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Only a handful of tech companies have earned the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s coveted five-star rating in its annual "Who Has Your Back?" scorecard , released on Monday.
The top-rated companies for 2017 include Adobe, Credo Mobile, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr, and WordPress. Notable names among the lowest-rated companies include Comcast, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Amazon, and WhatsApp.
The EFF's Who Has Your Back? report analyzes and evaluates how companies deal with user data when government entities come seeking it. "Third-party companies hold more and more of our personal data as technology and user practices evolve," the EFF writes in its initiative description. "The annual Who Has Your Back? report encourages companies to protect users from government requests for data and helps users make informed choices about their Internet use."
This year, the EFF changed the wording of most of the categories—they now include "follows industry-wide best practices" and "promises not to sell out users." The latter is largely a way to laud Twitter for booting the Central Intelligence Agency off of its Dataminr platform in 2016.
"Two tech companies lagged behind in the industry: Amazon and WhatsApp, both of which earned just two stars," the advocacy group wrote in a press release. "EFF’s survey showed that while both companies have done significant work to defend user privacy—EFF especially lauds WhatsApp’s move to adopt end-to-end encryption by default for its billion users around the world—their policies still lag behind. Online retail giant Amazon is consistently rated number one in customer service, yet it hasn’t made the public commitments to stand behind its users that the rest of the industry has."
Another new category includes "stands up to NSL gag orders," referring to National Security Letters , the often-maligned practice of being forced to hand over data to the government that nearly always comes with a built-in gag order. In late 2016, Credo Mobile confirmed that it had received an NSL order and had challenged it all the way up to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals—the EFF helped with those legal efforts.
In the same Monday press release, EFF said that it believes such NSLs, which are issued directly by a law enforcement or national security agency (rather than by a judge), are unconstitutional. |
Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong wants the province to step in and remove Mayor Rob Ford if he refuses to leave office voluntarily.
In the hours after Ford admitted to smoking crack cocaine, Minnan-Wong, previously a Ford ally and member of his executive committee, drafted a motion asking the mayor to step aside. Council lacks the power to send Ford packing unless he has been convicted of a crime.
Now that Ford has announced he plans to remain in office, Minnan-Wong is upping the ante by calling on the province to boot Ford if he doesn't take a leave of absence.
"If he won't find the exit, I think we have to show him the door," he told reporters. "Extraordinary measures are needed in extraordinary times."
Last week Premier Kathleen Wynne said she was concerned by Ford's actions but it appears the provincial government also lacks the power to remove a mayor unless he or she has been convicted, according to Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister Linda Jeffrey.
"There's nothing that we can do at this point," Jeffrey said. "The province has no power to remove anybody."
Will these measures work? Will removing Ford make him a martyr and give him more strength at the next election?
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: Chris Bateman/blogTO |
gogeos - Go library for spatial data operations and geometric algorithms
gogeos is a library for Go that provides operations on spatial data and geometric algorithms.
It provides bindings to the GEOS C library.
Download
Current release: v0.1.2 (Thursday, May 29, 2014)
Download .zip Download .tar.gz View source
Quick start
package main import ( "fmt" "log" "github.com/paulsmith/gogeos/geos" ) func main () { line , err := geos . FromWKT ( "LINESTRING (0 0, 10 10, 20 20)" ) if err != nil { log . Fatal ( err ) } buf , err := line . Buffer ( 2.5 ) if err != nil { log . Fatal ( err ) } fmt . Println ( buf ) // POLYGON ((18.2322330470336311 21.7677669529663689, 18.61… }
Overview
Functionality
Binary predicates - intersects, disjoint, etc.
Topology operations - difference, union, etc.
Polygonization, line merging, and simplification
Prepared geometries (for better performance for common binary predicates)
Validity checking
DE-9IM
Geometry info - area, length, distance, etc.
IO - WKT & WKB read/write
gogeos is an open source project (MIT license).
Community
Installation
Requirements
GEOS 3.3.8 or 3.3.9
GEOS must be installed on your system to build gogeos.
Ubuntu
$ apt-get install libgeos-dev
OS X - homebrew
$ brew install geos
From source (all OSes)
$ wget http://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-3.3.8.tar.bz2 $ tar xvfj geos-3.3.8.tar.bz2 $ cd geos-3.3.8 $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install
Installing gogeos
$ go get github.com/paulsmith/gogeos/geos
Examples
Binary topology operations
gogeos provides binary topology operations, which produce a new geometry from spatial analysis performed on two input geometries. For example, say we have these two overlapping polygons, A in blue and B in orange:
(NB: these graphics weren't produced by gogeos directly - I used the excellent draw2d package to render the output of gogeos functions.)
Then the following operations will produce new geometries in magenta:
A.Intersection(B) A.Union(B) A.Difference(B) B.Difference(A) A.SymDifference(B)
Unary topology operations
gogeos can produce new geometries based on a operation performed on a single geometry, perhaps with some input. For example, given a linestring geom (orange), the Buffer() and ConvexHull() methods produce a new polygons (blue):
geom.Buffer(2.5) geom.ConvexHull()
Merging linestrings
For a collection of fully noded linestrings, a new collection can be produced that merges together the linestrings that touch only at their start and end points. This is provided by calling the LineMerge() method on a MultiLineString collection:
var linestrings = [] * geos . Geometry { // ... } coll := geos . Must ( geos . NewCollection ( geos . MULTILINESTRING , linestrings ... )) coll . LineMerge ()
Before After
These examples were inspired by the developer’s guide to the JTS |
(President Bush carried Ohio by fewer than 120,000 votes.)
Most of the logistical questions about voting are generally left up to local officials. Too often they don’t want to spend the money to provide enough machines, and fail to hire or properly train enough poll workers for a smooth process.
There is also a lot of poor planning. In 2004, Ohio officials used old registration numbers to estimate their need for voting machines — failing to anticipate the large number of new voters added by registration drives that blanketed the state. It is hard, however, to rule out various forms of bias.
There have long been reports of elections administrators in college towns trying to suppress the “out of town” student vote. There is a long, painful history of obstacles to black voting. In Ohio in 2004, it seems clear that the majority of people trapped on long lines were trying to vote Democratic.
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The Washington Post reported that six of the seven wards with the fewest voting machines per registered voter backed John Kerry, while 27 of the 30 wards with the most machines per registered voter went for President Bush.
Long lines are likely to be an even bigger problem this year, with the Obama campaign and various nonpartisan groups working all over the country to register millions of new voters. Without proper planning, these new voters may overwhelm polling sites.
For the sake of the legitimacy of our elections, more voting disasters — long lines, confusing ballots or unreliable electronic voting machines — must be avoided. Congress should take the lead, but it has failed even to set standards for numbers of voting machines. This year, it failed to pass a good bill that would have made funds available to states to buy backup paper ballots.
That puts more of a burden on state election officials, usually the secretaries of state, to promote fair elections.
Ohio’s dynamic new secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner — who says she is “hyperfocused on long lines” — is taking laudable steps to avoid a rerun of 2004. She has been pushing reluctant local election officials to have at least one voting machine for every 175 voters — nearly four times as many as there were at Kenyon College in 2004. She is also directing counties that use electronic voting machines to have backup paper ballots on hand equal to 25 percent of the 2004 turnout — which can also be used if lines get out of control.
In Missouri, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan has also been pushing local election officials to have backup paper ballots available, and she is providing funds for the hiring of more, and better trained, poll workers.
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In the majority of states, however, too little is being done to make sure that polling places can accommodate all of the voters who show up. That is a mistake. An election in which people have to wait 10 hours to vote, or in which black voters wait in the rain for hours, while white voters zip through polling places, is unworthy of the world’s leading democracy. |
Locations Set for CoGo Bike Share System; Mid-Summer Launch Planned
Planning is starting to ramp up for CoGo, the newly-branded Columbus bike share system. Organizers hope to have 30 stations installed and 300 bikes available for use by the end of July. They have also released a map showing where the stations will be; the system will extend south to Schiller Park, west to COSI, east to Parsons Avenue and north to 4th Avenue in the Short North.
Alta Bicycle Share’s Heather Bowden, project director for the Columbus system, explained that the stations will be assembled in a local warehouse this June; “they are quick to install since they don’t need to be attached to the ground and they’re solar-powered, so they don’t even need an outlet.”
Annual and daily passes will be available, with a special “founding member” pre-sale starting in June, once the CoGo website is up.
Marketing efforts are also kicking off this week; look for CoGo on social media and at all the major festivals this summer, spreading the word about the system in advance of its launch.
Alta has worked on bike share systems in Chattanooga, Washington DC, Boston, New York and Melbourne. The Columbus system will be similar in size to the one in Chattanooga, which was launched last summer and features 300 bikes spread across just 2.5 square miles downtown.
Bowden says that the Chatanooga system has been successful, but she sees even greater potential for success in Columbus; “we’re a bigger city, we have more density, more of an established biking culture, and a very supportive Mayor,” adding that she’s already received inquiries from “interested parties” asking about future expansion plans.
The city is providing the initial capital investment to set up the system and run it for the first year. Future operating funds plus any additional money required for expansion will have to be raised through sponsorships and membership fees.
More information on CoGo can be found at parks.columbus.gov.
(Click to enlarge map)
Related Articles: No related articles.
About the Author Brent Warren is a staff reporter for Columbus Underground covering urban development, transportation, city planning, neighborhoods, and other related topics. He grew up in Grandview Heights and has a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning from OSU.
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About This Game
In the ruins of the fallen Adal Empire, you awaken with a mysterious mask on your face, and faint recollections of an esoteric ceremony. Freeing you from hunger, thirst, and even death, the mask is the creation of the Guides, the rulers of these lands, who have placed you here to determine whether you are worthy of becoming part of the elite corps of Absolvers. As you wander these forsaken lands, encountering other Prospects like you, you will learn new combat styles, acquire weapons, gear and armor, and build a team of warriors with whom to fight side by side in Arenas of combat.Please visit the official Absolver FAQ on the Steam discussion board for more information: http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/2579854400733819593/ Position yourself in one of four tactical stances during real-time battles and execute devastating attacks, dodges, and parries. Movement becomes your weapon as you engage in solo duels or intense multiplayer melee battles.Players will define their character’s playstyle by picking a combat style, a weapon of choice, and arranging attacks in their Combat Deck to design their unique and personal attack flow.Prospects and Absolvers will seamlessly encounter others in the world, generating unique stories that emerge through player interaction and choices. These moments are filled with tension as intentions to battle or befriend are never clear: trust is always a leap of faith. Encounters will have lasting consequences and transform into meaningful relationships as you make friends or enemies and find mentors or disciples.Explore a rich and dynamic world including dedicated PvP battle arenas where champions will receive spoils of victory and progress in the ranks of the Absolvers, and PvE areas in which players cooperatively battle to retrieve rare loot and equipment from the ruins of Adal.The development team at Sloclap is dedicated to improving and expanding Absolver based on community feedback once the game is live. In the coming weeks and months, Prospects can expect regular updates to the game to fix any issues that appear, as well as both minor and major content updates. These updates already include 3v3 Game Mode and a Spectator Mode soon after launch, but many more updates can be expected, from new combat styles and moves to new powers and equipment. Please follow updates here and on absolver.com or @Absolver on Twitter for the latest. |
Here’s the word of the day: senescence. Here’s the tree of the day: Brazilian raintree.
When we think of senescence we usually think of deciduous trees. Not huge, tropical canopied, thorny and dangerous Brazilian raintrees. Senescence happens to all trees. Even junipers and pines. Those third year needles that you clean off a pine? If you left them they’d turn brown and fall off. That old browning scale foliage on a juniper? Same thing.
What a trunk huh?
And those thorns I was talking about. I have to stick my hand in there.
Here’s another BRT you should be familiar with.
It’s got some yellow leaves too. And no matter how much water I give it it seems to be droopy all the time.
Sad looking.
But it’s not sick. See that new bud? Some trees, both tropical and broadleaf evergreen, have a hard time shedding old foliage and you have to help them out and defoliate them.
Naked.
Some wire and I’m all set for the holidays.
Oh, wait?! Did I mention that it’s December? But….aren’t we NOT supposed to be working on tropicals at this time? Sorry, you’ve never heard that from me, my friends. Especially on BRT’s.
Here’s a third tree to throw into the mix. I like it. It makes me smile.
Let’s discuss the tropical legume we call the Brazilian Raintree (chloroluceun tortum). In Brazil it’s called tataré, and it’s native to the coast of Rio de Janero, in an area called restinga, a wet coastal stretch that goes from tropical to subtropical areas on the eastern shore of Brazil. It’s home to a broadleaf forest that has sandy soil that is both acidic and nutrient poor. A good place for a legume, which has the ability, working in symbiosis with a nitrogen fixing bacteria to, amazingly, pull nitrogen out of thin air and fertilize itself. The BRT is also a type of tree called a monsoon or drought deciduous tree. The restinga is a biome (an environmental designation) called a tropical/subtropical dry forest, bane forest or just monsoon forest. It is a place that gets a lot of water but also has a dry season, where the trees have adapted by dropping their leaves, just like deciduous trees in the northern climes do in the winter.
This is senescence in BRT’s. Droopy, off color, wimpy looking. Like some bonsai artists I know. Senescence is an adaptation by plants, in response to drought or low light levels, that, using the hormone abscisic acid, puts a tree into dormancy. It is the act of abscission, dropping leaves, that gave the name to abscisic acid.
But enough of that, how does all this relate to doing bonsai on a BRT? It means that we must be the stewards, the midwives, the facilitators, of the tree. Time to defoliate again. Before. Like they say, you can prick your finger but you can’t finger your pri….. Ouch, right in the cuticle.
After.
Here’s a quick pruning lesson. The red and blue arrows are pointing to nodes. The node is from whence the new leave or branch emerges. The space between the nodes is called an internode. This is true of all trees. Learn the words and you’ll be thought smart, like me. Or just be called a smart-ass.
On the BRT this is important because of a process called dieback.
Again, the circle is encompassing the node and the internode. Dieback can be significant on a BRT, it’s the process during which the tree compartmentalizes a wound so that it can heal. To be precise, if I cut here at the red line….. the branch will die back to that main branch. Which is fine because I would want to remove the branch to there anyway. The problem is that it is taught to prune flush with the branch on most trees. If you do that on a BRT, the dieback will go like so: and you’ll lose that whole branch to the next node. Therefore, you will see that I leave nubs on all my pruning points; it’s not lax scissor discipline but an understanding of the horticulture of the BRT. Does this mean that we can’t prune flush? No. Once the branch dies back, you can then do a flush cut.
Let’s get some wire on it.
You’ll notice that the pad isn’t flat like this: but rather on an angle so you can see the back branch. This helps to show depth in your trees. Now for the finish.
I’ve broken a few rules I usually insist upon but I will always listen to what the tree is telling me.
You’re wondering about the very first tree, aren’t you? We haven’t seen it for a while have we? Don’t worry, there will be a YouTube video on it but, to hold you over, here’s the after pic. Lots of work.
Stay tuned for the video, I think it’s gonna be a cool one.
So, what did we learn today? We learned about senescence, about nodes and internodes and dieback. We learned about fingers and pricks. And that’s all I have to say about that. |
95percent of lipstick products tested had more lead content than is allowed in candy bars
(NaturalNews) An analysis commissioned by the FDA of 400 popular lipstick products has alarmingly found at least some lead in every single product. The amount of lead found in 380 of the lipstick products tested was greater than the maximum 0.1 parts per million (ppm) allowed in candy bars - in some instances as much as 70 times greater. However, the FDA stated that it did not consider the lead content to represent any danger because lipstick is not intended to be ingested.Apparently, the FDA chose to ignore the obvious fact that eating, kissing or drinking with lipstick can lead to ingestion of some of the lipstick. Likewise, the FDA also chose to overlook the fact of how easily items are absorbed into the skin - which is why so many medications are applied transdermally in skin patches, creams and oils. One obvious example is the nicotine patch used to help wean smokers from cigarettes.In recent years, health destroying toxins have been increasingly identified in beauty and body care products and reports of lead in lipstick date back to the 1990s. The recent FDA analysis is an expansion of a previous analysis performed in 2007 which was spurred on by testing performed by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics on 33 shades of red lipstick. The campaign found that 20 of the tested shades contained lead in excess of the maximum amount allowed in candy bars.In the initial 2007 analysis, the FDA tested the same 20 red shades of lipstick that the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found had lead in greater amounts than were allowed for candy bars. The FDA analysis found that 19 of the 20 exceeded the 0.1 ppm maximum limit for candy bars and the average lead content was found to be 1.07 ppm. The new expanded analysis confirmed the previous results, finding lead content in all 400 products tested with 380 of the products exceeding the limit for candy bars.To put the two sets of analyses in perspective, both found lead in 100 percent of the products tested and 95 percent of the lipstick products lead content exceeded the maximum safe amount of lead allowed in candy bars.The latest analysis reviewed top lipstick brands sold to children and adults alike and was performed by Frontier Global Sciences, Inc., a private laboratory based in Seattle, WA. The new analysis is due to be published in the May/June, 2012, issue of the. The 400 lipstick products were all purchased at retail stores between February and July 2010.Of the 400 lipsticks tested, the top five offenders were:1. Maybelline's "Color Sensational 125 Pink Petal" at 7.19 ppm of lead.2. L'Oreal's "Colour Riche 410 Volcanic" at 7.00 ppm.3. NARS' "Semi-Matte 1005 Red Lizard" at 4.93 ppm.4. Cover Girl Queen Collection's "Vibrant Hues Color Q580 Ruby Remix" at 4.92 ppm.5. NARS' "Semi-Matte 1009 Funny Face" at 4.89 ppm.The full list of lipsticks tested and manufacturers can be viewed at:Though the FDA maintains that the amounts of lead found are not dangerous, their site does note "Although we do not believe that the lead content found in our recent lipstick analyses poses a safety concern, we are evaluating whether there may be a need to recommend an upper limit for lead in lipstick in order to further protect the health and welfare of consumers." The Best Years in Life
Tony Isaacs, is a natural health author, advocate and researcher who hosts website for those who wish to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally. Mr. Isaacs is the author of books and articles about natural health, longevity and beating cancer including " Cancer's Natural Enemy " and is working on a major book project due to be published later this year.Mr. Isaacs also hosts the Yahoo Oleandersoup group of over 3000 members and the The Best Years in Life Radio Show " on BlogTalk Radio. |
XXXTentacion's debut album 17 has been garnering praise from his diehard fans (and confusion from lots of other people) since it was released late Thursday night. But on Friday, the rapper got a huge supporter in his corner. Kendrick Lamar used a few of his extremely rare tweets to praise the project to his nine million followers.
"Listen to this album if you feel anything," he wrote. "Raw thoughts."
He then revealed that he had already listened a number of times.
Lamar's praise comes just after XXXTentacion caused controversy by posting a video on Instagram that appeared to show him hanging himself. After maintaining silence for several hours in the face of mounting concern, he revealed that the clip had been from the set of a music video he was filming. |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday told donors that Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were doing Democrats a “favor” by exposing extreme views within their party on issues such as immigration and national security.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Chicago Law School in Chicago, Illinois, United States, April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young
“I actually think that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have done us a favor,” Obama said, referring to policy positions that would restrict Muslims and Mexicans from entering the country.
Obama said Trump and Cruz, the two front-runners in the Republican nomination contest ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election, have upset mainstream “establishment” Republicans with their insurgent campaigns.
But he told about 100 people at the annual “signature” fundraising dinner for Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, that Trump had laid bare what some in the Republican party had been saying for years.
“He said, ‘You know what? I can deliver this message with more flair, with more panache,’” Obama said.
Speaking in an opulent two-storey atrium with marble pillars in the home of billionaire oil heirs Gordon and Ann Getty, where donors paid $33,400 per couple to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Obama mocked Trump.
“In 10 months, I will no longer be president of the United States. But in 10 months, I will - contrary to Mr. Trump’s opinion - still be a citizen of the United States,” he said, drawing laughter and cheers from the crowd.
Trump had long raised questions about whether Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was actually born outside the United States.
It was Obama’s fourth stop on a fundraising swing through San Francisco and Los Angeles. Earlier, in San Francisco, Obama held a private roundtable at the Potrero Hill home of Susan Sandler and Steve Philips for the Democratic National Committee with about 25 people who paid up to $33,400 to attend.
He started Friday in Los Angeles with a breakfast event at the Brentwood home of “Spiderman” actor Tobey Maguire, closed to the media, where an undisclosed number of $33,400-tickets raised money for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
On Thursday, he spoke at a fundraising dinner for the DCCC in a tent with seating for about 80 people outside the Bel Air home of Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Cindy Horn, an environmental activist. |
Image copyright PA
Parents must intervene to stop their children overusing social media and consuming time online "like junk food", the children's commissioner has said.
In an interview with the Observer, Anne Longfield criticised the ways social media giants use to draw children into spending more time.
She said parents should be proactive in stopping their children from bingeing on the internet in the summer holidays.
Ms Longfield has launched a campaign to help parents with the issue.
She said: "It's something that every parent will talk about especially during school holidays; that children are in danger of seeing social media like sweeties, and their online time like junk food.
"None of us as parents would want our children to eat junk food all the time.
"For those same reasons we shouldn't want our children to do the same with their online time."
Use talk to tame online habits
US changes toddler screen time advice
The commissioner added: "When phones, social media and games make us feel worried, stressed and out of control, it means we haven't got the balance right.
"With your diet, you know that, because you don't feel that good. It's the same with social media."
Last year, industry watchdog Ofcom said the internet overtook television as the most popular media pastime for children in the UK.
Children aged five to 15 are spending 15 hours a week on the internet.
Ms Longfield said children should be helped to understand that sites encourage them to continue their use based on what they have previously been doing online.
A study earlier this year of screen time and mental wellbeing among teenagers suggested that moderate use of devices may be beneficial.
The research, which appeared in the journal Psychological Science, was based on self-reported data from 120,000 15-year-olds in England. |
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency will announce common sense standards that will cut carbon pollution from power plants and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The new standards are historic. They will be the first-ever federal limits on carbon pollution from the existing electricity sector fleet, which currently makes up about one-third of total emissions in the United States. The EPA will give states the flexibility to use many different tools to reduce pollution, but one strategy stands out as especially cost-effective and certain to work: energy efficiency.
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Last summer, President Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop carbon pollution standards for existing power plants as part of his Climate Action Plan. The EPA has authority under the 1990 Clean Air Act, an authority affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, to set these public health protections against carbon pollution.
Under this authority, the EPA is creating new guidelines for power plants and will work with states, local utilities and stakeholders to implement them. By giving states flexibility to meet these goals and authorizing the broadest possible use of energy efficiency measures, this coordinated effort can help lower energy costs, enhance grid reliability, and ensure a cleaner, safer environment.
After all, energy efficiency is one of the most reliable and cost-effective ways to mitigate pollution. A recent study by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) finds that the EPA can cut CO2 emissions 26% below 2012 levels while also increasing GDP by $17.2 billion and creating a whopping 611,000 new jobs. Through implementing four common and proven efficiency policies — energy efficiency targets, model building codes, combined heat and power systems, and more stringent standards for equipment and appliances — 925 million megawatt-hours of electricity could be saved by 2030. Such a reduction in national energy use would abate approximately 600 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions -- the equivalent of taking 130 million passenger vehicles off the road for an entire year.
One thing we have learned from our experiences in government and business is the need to find common sense cost effective ways to solve difficult problems. When it comes to reducing dangerous pollutants, energy efficiency is one of those solutions.
That’s what brought us together at Arlington, VA.-based Opower, a company that believes behavioral energy efficiency — which includes giving households personalized feedback on their usage, targeted incentives to conserve, and easy-to-understand savings advice — could save US households over 18 million megawatt-hours every year. That’s the equivalent of 10 million metric tons of CO2 and $2.2 billion in cash savings for American consumers year after year, and that doesn’t even include the vast savings potential for the commercial and industrial sectors.
Utilities nationwide are beginning to capitalize on these potential savings. Large investor-owned companies like Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), National Grid, and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) are helping their customers save energy, save money, and reduce carbon emissions through behavioral energy efficiency programs. Collectively, these utilities worldwide have already saved more than four terawatt-hours of energy through behavioral efficiency, enough to rival the Hoover Dam or power all the homes in a city the size of San Francisco for an entire year.
President Obama said, “the old rules may say we can’t protect our environment and promote economic growth at the same time, but in America, we’ve always used new technology to break the old rules.” A concerted public-private effort between the EPA, states, utilities, and technology companies that breaks the old rules and promotes energy efficiency will keep electric bills low, maintain grid reliability, create jobs, and substantially cut pollution. That’s a huge opportunity for Americans -- and for their health and environment.
Browner is a former EPA administrator and former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy. She currently serves on Opower’s advisory board. Laskey is president and co-founder of Arlington, VA-based Opower. |
Students from several DC area public schools walked out Tuesday only a day after Montgomery County students protested president-elect Donald Trump.
In D.C., the student-organized protest started around noon. All of the students gathered outside of the Trump International Hotel in Northwest, D.C. and could be heard chanting "not our president."
RELATED: Student protester describes march, friend's arrest
By 2:30 p.m., hundreds of students had marched to the Lincoln Memorial.
“I know it won’t make a difference in the election, but it’ll make a difference in the world. We’re spreading the love,” one student said.
D.C. Public School students protest president-elect Donald Trump
RELATED: Hundreds of students walk out of Md. high schools to protest Trump
The students, some as young as 13 years old, were heard chanting various phrases, including "Black lives matter" and "No hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here."
We really need to stand up for ourselves in this situation," said Lauren, one of the students marching in D.C. "Eventually we’re going to be adults, and we need to think about our futures and the futures of the children who come after us. We need to make this country safer and more stable."
It is unclear how many students are taking part. The majority of students appeared to be from D.C. Public Schools, however some said they were from Montgomery County Public Schools.
DCPS officials emailed a statement that said today's walkout was not sponsored by the school district.
DCPS statement:
"DC Public Schools (DCPS) respects and defends all students’ right to self-expression and peaceful protest, and we are committed to our students being informed and engaged in their community in constructive ways.
"Today’s event was not school- or DCPS-sponsored, and neither schools nor district administrators were involved in or consulted with during the planning of this event. All students are expected to be in school throughout the day, and any student who leaves will receive an unexcused absence for periods they miss. The safest place for students to be during school hours is in their school building.
"As educators, we empower students to be inquisitive, informed, and engaged citizens who use critical thinking, inquiry, and literacy to prepare for college, careers, and civic life. We highly value and are committed to fostering a learning environment where students feel safe and secure, and we encourage teachers and students to discuss the issues surrounding the walk-out so that students can explore their questions and express their opinions in safe environments."
Darren Woodruff, a chairman on the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said he was proud of the students for walking out.
Proud of our students! https://t.co/SqH9HKaJAl — Darren Woodruff (@darrenw06) November 15, 2016
One student from private D.C. school Edmund Burke School said half of the student population left class to protest. She said the head of the administration allowed students to leave and was going to waive the typical punishment for an unexcused absence. Normally students would be docked 1% on their overall grade for skipping school.
At about 1:30 p.m. in Beltsville, Md., students walked out of High Point High School. Within minutes, they formed a line blocking Powder Mill Road. Sky9 showed students sitting in the road and blocking traffic. Several police cruisers were in the road in front of the students. Within a half hour, the students were moved out of the road.
A concerned parent told WUSA9 that she is worried but at the same time very proud of her daughter.
Several students said that they are out protesting against the president-elect because they believe he is dividing the country. |
Rocking his own Leafs by Snoop lab coat, a Tweed hat and his usual bling, the world’s most renowned cannabis connoisseur paid a visit to the world’s largest medical marijuana greenhouse.
Snoop wanted to check out the buds growing at this 350,000-square-foot greenhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada.
“Snoop did a tour to inspect the facility and get a look at the next batches of Leafs By Snoop products that we’re growing out at Tweed Farms,” Tweed director of communications Jordan Sinclair told the website Niagara this Week.
He toured the greenhouse and facility with Tweed officials, including the company’s master grower Kevin Furet.
Tweed, probably the most recognized marijuana production brand in the world, completed its state-of-the art cannabis breeding facility as part of its Smiths Falls, Ontario headquarters.
Tweed and Snoop signed a deal last February that gives Tweed exclusive rights to use certain content and brands owned by Snoop Dogg’s company, LBC Holdings. Tweed announced in October that Leafs by Snoop products will be available in Canada, exclusively to customers registered with Tweed.
The Tweed-Snoop partnership includes working to select and produce cannabis strains that represent the highest quality of flower, expected to meet all types of MMJ needs.
Tweed knew what it was doing when it got involved with Snoop.
“At this stage in his career, Snoop is much more than an artist, entertainer and entrepreneur,” said Mark Zekulin, president of Tweed. “He’s also one of the most trusted voices in cannabis the world over. With this partnership, we’re welcoming a cannabis culture icon into the Canadian industry, and as a true partner of the Tweed team.”
Snoop agrees that he is the cannabis king.
“Like hip-hop, cannabis is as much a lifestyle as it is a culture. Leafs By Snoop is an expression of my experience with that culture over decades on the scene,” Snoop said in a statement.
For all of HIGH TIMES’ culture coverage, click here. |
Hosted by the European University Institute in Florence, candidates for the European Commission president left many of the observers in the audience wondering what the real political message of the four contenders actually was.
Front-runner German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, and Luxembourg Christian Democrat Jean-Claude Juncker, were joined by the Belgian Liberal Guy Verhofstadt, and French Green José Bové, for the second presidential debate in the run-up to the EU parliament elections in two weeks (22-25 May).
“No one has won, no one has lost,” said Professor Alexander Trechsel from the European University Institute told EURACTIV. “The second debate confirmed my views that there is way too much agreement among the candidates on most issues.”
Even George Soros, invited to discuss the disintegration and revival of the European Union at an earlier session of the State of the Union conference, ahead of the debate, was at odds on the outcome of the debate. Asked for his impression, he said: “The chap from Luxembourg certainly did not win it. I am not sure about the other three.”
As with previous debates, the candidate of the left, the Greek Alexis Tsipras, did not attend.
Soft and hard on budget
The only time the candidates showed a divergence of views was on whether countries should be granted greater flexibility to meet the growth and stability pact criteria.
Schulz repeated again that the money that governments spend on productive investments should be exempted from debt and deficit calculations in the Eurozone, effectively calling for loosening the debt and deficit ceilings of 60% and 3% of gross domestic product.
“We should look at what is future investment and what is current spending,” Schulz said in the televised debate in Florence, Italy. “I understand Renzi when he says, ‘Let‘s discuss future investments and current spending,” he added, referring to arguments presented by the Italian prime minister earlier in the conference.
Italy and France indeed would probably need more time to get their finances in order than they are currently granted by the European Commission.
Schulz said he was against changing rules. “The 3% is in the treaty. We cannot change the treaty, and we will not change the treaty.”
He was rebuffed by Juncker’s stronger line. “I would not allow more flexibility. Countries have to respect their commitments,” he said. “We cannot spend money we do not have.”
Verhofstadt held the same view: no exceptions for any country.
The anti-globalisation campaigner, Jose Bové, called the ceiling acceptable, if the EU had its own resources that it could devolve to making investments on behalf of national governments.
The risk of a dysfunctional democracy
A good part of the debate dwelled once again on the institutional process of selecting the EU Commission president.
On that topic, all the candidates agreed. If leaders do not take into account the result of elections, and do not take one of the candidates selected to head the campaigns, “they will create a major incident”, said Juncker.
“They would show the Europeans that their vote does not count,” he added.
Guy Verhofstadt argued that the Parliament should refuse to vote on any candidate that was not selected. “We should not accept any outside candidates,” he staunchly said, adding that the one that is able to build a majority has the best chance to stand.
European University Institute secretary general, Pasquale Ferrara, told EURACTIV he found the debate quite tense on that issue. “If leaders don’t choose one of these candidates, it would prove we live in a dysfunctional democracy.”
Some observers wonder why the debates – two so far – have not been structured more thematically, in order to force the candidates to focus more in-depth on specific policy areas, rather than repeating the same points in multiple debates. “They are not being grilled, they are not being challenged. They produce an exercise in mediocrity,” said an informed observer.
To read more about the debates, please click here |
“It’s mostly bull***, right now,” said a CNN producer of “the Russia thing," while being secretly recorded by a Project Veritas investigator.
Captured on video in an undercover investigation, CNN’s John Bonifield essentially acknowledged that intertwined narratives relating to Russia pushed by his employer and the broader left-wing news media amount to a hoax.
Since the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, CNN has been a premier purveyor of a narrative framing last year's presidential election as compromised by "election hacking" directed by the Russian state; Trump is cast as colluding with the Russian government, as a result of being compromised or purely in service of his political ambition. MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and various other left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media outlets have reinforced this narrative.
Jeff Zucker, President of CNN Worldwide, is directing his company’s furthering of the Russia-related narrative, added Bonifield.
Partial transcripts below.
Bonifield tentatively accepts the premises that Russian President Vladimir preferred Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton and directed a political subversion campaign toward that end:
PV JOURNALIST: So you believe the Russia thing is a little crazy, right? BONIFIELD: Even if Russia was trying to swing an election, we try to swing their elections. Our CIA is doing shit all the time, we’re out there trying to manipulate governments. You win because you know the game and you play it right. [Hillary Clinton] didn’t play it right. PV JOURNALIST: Then why is CNN constantly, like, Russia this, Russia that? BONIFIELD: Because it’s ratings.
Bonifield indirectly acknowledges that CNN staffers viewed the president’s withdrawal from the Paris Accords as a significant error, implying that he accepts the narrative of anthropogenic global warming (ubiquitously referred to as "climate change" by left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media outlets):
BONIFIELD: Yeah, so, my boss, I shouldn’t say this, my boss yesterday, we were having a discussion about this dental shoot and he goes, he’s like, “I just want you to know what we’re up against, here.” … BONIFIELD: He goes, just to give you some context, President Trump pulled out of the climate accords, and for a day and a half we covered the climate accords and the CEO of CNN said in our internal meeting, he said, “Good job, everybody, covering the climate accords. But we’re done with it. Let’s get back to Russia. PV JOURNALIST: The CEO? BONIFIELD: Yeah. So even the climate accords, he was like, “Okay, a day or so, but we’re moving back to Russia.”
Bonifield expresses cynicism of an industry whose actors often present themselves as operating in good faith:
BONIFIELD: I love the news business, but I’m very cynical about it and at the same time so are most of my colleagues. I’m not alone.
Bonifield acknowledges CNN’s left-wing and partisan Democrat biases in its conduct, and its appeal to a mostly left-wing and partisan Democrat audience:
BONIFIELD: I think that there are a lot of like, liberal CNN viewers who want to see Trump really get scrutinized, and I think if we would have behaved that way with President Obama, and scrutinized everything that he was doing with as much scrutiny as we apply to Donald Trump, I think our viewers would’ve been turned off. I think they would have felt like we were attacking him. I think our viewers, right now, and I’m not saying all our viewers are like super liberals, I think there’s just a lot of them.
Bonifield acknowledges that the Russia-related narrative amounts to a hoax driven by the news media:
PV JOURNALIST: But honestly, you think the whole Russia shit is just bullshit? BONIFIELD: Could be bullshit. I mean, it’s mostly bullshit, right now. Like we don’t have any big giant proof. But then they say, “Well, there’s still an investigation going on.” Yeah, I don’t know, if you were finding something, we would know about it. The way these leaks happen, they’d leak it. It’d leak. If it was something really good, it would leak.
CNN's most prominent personalities — Jim Acosta, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Brian Stelter, and others — regularly present themselves as politically objective and non-partisan news media figures who professionally operate in good faith.
We are real news Mr. President. #realnews — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 18, 2017
CNN also describes itself as "The Most Trusted Name In News."
H/T James O’Keefe at Project Veritas
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter. |
"The Woody Show", which airs on the Los Angeles radio station ALT 98.7 KYSR, conducted an interview with DEFTONES drummer Abe Cunningham and bassist Sergio Vega at the Rock In Rio USA festival on May 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can now watch the chat below.
Speaking about the progress of the recording sessions for DEFTONES' follow-up to 2012's "Koi No Yokan" album, Sergio said: "Yeah, we started working on it about a year ago. We had like a real dense five-year run from [2010's] 'Diamond Eyes' through 'Koi' and touring a lot, being around each other a lot. And we just found a different way to approach this record, where we would get on a couple of weeks, play a couple of shows, go home for a couple of weeks, and found this different way that was a little more balanced. And also because of all of the buildup and all of the momentum we have had, like really fruitful, so we have a lot of material. We're super excited on it. And we've gotta get it done and get it out there. We're super stoked to share that at some point."
As previously reported, DEFTONES has tapped Jerry Cantrell (ALICE IN CHAINS) to lay down a guest guitar solo on the band's forthcoming album, tentatively due in September.
Singer Chino Moreno recently told RollingStone.com about the DEFTONES' next CD: "The songs are amazing, and we wrote them in a really cool way. We had all of us in a room together with one person expressing an idea and another person jumping on it. The songs are really built as a collective. We have five guys who have almost completely different takes on music, so when it works, it works great."
According to Moreno, sixteen songs were written for the new album, which was once again produced by Matt Hyde (SLAYER, CHILDREN OF BODOM, MONSTER MAGNET, WINDS OF PLAGUE).
"I think it's a little more of a heady record," Moreno said when asked how the DEFTONES' new material compares to that on "Koi No Yokan". "I feel like we've gone into the songs and really dissected them. If something sounded a little straight, we took a left turn and made things a little screwy. We just tried something completely opposite, not to sabotage it, but to challenge ourselves and try new things that we haven't done in the past.
"It definitely feels like we've taken a step from our last record," he continued. "But it's definitely a DEFTONES record, and it has all the elements that make us who we are. We're not going out there to change anything, other than just thinking outside the box." |
Breanna Bond weighed 186 pounds by the time she was 9 years old.
The extra weight made it difficult for her to breathe and move around. The California girl soon became a target for bullies. "Everybody at school would call me names," she said. "They would call me fatty, they would call me fat head."
Breanna's weight gain began when she was a baby, reaching 100 pounds by the time she got to kindergarten. She couldn't keep up with the friends who were running while they played.
"Her pediatrician always said that she'd grow into her body and then, after a while, we went and got other doctors' opinions," Breanna's mother, Heidi Bond of Clovis, Calif., said today on " Good Morning America." "We had her tested for everything from thyroid to diabetes - her endocrinology got tested - allergies, and everything came out fine so we knew at that point we had to step things up."
Bond and Breanna's father, Dan Bond, decided to take matters into their own hands. Heidi Bond designed an exercise routine for her daughter and the entire family. They began to walk the 4-mile trail near their home.
"There was nothing that stopped us," Heidi Bond said. "We went at night, in the rain, in the hail, in the fog, nothing. We had a zero-tolerance policy. We're doing the walk, no matter what."
Before long, Breanna had lost 37 pounds. In less than a year, her weight loss totaled 66 pounds.
In addition to following a diet that limits fat to 20 grams per day, Breanna also began using her home treadmill for an hour and 15 minutes each day. She also started to play basketball and joined the swim team.
"[That] I can be involved in sports and I can keep up with my friends when we're playing," Breanna said on "GMA" of her favorite aspect of her weight loss. "I can just move more."
Heidi Bond said Breanna inspires her every day.
"She is an inspiration to the world and all children who are having weight issues across America, that you can do it with a pair of tennis shoes and motivation," Bond said.
The Bonds offered three tips for other parents who are looking to keep their children healthy: start as soon as possible, exercise and enforce healthy eating habits.
"Don't be afraid to do the tough love," Dan Bond said on "GMA." "It's worth it in the long run. It's their life that's at stake." |
This article is part of a series about the past, present, and future of commuting in America.
Bike share is one of the hottest trends in US transportation, with new systems springing up across the country over the past decade.
But not everyone uses them. Bike share users skew significantly whiter, wealthier, and more likely to be college-educated than the overall populations of the cities they live in. That's despite the fact that nationwide, the people who bike regularly are actually disproportionately low-income and nonwhite.
"the people who are using bike share are simply not representative of the wider biking population"
"The people who are using bike share are simply not representative of the wider biking population," says Adonia Lugo, a researcher who's studied biking habits among low-income communities. This is a glaring issue, critics say, especially in places where public money is being used to help bike share systems break even.
For bike share advocates, it's raised a big question: can this issue be solved by locating more stations in lower-income neighborhoods and making a more concerted effort to appeal to their residents?
Lots of cities, like Philadelphia, are betting that they can do this. But there are some real reasons to be doubtful — starting with the fact that for many low-income bike riders, Lugo notes, "bicycling is a transport mode of last resort." Low-income people are biking because they can't afford a car — but that doesn't mean they're excited about investing in a bike share membership.
Most bike share riders are white, wealthy, and educated
New York — which has the country's largest bike share system by number of stations — doesn't release detailed data on user demographics. But officials have admitted that riders are disproportionately white, male, and high-income — partly because all the current stations are in Lower Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Washington, DC's bike share users are actually slightly lower-income than workers across the DC region. But they're also dramatically whiter, younger, more likely to be college-educated, and more likely to live in the city.
Indeed, this chart actually undersells the disparity, because Capital Bikeshare compares its data to a survey of workers across the DC metropolitan area. Most bikes and stations are located in the District — which is nearly 50 percent black. If anything, it seems as though bike share is serving urban young professionals that might make slightly less money than commuters from the suburbs — not low-income communities.
These systems, though large, are relatively new. But a recent study of four more well-established systems (in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Toronto, and Montreal) found even bigger disparities in the income level, education, and ethnic background of users in all cities.
How bike share programs are trying to solve this
Even die-hard bike share advocates have generally admitted there's a problem here. But most have maintained that it can be solved by some simple changes to the bike share systems.
Many systems were initially built with stations in places to attract tourists (whose daily fees are much more lucrative than yearlong memberships). They also went for the lowest-hanging fruit — putting stations in wealthier neighborhoods where they believed people were most likely to sign up for memberships — in order to make their books as balanced as possible to start.
Siting stations more equitably, the thinking goes, could clear up the disparities. DC's Capital Bikeshare, for instance, has begun putting more stations in lower-income neighborhoods. It's also implemented monthly payment plans for residents who might be put off by the up-front $85 annual fee.
In Philadelphia, officials made this a priority when designing the Indego bike share system, which opened last month. "We're not just trying to make bike share attractive to tourists, but to city residents," says Carniesha Kwashie, a city employee. Of the 70 stations active at the start, a third are in low-income neighborhoods, with locations based on input collected at community hearings and from surveys.
They've also addressed another big hurdle: the fact that most systems require you to have a credit card to sign up. "You can go into any 7-11 in Philadelphia and complete your bike share membership transaction with cash," Kwashie notes. Based on resident input, the system also allows users to take longer rides for free (most cities' systems charge extra for rides longer than 30 or 45 minutes, but Indego allows for up to an hour).
And there's one big reason to agree with advocates' idea that with these sorts of fixes, bike share should appeal to lower-income city resident: it's pretty cheap.
In DC, for instance, $85 buys you as many rides as you want for an entire year, and most cities have similar membership costs.
Sure, you start getting charged once you go over 30 minutes, but you can prevent that by stopping at a station, checking in your bike, and taking out a different one. Ultimately, this is much, much cheaper than taking the bus, and probably cheaper than owning and maintaining your own bike.
The deeper reasons bike share doesn't appeal to low-income bike riders
As an enthusiastic bike share user, I've really wanted to believe this argument. But I've come around to the idea that bike share might simply not be a useful form of transportation for lower-income groups for a few key reasons.
The easiest reason to identify is reliability. Bike share might be super-cheap when bikes are available, but on warm-weather days, demand easily outstrips supply and there are no bikes left at many stations.
This is an especially big problem, my colleague Matthew Yglesias points out, if you work a shift job and absolutely need to be at work on time. Bike share might be cheaper when you can take it, but given that you can't always do so, it might not be worth an up-front $85 investment — especially when you can just buy a cheap bike that's always available.
The other big problem is less obvious — but perhaps even more important. "There's often an assumption that people who are riding bikes are enthusiastic about it," says Adonia Lugo. Many bicycle researchers are also bike advocates, who see it as an ideal form of transportation and view bike share as an exciting new way of expanding it.
"if you're struggling, you might not have access to a car right now, but it's certainly what you're working toward"
But among the lower-income bicyclists she's surveyed, she says, "a lot of them were on a trajectory towards car ownership. If you're struggling, you might not have access to a car right now, but it's certainly what you're working toward." Borrowing a friend's bike or buying a cheap one might be a short-term transportation solution, but that doesn't mean investing in a bike share membership is particularly appealing.
If this is true, then putting stations in lower-income neighborhoods and eliminating the need for credit cards might not ultimately do much. In most cities, bigger structural factors make driving the most convenient form of transportation for anyone who can afford it, and lower-income people are understandably striving toward it.
It's too early to tell whether DC's efforts to bring bike share to low-income communities will work, but there are some reasons to be skeptical. Recently installed stations in low-income areas like Anacostia and the Northeast see some of the lowest usage rates in the entire system:
All this doesn't mean bike share programs should be eliminated, but it should call into question cities that are spending public money on them to keep them afloat. "A lot of bicycle advocates seem to see bike share as inevitable, and that making it demographically equitable is absolutely necessary," says Lugo. "This might be preventing them from asking some basic questions like, 'Does bike share actually make sense for poor people?'" |
From top: Stephen Collins; Julien Mercille
For the establishment the choice is simple.
Stability or ANARCHY.
Dr Julien Mercille writes:
Stephen Collins is the Irish Times political editor. I see him in effect as a de facto government spokesperson [so closely do his views mirror those of the coalition].
His latest article on the upcoming elections conveys the government’s message. It is entitled “Stability or Chaos is the Choice Facing the Irish Electorate”
The alleged choice between “Stability or Chaos?” is one you will hear repeated often in the coming weeks. The claim is that voting for mainstream parties will preserve stability, while voting for independents and anti-austerity parties will bring chaos.
But this is a propaganda trick. Of course, we think of “stability” as a good thing and “chaos” as a bad thing. Therefore it’s supposed to make you want to vote for Enda Kenny again.
But the reality is this: the “stability” that Collins longs for is in fact the “stability of the Irish establishment”, which he thinks must be protected. “Chaos”, on the other hand, is anything that disrupts the establishment and takes away its prerogatives.
A few illustrations may be found on the website of the Nevin Research Institute, which produces two documents every three months that are must-reads for anybody who wants to understand the economy: the Quarterly Economic Observer and the Quarterly Economic Facts.
They give a picture of the economy and present key indicators about the state of the economy in a language that is easy to understand. It just released the documents for the Autumn quarter.
What kind of “stability” have the mainstream parties given us, and would logically continue giving us if re-elected?
– As David McWilliams’ excellent documentary The Great Wealth Divide showed, wealth is still very concentrated in Ireland. The top-20% of households own 73% of the country’s wealth. The top 10% own 54% and the top 1% own 15%. Stability means this won’t change.
– The budget is still focused on cutting taxes, which are regressive and unnecessary as Ireland is a low-tax, low-spend economy, which prevents investment in public services. This gives us the stability of poor public services.
– We have a 21% rate of unemployment and under-employment combined (under-employed people are those who would like to work full-time but are stuck in part-time jobs). For the last 5 years, that number has remained very stable indeed, oscillating between 330,000 and 475,000 people.
– The unemployment rate is still at nearly 10%, rather stable as well, as it is not falling very rapidly.
– The youth unemployment rate (for those under the age of 25) is still at 21%. Stability again.
– The deprivation rate is still very high, at 31%. Stability here too.
Sure, you could counter that whatever the poor state of the economy, we are now in recovery mode, so things are getting better. This is true, things are getting better and the recovery is becoming more real. But unless we adopt the low standards of Fine Gael-Labour, we should quickly point out that things could be much better if the government made better decisions.
What are those better decisions? They are policies that Stephen Collins would call “chaotic”. But in fact, they would actually improve our quality of life and the economy.
For example, there are a series of projects that could be accomplished:
– More investment to upgrade our poor-quality infrastructure. This will raise economic productivity, among other things. IBEC, the employers association, agrees and calls for €1 billion extra investment in the upcoming budget. The population also agrees and wants more spending, not tax cuts, as revealed by an important Irish Times opinion poll just released.
– Wealth tax on the rich. Even a small tax could raise about €300 million according to the Nevin Institute. You don’t need to be a member of the hard left to call for this. David McWilliams did in The Great Wealth Divide, just like economist Stephen Kinsella in the Sunday Business Post, along with many others.
– Invest in better public services so we can catch up with other countries. This will lower our cost of living (for example, thanks to cheaper public transportation and health care costs) and would increase employment take up and retention (for example, if the state provided better childcare services, parents would find it easier to work).
– Don’t cut taxes: Ireland is already a low-tax economy, and in any case, the tax cuts proposed by the government in the upcoming budget are regressive, meaning that they will mostly benefit the better off.
There are many more possibilities explained in the Nevin Institute’s documents, and in Unite the Union’s Budget 2016 submission, which can be found here.
In short, the choice is not between “stability” and “chaos”. It’s between supporting the establishment, or supporting everybody else.
Julien Mercille is a lecturer at UCD. His book Deepening Neoliberalism, Austerity, and Crisis: Europe’s Treasure Ireland is out. Follow Julien on Twitter: @JulienMercille |
The Obama administration had no intention of seeking the military's advice when they sent that controversial $1.7 billion payment to Iran the same day four American hostages were released back to the States, it would appear. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made the discovery at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. At the meeting, he asked both Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford about any information they may be able to provide about the payment, only to find they apparently had never been briefed on the reported ransom.
Cruz's office provided the relevant exchanges in a press release.
Sen. Cruz: General, in your judgment, was flying $1.7 billion in unmarked cash to give to the Iranian government incentivizing positive behavior from Iran? Gen. Dunford: Senator, I’m not trying to be evasive, but I don’t know the details of that arrangement, and it really was a political decision that was made to provide that money… Sen. Cruz: Does it concern you, if the United States is now in the business of paying ransom to terrorist governments for releasing Americans, the incentive that we face for future terrorists and future terrorist governments to attempt to kidnap and hold for ransom Americans? Sec. Carter: …I don’t know all the details of it, and the Chairman and I were not involved in that. It is a decision that was taken by the law enforcement and the diplomatic community…
Cruz slammed the White House for its history of "neutering" itself and "ignoring one transgression after another from our enemies." Congress is making the effort to prevent ransom payments to Iran in the future, with the House passing the Prohibiting Future Ransom Payments to Iran Act (H.R. 5931) on Thursday night. |
Whole Foods said Monday that it's cutting 1,500 jobs in order to focus more on lowering prices in stores and upgrading technology. (Photo11: Julie Jacobson, AP)
Whole Foods (WFM) is cutting 1,500 jobs over the next two months, or about 1.6% of its workforce, as it focuses on its strategy to lower prices for customers, the grocery chain said Monday.
Shares ended down 1.1% for the day.
The cuts come after Whole Foods added more than 9,000 jobs in the past year. The company said it expects "a significant percentage" of employees being let go to find other jobs among Whole Foods' open positions, including those available due to more than 100 new stores that are set to open. Whole Foods has about 91,000 employees and 431 stores across the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
"We believe this is an important step to evolve Whole Foods Market in a rapidly changing marketplace," co-CEO Walter Robb said in a statement. The company also said that the job cuts will let it focus more on upgrading technology.
Whole Foods would not say which specific positions will be cut.
Whole Foods is up against increasing competition in the organic grocery space it once dominated as more mainstream and affordable grocery chains have started selling organic brands. Its reputation has also taken several hits in recent months.
Executives apologized to customers in July for pricing discrepancies that may have been found in the chain's New York City-area stores. Robb and co-CEO John Mackey admitted to making "some mistakes" after a local investigation alleged Whole Foods was systematically overcharging for certain pre-packaged goods. The two deny that accusation though and said that any mislabeling was "unintentional."
The company's stock plunged more than 10% when it missed earnings expectations for the third quarter and reported sales at stores open at least a year had fallen compared to a year ago.
And in August, Whole Foods found itself the target of social media jokes and frustration over the chain's high-end groceries when a photo of a product called "asparagus water" went viral. Turns out the product was a mistake.
Whole Foods has been trying to tone down its reputation for selling expensive food. The company plans to start opening an off-price chain called "365" next year, aimed at younger shoppers and with a focus on cheaper groceries. So far five locations have been announced.
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WINDHAM COUNTY, Conn. — In what had been one of the Northeast’s liberal strongholds, Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE beat Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE by 8 percentage points in the November presidential election.
Now, Republicans hope they have established a beachhead that could lead them back to power, or at least relevance, in a region that has proved politically elusive.
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The submarine base in New London is hard at work producing the next generation of Navy warships. The financial services sector that makes the New York suburbs some of the richest areas in America has recovered from the recession. But in the rolling hills of eastern Connecticut the textile mills have shut down, and what few manufacturing giants remain are shedding jobs.
Windham County has supported Democratic presidential candidates since 1992, and Connecticut has been solidly blue since Democrats knocked off three House Republican incumbents in 2006 and 2008. Yet, in a region some locals bitterly call “the other Connecticut,” there are signs that the sluggish recovery has left some voters open to persuasion.
“There’s still a lot of frustration about the fact that they really have not felt the benefits of whatever recovery you want to describe out there, and Trump became, you know, the change candidate,” said Rep. Joe Courtney (D), who represents eastern Connecticut in Congress.
In parts of Connecticut, those closer to New York, the median income is approaching $80,000 a year. But in Windham County, in Courtney’s district, the median income is below $60,000 annually — and up just $22 per household between 2010 and 2015, by far the lowest increase in the state.
“We’re like Appalachia up here,” said Tony Falzarano, the mayor of Putnam, population 9,416.
This is the 13th story in The Hill’s Changing America series, in which we investigate the demographic and economic trends shaping American politics today. And the Northeast shows those trends can force changes even in the most solidly partisan regions in the nation. Electoral College maps show an almost impenetrable sea of blue east of New York, but under the surface, Republicans have begun clawing back once-Democratic territory.
Around the country, the economic recovery has been good for corporate profits, especially in the financial sector, while at the same time leaving manufacturing communities behind.
As jobs dried up, so did the tax base in many communities once dependent on manufacturers and the property taxes they paid. Local governments have felt a simultaneous shock leveled by a persistent state budget gap that has robbed them of funding. Gov. Dannel Malloy’s (D) office said in May the state faced a $323 million budget gap going into next year, likely meaning more cuts ahead — cuts that will harm small rural communities that rely more on state money than their big-city neighbors.
“Twenty years ago, every town out here had a social service director, and maybe an employee,” said Richard Ives, a Democratic selectman in the small Connecticut town of Brooklyn. “That’s all gone away.”
Roy Piper, the Republican first selectman of Canterbury, population 5,089, said state funds to spur economic development through tourism have been reduced “almost to zero” and added that the cuts have also affected the quality of service.
After years of Democratic consolidation throughout the Northeast, voters are starting to punish the party in power for leaving them behind. President Obama won 56 percent of the vote twice in Windham County; in 2016, Trump took 51 percent.
“It’s sort of the growth area for the Connecticut Republican effort,” said Chris Healy, a former state Republican Party chairman.
The story of the nascent Republican comeback in New England begins after the party’s nadir in 2008, when Democrats held every one of the region’s U.S. House seats, every Senate seat except for Maine’s two centrist Republicans and every governorship except Rhode Island’s.
Today, Republicans control the governorships of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. They hold one seat in Congress, Rep. Bruce Poliquin’s (R-Maine), along with control of both legislative chambers in New Hampshire. Connecticut’s state Senate is locked in a tie between 18 Democrats and 18 Republicans.
“In the greater New England culture, you see that big shift [toward the GOP],” said Colin Woodard, a journalist and author based in Maine. “And where do you see it? It’s all concentrated in several areas that are, like eastern Connecticut, rural and largely homogenously white.”
Since 2008, Republicans have gained between 5 and 9 percentage points in Connecticut’s eastern counties, said Ronald Schurin, a political scientist at the University of Connecticut. The same pattern has emerged in the rest of New England: Trump outperformed Mitt Romney in about 40 of the 67 counties in Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Clinton won all but one of New England’s electoral votes, though by a far narrower margin than Obama did in 2012. The only county in the region where Clinton outperformed Obama: Suffolk County, Mass., the heart of liberal Boston.
Across the region, Republican gains were most pronounced in smaller rural counties and those dominated by manufacturing jobs. Trump won eight counties in Maine that Obama carried four years earlier. Trump is the first Republican to carry a county in Rhode Island, Kent County, since Ronald Reagan’s reelection in 1984. In New Hampshire’s rural north, Coos County swung toward Republicans by a 26-point margin.
Every county that flipped from Obama to Trump relies heavily on manufacturing jobs to keep its economy humming. All but one, Hillsborough in New Hampshire, lost population over the last five years.
Healy said the same trends that propelled Trump to victory in Rust Belt states are present in eastern Connecticut, where communities “moved away from a manufacturing base more toward a service-oriented or a technology- or information-based economy.”
Courtney’s election was a part of the Democratic wave that washed over New England the last time the country underwent a political revolution, during the 2006 and 2008 midterm elections. In 2006, Courtney beat out Rep. Rob Simmons (R) by just 91 votes.
Courtney has won comfortably ever since. But now, Republicans see an opportunity for a comeback.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has its eye on Courtney and on several other New England Democrats, including Reps. Elizabeth Esty (Conn.), Bill Keating (Mass.) and Ann McLane Kuster (N.H.). Also on the committee’s political hit list is Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (N.H.), whose district gave Obama 50.2 percent of the vote in 2012 before flipping to Trump last year.
However, Connecticut Democrats don’t see voters rushing toward Republicans, especially as Trump’s approval rating sags.
“I think that Donald Trump is such an unusual, different president — and I don’t say either of those things in a good way — that I have the feeling the landscape in 2018 might not be as friendly to the Republicans as they think it’s going to be,” said Roy Occhiogrosso, a longtime Democratic operative in Connecticut.
In the face of a potentially strong GOP campaign in 2018, Courtney indicated he’d be ready.
“We had a pretty aggressive field operation during the [last] campaign,” he said. “But I know this district really well, and, you know, it’s just a mistake to ever take it for granted.”
Reid Wilson contributed. |
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Police say they have no evidence of foul play in the hanging death of black teenager Lennon Lacy. But in a case with disturbing racial overtones, his family are left with haunting questions
Friday 29 August was a big day for Lennon Lacy. His high school football team, the West Bladen Knights, were taking on the West Columbus Vikings and Lacy, 17, was determined to make his mark. He’d been training all summer for the start of the season, running up and down the bleachers at the school stadium wearing a 65lb exercise jacket. Whenever his mother could afford it, he borrowed $7 and spent the day working out at the Bladenboro gym, building himself up to more than 200lbs. As for the future, he had it all planned out: this year he’d become a starting linebacker on the varsity team, next year he’d earn a scholarship to play football in college, and four years after that he’d achieve the dream he’d harboured since he was a child – to make it in the NFL.
“He was real excited,” said his Knights team-mate Anthony White, also 17, recalling the days leading up to the game. “He said he was looking forward to doing good in the game.”
The night before the game, Lacy did what he always did: he washed and laid out his football clothes in a neat row. He was a meticulous, friendly kid who made a point of always greeting people and asking them how they were doing. Everybody in his neighbourhood appears to have a story about how he would make a beeline to shake their hand, or offer to help them out by moving furniture or anything else that needed doing. “He was in the best sense a good kid,” said his pastor, Barry Galyean.
His brother, Pierre Lacy, said that football was the constant that ran through Lennon’s life since he started out as a Pee Wee: “He was very serious about being a professional, very passionate about it. He never changed his mind or wavered from the course.”
But Lacy never made it to the game that night. At 7.30am on Friday – exactly 12 hours before the game was scheduled to start – he was found hanging from a swing set about a quarter of a mile from his home. The Knights had lost one of the most promising players; his tight-knit family was thrown into despair; and a question echoed around the streets of the tiny town of Bladenboro, North Carolina: what had happened to Lennon Lacy?
The last person known to have seen Lacy alive was his father, Larry Walton. Around midnight on the night before the game, he came out of his bedroom to fetch a glass of water and saw his son preparing his school bag for the following morning. “I told him he needed to get to bed, the game was next day, and he said ‘OK, Daddy’.” A little later Walton heard the front door open and close; Walton assumed Lacy must have stepped out of the house, but thought no more of it and went to sleep.
Next morning there was no sign of Lacy, and Walton and Lacy’s mother, Claudia, thought he’d gone off to school. Later that morning, Claudia noticed he’d left some of his football gear on the line, so she called the school to say she’d bring it to him before the game. She was surprised to be told that her son hadn’t turned up at school. Just as she put the phone down, there was a knock on the door, and the Bladenboro police chief, Chris Hunt, was standing in front of her.
“I need you to come with me,” he said.
Claudia was led to a trailer park a short walk from her home, where an ambulance was parked on the grass next to a wooden swing set. Even before she had got to the ambulance she saw police officers clearing away the crime scene tape that had been placed around the swing.
Then she saw Lennon’s body lying in the ambulance in a black body bag, and on top of the immense shock and grief of seeing her son lifeless in front of her, the bewilderment intensified. “I know my son. The second I saw him I knew he couldn’t have done that to himself – it would have taken at least two men to do that to him.”
She noticed what she describes as scratches and abrasions on his face, and there was a knot on his forehead that hadn’t been there the day before. In a photograph taken of Lacy’s body lying in the casket, a lump is visible on his forehead above his right eye. “From that point on it was just not real, like walking through a dream,” she said.
Five days after Lennon Lacy was found hanging, the investigating team – consisting of local police and detectives from the state bureau of investigation – told the family that it had found no evidence of foul play. There was no mention of suicide, but the implication was clear. In later comments to a local paper, police chief Hunt said: “There are a lot of rumours out there. And 99.9% of them are false.”
The Lacys were left with the impression that, for the district attorney, Jon David, and his investigating team, the question of what had happened to Lennon Lacy was all but settled just five days after the event. But it wasn’t settled for them.
As the Rev William Barber, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in North Carolina, put it at a recent memorial service for Lennon Lacy held at the family’s church, the First Baptist in Bladenboro: “Don’t ask these parents to bury their 17-year-old son and then act as though everything is normal. Don’t chastise them for asking the right questions. All they want is the truth.”
From that point on it was just not real, like walking through a dream
Barber was careful to stress that that truth was elusive – no one knows what happened to Lennon Lacy, he said, beyond the bald facts of his death. If a full and thorough investigation concluded that the teenager had indeed taken his own life, then the Lacy family would accept that.
But Barber also talked about the chilling thought that lingered, otherwise unmentioned, over the scores of black and white people attending the packed memorial. “The image of a black boy hanging from a rope is in the souls of all of us,” he told them. “It is in the DNA of America. In 2014, our greatest prayer is that this was not a lynching.”
Pierre Lacy with his mother, Claudia Lacy who holds a picture of her late son Lennon Lacy in his younger days. Photograph: Andrew Craft for the Guardian
In Bladenboro, a town of just 1,700 people – 80% white, 18% black – the bitter legacy of the South’s racial history is never far from the surface. The African Americans have a nickname for the place: they call it “Crackertown” in reference to its longstanding domination by the white population.
The events of 29 August have become entangled in that historical narrative, inevitably perhaps in a state in which 86 black people were lynched between 1882 and 1968.
While America debates whether it is moving into a post-racial age, the truth in Bladenboro is that the past is very much here and now, and that the terrible image of “strange fruit” will hover over this town for as long as the truth about Lennon Lacy’s death remains uncertain.
Which is paradoxical, because Lacy had joined a multiracial youth group across town at the Galeed Baptist church where he went for weekly services and basketball ministry, and his friends were black and white, in almost equal measure.
For several months before he died, he was also in a relationship with a white woman, Michelle Brimhall, who lives directly opposite the Lacy family home. The liaison with Brimhall raised eyebrows because, at 31, she was almost twice his age. (The age of consent in North Carolina is 16.)
“Everybody was going on to me because he was 17 and I am 31,” Brimhall told the Guardian. “We told people we weren’t seeing each other so they would stop giving us trouble.”
The Lacy family said that Brimhall had split up with Lacy a couple of weeks before he died and that she had a new boyfriend. But she denied that. “We were still together, I did not break up with him,” she said. “I had never had a man treated me as good as he did, and I probably will never find another.”
Brimhall said she did not notice any hostility towards them as a mixed-race couple. But she is convinced that Lennon did not take his own life. “No, Lennon did not kill himself. He loved his mother so much, he would never put her through that.”
She added: “I want to know who did it. I want them to suffer.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lennon Lacy’s first football team, in Virginia. Lennon is No52 on the far left.
Brimhall’s close friend, Teresa Edwards, lives a few doors down from the Lacys. Edwards said that she was desperate to find out the truth, particularly as Lacy was such a good person. “For him to be black – I’m not stereotyping or anything, I’m not racist, I love everybody – but he was a very well-mannered child.”
A white couple, Carla Hudson and Dewey Sykes, live in a trailer home right behind the Lacy house. Soon after Lennon died his family learned that a few years ago Sykes and Hudson had been instructed by police to remove from their front lawn a number of Confederate flags and signs saying “Niggers keep out”.
The Guardian asked the couple why they had put up the signs. Sykes said that it was his idea. “There were some kids who ganged up on our kid and I put some signs up.” Asked whether he now regretted doing so, he replied: “Yeah, I regret it now.”
Carla Hudson said she had begged her husband to take the signs down. “I told him he had to stop that. It wasn’t how I saw things – there’s not a racist bone in my body.”
There is no evidence to suggest that either Hudson or Sykes had anything to do with Lacy’s death. Asked about the teenager, Hudson said: “Lennon was like a son to me, and this was his second home. He was nothing like the people we have trouble with. In my eyes he was just perfect.”
About a week after Lacy died, his family, with the help of the NAACP and their own lawyer, put together a list of questions and concerns that they presented to the district attorney. First, there was the overriding sense that Lennon was simply not the kind of boy to harm himself. He had no history of mental illness or depression, and was so focused on his future it was inconceivable he would intentionally cut it short.
The image of a black boy hanging from a rope is in the souls of all of us
The day before Lacy was found hanging, there had been a funeral service for his great uncle Johnny, who had died a couple of weeks previously. Lacy had been close to his uncle, and was visibly upset, but not to an extreme degree, his family said. He grieved “as a normal person would”, Claudia said.
Then there were those facial marks on his body. Even the undertaker, FW Newton Jr, who has worked as a mortician for 26 years, was taken aback by what he saw.
Newton told the Guardian that when he received Lacy’s body two days after he died, he was struck by the abrasions he saw across both shoulders and down the insides of both arms. He also noted facial indentations over both cheeks, the chin and nose. Though police have told the Lacy family that ants were responsible for causing the marks, to Newton the state of the body reminded him of corpses he had embalmed where the deceased had been killed in a bar-room fight.
The Guardian asked the local Bladenboro police department, the district attorney and the state bureau of investigation to respond to the allegation that they had conducted an inadequate investigation. They all declined to comment on the grounds that the investigation was ongoing.
In a statement posted on the Bladenboro town website, the district attorney, Jon David, said that the “victims [sic] family, and the community, can rest assured that a comprehensive investigation is well underway. All death investigations, particularly those involving children, are given top priority by my office. Investigations are a search for the truth, and I am confident that we have a dedicated team of professionals, and the right process, to achieve justice in this matter.”
David said that his team was keeping the Lacy family and its representatives closely apprised of the investigation, and had met community leaders to explain to them the current state of affairs. But he added that “to date we have not received any evidence of criminal wrongdoing surrounding the death”.
The family have many other questions that they still want answered. Who desecrated Lennon Lacy’s grave a few days after the burial, dumping the flowers 40 feet away beside the road and digging a hole in one corner of the plot? Why didn’t forensic investigators take swabs from under Lacy’s fingernails and DNA test them to see if he had been in physical contact with anybody else before he died? Have the police probed deeply enough into Lacy’s wider group of friends and acquaintances; the family were disturbed to find, for instance, that one white associate of Lennon’s had a Confederate flag as the backdrop to his Facebook page.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lennon Lacy’s grave was desecrated and a small hole dug in the plot.
They also want to know why it is it taking so long for the autopsy report to come through, with still no date set for its public release five weeks after the event. So far only the toxicology report has come back, showing that Lacy had no drugs, alcohol or other chemicals in his bloodstream.
The location where Lacy was found, the mobile home park at the Cotton Mill, has also caused the family great difficulty. The swing set from which he was hanging is one of eight such sets standing in a line in the middle of a rectangle of 13 mobile homes. The spot is desolate and vulnerable, overlooked as it is by so many trailer homes, like a sports field surrounded by grandstands.
“If my brother wanted to take his own life, I can’t understand why he would do it in such an exposed place. This feels more like he was put here as a public display – a taunting almost,” Pierre Lacy said.
This feels more like he was put here as a public display – a taunting almost
Lacy was found wearing a pair of size 10.5 white sneakers, with the laces removed, which no one in his family recognised. A few days before he died, he had bought himself a new pair of Jordans for the start of school year. They were grey with neon green soles, size 12, and have been missing ever since.
The family also wonders why the former husband of Michelle Bramhill and the father of her children, whom she left in February before relocating to Bladenboro, has yet to be interviewed by detectives. There is no evidence to implicate him in the circumstances surrounding Lacy’s death, but the family would still like to know why detectives have yet to speak to him.
Allen Rogers, a Fayetteville lawyer with 20 years’ experience in criminal cases who is representing the Lacy family, said there were too many questions still unanswered. “I don’t believe that a thorough investigation has been done, and within that investigation, the evidence the police has compiled is not sufficient to rule out foul play. The concern is that there’s been a rush to judgment – a desire quickly to settle any issue over the cause of death,” he said.
Rogers conceded that it was hard for any family to accept a suicide in its midst, and that it would be natural in those circumstances to search for alternative explanations, to clutch at straws. But he said that in this case the clutching at straws appeared to have been on the part of “elected officials who can’t deal with the realities of race. Given the sensitivity of the issues here, it’s much easier to put this in a box marked ‘suicide’ than ask the tough questions. I’m afraid that politics have held back the investigation.”
A few hours after Lacy’s body was discovered, the coach of the West Bladen Knights called the team together to break to them the tragic news. He asked them what they wanted to do. They voted unanimously to play on, dedicating the game to their lost brother, Lennon Lacy. They won, 57-22. |
Marissa Mayer will pocket $186 million when Verizon fully acquires Yahoo next month — in yet another example of a CEO being paid for luck rather than performance.
Yahoo’s core business stagnated under Meyer’s leadership. However, when she took the job, she inherited Yahoo’s 15 percent stake in Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce colossus. Alibaba’s increasing value caused Yahoo stock to double over her five-year tenure. And so Meyer will be rewarded handsomely for the stocks and options she holds in her company — for essentially doing nothing.
This is how “pay-for-performance” works in corporate America.
The CEO pay system, loaded with massive stock options and stock awards, inevitably leads to pay-for-luck. Stock market upswings — not the CEO’s performance — determine most of their gains from options. General market conditions account for 70 percent of any individual stock’s movements.
When the market rallies, the CEO can make money even if the company is performing poorly. If the market is up, say, 15 percent, a well-managed company should be up by 15 percent or better. Meanwhile, a poorly managed company in this same market could see a boost of less than 15 percent, giving the CEO an undeserved bump. Similarly, a CEO who’s loaded with stock options will benefit when the Fed lowers interest rates or when Wall Street falls in love with the particular industry that his or her company falls into, even if the company itself is flagging.
“Pay-for-luck” means that CEO performance and rewards are completely divorced. The Wall Street Journal’s 2014 pay survey found that only one of the 10 highest-paid CEOs ranked among the top 10 percent by investor performance. Five rigorous academic studies have found little, or even negative correlation between CEO pay and performance. The most comprehensive of these, a study of 1,500 companies, found that the more a CEO got paid, the worse the shareholders did. The top 5 percent of companies in CEO pay did 15 percent worse, on average, than their peers.
Even worse is that CEOs never suffer like shareholders, who gain when the stock goes up and lose when the stock goes down. Instead, CEOs always win when their stock goes up and break even when their stock goes down because they paid nothing for their options. Therefore, the CEO has an economic interest in taking more risk than the shareholders would.
Stunningly, companies do not even include a CEO’s gains on stock and stock options as part of their reported compensation. For example, Nike reported that CEO Mark Parker’s total compensation was $47.6 million in 2016. But he also received $53.7 million from exercising stock options, an amount not included as compensation.
Where did this $53.7 million come from? According to the company, it came from the tooth fairy.
Stunningly, companies do not even include a CEO’s gains on stock and stock options as part of their reported compensation.
The rest of the shareholders lost money because their shares were diluted when Nike printed more shares to give to the CEO. The fact that shareholders bought their stock on the open market while Parker was given his for nothing is a distinction that Nike does not find germane.
It would be hard to design a worse compensation system for CEOs. Pay-for-luck. Encourage risk. Keep shareholders in the dark.
If people understood the insane level of true CEO pay, maybe things would change. The Securities and Exchange Commission should require companies to disclose true CEO pay with gains on stock and options included.
If that happened, the resulting outrage might become so intense that boards and politicians would seriously consider curbing excessive CEO compensation. My favorite remedy is a luxury tax, a levy used by Major League Baseball to control player salaries. Every MLB team in the US pays a luxury tax if its payroll exceeds $195 million, which is then redistributed to other less wealthy teams who can’t afford big ticket players. The more a payroll exceeds $195 million, the higher the tax rate.
The IRS should do the same to corporations. For every dollar over $6 million that a company pays an executive, it should pay a dollar in luxury tax to the US government. This would include all forms of compensation including gains on stock options and golden parachutes.
Is this very simple solution politically possible? Yes, if CEO pay becomes a big political issue. After all, who wants to run on the platform of “Pay the boss more”? In fact, this may be the sole issue on which both Trump and Clinton voters totally agree.
Steven Clifford is the author of “The CEO Pay Machine: How it Trashes America and How to Stop It” (Blue Rider Press), out now. |
Early this year, California Senator Scott Wiener began a campaign for the 'Let Our Communities Adjust Late Night Act', which proposed that each municipality within the state be given authority to choose their last call hour, possibly pushing it back to as late as 4AM.
Previously, all venues throughout the entire state were limited to a 2AM last call for alcohol services. "Nightlife matters a lot, culturally and economically, and it's time to allow local communities more flexibility," Senator Scott Wiener argued.
The Senator's efforts have paid off as his proposed 4AM nightlife bill has officially passed in the Senate, allowing it to now move to Assembly for a review and a vote before reaching the governor for final word to "allow but not require local communities to let their bars and nightclubs serve alcohol until 4AM".
This is a huge move that will affect party hotspots in the state like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco if it passes through the next phase.
Valerie Lee is Mixmag's US Digital Editor. Follow her on Twitter here |
The mainstream press simply measures a recovery by looking at the stock market even though very little of the gains here are trickling down to regular families. It should be noted that many Americans are frustrated with the economy because to them, it still feels like a recession. Low-wages permeate the landscape, housing costs are jumping, college tuition is off the charts, and saving for retirement seems like a distant dream. Those clustered away in bubbles may feel that this is not the case but there is clear evidence highlighting how weak this recovery has turned out to be. There is a reason that we now have a boom in dollar stores across the nation. The top occupations across the country pay $10 an hour or less and carry very little in the way of benefits. Let us take a look at some charts to show what this recovery truly looks like.
9 charts of the failed recovery
A reader emailed a chart over that highlighted the plight of the middle class in 9 simple cases. Most Americans realize that having a stock market bubble built on easy credit is nothing special. That is what led us into the first financial crisis. However, the first financial crisis allowed regular American families to participate even though many were destroyed once the crash hit. This crack-up boom was largely a bailout gift to the banks and financial institutions. They juiced up stocks and many bought up real estate at rock bottom prices thanks to generous financing from the banking system. The same system that allowed middle class families to leverage to the hilt is essentially taking over their properties on the cheap with bailout funds.
Let us take a look at this summary:
It is worth going through each one individually:
-1. Student loans – we now have a record of $1.36 trillion student loans outstanding. The biggest non-housing debt sector in our economy.
-2. Food stamps – Over 46 million Americans are in poverty (a record percentage of our population). Dollar stores suddenly sold a bulk of their items as food and many are using those EBT debit cards to pay for daily food. How is this a sign of economic prosperity?
-3. Federal debt – the Federal debt continues to grow unabated. Will we ever pay this back? #LOL
-4. Money printing – more like digital debt printing. Inflation is real even though the Fed chooses to minimize its impact. Things now get inflated via forced usage of credit (i.e., mortgage, auto loans, student loans, etc). This gives more power to banks.
-5. Health insurance – health insurance costs are soaring despite new measures to control it. Employers are chopping away at healthcare benefits and pushing the responsibility onto workers. End result? Families are paying more to stay insured.
-6. Labor force participation – this is how you get the unemployment rate to look good without making a better economy. 94 million Americans (a record) are now part of the “not in the labor force” category.
-7. Workers’ share of the economy – wealth is being aggregated in fewer hands. Workers are keeping very little of their spoils as the middle class is slowly erased off the history books. Profits flow up to a narrower pyramid.
-8. Median income – median family income is back to where it was nearly a generation ago, adjusting for inflation. This is why families feel poorer. Inflation is real. Is college tuition more than 30 years ago? What about housing costs? Health care?
-9. Homeownership – the homeownership rate is near generational lows because of the foreclosure crisis. No recovery here. Investors bought a large portion of homes through big connections with banking buddies. End result? The one vehicle where most Americans build wealth was siphoned off to the new rentier class. Rents are higher and so are housing costs even though incomes are stagnant (see number 8).
These are all up-to-date charts. So does this seem like a good recovery to you?
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Pat Lambie will start at flyhalf for the Springboks against Ireland at Newlands on Saturday.
Elton Jantjies, who passed a fitness test on Thursday, should make his return from a finger injury off the bench.
Coach Allister Coetzee has included six players in the match 23 who did not feature at the World Cup last year – Faf de Klerk, Jantjies, Warren Whiteley, Julian Redelinghuys and Lionel Mapoe, who will earn his first start for the Boks, as well as Bongi Mbonambi, who will make his Test debut if he comes off the bench.
Coetzee said he was looking forward to De Klerk's first Test.
'I have no doubt Faf will do a fantastic job. He has lots of experience around him in the form of Pat next to him and Duane [Vermeulen] at the back of the scrum. So in that sense he will be looked after, but I know Faf can also look after himself.
'Both our flyhalves, Pat and Elton, have been in outstanding form in the Super Rugby competition and it’s great to have both of them available and in the match-day squad. To have a right- and left-foot kicker at halfback is always a good option.'
Eight players in the run-on team started for the Springboks against Argentina in the third-place playoff at last year's World Cup – Mtawarira, Malherbe, Etzebeth, Louw, Vermeulen, De Allende, Pietersen and Le Roux.
'I am excited about the composition of the team and the players selected are rewarded for their consistently good performances in Super Rugby,' said Coetzee. 'We’ve worked extremely hard these past two weeks to become a team and to make sure we cover all the necessary areas so we can face the Irish.
'The big test will come up front where we will have to make sure that we do well at the set pieces, especially the scrums and lineouts. Those are the areas where the Irish have been strong, so we want to compete there and set a platform so our backs can hopefully get into their rhythm.'
Springboks – 15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Julian Redelinghuys, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Warren Whiteley, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Jesse Kriel.
Ireland team
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images |
A staffer hired by the Trump administration for a prominent role in the State Department has been accused of sexual assault by five cadets at The Citadel military college, where he was a student, ProPublica reported on Wednesday.
Steven Munoz, a former staffer on Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign, will serve as the assistant chief of visits at the State Department, where he will help arrange foreign leaders’ visits to the United States. Before he was hired at the State Department, Munoz worked as a consultant for the Trump campaign and for the Inaugural Committee, per ProPublica.
Accusations of sexual assault against Munoz first surfaced back in 2012, when Buzzfeed News obtained an email showing that he was accused of inappropriate behavior by younger cadets while he attended The Citadel.
One cadet said that Munoz made unwelcome sexual advances in 2010, and another said that Munoz assaulted or groped him on three separate occasions in 2012, the Post and Courier newspaper reported at the time without naming Munoz. An email obtained by Buzzfeed News confirmed that Munoz was the suspect.
When initial accusations of sexual assault against Munoz surfaced in the press in 2012, his lawyer, Andy Savage, told the newspaper that the allegations were merely political attempts to hurt Munoz and Santorum.
Now, ProPublica reports that five students at The Citadel have accused Munoz of sexual assault while he was a student there. One incident was reported in 2010, prompting The Citadel to give Munoz a warning, and the other four incidents were reported after Munoz graduated in 2011, according to ProPublica.
One student said he woke up with Munoz on top of him, kissing and groping him, according to the report. In another incident, Munoz allegedly jumped on a student in bed during a trip to Washington, D.C. for the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The Citadel investigated those incidents and in 2014 found that they “likely occurred,” according to ProPublica. A local prosecutor declined to prosecute Munoz, however.
Read the whole ProPublica report here. |
The Haunted Hotel - Full of Mystery
Many Questions, Few Answers Surround the Haunted Hotel on Okinawa
The Story Behind the Haunted Hotel
Experiences at the Haunted Hotel
Other Extremely Odd Facts About the Haunted Hotel
A Favela in Brazil looks similar to the Haunted Hotel By Natecull There are piles of unused construction materials that have simply been left behind.
There is a water park that was going to be part of the hotel on one side of the hill.
There is a zoo with very eerie cages and bars that have been bent and broken.
One could spend en entire day walking around and through the hotel and still not see everything.
The walkways, steps and hallways tend to be uneven, as if built by inexperienced builders or at the direction of someone who could have been insane.
The sprawling construction and haphazard placement of connected buildings and rooms looks more like a Favela in Brazil than a planned structure.
The Haunted Hotel on Okinawa is an incredible structure filled with mystery, many stories, and even more questions. It is located on a hill right next to Nakagusuku Castle. The pictures in this post were all taken while touring Nakagusuku Castle.Note: Before I go any further, visiting the Haunted Hotel is probably illegal (there are lots of signs), and certainly dangerous.Thus, I do not suggest anyone actually go to it, and I may or may not have ever been there, and I have certainly never climbed to the 5th floor and thrown a toilet off of it.Now that that's cleared up...The Haunted Hotel is one of those places where you can't help but wonder what it was really supposed to be, and what it would have been like if it were completed. It is a huge structure that sprawls on top of, and around a hill in Nakagusuku village. The construction does not seem to have been very organized; it seems to have been built adding a section at a time, with no master blueprint to guide the builders.The Haunted Hotel does not seem like a normal hotel.There is no viable parking anywhere near the Haunted Hotel. Where would the guests have parked?There is no easy way to get to the Haunted Hotel. Perhaps over time the original road that led to the hotel has been closed or removed, but even the road that runs through the middle of the structure is small, and unlikely to be used as a real road.There are no main hallways or straight paths. In most hotels, the layout is very simple to keep guests from getting confused or lost. But at the Haunted Hotel, the walkways are anything but straight. They circle around, go up, go down, take sharp corners, and even end in a dead end.Some hallways are even stranger in that they get too small for an average person to walk through. One has to bend over to continue walking through. And these hallways connect to major portions of the hotel, so why would they make it so only people under 4' 10" could easily walk through?And let's not even get into the odd shaped guest rooms, and stairs to nowhere.It is hard to tell for sure what the real story behind the Haunted Hotel is, but based on many different peoples' responses, including several Japanese native to that area, it goes something like this:Sometime in the 1970's a Japanese Business man from Naha (or somewhere other than Nakagusuku) decided to buy the land on the mountain next to Nakagusuku Castle, and build a hotel there.He planned for an impressive hotel, and it was going to be called The Royal Hotel.Plans seemed to be falling in place, he had a great location with a beautiful view of the ocean (some say it is the best view on Okinawa) and plenty of money to get the project underway.Unfortunately, the locals in that area strongly warned the businessman to stop his plans because the ground was sacred and filled with spirits. .The proximity to Nakagusuku castle and a sacred Buddhist cave and shrine as well as many old tombs on the hill should have been enough to convince the man to build his hotel elsewhere, but he did not.The Nakagusuku Castle dates back hundreds of years, to around the 14th century AD. Who knows what could have occurred in all that time on the hill next to the castle? Perhaps it was the burial ground for the castle.As construction got underway, strange and scary things began to occur. Workers began dying in odd construction accidents.Some workers quit, others stayed on, but construction slowed after these mysterious deaths.It is hard to know the exact sequence of events, but at some point the businessman's son died and the father went insane.Perhaps possessed by spirits.I believe construction continued for a little while after the businessman went insane, which would explain the haphazard design and confusing layout.Eventually all the workers who had stayed around decided to quite before they too were killed, and construction was stopped.The businessman had used millions on the hotel, and all that was left was a half completed gigantic sprawling structure.Some say the businessman lived at the hotel for several years and even died there.It is a strange and eerie story with plenty of room for myths and legends to get mixed into the facts.But the hotel that is left behind from the story says a lot as far as confirming that it has a mysterious and unsettling history.Many people have visited the Haunted Hotel over the years and one could probably write a book about the various experiences. Some people claim to have seen ghosts in the form of the businessman, workers or even the child while others suggest seeing ghosts from hundreds of years ago.Many pictures have been taken at the Haunted Hotel that contain ominous orbs in the photos which indicate some sort of energy at that location.Some visitors have said they heard very unnerving sounds that followed them through the hotel as they explored it, sounds that were unlike anything they had heard before.Others noticed flashlights and other electronic devices failing when entering certain rooms.One thing is sure, if anyone is looking for an adventure, the Haunted Hotel has enough mystery to last many adventures. |
On Friday, new San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee signed legislation that will improve energy efficiency in existing buildings, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy costs, and create green jobs. The Existing Commercial Building Energy Performance Ordinance was passed by the Board of Supervisors on February 9th. The ordinance will require owners of existing non-residential buildings to determine how much energy each building consumes, and to annually disclose that information to the public. The new city code will also require commercial buildings over 10,000 square feet to conduct energy efficiency audits every five years in order to help the building owners and managers optimize building efficiency and utility savings. Buildings, which account for about 70% of the electricity consumed in the U.S., could be made up to 50% more energy efficient with currently available products and services. Presently, most owners don't know how efficiently their buildings use energy, and most consumers have no way of comparing the potential energy use and costs of buildings they plan to buy or rent. Studies show that energy-efficient buildings command higher rents, sell for more money, and have lower vacancy rates than other buildings.
Under the new law, Chapter 20 of the San Francisco Environment Code, building owners will be required to benchmark the energy use of their buildings using a free online tool provided by the U.S. EPA, the results of which will be filed annually with the city. The code also requires building owners to conduct energy audits, with a phased in process so that by 2013, the rules would apply to all commercial properties 10,000 square feet or larger.
This legislation follows on the heels of President Obama's "Better Buildings Initiative," aimed at reducing energy use in buildings by 20% by 2020 by improving the energy efficiency of buildings.
Benchmarking building energy performance is regarded as the critical first step towards improving energy efficiency in existing buildings. More cities and states are starting to require owners to begin this process. Still other stakeholder groups, such as Portland Oregon's BOMA, are attempting to thwart that city's proposal to mandate Energy Star Score disclosure. The issue of disclosure will be an interesting one to keep track of.
More on Green Buildings in San Francisco
California Introduces Statewide Green Building Code
Green Science Museum Opens in San Francisco |
A Steeming Bubble Thursday July 21, 2016
In my mass adoption as a Ponzi article I noted that a market requires whales in order to have liquidity at increasing prices. With shallow order depth, an exiting whale will crash the market, it’s only a matter of time. After Steemit made Qntra headlines I did some research and posted a comment indicating the sheer lack of liquidity for such a high price.
The next day, STEEM was listed on Poloniex, so I posted on Steemit-itself warning users not to irrationally trade; 24 hours later, only 3 users bothered to comment, the rest likely deafened their ears to resist acknowledging reality.
The reality is that most whales being created on Steemit through mediocre blogging, do not understand fundamental market mechanics. In fact, I would bet that a minority of Steemit users have even read the obfuscated white paper. This can lead to a rally among smaller speculators that inevitably produces a bubble. It’s similar to playing musical chairs as a kid, as prices become nominally higher, a chair for a person to exit at a “fair price” is removed. As described by a Trilema quote in a previous article:
The situation in the market was becoming macroeconomically concerning, in the following sense : major holders were done selling, the vast majority of trading action consisting of trades among newcomers brought in by the recent significant press exposure. These people had little if any understanding of Bitcoin and not much inherent interest in it other than “it’s the new hot thing to make money online better get in at ground floor” sort of bullcrap. Having fiddy thousand such lemmings trading with themselves on ever-increasing nominal prices is practically a game of musical chairs, and in any case no different from the numerous “bitcoin gem” type Ponzis that have sprung up recently. Apparently this sort of nonsense is somehow very familiar and very comfortable to the clueless consumer mind.
This is the same exact situation occurring in the STEEM markets right now.
The Steemit community has very few if any experienced investors, and as such most involved in Steemit who have realized this problem think that adding Steemit to more exchanges is the obvious solution. Although it adds opportunity for more whales who are only interested in speculating to enter into STEEM trading, it unfortunately adds more exposure to the STEEM bubble if order depth remains shallow.
Right now STEEM is doing a disservice by advertising post payout amounts in dollars as this may not be what the market will realistically pay for large amounts of STEEM or STEEM dollars. Not everyone using Steemit can exit the market at the advertised amounts on their posts’ payout ticker. If everyone exits at the prices quoted currently, the market price goes to 0 (and probably exceeds the order book), and everyone makes a fraction of the advertised amount. If this isn’t sounding Ponzi-like yet, you maybe suffering from bagholder syndrome.
Enter Qntra, which was founded Autumn of 2014. The startup soon made an IPO and was subsequently listed on MPEx. For every word written by a Qntra author 2 shares are created. One publicly traded share is issued to the author and one non-publicly traded share is issued to the leadership/owner’s block. Investors can choose to make bids for publicly traded S.QNTR shares on MPEx, thus authors can sell their shares directly to investors for bitcoins.
Over the past two years, Qntra authors have gotten paid for their work directly by MPEx investors as advertised. At a later time, if someone wants to buy the whole of Qntra, shareholders will get paid for their shares. If Qntra realizes a monthly profit it may be distributed to shareholders at the discretion of the leadership, or kept as an asset.
Qntra is much more powerful than “just a news site”, for far too many reasons to enumerate in this single article. However it is of note this blog solely exists due to the readers’ response of my Qntra authorship.
Steemit perhaps stole Qntra’s model and obfuscated with a “blockchain”. The failures are obvious, since contrast to Qntra, Steemit wishes to use pure socialism or the esteem of the mob to monetize. As money has trickled in from gullible Bitcoin investors and overly eager speculators, STEEM price has artificially inflated.
The explanation of Qntra shares helps to explain a similar but unnecessarily obfuscated process in Steemit. When a Steemit user gets a payout, in order to spend their money, they first transfer their STEEM tokens to an exchange, and then trade those tokens for bitcoins, which can then be spent on tangible goods. In essence Steemit users are getting paid by Bitcoin investors via exchanges, similar to Qntra. However these Bitcoin investors interested in STEEM are few and as such there is less than a total of 1,000 BTC worth of bids for STEEM across all exchanges.
If someone holds a large stash of bitcoins, what would compel him to ever buy STEEM? (outside of speculating of course) In the case of Qntra, even before revenue is realized, the company may sell for more than investors paid per share. A STEEM investor never has ownership over any of the content published on Steemit. For them buying STEEM is essentially a gracious donation to content creators.
The only hope for Steemit is incentivizing professional content creators to contribute. Professional filmmakers, television producers, comic authors, etc., would be the only content rational Bitcoin investors would be willing to purchase. Even in this case due to the mode of monetization, awarding content payouts will always be optional.
A professional television producer creates a pilot with a $10,000 budget. After a great deal of market testing, the producer realizes the show has great potential with his target audiences. One option for distribution is he can release it for free on a service like YouTube and embed it in a Steemit blog post. Here he is at the whim of generosity of STEEM users. It’s risky distributing in this channel as STEEM users are clearly irrational and won’t pay a realistic price for consuming the media. Another option is the producer to sell it to Netflix as an exclusive for $1mn up front and a possible royalty deal after a certain number of episodes aired. The latter option for the producer will likely prevent him from posting the content on Steemit.
It seems it would be very difficult for Steemit to incentivize professional content creators directly.
When Steemit eventually collapses like the Ponzi it is, Qntra will continue to operate. It is unfortunate for gullible bagholders of Steemit that all the time they’ve wasted contributing to a Ponzi scheme, they could have spent writing for Qntra.
Published under Altcoins, Shitware | 3 Comments |
Desire: Remaster Version teaser trailer
Visual novel remaster due out on April 27 in Japan.
El Dia has released a teaser trailer for Desire: Remaster Version.
Desire is set on a remote island in the Southern Sea isolated from the outside world, where there is a research institute called “Desire”. Everything researched there is shrouded in a veil of mystery and cannot e known by the outside world. The protagonist, a journalist named Albert, visits the island, where his lover Makoto is working as a researcher for Desire. While there, the two get rolled up in a major incident.
The updated release will be digitally remastered using the original images from the SS version of Desire as its base, and feature newly added eye and mouth animations, as well as new CG.
Desire: Remaster Version is due out for PS Vita, and Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 PCs on April 27, 2017.
Watch the trailer below. |
Today, we are excited to announced the public release of MediaFire Desktop, a free application for OSX and Windows that enables users to instantly share, upload, and store their media in the cloud, directly from their desktop and Mobile Devices.
Since we launched our beta in November, over 2 million MediaFire users have used our desktop app; providing helpful feedback to our team as we have added new features and improved performance. We couldn’t have reached this important milestone without your support! (special thanks goes out to Jared Newman from Time Magazine, who pushed us to go the extra mile!)
To celebrate our official launch, we’ve completely overhauled our consumer cloud storage plans, giving users one terabyte of cloud storage for only five dollars a month. Now users can safely store and share all of their photos, videos, and files in the cloud, without having to worry about file size limits. As an added bonus, for a limited time, MediaFire is offering half off all storage plans, enabling new users to sign up for just two dollars and fifty cents per month!
We’ve also listened to our community, and are announcing several major updates, including:
No file-size upload limits: both free and paid users can upload individual files up to 20 gigs in size (When using native 64 bit browsers such as Firefox).
A major update to MediaFire Desktop: Our latest update officially brings MediaFire Desktop out of Beta, squashing bugs and delivering major speed upgrades and stability fixes. To download MediaFire Desktop, visit: https://www.mediafire.com/software/desktop/
Upcoming Native apps for iPad and Android: These will be available over the next few weeks, and will introduce a host of new features, including automatic photo syncing directly from your Android mobile device. For early press access to our private betas, email [email protected]
A complete overhaul of our API’s and Developer Resource Portal: Our new API’s enable web developers to quickly integrate MediaFire Storage and file sharing directly into their applications. Visit our developer portal here: http://www.mediafire.com/developers/
Native SDK’s will be coming for all major platforms and languages. For more information, or to enroll in our beta development program, email [email protected]
Over the next few months, we will be launching several new and exciting products, including new and updated applications for iPad and Android (A screenshot of our iPad App can be found above).
Stay Tuned!
-Best,
The MediaFire Team
FAQ:
How Can MediaFire Afford to Offer Users Such Lucrative Prices? |
If you are an Irish Catholic, and have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, you were recently read a letter from Pope Benedict that tells you: "You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated."
For any practising Catholic in Rwanda, this letter must be unbearable. For it tells you how little you mean to the Vatican. Fifteen years ago, tens of thousands of Catholics were hacked to death inside churches. Sometimes priests and nuns led the slaughter. Sometimes they did nothing while it progressed. The incidents were not isolated. Nyamata, Ntarama, Nyarubuye, Cyahinda, Nyange, and Saint Famille were just a few of the churches that were sites of massacres.
To you, Catholic survivor of genocide in Rwanda, the Vatican says that those priests, those bishops, those nuns, those archbishops who planned and killed were not acting under the instruction of the church. But moral responsibility changes dramatically if you are a European or US Catholic. To the priests of the Irish church who abused children, the pope has this to say: "You must answer for it before almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals. You have forfeited the esteem of the people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonour upon your confreres."
The losses of Rwanda had received no such consideration. Some of the nuns and priests who have been convicted by Belgian courts and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, respectively, enjoyed refuge in Catholic churches in Europe while on the run from prosecutors. One such is Father Athanase Seromba, who led the Nyange parish massacre and was sentenced to 15 years in jail by the tribunal. In April 1994, Seromba helped lure over 2,000 desperate men, women and children to his church, where they expected safety. But their shepherd turned out to be their hunter.
One evening Seromba entered the church and carried away the chalices of communion and other clerical vestments. When a refugee begged that they be left the Eucharist to enable them to at least hold a (final) mass, the priest refused and told them that the building was no longer a church. A witness at the ICTR trial remembered an exchange in which the priest's mindset was revealed.
One of the refugees asked: "Father, can't you pray for us?" Seromba replied: "Is the God of the Tutsis still alive?" Later, he would order a bulldozer to push down the church walls on those inside and then urge militias to invade the building and finish off the survivors.
At his trial, Seromba said: "A priest I am and a priest I will remain." This, apparently, is the truth, since the Vatican has never taken back its statements defending him before his conviction.
In the last century, Catholic bishops have been deeply mired in Rwandan politics with the full knowledge of the Vatican. Take Archbishop Vincent Nsengiyumva. Until 1990, he had served as the chairman of the ruling party's central committee for almost 15 years, championing the authoritarian government of Juvenal Habyarimana, which orchestrated the murder of almost a million people. Or Archbishop André Perraudin, the most senior representative of Rome in 1950s Rwanda. It was with his collusion and mentorship that the hateful, racist ideology known as Hutu Power was launched – often by priests and seminarians in good standing with the church. One such was Rwanda's first president, Grégoire Kayibanda, a private secretary and protege of Perraudin, whose political power was unrivalled.
The support for Hutu Power was therefore not unknowing or naive. It was a strategy to maintain the church's powerful political position in a decolonising Rwanda. The violence of the 1960s led inexorably to the 1994 attempt to exterminate Tutsis. These were violent expressions of a political sphere dominated by contentions that Hutu and Tutsi were separate and opposed racial categories. This, too, is one of the legacies of the Catholic missionary, whose schools and pulpits for decades kept up a drumbeat of false race theories.
This turning away from the Rwandan victims of genocide comes at a time when the Catholic church is increasingly peopled by black and brown believers. It is difficult not to conclude the church's upper reaches are desperately holding on to a fast-vanishing racial patrimony.
Perhaps it is time Catholics forced the leaders of their church to deal with a history of institutional racism that endures, if the church is truly to live up to its fine words. Apologies are not sufficient, no matter how abject. What is demanded is an acknowledgment of the church's political power and moral culpability, with all the material and legal implications that come with it.
The silence of the Vatican is contempt. Its failure to fully examine its central place in Rwandan genocide can only mean that it is fully aware that it will not be threatened if it buries its head in the sand. While it knows if it ignores the sexual abuse of European parishioners it will not survive the next few years, it can let those African bodies remain buried, dehumanised and unexamined.
This is a good political strategy. And a moral position whose duplicity and evil has been witnessed and documented. For, it turns out, many people, scholars, governments and institutions inside and outside Rwanda are excavating their own roles in the genocide. The Vatican stands as an exception, its moral place now even lower than that of the government of France for its enduring friendship with genocidaires. |
Photo: Rita Kochmarjova / Shutterstock New research by Kelly Knight, Colter Ellis and Sara Simmons (Sam Houston State University) investigates how many children are cruel to animals and whether it persists through generations. The study is especially valuable because it uses a sample that is representative of the US population and tracks families over the years. New research by Kelly Knight, Colter Ellis and Sara Simmons (Sam Houston State University) investigates how many children are cruel to animals and whether it persists through generations. The study is especially valuable because it uses a sample that is representative of the US population and tracks families over the years.
There are two main theories about childhood cruelty to animals. One theory is that if children are cruel to animals they will grow up to be violent adults. This is called the “graduation hypothesis”. It rests on the idea that there is something wrong with the individual and that they ‘graduate’ from animal abuse to interpersonal violence. This seems to be the theory we hear about most in the popular press. Although there is some evidence to support it, it may not be the whole story.
An alternate theory is that if a child is cruel to animals, it is a sign they have been subject to maltreatment of some kind and/or live in an environment of domestic violence. In other words, it could be a sign that something is wrong in the child’s life to cause them to behave this way.
It is a difficult topic to research. One of the problems is that many studies focus on a criminal or at-risk population. For example, if you study people who have been in trouble with the law and you find that many of them were previously cruel to animals, it is valuable information. However there might be other people who were also cruel but did not grow up to be criminals, and who would not feature in your sample. Retrospective studies could also miss other important factors, such as the context provided by the family in which the person grew up.
Knight et al’s study uses data from the National Youth Survey Family Study, which ran from 1977 until 2004. There were 12 waves of data collection over three generations. By the end, the first generation to take part were grandparents. Since they had not been asked about animal abuse they were not included in Knight’s study.
There were 1,614 participants (1067 children and 547 parents). The children were the third generation in the overall study, and were interviewed in 2003 – 2004. Their parents had been interviewed many times over the years. In 2003, they were asked if they had been cruel to animals when they were children. The study also used data from an earlier interview in the late 1980s, when the parents (then aged 24-30) were asked about interpersonal violence.
About 3% of the parents said they had abused animals as a child. This number is higher than found in other surveys. The average age at which they said they started was 12. About 3% of the children reported animal cruelty, and 11 was the average age at which they said it began.
The results showed that people who reported being cruel to animals as children were more likely to be perpetrators of domestic violence as adults. This supports the graduation hypothesis. However, and perhaps surprisingly, they were also more likely to be victims of violence than those who had not been cruel to animals.
At the same time, the results showed that if the parents were perpetrators of violence then, fourteen years later, their children were more likely to say they had been cruel to animals. This supports the idea that the family context plays a role in children’s violence to animals.
There was no link between the parents’ animal abuse and children’s animal abuse. In other words, cruelty to animals did not continue through generations of the same family.
Other variables such as gender, ethnicity, marijuana use and depression also came into play, showing that the picture is complex.
The researchers say, “The implications of these findings are that early animal abuse is not only a risk factor for later involvement in IPV [Intimate Partner Violence] violent perpetration but also violent victimization.”
There are some limitations to the study, including the fact that only one question was used to assess animal abuse, and it relied on the person to define their own actions. But the size of the sample, the fact it is representative of the US population, and the way it tracks families across the generations are extremely useful. The results improve our understanding of the links between interpersonal violence and cruelty to animals, and will help design better programs for children and adults who are victims of violence.
The researchers say, “The practical implications of this research for victim services, specifically, involve improving knowledge of the various pathways to and consequences of IPV [Intimate Partner Violence], which can then be used to inform policy and program recommendations. In addition, there is evidence suggesting that thorough measures of animal abuse are warranted in future studies of problem behavior.”
It seems the links between animal abuse and interpersonal violence are more complicated than previously thought. Developing a better understanding will benefit both children and animals.
Reference
Journal of interpersonal violence PMID: Knight KE, Ellis C, & Simmons SB (2014). Parental Predictors of Children's Animal Abuse: Findings From a National and Intergenerational Sample.PMID: 24777142
Does cruelty to animals as a child predict interpersonal violence in adulthood?You might also like: Are Negative Personality Traits Linked to Cruelty to Animals? Companion Animal Psychology is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. |
July 1944, The Imperial Japanese Army Garrison on Saipan mounted its final suicidal Banzai charge against the American Marines in the Battle for Saipan. Out of the 4000 Japanese who waged the charge there are almost no survivors but among them left alive is Captain Oba Sakae (Yutaka Takenouchi). Playing dead, he initially avoids capture and then is joined by a small band of survivors who retreat deep into the jungle. There, he as the highest ranking officer still alive will take command of the surviving 46 soldiers and 200 plus Japanese civilians now in his care who will evade the Marines and conduct a hit and run Guerrilla War long after the Americans declare the island secured in American hands. Enraged by Oba's resistance, the temperamental USMC Commander Colonel Pollard (Daniel Baldwin) launches an all out effort to hunt the man the Marines have dubbed "The Fox" of the Pacific. Failing to Capture Oba, Pollard is sacked and replaced by the mild mannered Colonel Wessinger (Treat ... Written by Louis E. Rosas |
If asked, “Who is the biggest-selling artist at auction?” few people in the art world would answer “Zhang Daqian.”
But works by this Chinese modernist painter, who died in 1983, generated $354.8 million in auction sales last year — $31 million more than Picasso, who weighed in at No. 2, according to the French database Artprice.
On Tuesday, at a Christie’s sale in Hong Kong, Zhang’s 1965 “splashed ink” scroll painting “Ancient Temples Amidst Clouds” sold to a telephone bidder for 102.5 million Hong Kong dollars with fees, or about $13.2 million. It was the sixth-highest auction price for this prolific, much-traveled and much-faked artist, who himself delighted in faking Chinese masters. This particular work was from the prestigious Mei Yun Tang Collection, compiled from the 1940s onward by the photographer Kao Ling-mei and his wife, Jan Yun-bor.
Days earlier in Hong Kong, Christie’s had set an auction high of 152.9 million dollars, or about $19.6 million, for Zhang’s fellow another modernist painter Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013), who spent most of his working life in France. The swirling, 11-foot-wide blue, black and white abstract, “29.09.64,” had been in the same French family collection since 1969 and had been estimated to sell for at least $5 million. |
You must have seen many cool kitchen gadgets and tools on Pinterest and wondered where to buy or how much they would cost. We have made the task easy for you. We have picked some really useful affordable kitchen gadgets that come in handy and can help you get through your daily chores with ease.
These are our top picks for cool and affordable kitchen gadgets.
1. Bialetti pasta pot – $29.99
Italian cooktop and cookware company Bialetti is best known for its Moka Express stovetop espresso maker, but they do more than that. Forget about your pasta strainer with this pot. You twist and lock the lid for a safe and easy straining.
Buy it here.
2. Cutting Board with Collapsible Scrap Bin – $22.99
This cutting board with integrated removable bin collects food and scraps and collapses for easy storage. The bin slides easily into place and features a seal to ensure liquid does not fall on the floor.
Buy it here.
3. HappierChef Stainless Steel Grater Zester – $12.50
This grater zester’s frame and handle is made of rubber ABS plastic that is easy to the grip but ensures a sturdy and durable structure when in use. Yet, the best feature is the collapsible design, which makes it easy to store and is a space saver for the kitchen drawers.
Buy it here.
4. KitchenArt Pro Adjust-A-Cup – $11.16
This cup allows to measure dry and liquid ingredients. It has many different units and is dishwasher-safe.
Buy it here.
5. Boil Over Safeguard – $8.69
Silicon lid that prevents messy spillovers. It is heat resistant and microwave and dishwasher safe.
Buy it here.
6. Michael Andrew Folding Colander – $8.99
Made of molded polypropylene, this innovative, space-saving colander in folds completely flat for easy storage, and it’s very easy to clean! (also, dishwasher safe).
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7. Normann Copenhagen Beater – $22.00
This cool whisk can be folded together and stored saving space in your kitchen. It has opening and closing mechanism and a hanging fixture.
Buy it here.
8. Spaghetti Measurer – $5.83
This small item helps measuring how much spaghetti or noodles you need, and it’s adjustable, so all the portions are controlled with the same hole.
Buy it here.
9. Click and Cook Modular Spatula – $34.99
This modular spatula system keeps all your essential utensils in one easy place. Just snap the spatula attachment into the handle and release with a click of a button. The set comes with five detachable spatula heads: *Classic flat spatula *Long flexible slotted spatula (for cooking fish) *Extra-wide slotted spatula (for flipping burgers) *Flexible mixer (for mixing batter) *Slotted spoon (for stirring pasta). All parts are made of food-safe plastic and are dishwasher-safe.
Buy it here.
10. Microwave Popcorn Popper – $17.90
This gadget allows you to make healthier homemade popcorn ease. Just add kernels, close the flaps, microwave, and use the tabs to safely remove.
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MONTREAL — Montreal police have shown off the latest addition to their crime-fighting arsenal — a $360,000 armoured vehicle they say has been in development for the past 11 years.
Francois Houle, the commander of the Montreal force’s SWAT team, says the grey-coloured vehicle, similar to those that transport money, will be used primarily to protect officers against armed suspects, who may be involved in situations like hostage-takings.
Reporters were invited Wednesday to get a closer look at the imposing police wagon, which is designed to allow officers to use less force when negotiating with someone threatening to use weapons.
Houle says it could be used to protect an injured citizen or a police officer who is trying to get inside a perimeter where a person is using firearms.
He adds that the mobile barricade can take a pounding from projectiles, but he won’t provide any precise details about its capabilities.
The SWAT team boss notes that other major police forces in Canada have similar armoured vehicles, including the RCMP, Quebec provincial police, Ontario provincial police and municipal forces in Quebec City, Ottawa and Vancouver.
Houle was asked whether it would be used in demonstrations similar to the massive protests carried out by students last year.
He responded that it would only be used where protection from ballistic weapons is required. |
US family-of-four killed in horrific crash hours after arriving in Ireland BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Four members of the same family from the United States have been killed in horrific road crash in the Republic of Ireland. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/us-familyoffour-killed-in-horrific-crash-hours-after-arriving-in-ireland-36380681.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/article36379446.ece/d0f83/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-0994e82d-1153-4b77-b238-f1117393c11a_I1.jpg
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Four members of the same family from the United States have been killed in horrific road crash in the Republic of Ireland.
The three males and a female were the occupants of a car that was involved in a collision with a lorry on the N25 near New Ross, Co Wexford.
They died just hours after arriving in the country.
A couple in their 70s and their two sons aged in their 40s, died when their car was in collision with a articulated lorry on a main road at around 6.30pm on Monday, December 4.
The four are all believed to be from Illinois and had flown into Shannon Airport earlier yesterday for the funeral of a relative in Co Wexford.
The scene of the crash remains sealed off by police who have closed a section of the N25 near Cushinstown.
Crash investigators could be scene working at the scene of devastation, carrying out measurements and other forensic work.
The articulated truck and car could be seen at the side of the road in their final resting positions following the crash. The cab of the truck turned sideways in the impact and jack-knifed, and was buried into the side of its own trailer.
The car that the family were traveling in could be seen just in front of the cab of the truck.
It's roof had been removed by emergency crews who arrived to treat the injured.
Initial indications are the crash happened on a bend in the road at the top of a hill.
Further down the road the spire of the Church of St Mary in Cushinstown can be seen.
It was to this church the family were due to travel at noon today to attend the funeral of local woman Winnie Keevey.
It is believed the woman who was killed in the crash was a relative of Winnie's.
Residents described the scene as "absolutely horrific" with debris scattered all over the roadside.
Gardaí, New Ross Fire Brigade and a fleet of ambulances raced to the scene of the crash just off the N25 between Cushinstown and Begern Cross on the New Ross to Ballinaboola road.
Paramedics desperately tried to stabilise the condition of two critically injured people. However, two others were pronounced dead immediately.
They are understood to have been trapped in the car when emergency services arrived.
The other two casualties died before they could be transferred to University Hospital Waterford.
The lorry driver and his passenger avoided serious injury, although the driver was treated at the scene for severe shock.
Driving conditions were described as reasonable at the time, although visibility was somewhat restricted by mist and drizzle. |
All of which brings to mind the debate over torture that erupted -- and just as strikingly receded -- after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and news of the administration's efforts to redefine military interrogation standards. Engaged as "24" is with the fine points of actual counterterrorism policy, its current interest in torture could be seen as a way of questioning the limits of just war. The show's producers, for their part, don't see it that way.
"I hate to disappoint you," said Joel Surnow, an executive producer, "but we don't work that way. We construct our stories based on what's happening to the characters in a particular episode, and how they respond to the demands of their own personal challenges."
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Still, recent plot developments suggest a rightward tilt. A striking episode this season involving torture concerned Joe Prado, a suspected terrorist accomplice freed just before being interrogated, thanks to a lawyer working for Amnesty Global, a (barely) fictionalized Amnesty International. The ever-resourceful Jack, knowing what had to be done, resigned from C.T.U. to disassociate colleagues from his actions and then, in a parked car outside the C.T.U. building, expertly broke Prado's handcuffed hands to procure vital and, in this case, accurate leads. An earlier revelation -- that the anonymous call prompting the lawyer's action had come from a terrorist mastermind -- underscored the apparent moral of the episode: regardless of good intentions, those seeking to protect suspects' rights risk abetting terrorist activities, to catastrophic ends.
Yet in the end, the question of torture's role on "24" seems more complex than whether the show presents it as deplorable or justified. To be sure, very little public scrutiny -- much less protest -- of violent interrogation is depicted. In fiction, as in real life, human rights violations take longer than 24 hours to come to light, when they do at all. But if the good guys on "24" go about their work largely unaccountable to law or to public opinion, they remain obligated, within the show's moral order, to one another.
What is most striking about torture on "24" is how it affects not only politics but also emotional and professional relationships. The C.T.U. data technician Sarah Gavin, interrogated with tasers to discover if she were a terrorist mole, subsequently returns to work showing no signs of trauma. Indeed, she marshals the clarity of mind to renegotiate her terms of employment with her superior, who approved her interrogation just hours earlier. The war-protester son of Secretary of Defense Heller, more alienated than ever after a session of sensory deprivation in a C.T.U. holding room, receives a strikingly paternal lecture from his father about why that treatment was appropriate. Even Audrey's husband, Paul, somehow rises above his grievance to view his erstwhile tormentor as a buddy, helping Jack extract documents from a defense contractor and fend off attack -- and even loyally taking a bullet for him. In all of these interactions, torture doesn't deaden the feelings between people, rather it deepens them.
It is often noted that torture goes against the tenets of human community in two fundamental ways. Because torturers deny the basic humanity of their victims, it's a violation of the norms governing everyday society. At the same time, torture constitutes society's ultimate perversion, shaking or breaking its victims' faith in humanity by turning their bodies and their deepest commitments -- political or spiritual belief, love of family -- against them to produce pain and fear. In the counterterrorist world of "24," though, torture represents not the breakdown of a just society, but the turning point -- at times even the starting point -- for social relations. Through this artistic sleight of hand, the show makes torture appear normal.
That twist raises questions about whether the devastation of war can be contained by the rules of proper conduct. What "24" illustrates, more effectively even than the headlines from which its draws inspiration, is that such boundaries are unsustainable, in fiction as in real life. This is a problem that transcends easy political distinctions between liberal and conservative, as the capacity to abuse is just as universal, it seems, as the desire to be free.
Has "24" descended down a slippery slope in portraying acts of torture as normal and therefore justifiable? Is its audience, and the public more generally, also reworking the rules of war to the point where the most expedient response to terrorism is to resort to terror? In the world beyond the show, that debate remains heated. How it plays out on "24" may say a great deal about what sort of society we are in the process of becoming. |
Tomorrow sees one of the most�pivotal�pieces of internet legislation pass through the halls of power in Washington.�
The ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ (SOPA) bill,�combined�with PROTECT IP Act,�seeks to give the US Justice Department the power to force�Internet�Providers into blocking access to any website that is suspected of hosting or linking to copyrighted material.
Provision for ‘going after’ ‘disputed sites’ hosting companies; search engines that link to them; payment services that support them, and other ancillary services will also be granted through the act.
From YouTube to Wikipedia; if it’s accused then the lights go out.
And before those of us not in America become smug – it has consequences for us all given a significant portion of the internet’s hardware and hosting is location within the US.�Should SOPA pass, as it is very likely to do so, the�internet of the entire world�will become policed by America.
The bill is backed by the MPAA, most major�pharmaceutical�companies, the American Federation of Musicians, the Screen Actors Guild, and a host more.
Opposition
But despite the inevitability of the bill passing into statute, opposition is becoming more vocal ahead of the vote.
Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, and social-sharing site REddit both blacked out the logos of their hompages in protest at the bill.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia and a long list of other�technology�companies expressed concern over the bill in an open letter delivered�to ranking members of the US congress.
…the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites. We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation’s cybersecurity. We cannot support these bills as written…
The online campaign group Aavaz have an online petition which people from all over the world are invited to sign. It will be delivered to the US senate before the bill is voted on later this month.
avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_d/?wfkAaab |
Image caption Mark Drakeford said such a policy would prompt accusations of "doling out pay for no work"
A "basic income" paid to everyone could help tackle poverty and inequality, according to the finance secretary.
It would be paid without any requirement to work and regardless of income from other sources.
Mark Drakeford said the idea was "attractive" but said politicians would have a "job" to convince the public.
He promised to monitor experiments in Glasgow and Fife but said there were doubts over whether Welsh ministers had the power to introduce such a system.
Mr Drakeford was responding to a question in the Senedd from Plaid Cymru finance spokesman Adam Price.
The Green Party and the trade union Unite have endorsed versions of the basic income.
In 2016, the RSA think tank proposed a basic income of £3,692 for people aged between 25 and 65, using data for taxes and benefits from 2012-13.
Universal basic income
Image copyright Thinkstock
Paid without any need for work
Paid irrespective of any income from other sources
Additional earnings would be subject to income tax
UK Green Party advocated similar "Citizen's Income" at 2015 election
Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to introduce a guaranteed basic income for all, in June
Unite, Britain's largest trade union, passed a motion endorsing basic income at its 2016 policy conference
Mr Drakeford told AMs on Wednesday that no local council had contacted Welsh ministers seeking backing for a basic income pilot.
"Nevertheless I intend to monitor the progress of the feasibility work currently being carried out in Fife and Glasgow," he said.
"And while there are clear competence questions to be addressed here, UBI [Universal Basic Income] has the potential to make a significant contribution to addressing poverty and inequality.
"Were we to move ahead on it we would face headlines of the sort the Sun newspaper used when reporting the Glasgow experiment, saying it was 'doling out pay for no work even for people who have a job'.
"So the idea, while attractive in the way that it can simplify and support people who currently have to rely on a very complex set of part-time work, part-time benefits and so on, the political world will face a job of convincing the public."
A Welsh Conservatives spokesman said: "This well-intentioned but expensive idea, raises serious questions - not least because most estimates suggest that the basic rate of income tax would need to more than double to pay for it.
"This could also have the unforeseen consequence of stifling incentive to take extra work, with devastating consequences for the economy." |
Dr. Matt Fields is an emergency physician and Director of the Ultrasound Fellowship program at Thomas Jefferson University. For Dr. Fields, a large part about staying well is prioritizing and keeping things in perspective. His strategies for wellness include constant reflection, knowing your limits, and having activities that allow you to decompress. His love for running, allows him to stay active and appreciate his surrounding environment. Check out how he stays healthy in emergency medicine!
Name: Matt Fields
Matt Fields Location: Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson University Current job(s): Ultrasound Director
Ultrasound Director One word that describes how you stay healthy: Perspective
Perspective Primary behavior/activity for destressing: Running or other physical activity
What are the top 3 ways you keep healthy?
Leave work at work. I make it a point to not take work home with me. Reflect. Constantly taking the time to clear my mind, helps keep me on point. Have a de-stressing activity. This can be many things. Personally, I like to run.
What’s your ideal workout?
Night running. A night jog along the Schuylkill or across the Ben Franklin bridge can be amazing, especially when the skyline comes into view.
Do you track your fitness? How?
I use the Nike app for running, but that is more just for fun. Internally, I notice that when I don’t work out regularly I am more tired and less happy.
How do you prepare for a night shift? How do you recover from one?
Anchor sleep!! Getting in good sleep is key. I try to go to sleep 4-6 hours prior to my shift. If you can, build yourself a windowless soundproof extra bedroom. If that is not feasible earplugs and a sleeping mask may do.
How do you avoid getting “hangry” (angry due to hunger) on shift?
Iced coffees and protein bars. I’ve recently discovered that drinking lots of water helps quite a bit.
How do you ensure you are mentally in check?
I constantly tell myself that I’m good enough, smart enough and, gosh darnit, people like me! Thankfully, I’ve learned to stop saying these things out loud at the patient’s bedside.
What are the biggest challenges you face in maintaining a longstanding career in EM? How do you address these challenges?
The biggest challenge I see in EM is the evolution of healthcare and the potential for burnout. More and more EM physicians are being pushed into non-traditional roles including doctor triage models, telemedicine, and observation. These are roles that many of us did not anticipate and may lead to burnout. It is important to find a balance in your group and seek out a work environment that suits you. Most importantly it is important to find that part of EM that you really love and embrace that. Try to make that part of your actual job with clinical buy down if possible. Also make sure you have hobbies and interests outside the hospital that you can turn to when you just need a break.
Best advice you have received for maintaining health?
Don’t stress. As one of my mentors said, “the patient’s blood pressure may go up, but yours shouldn’t.” Avoid getting into fights or arguments with patients or other services in the hospital. No one ever wins.
Who would you love for us to track down to answer these questions?
Carl Alsup
Greg Wanner
Moran Oakland
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Hammond Aqualife, LLC. is planning to construct an aquarium/waterpark in Stark County, Ohio. Disturbingly, they plan to include what they deem as rescued marine mammals that "could not be reintroduced to their natural habitat" for display as well as "a unique opportunity to sign up for therapy with marine mammals."
A recent report by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has said that
"In the debate over marine mammals in captivity, the public display industry maintains that marine mammal exhibits serve a valuable conservation function, people learn important information from seeing live animals, and captive marine mammals live a good life. However, animal protection groups and a growing number of scientists counter that the lives of captive marine mammals are impoverished, people do not receive an accurate picture of a species from captive representatives, and the trade in live marine mammals negatively impacts populations and habitats. The more we learn of marine mammals, the more evidence there is that the latter views are correct."
"Children learn to view dolphins as dependent on humans— rather than as competent and independent—when their only exposure to these animals is in captivity."
Also, the credibility of marine mammal therapy has been called into question by the same report:
"Many new commercial facilities around the world claim they are conducting DAT (Dolphin Assisted Therapy), seeking to put a positive, altruistic spin on a money-making venture. Many of these, however, are staffed by individuals with questionable credentials. In fact, DAT appears no more effective than using domesticated animals such as puppies or kittens, and is far more expensive and clearly carries higher risks for the patients."
Marine mammals are intelligent, highly social animals that need to be kept out of captivity.
I, and the undersigned, urge Hammond Aqualife to rethink their use of marine mammals in the Canton Aquaworld facility. |
Only three years after President Xi Jinping declared, no more "weird buildings," in China, a giant mimetic crab construction on Yangcheng Lake's eastern shore, adds to the world's ever-growing list of "duck" buildings.
The Yangcheng Lake, in Kunshan, is famous for the mitten crab, an autumn Chinese delicacy named for their furry claws. With its dark stainless steel shell, white pincers, and hairy claws, the only way this building doesn’t resemble the mitten crab is in size. At three stories the new structure is 16 meters high and 75 meters long. A mitten crab, on the other hand, is about the size of a human palm.
While interior work for this commercial, entertainment building is still being built, the exterior is able to withstand typhoons and strong shore winds. In the second half of 2018, visitors will be able to celebrate Chinese crab culture at this ecology center.
News via: Guancha. |
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), who was the first GOP House member to sign on to a Democrat-led comprehensive immigration reform bill, said Thursday that the effort shouldn't be declared dead yet.
In fact, he said, three additional members from both parties will announce their support for that bill in the next couple of days, with more to come next week. At the same time, he and five other Republicans are talking to fellow GOP members to get 40 to 45 more to sign a letter supporting immigration reform in general.
House Republican leadership has said the Democrat-led bill, H.R. 15, won't go for a vote. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) ruled out a vote on Senate-passed reform legislation months ago, and reaffirmed on Wednesday that he will not allow that bill to be combined with House legislation. Although Boehner said he still wants to pursue immigration reform, he indicated it's unlikely there will be any votes by the end of the year.
Denham said during an event Thursday for think tank NDN -- which supports immigration reform -- that he blames both sides for the past failure of comprehensive immigration reform. But he had harsh words for GOP members who criticized other plans without suggesting their own.
"You're elected to be a leader. Then lead," he said of fellow members of Congress. "Show us what you're for, show us what you don't like, but we've got to come to a resolution that makes sense for the entire country, and we need to have a debate in front of the American public."
He told reporters after the event that he is hoping he can convince Boehner to hold a vote on either the Democrats' immigration bill, or other legislation that is at a standstill or yet to be released. He declined to say which members will soon announce their support for the comprehensive bill, but said they come from both parties.
Denham said the letter is meant to show Boehner that many GOP members want to pursue the issue comprehensively, even through separate bills.
"The letter is to show the speaker how much support there is in our conference," he said. "We're kind of going at this with a two-pronged approach. If you can't support H.R. 15, then sign on to the letter. But ultimately, we want to show that there's so much support in our conference that we get this to the floor."
House Democrats introduced their legislation in early October, and now have support from most of their caucus and three GOP members: Denham, and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.). The bill isn't yet at 218 cosponsors, which would be a House majority, but members said they think more people would give their support if it went to the floor for a vote.
"I want to work with anyone and everyone to make this possible, and I do not accept that Speaker Boehner or the majority leadership says we're out of time," Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) said during the NDN event. "H.R. 15 could be brought to the floor and passed in 15 minutes. H.R. 15 will only take 15 minutes to get through the process if the leadership decides it, because the support is there in a bipartisan way."
Denham said he expects more bills from House Republicans, specifically referencing one from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), and the KIDS Act from Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). |
Scientists explore China's largest canyon, discover new plant species
By CGTN's Zheng Chunying
Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Tibet is the largest and deepest canyon in China, and it's regarded as a paradise for unusual plants and animals. Chinese scientists recently spent three months exploring the canyon and collecting different kinds of plant seeds for further research.
Many plants in the region are nearing extinction, so the research could prove vital to preserving them. And the scientists also unearthed five new species of plant during their work.
Preliminary studies suggest there are more than 3,768 plant species, 680 species of large fungi, 232 varieties of birds, 31 varieties of amphibians, and 2,000 varieties of insects in the canyon.
Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon. /CFP Photo
The Yarlung Zangpo River starts at Mount Kailash before reaching the juncture of Mainling and Medog counties, where it swerves around towering Namjagbarwa, the highest peak in the eastern section of the Himalayas, carving a U-shaped gorge. The canyon is home to many animals and plants barely explored and affected by human influence, while its climate ranges from subtropical to Arctic.
To maintain the area's ecological balance, experts from various local government agencies and institutions have divided the Yarlung Zangbo area into seven zones.
In February 2008, the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Nyingchi prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, opened to tourists from home and abroad. |
External validity is a recurring concern in impact evaluation: How applicable is what I learn in Benin or in Pakistan to some other country? There are a host of important technical issues around external validity, but at some level, policy makers and technocrats in Country A examine the evidence from Country B and think about how likely it is to apply in Country A. But how likely are they to consider the evidence from Country B in the first place?
Development economists sometimes try to signal the external validity of their work by how they frame the evidence they present. For example, “Strengthening State Capabilities: The Role of Financial Incentives in the Call to Public Service” (anywhere!) sounds more generally applicable than “The Political Economy of Deforestation in the Tropics” (tropical countries only!) which in turn sounds more general than “Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin” (Benin … 150 years ago!).
To characterize the norms in this area, I drew a sample of 450+ papers across 6 journals that publish applied economic development research between 2010 and 2015 to see how common it is for authors to frame their evidence as general versus country-specific. Specifically, I examined empirical development papers that use evidence from one or two countries, with at least one of them being a low- or middle-income country (as of 2010). To get a range of publications, I looked at three general interest journals – the Quarterly Journal of Economics (ranked #1 among economics journals by simple impact factor), the American Economic Review (#10), and American Economic Journal – Applied Economics (#31) – and three development field journals – the Journal of Development Economics (#36), Economic Development and Cultural Change (#132), and World Development (#136). For the general interest journals, I used the universe of applied development articles (mid-2010 to mid-2015); for the field journals, I drew a sample from the same period.
More than two-thirds of articles (69%) do this. I believe in a degree of external validity (i.e., we can learn across contexts), but I also put weight on local evidence. Signaling the source of the evidence in the title of the paper is one way to make it easier for people to find local evidence.But it may not be the best way to reach the broadest academic readership, per Fact 2.In fact, the higher ranked the journal, the less likely it is that the country is mentioned in the title.Of course, this association does not indicate that including the country in the title has a causal impact on journal placement. Rather, it may well be that articles of more general interest are BOTH less likely to mention the country in the title AND more likely to get published in the top ranked journals.Lower middle income countries are slightly more likely to have the country in the title than low or upper middle income countries, but as we’ll see next, this may well just be the China-India effect, as both fell into the middle group.This is consistent with work by Das et al. showing particularly high research production and – potentially – interest in these countries: “The first-tier journals together published 39 papers on India, 65 papers on China, and 34 papers on all of Sub-Saharan Africa.”The vast majority of papers, if they don’t have the country in the title, identify the source of the data in the abstract.These authors are implicitly making a strong argument that the source of the data is irrelevant. For example, when authors present a model of technological learning and test it with a field experiment, but don’t reference the country, it is implicit that the results aren’t specific to Indonesia. Likewise, when a paper examines the relative roles of motivation, training, and knowledge in health care provision but omits the country of study from the title and abstract, this suggests that it doesn’t matter that this took place in Tanzania.Of course, in both cases it probably does matter. Seaweed farmers in Indonesia may learn differently than sorghum farmers in Kenya, and health workers in Bolivia may have different weights on motivation versus knowledge. Not including the country of study even in the abstract seems to unnecessarily tax those who believe that context matters.Obviously, the title is just one way that authors signal the general interest of their evidence. They also do so through argument and data in the abstract and throughout the paper. Although articles in top journals are less likely to have the country name in the title, note that even in those journals, more than half of applied development articles do so.Authors can reference the source of the evidence and still publish well.For the most part, no. Out of 127 articles in the sample with applied work in a country of Sub-Saharan Africa, only 3 use evidence from a single country to stand in for Africa as a whole. |
A Runescape player was recently swatted while 60,000 people watched. When he tried to record a video about it, he broke down crying. A 19-year-old in Las Vegas was arrested for coordinating a swatting in Illinois. What motivates someone to take this dangerous step? I tracked down a self-professed swatter to find out.
How I got to that point requires a little setup.
One of my first stories at Kotaku was about a couple recounting their terrifying experience of being swatted while their three children were home with them. Swatting, if you don't know, involves a call being made to police about a violent but imaginary crime. That incident shared a common thread with other swattings: the use of someone else's personal information without their permission. To avoid being swatted, you'd want to keep your personal info offline as much as possible. As a follow-up, I researched ways to learn what parts of our lives are already online, and I published a piece outlining how to remove those items from the Internet.
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When that second swatting piece went live, it wound up on the Twitch subreddit. A commenter by the name of ZeroExFF spoke up and said he helped organize several swattings in the past. He then described how he and others had used various techniques to obtain detailed personal information about folks using the customer service departments of PayPal, Amazon, and others.
The techniques ZeroExFF claimed to use are more commonly referred to as social engineering, as it requires tricking a human being to reveal information. Everything he said lined up with what I'd reported about social engineering in the past, and his admission piqued my interest.
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When we discuss swatting and other forms of harassment, we understandably focus on the feelings and reactions of victims. We often forget to question the motivations of the harasser. I wanted to know more about that, and I hoped ZeroExFF could explain.
I messaged this self-professed swatter, and he quickly got back back to me. He created a new account on Skype, and we talked for about 90 minutes. What he told me was surprising and revealing about the psychology driving those who spend their time tormenting others on the Internet.
I do not know this person's name, but he claimed to be 16 years old, and he sounded young to me. He said his descent into the Internet underground began when he was 14 years old. Due to, he said, fears over potential legal action for events he was involved in over the past few years, ZeroExFF would not reveal specifics about his actions or disclose details about his life. The irony is not lost on me.
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So there's a big caveat to all that follows. I can't prove its true. I can't prove that the stories he told me about how he'd deceive people to get personal information are real. I nevertheless believe it's important to try to understand this murkier side of one of the most notorious and dangerous forms of modern harassment. What follows is an attempt to get a more clear picture.
I ran excerpts from this conversation by several cybersecurity experts, all of whom told me ZeroExFF very much sounded like an individual who knew what they were talking about.
In his own words, here's what he told me.
Warning: There is some strong, potentially offensive language ahead.
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The Reason You Invade Someone's Personal Life
Being able to intimidate someone is really fun, whether someone will admit it or not.
I'd get bored and wanted to see if I could trick X service into giving me Z information by doing Y type of call. It was a game to me. I found it fun. I never really released doxxes. I didn't see the point of it. I didn't care. I found it fun tricking the system into giving me information. I felt all-knowing, which is a feeling that a lot of people crave. I felt like I was something special. Not everyone could do this. And it's true! Not everyone can. You're gonna get someone who's just got a fucking terrible knack for it that can't do it, but I'm definitely not special for being able to.
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I had that craving of feeling like the smartest person on the call or the smartest person in the room. I had that craving for it. I'm like that in real-life. Honestly, I surround myself with people who are actually really smart. My best friend in the world right now is probably one of the smartest fucking people I know. Again, it's that superiority thing, that you want to be better than people. I thought that would make me better than them. When, in reality, it put me quite a few pegs down. I was this immature kid who wanted to be known. Someone's going to be like "Well, they got bullied in their own school." No. Most of these people were probably the fucking class clowns and loved in their school.
Becoming Part Of The Doxing Scene
I was learning Python [a programming language] about two years ago, and I ended up in this IRC [channel]. I don't want to call it the scene because that's what everyone's calling it, and it's not a scene. If it's a scene, it's a scene full of retards—self-proclaimed retards, too.
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I had a question about the streamer I was watching at the time. I forgot how long it was. This was when Twitch.TV still had their old site design. They just added me to this group call with a few other people, and they were calling an ISP [to get information]. And I went, "OK, that's cool. That's interesting how that happens." I was already aware of it, but I had never been in a call with someone who did it. Honestly, I didn't care. I thought it was petty and stupid, and it is petty and stupid.
I guess they needed another one called in, so they were like "Hey, wanna do it?" And I was like "Sure, I'll do it." It was really easy, and it was fine.
It's like asking a girl out when you don't care, which is also something I did in high school before I left. A lot. My friends would give me $10, and I would just run around asking girls out, who I know would say no. Or breaking up with girls that I'm not going out with publicly. That's funny.
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Having the voice is a big part of it. You need to be able to have a representative voice, right? You need to have the proper voice inflection. And I was just-so-lucky to work for DirectTV [through an external third-party service] for a year or two. All I did was talk to retards all day. I don't know if you've ever had a job where you answer phones, but the inflections that you use in your voice are much different than your everyday talk. It's that you want to appear as though you give a shit. Once you have the inflection down, and once you have what tools they use—which are public—you do anything.
I was calling COX for a friend. I called it in at four in the morning my time. The girl was like "COX chat support is currently closed, sir." I was like "Yeah, I'm residential, I take my work really seriously." And she was like "Oh, okay." And I got it [the info] anyways. It was so dumb.
I think COX or Time Warner started to implement this fraud protection, where if someone asks for any information over the phone, they'll just supervisor.exe, which is what we call getting a supervisor on you. If you get supervisored, you're fucked. You're not getting anything. You need to call back.
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You can fuck with a supervisor. I got a Filipino supervisor once, and I fucked with him a little bit. I didn't get any information from him, but I offered to suck his dick for the account number. The guy started laughing. I basically fucked with him for 20 minutes about how I'd give him a hand job. I was just sitting there. Everyone was at my house and was just listening to me. "I will suck your dick for the account number." My brother's just looking at me going "What the fuck are you doing?" Maybe he wanted the dick sucking. I don't know.
Even With Fancy Passwords, We're Not Truly Safe
The exploits are anywhere you give your money. Those are the holes. Anyone you give your money, anyone who has your phone number, anyone who has your address—they're exploits. If their support line is based on human interaction, it's super easy.
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I can call any ISP in the world, or I can get on chat support with any ISP in the world. We can get the tools they use. That's what you need to do before you call an ISP. You call them, and you say "Hi, my name is Richard, I work out of this region. This is my first day. I wasn't really listening to what my manager had to say. What is the tool to look up modems? Modem activity?" Stuff like that. Most of the time, they'll just give it to you. You ask them for their name and employee ID [EID], just to verify they're an actual employee is what you say. Most of them will believe it. "Oh, it's just this guy's first day. He doesn't know what the fuck he's doing. What's he going to do with my EID?" But then you call and say "Hi, my name is Elizabeth Wallace. My EID is 20657. Can I please get an IP lookup done? My workstation's having issues."
Most agents, I know more about the program than they do. I have to guide them through it in order to look up an IP. You don't need to be megamind, basically. That's the entire point of what I'm talking about. You can be retarded to do it.
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People Think You're A Hollywood Hacker
It's really fun. Not to mention, to people who don't know any better, it's impressive. You can make money off it because they don't know they can just go and do it themselves. You can call any ISP left and right for $10 each. You can give them the information. I had a stipulation, though. If I called anyone's ISP and gave them their information and they had a SWAT team at the house within the next month and I was contacted by the police, I would give them their information—the person who bought it.
I didn't always condone swatting. I always thought it to be really immature and really kind of petty. That's why I didn't participate in it as much. The only times where I did—and I haven't done it in a while—was when I just had this uncanny hatred for them.
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The first person ran around Minecraft servers getting kids on Skype, promising to give them items. Once he got them on Skype, he would dox them, get their parents on the phone, and basically try to trick their parents into sending them money. [pause] He was exploiting 8-year-olds for their parents' money. I didn't consider myself the fucking Batman of swat teams, but at the same time, he was getting recognition for it, which also bothered me. What's the police department going to do? No one knew his name at the time. Very few people actually go down. You don't get recognition for exploiting eight-year-olds. I'm sorry. You're not getting that, that's not gonna happen. There's no way. On top of that, you're exploiting eight-year-olds. That's so unfair.
Sure, it's one thing to mess with a teenager girl or a young, adult woman. That's one thing that's kinda fucked up. They're old enough to understand what's going on. They're old enough to understand that they can get past it. But an eight-year-old? Sometimes it was an eight-year-old girl. They're crying. That little kid thinks their life is over. They're done. Their Minecraft account's stolen. He would basically just exploit their parents—exploit them to exploit their parents to get money. It would work.
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Your voice doesn't matter when you're swatting people. I mean, it matters to an extent, but the amount of shits police departments give is so fucking close to zero. Most people use the same story. "I'm in the basement with hostages at this address." If the place doesn't have a basement, just say in the master bedroom. "I have them tied up, back-to-back in chairs, I have bombs rigged to each window and door, I want a plane out of the country." You just create a hostage situation. Personally, I would say that and get the fuck out. That's how they catch people—people taking credit.
People argue that people can die when they're swatted. People can get shot. Which is true. People would say this on the call with the department: "If I see a police officer without the money, I will shoot him on sight." Once you start threatening police officers, they're more likely to fucking shoot someone. A swatting can work just the same when you say "I'm in the basement of this address with hostages. I'm done. Bye." That would work.
Will it get their door kicked in? Eh, maybe. But the SWAT team is gonna go, which is your main reasoning behind it.
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A Few Safety Tips From Someone Who Knows Better
You have to get an ISP that people don't have methods for. And by methods, I mean what tools they use and what they're used for. People can get methods for it easily. Really easily. But a lot of people don't know how to get methods.
Put a lock on your account and make it so no one can call in about your account—at all. They can't call in, they can't even get your first name, they can't get the first digit of your account number, they can't call in about any issues. Once you have your ISP setup, call those motherfuckers every day until they do it. And if they say they've done it, make them do it again. You call them and say "I want to set up a password on my account and I want to verify my identity with the last four digits of my social security number whenever I call." They have a note section when they pull up the account on their tools that, in big bold letters, "get this fag's social security number." Do that.
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On top of that, call your police department. That's pretty simple. If you're a streamer, if you have 500 followers, it doesn't matter. Call your police department and say "Hi, my name is so-and-so. I live at this address. This is my cell phone number. This is my home phone number. This is my email address. I do things on the Internet where it involves me being a public figure. My information might get released." Then, you politely ask them if they know what swatting is. If they say no, you're fucked. But they won't. Everyone knows what it is now.
The Cost Of Being A YouTuber
People think that getting swatted is the end game of the Internet. You're done for. It doesn't matter. As long as you don't have anything to hide, it really doesn't matter. If you have weed, put it under your bed or something. It doesn't end your life. You're fine. Are people gonna tweet at you and say "oh, your door got kicked in?" Yeah. Sure. But, I mean, you're still gonna go on about your day like you would have the day before. Once a month, are you gonna have to take take 30 minutes out of a Saturday night to make sure that your door's not getting kicked in? Sure. But that should be the cost of streaming. That should be the cost of being a YouTuber.
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13 year olds can fuck up your night. Don't give a shit about it. Even if you care, pretend not to. That's gonna make you the joke. That's gonna make you someone they can go back to next Friday when they don't have to go to school in the morning. The best thing you can do, even if you're scared shitless—which, honestly, I'd call you a pussy for—but even if you're scared shitless and a SWAT team is going to come to your house, you need to play it off like you don't give a shit. A lot of people are put in this situation where they get tweeted at with "SWAT coming!" And their chat blows up. "You're getting swatted, holy shit!" You need to call the police right then and there, even if the team's already dispatched.
Sometimes, Even Swatters Grow A Conscience
Recognition and credit. That's the reason why it's done.
Can I steal your Netflix? Can I call in your Comcast? Can I break down your door? Yeah, sure. And? Should there be something special about that? No. It's [being] a glorified liar. It's all it is. I think a lot of people who are doing it understand it. I think they know, in their minds, they're nothing fucking special. But they have these people who follow them and they know who they are. They think they're special. Those people think that these people are really legitimate.
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I have no doubt in my mind that, three years down the road, I'm still going to get questioned for shit I did this year. When I say this year, I do mean 2015.
I recently took a step back from all this from the big picture. I'm 16 years old, okay? I don't want to be risking my life. That's what I would be doing. I would be risking my life. I'm done with high school. That doesn't mean I'm smart—that means I did Internet school. Don't misconstrue that. All I have to do right now is save money and go to college. I can't go to college for another year or two, which is fine. That's all I have to do, and then I'm 20, I could literally fuck all of that up by continuing to do what I was doing. All of it. That just didn't seem reasonable to me.
It just didn't seem like I was getting enough pleasure from it. I was sitting there and this girl just got her door kicked down. She's crying.
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I've been swatted before. All I have to say about it is that I didn't care. I told the police officers "This is his Twitter username, he tweeted at me. This is the IP I resolved from Skype. This is this, this is that." They wouldn't do anything with it, and they'd be on their own. I just didn't care. It was a minor inconvenience for me. It's not like they kicked down my door.
I explained this to my real-life friends, too. "What's swatting? Why are you in cuffs? Why are the police always at your house?" And I explained it to them. "Why do you do that?" That was when I questioned myself. My friends are like "What the fuck are you doing? Why are you doing this?" I was like "It's fun." "It's fun to ruin someone's night? What do you mean?"
Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
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At the time, I was like 15, and I was like "Yeah, I'm trolling 'em!" They're like "No, you're not. You're not trolling anyone. You're being a dick." And I was like "Damn, dude. Fuck. He's right."
I think trolling is a big part of this. That's this kind of era. It's just fucked up in [and] of itself. Is it fun to troll around with people and fuck with them in a video game? I'm not saying to drop [release] their dox, but is it fun to try and antagonize? Yeah, it can be. Is it fun to spam 8chan with Rick Astley? Sure, it's pretty fun. That's trolling. That's the innocent "Ha ha ha! Got you!" kind of shit. And these people, like I did, are considering this "Ha ha ha, your door's kicked down and your dog is dead! Gotcha!" type of thing.
It's just escalating. It's going to continue to escalate. It's stupid.
The reason why this is such an issue is because everyone seems to care about it on Twitter. These public figures, senators and stuff. They seem to give a shit, right? But what are they doing to stop it? Everyone needs to ask them. They aren't doing anything.
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That's really all I have to say about why it's done. They want everyone to know what they are and what they do, and they want people to be scared of them.
You can reach the author of this post at [email protected] or on Twitter at @patrickklepek. |
Baldur's Gate Trilogy is a modification originally created by Bardez that aimed to achieve two major goals: to play Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast expansion using the much improved Baldur's Gate II engine, and to generate some kind of continuity between the events of Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast, Shadows of Amn, and Throne of Bhaal. Baldur's Gate Trilogy-WeiDU takes this a step further by converting the modification to WeiDU format, which has improved compatibility with other modifications.
Alternative download link: Shsforums.net Baldur's Gate Trilogy is a modification originally created by Bardez that aimed to achieve two major goals: to play Baldur'ss Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast expansion using the much improved Baldur's Gate II engine, and to generate some kind of continuity between the events of Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast, Shadows of Amn, and Throne of Bhaal. Baldur's Gate Trilogy-WeiDU takes this a step further by converting the modification to WeiDU format, which has improved compatibility with other modifications.
While BGT-WeiDU remains mostly faithful to the original Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast, a number of new features have been introduced to satisfy the above goals. Baldur's Gate using the Baldur's Gate II engine: BGT-WeiDU is a modification installed on Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Therefore, the story of Baldur's Gate can be experienced with the updated graphics, better resolution, and interface improvements present in Baldur's Gate II.
Bug fixes: BGT-WeiDU includes an internal fixpack that addresses a significant number of bugs that remained in Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast. A technical list of fixes can be found in the installation package.
Continuity from Baldur's Gate into Shadows of Amn: BGT-WeiDU uses a dynamic system to transfer players from the end of Baldur's Gate to Shadows of Amn. A cover story is used, in which the player talks to Belt after Sarevok is defeated, and NPCs are conditionally imported into Shadows of Amn depending on what fate you led them to experience in Baldur's Gate.
Expansive compatibility with other modifications: BGT-WeiDU is compatible with the latest versions of modifications in a mega-modification installation, as well as a large number of other fan-made modifications. This allows the player to expand the world of Baldur's Gate to an enormously rich location to explore. A compatibility list is available in the installation package.
Organised journal entries: BGT-WeiDU utilises a full quest journal system and ensures that all Baldur's Gate journal entries are removed prior to the transition to Shadows of Amn. This prevents clogging up of the journal, which normally makes it hard to find important information in the journal.
Map Notes: The advent of map notes makes it useful for the player to pin their own special locations. BGT-WeiDU comes with a number of map notes already inserted to help the player find particular buildings quickly, instead of running around like crazed chickens into every single house in a particular area. What's New in Version 1.18 Fixed BP-BGT Worldmap labels for Ice Island and Werewolf Island in simplified and traditional Chinese translations
Really corrected the previous change about tutorial strings, inventory pause, and TobEx (Previous Versions) Version 1.17 Corrected the previous change about tutorial strings, inventory pause, and TobEx
Fixed a failed installation on GemRB systems
Fixed bad typo day in this change log Version 1.17 Corrected the previous change about tutorial strings, inventory pause, and TobEx
Fixed a failed installation on GemRB systems
Fixed bad typo day in this change log Version 1.17 Installation changes
Corrected the previous change about tutorial strings, inventory pause, and TobEx
Fixed a failed installation on GemRB systems
Fixed bad typo day in this change log |
Argos linebacker Jonathan (Bear) Woods had never been diagnosed with a concussion before last Monday’s win over Ottawa. Even after leaving that game following a helmet-on-helmet collision that left him woozy and undergoing a league-mandated concussion protocol, the 30-year-old still isn’t convinced he suffered one. He suffered no lingering symptoms and passed tests that measured his cognitive functioning.
Argos linebacker Bear Woods says he is comfortable with the risks associated with playing a contact sport. ( John E. Sokolowski / GETTY IMAGES )
The 30-year-old is aware of the study revealing that 110 of 111 brains of former NFL players donated to Boston University researchers showed signs of CTE, a degenerative disorder caused by repeated blows to the head. And he appreciates league rules that forced him to sit out and required him to pass a neurological exam to prove he was fit to return to play. But Woods says he’s more than comfortable with the risk he assumes each time he suits up, and says a few days spent in the CFL’s concussion protocol won’t dissuade him from hitting hard, and head-on if necessary. “I know what I’m doing. I’m playing pro football. I put on a helmet so I can smack another grown man,” Woods said. “I made my mind up a long time ago that I’m playing football. It’s a physical sport.”
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Earlier this year the NFL reached a billion-dollar settlement in a class action suit involving thousands of former players who are either living with or have died from chronic brain injuries incurred on the football field. A 2013 version of the settlement was capped at $765 million, but the number was revised when a judge determined the figure wasn’t big enough to cover all the claimants. The CFL is currently facing two lawsuits from players over the long-term effects of concussions – a class action claim in Ontario and separate legal action in B.C. from long-time CFL receiver Garland Bruce III. Earlier this week veteran NFL receiver and former Montreal Alouette Andrew Hawkins retired from pro football, and announced he would donated his brain to researchers upon his death. While Woods addressed reporters Baltimore Ravens lineman John Urschel retired at age 28, with sources close to him telling the reporters the recent CTE study influenced his decision. Read more:Baltimore Ravens’ John Urschel retires after concussion study
Those developments have many observers questioning the sport’s long-term viability, Woods says his main concern is that safety concerns will drain the sport of the toughness that attracts him to it. “He wanted the first down and I wanted to stop him from getting the first down, and any rule that stops me from being able to make that exact play, I’m not for it,” Woods said. Woods has been medically cleared and will play Saturday in Saskatchewan. |
Last month I published a post on my company blog that caused some (shall we say) interesting feedback from both our publisher clients as well as the broader media community. While I was certainly not the first to proclaim the death of the tablet magazine, the now universally recognized and unequivocal data pointing to the steep decline of print-replica apps is becoming undeniable.
What’s even worse news for magazine publishers who have chosen either a PDF-based or Adobe InDesign-led “Plug-In” app solution in a race to cash in on Apple’s Newsstand is the damning evidence of Apple’s lack of support…and frankly, interest in the Newsstand app itself.
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Once the “holy grail” for magazine publishers, promising front-and-center exposure for their periodicals, the Newsstand app in iOS 7 has become almost irrelevant.
As pointed out by Hamish Mckenzie from Pandodaily:
“…there is now no visual reminder within the Newsstand icon that there are publications inside, waiting to be read. On top of that, in iOS7 users can now hide the Newsstand icon inside a folder. The once-special treatment that Apple gave publishers in order to encourage the distribution of magazines to the iPhone and iPad has apparently vanished, at least in terms of visual prominence.”
As Mckenzie points out, even Glenn Fleishman’s The Magazine (once industry-darling for the ‘new paradigm of digital magazines’) is suffering from near anonymity given its presence in Newsstand. According to Fleishman, he receives “email regularly from readers who say that they forget that [new] issues even come out.”
So what’s happening here – is Apple actively abandoning the Newsstand concept or simply responding to user appetite and shifting demand in iOS 7?
The answer is probably a little of both.
Since its inception the Newsstand app has angered iOS users to no end in its inability to be “hidden” or tucked away into a folder. It’s also no secret that tablet magazines are simply not being read – the form factor and technology is basically making the standardized magazine page a near anachronism in a world of dynamic live canvases of the caliber of a Flipboard or Zite.
So it’s not a case of Apple killing Newsstand – but rather, Newsstand killing itself. What we are dealing with now is simply a folder – and worse than that – a folder that can be hidden within another folder.
Now that all iOS 7 apps can enjoy background refresh and download, and given the ability to hide the app and even “mute” Newsstand reminders – publishers are forced to compete on a completely level playing field with all other iOS apps.
And for magazine publishers – that’s frightening.
With a number of magazine publishers as current and former clients – we are acutely aware of the challenges they face. From dwindling print revenues to increasing internal costs managing simultaneous print and digital editions of their magazines – it’s absolutely understandable that choosing the apparent “quick win” of InDesign-generated apps (Adobe’s own DPS, Mag+, etc.), or even PDF-wrapper solutions provide a cheap and rapid route to the App store.
But it’s been a false economy, and there simply is no time to waste waiting for things to improve.
Publishers must break free of the Newsstand and InDesign/PDF trap and invest in their publications as stand-alone, real, honest-to-God apps – or find their titles even more neglected within a vestigial folder that will be inevitably reside inside yet another folder.
And that’s scary.
The Newsstand and tablet magazine honeymoon is over. Apple knows it. The industry knows it. And consumers have made it painfully clear for far too long.
It’s time for magazine publishers to abandon the easy options – and make the hard decisions that will save their digital titles.
Eddie Vassallo is the CEO of Entropy, an app development company. |
Nine in 10 of the country’s biggest pension fund managers fail to warn people about the levies, which typically wipe more than £100,000 from the value of a middle-class worker’s pension.
The report by the RSA, a think tank, found that workers were routinely denied simple, low-cost pensions that are readily available elsewhere in Europe. Ministers said they were prepared to intervene unless pension funds reduced their fees and became more transparent.
The research was published as official figures showed that 11 million people were failing to put enough money into pensions, which will leave them struggling in their retirement. Many people have abandoned pensions entirely following a decade of negligible investment returns from their savings.
The Government hopes to resolve the retirement crisis by “auto-enrolling” workers into pensions from later this year, which had led to growing concerns that millions more people could be “ripped off”.
Steve Webb, the pensions minister, said: “Charges are reducing and we expect them to go down even further now that other players are entering the market. If this does not happen however we have the power to act and we will.”
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, has called for pension fees to be capped.
The RSA report found that 21 of the 23 pension funds surveyed failed to inform people about the charges.
David Pitt Watson, one of the biggest company pension fund managers and the author of the report, said the scale of the hidden levies was “extraordinary”.
“For markets to work effectively, consumers need to know what they are buying,” he said. “It is extraordinary that, after so many years, such a system is not in place in this country. It is vital that people have access to straightforward, accurate, high-quality information.”
The report said pension charges accounted for up to 40 per cent of typical retirement savings.
Several international pension funds offer cheaper, more transparent deals elsewhere in Europe while charging British customers more. The average Dutch person can expect a pension worth 50 per cent more than their British equivalent because the country has far simpler charges.
The Daily Telegraph previously disclosed that an investor putting £50,000 into a fund providing typical returns over 25 years would lose £108,000 because of unnecessary charges.
Mr Pitt Watson said pension firms should provide their customers with simple statements setting out in “pounds and pence” how much they are losing in charges. He said small differences in the percentages levied by pension funds made a “vast difference” to people’s pensions.
“These charges really matter,” he said. “It’s not difficult to sort out and should be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
Last year, the pension industry pledged to introduce a new code of conduct setting out plans for greater transparency, but today’s report undermines claims that the issue is being addressed.
Otto Thoresen, the director-general of the Association of British Insurers, said: “We agree it is desirable that pension costs become more transparent overall, and are keen to look at ideas which make it easier for employees to understand their pensions.”
The issue of charges is increasingly important for millions of workers who now have to make their own pension provision. The number of people contributing to personal pensions fell by 400,000 to six million people between 2008 and 2010.
The proportion of people in a workplace pension has fallen below half for the first time in at least 15 years. Just 48 per cent of employees were in a scheme, compared with 55 per cent when records began in 1997. The number of people in the private sector with pensions linked to their final salary has fallen from almost a third of workers in 1997 to 9 per cent.
Mr Webb said: “This is a very large group of people who will face a big drop in their living standards on retirement if they do not take action now.
“And this is not just a problem for those on lower wages — those on higher incomes are just as much at risk of having a lower standard of living in retirement if they do not take this seriously.
“We have to make it easy for people to save, in confidence, knowing that they are putting enough away to have a comfortable retirement.”
Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, said: “The private sector is going through a huge shift in its staff pensions, and even more change is on the way. The main thing is to get more people saving into some form of pension. The UK isn’t putting enough away for its retirement.”
Britons saving for retirement are also being hit by record low interest rates and the Bank of England’s policy of printing money to stimulate the economy. This drives down annuity rates on which most pensions are based. Somebody retiring with £100,000 in July 2008 would have been able to secure an annual income of £7,855. Today, that figure is £5,743. |
Donald Trump Taps Rick Perry To Head Agency He Once Forgot
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images
Updated 7:51 a.m. ET Dec. 14 with official announcement of Perry's nomination.
It's a good thing former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once forgot he wanted to eliminate the Department of Energy, because President-elect Donald Trump is nominating him to lead the agency.
Perry, who served 14 years as governor of energy-rich Texas, blanked on the Department of Energy's name during a televised gaffe in a 2011 debate that was probably the most high-profile moment of his troubled 2012 presidential run. It's become known as the "Oops" moment:
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Perry ran again in 2016. But in an early sign of the electorate's anti-establishment mood, he and several other multiple-term governors dropped out of the race in its early stages, while Trump, a man with no prior political experience, rushed to the head of the Republican primary pack.
Perry was critical of Trump, warning that he was a "cancer on conservatism," but he eventually endorsed him.
In a statement, Trump said Perry would carry out his goal to "take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation."
In one of the many only-in-2016 twists, the former Texas governor appeared on Dancing With The Stars this fall as the onetime-Apprentice star contended for, and ultimately won, the White House:
If confirmed, Perry would oversee a broad-reaching department with ties in everything from funding energy research and providing loans for alternative energy efforts, to tracking and analyzing American energy production and consumption, to securing the safety of America's nuclear weapons.
(Despite the popularity of Netflix's summer hit Stranger Things, the Department of Energy does not explore parallel universes. It actually put out a statement about this during the show's cultural peak.)
The current energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist, played a major role in negotiating and crafting the Obama administration's controversial nuclear deal with Iran. Under Obama, the department has been a big booster of alternative energy like wind and solar power.
A questionnaire the Trump transition team sent to Department of Energy employees is raising a lot of questions about how the incoming administration would change the department's priorities. As NPR reported:
"It wants to know who at the Department of Energy attended domestic and international climate talks. It wants emails about those conferences. It also asks about money spent on loan-guarantee programs for renewable energy. ... The Trump team questionnaire also asks about the Energy Department's role in the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has called 'stupid.' And it asks for the 20 highest paid employees at the department's national laboratories."
The questionnaire alarmed Democrats, like Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who sent a letter to Trump raising concerns that "this request suggests that your administration may intend to retaliate against career employees who faithfully executed their responsibilities."
Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about wind power's cost and effectiveness. But under Perry, Texas heavily promoted wind. Massive wind farms dot the Texas landscape, and wind energy now produces more than 10 percent of the energy the state consumes. |
The US Justice Department is asking a federal judge for more time to review the Baltimore Police Department as part of its relationship with local law enforcement under President Donald Trump’s new policies.
On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion requesting a 90-day pause to “review and assess” a proposed agreement to reform the Baltimore Police Department (BPD).
New tonight: DOJ requests an additional 90 days to finalize its consent decree w the Baltimore Police Department -- sign of things to come pic.twitter.com/LBGNQh3YW1 — Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) April 3, 2017
In January, the DOJ announced an agreement with the Baltimore PD on a court-enforceable consent decree filed with the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
The announcement came after a 2015 investigation into the department found police were engaging in “a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution as well as federal anti-discrimination laws.”
The Obama-era investigation found Baltimore PD was conducting unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests, disproportionately targeting African Americans, using excessive force, and retaliating against individuals for engaging in constitutionally-protected expression.
The agreement also called for an independent federal monitor to observe the Baltimore PD and assess whether the requirements of the agreement were being implemented.
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The proposed reforms were designed to “help ensure effective and constitutional policing, restore the community’s trust in law enforcement, and advance public and officer safety,” according to former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the continuance request days before a hearing was scheduled in US District Court in Baltimore.
The DOJ cited several reasons for the continuance, including “several new initiatives and policies that prioritize combating and preventing violent crime” that have been issued since Trump took office.
The DOJ cited an executive order issued by Trump that would create “a Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety,” which directs the DOJ to “take the lead on Federal actions to support law enforcement efforts nationwide and to collaborate with State, tribal, and local jurisdictions to restore public safety to all of our communities.”
The motion was filed only hours after Sessions released a two-page memo, in which he directed his staff to review all the investigations, prosecutions, training and existing compliance reviews between the department and local law enforcement agencies.
MEMO from AG Jeff Sessions seeking to review all existing (Ferguson) or contemplated (Baltimore, Chicago) police reform agreements. pic.twitter.com/KjVitOfpDq — Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) April 4, 2017
The memo declares the DOJ “will use its resources to effectively promote a peaceful and lawful society, where the civil rights of all persons are valued and protected,” and “the misdeeds of individual bad actors should not impugn” the work police officers perform “in keeping American communities safe.”
Sessions says the review is necessary for ensuring no reform agreements undermine the Trump administration’s goals of promoting police officer safety and morale while fighting violent crime.
However, Vanita Gupta, who ran the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under former President Barack Obama, says the sweeping review “signals an alarming retreat away from ensuring that police departments engage in constitutional policing.” |
MONTREAL — Canada’s New Democrats have a history of patiently playing the long game, a virtue — some would argue — that has at least partly been borne out of electoral necessity. In contrast with their Liberal cousins, it is not in their culture to turn their knives on a leader at the first signs of potential trouble.
Polls suggest that Thomas Mulcair’s attempts to woo suburban Ontario voters are falling on deaf ears. ( Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) Protesters gather outside the official residence of Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair in Ottawa this week. Among the major federal parties, none struggles with the Middle East file to the degree that the NDP does. ( FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
Given the miserable summer the party is having, that’s fortunate for NDP leader Thomas Mulcair. If he were leading a party with a strong killer instinct he might be fighting for his political life by now. Mulcair may not be contending with a mutiny but he may have to grip his ship’s wheel with both hands if he is to stay the centrist course he has set the NDP on, for he is sailing in increasingly choppy waters. In politics, the success of a strategy is inevitably measured in votes and, so far, Mulcair’s approach is yielding negative returns.
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On that score, the loss earlier this summer of Olivia Chow’s former Trinity-Spadina seat was a blow to party morale. The fact that it was not offset by NDP inroads in the other three ridings at play in the July set of federal byelections compounded that blow. Polls suggest that Mulcair’s attempts to woo suburban Ontario are continuing to fall on deaf ears. More than a year into Justin Trudeau’s leadership and even from third place in the House of Commons, the Liberals remain widely perceived as the default alternative to the ruling Conservatives. If anything July’s byelection results reinforced that perception and it stands to give Trudeau a strong edge on the NDP when it comes to recruiting candidates for next year’s general election. And then, even more so than when Parliament is sitting, the summer is a season when events determine the hand a federal opposition leader has to play.
As it happens, fate has dealt Mulcair some pretty poor cards over the past month. The near-completion of a comprehensive trade deal between Canada and the European Union was the major economic development of an otherwise quiet domestic summer but it offered the NDP precious little to chew on.
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The final text of the agreement is still under wraps. More importantly, Mulcair has used this deal to cast the NDP as a more trade-friendly party. The Canada/EU deal enjoys the backing of Quebec’s political establishment and the support of every current provincial government. It would be political suicide for the federal NDP to go to the barricades against it but that does not necessarily sit well with some of its traditional allies. Among the major federal parties, none struggles internally with the Middle East file to the degree that the NDP does and its Quebec ranks are not immune to those divisions. The Middle East policy of the party is not a ballot-box issue in most of the ridings the NDP holds in Quebec. (Mulcair’s Outremont riding may be the main exception as it is home to a significant Hasidic community). But a vocal part of Quebec’s intelligentsia is critical of Canada’s pro-Israel stance and some of its members are increasingly taking the NDP to task over the fact that only shades of grey seem to distinguish its position from that of Stephen Harper. In an effort to nuance the NDP’s position on energy exports, Mulcair has cautiously endorsed a plan to link Alberta’s oilsands to the refineries of Canada’s east coast. But Quebec’s influential environmental movement begs to differ and its opposition could resonate in many NDP-held ridings over the next year. For Mulcair, a difficult summer has so far not turned into one of epidemic discontent. But this is the season when all parties are getting in gear for the 2015 election and the exercise is driving the NDP not on the coveted fast lane but into some potentially deep potholes. With a year to go to the next federal campaign, popular support for the NDP is not growing but unease within its ranks is.
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Crochet Pinkie Pie hat for my sister. Ravelry link.
I do like how this one came out. Unlike the Rainbow Dash hat, I decided not to snip the loops since Pinkie’s hair is fairly loopy anyway. Also I just made the mane all as one strip instead of two since there were no color changes.
Although the base hat pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and an I hook, I used bulky weight yarn since that was the best color match and kept the I hook. I really like how that worked out! The double crochet means it’s much more flexible than a single crochet hat, and the bulky yarn plus relatively small hook means it’s much more airtight than a hat made with worsted weight yarn.
Also, the foam head thing I bought at Sally’s is awesome! It made it so much faster and easier to pin and attach all of the decorations. |
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration would nearly eliminate federal funding for the EPA's budget for light-vehicle emissions and fuel-economy testing but will seek to raise fees on the auto industry to pay for some testing, a government document shows.
The cuts would slash by more than half the staff of the EPA department that conducts vehicle, engine, and fuel testing to verify emissions standards are met and mileage stickers are accurate. The department's work helped lead to Volkswagen AG's 2015 admission that it violated vehicle emissions rules for years.
In a budget document posted online by The Washington Post, the Trump administration proposed eliminating $48 million in federal funding for EPA vehicle and fuel testing and certification.
It represents a 99 percent cut in federal funding of the vehicle testing budget and would require "pretty much shutting down the testing lab," said Margo Oge, who headed the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality under President Barack Obama.
The proposal, which would also cut 168 out of 304 full-time jobs, seeks to partially fund current operations by boosting fees that automakers and engine manufacturers pay for testing. An EPA official confirmed the document's authenticity.
The Trump administration has proposed cutting the EPA's budget by 31 percent and eliminating more than 50 programs.
EPA spokesman John Konkus declined to answer questions about how the cuts could affect vehicle testing. "We know we can effectively serve the taxpayers and protect the environment. While many in Washington insist on greater spending, EPA is focused on greater value and real results," Konkus said.
Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an auto trade association, said automakers are concerned the proposed cuts could delay certification of new vehicles "and getting products to consumers."
Janet McCabe, a former EPA official in the Obama administration, said Monday that companies that take care to comply with the rules can be at a disadvantage without strong enforcement of the rules.
"We know that a little bit of cheating can mean a lot of air pollution," McCabe said.
The administration plans to release a detailed budget plan in May.
In March, Trump ordered a review of tough U.S. vehicle fuel-efficiency standards put in place by the Obama administration.
The EPA stepped up scrutiny of automakers after Volkswagen admitted to skirting diesel emissions tests in 580,000 U.S. vehicles. VW agreed to pay up to $25 billion in penalties and buyback costs and pleaded guilty in March to felony charges.
In September 2015, EPA said it would review emissions from all U.S. diesel vehicles after Volkswagen's admission it used secret software to emit up to 40 times allowable emissions.
That review prompted the allegation by the EPA in January that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV used undisclosed software to allow excess diesel emissions from 104,000 U.S. trucks and SUVs. Fiat Chrysler denies wrongdoing.
The EPA is also scrutinizing emissions from Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz vehicles. It has not approved Daimler or Fiat Chrysler's request to sell 2017 model diesels.
The EPA has also investigated cases of several automakers overstating mileage on window stickers in recent years.
In 2014, the EPA hit Korean automakers Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. with $350 million in penalties for overstating fuel economy ratings. |
Locals in Russia's Rostov oblast can reportedly always tell you when soldiers are being sent to Ukraine because of the queues in the nearby hypermarket ‘Lenta'. Those on their way to Ukraine stock up with various items. Those men who return alive can also be easily identified by the long queues outside the cash machine, as they all hurry to take out the money they're paid for this unofficial ‘assignment', Ukraine Today reports.
On his Ekho Moskvy programme, Russian journalist Sergei Parkhomenko spoke of how Russia is increasingly seen as an aggressor. He mentioned last week's Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Resolutions, one of which is even entitled ‘The political consequences of Russian aggression in Ukraine'. No hiding behind terms like ‘separatists', or ‘bandits'. This, he says, is what Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved.
Read alsoVolunteer recon discover Russian armour in 'demilitarized' area (Photo)It was achieved despite the secrecy, the pressure on soldiers and their families, and a totally unconstitutional presidential decree which classifies as secret any information about losses in peacetime. Human rights activists have challenged the authorities to explain the sharp increase in military deaths from the beginning of 2014 to mid-2015, but without any success.
The locals in the Rostov oblast probably wouldn't write an article, but they saw no reason to conceal from Parkhomenko how the queues told them immediately whether soldiers were being illegally sent into Donbas, or sent home.
Read alsoDrones spot another large concentration of Russian weaponry in Donbas (aerial photos, video)He learned of other things during his visit, including the regular instructions to farmers and state agricultural cooperative workers to remember that they never saw any military technology on their fields.
There is also the city cemetery reported earlier, with a huge number of fresh graves with only the letters ‘NM', signifying the Russian for ‘unknown male'.
A young Russian officer recently told him that he wanted to go to Syria, and not to Ukraine. The reason is simple. Russia is not (totally) concealing its involvement in Syria, and they'll give you documents.
With Ukraine, the officer said, it's different. After you agree, with this only verbal agreement, you get a formal transfer to Novocherkask. From there "you disappear", with no more paperwork. They change your uniform, remove any ‘incriminating' insignia and take away your documents.
If you come back, the documents are presumably returned. If you don't, then you're left to lie in an unmarked grave.
Read alsoSpiders in a jarParkhomenko's account coincides with other evidence, including from Russian soldiers who preferred to be tried for going absent without leave rather than be forced to fight in Donbas.
In October 2015 four Russian contract soldiers from the No. 22179 Military Reconnaissance Brigade in Maikop were sentenced to terms of imprisonment effectively for refusing to fight in Ukraine. Alexander Yenenko, who had been most forthcoming in talking with Novaya Gazeta and other media, received the longest sentence. Another soldier Anatoly Kudrin had received a 6-month sentence in July that year. All of them had gone absent without leave (AWOL) in the autumn of 2014, when the fighting in Donbas was still fierce. They had been sent to Rostov and put under heavy pressure to ‘volunteer' to go to Ukraine, with up to 8 thousand roubles (around EUR 110) a day on offer. Many of them tried to resign, but had their resignations simply ignored.
Read alsoOSCE reports access denial in Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement areaOne of the young men 27-year-old Pavel Tynchenko issued a statement to the Maikop military court explaining that "I did not carry out a criminal order since I did not wish to go against the oath which I took and did not want to take part in military action on Ukrainian territory. I would ask that this is added to the court's ruling".
Russia has resorted to grotesque efforts to conceal the deaths of Pskov paratroopers in Ukraine, as well as other soldiers. Human rights activists and journalists like Lev Schlosberg and Ludmila Bogatenkova have faced attacks and hate campaigns, or actual criminal prosecution. The intimidation helps to keep the information about of the main pro-Kremlin media, probably not to seriously convince anybody. |
True Story: When Friendship Smothers
Episode Three tells us about friendship, and how it can be used to narrow access to a class or function. However, that's not the only thing friendship restricts, it also restricts how we may use such class or function. What follows is a concrete example of how friendship may cramp your style.
The service & session situation
While working on a service, any kind of stateful service, there is often the need to represent its sessions as separate objects. Such sessions would be aggregates of all the necessary information needed to represent a service session, which is entirely tied to the implementation of the service they are part of. The coupling introduced by this particular use of friendship will not be an issue; sessions are, in a way, subobjects of the service as they can only exist within a service.
class service; class session { friend service; session( session const& ) = delete; // non-copyable session( session&& ) = delete; // non-movable ::: };
A session is not copyable, copying simply makes no sense. It isn't movable either, not because it follows from the design but for external constraints —lets just say it holds an object of a non-movable type, like std::mutex —.
Construction
Given that a session can only be created by a service , it appears to make sense to set it up with a private constructor.
class session { ::: private: session( service& s ){ ::: } ::: };
The only one that can create session s —besides session itself—, is its one friend the service .
class service { ::: void new_connection() { auto s = new session( *this ); /** stash the new session somewhere... **/ } ::: };
What about utility functions?
But maybe you have read Herb Sutter's advice on exception-safe function calls —and if you haven't, you should—, and you know that a raw pointer is not the best tool for the job. A unique_ptr would be a better choice.
class service { ::: void new_connection() { auto s = make_unique< session >( *this ); /** stash the new session somewhere... **/ } ::: };
And then the darkness: make_unique cannot construct a new session , only a service can do that. In order for make_unique to be able to construct a new session , it would have to be one of its friends too.
class session { ::: template<typename T, typename ...Args> friend std::unique_ptr<T> make_unique( Args&& ...args ); ::: };
This in fact works —at least for now— but it doesn't solve the problem, it just pushes it a bit further. Note that make_unique is unqualified, as it is not yet part of the language. It is/would be the unique_ptr counterpart to shared_ptr 's std::make_shared . Quoting the referred Guru of the Week article:
That C++11 doesn’t include make_unique is partly an oversight, and it will almost certainly be added in the future. In the meantime, use the one provided below.) template<typename T, typename ...Args> std::unique_ptr<T> make_unique( Args&& ...args ) { return std::unique_ptr<T>( new T( std::forward<Args>(args)... ) ); }
C++14 draft has become ready since the time that article was posted, and make_unique is now part of the standard library. Quoting from ISO C++ Spring 2013 Meeting:
One of the smallest additions is actually great in its impact. It’s make_unique : auto u = make_unique<some_type>( constructor, parameters, here ); The reason make_unique has important impact is that now we can teach C++ developers to mostly never use explicit new again. In C++11 we already could teach to never use raw pointers and explicit delete again, except in rare cases that are hidden inside a class in order to do something like implement a low-level data structure. However, we could not teach to never write new because although make_shared was provided to create a shared_ptr , new was still needed to create a unique_ptr . Now, instead of “ new ”, write make_unique or make_shared .
A note on lambdas
Lambda functions allows an anonymous function object to be defined in place. They are not just syntactic sugar, they are a special construction. A particular property of these constructions is that the body of a lambda function is considered as if it were in the context where the lambda is being introduced. This means, among other things, that code within a lambda function is granted the same level of friendship than code right outside of it.
[5.1.2/7] The lambda-expression’s compound-statement yields the function-body (8.4) of the function call operator, but for purposes of name lookup (3.4), determining the type and value of this (9.3.2) and transforming id-expression s referring to non-static class members into class member access expressions using (*this) (9.3.1), the compound-statement is considered in the context of the lambda-expression . [ Example: struct S1 { int x, y; int operator()(int); void f() { [=]()->int { return operator()(this->x + y); // equivalent to S1::operator()(this->x + (*this).y) // this has type S1* }; } }; —end example ]
What about utility functions' utility functions?
There is no guarantee nor requirement that a standard make_unique would have to be as simple as our provisory implementation is; as there isn't such requirement in the standard now for make_shared . Let's assume that a session will take care of its own lifetime, instead of having the service take care of it, and move to using shared_ptr s instead.
class session : std::enable_shared_from_this< session > { ::: template<typename T, typename ...Args> friend std::shared_ptr<T> std::make_shared( Args&& ...args ); ::: }; class service { ::: void new_connection() { auto s = std::make_shared< session >( *this ); } ::: };
This no longer works —not in a portable way—, even though we have befriended the right function. The actual construction of the new session can potentially be done within any other function directly or indirectly called by make_shared . It is just the same problem initially shown for our provisonary make_unique , except that we no longer have control over it.
What about optimizations?
So it seems that the only safe decision would be to resign to any utility function and have the service be the one that creates the session , since its the only one allowed to.
class service { ::: void new_connection() { auto s = std::shared_ptr< session >( new session( *this ) ); } ::: };
This once again works, and it seems to be doing the same thing we intended before. But it isn't. This approach performs two memory allocations: one for the explicit new in the code, and one for the internal reference count of the shared_ptr within its constructor. The make_shared approach, on the other hand, will allocate a single block of memory in which it will keep both the internal reference count and the newly constructed object. Here is the relevant paragraph of the standard regarding make_shared :
[20.7.2.2.6/6] Remarks: Implementations should perform no more than one memory allocation. [ Note: This provides efficiency equivalent to an intrusive smart pointer. —end note ]
This also allows a second optimization that reduces the control block by the size of one pointer. Stephan T. Lavavej calls it the We Know Where You Live optimization, which explains at his STL11: Magic && Secrets panel on GoingNative 2012.
(A) Solution
The problem started when we gave session a private constructor, as they can only be created by service s. Actually, we don't care who does create a new session , as long as it is on behalf of a service . The simplest solution would be to make the constructor public , and make it an implementation detail.
namespace detail { class session : std::enable_shared_from_this< session > { public: session( service& s ){ ::: } ::: }; } // namespace detail class service { ::: void new_connection() { auto s = std::make_shared< detail::session >( *this ); } ::: };
The compiler will no longer restrict access to session , but placing it in a detail namespace should signal the user this is an implementation detail — impl is another name commonly used—. We have changed a contract with the compiler for one with the user, which we cannot enforce. This is an acceptable solution since we are guarding against Murphy, not Machiavelli.
If we wish to have the compiler enforce this new contract, we can use a combination of the approaches introduced in the previous episode. We will split a session into its public interface and the interface available for the service to consume; and we will use an access_key so that the construction of a session can be indirectly performed when a service requests it.
class session : std::enable_shared_from_this< session > { ::: protected: session( service& s ){ ::: } ::: }; namespace detail { class session_impl : session { public: session_impl( service& s, access_key< service > ) : session{ s } { ::: } ::: }; } // namespace detail class service { ::: void new_connection() { /** only a service can create an access_key< service >, but anyone can copy or move it afterwards **/ auto s = std::make_shared< detail::session_impl >( *this, access_key< service >{} ); } ::: }; |
The adaptation goes beyond the original Senate report. There are brief chapters on how the CIA, Congress and the Justice Department responded to the committee’s report and how the media represented the program while it was classified. A big-picture approach in explaining the significance and possible aftermath of the CIA program is aided by an introduction by Jane Mayer and an afterword by Scott Horton. “The experience of Latin America is instructive,” Horton notes about other secret detention and interrogation programs. “Practices like those used by the CIA were hidden, covered with national security classifications, and amnestied in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, among other nations. It took a full generation — thirty years — before a formal process of accountability began to take hold and octogenarian intelligence officers were dragged before courts and sent to prison.” |
"Salt" ticket hopefuls, from left, Myrna Smith of East Greenbush, Marcella Noble of Albany and Kathy Giglio of Glenmont at the Albany visitors center after learning no more tickets were available there at 9:55 AM Friday, July 9, 2010. All 1,200 tickets printed were handed out at various locations by 10:05 a.m. Organizers said more tickets will be available Monday at the Palace Theatre for the July 22 event. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less "Salt" ticket hopefuls, from left, Myrna Smith of East Greenbush, Marcella Noble of Albany and Kathy Giglio of Glenmont at the Albany visitors center after learning no more tickets were available there at 9:55 ... more Photo: John Carl D'Annibale Photo: John Carl D'Annibale Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 'Salt' tickets gone almost instantly 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
ALBANY -- All 1,200 free tickets available starting at 10 a.m. today for the July 22 Capital Region premiere of the Angelina Jolie movie "Salt" at the Palace Theatre were snapped up within minutes. No more tickets will be given out until 10 a.m. Monday, when the remaining block for the 2,800-seat Palace will become available at the theater's box office.
The Albany visitors center at Quackenbush Square distributed 600 tickets, and 400 were given out by the Albany Office of Special Events at City Hall, where the line began to form at 7:30 a.m., according to staffers. At the Palace box office, which wasn't supposed to be open today, theater general manager Chris Gould stood on the sidewalk and personally handed out another 200.
Parts of "Salt" were filmed in Albany over two weeks in spring 2009. Jolie stars as a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy. The movie opens nationwide on Friday, July 23. |
"America"
There was a time when yet another mass murder in America would at least rate a passing mention in a presidential debate. Yesterday’s shooting in Hesston, Kansas, that left three victims dead, not including the gunman, and 16 others wounded, some of them critically, didn't. Perhaps as a mere workplace plus another place plus a third place shooting, it's too pedestrian these days. Perhaps an American culture of spree murders is simply less important than promising you won't make American businesses serve The Gays.
But maybe it's for the best that Republicans stop talking about our mass murders. We're learning more about the Kalamazoo, Michigan, mass murder—that would be the Uber driver who drove through the town killing people, if you're finding it hard to keep track—and it turns out that killer fits a familiar profile.
A longtime, close friend of the Kalamazoo shooting spree suspect said Jason Dalton is a staunch Second Amendment supporter who feared that recent mass shootings could lead to gun control. “He was a gun enthusiast. He’s always been pro-Second Amendment,” Dalton’s friend, who asked not to be identified, told 24 Hour News 8 on Wednesday, providing some of the best insight so far into the suspected killer.
So it seems the Kalamazoo mass murderer was in part influenced by the heavily promoted Republican theory that Obama was going to take all our precious guns and bullets away to stop mass murderers, so he had better buy more guns in case he needed to commit one. Perhaps we should thank the Republicans for not even mentioning mass murders anymore, given that.
Anyway, there was another mass murder in America yesterday afternoon. As far as we know it wasn't by a Muslim man, but rest assured: if it was, we'd get right on that. |
A U.S. Army National Guard soldier and his cousin have been charged with conspiring to support ISIS, federal prosecutors say.
Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds, 22, and Jonas Edmonds, 29, both from the suburban Chicago community of Aurora, are accused of plotting to provide material support and resources to the terror organization, U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon announced Thursday.
They also allegedly planned to use Army uniforms and military knowledge to attack a U.S. military facility in northern Illinois.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, the pair allegedly devised a plan in late 2014 for Hasan Edmonds to travel overseas and use his military training to fight on behalf of ISIS. As part of the plan, Hasan Edmonds booked a flight scheduled to leave Wednesday from Chicago and arrive in Cairo Thursday.
Both men also met with an FBI undercover employee to present a plot to carry out an armed attack against the military facility where Hasan Edmonds had been training, according to the complaint. As part of the plan, Jonas Edmonds and the undercover officer would use Hasan Edmonds’ uniforms and his knowledge of the facility to access the grounds and target officers for the attack.
“Disturbingly, one of the defendants currently wears the same uniform of those they allegedly planned to attack,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin said in a statement.
Hasan Edmonds was arrested at Midway Airport during an attempt to fly to Egypt, and Jonas Edmonds was arrested at his home in Aurora, prosecutors say. Both were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.
"We will pursue and prosecute with vigor those who support ISIL and its agenda of ruthless violence," said U.S. Attorney Fardon. "Anyone who threatens to harm our citizens and allies, whether abroad or here at home, will face the full force of justice."
Conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
"Upon learning of the investigation, our effortsand priorities focused on ensuring the safety of our Soldiers, Airmen, and their Families," said Brad Leighton, public affairs director for the Illinois National Guard. "We have remained in communication with federal authorities throughout the process, which culminated in the arrest by federal officers of Hasan Rasheed Edmonds last night." |
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Last week, scientists announced findings based on data from the SPICAM spectrometer onboard ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. The findings reported in Science by Maltagliati et al (2011), reveal that the Martian atmosphere is supersaturated with water vapor. According to the research team, the discovery provides new information which will help scientists better understand the water cycle and atmospheric history of Mars.
What processes are at work to allow large amounts of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere?
The animated sequence to the left shows the water cycle of the Martian atmosphere in action:
When the polar caps of Mars (which contain frozen Water and CO 2 ) are warmed by the Sun during spring and summer, the water sublimates and is released into the atmosphere.
Atmospheric winds transport the water vapor molecules to higher altitudes. When the water molecules combine with dust molecules, clouds are formed. If there isn’t much dust in the atmosphere, the rate of condensation is reduced, which leaves water vapor in the atmosphere, creating a supersaturated state.
Water vapor may also be transported by wind to the southern hemisphere or may be carried high in the atmosphere.In the upper atmosphere the water vapor can be affected by photodissociation in which solar radiation (white arrows) splits the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which then escape into space.
Scientists had generally assumed that supersaturation cannot exist in the cold Martian atmosphere, believing that any water vapor in excess of saturation instantly froze. Data from SPICAM revealed that supersaturation takes place at altitudes of up to 50 km above the surface when Mars is at its farthest point from the Sun.
Based on the SPICAM data, scientists have learned that there is more water vapor in the Martian atmosphere than previously believed. While the amount of water in Mars’ atmosphere is about 10,000 times less water vapor than that of Earth, previous models have underestimated the amount of water in the Martian atmosphere at altitudes of 20-50km, as the data suggests 10 to 100 times more water than expected at said altitudes.
“The vertical distribution of water vapour is a key factor in the study of Mars’ hydrological cycle, and the old paradigm that it is mainly controlled by saturation physics now needs to be revised,” said Luca Maltagliati, one of the authors of the paper. “Our finding has major implications for understanding the planet’s global climate and the transport of water from one hemisphere to the other.”
“The data suggest that much more water vapour is being carried high enough in the atmosphere to be affected by photodissociation,” added Franck Montmessin, Principal Investigator for SPICAM and co-author of the paper.
“Solar radiation can split the water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms, which can then escape into space. This has implications for the rate at which water has been lost from the planet and for the long-term evolution of the Martian surface and atmosphere.”
However, water vapour is a very dynamic trace gas, and one of the most seasonally variable atmospheric constituents on Mars.
Source: ESA/Mars Express Mission Updates |
Keith Brannon
[email protected]
504-862-8789
Tulane University School of Medicine virologists Dr. James Robinson (left) and Robert Garry are part of the research team that developed human monoclonal antibodies for a new Lassa fever therapy. Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano.
An experimental therapy using cloned antibodies from Lassa fever survivors was 100 percent effective in stopping the progression of the deadly disease in nonhuman primates up to eight days after infection, according to a new study in Nature Medicine.
The research, conducted by a collaborative team led by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, tested Arevirumab-3, a cocktail of human monoclonal antibodies developed by Tulane University and Zalgen Labs LLC.
Lassa fever is a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic illness caused by Lassa virus. It infects more than 300,000 annually. Women and children are in the highest risk groups for the disease, which is often hard to detect in early stages because initial symptoms are similar to the flu and other common illnesses.
“The fact that Arevirumab-3 was 100 percent effective in rescuing primates more than a week after infection with Lassa virus suggests that this therapy may benefit patients with Lassa fever in West Africa, who often present to the clinic at a late stage of disease,” said virologist Robert Garry, professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine. “We are accelerating further development of Arevirumab-3 so that this promising treatment can be deployed into clinics where it is needed most.”
This summer, the National Institutes of Health awarded Tulane $5.7 million to further test and refine the antibody-based treatment to get it ready for clinical trials. Tulane was also awarded $6.32 million to develop a Lassa vaccine.
The vaccine will test antibodies that target a recently identified viral surface structure, called the surface glycoprotein, which can block it from infecting a host cell.
Tulane researchers have been studying Lassa in West Africa with a team of collaborators for more than 14 years. They have developed a rapid test to diagnose the disease in the field and spent years collecting blood samples from survivors to identify critical antibodies against the virus. |
As the disasters in Fukushima (pictured above) and more recently, Flint, Michigan, remind us, the cities we live in are increasingly fragile and subject to catastrophes of both the natural and human-made variety. While much ink has been spilled over the latest generation of smart homes, a similar so-called smart trend is taking place in cities — arming communities with connected sensors to guard against a new breed of dangers. Albert Einstein once remarked, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Indeed, the smart cities movement represents the kind of innovative thinking that’s needed to combat the new environmental hazards facing metropolitan communities.
But as many eyes turn towards Washington politics and the presidential campaigns, little mention is being made of the smart cities movement and how governmental organizations can further it. In fact, the water crisis in Flint might serve as a case study for the kind of boneheaded responses municipalities have hitherto employed when facing citywide disasters — that is, wait until calamity strikes, and then throw one’s hands in the air and pray for emergency federal intervention. Benjamin Franklin’s quip that an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” essentially sums up the difference between this and the smart city approach. The smart cities movement aims to gird cities with connected sensors that can alert communities about a disaster in time to avert or modify its course.
The unsafe lead levels that contaminated the water supply in Flint might have been detected immediately through the use of strategically positioned sensors throughout the water grid, rather than years after the fact, when many of the city’s residents had already suffered irreversible bodily harm. In the end, the greatest tragedy of Flint may not be that so many civilians were poisoned, but that so little seems to have been learned from the disaster. The slowness to arm cities with connected sensors to avert these disasters suggests this is not the last time we will read about a Flint, Michigan in the news.
Thankfully, the smart cities movement does not rest entirely in the hands of government entities, and citizens can play an important role in crowd sourcing their own smart communities. In that spirit, let’s take a survey of some of the connected sensors that are becoming available at both a consumer and commercial level to see how individuals can begin jump-starting their own smart cities.
Water
Water is without a doubt one of the most important natural resources on the planet. The streams, lakes, and rivers that supply our cities are increasingly jeopardized by a wide range of contaminants. We mentioned lead with regards to the Flint tragedy, but arsenic, copper sulfate, and a wide range of bacterium can also leach into our drinking supply and imperil residential communities.
One of the companies that has been pioneering the field of connected water sensors is Libelium. Its Waspmote Smart Water platform is an ultra-low-power sensor node designed for use in rugged environments and deployment across smart cities. It is capable of measuring the pH, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, as well as lead and copper sulfate levels. Some of the applications for which it is indicated include potable water monitoring, detecting chemical leakage in rivers, and remote monitoring of swimming pools, spas, and hot tubs.
Another sensor likely to find itself playing a starring role in the smart cities movement is the Carnegie Mellon Flamingo. Not much bigger than a small tote bag, the device monitors water quality and uploads the data via a network module so that everyone who lives in the surrounding area can access the results. The device collects data at an ultra high frequency, according to the company, enabling it to detect contamination events that might otherwise go unrecorded. It can be purchased online for $529, well within the reach of most home owners associations and municipal budgets.
Air
Another resource increasingly at risk from contaminants is the air we breathe. This is especially true in large urban communities. The video footage of Chinese cities bathed in smog leaves little doubt about the scope of the problem. However, air pollution can be present even in cities without telltale signs of smog. Many factories time their worst emissions to occur at night, when the populace won’t notice the giant plumes of smoke accruing on the horizon. Even more so than water, therefore, having a widely distributed network of sensors is essential to combating the problem.
Libelium, the company behind Waspmote, also offers the Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO, equipped with a dust sensor capable of measuring air particulates down to 1 micrometer in diameter. This makes it much more responsive than the typical indoor air quality monitors, which only go down to 2.5 micrometers sensitivity. Capable of being run entirely on solar energy, the Plug & Sense! unit can be attached to telephone poles or electricity lines and runs virtually maintenance free, connecting wirelessly to the internet for data uploads.
Another approach to the issue involves equipping people with individual, portable air monitors, which when analyzed in concert, can provide a detailed picture of a city’s air quality. A company called Aeroqual has launched a portable air quality monitor capable of detecting a broad range of pollutants, including hazardous gases and fine dust particulates.
Radiation
As if there wasn’t enough to fear in the modern urban environment, the specter of “dirty” bombs and nuclear contamination has grown enormously in the last decade. Invisible to the naked eye, radiation requires specialized sensors to detect its presence. The storied Geiger counter, once a bulky and expensive piece of laboratory equipment is now available to anyone wishing to know the radiation levels in their city.
Most impressively, this can be done with the average phone. Joshua Cogliati and other researchers at Idaho National laboratories have devised a smartphone app that uses the camera on the phone to detect gamma rays. This could be the ultimate solution to crowd sourcing the detection of radiation within a city. Just the way apps like Waze can be used to do detect traffic in real time, so might we use our smartphones to detect radiation events across an urban population. This also carries an important lesson about the smart cities movement itself, which will ultimately depend as much on a smart and responsive citizenry as it will on the devices and sensors in their neighborhoods.
We’re covering the birth of smart cities all this week; read the rest of our Smart Cities Week stories for more. And be sure to check out our ExtremeTech Explains series for more in-depth coverage of today’s hottest tech topics. |
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Sam sat with his eyes closed for several minutes, then said softly:
"I have many names, and none of them matter." He opened his eyes slightly then, but he did not move his head. He looked upon nothing in particular.
"Names are not important," he said. "To speak is to name names, but to speak is not important. A thing happens once that has never happened before. Seeing it, a man looks on reality. He cannot tell others what he has seen. Others wish to know, however, so they question him saying, 'What is it like, this thing you have seen?' So he tries to tell them. Perhaps he has seen the very first fire in the world. He tells them, 'It is red, like a poppy, but through it dance other colors. It has no form, like water, flowing everywhere. It is warm, like the sun of summer, only warmer. It exists for a time on a piece of wood, and then the wood is gone, as though it were eaten, leaving behind that which is black and can be sifted like sand. When the wood is gone, it too is gone.' Therefore, the hearers must think reality is like a poppy, like water, like the sun, like that which eats and excretes. They think it is like to anything that they are told it is like by the man who has known it. But they have not looked upon fire. They cannot really know it. They can only know of it. But fire comes again into the world, many times. More men look upon fire. After a time, fire is as common as grass and clouds and the air they breathe. They see that, while it is like a poppy, it is not a poppy, while it is like water, it is not water, while it is like the sun, it is not the sun, and while it is like that which eats and passes wastes, it is not that which eats and passes wastes, but something different from each of these apart or all of these together. So they look upon this new thing and they make a new word to call it. They call it 'fire.'
"If they come upon one who still has not seen it and they speak to him of fire, he does not know what they mean. So they, in turn, fall back upon telling him what fire is like. As they do, they know from their own experience that what they are telling him is not the truth, but only a part of it. They know that this man will never know reality from their words, though all the words in the world are theirs to use. He must look upon the fire, smell of it, warm his hands by it, stare into its heart, or remain forever ignorant. Therefore, 'fire' does not matter, 'earth' and 'air' and 'water' do not matter. 'I' do not matter. No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his fellows esteem him. He looks upon the great transformations of the world, but he does not see them as they were seen when man looked upon reality for the first time. Their names come to his lips and he smiles as he tastes them, thinking he knows them in the naming. The thing that has never happened before is still happening. It is still a miracle. The great burning blossom squats, flowing, upon the limb of the world, excreting the ash of the world, and being none of these things I have named and at the same time all of them, and this is reality--the Nameless. |
Comedian Kevin Hart offered lucky fans free tickets to a showing of his new movie in Greenville Saturday.On his Twitter account Hart offered the tickets to 200 people for the 5:30 p.m. showing of his movie "Get Hard" with Will Ferrell.The offer was only for the Cherrydale 16 cinemas on Pleasantburg Drive.Hart also made a short appearance at the giveaway before the movie.The tickets were offered first-come, first-served to fans that said, "Kevin Hart sent me" at the box office.On Twitter, Hart also said he likes to do pop-up appearances to treat his fans to his movies.
Comedian Kevin Hart offered lucky fans free tickets to a showing of his new movie in Greenville Saturday.
On his Twitter account Hart offered the tickets to 200 people for the 5:30 p.m. showing of his movie "Get Hard" with Will Ferrell.
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The offer was only for the Cherrydale 16 cinemas on Pleasantburg Drive.
Hart also made a short appearance at the giveaway before the movie.
The tickets were offered first-come, first-served to fans that said, "Kevin Hart sent me" at the box office.
On Twitter, Hart also said he likes to do pop-up appearances to treat his fans to his movies.
AlertMe |
Amber Amour was in South Africa when she claims she was attacked in a hostel shower. The 27-year-old New Yorker began to document the ordeal moments after the attack to her 20,000 Instagram followers.
Amour began #StopRapeEducate a year ago after being raped in New York and was on an awareness world tour when the latest attack occurred. She posted “I honestly never thought it would happen to me again, and certainly not during the #StopRapeEducate World Tour...”
She also posted a picture with the alleged attacker taken a week previously.
“I did my first@stoprapeeducate chalk art piece in Cape Town with the man who would rape me one week later. It's a shame because I honestly thought he was cute.”
While many continue to show their support, Amour highlighted others who accuse her of setting it up.
She describes the events leading to the alleged rape as she went to take a shower in the hostel.
Amour says she was forced to her knees as soon as she entered the bathroom. “I said "stop!" but he just got more violent. He lifted me up and put his penis in my vagina. I asked him to stop, again, as I began to cry.”
The next Instagram post detailed her decision to find justice.
“Dealing with cops is tough and the rape kit is the last thing I want - tools and metal instruments and combs all up in my private parts.... But this is what I stand for. I tell you guys to speak up every single day and I know that I need to practice what I preach.”
Amour is still in South Africa, where an estimated 500,000 rapes occur each year, and as few as one in 13 are reported. She continues to campaign to create a culture of consent. |
1. Intro Some the best eating nuts you can get are FREE. And especially delicious are the wild Hickory nuts we have in the western part of Pennsylvania.
It does take a bit of effort to gather them and if you don't know a good way to get out the nut meat from the shell then it takes a frustratingly long time to accumulate enough nut meat to do anything with. This tutorial pertains to Shagbark Hickory Nuts. I gather them every year around September and sell quite a few and eat quite a few and store quite a few for later use. If you have ever gathered Shagbark Hickory nuts then you know that getting at the nut meat is the hardest part, and for most people, the most messy part. That's because most people use traditional methods to open the nuts. They either smack the nut with a small hammer or use a heavy duty nutcracker. Either way, pieces of shell and often pieces of nut meat go flying. The spouse gets upset. You step barefooted on sharp little pieces you didn't find. I know how it goes. After a while people give up and say to heck with it and they go buy walnuts, brazil nuts and pecans at Giant Eagle. This method is very easy. All that is required is a penknife, a pair of sidecutters and a wood cutting board. 2. Tools Sharp Pocket Knife
Side Cutters 3. Materials Wood Cutting Board. ( Why a wood cutting board rather than plastic, nylon, rubber, glass, etc.? I'll get to that as we go. ) Here are the items needed. The knife and sidecutters on the wood cutting board. Here are the three items I use. A Swiss Army knife, a pair of sidecutters and a wood cutting board. 4. Procedure Get an an old wood cutting board at a garage sale or thrift store OR get a piece of scrap hardboard at a lumber yard or Home Depot or something similar. Get it big enough to have a decent work surface. The one I use is 10 inches wide and about one foot long. You want wood because you are going to chisel/cut out a depression right in the center of the board ( you don't want to do that with cutting board plastic, nylon, glass, rubber, etc. ). The depression will hold the hickory nut in place. The depression should be deep enough and have the same aspect/shape as a half a hickory nut.
The depression I have on my board is like a female clone of the hickory nut shell it supports. I kept carving until it was deep enough and formed well enough so when the nut is put in the depression it will stay put. It DOES NOT have to be real deep. In fact, you don't want it real deep. Just deep enough so that it is obvious that the nut is sitting in a depression. Once this cutting board is made to your satisfaction stash it somewhere for each years nut harvest. Now take a close look at the hickory nut's construction. Close-up of Shagbark Hickory nuts to demonstrate the seam which distinguishes one half from the other. Once you have the board set up with the depression in it, you can, with one tap onto the knife blade, split the nut in half and get a bowl of HALFS like the below photo shows in hardly any time at all. AND, the best part - there won't be pieces of nut and pieces of shell everywhere in the house. You will end up with nice pieces of Quarter nut meats. Perfect for baking.
Showing a nice bunch of half-cut Shagbark Hickory nuts. All nice and clean. No worms, mildew, rotted, etc. Now look at a close-up of the nuts that were cut in half. You'll notice that these half nuts also have a distinct area that can be considered a dividing line. That is what we are going to exploit.
Here you can see that the half-cut hickory nuts also reveal a 'parting line' that can be used to quarter-cut the shell. Take a half-cut nut from the bowl and set it into the depression in the cutting board. Put the blade of the penknife as close to what you think the midline is.
Showing the penknife blade being placed in position, ready for the quick tap. Get the sidecutters and give the knifeblade a quick tap. If you wish you can lay a towel over the knife before tapping to insure that pieces don't go flying off the board.
Showing the sidecutters giving the knifeblade a quick tap to cut the half-nut into a quarter-nut. When you cut the half-nut into a quarter-nut the nut meat inside will be very easy to remove. Most of the time the nut meat just falls out when turned over. If it won't fall out right away, that's why we have the sidecutters. If it appears that the nut meats are a bit stubborn in coming out, take the sidecutters and utilyzing the very tip of the cutter, take little nips from the shell. Most times one little nip will shatter the quarter piece of shell and there's the nut meat - just like that.
Here are the nut meats from the half-nut. Two little quarter pieces Perfect for baking and candy making. Hickory nuts freeze well and keep a long time if in an airtight freezer bag. Freezing is the best way to store. The oils in nuts go rancid after a bit of time so why go to all that work gathering if you end up with nuts that don't taste good anymore. My own personal preference, after many years of utilyzing Hickory nuts, is to cut them in half before freezing.
I do this for two reason:
( 1. ) I want to be sure that the nuts I freeze are good inside, worm free and not moldy, and
( 2. ) I rather just do the half-cut rather than the whole-cut because it's a bit less work ( procastrinator that I am ) AND because the shells protect the nut meat a bit from physical abuse that occurs in my freezer from scrummaging around for other things.
If you don't believe that the nuts are protected by the shell they're frozen in, try freezing some without being in their shell and tell me one year later how many crumbs you end up with in your freezer bag upon thawing.
Here's a gallon bag of half-cut Shagbark Hickory nuts ready for the freezer. While you are gathering Hickory nuts keep your nose to the ground. You never know what else you'll find.
Here's one of my bonuses. Andrew ( $20.00 ) Jackson of all things. Ironic I thought at the time, considering that I'm searching for Hickory nuts and Jackson's nickname was 'Old Hickory'.
Well, you know, it could have been George Washington. That would not even merit a mention.
A $20.00 Bill - Andrew Jackson ( Old Hickory ) found while gathering Hickory nuts at a local park.
Irony can occur at anytime or any place. Try this method. I guarantee you success and no more frustration. A good reason to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. |
The gentlemen over at Monstercat Media are a new breed of musician. Monstercat fans are still ecstatic at the success of this summer’s Monstercat 008 – Anniversary and Operation Dethrone, Monstercat’s plan to overtake other EDM artists from their position at the top of the iTunes dance chart. Dethroned artists include – Tiesto, David Guetta, Deadmau5, Skrillex, and Knife Party. Not to mention other musicians, including Katy Perry and Justin Beiber. Released one year after the label’s creation, “Anniversary” is a monumental release in dance music, proving that talented artists can be successful without any big label’s help as a result of hard work, teamwork, and a loyal fan base. This week, we’ve been blessed with it’s follow-up; Reunion.
Our first taste of Reunion was The Anthem, a collaboration between Monstercat veterans Project 46, Varien, and Ephixa, which was released as the label’s anniversary video last month. It’s a free download through SoundCloud above. Monstercat releases are a variety of genres, much like their YouTube network, and Reunion, as usual, contains something that anyone into electronic music will fall in love with. The album contains 20 tracks from 20 artists, so let’s look at a few highlights.
DotEXE’s remix of fellow Chicago bassists Krewella is currently residing at #3 on Beatport’s DnB charts, and rightfully so. This brighter remix changes the energy of the original for sure, without harming Krewella sisters Jahan and Yasmine’s entrancing vocals.
Ephixa was one of the driving forces behind Monstercat’s creation, and remains one of it’s heavyweights. His “Zeldastep” The Legend of Zelda remixes all climb higher than a million views on YouTube (the highest at over 12 million) and he is featured as an FLStudio Power User alongside Deamau5, Feed Me, Madeon, and Porter Robinson. His work featured on 009, Awesome to the Max, is heavy, but laid back, and a gift for fans of dubstep and Monstercat alike.
My last highlight pick is from Drum and Bass prodigy Feint. For people raised on old school DnB like myself, Feint is a nostalgic breath of fresh air from the current incarnation of well-played DnB. Fury is a mixture of newer; wobble bass heavy sounds with old school liquid drum and bass. Give it a listen and let it speak for itself.
If you are not sold on Reunion yet, listen to the album mix by Monstercat Media boss Going Quantum.
The 20-song Monstercat showcase is available on iTunes here – Monstercat 009 – Reunion – Various Artists
Or, if you’re looking for better quality or just to avoid iTunes, buy the album from Bandcamp here –http://music.monstercat.com/album/monstercat-009-reunion
Monstercat 009- Reunion is currently #3 on the iTunes dance charts, just below Skrillex and David Guetta. |
White House Tour Tickets
Public Tour
Requests for the White House tour must be submitted through your Member of Congress in either the House or Senate. These self-guided tours are available from 7:30AM - 11:30AM on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; and from 7:30AM - 1:30PM on Friday and Saturday. Tour hours are extended whenever the White House schedule permits.
White House tours are scheduled on a first come, first served basis and they must be requested a minimum of 21 days in advance of your visit. Requests can be submitted up to three months in advance. The earlier, the better as only a limited number of spaces are available.
The White House will notify you of your tour request status approximately two weeks before the tour date. Spring and summer tours fill up quickly, so make your request early. Want to see the holiday decorations? Submit your Christmas tour requests in September. All tours are free of charge. You can call the Visitors Office information line 24 hours a day at 202-456-7041 for updates about any last minute schedule changes or cancellations of tours.
Secret tip: If your request for a White House tour is denied, you might be able to get in on a Congressional Member's Pass distributed monthly by the White House Visitors Office.
West Wing Tour
At this time, there is no way for the general public to request a West Wing tour. These tours are by invitation-only. |
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has introduced legislation that would block colleges and universities from using state aid to fund groups that, according to his office’s release, “have passed resolutions or taken official actions to promote discriminatory boycotts.” (Question: Is there such a thing as a non-discriminatory boycott?)
The bill comes in response to the American Studies Association’s controversial decision to boycott Israel and its academic institutions, a largely symbolic action that supporters of that nation fear could become a camel’s nose under the tent for broader boycotts or divestments prompted by Israel’s policies in the occupied territories and its more general treatment of Palestinians.
Silver’s bill stops short of the approach favored by Senate IDC leader Jeff Klein and Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who would deny state aid to the colleges or universities that choose to support such organizations. Silver’s bill would block funding to those groups more directly. (Silver’s bill would resort to cutting off the larger institution only if it violates the ban on funding the offending groups.)
SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher is a critic of the ASA’s boycott, though she noted that “individuals at SUNY may embrace the boycott or attempt to find other solutions, and that is their choice.”
From Silver’s release: |
WASHINGTON: Russia is no longer a superpower as its deteriorating economy is ranked "somewhere behind Spain", the White House on Thursday said and stressed that Moscow's influence is limited compared to the erstwhile Soviet Union."Russia is no longer a superpower. Observed in the last couple of weeks that the condition of Russia's economy is weak and further deteriorating," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters."They are now the 15th-largest economy in the world, and they rank somewhere behind Spain," he said.Earnest said Russia does not have the kind of influence that the Soviet Union once did and it does not have the kind of economic power that the Soviet Union once was able to flex."Their economy is getting worse, and Russia is isolated in a significant way. Not just from countries in Europe, but, as they get further engaged in a sectarian quagmire inside of Syria, they're finding that the only friends that they have there to fight in a difficult fight with them is a floundering Syrian government and the Iranian regime," he said.Earnest also earlier said that the US Navy scrambled four fighter jets to intercept Russian warplanes earlier this week near a US aircraft carrier operating off the Korean peninsula in the Sea of Japan.Two Russian planes flew close to the USS Ronald Reagan, prompting the mobilisation of four FA-18s, he said."There were four FA-18 firers from the carrier airwing five that were launched to intercept the bombers and the US Navy aircraft did escort the Russian aircraft until they departed the area where the carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan was operating," he said."We have previously raised concerns about Russian military aircraft essentially carrying out incursions on the sovereignty of other countries... This is a little bit different than that. This is -- these are international waters and international airspace," Earnest said.The US has regularly urged the Russian military to make sure that their operations in this space were consistent with generally accepted international protocols.This is a particular situation that did not result in a significant confrontation for that reason, he added.Earnest acknowledged that there's no doubt that there are some vigorous disagreements between our two countries on issues like Ukraine and Syria, most prominently."We've been pretty candid about our concerns about Russians behaviour, particularly with regard to those two countries," he said. |
Court United States District Court for the Northern District of California Full case name Latasha Winkfield, an individual parent and guardian of Jahi McMath, a minor vs Children's Hospital Oakland, Dr David Durand M.D. and DOES 1 through 10, inclusive Citation(s) Docket report[1] Case history Prior action(s) Alameda County Case No. RP-13-707598[2] Holding Settlement conference rendered mutually accepted agreement, motion denied as moot, VACATED
The Jahi McMath case involved a teenage girl who was declared brain dead in California following surgery in 2013 at age 13. This led to a bioethical debate engendered by her family's rejection of the medicolegal findings of death in the case, and their efforts to maintain her body using mechanical ventilation and other measures. Her parents considered these measures to constitute life support, while her doctors considered this to be futile treatment of a deceased person.[3][4][5][6][7][8] In October 2014, the McMath family attorney made the unprecedented request that Jahi McMath's brain death declaration be overturned. The attorney later withdrew this request, saying he wanted time for the court-appointed medical expert and his own medical experts to confer.[9][10][11][12][13] In March 2015, McMath's family filed a malpractice lawsuit against Children's Hospital Oakland and against the surgeon who performed McMath's surgery, indicating they were prepared to argue as part of the lawsuit that McMath is not dead, but profoundly disabled.[14] The family lawyer stated that a preliminary second death certificate was issued on June 22, 2018, listing extensive bleeding relating to liver failure as the cause of death.[15]
Background [ edit ]
According to court documents,[16] McMath was admitted to Children's Hospital Oakland on December 9, 2013, for an adenotonsillectomy, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty and submucous resection of bilateral inferior turbinates. It was hoped these procedures would provide improved airflow during her sleep at night. The hospital described these procedures as complicated. The family described the surgery as a routine tonsillectomy in media reports.[17][18]
After the surgeries were performed, McMath was conscious and according to her mother, Latasha "Nailah" Winkfield,[18][19][20] asked for a Popsicle while in the recovery room.[21] On December 9, 2013, McMath suffered massive blood loss and consequent cardiac arrest. According to McMath's doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland, the loss of blood circulation caused whole brain death. On December 12, 2013, her doctors declared her brain-dead.[3] Her family was informed that she was legally dead,[22] and that as a result, life support systems would be discontinued.[16] Her family refused to accept the medical declaration of death by neurological criteria, said that McMath was not dead, and initiated legal proceedings in an effort to require the hospital to continue treatment.[6][23][24][25][26][27]
Legal action [ edit ]
On December 20, 2013, McMath's family filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court, petitioning the court to require Children's Hospital Oakland to keep McMath on life support. In a pretrial conference on December 23, Judge Evelio Grillo appointed Paul Graham Fisher, M.D., the chief of Child Neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine, to provide an independent medical opinion regarding the declaration of brain death. McMath's family also requested to have Paul A. Byrne, M.D., conduct a separate evaluation. Byrne, a neonatologist, has campaigned against the medical consensus of accepting brain death as death.[28][29][30] The court denied that request.[31]
Fisher examined McMath and affirmed the diagnosis of brain death, reporting that she had no activity on an electroencephalogram, no blood flow to the brain and did not breathe when removed from mechanical ventilation, all of which are standard clinical indications of total brain death.[32][33]
On December 24, 2013, Judge Grillo ruled that McMath was legally dead,[34] basing his decision on the medical evidence presented by physicians from Children's Hospital Oakland and from independent expert Paul Fisher, but ruled to require the hospital to continue mechanical ventilation until December 30, 2013,[32] later extending this order until January 7, 2014.[34] Grillo told the family "This has been very, very hard on you. No one anywhere would wish this to happen to anyone."[32]
On December 30, 2013, the family appealed the decision to the Second District, California Courts of Appeal[31] and the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, calling for the hospital to continue life support measures until other arrangements could be made by the family for the girl's care.[34] McMath's mother argued that applying the Uniform Determination of Death Act to the case was a violation of constitutional religious and privacy rights[35] and that because Jahi's heart was still beating, she was still alive.[36] Byrne stated in court documents that he witnessed McMath moving in the hospital and that he considered her to be alive.[37] The hospital stated that it would be unethical and "grotesque" to require the hospital and its doctors to provide further medical care to a dead body[38] and said that Byrne was "a crusader with an ideology-based bias"[3] The hospital also said that Lazarus signs are not uncommon in cases of brain death.[35] After the hospital and McMath's family engaged in settlement talks, an agreement was facilitated in which McMath could be released from Children's Hospital, with the ventilator and her intravenous fluid lines, to the custody of her mother, but the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied the family's petition to require hospital staff to perform a tracheostomy and insert a feeding tube.[26]
Transfer [ edit ]
On January 5, 2014, Children's Hospital released McMath's body to the Alameda County coroner. The coroner's office had issued an official death certificate for McMath on January 3, 2014, with the date of death listed as December 12, 2013. The death certificate was incomplete, pending an autopsy to determine cause of death.[39] After receiving custody of her body from Children's Hospital, the Coroner then released her to the custody of her mother, who was warned of and assumed all risk regarding cardiac arrest during the transfer.[40][41][42] The family moved the girl to an undisclosed location where a tracheostomy was performed and a feeding tube was inserted.[43]
This case has prompted some commentators to discuss the futility of life support in such cases and even refer to it as "death support".[44] Other questions that have been raised include how California law treats brain death and whether McMath's case could change existing laws and practices.[45] McMath's attorney, Christopher Dolan said, "There would have been no legal battle if Jahi had had her tonsils out in New Jersey”, referring to a New Jersey state law allowing religious objection to a declaration of death on the basis of neurological criteria.[46] Public confusion surrounding differences between brain death and cardiac death raised by this case led some doctors to voice concern about how the case could affect live organ recovery from brain dead patients.[47] The impact of this case on medical negligence awards in California has also been discussed, as there is no compensation limit if the patient is alive, while compensation is capped at $250,000 if the patient has died.[48]
Aftermath [ edit ]
In March 2014, the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network awarded McMath's family an annual award. The award recognizes "the unconditional love they have for Jahi, and their courage as they continue the fight for their daughter against overwhelming odds." McMath's mother stated she was honored to receive the award and referred to her daughter as “still asleep,” clarifying that she does not use the phrase "brain dead" to refer to her daughter.[49][50]
According to media reports,[51] McMath was at a Catholic hospital in New Jersey[52] until August 2014,[53] after which she was moved to a New Jersey apartment.[53][54]
In October 2014, McMath's attorney, Christopher Dolan, held a press conference where he said that recent medical tests had detected blood flow and electrical activity in McMath's brain and where he released videos which he said showed the girl moving on command.[10][12] At that time, Dolan also filed documents asking that the Alameda County Superior Court reverse their finding of brain death in the case.[9][10][11][12] Paul Fisher, M.D., the court-appointed independent expert who had confirmed McMath's diagnosis of brain death in December 2013, said that the new evidence presented did not refute his earlier determination of brain death.[55][56] Dolan then withdrew the petition for the October 2014 court hearing[57] and requested that the involved doctors collaborate, stating that "with an open and transparent dialogue between health care professionals, only one conclusion can remain: that Jahi McMath is not brain dead."[13][54][55][56][58][59]
In March 2015, McMath's family filed a malpractice lawsuit against Children's Hospital Oakland and Dr. Frederick Rosen, the surgeon who performed McMath's surgery.[60] The lawsuit alleges that the surgeon noted an abnormal artery in McMath's throat but did not notify the nurses that this placed the girl at increased risk for serious hemorrhaging.[14] Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that McMath bled from approximately 7:30 p.m. to 12:35 a.m.,[14] that a doctor said “[expletive], her heart stopped” when he arrived hours after the family said they requested a doctor,[60] and that the family was given conflicting information from nurses regarding how to care for McMath's bleeding.[14] The family also claims that the hospital pressured them to donate McMath's organs.[61]
McMath's family and Bruce Brusavich, the family's malpractice attorney, have indicated that they are prepared to argue that McMath is not brain dead, so that the California state limit of $250,000 on medical malpractice lawsuits involving children who die does not apply in her case.[14]
After viewing over four dozen independent videos of McMath, Dr. Alan Shewmon, a UCLA pediatric neurologist, declared her technically alive in a June 29, 2017, court filing, stating that the girl follows movement commands and exhibits other proof of life. Children's Hospital Oakland maintained that the original diagnosis of brain death was correct and that the videos do not meet the diagnostic criteria for brain death.[62]
Dolan issued a statement in June 2018 that McMath had died on June 22, 2018. She was having internal bleeding due to kidney and liver failure, so her doctors removed her from life support, allowing her to die.[15][63]
Court cases are ongoing; Dolan stated that he intends to continue his pro-bono case to have McMath's California death certificate revoked and her date of death established as June 22, 2018.[15]
See also [ edit ] |
Bryan Lunduke is well known in free software circles. He's a writer of books and Network World articles. He co-founded the Linux Action Show and is a co-host of the Bad Voltage podcast. In between hobbies, he has a day job doing marketing for SUSE and serving on the openSUSE board. Perhaps his longest-lasting contribution, though, is the Linux distro building simulator game Linux Tycoon.
At LinuxFest Northwest, Bryan will be debating James Mason on the subject of Open source geeks in a world of silos. We asked him some questions and turned him loose.
You pretty famously kicked Google out of your life for a while, but let parts of it back in. Which side of the silo argument are you taking?
Oh, heavens. This is something I struggle with every damned day. In a nutshell: Having locked silos is a very, very bad thing. But it's hard as hell to avoid. For example: I'm a pretty die-hard Linux user, but I'm also an avid gamer. That means I tend to either have the Google Play Store (to install Android games) or Steam (for desktop Linux games) running on most of my systems. But I feel really, really dirty about it.
What arguments do you expect from your opponent, and why are they terrible?
Honestly, I have no clue what my opponent is going to say! This particular session has me and my co-presenter going mano a mano on the topic, which I expect to be rather challenging as he is an incredibly smart guy. Right now, I'm just hoping I can hold my own on why silos are so dangerous. Personal data access, personal data ownership, personal data security, longevity of software and so many other reasons are on my side, so here's hoping!
Can open source software ever hope to win against the convenience of shiny proprietary silos?
Yes. Maybe? Gosh. I hope so. Wait. What does "win" mean?
"Win" means gain mass adoption and the adulation of millennials and grandfathers alike.
Oh, lord. Millennials and Grandfathers, eh? Honestly I think mass adoption of (free and) open source alternatives to the closed, locked down application (and content) store silos will happen when the open options are, quite simply, better than their closed cousins in most ways that matter to people.
Approachability, easy of use, selection of software, promotion by the software publishers people trust... When a FOSS alternative to, say, the Google Play Store can manage to check all of those checkboxes, I have no doubt that mass adoption will follow.
The real question is, who will do it? Canonical tried with the Ubuntu Software Center—which, speaking as someone who sold software through it, was never quite ready for prime time. There have been a few other noteworthy attempts (such as Click'N'Run), but none ever worked well enough to capture significant market share.
In my opinion, the current best bet would be GNOME Software. It's not all the way there yet, but it shows promise.
I think an even bigger problem than "app store" and content silos is the prevalence of data silos—closed, online systems that store huge quantities of your data. Email. Documents. Pictures. Passwords. If all of these things are online and in closed silos, you really don't have any control over your own data.
And that scares the crap out of me.
You've been involved in open source communities for a long time, but you were recently elected to the openSUSE Board. What have you learned in the last month that surprised you?
The biggest surprise, to me, is what mean, terrible jerks my fellow openSUSE board members are. They all got together and conspired against me—they scheduled our regular board meetings for five-freaking-a.m. in the morning. Five in the morning! They gave me lame excuses like how they "live in Europe" and it was "the only time that worked for everyone." Pssht.
I am confident they are forcing me to wake up at this ungodly hour simply because they have hearts of pure ice. (Other than that, they're nice guys.)
No other big surprises yet. The openSUSE project runs itself in such an open way. I've been able to observe how it works from the outside for years. Now I'm just... less on the outside.
You gave a talk at SCALE 14x called Linux sucks, but you've published a book called Linux is Badass. Why are you flip-flopping?
Ha! Linux Sucks is, itself, the ultimate flip-flop. The first half is why it sucks. The second half is why it absolutely, without the slightest doubt, does not. I like to play devil's advocate with myself. Also, it makes for a fun event. My book Linux is Badass, on the other hand, is sort of a love poem to Linux in the form of essays. And actual poems. And a choose your own adventure story. With swear words. (It's a really weird book.)
I typically give a yearly Linux sucks at LinuxFest Northwest. (Except for last year, when I gave the Windows is awesome presentation to a packed audience at a Linux conference. That still boggles my mind.) But this year, I decided to do something a bit more... goofy. I'm calling it simply Linux is weird. It's basically a ridiculous journey through all the weirdest and most insane things about Linux. It's going to be nuts.
What LinuxFest Northwest talks are you most interested in?
It's hard for me to typically get a chance to see more than one or two presentations at an event like this. At LinuxFest Northwest I think I'm presenting three this year (Linux is weird, the one about silos that we talked about, and a third that is a Q&A with me and the openSUSE board director). When I'm not doing those, I'll probably be spending time at the openSUSE lounge (We don't have a traditional "booth" this year. We went for a full-on lounge.) giving out chameleon plushies and chatting with folks.
If I get a chance, I'd love to make it to John Sullivan's (director of the FSF) session comparing Free Software to veganism. That sounds like fun. And there's one on openQA (an automated testing platform) that is being co-presented by people from both SUSE and Red Hat. I love it when the big Linux companies come together in peace and harmony—plus, both of the presenters are friends. So if I miss that one, I'll probably never hear the end of it. And there's at least three sessions in the legal and licensing track that sound damned interesting. We'll see if I manage to make it to more than one of these. |
A new Gallup survey released Friday shows a marked uptick in the number of Americans without health insurance since the Trump administration took office—a reversal after years of decline and a historic record low under the Obama administration.
Since the end of 2016, the survey found, the uninsured rate has climbed 1.4 percentage points, from 10.9 percent to 12.3 percent, with roughly 3.5 million more Americans uninsured. The current uninsured rate is the highest since the end of 2014.
“Uncertainty about the healthcare law also may be driving the increase,” Gallup reported Friday, citing Congress’ repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and uncertainty about the administration’s dedication to upholding the law.
The survey, based on interviews with more than 45,000 people, found that every age group except Medicare-eligible Americans older than 65 saw an increase in the percentage of the uninsured.
“The growth has been concentrated mostly among middle-aged Americans, racial minorities and lower-income Americans,” Gallup reported.
The biggest drop has been on the individual market, the sector most impacted by the Trump administration’s actions: from cutting outreach and education funding to cutting off cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers to rejecting state waivers.
Gallup noted that if Congress and the President do not pass and implement a bill introduced this week to fund and stabilize those markets, the number of uninsured Americans will continue to increase. |
Cast members, writers, producers, directors, and the composer from NBC’s Chuck came together to thank their fans for rallying behind the show and encourage them to watch the season finale, airing Monday, April 27th on NBC. Save Chuck, watch the show and DVR the rest!
As fans (that’s you and me!) of NBC’s critically acclaimed show Chuck continue to rally behind the show and ask NBC for a third season, a star-studded lineup from the cast and creative team came together to thank the fans for their efforts on Chuck vs. the Podcast leading up to the season finale, airing Monday, April 27th. From London, New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles, they were all eager to reach out and share their gratitude for the fan campaigns, excitement about the finale, and passion for the show.
“The grassroots campaigns to save Chuck have been nothing short of remarkable,” says series lead Zachary Levi, calling from London. “It means so much to know that the fans are doing so much to keep the show on the air.”
Adam Baldwin, who plays gruff Colonel John Casey, expresses his gratitude as well. “I think the campaign by the fans for the renewal is very helpful, and I appreciate all the support that’s out there.”
The cast and creative team gave a few clues about what to expect in the season finale as well, promising an episode that will thrill fans and whet appetites for a third season.
“It’s going to be epic,” promises Joshua Gomez, who plays Morgan Grimes. “Whether you’ve been watching the whole time or not, you’re going to get your money’s worth. I think people are going to be really excited when they see it.”
“The finale is going to be a game changer,” teases Ryan McPartlin, aka Captain Awesome. “The finale is going to get the fans’ mouths watering for a third season.” McPartlin also discusses his excitement at fan reaction for the penultimate episode of Chuck, and how he plans to join the fans in the campaign for a third season.
This special episode of Chuck vs. the Podcast is available right now at www.chuckpodcast.com and iTunes so go check it out!
A big shout out to our friends at ChuckTV.net and their awesome Chuck podcast. |
(CNN) The Obama presidency is almost over -- and Russian officials can't wait. They're not mincing words.
"God created the world in seven days," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this week on her Facebook page. "The Obama administration has (seven plus) two more days to destroy it."
During the election campaign, Russian state media criticized America's "sham democracy." That strategy no longer worked when Donald Trump won the presidency.
Now anti-Americanism has given way to personal attacks on Barack Obama. The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman is one of the more creative Obama bashers, taking to Facebook several times a day with zingers such as this:
"It seems to me that if 'Russian hackers' have hacked something in the US, it was two things: Obama's brain and, of course, the very report about the 'Russian hackers.' "
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Aleksey Pushkov, a member of the Russian Parliament and acerbic Tweeter, heaps scorn on Obama and his policies.
"The democratic process in the USA was undermined not by Russia but by the Obama administration and the media who supported (Hillary) Clinton against Trump," he wrote recently. "The threat to democracy -- is inside the USA itself."
Others aren't as measured. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, politician and perpetual gadfly never at a loss for inflammatory comments, told Russian news agencies in December: "Obama should get a D for flunking because of his (performance) as a head of such a huge state as America."
Zhirinovsky has told obscene jokes about Obama. In October, he called him "psychotic."
The comments about Obama often have a rueful subtext: If only Obama hadn't ruined relations with Russia, the world would be a much better place. But hope is on its way -- Trump is about to become president.
Witness this gem by the Foreign Ministry's Zakharova : "It's over, the curtain's down. A bad play is over. The whole world, from first seats to the balcony, is witnessing a destructive blow to America's prestige and leadership that has been dealt by Barack Obama and his hardly literate foreign policy team that revealed its main secret to the world -- its exceptionality masked helplessness. No enemy could have caused more harm to the US."
Some of the venom might be a reaction to Obama's own dissing of Vladimir Putin , for example, in 2013 when he described the Russian President as having "that kind of slouch," looking like the "bored kid in the back of the classroom."
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov this week blamed Obama for what he called "manmade degradation of our relations."
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the Obama administration "has used numerous expedients in recent years in an attempt to hurt us. Now they feel outraged because their candidate lost the presidential race. But they are seeking to place the blame for their defeat anywhere but in their own backyard. And this frustration is an expression of their bad manners and Russophobia."
Criticism of Obama on Russian social media and the Internet has gone even further. 2016 was the Chinese Year of the Monkey, and racist cartoons of Obama were rife.
As Obama's last hours in office slip away, Putin remains above the fray, leaving it to his underlings to criticize the outgoing US President. Putin did engage in some diplomatic dissing by not responding to Obama's December decision to expel 35 Russian diplomats in response to Russia's alleged election hacking -- a way of saying to Obama: "You're not important enough to even respond to."
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Meanwhile, Russia's government-funded RT television news network has rereleased an ad it made in 2015 for its 10th anniversary. It's set in 2035. A grizzled Obama and a white-haired John Kerry sit on a porch, in white rocking chairs. "No one is afraid of us anymore," Kerry laments.
Obama goes inside to fetch them a drink. A TV in the kitchen, set on RT's broadcast, interrupts with breaking news. The new president, National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, is announcing a "new era of transparency."
"Damn propaganda bullhorn!" Obama complains. The two old geezers walk off into the sunset in a scene to warm the hearts of Obama's Russian critics. |
Roma went back to the top of the Serie A table as ex-Arsenal forward Gervinho scored twice in a 5-0 rout of Bologna.
Adem Ljajic also scored as Roma kept up the league's only perfect start.
Paul Pogba netted a disputed goal as Juventus beat local rivals Torino 1-0 to also remain unbeaten in the league.
The ex-Manchester United midfielder, 20, headed in from close range after Carlos Tevez had struck the crossbar, although the hosts were furious as they thought the Argentine was offside.
Torino have failed to win the last 15 derbies, a run stretching back to 1995.
Inter Milan, another of the four teams yet to lose in the league this season, drew 1-1 with Cagliari. Mauro Icardi gave Inter a 75th-minute lead, but Radja Nainggolan rescued a point eight minutes later.
German Denis scored twice against his former club as Atalanta beat Udinese 2-0, while Lazio threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at bottom side Sassuolo.
Catania beat Chievo 2-0 for their first win of the season and Verona saw off Livorno 2-1.
Unbeaten Napoli had gone top on Saturday with a brace from Goran Pandev. |
In a recent newsletter I discussed the XMRV virus and the research on its role in CFS. I offered my concern that the buzz may actually be causing some to miss the larger picture of what is happening in CFS, with XMRV simply being one of many infections and problems in this illness. It’s certainly not my intent to dash hopes. Rather, my intent is to offer perspective from over 30 years experience, so that people can use all the tools that can help them get well.
We have been treating viral infections (and many other infections) as one of the cornerstones of resolving CFS for decades. The recently reported research on the XMRV virus, while a useful new finding that will help in our efforts to find effective CFS treatments, is in essence but one more documented infection.
Our research shows that 91% of patients treated with the SHINE protocol improve, and many get well. Remember that the “I” in SHINE stands for Infections — with multiple treatments that help treat viral infections (such as XMRV) included. Following the more complete treatment approach that SHINE addresses is what represents real and proven hope.
It’s good when discoveries are made that point to new infections that are relevant to CFS. And when this happens, we expand our treatment coverage to include them. I look forward to seeing if antivirals active against XMRV offer additional clinical improvement in CFS. But we choose to not be distracted to reduce our focus to only a single infection type, when there are so many that we can effectively treat to help you get well now.
The XMRV research also offers other benefits, such as attracting , and helps make it even clearer how real and devastating CFS is. This may offer a bit more to silence the nitwits who like to claim CFS is all in your mind (though I would not count on it, as they have ignored reams of earlier research showing CFS/FMS to be very real illnesses). My concern is that this not blind us to the rest of the research in the field, which would cause much harm to those with the illness.
My take may not be popular with some folks right now, but it is based on a broad perspective gained by 30 years experience in the field. It may not be what is most popular today, but it is my responsibility to offer it in my role as your advocate. With effective treatment already available, and this new XMRV viral research offering yet another reason to be hopeful, that’s not a bad thing.
In addition, the SHINE protocol includes “I” for infections, and is part of my program, and the program used at the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers nationally. SHINE includes many antiviral therapies that likely help against XMRV, as well as other viruses. Especially helpful to many patients are the IV therapies. |
On Monday, Boston City Councilor At Large Michelle Wu filed an “open data ordinance,” aimed at requiring the city’s agencies and departments to make their various datasets available online, using publicly developed open standards. The ordinance will be proposed at the Boston City Council’s meeting on Wednesday.
The logic behind making more of the city’s data available to the public is mainly to create opportunities for civic innovation, something Mayor Walsh and the New Urban Mechanics office has been pushing heavily since the start of 2014.
“Boston has been doing a great job of making some data available already, and using that data to measure performance,” Wu said in an interview.
“An open data ordinance would codify all that and shift the expectations of what would be available,” she added. “This is the direction of innovation and government today; the days are over when we can simply be reactive and waiting for people to call city hall or request information.”
While Boston already has a data portal that makes some datasets available to the public, the city does not have any requirements to make data accessible beyond the Massachusetts Public Records Law. Boston currently has 46 datasets open to the public while New York has had over a thousand datasets made available since the city enacted an open data law in 2012, according to a statement from Wu’s office.
While one goal of making more city datasets available to the public would be more government transparency, the opening of City of Boston’s databanks would also allow people who have great ideas and “know how to use data,” as Wu said, to create more civic innovation.
Both New York and San Francisco have enacted open data laws that have led to more civic innovation. The press release specifically cited San Francisco’s partnership with Yelp (to display the city’s publicly available health inspection scores on restaurant’s Yelp site) as an example of how open data can lead to innovation.
The lack of open data rules in Boston creates a situation where departments can refuse to let the city post their public databases, like the city assessor’s office currently does with property records.
For the open data ordinance to be a success, there will need to be some oversight, Wu said, in order to make sure that data that could infringe on someone’s privacy or create a safety isn’t made public.
Another issue that could arise by making more data publicly accessible is the reality that various programs and web platforms are used by different departments to track information each using different type of formatting and data collection methods.
Wu said that when New York passed an open data law, they set a 2018 deadline for all the city’s departments to reach compliance. She added that New York is well ahead of schedule at this point.
Wednesday’s city council meeting will present an opportunity to begin the process of figuring out what a Boston open data law will look like.
“There will need to be some time necessary for everyone to get on the same page,” Wu said. “And it is important that it’s put in format that is most usable to civic innovators.”
To do that, Wu hopes that the public will participate in the conversation to decide the types of data that will be made public, which formats the city will use, and what the timeline for all departments to comply with a possible law should be. |
EDMONTON — Jesse Joensuu is having another strong pre-season for the Edmonton Oilers. Now he just needs to make that translate to the regular season as well.
Joensuu had a pair of goals as the Oilers managed a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes in pre-season play on Wednesday.
"I think our whole line played really well, it was a line effort, both goals," Joensuu said. "Either they were really, really good or they weren’t defending me really well. They were both really similar."
The 26-year-old Finnish forward scored three goals in exhibition play last year before recording just three goals and five points in 42 games in the regular season.
Those numbers put him on the bubble for a spot with the team this year.
"I’m not that good that I don’t have to play well in training camp," he said.
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Benoit Pouliot also scored for the Oilers, who improved to 4-2-0 in exhibition action.
"It was one of those nights where we didn’t have very many complaints," said Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins. "All the guys in the lineup showed very well. The pace was there, the execution was there, the hiccups along the way were few and far between."
Mikkel Boedker and Rob Klinkhammer replied for the Coyotes, who dropped to 4-1-2.
"I didn’t think we played as well tonight as we did the other night in Vancouver," said Coyotes coach Dave Tippett. "We were taking a last look at five or six young players who were pushing for lineup spots.
"We didn’t win enough battles and our execution with the puck was poor at times and got us in some trouble."
The game was a bit of a surreal experience for Arizona goalie Devan Dubnyk, who looks like a lock for the backup goalie job in Arizona after a tumultuous season last year that saw him unsuccessfully begin the year as the Oilers starter, get traded to Nashville and then to Montreal, where he ended the season with the Habs’ AHL squad in Hamilton.
"I saw a lot of pucks in the first, which helped me forget about the strangeness of the situation," said Dubnyk, who made 30 saves on the night. "I felt weird for the first couple minutes, but that was it. I didn’t let myself build it up too much and was able to enjoy it. I tried to just treat this as another game. It was definitely nice to get it out of the way and I’ll definitely work hard to get the two points next time when it matters."
Arizona started the scoring midway through the first period when Oilers starter Ben Scrivens made the stop on a point shot by Connor Murphy, but got caught up in traffic in front of the net for the rebound — allowing Boedker to lift the puck into the net.
Scrivens almost got caught off guard for a second goal with two minutes left in the opening period when he missed on a poke check attempt on Tobias Rieder. He was able to recover, however, to make a diving save and then another stop on Rieder on the doorstep seconds later.
They turned out to be big stops as the Oilers then skated up-ice on a rush. Dubnyk was able to make the initial stop on a shot by Teddy Purcell, but was unable to prevent Pouliot from lifting in the rebound to make it 1-1.
The Oilers had another great opportunity with 25 seconds remaining as Brandon Gormley hooked Matt Hendricks on a breakaway, leading to a penalty shot. However, Dubnyk easily made the save on the one-on-one encounter.
Edmonton outshot Arizona 17-8 through 20 minutes.
The Oilers took a 2-1 lead two minutes into the second period after Steve Pinizzotto slid a puck in front and Joensuu was able to put a quick snap shot through Dubnyk’s legs.
Edmonton had a bit of a scare when forward David Perron was crushed in a mid-ice hit by Arizona defender Matt Smaby and had trouble getting up. After heading down the ramp, Perron would return a few minutes later and finished the second, but did not come back for the third with a rib injury.
The Coyotes tied the game with eight minutes remaining in the second when Klinkhammer elected to shoot on a two-on-one break, beating Scrivens with a well-placed shot to the top corner.
Edmonton came close to regaining the lead with just over five minutes left in the second period when Darnell Nurse rang a shot off the post on the power play.
The Oilers made it 3-2 early in the third when Pinizzotto took the puck behind the net and fed it into the slot for Joensuu, who zipped the puck past Dubnyk.
The Oilers continue the pre-season schedule on Thursday night as they host the Vancouver Canucks. The Coyotes play their final exhibition match-up on Friday when they host the San Jose Sharks.
Notes — Edmonton fans were denied the chance to see former Oilers forward Sam Gagner play for the Coyotes. Gagner was traded in the off-season to Tampa Bay for Teddy Purcell, and then flipped the same day to Arizona. Purcell played his first game as an Oiler in Edmonton… Forward Justin Hodgman has been making a very good case for himself with the Coyotes after spending last season in the KHL. Hodgman entered the game as the co-leader in the NHL pre-season with four goals in three pre-season games. |
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee--and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
We are presented with a depressed point of view, the very attitude and frame-of-mind each of us know intimately. It's when we measure ourselves against others that we feel so inadequate. The "outcast" state springs to mind because suddenly we're fixated on our lack versus what others seem to possess naturally and have a sheer abundance of.
If only I had Richard's talents, or Geraldine's riches, or Samantha's good looks, or Marko's confidence . . . then I would be happy!
I know because my mind will often drift into this "sullen" sphere. Before I met my girlfriend, I believed my luck with women was horrible. There were so many men who "just had it"; it was something I couldn't define, but I was sure whatever it was I did not have it.
And I deeply resented this about my fate--I was destined to watch women flock to other men. When I contemplated my future, I was very much in the mind of Shakespeare's discontented speaker.
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
The shift in the speaker's self-perception is remarkable because it represents the shift that occurs when we stop obsessing about ourselves and turn our thoughts to a loved one. The shift in the speaker's self-perception is remarkable because it represents the shift that occurs when we stop obsessing about ourselves and turn our thoughts to a loved one.
The fixed belief I had about my poor luck with women changed when I got a chance to spend a weekend with one woman in particular. Then my thoughts were set on her--not myself--and I was able to hear, if not the "hymns at heaven's gate", then maybe the chorus of "Mother of Pearl" by Roxy Music.
The last line of the poem enacts a complete reversal of the first in sense while it mimics the precise meter of the first line in sound.
Between the first and last line, Shakespeare has given us a microcosmic demonstration of the self. He dramatizes the process of self-reflection--moving from an embittered, deflated ego to an elated, love-swept self that affirms the Beatles when they sing, "All you need is love/love/love is all you need."
More writings by the author
of the flux that goes on in the human psyche, and how abruptly self-perception will shift from one extreme to the other.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 |
Global creative studio Framestore is usually known for taking client projects and executing them with world-class attention to detail despite tight deadlines and high expectations. Its visual effects department works on some of the world’s biggest movies, like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Doctor Strange, while other parts of the company build immersive and groundbreaking experiences, including Ascend The Wall for HBO’s Game of Thrones and a magic school bus that takes kids on a field trip to Mars. At SIGGRAPH last week I got the first look at something quite different on the way from Framestore: a passion project led by Senior Creative Developer Johannes Saam. The software is called CORAL and it is a fractal multiverse that will invite VR developers and early adopters on some long relaxing visits. It is expected to be available in the coming months.For those unfamiliar, a fractal can be gorgeous and almost mesmerizing when representing a repeating mathematical function as objects or shapes in two or three dimensions. “A fractal is a mathematical function with very…mathematically simple terms that ever-repeating patterns creates very interesting shapes and structures that, in theory, have infinite detail,” said Saam. I spent a fair amount of my third grade class staring at a screensaver on an old computer that had similar kinds of illustrations, which can sometimes seem to be represented as an endless tunnel with changing shapes and colors. When the teacher finally realized it wasn’t just me but a large portion of the class totally ignoring her for hours at a time, she turned the computer away from us so we couldn’t stare at it while she spoke. For a few minutes at SIGGRAPH, I was brought back to that mesmerizing effect and didn’t want to stop flying through the fractal multiverse of CORAL. “It’s more of an art piece, a gallery experience, than a game as of today. Nothing stops us using the same technology in a game, or making this experience more game-like,” said Saam. “If you’re interested in beautiful shapes and you just want to relax it’s kind of a very meditative state you get into.”I describe it as a multiverse because these structures repeat in every direction into infinity and a simple button press on an Xbox controller transports the visitor to a completely different structure to explore. It is almost like shifting to a different universe. Other buttons on the controller change the parameters of the function so you can change the shape and pattern of the structures as you fly through them. You can use a stick on the controller to move forward and wherever your head is pointed is where you fly. They’ve implemented a similar kind of field of view constriction as seen in Eagle Flight so that intense flying or shifting in directions should be more comfortable.So if you’re familiar with Eagle Flight, this is basically that type of flying experience but instead of soaring over Paris you’re zooming into an endless universe of shapes that might look like coastlines or snowflakes. One minute it feels like you’re passing through a vast alien ship and the next through the intricate structures of a cell. Having not experienced an acid trip myself, I suspect this is about as close as you can come to having one without actually taking a drug.We’ve heard of some other fractal VR software in the past but getting them to run at 90 frames per second required for comfortable VR viewing is a real challenge. That said, it appears to be something Framestore has a good grasp on. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in CORAL and didn’t want to leave. Saam and the rest of his team at Framestore’s Los Angeles office are targeting reasonable specifications for PC hardware but may build some settings so it looks even better on higher end hardware. Do you have any mesmerizing fractal memories of your own? Let us know down in the
Tagged with: CORAL, Framestore
Tagged with: CORAL, Framestore |
The following script is from "Sheryl Sandberg" which aired on March 10, 2013. Norah O'Donnell is the correspondent. Tanya Simon and Deirdre Naphin, producers.
Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of the social networking giant Facebook -- but that's not what's putting her in the headlines. She's decided to jump head first into one of most hotly debated and intensely personal issues out there: women in the workplace.
In a new book that has already touched a nerve, Sandberg proposes a reason for why there are so few women at the top: the problem she says might just be women themselves. Despite the fact that women have been getting more college degrees than men for 30 years, they still account for only four percent of CEOs in America's Fortune 500 companies and Sheryl Sandberg says that number needs to change.
Sheryl Sandberg: The very blunt truth is that men still run the world.
Norah O'Donnell: But what about the women's revolution?
Sheryl Sandberg: I think we're stalled. I think we're stalled. And I think we need to acknowledge that we're stalled so that we can change it.
Norah O'Donnell: Are you trying to reignite the revolution?
Sheryl Sandberg: I think so.
Sheryl Sandberg is an unlikely revolutionary. At 43, she is one of the few women at the top of corporate America, yet she's surprisingly uncomfortable with her own power and influence - something she has fought since her days at North Miami Beach Senior High, where her classmates voted her most likely to succeed.
Sheryl Sandberg: And my friend was on the yearbook staff. And I went to find her and I said, "I do not want to be most likely to succeed."
Norah O'Donnell: What?
Sheryl Sandberg: Most likely to succeed is not the girl who gets a date to the prom. And I was worried enough about that.
Norah O'Donnell: You were embarrassed?
Sheryl Sandberg: I was embarrassed. My entire life I have been told, you know, or I have felt that I should hold back on being too successful, too smart, too, you know, lots of things.
She says that kind of self-doubt isn't unique to her -- it resides deep inside most women, who learn to downplay their accomplishments at a young age. In her 20 years in the work place, she says she has noticed a stark difference in the way men and women view their success.
Sheryl Sandberg: Women attribute their success to working hard, luck, and help from other people. Men will attribute that-- whatever success they have, that same success, to their own core skills.
Norah O'Donnell: So what do you attribute your success to?
Sheryl Sandberg: I think, you know, my success, if I want to honestly want to attribute it, it's attributed to a lot of things, some of which really are luck, working hard, and help from others. Like, I've had--
Norah O'Donnell: What about your core skills?
Sheryl Sandberg: And my core skills. And my core skills. But it is both.
Norah O'Donnell: But Sheryl, you are-- you're one of the most powerful women in the world and you still can't attribute your success to your own core skills?
Sheryl Sandberg: No, I can s-- I can, more.
It's that mindset that led Sheryl Sandberg to reach the conclusion that's at the heart of her book: it's not just men who hold women back, women do it to themselves. They play it too safe at work, worry too much about being liked and turn down opportunities in anticipation of having a family one day. |
Vinay Anand
February 9, 2012
A one-day match can end in a win, loss, no result or a tie for a team. The first three are foregone conclusions since one team dominates over the other or surrenders at some stage of the game. Whereas, a no result can also occur due to poor weather. But a tie is usually unpredictable and is a rare occurrence in this format of the game since there are 300 balls of play per innings and that is long enough to enforce a favourable result.
These matches have actually made the game richer since it has been entertaining for the public flocking the stadiums or watching the television. They would want to watch ODIs especially on a regular basis, especially between those two countries who played equally well and the scorecard is a testimony to the fact. Here are those matches which have had thrilling finishes over the years –
1) Australia vs. South Africa – Headingley, 1999
This was the epic clash of them all in the World Cup tournament.
Australia, led by the legendary Steve Waugh staged a strong comeback after losing to Pakistan in one of the round robin games at Headingley. While South Africa, led by Hansie Cronje were already tipped to lay their hands on the trophy prior to the tournament following two years of brilliant ODI cricket displayed the team. Very few would have imagined that by the end of this semifinal, this would turn out to be one of the greatest one-day internationals played of all time.
South Africa won the toss and chose to field first, perhaps due to the fact that Australia had defeated them in a Super Six game while chasing and the Proteas were much successful in the tournament batting second. Despite a strong batting line up Australia had, they had to struggle to get runs on the board. After 17 overs, they were 68/4 with all the top four batsmen back in the pavilion. It had to take a gritty 90-run partnership between captain Waugh and Michael Bevan to give Australia atleast something worthwhile to defend, in a crunch game. They were eventually bowled out for 213 in 49.2 overs as Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald shared 9 wickets between them, ripping apart the Aussies completely.
The Proteas were definitely the favourites to win the match when they came out to bat. Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs started positively, putting on a 48-run opening partnership until it was the time for the Shane Warne magic. Gibbs was dismissed in the next over of his followed by Cronje throwing his wicket away, which meant South Africa were left reeling at 53/3 in 14.3 overs. Warne had put so much pressure that runs began to dry up until Jonty Rhodes showed that he can bat a bit and not just field well, and Jacques Kallis proving his class in a must-win game. But the moment he was dismissed, the wheels had begun to come off and some big hitting from the in-form Lance Klusener got the game closer than expected.
South Africa needed 10 off the last over and Damien Fleming was given the responsibility to pull off the victory. Klusener smashed boundaries off the first two balls and it was almost game over. But the only flaw in his innings was his attempt to give the No.11 Donald the strike and he did not oblige, which eventually got him run out and it was a tie which ironically knocked them out of the tournament due to a relatively low net run rate in comparison to Australia’s. With two balls to spare, this was heartbreak for South Africa as a tie had to come in the semifinal but the match changed the landscape of ODI cricket, with Australia going to win the championship and dominating the sport as a whole for 12 years.
2) Australia vs. South Africa – Melbourne, 2000
The two honchos of ODI cricket had again caught each other’s necks, close to a year after that dramatic semifinal.
Australia had two changes from the 1999 team to play this match while South Africa were without the White Lightening and had a new captain in Shaun Pollock, following Cronje being banned from international cricket for life due to match fixing the very same year.
This time though, South Africa bravely batted first in hostile conditions since the match was played in August, which is one of the months of Australia’s winter season. They could negotiate Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne well enough but Jason Gillespie made a grand return to international cricket with figures of 3/40 in his 10 overs with huge wickets of Kallis, Klusener and Pollock. Kallis once again hit a fifty but Klusener was not as effective with a 21-ball 12. Yet another fifty from Rhodes and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher guided South Africa to a modest total of 226/8 in 50 overs.
Australia seemed to be taking the game away with Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn involved in substantial partnerships. But they all fell, and when the total reached to 177/5, the game had become wide open. Although Australia were still expected to win due to their lower order capable of batting, South Africa’s bowlers created havoc with all-rounder Andrew Hall picking the wickets of Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan in one over, which was the 49th of the innings. Warne and McGrath eventually stayed till the end, but could not hit the winning runs as the match ended in a tie, with Australia also finishing at 226/9 in 50 overs.
This match was a prelude to South Africa challenging Australia’s supremacy in one-day cricket the most amongst all the teams in the world. The 3 match series was leveled at 1-1, with South Africa taking confidence and winning the last game of the series.
3) South Africa vs. Australia – Potchefstroom, 2002
The battle resumed between the two powerhouses, but this time in South Africa. It was the third ODI of the seven match series, with Australia already up 2-0. Neither McGrath nor Warne were playing for the Aussies in this game, and this was the first series under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy due to Steve Waugh dropped from the team. Most of the players went on to play the World Cup in the same country exactly a year after. On the other hand, hosts South Africa were playing almost the similar side that played in the 2000 game.
South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first, relying on the safety approach in one-day cricket if there is confusion as to what to do after winning the toss. But nothing is safe for a batting line-up when there is Brett Lee bowling and his deadly pace caught the South African batsmen off guard throughout the innings. Australia did not feel McGrath’s absence one bit as Lee alongside Gillespie troubled the hosts, as Lee ended with 4 wickets in 9 overs. Incidentally, it was the pair of Kallis and Rhodes which succeeded yet again with fifties and as a result, South Africa could manage a total of 259/7 in 50 overs, which was competitive but a favourable result was not guaranteed.
However, Australia were in early trouble at 40/2 in the first 10 overs, with key batsmen such as Gilchrist and Ponting dismissed for low scores. Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn resurrected the Aussies with a 73-run partnership for the third wicket, with Hayden going on score 78 and cementing his place as an opener in the side. Martyn and Darren Lehmann were also involved in a fifty partnership but all hell broke loose when the top five were given out and the lower order collapsed. Fortunately for the champions, the day was saved by the rookie batsman Jimmy Maher who scored an unbeaten 32-ball 43 while Nathan Hauritz, the No.11 batted sensibly to assure that atleast there is a tie.
Australia went on to win the series 5-1, with this game being a rare instance of the team not dominating a match completely. While this was a relief for South Africa in an otherwise disastrous home series.
4) South Africa vs. Sri Lanka – Durban, 2003
South Africa just does not know how to finish off matches in style! This is the main reason why they are called ‘chokers’ and chokers can never become champions due to fear in the team of losing. This match was reminiscent of the 1999 World Cup semifinal, as this tie was in the 2003 World Cup and incidentally it was another tied game which knocked South Africa out of the competition, this time though in their own backyard and in the last game of the first round.
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first in a day night contest on a lightening quick pitch at Kingsmead, Durban. If it was not for opener Marvan Atapattu’s 129-ball 124 and Aravinda de Silva’s 78-ball 73, the Lankans could have been bowled out under a score of 50. With Kallis’s three wickets helping, the hosts were able to restrict them to 268/9 in 50 overs.
South Africa were always in control despite the middle order floundering to the Lankan spin duo of Muttiah Muralitharan and skipper Sanath Jayasuriya. Herschelle Gibbs played a breathtaking 73 off 88 balls while Mark Boucher remained unbeaten on 45 off just 50 balls, until the weather gods intervened at the end of the 45th over, with the team requiring 40 runs to win from 30 balls. The home team had misread the Duckworth-Lewis calculation which is perhaps the reason why they went easy in their run chase, but had to pay the price of it.
In 45 overs as per the D/L method, South Africa’s score of 229 ensured that a tie will take place if the rain did not stop since the target of 230. And yet again, with the team’s net run rate lower than their major competitors, ironically it was Lance Klusener who remained stranded as South Africa, one of the favourites of the competition could not have hoped any more to win that elusive title. Sport can be so cruel sometimes!
5) South Africa vs. England – Bloemfontein, 2005
South Africa is at it again! This tie was against England seven years ago, in the 2nd ODI of a seven match ODI series at home. England were leading 1-0, so they gained some confidence coming into this game while the hosts desperately wanted to get off the mark in the series.
Graeme Smith won the toss and decided that South Africa would field first. England’s batsmen took complete advantage of this decision and tried to go uncharacteristically berserk on a flat batting wicket. All the four South African pacers got a wicket each, but England dominated more so courtesy the newbie Kevin Pietersen. He remained unbeaten till the end, scoring 108 runs off just 96 balls, announcing himself in grand fashion on the international stage as one of the world’s finest batsmen in the making. The innings was entertaining for many except South African fans who considered him a traitor and booed him almost every time he scored runs. Yet, he showed his character and the fact that he can thrive in pressure situations to the fullest. The century helped England post a competitive total of 270 by the end of 300 balls.
Jacques Kallis seems to have a record of scoring a fifty in every tie South Africa has been involved in ODI cricket. His 78-ball 63 alongside Gibbs’ 101-ball 78 were instrumental in the hosts remaining in the game despite hiccups due to a poor run rate. Justin Kemp chipped in with a 26-ball 32 and with the assistance of Boucher and Pollock, the Proteas reached much closer to the target until the rookie English bowler Kabir Ali bowled a fine last over, which included the wicket of Andrew Hall of the last ball of the match to ensure that England escape with a tie.
Pietersen went on to score two more hundreds in the series, capping off an amazing debut for him but England would go on to lose 1-4, which left their ODI standing questionable.
6) England vs. Australia – Lord’s, 2005
Australia, despite being the world champions have the record of the most number of tied matches in cricketing history. This was the seventh tied match ever that the team has featured in and England’s second in the year 2005, more precisely in a span of five months. This was the Natwest tri-series final at Lord’s, London as Australia looked to add another trophy in their glittering cabinet while England would have wished for some bragging rights ahead of the upcoming Ashes series.
Unlike most tied matches, this game was not a run feast at all. In fact, England skipper Michael Vaughan was so confident of his bowlers making good use of the greenish Lords track that he won the toss and decided to bowl first. Australia shockingly gave in to the English bowling after a 50-run partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. It took a fabulous 62 off 81 balls from Mr. Cricket, Michael Hussey to make the team scramble to a paltry 196 all out in 48.5 overs as Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison were on fire, taking three wickets each.
England though started off horrendously, with the pitch doing all sorts to tricks to test the batsmen. Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath made life miserable for the top order, so much so that England were reduced to 33/5 in just 9.2 overs by the time Flintoff got out. However, Paul Collingwood and wicketkeeper Geraint Jones batted with determination to post a 116-run partnership to take the fight to the bullying Aussies. Unfortunately, both of them were dismissed, which tilted the game back in Australia’s favour.
The spinner Ashley Giles managed to escape with Glenn McGrath’s last ball of the 50th over by scrambling for two runs as leg byes, ensuring that this turned out to be another classic contest as England shared the Natwest Series trophy with the world champions and was a prerequisite to a mesmerizing Ashes to come and so, the most memorable English summer.
7) Ireland vs. Zimbabwe – Jamaica, 2007
Yet another World Cup, yet another tie. Besides, for the first time, it has involved two minnow teams which goes to show that contests between them are worth for viewers to watch and it is not mandatory that top-ranked teams provide the maximum entertainment. Ireland and Zimbabwe were involved in one of the finest matches in World Cup cricket and if not, then definitely in the 2007 edition of the tournament in an otherwise controversial and appalling competition to watch.
Zimbabwe’s captain Prosper Utseya won the toss and elected to field first. Little did he and his team know that there is an opening batsman in the opposition called Jeremy Bray who was going to make it his day with a magnificent hundred as he carried the bat in the innings. His 137-ball 115 was the standout performance in what was otherwise an innings dominated mainly by the Zimbabwean bowlers. Ireland finished at 221/9 in 50 overs and it was almost taken for granted that Zimbabwe would win this game, considering that their batting line-up was strong enough to tackle Ireland’s bowling.
It seemed as the African minnows were running away with the game due to half centuries from openers Vusi Sibanda hitting an 84-ball 67 while Stuart Matsinkenyari remained not out till the end with a quickfire 73 off just 76 balls. They were 203/6 after 43.4 overs but Ireland in a twist of fate picked up the last four wickets for just 18 runs in a span of 6.2 overs, with the No.11 Elton Rainsford run out on the last ball of the match, similar to Allan Donald in 1999.
This ensured Ireland pulling off a completely unexpected tie and moving into the Super Eights stage because they upset Pakistan in the previous round robin match. This was like a win for Ireland, and not a tie since they were able to claw their way back which cannot be considered a fluke, despite Zimbabwe being a more powerful opposition. While for Zimbabwe, this was as good as a loss as they were knocked out of the tournament, losing their best chance to repeat their fate of 2003, when they qualified for the Super Six stage.
8) New Zealand vs. England – Napier, 2008
England will occupy the last three positions in this list. They have never deserved to be in the top 5 of the ODI rankings, but they do produce some exciting cricket to watch. This was on the tour to New Zealand in 2008 in the fourth ODI at McLean Park, Napier.
New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl first. All the top five English batsmen posted fifties to finish at a colossal 340 after 50 overs. Skipper Paul Collingwood remained unbeaten on 54 off just 30 balls, with 36 runs of his coming in huge sixes to get them to the total. In the end, that proved to be the difference between the two teams on what was a pitch which had no margin for error for the bowlers. Apart from the part-timer Jesse Ryder and pacer Kyle Mills, all bowlers took a pounding
New Zealand in reply, started extremely well with a fifty from Brendon McCullum at the top of the order. Jamie How, batting at No.3 smashed a brisk 116-ball 139 but the lower order could contribute only 38 runs off the last 38 balls which meant that New Zealand had tied the game and not won it. Luke Wright, the England all-rounder gave away just 6 runs in the 50th over which was a gamble Collingwood took, but fortunately paid off.
But this meant that England could not win the ODI series as New Zealand continued to lead 2-1, with just one game to go. Yet, this was one of the few games England would prefer to remember in an otherwise disastrous run that year.
9) India vs. England – Bangalore, 2011
In the last four Cricket World Cups, there has been one game which has been a tied fixture. 2011 was no different with a riveting contest ending in this fashion.
Hosts India took on England in their second group game of the championship, coming in as favourites to win. India thrashed Bangladesh in the first match in Dhaka while England were on the verge of being upset in their very first match by their European neighbours and pushovers, The Netherlands.
MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first, wanting to utilize the fresh and flat Chinnaswamy pitch first. With the Indian batting in form, the English bowling looked more erratic than before and runs were coming thick and fast. There were huge partnerships from the Indian top order, with Sachin Tendulkar leading the way for the umpteenth time. He bought up his 47th ODI ton courtesy a breathtaking 115-ball 120, which to an extent demoralized England. A lower order collapse however, saw India bowled out for 338 in 49.5 overs but still the total was gigantic enough to give Andrew Strauss’ men the shivers as they had to chase under lights.
Strauss though, went on to play a captain’s innings with a superb 158 off just 145 balls and not Strauss-like but way too effective as 339 runs were to be chased down. Ian Bell played a good supporting role to his leader with a 71-ball 69. At 281/2 in 42 overs, England seemed to be taking the honours of a stunning win in India, until both Bell and Strauss were dismissed in one over by India’s bowling spearhead, Zaheer Khan. From there, England wobbled but fortunately their lower order could bat and consequently Graeme Swann hung on till the end with a vital 15 off 12 balls for the tie.
India’s confidence was dented for certain, with the UDRS also facing flak. But credit had to be given to England for their fighting spirit despite their inconsistency in ODI cricket. This match made way for a thrilling tournament to see, as India went to on to become world champions while England produced some of the most nail-biting matches ever until they were knocked out in the quarter finals.
10) England vs. India – Lord’s, 2011
As if the World Cup contest was not enough, England and India locked horns again in a match at Lord’s on 11th September 2011. It was turning out to be a horrible tour for India due to a Test series whitewash and being 0-2 down in the 5 match ODI series. This was the 4th ODI and a must win game for the world champion team to salvage some pride.
India’s team was as good as new than the one that played the Bangalore match while England also had few changes with a new captain in Alastair Cook as well as a few newcomers and top bowlers returning from injury. But the intensity of the contest remained the same between both the sides, making it fascinating to watch despite India facing a drubbing throughout the tour.
Cook won the toss and England were to bowl first on a pitch which was moist early in the day, giving some assistance to the fast bowlers. For the first time in months, India played as if they were World Cup winners with some good batting performances from the big guns, Suresh Raina and skipper MS Dhoni. Both of them hit fifties above run a ball to ensure that India, which was 110/4 in 26 overs reached 280/5 in 50 overs as the demons of Bangalore returned in the English pacers.
India started off well, pushing England on the back foot after they were 61/3 in 12.2 overs, losing all the top three batters. But a 98-run partnership between Ian Bell and the comeback man Ravi Bopara set things up nicely for England to chase down the target. However, the moment Bell lost his wicket, the game shifted towards India but they could not capitalize on that wicket as it was Swann yet again, this time alongside Tim Bresnan to have bailed out England. Eventually a tie was secured by the time rain played spoilsport and the D/L method had to be used, with England being 270/8 in 48.5 overs.
The weather gods played Judas by denying India an opportunity to atleast win one match on the wretched tour; while England went on to win 3-0, completing a highly successful home summer since the one in 2005. |
In computer chess there is no getting past Komodo, a two-time ICGA Computer World Chess Champion. Find out how Komodo can take your game to the next level!
5/21/2013 – Recently at the Cork Open a player became suspicious when his opponent went to the toilet twenty time during his game. He followed him and climbed up to watch what was going on in the cubicle. When he saw his opponent checking moves with an Android he dragged him out to expose the cheating. In his editorial for CHESS Magazine Malcolm Pein writes about the rise of cheating in chess.
Editorial – Cheats are prospering
By Executive Editor, IM Malcolm Pein
In his brilliant book from 1977, How to Cheat at Chess, Bill Hartston wrote something like: “If God did not want us to analyse on our pocket set in the toilet, he would not have given us paper on which to make notes.” 40 years ago cheating was a joke. In the electronic age it is anything but.
Something has to be done about it before we have an epidemic, some serious fisticuffs, more bad publicity or just a general darkening of the mood, to the extent that every time there is an upset, people start muttering that the victor must be cheating. Indeed at the recent European Individual Championships there was such an incident and the whisperings were entirely unjustifiable.
With some mobile phones now having software that is playing to about 2400, the temptation to sneak off and check some lines is proving too much for some and what particularly saddens me is that junior players have been caught. Recently at the Cork Open, Gabriel Mirza, whose daughter plays for the Irish junior team, became suspicious of his teenage opponent who had gone to the toilet “at least 20 times”. Now I wouldn’t recommend his course of action but this is what he was quoted as saying in the papers:
“After each move this guy was leaving the room. I went a few times around to where his pals were playing, but he was not there. I went to the toilet where there was just one locked. I entered in the next cubical, climbed on the toilet to watch over to the one which was occupied, and, surprise, he [was there] with an Android checking the moves with a chess engine.”
At this point he dragged his opponent out and there was a physical altercation. Obviously I can’t tell you exactly what happened, but Mr Mirza denies assault and the matter might end up in court. If I were the parents of the boy I would be trying to avoid any more publicity. The tournament organiser Gerry Graham expelled both players: Mirza for his reaction and the boy for cheating. He admitted it, although he didn’t need to as he was caught red-handed. I must say I have some sympathy for Mr Mirza. I honestly don’t know how I would react in his position, but if he did assault a minor then there is obviously no excuse for that.
In England recently a junior player cheated and was expelled from a tournament. There have been other incidents with adults. FIDE have been unable or unwilling to take a lead. Pathetic, but hardly surprising. Therefore I think it must fall to the ECF to come up with a set of disciplinary measures that can be implemented in England and, if the other chess unions want, in the rest of the UK.
Thanks to Professor Ken Regan and others, we can tell when a computer has been used or appears to have been used. This, combined with the rating of the player, enables an arbiter to judge with near certainty if there has been cheating. So I would like to propose the ECF Directors come up with some enforceable sanctions that can be implemented in these cases. I hope we can begin a debate, but my instinct would be something like:
For junior players, a one year ban and for a second offence five years.
For adult players, a five year ban and for a second offence a life ban.
CHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by Richard Palliser. The Executive Editor is Malcolm Pein, who organised the London Chess Classic.
CHESS is mailed to subscribers in over 50 countries. You can subscribe from Europe and Asia
at a specially discounted rate for first timers here or from North America here. |
In our daily lives, auditory stream segregation allows us to differentiate concurrent sound sources and to make sense of the scene we are experiencing. However, a combination of segregation and the concurrent integration of auditory streams is necessary in order to analyze the relationship between streams and thus perceive a coherent auditory scene. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigates the relative role and neural underpinnings of these listening strategies in multi-part musical stimuli. We compare a real human performance of a piano duet and a synthetic stimulus of the same duet in a prioritized integrative attention paradigm that required the simultaneous segregation and integration of auditory streams. In so doing, we manipulate the degree to which the attended part of the duet led either structurally (attend melody vs. attend accompaniment) or temporally (asynchronies vs. no asynchronies between parts), and thus the relative contributions of integration and segregation used to make an assessment of the leader-follower relationship. We show that perceptually the relationship between parts is biased towards the conventional structural hierarchy in western music in which the melody generally dominates (leads) the accompaniment. Moreover, the assessment varies as a function of both cognitive load, as shown through difficulty ratings and the interaction of the temporal and the structural relationship factors. Neurally, we see that the temporal relationship between parts, as one important cue for stream segregation, revealed distinct neural activity in the planum temporale. By contrast, integration used when listening to both the temporally separated performance stimulus and the temporally fused synthetic stimulus resulted in activation of the intraparietal sulcus. These results support the hypothesis that the planum temporale and IPS are key structures underlying the mechanisms of segregation and integration of auditory streams, respectively.
Introduction
Multi-part music is an example of a complex auditory scene. Bregman [1] has proposed that stream segregation and, through it, auditory scene analysis is based on general gestalt principles such as temporal proximity or closeness in pitch. Through these principles, stream segregation for multi-part music is based for example, on distances in pitch space, with small distances belonging to the same musical part and large distances between pitches allowing for differentiation of parts (for more details on segregation cues in music see [2], [3]). Another grouping cue that has been proposed is a hierarchical structural relationship of melody and accompaniment, with the melody dominating perceptually over the harmonizing accompaniment [1], [4], [5]. However, segregating music into its component streams is often made more challenging by different parts having the same or similar timbre (e.g. string quartet or piano duets) and harmony between the parts as horizontal (i.e. over time) and vertical (i.e. fusion of tones within chords) grouping may compete for perception [1], [6], [7]. Temporal components such as differences in note onsets or asynchronies between parts might represent more reliable cues in such situations [1], [6], [8].
The perceptual analysis of complex auditory scenes relies upon two specific mechanisms, stream segregation and stream integration. While stream segregation is necessary to group sequential auditory information coming from different sources, integration, as a higher order process, then places streams into the same representational space to allow for an assessment of the relationship between them (i.e. distance, space, structural importance) [9]–[11]. Two neuroanatomical structures have been implicated in these mechanisms.
It has been proposed that the planum temporale (PT) is involved in segregating incoming auditory streams [12], [13]. More specifically, different relevant information about stimulus attributes such as spatial position, movement [13], temporal cues [14], [15] or general spectro-temporal patterns are used to segregate streams and are then used to forward stimulus information to the parietal lobe for further processing [12], [13].
The integration of information from different sources, on the other hand, is achieved through the involvement of the inferior parietal cortex (IPC). Across sensory modalities, the IPC has been implicated in the processing of the relationship [10] or magnitude [9], [16] of and between objects. Relevant to the auditory domain, this brain area has been shown to be activated during the assessment of pitch relations such as comparing a melody to a reversed melody [10], [17], [18] or the assessment of temporal relations (i.e. comparing time intervals, [19]) [19]–[22].
It has been hypothesized that a form of divided attention, termed “prioritized integrative attention” is employed when listening to or producing multi-part music [11], [23]–[25]. This kind of attention allows the listener to prioritize one of the streams while still integrating the rest so as to capture a holistic sound scape and to assess the relationships between the parts. Prioritized integrative attention may thus be uniquely suited to the investigation of auditory scene analysis, where both segregation and integration of streams is required.
Relationships between streams can be determined based on different attributes of the streams (i.e. louder than, higher in pitch than, faster than, etc.) and are especially important in music [26] as they contribute to the perception of a “conversation like” relationship between voices of instruments (cf. [27]). This relationship may be more abstract, encompassing, for example, leader and follower roles between the different instrument parts [28]. Leading and following in music can be described on a temporal basis: one player intentionally or unintentionally produces sounds slightly temporally ahead and, as such, is temporally leading [28]–[32]. Alternatively, leading and following can also be defined structurally with the melody leading and the accompaniment following, as is conventionally the case for many western styles of music [1], [4], [5], [11], [27], [33]. A hierarchy in which the melody leads or even dominates the accompaniment perceptually is sometimes considered to be analogous to visual figure-ground perception, with the melody defining the figure and the accompaniment the background [4], [5]. In everyday life, music listeners are in general more familiar with this kind of structural relationship (melody lead) than the reverse (accompaniment lead), which can influence their perception via top-down mechanisms [11]. Leader and follower roles can thus be defined either through a temporal manipulation, which relates to asynchronies between voices, or through the structural relationship of a musical piece, which relates to a hierarchical structure where the melody leads in western music.
In a recent paper [11] we were able to show that both kinds of relationship (structural and temporal) interact on a behavioral as well as on a neural level, highlighting the value of prioritized integrative attention tasks for ongoing research in music perception. The previous study explored the interaction of the leader-follower relationship factors by manipulating the temporal relationship and contrasting a natural performance stimulus without a global leader with an exaggerated global temporal leader. In this case the exaggeration, although synthetically created, was still within the range of natural performance asynchronies. The effect of the temporal relationship on behavioral as well as neural responses could however not be interpreted strongly in favor of the segregation mechanism, as both kinds of stimuli could be segregated on the basis of temporal cues. In the present study, the same task was used in order to explore in greater detail the neural underpinnings of segregation and integration as mechanisms involved in listening to multi-part music (piano duets). The leader-follower relationship was manipulated by using a recording of a real performance of the duet, which included natural local temporal variations between parts (asynchronies) and was contrasted with a synthetically computer-generated version of the duet in which there were no temporal variations within or between parts. The use of a synthetic control stimulus is consistent with common practice in imaging studies exploring the neural underpinnings of music listening, which employ synthetic stimuli instead of natural performances e.g. [34]. Participants were cued to follow (prioritize) one of two duet streams and therefore to segregate the streams present in a piano duet stimulus. A question about the leader-follower relationship between parts of the duet presented after the listening task, however, also necessitated participants to concurrently integrate the second stream into a common representational space with the first stream. Participants were required to judge whether the attended part was leading or following compared to the second duet part. Only by integrating the two streams could a picture of a leader-follower relationship between melody and accompaniment of the duet emerge.
In the performance stimulus, depending on the direction of the asynchrony, either the melody or the accompaniment part was temporally leading or following locally, but not globally across the entire recording (i.e., the median asynchrony between parts was close to zero). As such, there was no temporal relationship cue available for segregating the two piano duet streams. Both parts of the piano duet had the same instrumental timbre, therefore segregation of streams for both kinds of stimuli differed based on the temporal relationship between parts [1], [8]. The temporal relationship between parts, being one possible factor defining leader-follower roles in music, was expected to be a factor driving the perception of the leader-follower relationship between parts. Nevertheless, it was unclear whether the temporally separated performance stimulus or the - due to the lack of a changing temporal relationship between parts – much simpler temporally fused synthetic stimulus would be more difficult to judge.
For the subjective assessment of the leader-follower relationship, we thus posited that the performance stimulus could be rated based on its temporal relationship, its structural relationship or, as participants were not directly aware of these two components, a combination of both relationship factors. By contrast, the leader-follower relationship between parts of the synthetic stimulus could only be based on the structural, hierarchical relationship. A comparison of the two different stimulus types would thus shed light on the integration of the structural and temporal relationship factors between parts as well as on segregation processes based on the difference in the cues of the temporal relationship, which we hypothesized to involve the PT. The assessment of the relationship and thus integration of parts, however, was expected to be represented by common activations for both stimulus types – the temporally separable performance and temporally inseparable synthetic stimulus - within the IPC. |
The groin strain that kept Lee Nguyen out of action during the back end of the Revolution preseason schedule can actually be traced back to last year’s postseason push.
On Wednesday, the 2014 MVP finalist told the media that he originally suffered the injury during training in early-November, saying that he woke up the following day “really sore.”
“I’ve been playing with it like a little pain there ever since then, and (went) into (U.S.) camp with it,” Nguyen said. “I had a little PRP (platelet-rich plasma) shot, got some rest and that seemed to do the trick. So hopefully, we can manage it, and it’ll be fine.”
Nguyen said that he worked with the training staff to lessen the stress on the injury, but that initially, shooting from distance – a specialty in the midfielder’s arsenal – wasn’t something he enjoyed.
“Anything past 30 yards was pretty painful, pretty stressful on the groin,” Nguyen said. “There were some days in which I just opted not to shoot.”
But with the Revolution in midst of their deepest postseason run in seven years, Nguyen wasn’t afforded the luxury of taking an extended rest to allow the injury to heal.
“I was able to manage it through the season, and was able to get some rest at the end, in Dec. and Jan. there helped it out, too,” Nguyen said. “The PRP shot made it feel better prior.”
Although was able to train on Wednesday, Nguyen stopped short of declaring himself ready to go for Sunday’s First Kick clash against Seattle.
“We’ll see,” Nguyen said. “I’m training with the team right now, and we’ll see.”
If Nguyen does miss Sunday’s opener, it’ll be the second straight First Kick clash he’ll miss due to injury. He missed last year’s season-opener in Houston due to a right groin strain. |
There are types of stories called “conspiracy theories” and the people who teach them are considered by “society” as crazy fanatics who often need medical treatment. What if I tell you that “society” should take some of that medical treatment, cause sometimes such incredible stories, nobody believed in, turn out to be 100% true.
What if I tell you that the doctors did not treat us, just wait until we die to cut our bodies?
1. Tuskegee syphilis experiment
In the years 1932-1972, there were a series of experiments on about 400 syphilis-infected black citizens of the United States. The study selected the poor, simple and uneducated – most of them did not even know about their illness. U.S. Public Health Service had promised free treatment to patients. In fact, they were given aspirin. The purpose of this “experiment” was to observe a progressive disease in representatives of the black race, and the scientific autopsy of deceased participants in these studies. As a result, 28 people died directly of syphilis, 100 died as a result of complications directly related to the disease, 40 women were infected by unconscious patients, and 19 children were born with congenital disease.
The sad truth about the Tuskegee Experiment was confirmed in 1997 by President Bill Clinton, who officially and publicly apologized to the eight surviving participants in these studies.
What if I tell you that the U.S. government itself commits “acts of terror” on its land, just to have an excuse to invade another country?
2. Operation Northwoods
In 1997, as a result of the murder of J.F. Kennedy, fifteen hundred pages of documents entitled “Operation Northwoods” were declassified. In the 60s, the United States was preparing for war with Cuba. To fire up the war machine public support was needed. In turn the defense secretary presented a paper called “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba” so they had a whole range of interesting provocations, such as terrorist attacks involving the blowing up military bases, starting fires, aircraft hijacking, “landing” of Cuban troops , bombings, and even the sinking of a boat full of armed Cubans.
see the full document for yourself here
These false flag terrorist attacks were to be carried out by the CIA on a massive scale so that the citizens of the United States would feel threatened by Fidel Castro and the government had an excuse to start a war. The plan was never implemented however, as president Kennedy met with the General Lyman Lemnitzer and rejected the plan of operation. This time it did not work …
What if I tell you that it is just about oil?
3. Nayirah Testimony
In August 1990 there was conflict between Iraq and Kuwait, mostly over oil fields as Saddam Hussein accused Kuwaitis of theft of these resources. On October 10th the whole world turned its eyes toward a fifteen-year old girl named Nayirah, who wept profusely as she talked about inhumane crimes committed by Iraqi soldiers. The young Kuwaiti was to witness the killing of more than 300 babies in a hospital. The dramatic speech touched the hearts of viewers and managed to drum up overwhelming support for the involvement of the United States in this conflict and the outbreak of the Gulf War.
When the battle dust settled, someone took a closer look at Nayirah. Quickly it became apparent that the sobbing girl in front of millions of viewers was the daughter of Sheikh Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah – Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States and a member of the royal family. The child was handed to PR whizzes – Hill & Knowlton company, where she passed a course in comprehensive acting training. It had to work out – the company bosses signed an $11.9 million contract with the Kuwaiti royal family. The task was simple — to persuade the U.S. to military to take action against Iraq. Nayirah lied. This time it worked …
What if I tell you that the leading Nazi scientists got a job in USA after the war?
4. Operation Paperclip.
World War II was coming to an end and nothing more could change the situation of the Third Reich. American special forces had acknowledged that it would be a pity if some people lost their lives, especially those whose knowledge and experience could potentially serve the interests of the United States. As part of Operation Paperclip, they smuggled into the U.S. a group of gifted scientists from the Nazi rocket industry, medicine and chemical weapons divisions.
In the safe arms of Uncle Sam there were, among others, Wernher Von Braun (SS-man, the creator of the famous missile V-2), Kurt Blome (a doctor specializing in biological weapons, which tested their inventions on prisoners in Auschwitz) and Hubertus Strughold (“father of space medicine” who examined the effect of extremely low temperatures on the human body in camp Dachau). In total, 700 German “men of science”, found their new home on American soil.
What if I tell you that the government controls your mind?
5. MK-Ultra
In many conspiracy theories there are fragments of “Big Brother”, which uses a variety of different methods to brainwash the public. It turns out that playing with people’s minds was actually done by the CIA a good half a century ago! In the 60s, thanks to the NY Times reporters, details of the MK-Ultra project came to light, which was aimed to investigate the human ability to be controlled by the use of certain chemicals, subliminal messages, electrical impulses and psychoactive substances. The project itself consisted of a number of sub-projects. For example, MK-Search was designed to create the perfect truth serum that could be used on captured Russian spies.
They also looked into research on the practical use of LSD. Experiments were conducted on prostitutes, prisoners and people with mental illness. Often times without their knowledge or consent. One such experiment was to give the drug to seven volunteers continuously for 77 days … Among the substances, with which the CIA dealt was also amphetamines, psilocybin and mescaline. They also experimented with hypnotic seances. When information about MK-Ultra was released to the public, a number of committees of inquiry were established and this research was formally and publicly condemned.
It is often said that the infamous project was one of the factors which resulted in the generation of the hippie movement. Ken Kesey – author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, as a volunteer, was participating in one of the experiments, prepared by the CIA. The effect of LSD on the human mind intrigued the writer so much, that he became one of the first proponents of the use of psychedelic drugs in the context of recreation. Another member of psychedelic experimentation was Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead …
We know that these theories turned out to be true. And how many more are waiting to be revealed? There are some people who do a lot to hide the truth. |
This 1991 Mercedes Benz 560 SEL is a well-sorted example with 115K miles and extensive recent maintenance. Work included new drive belts, new brakes, suspension bushings, repaired power accessories, an oil change, a new set of tires, and more detailed below. The car is accident-free with a very clean interior and comes with a clean CarFax report, all its original books, tool kit, jack, and first aid kit. The seller purchased the car in 2006 with 96k miles and used it as a daily driver for 2 years. He has since driven it on occassion to special events and road trips.
The body is straight with matching VIN numbers on all original body panels. The bumpers and lower body cladding have just been repainted with a full exterior detail, giving the car a fresh appearance. Chrome fender trim was added when new and all trim is present. The only notable flaws are two scratches on the rear license plate panel that were touched up by hand, and one ding on the driver’s side drip rail (shown in photo).
The seller has replaced the headlights and headlight bezels with new OE units to complete the cosmetic freshening. The SEL currently has 17″ AMG wheels that were on the car when purchased. The back wheels do have some clearcoat failure in the rim area (see photo close-up), but fronts are very nice. Tires are Kumho Ecsta with less than 500 miles on them. The original OE 15″ wheels come with the car.
The interior is a strong point and present very nicely. Tan leather is supple and shows no tears, scratches or discoloration. All power options work correctly including; cruise control, climate control, the original Becker radio/cassette player, A/C, sunroof, power door locks, and power seats.
Recent fixes include replacing the right rear window regulator, repairing the cruise control and charging the A/C. These cars are spacious and comfortable, with standard equipment like sunroof, heated seats and mirrors, and reclining rear seat.
All other interior surfaces like door panels and carpet (notice the custom Lloyds floor mats with Mercedes initials) look great. The power window veneer switch panel finish has faded some, but all other wood veneer panels look very good.
The original 5.6 L V8 has been well maintained. This year the car received all new belts—A/C, air pump, alternator, and power steering. The seller is an ASE Master Tech who also executed a fresh oil change and filter, using Mobil1 and OE filter, which he says he’s always used during his ownership.
New valve cover gaskets were just installed. And to keep engine noise down and the bay looking tidy a new hood pad was installed. During this service the A/C was also checked, evacuated and charged. The 4-speed automatic operates smoothly. These put out 238 hp when new and did 0-60 in about 8 seconds—impressive for such a big car.
The seller says driving this car is an absolute joy. The ride is very smooth and controlled with its hydropneumatic self leveling suspension. The seller has just gone through the chassis—installing new sub-frame bushings, rear shock mounts, differential mount, upper and lower shock bushings as well as new motor mounts. New front rotors have been installed along with new front and rear EBC brake pads. |
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
but ... what of the ... shutdown ... the investor to put money in the morgue exactly five years ago ... I'm really lucky ... I'm an emotional into thousandnine ... the Dow one Dow ... closing at six thousand five hundred and forty seven ... fifty four percent below its pre financial crisis hall ... so when you write your money and at the very bottom of the market ... if you'd invested ten thousand bucks in a broad stock market index fund five years ago ... and left it there and touched ... to have more than tripled your money ... to around thirty one thousand dollars ... a head to use the same ten thousand dollars on that same day to buy gold as ... an investment the a lot less glittery ... worth around half as much as the stock investments ... around fourteen thousand dollars ... yet is that one for Barrons purchasing ten thousand dollars in shares of Pimco's flagship bond mutual fund ... today you'd be around seems to be with gold ... fifteen thousand dollars ... and if you really played it safe parking at ten thousand dollars in a money market account ... five years later he had made a grand total of ... three four inch ... twenty six dollars ... contracts ... |
THE Newcastle Jets expect their new Official Supporter Club program to attract an extra 1500 fans to Sunday’s home game against Western Sydney Wanderers. The Jets have asked three of the 11 clubs who have signed up for the pilot program to sell discounted tickets to the game in return for a cut of the proceeds. New Lambton, Kahibah and Wallsend will participate on Sunday in a program designed to improve the A-League club’s links with the Hunter football community and boost crowds. New Lambton juniors are understood to have sold 850 tickets to the game and will meet for a barbecue at Wallarah Oval before marching to the ground. Jets and Northern NSW Football chief executive David Eland said clubs in the program would be involved in promotional activities on and off the field. “This program also aims to link the identities of our official supporter clubs and the Newcastle Jets,” Eland said. “Each official supporter club will receive a giant flag with their club crest plus Jets branding, and flag bearers from each club will become part of a new pre-match tradition in order to visually reflect the Jets’ commitment to the grassroots football community.” From July, participating clubs will sell to their members six-game passes for next season in return for a portion of the ticket revenue.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/TFWurqJd3WWgt5tunziPf4/94086593-910c-4983-85e4-89fc7bf55931.jpg/r0_239_3000_1934_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg |
‘Daesh was only done through Turkey’: Iraq PM 8:07 AM ET Thu, 21 Jan 2016 | 02:25
As the Middle East grapples to contain the terrorist group that calls itself Islamic State, the prime minister of Iraq has cast doubt on neighboring Turkey's willingness to combat the problem.
Haider Al-Abadi, who has led Iraq since 2014, told CNBC on Thursday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that Turkey viewed the Kurdish population within its border as a greater problem than the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or Daesh.)
"The Turks are telling us otherwise, (that) they're eager to fight Daesh. But I'm telling them frankly, I'm not seeing evidence of that. I hope to see more evidence of that," Al-Abadi said.
"I think they have to shift their priority from considering the Kurds as their problem, to Daesh as their major problem. I think that the bombing of some targets inside Turkey by Daesh, that's an alarm to them. They must take it seriously," he later added. |
Tonight, we are without Rayfyst, he is dealing with a pizza emergency on St. Patty’s day, but he could actually be batman, as we spoke to in episode 122, and he is out saving people from making horrible life decisions, or encouraging them to. Either way we are joined by guest Rho from Realm Maintenance and All Things Azeroth.
Random World News
Zombie Worms Get Busy in Whale Bones- http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/14/17313287-how-zombie-worms-have-sex-in-whale-bones?lite
Bacon News
Denny’s Baconalia – http://bacontoday.com/dennys-baconalia-menu-2013/
Gaming News
No Saints Row 4 on Wii U – http://www.gamespot.com/news/no-saints-row-iv-on-wii-u-6405397
Warcraft – MMO Champion took a screenshot of a twitter conversation w/ Cory Stockton on Improvements for unlucky rolls coming http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2013/march/LuckyRolls.png
Warcraft – MMORPG interview with Ghostcrawler revealed a few items New character models are still actively being worked on. The Dwarf is very pretty. Pandaren are a good example of how detailed the new models will be. Moving to free to play would require it to be more successful than the current business model, which isn’t the case right now. Work had started on Patch 5.2 and 5.3 before 5.0 even launched.
Discussion Topic: Ghostcrawler’s unannounced feature might be in Patch 5.4 if it is complete in time. As far as a hint goes, “A lot of players have suggested that they be able to do older content, so it is something along those lines”.
FOFFs, & Random Facts!
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