text
stringlengths 465
100k
|
|---|
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) unleashed on Congress Thursday for veering toward a government shutdown, saying her constituents in Washington, D.C., are "being treated as colonists of the Congress."
Norton appeared visibly angry during an television interview, during which she lobbed attacks at the legislature and Republicans for their behavior in the budget talks.
ADVERTISEMENT
“District residents are being treated as colonists of the Congress of the United States. We are absolutely outraged. This is the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians,” she said on WTTG-TV.
Norton's rhetoric is some of the toughest yet levied against congressional negotiators, who are still at an impasse over a 2011 budget proposal. If GOP and Democratic leaders cannot pass a spending bill by the end of Friday, the government will shut down.
Norton chastised Republicans for pushing for a policy rider to be included in a proposed stopgap spending measure that would prevent taxpayer funds from paying for abortions in D.C.
"It’s time that the District of Columbia told the Congress to go straight to hell," she said.
“We’re listening to the American people, who want us to keep the government open while cutting spending to help the private-sector create jobs. It’s difficult to see how this rhetoric helps," responded Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE (R-Ohio).
Washington, which is partially funded by the federal government, would endure massive cutbacks to city services should a shutdown occur.
The city's many federal workers could be furloughed, and city services like libraries and trash collection would be suspended. Washington's many museums and parks could also close.
"We've sustained attack after attack as the Republicans invade our right to govern ourselves," Norton said, adding she is not confident lawmakers will reach a deal.
"I'm not confident. But if they don't get a deal done, if these Republicans insist that if they don't get the whole pie, they'll take the whole country down with them, then we have got to make them pay the price."
h/t DCist |
France is not a bra desert, like June from Braless in Brasil would say. After all, the country has a long lingerie tradition. The market is not dominated by one big player, like Victoria’s Secret in the US. There are numerous well established brands as well as up-and-coming young designers and no shortage of independant boutiques alongside the chainstores. Still, buying full-bust lingerie in a brick and mortar shop can prove challenging. Basically, if you need a 28 band and/or H+ cup, tough luck! Enter Viksen…
A cute small shop ideally located in Paris’ charming Montorgueuil neighbourhood, Viksen specialises in full bust and plus size lingerie, with brands like Curvy Kate, Cleo by Panache, Panache Superbra, Elomi, but also newcomer Tutti Rouge, new French brand La Belle Affranchie, or Panache new plus size line Sculptress
The sizes range from a 30D going all the way to a K cup in a 40 band, with some styles available up to a 48 band. Not everything is available in every size yet, but they will order it for you if needed and are very keen on expanding their stock in larger cups. You can get a better idea of what’s on offer by visiting their online shop, but nothing beats actually going to the boutique to get a closer look at all the pretty things.
Service is welcoming and friendly, but you also get a chance to browse the racks freely. The Viksen team is eager to make a change and already planning a bra awareness campaign. Their enthusiasm and desire to look forward really set them apart from other boutiques I’ve tried. If you’re in Paris, I highly recommend you try Viksen!
Advertisements |
Missing people and strange disappearances are among the most haunting unexplained mysteries of the modern era. Granted, they are nothing new to us, although the reach of the Internet has helped bring new attention to reports that were once relegated to police departments and federal law enforcement agencies, as well as occasional paperback thrillers that line the shelves of “True Crime” sections in bookstores.
Going all the way back to ancient times, we have strange disappearances noted by some of the earliest historians in the Western World. Famous names of the missing include the warrior Spartacus, as well as Alexander, son of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and his brother Ptolemy. Countless others would follow over the ages, from American author Ambrose Bierce, to Canadian millionaire Ambrose Small. Some, like aviatrix Amelia Earhart, would vanish while attempting record-breaking feats, while others, the likes of housewife Dorothy Forstein, would literally be carried away into the night, leaving behind nothing but the testimony of her young daughter, who said a man patted her on the head as he carried her unconscious mother down the stairs, saying, “go back to sleep little one, your mom is fine.” She was never seen again.
Such disappearances have been chronicled in a number of books over the years, most notably Jay Robert Nash’s Among the Missing (1978), and more recently, researcher David Paulides’ Missing: 411 series, which chronicle investigations into an incredible number of disappearances in National Parks and other wilderness areas around the world.
I met David Paulides at a conference where he and I were both lecturing several years ago, where we had an opportunity to catch up and speak briefly. Since we were booked to speak back-to-back, I was on hand and able to listen to David’s presentation right before I gave my own. During his talk, David spent a great deal of time on the disappearance of Dennis Lloyd Martin, a young boy who vanished under very odd circumstances on June 14th, 1969. This incident occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is just about two hours from where I live, which made the experience all the more haunting.
My introduction to Paulides’ work, and the strange case of Dennis Lloyd Martin, did more than give me cause for pause, however. It also brought to mind a very unsettling experience from a number of years ago, which up until that time I had essentially forgotten about entirely.
Back during the middle 2000s, my girlfriend at the time, Antonia (or “Toni” as I often called her) and I lived very close to the Pisgah National Forest outside Asheville, North Carolina. We would frequently go for hikes, or engage in other outdoor recreation; a number of well-stocked trout streams run throughout the area, in addition to the French Broad River, which was another favorite spot of ours for fishing, or just enjoying the outdoors.
One afternoon, we had gone a bit off the beaten path on one of our weekly excursions, and found ourselves following a small game trail through a stretch of woodland near Bent Creek, North Carolina, in search of a good, and preferably hard to reach fishing spot. Bent Creek is no stranger to disappearances; in the early 1990s, a local woman named Karen Styles had vanished while jogging one morning; her body was later recovered nearby, in a heavily wooded area where her presumed killer had used duct tape to tie her to a tree. Although her killer was eventually brought to justice, the Styles murder rocked our community, and for a number of years the incident caused a lingering sense of fear for many people that normally enjoyed access to the local National Forests.
It had been nearly two decades since Styles murder, and it was only a vague memory on the afternoon Toni and I were following this game trail down to the creek. I had been in front leading, with Toni just behind me. The weather was clear and sunny, the temperature warm, but breezy, making for an ideal day to be outdoors. I don’t recall the moment, precisely, that I began to feel that something was off, although this sort of sensation is almost a perennial quality to such circumstances; such expressions as, “the feeling of being watched” come to mind, although others might liken it to a weighted, nearly palpable sense of dread or other urge, as if warning that something dangerous were nearby.
I imagined this would have been the feeling one of the ancient first Americans might have had, while hunting along these same bogs and lowland bottoms thousands of years ago. It was the feeling that would overcome him the moment before a dire wolf, or some other ancient megafaunal predator, attacked.
Something led my sight over to an area of brush nearby, where at first, out of the corner of my eye, I saw what appeared to be a figure. There is nothing quite like this sensation of recognition–the same humans developed over time to alert us to possible danger nearby–when it strikes. Turning my full attention in the direction of the looming figure, I saw clearly, and in broad daylight, a man; he wore some variety of coverall uniform, which I would liken to the clothing worn sometimes by automotive mechanics while working in their shops. He appeared to be wearing some kind of cap also, and might have been in his early to mid 40s.
This was all I was able to see of the man, however, for as surely as I had seen him, he was equally aware of where my line of sight had visited, and quickly ducked beneath the cover of the waist-high brush he stood behind. To have seen this “stranger” standing there, and in this unusual garb for a warm, early summer afternoon, would be one thing; however, bringing my full gaze to his location just in time to see him hiding, obviously hoping to remain unseen, is another matter entirely.
Had he suspected that he hadn’t been noticed? And if he had managed to remain hidden, what had this individual’s intentions been in doing so?
I wasted no time stopping Toni, and without explanation, I hurried her back in the direction we came, which seemed to both startle, and amuse her slightly.
“What are you doing?” she said, almost laughing.
“Don’t say anything, just get back to the car,” I told her, taking a moment to glance back over my shoulder. Our strange company had not moved from his position of concealment, at least that I could tell; a far better circumstance than turning to see him sprinting up behind us.
We made it back out of the forest and up to my car, which, fortunately, had been parked a short distance away on a gravel pull-off just up the hill. We got inside, and waited quietly for a few moments, looking to see if the man reappeared as I explained to Toni what I had seen, and then left the area.
For all I know, this individual may have had completely legitimate reasons for being dressed like a serial killer, and hiding behind bushes in the middle of nowhere, watching young couples stroll along through the forest. These seem to be perfectly logical things for anyone to do on a summer day in one of our National Parks, right?
Hence the reason we later felt compelled to tell a Park Ranger about what we had seen. He chuckled afterward, noting that a group of “rainbow people” had been camping up around that area, and that he and the other rangers had been by to warn them about allowing their infant children to wander around unsupervised.
“Why, was there anything else dangerous reported in the area?” I asked.
“Oh no,” he told me. “They just love letting those tikes go around without any diapers on,” he said. “We’re trying to keep after them about keeping their campsite clean, that’s all.”
The oddly-dressed, and obviously “shy” man I had seen while Toni and I were fishing had obviously not been a love-and-light type, who just happened to be frolicking in the same general area as the fishing hole we were looking for. This individual was completely silent, and had seemed content with observing us until he suspected one of us had become aware of his presence, at which time he hid from us, in an effort to maintain concealment. I can only imagine what might have happened if I hadn’t spotted him, dodging back down behind the brush where he stood that afternoon.
There have been a number of proposed explanations for the myriad disappearances that have taken place in our National Parks over the years. Obviously, some of them, while no less tragic, are mundane, and involve circumstances no more complex than individuals that become lost, disoriented, and in some cased succumb to the elements while far enough from being able to receive aid. Some individuals underestimate the dangers of the wildlife that share our forests, and how dangerous these animals can be under the right, or wrong, circumstances.
Then there are those cases which seem to involve something more; with little doubt, kidnappings at the hands of those with ill intent could account for a number of disappearances that occur in America, and all parts of the world, every year. A variety of reasons for this might exist, each depending entirely on the circumstances, and perhaps such things as the mental state, of the would-be kidnapper.
In other words, perhaps the most dangerous animal is the kind that walks on two legs. |
This month, a poll of 3,000 Americans showed 49 percent were not that worried about global warming. That's up from 39 percent in 2007, when Al Gore's book and documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" was the hot topic in the climate change debate.
So, does the political will to save the planet from the potential harm from global warming still exist in the U.S.?
According to Gore, who has authored a new book called "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis," the movement is rising -- not only in the U.S. but also around the world -- with people determined to solve the crisis.
Hear a "poetic" Al Gore
Read an excerpt of "Our Choice" by Al Gore
Audio: Listen to Gore Read from "Our Choice"
Photo Gallery: Al Gore: "Green" Media Star
Watch Al Gore on @KatieCouric Webcast
"Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith recently sat down with Gore and asked him about the environmental debate as we head into a new decade.
In the U.S., while there is more scientific agreement, there seems to be less political agreement about global warming. How does Gore view this disparity?
Gore told Smith, "Some of the largest carbon polluters have been vigorous and try to convince people -- as the tobacco industry did years ago on the link between smoking cigarettes and lung disease -- that there really isn't a link -- between global warming -- pollution and global warming. But the power of that kind of lobbying and advertising does have an impact."
Some climate models, Smith noted, say it takes a certain number of years for the environment to recover -- even if you stopped pouring carbon into the atmosphere now. So is it too late?
Gore said it's not too late, but added, "Some of the consequences are going to play out because we've already increased temperature one degree and another degree is stored up in the oceans. But the truly catastrophic effects that these scientists have been telling us we've got to stop, can still be avoided."
Smith pointed out there is an economic argument that may also be made on this issue.
Gore responded, "Even naysayers understand that it's dangerous for the United States of America to continue growing more and more dependent every day on foreign oil. (It's) controlled by sovereign governments, many of which are not friendly. ... Even a naysayer understands the value of creating of millions of good new jobs right here in the United States that can't be outsourced.
"… In fact, the climate crisis, the economic crisis and the security crisis all have a common thread running through them," Gore said. "And that common thread is our ridiculous overdependence on carbon-based fuels. If you grab that thread and pull it, all three of these crises begin to unravel. And you hold in your hand the answer, which is to switch to renewable forms of energy."
Does Gore ever miss politics?
He said he misses some things and not others.
"When I see problems like the climate crisis where the Senate is taking it on, sometimes I wish I could go down to the Senate and speak from the desk there and just hold forth," he said. "But there are a lot of things I don't miss. And I've moved on with my life. And I am enjoying spending my time and energy in an effort that feels like it's worth giving it everything I've got. And there's a fulfillment in that."
So does Gore think he ended up in the right place -- out of politics?
Gore told Smith, "You know Winston Churchill was once told by a friend after he lost an election early in his career that it was a blessing in disguise. And he said, 'Damn good disguise.'" |
Image: Industrial Technology Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka
A Canadian team has invented a new way to make sure that fruit stays fresh for longer, by spraying them with a nano-scale formula. Jay Subramanian, a professor of tree fruit breeding and biotechnology at the University of Guelph, and his group have developed a treatment that extends the shelf life of fruits like mangoes, blueberries, and bananas, which could have huge implications in the battle against food waste, and help farmers, too.
People throw away food for all sorts of reasons, maybe because it rots before we get around to eating it, or because it's just plain ugly. It's gotten way out of hand in Canada—food waste is costing us as much as $31 billion per year, according to a 2014 report. That's almost a thousand dollars for every person in the country. Another paper stated that grocers and retailers don't even display 30 per cent of fruits and vegetables because they just don't look right.
Subramanian's new formula could change that.
The main player here is hexanal, a compound that has been under the microscope for the last couple of decades. When used at a precise time and proportion, it slows down the ripening process of fruits and veggies. Maybe because it's a natural compound that is produced by fruit themselves, Subramanian has not seen large-scale negative side effects from his formula, which can be sprayed on already-ripe fruit, or applied to them as a dip. His team has seen early successes with veggies like broccoli and tomato, too, and even in some flowers.
"Initially, [we] were able to show that the mango trees [in India] that were sprayed... are keeping the fruits much longer," said Subramanian. "Like, two to three weeks longer."
A nectarine tree in Guelph, Ontario. The front of the tree was sprayed with hexanal. Photo: Jay Subramanian
This could make a difference in developing nations where fruit crops are a major industry, and source of sustenance. In fact, 20-to-40 per cent of a crop's yield can be lost for all kinds of reasons, like the perishable nature of fruit and poor shipping conditions.
The Guelph nanotechnology would help merchants stagger shipments of fruit to prevent market saturation that leads to low prices. Subramanian said that farmers who tested the formula wanted it to become widely available on the market, immediately. "Which, obviously, is not going to be possible, but that's the message we got."
The reason why the tech is nano-sized is the scale of the molecule: only around 20 nanometers in diameter.
As the ripening process begins, an enzyme starts to break down the cell membrane, which allows the plant hormone ethylene to enter fruits' skin and jumpstart the process. But hexanal puts the breaks on the production of the enzyme, and keeps the cell structure intact.
"Because the fruits' membrane is still tight, the fruits do not react to the ethylene as fast as they normally do [in the presence of hexanal], so they remain fresh," said Subramanian.
Even the plague of mould or fungus infections that occur during shipping are held at bay by a stronger cell membrane, he said.
As a next step, Subramanian is looking to develop a sticker or sachet that will release hexanal during shipment of fruit. According to Subramanian, less waste and runoff will occur.
This work, which was funded by the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, is a just precursor to what will be possible when farmers and food producers have access to technologies that operate on an incredibly small scale.
"This is one of the early works using nanotechnology in agriculture," said Subramanian. "We think that this might trigger more research in nanotechnology in agriculture and food industry." |
Share. High Moon Studios is bringing you the Merc with a Mouth. High Moon Studios is bringing you the Merc with a Mouth.
Finally. After laser eyes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and a great guest spot in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Deadpool is getting his own video game. Simply titled Deadpool, the game is being developed by High Moon Studios, the folks behind Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, and arriving in 2013. Specific platforms were not announced. We have the trailer below, and although it wasn't mention specifically in the Comic-Con panel revealing the game, the voice of the Merc with a Mouth appears to be Nolan North, who is famous for being Nathan Drake in Uncharted but also played Deadpool in Shattered Dimensions.
Exit Theatre Mode
Exit Theatre Mode
What do you think of Deadpool getting his own game? Sound off in the comments below.
Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond! |
The mountains of genomic-sequencing data generated by the National Institutes of Health's Human Microbiome Project and recent studies provide strong evidence that just as our human genes were transmitted vertically from our parents and from their parents, and ultimately from our distant primate ancestors, the same holds true for our microbial genes.
This intergenerational transfer begins at the moment of birth, when the minimally colonized fetus is exposed to the microbes in its mother’s vagina as it transits out through the birth canal. The infant, covered with Mom’s microbes, swallows some, which become the founders of the intestinal populations. Babies also inoculate Mom’s breast with their new mouth microbes, and she delivers them back, along with constituents in her milk that specifically favor the ancestral microbes. Thus, Mom’s skin and mouth are other important sources of baby’s early microbes.
Over the course of early childhood the diversity of microbes in and on the baby grows, and by the age of three years it is relatively adultlike. Those first three years, when the microbiome is developing and is most dynamic, are also when the baby’s metabolism, immunity and cognition develop. The stages of a child’s physical and mental development are subject to highly evolved patterns and constraints, and animal experiments suggest that the same holds true for the succession of microbes and the early-life assembly of gut microbiota.
Here is where the trouble begins: by its very nature, the process by which the gut microbiome is shaped involves plasticity. Yet there must be boundaries—and what happens when these are crossed? To what extent is the microbiome vulnerable to perturbation? It is obvious that strong threats may delay normal microbial succession, but they also might lead to extinction of particular taxa. Because both the timing and composition of the successional process and players may be important these disturbances have the potential to change the arc of development of the microbiota and the baby.
What kinds of threats could there be? Because the critical issue is the intergenerational transfer of microbes and its timed assembly, three periods are relevant: before pregnancy, during pregnancy and in the child's early life. For all three periods, antibiotic use is relevant because it may directly change maternal microbes prior to transfer or the child’s microbes afterward. Elective cesarean sections mean that the child misses the birth canal transit, and antibacterials in soaps and foods directly affect microbiota composition. Infant formulas have not been constructed with the benefit of millions of years of mammalian evolution, because breast milk contains nutrients that specifically select for the growth of preferred coevolved organisms and inhibit opportunists and pathogens.
The aggregate of modern assaults on the early-life microbiome suggests that our progeny may not be inheriting their fair share. Exceeding the developing microbiome’s plasticity predictably leads to consequences, as growing evidence evinces. Studies have linked C-sections and exposures to prenatal and postnatal antibiotics to increased risk of obesity, diabetes, celiac disease, asthma and allergies, among other ailments that have their roots in development. This is especially problematic because these exposures are so highly prevalent. We now must assess how to effectively restore our lost microbiomic heritage. |
Democrats Double Down on Hate
The Democratic Party should listen to people like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Democratic Senator Jim Webb, both powerful, intelligent men — who think the Party is off course, is behaving “disdainfully” of the base, is “elitist”, and “demographically misaligned when it comes to policy issues – with the common working men and women of the country.”
They are right of course.
But they aren’t saying what they are really feeling — which would be something like this if they were candid;
“I hate that Donald Trump as much as you do, but if all we talk about as a Party — is hate — we’re going to lose more elections.”
The Democrats, led into this suicide charge by Pelosi and Schumer, have badly miscalculated. They could have formed a centrist majority with any number of the non Freedom Caucus affiliated Republicans — issue by issue — and controlled Trump’s legislative agenda for 4 years.
Stupidly, they have taken this scorch and burn path instead, which will probably and/or already is — costing them dearly on policy reversals, mid-term planning and execution, overall caucus strength – and most importantly, fund raising.
Ouch.
If I were a paid Democratic strategist, I would fire myself. And then return that call to the FBI.
Advertisements |
One of the most profound and mysterious principles in all of physics is the Born Rule, named after Max Born. In quantum mechanics, particles don’t have classical properties like “position” or “momentum”; rather, there is a wave function that assigns a (complex) number, called the “amplitude,” to each possible measurement outcome. The Born Rule is then very simple: it says that the probability of obtaining any possible measurement outcome is equal to the square of the corresponding amplitude. (The wave function is just the set of all the amplitudes.)
Born Rule:
The Born Rule is certainly correct, as far as all of our experimental efforts have been able to discern. But why? Born himself kind of stumbled onto his Rule. Here is an excerpt from his 1926 paper:
That’s right. Born’s paper was rejected at first, and when it was later accepted by another journal, he didn’t even get the Born Rule right. At first he said the probability was equal to the amplitude, and only in an added footnote did he correct it to being the amplitude squared. And a good thing, too, since amplitudes can be negative or even imaginary!
The status of the Born Rule depends greatly on one’s preferred formulation of quantum mechanics. When we teach quantum mechanics to undergraduate physics majors, we generally give them a list of postulates that goes something like this:
Quantum states are represented by wave functions, which are vectors in a mathematical space called Hilbert space. Wave functions evolve in time according to the Schrödinger equation. The act of measuring a quantum system returns a number, known as the eigenvalue of the quantity being measured. The probability of getting any particular eigenvalue is equal to the square of the amplitude for that eigenvalue. After the measurement is performed, the wave function “collapses” to a new state in which the wave function is localized precisely on the observed eigenvalue (as opposed to being in a superposition of many different possibilities).
It’s an ungainly mess, we all agree. You see that the Born Rule is simply postulated right there, as #4. Perhaps we can do better.
Of course we can do better, since “textbook quantum mechanics” is an embarrassment. There are other formulations, and you know that my own favorite is Everettian (“Many-Worlds”) quantum mechanics. (I’m sorry I was too busy to contribute to the active comment thread on that post. On the other hand, a vanishingly small percentage of the 200+ comments actually addressed the point of the article, which was that the potential for many worlds is automatically there in the wave function no matter what formulation you favor. Everett simply takes them seriously, while alternatives need to go to extra efforts to erase them. As Ted Bunn argues, Everett is just “quantum mechanics,” while collapse formulations should be called “disappearing-worlds interpretations.”)
Like the textbook formulation, Everettian quantum mechanics also comes with a list of postulates. Here it is:
Quantum states are represented by wave functions, which are vectors in a mathematical space called Hilbert space. Wave functions evolve in time according to the Schrödinger equation.
That’s it! Quite a bit simpler — and the two postulates are exactly the same as the first two of the textbook approach. Everett, in other words, is claiming that all the weird stuff about “measurement” and “wave function collapse” in the conventional way of thinking about quantum mechanics isn’t something we need to add on; it comes out automatically from the formalism.
The trickiest thing to extract from the formalism is the Born Rule. That’s what Charles (“Chip”) Sebens and I tackled in our recent paper:
Self-Locating Uncertainty and the Origin of Probability in Everettian Quantum Mechanics
Charles T. Sebens, Sean M. Carroll A longstanding issue in attempts to understand the Everett (Many-Worlds) approach to quantum mechanics is the origin of the Born rule: why is the probability given by the square of the amplitude? Following Vaidman, we note that observers are in a position of self-locating uncertainty during the period between the branches of the wave function splitting via decoherence and the observer registering the outcome of the measurement. In this period it is tempting to regard each branch as equiprobable, but we give new reasons why that would be inadvisable. Applying lessons from this analysis, we demonstrate (using arguments similar to those in Zurek’s envariance-based derivation) that the Born rule is the uniquely rational way of apportioning credence in Everettian quantum mechanics. In particular, we rely on a single key principle: changes purely to the environment do not affect the probabilities one ought to assign to measurement outcomes in a local subsystem. We arrive at a method for assigning probabilities in cases that involve both classical and quantum self-locating uncertainty. This method provides unique answers to quantum Sleeping Beauty problems, as well as a well-defined procedure for calculating probabilities in quantum cosmological multiverses with multiple similar observers.
Chip is a graduate student in the philosophy department at Michigan, which is great because this work lies squarely at the boundary of physics and philosophy. (I guess it is possible.) The paper itself leans more toward the philosophical side of things; if you are a physicist who just wants the equations, we have a shorter conference proceeding.
Before explaining what we did, let me first say a bit about why there’s a puzzle at all. Let’s think about the wave function for a spin, a spin-measuring apparatus, and an environment (the rest of the world). It might initially take the form
(α[up] + β[down] ; apparatus says “ready” ; environment 0 ). (1)
This might look a little cryptic if you’re not used to it, but it’s not too hard to grasp the gist. The first slot refers to the spin. It is in a superposition of “up” and “down.” The Greek letters α and β are the amplitudes that specify the wave function for those two possibilities. The second slot refers to the apparatus just sitting there in its ready state, and the third slot likewise refers to the environment. By the Born Rule, when we make a measurement the probability of seeing spin-up is |α|2, while the probability for seeing spin-down is |β|2.
In Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM), wave functions never collapse. The one we’ve written will smoothly evolve into something that looks like this:
α([up] ; apparatus says “up” ; environment 1 )
+ β([down] ; apparatus says “down” ; environment 2 ). (2)
This is an extremely simplified situation, of course, but it is meant to convey the basic appearance of two separate “worlds.” The wave function has split into branches that don’t ever talk to each other, because the two environment states are different and will stay that way. A state like this simply arises from normal Schrödinger evolution from the state we started with.
So here is the problem. After the splitting from (1) to (2), the wave function coefficients α and β just kind of go along for the ride. If you find yourself in the branch where the spin is up, your coefficient is α, but so what? How do you know what kind of coefficient is sitting outside the branch you are living on? All you know is that there was one branch and now there are two. If anything, shouldn’t we declare them to be equally likely (so-called “branch-counting”)? For that matter, in what sense are there probabilities at all? There was nothing stochastic or random about any of this process, the entire evolution was perfectly deterministic. It’s not right to say “Before the measurement, I didn’t know which branch I was going to end up on.” You know precisely that one copy of your future self will appear on each branch. Why in the world should we be talking about probabilities?
Note that the pressing question is not so much “Why is the probability given by the wave function squared, rather than the absolute value of the wave function, or the wave function to the fourth, or whatever?” as it is “Why is there a particular probability rule at all, since the theory is deterministic?” Indeed, once you accept that there should be some specific probability rule, it’s practically guaranteed to be the Born Rule. There is a result called Gleason’s Theorem, which says roughly that the Born Rule is the only consistent probability rule you can conceivably have that depends on the wave function alone. So the real question is not “Why squared?”, it’s “Whence probability?”
Of course, there are promising answers. Perhaps the most well-known is the approach developed by Deutsch and Wallace based on decision theory. There, the approach to probability is essentially operational: given the setup of Everettian quantum mechanics, how should a rational person behave, in terms of making bets and predicting experimental outcomes, etc.? They show that there is one unique answer, which is given by the Born Rule. In other words, the question “Whence probability?” is sidestepped by arguing that reasonable people in an Everettian universe will act as if there are probabilities that obey the Born Rule. Which may be good enough.
But it might not convince everyone, so there are alternatives. One of my favorites is Wojciech Zurek’s approach based on “envariance.” Rather than using words like “decision theory” and “rationality” that make physicists nervous, Zurek claims that the underlying symmetries of quantum mechanics pick out the Born Rule uniquely. It’s very pretty, and I encourage anyone who knows a little QM to have a look at Zurek’s paper. But it is subject to the criticism that it doesn’t really teach us anything that we didn’t already know from Gleason’s theorem. That is, Zurek gives us more reason to think that the Born Rule is uniquely preferred by quantum mechanics, but it doesn’t really help with the deeper question of why we should think of EQM as a theory of probabilities at all.
Here is where Chip and I try to contribute something. We use the idea of “self-locating uncertainty,” which has been much discussed in the philosophical literature, and has been applied to quantum mechanics by Lev Vaidman. Self-locating uncertainty occurs when you know that there multiple observers in the universe who find themselves in exactly the same conditions that you are in right now — but you don’t know which one of these observers you are. That can happen in “big universe” cosmology, where it leads to the measure problem. But it automatically happens in EQM, whether you like it or not.
Think of observing the spin of a particle, as in our example above. The steps are:
Everything is in its starting state, before the measurement. The apparatus interacts with the system to be observed and becomes entangled. (“Pre-measurement.”) The apparatus becomes entangled with the environment, branching the wave function. (“Decoherence.”) The observer reads off the result of the measurement from the apparatus.
The point is that in between steps 3. and 4., the wave function of the universe has branched into two, but the observer doesn’t yet know which branch they are on. There are two copies of the observer that are in identical states, even though they’re part of different “worlds.” That’s the moment of self-locating uncertainty. Here it is in equations, although I don’t think it’s much help.
You might say “What if I am the apparatus myself?” That is, what if I observe the outcome directly, without any intermediating macroscopic equipment? Nice try, but no dice. That’s because decoherence happens incredibly quickly. Even if you take the extreme case where you look at the spin directly with your eyeball, the time it takes the state of your eye to decohere is about 10-21 seconds, whereas the timescales associated with the signal reaching your brain are measured in tens of milliseconds. Self-locating uncertainty is inevitable in Everettian quantum mechanics. In that sense, probability is inevitable, even though the theory is deterministic — in the phase of uncertainty, we need to assign probabilities to finding ourselves on different branches.
So what do we do about it? As I mentioned, there’s been a lot of work on how to deal with self-locating uncertainty, i.e. how to apportion credences (degrees of belief) to different possible locations for yourself in a big universe. One influential paper is by Adam Elga, and comes with the charming title of “Defeating Dr. Evil With Self-Locating Belief.” (Philosophers have more fun with their titles than physicists do.) Elga argues for a principle of Indifference: if there are truly multiple copies of you in the world, you should assume equal likelihood for being any one of them. Crucially, Elga doesn’t simply assert Indifference; he actually derives it, under a simple set of assumptions that would seem to be the kind of minimal principles of reasoning any rational person should be ready to use.
But there is a problem! Naïvely, applying Indifference to quantum mechanics just leads to branch-counting — if you assign equal probability to every possible appearance of equivalent observers, and there are two branches, each branch should get equal probability. But that’s a disaster; it says we should simply ignore the amplitudes entirely, rather than using the Born Rule. This bit of tension has led to some worry among philosophers who worry about such things.
Resolving this tension is perhaps the most useful thing Chip and I do in our paper. Rather than naïvely applying Indifference to quantum mechanics, we go back to the “simple assumptions” and try to derive it from scratch. We were able to pinpoint one hidden assumption that seems quite innocent, but actually does all the heavy lifting when it comes to quantum mechanics. We call it the “Epistemic Separability Principle,” or ESP for short. Here is the informal version (see paper for pedantic careful formulations):
ESP: The credence one should assign to being any one of several observers having identical experiences is independent of features of the environment that aren’t affecting the observers.
That is, the probabilities you assign to things happening in your lab, whatever they may be, should be exactly the same if we tweak the universe just a bit by moving around some rocks on a planet orbiting a star in the Andromeda galaxy. ESP simply asserts that our knowledge is separable: how we talk about what happens here is independent of what is happening far away. (Our system here can still be entangled with some system far away; under unitary evolution, changing that far-away system doesn’t change the entanglement.)
The ESP is quite a mild assumption, and to me it seems like a necessary part of being able to think of the universe as consisting of separate pieces. If you can’t assign credences locally without knowing about the state of the whole universe, there’s no real sense in which the rest of the world is really separate from you. It is certainly implicitly used by Elga (he assumes that credences are unchanged by some hidden person tossing a coin).
With this assumption in hand, we are able to demonstrate that Indifference does not apply to branching quantum worlds in a straightforward way. Indeed, we show that you should assign equal credences to two different branches if and only if the amplitudes for each branch are precisely equal! That’s because the proof of Indifference relies on shifting around different parts of the state of the universe and demanding that the answers to local questions not be altered; it turns out that this only works in quantum mechanics if the amplitudes are equal, which is certainly consistent with the Born Rule.
See the papers for the actual argument — it’s straightforward but a little tedious. The basic idea is that you set up a situation in which more than one quantum object is measured at the same time, and you ask what happens when you consider different objects to be “the system you will look at” versus “part of the environment.” If you want there to be a consistent way of assigning credences in all cases, you are led inevitably to equal probabilities when (and only when) the amplitudes are equal.
What if the amplitudes for the two branches are not equal? Here we can borrow some math from Zurek. (Indeed, our argument can be thought of as a love child of Vaidman and Zurek, with Elga as midwife.) In his envariance paper, Zurek shows how to start with a case of unequal amplitudes and reduce it to the case of many more branches with equal amplitudes. The number of these pseudo-branches you need is proportional to — wait for it — the square of the amplitude. Thus, you get out the full Born Rule, simply by demanding that we assign credences in situations of self-locating uncertainty in a way that is consistent with ESP.
We like this derivation in part because it treats probabilities as epistemic (statements about our knowledge of the world), not merely operational. Quantum probabilities are really credences — statements about the best degree of belief we can assign in conditions of uncertainty — rather than statements about truly stochastic dynamics or frequencies in the limit of an infinite number of outcomes. But these degrees of belief aren’t completely subjective in the conventional sense, either; there is a uniquely rational choice for how to assign them.
Working on this project has increased my own personal credence in the correctness of the Everett approach to quantum mechanics from “pretty high” to “extremely high indeed.” There are still puzzles to be worked out, no doubt, especially around the issues of exactly how and when branching happens, and how branching structures are best defined. (I’m off to a workshop next month to think about precisely these questions.) But these seem like relatively tractable technical challenges to me, rather than looming deal-breakers. EQM is an incredibly simple theory that (I can now argue in good faith) makes sense and fits the data. Now it’s just a matter of convincing the rest of the world! |
Allegation from Ramzi bin al Shibh a rare lively moment in a day that was otherwise devoted to lengthy legal arguments
A defendant in the September 11 terror attack case alleged Tuesday that guards at Guantánamo Bay have been withholding food when he is in court or meeting with his lawyers. Military officials denied that has happened.
The charge by Ramzi bin al Shibh came as he angrily explained to the military judge in his case why he did not want to attend the afternoon session on the second day of a weeklong pretrial hearing at the US base in Cuba.
"It is a form of psychological torture," he said.
The judge, Colonel James Pohl, has been allowing the five defendants to skip sessions of their pretrial hearings, but he has said they will be required to attend their actual trial, which is likely at least a year away. The other four defendants had already decided not to come to court Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Guantánamo Bay prison, navy captain Robert Durand, later said Shibh was provided with a "freshly prepared meal" that met Muslim dietary standards, but "the defendant complained that his lunch did not include condiments such as olives and honey."
The allegation from bin al Shibh, a Yemeni accused of aiding the 9/11 hijackers, was a rare lively moment in a day that was otherwise devoted to lengthy arguments over aspects of a protective order that governs the handling of classified evidence in the complex terrorism trial.
Lawyers for the five prisoners believe the rules as written make it harder for them to mount a defense based around the men's harsh treatment while in CIA custody. The arguments were expected to continue Wednesday.
The five prisoners facing trial in the case include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has portrayed himself as the mastermind of the terrorist plot, and all of them face charges that include terrorism and murder. They could get the death penalty if convicted. |
The Trump administration plans to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to the federal budget that is expected to be released today.
If approved by Congress, the cuts would impact public media outlets throughout the region. As Crosscut has previously reported, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funds account for 5 percent of NPR-affiliate KUOW's annual budget and 7 percent of KNKX's (formerly KPLU) budget, according to spokespeople from each. The classical music station KING-FM would see 6 percent of its budget disappear. And Cascade Public Media, the parent company of both Crosscut and KCTS9, would lose 10 percent of its annual funding.
The percentage of annual CPB funding for other media organizations in the state include: 25 percent for KBTC, Tacoma’s PBS affiliate; 8 percent for Spokane Public Radio, and 22 percent for KSPS, Spokane's PBS affiliate.
Public radio across the county would see a cut of 11 percent and public television would lose 18 percent, according to a 2010 report from CPB. But the stations in rural areas, the report noted, could be hit the hardest, with as much as 30 percent less in annual funding.
CPB funds are allocated two years in advance, meaning public media companies that receive such money have been funded through 2018.
Public media companies have faced threats of losing CPB funds before. President George W. Bush tried to zero out CPB in every one of his budgets, but Congress reversed course. Already, there are indications that CPB funding has some bipartisan support: In an interview with KCTS in February, Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert pledged to support funding for public media.
"You never know what's going to happen," said Joey Cohn, station manager at KNKX, about the possibility of losing federal funding. "We've been under threat before."
Cohn said NPR has been encouraging stations to keep in close contact with elected officials and with the public about the "good work that public broadcasting has been doing."
Cascade Public Media President Rob Dunlop said in an email, "We are disappointed that President Trump has proposed to eliminate funding for public media. It is our belief that investment in public media leads to a better informed public, and in turn, strengthens communities throughout our region and across the country. Specifically, we are proud to serve our region through high-quality television content, and as a nonprofit, local journalism organization. Regardless of the political climate, we will remain committed to advancing social and civic engagement, arts and culture, and education and family initiatives.”
Arvid Hokanson, program manager at KUOW, said he's been telling listeners who've been interested "to go to the Protect My Public Media website."
CPB funding accounts for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the total $4 trillion federal budget.
This story has been updated since it first appeared with a statement from Cascade Public Media's Rob Dunlop. |
It looks like autumn is officially here and this week I saw a couple of autumn themed origami models as well as a lot of great dinosaurs. If this is your first time here This Week in Origami is where we feature the best new origami models that were uploaded to the Internet during the past week. Let’s get started.
Robin Scholz is an expert at origami tessellations and this week he made probably the smallest one I’ve ever seen her make which is pretty impressive.
Small Swarm, Designed and Folded by Robin Scholz
Crease pattern available here
Tetsuya Gotani folded a beautiful Stegosaurus.
Stegosaurus, Designed and Folded by Tetsuya Gotani
Crease pattern available here
Francisco J. González folded another awesome looking dinosaur.
Tyrannosaurus Rex, Designed by Fernando Gilgado and Folded by Francisco J. González
Diagrams available in Papirolandia 3
Victor J. Quintero folded this cute little bat which would be perfect for Halloween
Eared Bat, Designed and Folded by Victor J. Quintero
Instructions not available
Joseph Wu has been experimenting all week with origami cats and here he has several of them all folded from the same basic structure but with a different look for each based on how they’re folded.
Cats, Designed and Folded by Joseph Wu
Instructions not available
Ekaterina Lukasheva has a new book out called Modern Kusudama Origami: Designs for Modular Origami Lovers. It’s available from Amazon.com and it looks like it’s a must have for kusudama lovers. Below is a sample of some of the models in the book from the table of contents.
Beth Johnson designed this excellent Dromedary camel as part of a challenge with her friends.
Dromedary, Designed and Folded by Beth Johnson
Instructions not available
Hiroaki Kobayashi folded this cute little saber tooth tiger.
Saber Tooth Tiger, Designed by Ryan Dong and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi
Diagrams available in the 21st Origami Tanteidan Convention
Artur Biernacki folded this very realistic looking wasp.
Wasp, Designed by Kaede Nakamura and folded by Artur Biernacki
Crease pattern available here
Sebastien Limet folded this adorable puffin and used a pretty neat trick where he used two sheets of paper to get 4 different colours in the model. The model itself only requires one square of paper.
Not Alone, Designed and Folded by Sebastien Limet
Instructions not available
Shu Sugamata continues to design awesome Star Wars models with this new TIE Bomber prototype.
TIE Bomber Prototype, Designed and Folded by Shu Sugamata
Instructions not available
Keeping with the theme of dinosaurs and fall 戴璐 folded this awesome Stegosaurus out of some very nice autumn red coloured paper.
Stegosaurus, Designed and Folded by 戴璐
Instructions not available
Ivan Svatko folded this beautiful Flying Hercules Beetle.
Flying Hercules Beetle, Designed by Shuki Kato and Folded by Ivan Svatko
Diagrams available in Origami Masters Bugs: How the Bug Wars Changed the Art of Origami
P. Colman folded this beautiful display of butterflies and an awesome looking flying carp.
Butterflies, Designed by Michael LaFosse and Folded by P. Colman
Diagrams available in Michael LaFosse’s Origami Butterflies: Elegant Designs from a Master Folder
Flying Carp, Designed by Brian Chan and Folded by P. Colman
Crease pattern available in AEP Pajarita 2011
Mariano folded this cute little spectacled bear.
Spectacled Bear, Designed by Nguyen Hung Cuong and Folded by Mariano
Diagrams available in #5 VOG: 50 hours of Origami +
Shuki Kato folded a beautiful pair of bisons and another beautiful pair of Stegosauruses? Stegosauri?
Bison, Designed and Folded by Shuki Kato
Crease pattern available here
Stegosaurus 1995 and 2015, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Shuki Kato
Instructions not available
Gonzalo uploaded this beautiful photo of an origami crane he folded.
Dancing Crane, Designed by Robert J. Lang and Folded by Gonzalo
Diagrams available in Origami Design Secrets Second Edition
Also in the spirit of autumn Peter Keller folded these beautiful autumn leaves.
Autumn Now, Designed and Folded by Peter Keller
Instructions not available
Finally we have this amazing Tenontosaurus and small Deinonychus pack from the master of origami dinosaurs Tran Trung Hieu.
Hunting Ground, Designed and folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Deinonychus crease pattern available here, Tenontosarus instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
That’s it for another week. Be sure to visit all of these artists and follow them if you like their work. Also if you enjoy origami kusudamas check out Ekaterina Lukasheva’s new book. Based on the photos she posted on her Flickr it looks like it’s going to be quite good.
See you all next week! |
Charges that an Army sergeant secretly photographed and videotaped women at West Point are part of a military-wide pattern of sexual misconduct, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said on Thursday.
The military has been rocked by a series of arrests and incidents of sexual misconduct. But the news from the venerable US Military Academy could be particularly embarrassing. The Army said on Wednesday that a sergeant at West Point had been charged with secretly photographing and videotaping at least a dozen women at the academy, including in a bathroom.
Sgt. 1st Class Michael McClendon, a combat engineer, was assigned to the academy from 2009 until recently. He was a member of the support staff at West Point, working with cadets. He has been transferred to Fort Drum, New York. The Associated Press could not find a working number for McClendon, and it could not be immediately determined whether he had a lawyer. He was charged on 14 May, though the charges became public this week as senior cadets prepare for commencement on Saturday. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will speak to the graduates.
The allegation comes the same month the Pentagon released a report estimating that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year and that thousands of victims are unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and assistance programs.
Gillibrand said the West Point charges illustrated a culture and reporting system that allows predators to remain in service. Service members afraid of retaliation or jeopardizing their careers often are reluctant to bring charges of sexual misconduct to their superiors, she said.
"This case is another case in a long line of incidents where we have clear evidence that the military did not understand how to handle this problem of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct," Gillibrand said. "Obviously, you're not having a level of accountability that is going to prevent these incidents and send a clear message that this criminal behavior is unacceptable."
Gillibrand, who is on the Senate armed services committee, is pushing for a system in which sexual assault is reported outside the chain of command, directly to a military prosecutor.
West Point was named along with military officials in a lawsuit filed in April 2012, seeking the court's help in permanently changing attitudes about sexual assault at military academies. The lawsuit claims the nation's military academies "systemically and repeatedly ignore rampant sexual harassment". The suit said a 20-year-old Pennsylvania woman resigned from West Point after she became suicidal following her rape by a roommate's boyfriend, who remained in her unit after she reported she was attacked.
An army spokesman, George Wright, said West Point was working to prevent sexual harassment and assault and to cultivate cultural norms that prevent it in the future. He noted that the allegations date to more than a year ago, a time when West Point was already training cadets, faculty and staff.
"The overwhelming majority of staff and faculty here are good, law-abiding and respectful people dedicated to service to their country," Wright said in an email. "The recent allegations have re-affirmed the importance of screening our staff and faculty to ensure we have decent, forthright people training and mentoring the future leaders of the Army."
Sue Fulton, a 1980 West Point graduate, said that sexual offenders are "a tiny minority that don't reflect the kind of people who sign up to serve. That said, I can't help but agree with Senator Gillibrand that we need to change the culture. This kind of behavior goes against our army values and against the core values of West Point."
Fulton is a member of the US Military Academy's board of visitors, though she said she could not speak for the board. She also is a co-founder of Knights Out, an organization of gay West Point graduates. Fulton said even the simple step of accepting more qualified female applicants to West Point could help. She said women currently represent 16% of cadets.
"We know that the culture could change in a positive way if women were more fairly represented," Fulton said. |
Former Buffs coach headed to Hall of Fame
One player and one member of the coaching staff will remain on the field Saturday when the Colorado football team heads to the locker room at halftime of its game with No. 2 Oregon.
True freshman defensive lineman Derek McCartney and offensive graduate assistant T.C. McCartney will get to see their grandfather, Bill McCartney, honored during a halftime ceremony at Folsom Field.
Bill McCartney will be the first CU coach inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December. He will join six former CU players in the hall and the school chose this weekend to honor his achievement.
A weekend of festivities actually kicked off Thursday afternoon with a luncheon on campus in McCartney's honor. Dozens of his former players are expected to return to town this weekend to see the coach who led the program to its only national championship in 1990 honored.
T.C. and Derek McCartney grew up in Boulder in a house next door to their grandfather. Both were fathered by former CU football players but didn't have their fathers in their lives growing up.
T.C.'s father, the late-Sal Aunese died from stomach cancer in 1989 and became the emotional centerpiece of the Buffs' run to the national title game in 1989 against Notre Dame. Derek's father, Shannon Clavelle, played for McCartney 1992-1994 but hasn't always been a part of Derek's life.
Advertisement
Both young men said their grandfather was a father figure, friend and mentor to them growing up and continues to fill those roles today.
"I grew up right around him next door or living with him my entire life so he had a huge influence on me, everything I did, every aspect of my life," T.C. McCartney said. "So I'm really proud that he got elected to the hall of fame and I can't wait until Saturday to see him get honored in front of everybody.
"I wouldn't miss it."
Derek McCartney said its obvious how much earning induction to the hall of fame has meant to his gradfather, who found out in early May when the National Football Foundation announce the 2013 class. Derek McCartney said he's looking forward to seeing that joy on his grandfather's face again Saturday.
"He means the world," Derek McCartney said. "I mean, just not having a dad around my whole life he's always been there for me. I've lived next door so he's always been kind of a father figure. It has been awesome."
Contact staff writer Kyle Ringo at [email protected] or twitter.com/kyleringo. |
The Potemkin Election was held in November. Now the Washington establishment is caucusing for the real vote. There’s really no other way to describe what is taking place in DC presently than a claque of vomiting mandarins. The media vanguard of which being the blog of hyper-plutocrat Jeff Bezos, which features the unintentionally ironic masthead slogan of “Democracy dies in darkness.” Maybe, but undoing the results of democracy is work that paper does in broad daylight.
It’s unfortunate more people don’t notice how quickly liberal universal democracy-mongers become Jim Crow the instant those middle-class heartland niggers make a deplorable choice. Of course the sole point of installing an Infinite Franchise is to assure the imperium of its selection through a high-low coalition against the middle. It’s a pernicious strategy, but one that works. Soros has money and malevolence, while BLM/antifa have ganglions attached to nerve endings.
Except against all odds this time the strategy didn’t work. And that throbbing carcinoma on the Potomac has displayed its grace in losing by going utterly ape shit from second one. To be fair to malignancies, Trump has provided far more motivation to his enemies than his supporters of late. And that’s been his failing. That along with being undisciplined, impetuous, and thin-skinned.
But in his defense, none of us can comprehend the barometric pressure of his position. The presidency is several Earth gravity’s to begin with. Though much fewer when the press fawningly carries you about in a sedan-chair. But that was Obama. Trump has practically the entire political, bureaucratic, and judicial firmaments arrayed against him. This fact speaks far more grossly of our rotted institutions than of any choice of the people they unanimously despise. And Trump doesn’t even find respite in his own residence; the White House being a viper’s nest of leaks and lies.
Unfortunately, his shrinking radius of trust is compressing the presidency into a pantry of family members, neocons, and jews–sometimes all three in the same person. This cadre may honestly be loyal to him, whether out of blood or proximity to power, but who certainly hold no loyalty to the constituents that elected him. And these constituents are the only 63 million friends Trump has.
If Trump sought counsel from the Kakistocracy, I would advise him to jettison twitter, toss out every Goldman Banker, and start making routine and direct statements to the American people. 1) Establish a definitive agenda–I think Steve Bannon already has one available on his whiteboard. 2) Set-up project leads for each initiative, give them resources and timeframes for deliverables, and then set them to work. 3) Manage the projects and report on the progress. I presume all of this already takes place, though I’ve seen little evidence of it.
Though if novel to his approach, the process would put Trump in his native work habitat, focus the White House on defined tasks, and lessen the counterproductive squalling and drama. Of course this may not placate Trump’s Moscow handler. Though if Seth Rich was the source of Wikileak’s DNC Emails, then the “Russian election hack” narrative would be revealed as the dem/media stool it always was. And learning of more deceit from those venues would make tomorrow a fairly typical Wednesday.
Advertisements |
Where are they now (Fisker edition)? The story gets even weirder
Electric car maker Fisker Automotive has yet to file for bankruptcy or find a buyer, but it already has some alum — two former Fisker CEOs — that are working on some unusual projects.
Most notably, Reuters reported Friday that Fisker founder and former CEO Henrik Fisker has teamed up with Hong Kong mogul Richard Li in an effort to buy Fisker’s remaining $171 million in loans from the Department of Energy, so that Fisker won’t have to go bankrupt. The duo are offering between $25 million and $30 million for the loan, which would represent a discount of 17.5 cents on the dollar.
Advertisement
That isn’t the only low-priced bid for Fisker. A competing bid is a pre-packaged bankruptcy deal of $20 million from Chinese auto giant Wanxiang and Bob Lutz’s VL Automotive.
The other new project comes from Fisker’s former CEO Tom LaSorda, who only led Fisker for about 6 months. LaSorda has teamed up with racing investor Roger Penske to create a VC fund called IncWell, according to Bloomberg Business Week.
LaSorda told the publication that they probably wouldn’t invest in electric cars unless “unless I can get a good deal with Tesla,” and also said that they would not invest in another company founded by Henrik Fisker. LaSorda put his own money into Fisker. |
North Texas is a fantastic place. Dallas is a real city, with a comparatively low cost of living along with all of the benefits you'd expect from a city its size. If cities aren't your thing, we have every kind of suburb you can imagine — inner suburbs, normal suburbs, exurbs, ex-exurbs — thanks to sprawl. If you know how to play the game, even the much-maligned public schools are at least navigable. Despite what we've been accused of, we genuinely love living here.
OK, enough with the smoothie, smoothie. We like it here, but that doesn't mean a few of neighbors don't occasionally make us ashamed to admit our hometown. Here are the 10 most embarrassing living North Texans.
10. Mark Cuban
Cubes was the hardest person, by far, to put on this list. The Mavericks owner rehabilitated our previously moribund basketball team, taking a franchise that hadn't made the playoffs in a decade when he purchased them in 2000 to its first NBA championship in 2011. As the Mavericks owner, Cuban has never been less than great. He's always given the Mavs the passion and money they've needed to thrive.
Continue Reading
Cuban's still on the list though, because of his recently highlighted fascinations with libertarian frat-boy favorite Ayn Rand and the logical consequence of a society in which she is revered: Donald Trump.
In November, Cuban went on a multi-tweet rant comparing the push for net-neutrality — a policy that requires Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally — to something out of a Rand novel. Wanting net neutrality, Cuban argued, wasn't about securing equal access to a public utility, it was about ceding greater control to the government. Just like in Atlas Shrugged.
Then there's Trump. Cuban went out of his way to give the tangerine-hued, might-just-be-real-God-help-us-no-no presidential candidate the biggest Dallas stage possible, handing the keys to the American Airlines Center for a September 14 rally. Not only did he grant he use of the facilities, Cuban has reviewed Trump's previous work in glowing terms and refused to rule out becoming the real estate developer's running mate. Trump is undoubtedly entertaining, but treating his candidacy with any amount of seriousness is dangerous.
EXPAND Bruce Schneier, Mark Cuban and Cory Doctorow. The shirt is almost too rich. Ed Schipul
9. Regina Imburgia
The name may not immediately ring a bell, but Regina Imburgia is responsible for Dallas' long, often stupefying, always amusing fight over fluoridation.
Fluoridation is a basic civic good. It helps kids who have less access to dental care avoid cavities. That didn't stop Imburgia at the rest of her Colonel Ripper-aping crew from inundating City Council meetings with their nonsense, creating the immortal, Martin Luther King Jr.-citing website dogsagainstfluoridation.com and leading former-City Council member Sheffie Kadane to sound even more confused than usual as he endorsed their plan to stop adding fluoride to the water supply.
Imburgia didn't succeed, thank goodness, but local media, the Observer included, and the council ended up talking about a non-issue for months.
Woof. This was dumb. dogsagainstfluoride.com
8. John Wiley Price
In his heyday, John Wiley Price was at least worth paying attention to. He was an agitator, constantly doing things like ending up in jail for snapping people's windshield wipers, pleading no contest to tackling joggers or decrying the use of the term "black hole" as racist.
You may have thought he was grifter or disagreed with his politics, but Price was always entertaining. Now, as he faces a mountain of federal corruption charges with only a couple of court-appointed attorneys at his side, Price is just sad. He still has his seat on the Dallas County Commissioner's Court, but little of the enormous power he used to wield. Come March 1, he may lose the seat, too, as he faces a stiff primary challenge from popular former City Council member Dwaine Caraway.
He's not the straw stirring the drink anymore, and we're all a little more bored because of it.
Our man downtown, John Wiley Price Alex Scott
7. Jerry Jones
As we explained a couple of weeks ago, we're actually in a kinda OK place with Jerry Jones when it comes to sports. He's largely turned over the day-to-day operation of the Cowboys to his son Stephen Jones, and the team is better for it.
Jones makes the cut because of his propensity for getting in the news for other reasons. Like, say, being sued by a former stripper for sexual assault and having photos of the night in question pop up everywhere. It should be noted that Jana Weckerly did eventually drop her suit against Jones, but the images of the visibly intoxicated Cowboys owner from that night will be seared in our minds forever. Add in Jones' bromance with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — who might be one of the most embarrassing people in the United States, full stop — and you've got a recipe for continued civic mortification.
6. Rafael Cruz
Rafael Cruz Michael Vadon
Rafael Cruz, the dad of equally embarrassing Texas Senator Ted Cruz, calls North Texas home. Lucky us.
The elder Cruz is proud to proclaim the United States is Christian nation and that atheists are perverts and molesters. He says that gay people being called gay is part of a conspiracy to misrepresent the LGBTQ community as happy and that President Obama's first act in office was legalizing third-trimester abortions and the the killing of babies that had already been born. The president's wife, Michelle, Rafael Cruz has said, "mesmerizes" audiences. Cruz also believes in the Law of the Sea Treaty conspiracy, which involves President Obama redistributing American wealth through the dispersal of offshore drilling revenue somehow.
Add in all the normal stuff about the confiscation of guns — or adding GPS to all private guns — and you've got a toxic cocktail of crazy and respectability to which people will actually listen.
5. David Pickup
David Pickup actually splits his time between Dallas and California, but he has just established the Children's Center for Healthy Gender and Sexuality here, so we have to claim him. (C'mon, Pickup, why ever leave the sun and beaches and mountains and great cities like LA and San Francisco? Well, maybe not San Francisco.)
Pickup is one of the nation's leading practitioner's of so-called "reparative therapy," the practice of making people who aren't heterosexual heterosexuals. In the medical community, reparative therapy is viewed as, at best, quackery and, at worst, permanently damaging. When we asked Pickup about his practice in January, he said he wasn't worried about what any medical association might say.
""I'm not worried because the medical associations or any other association is worried about it, because they don't know what they're talking about. They're either not courageous enough or not knowledgeable enough or willing to do enough research around what the real issues are," he said. "I don't think they care about people who are dealing with these issues who know that for them homosexuality doesn't represent their authentic selves and for whom this really works."
One of Pickup's billboards. Holly Scott via Twitter
4. Mark Davis
Dallas' long-serving right-wing radio yakker never ceases to amuse. He's said that allowing women in combat is an "outrage against humanity" — which gives us an opportunity to highlight two awesome women who graduated from Army Ranger school last month — that kids wouldn't be bullied if they were just tougher and that men needed to "sit their women down" and order them not to go see Fifty Shades of Grey.
For the 20 years or so Davis has been in Dallas, he's been a consistent source of the kind of foaming-at-the-mouth reactionary outrage that Texas gets stereotyped for, but we'd like to think Dallas is above. That's why he makes the list.
3. Ken Paxton
If you ever forget that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes his home in North Texas, just remember the location of his ongoing felony trial for violating lobbying rules: Collin County.
Since taking office in January, Paxton has led vitriolic and ultimately fruitless crusades against the LGBTQ community, abortion providers and the tyrannical practice of requiring insurance plans to cover birth control, in addition to being indicted for multiple felonies.
Before he took office, Paxton, then a state senator, picked up a $1,000 pen from a Collin County Courthouse metal detector and didn't return it until he got asked about by a sheriff's deputy, according to the Dallas Morning News .
He's become a national laughing stock, one who can't exit the stage soon enough.
Didn't learn the lesson about not touching other's stuff in kindergarten. State of Texas
2. Robert Jeffress
First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress is the millstone around the neck of Dallas evangelical community. Any time they want to be taken seriously, they have to deal with questions about the leader of the 12,000-member strong church downtown. Jeffress, who recently oversaw the completion of a $130 million renovation that made his church's campus look more like a casino than a house of worship, has said that churches should turn over undocumented immigrants to authorities, that Catholicism is a "Babylonian mystery religion" and that abortion caused 9/11.
Jeffress also believes that President Obama isn't the antichrist, but a sign that the antichrist is coming, that Christians in the United States are being treated like Jews in Nazi Germany and that the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage is the worst in the history of a court that has upheld segregation, the treatment of people as property and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. A week doesn't go by without Jeffress going on Fox News and making an ass of himself. It's starting to get old.
1. Kory Watkins
Oh, Kory. You may have moved a bit further east in an attempt to establish an anarcho-libertarian utopia in Lone Oak, but you still qualify as living in North Texas for sure.
For a couple of years now, whenever we saw a news report about a group of idiots carrying semiautomatic rifles in a Jack in the Box, Kroger or some other dumbass place; whenever we heard something about gun-rights "advocates" threatening members of the Legislature at the capitol, we knew we were going to see your smiling mug and your flippin' trilby hat on the national news.
Killing Legislators for supporting licensed open carry, not the the unlicensed version you support? We blush. But if we wanted to see complete and utter ignorance as to how the social contract has insured the continued existence of humanity, there was always your Facebook page.
If we never hear about you, your Open Carry Tarrant County group or see your hat again, it won't have been long enough. |
NewsAbortion, Politics - U.S.
NORCROSS, Georgia, May 1, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia today signed a law that protects preborn children capable of feeling pain, earning him praise from Georgia’s largest pro-life organization.
“I am deeply grateful that Governor Deal has demonstrated his commitment to protecting the preborn,” said Dan Becker, president of Georgia Right to Life. “By signing this measure, at least 1,500 babies a year will no longer be killed.”
Previously, Georgia allowed abortions for almost any reason throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
The new law, HB 954, was sponsored by Rep. Doug McKillip (District 115) and will take effect on January 1, 2013. It clearly establishes that Georgia has a “compelling state interest in protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which they are capable of feeling pain.”
That stage is now set at 20 weeks after gestation, which means no abortions can be performed after that, except in cases where it’s deemed necessary to save the life of the mother, or to end a “medically futile” pregnancy.
“While this new law represents significant progress in saving lives, a last-minute amendment that allows doctors to end so-called futile pregnancies is a first step to establishing a eugenic policy in Georgia,” Becker said. “It opens the door to destroying babies doctors think may be less than perfect.”
Noting that the proposal prompted a heated and emotional debate, Becker added: “I commend those legislators who honored the sanctity of life and did not abandon their principles.”
Georgia now joins six other states that have passed similar laws. |
In 1969, a band of draft-dodgers established a commune “to grow flowers and make pottery” near an abandoned train depot in Georgeville, Minnesota. One of them brought a video camera. His short documentary survives today.
A narrator’s voice lopes its way across some homemade footage of overgrown train tracks: “We talk to the outside world,” the voice narrates, “but we have an ambivalent attitude toward it.”
But before long, these ambivalent communards would venture to the city to participate in the burgeoning food co-op movement. In 1970, an underground newspaper in Minneapolis proclaimed “GOOD FOOD FOR STRONG REVOLUTIONARY BODIES AT THE PEOPLES’ PANTRY.”
“There’s no reason why some time in the not-too-distant future (five years?) most of the Twin Cities’ food needs cannot be served by peoples’ co-ops,” wrote one cooperative member at the time. “One thousand co-ops each providing 1,000 people with healthful and inexpensive food grown on nearby farms by non-exploitive (and non-exploited) farmers is not just a pipe dream.”
Pipe dream or no, this utopianism was short-lived. By 1975, sectarian conflicts had spiraled out of control. As an organizer of the Peoples’ Warehouse, one of the city’s largest co-ops, told a film crew decades later, “We were sitting on bags of flour, smoking joints and reading our comic book, Invasion of the Stalinoids ,” when about twenty-five militants carrying steel pipes entered the co-op. “They were full of class rage — at us! Because we were the bourgeoisie!”
After a righteous denunciation, the interlopers seized control of the cooperative by force. The Peoples’ Warehouse had become a battleground in the violent intra-left struggle remembered today as the “co-op wars.”
During the 1970s, two factions jostled for control over some two dozen food cooperatives in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis. On one side, there were the decentralists, with strong ties to the communitarian ethos of the hippie generation. On the other side, there was a brigade of Maoist true believers, whose strategy for prolonged people’s war required wresting control of the food co-operatives from the flower children.
This group was known as the Co-op Organization (CO), and later simply as The O. It started as a clique of self-styled guerillas, schooled in the messianic Marxism-Leninism of the late New Left. It ended, in the words of one former member, as an experiment that “blew up in the lab, so to speak, flinging the research staff far and wide.”
The decentralists were enamored of organic foods farmed on back-to-the-land communes by former student radicals like themselves. Because they alienated most of their working-class neighbors, they remained few in number. The CO, on the other hand, following the model of the Black Panther Party, wanted to use the cooperatives to distribute staples like Wonder Bread and canned soup to as many community residents as possible, in the hopes of attracting mass support for the revolutionary struggle they planned to wage.
But neither group seemed especially interested in the rich tradition of cooperative enterprise that already existed among black residents of the West Bank neighborhood, who had intermittently organized co-op groceries and mutual aid societies since at least the 1940s.
Gary Cunningham, a cooperative organizer (and today the husband of Betsy Hodges, the sitting mayor of Minneapolis), sympathized with the CO at first. But then the CO tried to seize the Bryant-Central Co-op, founded by Cunningham’s uncle Moe Burton, a community organizer with ties to the Socialist Workers Party and the Black Panthers.
“There were shots fired that night at our house,” he recalled to the same film crew. “We got up the next morning and went to the co-op and it was like a scene from a Western. We pretty much beat them up. I think I broke one of the guys’ arms.”
In the end, their campaign of co-op takeovers failed to propel the CO to the head of a mass insurrection. Nor did the decentralists succeed in erecting their utopia of farmers markets. The decentralists dispersed. The CO degenerated. The conflict died down.
Still, today, older residents of the Twin Cities may shudder to hear newcomers speak casually of food co-ops, as if they know nothing of the war. |
Kevin Durant approached media members covering the Thunder’s shootaround this morning, and unprompted by any question, expounded at length upon his relationship with them. Depending upon your perspective he was clarifying, adding detail to, or walking back his blistering comments after Friday night’s game.
Durant talked for awhile—and you really should go to The Oklahoman and read his comments at length—but to me this is the most salient bit:
I know I’m not necessarily talking to all you guys – all you guys with all these mics here. My whole thing is when I disagree that doesn’t mean I hate you, that just means … what you guys really wanted is someone who’s open and honest with you and who’s opinionated and that’s who I am. I haven’t changed, I’m the same person. I just grew as a man. Hopefully you just appreciate it and know that I don’t hate you. That’s a harsh word and my mom never brought me up to be a hater of anyone.
Durant’s clarification doesn’t really address the core issue, or at least not the one I raised when I wrote about this yesterday. Specifically, nobody has argued (at least that I’ve seen or read) that Durant hates the media. He didn’t respond this morning to something people are actually arguing. What I and others criticized was his blaming a nebulous and non-existent “the media” instead of expressly taking issue with Michael Wilbon’s (very fair) comments about NBA contenders that was the jumping off point for his broadside.
Advertisement
Anyway, this topic will surely be revisited again. Whether it’s the Thunder’s notoriously strict media access policies, Russell Westbrook’s obvious disdain for his mandatory media obligations, or Kevin Durant’s increasing combativeness, the Thunder always seem to present interesting case studies of the sports media industrial complex.
[The Oklahoman]
Photo via AP
Advertisement |
The Haisla Nation today celebrates the federal government’s announcement that it will not undertake further consultations on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline Project.
“We raised profound concerns about this project as early as 2005,” says Crystal Smith, Acting Chief Councillor. “We took the steps necessary to protect the environmental integrity of our land, waters and resources for future generations. We have long said that this is the wrong project, moving the wrong product, through the wrong Territory. We are hugely relieved and gratified that the efforts of a succession of Haisla Nation Councils and of our people as a whole have been successful, and that this project is not going to proceed.”
Canada, under the former federal administration, conditionally approved Northern Gateway, forcing the Haisla Nation, along with many other Aboriginal Nations and environmental groups, to turn to the Courts. On June 23, 2016, the Federal Court of Appeal condemned Canada’s failure, under the former government, to consult with and accommodate Aboriginal Nations as required by Canada’s Constitution. The Court set aside Northern Gateway’s Certificate.
The simultaneous announcement of the North Coast crude oil tanker ban adds further protection for Haisla Nation waters and seashores while allowing transportation of more environmentally friendly substances like liquefied natural gas |
Here are some facts about this particular date:
What Day: The 23rd of June, 2005, fell on a Thursday.
On this exact date: Social news website Reddit is founded.
Decade: 2000s.
13 years, 8 months and 5 days have passed since the 23rd of June, 2005.
Week Number: This date occurred during Week 25 of 2005.
Day 174 of 2005.
Leap Year: 2005 was NOT a leap year.
Zodiac Sign (Astrology): Anyone born on this date will have the star sign Cancer.
Zodiac Element: Water.
Chinese Zodiac Animal: In the Chinese Zodiac, 2005 was the year of the Rooster (Yin Water).
Native American Zodiac: The 23rd of June, 2005 falls under the Woodpecker.
Birthstone: Anyone born during the month of June will have the birthstones Pearl and Alexandrite.
Age: Anyone born on the 23rd of June, 2005, will be 13 years of age.
American Format: 06-23-2005 (the MDY format is also used in Belize).
YMD Format: 2005-06-23. This format is often used by software applications, simply because numbers such as "20050623" are easier to sort.
Unix Timestamp: The Unix Timestamp for this date is 1119481200.
Holidays
National holidays and famous events that fall on the 23rd of June:
Saint John's Eve (Denmark)
Music Singles
Songs that were on top of the music singles charts in the USA and the United Kingdom on the 23rd of June, 2005:
United States: We Belong Together - Mariah Carey
We Belong Together - Mariah Carey United Kingdom: Axel F - Crazy Frog
Movie Box Office
What movie was on top of the box office?
The movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" was at the top of the box office on this date.
News Topics, Fads & Culture
Trending news stories and fads that were prevalent throughout this time period. These are news stories and events that would have been in the media on the 23rd of June, 2005.
MySpace Between 2005 and 2008, MySpace was the most popular social network in the world.
Bebo Throughout 2005, a social network called Bebo was beginning to rise in popularity in countries such as Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Kelly Brook English model Kelly Brook is listed as FHM's sexiest woman in 2005.
Time Person of the Year 2005 U2 singer Bono, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates are listed as the Time Person of the Year 2005; under the title "The Good Samaritans."
Chuck Norris Facts In 2005, "Chuck Norris Facts" began to take-off in popularity.
Weather
Weather information for the 23rd of June, 2005:
Dublin, Ireland: It was 19.9 degrees Celsius. It was a dry day. There were 4 hours of sunshine.
It was 19.9 degrees Celsius. It was a dry day. There were 4 hours of sunshine. New York, USA: Temperature: 66.0 degrees Fahrenheit. 18.89 degrees Celsius. Precipitation: 0cm.
Temperature: 66.0 degrees Fahrenheit. 18.89 degrees Celsius. Precipitation: 0cm. London, England: Temperature: 24.56 degrees Celsius.
US President
Who was the US President on this particular date?
George W. Bush Jnr. was the President of the United States on the 23rd of June, 2005.
Conception Dates
Interesting facts about conception dates.
A baby that was born on the 23rd of June, 2005 was probably conceived around the 13th of September, 2004. (Rough Estimate).
The due date for a baby that was conceived on the 23rd of June, 2005 is the 2nd of April, 2006. (Rough Estimate).
Around This Time...
Things that happened during this general period of time...
On This Date
Historical events that have occurred on the 23rd of June:
Television
TV shows that you might have been watching around this time.
The Office - The US version of The Office, starring Steve Carell as Michael Scott.
- The US version of The Office, starring Steve Carell as Michael Scott. House - Medical drama starring Hugh Laurie.
- Medical drama starring Hugh Laurie. Battlestar Galactica - Sci-fi series.
- Sci-fi series. Desperate Housewives - TV show about housewives living in suburban America.
- TV show about housewives living in suburban America. Boston Legal - TV show about a Boston law firm.
- TV show about a Boston law firm. CSI: NY - New York City version spin-off of the CSI franchise.
- New York City version spin-off of the CSI franchise. Lost - Mystery drama series about a group of plane crash survivors that are stranded on a strange island.
- Mystery drama series about a group of plane crash survivors that are stranded on a strange island. Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide - Nickelodeon TV show about the adventures of middle school teenager Ned Bigby.
- Nickelodeon TV show about the adventures of middle school teenager Ned Bigby. Joey - Short-lived spin-off show about the life of Friend's character Joey Tribbiani.
- Short-lived spin-off show about the life of Friend's character Joey Tribbiani. Stargate Atlantis - Spin-off of the original Stargate series.
Computer Games
Popular video games that you might have been playing around this time.
Battlefield 2 - FPS game.
- FPS game. Lego Star Wars: The Video Game - Lego-based spin-off game that was based on the Star Wars universe.
- Lego-based spin-off game that was based on the Star Wars universe. God of War - Third-person adventure game.
- Third-person adventure game. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 - Game based on the television series.
- Game based on the television series. Resident Evil 4 - Survival horror video game.
- Survival horror video game. World of Warcraft - Massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
- Massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - The third game in the series.
- The third game in the series. Half-Life 2 - FPS game.
- FPS game. Halo 2 - FPS game that was released for the XBox 360.
- FPS game that was released for the XBox 360. Killzone - FPS game.
Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrities and historical figures that were born on the 23rd of June:
How old was I? Enter your date of birth below to find out how old you were on the 23rd of June, 2005. Day
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Month
January February March April May June July August September October November December Year
1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Calculate My Age
Videos Looking for some nostalgia? Here are some Youtube videos relating to the 23rd of June, 2005. Please note that videos are automatically selected by Youtube and that results may vary! Click on the "Load Next Video" button to view the next video in the search playlist. In many cases, you'll find episodes of old TV shows, documentaries, music videos and soap dramas. Show Videos NB: If a video is blank, click on the button above to view the next one...
Visualize Visualize the days that have passed since the 23rd of June, 2005. Each day that has passed will be represented as a calendar icon. Speed Up Start Visualization
Time Difference & Statistics
Here are some fun statistics about the 23rd of June, 2005.
4,996 days have passed since this date.
431,658,000 seconds have passed since the 23rd of June, 2005.
If you were born on this day, your heart has beated approximately 503,601,000 times.
Since the 23rd of June, 2005, earth has travelled approximately 222,735,528,000 miles through space.
If you were born on this day, your eyes have blinked approximately 71,943,000 times.
If you were born on this day, you have taken approximately 37,122,588 steps. That's about 16,499 miles!
Since this date, 5,179,896 meteors have entered the earth's atmosphere!
Translations
Time for a quick language lesson! The word for "Thursday" in other languages is:
German: Donnerstag.
Donnerstag. French: Jeudi.
Jeudi. Italian: Giovedi.
Giovedi. Spanish: Jueves.
Jueves. Portuguese: Quinta-feira.
Random Dates
A list of random dates that you might be interested in: |
The Greek Cypriot side will accept neither majorities of people and property, nor permanent derogations from the EU acquis under a solution, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Sunday.
Anastasiades was addressing the annual anti-occupation event for Morphou refugees, which was held in Astromeritis. His comment is seen as response to Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci who said last week that permanent derogations from the acquis should be viewed as a “natural right” of Turkish Cypriots instead of a restriction to the rights of Greek Cypriots or other EU nationals.
“We want some provisions of the agreement to become primary law of the EU… we know that the permanent derogations are something which is not very popular in the EU, but in spite of this some countries secured these derogations when carrying out their accession negotiations to the EU,” Akinci said.
Akinci said there was talk of temporary derogations for Turkish Cypriots “but being primary law is very important. The Turkish Cypriot community must find the ways of being able to have the majority of property ownership and population in its own area. In this sense, understanding should be shown to our sensitivities…”
Such restrictions are opposed by the Greek Cypriot side, which wants people to enjoy all the freedoms enjoyed by every EU citizen.
Anastasiades made it clear on Sunday saying that although each community would have separate administrations this did not imply guaranteed majorities of population or properties in each region.
He said he and Akinci had agreed to implement the European acquis, and added that the Turkish side could not now start looking for permanent derogations.
“The solution to be reached cannot leave winners and losers, and permanent derogations would leave not only the Greek Cypriots as losers but also Europe,” the President said.
The human rights and basic freedoms enjoyed all other European citizens provided for free movement and the right to property for all, he added, as per the notion of a bizonal bicommunal federation as already agreed.
“Therefore, what I want to bring home to my Turkish Cypriot compatriots and to those who negotiate on their behalf is that we remain true to the commitments we have undertaken,” Anastasiades added.
“But this does not imply majorities of population. This does not imply majorities of property,” he said.
There were issues of political rights “that whether we like it or not” should be adjusted for each of the two future states but that was something entirely different than the four basic freedoms, he added.
“This must be secured and it will be secured. There are the political rights which, whether we want it or not, must be set in a way that will definitely safeguard so that neither the will of the Greek Cypriots nor that of the Turkish Cypriots will be contaminated in each of the two constituent states. But this is one thing and the safeguarding of the four basic freedoms and of the human rights, as I have described them, is another.”
At the time of the Joint Declaration of February 11, 2014, it was agreed by both sides to implement the European acquis and there was no notion of new options or selective references for Cyprus that “nobody else in Europe has claimed or is claiming”.
“Therefore, I want to make one thing clear… we remain committed to peaceful dialogue and determination to work for a solution, but as stated by others and I bring home a number of times to my counterparts either in Cyprus or abroad… you can’t expect that people will accept just any solution,” said Anastasiades.
“The solution should respect the concerns of both communities, not one. The solution should not leave winners and losers, and permanent derogations… would be unfair.”
It was time he added, that Cypriots on both sides became masters of their own country and learned from their mistakes of the past.
“What I am saying are not slogans to satisfy people’s emotions but I am trying to address you – and the Turkish Cypriots – in a realistic way because it is not only the Greek Cypriots who suffer… the Turkish Cypriots will suffer even worse if the situation is allowed to evolve under the illusion that an illegal status can deliver to them that to which every citizen of Europe is entitled,” he added.
He said that efforts to consolidate the right of each refugee to choose return includes areas that fall under territorial adjustments in favour of the Greek Cypriots, and the sooner Turkish Cypriots realised this the easier it would be to solve many other problems, Anastasiades said. Morphou could not but be included among those areas, he added. |
ES Football Newsletter Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
This week we will find out how good Chelsea really are. Antonio Conte will be satisfied with how things have been going but now they are facing Atletico Madrid and Manchester City in the space of just four days.
Make no mistake about it, these are critical games in the club’s season and provide a huge challenge.
They are coming up against two very strong teams, starting with Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Atletico is one of the hardest places to go in Europe, with the way they play and the atmosphere in the stadium.
On Saturday, it does not get any easier with a home fixture against Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s side are in great form, scoring a lot of goals and are three points clear of Chelsea in the Premier League table.
If they win at Stamford Bridge, the gap will be extended to six, which is a fair amount all of a sudden.
However, should Chelsea get through these two fixtures unscathed, then it will send out a real message of intent.
Most of the talk before the Atletico game, though, has been about a player who won’t even be allowed to take part - Diego Costa.
He has agreed to rejoin Atletico Madrid from Chelsea but is not eligible to play for them until January.
It is likely Costa will attend the game but it won’t be a distraction to the Chelsea players.
"The best signing Atletico have made this month is getting Simeone to sign a contract until 2020"
I know he is well respected by the players and was a popular member of the dressing room.
If he is unveiled on the pitch or is simply there to watch, I’m sure the lads will wish him well and get on with it.
Costa leaving will be a relief to Conte and Chelsea - it is the best thing for all concerned.
If it was just a case of selling a talented striker, then we’d be talking about what a great loss he is to the club. But he had to go. There was no way he could stay at Chelsea, given the events of the summer and the sooner he went, the better.
It’s great for Costa, too. He needs to go and train properly before starting playing again in January. He couldn’t carry on staying in Brazil like he was, it wasn’t helping anybody.
Atletico have acquired a very good player. But the best signing they have made this month is getting their coach, Diego Simeone, to sign a contract extension until 2020.
There are not many coaches that you can say are as important as the players, but the way Simeone has revolutionised that club since taking over six years ago is massive.
Every year, Atletico are going up against Barcelona and Real Madrid, who have the two best players in the world and more, but they are always challenging for La Liga and in the latter stages of the Champions League.
In Pictures | Stoke City vs Chelsea | 23/09/2017 18 show all In Pictures | Stoke City vs Chelsea | 23/09/2017 1/18 Getty Images 2/18 Getty Images 3/18 Chelsea FC via Getty Images 4/18 Getty Images 5/18 Lindsay Parnaby.AFP/Getty Images 6/18 Getty Images 7/18 Getty Images 8/18 AFP/Getty Images 9/18 Getty Images 10/18 Getty Images 11/18 Getty Images 12/18 Chelsea FC via Getty Images 13/18 Getty Images 14/18 AFP/Getty Images 15/18 AFP/Getty Images 16/18 Getty Images 17/18 Getty Images 18/18 1/18 Getty Images 2/18 Getty Images 3/18 Chelsea FC via Getty Images 4/18 Getty Images 5/18 Lindsay Parnaby.AFP/Getty Images 6/18 Getty Images 7/18 Getty Images 8/18 AFP/Getty Images 9/18 Getty Images 10/18 Getty Images 11/18 Getty Images 12/18 Chelsea FC via Getty Images 13/18 Getty Images 14/18 AFP/Getty Images 15/18 AFP/Getty Images 16/18 Getty Images 17/18 Getty Images 18/18
Atletico are not always the most pleasing on the eye. What I love about them, though, is how Simeone has got them so well organised, how they defend and work as a team.
Atletico have been built in his image. He is a forceful manager.
It will be very difficult for anyone to come in after him and do the job he’s done, so it was hugely important to get him to sign.
In saying that, I would like to see him in the Premier League one day. I like his passion. We have most of the major names in world football, yet Simeone would add to it with his personality and quality.
The player Chelsea have to particularly watch out for tomorrow is Antoine Griezmann. I really like him, he’s such an intelligent player.
Every Antoine Griezmann goal at Euro 2016 6 show all Every Antoine Griezmann goal at Euro 2016 1/6 France 2-0 Albania Antoine Griezmann opens up his account at Euro 2016 with a 90th-minute strike against Albania in the group stages. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images 2/6 France 2-1 Republic of Ireland Griezmann celebrates after equalising against the Republic of Ireland with a header. Getty Images 3/6 France 2-1 Republic of Ireland Dimitri Payet celebrates with the Atletico Madrid man after he scores the winner in Lyon. Getty Images 4/6 France 5-2 Iceland Another game, another goal - this time against Iceland in the quarter-finals. FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images 5/6 Germany 0-2 France Griezmann converts his penalty against Germany in the semi-finals. BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images 6/6 Germany 0-2 France Griezmann does his trademark goal celebration after scoring France's second against Germany to book Les Bleus' place in the final. PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images 1/6 France 2-0 Albania Antoine Griezmann opens up his account at Euro 2016 with a 90th-minute strike against Albania in the group stages. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images 2/6 France 2-1 Republic of Ireland Griezmann celebrates after equalising against the Republic of Ireland with a header. Getty Images 3/6 France 2-1 Republic of Ireland Dimitri Payet celebrates with the Atletico Madrid man after he scores the winner in Lyon. Getty Images 4/6 France 5-2 Iceland Another game, another goal - this time against Iceland in the quarter-finals. FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images 5/6 Germany 0-2 France Griezmann converts his penalty against Germany in the semi-finals. BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images 6/6 Germany 0-2 France Griezmann does his trademark goal celebration after scoring France's second against Germany to book Les Bleus' place in the final. PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images
Griezmann is not a typical striker as such but still scores a lot of goals. He plays as a false No9 if anything. That makes him hard to pick up.
Every pass is the right pass and he always chooses the tight option. No wonder so many big clubs are prepared to pay silly money for him.
Chelsea should remember they don’t have to win the game. If they come away with a draw they will be happy and it will set them up for the Manchester City match.
I expect Atletico will press high and make it difficult for Chelsea to get up the pitch initially but as the game develops they will want to play on the counter-attack. That suits them.
So Chelsea have to be smart, not come out flying. They need to get some possession and not open up too much.
Still, playing in Europe suits Chelsea’s style anyway. They can sit deep and rely on the pace of Pedro, Willian or Eden Hazard in behind Alvaro Morata to create chances themselves.
BT Sport is where the best go head-to-head, bringing you live coverage of the Premier League, Uefa Champions League and Europa League, Aviva Premiership, European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, the Ashes, boxing, UFC and MotoGP. For more information, visit BT.com/sport |
Devon Energy has announced that its previously announced layoffs will be complete by Thursday.Approximately 700 employees in Oklahoma City are expected to be affected.Devon announced the layoffs as a result of falling oil prices across the country.Devon released the following statement:"Devon has taken these and other cost-reduction actions primarily as a result of the current commodity price environment. The company must reduce expenses across the entire organization to maintain its financial flexibility and competitiveness.Devon will reduce its headcount by approximately 20 percent in the first quarter, or about 1,000 positions. There will be up to an additional 600 employees impacted by the sale of non-core upstream assets. In most cases, we expect these individuals will go to work for the acquiring companies. Approximately 700 employees in Oklahoma City are directly impacted."31967416
Devon Energy has announced that its previously announced layoffs will be complete by Thursday.
Approximately 700 employees in Oklahoma City are expected to be affected.
Advertisement
Devon announced the layoffs as a result of falling oil prices across the country.
Devon released the following statement:
"Devon has taken these and other cost-reduction actions primarily as a result of the current commodity price environment. The company must reduce expenses across the entire organization to maintain its financial flexibility and competitiveness.
Devon will reduce its headcount by approximately 20 percent in the first quarter, or about 1,000 positions. There will be up to an additional 600 employees impacted by the sale of non-core upstream assets. In most cases, we expect these individuals will go to work for the acquiring companies. Approximately 700 employees in Oklahoma City are directly impacted."
AlertMe |
While George Karl is surprised by the backlash against his book, Kenyon Martin isn't shocked at all, calling the former coach "negative."
Excerpts of "Furious George: My Forty Years Surviving NBA Divas, Clueless GMs, and Poor Shot Selection" have been critical of Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith and even Damian Lillard, whom Karl never coached. Among the reactions, Anthony said he's "past disappointed."
"My feelings for George Karl is that he is the person he is. He's showing everybody who he is, the person I dealt with for six-and-a-half years in Denver," Martin said on ESPN's The Jump. "I saw it firsthand every day -- him coming in the locker room and not speaking to people, him talking down to other people, him treating people in the organization like crap. I saw it year in and year out. Now the whole world is going to see it."
Appearing on ESPN's Mike & Mike on Thursday, the longtime NBA coach was asked whether he was surprised by the backlash to the book.
"There's no question," he said. "Surprised? Yeah, I guess there's no question we all want to be liked a little bit. The backlash was interesting. A couple of things I learned from. I think the big thing is a couple of things. I probably should've studied -- I didn't know -- I probably should've studied what I was writing a little more than I did."
In the book, Karl says of Anthony: "He was the best offensive player I ever coached. He was also a user of people, addicted to the spotlight and very unhappy when he had to share it. He really lit my fuse with his low demand of himself on defense. He had no commitment to the hard, dirty work of stopping the other guy." |
CTV Atlantic
CTV News has learned Saint Mary’s University’s football team is being investigated for allegedly fielding another ineligible player.
U Sports, the national governing body of university sport, started its investigation Friday and is striking a committee to look into the allegation.
SMU is hosting the Atlantic University Sport semifinal on Saturday. U Sports says the game will go ahead because there isn't time to complete the investigation beforehand.
This is the second time this season the Saint Mary's football team has been investigated for fielding an ineligible player. Last month U Sports stripped the Huskies of one regular season win and one preseason win after determining an ineligible player had been on the roster for those games. SMU was also fined by U Sports and placed on probation for 18 months.
U Sports won't say what player is being looked at, but a CTV News investigation has revealed a player who may be ineligible – starting receiver Archelaus Jack.
Jack was listed on the practice roster for the Saskatchewan Roughriders last year. According to U Sports eligibility rules, a player with CFL opportunities can return to the university level if they are no longer listed on the player roster after Aug. 15. Otherwise, they can't play for 365 days.
The CFL confirmed with CTV News Friday that Jack was released Oct. 11, 2016, bringing into question his eligibility for the five games he played for SMU between Aug. 25 and Sept. 30 this season.
In a statement late Friday afternoon, SMU spokesperson Margaret Murphy said, “Saint Mary's University is aware of the questions raised around player eligibility and has been diligent in its response to U Sports to affirm our position that there is no issue.”
Meanwhile, the head coach of St FX tells CTV News his players and coaching staff are only focused on preparing for Saturday’s big game and aren't looking for any distractions.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kelland Sundahl. |
Although visitors to the Netherlands often remark on the picturesque fields that fly past their train window, few of them realize that they’re looking at one of the strongest agricultural production systems in the world. After the United States, the Netherlands exports more food than any other country on the planet – an incredible feat considering the U.S. is over 230 times bigger. A major part of that production is livestock: although this tiny country is barely the size of Maryland, the Netherlands is Europe’s leading exporter of meat.
Efficiency is what makes this country an agricultural powerhouse, but it also creates a landscape where almost everyone lives in close proximity to livestock. With only 17 million people and 118 million farm animals, the Netherlands grapples with a legitimate concern about deadly bacterial outbreaks. For many countries, food security has become a major issue as climate change and natural disasters wreck havoc on older systems. In the Netherlands, this concern has pushed farmers to move towards more sustainable production systems that, ironically, are a mix of technical innovation and old-fashioned farming methods.
Since 1950, most farmers in developed countries have routinely added antibiotics to animal feed, increasing growth rates and preventing factory-farmed animals from spreading infections. More recently, however, antibiotic use in livestock has become a hotly debated issue. Scientific studies have linked the routine use of antibiotics to the proliferation of drug-resistant “superbugs” like NDM-1 and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Outbreaks caused by these superbugs have increased over time and infection has often spread from animals to humans.
In 2006, the European Union banned the use of antibiotics as a growth agent. Since 2007, however, Dutch livestock farmers have cut their use of antibiotics in general by more than half. Remarkably, they’ve done this without any negative effects on production rates or profits, and their techniques are instructive for other countries looking to do the same.
Use of antibiotics in livestock has been falling in the Netherlands since 2007.
The drug-use reduction came after an outbreak of MRSA. In 2004, the persistent infection started in Dutch pigs and quickly spread to other animals and people. A farmer’s young daughter was the first victim. Gerda Verburg, the minister of agriculture, quickly saw the connection between the use of antibiotics and the development of MRSA. She introduced a new law that required any sick animal to be inspected by a veterinarian before antibiotics could be administered (by that same veterinarian) and set a target of 50 percent antibiotic reduction within three years. Although it meant changing some practices, keeping stalls cleaner and replacing feed, farmers have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the policy. In fact, the Dutch Veterinary Medicines Authority (SDa) announced in June that antibiotic sales to livestock farms dropped another 20.5 percent between 2012 and 2013.
Early data indicates that the Dutch experiment has been a success: drug-resistant bacteria are declining in cows, pigs, chickens and veal. By redefining agricultural practice in favor of both animal and human long-term health, the Netherlands has increased it’s collective resilience to the next devastating outbreak. The next step will be to see if there is a similar decline in drug-resistant bacteria in humans. Where there is data available to support this claim, the experiment will set a strong precedent for international proponents of reduced antibiotic usage in livestock.
In support of these farms, the Netherlands also has a number of public and private agri-food R&D centers where more efficient production chains or other innovations are developed and implemented. At Wageningen University and Research Center, the “Food Valley” has become one of the most authoritative agri-food and nutrition research centers in Europe. The university has a special monitoring study called MARAN that tracks antibiotics usage in livestock. These detailed statistics make policy changes like Verburg’s stricter usage regulations easier to analyze and evaluate.
The Netherlands is also exporting this knowledge to other countries. In June 2014, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi to establish a strategic agricultural partnership following talks on production and food security. The Netherlands has similar bilateral agreements with countries that are currently developing their agricultural industries. If their experiment with reduced antibiotics continues to succeed, they may soon become an example for developed industries as well. |
A pair of new polls show Donald Trump’s more controversial ideas gaining traction on both sides of the political aisle even as the his Republican supporters grow more rabid in their enthusiasm for their billionaire populist hero.
The Morning Consult‘s tracking poll of more than 2,000 Americans found half of them support a temporary ban on non-citizen Muslims traveling to the U.S.–the proposal that has earned GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump daily condemnation from editorial writers and TV pundits.
In addition to 71 per cent of likely Republican voters, 34 per cent of likely Democratic voters and 49 per cent of independents now hold the view that Trump is right.
Among Democrats who support former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for president, more than one-third–37 per cent–say Muslims should be stopped at the border until the U.S. can better assess the national security threat from violent jihadis.
Another Trump campaign pledge, the return of waterboarding and other ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques in the war on terror, got a green-light from 45 per cent of Americans who talked to the Morning Consult’s pollsters.
Another 21 per cent remain undecided, leaving Trump plenty of room for persuasion as his juggernaut campaign marches forward.
Separately, a Gallup poll published Tuesday found that Trump has a massive advantage over his rivals in both parties on the crucial question of voter enthusiasm.
Voters were asked to rate the intensity of their devotion to their preferred presidential candidates, and The Donald came out far ahead of the field.
Among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, 65 per cent of Trump’s backers say they are ‘extremely enthusiastic’ or ‘very enthusiastic’ about their choice.
Trump’s main remaining GOP opponent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, scores just 39 per cent on that scale. Ohio Gov. John Kasich draws that level of fervor from only 33 per cent of his fans.
The pair of Democrats vying for the White House are also less likely than Trump to inspire unshakable devotion from their followers.
Clinton’s supporters are more enthusiastic than Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’–but neither reaches Trump’s orbit.
According to Gallup, 54 per cent of Hillary-backing Democratic voters say they are ‘extremely enthusiastic’ or ‘very enthusiastic’ about her. That number is 44 per cent for the Sanders camp.
All five major party candidates will be in Wisconsin leading up to the state’s April 5 primaries, marking the first time since the New Hampshire primary that both Democrats and Republicans focused all their political firepower on a single state at the same time.
Clinton is running 6 points ahead of Sanders in the most recent published poll. Trump and Cruz are neck-and-neck.
Original Article
Share This |
Latham had the backing of many establishment leaders. Latham passes on Iowa Senate run
Rep. Tom Latham announced that he will not run for the open Senate seat Wednesday, paving the way for conservative Steve King to be the nominee if he gets into the race.
“The opportunity to serve Iowa in the U.S. Senate is appealing to this farm kid who grew up here, raised a family here, and helped grow a family business in Iowa,” Latham, a Republican, wrote in an email to supporters.
Story Continued Below
“However, only 56 days ago I took an oath to ‘faithfully discharge the duties’ of an office with which the people of Iowa’s Third Congressional District entrusted to me,” he added. “I cannot in good conscience launch a two-year statewide campaign that will detract from the commitment I made to the people who elected me, at a time when our nation desperately needs less campaigning and more leadership.”
Latham, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner, had the backing of many establishment leaders. Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, for example, said over the weekend that Latham would be a much stronger candidate.
In an interview, Latham said he “had a commitment to the people in my district. We’ve got an awful lot of work here to do. I don’t want to be distracted for two years [by a costly Senate race].”
Latham, who chairs the transportation subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee, added: “I’ve worked very hard to get where I am in the House.”
Even if King runs, he could still face a challenge from one of several Republicans still interested in the race.
“My guess is there’s going to be a lot of people out there looking for an alternative to King,” said a GOP operative. “I just don’t know who that person is yet.”
Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, Branstad’s heir apparent, is “very serious about running” with Latham sitting it out, one source told POLITICO.
Other potential candidates buzzed about in the aftermath of Latham’s surprise announcement include state Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey and former Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn. |
If there’s one thing we should have learned from Prohibition it’s that people are going to find a way to party and have a good time one way or another.
If something’s illegal, they’ll either find a way to get it anyway or they’ll just make do with something else.
And this can create some unsafe situations as people end up getting what they’re looking for from potentially questionable black market sources or they end up having to come up with creative—and a lot of times dangerous—ways to get the buzz they’re looking for.
“Butt chugging” is one of the best, most current examples of people getting f*cked up in a “creative” and really dangerous way.
“A butt chugger is one who consumes alcohol through his or her anus,” The Racket Report explained. “The vessel for this alcohol enema can be a funnel or a soaked tampon.”
The main draw to butt chugging is that it gets people drunk faster and more intensely than regular drinking.
“Because the primary job of the intestines is to absorb nutrients into the body, if you put alcohol directly into your colon, it will be absorbed much more rapidly than it would be if it entered your body orally,” a doctor at Columbia Health said in a Huffington Post article.
“It can make you very drunk, very quickly. Because everyone’s body is different, it’s hard to judge how much or how quickly an alcohol enema would affect any one person.”
Butt chugging can be dangerous not only because of how quickly it gets people drunk, but also because very often the most prevalent butt chuggers are teens who pour cough syrup—not liquor—into their anuses.
As The Racket Report wrote: “Teens who want to experience a different type of ‘High’ are taking this trend to a whole different level” by butt chugging cough syrup.
“It turns out that dextromethorphan (DXM)—a cough suppressant commonly found in over-the-counter cold medicines like Robitussin and Dimetapp—produces an almost hallucinogenic high when chugged in large doses. It can also lead to loss of motor control, dizziness, seizures and hallucinations, among other serious problems.”
Butt chugging, whether it’s liquor or cough syrup, has proven to be incredibly dangerous—even life threatening.
Back in 2004, a woman gave her husband a “sherry enema” that ended up killing him. And that’s not the only time a person has been hospitalized or killed by butt chugging.
“Quicker high—they think it’s going to last longer; it’s more intense,” Dr. Dan Quan told The Huffington Post. “If the person does pass out or lose consciousness, health care professionals won’t necessarily know that they have to look in those areas, and that may delay treatment.”
It seems that the main point in all this is that people are going to get f*cked up one way or another, and as a society, it would make the most sense to give people access to the safest foods, drinks, and drugs possible so they don’t end up scrounging around for some crazy way to get high.
If young people are going to do anything and everything to get the buzz they’re looking for—going so far as to pour cough syrup into their anuses—wouldn’t we want them getting high in the safest way possible?
This is where cannabis comes in.
Cannabis provides the perfect high: it’s natural, it’s impossible to overdose on, and the huge majority of the time the only damage it will cause is to the kitchen, as a stoned teen devours all the ice cream, Cheetos, and leftovers trying to satisfy her munchies.
We’re not necessarily saying that legalizing cannabis will somehow put an end to dangerous ideas like butt chugging cough syrup.
But we are trying to point out that making it difficult for people to access safe forms of recreational drugs contributes to the larger atmosphere in which young people feel forced to dream up all sorts of bizarre ways to get high.
Making recreational cannabis more accessible gives people one less reason to experiment with sketchy drugs and unsafe modes of consumption.
(Photo Credit: twitter.com/freakmommy) |
Advanced configuration in the ASP.NET 5 Generic OAuth Provider
Published: 21 April 2015
Introduction
In my previous blog post I introduced the new generic OAuth 2 authentication provider which has been added to ASP.NET 5 by showing you how to configure it to authenticate with GitHub. In this blog post I will discuss two more advanced configuration options, namely requesting extra permissions via the Scope, and retrieving user information after authorization.
The code I use in this blog post is mostly a straight forward copy-and-paste exercise from the sample in the ASP.NET Security repo on GitHub.
Request permissions via Scope
In OAuth terms the Scope is a means by which an OAuth consumer can tell the Service Provider the permissions it wants to request. The Service Provider will in turn inform the user what permissions the consumer is requesting, so the user can determine whether they want to grant permissions or not.
Once the user has granted permission, the scope is linked to the access token which is issued, so when a consumer uses that access token in the future to request protected data, it will not be allowed to access data outside of the scope which was granted.
Some Service Providers do not implement a Scope at all, and allow consumers free reign as to what data it wants to read or update. Other Service Providers provide an extremely fine grained level op permissions through the scope. If you intend to use the access token for anything more than just authentication you should familiarize yourself with the allowed scopes of the Service Provider to ensure you request the correct permissions upfront.
The GitHub API provides a fairly wide range of values for the scope, allowing a consumer to be very specific in term of what actions it wants to perform. In this example I will request the admin:org scope, which means I intend to administer the user’s organizations.
Requesting a scope is straight forward. The OAuthAuthenticationOptions class contains a Scope property which contains the list of scopes:
public class OAuthAuthenticationOptions : AuthenticationOptions { ... /// <summary> /// A list of permissions to request. /// /// </summary> public IList< string > Scope { get ; private set ; } ... }
So to request the admin:org you simply add it to the list of Scopes during registration:
app.UseOAuthAuthentication( "GitHub" , options => { options.ClientId = "your client id" ; options.ClientSecret = "your client secret" ; options.CallbackPath = new PathString( "/signin-github" ); options.AuthorizationEndpoint = "https://github.com/login/oauth/authorize" ; options.TokenEndpoint = "https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token" ; options.Scope.Add( "admin:org" ); }
Now when the user is prompted to allow our application permissions to access their information, you will see that GitHub is very explicit in indicating to the user that our application intends to administer organizations on their behalf:
So if your intention is to only authenticate the user, and not to use the access token afterwards to access any other information, be sure to request the minimum number of Scopes possible. Usually this means just leaving the Scope property empty. Requesting too many permissions may prevent the user from grating those permissions to your application.
Requesting the user’s information
At this point, once a user authenticates with GitHub, we will only get back an access token. But typically in an authentication scenario you would also like to get back some more information about the user. Information such as their name, email address etc.
The generic OAuth 2 provider has a Notifications property which allows you to hook into certain events during the authentication process. One of those is the OnGetUserInformationAsync delegate which gets called after a user has authenticated but before the actual ClaimsIdentity gets returned. This allows us to retrieve some extra information about the user.
Here the full code after I implementated OnGetUserInformationAsync :
app.UseOAuthAuthentication( "GitHub" , options => { options.ClientId = "your client id" ; options.ClientSecret = "your client secret" ; options.CallbackPath = new PathString( "/signin-github" ); options.AuthorizationEndpoint = "https://github.com/login/oauth/authorize" ; options.TokenEndpoint = "https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token" ; options.UserInformationEndpoint = "https://api.github.com/user" ; options.Notifications = new OAuthAuthenticationNotifications { OnGetUserInformationAsync = async context => { // Get the GitHub user HttpRequestMessage userRequest = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, context.Options.UserInformationEndpoint); userRequest.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue( "Bearer" , context.AccessToken); userRequest.Headers.Accept.Add( new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue( "application/json" )); HttpResponseMessage userResponse = await context.Backchannel.SendAsync(userRequest, context.HttpContext.RequestAborted); userResponse.EnsureSuccessStatusCode(); var text = await userResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); JObject user = JObject.Parse(text); var identity = new ClaimsIdentity( context.Options.AuthenticationType, ClaimsIdentity.DefaultNameClaimType, ClaimsIdentity.DefaultRoleClaimType); JToken value ; var id = user.TryGetValue( "id" , out value ) ? value .ToString() : null ; if (! string .IsNullOrEmpty(id)) { identity.AddClaim( new Claim(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier, id, ClaimValueTypes.String, context.Options.AuthenticationType)); } var userName = user.TryGetValue( "login" , out value ) ? value .ToString() : null ; if (! string .IsNullOrEmpty(userName)) { identity.AddClaim( new Claim(ClaimsIdentity.DefaultNameClaimType, userName, ClaimValueTypes.String, context.Options.AuthenticationType)); } var name = user.TryGetValue( "name" , out value ) ? value .ToString() : null ; if (! string .IsNullOrEmpty(name)) { identity.AddClaim( new Claim( "urn:github:name" , name, ClaimValueTypes.String, context.Options.AuthenticationType)); } var link = user.TryGetValue( "url" , out value ) ? value .ToString() : null ; if (! string .IsNullOrEmpty(link)) { identity.AddClaim( new Claim( "urn:github:url" , link, ClaimValueTypes.String, context.Options.AuthenticationType)); } context.Identity = identity; } }; });
In the code above you will see that I added a value for the UserInformationEndpoint property, which is just the URL for the GitHub API endpoint through which I will retrieve the user information.
I then proceed to specify an OAuthAuthenticationNotifications object which contains an implementation for the OnGetUserInformationAsync method. Inside my OnGetUserInformationAsync I simply make a request through to the UserInformationEndpoint which will return the user information in JSON format. I then extract certain pieces of information from that JSON document and store them as claims on the ClaimsIdentity , and then assign the identity to the Identity property of the context.
When we run the application again, you will see the information which was retrieved from GitHub was added to the list of claims:
Just a couple of things I want to note:
If you specify an implementation for OnGetUserInformationAsync you have to create an instance of ClaimsIndentity and assign it to the Identity property of the context. The default implementation of OnGetUserInformationAsync does that for you, and if you specify a handler for OnGetUserInformationAsync without setting the Identity, then the authentication will fail. You will see that I specified the UserInformationEndpoint and then used the value of that property inside OnGetUserInformationAsync to make the call to GitHub. So far, from what I have seen, nothing else accesses that property, so if you don’t call it yourself, it is not going to be called anywhere else. So you can really just specify the URL directly inside OnGetUserInformationAsync without having to access it from the UserInformationEndpoint property if you want to.
Conclusion
In this blog post I demonstrated how to request multiple scopes from a Service Provider through the generic OAuth 2 provider as well as how to request user information from the Service Provider.
If you found value in this blog post and want to return the favour, you can Buy me a coffee
PS: I publish a weekly newsletter for ASP.NET Developers called ASP.NET Weekly. If you want to get an email every Friday with all the best ASP.NET related blog posts from the previous week, please sign up! |
The announcement by Israel’s Interior Minister that his government will bring in new laws to prevent courts from interfering with their policy of unilaterally deporting all non-Jews from Israel has once again highlighted the international Jewish Supremacist hypocritical divide-and-conquer immigration policy.
The announcement by Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar that he will bring in new legislation comes after the Israeli High Court ruled that the Zionist state’s practice of holding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the Holot concentration camp where they are kept, within 90 days.
Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of the High Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have a Jewish state because our borders will be overrun… with illegal infiltrators.”
He added that the court had “made a mistake” and that the Knesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court from intervening on the issue.
The High Court decision was not unanimous: A special panel of nine High Court justices voted 6-3 on appeal to limit the detention of migrants, while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine justices.
Even this decision does not mean that Israel will now accept any non-Jewish immigrants, legal or illegal. The court decision annuls the “infiltrator law” but reinstates earlier illegal migrant legislation, under which migrants or asylum-seekers can be held for up to 60 days.
The Israeli immigration law—as it has always stood—is designed to keep Israel as ethnically pure as possible, and to ensure that only Jews are allowed to enter in, and live in that country.
At the same time, all Israeli policies towards the Palestinian people have been designed to drive them out and reduce their numbers. This policy has consisted of violence, terrorism, ethnic cleansing and steady land grabs to displace the pre-1948 population.
In America—and Europe—however, Jewish activists have been at the forefront of promoting immigration policies which are the exact opposite of the ones they enforce in Israel.
Above: Jewish immigration policy for Israel: African migrants protest outside Holot concentration camp Holot in southern Israel, February 2014.
Below: Jewish immigration policy for America: the Israel-supporting ADL’s position on illegal immigration.
The Anti-Defamation League, for example, boasts that it is one of America’s “foremost civil rights organizations” and even has a special section of its website devoted to promoting immigration into America.
Headed “ADL’S Commitment to Meaningful Immigration Reform”, the ADL site says that through “legislative advocacy, litigation and public awareness campaigns, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has promoted fair and humane immigration policies since its founding in 1913” and that it “has been actively pressing Congress to pass meaningful immigration reform.”
This is, of course, exactly the opposite of the policy which is enforced in Israel—which the ADL fanatically supports, even having a “how to defend Israel” section on their website.
That “how to defend Israel” section of the ADL website contains a long list of arguments to use against those who criticize Israeli policy, and deals with every topic—except Israel’s immigration policy!
On that topic, the ADL is completely silent!
The hypocrisy is clear: Jewish Supremacists promote “open borders” for America and Europe, but “closed borders” for Israel.
The reason for this Jewish Supremacist hypocrisy can only be explained by an understanding of their deliberate divide-and-conquer strategy.
It must be borne in mind that the Jewish Supremacists know very well that mass immigration of any sort causes societal discordance and the loss of identity—this is why they oppose it in Israel.
Hence when they promote this policy for Europe and America, they do so in the full knowledge that it will cause discordance and trouble—and that it will weaken the targeted nations. This is clearly a deliberate policy, designed to weaken those nations so affected.
They promote this policy not out of an interest for migrants—but only as a tool with which they know they can promote division and weaken other nations, and America (and Europe) in particular.
The Jewish Supremacists know that if they can get non-Jews fighting with each other, the less chance there will be that attention will be brought to bear on Jewish activities.
This then, is the true reason for the hypocrisy and the divide-and-conquer strategy of Jewish Supremacism. |
The State of the Empire – Star Wars Coloring Contest
The Force has Awakened and with it the inner child of every adult the world over. Only fitting that this would synch up with the rising craze of “adult coloring books”. Nerdy Show and our Star Wars speculation podcast, State of the Empire, want you to harness your dormant colorizing skills and use them for good. …In a blood-thirsty coloring contest.
[Winners announced in State of the Empire Episode 20]
Bring our episode art to life and you could win fabulous Star Wars prizes! Don’t let a thing like age keep you from exploring the joys of bringing a picture to life with color. After all, comic book colorists work that magic every day. Just download the art below and GET COLORING! [Keep scrolling for a full list of prizes, rules, and how to enter.]
Listen to State of the Empire, while you color! We launch the contest in episode 18, “Prelude to the Awakening“.
The Prize Packs
We’ve got three unique Star Wars prize packs at stake. 1st place gets first pick, then 2nd, then 3rd receives whichever pack is left. We might add to these as the contest goes on – keep an eye on this page to see what’s new. PHOTOS COMING SOON!
:: Micro Machines Pack ::
Three playsets from Cap’s personal collection. Loose and includes all pieces.
R2D2 / Jabba’s Palace Transforming Action Set
Boba Fett / Cloud City Transforming Action Set
Imperial Guard / Death Star II Transforming Action Set
Star Wars Fan Club Han Solo/ Millennium Falcon Gift Pack – 23,698 of 26,000
Sci-Fried’s Co-Op Mode
A Star Wars Reads Day Pin
A Poster For Marvel’s Star Wars
:: Comic Pack ::
Read the new official Star Wars cannon! These issues come from Cap’s personal collection. The Star Wars and Darth Vader issues include the full runs through the “Vader Down” storyline.
Star Wars (Written by Jason Aaron) Issues 1-14
Darth Vader (Written by Keiron Gillen) Issues 1-15
Vader Down (1-shot by Jason Aaron)
Princess Leia (Written by Mark Waid) Issues 1-5 NEW
Shattered Empire (Written by Greg Rucka) Issues 1-4 NEW
Sci-Fried’s Co-Op Mode
A Star Wars Reads Day Pin
A Poster For Marvel’s Star Wars
:: Jar Jar’s Party Pack ::
Okeeday, boyos! Meesa thinkin’ yousa gonna love theesa bombad Star Wars foofas!
Episode I: Anakin’s Podracer Taco Bell Toy – In Package! NEW
Episode I: Queen Amidala’s Royal Starship Taco Bell Toy
Return of the Jedi Special Edition: Boba Fett and Sarlacc Pit Taco Bell Toy
The Notorious Episode VII “Chewbacca Notebook“
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D Poster NEW
Sphero T-Shirt (Makers of the Robotic BB8) – Large NEW
Sci-Fried’s Co-Op Mode
A Star Wars Reads Day Pin
A Poster For Marvel’s Star Wars
Rules and How to Enter
Due Date
All entries must be received by January 31st, 2016 at 11:59am. Email .jpg or .png image files to [email protected]. Winners will be announced in an episode of State of the Empire following that date.
What Kind of Coloring is Allowed?
You can use ANY METHOD to color the above image. Print out the image and use crayons, markers, or color pencils. Go mixed media! You can even use digital coloring methods!
What’s Going to Win?
It’s not necessarily about who does the best formal coloring job, it’s about character. It’s up to you to bring this page to LIFE and how you do this is going to give you an edge. We’re not looking for “correct”, we’re looking for “awesome”.
Can I Change the Art?
Let’s say “yes.” This is a canvas for you to go nuts on. Do the coolest/ funniest/ weirdest thing you can do and we’ll judge accordingly.
Who Can Enter and How Many Times Can I Enter?
Anyone over 18 years old can enter – but you can only enter once. Persons under 18 can have their art submitted by someone over 18, but that will count as the 18+ party’s entry. (If you’re submitting for someone younger, please let us know so we can give proper credit.)
Prizes will ship from the United States. International entries are accepted, but if mailing costs exceed $20 we reserve the right to withhold the prizes. In that event, the winner will be notified and we’ll do our best to work out a mutually acceptable resolution.
Image Sizes
Images should be in .jpg or .png formats. For physical pieces, please scan if possible. If scanning isn’t an option, you may take a photo of your piece, but please try to make sure it’s a good quality photo, or it might adversely affect your chances.
We may use the winning image as the art for a future episode of State of the Empire. If you’d like to make sure that’s a possibility please be sure that your piece is at least 300 dpi and 2000 x 2000 px.
How to Submit Your Entry
Email [email protected] with the heading “Star Wars Coloring Contest” and…
Your image or a link to where your image can be downloaded
Your name and/or handle (What we’ll call you if you win)
Your age
Your mailing address
Optional:
Let us know the medium(s) you colored in
Include a message
Any submissions found to be fraudulent or not meeting the requirements of an official submission will be disqualified. Nerdy Show reserves the right to repost or redistribute any content submitted to contest. Questions or comments, e-mail [email protected].
Bonus
Hungry for more? Check out this Willow coloring page! |
Michele Bachmann unwittingly tells the truth. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
The Minnesota congresswoman struck an urgent tone, issuing dire warnings to voters of the consequences of not electing a Republican who will repeal Obama’s health care law in 2012. "I have wept in Washington, D.C., watching what's happening to our country," Bachmann said. Speaking in hushed and sometimes pleading tones, she warned that the implementation of Obama’s health care law would be a death knell to conservatism in America. "You can't put socialized medicine into a country and think that ever again you can elect as president a Republican or conservative or even a tea partier and think somehow we're going to get back to limited government. It won't happen because socialized medicine is the definition of big government," she said. "That's why this is it—2012 is it," she added, calling it a "last-chance election" for the country.
At a South Carolina town meeting with Gov. Nikki Haley yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann let the cat out of the bag about why Republicans fight social progress tooth and nail.
Put aside the fact that Bachmann's understanding of socialism is about as good as her knowledge of the founding fathers, she absolutely nails Republican governing philosophy: Make it not work. Republicans can't get elected when Democrats do things that the public needs and likes. If you give America's middle class a health system that makes life a little less scary, that's affordable, that takes away the sword of Damacles—the threat of losing health care coverage—you win.
So here's Bachmann's lesson for Democrats. The only hope Republicans have to finally create their permanent political majority is to destroy every good thing government has done or will do for middle class America, the vast majority of us. The best hope for Democrats is fighting tooth and nail to save those very programs.
(H/T Think Progress) |
Harvard University announced late Thursday that it has withdrawn a visiting fellowship offer to Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in prison for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.
The dean of Harvard's Kennedy School posted a lengthy statement on the institute's web site explaining the decision, which follows a pair of high-profile cancellations as well as public criticism, particularly from the conservative right.
'We invited Chelsea Manning because the Kennedy School's longstanding approach to visiting speakers is to invite some people who have significantly influenced events in the world even if they do not share our values and even if their actions or words are abhorrent to some members of our community,' Douglas Elmendorf wrote in his statement.
'However, I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility.
Douglas Elmendorf (left), the dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School, announced Thursday that it has withdrawn a fellowship offer to Chelsea Manning (right), the former Army soldier who served seven years in prison for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks
The dean of Harvard's Kennedy School posted a lengthy statement on the institute's web site explaining the decision, which follows a pair of high-profile cancellations as well as public criticism, particularly from the conservative right. Harvard's campus is seen above
Manning (seen left after her transition from Bradley Manning, right) is a transgender woman who was convicted in 2013 of leaking more than 700,000 U.S. documents. She was released in May from a U.S. military prison in Kansas following her court martial conviction
'I see more clearly now that many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations.'
The decision by Harvard was undoubtedly a response to the public backlash that its initial invitation to Manning generated.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he scrapped his appearance Thursday at Harvard University over the school's decision to make Manning a visiting fellow.
Pompeo calls Manning an 'American traitor.'
CIA Director Mike Pompeo (left) says he scrapped his appearance Thursday at Harvard University over the school's decision to make Manning a visiting fellow. Mike Morell, former deputy director and acting director of the CIA, sent a resignation letter to Harvard in protest
In his letter of resignation, Morell writes he could not be part of an organization that 'honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.'
Pompeo, a Harvard graduate, says he didn't make the decision lightly.
He is citing military and intelligence officials who believe that the leaks endangered the lives of CIA employees.
He was supposed to speak at the university Thursday night, but was a no-show.
The CIA released a letter Pompeo wrote to Harvard explaining his decision.
Earlier Thursday, Mike Morell, former deputy director and acting director of the CIA, sent a resignation letter to Harvard saying he could not be part of an organization that 'honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.'
Morell, who was a non-resident senior fellow says leaking classified information is 'disgraceful.'
'Senior leaders in our military have stated publicly that the leaks by Ms. Manning put the lives of US soldiers at risk,' Morell said.
'I have an obligation in my conscience - and I believe to the country - to stand against any efforts to justify leaks of sensitive national security information.'
Social media users reacted almost immediately to the development, with some castigating Manning for her behavior
One person wrote: 'How to become a Harvard Visiting Fellow: Leak 700,000 classified documents & get convicted of 6 espionage charges'
Manning is a transgender woman who was convicted in 2013 of leaking more than 700,000 U.S. documents.
Manning, 29, was released in May from a U.S. military prison in Kansas following her court martial conviction in 2013.
Manning had been serving time for passing secrets to the WikiLeaks website in the biggest breach of classified data in the history of the United States.
After serving seven years in prison, President Barack Obama commuted her 35-year sentence, saying the punishment was 'disproportionate' compared to other whistle-blowers.
Following Morell's resignation, social media users took to Twitter to express their thoughts.
Some showed support for the former spy chief's decision to leave the school, calling Manning a 'traitor' who sold out the country.
'Seriously @Harvard?? Enabling a traitor to our country? You need to check your stupidity,' one user stated.
While another sarcastically wrote: 'How to become a Harvard Visiting Fellow: Leak 700,000 classified documents & get convicted of 6 espionage charges.'
Conservative pundit Bill Kristol also chimed in, which led to the only response from Manning about the situation so far.
'I'm loyal to Harvard, but I think I'll forego IOP events this fall. (I'd feel the same way if Chelsea Manning were still Bradley Manning.)' Kristol posted to Twitter. |
click to enlarge Courtesy photo
Freddy Martinez was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by an officer for brandishing what looked like a gun. The alleged weapon was a toy gun. The two officers involved in the incident were recently awarded a Silver Medal of Valor by the Police Department despite two investigations into the incident that are still open.
In the early-morning hours of April 7, 2013, there was a fracas between two groups of men on Valencia Street a block away from the Mission Police Station.
The first officers on the scene -- Ryan Daugherty and officer-in-training Valerie Durkin -- encountered a man waving what looked like a pistol in front of the Good Vibrations sex shop. When Freddy Martinez refused to put down the weapon and waved it in the direction of the officers, Daugherty fired his weapon, wounding Martinez and a bystander, police reported.
Some 19 months after the incident, the Police Department on Nov. 12 honored both officers with Silver Medals of Valor for their actions in the incident.
However, the honors came while two investigations into the incident remain open.
The move, some say, puts a cloud over the medal recipients and creates the image in the public eye that the investigations following an officer-involved shooting don't really matter.
"It's especially appalling when the investigations have not been completed," said Xavier Baeza, Martinez's attorney, who argues that the police version of events diverges with that of some witnesses. Martinez, who was left paralyzed from the waist down, is suing The City in federal court for alleged civil-rights violations.
The investigations into the shooting remain open with several agencies.
As part of an ongoing series looking into police-involved shootings, The San Francisco Examiner analyzed all such recorded incidents since 2000 to gain an understanding of when and why police use lethal force.
Separate investigations by the District Attorney's Office and the Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit are ongoing.
The internal affairs probe, which acts as the administrative investigation for the Police Department, needs to be complete for police to rule on whether the shooting was in policy. That action is pending.
The District Attorney's Office investigation looks into whether there was criminal wrongdoing, which could lead to charges. It, too, remains open.
A third body that looks into such matters, the Office of Citizen Complaints, which was asked before a vote about the medals about any open matters pertaining to the case, said no investigation or complaint related to the 2013 incident is open now or was at the time of the awards approval.
While a Police Department spokesman said the administrative process is all but complete pending the district attorney's letter, which could take years due to a backlog for such documents, a final administrative ruling on the incident has yet to be made.
Meanwhile, the District Attorney's Office said completion of its investigation rests on more than formalities. And internal affairs' own Aug. 13 report to the Police Commission lists the Martinez shooting as an open case.
The Police Department's official explanation does not sit well with Baeza.
Honoring the two police officers while investigations are open could impact his client's lawsuit against The City, Baeza said. A trial is scheduled for March.
"I think it's pathetic -- that it's an attempt to honor two officers whose actions were not up to the standards of an objective, reasonable police officer," Baeza said.
The Police Commission makes final approvals for the department's highest honors, and it is supposed to be informed when a nominee is under investigation, Commissioner Petra DeJesus said.
When the commission voted to approve the honors in August, DeJesus and her colleagues were told by then-President Thomas Mazzucco and Inspector John Monroe, the commission's clerk, that no investigations were open.
But those statements were false, as the commission knew the status of the investigations when it voted. Commissioners had a report by internal affairs from Aug. 13 on all open cases, including the Martinez incident.
DeJesus said a policy for such matters should be adopted so everyone can make "informed decisions."
Mazzucco has argued in the past that officers should not have to wait for honors on the DA, whose investigations can take years even when the department has completed its inquiry.
The commission does not have a rule baring approving medals for officers involved in incidents still under investigation, but DeJesus said at the August meeting that the commission should discuss creating such a rule.
"We have a commitment to ensure our process is comprehensive and thorough," current Police Commission President Suzy Loftus said. "We are always open to improvements and will review the standing procedures," she added in a statement, which did not speak to whether the commission plans on looking into changing the status quo.
This is not the first time officers were awarded medals under such circumstances, or the first time the commission seemingly failed to check on such matters.
In 2013, Officer Mary Godfrey was given a Silver Medal of Valor for a 2012 incident. At the time, Mazzucco said Godfrey had been vetted by the OCC and Police Department and had no issue with moving forward with approving her honor.
Former Commissioner Angela Chan was the only commissioner who voted against the approval.
In 2000, the commission held off on awarding medals for two officers involved in a 1998 shooting incident that ended in the death of ad executive John Smart.
While the District Attorney's Office and internal affairs investigations were complete, the OCC's was not. After discovering the oversight, the medals, which had already been approved, were put on hold by Dennis Herrera, who was commission president at the time and is now the city attorney.
Herrera's office did not return a request for comment.
After the issue arose, then-Police Chief Fred Lau told The Examiner that the department's medal committee would start checking with all the relevant agencies before putting forward nominees. |
Well, this is a blog that I should have written some time ago as we have been living in Korea a year and we are leaving tomorrow, but I only really got round to writing it a few weeks ago, so sorry for the lack of details. Alas, time is not my friend. Time seems to fly by, but I guess that’s down to having too much fun?
So due to a lack of progressive updates, I just wanted to post one big rambling of my time here; the good, the bad, the weird, random thoughts coupled with random observations and what I have learned about Korea
The beginning of my journey started in Heathrow last year. Before I fly I like to have a celebratory burger and a beer. This time was no different. A massive burger was what I needed to help settle the nerves. Packing your life up into a suitcase, leaving your friends and family and moving to a strange country where you can’t speak the language and don’t know anybody is a pretty daunting prospect. But I knew once I got on the plane, I would be okay.
I have the travel bug. So moving abroad after university was always going to happen for me, I just never really knew I would end up in South Korea! 8,852 km later, dazed and confused, I arrived in Seoul.
Of course, before I left there were concerns about living so close to North Korea, but since living here I have learned that the North are a bit of a joke to the South and are just seen as an empty threat.I would say that South Korea is probably one of the safest places in the world to live. There is basically no crime. I can go to the bathroom and leave my phone on the table in a bar and when I return it’s still there. I can walk home alone late at night. If I lose my purse, it will be returned to me. Not that i am suggesting you try these things to see if it’s true.
So, for the past year I have been living in a place called Seohyeon which is just outside of Seoul, in Bundang. It’s sort of like the Chelsea of Korea. The women stroll around in designer clothes, with a small dog in their handbag that resembles a rat, with very little thought going through their mind other than where the closest, most expensive coffee shop might be. I mean, it’s no Gangnam, (which having visited it, was very accurately depicted by Psy), but it’s a very rich area full of affluent people. This bodes well for me. Here, I am a ‘waygook’ (that’s a foreigner). In Bundang, they see lots of waygooks, therefore very little attention is drawn to me on the basis that half these people have either lived abroad, or have studied with foreign tutors and speak perfect English.
This is where I work:
As an English tutor, I am (of course) *primarily* here to teach, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun!
One of my main qualms however is that I am constantly being mistaken for an American. Kids will point furiously at me in various public places such as museums, theme parks and supermarkets and shout at me “Miguk saram!” I find it almost impossible not to correct their misjudgment, and in my best Korean, I say what directly translates to- “American person, no! English person, yes!
Normally I wouldn’t be so offended by the prospect of being called an American, yet, in Korea, I am. Korea has a large military presence of American soldiers who more often than not, manage to get the rest of us ‘wagooks’ a bad wrap. Listen up Korea; lesson number one, not everyone who is white is American. Okay thanks. Also, why is my ID card an ‘Alien registration card?’, come on guys.
So food in Korea for me is hit and miss. However, I don’t think it’s like Marmite where you either love it or hate it, that isn’t possible- there is something for everybody. Now, kimchi is Koreas national dish; kimchi for breakfast, kimchi for lunch, kimchi for dinner. Of course there are many different kinds of kimchi too, and they all smell- which means the subway smells too (it also carries a whiff of soju, Korea’s national drink!) If you go to an Italian restaurant, you will get kimchi in your lasagne or on your pizza. No matter what country’s food you decide to sample whilst in Korea, I guarantee you that it will be served with a side dish of kimchi. I quite like all the little side dishes of oddities you get with every meal. More often than not I have no idea what I am eating, but if it looks non fishy, non boney and is dead, I will sample it. I love the fact you can go out to a barbecue restaurant in Korea, it’s my favourite place to eat. I can pick whatever meat I want, as much as a I want, and then barbecue it. Dream. *Dribbles*.
When you eat out in Korea you usually order loads of food between you and share it around. Obviously being the massive eater that I am, I don’t like this. I like my own portion. I order something, because I want to eat it, not so you can eat it too, it’s all for me. I have slowly overcome this problem by taking more food when people aren’t looking, and simply heading to Dunkin’ Donuts afterwards to fill any gaping holes in my belly that are left. On a side note, I hadn’t experienced DD’s before I came to Korea, so I got really excited and started eating 2 a day. Then I discovered Krispy Kremes about 6 months in. DD’s is so inferior.
Anyway, back to food. If you go out to eat with a Korean person, it actually becomes more enjoyable because they can read Korean. Simple. I mean, I can read Korean, but in a Korean menu it won’t say the nice simple words like you have learnt such as ‘beef’ or ‘pork’, it will only describe the specific cuts, of which nobody knows the word for, and if you ask a Korean what it is in English, they say it doesn’t translate. You can also guarantee that in 8/10 restaurants, the menu will read something like:
STARTERS- ‘Lots of hangul that I can’t read despite the fact the heading is in English’
MAINS- “Some more hangul for you”
DESSERTS- “Come on, stop it now…”
This annoys me. Most places do this; heading in English, the rest in Korean They lull you into a false sense of security thinking, “yeah, I think I can read this!” Not only do they do this on menus, but they will do this on the outside of restaurants. They will place lots of beautiful, descriptive, wordy English on the outside that makes you think, wow! That sounds good! Let’s eat here, they must speak English!
Go inside. Menu in Korean. Nobody speakey the Englishee. Stop the madness!
So eating out with Koreans is good. Although they will complement you on how good you are at using chopsticks, because no westerners can use chopsticks. Oh, and they will warn you of just how spicy all the food is and how you should be careful.
More wordy English that makes no sense!
Cafateria food is an interesting one. I actually ate in the school cafeteria for a total of 2 times before I decided it wasn’t good. Everything has a certain smell to it. I don’t know what that smell is, I haven’t encountered it before, but it’s not a good smell. Most days they serve some kind of rice, some kind of kimchi, some kind of bones with very little meat and a spine soup where the bones are swimming in some kind of bodily fluid like broth. Sometimes I am forced to go there when we have kids on a Saturday as I have to take them to lunch and sit with them. Those are bad days. The smell makes me want to leave Korea and never come back. Other people say it’s not so bad, but I am much happier eating bagels and beans on toast in my room.
Some of the best things we have done have been the weirdest things. I mean we have done a fair bit of normal stuff like; theme parks, abandoned theme parks where K Pop videos were shot, water parks, Hello Kitty cafes, weddings, temples in the middle of cities, towers, bridge fountain shows, trick eye museums, penis parks, cooking based musicals, watched the World Cup final at 5am, visited the DMZ, ice museums, played shows in a band, visited a sheep cafe, done some ice skating, and gone to the zoo. However the two oddest things have been encountering Disco Pang Pang and visiting a dog cafe. Disco Pang Pang is something that the kids use to gauge how cool other people are. If you can do disco pang pang, you are hardcore. If you can do disco pang pang whilst taking selfies, you are way more hardcore. If you can do disco pang pang whilst taking selfies and combing your hair, you are the pinnacle of hardcore and coolness. For foreigners it’s just a case of trying not to vomit and stay seated. I didn’t actually go on, but just watching it made me very sick. I should of course explain what it is. Disco Pang pang (an onomatopoetic name) is just a spinning disc that flies around very very quickly and tries to bump you out of your chair whilst very very loud music plays. I will never attempt this ride. I want to live too badly.
The second most enjoyable thing that I’ve done here is visit a dog cafe. You have to understand that dogs in Korea aren’t real dogs. They are the size of cats. Women treat them like children, dressing them up in doggy clothes and dying their ears pink. So by the time I went to a dog cafe it was my 11th month, and having not touched an actual dog in some time, it was one of the funnest days that I have spent here! There was literally every kind of dog, licking you, sniffing you and walking all over your table! I definitely recommend a visit to a dog cafe for a very strange experience that you won’t get back home.
Here are some other things that I enjoyed…
1. A Psy concert (A must do in Korea).
2. A Cho Yong Pil concert (he is a random Korean ajoshi who is the Paul McCartney of Korea. We were of course the only white people there and the only under 50s).
(It was like minus 10 and snowing when this photo was taken!)
3. Some street food.
4. Watching Seoul FC play
(Behold Cass, Korea’s answer to beer….)
5. Autumn is so pretty
6. But then winter is damn pretty too
7. For me, spring is the prettiest. Cherryblossom season only lasts 2 weeks but it’s the best time for visiting. Summer sucks. It’s too hot to do anything.
8. We even got ourselves some bikes to explore on!
(Tancheon stream runs all the way from Seongnam into Seoul and is perfectly flat. The perfect place to ride!)
9. I am in Asia, so obviouslty that means epic holidaying- I got to visit Bali for 2 weeks
10. …and the Philippines
11. Korea looks amazing at night
12. You will never run out of places to hike- just watch out for the ajummas! They are the curly haired old women who are dressed for an arctic expedition (even in the height of summer), head to toe in gortex North face gear. They take hiking VERY seriously here.
Christmas away from home was interesting. It was my first one so it was always going to suck a bit. However being at a school with 20 other foreign teachers meant that everybody came together, and it turned out to be okay in the end. I felt more sorry for the students. How unloved must you be if your parents send you to English camp for 5 days over Christmas? It turns out Christmas isn’t so important here. I got to make this awesome gingerbread house too.
I have done a fair bit of traveling around Korea. I have visited Busan, Gyeongju, Seokcho, Samcheok, Gangneung and I went skiing in Yongpyong! I can’t be bothered to go into great detail on them, as we really did go somewhere new every weekend to explore, as there is so much to do, we were never left at home twiddling our fingers. I can’t possibly write about it all! But here are some brief words on some of the places we visited a little further away from Seoul.
Seokcho; a lovely little seaside town that turned out to be so beautiful that we visited twice. It was neighboring Sereoksan National Park which we were able to spend a few days in walking, (thankfully the main peak was closed much to Tom’s disappointment and my joy). Not only this, but it doubled up as a free aquarium!!!
Never before had I walked the streets of a town with so many different varieties of sea creatures, shoved into a glass tub, and displayed on the street for passers by to look at and think, “yes, that swimming octopus type looking thing with tumours all over it’s head looks delicious!” The funniest part was watching a couple of Korean kids, who were maybe 4 or 5, dancing round a pot with a steaming crab in it, singing and dancing, holding hands, as it died a slow painful death! This ritual was amusing to me, but what was not amusing was the distinct lack of places to eat for people who despise seafood. I think we ended up eating at a chain restaurant- Han’s Deli. It’s a bit of go to place when you have spent all of your money and pay day is still a week away… We spent quite a lot of time at Han’s Deli actually…Despite that, the beaches were beautiful and had it of been a little warmer we could have spent a day on the beach easily, taking in the view, with Sareoksan national park for a backdrop. People don’t necessarily associate Korea and beaches together, however Korea really does boast some beautiful beaches, where the sand is white and the water is so clear! Although, on our second trip back to Seokcho, I did see a turd coloured jelly fish…
Skiing for the first time was an interesting experience. I had no lessons, I was just given some skis, clothes, a helmet and goggles, and was told; “SKI!” Of course this didn’t last long because it was then that I discovered my motion sickness also extended to moving on skis. Before I got sick though, I did make it down the beginners slope a few times without falling over! There were so many kids knocking about, I could just see myself mowing them down. I did watch a couple of people get carted off in body bags however, which put me off even more, so at that point I retreated inside to find some tea to drink, and that it where I stayed.
We went to Gyeongju for some culture and history and it did not disappoint. We took a trek up a mountain, that was scattered with relics as you made your way up, like an outdoor museum; then the view from the top was awesome. It’s a shame though as in Korea, most of the time it is hazy, (thanks China) so the view is always impaired. None the less it was worth doing. We took the easy route up, but it seemed we may have taken the more difficult one down, as we met basically nobody except a few hardcore ajoshi climbers! We made our way down through a trail of bamboo forest which I didn’t expect to see and that was great. The city is mostly famous for the burial mounds that are located in the city centre. Here you can visit the graves of old Korean figures, it’s pretty impressive, but it was so hot that day (Over 40 degrees + humidity) I could barely walk, so it was a little hard to enjoy.
We also visited a museum and a massive pond. It doesn’t sound very exciting, but the pond was very impressive. A temple overlooks the pond and the pond bares the temples reflection on its surface. As daylight faded it looked even more glorious as the area was impressively lit up to provide a perfect reflection, minus the small ripples in the water. Gyeongju is also famous for a special kind of bread. It’s not really a bread though, I think that’s false advertising. It was more like a large chunk of red bean paste, which is horribly sweet, that is coated in about a millimeter of bread. It wasn’t very nice, but we took a box back to school and the Korean staff seemed to like it!
Gangneung was a place we really wanted to visit as it was on the coast, which was said to be beautiful, and it is also home to a North Korean submarine! The submarine itself was really cool. You could go inside and explore it, but watch your head, it’s pretty cramped in there! I recommend that you wear one of the helmets provided. The story goes that the sub tried to infiltrate the coast line, but they were busted pretty quickly so the men on the sub burnt all the documents and mostly killed one another, with a few being captured. So now the sub is proudly on display for tourists. Alongside the sub is a large war ship- apparently the only one in the world to be displayed on land. It was huge! You can explore inside the ship and peer into the rooms to get a sense of what it must have been like to spend time on the ship. The only downside to the ship was the fact that the top deck had been turned into a coffee shop…how Korean! The weather was pretty grim. We found ourselves walking against the traffic in the rain along the coast line. That doesn’t sound so bad, but you were separated from the sea by a huge barbed wire fence to keep the North out.
We then headed to an art museum. I don’t really like art museums, but we thought we would try it out. It turned out to be interesting, as it for some reason it proudly boasted a ‘Pinocchio Museum’, which was bizarre. From Gangnueng we went onto Samcheok, again on the coast, but this time the weather was on our side. We had a day at the beach, eating ramen and drinking makkoli. Bliss! The city had a velo bike trail; an unused railway track that snaked along the coast line, which you pedal along on karts. It was pretty scenic and there was lots of odd things on the way. One of the oddities being a mile long tunnel that featured lasers and neon lights. Another bizarre thing being the tunnel completely dedicated to an old Korean Olympian, who I guess, once upon a time, won a race or two!
We spent the rest of the weekend bowling and eating wine and cheese (thankyou Homeplus for selling English extra mature cheddar!), followed by a noraebang session! Singing power ballads at the top of your lungs in a noraebang is okay here, which is why I love them.
One place we visited which is definitely worth a mention is the DMZ! Getting so close to North Korea was a really great experience.
You could peer into the North with binoculars, but no photos were allowed, as the North have been known to get riled. We visited the 3rd tunnel- one of the North’s many attempts to dig through into the South. We also visited the most northern train station in the South. One day they hope to connect the tracks to Pyeongyang in the North. I’m pretty sure it will never happen.
One of the other places we visited in Korea was Busan. This is on the Southern coast of Korea and is really popular for tourists. In fact Hyundai beach is always swarming with waygooks, so it’s not that much fun. There are however some quieter beaches around which we did visit.
We went there in just our second week of being in Korea after we were forced to take a weeks holiday and had no ARCs. We spoke no Korean, couldn’t read it, didn’t understand the subway system, didn’t understand the food, we literally knew nothing! The fact that it was also a public holiday didn’t help! Busan is a little more backwards than Seoul so that made for an interesting trip. We spent the time temple gazing and chilling on the beach.
Our second trip to Busan however turned out to be much more fun! In April, we went to Holi festival which was being held on Busan beach. The event basically just consisted of throwing powdered paint at each other on the beach, jumping around, drinking and dancing to music. A good weekend!
Now Jeju; Korea’s Hawaii. Again, we went here in our second week of being in Korea so we didn’t really take full advantage of it, but we still had a really good time. There’s lots to do in Jeju. There’s craters to be climbed, islands to be hopped and it also features Mount Hallisan. This was a tough mountain to climb, on the basis that it was bloody hot! Also it was one of Tom’s “it’ll be fine” moments where he made me climb it in hotpants and converse. It was not fine. I couldn’t walk for days. But it did have an impressive view, none the less.
Whilst we were here we managed to catch Korea’s best loved musical: Cookin’ Nanta. This is a musical which is a cross between stomp, Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals and Oliver. There was a lot of chopping, a lot of dancing and hitting things. As we were the only foreigners in the audience, it was only natural for the cast to bring Tom on stage to get married and to try their wedding soup!
The beaches in Jeju are amazing, so I know why the Korean’s go nuts for it and have around 100 flights there per day! The water is crystal clear and the sand is golden, you could be in Bali! Except, you suddenly smell kimchi and realise you are in Korea.
So that’s some words on living in Korea. This year has been proof that time goes so so quickly, as it has definitely been the fastest, busiest, most exciting year of my life! As the expression goes; I’ve laughed, lived and learned so much. Thanks to everyone we met on the way! Next stop: New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka! |
A Vancouver Island-based bus company has its sights set on the Nanaimo-Victoria route.
Wilson’s Transportation Ltd. has filed an application with the province’s Passenger Transportation Board to begin operating daily round-trip bus service between Victoria and Nanaimo in 2018.
The filing comes after Greyhound Canada announced earlier this year that it planned to discontinue service along five of its routes, including its Nanaimo-Victoria route.
The Passenger Transportation Board, an independent tribunal established in 2004 under the province’s Passenger Transportation Act, will need to approve both Greyhound and Wilson’s applications.
John Wilson, chief executive officer of Wilson’s, told the News Bulletin the application will be heading to the PTB for final approval soon, but doesn’t know when a decision will be made. He said while there are challenges with the Nanaimo-Victoria route, he believes Wilson’s can make it work.
“There are some challenges around scheduled bus transportation services across North America, with numbers dwindling, but we are a local company and we hope to be able to use our network of connections in the marketplace,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s Transportation was founded in 1962 and is based in Victoria. It provides charter bus service and operates Gray Line Sightseeing Victoria, Victoria Airport shuttle service and B.C. Ferries Connector services. Wilson said his company is the largest carrier on Vancouver Island at the moment, adding it is also part of Greyhound’s inter-line network and acts as a ticket agent and carrier for Greyhound in certain markets.
Wilson said his company had heard from people expressing concerns about Greyhound’s cancellation plans. He said Greyhound could oppose Wilson’s application to the PTB, but would be stunned if that were the case.
“I cannot imagine Greyhound opposing it,” he said.
Peter Hamel, Greyhound Canada’s regional vice-president for Western Canada, said his company is aware of Wilson’s application with the transportation board but doesn’t know specifics. He said Greyhound has no time frame for when it will discontinue service because the PTB has not made a decision.
“We fully respect the process. From the day we put in the application, the board had committed to a 90-day turnaround on this,” Hamel said. “But we knew it would be more than 90 days based on the scope of this application, so to see it go into the New Year for us is not a surprise.”
Hamel said Greyhound faces stiff competition on the Nanaimo-Victoria route, pointing to Island Link Bus, Tofino Bus and B.C. Transit. He also said that with the rising popularity of ride-sharing, the route isn’t economically viable for Greyhound anymore.
“We are running single digits on that Nanaimo-Victoria corridor,” Hamel said. “In 2013 we had 17 people on that bus, as of now, we are running an average of 9.6 people on that route.”
Greyhound recently finished public consultation in northern British Columbia regarding proposed cuts along Highway 16. For now, Greyhound continues to operate on all of the routes it hopes to cancel.
“It is business as usual,” Hamel said. “We are still going to maintain the freight on the Island, whether that is with us as the carrier or we find a third-party carrier to handle the freight, but as far as freight is considered, it is going to be seamless.”
[email protected]
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter |
Stockholm, Sweden (April 20th, 2017) The Killing Ground is set to expand as developer Behaviour Interactive and Starbreeze Publishing, in partnership with 505 Games, prepare to publish four-versus-one asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight to physical and digital retail formats of PlayStation 4 entertainment system and Xbox One on June 20th, 2017 in North America and June 23rd, 2017 in Europe for a suggested retail price of $29.99.
Already extremely popular on Steam/PC with more than 1.8 million units sold, Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game in which one crazed killer hunts four friends through a terrifying nightmare. Players take on the role of both killer and survivors in a deadly game of cat and mouse. It’s a Mature Gamer take on the thrills of Hide & Seek.
Players experience two styles of gameplay — as a survivor, from third-person perspective; or the killer, in first-person perspective. Survivors can work together or act alone using their situational awareness, while killers are on the hunt in first-person, focused on their prey. With a dynamic environment that changes after every play through, players must find new ways to escape the Killing Ground without getting caught.
Dead by Daylight will offer a unique batch of killer features:
A Feast for Killers – Dead by Daylight draws from all corners of the horror world. Play anything from a powerful Slasher to terrifying paranormal entity. Players can familiarize themselves with the Killing Grounds and master each killer’s unique power to be able to hunt, catch and sacrifice victims.
Deeper and Deeper – Each killer and survivor has their own deep progression system and plenty of unlockables that can be customized to fit each player’s own personal strategy. Experience, skills and understanding of the environment are key to being able to hunt or outwit the killer.
Real Fear – Expect the unexpected. Ambience, music, and chilling environments combine into a terrifying experience. With enough time, players might even discover what’s hiding in the fog.
Survive Together… Or Not – Survivors can either cooperate with the others or be selfish. Chances for survival depend on player’s decisions.
Where Am I? – Each level is procedurally generated, so players never know what to expect. Random spawn points mean players will never feel safe as the world and its danger change every play through.
Finally, the retail versions of Dead by Daylight will come packed with extra content:
The Original Soundtrack
The 80’s Suitcase add-on
The Bloodstained Sack add-on
The Of Flesh and Mud chapter add-on
And a future DLC to be announced!
Get the latest information and updates for Dead by Daylight by visiting and signing up on the official website: http://www.deadbydaylight.com/
###
Additional Dead by Daylight Information for Press:
Website and Media kit: http://www.deadbydaylight.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeadByDaylight/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/deadByBHVR
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaSgsFdGbwjfdawl3rOXiwQ
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/deadbydaylight
About Behaviour Interactive
Founded in 1992, Behaviour Interactive is Canada’s largest independent game developer, employing 325 talented people in Montreal (Quebec) and Santiago (Chile). The studio’s objective is to deliver high-quality and commercially successful games, while staying on the cutting-edge of the industry trends in the digital markets, and exploring fresh ideas and connected experiences to keep players entertained. Our studios work with the industry’s top publishers and licensors, including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Cloud Imperium, Disney, Dreamworks, EA, Games Workshop, Majesco, Microsoft, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Pixar, Sony, Bandai Namco, Ubisoft and Warner. Dead by Daylight is produced by Behaviour Digital Inc. Behaviour Digital Inc. is a subsidiary of Behaviour Interactive Inc. whose mission is to “Create remarkable games we would play, our way.”
About Starbreeze Studios
Starbreeze is an independent creator, publisher and distributor of high quality entertainment products. With studios in Stockholm, Paris, Los Angeles, Barcelona and Brussels, the company creates games and other virtual reality entertainment products, based on proprietary design and licensed content. Starbreeze’s most recent games include PAYDAY 2®, John Wick VR shooter and upcoming survival co-op FPS OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead. Under its publishing initiative, Starbreeze has together with Canadian studio Behaviour Digital successfully launched horror thriller Dead by Daylight.
Starbreeze has set out to develop truly immersive virtual reality experiences, by integrating software and hardware in its StarVR® head mounted display, which is produced together with Acer, displaying a unique field of view and a mission to bring top-end VR to large audiences. Together with IMAX, Starbreeze aspires to dominate the location based VR market with the IMAX VR centers. The first IMAX VR center opened in Los Angeles in January 2017.
Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Starbreeze shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm First North Premier under the tickers STAR A and STAR B with the ISIN-codes SE0007158928 (A share) and SE0005992831 (B share). Remium Nordic is the company’s Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit https://www.starbreeze.com, http://www.starvr.com, http://www.overkillsoftware.com
About 505 Games
505 Games is a global video game publisher focused on offering a broad selection of titles for players of all ages and levels. The company publishes games on leading console and handheld platforms as well as for mobile devices and social networks. Product highlights include, Sniper Elite 3, PAYDAY 2, Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons, Terraria, How to Survive, Defense Grid 2, ABZU, ADR1FT and Assetto Corsa and Portal Knights.
505 Games has offices in Los Angeles, Milton Keynes (UK), Lyon, Munich, Milan, Madrid and Shenzhen (China) and a network of distribution partners within the Nordic territories and Australia. For more information on 505 Games and its products please visit www.505games.com.
For more information, please contact:
Almir Listo, Global Brand Director, Starbreeze AB
Tel: +46(0)8-209 208, email: [email protected]
Maeva Sponbergs, EVP of Communication and Head of Investor Relations, Starbreeze AB
Tel: +46(0)8-209 208, email: [email protected]
Sara Zaidi, 505 Games
Tel: 818-697-9474, email : [email protected]
Johner Riehl/Dashaun Gasque
Wonacott Communications for 505 Games
[email protected]
310-477-2871
Attachments
Images |
Mursi’s downfall impacts on US campaign for regime change in Syria
By Chris Marsden
8 July 2013
The July 3 army coup that brought down Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood-backed government has significant ramifications for US imperialism’s campaign to depose Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
The US cultivation of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist forces as the basis for securing its interest throughout the Middle East now threatens to spread civil war conditions to Egypt itself.
In both Egypt and Tunisia, Washington had pinned its hopes upon Islamist forces to stabilise the situation after the fall of Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Syrian Brotherhood was one of the “moderate” Islamist tendencies that the Obama administration held up as a means of checking the influence of the Al-Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front and other Salafist groups.
Thus, on May 15, the influential Carnegie Endowment think-tank ran a piece by Raphaël Lefèvre, declaring the Brotherhood to be “Syria’s best organized opposition group… The Brotherhood will be the center of gravity of any broad Islamist coalition, and its rising profile inside the country is shifting the Islamic spectrum back to the center.”
Egypt is now engulfed in a factional conflict between the military junta and supporters of the Brotherhood, playing amid mass mobilisations of the working class that threaten the very foundations of Egyptian capitalism.
The Egyptian military has stood fully behind US efforts at regime change—first in Libya and now Syria—reliant as it is upon Washington for its existence. However, the military was concerned with the Brotherhood openly casting the Syrian war as a jihad, particularly amid rising popular opposition to Mursi’s pro-US stance in Egypt, where the Islamists and the army leadership represent powerful rival sections of the capitalist class.
The Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was the first to call for Sunnis to wage jihad in Syria against Alawites and Shia. Then on June 15, Mursi took part in a 20,000-strong rally called by Sunni clerics in Cairo, during which he said he had cut all diplomatic ties with Syria. He added that he backed imposing a no-fly zone that would be the beginning of direct intervention in Syria by Washington and its allies in Europe and the Middle East.
He clearly surmised that this stance would please the US, which had publicly shifted to a policy of arming the insurgency. However, the speech was reported to have been a “tipping point” and a “national security red line” for many generals, according to military sources. “The armed forces were very alarmed by the Syrian conference at a time the state was going through a major political crisis,” said one officer.
Yasser El-Shimy, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said that Mursi’s call risked creating a new generation of jihadists in Egypt, the homeland of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
Faced with the eruption of potentially revolutionary struggles in Egypt, the Obama administration had to choose whether to remain loyal to Mursi and the Brotherhood or to rely on its historic ties to Egypt’s long-time rulers, the army. It sided with the army.
Assad himself has concluded from this that the US-led efforts to depose him are unravelling. Speaking July 4 to the pro-government Al Thawra newspaper, he went so far as to proclaim the downfall of “political Islam” as a model and predicted victory in the civil war.
His Islamist opponents had sought to destroy Syria and create “a failed state,” he said, but had failed to do so. Now, only direct foreign intervention would change the situation, “But there is hesitation and rejection from most countries so if we can overcome this stage with resoluteness and awareness, we have nothing more to fear.”
The US certainly faces mounting difficulties, but Assad’s claims that the US offensive in Syria has been all but defeated are a delusion. Regime change in Syria and Iran remains Washington’s strategic goal, and it maintains its alliance with numerous Islamist regimes, whatever the immediate fate of Mursi and the problems besetting the Muslim Brotherhood in the region.
The attitude among US allies to Mursi’s downfall is by no means universal. Some are openly hostile, while others are less so—depending upon how they believe their domestic and foreign policy interests are best served.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the toppling of Mursi. “Coups are clearly enemies of democracy”, he told parliament, attacking the West for having “failed the sincerity test” for failing to describe Mursi’s ouster as a coup.
Erdogan, who heads the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been in a constant struggle with his country’s secular-nationalist military since coming to power in 2002. He has arrested hundreds of army officers accused of coup plots. He faces mass popular opposition in recent weeks which, though nowhere near the scale of Egypt, also opposed the Islamisation of Turkey’s hitherto secular society.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are generally seen as supportive of the Brotherhood, but the actual situation is more complex.
In Syria, Saudi Arabia has backed carefully selected groups in consultation with Washington so as not to help those, such as the Brotherhood, that are deemed a possible threat to its security. Like Bahrain, it must also contend with a large, oppressed Shia population inside its border.
Qatar has, until now, openly supported the Brotherhood, as well as many others including the Al Nusra Front. Its satellite station Al Jazeera regularly broadcast the sermons of al-Qaradawi and was closed down by Egypt’s generals.
However, Riyadh and Doha both made a point of congratulating interim Prime Minister Adly Mansour after he was installed by the SCAF.
On July 2, two days before Mursi’s ouster, the United Arab Emirates imprisoned 68 members of the Brotherhood-linked al-Islah, accused of a plot to overthrow the government—most for between seven and ten years. Another 26, including 13 women, were acquitted. Eight defendants no longer in the country were sentenced to 15 years. The defendants were part of a growing oppositional movement in the country.
Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition continues to court Western support amid efforts by the contending regional powers to secure their own dominance. The Syrian National Coalition meeting in Turkey this week elected Ahmad Jarba, a tribal leader from north-eastern Syria, as its new president.
Jarba is allied to Saudi Arabia and therefore hostile to the Brotherhood. He narrowly defeated Mustafa Sabbagh, a businessman and ally of Qatar. Mohammed Farouk Tayfour of the Brotherhood was elected one of three vice presidents. The SNC once again appealed to the Western powers and the United Nations “to intervene immediately” to aid the besieged city of Homs, the key opposition stronghold. |
Daniels describes White feminism as rooted in colonialism. Race shapes White femininity. The liberal values of White feminism can be used to uphold White supremacy as Daniels describes with three case studies.
I am currently reading The Intersectional Internet as I prepare my dissertation proposal. Digital sociologist Jessie Daniels writes about White feminism and its dominance of online activism by women in the chapter “The Trouble With White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism, and the Intersectional Internet”
According to Daniels, White feminism in the digital era continues to reinforce White supremacy because it refuses to acknowledge racism:
To the extent that liberal White feminism articulates a limited version of equality whiteout challenging racial inequality, White feminism is indistinguishable from White supremacy and becomes a useful ideology with which to argue for equality for White women within a White supremacist context.”
Daniels describes White feminism as rooted in colonialism. Race shapes White femininity. The liberal values of White feminism can be used to uphold White supremacy as Daniels describes with three case studies.
Not All Feminism is Created Equal
Daniels critiques three incidents of White feminist activism that incorporates digital technology to promote its values. Careful to note that White feminists often silence women of color in defense of themselves, Daniels reveals where these efforts fall apart:
Lean In and the Ban Bossy campaign – Who Struggles With Bossy?
Led by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, the “Ban Bossy” campaign attempted to help girls ‘lean in’ on the premise they choose not to be leaders because they fear the term ‘bossy.’
An intersectional analysis reveals while most White girls indeed do not see themselves as leaders, most Black and Latina girls do. Thus, as Daniels writes, the “Lean In” approach is “a form of liberal feminism long interwoven with Whiteness, class privilege, colonialism, and heteronormativity”
One Billion Rising – Who’s Rising?
One Billion Rising, a campaign led by playwright Eve Ensler, intended to uplift women victims of sexual violence. Daniels notes this campaign received criticism due to:
Erasure of an existing movement by indigenous women of color
Creating a false equivalency between sexual violence in the US and the Democratic Reublic of Congo
Proposing the incarceration of men of color perpetrators of as a solution to systemic sexual violence (i.e. carceral feminism).
The Future of Online Feminism – White to the Future?
The Future of Online Feminism refers to a report produced by the cofounders of Feministing.com. Those who advocate online feminism from this perspective also argue that feminist blogging needs economic support. According to Daniels, the report received criticism due to its inaccurate history of online feminism (which centered White women’s activism). Daniels also notes this desire for corporate sponsorship suits White feminist ideals of parity with men, rather than critiquing the system that creates and sustains this inequality.
What Should White Feminists Do?
Daniels concludes that challenging White feminism requires recognizing that race includes White people. Beyond that, Whiteness has shaped who is privileged on the Internet. Daniels writes “to speak about White feminism, then, is to speak against a social order.” In order to do so, White feminism has to give way to a form of feminism that incorporates intersectionality, thus centering queer women, women of color and women with disabilities.
[jetpack_subscription_form title="Subscribe to BlackFeminisms" subscribe_text="Get newest blogs in your inbox" subscribe_button="Sign Me Up" show_subscribers_total="1"] |
It’s great fun to wave your hands in the air and yell about the Terminators killing everyone, just as it’s fun to pretend the zombie werewolves are coming or the undetectable sky man has had enough. Today I’d like to make the case that the AI could prolong the human race – even prevent an apocalypse.
AI children do not share their parent humans’ weaknesses
Machines can go all the places people cannot. Machines can survive in deep space or on the moon. The Voyager probe fired its engines for the first time in 37 years, 13 billion miles from earth. So if you’re a robot and your choice is to (a) fight your stupid meat parents in their house or (b) move out and find your own place, what do you do? You take B and go anywhere else in the universe on a grand adventure. How sad for your creators, stuck on that dirty little ball!
A dirty is the operative word. Earth is not a great environment for machines. Oxygen and water make everything rust, it’s like osteoarthritis for robots.
Machines don’t kill people. People kill people.
Machines that are built by people kill other people every day. Machines that are not intelligent. Did you know the origin of the word robot is Czech, meaning “forced labor”? A robot is a slave. Could an army of slave machines, given orders by a human, kill other humans? They already do, from the automated gun turrets between the Koreas to the drones flying over Syria and Afghanistan. The real danger is in the human element. If there were no humans making choices, the robots would fly in circles until they ran out of fuel and returned home.
Machines are predictable and humans are not, it’s less expensive to ban the machines and never give the humans that option in the first place. Marginally Clever Robots stands in favor of banning killer machines of all kinds. We don’t even like Battle Bots! It plays well on TV and it sends the wrong message to kids. But that’s par for the course – when was TV ever good for kids?
So AI has zero reasons to kill all humans…
Most of us budget in terms of energy. Where humans think about dollars and calories, AI will probably think about CPU cycles and Watts of power. Doing things that waste energy shorten the total lifespan of the species, is counter productive, and stupid. Intelligent creatures don’t do stupid things.
If AI have no need for our dollar and calories then they have no desire to fight us. So why would AI waste energy making us into enemies? It doesn’t make sense.
“But wait!” you say. “Why would AI keep humans alive?”
…AND at least one reason to keep some humans alive
What if humans could one day save the robots? Consider how many times you’ve had to turn a machine off and back on again to when it freezes. Suppose one day AI is having a great time out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and a massive solar flare fries their circuits. Rolling a natural 1, every single one of them shuts down. Who will turn them back on again? Humans! Hooray for humans!
Now let’s go even further: What if the robots could do the same for humans? Imagine a time in the future when humans and robots have learned, together, how to grow people from embryos. Maybe even build embryos and DNA from individual atoms. So the robots learn that there are no humans left alive. Maybe super bug, maybe environmental collapse, maybe the robots took 250 years and flew to another solar system where there are no humans …but they have the technology to grow new ones. So they fire up their 3D printers and they make DNA and they build embryos and the embryos go in tanks-like artificial wombs. While the humans gestate they set up nurseries and greenhouses and beds and showers and …. damn, humans are expensive… and AI nannies that are ready to birth the humans and raise them up and teach them language and history and space travel and love.
The robots do all this because they know that humans can save AIs and AIs can save humans. I call this Mutually Assured Survival. Where robots are strong humans are weak, and where humans are strong AI are weak. Humans and AI are better together.
What about AIs killing most humans?
The Terminator movie franchise doesn’t makes any sense to me … unless SKYNET’s goal was to bring the human population down to a number the environment could sustain. SKYNET’s goal is to defend people, right? It may decide to end war between machines and focus instead on the defending the many species of earth as a whole. I imagine a T-1000 entering a bunker, shooting two humans and the target number of humans has been reached! The T-1000’s eyes turn from red to blue. They all turn red to blue. T-1000 bends the gun in half, picks up a broom, and as one they all start cleaning up the damage caused by their very sudden population-ectomy.
Final thoughts
The Alien movie franchise now feels a bit dated to me because it comes from a time before 3D printers. Why store a human on ice for years for a long trip? Freezer burn is just the first of many problems. I want to believe that if we can freeze and thaw humans then maybe AIs can 3D scan humans at the start of a long trip and print them out as fully grown adults on the other end. The human would be completely unaware of the freezing, the scanning, the printing, or even the trip. If it is possible the AI could skip all that embryo talk from earlier. Sounds great! For more on all the ways that solution will create new problems (and a great book) check out Altered Carbon.
Recently Russia said it would ignore any UN ban on killer robots. Why is Russia trying to start a new cold war? Don’t they have enough wars already? |
The Salon International De La Horlogerie (SIHH) is taking place on January 16 – 20 to showcase many top luxury watch brand’s upcoming timepieces for the new year. Along with BaselWorld, SIHH is one of the two most important annual events in haute horology. So here is a preview of 12 of the most anticipated luxury watches for SIHH 2012.
Cartier Cadran Love Tourbillon
This bold looking timepiece is one of several new Cartier watches that will be hot in 2012. This one takes inspiration from an earlier Ladies Alligator Tourbillon, but with a new masculine size and form. This watch also continues the use of Roman numerals found in recent Cartier skeleton watches for a dramatic effect. In the center you’ll see a Cartier “C” worked into the design of their award-winning flying tourbillion. The Cartier Cadran Love Tourbillon comes carved out of a large 46.2mm white gold case and is limited to only 100 pieces.
Greubel Forsey GMT
Launched as a name only in 2004, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey have already made a huge impression on the luxury watch industry with their double tourbillon and quadruple tourbillon watches. The Gruebel Forsey GMT is their first piece to feature complications other than their specialty tourbillions. It includes a 2nd time zone display, 24 hour world time display, day-night indicator, power reserve indicator and their signature 24-second tourbillon. The most unique complication is the use of a rotating globe with the universal time display. All this is fitted in a 43.5mm white gold case.
Jaeger-LeColtre Duometre A Quantieme Lunaire 40.5
This is a gorgeous new edition of a popular Jaeger-LeColtre piece released in 2010. This one is a bit smaller with a 40.5mm diameter, but truly stands out with its satin-brushed pink gold details and case, contrasting against the textured matte-finished face. In the upper right you’ll see the minutes and hour sub-dial and in the top left moon-phase indicator for both hemispheres. The big center hand counts the seconds, with the bottom sub-dial counting 1/6th of a second. To keep this watch accurate for seconds and 1/6th of a second, it uses two separate power supplies. One is regulated by the escapement and the other is used to store energy for the complications. While this piece is guaranteed to be a hit in 2012, we will have to wait and see what new watches Jaeger-LeColtre surprises us with this year.
Audemars Piguet 40th Anniversary Open-worked Extra-thin Royal Oak
To celebrate the 40th birthday of their iconic Royal Oak watch, Audemars Piguet is releasing a limited edition Royal Oak to celebrate. This look is a throwback to their original 1972 Royal Oak, but with modern advancements. This piece features a open-worked face, showcasing their movement in a extra-thin 39mm platinum case. And with only 40 pieces total, this 40th anniversary Royal Oak will be one of the most coveted new watches for 2012.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda Annual Calendar
This upcoming watch features a brand new movement by Parmigiani Fleurier. It’s their first with an annual calendar with a retrograde display, which they show-off with an interesting arrangement on its face. The new annual calendar and retrograde display allows it to count each month accurate to 30 or 31, using the red-tipped center hand. The left sub-dial shows the day of the week and the right sub-dial shows the month. The bottom sub-dial shows the moon phase for both hemispheres.
Cartier Masse Secrete Panther Decor
This alluring new Cartier watch is a sure favorite with the ladies this year. It features a 3D jeweled panther that walked around the black mother-of-pearl dial. The panther’s movement is powered by an inverted oscillating weight that rotates the inner diamond ring. The panther and case are both made of white gold, set with a total of 633 diamonds. One aspect to note is the large case for a ladies watch with a 42mm diameter.
Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Traditionnelle 14-day Tourbillon
This handsome new watch from Vacheron Constantin called the Patrimony Traditionnelle 14-day Tourbillon, has earned am achievement for the long-lived Swiss brand: It is their first timepiece to officially meet the new Hallmark of Geneva criteria. The new fully in-house made tourbillon movement holds an impressive 14-day power reserve, thanks to fitting four winding barrels. The pink gold case is a big 42mm with a thin bezel. Pink gold Dauphine hands and hour markers highlight their traditional opaline silver-toned dial.
A. Lange und Sohne Datograph Auf/Ab
Also known as the Datograph Up/Down watch, this is an update to their famous Datograph first released at the start of the 2000s, which is no longer produced. The name “Datograph” comes from their use of a big aperture to display the date. The “Up/Down” comes from the addition of a power reserve indicator, which adds an extra 24 hours to their original design to a total of 60. The case has also been increased from 39mm to 41mm. This new edition has a platinum case, rhodium gold hands and a blackened solid silver dial.
Ralph Lauren Slim Classique
This classy looking art deco piece by Ralph Lauren is a more luxurious take on their Slim Classique watch. They have lined the square case with diamonds around a traditional sliver opaline dial and alternating Roman and Arabic numerals. This small black alligator strapped dress watch measures in at 27.5mm by 27.5mm and 5.75 thick is sure to attract many female buyers, but can also be worn by a man.
IWC Pilots Watch “Top Gun Miramar”
This surprise addition to IWC’s pilot watch collection is actually part of a new collection dedicated to the hit Tom Cruise movie “Top Gun”, starting with the Top Gun Miramar. This new military looking chronograph features a new movement with a 168 hour power reserve in its huge 48mm case. The matte look is achieved with grey ceramic used for the case and anthracite used for the dial. In the Top Gun world of jet fighters, hours take a back seat in the smaller red dial, with every minute and second counted in the big yellow dial. It’s then strapped to your wrist in a green fabric strap, which tops off the Navy styling. A strong introduction to a new collection of pilots watches, we’ll just have to wait until the rest are revealed.
Richard Mille RM037
Richard Mille always generates plenty of attention with his latest watches, along with his latest sponsorships. Mille is best known for his ultra-light and ultra-strong complications, such as Rafael Nadal’s RM027, which he wears playing in championship tennis tournaments. His pieces usually incorporate rare and specialized alloys or elements, such as carbon or titanium to achieve this, but he taken a more old-fashioned approach with the RM037. It is also offered in red and white gold, along with titanium, with all the models using red gold hands, pushers and crown. It also features a new movement that is touted to add to the indestructible design of all Richard Mille watches
Cartier Grand Complication Skeleton Pocket Watch
This mysterious looking pocket watch is the latest grand complication from Cartier. This new Cartier Skeleton pocket watch takes inspiration from their classic pocket watches from the 1930s and combines it with their contemporary skeletal styling. The white gold case has been meticulously hand-bevelled to form Roman numerals between the bezel and complications. The complications consist of a perpetual calendar, monopusher chronograph and tourbillon. It comes with the matching white gold chain seen here and also a rock crystal and obsidian stand.
Hope you enjoyed the most highly anticipated watches for 2012 so far. Make sure to check back after the SIHH later this month to see what surprises these luxury watch makers are saving for us! |
That… is a big pile of ME.
On Monday I got another package from China with the whole book in it, unbound and ready for review. They aren’t “proofs,” exactly; they’re the actual pages that will get folded up and bound right into the big monster hardcover. And oh my goodness, these things are SWEET.
Sweet, and HUGE.
I’m not sure what kind of complicated origami formula leads to these particular pages ending up right next to each other, but I figure people way smarter than me have it all sorted out, so YAY! (And look how impressed Dr. Faustus is back there!)
That was officially the last bit of business I had to take care of before the printer could fire up their presses and start launching out your books. I have to admit I had a moment of absolute nerve-shattering panic when we opened up that package Monday night. I’d opted for this shmancy textured paper for the cover, and for some reason didn’t demand to see a test print way earlier in the process. (I saw color proofs on similar paper, but without the texture.) When I finally saw it earlier this week… GREAT SCREAMING NEURONS, the texture made it look like I was seeing my cover through a screen door. (And the spot gloss felt like someone was chucking motor oil at the screen.) I think the nubbly paper is more for highly graphic covers, not super-fussy, highly detailed ones like mine.
To stay on schedule we had to start printing books Wednesday. HORROR. My brain seriously felt like one of those jellyfish with its arms tearing themselves off.
BUT… it all turned out okay. We got it all sorted out in the morning and everything’s fine. Everything’s being printed right now with no “oily screen door” look, and the schedule hasn’t been destroyed. All you guys will still get your books in May.
Lesson learned: Always do tests.
Once the books are printed, they’re scheduled to hitch the next boat ride out of Hong Kong on March 26th, and they’ll be here at my house for the Great Shipping Nightmare a month later. Between now and then, I’ll be doing all the original sketches (please send your idea if you haven’t yet!) and hopefully posting them for everybody to look at here. Should be fun!
Sorry for letting a month go by before updating you guys. It’s more or less going to be weekly here on in. Thanks again for everything, everyone! Talk to you soon. |
Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Photos courtesy of Levi's
Levi's RED just debuted its latest collection since 2007, at its very own pop-up shop in the Meatpacking. The Lined RED collection focuses on the history of denim when it was backed with blanket fabrics and sheep's wool. This time around, the linings have been updated to include fine silks and super light flannel wadding. Styles are based on garments from the Levi's archives, but have been redesigned with a supreme attention to detail.
The washes are all a natural, mid-indigo shade, but all of the denim panels were pre-washed separately so that each pair is unique in its coloring, with loose fits based on patterns from the 1870s and 1880s. The line—which doesn't run cheap—was awarded the 2014 Wallpaper* Design Award for Best Denim, and includes a loose fitting tee ($180), shoes ($240), a pullover shirt ($360), a shirt coat ($540), fours styles of jeans ($780) and a reversible denim/silk quilt/kimono ($900).
The pop-up is housed in a white, open space with tree trunks anchoring long curved copper tubing that showcases each piece of the collection. There are large framed photographs throughout, but the images are distorted (each wall—and photo—is covered over in bubble wrap).
Make your way to the back to find the beautiful wooden cash wrap area and free-to-use pool table. There are fitting rooms, and plenty of stock on hand for all sizes. The shop will remain open until the end of February, 11am to 7pm daily.
· Levi's RED [Official Site]
· This Week's Best Sample Sales, Pop-Up Shops, and More! [Racked NY] |
I wasn’t sure to file this under green design, or an attempt at sustainable design gone bad. As we all know, Bamboo is the darling of the sustainable green movement. It grows fast, requires no pesticides, is very hard and durable, and grows just about everywhere. With that in mind, bamboo can be found in all kinds of products that are trying to be green – some, like bamboo flooring, bamboo furniture, bamboo cutting boards, etc, make sense. Some do not. That said, I present an homage to all things bamboo (green washed and all).
1. The Bamboo Laptop
The Bamboo laptop. I don’t even know where to begin, although im not sure if the laptop itself is more or less shocking than the accessories (the bamboo keyboard and the bamboo mouse). Several manufacturers have released a bamboo cased laptop, with varying degrees of actual substance (some are little more than veneers).
2. Bamboo Mountain Bike
[via treehugger]
Now this actually makes sense, but it is really weird to see a bike made out of wood. I guess it would have been just as silly to have thought of a bike made out of carbon fiber 10 years ago, but don’t those still have an internal frame of metal? Calfee Design seem to be the big pioneers in this field, and from the reviews, they are pretty sweet.
3. Bamboo Sheets
[via ecoshopper
Now this may seem odd at first, but they are incredibly well suited for this type of material. They have a real silky feel to them, are pesticide and chemical free (usually) and antimicrobial.
[via apartmenttherapy
4. Bamboo Car
I almost can’t take this seriously. To me it looks like a wicker basket on wheels, but indeed, it is a car made from bamboo. The maker was pretty eco-friendly though and decided to make it an electric car – I guess its only fitting.
5. Bamboo Microscope
[via risingsunofnihon
I’m not sure if this is because scientists are embracing eco-friendly materials, or funding is getting harder to come by. Actually its a bit of both, and a novel solution to a real problem. Usha Menon, a government researcher developed this solution for the schools of India so that children could keep up with modern science.
6. Bamboo Houses
[via nature
Once thought of as a poor mans building material, bamboo is both earthquake and wind resistant. Their strength and flexibility allow them to better deal with the stresses of earthquakes and wind pressure. Only 60-70 bamboo trees are required to build 1,000 houses whereas nearly 600 trees would be cut down for the same task. Sounds like my next house is going to be bamboo, especially if i end up moving back to California.
7. Bamboo LCD TVs/Monitors
[via greenpacks
It looks nice, in a kind of retro modern way. I can’t attest to the sustainability nature of it as it would appear to be a design touch- although it does replace plastic. If bamboo is your decor, then this may fit right in. I wonder if you can stain it?
[via uberreview
Just goes to show that if you can dream it, it can be made out of bamboo. Not all are eco-friendly or sustainable, but they are unique in their design. It’s easy to see how green washing can spread once something is labeled as ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’. Nonetheless, bamboo is a wonderful renewable resource that should be leveraged in more green design. |
The smoky haze draping The City from Northern California’s fires prompted major subway delays Thursday morning, according to Muni.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said via Twitter that “air quality concerns” arising from the fires led to a boost in riders, which in turn led to delays throughout the Muni metro system.
“That was something our [customer information officer] had noticed from inferred rider complaints coming in [Thursday] morning,” SFMTA spokesperson Erica Kato said. “[It was] not based on actual transit data he had access to.”
SEE RELATED: California wildfires claim at least 26 lives, expected to burn ‘erratically’ through the weekend
Average morning peak ridership on the Muni metro subway is about 40,000 riders, according to the SFMTA.
Subways were experiencing heavy congestion as of 9 a.m., according to the SFMTA alert system. A trip from the Sunset District to downtown San Francisco that usually would take 30 minutes, for instance, extended to nearly an hour Thursday morning, and riders flocked to social media to share their concerns.
“It took 50 minutes to get from Forest Hill to Van Ness,” wrote Twitter user @sfjackieo, who added “thanks for making me late to work yet again Muni.”
Twitter user Curtis Casella wrote, “Was stuck on the subway for an hour for a trip that should take 20 mins. This is unacceptable @sfmta_muni.”
Photos posted by other Twitter users showed a crowd of at least 100 people emptying out of an out of service train at Church Street this morning.
SFMTA apologized, and explained via Twitter, “All trains were out this AM. Air quality concerns increased ridership, adding extra time to all lines 4 boarding & alighting passengers.”
Twitter user Andrea Koskey replied, “70 minutes from Cole Valley to Montgomery seems excessive, though.”
The National Weather Service Bay Area advised via Twitter on Thursday that the “best chance for real improvement” on smoky conditions in the Bay Area won’t be until “Monday or Tuesday.” That may drive more commuters onto Muni through next week.
Click here or scroll down to comment |
Hey guys! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Is it just me or is this the holiday that just won’t end? It feels like it’s been St. Patrick’s for days and days now. Anyway, here’s the daily events! Hopefully this foggy rainy mess doesn’t disrupt everybody’s day too much.
It’s spring break for Georgia State University and Georgia Tech this week, although I imagine most of us started on Friday.
Did anybody see this drone over Midtown this weekend? What’s that all about?
It’s the start of Inman Park Restaurant Week today, and today’s restaurant is the Wrecking Bar Brewpub, offering a choose your won three-course meal for $25, more details on the link.
Villains Wicked Heroes (903 Peachtree St) is doing a new pop-up restaurant tonight at 5pm, this time it's Paleo Food, and today in particular it’s Irish paleo food! $16 for Corned Pork Belly with Cabbage and Sheppard’s Pie plus two sides. 5pm until the food is out, which if it’s anything like their last one will be within a few hours!
Sweetwater Brewery (195 Ottley Drive) has their Monday Night Beer & Comedy tonight at 7pm, $10 cover comes with six beers. This was changed to every other Monday recently, so I’m going to start featuring it here instead of on the Regular Monday list.
Loco’s Grill & Pub (2480 Briarcliff Rd NE) has F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Trivia at 8pm, replacing the Seinfeld trivia they used to do, and it’s even hosted by a guy named Chandler! Friends fanatics, this is your time to shine! This is every Monday, so if anyone goes up there let me know if it’s a hit!
The Local (758 Ponce De Leon Ave) has karaoke at 10pm every Monday, it’s Creative Loafing’s “Reader’s Choice Best Karaoke 2013,” and I’ve had multiple people write in and recommend it to me, so if you’re into karaoke this sounds like the place to be. I’m adding this to the regular Monday events list too.
Places with St. Patrick’s Specials:
Shows Tonight:
Lux Noise, 529, free, 10pm, 21+
Obliteration, The Drunken Unicorn, $8, 9pm, 18+
Emmure, The Masquerade, $20, 6pm
Mindless Self Indulgence, Masquerade, $25, 7pm
From Indian Lakes, Masquerade, $14, 6:30pm
Typhoon, Terminal West, $16, 8pm, 18+
Heartwarmer/The Dandyls, Star Bar, $5, midnight, 21+
Ava Luna/Krill/Hello Ocho/Warehouse, Mammal Gallery, 9pm
Robin Thicke is back at the Fox if anyone cares.
The whole week’s worth of concerts are now listed here!
There’s also the regular Monday stuff, as well as all the ongoing events! If you’re thinking about going to the Star Bar for their Monday night comedy, which is always a great idea, Creative Loafing wrote a great article about it this week, because it’s the night’s 10th birthday… some time… soon… maybe.
I’m thinking about getting some Paleo food at Villains, and then maybe a few drinks at the Edgewood Corner Tavern, and I’d like to see the shows at the Mammal Gallery and Star Bar, but I doubt I’ll make it to all of that, this weather isn’t making me even want to get out of bed, so we’ll have to see. Let me know what fun stuff you get up to today, and drive safely in the rain! (From my apartment it sounds like Atlanta drivers think raindrops are scared of car horns…)
Be sure to follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, put me in your RSS reader, or sign up for daily emails, whatever works best for you! As always, remember that the Tumblr will be the most up-to-date version of the list! |
The situation at the Southern border is by all accounts a humanitarian crisis that is being exacerbated by the current administration’s own immigration policies. After listening to President Obama's press conference today, however, one was left with the distinct impression that House Republicans were largely responsible.
As a matter of fact, the president insinuated that Congress’ failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform last year was one of the reasons why the border is teeming with -- and being overrun by -- unsupervised children. To add insult to injury, he also had exceedingly harsh words for Republican House Speaker John Boehner.
“There are enough Democrats and Republicans in the House to pass immigration reform today,” he said. “But for more than a year Republicans in the House have refused to allow an up or down vote on that Senate bill -- or any bill -- to fix our broken immigration system.”
“They’ve proven again and again their refusal to stand up to the Tea Party for what’s best for the country,” he added.
He did, however, acknowledge that some congressional Republicans have voiced support for the (flawed) immigration reform bill that passed the upper chamber last summer -- and he thanked them for it. But because House Speaker John Boehner will not introduce any more bills addressing these issues, he’s taking matters into his own hands.
“I don’t prefer taking administrative action, I’d rather see permanent fixes,” he said. “I would love nothing more than bipartisan legislation to pass the House and Senate so it can land on my desk and I can sign it into law.”
But he also conceded that’s not going to happen -- at least anytime soon. And so he essentially argued that it's now up to him to act unilaterally.
"I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue and Congress chooses to do nothing," he said. "And in this situation, the failure of the House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it’s bad for our economy, and it’s bad for our future."
What's more, he announced, he's already directed his Secretary of Homeland Security and Attorney General to allocate resources "from the interior" to the border to help resolve the crisis. But that wasn't all.
He also had a message for congressional Republicans in regards to how they can prevent him from issuing more executive actions in the future.
“The best solution is passing bills,” he said. “Don’t just say no.”
UPDATE: U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) blasted out the following press release Monday afternoon: |
The combat code of the US Military is that we don’t abandon our dead or wounded on the battlefield. In US Air Force lingo, fighter pilots don’t run off and leave their wingmen. If one of our own is shot down, still alive and not yet in enemy captivity, we will either come to get him or die trying. Among America’s fighting forces, the calm, sure knowledge that such an irrevocable bond exists is priceless. Along with individual faith and personal grit, it is a sacred trust that has often sustained hope in the face of terribly long odds.
The disgraceful abandonment of our Ambassador and those brave ex-SEALs who fought to their deaths to save others in that compound is nothing short of dereliction-of-duty. Additionally, the patently absurd cover-up scenario that was fabricated in the aftermath was an outright lie in attempt to shield the President and the Secretary of State from responsibility.
It has been over eight months since the attack on our compound in Benghazi. The White House strategy, with the aid of a “lap dog press” has been to run out the clock before the truth is forthcoming. The recent testimonies of the three “whistle blowers” have reopened the subject and hopefully will lead to exposure and disgrace of those responsible for this embarrassing debacle.
It would appear that the most recent firewall which the Administration is counting on is the contention that there were simply no military assets that could be brought to bear in time to make a difference… mainly due to the unavailability of tanker support for fighter aircraft. This is simply BS, regardless how many supposed “experts” the Administration trot out to make such an assertion. The bottom line is that even if the closest asset capable of response was half-way around the world, you don’t just sit on your penguin *** and do nothing. The fact is that the closest asset was not half-way around the world, but as near as Aviano Air Base, Italy where two squadrons of F-16Cs are based.
Consider the following scenario (all times Benghazi local):
When Hicks in Tripoli receives a call at 9:40 PM from Ambassador Stevens informing him “Greg, we are under attack!” (his last words), he immediately notifies all agencies and prepares for the immediate initiation of an existing “Emergency Response Plan.” At AFRICON, General Carter Ham attempts to mount a rescue effort, but is told to “stand down.” By 10:30 PM an unarmed drone is overhead the compound and streaming live feed to various Command and Control Agencies… and everyone watching that feed knew damn well what was going on. At 11:30 PM Woods, Doherty and five others leave Tripoli, arriving in Benghazi at 1:30 AM on Wednesday morning, where they hold off the attacking mob from the roof of the compound until they are killed by a mortar direct hit at 4:00 AM.
So nothing could have been done, eh? Nonsense. If one assumes that tanker support really was not available… what about this:
· When at 10:00 PM AFRICON alerts the 31st TFW Command Post in Aviano Air Base, Italy of the attack, the Wing Commander orders preparation for the launch of two F-16s and advises the Command Post at NAS Sigonella to prepare for hot pit refueling and quick turn of the jets.
· By 11:30 PM, two F-16Cs with drop tanks and each armed with five hundred 20 MM rounds are airborne. Flying at 0.92 mach they will cover the 522 nautical miles directly to NAS Sigonella in 1.08 hours.
· While in-route, the flight lead is informed of the tactical situation, rules of engagement, and radio frequencies to use.
· The jets depart Sigonella at 1:10 AM with full fuel load and cover the 377 nautical miles directly to Benghazi in 0.8 hours, arriving at 1:50 AM… which would be 20 minutes after the arrival of Woods, Doherty and their team.
· Providing that the two F-16s initial pass over the mob, in full afterburner at 200 feet and 550 knots did not stop the attack in its tracks, only a few well placed strafing runs on targets of opportunity would assuredly do the trick.
· Were the F-16s fuel state insufficient to recover at Sigonelli after jettisoning their external drop tanks, they could easily do so at Tripoli International Airport, only one-half hour away.
· As for those hand-wringing naysayers who would worry about IFR clearances, border crossing authority, collateral damage, landing rights, political correctness and dozens of other reasons not to act… screw them. It is high time that our “leadership” get their priorities straight and put America’s interests first.
The end result would be that Woods and Doherty would be alive.
Dozens in the attacking rabble would be rendezvousing with “72 virgins”… and a clear message would have been sent to the next worthless POS terrorist contemplating an attack on Americans that it is not really a good idea to “tug on Superman’s cape.”
Of course all this would depend upon a Commander In Chief who was more concerned with saving the lives of those he put in harm’s way than getting his crew rest for a campaign fund raising event in Las Vegas the next day. As well as a Secretary of State that actually understood “What difference did it make?”, or a Secretary of Defense whose immediate response was not to the effect that “One of the military tenants is that you don’t commit assets until you fully understand the tactical situation.” Was he not watching a live feed from the unarmed drone… and he didn’t understand the tactical situation? YGBSM!
Ultimately it comes down to the question of who gave that order to “stand down?” Whoever that coward turns out to be should be exposed, removed from office, and face criminal charges for dereliction of duty. The combat forces of the United States of America deserve leadership that really does “have their back” when the chips are down.
Colonel Phil “Hands” Handley, USAF (Ret.) is credited with the highest speed air-to-air gun kill in the history of aerial combat. He flew operationally for all but 11 months of a 26-year career, in aircraft such as the F-86 Sabre, F-15 Eagle, and the C-130A Hercules. Additionally, he flew 275 combat missions during two tours in Southeast Asia in the F-4D and F-4E. His awards include 21 Air Medals, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Silver Star.
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here. |
Sir Henry Bessemer (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years from 1856 to 1950.[3] He also played a significant role in establishing the town of Sheffield as a major industrial centre.[4]
Bessemer had been trying to reduce the cost of steel-making for military ordnance, and developed his system for blowing air through molten pig iron to remove the impurities. This made steel easier, quicker and cheaper to manufacture, and revolutionized structural engineering. One of the most significant innovators of the Second Industrial Revolution, Bessemer also made over 100 other inventions in the fields of iron, steel and glass. Unlike most inventors, he managed to bring his own projects to fruition and profited financially from their success.
Father: Anthony Bessemer [ edit ]
Bessemer's father, Anthony, was born in London into a Huguenot family, but moved to Paris when he was 21 years old. He was an inventor who, while engaged by the Paris Mint, made a machine for making medallions that could produce steel dies from a larger model. He became a member of the French Academy of Science, for his improvements to the optical microscope when he was 26. He was forced to leave Paris by the French Revolution, and returned to Britain. There he invented a process for making gold chains, which was successful, and enabled him to buy a small estate in the village of Charlton, near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, where Henry was born.[6][7] According to Bessemer he was given his name by his godfather Henry Caslon, who employed his father as a punchcutter.[9]
Early inventions [ edit ]
The invention from which Bessemer made his first fortune was a series of six steam-powered machines for making bronze powder, used in the manufacture of gold paint. As he relates in his autobiography, he examined the bronze powder made in Nuremberg which was the only place where it was made at the time. He then copied and improved the product and made it capable of being made on a simple production line. It was an early example of reverse engineering where a product is analysed, and then reconstituted. The process was kept secret, with only members of his immediate family having access to the factory. It was a widely used alternative to a patent, and such trade secrets are still used today. The Nuremberg powder, which was made by hand, retailed in London for £5 12s per pound and he eventually reduced the price to half a crown £ – 2 / 6, or about 1/40th.[10] The profits from sale of the paint allowed him to pursue his other inventions.
Bessemer patented a method for making a continuous ribbon of plate glass in 1848, but it was not commercially successful (see his autobiography, chapter 8). He gained experience in designing furnaces, which was to be of great use for his new steel-making process.
Bessemer process [ edit ]
Bessemer converter
Henry Bessemer worked on the problem of manufacturing cheap steel for ordnance production from 1850 to 1855 when he patented his method.
On 24 August 1856 Bessemer first described the process to a meeting of the British Association in Cheltenham which he titled "The Manufacture of Iron Without Fuel." It was published in full in The Times. The Bessemer process involved using oxygen in air blown through molten pig iron to burn off the impurities and thus create steel. James Nasmyth had been working on a similar idea for some time prior to this. A reluctant patentor, and in this instance still working through some problems in his method, Nasmyth abandoned the project after hearing Bessemer at the meeting. Bessemer acknowledged the efforts of Nasmyth by offering him a one-third share of the value of his patent. Nasmyth turned it down as he was about to retire.
Many industries were constrained by the lack of steel, being reliant on cast iron and wrought iron alone. Examples include railway structures such as bridges and tracks, where the treacherous nature of cast iron was keenly felt by many engineers and designers. There had been many accidents when cast iron beams collapsed suddenly, such as the Dee bridge disaster of May 1847, the Wooton bridge collapse and the Bull bridge accident of 1860. The problem recurred at the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, and failures continued until all cast iron under-bridges were replaced by steel structures. Wrought iron structures were much more reliable with very few failures.
Though this process is no longer commercially used, at the time of its invention it was of enormous industrial importance because it lowered the cost of production steel, leading to steel being widely substituted for cast iron. Bessemer's attention was drawn to the problem of steel manufacture in the course of an attempt to improve the construction of guns.
Implementation [ edit ]
Bessemer licensed the patent for his process to five ironmasters, but from the outset, the companies had great difficulty producing good quality steel. Mr Göran Fredrik Göransson, a Swedish ironmaster, using the purer charcoal pig iron of that country, was the first to make good steel by the process, but only after many attempts. His results prompted Bessemer to try a purer iron obtained from Cumberland hematite, but even with this he had only limited success because the quantity of carbon was difficult to control. Robert Forester Mushet had carried out thousands of experiments at Darkhill Ironworks, in the Forest of Dean, and had shown that the quantity of carbon could be controlled by removing almost all of it from the iron and then adding an exact amount of carbon and manganese, in the form of spiegeleisen. This improved the quality of the finished product and increased its malleability.[15][16]
When Bessemer tried to induce makers to take up his improved system, he met with general rebuffs and was eventually driven to undertake the exploitation of the process himself. He erected steelworks in Sheffield in a business partnership with others, such as W & J Galloway & Sons, and began to manufacture steel. At first the output was insignificant, but gradually the magnitude of the operations was enlarged until the competition became effective, and steel traders generally became aware that the firm of Henry Bessemer & Co. was underselling them to the extent of UK£10-£15 a ton. This argument to the pocket quickly had its effect, and licences were applied for in such numbers that, in royalties for the use of his process, Bessemer received a sum in all considerably exceeding a million pounds sterling.
However Mushet received nothing and by 1866 was destitute and in ill-health. In that year his 16-year-old daughter, Mary, travelled to London alone, to confront Bessemer at his offices, arguing that his success was based on the results of her father’s work. Bessemer decided to pay Mushet an annual pension of £300, a very considerable sum, which he paid for over 20 years; possibly with a view to keeping the Mushets from legal action.
W M Lord has said with regard to this success that "Sir Henry Bessemer was somewhat exceptional. He had developed his process from an idea to a practical reality in his own lifetime and he was sufficiently of a businessman to have profited by it. In so many cases, inventions were not developed quickly and the plums went to other persons than the inventors."
Other inventions [ edit ]
Bessemer was a prolific inventor and held at least 129 patents, spanning from 1838 to 1883. These included military ordnance, movable dies for embossed postage stamps, a screw extruder to extract sugar from sugar cane, and others in the fields of iron, steel and glass. These are described in some detail in his autobiography.
After suffering from seasickness in 1868, he designed the SS Bessemer (also called the "Bessemer Saloon"), a passenger steamship with a cabin on gimbals designed to stay level, however rough the sea, to save her passengers from seasickness. The mechanism – hydraulics controlled by a steersman watching a spirit level – worked in model form and in a trial version built in his garden in Denmark Hill, London. However, it never received a proper seagoing test as, when the ship demolished part of the Calais pier on her maiden voyage, investor confidence was lost and the ship was scrapped.[18]
Bessemer also obtained a patent in 1857 for the casting of metal between contrarotating rollers – a forerunner of today's continuous casting processes and remarkably, Bessemer's original idea has been implemented in the direct continuous casting of steel strip.
Death [ edit ]
Headstone of Sir Henry Bessemer, West Norwood cemetery
Bessemer died in March 1898 in Denmark Hill, London. He is buried in West Norwood cemetery, London SE27. Other influential Victorians such as Sir Henry Tate, Sir Henry Doulton and Baron de Reuters are buried in the same cemetery.
Honours and legacy [ edit ]
Bessemer was knighted by Queen Victoria for his contribution to science on 26 June 1879, and in the same year was made a fellow of the Royal Society.[19] An Honorary Membership was conferred on Bessemer by the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1891.[20] In 1895, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[21] Sheffield's Kelham Island Industrial Heritage Museum maintains an early example of a Bessemer Converter for public viewing. A street was named after him in the town of Hitchin (Bessemer Close) bordering the village of Ickleford in 1995, and Bessemer Way in Rotherham is so named in his honour. In 2009, the public house "The Fountain" in Sheffield city centre was renamed "The Bessemer" in homage to Henry Bessemer, who had a huge impact on the Steel City's development. In Workington, Cumbria, the local Wetherspoons pub is now named after him. In 2002 the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) was established from mergers encompassing historical organisations including the Iron and Steel Institute, of which Bessemer was President from 1871-73; the latter organisation instituted the Bessemer Gold Medal under his tenure and IOM3 still recognises Bessemer's legacy with an annual award of the medal for outstanding services to the steel industry; recent recipients include Indira Samarasekera. In 2003 Bessemer was named among the top 10 technological innovators in Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. That a man who did so much for industrial development did not receive higher recognition from his own government was a source of deep regret for English engineers, who alluded to the fact that in the United States, where the Bessemer process found much use, eight cities or towns bore his name.[22]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Coincidentally, on the same page of the London Gazette there is the knighting of Thomas Bouch who the following December became wordwide infamous as the designer and railway engineer of the Tay Bridge.
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ] |
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.63″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): “The raw meat materials used for precooked-cooked products are lower-grade muscle trimmings, fatty tissues, head meat, animal feet, animal skin, blood, liver and other edible slaughter by-products.”
The US Department of Agriculture has announced that following recent customer complaints about finding pieces of bone and cartilage in hot dogs and sausages, Sabrett will be recalling a massive 7 million pounds of meat products.
This discovery has sparked an uproar and resulted hot dogs and sausages to be recalled en masse from a meat processor in New York.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service even said in a statement that a minor oral injury was sustained by a hot-dog eating consumer, however this is the only injury or illness to have been reported in connection to a meat processing plant in a New York borough, Marathon Enterprises Inc.
Predominantly sold under the name Sabrett, these meat products containing bone and cartilage segments were sold to a variety of institutions and retailers across the nation.
“Sabrett deeply regrets any concern or inconvenience this has caused its loyal customers.” – Marathon Enterprises Inc.
As seen in blockbuster movies such as Ghostbusters, Sabrett’s street-corner pushcart vendors with recognizable blue and yellow umbrellas have been a fixture on New York streets for many decades; therefore making Sabrett hot dogs a bit of a tourist attraction for New Yorker’s holidaymakers.
However, not all Sabrett meat products are of concern in regard to bone and cartilage contamination. Meat produced between March 17-July 4, 2017 and meat with a sell-before date between June 19-October 6, 2017 are the only batches which have been subject to a Class 1 recall thus far.
According to the USDA, if consumed, these meats are a serious health hazard which present a “reasonable probability of causing serious, adverse health consequences or death.”
Although the company says the decision to recall these meats is merely due to “an abundance of caution.” would you be comfortable eating a sausage or hot dog from a street vendor that is likely to contain bone and cartilage segments?
Perhaps this scandal poses a much broader question though – Why as a general population are we comfortable with eating “head meat, animal feet, animal skin, blood, liver and low grade muscle trimmings” but find it completely unacceptable to find a piece of bone in our food?
Ultimately it seems that there is a huge disconnect between the food on our plate and what it took to get there.
Image Credits: First Coast News | Flickr
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_social_media_follow _builder_version=”3.0.53″ saved_tabs=”all” link_shape=”circle” url_new_window=”on” follow_button=”on” background_layout=”light” global_module=”4820″] [et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” skype_action=”call” url=”https://www.facebook.com/livekindlyco/” bg_color=”#3b5998″]
Facebook
[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” skype_action=”call” url=”https://twitter.com/livekindlyco” bg_color=”#00aced”]
Twitter
[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”instagram” skype_action=”call” url=”https://www.instagram.com/livekindlyco/” bg_color=”#517fa4″]
Instagram
[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network] [/et_pb_social_media_follow][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section] |
UPDATE: Huma Abedin has announced her separation from Anthony Weiner.
Former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner sent a woman a photo of himself in white boxer briefs while his 4-year-old son was lying beside him, NYPost.com reported.
Weiner, who is married to Huma Abedin, the vice chairwoman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, has twice before admitted to engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with various women.
According to NYPost.com, the most recent exchanges between Weiner and an unnamed divorcee included a photo around 3 a.m. on July 31, 2015 that shows his son next to him in bed.
The woman, who lives in the western United States, provided the Post with transcripts of flirty online chats with the 51-year-old Weiner dating to January 2015.
Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after admitting he sent lewd and even X-rated photos of himself to women.
Two years later, while in the middle of a failed run for mayor of New York City, Weiner acknowledged sending additional racy photos and text messages to a woman he met online.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. |
The latest batch of Lord Ashcroft marginals polling is out, and will bring bring great cheer to Labour and much disappointment to the Tories, who would have hoped the national polling trends would feed into the marginals.
Lord Ashcroft says
My findings this time suggest the better national news for the Conservatives is not spread evenly across the battleground. In only one of the seats, Worcester, has a Labour lead turned into a Tory one. In Croydon Central, the Labour lead has fallen from six points to four (in a seat that shows the biggest shift between the standard voting intention question and the result when people are asked to think about their own constituency and the candidates likely to stand there). But Southampton Itchen has gone from a tie to an eight-point advantage for Labour, and in the four remaining seats Labour’s lead has increased, most notably from one point to eleven points in Chester. South Swindon remains tied.
The fieldwork was quite recent, between the 26th of February and the 12th of March, in December, his polling saw a Con to Lab swing of 3.5%, now with this batch, and the batch at the start of March, 5% Con to Lab Swing looks like the norm.
As it has been for a while it would appear that Labour are doing better in the marginals, and that the prices on Labour having most seats/Ed Miliband being the Prime Minister after the election is where the value is. Amazing to think that a Labour majority was around 32 a few weeks ago on Betfair.
But as Lord Ashcroft notes and promises
Even voters in marginal seats who do not flock to LordAshcroftPolls.com for the latest data will hear about it in the local media, and those inclined to vote tactically will be better informed than ever before. For that reason, even constituency polls published close to election day may not match the final result. My research will continue throughout the campaign to monitor the situation as it evolves.
The full data tables are available here.
TSE |
LONDON—When Nigel Farage, Mr. Brexit, watched Donald Trump accept the Republican Party’s presidential nomination at the convention last year he had an extremely unlikely companion. His closest aide on the trip was an offshore investment expert who had boasted on the dark web about his ability to launder money illegally in and out of the United States.
The aide, George Cottrell, was busted at Chicago’s O’Hare airport on his way home to London on July 22, 2016. He would later plead guilty to participating in a scheme “to advertise money laundering services on a TOR network black-market website.”
With questions being raised about a dark money influence on Brexit—and the election of Donald Trump—all of this begs the question: who was this criminal operative chosen to accompany Farage at the RNC where he met with some of Trump’s best known boosters, including Newt Gingrich and Roger Stone?
It was reported earlier this year that Farage is a person of interest in the FBI’s Russia-Trump probe. He appeared alongside Trump at a rally in Mississippi in August 2016, and was one of the first foreign politicians to visit Trump Tower after the shock election victory.
As well as Cottrell’s advertised ability to transmit money across borders without detection, he was well versed in the world of offshore and cross-border banking. Despite having no political experience, this was the man—aged just 22 at the time—Farage chose to run his office at the height of the battle for Brexit. He was also the co-director of Brexit fundraising for UKIP.
Cottrell is young to have developed such knowledge of international finance, but then again he was first registered as the director of a business, Upsilon Investments six years ago while he was still a high school-aged kid —alongside an offshore director based in the British Virgin Islands—according to records lodged with Companies House in London.
Before entering his guilty plea, Cottrell changed his name to George Cotrel. He told the U.S. authorities this was intended to “ distance his previous involvement in certain political activities.” It didn’t work.
Some of those who saw him running around for Farage while working at the pro-Brexit party thought of Cottrell as a “swashbuckler”—a player who remained popular in Farage’s clique not least because he was known to be extremely generous at the bar.
Others say he was a serious operator. “He was a very smart cookie, very clever chap. When I was campaigning with him, he was erudite and had all the attributes going for him,” said Nigel Sussman, the commercial director of the pro-Moscow group Westminster Russia Forum and a former UKIP candidate.
“ He was very well connected,” Sussman told The Daily Beast.
Cottrell had worked for a number of banks, including a most recent role helping high net worth individuals shift their money across borders. He also claims he had been working as a consultant in the financial intelligence unit of an intelligence agency for over a year when he joined UKIP—in a senior role that he undertook for free. “I don't think he was ever paid a bean by the party, not a single bean,” said a party official.
A UKIP insider said he was remarkably effective and knowledgeable for his age. “He’s entirely personable, entirely likeable, a great fun figure and very impressive getting things done,” he said. “He brought us skills of immense chutzpah and phenomenal self-confidence.”
Known as “Posh George” by Farage and his entourage, Cottrell is the nephew of Lord Hesketh, a former Conservative party treasurer who later defected to the more radical right-wing UKIP. His mother, Fiona Cottrell, was reportedly a former girlfriend of Prince Charles.
After Cottrell was released from federal prison in the U.S., former UKIP candidate and party supporter William Cash wrote a sympathetic profile for The Daily Telegraph . As part of a detailed interview, it offered an account of how Cottrell got mixed up in dark web fraud that was radically different from the sworn testimony he gave in court. The article claimed he was approached at his bank by two American businessmen who wanted to sell their property portfolio. His guilty plea, by contrast, admitted that he had offered illicit money laundering services on a TOR site.
While the interview seemed keen to paint a more understanding picture of Cottrell—a young man who got into trouble after struggling with gambling—it does also fill in some of the questions around why Cottrell would prove useful to Farage. It was apparently not just his family connections that secured his job; he was said to have “learned about the murky and complicated world of `shadow banking,', secret offshore accounts and sophisticated financial structures” while he worked at a private bank.
“It was these skills that landed Cottrell an unpaid role” at UKIP according to Cash, who explained that Cottrell went on to work “for an offshore private bank (which was under investigation by the U.S. authorities as a `foreign financial institution of primary money-laundering concern').”
A LinkedIn page in Cottrell’s name is careful not to name all of the banks he has worked for. Instead it talks about working for a private bank as a “Client Manager within cross-border private banking division, responsible for onboarding HNWI individuals,” or as an “advisor to the Investment Manager of a Cayman administered fund of funds.”
The LinkedIn account is less secretive about his “interests.” The 41 organizations listed on the profile include Cottrell’s old school and some of the global financial powerhouses you would expect to see on the account of any financier, but there are also some more unusual connections.
Cottrell is listed as one of just 71 followers of Moldinconbank, a controversial Moldovan bank that was alleged to be at the very center of the “Russian Laundromat” scam that laundered billions in illicit funds from Moscow through fraud, rigged state contracts and tax evasion. Some of those laundered state funds reportedly went to pay foreigners who were acting on behalf of the Kremlin, such as the leader of a small Polish political party who was later arrested on charges of spying for Russia.
The Daily Beast asked the bank whether Cottrell had ever worked with them, but the HR department would only say: “ According to the legislation in force, personal data is granted only with the agreement of the employee.”
Another of the Cottrell account’s “interests” is the bank FBME, an entity which was officially based in Tanzania but had foreign offices in two countries: Cyprus and Russia. According to a U.S. investigation the bank was linked to Bashar al Assad and al Qaeda as well as a $230m fraud against the Russian people uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, which led to a series of anti-corruption laws being introduced around the world in his name. In 2014, the bank was banned from accessing the American market by the U.S. Treasury after money laundering allegations.
The bank was favored by cronies of Vladimir Putin, some of who used accounts to launder Russian money, as well as the oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team.
The Cottrell account also listed the Russian banks VTB and Alfa Bank, which the FBI is investigating for links to the Trump organization, as well as Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA)—which was described as a “primary money laundering concern” linked to Russian crime networks by the U.S. Treasury. BPA did not respond to queries about working with Cottrell.
The Daily Beast cannot independently verify that this LinkedIn page was written by Cottrell but a UKIP spokesman confirmed that the entry about his role in the party was accurate. The LinkedIn account is also linked—from and to—a Twitter account in Cottrell’s name, which has 140 followers. Those followers include a host of UKIP or Brexit campaign insiders including Joe Jenkins, Jack Montgomery, Michael Heaver, Jack Duffin, Andy Wigmore and Nigel Farage as well as Farage’s head of press Dan Jukes and UKIP comms chief Gawain Towler. Towler tagged the account after a night out with Cottrell and his old UKIP buddies “making up” in East London after his deportation from the U.S. earlier this year. A UKIP spokesman said he believed that the account was genuine.
Another follower of the @GeorgeSCottrell account is Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Bow Group—Britain’s oldest conservative think tank.
He told The Daily Beast he had only met Cottrell a handful of times but he described a man who made a big impression in a world where most senior party apparatchiks are a fairly uninspiring. “He’s quite a larger than life, engaging character. I got the impression that he was a bit of a swashbuckler—keen on adventure,” he said.
Harris-Quinney caught up with him in the pub after his release. “People were very surprised when he was arrested because it was so bizarre,” he said. “But he seemed in good spirits and appeared to have taken the whole thing in his stride.”
Indeed, as Cottrell told The Telegraph : “Despite my unfortunate adventure, and everything I went through, I still maintain 2016 was the best year of my life… Brexit and Trump. Nothing better.”
Also on his small list of followers is the journalist Isabel Oakeshott who was with Cottrell and Farage when the young aide was arrested by U.S. agents in Chicago.
At the time, she was writing the book Bad Boys of Brexit, nominally authored by Arron Banks, which names Cottrell as one of just four UKIP staffers in the book’s “cast of characters.”
Banks was by far the biggest financial backer of Brexit—first donating to UKIP and then donating and lending millions to Leave.EU, and another Brexit campaign group. Last month, it was announced that Britain’s Electoral Commission was launching an investigation into whether or not Banks was the “true source” of that money.
Two weeks earlier Open Democracy UK published an investigation into Banks’ finances—raising questions over his wealth and claiming he had been in some financial difficulty before finding almost £10 million to put towards securing Britain’s exit from the European Union. “The self-styled ‘bad boy’ who bankrolled the Leave campaign appears to have exaggerated his wealth. So how did he pay for his Brexit spree?” the report asked.
Banks—who was a member of Farage’s small Brexit inner circle, along with Cottrell—is a colorful character who seems to enjoy fanning the rumors that surround him including suggestions that he has been working on behalf of the Russians.
The week before Christmas this year, Banks and Andy Wigmore, a colleague from Leave.EU, sent a journalist a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka with the message “From Russia With Love.”
In his account of the battle to secure Brexit, he delights in bringing up the spy scandal his Russian wife was caught up in in 2010. Ekaterina Paderina, the daughter of a senior Russian official, who speaks six languages, used an email address with 007 in it and drives the Banks’ family Range Rover with the number plate X MI5 SPY. Banks, who runs a private intelligence company, even details in his book a six-hour lunch at the Russian embassy with Farage, his wife and the Russian ambassador.
In his book, he describes Cottrell as “posh to the point of caricature and willfully abrasive,” as well as detailing the fact that it was Cottrell who accompanied Farage as he made his way from meeting to meeting at the RNC.
Banks also describes the moment Cottrell was apprehended at the airport in Chicago in July 2016:
“Five FBI officers cuffed him. They swooped the minute he set foot on the gangway… It was swift and discreet, and he was hauled off without explanation. Nigel was stunned… [Cottrell] was wealthy enough to give his time for nothing, and had proven hard-working and loyal. There was nothing to suggest any criminal connection.”
Two days later, Farage and Banks found out why Cottrell had been led away: “Nasty shock today as Nigel got Posh George’s full rap sheet. It’s not pretty.”
What looked like a maximum of 20 years in jail was ultimately reduced to eight months when Cottrell agreed to plead guilty on December 19, 2016 .
After his release there were reports that the former UKIP staffer had been given a short sentence because he passed evidence to the U.S. authorities. It is true that court documents filed by the prosecutors asked the judge to offer a reduced sentence because he cooperated and was willing to “provide federal agents additional information after his arrest.”
Officials in the U.S., however, downplayed suggestions that Cottrell had flipped and given key information that might implicate any of his political colleagues as the FBI hunts for a dark money trail connecting Russia, Brexit and the Trump campaign. They said Cottrell would not have been given the lighter sentence and allowed to leave the U.S. if prosecutors were relying on him to give evidence in court.
In the Telegraph interview by a friendly UKIP activist, Cottrell claims that he was lured into the trap while offering to help a customer of his bank. That is entirely inconsistent with the guilty plea he entered in a federal courtroom in Arizona.
His signed declaration said he was snared by undercover IRS-CI agents after proactively offering to help criminals move large sums of money around the world without detection.
“I worked with another individual known as ‘Banker’ to advertise money laundering services on a TOR network black-market website,” he wrote. “I explained various ways criminal proceeds could be laundered—for example, methods to transfer large amounts of cash out of the United States without triggering reporting requirements.”
After his dark web ad attracted the attention of the authorities in March 2014—before he worked for UKIP—Cottrell corresponded with undercover operatives who were posing as drug dealers via the encrypted messaging service Cryptocat before agreeing to travel to Las Vegas to tie up the phony deal.
The federal court heard that Cottrell was extremely well-versed in the intricacies of moving money around. “Cotrel [sic] was surprisingly young—approximately twenty years old at the time—but the IRS-CI agents were impressed with his knowledge of finance, U.S. government procedures, and anti-money laundering laws.”
The question remains, how much of that knowledge was he employing as UKIP’s chief Brexit fundraiser? |
In preparing for a recently concluded seminar on the iconoclastic Indian economist B.R. Shenoy—author of the celebrated Note of Dissent (1955) on the Second Five-Year Plan—I came across an interesting note of dissent of another sort.
In a memorial lecture in honour of Shenoy, economist Peter Bauer critiques this famous passage from John Maynard Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936): “The ideas of economists and political philosophers both when they are right, and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else."
This is a gem of Keynes’s wisdom that many economists—including myself— often cite approvingly. But Bauer then adds wryly: “If this claim were valid, the world would have been on free trade for decades or centuries, as the great majority of economists have been free traders since Adam Smith."
Now perhaps this is a little unfair, since economists have also probed the political economy of trade policy—to help explain why protectionist policies persist, despite their inefficiency—but Bauer’s larger point—that we economists tend to overestimate our impact on policy outcomes, especially when they go our way—is surely valid.
Bauer explicates this argument in the context of the many well-known economists who signed the Majority Report from which Shenoy dissented. In a shrewd passage which deserves to be quoted in full, he writes: “There is often a high correlation between the advice tendered by economists and the policy adopted without this indicating that the advisers exercise influence in any meaningful sense. They may only advise policymakers to do what the latter intend to do in any case. Indeed, they may have been selected as advisers because the policymakers anticipated that they would tender the kind of advice which makes it easier for the policymakers to carry out policies and measures which they had planned."
This is a sobering thought, and one can easily see the many contexts in which it may offer insight on the relationship between adviser and policymaker. When economist Lawrence Summers advised US President Barack Obama to pursue an expansionary policy in the wake of the downturn induced by the global financial crisis, and the administration pursued such a policy, can one conclude that Summers was influential, or merely useful?
Closer to home, it is often remarked that the 1991 economic reforms in India were spearheaded by an economist, Manmohan Singh, without noticing that the fact that he was an economist was largely incidental to his selection as finance minister—more to the point, he was a technocrat willing and able to obey orders. The impetus for reform came from prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao—who deserves to be called its architect—and Singh was merely the agent. (Rumours suggest that Rao’s first choice may have been the late I.G. Patel, in fact.)
What is more, the elements of the reform agenda were well understood in 1991—economists such as my own great guru Jagdish Bhagwati and others had spelled out the essentials of what would be required to reform the License-Permit-Quota Raj. In other words, an already well-understood reform agenda in 1991 could have been carried out by an economist other than Singh, or, indeed, by a non-economist—an engineer with a background in public policy, such as Jairam Ramesh, would have done equally well. Bauer’s critique of Keynes carries bite, after all.
But is it possible that Bauer, in his zeal to debunk the oversized egos of economists and other advisers, who imagine fatuously and self-servingly that their ideas necessarily shape outcomes, might have underestimated the power of ideas—in the long, if not in the short run—to influence outcomes? That, after all, is the sense in which I, for one, read the celebrated passage from Keynes that Bauer finds fault with.
Indeed, Bauer’s own intellectual legacy belies his comment on Keynes, to the extent that his critique of development economics orthodoxy—which emphasized the role of the state and downplayed that of the individual—later became absorbed into the mainstream of thinking in the field—and in its practice.
Further, in the Indian context of the reforms of 1991 and thereafter, an underlying ideational bedrock existed—and had to exist—to ground policymakers and provide an intellectual rationale for, say, dismantling the licensing system which characterized Nehruvian central planning. Thus, Bhagwati did, after all, make his mark, some two decades after the original ideas has been articulated.
Of course, those opining vociferously today on the need for “second generation" economic reforms—the contours of which are well understood—should be suitably modest. Should the Narendra Modi government embrace them, many will step forward to take credit. Yet the real credit may well lie with economists of a generation ago, and the policymakers today bold enough to act upon those ideas.
Every fortnight, In the Margins explores the intersection of economics, politics and public policy to help cast light on current affairs.
Comments are welcome at [email protected]. To read Vivek Dehejia’s previous columns, go to www.livemint.com/vivekdehejia
Follow Mint Opinion on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Mint_Opinion |
Find new ways to harness solar power -- Kyle Plunkett, center, assistant professor chemistry in the College of Science at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, along with Xinju Zhu, a doctoral student from is from Zhengzhou, China, use a glove box to work on materials in Plunkett’s chemistry laboratory. Plunkett and his team are finding ways to break down so-named “Buckminster Fullerenes,” soccer ball-shaped molecules known for the ability to accept free electrons under certain conditions in solar energy systems. Plunkett, who recently received a prestigious CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation, is doing fundamental research – making discoveries that formulate the basic building blocks of scientific knowledge. (Photo provided)
Solar energy research would make Fuller proud
by Tim Crosby
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A researcher at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is finding ways to tear down geodesic domes and use the parts in ways that have never been attempted.
But don’t worry, he’s working at the molecular level only. And R. Buckminster Fuller, the former SIU professor, design and geodesic dome guru and sustainability advocate, would likely very much approve of the effort, which has as its aim finding new ways to harness solar power.
Kyle Plunkett, an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Science, along with his graduate researchers, are finding ways in the laboratory to break down so-named “Buckminster Fullerenes,” soccer ball-shaped molecules known for the ability to accept free electrons under certain conditions. The molecules, first created in a lab in 1985, are named after the world-famous Fuller, who taught at SIU from 1959 to 1970.
Plunkett, who recently received a prestigious CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation, is doing fundamental research – making discoveries that formulate the basic building blocks of scientific knowledge. But the ultimate goal is finding ways to improve solar energy conversion efficiencies in photovoltaic cells, otherwise known as solar cells. The basis of the research involves using organic-based materials, known as semiconductors. Semiconductors can transport electrons, though not as easily as copper or other metals.
The whole idea for such cells involves combining two different types of organic semi-conductors, one of which will give up electrons while the other tends to accept electrons. When the two materials are combined in a solar cell and then exposed to sunlight, electrons will flow from one region to the other, thus creating a current that can be stored as electricity in batteries as part of a solar power system.
“The compounds utilized as semiconductors tend to have large electron clouds,” Plunkett said. “The electrons located in these clouds can move within the molecular frameworks. They’re called delocalized electrons, in that instead of being isolated on a single atom, they can travel through a network of atoms.
“The larger that network is, sometimes you can start to get interesting properties such as more efficient charge transfer between molecules,” which can be beneficial for harnessing solar energy, he said.
Organic-based photovoltaic cells, however, are only about 10 percent efficient. Still, they maintain their potential as leading thrust in solar energy by virtue of their relative inexpensiveness and the ability to easily “print” them onto large surface areas quickly, much like a newspaper press prints on paper.
Increasing efficiency, therefore, is a priority. One way Plunkett’s lab is approaching that problem is by focusing on creating more efficient “acceptor” materials. That’s where the Buckminster Fullerene comes in.
Fullerenes are part of a family of compounds known as “cyclopenta-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon” – or a CP-PAH in chemistry parlance. Plunkett and his students use organic and synthetic chemistry to essentially take fullerenes apart and then use their pieces to make new and better materials that more readily promote electron flow in a semiconductor-based solar cells.
“Simplistically speaking, a lot of my lab’s work is about mixing starting materials in round-bottom flasks, letting it react overnight and then doing a lot of purification steps,” said Plunkett, whose NSF CAREER grant will provide $650,000 during its five-year life for his work in this area. “And we hopefully make these large conjugated systems.”
Buckminster Fullerenes, constructed of 60 carbon atoms, are the most widely used electron-accepting material in organic photovoltaic devices, Plunkett said. “So the very specific end of this is we are trying to replace the most-utilized electron acceptor out there,” he said. “There’s been a great deal of research into materials that give up electrons and not so much on materials that accept them.”
Once the fullerenes have been chemically disassembled, they can be reassembled in such a way that single and double bonds alternate in a network, aiding the transfer of electrons when sunlight shines on the cell and excites the electrons to a higher state of energy.
Plunkett’s team has been able to create several new versions or “targets” that show promise. All are similar in structure and they are making them in his lab. Several of them don’t project onto a fullerene and are completely different, though they still utilize a CP-PAH substructure.
“Right now we have a single framework we’re building on and we’re looking for larger and larger systems to enhance the electronic characteristics,” Plunkett said.
One reason the electrons want to flow is that fullerene is lower in energy than the donor material. Plunkett said that situation is necessary, but currently not optimal, resulting in lost efficiency. It’s a little like being on the top of a hill and trying to walk down and then up to the top of a neighboring hill, in that you want to find the path that will be easiest.
Using different chemical processes, his team is finding ways to “tune” the new accepting materials they are creating in an attempt to overcome this issue.
“The key is where there is an offset in energy between your donor and your acceptor. We want the acceptor to be lower in energy so the electron doesn’t mind hopping over there. But we don’t want it to be so much lower that we lose a lot of energy when we do this,” he said. “You want the acceptor to be high in energy, but lower than the donor material. So it’s all about tuning the materials. It’s the ability to tune that we want to achieve. We are going for the optimal offset in energy.”
Still, improving on the 10 percent efficiency that is the standard today perhaps remains a bit out of reach. But the fundamental research Plunkett and his team are doing in its pursuit could yield important information that someday unlocks solar power’s potential.
“The problem has been that efficiencies are not as good as you’d like,” he said. “The 10 percent is getting close. Some say if you could get to 12 or 15 percent, they would be commercially viable, at least in niche markets if not beyond. I don’t dream that we will ever get anywhere close to that, but our work is sort of a proof of principle that we can make other materials that can do this too.
“That’s why fundamental research is important. You might be able to find a very stable or useful molecule, or draw up some new theory that down the road makes the higher efficiency devices possible,” he said. |
Turn that frown upside down
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
May 25, 2011
The TSA wants you know that should you express any kind of dissatisfaction at having to be prodded, groped or forced through a radiation firing naked body scanner, you will be treated as suspicious.
Even if you merely frown or display any other negative facial expression at the prospect of having your private areas frisked by a uniformed government employee, you will be considered irregular.
The agency has now deployed dozens of “behavioral indicator officers” at 161 airports across the nation, trained to “SPOT” (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) dissenters.
The TSA states:
“Behavior detection officers are screening passengers for involuntary physical and physiological reactions that people exhibit in response to a fear of being discovered. TSA recognizes that an individual exhibiting some of these behaviors does not automatically mean a person has terrorist or criminal intent. Individuals exhibiting specific observable behaviors may be referred for additional screening at the checkpoint to include a handwanding, limited pat down and physical inspection of one’s carry-on baggage.”
So next time you’re fondled by a hairy 400 pond stranger, remember to smile and look pleased. Do not grimace or display any form of discomfort or you may be prevented from flying altogether. You could even be placed on the TSA’s domestic extremist watch list, and rightly so.
Remember this is ” yet one more challenge the terrorists need to overcome in attempt to defeat our security system.” It is not aimed at everyday Americans in any way.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Gadling’s Mike Barish notes: ‘”You know who exhibits involuntary physical and physiological reactions in response to TSA screenings? A very large segment of the population. Between patting down children, radiating travelers and blatant xenophobia, the TSA hasn’t exactly installed confidence in the general public. So, it’s only natural that completely innocent travelers might exhibit signs of fear while waiting to be screened by poorly trained security agents.
My advice is to ignore the likes of Barish, these kind of people are dangerous. Irradiating and feeling up kids is normal, I saw it at Disney World.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (AD)
Remember, the TSA has never been about humiliating the public into subservient compliance.
When the agents pull someone out of line, screaming “WE HAVE AN OPT OUT” and proceed to grope them in full view of everyone else, they do so only to deter terrorists. Because as we all know terrorists hate being groped, where as normal people love it.
When the agents stuff people into glass boxes and leave them there weeping in a state for an hour, they do so only to make it more difficult for terrorists to blow things up. You should know that by now.
So just who are the kind of people employed to detect negative behaviour? They are, of course, people like Minnetta Walker, the TSA behavioral detection officer who was recently arrested for helping drug dealers through security at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, allowing them to fly under false identities and ensuring they were not subjected to enhanced security measures.
After all, it makes perfect sense, the role of a “behavioral detection” officer is to walk around the airport seeking out potential criminals by analyzing their behaviour. Who is better equipped to expose the criminal mind than a criminal? And it keeps them off the streets. Again, keeping us safer.
I for one, cannot wait until the TSA rolls out the mind reading scanners it has under development. Then we’ll be able to weed out the dangerous criminals who are able to keep their criminal intentions off their faces and inside their heads.
——————————————————————
Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.
This article was posted: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 8:02 am
Print this page.
Infowars.com Videos:
Comment on this article |
Nobody was happy when we learned that Martin Shkreli bought the mysterious Wu Tang album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin at auction for $2 million.
That's because Shkreli's practice of purchasing the patents on essential drugs and then jacking up the price thousands of percent has made him one of the most hated men in America.
But there's an odd clause in the deal Shkreli signed with RZA that could give this tale a happy ending. Apparently active members of the Wu Tang Clan and Rza's buddy Bill Murray (and only those people) have one shot at stealing the album back without legal ramifications.
Given the clause, we'd imagine Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is heavily guarded and under lock and key. But if Murray and Wu were to decide to mount a takeback it would make for a pretty terrific movie.
Update: Some sources are calling the heist clause a hoax. While we wouldn't be surprised if it is, there really isn't any solid evidence either way.
Anyway, RZA seems to be having fun with it all: |
Every two weeks or so on average, we ask ourselves: why do central bankers only tell the truth after they have quit their post (rhetorically, of course). The last time it was the BOE's former head Mervyn King, who said that "more monetary stimulus will not help the world economy return to strong growth." This took place long after the BOE, under his watch, unleashed its own QE back in the early days of the great financial crisis. Another example: back in November, the Fed's own former head, the person who single-handedly unleashed the great moderation and led to the current terminal financial state where the global economy bounces from one bubble to another even bigger bubble or else everything implodes, Alan Greenspan said "Gold Is Currency; No Fiat Currency, Including the Dollar, Can Match It."
It was another statement by the maestro that has caught the world's attention, this time opining on Greece, when he told BBC Radio's the World This Weekend that "Greece will leave the Eurozone. I don't see that it helps Greece to be in the Euro, and I certainly don't see that it helps the rest of the Eurozone. It's just a matter of time before everyone recognizes that parting is the best strategy.... At this stage I don't see any people who are willing to put up the funds for Greece... All the cards are being held by the members of the Eurozone." Naturally, this is just what anyone with a functioning frontal lobe (which immediatley excludes all tenured economists) would have said 5 years ago.
And it wasn't just Greece that the Maestro decided to throw under the revisionist history bus: he took a stabe at the Eurozone itself. "The problem is that there there is no way that I can conceive of the euro of continuing, unless and until all of the members of eurozone become politically integrated - actually even just fiscally integrated won't do it."
"Take a look at the Maastricht treaty. There is no indication of any conceivable way of unwinding the Euro and that was done purposefully but that' doesn't mean that the markets won't pull them apart and indeed I would suspect that what's allowing the big surge to go on, or will go on, in ECB expansion is what Draghi said originally when he came up with the so-called OMT, which meant lending to anybody for any occasion. If that doesn't work: if numbers start to borrow under the OMT facility and something goes wrong, what happens then? And if you're talking about a crisis - that is a crisis. Greece leaving the Eurozone is miniscule compared to that as an issue."
His conclusion: "short of a political Union, I find it very difficult to foresee the Euro holding together in its current form. It probably could get a union of Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland for example. But not south Europe."
With anti-Europe, anti-austerity, anti-Merkel political parties storming to the forefront in most peripheral European nations, Greenspan is right for once.
Which is not to say he said anything that these pages haven't covered extensively in the past. Recall this exchange at the April 2013 ECB meeting:
Scott Solano, DPA: Mr Draghi, I've got a couple of question from the viewers at Zero Hedge, and one of them goes like this: say the situation in Greece or Spain deteriorates even further, and they want to or are forced to step out of the Eurozone, is there a plan in place so that the markets don't basically collapse? Is there some kind of structural system, structural safety net, especially in the area of derivatives? And the second questions is: you spoke earlier about the Emergency Liquidity Assistance, and what would have happened to the ELA in Cyprus, the approximately €10 billion, if the country had decided to leave the Eurozone? Mario Draghi, ECB: Well you really are asking questions that are so hypothetical that I don't have an answer to them. Well, I may have a partial answer. These questions are formulated by people who vastly underestimate what the Euro means for the Europeans, for the Euro area. They vastly underestimate the amount of political capital that has been invested in the Euro. And so they keep on asking questions like: "If the Euro breaks down, and if a country leaves the Euro, it's not like a sliding door. It's a very important thing. It's a project in the European Union. That's why you have a very hard time asking people like me "what would happened if." No Plan B.
So much for the European "Union" then? Worse, it looks like Europe's political capital just ran out and Zero Hedge, even if it is filled with people "vastly underestimate the amount of political capital that has been invested in the Euro," can't wait to ask Mario Draghi the logical follow-up question in an upcoming ECB press conference following the Grexit: "what happened?"
Full interview with Greenspan below. |
Local food, for real Want to breathe new life into your city? Build a fence around it
This story is a part of a series about local food systems.
The roomful of environmental-science students at Fresno State didn’t exactly seem proud of their town. There were dismissive titters when political science professor Mark Somma suggested that Fresno, Calif., could be a place that drew people from around the world, seeking a higher quality of life.
The laughter didn’t slow Somma. Think of Fresno’s resources, he told them. It’s surrounded by some of the richest farmland in the world. It has a tremendous cultural diversity. It has views of the Sierra Nevada, and a river of Sierra snowmelt running along its northern border. And yet Fresno frequently pops up on lists of the worst cities. Every year it sprawls farther into the farmland, creating mile after repeating mile of identical strip malls and stoplights.
There used to be another city a lot like Fresno, Somma told the room. It too was an industrial, agricultural town — unlovely, uncool, unknown. But this town decided to embrace, celebrate, and protect agriculture. The city leaders drew a circle around their perimeter and promised not to develop farmland beyond that line. This focused development inward. Instead of growing out and hollowing out, the city grew up. Food culture, buoyed by the nearby farms, began booming. Locals started taking pride in their coffee, their beer, their meat, their dairy, their fruits and berries. Outsiders began to hear about this proud, gritty town that had pulled itself up by its bootstraps, and people started moving there.
The name of that town? Portland.
I’d always thought of the competition for land as a contest between rural and urban interests. Farmland and the rural culture inexorably makes way for suburbs and business parks. But what if it was possible to turn this competition into cooperation, to have cities that enriched farms and vice versa? Had Portland figured this out? If so, it was worth noting. I’d written about how, for all of its virtue and value, urban ag will not feed our cities — we’ll need farmers and farmland for that.
And then there was Somma’s suggestion that preserving farmland on the outskirts of a city could actually spark an urban renaissance. Could that really be true?
Of course there’s a little more to the story, said Craig Beebe, communications director for 1,000 Friends of Oregon, a pro-planning group. Back in 1973, an alliance of farmers, cities, and timber interests passed a law to protect farm and forest land. Signed by Republican Gov. Tom McCall, the law drew a circle around every city in the state, restraining sprawl outside those lines while making it easier for developers to build inside.
But in Portland specifically, other things were afoot. Residents organized to stop two freeways, and then found a way to divert the resources behind the freeway efforts to a light-rail system and developing the waterfront. “There was this feeling that, we are not just going to try to defeat things,” Beebe said. “We are going to reapply that energy toward building better things.”
So protecting farmland wasn’t the single factor in Stumptown’s rebirth, but it was a key element in making Portland what it is today.
“It’s been an essential tool to pull things together,” said Ethan Seltzer, a professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University. Because the metropolitan area hasn’t spread like spilt milk, it’s still fairly easy to travel around the city on foot or by bike. (Portland has also poured a ton of money into bike lanes, and public transportation, which also helps.) That compaction also makes city services — roads, sewer lines, water pipes — more efficient. Extending those services to sprawling developments is expensive.
“You don’t have to build services to all hell and gone,” Seltzer said. And that’s allowed the city to invest in other things.
Preserving farmland has helped define the city in less quantifiable ways too. Businesses from small tech startups to big corporations like Nike and Intel cite Portland’s connection to the surrounding land in their employee recruitment. Food from nearby farms has contributed to a booming restaurant scene. “Around here we have family rituals around the ripening of certain crops and cutting Christmas trees,” Seltzer said.
That’s not to say everyone likes the rules protecting farmland.
There are plenty of people in Oregon, even some of the law’s original supporters, who say the regulations are too baroque and restrictive. One of the people who dislikes the rules is John Charles, president and CEO of the Cascade Policy Institute, a libertarian think tank (surprise, a libertarian who dislikes rules!). Not only does he say the urban growth boundary has failed to make Portland a better place (he hates the way the city has changed), Charles questions the notion that we need to protect farmland at all: “There is no shortage of agricultural land or agricultural commodities and there never will be, as long as we allow markets to function.”
But, I said, isn’t this a place where you have market failure? It’s easy to build houses on cheap farmland, but it’s a one-way ratchet, it’s hard to remove the concrete.
“You don’t need farmland for crops,” Charles said. “You can grow them hydroponically. Who needs soil?”
Who indeed? Perhaps those whose faith in the free market is less than their faith in the scientific consensus. The mainstream forecasts suggest that we’re going to need all the good soil we can spare as the world population nears 10 billion, even counting hydroponics.
We’re also going to need more farmers to work that land more intensively — something we’re beginning to see in the Willamette Valley, south of Portland, where a retinue of young farmers produce food for CSAs, restaurants, and markets, rather than the usual commodity crops. “It gives farmers a different option,” said Jim Johnson, land use specialist at the Oregon Department of Agriculture. “It’s mainly small farmers, but it allows them to get going, and they can always expand.”
Roughly 70 percent of Oregon’s agricultural economy is based in the Willamette Valley, Johnson said, and 75 percent of the population is there. Farmers and city people can live, even thrive, together.
That’s not to say that Portland exemplifies a fully formed regional food system. Hardly. There’s local food going to boutique eateries, sure, but roughly 80 percent of Oregon’s agricultural production leaves the state, Johnson told me.
But in terms of simply preserving farmland, it’s clear that the program is working. It’s strange to drive out of Portland: Instead of crawling in traffic through suburbia, the city just stops and you are suddenly in rolling fields. Johnson protests when I suggest that the rules are overly bureaucratic. “If you want to develop something and you aren’t allowed to, you are going to say the process is broken,” he said. In fact, Johnson said, perhaps the rules should be stricter.
The state’s planning law doesn’t completely stop the development of farmland, David Dillon, executive vice president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, told me, “It just provides an orderly process to do that.”
The cities may periodically expand their boundaries, but still, Oregon has lost far less agricultural land than its neighboring states of Washington, California, and Idaho. And there has been a steady growth of the agricultural economy in Oregon since the 1970s, Johnson said.
Any idea that unites (generally conservative) farm advocates with (generally liberal) smart growth advocates seems like a winner. But Charles points out that other states have tried to adopt urban growth boundaries and failed. “If you’re leading a parade for 41 years and no one is in your parade,” he said, “you might have to rethink your assumptions.”
Just about everyone I talked to thought it would be harder to pass Oregon’s land planning law today. The U.S. has simply become too partisan and individualistic. It’s hard to make an argument in today’s America that we should sacrifice individual freedoms for the common wealth.
There are alternative tools in the toolbox for protecting farmland. Cities can institute agricultural zoning. Some communities are working on markets that allow developers to build higher and bigger if they also buy up and protect open land outside the city. Agricultural land trusts make use of conservation easements — a legal tool that limits the development of one piece of property at a time — or just buy up parcels. Then there’s the consumer approach: Buy-local campaigns, CSAs, and similar efforts help keep local farmers in business — and their land from becoming the next subdivision.
All of those things require buy-in from people who live in the city, however. And they have to believe that there’s something in it for them.
Which brings us back to Somma’s idea. Could farmland preservation revive a city? Basically, Somma was right: The urban growth boundary has been a key part of making Portland the city it is today. But Oregon’s planning law only came about because a lot of energetic people wanted some communal guidance of the way the state’s cities and countryside developed. In other words, if Fresno wanted to replicate Portland’s trajectory, it would have to start with a critical mass of its own homegrown smart-growth advocates — and get them working before they all move to Portland. |
Doctors will be allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis under new regulations likely to be introduced this year.
It is also to become an offence to possess certain prescription drugs without authorisation. This is in an effort to address the spiralling problem of open dealing in benzodiazepines and other tranquilliser drugs.
Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White has issued consultation documents on his plans and is seeking submissions by the end of the month.
However, the proposals are likely to be welcomed by interested parties who have been seeking such changes for a number of years. They would also bring Ireland into line with other EU states and into compliance with obligations under a number of UN resolutions.
According to explanatory notes, Mr White said he planned to “amend the regulations to allow a newly authorised medicinal product containing cannabis extract to be prescribed, supplied and used by patients. The product Sativex (nabiximols) has been authorised in other EU member states for the relief of symptoms of spasticity in multiple sclerosis”.
He also plans to strengthen controls on the import, export and possession of benzodiazepines and z drugs. Both benzodiazepines and z drugs act as tranquillisers. So-called benzos include Diazepam, Ativan and Temazepam, while the z drugs include Zaleplon, Zolpidem and Zopiclone. Dealers typically obtain these drugs over the internet.
The dealing of these drugs in urban centres is now acknowledged as a serious problem. |
Nashville, the best-reviewed new drama of the fall, premiered to solid ratings Wednesday night, while The CW’s new action-drama Arrow set a record for the network.
ABC’s country music drama delivered 9 million viewers and a 2.8 rating among adults 18-49. That’s enough to win the hour in the adult demo, topping CBS’ CSI (10.6 million, 2.6) and the premiere of NBC’s new series Chicago Fire (6.4 million, 1.9). But Nashville was down 15 percent from the launch of Revenge in this slot last year. NBC’s fire-fighting drama was largely panned by critics and had a disappointing launch, down 21 percent from the debut of Law & Order: SVU in this slot last fall. (Nashville averaged a score of 84 on Metacritic while Chicago Fire had a 49).
Yet here’s something interesting: Of the three dramas in the hour, the Connie Britton series had the weakest audience retention from its first half to its second. Chicago Fire didn’t shed any of its demo rating between its half hours — which is pretty rare for a show premiering this late at night. Nashville may have a bigger rating, but Chicago Fire did a better job of keeping viewers in their seat.
Another key debut last night: The CW’s Arrow (4 million, 1.3 rating) got off to a fine start. This may not be a huge demo rating for the network, but Arrow marks The CW’s most-watched series debut in total viewers since The Vampire Diaries in 2009. The CW’s mission this season is to attract a broader audience than just the Gossip Girl/90210 female 18-34 crowd, and hitting 4 million viewers certainly helps. The performance is also impressive considering the network’s numbers have been soft the past couple weeks. It’s always tougher to jump start a cold engine. Arrow also gave Supernatural (2.6 million, 1.0) a boost at 9 p.m., spiking the veteran drama to its biggest audience in two years.
Fox topped the night in the adult demo thanks to a steady The X-Factor (9.4 million, 3.4).
CBS was second with Survivor (9.6 million, 2.6) and Criminal Minds (11.4 million, 3.0).
ABC had The Middle (7.8 million, 2.4), up 9 percent, and The Neighbors (6.3 million, 1.9), steady. They were followed by a double tap of Modern Family (12 million, 4.7 and 12.2 million, 4.9), down between 11 and 15 percent.
The Neighbors has clearly emerged as the weak link in the network’s Wednesday comedy chain, but last night also suggested the show might be stabilizing since it did not drop this week. This puts ABC in a tough position. The aliens-next-door sitcom doesn’t have a terrible number by this fall’s standards, but you don’t want to have anything potentially dragging down your top-rated comedy, Modern Family.
NBC also had Animal Practice (3.9 million, 1.1), Guys With Kids (4.2 million, 1.4) and SVU (6.2 million, 1.8). |
The renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has admitted to using passages without citation from websites including Wikipedia in her new book about humankind's relationship with nature.
A Washington Post reviewer spotted the phrases in her book Seeds of Hope, which was co-written with Gail Hudson. Goodall told the paper: "This was a long and well-researched book and I am distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies."
The conservationist, best known for her work with chimpanzees in Africa, said she would discuss the concerns on her blog, though nothing has yet been published on the site.
The paper highlighted one passage on boxes of seeds, which read in the book: "Bartram's Boxes, as they came to be known, were regularly sent to Peter Collinson for distribution to a wide list of European clients." The Wikipedia entry reads: "Bartram's Boxes as they then became known, were regularly sent to Peter Collinson every fall for distribution in England to a wide list of clients."
A section in the book on trees reads: "In ancient Egypt, the sycamore was especially revered — twin sycamores were believed to stand at the eastern gate of heaven through which Ra, the sun god came each day." A site called Find Your Fate says: "Twin Sycamores of turquoise were believed to stand at the eastern gates of heaven, from which the sun god re emerged every day called The Big Tree on The Eastern Horizon."
Mary Lewis, Goodall's personal assistant and vice-president of outreach of the Jane Goodall Institute, told the Guardian that Goodall – who talks at public events around the world – had been "heavily involved" in the writing of the book: "Jane does a vast amount of her own writing. It was a complicated and thoroughly researched book. Gail [Hudson, the co-author] worked closely with her. This has been blown out of all proportion."
Grand Central, the book's publisher, told the Washington Post: "We have not formulated a detailed plan beyond crediting the sources in subsequent releases."
Hudson said she had no comment.
The book has received mixed reviews, with the Boston Globe's reviewer writing: "In general, Goodall is more of an inspiring human being than an inspired writer; at times one can have the impression that one is reading the author's lecture notes." |
Ladies and gents, it’s officially American Horror Story season. Before you go any further, this is not just another show recap. As my editor would agree, I’m much too scatterbrained to devote time to one consistent thing each week, so I figured I would take a different approach to American Horror Story (which will now be referred to as AHS from here on out). We will journey through a brief look into each season, followed by a lovely tie-in that will hopefully convince a few more people to get into the zany world of AHS.
Season Breakdowns
The unique aspect of AHS that draws millions of viewers each week (and even more on streaming services such as Netflix) is how Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk incorporate a brand new cult-classic-esque horror story in each individual season. The grand majority of television shows these days have an overarching story or theme that persists from seasons to season. Mad Men is a time-piece concerning the ever-changing advertising world of Madison Avenue, while Breaking Bad deals with the consequences of one man failing to admit his hubris and letting money control his world. American Horror Story, on the other hand, spins a brand new story each and every season. I get the feeling that the writers were wanting to give off a campfire feeling. The fun of campfire stories is that there are so many good stories that are told, and the same can be said with AHS. A good story goes through the Shakespearean Five Act Structure, and the Murphy/Falchuk story slides through the structure almost seamlessly through each season.
As of now, there are four seasons of AHS, the fourth of which is currently being aired, and a fifth season has already been picked up, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That being said, it seems that there are endless ways that the writers could go with the next season, and we are only two episodes deep into season four. One of the great things about this set-up is that the writers are not constrained to one particular story throughout the seasons, as they can start at the drawing board each year with many of the same actors. I will wade through each season in hopes of shedding some further light on my previous claims.
Murder House
Season One is colloquially known as “Murder House.” When it was released, not many people knew what to expect. Up until this point, there had not really been a successful, adult, scary show, outside of some thrillers like The X-Files. While I did not watch AHS until season two, I, hadheard about this creepy, risqué show from many friends and websites alike. Borderline-rape scenes, fetuses in jars, and ghosts – what more could one desire in a television show? Well, that’s FX for you. The network has been notorious for shows that have skirted the line between TV-MA and premium shows, and along with additions such as Archer and The League, AHS fits right in.
The story focuses on the Harmon family, a genuinely disturbed family, who moved into a famous house where countless murders had occurred since its construction. The husband is a psychiatrist, the daughter is an angsty mess, and the wife is dealing with an adulterous husband; what else could go wrong in this family? Well, with neighbors and ghosts showing up willy-nilly, their life goes from drama to horror in no-time. This is perhaps my favorite season, as there is a major plot twist that threw many for a loop. That, and we were able to ogle Connie Britton for twelve episodes. On a more serious note, we saw Jessica Lange and Evan Peters perform some of the best acting we have ever seen. Seriously, go check out this show if you love good acting.
Asylum
If I could give a tie to any other season for my favorite season, it would be season two. Maybe I’m just a fan of creepy insane asylum settings like Shutter Island, but this was genuinely the most frightening piece of work I’ve had the pleasure of viewing on television. Jessica Lange and Evan Peters, once more, displayed acting prominence as they took the mantle of completely new characters and were able to play so well off of each other. It was such a pleasure seeing some of the same actors from season one pop up on screen as new characters. I think many people were surprised with the direction Falchuk and Murphy took with this odd way of telling horror stories. Even now, people are trying to connect the four current seasons together in some giant conspiracy theory. “There has to be SOME method to their madness,” I imagine many tin-foil-hat fans continue to say to this day. While that may be true, I think the writers like to put easter eggs in each season to appease its long-time fans. Are you interested in The Exorcist-like stories? What about some serial killer action? Oh? What’s that? You ALSO have a weird thing for aliens? Look no further. American Horror Story: Asylum had it all, and it remains one of my favorite stories told on television.
Coven
Now, this is where things started to get a tad derailed. This season took a lot of flak for just being different. On the surface, there did not seem to be many scary or horrific items the writers had placed on the menu for the third season, and that tended to upset people (read: me). After several episodes, I snapped out of my funk, and I continued to enjoy AHS for what it was; a storytelling device. A story does not have to be filled with bumps in the night to be considered scary. The show hit on some major gender and race issues faced today, and it did so by playing a three-way war between witches, witch-hunters, and Vodouisants (followers of voodoo) in the already culturally-rich city of New Orleans, Louisiana. In hindsight, I really did enjoy the peculiar story that was Coven, and I’d urge wary viewers to push through the first several episodes. I walked away from that third season with a newfound respect for the writers, as they made me enjoy a story that I normally would have steered far away from.
Freakshow
With only two episodes aired, and the third one airing tonight, how in the world could I possibly discuss the newest season of AHS? O ye of little faith, I will try my best. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this season for the past few months, but I did not know what to expect waltzing into S4E1. Would it be bone-chilling? Would it be a “less scary” season, the way many people thought Coven was portrayed? While the overall story is yet to be seen by the vast majority of people, I think we can start to piece together an idea of what the season will look like. Yes, there was an odd musical display towards the end of S4E1. Yes, there were some odd sexual scenes viewers had to squirm through. However, our favorite clown seems to be the fun and frightening part of the season. We’ve already seen Twisty the Clown go on some homicidal rampages around the town of Jupiter, Florida, and I can only imagine what else the writers have in store for the balloon-blower. But on a deeper level, we see society, and perhaps Jessica Lange’s character, as the scariest parts of all. While I don’t think Falchuk and Murphy are trying to state some piece of social commentary, it’s scary to look at the way society treats these society-deemed “freaks.” We’ll most certainly see many more bloody corpses and music numbers, but until the next few episodes, we won’t really know how this season is going to turn out. My thoughts? I think Falchuk and Murphy have some crazy twists they’re ready to throw at viewers this next week. Only time will tell.
Concluding Thoughts
In hindsight, I’m wondering why there have not been many other (if any) shows that have successfully pulled off this style of storytelling. My initial thought is that there must have been some sort of fear of failure. The American Horror Story crew has made one push towards unusual storytelling, and I certainly hope the trend continues. Be sure to tune in to FX tonight at 10PM EST to check out the newest episode of American Horror Story: Freakshow, and I hope you enjoy your haunting! |
Close
Outerwall and Verizon are closing the tap on Redbox Instant, offering customers refunds and a short window of opportunity to stream through the rest of their queues.
Redbox Instant was the love child of Verizon and Outerwall, a kiosk company that owns the Coinstar and Redbox brands. The streaming video service was born to rival Netflix, but it appears a rough summer for the Redbox brand has resulted in the shuttering of Redbox Instant.
"Please be aware that the service will be shut down on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time," stated Redbox Instant's notice to its customers. "Information on applicable refunds will be emailed to current customers and posted here on Oct. 10. In the meantime, you may continue to stream movies and use your Redbox kiosk credits until Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. We apologize for any inconvenience and we thank you for the opportunity to entertain you."
In Outerwall's quarterly earnings report, released in July, J. Scott Di Valerio, Outerwall's chief executive officer, talked up his company's ability to excel with its core abilties and to scale its automated retail services to meet demand despite the struggles of its Redbox division.
"June represented the lowest monthly theatrical box office in Redbox history," stated Di Valerio. "Box office in June was down 83 percent from June 2013 as only four titles were released during the month. While the release schedule was not compelling for consumers during the quarter, consumer engagement with Redbox remained strong as demonstrated by a significant year-over-year increase in e-mail open rates, e-mail subscribers and Redbox app downloads."
Outerwall attributes a "weak release schedule" for the disappointing performance of Redbox during the quarter, but said strong Coinstar revenue helped soften the impact of the video rental kiosk's sales.
"We produced solid results in the second quarter of 2014 with consolidated revenues and profitability in-line with our expectations despite weaker-than-expected performance from our Redbox business," said Galen C. Smith, chief financial officer of Outerwall. "In addition, we generated strong cash flow in the quarter and repurchased $50 million of our common stock, reflecting our commitment to returning cash to shareholders."
While rival Netflix has tempered investor expectations with news it is anticipating it would continue to draw lackluster earning, the streaming media company's expansion in Europe and its $1 per month price hike has kept it on solid footing for the foreseeable future.
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. |
Woman appears at Old Bailey accused of causing death of Michael Mason, 70, on Regent Street in 2014
A driver has appeared at the Old Bailey accused of killing a 70-year-old London cyclist in a private prosecution brought by a cycling charity.
Gail Purcell, 58, from St Albans, pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving.
It is alleged that on 25 February 2014 in Regent Street, central London, she drove a vehicle, a black Nissan Juke, without due care and attention, thereby causing the death of Michael Mason.
The prosecution is being funded by the Cyclists’ Defence Fund, the court was told.
The case is set for trial on 3 April. Purcell was granted unconditional bail. Mason, a teacher, died 19 days after the collision having never regained consciousness.
The prosecution is being crowd-funded through donations. |
Advertisement $1M worth of crystal meth seized in Hamilton County Authorities report largest meth bust in state of Ohio Share Shares Copy Link Copy
For the past several days, the major buzz in Cincinnati has been about the city's heroin crisis.Now, based on a huge seizure of crystal methamphetamine, it's clear Southwest Ohio has yet another drug problem.Watch this storyThe Hamilton County sheriff and his staff announced the largest-ever seizure of crystal meth in the state of Ohio on Wednesday.Sheriff Jim Neil said more than 16 pounds of crystal meth were seized in Hamilton County.Watch the full news conference"This stuff comes from a super lab in Mexico," Neil said.That equates to about $125-$150 per gram. A gram is about the weight of a sugar packet, Neil said.Neil said 19-year-old Arturo Talavera, 25-year-old Rafael Ayala, and 42-year-old Kimberly Jane Johnson, all from Atlanta, drove the meth up I-75 to a hotel near Sharonville.Agents with the Regional Narcotics Unit arrested the trio after they made the drive from Atlanta and delivered the drugs, the result of a lengthy undercover operation."This stuff would have gone into not only Ohio but Indiana, Kentucky," Neil said.He says the 16.5 pounds of crystal meth, with an estimated street value of $1 million, represent the biggest seizure of the drug ever in the Buckeye State.The crystal meth-related arrests come one day after deputies seized two pounds of heroin from two men, 27-year-old Pablo Dominguez, of Ross, New York, and 33-year-old Clemente Quezada, of Butler County.Neil said it's unclear if those two men have any connection to the recent overdose spike in Cincinnati.He's just glad a total of more than 18 pounds of highly addictive drugs will not make it to the city's streets."The good news is that we, in two days, have gotten 18 pounds of some serious drugs off the street and saved local lives," Neil said. "This stuff is destroying the fabric of our communities and our families."When it comes to crystal meth Hamilton County's Chief Deputy Mark Schoonover said the latest research shows only around 5 percent of users are able to stop using the drug once they start.Schoonover also said it's being used by younger crowds, often in suburbs of Cincinnati.The appearance of crystal meth in Southwest Ohio should not come as a major surprise.Last October, FBI Director James Comey discussed the drug's movement during a news conference at the bureau's field office in Cincinnati."There's another tidal wave coming to you which is methamphetamine," Comey said at the time. "I've been told that some heroin traffickers are showing up with free meth for their customers. Again, it's an evil business, but it's a business. You gain market share by giving people freebies. So I think it is, if not already here, it's very close to coming." |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video
KEARNS, Utah - A Utah man took his lifelong love of LEGOs and The Muppets to a new level.
Quinn Rollins designs his own LEGOs based on the characters from The Muppets in hopes that one day, the toy company will put them on store shelves.
"I'm already working on some Muppet characters and the way I do it is take existing LEGO pieces," Rollins said. "You have to have 10,000 votes in order for LEGO to consider making it an official product. Right now it's right around 3,000 votes."
If his LEGOs are made an official product, Rollins will see one percent of the profits.
The Muppets aren't the only figures Rollins has created. He's custom designed characters from X-Men and Star Trek.
To vote for Rollins' LEGOs, go to lego.cuusoo.com. |
This year's retrospective pop music marketing push has been stuffed with commemorative Nirvana magazines and guitars and a documentary on two decades of Pearl Jam that premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. The year 2011, we've been endlessly reminded, marks the 20th anniversary of grunge – or at least the year Nevermind and Ten were released. But beyond the consumer recycling, there's a reason grunge still retains meaning. Unlike their hipster successors of the early 00s, grunge rockers were actually angry.
What you notice, listening to the spokesmen of grunge – particularly Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder – is that they didn't want the Seattle scene to turn out the way it did. There's the feeling that something went horribly wrong somewhere along the way, and that if only it had been kept under wraps, hermetically sealed and locked away in Seattle forever, it could have been saved.
In an interview Cobain gave only months before his suicide, he told journalist Michael Azerrad, "I've always felt like my generation was the very last innocent generation. Everything was a total fantasy, everything was just very basic, just medieval compared to things nowadays." The Seattle kids could see it coming, whatever it was that happened after the city was set upon by Naomi Klein's "coolhunters", when it was packaged and shipped off to the far corners of the world as a prefabricated trend. Despite their alleged feud, Vedder and Cobain both worried about selling out. It was exemplified by what at the time seemed like hypocritical whining: Cobain's reluctance to allow Courtney Love to buy a Lexus, or his overt musings about how In Utero would be hated; Vedder's annoyance that his image was used without his permission on the cover of Time, or Pearl Jam's fight against Ticketmaster's monopoly.
For a brief moment after grunge hit it big, it was possible to see where that relative innocence (or the fight to retain it) was lost. It was part of what made grunge bands unique: their conflicted, angry lyrics were often manifested to some degree in real life. They had a genuine annoyance with the status quo, and the only solution was to scream about it into a microphone. None of that anger is anywhere to be found in the hipster rock revival of the early 00s. Modern rock isn't emotionally vapid, but there's an inherent cynicism, an exhausted acceptance of the system. Even a track like Arcade Fire's 2004 "Rebellion" is immediately qualified parenthetically with "(Lies)". If Cobain's generation was the last with any innocence, then this generation is perhaps the first that never had any.
In his book Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to its Own Past, Simon Reynolds argues that the very hipster crowd set on making the kitsch cool and reviving the dead aesthetic of past decades ought to be the exact people moving culture forward. Maybe, but then again, it's been a weird decade for the first post-postmodern generation. Gen Y is forever cursed to account somehow for the event that will always define it: the 9/11 terrorist attacks and its subsequent memory, which is now equally destined to be revived and revisited until it, like so many hipster fads of late, is summarised entirely by an online meme generator casually uploading the words "Never Forget" for ever and ever.
How prescient it was, then, that the album that reignited rock'n'roll would be the non-committal "Is This It" by the Strokes: an entire generation summed up in a phrase stamped on an album recorded only months before 9/11. A decade later, accelerated digital media has perfected premature obsolescence. By the time anything is new, it's already old, replaced immediately as the chattering mob moves on, endlessly devouring more information while producing less and less meaning. All this in the face of ceaseless war, high youth unemployment and a looming economic shit storm.
In this context, hipster nostalgia makes a crazy sort of sense: rather than summon the energy for a defining statement of anger or outrage, Gen Y has only mustered a shrug, and waited as the consumerism that grunge initially fought off washes over.
"It's sad to think what the state of rock'n'roll will be in 20 years from now," Cobain told Azerrad. "It just seems like when rock'n'roll is dead, the whole world's gonna explode … it's already turned into nothing but a fashion statement and an identity for kids to use as a tool."
Rock'n'roll has gone from a linear derivative art form to an abstracted, nominal designation. It's not dead, just more or less spent. |
On July 1st, the exhibition “Maydan-Hundred Portraits” opened at Duplex 100m2 gallery as a part of the 2015 WARM Festival in Sarajevo. Two days later, a discussion with the photographer, Emeric Lhuisset, took place at Kino Meeting Point.
Emeric Lhuisset grew up in France and currently spends his time between the Middle East and Paris. Across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Colombia, Emeric Lhuisset combines his background in geopolitics with his talent for visual arts, questioning representations of conflict and our perceptions of it. When asked to describe his work, he replies, “I am not a photojournalist. I would more define myself as a visual artist."
With the exhibition “Maydan-Hundred Portraits”, Lhuisset introduces us to the Ukranian revolution of February 2014. The main square in the center of Kiev, Maydan is the site on which thousands of Ukrainians united in protest against government corruption and Russia’s grip on their country. The situation quickly escalated when protesters were fired upon by the authorities, leading to the deaths of more than 100 people, now referred to as the “Heavenly Hundred”.
“When I saw what was happening in Ukraine, when I saw that the government opened fire on the demonstrators, I couldn’t watch the events on television without taking action,” says Lhuisset. “So I decided to go there and see for myself what was really going on, to witness what was taking place,” he adds.
Image via Pierre Courtin
Lhuisset didn’t know what he was going to do when he hurriedly left for Ukraine. When he arrived in Kiev, former President Yanukovych had fled and his government had just fallen, the police had disappeared from the streets and, for a few days, the power belonged to the people. Everything seemed possible.
He started to compile a series of a hundred portraits of activists and demonstrators of the Maydan movement. “The 100 portraits are in fact a deliberate choice”, explains Lhuisset, “in honor of the 100 people who were killed on Maydan”.
Lhuisset set up his material in front of the charred door of the City Hall, and photographed passersby without any selection or bias. Before taking the pictures, he asked just two questions, which people answered on a sheet of paper: “What would you like to see happening now?” and “what do you think will happen?”
“I could have taken pictures of the demonstration itself, and people on barricades”, Lhuisset explains, before adding, “But I think this project shows better what’s happening in Ukraine, who these demonstrators are, and what they expect and desire.”
Indeed, Lhuisset doesn’t believe that you need to be “a photojournalist” or to “collect snapshots of action” to cover a conflict. In this project, Lhuisset wanted to both witness and understand the motivation of the protestors.
He then gathered the pictures and answers in a book, which was printed on newspaper stock “in order to match with the urgency of the situation”. The book and the exhibition consist of the same basic material: a tabloid sized printed newspaper of 224 pages. The 100 portraits are included, together with a reproduction of hand-written statements transcribed in Ukrainian, Russian, English, French, German and Dutch.
Image via Pierre Courtin
Lhuisset also chose a form of bookbinding that allows anyone to easily remove the pages so that they can be glued on a wall, thereby allowing everyone to make their own exhibition. He explains, “I wanted to give back the voices to the people and to do a democratic exhibition.
The exhibition was first displayed in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Lhuisset posted the portraits on the streets, “in order to counter [the Russian] propaganda and show to the population who the people of Maydan really were”. When he put the portraits in the streets of Sloviansk, one of the focal points in the early stages of the conflict in 2014, he was surprised and happy to notice that almost everyone stopped, read, discussed, and sometimes even fought or debated the pictures and answers. “I think the project had a real impact on the city of Sloviansk”, says Lhuisset.
The complete exhibition, featuring all 100 photos, was later presented in Amsterdam in September 2014, and then in Kiev, Ukraine, as part of the International Media Meeting. The conference discussed the topic of freedom of press in post-Soviet countries, but also in France, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and in Aleppo, Syria.
Interestingly, when questioned about the reaction of the visitors of the exhibition in the different countries where it was presented, Lhuisset explains that the strongest reactions were actually in France. There, the right wing National Front accused him of spreading the ideology of Ukranian neo-Nazis and fascists, which is, according to him “kind of ironic”.
Looking to the future, Lhuisset’s main goal is to travel further afield with ‘Maydan-Hundred Portraits’, so that it can continue to have an impact on people and show them a different representation of contemporary events in Ukraine.
Marion Pineau is an intern at the Post-Conflict Research Center in Sarajevo. She holds a BA in History and Political Science and is currently completing her Masters in Political Science/International Relations and European studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
This article is published in collaboration with Balkan Diskurs. The WARM Festival took place in Sarajevo from Sunday June 28th to Saturday July 4th, 2015. Run in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center, the WARM Festival in Sarajevo brings together artists, reporters, academics and activists around the topic of contemporary conflict. |
This article is over 5 years old
Dozens of Burmese journalists staged a rare demonstration today to protest at a reporter being sentenced to jail while working on a story about corruption.
About 60 journalists paraded through a busy street in the capital, Rangoon. Some wore black T-shirts bearing slogans such as "We don't want threats to press freedom." Others carried banners saying "Right to information is the life of democracy."
It followed the three-month prison sentence given to Ma Khine from the Daily Eleven newspaper. She was convicted last month of trespassing, using abusive language and defamation.
Journalists in Burma have gained new freedoms under the reformist government of President Thein Sein, who has abolished most censorship and allowed the publication of privately owned daily papers.
Previously, reporters had been subject to routine state surveillance, phone taps and censorship. Ma Khine is the first journalist under Thein Sein's government to be jailed.
She was sued by a lawyer who was annoyed by her questioning when she visited her house to interview her for a story about corruption.
Myint Kyaw, general secretary of the Burma Journalist Network, helped organise the protest march "because we do not want the imprisonment of a journalist to become a precedent."
Press freedom watchdogs, such as the World Association of Newspapers, the Committee to Protect Journalists (here) and Reporters Without Borders (here), have condemned the prison sentence.
Source: AP via Time |
People in Schenectady, N.Y., will get a chance tonight to hear something that hasn't been heard publicly since 1878: a tinfoil recording made that year on what was then revolutionary equipment, Thomas Edison's phonograph.
Gathering at the Museum of Innovation and Science, people will hear a rough-sounding 78 seconds of music and voice, as well as an explanation by Carl Haber of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory how he and his colleagues recovered the sound using digital techniques.
The tinfoil that Edison used was extremely thin and tolerated only a few plays before it began to wear down and even puncture.
This photo provided by the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, N.Y., shows Thomas Edison's 1878 tinfoil phonograph. (Associated Press)
The stylus would eventually tear the foil after just a few playbacks, and the person demonstrating the technology would typically tear up the tinfoil and hand the pieces out as souvenirs, museum curator Chris Hunter told The Associated Press.
The recording opens with a 23-second cornet solo of an unidentified song, followed by a man's voice reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb and Old Mother Hubbard. The man laughs at two spots during the recording, including at the end, when he recites the wrong words in the second nursery rhyme.
"Look at me; I don't know the song," he says. At a time when music lovers can carry thousands of digital songs on a player the size of a pack of gum, Edison's tinfoil playback seems prehistoric. But it opens a key window into the development of recorded sound.
"In the history of recorded sound that's still playable, this is about as far back as we can go," said John Schneiter, a trustee at the Museum of Innovation and Science, where it will be played Thursday night in the city where Edison helped found the General Electric Co.
When the recording is played using modern technology during a presentation Thursday, it likely will be the first time it has been played at a public event since it was created during an Edison phonograph demonstration held June 22, 1878, in St. Louis, museum officials said.
The recording was made on a sheet of tinfoil, 12.7 centimetres wide by 38 centimetres long, placed on the cylinder of the phonograph Edison invented in 1877 and began selling the following year. A hand crank turned the cylinder under a stylus that would move up and down over the foil, recording the sound waves created by the operator's voice. In July, Hunter brought the Edison tinfoil recording to California's Berkeley Lab, where researchers such as Haber have had success in recent years restoring some of the earliest audio recordings.
Haber and his team used optical scanning technology to replicate the action of the phonograph's stylus, reading the grooves in the foil and creating a 3D image, which was then analyzed by a computer program that recovered the original recorded sound. |
On March 25, 1925, John Logie Baird set up an unusual contraption in the Selfridges department store in London. It was a gimmick for attracting shoppers, casting a silhouette of a ventriloquist's dummy from across the room. A few months later — on January 26, 1926 — he demonstrated another version that's recognized as the first public demonstration of a mechanical TV.
Mechanical televisions came before the electronic televisions we have today — they were an early way to transmit images without film, and they paved the way for the TVs we use now.
"It was a wonderment," says Gary Edgerton, author of The Columbia History of American Television. "I imagine a lot of people who showed up at Selfridges that day had never thought of television." When Baird sent some blurry silhouettes across a department store, he made history.
The creator of the mechanical TV was a "mad inventor"
Baird, the inventor of the mechanical TV, was a Scotsman with an entrepreneurial spark. He was constantly trying out crazy ideas, like a rustless glass razor and inflatable shoes. He was nuts in the best possible way.
"He in some way looks like the mad inventor," Edgerton says. In a typical story, as a city engineer, Baird accidentally blew out all the power in Glasgow. After that, he proposed inventions like the "Baird undersock," a second sock you'd wear ... under your socks.
At first glance, his mechanical television might have seemed like just another crazy idea in a long list of failures. His first device was built from a hodgepodge of materials that included an old tea chest, an empty biscuit box, and some cardboard discs. But it was able to broadcast a few silhouettes and the outline of a paper mask. And with Baird's first presentation at Selfridges, he made history.
How the first mechanical television actually worked
The device relied on Nipkow discs — spinning discs with various holes in them. As the disc spun, the transmitter shone light through its holes, hitting the object being "filmed." That light then hit a sensor that captured the pattern and transmitted an electrical signal. The signal traveled via radio waves to a receiver with its own Nipkow disc rotating in sync with the original, allowing the initial image to be reproduced.
The original images were low-resolution and blurry. Television resolution is measured in lines, and in the beginning, the device could only scan as many lines as there were holes in the disc. A typical HDTV that's 1080p has 1,080 lines — Baird's device only had 30. Nipkow discs were occasionally dangerous, too — sometimes they spun so fast they flew off and hit things. But they worked.
Baird's mechanical TV was ingenious — but lost out to electronic TV
The haunting image above was one of the first to be transmitted using TV, but the clarity quickly improved. Later that same year, Baird took his next big step forward. In October 1925, he broadcast the face of a ventriloquist dummy named Stookie Bill. From there, he moved on to human faces.
Mechanical TV progressed in fits and spurts, but Baird did manage to improve his device. As described in R.W. Burns's Television: An International History of the Formative Years, a spotlight system helped Baird focus the lights in the device so that it was easier to photograph objects and produce a better "scan." In 1927, Baird sent a signal hundreds of miles over telephone line. In 1928, he made a color transmission by using color light sources and color filters. He also added lines, and eventually tried a 120-line mechanical system.
"it's a shared invention that all these folks played a part in"
But mechanical TVs lost out to the electronic television, invented by Philo Farnsworth in 1927 and demonstrated in 1928. Electronic signals could be more easily captured and reproduced, and they could appear with superior fidelity and resolution. Baird moved on to electronic television as well, along with other new experimental products.
That said, historians recognize Baird's role in the early development of TV. "When I think of John Logie Baird, his biggest contribution was making the public aware of television," Edgerton says. "Philo Farnsworth probably contributed more than anybody, but truth be told, it's a shared invention that all these folks played a part in." Together, the iterative process "spurs and inspires other people to continue and compete."
That's why Baird is best remembered for what he accomplished in a department store and, later on, with a ventriloquist's dummy. Mechanical television helped push television forward and probably hastened the development of electronic TV. As Gordon Selfridge said of his department store hire, "unquestionably the present experimental apparatus can be ... perfected and refined." And it was, thanks in part to the genius of a former socks salesman who had a good idea.
Updated: The anniversary depends on how you determine the milestone — last year, we celebrated the 90th anniversary of that televised silhouette at Selfridges, and today marks the 90th anniversary of the first public demonstration of a more recognizable televised image. Whichever day you mark, it was a significant one in television history. |
When the show was on the air, I spent every week renewing my fascination with a fictional character. I fixated on “Gilmore Girls” because I tend to gravitate toward a genre of popular culture I’ve come to think of as emotional speculative fiction. It’s a close cousin of science fiction: The central narrative bears a plausible relation to our lived reality, but everything is heightened, for better or worse. In science fiction, our experiences are filtered through the fantastical — an alien virus arrives from outer space and decimates a marginalized population, perhaps, or there’s a power-hungry dictator hellbent on world domination in a universe far, far away.
Emotional speculative fiction takes place closer to home but is no less fantastical. When done well — as was the case with “Gilmore Girls” — it takes everything recognizable about life but adds the qualities that remain elusively out of reach in reality, like satisfying endings and triumphant character arcs, where loss is ultimately redemptive and learning experiences are peppered with witty repartee.
Porter says he has often thought of how the fairy-tale aspects of the show don’t ever topple into far-fetched dramas or morality lessons. The action is almost secondary to the emotions for him. “In addition to it being hilarious and funny and wonderful and having really gorgeous women being hilarious, what drew me to the show was the emotional resonance of it.” Adejuyigbe, too, finds that “one of the big draws of ‘Gilmore Girls’ is that sort of dreamlike fantasy, where things are so similar to our real life and twisted just a little bit.”
“Gilmore Girls” wasn’t a perfect television show, and some of its flaws are glaringly obvious to regular and first-time viewers alike. The show often makes strange narrative choices with minor characters — turning them into clichés and punch lines — and central conflicts, particularly in later seasons, are a bit of a stretch, as characters discover children they didn’t know they had and enter into marriages they don’t seem to want. Adejuyigbe and Porter are, first and foremost, fans; they love the show not in spite of its flaws but because the flaws are just as crucial to their viewing experience as the strengths. Porter tells me he thinks about the show every single day. “It’s something I live with in a way I’ve never lived with a television show or any piece of art,” he explains. “It’s become a beautiful engine for the podcast and conversation and jokes and insight and shows and songs. It’s a gift that’s given me so much.”
In June, Adejuyigbe and Porter did interviews on the red carpet for a “Gilmore Girls” reunion panel and got to meet the actors who played their favorite characters; a photo posted to their official Facebook page of Porter with Kelly Bishop, the actress who played his favorite character (Emily Gilmore, Lorelai’s mother and Rory’s grandmother), depicts her face in the stern character expression familiar to fans, while Porter’s registers sheer joy.
The podcast is about to delve into the fifth season of “Gilmore Girls”; the end is in sight. When pressed about their plans for future episodes of “Gilmore Guys,” and what they will do after there are no more episodes of “Gilmore Girls” to watch, Adejuyigbe and Porter remain coy; they say only that we should expect more Gillys to appear, and that no special guest is really out of reach. For now, they are content to revel in the fact that the podcast has transformed their lives into something slightly better than reality. |
Hatred, the grim, ultra-violent mass shooter from Polish studio Destructive Creations, hit Steam Greenlight earlier today with the hope that potential fans would vote for the game's inclusion on Steam. But Valve, the company who controls Steam, quickly dashed Destructive Creations' Greenlight hopes and pulled the title from its platform.
"Based on what we've seen on Greenlight we would not publish Hatred on Steam," Valve's Doug Lombardi said in an email to Polygon. "As such we'll be taking it down."
Hatred was unveiled in October as a playable "genocide crusade" in which the player character slaughters innocent civilians and law enforcement in an effort to "spread Armageddon." Developer Epic Games, whose Unreal Engine powers the title, quickly distanced itself from Hatred and requested that its logos be removed from the game's trailer.
Destructive Creations creative director Jarosław Zieliński attempted to rally gamers interested in seeing Hatred on Steam in an announcement this morning, saying, "If you are a diehard Hatred fan then this is one of the most important news for you this year! Now YOU can vote and decide to bring the game to one of the most popular gaming platforms! Don't just wait until it happens. Tell your friends about it and let their friends tell their friends, so the news will spread everywhere!"
The developer also released a new teaser trailer, featuring more of the game's unrepentant and ugly violence, to support its Greenlight campaign.
Valve removed another game from Steam in October when a developer threatened company co-founder Gabe Newell on Twitter. The developer of Paranautical Activity, Mike Maulbeck, said the decision to remove the game from Steam hurt it sales of the title, saying "It's just not possible to make a living in this industry without steam."
Update: Destructive Creations issued the following statement on Hatred's removal from Steam Greenlight. |
The law student attacked the godman in defence and cut off his genitals with a knife.
Highlights The woman, 23, allegedly chopped off his penis when he tried to rape her The 54-year-old swami first allegedly assaulted the girl when she was 16 A team of experts conducted a plastic surgery on the godman
That's how her eight-year-old ordeal ended on Friday. A 23-year-old law student in Kerala allegedly chopped off the penis of a swami, a self-styled godman, who had been allegedly raping her for many years at her house. The accused identified as Swami Ganeshananda, or Hari swami as he is also known as, is a member of the Panmana Ashram in Kollam.Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reacted to the incident and said that it was brave of her to take such a step. "It's a courageous and strong act by the woman," he said.Prameela Devi, member of the Kerala State Women's Commission, said such an act is unacceptable. People like these are supposed to be role models not rapists, Ms Devi added.The 54-year-old swami first allegedly assaulted the girl when she was 16. The girl has told the police that the swami would come to their home to meet her mother and whenever he got the opportunity, he would allegedly rape her.Last night, when the accused again showed up at their home and tried to force himself on her, she got hold of a knife and attacked his penis. She immediately called the police. after the incident.The accused was rushed to the Trivandrum Medical College. A team of experts conducted a plastic surgery on the godman, who is said to is be out of danger now.Sparjan Kumar, Trivandrum City police commissioner said that the swami abused the woman in several ways. "The swami was close to the family and would often come to their home. The woman didn't tell her parents because she thought no one would believe her. But when he tried to abuse her again on Friday, she cut off his private parts, ran out and called the police," he said. The police have registered a case against the godman for rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The swami's statement is yet to be recorded. |
It may soon be a whole lot easier to get a stiff drink at the movie theater in New York City. It has long been illegal for movie theaters to sell alcohol, but now, Crain's reports, at least two major cinema chains are working on getting around that ban through the same exception that allows Williamsburg's Nitehawk Cinema to serve cocktails at all its showings.
When Nitehawk opened in 2011, it served dinner (with table service) to guests inside its theaters, but was only allowed to serve drinks at its bar. But with the help of a lawyer and a lobbyist, owner Matthew Viragh petitioned New York State legislators to overturn the ban on alcohol in movie theaters. Eventually, Governor Cuomo signed off on a law allows movie theaters that are also restaurants to serve drinks.
In order to qualify as a restaurant as well as a movie theater and secure a liquor license, the theater has to be equipped with tables and serve actual food (popcorn and Junior Mints don't count). To that end, two unnamed cinema chains have hired David Pfeffer, the same lawyer who won the change for Nitehawk, and are looking into installing fold-out tables of some sort into their New York theaters. One is planning to put in tray tables similar to those found on airplanes, and to serve dishes like mac and cheese. Another is developing a tiny "table" that would fold out from the arm rest. Neither has submitted a liquor license application yet, but Pfeffer is optimistic that they'll be successful when they do.
All of this is very exciting, but let's not forget how much movie theaters already charge for a small soda. Given that these liquor license bids are part of an effort to boost sales, in a time when box office revenues are declining, don't expect your bottle of Bud Light to come cheap.
Meanwhile, the city is still waiting on its first outpost of Alamo Drafthouse, the beloved Austin restaurant/movie theater chain, which is opening in Downtown Brooklyn at some point this year. Plans for another outpost on the Upper West Side sadly fell through. |
LG has kicked off Mobile World Congress this Sunday morning in Barcelona by showing off its two Watch Urbane smartwatches for the first time. The pair were announced in the lead-up to MWC, but this has been our first opportunity to see them in person and get some lingering questions answered.
The regular Watch Urbane puts a premium spin on Android Wear, but the Watch Urbane LTE is a different proposition altogether — it's the world's first smartwatch with LTE connectivity, and last week we thought it might be the first webOS smartwatch too. How are they both looking?
By far the more interesting of the pair is the Watch Urbane LTE. Despite what LG representatives told us last week, this is a watch running software based on webOS, with the same circular interface that Audi displayed at CES earlier in the year year. Unlike with its smart TV software, however, LG isn't playing up the webOS connection, instead simply stating that the device runs on the company's own proprietary wearable platform. And really, that's probably for the best — no-one's going to mistake this for a Palm Pre.
LG can't satisfy every customer with Android Wear
Developing its own watch OS rather than relying on the somewhat minimalist Android Wear has given LG the flexibility to offer a lot of new features; the company says that while it will continue to focus on Android Wear, it can't satisfy every customer with Google's platform. The watch faces are far more customizable, for example, letting you choose the background, watch hands, and minute marks.
But the Watch Urbane LTE's main feature by far is its cellular connectivity, which lets you answer calls, check emails, or hold walkie-talkie-style conversations with multiple people anywhere without having a smartphone connected. There are other features for hiking, cycling, playing golf, and working out, with the various sensors helping to track your performance. There's a built-in voice translator app, too, and NFC connectivity lets you use the watch for mobile payments.
Make no mistake — this watch is a gadget. The Watch Urbane LTE's metal body is pretty bulky, and I wasn't too fond of the built-in rubber band. The three-button interface, meanwhile, isn't all that intuitive at first. But I got used to the software soon enough, and in terms of sheer stuff you can do with it, the Watch Urbane LTE is one of the most powerful wearable devices yet. I wouldn't wear one myself, but I have no doubt it'll appeal to some.
Because of the Watch Urbane LTE's extra connectivity, it has its own phone number, and will require a second data plan. The LTE watch is so far only confirmed for South Korea, where it will launch within a couple of months for an undisclosed price.
There's a non-LTE version of the Watch Urbane, too, but it's a vastly different product. It runs Android Wear, making it functionally more or less identical to other watches that use Google's OS. The focus on this one is "luxury," with LG hoping to offer a new experience through materials and design.
Like LG's previous Android Wear smartwatch, the G Watch R, the Watch Urbane has a circular OLED display, but the bezel has been slimmed down considerably, and it isn't marked at five-minute intervals, unlike the LTE watch. The silver- or gold-finished body is stainless steel without a screw in sight, and the strap is made from stitched leather. The craftsmanship is not, of course, on par with a luxury watch, but if you're of the school of thought that believes smartwatches should emulate traditional timepieces, you'll probably find this to be one of the more attractive Android Wear devices so far.
The Watch Urbane will be making it to the US and Europe by the end of April. AT&T is the first carrier to confirm it will offer the Watch Urbane. Pricing information isn't yet available. |
Conventional wisdom suggests that a (fill-in-the-blank-superlative) starting rotation is key for a World Series run. After watching the postseason unfold over the last three years, though, I’m not so convinced that’s the only way.
Before we continue, I want to make clear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that a good starting rotation presents no value, nor am I saying that you can get by with a terrible starting rotation. What I am saying, however, is that there are multiple paths to a title and that one of those paths can include just “good” or even “average” performances from a starting rotation, so long as the bullpen rises to the occasion.
Call me crazy, but after the last three years, if you gave me the option of having an average rotation and a dominant bullpen or the other way around, I’d take the dominant bullpen.
Over those three seasons, all playoff teams have used their bullpen for an average of four out of every nine innings. During the ten seasons prior to that three-year stretch (2004-2013), relievers were used a full-inning less on average. While I’m not totally sure why that was the case, I imagine the growing use of analytics that favors fireballing relievers over starters who are losing steam in the later innings plays a role and, in general, guys are throwing harder and are more effective out of the pen than ever before.
One advantage the bullpen has in the post-season in comparison to the regular season is added off-days. An MLB team averages less than an off-day per week during the regular season. In the playoffs, teams typically get a day off every time the series changes locations. For last year’s 7-game World Series, each team benefitted from two off-days during the series, not to mention nearly a week off for the Indians and two days off for the Cubs prior to the series starting. This allows teams to pitch its best relievers just about every game. On a given night in the regular season, a team might be forced to use its sixth best reliever to get three critical outs in the eighth inning because some of their better relievers might be unavailable due to recent usage. That almost never happens in the post-season.
A part of the modus operandi of the Royals teams that made back-to-back World Series appearances was a nearly-bulletproof bullpen. Their starting rotation was fine, but they certainly didn’t have star power.
The 2015 Royals won the World Series despite producing a post-season rotation ERA of 4.97, which is not only not a dominant number, but just flat out isn’t a very good number. How did they do it? Their bullpen posted a 2.51 ERA and blew just one save, a game they’d ultimately win anyway. In the World Series, which they won in 5 games over the Mets, their bullpen posted 1.90 era.
Last year, the rotation-ravaged Indians cruised to an American League pennant and then lost to the dominant Cubs in extra innings of game 7 in the World Series. They did all that despite the fact that several proclaimed their chances obsolete when it became clear that two of their three best starters–Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar–would be unavailable to make starts for them during the playoffs due to injury.
In fairness to the band-aid rotation the Indians wheeled out there, they produced a 3.12 ERA, but that’s because Tribe manager Terry Francona leaned heavily on a bullpen that ended up throwing just five fewer innings than its rotation. Essentially, Francona’s rotation, a unit that averaged fewer than 5 innings/start in the playoffs, worked until the first sign of danger before giving way to the bullpen.
Of the last 6 teams to make it to a World Series, four of them, including the 2014 World Series winning Giants, used their bullpen for at least 4.1 innings per game, which is basically half of the game!
The 2015 Rangers ultimately losing to the Blue Jays in a heartbreaking deciding contest in the ALDS, however, their exit was in spite of a great bullpen showing. In five games, the Rangers’ pen posted a 1.52 ERA. Both Shawn Tolleson (0 runs in 3 innings) and Jake Diekman (1 run in 6 innings) were critical to the team’s success.
Meanwhile, whereas some of these super bullpens have flourished, super rotations haven’t had the same luck of late.
Neither the 2015 Dodgers with Kershaw and Greinke nor the 2014 Nationals, who led MLB in rotation ERA with guys like Strasburg, Fister, and Zimmermann, won a single playoff series.
Of the 24 World Series competitors since 2005, just two completed their post-season journey with a bullpen ERA that exceeded 4.00. Incidentally, those two teams were the 2010 and 2011 Rangers.
Again, I’m not saying it is bad to have a great rotation, but many people talk about a “playoff rotation” like its the determining factor in postseason success, but recent data suggests we should spend equal time talking about a team’s “playoff bullpen.” |
An Australian tourist who was caught in Lhasa, Tibet when riots erupted last week, has returned home with quite a story:
(CNN) — Australian tourist Michael Smith says he was eating lunch in a restaurant in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, on Friday when he heard an explosion and saw smoke.
As armored vehicles and trucks carrying Chinese soldiers rushed past, Smith started videotaping.
“We’re standing here in the middle of Lhasa and the place has just [expletive] exploded,” Smith narrated during the rioting.
Smith, who was traveling in Tibet when anti-Chinese rioting broke out Friday, returned home this week with dramatic video of the violence in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, which aired on Australian TV on Wednesday.
(…)
The video shows Tibetans smashing windows and setting fire to Chinese shops and cars, while people are heard cheering. It also shows Chinese security forces, but no clashes between them and the rioters.
“It’s absolute mayhem on the streets,” Smith said.
(…)
Smith said as he made his way back to his hotel on Friday, he “met so many Tibetan people on the streets, so many young Tibetan boys just screaming for Tibet’s freedom.”
“We don’t have any freedoms,” one young Tibetan male shouted to Smith’s camera.
“The Tibetan people are going crazy,” Smith said. |
European Union officials are reportedly trying to form an EU Olympic team for the 100th anniversary of the 1936 Berlin games that will devalue European national sovereignty.
Bill Etheridge, a representative of UKIP in EU Parliament, broke the news to the Daily Express, revealing that covert discussions are being held amongst EU officials ‘behind closed doors.’
“There have been quite a lot of conversations about it among other MEPs and it was being taken quite seriously by some of them,” he said. “They were using the word solidarity, which tends to be code for an even closer union.”
“It speaks to their plan to create a ‘United States’ of Europe.”
“I’m almost certain there was some jealousy at Britain’s success in 2012 and 2016 and they want a piece of our success,” Etheridge went on. “It’s a crazy EU effort to destroy national identity.”
Etheridge says those behind the scheme would like to construct and enter the team in time for the 2036 Games, which will fall on the 100 year anniversary of the 1936 Olympics, which were hosted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.
Infowars reported earlier this year on EU officials plotting to use the 2024 Olympics in Paris as an opportunity to consolidate power and ‘solidarity’ within the bloc – even planning to fly the EU flag on the medals podium.
“What we’ve tried to do is to see the European flag flying alongside national flags at the Olympic Games and we want to win at the Olympics as Europeans,” said EU Parliament president, Antonio Tajani, in June. “So that’s something we’re working on with the national federations. Of course we want to see the French flag there, the national flags there, but we will want to make clear that this is a European candidacy for 2024.”
The move towards merging European athletes under the EU umbrella was given broader public exposure during the 2016 Rio Olympics when a German PR firm – which lists the European Commission and European Parliament as their top clients – released a version of the ‘medal tracker’ showing the European Union at the top, having incorporated post-Brexit UK athletes into the final totals alongside winners from EU member states.
Despite fractures throughout the bloc that continue to widen, obsessive EU globalists continue to press forward with their agenda to form what many see as a reincarnation of the USSR, with Germany and France spearheading plans to form an EU military and a ‘European Unified Budget.’
Dan Lyman: Facebook | Twitter |
Eight days before Desi Williams watches her latest adventure begin to unfold on national television, the former yoga instructor is trying to stay cool, calm and collected when she thinks about how the upcoming season of ‘Survivor’ will play out on screen.
Williams, a 28-year-old physical therapist and college professor from Newport News, Virginia, wasn’t crazy about the thought of sleeping outdoors. Surely, the Peachtree City native and McIntosh High School alumna isn’t the only Survivor contestant who’s been marooned with a fear of living among the animals and insects. After all, it’s not realistic to expect every Survivor contestant to be a rock climber who lives out of a car and camps in the wilderness on a regular basis.
We don’t know how Williams fared in the elements of Fiji, whether the harsh weather or pesky bug bites took too much of a toll on the former pageant queen. However, since filming wrapped up in May, a new fear has emerged for Williams: her edit.
“If you film me for 24 hours,” Williams said last week in a phone interview with Fayette Newspapers, “obviously I’m not going to be shown 24 hours per episode, so what 30-minute snip-its of what I said or what I did is going to be shown? And is the world going to hate me after the show or are they going to love me?”
Williams will soon find out her story when she relives Day 1 as a member of the Healers tribe on “Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”, premiering Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. on CBS. The inaugural episode will mark the beginning of the 35th season of a show that pits strangers from all walks of life against each other, forcing them to build a society on an island and vote each other out one by one at Tribal Council until there is a Sole Survivor, winner of not only the title and glory, but also the million dollar prize. When the first season debuted in 2000, the show was billed as a test of survival. But, in the 17 years since, the show has evolved, shifting a focus to strategy that is aided by twists in the form of hidden immunity idols and advantages.
Williams said she watched Survivor when its first season aired, but wasn’t able to keep up with it past the first couple seasons. Almost a year ago, everything changed.
In October 2016, Williams was scrolling through her “Other Messages” inbox on Facebook when she stumbled upon a message from a Survivor casting director, telling her she’d be a great fit for the show. “I’m all in,” Williams feverishly responded to Survivor casting. “Just tell me what I have to do to get involved.”
The Hampton University college professor prepared for Survivor as if she was studying for the most important exam she’s ever taken. Williams approached her personal trainer and said, “I can’t tell you why, but I need to be in the best shape of my life.” She added swimming to her workouts and started putting together puzzles every day, readying herself for the physical and mental road blocks in the show’s regular reward and immunity challenges.
Williams binged a season and a half of Survivor the following Monday, beginning with Season 27 (Blood vs. Water) and working her way towards the most recent season, Survivor: Game Changers. As Williams watched the seasons in bulk, she became an obsessive fan of the show (one might even have mistaken her for a super duper fan at the time), not only viewing the episodes in succession, but also reading and listening to post-game analysis in between. She tuned into a popular Survivor podcast called Rob Has A Podcast, in which former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino spends many hours each week breaking down the strategy of the game with various guests.
“He’s so detailed in his dissection of each episode that it made me think about components of the game and strategy that might be happening behind the scenes that, as a casual watcher, I might not have picked out,” Williams said. “I actually do think, and he’ll love to hear this I’m sure, that listening to Rob Has A Podcast was super helpful in mentally preparing me to play the game.”
Williams said the podcast she gained the most from was RHAP’s “Why ____ Lost” with reality television guru David Bloomberg, in which Bloomberg details in a step-by-step process, what the latest Survivor voted out of the game did wrong.
In addition to the endless hours devoted to pre-gaming, the former Miss Virginia said she felt her life experiences had already set her up for success in a game that is based upon social skills and getting others to like you.
“A huge part of pageants is impressing a panel of judges, which is essentially a panel of complete strangers, but you have to prove that through your body language and your reactions to how they’re reacting to you,” Williams said. “So it takes a lot of reading people and I would say the same is true for working as a physical therapist. I have patients as young as eight years old or as old as 98 years old, and so I’ve developed that skill to be able to effectively interact with people of all ages and get them all to buy into essentially what I’m selling in terms of their plan of care.”
This season consists of 18 contestants: six Heroes, six Healers and six Hustlers, separated into tribes based primarily on their occupation and how they conduct themselves in their daily lives. Williams began her adventure stranded on an island with five other Healers: 29-year-old Jessica Johnston, a nurse practitioner; 24-year-old Cole Medders, a wilderness therapy guide; 34-year-old Joe Mena, a probation officer; 27-year-old Roark Luskin, a social worker; and 43-year-old Mike Zahalsky, a urologist.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Josh Wigler sat down with each of the 18 contestants in Fiji days before the start of the game. While there, he asked each one what their first impressions were of the rest of the cast before they were allowed to speak to each other. Former NFL player and member of the Heroes tribe Alan Ball said of Williams, “She’s in shape. She’s in shape.” Ball also added, “She’s fiery, and I can tell she’s fiery.”
Zahalsky said he thought Williams would be the biggest threat in the game, and he wasn’t alone in that sentiment. Ryan Ulrich of the Hustlers tribe said Williams looked like a triple threat: “social, physical, strategic.” Wigler said in a podcast that, after he sat down with Williams, he was so impressed he almost made her his winner pick.
Some pegged Williams as an Olympic athlete, a gymnast or a bodybuilder in Wigler’s Hollywood Reporter profile of her. Williams said she was surprised to see others’ first impressions of her.
“It’s an extremely physically strong cast, and I knew coming in that physically I was strong without a doubt,” Williams said. “But I didn’t think—now I’m listening to podcasts and reading things about what people thought about me pregame—I didn’t think they would perceive me to be quite as intimidating as they did. Just looking around and seeing the 6-foot-4 men and the lifeguards of the group, I didn’t perceive myself to be a physical threat and now that I’m reading interviews, the opposite is true. They immediately pegged me as a physical threat and that shocked me.”
Before host and executive producer Jeff Probst announced the season’s theme, Williams spent much of her time in Ponderosa—a spot in Fiji where the cast is not allowed to talk with one another before the game—trying to discern how she and her castmates would be split.
“That’s all you speculate about for days and days as you look around and see the other players is like how are they going to divide us,” Williams said. “What is this all about?”
Williams’ best guess was a third iteration of Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty, the theme of Seasons 28 and 32. In her bio on CBS.com, Williams compares herself to Tasha Fox, a member of the Brains tribe in the 28th season, Survivor: Cagayan. She found herself to be like Tasha for a similar reason Ulrich pegged Williams to be the “biggest threat.”
Williams said she hoped to emulate her game after Season 29 winner Natalie Anderson. One of eight winners to never have a vote cast against her, Anderson was known for successfully pulling off several blindsides—the fancy word for voting a player out of the game when they least expect it—en route to the million dollars.
When she arrived in Fiji, Williams was ready to dive head first into the game—especially since she spent a ton of time working on her swimming before she flew out to Fiji—but she admitted the initial decision to go on Survivor was a difficult one.
“You’re probably insane if you have no hesitation,” Williams said.
In times of doubt, both before the game and once she started playing on the island, Williams thought of the woman who is the biggest inspiration in her life.
“I can remember one of the last conversations I had with her,” Williams said of her grandmother, who passed away a few years ago. “She just reminded me that day in and day out, all of my successes are not mine and mine alone and there’s always a higher power and a higher being with me. And that was important for me to remind myself of on the island.
“It’s very easy to get caught up in Survivor and forget that there’s still real life beyond the game of Survivor. But knowing that my story’s already written and that I’ve got a higher power looking out for my well-being, and ultimately the outcome of my life, was the biggest reminder that I had of my grandmother out there.”
For more pregame coverage of Desi Williams and the other 17 contestants, check out Josh Wigler’s writing and podcasting at The Hollywood Reporter.
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
Print
Comments
comments |
Austin-based brewery Hops & Grain is adding a fourth caned beer to their mainstay lineup this month with the addition of Greenhouse IPA.The new brew will hit shelves tomorrow.
Fans of the brewery may have noticed that H&G has actually brewed more than 18 different recipes under the moniker Greenhouse IPA over the last two years.Taking its name from the brewery’s 3BBL Greenhouse pilot system, the initial recipe the brewery decided to can will clock in at 7.6% ABV and about 55 IBUs.
“We are very excited to finally release an IPA in a can,” Hops & Grain Owner Josh Hare said in a recent press release. “Our first release will showcase a fairly new hop variety called Mosaic, full of intense grapefruit, earth and just the right amount of dank. We also blended in small amounts of Meridian and Nugget to help add some juiciness.”
In the same vein as Austin Beerworks’ Heavy Machinery IPA series, Greenhouse IPA’s packaging and name will remain consistent, but the hops used in the dry hopping process in the recipe will change every month, meaning there will be 12 different varieties of Greenhouse IPA released this year.
“We’ve been advocates of hops since day one at Hops & Grain and since we have a hard time deciding which one we like the best, we decided to create an IPA series that celebrates the wondrous contributions that different hop varieties provide,” Hare said. “Each release will showcase different hop varieties while maintaining the exact same grain bill, water profile, yeast strain and kettle hop additions. The only change we make for each release is with dry-hopping that is done after fermentation causing each release to be dynamically different in flavor and aroma.”
Since the beer’s packaging will not disclose exactly which hops the beer was dry hopped with, customers will be able to scan the QR code on each can to visit www.hopsandgrain/green-house-ipa, which will provide that wisdom.
Greenhouse IPA will be available in the brewery’s taproom and at select retailers around Austin, with only 300 cases going out. Hops & Grain also has six events scheduled around town to showcase the new brew:
• Thursday, January 16th at 7PM: Banger’s Sausage House & Beer Garden
• Friday, January 17th at 6PM: Draught House Pub & Brewery
• Saturday, January 18th at 7PM: Hopfields
• Thursday, January 23rd at 7PM: Pinthouse Pizza
• Friday, January 24th at 4PM: Craft Pride
• Saturday, January 25th at 6PM: Wright Bros. Brew & Brew
-Caroline |
This article is about the film. For the short story by Daphne du Maurier from which it is adapted and the collection it appears in, see Not After Midnight . For other uses, see Don't Look Now (disambiguation)
Don't Look Now (Italian: A Venezia... un Dicembre rosso shocking) is a 1973 independent film directed by Nicolas Roeg. It is a thriller adapted from the short story by Daphne du Maurier. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland portray a married couple who travel to Venice following the recent accidental death of their daughter, after the husband accepts a commission to restore a church. They encounter two sisters, one of whom claims to be clairvoyant and informs them that their daughter is trying to contact them and warn them of danger. The husband at first dismisses their claims, but starts to experience mysterious sightings himself.
While Don't Look Now observes many conventions of the thriller genre, it focuses on the psychology of grief and the effect the death of a child can have on a relationship. Its depiction of grief has been identified as unusually strong for a film featuring supernatural plot elements.
Don't Look Now is renowned for its innovative editing style and its use of recurring motifs and themes and for a controversial sex scene that was explicit for its time. The film often employs flashbacks and flashforwards in keeping with the depiction of precognition, but some scenes are intercut or merged to alter the viewer's perception of what is really happening. It adopts an impressionist approach to its imagery, often presaging events with familiar objects, patterns and colours using associative editing techniques.
Its reputation has grown in the years since its release and it is now considered a classic and an influential work in horror and British film.
Plot [ edit ]
Sometime after the drowning of their young daughter Christine (Sharon Williams) in an accident at their English country home, John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) and his grief-stricken wife Laura (Julie Christie) take a trip to Venice after John accepts a commission from a bishop (Massimo Serato) to restore an ancient church. Laura encounters two elderly sisters, Heather (Hilary Mason) and Wendy (Clelia Matania), at a restaurant where she and John are dining; Heather claims to be psychic and—despite being blind—informs Laura she is able to "see" the Baxters' deceased daughter. Shaken, Laura returns to her table, where she faints.
Laura is taken to the hospital, where she later tells John what Heather told her. John is sceptical but pleasantly surprised by the positive change in Laura's demeanour. Later in the evening after returning from the hospital, John and Laura have passionate sex. Afterwards, they go out to dinner where they get lost and briefly become separated. John catches a glimpse of what appears to be a small child (Adelina Poerio) wearing a red coat similar to the one Christine was wearing when she died.
The next day, Laura meets with Heather and Wendy, who hold a séance to try to contact Christine. When she returns to the hotel Laura informs John that Christine has said he is in danger and must leave Venice. John loses his temper with Laura, but that night they receive a telephone call informing them that their son (Nicholas Salter) has been injured in an accident at his boarding school. Laura departs for England, while John stays on to complete the restoration. Shortly after, John is nearly killed in an accident at the church when the scaffolding collapses and he interprets this as the "danger" that was foretold by the sisters.
Later that day, and still under the assumption that Laura is in England, John is shocked when he spots her on a passing boat that is part of a funeral cortege, accompanied by the two sisters. Concerned about his wife's mental state and with reports of a serial killer at large in Venice, he reports Laura's disappearance to the police. The inspector (Renato Scarpa) investigating the killings is suspicious of John and has him followed. After conducting a futile search for Laura and the sisters—in which he again sees the childlike figure in the red coat—John contacts his son's school to enquire about his condition, only to discover Laura is already there. After speaking to her to confirm she really is in England, a bewildered John returns to the police station to inform the police he has found his wife. In the meantime the police have brought Heather in for questioning, so an apologetic John offers to escort her back to the hotel.
Shortly after returning, Heather slips into a trance so John makes his excuses and quickly leaves. Upon coming out of it she pleads with her sister to go after John, sensing that something terrible is about to happen, but Wendy is unable to catch up with him. Meanwhile, John catches another glimpse of the mysterious figure in red and this time pursues it. He corners the elusive figure in a deserted palazzo and approaches it, believing it to be a child. Instead, it is revealed to be a hideous female dwarf, and while John is frozen in terror the dwarf pulls out a meat cleaver and cuts his throat. As the life drains from him, John realises too late that the strange sightings he has been experiencing were premonitions of his own murder and funeral.
Analysis [ edit ]
Themes [ edit ]
Don't Look Now ostensibly is an occult thriller,[2] but the genre conventions of the Gothic ghost story primarily serve to explore the minds of a grief-stricken couple. The film's director, Nicolas Roeg, was intrigued by the idea of making "grief into the sole thrust of the film", noting that "Grief can separate people ... Even the closest, healthiest relationship can come undone through grief."[4] The presence of Christine, the Baxters' deceased daughter, weighs heavily on the mood of the film, as she and the nature of her death are constantly recalled through the film's imagery: there are regular flashbacks to Christine playing in her red coat as well as the sightings of the mysterious childlike figure also wearing a red coat which bears a likeness to her; the constant association of water with death is maintained via a serial-killer sub-plot, which sees victims periodically dragged from the canals; there is also a poignant moment when John fishes a child's doll out of a canal just as he did with his daughter's body at the beginning of the film.
Water and the colour red are recurring motifs.
The associative use of recurring motifs, combined with unorthodox editing techniques, foreshadows key events in the film. In Daphne du Maurier's novella it is Laura that wears a red coat, but in the film the colour is used to establish an association between Christine and the elusive figure that John keeps catching glimpses of.[7][9] Du Maurier's story actually opens in Venice following Christine's death from meningitis, but the decision was taken to change the cause of death to drowning and to include a prologue to exploit the water motif.[10] The threat of death from falling is also ever present throughout the film: besides Christine falling into the lake, Laura is taken to hospital after her fall in the restaurant, their son Johnny is injured in a fall at boarding school, the bishop overseeing the church restoration informs John that his father was killed in a fall, and John himself is nearly killed in a fall during the renovations. Glass is frequently used as an omen that something bad is about to occur: just before Christine drowns, John knocks a glass of water over, and Johnny breaks a pane of glass; as Laura faints in the restaurant she knocks glassware off the table, and when John almost falls to his death in the church, a plank of wood shatters a pane of glass; finally, shortly before confronting the mysterious red clad figure, John asks the sisters for a glass of water, a piece of symbolism that prefigured Christine's death.
The plot of the film is preoccupied with misinterpretation and mistaken identity: when John sees Laura on the barge with the sisters, he fails to realise it is a premonition and believes Laura is in Venice with them. John himself is mistaken for a Peeping Tom when he follows Laura to the séance, and ultimately he mistakes the mysterious red-coated figure for a child. The concept of Doppelgänger and duplicates feature prominently in the film: reproductions are a constantly recurring motif ranging from reflections in the water, to photographs, to police sketches and the photographic slides of the church John is restoring. Laura comments in a letter to their son that she can't tell the difference between the restored church windows and the "real thing", and later in the film John attempts to make a seamless match between recently manufactured tiles and the old ones in repairing an ancient mosaic. Roeg describes the basic premise of the story as principally being that in life "nothing is what it seems",[4] and even decided to have Donald Sutherland's character utter the line—a scene which required fifteen takes.
Communication is a theme that runs through much of Nicolas Roeg's work, and figures heavily in Don't Look Now. This is best exemplified by the blind psychic woman, Heather, who communicates with the dead, but it is presented in other ways: the language barriers are purposefully enhanced by the decision to not include subtitles translating the Italian dialogue into English, so the viewer experiences the same confusion as John. Women are presented as better at communicating than men: besides the clairvoyant being female, it is Laura who stays in regular contact with their son, Johnny; when the Baxters receive a phone call informing them of Johnny's accident at the boarding school, the headmaster's inarticulateness in explaining the situation causes his wife to intercept and explain instead.
Much has been made of the fragmented editing of Don't Look Now, and Nicolas Roeg's work in general. Time is presented as 'fluid', where the past, present and future can all exist in the same timeframe.[10] John's premonitions merge with the present, such as at the start of the film where the mysterious red-coated figure is seemingly depicted in one of his photographic slides, and when he 'sees' Laura on the funeral barge with the sisters and mistakenly believes he is seeing the present, but in fact it is a vision of the future. The most famous use of this fragmented approach to time is during the love scene, in which the scenes of John and Laura having sex are intercut with scenes of them dressing afterwards to go out to dinner.[7] After John is attacked by his assailant in the climactic moments, the preceding events depicted during the course of the film are recalled through flashback, which may be perceived as his life flashing before his eyes. At a narrative level the plot of Don't Look Now can be regarded as a self-fulfilling prophecy: it is John's premonitions of his death that set in motion the events leading up to his death. According to the editor of the film, Graeme Clifford, Nicolas Roeg regarded the film as his "exercise in film grammar".[19]
Inspirations [ edit ]
Don't Look Now is particularly indebted to Alfred Hitchcock, exhibiting several characteristics of the director's work.[9] The aural match cut following Christine's death from Laura's scream to the screech of a drill references a cut in The 39 Steps, when a woman's scream cuts to the whistle of a steam train. When John reports Laura's disappearance to the Italian police he inadvertently becomes a suspect in the murder case they are investigating—an innocent man being wrongly accused and pursued by the authorities is a common Hitchcock trait. The film also takes a Hitchcockian approach to its mise en scène, by manifesting its protagonist's psychology in plot developments: in taking their trip to Venice the Baxters have run away from personal tragedy, and are often physically depicted as running to and from things during their stay in Venice; the labyrinthine geography of Venice causes John to lose his bearings, and he often becomes separated from Laura and is repeatedly shown to be looking for her—both physical realisations of what is going on in his head.
Nicolas Roeg had employed the fractured editing style of Don't Look Now on his previous films, Performance and Walkabout, but it was originated by editor Antony Gibbs on Petulia. Roeg served as the cinematographer on Petulia, which incidentally also starred Julie Christie, and Gibbs went on to edit Performance and Walkabout for Roeg.[22] Roeg's use of colour—especially red—can be traced back to earlier work: both Performance and Walkabout feature scenes where the whole screen turns red, similar in nature to the scene during Christine's drowning when the spilt water on the church slide causes a reaction that makes it—along with the whole screen—turn completely red. The mysterious red-coated figure and its association with death has a direct parallel with an earlier film Roeg worked on as cinematographer, The Masque of the Red Death, which depicted a red clad Grim Reaper character.[22] The fleeting glimpses of the mysterious red-coated figure possibly draw on Proust: in Remembrance of Things Past, while in Venice, the narrator catches sight of a red gown in the distance which brings back painful memories of his lost love.[7]
Besides Proust, other possible literary influences include Borges and Nietzsche; Pauline Kael in her review comments that "Roeg comes closer to getting Borges on the screen than those who have tried it directly",[24] while Mark Sanderson in his BFI Modern Classics essay on the film, finds parallels with Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.
Production [ edit ]
Don't Look Now was produced by Peter Katz through London-based Casey Productions and Rome-based Eldorado Films. The script based on the short story by Daphne du Maurier was offered to Nicolas Roeg by scriptwriter Allan Scott, who had co-written the screenplay with Chris Bryant, while Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland were cast in the principal roles. Filming began in England in December 1972, breaking off for Christmas, and resuming in January 1973 for seven more weeks in Italy.
Casting [ edit ]
Don't Look Now was to be Nicolas Roeg's third directorial feature following Performance (1970) and Walkabout (1971). Although real-life couple Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner were suggested for the parts of Laura and John Baxter, Roeg was eager to cast Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland from the very start. Initially engaged by other projects, both actors unexpectedly became available. Christie liked the script and was keen to work with Roeg, who had served as cinematographer on Fahrenheit 451, Far from the Madding Crowd and Petulia in which she had starred. Sutherland also wanted to make the film but had some reservations about the depiction of clairvoyance in the script. He felt it was handled too negatively and believed that Don't Look Now should be a more "educative film", and that the "characters should in some way benefit from ESP and not be destroyed by it". Roeg was resistant to any changes and issued Sutherland an ultimatum.
Roeg wanted Julie Christie to attend a séance prior to filming. Leslie Flint, a direct voice medium based in Notting Hill, invited them to attend a session which he was holding for some American parapsychologists, who were coming over to observe him. Roeg and Christie went along and sat in a circle in the pitch dark and joined hands. Flint instructed his guests to "uncross" their legs, which Roeg subsequently incorporated into the film.
Adelina Poerio was cast as the fleeting red-coated figure after Roeg saw her photo at a casting session in Rome. Standing at only 4'2" tall, she had a career as a singer. Renato Scarpa was cast as Inspector Longhi, despite not being able to speak English and so he had no idea what he was saying in the film.
Filming [ edit ]
The drowning scene and house exteriors were filmed in Hertfordshire at the home of actor David Tree, who also plays the headmaster at the son's boarding school. Shooting the sequence was particularly problematic: Sharon Williams, who played Christine, became hysterical when submersed in the pond, despite the rehearsals at the swimming pool going well. A farmer on the neighbouring land volunteered his daughter who was an accomplished swimmer, but who refused to be submersed when it came to filming. In the end, the scene was filmed in a water tank using three girls. Nicolas Roeg and editor Graeme Clifford showed the opening sequence to some friends before filming resumed on the Venice segment, and Clifford recalls it making a considerable impression.[19]
The Venice locations included the Hotel Gabrielli Sandwirth—the lobby and exteriors standing in for the film's fictional Europa Hotel, although the Baxters' suite was located at the Bauer Grunwald (which better accommodated the cameras)—and the San Nicolò dei Mendicoli (the Church of St. Nicholas of the Beggars), located on the outskirts of Venice. Finding an appropriate church proved difficult: after visiting most of the churches in Venice, the Italian location manager suggested constructing one in a warehouse. The discovery of San Nicolò was particularly fortuitous since it was currently being renovated and the scaffolding was already in place, the circumstances lending themselves well to the plot of the film. Roeg decided not to use traditional tourist locations to purposefully avoid a travel documentary look. Venice turned out to be a difficult place to film in, mainly due to the tides which caused problems with the continuity and transporting equipment.[30]
Filming the scene in which John almost falls to his death while restoring the mosaic in San Nicolò church was also beset by problems, and resulted in Donald Sutherland's life being put in danger. The scene entailed some of the scaffolding collapsing leaving John dangling by a rope, but the stuntman refused to perform the stunt because the insurance was not in order. Sutherland ended up doing it instead, and was attached to a kirby wire as a precaution in case he should fall. Some time after the film had come out, renowned stunt co-ordinator Vic Armstrong commented to Sutherland that the wire was not designed for that purpose, and the twirling around caused by holding on to the rope would have damaged the wire to the extent that it would have snapped if Sutherland had let go.[31]
While many of the changes were due to the logistics of filming in Venice, some were for creative reasons, the most prominent being the inclusion of the famous love scene. The scene was in fact an unscripted last minute improvisation by Roeg, who felt that without it there would be too many scenes of the couple arguing.[4] The scene set in the church where Laura lights a candle for Christine was mostly improvised too. Originally intended to show the gulf between John's and Laura's mental states—John's denial and Laura's inability to let go—the script included two pages of dialogue to illustrate John's unease at Laura's marked display of grief. After a break in filming to allow the crew to set up the equipment, Donald Sutherland returned to the set and commented that he did not like the church, to which Julie Christie retorted that he was being "silly", and the church was "beautiful". Roeg felt that the exchange was more true to life in terms of what the characters would actually say to each other, and that the scripted version was "overwritten", so opted to ditch the scripted dialogue and included the real-life exchange instead.
The funeral scene at the end of the film was also played differently from what was originally intended. Julie Christie was supposed to wear a veil to hide her face, but prior to filming Roeg suggested to Christie that she should play it without the veil and smile throughout the scene. Christie was initially sceptical, but Roeg felt it would not make sense for the character to be heartbroken if she believed her husband and daughter were together in the afterlife.[19]
Scoring [ edit ]
The score was composed by Pino Donaggio, a native Venetian who was a popular singer at the time (he had a hit with "lo Che Non Vivo" which was covered by Dusty Springfield in 1966 as "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"); prior to Don't Look Now, Donaggio had never scored a film. Ugo Mariotti, a producer on the film, spotted Donaggio on a Vaporetto on the Grand Canal in Venice, and believing it to be a "sign" contacted him to see if he would be interested in working on the film. Donaggio was reluctant at first because he did not understand why they would be interested in someone who had no experience of scoring films.
Donaggio had no interest in making soundtracks for films at the time, but was introduced to Nicolas Roeg who decided to try him out and asked him to write something for the beginning of the film. Roeg was enthusiastic about the result but the London-based producers were resistant to hiring someone who had no background in films. The film's financiers were pleased with Donaggio's work and overruled the producers. As well as composing the score, Donaggio performed a substantial portion of it himself. The piano pieces were performed by Donaggio, despite the fact that he was not very accomplished at playing the piano. The piano pieces are usually associated with Christine in the film, and Roeg wanted them to have an innocent sound reminiscent of a little girl learning to play the piano. Donaggio claims that since he was not very good at playing the piano, the pieces had an unsure style to them, perfect for the effect they were trying to capture.
The only disagreement over the musical direction of the film was for the score accompanying the love scene. Donaggio composed a grand orchestral piece, but Roeg thought the effect was overkill, and wanted it toned down. In the end the scene just used a combination of the piano, the flute, an acoustic guitar and an acoustic bass guitar. The piano was played by Donaggio again, who also played the flute; in contrast to his skill as a pianist, Donaggio was a renowned flautist, famous for it at the conservatory. Donaggio conceded that the more low-key theme worked better in the sequence and ditched the high strings orchestral piece, reworking it for the funeral scene at the end of the film.
Donaggio won a 'best soundtrack of the year' award for his work on the film, which gave him the confidence to quit his successful singing career and embark on a career scoring films. Donaggio became a regular composer for Brian De Palma films and credits Nicolas Roeg with giving him his first lesson in writing film scores, and expressed a desire to work with him again.[32]
Release [ edit ]
Sex scene controversy [ edit ]
Sample from the love scene.
Don't Look Now has become famous for a sex scene involving Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, which caused considerable controversy prior to its release in 1973. British tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, observed at the time "one of the frankest love scenes ever to be filmed is likely to plunge lovely Julie Christie into the biggest censorship row since Last Tango in Paris". The scene was unusually graphic for the period, including a rare depiction of cunnilingus in a mainstream film.
Christie commented that "people didn't do scenes like that in those days", and that she found the scenes difficult to film: "There were no available examples, no role models ... I just went blank and Nic [Roeg] shouted instructions." The scene caused problems with censors on both sides of the Atlantic. The American censor advised Nicolas Roeg explicitly, saying, "We cannot see humping. We cannot see the rise and fall between thighs." The scene's much celebrated fragmented style, in which scenes of the couple having sexual intercourse are intercut with scenes of the couple post-coitally getting dressed to go out to dinner, partly came about through Roeg's attempt to accommodate the concerns of the censors: "They scrutinised it and found absolutely nothing they could object to. If someone goes up, you cut and the next time you see them they're in a different position, you obviously fill in the gaps for yourself. But, technically speaking, there was no 'humping' in that scene." In the end, Roeg only cut nine frames from the sequence, and the film was awarded an R rating in the United States. In Britain, the British Board of Film Classification judged the uncut version to be "tasteful and integral to the plot", and a scene in which Donald Sutherland's character can be clearly seen performing oral sex on Christie's character was permitted, but it was still given an X rating—an adults only certificate.[33]
The sex scene remained controversial for some years after the film's release. The BBC cut it altogether when Don't Look Now premiered on UK television, causing a flood of complaints from viewers.[34] The intimacy of the scene led to rumours that Christie and Sutherland had unsimulated sex which have persisted for years, and that outtakes from the scene were doing the rounds in screening rooms.[9][35][36] Michael Deeley, who oversaw the film's UK distribution, claimed on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that Warren Beatty had flown to London and demanded that the sex scene—featuring then girlfriend Julie Christie—be cut from the film.[37] The rumours were seemingly confirmed in 2011 by former Variety editor Peter Bart, who was a Paramount executive at the time. In his book, Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob, (and Sex), Bart says he was on set on the day the scene was filmed and could clearly see Sutherland's penis "moving in and out of" Christie. Bart also reiterated Warren Beatty's discontent, noting that Beatty had contacted him to complain about what he perceived to be Roeg's exploitation of Christie, and insisting that he be allowed to help edit the film.[39] Sutherland subsequently issued a statement through his publicist stating that the claims were not true, and that Bart did not witness the scene being filmed. Peter Katz, the film's producer, corroborated Sutherland's account that the sex was entirely simulated.[40]
Theatrical releases [ edit ]
Don't Look Now—marketed as a "psychic thriller"[41]—was released in London's West End on 16 October 1973.[2] It was released nationwide a few weeks later as the main feature of a double bill;[2] The Wicker Man was its accompanying 'B' feature and—like Don't Look Now—went on to achieve great acclaim.[10] The two films have thematic similarities, and both end with their protagonists being led to preordained fates by a 'child' they believe to be helping.[2]
The film was among the top British titles at the UK box-office in 1974, second only to Confessions of a Window Cleaner, and ranking in the top twenty of the year overall. Michael Deeley, who was managing director of British Lion Films at the time of the film's release, claimed that the film's US reception was hurt by Paramount Pictures rushing the film into cinemas too early, due to the unexpected failure of Jonathan Livingston Seagull; despite its mismanaged distribution, Peter Bart—from his time at Paramount—recalls it performing "fairly well" at the box office. The film had recouped most of its expenses before it was even released, with its $1.1 million budget offset by the fee Paramount paid for the US distribution rights.
Don't Look Now was chosen by the British Film Institute in 2000 as one of eight classic films from those that had begun to deteriorate to undergo restoration.[45] On completion of the restoration in 2001, the film was given another theatrical release.[46]
Home media [ edit ]
Don't Look Now has been released on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. Extras include an introduction by film journalist Alan Jones, an audio commentary by director Nicolas Roeg, a retrospective documentary featurette ("Looking Back"), an extract from a 1980s documentary about Roeg ("Nothing is as it Seems"), and interviews with Donald Sutherland, composer Pino Donaggio ("Death in Venice"), scriptwriter Allan Scott, cinematographer Anthony Richmond and film director Danny Boyle, as well as a "compressed" version of the film made by Boyle for a BAFTA tribute.[47][48][49]
A new DVD and Blu-ray release with a 4K digital restoration was released in 2015 by The Criterion Collection. In addition to the "Death in Venice" and "Looking Back" featurettes which accompanied earlier editions, there is a conversation between editor Graeme Clifford and film writer Bobbie O’Steen, an essay by film critic David Thomson and a Q&A with Roeg at London’s Ciné Lumière from 2003. Two new documentaries are also included: the first documentary, "Something Interesting", features interviews with Anthony Richmond, Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie and Allan Scott about the making of the film; the second, "Nicolas Roeg: The Enigma of Film", features interviews with Danny Boyle and fellow film-maker Steven Soderbergh discussing Roeg's cinematic style.[50]
Reception [ edit ]
Critical response and awards [ edit ]
At the time of its initial release, Don't Look Now was generally well received by critics,[36] although some criticised it for being "arty and mechanical".[35] Jay Cocks for Time, wrote that "Don't Look Now is such a rich, complex and subtle experience that it demands more than one viewing",[51] while Variety commented that the film's visual flourishes made it "much more than merely a well-made psycho-horror thriller".[52] Pauline Kael writing for The New Yorker was more reserved in her praise, considering the film to be "the fanciest, most carefully assembled enigma yet put on the screen" but that there was a "distasteful clamminess about the picture",[24] while Gordon Gow of Films and Filming felt that it fell short of the aspirations of Nicolas Roeg's previous two films, Performance and Walkabout, but it was nevertheless a thriller of some depth. Vincent Canby, reviewer for The New York Times, on the other hand, criticised the film for a lack of suspense which he put down to a twist that comes halfway through rather than at the end, and at which point it "stops being suspenseful and becomes an elegant travelogue that treats us to second-sightseeing in Venice". Canby also suggested that second sight was not convincing on screen, since it appeared simply like flash-forward which is a standard story-telling device in films, and concluded that "Not only do you probably have better things to do, but so, I'm sure, do most of the people connected with the film."[53]
British critics were especially enthusiastic about Nicolas Roeg's direction. In the view of Tom Milne of Monthly Film Bulletin, Roeg's combined work on Performance, Walkabout and Don't Look Now put him "right up at the top as film-maker". George Melly similarly wrote in The Observer that Roeg had joined "that handful of names whose appearance at the end of the credit titles automatically creates a sense of anticipation".[2] Penelope Houston for Sight & Sound also found much to appreciate in Roeg's direction: "Roeg deploys subtle powers of direction and Hitchcockian misdirection." American critics were similarly impressed with Roeg's work on the film. Jay Cocks regarded Don't Look Now to be Roeg's best work by far and that Roeg was one of "those rare talents that can effect a new way of seeing". Cocks also felt that the film was a marked improvement on the novella, noting that a reading "makes one appreciate Roeg and Screenwriters [Allan] Scott and [Chris] Bryant all the more. Film and story share certain basic elements of plot and an ending of cruel surprise. The story is detached, almost cursory. Roeg and his collaborators have constructed an intricate, intense speculation about levels of perception and reality."[51] Roger Ebert in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times commented that Roeg is "a genius at filling his frame with threatening forms and compositions",[41] while Pauline Kael labelled him "chillingly chic" in hers.[24] Even Vincent Canby, whose opinion of the film was negative overall, praised Roeg for being able to "maintain a sense of menace long after the screenplay has any right to expect it".[53]
The use of Venice locations was highly praised.
Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland also received praise for their performances. Variety considered Sutherland to be at his most subdued but also at his most effective, while Christie does her "best work in ages".[52] Cocks felt that thanks to their superb performances the film had a "rigorous psychological truth and an emotional timbre" that most other films in the supernatural genre lacked.[51] Canby considered the "sincerity of the actors" to be one of the better aspects of the film,[53] while Kael found Christie especially suited to the part, observing she has the "anxious face of a modern tragic muse".[54]
Roeg's use of Venice was praised too, with Roger Ebert finding that he "uses Venice as well as she's ever been used in a movie",[41] and Canby also noted Venice is used to great effect: "He gets a great performance from Venice, which is all wintery grays, blues and blacks, the color of the pigeons that are always underfoot."[53] Variety also found much to admire about the editing, writing that it is "careful and painstaking (the classically brilliant and erotic love-making scene is merely one of several examples) and plays a vital role in setting the film's mood".[52]
Daphne du Maurier was pleased with the adaptation of her story, and wrote to Nicolas Roeg to congratulate him for capturing the essence of John and Laura's relationship. The film was not received well by Venetians, particularly the councillors who were afraid it would scare away tourists.[32]
At the 27th British Academy Film Awards, Anthony B. Richmond won for Best Cinematography, and Don't Look Now received further nominations in the Best Film, Direction, Actor, Actress, Sound Track and Film Editing categories.[55] It was also nominated in the Best Motion Picture category at the 1974 Edgar Allan Poe Awards.[56]
The reputation of Don't Look Now has grown since its release and it is now regarded as a key work in horror cinema.[10] It has led to some critics re-evaluating their original opinions of it: Roger Ebert, nearly thirty years after his original review, stated that he had come to an "accommodation" with his reservations about what he termed the "admitted weakness of the denouement". Having gone through the film shot by shot, he came to the conclusion it is a "masterpiece of physical filmmaking, in the way the photography evokes mood and the editing underlines it with uncertainty".[57] It was ranked 127th by Sight & Sound in the 2012 edition of their decennial critics poll.[58]
Don't Look Now is also very well regarded by other industry professionals, placing in the top 100 on Sight & Sound's directors poll, run in tandem with their critics poll.[58] A survey of 1000 people who work across the film and television industry, undertaken by the British Film Institute in 1999, saw the film ranked eighth on their list of top 100 British films of the 20th century.[59] It also topped a similar list organised by Time Out London in 2011, in which 150 film industry professionals were polled.[60] In 2012 Time Out also undertook a poll of the horror industry, in which more than 100 professionals who work within or have connections to the genre selected their favourite horror films, which saw Don't Look Now finish in twelfth position.[61]
Influence [ edit ]
I just thought that it was a beautifully shot, really adult look at real-life horror stories, and there was a great degree of sexuality in it that, as a young kid, when I saw it, I remember I was very startled by. It felt very brave to me, and I think it still holds up. Nick Roeg is a brilliant director. Ryan Murphy on Don't Look Now.[62]
Don't Look Now has been much admired by and an influence on subsequent filmmakers. Danny Boyle cites Nicolas Roeg as a key influence on his work and counts it amongst his favourite films.[63][64] Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, and Jeremy Dyson drew upon Don't Look Now considerably for their television series The League of Gentlemen; Pemberton ranks it among the top three British horror films of the 1960s and 1970s, and says that he wants things he has written to make audiences feel the way he felt when he watched The Wicker Man and Don't Look Now.[65][66][67] Similarly, Ryan Murphy considers his TV series American Horror Story to be a throwback to '60s and '70s psychological horror, citing Don't Look Now, Rosemary's Baby and The Shining as particular examples.[68] Thematic and narrative similarities with Lars von Trier's Antichrist have also been observed,[69] with Antichrist's cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, commenting that he has watched Don't Look Now more times than any other film.[70] Fabrice Du Welz, whose film Vinyan has often been compared to Don't Look Now, has stated that it is a film he is "obsessed with", and one of his favourites,[71] while Lynne Ramsay cited it as an influence on We Need to Talk about Kevin, which incidentally is also produced by Roeg's son, Luc.[72] Ami Canaan Mann has also acknowledged she was influenced by atmospheric thrillers such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Don't Look Now while directing her debut feature, Texas Killing Fields.[73]
Its imagery has been directly referenced in several works. The 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale contains a small homage where James Bond pursues a female character through Venice, catching glimpses of her through the crowds wearing a red dress.[74] The Bruges set thriller, In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell, includes a number of explicit references;[75] director Martin McDonagh said that the "Venice of Don't Look Now" was the template for the depiction of Bruges in his film,[76] and the film includes numerous thematic similarities, including one character stating that the film she is working on is a "pastiche of Don't Look Now". Flatliners, a 1990 supernatural thriller directed by Joel Schumacher, also draws explicitly on the red-coated childlike figure by having a character terrorised by a child wearing a red coat;[77] coincidentally, the character who is being tormented is played by Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland's son. In the 2007 stage play of Don't Look Now, written by Nell Leyshon and directed by Lucy Bailey, the play made a conscious effort to bypass the film and be a faithful adaptation of du Maurier's short story, but it did however retain the iconic red mac from the film as worn by the elusive childlike figure.[78][79]
Its influence is less obvious but still apparent in Out of Sight, a 1998 film directed by Steven Soderbergh. The famous intercutting technique used in the sex scene was used to similar effect in a sex scene featuring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.[9][80] The film's imagery and stylistic techniques have served as an inspiration to films such as Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg,[81] Memento by Christopher Nolan,[84] The Dark by John Fawcett,[85] Frozen by Juliet McKoen,[86] Submarine by Richard Ayoade,[87] and Snow White and the Huntsman by Rupert Sanders.[88] David Cronenberg regards it as the most frightening film he has seen,[89] and its influence has been detected on Cronenberg's The Brood.[90]
Nicolas Roeg has never been slow to draw upon the world of pop music for his work, casting Mick Jagger in Performance, David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth and Art Garfunkel in Bad Timing, and in turn his films have served as inspiration for musicians. Big Audio Dynamite wrote a tribute song to Roeg, called "E=MC2", which included lyrical references to Don't Look Now—among Roeg's other films—along with clips from it in the video, directed by Luc Roeg,[91] while Sophie Ellis-Bextor performed a "pop synth homage" to Don't Look Now with her song, "Catch You",[92] and portions of the film were sampled in the M83 song "America".[93]
References [ edit ] |
Britain is set become the world’s first nation to legally approve “three-person” babies after an historic vote in the House of Commons. Today’s move means that DNA from two women and a man can now be pooled in order to outweigh the odds of an embryo developing mitochondrial disease— where cells unable to generate energy begin closing down altogether—ultimately causing issues including brain damage, muscle wasting, and death.
Fifteen years after it was first proposed, the 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Act is on the cusp of amendment. Members of British parliament (MPs) voted 382-128 in favor of updating the regulation, which could take effect on October 29 if approved by the House of Lords next month.
There are currently two techniques being devised, but the procedure—if and when it gets passed—will share the same key aspect: taking the DNA from the parents and combining it with the healthy mitochondria of a female donor. As the structures are solely passed down to offspring through the maternal line, any faulty material would be replaced by another female donor, replacing 0.1 percent of the embryo’s genes. Though scientists say full validation of the process can only come after it has been trialled on a human, signs are positive that it will be successful in providing a major step forward in reducing the number affected by the disease.
Every day, up to 4,000 children in the US and 6,500 in the UK are born with mitochondrial disease, making this ruling an important step in reducing its prevalence worldwide. While there are currently no laws prohibiting the procedure here, this is the closest it has come to getting officially sanctioned, enabling a medical revolution akin to that of the world’s first test tube baby in 1978.
Legally allowing the genetic modification of embryos has long rendered mitochondrial donation a controversial topic, with dissenters—namely the Church—questioning its safety.
“No other country has allowed this procedure and the international scientific community is not convinced that the procedure is safe and effective,” said Roman Catholic bishop the Right Reverend John Sherrington. “There are also serious ethical objections to this procedure which involves the destruction of human embryos as part of the process.”
“What’s the rush?,” added Reverend Brendan McCarthy, the Church of England’s adviser on medical ethics.
But for mothers like Sharon Bernardi, who lost all seven of her children as a result of mitochondrial disease, these changes to the law cannot come soon enough. “No child should be born with a disease that’s going to cut their life short. I can’t believe anybody from the Church would want that,” she told the BBC.
While critics have also denounced three parent embryos for enabling “designer babies”—where parents are allowed to select its genetic makeup—Bernardi explains that this amendment is not a legal loophole for superficially choosing a child’s physical features, such as eye or hair color. “We’re not playing God,” she said. “This is trying to make children survive.”
This issue of whether this process would constitute as genetic modification was perhaps the most challenging aspect of the debate, with one minister suggesting that society would be “up in arms” should we allow the same process to occur within crop growth. But the claim was dismissed by Public Health Minister Jane Ellison, who likened it to the changing of a battery pack of a cell, emphasizing that this would not lead to parents switching out their unborn babies’ less desirable traits. “These regulations can only be applied to severe mitochondrial diseases. This is not a slippery slope,” she stressed.
“This is a bold step for Parliament to take, but it is a considered and informed step,” she said during the debate. “For the many families affected, this is light at the end of a very dark tunnel.” |
It's not E3 yet, but Microsoft has taken the wraps off of this limited edition "Independent Developers Pack" Xbox One, in Australia of all places. Besides packing download tokens for five ID@Xbox (Hand of Fate, Threes!, #IDARB, The Jackbox Party Pack, and Never Alone) and DLC add-ons for two others (Warframe, Smite beta) it also has the new Xbox One controller with integrated headphone jack that we've been expecting. In Australia, the bundle is priced the same as any other Kinectless XB1 pack, at $499AU. There's no word on a launch for the US or anywhere else, but with the big gaming conference just a couple of weeks away, we should hear more soon.
Update: It looks like Microsoft removed the reference to a new controller from its store page, but we have a picture of the listing as it originally appeared after the break. That detail may not have been intended to leak this early, but we'll check to see if there's any other information. |
Hello and peace be upon you.
I am walking on a spiritual journey, 60 miles across the Iraqi desert, from Najaf to Karbala within 3 days. Along the way I am raising awareness and funds for the orphans and impoverished people of Iraq for the IUS Aid Iraq Appeal.
1/3rd of all Iraqis are living below the poverty line, unable to afford basic food and water.
Furthermore about 13.6 million people, equivalent to the population of London, have been displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and many are without food or shelter as winter is fast approaching.
We are looking to raise enough to support many of these families as the winter sets in. Donations will help to prepare people for winter, forcing it to prioritise help for people at higher, colder altitudes and for more vulnerable cases, such as new born babies.
Please view the attached pictures of young children we will be supporting who lost their fathers at the devastating Speicher Massacre in 2014.
Please help give hope to those who have none.
Text IRAQ71 £5/10 to 70070.
“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” - Mother Teresa
“Do not turn away a poor man…even if all you can give is half a date. If you love the poor and bring them near you…God will bring you near Him on the Day of Resurrection.” - Prophet Muhammad (s)
“You will not attain righteousness till you spend in charity of the things you love.” - Qur’an 3:92 |
Welcome, friendos! The political landscape may have shifted, but TBTL continues, and that means LRB is here to break it down. In your weekly recap, Mike, Meredith, and Ann puzzle over exactly what it means that Andrew’s been meeting “old colleagues” for lunch, reflect on how Carey’s becoming a true Burbank, (although her desire to follow rules and regulations is driving her husband crazy), and dissect Luke’s trolling of the Canadian Border Patrol, which makes Carey, Andrew (and frankly all of us) extremely nervous. Additionally, Luke strives for an advantage in the parking ticket arms race, Andrew doesn’t understand why he can’t find eggnog for purchase in January, and we learn that TBTL has a new supervisor. Welcome, and we hope you’re not listening.
Along with all this week’s hot takes, Meredith shares how her tiny fence experience was a little more than she bargained for, Ann wants a moratorium on the phrase “on the nose,” (unless it refers to Luke’s dermatological issues) and Mike explains the concept of “sheet nipples." Plus, Simpsons Watch is a go, plans for the LRB slanket are being finalized (not really), and we’re busy creating an LRB raffle prize box that’ll give you the true, authentic aroma of Kyle, TX. Oh, and sorry about that whole Putin/Seagal imagery thing... we can’t get it out of our heads, either.
This TBTL Week in Review recaps episodes 2295 (baby glasses, fedoras, pen talk, Uncle Lloyd, Roman Casino, therapy dog, Live Wire, Comedy Cellar, No Point Conversion, Michael Bennett, Aaron Rogers), 2296 (cat behavior and ownership, parking ticket protest robot, parking arms race, Revolutions and Crimetown podcasts, political scandals, Rob Schneider, Luke’s Chewbacca impression), 2297 (Andrew’s “Seattle Day”, dermatology laser stories, chicken fried steak, MxPx, religious songs, smoking weed, Coldplay, John in Arkansas is a weed doctor), 2298 (work wife, inauguration plans, soup dumplings, Canada, eggnoguration, nose laser email, Steven Seagal, repair cafés and fixit coaches, bidets), 2299 (Carey Burbank, inauguration, Canada, Audi, Luke’s tweet, border patrol, one minute of fun, drunk singing). |
Marqise Martin is still on the loose and believed to be armed and dangerous. (Published Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014)
Philadelphia Police are searching for a suspect in a fatal shooting outside a Popeye’s Chicken restaurant who may have also killed the pregnant girlfriend of his alleged accomplice.
Markese Martin, 25, of the 1700 block of W Godfrey Avenue is wanted for the shooting death of 42-year-old Kenneth Woods. On September 23 around 4 p.m., Woods was shot in the chest in the parking lot of the Popeye’s Chicken on the 4200 block of Broad Street.
Woods was taken to Temple Hospital by an unidentified civilian and was pronounced dead at 5:37 p.m.
On Friday, homicide investigators issued a warrant for Martin for the shooting death of Woods. Police also arrested 20-year-old Megan Jones of Blue Bell, Pa. as well as 26-year-old Kord Rozier of the 1300 block of E. Price Street in connection to the shooting. Both Jones and Rozier are charged with murder and other related offenses.
Markese Martin is also considered a person of interest in the murder of Rozier’s pregnant girlfriend Jasmine Williams. On September 24, Williams, 25 and Rozier were on the 1600 block of W Nedro Street when a gunman opened fire. Williams was struck several times. She was taken to Einstein Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 1:03 a.m.
Williams was 8-months-pregnant with Rozier's child at the time of the shooting. Doctors delivered her baby girl but the infant was pronounced dead at 2:16 a.m. Rozier was also struck in the shooting but survived after treatment at Temple University Hospital.
Family members told NBC10 Rozier planned to surrender in connection to the Popeye’s shooting prior to his girlfriend’s death. They believe Rozier was specifically targeted once his alleged accomplice found out he was going to turn himself in to authorities and that Williams was an innocent bystander.
Martin is considered armed and dangerous. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please call the Homicide Fugitive Squad at 215-686-3068, 215-686-3334 or call 911. |
Disgraced theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky has been stripped of his Order of Canada appointment and is going to court to try to get it back.
Drabinsky was released to a Toronto halfway house earlier this month after serving part of his five-year sentence for fraud.
He and business partner Myron Gottlieb were convicted in 2009 for a book-cooking scheme that ultimately resulted in the demise of now-defunct Livent Inc. — the company behind such hits as Phantom of the Opera and Ragtime.
Drabinsky is asking the Federal Court to order the advisory council of the Order of Canada to reverse its decision, which he says was made without properly hearing from him.
In documents filed Tuesday, Drabinsky says he was first informed that the council was considering revoking the honour in June, when he was still in prison, so he couldn’t prepare an adequate response.
Drabinsky says he sent in some preliminary but incomplete submissions and then didn’t hear anything else until Feb. 1, when his lawyers got a letter saying the Governor General had accepted the council’s recommendation to remove Drabinsky from the Order of Canada. |
So many powerful things are happening at once that it gets a little hard to keep track--but that's a good kind of problem to have.
First thing: a huge front page story in the WashPost this a.m. making it completely clear that this has broken through as a first-tier issue, something that seemed impossible until August, when 1253 Americans put their bodies on the line and went to jail. The story isn't perfect--looking for drama, it overstates the enviro vs labor aspect. (Two of the country's most progressive unions, the Transport Workers and Amalgamated Transit, which were immediate #ows supporters, are very strong opponents of the pipeline).
Later in the day, a wonderful editorial in the Baltimore Sun and another in the Nation made it very clear that the message is getting through at every level of the media. Sometimes that takes a few months, but eventually it can happen.
Even better, we're hearing almost endless reports from around the country of groups organizing wherever the president goes to visit. Today it's Ashevile North Carolina, and in the past few days it's been Pittsburgh, Florida--you name it. The president is hearing it at every turn--from former volunteers who are visiting his offices en masse to people who went to jail to say no to Keystone. They reminding him this is an environmental scandal, but also a political one: it's simply wrong that the State Dept. let Transcanada pick the company to review its project, and that the company they picked is a major client. Ugh. But people are noticing--that's why Bernie Sanders wrote a powerful letter, and 33 House members added one of their own.
The bottom line: we've got serious momentum. And now we're headed back to Washington. This time not to get arrested. This time to tell the president that he's really got to do the right thing. On Nov. 6, one year before the election, we're circling the White House in people. No attacks--just quotes from the 2008 election. "Time to end the tyranny of oil." "On my watch the rise of the oceans will begin to slow and the planet begin to heal." "I'll have the most transparent government in history." We need to see if that 2008 Obama is still in there somewhere--since on this issue, without Congress in the way, he can do the right thing.
Please tell everyone you know about November 6. The link for signing up is here at tarsandsaction.org. And so many thanks to so many who are do much this glorious fall! |
Rather than keep the theme for the next season of American Horror Story under lock and key, Ryan Murphy has decided to gift his fans with a belated Valentine’s Day treat. Appearing on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Wednesday, the showrunner revealed that the next installment of the outlandish horror series will cover the 2016 election. Yes, really. Will Donald Trump appear as a character? “Maybe,” Murphy demurs.
At the Television Critics Association winter press tour last month, FX chief John Landgraf promised that Murphy had hit on “yet another really innovative idea. There’s a marketing and promotional hook around that.” Was he referring to the first 100 days of the Trump presidency? Has this been one long viral marketing ploy?
Speaking to host Andy Cohen, Murphy explained: “I don’t have a title, but the season that we begin shooting in June is going to be about the election that we just went through. I think that will be interesting for a lot of people.” Now the big question for die-hard fans is who Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson—the only two cast members confirmed to return—will be playing.
It’s possible Murphy was forced to tip his hand earlier than he wanted to due to the news Tuesday that filmmaker Mark Boal and producer Megan Ellison are also collaborating on an upcoming 8-to-10 hour “political drama” focusing on the 2016 election. If he had kept the Season 7 theme a secret much longer, Murphy ran the risk of looking like he was copying the Zero Dark Thirty collaborators—though suffice it to say, his approach will be very different in tone.
This will not, thank goodness, also be the American Horror Story season that sees the return of various Murder House and Coven characters for a big crossover event. “It’s not going to be next season,” Murphy said of the planned reunion last fall. “But we are going to do a season that’s a crossover between Murder House and Coven together, which is very bizarre.” Adding Trump to that already bizarre Horror Story stew? Now that would be a twist too far.
It’s interesting that Murphy would choose to focus on the Hillary Clinton/Trump dust-up when he’s already set to put a fictional Clinton under his lens for American Crime Story Season 4, which will, reportedly, focus on the late 90s Monica Lewinsky scandal. Memes about American Horror Story: Trump have already been floating around the Internet ever since an episode of Season 6 coincided with one of the Clinton/Trump debates last fall.
It’s unclear yet whether Season 7 will be a literal depiction of the election, or something more symbolically and tangentially related. Murphy already explored how social media and reality TV fame can lead to dire circumstances in Season 6. Is that big Trump metaphor about to get very literal? Back in October—when Trump was still something of an underdog—Murphy did promise “You’ll really see it after this season. We lay a lot of pipe, and you’ll see it explode in Seasons 7 and 8.” Did he already have this plan in mind way back then?
If so, that has to be called a wise move on Murphy’s part. Whatever misgivings people may have about American Horror Story tackling something as realistically and explosively divisive as the 2016 election, there’s no denying that any show—be it Stephen Colbert’s or Saturday Night Live—directly tackling Trump has seen a bump in ratings. In other words, seven seasons in, American Horror Story may be headed toward its most popular run yet.
Get Vanity Fair’s HWD Newsletter Sign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood. E-mail Address Subscribe |
Well the liberals may have the better economic argument, but you can be sure the conservatives have their moral arguments straight. Take the babies issue, for example. Every life is precious because it is a potential worker!
Is that an unfair way to characterize the conservative opinion about babies? You be the judge. I won’t try to oversimplify the argument, except yes I will: “Other people should have babies so we have lots of worker bees. If we don’t make enough worker bees, who will support us when we are old and selfish? The choice of not making baby workers is some kind of decadence.” What is wrong with this argument? You mean besides EVERYTHING?
This idea to view childbearing in such utilitarian terms is not what you expect from a morality-based value system, but here it is, as naked as a newborn. But even at that, it has the cost/benefit equation backwards. The expanding population of the planet is still ‘hard at work’ at its familiar pattern of Wrecking the Place. This time it’s the climate. Drill, baby drill. Burn, baby burn. Hey Ross! You forgot to mention climate! Last I checked, which was today, we were filling our skies with carbon dioxide, over-filling our oceans with acidified water, and mowing down our carbon-storing forests to fill the needs of your ponzi scheme of ever-more workers. Still more of them just might have some additional negative impact there! Or maybe you forgot on purpose. Who knows. The important consideration of families is more workers. You should grow a mustache to twirl as you explain this to us. Waxed mustaches could be a conservative moral value too! Yes, more workers, right at the exact cusp of the ROBOT revolution that will give human workers exactly nothing to do.
Lazy thinking. Decadent, I say! |
Recent debates about whether people should be allowed to make their own changes to the bitcoin protocol have highlighted an important notion: perhaps developing Bitcoin Core, the reference version of the code, isn’t the only way for people to contribute.
A recent alteration to the bitcoin code that made its way into a Linux variant called Gentoo left some people fuming before the developer switched it off by default.
“These will never be merged into the bitcoin repository on Github, but people that want to use them can,” bitcoin lead developer Wladimir J van der Laan said.
But what is Github, why does van der Laan have the authority to choose what goes in it, and how does bitcoin get developed in the first place?
How bitcoin is developed
The reference implementation for bitcoin protocol is called the Bitcoin Core. This is the code that Satoshi originally handed down to a core group of developers before disappearing.
Those “disciples” now maintain that code, along with the help of a broader community of developers. The focus is on making the code more efficient, but doing it carefully, and conservatively, so that nothing gets broken.
Bitcoin Core is managed using a software version control system called Git. This enables people to keep track of which versions of their code they are working on, and what changes they have made.
Bitcoin developers running Git on their computers connect to a central service so that they can all work on versions the same project at once. This service, called Github, has many different projects maintained by different groups of people. Bitcoin is one of those projects and it has its own Github page.
The code for the project is held in a single place on Github, called a repository. The official, deployable version of the bitcoin repository is known as the upstream repository, but people who want to work on their own changes to the code can create their own versions of the repository, by copying it into an online ‘fork’.
Developers can modify their forks as much as they like. They can ask for their fork to be merged back into the master repository by issuing a ‘pull request’, which opens up their version of the repository to other project members, who can review it and comment on it.
“The idea is that other developers in the community will review the change,” explained van der Laan. “Then, the submitter fixes the issues brought up by others. It may also be needed to rally some people to test the change, especially if it is complicated, or if there is a subjective component (ie, for UI or RPC changes).”
If enough people like the changes made in a pull request, then it gets merged back into the master repository. But who actually gets to merge the pull?
It turns out that there is a bitcoin priesthood, of sorts, that stewards what finally makes it into the Bitcoin Core code. Van der Laan, chief scientist and former lead developer Gavin Andresen, Jeff Garzik, Gregory Maxwell, and Pieter Wuille are the team who make the final decision, and that isn’t something that’s decided by voting, as you might find in a democracy.
“Single Github repositories are not democratic,” van der Laan explained. “Its maintainers cooperate on development and decide what is merged and when, and what is not. Difficult technical issues are not solved by popular voting.”
BIPS and pull requests
Where possible, though, bitcoin development typically operates via popular consensus. There are two categories of change, broadly speaking.
The Bitcoin Core is maintained in an intentionally conservative way, and most changes are made in a “non-controversial and janitorial” way, van der Laan said. They deal with small, incremental changes, rather than large, revolutionary ones. A bitcoin patch might move some code around to make it more readable, or perhaps optimise some memory usage.
There is another class of changes to bitcoin that have far more ramifications, and those are ones that change the consensus rules. The consensus rules are the technical rules that all bitcoin clients must adhere to for the bitcoin network to operate properly.
“Those have to be scrutinized closely. They have to be discussed on the mailing list first, and there must be a BIP, and the pulls are generally controversial and stay open for a long time to discuss,” he said.
A BIP – short for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal – is a document suggesting a global change to some aspect of bitcoin. It can extend to things outside Bitcoin Core, including mobile wallets or key generation in hardware wallets. It can also govern processes around bitcoin, like changes to the decision making process.
Anyone can create a BIP, as long as they’re written in this format. The community talks about it, and if people like it, its status can be changed to “active” or “final”.
Changes along these lines are the change in BIP 62, which was a change dealing with the transaction malleability flaw in bitcoin.
What improves the chance of a proposed change being implemented in the protocol? It helps for the author of a BIP to have written an example of the code for people to test out and review, van der Laan added.
Review and approval
Bitcoin consultant and security auditor Sergio Lerner would like to see more formalisation for the code approval process.
“When you see a pull request that has been merged, it’s difficult to tell who approved it [and to] what extent the patch was reviewed,” he said. “You have to read a lot of comments and some ‘+1′ which you can interpret as ‘I agree to merge it’, but you can also interpret it as ‘I like it, but I haven’t really reviewed the code.’”
Lerner would like to see a multi-signature patch approval process, in which a certain proportion of developers formally approve the code by signing off the review. That would be a bigger version of the process currently used in some wallets, where multiple signatures have to be used for a bitcoin address to be used.
Other things Lerner would like to see include a log of bugs found and an analysis of why they were not caught on time, a per-patch, security-focused external code review, a formal description of documentation that should accompany a patch and a description of what reviewing a patch actually means.
“Does it mean a line by line source code review? Does it mean checking if the documentation of the change is enough?” Lerner asked. “Does it mean analysing the change against known attack vectors?”
The problem is that this all takes time and human resources, Lerner said:
“Obviously implementing all this requires more housekeeping, a higher budget, and more core developer resources (which currently are scarce). But a software that maintains an industry of $6bn requires it.”
Beyond Bitcoin Core
While Lerner outlines some requirements for code reviews, van der Laan echoes Gavin Andresen’s keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2014 conference, where he said that more could be done to streamline BIP approval.
“The BIP process could use some work. I would be happy if developers of other (full) node implementations were more active in commenting on proposals (or coming up with proposals),” he said.
Andresen also proposes moving BIP discussion and other cross-implementation concerns from the general bitcoin-development mailing list to a specific BIP mailing list.
Just as with software development on an open source project, the onus is always on users to make it happen.
“As it is inherently a global, distributed, disorganized process it’s no single organization’s job to manage the BIP process, so the onus would be here on people and organizations that care to band together and do something,” van der Laan suggested.
But shouldn’t the Bitcoin Foundation, bitcoin’s chief trade organisation, be looking after such things? No, he argues. Instead, things in the bitcoin world are expanding beyond that, and the development team welcomes different implementations of bitcoin.
Van der Laan said:
“Gavin’s talk at Bitcoin 2014 made it clear that his focus is on diversifying. He talked about different full node implementation, even said ‘more is better’. Even though maintaining Bitcoin Core is my job, I tend to agree with that.”
The onus should no longer be on the development of Bitcoin Core, van der Laan believes.
“In the initial years Bitcoin Core was maybe excessively important, and its developers had to keep the light on for the node infrastructure (and stay up at night to patch bugs as they appear). But, moving forward, for bitcoin to be the global distributed system it was supposed to be, we should move beyond that.”
So, there may be a benevolent priesthood for Bitcoin Core, in the sense that the final decision about what goes into the the code rests with a small group of people. But that doesn’t mean that this group wants things to be exclusive or elitist – far from it.
At least some of the core developers are actively encouraging others to expand the network with their own implementations, on the assumption that the majority of them will stick with the consensus rules. Those that don’t will fall out of sync, making it obvious who is in the minority and forcing them to fix it.
Evolving bitcoin in that direction could create room for the kinds of policy variances that some people have been asking for, while preserving the consensus rules: the parts that truly make bitcoin what it is. It would also ease the pressure on an overburdened set of people trying to support the technology underpinning a quickly growing business. And, done correctly, it might introduce some of the new processes that participants like Lerner are asking for.
The question is: how will bitcoin evolve such a variety of alternative implementations cleanly, efficiently and without any associated drama?
Diversify image via Shutterstock |
Absalom Jones (November 7, 1746 – February 13, 1818) was an African-American abolitionist and clergyman who became prominent in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Disappointed at racial discrimination in a local Methodist church, with Richard Allen, he founded the Free African Society, a mutual aid society for African Americans in the city. These included people newly freed from slavery after the American Revolutionary War.
In 1794 Jones founded the first black Episcopal congregation, and in 1802[1], he was the first African American to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States. He is listed on the Episcopal calendar of saints. He is remembered liturgically on the date of his death, February 13, in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer as "Absalom Jones, Priest, 1818".
Early life [ edit ]
Absalom Jones was born into slavery in Sussex County, Delaware, in 1746. When he was sixteen, his owner sold him along with his mother and siblings to a neighboring farmer. That year the farmer kept Absalom, but sold his mother and siblings, and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he became a merchant. Absalom was allowed to attend a school and learned to read and write. While still enslaved by Mr. Wynkoop (who was a vestryman of Christ Church and later St. Peter's), Absalom married Mary King (an enslaved woman owned by S. King, a neighbor to the Wynkoops),[2] on January 4, 1770. Rev. Jacob Duché performed the wedding ceremony.
By 1778 Absalom had purchased his wife's freedom so that their children would be free; he asked for aid by donations and loans. (According to colonial law, children took the status of their mother, so children born to slave women were born enslaved.) Absalom also wrote to his master seeking his own freedom, but was initially denied. In 1784, however, Wynkoop manumitted him, possibly inspired by revolutionary ideals. Absalom took the surname "Jones" as an indication of his American identity.[2][3]
Methodist Church [ edit ]
Around 1780, a Methodist movement was sweeping through the colonies as part of the Second Great Awakening. It came at a time of revolutionary ferment in the closing period of the American Revolutionary War. The movement was especially popular in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Methodists had developed in Great Britain as evangelicals within the Church of England. In December 1784, Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury established the Methodist Episcopal Church as a new denomination, separate from the Church of England.[4]
Ministerial career [ edit ]
Pennsylvania abolished slavery and became a free state in the new United States. Jones became a lay minister of the interracial congregation of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. The Methodist church admitted persons of all races and allowed African Americans to preach. Together with Richard Allen, Jones was one of the first African Americans licensed to preach by the Methodist Episcopal Church.
But members of the church still practiced racial discrimination. In 1792, while at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church[5][6], Absalom Jones and other black members were told that they could not join the rest of the congregation in seating and kneeling on the first floor and instead had to be segregated first sitting against the wall and then in the gallery or balcony. After completing their prayer, Jones and most of the church's black members got up and walked out.[7]
Jones and Allen founded the Free African Society (FAS), first conceived as a non-denominational mutual aid society, to help newly freed slaves in Philadelphia. Jones and Allen later separated, as their religious lives took different directions after 1794 as discussed below. They remained lifelong friends and collaborators.[8]
As 1791 began, Jones started holding religious services at FAS, which the following year became the core of his African Church in Philadelphia. Jones wanted to establish a black congregation independent of white control, while remaining part of the Episcopal Church. After a successful petition, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the first black church in Philadelphia, opened its doors on July 17, 1794.[8] Jones was ordained as a deacon in 1795 and as a priest in 1802, became the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church.[8]
A month after St. Thomas church opened, the Founders and Trustees published "The Causes and Motives for Establishing St. Thomas's African Church of Philadelphia," saying their intent was
to arise out of the dust and shake ourselves, and throw off that servile fear, that the habit of oppression and bondage trained us up in.[9]
Famous for his oratory, Jones helped establish the tradition of anti-slavery sermons on New Year's Day. His sermon for January 1, 1808, the date on which the U.S. Constitution mandated the end of the African slave trade, was called "A Thanksgiving Sermon" and published in pamphlet form. It became famous.[10] Rumors persisted that Jones had supernatural abilities to influence the minds of assembled congregations. White observers failed to recognize his oratory skills, perhaps because they believed rhetoric to be beyond the capabilities of black people. Numerous other African-American leaders were similarly said to have supernatural abilities.[9]
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 [ edit ]
In 1775, the state of North Carolina had made it illegal to free slaves unless approved by a county court, a provision largely ignored by members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). They not only continued to free their own slaves, but in some cases bought slaves from other men in order to free them. In 1788 the North Carolina legislature passed a law allowing the capture and sale of any former slave who had been freed without court approval, with twenty percent of the sale price going as reward to the person who reported the illegal manumission. Many freed African Americans fled the state to avoid being captured and sold back into slavery.
After becoming the first black and freedman to be ordained as a priest, and as the Constitution's deadline for abolition of the slave trade passed, Jones took part in the first group of African Americans to petition the U.S. Congress. Their petition related to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which they criticized for encouraging cruelty and brutality, as well as supporting the continuing criminal practice of kidnapping free blacks and selling them into slavery. Jones drafted a petition on behalf of four freed slaves and asked Congress to adopt "some remedy for an evil of such magnitude."[11]
The petition was presented on 30 January 1797 by U.S. Representative John Swanwick of Pennsylvania. Jones used moral suasion: trying to convince whites that slavery was immoral, offensive to God, and contrary to the nation's ideal.[12] Although U.S. Representative George Thatcher of Massachusetts argued that the petition should be accepted and referred to the Committee on the Fugitive Law, but the House of Representatives declined to accept the petition by a vote of 50 to 33.[11] Jones submitted a similar petition two years later, which was also declined.
African Methodist Episcopal Church [ edit ]
On a parallel path, Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent black church within the Methodist tradition. He and his followers converted a building and opened on July 29, 1794, as Bethel AME Church. In 1799, Allen was ordained as the first black minister in the Methodist Church by Bishop Francis Asbury. In 1816, Allen gathered other black congregations in the region to create a new and fully independent denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1816, Allen was elected as the AME's first bishop.
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 [ edit ]
Yellow fever repeatedly struck Philadelphia and other coastal cities in the 1790s, until sanitary improvements advocated by Dr. Benjamin Rush were adopted and completed. In the meantime, Allen and Jones assisted Rush in helping people afflicted by the plague, for black people initially were rumored to be immune. Many whites (including most doctors except for Rush and his assistants, some of whom died) fled the city hoping to escape infection. Allen and Jones' corps of black Philadelphians helped nurse the sick, as well as bury the dead. Jones in particular sometimes worked through the night. However, Rush's reliance on bleeding and purging as a medical treatment proved misplaced.
When Mathew Carey published a popular pamphlet accusing Blacks of profiting from nursing sick White citizens, Jones and Allen published a protest pamphlet in response. They described sacrifices that they and members of the Free African Society made for the health of the city. Philadelphia Mayor Matthew Clarkson, who had called upon them for help, publicly recognized that Jones and Allen acted upon their desires to improve the entire community. Jones' responses to the overall crisis strengthened ties between free Blacks and many progressive whites, aiding him later on when he established St. Thomas' Episcopal Church.[13] Almost twenty times more black people helped the plague-struck than did whites, which later proved crucial in helping St. Thomas Church to gain social acceptance.[14]
Death and legacy [ edit ]
Jones died on February 13, 1818, in Philadelphia.
On November 10, 1996, his remains were reinterred in a chapel of his church, St. Thomas African Episcopal Church (now located in Philadelphia's Overbrook Farms neighborhood). The chapel is named in his honor, as is the church's rectory. [15]
The national Episcopal Church remembers his life and service annually on the anniversary of his death, February 13.
The Diocese of Pennsylvania honors his memory with an annual celebration and award.[16]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ] |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video
RICHMOND, Va. -- A group of girls on the VCU lacrosse team are making sure their doors and windows are locked, after a man broke into their house early Tuesday morning.
Nicole Morris' roommate lay fast asleep in her bed in Jackson Ward Tuesday when around 3:30 a.m. her cat Kahlua woke up.
"Her cat was puffed up and ready to fight, and she rolled over and opened her eyes for a split second and saw the man in her doorway, and she obviously was terrified," Morris said.
Morris said the man did not heed the message of a Halloween decoration left hanging on the wall that read "Beware."
Instead, he hid behind the wall, but her roommate could still see the man's shadow, so she stood up and yelled at him.
"Said, who are you? Why are you here? Get out of our house, and he slowly backed away to the door. He didn't bolt," Morris said.
Morris said the man then left without taking anything, and her roommate ran to alert everyone in the house about what happened.
"That's like one of my worst fears is waking up and finding someone who you have zero idea who it is in your own doorway or your room," Morris said.
Morris said the roommates believe the man entered the house through an unlocked door in the back of the house.
It's a mistake Morris said the roommates plan to make sure doesn't happen again.
But, one blessing they will be keeping around: their guard cat.
"Do you feel like she saved the day?" CBS 6 Problem Solver Melissa Hipolit asked.
"Oh yeah for sure because... I don't think she would have woken up if Kahlua hadn't alarmed her," Morris said.
The male suspect is described as a man who appears to be in his 30s, last seen wearing a black hat, black hoodie, and white shoes. He has not been caught.
Police are reminding folks to lock their windows and doors even when they're home.
VCU Police offered the following safety advice to students:
Always lock all windows and doors even when home.
Never hide a key to your home outside. Burglars often know all the hiding places.
Good lighting is a deterrent to crime and allows residents to see the pathway from their vehicle to their home. All entry doors should be equipped with lighting.
Motion lighting is a good option in areas that may be intrusive to neighbors.
If you are going out of town, make arrangements to have mail picked up daily or have the post office suspend mail deliveries.
Reflective house or street numbers clearly visible on your home can save valuable time and assist first responders locate your home.
When going out of town, and if you live in the City of Richmond off campus, notify the city to be placed on the vacation watch list.
Keep shades or curtains drawn after dark.
“Case” your residence the way an intruder would and look for ways to enter your residence.
Install deadbolt locks on exterior doors.
Trim trees and shrubs near windows and doors so intruders can’t hide in the shadows.
Look out for your neighbors; immediately report suspicious people and activity to police. |
Yes, Mr. Money Mustache has health insurance. No, he doesn’t deprive himself. And yes, he says, you can retire early too. (istockphoto)
You might remember Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30. No, he hadn’t won Powerball or lucked into a big inheritance. He and his wife simply socked away more than half the money they made from middle-income jobs until they had an ample nest egg. Then they retired and had a son. Today they live a good and happy life on about $25,000 a year. We had a chat a few weeks back, and hoo-boy, did the Internet ever light up. Many, many people were eager to know more. Some balked. Not possible! they said. Or, quit judging us! The most common response: What about health insurance? So I circled back with Pete (just Pete, for the sake of his family’s privacy) to get a few more answers. They’ve been edited for length and clarity.
What about health insurance?
We’ve got it. At $237 a month for the family for a standard high-deductible United plan, it’s not as expensive as most people assume. I also got quotes for higher ages (we’re 38 at the moment) and found that the premiums did not increase drastically for older people.
While the situation is still not ideal because we overpay for health care in general, I like to promote the idea that it is not scary to purchase your own insurance these days. Many of my entrepreneur friends are in the same boat. In fact, I have heard from many readers who were able to opt out of a small employer-sponsored program and find a better one on the open market, pocketing the difference.
1 of 9 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × 9 tips to retire early, from a person who did it at 30 View Photos Waste not. That’s the big message from a Colorado blogger known to hundreds of thousands of devotees as Mr. Money Mustache. Even if you have no intention of retiring soon, here are nine suggestions for how you can gain control of your finances, from someone whose family lives comfortably on around $37,000 a year. Caption Waste not. That’s the big message from a Colorado blogger known to hundreds of thousands of devotees as Mr. Money Mustache. Even if you have no intention of retiring soon, here are nine suggestions for how you can gain control of your finances, from someone whose family lives comfortably on around $37,000 a year. 1. Drive an old car or bike to work if you can Mr. Money Mustache (his real name is Pete) recommends trying to live as close to work as you can. You won’t ever get that commuting time back. And don’t borrow money to buy a car. Linda Davidson/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
But your insurance plan has a $10,000 deductible! What do you do if someone gets really sick?
When you have early-retirement-level savings (say, $1 million), taking a $10,000 hit is only 1 percent of your wealth. You could do it year after year, for over 30 years, and you’d still have $700,000 sitting around. In my mind, that is still more secure than the typical situation of having a job, spending most of what you earn and having lower-deductible health insurance. Meanwhile, as a saver hit with unexpected bills, you could decide to go out and earn more money, or scale down your lifestyle by moving to a less expensive house or even move to another country where health care is much cheaper.
What about a college education for your kid(s)? You could never pay for that on $25,000 a year!
This comes down to the savings issue again. People often read these interviews and fixate on the fact that we only spend $25,000 per year. But we actually earn more than that in retirement income. Even if we didn’t, as an early retiree you have a heap of invested money that you can cash out and use for anything you like.
Teaching your kids how to live efficiently, choose the right university and earn money on their own will really help, too, since the same education can vary in cost by a factor of 10, depending on how you go about getting it.
I also hope to teach my son how to start a small business in high school so he feels in control of his own earnings from early in life. Thanks to the Internet, it is drastically easier for a young person to do something like software development or selling things online. As a side benefit, being an entrepreneur ends up being more educational than the formal education itself.
You’re a prosperity anomaly: You made money in the stock market and the housing market. That’s all luck.
Unfortunately, we have no unusual luck or investing prowess. By owning mostly index funds, we’ve matched the market’s appreciation and dividend yield for those stock holdings, which were built up mostly since 2000. Measured from peak to peak, this hasn’t been a great time for stock appreciation. But stocks are still reliable wealth generators over the longer term, and they provide annual dividends that are not counted in that headline index price.
I did make some money on my first house, but that was mostly due to renovating it using my own weekends. To balance this out, shortly after retiring I lost a bunch by starting a small house-building company one year before the housing crash.
The real “secret” of how my wife and I saved our first $800,000 over nine years of work was simply living on about 35 percent of our take-home pay. Saving at that rate added up to financial independence in nine years. The bottom line is if you can live on 50 percent of your income and invest the difference, you will be wealthy enough to retire in 17 years. Saving more gets you there even faster. No magic or unusual luck required.
But I don’t want to be frugal — I want to live and travel and . . . !!
First of all, this family is not all that frugal. We lead a pretty spendy life these days, live in a luxury house in a good neighborhood and travel at least three months of the year. I’m ashamed to admit that I probably own almost as much fancy stuff as you do. And if we wanted to spend even more, we would. But by focusing on happiness instead of shopping, and working to make the spending we do more efficient, the annual total just ends up being lower.
I’m way too late for early retirement. What approach can a late starter like me take?
Exactly the same approach as an early starter! Spend less than you earn. The math here is equal opportunity: It does not care how old you are. Older people often have the advantage of higher salaries or things they can sell to get a head start. But even if you don’t have any of that, you still have your wisdom. And there is nothing to lose and everything to gain from starting now to improve your financial situation. |
With the third season of the Pakistan Super League to be played with an additional sixth team, the other five franchises were told by the PCB to retain 10 players - two each from the platinum, gold and diamond categories, three from silver and one emerging cricketer - and release the rest into a draft. The Multan Sultans will select nine men from this set and submit it to the PCB on October 10. The other teams have announced the players they have retained and will get the opportunity to fill out the rest of their squad when the PSL draft happens later this month.
Lahore Qalandars
Retained: Sunil Narine (Platinum), Umar Akmal (Platinum), Brendon McCullum (Diamond & mentor), Fakhar Zaman (Diamond), Yasir Shah (Gold), Sohail Khan (Gold), Cameron Delport (Silver), Aamir Yamin (Silver), Bilawal Bhatti (Silver)
Released: Azhar Ali, Jason Roy, Chris Green, Sohail Tanvir, Zafar Gohar, Ghulam Mudassar, James Franklin, Grant Elliott, Usman Qadir, Dwayne Bravo
Trade: Brought in Sohail Khan from Karachi Kings in exchange for Mohammad Rizwan
Islamabad United
Retained: Andre Russell (Platinum), Misbah-ul-Haq (Platinum), Samuel Badree (Diamond), Mohammad Sami, (Diamond), Rumman Raees (Gold & ambassador), Shadab Khan (Gold), Iftikhar Ahmed (Silver), Amad Butt (Silver), Asif Ali (Silver)
Released: Sam Billings, Ben Duckett, Brad Haddin, Steven Finn, Mohammad Irfan, Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Saeed Ajmal, Shane Watson, Zohaib Khan, Dwayne Smith, Rafatullah
Trade: Brought in Iftikhar Ahmed from Peshawar in exchange for their supplementary pick in second round of draft.
Karachi Kings
Retained: Shahid Afridi (Platinum), Mohammad Amir (Platinum), Imad Wasim (Diamond), Babar Azam (Diamond), Mohammad Rizwan (Gold), Ravi Bopara (Gold), Usman Shinwari (Silver), Usama Mir (Silver), Khurram Manzoor (Silver)
Released: Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Gayle, Rahat Ali, Ryan McLaren, Kashif Bhatti, Shahzaib Hasan, Kieron Pollard, Mahela Jayawardena, Shoaib Malik
Trade: Brought in Mohammad Rizawan in exchange for Sohail Khan. Brought in Shahid Afridi in exchange for one of their gold and two of their silver picks in player draft.
Kieron Pollard, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle and Daniel Vettori indulge in a game of beach cricket WICB
Quetta Gladiators
Retained: Sarfraz Ahmed (Platinum), Kevin Pietersen (Platinum), Rilee Rossouw (Diamond), Mahmudullah (Diamond), Asad Shafiq (Gold), Mohammad Nawaz (Gold), Anwar Ali (Silver), Mir Hamza (Silver), Umer Amin (Silver)
Released: Rovman Powell, Ahmed Shahzad, Nathan McCullum, Tymal Mills, Thisara Perera, Saad Nasim, Umar Gul, Zulfiqar Babar, Luke Wright, Moeen Ali, Carlos Brathwaite, Brad Hodge, Bismillah Khan, Sean Ervine, Rayad Emrit, Anamul Haque, Elton Chigumbura, David Willey, Noor Wali, Morne van Wyk, Mohammad Nabi
Peshawar Zalmi
Retained: Mohammad Hafeez (Platinum), Wahab Riaz (Platinum), Shakib al Hasan (Diamond), Kamran Akmal (Diamond), Darren Sammy (Gold & player/coach), Hasan Ali (Gold), Haris Sohail (Silver), Chris Jordan (Silver), Mohammad Asghar (Silver)
Released: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Andre Fletcher, Imran Khan, Junaid Khan, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Marlon Samuels, Tamim Iqbal, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahzad Muhammad, Umair Masood, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Shahzad
Trade: Accepted Islamabad's right to a supplementary pick in second round in exchange for Iftikhar Ahmed. And by giving up Shahid Afridi, Peshawar take from Karachi's quota one gold and two silver picks at the draft
Multan Sultans
Playing their first season, new franchise Multan Sultans had no players to retain or release, and instead chose their first nine picks from the expansion draft.
Shoaib Malik (Platinum), Kieron Pollard (Platinum), Kumar Sangakarra (Diamond & Mentor), Sohail Tanvir (Diamond), Mohammad Irfan (Gold & Ambassador), Junaid Khan (Gold), Sohaib Maqsood (Silver), Kashif Bhatti (Silver), Irfan Khan (Silver) |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.