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Rappers New Champ and Innovator are currently involved in a diss battle — read on to find out what’s going on.
It started yesterday, April 4, when New Champ released another part of his project ‘2016 Weekly Song’. The song is titled ‘전채요리 + 곰탕 2%‘ (Appetizer + Beef Soup 2%).((‘곰탕’ is ambiguous and can also be read as ‘Bear Soup’, while ‘bear’ refers to Innovator))
In this single, New Champ bluntly expresses his feelings on the current Khiphop scene (please note: these are only extracts so the translations might not be too exact):
“블랙넛없는 힙합은 검은콩 없는 교도소” — Hiphop without Black Nut is like prison without black beans((Black beans are commonly associated with prison in Korea since the prison food back in the day was rice with black beans; there even is a saying “to eat rice with beans” which means to be imprisoned.))
is like prison without black beans((Black beans are commonly associated with prison in Korea since the prison food back in the day was rice with black beans; there even is a saying “to eat rice with beans” which means to be imprisoned.)) (still on the topic of Black Nut) “이 병신아 완벽하신 인간이 어딨어 소녀시대는 안티없냐” — You retard, nobody’s perfect, even SNSD have haters
“Show me the money 나갔다와서 욕하기도 욕하다가 나가기도 완전 개판. 쌈디, 레디, 서출구가 웬 말? But 명심해 그들도 MC기전 똑같은 인간” — You get insulted for having been on SMTM , cussing on SMTM then leaving is a complete mess too. What can Simon.D, Reddy, and Seo Chulgu say? But remember, before being an MC they are humans like anyone else
, cussing on SMTM then leaving is a complete mess too. What can Simon.D, Reddy, and Seo Chulgu say? But remember, before being an MC they are humans like anyone else “시대처럼 생각도 당연히 변하기 마련” — Like the times, ways of thinking will naturally change too
“기회주의자 새끼들 쌈디까는 게 자승자박” — Opportunists who diss Simon.D fall into their own trap
“제발 좀 니껄해 요즘 다 지코 목소리, 평생해봐라 널 기억하나 지코만 좋은 일” — Please do your own thing, these days everyone raps like Zico. Even if you do that your whole life, will anyone remember you? Only Zico will be happy
will be happy “그러고 보니 내게 감사한 존재 산이형, 지코” — Come to think of it, I am thankful to San E-hyung and Zico
“반면 곱 씹어 볼수록 좆같은 놈도 있어, 베이식 배에 올라타는 게이놈 이노베이터, 알고보니 처음부터 곰으로 위장한 여우” — On the other hand, there’s a guy who pisses me off more and more, gay ass Innovator on top of Basick, turns out that from the beginning he’s been a fox disguised as a bear((A fox = a sly, intelligent, deceitful person; a bear = a harmless, peaceful, dull, easygoing person))
on top of Basick, turns out that from the beginning he’s been a fox disguised as a bear((A fox = a sly, intelligent, deceitful person; a bear = a harmless, peaceful, dull, easygoing person)) “니가 미국 추방시킨 내 친구 얘기도 남았어” — I still need to talk about my friend who you had sent off to the US
“진짜 요린 난중에 공개할게 레시피.그 요리 이름은 what? Inno rest in peace” — I’ll reveal the recipe for the real dish later, what is the dish’s name? Inno rest in peace
However, only the last part where he disses Innovator received attention. From the looks of it, several things seem to have happened between the two. On the same day (April 4), Innovator already responded with the track ‘뉴챔프는 좆이나빨지‘ (New Champ, go suck some d*ck) which he tagged as #Comedy.
Here are some parts of the lyrics:
“대마초 팔던 니 친구는 미국행 내가 찔렀어 찔렀어 set him up and 깜빵행 이유는 간단해 니가 말하듯 인간은 완벽하지 않아 그래 내가 유다새끼네” — Your friend who sold drugs went to the US, I snitched on him, set him up and sent him to prison, the reason is simple: as you said, nobody’s perfect. Yes, I’m a damn Judas
“왜 디스질인지 지코 좆이나 빨지 블랙넛 좆이나 빨지 산이좆이나 빨지” — Why are you dissing? Go suck Zico’s d*ck, go suck Black Nut’s d*ck, go suck San E’s d*ck
“니가 욕하고자하는 사건 5년전 그럼 나도 한번 가볼까 한 5년전 “이노야 나 피처링좀 시켜줘” 난 형 스타일 싫어 제발 제발 비켜줘 그래도 원했기에 mixtape lab #2 너에게 랩할 기회를 줬구 니 flow 두부였네 tofu yes b*tch you lose 거품” — The incident you’re dissing me for was five years ago , so I’ll bring up something from about five years ago too. “Inno, let me feature on your track.” I hate your style so please, please, go away. Yet you wanted it so I gave you a chance to rap on Mixtape Lab #2. Your flow was tofu , yes b*tch you lose, bubble
, so I’ll bring up something from about five years ago too. “Inno, let me feature on your track.” I hate your style so please, please, go away. Yet you wanted it so I gave you a chance to rap on Mixtape Lab #2. , yes b*tch you lose, bubble “곰탕이되기전에 되버렸네 쿵푸 팬더곰” — Before becoming ‘bear soup’ (beef soup), I’ve become a kung fu panda
“니가 받고싶은건 주목이지 쇼미 출연 두번 예선 탈락 병신” — You want attention, you retard who was eliminated in SMTM’s preliminaries twice
And just one day later (today, April 5) Innovator uploaded another diss track titled ‘제목없음‘ (Untitled), also tagged as #Comedy.
He raps:
“man it is not your business”
“이슈메이킹 노린 비린내나는 니 weekly shit 은 weak” — Your stinky weekly shit that just aims to make issues is weak
that just aims to make issues is weak “basick love my shit.”
“b*tch please, 넌 상대할 가치 없지.” — b*tch please, you’re not a worth opponent
To this, New Champ replied about two hours ago with the track ‘4:44‘.
“뻥 아니고 니 디스곡 면도하며 들었어” — No shit, I listened to your diss track while shaving
“계속 틀어 놓았다가 그 사이에 잠에 들었어” — I kept it on repeat and fell asleep
“얼마나 분했으면 한곡을 더 내놓았네 근데 이번껀 진심.. 장의사, 지 관을 짜놓았네” — How angry you must have been to release another track. But this one, seriously .. undertaker, you dug your own grave
“넌 디스가 장난같냐 난 몰입부터가 달라” — Does dissing seem like a joke to you? I’m different, I’m serious
He further recounts in detail what upset him when he and Innovator were on SMTM in the YG team together, disses Innovator for the way he treats fellow female rappers, calls him “homo” again and says that he should change his name to “gay.” He also explains himself:
“5년이나 된 얘기를 왜 꺼내냐고 ? 진짜 미쳤어? 넌 잊었겠지만 그들은 오늘까지 고통에 살아” — Why I’m bringing up something from five years ago? Are you seriously crazy? You might have forgotten but they are still living in pain((“They” refers to the friend(s) who Innovator apparently betrayed.))
Korean fans are not too interested in the dissing, but most of those who commented did so in favor of New Champ, praising his puns, disses, and flow. We can only wait and see if Innovator will react again to New Champ’s latest diss track.
Reference: HiphopLE
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I am working on a Raspberry Pi based robot, and recently acquired a Dagu chassis and a Dagu Mini Driver for this project. As soon as I had the mini driver hooked up and the wheels starts turning, I felt an irresistible urge 😉 to put an ultrasonic sensor on the chassis and have it roam around by itself.
I’ve written about hooking up the inexpensive and fun Ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 with an Arduino before. The wiring is the same – instead of a real Ardunio board, we’re just using the Arduino compatible Dagu Mini driver here. You can see some details for this board at the link below. Unfortunately, they don’t give you the full schematics.
http://www.dagurobot.com/goods.php?id=142
As far as construction goes, the Dagu chassis is very easy to put together. It can, and in fact it was put together by a 9 year old. 🙂
Also as you can see, I’ve used very high tech Tie Wrap Technology to attach the sensor to the chassis. 😉
The motors and the board are powered by a 3000 mAh 1A Anker rechargeable battery – good stuff!
The programming part is quite simple. The main loop sends out a ping on the ultrasonic sensor. If it returns a distance less than a set threshold the wheels are made to stop and reverse. Then, the chassis is made to turn left by a bit, and this process repeats. This is a very simplistic algorithm, but you can modify it for more sophisticated behavior.
You can see the robot in action in the video below.
Here is the full source code:
Not a complex project by a long shot. But it was a great fun detour for me, and I hope you find some useful information here. |
After making my transition from full-time employee to full-time freelancer, it seemed (at least initially) as though I’d crossed the finish line in my career… However, I quickly came to learn that my end-goal was a bit short-sighted and that firing my boss wasn’t actually the finish line I’d thought it was all along.
Did achieving my goal feel good? Hell yes it did! It felt absolutely amazing… But, as it turns out, that was “just” a milestone in my career, not the finish line.
I don’t mean to belittle this milestone though… Honestly, removing the nine-to-five shackles and gaining complete freedom over my schedule was no small task, and it’s still one of my proudest accomplishments to-date.
However, it didn’t take very long to realize that I was squandering some of this wonderful opportunity that I’d created for myself… You see, as an employee I’d been so focused on gaining this freedom over my schedule that I’d all but forgotten about arguably the biggest perk that freelancing has to offer.
What perk is that, you ask? — Freedom of location.
About a year after I’d made my transition from full-time employee to full-time freelancer it hit me like a ton of bricks… The realization that the things I was daydreaming about hadn’t really changed much at all.
Sure, I’d crossed a few material items off my list along with some very mild financial independence, but the most important thing was still in the exact same position it had always been… Perched at the very tippy-top of my bucket list was the following item — Travel the world.
Now, I’m not saying my “travel the world” line-item has gone completely unscathed up until this point, it certainly hasn’t…
I have indeed indulged in my location independence a handful times to speak at various WordCamp events throughout North America and Europe. However, none of my previous travels lasted much longer than a week. And if I’m being completely honest here, many of those trips weren’t much more than extended weekends I’d spent lounging around airports waiting out tremendously long layovers, because apparently I have quite the knack for predicting which flights will be delayed (or cancelled completely) then proceeding to book them…
Anyways, I’m not here to complain about Frontier Airlines, so let’s get back on topic shall we?
Okay, so, we were talking about freedom of location, and more specifically, crossing “travel the world” off my bucket list.
Well, back when I was an employee working a “real” nine-to-five job my daydreams often started with “if”… But today, as a freelancer, I’m extremely fortunate that these thoughts are now more a matter of “when” than “if”.
And for me, the time is now.
It took me less than two years to fully entrench myself in the “I’m having the time of my life” phase, and I don’t see the glow wearing off anytime soon.
I’ve built a successful freelancing business as an expert WordPress developer from my home base in Arizona, but, as of a few short-weeks ago, I’ve officially taken on a new title — digital nomad.
It’s true, I’ve parted with the material possessions that have kept me in one place. My townhouse, gone… My Audi, adios (this one still stings a little bit). Anyways, I’ll still be providing all of my clients with same level of exceptional service, it’s just that I’ll be doing it from the Caribbean, Central America, or really anywhere tropical.
If you’d have approached me a couple years ago (back when I was an employee) and told me that this would be my life once I got things rolling as a freelancer, I’m not sure if I would have believed you. But fast forward these few short years and I’m living proof that literally anything is possible.
The whole point of this major shift in work was to make equally major shifts in lifestyle. Instead of clinging on to ten vacation days a year at an office gig, freelancers are able to marry travel and work and still get just as much done. Do you think half-day Fridays are a great perk at your job? Try visiting a new country, whenever you feel like it.
If you’re like me and you can’t sit still in one place for too long, then why haven’t you made the jump to full-time freelancer yet? Don’t sit around waiting for other people to dictate the terms of your employment — I sure didn’t.
The freelance life is available to pretty much anyone these days with the proliferation of outsourcing platforms and the opportunities to network across every major industry. But if you’re currently a WordPress developer and you’re sitting at an office counting down the days until your next “paid vacation,” start making your plan to leave that gig behind!
Seriously, you can do the same work you’re doing now, for better clients (and better pay) by joining Codeable, WP Engine or a number of other platforms available to WordPress experts.
I’ve outlined my strategy for making the switch to freelancer many times — in fact, it’s the centerpiece of the WordCamp sessions I’ve been fortunate enough to host all around the world. If you follow my lead, you just might soon be facing first-world problems, like which island you want to live on for the next few months?
You too can build this lifestyle for yourself, and it doesn’t have to take long either.
Thanks for indulging me as I shared my exciting news… Now, if you’re thinking of making the transition to life as a digital nomad yourself, please head on over and read this how-to guide I’ve published which outlines my transitions from full-time employee to full-time freelncer to digital nomad, step by step. |
Alex Tahou with tickets
Tonight, my husband, Mike, and I decided to skip cooking and enjoy dinner at the Lilac Festival. Mike headed to the big food tent to buy his favorite: the Garbage Plate. Mike will tell anyone that a significant factor in why he stayed in Rochester after college was this delicious food.
In the food line, we were shocked to see signs posted stating that the City issued 5 tickets to the Nick Tahou's food truck because of violation of a recent law targeting food trucks. Considering that Nick Tahou's is a Rochester institution and that Alex Tahou (son of the founder) has a stellar business reputation, these tickets were a surprise. Alex came out of the food truck to talk to us.
Alex explained that the City issued regulations last year that food trucks must run background checks on all of their employees. Stationary restaurants located in the City of Rochester are not required to perform employee background checks--neither are the other food vendors in the Lilac Festival food tent because they are not food trucks. Nick Tahou's serves from its trailer, and even though the trailer is as stationary as the other tent vendors, the city interpreted the rules like it was a roving food truck.
To add to the confusion, the other non-local carnival food trucks in town specifically for the festival are not required to do background checks. Alex asked city officials why carnival food trucks do not have to follow food truck regulations and was told it was because carnival food trucks are transient in nature. He asked me who I thought was more likely to commit a crime--a person working for him who was invested in the community or a person who will only be in town for a limited time? I can understand his frustration.
People might ask why he is fighting so hard against the background checks. Alex says that he wants to give people a chance to work. He doesn't want to prevent a good worker from working because they made a mistake. An irony here is that City banned the "black box" on its job applications specifically to give people with criminal backgrounds a chance at finding work. The City has staff who are paid to find jobs for people with convictions and advocates strongly for employers to see the person in spite of the conviction. However, they didn't apply this to the food truck policy, which leaves Alex penalized for standing up for his convictions.
Alex was filled with emotion as we talked. He explained that a few days ago, he lost his best friend--a friend of 40 years who would say, "let's take a road trip" and they'd end up at the Grand Canyon. They got in trouble with their parents as kids hanging at the airport until 4am and had amazing adventures together camping in the Adirondacks as adults. His friend was killed in a freak accident. He came back from the funeral on Monday and was ticketed on Tuesday. Alex asserts that he will no longer participate in any city festivals or events--the Air Show and other county events do not enforce the city's food truck regulation.
What a saddening one-two punch for Alex--he first lost a part of his heart and then the city broke the rest. We can do better as a community for a nationally recognized and locally venerated institution. It's time for the City to reassess these regulations and this time add some common sense and some heart to the process. If Nick Tahou's stops participating in city events, we all lose (and Mike will never go to another festival with me).
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Please join me in supporting Alex and Nick Tahou's on Saturday at 2pm at the Lilac Festival Tent!
Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/27cA9ay |
Miles Showell, who oversees Abbey Road's 1/2 speed mastering responded recently to a series of questions I posed to him. I want to thank him for taking the time to do so. Please read. And please, keep your comments civil and respectful. I think Mr. Showell's comments make clear the seriousness with which he approached this work
One thing he did clarify is that the 96/24 source used for the upcoming Exile on Main Street is the same one Stephen Marcussen produced for the anniversary box set. What's less clear is whether or not the unacceptable dynamic compression was added during the initial A/D transfer or if it was added when the box set lacquers were cut.
The first six titles in the series are available for pre-order here with the releases scheduled towards the end of March, 2016. The titles in addition to Exile.... are The Police Ghost in the Machine, John Martyn Solid Air, Free Fire and Water Cream Disraeli Gears and Simple Minds New Gold Dream.
Price is $38 with the exception of the double LP Exile, which sells for $49.99 and the Cream title, which, for some reason, sells for $32.
I have originals of all of these and so won't be buying them all again, but I'll buy the John Martyn title and compare to the original "pink rim" UK original. That should provide a good "base line" for the series.
By the way, right now there are some heavily discounted LPs and box sets on the UMe site including the Roxy Music box.
Here's what Mr. Showell had to say in response to my questions (which are italicized):
With regard to “Exile on Main Street”, the previous vinyl editions cut from a digital source supplied by The Rolling Stones were dreadful. They were dynamically “squashed” and sonically a distant 10th place (at best) compared to the original, mastered at Artisan Sound. In my opinion a waste of PVC. So before again buying, what my readers want to know is: was the “squashing” done in the original digital transfer or were the full dynamics preserved in the transfer that will hopefully lead to a better result.
MS: This is one that is not easy for me to answer reliably as I have heard neither the master tapes nor the original Artisan Sound cut. Probably best to ask Steven Marcussen Mastering about how exactly the transfers were done. Ultimately The Rolling Stones own the masters on this album, have been involved and have approved Steven’s work on this release. In reality it is their album and whatever anyone else might feel about the sound, it is the artist’s decision on exactly how it should be presented. I would personally say that it is not for me or anyone else to over-rule them on this point.
Also, key to all of this is what A/D converters were used in the original transfers and what D/A converters were used for the lacquer mastering, as every digital converter has a signature sound (despite claims to the contrary), some better than others and some worse.
MS: This is easy to answer. At Abbey Road Mastering we use Benchmark converters. These are connected to the workstation using custom designed and built Abbey Road proprietary digital routing and all locked down with very stable external work clock generators.
I also wonder why, given the success of The Beatles mono box cut directly from the master tapes instead of from digital, why you feel this methodology will result in a superior record. MS:The Beatles in mono were not cut at half-speed. I have already explained why I feel this method is superior. Elimination of the low-frequency roll off on a Studer tape machine (a problem made doubly bad at half speed), better tape handling which will give better HF stability etc. There is a real risk that any advantage gained by half speed cutting is lost in equal measure by losses and other unpredictable problems in the low end and potential inaccuracies with the high end.
Finally, while you indicate the problems with cutting directly from tape and the advantages of using a digital source, there’s nothing there about the disadvantages of cutting from a digital file. Do you think digitization at 96/24 is transparent to the source?
MS:No method is transparent to the source, even an all analogue signal path will add its own character to the audio. However, by working with carefully transferred high-resolution digital, any alterations are quantifiable and consistent. Tape will sound different with every pass, different with every head-block, different on every machine (even identical models of replay machine will not exhibit an identical sound). My method captures it from an Ampex machine fitted with custom extended bass response heads (which are not available for a Studer). In my opinion, a properly maintained Ampex machine fitted with the right heads will give a nicer and more musical sound than a Studer. Working this way also bypasses the disk transfer console as I use two separate play-back feeds from the workstation routed to two separate digital to analogue converters which in turn directly feed the Neumann lathe (the logic here being: Why pass the audio through any more kit than is absolutely required?). Finally, this method brings the advantage of micro-management of the programme. De-essing (always the Achilles' heel of half-speed) can with time and effort only be applied exactly where needed solely to the vocal and nowhere else in the recording. This is impossible at real time from tape where the whole mix runs the risk of being "smoothed out" by the de-esser. Also, there is the advantage that any damage to the tape can be repaired to a greater or lesser extent. One track on one of the tapes in this series has at some point in its history been played on a machine that had not been de-magnetised. This has caused damage to the master in the form of random clicks throughout the music. Targeting and removing just these clicks while leaving the surrounding audio utterly intact is time consuming but with patience is easily achievable digitally. This would be completely impossible via analogue methods. Also, other damage due to wear and tear (usually in the form of dropouts) can to some extent be repaired or at least greatly improved upon digitally.
For this series we are dealing solely with half-speed mastering. The greatest variable in all of this is the replay of the master on the tape machine. Just about all of the limitations of analogue cutting from tape are made twice as bad at half-speed. For this reason I firmly believe careful and sympathetic high-resolution digital capture from a well-cared for and customised (i.e. improved) American tape machine will ultimately yield better sounding records which is the sole reason for this series of releases. There is no perfect solution, but I feel by some distance this is the best way to proceed. Neither I nor Universal have decided upon this working practise because it is easier and cheaper. If anything it is probably more time consuming and expensive. I have chosen to work this way for these releases as I firmly believe it will make for the best records capable from the sources available. Even if the three sets of analogue tapes I had for this batch were not Dolby A encoded (in the case of The Police and John Martyn) or (for Simple Minds) be able to fit on a Studer A80 (the only machine that can be used for all analogue cutting) I would have worked in precisely the same way. It is worth noting here that the Simple Minds' album has always been cut via digital. The original cut made at The Townhouse in 1982 would have been made on an Ampex machine (ATR-102, the same model as mine but with less good heads). This machine is incapable of all analogue cutting and there were no Studers at The Townhouse. Instead, the audio would have been passed through a 1979 vintage Ampex digital delay. I hope no-one will question the improvements made to digital converters in the intervening 37 years.
All of this work for the Abbey Road / Universal half-speed cuts is the result of over 30 years’ experience of handling tape and cutting vinyl masters. Stan Ricker the legend of half-speed who was my hero and who sadly died last year had come to a similar way of thinking. In later years he would regularly worked digitally albeit with slightly less esoteric equipment. How do I know this? He and I had several email chats, he was delighted that I was so inspired by his work and was extremely helpful to me with tips and advice when I was attempting to get the half-speed ball rolling again around 15 years ago. |
CLOSE Geoffery Rogers, 14, calls himself the youngest reporter in Rochester and posts his stories on his Facebook page. (Oct. 19, 2016) Jon Hand
Geoffery Rogers, in eighth grade at Monroe High School, calls himself Rochester’s youngest reporter. He was interviewing Capt. Korey Brown, Rochester police, about a shooting. (Photo: Jon Hand)
Rochester Police Clinton Section Capt. Korey Brown was just finishing up an interview with news reporters about a shooting on Lincoln Street Monday when another reporter pulled up — not in a television van or a satellite truck, but on two wheels and wearing a red bicycle helmet.
"Hey, Geoffery," Brown called and nodded as the young man crossed the street toward him and a lingering Democrat and Chronicle reporter.
"You know me?" the young man asked, pulling a red notebook from the breast pocket of his blue denim coat and looking past Brown and the yellow crime tape toward the spot where a man was shot in broad daylight about 30 minutes earlier — his clothes pulled off by paramedics and still strewn along the sidewalk.
Indeed, Brown did know him.
Geoffery Rogers is the "Youngest News Reporter in Rochester" according to his business card, website, Facebook page, Twitter account and Youtube channel, and he's gaining the attention and affection of many of Rochester's police officers because, unlike most 14-year-old reporters who focus on their school's cafeteria menu or modified sports teams, Geoffery's beat covers shootings, motor vehicle accidents, house fires and other public safety events in his hometown.
CLOSE Since we introduced you to 14-year-old Geoffery Rogers, he's been getting a lot of attention from across the country. Geoffrey did his first live Facebook chat with Virginia Butler in our studio. Virginia Butler
"I'm the youngest news reporter in Rochester," Geoffery quotes his card as he pulls a tripod from a backpack and clicks his phone into it to begin recording his questioning of Brown. "Everybody knows me."
To prove his point, the eighth-grader at Monroe High School rifles through a stack of officers' business cards he keeps in his wallet behind his school ID and RTS bus pass. A moment later his conversation with Brown is interrupted by two officers who call to him ("Geoffrey, what's up, buddy?") as they are leaving the crime scene. Geoffrey waves, and observes out loud to himself the change in police shifts.
"Third platoon guys are just getting here," he says as a new crop of patrol cars pull up.
Armed with a scanner app on his iPhone to listen for police calls (he was on his way to the library when he was rerouted by 911 dispatch for the shooting on Lincoln Street), his tripod, his bicycle and laminated press credentials given to him by the RPD, Geoffrey said he has reported on more than 100 events in Rochester.
Geoffery Rogers interviews RPD Capt. Korey Brown about a shooting Monday afternoon. (Photo: Jon Hand)
Videos on his Facebook page show him at scenes day and night.
"During the week I have to be in by 8:30 p.m., weekends it's 9:30 p.m.," he said of his mother-assigned curfew.
He has covered marathons, festivals and other lighter events, but prefers crime coverage. He began reporting about two years ago when he was given the iPhone and visited a crime scene in his neighborhood.
"I walked up to the news reporters because they had these cool cameras and stuff and I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to do this when I get older,' so I bought some camera equipment and I just started doing this."
But he began in earnest at the beginning of this summer when he decided he didn't want to pay for his video game membership any more and needed to produce more content for his "fans" — as of 10 p.m. Thursday, 940 people "like" his Facebook page, GSL Show (GSL stands for Geoffrey Show Live). That's a growth of 654 percent in the last week.
"I said, 'You know what? I've gotta get back on my news because I can't let all these fans down, these people who are watching me I can't let them down so I just came out and started doing it again ... this will be 42 crime scenes," he said.
Geoffery Rogers' business card reads: I Gotta Tell You Something Look Me Up!! (Photo: Jon Hand)
His mother said part of the reason her son started reporting was to make his neighborhood safer, and improve relations with police in his northeast Rochester neighborhood.
"I don't know where it comes from," laughs LaClara Carter, a local radio personality and stand-up comedian who hosts an open-mike night at Clarissa's Lounge every Monday. "He does amazing things. Last year there was a bully situation in the neighborhood and he called 311 and got them involved. He was really concerned with keeping the peace, he just wanted to feel safer in his neighborhood — what could he do in his community to make it safer? It's positive and he's got a real strong relationship with the neighborhood police."
Geoffery said he enjoys the conversations with officers and the interplay of interviews, but also wants to be taken seriously.
"They think I'm fooling around; people don't take me seriously because of who I am and other kids who do all this stuff," he said.
Geoffery Rogers, budding journalist (Photo: Jon Hand)
On Tuesday, he and Brown discussed what had happened on Lincoln Street: A 26-year-old man shot in the legs and taken to Rochester General Hospital. His injuries were not serious.
"Are they allowed to be in the crime scene or were they part of the shooting?" Geoffery asked Brown off camera of a crowd of people being interviewed by officers inside the cordoned off crime scene.
"They have been there the whole time," Brown explains.
"Oh. Must be scary," Geoffery said. "That's why I'm happy I kind of live on a quiet street. Gotta live on a quiet street, so you don't have to deal with this."
"It would be nice if we could make every street quiet," Brown replied.
"I think the city would have a lot more money if the city was quiet," Geoffery said, adding later that he does not worry about his safety and is not bothered by the nature of the events he covers.
Capt. Korey Brown (Photo: Jon Hand)
"It's really nothing to me anymore, I've seen all types of stuff so it's not traumatizing to me at all, I'm just like an adult," he said. "I'm an adult in a kid's body, you get it? My soul is old; I got an old soul."
But his mother does worry, especially when he covers events such as a police chase and arrest of people on North Street a few months ago. Geoffery was in the middle of the chaotic scene and reported that dozens of police officers had guns drawn as they attempted to control a crowd.
"I do worry a lot, especially him being young and African-American ... but they (officers) look out for him," Carter said.
Geoffery said he is hoping to find some type of sponsorship so he can buy new equipment. He started a gofundme campaign Wednesday that had raised $565 of its $1,000 goal by 5 p.m. Thursday.
"I just want to get the word out, being a reporter is kind of fun and I like camera equipment and all the cool things they do, be on TV and stuff like that," he said. But for now, he'll just keep jumping on his bicycle, responding to the police calls he hears on his iPhone scanner:
For his fans.
[email protected]
Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/2eQZ1SK |
In computer security, a billion laughs attack is a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack which is aimed at parsers of XML documents.[1]
It is also referred to as an XML bomb or as an exponential entity expansion attack.[2]
Details [ edit ]
The example attack consists of defining 10 entities, each defined as consisting of 10 of the previous entity, with the document consisting of a single instance of the largest entity, which expands to one billion copies of the first entity.
In the most frequently cited example, the first entity is the string "lol", hence the name "billion laughs". The amount of computer memory used would likely exceed that available to the process parsing the XML (it certainly would have at the time the vulnerability was first reported).
While the original form of the attack was aimed specifically at XML parsers, the term may be applicable to similar subjects as well.[1]
The problem was first reported as early as 2002,[3] but began to be widely addressed in 2008.[4]
Defenses against this kind of attack include capping the memory allocated in an individual parser if loss of the document is acceptable, or treating entities symbolically and expanding them lazily only when (and to the extent) their content is to be used.
Code example [ edit ]
< ? xml version= "1.0" ? > <!DOCTYPE lolz [ <!ENTITY lol "lol" > <!ELEMENT lolz ( #PCDATA ) > <!ENTITY lol1 "&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;" > <!ENTITY lol2 "&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;" > <!ENTITY lol3 "&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;" > <!ENTITY lol4 "&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;" > <!ENTITY lol5 "&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;" > <!ENTITY lol6 "&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;" > <!ENTITY lol7 "&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;" > <!ENTITY lol8 "&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;" > <!ENTITY lol9 "&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;" > ]> <lolz > &lol9; </lolz >
When an XML parser loads this document, it sees that it includes one root element, "lolz", that contains the text "&lol9;". However, "&lol9;" is a defined entity that expands to a string containing ten "&lol8;" strings. Each "&lol8;" string is a defined entity that expands to ten "&lol7;" strings, and so on. After all the entity expansions have been processed, this small (< 1 KB) block of XML will actually contain 109 = a billion "lol"s, taking up almost 3 gigabytes of memory.[5]
Variations [ edit ]
The billion laughs attack described above takes an exponential amount of space. The quadratic blowup variation causes quadratic growth in storage requirements by simply repeating a large entity over and over again, to avoid countermeasures that detect heavily nested entities.[6] (See computational complexity theory for comparisons of different growth classes.)
A "Billion laughs" attack should exist for any file format that can contain references, for example this YAML bomb:
a : &a [ "lol" , "lol" , "lol" , "lol" , "lol" , "lol" , "lol" , "lol" , "lol" ] b : &b [ *a , *a , *a , *a , *a , *a , *a , *a , *a ] c : &c [ *b , *b , *b , *b , *b , *b , *b , *b , *b ] d : &d [ *c , *c , *c , *c , *c , *c , *c , *c , *c ] e : &e [ *d , *d , *d , *d , *d , *d , *d , *d , *d ] f : &f [ *e , *e , *e , *e , *e , *e , *e , *e , *e ] g : &g [ *f , *f , *f , *f , *f , *f , *f , *f , *f ] h : &h [ *g , *g , *g , *g , *g , *g , *g , *g , *g ] i : &i [ *h , *h , *h , *h , *h , *h , *h , *h , *h ]
For this reason, file formats that do not allow references are often preferred for data arriving from untrusted sources.[7][not in citation given]
See also [ edit ]
Fork bomb: a similar method to exhaust a system's resources through recursion
Zip bomb: a similar attack utilizing zip archives
XML external entity attack: an XML attack to return arbitrary server files |
Iceland supporters before the Euro 2016 quarterfinal between France and Iceland at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France. (Photo11: Abedin Taherkenareh, EPA)
SAINT-DENIS, France – It might have been a thousand years or more since this many Vikings crossed the seas to strike fear into an invaded nation, but here they were on Sunday evening, an Icelandic army complete with tusked helmets, war paint, tribal colors and….beaming smiles.
Iceland’s ancient history might be equal parts noble and bloodthirsty but its most modern adventure, the dramatic run of its soccer team at the European Championships, has been nothing but heartwarming.
Ahead of the tiny Scandinavian country’s quarterfinal against host France on Sunday an estimated 12 percent on Iceland’s population of 330,000 had descended upon these shores, an amount that has grown with each stage of progress through the tournament.
Last Monday’s extraordinary victory over England in the round of 16 sent the place into national rapture, so much so that men, women, children and probably even a puffin or two found whatever means possible to get themselves to the Stade de France.
“I forgot about my studies, that can wait,” Magnus Ver, the third such named person USA TODAY Sports has met over the past week, said. The common joke in Iceland is that here there are only two degrees of separation – if you don’t know someone personally, you know someone that does.
“I couldn’t really afford the flight, but my uncle loaned me some money as long as I work in his garden to pay it off,” he added.
Iceland’s appealing flag, predominantly blue with a red and white cross, was little known before these championships. It is everywhere now, flying in train carriage windows and out of cars heading into Paris.
France loves a party and its own team was seen as a tournament favorite going into the game, but its supporters seemed outnumbered on the public transit systems of the city this weekend.
They weren’t really of course, once inside the Stade de France the hosts were exponentially better supported, in an atmosphere that was pleasant all round.
For it is impossible to hate an underdog like Iceland, one that comes with good cheer, a friendly nature and a stirring war cry that its players sometimes join.
“We want to represent the country in the right way,” Sigurd, a middle-aged financier said, before adding that his last name wasn’t worth including because “you don’t have enough space on the page.”
“Of course we want to win, desperately,” he added. “But we also understand this is the first time that a lot of people internationally will really think about Iceland. We want to give them a good impression.” |
How I learned React and how you can too
Sean Groff Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 10, 2016
What is this React you speak of? If you’re reading this article I assume you’ve heard of React and have a basic understanding of what it is.
TL;DR React is a JavaScript library created by Facebook for building user interfaces.
Getting Started
Thanks to Create-React-App you now have two options to learning React without first learning Webpack. After you complete the Codepen challenges below, use the Create-React-App build utility for your future React app’s.
Seriously, it creates and configures everything for you so you can start writing React code immediately.
The title of this article is How I Learned React and how you can too… so it’s only fair I tell you how. Whenever I learn something new in programming, the logical place to start is with the docs. I, like most programmers, have a short attention span when it comes to reading and quickly get bored of reading the docs. Luckily, React’s documentation is really good.
Try to make it as far as you can through React’s Documentation Tutorial. Once you’re bored, move on. You will revisit these docs when you start coding React apps.
Ermahgerd it look’s like React relies heavily on ES2015 syntax?! I wanted you to see this for yourself. Take the time to learn the basics of ES2015 before learning React. Learn.co has a great intro here.
It’s very important when building React applications to “Think in React.”
Take the time to identify reusable components, stateful and stateless components. Thinking in React does a great job of teaching you how to accomplish this task. Components, props, state, render, blah blah blah you’ll understand all this React speak after you start coding.
Ok, you’re tired of reading and want to code? Fire up a new Pen in Codepen.
Below are 5 challenges I did to learn React. If you complete all 5 challenges, you’re more than ready to begin working on larger React projects…sort of…
Enable the Babel preprocessor and make sure to add React and React-DOM using the Quick Add dropdown menu under the Add External JavaScript section. Save and close.
Since this isn’t a tutorial, no more spoon feeding. As you’re coding, use the documentation to discover how to do EVERYTHING.
Try not to use Google, you need to understand the code you’re writing while you’re writing it.
The docs have you feeling down? Don’t quite feel ready to start coding?
A great tutorial (and free!) to understand and learn React is The Beginner’s Guide to React by Kent C. Dodds.
Challenge #1 — Hello World
Create a React app in Codepen that outputs Hello World to the screen. I’ve created a Pen in Codepen for each challenge. Do not look at the code unless you’ve exhausted all of your resources first!
My example React Hello World pen.
Challenge #2 — Hello Visitor
This app takes the input from the text input field and outputs your input in realtime to the screen. The input should be your name, because it’s cool seeing your name on a page. This is likely the first time you’ll see how cool React really is.
Again, use the React Doc’s to figure this out without peeking at my code. Only look at my code if you’re stumped and have exhausted all of your resources.
I used Bootstrap to style the app. This is optional, but this would be an ideal time to Learn Bootstrap in React!
My example Hello Visitor pen.
Challenge #3 — Fizz Buzz
Everyones favorite junior developer interview question.
“Can you build FizzBuzz? Show me!”
Don’t get frustrated, this is quite a bit more challenging. You’ll need to create increment and decrement buttons. Each should be their own helper method which updates the state of the app. Yes, that was a clue.
My example Fizz Buzz pen, don’t cheat!
Challenge #4 — Markdown Previewer
The last 2 challenges can be found over at freeCodeCamp. You can continue to use Codepen, but I would fire up Create-React-App and maintain the rest of your projects on Github.
Here is the link to the freeCodeCamp challenge. Build a Markdown Previewer.
Pro-tip: Use Marked to parse the Markdown text.
Challenge #5 — Camper Leaderboard
For the final challenge you will build a Leaderboard app. You will need to access the Leaderboard data using the provided endpoints. You will need to grab data for pretty much every React app you build so this one is important.
Here is the link to the freeCodeCamp challenge. Build a Camper Leaderboard.
Pro-tip: Use Axios to perform your GET requests to access the Leaderboard data.
Congrats!
If you’ve made it to the part in the article you’ve hopefully completed all 5 React challenges. If you didn’t keep at it, this could take you a week or so.
Earlier in this post I mentioned you’re “sort of” ready to work on larger React projects. Larger React projects will likely require routing and global state.
You will want to learn React-Router to handle your apps routing. If your app needs Global State and is moderately complex you’ll want to learn Redux.
Don’t make your app more complex if it doesn’t need to be. Use Redux as needed!
Thanks for reading!!😀 |
After 9/11, hate began colonising new spheres, operating as a social and political force that manipulates and mobilises entire publics in very specific ways. Niza Yanay's new book The Ideology of Hatred: The Psychic Power of Discourse may very well change the way we think about hatred and its role in politics. Neve Gordon recently interviewed her in New York City in an effort to better understand her arguments.
Neve Gordon: When thinking of hatred, we usually think of a very strong personal feeling or emotion. What do you mean by the ideology of hatred? Can hatred be an ideology?
Niza Yanay: Let's begin with the concept of hatred. Before 9/11, the words hate and hatred were mostly used to describe an emotional reaction or byproduct of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia and the like. One would say that white supremacists, for example, hate blacks, or alternatively if someone hates blacks, we would say he was a white supremacist. After 9/11, the word hate began colonising new spheres, operating as a social and political force that can both manipulate and mobilise an entire public in very specific ways.
People began using the word hatred in the context of terrorism, particularly referring to Islamic groups who had expressed anger and criticism towards the West and the ravages of capitalism. The word hatred was thus transformed, becoming a signifier for danger, mostly the danger of Islam. In President Bush's rhetoric, the world was schematically divided between Muslims who hate on the one hand, and the West which had become the target of irrational hate on the other hand. I found it interesting that the West does not hate.
This distinction between hatred as an experience and hatred as ideology underscored the need to ask new questions about the relation between politics and hatred. And these new questions, I believe, need to focus on power relations between different groups, such as coloniser and colonised, ruler and subject, and not so much on the personal experience of specific individuals who experience hatred (though such questions are still important too).
NG: Can you give me a concrete example of this ideology at work?
NY: Most people consider "suicide bombings" as motivated by hate, while very few people consider air strikes on populated areas to be hate crimes. The media often describes the suicide attack as a hate crime, but I have never come across a report describing the US drone attacks in Pakistan - that have killed over 3,500 people - as hate crimes. This suggests that hatred as ideology is at work. And this ideology helps determine who is blamed for being the initiators of hate, who becomes the target of hatred, and, in fact, when hatred counts as hatred at all.
Inside Story Americas - US-Pakistan relations:
At a standstill
NG: I see the asymmetrical relationship and the fact that hatred as a causal factor is associated with certain groups and not others, but what exactly is this ideology of hatred?
NY: Let me give you an example to help clarify my claim. Think about a young adolescent Jewish girl in Israel who leads a comfortable life and has never interacted face-to-face with Palestinians. This is a very reasonable assumption, since Israel is a totally segregated society. Why, it is interesting to ask, would a girl who has never met a Palestinian speak with such vehemence and personal hatred against Palestinians and Arabs in general? Why do so many Jewish citizens of Israel, who have never been hurt by Palestinians, openly admit to intense hatred? This articulates a national ideology of hatred and not merely a personal hatred.
Of course, you can immediately claim that there is a real danger. Many Israeli Jews know someone who has been injured by terrorism. You might also say that since the Palestinians hate us, therefore we hate them.
All of these automatic answers demonstrate the effectiveness and the power of state ideologies of hatred. In the book, I try to go beyond these kinds of normative responses by paying attention to the difference between hatred as a response to power and hatred as the operation of power.
It is not surprising that people react with hatred toward those who humiliate them, control their movement, or deny their rights. There is nothing theoretically interesting in the individual or collective experience of anger and hate as a reaction to power that imposes helplessness on us or denies our very being. This is hatred as a response to power.
But there is also hatred as an operation of power. Israel's persistent claim that it has no partner for peace is, I would claim, part of an ideology of hatred. The role of Israel's no-partner myth is to portray the Palestinians as primitive and warmongering and in this way it hopes to circumvent and conceal its own desire to receive moral approval from the Palestinians.
Once we understand how hatred operates as an apparatus of power relations, and particularly how the discourse of hatred is motivated and mobilised in national conflicts, serious questions about misrecognition, veiled desires and symptomatic expressions arise. These questions have, to a large extent, been left unaddressed in studies of hatred between groups in conflict.
NG: I am not sure I follow.
NY: Sometimes when we desire something that is unthinkable (for example, the love of someone who is forbidden) and we repress our desire, it ends up surfacing in different ways. In the book, I examine language, laws and practices that hide that which is repressed; namely, the desires we either fear or refuse to admit to ourselves.
We know that when a child tells his father "I hate you", it could mean "I don't receive the love I want from you". Hate speech often represents such veiled desires and fears. The disavowal of our desires and the misrecognition of our fears are defence mechanisms and these mechanisms, I claim, can have extremely dangerous effects.
So, for me, this intense ideology of hatred signifies the return of the repressed; the return of that which is denied and reappears as a symptom in "hate" speech and practice. I therefore consider the cultivation of hatred in national discourse to be a psychic political defence strategy. Of course, on the individual level hate can be accompanied by a visceral experience, but as a political concept and as part of the national discourse hatred is a word that serves more to conceal than to reveal.
NG: So you are saying that there is something new going on here? How is today's ideology of hatred different from other forms of hatred we witnessed during the 20th century?
NY: I am not saying there is something necessarily new, but rather that we need to broaden our understanding of the ideology of hatred, its motivations and the way it operates.
Anti-Semitism is an ideology of hatred and so are racism and homophobia. But studies of anti-Semitism have taken hatred as an obvious emotion of separation and exclusion. What I am saying is that that the concept of hatred is much more ambivalent than we tend to acknowledge, and that without understanding the attachment and intimate relations between the Jews and non-Jews in Germany, we cannot really understand the hatred.
The fear of "Judaisation" (Verjudung) or "Jewification" of German culture, the fear of the "Jewish spirit" overtaking the German nation, was not only a fear of contamination and contagion, as many scholars have remarked. These concepts allude to a deeper anxiety regarding the invasion of the German body, in spirit and mind, from within. Thus, this anxiety signifies a deep sense of intimacy and perhaps a desire to mimic the Jew. Psychoanalytically speaking, such prohibited thought often transforms itself into a symptomatic form of speech and behaviour. This approach to the concept of hatred leads me to ask what, for example, the relation is between intimacy and genocide.
NG: Am I correct then to say that you are using the term ideology not in the Marxist or liberal way, but rather in a way that is more attuned to psychoanalysis?
NY: To a certain extent, yes. The point I want to make is that we need to start thinking about the ideology of hatred as a symptom of desire. This might sound contradictory to many people, but actually hatred is always constructed within an already inevitable bond between two unequal groups or sides of rival power. Intense hatred assumes a prior and intense relationship.
Consider the famous speeches of President Habyarimana of Rwanda between 1973 and 1994. He continuously attacked the Tutsi for being counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie traitors; but at the same time, he constantly referred to them as brothers. This, I argue, is typical and symptomatic.
The use of intimate familial language to characterise the so-called traitor is a common practice in many ideologies of hatred. So, when we hear, speak of, or examine hatred, we must pay particular attention to issues of proximity, attachment, intimacy, desire and even love. Of course, these forces are not obvious when we think of hatred. But, if we want to understand how people become our hated enemy we must study the conditions of closeness and proximity.
Pro-palestinian activists detained in Israel
NG: Someone might say that this is counter-intuitive. Don't we commonly understand hatred in terms of distance, difference and enmity?
NY: You are right to say that the ideology of hatred produces and means to produce separation and estrangement. But this is exactly my point. The paradox of hatred is that hatred aims to produce distance precisely because the two rivals are considered to be too close, too intertwined.
Think about the Hutu and the Tutsi, the Serbs and the Croats, the Turks and the Armenians, the Israelis and the Palestinians, and so on. I am not simply saying that love can turn into hatred or vice versa, but that hatred is always an ambivalent experience and a hyperbolic concept. One cannot hate an individual or a group without attachment and closeness, without love. Lack of attachment tends to produce indifference, not hatred.
NG: What then is the relation between the psyche and politics?
NY: First of all, the psyche and politics are not separate spheres. They operate together, although the mechanisms they deploy and their forms of visibility differ.
I am certainly not the first to highlight the absent, repressed, or the hidden in the political; how what is said often conceals what is left unsaid or how the visible veils what goes unrepresented. In a world characterised by a multitude of conflicts and hatreds, it would be misguided to continue overlooking the forces of the political unconscious.
Yet, my contribution has to do with my examination of the ideology of hatred. I believe that by excavating the ideology of hatred we can reveal how the political unconscious operates in the current political climate - through desire and its repression, through love and its disavowal, and through attachment and its elision. Once the unconscious workings of the ideology of hatred are laid bare then other future discourses, which recognise their ambivalence towards the other, suddenly become possible.
Let me give another example. The Israeli government forces the Palestinians to declare loyalty to the state of Israel as the condition for entering dialogue. No matter how many times Palestinians in Israel declare loyalty to the state or denounce terrorism, their words will not be heard and accepted because for Jewish Israelis this is not enough; they want the Palestinians to love them. Without love it is difficult for them to maintain their moral superiority. But at the same time the Jews in Israel will never ever admit to this.
So for me, the discourse of loyalty and betrayal, and particularly the repetitious demand that the Palestinians be loyal signifies that something else is going on here. It is about something the Jews want and will not get, or want and will never acknowledge. The repetition suggests that unconscious forces are at work here and in this case they are not individual but political.
NG: This brings us to the second part of the title of your book, "The Psychic Power of Discourse". When you say that to understand hatred we should focus on unconscious mechanisms, you obviously allude to a political unconscious. What do you mean by political unconscious? Are you saying that political discourse has an unconscious?
NY: I know that for most political scientists or sociologists, theorising the psyche within the political and the social is irrelevant to practice and to questions of war and peace. But I believe that this pervasive perspective will lead us nowhere in terms of changing the conditions of conflicts rooted in hatred.
Just think of the repeated, obsessive notice in the NYC subways: "If you see something, say something."
Such an utterance not only speaks of suspicious objects, but creates relational mistrust that paradoxically bonds people of all walks of life together through a fearful gaze, suspicion and prejudice. So, hatred has become a political apparatus that creates a community through the horror of the strange and the different.
The pervasive refusal to raise the question of the unconscious, dismissing it as irrelevant to politics, engenders all kinds of theoretical blind spots. This is not to say that hatred is only unconscious or invisible. On the contrary, hatred is a forceful experience with devastating and injurious consequences. But in sharp contrast to its manifestation, the mechanisms of its production remain obscure.
For me, the most urgent task is to explore these blind spots, which I believe can shed light on how the ideology of hatred is manufactured. This, in my mind, is the key problem of the ideology of hatred.
Israel continues to build settlements on
Palestinian land
NG: This appears to be connected to the relation you mention between the ideology of hatred and humanitarianism. Can you say something about this?
NY: Often, the ideology of hatred operates side by side and in tandem with humanitarianism. The American initiative to build secular schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan is one example, while Israeli food and medical aid to Gaza in the midst of Israel's military attacks on the Strip is another.
Such humanitarian acts allow the Americans and Israelis to think of themselves as decent and righteous people. But in effect, these humanitarian interventions are the continuation of war and violence in a language of "love full of hatred" or "hatred full of love". It is precisely this language that sheds light on the political unconscious and the psychic power of discourse.
NG: Could you further elaborate on the phrase "hatred full of love"?
NY: I would begin by responding with a rhetorical question: You intuitively seem to understand the notion of "hatred full of love", and yet doesn't this notion depend on a politics of the unconscious?
But, your question is well taken, because "hatred full of love" (and also its reversal) depicts concrete situations and relations. These phrases are not a metaphor for conflict relations. The prohibition to love the other, at work within national politics, is perhaps the core paradoxical symptom of nationalism and its defence mechanisms.
Albert Memmi provides a poignant example of how this works in the colonial context, when he describes how the colonial experience is informed by the paradox of love and hate. On the one hand, the colonialist wishes to dismiss the colonial subject from thought and to imagine the colony clean of its natives, but, on the other hand, the coloniser knows that without its colonial subjects the colony and his domination has no meaning.
The coloniser's desire of the colonised signifies an unconscious politics according to which the coloniser must keep the colonised subject alive. Only when the coloniser becomes indifferent to the life of the other does genocide or ethnic cleansing may occur. This leads me to maintain that acknowledging intimacy may actually prevent the genocidal impulse.
NG: I understand that hatred is constituted through the repression of love, denial of attachment and fears of dependency. What will happen if we do come to recognise our state of dependency on the despised other, or our desire of the hated other? Are you saying that hatred can ipso facto form the possibility of love in spite of a history of hatred? That appears to be a very optimistic theory!
NY: Absolutely. In hate, love is never lost. And under the right circumstances it can always be remembered.
This is precisely why I conclude the book with the idea of political friendship. I believe that the politics of hatred can change because the enemy is forever the lost friend. Political friendship calls for peace without any prior conditions. It means a certain way of coming together with those who are not "one of us".
When Anwar Sadat declared in public that he was willing to visit Jerusalem, he was taking a risk that Egypt might "lose face". He sent out his call for friendship and peace presumably without knowing whether and how Israel would respond. In that particular case, Menachem Begin returned the call by inviting Sadat to Jerusalem; a year later that visit was followed by a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Someone must offer friendship, and it cannot be the one who has no power to lose.
You might, of course, ask, what happens if the other refuses the request for friendship.
In this case, one must follow the footsteps of Sadat; the risk must be taken in the face of a possible refusal. It is important to keep in mind that no friendship is devoid of disputes, injury, pain, betrayal, tensions and hate, but friendship, for the sake of peace, can embrace hatred and indeed diffuse it. This new demarcation of relations gives rise to a radically new discourse of peace. I am not talking about "true peace", "perpetual peace", or "absolute peace". All these terms have only served to sustain war. I truly believe that by forcing ourselves to choose friendship, the unthinkable peace becomes thinkable. The attachment, which was disavowed, becomes possible to reclaim.
Neve Gordon is the author of Israel's Occupation and can be reached through his website. |
A new report from Fars News Agency has surfaced, suggesting that Iran’s National Center of Cyberspace (NCC) may consider implementing regulation regarding digital currencies, possibly as soon as this year.
Founded in 2012, the NCC is a government body responsible for implementing policies created by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC), which oversees Internet issues. The organisation has been described as a major decision-making authority in the hardware and software fields.
Informal translations of the text, corroborated by CoinDesk sources in Iran, suggest that the document provides an overview of bitcoin’s benefits, noting that it is not controlled by governments, features irreversible payments and comes with very low transaction fees.
Statements from Saeed Mahdyoon, described in past reports as a telecommunications official with the Iranian government, indicate that the nation sees regulation as necessary, given that the world is quickly adopting digital currency payments and that the positive and negatives of their use are still unknown.
Further, he suggests high-level officials in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance and the Central Bank of Iran may be involved in the deliberations.
Community reaction
A spokesperson for Iran-based bitcoin exchange CoinAva suggested that the reports seemed credible given that the Fars News Agency has ties to the Iranian government. Though, he doesn’t believe this is an accurate representation of the agency’s internal thinking.
“I see this news as testing the water to get feedback and reaction from other authorities in power rather than an official stance.”
Mor Roghani, CEO of Iran-based e-commerce business Persian Shoes, was more positive about the announcement, suggesting also that this won’t be the last of Iran’s statements on bitcoin. Said Roghani:
“The fact that someone in the government has positive attitude toward bitcoin is fascinating. I think we will see more in the coming months.”
Bitcoin ecosystem
Though the current bitcoin ecosystem in Iran remains small, the country’s population is predominantly young, meaning more than 50% of the population now uses the Internet.
Estimates from The Washington Post suggest Iran has the highest number of Internet users in the Middle East, and perhaps unsurprisingly, some of these individuals have become interested in bitcoin. The business sector remains small as well.
CoinAva launched in July, while merchants like Persian Shoes and independent musician Mohammad Rafigh are using bitcion as a payment tool to open up paths to new customers.
Notably, speculation on reddit centered on how bitcoin could potentially gain significant inroads given issues with the domestic currency, the rial. In 2012, the currency suffered from severe hyperinflation, though more recent reports now suggest the currency has stablized. Discussions also theorized bitcoin could help the country hedge against harsh sanctions imposed by other nations.
Bitcoin in the Middle East
Though on-the-ground reports are scarce, some companies and countries in the Middle East have acknowledged bitcoin, suggesting awareness may be small but growing. For example, Anghami, a streaming music platform serving the Middle East and North Africa, recently began accepting bitcoin.
The Central Bank of Jordan, the Bank of Lebanon and the Bank of Israel have also commented on digital currency regulation, with Israel and Lebanon issuing warnings to consumers and Jordan limiting its banks ability to work with the sector.
Image credit: Imam Square, Iran via Shutterstock |
Independence Day: Resurgence. Twentieth Century Fox
Independence Day: Resurgence should be nothing more than another comically awful summer movie and box-office bomb. The pile-on of tropes, inconsistencies, plot holes, and tasteless comedic relief come at the viewer so rapid-fire that one barely has time to ask, “Wait a minute, so all this time the aliens have been after the earth’s molten core?”
Yet if you actually end watching this not-anticipated-at-all sequel to a summer blockbuster from 1996, you might, like me, sit through it with an insidious sense of unease. Resurgence is not only a dumb, joyless movie but in its sheer obliviousness regarding the geopolitics of an alternate universe in which Earth is under constant threat of an alien attack, it emphasizes the political decay to which we bear witness in our stranger-than-fiction reality. You leave the movie sick to your stomach not about alien invasions but our fragile global institutions.
Back in ’96—when declaring endless war on an abstract noun would have seemed silly, Republican presidential nominees were competent World War II veterans with a great deal of governing experience, and it was really hard to buy an AR-15—blowing up the White House, the Empire State Building, and most of Los Angeles just seemed like a rad summer spectacle. The CGI era gave Hollywood directors a limitless canvas on which to explore urban and global catastrophe, yet in a post-9/11, post-Katrina, post-Fukushima, post-Sandy world, it grows more and more difficult each summer movie season to wonder which of these brainless auteurs will finally prove prescient.
The Independence Day sequel posits a world where, following the events of ’96, the global community has come together under the auspices of the U.N. (Agenda 21 propaganda? Was Glenn Beck right?) to form a sort of military-industrial supra-government in which Keynesian defense spending on alien weaponry has built a prosperous, inclusive Earth. Even if you still have to use Skype on your laptop to call your boyfriend on the Moon and (troubling portrayals of) African warlords seem to know more about the aliens’ secret language than the scientists studying them, just, shhh—they’re African, so they’re from the jungle, so they get it—everything makes sense. Welcome to Earth, Home of the Brave, the Resilient, the Cooperative.
Contrast that with the fractured and fracturing world we live in. As we know from 2008, our global economy is a grifter’s paradise, structured for the benefit of an infinitesimally small economic elite, capable of unleashing havoc at any moment. Western democracies, when they do function, can still vote to shoot themselves in the face as the U.K. just did with its Brexit vote and as the U.S. might do by electing Trump. Failed states fall under the command of true warlords and the largest mass migration of refugees since World War II is greeted with xenophobia and violent rhetoric by demagogues quick to capitalize politically on chaos. Underlying it all is a singular environmental crisis, the rapidly rising levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and oceans, to which we make token gestures of cooperation even as we blow past all signposts alerting us to the cliff ahead.
When, in Resurgence, the aliens land their silly-sized spacecraft on the face of Earth like a leech latching onto a face, the movie gets off its death and destruction money shot: screaming people being sucked upward by the ship’s gravitational pull; a tsunami toppling oil tankers; the London Bridge swallowed by flames. Jeff Goldblum’s celebrity scientist looks over this holocaust and quips, “They like to get the landmarks.” This is followed moments later by a pee-your-pants joke.
This surely isn’t new. In Star Trek: Into Darkness, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan plows a starship into San Francisco, easily killing millions of people, and after the finale Kirk and McCoy are back to joking about tribbles.* Though we increasingly bear witness to larger and larger disasters, both human-caused and climatological, our culture seemingly grows dumber about them, more oblivious. But even given that blockbuster disaster movies have a bottomless history of glib depictions of ecological and geopolitical horror, Resurgence still, somehow, against all odds, manages a uniquely flippant attitude in its casual depiction of human death and suffering. Other than Vivica A. Fox (spoiler alert, but c’mon, I promise you do not care) falling to her death in a collapsing building, the entire “alien 9/11 to end all 9/11s” scene is a sterile CGI cartoon, devoid of meaning, as shallow a depiction of war and trauma as a tantrum-throwing child scattering the pieces during a game of Risk but somehow far less interesting.
In this vein, a newish summer blockbuster staple (see the Marvel franchise) is to include images of dusky-faced foreigners in tents, presumably Afghanis, Pakistanis, or any other nationality who’s been on the receiving end of a drone, suddenly cheering American military prowess now that it’s repelling extraterrestrial invaders. Another disaster staple (see 2012) is the removal of the line of presidential succession, Congress, the courts, and all other checks in favor of a single autocratic decision-maker. In Resurgence, this is Gen. William Fichtner. The implication being that when the global going gets tough, better to have a single strongman than an informed electorate.
The Brexit and the Trump campaign (not to mention the electoral success of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party or France’s National Front) are all symptoms of a rising trend of nationalism and xenophobia in Western democracies, as environmental disaster and ill-advised foreign policy create zones of chaos in fragile Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian states. We are hurtling past 400 parts per million atmospheric carbon, mass coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent, Arctic sea ice may reach record lows this summer, 2016 will be the hottest year on record, and the two degrees of temperature rise that will lock in a truly terrifying planetary future seems imminent.
As a global community, we are courting real destruction. Therefore, it’s difficult to sit through a piece of Hollywood garbage excreted from the end of some corporate orifice assembly line like Independence Day: Resurgence and not let your mind drift—not because of hackneyed plot lines and insufferable dialogue,but because you can’t help but think of all the myriad ways disaster may befall us. So maybe this is a trend to look out for: As the dire circumstances of our political and environmental situations ratchet ever higher, the escapist obliviousness of our mass entertainment will strive, misguidedly, to retain a sense of normalcy about it all.
*Correction, July 1, 2016: This post originally misspelled the Star Trek character Khan’s name. |
People rush into Peking Union Hospital in Beijing, China, early April 6, 2016. Picture taken April 6, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China is kicking off a year-long campaign this month to stamp out persistent violence in its overcrowded hospitals by angry patients targeting medical staff, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday.
Healthcare is a flashpoint for many people in China, who have long faced issues from ticket touts illegally trading appointment tickets, snarling queues to see top doctors and rampant corruption that can push up the cost of receiving care.
Since 2013, campaigns to discourage abuse of hospital personnel have reined in much of the violence, but as many as 71,000 instances of conflict have still required mediation by authorities, it added.
Xinhua gave no details of what new action is planned.
Even though the government has increased spending on health care, hospitals in China are frequently swamped with patients.
Low salaries for doctors feed corruption and people’s suspicions that staff are keener to earn money by prescribing unnecessary drugs and treatment than tending the sick.
In one notable incident in 2015, in the eastern province of Henan, a doctor and an injured patient fell to their deaths in an elevator shaft during a quarrel over treatment for the patient, who was intoxicated at the time.
Nine agencies, from the Ministry of Public Security to the National Health and Family Planning Commission are to participate in the new campaign, Xinhua said. |
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has arrived in Addis Ababa for peace talks aimed at brokering an end to the country's civil war, reversing an earlier decision as international threats of possible sanctions mount.
South Sudan's government and rebels are under intense diplomatic pressure to sign a deal by Monday to end a 20-month civil war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed.
Kiir previously said he would send his deputy to the talks in Ethiopia's capital after complaining it was not possible to strike an effective deal because rebel forces has split into factions.
Earlier this week, two South Sudan rebel generals said they had split with former vice president Riek Machar, rejecting his plans to join Kiir in a transitional government.
Elia Lomuro, South Sudan's cabinet affairs minister, said that Kiir would join the talks but it would not be possible to sign a full peace deal until all opposition factions could join the agreement.
"Riek Machar has already been ousted and disowned by his own army and politicians," Lomuro said.
"If we are to sign peace then we have to sign a peace with all the factions and all the groups that are fighting."
RELATED: South Sudan to unveil own plan to end conflict
Discussing the reported split, Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford, reporting from Adis Ababa, said: "We spoke to a rebel spokesperson here and he says the South Sudanese government is just using this as a pretext to delay the signing of this deal and that Machar is the only man that Kiir can speak to in terms of pushing these negotiations forward.
"They described the split of these two generals as an administrative problem.
"We believe that these two generals were sacked by Machar in July - it was only last week that they announced that they are leaving the rebels.
"The South Sudanese government spokesperson who we spoke to on Saturday said this was an indication of Machar needing to get what he described as 'his house in order' before these negotiations went any further."
RELATED: South Sudan war: 'We need healing to happen on all levels'
The latest round of peace talks opened on August 6, mediated by the regional eight-nation bloc IGAD (the Intergovernmental Authority on Development), as well as the UN, African Union, China and the "troika" of Britain, Norway and the US.
On Sunday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has sent troops into South Sudan to back Kiir, held talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is also in Addis Ababa for the talks.
"There is hope, as long as all of us want peace," Lomuro said, after reporters asked if a deal would be signed on Monday.
South Sudan's civil war began in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that has split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.
More than 70 percent of the country's 12 million people need aid, while 2.2 million people have fled their homes, the UN says, with areas on the brink of famine. |
React: A (very brief) talk about immutability.
Cássio Zen Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 24, 2015
React component’s API provides a setState method to make changes to the component internal state — but as the documentation makes clear, we have to be careful to always use the setState method and never manipulate this.state directly.
As a rule of thumb, treat this.state as if it were immutable. For example, let’s say we have this given stateful component that displays data about a voucher for an airline travel (the render method is omitted in this example because we are only investigating the component’s state):
Now, suppose we want to add a passenger to the passengers Array. If we’re not careful we may unintentionally mutate the component state directly. For example:
The problem in this sample code, as you may have guessed, is that in Javascript objects and arrays are passed as reference. This means that when we say updatedPassengers=this.state.passengers we’re not making a copy of the array — we are just creating a new reference to the same array that is in the current component’s state. Further on, by using the array method push, we end up mutating its state directly.
By manipulating this.state directly you are circumventing React’s state management, which can be potentially dangerous as calling setState() afterwards may replace the mutation you made.
The alternative is actually pretty simple: create copies of the objects in this.state and manipulate the copies, assigning them back using setState(). It’s possible to use non-destructive methods, that is, methods that will return a new object or array with the desired mutations instead of actually changing the original object or array.
Map, filter and concat are just a few examples non-destructive array methods. Let’s re-approach the earlier problem of adding a new passenger to the array, this time using the Array’s concat method:
The same rule applies for mutating objects: the correct approach is to mutate a copy of the object in this.state and then assigning the new object with setState. There are different ways of doing this, like using Object.assign. For example, to change the flightNo on the ticket state key we could do:
Nested Objects
Although Array’s non destructive methods and Object.assign will do the job on most cases, it get’s really tricky if your state contains nested objects or arrays. That’s because of a characteristic of the Javascript language: Objects and Arrays are passed by reference, and neither the Array’s non-destructive methods nor Object.assign makes deep copies. In practice this means the the nested objects and arrays in your newly returned object will be only references to the same objects and arrays on the old object.
Let’s see this in practice — given the ticket object we were working on:
If we create a newTicket object with Object.assign, like in this example:
We will end up with these two objects:
However, the departure and arrival objects on newTicket aren’t separate copies — they’re references to the same originalTicket objects. If we try to change the arrival object on newTicket, for example:
Both objects new share the same arrival airport…
Again, this has nothing to do with React, its just the default Javascript behavior — but this default behavior can and will impact React if you want to mutate a component State with nested objects. We could try making a deep clone of the original object, but this wouldn’t be a good option because it is expensive on performance and even impossible to do in some cases. The good news is that there is a simple solution: React provides a set of utility functions (called ‘immutability helpers’) that help update more complex and nested models.
React Immutability Helpers
React Immutability helpers works on regular JavaScript Objects and Arrays and it’s easy to get started and integrate on a React App.
To begin with, there’s no need to install any additional library- just change the import on you javascript from:
import React, { Component } from ‘react’;
to:
import React, { Component } from ‘react/addons’;
React.addons.update accepts two parameters: The first one is the object or array that you want to mutate. The second parameter is an object that describes WHERE the mutation should take place and WHAT kind of mutation you want to make. Let’s exemplify:
Given this simple object:
To create a new shallow copy of this object with a new grade, the syntax for React.addon.update is:
The object {grades:{$push: [‘A’]}} informs, from left to right, that the update function should:
1- Locate the key grades (“where” the mutation will take place)
2- Push a new value to the array (“what” kind of mutation should happen)
If we wanted to completely change the array, we could use the command $set instead of $push:
There’s no limit to the amount of nesting you can do. Let’s head back to our voucher ticket object, where we were having trouble creating a new object with a different arrival information. The original object was:
The information we want to change (airport) is nested three levels deep. In React.addons.update, all we need to do is keep nesting objects with their names on the objects that describe the mutation:
Now only the newTicket has the arrival airport set to “MCO”. The original ticket mantains the original arrival airport.
Array indexes
It’s also possible to use array indexes to find WHERE a mutation should happen. For example, if we wanted to mutate the first codeshare object (the array element at index 0):
Besides $push and $set, the immutability helpers also provides $unshift, $splice and $concat (similar to JavaScript homonymous array prototype functions) besides $merge and $apply. The documentation page offers a detailed description of each. |
It seems so long ago now, but in the print media age the crispest insights we gained into the mindset of sportspeople often came via the humble magazine Q&A. Thus we learned the favoured tipple of Australian cricketers was either their home state’s major brand of lager, or, if they were a little bit edgy, rum and coke. Entirely anomalous fast bowler Geoff Lawson didn’t drink at all, so his team-mates sprayed the aforementioned beverages all over him.
Once you’d processed the fact that every male athlete in Australia thought The Shawshank Redemption was cinema’s high water mark, the funniest answers were often in response to that classic hypothetical: who are your three dream dinner party guests? Were an Australian cricketer to exclude any of Elle Macpherson, Greg Norman or Nelson Mandela they stood alone as a maverick (and their name was probably Greg Mathews).
Say it with Shane: WarnieMojis is the app no one asked for | Elle Hunt Read more
Many settled for that exact formation – not exactly a triumph in social dynamics, unless Mandela was having previously undocumented trouble with his short game or Macpherson had some particularly searching questions about the South African justice system. Sadly, this table formation never actually occurred outside the fever dreams of Sheffield Shield dressing rooms.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that having yearned to know more about the interior lives of these men, once we had, we were often confronted with childlike internal monologues. Which brings me to Shane Warne, whose soap opera life is now set to be turned into an unauthorised telemovie by Australian TV network Seven.
Bless him, Warne has never hidden from the fact that the pleasures he derives from life are simple and, thanks to social media, they’re as achingly transparent to the general public now as at any point of his life. We no longer need the Q&A, we can just scroll through Twitter and check which z-grade celebrity he’s currently nattering away to, or which drinks are scattered around his poker table.
We already know Warne’s favourite movie is American Pie because he never stops tweeting about Stiffler, a character who would also presumably end up spearing a rissole at Warnie’s dream dinner party, which would also be attended by Bruce Springsteen, Chris Martin, a topless Angelina Jolie and the rest of the gang from the infamous Warnie mural.
Which is not to say Warne is happy about being the butt of condescending jokes, a philosophy some would say is at odds with social media stream in which he posts topless photographs of himself looking up from bed into a full length ceiling mirror. In the last 20 years Warne has variously been described as a “genius” by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and also been openly mocked by former team-mates, but nobody has ever accused him of being enigmatic.
To explain why Warne isn’t happy with his life being turned into scripted television, one should step back in time a little to his playing career, when a publishing cottage industry developed around the Australian leg-spinner. That genre produced Spun Out, Paul Barry’s excruciating 540-page opus of tittle tattle and pop psychology (“sneering and priggish”, one reviewer called it), on which the new TV production will be based.
In short, and not just because of books like Barry’s, Warne came to the firm view that the genre of biography should not exist at all. He’s on record, in fact, for saying that it should be illegal to write a book about a figure such as himself without permission. For much of his playing career he accepted the tabloid media scrutiny that came as part and parcel of what some saw as indiscretions in his private life, shrugging his shoulders at the headlines, but the books enraged him.
Shane Warne is actually many good things, and in a lot of respects his enduring vanity has served him well in life, but his decades-long aversion to other people telling his story is something he’s never let go and doesn’t quite fit with his 2016 persona. Australians have always tended to take Warne entirely seriously when he’s discussed leg-spin or had a cricket ball in his hand, but not so much otherwise.
David Squires on ... Shane Warne and the ball of the century Read more
The problem here for Warne is that having spent most of the last five years exposing every social and romantic happening of his waking life for all to see, he’s not in a strong position to oppose a sensationalist TV series. How could it possibly be any stranger or more embarrassing than his actual life?
The TV production basically writes itself, and if it’s only movie-length, you sense the main problem for producers (and a relief for Warne) will be the process of omission. “OK, we need John the Bookie in there, yep, and the diet pills, for sure, but when will the inflatable penis scene take place?”
In a poignant artistic flourish, maybe they’ll start at the scene of Warne’s first day job, delivering beds for Forty Winks, and perhaps end at his aborted rendezvous with Brynne Edelsten in May. “Brynne then invited me back to her place around 1am for a nightcap, when I arrived, paparazzi were conveniently waiting outside her home to get the pic,” Warne complained at the time. “I left instantly and thought how sad is that!”
Yet hovering awkwardly here is the possibility that no matter what the script-writers come up with, this new small-screen re-telling might not be anywhere near as “sad” as the snippets we’re so often fed by Warne himself.
The cricket writer Christian Ryan once hit on a solid theory about Warne: maybe he’ll always be more famous than he is loved. Maybe, one day, he’ll assume a level of comfort with that fact. Whenever this telemovie airs, surely he’ll also admit deep down that with respect to his own triumphant, turbulent and occasionally gobsmacking life, truth is far stranger than fiction. |
Campaigners have criticised author Ian McEwan for comments that appeared to question the right of transgender people to choose their gender.
In a speech to the Royal Institution, the Booker prize-winning writer asked whether factors such as biology and social norms limited our ability to adopt a different gender.
“The self, like a consumer desirable, may be plucked from the shelves of a personal identity supermarket, a ready-to-wear little black number,” McEwan said. “For example, some men in full possession of a penis are now identifying as women and demanding entry to women-only colleges, and the right to change in women’s dressing rooms.”
Penis comment was biologically unexceptional | Letter from Ian McEwan Read more
In a Q&A after his speech, one woman asked McEwan, 67, to clarify what she called his offensive remarks, the Times reported (paywall). “Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to think of people with penises as men,” he said. “But I know they enter a difficult world when they become transsexuals and they tell us they are women, they become women, but it’s interesting when you hear the conflict between feminists now and people in this group.
“It’s quite a bitter conflict. Spaces are put aside, women are wanting to put spaces aside like colleges or changing rooms, and find from another side a radical discussion coming their way saying men who want to feel like it can come in there too. I think it’s really difficult. And I think there is sweeping through American [university] campuses a kind of strange sense of victimhood and a sense of purposeful identities that we can’t actually all of us agree with. Of course sex and race are different, but they also have a biological basis. It makes a difference whether you have an X or Y chromosome.”
Ian McEwan: when I was a monster Read more
Stonewall condemned McEwan’s “uninformed views” as “extremely sad”. In a statement it said: “The complexity of gender identity extends beyond genitalia. Trans people need and deserve acceptance and equality. This sort of commentary doesn’t just denigrate the trans experience, it denies its very existence, and that’s especially hurtful for a group of people who have spent their lives fighting to be heard and understood.”
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell described McEwan’s stance on gender as a form of “ethical authoritarianism”. He said: “There seems to be a league table of oppression, where some people fight other people to claim the title of most oppressed. This disempowering holier-than-thou rivalry was never what identity politics was supposed to be about.”
In November Germaine Greer went ahead with a lecture at Cardiff University in defiance of a campaign to stop her on the grounds that she had expressed transphobic views.
She said she did not accept that post-operative men were women. “I don’t believe a woman is a man without a cock,” Greer told the audience. “You can beat me over the head with a baseball bat. It still won’t make me change my mind.” |
AP Photo Sanders campaign inks joint fundraising pact with DNC
Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign has signed a joint fundraising agreement with the Democratic National Committee, the DNC confirmed to POLITICO.
The move, which comes more than two months after Hillary Clinton's campaign signed such an agreement in August, will allow Sanders' team to raise up to $33,400 for the committee as well as $2,700 for the campaign from individual donors at events.
Story Continued Below
The candidate rarely headlines fundraising events, and is not close with many big-money Democratic donors, but he has been working to prove his proximity to the party in recent months as he competes with Clinton.
The Vermont senator, who is an Independent but caucuses with Senate Democrats, also recently lent his name to a fundraising letter for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to a campaign adviser, in another indication of his slowly growing ties to the party's infrastructure. |
19th December 2015
New microscope is 2,000 times faster
A new atomic force microscope developed by MIT can scan images 2,000 times faster than existing commercial models. This allows it to capture near-real-time video of nanoscale processes.
State-of-the-art atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are designed to capture images of structures as small as a fraction of a nanometre – a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. In recent years, AFMs have produced desktop-worthy close-ups of atom-sized structures, from DNA strands to individual bonds changing between molecules. But scanning these images is a meticulous, time-consuming process. AFMs have therefore been used mostly for static samples as they are too slow to capture active, changing environments.
Now engineers at MIT have designed an atomic force microscope that scans images 2,000 times faster than existing commercial models. With this new high-speed instrument, the team produced images of chemical processes taking place at the nanoscale, at a rate that is close to real-time video.
In one demonstration of the instrument’s capabilities, the researchers scanned a 70- by-70-micron sample of calcite as it was first immersed in deionised water and later exposed to sulphuric acid. Zooming into an area of interest, they observed the acid eating away at the calcite, expanding existing nanometre-sized pits in the material that quickly merged and led to a layer-by-layer removal of calcite along the material’s crystal pattern, over a period of several seconds.
Calcite immersed in deionised water.
Sulphuric acid creating pits in the calcite.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, Kamal Youcef-Toumi, says the instrument’s sensitivity and speed will enable scientists to watch atomic-sized processes play out as high-resolution “movies.”
“People can see, for example, condensation, nucleation, dissolution, or deposition of material, and how these happen in real-time – things that people have never seen before,” he says. “This is fantastic to see these details emerging. And it will open great opportunities to explore all of this world that is at the nanoscale.”
The MIT researchers' achievement was made possible through an innovative new technique. This involved controlling the movement of the needle over the sample surface with two actuators (a small, fast scanner and a larger, slower one) in combination with a set of algorithms to ensure they never interfered with each other. At present, this method provides scans at eight to 10 frames per second, but further research is underway to increase this.
“We want to go to real video, which is at least 30 frames per second,” Youcef-Toumi says. “Hopefully we can work on improving the instrument and controls so that we can do video-rate imaging while maintaining its large range and keeping it user-friendly. That would be something great to see.”
The team's design and images, which are based on the PhD work of Iman Bozchalooi – now a postdoc in the Department of Mechanical Engineering – appear in the journal Ultramicroscopy.
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Don’t Look Now, But There’s an Ancient Roman Depiction of a Dolphin Under Your Bed a horrifying inquiry, with pictures and Benjamin Franklin Donna Zuckerberg Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 16, 2016
Basilica of Neptune, Rome
The ancient Romans conquered the entire Mediterranean. They gave the world legendary badasses, both real and fictional, such as Julius Caesar, Spartacus, and Decimus Meridius Maximus (yes, that’s the correct order). And they were terrified of dolphins. You can tell a lot about cultural fears from iconography, and to the Romans, dolphins didn’t look like this (an image telling its own creepy tale about the American obsession with cuteness, but that’s a story for a different time): Lisa Frank, “Surfing Dolphins” Instead, they looked like this: Roman-era floor mosaic on Delos depicting Eros riding on dolphins, c. 120–80 BCE Thank you, mosaic artist, for making sure the teeth were picked out in black tiles. Your effort is noted and appreciated (not really). Also noted: the demonic yellow eyes and crab-pincer tails, and their size relative to Eros (often depicted riding a dolphin). These are what nightmares are made of. I first became aware of the creepiness of ancient dolphins when I was in Rome a few years ago. Since then, this question has bothered me: how did the Roman perception of dolphins come to diverge so sharply from our own Flipper-and-Sea World version? I’m not going to answer that question here. Instead, I’m going to show you some pictures of dolphins and share Benjamin Franklin’s insane theory for why paintings of them are so inaccurate and terrifying. In the end, you will be a little confused but probably not any wiser. I have warned you. The ancient Greeks loved dolphins. They called them philomousoi, music lovers, because they thought that dolphins danced when they heard music. The poet Bacchylides tells a story about Theseus jumping into the ocean as part of a demigod pissing contest with Minos, only to reappear riding a dolphin. Taras, the mythological founder of the Greek city Tarentum on the south coast of Italy, rode there on a dolphin; the city adopted the image of a man riding a dolphin on their coinage. The Homeric Hymn to Dionysus recounts the story of how Dionysus was taken captive by a ship of pirates and turned them all into dolphins, and Herodotus tells a similar story about how the poet Arion was captured by pirates, jumped overboard, and was rescued by a dolphin and carried to shore. Remember that story, because it’s going to come back to haunt us later. Unlike the Roman depictions of dolphins, most ancient Greek pictures of dolphins a) aren’t horrifying and b) appear to have been painted by people with at least a slight awareness of what a dolphin actually looked like. Greek dolphins run the gamut from childishly drawn to friendly-looking to moderately dissatisfied, but they never look like they want to eat your soul. Here’s a fresco from Knossos that, in spite of being more than 3,500 years old, might be able to pass as a page of Lisa Frank stickers: Crete, c. 1700–1450 BCE This dolphin, from about the same period on Santorini, also does not thirst for my blood (although it does look stealthy): via Wikimedia Commons Classical Greek dolphins, while hardly anatomically accurate, probably won’t frighten you and are actually kind of cute:
Left, Phiale from Eretria c. 510–500 BCE; Right, Attic black-figure kylix from Vulci c. 530 BCE
Sometimes they generously carry fully-armed hoplites (with self-referential shields?) on their backs: Attic red-figure psykter (c. 520–10 BCE) This is probably my favorite Greek dolphin: Faliscan red-figure kylix, ca. 350 BCE Is he thrilled to be the steed of a naked satyr carrying a giant amphora? No. But he looks more or less resigned to his lot in life. He seems to be thinking, “I guess I’m a stool now. Oh well. At least I have eyelids.” So far, so good. But just wait until we cross the Ionian sea. Literary evidence from ancient Rome paints a similar picture of dolphins to the one we find in Greece. Pliny the Elder believed that dolphins loved music, and he tells several stories of close bonds of friendship between dolphins and humans. (He also says that they have spines on their backs and mouths in the middle of their stomachs, so he may not be a credible source.) His nephew, Pliny the Younger, in a move familiar to everyone who has ever tried to sound clever at a party, tells the exact same story about a dolphin that formed a close attachment with a boy in North Africa while pretending it was his story to begin with. Mosaic evidence suggests that the Plinii may have been outliers in their warmth toward cetaceans. I’ll let you decide whether these mosaic dolphins carrying Cupid seem to be thinking “Let’s be best friends!” or “Once I get you far enough out to sea that nobody can hear you scream, you’re going to be my dinner”: Detail from the Oceanus and Tethys Mosaic in the Zeugma Mosaic Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) Baths of Neptune, Ostia Antica (via Wikimedia Commons) Princeton University Art Museum The next one is definitely the best, and not only because of Cupid’s bizarrely svelte waist. It’s so obvious that whoever reconstructed the lost parts of the mosaic was really trying to make the dolphin seem nice: Mosaic from Sousse, 2nd century CE Cute! But I think we can all agree that the museum went with a conservative estimate of how many dolphin teeth would have been visible, considering this statue, also of Cupid riding a dolphin, from the very same time period: Naples, 2nd century CE In conclusion, ancient Roman dolphins resemble nothing so much as Flotsam and Jetsam from The Little Mermaid, if they were actually scary eels and not incompetent henchmen. Later painters in western Europe — who I guess had never actually seen a dolphin with their own eyes? — more or less took the Roman depictions of dolphins as their models. Later European dolphins are even toothier and hairier (literally, not figuratively) than their predecessors. Albrecht Dürer, c. 1514 Albrecht Dürer, an absolutely brilliant artist who specialized in woodcut prints, apparently thought that dolphins had tusks and whiskers. His Arion, naked but for his full-sized concert harp, looks like he’d prefer to take his chances with the pirates. Here’s “The Triumph of Galatea” by Raphael, also from c. 1514, with a close-up on its dolphins: |
When configuring an Azure Virtual Network one of the most common things you'll want to do is setup a Point-to-Site VPN so that you can actually get to your servers to manage and maintain them. Azure Point-to-Site VPNs use client certificates to secure connections which can be quite complicated to configure so Microsoft has gone the extra mile to make it easy for you to configure and get setup – sadly at the cost of losing the ability to connect through the command line or through PowerShell – Let's change that.
Current state of play == No Command line VPN connections
Normally when you want to launch a VPN from the CLI or PowerShell in Windows you can simply use the following command:
rasdial "My home VPN"
The Azure pre-packaged VPN doesn't allow this because it's really just not a normal VPN. It's something else, something mysterious - not a normal native Windows VPN connection.
When you run the Azure VPN through the command line you get this (you'll see a hint as to why I'd be using Azure Point-to-site in this screenshot):
Azure VPNs don't appear to support this.
If you want to keep your servers behind a private network in Azure and use continuous deployment to get your code into production this makes it hard to deploy without a human being around. Not really the best case scenario – especially when you remind yourself that automated builds aim to do away with human error altogether.
What the Azure Point-to-Site looks like out of the box
When you first go to setup a Point-to-site VPN into your Azure virtual network Microsoft points you at a page that walks you through creating a client certificate on your local machine to use as authentication.
They then get you to download a package for setting up the Azure VPN RAS dialler on your local machine.
This is accessed from within the Azure "Networks" page for your virtual network.
You install this package and then whenever connecting you're greeted with a connection screen that you might of seen in a previous life. And by seen I don't mean that Windows Azure Virtual Networks have been around for ages. But more that the login screen may look familiar.
This is because this login screen is a Microsoft "Connection Manager" login screen and has been around for a while.
Example from TechNet (note extremely dated Bitmap awesomeness):
Connection Manager is used to pre-package VPN and dial up connections for easy-install distribution in a large organisation. This also means we can reconstruct the underlying VPN connection and use it as a normal VPN – claiming back our CLI super powers.
Digging through the details
So what we really want to know is:
What is this mystical VPN technology the people at Microsoft have bestowed upon us?
Here's how I started getting more information about the implementation:
Connecting once successfully then disconnect.
Open it up again to connect and click on Properties
Then clicking on View Log
You'll then be greeted by something that looks like this:
****************************************************************** Operating System : Windows NT 6.2 Dialler Version : 7.2.9200.16384 Connection Name : My Azure Virtual Network All Users/Single User : Single User Start Date/Time : 24/11/2013, 7:50:31 ****************************************************************** Module Name, Time, Log ID, Log Item Name, Other Info For Connection Type, 0=dial-up, 1=VPN, 2=VPN over dial-up ****************************************************************** [cmdial32] 7:50:31 03 Pre-Init Event CallingProcess = C:\Windows\system32\CMMON32.EXE [cmdial32] 7:50:39 04 Pre-Connect Event ConnectionType = 1 [cmdial32] 7:50:39 06 Pre-Tunnel Event UserName = MyClientSSLCertificate Domain = DUNSetting = [OBFUSCATED AZURE GATEWAY ID] Tunnel DeviceName = TunnelAddress = [OBFUSCATED AZURE GATEWAY ID].cloudapp.net [cmdial32] 7:50:44 07 Connect Event [cmdial32] 7:50:44 08 Custom Action Dll ActionType = Connect Actions Description = to update your routing table ActionPath = C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Cm\[OBFUSCATED AZURE GATEWAY ID]\CMROUTE.DLL ReturnValue = 0x0 [CMMON32] 7:56:21 23 External Disconnect [cmdial32] 7:56:21 13 Disconnect Event CallingProcess = C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
More importantly you'll see this path included in the connection:
Within this folder is all the magic connection manager odds and ends. Apologies for the [Obfuscated], simply the path contains information to my azure endpoint.
Within this folder you'll see a bunch of files:
Most importantly there is a PBK file – a Personal Phonebook. This is what stores the connect settings for the VPN as is a commonly distributed way of sending out connection settings in the Enterprise. If you run this on its own you'll actually be able to connect to the VPN directly (without your network routes being updated).
This phonebook is where we can steal our settings from to recreate a command line driven connection.
Setting it up
Open up the properties of your Azure Point-To-Site VPN phonebook above, and copy the connection address.
It will look like this:
azuregateway-[Guid].cloudapp.net
Open Network Sharing Centre, and create a new connection. Then select Connect to a workplace.
Select that you'll "Use my internet connection".
Then enter your Azure Point-To-Site VPN address and then give your new connection a name. Remember this name for later
Then click Create to save your VPN.
Now open the connection properties for your newly created VPN. This is where we'll use the settings in your Azure Diallers config to setup your connection.
I'll save you the hassle of showing you me copying the settings from one connection to another and instead i'll just focus on what you need to set them to.
Flick over to the Options tab and then click PPP Settings. Click the 2 missing options Enable software compression and Negotiate multi-link for single-link connections.
Set the type of VPN to Secure Socket Tunnelling Protocol (SSTP), Turn on EAP and select Microsoft: Smart Card of other certificate as the authentication type.
Then click on Properties.
Select "Use a certificate on this computer", un-tick "Connect to these servers", and then select the certificate that uses your Azure endpoint Uri as its certificate name and then save out.
Then flick over to the Network tab. Open TCP/IPV4 then Advanced then untick Use default gateway on remote network. This setting stops internet traffic going over the VPN while you're connected so you can still surf reddit while managing your Azure environment.
Close the VPN configuration panel.
You now have a working VPN connection to Azure.
When you connect using windows you'll be asked to select the name of the client certificate you'll be authenticating with. You select the certificate you created and uploaded into Azure before you setup your connection.
When you connect using the command line you don't need to specify your certificate:
rasdial "Azure VPN"
But there's one catch: Your local machine's route table doesn't know when to send any traffic to your Azure Virtual Network. The network link is there, but Windows doesn't know what to send over your internet link and what to send over the VPN link.
You see Microsoft did a few things when they packaged your connection manager, and one of these things was to also copy a file called "cmroute.dll" and call this after connection to route your traffic onto your Virtual Network. This file altered your routing table to route traffic to your Virtual Network subnets through the VPN connection.
We can do the same thing – so lets go about it.
What's this about Routing... Rooting (for the English speakers in the room)
My Azure Virtual Network consists of the following network range:
10.0.0.0/8
I also have the following subnets for different machines groups.
10.0.1.0/24 (Web Servers)
10.0.2.0/24 (Application Servers)
10.0.3.0/24 (Management services)
My PPTP Connections, or Point-To-Site connections sit on the range: 172.16.0/24
This means that when I connect to the Azure VPN I will get an IP address in this range. Example: 172.16.0.17
When this happens we need to tell Windows to route all traffic going to my 10.0.X.X range IP addresses through the IP address that has been given to us by Azure's VPN RRAS service.
You can see your current routing table by entering route PRINT into a command prompt or PowerShell console.
Automating the Routing Additions
Luckily the Windows Task Scheduler supports event listeners that allow us to watch for VPN connections and run commands off the back of them.
Take the below PowerShell Script below and save it for arguments sake in C:\Scripts\UpdateRouteTableForAzureVPN.ps1
############################################################# # Adds IP routes to Azure VPN through the Point-To-Site VPN ############################################################# # Define your Azure Subnets $ips = @( "10.0.1.0" , "10.0.2.0" , "10.0.3.0" ) # Point-To-Site IP address range # should be the first 4 octets of the ip address '172.16.0.14' == '172.16.0. $azurePptpRange = "172.16.0." # Find the current new DHCP assigned IP address from Azure $azureIpAddress = ipconfig | findstr $azurePptpRange # If Azure hasn't given us one yet, exit and let u know if ( ! $azureIpAddress ){ "You do not currently have an IP address in your Azure subnet." exit 1 } $azureIpAddress = $azureIpAddress . Split( ": " ) $azureIpAddress = $azureIpAddress [ $azureIpAddress . Length - 1 ] $azureIpAddress = $azureIpAddress . Trim() # Delete any previous configured routes for these ip ranges foreach ( $ip in $ips ) { $routeExists = route print | findstr $ip if ( $routeExists ) { "Deleting route to Azure: " + $ip route delete $ip } } # Add our new routes to Azure Virtual Network foreach ( $subnet in $ips ) { "Adding route to Azure: " + $subnet echo "route add $ip MASK 255.255.255.0 $azureIpAddress " route add $subnet MASK 255.255.255.0 $azureIpAddress }
Now execute the following from an elevated command prompt window. This tells Windows to add an event listener based task that looks for events to our "Azure VPN" connection and if it sees them, it runs our PowerShell script.
schtasks /create /F /TN "VPN Connection Update" /TR "Powershell.exe -NonInteractive -command C:\Scripts\UpdateRouteTableForAzureVPN.ps1" /SC ONEVENT /EC Application /MO "*[System[(Level=4 or Level=0) and (EventID=20225)]] and *[EventData[Data='Azure VPN']] "
If I then connect to my VPN the above script should execute.
After connecting if I check my routing table by entering route PRINT into a console application we have our routes to Azure added correctly.
We're Done!
With that we're now able to fully use an Azure Point-to-Site VPN simply from the command line. This means we can use it as part of a build server deployment, or if you're working on it all the time you can simply set it up to connect every time you login to windows.
Command line usage
rasdial "[Connection name]" rasdial "[Connection name]" /disconnect
For my connection named "Azure VPN" this command line usage becomes:
rasdial "Azure VPN" rasdial "Azure VPN" /disconnect |
Google Photos is still trying to find the best ways to reconcile between your locally stored photos and your cloud photos in the most seamless and least intrusive way. Over the year since its launch, it made deleting photos, from inside the app itself, simultaneous between cloud and local storage. Then it made it possible to empty your phone's storage if you've already backed up photos, so you don't run out of space on your phone.
And now there's a new feature that's been popping up since the latest update to version 1.23 of the app that offers to sync deleted photos. Say you took a few photos on your phone and they're already backed up to Google Photos. Then you went through another gallery app (if you use the Samsung or LG or HTC Gallery apps or another third-party client) and deleted the ones you didn't want to keep. The images would still be backed up in your Google Photos account.
Now, Photos is smart to realize that this has happened and suggests it removes them too. For example, you may want to do that for burst photos that you don't want in your account or for random shots that you only needed for a couple of days. But you don't want to do that for photos that you want to save but just removed because you're freeing up space on your device. That's why it's great that this is an optional card and not an automatic action.
Now I'm going to sit and pray that someone fixes the duplicate cloud/local Photos issue on the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, and that Google Photos finally adds a smart duplicate detection algorithm to suggest removing similar but not exactly identical photos. |
Hey gang! Last week, [we talked about how we're tuning the new leveling system to give out more overall rewards ](https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/hAaYMrEs-leveling-and-rewards-early-impressions-and-adjustments)compared to the old IP-based system. Today we're announcing a few new adjustments we're making in reaction to player feedback. ##TL;DR for the post: * Milestone emotes are now free and we're refunding anyone who already used BE to unlock them. * Leveling capsules will now give out more raw blue essence and fewer low-value shards. * To make the "First Win of the Day" more generous, we're making it reset 20 hours after you earn it (instead of 22 hours). Let's get into the good stuff. ##LEVELING MILESTONE REWARDS First up, let's talk about milestone rewards. Throughout the new leveling system, there are a number of emotes you can earn access to by reaching certain "milestone" levels. Currently, it costs a certain amount of blue essence (from 2,500 BE to 20,000 BE) to actually unlock the emotes once you reach their required level. Originally, these milestone rewards were designed with veteran players in mind—the idea was that high-leveled players will probably have too much BE on their hands anyways, so we might as well give them something cool to use it on. Thus the upgrade costs. However, we've gotten feedback from some players that these upgrade costs can feel bad if you haven't yet unlocked all the champs you want. For that reason, **we're going to make ALL leveling emotes free, and we'll be refunding anyone who already paid blue essence to upgrade their emotes.** If you’ve already reached a milestone and haven’t upgraded the emote yet, the upgrade price of the emote shards in your inventory will be reduced to 1 BE. We're still gonna find more ways to serve veteran players who have an excess of BE, but we'll probably use tools like the recurring Blue Essence Emporium for that purpose. While we're here, let's talk about the milestone rewards in more detail. Along with the champ shards you get at each level, there are also a variety of special milestone rewards (including gemstones) peppered all throughout the leveling system. Check out this gorgeous chart which was definitely not copy-pasted from a Google doc: https://i.imgur.com/biZ6koB.png[/img] In addition to the special rewards listed above, each of the milestone levels also grant a "glorious champion capsule" with an average BE value of 2120. These show up every 10 levels, as well. The only things more glorious than our capsules are our charts. This change is going live sometime today. Refunds for folks who already paid for upgrades will likely take between one and two weeks extra. ##BLUE ESSENCE IN LEVELING CAPSULES Next up, let's talk about leveling capsules. We're currently seeing some players complaining about getting too many of the same type of shards. This is actually a pretty easy problem to solve. We're going to retune the system so that it never drops more than a couple 260 RP champion shards at once when you level up. Instead, you'll now receive some combination of shards along with a batch of BE. This change won't affect the overall amount of BE you get from each drop, but we think it'll make each drop feel a little better. These adjustments are also going live sometime today. ##MAKING "FIRST WIN OF THE DAY" EASIER Finally, we're making the FWotD's timer a little easier to get. Currently it resets 22 hours after you complete the FWotD mission, **but—starting sometime during patch 7.23—it’ll reset after 20 hours.** Now, even if it takes you a few games to get a win on any given day, you'll still be able to grab it quickly the next day. We've heard a lot of requests to just make FWotD fully consistent by making it reset at a specific time early in the morning. We're not ready to make that change right now, but we're thinking about doing it in a future patch. Alright, so that's it for this week's update! We'll return at some point in the coming weeks to talk about any other adjustments to the leveling and rewards. Hit us up in the comments below and we'll answer any questions you've got.
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*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription:
We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription:
We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article.
We've heard from credible sources that there is no new buyer in Phoenix and we've heard from equally plugged-in folks that there is some fire behind this smoke.
News coming out of the desert the last couple of days has a mystery buyer now interested in purchasing the Yotes. In a related note, the boys from Ice Edge are out of the running but are now putting together a no-cash-for-a-new-building deal in Thunder Bay to house an ECHL franchise. Talk about your left turns.
Or maybe it's Stefano DiMera coming ashore after months in his submarine to kick the tires on the Phoenix Coyotes. Beating up on the folks on Days of Our Lives isn't enough to keep him busy, so look out Ron McLean and Gary Bettman and Brian Burke. There could be a new bully in town.
So, Victor Newman has ordered his minions to fire up the Gulfstream and chart a course for Phoenix. Seems the main villian from the Young and the Restless wants to buy himself a hockey team.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 31/8/2010 (3100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/8/2010 (3100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
So, Victor Newman has ordered his minions to fire up the Gulfstream and chart a course for Phoenix. Seems the main villian from the Young and the Restless wants to buy himself a hockey team.
Or maybe it's Stefano DiMera coming ashore after months in his submarine to kick the tires on the Phoenix Coyotes. Beating up on the folks on Days of Our Lives isn't enough to keep him busy, so look out Ron McLean and Gary Bettman and Brian Burke. There could be a new bully in town.
News coming out of the desert the last couple of days has a mystery buyer now interested in purchasing the Yotes. In a related note, the boys from Ice Edge are out of the running but are now putting together a no-cash-for-a-new-building deal in Thunder Bay to house an ECHL franchise. Talk about your left turns.
We've heard from credible sources that there is no new buyer in Phoenix and we've heard from equally plugged-in folks that there is some fire behind this smoke.
Regardless, there is nothing in such news that should elicit much of a response from NHL loving Winnipeggers.
And there will likely be lots more news just like this. Before this deal is put to bed we might meet a sheik, a Texan, a Russian playboy or even a Philadelphia lawyer, all with sights on owning an NHL franchise.
And maybe one of them will get it done.
But Winnipeg's role in this game has already been played. Mark Chipman and his True North Sports and Entertainment group have done their thing. There's nothing more for them to do but wait and see what happens.
When NHL commissioner Bettman told the city of Glendale back in May to either find a buyer for the Coyotes to keep the team in Phoenix or else, the Free Press learned True North was Bettman's other option.
"The owners currently have a bona fide offer from a viable purchaser who would relocate the hockey team to another market for the 2010-11 season and contemplates that the owners (the NHL) would break even on their investment in the team through the end of the 2009-10 NHL season as well as the NHL potentially receiving a relocation fee," read a document between the league and Glendale city council.
Deadline
Glendale was given a deadline of Dec. 31 to find a buyer to keep the team in Jobing.com Arena.
True North has made its offer and now can do nothing but wait. Same goes for those hoping and praying to see the NHL take up permanent residence in Manitoba.
There's no bidding war between True North and the city of Glendale. There's not even a guarantee that the NHL views Dec. 31 as a hard and fast date.
It would behoove us not to get our panties in a knot, folks.
Hey, do we want the Coyotes to come back to Winnipeg? Of course. But getting all sweaty every time the rumour mill kicks out a sultan or a tire king or even the lady who owned the Chiefs in Slapshot does no good. In fact, it's likely bad for our collective blood pressure.
There's a guy in Phoenix who has been emailing me regularly since May telling me that he 'knew for sure that Ice Edge would land the Coyotes,' and that Winnipeg was just being used. Oddly, he hasn't emailed me for a few days.
Nobody knows what will happen where this deal is concerned. Maybe a billionaire will surface and actually have the money to buy the team and determine it's a solid investment and Phoenix will keep NHL hockey.
Maybe Glendale city council will decide keeping the Coyotes is paramount — no matter how expensive for their constituents — and give a potential buyer all the breaks they want.
Or, perhaps time will run out in Phoenix and Bettman and True North will come to an agreement and we can begin fighting over what to call our team.
[email protected] |
When it released last year, Legend of Grimrock was a loving throwback to a simpler age: back when dungeons were proper bloody dungeons. Back when dungeons were dark, repetitive, difficult to navigate without a map and full of giant spiders. So it may come as a surprise that this first screenshot for Legend of Grimrock 2 depicts an ethereal outdoor forest setting (there's a castle -- no doubt containing a proper bloody dungeon -- just behind those trees though).
The folk at Almost Human posted it on the official Grimrock website last month. They didn't provide any further context, but it does suggest that you'll be able to venture outside of dungeons in this game.
In an earlier blog post, the team discuss some ideas for the sequel that were ultimately given the chop, including roguelike elements and a world map dotted with "towns, villages and adventuring locations." It's an interesting read . |
MONTEBELLO – Protesters from the Occupy Movement on Friday rallied outside the district office of a local legislator, asking him to support the swift passage of the California Homeowners Bill of Rights, which will come to a vote at an upcoming meeting.
Occupy LA, housing rights advocates and local homeowners are urging Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, to sign off on a bill that would give protections to homeowners to prevent foreclosures while they go through a loan modification process with their lenders.
The bill also calls for a single point of contact for lenders and strengthens due process for homeowners.
Calderon sits on a Joint Legislative Conference Committee on Foreclosure Issues, which will vote on the bill at a later date, Calderon’s staffers said.
Occupy LA members said they have been told the vote would come Monday.
“He needs to stand up for homeowners,” said Carlos Marroquin, an Occupy LA member and homeowners advocate. “It’s necessary and the only way to get him to listen.”
If the committee votes on the legislation, it will then go to the House and Senate before going to the Governor’s office.
In response to the protest, Calderon on Friday issued a statement:
“I understand the frustration and anger of homeowners who were foreclosed upon unnecessarily and without due process,” the statement read. “I, along with my colleagues on the Foreclosure Conference Committee, am working hard to craft legislation that will ensure that homeowners, who can afford to do so, are allowed to stay in their homes wherever and whenever possible. At the same, we must make sure we do nothing to stall the recovery of the housing market.”
[email protected]
626-962-8811, ext. 2446 |
The government has provoked the potential strike by NHS junior doctors by tearing up an agreement that would have settled the dispute, the Conservative minister who was in charge of the negotiations has told the Guardian.
In a scathing indictment of the government’s handling of the new contract for England’s 53,000 junior doctors, Dr Dan Poulter, a health minister until May, revealed that Jeremy Hunt had triggered “understandable” widespread anger among them by reneging on the basis of a deal.
Hunt set aside an in-principle agreement with the British Medical Association (BMA) and replaced it with plans that endanger patients’ safety by risking exhaustion among all trainee medics in England by forcing them to work up to 90 hours a week, claims Poulter, who is still a Tory MP.
“However, the junior doctor contract that has emerged over the summer – the contract that the Department of Health now wants to impose – is very different from the one being discussed this time last year. Then there was no talk of 90-hour weeks, no talk of large numbers of junior doctors having their pay cut,” Poulter said.
This junior doctor contract puts patients in danger | Dan Poulter Read more
Poulter’s insider account, in an article for the Guardian, is embarrassing for the health secretary, who is trying to avoid industrial action by doctors over plans that have sparked an unprecedented backlash by the medical establishment.
Poulter added: “There was instead a recognition by the Department of Health that now appears to have been lost: that better pay and work-life balance incentives were needed to ensure doctors were attracted to A&E and other gruelling specialities. Now we are seeing junior doctors, for the first time ever, balloting for strike action over their contract of employment.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dan Poulter said the deal being offered to junior doctors is very different from the one that was discussed last year. Photograph: Felix Clay/the Guardian
He accuses Hunt of changing tack because the NHS is desperate to identify ways of saving money to help tackle a£30bn hole in its budget that is expected to emerge by 2020. And he warns that cutting junior doctors’ pay – many face losing between 15% and 40% of their earnings under the new contract – will undermine David Cameron’s ambition to create a seven-day NHS because there will be too few doctors to staff it as a result of disillusionment.
The new contract that Hunt is threatening to impose would extend junior doctors’ normal working time, in which they are paid at standard rates, from the 60 hours between 7am-7pm Monday to Friday to the 90 hours between 7am-10pm Monday to Saturday. That would deprive many of them of extra pay for working antisocial shifts, a key cause of anger that resulted in thousands of junior doctors taking to the streets of London and Manchester in protest last week.
Imposing the new contract would be highly damaging for the NHS by worsening already significant shortfalls in the number of young doctors choosing to go into key areas of medicine, such as A&E, paediatrics, psychiatry and general practice, added Poulter, who works part-time in the NHS and is training to become a psychiatrist after a spell in hospital medicine. It will also mean another key Tory pledge, to increase the number of GPs by 5,000 by 2020, is doomed to fail, he said.
Poulter, who resigned from the BMA in the two and a half years he was a health minister, relates how the Department of Health was “close to an in-principle heads of terms agreement” with the union’s junior doctors committee in September last year. But the representatives of junior doctors broke off talks after their colleagues in the BMA’s consultants committee did so over major obstacles to agreement over which days and hours hospital consultants should work in a seven-day NHS.
Junior doctors contract row: an explainer Read more
Dr Johann Malawana, the chair of the BMA junior doctors committee, whom Hunt met for talks last week, said: “This is a damning account of how badly the government has handled the junior doctor contract. Rather than working with the BMA to agree a contract that is safe, fair and values the vital contribution junior doctors make to the NHS, the government is riding roughshod over the process and trying to impose a contract that would be bad for patients, junior doctors and the NHS as a whole.”
Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, said Poulter’s account underlined that Hunt’s handling of the negotiations had been “shambolic”.
She added: “This is a devastating critique of Jeremy Hunt’s handling of the dispute. It adds to the growing chorus of voices throwing doubt over the government’s ability to deliver a seven-day NHS. There is already a shortage of key staff in the NHS and, as Dan Poulter warns, this is likely to get worse should the government impose a contract that leads to doctors working longer hours for less pay.”
The General Medical Council has received more 4,000 requests from doctors for a certificate that would allow them to work abroad, fuelling fears of a large-scale exodus of junior doctors from the NHS, since the government announced it planned to impose the new contract.
The Department of Health disputed Poulter’s claims about what the new contract would mean for junior doctors. A spokesman said: “These claims are incorrect. Our proposals will mean average pay will not go down and there is no intention to increase working hours. In fact, we want to offer more safeguards over total hours worked for junior doctors than ever before. We call on the Junior Doctors Committee to re-enter negotiations and work with us to put in place a new contract that’s safe for patients and fair for doctors.” |
Michigan high students are fighting a state bill that would let employers pay workers under 20 less than the minimum wage. High School Democrats of America has collected 100 signatures against the proposal by the state's Senate Commerce Committee, according to local media reports.
"I just want to make sure that people know that this is very much an issue for young people," said Logan Arkema, 17, a senior at Byron Center High School outside Grand Rapids and former chair of the Michigan High School Democrats who now serves as development director for High School Democrats of America.
Michigan already allows employers to pay people under 18 either 85 percent of Michigan's minimum wage or the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater. State Sen. Margaret O'Brien, a Republican from Kalamazoo County, is sponsoring Senate Bill 250, which would change the law to include all employees under 20. She said the bill would encourage employers to give jobs to people with little experience.
"We want to get their foot in the door. ... If they can get their foot in the door and get the training and experience they need, then their wage will go up to minimum wage or higher," O'Brien said.
Michigan's current minimum wage is $8.50 per hour. Under the proposal, employers could pay people under 20 the lower federal minimum wage of $7.25. Michigan's minimum wage increased by 35 cents overnight on Jan. 1. Across the state, 3.8 percent of hourly workers earn at or below the minimum wage.
Arkema, who helped start the online petition against the measure, said O'Brien's bill amounts to allowing employers to pay young people less for doing the same tasks as older workers.
"I've got friends who are on the far right of the political spectrum and on the far left and they all, virtually, agree that this is not good for them or any high school students," Arkema said.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved the bill in June. It could come up for a vote by the state Senate later this year. |
Canadian fighter jets joined coalition aircraft in bombing Islamic State targets near the key Iraqi city of Ramadi this week but extremist forces are still hanging on despite losing at least a third of their troops in such raids.
The ongoing aerial onslaught killed an estimated 350 Islamic State gunmen in and around Ramadi, according to the U.S. military. The U.S. believes there were between 600 to 1,000 members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) occupying the city.
But the recapture of Ramadi, seized by ISIL in May, has been slow in coming and the U.S. is considering sending in American advisers and helicopter gunships to help the Iraqis.
Two CF-18s bombed an ISIL fighting position near Ramadi on Wednesday, Canadian Forces spokesman Capt. Kirk Sullivan said Friday.
Sullivan, citing security issues, wouldn’t say whether the bombing was the beginning of a new wave of Canadian air support for the Iraqi offensive to retake the city. “We can’t talk about ongoing operations,” he added.
Over the last year, CF-18s have struck 18 targets in the vicinity of Ramadi, he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged that Iraq’s offensive to retake the city has been “disappointingly slow.” He noted, however, he is certain Ramadi will eventually return to Iraqi hands.
The Iraqi military has amassed some 10,000 troops to move on the city.
Some Canadian officers privately acknowledge that the Iraqi military is not properly led or structured to make significant gains on the battlefield. Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are a different matter and Canadian special forces have been successful in training those troops, they added.
The Liberal government is still planning to follow through with their election promise and withdraw the CF-18s. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said he expects that to happen “within weeks not months,” but the government first wants to work out details of a beefed-up Canadian training mission to Iraq before announcing the exact date the planes will return home.
Canadian CF-18s have dropped more than 500 bombs over the past year on ISIL targets, according to the Canadian military.
The Canadian Forces entered the war in October 2014 and dropped its first bombs on Nov. 2, 2014.
Despite a broad-based coalition of nations, the U.S. military is still conducting most of the bombing raids. The U.S. air force has used more than 20,000 bombs and missiles during the war.
Conservative MP Kellie Leitch, however, accused the Liberal government of putting the Canadian military in the position “where they would be seen on the world stage as cowards.”
During that exchange in the Commons on Thursday, Dion accused Leitch of insulting the Canadian Forces.
There are 600 Canadian military personnel involved in the Iraq mission. Those include a small number of special forces in northern Iraq and aircrew in Kuwait who are supporting and operating six CF-18 fighter jets, two CP-140 Aurora reconnaissance aircraft and a CC-150 Polaris in-air refuelling tanker.
The Canadian government is leaning toward keeping a military refuelling aircraft and Aurora surveillance planes overseas to allow them to continue taking part in the war against ISIL. The move would placate coalition allies, particularly the United States, who view the refuelling plane and surveillance aircraft as valuable contributions.
The government is also examining whether to send more special forces. Dion has also suggested that Canada could join Italy in providing police trainers to Iraq.
[email protected]
Twitter.com/davidpugliese |
Bitcoin Payment API Developers Win Money 20/20 Hackathon
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NEW YORK (InsideBitcoins) — A trio of bitcoin developers won the grand prize of the first-ever Money 20/20 Hackathon in Las Vegas. More than 450 developers, designers and entrepreneurs completed over 100 projects during the 24-hour competition last weekend, with the winners announced today. PayperLess won $20,000 and the opportunity to participate in Launchpad360, a showcase presented to a large group of investors, media and other payment industry participants.
Aldo Briano, Veronica Borges and Eduardo Medina developed an API that enables consumers to pay local merchants using bitcoin — without any changes to existing infrastructure and business processes.
“We are extremely honored to win this award, especially with all the excellent technology and talent displayed at the Hackathon,” said Briano. “Our solution will enable merchants to accept a bitcoin payment as easily as accepting a payment through a gift card and we see this as the future of payments.”
Four other teams also claimed a $20,000 prize, including: Bacon Bacon, BitPredict, HourFlow and ShopperPal. Five additional teams won a $5,000 prize: Authbank, Bitcoin Bookie, Kill Bill, LoyaltyPass and SWFT. |
Alibaba Group announced today that it will invest a further $1 billion into Aliyun, its cloud computing unit. The capital will be used to expand Aliyun, which currently has data centers in China, Hong Kong, and Silicon Valley, into other international markets.
The company plans to target the Middle East, where it recently formed a joint venture with Dubai-based holding company Meraas, Singapore, Japan and Europe.
Aliyun, which spun off from Alibaba in 2012, also disclosed that it formed a new strategic partnership with Yonyou Software, which claims to be the largest software vendor in China, as well as the largest independent enterprise software vendor in the Asia-Pacific region. Working with Yonyou can help Aliyun score more enterprise customers in Asia who need cloud computing, big data, digital marketing, and e-commerce solutions.
Another strategy of global expansion is Aliyun’s Marketplace Alliance Program, which is designed to reach new clients in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East through partnerships with other tech companies. These currently include Intel, Singtel, Meraas, Equinix, PCCW, LINKBYNET, and Towngas.
Aliyun competes directly with Amazon Web Services, which is also intent on global growth. Its backing from Alibaba, however, means that Aliyun has the ability to experiment with technology like low-power server processors, which might help it save a lot of money on electricity bills as it deploys new infrastructure and gives it an edge over AWS.
Aliyun is a reminder that Alibaba’s scope goes far beyond being China’s largest e-commerce company. In addition to providing services for other companies, Aliyun powers projects like what it calls the first “cloud hospital” in China. If these initiatives succeed, it means Alibaba and its units may eventually hold a sizeable stake in almost every aspect of daily life for Chinese consumers, from grocery delivery to healthcare.
Of course, not all of Alibaba’s gambits have worked out. Aliyun’s first product, a mobile operating system meant to compete with Android, has not gained significant traction despite continued investments like a recently purchased minority stake in smartphone maker Meizu.
In a statement, Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said, “Aliyun has become a world-class computing service platform that is the market leader in China, bearing the fruits of our investment over the past six years. As the physical and digital are becoming increasingly integrated, Aliyun will serve as an essential engine in this new economy. This $1 billion investment is just the beginning; our hope is for Aliyun to continually empower customers and partners with new capabilities, and help companies upgrade their basic infrastructure.” |
Police said a man on trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus committed suicide in an Indian jail Monday, but his lawyer and family allege he was killed.
Ram Singh, who was accused of driving the bus on which the 23-year-old student was raped by a group of six men in December, was under suicide watch at New Delhi's Tihar Jail when he hanged himself with his own clothes at about 5:30 a.m., police officials said. His death is raising further questions about a criminal justice system already being criticized for failing to protect the nation's women.
Singh, 33, had been among five defendants facing the death penalty if convicted of the attack, which horrified Indians and set off national protests. A sixth accused is being tried and jailed separately because he is a juvenile.
India's deputy home minister, R.P.N. Singh, said an inquiry had been ordered into the suicide, according to the Press Trust of India.
"The inquiry is being conducted and it would be premature to make any statement about the details of the incident," said Vimla Mehra, the director general of the jail.
Ram Singh's family and lawyer alleged foul play in his death.
"There were no circumstances which could have led to Ram Singh committing suicide. There was no mental stress. He was very happy," his lawyer V.K. Anand said. Lawyers for the defendants had previously accused police of beating confessions out of the men.
Indian jails have a reputation for overcrowding, poor management and brutal treatment of inmates.
'Somebody has killed him,' father says
Ram Singh's father, Mangelal Singh, said his son had been raped in prison by other inmates and had been repeatedly threatened by inmates and guards. Nevertheless, he said he visited his son four days ago and the man appeared fine and gave no hint of any despair that could drive him to take his own life.
Mangelal Singh, the father of Ram Singh, speaks to journalists as his mother weeps at the family's home in New Delhi on Monday. Police confirmed that Ram Singh committed suicide in an Indian jail, but his lawyer and family allege he was killed. (Manish Swarup/Associated Press)
Ram Singh also had a badly injured hand and would have been unable to hang himself, his father said, speaking from outside his small home in a New Delhi slum.
"Somebody has killed him," he said, insisting he would push for a top-level investigation into the death.
Mangelal Singh said he feared for the safety of another son who is also on trial in the rape case.
The defendants were being housed in separate buildings on the jail grounds and were all under suicide watch, a jail official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Bus attack sparked protests
The rape victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding the bus Dec. 16 as they tried to return home after watching a movie, police say. The six men, the only occupants of the private bus, beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her, police say. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
The brutal attack set off nationwide protests about India's treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them.
Singh's death comes as the trial was deep underway, with another hearing scheduled for Monday. The four surviving defendants were produced in court, but left after a short time because of an attorney's strike.
Vivek Sharma, a lawyer representing another defendant, said he planned to ask the court to provide greater protection for his client.
"In a high-security jail, an occurrence of this kind is highly condemnable. It raises the serious issue of security of the accused persons in the jail," he said.
"My clients don't feel safe in Tihar jail," said another defence lawyer, A.P. Singh.
Closed court for trial
K.T.S. Tulsi, a former top lawyer in the office of the solicitor general of India, said the suicide should have no impact on the trial, which is being held in a closed courtroom under a gag order that prevents news organizations from publishing details of the proceedings.
He said the death highlighted how important it is for society not to demonize people who have been accused but not convicted of crimes.
"It is so unfortunate that the media goes on to presume that they are guilty and goes on to condemn them and demonize them to an extent that it makes the life of these people not worth living," he said.
In 2011, 68 inmates in India killed themselves and another eight were killed by fellow inmates, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.
Tihar Jail is badly overcrowded with nearly twice as many prisoners as it was designed to hold. Jail authorities have been working to soften its reputation in part by selling TJ's cookies baked by the inmates to the public. |
In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a “New York sentence.” In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.
Semicolons are supposed to be introduced into the curriculum of the New York City public schools in the third grade. That is where Mr. Neches, the 55-year-old New York City Transit marketing manager, learned them, before graduating from Tilden High School and Brooklyn College, where he majored in English and later received a master’s degree in creative writing.
But, whatever one’s personal feelings about semicolons, some people don’t use them because they never learned how.
In fact, when Mr. Neches was informed by a supervisor that a reporter was inquiring about who was responsible for the semicolon, he was concerned.
“I thought at first somebody was complaining,” he said.
One of the school system’s most notorious graduates, David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam serial killer who taunted police and the press with rambling handwritten notes, was, as the columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote, the only murderer he ever encountered who could wield a semicolon just as well as a revolver. (Mr. Berkowitz, by the way, is now serving an even longer sentence.)
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But the rules of grammar are routinely violated on both sides of the law.
People have lost fortunes and even been put to death because of imprecise punctuation involving semicolons in legal papers. In 2004, a court in San Francisco rejected a conservative group’s challenge to a statute allowing gay marriage because the operative phrases were separated incorrectly by a semicolon instead of by the proper conjunction.
Louis Menand, an English professor at Harvard and a staff writer at The New Yorker, pronounced the subway poster’s use of the semicolon to be “impeccable.”
Lynne Truss, author of “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,” called it a “lovely example” of proper punctuation.
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Geoffrey Nunberg, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, praised the “burgeoning of punctuational literacy in unlikely places.”
Allan M. Siegal, a longtime arbiter of New York Times style before retiring, opined, “The semicolon is correct, though I’d have used a colon, which I think would be a bit more sophisticated in that sentence.”
The linguist Noam Chomsky sniffed, “I suppose Bush would claim it’s the effect of No Child Left Behind.”
New York City Transit’s unintended agenda notwithstanding, e-mail messages and text-messaging may jeopardize the last vestiges of semicolons. They still live on, though, in emoticons, those graphic emblems of our grins, grimaces and other facial expressions.
The semicolon, befittingly, symbolizes a wink. |
As a festival of Gallic cinema opens in the UK, women – both on screen and behind the camera – are now in France's cultural vanguard
Half a century has passed since a group of mostly young and almost exclusively male directors electrified the culture-starved, postwar public with what would become known as nouvelle vague films.
Using handheld cameras and with a shortage of both money and celluloid, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette – among others – created a golden age of French cinema.
Their influence spread far. The American director Martin Scorsese once said: "The French New Wave has influenced all film-makers who have worked since, whether they saw the films or not. It submerged cinema like a tidal wave."
Later Agnès Varda, a photographer turned filmmaker, would become a leading member of the movement, but the female stars of the Nouvelle Vague were the actors; Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Fanny Ardant, Catherine Deneuve, Anna Karina ...
More than 50 years on, French cinema is still part of the country's exception culturelle. And a new "new wave" is under way, as an increasing number of women stamp their influence, on and off screen.
The evidence will be on view in London and elsewhere in the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema film festival, which begins this week. The French Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée says the country's film industry is undergoing a feminine renaissance. According to its research, 23% of feature-length films were directed by women last year, up from 18.4% in 2008.
Comparative figures are harder to establish elsewhere. In the US, a study commissioned by the Sundance film festival and Women in Film found that female directors were depressingly under-represented in Hollywood, though more active in independent films. Between 2002 and 2013, only 4.4% of the most successful films were directed by women, its survey found.
Even at Sundance, which prides itself on gender equality, women represented fewer than a third of workers on the 820 narrative and documentary films that have featured in the festival since 2002 (though, in 2013, the balance was being redressed, with half the films in the festival's dramatic section directed by women).
Isabelle Giordano, executive director of UniFrance Films, which promotes the country's film industry abroad, commenting on a recent survey which found around 25% of film producers in France were women, compared with around 3% in the US, suggested this was very much part of the French exception culturelle.
"I don't know why it should be so, but it is. We have been told that in other countries, women have difficulty raising the money to make films, which isn't particularly the case in France, so maybe this is why. And maybe it reflects French society, where we have a lot of working women. In any case, France is a good country for women in all aspects of the film business."
Until now, the British cinemagoing public has proven stubbornly resistant to the charms of French movies, Giordano said. She is hoping this year's selected Rendez-Vous films will shift attitudes the other side of the Channel.
"They all tell stories in an original way that is very different to what Hollywood offers," she said. "We'd like British cinemagoers to come and see something they may not have seen before; even if it's a common theme, it's often treated in a different way in a French film."
Among the festival offerings is Les Beaux Jours (Bright Days Ahead) featuring one of the original nouvelle vague stars, Fanny Ardant, who after 60 films, 25 theatre runs and more than a dozen television series, is a grande dame of French cinema. Directed by Marion Vernoux, the film opens the festival on Wednesday and will be followed by a Q&A with the actress and the director.
The movie's central theme will be familiar to those who have seen Hollywood's "cougar" films: older, recently retired woman has an affair with younger, sexually voracious man.
Vernoux's direction and Ardant's touch, however, transform the subject into a delightful, touching and funny story that avoids plummeting into cliche and stereotype.
"A cougar? I most certainly am not. Good grief!" Ardant told the Observer.
Ardant was discovered by international audiences in 1981, when she starred opposite Gérard Depardieu in La Femme d'à côté (The Woman Next Door), directed by François Truffaut (with whom Ardant had the first of her three daughters), but British film-goers will remember her more recent portrayal of opera diva Maria Callas in Franco Zeffirelli's 2002 film, Callas Forever.
Another film featuring in the festival is Violette, starring Emmanuelle Devos, a biographical drama about feminist writer Violette Leduc, who was encouraged and supported by Simone de Beauvoir (played by Sandrine Kiberlain), and who mixed with Albert Camus, Jean Genet and Jean Cocteau.
The films, all due for release in the UK this year, include Je m'appelle Hmmm ... (My Name is Hmmm ...), the directing debut of Agnès Troublé, better known as fashion designer Agnès B. Quite what British audiences will make of the bleak, occasionally impenetrable and frequently bizarre film – panned by French critics – about a young girl who runs away with a Scottish lorry driver to escape being sexually abused by her good-for-nothing father, is anyone's guess.
9 Mois Ferme (Nine Month Stretch), a lively and original comedy, recounts the plight of an ambitious and uptight judge who, after getting drunk at a new year party, discovers she is pregnant by a hardened on-the-run criminal being hunted by police.
None of the French actors who spoke to the Observer complained of a lack of significant roles for women in Gallic films, a frequent lament across the Atlantic.
Kiberlain, who won acclaim for her portrayal of Simone de Beauvoir and a César – the French equivalent of an Oscar – for her, at times hilarious, interpretation of the workaholic, friendless judge in 9 Mois Ferme, said: "Personally, I feel I've been very lucky. There are times when all you get are bad scripts and others when all you get are good. Recently, I've been getting all good ones."
Speaking to the Observer before travelling to London for the festival, the César-winning Ardant admitted she had enjoyed a long and successful career and had "no regrets but a little remorse".
"I do feel that I have been rather egotistical and I rue not having been one of those people in Italy or Germany struggling for something. I have a certain sympathy for those guys in Colombia, what are they called? The Farc."
It is difficult to know if Ardant is serious. Probably not. She has form for making mischief in interviews with contrary and provocative declarations.
"I once convinced a journalist that my father was the star of Battleship Potemkin and I was the baby in the pram that rolls down the steps," she says with a giggle. "Even though it must have been obvious I wasn't even born when the film was made. Still, I like being a contrarian, saying everything and its opposite."
Not surprising, then, that Ardant was having none of the nouvelle vague feminine idea being promoted by Rendez-Vous organisers.
"I detest the whole notion of films made by women, for women, starring women," she says, adding: "Perhaps it was my generation, but I was never a feminist: I found it all too narrow.
"I like the woman I play in Les Beaux Jours. She's not a misfit or a victim, she is intelligent and she doesn't fit into the usual boxes. She likes life, likes smoking, drinking, eating and is independent.
"I like her character. She is uncompromising... and so am I."
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema runs from 23-30 April and will feature screenings in London, Bristol, Cambridge, Canterbury, Nottingham and Oxford |
(c) Fotolia
Spirituality comes in many forms. But, for atheists, spirituality can be a lot more complex and doesn't revolve around the traditional God or other higher power that most of us believe in. Too often people believe that atheists will "change their ways" if they're just convinced of the existence of god, and so atheists are subjected to incessant lectures by well-meaning individuals. Believe me, atheists have heard all of the arguments before—many times. That's the wrong way to interact with an atheist, whether the person is a stranger or a friend.
Unless you're actually trying to annoy an atheist (which would beg the question "why?"), read up on these examples below.
Preaching
Preaching at an atheist is pretty much like running your fingernails up and down a chalkboard. When you're preaching or proselytizing like this, you're not having a conversation. You're having a one-sided "discussion" as you try your best to change the atheist's beliefs or show them how wrong they are. It's actually kind of abusive, so stop it.
Quoting the Bible
Most religions, if not all of them, have some sort of religious text that provide structure and guidance for followers of that religion. For many of us, the Bible is close at hand or in our heads, and we have passages that guide is in our decisions and world view. But atheists don’t care about bible quotes for the simple reason that they don’t believe in a religion or God. Quoting religious text will only convince the atheist that the conversation no longer has a point.
"Prove that God Doesn't Exist"
If we fail in an attempt to convince someone on the existence of God, it can be tempting to transfer that burden of proof to the other person. The problem is that the atheist isn’t the one trying to prove that something exists. In fact, atheists are not trying to prove anything at all – they simply don’t believe in a god (and may not even care whether or not a god even exists). Asking the person to "prove" that god doesn't exist is yet another way to create a pointless conversation.
Repeating Yourself
If your arguments don't sway an atheist, speaking more loudly or repeating (or rephrasing) those arguments isn't going to do the trick.
"I'll Pray for You"
Prayer is a source of strength for many of us and a great comfort when our life or the world around us is painful or troubling. But atheists don't derive strength or comfort from religious prayer. Telling atheists that you are praying for them flies in the face of their beliefs. Some may even view it as a sign of disrespect. We can pray for them on our own time, that is our right. The problem is announcing it to them. It’s almost like you are taking a superior stance, declaring them wrong with your presuppositions.
While atheism isn’t a religion or a belief system, it is still something that guides a person, something that should be respected. The common thread with any of these showstoppers is that it ignores that fact and calls the atheist wrong, instead of promoting critical thought and consideration. Avoid doing that and an atheist will be like any other person – capable of love and of a happy life. |
For the last month I’ve keep this account open on mobile as long as I could to help with the transition to the new account and I think now is the time I finally let go of this account and signed out for good.
Q&A
“What happened?”
I’ve been forcibly logged out of this account and I’ve tried everything ( thank you to everyone who made so many suggestions) but I can’t get it back.
For more info there should be a post detailing everything further down my blog.
“Where can I find your work now?”
You can find all my art and comics over at raysdrawlings.tumblr.com
“Will you be deleting this account?”
I will not be so that this way despite me not being on this account anymore people can still be redirected to the new account.
Once again, I want to say a big thank you to the 4,500+ people who have followed me on this account. You’re all an amazing and talent bunch, I hope to continue to interact with you on the new account! |
Loose lips sink ships — and lead to major financial losses! Mel Gibson’s ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva reportedly lost $500,000 of her $750,000 settlement with the actor after she broke the terms of their agreement by talking about their alleged domestic abuse case in 2013.
According to TMZ, the California Court of Appeals recently decided that the 46-year-old singer-songwriter violated the pair’s contract when she sat down on The Howard Stern Show in 2013 to chat about the 60-year-old actor’s violent tendencies.
Hence, Gibson will no longer have to pay Grigorieva the remaining balance of their agreed-upon $750,000 settlement. He has already paid her the first of the three installments, totaling $250,000.
The couple made headlines in early 2010 after they got caught up in a public fight that Grigorieva claimed turned violent. In July of that same year, recordings of Gibson railing against Grigorieva surfaced, along with reports that the Russian singer had tried to extort Gibson to keep the tapes under wraps.
At the time, Grigorieva made the astonishing decision to walk away from the $15 million that Gibson agreed to pay her to keep quiet, thinking she could make more money in other ways. They struck a deal for $750,000 instead.
“I think Mel, basically, is trivializing domestic violence,” she told RadarOnline of the scandal back in 2010. “It is unfair that by standing up to somebody — and speaking out — I am being victimized all over again. He has hurt so many people.”
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Having a doctor perform surgery on you without permission – literally cutting into you while you protest – is the stuff of which horror movies are made. Yet that's just what happened to 35-year-old Rinat Dray when a doctor at Staten Island University Hospital performed a C-section on the Brooklyn mother, against her will and verbal protests.
Her right to bodily integrity and freedom was taken away with a swipe of a pen – the director of maternal and fetal medicine, Dr James J Ducey, wrote in Dray's medical records, "I have decided to override her refusal to have a C-section." Dray is suing the hospital and doctors for malpractice.
It sounds like a no-brainer – you can't force someone to have surgery. But thanks to American policy that trumps "fetal rights" over women's personhood, Dray's case may not be as clear cut as it seems.
We already know that the C-section rate is a problem in America – rates have increased 50% in the last 10 years, and American women have them at more than double the rate recommended by the World Health Organization. Certainly many women have shared their stories of being cajoled or pushed into C-sections they didn't want. But it's not just implicit pressure that women feel: explicit violations like the one that happened to Dray have been happening for decades.
The National Advocates for Pregnant Women compiled a report of 413 cases between 1973 and 2005 in which pregnant women – strictly because they were pregnant – had their physical liberty infringed upon (including 30 incidents of forced C-sections or other medical interventions).
When Laura Pemberton refused a C-section in Florida in 1996, for example, she was taken into custody by a sheriff and state's attorney who showed up at her house. Her legs were strapped and she was forced to go to the hospital for surgery. Tellingly, she was given no representation but a lawyer was appointed to her fetus. When Pemberton later sued for civil rights violations, the US district court in Florida ruled against her, saying that her rights were outweighed by the state's interest "in preserving the life of the unborn child".
For women who managed to avoid forced surgery, there are other nightmares that await. Melissa Rowland was pregnant with twins when she rejected her doctor's advice to have a C-section. After she gave birth to a girl and a stillborn boy, she was arrested and charged with murder. (Treating women as criminals for what they do during pregnancy is not uncommon – Dray was told that refusing the C-section was child abuse and that her child would be taken away from her.)
The underlying ethos of all these cases is the idea that once a woman is pregnant, her personhood comes second to that of her fetus. It's the same argument the anti-choice movement uses to limit women's reproductive rights and the ideology that makes pregnant women – whether they're planning to keep the pregnancy or not – second class citizens.
I hope Dray wins her case, and that our country will start to recognize the humanity of pregnant women, instead of just cutting them open when we disagree with their personal medical decisions. But I'm not holding my breath. |
Responding directly to national demand for a massive jobs program, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus today introduced the Restore the American Dream for the 99 Percent Act into the House of Representatives.
The bill would create more than 4 million jobs and reduce the deficit by more than $2 trillion over the next 10 years, making it the biggest government effort thus far to marshal the resources needed to address the economic crisis.
While no one expects the bill to pass in the Republican-controlled House, it is viewed by many as outlining what really must be done if the economy is to be restarted in a way that benefits the overwhelming majority of the population.
The best anyone can hope for under Republican rule of the Congress so far has been a possible extension of the payroll tax cut for workers in exchange for the country being forced to swallow the extension of the environmentally catastrophic Keystone XL pipeline .
Progressive Caucus Co-Chairmen Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., presented the legislation at a news conference today in the Capitol.
The bill would create several “corps” that will offer government jobs to the unemployed doing essential work including repairing school buildings, maintaining public parks, building neighborhood energy efficiency and conservation projects, and providing health care and other public services in underserved areas. One of the corps would be specifically devoted to re-hiring teachers and first responders laid off by cash-strapped state and local governments .
There are provisions in the bill that require 75 percent of the goods and services purchased by the federal government to be made in America, provisions designed to help small businesses get federal contracts, and allocation of $50 billion alone for highway, public transportation and electrical grid improvement projects.
The bill provides for tariffs in cases where what the lawmakers called “currency manipulation by China” results in “artificially driving down the cost of Chinese imports.”
One clause in the bill protects both the long-term unemployed and wounded veterans from hiring discrimination.
The bill includes provisions that would raise $800 billion through a surcharge on millionaires and billionaires, end tax subsidies for oil companies, and impose a tiny financial transactions tax on Wall Street.
There would be other budget savings through ending the war in Afghanistan and slashing $200 billion from the defense budget by eliminating unneeded weapons systems and cutting in half the military forces currently stationed in Europe.
The bill also strengthens health care reform by creating a public health insurance option that would be available through health care exchanges. That measure alone, the lawmakers say, would drive down spending federal health care spending by $90 billion.
The bill would allow Medicare to bargain with pharmaceutical companies to get bulk discounts, a move blocked by Republicans in the past. Supporters say it would help save more than $150 billion.
To save Social Security benefits and trust fund, the legislation would raise the cap on earnings taxed by Social Security above its current $106,800.
“The Republicans want the people to think about how bad things are and to focus their anger on the president,” said Grijalva “They don’t want people to count the things the Republicans voted down that would have helped this country.”
“This bill,” said Ellison, “shows we can put people to work today by building for tomorrow.”
Photo: Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., at a news conference, Aug. 1. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) |
Abstract Background Women have a higher prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and report more severe depressive symptoms than men. Several studies have suggested that gender differences in depression may occur because women report higher levels of somatic symptoms than men. Those studies, however, have not controlled or matched for non-somatic symptoms. The objective of this study was to examine if women report relatively more somatic symptoms than men matched on cognitive/affective symptoms. Methods Male and female patients receiving treatment for MDD in outpatient psychiatric clinics in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, USA were matched on Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) cognitive/affective symptom scores. Male and female BDI-II somatic symptom scores were compared using independent samples 2-tailed t-tests. Results Of 472 male and 1,026 female patients, there were 470 male patients (mean age = 40.1 years, SD = 15.1) and 470 female patients (mean age = 43.1 years, SD = 17.2) successfully matched on BDI-II cognitive/affective symptom scores. Somatic symptoms accounted for 35% of total BDI-II scores for male patients versus 38% for matched female patients. Female patients had somatic symptom scores on average 1.3 points higher than males (p<.001), equivalent to 4% of the total BDI-II scores of female patients. Only 5% of male patients and 7% of female patients scored 2 or higher on all BDI-II somatic symptom items. Conclusions Gender differences in somatic scores were very small. Thus, differences in the experience and reporting of somatic symptoms would not likely explain gender differences in depression rates and symptom severity.
Citation: Delisle VC, Beck AT, Dobson KS, Dozois DJA, Thombs BD (2012) Revisiting Gender Differences in Somatic Symptoms of Depression: Much Ado about Nothing? PLoS ONE 7(2): e32490. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032490 Editor: Andrew H. Kemp, University of Sydney, Australia Received: September 12, 2011; Accepted: January 29, 2012; Published: February 24, 2012 Copyright: © 2012 Delisle et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: Ms. Delisle is supported by Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canadian Graduate Scholarship-Master's Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Dr. Thombs is supported by a New Investigator Award from the CIHR and an Établissement de Jeunes Chercheurs award from the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé Québec (FRSQ). There was no direct sponsorship of the study, and funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: Aaron T. Beck is the author of the Beck Depression Inventory, currently published by the Psychological Corporation. The remaining authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors′ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Introduction Women are 2–3 times more likely to experience Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) than men [1], [2] and have higher scores on self-report depression symptom measures [3], [4]. The higher prevalence of MDD among women compared to men begins in early adolescence and continues through adulthood [5], [6]. Similarly, women are more likely to be diagnosed with other psychiatric disorders that involve physical symptoms, including somatoform disorders, such as Somatization Disorder and Conversion Disorder [7]–[9]. Some of the symptoms of these disorders overlap substantially with symptoms of MDD. Women may also more frequently report other physical symptoms potentially related to emotional distress (e.g., headache, back pain) than men [10]–[12]. Many studies have examined whether men and women report somatic symptoms of depression differently or whether the number of somatic symptoms reported by men and women might explain gender differences in depression rates and severity [8], [13]–[26]. Since women have higher rates of depression than men, it would be expected that women would have higher cognitive/affective and somatic symptoms than men on average, but that the composition of symptoms among men and women would be similar. Otherwise, it would suggest that assessments of depression rates or severity may reflect different symptoms for men and women. Among people diagnosed with MDD, if there were more somatic symptoms among women, this would raise the possibility that increased reporting of somatic symptoms potentially unrelated to depression may influence the diagnosis of depression among women. Two studies have used data from large US population surveys to examine whether there were gender differences in the rates of “somatic depression” among people with MDD [21], [22]. In those studies, “somatic depression,” was defined as having appetite disturbance, sleep disturbance and fatigue. The studies reported that women with MDD were twice as likely to endorse all three somatic symptoms versus men with MDD and therefore, that women with MDD were twice as likely to experience “somatic depression” than men with MDD. Men conversely, were slightly more likely than women to report a combination of cognitive/affective and somatic symptoms or only cognitive/affective symptoms. The conclusions of the studies suggested that differences in rates of “somatic depression” could explain higher rates of depression among women compared to men. However, in one of the studies, which used data from the National Comorbidity Survey, the absolute rate of “somatic depression” was only 8% for women with MDD and 4% for men with MDD [21]. In the other study, which combined data from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Collaborative Study on the Psychobiology of Depression and the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Study, the absolute rates were 3% for women with MDD and 1.5% for men with MDD [22]. Thus, among people with MDD, somatic symptoms were more prominent among women compared to men. Notably, however, although the relative rate of “somatic depression” was larger for women, the proportion of depressed men and women with “somatic depression” was very small in both studies. Furthermore, the absolute difference in rates of “somatic depression” was very small. In addition, neither study controlled for the overall number of symptoms endorsed. As such, it is possible that the higher likelihood of endorsing all 3 somatic symptoms among women compared to men reflected a higher number of symptoms overall rather than increased somatic symptoms, specifically. Many other studies have examined whether there are gender differences in the endorsement of individual depressive symptoms [8], [13]–[20], [23]–[26]. The results of those studies, however, have been inconsistent. Some studies have identified some somatic symptoms more frequently reported by women, but not the same somatic symptoms across studies [8], [14]–[20], [23]–[26]. On the other hand, a number of studies have identified cognitive/affective symptoms more frequently reported by women than men [8], [13], [15], [23], [24]. Thus, it is not clear whether and to what degree women report higher levels of somatic symptoms than men with similar levels of cognitive/affective symptoms. MDD is diagnosed per the DSM-IV [9] based on the presence of at least 5 of 9 symptoms, including 1 of 2 core symptoms of depressed mood or anhedonia. For the purpose of evaluating the relative somatic symptom burden of women and men with MDD, however, continuous measures, such as the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) [27] may be advantageous compared to simply counting symptoms. The reason for this is that continuous measures assess a wider range of symptom experiences and provide continuous scores that allow parsing of variance into somatic and cognitive/affective components. The objective of this study was to determine whether women with MDD report higher levels of somatic symptoms on the BDI-II than men with MDD matched on cognitive/affective BDI-II symptoms.
Methods Ethics Statement This study was a secondary analysis of de-identified data from studies that were originally approved by the institutional review boards of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and the University of Pennsylvania. All patients provided written consent for their information to be stored in hospital databases and used for research. Participants and Procedure The sample consisted of psychiatry outpatients (≥18 years old) with a primary DSM-IV diagnosis of MDD. Patients were evaluated and diagnosed by experienced psychiatrists or psychologists at an outpatient psychiatric clinic associated with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey or at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research in Pennsylvania, USA. Patients completed the BDI-II at intake, prior to beginning treatment, as part of a standard battery of psychological tests. Patient participation was voluntary and informed consent was obtained before the instruments were administered. Male and female patients who completed all BDI-II items were matched on cognitive/affective symptom scores. To do this, the number of male and female patients with each possible cognitive/affective score was compared. In order to have the same number of male and female patients at each cognitive/affective score level, we included all patients at each cognitive/affective score level from the group (male or female) with the smaller number of patients. Then the same number of patients from the other group with that cognitive/affective score was randomly selected. To do this, we generated a random number for each patient using SPSS (normal distribution, mean = 0, standard deviation = 1). We then selected the appropriate number of patients from the larger group based on random numbers, with the patients with the highest random numbers selected. For example, if 10 male patients and 15 female patients had cognitive/affective scores of 5, then all 10 male patients were selected along with the 10 female patients with the highest random numbers of the 15 female patients. Patients who were not matched were not included in the primary analyses. Measure Symptoms of depression were assessed using the 21-item BDI-II [27]. BDI-II items consist of four statements, scored 0–3, with higher scores indicating increasing symptom severity. Respondents are instructed to describe the way they have been feeling during the past two weeks. There is extensive evidence of the validity and reliability of the BDI-II in both psychiatric and non-psychiatric populations [28], [29]. Based on reviews of existing factor models [30], [31] and item content, scores on BDI-II items 1–14 (sadness, pessimism, past failure, loss of pleasure, guilty feelings, punishment feelings, self-dislike, self-criticalness, suicidal ideation, crying, agitation, loss of interest, indecisiveness, worthlessness) were summed to calculate cognitive/affective symptom scores. Items 15–21 (loss of energy, sleep problems, irritability, appetite problems, concentration, fatigue, sexual disinterest) were summed to calculate somatic symptom scores. Analysis of the Data Independent samples 2-tailed t-tests were used to test whether matched male and female patients differed with regard to BDI-II somatic symptom scores overall. Standardized mean differences were calculated using the Hedges's g statistic [32]. Male and female patients' somatic symptom item scores were similarly compared. Hochberg's Sequential Method was used to maintain a family-wise Type I error rate of α<.05 for multiple comparisons [33]. Two sensitivity analyses were also conducted. First, matched male and female patients were compared using ANCOVA to adjust for age. Second, to supplement the main analysis, we analyzed data from all patients, rather than just matched patients, by using linear regression to assess the difference on somatic symptom scores between male and female patients, controlling for BDI-II cognitive/affective symptom scores. In addition, similar to Silverstein's analyses of rates of male and female patients with MDD who endorsed all somatic symptoms, patients who scored 2 or above on all seven BDI-II somatic symptom items were classified as exhibiting “somatic depression.” The χ2 statistic was used to compare the prevalence of “somatic depression” between male and female patients.
Results Sample Characteristics Prior to matching, mean BDI-II scores were 27.5 (SD = 11.5) for 472 male patients and 29.8 (SD = 12.0) for 1,026 female patients. There were 470 exact matches using cognitive/affective symptom scores, and matched females were on average 3 years older than matched males (43.1 years, SD = 17.2 versus 40.1 years, SD = 15.1, respectively, p = .005). The majority of male (89%) and female (90%) patients were White. BDI-II Somatic Symptom Scores Post-match mean BDI-II scores were 27.5 (SD = 11.5) for 470 male patients and 28.7 (SD = 11.7) for 470 female patients. As shown in Table 1, somatic symptom scores were 1.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.7 to 1.8) points higher among female than male patients, equivalent to 4% of the mean total BDI-II score of female patients (p<.001). Somatic symptoms accounted for 35% of total BDI-II scores for male patients versus 38% for female patients, a negligible raw difference of 3%. Hedges's g for the difference in somatic scores between male and female patients was 0.30, which is a relatively small difference based on Cohen's operational definitions (small = 0.2, medium = 0.5, large = 0.8) [34]. The results for all the analyses were unchanged when controlling for age (somatic symptom score difference = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.8 to 1.8, p<.001). Results were also similar when somatic symptom scores were regressed on sex and cognitive/affective symptom scores (somatic symptom score difference = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.8 to 1.5, p<.001) for all patients, rather than just matched patients. As shown in Table 2, the higher somatic scores among female patients were due to significantly higher scores on items 15 (loss of energy), 18 (appetite problems), 20 (tiredness or fatigue), and 21 (sexual disinterest). PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Table 1. Comparison of BDI-II Somatic Symptom Scores for Female Patients Versus Male Patients. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032490.t001 PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Table 2. Comparison of BDI-II Somatic Symptom Item Scores for Female Patients Versus Male Patients. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032490.t002 BDI-II Somatic Depression Overall, 5% (25 of 470) of male patients and 7% (34 of 470) of female patients scored 2 or above on all seven BDI-II somatic symptom items. There was no statistically significant difference between male and female patients with regard to the prevalence of “somatic depression” based on scoring 2 or above on all seven BDI-II somatic symptom items (loss of energy, sleep problems, irritability, appetite problems, concentration, fatigue, sexual disinterest; p = .226).
Discussion The main finding of this study was that BDI-II somatic symptom scores were only minimally higher for female versus male psychiatry outpatients with MDD matched on cognitive/affective symptom scores. Women scored just over a point higher than men, accounting for only 4% of their total BDI-II scores. Furthermore, based on BDI-II somatic symptoms item scores, only 7% of women versus 5% of men and were classified as having “somatic depression.” These results, numerically, are consistent with results from two prominent earlier studies that reported that “somatic depression” was twice as prevalent among women with MDD compared to men with MDD [21], [22]. In those two studies, rates of “somatic depression” were 8% and 3% for women versus 4% and 1.5% for men, respectively. In both of those studies, and in the present study, however, more than 90% of men and women with MDD were not classified as having “somatic depression.” The key difference between the present study and the two earlier studies by Silverstein [21], [22] is that the previous studies focused on relative risk without interpreting the meaningfulness of findings in terms of absolute risk. In the context of very low rates, however, communication of relative risk is often highly misleading [35]–[38]. For instance, increasing risk from 1 in 10,000 to 2 in 10,000 would technically be “double the relative risk,” but, in most cases, would not be clinically meaningful. Silverstein suggested that the increased relative risk of “somatic depression” for women was a possible explanation for gender differences in depression rates and severity, but only a very small percentage of MDD patients were classified as having “somatic depression,” which was also the case in the current study. Thus, the very minor differences between rates of “somatic depression” for men and women in all of these studies, along with the minimal gender difference in BDI-II somatic symptom scores in the present study, suggest that gender differences in depression are not adequately explained in terms of somatic symptoms. A number of other studies have examined whether there are gender differences in the endorsement of depressive symptoms on an item-by-item basis [8], [13]–[20], [23]–[26]. Some studies have found that women are more likely to report certain somatic items, including appetite disturbances, weight disturbances and fatigue than men [8], [14]–[20], [23]–[26]. However, the specific somatic symptoms identified as potentially different for men and women are not the same across studies, and most somatic symptom items analyzed show no differences. On the other hand, some studies have reported that women are more likely than men to report certain cognitive/affective items, such as tearfulness, feelings of guilt, feelings of worthlessness, sexual disinterest and thoughts of death, than men [8], [13], [15], [23], [24]. However, as with somatic symptoms, consistent patterns do not emerge across studies and, for most cognitive/affective symptoms examined, there are no differences. Possible reasons that have been suggested to explain these findings include the use of different methods to assess symptoms of depression and different patients and settings [19]. In addition, all of these studies conducted statistical tests on many different items, without adjustment for multiple comparisons, and based their conclusions of gender differences on differences in small numbers of items among many tested. Given this, the inconsistent findings would be consistent with very minimal differences overall, as we found in the present study. In the present study, although we presented item-by-item data, our hypothesis was tested based on a single comparison of differences in overall somatic symptom scores. There is no debating that women have higher rates of depression and report more severe depressive symptoms than men, and it is important to better understand how and why these gender differences in depression occur in order to create more efficacious treatments. The findings of this study, however, do not support the existence of a somatic subtype of depression among women that may explain gender differences in depression. Given this finding, other explanations that have been advanced may be more promising. For instance, it has been suggested that gender differences in depression may be related to 1) prior anxiety, which is more common among women than men [39], 2) the willingness of women to admit their depression more than men [40], 3) the tendency for women to ruminate about problems more than men [41], 4) higher levels of stress and lower levels of fulfillment associated with traditional male versus female sex roles [42], and 5) hormonal changes during puberty [43]. One limitation of this study is that we studied a sample of adults with MDD who sought treatment at one of two clinics in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, USA, which could limit the generalizability of results. On the other hand, the results of the study are generally similar to Silverstein's [21], [22] previous findings using larger, more representative samples of patients, and robustly demonstrate that somatic symptom reporting is not likely an explanation for gender differences. A second limitation of this study is that, as in Silverstein's studies [21], [22], our definition of “somatic depression” was arbitrary. However, the amount of men and women with “somatic depression” in this study was similar to that in Silverstein's studies [21], [22] and facilitated comparisons. Also, since different assessment methods were used, the definitions of “somatic depression” were somewhat different. We used a definition that was based on published factor analyses of the BDI-II, which may differ somewhat from other conceptualizations. A third limitation of this study is that we did not have information regarding whether or not patients were diagnosed with additional psychiatric diagnoses besides MDD and therefore, it is possible that this sample may not be representative of patients only with MDD. Lastly, other possible limitations of the study were that MDD diagnoses were not based on a structured clinical interview and that depressive symptoms were assessed using the BDI-II, which is not a diagnostic tool. The BDI-II, however, does contain the core symptoms that are covered in the DSM-IV. In addition, using the BDI-II allowed for an assessment of continuous symptom scores and overall contribution of somatic symptoms whereas a structured clinical interview only permits counting the presence or absence of symptoms. In summary, it is well-known that women have a higher prevalence of MDD and report more severe depressive symptoms than men. The results of this study show that differences in the experience and reporting of somatic symptoms explain only a small portion of these gender differences. Future studies examining this issue should focus on additional explanations.
Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to Dr. Robert A. Steer for allowing us to use data from the psychiatry outpatient sample.
Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: VCD ATB KSD DJAD BDT. Performed the experiments: ATB KSD DJAD. Analyzed the data: VCD BDT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: VCD ATB KSD DJAD BDT. Wrote the paper: VCD BDT. |
The photographer Sarah Schoenfeld used to work in a nightclub in Berlin. Which meant, among other things, that she got to see first-hand how mind-altering substances can affect people's behavior. She got to wondering: What if you could see the drugs at work outside of the human body? What do those substances, when they're not altering minds, actually look like?
To find out, in a science-meets-art-y kind of way, Schoenfeld turned to a logical source: photographs. She converted her photo studio into a lab, then set to work exposing drugs (legal and illegal) to film negatives. She took the images that emerged from the reactions and magnified them—to gorgeous, and sometimes fairly creepy, results.
The work, as a compilation, is called All You Can Feel—an aptly ironic name, since the point of the project is to separate these substances from the human mind. The images offer a glimpse of what drugs look like, freed from powders and pills—and freed of all but their aesthetics. Here's a sampling.
Speed:
Orphiril:
Ketamine:
Heroin:
Meth:
Caffeine:
Cocaine:
Ecstasy:
LSD:
Via It's Nice That and This Is Colossal, hat tip @stevesilberman
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. |
Houston museum unearths next big creature feature Houston's next creature feature? Dimetrodon
Houston Museum of Natural Science excited about exhibiting its very own Texas fossil find
With his bushy beard and long hair, paleontologist Robert Bakker has become a familiar face around Seymour, Texas. With his bushy beard and long hair, paleontologist Robert Bakker has become a familiar face around Seymour, Texas. Photo: James Nielsen, Houston Chronicle Photo: James Nielsen, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Houston museum unearths next big creature feature 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
The bones lie everywhere — fragments of 300 million-year-old ribs and vertebrae — spread across the hillsides, amid cactus, mesquite and red earth.
They sat on the surface, next to pieces of clay and caliche rock, when paleontologists and volunteers began chiseling, scratching and brushing their way, millimeter by millimeter, toward the discovery awaiting them below.
The group, from the Houston Museum of Natural Science, came to the Craddock Ranch in North Texas four years ago, hoping the Baylor County site's reputation for fossils would prove worthwhile.
Crew members worked through shards of bone 200 million years older than such creatures as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops.
Then they found it: First, pieces of skull and neck; then, early this month, a spinal cord and ribs. The near-complete skeleton was a Dimetrodon, a 287-million-year-old primitive reptile with a large, sail-like fin on its back.
As the team continued brushing and scraping through red clay last week, it uncovered clues into how some of the world's earliest land animals lived, died and then evolved, developing into dinosaurs, birds and mammals.
Working at the dig site on Sunday near the town of Seymour, the crew uncovered pieces of primitive creatures that were likely part of the diet and environment surrounding Dimetrodons.
The preserved ecosystem will be part of an exhibit that will give the 2.5 million annual visitors to the Houston Museum of Natural Science a window into a previously unknown and inconceivably distant time. The discoveries will also bring a large array of distinctly Texan fossils to a museum that has none, even though others worldwide prominently display bones from the Lone Star State. It will be featured in a new 30,000-square-foot paleontology hall set to open in 2012, part of the museum's $80 million expansion.
"Our purpose, of course, No. 1 is to get a kid-friendly display," said Robert Bakker, visiting curator of paleontology for the museum and a leading expert in the field. "We're well on our way, but there is new data. Much new data."
Unearthing 'Wet Willi'
The crew continued dissecting the dig site Sunday, meticulously sifting through rocks and bone fragments. Volunteers chipped and scraped away ancient clay using dentist tools, needles and screw drivers. They then swept aside dust with paintbrushes and makeup brushes, often revealing glimpses of large bones that had been underground for hundreds of millions of years.
Some parts of the Dimetrodon — an 11-foot specimen that sported a 4-foot-long fin and likely weighed around 300 pounds, and whose name, "Wet Willi," was influenced by its discovery in a drainage ditch — were missing, but crew members are confident they will find more fossils.
"You haven't lost anything until you stop looking," said Johnny Castillo, a volunteer from Houston who is helping with the dig. "We never stop looking."
That same enthusiasm for fossils often leads paleontologists into areas far from civilization, but the museum's current dig has found the experts in cattle country, where a search for extinct creatures doesn't excite everyone.
The crew's work has been a kind of novelty for residents of Seymour, a town in Baylor County with two traffic signals and about 2,600 people. Bakker, a scientist with long hair and a bushy white beard, has become a familiar face among the cattle herders and tractor owners here.
He is a regular at The New Maverick Cafe, a popular restaurant, where he eats breakfast with his crew each day, wearing his white cowboy hat and frequently quoting The Simpsons as he explains the team's mission to residents and draws pictures of prehistoric creatures that now hang on the cafe's walls.
"They're an unusual, different kind of group," said Joe Dickson, a retired county judge who eats breakfast with a group of friends at the cafe each morning. "Not anyone around here wants to lay on the ground and dig in the dirt with their fingers."
The digging team sets up on cots overnight in an old tractor factory owned by Nancy Markham, who converted the second floor of the 110-year-old building into her home. In an automated wheelchair, the 71-year-old shuttles between overloaded bookshelves and recycled furniture in her expansive unit to serve the team dinner each night.
Fossils and football?
Bakker and David Temple, the museum's associate curator of paleontology, have tried to pitch the Dimetrodon as the replacement mascot for the Seymour High School Panthers, suggesting they should be called the "Fighting Fin-backs." It hasn't caught on.
Some in the town haven't noticed their presence, continuing about their quail hunting or weekly church meetings unaware of the reason for the group of scientists visiting Seymour.
Others were amused "because they're a bunch of kids from Harvard with some hicks in here," said Larry McDorman, Seymour High's retired football coach, referring to the digging crew's morning breakfasts alongside locals at the cafe.
But residents visiting the dig site on Sunday were awestruck. And more digging for bones could bring about additional discoveries that could put Seymour on the map, said Bakker, who plans to place a replica of "Wet Willi" in the town.
With a wealth of Dimetrodon bone fragments littering the "bone bed," a 270-yard-long oval-shaped area that was likely a body of water, the crew will assemble at least three other composite skeletons of the creatures to add to a display at the museum.
Veritable buffet of bones
The dig has turned up an array of fossils, including primitive amphibians and sharks, as well as vomit and droppings 280 million years old.
The so-called Texas red beds are rich with fossils from the Permian Period, which began more than 300 million years ago, offering more remains than the rest of the world combined, Bakker said.
That leaves great potential for new discoveries from the dig, possibly including eggs that have so far eluded paleontologists, he said.
The museum's only current Permian display is a 50-foot-long acrylic mural.
"We're looking for the next thing — whatever the next thing is," Bakker said.
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Is this the future of dieting? The gadget that can tell you how many calories are in your dinner just by scanning it
Tellspec contains a spectrometer to analyse the chemical compounds in food
The keyring-sized device can also list allergens, chemicals, nutrients and ingredients in food - as well as the calories
Its Canadian creators hope to raise funds via crowdsourcing site Indiegogo for the £180 gadget, which can even scan food through plastic
For anyone watching their weight, it could be a perfect gadget - a keyring sized sensor that can tell you exactly how many calories are in your food simply by scanning it.
The small handheld gadget, which works with a mobile phone app, contains a spectrometer to analyse the chemical compounds in food.
From this, its Canadian inventors claim it can ‘tell you the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in your food’.
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For anyone watching their weight, Tellspec be a perfect gadget - a keyring-sized sensor that can tell you exactly how many calories are in your food simply by scanning it
The creators hope to raise funds via crowdsourcing site Indiegogo for the £180 gadget, which can even scan food through plastic, so savvy shoppers can roam the supermarket checking their food before they buy it.
It works by scanning the food and uploading the data to special web server.
There’s an algorithm that creates a report, which is sent to a mobile phone app revealing the food’s contents.
The small handheld gadget, which works with a mobile phone app, contains a spectrometer to analyse the chemical compounds in food. From this, its Canadian inventors claim Tellspec can tell you the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in your food
HOW IT WORKS
The small scanner contains a spectrometer. Light is made up of particles called photons. When you beam the low-powered laser in the TellSpec scanner at the food, some of the photons are absorbed, raising the energy states of the molecules in the food. Lower energy photons are then reflected back.
The spectrometer inside the TellSpec scanner sorts these photons by wavelength and counts them. The resulting numbers, called a spectrum, describe the chemical compounds in the food. This spectrum is uploaded to a web server where it is analysed. Information about the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in the food is then downloaded to you and displayed on your mobile phone.
‘TellSpec analyses the findings using the algorithm and sends a report to your phone telling you the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in the food,’ the firm says.
‘It is a fast, simple, and easy-to-use way to learn what's in your food.
‘TellSpec will identify allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in foods or beverages.’
Its makers hope it will help those with allergies, as well as those on a diet.
The inventors, Stephen Watson and Isabel Hoffmann hope to begin selling the gadget next year, and say it will be small enough to use as a keyring.
‘We are pioneers in this new and exciting technology,’ they said.
‘Our team has successfully tested prototypes of the TellSpec system and we are moving toward production.’
The gadget works by scanning the food and uploading the data to special web server. There's an algorithm that creates a report which is sent to a mobile phone app revealing the food's contents and the app can also keep a diary of what a user has eaten that day |
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At 10 years since the launch of Operation Iraqi Liberation (to use the original name with the appropriate acronym, OIL) and over 22 years since Operation Desert Storm, there is little evidence that any significant number of people in the United States have a realistic idea of what our government has done to the people of Iraq, or of how these actions compare to other horrors of world history. A majority of Americans believe the war since 2003 has hurt the United States but benefitted Iraq. A plurality of Americans believe, not only that Iraqis should be grateful, but that Iraqis are in fact grateful.
A number of U.S. academics have advanced the dubious claim that war making is declining around the world. Misinterpreting what has happened in Iraq is central to their argument. As documented in the full report, by the most scientifically respected measures available, Iraq lost 1.4 million lives as a result of OIL, saw 4.2 million additional people injured, and 4.5 million people become refugees. The 1.4 million dead was 5% of the population. That compares to 2.5% lost in the U.S. Civil War, or 3 to 4% in Japan in World War II, 1% in France and Italy in World War II, less than 1% in the U.K. and 0.3% in the United States in World War II. The 1.4 million dead is higher as an absolute number as well as a percentage of population than these other horrific losses. U.S. deaths in Iraq since 2003 have been 0.3% of the dead, even if they’ve taken up the vast majority of the news coverage, preventing U.S. news consumers from understanding the extent of Iraqi suffering.
In a very American parallel, the U.S. government has only been willing to value the life of an Iraqi at that same 0.3% of the financial value it assigns to the life of a U.S. citizen.
The 2003 invasion included 29,200 air strikes, followed by another 3,900 over the next eight years. The U.S. military targeted civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances It also made use of what some might call “weapons of mass destruction,” using cluster bombs, white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new kind of napalm in densely settled urban areas.
Birth defects, cancer rates, and infant mortality are through the roof. Water supplies, sewage treatment plants, hospitals, bridges, and electricity supplies have been devastated, and not repaired. Healthcare and nutrition and education are nothing like they were before the war. And we should remember that healthcare and nutrition had already deteriorated during years of economic warfare waged through the most comprehensive economic sanctions ever imposed in modern history.
Money spent by the United States to “reconstruct” Iraq was always less than 10% of what was being spent adding to the damage, and most of it was never actually put to any useful purpose. At least a third was spent on “security,” while much of the rest was spent on corruption in the U.S. military and its contractors.
The educated who might have best helped rebuild Iraq fled the country. Iraq had the best universities in Western Asia in the early 1990s, and now leads in illiteracy, with the population of teachers in Baghdad reduced by 80%.
For years, the occupying forces broke the society of Iraq down, encouraging ethnic and sectarian division and violence, resulting in a segregated country and the repression of rights that Iraqis used to enjoy even under Saddam Hussein’s brutal police state.
While the dramatic escalation of violence that for several years was predicted would accompany any U.S. withdrawal did not materialize, Iraq is not at peace. The war destabilized Iraq internally, created regional tensions, and — of course — generated widespread resentment for the United States. That was the opposite result of the stated one of making the United States safer.
If the United States had taken five trillion dollars, and — instead of spending it destroying Iraq — had chosen to do good with it, at home or abroad, just imagine the possibilities. The United Nations thinks $30 billion a year would end world hunger. For $5 trillion, why not end world hunger for 167 years? The lives not saved are even more than the lives taken away by war spending.
A sanitized version of the war and how it started is now in many of our school text books. It is not too late for us to correct the record, or to make reparations. We can better work for an actual reduction in war making and the prevention of new wars, if we accurately understand what past wars have involved.
David Swanson is author of War is a Lie. He lives in Virginia. |
This is the full text of an open letter sent to Jeremy Corbyn by three former members of South West Surrey Labour who were expelled for attempting to negotiate a “progressive alliance” in an attemp to oust Jeremy Hunt, the sitting MP.
Dear Jeremy
We are not writing to you in any sense of anger or resentment about the way in which we have been expelled from the Labour Party for working locally to secure a single, agreed progressive candidate to challenge Jeremy Hunt in his South West Surrey constituency. We shall, of course, appeal against the decision, but that is a separate issue. We should also like you to be aware that we are still as much Labour supporters now, as we were a couple of weeks ago when we were in the party, and each of us has supported you in two leadership elections.
However, you are well aware that there are, up and down the country, a significant number of seats, like South West Surrey, where Labour stands no chance of winning under our current “first past the post” electoral system.
Given that the Tories are propped up by UKIP support in many constituencies around the country, but could be deprived of a majority in the next parliament by Labour working collaboratively with other parties that share many aspects of our philosophy, we are urging you to take up an honest and honourable position of publicly stating that in those constituencies where Labour candidates have no chance of winning, Labour Party members should be encouraged to work in a marginal constituency and Labour Party supporters should consider voting tactically.
We believe that our great party could be significantly strengthened as a result of this move. In South West Surrey, your action could support the highly effective challenge to Jeremy Hunt by Louise Irvine and strike a blow for the NHS, created, as you are well aware, in the post-war period, by one of the greatest figures of the left from Labour history, namely, Nye Bevan. In marginal constituencies up and down the country, your action could ensure that Labour wins some of its key marginal seats and the Tories lose in their marginal seats to candidates who may well end up supporting a Labour or Labour-led government. In other words, tactical voting for candidates who share many Labour values could make the difference between Theresa May and you moving in to number 10 Downing Street after the general election.
We are proposing that you make a public statement to the effect that:
those who wish to work actively to support the Labour Party should go out and support a Labour candidate in a target constituency in line with advice given by Momentum, through their website
Labour Party supporters in seats which Labour cannot win under our current electoral system should consider voting for the progressive candidate best placed to win.
We await your response to this proposal.
With best wishes
Steve Williams
Kate Townsend
Robert Park
(expelled from the Labour Party on 8 May 2017) |
The FBI is investigating an explosion that injured at least one person Wednesday night at an Indiana post office.
FBI Special Agent Bob Ramsey said the victim, a woman, was taken to a hospital after the explosion, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported. Details of her injuries were not immediately available but Fire Chief Anthony Serna said they are not life-threatening.
The East Chicago Fire Department reportedly received a call about a possible explosion around 6 p.m.
An FBI statement to the Chicago Sun Times said it is "yet to be determined if this is an act of domestic or international terrorism, but at this time there is no ongoing public safety concern."
The Porter County's bomb squad responded with a bomb disposal robot. K-9 units from the Lake County Sheriff's Department were at the scene investigating.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
At T-Mobile’s UnCarrier event today, it became the first U.S. carrier to confirm a Samsung Galaxy S4 U.S. release date announcing that the highly anticipated smartphone will be landing on its new 4G LTE network on May 1st.
Update: AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 Pre-orders and Pricing Announced
Earlier this month, Samsung revealed its new Samsung Galaxy S4, the device that will be taking over for the Samsung Galaxy S3 and one that will hitting shelves starting in late April. Already, we’ve seen AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon confirm the device for their networks and now, several days after the event, we have our first release date.
T-Mobile today confirmed, at its UnCarrier event, that it will be releasing the Samsung Galaxy S4 on May 1st, just a few days after the United Kingdom gets the device on April 25th and April 26th. This is likely much sooner than many expected given that American carriers are typically far behind their counterparts in terms of release timing. T-Mobile is the first U.S. carrier to announce a Galaxy S4 U.S. release date leaving the other four to make announcements of their own.
Typically, T-Mobile is one of the first to offer devices, it was one of the first with the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, so it could be that carriers like AT&T and Verizon release the Galaxy S4 later that month.
The T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 will check in with the same $99 pricing that the carrier has attached to both the HTC One and the iPhone 5 it seems. That pricing is significantly cheaper than what other carriers will likely offer it for.
Read: Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. Nexus 4.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 figures to replace the Samsung Galaxy S3 in T-Mobile’s lineup as the carrier’s flagship Samsung device. However, it won’t replace it completely.
T-Mobile is set to introduce a 4G LTE powered Galaxy S3 sometime in the future, a device that may serve as its budget option for consumers. The carrier still hasn’t release pricing.
The Galaxy S4 features a number of new features including a 5-incb 1080p display, quad-core processor, 13MP camera, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and Samsung’s smart features. |
Bathymetric map showing a global view of the mid-ocean ridge (MOR). The mid-ocean ridge wraps around the globe for more than 65,000 km like the seam of a baseball, with an average depth to the ridge crest of 2500 m. Click image for larger view and image credit.
What Is The Mid-Ocean Ridge?
Ken MacDonald
Professor, Marine Geophysics
University of California, Santa Barbara
The mid-ocean ridge system is the most extensive chain of mountains on earth, but more than 90% of this mountain range lies in the deep ocean. The mid-ocean ridge wraps around the globe for more than 65,000 km like the seam of a baseball. The average depth to the crest (top) of the ridge is 2500 m, but it rises above sea-level in Iceland and is more than 4000 m deep in the Cayman Trough.
Mid-ocean ridges are geologically important because they occur along the kind of plate boundary where new ocean floor is created as the plates spread apart. Thus the mid-ocean ridge is also known as a "spreading center" or a "divergent plate boundary." The plates spread apart at rates of 1 cm to 20 cm per year. As oceanic plates move apart, rock melts and wells up from tens of kilometers deep. Some of the molten rock ascends all the way up to the seafloor, producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt, and building the longest chain of volcanoes in the world! The molten rock that does not erupt freezes onto the edges of the plates as they spread apart. In 1783, a segment of the ridge which emerges above sea-level in Iceland erupted more than 12 cubic kilometers of lava- enough to pave the entire U.S. interstate freeway system to a depth of 10 meters. The scorching lava (~1200 ºC), as well as 50 million tons of sulfur dioxide released into the atmosphere, ruined crops and caused the death of more than 10,000 Icelanders, a quarter of the nation's population at the time. A big picture cross section showing melt (molten rock) in the upper mantle beneath the East Pacific Rise. Melt extends over 100 kilometers deep below oceanic crust, and spans a breadth of several hundred kilometers. Click image for larger view and image credit. Since most of the mid-ocean ridge is more than 2000 meters deep, most of its eruptions go unnoticed. In fact, accurate maps along the mid-ocean ridge did not exist until the last ten years, and even now much of it remains unmapped. Accurate maps that exist along portions of the mid-ocean ridge show that the zone of recent volcanic activity is narrow, less than 10 km and often less than 1 km wide. This region generating new ocean floor is also characterized by many small to moderate earthquakes. Some of these earthquakes are caused by volcanic eruptions, and others are caused by breaking and ripping of the thin, newly created plate as it spreads to either side of the ridge. Two of the most carefully studied mid-ocean ridges are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise (called a rise because it has more gentle slopes). The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs down the center of the Atlantic Ocean. It spread apart at rates of 2 to 5 cm per year, and at these relatively slow spreading rates, the ridge has a deep rift valley along its crest. The rift valley is 1 to 3 km deep, about the depth and width of the Grand Canyon. In contrast, the East Pacific Rise spreads fast at rates of 6 to 16 cm per year (more than 20 cm per year in the past). Due to the fast spreading rates, there is no rift valley, just a smooth volcanic summit with a crack along the crest that is much smaller than the Atlantic rift valley. Every 50-500 km, the mid-ocean ridge is offset sideways right or left by transform faults (found where two plates slide sideways against each other). The ridge also has many smaller lateral offsets which, together with larger transform faults, divide the mid-ocean ridge into many segments.
Along the crests of the volcanoes of the mid-ocean ridge, cracks allow the near-freezing sea water to seep deep into the hot new crust. This water becomes superheated to temperatures of greater than 400ºC (752 ºF), causing the water to become so buoyant it shoots out of the seafloor at very high speeds, like water gushing from a broken fire hydrant. This water, however, is not clear and looks like thick black smoke. The hot "hydrothermal" water dissolves minerals out of the basalt crust and reacts with cold sea water when coming back up to the seafloor. The black appearance is caused by precipitation of tiny mineral particles in the plume of hot water as it gushes out of the seafloor. Chimneys and mounds of minerals deposit very rapidly around these "black smoker" hydrothermal vents. The main minerals are zinc-, copper-, and iron-sulfides (such as pyrite "fool's gold"). Sometimes there are traces of platinum, gold and silver, but usually not enough to make these deposits economic since they are so deep. [The author of this article, K. Macdonald, was Co-Chief Scientist of the expedition that first discovered black smoker vents and their deposits in 1979 using the deep-diving submersible, Alvin, on the East Pacific Rise].
Bathymetric image of the East Pacific Rise. Click image for larger view and image credit.
The heat from the volcanoes and the hydrothermal vent waters provide the energy base for a very unusual community of deep sea animals. These animals live completely independent of sunlight, mining the energy of deep sea volcanoes. Instead of relying on floral (plant) use of the sun's energy to make organic material through photosynthesis, the food chain relies on microbes able to oxidize hydrogen sulfide and other compounds in hydrothermal vent waters, and convert large amounts of carbon dioxide in sea water into organic material through a process called chemosynthesis. The community consists of hundreds of species, including clams, mussels, crabs, vent fish, octopus, and the very unusual giant tube worms which grow as tall as 4 m. Conditions are hostile here; water pressures reach 200-300 atmospheres (3000 to 4500 lb./sq. in.), it is pitch dark, and volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently.
Like the rest of the deep ocean floor, we have explored less of the mountains of the mid-ocean ridge system than the surface of Venus or Mars, or the dark side of the moon. Use of submersible or remotely operated vehicles to explore the mid-ocean ridge has provided information on less than 0.1% of the mid-ocean ridge! Much of the mid-ocean ridge still remains a mystery, and we will continue to explore it. |
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Rsh's Clockwork Angels Completes the Steampnk Jorney
Mobile Production Monthly
July 2013
by Michael A. Beck
Rush Clockwork Angels Tour Steams Across Continents
Click Any Image to Enlarge
When the current 2012/2013 Rush Clockwork Angels tour went out last year it was it was not just an extension of the Steampunk theme started in the 2011 Time Machine tour, but rather the culmination thereof. The second half of the show is a full blown rock opera based upon the novel of the same title written by Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart and bestselling science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson.
"Neil [Peart] was very interested in this sort of concept going back to the days of Jules Verne," explained Production Designer Howard Ungerleider. "He enjoyed that kind of genre, so when he decided that this might be the way he wanted to go, he thought it might be a good idea to educate the audience as to what they were about to do."
While there was some initial confusion on the part of the audience when the Steampunk theme came out of nowhere, it was shortlived because word of the upcoming Clockwork Angels project was already in the wind.
Although the amount of laundry equipment onstage was diminished slightly from previous tours, the stage is still festooned with the iconology of Steampunk with widgets, whatsits and franices straight out of the 1999 production of "The Wild Wild West" including a huge popcorn popper. All of the 19th century gadgetry is portioned into three groups dedicated to each member of the band, be it the décor of drum kit, the bizarre circular contraptions upstage of Alex Lifeson or the "laundry" machines behind Geddy Lee.
With the exception of the popcorn machine, all of these set pieces were loaded up with SDI video feeds that were fed from a separate source than the HDI feed servicing the giant 41 x 17 - 9.75 mil LED screen that played upstage. In addition to the main screen, there were also 10 smaller 10 x 4 12 mil screens flown off to winch points. This allows them to achieve several various heights and orientations around the proscenium area. The fact that they are on winches helps them to move rapidly through the space in order to achieve various looks. The speed with which they travel adds to the sometimes frenetic pace of the show.
The video content of the production was primarily animation. The tone of the content blended into the Steampunk theme of the show with a whimsical feel sometimes reminiscent of the animation of Monty Python's Flying Circus. However, it was produced at 24 frames per second, which was a problem as an HD system processes video at 59.9 fps. The solution was found in the Aja Video Systems Ki Pro file-based HD/SD recorder and player, which had been a backup system on the tour. It was decided that the footage could be saved to the Ki Pro wherein it could be edited and polished by the content producers and rolled straight out to the switcher. The problem with that was a 30 frame delay for the video to load and cue with the Ki Pro for playback.
Latency was plaguing the Screenworks team as the new processing system for the screen on this tour and the result was a three frame latency. Added to the four frame delay of using the Hippotizer media server to create and store effects that would be added to the finished product, they were looking at a 37 frame delay to get it done. So when the video content was deemed to be finished for production, the Ki Pro Hippo was taken out of the stream and the content was then loaded into the BlackStorm Playout Server. Whereas with media servers such as the Spider, Hippo or Catalyst that require large amounts of programing and put forth four streams of video to have to time align, pulling the video from the BlackStorm dropped that down to a much more manageable one stream.
Video Engineer Bob Larkin beamed about the experience of working with Ross Video Production Technology, "We're over the top with the Ross guys. The tech support there has been unbelievable. On two different occasions we've called them on a Sunday and I've talked directly with the product development guys and they've mounted our servers remotely and to help us with the issues that we've had with them. How many companies are out there that would provide that kind of tech support at this level? We don't get that kind of support from any of the other vendors that we deal with."
So now the video is ready to be sent to the switcher with nothing more than a two to three frame delay. But there is still the need to add in the effects that frame the look out in the Steampunk style that defined the show. Rather than doing this at the server level, it was done in the Ross Synergy 3 switcher. While there are times when the entire screen was filled with IMAG video coming off of the nine cameras (three manned and six robotic) or the preproduced video content, much of the IMAG was framed in ornate mattes especially at times when all three band members were isolated and shown in a collection of three separate frames in the same look. All of this was done in the switcher and stored as macros (complex looks that can be stored as one piece and pulled up with on key stroke).
"To be able to put a switcher to its absolute max capacity with one button is one of the beautiful things about this Ross switcher. I can take one button and basically arm and execute every function the switcher has," explained Video Director David Davidian. "I can't say enough about the Ross product and their support. They've been life savers and Godsends from day one."
Whereas lighting has, in many cases, become ancillary to the video aspect of the show, studio lighting for the TV show - as it were - such is not the case with Rush. The first half of the show is the three band members on the stage as has always been the case. During this part of the show the lighting is what one would expect to see out of Ungerleider; big deeply saturated rock n' roll looks.
Ungerleider put a lot of effort into arriving at the eclectic array of lighting fixtures to the extent of going to the Czech Republic and meeting with the owners of Robe and touring the manufacturing process, which swayed him in the direction of the Robe 600. However, Robe isn't the only manufacturer on a rig (provided by Nashville based Premiere Global Productions) that also boasts 48 Robin 600 LED Wash, 55 Clay Paky Sharpys, 24 Highend Systems Intellspots, 44 Color Force, 48 LED Strips, 24 Mac 3k Strobes, 10 VL3500 Spots, 20 Coemar ACL Fixtures, 28 Coemar Infinity Wash, 20 PixelLine Maxi Wash, six Lycian M2 2.5k Spot Lights and six floor mounted Highend Showguns.
As was said earlier, the first half of the show was a bold, vivid and deeply saturated look of a great rock concert. However, in the second half of the show it all changed. This is where the production shifted to being a rock opera complete with an eight piece orchestra that played on a riser upstage of the band. This called for an altogether different approach to lighting. This was far more dramatic. The best example of this was in the song "The Wreckers". During this part of the opera, the hero of the story was traveling by sea in a torturous rain storm. In the animated video on the main wall, the rain was coming in at roughly 45 degree angle.
In what was the most original and creative use of the Clay Paky Sharpy we've seen to date, Ungerleider narrowed the beams down as tightly as they would go and focused them at the same angle as the rain. Then at the point in the show when the storm was taking place on the screen he brought up the Sharpy's in completely random chase adding strobe hits when lighting occurred in the video. It brought the storm off the screen in a way that could only be described as outrageous.
The visual aspect of the show was completed with pyro effects highlighting various parts of the hero's journey in the opera. This was, of course, provided by Toronto based Pyrotek.
Although the audio portion of the show draws as much importance as any other, there wasn't much to chat about with FOH Engineer Brad Madix who joked that nothing has changed since the last time we talked and suggested that we simply run the audio segment of the story done on the Time Machine tour. Joking aside, something had changed with this tour in the name of the aforementioned orchestra.
"This is a complicated album to reproduce," Madix revealed. "Some records are easier to reproduce live than others and there's a lot going on in this one including the new addition; the eight piece string section. It's working out well but it's more than just an extra eight inputs. All of that has to be fit in with the band that I've been working with for 10 years."
When Rush first hit the scene, it was a glorious time in rock n' roll when every band was different unto itself. There were no genres and the formulas that have turned the musical scene into a wasteland had not yet been devised. In the midst of this incredibly deep plethora of originality, Rush stood out as oddly more innovative than any other. As the years have passed, they have insisted that whatever they do, they will do as only they can. The incredible attention to every creative detail of this show, from the innovative delivery of video, to the rainstorm of light, to the delicately subtle mixing of a string section, shows that [indescribable] "thing" that has led Rush to be one of the most creatively original groups of its class.
RUSH EQUIPMENT
48 - Robin 600 LED Wash55 - Sharpy Fixtures24 - Intellspot Fixtures44 - Color Force 48 LED Strip Fixtures24 - Mac 3k Strobe Fixtures24 - Martin 3k Scrollers10 - VL3500 Profile Fixtures20 - Coemar ACL Fixtures28 - Coemar Infinity Wash Fixtures20 - PixelLine Maxi Wash Fixtures6 - Lycian M2 / 2.5k Spot Lights6 - Highend Showguns
Control and Distro:
5 - 48 Way Moving Light Distro / 208volt Rack
1 - 16 Station ICOM system
4 - 17" Monitors
3 - Full Boar Consoles
3 - Full Boar Extension Wings
2 - Creative License Artnet Boxes 4
1 - 300' Ethernet Control Snake
All DMX and Control Rack
Rigging and Hardware:
5 - Silver Aluminum Curved Pods
4 - Silver Aluminum Triangles
4 - 10' x 20" x 20" Black Utility Truss (sl/sr spots and triangles)
6 - 10' x 20" Black Utility Truss (grid for Eyebrow Pods)
1 - 15' x 20" Black Circle Truss
2 - 10' x 20" Black Utility Truss (spot lights - upstage sr/sl)
6 - Black Underhung Spot Chairs
8 - 10' x 12" x 12" Black Utility Truss
10 - 8' x 30" x 31" MLT
5 - Articulating Hinges
12 - Lightlocks
8 - 8' x 20" x 20" Black Utility Truss (cable bridge)
Motor Package:
32 - 1 ton Vario Hoists
12 - Pulleys and Hardware
32 - 1 ton Chain Hoists
RUSH CREW
Geddy Lee - Bass, Keyboards and VocalsAlex Lifeson - Guitar and VocalsNeil Peart - Drums
Strings
Composer - David Campbell
Violins - Joel Derouin, Gerry Hilera, Jonathan Dinlage, Entcho Tudorov, Mario De Leon, Audrey Solomon
Cellos - Jacob Szekely, Adele Stein
Staff
Tour Manager & Accountant - Liam Birt
Road Manager - Donovan Lundstrom
Production Manager - Craig Blazier
Production Assistant - Karin Blazier
FOH Sound Engineer - Brad Madix
Lighting Designer/ Director - Howard Ungerleider
Keyboard Technician - Tony Geranios
Drum Technician - Lorne Wheaton
Bass Technician - John McIntosh
Guitar Technician - Scott Appleton
Stage Manager - George Steinert
Nutritionist - Bruce French
Venue Security - Anthony Fedewa
NP Road Manager, Security - Michael Mosbach
Artist Liaison - Kevin Ripa
Carpenter - Cliff Sharpling
Audio System Engineer - Anson Moore
Monitor Engineer - Brent Carpenter
Monitor System Engineer - Corey Harris
Lighting Crew Chief - Martin Joos
Electrician - Curtis Anthony
Lighting Electricians - Matthew Tucker,
Joshua Rahalski, Matt Leroux
Head Rigger - Albert Pozzetti
Rigger - Charles Anderson
Motion control - Sebastien Richard
Video Director - David Davidian
Video Engineer - Bob Larkin
LED Engineer - Gregory "Grit" Frederick
Camera Operators - Brian Littleton, Jay Cooper
Merchandise - Patrick McLoughlin
Live Nation Global Tour Rep - Keith Keller
VIP Nation Rep - Colin Womack
Bus Drivers
Dave Burnette, Lashawn Lundstrum, Mary Beerer, Joe C. Bush, John Morgan, Tony Hammonds
Truck Drivers - Arthur "Mac" McLear (Lead), Jon Cordes, Tom Hartman, Henry McBride, Juli Mennitti, Steve Mennitti, Bob Wright, Bruno Pelle, Don Johnson
Flight Crew
Pilots - Dan Droppo, Bill Bryant, Murray Clapp
Flight Attendant - Anastassia Tchernykh
Vendors
Management
Anthem Entertainment Group
Tour Promoter
Live Nation Global Touring
Booking Agent
Artist Group International
Travel Agent
Frosch Travel
Aircraft Charter
Image Air Charter
Lighting Company
Premier Global Production
Audio Company
Clair Global
Buses
Hemphill Brothers
Trucking
Ego Trips
Video
Screenworks
Pyrotechnics
Pyrotek
Customs
BZee Brokerage LTD.
Merchandising
Showtech
Passes
Otto Passes
Radios
Point to Point Communications
Itineraries
Smart Art
Rush Finally Gets Some Respect
An Interview with Rush FOH Engineer Brad Madix
BY REV. BILL
It's one of those great stories of the guy mixing the opener on a big tour finding himself a decade later mixing the headliner. But this time, he's still with them another decade on.
"In 1990, I was on the Presto tour working on Electrotec's sound crew," recalled Rush FOH engineer Brad Madix. "One of my duties was to mix the opening act, Mr. Big. I got a couple of good gigs out of that, including Queensryche. Later, I took over for Robert Scovill on Rush's Roll the Bones tour when he had a conflict with Def Leppard. He did a tour after that, but wasn't available for the Vapor Trails tour in 2002. The guys invited me back and I have been mixing them ever since."
"The guys" would be Rush, one of the most enduring - and polarizing - bands in rock history. Beloved by a legion of fans (which includes a huge number of other musicians) and reviled by critics, they have had the same lineup since 1974. That puts them just a year away from 40 years as "real" band. They have put out more than 20 records, 14 of which went platinum. They've sold 40 million-plus units worldwide. Still they had to wait almost 15 years after their initial qualification to get into the Hall of Fame. And they are a regular on end of the yearly top tour lists.
"They've been making great music for decades with the same lineup for virtually the entire run. I'd say it was well-deserved," said Madix about the recent induction. "As for me, I'm honored (and lucky) to be associated with such a class act at a time when they are finally gaining some respect amongst the critics. Personally, I think they're doing some of their best work now!"
Mobile Production Monthly: OK, let's start with a geeky audio question. Rush is [a] three-piece band... How many inputs and how many of those are drums?
Brad Madix: We are 80 inputs total and about 36 of those are drums. That hasn't changed much in 10 years, though the electronic element of the drum kit does shrink or grow from tour to tour. We've probably been as high as 40 drum inputs and as low as 32 in that time. Depends on the set list, mostly.
MPM: Console of choice and why?
BM: After having done one tour with an analog board, I was an early adopter of digital for this act. Mainly, because I could actually reach all of the inputs and inserts! It's been the Avid VENUE system for the last three tours. The facility to run TDM plug-ins on the desk elevates the Avid platform above all the others, in my opinion. I like the small footprint also. The ability to reach everything and keep my head up and in the mix is invaluable. Things are always evolving in the audio realm of course and it will be interesting to see what the next few years will bring.
MPM: PA of choice and why?
BM: Clair Brothers i5. Clair is top-notch when it comes to global service and they've been an immense help and support over the past 10 years.
MPM: What's with the Copperphone mics that were mounted on Geddy and Alex's mic stands? Audience mics for in-ears? A "look" thing? Or just something to make people ask questions like the chickens and the dryers on stage?
BM: Those are the most interesting mics, but in our case they are props. However, they're a functional mic with a cool, old-timey sound. I'd love to put them to use some day in the right setting. For us, they just look like something Jules Verne would have used if he had a band.
MPM: I get the feeling that Rush is a pretty complex show in terms of audio "events." I am 90 percent sure there are no tracks but I am just as sure there is a significant amount of triggered stuff and pedal and keyboard parts in addition to the bass, guitar and drums. Are you heavy on scenes and snapshots?
BM: Now you can be 100 percent sure. There are no tracks, but there are hundreds of triggered samples and other events. And yes, there are hundreds of snapshots fired during the show. All three of the guys are firing samples and keyboard parts during the show, and the snapshots are really the only prayer of keeping all of that in the pocket. Most of the level changes happen on the back layers of the desk though, so it's not like there's faders flying all over the place. I still ride the top layer VCAs and Groups in an old-school way.
By the way, you forgot about the string section! They're an interesting new addition to the mix.
MPM: What's the biggest challenge of the gig?
BM: First, it's a long show, and there's a great deal going on. It's 2:45 of pretty intense focus, and that can be hard to maintain. It's important for me to try to have a routine so I can keep my head in the mix.
It's a technically challenging show as well. There's a lot going on, and technology does not always cooperate. It's not so much that any one piece of gear fails, as that happens pretty rarely, as a matter of fact. However, there's a huge amount of inter-connectedness, and occasionally something just fails. We had a short in a MIDI cable at a show, for example. No hums, no buzzes, but some interesting mis-triggers and non-triggers.
It's funny what people notice, though. At that show, the first several songs were major disasters. Imagine "Subdivisions" with no keys! Yikes! There were seven or eight songs like that before we got it tracked down. At the break some guy came up to me and said he was an engineer and he couldn't hear the bass. Here I was obsessing about the fact that about 1/4 of the audio elements of the show were missing entirely! What do I know?
MPM: What's the thing you look forward to the most each show?
BM: On a daily basis, I love the buildup to the first song. Getting ready for that downbeat is very important. I actually make a point of mixing through the first song in my head before the show starts. I think it helps me to be prepared to handle whatever the first song throws at me.
I have to say that I really enjoy the preparation that these guys do for each tour. They are meticulous in all aspects. We never go out under-rehearsed and unready.
MPM: How does the fact that pretty much every Rush tour ends up as a live DVD play into how you do the audio thing with them?
BM: Well, I can't say we tailor what we do live much to account for a DVD. We do multi-track every show and some of that gets used, and we are putting up audience mics we might otherwise not use. But in the end, the DVD is a representation of the band's live show, and not the other way around.
MPM: Away from Rush? I first met you when you took over Shakira from Rob "Cubby" Colby when he left to take Juanes. It seems like you are one of a couple of "go-to" guys when an A-list mixer needs a sub on a major gig. That's a good thing and speaks volumes about both your skill and basic human decency. (i.e., People know you can do the gig AND that you are not gonna try to take it from them.) A little about the skill set and the personality traits it takes to be able to step seamlessly into another gig would be awesome.
BM: I have been asked to take over a few gigs. Sometimes the engineer has a conflict and just needs someone to keep his hand on the tiller, so to speak. I would never actively work to take that guy's gig from him! It's nice just to get the call. Other times, the guy may be moving on, and in that case I'll move quickly to make the gig mine. I think Cubby is a great engineer, and in fact we did call him back a couple of times when there were shows I couldn't do. It's good to be gracious, don't you think?
MPM: Anything else I'm failing to ask about that you think is important?
BM: I think a live engineer just has to have a strong work ethic and get in early and work with other people on the tour to make the sound of the show - not to mention the show overall - as good as it can be. The truth is there are always compromises, starting with the venue on most days, and it's important to work with the other departments and get the best possible results.
Clair and Rush - Playing to Their Strengths ... As Usual
By Mike Wharton
Clair. The name is synonymous with touring live sound reinforcement systems and has been setting industry standards since their inception in the 1960's, garnering numerous awards along the way. The Tour Link Conference alone has awarded them the annual Top Dog Award as Sound Company of the Year 2008-2011, as well as recognizing Clair's Employees of the Year 2005-2007.
With this rich history behind the company, Clair is proud to be supporting Rush on their current Clockwork Angels world tour. "We've been involved with Rush for around six years now, and we are especially happy for them for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year," says Scooter Hernsbeck of Clair Nashville.
Liam Birt, Rush's tour manager, notes Hernsbeck has been Clair's consistent contact in dealing with producing the sound system for the tour. The sound crew, numbering four, is small for the amount of gear comprising the system, but tightly efficient.
Besides Rush's Front of House engineer Brad Madix and monitor engineer Brent Carpenter who both work for the band, Clair employs two crew, System Engineer Anson Moore and Stage Tech Corey Harris. The great thing about all this, Hernsbeck points out, is that Madix and Carpenter are very much hands on. They are instrumental in the daily set up of the system Hernsbeck says. The two fly stage right PA, and then move on to setting up their respective worlds. "Brad and I are of the same mindset," says Carpenter. "While we may not be there when the "x's" go on the floor, we're there from the time the gear hits the floor 'til it's set and flown to trim."
Carpenter points out that in the early days of his career he worked in Clair's warehouse doing board and system maintenance. He realized at that time in the mid 90s and has found to still be true today, that the office in Nashville's greatest strength is their board group and system packages. He believes this has come about through the vast amount of work Clair has done with country acts. "Many of these acts predominantly carry board and stage packages but not necessarily PA's. The Nashville office has literally become experts at putting these packages together. I can send them my patching, cable loom lengths and stage specifics and it always comes out of their shop exactly as I specced. The post mortem performed when the gear returns to the shop at the end of the tour for future reference should the system go back out, is another key element to maintenance and proper pre-prep. "They document everything, taking copious notes," says Carpenter.
Carpenter notes too that, while the situation is rare, whenever he has need of support from Clair's home offices, "I always get a human being on the other end of the line, no matter what time it is day or night."
The way Clair deploys their equipment is the first step to this quality assurance. While the company truly maintains a global presence with sales offices all over the world, Nashville remains the sole office that equipment is pulled from. "Everything comes out of that office," states Hernsbeck. The original facility in Lititz, PA stands as the company's Corporate Headquarters. "We still build all our PA systems here. We do not 'job out' anything, which further insures our quality assurance," adds Hernsbeck.
Never a company to sit on their laurels, Clair has built on their tradition of excellence with continuing innovations. Rush is utilizing Clair's i-series Line Array, hanging fourteen cabinets a side.
Set up is expedited and enhanced through the use of two propriety components developed by Clair in tandem with the i-series PA. These are the Clair Line Array Software and its associated Line Array Venue Measurement Tool.
The software calculates array angles, weight and rigging details. The Venue Measurement Tool does exactly what it says. Together they provide accurate information to assemble, fly and position the PA faster, more safely and with greater accuracy. When all is said and done, the engineers have designed a system with equal coverage throughout the venue from the front row to the last seat in the top balcony.
Certainly sounds easy. In the right hands, it is. But make no mistake; the hands achieving this ideal end result are drawing from years of experience, in venues around the world, with less than ideal conditions, backed by a company that has been doing this everyday for 40 years.
Enjoy the show.
For more information visit: clairglobal.com
-| Click HERE for more Rush Biographies and Articles |- |
A second full internet shutdown has cut off 6 million citizens in Turkey’s Southeast regions according to network reachability analysis, following yesterday’s incident that shut off much of the country.
The blocks, coming amidst protests against the detention of Diyarbakir mayor and co-mayor Gültan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı on terrorism charges, are unprecedented in recent years.
New internet shutdown in southeast #Turkey: 8% of country's IP network offline in 3rd day of #Diyarbakir unresthttps://t.co/2L2UOE3drI — Turkey Blocks (@TurkeyBlocks) October 27, 2016
Affected cities yesterday included Diyarbakır, Mardin, Batman, Siirt, Van, Elazığ, Tunceli, Gaziantep, Şanlıfurfa, Kilis and Adıyaman.
Citizens were reported to have driven hundreds of kilometres to gain internet access and post Facebook or Twitter updates.
Photographs and videos of alleged human rights violations emerged yesterday evening when internet access was restored for a number of hours.
Diyarbakır'da internet yokken, Gülten Kışanak ve Fırat Anlı'nın gözaltına alınması ve belediyeye baskın ile ilgili yaşananlar-1 pic.twitter.com/v018PdGmNs — Sertaç Kayar (@SertacKayar_) October 26, 2016
Limited information coming from the region indicates that banks and point-of-sales terminals have all been rendered inoperable due to mobile and broadband internet shutdowns.
TurkeyBlocks network analysis, initial findings: 8:00AM Thursday 27 October Scans detect 8% of Turkey's internet infrastructure to be unreachable Estimated 6 million citizens affected including those disconnected and others experiencing related loss of service
The incident bears similarities to another internet blackout in the south earlier this year following the state’s removal of elected officials in predominantly Kurdish regions of the country.
Internet restrictions are increasingly being used in Turkey to suppress media coverage of political incidents, a form of censorship deployed at short notice to prevent civil unrest. Regional blackouts are a rare, but severe form of shutdown that affect a wide range of digital communication services.
The blackout has affected both fixed and mobile internet operators, although basic SMS and voice services remained usable. Shutdown reports were verified by TurkeyBlocks researchers using network reachability scans.
Update: Internet connectivity shutdowns have been further observed for six consecutive days up to 31 October 2016 in Diyarbakir, although the wider regions were affected only on the 26th and 27th. |
Write a function to convert from normal numbers to Roman Numerals.
The Romans were a clever bunch. They conquered most of Europe and ruled it for hundreds of years. They invented concrete and straight roads and even bikinis. One thing they never discovered though was the number zero. This made writing and dating extensive histories of their exploits slightly more challenging, but the system of numbers they came up with is still in use today. For example the BBC uses Roman numerals to date their programmes.
The Romans wrote numbers using letters - I, V, X, L, C, D, M. (notice these letters have lots of straight lines and are hence easy to hack into stone tablets).
1 => I 10 => X 7 => VII
There is no need to be able to convert numbers larger than about 3000. (The Romans themselves didn't tend to go any higher)
Wikipedia says: Modern Roman numerals ... are written by expressing each digit separately starting with the left most digit and skipping any digit with a value of zero.
To see this in practice, consider the example of 1990.
In Roman numerals 1990 is MCMXC:
1000=M 900=CM 90=XC
2008 is written as MMVIII:
2000=MM 8=VIII
See also: http://www.novaroma.org/via_romana/numbers.html
For installation and learning resources, refer to the exercism help page.
For running the tests provided, you will need the Minitest gem. Open a terminal window and run the following command to install minitest:
gem install minitest
If you would like color output, you can require 'minitest/pride' in the test file, or note the alternative instruction, below, for running the test file.
Run the tests from the exercise directory using the following command:
ruby roman_numerals_test.rb
To include color from the command line:
ruby -r minitest/pride roman_numerals_test.rb
Source
The Roman Numeral Kata http://codingdojo.org/cgi-bin/index.pl?KataRomanNumerals
Submitting Incomplete Solutions
It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise. |
The Haryana IAS officer, whose daughter was allegedly stalked by a senior BJP leader’s son and his friend, today took to social media to seek “maximum punishment” for the accused, adding that he will move court if charges against the duo were “diluted”. He, however, asserted that the family would not interfere with the investigation. “We will not interfere with the investigation or the prosecution, just as we do not want the accused to influence the investigation in any way. The police and prosecution should be allowed to do their job.
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“We will join the investigation whenever required by the police. We will contest in the court if we feel the charges are diluted or inadequately framed,” the bureaucrat said in a Facebook post. He promised the people who were supporting his family that, “WE SHALL NOT, EVER, BACK OUT OR STAND DOWN, irrespective of hardships or pressures”.
The IAS officer said the accused being law students were fully aware of the consequences of their action. “Our target is to ensure that the guilty are brought to book. They are adult men, students of law, who are fully aware of the consequences of their actions, and hence must be appropriately punished.
“We want them to be punished for the offences they have actually committed, and that awarded punishment commensurate with their culpability. Not over punished, but definitely not under punished either,” he said.
The officer added that families of the accused were “not to be blamed”. “It is unfortunate that the families of the accused have to face hardship. We do not hold them responsible for the crimes of these men,” he said.
Terming the incident as a “cut and dried” case, the bureaucrat said there would be something wrong in the society if the system failed to deliver justice. “In a cut and dried case like this, where there is nothing hazy or unclear in terms of actions or identities, if the system fails to deliver justice, then there is something deeply rotten in our society, our government and our country,” he said.
“The issue is, does our country allow a woman to live as a free and equal citizen, and if she is wronged, does it give her enough confidence to even claim justice? If not, we are no better than a lawless, barbaric society,” he further wrote on Facebook.
Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala’s son Vikas (23) and Ashish Kumar (27) were earlier arrested for allegedly stalking the woman here. However, both the accused were released later on bail as they were booked under bailable sections of the IPC and the Motor Vehicles Act.
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The incident had come to light when the woman, around 28 years of age, called up the police on Friday night, complaining that two youths were chasing her along a stretch of over five kilometres from Chandigarh right up to a point in the Union Territory, which is adjoining Haryana’s border. |
A friend of mine left his corporate job yesterday after 23 years of being trapped in the Matrix. I hate it because I’m envious of that moment.
The day I left a corporate job to be on my own for the first time. Suddenly you go from managing a cubicle from the hours of 9 to 5 to having to manage ALL OF TIME AND SPACE. The holograph screens that altered the universe around you peel away to show you what the real world looks like. The extra colors and intensity that had been hidden from you behind tinted-black glass windows and fluorescent lights.
I wish I had done it differently. I wish I had known what I know now.
I was working at HBO. I had a cubicle on the 6th Floor of 1100 Sixth Avenue. My boss was down the hall. His boss was in the room next to his. His boss was in the room next to that. And the real boss (the top guy’s secretary) was in front of all of their offices. I had a view of the McDonalds at Sixth Avenue which is now the big Bank of America building.
Work in the corporate world is like a hazy drug dream to me now. You could get in at 10am. Everyone took breaks downstairs to smoke. I didn’t smoke so I took licorice with me. Then at noon, LUNCH! And then after lunch, chess in Bryant Park. Then my boss left to catch his train at 4:15. So I would leave at 4:16. Before I had my own business on the side I’d take the subway to Astoria and go to Steinway Billiards. Everyone there was Greek. We’d all sit and play backgammon and chess and drink thick Greek coffee until about two in the morning. Sometimes my friends from HBO would come with me and it would be like a party every night. And I loved all the girls in the place but not a single one ever talked to me or looked at me no matter how many two dollar bills I tipped with.
There were goals and deadlines at work. Except for the summer. There was never anything to do in the summer. And all other times the deadlines were mild. Like if you missed one then it just meant a meeting was rescheduled.
Nobody would get fired. The saying was, “if you want to get fired you have to stand on Albie’s desk and pee on him.” That was the boss’s boss’s boss.
As part of my job I got to go to San Francisco for the first time, Los Angeles, and sunny Orlando (to make the website for the series “From the Earth to the Moon” which was shot right in Disneyworld.)
And then I quit.
I had to. I was running a business on the side. We had clients, some of whom were even competitors to HBO. We had employees. I had payroll to meet. And I felt myself stagnating at my job.
I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I stopped enjoying the meager things I was doing. And I thought I could handle the psychology of being on my own. What could be different, I thought. I wanted to spread my wings even though I had no idea how to fly.
I cried twice the first day on my own.
First time, at lunch with one of my partners, Randy. It suddenly hit me that I didn’t have a multi billion media empire as my backstop. I was on my own. I felt alone. Which is another way of saying, if I fucked up I had nobody to blame. Like we all did in corporate America. So over pizza I cried. “Are you ok?” Randy said. Poking at my weakness. “Yeah,” I said.
Then later at dinner with all my ex-employees and friends at HBO. I ordered pasta AND fries. Everyone started to laugh at what I had ordered and I wasn’t sure why. That made me cry again but nobody noticed. I felt like a four year old in a room filled with laughing adults. I had no idea what I was or what I was supposed to be.
I had been anchored close to shore with Time Warner as the dock. Now I was in deep waters. Too deep to anchor. I had to fish now. I had to find food. I had to get water. I had to feed a lot of people. I had to kill or be killed. I learned a lot in the next few months:
A) It was always my fault when things went wrong. If you blame others, you go out of business. Take responsibility for your problems and fix them or move on.
B) I had to communicate to people. If you hide from customers, they will fire you. If you hide from employees they lose respect for you. If you hide from investors, they sue you.
C) I had to help employees feel good about their jobs. I had to help customers feel their jobs were about to get a lot easier because now I was in their lives. I had to learn to reward people. I wanted everyone around me to feel good about it. To spread the word that I was someone to work with, to be around.
D) Every idea was fair game. We were a web design company but we considered being a tea company, a rap label, a magazine, a TV show, a cable channel, and a social network for dead people. A porn site. A software company. An ad agency. And a dozen other things. We just wanted to make money. We were in the business of business.
E) People steal. I was robbed by customers, by employees, by friends, by partners, and twice by random criminals including one guy who just walked into our office and started unscrewing lightbulbs until he was chased out.
F) I had to educate. You demonstrate credibility when you teach your employees and when you teach your customers. Where do you get your knowledge? You have to get to the destination before everyone else. You have to read everything. You have to have spies. An important side effect of educating people is that you build presence, you build charisma, you exude confidence that is earned.
G) I had to learn when the day ended. The candles are always lit in the modern age. The day never has to end. But if it doesn’t, you lose track of the map and find yourself adrift with no horizon in any direction.
H) I had to forgive myself. When you run things, 50% of your decisions will still be bad. Good opportunities sometimes spring from bad decisions. But you have to forgive yourself first as the first process in learning from your mistakes.
I) I had to make tough decisions. I couldn’t complain to my boss. I had to fire people. Fire customers. Make decisions that might be right or wrong about people. Making decisions is directly correlated to building your idea muscle until you are an idea machine.
J) I had to network. I never had to do that before. I would hire people specifically to help me network because I was so bad at it but I got better. Your value goes up exponentially depending on the number of people in your network. Keith Ferrazzi hits the nail on the head in his book “Never Eat Alone”. You need to not only consciously arrange to meet people but also put yourself in many situations where you are going to randomly collide with people. My most random collisions often made me the most money.
K) I had to sell the company. When web design was being taught in junior high school classes I knew that 3 page websites being built for $75,000 was going to be a thing of the past. Knowing when to sell is just as important as knowing when to start a business. Selling a business gives you the greatest gift of all – freedom to start another business.
Most importantly, I had to build a discipline of every day, every hour, seeking out opportunities. Either opportunities for the business, or even for myself. My own improvement became vital to the improvement of the business, to my customers, and to employees. I cried the first day, and many many days after that. And looking back, I can’t really tell you if it was worth it or not. Who really knows? So many things have worked out and so many things have failed. Maybe I’m mediocre as an entrepreneur, best case.
But I do feel like I’ve escaped the Matrix of corporate slavery that first day. Eventually I realized that there was yet another matrix outside of that matrix. Like Russian nesting dolls, each matrix is a creation of the matrix outside of it. On and on, forever. Each day another escape but only if I’m brave enough. |
right and wrong:
right in saying that the ai doesn't differentiate between lanes at an intersection and may not be able to allow turn on red but that isn't wholly necessary to my idea, just a nice side concept.
wrong when you say "the game has traffic merging from on-ramps into the far lane, turning into what ever lane it wants - across multiple lanes." this is only true when you have a smaller amount of lanes from the ramp going onto the highway/road. basically the game takes the outgoing lanes and splits them logically to amount of available exits. ie if you have a 1lane ramp going to a 3 way highway then yes traffic can merge onto any of the 3 lanes. if you have 3 lane highway going to 3 lane highway however, the lanes line up with their counterparts. and the vehicles choose the correct lane to begin with. if they need to be in the right most lane on the next segment, then they will make sure they're in the right most lane in the segment attached to the intersection. this rule can be broken by agents when user intervention requires. ie when you place a bus stop on a segment closest to the intersection, the lane t is on only turns right and the bus needs to turn left, then it will make the turn from that right lane to the left. but even then if the game can manage it, it usually likes to follow the rules and send the bus the long way by forcing it to take a right. i only notice the rule break when you've place the stop, but the upgraded the segment to have more lanes and the lane configuration changes.
i've tested this idea out a lot, and it's actually very similar to the road in cim2 where the turning lane was automatically create instead of parking. this would just mean plopping them. it might seem more time consuming and micro managing but not every intersection needs to have a turning lane, so you'd edit what you want
Click to expand... |
A recent Reuters report outlined some of Tesla's future plans for the trucking industry, including a new caravan feature to move multiple trucks as once.
Tesla vehicles are getting full autonomy sooner than you may think Elon Musk revealed the full autonomy timeline in a recent tweet and it's surprisingly short.
Tesla is working on self-driving electric semi-trucks that can move in "platoons" behind a designated lead vehicle, Reuters reported this week. The firm is also close to finishing work on a prototype model that it plans to test in Nevada.
The information was noted in emails exchanged between the automaker and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) about potential road tests, Reuters reported. California DMV spokesperson Jessica Gonzalez also confirmed in the report that the Golden State is also planning on talking with Tesla about its autonomous trucking efforts.
In an early 2017 TED talk, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke of the firm's work on an electric semi-truck , and teased an image of what it would look like. At the time, Musk said that the truck would likely launch in September 2017, but that it wouldn't include any autonomous or driverless features.
SEE: Our autonomous future: How driverless cars will be the first robots we learn to trust (PDF download)
One of the most interesting autonomous features mentioned in the report is the ability of the trucks to platoon behind a lead vehicle, forming a caravan to their final destination. This type of technology has been seen by some as a forerunner to full autonomy, as it could allow for one human driver in the lead, with multiple autonomous trucks following behind him or her.
In his TED talk, Musk positioned the electric truck as one that truck drivers would want to drive, instead of a new, self-driving truck. The big challenge in convincing the long-haul trucking industry of the merits of electric trucks is proving they have equitable power for heavy loads.
"They think the truck doesn't have enough power or it doesn't have enough range, and then with the Tesla Semi we want to show that no, an electric truck actually can out-torque any diesel semi," Musk said in the talk. "And if you had a tug-of-war competition, the Tesla Semi will tug the diesel semi uphill."
If successful in its pursuits, Tesla could disrupt the truck manufacturers, the energy sector, and the drivers themselves. There are currently millions of truck drivers in the US and, as reported by The Guardian, there is a "strong undercurrent of denial" that automation and autonomous vehicles will replace any jobs.
Other Silicon Valley giants are going after trucking as well. Uber, for example, launched Uber Freight in the spring, and has since expanded it into six key markets in hopes of changing the way loads are selected and delivered.
The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers
Tesla is working on an autonomous, electric semi-truck that can move in platoons, with multiple trucks following a lead vehicle, Reuters reported. If successful, Tesla could impact truck makers and drivers, but also the energy industry as well. Other tech companies are targeting trucking, with firms like Uber investing in new freight initiatives that hope to upend the industry.
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Like Israel and Jordan’s Dead Sea, Iran has it’s own inland salty lake called Lake Urmia. Climate change and dam construction has caused its demise to about 10% of its of former glory.
Local protestors who have dared called on the government to fix it have been tied up, beaten and tortured. One trusted source I have in Iran says this is the country’s top 2 environmental “problem” to solve.
One young photographer Pedram Yazdani summarized the devastation in a photograph, above, which has just one recognition for an environmental prize by the the Atkins CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year, an international showcase for the very best in environmental photography and film.
Yazdani won the prize for capturing The Salt Lake Urmia in Iran. Lake Urmia is the biggest salt lake in the Middle East, but it is now only a shadow of what it once was. This image demonstrates how dramatic impact land management decisions can be to our environment.
Continue learning more about Lake Urmia below by Youtube movies produced by Iranians.
More on Iranian Environmental Issues:
Saltier than the Dead Sea, Lake Orumiyeh is in Trouble
Iran Lacks Water Planning
Iran and Qatar Align to Help the Environment
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Embattled insurer American International Group Inc received New York state approval to post $20 billion of policyholders’ assets as collateral as it seeks to stave off a liquidity crisis and works with banks to fix its problems.
A security guard greets workers outside the AIG headquarters in New York's financial district September 15, 2008. Shares of American International Group fell more than 50 percent in early trading on reports that the insurer had turned to the Federal Reserve for $40 billion in bridge financing to ward off a liquidity crisis and ratings downgrades. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Under the plan, AIG will be permitted to shift the funds from its insurance subsidiaries to the parent company, New York State Governor David Paterson told a press conference.
AIG worked with New York officials, including New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo, through the weekend seeking ways to shore up capital after rating agencies threatened downgrades.
The New York Federal Reserve said it was hosting meetings with banks and the U.S. Treasury Department to discuss a plan for AIG. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the New York Fed has hired Morgan Stanley to advise it.
AIG shares were down 58 percent.
The company had been in talks with billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, but those talks have ended, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Neither AIG nor Berkshire returned calls seeking comment.
AIG has posted losses totaling $18 billion over the past three quarters on guarantees it wrote on mortgage-linked securities.
Paterson said he had worked with AIG in a bid to help save New York jobs. The insurer employs 6,000 in Manhattan and 8,600 statewide. Paterson added that the plan was carefully crafted to pose no risk to New York taxpayers.
“New York would like to maintain them (AIG) if we can as they are critically important to us,” Paterson said at the press conference.
AIG is scrambling in the wake of one of Wall Street’s worst ever days ever, with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc filing for bankruptcy and Bank of America Corp agreeing to take over Merrill Lynch & Co Inc.
AIG shares fell to $5.05 on the New York Stock Exchange after earlier touching $3.50. The shares have fallen 80 percent this year and closed Friday at $12.14. |
We just received a new statement on Alberto Del Rio (a/k/a Alberto El Patron) no-showing a scheduled booking on Sunday in Houston, Texas from Lone Star Championship Wrestling. In the statement, the promotion expresses concern for the well being of Del Rio and explains he "seems to have disappeared." Below is the statement in its entirety:
STATEMENT FROM LONE STAR CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
Almost 24 hours later, we still have not heard from the camp of Alberto El Patron. Mr. El Patron was booked through our co-promotion partner Clutch City Productions to headline the Bustin 4 Autism charity pro wrestling event in Pasadena, TX last night.
Mr. El Patron would not know who we are directly, since his camp's dealings were with our promotional partner. Like the charity and fans who purchased tickets, we are affected. A lot of time, money and effort was put in to this event. Those who know us, understand that we strive to put on quality events. We are a company that our fans can trust. Mr. El Patron's unexcused and unexplained "no show" unfairly taints that reputation. Though we were not directly involved in the negotiation and booking with El Patron's camp, there is no doubt that the Bustin 4 Autism team were more than fair and gracious in the process.
At this point, our thoughts are initially with Mr. El Patron's well being. He seems to have disappeared. Once the dust settles, we are confident that Mr. El Patron will do the right thing and return the deposit he was paid, along with premium travel funds lost by the charity. We might also suggest that Mr. El Patron take it a step further, and make an additional donation to the charity.
We would like to thank the fans and sponsors who stepped up to support this event for the Bustin 4 Autism 501c group. We would also like to recognize our co-promotional partner, Clutch City Productions, who put forth an incredible effort to promote and help organize this event. We look forward to working with them and the Bustin 4 Autism folks in the future.
In closing, we also thank the wrestlers who stepped up to make this a memorable event, as well as the many staff members and volunteers who contributed in some manner.
Chris Ronquillo
aka Tony Brooklyn
Lone Star Championship Wrestling
www.lonestarwrestling.com |
Figure 2.
BECN2 depletion triggers resensitization of endocytosed CNR1 at the plasma membrane. (A) Immunofluorescence imaging (upper) and quantification (lower) of the effects of nontargeting control (NC) or Becn2 siRNA on the fate of endocytosed CNR1. HEK293 cells stably expressing FLAG-CNR1 were fed with anti-FLAG antibody, treated with the agonist WIN for 30 or 60 min and immunostained as in Materials and mMethods. Green, FLAG-CNR1; red, EEA1 or LAMP1. Percentages of cells with CNR1-EEA1 or CNR1-LAMP colocalization in >200 cells per experiment were quantified from 4 independent experiments. (B) Becn2 knockdown promotes CNR1 recycling to the cell surface after prolonged agonist exposure, analyzed by immunofluorescence imaging of FLAG-CNR1. HEK293 FLAG-CNR1 cells were fed with anti-FLAG antibody, and treated with WIN for 30 or 180 min or with WIN for 140 min followed by agonist washout and antagonist (rimonabant) treatment for 30 min. Scale bar: 20 μm. (C) Becn2 knockdown suppresses the ADCY/adenylyl cyclase activity downstream of CNR1 after prolonged agonist exposure. HEK293 FLAG-CNR1 cells transfected with the indicated siRNAs were treated either with vehicle for 120 min, or with WIN for 120 min to induce CNR1 internalization and degradation, followed by agonist washout and antagonist (rimonabant) treatment for 30 min to trigger CNR1 recycling and another 20 min treatment of WIN to activate any CNR1 at the cell surface. Results represent mean±s.e.m of 3 independent experiments. (D) BECN2 depletion increases cannabinoid-induced CNR1 signaling after prolonged exposure. Becn2+/+, Becn2+/− or becn2−/− primary MEFs were treated as in (C). Phosphorylation of MAP2K and MAPK8/9 downstream of CNR1 was analyzed by Western blot (upper) and quantified from 3 independent experiments (lower). Results represent mean±s.e.m. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; NS, not significant (t-test). |
HOOKSETT, NH — Two central New Hampshire men were arrested last night after an alleged failed home invasion attempt in Hooksett, according to police. Zachary Noel, 22, of Hooksett, and Matthew Snyder, 22, of Manchester, were arrested on charges on March 9, 2017, after police were sent to Pleasant Street for an incident.
Editor's Note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Hooksett Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the name removal request process for NH Patch police reports.
According to a post on Facebook, Hooksett Police headed to the home after a man alleged that Noel attempted to enter his residence.
"An adult male inside the residence fired a handgun toward Noel in self-defense," according to police. "No one was struck or injured. A physical altercation ensued between Noel and the homeowner, who is a relative of Noel's. Noel left the residence and began causing damage to a vehicle and the home."
As officers arrived, Noel and Snyder were allegedly fleeing toward another home. When ordered to stop, they allegedly refused.
"After a short foot pursuit, officers were able to take Snyder into custody," the report alleged. "A short time later Noel was found hiding near the residence."
Noel was charged with resisting arrest, two counts of simple assault, two counts of criminal mischief, and one count of possession of a controlled drug-marijuana. He was held and arraigned his morning. Snyder was charged with resisting arrest and is due in court on April 9.
According to news reports online, the pair were arrested in November 2012, in Manchester after a drug raid. |
This is an updated version of our Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide, one of our best-read articles on Fratello since 2014. It has been a while since we’ve given this a proper update and prices have changed over the last few months and years. Although this article is not meant to be a price guide, there are some indications included.
If you are already a Speedmaster collector, this might not be interesting to you, as I will cover some basic information as well. However, I will make it a multi-part article that gets more ‘enhanced’ over time. Also, I would like to make this a ‘living document’ that means I will add new information as time passes so it will always be up-to-date. If you have anything to add, please let us know using the comments box at the end of this article or via e-mail. Please use the contact form.
Introduction to the Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide
An introduction to the Omega Speedmaster isn’t necessary we think. We all know about this iconic timepiece, so let us give an introduction to how-to use this Speedmaster buyer’s guide instead. Bit and pieces of the extensive Speedmaster history will be covered when discussing some of the models (reference numbers) out there.
In this series of articles, we will focus on the various steps to take when you are in the process of buying – or collecting – Speedmaster watches. I will give some hints regarding Speedmaster prices, but as this may vary on the part of the world you are living in (taxes, currencies) I won’t emphasize on this too much.
For now, much more important are the details you should look for when you’ve found a Speedmaster of your choice.
Omega Speedmaster Models
One of the questions I often receive is to give some guidance in all the different models out there. If you are new to Speedmaster watches, it might seem like a bit of a horological wilderness. If you’re looking for the actual Moonwatch model (the reference that went to the Moon), read this article validated by Omega. If you are looking for the current Omega Speedmaster Professional that is closest to the original Moonwatch, click here.
I will not go into detail in each model or reference number, as we probably did so in one of our Speedy Tuesday articles. Use the links given in the article or the search function on our website.
I will make a distinction between the following models for this Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide:
Speedmaster (Professional) ‘Moonwatch’
Speedmaster (Professional) Mark Series
Various other vintage Speedmaster models
For now, I will skip the modern collection of Speedmaster watches with the F. Piguet based 33xx movements, the Speedmaster caliber 9300 (a.o. Dark Side of the Moon) and Racing Caliber 9900 models and so on for this Omega Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide. They will be added in a later stadium.
Speedmaster (Professional) ‘Moonwatch’
Although not all of these Speedmaster models in this section are considered a ‘Moonwatch’ – as they were introduced way before NASA chose Omega to become the official timepiece for their astronauts – I will still use this category for them in this Speedmaster buyer’s guide. These early models are considered to be the ancestor of the Moonwatch.
Speedmaster CK2915
The very first Speedmaster as Omega introduced in 1957. Together with the Seamaster 300 (CK2913) and Railmaster (CK2914) this model had a sporty look with its curved lugs, black dial and broad arrow hands. Initially meant to be a sports chronograph, using the dashboard clocks of Italian sports cars of that time as an inspiration.
The CK2915 has multiple versions (you will find a -1, -2, or -3 added to the reference number) that could be considered more or less as small updates if you want. If you are looking for a CK2915, expect to pay a fortune (recent results have sky-rocketed the price of the CK2915). More important: try to find an original one that has not been tampered with. There is so much money going on in these very first models, that it also attracted crooks that are after your money. In a bad way. Newly made cases, movements from other watches, refitted bezels from a later period and so on. Be very cautious in any case.
The CK2915 houses the Omega caliber 321 movement, with a column wheel chronograph. This Lemania (caliber 2310) based movement went out of production in 1968 when Omega introduced the Speedmaster Professional 145.022.
Speedmaster CK2998 & 105.002
Often considered to be the second best thing when it comes to vintage Speedmasters, but a small confession has to be made here. I love this version actually a bit better than its predecessor. This particular reference number already looks a bit like the ‘Moonwatch’ with its black bezel and Alpha hands. Where the first Speedmaster had a bit of a military look, in my opinion, this watch is a more subtle sports chronograph.
There is quite a bit of variation in the CK2998, where the different styles of hands are the most important identifier. One of the most sought-after CK2998 models is the one with the ‘lollipop’ chronograph second hand.
The 105.002 needs to be mentioned as well. There is actually no real difference between the last variation CK2998(-62) and the 105.002 except for the reference number. Omega changed the reference number syntax, which means getting rid of the CK identifier and 4 digit numbers. The 105.002 was actually made in a very small period of time (1962) before its successor was introduced (105.003). This makes the 105.002 perhaps even more collectable than some of the CK2998 models.
Oddly enough, in the past I’ve been offered 105.002 for quite a bit less money than a CK2998. Expect to pay approximately 25.000 Euro for a nice Speedmaster CK2998. When there is a box or/and papers as well, the price will be influenced. You might also be interested in the so-called FAP models that were delivered to the Peruvian Air Forces.
Speedmaster 105.003
The 105.003 reference already looks a bit more like the Speedmaster Professional ‘Moonwatch’, with its white baton hands. This Speedmaster is actually the most affordable pre-Professional model out there. Prices of this 105.003 reference have gone up in the last few years, expect to pay at least 10.000 Euro for a good condition model. 105.003 that are pristine can and will surely add some thousands extra.
The Speedmaster 105.003 was introduced right after the ‘transitional’ 105.002, in 1963. It was in production until 1966.
Speedmaster Professional 105.012 & 145.012
The 105.012 and 145.012 are actually the references used by Apollo 11 astronauts. It is also the model that has the a-symmetrical case due to the use of crown guards. These crown guards were added after NASA commented on the risk of knocking off the pushers due to rough use. The 105.012 and 145.012 are considered to be the certified models and used Professional on the dials since 1966. It is verified that Buzz Aldrin wore a 105.012 when he set foot on the Moon while Michael Collins wore his 145.012 when waiting in the capsule for Aldrin and Armstrong to get back. Armstrong didn’t wear his watch as the Bulova board clock broke down, as the legend goes.
The strange thing is – although it is common to accept that the 105.012 and 145.012 are the true Moonwatch models – that these references are the least expensive calibre 321 Speedmaster Professional watches you can buy. The 145.012 is a bit more common and was the last calibre 321 in production, until October 1968. You will be able to find a 145.012 starting around 7500 Euro. The 105.012 is considered to be a bit more valuable, you will find them with cases made by suppliers HF and CB.
Click here for our Speedmaster 145.012 Buyer’s Guide.
Speedmaster Professional 145.022
In 1968 Omega decided to update the Speedmaster a bit. The dial doesn’t feature the applied Omega logo anymore (although you will find the occasional ‘transitional’ model where Omega probably grabbed parts that were still on the shelves in Biel) and the movement has been changed to the Lemania based Omega calibre 861. This movement does not have a column wheel mechanism but a cam lever. The 145.022 has been in the collection until the around 1983.
In those early years, the dial was ‘stepped’ like the previous calibre 321 dials. These are a bit more sought after than the late 1970s and 1980s models. Also, later 145.022 models should be easy to find with box and paperwork. Expect to pay approx 4500 to 5000 Euro for a decent early Speedmaster Pro 145.022, more for a complete version with box and papers.
There are also a few different case backs for the 145.022, from the similar 145.012 caseback to the current case back with the ‘First Watch Worn on the Moon’ inscripted case back. Most sought after are the ones with horizontal inscription (which also comes in two flavours, the most sought-after version is where it has Apollo XI 1969 engraved below the “First Watch Worn on the Moon” inscription).
The 145.022 is also the reference number for a gold model. One with a burgundy bezel as a commemorative edition for the President of the USA, other members of the White House and Apollo astronauts. We wrote a Speedy Tuesday article on these gold models often, but also have an overview for you with all gold Speedmaster Moonwatch models. Prices on these gold models start around 25.000 Euro, depending on condition.
Speedmaster Professional 145.0022 and Later References
Since 1983, Omega started using the 145.0022 coding for the Speedmaster Professional. Until the late 1980s, when Omega changed the coding system to their PIC system. In 1989, the 3592.50 was the Speedmaster Professional reference. Actually, it was only the reference coding that changed in 1983. In the late 1980’s, other things such as the bracelet also changed. In 1997, the movement was upgraded the Omega calibre 1861 (small modification in construction) and the dial and hands were applied with Luminova instead of Tritium. This update was done with the reference 3570.50 (although the few very first of these references still had a tritium dial and hands). The current reference number of the original Moonwatch is 311.30.42.30.01.005.
Update: We did a specific Speedmaster Professional 145.022 Buyer’s Guide here.
Speedmaster (Professional) Mark Series
Often covered for Speedy Tuesday are the Mark series. If we do not consider the Speedmaster Professional (145.012/145.022) as a Mark I, there are 4 official Speedmaster Mark Series. The first one was the Mark II (introduced in 1969), followed by the Mark III, Mark IV and Mark V.
Even though some of them were also considered a Speedmaster Professional, none of them were flight qualified for manned space missions by NASA. Only the Mark II and Mark V feature the same hand-wound movement as the Speedmaster Pro 145.022. The others have different automatic (Lemania based) calibre 1040 chronograph movements. The last Mark, the V, was introduced in 1984 and is the last one of this series. Below, a Mark III, Mark II Racing, Mark 4.5 (see next paragraph).
These Mark series are not as popular among the majority as the Speedmaster Professional, prices start at around 2000 Euro. Some models tend to fetch more though, also depending on condition and whether they are complete with box and papers. We covered the Mark series often here on Fratello and perhaps we will find the need to create a Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide on its own for these models.
Various other vintage Speedmaster models
A small correction – although it was never official – on the text above. There is a watch that is being considered the Speedmaster Mark 4.5. This is a watch similar to the Mark IV, but with a Lemania 5100 based movement (Omega caliber 1045). Another Mark related watch is the Speedmaster Teutonic, a watch very similar to the Mark V but also with the Omega caliber 1045 movement. The Teutonic was only meant for the German market in the mid-1980s. Prices are around the same as the Mark series.
Another Speedmaster that should be mentioned here is the Speedmaster 125. It marked the 125th anniversary of the Omega company in 1973 and has this big clunky case and features Omega calibre 1041. This is basically the same movement as the calibre 1040 movement, but with a chronometer certification. In fact, it was the first automatic chronograph movement with chronometer certificate ever. It was always assumed that there were only 2000 made of this watch, but recent research seems to fight this number. Also, it is quite easy to find one, so the produced number must have been much bigger. Expect to pay around 2500 Euro for a good condition model.
Other collectible Speedmaster models worth mentioning in this Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide are the early Speedmaster Professional Moonphase watches (1985). Only 1300 were made of this model and highly sought-after. Later on (in the 2000s), Omega did a re-release of this particular model and it is still in the collection. Another highly-sought after Omega Speedmaster is the one with the ‘Professional’ case and with Lemania 5100 based Omega calibre 1045 movement. This Speedmaster Automatic reference 376.0822 has also been nicked ‘the Holy Grail‘ by the late Chuck Maddox. Only 2000 pieces have been made in 1987. Be very aware of the watches that are being offered with service parts. This should be reflected in the price. A good bit of research and price indication can be found here.
The Omega Speedmaster Professional Quartz LCD models are also interesting for those who are into buying Speedmaster watches. Perhaps not an everyday wearable piece, but certainly interesting to own.
Although there are a couple more Speedmaster watches that are probably worth mentioning here, these are the models that fetch most request per e-mail. Let me know if you are missing any other specific collections here.
End of Part 1 of the Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide
This first part of our Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide gives you an introduction to several important Speedmaster models. I emphasized the ‘Moonwatch’ models a bit more than on the other Speedmaster families. For specific Speedmaster price guidelines, also make sure to visit Speedmaster101.com.
Click here for the Omega Speedmaster Buyer’s Guide Part 2
*This article was published first on August 5th 2014 and updated with new information and images. |
How can one walk the line between some sort of financial sustainability and the production of design work that critically challenges accepted power structures and discourse? How can one organise a design practice that creates space for work that is socially- and politically-engaged and aims for social transformation? These are questions we have been asking for several years within our practice. Since the last year of our MA at the Royal College of Art in London (2009–2010) we have been asking them in a more structured way. At the time, the only answers we could get were centred around a) living in a country where the government supports critical cultural work, namely through state funding; b) setting up a successful commercial practice and taking 10% of your time to do pro-bono or other kinds of socially-engaged work; c) getting into teaching to monetarily stabilise and feed your practice; d) being able to count on the wealth of your family.
The limitations of these options left us unsatisfied and frustrated. In fact, we observed how the conditions to which these answers were the response to had contributed to the dropping out or de-politicisation of the work of many of our peers, who, during our BA studies in Italy (2002–2006), had produced incredibly engaged work but who had “disappeared” just a few years later. This dynamic bothered us because it raised questions of the viability of our own practice and the transformative potential we see in design. We came to the conclusion that if design work was to be supportive of naturocultural justice, i.e. a justice that does not only consider humans but also non-humans (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2014), there was a need to put in place strategies that would allow socially- and politically-engaged designers from diverse geographical and social backgrounds to develop viable practices.
There seems to be an open assumption within design education that designers should engage with pressing social and environmental issues. In fact, the number of courses that have social, environmental or similar objects of study in their title or course descriptions, and the number of thesis projects dealing with such issues are proof of this. However, design education is not trying to come to terms with how to make this critically engaged approach to design viable in the long-term. In face of the still unravelling financial crisis, the organisational strategies of running a design practice are still, more than ever, tied to the conventional mechanisms of the market. Students are encouraged to increase their enthusiasm for entrepreneurialism, competition and mainstream notions of success. This individualising approach is largely ignoring the accelerated politics of precarisation in Europe. These include, for example, the cut of hard-fought welfare provisions such as free or affordable health care and education, the undermining of labour-rights, the rising cost of housing but also the cuts of cultural funding — all of which are radically changing the socio-economic conditions for people living in Europe.
Advice to designers on how to make a living still tend to be “one size fits all” suggestions, with little to no differentiation regarding people’s approach to the world, their socio-economic background, gender or geographic location. Thus effectively ignoring that in our times of socio-economic and environmental crises, there is a need and the possibility to experiment with other ways of organising our work and our lives. And while design activism, adversarial design or design as politics are encouraged and enthusiastically taken up by students, the prevalent discourse on how to make a living as designers is not yet substantially questioned by design education and people’s desires for other ways of practicing are most of the time cast aside as naïve, marginalising or simply inviable.
Wanting to intervene in this situation, between 2011 and 2013, we received a PhD fellowship from the Design Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, to thoroughly work through our questions both in practice and in theory. This fellowship provided us with the time to inquire how the creative industries function, how their economic, social, psychological and physical procedures affect the lives of designers, and how these procedures fit into the functioning of capitalist economies (Elzenbaumer, 2014). What became clear was that although designers and design education do not openly speak about it, within the creative industries most people are exposed to exhausting precarious working and living conditions, such as bulimic work patterns, long hours, poor pay, anxiety, psychological and physical stress, and lack of social protection (c.f. Elzenbaumer & Giuliani, 2014; Lorey, 2006;). Given this situation, we became interested in how design education — both inside and outside academia — can move from the production of docile creative subjects to the production of designers aware of labour politics so that they are prepared to create conditions that are less precarious. Which in turn would allow for more engaged and transformative work to be produced while also allowing for more inclusivity in regards to who can work as designer.
This research gave us the opportunity to work through possibilities of intervention by drawing on feminist and autonomist Marxist theories of the political economy, which focus on the potential of workers to bring about social change through the production of common(s) and a radical restructuring of (reproductive) labour. Inspired by the engagement with such approaches, since 2014 — thanks to fellowships from Akademie Schloss Solitude and Leeds College of Art — we are gathering the research of the last years in what for now we describe as a “subversive career service”: Precarity Pilot (PP), developed together with illustrator and pedagogue Caterina Giuliani, is an experiment on how to co-create relays between theoretical knowledge about precarious work and practical strategies to secure livelihood in de-precarising ways. Unfolding through a series of Europe-wide nomadic workshops and an online platform, the project is dedicated to familiarise us and other designers with possibilities of performing enabling rather than precarising economies and interdependencies. We focus on the collective exploration of how design skills can be mobilised in order to spark a socio-economic “becoming-other”, i.e. a transformation of how we perceive ourselves and how we relate to the world, or, more precisely, a “becoming-other-with”. Because, as the philosopher Donna Haraway points out, there is no isolated becoming-other (2011). The workshops should contribute to the creation of economies— within and beyond design — that foster naturocultural justice and equality. Through PP, we invite designers to experiment with tackling the tensions between the production of engaged content and precariousness by embarking in the co-creation of economies (and ecologies) of support that allow long-term viability of design practices that aim for social transformation.
We see the current notion of success within the field of design — focused on individual visibility and market value — closely entangled with the precarising rat race typical of capitalist economies. It contributes to the rarefication of more radical social engagement, and as this engagement often hinders one’s ability, but also willingness, to participate in the aforementioned race. In this individualising climate, we see the need to introduce ways of working and living that follow an “ethics of care” (Tronto, 1993) towards others and that are thus grounded in a more thorough understanding of the politics engendered by one’s individual and collective ways of practicing design. Shifting from an ethics of competition to one of care is a strategy to challenge the precarising yet widely accepted notion that one’s survival needs to be based on constant competition. One in which the best chances for success are stood by entrepreneurial, self-assured, smart, independent, popular designers. We propose that making space for cooperative, reflexive, complex, entangled and critical designers also means to make space for relations that go beyond competition and that allow for the construction of mutually empowering interdependencies, solidarity and collective action.
Making space for other selves through a diversity of relational modalities is for us an opening towards linking content with politicised ways of working and organising. But although it is clear that all design work is political, whether it is overtly taking position or implicitly siding with what is taken as the norm (and thus falsely assumed to be apolitical), we strongly argue that the choice of inscribing one’s design practice in transformative politics cannot solely be reduced to a matter of individual choice as it is often suggested. A key example of this de-politicised tone and argument of individual responsibility is used in How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul (2005), by design writer Adrian Shaughnessy. But when designers comply with and perpetuate the normalised yet precarising procedures of the creative industries and the neoliberal agenda— such as systemically relying on un- or underpaid work of others, overworking and/or overspending as common practice, pitching without question, eagerly offering hyper-flexibility — they put pressure on others to do the same. This compliance with precarising procedures erodes the bases for resistance while also privileging the healthy, (apparently) independent and well-off designers. By structuring social relations and ways of practicing in mutually empowering rather than precarising ways, the conditions for making a living through design work can become more inclusive, allowing for a diversification of the field. Moreover, the effect of this re-structuring is connected with the transformation of socio-economic cultures at large. As designers change their ways of working and relating to each other, design work also starts to change: it becomes possible to engage with the world from a position that knows that competition, individualisation, marketization and (self-)precarisation are not an unquestionable norm. It becomes possible to collectively redesign economies and interdependencies in ways that defy, resist and/or exit precarising ways of organising and designing.
Precarity Pilot has been exploring this in a number of different ways, ranging from small, individual interventions to substantial collective experiments. These vary depending not only on the location, but also the specific professional and personal situation of the participants. Propositions explored so far through pp encompass, amongst others, the creation of spaces to openly speak about the relation between design and money: how much to do you charge for your work, how is the money you earn distributed within your collective or company, and when is it acceptable to work for free? Other questions address the way designers relate to time: what happens if designers stop being constantly ready to work, stop working and sending e-mails on weekends, plan projects in a way that getting ill is not causing a major professional, psychological and physical melt-down? What happens if networked design collectives commit to work only part-time, while adopting a low-consumption lifestyle and contributing to transformative structures outside the field of design? These are only some proposals that have been put forward by PP. They are, however, representative of its approach: an attempt to make conventional, precarising ways of practicing, strange. By doing so, PP recalls that designers can work and organise themselves in different ways, and that these can be functional under current, difficult conditions while also being prefigurative of a different future.
We’re aware that the proposals for intervention put forward through PP are not necessarily to be accomplished easily, without doubts, failures and contradictions. University-educated designers are already a privileged group in the global rat race and the present research project has so far relied on competitive fellowships and research positions. But this does not diminish the urgency of needing to find de-precarising strategies of working and organising as they are the long-term enablers of socially- and politically-engaged practice. In this setting, it is encouraging that this research does not stand as an isolated endeavour but is embedded in a larger ecology of people around the world experimenting with economies that work towards the prospect of better lives for everyone, despite multiple and increasing crises. Here we are thinking of experiments that are developing in many places in diverse and situated ways, such as community economies where relations and exchanges are negotiated ethically, practices of commoning where common goods are (re)produced collectively, subsistence perspectives where people produce mainly for the direct satisfaction of their communities’ needs, economies of degrowth that defy the capitalist imperative of expansion and solidarity economies that build empowering links between economic alternatives. With Precarity Pilot we invite designers to collectively engage with this central entanglement in which design exists and to experiment with multiple approaches to restructuring ways of working and relating. There is a great need to create and share knowledge towards the development of inventive tactics and strategies to make socially- and politically-engaged design practices viable in the long-term.
Bibliography
Elzenbaumer, B., 2014. Designing Economic Cultures: Cultivating Socially and Politically Engaged Design Practices Against Procedures of Precarisation. Goldsmiths, University of London, London.
Elzenbaumer, B., Giuliani, C., 2014. Designers’ Inquiry: Mapping the Socio-economic Conditions of Designers in Italy. ephemera: theory and politics in organization, 14, p. 451–459.
Haraway, D., 2011. SF: Speculative Gabulation and String Figures = SF: Spekulative Fabulation und String-Figuren, 100 notes – 100 thoughts. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern.
Lorey, I., 2006. Governmentality and Self-Precarization
Puig de la Bellacasa, M., 2014. Ecological Thinking and Materialist Spirituality: Thinking the Poetics of Soil ecology with Susan Leigh Star, in: Bowker, Clarke, Timmermans (Eds.), Boundary Objects and Beyond: Working with Leigh Star. MIT Press, CA/Massachussets.
Shaughnessy, A., 2005. How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul. Princeton Architectural Press, New York.
Tronto, J.C., 1993. Moral Boundaries: a Political Argument For an Ethic of Care. Routledge, New York.
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Essay originally published in Modes of Criticism 1 (2015). |
A strengthening dollar and economic weakness in Europe and China could drive crude prices as low as $20 per barrel, according to Raoul Pal of The Global Macro Investor newsletter.
The dollar has been climbing recently against the euro and the yen, pushing oil prices lower and sending fear across the markets. He said crude could still fall another 60 percent before the downturn is done.
Pal said the strengthening dollar is a big part of why oil could continue to drop. "If we look back historically at how these big dollar bull markets go, I think it's going to go, using the (dollar index), at least to 125, maybe even further," he said in an interview Tuesday on CNBC's "Fast Money."
Historically the price of oil moves inversely to the strength of the dollar.
According to Pal, that relationship, along with weak demand in Europe and China, has led oil companies to put crude into storage in hopes of waiting out the downturn in prices. Crude stores in America are filling "at an incredible rate" and could be full by summer, he said, which could lead to even more dire consequences.
"Any oil that is then brought out of the ground will either have to be sold into the normal market, which will be at much cheaper prices, or they're going to have to shut down production," he said. "I think that shutdown of production is something that people haven't really thought through yet."
Pal said the impact of a large-scale production shutdown could have severe ripple effects across the industry.
"It's a classic boom-bust cycle unfortunately. So much money has piled into the oil patch over the last five, six, seven years, and much of that money is going to get destroyed."
Pal said falling crude prices could potentially even push the U.S. into a recession by the end of 2015.
"With the oil patch being so lackluster ... there's a probability that the U.S. goes into recession this year alone." |
A federal judge in California yesterday said she was inclined to deny the government’s request to continue enforcing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell while it appeals her ruling that the policy is unconstitutional.
Judge Virginia Phillips, who last week ordered the military to stop enforcing the policy, issued a preliminary ruling against the government’s request to stay her injunction while the Justice Department appeals to the Ninth Circuit. Her final ruling is expected today.During a brief hearing yesterday afternoon, Phillips said the government’s request was “untimely,” noting the DOJ should have filed its objections after her ruling Sept. 9 and before she issued the injunction. She called the government’s arguments in favor of the stay “vague.”
The government argued that ending the DADT policy abruptly could “irreparably harm” the military.
The DOJ also requested a five-day administrative stay while it asks the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay. The DOJ has already filed its appeal with the appeals court.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the policy prohibiting gay men and women from openly serving in the military. The military has said it will abide by the injunction if it isn’t stayed, but has cautioned servicemembers not to change their behavior, in case Phillips’ ruling is overturned. |
George Owen, of Bury, Greater Manchester, was subjected to a 19-month court ordeal
A trainee accountant accused of raping a college student during a night out has been cleared of wrongdoing after it was revealed his accuser told her friends: 'I was only raped - chill the f*** out.'
George Owen, 21, was subjected to a 19-month court ordeal after the 19-year-old woman claimed he forced himself on her as they left a bar at Millgate shopping centre in Bury, Greater Manchester.
The student - who cannot be named - had initially declined to report the matter to police. But almost a year later she spotted Owen by chance in a pub, recognised him as her alleged attacker and called officers to speak to them.
In Facebook messages, she said: 'OMG hahahahaha my mum knows. My mum started crying. She wants to hold my hand to go through it all with me. I was only raped chill the f*** out'
She added: 'I'm going to ring them (police) tomorrow and tell them I'll do it. My mum wants to come so I'm going to ask whether I can do it while she's on holiday. It's going to be so fun.'
The 19-year-old woman claimed Owen (above) forced himself on her as they left a bar in Bury
Privately-educated Owen, from Bury, was later arrested but said the woman was a willing participant in sex. He was later charged with rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
At Minshull Street Crown Court, the keen golfer, who works for an accounts and auditing firm in Bolton, was cleared of all charges following a week-long trial during which the messages were read out to the jury.
The jurors took two hours and 14 minutes to reach their unanimous verdict to cheers from the public gallery.
The court heard the encounter occurred in June 2015 whilst the girl - then 18 - had been out with a college friend in Bury.
Keen golfer Owen (pictured), who works for an accounts and auditing firm, was cleared of all charges following a trial during which the Facebook messages were read out to the jury
Initially the pair went to Yates Wine Lodge but during the evening the girl met another man who was a friend of Owen and she decided to go with him to nearby Pics bar.
Once there, the man began drunkenly chatting the woman up and asking for sex and Owen, stepped in.
Young men cleared of rape in recent trials University Challenge contestant Bartholomeo Joly de Lotbiniere was cleared of raping a woman in her halls of residence after a second trial. The 22-year-old told Bradford Crown Court he had consensual sex with the student in June 2014, and was embarrassed as he failed to perform. The woman, now 22, went to police after seeing Mr Joly de Lotbiniere on the BBC TV programme a year later. She accused Joly de Lotbiniere of having sex without consent in her room after a night-out - something he claimed were 'horrible, horrible lies'. Durham University student Louis Richardson, 21, was cleared of rape and sexual assault in January last year following a high-profile trial. He faced separate charges relating to two women who did not know each other. He was accused of raping a woman at his student house in March 2014 when she was 'crazy drunk', and was said to have assaulted another woman at a house party. Alastair Cooke, 23, another Durham student, walked free after being accused of raping a 23-year-old student in her home when she was drunk and unresponsive. A jury was told he stalked the woman, who he knew, after a house party, let himself in to her home and raped her three times. Jurors couldn't agree on a verdict and in January this year the prosecution decided against a retrial. 'Outstanding' Cambridge university undergraduate Prithvi Sridhar, 21, was found not guilty in February last year of raping a fellow student in her room following a night out. He moved to the UK from India for a better education but was forced to 'put his life on hold' for a year after being accused of assaulting the alleged victim in November 2014.
He apologised for his friend's behaviour and offered to pay for the girl to get a taxi home - but it was alleged he pounced on her when they went outside.
The girl - who was said to be 'tipsy but not stupidly drunk' - claimed she was repeatedly sexually assaulted in a nearby alley before Owen threw a £5 note at her and said: 'I think you should go home now.'
She told a friend about the incident but did not report the encounter to police. The court heard when she was in college for lectures, one of her tutors was concerned about the way she was behaving and she attended the rape crisis centre at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester.
She was eventually interviewed about the allegations on April 5 last year and she called police again when she spotted Owen two weeks later playing pool with friends in a pub.
When the woman was asked in court what she meant by her Facebook message saying 'it's going to be so fun', she replied: 'I was being sarcastic there.'
In addition, she texted her friend saying: 'Do you know what you're going to tell the police?' But in court, she said: 'I was just asking whether he had an idea. I was just curious.'
Owen, a former pupil at the £10,440-a-year Bury Grammar School, later told police: 'I was completely shocked to get accused of this. We met this girl and got chatting and I bought us both some drinks and we continued laughing and chatting.
'I then said to her 'would you like to go outside and have sex?' She said yes so I said 'meet me over there over the road in 2/3 mins and I will come and meet you'.
'She stood up and left straight away, which I took as a sign of her wanting to have sex. I left a few minutes later and when I went over the road she was there waiting for me. I'm not the sort of person to do this.
'But she was a good looking girl and I was attracted to her. I thought she was interested in me to be honest. She gave me all the signs.
'She was smiling and laughing and we were stood close together. We were talking flirtatiously, we didn't kiss or touch or anything. Then just like I told you, we went outside and had sex.
'I would not do it again. I wasn't thinking at the time, I know it's not right to ask someone it have sex with you after you've known them for like an hour. I've never done it before.i never want to do it again, not after all this.
'I don't have sex with many girls. This is the first time I've ever done it on a night out. Neither of us were blind drunk. We had a few drinks and were tipsy but we were both in control of what we were doing.
The 19-year-old woman claimed Owen forced himself on her as they left a bar at Millgate shopping centre (pictured) in Bury, Greater Manchester
'I didn't plan on this to happen, I didn't organise us having sex, it just happened, it was a stupid mistake and it was a spur of the moment kind of thing.
'I didn't force myself upon her. We had sex and she consented. The last time I saw her was at the end of last summer, so I think it's really weird that she's left it this long to do this.'
Privately-educated Owen, 21, claimed the woman was a willing participant in sex
In court he added: 'She was tipsy and the conversation was flirtatious. She brushed my legs a few times with her hand. I jokingly said to her 'should we go and have sex then' and she was really serious about it and said yes.
'I never used physical force. She didn't push me away she didn't say no. It was completely consensual. I had a girlfriend at the time so we didn't exchange numbers or anything. I didn't get her details because I knew pretty much straight after that it wasn't going to go anywhere and that it was a mistake.
'I could tell she wanted it just as much as me, she was the one who initiated it. I know now that I was a stupid 18 year old and it was one of the worst decisions of my life.
Family friend Francine Healy told the court: 'George is a respectable young man who understands the importance of hard work. He has grown up with my daughters and has always shown them the utmost respect and consideration.
'He is a brilliant sportsman and loves his sport, he loves his family and has a very strong relationship with them and he has integrity, honesty and kindness.'
There is no suggestion that the woman could face prosecution after the case.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman told MailOnline today: 'The CPS considered this case in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
'It was determined there was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and that it was in the public interest to prosecute. We respect the decision of the jury.' |
by
Have you seen this image?
When Serena Tremblay responded to a call to share breastfeeding photos on The Leaky Boob Facebook wall, she didn’t think she was sharing anything extraordinary as she sat at the computer with both her sons, Gooney Bear-17 months and Gorgeous-3 years, with her and her husband making dinner. It was the first breastfeeding photo she had of Gooney Bear and she just wanted to share. Including a bit of explanation, the Alberta, Canada mom celebrated her breastfeeding success with the community on The Leaky Boob:
“A nurse helping my 1 day old son nurse while I was in the ICU following his birth. At this point I was a quadriplegic and could only feel his soft hair and skin when he was placed by my neck to cuddle. Breastfeeding is the reason he was allowed to stay with me in the hospital for 5 months while I lived on the physical rehabilitation unit learning how to walk again (complications from when he was born). It’s amazing how much baby stuff you can fit in a hospital room. We are still breastfeeding strong at 16 months! If this is not a success story I don’t know what is :D”
Within minutes there were hundreds of responses and within hours, thousands of shares. The photo went viral, moving across the internet as an inspirational image and celebrating not just one woman’s breastfeeding success story against all odds, but celebrating every breastfeeding success story for all women.
Even if that photo captured Gooney Bear’s one and only feeding at the breast, this is a breastfeeding success story. As it is, however, Gooney Bear is now 17 months old and still breastfeeding and these weren’t the only issues Serena and Gooney Bear had to overcome. Together the pair battled tongue tie for 9 weeks, needing to use a nipple shield, dairy, soy, and gluten sensitivities, and all that on top of the 5 months Serena was hospitalized.
The magnitude of attention sharing this one photo received was a bit overwhelming for Serena. To her, while this photo documents a personal success story and extraordinary time in her own life, it is also something that just is. We don’t always realize how our stories, our struggles and triumphs, can impact someone else. People were so inspired by Serena’s photo; moms told her they were getting ready to quit breastfeeding due to difficulties and her photo encouraged them to find a way to keep going.
“Someone else is in tears, not sure they can keep going, but they see my picture and they think they can do it, they can get through what they are struggling with.” Said Serena when she and I talked on the phone last week.
The result of a rare birth injury, Serena was fully quadriplegic after the birth of her second son on October 19, 2010. Her memory of everything following his birth is full of different events but lots of holes and no sequential order. She was intubated, lucid, in the ICU, and could only feel sensation from her neck up. The nurses and her husband would place Gooney Bear in the crook of her neck so he could snuggle and so she could feel him at least a little.
Nobody really knew what to expect for Serena’s recovery. She regained the use of her arms on day 2 and finally saw Gorgeous again for the first time on the 24th, 5 days after the birth of his little brother.
“One of the hardest moments I’ve ever gone through, you know? When he walked into the room, it felt like he was shy and didn’t know me anymore. He was 22 months at that time. After a little bit he came and sat on the bed with me and had a snuggle. It was very hard.” She shared.
There’s no doubt Serena Tremblay is an incredibly strong woman. Fighting an uphill battle with her body, she never gave up. But she says that’s not how she got through that difficult time.
So how did she get through it? In talking with Serena one main theme emerged: support. Her husband. The nurses. Her family. The other patients on the rehabilitation floor when she moved there. Family members of other patients. The hospital volunteers. The lactation consultant. How did she get through it? With support. Lots and lots of support.
In the face of not knowing what was going to happen to his wife, Serena’s husband, a heavy duty mechanic, stayed with her and then with Gooney Bear. When she was in the ICU, he slept in her bed on the maternity ward so he could be with their baby. He advocated for breastfeeding for the pair and he and the nurses took turns helping their precious baby boy latch. Without asking, he took pictures, a bunch of pictures and that’s how the first feed was captured on film, something for which Serena is very thankful.
Support.
The nurses on the maternity ward went above and beyond, the first nurse coming down to hand express Serena so her little boy could have his mom’s colostrum that first day. There is much love and gratitude in Serena’s voice as she speaks of her nurses, they were heros that got her through every day. From that time hand expressing her milk, the nurses just kept bringing the baby over on demand, whenever he was hungry, to the ICU to breastfeed until her husband or grandmother could help her or she could do it herself.
Support.
Never once did she hear anyone say “why don’t you just put him on the bottle.” People said that, people that weren’t involved, but not the nursing staff.
Support.
It’s clear to Serena not only how she got through, but how she went on to have a positive and ongoing successful breastfeeding experience with Gooney Bear. “Support, support, support. I’d like to narrow it down and say it was one person but it was everyone. Why am I successful? Probably only because of support and because I was determined, I just wanted to do it. Gooney Bear was able to stay with me in the hospital because I chose to breastfeed. If we had given him bottles they would have sent him home with my husband.”
At a time when nurses, doctors, and hospitals often get a bad rap about providing insufficient breastfeeding support and sometimes down right sabotaging breastfeeding relationships, Serena’s story not only offers encouragement for moms encountering breastfeeding struggles or indeed as a testimony to the strength of the human spirit; her story also gives hope for what true breastfeeding support in the hospital can look like. Serena’s hospital didn’t realize at the time, but they’ve gone on to provide breastfeeding support extending well beyond this one patient.
When her tube was removed and she was finally able to speak, Serena refused to say anything until she was holding Gooney Bear: she had yet to tell him she loved him.
“I wouldn’t speak to the nurses because I wanted my first words to be ‘I love you Gooney Bear.”
Through out her 5 month hospital stay, ICU for 4 days, maternity ward for 1 month, and the rehabilitation unit for 4 months; Serena was able to keep Gooney Bear with her, breastfeeding on demand and pumping for him to have expressed milk while she was at one of her regular therapy appointments. Managing her way around the ward and even the whole hospital, Serena says how it’s amazing how much you can do in a wheelchair with a nursing pillow and a baby on your lap. Often a breastfeeding baby. During that time she dealt with many of the common issues breastfeeding moms face. Once a nurse pulled a double shift and helped care for Gooney Bear during the night so she could work to get rid of a stubborn clogged duct before it turned into mastitis. Even for the regular every day challenges of parenting life she had support, the nurses and other patients or family of patients would take turns holding Serena’s little guy so she could eat, after all, who would turn down cuddling a precious baby?
Today many of those relationships continue, their support and all that Serena and Gooney Bear gave back formed bonds of friendship that last. Friends from the rehabilitation unit remain in their lives. Serena and her family go back and visit the hospital staff regularly and they are all happy to see them, often crying at the progress Serena has made since she left the hospital over a year ago. Her recovery has been remarkable and though it’s ongoing she’s accomplished so much and doesn’t take for granted what she can do. Their family is like any other family, they like to do things every normal family likes to do, “we just have to do them a little differently” Serena shares. Their friends understand, they were there, they have seen where they’ve come from, they supported them in the journey and in the ongoing part of that journey today.
One of the nurses that helped Serena so much is expecting her first baby soon. Serena is looking forward to being able to support her now, encourage her in her own breastfeeding and parenting journey. Understanding how crucial support is, Serena is already there.
“It was a horrible thing and I wish it hadn’t happen – but it did and so many good things came about from it… if my story can help one mom to get support, receive support, or give support then it was worth it.” And so Serena shares her photo and her story.
Sometimes I am asked why people share breastfeeding photos on Facebook and other social media settings. This is why. It’s celebrating our personal triumphs- whatever they may be; sharing a special moment, encouraging the global community of mothers by normalizing breastfeeding, inspiring others, and giving support. Thousands of people have been inspired and encouraged by one photo with a simple caption. Our stories make a difference and if a picture is worth a thousand words then sharing breastfeeding photos is like breastfeeding support spreading exponentially around the world. In the global community we’ve moved on to via the internet, sharing our photos and stories online can often be the start of support for someone. Just ask Serena, you never know how one image can make a difference.
My gratitude to Serena for being so brave in sharing the original photo in the first place and then to be willing to open up and share more of her story for my readers here. All photos in this post are the property of Serena Tremblay and used with permission. To protect the privacy of her family, Serena opted to use nicknames for her children and as the details regarding the birth injury were not important to the point of the story, she asked that they not be included in this article. With an open medical investigation into Serena’s case, we appreciate your respect of her privacy on these details. ~Jessica |
Just a short little update to let the OMG crowd be the first to hear. Andy Whitcroft reported in a bug report that Natty is about to get the 2.6.38 kernel.
Meaning, slightly, better performance, Nick Piggins dentry scalability work has been merged, improving certain workloads up to 35% in simple tests performed by Linus Torvalds.
The next generation filesystem BtrFS is receiving updates which are expected to improve performance and stability. Hopefully making it possible to soon install Ubuntu on BtrFS in less than 3 hours.
The memory system has gained support for transparent huge page which should transparently improve performance by up to 10% in some situations.
The drivers have also seen a number of updates as usual.
The always great Linux Weekly News has more details on 2.6.38 |
Martin James Monti (October 24, 1921 – September 11, 2000) was a United States Army Air Force pilot who defected to the Axis powers in October 1944 and worked as a propaganda broadcaster and writer. After the end of World War II, he was tried and sentenced for desertion; he was then pardoned but subsequently tried for treason and sentenced to 25 years.
Early life [ edit ]
Born in St. Louis, Monti was one of seven children of prosperous parents. His father, Martin Monti Jr., was an investment broker who had also been born in St. Louis, Missouri.[1] Martin Monti Jr.'s father had immigrated to the United States from the Italian Graubünden, the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, while his mother was a native of Italy.[2] Martin James Monti's mother, Marie Antoinette Wiethaupt, was born in Missouri to German-American parents.[3][4] Monti's four brothers all served in the United States Navy during World War II.
In the 1930s, Monti was an anti-communist and an enthusiastic admirer of Charles Coughlin,[5] a Roman Catholic priest who made weekly radio broadcasts. Coughlin was known for his anti-communism, his anti-semitism and his admiration of the Fascist governments of Germany and Italy; his broadcasts attracted audiences of millions before being stopped in 1939 on the outbreak of World War II.[6]
World War II [ edit ]
In October 1942, Monti traveled to Detroit to meet Father Coughlin. In November, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps (it did not become the US Air Force until 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947) as an aviation cadet. During 1943 and early 1944, he completed flying training and was commissioned as a flight officer. He qualified in the P-39 Airacobra and the P-38 Lightning, and was promoted to second lieutenant.[4]
In August 1944, he was sent to Karachi, India (now in Pakistan). While attached to the 126th Replacement Depot as a first lieutenant, he hitched a ride aboard a C-46 transport aircraft to Cairo, Egypt, and from there he traveled to Italy, via Tripoli, Libya. At Foggia, he visited the 82nd Fighter Group, and then made his way to Pomigliano Airfield, north of Naples, where the 354th Air Service Squadron prepared aircraft for assignment to line squadrons. He noticed that an F-5E Lightning aircraft,[7] a photographic reconnaissance version of the P-38, needed work and required a test flight after repairs. He stole the aircraft and flew to Milan on 13 October 1944.[7] He then landed and surrendered the plane to German forces. Monti was initially treated as an ordinary prisoner of war, until he was able to convince his captors that he had defected out of genuine conviction.[4] His aircraft was handed over to Zirkus Rosarius, the Luftwaffe unit that tested Allied aircraft that were captured in flying condition.
In late 1944, Monti made a microphone test at the recording studio of SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers, a propaganda unit of the Waffen-SS, under the direction of Guenter d'Alquen, in Berlin, Germany. He was briefly employed in early 1945 by Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, the German state radio organization. He came into contact with Mildred Gillars, the American broadcaster widely known as "Axis Sally", who took an immediate dislike to Monti and threatened to resign rather than work with him. Moreover, Monti's lack of ability as a radio commentator ensured that he made only a few broadcasts.[8]
Monti next joined the SS as an Untersturmführer and participated in writing and composing a leaflet to be distributed by members of the German military forces and among Allied prisoners of war. At the war's end, he was ordered to Italy, where he surrendered to US forces on May 10, 1945, still wearing his SS uniform.[4]
Post-war trials [ edit ]
In 1946, Monti was court-martialed for stealing the plane and for desertion; he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, his sentence was later suspended and he was allowed to reenlist in the Army Air Force as a private on February 11, 1947. He was a sergeant when he was honorably discharged on January 26, 1948.
Minutes later, the FBI arrested him at Mitchel Field, New York, and charged him with treason for the propaganda activities of "Martin Wiethaupt", whom the FBI had now identified as him.[9] On October 14, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn indicted him for 21 acts of treason committed between October 13, 1944, and May 8, 1945, the day hostilities in Europe ended.[6] On January 17, 1949, he pleaded guilty, surprising the prosecutors and the court, which had prepared for a lengthy trial. Because of the seriousness of the charges, the court required testimony despite his guilty plea, and, according to The New York Times, "[w]ithout hesitation, Monti took the witness chair" where he admitted all the charges. Asked by the judge if he had acted "voluntarily", he answered "Yes". His attorney then asked for leniency, citing his upbringing in an extremist and isolationist environment that "fanatically imbued" him to identify Soviet Russia as the nation's principal enemy. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $10,000.[10]
Monti served his sentence in Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas. In 1951, he tried without success to withdraw his guilty plea, insisting he had "no treasonable intent" when he flew into enemy territory and claiming that he had been pressured by his attorneys into pleading guilty.[11] He was paroled in 1960 and lived in relative obscurity until his death in 2000. |
Submitted to It’s Going Down
Last Friday December 2, 2016 Free Alabama Movement Robert Earl Council “Kinetik Justice” was brutally attacked, while handcuffed, by two officers, Dozier and Shoulders at Limestone Correctional Facility while being escorted to the shower. He was pushed to the floor by one officer and was physically attacked while handcuffed on the floor. Afterwards the second officer pulled the first officer off and sprayed Kinetik Justice with mace and returned to his cell. It is not known as of this date if medical treatment was administered for his injuries.
A use of force is excessive and violates the Eighth Amendment when it is not applied in an effort to maintain or restore discipline but is used to maliciously and sadistically cause harm. Where a prison official is responsible for unnecessary abuses and harm.
Kinetik has expressed to us that he wants the wider movement to know that his life is in danger and calls upon all us to make some noise for him. We must demand that he be relocated due to his continued fear for his life, safety, and repeated harm inflicted by guards.
Here is a script for call ins:
“I am calling to demand that you release Robert Early Council from solitary confinement and move him out of Limestone Correctional Facility immediately. He was brutally beaten on December 2nd and continues to fear for his life.”
Limestone Correctional Facility
28779 Nick Davis Road
Harvest, AL 35749
(256) 233-4600
Warden Christopher Gordy
Commissioner
Jefferson Dunn
Associate Commissioner
Grant Culliver
Alabama Department of Corrections
301 South Ripley Street
P.O. Box 301501
Montgomery, Alabama 36130-1501
[email protected]
(334) 353-3883
Governor Robert Bentley
600 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7100
Department of Justice
(205) 244-2001
[email protected] |
Rallies in the Arab world continued Friday as protesters push for democracy and government supporters vow to die before wavering. Here is the latest round up.
Also, read the Star’s story on how South Korea used helium balloons to send news updates about the protests to North Korea.
Check out the social media reaction to what is happening in Libya on the Star’s Storify blog.
“We expect thousands to be killed today in Tripoli, so I call on all the international community to intervene now and to send a clear message to Colonel Gadhafi that he should stop the killing now,” he said.
Earlier, Libyan Deputy UN Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said the situation in Libya would get worse and more corpses would be piling up.
“It is time for the Security Council to consider concrete action,” Ban told the 15-nation council, which gathered to receive a draft sanctions resolution against Libyan leaders. “The hours and the days ahead will be decisive for Libyans.”
UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Libya’s UN envoys who have denounced Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi urged the Security Council Friday to act quickly to help stop the bloodshed in the North African state.
Dabbashi said Gadhafi, who has controlled the country for 41 years, would not allow himself to be taken alive.
Earlier, Dabbashi said Libya might soon halt oil exports. “The export of oil may be stopped soon for security reasons but anyway I think it is under good control of the people and it will not be harmed,” he told reporters.
“This is a madman and he is psychologically not stable,” Dabbashi said. “He will stay until the moment he is either (killed) or he will commit suicide.”
The council met behind closed doors to consider a draft sanctions resolution, prepared by France and Britain in consultation with Germany and the United States that called for referring the violence in Libya to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for investigation and possible prosecution.
The six-page draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for an end to the violence and says “the widespread and systematic attacks currently taking place in Libya against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity.”
The 15-nation council has referred only one other case to the ICC — the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
The draft also calls for an arms embargo against Libya as well as travel bans and asset freezes for top Libyan leaders.
A vote on the draft resolution, which will be amended during closed-door negotiations, could come over the weekend, council diplomats said. The council will meet again on Libya Saturday at 11 a.m..
Brazil’s UN envoy and council president this month, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, said council members shared a “sense of urgency” about the need to act to halt the bloodshed.
“There is a possibility that we might come to a conclusion by tomorrow,” she said.
French Ambassador Gerard Araud said all council members, including Russia and China, supported most aspects of the text, although there would likely be questions about the ICC referral.
The timing of the vote will depend on how aggressively Russia and China—permanent veto-wielding council members that usually oppose sanctions—fight to dilute the proposed measures, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this week, Dabbashi called on the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to protect rebel enclaves from forces loyal to Gaddafi. That proposal is not in the draft.
The U.S. has decided to move forward with unilateral sanctions against Libya. The sanctions will be coordinated with European allies.
As well, militias loyal to ruler Moammar Gadhafi open fire on thousands of protesters in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. One man says gunmen on rooftops and in the streets open fire with automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft gun. Witnesses report at least four killed, while other say the toll is higher. In the evening, Gadhafi appears before a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters in Tripoli and urges them to fight protesters and “defend the nation.” Tripoli is the centre of the eroding territory that Gadhafi still controls. The uprising that began Feb. 15 has swept over nearly the entire eastern half of the country, breaking cities there out of his regime’s hold.
LIBYA – Gadhafi speaks
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has told a crowd of his supporters massed in a central Tripoli Square to fight back against protesters and “defend the nation.”
“We are ready to triumph over the enemy.”
Gadhafi, wearing a fur cap and sunglasses, spoke from the ramparts of the Red Castle, a historic fort, overlooking Green Square, where over 1,000 of his supporters were massed Friday evening, waving pictures of him and green flags.
Gadhafi, pumping his fist in the air, told the crowd to “retaliate against them, retaliate against them” and “prepare to defend the nation and defend the oil.”
LIBYA – Reaction
NATO: NATO may discuss deploying ships and surveillance aircraft to the Mediterranean as it holds an emergency meeting Friday on the violence in Libya, officials said.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the alliance does not intend to intervene in Libya, has received no requests to do so, and such an action would require a UN mandate.
United Nations: A no-fly zone may be imposed over Libya to protect civilians from attacks by government aircraft, the UN’s top human rights official said Wednesday.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says if unconfirmed reports of aerial attacks against civilians turn out to be true, “I think there’s an immediate need for that level of protection.”
A Libyan envoy to the UN renounced links to the government of Gadhafi on Friday, telling the UN Human Rights Council that his entire delegation represented the “free will” of the Libyan people.
The UN’s top human rights official said Friday reports of mass killings of thousands in Libya should spur the international community to “step in vigorously” to end the crackdown against anti-government protesters in the North African country.
France: French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi had to leave but cautioned against military action in the North African state.
“Mr. Gadhafi must leave,” Sarkozy told a news conference with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.
“Regarding a military intervention . . . France would consider any initiative of this type with extreme caution and reserve,” he said.
At the same meeting, the entire Libyan mission in Geneva quit.
Libya’s ambassadors to France and to the UN cultural and education organization also resigned Friday, condemning police violence against protesters and joining a wave of others abandoning Gadhafi’s regime.
Protesters camped out in the Libyan Embassy in Paris overnight and replaced the flag with that of Libya’s old monarchy.
Spain: Spain says it will lower highway speed limits and cut train ticket prices in an emergency energy-saving initiative because of higher oil prices brought on by unrest in Libya.
Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba says Spain’s energy supply is not in danger despite shutdowns by oil companies operating in Libya, but the national energy bill will rise significantly because of sharply rising petroleum prices.
U.S.: A U.S.-chartered ferry carrying hundreds of Americans and other evacuees has left Tripoli for Malta after being delayed for two days by high winds and choppy seas, CNN reported Friday.
In a news blog posted on the Internet, the U.S. cable television channel quoted a spokesman for the company operating the ferry as saying the vessel was bound for the island of Malta in the Mediterranean.
The ferry, carrying 285 evacuees including 167 U.S. citizens and 118 people of other nationalities, was originally scheduled to depart Tripoli on Wednesday.
Britain: Britain is pushing for United Nations measures against the Libyan government, including asset seizures, travel bans and sanctions, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday.
Cameron said he wanted to send a warning to Libyan authorities over “appalling and unacceptable” violence against protesters.
Greece: The bad weather forced Greece to suspend the evacuation of thousands of Chinese to the island of Crete on Friday.
China: Rough seas stranded thousands of Chinese workers hoping to be evacuated Friday from the chaos in Libya. About 6,000 Chinese nationals were expected at Cretan ports Saturday, according to local officials and tourism organizers
Italy: Two Italian military ships are off the Libyan coasts, near Misrata, but rough seas are preventing the evacuation of some 150 Italian workers.
IRAQ
Thousands march on government buildings and clash with security forces in cities across Iraq. Eleven people are killed in the largest and most violent anti-government protests in the country since political unrest began spreading in the Arab world. In the capital of Baghdad, demonstrators knock down blast walls and throw rocks. The protests are fueled by anger over corruption, chronic unemployment and shoddy
YEMEN
Tens of thousands rally in the main square in the capital of Sanaa in one of the largest gatherings since anti-government protests erupted earlier this month. A Muslim preacher urges protesters to keep marching until President Ali Abdullah Saleh has stepped down.
EGYPT
Tens of thousands jam Cairo’s main square. They are trying to keep up pressure on Egypt’s military rulers to carry out reforms and call for the dismissal of holdovers from the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Demonstrators say they are worried the army is not moving quickly enough on reforms, including repealing emergency laws and releasing political prisoners.
BAHRAIN
Tens of thousands fill the central square of Bahrain’s capital, Manama. Protesters have taken to the streets every day for the past two weeks, asking for sweeping political concessions from the ruling monarch. Security forces make no attempt to halt the marches.
Bahrain is the first Gulf state to be thrown into turmoil by the Arab world’s wave of change. The unrest is highly significant for Washington because Bahrain sits at the centre of its military framework in the region.
JORDAN
About 4,000 protesters rally in the capital, Amman, the largest crowd yet in two months of unrest. The leader of Jordan’s largest opposition group warns that patience is running out with what he called the government’s slow steps toward reform. King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, has so far failed to quiet the calls for sweeping political change. The protesters want a bigger say in politics and for the prime minister to be chosen through elections, not by the king.
SAUDI ARABIA
About 300 Shiites protest against the Sunni-led government in a march in the east of the country. They disperse peacefully under the close watch of Saudi security forces. The kingdom had been largely quiet, and its ruler earlier this week promised a massive package of economic aid, including interest-free home loans, in hopes of forestalling unrest.
MAURITANIA
Dozens of Mauritanian students have used Facebook to organize a sit-in to demand the departure of the president and political reforms.
The students gathered Friday afternoon in the centre of the capital bearing placards such as “the people want regime change” and “our protest is peaceful.” They also burned pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. No one was hurt in the protest.
TUNISIA
Thousands of people filled the streets of central Tunis on Friday shouting slogans and carrying placards in a “day of rage” against Muammar Gaddafi’s crackdown in neighbouring Libya.
The protesters shouted “Gaddafi out!” and a witness said the demonstrators had dubbed the demonstration – the biggest in the capital in almost a week – their “day of rage.”
Military helicopters circled overhead while security forces eyed the crowd, which formed in defiance of a government ban on demonstrations since Tunisia’s revolution toppled Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 14.
With files from Reuters |
A new Univision poll finds more than three of every four Latino voters has a negative opinion of Donald Trump and the presumptive Republican nominee trails likely democratic challenger Hillary Clinton by 48 points overall among Hispanic/Latino voters.
Pollsters found Clinton currently snares 67 percent of the Hispanic vote, compared to just 19 percent for Trump and an average of three percent each for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Immigration Among Most Critical Issues
With the issue of immigration reform being among the most critically debated issues of this year's campaign season, Clinton's huge favorability advantages among Latinos fall within the range typically needed by a Democratic candidate to secure the White House.
In all, 69 percent of Hispanic voters insist they have a favorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 77 percent who state they have a negative image of Trump, including 73 percent of Latino voters who openly admit they believe the New York City real estate mogul to be a racist.
The former first lady also tops Trump 67 percent to 12 percent on the question of which candidate would do the most to improve the lives of Hispanics.
Much of Trump's struggles with Latinos appears to stem from his vow to deport millions of immigrants if elected and his recent no-holds barred take-down of the Mexican judge assigned to oversee his Trump University fraud case.
Nearly 75 percent of all those surveyed agreed his verbal assault on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was motivated by racism.
Second Poll - Trump's Latino Deficit Grows
The news is even dimmer for Trump based on the results of a new Latino Decisions poll that finds him trailing Clinton by an even larger 74 percent to 16 percent margin among Hispanics.
Trump's meager vote totals put him on course to under-perform Milt Romney's historically poor 2012 showing, when he earned just 23 percent of the Latino vote in a resounding defeat to President Obama.
Pollsters found even one in three Latino republicans admitted they plan to support Clinton over their party's candidate. Overall, the survey found that 78 percent of Hispanic voters have a negative image of Trump.
While Clinton earns a 63 percent positive favorability rating among Latinos, pollsters found Republicans problems with Hispanic voters run much deeper than just Trump.
Overall, 77 percent of Latino voters agreed that the Republican Party "doesn't care too much about Latinos" and 41 percent find that the party is "sometimes hostile toward Latinos." |
♥ Facts One ♥
1. she always uses the safety belt even if she seats at the back seat
2. she is part of We Got Married, partner on CNBlue's Yonghwa
3. she keeps a camera but rarely uses it, she brings it for practising SELCA (self-camera)
4. she likes to read books but doesnt read ALOT.
5. she likes to read self- improvement books like eg. No One Will Live Your Life For You!
6. she likes sweet potates
7. she is a great pianist
8. she has a habit to sleep at 12 midnight sharp. because thats when her 'cells regenerate'
9. she is a fan of sergeant OST Keroro
10. she cares about her health and remains healthy by eating 'ma' (chinese yam)
11. she has a habit of bringing a diary around and taking down notes
12. seohyun's nickname is Gguk Gguk Ee (one who bottles up/supressed)
13. she keeps herbal medicine in her backpack
14. she can never drop her habit of using honorifics and say 'YAH' to anyone
15. seohyun bought a ring for yonghwa
16. seohyun's hands once turned yellow because she ate too many squash
17. seohyun likes Johnny Depp
18. seohyun never had a boyfriend before we got married
19. if seohyun has a lot of money, she wants to save it as her retirement fund.
20. apple is her favourite fruit.
♥ Facts Two ♥
1. Her blood type is A.
2. She loves eating Goguma (Sweet potatoes)
3. She and Yoona are childhood friends.
4. She hates hamburgers.
5. She once brainwashed Taeyeon into watching Keroro.
6. She loves watching Keroro and Nodame Cantabile.
7. She once had a nickname "Kkuk Kkuk ee" during Horror Movie Factory because she doesn't get angry.
8. She once cried because their manager oppa promised her that he would quit smoking if they won a MMA award but he smoked in front of her.
9. She once lost her shoe in performing Tell Me Your Wish live.
10. She can imitate alarm clocks.
11. Her ideal man is Johnny Depp.
12. She used to play the violin during elementary school.
13. She has the habit of waking up when someone turned on the lights/called out to her.
14. Seo baby is fluent in Korean, Chinese and English.
15. She is currently attending Dongguk University as a freshman majoring in Theatre.
16. She sports the number 11 in Oh! because she wanted to be number one.
17. Her fav. song from their albums is Kissing You.
18. She is currently learning the guitar from Yonghwa.
19. She once played the piano for TRAX's Let You Go.
20. She and Taeyeon are gonna be voice dubbers in an animation film.
21. She's one of the "Tall people" in the group who teases the "Short people".
22. She once donated blood in celebration of her and Yonghwa's 22nd day in WGM.
23. She likes books.
24. She thinks guys are gross.
25. She and Taeyeon perform "Can you hear me" for Beethoven Virus OST.
26. Her unnies once pulled a prank on her during Hello Baby.
27. She doesn't like the lyrics of Oh!
28. She once had been a reporter for Daily Sports' 40th anniversay.
29. She's always strict with money. She once had a policy that if you are late, you'll pay 1,000 won. Jessica paid the most.
30. She once played the role of a doll in SEOUL MV paired up with SuJu's maknae, Kyuhyun.
31. She once attempted to post all 1000 Keroro stickers around the girls dorm. Her unnies prevented her from doing it.
32. Once she admitted on ShimShim TaPa that whenever the girls wake up, She usually wake up Fany first because she has a loud voice for waking up the girls.
33. She wears seatbelts whenever riding a car/bus.
34. She once imitated Tamama(character from Sgt. Keroro) for the CN Blue boys.
35. She likes wearing hair bands.
36. Whenever she's angry, she'll stay quiet and exhales air through her nose.
37. She loves to listen to classical music or nature's sounds.
38. Seohyun is the slowest member in taking a bath.
39. In Horror Movie Factory, Seohyun broke her record by releasing her anger for the 1st time.
40. Seohyun bit the teacher who taught them how to act (in HMF) for 6 times.
41. Seohyun wakes up at 7 to read books.
42. Seohyun ever bought a wig for Genie promotion with her own money.
43. Seohyun is the closest to Yoona, even before their debut.
44. SeoHyun's house and Yoona's house are quite near.
45. Seohyun said that the skin cell starts to grow at 10 p.m. and stops at 2 a.m.
46. Yuri said Seohyun was irritating cause Yuri kept on asking questions for 3 months only to hear her voice, but maknae didn't say anything. Maknae's reply for that is "Because I was scared of you."
47. She is known for her fail aegyo because she sometimes try to do somthing cute but end up fail.
48. Seohyun once got her hands yellow because she ate too much Pumpkin.
49. Seohyun love apples, often she packed them for snack.
50. Seohyun received a bag from tiffany as her graduation gift.
51. Seohyun and Nicole from Kara are good friends.
52. Seohyun doesn't like to go karaoke.
53. Seohyun wished to get married at the age of 30.
54. Seohyun future dream is to be a diplomat.
55. Her favorite salute pose is her trademark and she seems got this idea from Keroro friend Tamama.
56. Seohyun is one of the member that entered SM through SM auditon in Korea.
57. Her unnies said she sung 'Loner' while showering.
58. Seohyun ever made a cocktail and the taste was too salty.
59. She is rank 24 in Mnet Super 100 Slim Body tv show and her unnies said they envied her body too.
60. Seohyun failed her driver's license exam twice.
♥ Facts Three ♥
1. Seo JooHyun is her real name 2. Her birthday is June 28 1991 3. Her blood type is A 4. She is the Maknae (youngest) in the group 5. She and Yoona are childhood friends 6. She loves eating Goguma (Sweet potatoes) 7. She hates hamburgers 8. Tiffany is her former roomate 9. Hyoyeon is her current roommate 10. If you notice, She sometimes sings first in some of SNSD’s songs like Kissing You. Honey. Gee. Oh and Way to Go 11. She is a lead vocalist in the group 12. She once brainwashed Taeyeon into watching Keroro. 13. She loves watching Keroro and Nodame Cantabile 14. She is the second tallest in the group (1st is Sooyoung) 15. She once had a nickname “Kkuk Kkuk ee” during Horror Movie Factory because she doesn’t get angry. 16. She once cried because their manager oppa promised her that he would quit smoking if they won a MMA award but he smoked in front of her. 17. She usually commit mistakes during performances. 18. She once lost her shoe in performing Tell Me Your Wish live. 19. She is currently casted in We Got Married 20. She can imitate alarm clocks 21. Her ideal man is Johnny Depp 22. She is very skilled with the piano 23. She used to play the violin during elementary school 24. She has the habit of waking up when someone turned on the lights/called out to her 25. Her husband in WGM is CN Blue’s leader Jung Yonghwa 26. Seohyun is fluent in Korean, Chinese and English 27. She once become an MC in Music Core along with Sooyoung to cover up for Yuri as she recovers from swine flu. Now, she’s back with Yonghwa along with Yuri to cover up for Tiffany. 28. She really does cares about her unnies 29. She is currently attending Dongguk University as a freshman majoring in Theatre 30. She trained for 6 years and 6 months 31. Her fav. song from their albums is Kissing You 32. She sports the number 11 in Oh! because she wanted to be number one 33. She is currently learning the guitar from Yonghwa 34. She and Taeyeon are voice dubbers in an animation film 35. She once played the piano for TRAX’s Let You Go 36. She’s one of the “Tall people” in the group who teases the “Short people” 37. She once donated blood in celebration of her and Yonghwa’s 22nd day in WGM 38. She likes books. 39. Her favorite genre is the Self-Improvement genre 40. Once, she gave her “husband” antibiotic made out of natural honey because he’s recovering from vocal nodules 41. She thinks guys are gross 42. She and Krystal of f(x) made the Clean and Clear CF 43. She and Taeyeon perform “Can you hear me” for Beethoven Virus OST 44. Her unnies once pulled a prank on her during Hello Baby 45. She was appointed alongside Park Tae Hwan as ambassadors for a health campaign 46. She once threw the opening pitch for the Doosan Bears [Yoona is batting] 47. She doesn’t like the lyrics of Oh! 48. She once had been a reporter for Daily Sports’ 40th anniversay 49. She’s always strict with money. She once had a policy that if you are late, you’ll pay 1,000 won. Jessica paid the most. ^^(Poor sica. T.T) 50. She once played the role of a doll in SEOUL MV paired up with SuJu’s maknae, Kyuhyun. 51. She’s fond of pianos 52. She’s one of the leading actresses in the CABI MV with 2PM, Yuri and Yoona. 53. She once attempted to post all 1000 Keroro stickers around the girls dorm. Her unnies prevented her from doing it. 54. She once went to Dream Team’s recording to support her fellow SNSD member/dorm mate: Hyoyeon. 55. She also played the piano for Kim Tae Woo’s Love Rain 56. Once she admitted on ShimShim TaPa that whenever the girls wake up, She usually wake up Fany first because she has a loud voice for waking up the girls. ^^. 57. She wears seatbelts whenever riding a car/bus 58. She is a Hidden Actress during the Horror Movie Factory 59. She revealed in a show *i forgot which show* that she found Taeyeon’s phone on the fridge 60. Her hobby is playing the piano 61. She did the OST for the drama: Kim Soo Ro (It’s Okay Even if it hurts) 62. She once imitated Tamama(character from Sgt. Keroro) for the CN Blue boys. 63. She is fond of wearing headbands 64. She once did a grandma weather forecast during the HMF days. ^^ 65. Whenever she’s angry, she’ll stay quiet and exhales air through her nose. (Hello Baby) 66. She loves to listen to classical music or nature’s sounds. 67. Seohyun got surprise party and also hidden camera from the members in 2009. In the end, all the members targets fulfilled 68. In Horror Movie Factory, maknae Seohyun broke her record by releasing her anger for the 1st time.. 69. Seohyun bit the teacher who taught them how to act (in HMF) for 6 times.. 70. Maknae is influenced by the members, but in the positive way 71. SooYoung’s wish to maknae Seohyun (in Win Win) is maknae has more flexibility in life 72. Maknae Seohyun used to be very strict. She just cleans up everything she thinks she has to (only for the ones she did) 73. Seohyun is a really big fan of Johny Depp 74. The Jack Sparrow doll that’s hanging on the top is a present from Tiffany (Intimate Note) 75. Once, Seohyun ever gave Yoona pajamas. But finally Yoona never wear it even once because it’s revealing (Intimate Note) 76. Seohyun is the only child in her family 77. Maknae Seohyun wakes up at 7 to read books (Intimate Note) 78. Seohyun ever bought a wig for Genie promotion with her own money (Intimate Note) 79. The wig said in #12 was put in the random places. Ends up SooYoung almost fainted cause that wig really surprises her when she was on the way in after her radio broadcast (Intimate Note) 80. The Jack Sparrow doll scares the other members when they’re going inside SeoHyun’s room in the night, cause it’s like Jack Sparrow staring back at them. Yuri even thought that it’s real 81. Seohyun can’t leave her honorifics and talk normally to the members, though the members ask her to do so 82. Seohyun is the closest to Yoona, even before their debut 83. SeoHyun’s house and Yoon’a house are quite near 84. Yoona is SeoHyun’s sunbae in her Senior High School 85. TaeYeon said that Seohyun made “The members” looked like bad people because Seohyun insisted that she doesn’t want to leave honorifics because she’s scared of how the members will realitate (Intimate Note) 86. Yuri said maknae Seohyun was irritating cause Yuri kept on asking questions for 3 months only to hear maknae’s voice, but maknae didn’t say anything. Maknae’s reply for that is “Because I was scared of you.” (can’t imagine this ) 87. Maknae Seohyun said that the skin cell starts to grow at 10 p.m. and stops at 2 a.m. 88. Seo is known for her fail aegyo because she sometimes try to do somthing cute but end up fail 89. Seohyun is the slowest member in taking a bath 90. Seohyun once got her hands yellow because she ate too much Pumpkin ( from WGM ) 91. Seohyun and Key Shinee never say anything to each other , other than “Hello” ( From SGB Interview, although I don’t know if they still do now ) hehehe 92. Seohyun said to Taeyeon’s WGM Husband, Hyungdon, that all that bad diets will accumulate and eventually you will die… 93. Seohyun has two eyemasks ( as shown in WGM ) , the character is duck and the other one is frog. 94. Seohyun love apples, often she packed them for snack …
cr: soshified
♥ Fact Four ♥
1.Seohyun and goguma can't be separated
2.seohyun is a maknae in SNSD
3.Seohyun is really good in playing piano
4.seohyun love keroro
5.Seohyun once cried in front of a mirror because she looked too ugly
6.Seohyun once tried to stick all 1000 keroro stickers she had around the dorm, and the attempt was promptly stopped by her unnies
7.Seohyun is the only member who has the blood type A.
8.During the sm concert, snsd has performed Park JiYoons "Adult Ceremony". When Super Junior said to Seohyun that they looked sexy, she began to cry and Yoona scolded Suju violently for making Seohyun cry~
9.Seohyun takes a deep breath once she's angry
10.seohyun and her husband have the same blood type . No wonder they can get along very well
11.Seohyun cried endlessly after a pillow fight against Tiffany.seohyun cried when the group pretended they were fighting but they made a surprise belated birthday party and brought presents and (hyoyeon yoona yuri sooyoung version) of a cake
12.Seohyun is the slowest member in taking a bath. c:
13.Seohyun wakes up at 7 am to read books.
14.Seohyun teaches C N Blue members Gee and Oh ! dance in We Got Married :D
15.seohyun is an only child
16.Seohyun once said to sunny "unnie, if you eat that hamburger,you will die..."
17.Seohyun have dimples 18.seohyun brush her teeth with in 4-6 minutes... 19.Seohyun and yoona doesn't have any ear peiercing 20.Seohyun sleep at 12.00am while others sleep late than her . because seohyun once said when 12am , your cell build and repair :D 21.Seohyun loves sweet potatoes very much 22.Seohyun is trying to learn the guitar 23.Seohyun is a treasurer among snsd,she'll collect all punishment money if snsd mmbers are late.;p
24.Seohyun, Taeyeon, Tiffany once dubbed in Keroro animation
25.Seohyun once make a rule for members that whenever they wake up late, they must pay 1000won for each minute they late, the most penalized member is Jessica
26.Seohyun and Yonghwa's Ring only cost 2000 won
27.Seohyun watches TV until 2 AM. What she watches ? Cartoons.
28.Seohyun's new roommate is Hyoyeon.
29. Seohyun is fluent in Korean, Chinese and English
30. She once become an MC in Music Core along with Sooyoung to cover up for Yuri as she recovers from swine flu. Now, she's back with Yonghwa along with Yuri to cover up for Tiffany.
31. She really does cares about her unnies .
32. She is currently attending Dongguk University as a freshman majoring in Theatre.
33. She trained for 6 years and 6 months.
34. Her favorite song from their albums is Kissing You.
35. She sports the number 11 in Oh! because she wanted to be number one.
36. She and Taeyeon have been voice dubbers in an animation film.
37. She once played the piano for TRAX's Let You Go.
38. She's one of the "Tall people" in the group who teases the "Short people".
39. She once donated blood in celebration of her and Yonghwa's 22nd day in WGM
40. She likes books.
41. Her favorite genre is the Self-Improvement genre.
42. Once, she gave her "husband" antibiotic made out of natural honey because he's recovering from vocal nodules.
43. She thinks guys are gross.
44. She and Krystal of f(x) made the Clean and Clear CF. 45. She and Taeyeon perform "Can you hear me" for Beethoven Virus OST.
46. Her unnies once pulled a prank on her during Hello Baby.
47. She was appointed alongside Park Tae Hwan as ambassadors for a health campaign
48. She once threw the opening pitch for the Doosan Bears [Yoona is batting]
49. She doesn't like the lyrics of Oh!
50. She once had been a reporter for Daily Sports' 40th anniversay
51. She once played the role of a doll in SEOUL MV paired up with SuJu's maknae, Kyuhyun.
52. She's fond of pianos
53. She's one of the leading actresses in the CABI MV with 2PM, Yuri and Yoona.
54. She once went to Dream Team's recording to support her fellow SNSD member/dorm mate: Hyoyeon.
55. She also played the piano for Kim Tae Woo's Love Rain
56. Once she admitted on ShimShim TaPa that whenever the girls wake up, She usually wake up Fany first because she has a loud voice for waking up the girls. ^^.
57. She wears seatbelts whenever riding a car/bus
58. She is a Hidden Actress during the Horror Movie Factory
59. She revealed in a show *i forgot which show* that she found Taeyeon's phone on the fridge
60. She did the OST for the drama: Kim Soo Ro (It's Okay Even if it hurts)
61. She once imitated Tamama(character from Sgt. Keroro) for the CN Blue boys.
62. She is fond of wearing headbands
63. She once did a grandma weather forecast during the HMF days.
64.She once plays badminton with her husband , Yonghwa in WGM . |
Filip Hodas, AKA Hoodass, is a freelance 3D artist from Prague, Czech Republic, who does surreal and mind-bending renderings that are truly out of this world. But none of his work is as captivating as this series of decaying pop culture icons that provides us with a creepy glimpse into an alternative dystopian future. From a burnt out Pac Man and a defunct Hello Kitty to a litchen-covered Bender and a Martian Playstation space station, the artist uses well-known video games, fast food brands, cartoons characters and other recognizable imagery to litter the landscape of his pop culture apocalypse, providing us with a conflicting sense of nostalgia and foreboding. Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.
More info: Instagram | Prints | Behance (h/t: Demilked) |
Samsung will reportedly launch the long-awaited Galaxy S8 and presumably the Galaxy S8 Plus in all markets on Friday, April 21, reveals ET News. It’s thought that the firm has decided against releasing the devices a week early — like it did with the Galaxy Note 7 — in its home country to ensure it has “stable supplies” for the rest of the regions they’ll be available in.
This information comes courtesy of a “high-ranking official for a mobile network provider” in South Korea, who added that if initial consumer response to the LG G6, which will launch worldwide on Friday, March 10, is positive, there’s a good chance that Samsung will open pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus earlier than expected, though no details on a specific reservation date were provided.
We have to say, this latest purported release date seems entirely feasible. Back in December, a report surfaced claiming that Samsung would commence sales of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus on Tuesday, April 18 following an unveiling event that was expected to take place in New York City a week before — so it being pushed back to Friday, April 21 is realistic, especially if the firm started to experience minor unexpected delays. |
And Then I Thought I Was a Fish is a complete first-person perspective of what it's like to leave reality behind in toto, and I'm seeking to self-publish and market the book. It's not just a straight retelling of the delusional story I was living, it comes complete with medical reports, professional opinions from people working in psychology and social services, and notes from the people around me who had to deal with it.
The book was born as a collection of rough essays that got some responses interesting enough to make me consider publishing a more fleshed-out work. After the LOLs and OMFGs, a number of people wrote to thank me for describing and explaining an experience similar to theirs, one they'd been unable to communicate to their friends and family. And sometimes it's just nice to know you're not the only one.
Anyway, I'm doing nearly everything here. I did the crazy time, thought about it, wrote it down, planned the marketing, made the websites, designed the layout and cover, animated the video, etc. Some things I cannot do: edit it professionally, make up an ISBN, market without materials, print and bind physical copies, and get an expertly crafted eBook version together. Everything from kickstarter goes into preparing and producing a solid first run.
Thanks for reading! |
Share. And it's awesome, too. And it's awesome, too.
Let's not beat around the bush: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has blatantly and unabashedly borrowed from Nintendo's ubiquitous brawler Super Smash Bros. in innumerable ways. But let's not sell it short, either. Even though All-Stars pays serious homage to what came before it, it still looks like a game that the PlayStation Faithful will absolutely eat-up in droves.
Exit Theatre Mode
Rumored to have existed for several months under the moniker Title Fight, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is currently under development at SuperBot Entertainment (with the help of Sony's super-powered group at Santa Monica Studio). And after getting extensive hands-on time with the game, it's difficult not to get excited about the possibility that, while incredibly and undeniably similar to Smash Bros., it could turn out to be a very strong game in its own right.
The paramount reason why All-Stars has such incredible potential is simple. As SuperBot's president Chan Park explained, his development house has been "purpose-built" to create a fighting game like this. A lot of the talent working on the game has extensive experience in the genre. The development team totes guys that worked on series from UFC Undisputed to Mortal Kombat. These guys didn't just look at what Nintendo did and outright copy it. Rather, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale represents the definition of iteration, an evolution of the style of game that attempts to take the formula to another level.
The logo.
For the time being, Sony allowed SuperBot Entertainment to show-off six of the game's characters, and the cast represents a hodgepodge of PlayStation franchises. Fat Princess, Parappa the Rapper and Sly Cooper join the likes of Twisted Metal's Sweet Tooth, Killzone's Colonel Radec and God of War's Kratos on the preliminary roster, though Sony will reveal many more characters leading up to the game's launch, which should occur during the lead-up to 2012's holiday season.
Each character has his or her own combat style, which immediately becomes evident when you begin playing for yourself. Parappa the Rapper has strength at close range, where he can use his Chop Chop Master Onion-learned kung-fu stylings on his opponents. Colonel Radec, on the other hand, is almost entirely ineffective unless at a distance, relying on a plethora of Helghan firearms and pieces of technology from afar.
Sweet Tooth's considerable strength complements his brutal fighting style while Kratos' skill with his arsenal of weapons is obvious. But the two most interesting characters in this preliminary roster were undoubtedly Sly Cooper and Fat Princess. Sly Cooper's agility shines through almost immediately, and he has a special skill that no other character has. He forfeits his ability to block -- something every other character can do -- instead going invisible when the L1 button is held down. This allows him to sneakily slink around and get the jump on other characters. Fat Princess, on the other hand, relies on her deceptive, innocent look to get in close and cause the brunt of her damage. She can even summon forth minions such as the sword-wielding warrior or the fire-throwing wizard from her self-titled game to briefly supplement her attacks.
You gotta believe!
In a game like this, it should come as no surprise that SuperBot Entertainment wants it to feel accessible. And it most certainly does. Attacks are mapped to the Square, Triangle and Circle buttons coinciding with the direction you're pressing on the d-pad or left analog stick, giving each character an exceptional amount of moves. The right stick can be used to throw opponents, while the R1 button lets players pick up items (such as the Hedgehog Grenade from Resistance) in the environment to use on enemies.
And then there's the most powerful button in the game: R2. By building a special meter for each character -- a la Street Fighter or Marvel vs. Capcom -- players can unleash a torrent of special attacks that grow in power the higher the meter gets. For instance, Sly Cooper's standard first level attack might be fairly unimpressive, but his second level attack allows him to bomb enemies from above and can easily kill everyone on the screen. And if you get to a third level attack, watch out: Colonel Radec will get into a body-encompassing machinegun from Killzone 3, while Sweet Tooth turns into a gigantic truck to rain down destruction on his foes. These attacks spell almost certain death for everyone else on-screen.
But with accessibility comes inevitable depth, and it quickly becomes apparent that the more you play, the more nuance you'll be able to derive from the experience. You'll develop a play style and preferences for certain characters; as an example, Colonel Radec will be a complete turnoff if you're not into ranged attacks, while Sly Cooper may just be too damn fast for you to keep track of. But there is balance, too, and no one character seems to have an edge over anyone else… at least not in this small group of six.
Sweet Tooth's coming for you!
Another stand-out in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is its stages, of which SuperBot Entertainment showed-off four. Unlike Smash Bros., which has levels mostly relegated to a single franchise, All-Stars has stages dedicated to two franchises each. The Metropolis level is dedicated to Ratchet & Clank and God of War, while Jak and Daxter's Sandover Village also incorporates Hot Shots Golf. Likewise, Hades (not surprisingly) revolves around God of War, but includes the famous PSP franchise Patapon, too. And then there's the Dreamscape, which combines LittleBigPlanet with Buzz!, complete with ingenious in-game quizzes that keep things fresh on the fly.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Wiki GuideConfirmed CharactersStagesControls Tweet us your tips »The best news of all, though, is that PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is primed with options. The game can be played locally or online with up to four players, which will no doubt be the meat of the experience for many players. But a single-player campaign has also been promised, one that will satisfy solo gamers while supplementing everyone else's experience. It's not only about online or only about single-player, but rather a combination of both. In other words: the best of both worlds.
After playing the game, speaking to the president of the studio and then playing the game some more, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is no longer a game I'm profoundly skeptical of, but one of my most-anticipated upcoming projects. There's no reason to be coy about its inspiration -- Super Smash Bros. undeniably paved the way for it -- but no reason exists to dismiss it as a clone, either. After all, it's not very often that a clone gives its inspiration a serious run for its money. And from what I've seen and played of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, it seems ready to do just that.
Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be. |
Today’s strip was drawn by Dave Mercier of Mercworks, his fantastic semi-biographical webcomic. I’ve been enjoying his strips for a few months now and jumped at the opportunity to exchange guest comics. That’s right, not only did Dave draw a Caffeinated Toothpaste strip, but I drew a Mercworks strip. Head on over and check it out! It was a ton of fun drawing his character and I absolute love his take on me.
If you’d like to get to know more about him, filmmaker Jeremy White made this excellent portrait of Dave and his work.
Mercworks.net . Dave Mercier Portrait from Jeremy White on Vimeo.
It’s a bit buried, but there’s a list of some comics that I’m currently fascinated with at the bottom of this page. I occasionally update the list, so check it out if you’d like to find more great comics like Dave’s. |
Part 2: Do Trump Protesters Really Know Why They're Protesting?
Judge Nap: Hillary 'at the Vortex of a Perfect Storm of Legal Misery'
At a campaign event in New York, Hillary Clinton seemed a little fed-up with Bernie Sanders for calling out her big money donations from corporate interests.
She was confronted by a young climate change activist, who asked her, "Will you act on your words and reject fossil fuel money in your campaign?"
The former First Lady snapped back at Eva Resnick-Day that she's "so sick of" the Sanders campaign lying about the issue.
"I have money from people who work in the fossil fuel [industry]. I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me, I am sick of it," she said.
The video of the moment was posted on YouTube by Greenpeace and it has amassed more than 600,000 views in a day.
Since then, Resnick-Day has responded online and on Twitter, saying she works for Greenpeace USA, not the Sanders campaign.
And she accused Clinton of lying about the contributions.
Olympic Weightlifter Watches in Horror as Barbell Rolls Through Window
LOOK: Smugglers Quickly Climb Over AZ Border Fence as TV Crew Films
The State Dept Tweeted a Warning to Spring Breakers and It Failed Spectacularly |
Until today, the only thing we could say for sure about the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition was that it was going to be expensive. Now we can confirm it: The developer edition of the holographic headset has a sticker price of $3,000. But we also know a lot more about Microsoft’s first augmented-reality viewer, like when it’ll be available for pre-order (today!), when the headsets will start shipping to qualified developers (Wednesday, March 30!), how developers can go about making holographic apps, and the components that will drive the experience for viewers.
To be sure, HoloLens remains in the development stages. There's still no word on when you'll be able to stroll into a store and buy one. For now, only beta testers in the Windows Insider program can even apply for HoloLens. There’s a limit of two HoloLenses per application, and Microsoft says the first orders will start shipping on March 30.
To create apps for the headset, developers need to be running Windows 10 on a PC loaded up with Visual Studio 2015 and the Unity 5.4 gaming engine. You don’t need to tether HoloLens to a computer to actually run apps, as the headset boasts its own 32-bit Intel CPU, a brand-new Microsoft Holographic Processing Unit (HPU 1.0), 2GB RAM, 64GB of onboard solid-state storage, and a battery that gets up to three hours of active usage time. The headset weighs a shade under 1.3 pounds—a bit heavier than the rumored one-pound weight of the upcoming Oculus Rift consumer version, probably because all the HoloLens's components are built into the headset. The Oculus needs to be tethered to a computer to work.
The HoloLens display begins with a pair of transparent waveguides. In the HoloLens, the waveguides are clear lenses that allow lightwaves from your surroundings to blend with digitally created holographic images. The HoloLens' images, which are created by two high-definition light engines inside the headset, create the illusion of computer-generated objects hovering or resting in the real-world spaces around you. The Development Edition headset automatically calculates the distance between your pupils—essential for nailing the 3-D effect of the holographic objects—which is a useful new feature for sharing the headset. In a HoloLens demo late last year, Microsoft had to measure interpupillary distance for each person and input that data into the headset manually.
On the headset itself, there are volume controls to adjust the built-in speakers or 3.5mm headphones, brightness controls, a microUSB port, and built-in Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1 LE connectivity. The headset also comes with a remote control, a case, extra nose pads, and a strap in case you don’t want to wear HoloLens like a pair of glasses.
Three grand gets you a lot of sensors. The HoloLens is stocked with six cameras (four that survey your immediate environment, one to calculate depth of field, and a two-megapixel/1080p shooter to capture your own stills and video), four microphones, an ambient light sensor, and an inertial measurement unit that combines accelerometers and gyroscopes. Those sensors will give developers a chance to play around with eyesight tracking, gesture control, voice control, and spatial audio when they’re coding apps.
Because augmented/holographic reality is a concept without much precedent for developers, Microsoft is releasing a few “experiences” that serve to show what’s possible with the platform and stoke developers’ creativity. A few of them have been demoed before, such as RoboRaid (a renamed version of Project X-Ray) and the HoloStudio 3-D modeling playground. But the majority of them are brand new, such as Skype for HoloLens, a mystery game called Fragments, and a squirrel-in-your-house game called Young Conker.
Microsoft says all the apps are meant solely to inspire developers, and that they “should not be considered consumer-facing.” All the playable demos are free, and developers will be able to download them via the Windows Store.
Microsoft did not provide comment on how this model matches up with the planned consumer HoloLens. |
Heads up! You should read the sample as you would read a book, so don't speedread.
Charles Dickens's masterful assault on the injustices of the British legal system
As the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums. This edition follows the first book edition of 1853, and includes all the original illustrations by 'Phiz', as well as appendices on the Chancery and spontaneous combustion. In his preface, Terry Eagleton examines characterisation and considers Bleak House as an early work of detective fiction.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Start Reading Speed Timer |
In 2006, 17.4 percent of children in America lived below the poverty line, substantially more than in 1969. And even this measure probably understates the true depth of many children’s misery.
Living in or near poverty has always been a form of exile, of being cut off from the larger society. But the distance between the poor and the rest of us is much greater than it was 40 years ago, because most American incomes have risen in real terms while the official poverty line has not. To be poor in America today, even more than in the past, is to be an outcast in your own country. And that, the neuroscientists tell us, is what poisons a child’s brain.
America’s failure to make progress in reducing poverty, especially among children, should provoke a lot of soul-searching. Unfortunately, what it often seems to provoke instead is great creativity in making excuses.
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Some of these excuses take the form of assertions that America’s poor really aren’t all that poor — a claim that always has me wondering whether those making it watched any TV during Hurricane Katrina, or for that matter have ever looked around them while visiting a major American city.
Mainly, however, excuses for poverty involve the assertion that the United States is a land of opportunity, a place where people can start out poor, work hard and become rich.
But the fact of the matter is that Horatio Alger stories are rare, and stories of people trapped by their parents’ poverty are all too common. According to one recent estimate, American children born to parents in the bottom fourth of the income distribution have almost a 50 percent chance of staying there — and almost a two-thirds chance of remaining stuck if they’re black.
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That’s not surprising. Growing up in poverty puts you at a disadvantage at every step.
I’d bracket those new studies on brain development in early childhood with a study from the National Center for Education Statistics, which tracked a group of students who were in eighth grade in 1988. The study found, roughly speaking, that in modern America parental status trumps ability: students who did very well on a standardized test but came from low-status families were slightly less likely to get through college than students who tested poorly but had well-off parents.
None of this is inevitable.
Poverty rates are much lower in most European countries than in the United States, mainly because of government programs that help the poor and unlucky.
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And governments that set their minds to it can reduce poverty. In Britain, the Labor government that came into office in 1997 made reducing poverty a priority — and despite some setbacks, its program of income subsidies and other aid has achieved a great deal. Child poverty, in particular, has been cut in half by the measure that corresponds most closely to the U.S. definition.
At the moment it’s hard to imagine anything comparable happening in this country. To their credit — and to the credit of John Edwards, who goaded them into it — both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are proposing new initiatives against poverty. But their proposals are modest in scope and far from central to their campaigns.
I’m not blaming them for that; if a progressive wins this election, it will be by promising to ease the anxiety of the middle class rather than aiding the poor. And for a variety of reasons, health care, not poverty, should be the first priority of a Democratic administration.
But ultimately, let’s hope that the nation turns back to the task it abandoned — that of ending the poverty that still poisons so many American lives. |
Stephen Curry, the NBA’s MVP a year ago, has been even more dazzling this season. He tops the NBA in scoring, averaging 31.8 points per game, up from 23.8 in 2014-2015. He led the defending champion Golden State Warriors to a 24-0 start — the best in NBA history. Curry’s team, which faces LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in an NBA Finals rematch Christmas Day, could break the record for most regular season wins, 72, which was set by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls during the 1995-1996 season.
For a feature story in the Dec. 28, 2015/Jan 4, 2016 “Year Ahead” issue of TIME – which subscribers can read here — we spoke to Curry about his appeal to basketball fans, the secrets behind his improved game, and a broad range of other topics.
Are you the best player in the world right now?
In my mind, yes. That’s how I have confidence out there that I can play at a high level every night. I don’t get into debates, arguing with people about why I am versus somebody else. I feel like anybody who’s at the level I’m trying to be at, if you don’t think that when you’re on the floor, then you’re doing yourself a disservice.
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Why do you think you’ve connected with NBA fans?
I don’t know, I guess I play a very creative style of basketball. I have fun out there on the court, smiling, laughing, trying to have good demeanor. And I guess I’m not the most the physically dominating guy. So probably to most fans of mine, they’re pretty surprised what I can do on the court at my size. I call it lack of athleticism. Obviously not a lack of hand-eye coordination. But not being gifted with the 40-inch vertical, or a 4.5 40, or being 6’9″, 260 lbs. That’s my best guess.
I try to be open and approachable and stuff like that, just because I was around the game, with my dad [former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry], and I knew how it affected people that came in contact with him, and how he made people’s days if you just said “hi” to him.
I think people can relate to you because if you walked into the Y for a weekend pickup game — and you weren’t Stephen Curry — nobody would do a double take. You look like you’d fit in. Is that fair?
If you don’t mind, I’ll use that. I’ll cite you on it. That’s a good way to put in. Some of the stuff I do on the court is what most people think they can do. As opposed to you see a guy like [Warriors teammate] Andre Iguodala take off on a fast break, he rises for a tomahawk dunk. I know I can’t do that. Most people can’t. Shooting the ball is a part of the game. Everybody can shoot in their own way. Not everybody can make. But everybody can shoot.
Your teammate Draymond Green calls you “the face of the NBA.” Do you agree?
I embrace that. I don’t know if that’s a black and white answer. You’ve got to be a winner, and have all the right trajectory as a player and as a team to back that up. Whatever comes out of that is cool. The way I try to represent my family and coaches, I think all are characteristics the league aspires to portray. That’s just who I am. It’s not changing anything about me to fulfill that role.
What was the biggest challenge of your life, and how did you overcome it?
Probably the transition from high school to college. There was a lot of pressure being Dell Curry’s son, growing up in Charlotte, being in ACC country. I was probably really small for an aspiring Division 1 athlete. And I was looked over by pretty much every non low-D1 school. And it was kind of shock. I was a pretty good high school player, so it was kind of a weird dynamic. I really desperately wanted to play ACC basketball. Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, Wake Forest, all those schools, I never even got close to a call. So it was a disappointing moment, in the moment. I had to really trust that everything happens for a reason—that God had a plan for me, other than what I wanted. And to trust that wasn’t an easy decision, it wasn’t an easy mentality.
What kind of work did you do over the summer to improve upon what was an MVP season last year?
Lower body and core strength to handle the beating of an 82-game schedule. Knowing we’re going to be a marked team every night. And then, out of that, it’s being able to create space on the floor. Being more precise and explosive and efficient. Strength and explosion, just being able to move from point A to point B. But also the ball handling it takes to make the moves I need to get into my shot. So a lot of it wasn’t adding stuff to my game. It was kind of taking what I do well and doing it better and more efficiently.
Your trainer, Brandon Payne, says that during your summer workouts you seek to develop “neurocognitive efficiency.” What does that mean?
His terms are more complex than mine. It’s literally being able to suvery what’s going on on the court, and have the muscle memory and ability to make certain moves. Make those reads, make those decisions without having to think about where the ball is and being able to make those decisions quickly.
I’m coming down the floor, I know I have two guys over here, one guy over here, three defenders, one’s in front of you. You have to be able to read that and make a move, and out of that, be able to see what else going on. That’s what we train in a different way. It’s about about letting your mind go free, while still having control of yourself.
What’s an example of a drill you do to accomplish this?
We do one where we start at half court, and there’s two lights. I’m dribbling to the three-point line. The top one tells you what move you have to make, and the bottom light tells you what shot you have to take. So you have to read all of that and make a split decision, coming full speed. Green means between the legs, blue means you have to shoot a three. Yellow means you have to shoot a pull-up two, or red means you have to get to the basket. You’ve got to be able recall right away, and make that move, not knowing what’s going to happen .5 seconds before. Then you’ve got to make the shot. (Laughs) Or else you’re going to have to keep running back and forth. So there’s a little bit of pressure and competition to it.
When most people take a jump shot, they shoot the ball at the peak of their jump. But you shoot the ball as you’re jumping. How important has that method been to your long-range shooting success?
It’s been a part of my mechanics as far as I remember. I would tell anybody who wants to learn how to shoot or play basketball, that’s a fundamental of shooting. You get legs under you, and you’re not fighting yourself at the top. Most guys, when they’re at the top of their shot, gravity takes over eventually. You don’t want to be fighting gravity on the way down.
Your Under Armour sneakers have really taken off this year. Is that success even sweeter because your helping a company build an identity in basketball?
Definitely. That’s a big reason I joined. I had been with Nike since college. And the presentation I had with Under Armour was literally about building a basketball business around me, with that whole underdog mentality that I really aligned with. That’s the part I feel most blessed about. It’s one thing to get to the NBA and be successful in the NBA. But to have your own signature shoe, it still doesn’t make sense. It’s surreal.
What player do you get the most fired up to face?
There’s probably a shortlist of top 10, 15 point guards in the league that I follow day in and day out.
Is Chris Paul No. 1?
Probably, yeah. For a lot of reasons. The whole team aspect, the history between our two teams. But also our history individually. I used to work out with him before my rookie year. We’re both from North Carolina.
Are you guys friends?
Yeah. That’s an interesting dynamic. As you go though the league, you start to try to get to where somebody else is, and try to stay there, and the whole competitive environment. But yeah, there are certain guys that drive you because of their success. He’s one of them, Russ [Westbrook] is one of them. John Wall.
You seem to play with a healthy chip on your shoulder? Is that a fair assessment?
Yeah. It’s not probably what people think. Everybody talks about the players award thing, where James [Harden] was voted MVP by the players union, what the Houston Rockets guys said over the course of the summer, what Doc Rivers said, all that stuff. I hear it but it doesn’t move the needle for me because I’m comfortable. Like the chip is that we’ve retained a pretty high level, the highest level, and we want to stay there. That’s the hard part. That’s the motivation.
You hear it, you react to it, But to be honest, I was as motivated before I heard that stuff. It’s just kind of humorous to me.
What current athlete do you most admire?
[American golfer] Jordan Spieth. His maturity, the way he handles himself, his vision as a 22-year-old is unbelievable. How composed he is, whether he played well or not, is unbelievable.
The NBA is in a good place right now. But both the players and owners can opt out of the collective bargaining agreement by December 2016, which could cause a work stoppage after the 2016-2017 season. You’re on the executive committee of the players’ union. Do you see yourself playing an active role in the negotiations?
I’m very interested in and am going to have a hand in the new direction of the CBA coming up. [The players] have better leverage now. We’re much more organized than we’ve ever been, we’re much more unified, and that’s our biggest leverage point as players. We’re all on the same page as to what we bring to the table. We’re obviously blessed to play a game, and get paid to do it, and the game is in the best shape it’s ever been. [We want] to take adavantage of that, to make sure we get what is fair in the grand scheme of the NBA. Obviously that’s a touchy subject. You just look at the value of teams going up on a year-to-year basis, and you follow that trend, the players should be compensated accordingly. That’s the simple message. We’ll fight for it. Hopefully it won’t be too nasty.
The NBA had lockouts that shortened the 1999 and 2012 seasons. What’s your message to fans who really don’t want to see another one?
Players don’t want to see a lockout either. We want to play. Guys have such a short window, you don’t want to waste time sitting on the sidelines talking about bargaining agreements, things like that. We’re working hard to present out issues and hear the NBA’s issues, what may or may not be right or wrong and work it out hopefully. We will fight for what we feel is right.
Athletes are starting to speak up more about social issues they care about. Is that something you see yourself doing more of?
I’m not afraid to do that at all. I recently tweeted about jail reform, how many people are jailed on petty crimes. It’s interesting. I like to read the reaction. It gets the conversation started, even if I’m not a part of it on the platform.
People are mostly surprised that I even know about it. Even supporters of the cause are surprised I know about the issues. Even if I’m not tweeting about it every hour or going on rants or whatever, people are following that stream and discussing both sides. I think that’s powerful.
What was it like playing golf with President Obama this summer?
He was so approachable and cool. Once we got out there, and we started talking, and there weren’t 25 secret servicemen on every hole, you would not have thought he was President of the United States. We played at like 12:00. So the whole morning, I ironed my clothes, cleaned my clubs, doing all this nonsense. I’m so hyped up and nervous. One of his White House staff comes to pick us up in a 2002 jeep, nothing special about it, just takes us across Martha’s Vineyard to the course. We show up, and there are people actually playing. I thought it was going to be shut down, because the president’s playing. So we get to the driving range, Ray Allen’s there, the president’s not there yet; 10-15 minutes later you see the whole motorcade, they pull up right to the range. We park in the parking lot, they go up right next to the range. And it’s like seven SUVs, and this swat-looking truck in the back. And this is when I started to get nervous. This is the real deal.
Were you more nervous on the course than you were during the NBA Finals?
For sure. I feel comfortable on the court. There, on the first tee, it was the president, my dad, Ray Allen, and 40 people in the clubhouse yelling Obama’s name the whole time. I’m just trying to make sure I get it in the air. I sprayed it a good 40-50 yards right. But we played the breakfast ball rule. I got to re-tee it. I hit a decent one the next time. I birdied the first two holes.
What was it like seeing your 2-year-old daughter Riley become an internet sensation last spring, after she stole the show at your playoff press conferences? (Riley’s now 3; Curry’s wife, Ayesha, gave birth to the couple’s second daughter, Ryan, this summer)
We weren’t ready for it. I’ve been watching the NBA all of my life. I’ve seen post-game press conferences where guys bring their daughters up all the time. And that’s a special moment, to be able to bond with your child after a good game, bad game, whatever. Just because, at the end of day it sucks, but we don’t get to spend as much time as we probably would like with our kids.
So those moments are pretty precious. After the game, you’re just so happy to see your family. That’s how it was, I was walking past the family room. My wife and daughter are sitting there, I say, ‘hi everybody, I’ve got to answer some questions right quick.’ And Riley’s like ‘I want to go with you.’ Yeah, sure, let’s go. I pick her up, take her there, I had no idea how she’d act. I wouldn’t say she surprised us, that’s how she is at home all the time, that personality. But in front of all those people, she just ran with it.
It sunk in when I got home. SportsCenter was on. I’ll never forget this: John Buccigross is on there. He does the three stars of the night thing and Riley was one of them. And I was like, ‘what do you mean?’ Cause I hadn’t seen the playback. So I didn’t know how funny it really was to everybody. She’s telling me to be quiet, it’s too loud, all that stuff. It was pretty funny. She walked by a TV and saw herself and said, ‘aaahhh, Riley!’ And then left, like nothing happened. She didn’t know.
It was very surprising that it took off the way that it did. All the memes and attention she got. Even now, over the summer, anywhere I went, like, anywhere I went, they asked, where’s Riley? I went to the Kids’ Choice Awards in LA. I turned the corner to go down that little orange carpet — ‘Where’s Riley? Where’s Riley?’ She’s not here. Just yelling her name. It’s interesting, We’re trying to keep things as normal as possible for her. It is a challenge.
Did any negatives come out of that whole experience?
I wouldn’t change a thing about how we did it. Not at all. I would want that moment for my family forever. And I’ll look forward to the day when she’s a teenager down the road, and I can say, ‘hey, this is what you did.’ If there is a downside, with social media, everybody knows who she is. I do worry sometimes that when she gets to the age where she can process what’s going on, how she’ll handle it. Hopefully we have the foundation set. You’re a little different, your dad plays in the NBA. But that shouldn’t change who you are. I like our chances of being able to instill that in her.
What is your one big worry in life?
Not losing myself. Not losing my perspective on life. I’m learning you have to be proactive in that regard.
I don’t want to have a pessimistic attitude. But things are really great right now: We’re winning, there so many life additions at home, it all comes at once. Eventually basketball will end. I have a lot of life to live after that. So I guess the only worry is not to just be defined as a basketball player.
If there’s one thing people can expect from you in the coming year, what would it be?
You should expect me to keep getting better.
Write to Sean Gregory at [email protected]. |
It’s one of those medical anomalies that nobody can really explain: Longitudinal studies have consistently shown that people who don’t consume any alcohol at all tend to die before people who do. At first glance, this makes little sense. Why would ingesting a psychoactive toxin that increases our risk of cancer, dementia and liver disease lengthen our lifespan?
Well, the anomaly has just gotten more anomalous: A new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, followed 1,824 participants between the ages of 55 and 65. Once again, the researchers found that abstaining from alcohol increases the risk of dying, even when you exclude former alcoholics who have now quit. (The thinking is that ex-drinkers might distort the data, since they’ve already pickled their organs.) While 69 percent of the abstainers died during the 20-year time span of the study, only 41 percent of moderate drinkers passed away. (Moderate drinkers were also 23 percent less likely to die than light drinkers.) But here’s the really weird data point: Heavy drinkers also live longer than abstainers. (Only 61 percent of heavy drinkers died during the study.) In other words, consuming disturbingly large amounts of alcohol seems to be better than drinking none at all.
We live in a reductionist age, in which every longitudinal effect is explained away at the most fundamental possible level. And so this study will no doubt lead researchers to probe the benefits of red wine, with its antioxidants and resveratrol. It will also lead people to explore the cardiovascular benefits of alcohol, since many of the perks of drinking (such as increased levels of HDL cholesterol) seem to extend to people who drink beer and hard liquor.
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These are all important hypotheses, the sort of speculations that assuage this drinker’s heart. (I’m no Don Draper, but I certainly enjoy my evening IPA.) Nevertheless, I worry that in the rush to reduce, to translate the unexpected longitudinal effect into the acronyms of biochemistry, we’ll miss the real import of the study.
Let’s think, for a moment, about the cultural history of drinking. The first reason people consume booze is to relax, taking advantage of its anxiolytic properties. This is the proverbial drink after work -- after a eight hours of toil, there’s something deeply soothing about a dose of alcohol, which quiets the brain by up-regulating our GABA receptors. (But don’t get carried away: While the moderate consumption of alcohol might reduce the stress response, blood alcohol levels above 0.1 percent -- most states consider 0.08 the legal limit for driving -- trigger a large release of stress hormones. Although you might feel drunkenly relaxed, your body is convinced it’s in a state of mortal danger.) And so the stresses of the day seem to fade away – we are given a temporary respite from the recursive complaints of self-consciousness. Since chronic stress is really, really bad for us, finding a substance that can reliably interrupt the stress loop might have medical benefits.
But drinking isn’t just about de-stressing. In fact, the cultural traditions surrounding alcohol tend to emphasise a second, and perhaps even more important, function: socialising. For as long people have been fermenting things, they’ve been transforming the yeasty run-off into excuses for big parties. From Babylonian harvest festivals to the bacchanalias of Ancient Greece, alcohol has always been entangled with our get-togethers. This is for obvious reasons: Alcohol is a delightful social lubricant, a liquid drug that is particularly good at erasing our interpersonal anxieties. And this might help explain why, according to the new study, moderate drinkers have more friends and higher quality “friend support” than abstainers. They’re also more likely to be married.
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What does this have to do with longevity? In recent years, sociologists and epidemiologists have begun studying the long-term effects (.pdf) of loneliness. It turns out to be really dangerous. We are social primates, and when we’re cut off from the social network, we are more likely to die from just about everything (but especially heart disease). At this point, the link between abstinence and social isolation is merely hypothetical. But given the extensive history of group drinking -- it’s what we do when we come together -- it seems likely that drinking in moderation makes it easier for us develop and nurture relationships. And it’s these relationships that help keep us alive.
Of course, relationships have their own chemistry, a language of dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, etc. But I think that in the rush to decipher the bodily molecules, we are missing the essential lesson, which is that some of the most valuable health benefits don’t come from compounds that can be bottled, or condensed into a gel capsule. Instead, they come from other people, from those lovely conversations we share over a glass or three of wine.
Surgeon General’s Warning: Of course, these longitudinal correlations don’t mitigate the negative, and frequently devastating, consequences of alcohol and alcoholism. Let’s not forget that alcohol can be an addictive substance, and that, in many contexts, drinking promotes violence and thuggishness, and not polite socialising. It’s also essential to note that all of the aforementioned health benefits of alcohol (such as de-stressing and socialising) can also be achieved for free, such as with meditation or by simply being a good friend. |
By: Greg Sylvander
The Miami HEAT (2-7, 1-4 at home) are in the midst of a five-game losing streak, and it only gets harder from here.
A rocky start will be compounded by a challenging road schedule. Miami plays half of its next 26 games away to close out 2016 before beginning 2017 on a West Coast road trip. Combine that with the team clearly leaning in the direction of a rebuilding year, trade talks centering around HEAT point guard Goran Dragic have begun to amplify.
Pat Riley made comments publicly last week that he will attempt to acquire an additional draft pick in the upcoming 2017 NBA Draft.
We have a pick this year. I have intentions, if it’s possible, to try and get another pick. And then we will have room. And so from that standpoint, you start making a plan and formulating what it looks like down the road, but you’re going to have to get some breakthroughs—from Hassan, from Justise, from Tyler, from Josh. And then you’ll see where you go from there. — Pat Riley to David Aldridge (NBA.com)
I’m told that quietly the Miami HEAT are making Goran Dragic available to teams in an attempt to add a young player and/or stockpile an additional first-round draft pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
The HEAT are willing to trade Dragic and would prefer to do so well in advance of the NBA Trade Deadline on Feb. 23, per sources.
Conversations within the organization inspired about the risks of waiting until February to move the 30-year-old guard after Dragic’s recent ankle injury, and the possibility of not being able to trade him in the event he suffers a more severe injury.
The HEAT are fully committed to strengthening their position in the upcoming NBA Draft and realize Dragic is their best and most expendable asset to do so. There’s also been considerable dialogue about the market shrinking for a player of Dragic’s caliber as the season progresses, and teams fall out of playoff contention and shift their focus to the future.
While ideally, the HEAT would like to receive a 2017 first-rounder in any trade involving their top point guard, Miami is open to the idea of acquiring a future first-round pick if a young player can be added to its already established young core. This willingness to accept a future draft pick has increased the number of teams inquiring with offers for Dragic now as opposed to later in the season.
There are plenty of potential suitors circulating, including the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans.
Although logistically unlikely, rumblings also persist that the HEAT will dangle Hassan Whiteside in trade proposals between late December and February in an effort to explore all options to acquire a franchise centerpiece. Such a scenario would potentially speed up the rebuilding process in Miami.
Follow @miaheatbeat for any further developments as they become available. |
An illegal immigrant living in the U.S. who had been previously deported three times, was removed for the fourth time following murder and child assault charges.
Eduardo Maquitico-Guerrero, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant, was deported from El Paso, Texas, by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to be prosecuted for “femicide”.
Maquitico-Guerrero is accused of shooting Karla Yuridia Tavares Jimenez in the head and killing her, and then leaving her body on the side of the road in Morelos, Mexico, in April 2013. Maquitico-Guerrero is also accused of assaulting her young, 9-year-old son. Police say Maquitico-Guerrero killed the victim because she was a woman.
In July 2010, Maquitico-Guerrero crossed the U.S.-Mexico southern border into Arizona. Almost a year later, Maquitico-Guerrero was convicted of illegally possessing controlled substances and sentenced to four years of probation, with ICE also placing a detainer on him. In June 2011, Maquitico-Guerrero was ordered to be deported by an immigration judge, and was subsequently placed back in Mexico. But since then, Maquitico-Guerrero has illegally re-entered the U.S. twice, with ICE deporting him again, both times.
Last month, Maquitico-Guerrero was charged once again with re-entering the U.S. after being found in El Paso. Additionally, Mexican authorities notified ICE of the pending murder charges against the illegal immigrant, prompting his immediate deportation.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. |
+ 22
Text description provided by the architects. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights (“NCCHR”) is an institution that will commemorate the historical struggle for African-American freedom and equality, and will serve as a center for the ongoing study and dialogue for evolving human rights movements across the globe. The goal of the NCCHR is to continue the search for a secure human existence in a way that inspires vigilance and leadership among future generations.
Rockwell Group is designing the NCCHR’s exhibition space in collaboration with director, writer and producer George C. Wolfe and human rights expert Jill Savitt, and is also designing graphics for the lobby, MLK gallery/pre-function area. Freelon is the Design Architect and HOK is Architect of Record of this project.
Design Concept:
The NCCHR’s exhibition space will focus on telling stories in an experiential manner that engages visitors both individually and collectively. The exhibition space will be comprised of two sets of galleries: the Civil Rights galleries and the Human Rights gallery.
The Civil Rights galleries will consist of a series of black box rooms that will tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement in a linear manner. A dramatic mix of traditional and multimedia exhibits in a light- and sound-controlled environment will offer a theatrical and immersive experience.
The Human Rights gallery is a single, open space that will be more thematically organized, encouraging visitors to wander among the exhibits an open-ended manner. A final shared gallery will celebrate the accomplishments of the Civil Rights and Human Rights movements and will serve as a place for visitors to linger, discuss their experiences, and explore ways to get involved with various causes.
Exhibitions will be presented through graphics, immersive projections, individual interactive kiosks, and group interactive stations. These distinct strategies will serve to address the varying needs of different types of visitors, as well as provide a wide range of experiences in order to engage visitors on different levels. |
A set of intimate, never-seen-before photographs of Marilyn Monroe are for sale after they were unearthed from her late makeup artist’s home.
The impromptu shots show the 27-year-old unstaged and at ease, casually posing for the man behind the lens, Allan (Whitey) Synder.
PHOTOS: MARILYN MONROE'S STILL GOT IT
“A lot of people say they knew Marilyn, but Whitey really knew Marilyn,” said Darien Julien, president and CEO of Julien’s Auctions, which is selling the photographs.
“These images were never meant to be released to the public,” Julien told the Daily News. “He had personal access to her like no one else. They would spend holidays together when she wasn’t dating anyone.”
Courtesy of Julien's Auctions/Allan "Whitey" Snyder Courtesy of Julien's Auctions/Allan "Whitey" Snyder
Synder, who did Monroe’s makeup for 16 years, took the photographs in 1953 on the set of “Niagara,” one of the actress’ first leading roles.
The photographs remained in Snyder’s family after his death in 1994. Julien explained that his family decided to sell them after Snyder’s wife also recently passed away.
Courtesy of Julien's Auctions/Allan "Whitey" Snyder Courtesy of Julien's Auctions/Allan "Whitey" Snyder
In addition to working as Monroe’s personal and professional makeup artist for almost her entire career, Julien says Synder was a beloved “confidante” to the actress.
He did her makeup at her funeral in 1962, where he was also a pallbearer.
The pair’s close relationship is evident in the photographs, Julien says.
Courtesy of Julien's Auctions/Allan "Whitey" Snyder Courtesy of Julien's Auctions/Allan "Whitey" Snyder
“They were taken by someone who was extremely comfortable with her, and you can tell by the poses and the expressions on her face,” he said.
Julien estimates that the collection of photographs will fetch between $40,000 and $100,000.
To bid, visit julienslive.com.
The auction starts Saturday.
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Poor woman (Shuttertsock)
A federal whistleblower lawsuit accuses Indiana’s largest health provider of ripping off taxpayers while shuttling poor pregnant women to substandard care, IndyStar reports.
The lawsuit claims that IU Health and HealthNet, a IU Health affiliate that serves poor patients through eight inner-city clinics, shunted high-risk pregnant women to nurse midwives, while billing them as though doctors had treated them. Also named in the lawsuit is MDwise, a local care insurer that processed many of the claims by HealthNet’s patients.
Dr. Judith Robinson, a former employee of HealthNet who filed the lawsuit, claims she raised questions about patient safety at HealthNet in 2013 and was subsequently fired.
In an email Robinson sent to her employers in spring 2013, cited in the lawsuit, Robinson raised concerns about a “broken system” and identified 14 cases where the lives of the mother and/or baby were endangered, and two with “terrible outcomes” within a six to eight-month period.
In response, HealthNet Chief Medical Officer Donald Trainor said her request to fix the problem was “premature,” according to the lawsuit.
Shortly after that, Robinson was fired.
“Why is it that it seems to be OK to have this population of indigent patients … get less care? It is just not right,” Robinson said in an interview. State policy does not allow nurse midwives to provide services to medically high-risk pregnant patients on Medicaid.
“I went to everybody and anybody I could because I was concerned about these patients,” said Robinson.
The three organizations have all benefited financially while putting the lives of high-risk, low-income pregnant women and their babies in danger, according to the lawsuit.
Trainor explained in an email in 2011 included in the suit that the reasoning behind employing more nurse midwives than obstetrician-gynecologists was “largely financial.” He continued to say in the email that while midwives are paid one-third to one-half as much as doctors, HealthNet is “paid the same amount by Medicaid (our primary payor) regardless who provides the care.”
In 2010, according to the lawsuit, midwives’ average salary was $108,632, while that of a doctor was $349,976.
This is not the first case of hospital bilking Medicaid. In similar cases, Columbia University paid a $5.1 million fine in 2002 and New York University Downtown Hospital paid $2.1 million two years later.
The three organizations face up to $100 million in penalties and fines should they lose in court. |
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The state of Sao Paulo is considering transferring four leaders of Brazil’s most powerful drug cartel to federal prisons and stricter jail terms for 12 jailed leaders following an outbreak of gang-related violence across prisons, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported on Saturday.
According to the paper, which did not say how it obtained the information, the state is analysing whether to ask federal authorities to keep as many as 12 jailed leaders of the PCC gang under a so-called strict disciplinary regime for a year.
One of the targets of the disciplinary action would be Marco Herbas Camacho, known by his alias of “Marcola” and the PCC’s most prominent leader, Estado said.
Calls to a Sao Paulo state spokeswoman seeking comment were not immediately answered.
This month’s killing of dozens of inmates by fellow prisoners in Brazil’s deadliest jail uprising in decades has exposed escalating turf wars between the PCC and the rival Comando Vermelho that risk plunging a chaotic penitentiary system deeper into violence.
An overall lack of security and lax law enforcement where authorities have long tolerated high homicide rates has left Brazil as the world’s No. 4 country in terms of the number of inmates. |
July 18th, 2013
Debian Tops Our Community Distro Poll
The results have been tallied and Debian got the most votes in our Community Distro Poll. We would call them the “winner,” but this wasn’t about winners and losers. It was about trying to reach a consensus on what we mean by the term “community distro.” We asked, “Which GNU/Linux distros do you consider to be legitimate community distros?” Choices weren’t limited to one; voters could choose as many as they wanted and even add more through a text box supplied by choosing “Other.”
Here at FOSS Force, we thought we had a clear understanding of the term “community distro” until Christine Hall singled out a particular distro as not being one. This resulted in all heck breaking loose in her article’s comments. It appeared that Ms. Hall had inadvertently offended some users of that distro, who were adamant in their insistence that they were as much a community distro as any other brand of Linux.
Despite the fact that many of you expressed the belief that this whole discussion was somewhat sophomoric and downright silly, we couldn’t lay the matter to rest and decided to put it before you, our most gentle readers, in this poll.
We had to run the poll twice. We initially ran it for a couple of days in early June, until we discovered an overeager fan of a particular distro had gotten around our limited efforts to discourage multiple voting and had stacked the deck in favor of a favorite flavor of Linux. We dropped that poll, tightened our enforcement efforts and rebooted a week later. These are the results of the second poll. Voting was pretty active, with 255 people taking part. Because we allowed multiple choices, this resulted in 855 answers.
The choices offered, in order of votes garnered, were Debian, Arch, Mint, Fedora, Mageia, Puppy, openSUSE, PCLOS, Manjaro, and “Other.” Choosing “Other” allowed the voter to write in as many additional distros as desired. The listed choices represented the top ten distros from the Page Hit Ranking at Distrowatch at the time the poll began. The poll opened on June 16 and closed on July 18.
[yop_poll id=”17″]
Interestingly, the two distros with the most votes represented our own preconceived notion that “community distros” referenced noncommercial distros that belonged to a community of developers and users.
Debian, which pulled 20% of the vote with 173 votes, was actually the distro referenced by Ms. Hall as an example of a community distro in the article that started this discussion. The second highest vote getter, Arch Linux, a distro developed primarily with developer sensibilities in mind by a community of developers, received 16% of the vote with 141 votes. The third distro on our list, Mint, is the last distro to pull double digit percentages, with 11% and 95 votes.
After these three, our personal ideas go south rather quickly and the term “community distro” begins to take on an anarchic meaning. It appears that under comman usage any distro can be a community distro if you want it to be. Although none of the distros that followed Mint on our list garnered more than 9% of the vote individually, collectively they represent a 53% majority–64% if we include Mint, which is in a grey area insofar as our definition goes. Of the remaining distros on the list only two, Puppy and Manjaro would’ve fallen under our definition of the term.
Perhaps we should say, our ex-definition of the term. This poll has taught us that the term “community distro” is meaningless when used on it’s own without modifiers and/or qualifiers.
Distros receiving more than one vote under “Other”: Gentoo (9 votes), Slackware (6 votes), CrunchBang (4 votes), CentOS (3 votes), Ultimate Edition (2 votes), ArchBang (2 votes), Kubuntu (2 votes) and SolydXK (2 votes). |
SALT LAKE CITY — Elder Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received the prestigious Canterbury Medal Thursday night in New York City for his lifetime of service in promoting the cause of religious freedom.
More than 500 people were in attendance, including religious leaders of numerous faiths, as the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty made the presentation to Elder Oaks, a member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Oaks called it the most influential audience he's ever addressed on the subject of religious freedom.
He encouraged people of all faiths to unite and "walk shoulder to shoulder on the same path" to strengthen and defend religious freedom.
"The free exercise of religion is the basic civil liberty because faith in God and His teachings and the active practice of religion are the most fundamental guiding realities of life," Elder Oaks said.
Others attending the event spoke highly of Elder Oaks and his leadership on the issue of preserving religious freedom.
Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University, said, "It is a very special night because we're honoring a great man — not only an LDS leader but an American leader."
Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, presented the award to Elder Oaks.
Religious freedom must not be seen as something serving only the interests of churches and synagogues. It must be understood as a protection for religious people, whether or not their beliefs involve membership or behavior. –Elder Dallin H. Oaks
"In recent years, Catholics and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have stood more frequently side by side in the public square in order to defend human life and dignity. It's through this cooperation around shared principles and concerns that I've come to know (Elder Oaks)," he said.
The president of the Becket Fund, William P. Mumma, said in an interview prior to Thursday night's event that the interfaith efforts are reason for optimism.
"The experience of the Mormon church and the Catholic church really represent what's happening in the country at large," he said. "Who would've imagined 15, 20 years ago that Cardinal Dolan and members of the LDS church would be regularly meeting, would be friendly, would be cooperative. We aim for mutually desired aims, which is essentially to defend religious liberty. Not just for Catholics and Mormons, but for all Americans. That's a pretty optimistic course."
Addressing the audience, Elder Oaks noted that for the past half century scholars have observed the role of religion declining in American life.
"In this same period, the guarantee of free exercise of religion seems to be weakening in public esteem," he said. "It is surely under siege by the forces of political correctness, which would replace it with other priorities."
Public understanding and support of religious freedom is important for the future, he said.
He also noted encouraging signs, including a recent study showing that one-fourth of all Americans consider religion to be the First Amendment freedom most threatened.
Elder Oaks said it's important to understand that religious freedom is an issue for all religious people, not just those who belong to a church or synagogue. Studies show an increasing number of Americans considers themselves religious but not associated with organized religion. Elder Oaks called religious freedom "a protection for religious people, whether or not their beliefs involve membership or behavior."
He urged religious people and institutions to "insist on our constitutional right to exercise our beliefs and to voice our consciences on issues in the public square and in the halls of justice."
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Compatible with iOS 5 through 9
How many times have you found yourself searching Google, Wikipedia, etc for the song you're currently listening to? With MoreInfo you can quickly perform an in-browser search for the currently playing song or movie using an Activator gesture. MoreInfo gathers the current media's title by default, but you can also add the Artist or Album information into your search.
MoreInfo supports any music or video app that registers it's "Now Playing" information (that's almost all of them).
Supported searches are:
Allmusic
Amazon
AZLyrics
Bing
Discogs
DuckDuckGo
Google
IMDb
iTunes Store
metacritic
rap genius
Reddit
Rotten Tomatoes
Ultimate Guitar
Who Sampled
Wikipedia
Yahoo
YouTube
Also, if the website has a region or language setting, that can be customized too. You can personalize each search engine independently to fine tune the results.
Support for iOS5, iOS6, iOS7 and arm64 (iPhone 5S, iPad Air). Not tested on 8.0 BETA
Though not necessary, you can get all of the searches into one menu by going to Activator -> Menu -> Add New Menu and then adding all of the searches to that menu. Now you can assign one gesture to the menu you just built.
See larger Screenshots below.. |
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri teenager says a high school teacher told her during class that she was too “busty” and that “plus-sized women” need to shop at stores that sell larger clothing.
The confrontation happened last Friday, an attorney for Kelsey Anderson said in a statement released Tuesday, and the 17-year-old was sent to the office at Joplin High School for a dress code violation. The statement said the teacher also told Kelsey that “smaller busted women could get away with more than larger busted women.”
The Joplin School District said in a statement that it doesn’t consider staff comments “about students’ bodies appropriate” and is investigating whether there was a violation of a policy requiring staff to “maintain courteous and professional relationships with students.”
Anderson’s mother posted a photo on Facebook of what the teen was wearing that shows her clad in a burgundy long-sleeved, laced, V-neck shirt and jeans with ripped knees.
“I was mortified by my teacher, of all people, saying something like this in front of my class,” Anderson said in the statement released by her attorney. “When I was pulled into a meeting with the Principal, he told me that he had never heard of me being victimized before and he didn’t really believe what I said.”
Anderson’s attorney, Elizabeth Turner, said in the statement that “body shaming isn’t something to take lightly,” noting that suicide rates among teenage girls are on the rise.
“It is sad that in this day and age, when we teach children and young adults about the dangers of bullying and body shaming with laws to protect against bullying, that we have to worry about the adults in our children’s lives being the ones to hurt them,” Turner said.
The district said its dress code prohibits attire that “materially disrupts the educational environment,” but that clothing restrictions can’t violate Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education. The district said it couldn’t comment further on what happened, in part because of student privacy laws.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. |
26th February 2013 - Fraps 3.5.99 Released Fraps 3.5 adds the much requested feature to allow AVI movie files larger than 4 gigabytes. Fraps will now write hybrid OpenDML/AVI files and allow large movies on NTFS drives. There's still an option to split at 4 gigabytes for legacy AVI 1.0 support. Please be aware that the minimum system requirements have changed in Fraps 3.5.0. We now require a CPU with SSE2 instructions (Pentium 4 & above). Windows XP or higher is also now required. If you have an older system (Win2K or non-SSE2 CPU) you can still download the previous Fraps 3.4.7 release from the download page.
Changelog Fraps 3.5.99 - 26th February, 2013 - Fixed counter not appearing in Aero desktop (DWM) and DX10 games after latest Windows Update Fraps 3.5.9 - 30th August, 2012 - Fixed crash when initiating loop recording - Fixed periodic stutter for some users during loop recording Fraps 3.5.8 - 22nd August, 2012 - Fixed intermittent crash recording from OpenGL games - Fixed crash when unable to access sound device - Fixed minor memory leak with Win7/Vista sound recording - Fixed crash encountered by some users when ending a recording Fraps 3.5.7 - 14th August, 2012 - Fixed audio sync in long recordings for Windows XP users - Fixed problem taking screenshots from DWM even with counter on screen - Fixed 64-bit DirectX 11 games always being recorded in lossless RGB - Fixed corruption in video when audio source set to 11.25kHz - Other minor bug fixes Fraps 3.5.6 - 21st July, 2012 - Fixed microphone drifting out of sync in long recordings under Windows 7 & Vista - Fixed clipping with audio sources greater than 8 channels - Fixed audio from mono USB devices only appearing in left channel - Reduced latency of capture from external inputs Fraps 3.5.5 - 12th June, 2012 - Fixed black borders captured around GameMaker based games - Fixed crash in D3D10/11 video recording with 64-bit applications - Fixed scrambled colors saved with some 10-bit color modes Fraps 3.5.4 - 30th May, 2012 - Improved capture speed for D3D8 games - Fixed Max Payne 1 not recording when AA enabled - Fixed error when initializing DirectX on Windows 7 Fraps 3.5.3 - 27th May, 2012 - Fixed micro-stutter in recorded video after temporary framerate drop - Fixed missing video frames in some games after rendering paused - Fixed bug causing error message on startup for some users Fraps 3.5.2 - 20th May 2012 - Fixed missing audio at end of long recordings - Fixed error preventing movie playback in Windows Media Player - Fixed screen freezing when starting video capture in Minecraft & other OpenGL games - Fixed crash during video mode switch in DosBox Fraps 3.5.1 - 18th May 2012 - Added support for exFAT drives writing larger than 4 Gigabytes - Fixed crash when large custom resolutions used in game Fraps 3.5.0 - 26th April 2012 - Support for large AVI movie files (above 4 Gigabytes) on NTFS drives - Added option to split AVIs at 4 Gigabytes for legacy AVI 1.0 support - Fixed loop recording using large amounts of disk space for short clips - Fixed benchmark logs not being saved if game was quit before benchmark ended - Fixed View folder not opening window on some machines - NEW MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: CPU with SSE2 required (Pentium 4 & above) - Windows 2000 is no longer supported (Windows XP & above) 22nd October 2011 - Fraps 3.4.7 Released The latest version of Fraps includes an update to the loop recording mode, allowing you to specify a custom length for the buffer (rather than the default 30 seconds). To activate the recording loop simply press and hold your video capture hotkey until the Fraps counter turns pink, indicating that loop recording has begun. We have also included new optimizations for recording at high resolutions such as 1920x1080 (1080P). Performance gains should be seen in most OpenGL and DirectX games with Fraps 3.4.
Changelog Fraps 3.4.7 - 22nd October 2011 - Fixed recording rate being locked to a low multiple when Vsync enabled - Fixed unlocked recording speed after temporary slowdowns - Fixed Alt key interference with VMware/remote desktop applications Fraps 3.4.6 - 31st July 2011 - Fixed overlay color in Fear 3 - Fixed detection of IL2: Cliffs of Dover and Bloodline Champions - Fixed counter appearing in Thunderbird and Pale Moon applications - Other minor bug fixes Fraps 3.4.5 - 28th May 2011 - Fixed some videos being recorded with scrambled colors Fraps 3.4.4 - 26th May 2011 - Increased performance capturing Vista/Windows 7 aero desktop (DWM) - Reduced memory footprint of Fraps process - Fixed Fraps crash while idling on desktop - Fixed gem glowing while recording The Dark Mod - Fixed hotkeys not responding when simulated from autohotkey/macro apps - Fixed graphic corruption in some OpenGL titles Fraps 3.4.3 - 12th May 2011 - Improved DirectDraw capture speed - Fixed recording crash on single CPU systems - Fixed invalid colors/crashing recording from 16-bit color games - Fixed corrupt/oversized AVIs being written at high resolutions - Fixed Dirt not loading with Fraps running - Other minor bug fixes and optimizations Fraps 3.4.2 - 14th Apr 2011 - Improved OpenGL capture speed - Fixed freeze when clicking on Minimize button - Fixed GL state not being restored properly - Fixed blank video showing in some AVIs Fraps 3.4.1 - 2nd Apr 2011 - Fixed crash when starting Fraps for some users - Fixed hotkeys not being detected when modifier keys held - Fixed keys getting stuck when used by both the game and Fraps Fraps 3.4.0 - 29th Mar 2011 - Added configurable buffer size for loop recording mode - Increased video capture performance at high resolutions - Fixed slow recording of Minecraft at default window size - Fixed benchmark crashing when configured to stop automatically after 1 second 15th March 2011 - Fraps 3.3.3 Released Microsoft have just released a new service pack for Windows 7 and we've updated Fraps to support Windows 7 SP1. There's also a new option in Fraps to only capture the external sound input while a hotkey is pressed. This is useful for people recording their microphone while using push-to-talk in their voice comms software.
Changelog Fraps 3.3.3 - 15th Mar 2011 - Fixed mouse not responding in Ragnarok and some applications Fraps 3.3.2 - 9th Mar 2011 - Added detection of mouse buttons (Mouse3, Mouse4 & Mouse5 can be used as hotkeys) - Added support for all Ctrl, Shift & Alt combinations for use with Fraps hotkeys Fraps 3.3.1 - 1st Mar 2011 - Fixed Fraps not detecting Agrar Simulator 2011 and some D3D9Ex applications - Fixed wrong capture dimensions for Fallout 3/New Vegas & Milkdrop - Fixed counter showing over frames in IE9 beta - Fixed stereoscopic capture not working in half-size mode for some games - Additional minor bug fixes Fraps 3.3.0 - 22nd Feb 2011 - Full support for Windows 7 SP1 - Added option to only capture external sound input while hotkey pushed (Vista/Win7) - Fixed stereoscopic 3D capture not working for D3D9 games - Fixed counter not appearing in Dungeons 10th February 2011 - Fraps 3.2.9 Released Fraps 3.2 brings a new feature for registered users - loop recording, constantly capture the previous 30 seconds of video. To start the buffering press and hold the video capture hotkey for a second. The Fraps counter will turn pink to show that video is being cached. When you want to save the action simply tap the capture hotkey and the recording will continue as normal (including the previous 30 seconds of footage). Never miss a moment again. Fraps, or it didn't happen!
Changelog Fraps 3.2.9 - 10th Feb 2011 - Fixed crash if recording to drive with less than 4 gigabytes free - Improved sound capture engine for those suffering sync issues - Fixed 3D browser apps not being correctly monitored in Firefox 3 - Fixed detection of UDK viewport sizes Fraps 3.2.8 - 3rd Feb 2011 - Greatly reduced CPU usage while recording on most configurations - Fixed black areas in captures from Flight Simulator (FS9/FSX) - Fixed counter not showing in correct position for some windowed applications - Fixed crash when recording DWM at 1366x768 on 64-bit versions of Windows - Fixed counter appearing in Google Talk Fraps 3.2.7 - 19th Jan 2011 - Fixed large pause between split AVI segments - Fixed stuttering when using loop recording on Vista/Win7 - Other minor bug fixes Fraps 3.2.6 - 24th Dec 2010 - Fixed Fraps not able to initialize DirectX on startup for some people - Fixed crash while recording that could cause video to be written incompletely - Fixed rare bug causing graphic corruption of individual frames in recorded movies - Fixed crash on Windows 2000 machines Fraps 3.2.5 - 2nd Dec 2010 - Fixed keys sticking/duplicated with Fraps loaded - Fixed Fraps not capturing in half-size mode for some users Fraps 3.2.4 - 28th Nov 2010 - Added support for D3D10 & D3D11 stereoscopic 3D Vision capture - Fixed counter appearing on Windows Live 2011 apps - Fixed inverted colors in video captured from some DX10 games - Fixed DWM capture jumping between multiple monitors on Windows 7 - Fixed flickering counter in some OpenGL applications - Fixed mouse offset in 3D browser apps - Fixed FRAPS.EXE not appearing signed on some Windows 7 installations - Fixed systray icon not turning pink in loop recording mode. - Fixed startup crash on 24-core CPU systems - Added support for Win7 SP1 RC - Other minor bug/stability fixes Fraps 3.2.3 - 14th Jun 2010 - Added support for full-size video capture above 2560x1600 - Fixed crash when loading Fraps under WinXP with 6-core CPU - Fixed crash when enabling monitor DWM option on some configurations - Fixed Fraps altering error flag on calls to GL SwapBuffers - Fixed sound input switching at startup on XP systems - Fixed counter appearing in VS2010 Fraps 3.2.2 - 31st Mar 2010 - Fixed trouble opening movies with VLC, Avidemux, AVI synth, Virtualdub and some other applications - Fixed problem capturing stereoscopic movies at 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 - Fixed loop recordings sometimes becoming corrupted Fraps 3.2.1 - 29th Mar 2010 - Fixed screen capture of large resolutions (ATI Eyefinity) - Fixed counter disappearing in some games when switching resolution - Improved recording speed on SLI configurations - Other minor bug/crash fixes Fraps 3.2.0 - 26th Mar 2010 - Added loop recording for registered users. Press and hold video capture hotkey to start 30 second buffer - Added option to disable stereoscopic capture when running with NVIDIA 3DVision - Major optimizations for recording from D3D10 & D3D11 games 4th March 2010 - Fraps 3.1.2 Released Fraps 3.1 gives you the option to capture video with or without a locked framerate. If you have a fast machine you can now play your games at a higher speed than the target movie framerate. We are also aware that quite a few people with Intel i5/i7 configurations were having difficulty loading Fraps on Windows 7. This issue has been fixed in the new release.
Changelog Fraps 3.1.2 - 4th Mar 2010 - Fixed STALKER: Call of Pripyat not loading with Fraps running - Fixed slow recording speeds for some users in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Fixed Guild Wars crashing when moving between zones - Fixed videos being recorded at double width on some nvidia configurations - Fixed colors being inverted in video captured from some DX10 games - Fixed multiple FRAPS32.DLL crashes Fraps 3.1.1 - 11th Feb 2010 - Fixed detection of loading screens when recording with unlocked framerate - Added product information to installer Fraps 3.1.0 - 8th Feb 2010 - Added option to capture videos with framerate locked or unlocked - Fixed startup crash for some Intel i5/i7 configurations under Windows 7 - Minimum recording speed is now 1 fps to allow for time lapse recording - Fixed vista desktop recording not capturing mouse cursor - Fixed sound length for Vista/Win7 recordings - Added large address support to 32-bit codec - Fixed window starting off screen on some multi-monitor systems 21st November 2009 - Fraps 3.0.3 Released New features and a new look! Fraps is now compatible with Windows 7 and the latest DirectX 11 games. Ventrilo & TeamSpeak users have long wanted a way to record their microphone and speakers at the same time. For Windows 7 and Vista we've added realtime sound mixing to our video recording so you can now capture both sides of the conversation! NVIDIA have recently included stereoscopic 3D support directly into their drivers. If you play your DirectX9 (D3D9) game with 3D Vision enabled you can use Fraps to record the game in full 3D too! You'll get a side-by-side stereo AVI recording that you can drop straight in to a stereoscopic 3D player! Finally, we are aware that more and more people are putting Fraps to professional use. We've added a new option to force lossless RGB compression to ensure that you always have the highest quality video output to work with. We hope you enjoy Fraps 3!
Changelog Fraps 3.0.3 - 21st Nov 2009 - Fixed installer not displaying correctly for some users under Win7 Fraps 3.0.2 - 18th Nov 2009 - Fixed inability to put machine to sleep with Fraps running - Fixed bug preventing people from updating the benchmark timeout value - Fixed problem restoring Fraps window to previous position upon startup - Fixed AUDIODG.EXE consuming large amounts of CPU for some users Fraps 3.0.1 - 8th Nov 2009 - Added minimize to systray option for Win7 users - Fixed video capture frame rate defaulting to 30 fps when Fraps loads Fraps 3.0.0 - 5th Nov 2009 - DirectX 11 support - Compatible with Windows 7 final (RTM) and RC1 versions - Stereoscopic 3D Vision video capture up to 1920x1200 for D3D9 games - Force lossless RGB option to always capture video in pure form - Ability to mix both game sound and external input such as microphone (Vista/Win7 only) 16th October 2009 - Fraps 2.9.99 Released Fraps has just turned TEN, version 1.0 being released all the way back on August 25, 1999! Looking back it's kind of hard to believe how much has changed since those early days of DirectX and 3D graphics. From simple beginnings we've seen the prevalence of real-time benchmarking, and the emergence of the amazing machinima community from video captured in-game. A very special thank you to all who have helped Fraps evolve and improve over the last decade!
Changelog
Fraps 2.9.99 - 16th Oct 2009 - Fixed flickering video capture in Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - Fixed 30-bit color captures in Eve Online - Fixed mouse cursor not being recorded in Conquer Online - Other minor bug fixes Fraps 2.9.9 - 29th Aug 2009 - Fixed missing audio in Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas - Fixed benchmarks not being written to benchmark folder - Fixed loading crash when attempting to start Fraps - Fixed stalling/stuttering after first 4 gig AVI segment - Fixed mouse cursor image/transparency corruption - Fixed mouse cursor offset in some applications - Fixed crash when recording above 1920x1200 for some users - Fixed crash after stopping video capture in Windows 2000 - Fixed crash in some DirectX10 applications - Fixed random windows crashes with fraps.dll - Fixed missing systray icon if explorer restarts - Fixed frapsvid.dll and frapsv64.dll crashes when importing/playing video - Fixed Run Fraps when Windows starts option - Fixed Starcraft stalling during video capture - Fixed limited CPU affinity of main Fraps process - Fixed yellow corruption displayed in Plants vs Zombies - Fixed capture speed of many older DDRAW games 3rd January 2009 - Fraps 2.9.8 Released Fraps 2.9 adds support for Vista and DirectX 10 games. With games starting to appear using DirectX 10 graphics we are happy to report that benchmarking, video capture, and screenshots are now all fully supported for these titles. Vista also includes a rewritten audio subsystem. Fraps can take advantage of this and directly record a sound stream from the machine without requiring any support from the soundcard driver. This allows you to capture ingame audio even if you are using a USB headset or other audio device which does not normally support a "Stereo Mix" or "What U Hear" recording input. Since the Vista Desktop Window Manager (DWM) runs through DirectX we have also added a new option to monitor the desktop under Vista. You can now take screenshots and record video from the desktop just like any other game or 3D application.
Changelog
Fraps 2.9.8 - 3rd Jan 2009 - Fixed crash on installation for some users - Fixed Fraps not working with Combat Arms - Fixed counter not switching properly between multiple active 3D applications - Fixed Fraps not detecting windowed games while monitoring DWM - Systray icon now turns red while recording - Minor optimizations and bug fixes - Reduced memory footprint of 64-bit version of Fraps Fraps 2.9.7 - 19th Dec 2008 - Fixed 64-bit applications crashing soon after loading - Fixed low quality sound recording with Left 4 Dead under Windows XP - Fixed graphic corruption in X-Plane (and other OpenGL titles) - Fixed crash when recording a DirectX 9 game and changing resolution - Fixed Fraps not detecting games after being run at Windows startup - Fixed hotkeys not responding when Alt held down - Fixed monitoring of Vista DWM after a full-screen application has exited - Fixed Fluidmark displaying a blank screen with Fraps loaded - Fixed FS9 crashing when menu activated while recording - Fixed DWMAPI error on some Windows XP installs - Improved recording speed of DirectX9 games in Vista SP1 and SP2 beta - Added warning if no sound recording device found under Windows 2000 or XP Fraps 2.9.6 - 2nd Oct 2008 - Fixed games such as Stalker not being detected in 2.9.5 - Fixed video capture corruption in FSX on multi monitor setups - Fixed codec crashes in large projects - Fixed Fraps not starting with Windows when running on battery power - Fixed Fraps closing when switching to battery power - Fixed OpenGL video capture not recording correct viewport in some applications - Fixed sound sync when recording started while rendering paused Fraps 2.9.5 - 10th Sep 2008 - Added Stereo & Multichannel recording options for Direct Stream audio in Vista - Added support for many DDRAW games running in windowed mode - Added support for games that use multiple swapchains in D3D9 - Added large size icon for Vista - Fixed slow video capture speeds recording many older DDRAW games - Fixed capture crash for DDRAW games in XP SP3 - Fixed misaligned audio with Vista Direct Stream when sound was silent - Fixed 64-bit OpenGL apps not being detected - Fixed long delay starting video capture on some Vista configurations - Fixed crash in Fraps if video capture key pressed quickly in succession - Fixed Fraps exit dialog appearing at random intervals - Fixed "This program might not have installed correctly" error in Vista - Fixed corrupted volume slider in Vista when Fraps loaded - Fixed scrambled colors when recording in 8-bit and 16-bit from some older games - Fixed crash loading levels in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Fraps 2.9.4 - 14th Jan 2008 - Added 64-bit Fraps FPS1 codec - Added support for resolutions up to 2560x1600 on single core CPUs - Fixed crash when recording with sound under Vista SP1 - Fixed D3D9 recording speed on x64 versions of Windows - Fixed Windows start bug when Fraps installed in a folder with a space in the name - Improved compatibility with 3rd party graphic utilities Fraps 2.9.3 - 21st Nov 2007 - Fixed crash in DX10 games when AA enabled - Fixed sound sync/length issue when 29.97 option used - Improved video capture smoothness on slower hard drives - Fixed LCD output displaying wrong resolution for DX10 games - Fixed Run Fraps when Windows starts option under Vista - Added support for DX8 SwapChains - Reduced delay between split AVIs Fraps 2.9.2 - 10th Sep 2007 - Fixed Direct Stream sound recording with 5.1 speaker configuration - Fixed World Of Warcraft crash if Alt-Tab pressed while recording - Fixed startup error under XP when Alky installed - Fixed DX10 support when DXGI_PRESENT_TEST flag used - Fixed function keys not responding in FFXI Fraps 2.9.1 - 12th Jul 2007 - Fixed blank video capture occurring with some configurations Fraps 2.9.0 - 10th Jul 2007 - Added support for DirectX 10 - Added option to monitor Desktop Window Manager under Vista - Added Direct Stream sound recording for Vista - Fixed screen tearing in video captured from DX9 games - Fixed G15 LCD output running fast on Vista machines - Improved resource sharing with multithreaded games - Added numerous crash and compatibility fixes 21st December 2006 - Fraps 2.8.2 Released Got Dual Core? For video capture we're happy to announce the removal of resolution restrictions on multi-core systems. So whether you want to record in 1280x1024 or go for HD 1080p you now have the choice :) We're also proud to once again be a sponsor of the Machinima Film Festival. For anyone interested in the convergence of games and cinema this is THE event to attend and we look forward to seeing the year's best Machinima. If you're in the New York area on Nov 4th-5th please consider checking out the festival and saying hi! More information: http://festival.machinima.org/
Changelog
Fraps 2.8.2 - 21st Dec 2006 - Fixed gamma not being applied to video in some DirectX games - Fixed macro keys playing back slowly when G15 display enabled - Fixed crash taking screenshots when recording a movie at the same time - Fixed high CPU load on some machines with LCD output Fraps 2.8.1 - 26th Oct 2006 - Fixed skewed video capture when game resolution width not a multiple of 8 - Fixed slow full-size recording when anti-aliasing forced in NVIDIA Control Panel - Fixed blank/garbage captures after switching between multiple games - Fixed crash on Fraps exit Fraps 2.8.0 - 20th Oct 2006 - Added full-size video capture up to 2560x1600 for dual core CPUs - Added G15 gameinfo screen (mapped to 4th button) - Added Targa (TGA) screenshot format support - Added dual core optimizations to Fraps FPS1 codec - Added extra digit to counter (now displays above 999 fps) - Improved full-size D3D9 video capture speed (10-20%) - Fixed G15 display not scaling properly with high framerates - Fixed Company of Heroes reporting 999 fps - Fixed mouse cursor offset in some windowed applications - Fixed flickering movies recording Flight Simulator 9/FSX with dual monitors 18th June 2006 - Fraps 2.7.4 Released The latest Fraps 2.7 release adds support for the new Logitech® G15™ keyboard. The G15 features an inbuilt LCD display and with Fraps you can now see an FPS history graph during your gaming sessions. Reviewers will also like the fact that there is a counter keeping track of timed benchmarks. For those who prefer recording movies without the overlay on screen you will also find a separate indicator for video capture. We've also spent a lot of time optimizing the video capture routines with big gains on many configurations (up to 20% faster on single core CPUs). Great for capturing high resolutions with smooth frame rates.
Changelog
Fraps 2.7.4 - 18th Jun 2006 - Fixed intermittent crash on XP SP1 systems - Fixed audio click when start of recording delayed Fraps 2.7.3 - 30th Apr 2006 - Added support for latest version of GameGuard (Maple Story, Ragnarok) - Fixed capture speed on dual cores when CPU affinity has been user selected - Fixed audio length of recorded movies to match video length - Fixed screen capture on Dell 30" (2560x1600) - Fixed problem updating 64-bit components under Windows x64 editions - Fixed detection of Monitor Mixer on M-Audio sound cards - Fixed mouse cursor not being saved when game running in 16-bit color mode Fraps 2.7.2 - 3rd Dec 2005 - Fixed corruption in screenshots & video capture with latest ATI Catalysts Fraps 2.7.1 - 9th Nov 2005 - Fixed bug restoring sound input - Fixed animation on LCD after exiting game - Updated installer to NSIS 2.10 Fraps 2.7.0 - 6th Nov 2005 - Added support for Logitech G15 keyboard LCD - Improved video capture routines (up to 20% faster on single cores) - Reduced codec memory consumption in Movie Maker and Premiere - Added Alt key modifier support for hotkey selections - Fixed extended hotkeys triggering with numpad equivalents - Added video capture support for 1920x540 and 2160x480 resolutions - Removed FRAPSSEC log option. Superseded by detailed FPS statistics - Fixed What U Hear not being detected on some Creative cards 15th August 2005 - Fraps 2.6.4 Released A number of fixes have been included in the latest Fraps release. Some common problems have been resolved so we recommend all users check the changelog and update to the latest version.
Changelog
Fraps 2.6.4 - 15th Aug 2005 - Fixed custom movie fps reverting to 29.97 after multiple restarts - Fixed sound not being captured in all movies under Windows 2000 - Fixed error message when running Fraps under limited user account - Fixed settings not being saved for limited users - Fixed Risk Your Life and Lineage 2 not capturing for some users - Added warning message if Direct3D debug runtime active - Installer will now update codec if it's being used at the time Fraps 2.6.3 - 17th Jul 2005 - Fixed intermittent corrupt movie files (codec missing error) - Fixed screenshot key not always responding with early DirectX games - Movie & screenshot directories are recreated if they've been deleted - Added workaround for systems with AlienGUIse (missing checkboxes) Fraps 2.6.2 - 5th Jul 2005 - Fixed recording freeze when disk full or directory invalid - Fixed only a single frame being displayed in short movies - Set sound capture rate back to 44.1kHz (compatibility issues) - Fixed no sound playing in clips imported into Pinnacle Studio - Fraps window now restored to last position on screen Fraps 2.6.1 - 29th Jun 2005 - Fixed Guildwars recording crash when changing resolution - Fixed overlay not moving after selecting a new corner in Fraps - Changed default sound capture rate to 48kHz - Fixed D3D9 screen capture with new AA modes - Fixed crash in POL menu 15th June 2005 - Fraps 2.6.0 Released This major update adds a much requested feature to directly specify the video capture frame rate. You can now enter any value from 10 fps up to 100 fps with three decimal places of precision. Great for capturing directly to many common video formats including 23.976, 29.97, and 59.94 fps. Hardware mouse cursors are a feature in many modern games and you now have the ability to capture the screen with or without the cursor overlay. Simply select the No Cursor option to prevent the HW cursor from being saved in your film. We've introduced a new 64-bit video capture engine for games such as Far Cry and Chronicles of Riddick now available in native Windows x64 format. 64-bit code offers many performance advantages and we will be continuing to optimize in this area with future releases. A brief reminder to please ensure that your video drivers are up to date. This means at least the 71.89 Forceware drivers available from nVidia, or the 5.6 Catalyst drivers from ATI. The 5.6 Catalysts fix a lot of issues with OpenGL and are highly recommended for Radeon owners.
Changelog
Fraps 2.6.0 - 15th Jun 2005 - Added custom movie frame rate selection (record from 10 to 100 fps) - Added option to capture video with or without hardware mouse cursor - Added support for 1-bit Windows hardware cursors - New 64-bit video capture engine under Windows x64 - Improved performance capturing half-size video on most systems - Fixed PNG and JPG screenshots for native 64-bit games - Fixed detailed benchmark statistics not saving for native 64-bit games - Fixed OpenGL error raised when capturing with Radeon graphics card - Fixed horizontal graphic noise in video capture of old DirectX titles - Fixed graphic corruption capturing Winamp AVS plugin - Fixed codec playback crash when out of memory 7th April 2005 - Fraps 2.5.5 Released IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR NVIDIA 6600/6800 SLI OWNERS: It has been brought to our attention that SLI render modes in the 71.84 drivers will not activate with Fraps 2.5.3 (and earlier) running in the background. This results in games always running with Single-GPU performance. All SLI users are urged to update to the latest Fraps which does not conflict with SLI rendering. Special thanks to Chris Ray (nV News) and Brent Justice (HardOCP) for identifying this issue.
Changelog
Fraps 2.5.5 - 7th Apr 2005 - Fixed freeze when switching DirectDraw resolutions (WinUAE) - Fixed DirectX applications closing after exiting Fraps - Fixed blurred video playback above 1024x768 on ATI cards Fraps 2.5.4 - 18th Mar 2005 - Resolved conflict preventing SLI with 71.84 Forceware drivers - Fixed crash when right clicking in change directory window - Fixed crash in some browsers when launching Help window Fraps 2.5.3 - 3rd Mar 2005 - Fixed crash under Japanese Windows, SW: Galaxies, and other games - Fixed alpha blending of mouse cursors under OpenGL - Fixed green frame at start of split AVI's Fraps 2.5.2 - 24th Feb 2005 - Fixed sound detection of Intel HD Audio (Realtek HD) - Fixed compatibility with current nProtect games (Gunbound) - Fixed crash when running multiple game clients simultaneously Fraps 2.5.1 - 29th Dec 2004 - Fixed crash with Windows Movie Maker - Additional optimizations for better video playback on low-end systems 10th December 2004 - Fraps 2.5.0 Released It's now five years since Fraps was first released to the public. To help celebrate the milestone we've released the next major update, Fraps 2.5 There's something for everyone with 60 fps recording, HDTV 1280x720 supprt, and extra lossless compression that reduces the burden on hard drives without sacrificing quality. If screenshots are more your thing it's also now possible to automatically capture screens at fixed rate intervals. We've also taken advantage of the latest benefits in CPU and bus technology. Think nothing can take advantage of PCI-Express? Think again! Fraps 2.5 can process hundreds of megabytes of video data and make full use of the extra bandwidth. At this point we'd like to extend a very special thanks to all who have supported the program over the years. Your help, suggestions, and registrations have all been instrumental in getting Fraps to the stage it is now and we hope you enjoy the latest release. We're also very much looking forward to the next five years :)
Changelog
Fraps 2.5.0 - 10th Dec 2004 - Added 40 fps, 50 fps, and 60 fps video capture options - Added HDTV 1280x720 widescreen resolution support - Additional lossless compression generates smaller video files - Improved capture performance on native PCI-Express systems - Improved load balancing on Hyperthreading and dual core CPUs - Increased maximum full size video capture resolution to 1152x864 - Added white overlay flash when screen capture performed - Added option to automatically repeat screen capture every x seconds - Added View Benchmarks, View Movies, and View Screenshots options to systray - Detailed benchmark statistics can now be individually selected 20th October 2004 - Fraps 2.3.3 Released Fraps has been updated to accomodate changes in the new Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) release. All XP users should update to the latest version. Fraps 2.3 also allows screenshots to be saved in JPG and PNG formats which are better suited for posting directly to the Internet.
Changelog
Fraps 2.3.3 - 20th Oct 2004 - Fixed memory leak in video codec (video editors could crash after time) - Fixed crash while changing resolutions in some DX9 games - Aligned data in detailed benchmark CSV files Fraps 2.3.2 - 20th Sept 2004 - Fixed blurred playback of 1024x768 movies on ATI cards - Fixed video capture automatically restarting after recording stopped - Fixed crash when Record Sound enabled on a machine with no sound card - Fixed autodetection of best Sound Device with multiple sound cards under XP - Additional minor fixes for WinXP SP2 Fraps 2.3.1 - 9th Sept 2004 - Fixed crash in 2.3.0 when Save Detailed Benchmark Statistics enabled - Fixed incorrect colors recorded from games running in 16-bit color Fraps 2.3.0 - 8th Sept 2004 - Many changes for optimum video recording under WinXP SP2 - New 256 color capture engine (perfect quality, smaller filesize) - Added JPG and PNG screen capture support (registered users) - Fixed rare codec decoding bug 29th July 2004 - Fraps 2.2.5 Released DirectX 9.0c is now officially out! We strongly recommend anyone who has updated to the latest version of DirectX to also install Fraps 2.2.5 for the best video capture performance. The changes for Fraps 2.2.5 are listed below:
Changelog
Fraps 2.2.5 - Final DirectX 9.0c support for official retail runtime - Fixed slow DX9 video capture with anti-aliased games and nvidia 61.76/61.77 drivers - Fixed bug outputting lots of 0 and 1 entries at start of FRAPSSEC log - Fixed crash when starting video capture in some OpenGL applications Fraps 2.2.4 - Preliminary DirectX 9.0c support - Improved Fraps graphics for systems using large size DPI setting - Fixed keyboard response delay encountered by some users - Fixed single dropped video frame in split AVI - Fixed screen & video capture corruption in Manager Zone - Fixed Silent Hill 3 crashing on startup when overlay enabled Fraps 2.2.3 - Fixed video capture deadlock on single core CPUs Fraps 2.2.2 - Fixed screnshot/movie View buttons not always opening folder - Fixed some 256 color capture issues (Age Of Empires 2, Diablo 2) - Now permits video/screen capture where no FPS overlay is displayed (Starcraft & Diablo) - Fixed audio sync when video capture hotkey was pressed before rendering had begun Fraps 2.2.1 - Fixed City Of Heroes only working intermittently - Fixed video capture only saving a single frame for some users - Improved sound capture support (was not always starting correctly) 11th June 2004 - Fraps 2.2.0 Released It's time to revisit the classics, Fraps can now capture 256 color mode games! Being fans of retrogaming ourselves we figured it was time to extend support to the earliest of DirectX games. So dig out your old favourites and give them a try in the latest Fraps release, you might be suprised with the results! With an eye to the past we are also strongly focused on the future. Fraps 2.2.0 can capture the latest DirectX 9 titles better than ever before, especially when run at extreme resolutions! If you love playing at 1280x1024 you'll definitely want to check out this version.
Changelog
Fraps 2.2.0 - Added 256 color video and screen capture - Many old games (DX7 and earlier) better supported - Faster video capture in the latest DX9 titles - Fixed OpenGL screen capture (broken in 2.1.1) - Fixed Final Fantasy XI erratic keyboard/hotkey behaviour - Added "Run Fraps when Windows starts" option - Added folder View buttons for movies and screenshots 22nd May 2004 - Fraps 2.1.1 Released A new maintenance release of Fraps 2.1 is available. This includes the following fixes:
Changelog
Fraps 2.1.1 - Fixed sound clipping in between split movie files - Fixed frame rate counter not showing in some DirectX 8 games (Ford Racing 2) - Fixed gamma effects not being saved in movies (flashes/fades/explosions) - Fixed memory leak in OpenGL path - Fixed 3D applications crashing if Fraps was exited early - Increased output precision in detailed benchmark statistics (frame times) - Support for recent Direct X SDK betas (Retail libraries only) 24th March 2004 - Fraps 2.1.0 Released Fraps enters the 64-bit arena with support for machines with AMD Athlon 64/FX processors! Benchmarking and screen capture features are operating for 64-bit DirectX 9 and OpenGL applications. The only requirement is a 64-bit edition of Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server. There have been numerous improvements to the video capture engine with much smoother movies for high-end machines. Direct X 9 capture speeds have also improved so you'll notice benefits recording the latest games. Benchmarking overhaul for enthusiasts and reviewers! Timed benchmarks are a new feature (automatically stops the benchmark after a fixed time period). There's also the ability to output detailed statistics for each run directly to CSV files.
Changelog
Fraps 2.1.0 - Added 64-bit benchmarking and screen capture support (AMD64) - Able to launch Fraps on Athlon XP's with SSE disabled in BIOS - Fixed counter not showing in some games (Battlefield Vietnam, Midnight Club 2) - Fixed hotkeys not operating properly in some games (Mafia) - General: Added Always On Top option for the Fraps window - General: GUI corruption has been fixed when large DPI is enabled in Display Properties - FPS: Readded option to only update overlay once a second - FPS: Added option to stop benchmark automatically after x seconds - FPS: Added option for detailed benchmark statistics (CSV files saved to the benchmarks directory) - FPS: Benchmark details automatically saved if program is exited prematurely - Video: Faster DirectX9 capture speeds when anti aliasing (multisampling) enabled - Video: Fixed slow capture issue on ATI cards with some DirectX8 games (Deus Ex 2, C&C Generals) - Video: Recording screens with odd dimensions no longer results in corruption - Video: Demo version properly crops when resolution is above maximum (no horizontal lines) - Video: Fixed bug with YUV modes capturing incorrectly - Video: Smoother video output on high end machines - Video: Fixed widescreen modes being forced to half size capture - Video: Audio input is only switched when sound recording is taking place - Codec: Fixed playback bug causing black or repeated screens when frames are dropped - Installer: Check to make sure codec installs correctly (Administrator account) |
EK pre-filled and QDC-enabled GPU water blocks are finally here!
EK Water Blocks, premium PC liquid cooling gear manufacturer from Slovenia, is launching pre-filled GPU water blocks featuring Quick Disconnects that are ready to be connected with existing EK-XLC Predator AIO system!
Pre-filled and QDC-enabled GPU water block.
EK-XLC Predator – XLC stands for Xpandable Liquid Cooling – is finally getting the long awaited pre-filled GPU water blocks that can be connected using the Quick Disconnect coupling or QDC. This is a special connector that allows quick and tool-less expansion of the system without the need for draining the EK-XLC Predator AIO. Carefully selected, the Predator Quick Disconnect is a medical grade product with Zero Drop design! The expansion of the system can now be very quick, easy and safe. Users don’t have to worry about loop order, spilling or damaging their hardware.
Starting today, EK is offering the pre-filled and QDC-enabled GPU water blocks as a service on demand for the majority of their popular Full-Cover GPU water blocks. Users purchasing a specific GPU water block will be able to select if they want their desired GPU water block to be pre-filled by EK.
GPU water block, selected for pre-fill service will be filled with EK-Ekoolant EVO CLEAR cooling liquid, fitted with two EK-AF Angled 90° G1/4″ Nickel adapter fittings paired with two EK-ACF Fitting 10/16mm – Nickel fittings and with EK-Tube ZMT Matte Black 15,9/9,5mm tube. The longer end of the tube (390mm) will feature female QDC connector and the other, shorter end of the tube (190mm) will feature male QDC connector. This way, the GPU water block will be ready to be connected with the existing QDC connector found on the EK-XLC Predator 360.
Quick Disconnect or QDC on the EK-XLC Predator 360.
EK has also provided Installation Guides to help beginners set up their first liquid cooling system. The following video shows how easy you expand the Predator AIO with pre-filled GPU using Quick Disconnects.
Service fee for customers who will select their GPU water block to be pre-filled and fitted with QDC coupling, is 29.95€ (incl. VAT).
Pre-filled GPU water blocks are readily available through EK Webshop. Pre-filled GPU water blocks for the most popular graphics cards are also available for purchase at Partner Reseller Network. |
Greece is undergoing a crisis of democracy with press censorship at its centre, says the magazine editor in the middle of the media storm that has engulfed Athens. Speaking to the Guardian a day after being cleared of breaching privacy laws, Kostas Vaxevanis said Greece was ruled by a clique of corrupt politicians in thrall to businessmen who owned – and gagged – the media.
"There's a huge problem in Greece, a problem of democracy and essence," he said in his fifth-floor office, surrounded by copies of Hot Doc, the investigative magazine that last week published the names of more than 2,000 high-earning Greeks with bank accounts in Switzerland. "The country is governed by a poisonous combination of politicians, businessmen and journalists who cover one another's backs. Every day laws are changed, or new laws are voted in, to legitimise illegal deeds."
With a substantial chunk of the Greek media owned by magnates or financed by banks, journalists were in effect silenced. "It's tragic. Greeks only ever learn half the truth and that is worse than lies because it has the effect of creating impressions," he said.
"Had it not been for the foreign media taking such an interest in my own story, it would have been buried. With few exceptions, hardly any of the Greek media bothered to report that I was acquitted, when CNN and the BBC were breaking into their news broadcasts to do so. The international media is playing the role it played during the [1967-74] dictatorship, when Greeks would listen to foreign outlets to find out what was really going on in this country."
The 46-year-old, who set up Hot Doc with €5,000 of his own money six months ago, said that while independent journalism was difficult in Greece, his vindication had been a victory for freedom of the press and a justice system also besmirched by accusations of corruption.
Politicians had had more than two years to act on the list, handed to Greek authorities by the IMF head, Christine Lagarde, who was then French finance minister, but had not investigated it.
"Lagarde gave similar lists to Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and in each of those countries it was acted on and revenues in turn were accrued. Here, they are constantly saying they will deal with tax evasion, because it is the root of our country's economic problems, and they did absolutely nothing because there are people on the list who are friends of those in power," he said.
Vowing to tackle the establishment "because that is what Greeks want," Vaxevanis insisted Hot Doc would continue unearthing scandals. "The political elite have got used to the mainstream press not annoying them, but investigation is what we do," he said, looking tired, if relieved, after several sleepless nights.
"I don't think the decision to bring me before the court was the work of an overzealous prosecutor. I think it was very deliberate and very vindictive.
"No one knew my whereabouts the day I was arrested and suddenly there were 50 state security operatives surrounding the house, which would suggest my phone was being monitored. When the prosecutor came, he didn't even have a proper arrest warrant. But what I will never forget is how so many of the police who were present that day actually congratulated me for doing what I had done." |
In a report issued today on the data broker industry, the Federal Trade Commission finds that data brokers operate with a fundamental lack of transparency. The Commission recommends that Congress consider enacting legislation to make data broker practices more visible to consumers and to give consumers greater control over the immense amounts of personal information about them collected and shared by data brokers.
The report, “Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability” is the result of a study of nine data brokers, representing a cross-section of the industry, undertaken by the FTC to shed light on the data broker industry. Data brokers obtain and share vast amounts of consumer information, typically behind the scenes, without consumer knowledge. Data brokers sell this information for marketing campaigns and fraud prevention, among other purposes. Although consumers benefit from data broker practices which, for example, help enable consumers to find and enjoy the products and services they prefer, data broker practices also raise privacy concerns.
“The extent of consumer profiling today means that data brokers often know as much – or even more – about us than our family and friends, including our online and in-store purchases, our political and religious affiliations, our income and socioeconomic status, and more,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “It’s time to bring transparency and accountability to bear on this industry on behalf of consumers, many of whom are unaware that data brokers even exist.”
The report finds that data brokers collect and store billions of data elements covering nearly every U.S. consumer. Just one of the data brokers studied holds information on more than 1.4 billion consumer transactions and 700 billion data elements and another adds more than 3 billion new data points to its database each month.
Among the report’s findings:
Data brokers collect consumer data from extensive online and offline sources, largely without consumers’ knowledge, ranging from consumer purchase data, social media activity, warranty registrations, magazine subscriptions, religious and political affiliations, and other details of consumers’ everyday lives.
Consumer data often passes through multiple layers of data brokers sharing data with each other. In fact, seven of the nine data brokers in the Commission study had shared information with another data broker in the study.
Data brokers combine online and offline data to market to consumers online.
Data brokers combine and analyze data about consumers to make inferences about them, including potentially sensitive inferences such as those related to ethnicity, income, religion, political leanings, age, and health conditions. Potentially sensitive categories from the study are “Urban Scramble” and “Mobile Mixers,” both of which include a high concentration of Latinos and African-Americans with low incomes. The category “Rural Everlasting” includes single men and women over age 66 with “low educational attainment and low net worths.” Other potentially sensitive categories include health-related topics or conditions, such as pregnancy, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
Many of the purposes for which data brokers collect and use data pose risks to consumers, such as unanticipated uses of the data. For example, a category like “Biker Enthusiasts” could be used to offer discounts on motorcycles to a consumer, but could also be used by an insurance provider as a sign of risky behavior.
Some data brokers unnecessarily store data about consumers indefinitely, which may create security risks.
To the extent data brokers currently offer consumers choices about their data, the choices are largely invisible and incomplete.
To help rectify a lack of transparency about data broker industry practices, the Commission encourages Congress to consider enacting legislation that would enable consumers to learn of the existence and activities of data brokers and provide consumers with reasonable access to information about them held by these entities.
For data brokers that provide marketing products, Congress should consider legislation to:
Centralized Portal. Require the creation of a centralized mechanism, such as an Internet portal, where data brokers can identify themselves, describe their information collection and use practices, and provide links to access tools and opt- outs;
Access. Require data brokers to give consumers access to their data, including any sensitive data, at a reasonable level of detail;
Opt-Outs. Require opt-out tools, that is, a way for consumers to suppress the use of their data;
Inferences. Require data brokers to tell consumers that they derive certain inferences from from raw data;
Data Sources. Require data brokers to disclose the names and/or categories of their data sources, to enable consumers to correct wrong information with an original source;
Notice and Choice. Require consumer-facing entities – such as retailers – to provide prominent notice to consumers when they share information with data brokers, along with the ability to opt-out of such sharing; and
Sensitive Data. Further protect sensitive information, including health information, by requiring retailers and other consumer-facing entities to obtain affirmative express consent from consumers before such information is collected and shared with data brokers.
For brokers that provide “risk mitigation” products, legislation should:
When a company uses a data broker’s risk mitigation product to limit a consumers’ ability to complete a transaction, require the consumer-facing company to tell consumers which data broker’s information the company relied on;
Require the data broker to allow consumer access to the information used and the ability to correct it, as appropriate.
For brokers that provide “people search” products, legislation should:
Require data brokers to allow consumers to access their own information, opt-out of having the information included in a people search product, disclose the original sources of the information so consumers can correct it, and disclose any limitations of an opt-out feature.
The nine data brokers in the study are Acxiom, CoreLogic, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, PeekYou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future. In December 2012, the Commission voted to issue orders requiring these data brokers to produce the information that was used in the study.
The Commission vote approving the issuance of the report was 4-0, with Commissioner Terrell McSweeny not participating. Commissioner Julie Brill issued a concurring statement.
The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources. |
Tobias Onyango Fünke is the husband of Lindsay Bluth Fünke and the father of Maeby Fünke and is a main character of Arrested Development. He is portrayed by David Cross and appears in 67 episodes of the series. Tobias was last seen in "Premature Independence."
About
He was an psycho-analyst and therapist (with Tobias claiming to be the first "Analrapist") but lost his licenses after harming a man during CPR. He has since been seeking work as an actor with little success. He aspired to be a member of the Blue Man Group for a while, but they rejected him.
Lindsay married Tobias as a form of protest against her parents, but the two rarely have intimate moments. Although he repeatedly denies it, he is most likely homosexual. He suffers from a rare psychological condition, making him a Never Nude. He has a strange pattern of speech that makes almost everything he says have a disturbingly sexual undertone. He seems unaware of this.
Medical career
After meeting Lindsay Bluth, the two moved to Boston where Tobias was both a psychoanalyst and a psychotherapist and thus claimed he was the world's first "analrapist." ("Forget-Me-Now") He lost his licenses after harming a sleeping man with unnecessary CPR. He moved to California with his wife and daughter to figure out his next steps. ("Pilot") He continued to use his education to assist those in the Bluth family, but never to any good outcome. In 2012 as part of a work-release program from prison Tobias worked for Lucille Austero at Austerity. ("Smashed")
Acting career
After moving to California in 2003 Tobias decided that his destiny was to become an actor, and he pursued this career for several years without any success. Highlights of his "career" include: being turned down for the role of 'Dr. House'; landing the part of "Frightened Inmate #2" in a prison film, only to get fired for not being able to do the shower scene due to his condition (see below); and attempting to join the Blue Man Group as a standby understudy and, as a consequence, spending part of the second season covered in blue make-up.
In a move inspired by the film Mrs. Doubtfire, Tobias masquerades as a British housekeeper/nanny named "Mrs. Featherbottom" in an attempt to spend time with his wife and daughter after Lindsay kicks him out of the model house. While the disguise fools no one, the family humors him since this gets the housework done.
Although he continually takes very expensive acting lessons from Carl Weathers (the actor who is mostly known from his portrayal of Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise as well as a Marine in Predator), he mainly gets tips on how to make stews from Mr. Weathers. Lindsay continually pokes fun at Tobias' desperation to become an actor, and they split up and reconcile many times over the course of the series.
Past 2006, Tobias continues to pursue his career in acting. He appears in another episode of Scandalmakers and works for tips as a sidewalk character posing as The Thing from Fantastic Four. ("The B. Team") ("A New Start") He also appears on several Miracle Network shows and in G.O.B.'s Jesus' crucifixion illusion. ("Colony Collapse") He also stages Fantastic 4: An Action Musical. ("Smashed")
Never nude
Tobias suffers from "Never Nude" syndrome (which, as the narrator states, is "exactly what it sounds like") and wears denim cut-off shorts at all times in order to avoid anyone (including himself and his wife) seeing his pelvic area. The condition is similar to severe gymnophobia, although it is portrayed humorously. He conquers this for a time in the middle of the first season, but after a close-up picture of his genitalia is shown on the evening news (where it has been mistaken for a photo showing evidence of WMDs in Iraq), he is driven back to the cut-offs. ("Sad Sack") He reveals this to Lindsay at Spring Break. ("Spring Breakout")
He wears the cutoffs well into 2012, even wearing them at Cinco de Cuatro. ("Smashed")
Sexuality
Tobias has said many things that make people question his sexuality, and he is shocked to hear when Lindsay tells him that the family thinks he's gay. He blames this on how "romantic" he is and even though he is now aware of what people think of him, he does not change. ("Indian Takers")
He makes frequent sexual double-entendres to which he seems completely oblivious. He even records himself saying these clearly homosexual statements and concludes that he is a "Blow Hard", further showing his propensity to be completely ignorant of his actions. Lindsay, who married Tobias to spite her parents, is convinced that her husband is a homosexual. His book, The Man Inside Me, is a cult gay hit, as Tobias wrote on the topic of romantic relationships with only male pronouns, to avoid confusion. ("Let 'Em Eat Cake")
He has experienced sexual difficulties with his wife. This leads to their joint decision to try an "open" marriage, even though Tobias himself acknowledges that this path never works. ("The One Where Michael Leaves") Tobias doesn't really follow through with the "open relationship", and often stalks his wife covered in blue paint, following her around on her attempted dates hiding in areas that are blue in color in order to remain unseen. ("The One Where They Build a House")
Tobias has a relationship with recovering drug addict DeBrie Bardeaux, though the physical nature is never explained. His sexuality is made even more ambiguous as DeBrie is mistaken for an elderly man by a doctor. ("A New Start")
Race
It is often hinted at (though never explicitly stated or fully developed) that Tobias is actually a black man with a skin condition. For example:
In the Season One Character cover, he is pictured wearing a Dashiki.
In "Good Grief" Tobias remarks, "I am surprised that she’s going after somebody so similar to my own type," when he learns Lindsay is attempting to have sex with Ice, the family's new black bounty hunter, though this also works as a reference to his sexuality.
In "Afternoon Delight", the following dialogue occurs between Lindsay and Tobias. Importantly, he does not point out that he is neither big nor black, just that he is not big:
Lindsay: People hear the name Tobias, they think 'big black guy.'
Tobias: Well, obviously, I'm not a big guy. From " Afternoon Delight
In "Afternoon Delight" Lucille tells Michael of her discovery of a "colored man" (Tobias, painted blue) in her apartment.
In "Notapusy" Lindsay makes a comment about not knowing how Maeby ended up with frizzy hair.
The cover of Tobias' book The Man Inside Me shows a black man hidden by a white man.
shows a black man hidden by a white man. In "Red Hairing," the narrator states that the black politician Herbert Love reminded Lindsay "so much of Tobias when they first started dating."
In "Smashed" Tobias' middle name is revealed to be Onyango. Onyango is a name used by Luo People in Kenya and Uganda. Notably, Barack Obama's father's middle name is Onyango. Further, the name could be a play on the name Annyong, who is the adopted Korean son of Lucille and George Bluth
Tobias' wife Lindsay seems to have a "type" for black men, including Ice, "Girl-Michael" (who is actually a man), and Herbert Love. It is also suggested that Lindsay married Tobias in order to rebel against her father, perhaps because her father disapproved of her marrying a black man.
Identification as a "Cat"
Tobias is very fond of awkwardly rolling or somersaulting into and out of certain situations mainly to show his dexterity and balance though this often backfires. Indeed, Fünke claims to command "cat-like reflexes" and is often seen lazily loafing around the furniture in the living room. He played a game of "cat-and-mouse" with Maggie Lizer before finally being 'caught' by the household dog. ("Justice Is Blind") When Fünke worked as a security guard, the Narrator remarked that he was unusually "cat-like." ("The Immaculate Election")
Character history
Season one
After losing his job and medical license in Massachusetts, Tobias, Lindsay and Maeby moved back to California. At George's retirement party he accidentally boarded a group of actors protesting the yacht club's ban on gay marriages at sea. From spending the day with the actors, he realized he wanted to become an actor. ("Pilot") He begins his acting career by auditioning for a Fire Sale commercial but overacts and is passed up for Lindsay's accidental realistic approach. ("Top Banana")
Tobias continues to pursue his love for acting by directing Maeby's high school's rendition of Much Ado About Nothing, casting Steve Holt as the female lead. ("Bringing Up Buster") Tobias and Lindsay see a marriage counselor but Tobias takes the chance to practice acting in a role reversal. ("Visiting Ours") When the Living Classics pageant rolls around, Tobias reveals his Never Nude affliction to George Michael. ("In God We Trust") Tobias tries to show an interest in Maeby's life and buys a "leather daddy" outfit, which leads him to an underground leather bar. ("Storming the Castle") When Michael hires a publicist to revamp the Bluth's image, Tobias is instructed to go demand his medical license back. Instead he becomes an acting student under Carl Weathers. ("Public Relations")
Tobias has highs and lows as moves out of Lindsay's bedroom but is offered the role of Frightened Inmate #2 from Carl Weathers. ("Marta Complex") Lindsay and Tobias make amends and she helps him get over his Never Nude issue for his new role. ("Beef Consommé") He then checks himself into George's prison to research the role. ("Staff Infection") George trades Tobias for a pack of cigarettes, but Tobias rebounds by accidentally talking White Power Bill into killing himself and becomes "Dorothy", the leader of the inmates. ("Missing Kitty")
Tobias and Lindsay pay George Michael to tutor Maeby. ("Altar Egos") Tobias uses his cat-like agility to break into Maggie Lizer's house to recover evidence for George's trial. ("Justice Is Blind") Tobias tries to strike back up the Dr. Fünke's 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution for the sake of saving his relationship, but ends up flirting with G.O.B.'s wife. ("Best Man for the Gob")
Tobias and G.O.B. decide to make some money by starting a company, Gobias Industries but Michael passes them up on investing. ("Whistler's Mother") Tobias becomes a security guard at the mall to prove to Lindsay that he is manly. ("Not Without My Daughter") Lindsay does return to him when it turns out he is making money from his self-help book The Man Inside Me. ("Let 'Em Eat Cake")
Season two
Tobias and Lindsay decide to try an open relationship. Sad that Lindsay finds a date within the first 10 minutes, he happens across the Blue Man Group and decides he wants to be a member. ("The One Where Michael Leaves") Tobias auditions for the BMG and stalks Lindsay while wearing blue makeup. ("The One Where They Build a House") Tobias dresses in blue paint, hoping the BMG will call him as an understudy, but is mistaken for George by Ice and is tackled. ("¡Amigos!") Tobias is flattered that Lindsay would go after someone so similar to himself, in Ice. ("Good Grief")
Tobias starts working out and accidentally photographs himself in the bathtub. Close-up photos of his scrotum frighten every echelon of the US government. ("Sad Sack") Tobias, in blue paint, visits Lucille to keep her company but she mistakes him for a colored man and blows her rape horn in his ear, making him temporarily deaf. He is hit by a high Lucille due to his deafness. ("Afternoon Delight") Tobias hangs out at Tantamount Studios spreading the name "Fünke" which only helps his daughter Maeby Fünke secure a job there as a movie exec. ("Switch Hitter")
When Bluth Company stocks are unfrozen, Tobias buys the Tobias is Queen Mary club and turns some gangsters (actually Hot Cops hired by Lindsay to frighten Tobias) into dance evangelists, until they are beaten by a real gang. ("Queen for a Day") Jealous that his wife is dating Moses Taylor, Tobias spends Michael's $5,000 on a drugged Lindsay at a bachelorette auction. ("Burning Love") Tobias goes on the date package from the auction alone, then goes on it again with Michael who is distracting him from the fact that Lindsay is on a date with Jack Dorso. ("Ready, Aim, Marry Me")
Lindsay and Tobias bond when they break into Maggie Lizer's house and discover that she is actually pregnant. ("Out on a Limb") Tobias and Lindsay continue to bond over the baby that isn't theirs, nor Michael's (as they all assume.) ("Hand to God") Tobias meets up with Carl Weathers at a Burger King and signs his family's story rights away for the chance to portray George Bluth in the Weather-directed episode of Scandalmakers. While preparing, he discovers George hiding in the attic. ("Motherboy XXX")
Lindsay kicks Tobias out of the house and he dons a Mrs. Featherbottom disguise to see Maeby and prove to his family that he is a talented actor. ("The Immaculate Election") Michael gives Tobias a job as his assistant because Lindsay is tired of Mrs. Featherbottom's constant presence. George has Tobias deliver a video tape to the Bluth Company employees and Tobias unwittingly helps the FBI. ("Sword of Destiny") Tobias struggle to juggle his Mrs. Featherbottom character and his real identity, desperate for someone to realize it is him. They enjoy his servitude too much to give it up, but Michael finally gives up the gig when he needs to know where George Michael went. ("Meat the Veals")
Tobias and Lindsay film Men with Low Self-Esteem during Spring Break and Tobias meets Phillip Litt, a fellow Never Nude. ("Spring Breakout") Tobias is given an opportunity to perform with the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas so he and Kitty abscond to Nevada. ("Righteous Brothers")
Season three
Michael, looking for Barry, discovers that Tobias is working at a Swallows Restaurant in Reno instead of for the BMG. ("The Cabin Show")
Tobias jumps at the chance to appear with G.O.B. in his Free Chicken illusion so he gets hair plugs to look like his brother in law. ("For British Eyes Only") Tobias attempts to help Buster overcome his fear of Lucille and loose seals by using his Analrapist skills. ("Forget-Me-Now") Tobias begins to lose control of his hand muscles, but he helps Ann prepare for the Miss Inner Beauty pageant, shoving George Michael to the side. ("Notapusy")
An FBI agent named Frank asks Tobias to be a "mole" for the family, but Tobias thinks it is an acting gig. Donning a mole costume, Tobias destroys Tiny town. ("Mr. F") Tobias' paralysis worsened to the point where he needed a wheelchair, which he sometimes fell out of. ("The Ocean Walker") The Bluth family held a fundraiser for Tobias' Graft Versus Host disease, which was caused by his hair plugs. All he needed to do to be cured was have them removed. ("Prison Break-In")
Lindsay attempts to divorce Tobias so she can date Bob Loblaw but Bob acts as Tobias' attorney. ("Making a Stand") Tobias attempts to teach Maeby some discipline by making her assemble glitter-filled gift bags for casting directors. ("S.O.B.s") Tobias befriends a priest named Ben and they protest to keep the comatose Buster alive. This causes a fight between Tobias and Lindsay, and Buster demands they fake their marriage for the sake of the whole family. ("Fakin' It")
Tobias meets a "girl Michael" at the gym and takes a liking to her. Lindsay meets her/him too and they converge on a date, and end up bonding with their anger toward "girl Michael." ("Family Ties") Tobias refuses to betray his family for Wayne Jarvis but is conned into participating in a "scrapbooking" event led by Detective John Munch. ("Exit Strategy") Tobias organizes George's exoneration party on the RMS Queen Mary and hires the Hot Cops as entertainment. ("Development Arrested")
Season four
Tobias and Lindsay decide to call off their relationship again. To take advantage of his new mantra "a new start" (represented on his license plate as ANUSTART) Tobias finds Lindsay' copy of Eat, Pray, Love and travels to India where he is hit by a bus and spends two weeks in a hospital. He returns to America and he and Lindsay buy a mansion on a NINJA loan. Tobias takes Lindsay to a method acting clinic (which turns out to be the Garden Grove Methadone Clinic) and he meets DeBrie who tells him she was Sue Storm in Fantastic Four. At C.W. Swappigan's. Tobias finds that he has fallen for her, and the two runs off together without discovering that Lindsay and Marky Bark has done the same.
Hoping to capitalize on her old role, DeBrie and Tobias takes to street performing as Sue Storm and the Thing, but they are repeatedly sued by Marvel for copyright infringement. The duo is soon in a dire financial state, and DeBrie's health deteriorates and she is rushed to the hospital by Tobias. Here he turns down a $120,000 job offer from Lucille Austero. This is the last straw for DeBrie, who leaves him for good.
Tobias tries street performing solo as the Thing for short while in a desperate bid to keep his actor dream alive, but is only met with more lawsuits. Tobias now finds out that he can't remove his costume without help, and hoping to get Maeby's assistance, he heads for her last known address in Sudden Valley. Unbeknownst to Tobias, Maeby has rented the house to the filming of John Beard's To Entrap a Local Predator: Orange County Edition: Super Creep, and he accidentally walks in on the trap set by the film crew, and, eager to meet his daughter and getting his costume removed, he manages to unwittingly digging himself deeper by shouting unfortunate double ententes such as "Is there a little girl alone here?" and the equally incriminating "Daddy needs to get his rocks off." Without ever realizing what he has gotten himself into, Tobias finds himself arrested and registered as a sex offender.("A New Start")
Tobias goes to prison but gets out on work release to Austerity where he is reunited with DeBrie. Because Argyle will not let them be together, Tobias pitches the idea for Fantastic 4: An Action Musical. He also acts as theralyst to Lucille Bluth. He spends time with the reluctant DeBrie during rehearsals and the show is performed the night of Cinco de Cuatro. DeBrie, however, gets her hands on Dr. Norman's discarded pills and crashes. So Tobias tries to fill in the role as Sue Storm himself, by applying a layer of bluebody-paint. But due to an old reflex he also accidentally paints his face blue. Things doesn't get better when he accidentally boards Marky Bark's boat. ("Smashed")
Marky, meanwhile, has mixed up Lindsay's luggage-bag with Tobias' and placed the bomb he was planing to put on the Love float on his boat, with Tobias aboard. The explosion sinks Marky's boat. ("Queen B.")
Tobias' focal episodes of Season Four are "A New Start" and "Smashed". He also appears in "Borderline Personalities", "Indian Takers", "The B. Team", "Colony Collapse", "Red Hairing", "Queen B.", "A New Attitude", "Señoritis", "It Gets Better", and "Off the Hook".
Season five
Tobias Fünke appears in Season Five during which he continues to serve as Lucille's therapist. In Season Five, it is revealed that Tobias has a bastard son named Murphy Brown. Murphy Brown is his first name, his last name is not mentioned.
Trivia
Images
→ See 721 pictures of Tobias Fünke at Images of Tobias Fünke.
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Videos
→ Watch more videos of Tobias Fünke at Category:Videos of Tobias Fünke
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ANUSTART fan page based on the anustart running joke |
At today’s conservative “Code Red” rally against the health care bill, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) rallied the faithful with a fun historical and literacy reference: “It’s the charge of the light brigade!”
The fun part here is that the Light Brigade lost that famous battle of the Crimean War — they lost it badly, sustaining heavy numbers of deaths and injuries. They are celebrated not for victory, but for their bravery in taking on truly insurmountable odds in a military disaster. It’s hardly the sort of positive example that could truly rally the political faithful to success, is it?
Had Bachmann actually read about the Light Brigade, she might have understood this reference from the famous poem by Lord Tennyson:
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
When it comes to appreciating Tennyson, Bachmann is no Rod Blagojevich! |
USS Liberty Before Israeli Attack
On June 8th, 1967, with cold-blooded mass murder as the objective, Israeli warplanes and warships made every effort to sink the USS Liberty, a mostly unarmed US intelligence vessel off the coast of Gaza, and to kill all 294 on board. Thanks only to the heroism of the Liberty crew and possibly a Soviet vessel’s offer of assistance (refused), the attack was called off before completion, although the attackers had plenty of reason to think that the sea would do the rest of the job for them.
Twice, US warplanes from the US Sixth Fleet responded to distress calls from the Liberty, only to be recalled by direct order of the White House and the US Department of Defense. In retrospect, it is clear that Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara in turn got their orders from the Israel Lobby and the Israeli leadership. 34 were killed and 174 wounded, with many permanently disabled.
USS Liberty Following Israeli Attack (US Navy Photo)
The subsequent coverup, the suppression of investigation, the falsification of evidence, the manipulation of history and the denial of justice to loyal US servicemen on board is now well documented and readily available to all who wish to see (which many do not). Nevertheless, the attack continues to this day, with Israeli and US resources devoted to maintaining a variety of false and often conflicting narratives to hide the truth.
Of course, Israel’s attack on liberty itself goes far beyond this one incident, however outrageous, arrogant, blatant and hideous it may be. Israel owes its very existence to Plan D, a detailed and carefully prepared military strategy for depopulating Palestine of its non-immigrant Palestinian population and replacing it with immigrants in order to create a majority (and ultimately exclusive) Jewish state, according to a racist agenda. Since late 1947 (and even before) and up to the present, Palestinians have had, and are still having, many Liberty incidents, without benefit of a Sixth Fleet, recalled or not. It is clearly Israel’s intention to continue until there are no Palestinians left in Palestine.
Liberty assaults are continuing in the US and other powerful countries, as well, as Israel and its Zionist interests in these countries wield sufficient power on their governments to bend military and political power to their ends. Thus it is no accident that US and western countries’ might has been used to destroy Israel’s potential enemies and rivals in the region, such as Iraq, Libya and Syria, and to bring to heel others, such as Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf monarchies. The people of half the world are paying the price for Israel’s ambitions, not least in countries like the US, whose military budgets swallow funds for infrastructure, health, and education, and create an ongoing supply of shattered veterans who are neglected by the very government they served.
But millions of people have also been killed and tens of millions made refugees in the wars for Israel, for the purpose of weakening Israel’s enemies, enabling Israel’s capture of territory, the ongoing ethnic cleansing of populations that Israel considers undesirable, and confiscation of resources. By allying itself with the most destructive elements in the US and other countries it wishes to influence and manipulate, Israel is able to multiply its destructive capability far beyond its own borders.
We are all Palestinians. Israel is crushing us all, robbing us of our resources, our livelihood and our liberty. Fifty years on, let us remember and honor the crew of the USS Liberty, who paid a high price for liberty, never receiving proper remuneration. Let us also remind ourselves that we continue to pay this price. |
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