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Every word conceals a story, a secret history. Behind the syllables we use every day lurk countless forgotten tales. “If you know the origin of a word”, the 6th Century scholar Isidore of Seville insisted, “everything can be more clearly comprehended”. While most words slip into currency inconspicuously and without leaving traceable trails of their journeys, there is an elite class of verbal inventions whose exact dates of initial utterance have indeed been carefully recorded.
Some of these words are the one-off brainchildren of individuals who have long faded into the fog of history. Others are the concoctions of cultural pioneers who deliberately set out to shape the way future generations think and speak. In every instance what is remarkable is how the unlocking of a word’s biography helps us unlock both the biography of the individual who coined it as well as the age in which he or she lived. What follows are eight intriguing coinages that have altered the way we think about, see, hear, discover, and exist in the world around us:
Twitter
Social media would certainly be a less cheerful place without Twitter’s chirpy logo: that powder-blue profile of a floating bird forever frozen in mid warble. But who first had the phonic imagination to fashion an onomatopoetic compromise between the language of feathers and the language of men? ‘Twitter’ (or ‘twiterith’ as it was initially crafted in the second half of the 14th century), first trilled from the quill of Geoffrey Chaucer in his translation of Consolation of Philosophyby the 6th Century philosopher Boethius. Predating both ‘chirp’ and ‘warble’ by a century, ‘twitter’ is one of over 2,200 words for which the Medieval poet is credited with having inked an inaugural usage. That it’s the same author who wrote the poem The Parlement of Foules seems entirely appropriate.
Serendipity
Before 1754, if someone had wanted to express ‘the fortuitous discovery of something by chance’, he or she would have had to dip his or her nib more than a few times to eke out the full slog of such a cumbersome sentiment. Then presto, on Tuesday 28 January, the English writer Horace Walpole, while composing a letter, gifted to the world that rather peppy prance of syllables: ‘serendipity’. Walpole said he based his lyrical invention on a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, whose protagonists, he insisted, “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity”. That Walpole misremembered the actual gist of the tale (in fact the princes fail to find what they were looking for despite painstaking attempts) hardly matters; ‘serendipity’ is here to stay – a happy accident indeed. It’s not Walpole’s only quirky coinage. ‘Betweenity’, a word far more charming than its better-known synonym, ‘intermediateness’, deserves the same affection that its sibiling ‘serendipity’ has enjoyed.
Panorama
Some words seem to vibrate with the very spirit of the meaning they denote. “Panorama” is one of these; its very rhythm seems in harmony with the wide, mountain-top vistas, boundless horizons, and unblinkered breadth of vision for which it stands. That the word (which literally means ‘all-seeing’) should have entered the world’s lexicon around 1789, a year synonymous with the collapse of that notorious cultural enclosure, Paris’s prison-fortress the Bastille, seems entirely appropriate to panorama’s emancipating vibe. How ironic, then, to discover that the word was initially attached to an entirely confined experience: a cylindrical painting that imprisons its audience – an indoor visual contraption devised by the Irish artist Robert Barker.
Visualise
It’s hard to believe that no one had ever ‘visualised’ anything before 1817, but that’s the year the Romantic poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the word in his philosophical confession Biographia Literaria (a full century before the word ‘envision’ was minted). In retrospect it seems fitting that a writer whose mind’s eye was haunted by such phantasmic visions as the spectral ship in his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and by the “flashing eyes” and “floating hair” that unsettle the ending of his prophetic lyric Kubla Khan, should be the one to give a name to the seeing of the unseeable. Tortured throughout his life by both material and immaterial substances alike, Coleridge is unsurprisingly responsible for introducing into English other words for describing the darker aspects of experience, such as ‘psychosomatic’ and ‘pessimism’.
Intellectualise
Coleridge is frequently given credit too for devising a related verb: to ‘intellectualise’, meaning to transform a physical object into a property of the mind. While he certainly deserves credit for coining a term that suggests the very opposite – the underused ‘thingify’ (which means to turn a thought into an object) – in fact ‘intellectualise’ probably belongs to an obscure contemporary and inspiration of the Romantic poet: a mysterious 18th-Century traveller known by the curious nickname ‘Walking Stewart’ for his celebrated feat of having wandered over a greater portion of the known world than anyone before him. In his decades of rambling over India, Africa and Europe, Stewart developed an eccentric philosophy that centred on the notion that mind and body were in constant flux between a world that is ceaselessly intellectualised and a spirit that is endlessly thingified.
Bureaucracy
The hobo narrator of Harry McClintock’s 1928 song Big Rock Candy Mountain dreams of reaching a carefree paradise where “they hung the jerk who invented work”. While history may not remember the name of that particular “jerk”, we do know who the identity of the French economist who invented a word for something almost as tiresome”: ‘bureaucracy’. In 1818, Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay tethered the French word for desk (bureau) to the Greek suffix that means ‘the power of’ (-cracy) and gave a name to the red tape that was beginning to strangle society. Having coined a word for the governmental processes that impose tedious rules on individual behaviour, Gournay might seem the last person we’d expect to give birth to a term that means “let people do as they think best”: laissez-faire.
Photograph
Strange to think that some of the most seemingly stable names we attach to the objects around us were embraced only gradually and by a process of elimination. The English astronomer and inventor Sir John Herschel’s proposal of the word ‘photograph’ in 1839 had to see off rival coinages before becoming fixed permanently in the world’s vocabulary. Had history taken another path, your gran might be admonishing you for not sending enough ‘sun-prints’ or ‘photogenes’. One competitor, heliograph, which predated ‘photograph’ by a generation, gave Herschel’s suggestion a serious run for its money.
Muggle
Men, needless to say, are not, as a gender, uniquely skilled at coining compelling words, however uncelebrated female neologists have been. With their contributions to culture frequently marginalised, is there any wonder that we find that the Oxford English Dictionary attributes to female writers the first usage of such words as ‘outsider’ (to Jane Austen in 1800) and ‘angst’ (imported from German by George Eliot in 1849). In our own age, it has once again fallen to a female novelist to define who is endowed with the powers of the initiated and those left wanting of wizardry ways. J K Rowling’s coining of ‘muggle’ in her 1997 book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to describe mortals bereft of supernatural skill, reminds of the perennial magic of words – those who have it and those who don’t.
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“I think Democrats don’t know how to deal with this level of racial animus,” said Derrick Johnson, the newly elected president of the NAACP, the country’s oldest civil rights organization. “They may object to it, but they don’t know how to react effectively,” he added.
And Democrats don’t want any part of it. When it comes to the culture war, most Democrats would rather fight Republicans on policy than on Trump’s racially fraught ground. But some black and Latino leaders are warning Democrats that the current approach — talking around race rather than confronting it head-on — is further demoralizing people of color, who are usually loyal Democratic voters but did not turn out in 2016 at the level they did in 2012.
Trump’s formidable fusion of white identity politics and economic populism — a combination that has powered politicians throughout American history, from Andrew Jackson to William Jennings Bryan — shows early signs of dominating Republican messaging in 2018.
Republicans across the country are increasingly following the president’s lead and picking fights over Confederate monuments, NFL player protests, Muslims, undocumented immigrants, and preaching law and order — opting to rally the party’s mostly white base more brazenly than the subtle racist dog whistles of the past.
Read more
Donald Trump’s “culture war” army is growing.
Republicans across the country are increasingly following the president’s lead and picking fights over Confederate monuments, NFL player protests, Muslims, undocumented immigrants, and preaching law and order — opting to rally the party’s mostly white base more brazenly than the subtle racist dog whistles of the past.
Trump’s formidable fusion of white identity politics and economic populism — a combination that has powered politicians throughout American history, from Andrew Jackson to William Jennings Bryan — shows early signs of dominating Republican messaging in 2018.
And Democrats don’t want any part of it. When it comes to the culture war, most Democrats would rather fight Republicans on policy than on Trump’s racially fraught ground. But some black and Latino leaders are warning Democrats that the current approach — talking around race rather than confronting it head-on — is further demoralizing people of color, who are usually loyal Democratic voters but did not turn out in 2016 at the level they did in 2012.
“I think Democrats don’t know how to deal with this level of racial animus,” said Derrick Johnson, the newly elected president of the NAACP, the country’s oldest civil rights organization. “They may object to it, but they don’t know how to react effectively,” he added.
But party insiders say there’s at least one strategic reason Democrats aren’t engaging with Trump on race.
“You have to understand, there are just a ton of white people in this country.”
“You have to understand, there are just a ton of white people in this country,” one Democratic Party official explained to VICE News recently, a point several Democratic strategists echoed when asked why they choose policy over going to war on culture issues. Democrats are instead relying on the belief that good policy is more important to people of color than debates over things like monuments and player protests of police violence.
Fear of racial politics
But race is now shaping the political parties in a way it hasn’t for a generation. Pew Research Center has been asking people since 1994 whether discrimination is the “main reason many blacks cannot get ahead.” The partisan gap on that question went from 13 points in 1994 to 19 points in 2009, to 50 points in the summer of 2017.
Yet, most Democratic leaders say they support NFL players’ right to protest but shy away from forcefully embracing their cause to end police violence. A bill from Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey to remove the Confederate monuments in the Capitol — including one of Confederate President Jefferson Davis — has only four co-sponsors out of 48 Senate Democrats and has had little public push from leadership. And the party’s much-promoted “Better Deal” agenda makes no mention of immigration or the criminal justice system.
READ: The fight over Confederate statues could make or break Democrats
Democratic leaders have largely stayed away from talking about race since Republicans took over the South following the civil rights movement. The exceptions have usually been when Democratic politicians wanted to shed their “pro-black stance,” as they were urged to do in the influential 1970 best-seller “The Real Majority,” by two Democratic political analysts.
But Trump may be making that strategy untenable. In today’s political climate, policy proposals often don’t break through in the same way some of the cultural fights do — just ask Hillary Clinton. While Trump dominates the political conversation by speaking to white anxiety, Democrats are doing little to speak to the anxiety among people of color.
“I don’t see any advantage in getting involved in the American flag stuff, period.”
Democrats’ relative silence is also partly calculated. Most Democratic leaders believe they just can’t win if they further alienate the white working class and see them as an indispensable part of the New Deal coalition. The “Better Deal” slogan is meant to invoke just that.
Working class whites
According to the latest U.S. Census figures, 61.3 percent of the population is white. About half of Democratic voters in last year’s election were white. That is quickly changing, however, since the majority of babies born the last several years are non-white, according to recent estimates by the Census Bureau.
“I don’t see any advantage in getting involved in the American flag stuff, period,” Doug Sosnik, a former counselor to Bill Clinton whose strategy memos carry a lot of weight among the political establishment, told VICE News of the NFL player protests. “That’s a cul de sac that you can never get out of.”
Or as former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon recently told the American Prospect: “I want them to talk about racism every day. If the Left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”
But many black and Latino leaders believe that Democrats’ can no longer count on people of color if the party continues to focus most of its energy on winning back white voters.
“We are ceding this anxious ground to Trump and the Bannons of the world,” said pollster Cornell Belcher, the author of “A Black Man in the White House.” Belcher, who is black, added that “when Trump stands in front of his audiences and says, ‘I’m going to give you back your country,’ he is having a conversation about race. Democrats’ response to that is that ‘I’m going to raise the minimum wage.’ It’s disconnected.”
Chuck Rocha, founder of Solidarity Strategies, which specializes in outreach to the Latino community, agreed that the Democrats are not motivating people of color, especially the young. “We haven’t seen Democrats yet take a stance that would motivate the 25-year-old Latino kid in East Texas who sees Trump making him out to be a member of the MS-13 gang when he was born and raised here,” said Rocha, who has also worked on several presidential campaigns, including Sen. Bernie Sanders’.
Trumpism in Virginia
That dynamic has been especially present in the Virginia governor race, to be decided Tuesday. Republican nominee Ed Gillespie is a quintessential establishment Republican whose resume includes chair of the RNC and counselor to President George W. Bush. But he’s recast himself in this race as a Trumpian culture warrior promising to preserve Confederate monuments, sending mailers emblazoned with “You’d never take a knee, so take a stand on Election Day” alongside a kneeling football player, and warning that his opponent, Democrat Ralph Northam, will “let dangerous illegal immigrants back on the street” like members of the Central American gang MS-13.
And while Gillespie’s tactics have gotten some tut-tutting from the media, he has also surged in the polls with the shift in strategy, starting at down 13 points at the beginning of October and rising to just 5 down at the end, according to two polls conducted by Washington Post-Schar School. Polls released late last week have the race within the margin of error. While Gillespie has kept Trump the man at arms length, Bannon told The New York Times this week that “I think the big lesson for Tuesday is that, in Gillespie’s case, Trumpism without Trump can show the way forward.”
READ: Confederate monuments are all over states that weren’t in the Confederacy
Northam has responded by trying to win back the white voters Gillespie is riling by talking about policy or moderating his stance on these cultural issues. In the closing weeks of the campaign, Northam argued he’d be tougher on MS-13 than Gillespie and shifted his position on monuments from vowing to take them down to saying he wouldn’t “meddle” with localities about them.
But as Northam tries to win back white voters, there’s increasing evidence that his support among people of color is slipping, or at least is unenthusiastic. A private poll from mid-October by the immigration advocacy group America’s Voice found that Northam’s support among black and Latino voters was lower than expected, according to a report by the Washington Post.
Latino Victory Fund (LVF), a progressive political action committee focused on the Latino community, saw that poll and took the culture war into their own hands. The group produced an ad called “American Nightmare,” which shows a white man in a pickup with a Gillespie bumper sticker and Confederate flag chasing down children of color. “In the past, immigrants have been scapegoats in political attack ads, and now we are pushing back hard,” said Cristóbal Alex, the group’s president. “We are portraying the true-life anxiety of immigrants and Latinos and their families.”
Gillespie said the ad portraying his supporters as racist shows that Northam “disdains us,” and newspaper editorial boards including the Washington Post — which endorsed Northam — called the ad “vile.” (LVF took down the ad after the attack in New York City last week where a man used a car to run down and kill eight people). Afterward, Northam said it wasn’t the sort of ad he would have run and also promised to sign a bill that would ban sanctuary cities.
If Gillespie wins Tuesday, Democrats expect Republicans to replicate his culture war campaign across the country in 2018.
Facebook, television, and radio will then be wall-to-wall pictures and videos of black football players kneeling during the national anthem, sanctuary cities full of MS-13 gang members, and Robert E. Lee visages coming down.
And even if he loses, it’s possible that will happen anyway. The Republicans running for governor in New Jersey and Senate in Alabama are already using similar tactics. In the New Jersey gubernatorial race, Republican nominee Kim Guadagno is desperately trying to gain ground by running an ad with anxiety-inducing tones and pictures of an MS-13 gang member, with the warning that the Democrat Phil Murphy “doesn’t have our backs. He has theirs.”
In the Alabama Senate contest to go to a vote in December, Republican nominee Roy Moore — the former chief justice of the state supreme court — said two weeks ago that kneeling during the national anthem “is against the law” (it’s not) and defended Confederate statues, saying, “Monuments don’t create hate; people do.”
His Democratic opponent Doug Jones, a former U.S. Attorney who prosecuted high-profile cases against the Ku Klux Klan, has tried to ignore the culture stuff and focus on “kitchen table issues.” Asked about the level of racism in the country on the liberal podcast “Pod Save America,” Jones demurred: “I’m not going to throw stones at who is causing that rise [of racism].”
Calling out “deplorables”
Like in Virginia, this effort to appeal to white voters also has potentially stifled enthusiasm for Jones among people of color, even though his resume is right out of a John Grisham novel. The newly elected mayor of Birmingham, Randall Woodfin, recently told the New York Times that people in his city are largely supportive of Jones but that his “issue is motivating them to come out and vote for him.”
Many Democrats point out, however, that Hillary Clinton did call out racism in her speech on the alt-right and then again, less eloquently, when she called half of Trump supporters “deplorable.” And she lost, if you hadn’t heard.
“If we think one speech or one comment is going to change this scapegoating racial narrative then we are fooling ourselves,” said Heather McGhee, the president of the progressive think tank Demos who is also working with Belcher on crafting an alternative message for Democrats.
Some veterans of the Clinton campaign agree. “No Democrat should hesitate to call out the Republicans for their shameless race-baiting,” Brian Fallon, Clinton’s campaign press secretary, told VICE News. “But if people are only hearing about how bigoted and racist and awful your opponent is, it doesn’t necessarily help you make the case for yourself,” he added.
What seems clear is that the culture war is likely here to stay, whether Democrats engage or not. No less a figure than Barack Obama recently called the debate over symbols of the Confederacy a “distraction” while campaigning with Northam in October.
But the NAACP’s Johnson disagreed.
“The Confederacy and those individuals who participated was a treasonous act, and we should treat them as such,” he said.
“Symbols matter.” |
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Flagship is a RTS (real-time-strategy) game with support for the Oculus Rift that aims to put you in command of a fleet of spaceships. The game is controlled from a first person perspective with the player as the captain working from the bridge of the fleet’s lead ship. Players will command their fleet with the help of the crew and see the action unfold in space around them.
Flagship Kickstarter
Flagship is looking to raise £95,000 on Kickstarter and it’s currently 39% of the way there. I spoke with one of the title’s developers, Brad Jeffrey to learn more about the project.
Flagship Q&A with Developer Brad Jeffrey
Road to VR: What are your plans for integrating STEM? Do you have a Razer Hydra to prototype with?
Jeffrey: We don’t actually have any Sixense hardware yet, we held off buying a set of Razer Hydra controllers as we were originally expecting the STEM devkits earlier in the year. Unfortunately there was a shipping delay as Sixense updated the design (for the better, I think), but they should start shipping in the next month or so. Unity integration seems reasonably simple, so from there it’s just a case of making the various systems onboard the ship work in a way that feels natural with motion controllers. The most obvious way would be to allow the player to just touch the controls with their hands, though in the case of larger interfaces like the map table, a laser pointer style interface may make more sense. The STEM system also opens up possibilities for offering fully 3D holographic interfaces that aren’t as feasible when using keyboard and mouse.
Road to VR: Who is the development team and what is their dev experience, especially with regards to RTS?
Jeffrey: Urban Logic games is made up of myself (Brad) and my brother Matt. We’ve both been tinkering with making games and mods for about 20 years. Matt is a freelance video producer by trade, but he’s also an experienced musician and 3D modeller. I’m a lead web developer as my day job, and I’ve had experience on mobile apps and data-driven applications. My biggest claim to fame is being one of the lead texture artists on Star Wars Quake: Call of the Force (aka SWTC). It was a pretty famous mod at the time, but that’s going back a few years! We’ve both been fans of the RTS games since the 90s, but space strategy games in particular always left us wanting to get a little closer to the action. We’ve been bouncing around the idea for Flagship for years, but it wasn’t until about a year and a half ago we felt we’d acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to build it.
Road to VR: Will the crew have personalities, strengths/weaknesses, and will you be able to choose, promote, demote, or discharge them?
Jeffrey: The aim is for your bridge crew to have distinct personalities, along with other department heads such as the chief engineer, the bartender, and the wing commander etc. Beyond that, it depends how far we can stretch our voice acting budget. You probably won’t be promoting and demoting individual crew members, for now we’re focusing on ship simulation aspects that are directly connected to combat and strategy. Ships in your fleet will level up providing they survive long enough, but this will probably be a per-ship stat.
Road to VR: Aside from the bridge, what can players expect to do inside of the flagship?
Jeffrey: You’ll most likely only leave the bridge during the down-time between battles. There will be consoles in your ready room dedicated to building your fleet and managing your empire. Engineering will contain systems you can calibrate to get extra performance (think Geordi La Forge tinkering in engineering to get that extra 1% out of the warp core). Other areas, such as the rec-room, will provide a way of getting to know your crew through interactive cutscenes.
Road to VR: What’s your favorite VR game so far? Which version of the Rift are you deving with?
Jeffrey: I’m not sure it qualifies as a game, but I loved Titans of Space. It was one of the first VR experiences that really made me think that this time VR was really going to go somewhere. It’s maybe a bit bare-bones presentation wise, but there are some pretty startling moments in that demo, and a real sense of scale. More recently, the Radial-G demo was really cool. I would have expected a game that moved you around so quickly to bring on motion sickness, but for whatever reason it didn’t at all.
We’re developing on the DK1 at the moment, I haven’t quite been able to save enough to get the DK2, but we’re hoping to get our hands on one soon.
In a Kickstarter update, the developers demonstrate the immense scale of one of many solar systems in which combat will take place:
Flagship Screenshots |
The power-seeking A's have turned their attention to Trumbo, who led the Major Leagues with 47 home runs last season, after missing out on Edwin Encarnacion.
The Oakland Athletics have reached out to free-agent slugger Mark Trumbo, sources told MLB Network insider Jon Heyman on Wednesday.
The Oakland Athletics have reached out to free-agent slugger Mark Trumbo, sources told MLB Network insider Jon Heyman on Wednesday.
The power-seeking A's have turned their attention to Trumbo, who led the Major Leagues with 47 home runs last season, after missing out on Edwin Encarnacion.
Per Heyman, Oakland presented Encarnacion with a $50 million deal before he settled on a three-year, $60 million offer from Cleveland.
• Hot Stove Tracker
Trumbo, a native of Anaheim, Calif., would be a major boost to the A's lineup after setting a career high with 47 home runs with the Orioles in 2016.
The Orioles had a four-year offer on the table for Trumbo earlier this offseason, and though they have since rescinded that offer, they are still reportedly interested in bringing him back.
The Rockies have also been linked to Trumbo, who also set a career high with 108 RBIs and was selected to the American League All-Star team in 2016. |
Word in China is out about blockchain technology, as the government made clear in an Informatization Strategy published in December of 2016. The strategy states, "The internet, cloud computing, large data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain … will drive the evolution of everything - digital, network and intelligent services will be everywhere."
It was an official endorsement for the new digital age and a big boost for blockchain technology.
In a country with $5.5 trillion in digital payments last year (50 times the U.S.), blockchain is now a buzzword among the titans of industry. And in the race to participate, Chinese banks, builders, suppliers and retailers are pumping out blockchain solutions.
Survival of the Fittest
Even with millions of dollars, many of these new blockchains may not make it very far. In a recent WeChat post, Antshares executive Erik Zhang stated that 90 percent of the enterprise blockchains we are seeing are doomed to fail. Without an open-source code that anyone can build upon, Zhang argues, private solutions will not see the network effect of a healthy ledger.
The big question for China, however, is whether a country known for its centralized authority, and a penchant for all things made-in-China, will allow an open-source, global standard solution sit on its internet. With Bitcoin, Ethereum and Hyperledger vying for dominance, there are big names within China making moves into the space.
A few of these big names include:
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) - The PBOC is reportedly close to the release of a government-backed digital RMB currency, which would put China at the frontier of digital currency adoption. And there are whispers within China that Shenzhen will be ground zero for the new digital economy. In September, Bloomberg reported that PBOC Vice Governor Fan Yifei wrote: "[T]he conditions are ripe for digital currencies, which can reduce operating costs, increase efficiency and enable a wide range of new applications." This would pave the way for blockchain startups in China to move forward in digital banking, finance, record-keeping, supply chains, IoT, AI and more.
Wanxiang Blockchain Labs - Working with Ethereum, Wanxiang is the largest blockchain development backer in China. After purchasing 500,000 ETH tokens last year, they pledged $30 billion for the development of a smart city in Hangzhou. They offer open-source platforms for anyone to build upon, and launched an accelerator fund for developers, intending to put money into promising projects and integrate digital apps into China's 21st-century cities.
At a recent Fintech Summit in Hangzhou, Dr. Xiao Feng, GM of Wanxiang Blockchain Labs, said, "The first generation of internet technology has brought great changes to society. In China great companies like Alibaba, Tencent and Ant Financial have emerged. The blockchain represents the second generation of the internet," adding that big changes will come with artificial intelligence, encryption, decentralization, finance and the transfer of value.
Wanda Group - Wanda Group is the world's largest private property developer, with its own hotels, theme parks, shopping malls, AMC Theatres, media companies and department stores.
In 2016 Wanda joined Hyperledger, intending to build smart apps for its businesses. Five months later, Wanda announced its blockchain platform Polaris for smart supply chains, pharmaceutical management, finance and invoicing. Now the company is working with China's Ministry of Industry and Information to draft domestic blockchain standards and a Chinese blockchain white paper.
And Wanda insists Polaris will be an open-source blockchain for all. When announcing Polaris at the Shanghai Hyperledger Hackathon in March, Ji Zhoudong, GM of Wanda Feifan Technology Research Center, said, "Wanda attaches great importance to being open source, the core of which is to foster progress through community, openness, collaboration and sharing."
Alibaba - Alibaba took a small step onto the blockchain in March, when it teamed up with PwC to build a pilot platform to prevent counterfeit foods. Food fraud is a big issue in China, as are fraudulent goods across Alibaba's many online platforms. If the pilot is successful, blockchain tracking may be applied to all goods on Alibaba's supply chain.
Alibaba's financial arm, Ant Financial, is also embracing blockchain technology, as CEO Eric Jing recently told CNBC . According to Jing, "[T]hese technologies will be used … to bring more, a high level of security," also saying that in the future, artificial intelligence and blockchain will be "deeply" integrated into Ant Financial's business.
ICBC - The largest and most valuable bank in the world, ICBC is adapting quickly to the fintech revolution. Speaking at a conference in March 2017, ICBC's Huiman Yi said, "We place great importance on the research of advanced technology and the cultivation of technical talents. We have established seven innovation labs in ICBC's head office for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, bioidentification, big data and internet finance." And according to Yi, a blockchain-based financial trading system is coming to the public soon.
Other Chinese companies making moves onto the blockchain include:
Foxconn - The producer of Apple's iPhones (for supply chain finance)
JD.com - A leading online retailer (for consumer finance applications)
Juzhen Financials - Banking and finance (to bring distributed tech to financial markets)
Zhongnan Construction - A property conglomerate (for trading agricultural products)
CreditEase - Microfinance and wealth advisors (as a supply chain tool for businesses)
Shanghai Insurance Exchange - An insurance trading platform (for securing trades)
Qtum - To bring decentralized applications to China
Antshares - For decentralized registration and issuing, transactions, settlements and blockchain-based digital payments
Who Will Rule the Kingdom?
Just before Ethereum's Devcon2 in Shanghai, Vitalik Buterin tweeted , "Chinese ethereum community full steam ahead." Since then, blockchain tech has taken Chinese industries by storm.
With so many new blockchain solutions, it's hard to keep an eye on the developments in China. Things are moving fast, and it's great to see such energy devoted to the technology. As word continues to spread, expect to see more Chinese blockchains entering the fray, until we see leaders emerge, and then consolidation. In the meantime, grab a noodle bowl and watch it all unfold and marvel at the swiftness of China's blockchain invasion. |
UN Security Council coordinates resolution on Boeing crash in Ukraine
11:32 21/07/2014
UN, July 21 (RAPSI) – The UN Security Council completed work on a draft resolution regarding the crash of the Malaysian Boeing airliner in eastern Ukraine. The vote on the resolution has been set for 3 pm (11 pm MSK) today, diplomats told journalists.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that Russia had submitted a draft resolution demanding an objective international investigation of the accident. The other draft was proposed by Australia.
Churkin told journalists before the meeting that Russia insisted on including a provision on an unbiased international investigation of the crash under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The Australian ambassador to the UN, who presented the initial draft, Gary Quinlan, declined to comment.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the city of Donetsk on July 17. All 298 people on board, including 85 children and 15 crew members, were killed.
Kiev immediately put the blame on the independence supporters, who responded by saying that they don’t have the military technology to hit a target flying this high. |
At least 35 Yemeni soldiers were killed and more than 60 others wounded in a major attack Saturday on forces allied to a Saudi-led military campaign.
Though no group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, extremists from the so-called "Islamic State" have claimed responsibility for most attacks in recent months mainly targeting security forces.
The explosion happened near a military camp in the northeastern part area of Al-Sawlaban near the city's international airport as a crowd of soldiers gathered to pick up their salaries, an official told the German news agency DPA on condition of anonymity.
Aden, the provisional capital of Yemen's Saudi-backed government, is at the center of a civil war with the Iran-allied Houthi rebels.
Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 to fight the government's foes in the Iran-allied Houthi movement but has failed to dislodge the group from the capital, Sanaa, despite thousands of airstrikes. About 10,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict.
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jbh/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters) |
What seems clear, analysts said, is that while Japanese were sympathetic to putting the relationship on a more equal footing, they shied away from more fundamental changes, in a country that still views Washington as a largely benign protector.
“The Japanese public was not willing to follow Hatoyama down this path of Futenma and changing the alliance,” said Izuru Makihara, a professor of politics at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, referring to the American base, United States Marine Air Station Futenma. “The consensus is that Japan needs the United States, with China and North Korea nearby.”
Mr. Hatoyama’s sudden departure left his Democratic Party scrambling to find a new leader to restore a sense of direction for a party that had swept into power with high hopes last summer in a landslide. The party’s control of Parliament’s Lower House ensures it will hold on to power despite the resignation.
Party members gathered behind closed doors to select candidates for an internal party vote on Friday that will elect Mr. Hatoyama’s successor. The finance minister, Naoto Kan, 63, a former leader of the Democratic Party, emerged as an early frontrunner.
As the party moves to choose Japan’s sixth prime minister in four years, many in Japan see Mr. Hatoyama as having frittered away his party’s historic electoral mandate on the seemingly minor issue of relocating a single American military installation.
In truth, his government faltered on a host of issues, including scandals over political financing; an inability to deliver on other campaign promises like eliminating highway tolls; and the party’s failure to focus on pocketbook issues affecting voters, like unemployment or Japan’s anemic growth rates.
Photo
Still, Mr. Hatoyama’s handling of the base issue seemed to crystallize all that went wrong with his short-lived government, including what many Japanese saw as its fatal flaw: his own indecisiveness. The prime minister seemed to waffle between appeasing Washington and assuring Okinawans that he would honor his campaign vows.
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During last summer’s election campaign, Mr. Hatoyama pledged to end Japan’s dependence on the United States, and improve ties with China and the rest of Asia. His fall is a blow to China, which had hoped to expand its influence in Japan.
The centerpiece of Mr. Hatoyama’s push was a pledge to move the Futenma base and its noisy helicopters off Okinawa. But Mr. Hatoyama ran into fierce resistance from the Obama administration. Eager to establish that the United States was not retreating from Asia, it refused to back down from a 2006 agreement to relocate the base to a less populated part of the island.
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During a visit to Japan last October, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made it clear he had no intention of reopening negotiations.
Public opinion turned against Mr. Hatoyama’s handling of Japan’s crucial relationship with Washington. His government’s approval ratings plummeted from more than 70 percent in September to the high teens in recent weeks.
In the end, the lack of support, and what Mr. Hatoyama called his belated recognition of the importance of the Marines as a deterrent, forced him to accept most of the 2006 agreement. He resigned a week later, as he appeared to be a heavy liability for the Democrats facing parliamentary elections on July 11.
Analysts say that the public did not reject all aspects of Mr. Hatoyama’s agenda. His calls for building a more equal relationship with the United States resonated in Japan, which has grown weary of its junior status in the alliance.
“Hatoyama tapped into the feeling of many Japanese that it is time to rethink their nation’s place in a changing world,” said Takashi Kawakami, a professor who specializes in security issues at Takushoku University in Tokyo. “But wanting to be treated as an equal by Washington is not the same as wanting to be independent of Washington.”
A curious aspect to Mr. Hatoyama’s fall is that for decades the United States has sought to loosen the Liberal Democratic Party’s hold on the country. But the two governments that succeeded in doing so — one in 1993-94, and the current one — simply could not pull the levers of power, leaving American officials deeply frustrated.
Once a new leader is in place, “I do think there will be a desire to exhibit a different kind of management from the outset,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
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Analysts said there were lessons in Mr. Hatoyama’s fall for the Obama administration. Sheila A. Smith, a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said American officials did not initially show enough patience with the new government. “There was responsibility on both sides,” she said.
One immediate upshot of Mr. Hatoyama’s failure will most likely be that his successor will avoid making big changes in foreign policy, in favor of focusing on domestic issues.
“Hatoyama self-destructed on Futenma,” said Mr. Kawakami of Takushoku University. “His successor is not going to want to touch that issue.” |
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have turned back the clock on mature muscle tissue, coaxing it back to an earlier stem cell stage to form new muscle. Moreover, they showed in mice that the newly reprogrammed muscle stem cells could be used to help repair damaged tissue.
The achievement, described in the Sept. 23 issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology, "opens the door to the development of new treatments to combat the degeneration of muscle associated with muscular dystrophy or aging," said study principal investigator Irina Conboy, UC Berkeley assistant professor of bioengineering.
Skeletal muscle tissue is composed of elongated bundles of myofibers, which are individual muscle cells (myoblasts) that have fused together. This fusion of individual cells is considered the final step of skeletal muscle differentiation.
"Muscle formation has been seen as a one-way trip, going from stem cells to myoblasts to muscle fiber, but we were able to get a multi-nucleated muscle fiber to reverse course and separate into individual myoblasts," said Conboy, who is also a member of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center and an investigator with the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3). "For many years now, people have wanted to do this, and we accomplished that by exposing the tissue to small molecule inhibitor chemicals rather than altering the cell's genome."
Not all stem cells are created equal
Current research on treatments based upon pluripotent cells -- the type of stem cell that can turn into any type of adult cell -- have been challenging. Pluripotent cells can either come from embryonic tissue, a source of controversy, or from adult, differentiated cells that have been coaxed to de-differentiate into an embryonic-like state. This latter technique produces induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) through the delivery of specific genes that reprogram the adult cells to revert back to a pluripotent stem cell state.
Pluripotent stem cells can divide almost indefinitely, and if not driven toward a particular organ type, the cells quickly form teratomas, or tumors containing a combination of immature malformed tissues -- a serious downside of the use of iPS cell tansplantation as a potential treatment.
"The biggest challenge with both embryonic stem cells or iPS cells is that even a single undifferentiated pluripotent cell can multiply in vivo and give rise to tumors," said study lead author Preeti Paliwal, a UC Berkeley post-doctoral researcher in bioengineering. "Importantly, reprogrammed muscle stem-progenitor cells do not form tumors when transplanted into muscle in vivo."
Unlike pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into any type of adult cell, adult organ-specific stem cells have a set destiny. Muscle progenitor cells are fated to become muscle tissue, liver progenitor cells can only become liver tissue, and so on.
"In addition, it is difficult to differentiate these embryonic-like cells into functional adult tissue, such as blood, brain or muscles," said Paliwal. "So rather than going back to a pluripotent stage, we focused on the progenitor cell stage, in which cells are already committed to forming skeletal muscle and can both divide and grow in culture. Progenitor cells also differentiate into muscle fibers in vitro and in vivo when injected into injured leg muscle."
Using molecular signals to rewind the clock
Muscle progenitor cells are normally situated alongside mature myofibers, which is why they are also called satellite cells. These cells lay dormant until called into action to repair and build new muscle tissue that has been injured or worn out. This happens regularly as we go about our daily lives, and muscle builders know this cycle when they tear old muscle fibers and build new tissue by lifting weights.
However, that process of repair gets worn out in people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic condition in which muscles degenerate because of a defective structural protein and the subsequent exhaustion of muscle stem cells.
To get a multi-nucleated muscle fiber to reverse course and separate into individual myoblasts, the researchers exposed the differentiated muscle tissue to tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors, giving the signal to mature cells to start dividing again.
"Exposing the myofibers to this tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor transmits signals for cell division, but that can be too dramatic a change for them," said Paliwal. "These cells had already fused together into one big structure, sharing one cytoplasm and one cytoskeleton. If you simply tell them to divide, many of them start dying. You confuse them."
To solve this, the researchers also used an inhibitor of apoptosis, or cell death. "We basically brainwashed the cells to go into the cell cycle, to divide and also not die in the process," said Paliwal.
Conboy noted that the use of molecular inhibitors to de-differentiate mature tissue is a sought-after application in the stem cell field.
"These tiny chemicals go inside the cell and change the way the cell behaves without changing its genome," she said. "The inhibitors were only used for 48 hours, enough time for the fused myofibers to split into individual cells, and then they were washed away. The cells can proceed to live and die as normal, so there is no risk of them dividing uncontrollably to become tumors."
Newly reprogrammed cells get glowing review
To prove unequivocally that the myoblasts they produced were de-differentiated from mature muscle tissue rather than activated from the few satellite cells that accompany myofibers, the researchers genetically labeled the fused myofibers with a protein that emits green fluorescent light. The researchers then knew that the myoblasts that glowed green could have only come from the differentiated myofiber.
To test the viability of the newly regenerated myobasts, the researchers first cultured them in the lab to show that they could grow, multiply and fuse normally into new myofibers. The researchers then injected the de-differentiated myoblasts into live mice with damaged muscles.
"After two to three weeks, we checked the muscle and saw new muscle fibers that glowed green, proving that the progenitor cells we derived from mature muscle tissue contributed to muscle repair in vivo in mice," said Paliwal.
The researchers say the next steps include testing the process on human muscle tissue and screening for other molecular compounds that could help de-differentiate mature tissue.
"This approach won't work for all degenerative diseases," said Conboy. "It might work for some diseases or conditions where we can start with differentiated tissue, such as neurons or liver cells. But patients with type I diabetes, for instance, lack the pancreatic beta-islet cells to produce insulin, so there is no functional differentiated tissue to start with. Our approach is not a replacement for pluripotent cells, but it's an additional tool in the arsenal of stem cell therapies."
The National Institutes of Health and the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine helped support this work. |
One striking aspect of the Trump Phenomenon is that his opponents impute to him many politically incorrect views that he hasn’t actually said. For example, Trump is widely assumed to be critical of affirmative action, but he actually favors it. When Justice Scalia offered the “mismatch” argument against affirmative action in college admissions last year, Trump criticized Scalia in the same terms as everybody else did.
What seems to be happening is that Trump has increasingly come to be seen as a sort of archetypal figure notorious for enjoying the freedom to tell the blunt truth without being fired. So much BS has piled up in our culture that our collective guilty consciences have enlarged Trump in the media imagination into a sort of all-purpose subversive truth-teller of Hatefacts.
Everybody else is terrified of being Watsoned out of a job for letting slip an Occamite explanation, but Trump can’t be fired because he’s the one who says “You’re fired.” Or something. (We’re dealing with archetypal logic here, so don’t expect tight causality.)
The classic fictional version of awkward honesty is the little child in “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) wrote elegant pseudo-folk tales like The Ugly Duckling that are often confused with the genuine fairy tales collected and selected by the Grimm Brothers from multiple sources. One difference is that the real folk tales tend to be just plain strange — the Old, Weird Europe incarnate — while Andersen’s fairy tales make sense to modern adults. Indeed, Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” sounds like proto-Orwell.
After I wrote that I thought: Let’s check to see if George Orwell himself noticed the connection. And, yup, it turns out that in 1943, two years before publishing Animal Farm, Orwell adapted “The Emperor’s New Clothes” for the BBC. The recording probably no longer exists — Orwell had it put on acetate disk, but lamented later that the disks were likely trashed — but the script at least is in a box in the Orwell papers archive.
Here’s a translation of the original (i.e., not the Orwell version):
The Emperor’s New Clothes
A translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “Keiserens nye Klæder” by Jean Hersholt. Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. … Every day many strangers came to town, and among them one day came two swindlers. They let it be known they were weavers, and they said they could weave the most magnificent fabrics imaginable. Not only were their colors and patterns uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
“Those would be just the clothes for me,” thought the Emperor. “If I wore them I would be able to discover which men in my empire are unfit for their posts. And I could tell the wise men from the fools.
Most people are afraid of being fired and those who aren’t (e.g., tenured professors) are afraid of being called stupid.
Yes, I certainly must get some of the stuff woven for me right away.” He paid the two swindlers a large sum of money to start work at once. They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and the purest gold thread which they demanded went into their traveling bags, while they worked the empty looms far into the night. “I’d like to know how those weavers are getting on with the cloth,” the Emperor thought, but he felt slightly uncomfortable when he remembered that those who were unfit for their position would not be able to see the fabric. It couldn’t have been that he doubted himself, yet he thought he’d rather send someone else to see how things were going. The whole town knew about the cloth’s peculiar power, and all were impatient to find out how stupid their neighbors were. “I’ll send my honest old minister to the weavers,” the Emperor decided. “He’ll be the best one to tell me how the material looks, for he’s a sensible man and no one does his duty better.” So the honest old minister went to the room where the two swindlers sat working away at their empty looms. “Heaven help me,” he thought as his eyes flew wide open, “I can’t see anything at all”. But he did not say so. Both the swindlers begged him to be so kind as to come near to approve the excellent pattern, the beautiful colors. They pointed to the empty looms, and the poor old minister stared as hard as he dared. He couldn’t see anything, because there was nothing to see. “Heaven have mercy,” he thought. “Can it be that I’m a fool? I’d have never guessed it, and not a soul must know. Am I unfit to be the minister? It would never do to let on that I can’t see the cloth.” … The Emperor presently sent another trustworthy official to see how the work progressed and how soon it would be ready. The same thing happened to him that had happened to the minister. He looked and he looked, but as there was nothing to see in the looms he couldn’t see anything. “Isn’t it a beautiful piece of goods?” the swindlers asked him, as they displayed and described their imaginary pattern. “I know I’m not stupid,” the man thought, “so it must be that I’m unworthy of my good office. That’s strange. I mustn’t let anyone find it out, though.” So he praised the material he did not see. … All the town was talking of this splendid cloth, and the Emperor wanted to see it for himself while it was still in the looms. Attended by a band of chosen men, among whom were his two old trusted officials-the ones who had been to the weavers-he set out to see the two swindlers. He found them weaving with might and main, but without a thread in their looms. “Magnificent,” said the two officials already duped. “Just look, Your Majesty, what colors! What a design!” They pointed to the empty looms, each supposing that the others could see the stuff. “What’s this?” thought the Emperor. “I can’t see anything. This is terrible! Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? What a thing to happen to me of all people! – Oh! It’s very pretty,” he said. “It has my highest approval.” And he nodded approbation at the empty loom. Nothing could make him say that he couldn’t see anything. His whole retinue stared and stared. One saw no more than another, but they all joined the Emperor in exclaiming, “Oh! It’s very pretty,” and they advised him to wear clothes made of this wonderful cloth especially for the great procession he was soon to lead. … So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, “Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!” Nobody would confess that he couldn’t see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success. “But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said. “Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?” said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, “He hasn’t anything on. A child says he hasn’t anything on.” “But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, “This procession has got to go on.” So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.
Interestingly, Andersen leaves open at the end the possibility that the Emperor can bluff it out. In cartoon versions, in my half-century old recollection, the Emperor walking on is presented as pure humiliation for him. But Andersen’s ending is indeterminate, with the possibility left open that the power structure just might be able to fake their way past the skepticism.
The dissident anthropologists Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox (who, despite their children’s lit names, are real people) point out that the psychology of the town coming to believe the child is implausible: 99% of the time the crowd would viciously denounce the little child as particularly stupid and unworthy of his job as a little child.
But what if he were an … unusual child? What if the child had such an adamantine ego that nobody could hush him up? What if he were Little Donnie Trump? |
For most of 25 years, the Timberwolves lacked talent, luck and organizational savvy. The team mascot should not have been named Crunch. The team mascot should have been named Ibid.
This year the Timberwolves look like failures once again. They are 12-28. They have lost their past eight games. The have the second-worst record in the Western Conference. The only team with a worse record, the Lakers, has openly dedicated the season not to building or winning, but to honoring Kobe Bryant at any cost.
This appears to be another bad team slouching through another bad season in front of remarkably small crowds at Target Center. But this is not a typical bad Timberwolves team.
This team has talent. This team has benefited from luck. This team’s roster is the result of organizational intelligence.
Talent? Andrew Wiggins is one of the league’s best and most promising young players. Karl-Anthony Towns is the best of a strong crop of rookies. Ricky Rubio is a valuable player. Zach LaVine is one of the league’s most gifted athletes. Shabazz Muhammad is one of the best bench scorers in the league. Nemanja Bjelica is 6-10 and can shoot and pass.
Luck? Landing the top pick in the draft lottery is always a matter of good fortune.
Sam Mitchell is running an offense that doesn’t emphasize the three-pointer, a killer in the NBA these days.
Organizational intelligence? The roster contains excellent young talent, depth and veteran leadership. The trade of Kevin Love for Andrew Wiggins was ideal. And the Wolves didn’t need to sacrifice future assets to put this team together.
In most ways, the Timberwolves are better positioned to win now than they ever have been, and yet they are playing as poorly as any team in the NBA over the last month, even as poorly as some franchises that aren’t attempting to win.
The Wolves have demonstrated a lack of offensive structure, an inability to run and an inability to make intelligent plays down the stretch, despite the presence of skilled and talented players.
The Wolves have failed to incorporate the three-point shot into their offense, especially the three-pointer from the corner, the cornerstone of the modern NBA offense.
The problems do not seem to be rooted in attitude. Rubio, Wiggins, Towns and LaVine, the team’s most important players, offer effort.
LaVine did recently note that Sam Mitchell’s hard coaching has at times seemed to him ‘‘unfair.’’ That might have been the most telling quote of the season.
Mitchell was an admirable player. He won the NBA Coach of the Year award with Toronto. I thought he was worth a look as a head coach for this group. We have had a good, long, look.
Mitchell has had his chance. He has coached a talented young team for 40 games. He has produced 12 victories and no sense of progress for a team that should be defined by progress.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor promised to give General Manager Milt Newton and Mitchell a year to prove they should keep their jobs. Newton helped build a talented roster and can’t be fairly judged until he conducts a draft or two and delves into free agency on his own. Mitchell’s situation is different. He is coaching players who are much more important to the organization than he is. If there are any signs that he is not the right person to develop Wiggins, Towns, LaVine and Muhammad, he needs to go.
If this was going to be a season spent evaluating an interim coach, there is an in-season solution that may benefit the organization in many ways. Taylor could hire Kevin McHale as Interim Coach Part II.
McHale is a gifted offensive coach. He would increase the Wolves’ pace of play, which should benefit an athletic roster. He would reinvigorate a fan base that rapidly lost interest in what was supposed to be an entertaining team. And if he proved to not be the right fit for this team, the Wolves could conduct their expected coaching search this summer having vetted two coaches worthy of consideration instead of just one.
Jim Souhan’s podcast can be heard at MalePatternPodcasts.com. On Twitter: @SouhanStrib. [email protected] |
Abu Dhabi: reasons to visit now
Motor racing, contemporary art fairs, sailing, beaches and winter sun... There has never been a better time to visit the cultural capital of the UAE. By Laura Fowler
One result of the Arab Spring is that the UAE has become a more popular Middle-East destination than ever, with its capital, Abu Dhabi, gaining a reputation as a hub of culture, sport and leisure.
Among other highlights in coming months: the F1 Grand Prix and Volvo Ocean Race are swinging by on their world tours, Norman Foster has designed a futuristic pavilion for Abu Dhabi Art as well as a stylish shopping mall, Frank Gehry is working on the world's third Guggenheim and there's even a new Louvre planned for completion in the next couple of years. There are also beaches and an astonishing number of big hotel openings taking place this year and next - plus winter sun, less than seven hours away. |
MIES IS MORE (amended)
(above) Lafayette Park row-housing, Detroit, designed by Mies van der Rohe.
Is this what Mies van der Rohe meant by his remark, “Less is more”?
A minimal architecture enables a maximum variety of living within.
The spare and relatively neutral frame that such an architecture places around space not only allows without conflict all manner of furniture, bric-a-brac, appliances, artworks, as well as human activities to exist within it, but actively invites them in order to relieve its own plainness and sameness. Heavily ornamented or aggressively shaped walls, floors and ceilings defining spaces demand not only attention but also respect for what they express in themselves. If they are not respected, by juxtaposing against them aggressively different things, then the result will be aesthetically uneasy and perhaps unpleasant, depending on one’s tolerance of or taste for conflict.
The neutrality of modern architecture such as that of Mies, Rietveld, Le Corbusier, and later works by Gropius, Breuer, and Bunshaft was argued as its great virtue because it did not (or so the argument goes) impose aesthetic values on an open, free, democratic society. Many modernist architects were, in fact, socialists, or flrted with democratic-socialist ideals, who placed on the exterior, public space of architecture an emphasis on the broader social good over individual self-expression and other forms of self-interest. This was a position challenged by post-modernist architects who proposed designs more in keeping with capitalist, free-market ideals of ‘anything goes,’ juxtaposing—collaging—widely and sometimes wildly disparate things. In this way, the aesthetic sensibilities of our time evolved.
But in the days when Mies designed the row-housing for Detroit’s Lafayette Park middle-class housing development, architectural neutrality still seemed to hold the promise of great social freedom. Seeing this series of recent interior photographs in identical units in this development, is convincing testimony that at least here the promise was kept.
LW
The photos below were made by photographer Corine Vermeulen (corinevermeulen.com):
The photos above appear in a recent New York Times article, authored by Danielle Aubert, Lana Cavar, Natasha Chandani (placementpublication.org):
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/living-with-mies/ |
“‘When I saw how pretty she was, I wanted to have sex with her,’ he said, but claims he was too drunk.”
Her consent, or lack of it, doesn’t seem to have played any role in his considerations. This is because the Qur’an teaches that Infidel women can be lawfully taken for sexual use (cf. its allowance for a man to take “captives of the right hand,” 4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50, 70:30). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.” (33:59) The implication there is that if women do not cover themselves adequately with their outer garments, they may be abused, and that such abuse would be justified.
“Migrant who raped and killed EU official’s daughter cries as he tells court that drowning her ‘destroyed’ HIS life and that he dragged her into a river to ‘wash her blood from me,'” by Allan Hall, MailOnline, September 12, 2017: |
With Father's Day approaching, it's nice to know we helped out one of the good guys.
Mesa resident Troy Guelich, 43, turned to Call 12 For Action after the Department of Economic Security failed to erase the balance due on his child-support account.
The divorced father of two daughters was laid off in 2009. Before that, he had always paid his child-support payments in full and on time.
But that was tough to do while he was out of work for nearly a year.
The Department of Economic Security took over Guelich's child-support payments from the court because they were paying him unemployment benefits. But the DES decreased his child-support payments for three of those months.
When Guelich found a new job, he caught up, paying the outstanding amount in full.
Shortly after that, Guelich started receiving notices from the DES claiming he was delinquent on his account.
Then, he found out through the courts and the DES website that he had actually overpaid by thousands of dollars.
He brought it to the attention of the DES, but Guelich claims no one listened.
However, within three weeks of Call 12 For Action's involvement, Troy got his nearly $3,000 balance erased.
DES sent us this statement:
DES works with all noncustodial parents to assist them in meeting their obligations to their children. Mr. Guelich is no exception.
It's important to understand that Arizona has two child-support systems: DES and the local clerks of court (non-DES). Cases managed by the local courts do not have the same accounting requirements as DES. When cases from the local court apply for DES services after years of being managed by the local courts, DES relies on current court orders, signed by judges and the parties to the case, to establish the child support debt. The parties to a child support case have the opportunity to challenge their child support debt and to present payment information in court. DES enforces the court's ordered child support.
That doesn't answer the question as to why Guelich's case was mishandled. Although he loves his daughters and will continue to provide for them, Guelich is still angry. He says he was treated like a deadbeat dad when he is far from that. |
Freedom to use the Internet
Internet security, privacy and anonymity have been taken away from us through the widespread use of mass surveillance and the rise of malicious hackers.
Whenever you visit a website, do a web search or update your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media, you leave a trail of network information that can identify your real identity and your online history.
RECLAIM your security privacy and anonymity with our personal Virtual Private Network that protects and hides your real network identity by giving them our servers’ identity instead of yours.
Bypass Censorship, Monitoring and Filtering with your computers, mobile devices and Internet of Things (IOT) devices by encrypting all your internet traffic.
Access Geo-Restricted Content
Bypass geo-blocked sites, use BolehVPN for your cross borders online shopping and online streaming entertainment Get access to USA-only Playstation, Steam, iTunes, Netflix and Google Play to name a few. Please refer to this guide to access Netflix-USA. |
Thanks for checking out part 5 of 6 of the Maximizing your LGBT Outreach with a Solid Plan. This has been such a great series of posts to write for you. Many of you have taken the time to write to me and express how this has helped you and I really appreciate that. In this post we are going to answer the question, What steps will I take to start building relationships?
This is a really fun topic for me as I am always connecting with new people and matchmaking those I know would be a good fit for one another. The excitement for this topic may be partially due to my position as an executive director of an LGBT chamber of commerce for 3+ years. In that capacity it was my job to be a connector and to be a builder of relationships. I learned a great deal about business in that position and I have a few tips to share here.
The most important thing I am going to say here is – You have to view your relationship building approach from a strategic lens. Most of us in business have heard of the “Know, Like and Trust Factor,” but have you ever given thought to how people come to know, like or trust you? Below I’m going to provide some tips and advice for becoming that person.
How can you expect people to know who you are if you aren’t out networking? Networking is the name of the game in business. But you have to have a vision and a purpose when you are networking. Going to an event and being a wallflower, talking with people you already know and not actively searching for new people to connect with isn’t going to expand your reach and build your database of connections.
So how do you change this? You need to step outside of your comfort zone. Yes, it can be scary. But to grow your skills and grow your business, you just have to do it. Find a wing-man or wing-woman who is good at networking and ask them to attend an event with you. Observe what they are doing and then jump in. You may feel anxious, but remember the person you are walking up to could be feeling the exact same way you are, regardless of how well polished or confident they may seem.
So, how do you get people to like you? This is a question some people have been asking themselves since the dawn of time. I’m here to tell you there are simple ways to help you accomplish this. In a business setting the number one thing I find that works amazingly well to getting people to like you is by focusing on what you can do for others and not what others can do for you.
Being that pushy person who is handing out hundreds of business cards at an event without having a real meaningful conversation is a surefire way for peoplenot to like you. Or at the very least not return your calls or e-mails when you reach out. Focusing on how you can be of value to someone else makes you a resource. Being a resource and a connector can serve you well in business. I am always making introductions and connecting people I think will be a good match together. It doesn’t cost me more than a few minutes of my time to make the introduction and if they are a good match, they will remember I’m the one who connected them. That leaves a positive image of me in their minds.
Trust is a big one. People need to feel like they can trust you. Have you ever been to an event where you can immediately find the gossip in the crowd? Yep – thatperson. Don’t be him/her. Business associates and colleagues need to feel like they can trust you, but you need to demonstrate that they can. Remember actions speak louder than words. You can do this by not talking badly about your competition, past clients, past relationships, etc. The last thing you want is for people to think you are the engine in the rumor mill. If you talk like that to them, how do they know you aren’t talking about them to others?
On any given day sensitive information comes my way. I’ve opened my lines of communication and trust with people because they understand that telling me something means that I’m not going to repeat it. Simple as that. It may seem like pretty common sense but you’d be surprised at how many Negative Nancy’s there are out there talking badly about those in the community around them. Make note of how you talk to other people and what you say. If you find yourself going down the gossip trail, make a conscious note of it and try better next time. Over time you’ll find more people confiding in you for being the person they feel they can trust.
So, now that you have some basic tips to get you started – let’s think about what strategies you can use in your outreach to the LGBT community. Ask yourself some of these questions – Will you place an ad in the local LGBT media? Will you attend a big gala in your area? Will you volunteer for a local LGBT non-profit organization? To build quality relationships and your reputation you need to be active. You could be volunteering, putting an ad in the local LGBT media and attending a big gala, all in one shot. Most gala’s have program books and volunteer committees. These are 3 good ways to get your name and face out there. Becoming a regular for any particular group in your area is a good start. Be consistent and be regular. Showing up to one thing every 3 months doesn’t keep you top of mind for anyone. Find ways to have your name always in front of the people you want to do business with.
Let’s take it to the next level – go grab a piece of paper or open up a Word document. Now, make yourself a list. Write down these 3 steps.
Step 1: Write down a date two weeks from now. Next to it – make a list of ways you can get more involved. Such as; talking with current LGBT clients and finding out why they do business with you. Learn what makes you unique. Now use that new found information and determine where the best use of your time is. Get involved in the community through a business organization, a non-profit that correlates to your field of work, or even by becoming a mentor to an LGBT college student. Research the different ways you can become involved.
Step 2: Write down a date one month from now. Next to it – make a list of the specific organizations you previously researched that you have decided you want to be involved in. Whether it’s the local LGBT chamber, pride center, professionals group, etc. Do some additional research, narrow down the organization that best suits your needs and reach out to the main contact at each organization and schedule a meeting.
Step 3: Write down a date 6 weeks from now. Next to it – make a list of ways you can market your business to the LGBT community. Can you develop a marketing piece, a brochure or postcard of your products/services that is specific to the new organization you are involved in? Can you create a new website positioning yourself as the go to person to do business with? For example, if you are a lesbian realtor – you could get the domain name of “YourLesbianRealtor.com.” Be creative – there are a lot of opportunities for you. The key here is to be specific and focused.
Combine the 3 steps outlined above with the previous work you have done in building your strategic LGBT outreach plan and you are well on your way to success and recognition in your community.
Looking for the other parts of this series? Catch up on them here. |
Essendon has made one change for its match against Richmond in the Dreamtime at the ‘G clash on Saturday night.
Tom Bellchambers replaces Matthew Leuenberger, who has been left out of the side because of illness.
The Bombers will be looking to record their third straight win after victories over Geelong and West Coast in the last fortnight.
Richmond v Essendon
Saturday May 27
7:25pm
MCG
In: Tom Bellchambers
Out: Matthew Leuenberger (illness)
B: Matt Dea, Michael Hurley, Mark Baguley
HB: James Kelly, Michael Hartley, David Myers
C: Orazio Fantasia, Zach Merrett, David Zaharakis
HF: James Stewart, Cale Hooker, Travis Colyer
F: Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Joe Daniher, Darcy Parish
R: Tom Bellchambers, Dyson Heppell, Jobe Watson
I: Andrew McGrath, Brendon Goddard, Josh Green, Conor McKenna
E: Jackson Merrett, Craig Bird, Heath Hocking
Ahead of Saturday's match a The Long Walk's 'We Walk Together' event will be held at Federation Square from 1pm. The Long Walk will depart for the MCG at 4:15pm. |
These powerful little girls aren't f*cking around.
For the latest ad campaign from t-shirt company FCKH8, the brand enlisted five girls between the ages of 6 and 13 to spread the word about issues regarding gender, race and sexuality.
One by one, these princess costume-clad girls address pay inequality, gender expectations and sexual assault with unexpected frankness. The clip features cursing aplenty ("Fuck that sexist shit!") amidst statistics about the pay gap, rape and violence against women.
See also: A Storied Glossary of Iconic LGBT Flags and Symbols
Editor's note: The video below, of course, features NSFW language. And kids cursing up a storm.
Of course, the advertisement is just that: an ad for a for-profit company owned by corporate branding firm Synergy Media. The shirts and sweatshirts in FCKH8's "Anti-Sexism" collection range in price from $14.99 to $36.99, and $5.00 of each purchase will go toward "kick-ass charities" that have yet to be determined.
Luke Montgomery, a spokesperson from FCKH8, tells Mashable that customers will vote on a list of charities narrowed down from Facebook suggestions on Nov. 30. Montgomery says that FCKH8 has sold more than 200,000 t-shirts since opening in 2010.
Predictably, not everyone is a fan of FCKH8's advertisement. Some have criticized it for profiting from feminist messages and slogans, referencing its controversial campaign linked to protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
In September, the brand released a video featuring children from Ferguson wearing the company's "Anti-Racism" shirts. In a similar vein to FCKH8's latest campaign, $5.00 from each purchase were donated to four anti-racism organizations.
The campaign prompted criticism for aiming to make a profit from the Ferguson protests, most notably in a Colorlines blog post on the subject.
"Everything, it seems, can distilled, packaged, bought and sold — including racism," Colorlines' Aura Bogado wrote.
FCKH8 responded with its own blog post, asking for an apology, and a promise to donate funds from the sales to Colorlines' publisher, which it declined.
According to FCKH8's website, the company has since donated $1,047 in profits to Crossroads Anti-Racism Organizing and Training, $1,000 to the Mike Brown Memorial Fund, $1,000 to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and $1,000 the NAACP.
Remember that FCKH8 is the same company that made a profit off Ferguson by selling Ferguson t-shirts. Now they want to profit off feminism. — Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault) October 22, 2014
Why create a video full of cursing kids? http://t.co/9x5p7fJR7C Answer: "http://t.co/Mmywp4HKGu is a for-profit T-shirt company..." — John Sexton (@verumserum) October 22, 2014
Hey, at least the kids are f*cking cute.
UPDATE Friday, Oct. 24, 9:17 a.m. ET FCKH8's advertisement was reinstated to YouTube on Thursday after the video hosting platform pulled it on Wednesday at about 2:30 p.m. ET.
Though we originally reported that the video was pulled from Vimeo as well, Mashable has since learned from a Vimeo spokesperson that the video was removed due to an error and was promptly reuploaded to the website.
"It seems like this censorship ... is because of user complaints about kids saying fuck," Montgomery told Mashable via email. "The video does not violate any user guidelines and with all the sexist content on both sites that is allowed to stay up, as well as content that uses this simple four-letter word, we are surprised that they chose to censor it. This censorship gets to the exact point that the girls in the video are making ... that society finds it more offensive for a girl to say fuck than they do the fact that 1 out 5 women are sexually assaulted and raped."
YouTube has not yet responded to our request for comment. |
Politics aside, most energy experts agree that cheap, clean, renewable wind energy holds great potential to help the world satisfy energy needs while reducing harmful greenhouse gases. Wind farms placed offshore could play a large role in meeting such challenges, and yet no offshore wind farms exist today in the United States.
In a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters, a team of engineers at Stanford has harnessed a sophisticated weather model to recommend optimal placement of four interconnected wind farms off the coast of the Eastern United States, a region that accounts for 34 percent of the nation's electrical demand and 35 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.
"It is the first time anyone has used high-resolution meteorological data to plan the placement of offshore wind grid," said senior author Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. "And this sophistication has provided a deeper level of understanding to the grid plan."
Beginning with 12 energetic potential locations, the engineers winnowed down the sites to four optimal sites. Total maximum capacity of the interconnected grid is 2000 megawatts, roughly equivalent to the yearly capacity of one-and-a-half conventional coal-fired power plants. Each farm would have approximately 100 turbines, delivering an individual maximum capacity of 500 megawatts.
"Two thousand megawatts and four farms are somewhat arbitrary figures. The sizes and locations could be adjusted for economic, environmental, and policy considerations," said Jacobson.
"An offshore grid as an extension of the onshore grid in this region will improve reliability, while reducing congestion and energy price differences between areas," said Mike Dvorak, the lead author of the study and a recent PhD graduate in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.
Optimizing the grid
The optimized grid was located in the waters from Long Island, New York to Georges Bank, a shallows about a hundred miles to the east of Cape Cod. The nearshore locations take advantage of consistent sea breezes that occur naturally due to the daily difference in temperature between land and sea. The offshore farms experience stronger, though less regular, frontal storm activity. The four farms would be interconnected to help balance output across the grid.
"Until recently, large scale wind resource assessments have neglected the aspect of time. We matched peak productivity with peak demand at specific times of day and year," said Dvorak. "Our analysis matches production to demand."
Wind farms on land, for instance, tend to see daily peak output at night, when demand is lower. Seasonally speaking, demand usually spikes in the late afternoons of summer when air conditioning needs are high, but this time of year is also known for a dearth of storms and a meteorological phenomenon known as the Bermuda High, a high-pressure center that affects winds along the entire coast.
"In some areas, like Massachusetts, the Bermuda High boosts sea breezes," said Dvorak. "But south of Long Island, NY, where one offshore grid has been proposed, the Bermuda High has the opposite effect and often hinders sea breezes."
Balance of power
Beyond matching production and demand cycles, the researchers had to balance several technical challenges in their models.
"The farms had to be in waters less than 50 meters deep to allow use of bottom-mounted turbines and near urban load centers like Boston and New York," said Jacobson. "And, we wanted to smooth power output, ease hourly ramp rates and reduce hours of zero power."
The engineers took a novel approach, choosing to interconnect the offshore farms. Offshore wind farms in other parts of the world today are connected individually to the onshore grids.
"The goal is to even out the peaks and valleys in production," said Dvorak. "In our model, expensive no-power events - moments when individual winds farms are producing zero electricity - were reduced by more than half from nine percent to four by connecting the farms together."
In the final analysis, the interconnected grid was able to yield a year-long capacity factor of over 48 percent, meaning that the grid could reliably produce close to 1000 megawatts on average over the course of a year.
"Generally, with wind farms, anything over 35 percent average capacity is considered excellent," said Jacobson.
Location. Location. Location.
Among its findings, the Stanford model recommended a farm in Nantucket Sound, precisely where the controversial Cape Wind farm has been proposed. The Cape Wind site is contentious because, opponents say, the tall turbines would diminish Nantucket's considerable visual appeal.
By that same token, the meteorological model puts two sites on Georges Bank, a shallows located a hundred miles offshore, far from view in an area once better known for its prodigious quantities of cod. The fourth site is off central Long Island.
The researchers last looked at the economics of installing their offshore grid, which they said would have the advantage of sharing costs across several states, potentially increasing political support for the plan.
"This paper should be seen as a tool for energy planners to better inform their renewable energy decisions across a densely populated area," said Jacobson. "It is an opportunity to collaborate on a shared system that reduces costs while benefitting a large and important center of electrical demand in the U.S."
Source: http://soe.stanford.edu/ |
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, left, is pictured at a rally in Annandale, Va. on July 14, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, right, is pictured at a campaign event in New York, N.Y. on July 16, 2016. (Melina Mara/Washington Post — Chris Goodney/Bloomberg)
The nation’s largest LGBT rights organization is calling on the next president to lead a bold effort across the federal government to strengthen protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a Washington-based advocacy group, is preparing to release a report after the election urging more than 70 specific policy changes that would ban LGBT discrimination in federal programs and show a government-wide commitment to diversity in gender identification and sexual orientation.
“Over the past 8 years, the Obama administration has worked to systematically dismantle this discriminatory infrastructure of federal inequality that has plagued the LGBTQ community since this country’s founding,” an 18-page executive summary obtained by The Post stated.
“However, in the wake of years of tremendous federal progress, the LGBTQ community finds itself at yet another crossroads. There is still so much left undone.”
[In Pennsylvania, Trump’s call for radical change is cheered and feared]
HRC, which endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Jan. 19, outlined dozens of recommendations Clinton is likely to weigh if she becomes president. Clinton has made LGBT issues a pillar of her campaign and has said she would work to appoint Supreme Court justices who support the 2015 high court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
The future of LGBT policy will be much less clear if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wins the White House on Tuesday. Trump has said publicly on numerous occasions since 2000 that he supports “traditional marriage.” In January, just before the Iowa caucuses, he criticized the Supreme Court’s decision and said he would “strongly consider” appointing judges to overrule it if he is elected president.
“I don’t like the way they ruled,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “I disagree with the Supreme Court from the standpoint that it should be a states’ rights issue and that’s the way it should have been ruled on … If I’m elected, I would be very strong in putting certain judges on the bench that I think maybe could change things.”
Among its proposals, HRC urges the next president to appoint the first openly LGBT cabinet secretary and to add more LGBT individuals to the ranks of judges, executive officials and ambassadors.
“It is essential that federal judiciary and executive offices reflect the diversity of the country,” the group stated.
[With bombshells, FBI wades into corrosive presidential race]
The policy recommendations were close to comprehensive, and ranged from ending the prohibition on military enlistment and deployment for people with HIV, to ensuring transgender veterans have access to gender transition procedures, to strengthening safeguards for LGBT refugees, to creating a federal definition of bullying under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
HRC also urged the Federal Trade Commission under the next administration to prohibit the practice of “conversion therapy” as fraudulent and take action against individuals and organizations that offer it. Conversion therapy is the scientifically discredited practice of treating individuals with the goal of ending their attraction to people of the same sex, and is widely criticized by gay rights advocates.
In January, Clinton promised to end the practice of “conversion therapy” on minors if elected, support transgender people serving in the military and back legislation to include discrimination against LGBT people in the Civil Rights Act. |
1. You enjoy being alone a little too much. Going to the movies solo every now and then isn’t bad but you shouldn’t be that into it.
2. To get some sort of conversation in your life you’ll walk around Target asking employees questions about products that you’ve got no intention of purchasing.
3. Many guys will watch porn to fulfill their sexual fantasies but for you only romantic comedies will do it.
4. You go to the bar not caring about hooking up but just being glad to be in the vicinity of some good looking people even if you know you won’t talk to them.
5. Instead of ordering delivery you will go out of your way to pick up your pizza to have some brief human interaction outside of your house.
6. It’s common place for you to have ongoing conversations with yourself.
7. Continuously stare at your text messages hoping that the harder you stare the more likely someone, anyone will send you a message.
8. You check out any half decent girl just hoping to make eye contact with as many of them as possible. It’s a numbers game after all.
9. You can talk yourself into the prospect of dating even monsters like Jan on The Office.
10. Food has turned into your best and most dependable friend.
11. You’re a man that’s considering getting a cat.
12. You relate to Edward Norton’s character in Fight Club. Maybe you even wouldn’t mind your own Brad Pitt subconscious ordering you around.
13. Sometimes you feel like Sandra Bullock in Gravity just floating around aimlessly.
14. You’’ll often go to your parent’s house just to hang out.
15. You’re always the only person in your bed and yet you only sleep on one side.
16. Will take any small gesture by a woman as a sign of interest such as the waitress writing a heart on your receipt.
17. Watch reruns of The Office to see Jim and Pam so you can feel the emotions of a real, beautiful relationship.
18. Don’t wear headphones at the gym. No reason to do this unless you’re desperately hoping someone starts a conversation with you.
19. Ask to borrow someone’s dog. You aren’t dog sitting but instead you asked a friend if you could have their dog stay with you for a night or two just because. |
The FIA has installed the kerbs on the exit of Turns 6 and 7, the two left-handers in the middle of the lap, plus the apex of Turn 8 and Turns 9 and 10, the final two corners.
Baguette kerbs were in place last season at the last two turns, but the spacing between them has been increased to 3.2m for this year after a number of cars suffered damage hitting them in the 2016 event.
But Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean both lost bodywork in this year's Friday practice after running wide at Turn 9, while Carlos Sainz Jr’s FP2 ended prematurely because of the damage his Toro Rosso sustained after his own off.
“This is not the highest-grip track and with the higher speeds this year, if you have a moment, it is difficult to correct without hitting a kerb or going through the gravel, which a lot of people have experienced today,” said Verstappen.
“The yellow kerbs were definitely a challenge and I think maybe they are not the type of kerbs for Formula 1, the cars just aren’t designed for it.”
Massa said a solution would be “a bit tricky” but was annoyed to suffer damage to his upgraded Williams just by trying to return to the track.
“I damaged my car today, and the kerb is definitely not there to damage the car, it’s there for different reasons,” he said.
“I didn’t damage my car because I was trying to use too much, I damaged [it] because I just went off [and was] coming back.
“It was not great.”
Grosjean, who suffered damage to the floor, said he does not expect the kerbs to be changed this weekend.
He described the design as “pretty aggressive”.
“I got a big hit,” Grosjean said. “We are going to reinforce everything we can to make sure it stays in one piece.”
Sainz’s Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat claimed the changes had made the kerbs “better” than last year even though he admitted they are “a bit odd compared to other circuits”.
Kvyat’s view was shared by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who said: “It’s not as bad as it was last year.
“Last year the kerbs were pretty bad – people’s suspension was breaking.”
Additional reporting by Adam Cooper and Lawrence Barretto |
CNET Smart Home Guide From connected light bulbs, to plant sensors, to smart locks, and beyond, smart home tech is growing and evolving rapidly. Here you'll find the latest product reviews, news, and how-tos to help you connect your surroundings to the internet in the smartest way possible. Read More
I'm on a mission, and that mission is to save on my power bill. I've already done the obvious stuff, like replace lightbulbs -- especially the 500W halogens floodlights I have outdoors -- with low-power LEDs, and I'm being more careful as to how I use heating and cooling. But along with making big changes, I've also been looking at just how much power all the random stuff I have plugged in uses.
A while back, I looked at how much power smartphone chargers consumed when there wasn't a smartphone attached to them. Now let's look at how much power it takes to charge a smartphone for a year.
Also: Best cheap phones: $300 (or much less) buys a great iPhone
Now, the proper way to do this test would be to measure the power consumption over a year. Well, I want results quicker than that, so I'd have to do shorter periods of real-world testing and extrapolate out the results, which shouldn't be a problem.
So, here's what I did rather than keep detailed charging note for a year, or find how much power it took just to charge the battery from 0 percent to 100 percent, and try to fudge that into some real-world figure. I replicated what most people do and put my smartphone on to charge overnight and measured the nightly power consumption.
Also: The first Android phone was an ugly thing, and I loved it CNET
I chose this method for two reasons:
It's a usage pattern that matches how many people use their device
It is more real-world, since when the device is on charge overnight, not only is power being used to charge the battery, but also to run the device (remember, your device is doing stuff in the background like checking email), so this goes beyond just measuring the power used to charge the battery
Power consumption was measured using a WattsUp? PRO power meter.
My test subject was the iPhone 6 Plus, which had the biggest battery that Apple offered at the time of my test. I'm also a pretty heavy user, and this meant that going all day was sometimes tricky (the things I do for you). This means that my results are going to be at the high-end, and that more restrained smartphone users are going to have a smaller power bill.
So here's what I found.
Also: 17 ways to recycle or sell your smartphone TechRepublic
During an overnight charge, the iPhone consumed an average of 19.2 Wh.
According to figures published by the US Energy Information Administration for July 2018 (the latest figures currently avaialble), the average cost per kWh in the US was $0.13.
Remember that 1 kWh equals 1,000 Wh.
So, take our average of 19.2 Wh per day, multiplying that by 365 days, we get 7 kWh, which works out at $0.91 a year.
So if you guess under a dollar, well done.
Previous and related coverage:
Want a new iPhone or Android smartphone? Here's how to sell or trade
The new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was just announced and we expect three new iPhones and two Google Pixel phones to launch soon. Now is the time to consider selling your current one before market prices drop or plan to participate in a trade-in program.
10 best smartphones of 2018
he major smartphone launch season is upon us and one of the first out of the gates is the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, immediately taking over the top spot in our list of best smartphones.
Best Wearable Tech for 2018 CNET
Our editors hand-picked these products based on our tests and reviews. If you use our links to buy, we may get a commission.
The best tablets for 2018: Our top picks TechRepublic
Tablet sales may be declining, but there are still plenty of viable use cases and many models to choose from. Here's our pick of the best.
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When I first saw someone tweet this across the timeline, I was sure it was a joke. I mean, why do we need to make Santa Claus gay? What purpose does this serve? Well, OK, I’m not that naive. There seems to be a concerted effort by mass media to push extremely mature content onto our children, often in the name of tolerance and/or diversity. Personally, I have no problems with people involved in homosexual behavior. I’m also in an interracial relationship myself, so I obviously have no qualms there, either. But what is wrong with a company who thinks pushing a gay Santa Claus onto children is a good idea?
This is simply insane. It might be the best example of our deteriorating society that I’ve seen so far this year.
IT’S SANTA FOR F*CK’S SAKE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
I just can’t get over this…
A new picture book will depict Santa as a gay man in an interracial relationship, publisher Harper Design confirmed Tuesday. The book, Santa’s Husband, goes on sale Oct. 10 and tells the story of a black Santa Claus and his white husband who both live in the North Pole. Santa’s spouse frequently fills in for his husband at malls, according to a description of the book Harper Design provided to TIME. Daniel Kibblesmith, who is a staff writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and co-author of How to Win at Everything, penned the parody children’s book after tweeting in December that he would only tell his future child Santa was black. “If they see a white one, we’ll say ‘That’s his husband,’” Kibblesmith wrote… Harper Design said the book is meant for all ages.
Like hell it is. I’m incensed, so I can only imagine what the more religious and/or conservative among us must be thinking. Yes, I know it’s not Jesus, although feminists recently “aborted” him as well, so yea. We’re clearly headed in the right cultural direction. I can only imagine what these amazing talents will think of next? Perhaps a transgendered Easter Bunny?
Maybe I shouldn’t give them any ideas. |
Jonathan Lucroy is one of baseball's best catchers. Still, this hasn't been the easiest of weeks for the 2016 All-Star. On Saturday, the 30-year-old was traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Cleveland Indians -- a deal Lucroy rejected (the Indians were on his no-trade list) amid concerns he wouldn't get enough time behind the plate in 2017. "I have to look out for me and my family," he says. "I know Cleveland fans are mad at me right now, but my decision had zero to do with the quality of their team." On Monday, Lucroy was moved to the Texas Rangers with reliever Jeremy Jeffress as part of a deadline trade that included several minor league prospects. Here, Lucroy discusses the failed Cleveland deal and the moments before and after his trade to the Rangers -- a move he hopes will deliver him to his first playoff appearance in five years.
When you're traded, you're never sure what to expect. I'd never been dealt before, so this was a new experience for me. After our game on Saturday, against the Pirates, I was called into an office. Something was going down. The general manager, David Stearns, told me I'd been traded. David said he couldn't say who got me because medical stuff needed to be cleared before it could be announced. I figured it must be a team that wasn't on my no-trade list, just because of everything that goes into that. Based on what I'd seen online and what I heard from my agent, I knew the Mets, Indians, Dodgers and Rangers had shown interest. Cleveland was the only one of those teams on my no-trade list, so I ruled that out.
It was already pretty clear there wasn't going to be much of a future for me in Milwaukee. They're in rebuilding mode, and they wouldn't want to pay to keep me there. I had a team option for 2017, and then that was it. It's the reality of the situation. I grew up in the organization, spent nearly 10 years with it. I love the fans, but this is all part of the game. You hear -- baseball's a business -- but it really is. They were figuring out their roster for the future, and I wanted to win now. That's the landscape, and it's something you have to deal with. So I got the news I was traded, and I was excited to know where I would play next. I knew it'd be a competitive situation. I like being part of something bigger, like a cog in an engine. In Milwaukee, I didn't feel part of that because we weren't winning. With a trade, I'd be on a team that was working toward the playoffs.
My agent, Doug Rogalski, found out it was the Indians that traded for me. I was surprised, but I wanted to keep an open mind. Great team. Competitive team. There's a real chance to win. Doug called Chris Antonetti, the Indians' president. There was one thing we wanted to know: What was my future with the Indians? We knew Cleveland already had a good catcher, Yan Gomes, who's injured right now. He's getting paid more than me, and he's younger than me. We knew they'd probably want him catching almost every day next year. Heck, if I were the general manager in Cleveland, I'd want Gomes catching every day.
We were right. Antonetti told Doug that the Indians couldn't make any promises on me catching next season. There was no way they'd drop the team option, either, because I'm pretty inexpensive in 2017. I don't blame them. I would have been mostly at first base and designated hitter. In the end, that was the deal killer. Doug called me. He said, You're not going there.
"You can say anything you want about what I've said in the past about wanting to get traded to a winner and then blocking the trade to Cleveland. Well, guess what? I did get traded to a winner." Jonathan Lucroy
Cleveland fans don't like that part, but it's nothing against them. It wasn't personal. If anything, I have even more respect for the Indians because of Antonetti's honesty. He could have lied to my agent and said I'd play catcher every day next season. But he didn't. He told the truth. I'm thankful for that. My decision not to go to Cleveland had nothing to do with the team, but it had everything to do with my future in this game. It was an economic decision. Period. I have to look out for my family's best interests and my interests as a catcher who'd be going into 2018 not having played my position the previous year. I am a catcher. I've been catching since I was 12 years old. I love being behind the plate, being involved in the game from that perspective. I love every part of that. I'm not changing positions for anybody. I don't care who it is. My value is as a catcher, and I know it.
So we blocked the trade. And then we waited.
Things weren't dead. I knew I could still be moved. I was in a good position. If I were traded, it would be to a team that was in the playoff race. That was obvious. Doug knew there would be teams that would try to re-engage with the Brewers. I was hoping the Rangers were still interested. Dallas was our No. 1 target. My wife is from Louisiana, I went to college in Louisiana, and we still live in that state, so this was really close to home for us. If we could pick a perfect spot to go as a family, and for competitive baseball, the Dallas area was the place. They know their sports in Texas. Great fans. Great facilities. Great team. We have a lot of friends there. We were hoping the Rangers were still interested.
My manager, Craig Counsell, put me in as a pinch hitter on Sunday. It was a day before the trade deadline, and no one knew if I was wearing a Brewers uniform for the last time. I got a standing ovation, and it meant a lot to me. I dug into the batter's box, and I was in limbo. I figured if this is my last at-bat here, it's my last at-bat. If not, we'll see what happens. I flied out. It wasn't much of a storybook ending.
A day after the deadline, Jonathan Lucroy started his journey with the Rangers. Greg Fiume/Getty Images
Afterward I felt a little sad, a little excited. Honestly, I was scared because I didn't know what was going to happen next. I was thinking about my wife, Sarah, and our young daughter, Ellia. If I got traded, how would it impact them? How would we get our stuff to our new city? They'd be by themselves, sorting things out, and I wouldn't be there to help. But I had to keep going like nothing was going to change in our lives. My general manager had told me I wasn't going to be dealt unless the team liked what it was getting in return. They weren't just going to give me away.
I decided to take a flight out of Chicago for San Diego, because that's where the Brewers were playing next. It was Monday, just before the trade deadline. If I wasn't traded, I'd have to be in San Diego, ready to go. I was in a parking lot at O'Hare International Airport when Doug called. It was 2:50 p.m. Central time. Ten minutes before the deadline. Doug said Ken Rosenthal tweeted that I'd been traded to the Rangers. I was totally calm about it. I said, I'll stay here and wait for confirmation from David. Five minutes later, I got the call. It was really straightforward: Hey, we just traded you to the Rangers. It's official. I left Chicago and headed for Miller Park.
I called my wife and told her what was happening. She'd been a nervous wreck leading up to this point, and now I heard the excitement in her voice. I called my parents. I called my agent. Jon Daniels, the Rangers general manager, called me and said he was glad I was joining the team. Less than an hour earlier, I didn't know what was happening, and now I wound up getting traded to the team with the best record in the American League. You can say anything you want about what I've said in the past about wanting to get traded to a winner and then blocking the trade to Cleveland. Well, guess what? I did get traded to a winner.
Finally, I got back to Milwaukee and went into the Brewers clubhouse. I grabbed some catcher's equipment. It was royal colored. I grabbed some spikes that matched, and I got some clothes. The Brewers would have to box up the rest of my locker and ship it to me. David knew I was at the park, so he came down and met me at one of the stadium's entrances. We shook hands. Then I was gone. I went home, kissed my wife, grabbed some more clothes. My daughter was off playing with friends, but I had to leave. Texas was playing in Baltimore on Tuesday, and I had to get to the airport. I kissed my wife again and said, I'll see you in a couple weeks. That's the life of a baseball player.
The last time I was in a playoff race was 2014, but we fell apart in mid-August and blew it. The last time I was in the playoffs was 2011, my first full season as a major leaguer. I still remember Mark Kotsay, one of our veterans, standing up and telling us we didn't understand how hard it was to make it to the playoffs. He told us that guys played their entire careers without making it to the postseason. He said it might not happen for any of us again. I heard that, and I was like, C'mon. No way that's happening. I thought we could go every year. I was spoiled. I was also dead wrong. I learned a lesson from that. Don't take things for granted.
Texas made a sacrifice to bring me in. They gave up some good prospects. By making that sacrifice, they're telling me they need me here to win. When a player's on a team, wherever it is, you want to have that wanted and needed feeling. It makes you feel like you're part of something. We aren't in the playoffs yet, but we have all the pieces. I'm already falling in love with this roster. We have two players in our lineup who are Hall of Fame guys: Adrian Beltre and Carlos Beltran. Those two dudes are unbelievable. I'm honored to play with them, and I know I'm going to be a better baseball player being around them. I've only played on the road for Texas, but I can't wait to play a home game.
When I step to the plate there, I'm going to take it all in. I'm going to take all of this in. I know I had nothing to do with the Rangers getting to where they are now, but I want to have a lot to do with finishing the job. |
The Government Can Be Transparent About International Negotiations... If It's Unhappy With Them
from the tpp-vs.-wcit dept
Join me and make a difference. 303,000,000 Americans have just been offered access to the notoriously secret ITU WCIT documents. Just join ITAC, the State Department International Telecommunications Advisory Committee, and enjoy access. “It takes a simple email with a request to be placed on the ITAC listserv, based on some material interest in a given topic,” Paul Najarian of State writes. Simply send an email to join [email protected] and you automatically have access to ITAC.
First, we welcome all interested stakeholders to participate in our WCIT preparatory process and help the U.S. Government form positions in advance of the conference. We solicit this input and feedback through the United States International Telecommunications Advisory Committee (ITAC). I believe that the ITAC process is critically important in helping the U.S. Government convene the type of open, public, and necessary consultations from all stakeholders that helps strengthen our positions in advance of the WCIT. The ITAC has advised the Department of State on U.S. participation in international telecommunications treaty organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union for decades and has, accordingly, been critical in the preparation of prior U.S. positions for meetings of international treaty organizations, developing and coordinating proposed contributions to international meetings and submitting them to the Department of State for consideration. For the WCIT, the ITAC will continue to serve this critical role. Therefore, we welcome any person and any and all organizations, whether corporate or non-profit, to participate in the ITAC if they would like to assist with the WCIT preparatory process.
Second, all WCIT preparatory documents – including revisions of the TD-62 compilations of Member States proposals, the final report of the Council Working Group, and Member State proposals – have been and will continue to be made available to interested ITAC member. It is imperative that we ensure full consideration of a WCIT proposal’s impact on economic growth, the Internet’s openness, and the world at large and this is best done through the adoption of open and transparent processes that allow for wide consultation. Thus, we will continue to share these WCIT documents with stakeholder so that they can provide more informed views and help us develop positions that reflect the input of the diverse range of interests in the United States.
Starting this week, I will proactively communicate our positions on participation and document availability to underscore the US Government’s commitment to transparency.
We've been covering two big stories lately: the ongoing negotiations over the TPP agreement (Trans Pacific Partnership) as well the upcoming fight to change key internet governance issues via the UN's ITU (International Telecommunications Union) as part of WCIT (the World Conference on International Telecommunications). Of course, there's an interesting contrast about these two discussions. Both have been hit with accusations of government bureaucrats keeping things way, way too secret. The ITU has been notoriously secret , despite claims of opening up (which generally involve releasing redacted versions of documents which have already been widely leaked in un-redacted form much earlier). Then we have the USTR, claiming unprecedented transparency , even as the USTR seems to think that "transparency" means getting people to testify about a document they're not supposed to have seen.Of course, part of the USTR's claims about "transparency" are that it has a variety of ITACs (Industry Trade Advisory Committees) who have more or less full access to the negotiating positions of the US -- which the publicCongress do not . That those ITACs are limited to just a few industries -- often the legacy industries seeking greater protectionism, and not the up and coming innovators who are more important for economic growth. Basically, these ITACs are locked up providing a clearly protectionist attitude towards copyright.The TPP process has its own ITACs as well -- though, in that context, it means an "International Telecommunications Advisory Committee." More or less the same thing.Except there's one major difference. Whereas the ITACs having to do with TPP have been quite secretive, the flipside is happening with the ITACs related to the WCIT fight. And it'sdriving the transparency. There are lots of reasons to be concerned by the ITU WCIT process, but the US government is making it easy for the public to participate So, basically, anyone can join the ITAC concerning WCIT. That's quite different than with TPP, certainly. Oh, and then there's this bit of transparency, straight from the State Department. The following is an email from Terry Kramer, the US Ambassador and head of the US delegation dealing with WCIT:Okay, just to translate, if that's a bit dry: when it comes to WCIT, where the US finds itself on the defensive, suddenly it's a lover of openness and transparency. The State Department readily invites anyone to join an ITAC and promises to quickly reveal all relevant documents it receives. Furthermore, it knows that sharing the documents will lead to "more informed views."In other words, all of the things that the USTR refuses to do with TPP -- and which it claims are effectively impossible in an international agreement. Of course, the reality seems to suggest that when the US is in control (as with TPP), then it seeks to hoard and limit info, preferring secrecy to openness and transparency. Yet, when it's not, as with the ITU process, suddenly government officials are magically in love with openness and transparency. Incases, it's willing to let anyone join an ITAC and is willing to share whatever documents it can provide.All of this really highlights the dishonesty of the USTR in all of this. While, yes, the negotiation process between these two issues are somewhat different, there's no reason that the USTR can't take after the State Department in terms of transparency concerning an international negotiation. It just chooses not to do so, because then experts and the public might stand up and point out why the TPP is dangerous.
Filed Under: copyright, international agreements, internet governance, itu, tpp, transparency |
One of Dublin’s last surviving Victorian pubs, Bowe’s on Fleet Street, is facing its biggest change in 160 years under plans for a three-fold expansion of the premises.
A planning application has been made to Dublin City Council to expand the pub at 31 Fleet Street into the ground floor and basement of the neighbouring buildings at 29 and 30 Fleet Street, formerly a branch of bookmakers Ladbrokes.
The former Ladbrokes shop, now vacant, is sandwiched between Bowe’s and Doyles, a large corner pub at 28 Fleet Street/9 College Street. Both pubs are owned by Declan Doyle.
The work would involve breaking through the eastern wall of Bowe’s at ground floor level to interconnect the building with number 29/30. The basement of 29/30, which is currently part of Doyles pub, would become part of the newly expanded Bowe’s, and the access from Doyles to that basement would be closed off.
The applicants are also seeking permission to change the use of the ground floor portion of 29/30 from the current retail and hostel/B&B use to licensed premises use.
The pubs and the former bookmakers were built between 1798 and 1812 on a site which rounds the corner at Fleet Street onto College Street, and are protected structures. A pub was opened at the current Bowe’s premises in 1854 by Christopher McCabe. In the late 1880s it changed into the hands of John O’Connor and in the early part of the last century it became Bowe’s.
Bowe’s has a traditional ornate Victorian pubfront and its interior has Victorian decorative joinery. The “visual character” of the pub will remain intact after the work, according to the application and the snug at the entrance will be unaltered.
The interior of the old Ladbrokes building is primarily 20th century and would be fitted out in a style “sympathetic” to the “historic character” of Bowe’s, the applicants said. Wall panelling and mirrors removed to create the new opening will be reused in the expanded pub.
Bowe’s existing bar counter along its western wall will be left in place and a new bar will be built along the back wall of 29 and 30. A new entrance to the expanded pub will be located at number 29. |
New figures show that the Government is still nowhere near achieving its goal of cutting net migration to the “tens of thousands” by 2015.
A separate report by the Office for National Statistics shows that the foreign-born population of Britain has increased by 43.5 per cent since Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2004, to reach 7.5million.
Ministers insisted that their immigration reforms are starting to have an effect.
Damian Green, the Immigration Minister, said: “We are now starting to see the real difference our tough policies are making, with an overall fall in net migration and the number of visas issued at its lowest since 2005.
“At the same time, there are encouraging signs that we continue to attract the brightest and best and to support tourism in the UK.
“We will continue to work hard to ensure that net migration is reduced from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament.”
But Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, a pressure group, said: “These figures are a disappointment. Net migration remains far too high.
“Today’s numbers underline the huge difficulty of getting immigration back under control after 13 years of chaos.”
Sarah Mulley of the Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank added: “The combination of recession and immigration policy changes may be starting to have an impact but more than a third of the fall is due to a rise in emigration.
“The statistics show that the Government remains a long way from its goal.”
The ONS’s quarterly migration update showed that net migration – the number of people entering Britain minus those who leave – stood at 216,000 in the year to December 2011.
This was a fall on the 252,000 recorded for the previous year but the ONS said the difference was “not statistically significant”.
Immigration dropped slightly to 566,000 while emigration increased to 350,000.
Study remained the most common reason for people moving to Britain for at least a year but in the year to June 2012 there were 282,833 student visas issued, a fall of 21 per cent as the Government tries to cut the number of non-EU students.
The number of National Insurance numbers given to foreign nationals fell 15 per cent to reach 601,000 while work visa fell by 7 per cent to 147,385.
The number of people granted settlement in Britain fell by 33 per cent to reach 138,589, however asylum applications rose by 3 per cent in the second quarter of the year.
Most (55 per cent) immigrants came from outside the EU but the rights of free movement granted to European citizens mean it is difficult for ministers to achieve their goal of reducing net migration, despite the cuts to visa numbers.
Some commentators said it may not even be clear by 2015 whether or not the target has been reached, because the margin of error around the ONS figures means that net migration may be 35,000 higher or lower than the recorded number.
Dr Martin Ruhs, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said: “In simple terms, the Government could miss the ‘tens of thousands’ target by many tens of thousands and still appear to have hit it. Conversely the Government could hit, or even exceed its target and still appear to have missed it.” |
CINCINNATI — When Jimmy Harston erected a massive “HELL IS REAL” sign alongside Interstate-71 over 25 years ago, his intentions were to warn every passerby of eternal doom.
Ohio soccer supporters interpreted it differently.
The “HELL IS REAL Derby” seemed a perfect name for Columbus Crew SC and FC Cincinnati: playful and innocent. The two teams playing 110 miles apart were more like siblings than real, legitimate rivals. After all, they play in different leagues and therefore would likely never play each other.
Until Wednesday.
FC Cincinnati was created in August 2015 with the promise of offering “first-class” soccer to Cincinnati, a city where any previous soccer teams failed, semi-professional or not.
But after the United Soccer League side drew more than 14,000 fans to its first match in a league that averaged less than 3,400, Cincinnati had to be taken with at least some seriousness.
Matthew Long is just one example of a former Columbus season-ticket holder who either felt ostracized or tired of the four-hour round trips to home games. When FC Cincinnati was announced, he signed up for season tickets immediately. Once matches arrived, he called the atmospheres incomparable.
“You were just blown away,” Long said of his first match in Nippert. “The physical environment is such a close one, you never had that at Crew Stadium. … We play in the Taj Mahal of USL. You have to recognize that.”
Columbus couldn’t ignore the fact that, by the end of the 2016 season, Cincinnati already had a higher league average attendance (and still does).
And that’s what made Wednesday night’s inaugural “HELL IS REAL Derby” authentic.
The beauty of cup soccer is that anything can happen in one game - Cincinnati manager Alan Koch
Had the teams played in Columbus in 2016 in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Crew SC would’ve played the match at a local college soccer stadium, likely with reserves. That never happened — FC Cincinnati lost in the preceding round.
So when Cincinnati beat its league rival Louisville City FC last month to earn hosting rights with Columbus, FC Cincinnati took a typical fourth-round cup match and made it into the biggest soccer game in city history.
Eyeing a spot as one of Major League Soccer’s next expansion locations, Cincinnati saw the opportunity as a rough draft for a potential future league fixture. Special shirts and scarves were made, ambitious marketing strategies were rolled out and the club, while not officially recognizing the supporters’ rivalry name, mysteriously began adding fire emojis to social media posts.
Strong side, weak result
All of this made Columbus uncomfortable, and probably, annoyed.
SCOTT FRENCH The anti-Galaxy: How LAFC is uniting the disenfranchised masses
Had Crew SC played almost anyone else, the match’s importance would’ve been low, if not irrelevant altogether. That’s the U.S. Open Cup, a 100-plus-year-old knockout tournament which parallels England’s FA Cup -- except that the U.S. version gets very little coverage.
Even the Seattle Sounders treated their cup clash with rival Portland Timbers FC as secondary. Nine players from the S2 USL side were called up for first team action in a stadium capacity of only 4,000.
Columbus wasn’t so lucky. Instead, in an effort to quell its southern noisy neighbors, Crew SC manager Gregg Berhalter deployed an almost full-strength roster, starting roughly eight regulars. He wanted to send a message, which ultimately backfired.
Before 30,160 spectators at Nippert Stadium on Wednesday night, FC Cincinnati upset Columbus Crew SC 1-0, playing to an attendance 10,000 higher than the previous fourth-round record. The impressive crowd wouldn’t fit in Columbus’ Mapfre Stadium, and came within 1,000 people of the first-tier side’s all-time highest home attendance.
“The beauty of cup soccer is that anything can happen in one game,” Cincinnati manager Alan Koch said.
And it did. FC Cincinnati’s triumphant win over its intrastate rival didn’t secure MLS expansion, but it showed the seriousness the city has toward soccer that, at least currently, is more fanatical than Columbus’ league-worst average attendance (13,050).
Brett Hansbauer / FC Cincinnati
Barring a few banners stretched across the upper deck bleachers, Nippert Stadium was packed with blue and orange, pinning the away supporters into a corner of the ground.
The Bailey, FC Cincinnati’s main supporters section, released all its best tricks, from blue and orange smoke meant to resemble fire in pre-match festivities, to unveiling a massive “HELL IS REAL” banner after full time, as Crew SC supporters stood shocked nearby. A few away fans were so frustrated that some were allegedly escorted from the stadium after jawing at players and their manager.
The aftermath
After the match, Crew SC players refused to call it a rivalry. Goalkeeper Brad Stuver, who watched Djiby Fall’s 64th-minute looping header drop near his left post, simply said it was a good attendance for a midweek match.
Embedded video for 'HELL IS REAL,' and so is FC Cincinnati's threat to Columbus
Crew midfielder Wil Trapp, who was eating a steak salad during his interview, dropped a piece of meat from his mouth when he was reminded that his team, which for two decades dominated the Ohio soccer landscape, was just unraveled by a second-tier side which didn’t exist two years before.
Berhalter, who fully admitted his better team couldn’t splinter Cincinnati’s backline, praised the atmosphere. “This is what makes soccer special,” he said.
And the upset is what makes the HELL IS REAL Derby, well, real.
When Djiby scored in front of The Bailey, he trotted to the corner, fell to the turf and wept. Meanwhile, The Bailey replicated scenes from a great derby match anywhere in the world. Rather than simply celebrating the goal, supporters openly celebrated scoring against Columbus. Fans in blue and orange turned toward the petrified yellow-and-black patch, pointing fingers and mocking the big brother club that, for the first time, finally looked small.
Smoke filled the air and the stadium shook, with arms flowing like waves as supporters relished the biggest moment in their club’s short history. For a team created from scratch with a cringe-worthy advertisement, nothing was artificial about the celebrations. There was a sense of belonging that could be mistaken for an organic fandom passed down through generations. FC Cincinnati’s pride in its fans, and the the supporters’ pride in their club, was pure, passionate love — with or without MLS approval.
STEVE DAVIS Energy around new markets leaves MLS' old guard playing catch up
In a competition discredited for pairing cup fixtures based on geographical proximity, FC Cincinnati offered an experience that would have been entirely different had the match not conveniently occurred between the two clubs and in Cincinnati.
The Seattle-Portland rivalry might be the most coveted in American soccer, but this week showed two Midwestern clubs could have just as much fun.
The difference, though, is, even if only for one night, Columbus and Cincinnati cemented that the HELL IS REAL Derby was more real than any pre-match speculation ever suggested.
There’s no guarantee the fixture will ever happen again. Cincinnati, at least for now, is still in the USL. On Monday night, the club revealed new stadium plans, a last-ditch move to get an MLS team in the city. The match two days later proved if that happened, there’s certainly genuine interest.
Sadly for Harston, moving forward, his sign will recall not so much a spiritual tent revival as a smoke-and-soccer spectacle that would’ve made Mick Jagger smile. Maybe that’s for the benefit of everyone. |
According to myths, the Ancients discovered a botanical species; a kind of reed that was capable of resonating a sound frequency when touched. The Ancients harvested these reeds and created a meditative and spiritual garden.
Quite by accident, the Ancients also discovered a symbiotic creature to the reeds; which they named the Pentapuss. The Pentapuss has the same form and biological structure as the reeds, and fed off the soundwaves made by the reeds. In doing so, their movements amongst the reeds nurtured the growth of the reeds to maturity.
So opens the first chapter of The {Lost} Garden of Sundarya Lahari, which is also the name of the first part of Xineohp Guisse’s interactive environment, located at LEA13, and part of the 6th round of Artist In Residence installations for the first half of 2014. The story goes on:
The Ancients built BioPods and BioSpheres; to nurture these reeds and the young, juvenile pentapussies. They built contemplative Elemental pods at the Chamber of the Ancients, to observe these creatures and plants. They built a music chamber, where they can physically interact with the reeds……
In time, the garden grew to become a beautiful space – to contemplate and be as one with the beings that surrounds them.
As you might expect, given the story, this is a place where you’ll need to have sound on – though not media enabled – in order to fully experience this city-like garden with its tall structures and musical chambers. The music, produced by Xineohp plucking the strings of a cello, can initially sound random and tonal (and at times faintly memorable of a guzheng); however, when walking through the interactive chamber, it is possible to produce something more melodic and soothing.
This is only the first chapter in what promises to be an unfolding story (and environment) which will be added to each month. As such, it is doubtless one you’ll want to return to as it progresses. I know I will.
Oh, and don’t forget to pick up a copy of the book at the arrival chamber.
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For other people named Luis Gonzalez, see Luis Gonzalez (disambiguation)
Luis Emilio Gonzalez (born September 3, 1967), nicknamed "Gonzo",[1] is an American former baseball outfielder who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seven teams. Gonzalez spent his best years with the Arizona Diamondbacks and was one of the most popular players in the organization's history. His game-winning hit in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series against New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera clinched the Diamondbacks' first and only World Series championship to date. Gonzalez was a five-time All-Star and won a Silver Slugger Award in 2001. After retiring from baseball in 2008, Gonzalez joined the Diamondbacks' front office in 2009 as a special assistant to the president. The following year, the team retired his uniform number #20, making him the first player so honored by the Diamondbacks.
Early years [ edit ]
Gonzalez grew up in the West Tampa neighborhood of Tampa, Florida in a Cuban-American household. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1985 along with childhood friend Tino Martinez.[2] After high school, he attended the University of South Alabama, where he earned Baseball America's All-Freshman Second Team honors. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the fourth round of the 1988 amateur draft. Gonzalez played American Legion Baseball for Post 248. Other Post 248 alumni include Lou Piniella, Tony La Russa, Tino Martinez and Gary Sheffield.
Professional career [ edit ]
Houston Astros (1990–1995) [ edit ]
Gonzalez made his major league debut on September 4, 1990. He finished the rest of the 1990 season with 4 hits (2 doubles). The year of 1991 became the first full season of Gonzalez's career. During 1991, he batted .254 with 13 home runs and 69 RBI. In 1992, he batted .243 with 10 home runs and 55 RBI. In 1993, he batted .300 with 15 home runs, 72 RBI, and an NL leading 10 sacrifice flies. In 1994, he batted .273 with 8 homers and 67 RBI. His 1995 season began with a .258 batting average, 6 homers and 35 RBI.
Chicago Cubs (1995–1996) [ edit ]
Gonzalez along with Scott Servais were traded to the Chicago Cubs for Rick Wilkins. Gonzalez finished the 1995 season with the Cubs by batting .290 with 7 homers and 34 RBI. Overall in 1995, Gonzalez had a .276 average, 13 homers and 69 RBI combined while he played with the Astros and Cubs. In 1996, Gonzalez batted .271 with 15 homers and 79 RBI.
Second stint with the Houston Astros (1997) [ edit ]
Gonzalez signed a one-year deal to return to the Astros in 1997. During 1997, he batted .258 with 10 homers and 68 RBI.
Detroit Tigers (1998) [ edit ]
Gonzalez signed a one-year deal for the Tigers in 1998. In 1998, he batted .267 with 23 homers and 71 RBI.
Arizona Diamondbacks (1999–2006) [ edit ]
In 1999, Gonzalez was traded to the Diamondbacks for Karim García. Gonzalez began to become a star during his tenure with Arizona. He helped the Diamondbacks into title contention immediately, hitting a career-best .336 in 1999, leading the NL in hits with 206 and helping them win the National League's western division that season before the team fell to the New York Mets in a divisional playoff series. He was selected to his first All-Star Team in 1999. In 2000, the Diamondbacks came in third place in their division. He also blasted 31 home runs and cracked 192 hits.
In 2001, Gonzalez astonished many when he hit 57 home runs, his personal best for one season and almost twice as many as he hit in any other season. The total is the third most in National League history for a left-handed batter (behind Barry Bonds's record 73, which also came in 2001, and Ryan Howard, who hit 58 in 2006). Gonzalez was selected to his second All-Star Team and finished second in the National League in hits with 198. Gonzalez also won the Home Run Derby that year.
The Diamondbacks reached the World Series that year and faced off against the New York Yankees, who featured Gonzalez's childhood friend Tino Martinez starting at 1st base.[2] In the climactic moment, Gonzalez came to the plate in the bottom of the 9th inning of game 7, with the score even at 2-2, the bases loaded and 1 out. The Yankee pitcher was Mariano Rivera, one of the game's most feared closers with an especially good record in the postseason (Rivera had never blown a save chance in a World Series before, or since). Gonzalez swung at Rivera's 0-1 pitch and hit the game-winning bloop single into left field that sealed the first franchise World Series title for Arizona.
He was also selected to All-Star Teams in 2002 and 2003. During the 2002 season, Gonzalez received publicity as a piece of gum chewed by Gonzalez during a spring training game was sold for $10,000 on April 15, 2002.[3] The buyer was Curt Mueller, owner of Mueller Sports Medicine Inc., manufacturer of the gum, Quench.[4]
On May 22, 2004, Gonzalez got his 2,000th career hit in a game against the Florida Marlins, though his season ended early when he had Tommy John surgery in August.[5] In 2005, he was selected to his fifth All-Star Team. On April 18, 2006, he got his 500th career double, becoming the 20th player in Major League history to hit 500 doubles and 300 home runs. On May 13, 2006,[6] he passed Babe Ruth for 38th place all-time for the most doubles hit in league history.
On June 15, 2006, The Arizona Republic printed an interview by columnist E. J. Montini with Diamondback managing general partner Ken Kendrick. In the interview, Kendrick mentioned whispers of alleged steroid use by Gonzalez; in the interview Kendrick never directly accused Gonzalez of using performance-enhancing drugs.[7] The interview came 8 days after Diamondback relief pitcher Jason Grimsley was released by the team after the team learned that federal agents had searched his home looking for evidence that he was a distributor of human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs. On June 16, 2006 an angry Gonzalez called a press conference to deny that he had ever used steroids.[8]
Los Angeles Dodgers (2007) [ edit ]
Luis Gonzalez as a Dodger.
On September 14, 2006, the Diamondbacks announced that they would not pick up the team option of $10 million to re-sign Gonzalez after the 2006 season.[9] On December 7, Gonzalez signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $7 million for the 2007 season.[10]
Gonzalez hit his first home run as a Dodger on Sunday, April 8, 2007 versus Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants. He hit two home runs in that game. In his only season with the Dodgers, he was productive offensively, but struggled defensively. Many times throughout the season, he would be taken out late in the game due to his bad defense. Towards the end of the season, he was benched in favor of Matt Kemp, a top Dodger prospect at the time. He was upset about it and publicly said he was not interested in returning to the Dodgers before the season was even over. He hit .278 with 15 home runs and 68 RBI in 2007.
Florida Marlins (2008) [ edit ]
Gonzalez with the Marlins in 2008.
On February 7, 2008, he signed with the Florida Marlins. The deal was reportedly worth $2 million for 1 season.[11] Gonzalez played in 136 games for the Marlins in 2008, batting .261.
Retirement [ edit ]
Luis Gonzalez's number 20 was retired by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010.
Gonzalez announced his retirement on August 29, 2009 and joined the Diamondbacks front office as a special assistant to the president.[12] In 2010, the Diamondbacks further announced that Gonzalez would be the first Diamondbacks player to have his number, #20, retired on August 7.[13]
Other activities [ edit ]
With businessman and entrepreneur Anthony Conti, Gonzalez has founded IsTalking, LLC, a Phoenix-based company that develops new social networking Web sites exclusively for college students. The company launched a new social network with Arizona State University called ASUIsTalking.com.[14] He has also formed a partnership with the ASU Alumni Association to be the exclusive online social-network for its 250,000 members.
Gonzalez has served as a color commentator on ESPN Radio's broadcasts of National League Division Series games in recent years, and also worked on Fox Sports' television broadcast of the 2006 National League Championship Series.
Gonzalez formerly owned and operated a restaurant called Gonzo's, located in oldtown/downtown Gilbert, Arizona. It then changed name several times, and as of March 2007, it is called "The Grain Belt". The restaurant closed in 2009. In 2012, Postinos opened its 3rd Arizona location in its place. Gonzalez is a prominent member of the U.S.Republican Party. As a resident of Arizona, he wrote a letter of endorsement for Arizona's Junior Senator, Jon Kyl, who won his bid for re-election in 2006.[15] He also endorsed Arizona's other Senator, 2008 GOP Presidential Nominee John McCain, over former congressman J.D. Hayworth in 2010.[16] Gonzalez was also the Celebrity face for a cornfield maze in Queen Creek, Arizona for the Schnepf Farms' annual Celebrity Maze. Gonzalez is the first local celebrity featured. Oprah Winfrey, Larry King and Jay Leno were featured in the past.[17]
Gonzalez currently serves as a member of the board of the Baseball Assistance Team, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping former Major League, Minor League, and Negro League players through financial and medical hardships.
The Diamondbacks built a Little League ballfield in his honor at Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona.
Gonzalez was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame on July 9, 2011 at the MLB All-Star Fan Fest in Phoenix.
Personal life [ edit ]
Gonzalez and his family (which includes wife Christine and triplets Megan, Jacob and Alyssa) are residents of Scottsdale, Arizona.[citation needed] Jacob was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the 2017 MLB draft.[18]
See also [ edit ] |
Tommy Wiseau Being Played by a White Guy Is Offensive to Whatever Alien Species He Is
Once again Hollywood has shown that it is not the diverse, progressive paradise it wants us to think it is. White washing has plagued the film industry and The Disaster Artist is no exception: the subject of the film, Tommy Wiseau, is being played by James Franco — a white man — instead of whatever mystifying alien species he actually is.
Are you kidding me?! Tommy Wiseau is not a “white man.” He is very clearly an “unknowable, possibly unkillable being” that we can only assume is not of this earth. This is unacceptable and I am SHOCKED more people and aliens aren’t upset.
Oh God, Franco’s gonna do the accent, isn’t he? That will be so uncomfortable. Tommy Wiseau has the very authentic accent of someone born on another planet where chickens don’t exist, and it’s going to be unbelievably offensive to hear Franco’s shitty imitation of it.
Sometimes it feels like I’m saying the same thing again and again, but let’s say it one more time for the people in the back and the aliens on planet Wiseau: THERE ARE MORE THAN JUST WHITE ACTORS, PEOPLE.
I’m sick of hearing, “Uh, what about the best person for the job?” It’s a reductive talking point. And I don’t want to hear about how the film industry is a business and that casting white men will appeal to an American demographic. Even by those standards, it’s wrong. Look how well the Fast and the Furious series has done by appealing to a larger, more diverse audience. The last installment features a diverse cast of white, black, asian, hispanic, men and women, and even whatever alien species Vin Diesel is.
Just as Iron Fist should have been portrayed by an Asian actor, Tommy Wiseau should have been played by a similarly extraterrestrial being that had clearly never interacted with a human being prior to acting in a movie.
On behalf of all white people, I apologize to whatever alien species Tommy Wiseau is. Especially if that alien species is the alien species from the movie species because… well, you know. |
Just a day before, we did a story on how a law student from Rajasthan fell to her death (we have now deleted it) while trying to click a selfie in Gokarna town of Karnataka. The story is apparently false.
Some of the friends of the victim have come up with a version of events that differ from the story that was put out by many publications including us. They are claiming that she didn't even go to the lighthouse on that particular day.
Source: Facebook
We spoke to one of the victim's friends, Roshni Namboodiry over the phone and here's what she said: "The entire incident has been falsely reported. She was washed away by a tide alongwith some of her friends. The silly story about clicking a selfie is completely false."
According to eyewitnesses and as stated in the First Information Report filed at the Gokarna Police Station of Uttar Kannad District, Pranita was sitting with three friends on rocks by the sea at Kumta Beach at Gokarna when she was swept away by the tide.
She had held on to a rock for support but lost her grip, and was carried away by the current into the sea. Her body was brought back to the shore by local fishermen 40 minutes after the accident and she was declared dead.
Pranita Mehta | Source: Facebook
Contrary to extensive press coverage that followed the accident, in which Pranita's death was incorrectly depicted as a consequence of careless selfie-taking, she did not, in fact, fall to her death off a 30-foot lighthouse. The Post Mortem Report does not cite any injuries which may have resulted from such a fall.
ScoopWhoop received the above information this afternoon from Pranita's friends who were present at the time of the accident and had filed the FIR. We apologise to Pranita's family and friends for hurting their sentiments and maligning her memory by publishing an incorrect account of her death. We also apologise to our readers for relying on other newspapers for this story without verifying their sources.
Through a Reddit post -- PranitaThrowaway, another friend, has posted details about the entire incident online.
Here's the post:
Pranita, who was a student of National Law University, Jodhpur, was visiting Gokarna with four of her friends. They were at Kumta beach, and were sitting on some rocks which were about 10-15 feet above sea, when due to unexpected high tide, 3 of the youngsters, including the deceased, were flown away by a giant wave.
Two of them were brought back to the shore by another wave, but the deceased, whose glasses had come off, continued to struggle as she held on to a rock for support she bravely struggled and tried to swim for 45 mins. Unfortunately, she lost her grip, and was carried towards the deeper end of the sea by the waves.
The friends promptly called the Police as well as the Management of the Hotel they were staying at, and proceeded to seek help from the local residents from a nearby village. However, they could not understand the youngsters’ plea for help, and by the time they did send some help, about forty minutes had already passed and the deceased was out of sight.
She was brought back ashore on a boat by some of the local fishermen, and was pronounced dead by the authorities. Her body was taken for post-mortem and was handed over to her relatives afterwards.
The copy of the FIR and the post mortem report has been removed as per the family member's wishes. |
**UPDATE** **Thank you everyone for all the information you provided. We've collected enough information and are actively working on fixing the issue** TLDR: If you're on a campus connection and can't log in...Run these commands and attach the logs to the post! (tracert 141.101.114.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt" (tracert 141.101.115.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt" Hey Everyone! We're aware that some players are having issues logging in to League of Legends from certain colleges/universities and are actively working with relevant parties to fix this problem. However, we could use some additional information to more quickly identify and solve this problem. But first, if you believe you're being impacted by this issue, we'd like you to check out this [article.](https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201761944-Login-Issues) Secondly, you may also want to check out [this Boards post,](http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/help-support/nnKzjoMb-new-pvpnet-login-issue-and-ssl-30-102814) just to verify it's not the same issue. If you still have issues logging in through a campus or university connection, we'd really appreciate it if you could attach the following tracert's to this thread, as well as tell us which college/university you're trying to connect from! To obtain a tracert first press the **[Windows Key] (that is the key on the left side of the space bar, between ctrl and alt) + R** Type **cmd **in the search bar and click **"Ok"**. You should now see a black window with white letters. Highlight and copy this command: **(tracert 141.101.114.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt"** Paste this into the cmd window (black box with white letters) by right clicking and selecting **"Paste". Do not use the Ctrl+V shortcut as it will not work!** Depending on your connection, the trace may take 5-15 minutes to complete. A text file with the Tracert log will be created on your Desktop when it finishes. Please check that the command ran properly - if **Tracert.txt** contains a single line, it did not run properly. Attach **Tracert.txt** to a support ticket. **Repeat the steps above with the following tracert** **(tracert 141.101.115.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt"** Once you've collected the two tracerts, please attach them to this discussion post! Thanks for your help! :)
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The jihad sisters: Bubbly and exceptionally bright, these twins with 28 GCSEs were set to train as doctors. Now they're in Syria 'training to be killers'
Twins Salma and Zahra Halane left their parents’ home in middle of night
They then caught a flight to Turkey, before crossing the border to Syria
Sisters appeared to be typical teenagers, pouting for selfies and shopping
Now they are feared to be training for battle in footsteps of elder brother
Twin schoolgirls who followed their jihadi brother to Syria were hard-working students who hoped to train as doctors.
Sixteen-year-olds Salma and Zahra Halane, who last summer achieved 28 GCSEs between them, left their parents’ home in the middle of the night and caught a flight to Turkey, before crossing the border.
Police said the pair are thought to have followed their elder brother, who ditched his own ‘excellent’ academic career to join the ISIS terror group around a year ago.
Scroll down for video
Salma (left) and Zahra Halane (right), who last summer achieved 28 GCSEs between them, left their parents’ home in the middle of the night and caught a flight to Turkey, before crossing the border
Friends said the twins had appeared to be typical teenagers, pouting for selfies and shopping at Primark – but they are now feared to be training for battle.
Last night a rebel fighter boasted that he was teaching girls as young as 16 how to fight. Yilmaz, a Dutch national who has been in Syria for two years, told Sky News: ‘It’s extremely easy to get here. People go on holiday ... they end up in Syria.’
The twins’ parents raised the alarm last month, after finding the girls’ beds empty and their passports and clothes missing.
A former neighbour said the couple had been ‘quite strict’, and did not allow the girls to ‘mix with other children on the street’. Others recalled that the twins wore headscarves when they were as young as nine. But Rhea Headlam, who sat next to Zahra in primary school, said they were ‘just normal teenage girls’.
‘I’m really shocked – I used to bump into them at Primark,’ she added. ‘They were both really clever.’
Selfies: Zahra, left, and Salma, right, pose with friends in pictures taken not long before they fled the UK
Schoolgirl: Zahra Halane kneels in front of friends when she was in Year 6 at her primary school
Last summer Salma achieved 13 GCSEs – 11 of them at grades A* to C – while Zahra passed 15, of which 12 were A*-C. The results put them in the top 10 per cent of their year group at Whalley Range High School for Girls in Manchester.
They went on to study at Connell Sixth Form College, where fellow students said they hoped to follow in the footsteps of their elder sister Hafsa, 25, who is at medical school in Denmark after graduating from Manchester University.
‘The twins both have aspirations to become doctors – that is their ambition,’ said one. Another claimed it was ‘typical’ of the girls to head to Syria ‘after they had finished term’, adding: ‘They wouldn’t want to mess up their education.
‘I’m shocked they have gone. They didn’t seem to be radical or extremist in their views.’
Support: Visitors arrive at the family home yesterday, but the girls' parents have not spoken publicly
It emerged yesterday that the girls’ devoutly Muslim Somali refugee parents and their 11 children had been moved from an estate made famous by the TV series Shameless to an upmarket suburb, after telling the council they needed more bedrooms.
They were given a six-bedroom end-terrace despite the protests of the existing tenant. Yesterday the large back and front gardens were strewn with discarded household items and children’s plastic toys.
The house's previous resident - a 40-year-old Army heroine who served in Bosnia - said last night she had been booted out of the house by Manchester City Council so the twins and their family could move in.
Former lance corporal Dawn Benjamin told The Sun she had thought the house - her childhood home - would be 'going to a good family'.
She added: 'I lost my life, memories, everything I'd grown up with, to house jihadi wannabes'.
Ms Benjamin and her young son had to move out after they were served with a court order. The council confirmed the house had been needed for a larger family.
Police probe: Officers were seen leaving the house. The large back and front gardens were strewn with discarded household items and children's plastic toys
Neighbours said the twins’ parents were keen to share elements of Somalian culture with them, taking round dishes of traditional delicacies for them to try. The twins’ father Ibrahim is understood to teach at a nearby mosque, where leaders this week issued a statement repudiating extremism and opposing violence of all kinds.
Mohammed Shafiq, of the Ramadan Foundation, said the family were moderate Muslims who know all about the dangers of war-torn countries. ‘They were desperately unhappy to discover [their son] had gone to Syria, and they thought they were keeping a watchful eye on their other children. Then this happens,’ he said.
Sources believe Salma and Zahra were inspired by their brother’s transformation into a jihadi fighter, and became radicalised themselves while viewing extremist Islamist material online.
According to police sources, their brother also travelled to the family’s native Somalia, where he may have linked up with another Islamist terror group al-Shabab.
A friend told The Sun the brother was known for his ability to recite long passages of the Koran.
Officers are investigating how the girls funded their own trip, over fears they have been bankrolled by jihadi fighters who want them as their wives.
As many as 1,500 Britons may have travelled to Syria to fight alongside rebels. Many of them have posted messages online promising to use their ‘terror skills’ if they return to Britain. |
Comedian Sarah Silverman told Bernie Sanders supporters who refuse to back Hillary Clinton that they are "being ridiculous" during her speech at the Democratic National Convention July 25. (The Washington Post)
After a day full of tensions between Bernie Sanders supporters and the Democratic Party, the first few hours of the party's convention on Monday featured plenty of distractions, and things seemed to be moving forward.
Then Sarah Silverman showed up.
The comedian was a Sanders supporter in the primaries, and she came to the stage with Clinton supporter and fellow "Saturday Night Live" alum, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.). It was a good idea in theory: two comedians trying to bring some levity to the situation and defuse it with humor.
But feelings were still raw. Silverman argued for unity and gave a generally well-received speech, but Sanders supporters weren't happy, and they began making their voices heard.
Silverman tried to make jokes. She noted that Clinton, who was most recently secretary of state, "was a secretary, and now she's going to be president." The crowd got louder.
Silverman added, "I will vote for Hillary with gusto." She concluded her speech by saying, "As I continue to be inspired and moved to action by the ideals set for by Bernie, who will never stop fighting for us, I am proud to be a part of Bernie's movement, and a vital part of that movement is making absolutely sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States."
The crowd got louder. By that point, though, Franken and Silverman had also run out of material and were being asked to stretch their segment due to a problem with musical guest Paul Simon's organ.
It got a little awkward as they stalled and people chanted. And then Silverman said this: "To the Bernie-or-bust people, let me just tell you: You’re being ridiculous."
Franken gamely tried to argue Silverman had just done a good thing.
"This is a comedian," he said, gesturing to the "Hillary, Hillary" chants. "This is the power of comedy."
Silverman then alluded either to the awkwardness of them still standing there or to the fact that the crowd was still arguing.
"Thank God they can fix this in post[-production]," she said, referring to the editing process in movies and TV shows.
Needless to say, "you're being ridiculous" is not the message the party would have scripted for Silverman or anybody else onstage Monday night. Given it was delivered by Silverman and not a party official, though, perhaps it will blow over.
It could even be remembered as a key moment — in a good way. The Clinton supporters in the crowd surely appreciated the moment, and they cheered loudly, as Franken noted. But it also stands to reason that it could inflame Sanders backers going forward — which was the opposite of the point in sending Silverman out there, after all.
At a time when things appeared to be moving past the drama of the day, it might not have been the best time to put an ad-libbing comedian on the stage to make an appeal for unity. Or maybe it was genius. We'll see how it plays going forward.
Here is Silverman's full speech: |
New U.S. sanctions on Moscow have forced Russian business chiefs to accept that Donald Trump's rise to power is not about to produce a "Trump Bump" in foreign investment.
After Trump became U.S. president, some investors said they would be prepared to contemplate new deals with Russian firms if they saw signs that U.S.-Russian ties were improving and U.S. restrictions on business with Russia were being relaxed.
But the new sanctions, signed onto law by Trump on August 2, add new measures and codify six orders signed by President Barack Obama, making them harder for Trump to revoke.
For the business community in Moscow, the message is clear - there is no immediate prospect of Washington softening its stance towards Moscow.
"Russia faces the codification of sanctions which suggests they will be hellishly difficult to take off and are likely to remain in place for the very long term," said Tim Ash, a strategist at BlueBay asset management in London.
"The mere fact that the U.S. and Western governments ... saw fit to levy sanctions on Russia sends at the least an amber light to Western business - “be careful in your dealings with Russia."
The United States initially imposed financial and travel restrictions on Russia in 2014, after Russia annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine following the fall of a pro-Moscow president in Kyiv.
The latest measures allow Congress to block any effort by the president to ease or lift the existing sanctions, tightens some of those sanctions, and imposes new restrictions in some sectors.
Executives in Russian banks and energy companies, the main targets of the U.S. sanctions, told Reuters their compliance departments were still going through the fine print of the new law to understand the practical impact.
Already clear, though, was the message about the duration of the sanctions.
"This is obviously for a long time," said a source in a major Russian oil company, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Moody's rating agency said in a note to clients that the new sanctions on Russia "are likely to further deter investment there."
The sanctions in place since 2014 directly restrict a narrow range of business dealings. Their biggest effect, according to investment bankers and corporate lawyers in Moscow, is that they create the risk of more sanctions being added.
Under that scenario, a deal signed outside the scope of the sanctions could quickly fall under sanctions. If that happened, investors would be likely to lose money and few want to take that risk.
On the other hand, if investors believe the sanctions will not be expanded, they can conclude deals with some confidence, even while existing measures remain in place.
Ship hasn't sailed
Trump's election triumph last November led many in the Russian business community to believe that the worst of the sanctions was over.
It was at this time that a long-planned deal to privatize a stake in Sovcomflot, a state-owned shipping company with a fleet of modern vessels and lucrative energy sector contracts, was put back on the government's agenda.
The fate of the partial privatization since then reflects the importance of the new sanctions to investor sentiment.
No one involved in the Sovcomflot deal has publicly committed to a date for the sale but two financial market sources told Reuters late in May that the deal was expected in early June.
The plan later changed again because of deteriorating market conditions, a source familiar with the situation said in June - the same week that the Russian stock index slipped on concerns that Washington would impose new sanctions on Moscow.
Later in June, a senior Russian government official told Reuters the deal might happen in July. But after the new U.S. sanctions, Moscow's tone on the deal became more cautious though officials declined to say whether the new sanctions would alter the government's decision about when the sale happens.
"It's clear that the USA's toughening of the sanctions regime right now will hardly make the investment climate for this asset more attractive on international financial markets," Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told reporters on August 3.
Anton Tabakh, a Russian economist, said the main problem the new sanctions posed for Russian investment was that they increase uncertainty about what happens next.
The new measures "guarantee that the risk of the sanctions expanding will remain for a long time," he wrote in a commentary for Carnegie Moscow Center, a think tank.
The new sanctions are unlikely to trigger an immediate crisis in Russia. Business and government have adapted to living with low investment flows, and the central bank has the tools to maintain macro-economic stability. Longer-term, tepid foreign investment is likely to shave a few percentage points off economic growth, economists say. The Russian economy contracted in 2015 and 2016, and is seen growing up to 1.8 percent this year, according to Russia's central bank.
That is far below the average annual growth of nearly 7 percent on which President Vladimir Putin built high approval ratings early in his presidency.
Explaining this will be one of his challenges when, as most Russians expect, he asks Russian voters to re-elect him in next year's presidential election. |
The Revisionist Ride of Paul Revere
Sarah Palin is a fraud with charisma — and enough political support to effectively hold the Republican Party hostage. She is ridiculous and dangerous in equal measure.
Palin is certain about everything and knows about nothing. The only true facts are those she recognizes; other facts, when cited to contradict her private truth, are deemed politically motivated. History books are nothing more than weapons used by her enemies in their incessant attacks, their pitiful attempts to play “gotcha.”
In her view, she does not make mistakes. Therefore, it may surprise you to learn, this is who Paul Revere was:
“He who warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms, by ringing those bells, and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”
Utter, complete nonsense. The purpose of Revere’s midnight ride was to warn townspeople and patriot leaders that British troops were approaching. He didn’t ring any bells or fire any warning shots; the prearranged signal involved hanging lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church, one if the redcoats were approaching by land and two if by sea.
Palin gave her fanciful account Thursday after touring Boston’s historic North End. “We saw where Paul Revere hung out as a teenager, which was something new to learn,” she told reporters — neglecting to add, I guess, that she didn’t bother to read any of the brochures.
It was comical and weird, like a lot of Palin’s antics, but so what? Anybody can have a momentary lapse and say something dumb in front of a television camera. You laugh it off and move on.
Unless you’re Sarah Palin. She appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” and Chris Wallace asked the obvious question: “You realize that you messed up about Paul Revere, don’t you?” He must have expected her to be charmingly self-deprecating. Instead, to Wallace’s evident surprise, she insisted that her ridiculous account was correct.
Palin seized on a lesser-known incident during Revere’s ride, when he was captured and briefly held by several British soldiers. He bluffed his way out of his predicament by boasting that 500 well-armed militiamen were up ahead, ready for battle.
“Part of his ride was to warn the British that, ‘We’re already there,’ that, ‘Hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have.’ “
Wallace smiled as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.
“I didn’t mess up about Paul Revere,” Palin said. “I know my American history.”
Yes, you did. And no, you don’t.
Anyone who believes that Revere rang bells and fired warning shots simply isn’t going to know — until after the fact — about the encounter with the British soldiers. And in any event, Revere didn’t set out “to warn the British” — he was warning colonists about the British. And he wasn’t making some kind of Second Amendment statement about “American arms” because there was no Second Amendment. And …
Yes, I’m belaboring the obvious. But I’m doing so because the incident says so much about Palin’s arrogant disregard for objective fact. It’s never about the truth. It’s always about Sarah.
She told Fox that she was the victim of a “gotcha type of question.” But there is no indication, from video of the encounter, that she was asked specifically about Paul Revere. Her peroration came amid a general recounting of her visit to Boston.
The gaffe is understandable — well, almost understandable. But she doubled down with a claim of persecution and a bald-faced lie. That is what we ignore at our peril.
This is a small, unimportant matter. But Palin demands to be seen as a big, important person in the nation’s political life. Her party is so afraid of her that the putative front-runner for the presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, won’t even call her out for stealing thunder from his campaign kickoff by just happening to be in the neighborhood, complete with the attendant media circus.
The woman, like Lord Byron, is “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” I’d shout it throughout the land, if I could find my horse and my bells.
Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com. |
Video
It is one of the world's most popular websites - a source of information on many things. But there is one area where Wikipedia - the online encyclopaedia - is severely lacking. That is entries about, and by, women.
It's something the organisation is trying to tackle and today they've teamed up with the BBC's 100 Women season to do something about it. Nuala McGovern has spent the day at a very special event.
What is 100 women?
BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. We create documentaries, features and interviews about their lives, giving more space for stories that put women at the centre.
Other stories you might like:
Live updates:Women take over Wikipedia
How I got rich beating men at their own game
Who is on the BBC's 100 Women 2016 list? |
Canada’s poised to welcome the first planeload of Syrian refugees Thursday evening as part of the federal Liberals’ much-touted pledge to resettle 10,000 (formerly 25,000) by the end of this month.
But the government still hasn’t followed through on its election promise to reverse health cuts to refugee care made under the previous government three years ago.
READ MORE: What’s the deal with refugee health care?
“The Government is committed to restoring the Interim Federal Health Program. We are currently working towards that goal,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson Nancy Caron said in an email to Global News Thursday evening.
But the feds have made a special provision to ensure Syrian refugees get the full slate of health care as other privately sponsored refugees and asylum-seekers in limbo get turned away.
“The current Interim Federal Health Program includes provisions that allow the Minister to extend the coverage available to an individual or group,” Caron wrote.
“In this case, full IFHP benefits, known as ‘Type 1’ coverage, is being made available to all of the Syrian refugees arriving in Canada as part of this initiative. We will have more details available soon.”
Caron wouldn’t say when the health cuts will be reversed for all refugees.
READ MORE: Canada’s scrambling to resettle Syrian refugees but won’t say when health care will be restored
About 20,000 refugees come to Canada per year, from dozens of countries. Canada is in the midst of several multi-year commitments to resettle refugees from Eritrea, Sudan, Iraq, Bhutan, Turkey and elsewhere.
A federal court called the 2012 cuts to refugee care “cruel and unusual.” The then-governing Conservatives appealed that ruling and hadn’t reinstated refugee health care when the Liberals defeated them in October.
Restoring full refugee health care was one of the Liberals’ campaign promises. Both Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum and Health Minister Jane Philpott have reaffirmed that pledge.
WATCH: Philpott on Syrian refugee health care
It isn’t clear why that hasn’t happened.
In the meantime, privately sponsored refugees, people whose claims are in limbo or who are making an “inland” refugee claim after having arrived in Canada don’t get the full benefits of their counterparts.
In response to the cuts Ontario, Quebec and other provinces put in place stopgap refugee health coverage of their own.
But the ensuing system was so confusing, the paperwork so arduous for often-overworked health practitioners, that many stopped treating refugees altogether.
As Global News reported earlier this year, even those who qualify for health coverage sometimes get turned away.
Advocates have said this is bad for both vulnerable people and public health: When people delay seeking treatment because they can’t afford to pay for it, they get sicker and pose a risk to other people if they have an infectious disease.
They’re also more likely to need much more expensive emergency treatment later on. |
September 10, 2011
To All:
I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.
As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.
I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.
So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.
I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,
“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”
Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!
Source |
BOSTON — They’ve been there every step of the way for Clarke MacArthur.
From tying his skates as a kid growing up in Lloydminster, Alta., to driving him to the rink early on Saturday mornings and sending him off to play Bantam AAA as a 15-year-old in Edmonton, they’ve enjoyed his highlights and they’ve been there to lean on during what has been a tough couple of years for the Ottawa Senators’ winger.
Maybe that was why being at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday for a playoff game against the Boston Bruins was so special for parents Dean and Deb MacArthur because, after everything Clarke has been through with wife Jessica and their young family, everybody was fortunate they were there to witness Clarke’s first National Hockey League goal since April 19, 2015.
Sitting with Dion Phaneuf’s parents, Paul and Amber, and Cody Ceci’s family, MacArthur’s family members joined in an exchange of high-fives after MacArthur scored the Senators’ first goal of the game they would eventually win 4-3 in overtime.
“That was a great goal. We were very excited,” Dean MacArthur said Saturday night, before he and Deb made the trek back to Lloydminster on Sunday. “We were holding (tears) back for sure. We were just happy. He said to Deb and I the other day, ‘I need to see if I can score now.’ ”
The past two years haven’t been easy on the MacArthurs. Clarke worked all summer to get back to playing, but received another concussion during training camp. After he failed a baseline test in January, it was decided that he wouldn’t play at all this season.
“It’s a big relief for Deb and I (to see Clarke playing),” Dean MacArthur added. “He’s always been a battler and he’s always wanted to play this game as long as he could. There have been ups and downs for the last (18 months), but, when he failed his baseline test in January, he was devastated.
“He said, ‘Maybe I can’t get back.’ And I said, ‘You know what? Let’s just take a break here, think about things,’ and then his health started to come around. When he wanted to play before the end of the year, ‘I told him, ‘You’re a battler and it would be really great if you could play, but it will be a big disappointment if you can’t.’ That’s the risk he wanted to take, but, if you don’t take risks in this world, you’ll never find out where you’re at.”
Let’s face it, Clarke MacArthur could have walked away after doctors told him in January that he wasn’t going to play this season. Nobody would have faulted him if he decided retirement was his best option.
“He was always very skilled guy with a lot of heart and passion for this game,” Dean MacArthur said. “If you don’t have those two things, the passion and the drive, you’ll never make it. It doesn’t matter how good you are. There’s lots of guys with better skills than him who were first-round picks that don’t finish the journey because they don’t have that real passion for the game.
“If you’re not willing to give up everything to play the game and take some risks and some chances, you’ll never accomplish what you want. You’ll get sidetracked. It’s been a journey and it’s been tough on Jessica and his kids — the not knowing — but I think he’s fine, I really do as far as his physical well-being.”
Just before Clarke returned to the Senators’ lineup for the first time since Oct. 14, 2015, for an April 4 home game against the Detroit Red Wings, he called his parents at 4 p.m. ET to let them know he’d been told to come to the rink to take part in the warmup, and suddenly there he was back on the ice.
“When they interviewed him on TV on the first night, after the first game, oh God, Deb and I were in tears,” Dean said. “Not only would he come back, but can he survive? Those were always questions in our own mind. We never doubted him for a minute.”
Of course, the MacArthurs questioned, just like everybody else did, whether their son would ever get another chance to pull on that No. 16 Senators jersey again.
“We wondered in January after the baseline test,” Dean said. “We thought, you know what, maybe this is going to be over and maybe this journey is done now and we’ll turn to the next chapter.
“Deb was always really good at motivating him and saying, ‘You’re not going to be happy unless you’re flying with hair on fire at Mach 1, so don’t give up yet and see what happens with your health.’ We never pushed him. We knew he had the drive in him. When he went and took those three weeks in Florida (in January), he said, ‘Dad, I just can’t retire. I just can’t not play the game again.’ ”
Focus just on playing now
All Clarke MacArthur wants to do now is focus on playing.
The emotions of the first game back and the first goal are out of the way for the Senators’ winger, so he hopes he can be a regular contributor.
“Emotionally it’s tough because you get so amped up when things happen,” he said Sunday in Boston. “It can drain you. I was able to get back, and that was great, and I was able to get a goal in a big win we had.
“For me, the emotions will calm down now. Now, you want to use the energy you have on the ice.”
[email protected]
Twitter: @sungarrioch |
A new working paper authored by the UC Berkeley economist Jesse Rothstein builds on that research, in part by zeroing in on one of those five factors: schools. The idea that school quality would be an important element for intergenerational mobility—essentially a child’s likelihood that they will one day outearn their parents—seems intuitive: Leaders regularly stress that the best way to rise up the income ladder is to go to school, where one can learn the skills they need to succeed in a competitive, global economy. “In the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education,” Barack Obama declared in his 2010 State of the Union address. Improving “skills and schools” is a benchmark of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s poverty-fighting agenda.
Indeed, this bipartisan education-and-poverty consensus has guided research and political efforts for decades. Broadly speaking, the idea is that if more kids graduate from high school, and achieve higher scores on standardized tests, then more young people are likely to go to college, and, in turn, land jobs that can secure them spots in the middle class.
Rothstein’s new work complicates this narrative. Using data from several national surveys, Rothstein sought to scrutinize Chetty’s team’s work—looking to further test their hypothesis that the quality of a child’s education has a significant impact on her ability to advance out of the social class into which she was born.
Rothstein, however, found little evidence to support that premise. Instead, he found that differences in local labor markets—for example, how similar industries can vary across different communities—and marriage patterns, such as higher concentrations of single-parent households, seemed to make much more of a difference than school quality. He concludes that factors like higher minimum wages, the presence and strength of labor unions, and clear career pathways within local industries are likely to play more important roles in facilitating a poor child’s ability to rise up the economic ladder when they reach adulthood.*
For Rothstein, there’s no reason to assume that improving schools will be necessary or sufficient for improving someone’s economic prospects. “We can’t educate people out of this problem,” he says.
His work, like Chetty’s, is not causal—meaning Rothstein is not able to identify exactly what explains the underlying variation in his economic model. Nevertheless, his work helps to provide researchers and policymakers with a new set of background facts to investigate, and signals that perhaps they should be reconsidering some of their existing ideas. (Both Raj Chetty and his co-author Nathaniel Hendren declined to comment for this story.)
Jose Vilson, a New York City math teacher, says educators have known for years that out-of-school factors like access to food and healthcare are usually bigger determinants for societal success than in-school factors. He adds that while he tries his best to adhere to his various professional duties and expectations, he also recognizes that “maybe not everyone agrees on what it means to be successful” in life. |
The Camorra ( Italian: [kaˈmɔrra]; Neapolitan: [kaˈmorrə]) is an Italian Mafia-type[2] crime syndicate, or secret society, which arose in the region of Campania and its capital Naples. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating back to the 17th century. Unlike the pyramidal structure of the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra's organizational structure is more horizontal than vertical. Consequently, individual Camorra clans act independently of each other, and are more prone to feuding among themselves.
Background [ edit ]
The origins of the Camorra are not entirely clear. It may date back to the 17th century as a direct Italian descendant of a Spanish secret society, the Garduña, founded in 1417. Officials of the Kingdom of Naples may have introduced the organization to the area, or it may have grown gradually out of small criminal gangs operating in Neapolitan society near the end of the 18th century.[3] However, recent historical research in Spain suggests that the Garduña never really existed and was based on a fictional 19th century book.[4]
The first official use of the word dates from 1735, when a royal decree authorised the establishment of eight gambling houses in Naples. The word is likely a blend, or portmanteau, of "capo" (boss) and a Neapolitan street game, the "morra".[3][5] (In this game, two persons wave their hands simultaneously, while a crowd of surrounding gamblers guess, in chorus, at the total number of fingers exposed by the principal players.)[6] This activity was prohibited by the local government, and some people started making the players pay for being "protected" against the passing police.[3][7][8]
Camorristi in Naples, 1906 in Naples, 1906
The Camorra first emerged during the chaotic power vacuum in the years between 1799 and 1815, when the Parthenopean Republic was proclaimed on the wave of the French Revolution and the Bourbon Restoration. The first official mention of the Camorra as an organization dates from 1820, when police records detail a disciplinary meeting of the Camorra, a tribunal known as the Gran Mamma. That year a first written statute, the frieno, was also discovered, indicating a stable organisational structure in the underworld. Another statute was discovered in 1842, including initiation rites and funds set aside for the families of those imprisoned. The organization was also known as the Bella Società Riformata, Società dell'Umirtà or Onorata Società.[9][10]
The evolution into more organized formations indicated a qualitative change: the Camorra and camorristi were no longer local gangs living off theft and extortion; they now had a fixed structure and some kind of hierarchy. Another qualitative leap was the agreement of the liberal opposition and the Camorra, following the defeat in the 1848 revolution. The liberals realized that they needed popular support to overthrow the king. They turned to the Camorra and paid them, the camorristi being the leaders of the city’s poor. The new police chief, Liborio Romano, turned to the head of the Camorra, Salvatore De Crescenzo, to maintain order and appointed him as head of the municipal guard.[11] The Camorra effectively had developed into power brokers in a few decades.[9] In 1869, Ciccio Cappuccio was elected as the capintesta (head-in-chief) of the Camorra by the twelve district heads (capintriti), succeeding De Crescenzo after a short interregnum.[12] Nicknamed 'The king of Naples' ('‘o rre 'e Napole) he died in 1892.[13][14]
Following Italian unification in 1861 attempts were made to tackle the Camorra and a series of manhunts were made from 1882 on. The Saredo Inquiry (1900–1901), established to investigate corruption and bad governance in Naples, identified a system of political patronage ran by what the report called the "high Camorra":
The original low camorra held sway over the poor plebs in an age of abjection and servitude. Then there arose a high camorra comprising the most cunning and audacious members of the middle class. They fed off trade and public works contracts, political meetings and government bureaucracy. This high camorra strikes deals and does business with the low camorra, swapping promises for favours and favours for promises. The high camorra thinks of the state bureaucracy as being like a field it has to harvest and exploit. Its tools are cunning, nerve and violence. Its strength comes from the streets. And it is rightly considered to be more dangerous, because it has re-established the worst form of depotism by founding a regime based on bullying. The high camorra has replaced free will with impositions, it has nullified individuality and liberty, and it has defrauded the law and public trust.[15][16]
The Inquiry introduced the terminology of "high Camorra", with a bourgeois character, but distinct from the plebeian Camorra proper, although both were in close contact through the figure of the intermediary (faccendiere).[17]
From the rich industrialist who wants a clear road into politics or administration to the small shopowner who wants to ask for a reduction of taxes; from the businessman trying to win a contract to a worker looking for a job in a factory; from a professional who wants more clients or greater recognition to somebody looking for an office job; from somebody from the provinces who has come to Naples to buy some goods to somebody who wants to emigrate to America; they all find somebody stepping into their path, and nearly all made use of them.[18]
However, whether the "high Camorra" was an integral part of the Camorra proper is disputed.[16] Although the inquiry did not prove specific collusion between the Camorra and politics, it brought to light the patronage mechanisms that fueled corruption in the municipality.[15] The society's influence was weakened which was exemplified by the defeat of all of their candidates in the 1901 Naples election. Many camorristi left for the United States in the early 20th century.[19]
The Cuocolo trial in Viterbo. Most of the defendants are in the large cage. The three in front are (from left to right) the priest Ciro Vitozzi, Maria Stendardo, the only female defendant, and Enrico Alfano. In the small cage to the right is the crown witness Gennaro Abbatemaggio.
The Camorra received another blow with the Cuocolo trial (1911–1912). While the trial was about the murder of the Camorrista Gennaro Cuocolo and his wife, suspected of being police spies, on June 6, 1906, the main investigator, Carabinieri Captain Carlo Fabbroni, transformed it from a murder trial into one against the Camorra as a whole. Fabbroni intended to use the trial to strike the final blow to the Camorra.[20][21] The trial attracted a lot of attention of newspapers and the general public both in Italy as well as in the United States, including by Pathé's Gazette.[22] The hearings began in the spring of 1911 and would continue for twelve months. After a 17-month trial, the often tumultuous proceedings ended with a guilty verdict on July 8, 1912. The defendants, including 27 leading Camorra bosses, were sentenced to a total of 354 years' imprisonment. The main defendant and nominal head of the Camorra, Enrico Alfano, was sentenced to 30 years.[20][23][24][25]
The Camorra was never a coherent whole nor a centralised organization. Instead, it has always been a loose confederation of different, independent groups or families. Each group was bound around kinship ties and controlled economic activities which took place in its particular territory. Each family clan took care of its own business, protected its territory, and sometimes tried to expand at another group’s expense. Although not centralized, there was some minimal coordination, to avoid mutual interference. The families competed to maintain a system of checks and balances between equal powers.[26]
One of the Camorra's strategies to gain social prestige is political patronage. The family clans became the preferred interlocutors of local politicians and public officials, because of their grip on the community. In turn, the family bosses used their political sway to assist and protect their clients against the local authorities. Through a mixture of brute force, political status, and social leadership, the Camorra family clans imposed themselves as middlemen between the local community and bureaucrats and politicians at the national level. They granted privileges and protection, and intervened in favour of their clients in return for their silence and connivance against local authorities and the police. With their political connections, the heads of the major Neapolitan families became power brokers in local and national political contexts, providing Neapolitan politicians with broad electoral support, and in return receiving benefits for their constituency.[26]
Activities [ edit ]
Compared to the Sicilian Mafia's pyramidal structure, the Camorra has more of a 'horizontal' than a 'vertical' structure. As a result, individual Camorra clans act independently of each other, and are more prone to feuding among themselves. This however makes the Camorra more resilient when top leaders are arrested or killed, with new clans and organizations germinating out of the stumps of old ones. As the Galasso clan boss Pasquale Galasso once stated in court; "Campania can get worse because you could cut into a Camorra group, but another ten could emerge from it."[27]
In the 1970s and 1980s Raffaele Cutolo made an attempt to unify the Camorra families in the manner of the Sicilian Mafia, by forming the New Organized Camorra (Nuova Camorra Organizzata or NCO), but this proved unsuccessful. Drive-by shootings by camorristi often result in casualties among the local population, but such episodes are often difficult to investigate because of widespread omertà (code of silence). According to a report from Confesercenti, the second-largest Italian Trade Organization, published on October 22, 2007 in the Corriere della Sera, the Camorra control the milk and fish industries, the coffee trade, and over 2,500 bakeries in Naples.[28]
In 1983, Italian law enforcement estimated that there were only about a dozen Camorra clans. By 1987, the number had risen to 26, and in the following year, a report from the Naples flying squad reported their number as 32. Currently it is estimated there are about 111 Camorra clans and over 6,700 members in Naples and the immediate surroundings.[29] Roberto Saviano, an investigative journalist and author of Gomorra, an exposé of the activities of the Camorra, says that this sprawling network of Camorra clans now dwarfs the Sicilian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta and southern Italy's other organised gangs, in numbers, in economic power and in ruthless violence.[30]
In 2004 and 2005 the Di Lauro clan and the so-called Scissionisti di Secondigliano fought a bloody feud which came to be known in the Italian press as the Scampia feud. The result was over 100 street killings. At the end of October 2006 a new series of murders took place in Naples between 20 competing clans, that cost 12 lives in 10 days. The Interior Minister Giuliano Amato decided to send more than 1,000 extra police and carabinieri to Naples to fight crime and protect tourists.[31] Despite this, in the following year there were over 120 murders.[citation needed]
In 2001 the businessman Domenico Noviello from Caserta testified against a Camorra extortionist and subsequently received police protection. In 2008 he refused further protection and was killed one week later.[32]
In recent years, various Camorra clans have been allegedly utilizing alliances with Nigerian drug gangs and the Albanian mafia. Augusto La Torre, the former La Torre clan boss who became a pentito, is married to an Albanian woman. It should also be noted that the first foreign pentito, a Tunisian, admitted to being involved with the feared Casalesi clan of Casal di Principe. The first town in which the Camorra sanctioned stewardship by a foreign clan was Castel Volturno, which was given to the Rapaces, clans from Lagos and Benin City in Nigeria. This allowed them to traffic cocaine and women in sexual slavery before sending them across the whole of Europe.[33]
Refuse crisis [ edit ]
Since the mid-1990s, the Camorra has taken over the handling of refuse disposal in the region of Campania, with disastrous results for the environment and the health of the general population. Heavy metals, industrial waste, chemicals and household garbage are frequently mixed together, then dumped near roads and burnt to avoid detection, leading to severe soil and air pollution.
The situation worsened during this period as the camorra diversified their illegal waste disposal strategy: 1) transporting and dumping hazardous waste in the countryside by truck; 2) dumping waste in illegal caves or holes; 3) mixing toxic waste with textiles to avoid explosions and then burning it; and 4) mixing toxic with urban waste for disposal in landfills and incinerators.[34]
With the assistance of private businessmen known as "stakeholders", the numerous Camorra clans are able to gain massive profits from under-the-table contracts with local, legitimate businesses. These "stakeholders" are able to offer companies highly lucrative deals to remove their waste at a significantly lower price. With little to no overhead, Camorra clans and their associates see very high profit margins. According to author Roberto Saviano, the Camorra uses child labour to drive the waste in for a small price, as they do not complain about the health risks as the older truckers might.
As of June 2007, the region has no serviceable dumping sites, and no alternatives have been found. Together with corrupt local officials and unscrupulous industrialists from all over Italy, the Camorra has created a cartel that has so far proven very difficult for officials to combat.[35]
In November 2013 a demonstration by tens of thousands of people was held in Naples in protest against the pollution caused by the Camorra's control of refuse disposal. Over a twenty-year period, it was alleged, about ten million tonnes of industrial waste had been illegally dumped, with cancers caused by pollution increasing by 40–47%.[36]
Efforts to fight the Camorra [ edit ]
The Camorra has proven to be an extremely difficult organization to fight within Italy. At the first mass trial against the Camorra in 1911–12, Captain Carlo Fabroni of the Carabinieri gave testimony on how complicated it was to successfully prosecute the Camorra: "The Camorrist has no political ideals. He exploits the elections and the elected for gain. The leaders distribute bands throughout the town, and they have recoursed to violence to obtain the vote of the electors for the candidates whom they have determined to support. Those who refuse to vote as instructed are beaten, slashed with knives, or kidnapped. All this is done with assurance of impunity, as the Camorrists will have the protection of successful politicians, who realize that they cannot be chosen to office without paying toll to the Camorra."[37]
The trial that investigated the murder of the camorrista Gennaro Cuocolo was followed with great interest by the newspapers and the general public. It led to the conviction of 27 leading Camorra bosses, who were sentenced to a total of 354 years of imprisonment, including the head of the Camorra at the time, Enrico Alfano.[38][39]
Unlike the Sicilian Mafia, which has a clear hierarchy and a division of interests, the Camorra's activities are much less centralized. This makes the organization much more difficult to combat through crude repression.[40] In Campania, where unemployment is high and opportunities are limited, the Camorra has become an integral part of the fabric of society. It offers a sense of community and provides the youth with jobs. Members are guided in the pursuit of criminal activities, including cigarette smuggling, drug trafficking, and theft.[41]
The government has made an effort to combat the Camorra's criminal activities in Campania. The solution ultimately lies in Italy's ability to offer values, education and work opportunities to the next generation. However, the government has been hard pressed to find funds for promoting long term reforms that are needed to improve the local economic outlook and create jobs.[41] Instead, it has had to rely on limited law enforcement activity in an environment which has a long history of criminal tolerance and acceptance, and is governed by a code of silence or omertà that persists to this day.[42]
Despite the overwhelming magnitude of the problem, law enforcement officials continue their pursuit. The Italian police are coordinating their efforts with Europol at the European level as well as Interpol to conduct special operations against the Camorra. The Carabinieri and the Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) are also fighting criminal activities related to tax evasion, border controls, and money laundering. Prefect Gennaro Monaco, Deputy Chief of Police and Chief of the Section of Criminal Police cites "impressive results" against the Camorra in recent years, yet the Camorra continues to grow in power.[43]
In 1998, police took a leading Camorra figure into custody. Francesco Schiavone was caught hiding in a secret apartment near Naples behind a sliding wall of granite. The mayor of Naples, Antonio Bassolino, compared the arrest to that of Sicilian Mafia chief Salvatore Riina in 1993.[44] Francesco Schiavone is now serving a life sentence after a criminal career which included arms trafficking, bomb attacks, armed robbery, and murder.
Michele Zagaria, a senior member of the Casalesi clan, was arrested in 2011 after eluding police for 16 years. He was found in a secret bunker in the town Casapesenna, near Naples.[45] In 2014, clan boss Mario Riccio was arrested for drug trafficking in the Naples area. Around the same time 29 suspected Camorra members were also arrested in Rome.[46]
The arrests in the Campania region demonstrate that the police are not allowing the Camorra to operate without intervention. However, progress remains slow, and these minor victories have done little to loosen the Camorra's grip on Naples and the surrounding regions.[41]
In 2008, Italian police arrested three members of the Camorra crime syndicate on September 30, 2008. According to Gianfrancesco Siazzu, commander of the Carabinieri police, the three were captured in small villas on the coast of Naples. All three had been on Italy's 100 top most wanted list. Police seized assets valued at over 100 million euros and also weapons, including two AK-47 assault rifles that may have been used in the shooting of six Africans on September 18, 2008. Police found pistols, Carabinieri uniforms and other outfits that were used to disguise members of the operation. During the same week, a separate operation netted 26 additional suspects in Caserta. All were believed to belong to the powerful Camorra crime syndicate that operates in and around Naples. The suspects were charged with extortion and weapons possession. In some cases, the charges also included murder and robbery. Giuseppina Nappa, the 48-year-old wife of a jailed crime boss, was among those arrested. She is believed to be the Camorra's local paymaster.[47]
In November 2018, Italian police announced the arrest of Antonio Orlando, suspected of being a major figure in the Camorra.[48]
Outside Campania and Italy [ edit ]
Despite its origins, it presently has secondary ramifications in other Italian regions, like Lombardy,[49][50][51] Piedmont[52][53] and Emilia-Romagna,[54][55] in connection with the centers of national economic power. It has also spread outside the Italy's boundaries, and acquired a foothold in the United Kingdom and United States.
Camorra in the United Kingdom [ edit ]
Scotland has had its brush with the Camorra. Antonio La Torre of Aberdeen was the local "Don" of the Camorra. He is the brother of Camorra boss Augusto La Torre of the La Torre clan which had its base in Mondragone, Caserta. The La Torre Clan's empire was worth hundreds of millions of euros. Antonio had several legitimate businesses in Aberdeen, whereas his brother Augusto had several illegal businesses there. He was convicted in Scotland and is awaiting extradition to Italy.[needs update] Augusto would eventually become a pentito in January 2003, confessing to over 40 murders and his example would be followed by many of his men.[56]
Two Aberdeen restaurateurs, Ciro Schiattarella and Michele Siciliano, were extradited to Italy for their part in the "Aberdeen Camorra". A fourth Scottish associate made history by becoming the first foreign member of the Camorra and is currently serving a jail sentence in the UK. It has been reported that he also receives a monthly salary, legal assistance and protection.[57]
Saviano alleges that from the 1980s, Italian gangsters ran a network of lucrative businesses in the city as well as many illegal rackets. Saviano said Scotland's third city, with no history of organized crime, was seen as an attractive safe haven away from the violent inter-gang bloodletting that had engulfed their Neapolitan stronghold of Mondragone. Saviano claims that before the Italian clans arrived, Aberdeen did not know how to exploit its resources for recreation and tourism. He further states that the Italians infused the city with economic energy, revitalised the tourist industry, inspired new import-export activities and injected new vigour in the real-estate sector. It thereby turned Aberdeen into a chic, elegant address for fine dining and important dealings.[57]
The hub of La Torre's UK empire, Pavarotti's restaurant, now under different ownership, was even feted at Italissima, a prestigious gastronomic fair held in Paris. The restaurant was even advertised on the city's local tourist guides. Saviano further claims to have gone to Aberdeen and worked in a restaurant run by Antonio La Torre. The Camorristas operated a system known as "scratch" where they used to step up illegal activities if their legitimate ventures were struggling. If cash was short they had counterfeit notes printed; if capital was needed in a hurry, they sold bogus treasury bonds. They annihilated the competition through extortions and imported merchandise tax-free. The Camorra were able to run all sort of deals because the local police had virtually no experience in dealing with organized crime. Although they broke the law, there were never any guns or serious violence, due to lack of rivals.[57]
However, the suggestion that the city remains in the grip of mobsters has been strongly denied by leaders of the 300 strong Italian community in Aberdeen. Moreover, Giuseppe Baldini, the Italian government's vice-consul in Aberdeen, denies that the Camorra still maintains its presence in Aberdeen.[57]
Camorra in the United States [ edit ]
The Camorra existed in the United States between the mid-19th century and early 20th century. They rivaled the defunct Morello crime family for power in New York. Eventually, they melded with the early Italian-American Mafia groups.
Many Camorra members and associates fled the internecine gang warfare and Italian Justice and immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. In 1993, the FBI estimated that there were 200 camorristi in the United States. Although there appears to be no clan structure in the United States, Camorra members have established a presence in Los Angeles, New York and Springfield, Massachusetts.[58] The Camorra is the least active of all the organized crime groups in the United States.[59] In spite of this, the US law enforcement considers the Camorra to be a rising criminal enterprise, especially dangerous because of its ability to adapt to new trends and forge new alliances with other criminal organizations.[60]
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation:
In the 1970s, the Sicilian Mafia convinced the Camorra to convert their cigarette smuggling routes into drug smuggling routes with the Sicilian Mafia's assistance. Not all Camorra leaders agreed, leading to the Camorra Wars that cost 400 lives. Opponents of drug trafficking lost the war. The Camorra made a fortune in reconstruction after an earthquake ravaged the Campania region in 1980. Now it specializes in cigarette smuggling and receives payoffs from other criminal groups for any cigarette traffic through Italy. The Camorra is also involved in money laundering, extortion, alien smuggling, robbery, blackmail, kidnapping, political corruption, and counterfeiting. It is believed that nearly 200 Camorra affiliates reside in this country, many of whom arrived during the Camorra Wars.[61]
In 1995, the Camorra cooperated with the Russian Mafia in a scheme in which the Camorra would bleach out US $1 bills and reprint them as $100s. These bills would then be transported to the Russian Mafia for distribution in 29 post-Eastern Bloc countries and former Soviet republics.[58] In return, the Russian Mafia paid the Camorra with property (including a Russian bank) and firearms, smuggled into Eastern Europe and Italy.[60]
In 2012, the Obama administration imposed sanctions on the Camorra as one of four key transnational organized crime groups, along with the Brothers' Circle from Russia, the Yamaguchi-gumi (Yakuza) from Japan, and Los Zetas from Mexico.[62]
In popular culture [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ] |
Five years separates two stories involving the same characters; one prevalent in this country, another not so well known. They are tales that go some way towards explaining why Barcelona were so forceful in their attempt to sign Philippe Coutinho but ultimately, why their attempt will prove not to be quite forceful enough.
It was in July 2012 when Pep Segura, then the technical manager at Liverpool’s academy, ended his three-year association at the club after previously being told by Liverpool’s owner, John W. Henry, he had earned a promotion.
Before Brendan Rodgers became Liverpool’s manager, Henry and Segura held a three-hour meeting and it was concluded that Segura would become Liverpool’s new sporting director, filling the administrative space left behind by Damien Comolli’s sacking a few months earlier.
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Shape Created with Sketch. Liverpool vs Hoffenheim player ratings Show all 11 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Liverpool vs Hoffenheim player ratings 1/11 Simon Mignolet - 6 out of 10 Not his most commanding of displays in between the sticks. Could have done more for Hoffenheim's first goal and nearly conceded after a hairy moment under the high ball. 2/11 Trent Alexander-Arnold - 7 Another magical night for the youngster who thrilled with his confidence going forward down the flank. Possibly a bit eager in some of his challenges but a mature and rounded display nonetheless. 3/11 Dejan Lovren - 6 Beaten in the air for Hoffenheim's second. Could have been much tighter and disciplined in his defensive performance. Getty 4/11 Joel Matip - 6 Suffered from the same issues as his partner. Not totally in control but still got the job done. 5/11 Alberto Moreno - 6 Threatening on the front foot and assured on the back. Some of his deliveries were found wanting, though. 6/11 Georginio Wijnaldum - 6 Missed a number of clear-cut chances and got caught in possession here and there. Still, linked up with his teammates and kept the Liverpool midfield unit ticking over. Getty 7/11 Jordan Henderson - 7 Showed his captain's credentials to set up Firmino for Liverpool's fourth. Happy to do the dirty work as the men in front added the finishing touches. 8/11 Sadio Mane - 8 Explosive from the off. His pace and energy proved too much for the visitors, while his passing and vision was influential in a number of Liverpool's goals. 9/11 Emre Can - 8 A fine evening for him, too. Took his goals very well and was a constant presence in Hoffenheim's final third. 10/11 Mohamed Salah - 7 Lively all game long in his pressing and movement. Provided Liverpool with a constant source of deliveries and threatened from his position on the flank. Even snatched a goal too. 11/11 Roberto Firmino - 9 A fantastic performance from the Brazilian. Made all the right passes and his movement was exceptional. Assertive on the ball and was eventually rewarded with a well-taken goal in the second half. 1/11 Simon Mignolet - 6 out of 10 Not his most commanding of displays in between the sticks. Could have done more for Hoffenheim's first goal and nearly conceded after a hairy moment under the high ball. 2/11 Trent Alexander-Arnold - 7 Another magical night for the youngster who thrilled with his confidence going forward down the flank. Possibly a bit eager in some of his challenges but a mature and rounded display nonetheless. 3/11 Dejan Lovren - 6 Beaten in the air for Hoffenheim's second. Could have been much tighter and disciplined in his defensive performance. Getty 4/11 Joel Matip - 6 Suffered from the same issues as his partner. Not totally in control but still got the job done. 5/11 Alberto Moreno - 6 Threatening on the front foot and assured on the back. Some of his deliveries were found wanting, though. 6/11 Georginio Wijnaldum - 6 Missed a number of clear-cut chances and got caught in possession here and there. Still, linked up with his teammates and kept the Liverpool midfield unit ticking over. Getty 7/11 Jordan Henderson - 7 Showed his captain's credentials to set up Firmino for Liverpool's fourth. Happy to do the dirty work as the men in front added the finishing touches. 8/11 Sadio Mane - 8 Explosive from the off. His pace and energy proved too much for the visitors, while his passing and vision was influential in a number of Liverpool's goals. 9/11 Emre Can - 8 A fine evening for him, too. Took his goals very well and was a constant presence in Hoffenheim's final third. 10/11 Mohamed Salah - 7 Lively all game long in his pressing and movement. Provided Liverpool with a constant source of deliveries and threatened from his position on the flank. Even snatched a goal too. 11/11 Roberto Firmino - 9 A fantastic performance from the Brazilian. Made all the right passes and his movement was exceptional. Assertive on the ball and was eventually rewarded with a well-taken goal in the second half.
Rodgers, though, had other ideas, insisting his own appointment would not involve another tier of management above him. For Segura – a decent man, and someone respected inside Liverpool particularly for his contribution towards the development of Raheem Sterling – there was reasonable embarrassment when he arrived at Melwood for the start of pre-season training only to find out then there would be no place for him in the new set-up.
Despite his efforts to contact Henry about his proposed fresh responsibilities, the line of communication had gone stone cold since Rodgers’s arrival. Though he expected that plans had changed, Segura was upset and angry that he had found out this way and so, on that July morning, rather than driving to the academy in Kirkby as he had been told to by Rodgers, he resigned on the spot – though the announcement of his departure was made a month later.
Those who knew Segura best from his time at Liverpool describe him as a professional and so, his hurt was understandable considering he had been treated without the necessary level of respect. Sources in Catalonia, meanwhile, say Segura has a long memory. Now Barcelona’s general manager having returned to the club where he built his coaching reputation, and as the person overseeing player recruitment, it is told he has viewed the signing of Coutinho as a personal mission.
While Coutinho is seen as a long-term successor for the fading Andrés Iniesta, the whiplash of his own departure from Liverpool still stings and it is said he would like nothing better than to expose Fenway Sports Group’s collective stance over Coutinho’s future as total mush.
It was a small but significant detail when Fenway released a “definitive” statement earlier this month, outlining that Coutinho would not be sold, this was not a statement released by Liverpool FC but by its ownership group, a statement, indeed, that was not signed off by any person in particular as they often are when something important is announced
Hour-by-hour, day-to-day, week-to-week, Henry does not have much involvement in the decision-making processes at the club and instead, key issues are dealt with by Jürgen Klopp, Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s sporting director, and Mike Gordon, Fenway’s president.
Henry only intervenes when he really needs to and this was one of his calls. Before Coutinho had submitted his transfer request, Henry knew that his scan, taken on Tuesday August 8, for mysterious back strain had returned without obvious signs of injury. He knew as well that two days later a 3pm meeting involving Edwards and Coutinho’s representatives had not gone well at all. Any owner of a well-run football club should also be informed and be able to imagine what might follow when a star player signs a new five year-contract – as Coutinho did in January – but proceeds to only agree a short-term lease on his home, especially when it has already been reported that Barcelona are interested in him.
Those that have dealt with Henry regularly know how he is capable of brain lapses, instances where he has appeared completely engrossed on a subject one moment and unreachable the next. Particularly relating to Liverpool matters, perhaps living on the other side of an ocean while running a business empire where Anfield forms only a part of his thoughts contributes towards the way he approaches things. Perhaps, indeed, this is why Segura found himself isolated very quickly from what seemed a position of promise.
Henry’s distance from Merseyside has not helped in the past because he has not been around to cast judgements for himself. He has instead relied on the opinions of his appointments, which have been bad ones too often – meaning that he has only acted when it has been too late, contributing towards a generally negative impression of his and Fenway’s intentions.
Having decided that Coutinho would stay, he could not afford to back down particularly when the transfer market did not map out exactly the way Liverpool or its febrile supporter base would have wanted in terms of incomings. Fenway have been determined to change Liverpool’s reputation and by not relenting to Coutinho’s wishes, for the time being at least, it sends a message to their own players as well as rivals that this is not a selling club.
Any other outcome would have been received as deception and from then on, it is hard to see how any of the messages coming out of Liverpool would ever be trusted again.
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Hubballi: A barber trimming the hair of a person in Haveri district stopped his job midway and shooed the customer away after learning he is a dalit. The incident took place in Ranebennur's Itagi village recently. Ranebennur is about 300km northwest of Bengaluru.The customer was visiting a family in Itagi, and the barber came to know his caste during a chat. Immediately, the barber asked him to leave his place. The customer had his hair partially cut by then. He travelled to the nearest town, Harihar, about an hour's drive, to get the job completed.This is not unusual in Itagi, which has seen fractious ties between dalits and hairdressers. After a skirmish in the 1990s, village barbers don't give dalits a haircut.The customer brought this incident to the notice of a friend, also a dalit, and the latter alerted zonal police seeking action against the barber. A dalit organization, too, raised the issue of ill-treatment with police and the social welfare department.A team of tahsildar, social welfare officers and police personnel visited the village and held a meeting to resolve the issue, but to no avail. The Itagi hairdressers refused to blink and said they will not welcome dalits.After the incident, all the five salons in the village have downed their shutters. To preempt further trouble, a police contingent has been stationed in the village.Prakash Pujar, a dalit leader, told TOI the trouble started 20 years in the village with 70 dalit families. Vasanth HC, a police sub-inspector from Halageri station, said resolution efforts will continue.Ranebennur tahsildar Ramamurthy said barbers should make no distinction on the basis of caste or religion. "We held the meeting with barbers in the presence of villagers, including dalits. We will hold a second meeting in the next couple of days. If they continue to remain adamant, then we will file a case against them for trying to cause disturbance in society," he said. |
President Trump reported hundreds of millions of dollars in income Friday in financial disclosure forms that shed more light on his vast business holdings.
At his golf courses alone, Trump reported $288 million in income in the past year. That includes $19.8 million from his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has spent some weekends as president.
The numbers were reported in a 98-page disclosure form signed by Trump this week and made public by the Office of Government Ethics. The report covers January 2016 through April 15, 2017.
Trump reported $37.2 million in income in the past year from Mar-a-Lago, the private Florida resort where Trump hosted the president of China and ordered missile strikes against Syria. The club has doubled its membership fee in the past year.
The Mar-a-Lago income figure was $7.4 million higher than on his previous financial disclosure filing, in May 2016.
Trump reported $19.7 million in income through mid-April at his luxury Washington hotel, which has been a center of concerns about conflict of interest because of the possibility that foreign governments can curry favor with the president by booking rooms there. The hotel opened in September.
The president reported up to $7 million in book royalties, including $1 million to $5 million from his book "Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America." He reported nearly $11 million from the Miss Universe pageant and an $84,000 pension from the Screen Actors Guild.
All told, Trump brought in approximately $600 million to $650 million in employment assets and income -- or maybe more. The documents make it impossible to calculate precise totals. Officeholders are allowed to disclose figures in ranges, some of which are open ended. For example, his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland is listed as having a value of "over $50 million."
Related: Read the full disclosure report
Trump has said that he sold all his stock holdings in June 2016 to avoid conflicts of interest. He later said he did so because it was improper to own stocks "when I'm making deals for this country that maybe will affect one company positively and one company negatively."
The form released Friday appeared to confirm that he had sold those stock holdings. It did include income from capital gains and dividends, presumably before the stock sales.
The document makes reference to a sizable loan, between $5 million and $25 million, from UBS Real Estate Investments. The loan had an interest rate of 6.18%. Trump refinanced it with Ladder Capital at a much lower rate of 4.05%.
Overall, Trump reported liabilities of at least $311 million -- mortgages and loans. But the number could be much higher because he was required only to report a range in value for each loan.
Of the 16 loans he reported, five were worth more than $50 million each; one is worth between $25 million and $50 million; and seven were worth between $5 million and $25 million apiece. Another three loans combined were worth less than $1 million.
The form reflects the president's investments, other assets, income, retirement accounts and other holdings.
It is different from a federal tax return, which Trump has refused to make public and which would reveal much more about his business and financial dealings, including foreign business ties, both direct and indirect.
Federal law did not require Trump to file a new financial disclosure until next year, said Ken Gross, a Washington lawyer who has advised business executives and political appointees on finances and ethics.
"It's particularly important that he made the voluntary filing in view of the fact we don't have tax returns," Gross said.
The White House said in a statement that Trump "welcomed the opportunity" to file the form "voluntarily."
Norman Eisen, a Brookings Institution visiting fellow and former ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama, said the document is missing a great deal of valuable information.
"We still don't know the extent or sources of foreign emoluments, the identity of all his investors, partners and financial actors involved in his businesses, the purchasers, including possibly foreign ones of his condos and other properties," Eisen said.
Eisen is chairman of an organization involved in two lawsuits against Trump over foreign payments to his businesses, which the plaintiffs say violate a constitutional clause prohibiting the president from accepting foreign gifts, or emoluments.
Trump last released information about his finances in May 2016, as a candidate. It showed Trump was worth at least $1 billion.
Trump refused to sell his business holdings as president, as experts in government ethics urged him to do. Instead, he transferred them into a trust in his name. Any business profits will ultimately accrue to him when he leaves office.
-- CNNMoney's Matt Egan, Julia Horowitz, Jeanne Sahadi, Mike Tarson and Jackie Wattles, and CNN data journalists David Heath and Aaron Kessler, contributed to this report. |
Nakia Cockatoo tackles Dean Gore from behind during the Crows-Cats clash
THE MATCH Review Panel's firm stance on concussion will be put to the test on Monday afternoon, with Geelong's Nakia Cockatoo at risk of a three-match ban for a dangerous tackle.
Cockatoo came from behind and latched on to Adelaide midfielder Dean Gore as the Crow was jumping to receive a handball on Sunday, then drove him into the ground.
Gore's head made significant impact with the ground, leaving him with concussion and in doubt for Adelaide's final JLT Community Series match against the Brisbane Lions on March 11.
There is a case to clear Cockatoo, who has an existing bad record, but he could equally be slapped with a significant ban in one of the more difficult dangerous tackle cases for the MRP to assess.
While there weren't the 'two actions' or 'lift' the MRP typically looks for in a dangerous tackle, there are other triggers for a player to be found guilty of this offence.
The MRP can also charge a player for a dangerous tackle if:
The tackle is of an inherently dangerous kind, such as a spear tackle.
The player is in a vulnerable position (ie arms pinned) with little opportunity to protect himself.
A player is slung, driven or rotated into the ground with excessive force.
The MRP might find that the circumstances in this case were outside Cockatoo's control and he was preparing to make a textbook tackle when Gore unexpectedly left the ground.
But a case could equally be made placing Cockatoo's tackle in one of the above categories.
It was made when Gore was in "a vulnerable position", having just leapt off the ground, and Gore was arguably "driven" into the ground with "excessive" force.
The Panel would then be left to grade the charge, with medium impact sidelining Cockatoo for one match and high impact resulting in a two-match sanction.
The standard impact grading for offences that leave opponents with concussion is high impact, leaving Cockatoo with a base sanction of three matches reduced to two with an early guilty plea.
That would then be increased to three matches because of the 20-year-old's bad record, left over from a two-match sanction in the pre-season last year.
For Cockatoo there are only two outcomes. Either be cleared, or miss matches against Fremantle, North Melbourne and Melbourne to open the season. The latter is more likely.
Sydney star Lance Franklin has an obvious defence for his high bump on Greater Western Sydney draftee Tim Taranto.
The star forward was propelled into Taranto by a bump from trailing opponent Shane Mumford, an act that would convince the MRP that he had no control of the circumstances.
There's no knowing what Franklin would have done without Mumford in the picture, but the bump from behind clears him of all responsibility.
Port Adelaide ruckman Paddy Ryder has no such defence, and he faces a nervous wait for Monday afternoon's findings after landing what looked to be a high bump on Richmond midfielder Anthony Miles.
WATCH: Will MRP look at Paddy whack?
Miles was tucked hard against the boundary line on Sunday and kicking when Ryder chose to bump.
In this case there was no more than low impact, but Ryder could still find himself charged and paying out a $1000 fine for rough conduct. |
Thousands gather in protest as parliament votes to pass new austerity measures in 2013 budget
Greek MPs passed a budget for 2013 on Sunday night that paves the way for the country to receive further financial aid. It was passed with a comfortable majority, unlike the narrow margin secured on last week's vote on an austerity package and labour reforms.
The legislation imposes deep spending cuts on the country's battered economy, as international lenders demand further austerity in return for assistance. Antonis Samaras's ruling coalition won the vote just four days after the multi-year, €13.5bn (£10.8bn) austerity package.
Thousands of people had gathered outside the Greek parliament in Syntagma Square, Athens, to urge MPs to vote down the budget. Leading the protest march were flag-waving trade unionists with the communist-aligned Pame party followed by private and public sector workers.
The protesters' chants included "Out, out, out with the IMF" and "Hands off workers' rights".
There was drama inside the chamber where opposition MP Stathis Panagoulis, of the leftwing Syriza party, warned that Greece faced "civil war", and that politicians risked being "lynched" and "murdered" as a result of the austerity measures.
The budget includes hefty cuts in pensions and public sector wages, agreed through torturous negotiation with Greece's "Troika" of lenders, the IMF, European commission and European Central Bank.
It also contains dire economic forecasts. Greece's national debt is predicted to hit nearly 190% of GDP next year – much higher than when its second bailout was agreed in March. It also warns that Greece's long recession will continue, with GDP shrinking by another 4.5% in 2013.
Economists say the projections show that Greece cannot meet its targets without the two-year extension that Samaras has been quietly urging fellow European leaders to support.
Last week's austerity package was eventually approved by 153 of the 300 MPs in the chamber. Democratic Left, the junior partner, abstained in protest at labour market reforms. Greece faces a nervous wait for its next tranche of bailout cash even if the budget is approved, with eurozone leaders unlikely to agree on a payment date when they meet on Monday. |
Depending on the circles you run in, you may have heard about the supposed bad news for Colorado marijuana legalization advocates. “New poll shows more Coloradans opposed to legal marijuana” said Colorado’s second-largest newspaper, the Colorado Springs Gazette; “COLORADANS NOW OPPOSE MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION” screamed Parents Opposed to Pot; “COLORADO HAS BUYERS’ REMORSE FOR LEGAL WEED” bellowed California Stop Pot 2016 triumphantly.
All over a little survey funded by an out-of-state anti-marijuana organization called Community Alliances for Drug Free Youth. Here’s the Gazette:
A poll sponsored by the Community Alliances for Drug Free Youth shows that slightly more than half of Coloradans are now opposed to marijuana legalization. According to a release from SmithJohnson Research, 51 percent of 600 likely voters in Colorado said they would vote against marijuana legalization if it came up today. The poll, which was conducted over the phone with self-identified 2012 voters, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. The survey results show a change in mood in the years since Amendment 64 was on the ballot when 55 percent of Colorado voters supported legalizing recreational marijuana sales to adults over the age of 21.
Community Alliances for Drug Free Youth (CADFY) is a California-based prohibitionist organization also known as Californians for Drug Free Youth. According to the Gazette, they are a “nonprofit organization based in San Diego that promotes state, federal and international drug policies that keep drugs out of the hands of youth.” According to their website, CADFY wants you to go on social media and warn your friends, family, and coworkers about the “dangers of marijuana and other illicit drugs.” They also provide links in their “news” section to unapologetic propaganda like “Clearing The Smoke on Medical Marijuana.”
The Gazette itself is a newspaper with an agenda. Owned by Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz, who also owns The Weekly Standard and Washington Examiner, and has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican and “family values” causes, the Gazette recently ran a questionable and widely-ridiculed modern day Reefer Madness hysteria hit piece entitled Clearing the Haze and written by a well-known local anti-pot crusader.
The fact is that all recent major polls run by respected pollsters with real records (try googling “Community Alliances for Drug Free Youth” and “SmithJohnson Research”) are showing the same thing: Support for marijuana legalization is up up up. Not only in Colorado–where, at last check, 89% of Colorado voters supported medical marijuana and 62% supported personal use, but also nationwide where there is clear majority support. Today a new Public Policy Polling survey shows that even Republicans in the early battleground states of Iowa and New Hampshire believe that “states should be able to carry out their own marijuana laws without federal interference.” The numbers are astounding: 64 and 67 percent of Republicans in each respective state agreed with that statement.
So why should we believe a poll sponsored by an organization that is trying to interfere with another state’s politics again? And why is Colorado’s second largest newspaper so publicly fighting such an obviously lost cause?
Photo Credit for featured image: Brett Levin via flickr Creative Commons. |
GTA V Benchmarked Florian Glaser , ✓ Tanja Hinum , Better late than never. Barely 1.5 years after the Last-Gen edition, GTA V is finally released for the PC. We tested it on multiple notebooks, to see if the wait was worth it.
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Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. Accessory , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Bay Trail , Business , Cannon Lake , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , Fail , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Nexus / Pixel , How To , Ice Lake , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Kaby Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Linux / Unix , MacBook , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus Two , Phablet , Review Snippet , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Security , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , Thunderbolt , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Whiskey Lake , Windows , Workstation , XPS Ticker Engine, Benchmarks, and Results For the original German article, see here. GTA V is based on the RAGE engine (not to be confused with the Ego shooter from id Software), which has been tweaked with additional engines like Euphoria (character animation) and Bullet (physics simulation). The end result is a spectacular PC experience which offers convincing textures, shadows, lighting and vegetation at high to max settings. Although now and then objects may appear unclear during fast rides (cars, planes, etc.), this problem of rendering shadows and quality settings exists in almost every Open World game. In a direct comparison to Watch Dogs, GTA V performs better. The lighting is more realistic despite lower hardware requirements.
If you were expecting the PC port of GTA V to be a huge disaster, you can rest easy now. During our benchmarks we almost never encountered serious bugs or crashes. However, we did encounter some issues starting the game on Nvidia laptops. Although the latest GeForce driver, the ForceWare 350.12, was installed, the systems, equipped with Optimus, did not want to start up the Rockstar Social Club, preventing the game from launching. Google contained the answer: open the device manager, disable the Nvidia adapter for a little while, start GTA V and as soon as the Social Club starts, turn on the graphics card. In general, our experience with the game was not smooth. At around 60 GB (~3 hours download with VDSL 50; the shop version includes 7 DVDs!), GTA V sets a new record (negative) for loading times (game start, save games, etc.) and the integrated benchmark only works if both Intro missions have been absolved.
At this path, the user will find a folder named "Benchmarks," which contains recorded measurements. We do not understand why the files have no overall score and "only" note the minimum, average and maximum frames possible in each of the five scenes. We chose to use the results of the last sequence (pass 4). Due to the short runtime, the first four tests (pass 0-3 = panorama shots with day/night change) are not very reliable. The 2-minute final scene with the fighter jet and car chase is more reliable due to it being closer to actual gameplay. We still would not consider the benchmark perfect as the minimum frames fluctuate heavily in pass 4, which is probably due to bugs. Furthermore, the average fps can fluctuate during each test due to the randomly simulated traffic (difference of a few fps).
Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. Accessory , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Bay Trail , Business , Cannon Lake , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , Fail , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Nexus / Pixel , How To , Ice Lake , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Kaby Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Linux / Unix , MacBook , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus Two , Phablet , Review Snippet , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Security , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , Thunderbolt , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Whiskey Lake , Windows , Workstation , XPS Ticker If you disregard the somewhat awkward control with a mouse and a keyboard, the PC version of GTA V is technically okay. In no way is it like the stutter disaster which is GTA IV. The hardware requirements are appropriate, with the exception of a few settings. The same cannot be said of many other games, like Assassin's Creed Unity. Most systems will have some graphical errors (for example, the Radeon R9 280X @Ultra) and sadly the graphics menu does not offer descriptions for the options, which we hope will be remedied. Low Settings Medium Settings High Settings Ultra Settings
Back to the benchmark: according to our benchmarks, the game requires at least an Iris Pro 5200 at low settings and a resolution of 1024x768 pixels. Weaker Intel chips, like the successful Core i models, the HD Graphics 3000, 4000 and 4600 are not appropriate to run GTA V (the benchmarks should run at above 40 fps). Middle-class GPUs, starting at the GeForce GT 740M, are suited for normal settings and a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. If you want to run the game at the FHD resolution with high details and 2x MSAA, then you need a high-end graphics card, like the GeForce GTX 960M. Sadly, no notebook GPU can run the game fluidly with max settings and all options turned on. In the Ultra test, even the GeForce GTX 980M suffered at a mere 36 fps. For such high settings, you require cutting-edge desktop hardware (GTX 980 @45 fps). Tip: Asus will provide us with a 4K display shortly, which will help us add some more information to our gaming benchmarks. How interested are you in 4K? Please write to us in the forum below.
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GTA V 3840x2160 High/On (Advanced Graphics Off) AA:FX AF:8x 1920x1080 Highest Settings possible AA:4xMSAA + FX AF:16x 1920x1080 High/On (Advanced Graphics Off) AA:2xMSAA + FX AF:8x 1366x768 Normal/Off AF:4x 1024x768 Lowest Settings possible NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 3770K
Desktop-PC 59.4 (min: 16) fps ∼24% 45.4 (min: 18) fps ∼23% 99.3 (min: 18) fps ∼40% 131.8 (min: 14) fps ∼46% 139.7 (min: 9) fps ∼44% AMD Radeon R9 290X, 4790K
Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC 51.8 (min: 22) fps ∼21% 41 (min: 20) fps ∼21% 93 (min: 37) fps ∼38% 149 (min: 6) fps ∼52% 155 (min: 4) fps ∼49% NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504 41.4 (min: 15) fps ∼17% 35.6 (min: 13) fps ∼18% 80.8 (min: 18) fps ∼33% 115.4 (min: 18) fps ∼40% 135 (min: 48) fps ∼43% AMD Radeon R9 280X, 3770K
Desktop-PC 31.9 (min: 8) fps ∼16% 76.3 (min: 22) fps ∼31% 121.9 (min: 46) fps ∼43% 129.5 (min: 21) fps ∼41% NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504 32.4 (min: 12) fps ∼13% 28 (min: 12) fps ∼14% 70.6 (min: 17) fps ∼29% 122.6 (min: 11) fps ∼43% 135.1 (min: 18) fps ∼43% NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504 26.8 (min: 13) fps ∼14% 62.7 (min: 18) fps ∼25% 122.3 (min: 38) fps ∼43% 132.1 (min: 10) fps ∼42% NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504 21.1 (min: 11) fps ∼11% 50.7 (min: 18) fps ∼21% 107.6 (min: 25) fps ∼38% 133.7 (min: 8) fps ∼42% NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 4720HQ
Schenker XMG A505 20.4 (min: 8) fps ∼8% 18.1 (min: 4) fps ∼9% 44.1 (min: 14) fps ∼18% 114.4 (min: 26) fps ∼40% 126.1 (min: 25) fps ∼40% NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ
Schenker W504 14.6 (min: 8) fps ∼7% 36.4 (min: 14) fps ∼15% 124.8 (min: 18) fps ∼44% 117.1 (min: 19) fps ∼37% NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M
Schenker M504 10.9 (min: 4) fps ∼6% 29 (min: 10) fps ∼12% 65.9 (min: 19) fps ∼23% 72.8 (min: 15) fps ∼23% NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ
Schenker M503 7.3 (min: 1) fps ∼4% 17 (min: 11) fps ∼7% 73.3 (min: 28) fps ∼26% 79.8 (min: 21) fps ∼25% AMD Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K
A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS 5.3 (min: 2) fps ∼3% 13 (min: 6) fps ∼5% 47.6 (min: 22) fps ∼17% 54.4 (min: 28) fps ∼17% NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M, 2637M
Acer Aspire M3-581TG 3 fps ∼2% 12 (min: 2) fps ∼5% 44.6 (min: 15) fps ∼16% 52.8 (min: 12) fps ∼17% NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M, 4200M
HP Envy 15-j011sg 3.9 (min: 3) fps ∼2% 10.5 (min: 7) fps ∼4% 44.4 (min: 7) fps ∼16% 58.4 (min: 20) fps ∼19% NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM
Asus N56VM 8.4 (min: 4) fps ∼3% 35.9 (min: 5) fps ∼13% 52.3 (min: 13) fps ∼17% Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ
Schenker S413 0 fps ∼0% 7.2 (min: 2) fps ∼3% 38.4 (min: 14) fps ∼13% 46.5 (min: 17) fps ∼15% NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M, 4200M
MSI CX61-i572M 4.1 fps ∼2% 8.4 fps ∼3% 39.4 fps ∼14% 49 fps ∼16% Intel HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ
Schenker W504 5.7 (min: 1) fps ∼2% 29.4 (min: 10) fps ∼10% 33.3 (min: 10) fps ∼11% Intel HD Graphics 3000, 2637M
Acer Aspire M3-581TG 7.5 (min: 4) fps ∼2%
Four of our test models are provided by Schenker Technologies (mysn.de): W504 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 860M, GTX 870M, GTX 880M, GTX 970M, GTX 980M, Win 7)
(Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 860M, GTX 870M, GTX 880M, GTX 970M, GTX 980M, Win 7) A505 (Core i7-4720HQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 960M, Win 8.1)
(Core i7-4720HQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 960M, Win 8.1) M504 (Core i5-4340M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 850M, Win 7)
(Core i5-4340M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 850M, Win 7) M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M, Win 7) Three of our test models came from Nvidia: HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M)
(Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M) MSI CX61-i572M281BW7 (Core i5-4200M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 720M)
(Core i5-4200M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 720M) Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG (Core i7-2637M, 4GB DDR3, GeForce GT 640M) Intel added: Schenker S413 (Core i7-4750HQ, 8 GB DDR3, Iris Pro Graphics 5200) The desktop PCs contain CPUs/APUs from Intel and AMD, SSDs from Micron, Intel and Samsung, motherboards from Intel and Asus and graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD. GPU drivers used: Nvidia 350.12, AMD 15.4 Beta, Intel 10.18.10.14.4156
Overview
The first mission of GTA 5 running on a Acer Aspire M3-581TG (Core i7-2637M Dual-Core, GeForce GT 640M) in medium settings. Two slowdowns with laggy input reduced the gaming experience a bit |
2014 was packed with some outstanding games, but even a cursory glance at some of the games confirmed for 2015 shows that the next 12 months could outshine the previous year when it comes to high quality experiences. And while 2014 saw the steady rise of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (and the quiet resurgence of the Wii U), 2015 looks like it will be the year where the new consoles truly shine and finally deliver on their promise. PCs, too, remain a stronghold for unique and amazing gameplay experiences, and will undoubtedly continue to be an outstanding platform for gaming in the new year. So which 2015 confirmed releases are the GameSpot team most looking forward to?
Evolve
Coming February 2 for PC, PS4, Xbox One
Every team-based shooter claims to require camaraderie and coordination, to the point that boasts of mandatory teamwork can often be dismissed as simple buzzwords. Evolve’s alpha test proved that “teamwork” is not just a marketing term in this case, but an inescapable need. The game’s asymmetrical, monster-versus-squad action is electrifying, and makes playing every class an absolute blast. Don’t dismiss Evolve as another been-there-done-that competitive shooter: there’s something truly special here. -- Kevin VanOrd
Bloodborne
Coming March 24 for PS4
It would be disingenuous to suggest that one of the reasons we’re so thrilled by Bloodborne is that it so closely resembles From Software’s previous games in the Souls series. Those games rose to excellence through their weighty combat, their stiff challenge, and their oppressive atmosphere. That we will be able to say the same about Bloodborne is almost certain. But we’re also thrilled by how the game so clearly makes a statement apart from the Souls games. It’s a different kind of world with different kind of weapons, and boasts a newfound fluidity of motion that makes combat newly fresh. -- Kevin VanOrd
Mighty No. 9
Without a new Mega Man game in sight and the franchise locked behind Capcom's doors, Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 is promising to fill the void. A class-style action-platformer with colorful bosses whose power you can absorb, Mighty No. 9 is both a throwback to its predecessor and a glimpse of what can happen when fans help shape a game. Through a successful Kickstarter campaign and constant communication with its backers, those who really want Mighty No. 9 are helping to shape it, and developers are listening at every step of the way. We're excited to see this return to form for Inafune and get our hands on a game truly tailored to its fans. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Coming May 19 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One
The Witcher 2 planted the seed. It depicted one of the most beautiful and brutal places you can explore within the whole of games, and planted within it an intriguing political story and a vicious combat system that made shedding blood feel physically and emotionally exhausting. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s exponentially larger world and new characters would seem to bear the fruits of that initial seed. A stunning and vast landscape, filled with difficult decisions and colossal creatures, awaits us, and it’s difficult not to tremble when you imagine the possibilities. -- Kevin VanOrd
Batman: Arkham Knight
Coming June 2 for PS4, Xbox One, PC
Developer Rocksteady is back to finish off what they started with the extremely well received Arkham series. The bits and pieces of what we've seen so far of the game have been stunning, due in no small part to the increased horsepower of the PS4 and Xbox One. And the inclusion of the Batmobile seems to be more than just a neat gimmick--the Batmobile looks like it's been integrated into a lot more than just getting Batman from point A to point b in style, and seems to be useful in solving puzzles and even as a partner during Arkham Knight's brutal fistfights. I can't wait to see how the whole things blends together next year. -- Randolph Ramsay
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Coming 2015 for Xbox One
Lara Croft's rebirth in early 2013 was met with high praise. This new Lara appealed to us because she was younger, softer--still learning the skills and hurtling through the experiences that would hone her into the powerful and confident Lara we've known since 1996. Trailers for Rise of the Tomb Raider show a Lara both broken and strengthened by the experiences of the first game, and we're excited to see her character grow and the exotic locales she'll conquer in the next game. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Coming 2015 for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Though some may have only spent two hours playing through Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes' story mission, I put 10 times the hours into exploring the full range of the game's open-world stealth mechanics. I came away convinced that this is one of the most solid foundations ever for a stealth-action game. Seeing how this plays into the far more massive scale of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, along with the game's fascinating new buddy system and adversarial multiplayer base-infiltrations, is something I cannot wait to do. -- Daniel Hindes
Star Fox Wii U
Coming 2015 to Wii U
It's a new Star Fox game. What's not to be happy about? Shigeru Miyamoto's focus for the past several years appears to have been centered on Mario and Pikmin, so when he confirmed his new secret project is a Star Fox title for the Wii U, we were figuratively over the moon. Not much is known about this game yet, but as the first Star Fox appearance not in a Super Smash Bros. game since the Nintendo 3DS port of Star Fox 64, we're still excited. We'll be doing barrel rolls in anticipation until this one comes out. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
Coming 2015 for PS4, Xbox One, PC
My Star Wars excitement is swelling once again with the recent teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and that those high hopes extend to the big Star Wars game we'll be getting next year: Battlefront. DICE's reboot of the multiplayer shooter series already looks gorgeous, with brief glimpses of the ice planet Hoth and forests of Endor seen at E3 2014. But what I want to know more than anything is: how will it play? What kind of game modes will we see? Will DICE opt to include a full-fledged singleplayer campaign as well? And perhaps most importantly, will we see any new locations and vehicles from the upcoming trilogy? My S-foils are locked in anticipation. -- Daniel Hindes
Halo 5: Guardians
Coming 2015 for Xbox One
The Halo series is one of my favorites in all of gaming, and I'm eager to see what 343 Industries can pull off with its first new Halo title developed for Xbox One. On the story side, we're finally seeing a compelling new character in Agent Locke, an aggressive-sounding Spartan tasked with hunting down Master Chief. Locke will be a playable, "primary" character in Halo 5, and I'm excited to see how Locke's involvement affects Chief's saga. Best of all, though the full Halo 5 game won't be out until next fall, its multiplayer beta--which will let you try out the many new and exciting player abilities--rolls out next week. I know how I'm spending my Christmas break. -- Eddie Makuch
The Legend of Zelda Wii U
Coming 2015 for Wii U
At E3 last year, Nintendo revealed a Link in very different attire. And the recent The Game Awards presentation unveiled a breathtaking open world that makes the possible scope of the game's world looks expansive and more comparable to Western RPGs like Elder Scrolls. These brief teases make us excited to learn more. But it's Nintendo's agonizingly metered release schedule and record of releasing carefully crafted experiences that mean, whether it's the best in the franchise or just merely OK, it's the Wii U game that everyone will be talking about. -- Justin Haywald
Coming 2015 for PS4, Xbox One, PC
Ubisoft has garnered criticism this year for utilizing a very specific open-world formula across multiple genres. Thus far, Tom-Clancy-branded games have avoided many of that formula’s tropes, and The Division looks to hew more closely to the philosophies that separate Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell from the pack. There’s still much we don’t know, but if previous showings are an indication, The Division could smartly replicate the sense of joining a small band of cohorts and journeying into a devastated New York City, hoping to survive and even thrive. Destiny has popularized the dynamic-world multiplayer shooter. We’re excited to see how Tom Clancy’s The Division refines and riffs upon a soon-to-burgeon genre. -- Kevin VanOrd
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Coming 2015 for PS4
Uncharted is the series that redefined developer Naughty Dog. Previously known primarily as the creators of Crash Bandicoot, they're now the studio behind some of the most cinematic and well-paced action games on any console. It's almost a given that Uncharted 4 will continue the company's legacy of creating graphical showcases. And there's no doubt that it'll be another exciting, Indiana Jones-like adventure full of big set pieces and snappy dialogue. But if it also successfully integrates the combat refinements and nuanced, character-driven storytelling from The Last of Us, Uncharted could possibly be the developer's magnum opus. -- Justin Haywald
No Man's Sky
Coming 2015 for PS4, PC
This game with have limitless potential. That's the promise No Man's Sky seems to be making. Each and every time this amazing-looking game has been shown thus far, I'm left in awe at the sheer audacity of what it looks like it may be bringing to the gaming world. A huge, living galaxy which countless planets, procedurally generated lifeforms, and an invitation to simply explore and discover. If No Man's Sky can match even half of my expectations, then it'll be an outstanding achievement. If it can meet them all, then it'll be a revolutionary game. -- Randolph Ramsay
Persona 5
Coming 2015 for PS3, PS4
With the series approaching its 20-year anniversary and its cult following still going strong, it's hard not to get wrapped up in the hype for the next Persona game. Set to launch next year for both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, Persona 5 looks--from its sole teaser trailer--like it will take the beloved role-playing franchise into a new setting with possibly more mature characters (the character in the teaser looks to be wearing a college uniform). After a dozen re-releases and spin-offs from the last numbered title, the critically acclaimed Persona 4, fans are slavering for another adventure. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
You've seen our picks for the Most Anticipated Games of 2014, now vote for your favorite in our poll below! |
When most people think about sexual orientation, they think about the straight/bi/gay spectrum (if you can call it a spectrum) — that is, whom you’re attracted to. But as has been previously pointed out in this space, there’s more to sexual orientation than that.
For example, another, less discussed facet of sexual orientation is the target of sexual attraction: Is the person attracted to others, to themselves, or to both? When someone is “sexually aroused by the idea or fantasy of being the erotic target,” it’s known as an erotic-target identity inversion, or ETII, and that’s the subject of a new paper in Psychological Science, not yet online, by Kevin Hsu and J. Michael Bailey, both of Northwestern University.
As Hsu and Bailey point out, researchers don’t know much about ETIIs, and in fact only two types have really found their way into the literature. The most widely cited is autogynephilia, which describes situations in which natal males are “sexually aroused by the thought or image of being a woman,” and sometimes transition. There’s also apotemnophilia, “an ETII in which men find it sexually arousing to be an amputee.” As the authors point out, men with ETIIs can also be attracted to external subjects of their attraction — apotemnophiles, for example, have the tendency “to report both sexual attraction to amputees and sexual arousal by the thought or image of themselves as an amputee.” (I’d be remiss to not point out that autogynephilia is explosively controversial in the transgender community — see the middle section of my review essay on Alice Dreger’s Galileo’s Middle Finger to read about a witch hunt that almost ensnared Bailey as a result of a book he wrote that touched on autogynpehilia, for example, or the many critiques of the concept that have been written by trans and cis commentators alike, or this defense of it from a sex researcher who is herself a trans woman.)
As Hsu and Bailey note, “Besides autogynephilia and apotemnophilia, no other putative ETII has received much empirical study.” One candidate, they realized, might be an ETII associated with pedophilia — that is, situations in which pedophiles might be attracted to the idea of themselves as a child. After all, there had been some case reports hinting at this.
So the researchers recruited a group of pedophilic and hebephilic (attracted to early adolescents) men by placing advertisements on two websites where pedophiles congregate to trade strategies on not acting on their urges, and then asked them some survey questions. “Participants reported whether they have ever imagined being a child or having a child’s body,” Hsu and Bailey write, “and if so, the degree to which they were sexually aroused by doing so.” Those who said they were aroused by this fantasy were also asked about the gender and age of the imaginary child in question. The participants were also asked how often they dress as children, and whether they had “ever considered the possibility that they would be better off as a child and whether they had ever considered hormones or surgery to make themselves look more like a child.” Finally, they were asked some open-ended questions “about the precise nature of their fantasies and experiences” to allow for the collection of some qualitative data as well.
Here’s the key finding:
Autopedophilia was common among pedohebephilic participants: 233 (49.1%) reported feeling at least mildly sexually aroused when they imagine being a child or having a child’s body. The average degree of general autopedophilia among the participants was 4.40 (SD = 4.05). The distribution of general autopedophilia was bimodal, with over half the participants scoring either 0 (33.6%) or 10 (21.0%). Thus, a substantial minority of our sample was intensely autopedophilic.
In other words, based on this one sample, at least, it appears quite common for pedophiles to be aroused at the thoughts of themselves as a child. And, as is the case with other ETIIs, there was also often a match between external and internal targets of attraction: that is, among the pedophiles who were attracted to thoughts of themselves as a girl, 100 percent were also attracted, externally, to girls or to both genders. For those aroused by thinking of themselves as a boy, just 15.5 percent were attracted to girls, with the rest attracted to boys or both. Finally, the researchers found only minor rates of dressing as children among the autopedophiles: Just 13.2 percent had done so.
This is the first attempt to figure out the prevalence of autopedophilia, so it raises more questions than it answers. But Hsu and Bailey’s work does mark an important step forward in understanding what motivates and arouses pedophiles. As society shifts toward the approach of working with pedophiles to get them to not act on their urges, rather than endlessly punishing and ostracizing them, this kind of knowledge can only help. |
It was building up to be a hugely difficult decision for Zinedine Zidane, and one that could have made or broken a career-defining night for Gareth Bale, only for the Real Madrid record signing to make it very easy for his manager.
Amid so much debate about whether he or Isco will start for Real Madrid in their Champions League final against Juventus in Cardiff, the 27-year-old took matters into his own hands, by taking time to explain how bad his ankle still is.
“I am not 100 per cent. I haven’t played for six or seven weeks. I obviously had my operation which still really hasn’t recovered,” Bale said, on Real’s pre-final media day. “If I’m called upon to start, I will start obviously. But to last 90 minutes. I haven’t played a lot of football this year since my operation, so that would be difficult. Isco has been playing fantastically well for us, at the end of the season, so whatever the manager decides, I will [accept it].”
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Given those very comments and how he went on to speak about the pain he's been suffering, however, the decision is surely to start Bale on the bench in his home country? It could have been a lot more complicated for Zidane this week, even if it could still leave a few complications in the summer.
The major issue beyond Saturday’s showpiece at the Principality Stadium is that Bale remains president Florentino Perez’s major modern signing, and one of his favoured players. The Bernabeu supremo likes seeing him on the pitch, and enjoys the devastatingly pure pace and power to his game.
Perez feels that Bale embodies the kind of individual brilliance that Real’s history has been built on, but that isn’t necessarily the individual brilliance that the current team's run to the final has been built on.
There is little doubt Isco’s more poised game has given Real much more of a balance, and just made all those individual parts fit so much better. A team that had constantly been so unconvincing despite its quality all of a sudden looked so complete, especially in the last two Champions League ties against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid. It gave Zidane a huge dilemma ahead of the last and biggest game of the season, and one that many around the Bernabeu believed could define him as a manager.
Would he do what was evidently best for the team and pick Isco, or do what felt implicitly political and pick Bale, especially given all the drama and symbolism of this match being played in Wales. This is how it was meant to be, after all: the record signing going back home to emphasise how the Bernabeu is the European Cup’s home, by helping them becoming the first club to retain it in the modern Champions League era.
Shape Created with Sketch. Real Madrid's greatest-ever XI Show all 11 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Real Madrid's greatest-ever XI 1/11 Iker Casillas Getty 2/11 Chendo Getty 3/11 Fernando Hierro Getty 4/11 Sergio Ramos Getty 5/11 Roberto Carlos Getty 6/11 Pirri Nationaal Archief Fotocollectie Anefo 7/11 Zinedine Zidane Getty 8/11 Cristiano Ronaldo Getty 9/11 Francisco Gento Getty 10/11 Raul Getty 11/11 Alfredo di Stefano Getty 1/11 Iker Casillas Getty 2/11 Chendo Getty 3/11 Fernando Hierro Getty 4/11 Sergio Ramos Getty 5/11 Roberto Carlos Getty 6/11 Pirri Nationaal Archief Fotocollectie Anefo 7/11 Zinedine Zidane Getty 8/11 Cristiano Ronaldo Getty 9/11 Francisco Gento Getty 10/11 Raul Getty 11/11 Alfredo di Stefano Getty
“It is massively special for me personally, as it is where I was born, where I grew up,” Bale added this week. “Any Champions League final is special, but this is a little bit extra special.”
That would have been very tough to resist, and required almighty resolve from Zidane. Now, it is barely a dilemma at all. Whether intentional or not, Bale has made it very easy to be left out.
It would now be a huge surprise if he didn’t start this home final on the bench. The ripple effect of that, however, could be to bring Bale’s time at the Bernabeu to a close. As reported by The Independent in early May, Perez wants to keep the Welsh star, but there are a few among the Bernabeu hierarchy that are suggesting a sale might not be the worst idea and it was not a coincidence that a comment piece appeared in Marca on Monday suggesting exactly that.
The bottom line is that if Real do win on Saturday to return to Europe’s peak, but without Bale in the starting XI, that will be a much easier sell. It is a prospect that has already been discussed between Bernabeu officials and those from Manchester United.
There is another prospect from this final, however, that could prove just as influential. Some close to Zidane’s squad feel it is highly likely that Bale will come on as a sub, especially if the game is as tight and tough as Juventus’ famed defence suggests it will be. It could then become a contest when the Welsh star’s individual brilliance from the bench is essential.
That could well mean that, even if the final does not go as Bale or so many of his Welsh supporters had imagined, it could yet exceed expectation and become an even greater home-coming story.
It would be foolish to write him off. He’s been in similar situations and prevailed, such as in the 2014 final when he hit the goal against Atletico that finally put Real ahead to eventually win 4-1, even if the surroundings have never been as familiar as the Millennium Stadium.
So much intrigue will begin with Zidane's decision, but Bale has gone some way to finalising it. After that is when matter gets far more interesting.
Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writers |
Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti has signed a deal to sell a 70% stake in the Serie A club to a group led by Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir.
Thohir, part owner of Major League Soccer club DC United and basketball's Philadelphia 76ers, heads the three-person consortium.
"The new partners' enthusiasm and pragmatism are certainly a guarantee for the future," said Moratti.
Thohir added: "Today is a truly special day in my life."
Big spenders Inter Milan broke the transfer world record in 1999 when they paid £32m for Lazio striker Christian Vieri. The Vatican called the size of the fee "disgusting".
A club statement confirmed a binding agreement has been signed to make International Sports Capital (ISC), a company indirectly owned by Indonesian businessmen Thohir, Rosan Roeslani and Handy Soetedjo, the controlling shareholder of Inter.
Moratti, who will retain a seat on the board, became Inter president in 1995 and has overseen five Serie A titles, one Champions League and a Uefa Cup.
His father Angelo Moratti was in charge of the club in the 1960s when Inter won the European Cup twice in successive years.
Inter, a loss-making club with debts of about 300 million euros (£254m), are the only Italian team never to have been relegated throughout their 105-year-long history.
"I think Inter history is going to be enriched by a new season thanks to our new international partners who, I am sure, will contribute to a continued string of successes," said Moratti.
"My family and I will continue to live this marvellous story together with Erick, Rosan and Handy granting our unchanged devotion and fondness that bond us to the club and to the Inter supporters".
Thohir said: "I am honoured that Mr Moratti has entrusted me with the responsibility to lead Inter into the next chapter, and I am excited to have him continue in the future as my partner.
"I am an entrepreneur, but first of all I am a supporter and a sports lover. I cannot wait to put our passion and international experience at the service of this fantastic club and its supporters."
Inter are fourth in Serie A under coach Walter Mazzarri. They finished ninth last season with Marco Stramaccioni at the helm and failed to qualify for Europe for the first time in 15 years. |
Updated at 1.20pm
A THREE HOUR train strike led to significant problems across the country’s travel network this morning.
Irish Rail is not currently reporting any delays to evening services.
The stoppage ended at 9am, but commuters face another day of headaches if a dispute between drivers and management isn’t resolved.
Drivers have served notice on the company that they will carry out the same action – striking between 6am and 9am on a Friday – two weeks from today on 6 November.
The strike
All rail services – DART, Commuter and Intercity – were affected by the rush-hour strike, which began at 6am after late-night talks between Irish Rail management, Siptu and the NBRU failed to resolve the dispute over drivers’ claims for compensation for past productivity measures.
Bus Éireann provided some additional capacity and Dublin Bus sent its full fleet out.
Traffic volumes were up significantly on most routes however. Problems in Dublin city were compounded by a number of crashes, including one on the south quays. The city-bound bore of the Port Tunnel was also closed for a period due to a broken-down truck.
Heavier than usual traffic on and around the quays in Dublin as train strike begins. pic.twitter.com/rc8Q1vMKXk — Daragh Brophy (@DaraghBroph) October 23, 2015 Source: Daragh Brophy /Twitter
Refund arrangements
Online customers who were booked to travel during the hours of disruption can use their tickets on any of the following services and no surcharge will apply, Irish Rail says.
Friday 23rd October, at a later time.
Saturday 24th October, at any time.
Or they may submit their ticket for a full refund.
Updated service information is available on www.irishrail.ie. |
The Soviet Union spent millions planting its icons in the West. Lenin devised a plan to use sculpture to propagate communism. Now, 100 years after the Bolshevik revolution, his plan has been realised in Britain—free of charge. On July 15th a Soviet-era statue of Friedrich Engels was installed in Manchester, where the Marxist thinker lived and wrote about the condition of the proletariat. Phil Collins, an artist, brought the concrete Engels—in two parts, cut at the waist—from Ukraine, where it had been toppled and dumped along with other Soviet monuments after Russia’s military aggression in 2015. It testifies to the new vitality of socialism in the West (though revolutionary statues are under fire elsewhere—see article). For tips on where it leads, Russia and Ukraine are good places to dig. |
Why Abortion is Moral
All of the arguments against abortion boil down to six specific questions. The first five deal with the nature of the zygote-embryo-fetus growing inside a woman’s womb. The last one looks at the morality of the practice. These questions are:
Let’s take a look at each of these questions. We’ll show how anti-abortionists use seemingly logical answers to back up their cause, but then we’ll show how their arguments actually support the fact that abortion is moral.
1. Is it alive?
Yes. Pro Choice supporters who claim it isn’t do themselves and their cause a disservice. Of course it’s alive. It’s a biological mechanism that converts nutrients and oxygen into energy that causes its cells to divide, multiply, and grow. It’s alive.
Anti-abortion activists often mistakenly use this fact to support their cause. “Life begins at conception” they claim. And they would be right. The genesis of a new human life begins when the egg with 23 chromosomes joins with a sperm with 23 chromosomes and creates a fertilized cell, called a zygote, with 46 chromosomes. The single-cell zygote contains all the DNA necessary to grow into an independent, conscious human being. It is a potential person.
But being alive does not give the zygote full human rights - including the right not to be aborted during its gestation.
A single-cell ameba also coverts nutrients and oxygen into biological energy that causes its cells to divide, multiply and grow. It also contains a full set of its own DNA. It shares everything in common with a human zygote except that it is not a potential person. Left to grow, it will always be an ameba - never a human person. It is just as alive as the zygote, but we would never defend its human rights based solely on that fact.
And neither can the anti-abortionist, which is why we must answer the following questions as well.
2. Is it human?
Yes. Again, Pro Choice defenders stick their feet in their mouths when they defend abortion by claiming the zygote-embryo-fetus isn’t human. It is human. Its DNA is that of a human. Left to grow, it will become a full human person.
And again, anti-abortion activists often mistakenly use this fact to support their cause. They are fond of saying, “an acorn is an oak tree in an early stage of development; likewise, the zygote is a human being in an early stage of development.” And they would be right. But having a full set of human DNA does not give the zygote full human rights - including the right not to be aborted during its gestation.
Don’t believe me? Here, try this: reach up to your head, grab one strand of hair, and yank it out. Look at the base of the hair. That little blob of tissue at the end is a hair follicle. It also contains a full set of human DNA. Granted it’s the same DNA pattern found in every other cell in your body, but in reality the uniqueness of the DNA is not what makes it a different person. Identical twins share the exact same DNA, and yet we don’t say that one is less human than the other, nor are two twins the exact same person. It’s not the configuration of the DNA that makes a zygote human; it’s simply that it has human DNA. Your hair follicle shares everything in common with a human zygote except that it is a little bit bigger and it is not a potential person. (These days even that’s not an absolute considering our new-found ability to clone humans from existing DNA, even the DNA from a hair follicle.)
Your hair follicle is just as human as the zygote, but we would never defend its human rights based solely on that fact.
And neither can the anti-abortionist, which is why the following two questions become critically important to the abortion debate.
3. Is it a person?
No. It’s merely a potential person.
Webster’s Dictionary lists a person as “being an individual or existing as an indivisible whole; existing as a distinct entity.” Anti-abortionists claim that each new fertilized zygote is already a new person because its DNA is uniquely different than anyone else’s. In other words, if you’re human, you must be a person.
Of course we’ve already seen that a simple hair follicle is just as human as a single-cell zygote, and, that unique DNA doesn’t make the difference since two twins are not one person. It’s quite obvious, then, that something else must occur to make one human being different from another. There must be something else that happens to change a DNA-patterned body into a distinct person. (Or in the case of twins, two identically DNA-patterned bodies into two distinct persons.)
There is, and most people inherently know it, but they have trouble verbalizing it for one very specific reason.
The defining mark between something that is human and someone who is a person is ‘consciousness.’ It is the self-aware quality of consciousness that makes us uniquely different from others. This self-awareness, this sentient consciousness is also what separates us from every other animal life form on the planet. We think about ourselves. We use language to describe ourselves. We are aware of ourselves as a part of the greater whole.
The problem is that consciousness normally doesn’t occur until months, even years, after a baby is born. This creates a moral dilemma for the defender of abortion rights. Indeed, they inherently know what makes a human into a person, but they are also aware such individual personhood doesn’t occur until well after birth. To use personhood as an argument for abortion rights, therefore, also leads to the argument that it should be okay to kill a 3-month-old baby since it hasn’t obtained consciousness either.
Anti-abortionists use this perceived problem in an attempt to prove their point. In a debate, a Pro Choice defender will rightly state that the difference between a fetus and a full-term human being is that the fetus isn’t a person. The anti-abortion activist, being quite sly, will reply by asking his opponent to define what makes someone into a person. Suddenly the Pro Choice defender is at a loss for words to describe what he or she knows innately. We know it because we lived it. We know we have no memory of self-awareness before our first birthday, or even before our second. But we also quickly become aware of the “problem” we create if we say a human doesn’t become a person until well after its birth. And we end up saying nothing. The anti-abortionist then takes this inability to verbalize the nature of personhood as proof of their claim that a human is a person at conception.
But they are wrong. Their “logic” is greatly flawed. Just because someone is afraid to speak the truth doesn’t make it any less true.
And in reality, the Pro Choice defender’s fear is unfounded. They are right, and they can state it without hesitation. A human indeed does not become a full person until consciousness. And consciousness doesn’t occur until well after the birth of the child. But that does not automatically lend credence to the anti-abortionist’s argument that it should, therefore, be acceptable to kill a three-month-old baby because it is not yet a person.
It is still a potential person. And after birth it is an independent potential person whose existence no longer poses a threat to the physical wellbeing of another. To understand this better, we need to look at the next question.
4. Is it physically independent?
No. It is absolutely dependent on another human being for its continued existence. Without the mother’s life-giving nutrients and oxygen it would die. Throughout gestation the zygote-embryo-fetus and the mother’s body are symbiotically linked, existing in the same physical space and sharing the same risks. What the mother does affects the fetus. And when things go wrong with the fetus, it affects the mother.
Anti-abortionists claim fetal dependence cannot be used as an issue in the abortion debate. They make the point that even after birth, and for years to come, a child is still dependent on its mother, its father, and those around it. And since no one would claim its okay to kill a child because of its dependency on others, we can’t, if we follow their logic, claim it’s okay to abort a fetus because of its dependence.
What the anti-abortionist fails to do, however, is differentiate between physical dependence and social dependence. Physical dependence does not refer to meeting the physical needs of the child - such as in the anti-abortionist’s argument above. That’s social dependence; that’s where the child depends on society - on other people - to feed it, clothe it, and love it. Physical dependence occurs when one life form depends solely on the physical body of another life form for its existence.
Physical dependence was cleverly illustrated back in 1971 by philosopher Judith Jarvis Thompson. She created a scenario in which a woman is kidnapped and wakes up to find she’s been surgically attached to a world-famous violinist who, for nine months, needs her body to survive. After those nine months, the violinist can survive just fine on his own, but he must have this particular woman in order to survive until then.
Thompson then asks if the woman is morally obliged to stay connected to the violinist who is living off her body. It might be a very good thing if she did - the world could have the beauty that would come from such a violinist - but is she morally obliged to let another being use her body to survive?
This very situation is already conceded by anti-abortionists. They claim RU-486 should be illegal for a mother to take because it causes her uterus to flush its nutrient-rich lining, thus removing a zygote from its necessary support system and, therefore, ending its short existence as a life form. Thus the anti-abortionist’s own rhetoric only proves the point of absolute physical dependence.
This question becomes even more profound when we consider a scenario where it’s not an existing person who is living off the woman’s body, but simply a potential person, or better yet, a single-cell zygote with human DNA that is no different than the DNA in a simple hair follicle.
To complicate it even further, we need to realize that physical dependence also means a physical threat to the life of the mother. The World Health Organization reports that nearly 670,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications each year (this number does not include abortions). That’s 1,800 women per day. We also read that in developed countries, such as the United States and Canada, a woman is 13 times more likely to die bringing a pregnancy to term than by having an abortion.
Therefore, not only is pregnancy the prospect of having a potential person physically dependent on the body of one particular women, it also includes the women putting herself into a life-threatening situation for that potential person.
Unlike social dependence, where the mother can choose to put her child up for adoption or make it a ward of the state or hire someone else to take care of it, during pregnancy the fetus is absolutely physically dependent on the body of one woman. Unlike social dependence, where a woman’s physical life is not threatened by the existence of another person, during pregnancy, a woman places herself in the path of bodily harm for the benefit of a DNA life form that is only a potential person - even exposing herself to the threat of death.
This brings us to the next question: do the rights of a potential person supercede the rights of the mother to control her body and protect herself from potential life-threatening danger?
5. Does it have human rights?
Yes and No.
A potential person must always be given full human rights unless its existence interferes with the rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness of an already existing conscious human being. Thus, a gestating fetus has no rights before birth and full rights after birth.
If a fetus comes to term and is born, it is because the mother chooses to forgo her own rights and her own bodily security in order to allow that future person to gestate inside her body. If the mother chooses to exercise control over her own body and to protect herself from the potential dangers of childbearing, then she has the full right to terminate the pregnancy.
Anti-abortion activists are fond of saying “The only difference between a fetus and a baby is a trip down the birth canal.” This flippant phrase may make for catchy rhetoric, but it doesn’t belie the fact that indeed “location” makes all the difference in the world.
It’s actually quite simple. You cannot have two entities with equal rights occupying one body. One will automatically have veto power over the other - and thus they don’t have equal rights. In the case of a pregnant woman, giving a “right to life” to the potential person in the womb automatically cancels out the mother’s right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
After birth, on the other hand, the potential person no longer occupies the same body as the mother, and thus, giving it full human rights causes no interference with another’s right to control her body. Therefore, even though a full-term human baby may still not be a person, after birth it enjoys the full support of the law in protecting its rights. After birth its independence begs that it be protected as if it were equal to a fully-conscience human being. But before birth its lack of personhood and its threat to the women in which it resides makes abortion a completely logical and moral choice.
Which brings us to our last question, which is the real crux of the issue….
6. Is abortion murder?
No. Absolutely not.
It’s not murder if it’s not an independent person. One might argue, then, that it’s not murder to end the life of any child before she reaches consciousness, but we don’t know how long after birth personhood arrives for each new child, so it’s completely logical to use their independence as the dividing line for when full rights are given to a new human being.
Using independence also solves the problem of dealing with premature babies. Although a preemie is obviously still only a potential person, by virtue of its independence from the mother, we give it the full rights of a conscious person. This saves us from setting some other arbitrary date of when we consider a new human being a full person. Older cultures used to set it at two years of age, or even older. Modern religious cultures want to set it at conception, which is simply wishful thinking on their part. As we’ve clearly demonstrated, a single-cell zygote is no more a person that a human hair follicle.
But that doesn’t stop religious fanatics from dumping their judgements and their anger on top of women who choose to exercise the right to control their bodies. It’s the ultimate irony that people who claim to represent a loving God resort to scare tactics and fear to support their mistaken beliefs.
It’s even worse when you consider that most women who have an abortion have just made the most difficult decision of their life. No one thinks abortion is a wonderful thing. No one tries to get pregnant just so they can terminate it. Even though it’s not murder, it still eliminates a potential person, a potential daughter, a potential son. It’s hard enough as it is. Women certainly don’t need others telling them it’s a murder.
It’s not. On the contrary, abortion is an absolutely moral choice for any woman wishing to control her body. |
SALEM, Ore. (AP) On the presumed eve of the final day of the 2013 Legislative session, Oregon lawmakers worked through the shrinking number of bills left to be addressed this year.
The Legislature agreed that people caught talking on the phone or texting while driving should pay steeper fines, bumping the maximum fine from $250 to $500. The bill now goes to the governor.
"I believe this is the next Mothers Against Drunk Driving issue," said Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who made the bill a priority. Opponents said stiffening the fine would not keep phones out of drivers' hands.
Late Sunday night a budget committee took up a major bonding package unveiled only hours earlier. The package would boost funding for construction projects across the state, including $80 million to build a state psychiatric hospital in Junction City, Ore. It also funnels money to community colleges and public universities for campus expansion projects, and allots money for upgrades to state buildings.
A joint budget committee advanced the package to the Senate, despite complaints from several lawmakers that they hadn't had enough time to review the bill.
Other bills forwarded to the governor's desk would cap the number of permits for suction dredge mining equipment, establish a voluntary program to phase in a mileage-based road user fee for fuel efficient cars and require certain midwives to obtain a license.
Senators voted to extend several income tax credits that were set to expire. Among other provisions, the bill would increase a tax credit for film and television productions from its current level of $6 million to $10 million. The bill next goes to the House.
Not all bills made the cut.
Notably, senators rejected a much talked about bill proposed by Secretary of State Kate Brown that would have automatically registered nearly everyone with a driver's license to vote, potentially adding hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters to the state.
Debate on the bill provoked passionate testimony from lawmakers on both sides of the issue.
Sen. Jackie Winters, the first African-American Republican to serve in the Oregon Legislature, said automating the voter registration system trivializes the act of voting, a right she said her grandfather had to fight for.
"For me, voting has a very ... special meaning," said Winters, R-Salem. "I don't want to trivialize what a lot have died for, worked for (and) fought for."
Republicans and one Democrat joined her in opposition, saying people who choose not to register to vote shouldn't be forced onto the voter rolls.
Democrats said the plan would eliminate barriers to voting by identifying and enrolling otherwise eligible voters.
"This is a bill that enhances personal freedom and enfranchises every voter," said Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Beaverton.
The Senate also voted down a bill championed by House Speaker Tina Kotek that would have stopped housing discrimination against low-income Oregonians who hold federally subsidized rent vouchers.
When the session ends, all bills left in committee die. Bills that don't survive must be reintroduced in a future session.
The House and Senate have both scheduled floor sessions to take up a handful of remaining bills on Monday, when they are expected to Sine Die. Traditionally, the chambers adjourn simultaneously.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. |
PACKS of playing cards featuring the victims of cold case murders will be given to South Australian prisoners in the hope it prompts new leads to solve the crimes.
The American-derived playing card strategy will be coupled with letters asking for help of all people in the corrections community and advice telling criminals they may be eligible for immunity from prosecution, reduced sentences and monetary rewards for vital information.
The bold move is the latest strategy in the South Australian Police Operation Persist to solve cold case homicides and Major Crime Investigation Branch head, Detective Superintendent Des Bray says focuses on the state’s large criminal community.
“It’s not honest mums and dads and pillars of society who kill people ... it’s prisoners in our jails,’’ Det Supt Bray said.
media_camera Some of the playing cards, which feature unsolved murders, which will be given to prisoners. media_camera Some of the playing cards, which feature unsolved murders, which will be given to prisoners.
“We want to make contact with a massive section of our community who have information about these crimes.
“This is a bold initiative and a first for South Australia. However, there is evidence that targeting people in custody for information has proved to be an extremely successful strategy in solving murders and very serious crimes.
“This strategy seeks to harness the information in the criminal community to help resolve cases that have remained a mystery for up to 50 years.’’
Police worked with the Department of Correctional Service and the Commissioner for Victims’ Rights on the strategy and families of all victims featured on the cards have given their written approval.
Det Supt Bray said there will be a second release of playing cards featuring other victims from the 119 unsolved murder cases in the state.
Correctional Services head David Brown said prison staff had been included in development and training for the strategy and the prison system fully supported the move.
Families of victims have also supported the move, Commissioner for Victims’ Rights, Michael O’Connell said.
media_camera Some of the playing cards that prisoners in SA jails will receive, in the hope that it will prompt them to help with unsolved murders. Picture Roy van der Vegt
“They want to see the person responsible for the death of their loved one apprehended, prosecuted, found guilty and adequately punished,’’ he said.
“When a homicide remains unsolved, victims’ families suffer emotional and psychological stress and challenges. It is of some assistance to know that the police and correctional services are committed to investigating unsolved homicides, thus alleviating the burden on the victims’ families.’’
Suzie Ratcliffe — the sister of Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, who, along with Kirste Gordon, 4, was abducted from Adelaide Oval in 1973 and who have their images on a playing card — supported the strategy.
“The more avenues for the flow of information that are tried, the better,’’ she said.
“Families touched by such grief would be grateful for anything that can help solve these crimes.’’
Ms Ratcliffe has joined with other families of missing persons from around Australia to form the Leave A Light On Foundation which aims to raise awareness of cold case missing persons crimes. Launch events for the foundation will be held at Norwood Oval on October 21 and in Melbourne and people are encouraged to leave a porch light on that night to acknowledge the grief families of missing persons live with. |
Name: Batman
Age: Three months old
Gender: Male
Kind: Netherland Dwarf, Polish Rabbit
Home: Steinkjer, Norway
T his Batman! What makes him so special is that he listens to his name, and he is very fond of me and come to me once he sees me. He is a very special young rabbit who learns incredibly fast!
Batman was born on December 30, 2014 with two other siblings, this trio was a very special trio. Batman was the greatest of them all, he was the first who came out of the nest after he opened his eyes. Batman has always been a little explorer and he loves to explore new things. He and the other two siblings weaned themselves and started to drink water and follow their mother and pester her.
When Batman was one month old, I took him with me out in the snow and he got to run and enjoy himself. I lay on the ground to take some pictures of him where he ran and enjoyed himself. As soon as I got down, he came at full speed towards me and jumped on my stomach and wanted to have cuddles, and then I lay on my stomach and photographed him. He often came up to my face and sniffed me and licked my cheek and shoulder. When he wanted to play, he ran a little away and came running towards me again and jumped on my back and lay down there. We are often out when it is sunny, so then he lays down to relax in the sun on my back!
He answers to his name almost always, and pays attention and comes when I call him. He is a very attention-seeking rabbit who will not say "no thanks" to cuddle! He is my gold baby and I love him with all my heart.
All his photos are copyright ©Elise Mari Holm Aanes.
View more images of Batman!
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The three stars (French: trois étoiles) in ice hockey are the three best players in a game as chosen by a third party, with the first star considered the best of the three players, akin to the Player of the match in other sports. Usually, the top point scorers or outstanding goaltenders are designated the three stars, but other players may be considered by affecting the game by other means (e.g. consistent physical play, many steals, blocked shots, etc.).
Usage [ edit ]
Three stars were first awarded in the 1936–37 NHL season as a means for Imperial Oil (Hockey Night in Canada's then new principal sponsor) to advertise its “Three Star” brand of gasoline.[1] In addition, it was seen as a way to promote the game's best stars of the time.[1] After the sponsorship ended in 1976, the tradition remained on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's flagship hockey show.[1]
The usage of three stars has since expanded greatly. All professional hockey teams (or radio/television broadcasts of those teams) in North America award three stars at the end of each game, and many amateur and collegiate leagues (or broadcasts of their games) do as well. The National Hockey League awards three stars during every game, in both the regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs, and not just limited to those shown on HNIC. Media representatives of the home team make the selections. It also awards a nightly set of three stars,[2] which are the three best players out of all who played a game in the league on a given night. Also, in the 2007–08 NHL season, the previous awards of “Offensive Player of the Week” and “Defensive Player of the Week” were replaced by the “Three Stars of the Week”, while the similar awards of “Offensive Player of the Month” and “Defensive Player of the Month” were replaced by the “Three Stars of the Month”.
The NHL also has a system which awards points to its nightly three stars: 30 points to the first star, 20 points to the second, and 10 to the third.[2] It keeps a running tally of the number of points each player has been awarded [1]. NHL teams may use these standings; for example, the Vancouver Canucks award a sum to a charity chosen by its player who earned the highest number of points that month. The Molson Cup is also awarded to the top point-earner of the year of each Canadian team.
Despite its popularity in North America, three stars are generally not awarded during international play, such as at the Winter Olympic Games. The IIHF World Championships and World Junior Championships instead issue awards such as "Best Player" for each team per game, or the overall best player per position over the course of the tournament.[3]
Unusual selections [ edit ]
The three star selections for a game, being a "fun" statistic, do not ordinarily affect any other aspect of the game. As such, there have been instances in which the three stars have been awarded in an unexpected way, often to recognize a single player's accomplishments.
On occasion, a player has been awarded all three stars,[1] or a star has been given to non-players, such as the crowd in attendance.[4]
See also [ edit ] |
The Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 funicular train is waiting at the lower valley station. The train involved in the disaster caught fire shortly before leaving the valley station and entered the tunnel where it came to a halt 600 metres from the lower end. The tunnel entrance is visible in the background.
The Kaprun disaster was a fire that occurred in an ascending train in the tunnel of the Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 funicular in Kaprun, Austria, on 11 November 2000. The disaster killed 155 people (150 on the ascending train, 2 on the descending train and 3 in the mountain station). There were 12 survivors (10 Germans and two Austrians) from the burning ascending train. Most of the victims were skiers on their way to the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier.
The train [ edit ]
The Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 was a funicular railway running from Kaprun to the Kitzsteinhorn, opened in 1974. In 1993, it was modernized, giving the trains a sleek, futuristic look; also making them the pride of Austria's ski resorts. This railway had the unusual track gauge of 946 mm (3 ft 1 1⁄ 4 in) and a length of 3,900 metres (12,800 ft), with 3,300 metres (10,800 ft) of track inside a tunnel. The train climbed and descended the tunnel at 25 km/h, angled at 30 degrees. There were two carriages on a single track, with a section allowing them to pass each other halfway. One carried passengers up the mountain while its twin simultaneously descended. The tunnel terminated at the main reception centre, called the Alpincenter, where a powerful motorized winch system pulled the wagons. There were neither engines, fuel tanks, nor drivers, only low-voltage electrical systems, 160-litre hydraulic tanks (used for the brake system) and an attendant who operated the hydraulic doors. Each train had four passenger compartments and a cab at front and rear for the attendant, who switched back and forth as they travelled up and down. It could carry up to 180 passengers.
The disaster [ edit ]
On 11 November 2000, 161 passengers and one conductor boarded the funicular train for an early morning trip to the slopes. Prior to the passenger train leaving the lower terminus shortly after 9:00 am, the electric fan heater in the unattended cabin at the lower end of the train caught fire, due to a design fault that caused the unit to overheat. The fire melted through plastic pipes carrying flammable hydraulic fluid from the brake system, resulting in the loss of fluid pressure which caused the train to halt unexpectedly 600 metres into the tunnel (this was a standard safety feature).[1] Several minutes later, the train conductor, who was in the cabin at the upper end of the train (which was the front, since the train was ascending), realized that a fire had broken out, reported it to the control centre, and attempted to open the hydraulically operated doors, but the system pressure loss prevented them from operating. The train conductor then lost contact with the control centre, because the fire had burned through a 16kV power cable running alongside the length of the track, causing a total blackout throughout the entire ski resort.
The passengers, by this stage aware of the fire and unable to exit through the doors, attempted to break the shatter-resistant acrylic windows in order to escape. Twelve people from the rear of the train, who successfully broke a window with a ski pole, followed the advice of another escapee who had been a volunteer fire fighter for 20 years, and escaped downwards past the fire and below the smoke.
Many of the still-trapped occupants had by now lost consciousness due to toxic fumes. Eventually, the conductor was able to unlock the doors, allowing them to be manually forced open by the remaining conscious passengers who spilled out into the tunnel and fled upwards and away from the fire. The tunnel acted like a giant blast furnace, sucking oxygen in from the bottom and rapidly sent the poisonous smoke, heat and the fire itself billowing upwards. All the passengers ascending on foot, as well as the train conductor, were asphyxiated by the smoke and then burned by the raging fire.
The conductor and the sole passenger on the railway's second train, which was descending the mountain in the same tunnel from above the burning carriage, also died of smoke inhalation. The smoke continued to rise up the tunnel, reaching the Alpine Centre located at the top end of the track 2,500 m (8,200 ft) away. Two fleeing workers in the Alpine Centre, upon seeing the smoke, alerted employees and customers and escaped via an emergency exit. They made the mistake of leaving the exit doors open, a factor which increased the chimney effect within the tunnel, by allowing air to escape upwards more quickly and further intensifying the fire. Meanwhile, the centre was filled with smoke and all except four people escaped from the centre. Firefighters reached the centre and saved one of the four, while the other three were asphyxiated.[1]
Investigation [ edit ]
Nearly one year after the fire, the official inquiry determined the cause was the failure, overheating and ignition of one of the fan heaters installed in the conductor's compartments that were not designed for use in a moving vehicle, much less a train. The ignition was caused when a design fault caused the unit to overheat, which in turn caused the plastic mount for the heating element to break off, causing the element to jam against its plastic casing and catch fire. A slow leak of highly flammable hydraulic oil was ignited by the burning, melting heater, which in turn melted the plastic fluid lines, further feeding the flames and also resulting in the hydraulic pressure loss which caused the train to stop and the doors to fail.
The structural flaws of the funicular trains, especially the lack of safety mechanisms, were found to have played a role in the tragedy. Each funicular unit had its fire extinguishers out of the passengers' reach in the sealed attendants' compartments. No smoke detectors were installed. There was no cellphone reception within the tunnels, which meant that passengers had no method of contacting the attendant. Professor Joseph Nejez, a funicular train expert, said that the designers throughout the years had a perception that a fire could not occur since no fire had occurred in a funicular cabin prior to the Kaprun disaster. The train complied with area safety codes, which did not address the systems installed on the train during its 1993 upgrade. The onboard electric power, hydraulic braking systems, and fan heaters intended for use in homes instead of trains increased the likelihood of fire.[2]
Casualties and aftermath [ edit ]
The funicular was never reopened after the disaster and was replaced by a gondola lift, a 24-person Gletscherjet 1 funitel. The stations were abandoned and the tunnel sealed, and it remains unused today. The site though, has been frequented by some skiers who wanted to explore its dark interiors and filming the remains of the burned tunnel.
The track and tunnel remained in place for over a decade after the disaster, although never used by paying passengers. As of 2014, the track and supporting structure below the tunnel has been completely removed, with just a gap in the trees to indicate where it stood. Skiers and sightseers now reach the Alpincentre using either the Gletscherjet 1 or Panaromabahn cable cars to an intermediate station, followed by the Gletscherjet 2 cable car or Langwiedbahn chairlift to the Alpincentre (typically only one of each operates in the summer period, when there is less traffic), though they can also still use the original Gletscherbahn 1.
On 19 February 2004, Judge Manfred Seiss acquitted all 16 suspects, including company officials, technicians, and government inspectors, clearing them of criminal negligence. Seiss said there was insufficient evidence to find the suspects responsible for the conditions that led to the blaze. In September 2007, the public prosecutor's office determined the manufacturer of the electric heater was not responsible.[4]
One of the victims was Sandra Schmitt, a 19-year-old German freestyle skier who at the time was the reigning Women's Dual Moguls World Champion.[5] Josef Schaupper, a 7 time Deaflympic medalist was also killed in the fatal accident along with his fellow deaf skiers.[6][7]
References [ edit ]
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Last week, in Chicago, 16-year-old Darryl Green was found dead in the yard of an abandoned home. He was killed, relatives reported, because he refused to join a gang. Unlike most tragedies, however—which remain local news—this one caught the attention of conservative activist Ben Shapiro, an editor for Breitbart News. Using the hashtag “#justicefordarryl,” Shaprio tweeted and publicized the details of Green’s murder. But this wasn’t a call for help and assistance for Green’s family, rather, it was his response to wide outrage over Saturday’s decision in the case of George Zimmerman, where a Florida jury judged him “not guilty” of second-degree murder or manslaughter in the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Shapiro, echoing many other conservatives, is angry over the perceived politicization of the Zimmerman trial, and believes that activists have ”injected” race into the discussion, as if there’s nothing racial already within the criminal-justice system. Indeed, he echoes many conservatives when he complains that media attention had everything to do with Zimmerman’s race. If he were black, the argument goes, no one would care. And so, Shapiro found the sad story of Darryl Green, and promoted it as an example of the “black-on-black” crime that, he believes, goes ignored. Or, as he tweets, “49% of murder victims are black men. 93% of those are killed by other blacks. Media don’t care. Obama doesn’t care. #JusticeForDarryl.”
The idea that “black-on-black” crime is the real story in Martin’s killing isn’t a novel one. In addition to Shapiro, you’ll hear the argument from conservative African-American activists like Crystal White, as well as people outside the media, like Zimmerman defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who said that his client “never would have been charged with a crime” if he were black.
(It’s worth noting, here, that Zimmerman wasn’t charged with a crime. At least, not at first. It took six weeks of protest and pressure for Sanford police to revisit the killing and bring charges against him. Indeed, in the beginning, Martin’s cause had less to do with the identity of the shooter and everything to do with the appalling disinterest of the local police department.)
But there’s a huge problem with attempt to shift the conversation: There’s no such thing as “black-on-black” crime. Yes, from 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders, but that racial exclusivity was also true for white victims of violent crime—86 percent were killed by white offenders. Indeed, for the large majority of crimes, you’ll find that victims and offenders share a racial identity, or have some prior relationship to each other.
What Shapiro and others miss about crime, in general, is that it’s driven by opportunism and proximity; If African-Americans are more likely to be robbed, or injured, or killed by other African-Americans, it’s because they tend to live in the same neighborhoods as each other. Residential statistics bear this out (PDF); blacks are still more likely to live near each other or other minority groups than they are to whites. And of course, the reverse holds as well—whites are much more likely to live near other whites than they are to minorities and African-Americans in particular.
Nor are African-Americans especially criminal. If they were, you would still see high rates of crime among blacks, even as the nation sees a historic decline in criminal offenses. Instead, crime rates among African-Americans, and black youth in particular, have taken a sharp drop. In Washington, D.C., for example, fewer than 10 percent of black youth are in a gang, have sold drugs, have carried a gun, or have stolen more than $100 in goods.
Overall, figures from a variety of institutions—including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Justice Statistics—show that among black youth, rates of robbery and serious property offenses are at their lowest rates in 40 years, as are rates of violent crime and victimization. And while it’s true that young black men are a disproportionate share of the nation’s murder victims, it’s hard to disentangle this from the stew of hyper-segregation (often a result of deliberate policies), entrenched poverty, and nonexistent economic opportunities that characterizes a substantial number of black communities. Hence the countless inner-city anti-violence groups that focus on creating opportunity for young, disadvantaged African-Americans, through education, mentoring, and community programs. Blacks care intensely about the violence that happens in their communities. After all, they have to live with it.
“Black-on-black crime” has been part of the American lexicon for decades, but as a specific phenomenon, it’s no more real than “white-on-white crime.” Unlike the latter, however, the idea of “black-on-black crime” taps into specific fears around black masculinity and black criminality—the same fears that, in Florida, led George Zimmerman to focus his attention on Trayvon Martin, and in New York, continue to justify Michael Bloomberg’s campaign of police harassment against young black men in New York City.
Indeed, these fears are the reason that—in predominantly African-American neighborhoods across the country—police gathered and waited. There might be riots, observers said, and we have to be prepared. Why? The protests in support of Martin have been peaceful, and no one has called for violence or retribution. But that doesn’t matter.
America is afraid of black people, and that’s especially true—it seems—when it thinks they might be angry. |
So let's start with the freaking heavy package from Amazon: 11 mighty pounds! And my overly generous SS (I greatly wish I could tell you who s/he is, and give proper credit) actually went above and beyond and overnighted the sucker. That had to be one huge shipping charge. Inside, four shiny, beribboned wrapped gifts. The OCD half of me decided to open them in ascending order by size. The smallest gift was adorned with a card that said the enclosed little moleskin notebooks would handily save my ideas from "going off into the aether." They are the perfect present for someone (me), who had written that I dreamed of writing a bestselling novel! The next biggest box included a card that asked how else I was gonna use those beans. Perplexed, I opened the gift to be rewarded with a semi-answer to the proposed question. It was an electric coffee grinder! Aha, but what about the aforementioned beans? Of course, the third package cleared up that mystery: a 2-pound bag of Kicking Horse Kick Ass Coffee Beans. The card mentioned that the resulting brew would fuel my writing prowess, whether "inspiration strikes early in the morning or late at night." The last -- but in no way, shape or form least -- present was an incredibly gorgeous book of 400 photographs taken by the legendary Ansel Adams. I had told my SS that I liked pictures of sunrises (my reddit name, after all, IS SkyeDawnMarie.) And so this thoughtful Secret Santa soul admitted to being a real-life photographer, who felt compelled to ensure that I didn't go through life only liking sun-filled horizons. No chance of that, now that I can enjoy the hundreds of breathtaking photos in my new Kick Ass Coffee-table book. Thank you a trillion times over, my secretive Secret Santa. I had decided to join the reddit SS Gift Exchange after a Thanksgiving-induced low point in my life. I truly doubted it was possible to ignite the Christmas-spirit fire in myself this year. But your kindness,and overwhelming generosity, have gone a long way toward turning things around for me "tis-the-season" wise. You, my new friend, are awesome. I hope that Santa, both the Secret and the Clause varieties, bring you all the amazing presents you richly deserve! |
Welcome to The Riddler. Every week, I offer up a problem related to the things we hold dear around here: math, logic and probability. These problems, puzzles and riddles come from many top-notch puzzle folks around the world — including you! You’ll find this week’s puzzle below.
Mull it over on your commute, dissect it on your lunch break and argue about it with your friends and lovers. When you’re ready, submit your answer using the link below. I’ll reveal the solution next week, and a correct submission (chosen at random) will earn a shoutout in this column. Important small print: To be eligible, I need to receive your correct answer before 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday. Have a great weekend!
Before we get to the new puzzle, let’s return to last week’s. Congratulations to 👏 Christopher Tiee 👏 of San Diego, our big winner. You can find a solution to the previous Riddler at the bottom of this post.
Now here’s this week’s Riddler, a twist on a classic passed along by Scott Rodilitz, a Ph.D. student in operations at Yale.
You have a camel and 3,000 bananas. (Because of course you do.) You would like to sell your bananas at the bazaar 1,000 miles away. Your loyal camel can carry at most 1,000 bananas at a time. However, it has an insatiable appetite and quite the nose for bananas — if you have bananas with you, it will demand one banana per mile traveled. In the absence of bananas on his back, it will happily walk as far as needed to get more bananas, loyal beast that it is. What should you do to get the largest number of bananas to the bazaar? What is that number?
Extra credit: Let’s push this classic even further and offer up a 🏆 Coolest Riddler Extension Award 🏆. Add a second camel, another fruit, a closer but less profitable bazaar, or something even more creative. Submit your extension and its solution via the form below. The winner gets a shiny emoji trophy next week.
Submit your answer
Need a hint? You can try asking me nicely. Want to submit a new puzzle or problem? Email me. I’m especially on the hunt for Riddler Express problems — bite-size puzzles that don’t take quite as much time or computational power to solve.
And here’s the solution to last week’s Riddler, concerning a very particular mathematician, his birthday cake and the memento he wants to fit the cake in. If you make the largest three-tier cake that fits under the mathematician’s glass cone, it will fill about 70.2 percent of the cone’s volume. If the cone is 1 unit tall, the heights of the tiers, from bottom to top, should be roughly 0.162, 0.182 and 0.219.
This is a constrained optimization problem. We want to optimize the volume of the cake, because a mathematician told us to and cake is delicious, subject to the constraints of the dimensions of the cone.
Here’s how to do that, adapted from the solution of the puzzle’s submitter, Jim Crimmins. Let \(A_B\) be the area of the cone’s base and \(H\) be its height. The volume of the cone is therefore \(V_C=(1/3)A_B H\).
Let the heights of the cake layers be \(a\), \(b\) and \(c\), expressed as percentages of \(H\). The volumes of the three layers are then:
$$V_a = ((1-a)^2 A_B) \cdot aH$$
$$V_b = ((1-a-b)^2 A_B) \cdot bH$$
$$V_c = ((1-a-b-c)^2 A_B) \cdot cH$$
The total volume of the cake, \(V_T\), is the sum of those three. The percentage of the cone the cake fills — the number we want to maximize — is \(P\).
$$P=V_T/V_C=3\left(a(1-a)^2+b(1-a-b)^2+c(1-a-b-c)^2\right)$$
We want to maximize \(P\) subject to \(a+b+c\leq 1\). (The total height of the layers can’t exceed the height of the cone, after all.) Solving that — basically un-repressing your memories of calculus class and taking partial derivatives and setting them equal to zero — gives us our optimal heights and our optimal volume.
For extra credit, I asked what the cake would look like if it had N layers. The proportion of the cone we can fill as N goes to infinity is clearly 1. The precise math on the way to infinity gets pretty messy, and I’m not aware of a closed-form solution for the optima. However, you can see these nice approaches from Joachim Worthington and Daniel Filan for two examples out of the many nice ones I received. And here is a chart of the optimized volumes, as the number of cake tiers increases, from Laurent Lessard:
And here is the progression of the shape of the optimal cake:
Elsewhere in the puzzling world:
Have a stellar weekend! |
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton’s support tipped the scales that led to the Obama administration’s Libyan intervention, resulting in the death of Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown in the Battle of Sirte in 2011. Almost five years later, the race for the American presidency is full throated, foreign policy is among the top issues, Clinton is a leading candidate, and Libya remains in ashes.
The Islamic State has now risen from those ashes to make Gaddafi’s urban coffin, Sirte, its de facto stronghold. The country further stands divided between three competing governments. In the east, the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) governs with the aid of the Libyan army. In the west, the Islamist General National Congress (GNC) reigns. In an effort to bridge the gap between the two factions, the United Nations has backed the Government of National Accord (GNA), which currently operates out of a naval base in Tripoli.
Obama was hesitant to get the U.S. involved in Libya’s 2011 uprising. Bracketing his apprehension was the concurrent U.S. draw-down in Iraq, an Obama mandate. Early on, it was clear the U.K. and France were pushing to get involved in Libya, along with several junior aides in the Obama administration who argued the president needed to be “on the right side of history.” Senior leaders like Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and others vehemently disagreed. Clinton, possibly in an attempt to secure her legacy, eventually pushed for the intervention, arguing that the U.S. “will be left behind” if not involved. By mid-March 2011, the U.S. and its NATO partners were striking key Gaddafi targets via Operation Odyssey Dawn.
Clinton had convinced Obama, albeit marginally.
Governance of Libya since Gaddafi’s death has been tumultuous. Initially, the National Transitional Council (NTC), the primary Libyan resistance group took power with international backing. By January 2012, resentment among certain Libyan militia groups toward to NTC led to clashes. Throughout 2012, the NTC slowly lost control of significant portions of Libya. The NTC held elections in July, which led to the election and eventual creation of the Islamist General National Congress (GNC).
Disaster once again struck barely a month after the GNC formed. Members from terrorist group Ansar al-Sharia stormed a U.S. consulate in the city of Benghazi, brutally murdering Ambassador Christopher Stephens, Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former US Navy SEALs. What followed was a failed Obama administration cover-up claiming the attack was the result of an anti-Islamic video posted to the internet. The congressional investigation on the totality of Clinton’s involvement in the Benghazi cover-up continues today.
Libya shuffled through a series of Prime Ministers through the GNC until May 2014 when Khalifa Haftar, a general in the Libyan National Army went rogue after frustration with the GNC leadership’s unwillingness to counter various Islamic terror groups that had sprung up across Libya. Haftar would take it upon himself to launch Operation Dignity in an effort to counter Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi, however, within two days, forces loyal to his cause would attack the Libyan parliament building that same month, demanding a new constitution.
In turn, the Islamist factions in Libya created their own pseudo military operation and coalition known as Operation Dawn in July 2014.
A November 2014 decision by the Libyan Supreme Court to dissolve the HoR was the final blow to an already fragile political situation in Libya. The HoR ignored the ruling, continued to operate out of the city of Tobruk and officially endorsed Haftar’s Operation Dignity. Fighting between Dawn and Dignity would increase and include attacks on Libya’s various oil fields. The second Libyan civil war was now in full swing, but the situation would soon become even more ruinous.
In the midst of the political strife in 2014, the Islamic State, already established in Syria and Iraq, set up its first outpost in the city of Derna in east Libya in October. While the international community has been focused on the tumultuous political situation, ISIS has slowly strengthened its grip on territory in Libya, and has now has created what has been described as a coastal fortress in the city of Sirte. The move has been described by Dr. Azeem Ibrahim, an international security expert at the U.S. Army War College, as a possible attempt by ISIS to secure a back-up headquarters should the group continue to lose territory in Iraq and Syria. Attempts by the Libyan army to retake territory from ISIS have thus far failed.
By the time ISIS had entrenched itself in Libya, Clinton was of course out of office and preparing for her current bid for the presidency. Though her tenure as secretary of state is over, the implications of her push to topple Gadaffi continue. In an effort to bridge the gap between the two main political factions, the U.N. and U.S. have backed the GNA. Established in January, the GNA initially operated out of neighboring Tunis, Tunisia.
The GNA, with international assistance, made its first foray into Libya in late March when it arrived by sea into the city of Tripoli. The new government immediately met with resistance when it tried to establish itself, as the unrecognized government of Tripoli refused to submit to the GNA. GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has had limited success since his arrival in Libya, and is currently operating his government from a naval base in Tripoli.
In an apparent effort to help bolster the legitimacy of the GNA, President Obama signed a new executive order Tuesday which would allow the U.S. to sanction any individual who has hampered the government transition or poses a threat to the security of Libya. The first person to be added to the list was Islamist GNC leader Khalifa al-Ghweil.
Despite the clear chaos that has arisen from Clinton’s decision to back intervention in Libya, she has remained intransigent, and continues to defend the decision.
“Remember what was going on,” said Clinton, responding to a question regarding her decision from CNN’s Anderson Cooper during a Democratic debate in December. “We had a murderous dictator, Gadhafi, who had American blood on his hands … threatening to massacre large numbers of the Libyan people. We had our closest allies in Europe burning up the phone lines begging us to help them try to prevent what they saw as a mass genocide, in their words. And we had the Arabs standing by our side saying, ‘We want you to help us deal with Gadhafi.”
Even after the failures of the GNA, the ongoing civil war and the rise of ISIS in Libya, Clinton, her aides and advisers have expressed no remorse for the decision, claiming the ‘smart power’ strategy was still the right call.
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On May 16, everyone’s favorite prehistoric sea monster is scheduled to open yet another can of whup-ass, when Warner Bros. reboots the Godzilla franchise.
Americans first met Godzilla (or Gojira) in 1956, in a quasi-remake of the 1954 Japanese film with footage of actor Raymond Burr added to the original. When Godzilla emerged from Tokyo Bay, he was attacked by depth bombs, 50-caliber machine guns, 300,000 volts of electricity, Howitzer cannons, and bombs dropped from (possibly) F-86s. None of this had any effect (although, strangely, the chiming of a clock tower seemed to drive him berserk).
So we are understandably nervous about the 2014 version. Who can we trust to pulverize a 350-foot-tall prehistoric monster with atomic breath and super strength?
The U.S. Air Force, obviously.
We contacted Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, home to the Air Force’s largest combat wing, to learn how they would handle the threat:
(“Chief C-Z”—a potential member of the Godzilla Mission mentioned in the clip—is the 18th Wing’s Command Chief Master Sergeant Ramón Colón-López, affectionately revered as their own Air Force super-hero.)
Special thanks to the U.S. Air Force 18th Wing, especially Technical Sergeant Jocelyn L. Rich-Pendracki, Public Affairs; Senior Airman Mark Hermann, 33rd Rescue Squadron, Mission Aviator; Master Sergeant Jason Edwards, Public Affairs. |
I got my package today and let me just say that my Santa, insideout172, went so far above and beyond that my mind is BLOWN!!
I didn't give her a whole lot to go on other than I like sweet stuff, milk chocolate and peanut butter. Well, she promptly read my mind and went out and picked out a whole ton of sweets that are so perfect that I could have picked them out myself!!
My Santa is in England which made this even more cool, since I'm kinda fascinated with all things British. The only things we can get here in Utah are the Cadbury Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs, and then only at Easter, and the Cadbury Creme Egg is like a major addiction for me. I hoard them so I can eat them even after Easter. ;)
I will let the pictures do the talking here. :)
Thank you thank you thank you Santa! You gave me a spectacular ending to what was a really crappy week. Now, I'm off to hide my sweets so hubby doesn't eat them. :P |
Raulerson
Texas OL Jake Raulerson poses for a photo
(Courtesy of Jake Raulerson's Twitter account)
The Oregon Ducks' need at the center position was on full display during the second half of the stunning 47-41 loss to TCU in the Alamo Bowl, as senior center Matt Hegarty's injury led to snap after snap skidding on the turf, throwing off the timing of the offense.
Hoping to address that need, Oregon is set to host Texas transfer center Jake Raulerson on an official visit later this month:
The 6-foot-4, 295-pound offensive lineman, who has two years of eligibility remaining according to Burnt Orange Nation, elected to transfer from Texas in late December.
"The past three years at Texas have been incredible. I have made memories and friendships that will last me a lifetime," he wrote. "I feel so blessed to have been able to pursue my dreams at such a prestigious University. I will be graduating from the McCombs School of Business in May at which time I have decided to pursue a graduate degree at another University. In life, not everything goes the way you plan and I have faith that God is going to lead me where I belong and I will make the most of the opportunities that I am given along the way. I have received my release to communicate with other teams and graduate programs and I am excited to see where the next two years lead me. I will always be a Texas Longhorn."
As a redshirt freshman in 2014, Raulerson started five games for the Longhorns, four of which came at center.
In the recruiting class of 2013, Raulerson was rated the No. 2 center in the country and the No. 119 player overall in the 247Sports composite rankings. He held offers from Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Florida, Illinois, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Stanford and many others.
The interior lineman has already taken a visit to Ann Arbor to check out Michigan and has also set a trip to UCLA.
If Raulerson were to commit to Oregon it would mark the second consecutive season the Ducks turned to a graduate transfer for both its quarterback and center.
Last year, the Ducks added Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. and Notre Dame center Matt Hegarty, while Oregon has brought in Montana State quarterback Dakota Prukop for next season's squad.
-- Andrew Nemec
[email protected]
@AndrewNemec |
Executive Actions
1 Clean Power Plan Regulations to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants.
2 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Protects undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
3 Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents Intended to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation, but an appeals court ruling blocking the plan remains in place after a 4-to-4 tie in the Supreme Court.
4 Waters of the United States Rule intended to protect waterways and wetlands.
Legislation
5 Affordable Care Act In an interview Friday, Mr. Trump indicated he might keep parts of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
6 Dodd-Frank Overhauled regulation of the financial industry in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
7 Defense sequester Automatic, across-the-board spending restrictions.
8 Alternative minimum tax Aimed at making it harder for the affluent to take advantage of various tax breaks.
9 Estate tax Currently applies to only about 5,300 of the richest families.
10 Gun-free zones At military bases and at schools.
International Obligations
11 Paris Climate Change Agreement Commits more than 190 countries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.
12 North American Free Trade Agreement Trade deal signed by United States, Canada and Mexico more than 20 years ago.
13 Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal among the United States and several Asian countries.
14 Payments to United Nations’ climate fund
Federal Agencies
15 Education Department It is “massive, and it can largely be eliminated.”
16 Environmental Protection Agency “We are going to get rid of it in almost every form.”
Other
17 Undocumented immigrants with criminal records
18 Federal funding of so-called sanctuary cities Places where local authorities have stopped cooperating with federal immigration agents.
19 Common Core Learning standards for math and English. |
HNNNNNNNNG!
Atlus USA is localizing Attack on Titan: The Last Wings of Mankind for Nintendo 3DS, according to a rating released today by the Australian Classification Board.
Spike Chunsoft initially published the action game in Japan late last year, and plans to release an enhanced version subtitled Chain in the country this December. Given Chain's new features include online multiplayer modes and the Australian listing mentions "online interactivity," it seems likely Atlus is working on the expansion rather than the original.
Attack on Titan is a popular manga and anime series set in a world where gigantic humanoid creatures have driven humanity to near-extinction. The last vestiges of mankind are left to hide behind a series of walls while the armed forces search for a way to defeat the cryptic predators.
Attack on Titan [Australian Classification via NeoGAF]
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These Seven things will make Belize the next country on your bucket-list
I don’t really need an excuse to travel and explore. I just suffer from a very bad case of wanderlust and the only cure is visiting more and more places. It would be easier for me to make a list of countries and places I don’t have a particular interest in seeing because pretty much any country catches my attention for some reason – whether it is fabulous nature, incredible beaches, interesting cities, millenary cultures, tasty food and kind people. Yet, Belize never was on my bucket list. That’s until I visited it on a work trip, and I fell so completely in love with it that I wish to go back as soon as possible.
Belize is a tiny country. Imagine that only 350,000 people live there; the biggest city, Belize City, has less than 60,000 inhabitants and the capital Belmopan around 16,000. But, for as small as it is, Belize has literally everything to make it a special place to visit, perfect for any kind of traveller.
So, here are seven things that will make Belize the next country on your bucket-list:
1. Beautiful nature
Tropical rainforest, mountains, lush countryside with fertile subtropical hills, rivers, jungle. Belize is a Caribbean country but well set in Central America. It has the best of both and enough to attract animal lovers, bird watchers, adventure junkies and full on sport-addicts.
2. Impressive archeological sites
If you are into Mayan archeology like I am, Belize has enough archeological sites to impress you. Caracol, Xunantunich, and Altun Ha are all amazing and I found them well worth visiting.
3. Superb beaches and coral reef
Belize is a paradise for divers, snorkelers, and sport-fishing. Just pick your caye (small island, the most famous ones are Ambergris Caye and St. George’s Caye) and go relax under the sun and then dip in the crystal clear waters to explore its amazing marine life. Belize has nothing to envy to other more famous tourist destinations in the Caribbean, such as Cuba or Santo Domingo. Did you know that Belize is home to the Blue Hole, one of the world’s best dives? I definitely plan to go to Belize again once I am a fully certified diver.
4. Tasty food
Fine, it may not be as varied as Mexican cuisine, but food in Belize is tasty and I challenge everybody to have one bad meal. The national staples are rice and beans, which usually accompany the tastiest stews of pork, beef or chicken. Seafood and fish are from another world fresh from the sea to the plate; fruit is sweet. And did you know that here you can find the best burritos in Central America?
5. Kind people
Yes, for as little as Belize is, its population is an incredible mixture of ethnicities, languages, and culture. The population is made up of Creoles, West Indians, Mayans, Chinese, and Garifunas. The official language of the country is English (which means travelling here is so much easier for those who don’t master Spanish), but other languages spoken are Spanish, Creole, and Mayan. What really is impressive is that people in Belize are truly joyful and friendly, so kind to visitors that always feel welcome.
6. Good climate
Anytime is a good time to visit Belize, but you may as well go there when it is winter and cold in your home country. Belize knows no cold temperatures. It simply is pleasant and if it gets too hot, you have that gorgeous sea to jump into. Sure, there are some heavy rains at times, but the sun appears back in no time.
Chaa Creek Eco Lodge and the Macal River Camp
Would you consider visiting a country just to stay at a resort? If you knew about Chaa Creek, you would. It simply is fabulous, so much so that I found it hard to leave. It is a lodge completely immersed in the rain forest, at about 20 minutes drive from San Ignacio (Belize second largest city). The rooms are amazing. Some actually look more like villas.
There are many things to do in Belize around Chaa Creek visiting the archeological site of Xunantunich, for example, or the market of San Ignacio and the amazing staff will organise anything for you. I also took full advantage of the many activities offered tubing, kayaking, birdwatching among them. And when I was just in the mood to relax, I would lay in the sun, by the beautiful infinity pool, with a delicious cocktail to sip.
Have you ever been to Belize? What did you love about it? Let us know in the comments below!
Blog by Claudia Tavani
My Adventures Across the World
www.facebook.com/myadvaw
twitter @Claudioula
Claudia is from Cagliari (Sardinia) and is obsessed with travelling. A former human rights lawyer and academic, after devoting her life to the protection of cultural identity, in November 2013 Claudia decided to give in to her biggest passion and started travelling around Latin America, and she has hardly stopped since. Blogging came as a natural consequence, for Claudia wanted to let her family and friends be updated with her adventures. |
Not bad going for a 32 year-old who has suffered from a history of serious injuries and who was awarded a free transfer at the start of the season.
The statistic might not be as eye-catching as goals scored or assists but it is, nevertheless, an absolutely key measure used by clubs to assess the effectiveness of their players.
Indeed, some managers, such as Sam Allardyce, regard it as one of the most significant statistics in a match.
Allardyce is adamant that the team who are the first to hit the 1,000-metre mark, collectively, for such sprints in a game will win the encounter. Such is their importance.
The exact details of Bellamy’s record, compiled using the ProZone system, are not being divulged by Liverpool but he achieved the feat during the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final at Anfield against his former club Manchester City on Jan 25, when he played 88 minutes, scored, and was his team’s outstanding performer.
It is thought Bellamy recorded more than 840 metres of sprints in the match.
To put that in perspective, the Premier League average had been 324m while Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, in the famous ‘taxi for Maicon’ Champions League match in 2010 at home to Inter Milan achieved a remarkable 719m.
A sprint is, usually, classed as a run made at quicker than seven metres per second, equivalent to running 100 metres in a sharp 14 seconds.
Such has been Bellamy’s impact this season at Liverpool that it is understood he is on course to record the highest number of sprints by a player for a Premier League season, outpacing the likes of the rapid Bale and Theo Walcott, the Premier League’s quickest player.
Liverpool regard Bellamy’s signing from City as perhaps the transfer coup of the season and it may well be.
What is undeniable, however, is the hard work the player has put in to prolong a career which appeared in jeopardy of ending in frustration and injury at West Ham and Manchester City.
Now Bellamy has embraced all the ways of modern sports medical science, to which more and more clubs are cottoning on.
He is a devotee of the “periodisation” approach, with work being individually tailored to each player, and has previously employed the Dutch fitness coach Raymond Verheijen, whom he first met at City.
Bellamy also has a state-of-the-art altitude chamber installed in his bedroom at home to aid post-match recovery, he employs a personal chef to make his meals and he has worked closely with Steve Peters, the sports psychologist, who is best-known for his links with British cycling and Mark Cavendish in particular.
Bellamy even shocked his former City team-mate Nigel de Jong when the Dutch midfielder went into the Liverpool dressing room after that Carling Cup tie only to see the striker merrily sitting in an ice-bath celebrating.
Not that he can play every game. His career has to be carefully managed. But, as he has shown, he can make an impact.
Canadian heading for the Premier League?
Who is Mitchell Goldhar? The Canadian is a thin, bespectacled billionaire who is best known as a retail developer, the man behind the construction of numerous shopping centres which usually feature Wal-Mart as an anchor tenant.
He also owns the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv, who earlier this season faced Stoke City in the Europa League. But does Goldhar have ambitions to face British clubs more regularly?
Rumours abound that he is considering taking the plunge and getting involved in owning a club in this country.
Meetings may well have taken place this week over what Goldhar’s intentions are after he flew back into Israel for a few days from his base in Toronto.
That was, ostensibly, to sort out the appointment of a new sporting director at Maccabi, Israel’s most successful club, but it is thought Goldhar may have also met the representatives of at least one English club looking for a wealthy new owner who, given the current financial climate, are increasingly hard to find.
Naturally the identity of the club, if the suggestions are true, is being closely-guarded.
Gone but not forgotten
Fabio Capello wasn’t at England’s friendly defeat to Holland at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday evening although there was a certain surreal element to proceedings given the manner in which the Italian left his post.
Indeed, his name wasn’t totally expunged following his decision to quit last month over the way in which John Terry had the captaincy taken away from him.
It is perhaps an oversight, or simply because a permanent successor has not been named yet, but Capello’s name is still there on the door of the manager’s office inside the stadium.
No one has seen fit to unscrew the name plaque. |
This teenager got seriously creative to get a better view at a music concert.
Adam Boyd said he bluffed his way into the VIP area at the Albert Hall in Manchester, northern England, on Friday night after editing The Sherlocks’ Wikipedia page on his cell phone to say he was the lead singer’s cousin.
He then showed the switched-up entry to a security guard, who let him slide into the roped-off section without issue.
“I couldn’t believe that he’d actually let me in,” Boyd told The Huffington Post on Wednesday. “I was expecting someone to drag me out and ban me from the venue. But no, I was given free access to all the VIP section.”
Boyd shared images of his escapade to Facebook the following day, and the post is now going viral.
Some commenters have suggested Boyd exaggerated the incident, but he insisted it was “100 percent” the truth. Mashable also notes how his name was indeed added to the page at 8:28 p.m. Friday night.
Wikipedia
Boyd isn’t the first person to pull such a stunt. Peking Duk superfan David Spargo did pretty much the same back in 2015 to get backstage.
And Boyd probably won’t be the last, as he himself revealed how people were now contacting him to say they planned on repeating the trick elsewhere.
The teen did describe the amount of publicity his stunt had generated as “pretty overwhelming,” however. “I only posted this with the intention of entertaining the usual 40 people that like my statuses and thing I’m funny,” he said. “I could have not anticipated anything quite the scale of this.” |
This election is the first since tyrant Kim Jong-un became dictator in 2011 (Picture: KCNA)
The world’s most fair and democratic elections are getting underway this weekend… in North Korea.
There may be only one candidate on the ballot paper and you may get shot if you refuse to vote but the 2015 election is being hailed as the pinnacle of democracy… again… in North Korea.
The ballot starts on Sunday to elect mayors, provincial governors and county assemblies.
‘Elections’ take place every four years and will be the first under the rule of despot tyrant Kim Jong-un, who has been the country’s dictator since 2011.
MORE: North Korea has invited US Congress to visit an ‘anthrax’ factory
If you vote ‘no’ in the election you will probably be killed (Picture: KCNA)
MORE: North Korea just built a really stunning new airport which you’ll probably never visit
Citizens will be presented with a single candidate for each position in their district.
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Candidates are been chosen by the government, the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, the governing coalition.
When entering the polling booth citizens must first bow to a poster of Kim Jong-un.
An official then watches as they vote.
Citizens are free to vote ‘no’.
But this is considered treason and they could be executed.
Turnout figures are (unsurprisingly) around 100%. |
As 'Hungry Season' Nears, Yemenis Struggle For Food
toggle caption AFP/Getty Images
Yemen has long struggled as one of the least developed countries in the world. But now, after a year of protest and unrest that saw the country's longtime dictator step down, the situation for millions of Yemenis is dire.
Aid groups say some 10 million people are now without enough food to eat, and more than 200,000 children face life-threatening levels of malnutrition.
If [the men in the village] find fish, they bring it. If they don't, we don't have food.
Private aid groups working with those in need of food say there are basically three categories in Yemen: those who have no money and no access to markets; those who have money but no access to markets; and those living in places like Hays, a thriving market town off the Red Sea in Yemen's hot, western plains.
Meat and vegetables are sold in Hays' main souk, a commerce center that serves a lot of the surrounding villages. But the people living at the margins simply do not have the money to buy food.
Many Children, Few Breadwinners
Just outside Hays and off the main road is the tiny fishing village of Bani Al-Robat, where women in brightly colored prints greet us with kisses. One pulls me toward a young mother, whose husband has drowned in the sea.
She is holding a very tiny baby, whose legs are about as big around as a carrot. This tiny person, the smallest baby I've ever seen, is 2 years old. The women say the child is very sick. It's likely the child has severe, acute malnutrition, which means he could die if not treated soon.
There are no men in the village because they're all at sea, fishing, the women say. "If they find fish, they bring it. If they don't, we don't have food," one woman explains.
The women say they sometimes go for weeks on just bread, tea and a watery salsa called sahouwak, made of tomatoes and spices. The result is not just the at-risk 2-year-old but dozens of too-thin, stunted children. In all, we counted more than 30 children who belong to just five households.
We can't wait. People at the moment are hungry.
Aid workers say Bani Al-Robat has always been poor but managed to survive. Now a perfect storm of factors has dragged the village into a crisis. First, the rain stopped coming a few years ago. Then, pirates started robbing the fishermen of their catch, and political unrest last year caused a massive fuel crisis.
That meant nearby farmers stopped farming, and the little work these women could get came to a halt. It also meant the cost of transportation to the nearby market was simply too high. Now the women and children have no idea where the next meal will come from.
Running Out Of Time
The British charity Oxfam is distributing cash to communities like Bani Al-Robat so they can go to the market and buy food. But this particular village was not registered on the government list that charity groups use, so these people have fallen through the cracks.
Back in Yemen's capital Sanaa, Oxfam's country director Colette Fearon concedes the government list isn't perfect.
"But we can't wait," Fearon says. "People at the moment are hungry. And you can't wait until you've got perfect systems and perfect lists before you can actually address the needs that you can meet." Oxfam has set aside money for some people who didn't make the list, Fearon adds.
Aid groups acknowledge that cash payments are only a short-term solution for people who live near markets. Others, who have no money and no market, simply need food fast.
At a recent meeting of the so-called Friends of Yemen in nearby Saudi Arabia, $4 billion in aid was pledged. But a subsequent donor conference has been postponed.
Aid groups say they've received about half of the money they need to address the most dire cases. But with Yemen's so-called hungry season of hot, dry months approaching, Fearon says, people are simply running out of time. |
News
KHI MANAGEMENT PACKS MASSIVE PUNCH WITH ADDITION OF UFC FEMALE FIGHTER External News Wire |
KHI SIGNS UFC STANDOUT MIESHA TATE
Oak Ridge, N.C. (Aug. 15, 2014) -- KHI Management expands its rapidly growing stable of athletes by signing a multi-year agreement to represent Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) standout Miesha “Cupcake” Tate, the UFC’s second-ranked female fighter.
KHI Management, LLC, an athlete-representation company owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick, continues to grow in the world of sports by signing its second fighter in as many years, adding to an impressive roster that already includes No. 4-ranked UFC fighter Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.
“It’s an awesome feeling to be able to sign with KHI Management,” stated Tate, a professional mixed martial artist fighter currently ranked second in the UFC women’s bantamweight (135 lbs.) division. “I have been keeping my eye on them ever since they started working with Donald Cerrone in the UFC. They have all the capabilities I am looking for in an agency, and I really look forward to what the future will hold both inside and out of the Octagon.”
Tate, a former Strikeforce Women’s bantamweight champion, is based and trains in Las Vegas. Her legendary rivalry with UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, is one of the most infamous in UFC history and in today’s sports world, credited with bringing women’s MMA to the UFC, the sport’s premier promotion, and piquing national interest. Tate, 27, made her UFC debut in April 2013, taking on Cat Zingano in The Ultimate Fighter 17 finale, which marked the second women’s MMA matchup in the UFC and produced the coach for The Ultimate Fighter 18 reality TV series. In 2013, she was featured in ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue.
Tate joins a list of athletes and celebrities represented by KHI Management that includes Cerrone, NASCAR driver Jeff Burton, PGA Golfer Jason Gore and country music artists Jake Owen and Matt Stillwell.
“What Miesha has been able to do in her MMA career speaks volumes not only for her athleticism but for her marketability,” Harvick said. “She is a brand all her own, and she has proven she can captivate an audience and move the needle. With that and the solid foundation of sponsors we have here at KHI, I’m excited about our future together.”
Tate is fresh off of a win against No. 7-ranked Liz Carmouche that extended her MMA record to 14-5. She is next scheduled to fight Rin Nakai (16-0-1) on Sept. 20 in Tokyo, Japan.
Tate also gained notoriety in 2013 on the FOX Sports 1 television series, The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate, a reality show in which eight women and eight men bantamweight fighters lived and trained together as they vied for the “The Ultimate Fighter” title and a six-figure contract with the UFC. Rousey and Tate served as the first-ever female coaches and mentors for the show, which welcomed female fighters to the series and the UFC house for the first time since its inception in 2005. Tate and Rousey’s legendary rivalry was showcased throughout the series and garnered national attention.
The Tacoma, Wash., native also won a national grappling championship at the 2008 World Team Trials and a silver medal at the 2008 FILA World Grappling Championship. Her professional MMA debut came in the Hook NShoot Bodog Women’s Grand Prix tournament in 2007 in a victory by decision, and she went on to win the 135-pound 2009 Freestyle Cage Fighting women’s championship by submission over Liz Carreiro. In 2011, Tate won the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Championship. In high school, Tate competed in amateur wrestling, winning the Washington state championship in 2005 and the Coach’s Award in her senior year as the only female on the team.
About KHI Management, LLC
KHI Management, LLC is a full-service athlete representation and sports-marketing agency whose staff offers more than 30 years of combined experience in the highly competitive and ever-evolving sports-marketing industry. KHI Management possesses many years of expertise in managing the careers of race car drivers, in addition to owning and operating multiple NASCAR Truck Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series teams that amassed three championships and dozens of wins. Proficiency in managing the day-to-day operations of teams and drivers at the top levels of NASCAR has lent KHI the keys to effective marketing through sponsor activation, sales and promotion, event management, advertising, social media and public relations. In recent years, KHI shifted its core focus to working with athletes, music artists and sponsors in and out of the auto racing industry. KHI Management continues to provide sponsors with opportunities to expose their brands across multiple sports and entertainment platforms via a singular agency relationship. KHI does not represent or solicit student athletes. For more information on KHI Management, please contact Josh Jones, Director of Business Development at 336.992.2998.
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An example of the reverse side of a typical credit card: Green circle #1 labels the Magnetic stripe
Visualization of magnetically stored information on a magnetic stripe card (Recorded with CMOS-MagView)
A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card. The magnetic stripe, sometimes called swipe card or magstripe, is read by swiping past a magnetic reading head. Magnetic stripe cards are commonly used in credit cards, identity cards, and transportation tickets. They may also contain an RFID tag, a transponder device and/or a microchip mostly used for business premises access control or electronic payment.
Magnetic recording on steel tape and wire was invented in Denmark around 1900 for recording audio.[1] In the 1950s, magnetic recording of digital computer data on plastic tape coated with iron oxide was invented. In 1960, IBM used the magnetic tape idea to develop a reliable way of securing magnetic stripes to plastic cards,[2] under a contract with the US government for a security system. A number of International Organization for Standardization standards, ISO/IEC 7810, ISO/IEC 7811, ISO/IEC 7812, ISO/IEC 7813, ISO 8583, and ISO/IEC 4909, now define the physical properties of the card, including size, flexibility, location of the magstripe, magnetic characteristics, and data formats. They also provide the standards for financial cards, including the allocation of card number ranges to different card issuing institutions.
History [ edit ]
The first prototype of magnetic stripe card created by IBM in the late 1960s. A stripe of cellophane magnetic tape is fixed to a piece of cardboard with clear adhesive tape
Magnetic storage was known from World War II and computer data storage in the 1950s.[2]
In 1969 Forrest Parry, an IBM engineer, had the idea of securing a piece of magnetic tape, the predominant storage medium at the time, to a plastic card base. He became frustrated because every adhesive he tried produced unacceptable results. The tape strip either warped or its characteristics were affected by the adhesive, rendering the tape strip unusable. After a frustrating day in the laboratory, trying to get the right adhesive, he came home with several pieces of magnetic tape and several plastic cards. As he walked in the door at home, his wife Dorothea was ironing clothing. When he explained the source of his frustration: inability to get the tape to "stick" to the plastic in a way that would work, she suggested that he use the iron to melt the stripe on. He tried it and it worked.[3][4] The heat of the iron was just high enough to bond the tape to the card.
First magnetic striped plastic credit and badge access cards [ edit ]
Front side of the first magnetic stripe plastic credit card. Note that the narrow magnetic stripe is on the front of the card. It was later switched to the back side.
Back side of the first magnetic stripe plastic credit card
Back of early magnetic striped encoded paper card. The narrow magnetic stripe in the center of the card was applied using a magnetic slurry paint.
The major development of the magnetic striped plastic card began in 1969 at the IBM Information Records Division (IRD) headquartered in Dayton N.J. In 1970, the marketing organization was transferred by IBM DPD back to the Information Records Division in order to begin sales and marketing strategies for the magnetically striped and encoded cards being developed.[5] It took almost two years for IBM IRD engineers to not only develop the process for reliably applying the magnetic stripe to plastic cards via a hot stamping method, but also develop the process for encoding the magnetic stripe utilizing the IBM Delta Distance C Optical Bar Code format.[6][7] This engineering effort resulted in IBM IRD producing the first magnetic striped plastic credit and ID cards used by banks, insurance companies, hospitals and many others. Another result of this project was that IBM IRD and IBM Data Processing Division announced on February 24, 1971 the first Magnetic Credit Card Service Center and the IBM 2730-1 Transaction Validation Terminal.[5] Arthur E. Hahn Jr.[8] was hired by IBM IRD in Dayton, N.J. on Aug 12, 1969 to head up this engineering effort. Other members of the group were David Morgan (Manager), Billy House (Software Developer), William Creeden (Programmer), and E. J. Gillen (Mechanical Engineering/Machining).[citation needed] They were given a recently announced IBM 360 Model 30 computer with 50k of RAM for control of the encoding/embossing of the Magnetic Stripe Cards.[9] The IBM 360 computer was for scientific/business applications so the IRD engineers first had to convert the 360 into a "process control computer" and then develop software and hardware around it. Due to the limited RAM, the software was developed in 360 Assembler Language. This conversion enabled the 360 computer to monitor and control the entire production process the IRD engineers designed and built. The engineering design/build effort was carried out in a raised floor secured area of IBM IRD in Dayton, N.J. which was built specifically for the project. This tightly secured area with limited access was required because of the sensitivity of the data that would ultimately be used to encode and emboss the credit and ID cards.
Bar code encoding developments [ edit ]
The IRD engineers first had to develop a reliable process of hot stamping the magnetic stripe to the plastic cards. This was necessary in order to meet the close tolerances required to reliably encode and read the data on the Magnetic Stripe Cards by magnetic write/read heads. The magnetic stripe was encoded with a single track of data utilizing the IBM Delta Distance C Optical Bar Code format.[6][7] The Delta Distance C Optical Bar Code was developed by the IBM Systems Development Division working at Research Triangle Park in Raleigh North Carolina headed up by George J. Laurer. Other members of the group were N. Joseph Woodland, Paul McEnroe, Dr. Robert Evans, Bernard Silver, Art Hamburgen, Heard Baumeister and Bill Crouse.[6] The IBM group in Raleigh was competing with RCA, Litton-Zellweger and other companies who were working with the National Retail Merchants Association NRMA to develop a standard optical bar code to be used in the retail industry. NRMA wanted an optically readable code that could be printed on products allowing purchasers to rapidly "check out" at the new electronic cash register/checkout counters being developed. The code would also be used for production and inventory control of products. Of the many optical bar codes submitted to NRMA by IBM and other companies, NRMA finally selected the later version of the IBM bar code known as the Delta Distance D Optical Bar Code format. The Delta Distance C Code was an earlier version of the Universal Product Code (UPC). The UPC code was selected in 1973 by NRMA as their standard and has become the World Wide Standard that we all know today as the UPC Uniform Product Code.[10]
Production [ edit ]
In 1971, after the IBM IRD engineers completed the development and building phase of the project they began in 1969, they released the equipment to the IRD manufacturing group in Dayton N.J. to begin producing the plastic magnetic striped credit and ID cards. Because of the sensitivity of the customer data and the security requirements of banks, insurance companies and others, the manufacturing group decided to leave the entire line in the secured area where it was developed.
Banks, insurance companies, hospitals etc., supplied IBM IRD with "raw plastic cards" preprinted with their logos, contact information etc. They also supplied the data information which was to be encoded and embossed on the cards. This data was supplied to IRD on large 0.5 inch wide, 10.5 inch diameter IBM Magnetic Tape Reels which was the standard for computers at that time.[9] The manufacturing process started by first applying the magnetic stripe to the preprinted plastic cards via the hot stamping process developed by the IBM IRD engineers. This operation of applying the magnetic stripe to the plastic cards was done off line in another area of IBM IRD and not in the secured area. The cards were then brought into the secured area and placed in "hoppers" at the beginning of the production line. The tape reels containing the data were then installed on the modified IBM 360 computer prior to beginning the encoding, embossing and verification of the cards. After the 360 performed a check to verify that all systems and stations were loaded and ready to go, the computer began feeding the Magnetic Striped Plastic Cards from the hoppers at the front end of the production line down a motorized track. The entire operation was fully automated and controlled by the modified IBM 360 business computer. The line consisted of the following stations and operations:
Plastic card feeder station: The cards were fed down a track in single file from card hoppers. Magnetic write/read encoding station: The IBM 360 computer sent over the data which was encoded on the magnetic stripe utilizing the IBM Delta Distance C Optical Bar Code format. The card passed under the read head and the encoded data was sent back to the 360 for verification. An embossing station: The IRD engineers purchased and modified a Data Card Corp embossing machine and interfaced it with the IBM 360 computer to emboss the cards.[9] The original design concept called for an Addressograph-Multigraph embossing machine, however, the IRD engineers quickly switched to a Data Card Corp embossing machine. Data Card Corp, a Minneapolis/St. Paul company, had just developed the first electronically controlled embossing machine for plastic cards and effectively obsoleted all other mechanical operated embossers. A topping station: To highlight the embossing. An imprinter station: To imprint the embossing on an automatically fed paper roll. An optical reader station: To read the embossed information off the paper roll and feed it back to the 360 computer for verification. A one card rejection station: If either the encoding or embossing data on the card was not verified by the 360 computer, that one card was rejected. If both the encoded and embossed data was confirmed by the 360 computer, the card proceeded down the line. A mailer station: A mailer was printed with the name and address of the card holder along with the date and other relevant card information. These mailers were also preprinted and die cut by IRD according to the customers specs and logo requirements and were fed into the line out of boxes in a continuous fan feed method. A card insertion station: Here the card was automatically inserted onto the mailer. A bursting and folding station: Here the mailers were burst apart and then folded into a 3 fold packet that would fit into a business size envelope. An envelope printer/insertion station: Here an envelope was printed with the name and address of the customer and the mailer containing the card was automatically inserted into the envelope and sealed.
This completed the manufacturing line for the magnetic striped encoded and embossed plastic credit and badge access cards. The envelopes were then taken to be posted and mailed directly to the customers of the companies who had ordered the cards from IRD.
What this small engineering group at IBM IRD and the IBM Bar Code development group in Raleigh accomplished in developing the first magnetic stripe credit and ID cards cannot be overstated. They laid the foundation for the entire magnetic stripe card industry that we know and use today through our use of credit cards, ATM cards, ID cards, hotel room and access cards, transportation tickets, and all the terminals and card readers that read the cards and enter the data into computers. Their developments resulted in every person having the ability to easily carry a card that connects them directly to computers with all the ramifications thereof.
Neither IBM nor anyone else applied for or received any patents pertaining to the magnetic stripe card, the delta-distance barcodes or even the Uniform Product Code (UPC). IBM felt that with an open architecture, it would enhance the growth of the media thereby resulting in more IBM computers and associated hardware being sold. As with all new technologies, the magnetic stripe card developed and produced by IBM IRD with one track of encoded data using the Delta Distance C Bar Code format was quickly obsolete. Because of the electronic ATM/reservation/check out/and access systems that were rapidly developing, the banks, airlines and other industries required more encoded data. A wider magnetic stripe enabling multiple tracks of encoding along with new encoding standards was required.
The first US Patents for the ATM were granted in 1972[11] and 1973.[12]
Other groups within IBM and other companies continued on with expanding the work done by this small group of engineers at IBM IRD, however, the contributions that these IBM IRD engineers made to the development of the magnetic stripe card is analogous to the Wright Brothers' contribution to the airline industry of today.
Further developments and encoding standards [ edit ]
There were a number of steps required to convert the magnetic striped media into an industry acceptable device. These steps included:
Creating the international standards for stripe record content, including which information, in what format, and using which defining codes. Field testing the proposed device and standards for market acceptance. Developing the manufacturing steps needed to mass-produce the large number of cards required. Adding stripe issue and acceptance capabilities to available equipment.
These steps were initially managed by Jerome Svigals of the Advanced Systems Division of IBM, Los Gatos, California from 1966 to 1975.
In most magnetic stripe cards, the magnetic stripe is contained in a plastic-like film. The magnetic stripe is located 0.223 inches (5.66 mm) from the edge of the card, and is 0.375 inches (9.52 mm) wide. The magnetic stripe contains three tracks, each 0.110 inches (2.79 mm) wide. Tracks one and three are typically recorded at 210 bits per inch (8.27 bits per mm), while track two typically has a recording density of 75 bits per inch (2.95 bits per mm). Each track can either contain 7-bit alphanumeric characters, or 5-bit numeric characters. Track 1 standards were created by the airlines industry (IATA). Track 2 standards were created by the banking industry (ABA). Track 3 standards were created by the thrift-savings industry.
Magstripes following these specifications can typically be read by most point-of-sale hardware, which are simply general-purpose computers that can be programmed to perform specific tasks. Examples of cards adhering to these standards include ATM cards, bank cards (credit and debit cards including Visa and MasterCard), gift cards, loyalty cards, driver's licenses, telephone cards, membership cards, electronic benefit transfer cards (e.g. food stamps), and nearly any application in which value or secure information is not stored on the card itself. Many video game and amusement centers now use debit card systems based on magnetic stripe cards.
Magnetic stripe cloning can be detected by the implementation of magnetic card reader heads and firmware that can read a signature of magnetic noise permanently embedded in all magnetic stripes during the card production process. This signature can be used in conjunction with common two-factor authentication schemes utilized in ATM, debit/retail point-of-sale and prepaid card applications.[13]
Counterexamples of cards which intentionally ignore ISO standards include hotel key cards, most subway and bus cards, and some national prepaid calling cards (such as for the country of Cyprus) in which the balance is stored and maintained directly on the stripe and not retrieved from a remote database.
Magnetic stripe coercivity [ edit ]
Detailed visualization of magnetically stored information on a magnetic stripe card (recorded with CMOS-MagView).
Magstripes come in two main varieties: high-coercivity (HiCo) at 4000 Oe and low-coercivity (LoCo) at 300 Oe, but it is not infrequent to have intermediate values at 2750 Oe. High-coercivity magstripes require higher amount of magnetic energy to encode, and therefore are harder to erase. HiCo stripes are appropriate for cards that are frequently used, such as a credit card. Other card uses include time and attendance tracking, access control, library cards, employee ID cards and gift cards. Low-coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes. However, LoCo cards are much easier to erase and have a shorter lifespan. Typical LoCo applications include hotel room keys, time and attendance tracking, bus/transit tickets and season passes for theme parks. A card reader can read either type of magstripe, and a high-coercivity card writer may write both high and low-coercivity cards (most have two settings, but writing a LoCo card in HiCo may sometimes work), while a low-coercivity card writer may write only low-coercivity cards.
In practical terms, usually low coercivity magnetic stripes are a light brown color, and high coercivity stripes are nearly black; exceptions include a proprietary silver-colored formulation on transparent American Express cards. High coercivity stripes are resistant to damage from most magnets likely to be owned by consumers. Low coercivity stripes are easily damaged by even a brief contact with a magnetic purse strap or fastener. Because of this, virtually all bank cards today are encoded on high coercivity stripes despite a slightly higher per-unit cost.
Magnetic stripe cards are used in very high volumes in the mass transit sector, replacing paper based tickets with either a directly applied magnetic slurry or hot foil stripe. Slurry applied stripes are generally less expensive to produce and are less resilient but are suitable for cards meant to be disposed after a few uses.
Financial cards [ edit ]
There are up to three tracks on magnetic cards known as tracks 1, 2, and 3. Track 3 is virtually unused by the major worldwide networks[citation needed], and often isn't even physically present on the card by virtue of a narrower magnetic stripe. Point-of-sale card readers almost always read track 1, or track 2, and sometimes both, in case one track is unreadable. The minimum cardholder account information needed to complete a transaction is present on both tracks. Track 1 has a higher bit density (210 bits per inch vs. 75), is the only track that may contain alphabetic text, and hence is the only track that contains the cardholder's name.
Track 1 is written with code known as DEC SIXBIT plus odd parity. The information on track 1 on financial cards is contained in several formats: A, which is reserved for proprietary use of the card issuer, B, which is described below, C-M, which are reserved for use by ANSI Subcommittee X3B10 and N-Z, which are available for use by individual card issuers:
Track 1 [ edit ]
Format B:
Start sentinel — one character (generally '%')
— one character (generally '%') Format code="B" — one character (alpha only)
— one character (alpha only) Primary account number (PAN) — up to 19 characters. Usually, but not always, matches the credit card number printed on the front of the card.
(PAN) — up to 19 characters. Usually, but not always, matches the credit card number printed on the front of the card. Field Separator — one character (generally '^')
— one character (generally '^') Name — 2 to 26 characters
— 2 to 26 characters Field Separator — one character (generally '^')
— one character (generally '^') Expiration date — four characters in the form YYMM.
— four characters in the form YYMM. Service code — three characters
— three characters Discretionary data — may include Pin Verification Key Indicator (PVKI, 1 character), PIN Verification Value (PVV, 4 characters), Card Verification Value or Card Verification Code (CVV or CVC, 3 characters)
— may include Pin Verification Key Indicator (PVKI, 1 character), PIN Verification Value (PVV, 4 characters), Card Verification Value or Card Verification Code (CVV or CVC, 3 characters) End sentinel — one character (generally '?')
— one character (generally '?') Longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) — it is one character and a validity character calculated from other data on the track.
Track 2 [ edit ]
This format was developed by the banking industry (ABA). This track is written with a 5-bit scheme (4 data bits + 1 parity), which allows for sixteen possible characters, which are the numbers 0-9, plus the six characters : ; < = > ? . The selection of six punctuation symbols may seem odd, but in fact the sixteen codes simply map to the ASCII range 0x30 through 0x3f, which defines ten digit characters plus those six symbols. The data format is as follows:
Start sentinel — one character (generally ';')
— one character (generally ';') Primary account number (PAN) — up to 19 characters. Usually, but not always, matches the credit card number printed on the front of the card.
(PAN) — up to 19 characters. Usually, but not always, matches the credit card number printed on the front of the card. Separator — one char (generally '=')
— one char (generally '=') Expiration date — four characters in the form YYMM.
— four characters in the form YYMM. Service code — three digits. The first digit specifies the interchange rules, the second specifies authorization processing and the third specifies the range of services
— three digits. The first digit specifies the interchange rules, the second specifies authorization processing and the third specifies the range of services Discretionary data — as in track one
— as in track one End sentinel — one character (generally '?')
— one character (generally '?') Longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) — it is one character and a validity character calculated from other data on the track. Most reader devices do not return this value when the card is swiped to the presentation layer, and use it only to verify the input internally to the reader.
Service code values common in financial cards:
First digit
1: International interchange OK 2: International interchange, use IC (chip) where feasible 5: National interchange only except under bilateral agreement 6: National interchange only except under bilateral agreement, use IC (chip) where feasible 7: No interchange except under bilateral agreement (closed loop) 9: Test
Second digit
0: Normal 2: Contact issuer via online means 4: Contact issuer via online means except under bilateral agreement
Third digit
0: No restrictions, PIN required 1: No restrictions 2: Goods and services only (no cash) 3: ATM only, PIN required 4: Cash only 5: Goods and services only (no cash), PIN required 6: No restrictions, use PIN where feasible 7: Goods and services only (no cash), use PIN where feasible
United States and Canada driver's licenses [ edit ]
The data stored on magnetic stripes on American and Canadian driver's licenses is specified by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Not all states and provinces use a magnetic stripe on their driver's licenses. For a list of those that do, see the AAMVA list.[14][15]
The following data is stored on track 1:[16]
Start Sentinel - one character (generally '%')
- one character (generally '%') State or Province - two characters
- two characters City - variable length (seems to max out at 13 characters)
- variable length (seems to max out at 13 characters) Field Separator - one character (generally '^') (absent if city reaches max length)
- one character (generally '^') (absent if city reaches max length) Last Name - variable length
- variable length Field Separator - one character (generally '$')
- one character (generally '$') First Name - variable length
- variable length Field Separator - one character (generally '$')
- one character (generally '$') Middle Name - variable length
- variable length Field Separator - one character (generally '^')
- one character (generally '^') Home Address (house number and street) - variable length
- variable length Field Separator - one character (generally '^')
- one character (generally '^') Unknown - variable length
- variable length End Sentinel - one character (generally '?')
The following data is stored on track 2:
ISO Issuer Identifier Number (IIN) - 6 digits [17]
- 6 digits Drivers License / Identification Number - 13 digits
- 13 digits Field Separator — generally '='
— generally '=' Expiration Date (YYMM) - 4 digits
- 4 digits Birth date (YYYYMMDD) - 8 digits
- 8 digits DL/ID# overflow - 5 digits (If no information is used then a field separator is used in this field.)
- 5 digits (If no information is used then a field separator is used in this field.) End Sentinel - one character ('?')
The following data is stored on track 3:
Template V#
Security V#
Postal Code
Class
Restrictions
Endorsements
Sex
Height
Weight
Hair Color
Eye Color
ID#
Reserved Space
Error Correction
Security
Note: Each state has a different selection of information they encode, not all states are the same. Note: Some states, such as Texas,[18] have laws restricting the access and use of electronically readable information encoded on driver's licenses or identification cards under certain circumstances.
Other card types [ edit ]
Smart cards are a newer generation of card that contain an integrated circuit. Some smart cards have metal contacts to electrically connect the card to the reader, and contactless cards use a magnetic field or radio frequency (RFID) for proximity reading.
Hybrid smart cards include a magnetic stripe in addition to the chip — this is most commonly found in a payment card, so that the cards are also compatible with payment terminals that do not include a smart card reader.
Cards with all three features: magnetic stripe, smart card chip, and RFID chip are also becoming common as more activities require the use of such cards.[19]
Vulnerabilities [ edit ]
DEF CON 24 [ edit ]
During DEF CON 24, Weston Hecker presented Hacking Hotel Keys, and Point Of Sales Systems. In the talk, Hecker described the way magnetic strip cards function and utilised spoofing software,[20] and an Arduino to obtain administrative access from hotel keys, via service staff walking past him. Hecker claims he used administrative keys from POS systems on other systems, effectively providing access to any system with a magnetic stripe reader, providing access to run privileged commands.[citation needed]
See also [ edit ] |
WASHINGTON — With the stroke of his pen, President Donald Trump could allow for bears, wolves and other predators to once again be hunted in Alaska’s national wildlife refuges.
Following in the footsteps of their House colleagues, Senate lawmakers on Tuesday approved a measure to repeal an Obama-era rule that largely banned hunting of Alaska’s most iconic predators on more than 76 million federal acres.
The Republican-sponsored legislation would undo the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule, ultimately opening the door for the state to resume aggressive predator control tactics, including shooting bears and wolves from airplanes and killing cubs and pups in their dens.
The Senate passed the resolution by a 52-47 party-line vote. It was adopted last month by the House, so the measure now heads to Trump’s desk for final approval.
Oliver Scholey/Nature Picture Library via Getty Images Grizzly bears and gray wolves are among the wildlife that could become hunting targets again on federal lands in Alaska.
During their testimony on the Senate floor, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) described the rule, issued in August by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as an example of federal overreach that restricts Alaska’s ability to manage its own fish and game.
Murkowski called it “bad for Alaska, bad for hunters, bad for our native peoples, bad for America,” as well as a “direct attack on states’ rights.”
Although the rule deals specifically with non-subsistence predator control, Sullivan spoke extensively about Alaska’s critical subsistence hunting and fishing.
“You might prefer your meat wrapped in cellophane at the grocery store. That’s fine,” he said. “But I ask that you don’t criticize the thousands of Alaskans who have to hunt for their food and who value hunting as a deep part of their culture.”
Under the current rule, predator control is not allowed on Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges “unless it is determined to be necessary to meet refuge purposes, is consistent with federal laws and policy, and is based on sound science in response to a conservation concern.” The law also bans specific hunting methods on Alaska refuges, including killing bear cubs or adult females with cubs, baiting brown bears, taking bears using snares and traps, and aerial shooting of bears and wolves.
Tom Williams via Getty Images Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, testified in support of repealing an Obama-era rule that largely bans hunting predators on national wildlife refuges in Alaska.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) was among those who spoke out against the measure to repeal the FWS rule, saying the hunting community must embrace ethical standards when it comes to managing wildlife.
“While shooting sow grizzlies with cubs may be legal, I suspect the public will never view it as ethical,” he said. “And I have to wonder what good old [Theodore Roosevelt] would have to say about recent decisions to allow unlimited bag limits on black bear cubs, or baiting of bears or shooting female grizzlies with cubs?”
Fish and Wildlife did not immediately respond to The Huffington Post’s request for comment.
In a blog post published to HuffPost in August, on the day the wildlife protection ruling was finalized, former FWS Director Dan Ashe pointed out that this new rule would stop Alaska’s Intensive Management Law, with which the Alaska Board of Game had “unleashed a withering attack on bears and wolves that is wholly at odds with America’s long tradition of ethical, sportsmanlike, fair-chase hunting.”
Environmental groups blasted the Senate’s decision to strip away protections for Alaska predators.
In a statement, Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, said that in passing the resolution, Congress failed not only bears and wolves but “the American people who support balanced, scientific management of our National Wildlife Refuge System.”
“This warped resolution condones extreme practices to kill carnivores and their young, and is a disturbing abdication of federal authority over public lands and resources owned by all Americans,” she said. “President Trump should veto this threat to wildlife and our natural heritage.”
Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said killing predators in such a “cruel, unsportsmanlike fashion is outrageous.”
“Senate Republicans have shown just how mean-spirited and petty they are with today’s vote,” he said in a statement. |
The next time you look around your atheist events and wonder where all the women are, think of this and know that there are at least some of us who aren’t willing to just accept this culture without trying to change it.
It is not just Reddit that is "infested with shitty racist, sexist, bigoted people;" this is the state of humanity. Anyone who has spent any time on the Internet will have encountered this stuff and will know that this problem goes way beyond Reddit. Rebecca is mistaken to single-out Reddit; the problem is far more pervasive. She makes an even bigger mistake in singling out r/atheism. The real cretins are a small minority. When Rebecca says that she rarely learns anything new here and that visiting "only serves to create and foster inside me an intense hatred of my fellow atheists," I have to wonder why she visits. We are mistaken to assume atheists are more rational than anyone else, except on the question of gods.
By claiming that the upvotes some of the comments received show that the content of the comments were "what everyone's thinking," Rebecca makes another mistake. As I said above, I agree that those who voted up these comments contributed to the problem, but to suggest that they were thinking the same thing as what the commenters said is absurd. I suspect most thought it was funny, and while that's unfortunate, it is a far cry from agreement.
Rebecca ignored the fact that the majority of the comments left in this thread were not inappropriate but were quite supportive of the girl's post. She makes it sound like most of the comments were offensive; they were not.
Instead of addressing as important an issue as misogyny in the intelligent and articulate manner with which she is capable, Rebecca resorts to "Fuck you, r/atheism," lowering herself to the level of the commenters she's objecting to in the first place.
I had somehow missed the latest controversy to hit the atheist blogosphere until yesterday: Redditgate. What happened? A 15 year-old girl posted a picture of herself holding's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark in the r/atheism section with a brief message about how her religious mother bought it for her as a Christmas present (see the Reddit thread ). This was very cool of her mom, and most of the people who commented on her post said so or shared accounts of how Sagan's wonderful book inspired them. Unfortunately, a few decided to make inappropriate comments about the sexual acts they'd like to perform on the girl. She initially joked back with them, and some seemed to take that as an invitation to become increasingly graphic in their descriptions. And thenof Elevatorgate fame (Skepchick) blogged about it . Rebecca says that she has since been subjected to all manner of attacks on Reddit (including threats of rape and death). Having read through the entire Reddit thread and Rebecca's post, I believe she's right to raise the concerns she raised. Having said that, I also hope that she follows up her initial post by addressing the important issues a bit more effectively.Women deserve far better than the treatment this girl received in r/atheism. If we want to see more women in the atheist movement, we cannot tolerate this sort of thing. It would have been great if hundreds of Redditors had pounced on those making the inappropriate comments, downvoted them, and given them a good public scolding in much the same way they would certainly do with a creationist who showed up. This did not happen, at least not until people like Rebecca called attention to the situation.I think there are two main points that need to be emphasized here. First, those who made the offending comments were way out of line. The comments were not funny. Why would anyone expect women to participate when they are going to be sexualized? Rebecca was absolutely right to call attention to this.Second, those who voted up the offending comments, chimed in positively, or stood by and did nothing are also part of the problem. We need to make sure we are not contributing to a context in which this sort of thing is tolerated. Rebecca was right to point this out.While I agree with most of what Rebecca wrote, I think she could have handled the situation more effectively.Following Rebecca's post, I've seen a few vocal commenters in r/atheism calling her names, insulting her personally without responding to the valid points she raised, and other sad examples of asshattery. I've also seen some valuable, even thought-provoking, comments on both sides of the relevant issues. Some have raised decent questions about Rebecca's motives; others have provided effective defenses of her key points. There is still hope for r/atheism , but we're all responsible for helping it function well. |
eBay/Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET
Superman has soared to new heights.
A "pristine" copy of Action Comics No. 1, the comic book that introduced the Man of Steel to the world in 1938, sold for $3,207,852 on an eBay auction Sunday night following a last-minute round of intense bidding. By far the highest price ever paid for a single comic book, the number flew up, up, and away past the $2,161,000 paid for a less pristine copy that was auctioned in 2011.
The auction started on August 14 with a bid of $1 million and then gradually flew ever higher over the next 10 days, drawing in 13 different bidders with a total of 48 bids. The action truly heated up over the final few minutes as the bidding quickly jumped from $2.5 million to $2.6 million to $2.7 million before shooting up to $3,207,752. But at virtually the last few seconds, the winning bidder automatically soared in with an offer of $3,207,852 to take home the prize collectible.
"This was a record auction for eBay as it was the most expensive comic book ever sold on our marketplace," Gene Cook, general manager of emerging verticals for eBay Marketplaces, said in a statement. "The sale of Action Comics No. 1 is a prime example of how eBay plays a role in popular culture by connecting shoppers to must-have merchandise, including rare and valuable collectibles. This was an extraordinary opportunity to bring a comic -- one that has captured the attention of passionate collectors and casual fans alike."
The Action Comics No. 1 that sold on eBay on Sunday is considered the "holy grail" of comic books not just for its status in history but for its condition. The issue was awarded a grade of 9.0 from the Certified Guaranty Company, the highest grade ever assigned to a copy of Action Comics #1 issue by CGC and a sign that the 76-year-old comic is still in top condition.
"The quality and preservation of this Action No. 1 is astounding," Paul Litch, CGC Primary Grader, said in a statement last month. "The book looks and feels like it just came off the newsstand. It is supple, the colors are deep and rich and the quality of the white pages is amazing for a comic that is 76 years old."
Only around 50 unrestored original copies of Action Comics No. 1 reportedly still exist. The seller, collectibles dealer Darren Adams, described the worth and value of the comic book on the eBay page:
This is THE comic book that started it all. This comic features not only the first appearance of Superman, Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but this comic began the entire superhero genre that has followed during the 76 years since. It is referred to as the Holy Grail of comics and this is the finest graded copy to exist with perfect white pages. This is .... the Mona Lisa of comics and stands alone as the most valuable comic book ever printed.
"I'm proud to have owned the most valuable comic book in the world," Adams said in a statement following the auction. "Working with eBay on this auction allowed me to share this rare treasure with their global community and ensure the next owner is just as passionate about its place in history."
Part of the proceeds of the auction will go toward the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. |
With a popular podcast network and a Comedy Central show/hashtag machine already under his belt, Chris Hardwick and his Nerdist Industries empire are moving into film distribution—though it sounds like it’s less of a “Let’s make money by distributing movies!” thing and more of a “We want to help people see this one specific movie!” thing. The one specific movie in question is The Hive, an indie sci-fi horror story directed by Dave Yarovesky, and Nerdist has now picked up the rights to it and will be bringing it to theaters and digital on-demand services.
This is from Deadline, which says The Hive is about a counselor at Camp Yellow Jacket, a summer camp of some sort that “has descended into chaos.” The main guy wakes up “in a boarded-up cabin with no memory of who or where he is,” and he has to use mysterious clues scratched onto the walls in order to figure out what’s happening. Also, for good measure, he’s going through a “disturbing physical transformation” and “the only memories he has are not his own.” Hardwick says The Hive is “so much damn fun,” and right after seeing it for the first time he knew he wanted to “help get [it] into the eyes and earholes of horror fans.”
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Nerdist will apparently be talking about the movie some more at Comic-Con in July. |
Margaret Thatcher has topped a Women’s Hour list of the most influential women of the past 70 years, a choice that even the judges admit was the source of “enormous contention”.
One panel member, Ayesha Hazarika, a former adviser to the Labour MP Harriet Harman, said she felt “uncomfortable” with the choice of Thatcher, but said the list was about celebrating impact “both positive and negative”.
For the past two years, Women’s Hour has compiled a list celebrating the global impact of women on other women. But this year, to mark the BBC Radio 4 programme’s 70th anniversary, the remit of the list was expanded to cover female achievement over the past seven decades.
The panel was made up of seven women, including businesswoman Karren Brady, screenwriter Abi Morgan, former Women’s Hour editor Jill Burridge, and Julia Hobsbawm, the founder of Editorial Intelligence. It was chaired by the journalist Emma Barnett.
Speaking about the decision to put Thatcher, the UK prime minister from 1979 to 1990, in the top spot, Barnett said that, no matter what your view of her politics, “she redefined power”. “Thatcher was one of the most iconic leaders of the 20th century, regardless of gender,” she said. “These are all things you can’t deny. She shaped how women viewed what it was to be a woman in power, from the way people articulated themselves to the way people dressed.
“She shattered the glass ceiling into tiny splinters and just by having a woman in power, little girls knew they could do it – even if it’s not the power you would have wanted.”
Barnett stressed that impact did not always have a positive meaning and pointed out that even for those who viscerally dislike the late Conservative politician, she politically galvanised a new generation of women in opposition to her.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bridget Jones, as played by Renée Zellweger in the 2001 film of Helen Fielding’s books. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
“It would be easy to put seven really worthy women who make you feel warm and gooey inside on this list, but that isn’t what impact means,” said Barnett. “Thatcher spawned a whole other generation of feminists in complete opposition to her and so in some ways her impact was to provoke huge change from the left and beyond.”
Hazarika said that she had “lost the argument about Thatcher” but conceded: “Whether you loved her or loathed her, hers was a very significant achievement. Thatcher shaped a generation and shaped a period in British history.
“I think she had a massively negative impact on society and on women but she was important because she showed that just because you [have] a woman in Downing Street does not mean you have a feminist prime minister or a feminist government.”
The list of seven spans a broad spectrum of women, dead and alive. And not all are household names. Second on the list is Helen Brooks, who set up contraceptive services for women in the UK and – in the words of Barnett – “gave women the key to controlling their own bodies”.
“She changed the lives of unmarried single women. When I went to get the pill for the first time, I didn’t know Helen Brooks’ name and I feel like I should have,” added Barnett.
Also included is the former Labour MP Barbara Castle, who brought in the Equal Pay Act, polarising feminist Germaine Greer, and the performer Beyoncé. Perhaps the most unexpected name on the list is Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding’s hapless fictional character, who burst on to the scene in 1996. The decision to feature Jones caused such disagreement among the panel that Hazarika joked that they almost called the supreme court to arbitrate.
Barnett said that even though Bridget Jones was fictional, she had had an undeniable and valuable impact on the way women were perceived, and could publicly express themselves, over the past two decades.
“Bridget is Marmite on this list, and believe me, it was not an easy discussion – the judges were completely split,” said Barnett. “It’s very easy to pack a list like this with people you should, and people you ought, to have there, but I think we forget that Bridget Jones is our Sex and the City. She’s our flawed heroine, that character which enabled women who didn’t have children, didn’t have the perfect life, to laugh at themselves and feel unashamed of who they are.”
Hazarika was also among those who had voted in favour of the character. “We wanted the good, the worthy, the brave, the liberating, the fierce – but we also wanted a bit of the fun on our list,” she said.
Hazarika said the blow of Thatcher topping the list had been softened by the inclusion of her wildcard suggestion, Jayaben Desai, the prominent 1976 Grunwick strike leader who campaigned against low pay and poor conditions.
“Jayaben was this tiny 4ft 8in woman in a sari who had dockers and postal workers from across the land coming to support her on the picket line,” said Hazarika. “She made trade unions realise solidarity was not just for white working-class men, but spanned right across immigrants and women as well. So it was great to be able to shine a bit of light on her and her story.” |
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (September 9, 1941 – c. October 12, 2011)[2][3][4][5] was an American computer scientist.[2] He created the C programming language and, with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the Unix operating system.[2] Ritchie and Thompson were awarded the Turing Award from the ACM in 1983, the Hamming Medal from the IEEE in 1990 and the National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton in 1999. Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007. He was the "R" in K&R C, and commonly known by his username dmr.
Personal life and career [ edit ]
Dennis Ritchie was born in Bronxville, New York. His father was Alistair E. Ritchie, a longtime Bell Labs scientist and co-author of The Design of Switching Circuits on switching circuit theory.[6] As a child, Dennis moved with his family to Summit, New Jersey, where he graduated from Summit High School.[7] He graduated from Harvard University with degrees in physics and applied mathematics.[6]
In 1967, Ritchie began working at the Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center, and in 1968, he defended his PhD thesis on "Program Structure and Computational Complexity" at Harvard under the supervision of Patrick C. Fischer. However, Ritchie never officially received his PhD degree.[8]
During the 1960s, Ritchie and Ken Thompson worked on the Multics operating system at Bell Labs. However, Bell Labs pulled out of the project in 1969. Thompson then found an old PDP-7 machine and developed his own application programs and operating system from scratch, aided by Ritchie and others. In 1970, Brian Kernighan suggested the name "Unix", a pun on the name "Multics".[9] To supplement assembly language with a system-level programming language, Thompson created B. Later, B was replaced by C, created by Ritchie, who continued to contribute to the development of Unix and C for many years.[10]
During the 1970s, Ritchie collaborated with James Reeds and Robert Morris on a ciphertext-only attack on the M-209 US cipher machine that could solve messages of at least 2000–2500 letters.[11] Ritchie relates that, after discussions with the NSA, the authors decided not to publish it, as they were told that the principle was applicable to machines still in use by foreign governments.[11]
Ritchie was also involved with the development of the Plan 9 and Inferno operating systems, and the programming language Limbo.
As part of an AT&T restructuring in the mid-1990s, Ritchie was transferred to Lucent Technologies, where he retired in 2007 as head of System Software Research Department.[12]
C and Unix [ edit ]
Ritchie is best known as the creator of the C programming language, a key developer of the Unix operating system, and co-author of the book The C Programming Language; he was the 'R' in K&R (a common reference to the book's authors Kernighan and Ritchie). Ritchie worked together with Ken Thompson, who is credited with writing the original version of Unix; one of Ritchie's most important contributions to Unix was its porting to different machines and platforms.[13] They were so influential on Research Unix that Doug McIlroy later wrote, "The names of Ritchie and Thompson may safely be assumed to be attached to almost everything not otherwise attributed."[14]
Ritchie liked to emphasize that he was just one member of a group. He suggested that many of the improvements he introduced simply "looked like a good thing to do," and that anyone else in the same place at the same time might have done the same thing. But Bjarne Stroustrup, the designer of C++, said "If Dennis had decided to spend that decade on esoteric math, Unix would have been stillborn."[15]
Nowadays, the C language is widely used in application, operating system, and embedded system development, and its influence is seen in most modern programming languages. Unix has also been influential, establishing computing concepts and principles that have been widely adopted. One important characteristic of C is that it has been designed by one single person, not by a language committee, contributing to its simplicity.[16]
In an interview from 1999, Ritchie clarified that he saw Linux and BSD operating systems as a continuation of the basis of the Unix operating system, and as derivatives of Unix:[17]
I think the Linux phenomenon is quite delightful, because it draws so strongly on the basis that Unix provided. Linux seems to be among the healthiest of the direct Unix derivatives, though there are also the various BSD systems as well as the more official offerings from the workstation and mainframe manufacturers.
In the same interview, he stated that he viewed both Unix and Linux as "the continuation of ideas that were started by Ken and me and many others, many years ago."[17]
Awards [ edit ]
In 1983, Ritchie and Thompson received the Turing Award for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system. Ritchie's Turing Award lecture was titled "Reflections on Software Research".[18] In 1990, both Ritchie and Thompson received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), "for the origination of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language".[19]
In 1997, both Ritchie and Thompson were made Fellows of the Computer History Museum, "for co-creation of the UNIX operating system, and for development of the C programming language."[20]
On April 21, 1999, Thompson and Ritchie jointly received the National Medal of Technology of 1998 from President Bill Clinton for co-inventing the UNIX operating system and the C programming language which, according to the citation for the medal, "led to enormous advances in computer hardware, software, and networking systems and stimulated growth of an entire industry, thereby enhancing American leadership in the Information Age".[21][22]
In 2005, the Industrial Research Institute awarded Ritchie its Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to science and technology, and to society generally, with his development of the Unix operating system.[23]
In 2011, Ritchie, along with Thompson, was awarded the Japan Prize for Information and Communications for his work in the development of the Unix operating system.[24]
Death [ edit ]
Ritchie was found dead on October 12, 2011, at the age of 70 at his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where he lived alone.[2] First news of his death came from his former colleague, Rob Pike.[3][4] The cause and exact time of death have not been disclosed.[25] He had been in frail health for several years following treatment for prostate cancer and heart disease.[2][3][26][27] News of Ritchie's death was largely overshadowed by the media coverage of the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs, which occurred the week before.[28]
Legacy [ edit ]
Following Ritchie's death, computer historian Paul E. Ceruzzi stated:[29]
Ritchie was under the radar. His name was not a household name at all, but... if you had a microscope and could look in a computer, you'd see his work everywhere inside.
In an interview shortly after Ritchie's death, long time colleague Brian Kernighan said Ritchie never expected C to be so significant.[30] Kernighan told The New York Times "The tools that Dennis built—and their direct descendants—run pretty much everything today.”[31] Kernighan reminded readers of how important a role C and Unix had played in the development of later high-profile projects, such as the iPhone.[32][33] Other testimonials to his influence followed.[34][35][36][37]
At his death[clarify], a commentator compared the relative importance of Steve Jobs and Ritchie, concluding that "[Ritchie's] work played a key role in spawning the technological revolution of the last forty years—including technology on which Apple went on to build its fortune."[38] Another commentator said, "Ritchie, on the other hand, invented and co-invented two key software technologies which make up the DNA of effectively every single computer software product we use directly or even indirectly in the modern age. It sounds like a wild claim, but it really is true."[39] Another said, "many in computer science and related fields knew of Ritchie’s importance to the growth and development of, well, everything to do with computing,..."[40]
The Fedora 16 Linux distribution, which was released about a month after he died, was dedicated to his memory.[41] FreeBSD 9.0, released January 12, 2012 was also dedicated in his memory.[42]
Gallery [ edit ]
Ritchie engaged in conversation in a chalet in the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City at the 1984 Usenix conference.
At the same Usenix 1984 conference, Dennis Ritchie is visible in the middle, wearing a striped shirt, behind Steven Bellovin wearing a baseball hat.
Notable work [ edit ]
Publications [ edit ]
See also [ edit ] |
New York, October 23, 2017--An unidentified assailant today broke into the Moscow office of Ekho Moskvy and stabbed Tatyana Felgengauer in the throat, the outlet's editor-in-chief, Alexey Venediktov, wrote on Twitter. Felgengauer, the deputy editor-in-chief and an anchor at the independent radio station, was hospitalized, according to media reports. Security staff apprehended the assailant, who is being questioned by police on charges of attempted murder, according to reports.
"We call on Russian authorities to publicly condemn this attack on Tatyana Felgengauer and carry out a prompt and thorough investigation that leads to a successful prosecution for her assailant," said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. "Authorities must ensure the safety and security of all journalists working at Ekho Moskvy and other independent news outlets."
Ekho Moskvy is one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Russia. Last month, one of the station's journalists, Yulia Latynina, reported that she had fled Russia after being attacked and threatened. |
For the first time ever, NBA players and basketball media joined fans in selecting the starters for NBA All-Star 2017 in New Orleans. Fans accounted for 50 percent of the vote, while all current players and a media panel accounted for 25 percent each.
After all votes were tallied, players were ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups – fan votes, player votes and media votes. Each player’s score was calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes. The five players (two guards and three frontcourt players) with the best score in each conference were named NBA All-Star Game starters. Fan voting served as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score.
Each player’s score was weighted based on 50% for fan vote, 25% for players vote and 25% for media vote. The formula to determine a player’s score is (Fan Rank * 2 + Player Rank + Media Rank)/4.
Click on the links below for the final All-Star starter results from each voting group:
Fan voting
Player voting
Media voting and list of media voters |
The countdown to this moment began as soon as the tanks began to make their way through the door on the tractor (vertical position was only temporary). As is usually the case inside a brewery, it feels like it has been months since we made the announcement of a small expansion in the brewery that would finally allow us to regularly produce clean IPAs. Turns out, it was not even a month ago! And our first IPA is ready (aren’t IPAs great?!).
Soon after the glycol system would be set up, or so we thought, and ready to mash in. Of course, that night we spent taking turns running into the brewery through a thunderstorm to manually open and close the zone valves to keep the fermenting beer in our preferred temperature range. And it was well worth it.
By the start of the weekend, the entire batch will be delivered and should be on tap, pouring how every IPA should – as fresh as possible!
So head on down to one of these great bars we work with and ask the bartender for an Awkward Hug.
@ The Corner, Litchfield
Backstage, Torrington
Birch Hill Tavern, Glastonbury
Camille’s Pizza, Tolland
Craft 260, Fairfield
Inn at Newtown, Newtown
J Timothy’s Taverne, Plainville
Little Pub, Wilton
Little Pub, Ridgefield
McLaddens Irish Publick House, Simsbury
McLaddens Irish Publick House, West Hartford
Mikro Beer Bar, Hamden
Plan B, Glastonbury
Prime 16, New Haven
Prime 16, Orange
Stanziato’s, Danbury
The Corner Tavern, Naugatuck
The Half Door, Hartford
The Main Pub, Manchester
Upper Crust, New Milford
Walrus + Carpenter, Fairfield
Westbrook Lobster, Wallingford
Widow Brown’s Cafe, Danbury |
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) — A man accused of sucker punching another man with cerebral palsy has been arrested.
The Chester Sheriff’s Office tells Eyewitness News 29-year-old Barry Baker was taken into custody around 8 a.m. Monday in Uwchlan Township.
“We’re pleased that Mr. Baker is in custody,” said Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh. “It was a great effort by multiple agencies.”
Baker was wanted for assaulting the victim outside a 7-Eleven convenience store in West Chester on May 10.
Police: Video Captures Suspect Punching Man With Cerebral Palsy In Face Outside 7-Eleven
In a video that even seasoned members of law enforcement say is difficult to watch, a man with cerebral palsy is minding his own business outside a West Chester 7-Eleven, when police say Baker mocked and then clocked the man in the face.
“This is so blatant and so absolutely repulsive to anybody who sees if,” Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welch told Eyewitness News.
Suspect Who Assaulted Disabled Man Previously Stole Metal Flag Holders From Veterans’ Graves
Baker has an extensive criminal history, according to Chester County court records. They show he’s been in jail before for theft and forgery.
He has pleaded guilty to stealing metal flag holders from veterans’ graves at Chester County cemeteries and selling them to a scrap metal company.
He was charged with simple assault and related offenses by the West Chester Borough Police Department. Baker was also wanted for failure to appear for a domestic relations matter and on an Adult Probation warrant.
Baker has been transferred to Chester County Prison to await a preliminary hearing.
Authorities say Baker was on the run for 10 days and was eventually captured, hiding at a hotel.
The hotel room was paid for in cash and booked under an alias, but tips from the community led authorities to him Monday morning.
After a court appearance Monday afternoon, baker is now being held on $100,000 straight cash bail. |
Exposure in pregnancy to a chemical commonly found in plastics and cans -- known as bisphenol A, or BPA -- may increase a child's risk of breathing problems, researchers say.
In a study of nearly 400 pregnant women and their children, researchers found that each 10-fold increase of BPA in a mother's urine was associated with a 14 percent decrease in the child's breathing function at 4 years of age.
In addition, a 10-fold increase in BPA at 16 weeks' gestation was associated with more than four times the likelihood of persistent wheezing at age 4, the study found. Persistent wheezing can be a sign of asthma.
"Maternal exposures to BPA during pregnancy may affect a child's future lung health," said lead researcher Dr. Adam Spanier, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
The findings were inconsistent, however. While 4-year-olds had reduced breathing function associated with increased BPA exposure, that link wasn't seen in 5-year-olds, the study said.
Moreover, BPA concentrations in children's urine were not tied to reduced breathing function or wheezing, Spanier said. The link was only with maternal exposure, he said.
But if future research confirms the link, BPA avoidance "may offer another avenue to prevent the development of asthma," the study authors concluded.
Noting that the researchers measured BPA levels in mothers during pregnancy and followed children from birth, Spanier said he believes the findings "support a causal association" between the chemical and respiratory impairment.
Scientists have been puzzled by the surge in asthma in the United States over the past three decades. One in 10 U.S. children has the respiratory illness, according to background research in the study. Some studies have suggested that, in addition to environmental triggers such as tobacco smoke and air pollution, exposure to commonplace chemicals such as BPA could play a role in its development.
For now, pregnant women and women intending to become pregnant may want to minimize exposure to BPA, Spanier said.
But that can be difficult, since BPA is found in many consumer products, such as the lining of food cans, some plastic bottles and food containers, and some cash-register receipts, Spanier said.
To avoid BPA, Spanier suggests eating fresh fruits and vegetables and staying away from canned products. He also advises using glass containers and avoiding plastic ones.
Plastic products made with BPA will have a #7 recycling symbol on them or contain the letters "PC" near the recycling symbol, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
To test for BPA exposure, Spanier's team collected urine samples from 398 women at 16 and 26 weeks of pregnancy, and yearly samples from their children at ages 4 and 5 years.
The study, published online Oct. 6 in JAMA Pediatrics, found that for every 10-fold increase in the average amount of BPA in the mothers' urine, there was a nearly 55 percent increase in the odds of some type of wheezing in their children.
Dr. Leonardo Trasande, an associate professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine at NYU School of Medicine in New York City, said the study adds to the "substantial evidence suggesting that BPA exposure contributes to childhood disease and disability."
Further, it raises concerns about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision not to limit BPA use in aluminum cans, the major source of BPA exposure in children and pregnant women, he said.
The agency did ban BPA from children's cups and baby bottles in 2012 because of other health concerns. These include potential links to cancer and childhood behavior problems.
Last July, the FDA updated its 2010 statement that BPA is safe at the current levels in foods. The chemical has been used in food packaging since the 1960s, it said.
Just because a product is marketed as BPA-free doesn't mean it's safe, though, one expert said.
Steven Gilbert, director of the U.S. Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders in Seattle, said BPA is being replaced by other chemicals, and the potential dangers of these substitutes are not known.
"It's really a bad situation. We don't have good rules in place to find safe substitutes," he said. "We need to take a precautionary approach to chemicals like BPA." |
Ride to TEDxSoCal
Thanks to our friends over at free bike valet will be stationed behind the fountains at the Long Beach Blvd./Ocean Blvd. pedestrian and bike entrance to the Convention Center.
We also encourage TEDxSoCal attendees to use the
You're feeding your brain , how about your stomach ?
A morning break at TEDxSoCal will feature some complimentary breakfast goodies. For lunch, you may purchase a box lunch and enjoy the Center Theater patio. Many restaurants are convenient to the Theater and attendees are invited to check out options at 15% off of their lunch bill . A reception immediately following the conference will be held at
Limited Number of Student Tickets for TEDxSoCal
TEDxSoCal
Saturday, July 14, 2012
9am - 4pm
Center Theater at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center
300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach
www.tedxsocal.org A limited number of $25 student tickets are available, and more than half have already sold. Get your ticket here Thanks to our friends over at Bikestation , you don't need to worry about bike racks or paying for parking at the Convention Center or lots in downtown Long Beach. Awill be stationed behind the fountains at the Long Beach Blvd./Ocean Blvd. pedestrian and bike entrance to the Convention Center.We also encourage TEDxSoCal attendees to use the Metro Blue Line and Long Beach Transit Passport to get to the event.A morning break at TEDxSoCal will feature some complimentary breakfast goodies. For lunch, you may purchase a box lunch and enjoy the Center Theater patio. Many restaurants are convenient to the Theater and attendees are invited to check out options at the Pike and in Downtown Long Beach Beachwood BBQ is offering all TEDxSoCal attendees. A reception immediately following the conference will be held at SIP at the Renaissance Hotel , located across the street at 111 E. Ocean Blvd. Music on the patio and a special menu will be available to TEDxSoCal-ers. |
When Israeli civilians try to kidnap a Palestinian child, the police do their best not to investigate.
By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz
The date: December 19, 2014. The place: the AM/PM convenience store outside the West Bank village of Hawara. Majed Musa AbdAziz As’ous parks his vehicle across the road from the store, making certain the windows are open, and goes in for a quick purchase. In the front seat on his right sits five-and-a-half year old N.; two other children sit in the back seat.
As the father crosses the road, an Israeli vehicle — As’ous would later remember it being a red Subaru Justy, along with a few numbers from the license plate – with four young, Israeli men swerves into the scene. The Subaru parks near As’ous, with its back window adjacent to the windshield of As’ous’ car. The Israeli in the back seat of the Subaru leans across the window, seizes N., and tries to pull him into the Israeli vehicle.
Hearing N.’s terrified screams, As’ous runs back. He manages to see the Israeli vehicle escaping, only to catch a glimpse of the man who almost kidnapped his son. As’ous lodges a complaint with the Palestinian police the following day, which transfer it to the Israeli District Coordination Offices (DCO).
In February 2015, two months after the incident, the complaint makes it to the Israeli police, which then pretend to investigate the case. They take As’ous’ testimony, who tells the cops he knows of another witness whom he can locate. In a second interview four days later, police investigator A.A. asks As’ous whether there are security cameras in the area — he says he thinks there are.
At this point, a reasonable man would assume A.A. would turn to the AM/PM shift manager, identify himself as a policeman, and ask for the relevant tapes. A.A. assumed that the chance that there is little chance these tapes exist (personally, I believe that his assumption was sound — too much time had indeed passed). Furthermore, wrote A.A. in a memo, it is not at all likely that the cameras actually covered the road area; from his rich experience, he believes they mainly cover the cash registers. Thus, A.A. decided not to look into the issue at all.
Rewind, slow motion: the crime – the attempted kidnapping of a child; the response of investigator A.A. — not to bother to even check whether evidence exists, or whether the cameras cover the road. He just assumes they don’t and closes the case under the ever-popular “unknown perpetrator clause.”
Perhaps the cameras caught what had happened; perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps they did, but too much time had passed and the tapes were deleted. Or maybe, due to the whole mess of the kidnapping, the owners decided to keep the tapes for evidence. We’ll never know, because A.A. never bothered checking. He preferred to guess.
But the negligence doesn’t end here. Leaving the tapes aside – the chance they still existed was indeed low – there were other, stronger leads. As’ous gave A.A. a fairly accurate description of the Israeli vehicle — but A.A. didn’t bother to cross that information with similar vehicles registered in the nearby outposts and settlements.
As’ous told him he knows of another witness — the police didn’t bother to summon him or take his statement. It’s just a Palestinian child, after all. As’ous says he thinks he may be able to identify the kidnapper — but A.A., the Samaria and Judea Police Department’s Sherlock Holmes, do not bother to ask him to look at the police felon photo book. In fact, A.A. doesn’t take any investigative action whatsoever; the entire case file is three pages long. When it comes to excuses, however, he’s a master.
All this information comes to us directly from the investigative files. Recently, Yesh Din attorneys Noa Amrami and Michal Pasovsky appealed the decision to close the case. Their demands are simple: carry out the aforementioned, minimalistic investigative actions, so that the life of a Palestinian child won’t be deemed negligible.
It’s important to remember these days, when the SJPD and the Shin Bet tell you they’re doing everything they can to stop Jewish terrorists, that “all we can do” looks all too often like A.A.
Written by Yossi Gurvitz in his capacity as a blogger for Yesh Din, Volunteers for Human Rights. A version of this post was first published on Yesh Din’s blog. |
David Mayo reports that an agreement has been reached for the purchase of NBA D League team Springfield Armor, which will result in the franchise being moved from the hometown of the NBA Hall of Fame to Grand Rapids where it will be a single-franchise affiliation to the Pistons.
Grand Rapids is essentially becoming the training grounds for Detroit teams, as the Pistons, Tigers, and Red Wings will each have their developmental league affiliates located in the city.
The team is expected to be locally owned, and games will be played at the DeltaPlex Arena north of town, which seats 4,500.
Mayo reported earlier in the season that the Pistons were pursuing a D League franchise that they would be able to exclusively control. The Pistons currently partner with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants as their affiliate, but share affiliation with five other teams.
Single-franchise affiliation is something of a league-wide movement, inspired both by salary cap concerns and the success of the D League as a tool for player development.
It's a nice step in the right direction for a franchise that has had few of those as of late. Too often promising, likable second round draft picks have been cast off due to a roster crunch. Guys such as Kim English and Vernon Macklin who have yet to find a home for their professional basketball career, or Arron Afflalo and Amir Johnson who have gone on to be solid NBA starters.
Either way, it will be nice to have an option to keep such players in the fold with the Pistons - as well as a tool for identifying additional promising young players. The Spurs are a great example of how well a D League system can work, having allocated over 4,000 minutes this season to players with D League experience and several players on the Austin Toros current roster who could help in the future, such as Myck Kabongo, Dexter Pittman and Jonathon Simmons. |
MUMBAI (Reuters) - An Indian franchise operator of McDonalds Corp (MCD.N) may increase prices for the second time this year, responding to rising inflation which, along with an economic slowdown, it expects to temper demand growth for at least the next 7 months.
The company, Hardcastle Restaurants, said on Tuesday it could raise prices by 5-6 percent. That follows a 5 percent hike after the government increased the service tax rate in February.
“There is pressure and it’s a tough environment, no doubt. But inflation is at 8-10 percent so we have to hike our prices,” said Amit Jatia, vice-chairman of Hardcastle Restaurants, which owns the McDonalds franchise for west and south India.
He said, however, that the company had no intention for now to raise prices.
Consumer spending in India has taken a hit in the past three quarters as rising food prices, meager salary increases and the slowest Indian economic growth in a decade hurt buying appetites for clothes, cars and eating out.
With its 1.2 billion people and growing middle class, India is a large market for global chains, though for now most Indians cannot afford to eat regularly in western-style restaurants.
The burger chain said its same-store sales remained under pressure and although they would grow, the increase would not be at the 22 percent achieved in the fiscal year ended March 2012.
McDonalds entered India in 1996 without its signature hamburger, respecting local religious beliefs which mean many people avoid eating beef and pork. It has become India’s largest fast food chain operator selling chicken and fish burgers along with vegetarian items like McAloo Tikki, which has a potato patty, and the McSpicy Paneer, filled with cottage cheese.
The burger chain plans capital spending of 5 billion-10 billion rupees ($92 million-$184 million) in India over the next 3-5 years, mostly for store expansion, Jatia said, adding India’s long-term consumption growth story remained intact.
McDonalds has 309 stores in the country.
The company plans to add 80-90 restaurants in western and southern India in the next two years.
Hardcastle is also contemplating an equity fund raising to fuel McDonalds’ expansion in the country in the coming years.
“We are in talks with merchant bankers every day and are open to it. But we are considering all our options and that includes debt also. We will be clear with our decision on what instrument we choose in a month,” Jatia said.
In December, Hardcastle Restaurants merged its operations with listed parent Westlife Development Ltd (WEST.BO)
(The story corrects to make clear the entity is the local franchise operator; adds to show that the company has no immediate plan for a price increase; changes headline accordingly) |
Grosjean passes four cars in seven laps
After being eliminated in the first part of qualifying for just the second time this season (and first time since the season-opener in Australia) on Saturday, Romain Grosjean opted for an aggressive strategy on Sunday, with Haas sticking the Frenchman on supersofts for his opening stint. What followed was a dynamite opening salvo, during which Grosjean made full use of the red-marked rubber to vault past several soft-tyre runners and set the platform for another top ten finish. Jolyon Palmer’s Renault was the first to be dispatched with a superb around-the-outside pass at Turn 1, with Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber, Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso and team mate Esteban Gutierrez all falling in quick succession shortly afterwards. No wonder team principal Guenther Steiner was moved to say after the race “Romain couldn’t have raced any better with the car we had”. Perez gets his own back on Kvyat
Force India suffered a nightmare opening lap in Austin as first Nico Hulkenberg sustained race-ending damage in a first corner collision with Valtteri Bottas and then (as the video above shows) Sergio Perez was punted into a spin at Turn 11 by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat - a gesture which earned the Russian a 10-second penalty as well as front wing damage. However, it wouldn’t be long before the Mexican would extract some kind of revenge - after an incredibly quick recovery Perez got back into the action and within 5 laps was onto Kvyat’s tail, completing an easy pass into Turn 12. He’d go on to finish P8 - three places higher than the Russian. Button passes Gutierrez twice in one lap
We’ve already brought you the driver’s eye view of Jenson Button’s scintillating opening lap in Austin - well here’s what happened next. Having risen to 11th, Button wasted no time putting a move on Esteban Gutierrez’s soft-tyre-shod Haas at Turn 1 for P10 at the beginning of the third lap. But if the McLaren driver thought that was the end of the battle he was mistaken, for the Mexican immediately fought back and repassed into the esses and it wasn’t until the back straight - with the help of DRS - that Button was able to get back in front for good. Perez enjoys grandstand view of Renault battle
Having recovered from his first-lap spin, Sergio Perez found himself right behind an entertaining but extremely hard-fought tussle between the Renaults of Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen, who would end up squabbling for most of the race. Of course, there was much more to this battle than mere position: with one seat at Renault left to be filled for 2017, this was as much about staking a claim, and in this exchange - and in the final race positions - it was Magnussen who came off best. Having filled his team mate’s mirrors closely up to Turn 12 and then bobbed and weaved behind him through Turns 13 and 14, the Dane committed to an extremely brave lunge up the inside through Turn 15. Palmer fought back through the next right-handers, but the position was lost - and after a wide moment at Turn 19 Perez slipped past the Briton too. Raikkonen shows off his reversing skills
Ferrari put Kimi Raikkonen on an extremely aggressive three-stop strategy in Austin - but sadly we never got to see where it would take him after a blunder at his final pit stop. As you can see from the video above, the Finn was given the green light to leave, but sadly before his right-rear tyre hadn’t been properly secured. Asked to stop in the pit lane exit, Raikkonen was then told to back his SF16-H into the pit lane, which he did with aplomb after manually putting his car into neutral via the button on top of the car. A pretty impressive manoeuvre all told - especially with such small wing mirrors! Red Bull receive a surprise visitor |
Jordan Press, The Canadian Press
Economic uncertainty, big-ticket promises and few details about where the money's going to come from has the Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP all flirting -- for the moment -- with the prospect of a budget deficit during their first year in power, a Canadian Press analysis of campaign commitments suggests.
At this early stage of the federal campaign for the Oct. 19 vote, all three parties combined have made billions of dollars worth of promises so far, but have been far less forthcoming about how they intend to pay for all those investments, benefits and tax breaks.
Moreover, renewed economic worries have raised questions about whether the parties will be able to afford all of their promises, and which of the three main parties could actually balance the books -- or even if they should.
"I don't think there is a really strong argument, or any real argument, to be made that the budget must be in balanced no matter what the state of the economy is," said Allan Maslove, an expert on government budgeting at Carleton University in Ottawa.
"Spending and taxation are instruments of government policy that should be used to regulate the economy and promote growth and sometimes that means running a deficit and sometimes that might mean running a surplus, but that's a function of where the economy is going at any point in time."
To determine how close the parties were to running a deficit based on their promises to date, The Canadian Press tabulated the cost of those promises, as well as key planks that were unveiled prior to the official start of the campaign, such as the NDP's proposed national child care plan.
In some cases, the parties have put specific timelines on how much their promises will cost in each of the next four fiscal years, while in others they have made broad promises for multi-year spending without saying how much of the money would be spent up front and how much would be spent in later years. In those instances, The Canadian Press evenly divided the full cost of multi-year promises.
Promises without cost estimates were not included.
Each of the parties were given a spreadsheet containing their spending promises and asked to provide additional details where possible.
What's clear is this: the space in the budget in the next two fiscal years has contracted, along with the economy.
Revised estimates from the parliamentary budget office last month pegged the federal surplus at $600 million next fiscal year, and $2.2 billion the year after -- a result of lower interest rates and plunging oil prices, among other issues, that affect the government's bottom line.
Based on those projections, the analysis suggests the Conservatives would have a surplus of $727 million next fiscal year, an amount that includes using part of a contingency fund set aside for emergencies. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has vowed to balance the books, even though the PBO projections have cast doubt on a balanced budget this year.
The NDP are tracking to have a surplus of $1.19 billion in their first year, based on much of their spending promises being ramped up over a four-year period, or -- in the case of the child care program -- an eight-year climb to $5 billion in annual spending. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has been adamant his party wouldn't run a deficit in their first fiscal year if elected this fall.
The party has yet to unveil some spending details, as well as its plan to raise corporate taxes. A one per cent increase in the federal corporate tax rate could raise upwards of $1.3 billion in revenue per year, based on various estimates. But eliminating income-splitting and the doubling of limits on tax-free savings accounts should save about $2 billion and $160 million, respectively, next fiscal year.
The Liberals appear to be $2.38 billion in the red next year, based on their promises in the absence of any new revenue streams or cuts in spending. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has indicated his party may run a deficit and hinted it could take years to return to balance.
In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, all three parties are tracking to run a surplus: the Conservatives at $2.72 billion, the NDP at $3.56 billion, and the Liberals at $1.39 billion.
All of the estimates rely on the PBO's projections holding steady with no additional economic shocks.
All the promises combined have led to heated campaign rhetoric about which party would raise taxes, although the subject doesn't have to be taboo, said Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The issue, Wudrick said, is whether Canadians are getting good value for their money.
"If they truly felt that they would get much better value with a tax hike, most of them would probably be okay with a tax hike," he said.
"The fact that they aren't suggests that they are not convinced that the tax hike will give them good value for their money."
Wudrick said his group would rather see parties vow to cut subsidies to businesses that cost the government about $1 billion per year. "To us it's a no-brainer, these are successful businesses. They do well in the market. Why the government feels the need to give them additional money out of the public purse just makes no sense." |
“This is a whole new concept for Greece,” said Fiori Zafeiropoulou, an expert on ways to mix social goals and business initiatives who advised officials drafting a new law that gives legal status to “social cooperative enterprises,” entities that combine both business interests and social benefits. Unlike left-leaning activists, however, she does not want to upend market forces, only to make them better serve the underprivileged.
Progress, she said, has often been slow because “in Greece there is a problem, and the problem is called corruption” — what she defined as a whole culture that revolves around getting favors from the state, as well as demanding bribes and kickbacks.
Mr. Mavromatis, the detergent maker, said the purchasing managers at supermarkets, whether owned by Greeks or foreigners, all demanded bribes just to agree to a meeting so he could present his products. They also asked for money to ensure good display for his goods, he said. The price varied depending on which shelf he wanted his detergent placed on, with the shelf near the floor costing less. On average he paid about $1,300 a transaction, plus gifts at Christmas and other holidays.
He said that when he started selling through the no-middlemen group, “I had been dealing with supermarkets for so long I kept waiting for them to ask for money under the table. But nobody ever asked, and I have not paid anything.”
“I could not understand why they were doing all this for free,” Mr. Mavromatis, 46, added. “I was very suspicious and kept thinking: ‘Where is the catch?’ ”
He said he believed in the free market, but not in Greece, where it is distorted by corruption at every level, public and private.
Mr. Mavromatis said he had invested about $680,000 to upgrade his production line on a promise from the government that he would be partly reimbursed from “cohesion funds” provided to Greece from the European Union. But the government, he said, diverted the money earmarked for business development to pay for relief work after a series of forest fires. He said that the government still owed him about $273,000, but that he does not expect it any time soon, if ever. |
Posted on 28th September 2016 | Freek Van der Herten
I'm very happy to announce that, as of today, our Laravel and PHP packages have been downloaded a million times. We now have more than 80 packages registered on Packagist. All combined they are downloaded around 150 000 times a month, and that number seems to be growing. Our GitHub organisation has taken the number 13 spot on GitHub Awards. I'm very proud that we could achieve this in a company with only two back end developers. It's really nice to know that the Laravel and PHP community find our packages useful. In this post I'd like to share the story behind our packages.
That one million number sounds impressive, but should be taken with a grain of salt. The amount of real users is probably much lower. Some of our packages require other ones of our own. For example, when downloading laravel-backup, our own db-dumper will get downloaded as well. And I’m pretty sure the total downloads get inflated by CI tools that download the various packages more than needed.
I think the actual number of downloads isn’t that important. The monthly growth number is a more representative figure of how our packages are doing popularity-wise.
The first package
The company where I work, Spatie, exists from 2003. We've always been using PHP. In the early years we dared to write our own framework. Yeah, we were still inexperienced, so that seemed the way to go. It was very basic, but it served us well. We were only creating small sites at that time. But after several years we realised that writing and maintaining your own framework is very time-consuming and we switched to Zend Framework 1.
In 2012 and 2013 we felt that the PHP ecosystem was pretty stale and we considered switching to Ruby and the Rail framework. We even made a couple of projects in Ruby to get our feet wet. But then we bumped into Laravel 4.0. I was immediately impressed by the expressive syntax and the big focus on developer happiness. I used it for a couple of projects and the more I learned about it, the more I loved using it. At that time a guy called Jeffrey Way started his next project Laracasts: a video tutorial site dedicated to Laravel. Realising that his videos could speed up my learning process immensely I immediately bought a lifetime subscription.
On the 4th of March in 2014 Jeffrey published a video titled "Continuous Integration With Travis". My mind was blown. Travis and the integration with GitHub looked so cool that I wanted to use it. A couple of months before he made the Travis video Jeffrey made a miniseries on package development. Those videos sparked the thought in my mind that I could create a package of my own.
In a project at the time we needed to automatically create screenshots of a website. With the things I learned in the Laracasts-videos I started working on my first package Browsershot. In essence it’s just a simple wrapper around PhantomJS. It was pretty exciting working in the open. I was thrilled every time the download counter got up and was incredibly happy that other people started writing about it.
Moarrrr packages!
As time went by we made more a more projects with Laravel. In our Zend Framework days we used a custom-built application template, called Blender, to kickstart all our projects. It was a sort of mini-cms. Beside the traditional CMS-functions Blender could do a lot of cool things: pull in data from Analytics to show graphs about the usage of the site, handle uploaded files, subscribe users to a MailChimp list, ... I started creating a Laravel version of Blender from scratch. I soon realised that some of the things I was porting to Laravel could be useful for other developers as well and decided to export these functionalities to external packages. In quick succession packages like laravel-newsletter, laravel-medialibrary and laravel-analytics were made.
I started to enjoy package development more and more. The positive feedback that I got early on from package users was very encouraging. I always considered coding purely as work, but because it was so much fun creating code that others could use as well I started coding in my free time as well. Besides working on packages I also polished the aformentioned application template called Blender and open sourced that too.
Since Spatie started I always was the only back-end developer. But that changed somewhere mid 2015 when Seb joined our team. He also likes working on our open source stuff. Because I blog and tweet a lot I’m the public face of our packages, but Seb does quite a lot too. He loves working on the more lower level stuff (the regex package is one of his). I myself enjoy working on the bigger infrastructure kind of packages like backup and medialibrary.
Currently every new package that we create gets born inside a client project. In almost every project we find some functionality that can be extracted to it’s own package.
Making time to work on open source
People often ask me if it isn’t very time-consuming to create packages. The truth is that it indeed takes a lot of time. Creating the code for the package itself, writing tests, writing documentation and getting the word out all takes a fair amount of time. And that’s just the start. When a first stable release gets tagged the work is not over. Maintaining a package, responding to issues, reviewing PR’s takes a lot of time (and dedication) too. At the time of this writing we've responded to almost 1 000 issues and reviewed more than 750 PR's.
We do long-term planning at Spatie, but we also have a weekly short-term planning meeting. When scheduling out to the coming week we only plan four days. So we have one work day we can be a bit flexible with. Do not imagine that day as like a fixed day, that time is mostly spread out in that week. Sometimes we do client work in that time, because an estimation was wrong, or we need to do some support things. But that time is also used to review/solve issues and review/merge pull requests.
Like I’ve already mentioned I do enjoy working on packages in my free time as well. So a few times a week I spend some time in the evening to continue improving the released ones and creating new stuff.
The benefits of creating packages
There are many benefits of creating packages that makes time working on open source code well spent. You’ll learn a lot by working on packages. Each package needs to be carefully crafted. Laravel itself greatly emphasises developer happiness. It provides a clear and understandable syntax. I want that all our packages are easy to use too. Thinking about how other people will use your code will make you a better developer. We also learn a lot from the issues reported and the PR’s submitted by the users of our packages.
A second benefit is, that sometimes, as a package gains some traction, you get quality code for free. Our laravel-fractal package is a developer friendly wrapper around The League’s Fractal package. I coded up the basic functionality to I needed myself and tagged that 1.0.0. In the next weeks I almost daily got a pull request adding another great feature to the package. And now it supports almost everything League’s Fractal can do. I think 90% of the code of that package was written by the community.
Another benefit is a commercial one. When looking at our code I hope you’ll conclude that we do know our way around PHP and Laravel. Recently we’ve landed some projects because of our open source work. In most cases users of our packages were telling their bosses to hire us for a Laravel specific project.
And last but not least we’re also dogfooding ourselves. Our own packages get used on most projects. If we discover a bug in a package used in a project we can very quickly fix that and distribute that fix through the power of Composer to our other projects. The only package that didn’t get used in any of our own projects is laravel-permission. That one was coded up just for fun.
Why we require the latest version of PHP
Before PHP 7 got released at the end of last year, we picked the oldest, still supported PHP version as a minimum requirement for a newly created package. When PHP 7 got released we changed our policy on that. Every new package now requires PHP 7.
The most asked question in the issuetrackers of our packages is "Why can't you support PHP 5.6". I'd like to give some background on our stance.
We create these packages primarily for our own future projects. The fact that they become popular is just a nice side effect. At our company PHP 5 is dead. So it makes zero sense to make our packages PHP 5 compatible. The latest new features such as the scalar type hints, return types, anonymous classes and the null coalescing operator can help create elegant code.
I'm well aware that requiring PHP 7 will hurt the popularity of our packages in the short run. But, like already popularity is not our main goal. People who are using the latest and greatest version of PHP can benefit from our work. And I hope others will be nudged a bit towards PHP 7 by our decision. When PHP 7.1 gets released we'll probably set that as our minimum required version. Can't wait to use that fancy iterable typehint.
Top 10 of most popular packages
When taking amount of downloads into consideration these are our 10 most popular packages:
Like already mentioned in the intro some of these packages, like string and db-dumper, probably get a big download boost because there are required by other packages.
Not so popular packages
There are some packages, that we ourselves use in every single project, that I expected to be more popular. I hope by mentioning them here they'll get a little attention. If you decide to give the ones mentioned below a shot, I hope that you'll enjoy using them as much as we do.
The first one in this category is laravel-menu. That one can generate html menus. It provides you with a beautiful, Laravel worthy, API to work with. It can even detect which one of the menu items should be considered active. Maybe I haven't search well enough for it, and I'm certainly biased, but I think there's no alternative that provides such an easy to work with API.
Secondly, there's laravel-translatable. This one can make your Eloquent models hold translations. Unlike Dimitris Savvopoulos' excellent translatable package, ours does not need separate translation tables to store translations. Our package stores the translations as json in a column of the table. It's very easy to work with, there are no extra queries needed to fetch translations. We got the idea to store translations as json in a column from Mohamed Said (who now enjoys fame as Laravel employee #1 ?).
And lastly I like to mention laravel-medialibrary. You saw this package at number 7 in the top 10 above, but I think this one deserves to be a few places higher. The package can associate all kind of media files (images, PDFs, ...) with Eloquent models. It can generate thumbnails, and can store files on external filesystem and generate URLs to the files. It's very easy to work with and it has excellent documentation. I think a lot of applications need to handle uploaded images and files. This package can save you countless hours by managing all of that for you.
The future
The past two years we’ve been regularly released packages. The most common problems in our projects are already solved with one of our packages. That’s why our package output will probably diminish a bit in the foreseeable future.
Of course we’re dedicated to maintaining our code. We’ve recently created new major releases of laravel-backup, laravel-newsletter, laravel-analtyics and a few others.
There’s no fixed roadmap for new packages. It really depends on the client projects we’re handling. If there is something there that can be solved in a generic way, we’ll create a package.
In closing
Creating and working on open source packages continues to be a truly fun experience. On a technical level I've learned lots of things that I wouldn't have learned when working solely on client projects.
The positive feedback for our users also gave me enough confidence to start this blog and start speak publicly. The past year I've spoken at several local users groups (and I'm co-organizing the one in my home town), I got to speak at Laracon EU, and have two talks at [php]world to look forward to. At all those occasions I got to meet a lot of awesome fellow developers.
That all probably wouldn't have happened if I stayed in my little bubble. So in short, working on open source helped getting to connect to the community. That sounds a bit corny, but that doesn't make it less true.
If you haven't used our packages before, take a look at the list on our company website. Probably we've made some things that could be useful to you. If you already are using any of our stuff, and you like it, send us a postcard. |
Using a projection called anamorphosis to create the illusion of three dimensions when viewed from the correct angle, these four artists create some of the finest 3D pavement illusions we’ve seen. Four artist, one art.
1 Edgar Müller
At the cutting edge of 3D pavement art is german artist Edgar Müller. His creations transform everyday locations into fantastical scenes: sharks erupting from pavements, chasms bisecting suburban, streets and rivers cascading through towns.
2 Kurt Wenner
An architect, artist and former NASA illustrator, american artist Kurt Wenner‘s amazingly detailed street artworks conjure images of both Baroque religious murals and a Salvor Daliesque surrealism.
3 Manfred Stader
Manfred Stader began street painting during his art studies at the famous Städel Artschool in Frankfurt, at the beginning of the 1980s and in 1985 he already became one of the few master street painters. Since then, he has been creating some of the best works for street painting competitions and advertising campaigns.
4 Julian Beever
Perhaps the most famous pavement artist on the internet, UK-based Julian Beeverhas been creating drawings on pavement surfaces since the mid-1990s. Beever works as a freelance artist and creates murals for companies, having created pieces around the world, from Europe to the US, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. |
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