and legitimate commerce.
Pedro Zambrano, a trucker, said he delivers 6,000 pounds of cheese every week to the capital from his home state of Tachira, along the border with Colombia. About half of his would-be profits are eaten up by bribes to inspectors and police along the highways, he said. “All that’s left over goes toward keeping my truck on the road and my kids fed.”
Zambrano had come to Petare for a few bottles of cooking oil, which he said cost nearly twice as much along the border. He said Maduro’s complaints about contraband are legitimate, but he scoffed at the claim that the government is trying to stop it.
“Until they fix the corruption in the National Guard, nothing will change,” he said.
Zambrano said Venezuela’s problems would be fixed when supermarket supplies met consumer demand, but not through escalating enforcement.
Those who were taking Maduro at his word in the Petare market already seemed to be paying the price. The president’s decree had prompted Carmen Velasquez to stop illegally selling cooking oil and cornmeal, but no one was buying the tomatoes and cucumbers she was trying to sell instead. Her produce was spoiling in the hot sun.
“I’ve already had to throw away one crate, and now the rest of it is going bad,” Velasquez said. “I’m 73 years old. Where else am I going to find a job? How will I eat?”
The more-canny vendors, like Nieble, the Downey dealer, weren’t waiting to find out.
Nieble had a partner waiting in line at a supermarket a few metro stops away, and they were in touch by cellphone. A new truckload of laundry soap had arrived, and the limit was four bags per person. Her friend would hold a place for her.
Nieble didn’t appear to be in any hurry to get there.
“There are still 40 people ahead of us in line,” she said.
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BEVO BEAT An Aggie comes to Austin, gives Tom Herman some love, predicts a game with Texas Posted June 16th, 2017
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Story highlights Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said he's worked with Tom Herman before
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said he's worked with Tom Herman before Both of them were head coaches of the Houston Cougars
Both of them were head coaches of the Houston Cougars They're also going head-to-head for many recruits
Coach Kevin Sumlin stepped behind the “orange curtain” Thursday night to tout his Texas A&M football team and help Aggie alums raise money for scholarships.
Sumlin, in his sixth year as the Aggies’ head coach, was the featured draw at the annual Coaches Night sponsored by the Capital City A&M Club held at the H.E.B. Center.
And although Sumlin is fighting mightily with Tom Herman for the top recruits in Texas, he’s expecting success for the new Longhorns coach. After all, former Houston Cougar head coaches stick together.
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“Tom and I did satellite camps last year,” Sumlin said. “Obviously, we didn’t do them this year. We have a lot of things in common and we’ve known each other for a long time.
RELATED: Coach turns in LSU’s Orgeron to NCAA for canceling summer camp involving Longhorns
“He was at Rice and (Owls coach) David Bailiff is a really good friend. … Obviously being at the University of Houston, there’s some insight there. So I’ve known a Tom a long time. He’s very talented. He’s done a great job where ever he’s been. I don’t think that’s going to be any different.”
Sumlin also was asked the obligatory questions about whether the Aggies and Longhorns ever will play again in football. The two rivals haven’t played a football game since 2011. Then A&M left for the SEC.
“Me, personally? I think over the course of time that’s going to happen,” Sumlin said. “With our move to the SEC scheduling has become a real issue.”
A&M finishes a home-and-home series with UCLA this season, then has Clemson, Colorado and Notre Dame as marquee non-conference opponents. The Aggies, like other SEC schools, play four non-conference games, including one in November. Texas, and other Big 12 teams, play three non-conference games.
Kevin Sumlin is "behind orange curtain." It's coach's night in ATX. pic.twitter.com/0JeV9zmZYu — Suzanne Halliburton (@suzhalliburton) June 15, 2017
News on Bevo Beat is free and unlimited. Access to the rest of Hookem.com is included with an Austin American-Statesman subscription in addition to Statesman.com and the ePaper edition. Subscribe today at statesman.com/subscribe.
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When Canada's top female hockey players hit the ice on Saturday at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto Furies' player Carlee Campbell will be among them.
Campbell, who plays defence for the Furies, says she is "so excited" to play in the Canadian Women's Hockey League All-Star Game this weekend.
The game will include the best professional female hockey players from each of the CWHL's five teams — Boston Blades, Brampton Thunder, Calgary Inferno, Les Canadiennes de Montreal and the Toronto Furies. Admission is only $10 and the puck drops at 1:30 p.m.
"It's amazing. Women's hockey has been part of my life since I was 5 or 6 years old. For me personally, the opportunity to play in front of that many fans at the Air Canada Centre, it's out of control in my own mind," Campbell told Metro Morning this week.
"For it to be in my hometown at this point is even that much sweeter."
It's also sweet because Campbell has been off the ice competitively for six years.
In that time, Campbell established a career outside the realm of hockey — a world in which the top female players in the league don't actually get paid.
Carlee Campbell says it's 'so exciting' to play in an all-star game in the city that has become her hometown. (CBC)
The CWHL is to women what the NHL is to men, but while male players get paid big bucks, women at the same level don't collect a paycheque, unless they're on the Canadian women's national ice hockey team and receive a government stipend.
"I'll be honest, it is frustrating," Campbell told CBC Toronto in a later interview.
"In terms of women's hockey developing as a professional career, I know it's on its way. I just wasn't born at the time where I'd be fortunate enough to reap off those benefits.
(CBC) "For me right now, of course, it's frustrating because you spend your entire life dedicating yourself to one sport and then all of a sudden when you're 21, 22, you're kind of expected to give up a part of you," she added.
"The unfortunate fact is that, once you're done with that, you really can't spend any more of your time on that sport, unless you're fortunate enough to make the national team or the Olympic team, which is great for those girls.
"But for the rest of us, we have to give up a part of us in terms of being a player. For us to give that up because unfortunately we can't make a living off the sport is really unfortunate."
Campbell said an estimated 40,000 girls in Ontario play hockey. Women's hockey, she said, is growing in popularity.
She said fans will see a different kind of hockey on Saturday.
"Give it a chance, come out and watch the game, and come and appreciate the different things the women's game has over the men's game. There might not be fighting, there might not be open ice hits, but there's another level of aggressiveness and another level of athleticism," she said.
(CBC) "Don't compare it to the men's game because, frankly, it's not the same game."
Brenda Andress, commissioner for the CWHL, said the league hopes to change the fact that women who play professionally don't get paid.
She said the league is professional but it's simply not as well known as the NHL. Because there is not the exposure, there are not the sponsors. But she said sponsors will go where the fans are.
"It's run professionally, they're treated professionally, but they're not paid and we just haven't been able to get there yet. It's our plan. But right now it's about engaging our sponsors, our fans to support women," she said.
"For us, it's about getting the fans to stand up and say, I'm going to pay dollars for a ticket to watch the game."
Funds from ticket sales for the game will go back to the CWHL to support the growth of the game of women's professional hockey.
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A small bakery that hasn’t even been open for a year is already having to spend thousands of dollars to change its name after General Mills took issue with the shop’s use of the term “doughboy.”
Two weeks after Doughboy’s Bake Shoppe — named after the nickname for the father of one of the owners — opened in January, the owners received a cease-and-desist letter from the food giant, reports the Albuquerque Journal.
Pillsbury did not create the term “doughboy.” Long before the baked goods brand launched the character on TV ads in 1965, it was used as a nickname for American soldiers during World War I, and using the term “dough boy” for a baker’s apprentice goes back more than 150 years.
However, Pillsbury trademarked the term and its giggly anthropomorphic embodiment; a trademark that was transferred to General Mills when it purchased Pillsbury in 2001. Which brings us back to the cease-and-desist letter sent to Doughboy’s.
The bakery’s owners say they felt “bullied” by the packaged food giant during the back-and-forth communications with the company.
“The first reaction is to throw a fit, but what can you do against a corporation like that?” one of the owners told the Journal.
Because she couldn’t afford a lawyer for her fledgling business, she applied for a trademark — which was denied.
“So we decided to take the friendly route,” she explained: Doughboy’s is now working with General Mills to make a few changes, including removing and replacing all signage, merchandise, and boxes — at an expense of about $10,000, the owners say.
The future name of the shop hasn’t been decided yet, however, there are some ideas. The bakery is also going to hold a naming contest.
“But now we are super paranoid,” the owner told the Journal. “We want it to be good, but it has to be super original. One name I like, but my husband is not super fond of it, is Albu-Cakery.”
The Journal notes that General Mills has gone after doughy names in the past: My Dough Girl, a Salt Lake City bakery, received a cease-and-desist letter in 2016 as well. That business also gave in to General Mills rather than go through an expensive court case.
“We worked closely with the bakery owners to reach a mutually acceptable agreement to resolve the misuse of our trademark, which we have owned for more than 50 years,” a General Mills spokesman said in a statement to Consumerist. “We support thousands of small businesses with our products and wish them the best of luck with their bakery.”
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The Academy Award nominees blame "leading politicians" for the fear that is creating "divisive walls."
Speaking as a group, the six directors whose films have been nominated for the best foreign-language film Oscar have issued a statement condemning "the climate of fanaticism and nationalism we see today in the U.S. and in so many other countries, in parts of the population and, most unfortunately of all, among leading politicians.”
The group includes Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director of The Salesman, who in the wake of President Trump’s executive order attempting to enforce a travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries, said he would boycott Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony in protest.
The collective statement was signed by Farhadi along with Martin Zandvliet, director of Denmark’s Land of Mine; Hannes Holm, director of Sweden’s A Man Called Ove; Maren Ade, director of Germany’s Toni Erdmann; and Martin Butler and Bentley Dean, directors of Australia’s Tanna.
The statement went on to say, “The fear generated by dividing us into genders, colors, religions and sexualities as a means to justify violence destroys the things that we depend on — not only as artists but as humans: the diversity of cultures, the chance to be enriched by something seemingly "foreign" and the belief that human encounters can change us for the better. These divisive walls prevent people from experiencing something simple but fundamental: from discovering that we are all not so different.”
While the group will be competing among themselves for the Oscar, which will be awarded Sunday, they also said that regardless of who wins, “We believe there is no best country, best gender, best religion or best color. We want this award to stand as a symbol of unity between nations and the freedom of the arts.
Their complete statement follows:
On behalf of all nominees, we would like to express our unanimous and emphatic disapproval of the climate of fanaticism and nationalism we see today in the U.S. and in so many other countries, in parts of the population and, most unfortunately of all, among leading politicians.
The fear generated by dividing us into genders, colors, religions and sexualities as a means to justify violence destroys the things that we depend on — not only as artists but as humans: the diversity of cultures, the chance to be enriched by something seemingly "foreign" and the belief that human encounters can change us for the better. These divisive walls prevent people from experiencing something simple but fundamental: from discovering that we are all not so different.
So we’ve asked ourselves: What can cinema do? Although we don`t want to overestimate the power of movies, we do believe that no other medium can offer such deep insight into other people’s circumstances and transform feelings of unfamiliarity into curiosity, empathy and compassion — even for those we have been told are our enemies.
Regardless of who wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on Sunday, we refuse to think in terms of borders. We believe there is no best country, best gender, best religion or best color. We want this award to stand as a symbol of the unity between nations and the freedom of the arts.
Human rights are not something you have to apply for. They simply exist — for everybody. For this reason, we dedicate this award to all the people, artists, journalists and activists who are working to foster unity and understanding, and who uphold freedom of expression and human dignity — values whose protection is now more important than ever. By dedicating the Oscar to them, we wish to express to them our deep respect and solidarity.
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"Some have suggested that it is stories that most distinguish us from animals, and even that our species be called Homo narrans (Fisher 1984) or Homo narrator (Gould 1994) or Homo narrativus (Ferrand and Weil 2001) depending on whose Latin we use. Might this be a more accurate description than Homo sapiens, i.e., wise man? Or might we say "narrative is intelligence" (Lo, 2007), with all of its limitations? It is more flattering to think of ourselves as Homo sapiens, but not necessarily more accurate."
Let us consider as an example the narrative epidemic associated with the Laffer curve, a diagram created by economist Arthur Laffer ... The story of the Laffer curve did not go viral in 1974, the reputed date when Laffer first introduced it. Its contagion is explained by a literary innovation that was first published in a 1978 article in National Affairs by Jude Wanniski, an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal. Wanniski wrote the colorful story about Laffer sharing a steak dinner at the Two Continents [restaurant] in Washington D.C. in 1974 with top White House powers Dick Cheney [at the time, a Deputy Assistant to President Ford, later to be Vice President] and Donald Rumsfeld (at the time Chief of Staff to President Ford, later to be Secretary of Defense]. Laffer drew his curve on a napkin at the restaurant table. When news about the "curve drawn on a napkin" came out, with Wanniski's help, the story surprisingly went viral, so much that it is now commemorated. A napkin with the Laffer curve can be seen at the National Museum of American History ...
Why did this story go viral? Laffer himself said after the Wanniski story exploded that he himself could not remember the event, which had taken place four years earlier. But Wanniski was a journalist who sensed that he had the elements of a good story. The key idea as Wanniski presented it is, indeed, punchy: At a zero-percent tax rate, the government collects no revenue. At a 100% tax rate the government would also collect no revenue, because people will not work if all the income is taken. Between the two extremes, the curve, relating tax revenue to tax rate, must have an inverted U shape. ...
Here is a notion of economic efficiency easy enough for anyone to understand. Wanniski suggested, without any data, that we are on the inefficient side of the Laffer curve. Laffer's genius was in narratives, not data collection. The drawing of the Laffer curve seems to suggest that cutting tax rates would produce a huge windfall in national income. To most quantitatively-inclined people unfamiliar with economics, this explanation of economic inefficiency was a striking concept, contagious enough to go viral, even though economists, even though economists protested that we are not actually on the inefficient side of the Laffer Curve (Mirowski 1982). It is apparently impossible to capture why it is doubtful that we are on the inefficient side of the Laffer curve in so punch a manner that it has the ability to stifle the epidemic. Years later Laffer did refer broadly to the apparent effects of historic tax cuts (Laffer 2004); but in 1978 the narrative dominated. To tell the story really well one must set the scene at the fancy restaurant, with powerful Washington people and the napkin.
"As to Wanniski’s recollection of the story, Dr. Laffer has said that he cannot remember the details, but he does recall that the restaurant where they ate used cloth napkins and his mother had taught him not to desecrate nice things. He notes, however, that it could well be true because he used the so-called Laffer Curve all the time in classroom lectures and to anyone else who would listen."
It was late afternoon, sort of the-end-of-the-day kind of thing. As I recall, it was a round table. I remember a white tablecloth and white linen napkins because that’s what [Laffer] drew the curve on. It was just one of those events that stuck in my mind, because it’s not every day you see somebody whip out a Sharpie and mark up the cloth napkin at the dinner table. I remember it well, because I can’t recall anybody else drawing on a cloth napkin.
Robert Shiller delivered the Presidential Address for the American Economic Association on the subject of "Narrative Economics" in Chicago on January 7, 2017. A preliminary version of the underlying paper, together with slides from the presentation, is available here Shiller's broad point was that the key distinguishing trait of human beings may be that we organize what we know in the form of stories. He argues:Shiller goes on to make a case that narratives play a role in economic activity: for example, the way people act during the steep recession of 1920-21 and the Great Depression, as well as in the Great Recession and the most recent election. To me, one of his themes is that economist should seek to bring the narratives of these times that economic actors were telling themselves into their actual analysis by applying epidemiology models to examine actual spread of narratives, rather than bewailing narratives as a sort of unfair complication for the purity of our economic models.Near the start, Shiller offers the Laffer Curve as an example of a narrative that had some lasting force. For those not familiar with the story, here's how Shiller tells it (footnotes omitted):Here an image of what mus be one of history's best-known napkins from the National Museum of American History , which reports that the exhibit was "made" on September 14, 1974, and measures 38.1 cm x 38.1 cm x .3175 cm, and was a gift from Patricia Koyce Wanniski:Did Laffer really pull out a pen and start writing on a cloth napkin at a fancy restaurant, so that Jude Wanniski could take the napkin away with him? The website of the Laffer Center at the Pacific Research Institute describes it this way:In the mid-1980s, when I was working as an editorial writer for thein California, I interviewed Laffer when he was running for a US Senate seat. He was energy personified and talked a blue streak, and I can easily imagine him writing on cloth napkins in a restaurant. When remembering the event 40 years later in 2014, Dick Cheney said:The point of Shiller's talk is that while adiscussion of the empirical evidence behind the Laffer curve can be interesting in its own way, understanding the political and cultural impulse behind tax-cutting from the late 1970s up to the present requires genuine intellectual opennees to aexplanation--that is, an understanding of what narratives have force at certain times, how such narratives come into being, why the narratives are powerful, and how the narratives affect various forms of economic behavior.My own sense is thatcan be a slippery character in drawing conclusions.likes to protest that all conclusions come from a dispassionate consideration of the evidence. But again and again, you will observe that when a certainagrees with the main thrust of a certain narrative, the supposedly dispassionate consideration of evidence involves compiling every factoid and theory in support, as well as denigrating those who believe otherwise as liars and fools; conversely, when a different homo sapiens disagrees with the main thrust of certain narrative, the supposedly dispassionate consideration of the evidence involves compiling every factoid and theory in opposition, and again denigrating those who believe otherwise as liars and fools.often brandishes facts and theories as a nearly transparent cover for thewithin.
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Adblock Plus is by far the most popular adblocker available for the Firefox web browser. If you check stats on Mozilla's website you will notice that it has almost ten times the users as second placed NoScript Security Suite (21.4 million to 2.2 million).
Add-ons for Adblock Plus are more popular than any other adblocking extension for Firefox including Adblock Edge or uBlock.
Adblock Edge, a fork of Adblock Plus, works just like Adblock Plus in most regards but with the notable exception that it does not ship with an acceptable list of sites and advertisers.
The acceptable ads feature is enabled by default but can be disabled in the program preferences. The makers of the extension have been criticized for it ever since it was introduced by them as some companies pay for inclusion on the list.
While that is the case, their ads still have to adhere to the acceptable ads policy.
Adblock Edge was designed to do away with acceptable ads without sacrificing any other feature of Adblock Plus.
If you visit the Adblock Edge website on Mozilla right now, you will notice an announcement on it that the extension will be discontinued in June 2015.
You find the reason for the decision in the description:
Discontinued in favor of uBlock, a general purpose blocker, that not only outperforms Adblock Edge but is also available on other browsers and, of course, without "Acceptable Ads Whitelist".
It is unclear what discontinued means at this point in time as it is not explained on the page. The author could abandon the add-on or pull it from Mozilla's add-on repository.
It is unclear if the decision was at least partially impacted by Mozilla's decision to require add-ons to be signed.
The author of Adblock Edge recommends that users switch to uBlock, a popular up and coming adblocking extension that is not only available for Firefox but also other browsers such as Google Chrome.
The recommended extension is not without issues as well on the other hand. Gorhill, its creator recently left the project only to create a new fork of it. For Firefox users, it is easy enough however as there is only one uBlock extension available for the browser at the time of writing. Until that changes, it should be the one used by users of the web browser.
As far as Adblock Edge is concerned, it is unlikely that the discontinuation affects existing users of the extension immediately. In the long run however, it is recommended to switch to another add-on for the purpose as it won't receive updates anymore after June 2015.
Now You: Which adblocking extension are you using?
Summary Article Name Popular Adblock Plus fork Adblock Edge to be discontinued Description The popular ad-blocking extension Adblock Plus will be discontinued in June 2015. Find out why and what you can use instead. Author Martin Brinkmann
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Hillary Clinton issued a lot of claims about her “experience”, her ability to “hit the ground running” on “day one”, even at 3 a.m. if necessary. So, let me take a look at experience, more specifically, her claim that her role was instrumental to the Northern Ireland Peace process.
However, she had to go back until 1995 to find footage for a campaign video of her in Ireland that showed her in any official capacity. Look as much as I wanted, I couldn’t find anything more recent either. The transcript of her 1995 speech, however, showed that the words heard in the video were not part of a major speech, but the only 30 seconds or so of her own words, in what actually was the reading of children’s letters.
In the chronology of the peace process listed here, you cannot find a single mention of Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton is mentioned, of course. He did indeed play an important role in the process.
Moreover, the real hot phase was in 1998 only and the Clintons visited Northern Ireland in September, it was their second visit. This visit came during a critical phase in the peace process when the IRA was incooperative in the decomission, and here you can find mention of Hillary Clinton in the President’s speech on September 3, 1998:
Hillary had a wonderful day yesterday at your Vital Voices conference. And as she said, we are pledged to follow up on the partnerships established there.
You can find more on the Vital Voices conference here. The meeting Bill Clinton was talking about saw some 400 women attending and was surely very valuable in laying the basis for a more peaceful society in Northern Ireland, but hardly instrumental in the peace process. The groundwork for that had been laid in the May 22, 1998 referendum on the Good Friday Agreement, some four months earlier.
Hillary Clinton was not mentioned by name or in her capacity as a First Lady in any of the other speeches that day, except when the speaker greeted her and the President.
The British Press, first and foremost The Telegraph was having a field day with Senator Clinton’s claims at being instrumental in bringing about peace in Northern Ireland. Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey (David Trimble), who was himself very much involved in the negotiations as a former Northern Ireland First Minister and winner of the Nobel peace prize, called her claims “a wee bit silly”. He stated:
“I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around,” he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely “the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets” during elections. “She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player.”
The perception of the role Bill Clinton played, seems to diminish the closer you get to Northern Ireland and Hillary Clintons role along with it. Toby Harnden of The Telegraph provides the links to support this claim in his aforementioned article, here. You can find an opposing statement by Republican Congressman Peter King there, too.
On the whole I ‘d rather think it was the Irish parties, who stubbornly brought about peace. Helped and supported, maybe even a bit blackmailed into it, by the UK and US administrations. But instrumental in bringing peace were the Irish themselves.
As for Hillary Clinton’s claims. Her role is not corroborated by official documents, her schedules as a First Lady nor press websites available to me. Neither her, nor Bill Clinton’s, nor any other memoirs are mentioning such a prominent role either. But maybe there is really more to her claim of experience. By releasing her phone records and her private schedules as a First Lady, Senator Clinton could do something to help her claim along. Her actions must have left documentary footprints somewhere.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is expected to radically overhaul agricultural policy after it leaves the European Union and the bloc may have to make changes too when it loses Britain’s net contributions to the region’s farming budget.
EU and Union flags fly above Parliament Square during a Unite for Europe march, in central London, Britain March 25, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
For the first time in decades, farmers in Britain will have to fight for a slice of government funds with departments such as health and education once Brussels hands over the purse strings for farming budgets to London.
Britain’s exit also spells trouble for EU farmers as the country puts more into the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) than it takes out, meaning subsides for farmers on the continent could also fall unless the funding gap is plugged.
READ MORE: After Brexit, EU bets on risk, green finance to relaunch capital plan
British farmers have been shielded by a powerful farming lobby within Europe and benefit from EU subsidies, preferential trade deals and access to cheap seasonal labor, but they fear they will be losers on all three fronts in a post-Brexit world.
“The bloody-mindedness of the French or the Irish in standing up for agriculture was not just standing up for their farmers but actually brought a good deal for us as well. Without them we are more vulnerable,” said Nigel Miller, who has a sheep and cattle farm near Galashiels in Scotland’s Borders region.
“The reality is, as a farmer, I don’t see the UK government expending a lot of negotiating capital to protect agriculture. Their main issue when they look for trade deals will be financial services, banking, etc,” Miller said.
READ MORE: European regulators offer Brexit sweeteners to investment banks
Britain voted to leave the 28-nation EU in a referendum in June last year. It has two years to sort out the terms of the divorce before it comes into effect in March 2019.
In 2015, British farmers received 3.25 billion euros ($3.5 billion) from the EU’s agriculture fund in direct payments based chiefly on the amount of land they farm, essentially a form of income support that does not take individual needs into account.
The government has guaranteed payments will be maintained until 2020 but farming and environment minister Andrea Leadsom said in February there would be a major policy overhaul when the EU subsidies stop.
WEALTHY INDIVIDUALS
On average, British farmers get about 15,000 pounds ($18,700) a year from direct payments and an EU rural development fund. For some, direct payments account for 70 percent of their income.
But a significant chunk goes to wealthy individuals who are large landowners. An investigation by environmental lobby group Greenpeace showed that in 2015 the top 100 recipients of EU direct payments in Britain received more in total than the bottom 55,119 recipients combined.
Berkeley Hill, professor of policy analysis at Imperial College London, said any overhaul should ensure funds go to farmers making decisions that benefit the environment, or help them cope with disasters such as flooding or foot-and-mouth disease.
“It has the potential to be quite radical. What is the taxpayer getting in return for all this money? Most of it does not go to poor farmers,” said Hill.
Greenpeace campaigner Hannah Martin hopes the government will reshape Britain’s food and farming policy so payments are for the “common good”, rather than just rewarding landowners for owning land.
“That means, landowners getting the money are doing positive things like boosting rural economies, ensuring food production is genuinely sustainable, reducing flood-risk, maintaining healthy soils and protecting biodiversity,” she said.
Britain has about 18.4 million hectares of agricultural land of which more than half is classified as permanent grassland, according to government data for 2015. Wheat is the leading arable crop with 1.8 million hectares while others include barley, rapeseed, oats, rye, sugar beet and potatoes.
Infographic ID: '2o5MUVS'
SPENDING CUTS
British farmers fear that in a post-Brexit world preferential trade deals could end, seasonal workers from the EU may find it harder to come to Britain and subsidies will stop.
The farm lobby has been a powerful force in Brussels but has less influence in Britain where, according to European Commission data for 2014, agriculture accounts for 1.2 percent of employment, compared with an EU average of 4.7 percent.
A National Farmers Union (NFU) survey late last year showed British farmers overall plan to reduce spending on machinery by 26 percent and cut investment on land by 31 percent over the next three years because of uncertainty caused by Brexit.
In budget terms, Britain will benefit from leaving the EU as it puts more into the bloc’s CAP than it gets out. But that does not necessarily mean farmers will be the ones to benefit.
“The moment you are putting payments to farmers up against the National Health Service, care in the community, education ... You can see it is going to take its share of cuts,” said Sean Rickard, a former chief economist for the NFU.
Farmers also worry that when it to comes to trade deals and EU market access, sectors such as financial services will be a much higher priority for the government, and any new EU trade tariffs could have a significant impact.
The EU is Britain’s most important trading partner for most agricultural sectors. In 2015-16, for example, about 80 percent of UK wheat exports went to the EU, mainly the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
There is also concern that new trading arrangements with countries outside the EU could leave farmers vulnerable to cheap imports from agricultural powerhouses such as Brazil and the United States.
CAP GAP
EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan is in little doubt that British farmers will suffer following Brexit.
“If people want to go separate ways like the UK there are going to be losers, and the big losers in the UK are going to be farmers,” Hogan told a media briefing last month.
For the EU, though, Britain’s departure will leave a significant funding gap that is already pitting countries with big farming sectors against major net contributors to the CAP, who are looking for ways to economize.
Alan Matthews, professor of European Agricultural Policy at Trinity College, Dublin, estimates there would have been a 3.1 billion euro hole in the CAP budget in 2015 without Britain, though the gap would have been significantly smaller in 2014.
In 2015, that shortfall would have been more than 5 percent of total EU spending on direct payments and rural development funds of 56.7 billion euros, and farmers in Europe are preparing to fight for their subsidies.
“If our calculations are right, it’s a 5 percent cut to the EU budget, so we can say it’s 5 percent less for the CAP budget. That’s the first challenge,” said Claude Cochonneau, a farmer in northwest France and president of a farming support network.
Spain and Bulgaria, both net beneficiaries of EU farm subsidies, are pushing for payments to be maintained, which would mean any shortfall would have to be made up elsewhere.
Pressure for EU farming budget cuts is more likely to come from large net contributors, such as Germany and Sweden.
“There should be less focus on current direct support and market measures,” Sweden’s Minister for Rural Affairs Sven-Erik Bucht said in an emailed response to questions about Sweden’s objectives in the next round of CAP talks.
Joachim Rukwied, president of the German farming association DBV, said it supported a mix of increased national contributions and spending cuts elsewhere to cover the funding gap.
Analysts believe direct payments to EU farmers are likely to be maintained as part of the overall agricultural package although there may be moves to link more funds to ensuring environmental benefits, a policy known as greening the CAP.
“Are we going to see fundamental reform, or some adjustments? For the moment the Commission looks like it just wants to make adjustments to the current market approach, simplifying and greening,” said Bruce Ross, managing director at agri-consultants Ross Gordon Consultants in Brussels.
But in Britain, farmers are bracing for a tough post-Brexit world, where some may not survive.
“There will always be people milking cows because we’ve got lots of grass and there will always be people growing crops - there just won’t be as many,” said Rickard, the NFU’s former chief economist.
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A restavek (or restavec) is a child in Haiti who is sent by his or her parents to work for a host household as a domestic servant because the parents lack the resources required to support the child. The term comes from the French language rester avec, "to stay with". Parents unable to care for children may send them to live with wealthier (or less poor) families, often their own relatives or friends. Often the children are from rural areas, and relatives who host restaveks live in more urban settings. The expectation is that the children will be given food and housing (and sometimes an education) in exchange for doing housework. However, many restaveks live in poverty, may not receive proper education, and are at grave risk for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
The restavek system is tolerated in Haitian culture, but not considered to be preferable. The practice meets formal international definitions of modern day slavery and child trafficking, and is believed to affect an estimated 300,000 Haitian children.[1] The number of CDW (Child Domestic Workers) in Haiti, defined as 1) living away from parents' home; 2) not following normal progression in education; and 3) working more than other children, is more than 400,000. 25% of Haitian children age 5–17 live away from their biological parents.[2]
History [ edit ]
When Columbus first landed on the island he called Santo Domingo in 1492, he impressed some native people as slaves. Later European colonists, primarily Spanish and French, imported enslaved Africans to work on the sugar cane plantations developed there. The French had a more developed plantation system on their half of the island, known as Saint-Domingue.[3] After a successful slave revolution was conducted for years, France withdrew its troops and Haiti proclaimed independence in 1804.[4]
While ending the conflict, France applied several rigid fines and prevented Haiti from accessing international resources.[5] It also put a heavy debt burden on Haiti's economy that detracted the government from being able to invest in social spending for many years.[6] The restavek tradition dates back centuries.[7]
Following the 2010 earthquake, thousands of individuals in Haiti were displaced from their homes and families. According to anecdotal evidence, many of these individuals were children who had nowhere to turn but to become part of the Haitian restavèk population. Along with displacement due to natural disasters, children are solicited as restavèks by recruiters looking to find domestic servants for families. Many street children are former domestic servants who were dismissed by or ran away from the families they worked for. These children have not fully escaped the restavèk life; instead, they become part of a different level that results in their exploitation in begging rings and prostitution.[8]
Conditions [ edit ]
Many parents send their children to be restaveks, expecting them to have a better life than possible in poor rural areas.[9] Poor rural parents who cannot provide their children with clean water, food, and education send them away, usually to cities, to find these opportunities as restaveks.[10]
Restaveks are unpaid and have no power or recourse within the host family.[10] Unlike slaves in the traditional sense, restaveks are not bought or sold or owned. They could run away or return to their families, and are typically released from servitude when they become adults; however, the restavek system is commonly understood to be a form of slavery.[10] Often host families dismiss their restaveks before they turn 15, since by law that is the age when they are supposed to be paid; many are then turned out to live on the street.[10] Increasingly, paid middlemen act as recruiters to place children with host families, and it is becoming more common to place children with strangers.[10] Children often have no way to get back in touch with their families.[10]
A 2009 study by the Pan American Development Foundation found that, "leading indicators of restavèk treatment include work expectations equivalent to adult servants and long hours that surpass the cultural norm for children’s work at home."[11] A contradicting 2002 survey found that restaveks were allowed to sleep as long as or longer than the household children, received fewer beatings, 60 percent or more attended school, and many had their own bed or mat.[12]
Some restaveks do receive proper nutrition and education, but they are in the minority.[13] According to the Pan American Development Foundation,
"Education is also an important indicator in detecting child domesticity. Children in domesticity may or may not attend school, but when they do attend, it is generally an inferior school compared to other children... and their rates of non-enrollment are higher than non-restavèk children in the home."[11]
Statistics [ edit ]
The estimates for numbers of restaveks in Haiti range from 100,000 to 500,000.[14] A 2002 door-to-door survey found the number of restaveks under age 17 in Haiti to be 173,000, and 59 percent of them were girls.[12]
As poverty and political turmoil increase, the reported number of restaveks continues to rise dramatically.[15] In 2009, the Pan American Development Foundation published the findings of an extensive door-to-door survey conducted in several cities in Haiti, focused on restaveks. The findings documented thousands of restaveks living in Haiti. The report also found that 11% of households who have restaveks working for them send their own children to work as restaveks for someone else.[16]
It is believed that the widespread damage and displacement caused by the 2010 earthquake has caused many more children to become restaveks. Children who were orphaned by the quake could potentially be turned over to work as restaveks by distant relatives who cannot care for them.[17]
Contributing factors [ edit ]
Two major factors that perpetuate the restavek system are widespread poverty and a societal acceptance of the practice.[10] Parents who cannot provide for their children continue to send them to be restaveks. Haiti, a nation of 10 million people,[15] is the most poverty-stricken in the western hemisphere.[10] Guerda Lexima-Constant, a child rights advocate with the Haitian Limyè Lavi Foundation, says:
"I have yet to meet anyone who wanted to send their kid to be a restavek. Parents are forced to because of a lot of national and international givens. The [economic] means they used to have, they don’t anymore. The invasion of foreign rice, eggs, and other things on the market by big business, destroying the peasant economy... there’s been a whole chain of events that makes some people have to send their child away."[18]
The practice of restavek is widely accepted in Haitian culture, although the upper classes have increasingly begun to look down on it.[10] The connotation of the word restavek is understood to be negative, implying servility.[10][19]
Individual factors that increase a child's likelihood of becoming a restavek include lack of access to clean water, lack of educational opportunities, access to family in a city, and illness or loss of one or both parents.[10] Haiti has too few orphanages for its abundance of orphans, putting the children at high risk of becoming restaveks.[10]
Preventative and restorative efforts [ edit ]
Efforts exist to address the root cause of child servitude. Improving the economy, especially through government support for the rural population, would undermine parents’ incentive to give children up, as would an improved health care and education system.[18] Parents would not be as easily pressured by recruiters to hand their children over to become restaveks if they were provided with aid such as food, clothing, and clean water.[10]
In May 2009, over 500 Haitian leaders gathered in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to discuss the restavek condition and how to make positive changes to improve this complex problem.[20] Leaders from all facets of society attended the full-day session and conference organizers from The Jean Cadet Restavec Foundation and Fondation Maurice Sixto hope that this dialog is the start of a large grass-roots movement. They hope, at a minimum, too stop the abuse of restavek children.[20] The Restavec Freedom Foundation hosted 13 additional conferences titled "Compassion and Courage"[21] across Haiti. These conferences were hosted from the spring 2012 through the spring of 2013, and asked community leaders and pastors to take a stand on the issue of restavek. Over 3,000 leaders participated in these conferences and have agreed to take the lead in their respective communities to bring an end to the restavek practice.[22]
Other organizations in Haiti, such as Restavek Freedom Alliance, BEM Inc. are also actively working in south-western Haiti with restavek children.[23] Organizations such as the Center for Action and Development (CAD) and L'Escale in Port-au-Prince exist to house, feed, and give medical and psychological care to escaped restaveks while working to return them to their families.[10]
In popular culture [ edit ]
Jean-Robert Cadet vividly recounted his life as a restavek. According to him, a term for children staying with host families who do not abuse them is timoun ki rete kay moun (Kreyol for "child who stays in a person's house.")
Law & Order: "Chattel" (episode 19.8, original airdate January 7, 2009) depicts the discovery, investigation, and disposition of a ring of white Americans who adopt Haitian children and employ them as restaveks.
Cross Current by Christine Kling is a mystery novel set in South Florida that depicts the conditions of restaveks.
In The Philanthropist episode "Haiti", a girl restavek is a main part of the story.
Boston Legal: In the episode "Fat Burner" (season 3, episode 15), attorney Clarence Bell represents a girl restavek charged with homicide. After being impregnated by her master, she stabbed the man to death after he had informed her that he intended to sell her baby.[24]
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100% Renewables (for Germany by 2050)
I had the opportunity to go to a real stimulating talk the other day. Jochen Flasbarth, the President of the Federal Environment Agency of Germany, had just been to the big do at the NY Times, the “Energy for Tomorrow” conference. Flasbarth was on a panel, moderated by Tom Friedman, with worthies such as Carol Browner; Steve Nadel, head of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; and Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy. (You can see the panel’s discussion on energy independence at the conference website.)
Our event was much smaller and more intimate – a salon as it was called. The discussion was hosted by The World Policy Institute and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The Böll Foundation folks have been doing pathbreaking work for years on renewable energy and other clean tech.
Flasbarth talked about how the German people’s antipathy toward nuclear power, which predated the Fukushima catastrophe, along with a lucid recognition of the dangers of climate change, had made the German government, along with industry, science, and the non-profit communities really focus on how to transition to a nuke-free, carbon-free future. This would be, in essence, a technology-driven energy economy.
He talked about how the government is now aiming toward a 100% renewable electricity supply by 2050. The press release on this from the agency (from almost two years ago now) quotes Flasbarth as saying that “The results of the study demonstrate that electricity supply can be generated completely from renewable energies by 2050 and that secure supply can be guaranteed at all times.”
Feasible? It’s already well in train. In fact, solar PV penetration into the German electric markets is already lowering the price for wholesale electric power at the hours of peak demand by 40% from only very recently. This recent item from Renew Economy lays out how this is being accomplished. I asked President Flasbarth to comment on this and he confirmed that this was indeed the case. Prices during peak demand hours, as you know, have traditionally been way above the average for the rest of the day. Solar PV is standing this paradigm on its head. You have high demand on hot sunny days – largely because of air conditioning. But, you are also going to have the highest boost from PV during that same time under those same conditions. Ergo, with sufficient PV capacity installed, you are going to be able to supply more-than-enough peak power to offset demand and lower prices.
And, my dear friends, the Europeans have been installing PV at astonishing rates. See this graphic showing new installed (and decommissioned) capacity in Europe in 2011. (See the full report for 2011 from the EWEA here.)
Asked about public support in Germany for the phasing out of nuclear power and the transition to 100% renewables, Flasbarth confirmed it was very enthusiastic. For one thing, there is a robust renewable energy industry in Germany which supports nearly 400,000 jobs. That’s a winning argument. For more, see this paper from the Heinrich Böll Foundation: Myths and Facts: The German Switch from Nuclear to Renewables.
I, for one, am chortling in my joy!
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Politics BOOM: The Story of the Deepwater Horizon Lost in the catastrophic aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the gripping tale of the rig workers and the Coast Guard crewmen who rescued them. Sean Flynn re-creates their long, harrowing, heart-pounding night
Countdown to Disaster
21 Days Before the Blast
From the pasturelands outside a little Mississippi town called Liberty, Shane Roshto steers his pickup truck toward Houma, Louisiana, a bit more than four hours to the south. He'll sleep in his truck tonight, Tuesday, March 30, in the parking lot at the heliport off Highway 24, and get up at dawn to meet the chopper that will fly him out to the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig floating over a mile-deep canyon in the Gulf of Mexico.
Shane has been working on the Horizon for almost four years now, ever since he got Natalie pregnant. He fell in love with her the night they met, just before Christmas break in '04, when they were juniors in high school, and Natalie fell in love with him, too. Her daddy just about died when he found out she was pregnant, but Shane didn't flinch. "Well," he told Natalie, "I guess it's about time I grew up." He quit his classes at the community college and signed up with Transocean, a Swiss company that drills oil and gas wells in waters all over the planet.
His first hitch on the Horizon was in August '06, two weeks as a seaman, bottom of the pecking order. He marched up to the drilling manager, stuck out his hand, and said, "I'm Shane Roshto, and I've got my eye on one of your jobs." Ballsy. He left for two weeks—Transocean worked its crews fourteen days on and fourteen off back then—and returned as a roustabout, a common laborer but better than a seaman. He made roughneck a year later, and he figured another two, maybe three hitches, he might make the subsea crew, maintaining the blowout preventer and the pipes that run to the ocean floor, as well as almost everything else below the waterline. Backbreaking work, but it paid better than roughneck, and roughnecking wore a man out just as fast. "The oil field gave me life," he'd tease Natalie sometimes, "but it's gonna take my life, too."
And Shane's got a good life now. He married Natalie when she was eight months pregnant, in December '06, and their boy, Blaine, turned 3 back in February. His job puts a roof over their heads and food on the table and, when he pulled an extra two weeks at sea last year, a pile of presents under the Christmas tree. And it's good work, proud work. Shane calls himself oil-field trash, but he smiles when he says it. The rig he's on is a wondrous machine, a semisubmersible drill poking holes through seabeds at unfathomable depths, tapping oil and gas deposits thought to be unreachable only a few years back. When the Horizon hit a world record, 35,050 feet, in the Gulf last September, Natalie could practically see his head swell. The only downside is the schedule—all those long stretches away from his wife and son, especially after Transocean switched to three-week rotations last fall. "This paycheck better bring me home," he'd tell his buddies on the rig. And it always did.
At 6 a.m. on the last day of March, the helicopter ferries Shane out to sea. His shift on the drill floor will start at midnight and last until noon, and he'll work twelve hours every day until his hitch is up.
14 Days
Freddy Demolle is in his boat, a twentytwo-footer tethered to one of the platforms not too far out into the Gulf, his face shaded by a ball cap that has jesus is my boss stitched across the front. He's 63 years old, and he's been fishing or shrimping or crabbing for a living his whole life. Now he's after sheepshead, which have come into the shallower waters to spawn, and they're schooling around the rig pilings, feeding on barnacles and the shrimp Freddy's stabbing onto the hook of his cane pole. He's pulling them out as fast as he can set bait. If they keep biting, he'll motor back to Venice with a ton of fish, maybe more, and he'll sell them at the dock for forty cents a pound. If the fish quit taking his shrimp, Freddy will untie his boat and move to another rig and then another until he finds one where the sheepshead are biting. There are upwards of 4,000 platforms in the Gulf, some abandoned and most way farther out than Freddy's willing to take his little boat, and each is like a little reef that draws crustaceans and baitfish that draw the bigger fish. Oil rigs make for good fishing, and it's been that way ever since Freddy can remember.
And if there's a bad season, the oil companies are usually hiring. Been that way for decades, too. In the river parishes of southern Louisiana, the money jobs are fishing and oil, and it's neither hard nor unusual to drift between the two. Freddy was a roustabout for a few years in the '90s, and last winter he drove a crew boat, hauling men and supplies. Sometimes when he's fishing under the rigs now, the alarms will give him a start—"They go off and you don't know what it is"—but never for long. Freddy knows rigs, and he knows alarms are forever ringing and beeping and hardly ever for anything serious, but rather so no problem becomes serious.
Forty miles north across swamp and marsh, Johnny Schneider's got three boats in the water. Two are running crab traps, 350 of them, and the third is dragging Johnny's oyster lease in Skiff Lake. The oyster boat's new. Johnny built her himself, figures he's got eighty grand in her. He calls her Problem Child, and no, it's not for any one of his three kids, even the 9-month-old. "Hell, it's for all three of them," Johnny says, and then he laughs, raspy and low.
The fishing's good this year. Johnny has new rakes, like oversize metal combs, tied to the back of the Problem Child, and they dig the oysters out of their bed and onto the deck, where they're stuffed in one-hundredpound baskets. In the first nine days working Skiff Lake, he'll come back with ninety, ninety-five baskets each evening, $21,000 worth of mollusks all told. He's still got four more leases to work, too, and the money season for crabs—May, June, and July—is only a few weeks away. Those three months should be good for another eighty grand.
Johnny's been fishing full-time since 1992, when he was 18. At 36, it's all he knows how to do. He'd worried maybe Katrina wiped the fish away, the way it wrecked his whole damn parish. After the waters receded, he went back to his place in Poydras and gutted his trailer and tied the refrigerator to the hitch on his truck so he could drag it out the door, and by the middle of October he was back on the water. Seemed like he had the entire ocean to himself, and all the fish, too. It wasn't easy trying to find someone to sell his catch to, but it all worked out.
Hurricanes are an existential threat, unpredictable and vicious, and there's absolutely nothing Johnny can do about them except clean up and rebuild and go back to work. The market can also be unpredictable, which is why Johnny quit fishing mullet a few years back, when the price dropped to forty cents. But he does not worry about the oil platforms or the forty-five drilling rigs on the edge of his fishing grounds. They've been there all his life, sucking oil and gas out of the ocean floor, and they haven't been a problem yet, not a major one. "I figure," Johnny says, "that they got their shit down pat."
7 Days
The Deepwater Horizon is floating above a mile of green sea, holding an exact position against the currents and the waves. She's enormous, 396 feet long and 256 wide, about the size and shape of a city block, with the steel bones of a derrick rising twenty stories up from her center. Seventy feet below the waterline, eight thrusters keep her in place above the wellhead, nudging the Horizon fore and aft and port and starboard, and her crew—she has berths for 130—can keep working when she's riding waves almost thirty feet high. She's drilling a well called Macondo at an extreme depth, but nowhere close to her limits: The Horizon can drop a drill in 8,000 feet of water and push it another 30,000 into the earth's crust, changing direction on the way if needed, and hit a target no bigger than a Volkswagen Beetle.
Deep-sea drilling is a risky and complicated process, of course—the oil industry's equivalent of a moon shot—and it's vulnerable to all sorts of delays. Subterranean textures shift and soft layers collapse and gas from punctured pockets surges up the bore. Macondo has been particularly troublesome. Drilling the well and preparing it for a production rig was scheduled to take twenty-one days, but by the time Mike Williams helicopters to the Horizon on Monday, April 12, the job is into its fifth week. British Petroleum, which is leasing the rig from Transocean for $502,000 a day, is already $5 million over budget on rent alone; Mike hears the project as a whole might be as much as $150 million in the red.
Mike is 38 years old and a chief electronics technician on the Horizon, which means he monitors certain systems on the rig, makes sure the ventilation and the computer network and the gas sensors function properly. He used to manage the truck division at a Toyota dealership in Tyler, Texas, but the hours were brutal, working seven days every week, never seeing his wife, Felicia. He had a friend working offshore, and that was how Mike got on the rigs. "The good ol' boy network," he says. He's been on the Horizon now for almost two years.
The problems with Macondo started on his last hitch, about two weeks into the job. Twice drilling had to stop—oilmen call it getting stuck—once to patch a crack in the bore hole, then again to drop a cement plug into a tender spot in the subsurface that collapsed around the drill string, the miles of pipe attached to the drill bit. All told, the Horizon lost at least ten expensive days. And no one gets a completion bonus when a well comes in late.
Mike senses the crew is frustrated but still determined, muscling through the final days of a job gone wrong. The well's been drilled almost to depth, 18,000 feet, and then all that will be left is sealing it off until a production rig starts pumping out the oil and gas. Another ten days and the Horizon will move on to another site. And the news on the rig isn't all bad. Next week, ecutives from BP are flying out to congratulate the crew for its safety record. In seven years, it hasn't lost even an hour of operating time because someone got hurt.
5 Days
The Deepwater Horizon has respectably comfortable rooms for the 126 crew on board, Internet access, a movie theater, laundry service, and a galley that serves far better food than one would expect for institutional cooking forty-five miles at sea. Not as good as Natalie Roshto's—the first thing Shane will ask her when he gets home is the same thing he always asks, which is What's for dinner?—but still pretty good. All in all, the rig's not a bad place to be cooped up for three weeks at a stretch. "Like a big ol' hotel," the steward says.
Except Shane doesn't like to be cooped up anywhere. He doesn't watch enough television to say he has a favorite show, unless he counted Bob the Builder or Elmo's World or whatever Blaine likes at the moment. Shane would rather be outside, driving his fatherin-law's tractor or riding a horse or bouncing through the mud on a four-wheeler. Mostly he likes to hunt, and if he can't hunt, he'll fish, and mostly he does those things with Natalie. He gave her a deer stand as a wedding gift because that's what she wanted, and the day after they said their vows, when Natalie was eight months pregnant, she sat in that stand until she put a clean round into a five-point buck.
Two weeks at sea, and he's getting homesick. It's a macho environment, too, and that gets to him after a while. (Natalie and some of the other wives used to joke that the rig ought to let a couple of them on once in a while to draw down some of that renegade testosterone.) On his hard hat, under the brim, Shane's written two dates, his anniversary and Blaine's birthday. Whenever I'm having one of THOSE days, he wrote on his MySpace page, where nothing is going right and I just want to choke slam someone, all I have to do is look at those two dates and remember that whatever I do out here impacts my two angels more than anyone and that I never want them to have to go without anything at all.…
His crew has rotated to the noon-to-midnight shift, so Shane's still awake in the early morning hours. At 2:01 a.m. on April 15, he logs onto MySpace. Chillin out on the rig, he types. Missin Nat and Blaine.…
Ten hours later, Natalie— Mrs. R —types back. We miss you! I love you
11 Hours
A jointed tube twenty-one inches in diameter and roughly 5,000 feet long runs from the underside of the Horizon's derrick to a massive yellow contraption on the bottom of the Gulf. The tube is called a riser, and the yellow thing, a stack of valves and shearing rams four stories tall, is called a blowout preventer, or BOP. The BOP, which sits directly on top of the wellhead, is the barrier of last resort. If the oil and gas far below and under tremendous pressure gush unexpectedly upward—that is, if the well blows out—the BOP is supposed to slam shut and keep all the hydrocarbons safely contained.
Below the BOP is another tube, heavier and quite sturdy, called a casing, a smoothbore cylinder that lines the rough cavity hollowed out by the drill. As part of completing the well, a crew from Halliburton, subcontracted to the Horizon, has pumped a special cement through those miles of tubing to the bottom, where it oozed out and rose up the outside of the casing, sealing the gap between it and the surrounding earth. Then a cement plug was set at the bottom of the casing, which is filled with drilling mud, erting enough downward pressure to overwhelm the upward force of the punctured oil deposit. To complete the job, at least one more cement plug is supposed to be placed near the top of the casing, strengthening the seal.
By eleven o'clock, when the daily safety meeting begins, the cement has been curing for more than eleven hours. Mike Williams listens as the managers and supervisors outline their plans for the next twelve hours. Then it gets tense. Jimmy Wayne Harrell, Transocean's OIM—offshore installation manager—goes last, like he always does. Mike finds it strange that Jimmy is using more technical language than usual when he's talking about sealing the well.
"Jimmy," the man sitting next to Mike says, "my procedure is different than that."
Mike recognizes BP's senior man on the Horizon.
"This is how we're gonna do it," the OIM says, "unless I hear different."
The BP man says: "I'm the company man. And you're hearing it from me."
The two senior guys on the rig arguing about how a vessel with 126 crew on board is going to safely disconnect from a punctured reservoir of explosive hydrocarbons…yeah, tense is the right word.
The driller, Dewey Revette, breaks in, tries to ease the moment: "You know, guys, why don't we work this out on the drill floor? Let's go to work."
5 Hours
Engineers run a routine, albeit critical, pressure check on the partially sealed Macondo well. The results are either unsatisfactory or inconclusive, depending on who will interpret the results later, but in any case, the results are not good. Worst case, they suggest methane is somehow leaking into the casing beneath the wellhead.
90 Minutes
In order to set the final cement plug more quickly, workers on the Horizon begin displacing drilling mud in the casing and riser with seawater. This particular mud, which isn't actually mud but a viscous cocktail of clay and chemicals that lubricates the drill and brings the cuttings to the surface, weighs twice as much as water. So removing it means the weight pressing down on the well has been halved, amplifying any risk of a blowout if the cement job or earlier plugs aren't holding on their own. BP will later say additional tests were conducted after the earlier inconclusive results. However, no record of those later checks will survive.
30 Minutes
Mike Williams is in his shop, center aft of the Horizon, directly above the diesel behemoths that power the vessel's electrical systems. There are six of them, 10,000 horsepower each, though only two are running at the moment.
Mike's on the phone with Felicia. Yesterday was their anniversary, thirteen years. Over the phone, Felicia hears a voice on the loudspeaker announce a spike in the methane level. She asks Mike if he has to go. He says no. Methane alarms sound at twenty-five parts per million, and they're so common that he's almost immune to them. Gas goes up, and hot work—grinding, welding, smoking—stops. Gas clears, work starts. Routine.
15 Minutes
The cement around the casing is failing, possibly.
The cement plugs are failing, possibly.
The blowout preventer is going to fail, certainly.
13 Minutes
Drilling mud rains down on the Damon B. Bankston, a 260-foot service boat tethered to the Horizon. She's been there all day, and for the past four hours she's been waiting for the Horizon to deliver 1,400 barrels—58,800 gallons—of drilling mud into her holds, on top of the 3,100 she took on earlier.
Captain Alwin Landry and his crew close the Bankston's hatches to keep mud out. Landry isn't particularly worried. He's worked crew boats for twenty-three years, been captain for a dozen, and he's seen the evolution of oil-rig safety up close. He knows it looks dangerous, but he also knows all the procedures, the fail-safes and redundancies. Still, mud shouldn't be speckling his boat.
Landry radios the Horizon, asks why his deck is slicking with goo. He's told there's a problem with the well, and he hears worry in the words.
Then another voice comes on the radio. Landry is told to move the Bankston, to stage his boat 500 meters away.
30 Seconds
Captain Landry, still disconnecting from the Horizon, hears a loud hiss, the sound of escaping gas.
Mike Williams hears the engines below his shop begin to speed up, feeding on the leaking methane. Alarms are chirping, frenzied, a maniacal beep beep beep beep beep.
The lights in Mike's office brighten.
The engines race.
The lights burst.
Mike pushes back from his desk. His computer monitor explodes.
He reaches for the handle on the door, which is steel and three inches thick and bolted to the frame by six stainless hinges.
Boom
From the bridge of the Bankston, Landry sees a green flash. He notes the time in his log as 21:53, seven minutes to ten.
The Ocean on Fire
The instant After the Blast
The door to Mike's shop blows in, throws him across the room, slams him against the far wall.
On the drill floor, Shane Roshto is about to die. So are Dewey Revette and nine other men.
15 Seconds
Mike Williams, dazed and battered against the back wall of his shop, shoves his blown-out door out of the way. His left elbow's hurt bad, and his leg, too. He limps and crawls across the room and through the hole where his door used to be, toward the bulkhead that opens onto the deck. He reaches for it.
Another explosion. That door is ripped from its hinges, and Mike is flung backward again. He's hurt worse, but he starts moving again, struggles to make it outside. Something warm is dripping into his eyes, blurring his vision. It's blood from a gash on his forehead. He wipes it away, looks right. The deck, the walkway, the hydraulics, the exhaust stack in engine three and part of the wall—they're all gone, torn away by the blasts. He doesn't see any fire, but the heat is intense.
He turns left. From the doorway, he hears a moaning voice. I'm hurt.
"I'm hurt bad, too," he rasps. "I can't help you." He starts to move, stops, calls back. "But if you make it out the door, don't go right."
Two lifeboats, numbers three and four, are on the stern, close. But Mike's muster station is the bridge, nearly 400 feet forward. Every Sunday morning, ten o'clock, regular as church, the Horizon crew practiced the emergency procedures for fire and abandoning ship. The worst time to screw the protocol is when the fire is real.
He grabs a life jacket and works his way through smoke thick as velvet, climbs to the bridge. He tells people to stay up front. "There's bad, bad stuff happening back there," he says.
Mike's ribs shoot pain through his chest and belly. He's got one good leg and one functioning arm to wipe the blood out of his eyes. He tries to start an emergency generator, but it won't turn over. He limps back toward the bridge.
He can see Lifeboat One is already in the water, a closed capsule lit by oil-fueled flames on the surface. He scrambles down to the deck in time to watch Lifeboat Two release. The protocol has indeed been screwed: There are still a half-dozen people on deck, including one guy who can't walk and is barely conscious. Mike considers his options: Lifeboats Three and Four are aft, on the other side of what is now an inferno. Smoke is swirling in oily smears, as if the fire is breathing, heaving. The derrick has disappeared behind a roiling sheet of black. The whump of explosions—fuel drums, machinery, God knows—wobble Mike every few seconds, and debris slices past like missiles.
Mike doesn't think anyone will survive if they move aft. So the most grievously injured crewman is strapped to a backboard and loaded into an open raft. A few more people climb in—and the raft deploys.
Mike is stranded on deck.
The rig is on fire behind him.
The water is on fire below him.
Mike's out of options.
I said my prayer. I started running. I took my leap of faith.
Mike falls for a very long time.
14 Minutes
Three short whoops of an alarm sound through the PA system at the Coast Guard air station in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, at 10:07 p.m. Kurt Peterson, the chief rescue swimmer at the base, hears fragments of the announcement that follows, but that's all he needs: Rig explosion, people in the water, possibly 130. He hustles toward the tarmac.
Just off the hangar, Lieutenant Commander Tom Hickey and his copilot, Lieutenant Craig Murray, are finishing their paperwork following a routine two-hour training flight. They're both senior pilots, top-ranked instructors.
Possibly 160 in the water, with injuries.
Hickey tells Murray to restart the helicopter, an HH-65 Dolphin, then sprints into the operations center to get the Horizon's coordinates. The flight mechanic, Scott Lloyd, loads a mass-casualty raft. By 10:20, with the rotor spinning, Murray and Hickey learn Good Samaritans—private boats—are in the area. Lloyd unloads the raft to save weight and space in the cramped Dolphin; better to hoist survivors out of the water and fly them to stable vessels. Peterson's job will be to cable down to the wounded and help get them ready for Lloyd to haul up.
The Dolphin, the first one in the air for the rescue, takes off at 10:28. It climbs to 700 feet, half the height of the Empire State Building. Murray and Hickey drop their NVGs—nightvision goggles—and they see a glow on the southern horizon, like a setting sun.
"Is that it?" Peterson hears them mutter. "Holy shit, I think that's it."
The Deepwater Horizon is 145 miles away.
From left, Lieutenant Commander Tom Hickey, rescue swimmer Kurt Peterson, and Lieutenant Craig Murray.
30 Minutes
Mike Williams is alive, and he knows he's alive because his entire body is in agony. Seawater slicked with oil and diesel is soaking into his wounds, stinging, burning. He's also blind, oil sliming his face, dripping into his eyes. But he can feel the heat coming off the Horizon. He turns his face toward it and begins an awkward backstroke with his one good arm, his right, using the heat as a beacon to mark what he wants to get away from.
And then he's dead. Nothing hurts anymore. His arm, his leg, his ribs, every screaming pore—all numb. The sea is silent. The heat from the rig cools. He sees only black. I must be dead.
A bang from somewhere behind him. Nope, not dead. All the pain flashes back, the heat beats on his face. His arm struggles into another backstroke.
Mike fades out again, comes back with the pain, comes back when a voice yells, Over here, over here, and then a hand is on his life jacket, lifting him, pulling him out of the water and into the Bankston's little open-bow rescue boat.
60 Minutes
The first dolphin is forty miles from the Horizon. Cougar 92, a private helicopter with a three-bed medical unit on board, is eight minutes behind. A Lifeflight helicopter is also coming in, plus another Dolphin from Belle Chasse and a Jayhawk and a third Dolphin dispatched from Mobile, Alabama. A fid-wing plane is also coming from Mobile to circle high above as a communications platform.
From his seat in the back of the Dolphin, Kurt Peterson can see the Horizon without NVGs, a torch burning on the flat black line where the sea meets the sky. He holds out his thumb, a rough height gauge. The flames rise to his first knuckle, and Peterson has enormous hands.
Hickey gets the Bankston on the radio. Captain Landry has survivors on board, but Hickey wants a firm count, wants to know how many are missing, how many his crew are looking for in the water.
The Dolphin drops to 250 feet as it nears the Horizon, and Murray has to look up to see the top of the flames. A few hundred yards out, the pilots can feel the heat through the cockpit. They take the helicopter down lower, fifty feet off the water, and bank in toward the Horizon. The Dolphin closes to 150 feet. A raft is drifting under the rig, and every man on the helicopter stares at it, trying to see if any people are on board. They decide it's empty just as a glob of fire drops onto it from above. Then Hickey feels a searing blast of heat, the same sensation as putting his hands too close to a campfire.
The Dolphin backs away from the rig, widens its circle, keeps flying wider and wider loops until it's searched the sea a mile out. No bodies in the water.
It turns toward the Bankston and drops into a hover forty feet above the stern. Peterson, who's trained as an EMT, clips the hoist cable to his harness and is lowered to the deck, slick with drilling mud from the blowout. He detaches the cable, and the down gusts from the rotor nearly knock him off his feet. He catches his balance and starts to shuffle-walk forward; it reminds him of how he'd walk on ice when he was stationed up in Michigan.
At the fore end of the deck, fourteen men are gathered, all injured but mobile. Inside the ship, there are three others in far worse shape, burned and bloody and broken, drifting in and out of consciousness. A paramedic from the Horizon is stabilizing them.
There is no litter—a hoistable stretcher, basically—on the Dolphin, so Peterson can't send any of the trauma patients out for Scott Lloyd to hoist. Peterson grabs the worst of the walking wounded instead, a guy wrapped in a blanket, shivering, with a broken arm and burns on his back. Lloyd helps him out of the basket and into the helicopter.
For more than four hours, helicopters fly in a synchronized loop, one hoisting over the Bankston, another hovering nearby to move in, a third off-loading patients and refueling on the Na Kika, a production rig fourteen miles away where Cougar 92 has set up a triage unit. As Hickey spins his Dolphin toward the Na Kika, the one from Mobile moves in to lift four more survivors. Then the second Dolphin from Belle Chasse arrives with a litter. Its rescue swimmer, a block of a man named Dustin Bernatovich, is lowered down, and he and Peterson wrestle a stretcher with the worst-off trauma patient to the litter.
As pilots approach their maximum flight time, the Dolphins will turn back toward shore, which is why a third Dolphin is en route from Belle Chasse. Lieutenant Christopher Aument and his crew spend most of the night on a rig nearby, waiting for the others to max out. At 3:50 a.m., a rookie flight mechanic on Aument's helicopter lifts the last of the walking wounded off the Bankston.
12 hours
Mike is released from the hospital at 9:30 a.m., four hours after he was admitted. A Coast Guard helicopter flew him to the air station, and a Plaquemines Parish ambulance took him to the medical center. Now he's being driven to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Kenner, just outside New Orleans. He's the first survivor to arrive at the command post and welcome center, where there are clean clothes and hot meals and cigarettes.
Someone takes Mike by the elbow. He's told the Coast Guard wants to talk to him, now, while it's all still fresh in his mind. Mike, accompanied by a lawyer from Transocean, goes into a conference room and gives a statement. When he finishes, someone else grabs him outside the room: The Transocean lawyers want a statement, too.
Mike says no. He hasn't slept for thirty-six hours. He wants to shower the grease off his skin and put food in his belly and lie down and shut his eyes. And he does all those things, gets a room and showers and eats and climbs into bed and maybe falls asleep. But the Crowne Plaza is near the airport and a plane flies low and loud over the hotel and Mike bolts up in his bed because he's not really there just then but back on the rig where everything is on fire.
The Spreading Poison
7 Days After the Blast
A small armada of oil skimmers and service boats are puttering about the Gulf of Mexico, attending to what is, officially, a minor ecological untidiness. The wounded Macondo well supposedly is trickling a mere thousand barrels of crude into the sea every day.
That is a ridiculous number, and an obviously ridiculous one, albeit less ridiculous than the one announced four days ago, which was zero. "The blowout preventer," Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry announced at a press briefing on Friday, April 23, "appears to be working."
It is important to note that Admiral Landry was not obfuscating. Rather, she—indeed, everyone—was relying on BP for information. The BOP is under a mile of water, in a dark and murky place that can be seen only by remotely controlled submersibles, which the Coast Guard neither owns nor operates. Visibility is so poor and the water so deep, in fact, that it required two days of searching to locate the capsized wreckage of the Horizon, which had burned for thirty-six hours before toppling into the waves.
The Friday briefing was not, primarily, about the potential environmental impact but was instead to announce that the Coast Guard was suspending its search for Shane Roshto and the other ten missing men. After twenty-eight sorties by plane and boat and helicopter covering a swath of ocean the size of Connecticut, "we have reached the point," Landry said, "where the reasonable expectation of survival has passed."
So that left the oil, or the threat of the oil. By Tuesday, a week after the explosion, when the BOP has clearly failed and the well is purportedly leaking only 1,000 barrels a day, crude the color of dime-store chocolate streaks miles of the surface in long, ragged ribbons. Approaching from the north, even a mile out, before the stink begins to sting the eyes, the water is divided by a stark and clearly defined line, a border of oil.
Given the undeniable silliness of its initial estimate, BP soon quintuples it to 5,000 barrels a day, another egregious lowball that for weeks will be repeated religiously by reporters, a fragment of boilerplate—210,000 gallons a day—in daily news reports.
Meanwhile, other scientists—oceanographers, environmentalists, an assortment of professionals who share no culpability in having punctured a hemorrhaging wound in the earth's surface—calculate much higher figures based on satellite imagery and a basic understanding of how the ocean functions. Oil bleeding out of a hole a mile down, for instance, will get swept into sub-sea currents and dragged Lord knows where; deep-sea pressure will make it heavier, less likely to rise; thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants, a toxin in their own right, break the crude into droplets that linger at staggering depths. In mid-May scientists will discover plumes of oil, miles long and miles wide, spreading at 4,300 and 2,600 feet below the surface.
BP, for its part, maintains that measuring the flow more precisely isn't possible (not true, but whatever), and in any case, what's the point? If it can't clean up 5,000 barrels a day, BP seems to be saying, what difference does it make if Macondo is spewing 70,000? To BP, for right now, it makes no difference at all, except that 5,000 isn't nearly so catastrophic a number. BP can't unwreck the ocean, and the damage, environmental and economic ruin on a heretofore unimaginable scale, will become apparent in time, when the lawyers and public-relations people are better equipped to deal with it.
16 Days
Johnny Schneider is pulling traps from one of the marsh channels near Shell Beach, he and his deckhand, Claude Norton, hauling up mesh cages crawling with blue crabs. Number one males, mostly, the ones that bring the better prices. This time last year he was taking a quarter ton a day and selling them for $2.35 a pound to brokers who'd ship them all over the country. A lot of Johnny's catch ended up in Baltimore.
Claude unlatches every trap he brings up, holds it over the side of Johnny's paint-speckled skiff, and dumps the crabs into the water, then gives the trap a firm shake to jostle out the cranky ones with a claw clamped on the mesh. Johnny doesn't count how many dollars are going overboard, because, really, why bother with the heartache? As far as the state of Louisiana is concerned, those crabs are worthless, because this particular patch of crabbing ground has been closed. The heavy oil hasn't washed into the marsh yet, but the stink is heavy at Point Chico and Johnny's already seen a couple of dead dolphins and a shitload of dead catfish. Crabs are scavengers, feeding at the low end of the food chain, and between the dispersants and the oil, no one can say for certain what toxin has got into what tiny creatures.
His oyster leases are closed, too. Nine days of dragging and then nothing, his rich fishing grounds gone in a flash. In the weeks to come, the state will open some of his leases, but who knows for how long? Already the shrimp season has opened twice, weeks earlier than it usually does and only to get ahead of the oil just over the horizon, and both times it was closed again within twenty-four hours.
"It's gonna be bad," Johnny says, taking a pull off his Bud Light. "I hate to say it, but I think we're out of business. What am I gonna do now?" What he's going to do now is pack up his gear, his oyster rakes and his crab traps and his rigging, and put them in storage and hope they don't rot before he can get them back in the water. And then maybe he'll go to work for BP, like Claude and his brothers, Earl and Mitchell, laying containment boom. He's got a family to feed, and the BP money's not bad. Not fishing money, but decent.
Not that he's in it for the money. Hell, he's pissed at the guys who are in it for the money, the contractors from out of town. Earl and Mitchell are, too. They see those guys on the water, puttering along at fifteen knots in a boat that'll do forty easy, rolling out boom with twists at the joints, half-assing the anchorages. "Milking the clock," Earl says. Near as they can tell, there are people who make an hourly wage cleaning up messes and therefore would like said mess to linger. And then there are people like Earl and Mitchell and Johnny and thousands more who make their living from the waters that mess is polluting. "They're just doing a job," Johnny explains. "We're trying to save some shit."
Down the Mississippi River, where dry Louisiana land runs out at the little town of Venice, Freddy Demolle is at a table in the Riverside Restaurant on Highway 23, a block of a building with brick-red walls except for one, which is covered with a mural of the marsh. A woman from Prince William Sound has come to commiserate with the locals, to explain what happened after the Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude in a pristine bay, to tell them what's still happening twenty years later. Freddy hears her talk about the dispersants, how they're bad for people and worse for sea life. Freddy listens while she explains how the oil never truly goes away, how it will haunt a place for decades, and maybe forever.
"Like she said," Freddy sighs a few days after, "twenty years later, they're still finding oil in the sand and under rocks."
Twenty years of oil in the marshes would be cataclysmic. Louisiana produces about a third of the nation's seafood, and nearly all of that life begins in the estuaries, in the tangles of grasses and muck where microscopic organisms are the source material for the entire food chain. Those wetlands are already disappearing at a devastating pace, forty-seven square miles swallowed by the sea in just the past year. To lose more to poison is both unthinkable and unforgivable.
"Can't waste time being mad," Freddy says. "That's not gonna get anything done."
So Freddy does the only thing he can, which is take a check from BP and go down to the boatyard to load booms on the fishing boats.
19 Days
In the little town of Hopedale, on the east side of the Mississippi River, a captain named Casey agrees to take five photographers, one writer, and a Russian TV crew out to the barrier islands in his thirty-five-foot boat. His passengers are paying 200 bucks a head for a thumping two-hour ride because there is a rumor that oil has washed ashore on the low, flat rookeries off the coast, and they would very much like to photograph and videotape the spoilage.
The rumor is plausible, of course, because the Macondo well has by now leaked at least 3 million gallons (by BP's estimate) and almost certainly tens of millions more. Efforts to contain the surface slick have been only minimally effective, and stopping or even slowing the flow has so far been impossible. Why, just this morning, BP announced that its latest attempt—planting a four-story inverted funnel over the worst of the three breaks in the riser—had promptly failed.
On the other hand, BP had repeatedly warned that the idea was a long shot. Though the technique had been successfully employed in shallower waters, "it has never been attempted at this depth," Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, had said. That phrase had become a mantra, a preemptive excuse for every reparative technique. None of them had ever been attempted at this depth, because no one had ever screwed up so badly at this depth, perhaps at any depth. The best hope for sealing the renegade well, ironically, was drilling another one to relieve the pressure and allow a cement team to plug Macondo. Starting from a spot a mile or so away, in equally deep waters, engineers in early May began boring a hole 18,000 feet down and then over toward Macondo, where they will come within ten feet of the original twenty-one inch shaft. That they can do, the equivalent of an eight-ball bank shot on a billiard table the size of Giants Stadium. Energy companies have developed breathtaking technology to drill deeper into the seabed beneath ever deeper waters, yet they have little more than absorbent mops and floating Shop-Vacs to clean up the mess if it all goes wrong. Their disaster plan—the only technologically workable plan—is merely hoping there is no disaster, which is no plan at all.
Meanwhile, the mops and vacuums can't keep up. The seas are rolling at three feet, rough enough that oil slops over the containment booms and shreds the absorbent ones; by the time Casey makes it to Freemason Island, the boats that had been dispatched that morning to lay boom in Breton Sound are motoring back into Biloxi Marsh.
But there is no oil on the beach, and the photographers are pissed. They have been chasing oil and rumors of oil for days. They have flown in helicopters and gotten nauseated on boats and driven hundreds of miles in search of tar balls and slippery black birds, and there are hundreds more of them, staffers and stringers and freelancers who've been chasing the same rumors, too. And they've got nothing, save lots of brown streaks far out at sea and some dead jellyfish and two pitiable birds in a wildlife rehab that are now perhaps the most photographed animals on the planet.
Their frustration is not nearly as parasitic as it seems. True, they would prefer to make pictures that are more interesting than an empty beach. But they are also trying to document a disaster that is likely altering the ecosystem in ways too terrifying to contemplate—and yet it is virtually invisible. The wreck of the Exxon Valdez remains the benchmark—every new estimate of the Macondo leakage is inevitably measured in Valdez Units, as in equal to one Exxon Valdez every four weeks or such—because it was a visceral catastrophe. There were pictures of otters and seagulls and fish, all soaked in oil and struggling or dying or dead.
Those pictures will come to the Gulf. In two weeks' time, oil will creep into the estuaries and onto the beaches, and it will soak turtles and pelicans and gannets and laughing gulls, and dead birds will begin to wash ashore. But for now, nineteen days into an endless disaster, there are only murky videos and grainy stills from deep underwater and, on the surface and from the air, ripples of frothy crude that, in the right light, can appear rather pretty instead of grotesque and abhorrent.
21 Days
The Deepwater Horizon quickly becomes a full-employment opportunity for lawyers. Within weeks, dozens of them file hundreds of lawsuits, from wrongful-death and personal-injury claims to class actions on behalf of more or less everyone who works on or lives within driving distance of the Gulf Coast. Because the laws governing such matters are somewhat complicated, a jumble of OPAs and DOHSAs and antiquated torts, and because so many attorneys are involved, the legal wrangling will almost certainly drag out for a decade or more. (The final Exxon Valdez claims weren't disposed of until 2009.)
Scott Bickford, a well-regarded New Orleans attorney, filed the first claim, on behalf of Natalie Roshto. (He also represents Mike Williams in a separate suit.) Bickford filed the suit in Louisiana. Transocean, however, would like all the cases heard in oil-friendly Texas, where in May it filed a petition, based on an antiquated maritime law, to have its liability for the disaster capped at $26.7 million. "We don't want Texas justice for a Louisiana problem," Bickford says.
When Natalie's suit was first reported, anonymous people logged on to the Internet and typed awful things about her. People who had never met her, who had never heard of Shane an hour before, who had never worked on an oil rig or been widowed by a corporate fuckup in the middle of the ocean, called her greedy and heartless, accused her of cashing in on her husband and her little boy's dead daddy. Natalie read some of those anonymous comments, then shut down her computer. They have it all wrong. It wouldn't matter if she was looking for a lottery ticket, anyway: Under the federal laws that cover people who die on the high seas, she's eligible for not much more than a portion of Shane's lifetime earnings. She has her own reasons for suing, and those aren't greedy at all.
"Shane always told me, 'If anything ever happens to me out there, you better fight till you're blue in the face,'" she says. Because if something ever happened to Shane, that meant something went wrong—something that shouldn't have gone wrong and shouldn't go wrong again—and usually it takes a judge and a jury to get that point across with any authority. "I want to be able to sit down with Blaine twenty years from now and tell him something really bad happened one night," she says, "but here are all the good things that came out of it. Here are the safety rules that changed, here are the regulations that changed."
But what does she tell him now? What does she tell a 3-year-old boy who'd just figured out that Daddy was gone when his truck was gone and Daddy was home when his truck was home, but now Daddy's truck is home and Daddy's not? What does she tell him when Blaine is playing with a toy John Deere and slips and bumps his arm and he's not really hurt but he's crying and he wants his Daddy? What does she tell him then?
She tells him the only thing she can think of. "Just raise your arm up toward the sky," she says, "and let Daddy kiss it."
And because Blaine is only 3, he believes her. So he raises his arm and says, "Thank you, Daddy," and sniffes away the last of his tears.
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A two-car crash involving an Ypsilanti Police Department vehicle injured the officer and another person shortly after 10 a.m. on Michigan Avenue Wednesday morning. Ypsilanti Police Department Lt. Deric Gress confirmed one police officer was injured in the crash and said the investigation into the incident is ongoing. He added that crash would be turned over to another agency to investigate. There appeared to be damage to the front of the police car and the passenger side of a dark-colored sedan. Huron Valley Ambulance spokeswoman Joyce Williams said two patients were transported from the scene to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in stable condition. Gress said the officer involved is in good condition. The crash occurred near the
in downtown Ypsilanti.
Ben Freed is a general assignments reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on twitter at @BFreedinA2. He also answers the phone at 734-623-2528.
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A shelter that can accommodate over 120 homosexual refugees is all set to open in Berlin on 23 February. Marcel de Groot who is behind the Schwulenberatung advisory centre that is responsible for the project said the shelter will aim to help asylum seekers who are often discriminated against due to their sexual orientation.
According to de Groot, the Berlin shelter will give a home to gay, lesbian and transsexual migrants who come from countries where their sexual orientation is often considered a form of crime. "There are stories of violence in shelters in Berlin ... [people should be able to] live without fear of violence or discrimination," said de Groot.
Verbal and physical violence reportedly continues across shelters in Germany both by other refugees and security personnel eroding homosexual asylum seekers' privacy. According to the gay and lesbian association of Berlin and Brandenburg, nearly 95 reports of assaults on homosexual asylum seekers were lodged between August and December 2015. According to one of the Berlin shelter project leader, Stephan Jaekel, several asylum seekers do not report on attacks out of fear that it will affect their asylum process, reported France 24 News.
"We have heard a lot of stories about discrimination and crimes against LGBT people in the last two years," said 'Schwulenberatung' manager Stephan Jakel. "They were frightened and scared after being beaten or spat on, and one survived a murder attempt. We heard a lot of horrible stories."
Earlier LGBT group Fliederlich announced plans to open a shelter for homosexual asylum seekers in Nuremberg. The two-storey shelter was planned to house nearly 10 gay and lesbian refugees. Meanwhile, Dutch education minister Jet Bussemaker had also announced plans to educate refugees about gay rights after five homosexual migrants were attacked at an Amsterdam shelter.
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Snow, sleet and freezing rain blanketed the Southeast Sunday and Monday, slowing travel and closing schools and government offices.
Josh D. Weiss/CNN Josh D. Weiss/CNN
A sledder lets out a scream as she rockets down a hill at Piedmont Park in Atlanta Monday, January 10.
Josh D. Weiss/CNN Josh D. Weiss/CNN
Snow blankets the fields at Piedmont Park in Atlanta as sledders walk around Monday.
Ferre Dollar/CNN Ferre Dollar/CNN
Atlanta and many other Southern cities awoke to a blanket of snow and ice Monday.
E.M. Pio Roda/CNN E.M. Pio Roda/CNN
Atlanta seems like a ghost town Monday in this view from I-75/I-85. Schools, businesses and government agencies shut their doors due to the winter weather.
E.M. Pio Roda/CNN E.M. Pio Roda/CNN
Rush hour appears quiet Monday in Midtown Atlanta along I-75/I-85, known as the Downtown Connector.
E.M. Pio Roda/CNN E.M. Pio Roda/CNN
Snow + hill + sled = flight for Atlantans enjoying the winter weather Monday in Piedmont Park.
E.M. Pio Roda/CNN E.M. Pio Roda/CNN
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WASHINGTON –- TransCanada Corp., the company seeking to build the Keystone XL pipeline, has teamed up with the world's largest public relations firm to promote a proposed alternative pipeline that's entirely in Canada.
Greenpeace Canada obtained documents that the U.S. public relations firm Edelman drafted for TransCanada that outline a campaign to promote Energy East, the company's proposed 2,858-mile pipeline that would transport crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to the east coast of Canada. The company filed an application to build the Energy East pipeline last month -- a project that has been described as an "oil route around Obama" amid political wrangling over Keystone XL in the United States.
Greenpeace says the documents show a company increasingly concerned about the fate of Keystone XL, which would connect the tar sands with Gulf Coast refineries. TransCanada's Energy East also faces increasing opposition, as does a proposed pipeline to the west, Enbridge's Northern Gateway. Enbridge got approval from the Canadian government to build Nothern Gateway, but work has been delayed, in large part because of opposition from First Nation communities along the pipeline route.
"TransCanada has been saying, 'If you don't let us build Keystone, we will build to the east,'" said Keith Stewart, the climate and energy campaign coordinator for Greenpeace Canada. "These documents show that they're clearly worried about the Energy East pipeline as well. It's going to face just as rough a ride as Keystone or Northern Gateway."
The Energy East documents outline plans to create a "grassroots" advocacy campaign on behalf of TransCanada, recruit outside voices backing the company, and investigate environmental groups seen as threats to the project.
Stewart said the documents show Edelman and TransCanada "systematically organizing what we'd call a dirty tricks campaign" typical in the U.S., but not in Canada. "We're nice, we don't do things like that," Stewart said.
A campaign organization document, dated Aug. 5, details what it calls a "Promote, Respond, Pressure approach" to "respond to allegations and protect the company." The plan includes typical public relations work, such as promoting the "positive message" on the project and responding to "unfavorable coverage, charges, or negative attacks." It also includes a plan to "work with third parties" to pressure opponents (emphasis theirs):
Add layers of difficulty for our opponents, distracting them from their mission and causing them to redirect their resources. We cannot allow our opponents to have a free pass. They will use any piece of information they can find to attack TransCanada and this project—attacks are part of a larger, modern oppositional effort to silence those on the other side … This point should particularly be made in communication to supportive third parties, who can in turn put the pressure on, especially when TransCanada can't.
The campaign organization document proposes a "research profile" of Canadian environmental groups, like the Council of Canadians, Equiterre, Ecology Ottawa, and David Suzuki Foundation, as well as the international group Avaaz. Another document on digital advocacy describes campaigns targeting labor groups, farmers, landowners, and people interested in national security in order to recruit "grassroots" supporters.
Many of the documents appear to be part of a pitch to get TransCanada to hire Edelman for the project, while others are action plans. TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline awaits a final decision in the U.S. after years of delays and strong pushback from environmental opponents.
Edelman spokesman Michael Bush declined to respond to questions about the firm's work for TransCanada. "We do not talk about the work we do for clients," he said via email.
Shawn Howard, a spokesman for TransCanada, confirmed that the documents Greenpeace obtained were recommendations Edelman had prepared for TransCanada on Energy East. He said Edelman has not done work for TransCanada on Keystone XL.
"While the versions you have are not the latest, we have moved forward with implementing certain components of the strategy," said Howard. He pointed to the site EnergyEastPipeline.com and a pro-Energy East petition as part of that campaign (both of which are clearly labeled as TransCanada-sponsored).
"We have been working with Edelman for several months now and appreciate the support they have provided in helping us better engage in the public conversation, both in Quebec and the rest of Canada," said Howard. "Edelman was chosen because of their presence in Quebec and their ability to understand the culture. This is an important component for TransCanada’s communications outreach as we move forward with this project."
Howard said the company has not implemented all of the recommendations in the documents, but is "focused on the pieces that support a coordinated and organized communications program to ensure communities, landowners, First Nations and all Canadians have the facts to make an informed decision about Energy East."
This type of campaign work is not new for Edelman. A "Grassroots Advocacy Vision Document" dated May 15, 2014, describes Edelman's previous work on "mobilization" for energy interests. It includes the "Energy Citizens" campaign that Edelman ran on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute -- a campaign designed to look like it came from ordinary citizens, but was in fact run by oil lobbyists.
"Companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and Haliburton (and many more) have all made key investments in building permanent advocacy assets and programs to support their lobbying, outreach, and policy efforts," Edelman wrote. "In launching a program like this, TransCanada will be in good company with a strong roadmap to follow."
In a document focusing on its plan for the province of Quebec, Edelman outlines identifying and recruiting "third-party voices" that can help "build an echo chamber of aligned voices." That document notes that Edelman's general manager for digital public affairs, Mike Krempasky, would serve as the senior counsel for the TransCanada work. Krempasky, co-founder of the conservative blog Red State, was also involved in a previous Edelman campaign that enlisted bloggers to promote WalMart without disclosing that the company was paying them.
Edelman faced pushback earlier this year after The Guardian and Motherboard published stories pointing out that the company had done work for interests that deny climate change. In a blog post responding to those stories, CEO Richard Edelman wrote, "We do not work with astroturf groups and we have never created a website for a client with the intent to deny climate change."
While the TransCanada documents predate Edelman's August blog post, they include descriptions of work that some may consider "astroturf" work. "If astroturf is using artificial grassroots to support a corporate agenda, this is clearly it," said Kert Davies, executive director of the Climate Investigations Center, which has been investigating the role of public relations firms in energy and climate campaigns.
Davies said the documents aren't that surprising, but it's not often you see the "full battle plan" for an industry PR effort. "This is a small window into the type of campaigns that oil companies and the American Petroleum Institute have been running for many years to try to affect the political arena."
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Shep Smith (Screenshot)
On Thursday afternoon, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith incurred the wrath of angry Trump fans by accusing President Donald Trump of “sexist cyber bullying” toward MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski.
“First on the Fox News deck this Thursday afternoon,” Smith said, “the president of the United States, Donald Trump, this morning, engaged in what critics are calling sexist cyber bullying in tweets at the MSNBC anchors and ‘Morning Joe’ co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.”
Smith went on to quote critics who called the tweets “beneath the office of the presidency.”
Within minutes, Twitter trolls were flooding Fox News’ and Smith’s timelines:
@FoxNews @ShepNewsTeam Really…Shep doesn't like the tweets? Report the news don't act so disgusted, just report the news dude! — Tim Sweet (@AGCarRestore) June 29, 2017
@ShepNewsTeam — are all gay golks as hateful as you? Or were you born full of hate. Go elsewhere Shep. Replace bleefing face on msnbc. — Judi Stanton (@JudiStanton1) June 29, 2017
@ShepNewsTeam what was that, shep, 13 whole minutes you wasted on tweets today? Im so SICK OF you and your despicable hatred of @POTUS — Nonna Sue (@nonnasuzi) June 29, 2017
it's called "shep smith reporting" yet he's not reporting, he's ranting and attacking the entire time. wtf is that — M. Cobretti (@CobraTheCure) June 29, 2017
@ShepNewsTeam Shep I don't give a dam what you think. Morning Joe is a jerk and America is ok that Trump thinks so too. — Mary Gehrmann (@MgehrmannMary) June 29, 2017
@FoxNews turning you off today. I watch FOX for news but all Shep can talk about is the tweet. So much important to report but NO, not Shep. — Cindy Quinn (@ccquinn430) June 29, 2017
@FoxNews Sheppard Smith you need to apologize to President for your lies as disparaging remarks Fox fire Shep your ratings are dropping — Build The Wall (@LAMOONLYNN) June 29, 2017
Watch the video, embedded below:
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The frilled-necked lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii), also known commonly as the frilled agama, frilled dragon or frilled lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Agamidae. The species is endemic to northern Australia and southern New Guinea. This species is the only member of the genus Chlamydosaurus.
Its common names come from the large frill around its neck, which usually stays folded against the lizard's body. C. kingii is largely arboreal, spending the majority of the time in the trees. Its diet consists mainly of insects and small vertebrates. The frill-necked lizard is a relatively large lizard, averaging 85 cm (2.79 ft) in total length (including tail) and is kept as an exotic pet.
Taxonomy [ edit ]
British zoologist John Edward Gray described the frill-necked lizard in 1825 as Clamydosaurus Kingii, from a specimen collected by an expedition conducted by Captain Phillip Parker King from HMS Mermaid.[1][2][3] King's specimen was obtained by his ship's botanist, Allan Cunningham at Careening Bay off the northwest coast of Australia.[4]
The generic name, Chlamydosaurus, is derived from the Ancient Greek chlamydo (χλαμύς), meaning "cloaked" or "mantled", and saurus (sauros), meaning "lizard". The specific name, kingii, is a Latinized form of Phillip Parker King's last name.[3] It is the only member of this genus.[5]
In the Jawoyn language of the Katherine area, it is known as leliyn.[6]
Description [ edit ]
A frill-necked lizard in a reptile display
The frill-necked lizard is a relatively large member of the agamid family, growing up to 85 cm (2.79 ft).[7] It is capable of bipedal locomotion and has been described as regularly moving in this manner with a purposeful stride at times by naturalists.[8][9]
Coloration tends to be brown or gray with spots and blotches of darker colors mixed in a mottled fashion to give the appearance of tree bark.[10] There is not one standard colour: rather, colouration varies according to the lizard's environment. For example, a lizard found in a dryer, clay filled environment will most likely have a collage of oranges, reds, and browns; whereas a lizard found in a damper, more tropical region will tend to show darker browns and greys. This suggests they are adapted to their habitats; their colors are a form of camouflage.[11]
The most distinct feature of these lizards is the large ruff of skin which usually lies folded back against its head and neck. The neck frill is supported by long spines of cartilage which are connected to the jaw bones. When the lizard is frightened, it produces a startling deimatic display: it gapes its mouth, exposing a bright pink or yellow lining; it spreads out its frill, displaying bright orange and red scales; raises its body; and sometimes holds its tail above its body.[12] This reaction is used for territorial displays, to discourage predators, and during courtship.[9][13] The red and orange parts of its frill contain carotenoid pigments.[14]
The bones of the frill are modified elongate hyoid types that form rods which expand the frill.[15] Secondarily the frill can serve as a form of camouflage when relaxed; there is no standard coloration to the body, but it is usually darker than the frill.[13]
Distribution and habitat [ edit ]
Frill-necked lizard in natural environment, showing camouflage
The frilled-neck lizard is found mainly in the northern regions of Australia and southern New Guinea.[16] The lizard on rare occasions is found in the lower desert regions of Australia[17] but primarily inhabits humid climates such as those in the tropical savannah woodlands.[18]
It tends to be an arboreal lizard, meaning it spends a majority of its time in the trees.[18] The lizard ventures to the floor only in search of food, or to engage in territorial conflicts.[19] The arboreal habitat may be a product of the lizard's diet, which consists mainly of small arthropods and vertebrates (usually smaller lizards).[19] However, the trees are most importantly used for camouflage.[20]
Diet [ edit ]
Cryptic pose on termite mound in the Northern Territory
Like many lizards, frill-necked lizards are carnivores, feeding on cicadas, beetles, termites, and mice.[21] They especially favor butterflies, moths and their larvae.[22] Though insects are their primary source of food, they also consume spiders and occasionally other lizards.[23] Like most members of the agamids (dragons), frill-necked lizards employ an ambush method of hunting, lying in wait for their prey.[24] When the lizards eat, they eat in abundance; these binge periods usually occur during the wet season, when they ingest hundreds to thousands of alate (flying) ants or termites.[24]
Thermoregulation [ edit ]
The frilled-neck lizard is ectothermic and maintains its body temperature by basking briefly to achieve an average of 2–3 °C above the surrounding temperature.[25] Weather conditions, including sunlight, are the main factors regulating the lizards’ temperature. This basking period usually occurs in the morning to early afternoon to ensure maximum exposure to sunlight. However, the lizard's final internal temperature depends mainly on the ambient temperature of the surrounding environment. The lizard's frill was once thought to aid in thermoregulation, but this has been found without merit.[13][26]
Reproduction and sexual dimorphism [ edit ]
Chlamydosaurus kingii from Narrative of a Survey Volume 2, by fromVolume 2, by Phillip Parker King , 1827.
The frilled-neck lizard is sexually dimorphic; meaning that there are physical differences between male and females. This dimorphism is apparent in the length of the lizard; the male is generally larger than the female.[24] There is little to no dimorphism in the color of the lizard.[13]
Frilled-necked lizards breed in the early wet season from September to October.[13] Adult males fight for mates, displaying their frills and biting each other. One to two clutches of 6–25 eggs are laid from early to mid-wet season from November to February.[13] The eggs are laid in a nest 5–20 cm below ground, and usually in sunny areas. Incubation takes two to three months.[19] Gender is partly temperature determined, with extreme temperatures producing exclusively females, and intermediate temperatures (29 to 35 °C) producing equal numbers of males and females. Their eggs are soft-shelled.[24]
Predators [ edit ]
The species' main predators are eagles, owls, larger lizards, snakes, dingos and quolls.[27]
In culture [ edit ]
A frill-necked lizard was featured on the reverse of the Australian 2-cent coin until 1991.[28] A frill-necked lizard named "Lizzie" was the mascot for the 2000 Summer Paralympic Games.[26] The lizard features on the emblem of the Northern Australian regiment NORFORCE.[29]
Because of its unique appearance and behavior, the creature has often been used in film and television. A frill-necked lizard named "Frank" appeared in the 1990 Disney animated film The Rescuers Down Under.[30] In the 1993 film Jurassic Park, the dinosaur Dilophosaurus was portrayed with a neck frill that raised when attacking,[15] and generated an increase in demand for frill-necked lizards as pets.[31]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
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The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was once the most densely populated place on earth. And without a single architect or any oversight whatsoever, the ungoverned hive of interlinking buildings became a haven for drugs, crime and prostitution. This is perhaps why the surreal, M.C. Escher-like structure, where one couldn’t even begin to imagine what life was like, captured the interest of the Japanese.
When it was demolished in 1993 the Japanese public tuned in to national television where it was being broadcast. But what most didn’t know was that, up until the previous evening, a group of Japanese researchers, which included architects, engineers and city planners, and led by historian and cultural anthropologist Hiroaki Kani, had entered the deserted city and had been documenting every nook and cranny up until the bulldozers arrived.
Their findings were compiled into a book that was published 5 years later. Almost as dense as the city itself, the book includes meticulously drawn cross-sections, panoramic views, explanations of different areas and much more. A friend once let me flip through his copy and spent almost an hour mesmerized by the book’s intensity.
Japan’s fascination with the Kowloon Walled City has led to numerous other projects as well, such as a 3D model and – perhaps most ambitious of all – an arcade modeled after the city.
H/T @themexican
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Ask me how Hulu stole $6.00 from me with this one sneaky UX trick.
Lauren LoPrete Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 9, 2017
Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here in the first place. Back in 2015, Cinnamon Toast Crunch had a commercial to the tune of Kelis’ Milkshake. It was… The worst. Commercial. Ever. Or was it the best? Since it got me to upgrade to a commercial free Hulu account (+$3.00).
In an effort to save money and watch less tv, I decided to downgrade my Hulu commercial-free plan to their basic streaming service. Venturing to their website was new territory (I’m typically only a Hulu-on-Apple-TV-user). I had gone to their site before to upgrade, but this time I made a glaring mistake.
I tapped into “Your Account” to update my plan. My eyes focused on the empty space across from “Hulu Base Plan” expecting to see a similar manage/update/change action in blue.
Took me 60 seconds to figure out the way to manage my plan was through the Add-ons “manage” CTA. I expected a similar button across from Hulu Base Plan.
Now, I’m in “Manage Your Subscription”.
Seems pretty clear from here: My current plan, switch plans, and add-on features. I don’t need any more add-on features so I just ignore those. I chose the $7.99 plan by switching the toggle “on”.
It’s ON. You want this plan. Close tab.
Two months go by and I haven’t been on Hulu much. Fall TV is starting though, so I’m back on Apple TV looking for that teal-lime gradient icon. There are no commercials streaming between segments of SNL so I check my billing statement… Still shows $11.99 charges. Somehow my change didn’t go into effect. I returned to my account page, confused. The switch I had so intently toggled on, was off.
Continue? Continue what?
I must have missed a step. My bad. What an idiot I am. Scrolls all the way to the bottom… Ah! A continue button.
There’s got to be a better way.
A UI switch indicates the status as on or off. When I toggled on the $7.99 plan, I thought that meant I was good to go. If I have to confirm my action, make that obvious to me. By toggling on a switch but not continuing, I was left in subscription limbo.
Here are two alternate solutions:
Use gradient buttons to say “select this plan” instead.
2. Prompt the user to continue/save/done on a sticky footer. Surface the sticky footer when the user engages with the toggle.
Save yourself from Subscription limbo.
While both of these solutions would provide clearer and less-frustrating UX, they keep users focused on the top half of the page, limiting their exposure to add-ons. But by employing the exit-through-the-gift-shop approach — get users to comb through the add-ons as upsell — I’m prevented from completing the task I set out to do.
If product’s goal is to upsell on this page, it prevented the UX team from designing a clearer interaction. Product designers (and Hulu) should consider how they market and display add-ons. On a page where the user’s intent is to manage their current plan, I want to focus on the plan or add-ons that I currently have. Hulu should consider moving add-ons and manage account to two separate pages.
And give me my $6.00 back.
******
This is my first Medium article. Please help me improve my writing by giving me feedback, thanks! Lauren
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Chicken Tikka Masala – at home – on the couch – with just 5 ingredients – in 30 minutes. THIS IS HAPPENING.
click here to Pin this recipe
Let me first start by saying I would never want to trick you into wanting to try a recipe. Never ever. Not even the most creamy, luscious, medium-spicy, must-have-it chicken tikka masala.
Sooo when I say five ingredients, what I actually mean is that there are more than five ingredients that go into this, otherwise how would it even taste good? I’m cringing like oh my gosh do you hate me for pulling you in like this? I promise I have good reasons and I promise this can work.
In order to approach this as a five ingredient recipe – which I absolutely do when I make it roughly 300x per week – you need to accept that one of the five ingredients is a MASALA PASTE with lots of fragrant and punchy and deeply flavored ingredients. You will make this masala paste once, it will be done in about 5 minutes, and then it will live in your freezer so that forevermore you will have the ability to make this chicken tikka masala as a quick and easy five ingredient recipe.
Are you following?
So the first order of business here is making the masala paste. Today. Right now. End of story. One 5 minute batch of masala paste = many batches of this five ingredient CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA with hardly any thought or effort. The paste is the very necessary flavor base that brings the other four ingredients together. Have a look.
Chicken Tikka Masala Ingredients
Chicken
Masala Paste
Plain Yogurt (for marinating the chicken)
Tomato Puree
Coconut Milk
See? that wasn’t even bad at all.
How to make our Chicken Tikka Masala (1 min):
Guys, I need to confess something. One of the main reasons I need an easy recipe such as this chicken tikka masala in my life is because I went to the Justin Beiber concert last night WHATTTT
I seriously did. I am a 30 year old fan girl. I’ve listened to all the music, I saw the movie – THE MOVIE, you guys, and as of last night I am an official concert attendee. Lines have been crossed. Boundaries have been ignored. There is no going back.
Fortunately (but is this really fortunate?) there are some snaps still on my snapchat story from the concert so if you’re reading this on the day it’s posted, THERE’S STILL TIME to peep our concert shenanigans, or more importantly, sneak a peek at the Beibs to decide for yourself if he is as strangely cool / frustrating as he seems. Not that you guys would ever be into that though, right? No. We’re super mature on this blog.
Alright, focus.
We were marinating chicken in yogurt and masala paste.
We were creating a magical witches’ brew of a sauce with tomato puree and more masala paste and coconut milk like whoa.
If you can, if you will, if you need good 5-ingredient recipes that taste like your favorite Indian restaurant came into your house, please make that masala paste which will transform into this sauce which will cover this chicken which makes the simplest chicken tikka masala happen in your life, in your very own home, on your very own couch in your very own sweats because HELLO. Masala requires this of us.
I’ve described everything you need including the masala paste in the recipe section of this post, so no need to have two recipe tabs open at once and feel frazzled with all the ingredients. It’s all here because streamlined = efficient = winning.
Chicken Tikka Masala wants to love you.
Chicken Tikka Masala ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.7 from 59 reviews Author: Pinch of Yum
Prep Time: Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: Yield: 6-8 Print Recipe Pin Recipe Description Chicken Tikka Masala – creamy, perfectly spicy, and ready in 30 minutes! you won’t believe how easy it is to make this at home! Ingredients 2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup masala paste (see notes)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups tomato puree
1 14 ounce can regular coconut milk
rice and cilantro for serving Instructions PREP: Make the quick masala paste (or maybe – hopefully – you already made this and have it in your freezer?! you’re a rock star). MARINATE CHICKEN: Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Marinate with 1 tablespoon of masala paste and the yogurt for about 30 minutes in the fridge. SIMMER: Heat a large, deep skillet over medium high heat and add the remaining masala paste. Stir fry for a few minutes to get all the spices going. Add the chicken/yogurt mixture and saute until the chicken is mostly cooked. Add the tomato puree and coconut milk to the pan with the chicken and simmer for 15 or so minutes. Season with salt. Let stand for a while so the sauce will thicken up a bit. Serve over rice with cilantro! Notes Instant Pot Instructions: Same ingredients and instructions, but throw it all together in the Instant Pot in step 3. Cook for 8 minutes on manual and use the quick release. Check out the video above to see how it’s done! You can buy canned tomato puree at a lot of grocery stores. Otherwise just use canned tomatoes and run them through the food processor or blender till smooth. The idea is just plain pureed tomatoes without seasoning. For extra lusciousness, add a little bit of heavy whipping cream or use whipping cream in place of some of the coconut milk. Light coconut milk can be used but does not yield the same thick and creamy results. Masala Paste:
2 onions (I used one yellow, one purple, together totaling about 3 cups when chopped)
5 cloves garlic
a 2-inch piece of fresh ginger
3 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
a small pile of of cilantro stems
a fistful of almonds
juice of one lemon Run everything through the food processor as-is until mostly smooth (see picture) and you’re done. Make this paste once and keep it in the freezer and you’ve got what you need for 5 ingredient Chicken Tikka Masala FROM SCRATCH for many happy days. Makes about 1 1/2 cups of paste.
Recipe Card powered by
Nutrition Facts are for 6 servings, not including rice.
MORE AWESOME CHICKEN RECIPES:
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BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Such has been the success of Romania’s anti-corruption prosecutors that television crews are now permanently stationed outside their offices, waiting for the next politician, businessman or judge to be hauled in.
Elena Udrea, former Romanian minister of tourism and former presidential candidate, who is currently a lower chamber Member of Parliament (MP), is surrounded by members of the media as she arrives in front of the headquarters of Romania's corruption-fighting agency in Bucharest February 10, 2015. REUTERS/Inquam Photos/Ovidiu Micsik
Romania’s corruption-fighting agency, known by the local acronym DNA, secured a record 1,138 convictions last year, pursuing people who might once have been untouchable.
Graft has long been a deterrent to doing business in Romania, which is joint last among EU countries in Transparency International’s corruption perception index and has been singled out by the European Union along with Bulgaria for special monitoring of its justice system.
But investigations into the prime minister’s brother-in-law and father-in-law - himself a powerful member of the ruling party - as well as a sitting president’s brother, government ministers and the head of a midsize political party have made for a steady stream of headlines.
The efforts of the DNA’s more than 100 prosecutors have proved that many state contracts are handed out in exchange for favors or bribes, and about 7 percent of lawmakers elected in 2012 have been convicted or are under investigation for corruption.
Meanwhile, political pressure to drop cases touched a new peak last year as investigations reached the highest levels of politics, DNA chief Laura Kovesi told Reuters in an interview.
But if the earnest, towering 41-year-old former basketball player is worried, it doesn’t show.
“If anything, prosecutors’ resistance to such pressures has grown,” said Kovesi, who was Romania’s youngest prosecutor general and the first woman to hold the office.
“The pressure will continue for as long as we investigate such cases. But I think it is important for the political class to reach a certain maturity and understand that all prosecutors want ... is to get to the truth in criminal cases, and that we don’t have any other interests.”
DARK HINTS
The politicians’ complaints have grown, as have the protests outside DNA headquarters. But Kovesi, whose father was also a prosecutor, has a protection detail similar to that of other officials, and says her life outside work is normal.
In January, a former presidential candidate under investigation hinted darkly that Kovesi owed her position to the influence of a senior secret service official, an accusation she dismissed as a smear.
Cristi Danilet, a judge who sits on the supreme magistrates’ council, Romania’s judicial regulator, said he was “scared by the extent of corruption cases because they point to a society that is sick from top to bottom”.
“From the education and health sectors and all the way to the judiciary, politics and business - corruption is everywhere.”
Graft exists in the judiciary partly because top prosecutors and some others are political appointees. But there have already been significant attempts to tackle the problem.
Last year, seven judges and 13 prosecutors were jailed for corruption. A judge at Romania’s top court has been charged with joining an organized crime group, as well as accepting a BMW car and two dresses for his wife as bribes.
And no lesser figure than the chief prosecutor in charge of fighting organized crime is herself under investigation.
“It is definitely a conscious effort by the judiciary to solve its own problems,” said Laura Stefan, a legal expert at the Expert Forum think-tank.
MAGISTRATES STILL BREAKING LAW
“The half-empty part of the glass is that the numbers are very high for a country like Romania. There remain many magistrates still breaking the law.”
Romania started implementing judicial reforms as an aspiring member of the EU in 2004, when magistrates’ independence was legally guaranteed for the first time.
The DNA, founded in 2002, was overhauled by narrowing its scope to focus only on high-level corruption. The first major cases went to trial under Kovesi’s predecessor in 2005-2006. They resulted in a string of convictions, notably including former prime minister Adrian Nastase.
Prosecutors gradually gained expertise, and the number of cases started to rise, helped by intelligence service wire taps.
Now, the DNA enjoys something of a cult status among younger Romanians, and is trusted by twice as many people as the government. At rallies around last year’s election campaign, there were shouts of “We love DNA!” and “DNA for president!”.
The number of tip-offs has consequently grown, as has the number of politicians taking to the media to complain of “witch hunts”.
“They say their political opponents are controlling the judiciary, or that prosecutors are controlling judges, and now that secret services are controlling prosecutors,” Danilet said.
The European Commission’s latest review praised Romania’s judiciary, but noted that problems remained, especially in parliament, whose approval is required for a sitting MP to be investigated. Only this month, it blocked an investigation into a current senator and former economy minister.
Legal attempts to strengthen parliamentary immunity or weaken the judiciary are not uncommon, and Kovesi takes nothing for granted.
“Laws ... are constantly shifting and so there are some concerns that one legal change could confound or even block judicial reform,” she said.
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This is the first official release of the Celestial tear: Demon's Revenge demo. We need as much feedback and critique as possible. Give it a try and let us know what you think about it.
Posted by trexrell on May 29th, 2014
We’ve finally finished the first part of the demo and we are needing some feedback. We added a bunch more than we thought we would and there’s STILL stuff that we left out due to the fact that we were already behind on time with the other stuff that we added. There’s a few secret areas and I want to know who can explore enough to find it all! The demo is about an hour long when you do everything, otherwise you can blast through it in about 15 minutes. Some of the voice acting that we got are kind of last minute because the 2 people testing the game told us of how bad the quality was of a few of our actors. We did not want to put it out with the bad quality actors. Although the acting was great, the mics were just not up to par.
We also had to iron out a few bugs in the game that we found, shrink file size, and make sure that only the files we were using were included so you guys don’t get a gig download lol. Some bugs, I could not fix, these are mentioned in the read me file. Overall this week had been pretty fun, but also kind of stressful for me due to me wanting everything to be perfect, but I know that’s not possible with anything. Every time I played through it I found a new mistake. I’m honestly still scared to know that I may have missed a few o_O, but I am still happy to know that the game is out there for everyone to play and I’m totally looking forward to pt 2 of the demo which will really get the story started. Think of this part as a tutorial.
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