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YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) – The remains of seven Sailors previously reported missing were located in flooded berthing compartments, after divers gained access to the spaces, June 18, that were damaged when the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) was involved in a collision with the Philippine-flagged merchant vessel ACX Crystal.
The deceased are:
♦Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, Palmyra, Virginia
♦Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, San Diego, California
♦Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, Oakville, Connecticut
♦Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, Weslaco, Texas
♦Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, Chula Vista, California
♦Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin, 24, Halethorpe, Maryland
♦Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, Elyria, Ohio
The incident remains under investigation (link).
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NEW YORK – Iran will chair a United Nations conference on disarmament in Geneva this month, raising eyebrows from Western powers skeptical of Iran’s own nuclear ambitions.
The UN conference addresses not only nuclear proliferation but policies concerning the race to weaponize space, the production of radiological weapons and the stockpiling or use of other weapons of mass destruction.
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the United States said it would withdraw ambassadorial representation at the conference in protest so long as Iran retained its chair. Calling Iran's chairmanship "highly inappropriate," the statement from the US mission to the UN noted that the Islamic Republic was under UN Chapter VII sanctions for weapons proliferation and human-rights abuses."While the presidency of the CD is largely ceremonial and involves no substantive responsibilities, allowing Iran--a country that is in flagrant violation of its obligations under multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and to the IAEA Board of Governors--to hold such a position runs counter to the goals and objectives of the Conference on Disarmament itself," the statement read.“Any member state that is the subject of UN Security Council sanctions for proliferation – and found guilty of massive human rights violations – should be ineligible to hold a leadership position in a UN body,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which first noticed the chairmanship.“We urge world leaders to declare that allowing Iran to chair a UN disarmament body is simply unacceptable, given the fundamentalist regime’s illicit activities in precisely the opposite direction,” said Neuer.Iran will chair the conference barely a month after Geneva held a separate preparatory conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, where Iran and North Korea were the top two concerns of participating states.Iran remains one of 189 signatories of that treaty, though the DPRK does not, since withdrawing in 2003.At the preparatory meeting in April, Angela Kane, head of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, told member states that a cohesive international effort would be required to address Iran.“The whole raison d’être of this review process is to focus on implementation of commitments relating to the treaty’s three pillars – nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” Ms. Kane said.“What is most needed now in NPT arenas is to revive a sense of forward progress, however slow, however difficult it may be,” she added.The office of Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon provided no comment on Iran’s position as chair, noting that such decisions are left to member states.
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Russia is rapidly building up its military forces in the Arctic in an effort to secure its claims in the frigid region. Starting in 2017, the country will base MiG-31 Foxhound long-range interceptors in long-abandoned Soviet-era bases that it is currently renovating, according to Russian state media.
But basing Foxhound interceptors, which are capable of flying at nearly three times the speed of sound, in the Arctic is just the beginning. Russia has far grander plans to secure its claims in the north as the permanent ice caps recede. “We are planning to build 13 airfields, an air-ground firing range, as well as ten radar and vectoring posts,” Lt. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, commander of Russia’s National Defense Management Center told Russian news service RIA Novosti late last month. The radar stations would be used to guide interceptors to their targets while the training range would be used to train pilots.
In addition to the interceptors, Russia has started to base nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers in the region to patrol those vast and desolate reaches. “The crews of Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bombers at the Arctic long-range aviation base in Amur Region, have tripled their flying rate this year,” Col. Alexander Gordeyev told RIA Novosti in July.
That’s not all. In April, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that the country would create a network of Arctic naval bases to permanently house submarines and surface warships. (One example: Russia’s effort to reactivate an abandoned Soviet naval base in the New Siberian Islands.) Russian ground forces, including infantry and armor units, are being permanently stationed in key areas. Russia is also working on new a fleet of ballistic missile submarines, attack submarines to operate under the ice caps. Finally, Moscow is reopening ten search and rescue bases. Not only will they help facilitate a new trading route once the ice melts; they’ll also have a military purpose, analysts believe.
To operate effectively in the far northern reaches, the Russia is also investing in new nuclear-powered icebreakers—the largest such vessels ever built—that can smash through nine feet thick sheets of ice. Three of the giant ships—which have been named Artic, Siberia, and Ural—are expected to join the Russian civilian fleet in the coming years. The first vessel is slated to become operational in 2017. The last should be in service by 2021. (And of course, they’ll be available for military work, too.)
Heather Conley, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that much of the Russian build-up has been in the works for years. But in recent weeks, the military deployments have taken on a harder edge.
“This is an era of probing to keep us off balance,” Comley said.
Russia’s interest in the Arctic is two fold. The country’s primary concern in the region is to secure its strategic nuclear deterrent, Rob Huebert, an Arctic security expert at the University of Calgary told The Daily Beast.
Russia has been actively building new Borei-class ballistic missile submarines and it has been upgrading its older Soviet-era Delta III and IV boomers. Huebert said that the Russian Navy prefers to operate its ballistic missile submarines under the polar ice caps because it makes those vessels much more difficult to track.
“As long as Russia even has pretensions of being a great power, there is going to be friction points [in the Arctic],” Huebert said. “The other is the maritime geography of Russia, if you’re going to maintain your nuclear deterrent then ultimately the bases around Murmansk make a lot more sense for the submarine-based deterrent.” And Murmansk is within the Arctic Circle.
But beyond the strict realm of national security, the Arctic is becoming increasingly important to Russia economically. “Russia puts an enormous amount of economic importance on the Arctic right now,” Conley said. “The Russian Arctic represents 22 percent of Russian exports, 14 percent of its gross domestic product.”
Russia’s leaders are betting on the Arctic for the country’s future economic growth. There is a strong belief that once the ice caps melt away, there is a bounty of mineral wealth and energy resources that Russia can harvest, Conley said. Because of those economic reasons, Russian leadership is willing to go to great lengths to protect its interests in the region. “They doing everything they can to develop it, but under Russian terms,” Huebert said.
There is a multinational scramble between the U.S., Canada, Russia, Norway and the Danes (due to Greenland) to secure the resources in the Arctic. “All the Arctic Council states—especially the U.S.—have made some adjustments to their military posture because they are defending new borders that are opening because of the melting ice,” Conley said. “Some of this is just a natural part of adapting to the natural climate change that is happening in the Arctic.”
One of the key disputes is over just how far the Arctic continental shelf—and thus each nation’s exclusive economic zone—extends. The Russians and Canadians have been the most aggressive in staking their claims—often with competing scientific data. The fundamental issue: the boundaries of the underwater Lomonosov Ridge. Depending on whose scientific data the United Nations accepts, either Russia or Canada will claim a vast track of undersea territory to exploit. “So Russia will likely resubmit this year with new information,” Conley said. “The Russians are going through the U.N. process, as the Canadians are, as the Danes are.”
Conley noted that the U.S. will not be able to pursue its claims because the American government has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In the meantime, the Kremlin trying to make sure that any ship that is transiting the area secures its permission and is escorted by a Russian icebreaker. “Even if there is no ice and it’s going to stay that way for a little while, you still have to have a Russian icebreaker nearby,” Huebert said. |
Ladies, step aside. In South Korea, cosmetics companies are now targeting men.
It's a trend that clashes with Western ideas about masculinity and gender, but Korean men are spending a ton of money on cosmetics products in order to improve their skin and appearance.
South Korean men are the world's top per-capita consumers of skincare products, with four times the purchases of runner-up Denmark, according to Euromonitor. The grooming industry is worth more than $1 billion, with projected growth of nearly 50% over the next five years.
Korean men are not just buying aftershave and lotion, either. Demand is increasing for anti-aging products, masks and mists.
Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, a cultural analyst at Kyunghee University, said that men are using more cosmetics because in South Korea, appearance is everything.
"We have a proverb," Lee said. "If you buy something, you must choose the one which has a good appearance."
In South Korea's ultra-competitive society, he said that kind of decision-making also applies to people. When employers are looking to hire, for example, many of the candidates will have come from excellent universities and have similar qualifications.
One thing that can set a candidate apart is their appearance.
"If you want to have a higher salary, you must do the best for your human capital," he explained.
Chris Hong, an business executive about to hit the big 4-0 this year, is the industry's ideal customer. His regimen includes twice-yearly Botox injections, as well as laser treatments to smooth out imperfections on his face.
Hong freely admits that he spends more time, money and effort on beauty than his wife.
"Whenever you do more grooming you feel better," Hong said. "I don't want to be looked at as older."
Related: Selena makeup collection to launch next year
International names including Lab Series and Biotherm are among the most popular brands. But Minji Kim, an analyst at Euromonitor, said local companies are aggressively competing for male customers.
"Almost all domestic players have launched men's lines." said Kim, who singled out local manufacturers AmorePacific and LG Household & House Care as homegrown success stories.
AmorePacific has even launched a special military line, which features natural camouflage makeup and post-training cooling and whitening masks. According to the company, an estimated 70% of South Korea's military men use cosmetics.
"Interest ... in cosmetic products begins during [military service] -- due to the frequent outdoor activity that requires sun protection and skin care in general," the company said in an email.
Related: Tesco quits South Korea in $6 billion deal
Avon's sad tale: An American icon in decline |
A variant of the tube map has been created that shows every constellation in the night sky as a train station on a map of truly galactic proportions.
Future faster-than-light travellers will be able to dart about the night skies, travelling where no man has been before, using a 21st century tube map of their journey.
The design process began with an image of the galaxy’s constellations, and from that point nine lines were created to logically connect them to each other.
In total nine intersteller tube lines have been created for the Metro Galactic railway network.
When two lines crossover to create a station, it’s a Stellar Station. When two lines run parallel to connect lines, it’s an Intergalactic Station.
A kickstarter fund has been set up to turn the tube map of the night sky into posters, and you can see more details here. |
WASHINGTON — President Trump will nominate Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a longtime drug industry financier and advocate for deregulation, to run the Food and Drug Administration, the White House said Friday.
Gottlieb, 44, is a physician and resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. He trained at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, then pursued an unusual career that has taken him from hospitals to Wall Street to the FDA and back to Wall Street. A prolific writer and speaker on medical innovation, Gottlieb served as an FDA deputy commissioner under George W. Bush and has frequently testified before Congress.
His opposition to many regulations at an agency entrusted with protecting consumer safety could draw scrutiny from Democrats on the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which must approve nominations at the FDA. The nomination of the current FDA commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf, was stalled for months, with some lawmakers arguing that his close ties to the drug industry should have disqualified him from the job.
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But Gottlieb’s candidacy may benefit by comparison to rivals for the job, among them: Jim O’Neill and Balaji Srinivasan, protégés of Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel.
Gottlieb has the support of many former coworkers, who believe his FDA experience and medical background are strong credentials. An author of dozens of articles and speeches on health care regulation, he is a known entity in Washington at a time when few people know what Trump plans to do at the FDA.
“I worked with a lot of commissioners,” said John Taylor, a lawyer who spent 20 years at the FDA and now works at Greenleaf Health, a consulting firm. “I think Scott is absolutely qualified. He has good professional credentials and personal integrity, and a track record that shows the ability to make difficult decisions.”
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Paul Howard, a senior fellow with the conservative Manhattan Institute, also praised Gottlieb. “Scott is an exceptional choice for FDA commissioner,” Howard said. “He has led investments in new medicines and in new approaches in therapeutics. It’s extraordinarily helpful for someone who is leading the agency at a time of tremendous technological change to have that kind of vision and experience.”
What Howard views as a resume enhancer could also be seen as a political vulnerability. In addition to his large health care investment portfolio, Gottlieb has worked for many years as an adviser to pharmaceutical firms, and serves on some of their boards.
He is currently a venture partner in New Enterprise Associates, which invests chiefly in early-stage companies in information technology, medicine, and life sciences. Gottlieb is also a senior principal at TR Winston, a health care-focused merchant and investment bank, and a senior adviser and partner to Arcoda Capital Management, a health care-focused hedge fund.
Gottlieb is currently an adviser to GlaxoSmithKline, Cell Biotherapy, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He stopped working with Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2016.
Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research, a Washington research advocacy group, said she was troubled by the potential for conflicts of interest.
“Scott Gottlieb’s conflicts are much worse in that he’s on the board of so many companies,” she said. “He’d clearly need to divest his own stock and resign from the boards, and unless he swore on a stack of Bibles that he wouldn’t return to boards, investments, etc., it would be a good example of the ‘swamp’ that Donald Trump promised to drain.”
Gottlieb served two stints at the FDA, from 2003 to 2004, before going to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and then back to the FDA in 2005 as deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs.
He is a cancer survivor, having been successfully treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Shelley Fuld Nasso, CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, said she believes this experience adds to his qualifications for the job.
“His treatment was much easier than what some people have to endure, but I’ve found that physicians who have a cancer experience understand the human side of things and how treatment impacts individuals and families,” she said.
Gottlieb’s track record as an advocate for deregulation has put him at odds with some Democrats and public interest groups.
“Scott Gottlieb consistently has advocated, among other things, further loosening FDA’s standards for approving medical products and lifting restrictions on the promotion of these products for unapproved uses,” said Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “His nomination would confirm Trump’s plans to move forward with a dangerous deregulatory agenda at the agency.”
Gottlieb has been on Trump’s transition team almost since the beginning, but recused himself from the “landing team” talks with the FDA. Earlier, he was a senior adviser to the presidential campaign of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
Before he was nominated, Gottlieb told STAT that his first acts in office would focus on ensuring the safety of the blood supply and cracking down on unsafe foods, which he views as issues that deserve higher priority. Based on his writings, he would be expected to ease off-label marketing restrictions, and revamp the generic drug program to speed approval of complex generics.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Gottlieb worked under FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan while serving as deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs. |
Dubai: The Community Development Authority (CDA) has launched a holistic Ramadan campaign including serving iftar meals, giving essential food baskets, and visiting the elderly to benefit less privileged members of the community this Ramadan.
The month-long campaign called Yestahloon (colloquial for ‘well deserved’) is being held until August 10 in collaboration with 23 licensed social clubs and private sector organisations. At least Dh1.5 million in-kind donations for the campaign will be used to reach blue-collar workers, families, and the elderly in various areas in Dubai. A similar campaign was held last year but was smaller in scope.
“Today, we have raised the bar and next year we will raise it even more. It will keep increasing not only in number but also in quality,” Dr Omar Al Muthanna, Chief Executive Officer of CDA’s Social Regulator and Licensing Sector, told Gulf News.
From just 20,900 beneficiaries in 2012, Al Muthanna said the target beneficiaries this year increased seven times at 162,550 and will further increase as the month progresses. At least 100,000 iftar meals will be served in various labour accommodations daily. More than 60,000 in-kind gifts and at least 500 food baskets containing basic commodities will be distributed to families in need in Dubai.
The whole campaign will display teamwork and social cohesion among participating organisations to better serve the community.
“One company provides money, one organisation prepares the food, and delivering of the food is done by another party. Then loading and unloading is done by the volunteers. So it’s not just about giving. There is a lot of effort that is put in to serve the community,” Palani Babu, Head of Facility and Society Licensing Section at the Regulatory and Licensing Department at CDA, told Gulf News.
Al Muthanna said the campaign also includes health awareness lectures, health camps, and blood donation camps. They have incorporated other CDA programmes into this year’s campaign such as the Weleef (Arabic for ‘home care’) which offers social care and regular visits to the elderly.
“The activities are mainly targeted towards the labourers. But because this initiative has expanded in scope, we introduced Weleef to some of the social clubs and we asked them to do the same this Ramadan but within their own communities,” Al Muthanna said.
“This is proof that we live in a community that is empowered and where it’s not only the government that contributes to the society,” he added. |
Transit Police report arresting a Malden resident they say smashed a brick into the head of another man in the North Station commuter-rail waiting area around 5:15 p.m. yesterday.
Police arriving on scene found the victim, bleeding profusely from his head, and Stephen Fusco, 48, with fresh blood on his hands.
Fusco admitted to the assault and stated to the officers he did not appreciate the way the victim "looked" at him.
Fusco was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Fusco, it seems, really likes bricks. In 2014, he was arrested on charges he used a brick to smash the window of an Orange Line train at Community College. Police found him just standing there, shirtless, covered in fresh cuts, presumably from the glass he'd just smashed in.
Innocent, etc. |
By Irwin Kula and Craig Hatkoff
Has Apple taken us from 1984 to 2014 and back again? In what is considered one of the greatest commercials ever made, Apple Computer introduced the Mac to the world in 1984 during the Super Bowl running an ad that instantaneously changed the image of Apple forever.
The commercial depicts a futuristic Orwellian dystopia controlled by Big Brother being destroyed by a courageous sledge-hammer wielding female runner—a metaphor for the computer that would change the world. Wearing a white tank top emblazoned with the now-iconic Mac, she hurls the sledge-hammer into the giant screen broadcasting a numbing, tyrannical speech celebrating the first anniversary of the “Information Purification Directives.” The hammer-throw shatters the screen releasing us from the bondage of uniformity imposed by Big Brother. Apple’s message was “we will not be controlled!” To defy uniformity, buy a Mac. There was no turning back.
No wonder many people were outraged when Apple decided what music 500 million users should listen to. In what some considered an epic marketing innovation, Apple reportedly paid U2 $100 million for the right to deliver a gift to its 500 million iTunes customers. However, Apple’s intrusion into individuals’ libraries, without their permission, created an intense backlash. So great was the outrage that Bono offered a public apology via Youtube.
Despite many people being upset by this intrusive “marketing gimmick,” the jury is still out as to whether this was a highly successful market launch for Apple and U2. With all the “rage” and media pile-on it seems there has been very little negative impact; the iPhone 6 is flying off the shelves, Apple’s stock price is at an all-time high and U2 not only got handsomely but this will undoubtedly help promote and sell tickets to their concerts—the real engine of profit in their business model.
So what can we learn? In a world where trust is at an all-time low, in which surveillance and invasion of privacy have become the norm—from the NSA to the FaceBookAmazonGoogle complex—suspicion has become our default mode. Our Apple devices are no longer externalities—they have become integral parts of our identities. These two dynamics have changed the conventional wisdom:
Giving people something free now raises suspicion; motives will be questioned.
People will easily distinguish between a genuine gift and a clever marketing strategy by powerful interests.
Putting anything into people’s libraries without their permission will now feel coercive and creepy.
into people’s libraries without their permission will now feel coercive and creepy. “Never ask for permission, ask for forgiveness” does not pertain to iPhones.
If viewed through the lens of conventional disruptive innovation, Apple and U2 appear to have done everything right. The album was certainly “cheaper and more accessible” to the consumer. Apple engineered the largest launch in music history reaching 500 million customers in one fell swoop.
As we have been writing in recent columns and elsewhere, quantum innovation suggests that identity-centric innovations behave quite differently than conventional utilities. Our iPhones and iTunes are no longer simply products, they have become part of our identities. Messing with our identities, as this marketing campaign vividly showed, will enrage some of the people all of the time. |
The University of Michigan this week have issued a new directive to faculty that they must accommodate students in their preferred pronouns, including “they” and “ze.” Those pronouns will appear on class lists and professors are told to acknowledge any mistaken pronoun use and correct the mistake as “one of the most basic ways to show your respect for their identity and to cultivate an environment that respects all gender identities.” That may not sit well with faculty who have deep-seated objections to the use of pronouns like “they” to refer to a single person as a matter of personal, religious, or intellectual matter. However, the university added that “If there were a persistent pattern of ignoring a student’s preference, we would address that as a performance matter.” One student has already registered his protest by changing his pronoun to “His Majesty.”
As we have discussed, other universities have also made this change away from traditional pronouns. Harvard did so last year.
There is a growing list of different gender identifications. Indeed, I was only informed this week by my high school boys that I am now “cisgender,” or someone whose gender matches their “assigned” sex at birth (ie someone who is not transgender. There are also transgender (different from their assigned sex at birth); non-binary (a person who identifies as neither male nor female); genderqueer (which appears to be like non-binary); and genderfluid (a person whose gender identity changes over time).
Those new designations have led to an equally elastic list of pronouns. So at the University of Vermont, students can choose “he,” “she,” “they,” and “ze,” as well as “name only.” Other options are captures on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee card given to faculty and students:
The question is whether the faculty have the right to object to such pronoun changes as a matter of personal beliefs. Clearly the universities view this as a matter of binding and uniform policy for all employees. For the perspective of the administrators, gender identifications other than the traditional “assigned” genders are recognized in antidiscrimination laws and thus failing to recognize the differences is akin to claiming the right racist speech. That could lead to some interesting conflicts over personal and academic freedom. Indeed, it already has occurred in Canada where a professor is refusing to use the new pronouns.
What do you think?
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Why would I want to fitsSystemWindows?
Ian Lake Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 17, 2015
System windows are the parts of the screen where the system is drawing either non-interactive (in the case of the status bar) or interactive (in the case of the navigation bar) content.
Most of the time, your app won’t need to draw under the status bar or the navigation bar, but if you do: you need to make sure interactive elements (like buttons) aren’t hidden underneath them. That’s what the default behavior of the android:fitsSystemWindows="true" attribute gives you: it sets the padding of the View to ensure the contents don’t overlay the system windows.
A few things to keep in mind:
fitsSystemWindows is applied depth first — ordering matters: it’s the first View that consumes the insets that makes a difference
— ordering matters: it’s the first View that consumes the insets that makes a difference Insets are always relative to the full window — insets may be applied even before layout happens, so don’t assume the default behavior knows anything about the position of a View when applying its padding
— insets may be applied even before layout happens, so don’t assume the default behavior knows anything about the position of a View when applying its padding Any other padding you’ve set is overwritten — you’ll note that paddingLeft / paddingTop /etc is ineffective if you are using android:fitsSystemWindows="true" on the same View
And, in many cases, such as a full screen video playback, that’s enough. You’d have your full bleed view with no attribute and another full screen ViewGroup with android:fitsSystemWindows="true" for your controls that you want inset.
Or maybe you want your RecyclerView to scroll underneath a transparent navigation bar — by using android:fitsSystemWindows="true" in conjunction with android:clipToPadding="false" , your scrolling content will be behind the controls but, when scrolled to the bottom, the last item will still be padded to be above the navigation bar (rather than hidden underneath!).
Customizing fitsSystemWindows
But this default behavior is just that: a default. On KitKat and below, your custom View could override fitSystemWindows() and provide any functionality you wanted — just return true if you’ve consumed the insets or false if you’d like to give other Views a chance.
However, on Lollipop and higher devices, we provide some new APIs to make customizing this behavior much easier and consistent with other behaviors for Views. You’ll instead override onApplyWindowInsets() , which allows the View to consume as much or as little of the insets as you need and be able to call dispatchApplyWindowInsets() on child views as needed.
Even better, you don’t even need to subclass your Views if you only need custom behavior on Lollipop and higher — you can use ViewCompat.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener() , which will be given preference over the View’s onApplyWindowInsets() . ViewCompat also provides helper methods for calling onApplyWindowInsets( ) and dispatchApplyWindowInsets() without version checking.
Examples of customizing fitsSystemWindows
While the basic layouts ( FrameLayout , LinearLayout , etc) use the default behavior, there are a number of layouts that already customize how they react to fitsSystemWindows to fit specific use cases.
One example is the navigation drawer which needs to span the whole screen and appear under a transparent status bar.
Here, DrawerLayout uses fitsSystemWindows as a sign that it needs to inset its children (such as the main content view — just like the default behavior), but still draw the status bar background (which defaults to your theme’s colorPrimaryDark ) in that space as per the material design specs.
You’ll note DrawerLayout calls dispatchApplyWindowInsets() for each child on Lollipop and higher to allow child views to also receive fitsSystemWindows , a departure from the default (where normally it would simply consume the insets and children would never receive fitsSystemWindows ).
CoordinatorLayout also takes advantage of overriding how it handles window insets, allowing the Behavior set on child Views to intercept and change how Views react to window insets, before calling dispatchApplyWindowInsets() on each child themselves. It also uses the fitsSystemWindows flag to know if it needs to paint the status bar background.
Similarly, CollapsingToolbarLayout looks for fitsSystemWindows to determine when and where to draw the content scrim — a full-bleed scrim which overlays the status bar area when the CollapsingToolbarLayout is scrolled sufficiently off the screen.
If you’re interested in seeing some of the common cases that accompany the Design Library, check out the cheesesquare sample app.
Use the system, don’t fight it
One thing to keep in mind is that it isn’t called fitsStatusBar or fitsNavigationBar . What constitutes system windows, their dimensions, and location may certainly change with different platform releases — for a perfect example, look at the differences between Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich.
Just rest assured that the insets you do get from fitsSystemWindows will be correct on all platform versions to ensure your content does not overlap with system provided UI components — make sure to avoid any assumptions on their availability or size if you customize the behavior.
#BuildBetterApps
Comment on the Google+ post and follow the Android Development Patterns Collection for more! |
Hey Guys! If you don’t already know me, I’ve been working on some card-and-board games inspired by SC ( http://kinshadow.com/games/ ) as fan projects for a while. Earlier this year, I designed a game for a Board Game Geek 9-card competition that was decided not SC themed. After getting lots of feedback, overhauling the game, and adding new mechanics, I decided the new mechanics better supported a Star Citizen theme and, thus, a new game was born. : D
Freelancers is a short, 9-Card nanogame inspired by Star Citizen. Two to four players take on the role of up and coming Jobwell recruiting agents trying to find the best pilots for upcoming missions in deep space. Each of the players attempt to recruit the best pilots to meet the requirements of the next mission or attempt to change the nature of the mission itself. This game also features the awesome character art of Joesph ‘ @AngryPeas ‘ Castigalia.
And, as with all my SC-inspired games ….. IT’S FREE!!
You can download a print-and-play by grabbing the instructions here: http://kinshadow.com/games/freelancers/Freelancers_PnP_0v1v4b_Landscape.pdf
More PnP options can be found here: http://www.dreadcitizen.com/freelancers.html
Note, you’ll need to print 2 sets of the 9 cards if you want to play with 3 or 4 players. You’ll need to provide your own dice and counters :)
See the rules for all the components needed. If you try the game out, PLEASE help us out and let me know any constructive feedback you have. Even if you hate the game, I’d love to know ‘why’ you hate it. Tell us in this post or in the Fan Art thread :https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/347886
If you don’t have a printer, are just lazy, or would like to support the future efforts or Angry Peas and myself, you can print the game online. I have made a couple of online print options availabele here: http://www.dreadcitizen.com/freelancers.html Since it is a small game (9-18 cards), it is pretty cheap to get some high quality cards shipped to you.
Don’t like reading rules? Here’s a video showing the gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngKMwJ3dr40 |
A man who allegedly attacked a Georgia Tech student at an off-campus apartment Friday morning had been released from jail just two days earlier on multiple misdemeanor stalking charges, according to jail records.
Joshua Manns, 22, of Austell, is back in jail after police say he followed a woman and tried to rape her at the Square on Fifth apartments about 1:15 a.m. Friday.
He had been released from the Fulton County jail Wednesday, nearly four months after he was arrested on multiple stalking charges on Georgia Tech’s campus. Officials have not said if the cases are related.
According to Fulton County court records, Manns pleaded guilty in September in the July 16 stalking case. He was sentenced to 12 months of probation, ordered to pay a $49 monthly probation fee and was told not to have contact with the victims.
Court records show Manns was also ordered to stay away from Georgia Tech’s campus.
Atlanta police say Manns on Friday followed a woman into an elevator and onto her floor before the alleged attack.
“As the victim was opening her door, the suspect forced her inside and began struggling with the victim to pull her clothing off of her,” Atlanta police Officer Lisa Bender said.
The woman started to scream, and that’s when her roommate and the roommate’s boyfriend heard her and ran to her aid, Bender said.
At that point, Manns ran out of the apartment, police said.
Georgia Tech police, which also responded to the scene, identified Manns from the stalking case. A student also told campus police a man matching Manns’ description was in the University House Apartments parking deck.
Georgia Tech police later detained Manns before turning him over to Atlanta police.
Manns faces charges of criminal attempt to commit rape and burglary. He was booked into the Fulton County jail.
The victim was not injured, police said.
Manns has been arrested two other times this year. Atlanta police arrested him in May on a sexual misdemeanor charge. The following month, Georgia State police arrested and charged Manns with criminal trespass and obstruction of law enforcement.
The outcome of both cases is not clear.
In other news: |
With his 42nd career goal scored in Major League Soccer helping to lead Columbus Crew SC to its, 2-0, victory over the New England Revolution on Saturday at MAPFRE Stadium, Federico Higuain was named to Week 10's MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week. Defender-turned-midfielder in Week 10, Nicolai Naess, was named to the Bench as well.
Higuain's 53rd minute first-time finish curled into the back of New England's net from more than 20 yards out, off a layoff by fellow goal-scorer Ola
Kamara. The goal was Higuain's second in as many games and — just like his strike in Week 9 — is nominated for MLSsoccer.com's Goal of the Week (with voting running until Wednesday night).
Higuain was surgical with his passing inside the opposition's half, successfully finding teammates 34 times — including 17 in the final third and three key passes.
Naess was also impressive from a deep-lying midfield position. He was successful in 67 total passes, won a tackle and intercepted a pass and helped Crew SC's backline win 44 duels and 15 tackles.
Crew SC continues its jam-packed month of May by hosting Toronto FC on May 10 in the second 2017 Trillium Cup match of the year. A Black & Gold win at MAPFRE Stadium would see them raise their seventh Trillium Cup in the 10 competitions. |
AlphaBay, an online criminal marketplace operating on the dark web, has been seized, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. The move, according to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was aimed at stopping the site's online of illegal drugs, including Fentanyl and heroin linked to overdose deaths.
"This is likely one of the most important criminal investigations of the year - taking down the largest dark net marketplace in history," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. "I believe that because of this operation, the American people are safer - safer from the threat of identity fraud and malware, and safer from deadly drugs."
AlphaBay had mysteriously gone offline earlier this month after operating for the last two years. In addition to illegal drugs, the online marketplace also offered stolen and fraudulent identification documents and access devices, counterfeit goods, malware and other computer hacking tools, firearms and toxic chemicals. The operations to seize AlphaBay's infrastructure was led by the U.S. with cooperation from six other countries and the European law enforcement agency Europol.
Alexandre Cazes, known online as Alpha02 and Admin, a Canadian citizen living in Thailand, was arrested July 5 on charges of creating the site. He apparently killed himself on July 12 while in custody in Thailand, the Justice Department said. Authorities had filed suit against Cazes and his wife to recover assets alleged to have been obtained via the site, including millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
At the time of the takedown, AlphaBay had more than 250,000 listings for illegal drugs and toxic chemicals and another 100,000 for stolen identification documents and counterfeit goods, making it much larger than the Silk Road dark web marketplace that was seized by law enforcement in November 2013.
The site operated on "Tor" network and used cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Monero and Ethereum to hide the location of its servers, administrators and users. Based on law enforcement's investigation of AlphaBay, authorities believe the site was also used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars deriving from illegal transactions on the website. |
Perceptual tasks such as vision and audition require the construction of good features, or good internal representations of the input. Deep Learning designates a set of supervised and unsupervised methods to construct feature hierarchies automatically by training systems composed of multiple stages of trainable modules.The recent history of OCR, speech recognition, and image analysis indicates that deep learning systems yield higher accuracy than systems that rely on hand-crafted features or "shallow" architectures whenever more training data and more computational resources become available. Deep learning systems, particularly convolutional nets, hold the performances record in a wide variety of benchmarks and competition, including object recognition in image, semantic image labeling (2D and 3D), acoustic modeling for speech recognition, drug design, handwriting recognition, pedestrian detection, road sign recognition, etc. The most recent speech recognition and image analysis systems deployed by Google, IBM, Microsoft, Baidu, NEC and others all use deep learning and many use convolutional nets.While the practical successes of deep learning are numerous, so are the theoretical questions that surround it. What can circuit complexity theory tell us about deep architectures with their multiple sequential steps of computation, compared to, say, kernel machines with simple kernels that have only two steps? What can learning theory tell us about unsupervised feature learning? What can theory tell us about the properties of deep architectures composed of layers that expand the dimension of their input (e.g. like sparse coding), followed by layers that reduce it (e.g. like pooling)? What can theory tell us about the properties of the non-convex objective functions that arise in deep learning? Why is it that the best-performing deep learning systems happen to be ridiculously over-parameterized with regularization so aggressive that it borders on genocide? |
UPDATE: Deaths ruled murder/suicide, prosecutor says
Two people have been found shot dead inside a Jersey City Heights home on Tuesday morning.
Jersey City police were at the scene by 7:10 a.m., and the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office's Homicide Unit arrived a short time later, said Joe Shine, a freelance photographer who is at the scene.
The bodies -- a man and a woman -- were found at a Summit Avenue home between Sherman Place and Hutton Street in the Heights section of the city at 7 a.m.
Police have closed off Summit Avenue near the scene. Details were not immediately available.
A woman who lives across the street said this morning that a couple lived at the home, but she did not know them.
Journal Staff Writer Nicholas Zeitlinger contributed to this report. |
Thirty-two years ago, the political party CalSERVE, or Cal Students for Equal Representation and a Valid Education, was founded as part of the movement to divest UC funds from apartheid South Africa. This, of course, worked immediately, and every year on Freedom Day, April 27, thousands of South Africans gather and thank CalSERVE and all its brave elected officials for both saving them and inventing progressivism in one fell swoop.
Since then, CalSERVE has been a powerful bastion of leftist thought on the notoriously Republican Berkeley campus, courageously shutting down such conservative plots as Student Action’s 1999 proposal to institute a regressive tax plan and then-chancellor Berdahl’s controversial attempt to invade Iraq without clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction in 2003.
In all seriousness, CalSERVE was originally founded as a multicultural coalition meant to join together traditionally underrepresented communities. Today, we can see that history in what the party refers to as their “five core communities”: the Black community, the Asian/Pacific Islander community, the Raza community, the Pilipinx community and the queer community. CalSERVE runs at least one senate candidate from each of these communities every year, and by their own admission, the party prioritizes winning those candidates over their other candidates.
This is, in and of itself, a noble goal, and not a bad electoral strategy either. The logic of underrepresented groups — especially identity-based groups — banding together to achieve common goals makes sense; and it gives the party the strong base that has allowed it to survive for so long. Once this strategy and ethos is extended past these five communities, however, things start getting a little stickier.
In order to compete with the omnipresent behemoth that is Student Action, CalSERVE must run more than five candidates. To that end, it brands itself as the “progressive coalition” and has run additional candidates ostensibly representing progressive causes and communities — for example, candidates from the transfer community, the ECO coalition, the “progressive engineering” community (no, I’m not super clear on why exactly they’re different from all the other engineers either). And that’s where things start to break down, both in effectiveness- and ethos-wise:
First, calling themselves the “progressive coalition” is pretty disingenuous, since it implies that their perennial rival, Student Action, is therefore “conservative”. While it’s true that the rare Republican senator is always in Student Action, this is still Berkeley — the vast, VAST majority of senators from all parties are always going to be politically liberal, every year. And furthermore — it doesn’t matter anyway (gasp!!!), because this is not national politics, it’s the ASUC. The topics covered are wildly different.
Second, it’s an electoral strategy that falls apart when CalSERVE guns for a senate majority. Because CalSERVE functions as an identity-based group, it heavily prioritizes candidates who represent a very specific community. That’s why ASUC insiders talk about “the queer senator” or “the public service senator”. While this is fine and often necessary for many candidates, it limits CalSERVE in its candidate choices. Other parties can slate candidates who, rather than being primarily based in just one community, have pull across several, like Student Action candidates André Luu and Bianca Filart, or SQUELCH! candidate Anthony Carrasco. It also means that CalSERVE communities that could potentially support more than one senator, like the Raza coalition or the ECO coalition, are left with only one, who clearly does not serve their interests.
Third, because the “progressive” banner doesn’t actually indicate that their interests are all aligned, partisan politics means CalSERVE communities outside the five core communities don’t always get those interests served. For instance, this past spring, Student Action then-senator André Luu attempted to introduce a resolution creating a working group improving student accessibility to BART. CalSERVE senators promptly attempted to prevent this via bloc voting, ostensibly because Luu was running for external affairs vice president at the time and the CalSERVE upper echelons didn’t want him to have any victories on his resume.
This was obviously stupid for everybody involved, but one for whom it seems particularly self-defeating was the ECO senator, since logic dictates (to me, at least) that a senator claiming to work for the environment would support a group increasing access to public transport. But because ECO is bound to CalSERVE, the senator felt compelled to vote against his community’s interest.
(By the way that was not meant to be a particular knock on former CalSERVE senator Wes Adrianson — 95 percent of the time he was an extremely effective senator who did a lot of positive work for his community and the school as a whole, and I voted for him for executive vice president. Sorry Wes!)
So is everyone in CalSERVE a conniving, political machinator? Of course not (or, at least, not MORE so than anyone in Student Action). The core intention of the party — to act as a coalition representing minority interests — is a good and necessary one, and there have been many excellent CalSERVE elected officials (some examples from last year besides Adrianson would be former senators Kathy Tran and Alana Banks and former executive vice president Lavanya Jawaharlal). But if the party wants to remain true to its original purpose as well as act as a counterbalance to Student Action, it’s going to have to do some serious restructuring.
Jake Fineman writes the Monday column on the ASUC. Contact him at [email protected]. |
A controversial study that linked genetically modified corn to cancer in lab rats is a “scientific non-event”, six French scientific academies said Friday.
“This work does not enable any reliable conclusion to be drawn,” they said, adding bluntly that the affair helped “spread fear among the public.”
The joint statement – an extremely rare event in French science – was signed by the national academies of agriculture, medicine, pharmacy, science, technology and veterinary studies.
It was sparked by research published in September that said rats fed with so-called NK603 corn or doses of Roundup herbicide developed tumours.
The paper, led by Gilles-Eric Seralini at the University of Caen, unleashed a storm in Europe, where GM crops are a highly sensitive issue.
Critics accused Seralini of manipulating the media to boost the impact of his findings and faulted his experiments for statistical bias.
Two fast-track official investigations into the study are to be unveiled next Monday.
The academies’ statement said: “Given the numerous gaps in methods and interpretation, the data presented in this article cannot challenge previous studies which have concluded that NK603 corn is harmless from the health point of view, as are, more generally, genetically modified plants that have been authorised for consumption by animals and humans.”
It dismissed the study as “a scientific non-event.”
“Hyping the reputation of a scientist or a team is a serious misdemeanour when it helps to spread fear among the public that is not based on any firm conclusion,” the academies said. |
Image caption The proposed cable would allow the isles to export electricity to the mainland
A proposed sub-sea power cable between the Western Isles and mainland Scotland could affect wildlife on the seabed off Ullapool, according to scientists.
The cable would allow the isles to export electricity from renewable energy schemes to the National Grid.
Marine biologists at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University report the cable could cross deep water mud habitats.
They have recommended further research into the potential impact of the planned interconnector.
Small burrowing animals and also areas where an invertebrate called "feather stars" live could be affected, according to the report commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).
The sub-sea cable would go from Lewis, cross the sea into Little Loch Broom on the west Highlands coast and land at Dundonnel, near Ullapool.
It would allow electricity generated by wind farms and marine energy schemes that was surplus to the islands' needs to be exported to the mainland.
Scottish Hydro-Electric Transmission Limited (SHETL), a subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), put plans for the interconnector on hold last year.
'Remains active'
The report by Heriot-Watt's School of Life Sciences said what impact the cable could have on seabed habitats could not be better understood until a precise route for it was known.
However, they said it was possible deep water mud habitats could be affected.
Little Loch Broom also has a bed of the coral-like algae maerl, but the scientists said it was unlikely to be significantly affected beyond a certain depth.
SSE said SHETL deferred the start of work on the cable in October 2010 saying its cost must be underwritten by developers.
A spokeswoman said: "The project remains active and SSE will prepare a new request for authorisation to invest in the link as soon as these issues are resolved.
"In practice, this is likely to take around one year.
"At this stage we would reassess any additional environmental information." |
TNT NBA reporter and fashion icon Craig Sager hasn’t been on the sidelines recently, as he’s been taking time off to receive treatment for leukemia. On Wednesday evening, though, Sager’s son Craig Jr. posted some amazing news to his Twitter feed — his dad would be back on the court for the March 4th game between the Bulls and the Thunder.
It's official!! Sr just got cleared to return to work & will be back in action Thursday, March 5 for Thunder-Bulls!!! pic.twitter.com/dnUi2Wy7Ax — Craig Sager II (@CraigSagerJr) February 25, 2015
He also shared that Sager would be back covering the NCAA tournament.
Cue the bracket ties. Sr will be back for March Madness as well 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ez0cXm1d4i — Craig Sager II (@CraigSagerJr) February 25, 2015
A really great story, and I know that everyone from TNT and the league will be psyched that he’s back doing what he does best. |
I am finally back from a mini vacation at Oglebay Resort in West Virginia. I’m so not the outdoorsy type; therefore, it wasn’t my favorite idea for a vacation. However, it was a great way to spend time with family, so I put aside my girly ways and dealt with the whole “roughing it” vibe. Well, if you consider hanging out in a cabin “roughing it”. I’ll touch more on Oglebay in an upcoming post, because today is simply devoted to these incredibly decadent Rolo Cupcakes.
While I was away, Kristan and Amber took over MBA for a few days with their Rolo creations. Both of their recipes had me craving caramel and wishing that I brought along my baking gear to West Virgina.
Before I left town, I whipped up these super simple Rolo Cupcakes using my Snicker’s Cupcake recipe as inspiration. I started with my favorite doctored up cake mix recipe, nestled a frozen Rolo in the middle of the batter, topped the baked cupcakes with caramel infused buttercream and finished with a drizzle of ganache and a Rolo. Are you drooling yet?
If you aren’t a fan of boxed mixes, simply substitute your favorite from scratch chocolate cupcake recipe. I’m pretty sure you’ll still have amazing results. Be sure to stop back tomorrow for the finale to Rolo Week, which may have something to do with ice cream. Yes, I went there – and you won’t want to miss it.
Rolo Cupcakes Ingredients: For the cupcakes 1 (18.25 ounce) package Devil’s Food Cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24 frozen Rolos (freeze for at least 2 hours) For the frosting 4 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
⅓ cup caramel syrup
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar For the ganache 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into very small pieces
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
24 Rolos for garnish Directions: For the cupcakes Preheat oven to 350°F. Line (2) 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, water and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Evenly divide the batter amongst the prepared pans. {I use a large cookie scoop from OXO to scoop my batter; it holds 3 tablespoons}. Gently push a frozen Rolo into the center of the batter and smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy with batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch. A small divot may appear in the center of the cupcake, no worries though because you’ll cover that with frosting. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack. For the frosting Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more caramel syrup. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar. For the ganache In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the heavy cream until very hot, but not boiling. Place chocolate pieces in a heat safe bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes. Whisk the cream and chocolate until smooth and thoroughly combined. Whisk in the honey, corn syrup, and vanilla. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes. Do not let the glaze sit for too long or it will harden up before you spoon it over the frosting. Spoon the glaze on the tops of the frosted cupcakes, allowing it to drip down the sides a little bit. Don’t add too much glaze or it will drip all over your liners. Top each cupcake with a Rolo. Store cupcakes in the refrigerator. Remove them to room temperature one hour before serving. Notes: Ganache from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen All images and text © for My Baking Addiction
Follow Jamie on Instagram. We love to see what you're baking from MBA! Be sure to tag @jamiemba and use the hashtag #mbarecipes! |
Experienced defender arrives at Hogwood Park
Reading Football Club have signed experienced defender Zat Knight until the end of the season.The central defender, 34, has made more than 430 career appearances, with in excess of 350 in the Premier League.He is also a two-time England international and will supplement Manager Steve Clarke’s defensive options between now and the end of the campaign.Welcoming Zat to the club, Clarke said, "With the team currently in the middle of a really hectic schedule I felt it was prudent to bring another experienced defender to help share the load. When I heard that Zat was back in the UK and looking for a club I felt he would be a perfect fit. He brings a wealth of experience, good attributes as a defender and good references from previous clubs. It's a sensible deal for both club and player and we look forward to Zat playing his part in helping the team to finish the season on a high note"Zat began his football career in London with Fulham, playing more than 150 times for the Cottagers. He then moved to Aston Villa for £3.5million, spending two years in his native Midlands before a £4million move to Bolton. He spent five successful years in the North West before a move to the MLS with Colorado Rapids.We await international clearance from the football authorities but are hopeful this will come through soon – and we would like to wish Zat the best of luck here at Madejski Stadium. |
Image copyright Getty Images
Apple has fixed a security flaw in its HomeKit system that could have let unauthorised people control smart home gadgets such as door locks and lights.
The bug appeared in the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system iOS 11.2, and could have let criminals unlock internet-connected doors.
A researcher disclosed the problem to tech news site 9to5Mac.
Apple said it had now disabled remote HomeKit access for shared users, as a temporary solution to the problem.
The company's HomeKit framework lets iOS devices control internet-connected gadgets made by a variety of manufacturers.
Customers do not need to update the software on their devices because the fix has been implemented on Apple's servers.
However, some HomeKit functionality will be temporarily unavailable.
9to5Mac said the flaw had "serious ramifications" but accepted it was "difficult" to exploit.
Apple said in a statement: "The issue affecting HomeKit users running iOS 11.2 has been fixed.
"The fix temporarily disables remote access to shared users, which will be restored in a software update early next week," it added.
The company has been criticised recently after some of its other software releases were found to contain serious bugs.
In October, many people found that the letter "i" was being replaced by the letter A and a symbol when they upgraded to iOS 11.
And in November, a major flaw was found in MacOS High Sierra - the most recent version - that made it possible to gain entry to a Mac without a password.
At the time, the company apologised and said "our customers deserve better". |
Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton had a coughing fit on Monday that will do little to quell rumors the former U.S. secretary of state is in poor health.
The 68-year-old Clinton had to stop a speech in West Des Moines, Iowa, to try and compose herself after a hacking attack.
The ‘Stop Hillary’ campaign is on fire! Join the surging response to this theme: ‘Clinton for prosecution, not president’
“[email protected] has coughing attack at West Des Moines event, may be unable to finish remarks,” Amy Chozick of the New York Times said on Twitter.
Clinton’s health has been a question of speculation since her last coughing fit before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on October, 22, 2015. Media titan Matt Drudge called Clinton’s apparent health issues the “biggest revelation” of the Benghazi hearings.
“Hillary health was biggest revelation at hearing. Coughing fit. Slow-speaking, obviously induced by meds. Choose not to believe if you must,” Drudge tweeted.
What do YOU think? Who will win the Democratic Party presidential nomination? Sound off in today’s WND poll
Clinton’s campaign released a health statement in July confirming hypothyroidism as well as allergies. The former secretary of state takes Armour Thyroid to treat an underactive thyroid.
Armour Thyroid can also be used to prevent certain types of enlarged thyroid glands and to manage thyroid cancer, Fox News reported July 31.
The former first lady also sustained a concussion after falling inside her home in December 2012. She was given blood thinners for a blood clot in her head and returned to work Jan. 7, 2013.
It was only two days ago that Clinton laughed off a question by an Iowa voter who asked if she “was really not equipped to be in the White House” because of health issues. The audience member said she heard stories about Clinton’s health on Fox News.
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“Oh my. Well, you know, they say nearly anything about me. I’ve got to tell you,” Clinton, said, ABC News reported Saturday. “There are several themes they keep beating the drums on. I’ll match my endurance against anybody. And last spring, my doctor put out a letter and you know, said what great health.” |
Alexander Edwards (Screenshot/11Alive)
Questions are being raised in Marietta, Georgia, as to how a man charged with sexually abusing a child when he worked as a youth pastor in 2013 could be hired as a youth pastor this year, in a position where he is again accused of sexual abuse, 11Alive reports.
Alexander Edwards has been charged in two cases, one from 2013 and one from this year.
He worked as a youth pastor at Providence Baptist Church in downstate Leesburg, where he was charged with two felony counts for making sexual advances on a 13-year-old boy in 2013.
Yet the case wasn’t prosecuted at the time, and Edwards was hired by another church as a youth pastor, this time at Cobb County’s Eastside Baptist Church, 11Alive reports. This despite a $5,000 bond with limitations requiring that he not have any contact with children under 18 years old.
He was arrested in April on suspicion of molesting an 11 year old in Cobb County.
The church is in the process of reviewing its hiring process.
“Somewhere in the process, there was a breakdown,” Tamara Glover, of the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy, told 11Alive.
His charges remained pending for three years, allowing him to remain free on bond. But prosecutors in both counties are now moving forward with charges against Edwards. He is again free on bond, awaiting trial, but now wears an ankle monitor and is on house arrest.
Watch the report, from 11Alive, here: |
This month has been tragic for many many people, states, countries, homes, businesses but especially families....including mine.On September 4th, Labor Day my nephew's life unexpectedly ended right in front of his mother and little sister. Xander Draven Maldonado died at the young age of 13 years old...in Walden, NY. He was wonderfully kind, intelligent and a heartwarming young man...taken from this world and our family far too soon...Xander loved his family, animals, video games, and of course his friends...he was so giving and willing to help everyone he encountered...his parents knew this and right to the end he Donated his organs & tissue to help other children have a second chance...The details of his cause of death and our plight by his mother to educate yourselves on "Shallow Water Blackouts" is below this message. Please don't forget to read it. Linked below:If you find it within your means to donate some money to my brother so he can spend time at home grieving with his family without the worry of financial strains and the sacrifices of taking time off from work at the FDNY...we would be forever in your debt. He needs to get through this Holiday season at his families side.All monies collected will go Directly to my Brother & His Immediate family with the exception of the fee's GoFundMe Collects per donation (2.9% + $0.30).If you prefer to send your donations via PayPal "Friends & Family" this has no fee's attached. You may do so, Fernando's email is: [email protected] donations will help with his mortgage and some day to day expenses and bills.Please if you can, Donate-if you can't, please educate yourself on my nephews Xander's cause of death...and please share this campaign to anyone who might be able to contribute or learn...spread the word and the information on "Shallow Water Blackouts".Thank you for your time and consideration in donating. ❤️Please read below (A message from Carol, Xander's Mother) and educate yourself of this widely unknown cause of death on "Shallow Water Blackout"If you or someone you know is an avid swimmer please Read This!Please pass this awareness on. Please share this post far and wide if it can help others. Please keep us in your hearts as we mourn and, eventually, have to find some new normal for his little sister.----They're no words to explain how a parent loves and worries for their child and the utter devastation if your child dies...my heart is broken for Xander, his Mommy, Daddy and little sister...right now it seems completely overwhelming…I figured I'd create this campaign with a small goal to do what I could to help out...if want more information on my welfare after Hurricane Irma just private message me.We could use a miracle right now, not having to worry about my families needs being met would be a load off our chests All of our chests!Thank you |
Back in July we did some early polling of the New Jersey election. We showed that our polling matched the Quinnipiac polling very tightly, where we overlapped. Again, our approval polling (Booker +31 net approval, Christie -32, and Trump -33) is very much in-line with the traditional polling, our horse-race polling is a little more bullish for the Democrat (Democrat Murphy 71% of two-party vote, up by 28 percentage points not counting undecided). We have a large number of undecideds, so the Dem lead can shrink to a mere +10 ppt in the worst-case scenario. But, we are much more interested in what the Quinnipac poll does not ask:
Senator Booker has pushed legalization of marijuana as a signature progressive policy; this is very popular with New Jersey voters, if they only knew Booker was doing it. 65 percent support legalization of marijuana, only 27 percent are opposed. So, it was natural for us to ask: "Has any NJ politician been particularly involved in pushing for legalization of marijuana?" 9 percent said Booker, 7 percent said Governor Christie, 12 percent no one, and 55 percent do not know – not exactly great conditions for Democratic credit claiming.
In 2018 several New Jersey Republican Congressmen will be targeted, and healthcare will be a key topic; New Jersey voters are very supportive of expanded healthcare. We polled 57 percent support for the public healthcare option, and 72 percent support for universal healthcare (in the form of the "government providing Medicare or Medicaid to all Americans without private healthcare insurance"). But, just 45 percent know that the rate of uninsured Americans would go up under President Trump's and Republican's ACA replacement bill. That is pretty good, but Democrats still have a long way to go if they expect voters to really know that Frelinghuysen and MacArthur played a major role in passing Trump/GOP's plan in of the House of Representatives, and that it was a bad thing.
The generic ballot in the House in New Jersey is 75 percent of the two-party vote for the Democrats (up by 36 percentage points when we drop by the undecided). It is early and the generic ballot has its issues (mostly that it captures a noisy variant of party id), but that is a huge lead one year out. In all, this is good news for the Democrats out of New Jersey, both when it comes to the 2017 gubernatorial election, and the 2018 Congressional election.
NJ_Poll1_20171104 is done using MRP+ on Pollfish. In the field from 11/1 to 11/4/2017. |
By Raechel Conover
|
There's little doubt that shopping at Costco saves money, and it's convenient for stocking up in a single trip. But can budget-conscious consumers feed a family for an entire month without shopping anywhere else? Cheapism.com drew up a Costco meal plan with four weeks' worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for a family of four (including two young children). The total cost came to $478.12. That's about 15 percent less than the "thrifty" grocery budget of $565.20 prescribed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (for a two-parent household with two preschool-age children, based on food costs in May 2015). Because the ingredients are sold in bulk , the total was calculated based on unit prices for the food used during the month. Many items are frozen or non-perishable, so any excess provides a foundation for next month. |
Darksiders 2 – The Necromancer Tree, Overview
Overview
This tree will bolster Death's own defenses and allow him to summon aid from the grave. It breaks down to a few abilities: Exhume, Aegis and Murder. This allows Death better crowd control and more support for his fights.
Aegis Guard
This skill focuses on gives Death the skill Aegis Guard. It can be used to bolster his resistances and defense for up to 8 seconds. It can retaliate a few ways so even as he takes damage there is some hurt being given out. This skill is a must for those who regularly use Death's Arcane abilities as it provides a boost not only to his skill but increases the Critical Hit Chance as well.
Exhume
This opens up one option of minion support for Death. He will Ghouls to his side to aid in the fight. They can bolster Death's ability to collect Wrath through combat and explode with devastating results. This tree will also boost the Ghouls themselves, adding a third to their ranks, increase their health, set them on fire and allow them to explode when they die. There are some surprising abilities tagged onto the level 3's of this set of powers.
Murder
A fitting tree for the harbingers of Death itself. Death can summon otherworldly crows to aid in his fights. These crows can draw out both health and wrath from attacking your foes in addition to just harassing them and keeping them from Death.
Level 20 Skill
Frenzy: Death unleashes his stored Wrath into a single powerful attack. This blast hits all those around him as the Dead from within tear into their flesh. The more Wrath stored inside Death, the more the Souls can do.
Cost: 100 Wrath per Soul
Prerequisites – lvl. 20
Level 1: Souls deal 160 each
Level 2: Souls deal 201 each
Level 3: Souls deal 241 each
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Of the seven parties running in Sunday’s election besides Nur Otan, six are closely affiliated with the government. The government has disqualified from the ballot the co-chairman of the only bona fide opposition party in the running. Two parties were not allowed to compete at all.
Whether the change will be sufficient to tamp down emerging signs of discontent remains to be seen; the country has a long history of reforms that turn out to be feints.
Five years ago, a nominally independent but, in fact, transparently pro-government party shared power in Parliament with the Nur Otan party. Then, the second party, Asar, was led by the president’s daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva. Real opposition figures scoffed at any notion of its independence.
That system collapsed when Ms. Nazarbayeva withdrew from public life after her husband, Rakhat Aliyev, a once-powerful figure in Kazakhstan’s secret police, fell out with her father, the president. Mr. Aliyev was forced into exile.
The Asar party then merged with Nur Otan, forming the one-party system in place until Parliament was dissolved in November ahead of the elections.
In another sign of a thaw, however tepid, in Central Asian politics, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow in neighboring Turkmenistan said that he, too, would introduce a multiparty Parliament.
It is too early to tell whether the political systems in Central Asia are showing their natural obsolescence, or whether true change will come only after the death of the current, aging and baldly authoritarian Soviet-era leaders.
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Even the modest change in Kazakhstan is remarkable because Mr. Nazarbayev, a former Soviet apparatchik, has presided for two decades over a well-established system of one-man, one-party rule.
As in Russia under Vladimir V. Putin, Mr. Nazarbayev has blended deft economic policies that have drastically raised living standards with soft authoritarian methods like police repression of dissidents.
Photo
Mr. Nazarbayev has called this an Asian model of “economy first, politics second.” Even during the global recession, Kazakhstan’s economy grew 7 percent last year.
In foreign policy, according to critics of United States policy in the region, the so-called Southern Corridor of former Soviet nations, major American oil company contracts and aid in shipping supplies to Afghanistan greased a friendly diplomatic relationship with Washington, despite the democratic shortcomings.
Yet Kazakhstan has only the barest fig leaf of a democratic system; in presidential elections in April, Mr. Nazarbayev, who is 71, won 95.5 percent of the vote. His nearest competitor garnered 1.9 percent.
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Emblematic of politics, Kazakh style, one ostensibly opposition candidate, Mels Yeleusizov, announced that he had voted for his competitor, Mr. Nazarbayev, in that election.
“I didn’t want to become president because that is not possible,” Mr. Yeleusizov, now a candidate in an opposition party in Sunday’s vote, said in a telephone interview.
But last year, Kazakhstan was shaken by unrest, including terrorist attacks and a labor dispute that unraveled into riots in the oil industry town of Zhanoazen in December, during which police officers shot into a crowd, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 80.
In late November, while the labor dispute was continuing but before the shootings, Mr. Nazarbayev dissolved the one-party Parliament and called early elections.
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Those will be held under an electoral law changed in 2009 that guarantees seats to at least two parties, by removing the usual 7 percent threshold for the second-place finisher. The governing party regularly garners more than 80 percent of the vote.
More changes are coming, officials say. “You will see, over the next three years, very slow, very gradual liberalization,” Roman Vassilenko, the chief spokesman for Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry, said in an interview here. “The key reason is the president himself sees the need for a more balanced political system.”
But the party polling in second place for Sunday’s vote, Ak Zhol, has among its members businessmen and government officials who do not criticize the government.
Critics of the electoral overhaul say it allows the government to perpetuate the dominance of a single party while avoiding the embarrassment, and potential for domestic protests, of a patently rigged system. In this view, the modest political changes here will prolong the repressive government, not lead to its replacement.
“The multiparty nature of Parliament will be decorative, as it is in Russia,” Vladimir I. Kozlov, the chairman of the main liberal opposition party, Alga, which was denied registration for years, said in a phone interview.
He continued, “The other parties just create the illusion of differing opinions, not in fact having any influence on the dominant party or the president.”
Of the 107 seats in the country’s Parliament, known as the Mazhilis, 98 are elected and nine appointed by a council of ethnic minority leaders, which is loyal to the president.
In its 20 years since independence, Kazakhstan has yet to hold an election judged fair by Western observers. |
O Melhor is made by Confiança, a company which was recently acquired by Ach Brito/Claus Porto, who many of you might know as the makes of the Musgo Real line of pre-shave soaps and shaving creams.
The lather I found to be a bit tricky. It seemed to me both times that I tried it, that I had to choose between having either a thick lather, or enough slickness. If it had a sweet spot for water content that gave a good balance of both, I overshot it when I was giving it a try. The moisturization was pretty good, and I didn’t notice any issues with lather stability.
The scent is a rather “cologne-y” aroma; with marine notes, woods, and musk mostly predominate. Personally, I don’t really think it was anything to write home about; not to say that it’s unpleasant by any means, but it doesn’t quite do it for me. The strength was ok. It wasn’t too strong, but it was steady.
7/10 Scent Pleasantness
8/10 Scent Strength
7/10 Lather Quality
Overall, I’d say it’s a toss-up between a 7/10 and a 6/10, but I think I’m a bit inclined to lean towards rounding up to the 7/10.
Gear used:
Ingredients: Stearic acid, palmitic acid, aqua(water), potassium hydroxide, cocos nucifera, glycerin, sodium hydroxide, parfum(fragrance), lauryl PEG/PPG-18/18 methicone, sodium borate, lanolin, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium myristyl sulfate, sodium cetyl sulfate, sodium stearyl sulfate, laureth-10, octydodecanol, benzyl salicylate, butylphenyl methylpropional, linalool, alpha-isomethyl ionone.
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The Philadelphia Union are currently undergoing a serious rebuilding phase. The 2016 MLS Superdraft gave them the perfect opportunity to start it. With the Union owning the No. 3 and No. 6 pick, it seemed like the fans were witnessing the future in front of their own eyes. This excitement only grew larger as the Union made a trade with the Colorado Rapids for the No. 2 overall pick. In return, Colorado acquired General Allocation Money and a player to be named later. So with owning picks 2, 3 and 6, the team was set for the draft.
Philadelphia Union Draft Review
Coming into the draft, the team needed defense and a forward. The midfield is already set with players such as Vincent Nogueira, Tranquillo Barnetta, newly acquired Chris Pontius and Maurice Edu. Defense was the chief need for the team and the one area that needed the most attention.
With the No. 1 pick, the Chicago Fire drafted Jack Harrison from Wake Forest. This opened the doors for the best case scenario for the Union. Center back Joshua Yaro and fullback Brandon Vincent were theirs for the taking. With the No. 2 pick, the Union selected Joshua Yaro from Georgetown. The safest, smartest, and best pick they could have made in that position. That pick bolsters and affirms the CB position for the Union. With the No. 3 pick, the Union selected Keegan Rosenberry. Rosenberry is a fullback also from Georgetown and played with Yaro. He was part of the Union’s academy system as a teenager and was claimed as a homegrown player by the team, but the claim was denied by MLS. Many MLS fans questioned this pick, including I. With the Union also owning the No. 6 pick, they selected Fabian Hebers from Creighton. Fabian is a forward, which the team desperately needs, and is touted as the best forward in the draft. The Union had one pick in the 2nd round and used that pick to select Taylor Washington from George Washington University. He is also a fullback.
So with the first two rounds of the draft being completed, the Union selected three defenseman and one forward. This was the result that manager Jim Curtin, technical director Chris Albright and sporting director Earnie Stewart set out to achieve. Let’s take a closer look at the first round selections.
Joshua Yaro: Joshua Yaro is arguably the best player in the draft in 2016. Yaro is a 5’11, 163 lb center back from Georgetown. He was named NSCAA 1st team All-American and was predicted to be the No. 1 pick by many MLS experts. The Union must have gotten a tip that midfielder Jack Harrison was going to be the first pick because the trade up to the No. 2 pick has greatly improved the defensive condition of the team. Yaro is one of the fastest players in the draft. He possesses great speed, good technical ability, good field vision, and is versatile enough to move to LB or RB if need be. This versatility could come in handy because the Union acquired CB Anderson Conceição on loan for the year. The Union also have Richie Marquez and Maurice Edu who can play center back. Edu will probably move up to defensive mid. Yaro may be a starter on opening day.
Keegan Rosenberry: Rosenberry will never not be compared to Brandon Vincent for the time he is in Philadelphia. The controversial decision to take Rosenberry over Vincent will be monitored for years to come. Keegan Rosenberry is a 5’8, 160 lb fullback(plays RB) from Georgetown. His experience and chemistry with Yaro is something to be excited about. He is from Ronks, Pennsylvania and was in the Union’s system before. The Union tried to place a homegrown claim on him but the request was denied. They felt strongly enough of Rosenberry that they used their No. 3 pick on him after he had an outstanding MLS Combine. Keegan is a phenomenal player and the Union needed that. He is a fast RB who makes smart runs and can press up. His passing and crossing ability along with his abnormal field vision will be a major attacking threat for years to come. He is an outstanding defender with aerial abilities and will read passes and pounce on them. Even with these abilities, the Vincent/Rosenberry debate will still be apparent. I believe that Rosenberry will battle with Fabinho for a starting spot on opening day.
Fabian Hebers: Fabian Hebers is a 6’0, 165 lb forward from Creighton. Fabian is arguably the best forward available in the MLS Superdraft. He was a NSCAA 1st team All-American and scored 15 goals and 17 assists in 23 games. Those are lethal stats. Fabian is an unselfish player who is more then willing to provide assists. He posses great positioning and will pounce on an open ball in the attacking third. He’s quick on the ball and has decent dribbling skills. He has the ability to start opening day.
With these three players in mind, let’s see where they will fit in the system. This year we may see the Dutch 4-3-3 formation, thanks to Earnie Stewart joining the team. As of the team right now, here is what I think will be the starting line up on opening day.
GK: Andre Blake
RB: Ray Gaddis
CB: Joshua Yaro
CB: Anderson
LB: Fabinho/Rosenberry
CDM: Maurice Edu
CM: Vincent Nogueira
CM: Tranquillo Barnetta
RW: CJ Sapong
ST: DP striker/Hebers
LW: Chris Pontius
Main Photo: Mitchell Leff, Getty Images |
Abstract Neural substrates underlying the human-pet relationship are largely unknown. We examined fMRI brain activation patterns as mothers viewed images of their own child and dog and an unfamiliar child and dog. There was a common network of brain regions involved in emotion, reward, affiliation, visual processing and social cognition when mothers viewed images of both their child and dog. Viewing images of their child resulted in brain activity in the midbrain (ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra involved in reward/affiliation), while a more posterior cortical brain activation pattern involving fusiform gyrus (visual processing of faces and social cognition) characterized a mother's response to her dog. Mothers also rated images of their child and dog as eliciting similar levels of excitement (arousal) and pleasantness (valence), although the difference in the own vs. unfamiliar child comparison was larger than the own vs. unfamiliar dog comparison for arousal. Valence ratings of their dog were also positively correlated with ratings of the attachment to their dog. Although there are similarities in the perceived emotional experience and brain function associated with the mother-child and mother-dog bond, there are also key differences that may reflect variance in the evolutionary course and function of these relationships.
Citation: Stoeckel LE, Palley LS, Gollub RL, Niemi SM, Evins AE (2014) Patterns of Brain Activation when Mothers View Their Own Child and Dog: An fMRI Study. PLoS ONE 9(10): e107205. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107205 Editor: Marina Pavlova, University of Tuebingen Medical School, Germany Received: March 3, 2014; Accepted: August 12, 2014; Published: October 3, 2014 Copyright: © 2014 Stoeckel et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This research was funded by the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Comparative Medicine, with additional support from the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital, using resources provided by the Center for Functional Neuroimaging Technologies, P41RR14075, a P41 Regional Resource supported by the Biomedical Technology Program of the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). This work was also conducted with support from Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (NIH UL1 RR 025758) and financial contributions from Harvard University and its affiliated academic health care centers. Finally, the study was supported by the Charles A. King Trust (LES), by NIH K23DA032612 (LES) and by NIH K24 DA030443 (AEE). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Introduction Humans began domesticating dogs to serve in a variety of roles, including as human companions or ‘pets’, 18,000–32,000 years ago [1]. The practice of adopting and nurturing other species (like dogs) or “alloparenting” is a common human behavior across different cultures that arose from the evolutionary need for domestication [2]. Approximately 2/3 of U.S. households have pets, and over $50 billion is spent annually on their care (http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp). Many people have a strong emotional attachment to their pets. Pet owners have been termed ‘pet parents’ in the popular media, and half of pet owners consider their pet as much a part of the family as any member of the household (AP-Petside.com Poll 2009). Pets can be beneficial to the physical, social, and emotional well-being of humans [3]–[6], and animal-assisted therapy is widely used as a complementary medicine and adjunctive mental health intervention [7], [8]. Similarities between the owner-dog relationship and the human-infant relationship have been described within the framework of human attachment theory, developed to explain the role of the human infant-caregiver relationship in development, and extended to adult-adult caregiver, peer, and romantic relationships [9]. Attachment, usually refers to the bond formed between a child and caregiver (typically, a mother) to ensure safety, security, and, ultimately, survival [10] that may apply also to the formation and maintenance of people's relationship with their pets [11]–[13]. On a well-established laboratory-based infant-maternal attachment measure [14], [15], very similar results for human infants' and dogs' behaviors with their mother or owner have been described under high and low stress conditions [15]–[17]. Similar neurobiologic mechanisms of bonding have been implicated in human-human and owner-dog pairs. Oxytocin, beta-endorphin, prolactin, beta-phenylethylamine, and dopamine are increased in pet owners and their dogs during [18] and after [19]–[21] a positive interaction. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to investigate neural responses when humans view the faces of their romantic partner or child compared with other faces [22]–[24]. Some brain regions activated to objects of both maternal and romantic love overlap with the brain's reward system that is hypothesized to facilitate strong interpersonal attachments [22]. Some common regions of activation also have dense expression of oxytocin and vasopressin receptors implicated in pair-bonding and maternal attachment [23]. In this study, our aim was to directly compare the functional neuroanatomy of the human-pet bond with that of the maternal-child bond. To do so, we analyzed patterns of brain function when mothers viewed images of their own child and own dog, with the aim of discovering both distinct and common regions of activation. We focused our analyses on specific brain regions of interest (ROI) known to be involved in the formation and maintenance of social bonds.
Methods The study was approved by the Partners Human Research Committee. Participants provided full written informed consent prior to beginning study procedures. The individuals in this manuscript have given written informed consent (as outlined in the PLOS consent form) to publish the images of their child's and dog's face (Figure 1) and other case details. PPT PowerPoint slide
PowerPoint slide PNG larger image
larger image TIFF original image Download: Figure 1. Study Schematic of the Experimental Design. Illustration of the passive viewing paradigm of dog and child images used. Sixteen unique color photos of faces: 4 own child (OC), 4 own dog (OD), 4 unfamiliar child (UC), 4 unfamiliar dog (UD) presented in 16 sec blocks (4 images/block) over 6 fMRI runs. Each block of images was followed by a screen with a fixation cross (FX). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107205.g001 Participants Participants were recruited via advertisement in local media, veterinary clinics, dog parks, and the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Study Volunteer Program for Health Registry. Eligible participants were women, aged 22–45 years, who had at least one child, aged: 2–10 years, and one pet dog, owned for at least 2 years, reported low to normal parenting stress (total score <90 on the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) [25]), normal affect (positive affect >12.5 and negative affect <29.1 on the Positive and Negative Affect Scale; PANAS [26], were right-handed, and had at least average estimated intellectual function (estimated Full Scale IQ >85 on Weschler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR); [27]. Exclusion criteria included any self-reported lifetime Axis I psychiatric disorder, current major medical illness, conditions that may impact brain reward function (e.g., obesity, substance use, pathological gambling), current or planned pregnancy, use of CNS-active medication in the prior six months, contraindication to MRI, and working in an animal-related field. Assessments Study Session 1 (home visit). Participants' child and dog were photographed in the participants' home, and participants completed the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory [28], PSI-SF [25], WTAR [27], the PANAS [26], Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS; [29], and a demographic and dog ownership questionnaire. Participants were then shown a series of unfamiliar child and dog photographs, assembled from participants who consented to having photographs of their child and dog viewed by others in the study, and were asked, “Are you familiar with this child or dog?” to confirm that control images were “unfamiliar”. Visual stimuli preparation: Sixteen unique photographs of children and dogs were selected and edited for each participant in Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0. The unfamiliar child and dog images were selected based on the familiarity assessment, and the unfamiliar child images were matched to the participant's child for gender and age. Photographs were cropped to 4×3 inches (to include the whole face with minimal neck and shoulders), resized to 800×600 pixels, outlined, and the selected area outside the image was shaded neutral grey. Images were converted to bitmap (*.bmp) format and modified for consistent luminance. Study Session 2 (imaging visit). Participants completed the PANAS and were then placed in the MRI scanner. They received instructions to relax as they passively viewed a variety of images of children and dogs (including some photographs taken during their home visit) as well as a fixation cross. Immediately following the scanning session, participants were given an eleven-question, multiple choice recognition test of the images they viewed in the scanner to verify that they were attentive during the study. Participants were asked about the content of the images, the hair color of the children and dogs, the number of images displayed, etc. Participants were then asked to rate 5 images per category selected from those shown during the scanning session on their emotional value (valence or pleasantness and arousal or excitement; [30]) using the Self Assessment Manikin scale (SAM; [31]). MRI data acquisition and procedure: Brain imaging data were acquired on a 3 Tesla Siemens TIM Trio MRI scanner using a 32-channel head coil. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI data were acquired using a gradient echo T2*-weighted pulse sequence (TR/TE = 2000/30 ms, flip angle = 90°, FOV = 200×200 mm, 32 axial oblique slices collected −30 degrees off the AC-PC line, slice thickness = 3.0 mm with 0.3 mm interslice gap, 816 image volumes per slice, matrix = 64×64). A high-resolution 3D MPRAGE sequence was collected for anatomic localization of the fMRI data. For the fMRI scans, visual stimuli (photographs) were presented to participants in a block design format, with six 4∶32 min runs per imaging session. Each run consisted of two 16 s epochs each for each image category. Within each 16 s epoch of images, four individual images were presented for 3.5 s each. A 0.5 s gap separated the images, and a pseudorandom gap of 14, 16, or 18 s separated the epochs. All gaps consisted of a gray blank screen with a fixation cross (Fig. 1). Each run consisted of 136 volumes for a total of 816 volumes across six runs, of which 96 volumes were acquired for each image category. The visual images were presented with a Windows XP laptop computer running PsychToolbox (http://psychtoolbox.org/HomePage) and a Matlab (Mathworks, Inc., 2000) toolbox. Images were projected onto a screen behind the participant's head at the back of the scanner and viewed via a 45° single-surface rear-projecting mirror attached to the head coil. Eye movements were not monitored during imaging, as emotional and neutral images have been reported to result in no differential eye movements [32], [33]. fMRI analysis: fMRI data analysis was conducted with Statistical Parametric Mapping, Version 8 (SPM8: http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/software/spm8/) and custom Matlab routines. Standard image preprocessing was performed including motion and field map distortion correction, normalization to the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) standard brain template space, and spatial smoothing with a 6 mm FWHM Gaussian filter. Artifact detection and removal was performed using ART (http://web.mit.edu/swg/software.htm). Specifically, an image was defined as an outlier (artifact) image if the head displacement in x, y, or z direction was greater than .5 mm from the previous frame, or if the rotational displacement was greater than .02 radians from the previous frame, or if the global mean intensity in the image was greater than 3 standard deviations from the mean image intensity for the entire resting scan. There were five outliers total across the 14 participants (2 during the own child images and 3 during the fixation period). Preprocessed block design BOLD fMRI data were analyzed in normalized (MNI) space within the context of the General Linear Model on a voxel-by-voxel basis as implemented in SPM8. The time course of brain activation was modeled with a boxcar function convolved with the canonical hemodynamic response function (HRF), including a temporal derivative function. Individual regressors included task conditions, six motion parameters (3 translational and 3 rotational directions), and outliers (one regressor per outlier image identified with ART). A two-stage procedure was used for the statistical analysis of a mixed-effects design in SPM8 [34]. We analyzed the data using a 2×2 repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to assess the main effects of species (child vs. dog), relationship (own vs. unfamiliar), and the species x relationship interaction using the flexible factorial approach in SPM8. We then generated statistical contrasts for comparing brain activation in response to 1) own child vs. fixation, 2) own dog vs. fixation, 3) own child vs. own dog, 4) own child vs. unfamiliar child, and 5) own dog vs. unfamiliar dog using planned one-sample t-tests. To address our a priori hypotheses and to improve statistical power, we used a ROI approach and small volume correction (SVC) in SPM8 [35]. Briefly, SVC is a voxelwise approach controlling the statistical threshold by only correcting for the number of voxels in the specified ROI(s). The size of the ROI masks used in the present study ranged from 104 mm3 or 13 voxels (HYPO) to 16,984 mm3 or 2,123 voxels (insula). Given the range in size in our ROIs and the potential for functional heterogeneity within these ROI masks, we chose the SVC approach as it would allow us to detect activation in a subset of voxels within these ROI masks. By averaging across the entire ROI mask, we may have less sensitivity to detect activation creating a bias towards the null [36]. Brain regions (ROIs): Our regions of interest were based on previous fMRI studies in the literature implicating these regions in the neurobiology of the maternal-child relationship and facial perception [23], [37]–[39]. These included regions of the classic mesocorticolimbic dopamine reward/motivation system (ventral tegmental area (VTA), ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens (NAcc), amygdala, and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC)), midbrain structures with dense expression of oxytocin and vasopressin receptors (substantia nigra (SNi) and periaqueductal grey (PAG)), and structures involved in social cognition and visual perception (superior temporal and fusiform gyri) and salience and interoceptive function (insula). Also included from these fMRI studies, were the hippocampus (HIPPO), hypothalamus (HYPO), thalamus, and dorsal striatum (caudate and putamen). ROI's were defined using anatomical structures in MNI space selected within the WFU Pickatlas toolbox [40] and the Harvard-Oxford atlas (http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/Atlases). Regions unavailable in these libraries (VTA/Sn and PAG) were drawn within the WFU Pickatlas using 3 mm volume-based spheres centered at a voxel location as identified by previous studies (VTA/Sn: x = ±4, y = −14, z = −16 [23], [38]; PAG: x = ±2, y = −32, z = −24 [23]). Significance for these a priori ROIs was assessed with cluster thresholds of p< .01 at the voxel level (uncorrected) and a familywise error (FWE) correction (as implemented in SPM8, using Gaussian Random Field Theory) of p< .05 at the cluster level. For the own child and own dog vs. fixation contrasts, we performed a conjunction analysis using the minimum statistic for conjunction null method [41], resulting in an overall alpha of p< .001 to determine whether shared brain regions were activated to both the own child and own dog images. Behavioral analyses: Valence and arousal ratings of the own and unfamiliar dog and child images were analyzed with a 2 (child vs. dog) ×2 (own vs. unfamiliar) repeated measures ANOVA. Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated to test the association between mean valence and arousal ratings for the own and unfamiliar dog images and LAPS total score. Analyses were performed with SPSS Version 21.0 (SPSS 21, IBM Corp. Released 2012. IBM SPSS Statistics for Mac, Version 21.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.).
Discussion To our knowledge, this is the first report of a comparison of fMRI-related brain activation patterns in women when they viewed images of their child and dog. Here we report substantial overlap in brain activation patterns in regions involved in reward, emotion, and affiliation elicited by images of both a mother's own child and dog. These women also reported similar pleasantness (valence) and excitement (arousal) ratings for their child and dog with a larger difference in the own vs. unfamiliar child compared to the own vs. unfamiliar dog comparisons for arousal. Valence ratings of the own dog images were also positively correlated with self-reported pet attachment. Interestingly, images of their child activated the dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin-rich midbrain VTA/SNi, thought to be a critical brain region involved in reward and affiliation that was not activated by images of their dog. When viewing images of their own child, there was less deactivation in another key reward region (NAcc/ventral striatum) compared to viewing their own dog or an unknown child. It is important to note the ANOVA analysis resulted in a significant main effect of relationship (own vs. other), but no main effect of species or relationship x species interaction. However, the planned contrast of own child vs. own dog resulted in significant differences in several regions, including bilateral fusiform gyrus, posterior insula, superior temporal gyrus, and NAcc/ventral striatum. The discrepancy in the results from these two analyses may be explained by methodological differences in the ANOVA and the planned contrast (t-test) approaches. That is, the planned contrast tests whether there is a specific effect between two conditions (e.g., own child vs. own dog) while the ANOVA interaction tests whether there are any differences by relationship status (own or unfamiliar) at different levels of species (child or dog). Given the primary aim of the current study was to test the difference in mother's neural responses to their own child vs. own dog (not unfamiliar child vs. unfamiliar dog), the majority of the discussion has focused on these comparisons. This report extends the mapping of the functional neuroanatomy of human relationships to an important human-animal relationship. A strength of the study is that it had a similar design to previous studies of brain response to visual images of familiar and unfamiliar people [42], friends and romantic partners to adults in love [22], [23], [43]–[47] and infants and children to mothers [23], [24], [37], [38], [48]–[50]; reviewed in [37], [51]. As observed in some of these prior studies of close human relationships, the amygdala, thought to be a critical region for bond formation, was activated to both the own child and dog images. The amygdala may be involved in providing the emotional tone and incentive salience that directs attention to the needs of the child and dog, which is critical for the formation of these pair bonds [24]. Another brain region critical to bond formation, the SNi/VTA, was only activated when mothers viewed images of their child. The SNi/VTA has a high density of dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin receptors that plays a critical role in reward-mediated attachment and affiliation [52], [53]. This replicates previous reports of maternal SNi/VTA activation to stimuli related to their child [23], [38], [54]. While SNi/VTA is also reported to have a critical function for other human-human relationships of evolutionary importance (romantic relationships; [22], [23]), this does not appear to extend to the human-pet bond [55], [56]. This could indicate that, in humans, the SNi/VTA is ‘central’ for the formation and maintenance of pair bonds that sustain and propagate our species. There was also overlap in own child and own dog vs. fixation contrasts in brain areas associated with reward (mOFC, putamen; [37], [51], [57]), memory (hippocampus, thalamus; [37], [54], [58]), and visual/facial processing and social cognition (fusiform gyrus; [39], [49], [59]), which suggests importance for both the human-human and human-dog relationships. We did not observe ventral striatum/NAcc activation in response to any of the visual stimulus categories. This is a critical node in the reward network, which may reinforce social interactions that lead to long-term pair bonds [24]. This finding is consistent with previous studies that reported no ventral striatum/NAcc activation when mother's viewed images of their older children or romantic partners [22], [23] but was activated to images of their infants [24], [60]. It is possible that the ventral striatum/NAcc is critical to the formation of pair bonds, while dorsal aspects of the striatum may be more crucial for the maintenance of these bonds. A similar transition from ventral to dorsal striatum driving behavior has been observed in the transition from voluntary to habitual behavior [61]. As in prior studies, we observed activation in other aspects of the striatum (putamen). We observed less deactivation in this ventral striatum/NAcc when mother's viewed images of their own child vs. both an unfamiliar child and their own dog, which may reflect less habituation [62]. While the fusiform gyrus was activated for both own child and dog images, there was greater magnitude and extent of activation in response to the own dog images when compared directly with the own child images. This region is central to visual and face processing and social cognition [39], [63]–[65]. Given the primacy of language for human-human communication, facial cues may be a more central communication device for dog-human interaction [66]. Face perception may contribute to the human-dog bond by helping owners identify their dog, use gaze direction to communicate, and interpret emotional states [65], [66]. Caveats Strengths of the study include the within-subjects design that allowed us to directly assess similarities and differences in response to the child and dog images with each participant serving as their own control, and a well-controlled image acquisition protocol which isolated the faces of dogs and children without including other features or contexts in the image that could complicate the interpretation of results if participants selected their own images from an existing set of photographs as previous studies have done. However, due to the cross-sectional nature of the design, it is not possible to determine whether the observed results relate to formation or maintenance of the pair bonds tested in this study. While we only included mothers who reported a healthy parenting relationship with their child, we did not strictly assess parent-child ‘attachment’ as traditionally defined and measured. We also studied a somewhat homogeneous group of mothers/pet owners: all women with young children between the ages of 2–10 and dogs that had been pets for 3–10.5 years. This homogeneity in ratings of attachment and emotional valence increased our power to detect effects of child vs. dog images on brain activation, but limited our ability to detect relationships between brain activation patterns and self-reported emotional ratings and attachment due to the restricted range of relationships. Due to scheduling constraints, we were unable to scan all women in the same menstrual phase, which has been shown to affect activation in reward-related brain areas [67]. Further research is needed to assess the generalizability of these findings to other relationships such as fathers, parents of adopted children, other animal species, and in mothers with a broader range of attachment.
Summary and Conclusions Mothers reported similar emotional ratings for their child and dog, which elicited greater positive emotional responses than unfamiliar children and dogs. While a common brain network involved in reward, emotion, and affiliation was activated when mothers viewed images of their child and dog, activation in the midbrain (VTA/SNi), a key brain region involved in reward and affiliation, characterized the response of mothers to images of their child and was not observed in response to images of their own dog. Mothers also had greater activation in the fusiform gyrus when viewing their own dog compared to when they viewed their own child. These results demonstrate that the mother-child and mother-dog bond share aspects of emotional experience and patterns of brain function, but there are also brain-behavior differences that may reflect the distinct evolutionary underpinning of these relationships.
Acknowledgments We wish to acknowledge Dr. Margaret Pulsifer, Dr. Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Dr. Carl Schwartz and Dr. Joanne Morris for their thoughtful input on study design, Rosa Spaeth and Alexandra Cheetham for imaging study support, Drs. Satrajit Ghosh and Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli for their input on statistical methods and tools, Ms. Caroline Chan for assistance with data preparation and analysis, and Joseph Ferrara of the MGH Photography Department for providing training on digital photography.
Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: LES LP RLG SMN AEE. Performed the experiments: LES LP. Analyzed the data: LES LP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LES. Wrote the paper: LES LP. Manuscript reviews and revisions: LES LP RLG AEE SMN. |
Early life Edit
Early legal work Edit
From 1992 to 1997, Mulvaney practiced law with the firm James, McElroy & Diehl. Mulvaney joined his family's homebuilding and real estate business. He participated in the Owners and Presidents Management Program at Harvard Business School. He was a minority shareholder and owner-operator in Salsarita's Fresh Cantina, a privately held regional restaurant chain.[17]
South Carolina legislature Edit
State House Edit Mulvaney was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2006.[18] State Senate Edit In 2008 an unexpected retirement created a vacancy in the South Carolina Senate and he campaigned for and won that office in what was widely regarded to be the hardest fought legislative race in South Carolina that year.[19] While in the State Senate, Mulvaney served on the Judiciary, Labor/Commerce/Industry, Medical Affairs, Agriculture/Natural Resources, and Corrections Committees. The Palmetto Family Council identified him as the Freshman Legislator of the Year in 2006 for his work on the South Carolina ultrasound bill.[20][21] In 2010 he was named Legislator of the Year for his work in support of the State's Emergency Medical Services (EMS). He has received one of the few A+ ratings in the entire legislature from the South Carolina Club for Growth.[21]
U.S. House of Representatives Edit
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Edit
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Edit
White House Chief of Staff Edit
Appointment Edit On December 14, 2018, Donald Trump named Mulvaney as his acting White House Chief of Staff beginning with the new year.[91] Prior to Trump's election, Mulvaney had characterized the future president as a "terrible human being",[92][93] said he would be disqualified from office in an "ordinary universe",[94] and described Trump's views on a wall on the US-Mexico border as "absurd and almost childish."[95]
Personal life Edit
In 1998, Mulvaney married Pamela West whom he had met in line at a bookstore while he was a law student. The couple have triplets, (born in 2000) Finn, James and Caroline.[15][11] He is a Roman Catholic.[96] Mick Mulvaney's brother Ted Mulvaney (Theodore) is portfolio manager for Braeburn Capital, the investment arm of tech giant Apple Inc.[97][98]
Notes Edit |
In some parts of the world the aubergine is called eggplant. I live in England, so in this article, I am going to refer to it as ‘aubergine’.
What’s not to love about the aubergine! When picked raw it has a sort of spongy, proud texture. It comes in lots of different colours and varieties and is used in a myriad of different dishes all around the world. The aubergine collapses on cooking to create a ‘meaty’ or ‘creamy’ consistency (a creamy texture is often found in Asian varieties and a meaty texture in European varieties).
Today, I am sharing my Baba Ganoush recipe – Trinity’s Conscious Kitchen style.
Baba ganoush is perfect for eating as part of a mezze plater; with a salad; as a baked potato filling; dunking with carrot or celery sticks; or scooping up with flatbreads or crackers.
Traditionally, the aubergine would be baked or grilled over an open flame before peeling. That makes it soft and gives it a smoky taste. However, I am not baking mine over an open flame in the recipe. Instead I am keeping it simple and doing what I usually do – cooking it in the oven.
I add a hint of smoked paprika, to give it that perfect smokey taste.
I bake my aubergine until soft. If your aubergine is quite watery (as most of them can be) then it’s best to drain off quite a bit of the excess water. If there is too much water, then you won’t get it to creamy up as well as you might like. I use a colander or sieve and let it drain out for a minute or two. You could also squeeze it out by hand if you prefer. A little water will be fine (you just don’t want loads).
OK my mouth is watering – let’s make this together!
Creamy Baba Ganoush with a Hint of Smoked Paprika (easy vegan recipe) Yield: 4 portions Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 40 minutes Total Time: 45 minutes A delicious, creamy baba ganoush recipe. A smoky aubergine (eggplant) dip from the Middle East, using a pinch of smoked paprika for a gentle smoked flavour. Print Ingredients 1 large aubergine/eggplant (about 1/2 kg or 1 lb in weight)
1 small garlic clove
1 tablespoon (approx) lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon smoked ground paprika (big pinch to taste)
Twist black pepper Optional garnish Drizzle hemp oil
Few parsley sprigs
Sprinkle ground paprika Instructions Score through the aubergine (also called eggplant) several times with a sharp knife. This is important to stop it bursting open in the oven when you bake it. Bake it in a hot oven at gas mark 7 (425F or 220C) between 40 & 60 minutes (or until soft). Once baked, allow to cool. When cool, scoop out the contents. If your aubergine is quite watery (as most of them can be) then it's best to drain off quite a bit of the excess water. If there is too much water, then you won't get it to creamy up as well as you might like. Use a colander or sieve and let it drain for a minute or two. When ready put the strained aubergine into a jug or food processor. Crush the garlic clove and add to jug. Add lemon juice, tahini, sea salt, smoked paprika and pepper. Blend until creamy smooth (I normally do this with a hand blender, but a food processor or jug blender will well work too). Chill before serving. Add optional garnish of parsley, smoked paprika or hemp oil, if you like, when serving.
Pin for later… |
Square Enix Also Betting on New IP Dragon Sky
By Eugene . February 1, 2014 . 2:00pm
Dragon Sky is another new real-time strategy IP coming from Square Enix that’s hoping to lure people in with nice illustrations and simple-but-engaging gameplay for their smartphones.
The game stars you, a dude who’s just been summoned to the world of Dragon Sky by the dark dragon Agus, and now wants to remember just what the hell happened and get back to the real world during the story missions. Along the way, you’ll meet other similarly summoned folk who you might team up with or throw down against.
It kinda looks like Clash of Clans at first, what with the ability to build up a base and then take on foes, but we’re not entirely sure if that’s exactly how it plays yet so hold your horses. There are, after all, character cards to collect to represent your troops—and they’ll range over 10 different species such as mermaids and the like who represent characters in the game. As mentioned, you’ll also be able to take down enemy bases and even raid bosses.
Dragon Sky is coming for the iOS and Android. |
A STATUE commemorating Britain’s only female Muslim war heroine will become the first stand-alone memorial to an Asian woman in the UK when it is unveiled in London next month.
Second World War spy Noor Inayat Khan was sent into France by Winston Churchill’s secret Special Operations Executive (SOE) in June 1943, but was betrayed and captured a few months later. She was shot by the SS in Dachau in September 1944, aged 30, and posthumously awarded the George Cross as well as the Croix de Guerre by France.
She was one of only three women in the SOE to be awarded the George Cross. The other two — Violette Szabo and Odette Hallowes — have had far more recognition, including films about their lives.
Around 300 people are expected to attend the statue’s unveiling ceremony on Nov 8, including veterans of both the SOE and Women’s Auxiliary Air force (WAF).
Irene Warner, 91, got to know Noor while they were both training in Edinburgh. “She was very quiet, very shy and often wore a nervous smile, particularly when dancing but she was a very nice person ... she was very brave and certainly deserves some recognition.”
Campaigners spent years raising money for the statue, staging concerts by Talvin Singh and Anousha Shankar. Other support included a House of Commons early-day motion in June 2010, tabled by Valerie Vaz, proposing that a statue be erected. It was signed by 34 MPs including Glenda Jackson, Julian Lewis and Peter Bottomley and received cross-party support. The vice chancellor of the University of London also gave permission for the bust to be installed in Gordon Square, central London.
Campaigners became nervous when, at the final hurdle, on Oct 3, the local authority, Camden council, delayed approval. A petition on Facebook attracted 700 letters of support from all over the world.
A council spokesman said the application was merely going through “the process all applications follow” and planning permission for the statue was finally granted last week only three weeks before it is to be unveiled by Princess Anne.
The petition letter, posted on the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust’s Facebook page, had argued for Gordon Square as an ideal location for the statue because “it is a place where many students and members of the public like to sit ... the statue will be a timely reminder that we must not forget the principles of non-violence and religious harmony that Noor stood for, and for which she unhesitatingly sacrificed her life.”
Shrabani Basu, founder of the Noor Memorial Trust and author of her biography, Spy Princess, adds: “Noor’s house was also nearby and it is where she lived before setting off on her last mission. On her days off she used to sit in the square on a bench with a book on her lap.”
Noor, who was the daughter of Hazrat Inayat Khan, founder of the mystical Sufi Order of the West, was also a musician and poet. The ceremony will feature Dutch Sufi soprano Bep Ragini Pierik, singing one of Noor’s poems.
Given Noor’s unique place in history, it is surely about time that she be immortalised in this way. One really has to ask: what took them so long? — The Guardian, London |
The popular HBO drama Game of Thrones set a new record this season for the illegal downloading of a television show, and the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey L. Bleich, is very unhappy about it. He’s also pretty sure that one of the totally fictional characters from the show would be unhappy about it too.
Noting that today is the 17th annual UN World Book and Copyright Day, Bleich posted a message on Facebook this Tuesday titled “Stopping the Game of Clones” where he (rightfully) lauded Game of Thrones “as a great epic chronicling the devious machinations of rival noble houses fighting for supremacy” and asked fans to stop illegally uploading and downloading the show, calling the widespread torrenting of fans “nearly as epic and devious as the drama.”
The file-sharing news website TorrentFreak estimated that Game of Thrones was the most-pirated TV series of 2012. One episode was illegally downloaded about 4,280,000 times through public BitTorrent trackers in 2012, which is about equal to the number of that episode’s broadcast viewers. In other words, about half of that episode’s viewers stole the program from HBO. As the Ambassador here in Australia, it was especially troubling to find out that Australian fans were some of the worst offenders with among the highest piracy rates of Game of Thrones in the world.
As a closing note, Bleich speculated on the possible response to the illegal downloading of the show by one of its fictional characters: “So please celebrate UN World Book and Copyright Day by doing the right thing – Tyrion Lannister will thank you for it. ”
Yes, illegal downloading is a massive world-wide phenomenon that deprives creators–or more often, intellectual property owners–from earning profits off their copyrighted material. But respectfully, Mr. Ambassador: Tyrion Lannister would not give a shit.
We’re told that the Lannisters always pay their debts, but if we’ve learned anything from reading the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin (or the HBO series that adapts them to the small screen) it’s that they’re far more concerned with getting what they want–and not who it harms along the way. And despite being a fairly moral character relative to the egomaniacs and sociopaths surrounding him, Tyrion is nothing if not a brilliant, politically savvy manipulator who is perfectly willing to lie, manipulate and coerce the people around him to achieve his goals.
Granted, he’d have no problem flipping a coin at HBO thanks to family’s enormous wealth, but if for any reason he found himself with limited resources and no convenient way to watch an episode of Game of Thrones, you’d best believe that minor ethical hurdles and minimal effort wouldn’t stop him from torrenting. (Though most likely he’d delegate the actual work to his squire Pod.)
Taking a page from Bleich’s book, however, the Underwire staff decided to imagine how other Game of Thrones characters would feel about torrenting Game of Thrones:
Ned Stark: Waits for the DVD, and grimaces quietly as everyone who downloaded it spoils all the twists on Twitter.
Littlefinger: Pirates it, sells bootleg DVDs, and then publicly tut tuts about the evils of illegal downloading.
Jon Snow: Insists that he doesn’t watch it or care about the show but secretly reads summaries on Wikipedia.
Salladhor Saan: Pirates it, obviously.
Davos: Used to pirate, but got slapped on the wrist with an RIAA “copyright alert letter” and is now on the straight and narrow.
Robb Stark: Watched a pirated version at a friend’s house by accident and then felt so guilty he pre-ordered all the DVDs AND subscribed to HBO.
Melisandre: Doesn’t watch the show. She’s read the books, so she’s already knows what’s going to happen anyway. Or so she thinks. |
PETER BATTY Peter is an innovator and leader with 25 years of experience in the geospatial industry, who has been CTO at two of the world’s top 200 software companies. He was an early employee and later CTO of Smallworld, which became the market leader in GIS for utilities and telecoms and was sold to GE. He was CTO at Intergraph, a leader in GIS and related applications with revenues of $600m+. He is currently a co-founder and CTO of the geospatial division at Ubisense, working on next generation enterprise geospatial web and mobile applications. He has served on the boards of industry associations GITA and OSGeo, and on the advisory boards of startups GeoIQ and PublicEarth. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he earned degrees in Mathematics and Computation.
MAX RHEINER Max Rheiner is a senior lecturer at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK), who has been teaching in both the bachelors and masters programs for the Department of Interaction Design, since 2006. He received his Diploma from Zurich University of the Arts in the field of New Media Arts, in 2003. The main areas of discipline that he specializes in are Embodied Interaction and Physical Computing. Of these topics, he conceived and developed the Physical Computing Laboratory for the Department of Interaction Design that has been running since 2006. His research and artistic interest center on interactive experiences which utilize methods from Virtual/Augmented Reality and Immersive Telepresence. Moreover, his artistic work has been recognized and exhibited in a number of international and well-renowned venues such as Biennale Venice, Italy, Ars Electronic Linz, Austria, and Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan.
ANSELM HOOK Anselm Hook is a veteran VR/AR developer focused on helping people "see through walls". He led the technology and development of several highly successful video games including Dragon's Lair for Electronic Arts, and more recently R&D roles at Xerox Parc and a number of specialized entrepreneurial startups focused on Augmented Reality including Dekko, InsideMaps and currently at Samsung Accelerator
JURGEN P. SCHULZE Jurgen P. Schulze is a Research Scientist at UCSD's Qualcomm Institute, and an Adjunct Professor in the computer science department, where he teaches computer graphics and 3D user interfaces. His research interests include scientific visualization in virtual environments, human-computer interaction, real-time volume rendering, and the use of mobile devices for graphics applications. He holds an M.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. After his graduation he spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher in the Computer Science Department at Brown University.
BRADY FORREST Brady Forrest is a technology evangelist obsessed with opening doors for makers, entrepreneurs, and inventors looking to launch the world’s next game-changing product. Under Brady’s leadership, PCH & Highway1 have funded over 35 companies with a focus on innovative consumer products. In his previous life, Brady co-founded Ignite: the worldwide, fast-paced geek event that invites participants to share ideas and personal or professional passions on stage. He also chaired O'Reilly's Where 2.0, Web 2.0 Expo and ETech.
TIMOTHY SESTAK Timothy Sestak is a former Naval Aviator flying both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He directed high technology military aviation programs and has extensive experience in pilot-vehicle interface. Following his military career, he evangelized Systems Engineering discipline to NASA, the FAA, and Industry on the Advanced General Aviation Transportation Experiment (AGATE) program. As a senior Systems Engineer for The Boeing Company he managed flight deck certification for wide body airliners and helped create the Boeing Joint Strike Fighter Program and the F-22 training systems. As an IBM executive he developed opportunities for integration of the Cell Broadband Engine into existing and developing military and aerospace systems. Timothy currently is a researcher and Professor at the College of Aviation, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, in Prescott, AZ. An avid skydiver and wingsuit flyer, he is the University faculty advisor to the skydiving and hang gliding club and is completing research for the new Embry-Riddle Ph.D. in Aviation. Timothy has an MSAE, an MBA, and is a graduate of the Naval War College. He also has his FAA Commercial Pilot license and instrument ratings in both fixed wing and helicopters, is a CFI, CFII, and AGI for both fixed wing and rotorcraft. |
RotoBaller continues to bring you a complete list of the coming week's pitching matchups, as well as expert advice on whether to sit or start each pitcher. This advice is based on a variety of factors- quality of the opponent, recent starts by the pitcher, ballpark, batter vs. pitcher matchups, and much more. RotoBaller has assembled all this information into one handy cheat sheet for fantasy owners to use to dominate their leagues.
For example, it is with much regret that we are sitting Rays right-hander Chris Archer for both of his starts this week - Monday vs. Baltimore, and Saturday at Toronto. Ever since his 12-strikeout gem on Opening Day, Archer has looked very hittable and, allowing 30 hits and 11 walks in 19.2 innings. With a season ERA over 7.00, and with matchups against two of the American League's best offenses (third and fourth in runs scored, as of this publication), we feel that the safe bet is to sit Archer until he straightens himself out. Is it possible that Archer breaks out in one of those starts and you miss out on another stellar start? Sure. We want to minimize risk as much as possible; better to sit him and miss out on a good start than start him and watch him get hit around again. It's expert advice like this that helps fantasy owners have the most success, and you'll find even more in our Start/Sit Recommendations for Week 4.
Fantasy baseball is all about value, as well. Here are some starters that should be a good value play- someone you can add to your roster for this one start, then immediately put back onto the waiver wire. Those pitchers include Cleveland's Cody Anderson and Josh Tomlin on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Twins, Houston's Mike Fiers and Scott Feldman on Friday and Saturday at Oakland (in that spacious ballpark), Pittsburgh lefty Jeff Locke against the Reds on Saturday, and Miami' Tom Koehler on Sunday against Milwaukee.
Another piece of advice that is obvious but still worth saying: start the good pitchers against the bad teams. These are the starts where owners are most likely to rack up those excellent starts that change the whole momentum of a fantasy season. Owners of Jake Arrieta, for example, took advantage of this in his no-hitter against the Reds. Some pitchers this week in similar situations: the Mets' Noah Syndergaard against the Reds (Monday), David Price of the Red Sox against the Braves (Tuesday), Washington's Max Scherzer against the Phillies (Wednesday), the aforementioned Arrieta against the Brewers (Wednesday), Indians ace Corey Kluber against the Phillies (Friday), and Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw against the Padres (Sunday).
SP Matchups & Start/Sit Recommendations
Be sure to check back for analysis on pitchers making two starts this week (for H2H leagues), as well as updated player rankings and waiver-wire options. And remember: this stuff changes. Check back during the week for continuous updates to this list to get the most accurate information possible!
PROBABLE PITCHERS - MONDAY (4/25/16) GAME VISITING STARTER START/SIT HOME STARTER START/SIT CHW@TOR Chris Sale SP | CHW Start Marcus Stroman SP | TOR Start OAK@DET Kendall Graveman SP | OAK Sit Jordan Zimmermann SP | DET Start BOS@ATL Rick Porcello SP | BOS Sit Julio Teheran SP | ATL Sit CIN@NYM Raisel Iglesias SP | CIN Sit Noah Syndergaard SP | NYM Start BAL@TB Kevin Gausman SP | BAL Sit Chris Archer SP | TB Sit NYY@TEX Nathan Eovaldi SP | NYY Sit Cole Hamels SP | TEX Start CLE@MIN Danny Salazar SP | CLE Start Tommy Milone SP | MIN Sit PIT@COL Jeff Locke SP | PIT Sit Jorge de la Rosa SP | COL Sit STL@ARI Jaime Garcia SP | STL Start Zack Greinke SP | ARI Start KC@LAA Ian Kennedy SP | KC Start Garrett Richards SP | LAA Start HOU@SEA Doug Fister SP | HOU Sit Taijuan Walker SP | SEA Start MIA@LAD Wei-Yin Chen SP | MIA Sit Ross Stripling SP | LAD Sit SD@SF Drew Pomeranz SP | SD Sit Madison Bumganer SP | SF Start PROBABLE PITCHERS - TUESDAY (4/26/16) GAME VISITING STARTER START/SIT HOME STARTER START/SIT PHI@WAS Vince Velasquez SP | PHI Sit Joe Ross SP | WAS Start CHW@TOR John Danks SP | CHW Sit R.A. Dickey SP | TOR Sit BAL@TB Ubaldo Jimenez SP | BAL Start Jake Odorizzi SP | TB Sit BOS@ATL David Price SP | BOS Start Matt Wisler SP | ATL Sit CIN@NYM Brandon Finnegan SP | CIN Sit Bartolo Colon SP | NYM Start OAK@DET Rich Hill SP | OAK Sit Mike Pelfrey SP | DET Sit MIL@CHC Jimmy Nelson SP | MIL Sit Kyle Hendricks SP | CHC Start NYY@TEX Luis Severino SP | NYY Sit A.J. Griffin SP | TEX Sit CLE@MIN Cody Anderson SP | CLE Start Ricky Nolasco SP | MIN Sit PIT@COL Gerrit Cole SP | PIT Start Chad Bettis SP | COL Sit STL@ARI Carlos Martinez SP | STL Start Shelby Miller SP | ARI Start KC@LAA Edinson Volquez SP | KC Start Jered Weaver SP | LAA Sit HOU@SEA Dallas Keuchel SP | HOU Start Nathan Karns SP | SEA Sit MIA@LAD Tom Koehler SP | MIA Sit Clayton Kershaw SP | LAD Start SD@SF James Shields SP | SD Start Johnny Cueto SP | SF Start PROBABLE PITCHERS - WEDNESDAY (4/27/16) GAME VISITING STARTER START/SIT HOME STARTER START/SIT SD@SF Andrew Cashner SP | SD Sit Jeff Samardzija SP | SF Start PHI@WAS Jeremy Hellickson SP | PHI Sit Max Scherzer SP | WAS Start CHW@TOR Jose Qunitana SP | CHW Sit Marco Estrada SP | TOR Sit ATL@BOS Bud Norris SP | ATL Sit Steven Wright SP | BOS Start BAL@TB Chris Tillman SP | BAL Start Matt Moore SP | TB Sit CIN@NYM Jon Moscot SP | CIN Sit Matt Harvey SP | NYM Start OAK@DET Sonny Gray SP | OAK Start Justin Verlander SP | DET Start MIL@CHC Taylor Jungmann SP | MIL Sit Jake Arrieta SP | CHC Start NYY@TEX C.C. Sabathia SP | NYY Sit Martin Perez SP | TEX Sit CLE@MIN Josh Tomlin SP | CLE Start Kyle Gibson SP | MIN Sit PIT@COL Jonathon Niese SP | PIT Sit Jon Gray SP | COL Sit STL@ARI Adam Wanwright SP | STL Start Patrick Corbin SP | ARI Start KC@LAA Chris Young SP | KC Sit Nick Tropeano SP | LAA Sit HOU@SEA Collin McHugh SP | HOU Sit Hisashi Iwakuma SP | SEA Start MIA@LAD Jarred Cosart SP | MIA Sit Scott Kazmir SP | LAD Start PROBABLE PITCHERS - THURSDAY (4/28/16) GAME VISITING STARTER START/SIT HOME STARTER START/SIT OAK@DET Chris Bassitt SP | OAK Sit Anibal Sanchez SP | DET Start MIL@CHC Zach Davies SP | MIL Sit Jon Lester SP | CHC Start PIT@COL Juan Nicasio SP | PIT Sit Tyler Chatwood SP | COL Sit PHI@WAS Aaron Nola SP | PHI Sit Gio Gonzalez SP | WAS Start CHW@BAL Carlos Rodon SP | CHW Sit Yovani Gallardo SP | BAL Sit ATL@BOS Jhoulys Chacin SP | ATL Sit Clay Buchholz SP | BOS Start STL@ARI Michael Wacha SP | STL Start Rubby de la Rosa SP | ARI Sit MIA@LAD Jose Fernandez SP | MIA Start Kenta Maeda SP | LAD Start PROBABLE PITCHERS - FRIDAY (4/29/16) GAME VISITING STARTER START/SIT HOME STARTER START/SIT ATL@CHC TBD John Lackey SP | CHC Start CHW@BAL Matt Latos SP | CHW Sit Mike Wright SP | BAL Sit CIN@PIT Dan Straily RP | CIN Sit Francisco Liriano SP | PIT Start CLE@PHI Corey Kulber SP | CLE Start Charlie Morton SP | PHI Sit NYY@BOS Masahiro Tanaka SP | NYY Start Henry Owens SP | BOS Sit SF@NYM Jake Peavy SP | SF Sit Steven Matz SP | NYM Sit TOR@TB Aaron Sanchez SP | TOR Start Drew Smyly SP | TB Sit LAA@TEX Hector Santiago SP | LAA Start Colby Lewis SP | TEX Sit DET@MIN Shane Greene SP | DET Sit Phil Hughes SP | MIN Sit MIA@MIL Adam Conley SP | MIA Start Chase Anderson SP | MIL Sit WAS@STL Tanner Roark SP | WAS Sit Mike Leake SP | STL Sit COL@ARI Jordan Lyles SP | COL Sit Robbie Ray SP | ARI Sit HOU@OAK Mike Fiers SP | HOU Start Erik Surkamp SP | OAK Sit KC@SEA Kris Medlen SP | KC Sit Felix Hernandez SP | SEA Start SD@LAD TBD Alex Wood SP | LAD Start PROBABLE PITCHERS - SATURDAY (4/30/16) GAME VISITING STARTER START/SIT HOME STARTER START/SIT DET@MIN Jordan Zimmermann SP | DET Start Ervin Santana SP | MIN Sit WAS@STL Stephen Strasburg SP | WAS Start Jaime Garcia SP | STL Start ATL@CHC Julio Teheran SP | ATL Sit Jason Hammel SP | CHC Start HOU@OAK Scott Feldman SP | HOU Start Kendall Graveman SP | OAK Sit SF@NYM Matt Cain SP | SF Sit Jacob deGrom SP | NYM Start TOR@TB J.A. 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The sustainable city of the future needs to feed a growing population in a sustainable way. This is already a challenge! Swedish Plantagon is working on an innovative industrial scale vertical skyscraper farm, to feed cities of the future with leafy greens! Development is planned to start during the summer of 2016! By Domi, Tellus Think Tank, 4th of January 2016.
About: Tellus Think Tank aims at inspiring lives and communities to choose the sustainable and regenerative road towards the future by sharing good examples and ideas! We keep our eyes open to the problems and focus on ideas, best practises and solutions. We hope this article inspires you to ask your city council for a solution like a city vertical greenhouse!
The problem in short
In short, the population of Earth is currently 7,3 billion and is expected to continue to grow. Consequences of continued population growth, Global Warming and continued urbanisation are future strains in supply of food and water.
It raises the question: Will Earth be able to feed 10 billion people in 2050? Read more about the challenge here.
One possible solution to feed the population in the sustainable city of the future is the smart and vertical greenhouse
Global Warming and environmental changes on Earth have made societies ponder on how to move towards “smart cities” where several types of digital systems are connected to make life in the city more effective but also offer a higher quality of living to the city inhabitants. “Smart City” interconnected services that are often mentioned are transport and traffic management, energy, water, waste management but also innovative urban agriculture and Tellus Think Tank is therefore meeting with Plantagon.
Read more about the future transport systems of the future: Urban Foresight and the Mill-project
The food from a local city greenhouse becomes more affordable for city dwellers as costs for both food transports and middlemen are taken out of the production process. Plantagons innovative techniques to grow crops in sustainable ways aim to help boost production of sustainable food and save a significant amount of input of resources by harnessing resources like waste from other urban infrastructure – sustainable city thinking!
Plantagon has first version of a greenhouse consisted of a large and spectacularly looking spherical greenhouse, which would have been a real eyecatcher in any city!
The innovation process has however moved on and the current idea being developed is an impressive 17 story building supported by an array of interconnected sustainable digital systems and mixing offices with food production!
The south side of the building constitutes a vertical greenhouse and the north side of the building consists of office space.
Produce from the vertical greenhouses of Plantagon
Plantagons 17 story greenhouse will grow leafy greens on 4000 m2 / 43 000 ft2 while only occupying 400m2 / 4300 ft2 of land on ground level. The building also provides 4000 m2 / 43 000 ft2 of northern facing office space.
Sepehr Mousavi, Sustainability Strategist, at Plantagon tells me that the greenhouse will initially produce foods like herbs and salad such as Pak Choy, kale, lettuce, spinach, parsley, basil. Sepehr calls them leafy greens.
The running cost of the growing process is very lean indeed and able to run on a staff of three persons, not including staff for transports or building repairs or maintenance.
Plantagon estimates show that their latest developed, but not yet built, greenhouse will probably produce as much as 2 tons of leafy greens, salads and herbs, a day! This is enough for the annual needs of about 25 000 persons, based on the average consumption of leafy greens in Sweden.
Horticultural aspects, techniques and inventions for the sustainable city of the future is found in Plantagon’s vertical greenhouse
There are a lot of aspects to be taken into consideration when building an effective horticultural system with the ability to produce a large amount of leafy greens on every day of the year. To make the system as effective and sustainable as possible the greenhouse is designed to be a closed system, not letting unmonitored air, water, nutrients, energy or waste in or out of the building.
Not soil. Instead of soil, the plants will be planted in Icelandic volcanic pumice. This material gives stability to the
roots and plant, provides some nutrition in form of different kinds of minerals and allows the roots to build up pockets of oxygen needed for the photosynthesis process. Other, more pure, Hydroponic solutions on the market today lack providing protection from the flow of the water so that the oxygen pockets around the roots needed are washed away. The pumice is believed to be in use for upto 10 years, before it has been grinded by the daily greenhouse process to become too smooth to be able to support the plants. Before using the pumice it has to be disinfected, which is done in special microwave ovens.
The pots. The specially designed and copyrighted uPOT to be used in the vertical greenhouse, is another of Plantagons inventions. The pot is expandable and will grow in diameter as the plant needs more space. The pot is one of the solutions that makes if possible to avoid replanting the crop during its 5 week growth process.
Spiraling road of growth. The plants and seeds are initially planted in their pots at the ground floor of the greenhouse and then sent up to the top floor in an elevator that runs up and down the back wall of the greenhouse and then pushed onto the slowly, downwards spiraling and moving band, called the helix. It will be the plants home during 4-5 weeks. When the plant reaches the ground level again it is fully grown and ready to be transported to the local shops or even sold in the greenhouse shop.
This short film shows a model that has been built to visualise the 4-5 week spiraling path of the plants on the helix. Film: AnnVixen
Water and organic nutrient. Water and organic nutrition is mixed to perfection and pumped up to the top of the greenhouse. From there is lead down the spiraling helix system, watering all the plants on its two hour journey back to the bottom of the greenhouse, to soon be reused again.
The temperature of the greenhouse has to be constant all year around and needs to be monitored and adjusted. The
glass walls of the building is based on a bi-glass-wall system that Sepehr calls a “double-shell façade”. The correct temperature air is sent in the canal between the two glass frames from the bottom and then blown to the top of the building. The air gathered at the top is fed into the air conditioning system to either cool or heat the greenhouse or offices, when needed.
Sunlight or not. The most effective way of growing leafy greens, according to Plantagon, is by providing sixteen hours of continuous daylight and leaving the plants to rest in darkness during the rest of the day. The greenhouse will be kitted with pink-led-lamps as a sun-supplement to be used when needed.
Symbiotic system of water, waste and energy. The water, electricity and waste of the greenhouse will be interconnected in a symbiotic system, involving the local biogas plant and the local energy power plant.
Carbon dioxide from the biogas plant could be led to the greenhouse plants, as they need it to grow and this also lowers the plant’s carbon-footprint. The same could be done with the carbon dioxide in the office part of the building, and the oxygen produced in the greenhouse could in turn be led to the offices. Waste from the greenhouse can be returned to the biogas plant, and
the energy that the greenhouse produces from its geothermal bore-holes can be sold back to the local power plant. The Plantagon greenhouse has a lot of possibilities to be a “smart building”!
An automatic ordering system. Buyers of the leafy greens will place orders in an ordering system so that the demand for the salads and herbs shows if further marketing is needed in new geographic areas and so on.
Smart systems. Sepehr tells me that the greenhouse can hardly work without supplying smart systems, ICT-systems, to monitor heat, lighting, cleanliness and PA-levels of the water, the amount of nutrients, need of energy, the surplus of energy, the redistribution of carbon dioxide from the office part of the building with the oxygen from the greenhouse part of the building and much more. According to one of Plantagons alliance partners, Sweco, this is one of the most complex projects they have ever worked on, and one can understand why!
Read more about Plantagon and the first greenhouse planned to be built in Swedish Linköping in 2016 here!
Next week: Tellus Think Tank will share an alternative way of living, small living, in tiny homes – something for you? Read more next week! Want a notification of when the article is available, click here! |
Justin Trudeau — of course — takes time during his kayak trips to chat with the regular Canadians.
Canada’s Prime Minster rode his kayak along Niagra-on-the-Lake in Ontario to mark World Environment Day on Monday. “The future is still bright for those who have the courage to confront hard truths, and the confidence to stay the course,” he said in his comments after his kayak ride, according to Reuters.
“Canada will not back down from its commitment to fight climate change – and we are not alone. Around the world, nearly every country is on our side. Inaction is not an option,” he said. “We can’t walk away from the reality of climate change.”
The politician even paddled up to a group of homeowners to chat about the impact of climate change on the river. “Any day on the water, we call this work you know?” he joked in a video shared by Carrie Robinson. We know.
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He is no stranger to having his outdoor moments go viral — including the time when he surprised a family while hiking (shirtlessly).
Perhaps he wanted to paddle to draw more attention to the real issues than himself. Tall order, Trudeau.
Write to Ashley Hoffman at [email protected]. |
You could hear the snickering from St. John's to Victoria Wednesday evening as news broke that Canada's broadcasting regulator was questioning whether three porn channels were living up to their Canadian content requirements.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released a notice that it would be holding a hearing in April to consider two applications to change the ownership structure of AOV Adult Movie Channel, and of AOV XXX Action Clips and AOV Maleflixxx, but in both cases it added that the channels may have failed to comply with their 35-per-cent Canadian content requirement. Nor were they closed-captioning enough programming. The CRTC notice made it onto the crawl on the CBC news and the jokes about Canadian quickies, CRTC spankings and other things we can't repeat here have been flying ever since.
It's yet more ammunition for those who mock the CRTC and question why it needs to even exist. You could say the regulator brought this one on itself when it decided to license porn channels a decade ago, and required them to contribute to Canadian broadcasting the same way every licensee does. But the sheer silliness of requiring Canadian content in adult movies isn't merely a dirty joke at the CRTC's expense: It exposes serious questions about the effectiveness of the regulatory system.
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They say tough cases don't make good law, and making the case that pornography contributes to Canadian broadcasting is certainly a tough one. If Canadian content regulations are merely in place to nurture a financially healthy industry – which is one of the objectives of the Broadcasting Act – then you could argue that a porn shoot hires lighting technicians and camera operators just like any other TV production and, hey, jobs are jobs.
But in a land awash in American programming, Canadian content regulations have a larger purpose, to reserve some portion of cultural space for domestic product so that Canadians occasionally see Canada and Canadians on TV. Adult movies may be culture in the broadest definition of the term, but they don't have much redeeming social value. Unlike sitcoms or dramas, which are potentially filled with meaning that contributes to a social conversation, porn is a generic product whose national origins are as unimportant as those of a light bulb or a vibrator.
Beyond that, however, lies a nastier question about all Canadian broadcasting: How effectively can you ever compel commercial interests to advance public policy objectives? Lots of anodyne specialty channels featuring comedy, cooking and cartoons as well as the main commercial networks themselves have to meet more onerous programming requirements than the AOV trio and it is often not in their best business interests to do so. Depending on their niche, they can usually buy American content more cheaply than they can produce Canadian, and they rarely show much enthusiasm for their obligations, squirming around the regulations in one inventive way or another. Commercial Canadian broadcaster is something of an oxymoron; one of the reasons Canada needs a powerful public broadcaster is so that at least one institution can operate free of that contradiction and dedicate itself to Canadian programming.
As for the pornographers, it's probably just easier to charge them higher licence fees than to bother counting Canadian crotch shots. |
It’s very rare for those in the hockey know around Toronto to agree on something. But, at this second, there is one subject that is an exception to this rule, and it’s Jake Gardiner. With nobody sure if the Leafs will continue their success and approximately fourteen thousand defenceman up on the current roster, everybody still has a critical need to see their promising young crown jewel back in the lineup. The question is simple; when does he come back up from the Toronto Marlies?
The answer? That I can’t give you – I’m not Dave Nonis or anybody else involved with the decision. But I will say this. If it were me, it’s not for a little while yet. This isn’t to say that Gardiner has "fallen off", or to scare you in any way, but at this second, he’s not ready.
The first thing that one has to consider is why exactly he was sent back down in the first place. Gardiner suffered a concussion on December 8th, missed a lot of time, and showed up to the Leafs not looking like himself. As we all know, concussions are something you under no circumstances want to mess with, and take time to truly recover from, even if you’re healthy enough to play. Some of it is physical side effect, some of it is mental. The only appropriate time to return Gardiner to the NHL is when he plays exactly like himself.
The first way to do figure this out doesn’t require watching him play (we’ll get to that), but rather looking at his more obvious stats. In his pre-concussion stint with the team, Gardiner played 22 games. In those games, he put up a rather impressive 9 goals, 8 assists, 76 shots, and was a -1. Of those 22 games, he earned those 17 points in 11 of them, playing five multi point games. After this, he missed the next 17 games, partially due to injury, and partially due to the Leafs giving him a try up top first. He’s played 10 games since coming back, and in them, has no goals, 5 assists, 21 shots, and is a -4. The assists were acquired in 4 games, with one multi-point performance.
Take those numbers, and stretch them to a full 76 game AHL season.
Games Goals Assists Points +/- Shots 76 31 27 58 -3 262 76 0 38 38 -30 159
Now, the latter stat line is admittedly a small sample size, being based on less than half of the games played. As well, I wouldn’t look into the plus minus gap at all. It’s not even a matter of whether you think plus minus is relevant to a player or not, or a reflection of team play. The Marlies, as I’ve stated frequently the past few weeks, are performing much worse after the departure of practically every core player other than Gardiner. If you went down the list, I’m sure the entire team’s plus minus stats would look like this.
But all the same, he’s playing poorly in that span. Goals have become non-existent, and he’s shooting much less frequently than before. The output from his play looks like somebody who will be a stretch to get regular NHL time again. That obviously isn’t the case here, but if that’s what you’re getting at this second, what’s the incentive in calling him up?
Now, to his actual play. Watching all of the home games and most of the road games he’s played since returning, it’s been a rare occurrence to be "wowed" by him, or even really notice him. There will be a nice pass here and there, an occasional bad defensive play, but really, he’s blended in. Which is fantastic if you’re a #4/5 defenceman with a defensive lenience, but not for someone who has spent his entire pro career catching the organization and its fans by pleasant surprise with his ability to add to the attack.
Thinking I was just missing something, I spent all of Sunday’s game against Houston watching Gardiner. Paying just slight attention to everybody else. What I noticed was as follows:
Dallas Eakins is giving him all the opportunity in the world to succeed. By that, I mean he played in over half the shifts, on the ice for 39 of 76 defensive shifts.
To add to that, he was taking longer shifts, often going over a minute, twice playing full 2 minute powerplays, and once playing a full penalty kill with an additional 45 seconds afterward. If I had to guess, he played close to 35-36 minutes. To keep that number somewhat sane, the game went to a shootout.
He took 4 shots this game, the most of any game in this stint. That said, three of them were very lower percentage shots where there was little other option, just one being a reasonable scoring chance. In that chance, he pinched and met Matt Hackett at to his right, and fired an easily stopped slapshot.
That said, he still wasn’t shooting enough. In a late first period powerplay (a 5 on 3, no less), he made six consecutive passes before Tim Connolly finally gave up and took the shot. By the end of the powerplay, he remained without a shot while making eleven total passes. This was a common occurrence over the course of the game.
He seemed much more cautious when it came to playing the puck behind the net, approaching the puck at a lower speed, sometimes taking swooping motions to get to it safer, but slower. You have to imagine he’s worried about getting rocked again, because I doubt it was in the plan to let a few of these plays become turnovers.
The third period saw his biggest mistake and his best play. The mistake was an attempt to drop a caught puck to himself, but rather finding Chad Rau’s stick, which lead to a goal. He made up for this with a feed to Jesse Blacker five minutes later, holding off two Aeros players. Blacker’s shot was rebounded by Tim Connolly, tying the game and netting Jake an assist.
With all of this said, there were positives too. For one, Gardiner’s positioning was spectacular, almost always being in the correct position. Granted, you want a guy like him to take offensive risks, but it’s better than seeing him making defensive errors left and right.
However, I could’ve done without the giveaway thirty seconds into overtime. His recovery made up for it, though.
When all was said and done, Eakins called this game Gardiner’s best since coming down. I don’t disagree. He was handed a bunch of minutes, didn’t look particularly gassed, stayed in position and stayed in position for the bulk of it. That’s all good stuff to see.
But it’s also not Jake Gardiner. Jake Gardiner is a defenceman who you can be pretty reliable on the back end, but makes things happen offensively. He’s someone who skates in a carefree, effortless way, to make plays happen. Instead, we’re seeing somebody who seems timid, reserved, and cautious. That’s a concern.
Will he break out of this play soon? Sure. He’s been back on the ice for fewer games than he’s missed, playing on a team that has fewer offensive outlets than when he left, and, fingers crossed, will be less concerned heading into risky areas soon. Picking up a goal or two will likely get him shooting again. It’s twisted, yet fitting, that a player that left with a head injury needs to make a mental leap to get back into the game. But that’s the necessity, and until it happens, the demands for his return to the Leafs are fueled entirely on brand name.
Gardiner and the Marlies face the Milwaukee Admirals tomorrow afternoon at 3PM. Photo courtesy TSGPhoto |
It looks like Pantheon, the elementary OS DE will be getting a new notification daemon called Pantheon Notify which supports several notifications at once, it expands on hover if the text is too long to be displayed in a regular notification and it supports closing the notifications.
Here's a video I've recorded with the latest Pantheon Notify version in action:
Pantheon Notify isn't ready to replace Ubuntu's Notify-OSD just yet - for instance, it doesn't support displaying notifications when changing the sound volume or notifications that use HTML (which is displayed as plain text in Pantheon Notify), but these issues shouldn't be too hard to fix.
Pantheon Notify is available for testing in the elementary OS daily PPA , for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin (and, obviously, elementary OS Luna). To try it, you'll have to "kill" notify-osd, then run "pantheon-notify".
What do you think? |
Not everyone considers Monsanto (NYSE:MON) to be a household name, but for those who are health-conscious, the word brings to mind equal concentrations of fear and anger. Now, things are about to get a whole lot scarier.
According to Natural Society, the latest in the news of the Monsanto biotech corporation getting even more into bed with the U.S. government comes in the form of the “Monsanto Protection Act,” legislation that gives the company “blanket immunity” if the USDA decides to review their genetically-modified products for any dangers that could exist.
This change of wording in the Senate legislation would leave the USDA powerless in the event that any new GMO crops are suspected to cause environmental hazards. The bill could be passed as early as this week, and it comes in the form of a rider carefully placed in the Senate’s Continuing Resolution spending bill.
If the bill is passed, it would practically put Monsanto above the USDA when it comes to reviewing potentially dangerous crops. Put simply, the USDA would be powerless to stop the planting of any GMO crops that are under review, which many feel rests on a technicality that would give approval to new GMO crops that could cause potential health or environmental hazards. Federal courts would have little to no power in regulating the sale/production of GMO crops under this legislation.
This is not the first time that the act has come to light, however, and not everyone is sitting quietly. When the act initially emerged last summer, a variety of food safety organizations jumped at the chance to petition, including the Center for Food Safety, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Family Farm Coalition.
Even though organizations such as these were quite vocal about what the legislation could do in terms of hurting food safety, it didn’t stop Monsanto from wiggling its way back into the Senate.
Perhaps one of the major issues involved with the dawning of this potential legislation is just how heavily entwined Monsanto is with the U.S. government already. Early on in President Obama’s campaign, he spoke out about the importance of labeling genetically modified food and knowing where one’s food comes from. Once elected into office, however, he elected Monsanto-related officials into key roles, elevating fears that Monsanto lobbyists had more control over government than previously thought.
According to Natural News, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center Roger Beachy was brought in as the director of the Natural Institute of Food and Agriculture. Former Monsanto vice president of public policy was made deputy commissioner of the FDA, becoming a major influence on finding approval for the Monsanto genetically engineered BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone).
Numerous other former Monsanto officials have found their way into governmental roles, leading many to believe that the corporation is in bed with the U.S. government like no other.
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Monsanto is the country’s leading producer of genetically engineered seeds, and it also produces powerful pesticides that have been known to travel from one field to another by air, effectively ruining crops that were not previously sprayed. The corporation has come under the fire of food safety advocates for years, especially those who have fought for laws requiring companies to label food products containing GMOs.
Those who originally advocated Barack Obama during his run for presidency had high hopes about what his getting into office could do in terms of shedding light on GMOs and perhaps kicking Monsanto down a few notches.
It quickly became clear, however, that Obama’s presidency would do little to break up Monsanto’s role in government, especially once he hired a number of previous Monsanto employees to serve key governmental roles. With this new legislation on the table, skeptics have become even more critical of the President and his choice of actions.
It’s uncertain as to whether or not this latest in a run of legislation will pass, although it’s fair to assume that even if it gets shot down, Monsanto will continue to increase its role in government and seek the immunity that legislation such as this would provide. Food safety organizations are hoping that spreading the word will do what is necessary in order to keep Monsanto in check.
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The PKK will find safe-haven in northern Syria now, which could prompt an attack from Turkey, a NATO member
Syrian President Bashar Assad, amid growing unrest, has granted control of parts of northern Syria over to militant Kurds, long branded as terrorists by Turkey, in a provocation that could lead the conflict to break out internationally.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier said that Turkey would not accept an autonomous Kurdish area in Syria, fearing separatist Kurds in Turkey would use it as a safe-haven to launch cross-border attacks.
Late on Thursday Turkey mobilized and deployed tanks and missile batteries on the Syrian border near the Kurdish region, with Erdogan commenting if the Kurds control these areas, “then intervening would be our most natural right.”
Kurdish control of these border areas are an apparent consequence of the chaos of Syria’s internal conflict, in which the US and its allies are sending aid, intelligence, and weapons to the Syrian rebels, despite numerous crimes and ties to terrorist groups.
Turkish military intervention against the Assad regime came close to being a reality back a few months ago when Syria downed a Turkish fighter jet that went into Syrian airspace. Turkey has shown little hesitation to attack its neighbors if they feel their Kurdish threat demands it, as cross-border attacks into Iraq’s Kurdish region in recent months has shown.
If Turkey, a NATO member, involves itself in the Syrian conflict in a direct and belligerent way, it could have far reaching consequences, with possible implications of a US intervention.
Last 5 posts by John Glaser |
In the early nineteen-eighties, a literary agent in London sent the manuscript of a first novel titled “The Diary of a Good Neighbour,” by a certain Jane Somers, to the publishing company Jonathan Cape. Cape still maintained the old-fashioned practice of employing in-house readers, and the manuscript duly appeared in their office, on the shelf reserved for agented material, guaranteeing it prompt and serious attention. Of the half-dozen or so men and women paid to sit around in armchairs perusing new manuscripts, the one who plucked it from the shelf happened to be the youngest, an aspiring poet and fiction writer of twenty-three. He didn’t think much of it, and wrote a report saying so. After a brief discussion at the weekly editorial meeting, the book was turned down.
Some time later, it was revealed that “Jane Somers” was, in fact, Doris Lessing. She had written the book under a pseudonym, partly because she wanted it to be appraised purely on merit, partly out of solidarity with young writers, and partly to free herself from her own literary persona. (J. K. Rowling’s recent exercise in pseudonymity suggests that this may be a common yearning in famous writers.) The revelation caused a biggish rumpus in the U.K. press. Cape was considered to have egg on its face for failing to recognize the work of one of its most eminent authors. Publishing in general was deemed to have been shown up for the pusillanimous business that people had always suspected it of being, only interested in taking on books by the already well-known. And the reader’s report was excoriated by Lessing herself as a reminder of “how patronized and put-down new writers are.”
Reader, I was that reader. I don’t remember what I wrote (presumably my report is somewhere in the Cape archive), and I don’t remember anything about the book itself except that I felt completely unrepentant about not recommending it. Cape did, in fact, publish plenty of first novels by genuinely unknown writers, and as far as I was concerned the only reason they didn’t go for this one was that it wasn’t good enough. “Good” for me at that time meant tight and clever and stylistically showy. The idea that failing to see the merit of “The Diary of a Good Neighbour” might have been a reflection of my own limitations rather than the book’s had no resonance for me at all. My mechanism of judgment was as ruthless as it was narrow.
None of my bosses ever criticized me for my report, but occasionally at parties people would say, in scandalized tones, “Weren’t you the reader who….” I was arrogant enough to shrug it off, but I must have felt stung at some level because, consciously or not, I reacted by setting up an untraversable barricade in my mind against Doris Lessing. I wouldn’t—couldn’t—go near her work from then on.
It has taken me thirty years to recognize the magnitude of my loss. The strange thing is that I’ve often felt drawn to Lessing’s books, not just out of a sense that I might enjoy them but from a suspicion that I might have something to learn from them as a writer. “The Golden Notebook,” in particular, has haunted my reading life in strange ways. Writer friends have often raved about the boldness of its narrative technique. Civilians describe it as life-changing, consciousness-expanding. Both are the kinds of tribute that would normally send me racing to the bookstore, but the veto was too strong. For many years, I struggled with a novel of my own in which the characters were constantly pulled together and driven apart by political and emotional forces they couldn’t understand or control, and which drove them close to madness. I wanted it to be both dramatic and introspective, but I could never find a structure or a tone that worked. I had a vague idea that “The Golden Notebook” did something like what I was trying to do, and I’d heard that at least two of my own literary heroes—Joseph Conrad and D. H. Lawrence—were among its influences. Obviously, I should have read it, but no: the book was in jail, and visiting was strictly prohibited. To cap it all off, by a ridiculous quirk of fate, the bookstore in the town I moved to in the nineties was called the Golden Notebook, so for twenty years I haven’t been able to buy a book without the sulky aura of my little tale rising up around me.
A few weeks ago, I was staying in Brooklyn. I went into the Greenlight bookstore one afternoon in the mood for something fast and dark: a black-spined NYRB Classics edition of one of Simenon’s romans durs, perhaps, or some narcotic Highsmith novel I hadn’t read, when what should greet me from the wall of staff picks but “The Golden Notebook.” It’s not a book I associate with the young and hip these days (I’ve taught creative writing on and off for twenty-five years, and not a single student has ever mentioned it). So it was a shock to see it on a plinth in Fort Greene, and the unexpectedness seemed to shift something inside me. Had the moment come? I vacillated: Narcosis or expansion? A one-night stand or—given its Tolstoyan girth and my own slow reading speed—a long-term relationship? I bought it.
I won’t try to describe the experience of reading it except to say that it is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. And that it contrives to make the most ordinary situations—a couple arguing, a woman cooking a meal—into epicenters of weather systems stretching from McCarthyite America to apartheid South Africa to Stalinist Russia. And that there is a vein of brilliant acid comedy flowing through it that nobody had warned me about. And that it is as great for its plainness of address—all the stylistic and vocal jigs it doesn’t dance—as it is for its structural originality and staggering psychological insight.
I massively regret that I didn’t read it when I was in my twenties. Even if it hadn’t helped solve the problems of my intractable novel, it would have shown me things—about life as well as writing—that I could have made much more use of at that formative age (to be crudely utilitarian about it) than I can now. On the other hand, it’s a thrill to be reminded that there are still books this grand and powerful waiting to be read.
I’ve ordered the Jane Somers novels (there was a sequel), and I await them with only slightly queasy eagerness. There’s a line in Lessing’s introduction to “The Golden Notebook” that seems to have been written expressly for me: “Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty.”
I’ll be bearing that in mind.
_
James Lasdun is the author of the novels “The Horned Man” and “Seven Lies.” His most recent book is a memoir, “Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked.”
Photograph by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP. |
The media is obsessed with declaring that Republicans are waging a war on women, while ignoring the many, many, many very real actions of Democrats. This is not to say that all Republicans are angels, but that by and large the stereotype of Republicans wanting to keep women barefoot and pregnant is hogwash. When the media can’t find a real example of a Republican being truly anti-woman (i.e. the vast majority of the time), they simply distort the truth or just out right lie and invent their own false narrative.
A perfect example of this is the recent brouhaha over a speech that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee gave. Let it be known that your humble author is not a supporter of Huckabee, and in actuality does not care for him. There is plenty to be said against him, but nonetheless, when the media distorts what he said and unfairly attacks him, one must stand up for the truth.
Huckabee accused the Democrats of denigrating women and their political interest as being of a base sexual nature, and further of considering them incompetent to the point where they need “Uncle Sugar” (AKA the government) to subsidize a hyperactive sex life. This is a despicable view, and Huckabee condemns it. His exact words were:
“I think it’s time for Republicans to no longer accept listening to Democrats talk about a ‘War on Women.’ Because the fact is, the Republicans don’t have a war on women. They have a war for women – for them to be empowered, to be something other than victims of their gender. “Women I know are outraged that Democrats think that women are nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have a government provide for their birth control medication. Women I know are smart, educated, intelligent, capable of doing anything anyone else can do. “Our party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women. That’s not a war on them, it’s a war for them. And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government, then so be it. Let’s take that discussion all across America, because women are far more than Democrats have made them to be. And women across America have to stand up and say, ‘Enough of that nonsense.'”
Yet the rabid Leftist media claimed that those were his thoughts, and that he was being “anti-woman” for pointing out that that is how the Democrats think, and that such sentiments are wrong! The constant denouncement can even sweep up otherwise sober minded individuals.
Is his claim a fair one? The “Life of Julia” is an explicit example of the Democrats believing that a woman needs the government to act as a “sugar daddy.” Does the Obamacare add seen below support Huckabees accusation?
Clearly, Huckabee was dead-on accurate about his accusation. But the truth never stopped the lying lap dog media from distorting the truth and declaring that denouncing misogyny is itself misogyny, or that war is peace, or hate is love.
A perfect example of this can be seen by a producer of the Rachel Maddow show, Steve Benen.
Mr. Benen commented on Huckabee’s statement in a truly juvenal and dishonest way. He, of course, does not bother to dispute what Huckabee actually said, and “[r]ather than go word by word” prefers to make insinuations, ridiculous assertions, and ad hominem attacks. He starts out by spouting the stereotype of social conservatives being totally ignorant about reproductive health while making the false insinuation that it is Huckabee’s belief about “the connection between birth control and libidos” when it is clear from the quote that Huckabee is pointing out that it is the Democrats who are making that connection. Mr. Benen then goes on an ad hominem attack against Huckabee declaring him “mean” and making accusations backed up by Leftist blogs. Since Mr. Benen can’t argue against the message, he attacks the messenger. Truly pathetic.
Most laughably, he viciously attacks Huckabee for signing a law that happened to include a contraceptive mandate. Obamacare forces businesses and non-profits to pay for insurance where contraceptives are to be given out for free. It clearly impacted many businesses and non-profits in a way that the Arkansas law (as well as others) did not. It does not detract from the validity of the position that businesses, individuals, or non-profits should be forced to directly pay for health plans that provide contraceptives. With this issue coming to the fore, why shouldn’t Republicans, who didn’t vigorously oppose even tangentially similar proposals before, now oppose a far more odious imposition? Can not a politicians position change with changing circumstances or be swayed due to argument and discussion? By Mr. Benen’s logic, Obama’s argument for same-sex marriage ought to be considered invalid and Obama be made subject of ridicule and ad hominem attacks because he used to publicly hold a contrary position!
A little lap dog media mood music:
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FONTAINES-SUR-SAONE, France -- The top suspect in the beheading of a businessman that French authorities are calling a terrorist attack took a "selfie" photo with the slain victim and sent the image via WhatsApp to a Canadian mobile phone number, officials said Saturday.
French investigators were working to determine the recipient's identity, but weren't able to immediately confirm media reports that it was an unspecified person now in Syria, where the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has seized territory, the security officials said.
The revelation added a macabre twist to an investigation that has not turned up a solid link to radical or foreign groups, but has revived concerns about terrorism in France less than six months after deadly attacks in the Paris area.
Top suspect Yassin Salhi, a truck driver with a history of radical Islamic ties, as well as his sister and wife remained in police custody in the city of Lyon, a day after he allegedly crashed a truck into a U.S.-owned chemical warehouse and hung his employer's severed head on a factory gate, officials said.
Man beheaded in France terror attack
One of the officials said the selfie was forwarded via WhatsApp, the globally popular instant messaging system owned by Facebook, to a phone number in Canada. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. The severed head appeared to mimic ISIS' practice of beheading prisoners and displaying their heads for all to see, and came days after the militants urged attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. French authorities say Salhi had links to radical Salafists in the past.
Paris prosecutor's office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said the leading suspect began speaking with investigators after first refusing to do so. She declined to provide details, but said investigators haven't found any foreign connection.
The site of the beheading wasn't yet known to investigators, and the victim had been strangled beforehand, she said.
A fourth person arrested Friday was released without being charged. Under French anti-terrorism laws, Salhi and the women can be held up to four days before either being released or handed preliminary charges and locked up.
President Francois Hollande's office said he will convene a meeting with top parliamentary leaders about the matter on Tuesday.
Separately on Saturday, hundreds of people turned out in the region to honor slain businessman Herve Cornara and denounce the violence. Dozens turned out for a minute of silence in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, the town southeast of Lyon where Friday's attack took place at an Air Products chemicals warehouse.
Several hundred people also gathered outside a housing project in the town of Fontaines-sur-Saone to honor Cornara, 54, the manager of a transportation company that had employed Salhi since March. They recalled a kind, humble man who was active in the community of the Lyon suburb.
"He lived on the fifth floor, me on the fourth. He spoke with all the young people in the neighborhood. He didn't differentiate between (non-Muslim) French and Muslims," said Leila Bouri, a 24-year-old cafeteria cashier. "If you ever had a problem, you would go see him."
"When I heard this, I was shocked. It's shameful," she said. "I am a Muslim, but you can't kill like this. It's not who we are. In Islam, we're not told to slit throats. We only slit the throats of sheep. You don't slit the throats of people."
The suspected killer, she added, "isn't a Muslim in my opinion." |
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Airline backs down over dress code for Tehran flights after unions insist route should be staffed on voluntary basis
Air France’s female flight attendants will be allowed to refuse to work the company’s new route to Iran, the company has said.
Unions for the airline’s cabin crew held talks with management after several female crew members opposed an order to wear a headscarf in Iran.
Air France will fly to Tehran three times a week from 17 April.
Air France faces staff mutiny in headscarf row Read more
The company will introduce an exception so that employees who don’t want to work on the route will be reassigned on other destinations with no sanctions.
A note sent to female cabin crew members requires them to wear a headscarf on their arrival in Tehran. They must also wear the uniform’s long-sleeved jacket and trousers rather than a knee-length dress.
The headscarf rule is already in place when flying to destinations such as Saudi Arabia.
The unions, however, wanted the Tehran flights to be staffed on a voluntary basis and an agreement that any staff who refused to fly to Iran because of the headscarf rule would not have their pay deducted.
Air France suspended flights to Iran in 2008 but is resuming the service after international sanctions imposed over Tehran’s nuclear programme were lifted. |
Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press Michigan State cornerback Trae Waynes was a high school teammate of Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon.
Michigan State cornerback Trae Waynes will forego his senior year with the Spartans and enter the 2015 NFL Draft as an underclassman.
"I'm sure it's kind of obvious," Waynes told kenoshanews.com. "Yeah, I'm gonna go."
Waynes intercepted three passes and broke up eight more for Michigan State, helping to anchor one of college football's most talented secondaries. MSU senior safety Kurtis Drummond is another top draft prospect from the Spartans' secondary.
Waynes made three stops and broke up a pass against Baylor Thursday in the Spartans' 42-41 comeback win. He was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back while playing the boundary cornerback position for the Spartans. The fourth-year junior made 27 consecutive starts over his last two seasons, playing the field corner spot as a sophomore in 2013.
Michigan State defensive end Shilique Calhoun is also considering early draft entry.
Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter @ChaseGoodbread. |
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, right, drinks filtered Flint, Mich., tap water with Flint resident Cheryl Hill. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)
Residents of Flint, Mich., have spent the last two years fearing the fluid meant to sustain them, and for good reason. After all, they have been told — by scientists and their own government officials — that the water coming out of their taps could do irreversible harm to their children’s neurological health.
Such has been the reality in a city where untreated water leached lead off aging pipes before making its messy way out of residents’ faucets. The Flint water crisis has been called “a national embarrassment,” “a crime of epic proportions” and a “public health disaster.”
So when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) arrived in the city last week to encourage residents to start drinking filtered water from their taps, no one could blame them for hesitating.
Their challenge to Snyder, according to the Detroit Free Press?
You try it first.
The Free Press reported that residents wanted Snyder to come to their homes and personally test their tap water before they risked drinking it themselves.
“Yes, if someone…I’m happy to look into that,” Snyder told reporters.
The governor, who has been called on to resign amid accusations that his administration was negligent in its response to the emergency, followed up on this promise on Monday.
After visiting a house with confirmed high levels of lead, the Associated Press reported, Snyder left with five gallons of filtered water that he pledged to drink for at least a month.
“What better way to help show support,” he told the AP, adding that he will continue to get refills from other Flint homes for the next 30 days.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder fills jugs with filtered Flint, Mich., tap water on Monday. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)
[Water in Flint is improving but still unsafe to drink, researchers say]
After the financially troubled city switched its water source resulting in both discolored water running from taps and concerns about the health of its children, eventually suspicions in Flint turned to science, as independent researchers and the state itself found that the lead in children’s blood had reached dangerous levels, an escalation corresponding with the change in water source.
The World Health Organization has found that lead affects children’s brain development, resulting in reduced IQ and behavioral issues that could lead to criminal activity.
Since evidence of the health consequences have become public, Flint has been inundated with media attention and one declaration of emergency after another, yet things have remained slow to change.
Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor who played a pivotal role in drawing attention to the crisis, told The Washington Post last week that “despite very positive trends,” potentially hazardous levels persist in Flint’s unfiltered water.
As a result, residents have been told to drink water from their taps only if it has undergone filtration.
“All Flint residents should continue to use bottled water, or Flint water passed through a lead filter, for cooking or drinking until further notice,” a Virginia Tech study concluded last week.
[In Flint, Mich., there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency is declared]
Snyder’s announcement on Monday angered some, as commenters on his Facebook statement noted that 30 days of filtered water could not be equated with the experience of Flint residents over the last two years. For months after the water source switch, city and state officials denied that the water was unsafe despite growing complaints from the community.
“Be sure to get enough and give it to your grandchildren!” one user wrote. “Continue to have Flint water delivered to them daily for a year or so and then talk about it!”
Another said: “You weren’t washing yourself and your babies in it…”
“I completely understand why some Flint residents are hesitant to drink the water,” Snyder said in his statement, “and I am hopeful I can alleviate some of the skepticism and mistrust by putting words to action.”
The governor’s wife, Sue Snyder, “is on board” with the project, Snyder told the Free Press. The couple have three children who no longer live at home.
Officials have encouraged residents to start drinking filtered water from the tap to help the distribution system recover with treated water running through it. But many residents are still wary, and rely on the free bottled water handed out at distribution stations across the city.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy testified in front of the House Oversight Committee on March 17, and things got a little heated. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
More of The Post’s coverage on the water crisis in Flint, Mich.:
Flint’s water crisis reveals government failures at every level
FEMA extends emergency declaration for Flint into summer
Did Flint’s contaminated water cause deadly Legionnaires’ outbreaks? |
Lawrence Krauss (Screenshot)
US physicist Lawrence Krauss is spreading the gospel of science to Iranians via an outlawed satellite TV network.
Krauss, a professor at Arizona State University and outspoken atheist, recently appeared on the Bread and Roses show to discuss the beauty of science, and the differences between science and religion.
The Farsi/English program is broadcast on New Channel, an outlawed 24-hour TV station that reaches Iranians via satellite TV and the Internet. Bread and Roses explains on its crowdfunding page that while their show is officially banned in Iran, many Iranians “can still access it because 40-60 percent of the population have satellite dishes.”
During an interview on Bread and Roses, the physicist pointed out a fundamental difference between science and faith.
“Not knowing is fine,” Krauss said. “In fact, it is a central part of science, so it makes it different than religion, because you don’t make these assertions about things you can’t test, nor do you claim to have absolute knowledge. We learn about the universe, and it keeps surprising us. But the Big Bang really happened… we can measure so many aspects of our universe and it was once smaller and smaller and smaller. We can go back to [the very beginning], but we can get very close.”
Krauss also said humans are lucky they can understand the universe at all.
“Quantum theory is weird, but the universe is weird. That’s OK. It’s not surprising. In some sense, it is surprising that we understand anything about the universe, because the universe isn’t created to please us. And, moreover, we evolved in the Savannah and Africa to learn how to escape lions, not to understand quantum mechanics. So it is amazing that we have been able with our brains and the techniques of modern science to learn enough about the universe to discover that at fundamental scales the universe behaves in ways that appears to be crazy.”
“But, again, that’s the case not because we want it to be the case, but because we measure and that is the case. And the universe is the way it is whether we like it or not,” Krauss said. “I think some people find that worrisome but I find it incredibly exciting because it means we can open our mind and be surprised and learn that our myopic picture of what is supposed to be case is not always the case.
“It’s not just true for physics, it’s true for our ideas of society,” he continued. “What we may think is right or wrong based on something people wrote thousands of years ago, we find that now we understand the universe better, those ideas are simply wrong.”
Watch video below:
(The Krauss interview begins at the 10:15 mark.) |
Dr Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Sunday the American doctor who contracted Ebola in West Africa seemed to have improved.
Dr Frieden, who was making media appearances in an effort to reassure a public worried by press reports and speculation over the West African outbreak, the worst ever, told NBC’s Meet the Press talk show it was encouraging to see Dr Kent Brantly walk out of an ambulance unassisted when he arrived at Atlanta’s Emory University hospital from Liberia on Saturday.
“Ebola can be deadly,” he said, “but for people who are healthy like this doctor, the fatality rate may be lower than those usually quoted.”
Asked if enough precautions had been taken, and if Brantly’s return represented an unacceptable risk to the US, Frieden said: “He was coming home, and the organisation that sent him to Africa made the decision to bring him home.
“He’s an American citizen, and what our role is in public health is to make sure that if an American is coming home with an infectious disease we protect so it doesn’t spread. That was what we did in transit and at the hospital.”
Brantly, from Texas, is the first of two US aid workers to be flown back to the country; Nancy Writebol, a missionary from South Carolina who worked for the same charity in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse, is due to follow on the same specially adapted private jet.
Liberia’s information minister said on Sunday Writebol would arrive back in the US early on Tuesday. Lewis Brown said the second evacuation flight was expected to leave West Africa between at 1am and 1.30am that day.
The Ebola outbreak has so far mainly affected three West African countries: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. More than 700 people have died; the disease has also been reported in Nigeria.
“What we’re doing at CDC is surging our response,” said Frieden on Sunday. “We are going to put at least 50 public health experts in this region in the next 30 days because actually we do know how to stop Ebola.”
Frieden said old-fashioned practices were required to stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa. That meant finding the patients and their contacts, making sure they were treated, educating the public and doing rigorous infection control in hospitals.
Ebola is not an airborne disease, and is only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.
On Saturday, Brantly was driven to the hospital from a military airbase in an ambulance escorted by police. He stepped down from the ambulance in full protective clothing – another figure in such clothing led him into the building. Brantly is now being cared for in an advanced isolation ward.
An ambulance arrives with Ebola victim Dr Kent Brantly, right, to Emory University hospital on Saturday. Photograph: AP
The same day, Frieden said the CDC had received “nasty emails” and at least 100 calls from people questioning why the sick aid workers should be let into the US. The Associated Press interviewed members of the public around the Atlanta hospital. One such interviewee, Ashley Wheeler, said: “I just think it’s a blessing that we can help possibly make the infected person’s life a little more tolerable.
“If I were that person I would want my country to help me the best way they could.”
Brantly’s wife, Amber, issued a statement in which she said: “It was a relief to welcome Kent home today. I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the US. I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital.” |
LAHORE, Pakistan, September 1 (News Lens Pakistan) -- Authorities in Pakistan's largest province, Punjab, have reached an agreement with Qatar to train and send 200,000 laborers to the Gulf state to build stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup soccer tournament in 2022.
The agreement, announced in April, comes amid high-profile concerns raised by Amnesty International and corporate World Cup sponsors over conditions in Qatar for migrant workers.
A May Amnesty International report on migrant labor abuse said Qatar had made little progress on improving migrant workers' rights, despite promises to do so.
The human rights group said the Qatar government promised reforms in May 2014 to address widespread exploitation of migrant workers in the country, yet more than a year later none of the proposed reforms have been implemented.
Amnesty, in a May 21 briefing, rated Qatar's response to nine fundamental migrant labor rights issues that had been identified by the rights group a year earlier. Only limited progress had been achieved on five of the issues, Amnesty officials said.
Meanwhile, in four areas -- the exit permit, the restriction on changing employers in Qatar's kafala sponsorship system, protection of domestic workers and the freedom to form or join unions -- Qatari authorities have failed to make any improvements, Amnesty said.
Little had changed in law, policy and practice in the previous 12 months for Qatar's more than 1.5 million migrant workers in Qatar, Amnesty said.
Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, labor and human resources minister for the country's most populous province, Punjab, said two committees had been set up by the government to identify professional skills demanded by Qatar.
"These committees will provide identity cards, passport, visas, security clearance and vaccinations to the skilled and semi-skilled workers who will be going abroad," Sarwar told News Lens Pakistan.
Sarwar said that on his May visit to Qatar he assured the Qatari government that Pakistan would provide the blue-collar workforce with vocational training, security verification, vaccination, awareness on industrial safety and basic English language skills.
The minister said the government would work with companies to train these skilled and semi-skilled workers, expected to bring in more than $590 million annually into the country.
The workers will be trained at vocational training institutes in Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Lahore.
Economist Qais Aslam, who teaches at the University of Central Punjab, applauded the government initiative, saying it would relieve pressure to provide opportunities to Pakistan's workforce.
"These 200,000 workers will get jobs in Qatar and whatever they earn in Qatar will come as foreign remittances to Pakistan, which will increase Pakistan's foreign reserves," Aslam told News Lens Pakistan.
Once the fully trained workforce returns to Pakistan from Qatar they could be engaged in the China-Pakistan economic corridor, a planned series of projects linking western China with Pakistan, giving China access to the Indian Ocean.
"It will bring a new era of Qatar-Pakistan relationship," Aslam said. "This corridor will also link China to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia, Russia and Europe through the land route.
"My fears are that the uneducated and unskilled Pakistanis will be left behind, if our federal and regional governments and business managers do not prepare the capacity of our people for this change and opportunity."
Economist Mobeen Ahmed Chughtai said remittances have always been a pillar of the Pakistan economy.
"There is no doubt that sending workers to Qatar will result in substantial cash flow into the country that will help bolster the Pakistani economy in these troubled times," Chughtai told News Lens Pakistan.
"In the past, while the living conditions of those sent to foreign lands have improved, it has not translated into a blanket improvement or a policy change. I doubt this instance will be an exception," Chughtai said.
However, given Qatar's handling of laborers in the past, the immediate living conditions of the participating workers may actually worsen while they complete this project, he said.
Qatar has a shortage of workers due to labor-related controversies.
An infusion of workers from Pakistan will go a long way toward gathering the required international momentum for other countries to send workers to Qatar, too, Chughtai said.
Qatar has disputed the Amnesty findings and says improvements have been made.
New accommodations for more than 250,000 workers are being built across Qatar to the highest standards, Qatar's government said in a statement.
Furthermore, it says that the majority of workers who come to Qatar earn "considerably more" than they would at home.
Ume Laila Azhar, executive director of HomeNet Pakistan, a network of organizations working for the recognition and labor rights of home-based workers, also applauded the government's move for generating new job opportunities.
"But the government must come up with some plan and strategy for the workforce leaving for Qatar because eventually they will return to Pakistan one day. It has to make a long-run plan of engaging them in some other projects as soon as they return to Pakistan," Azhar told News Lens Pakistan.
The leader of the Wapda Hydroelectric Workers Union, Khurshid Ahmed, said the government should select the workforce entirely on merit because they will be the ambassadors of Pakistan to Qatar and other Gulf countries.
"Unskilled or unprofessionally trained workers will bring a bad name to Pakistan," Ahmed said. |
Lately I have a little less time to post my usual illustrations because I working on two very large artistic missions related to video games, but I can not say much more because the projects in question are for now still in production.
My pace of work is particularly increased , I have a little trouble to respond to everyone on social networks, so do not hesitate to contact me by email if I don't to reply!
FR : Ces derniers temps j'ai un peu moins le temps de poster mes illustrations habituelles car je suis actuellement sur deux très grosses missions artistiques liées aux jeux vidéo, mais je ne peux pas en dire beaucoup plus car les projets en question sont pour l'instant encore en production.Mon rythme de travail s'étant particulièrement accru, j'ai un peu de mal à répondre à tout le monde sur les réseaux sociaux, donc il ne faut pas hésiter à me contacter par mail si je manque de vous répondre.Concernant l'image du jour, c'est évidement une illustration des Voisins du Chaos ou je teste une nouvelle technique grâce à un technologie de pointe sur laquelle mon collègue Jean Bultingaire m'a bien aidé (donc n'hésitez pas à aller voir son portfolio, il le mérite).ENGLISH : |
Retail versions of Intel Haswell processors are hotter and more power-hungry than pre-production chips, and can’t be overclocked to the same speeds, British PC manufacturers have told PC Pro.
Four companies have told us that systems built using retail versions of Haswell chips haven't been able to match the speeds seen on pre-production models, which are given to manufacturers for testing before the official launch. All four PC makers spoke to PC Pro on condition of anonymity.
One company said that it had overclocked pre-production chips from 3.5GHz to 4.7GHz or 4.8GHz with ease, but that "40 or 50" retail chips had been impossible to overclock beyond 4.2GHz because of the high voltages and unsafe temperatures involved.
Full benchmarks Read our Intel Haswell review here
A spokesperson for a second firm told us that "PCs based on pre-production [speeds] of 4.5GHz have had to be dropped to 4.3GHz" because of a lack of stability in retail parts, while another reported that "there is a big difference in the overclocking potential between early Haswell samples and retail [chips]".
This third manufacturer confirmed that it won’t be selling any systems at speeds higher than 4.4GHz because it found that "very few processors would reliably overclock any further than this" after an "extensive internal investigation with Intel".
An Intel spokesperson said that "the overclocking experience will vary from CPU to CPU, and from generation to generation, due to many different factors" and that "we cannot guarantee a specific frequency".
"We continue to add new and exciting overclocking capabilities and we expect enthusiasts to be pleased with the unlocked 4th Gen Core processors."
Getting hot?
There are also concerns over the temperature of the retail processors. A fourth firm’s spokesperson said that employees who build PCs "have to frequently change chips" in order to find the best parts, and that "even at stock speeds, [retail chips] are running hotter than Ivy Bridge or Haswell samples". The firm said that retail chips are "around 15°C" hotter than pre-production samples.
A spokesman for the third company added that a Core i7-4770K overclocked to 4.6GHz was so unstable it "wouldn’t even load the operating system", and that systems that use the Core i5-4670K are restricted to only 4.2GHz because "voltage bumps... send temperatures sky high".
Intel sent PC Pro its standard overclocking disclaimer, which warns that the process can lead to "additional heat or other damage" and that "Intel has not tested, and does not warranty, the operation of the processor beyond its specifications". |
At River Lofts, as retail space in the building has sat empty, condos upstairs have continued to sell for millions of dollars. The same is true at many other new or recent condo buildings, including high-profile ones like Richard Meier’s 165 Charles Street and Jean Nouvel’s “vision machine” at 100 11th Avenue.
“If the developer has done well upstairs, he can afford to wait as long as he wants downstairs,” said Faith Hope Consolo, who heads the retail leasing and sales division of Prudential Douglas Elliman. “Sometimes we bring them offers,” she said of condo developers, “and we don’t even hear back.”
Ms. Consolo says the retail market, which has been weak for several years, appears to be recovering. There was “as much activity in the first quarter of 2011 as in the second half of 2010,” she said, referring to retail and restaurant leases in Manhattan. But, she said, the effects might not reach the out-of-the-way locations of most of the long-vacant retail spaces — which she described as “orphans.”
Richard Pandiscio, whose company has created the marketing campaigns for a number of expensive condo buildings, said that “from a marketing perspective, a retail tenant that adds an element of convenience or prestige is a positive.” But, he added, “right now, with so many retail spaces empty, I doubt too many residents are bothered by an empty space on their ground floor.”
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Mr. Pandiscio himself lives at 100 11th Avenue, the Jean Nouvel building, where early marketing materials showed a glamorous restaurant, on the ground floor. In fact, the space has never been rented.
Another building that has never had a retail tenant — but where condo prices don’t appear to have suffered — is 165 Charles Street, where an apartment sold in February for $7.35 million. In that building, most of the retail frontage is around the corner from the residential entrance, meaning residents don’t have to look at a dusty storefront as they come and go.
But some buildings, like the glass tower at the corner of 110th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem, seem seriously diminished by the absence of retail tenants. There, the entire retail frontage facing Central Park is vacant and, with unpainted wallboards behind double-height glass, has a forlorn appearance. (A small deli and a Subway restaurant occupy two much smaller spaces on the east side of the building.) But repeated e-mails and calls to unit owners at the building, known as 111 Central Park North, failed to turn up a single complaint about the vacancies. True, owners are unlikely to speak candidly about buildings in which they have spent as much as $6 million for apartments.
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But it is also true that, once they have bought, residents generally have little or no financial stake in whether the retail spaces are ever occupied.
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That’s because condo developers tend to retain the retail spaces for themselves, or sell them to investors. Last year, the retail spaces at 40 Mercer Street, a Jean Nouvel-designed building in SoHo, sold for an astounding $41.9 million. At 111 Central Park North, Tom Shapiro, an investor in Manhattan, recently paid $7 million for the retail spaces.
Mr. Shapiro said by e-mail that the businesses he had rented to — the Subway and the deli, as well as a dry cleaner and a medical office that also have street-level access — were doing well, and that other businesses were on their way. He said it was important to find tenants who would enhance the building. “We are big believers in the future of Harlem and acquired the space to hold for the long term,” he wrote.
The situation at River Lofts is similar. According to Christopher Owles, a principal of Sinvin, the retail space in that building is controlled by an investor, not the residents, “so the loss in income isn’t felt by anyone other than the owning party.”
The same is true at One Jackson Square, off 8th Avenue just south of 14th Street. Since the sponsor owns the units, said David Penick, a vice president for development at Hines, one of the developers, the vacancies “have no effect on the finances of the condo.”
As for developers who retain the retail spaces in their buildings, most of them can afford to wait out a slow economy, said Louis V. Greco Jr., a prominent Brooklyn developer. That, Mr. Greco said, is because when the condo deals are structured, “most of the operating costs of the building are attributable to the residential component.” The retail spaces, by contrast, are assigned relatively low carrying charges.
One of Mr. Greco’s projects, the 25-story tower called be@schermerhorn, on Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn, has three large retail spaces, just one of which is rented. Mr. Greco said that, because his carrying costs are low and he believes the market “is on an upswing,” he had been sticking close to the asking price of $50 a square foot per year, rather than give the spaces away.
“The vacant retail space has not hurt the residential sales in that we only have one unit of the 246 left to sell,” he said. And while condo owners may not have stores in their building, the first-rate gourmet shop Brooklyn Fare (with its Michelin-starred restaurant) is diagonally across the street. |
Thousands of small mirrors--heliostats--focus sun's rays
Solar power history is being made in Southern California. Southern California Edison and BrightSource Energy from Israel have signed the world’s largest solar energy deal.
Now awaiting approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, when the contracts are fulfilled — this could happen by as early as 2013 — the Israeli-California sun project will power almost 1 million California homes.
Israel Kroizer, the chief operating officer, and president of BrightSource in Israel says that when completed, it will be the world’s largest solar energy project. Some 1,300 megawatts of energy will be created, with the first plant to be built in Ivanpah, California, expected to generate 286,000 megawatt-hours per year. The project will also create more jobs in the region. “It’s the biggest solar energy project ever signed,” Kroizer emphasizes, and when complete it will be the largest solar energy plant in the world, he adds.
Towering Sun Stations
Last year, BrightSource created a media sensation when it launched its pilot plant in Israel’s Negev Desert. Employing thousands of tiny mirrors called heliostats, BrightSource unveiled the Luz Power Tower — the LPT 550 — to reflect sunlight from the heliostats onto a boiler atop a tower. Producing steam from the concentrated heat, the steam is piped to a turbine to generate electricity.
Built with water-conserving principles in mind, the BrightSource system uses air-cooling to convert the steam back into water. The environmentally friendly closed cycle solution is, according to the company, designed to offer the highest operating efficiencies and lowest costs in the industry.
“We opened a pilot in Israel last year — a demo plant to run some tests — and we were really satisfied with the results. Now we are focusing in the States, and will respond to the [solar energy] tender being published in Israel. Israel is a target market for us, but it’s not the same size as the US,” said Kroizer.
As part of the deal with its American partner SCE, BrightSource will maintain its engineering and logistics facilities in Israel. Equipment will be purchased from around the world, while the company’s corporate offices for project and business development and financing will continue working out of Oakland, California. BrightSource, which was officially founded in 2004, and started operating in 2006, employs 30 people in the US, and 90 in Israel.
Arizona and New Mexico Next
In a few months, Kroizer says, BrightSource will start constructing the solar project in the US, and next on its list for solar energy power plants are other sun-drenched states — all over southwest California, Arizona and New Mexico.
In the United States, BrightSource’s partner SCE, is the country’s leading buyer of renewables. In 2007, it purchased about 80 percent of all the solar energy used in the US. As the largest electric utilities company in California, it serves a population of about 13 million people, living within a 50,000-square-mile area in central, coastal and Southern California.
“These contracts represent a significant addition to our renewable portfolio, which is already the nation’s largest.” said Stuart Hemphill, the VP of Renewable and Alternative Power at SCE. “This innovative solar technology helps to further our position as the nation’s largest purchaser of solar energy, as well.”
The World Economic Forum voted BrightSource as a 2009 Technology Pioneer. It was the only solar company to win this year’s award, and is recognized for helping industrial customers reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
While BrightSource’s contribution is significant — the new plants will prevent two million tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gases emissions from entering the atmosphere annually (about 335,000 cars-worth of emissions) — it’s not a golden bullet solution.
Says Kroizer: “I think it’s important to have a variety of energy solutions. Solar energy won’t solve the world’s problems; we need a variety of solutions and solar can be one of them.
Karin Kloosterman contributes to Israel21c and Green Prophet from where this article was adapted. |
I thought this was very exciting – and who can resist a fun infographic!? Please enjoy this guest post by 10x Digital and Coupon Box!
No longer considered an out-dated diversion to help housewives wile away the hours, over the past 15+ years, knitting and crocheting have become popular pastimes, enjoyed by crafters across various generations. In fact, the Craft Yarn Council estimates that over 38 million people worldwide participate in these creative outlets.
Many knitters and crocheters find social stimulation from this shared interest, while some use the activity to unwind after a busy workday, and still others turn their knack for knitting into a charitable cause, donating scarves and gloves to community organizations. But, regardless of the motivation, hobbyists from all age groups have revived this time-honored art.
As the DIY trend continues to gain momentum in today’s society, more Americans have become inspired to try knitting and crocheting for themselves. Case in point, 10x Digital and Coupon Box recently conducted a survey asking respondents to identify which pastime they’re most likely to try in 2016. Of the 3,500 18-65 year old respondents, 16.4% pegged knitting and crocheting as their #1 choice. A large part of the support for knitting and crocheting came from the 18-34 year old crowd, further dispelling the long-outdated notion that this is for your grandma.
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Buy Photo A lawsuit brought last year by two California gamblers $100,020 poker bankroll was seized after a warrantless search by two Iowa State Patrol troopers can move forward, a judge ruled Wednesday. (Photo: Mark Marturello/Register illustration)Buy Photo
A lawsuit brought last year by two California gamblers whose $100,020 poker bankroll was seized after a warrantless search by two Iowa State Patrol troopers can move forward, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge James Gritzner chose not to dismiss the lawsuit brought against troopers Justin Simmons and Eric VanderWiel, as well as Desert Snow, an increasingly-scrutinized private company that trains officers on conducting roadside searches to find drugs, cash, guns and other contraband. The lawsuit and civil liberties advocates have criticized Desert Snow for teaching questionable practices, such as singling out vehicles with out-of-state plates for stops and searches.
An attorney for William "Bart" Davis and John Newmerzhycky filed the lawsuit in federal court in September. The pair were driving along Interstate 80 back to California from a World Series of Poker event in April 2013 in a rented Nissan Altima when Simmons pulled them over in Poweshiek County. The trooper claimed Newmerzhycky failed to use his turn signal while passing an SUV, but attorneys have argued that video from Simmons' patrol cruiser shows the California man signaling properly.
The trooper claimed that Newmerzhycky was fidgeting and appeared nervous during a so-called motorist interview conducted in Simmons' vehicle. Simmons used that to justify a search of the vehicle. The two troopers found the cash and a small amount of marijuana during a search.
CLOSE Two California poker players are suing after they believe two Iowa State Patrol troopers violated their constitutional rights. They argue dash camera video shows a traffic signal was used while passing an SUV. Special to the Register
The Poweshiek County Attorney's Office sought to seize the money under Iowa's civil forfeiture law, but ultimately returned $90,000 to the California men through a settlement agreement. Newmerzhycky pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia charge.
In interviews last year, the two said they hoped the lawsuit would help them recoup the money they spent fighting the forfeiture.
"They destroyed my life, destroyed my reputation, destroyed my health," Newmerzhycky said.
In his ruling, Gritzner wrote that the lawsuit's allegations are enough for a claim to move forward that the troopers and Desert Snow acted as part of a conspiracy to violate Newmerzhycky and Davis' constitutional rights.
The lawsuit claims the troopers had no probable cause to detain the men for a search of their vehicle, and that Desert Snow teaches officers improper techniques for justifying such searches. Gritzner also ruled that Newmerzhycky's guilty plea to the drug charge does not bar him from bringing a civil claim.
The case has drawn national attention from media outlets including CNN and the Washington Post after being highlighted in The Des Moines Register. The Register in April published a series questioning the integrity of Iowa's civil forfeiture system, which has led to the seizure of nearly $43 million over the last six years.
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Image: USA Network
In the new season of Mr. Robot, the critically acclaimed TV show featuring a team of hackers led by a paranoid, psychotic antihero, the hacking group uses ransomware to lock the evil corporation they're fighting out of their computers and force them to pay up.
As for all its hacking plot points, ransomware is a real thing, a growing, seemingly unstoppable epidemic that's hitting everyone from random computer users to large hospitals, making criminals a whopping $209 million in this year's first three months alone. Now, after reality spilling onto Mr. Robot, the TV show is spilling into reality: someone created a real piece of ransomware and called it FSociety, even using the fictitious hacktivist group's iconic logo.
The ransomware hasn't infected anyone yet, but whoever created it uploaded it to Virus Total, a free online malware repository, presumably to see if antivirus would detect it as a malicious file. The malware was first spotted by Michael Gillespie, a "security researcher for MalwareHunterTeam.
"It's the first we've ever seen. I'm never seen the show, so I don't know if anything else had a subtle hint. At first I didn't understand why everyone else on the team got super excited when I shared the wallpaper, lol," Gillespie told Motherboard in an online chat.
The antivirus company Avira published a blog post about it on Wednesday, trying to speculate as to the origins of the malware. The two possibilities, according to Avira's Oscar Anduiza, are that this is a real ransomware variant still in development, or that it's actually a viral marketing ploy from the Mr. Robot team.
We reached out to someone within the Mr. Robot team to see if they can confirm or deny, and we'll update the post when and if we hear back.
It's hard to tell at this point which one of these theories is true. But one thing is for sure, you know Mr. Robot is popular with hackers when they decide to tribute it creating real-life malware inspired by the show.
"It was bound to happen," Yonathan Klijnsma, a security researcher for Fox-IT, told me. |
Elysian has the most flying units. Primal contributes most of them, but the addition of Pteriax Hatchling and Nesting Avisaur pushes it ahead of Feln in this respect. Some Elysian decks will have a flying subtheme, utilizing Windshaper and Wildcloudsnake, while others might have a 5 strength subtheme with Sauropod Wrangler and Friendly Wisp. Elysian decks are usually controlling and take advantage of Echo for card advantage, Ambush and Lightning Strike to help it defend, and the large units that Time offers. Occasionally, Elysian can be a tempo deck, with False Prince and Skysnappers backed up by Jarrall’s Frostkin and Flash Freeze.
Here are a few example decks:
This deck combined a strong early game with multiple Bold Adventurers and Lightning Strikes with a solid end game with 2 Copper Conduit and Xenan Obelisk. The Copper Conduits had some good synergy with Teleport and Mirror Image. Since Lightning Strike cannot be used on attacks, Refresh gave the deck another trick to help push Terrazons and Conduits through multiple blockers.
This deck lacked 2 drops, so it played effectively 19 power (with the Seek Power) and had several defensive 3 drops to make up for the loss of tempo. This deck would stall the game out until using Striking Snake Formation to decimate the opponent’s board.
Dispel is a key card for Elysian for a couple reasons. They lack Desert Marshall, so its the only silence effect available. Most Primal removal is either a temporary or permanent stun effect, so Endurance units can be problematic. It is often necessary to Dispel an Endurance unit in Elysian, especially Karmic Guardian and Xenan Guardian.
Elysian has access to both Wisdom of the Elders and Ancient Lore. It’s ideal to have a couple of these effects, but you also need plenty of defensive units and spells to withstand the tempo loss. It’s pretty easy to lose if your first play is Wisdom of the Elders when going second against an aggressive deck.
There are a few cards that work well with Echo units: Twining Ritual, Second Sight and Nesting Avisaur. In general, I try to pick up the Echo units first in the draft, since they are good on their own. Once I have a few echo units, then these cards move up in my pick order. Nesting Avisaur is midpack quality at first, but once you have 2 Hatchlings and Twinbrood Sauropod, you take it over everything but bombs and premium removal. Once you have all of those synergies going on, Psionic Savant looks much better, but without ways to draw extra cards, I find it to be too slow for the high cost.
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The OnePlus marketing team is at it again with another, well, interesting offer. The company is currently running a contest — yes, a contest — that gives those interested a chance at the opportunity to trade in their recent Samsung flagship phone for a OnePlus 2. Yes, you read that right: You can enter for a chance to trade in your Samsung flagship for a device that costs half as much and has a more limited feature set. To cap things off, only 50 people will get to take advantage of this wondrous opportunity.
If you haven't walked away in confusion quite yet, the details of the contest specify that OnePlus is willing to take any one of the following Samsung phones off of your hands: Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, and the Galaxy Note 5. What a bargain.
Given the details, we'd reckon that there won't be an overwhelming number entrants into this contest. So if you are somehow miraculously interested, we doubt you'll have much competition for one of those 50 coveted slots. And there is at least one redeeming quality to the contest, in that OnePlus says it will donate your phone to Hope Phones, which is a non-profit "that brings medical technology to those in need."
If you're a glutton for punishment and find yourself eager to wait in line for yet another, much more depressing chance to grab a OnePlus 2, hit up the link below to find out how to enter.
Enter OnePlus' #TakeTheEdgeOff contest |
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SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Venezuela: over 2,300 container-loads (and counting) of decomposing food, imported by the government last year and never distributed. The scandal is particularly embarrassing for President Hugo Chávez, since it comes amid growing shortages of basic foodstuffs in state-run grocery chains. But rather than rethink his statist food and agriculture policy, the president has declared “economic war” on the private sector.
The cargoes came to light last month when state intelligence agents were investigating the theft of powdered milk. The government admits that 30,000 tonnes of food are rotting in the port of Puerto Cabello alone. Opposition media put the total so far at over 75,000 tonnes, or around a fifth of what PDVAL, the state company responsible, imported in 2009. The company's former president, Luis Pulido, has been arrested for corruption and up to 20 other officials may suffer the same fate.
PDVAL is a subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, the state oil giant. It was created in 2008, in an oblique recognition that another state-run food chain, Mercal, was failing to do its job. PDVAL's grandiose objective is to achieve “full food sovereignty” and to stamp out what Mr Chávez claims is “hoarding and smuggling” by the private sector. Since 2003, the government has imposed price controls on many foodstuffs. In that year the government defeated a business-led strike which came close to paralysing the economy. The private sector has since faced mounting harassment.
The results have been persistent shortages and soaring inflation: the price of food and drink rose by 21% in the first five months of 2010, according to the Central Bank. Elías Jaua, the vice-president, this week blamed inflation on “speculators [linked to] political interests seeking destabilisation as part of a campaign strategy”, before a legislative election in September.
Basic goods are scarcer in Mercal and PDVAL shops than in private supermarkets, according to a survey by Datanálisis, a polling company. But the government is stepping up expropriations of farms, food manufacturers and distributors, in a bid to achieve what it calls state “hegemony” over the food supply. On June 7th it announced the takeover of 18 more food companies accused of violating regulations.
All eyes are now on Empresas Polar, a family-owned giant that is Venezuela's biggest private food-and-drink company. Polar, which claims to generate almost 3% of the country's non-oil GDP and has 19,000 employees, complains of harassment. It says its plants and offices were visited 220 times by government inspectors in the first five months of this year. In late May, the government confiscated 114 tonnes of food from a Polar warehouse, alleging hoarding (which the company denies).
Mr Chávez has often threatened Lorenzo Mendoza, Polar's billionaire chairman, with expropriation. But as the rotting food shows, his government is better at destroying the existing order than at creating a viable alternative. Some 70% of Venezuela's food is now imported, which generates ample opportunities for graft. Most of the farms and food companies the president has expropriated suffer from inflated payrolls, declining productivity and rampant inefficiency. His threats against Polar are rejected by a well-paid and loyal workforce. The company is one of the biggest remaining obstacles to the installation of Cuban-style communism in Venezuela. But to seize it now might well lose Mr Chávez the legislative election. As Venezuelans say “love, with hunger, doesn't last.” |
"a hand-scrawled list of 22 officers, 5 of whom had already been gunned down in the street."
"A turf war among drug cartels has claimed more than 210 lives in the first three months of this year."
"The number of homicides this year is more than twice the total number of homicides for the same period last year."
"Several mass graves hiding 36 bodies in all have been discovered in the backyards of two houses owned by drug dealers."
"At the height of the violence, around Easter, bodies were turning up every morning, at a rate of almost 12 a week."
"'Neither the municipal government, nor the state government, is capable of taking on organized crime,' Mayor José Reyes Ferriz said in an interview."
"The local police are outgunned, underpaid, prone to corruption and lack the authority to investigate drug dealers…"
"The first batch of 150 new recruits came out of the academy in January, but they entered a force where most officers either feared drug dealers too much to move against them or lived on their payroll."
Location:
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has drawn praise from U.S. drug warriors for his commitment to fighting back against the drug cartels. Unfortunately, current strategies for reducing drug trade violence tend to have the opposite of their intended effect. Via New York Times , this is what you get when you really crack down on the drug traffickers:After decades of full-scale international drug war, the central fronts in this great crusade appear before us today literally smoldering, littered with shell-casings and stained in blood. That is drug prohibition's legacy and it will not change or improve. Violence will fluctuate between frequent and perpetual. Illicit drug markets will fluctuate between high availability and totally saturation. That is just the way it is and the way it will always be so long as the people currently in charge of addressing the drug problem are permitted to continue trying their ideas.Thus, any realistic debate over our drug laws shouldn't be spiked with fictitious references to future victories or meaningful progress. An honest defense of the drug war, if such a thing could exist, would have to defend our current conditions and claim that it would be best if things stayed this way forever. |
I’ve been working on Trashbot for quite a while now, but the basic gait mechanism is still the same as in version one. The hips’ movements and the distance between the legs define the possible step length. This is annoying since the robot is rather tall and you’d expect that he’ll walk a bit faster than he actually does. However, moving faster induces stronger vibrations in the skeleton and makes him fall much easier.
Also, the upper part of the body will tilt “stronger” when he’s leaning to one side to move the other leg, which is again adding to the instability. The gimbal mechanism to counter balance that is re-active, not pre-emptive. And of course, the weight on the upper part is also reducing the “re-activity”.
After thinking a while I came to the conclusion that I need to add at least two servos on the hip. This time, I documented my work on video, not so much on photos:
The next part in this series will cover experiments with different movements to check out the new geometry and to understand whether we can improve the gait without adding new servos to the feet for the counter movement of the hips. |
My little sister used to watch this movie ALL DAY LONG when it came out. It's so sweet to see what the younger generations are falling in love with, especially from the likes of Disney´s new works and other, more obscure shows like Steven Universe.I remember I fell in love with some drawings of the famous :Cataclysm-X: and the way she started to add a bit of color to her pencil drawings, specifically in the eyes, "the window to the soul". It really adds so much to the feel of certain portraitsIt's thanks to artist like her that have posted so many beautiful tutorials that a lot of us have learned to draw, so shout-out to them!I am just experimenting with color still, but I am loving it!Materials:2B and 2H 0.5mm mechanical pencilsA4 cardboard Opalina paperAlmidón eraserTissues for blendingPrisma Color Premier color pencilsthe character "Elsa" and the Frozen franchise are intellectual properties of Disney |
UPSC topper Ira Singhal (Source: Express photo by Harsha Vadlamani)
Delhi’s Ira Singhal on Saturday became the first differently abled woman to top the civil services examination in which women took the top four positions.
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With 62 per cent locomotor disability, 30-year-old Ira had cleared the examination in 2010 too and was allotted the Indian Revenue Service but she was stopped from joining because authorities cited her “inability to push, pull and lift’’. She moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which ruled in her favour and she was inducted as Assistant Commissioner in the Customs and Central Excise Service.
READ- A civil servant can do more to serve society: UPSC rank holder
She is currently on probation, undergoing training at the Dr Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad.
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“I am thrilled, excited and very, very happy. It is a dream come true,’’ Ira said. “I expected to do very well but did not expect to top it. My friend, an IAS officer here, gave me the good news first. I want to become an IAS officer and work in the field of women and child welfare, development and empowerment. I want to contribute to the uplift of the differently abled, and make their lives easier. Differently abled people struggle, face difficulties everyday and have to go the extra mile to do anything on their own.”
Recalling the 2010 episode, she said: “It was a big disappointment, a major setback then. But I decided to fight back. It was tough initially as I had to undergo tests, submit medical certificates and prove that I am capable of doing jobs entrusted to me in the IRS. For two years, it was tough but then everyone realised that I am capable of working in spite of the disabilities. They realised I am no pushover.”
READ: UPSC Civil Services Examination results declared, 4 out of 5 toppers are women
“Later, even people from the Department of Personnel and Training, Department of Revenue and others supported me. I could have gone to the High Court or the Supreme Court. Since I was right and capable, CAT ruled in my favour and I joined IRS,’’ she said.
Preparing for the civil services examination again and attending CAT proceedings, Ira also taught Spanish and English as a tutor in Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi. “I am yet to explore Hyderabad. I arrived here on June 21 and the course started the next day. I have heard a lot about this place, so may be when I get time, my colleagues will I will explore the city,’’ she said.
PICTURE GALLERY: Perseverance, hard work pays, say UPSC toppers
Additional Director P N Rao said Ira and others in her batch are currently undergoing training in the Central Excise and Service Tax module.
“So many people are calling to congratulate me. It is overwhelming. The only people I have managed to speak with properly are my parents in New Delhi,’’ she said. She is the daughter of Anita and Rajendra Singhal. A Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science) with an MBA, she had worked as a customer development manager with a leading chocolate company from 2008 to January 2010.
PTI adds: Renu Raj, a doctor from Kerala, and Nidhi Gupta, also an IRS officer from Delhi, both 27-year-old, secured second and third positions respectively.
Vandana Rao, who is also from Delhi, secured the fourth rank while Suharsha Bhagat, an IRS (Income Tax cadre) officer, who hails from Bihar, got the fifth position.
READ: PM Modi congratulates all successful UPSC aspirants
Renu, who completed her MBBS from Kerala, got the second rank in her first attempt. “I am extremely happy. I have been preparing for the exam for the last one year. Perseverance pays,” she said over phone from Thiruvananthapuram. Renu works in a hospital in Kollam and hails from Kottayam.
Third rank holder Nidhi said, “It is really a proud moment. I put in lot of hard work and finally it paid off.” An Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs, she is presently undergoing training at Faridabad.
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A total of 1,364 posts are to be filled through the civil services examination. There are 254 candidates in the waiting list. |
Obama: Trump language in 2005 recording is 'disturbing'
CLOSE Donald Trump is under fire after a video from 2005 surfaced in which he can be heard making lewd comments about women.
President Obama weighed in on the Donald Trump recording Sunday, describing the Republican candidate's comments as a disturbing example of disrespect for all people.
“Demeaning, degrading women, but also minorities, immigrants, people of other faiths, mocking the disabled," Obama said of Trump during a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago. "He puffs himself up by putting other people down.”
He added: "Not a character trait that I would advise for somebody in the Oval Office."
Obama did not detail Trump's comments as revealed on a tape that surfaced Friday: “I don’t need to repeat it. There’s children in the room.”
On the 2005 tape, Trump is heard graphically discussing groping women.
In expanding his remarks, Obama also said that "one of the most disturbing things about this election is just the unbelievable rhetoric coming at the top of the Republican ticket."
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ricky Furgusson says he will not let his injuries stop him from living life to the full
Injured Afghanistan war veteran Ricky Furgusson carried the Olympic flame through Broseley on day 12 of the torch relay from Chester to Stoke-on-Trent.
The Telford-born 26-year-old lost both his legs, left eye and fingers from both hands when he was injured on active service.
He received huge support from the crowd, which included members of the 4th battalion, the Rifles.
The soldiers nodded their heads and saluted him as a mark of respect.
Furgusson told the BBC News Channel: "You've got two choices in life, sit and do nothing and get depressed or put your legs on and live your life exactly as you did before and that's exactly what I do.
"This is a once in a lifetime chance. I knew it was going to be busy but it was absolutely mental. It was a big steep hill pushing up here but I was determined to get to the top and I did."
Commenting on his own charity work with others, he said: "That's why I won a Military Cross in Afghanistan as I treated blokes when they got injured. People say I'm a national hero but as far as I'm concerned I've done my job.
"I just hope people understand that life is never over if you've been injured. We don't let it stop us. Never say never, just because you're injured your life shouldn't be different."
London 2012 Olympic torch relay Search maps, check street routes and join in 70 days of live coverage in video, stories and pictures Find out where the Olympic torch is going
Before that, in the last stop before lunch, the torch arrived in Much Wenlock - the home of the Wenlock Olympian Games , which was a forerunner to the modern Olympics.
The Games were founded in 1850 by Dr William Penny Brookes, who lived in the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock. He invited Baron Pierre de Coubertin to visit the Wenlock Games in 1890. Four years later, the baron founded the International Olympic Congress and in 1896, the first summer Olympics took place in Athens.
One of the London 2012 official mascots is named Wenlock in recognition of its historic significance and the Olympic flame received a rapturous welcome as it was carried into Much Wenlock shortly after 13:00 BST.
Rapturous welcome
People stood on rubbish bins and leaned out of the windows at the Victorian and Georgian houses overlooking the street as the torch approached the house of Dr Penny Brookes.
Image caption Torchbearer Lyndon Flavell holding the Olympic flame next to the Iron Bridge
Among the torchbearers in Much Wenlock were Olympic bronze medal-winning archer Alison Williamson, who is set to compete for Team GB for the sixth time later this summer and 83-year-old Ron Miles , who was born and bred in the county, served in the army and later became one of the first volunteer helpers at the Ironbridge Gorge museum near Telford, one of the later points along the route
Later in the day the torch visited Ironbridge Gorge and travelled across the 230-year-old bridge the area is named after, greeted by a special peel of bells from nearby St Luke's church. The flame was carried by Lydon Flavell, 37, from Wolverhampton in front of a huge crowd.
There were also impressive turnouts on the rest of the route which among other places visited Telford and Stafford before the relay ended in Stoke-on-Trent with 1988 GB hockey gold medallist Imran Sherwani carrying the flame into the evening celebration at Hanley Park and lighting the cauldron.
Image caption Ronald Price carried the flame to the Guildhall in Wrexham
Sherwani, one of only two Olympic gold medallists from Stoke, scored twice in a 3-1 victory over Germany in the final in Seoul.
The day began in Chester with the first torchbearer, 16-year-old badminton prospect Jenny Moore, who set off at 06:56. The torch then headed back into Wales, where John Atkinson of the British Olympic Association carried the flame in Wrexham.
Later, 82-year-old Ronald Price, from Llandrillo, who still visits a gym every week and delivers Meals on Wheels to the elderly, took the flame to the town's Guildhall. Reflecting on the honour, Mr Price quipped that he "felt 20 again".
Hundreds of people had gathered at Llwyn Isaf, the open space next to the Guildhall, to see the torch arrive. The torch then visited Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and was placed on a boat for a trip along the Llangollen Canal.
The relay travelled through border towns including Oswestry and Welshpool before turning east towards Shrewsbury, where Shropshire Council tweeted that "an incredible 40,000 people" were estimated to have cheered on the torch. |
Tunisia's transport ministry has announced the suspension of all Emirates Airlines flights to and from the North African country.
The move on Sunday came two days after Tunisian women were denied boarding their flights to Dubai on the United Arab Emirates-based carrier.
The transport ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page that it "has decided to suspend flights of Emirates Airlines to and from Tunisia until the company can find a suitable solution to operate its flights in accordance with international laws and treaties".
According to Tunisia's state-run news agency, Salem Zeabi, the UAE ambassador to Tunisia, was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday to "provide clarification on the measure banning" Tunisian women from flying to or transiting through the Gulf state's territory.
Zeabi reportedly said the measure was "temporary and relating to security arrangements".
Earlier on Sunday, Anwar Gargash, the UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, also cited security as the reason for the travel restriction.
"We have contacted our Tunisian brothers about security information that necessitated taking specific and circumstantial measures," Gargash wrote on Twitter.
He also said that the UAE "appreciates and respects Tunisian women", adding that "we should avoid attempts at interpretation and errors".
Stopped from boarding
Speaking to Mosaique FM, a local Tunisian radio station, one of the women described her experience at the Tunis-Carthage International Airport on Friday.
"When we arrived here, we found the situation really chaotic. They (Emirates Airlines staff) told me that a Tunisian woman under the age of 30, with a Tunisian passport, can't get on the Emirates flight," she said.
"I told them it was just a transit flight - they told me, 'No, don't step foot on the plane.'"
Another female would-be passenger said men and male children were allowed to board flights - but not women under 30.
"So the daughter and the mum stay in Tunisia but the husband and son can travel. Is this logical? It's degrading. It's degrading to the Tunisian woman, to our nationality - to everything".
In a statement on Friday, Tunisia's Ministry of Transport said such actions were "illegal" and "contradictory to the regulations in force in international civil aviation". |
Originally published in Eight By Eight magazine
Match time nears, the August night bears all the trappings of one of those big fixtures: The streets around the stadium swarmed by fans in colors and kit, burly cops, pleading scalpers, an ad hoc band wheezing a club song. As supporters fill the terraces inside, flags blossom along the stadium’s north end, domain of the loudest, the most committed, with just a touch of St Pauli-ish punk swagger. Red flags. Black flags. Rainbow flags. As the squads come out, a lone trumpet cues a churning version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” When the Thorns go marching in / When the Thorns go marching in / Oh how I want to be in Rose City / When the Thorns go marching in.
The local side is deep in a tense late-season race, all hope of retaining last season’s championship honors riding on victory over the bottom-table away club. Just to ratchet up the pressure, the home XI is something of a super-club, featuring a sharp Spanish playmaker at the tip of midfield and a pair of iconic international strikers.
As the Portland Thorns and Houston Dash get under way, then, the atmosphere has the edge and expectation one might find on a big club night anywhere in the world. This is Providence Park, in the center of Portland, Oregon. Two years before, neither the home side nor its opponent – nor, indeed, their league itself – existed. And the players are women.
Which – sad, but true – makes the scene and the chants in the stadium rare in the football world, if not unique. In Portland and the Thorns, the embryonic National Women’s Soccer League, a last-ditch effort to save the women’s professional game in North America, has something women’s football has traditionally lacked: a true club, with the culture of support to match. The question, two years or so in, is whether this club will be the only one.
In Germany, the women’s Bundesliga set an attendance record in 2014: an average 1,185 spectators per match. In England, meanwhile, the FA Women’s Super League saw average gates rise from 562 to 728. In Japan, a World Cup win in 2011 stirred up some bumper domestic crowds, but the Nadeshiko League still draws, on average, fewer than 2,000 per match. In France, Olympique Lyonnais, perhaps the most successful women’s club in history, hosts most of their games in a stadium that seats 2,200.
There are, of course, many sides to women’s football, from booming grassroots to summer 2015’s World Cup gala in Canada to Sepp Blatter’s predictably unfortunate views on player attire. But the women’s club game is, to be blunt, effectively nowhere. In general, female sides attract no significant constituency and often exist at the fringes of established (ie, male) clubs, connected to famous names like Arsenal and Barcelona by frail threads of branding and co-sponsorship.
The United States – with women’s access to sport enshrined in federal law and a public that has, at times, embraced the women’s national team as pop-culture icons – was supposed to be the exception. The country’s smash-hit World Cup in 1999 inspired the Women’s United Soccer Association, billed as the world’s first fully professional women’s league. It lasted three seasons. Its successor, Women’s Professional Soccer, also played three seasons before collapsing in January 2012. Soon thereafter, Sunil Gulati, president of the United States Soccer Federation, called Merritt Paulson, the ambitious owner of Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers. “The timing was not great for us,” recalls Paulson, the 42-year-old son of a former U.S. treasury secretary who steered the Timbers from obscurity in the lower divisions to become one of MLS’s model franchises. “The women’s club game was 0-2. We were coming off a rough season with the Timbers, when we’d fired our coach, and I was focused on getting that right. But I also recognized that if it couldn’t work here, it couldn’t work anywhere.”
Gulati, for his part, had a new business model: the federations of the US, Canada, and Mexico would subsidize the salaries of their internationals in the new National Women’s Soccer League. An allocation system would ensure marquee talent in every market. The USSF president hoped to lure Paulson to create, unofficially but obviously, the league’s flagship club – the only charter member, of eight, affiliated with an MLS operation.
Paulson had good reasons to jump in. Since ascending to MLS in 2011, the Timbers had tapped into Portland’s remarkable (for this continent) culture of football support, capitalizing on the club’s feisty, anarchic but well-organized core support, the Timbers Army. (The Army began in the early 2000s as a few dozen people standing behind a goal at lower-division matches; it now fills an entire terrace at the 20,000-seat Providence Park.) Every home match sells out, and club paraphernalia plasters the city.
“There are 10,000 people on the waiting list for Timbers season tickets,” Paulson notes. The owner – an intensely competitive character, prone to Twitter feuds and other spikes of public enthusiasm – is also methodically building a concept: a vertically integrated soccer operation, anchored by the MLS side. The Timbers’ youth academy has grown rapidly, and the club has launched spin-off U-23 and reserve franchises. “We view all our teams as living under the same football umbrella,” Paulson says. “We have a blueprint for how we want all our teams to play, and a technical system that we apply across the board.”
Convinced that federation subsidy and a willing market equaled a reasonable gamble, Paulson and the Timbers organization devised Portland Thorns FC to leverage the Timbers’ growing brand equity. Supporters’ signature “PT! FC!” chant would be cross-compatible, and the new club would plug into existing sales and marketing efforts. The new league allocated the promised eye-catching talent, in particular United States striker Alex Morgan – striker/ sex symbol, one could say, after various cheerful bikini-and-less-clad magazine shoots – and ruthless Canadian forward Christine Sinclair. Known for epic clashes as international rivals, the two goal scorers provide the closest thing the women’s game has to household names.
The club also discarded the failed strategies of WUSA and WPS. Both failed leagues tried to reconstitute the stereotypical, squeaky-clean legion of aspiring preteen girls and wholesome soccer families forged in the 1999 World Cup. The Thorns would seek a different mix.
“We said very clearly that this is not a product strictly for soccer moms and daughters,” Paulson says. “We want those folks at the game, but as part of a broader community. This is a football club. We’ve got the strongest urban soccer culture in America. That’s what we’re marketing to. We also discovered many people who were totally new – they’re not fans of the Timbers, they’re Thorns fans – so it’s proved to be very important that it’s not the Timbers. The club crest is up on the side of the stadium, the same size as the Timbers’ crest. It’s not a side project. It is as full-on as we can make it.”
In the inaugural 2013 NWSL season, the league averaged 4,271 fans per match. The Thorns averaged 13,320. In the second season—as often happens with sporting start-ups—league-wide crowds declined slightly. The Thorns’ support remained almost exactly the same, with a dramatic peak in that late-season match against Houston, an NWSL record and the 10th biggest women’s club soccer crowd ever.
An average gate as large as those of the next four league clubs combined seems to vindicate Paulson’s efforts so far. Another apparent success, though linked to ticket sales, is more subtle but perhaps as crucial: The Thorns look to be shaping up into a real football club – or, at any rate, as much of one as a side with a six-month fixture list can be.
“People in the community obviously wanted a women’s soccer team, but it’s just as important that the club is run properly,” says Christine Sinclair. “We’re treated as professionals. We play and train at world-class facilities. We’re treated like soccer players.”
This is, unfortunately, not as basic as it sounds, even for players of Sinclair’s pedigree. Except for the subsidized North American internationals and a few other marquee players, NWSL players work for part-time wages. Some make as little as $6,000 in a season, and many hold second jobs. Most league clubs play at tiny stadiums. The oddly named Sky Blue FC, ostensibly the league’s New York franchise, calls 5,000-seat-capacity Yurcak Field at Rutgers home, and the 2014 champions, FC Kansas City, play at a 3,200-seater in a municipal park.
“In a lot of cities we visit,” Thorns midfielder Mana Shim says, “it’s very evident that we’re playing for the love of the sport.”
That’s why major-league trappings – a big, modern, downtown stadium, full-service changing rooms, actual supporters – matter. “You try not to let stuff like that have any effect on you on the field, of course,” Sinclair says. “But it does affect you. Going out to play in front of 15,000 fans at Providence Park is much different than going out to play in front of 1,700 people at what’s basically a high school stadium. You want to do the city proud.”
Midfielder Angie Kerr, who retired after the 2014 Thorns season, put it like this: “Some of the places we show up, the locker room is a tiny little box under the stands, sometimes without AC, sometimes without showers. You’re afraid to touch the floor. Here, there are places to put your things, you know?”
In many ways, Shim is the player for whom this league was created. Despite excellent high school and college careers, the Hawaiian midfielder was without a club when she made the Thorns as a trialist in 2013. If not for the
NWSL, she’d likely be playing in amateur obscurity. As it is, by late in the 2014 season she disestablished herself in the XI and emerged as a still-developing talent and a fan favorite in a city, perhaps more than any other, where the women’s side has achieved a public profile.
“It’s the only situation I’ve seen where women’s professional soccer feels like professional soccer,” Shim says. “We love seeing the people in their 20s and 30s come out and have a few beers and get rowdy. I mean, that’s what professional sports is supposed to be. It’s entertainment and it’s a social event. That’s what we envision for our sport, but this is just about the only place where it’s been realized so far.”
The popular and cultural passion Shim’s talking about boils out of Providence Park’s North End – the traditional home of the Timbers Army, taken over during Thorns matches by a separate posse called the Riveters. Essentially founded when a 13-year-old fan decided a newly minted women’s side needed a supporters group, the Riveters took advantage of the Army’s existing infrastructure to get their own merchandise, tifo, and away support operations up and running. But the Thorns’ core support is adamant about both independence and projecting a distinct brand of aggro within the sport.
“There’s significant crossover, but I think in years to come we’ll see more folks who are more deeply committed to the Thorns than to the Timbers step into leadership positions,”says Kirsten Gehrke, the Riveters’ volunteer spokeswoman. “Portland is unique in US women’s soccer, in that most of the sport’s supporters nationwide would likely fall into the country-over-club category. Portland skews club over country. We don’t bow down to US women’s national team players playing for other teams. That’s been a shock to people.”
The supporters are, in other words, as determined as the players and the organization to create a club culture, common in men’s top-flight football but almost unknown in the women’s game. “When we go to other cities, a substantial number of people will be there just to see Alex Morgan,” Mana Shim says. “They root against their hometown team to cheer for her. That’s just unimaginable here.”
And so it is, on that August night against the Houston Dash, that chants of “Shoot her like a horse” cascade down on rival players when they suffer a rugged challenge, followed by “We’ll support the girls in red / Until we’re fucking dead.” Despite a complex choreography of swapping sides and taking turns dropping off or pulling wide, Sinclair and Morgan find the even frustratingly fallow. Early in the second half, however, Vero Boquete, the Spanish international running the Thorns’ diamond midfield, finishes the match winner from a scything run. Red smoke pours from North End, where a rainbow-mohawked capo waves a gigantic skull-and-crossbones flag. This night in Portland, women’s soccer feels like it might be headed to a bold new place.
“I think the big takeaway from the Thorns so far is that it’s not impossible,” Merritt Paulson says. “There are skeptics who say that the women’s club game will always be a fringe deal. Well, we draw crowds that many men’s club teams would love to draw.
“If the federation subsidies went away tomorrow, it would still be sustainable for us. But I think it would be hard for others. Right now, part of being the Thorns is being a beacon that says, All right, this is the way to go. Can you do it a year? No. Can you do it in five years? I think so. But you need to have the right operation behind you.”
In the meantime, Portland is the club the other NWSL operations – and women’s club soccer around the world – must be measured against. That can be a problem, but it’s a good one to have. “Everyone wants to come to Portland to play, whether for us or against us,” says Tobin Heath, a US international and Thorns midfielder. “It’s ironic, in a way – we get everyone’s best away performance, because they’re so up for it. They will play their best match of the season against us. But that’s what you want.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Eight by Eight magazine’s latest issue is out now. Photograph: Eight by Eight |
Nearly a month into his tenure, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's popularity has soared with his swoop on illegal abattoirs and "anti-Romeo" drives capturing the public imagination, a survey has claimed.
The decisions, that critics said were components of a larger saffron project, enjoy a high degree of popularity among the people, suggested the survey that was conducted among 2,000 respondents spread across 20 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Yogi Adityanath's drive against illegal slaughterhouses, anti-Romeo squads, action against VIP culture and ban on paan masala and tobacco in government offices came up as the most popular decisions in the survey conducted by Gaon Connection, a rural media platform.
HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SURVEY'S FINDINGS: While the crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses got 38.1 per cent approval, the formation of the anti-Romeo squads was hailed by around 25.4 per cent of the respondents, Gaon Connection said in a statement. Among women, the anti-Romeo drive emerged as the most popular decision with around 37 per cent approving it, despite instances of alleged police excesses and gender activists highlighting its adverse impact on autonomy and the right to make choices. On the other hand, the action against slaughterhouses have had a debilitating impact on the state's meat industry. It has also reportedly emboldened cow vigilantes and fringe outfits active in this field. Overall, decisions taken by the Adityanath-led BJP government have 62 per cent approval ratings while 71 per cent citizens feel the firebrand Hindu leader, seen as a highly polarising figure in the past by his critics, is working in the "right direction", the survey said. "The districts where the survey was carried out ranged from Lalitpur in the underdeveloped Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh's southwest to Sonbhadra in the remote southeast, from Meerut in the west to Siddharthnagar in the east," Gaon Connection said. Yogi Adityanath's stunning elevation as chief minister, following BJP's landslide victory where it won 325 seats in the 403-member state assembly, was seen as a move to stamp Hindu supremacy and, in this context, many saw the long shadow of his past in his first few decisions.
Source: Gaon Connection (PTI) Source: Gaon Connection (PTI)
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Victory For Vision Zero, Sidewalks, Bikes at Today’s Transportation Committee
As expected, today’s Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee meeting featured a showdown over how the city will spend its Measure M local return funding. Measure M is Metro’s new half-cent sales tax. 16 percent of Measure M is returned to cities for local transportation projects and programs. The city of L.A. estimates that local return will amount to approximately $66 million annually.
Today’s Transportation Committee meeting was considering a motion that would have primarily directed L.A. local return monies to resurfacing deteriorated roads. Instead, the committee sidestepped road repair and directed local return dollars to Vision Zero, including specific funding for bicycle facilities, and sidewalks.
Discussion began with the city’s Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Legislative Analyst report [PDF] following the proposed council motion 16-0395 which would have dedicated two-thirds of Measure M local return funds toward road resurfacing, with the remaining funds going to “everything else.”
Early on, Transportation Committee chair Mike Bonin made an alternative proposal, dedicating all of L.A.’s Measure M local return to “health, safety, and equity.” Bonin characterized the committee’s choice as “either fill a bunch of potholes or save a bunch of lives.” Bonin’s proposal would allocate funds as follows (after paying the city’s 3 percent share on Metro Measure M projects in the city of L.A.):
60 percent for Vision Zero
20 percent for essentially Vision Zero curb-work “median island and curb extension improvements, including but not limited to bus bulbs, curb extensions, pedestrian refuge and median islands”
10 percent for sidewalk repair and reconstruction on Vision Zero High Injury Network corridors
10 percent for upgrade and expansion of bicycle infrastructure
Thirty-two public speakers, including City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, urged committee members to support Vision Zero, safety, complete streets, walking, and bicycling, and to prioritize these improvements in underserved low income communities of color. Among the numerous groups commenting were Investing in Place, the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition, the American Heart Association, TRUST South L.A., AARP, Los Angeles Walks, California Walks, SCOPE, Prevention Institute and many others. No speakers testified in favor of resurfacing.
Councilmembers Nury Martinez and Jose Huizar spoke in clear support of Bonin’s proposal.
LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds made the case for greater investments in saving lives, not only morally and ethically, but even in terms of the city’s fiscal liability. Reynolds emphasized that fatalities are rising in Los Angeles, and that Vision Zero engineering improvements are data-driven proven remedies for preventing future deaths. Reynolds compared New York City’s Vision Zero programs, funded at $155 million per year, to L.A.’s, currently under $4 million per year.
Councilmember Paul Koretz, apparently unaware of recent L.A. City Vision Zero studies, suggested that further study was needed before allocating funds to make streets safer. Koretz went on to blame pedestrian deaths on pedestrian behavior, and increased bicycle “accidents” on bicycle infrastructure. Koretz then questioned whether Measure M local return funding should go to Vision Zero or sidewalks.
Councilmembers David Ryu and Koretz proposed an alternative local return funding breakdown:
60% for road resurfacing
30% for Vision Zero
10% for bicycle infrastructure
The Ryu/Koretz proposal was not approved.
Bonin’s proposal was approved on a 3-2 vote, with Ryu and Koretz opposed. This is a huge victory for health, safety, and livability in the city of Los Angeles. The Bonin proposal will still need to be approved by Public Works and Budget Committees, and by the full City Council. |
Over 60 percent of Americans believe President Donald Trump should refrain from tweeting from his personal account on Twitter. | AP Photo Poll: Americans think Trump should stop tweeting from personal account
More than 60 percent of registered voters believe President Donald Trump should stop using his personal Twitter account, according to a poll released on the same day that the president used his social media platform to attack MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski.
“I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore),” the president wrote online Thursday morning. “Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”
Story Continued Below
The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted before the president’s latest Twitter outburst, but the 1,212 registered voters reached by the survey indicated that Trump should stop publishing such posts. Sixty-one percent of respondents said the president should abandon his preferred social media platform, compared with 32 percent who said he should continue tweeting.
Thursday’s flurry of Twitter attacks against Brzezinski prompted a fresh round of condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike, and it is far from the first time that Trump has stirred controversy with his social media accounts. Prominent Republicans have publicly called on the president to tone down his online rhetoric, while his administration has insisted that Trump uses social media to circumnavigate the media and speak directly to the American people.
Overall, Trump’s approval rating climbed in the poll, up 6 percentage points relative to Quinnipiac’s June 7 poll to 40 percent. His disapproval rating, while still high, also improved slightly, dipping 2 points from earlier this month to 55 percent. The percentage of respondents who said Trump is not level-headed also improved relative to early June, dipping from 68 percent to 63 percent.
The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted from June 22-27, reaching 1,212 voters nationwide via landlines and cellphones. The poll’s margin of error was plus-or-minus 3.4 points. |
We should get most of the minerals we need from the whole foods we eat, but sometimes we just can’t consume enough, and if this happens for a prolonged period of time, it can lead to a deficiency. “A large amount of the population is deficient in one or more essential minerals compared to the daily recommended amount for their gender and age,” says celebrity nutritionist Brigitte Zeitlin. “These deficiencies are a result of either an increased need for the mineral (if you are pregnant, stressed or sick, you may need more of certain ones), a lack of the mineral in your diet or difficulty absorbing it from food, like those who have Celiac disease.”
According to Tamara Rausch, product manager for Lycored, a wellness company focused on supplements and cosmeceuticals, one study recently revealed there has been a 25–80 percent decline in the mineral content of our foods due to over-farming, chemical fertilizers and an increase in food processing.
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Symptoms of a mineral deficiency depend on the mineral you are lacking and the severity of your deficiency, but Zeitlin says possible red flags include everything from bloating and loss of appetite to lack of energy, poor concentration and anxiety. These are the two most common ways to test for deficiencies:
Do a Blood Test
“Mineral deficiencies are most commonly diagnosed by a doctor-conducted physical exam, routine blood work including a complete blood count test and a measurement of your electrolytes, and a review of your diet and eating habits,” explains Zeitlin.
Have Your Hair Analyzed
There’s also a newer method of testing called hair tissue analysis. A hair sample is taken from your head and analyzed by a lab to determine whether or not you have any mineral deficiencies, which experts say is less-invasive than blood tests and can be just as accurate, if not more so because hair tissue changes more slowly than blood levels. For example, your blood test results may be skewed if you ate a specific mineral-rich food the day before. “When reviewed by a health care practitioner [ask your general practitioner if he or she offers the testing] with expertise interpreting this type of test, a hair tissue analysis can provide a great deal of important information as it relates to a variety of different mineral deficiencies,” says Dr. Passler.
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Magnesium
This mineral—an estimated 80 percent of Americans are deficient in it—is especially important for women older than 40, as it prevents bone loss that may lead to osteoporosis. It can also help regulate blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease, and is known for its sleep-enhancing benefits.
Calcium
The most abundant mineral in the body, calcium is best known for its crucial role in the development of bones and teeth, but it also ensures other systems work correctly. If your body is deficient in calcium, it will absorb it from your bones and teeth, causing them to become brittle and more prone to decay.
Iron
Iron is needed to carry oxygen throughout the body’s cells so they can produce energy. According to the World Health Organization, up to 30 percent of the world’s population may have an iron deficiency called anemia, which can lead to fatigue, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, hair loss and more.
Potassium
An electrolyte that counteracts the negative effects of sodium, potassium helps maintain healthy blood pressure. It also helps regulate fluid balance in the body and controls the electrical activity of the heart and other muscles.
Zinc
Zinc is prized for its antioxidant and immune-boosting properties. It’s commonly taken as a supplement by those looking to reduce the frequency at which they get sick—it’s also lost through sweat, so athletes often require more of it. |
If you complain about the illegal spying and abusive international corporate organized crime and banker occupation of your country, you can face police gangs (informants) beating you up, setting you up for prison, or even helping police murder you. I was asked to help police before 9/11 for the coming elimination of the US Constitution and US borders. I refused to work for police, lie, beat people up, and break laws to help police with their rackets, drug dealing, prostitution, armed revenue collection, property confiscation, and their abuse of Americans, especially the self-employed. [ thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/2012/12/getting-made-in- ].Police can refuse to protect and serve. They can rape women with immunity. Police can spy on you and are out to help illegal government rip you off, break your family up, take your home, ruin you financially, and even beat and kill you. Obama is arming CIA's Al Qaeda while disarming Americans and dismantling the US Constitution.Text with embedded video:Published on Oct 7, 2013American journalist, Barrett Brown,has contributed to numerous publications including The Guardian andVanity Fair. He appears to be the latest victim of the Obamaadministration's soulless crackdown on investigative reporting. Brownhas received little broadcast media coverage since his imprisonmentnearly 400 days ago, and faces more than one century in prison ifconvicted.Rolling Stone article on Brown's imprisonment and unusual charges: |
Here are the results, replays, and photos from The Oppositelock Forza 6 2.4 Hours Of Le Mans. Also, I have an announcement regarding a future series...
The Race
Here is the link to the replay, in case you missed the race. Like the Daytona 2.4 back in January, the lobby was nearly at capacity. Which meant there was plenty going on. Special thanks to RoboRed for recording the race from a spectator’s point of view, everyone who also recorded the race and/or streamed it on Twitch, and to Little Black Coupe for being the pace car (for a short time lol).
Results
Here are the results by class, as well as a picture of the car used by each driver.
LMP
1st: th4tjoshguy: Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype
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2nd: Corey CC97: Toyota TS040 Hybrid
3rd: HemroidGelly: Toyota TS040 Hybrid
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4th: Rudi SRT4: Toyota TS040 Hyrbid
5th: Dr CHAIR PHD: Audi R18 e-tron Quattro
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6th: mackleroy45: Mazda Lola B12/80 (DNF)
7th: admiralCB: Toyota TS040 Hybrid (DNF)
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GT
1st: SrPhloofy: Dodge Viper GTS-R
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2nd: Dr Beckx: Nissan Nismo GT-R GT500
3rd: nichpsu: McLaren MP4-12C GT3
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4th: WWaveform: Audi R8 LMS ultra GTD
5th: FearlessTSwift: Ferrari 458 Italia GTLM
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6th: theonealetta: Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
7th: Tellurium132: McLaren MP4-12C GT3
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8th: JA 37 Viggen: Nissan Nismo GT-R GT500
9th: CaptDDale: Aston Martin DBR9
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10th: X Mr Plankton X: Nissan Nismo GT-R GT500 (DNF)
11th: BeckhamDB7: BMW Z4 GTE (DNF)
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12th: RoboRedMdnite: Ford GT Le Mans (DNF)
13th: SirWaters: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (DNS)
STEWARDS RULINGS:
Restart at 57:50 on race clock: Restart has been ruled clean, no action taken.
The Trophies
As per the usual with major championships/races, the winners in each class shall receive desirable, expertly crafted trophies.
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For his 1st place finish in the LMP class and the overall race standings, the trophy for 1st place is awarded to th4tjoshguy!
And for his 1st place finish in the GT class, the trophy for 1st place in GT is presented to SrPhloofy!
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Also, with awards of this magnitude, the winning manufactures have been made aware of their massive success. These trophies will make beautiful additions to their lists of victories.
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In addition to the trophies, I also combined the pictures of the full field and winners from previous races into one image to show how the field has changed over the years. Here is a link to 2014's post race, 2015's post race, and 2016's post race.
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Photos
Here are some more photos from the race. If you have any pictures from the race that you want to share, post them in the comments.
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Thoughts And Comments
As with anything with the name “Le Mans” in it this year, this race was not without incident or controversy. This race had more cautions than any other Oppo Le Mans that has been held, which makes sense since it was the only one to actually have cautions. Moving away from my misleading statistics, this race did still have a good number of incidents. Especially as the race got closer to the finish, there were a lot more cautions. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, running 2.4 hours completely clean is next to impossible. Though I was hoping things would go a bit smoother. Guess that can be said of the real 24 Hours of Le Mans as well. No one’s really to blame. Just a multitude of incidents, nothing more. Not like anyone was treating this like a matchmaking lobby or anything. Also, I thought everyone did some great driving, regardless of how much time they’ve spent on Le Mans this month.
The Next Series
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Oh yes, Can Am.
Because 1970's Formula Juan cars were too safe and friendly, this next series will feature tube frames with a 10 foot tall spoiler and engines that have more power and size than most countries. Chances are this will be the last series I run in Forza 6 before the jump to Forza 7 happens. And I think it will send off the game with a bang. Expect a full post with sign ups and all the details soon.
Congrats to everyone who raced! Four years now this event has been happening. Now we wait for five! Featuring dynamic day and night, dynamic weather, and some form of race car. Maybe we’ll get a good number of Group C cars. Or a Porsche 917. Or proper KERS systems. Or Turn 10 is going to take my money and leave me with a three year old Porsche 919 that only makes power at 5000 rpm... |
Toronto police have unveiled a pilot project on cameras worn by police. One hundred officers will test out three types of equipment across the city starting May 18. The test phase was initiated last September after a review by retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci of how police react to people in mental crisis.
Cnst. Ben Seto models a body-worn video camera. Toronto police have launched a pilot project on wearing cameras. A hundred officers will test three different types of equipment. ( Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star )
Here’s what you need to know about the cameras, and how the project will work: Who will wear the pilot cameras?
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The officers participating are all members of four police divisions: the Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy Rapid Response Teams, 43 Division Community Response Unit, 55 Division Primary Response Unit, and the Traffic Services Motor Squad. Police said the officers were trained in human rights and privacy issues, and undertook classroom lessons and participated in mock trials. When will the cameras be activated? Police said that while the cameras will technically be “on” as soon as an officer is on the job, they must be activated to begin recording. Activation will occur “as soon as reasonably possible.” This could be, for example, prior to arriving at a call or when investigative contact begins. (“Investigative contact” describes contact between a police officer and a citizen that the officer initiates for the purpose of an investigation.)
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Police directives do not force officers to activate their cameras if they are having an informal conversation with someone. Police said the cameras will be activated during the following circumstances: calls for service (general calls to respond to a scene or deal with a situation), investigative detention, apprehension under the Mental Health Act, arrests, interactions with people in crisis, crimes in progress, investigations, dealings with active criminals, and cases of public disorder.
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Does an officer have to tell me if I’m being filmed? This depends on whether the interaction occurs in private or public. In public, officers can record without your explicit consent. Toronto Police Service said, however, that “officers have been trained to let the person know they are being recorded.” In private locations, such as homes or businesses, police must get your explicit permission before entering with a camera that is activated. This requirement can be waved if police are carrying out a search warrant, or “under exigent circumstances.” The officer will have to turn off the camera if the owner of a private home, who granted initial permission to film inside the dwelling, later asks for it to be turned off. Where will the videos be stored, and for how long? At the end of every shift, officers will upload their footage to a server operated by the Toronto Police Service. A video will only be accessible to the officer who shot it, and his or her supervisor. Police say the videos will be kept on file for at least a year. This could be prolonged if a video is being used as evidence in a legal case, or an ongoing investigation. Can I ask to see the footage? Police say the footage cannot be accessed, reviewed, edited or deleted “at the time of the recording.” People can request to see or delete a video later, however, through the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Will the cameras become permanent across the Toronto police force? The pilot project is expected to last a year. The results will be evaluated at the end, and recommendations will be made to the chief of police. Police are also asking for community feedback through an anonymous online survey. People can also request more information about how the cameras work by e-mailing [email protected] . |
3 Reasons You Shouldn't Ask Developers to Plan Beyond 1 Sprint
Congratulations! You are now the Product Owner on an Agile project. Maybe your boss gave you the role, or perhaps you’re working with an agile agency and you volunteered after learning a little about it. Either way, now you have a problem: people are already asking you “When will the product be ready?”
It doesn’t matter if it’s your boss wanting to know when you will deliver the product, or if it’s your customers wanting to know when they can use shiny new features, or even if it’s the voice in the back of your mind wondering when you can ship the Next Big Thing. Someone wants to know.
I heard that deadlines are un-agile?
Businesses need some form of timeline for many valid reasons (and some invalid, but emotionally charged ones). A couple of examples: budgeting is highly time sensitive, and marketing campaigns take a long time to plan and orchestrate. Often also market demand is time sensitive - imagine launching a Valentine’s Day app on the 15th of February. Deliver too late and you will find your customers have moved on.
What’s really getting you worked up, though, is that all the development team will tell you is what’s in the next sprint demo on Thursday! No matter how much you bribe, plead or stamp your feet, they won’t look more than one sprint ahead.
There’s clearly a tension here. On the one hand, your business colleagues need a firm timescale. On the other, the developers - the people actually moving the project forward - won’t tell you. It turns out that here are some very good reasons why you shouldn’t try and get the developers to tell you when the product will be done:
It leads to lower quality software that takes longer to build.
Development benefits disproportionately from focused, undistracted work. If you interrupt it too often (for example, by asking when it will be done) you break the creative flow. Breaking up the flow prevents the developers from creating an elegant solution to today’s problem - and as any developer will tell you, elegant code results in faster coding and fewer bugs. Not to mention the simple fact that you’re making developers spend time doing prediction rather than building the product. In the end, your project slows down - something businesses generally try to avoid! It slows down the feedback you get when adjusting the scope.
As the product owner you own the scope of the product. You get to make changes to what is in scope and out of scope on a regular basis. It’s an unavoidable fact that this is going to change the delivery date. If you depend on the team to update the predicted delivery date after each change of scope it makes it hard for you to see the impact of the changes you are making. It delays gathering data used to make good decisions.
This might seem a little obscure, so here’s an example: developers can tell you that building the ‘related content’ feature is going to take about as long as it takes to build ‘full text search,’ though they can’t tell you whether it’ll be hours, days, or a week. Once the “full text search” feature is done you not only get that feature - you now also know how long it’ll take to build “related content”.
This is a core concept in agile development: you gain twice for any development. You get working software (which is good in itself) and more data about how long work takes.
By freeing the developers to focus on building the product, you speed up the rate at which you get reliable data to base your decisions on what is in and out of scope. This means you can make the best decision earlier, which can save you money. The desire to get as much data as possible so you can make the best decision at the right time often leads to a culture of delaying things to the “last responsible moment”
So who can tell you when it will be done?
We’ve established that if you’re asking a developer, you’re asking the wrong person. Naturally you’ll want to know then “Who should I ask?” The only person who can know when product is ready for launch is you, the Product Owner. That’s because it’s part of the PO’s job to define and shape the product. The decisions you make directly impact the finish date, and the desired finish date directly impacts the decisions you make.
If you need to move the finish date forward, you can do exactly that by reducing scope. You can also inadvertently change the delivery date by adding (or removing) requirements in your project. Since you are the one making the changes, you need to always take the expected finish date into account when you request a new feature, or cut one out.
I’d argue that adjusting the product scope to control the delivery date is the most important job the Product Owner has. You can’t get away with not doing it, and you can’t do it reliably if you depend on someone else to inform you every time you do something that changes the delivery date.
Next time I’m going to show you a technique for estimating your project’s finish date, and how to deal with it when you don’t like the answer. |
(CNN) President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday used comments from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to continue raising questions about the allegation that Russian hackers attempted to influence American politics -- a charge the US intelligence community and the Obama administration has defended with increasing vigor.
Trump tweeted Wednesday morning, hours after the broadcast of an interview Assange gave Fox News' Sean Hannity, to blame Democrats for not having tighter cybersecurity.
"Somebody hacked the DNC but why did they not have 'hacking defense' like the RNC has and why have they not responded to the terrible things they did and said (like giving the questions to the debate to H). A total double standard! Media, as usual, gave them a pass."
Trump's comments again put him at odds with Republican leaders on the Hill -- including Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan -- who have shown support for the Intelligence Community's uniform assessment that Russia hacked American political targets with the intent of disrupting US elections.
The Vice President-elect said Wednesday at a press conference that Trump has a "healthy American skepticism" about the conclusions made by the intelligence community.
"I think that the President-elect has expressed his very sincere and healthy American skepticism about intelligence conclusions," said Mike Pence, who said he's received regular intelligence briefings.
When asked about Assange on Hugh Hewitt's radio show Wednesday morning, Ryan responded, "I have really nothing (to say) other than the guy is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks. He steals data and compromises national security."
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that Americans -- including the President-elect -- should stay away from giving Assange much credibility considering his views of the United States.
"I don't believe any American should give a whole lot of credibility to what Mr. Assange says," the South Carolina Republican said on CNN's "At this Hour."
"In Julian Assange's world, we're the bad guys -- not the Iranians, not the Russians, not the North Koreans. You gotta remember who this guy is."
US intelligence agencies are a far more reliable source on foreign involvement in an American election than Assange, Graham said.
"Mr. Assange is a fugitive from the law, hiding in an embassy, who has a history of undermining American interest. I hope no American will be duped by him," he said.
"I hope the President-elect will get his information and trust the American patriots who work in the Intelligence Community who swear oaths of allegiance to the Constitution and not some guy hiding from the law who has a record of undercutting and undermining American democracy."
The DNC responded to Trump's message Wednesday, saying the President-elect is " is putting his own insecurities ahead of national security because he is sensitive about how he won."
"It's nothing short of terrifying that Trump has chosen to take the word of an enemy of our country over the word of 17 United States intelligence agencies including the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA," Adrienne Watson, DNC national press secretary, said in a statement. "Trump is jeopardizing America's future with his fear of offending Vladimir Putin."
In the Fox News interview, Assange denied that Russia was the source of leaked Democratic emails that roiled the 2016 election to the detriment of Trump's rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Instead, Assange said the documents -- which were stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's email -- were easily obtained through a "phishing" solicitation, whereby Podesta mistakenly gave up his password.
"We published several emails which show Podesta responding to a phishing email," Assange said during the interview . "Podesta gave out that his password was the word password. His own staff said this email that you've received, this is totally legitimate. So this is something ... a 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta that way."
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- an early Trump supporter -- responded to Assange's interview with an apology and a reversal.
Palin lavished praise on Assange in a Facebook post after watching Assange on Fox. She wrote that Podesta's emails contained "important information that finally opened people's eyes to democrat candidates and operatives" and which "would not have been exposed were it not for Julian Assange."
"I apologize for condemning Assange when he published my infamous (and proven noncontroversial, relatively boring) emails years ago," she wrote
Palin had previously been a strident critic of Assange and WikiLeaks: The site had published some of Palin's personal emails in 2008, which were hacked while she was a candidate for vice president, and Palin accused Assange of endangering US military personnel by publishing a raft of State Department cables containing highly sensitive information.
In a 2010 Facebook post , she had written, "Assange is not a 'journalist,' any more than the 'editor' of al Qaeda's new English-language magazine Inspire is a 'journalist.' He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands."
A former Pentagon and CIA spokesman on Wednesday slammed Trump for giving credit to Assange, warning that he thought America will be less safe when the President-elect takes office later this month.
"Let's stare this reality square in the face: PEOTUS is pro-Putin and believes Julian Assange over the @CIA. On Jan. 20 we will be less safe," tweeted George Little, who served under former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. |
Ezra, commenting on Brooks, neatly sums up the demographic challenges facing Republicans:
As for the educated class, that's an interesting question. Much like with the conservative wing's mistrust of Hispanics, it's a policy that might have seemed electorally wise a couple years ago but is growing more questionable with every passing election. At some point, the demographic trends predicted by The Emerging Democratic Majority's will reach sufficient maturity and the GOP's decades-long effort to drive away the educated and young and the different is going to leave them making ever more exclusionary appeals to an ever smaller slice of the electorate.
What Rove never realized is that many of us fought hard for intellectual and moral respect for conservatism in college and grad school, only to have our efforts turned into a joke by the crassness of the Party Of Rove. There were only a few self-described conservatives at Harvard when I was there, and I spent a great deal of time losing friends, breaking up dinners, offending professors because I was a) right of center and b) obviously academically serious. And now I'm supposed to defend Sarah Palin? As vice-president? I mean: seriously?
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We have seen many concepts, but this is the most realistic plan yet for humanity's first Moon Base. It will be more efficient and cheaper to build than any other alternative, as it uses 3D printing to quickly transform raw lunar soil into habitable domes.
Also? It looks awesome.
The lunar soil structure will provide both radiation and temperature insulation. Inside, a lightweight pressurized inflatable with the same dome shape will be the living environment for the first human Moon settlers.
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The European Space Agency and architectural firm Foster + Partners are now working on the technology to make this a reality. According to ESA's human spaceflight team's Scott Hovland: "3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth."
The logic is that if 90% of the stuff we need to build the base is already on the Moon, we only have to ferry the 3D printing robots (you can look at one below) and the lightweight parts, like the inflatables and the solid connector and entry segments. This will make this idea a lot cheaper than the alternatives.
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Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group says that their construction 3D printing technology has already produced entire structures under extreme conditions on Earth, so it's perfectly reasonable to do the same up there:
As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials. Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic.
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The team has already came up with a way to use the same technologies under the Moon's environmental conditions, devising "a weight-bearing ‘catenary' dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micrometeoroids and space radiation, incorporating a pressurised inflatable to shelter astronauts. A hollow closed-cell structure—reminiscent of bird bones—provides a good combination of strength and weight." They produced this 1.5 ton sample as a demonstration of how these hollow cell walls would work:
That block is all built with simulated lunar material and magnesium oxide. That turns the moonstuff into a pulp that can be sprayed to form the block. Then, they apply a binding salt that "converts [this] material into a stone-like solid." Quite impressive.
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According to Enrico Dini—the founder of UK-based Monolite, who started to work on 3D building printers back in 2010 and proposed them for lunar base construction—the machines are now printing at 6.5 feet (2 meters) per hour. He says that their next generation will speed up to 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) per hour, which is enough to complete an entire building in one week.
If they keep up that kind of progress, a full structure on the moon may become a reality within our lifespans. [ESA and Foster and Partners] |
“The crowd of companies in this section [Manufacturing, Service and Retailing Operations] sells products ranging from lollipops to jet airplanes. Some of these businesses, measured by earnings on unleveraged net tangible assets, enjoy terrific economics, producing profits that run from 25% after-tax to far more than 100%. Others generate good returns in the area of 12% to 20%. A few, however, have very poor returns, a result of some serious mistakes I made in my job of capital allocation. I was not misled: I simply was wrong in my evaluation of the economic dynamics of the company or the industry in which it operated.“
—Warren Buffett, Letter to Shareholders 2013
What Everyone Should Know Before Investing in the Retail Sector
The mantra “understand the business before you invest in it” may seem like a trivial statement. But it’s not. I have done it myself, and I guess that many of you know what I’m talking about. Sinned by buying shares in a business I didn’t understand good enough (I say enough, since you cannot know everything—at some point you have to make a buy/sell decision or just move on). It’s easy to buy shares in a business before having collected enough facts about the situation and circumstances at hand. Psychological factors and emotions often play too big a role when it comes to buying and selling shares.
Understanding why it is important to know the fundamentals of a business before investing in it most likely seems like a no-brainer to most of us—at least in theory. The hardest part, I guess, is to live as you learn. To start with, you have to understand yourself. Never fool yourself. Easier said than done, I know, but that doesn’t make it less relevant. It probably makes it even more important to repeat it time and time again. Becoming aware of the problem in situations like these is the first step. We all need to be aware of things before we can do our best to address them.
Except for the business, you need an understanding of the industry—the playing field where competitors battle each other. This is where the fight for profits takes place. The inherent industry structures will impact the way in which incumbent businesses compete, and also whether any entry and exits is likely to happen. The inherent industry characteristics differ between different industries in terms of entry barriers, number of competitors, profitability, growth, number of competitors, competitive advantages (or moats) and returns on invested capital etc. Beyond understanding the business, an understanding of the industry is highly critical since it will impact the profit and return potential.
Understanding the industry could of course be part of “understand the business.” Anyway, understanding a certain business most likely requires basic understanding the industry (or industries) in which it operates. All this talk about “understanding” has one, and only one goal in the end, to mitigate the risk of a permanent loss of capital.
Now that we’ve discussed the importance of understanding the business and the industry, a fair question to ask is; How do you obtain this understanding? As always, you have to start somewhere. You have to start building your own circle of competence. No one will do it for you.
In this post we will take a closer look at the retail industry, too learn what this industry looks like, what could be expected from a retailer, the likely returns on invested capital, the degree of competition, among other things. For now, we’ll leave the part about understanding the business. Let’s improve our understanding of retailing and the retail industry in general.
Basically, everything you read could give you hints and improve your knowledge and understanding of the things at play in a certain area. Your knowledge data base (your brain) will accumulate new facts along the way, building on the things you’ve processed earlier, hopefully replace any facts that turned out to be wrong. All this in an attempt to increase and improve your skills when it comes to industry structure, profitability, returns on invested capital. The more you learn, the better you will get at detecting differences between industries and businesses, and also understand why there are differences—what forces can explain and sometimes even predict what happens. Some industries are inherently more attractive (that is, more likely to provide sustainable above-average returns on invested capital) than others.
A few useful sources to start with are:
Annual reports
Shareholder letters (for example Warren Buffett’s shareholder letters)
Earnings calls or transcripts
Research reports (some could be found via a Google search if your lucky)
Investor presentations or transcripts from such events
Books (for example Competition Demystified, Competitive Strategy, The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing, Why Moats Matter, The Little Book That Builds Wealth, Good Strategy Bad Strategy)
Business journals
Articles or white papers
Lectures and other public presentations (for example Google Talks, Greenwald lectures on YouTube)
Lecture notes
Business and investing blogs/sites (for example CSInvesting, Value Investing World, The Manual of Ideas, Fundoo Professor—see below for excerpt from BuffettFAQ.com)
The above examples are just that, examples. There is a ton of stuff to learn from that I didn’t include.
The Oracle of Omaha on the Difficulties of Retailing
Someone who’s been in the investing game for some time is Warren Buffett. And when it comes to investing in retailer even Buffett has his fair share of, let us say less satisfactory results. Let’s see what Buffett himself has to say about the difficulties an investor could encounter in this area.
What is your opinion of the prospects for the Kmart/Sears merger? How will Eddie Lambert do at bringing Kmart and Sears together?
Nobody knows. Eddie is a very smart guy but putting Kmart and Sears together is a tough hand. Turning around a retailer that has been slipping for a long time would be very difficult. Can you think of an example of a retailer that was successfully turned around? Broadcasting is easy; retailing is the other extreme. If you had a network television station 50 years ago, you didn’t really have to invent or being a good salesman. The network paid you; car dealers paid you, and you made money.
But in retail you have to be smarter than Wal-Mart. Every day retailers are constantly thinking about ways to get ahead of what they were doing the previous day.
Retailing is like shooting at a moving target. In the past, people didn’t like to go excessive distances from the street cars to buy things. People would flock to those retailers that were near by. In 1966 we bought the Hochschild Kohn department store in Baltimore. We learned quickly that it wasn’t going to be a winner, long-term, in a very short period of time. We had an antiquated distribution system. We did everything else right. We put in escalators. We gave people more credit. We had a great guy running it, and we still couldn’t win. So we sold it around 1970. That store isn’t there anymore. It isn’t good enough that there were smart people running it.
It will be interesting to see how Kmart and Sears play out. They already have a lot of real estate, and have let go of a bunch of Sears’ management (500 people). They’ve captured some savings already.
We would rather look for easier things to do. The Buffett grocery stores started in Omaha in 1869 and lasted for 100 years. There were two competitors. In 1950, one competitor went out of business. In 1960 the other closed. We had the whole town to ourselves and still didn’t make any money.
How many retailers have really sunk, and then come back? Not many. I can’t think of any. Don’t bet against the best. Costco is working on a 10-11% gross margin that is better than the Wal-Mart’s and Sams’. In comparison, department stores have 35% gross margins. It’s tough to compete against the best deal for customers. Department stores will keep their old customers that have a habit of shopping there, but they won’t pick up new ones. Wal-Mart is also a tough competitor because others can’t compete at their margins. It’s very efficient.
If Eddie sees it as impossible, he won’t watch it evaporate. Maybe he can combine certain things and increase efficiencies, but he won’t be able to compete against Costco’s margins. (Source: BuffettFAQ)
Retail is a tough game to play, or as Buffett says; “Retailing is like shooting at a moving target.” Buffett’s advice? “We would rather look for easier things to do.” Let’s look at one more before we move on (emphasis added).
What economic laws have worked best for Berkshire?
It is all a matter of trying to find businesses with wide moats protecting a large castle occupied by an honest lord. Moats might be a natural franchise, brand loyalty, or being a low-cost producer. In a capitalistic society, all moats are subject to attack: if you have a good castle, others will want it. What we want to figure out is what keeps the castle standing and how smart is the lord. [Charlie Munger: We also like to look for low agency costs on that lord, economies of scale and “economies of intelligence.”]
Buffett elaborated on the “economies of intelligence”: the idea is to find businesses where you have to be smart only once instead of being smart forever. Retailing is a business where you have to be smart forever: your competitors will always copy your innovations. Buying a network TV station in the early days of television required you to be smart only once. In that kind of business, a terrible manager can still make a fortune. Given the choice between the two (a business where you have to be smart forever or one where you have to be smart once), Buffett advised, pick the great business – be smart once. (Source: BuffettFAQ)
A Closer Look at Retail
One of the books mentioned above is a book written by Pat Dorsey—The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing. There is a section in this book that discusses and goes through a number of different industries, of which one is retail (as part of consumer services). The remaining part of this post will focus on the consumer services sector, and more specifically retail. We will do this by reading the part about retail.
Below is an excerpt from the Five Rules of Successful Investing, explaining and discussing the industry fundamentals and some of the pros and cons of retailing (emphasis added).
Consumer Services
NOT SURPRISINGLY, WE generally don’t find a ton of great long-term stock ideas in retail and consumer services because most economic moats for the sector are extremely narrow, if they exist at all. The only way a retailer can earn a wide economic moat is by doing something that keeps consumers shopping at its stores rather than at competitors’. It can do this by offering unique products or low prices. The former method is tough to do on a large scale because unique products rarely remain unique forever. It’s rare to find a retailer or consumer service firm that maintains any kind of economic moat for more than a few years. […]
Retail The retail game has undergone a major facelift over the past two decades. First came the development of category killers, with specialized merchandise and service. Chains such as Home Depot and Lowe’s put many smaller, regional players out of business in the home improvement area. In 1992, the two firms posted combined sales of $8 billion; in 2002, they sold more than $80 billion worth of nails, hammers, and appliances. Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples did the same thing to the office supply business in the late 1980s and 1990s. The second major shift has been the move off the mall. Once upon a time, department stores were infallible in the world of retailing. Well-known chains such as Sears that were once destinations in their own right became the anchor tenants for malls. The stores aimed to provide customers with a one-stop shopping experience, and some even housed full-service restaurants. Customers had more time to shop and placed more value on the personal attention these stores provided. Over the past 20 years, however, traditional department stores have become dinosaurs. Nowadays, companies such as Sears and JC Penney are struggling to remain relevant—a battle that chains such as Montgomery Ward and Woolworth have already lost. Changing consumer trends are largely, but not totally, to blame. In this era of dual-income households, shoppers want selection, quality, and reasonable prices, and they want it fast. And they’ve shown a willingness to shift their spending to stores that can provide this experience. Firms such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Kohl’s have stolen the thunder of the traditional department stores with innovation and efficiency. These are the firms that developed everyday low prices, pioneered centralized checkouts at the front of stores, and set up shop in freestanding locations with more convenient parking. Whereas, Sears and Penney averaged 0 percent and 1 percent annual sales growth, respectively, from 1998 to 2002, Wal-Mart, Target, and Kohl’s averaged 15 percent, 10 percent, and 24 percent, respectively. Over the next several years, we expect this divergence to continue. Investing in Retail: Understanding the Cash Conversion Cycle One of the best ways to distinguish excellent retailers from average or below-average ones is to look at their cash conversion cycles. The cash cycle tells us how quickly a firm sells its goods (inventory), how fast it collects payments from customers for the goods (receivables), and how long it can hold on to the goods itself before it has to pay suppliers (payables). Figure 15.1 illustrates the cash conversion cycle, and Figure 15.2 shows the conversion cycle for Home Depot. Naturally, a retailer wants to sell its products as fast as possible (high inventory turns), collect payments from customers as fast as possible (high receivables turns), but pay suppliers as slowly as possible (low payables turns). The best-case scenario for a retailer is to sell its goods and collect from customers before it even has to pay the supplier. Wal-Mart is one of the best in the business at this: 70 percent of its sales are rung up and paid for before the firm even pays its suppliers. Looking at the components of a retailer’s cash cycle tells us a great deal. A retailer with increasing days in inventory (and decreasing inventory turns) is likely stocking its shelves with merchandise that is out of favor. This leads to excess inventory, clearance sales, and, usually, declining sales and stock prices. Days in receivables is the least important part of the cash conversion cycle for retailers because most stores either collect cash directly from customers at the time of the sale or sell off their credit card receivables to banks and other finance companies for a price. Retailers don’t really control this part of the cycle too much. However, some stores, such as Sears and Target, have brought attention to the receivables line because they’ve opted to offer customers credit and manage the receivables themselves. The credit card business is a profitable way to make a buck, but it’s also very complicated, and it’s a completely different business from retail. We’re wary of retailers that try to boost profits by taking on risk in their credit card business because it’s generally not something they’re very good at. If days in inventory and days in receivables illustrate how well a retailer interacts with customers, days payable outstanding shows haw well a retailer negotiates with suppliers. It’s also a great gauge for the strength of a retailer. Wide-moat retailers such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Walgreen optimize credit terms with suppliers because they’re one of the few (if not the only) games in town. For example, 17 percent of P&G’s 2002 sales came from Wal-Mart. The fortunes of many consumer product firms depend on sales to Wal-Mart, so the king of retail has a huge advantage when ordering inventory: it can push for low prices and extended payment terms. Home Depot finally started taking advantage of its competitive position by squeezing suppliers in 2001 and 2002. Days payable outstanding for the home improvement titan has historically been around 25. In 2001, the figure hit 33 days, and by 2002, it exceeded 40 days. By holding on to its cash longer and reducing short-term borrowing needs, Home Depot increased its operating cash flow from an average of $2.4 billion from 1998 to 2000 to $5.6 billion from 2002 to 2003. Hallmarks of Successful Retailers • Sometimes you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Retail is a fickle business, and shoppers have plenty of alternatives, so companies have to make a concerted effort to keep stores clean and fresh. Lowe’s has benefited mightily in its battle with Home Depot because its stores are widely perceived to be more aesthetically pleasing and easier to navigate. Home Depot is reinvesting in its stores, but as we mentioned in the restaurant section, maintenance and renovation is easier than reinvention. • Keep an eye out for store traffic. You don’t want to see a traffic bottleneck at the checkout aisles, but you don’t want to see empty parking lots on weekends either. This is particularly true for specialty retail companies such as clothing stores that cater to a particular demographic. Traffic to teen hot spot Abercrombie & Fitch and women’s outfitter Chicos FAS has remained relatively robust even in times of lax consumer spending. These stores have carved out a brand identity and won customer loyalty, and their stock prices held up during the tough market conditions in 2001 and 2002. Remember, though, specialty retailers have a much shorter shelf life than traditional retailers do, so these investments have to be monitored much more closely. • Successful retailers have a positive employee culture. After all, retail is about customer service—period. Sam Walton helped build Wal-Mart into the largest retailer (and largest company) in the world based on sales using the premise that the customer is always right. During its growth heyday in the 1990s, Home Depot’s employees were always visible and customers usually walked away satisfied. In 2001 and 2002, Home Depot’s service waned noticeably, largely due to an influx of part-time employees who didn’t have the same connection to the company. Conclusion As we’ve mentioned numerous times in earlier chapters, great companies in attractive industries generate returns on invested capital that far exceed the cost of capital. However, retail is generally a very low-return business with low or no barriers to entry. Retail bellwethers Wal-Mart and Walgreen earn little more than 3 cents profit for every dollar of sales, so store management is critical. The problem is that many retailers don’t execute as flawlessly as these two and flame out as soon as trouble hits. The sector is rampant with competition. Think of all the specialty apparel shops that try to imitate Abercrombie &2 Fitch and Gap. A few succeed; most fail, but the point is that nothing exists to prevent new concepts and stores from being launched. There are few, if any, barriers to entry. Customers may be swayed to buy a cool $50 sweater, but they’ll quickly go to the store next door if the same sweater can be had for $40. The primary way a firm can build an economic moat in the sector is to be the low-cost leader. Wal-Mart sells items that can be purchased just about anywhere, but it sells it all for less than the competition, and consumers keep coming back for the bargains. Others may try to imitate Wal-Mart’s strategy in the short run but lack the economies of scale to remain profitable employing the strategy in the long run. Investor’s Checklist: Consumer Services • Most consumer services concepts fall in the long run, so any investment in a company in the speculative or aggressive growth stage of the business life cycle needs to be monitored more closely than the average stock investment. • Beware of stocks that have already priced in lofty growth expectations. You can make money if you get in early enough, but you can also lose your shirt on the stock’s rapid downslide. • The sector is rife with low switching costs. Companies that establish store loyalty or store dependence are very attractive. Tiffany’s is a good example; it faces limited competition in the retail jewelry market. • Make sure to compare inventory and payables turns to determine which retailers are superior operators. Companies that know what their customers want and how to exploit their negotiating power are more likely to make solid bets in the sector. • Keep an eye on those off-balance sheet obligations. Many retailers have little or no debt on the books, but their overall financial health might not be that good. • Look for a buying opportunity when a solid company releases poor monthly or quarterly sales numbers. Many investors overreact to one month’s worth of bad same-store sales results, and the reason might just be bad weather or an overly difficult comparison to the prior-year period. Focus on the fundamentals of the business and not the emotion of the stock. • Companies also tend to move in tandem when news comes out about the entire sector falls—keep that watch list handy. Learn Something New Each Day Charlie Munger once said that “I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.” I hope that reading through this post, and reflecting on the content, made you a little wiser. Wish you all a great weekend. Click here to Retail (Part II): Edward S. Lampert on Same-Store Sales Additional Weekend Reading Buffett’s Achilles’ Heel: Investing in Retail: Billionaire and Berkshire Partner Munger Often Speak of ‘Failures’
S&P CAPTIAL IQ, Industry Surveys Retailing: General (October, 2014)
S&P CAPTIAL IQ, Industry Surveys Retailing: Specialty (September, 2014)
S&P CAPITAL IQ, Not All Retailers Are Created Equal
Harris Williams & Co., Consumer and retail industry update (February, 2015)
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It is rare to praise the tactical decisions of a losing manager, but Roberto Mancini's strategy after Vincent Kompany's dismissal yesterday afternoon was extremely effective – despite a nervous few moments before half-time, and despite the overall defeat.
One of the greatest challenges any manager can face is going down to 10 men midway through a match. In his early days at Arsenal, Arsène Wenger said that he practised playing with 10 men in training, so his players were familiar with the situation and understood how their roles changed. His side picked up far too many red cards at that point – but when they did, they were always well prepared.
Much of tactics, at least in terms of pure positioning, revolves around outnumbering the opponent in a certain zone and then making the most of that advantage. Doing this when outnumbered overall is clearly extremely difficult. Mancini's problems were exacerbated by the fact Manchester City were already trailing – sitting back and hanging on was not a possibility here.
Of course, there is no such thing as an ideal formation when playing with 10 men, the same way there isn't when playing with 11. That said, in this situation it did seem logical for Mancini to shift to three at the back – that system is most effective when playing against two strikers, and that's the challenge United offered, with Wayne Rooney dropping off Danny Welbeck upfront.
But Mancini's change was unusual, because he shifted away from his usual defensive base of a back four. He waited until half-time to do so, however, meaning the decision was wise both in nature and timing. It would have been extremely dangerous to switch to a back three immediately after the red card in the 12th minute, without briefing the players on their new responsibilities in a system they had never played in before.
Mancini's one error, however, was that he didn't make an immediate substitution to stabilise his defence. He initially reacted to the red card by moving Micah Richards to centre-back, while James Milner dropped to right-back. The defence did not look solid and conceded two goals, while Milner's mobility was absent from midfield. Considering Mancini was to bring on Stefan Savic at half-time anyway, he should have made that switch earlier, while keeping the four-man back line until the break.
With David Silva and Adam Johnson sacrificed, Savic was joined for the second half by Pablo Zabaleta in a 3-4-1-1 shape. Savic played alongside Richards and Joleon Lescott at the back, Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov were the wing-backs. Milner was back in the centre alongside Nigel de Jong, while Samir Nasri played just behind Sergio Agüero.
The back three was the building block for the energy City showed after the break. With a spare man in that zone, it gave the two outside centre-backs the freedom to move forward and bring the ball out of defence. Richards did that excellently, storming forward to win the free-kick that resulted in Kolarov's goal. Mancini then made another subtle switch to increase the potential of attacks like this – Lescott had started the second half in the middle of the three centre-backs, but he was swapped with Savic and moved to the left, presumably as Lescott is the player more accustomed to having the ball at his feet in the left-back zone.
With the back three in place, the wing-backs also had freedom to move forward into attack. Kolarov and Zabaleta stretched the play and made up for City's numerical disadvantage with sheer energy and stamina. Even if City lost the ball and either was bypassed, Richards or Lescott could move out of defence to cover, depending on which side the ball was on. The other would tuck in and become more central, and City still had two defenders marking two strikers.
With a man fewer, you re always going to be weak in one zone, and the one thing City could not do was close down high up in midfield. Nasri tired quickly, and Sir Alex Ferguson's use of Scholes was designed to keep possession and frustrate City. According to Opta, Scholes completed more passes in his half-hour on the pitch than any City player did in the duration of the game, though his one misplaced pass led to City's second goal.
The strength of City's system was underlined by the substitutions Mancini made. It must be rare for a manager to make his side a more dangerous attacking threat by removing his three creative midfielders – Silva, Johnson and Nasri - and replacing them with such functional players. Savic is a pure centre-back, Zabaleta is a defensive utility man, Owen Hargreaves is a versatile, sensible holding midfielder. Milner, another who is favoured for his ability to carry out the manager's instructions, also remained on the pitch.
City did not get the equaliser, but "won" the second half 2-0 despite being a man down, and were the more dangerous side in the final 10 minutes – in contrast to United's response to going down to 10 men in the 6-1 Premier League defeat in October. It was a tremendous piece of improvisation from Mancini, probably inspired by something he had learnt at a Coverciano coaching course. Frequently cast as a "typically Italian" manager with too much of a focus upon systems, in this game Mancini showed that does not always mean negative football – even with a man sent off.
Redknapp's forward thinking
Harry Redknapp is not quite the tactical Neanderthal often claimed, as Jonathan Wilson has written about previously, but in recent weeks he has certainly gone against conventional wisdom. After telling Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart they could "play where they wanted" in the excellent win over Norwich City in late December, this weekend he fielded a midfield lacking anything close to a ball-winner, with Giovani dos Santos, Niko Kranjcar, Steven Pienaar and Aaron Lennon strung across the middle. It broadly worked well, and if there is any time to be fielding a midfield without a ball-winner, it is at home against a League Two club.
Scholes return should not cloud the issue
Last week's column suggested that Manchester United needed a "runner" rather than a "passer" in the centre of midfield. The surprise return of Paul Scholes to United's playing staff clearly brings more invention than mobility to that zone, but with Sir Alex Ferguson so short on numbers in that he has been forced to deploy at least five players away from their natural position in central midfield, the more options the better. Scholes knows the system and costs nothing, making him a decent short-term solution, but he should not cloud the issue of what United need.
Michael Cox is the editor of tactics website zonalmarking.net. Read his new weekly column at guardian.co.uk |
An American University Professor has exposed a Pakistani University’s secret hiring policy that prohibits hiring of Ahmadiyya Muslims. The professor is a member of an external committee that reviews applications of faculty candidates at Pakistani Universities.
In a recent blog post, a King Edward Medical University graduate, Abbis Haider detailed how the engineering professor called him to express his disappointment on the discriminatory anti-Ahmadiyya clauses in a Pakistani University’s application for a faculty position.
He said:
“I have not seen such overt discrimination ever in my life,”
In response to the blatant discrimination, the Engineering Professor sent the following response to the registrar of the university.
I am unable to associate myself with any religion-based exclusionary practice, and therefore will not submit my assessment of ████████ research career and accomplishments.
We can now reveal that the university which was not named in the original post is UET Lahore as the Job Application form on the University’s website has clauses which are identical to the ones mentioned in the original blog post.
The clauses in the application ask the applicant to declare the following:
DECLARATION : I solemnly declare that I believe that Hazrat Muhammad (peace and
blessing of Allah be upon him) is the last Prophet of Allah and there is and
was no prophet after him.
blessing of Allah be upon him) is the last Prophet of Allah and there is and was no prophet after him. I have firm faith in Islam and I am not the follower of any such person who claims to be a prophet or religions reformer after Hazrat Muhammad (Peace and Blessing of Allah be upon
him).
him). I do not belong to Qadiani Group or Lahori Group nor I am called Ahmadi.
The discriminatory policy not only applies to faculty candidates but also to students who wish to apply for bachelor degree courses at the University. In the admission application form the students are also asked to sign a similar declaration.
In addition, application forms of BZU Mutan, UET Taxila and Fatima Jinnah College all contain similar declarations.
In 1974 Pakistan officially declared Ahmadis as non-Muslim and since then Ahmadis have faced severe persecution. They are legally forbidden to call themselves Muslims or their houses of worship mosques. An Ahmadi can be jailed for three years for merely saying Salam (Islamic greeting) to other Muslims or doing anything that can give an impression that he is posing as a Muslim. |
MBC has offered Yoo Seung-ho (Ruler: Master of the Mask) to headline its upcoming drama titled I Am Love. The drama does not have a time slot or an airdate yet but is set to be broadcast in the first half of 2018.
An official from MBC confirmed on September 5 that Yoo Seung-ho is positively considering the offer. If he accepts the role, he will play Kang Chun, a lonely young man with genius painting abilities who resorts to using his skills in making forgeries. He was adopted to the U.S. when he was a child but was then rejected by his adoptive families. Later on, he faced deportation due to a drug trafficking incident, after which he lives in Jeju as a monastery priest during the day and as a forger at night. I Am Love will focus on Kang Chun’s story as he meets and falls in love with a woman. The production staff of the drama has yet to announce the actress who will be possibly playing opposite Yoo Seung-ho.
The rising actor will be playing his third leading role in a television drama should he decides to take the project. He last starred as a brave Joseon crown prince in MBC’s Ruler: Master of the Mask last summer alongside young actress Kim So-hyun. He had his biggest success as a relatively rookie actor in 2015 when he got to play the leading role in Remember: War of the Sons as a lawyer with photographic memory opposite actress Park Min-young (Seven Day Queen).
I Am Love will be directed by PD Choi Won-seok whose past projects include Miss Ripley in 2011 and daily dramas Here Comes Oh Ja-ryong in 2012-2013 and Make A Wish in 2014-2015. These series had been broadcast on MBC.
Source: 1 | 2 |
Most people in the U.S. will experience at least one misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis in their lifetimes, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Such mistakes—called diagnostic errors by physicians—could be as simple as failing to forward the results of a medical test showing that a patient recovered from a recent illness. Other errors can have devastating consequences: Perhaps a lung scan that reveals potentially cancerous tissue never makes it to a doctor’s desk where it could receive further scrutiny. If the patient and health care provider discovered lung cancer, the patient could have received earlier treatment that might have saved his or her life.
Researchers know very little about the full extent of such errors or how to fix them. But they are pervasive—and deadly. Investigations over several decades have indicated that diagnostic errors contribute to around 10 percent of patient deaths. Recent work also concluded that some 5 percent of U.S. adults who seek outpatient care experience a diagnostic error—and that is a conservative estimate.
A health advisory committee with the private, nonprofit IOM is now calling for that to change. In a new September 22 report the group of experts recommends that federal agencies, including the Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Defense departments, develop a coordinated research agenda on the diagnostic process and diagnostic errors by the end of 2016.
The committee’s work builds on a 1999 IOM report that found up to 98,000 people a year die because of mistakes in hospitals. One respected estimate projected that medical errors nowadays could contribute to as many as 210,000 to 440,000 patient deaths annually.
To help avoid diagnostic errors going forward, the new IOM recommendations call for more medical school and continuing education training in making diagnoses and communicating them to patients. Medical providers can also help avert such problems by ensuring that patients have access to their electronic medical records and know how to read them.
More broadly, employers and federal agencies should encourage the reporting of diagnostic errors or “near misses” to help everyone learn about how to avoid them, the report notes. “Despite the pervasiveness of diagnostic errors and the risk for serious patient harm, diagnostic errors have been largely unappreciated,” wrote report Chair John Ball, executive vice president emeritus of the American College of Physicians, along with his colleagues. “Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, these errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity.” |
It ain’t easy being a Republican at Harvard, and certainly not in the era of Donald Trump, according to Emily Hall, an unabashed conservative at the world’s most famous university.
Hall, a junior who’s majoring in government, watched the presidential election results come in at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, once again finding herself in the minority while stunned Hillary Clinton supporters openly sobbed with each victory racked up by Trump.
“I felt bad for them,” Hall said of her liberal schoolmates. “But I also recognize that people would not have felt bad for me if I had been the one crying.”
“I’ve experienced both tolerance and intolerance, depending on who I’m talking to,” Hall said during interviews with both the Herald and Boston Herald Radio yesterday.
“There are some places where discourse is welcome. There are other circles and other individuals I’ve interacted with who have not been so tolerant, who have been open and willing to call Republicans racist or sexist or xenophobic.
“I think that intensified with Trump,” she said.
Hall, a 20-year-old native of Clinton, Conn., said professors and students often broached Trump’s victory as if a horrific tragedy had taken place and spoke of creating support for Clinton backers.
“Had Hillary won, I don’t know those same sentiments would have been extended, because the assumption was the majority of everyone in the room were liberals and were Democrats,” said Hall. “It was just disheartening to me.”
There have been other examples of well-meaning liberal professors not presenting balance in their lectures, she said.
“They want to include conservative perspectives in the classroom, they just don’t know how,” said Hall. “And I think they may not even realize that what they’re teaching has a liberal bent to it, because there are so few conservatives there to actually challenge that.
“I think that often people will teach things in a way that I guess doesn’t showcase the other side … Maybe because they haven’t seen someone who actually articulates the other side to them, they don’t realize there is an intelligent other side,” she said.
Hall said that liberal group-think at Harvard has created an environment where some Republicans don’t bother speaking out.
“I’d say there are a lot more that are openly Republican and conservative,” she said. “I think people tend to be less politically active when they’re conservative, just because there are so many fewer people who actually identify with those beliefs on campus.”
But there have been promising signs of late, she added.
Hall has started a group on campus for conservative female students, called the Network of Enlightened Women — and it’s since received official recognition as a student group by Harvard.
She knew Harvard leaned heavily leftward when she first hit the Cambridge campus — and was even jokingly warned before she left home not to lose her conservative principles in the land of liberals.
Still, she admitted, her first months at the school were a “culture shock.”
“It’s been a good thing for me because I’ve learned a lot about how to defend my beliefs,” she said.
“I absolutely respect people who have liberal beliefs, but I think they need to expose themselves to the other point of view as well and they need to listen to the other side and be able to argue back against the other side.
“We have a government that’s almost completely controlled by Republicans right now,” she noted. “If they ever want to regain control … then they need to understand the other side and be able to argue succinctly and intelligently against the other side.” |
Segment Transcript
IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow. We have learned that water can be found in many places in our solar system, of course, not just on Earth. And with each of these discoveries of water, on Mars, Europa, Enceladus, the likelihood increases of some kind of life existing out there, too. You know the old saying, if there’s water, there might be life.
But how do you plan a mission to look for that if you don’t know what it might look like? I mean, it might not be like the kind of life you and I are used to here. Well, for the rest of the hour we’re going to hope to find out. We’re going to be talking astrobiology. That’s what they call the search for life in outer space there, astrobiology. And how environments on our own Earth could serve as a useful analog for searching for life on distant worlds.
And if you want to join our conversation, please give us a call, doesn’t matter which part of the universe you live in. 844-724-8255, that’s 844-SCI-TALK, or tweet us @scifri. So if you’re calling from Saturn don’t reverse the charges on this one. Let me introduce, first up, my guest joining me now is someone who’s been out to one of the labs that is planning for missions to some of those icy worlds. Our own Chau Tu, who has written an article on our website at sciencefriday.com. You can read her article, and there’s a video about the lab that she visited on our website at sciencefriday.com. Welcome, Chau.
CHAU TU: Hi, Ira.
IRA FLATOW: So you went out to watch where they were– what are they doing? They’re trying to recreate the icy world of these moons?
CHAU TU: Yeah. So there’s this smallish lab at JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and they are focused, they’re called the icy world simulation lab. So they’re focused on simulating the surface of icy worlds in, mostly, our outer solar system. And I like to call it kind of an idea lab, because they’re essentially coming up with creative sort of MacGyver-like experiments to make these simulations. It was really fascinating to visit.
IRA FLATOW: What do you mean MacGyver? I saw that they sort of jerry-rigged their original project together.
CHAU TU: Yeah.
IRA FLATOW: Tell me what that was like, what did they do?
CHAU TU: Yeah, so one of the experiments that I saw them working on, it was this stockpot, basically, something that you can make gumbo in. And they had sort of a foam that was duct taped to the outside and they put liquid nitrogen in there. And that was kind of them growing ice. They were sort of trying to simulate what the ice on Europa is like and trying to figure out what the surface is like.
IRA FLATOW: So why is Europa a good choice for trying?
CHAU TU: So Europa is a big focus for NASA and JPL right now, most because we believe that there could be an Earth-like ocean underneath its ice shelf. So there is a mission planned for around 2022 to launch a spacecraft that would do multiple flybys of the moon, so we can get a better look to see about what’s going on there.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah, looking at the video, also we have a video up on our website about this, the ice is very thick. Europa’s about, what, 20 kilometers or something like that?
CHAU TU: Yeah, I think the ice shelf’s supposed to be about 20 kilometers, and they think the ocean underneath it would be about 100 kilometers.
IRA FLATOW: Wow.
CHAU TU: Still pretty big in comparison to Earth’s ocean, but yeah.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah, and what we learn from Earth’s ocean is that you don’t have to have light, because the light is not going to get below that ice level, right?
CHAU TU: Right.
IRA FLATOW: You don’t have to have light for life. We have these– at the bottom of the oceans on Earth there is no light but we have sources of heat, right, that come up and support life that never sees light.
CHAU TU: Right, right, so just a lot of what they’re trying to study right now is how we might be able to further land on the surface and study it and then figure out what’s underneath.
IRA FLATOW: Wow. So Let’s talk about the lab you visited. How big a chunk of ice of an icy world– I mean, you said they started out with a stockpot.
CHAU TU: Yeah.
IRA FLATOW: Did they keep it a stockpot? Were they able to go a little more expensive?
CHAU TU: Yes, so they’ve graduated now to another sort of experiment. It’s a lot fancier, I guess you can say. They’ve dubbed it the Ark of Europa, kind of after the Indiana Jones ark. But it’s now this kind of vacuum-sealed stainless steel chamber. And inside there they are still growing ice, sort of simulating that sort of environment. And yeah, they’re just becoming a little bit more– they can sort of make sure that all their measurements are more accurate working with that.
IRA FLATOW: Now, and I saw from the pictures on our website, the ice doesn’t look like the kind of ice you think– you’re walking on your driveway. It comes in all shapes and different forms.
CHAU TU: Right, so again, we don’t really know what Europa’s surface is like. So that’s what they’re trying to do, is they’re trying to see what might grow there. There’s an idea, there’s a theory that there’s these things called penitentes that might form on Europa, and these are actually rather common on Earth, here, in the Andes Mountains. And they are kind of like big ice stalagmites, so just like huge upside down icicles coming from the ground. So they’re trying to see if they can grow these, because if they do grow on Europa, that would kind of change how we would build a lander, know how to land on the surface of Europa, or even how to scan the surface using a radar.
IRA FLATOW: You know, it reminded me when we were thinking about going to the moon, originally, back in the Apollo days, people thought, you might be able to sink. You might sink in, it might be just a bunch of dust there. And if you land on there you’re going to sink right through. Because we had never been there and we have never been to these planets. We haven’t been to the moons of these planets. So we don’t know what kind of ice we might find there, and if we don’t know– if we send some sort of robot, we don’t want it to fall into the ice.
CHAU TU: Exactly, yeah. If these stalagmites or upside down icicles are there, it’s not exactly flat, so we wouldn’t be able to send a normal type of spacecraft.
IRA FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Do they have their ideas, or what’s the goal– let me go back to the most basic information here. Will any mission actually change based on what they find in the lab, or how will they recreate as close as possible to what these moons are like?
CHAU TU: Yeah, so a lot of the work that they’re doing is sort of informing about the types of tools and the types of spacecraft that we might be able to send there. So right now there’s a mission plan do flybys. There’s not a mission plan for a lander quite yet, but it’s very possible, and they want to be prepared for that, for any sort of scenario.
IRA FLATOW: Well, thank you, Chau, to help us flesh this out a little more. We are going to bring a mission scientist in. Before we go, I want to thank you, speaking for a staff, I know that this is your last–
CHAU TU: It is.
IRA FLATOW: We’re bidding you a fond farewell. You’re going to be moving on.
CHAU TU: I am going to be moving on, but my heart will always be with Science Friday.
IRA FLATOW: Well, take a little bit of our heart with you. We want to thank you for all your hard work and good cheer.
CHAU TU: Thank you, Ira. That’s very sweet.
IRA FLATOW: And good luck to you.
CHAU TU: Thank you.
IRA FLATOW: Mary Voytek is the senior scientist in astrobiology at NASA’s science mission directorate, and she is based at NASA HQ, as they say, in Washington. Welcome to Science Friday.
MARY VOYTEK: Hi, Ira. I’m glad to be here.
IRA FLATOW: It’s glad that we could get you on here. Tell us about the missions to these. Why are these moons chosen? Why do we think that’s the best place to possibly find life?
MARY VOYTEK: Well, Ira, as you know, it’s been NASA’s focus as a fundamental requirement of life to look for environments that have water. That’s pretty key. And of the moons that we know anything about around Saturn and Jupiter, there’s an estimate of them having about 30 times the amount of water that we see on Earth, if you combine them all together. So that seems like a very rich place to go to look for life that requires water.
IRA FLATOW: And how confident are you that that life elsewhere in the solar system will have a chemistry of our own? I mean, we were talking at the beginning about how do you look for a life that may not be recognizable easily, here on Earth?
MARY VOYTEK: You’ve come to the crux of the problem in searching for life. A lot of our studies certainly began with understanding as much as we could about what life we have here on Earth and fully appreciating its diversity. It was really important to decide what sorts of crooks and niches that inhabits here on Earth, and as a result, we realized that there is a huge diversity of places that you can find life, although the solution to it. In terms of chemistry and acquiring energy is diverse, it’s still pretty fundamentally similar in most all organisms on Earth.
So when you go to look for life elsewhere, you can certainly prepare yourself by understanding as much as you can about the one sample example that we have, but we can also start trying to think more about biology or life more universally. What sort of things can we imagine they might need? We know that they’d have to have energy. We know that it turns out that life leaves its mark on planets and environments as it uses the resources that it needs to make cells to gain energy.
And so we’ve sort of shifted a little bit just to start thinking more broadly about what would those signs of, or evidence of life be, if we didn’t know exactly what it looked like or what chemistry was doing. Could we look for unexplainable aspects of chemistry that we would measure, that can only happen if there is something like life working on it? And so it’s a difficult problem, but we are trying to think about it, to get the best value out of the missions when we go looking for life.
IRA FLATOW: So are you saying that you’re looking for residues that life would leave behind, without actually having to identify what the life is?
MARY VOYTEK: Well, we plan on having, first of all, we have learned that you don’t just rely on one thing. And so we’re going to look for the things that would be obvious. If we knew it was exactly like Earth life, what tools would you use, and would you select, what measurements would you make to identify Earth-like life somewhere else? And then we’re trying to also see if those instruments can also look more broadly and look for changes in environments in terms of its chemistry, for example, that would indicate that life was present.
Let me give you an example. We know that life begins with using carbon, and uses it in many forms. Structurally, for energy, for basic machinery, and in doing so some of the pieces that it uses are quite simple, but ultimately, some of the molecules that it makes to function in the cell are very complex. And so just generically, we might expect that if you saw a suite of organic compounds, that if they were all very simple, we know that those can be made without biology, but if they’re very complex with lots of innovations in terms of their structure, that that would possibly be a sign of evidence for life having acted and produced those particular molecules.
IRA FLATOW: We have a lot of people asking one simple question, and so many of us have watched Star Trek and other science fiction movies. We’re up. I’m going to go to the phones and let Renee in Cleveland ask the question. Hi, Renee.
RENEE: Hi, Ira. Thank you so much for taking my call. I was wondering, is assuming that life is carbon-based or that it would be making complex carbon molecules, is that just extrapolating from what we know about life on Earth? Is that showing any kind of lack of imagination in terms of what other living organisms could be capable of? Or are we pretty much determined that it’s carbon all the way?
IRA FLATOW: Let me just first say this is Science Friday from PRI, Public Radio International. And Dr. Voytek, she reflects about half a dozen tweets that have come in, also saying, could it not be carbon-based? What if it’s something else? Would we recognize it?
MARY VOYTEK: Well, I think certainly any instruments that we sent up that were based on carbon would miss that signal. And we’re very worried about what we call false negatives. We don’t want to miss it. On the other– and so some of the things that we’re looking for is potentially, like I mentioned before, an usual usage of materials that we could imagine could be used. Carbon is something that we focus on because, of course, here on life, it’s used for everything in the cell. And many of the functions that go on in the cell, our scientists have found difficult to imagine as an efficient and useful element as carbon.
And so it’s not that we don’t think about that. We’re always going– silicon is the obvious thing as there are hordes out there. But we don’t– and if there was, I mean, we are also sending instruments that are looking at mineralogy. So we would pick up things like silicon. And we might be able see from the pattern of its usage or the distribution of a sample that this would be consistent with there potentially being a life form. It would be much harder for us to confirm that, since we would know so little about that, but we would start getting clues that that might be something we need to pursue further.
But you guys have asked, as I mentioned, the most important question or troubling question or challenge for us is, how do we look for what we don’t know? And if it’s there and we’re not looking, are we going to see it? So it’s truly a challenge.
IRA FLATOW: We have a shout-out from Bob [INAUDIBLE] who is listening, and says, excited and fortunate to work with these wonderful people exploring strange icy worlds, NASA Europa. He tweeted that in today. So we want to shout out to him, [INAUDIBLE].
Let’s go to see if I can get another phone call in. Let’s go to Greg in Sacramento. Hi, Greg.
GREG: Hi, Ira, great show, love your work, man. This is a question for your guest. Is there like a Star Trek prime directive? If you do find life, at what point do you break off and say it’s better that we leave it alone? If you do find life. Just curious. I’ll take my answer offline.
IRA FLATOW: Thanks. Is there a directive?
MARY VOYTEK: Well, we have something called planetary protection that’s, in its grossest sense, let’s say, pays attention to making sure that we don’t take contaminants of any sort to another planet that might potentially interfere with life going on there. And we also worry about bringing anything back. I think it is a goal of ours to find it. We want to find it in situ if we can. We want to find it in samples that we bring back. And I think that we want to do it not at the expense of the actual organisms or population. That’s how we sample things on our planet in general. We want to understand it, but we certainly wouldn’t want to eradicate it or interfere to any great extent with its thriving.
IRA FLATOW: Sounds exciting. Can’t wait for that probe, which is a few years away, I’m sure, before it takes off. Mary Voytek, senior scientist in astrobiology, NASA’s science mission directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. Thank you. Thanks for taking time to be with us today.
Copyright © 2016 Science Friday Initiative. All rights reserved. Science Friday transcripts are produced on a tight deadline by 3Play Media. Fidelity to the original aired/published audio or video file might vary, and text might be updated or amended in the future. For the authoritative record of ScienceFriday’s programming, please visit the original aired/published recording. For terms of use and more information, visit our policies pages at http://www.sciencefriday.com/about/policies/ |
Headmistress of Malvern St James school, Patricia Woodhouse
The husband of the headmistress at a leading girls’ boarding school is facing sexual harassment charges after complaints by two women.
Stephen Woodhouse has been barred from the premises of Malvern St James girls’ school in Worcestershire, which is run by his wife Patricia.
He is to be tried on four charges of ‘unwanted sexual touching’ after a year-long police investigation.
The school – whose old girls include novelist Barbara Cartland and the Duke of Gloucester’s mother Princess Alice – has written to parents reassuring them that no pupil ‘has been or is at any risk’.
Mr Woodhouse has agreed not to visit the school and is said to be living at the home he and his wife own abroad while awaiting trial.
School sources have told The Mail on Sunday the charges relate to two adult women who are not members of the teaching staff.
The allegations cover a four-year period, but formal complaints were made in June last year.
Governors at the 430-pupil Worcestershire school, where fees are up to £36,000 a year, said Mrs Woodhouse will remain in post with their ‘full confidence and support’.
They confirmed that immediate action was taken – agreed by both Mr and Mrs Woodhouse – to exclude him from the premises ‘without prior arrangement’.
He appeared before Worcester magistrates on July 3 and has been bailed pending a hearing at Worcester Crown Court in October.
It is understood the 64-year-old denies the charges and will fight to clear his name.
Mrs Woodhouse is seen as one of Britain’s leading private school headmistresses. She was appointed in 2010, moving from Abbots Bromley School in Staffordshire.
In a local newspaper interview at the time, she told how she would be living at the new school with her husband and ‘rather large tabby cat’ Moppet.
In 2013, she steered Malvern St James to a top-five place in the Independent Schools Council ranking table for boarding schools.
As well as its academic prowess, the school, which caters for four to 18-year-olds, prides itself on extra-curricular activities which have even included wine-tasting for senior girls.
Mrs Woodhouse is due to retire next summer after six years in post. Her end-of-term message to pupils, staff and parents makes no reference to the police investigation.
In the current edition of the school magazine, MSJ News, she writes: ‘This is a school that is achieving great things and I am proud to be its headmistress as it flourishes.
‘All that remains is for me to wish you a happy and relaxing holiday. I look forward to seeing you in September for a new round of fresh challenges and opportunities.’
Stephen Woodhouse appeared before Worcester magistrates on July 3 and has been bailed pending a hearing at Worcester Crown Court (pictured) in October
Mrs Woodhouse was unavailable for comment last night.
But in a statement to The Mail on Sunday, the governors said: ‘Mr Stephen Woodhouse has been charged by West Mercia Police with four counts of unwanted sexual touching over clothing of two adult women between November 2010 and June 2014.
‘Following notice of the allegations last summer, the governors took immediate action with the full agreement of both Mr and Mrs Woodhouse.
‘Mr Woodhouse has since not been on school premises without prior arrangement and has been resident at the Woodhouses’ home abroad.
‘The relevant authorities have confirmed that there are no safeguarding issues and that no pupil has been or is at any risk.
‘The governors have co-operated fully with the appropriate authorities and Mrs Woodhouse has continued to have their full confidence and support throughout this difficult time.
‘They are unable to comment further on this matter other than to say that it is understood Mr Woodhouse strongly denies the allegations.’
A West Mercia Police spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that a man has appeared in court charged with unwanted sexual touching.’
Malvern St James has grown out of the merger of four girls’ schools in Great Malvern over the last 125 years – The Abbey School, Lawnside, Malvern Girls’ College and St James’s School. |
Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, and Chang Wanquan, Chinese defense minister and state councilor, on Friday met separately with Guy Parmelin, head of the Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport.
Fan Changlong said China is willing to work with Switzerland to implement consensus reached by leaders of the two countries, enhance strategic communication, enrich military-to-military relations, and make positive contributions to the China-Switzerland innovative strategic partnership.
Fan hailed the smooth development of military-to-military relations in recent years and deepening of exchanges and cooperation in areas such as the exchange of high-level visits, personnel training and international peacekeeping missions.
Parmelin said that Switzerland adheres to the one-China policy and is willing to advance pragmatic cooperation with China in all fields.
Noting the good momentum of development in military-to-military relations, Chang Wanquan said China is willing to work with Switzerland to deepen exchanges and pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries.
Parmelin told Chang that Switzerland attaches much importance to developing ties with China and is willing to work together with China to elevate military-to-military relations to a new level. |
Anghus Houvouras with five Marvel movies that Guardians of the Galaxy proves could work….
Guardians of the Galaxy is the first Marvel film based on relatively unknown characters. The misfit crew of the Milano like Star-Lord, Rocket, and Groot has shown that audiences are willing to embrace the fun and crazy side of the Marvel Universe. So I started thinking about other crazy Marvel characters that could mimic the success of Guardians. With a little imagination and some blank checks from Disney, perhaps we could see some of these characters brought to the silver screen. If Guardians of the Galaxy works, why not these?
1. Legion of Monsters
Marvel has their own team of super-freaks featuring Morbius the Vampire, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, Frankenstein’s Monster and a number of other monstrous heroes. With Doctor Strange on the docket for Phase 3, would it be too much of a stretch for Marvel to explore the magic side of their universe and give us a movie featuring their comic book creatures? A Legion of Monsters movie could have a lot of potential.
2. Great Lakes Avengers
There are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, then there are the Great Lakes Avengers. A group of lovable losers with marginally interesting powers and abilities. There’s a little bit of ‘Mystery Men’ in the concept, but the idea of third and fourth tier super heroes joining together to fight crime has a lot of comedic potential. If Guardians has taught us anything, it’s that fun and humor can work even when an entire world is at stake.
3. Thunderbolts
The original concept of super-villians posing as heroes to win over the public is interesting, but I’m envisioning a Thunderbolts movie that takes on the later concept of recruiting villains from the deepest cells of the Raft to do S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dirty work. A Suicide Squad-style roster of dangerous killers and mentally unstable villains led by one of Marvel’s heroes is a movie I could get behind.
4. Inhumans
Rumor has it that this one is already on the development slate. Since they licensed away their entire mutant stable to 20th Century Fox, Marvel wants to explore the world of the Inhumans. With connections to both the terrestrial and extraterrestrial Marvel Universe, the Inhumans could be a bridge between both sides of their cinematic world. Plus, the large roster of characters includes a wide spectrum of characters with interesting stories and varied personalities.
5. Damage Control
“When the superhuman community throws down in a neighborhood, the damages can be astronomical. However, the Manhattan based engineering and construction company, Damage Control, are here to clean up the mess and rebuild the property to the way it was”
Damage Control is one of Marvel’s most unusual premises and has a lot of potential. To me, it feels like a TV show. A show that could have that Office/Parks and Rec documentary feel with the characters of the Marvel Universe showing up in the background laying waste to major cities. The comedy potential for this is epic.
So there you go: five new projects that could inject a little more fun into the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
What do you think?
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter. |
Yale University has funded an interesting new Associated Press poll that goes deep into Americans’ attitudes towards climate change. Hopefully, its findings will encourage Democrats to talk as much as possible about the issue.
The key findings are that Americans believe by 56-20 that global warming is happening; 72 percent are very or moderately worried about it; and 50 percent say human activity is a key cause.
That’s good. But the question then becomes: What are Americans prepared to do about it? And on that score, the poll goes deeper into public opinion, with more heartening results:
* By 50-23, Americans favor “U.S. participation in the development of a new international treaty to address global warming.” As I’ve noted here before, the negotiation of such a treaty next year could make the question of whether the U.S. participates an issue in the 2016 presidential race.
President Obama’s regulations on existing power plants, and other E.P.A. regulations, will be implemented over time, and success on this front is important in terms of whether we can meet our obligations as part of such a treaty. Hillary Clinton has pledged to protect those actions. Meanwhile, the mere fact that Obama is likely to talk about climate a lot in his next two years — he reportedly views it as central to his legacy — pretty much ensures that the 2016 GOP candidates will have to oppose his actions. It’s a safe bet they will oppose American participation in a global treaty, too — hopefully focusing attention on this question in the context of the presidential contest.
And the partisan divide on this question underscores the point. According to the AP’s helpful polling team, a narrow plurality of Republicans, 38-35, opposes joining an international treaty. Interestingly, that’s not even close to a majority of Republicans. Of course, as we’ve seen before, GOP presidential primary candidates tend to speak to the most conservative segment of their voters.
* Americans say by 61-34 that the “United States should be a leader on global warming, even if meant taking action when others do not.” Republicans like to say that there is no percentage in America acting to reduce carbon emissions, because other major economies won’t, so what’s the point? These numbers suggest Americans perhaps don’t agree.
* Crucially, 60 percent of Americans say that in the long run, protecting the environment will “improve economic growth and provide new jobs.” Only 15 percent say protecting the environment would “reduce economic growth and cost jobs.” Even Republicans agree: They say this by 51-23. (Once again, GOP presidential primary candidates will likely speak to that 23 percent).
As Paul Krugman has documented, the argument that combating climate change must impose massive economic costs is a central weapon wielded by those hostile to any action, but it’s way, way overstated. Crucial to the argument for action is that it carries hidden economic benefits. This new polling suggests the possibility that the argument can be won if approached in the right way.
Obviously, the major challenge Democrats and environmentalists face is: How can they make climate change an issue that actually motivates voters? They haven’t cracked that code yet. But as I’ve argued, a host of new factors are converging to make it more likely that the issue gets more political attention in the 2016 cycle than it has in the past. Obama and Democrats may be able to help that process along by talking about the issue as much as possible. And that’s what they should do.
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Update: Post edited slightly for accuracy.
In its inaugural poll of Americans’ environmental attitudes, a new collaboration between The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combatting global warming, and twice as many Americans think the country should participate in international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing its effects as oppose it. – See more at: http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/american-attitudes-about-global-warming-and-energy-policy.aspx#sthash.YnOBaYXR.dpuf In its inaugural poll of Americans’ environmental attitudes, a new collaboration between The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combatting global warming, and twice as many Americans think the country should participate in international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing its effects as oppose it. – See more at: http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/american-attitudes-about-global-warming-and-energy-policy.aspx#sthash.YnOBaYXR.dpuf
In its inaugural poll of Americans’ environmental attitudes, a new collaboration between The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combatting global warming, and twice as many Americans think the country should participate in international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing its effects as oppose it. – See more at: http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/american-attitudes-about-global-warming-and-energy-policy.aspx#sthash.YnOBaYXR.dp
In its inaugural poll of Americans’ environmental attitudes, a new collaboration between The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combatting global warming, and twice as many Americans think the country should participate in international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing its effects as oppose it. – See more at: http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/american-attitudes-about-global-warming-and-energy-policy.aspx#sthash.YnOBaYXR.dpuf
In its inaugural poll of Americans’ environmental attitudes, a new collaboration between The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combatting global warming, and twice as many Americans think the country should participate in international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing its effects as oppose it. – See more at: http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/american-attitudes-about-global-warming-and-energy-policy.aspx#sthash.YnOBaYXR.dpuf
In its inaugural poll of Americans’ environmental attitudes, a new collaboration between The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combatting global warming, and twice as many Americans think the country should participate in international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing its effects as oppose it. – See more at: http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/american-attitudes-about-global-warming-and-energy-policy.aspx#sthash.YnOBaYXR.dpuf
In its inaugural poll of Americans’ environmental attitudes, a new collaboration between The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combatting global warming, and twice as many Americans think the country should participate in international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing its effects as oppose it. – See more at: http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/american-attitudes-about-global-warming-and-energy-policy.aspx#sthash.YnOBaYXR.dpuf |
To be fair to the lean process, it truly is hard to measure its more nebulous contributions.
Consider its application to health-care delivery in Saskatchewan — the first jurisdiction anywhere to engage in a robust system-wide use of the program.
Even if one can measure time or dollars, can one truly measure the value of a life saved?
There again, can one truly say if life-saving measures were the result of systemic lean changes, or the conscientious efforts of professional health-care providers?
This is a puzzle that has plagued the Saskatchewan Party government since it adopted its $40-million-plus John Black and Associates lean training program, which followed the more organic “Time to Care” lean process, which was more about input from nurses and other frontline providers.
Of course, lean can and should be about both the dollars saved and other things not as easily measured.
Lean is mandated to create a culture of ongoing improvement — a phrase repeated numerous times in the lean mission statement contained in Vol. 2 of Provincial Auditor Judy Ferguson’s 2015 report, released Tuesday.
As such, certain elements of the lean philosophy are now ingrained in health-care delivery, as witnessed in the 3SHealth procurement program in which $221 million worth of goods and services were bulk purchased in 2014-15. Notwithstanding the auditor’s concerns about a better approval process, “validation of reasonableness” and better confirmation of conflict of interest, it’s one lean idea that appears to be working.
However, if lean is also about such accountability in health, it would seem troubling that the auditor only considered four of the 11 regional annual audits “reliable” because the regional health authorities do not follow generally accepted accounting practices, including the proper booking of capital projects within district budgets.
Lean is a tool and the value of such a tool is to cite measured successes in one form or the other. Surely, the Sask. Party understands this, given that it’s repeatedly pointed to millions saved on stored blood purchases — an idea from Time to Care staff suggestions long before the arrival of JBA’s Japanese senseis.
In fact, savings in other government areas involving procurements should be even easier to identify. The problem, however, is Ferguson’s report offered no indication that lean is working better anywhere else in the other 19 ministries and agencies where it is now being applied.
According to the auditor, the government spent nearly $2.3 million in lean training and activities outside health in 2014-15, involving 13 full-time lean positions (we also have a Ministry of Lean with a deputy minister) and nearly 5,000 days of training costing taxpayers almost a million dollars (which does not include the lost productivity of staff being away from their jobs).
While surveys showed lean “leaders” or “champions” demonstrating overwhelming support for roles and responsibilities related to lean and understanding of purpose and commitment, Ferguson contends there should have been nothing short of 100 per cent commitment from the leadership team.
Worse yet, basic measures consistently failed to “provide a basis to measure whether the use of lean is providing better service and creating a culture of continuous improvement” or “demonstrating a return on investment,” the auditor stated in her report.
No measuring of lean success? There really is no escaping such criticism.
“The Sask. Party drank the John Black lean Kool-Aid, and now there isn’t a lean program cheque it won’t sign — despite the fact that, apparently, they don’t know what they’re getting for the money,” NDP critic Warren McCall said in a news release.
One might expect this from an opposition — especially in the run up to the April 4 provincial election. However, even lean advocates were humbled by Ferguson’s criticism.
Kent Campbell, deputy minister for the lean initiative, had less problem with 10 per cent of the lean leadership not quite buying into the program, but acknowledged the auditor had a point when she suggested there simply have to be better measures of successes, costs and value for money.
After all, how can there be “ongoing improvement” if one can’t even measure the successes lean supposedly had?
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post. |
The Flex Display Phone is a new amazing phone concept designed by Hank Chien-Cheng Chen which uses OLED screens and folds into itself is a brilliant way. This new flexible phone concept might be the future of cell phones with its flexible display technology that allows it to be expanded into a netbook.
It’s touch screen is unique among other cell phones and it can be expanded to a screen just by sliding it. A keyboard on the touch screen makes it easier for mobile enthusiasts to type emails or messages and this cell phone will offer all basic functions of a regular cell phone.
It will offer access to GPS, net and videos, it will allow anyone to stay connected anywhere, anytime and it will even allow professionals to create presentations for example. When the flexible OLED screen folds back the Flex Display Phone still isn’t thicker than a normal cell phone.
We don’t know yet when we’re going to see this amazing cell phone concept into production and on the market, but it definitely gives us an idea on how future cell phones might look like. |
In 1971, researchers at Johns Hopkins University embarked on an ambitious effort to identify brilliant 12-year-olds and track their education and careers through the rest of their lives. The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, which now includes 5,000 people, would eventually become the world’s longest-running longitudinal survey of what happens to intellectually talented children (in math and other areas) as they grow up. It has generated seven books, more than 300 papers, and a lot of what we know about early aptitude.
David Lubinski is a psychologist at Vanderbilt University, where the project has been based since the 1990s. He and his wife and fellow Vanderbilt professor, Camilla Benbow, codirect the study and have dedicated their careers to learning about this exceptional population.
“This is like putting a magnifying glass on the tippy, tippy top of the distribution,” he says.
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In a recent paper, Lubinski and his colleagues caught up with one cohort of 320 people now in their late 30s. At 12, their SAT math or verbal scores had placed them among the top one-100th of 1 percent. Today, many are CEOs, professors at top research universities, transplant surgeons, and successful novelists.
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That outcome sounds like exactly what you’d imagine should happen: Top young people grow into high-achieving adults. In the education world, the study has provided important new evidence that it really is possible to identify the kids who are likely to become exceptional achievers in the future, something previous research has not always found to be the case. But for that reason, perhaps surprisingly, it has also triggered a new round of worry.
Lubinski’s unusually successful cohort was also a lucky group from the start—they participated in the study in the first place because their parents or teachers encouraged them to take the SAT at age 12. Previous research into gifted children has shown that many, or even most of them, aren’t so lucky: They aren’t identified early, and they don’t necessarily get special attention from their schools. Even among Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth participants, the Vanderbilt researchers have previously found that those who weren’t challenged in school were less likely to live up to the potential indicated by their test scores. Other research has shown that under-stimulated gifted students quickly become bored and frustrated—especially if they come from low-income families that are not equipped to provide them with enrichment outside of school.
“What the study underscored is the tremendous amount of potential here—they’re a national resource,” Lubinski says. “But it’s hard to separate the findings of this study from what we know about gifted kids in general. The genuine concern is, we know we’re not identifying all of this population. We’re not getting nearly enough, and we’re losing them.”
To people more worried about kids who are falling through the cracks altogether, doing slightly less than we could for the most gifted might not seem like a pressing problem. But if the study is right that exceptional youthful ability really does correlate directly with exceptional adult achievement, then these talented young kids aren’t just a challenge for schools and parents: they’re also demonstrably important to America’s future. And it means that if, in education, we focus on steering all extra money and attention toward kids who are struggling academically, or even just to the average student, we risk shortchanging the country in a different way.
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“We are in a talent war, and we’re living in a global economy now,” Lubinski says. “These are the people who are going to figure out all the riddles. Schizophrenia, cancer—they’re going to fight terrorism, they’re going to create patents and the scientific innovations that drive our economy. But they are not given a lot of opportunities in schools that are designed for typically developing kids.”
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Given all the pressures our education system faces, it seems almost indecent to worry about the travails of a small minority of very smart children. Understandably, federal and state education policy has long focused on more obvious problems that education can help address—problems such as the yawning gaps between the test scores of rich and poor students and between different racial groups. Tax dollars disproportionately go to help kids with learning disabilities and other disadvantages, because society generally agrees that they are most in need of help.
In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, which penalizes public schools that don’t bring the lowest-performing students up to grade level. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulates special education and provides schools with more than $11 billion annually. A provision of federal education law called Title I allocates some $14 billion to schools that have a higher proportion of students from low-income families, to pay for programs designed to keep them from falling behind.
Gary Clement for The Boston Globe
The smartest kid in class, by contrast, is not an expensive problem. A boy or girl who finishes an assignment early can be handed a book and told to read quietly while the teacher works on getting other children caught up. What would clearly be neglect if it happened to a special-needs child tends to look different if the child is gifted: Being left alone might even feel like a reward, an acknowledgment of being a fast learner.
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Not surprisingly, programs oriented toward gifted children get barely any federal funding. The Javits Act, the only federal law aimed at gifted students, pays for research and pilot education programs and is currently funded at $5 million, down from a peak of $11 million several years ago.
‘These are the people who are going to figure out all the riddles...But they are not given a lot of opportunities in schools that are designed for typically developing kids.’ -- David Lubinski
Gifted students do have their own advocacy group, the National Association for Gifted Children. This coalition of parents and educators is currently pushing a bipartisan bill called the Talent Act, which would require states and school districts to set policies for gifted education and report on the performance of advanced students. (In a concession to reality, the act does not seek any new funding.) The group’s former president, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, says that in an ideal world the federal government would require that gifted students be identified early and would fund schools’ efforts to train teachers and provide enrichment or accelerated learning programs.
Olszewski-Kubilius, an education professor at Northwestern University, considers the latest Vanderbilt finding important to the cause. “It’s probably the best research we have that connects childhood giftedness with adult achievement,” she says. She chalks up the current disparity to an otherwise well-intentioned attitude, one that seems to be ingrained in American culture.
“There’s a fundamental belief, not just among educators but in general in our society—and the word ‘gifted’ doesn’t help—that, well, they lucked out by virtue of genetics. They’ve got something other people don’t have, and so they should just be satisfied with that. They don’t need any more.”
Research, however, suggests that they do—or at least that they benefit from extra investment. Two recent papers based on data from the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth and published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that, among young people with off-the-charts ability, those who had been given special accommodations—even modest ones, like being allowed to skip a grade, enroll in special classes, or take college-level courses in high school—went on to publish more academic papers, earn more patents, and pursue higher-level careers than their equally smart peers who didn’t have these opportunities. In one of the studies, the Vanderbilt researchers matched students who skipped a grade with a control group of similarly smart kids who didn’t. The grade-skippers, it turned out, were 60 percent more likely to earn doctorates or patents and more than twice as likely to get a PhD in science, math, or engineering.
“If you look at the control group” in the grade-skipping study, says Lubinski, “they’ll say, ‘The curriculum was moving too slow, I felt bored, I was frustrated.’ Those kids still do better than the norm, but the ones who have their developmental needs met, they do much better.”
But providing these smart kids with an education that matches their abilities is not as straightforward as it sounds. Politically, it raises the fraught question of whether our education system should be in the business of identifying and segregating elite students—an idea that has been tried and rejected before, for good reasons.
For most of the 20th century, schools routinely divided students into advanced, average, and remedial categories, a practice called “tracking” that was largely discredited by research showing it only exacerbated inequality, especially inequality linked to race and class.
“The original basis was the idea that some people are born to lead and others are born to follow, so you identify the leaders early and train them to lead,” says Samuel Lucas, a Berkeley sociologist whose research has focused on inequality in education. Those who were groomed to be followers, he notes, consistently wound up with worse teachers, scarcer supplies, and a weaker curriculum than their more advanced peers.
“It’s difficult to introduce stratification into the system without introducing inequality in how people get into those stratifications,” Lucas says. “Students at the bottom should be getting the best of resources so they can catch up. They certainly shouldn’t be getting worse resources, and the research shows that this is what happens.”
While he is not opposed to programs that identify and serve gifted children, Lucas warns that any such effort will be gamed by more well-to-do parents, angling to get their children in, then fighting to ensure the gifted group gets better teachers, newer technology, and other advantages. Great care would be required, he says, so as not to “end up with another system for those at the top to reinforce that they belong there.”
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While equity at the classroom level is important, Lubinski and others who study the gifted say that the issue goes beyond education to national competitiveness. “We’re living in a global economy now,” Lubinski says, “and there are only very few people of any discipline who push the frontiers of knowledge forward. This is the population who you’d do well to bet on.”
Other countries are already making that bet. Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have national laws requiring that children be screened for giftedness, with top scorers funneled into special programs. China is midway through a 10-year “National Talent Development Plan” to steer bright young people into science, technology, and other in-demand fields. In a 2010 speech announcing the scheme, former President Hu Jintao called talent “the most important resource and...a key issue that concerns the development of the Party and country.”
In a democracy, such central planning may be as distasteful as the notion of shifting resources away from kids who need them. Advocates for the gifted, aware of those concerns, are trying to find ways for us to develop our own native talent without exacerbating inequality.
One fix they tend to focus on is investing in early childhood education for all: Olszewski-Kubilius points out that expanding access to preschool would allow teachers to identify kids with the most potential before they even get to kindergarten. Requiring regular screening of all kids from elementary to high school would catch those whose talents emerge later than their peers’, as well as smart kids whose parents aren’t savvy enough to advocate for them.
Other education researchers propose gearing the entire curriculum toward the highest-achieving students, with extra time outside of class for their less-talented peers to catch up. It’s an idea that Adam Gamoran, president of the youth-focused William T. Grant Foundation and a former University of Wisconsin sociologist, says could address the issue of inequality without holding back high achievers.
Regardless of how we choose to deal with the gifted, it’s a challenge that seems more acute as we learn more about this population.
“How many people can become an astrophysicist or a PhD in chemistry?” Lubinski says, comparing it to playing in the NFL or playing at Carnegie Hall. “We really have to look for the best—that’s what we do in the Olympics, that’s what we do in music, and that’s what we need to with intellectual capital.”
Amy Crawford has written for Boston Magazine, Smithsonian, and Slate. Follow her on Twitter @amymcrawf |
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