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LAHORE, Nov 22: Police claimed on Monday to have arrested two Sunni Tehrik activists allegedly involved in the murder of two religious scholars.
Investigation police chief Chaudhry Shafqaat claimed at a press conference that the arrested men had murdered Prof Dr Ghulam Murtaza Malik and Prof Ataur Rehman Saqib. They had confessed to their involvement in 14 other crimes besides the killings, he maintained.
One of the suspects, Muhammad Farooq, 26, a matriculate dropout, produced with a mask on his face, told reporters that he joined the Sunni Tehrik on the persuasion of one Shahbaz Ahmad. Tehrik convenor Dr Shahid had been a major force behind him.
"Now I regret the acts I had been doing. They (Sunni Tehrik) exploited my religious sentiments. It (the killings) was done by me just to please Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) and secure heavens."
He claimed that he also tried to quit the group, but to no avail. The police chief identified the other as Muhammad Arshad, and said they were arrested from a house in Chungi Amar Sadhu, which had been raided on a tip-off.
Claiming the arrest of Dr Shahid soon as teams had been sent for the purpose to Pattoki, he said the arrested men had plans to kill Maulana Muhammad Husain of Sheikhupura in near future.
He said they had murdered Prof Ataur Rehman in March, 2002, near the AG Office and also killed the caretaker of an imambargah when he tried to catch them. The caretaker was on way to drop his daughter to her school when their motorcycle hit the girl and he tried to nab them.
They shot Prof Dr Murtaza Malik and his driver in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in May, 2002, and murdered a policeman who attempted to intercept them while they were fleeing. Chaudhry Shafqaat said the city police chief had recommended special awards for the policemen who arrested the suspects. |
A couple of cases for the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are currently on sale — 50 percent off — on the Google Store. The clear case, which normally retails for $30, can now be yours for $15. It’s made from polycarbonate, has cutouts for all the buttons and sensors, and is quite light at 12 (Pixel) and 15 (Pixel XL) grams.
If you want to add a little bit of color to your device, the other case that’s on sale might be more up your alley. It has a silicone exterior, a polycarbonate core, and is finished off with a microfiber interior. You can get it for $17.50, down from its original price of $35.
It’s a little heavier than the clear case mentioned above (24 and 27 grams) and comes in quite a few different color options. These include gray, blue, green, peach, and coral.
The deal is valid while supplies last and only available to those who live in the US. If you own a Pixel or Pixel XL smartphone and are considering getting a case or two now that they are on sale, visit the Google Store via the button below. |
Trump Administration Drops MOAB in Fight Against ‘Dismal’ Approval Ratings
Ken Allard Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 13, 2017
In an attempt to rescue record low presidential approval ratings, the Trump administration dropped the “mother of all bombs” on Thursday, the largest non-nuclear weapon in the US military arsenal.
“The assault on my approval ratings will go on no longer,” Trump said during his press briefing. “This tremendous weapon will help in our fight against these very unfair ratings.”
The “Mother Of All Bombs”
This is the first usage of the MOAB in combat, formally known as the GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast. The enormous bomb weighs approximately 21,000 pounds and has a blast radius of over a mile. It explodes in the air before impact, creating pressure waves that can collapse tunnels and caves — and allegedly elevate approval ratings.
“After I launched those Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraq — I mean Syria — we saw a huge jump in my approval ratings,” Trump said. “I called [National Security Advisor] McMaster while eating some very beautiful chocolate cake and told him, ‘Hey, what else have you military folks got?’”
President Trump’s ratings saw a brief jump last week after he launched 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian Shayrat airbase in response to chemical weapons attacks perpetrated by the Syrian government.
The missile strike, which was priced at roughly $60 million, boosted Trump’s ratings from 40.4% to a peak of 41.6%.
“Did anyone ever see Barack Obama use a MOAB?” Trump said to reporters. “He had 8 years to do so, it only took me 8 weeks.”
Donald Trump’s current approval ratings | via FiveThirtyEight
It is still too early to tell if the administration’s plans to increase their ratings will be successful, but polling experts like Dave Millan of Gallup believe we should see some boost in the following days as MOAB becomes the trending topic across the social media landscape.
“It’s kind of hard to precisely measure how much of a bump comes from which particular kind of ordinance,” Millan said, developer of the Gallup Presidential Approval Ratings Poll. “The Tomahawk missile weighs about 3,000 pounds but inflicts relatively little damage, while the MOAB is a massive weapon that really shows off America’s military muscle. The people should love this.” |
Antimatter and the Sail
An antimatter probe to a nearby star? The idea holds enormous appeal, given the colossal energies obtained when normal matter annihilates in contact with its antimatter equivalent. But as we’ve seen through the years on Centauri Dreams, such energies are all but impossible to engineer. Antimatter production is infinitesimal, the by-product of accelerators designed with a much different agenda. Moreover, antimatter storage is hellishly difficult, so that maintaining large quantities in a stable condition requires multiple breakthroughs.
All of which is why I became interested in the work Gerald Jackson and Steve Howe were doing at Hbar Technologies. Howe, in fact, became a key source when I put together the original book from which this site grew. This was back in 2002-2003, and I was captivated with the idea of what could be called an ‘antimatter sail.’ The idea, now part of a new Kickstarter campaign being launched by Jackson and Howe, is to work with mere milligrams of antimatter, allowing antiprotons to be released from the spacecraft into a uranium-enriched, five-meter sail.
Reacting with the uranium, the antimatter produces fission fragments that create what could be considered a nuclear-stimulated ablation blowing off the carbon-fiber sail. As to the reaction itself, Jackson and Howe would use a sheet of depleted uranium U-238 with a carbon coating on its back side. Here’s how the result is described in the Kickstarter material now online:
When antiprotons… drift onto the front surface, their negative electrical charge allows them to act like an orbiting electron, but with different quantum numbers that allow the antiprotons to cascade down into the ground orbital state. At this point it annihilates with a proton or neutron in the nucleus. This annihilation event causes the depleted uranium nucleus to fission with a probability approaching 100%, most of the time yielding two back-to-back fission daughters.
Now we get into a serious kick for the spacecraft:
A fission daughter travelling away from the sail at a kinetic energy of 1 MeV/amu has a speed of approximately 13,800 km/sec, or 4.6% of the speed of light. The other fission daughter is absorbed by the sail, depositing its momentum into the sail and causing the sail (and the rest of the ship) to accelerate.
The concept relies, as Jackson said in a recent email, on using antimatter as a spark plug rather than as a fuel, converting the energy from proton-antiproton annihilations into propulsion.
Image: The original antimatter probe concept. Credit: Gerald Jackson/Hbar Technologies.
The current work grows out of a 2002 grant from NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts but the plan is to develop the idea far beyond the Kuiper Belt mission Jackson and Howe initially envisioned. Going interstellar would take not milligrams but tens of grams of antimatter, far beyond today’s infinitesimal production levels. In fact, while the Fermi National Accelerator laboratory has been able to produce no more than 2 nanograms of antimatter per year, even that is high compared to CERN’s output (the only current source), which is 100 times smaller.
Even so, interest in antimatter remains high because of its specific energy — two orders of magnitude larger than fusion and ten orders of magnitude larger than chemical reactions — making further research highly desirable. If the fission reaction the antimatter produces within the sail is viable, we will be able to demonstrate a way to harness those energies, with implications for deep space exploration and the possibility of interstellar journeys.
The original NIAC work led to a sail 5-meters in diameter, with a 15-micron thick carbon layer and a uranium coating 293 microns thick. Interestingly, the study showed that the sail had sufficient area to remove any need for active cooling of the surface. Indeed, the steady-state temperature of the sail would be 570𝆩 Celsius, below the melting point of uranium.
Image: A cloud of anti-hydrogen drifts towards the uranium-infused sail. CREDIT: Hbar Technologies, LLC/Elizabeth Lagana.
The work was based around a 10 kg instrument payload to be delivered to 250 AU within 10 years. Turning to interstellar possibilities, Breakthrough Starshot has been talking about reaching 20 percent of lightspeed with a beamed laser array pushing small sails. Jackson and Howe now seek roughly 5 percent of c, making for a mission of less than a century to reach Proxima Centauri, where we already know an interesting planet awaits.
But here’s a significant difference: Unlike Breakthrough Starshot’s flyby assumptions, the antimatter sail mission concept is built around decelerating and attaining orbit around the target star. In the absence of magsail braking against Proxima’s stellar wind, this would presumably also involve antimatter, braking with the same methods to allow for long-term scientific investigation, thus avoiding the observational challenges of a probe pushing past a small and probably tidally-locked planet at 20 percent of lightspeed.
Here’s how Jackson describes deceleration in his recent email:
Our project considers deceleration and orbit about the destination star a mission requirement. There are serious implications for spacecraft velocity when the requirement of deceleration at the destination is imposed. Either drag or some other mechanism needs to be invoked at the destination, or enough extra fuel must be accelerated in order to accomplish a comparable deceleration. Because the rocket equation equates probe velocity with mass utilization, a staged spacecraft architecture is envisioned wherein a more massive booster accelerates the spacecraft and a smaller second stage decelerates into the destination solar system.
The discovery of Proxima b, that interesting planet evidently in the habitable zone around the nearest star, continues to energize the interstellar community. The Kickstarter campaign, just underway and with a goal of $200,000, hopes to upgrade earlier antimatter sail ideas into the interstellar realm. Tomorrow I want to say a few more things about the antimatter sail and the issues the Kickstarter campaign will address as it expands the original work. |
Image copyright Europol Image caption Europol released photos of police visiting horses
A Spanish-led police operation has cracked a racket in horsemeat unfit for human consumption, the EU's police agency Europol says.
Police in Spain made 65 arrests for crimes including animal abuse, forgery, money laundering and racketeering.
Horses in Portugal and Spain deemed unfit for consumption were slaughtered and their meat passed off as edible.
A Dutch businessman arrested in Belgium is said to have controlled the illegal trade from south-east Spain.
He was first sought in connection with a scandal in the Republic of Ireland in 2013, when horsemeat was found in beef burgers, but his whereabouts were unknown at that time.
The issue in the earlier scandal was one of food fraud rather than food safety.
How big was the police swoop?
Spain's Guardia Civil (police) began Operation Gazel a year ago after detecting unusual behaviour in horsemeat markets.
They worked in co-ordination with Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland and the UK, Europol said in a statement.
The unnamed Dutchman controlled the crime ring from Calpe in Alicante, on Spain's Costa Blanca, "putting his most trusted men in charge in every country affected by the scam", Europol says.
Police carried out raids in both Alicante and Leon, in the north of Spain, blocking or seizing bank accounts and properties, and confiscating five luxury cars.
Other charges brought against those arrested were perverting the course of justice and committing crimes against public health.
How did the racket work?
Horses in bad shape, too old or simply labelled as "not suitable for consumption" were being slaughtered in two different slaughterhouses, Europol says.
Image copyright Europol Image caption Police inspected abattoirs
Meat from the animals, which came from Portugal and several parts of northern Spain, was processed in a specific facility and from there sent to Belgium, a major horsemeat exporter.
Microchips and documentation were modified by the crime group.
Analysis of samples conducted in The Hague concluded the meat was destined mainly for markets outside Spain, as the samples matched others found abroad.
How were horses maltreated?
One of the charges brought is animal abuse but details are not yet available.
However, a photo released by Europol shows one horse with a bloody slash close to its mane.
How big is Europe's horsemeat market?
Image copyright AFP Image caption Horsemeat on sale in a butcher's shop in Germany
Italy and France are the biggest consumers of equidae (horses, donkeys etc) meat, according to a report by the UK's Guardian newspaper in 2013.
According to that report, Italy imported 21,693 tonnes and France 11,898 in 2012, while Belgium was the chief exporter, shipping 17,320 tonnes. Spain exported 3,910 tonnes in that period.
However, the trade is small compared, for instance, to the beef market.
Total EU horsemeat imports in 2012 came to 50,250 tonnes and exports 54,853, while EU beef imports in 2011 totalled 315,000 tonnes and exports - 510,200. |
`The Red Shirts have shown that they are a genuine mass movement for democracy, made up of ordinary working people in rural and urban areas.'
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
May 11, 2010 -- Pro-democracy Red Shirt protests in Bangkok, which started in mid-March, are about to be wound up. Leaders [of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, UDD] have accepted a compromise with the military-backed government of Abhisit Vejjajiva. Elections will not be held immediately, but on November 14. Earlier Abihist had indicated an election in February 2011 at the earliest.
It is unclear whether the blanket censorship of the Thai media will be lifted. One clear demand that the Red Shirt leaders are expecting to be met is that the Red Shirt's TV channel (People Channel TV) will be allowed back on air. Whether websites like Prachatai will be unblocked is also unclear. Another demand is that the law be applied equally to all.
The government claims that the prime minister and deputy prime minister will "surrender" to the police in relation to charges of murdering citizens on April 10, 2010. But it is unclear whether any real charges will be filed against them.
Nothing has been said about the political prisoners, both those in jail for lese majeste and those in jail for blocking roads during the recent protest.
What have the Red Shirts achieved?
1. The Red Shirts have shown that they are a genuine mass movement for democracy, made up of ordinary working people in rural and urban areas. They have shown that the crisis is about class. They have shown that the Red Shirts are a grassroots movement that will not disappear easily. 2. The Red Shirts have exposed the real and bloody nature of the military-backed government, which can only stay in power through repression and blanket censorship. 3. The struggle of the Red Shirts has turned ordinary people into leaders; into internet and media experts who can get around censorship in order to spread their message. In the process of struggle they have thrown off the myths and mind fetters about the monarchy. As a result, the monarchy appears to be in terminal crisis. If this is really so, it will seriously weaken the power of the army. 4. The Red Shirts have stood up to the army and shown that it is not a simple matter to just shoot down pro-democracy demonstrators. In the process they have caused splits in the police force and lower ranks of the army. 5. They have forced the government to speed up the holding of elections.
But this is a compromise. It is not the end of the shady dictatorship of the army and the elites which stand behind the present government. It will disappoint many.
However, it is difficult to see how the Red Shirts could have fought on at this present stage without new strategies.
The important question is how the Red Shirts will organise and fight in the future. If the Red Shirts are to strengthen themselves they have to organise among the trade unions in order to win strike action. They have to make serious efforts to build networks among army recruits and they have to develop a clear political platform for the [Red Shirt's] Puea Thai party in order to win the hearts and minds of ordinary workers and farmers. They should advocate a welfare state, improved benefits for workers, a real peace process for the south, and genuine reform of the media and the justice system. They must stand against censorship and repressive laws. No one can just leave these matters in the hands of the leadership. Red Shirt local groups need to elect representatives who can be part of a progressive grassroots leadership to lead the struggle forward. Women should make up a significant proportion of this leadership.
Only these things would make a difference between a shoddy compromise and a real step forward to freedom, democracy and social justice.
[Giles Ji Ungpakorn is a Thai socialist currently in exile in Britain. He is a member of Left Turn Thailand and maintains a blog at http://wdpress.blog.co.uk/.]
คนเสื้อแดงได้อะไรจากการต่อสู้??
ใจ อึ๊งภากรณ์
จุดจบของการต่อสู้รอบนี้ ซึ่งเริ่มในเดือนมีนาคม เป็นการประนีประนอมระหว่างแกนนำคนเสื้อแดงกับรัฐบาลของอำมาตย์ หลายคนคงจะผิดหวัง แต่เราควรใช้เวลาพิจารณาสถานการณ์และกำหนดแนวทางในการต่อสู้ต่อไป เรื่องมันยังไม่จบจนกว่าอำมาตย์จะถูกโค่นล้ม ดังนั้นอย่าไปเสียเวลากับอาการ “อกหัก” อย่าไปท้อ อย่าไปเดินออกจากเวทีการต่อสู้ด้วยความน้อยใจ
ขอย้ำในสิ่งที่เขียนก่อนหน้านี้.... จุดเด่นเราคืออะไร? จุดเด่นของการต่อสู้ของคนเสื้อแดงตั้งแต่เดือนมีนาคมเป็นต้นไปมีหลายข้อคือ
· คนเสื้อแดงได้พิสูจน์ว่าเป็นขบวนการของประชาชนชั้นล่างในการต่อสู้ทางชนชั้น เพื่อเรื่องปากท้องและเพื่อประชาธิปไตยพร้อมกัน ซึ่งรวมคนชนบทและคนในกรุงเทพฯ จำนวนมาก มากจนเป็นประวัติศาสตร์ ยิ่งใหญ่กว่าการต่อสู้ ๑๔ ตุลา การต่อสู้ของ พ.ค.ท. และการต่อสู้ในเดือนพฤษภาปี ๓๕
· การต่อสู้ที่ยาวนาน ท่ามกลางกระสุนปืน หมอกควัน และข่าวที่ถูกบิดเบือนปิดกั้นโดยรัฐบาล เป็นบทเรียนสำคัญสำหรับประชาชนจำนวนมาก เขาได้เรียนรู้วิธีจัดตั้งตนเอง วิธีเข้าถึงข้อมูล และวิธีกระจายข่าว ยิ่งกว่านั้นการต่อสู้ทำให้เขากลายเป็นผู้นำเอง มีความมั่นใจในการท้าทายอำนาจอำมาตย์ที่กดทับชีวิตประชาชนมานาน เราอาจพูดได้ว่าเกือบจะไม่มีใครในขบวนการเสื้อแดงที่ยังคิดแบบเดิม ไม่มีใครเป็นทาสทางความคิดของลัทธิอำมาตย์
· การต่อสู้ที่เข้มแข็งของคนเสื้อแดงนี้ บังคับให้เจ้าหน้าที่รัฐระดับล่าง เช่นตำรวจและทหารเกณฑ์ เริ่มคิดหนัก หลายคนไม่ยอมทำตามคำสั่งผู้บังคับบัญชา และอาจมีหลายคนที่คิดกบฏ แต่ยังไม่ทำอะไรให้เห็นชัด นี่คืออาการของวิกฤตในการปกครองของรัฐอำมาตย์ เราอาจพูดได้ว่ารัฐอำมาตย์อยู่ได้ก็ด้วยการปราบปราม ขู่เขน และการปิดกั้นข้อมูลเท่านั้น ไม่มีความชอบธรรมเลยในสายตาประชาชนนับล้าน และในสายตาสื่อต่างประเทศและชาวโลกที่สนใจประเทศไทย
· เราบังคับให้รัฐบาลอำมาตย์เลื่อนการเลือกตั้งมาข้างหน้า 3 เดือน
ขอเพิ่มเติมตรงนี้ให้ชัดเจนมากขึ้นคือ ท่ามกลางการต่อสู้ คนเสื้อแดงส่วนใหญ่หมดศรัทธาในสถาบันกษัตริย์แล้ว และสาเหตุมาจากพฤติกรรมของฝ่ายอำมาตย์เองตั้งแต่การผูกโบสีเหลืองในรัฐประหาร ๑๙ กันยา เราต้องเลี้ยงกระแสนี้ให้เติบโตมั่นคงขึ้น เพราะจะมีผลมหาศาลในการทำให้กองทัพหมดความชอบธรรมในการแทรกแซงการเมือง และเปิดทางให้มีการสร้างประชาธิปไตยแท้ได้
ข้อที่น่ากังวล
การประนีประนอมครั้งนี้ทิ้งปัญหาสำคัญๆ ไว้มากมาย เพราะไม่มีการแก้ไขการเซ็นเซอร์สื่อและอินเตอร์เน็ต ไม่มีคำมั่นสัญญาว่าจะเปิดสื่ออย่างเช่น ประชาไท หรือวิทยุชุมชน ไม่มีการพูดถึงนักโทษทางการเมืองในคดีหมิ่นเดชานุภาพฯ และคดีที่มาจากการปิดถนนท่ามกลางการประท้วง คนเหล่านี้ยังติดคุกอยู่ ในประเด็นเหล่านี้พวกเราชาวเสื้อแดงคงต้องสู้ต่อไปในรูปแบบกรณีเฉพาะ ตามจุดและชุมชนต่างๆ ไม่ใช่ยอมจำนนหรือรอการเลือกตั้ง
จุดอ่อนที่ทำให้คนเสื้อแดงชุมนุมต่อไม่ได้
เราต้องดูจุดอ่อนของขบวนการ เพราะจุดอ่อนเหล่านี้ทำให้มันยากที่จะสู้ต่อไปโดยไม่มียุทธวิธีใหม่ๆ ซึ่งเป็นผลทำให้มีการประนีประนอมในที่สุด ดังนั้นเพื่อให้ฝ่ายเราไปปรับแก้และพัฒนาการต่อสู้ในอนาคต เราต้องคิดหนักตรงนี้ เพราะการสู้กับอำมาตย์จะไม่จบง่ายๆ
· ขบวนการเสื้อแดงยังไม่จัดตั้งในหมู่คนงาน ไม่ว่าจะเป็นลูกจ้างในโรงงาน หรือพนักงานในออฟฟิส ฯลฯ เพราะถ้าลูกจ้างที่เป็นเสื้อแดงจัดตั้งกันในสหภาพแรงงาน เราสามารถใช้พลังการนัดหยุดงานมากดดันอำมาตย์ และพลังนี้มีประสิทธิภาพสูง ปราบด้วยกองกำลังได้ยากอีกด้วย มันเป็นอำนาจทางเศรษฐกิจ
· การนำในขบวนการเสื้อแดงควรขยายให้สะท้อนความยิ่งใหญ่ของขบวนการ กลุ่มเสื้อแดงจากชุมชนต่างๆ ที่เราเห็นชัดในรูปแบบซุ้มหรือกลุ่มคนที่เดินทางมาด้วยกัน ควรเลือกผู้แทนของตนเองหนึ่งคน และให้ผู้แทนเหล่านี้ประชุมหารือกับแกนนำตลอดเวลา เพื่อให้มีการแลกเปลี่ยนความเห็นระหว่างคนเสื้อแดงรากหญ้ากับแกนนำอย่างเป็นระบบ การตัดสินใจอะไรก็ควรตัดสินใจร่วมกันแบบนี้ ซึ่งจะทำให้ขบวนการเสื้อแดงเข้มแข็งยิ่งขึ้น แกนนำจะมีโอกาสผิดพลาดน้อยลง และรากหญ้าจะร่วมรับผิดชอบในการนำด้วย โดยที่จะสร้างความสามัคคีมากขึ้น นอกจากนี้แกนนำเสื้อแดงในทุกระดับควรมีผู้หญิง เพื่อสะท้อนความจริงเกี่ยวกับขบวนการของเรา
· คนเสื้อแดงต้องทำการบ้านหนักขึ้นในการต่อสายกับทหารเกณฑ์ เพื่อขยายการจัดตั้งของเสื้อแดงเข้าไปในกองทัพ ทหารแตงโมที่จะน่าไว้ใจและมีประสิทธิภาพสูงสุดคือทหารเกณฑ์ที่เป็นเสื้อแดง และในยามวิกฤตเราจะได้สนับสนุนให้เขาฝืนคำสั่งของพวกนายพลที่ต้องการฆ่าประชาชน
· เมื่อมีการยุบสภาและเลือกตั้ง พรรคของคนเสื้อแดงต้อง “คิดใหม่ทำใหม่” รอบสอง เพื่อครองใจประชาชนต่อไป ควรมีการเสนอนโยบายรัฐสวัสดิการ นโยบายที่จะช่วยคนงานและเสริมค่าจ้าง นโยบายสร้างสันติภาพในภาคใต้ และนโยบายเพื่อปฏิรูประบบยุติธรรมและระบบสื่อมวลชน ฯลฯ เราต้องเป็นพรรคของไพร่และพรรคของเสรีภาพและต้องเปิดโอกาสให้คนรุ่นใหม่ที่มีบทบาทสำคัญในการเคลื่อนไหวของขบวนการเสื้อแดง ทั้งในระดับชาติ และระดับชุมชน มีบทบาทหลักในพรรค ไม่ใช่ปล่อยให้นักการเมืองเก่าๆ ที่ไม่ทำอะไร มาหากินกับการต่อสู้ของประชาชน
เรามีภารกิจในการปลดแอกพลเมืองประเทศนี้จากอำนาจเผด็จการของอำมาตย์ ถ้าเราไม่นำ “กำไร” ที่เราได้มาจากการต่อสู้ในสองเดือนที่ผ่านมา มาเสริมและพัฒนาแนวทางของเราให้ยกระดับสูงขึ้น การเสียสละของคนเสื้อแดงจะละลายไปกับน้ำ เราต้องไม่พลาดตรงนี้ แต่ไม่ว่าจะเกิดอะไรขึ้น เมืองไทยจะกลับไปเป็นแบบเก่าไม่ได้อีกแล้ว |
On December 3 Politico reported that while Obama is pushing for more gun laws when the cameras are rolling, behind the scenes aides say he has “essentially given up on any significant gun control.”
They reported a similar situation among some of the most prominent gun control groups – a situation in which they are pushing gun control publicly while “leaders of the groups grumble” privately because the White House seems to be all talk, no action on gun control.
According to Politico, “Aides say he’s essentially given up on any significant gun control passing during his presidency.”
The aides stressed that the number of pro-gun members in Congress has only grown since the first big push for gun control following Sandy Hook. Because of this, the White House has “no strategy for dealing with Congress that leads to significantly tighter gun laws.”
The Congressional and popular opposition to gun control is so strong, that aides have shifted from talking about gun control Obama will pass to talking about why his supporters should give him credit for trying.
Politico reports:
White House aides often insist people should pay more attention to their actual efforts rather than whatever emoting does or doesn’t come out of the president. Aides claim soft progress: People are talking about gun control more, and all the Democratic presidential candidates are all pushing for stronger gun control, in a change. Obama aides say the president deserves credit for both.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected]. |
A retrograde hot Jupiter: the transiting giant planet orbits very close to the star and in a direction opposite to the stellar rotation, in this artist's rendering
Washington - Some planets are just flipping backward. Of the more than 500 planets detected around stars besides our Sun, the vast majority appear to spin the same way the star does, scientists reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
But some of these extrasolar planets spin in the opposite direction of the stars they orbit, astronomers found. These strange, backward-spinning planets are usually gassy giants called hot Jupiters, not rocky orbs like Earth.
Besides their backwards twirling, which the astronomers call flipped orbits, these big planets huddle close to their stars, unlike Jupiter, which is about 483 million miles (778 million km) from the Sun, more than five times as distant from the Sun as Earth.
“That's really weird, and it's even weirder because the planet is so close to the star,” Frederic Rasio of Northwestern University said in a statement.
“How can one be spinning one way and the other orbiting exactly the other way? It's crazy. It so obviously violates our most basic picture of planet and star formation.”
Astronomers have long theorized that big gas planets form further away from their stars, while Earth-like rocks are born closer in.
But just because a Jupiter-like planet forms in the planetary boondocks doesn't mean it stays there, Rasio and his colleagues reported.
When planetary systems contain more than one planet, in addition to a star, each planet has its own gravitational force, causing the planets to interact and eventually pulling the gas giants close to the star and even reversing its orbit, the scientists found.
This process is known as gravitational perturbation, or an exchange of angular momentum.
Astronomers have been detecting extrasolar planets since 1995, but have seen only a handful. The others are inferred by the gravitational pull they exert on the stars they orbit, creating a starry wobble that indicates one or more planets present but unseen in the planetary system.
The National Science Foundation supported this research. - Reuters |
SURAT: Advertisement hoardings of a condom brand carrying the image of Sunny Leone and a message about Navratri has created controversy in Surat on Monday. A city-based group organised a protest against the advertisement posters and threatened to get aggressive about it if the hoardings are not removed.Surat residents were surprised to see huge hoardings of a condom brand and soon the images went viral on mobile apps. The hoardings were put up across the city. Social media was agog about the advertisement that some said hurt the religious sentiments surrounding Navratri. In Gujarat, Navratri is one of the most important festivals in which nine forms of the Mother Goddess are worshiped for nine days.“The message in Gujarati on the hoarding reads ‘Aa Navratri a ramo, parantu premthi’ – Play but with love, this Navratri. The insinuation on the hoardings from a condom brand insults the religious sentiments of Hindus,” said Narendra Chaudhary, businessman and president of Hindu Yuva Vahini. The group staged a protest at Udhna in the city.“This cannot be tolerated and our protests will get stronger if these hoardings are not removed immediately. Protests are necessary to deter others from trying something similar again in future,” said Chaudhary. |
Gut microbiota has been implicated as a pivotal contributing factor in diet-related obesity; however, its role in development of disease phenotypes in human genetic obesity such as Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) remains elusive. In this hospitalized intervention trial with PWS (n = 17) and simple obesity (n = 21) children, a diet rich in non-digestible carbohydrates induced significant weight loss and concomitant structural changes of the gut microbiota together with reduction of serum antigen load and alleviation of inflammation. Co-abundance network analysis of 161 prevalent bacterial draft genomes assembled directly from metagenomic datasets showed relative increase of functional genome groups for acetate production from carbohydrates fermentation. NMR-based metabolomic profiling of urine showed diet-induced overall changes of host metabotypes and identified significantly reduced trimethylamine N-oxide and indoxyl sulfate, host-bacteria co-metabolites known to induce metabolic deteriorations. Specific bacterial genomes that were correlated with urine levels of these detrimental co-metabolites were found to encode enzyme genes for production of their precursors by fermentation of choline or tryptophan in the gut. When transplanted into germ-free mice, the pre-intervention gut microbiota induced higher inflammation and larger adipocytes compared with the post-intervention microbiota from the same volunteer. Our multi-omics-based systems analysis indicates a significant etiological contribution of dysbiotic gut microbiota to both genetic and simple obesity in children, implicating a potentially effective target for alleviation. |
The California Public Utilities Commission rejected a request from San Diego Gas & Electric to pass onto ratepayers $379 million in costs related to three deadly wildfires that blazed through the area ten years ago.
In making the decision, the commissioners ruled SDG&E did not reasonably manage and operate its facilities leading up to the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires that killed two people, injured 40 firefighters and forced more than 10,000 to seek shelter at Qualcomm Stadium. The three fires combined to destroy more than 1,300 homes.
SDG&E officials have maintained the wildfires that enveloped Southern California in October 2007 represented an unprecedented event and insist the utility responsibly managed its service territory.
Even though two commissioners expressed that their votes were “close calls,” all five members voted Thursday morning in San Francisco to reject the utility’s request.
What the vote means
If SDG&E’s request had been approved, it was estimated the average ratepayer would have paid $1.67 more per month over the space of six years.
The decision has been watched closely in relation to the degree California utilities are culpable for financial damages that could run into the billions of dollars for wildfires, particularly in rural and remote regions of their service territories.
Here are some details of the decision
Within moments of the vote, SDG&E officials blasted the decision and promised to continue the fight in court.
"The CPUC got it wrong," said Lee Schavrien, the utility's senior vice president and chief regulatory officer. "The 2007 wildfires were a natural disaster fueled by extreme conditions including the worst Santa Ana wind event this region has ever seen, combined with high heat, low humidity and hurricane-force winds."
But CPUC commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen disagreed.
"The decision does not hold utilities to a standard of perfection. That's a straw man and that's not what we're doing here," Rechtschaffen said. "The burden of proof is on SDG&E to show they acted as a prudent manager and based on a careful review the decision concludes they did not meet that burden."
Groups who aligned against SDG&E during the nearly decade-long legal fight cheered the result.
"Hopefully this decision will serve as motivation for all the public utilities to improve their safety practices to prevent such disasters in the future as money seems to speak to these companies in a way that public outrage does not," said April Maurath Sommer, executive director and lead counsel for the Protect Our Communities Foundation, an environmental group based in San Diego County.
Thursday morning's vote affirmed a proposed decision a pair of CPUC administrative law judges recommended in August, arguing SDG&E's request should be denied because the utility "did not reasonably manage and operate its facilities" leading up to the fires.
But while CPUC president Michael Picker and commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves joined in the 5-0 ruling, they expressed reservations.
Picker went so far as to say that a record could support a finding that SDG&E acted prudently in most decisions, given the information available.
"This is a challenge as you're depending on engineers and humans standing there on the ground trying to make the best judgment based on what they can see and what they can do at the time," Picker said.
And while the administrative law judges sided with a scientist who estimated the winds that helped ignite the wildfires were about half the speed that SDG&E's experts claimed, Picker said he and Guzman Aveces "believe SDG&E's contention that wind conditions were severe and unprecedented."
That rankled Michael Aguirre, an attorney for ratepayer advocate Ruth Henricks, who said the remarks by Picker and Guzman Aceves were "calculated to undermine the viability of the decision should SDG&E decide to appeal."
RELATED: How the 2007 wildfires changed San Diego County
Investigations by Cal Fire and the CPUC determined the Witch and Rice Canyon fires were caused by sparks from downed wires and the Guejito fire was caused when a lashing wire owned by Cox Communications hit an SDG&E power line.
SDG&E's insurance covered approximately $1.1 billion of damages. The utility paid more than $2 billion in settlements and other costs in the aftermath of the wildfires, although it never admitted any liability.
Since 2007, SDG&E said it has invested about $1 billion in fire safety.
The company has created a weather center staffed with three full-time meteorologists, expanded its weather sensor network to 144 weather stations and spent money on firefighting efforts ranging from heli-tankers that can carry 2,650 gallons of water or fire suppressants to replacing 2,100 existing wood poles with steel poles.
Commissioner Liane Randolph said SDG&E "has taken innovative steps to become an industry leader in this area" but added, "this case has nothing to do with the current management of their system."
Instead, Randolph said the decision is "a snapshot in time" from 2007 and "SDG&E did not meet its burden to show it acted as a prudent manager." |
In what appears to be the first confirmation that the Stuxnet malware hit Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that malicious computer code launched by "enemies" of the state had sabotaged centrifuges used in Iran's nuclear-enrichment program.
The surprise announcement at a press conference coincided with news that two of Iran's top nuclear scientists had been ambushed Monday by assassins who killed one scientist and seriously injured the other.
Iran had previously acknowledged that Stuxnet infected the personal computers of workers at its Bushehr nuclear power plant but had insisted that the malware had not infected work systems involved in the nuclear program, and that the program itself had not been harmed. Officials did not mention then whether any computers at its nuclear facility at Natanz had been infected.
Natanz is engaged in enriching uranium that could be used to manufacture weapons. It was therefore believed by various computer security experts to have been Stuxnet's likely target.
Ahmadinejad did not mention Natanz by name at Monday's press conference but admitted that malware had "succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges."
According to a recent report from the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran had temporarily halted uranium enrichment at its Natanz plant for unknown reasons earlier this month. Thousands of centrifuges reportedly stopped production as a result.
Iran has had various problems over the years with equipment used in its nuclear facilities. The problems have delayed progress in both the country's nuclear power plants and the uranium-enrichment program, which Iran has insisted is for peaceful purposes only.
Ahmadinejad said the malware that caused problems with its centrifuges was in software that the attackers had "installed in electronic parts." He said the infection had been halted.
"Our specialists stopped that and they will not be able to do it again," he said, according to the BBC. Ahmadinejad blamed Israel and "the West" for spreading the malware.
The Stuxnet worm was discovered on computers in Iran in June by a Belarusian security firm and has infected more than 100,000 computer systems worldwide, most of them in Iran. The targeted code was designed to attack Siemens Simatic WinCC SCADA systems. The Siemens system is used in various facilities to manage pipelines, nuclear plants and various utility and manufacturing equipment.
But speculation has focused on Iran's nuclear facilities – at Bushehr, Natanz and other locations – being the most likely target. The sophisticated malware is believed to have been created by a well-financed nation state, with speculation focusing on Israel and/or the United States.
Security firm Symantec recently determined that the malware specifically targets Siemens systems that are used with frequency-converter drives made by two firms, one based in Iran and one in Finland. Even more specifically, Stuxnet targets only frequency drives from these two companies that are also running at high speeds — between 807 Hz and 1210 Hz.
Frequency-converter drives are used to control the speed of a device. Although it's not known what device Stuxnet aimed to control, it was designed to vary the speed of the device wildly but intermittently over a span of weeks, suggesting the aim was subtle sabotage meant to ruin a process over time but not in a way that would attract suspicion.
"Using nuclear enrichment as an example, the centrifuges need to spin at a precise speed for long periods of time in order to extract the pure uranium," Symantec's Liam O Murchu told Threat Level earlier this month. "If those centrifuges stop to spin at that high speed, then it can disrupt the process of isolating the heavier isotopes in those centrifuges … and the final grade of uranium you would get out would be a lower quality.”
Iran's confirmation this week that malware was behind recent problems with its centrifuges suggests that Stuxnet may indeed have been designed specifically to target Iran's nuclear program. But if this is the case, the assassinations on Monday could indicate that whoever targeted Iran felt the malware was insufficient to halt Iran's nuclear program.
According to news reports, the scientists were targeted in separate but nearly simultaneous car bomb attacks near Shahid Beheshti University. Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi, along with their wives, were driving to work when assailants on motorcycles zipped by their vehicles and slapped magnetized explosives to the cars, which were detonated within seconds.
Shahriari, who was head of an unnamed Iranian nuclear program, was killed. Abbasi, a high-ranking Ministry of Defense official who reportedly holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics, was wounded. Both wives were wounded in the attacks.
Two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years. A senior physics professor at Tehran University was killed in January, when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near his car as he was leaving for work. A second nuclear scientist died in 2007 from gas poisoning.
Ahmadinejad blamed Monday's assassination attacks on Israel and the West.
"Undoubtedly, the hand of the Zionist regime and Western governments is involved in the assassination," he said, according to an Associated Press account of the news conference.
Sunday's disclosure of U.S. State Department documents also show that Arab nations share the same concerns that Israel and the United States have about Iran's nuclear programs. The documents, given to various media outlets by the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks, reveal that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pleaded with the United States to stop Iran before it could develop an atomic weapon. Other Arab leaders were equally urgent that Iran had to be stopped.
There have been suggestions, however, that the Iranian government itself could have been responsible for the attacks on the two nuclear scientists.
Photo: A security man stands next to an anti-aircraft gun as he scans Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kilometers [186 miles] south of Tehran, Iran, in April 2007.
Hasan Sarbakhshian/AP
See also: |
India has released a “Policy on Open APIs for Government of India” (PDF) that calls on the nation's government to develop APIs to let departments share information with each other and with the public.
Many of India's government agencies are infamously moribund and Indians bemoan the short working hours, can't-do attitude and frequent corruption of “babus”, the derisory term used in India to describe civil servants. So disliked are babus that public opinion was very much in favour of a new biometric system introduced for the nation's civil servants in October. That the new system also offers a portal that reports on which civil servants have clocked on is also helping matters.
The API policy looks like an effort to further improve the operation of government and deliver a much-discussed “single-window concept to deliver the required electronic services by various Government organizations”. To that end, the policy explains its intention is to “Enable quick and transparent integration with other e-Governance applications and systems” and “Enable secure and reliable sharing of information and data across various e-Governance applications and systems.”
The wonderfully-named Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) gets the job of setting API standards, plus the chore of building and operating a messaging gateway to allow information transfer between government agencies.
Any APIs chosen by government agencies must be open and iterations must be shared, edicts that make this policy rather far-sighted.
There's no deadline in the policy, but “rapid and effective adoption” appears to be the watchword.
The policy calls for “all e-Governance applications and systems” to get an API, which means Babus are probably going to hate it even more once local coders get to work on services that expose just which government workers log on, and when. ® |
In 2011, the Vancouver Park Board installed a skateboard park in Mount Pleasant Park. During the construction, residents opposed it. The only resident to go on record (in that article) as being opposed was Doug Leung. At that time, the Vancouver Park Board had a majority of commissioners from the Vision Vancouver party.
In 2014 Vancouver held a municipal election to elect, amongst others, seven Park Board commissioners. A Douglas C. Leung of 54 West 16th Avenue, Vancouver, appears on the nomination papers for Non-Partisan Alliance Park Board commissioner candidates John Coupar, Erin Shum, and Sarah Kirby-Yung, all of whom were elected to the Vancouver Park Board. The fourth NPA member elected to the Park Board, Casey Crawford does not list Douglas Leung as a nominator. As an aside, Douglas Leung does appear on the nomination papers of George Affleck, NPA Vancouver City councilor, and a Douglas Lee of the same address appears on the nomination papers of Kirk LaPointe, NPA candidate for Vancouver mayor. Interestingly enough, the signatures for Douglas Leung and Douglas Lee appear to match as pointed out in this comment on Reddit…
Remember, Douglas C. Leung lives at 54 West 16th Ave, directly across from Mount Pleasant Park, home of the skatepark that Doug Leung complained about in 2011.
During the 2014 municipal election, Douglas Leung was the campaign manager for the NPA as evidenced in this story and this story and this story.
In the 2014 municipal election the NPA took control of the Park Board from Vision Vancouver.
In 2015 the NPA-lead Vancouver Park Board is voting on removing the skatepark based on complaints from nearby residents.
So, to recap, Doug Leung complained about the skatepark at Mount Pleasant Park in 2011. In 2014 Doug Leung nominated numerous NPA candidates and was the NPA campaign manager, and now in 2015 the NPA-lead Park Board is responding to neighbour complaints about the skatepark?
Huh. |
This article is over 2 years old
Westpac is ending all association with the government of Nauru and its entities, and has informed those affected to close their accounts by the end of the month.
The ABC’s Pacific Beat program reported on Thursday that the bank had acted after concerns were raised by internal anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing experts.
A spokeswoman for Westpac was unable to confirm or deny the report due to customer confidentiality.
Guardian Australia has independently confirmed the story.
Nauru election: former presidents say moves to 'rig' result under way Read more
Guardian Australia understands the decision relates to the Nauruan government and its specific entities, and will not affect regular customers who make banking transactions to Nauru. The bank has no physical presence on the island nation.
The bank has scaled back its operations in the Pacific region over recent years, but the decision to break ties with the Nauruan government appears to have taken the country by surprise.
A former president, Marcus Stephen, told Pacific Beat he had asked the government to explain the situation to its citizens.
The Nauruan government has been contacted for comment.
Sprent Dabwido, former president of Nauru, said the news was not unexpected.
“It’s ... not a total surprise when you have a government that is reckless in handling the finances of a nation,” he told Guardian Australia.
“I can’t blame them because most of the dealings of this government are never straightforward, never black and white,” he said.
Dabwido said the news was hard to reconcile with recent legal changes.
“It is not only embarrassing, it is a big shame that this news pops up now. How do we explain it to our people, when we have the anti-money-laundering act, we’ve closed our offshore banking, and then suddenly this shows up again,” he said.
“I really feel the government has a lot of explaining to do to the people.”
In 2014 the Nauru government’s Westpac accounts were temporarily frozen while a US hedge fund, Firebrand, chased it for about $31m related to bonds it had defaulted on. The high court later dismissed the company’s case and found Nauru’s accounts could not be garnisheed.
More recently the government has faced allegations of attempting to rig the coming election, with public concerns raised by two former presidents.
Since the end of the Firebrand court case, the Nauruan government has repeatedly trumpeted an improving economic outlook for the country.
This week it announced the establishment of a “sustainable sovereign trust fund”, to be chaired by the minister for finance and justice, David Adeang, and funded by a one-off grant from the Asian Development Bank, annual contributions from the Australian and Taiwanese governments, and “ongoing establishment support from valued partners”.
The Nauruan government said it expects the fund to reach $32m by the end of this financial year.
On Wednesday the country became the 189th member of the International Monetary Fund. Adeang was in Washington to formally sign on for his country.
“This shows just how far my administration has come in showing the world we are a fiscally mature and responsible economy, free of the burden of past governments,” the president, Baron Waqa, said. |
The first time John Gibbons was asked about Marcus Stroman — maybe a month or two back — he rolled his eyes.
He really didn’t want to say anything at all.
So he did the Gibbons thing: He hemmed. He hawed. He mumbled a little and he left the impression there were more important things to talk about.
That was before Stroman started throwing. And before Stroman was posting videos of his training on social media. And before Stroman made his first rehab start.
Now the question is the next question. It’s real. And Gibbons isn’t rolling his eyes about an overly optimistic pitcher. He is taking Stroman’s comeback about as seriously as you can, considering he still hasn’t thrown a big league pitch.
It is not out of the question that a playoff series pitching rotation — assuming the Jays get that far — could have David Price opening up and Stroman pitching Game 2. That is possible. If Stroman throws the way Stroman can.
THIS AND THAT
It’s settled after much discussion: Connor McDavid will live at Taylor Hall’s place for his first NHL season. Funny to think of the 23-year-old Hall as a veteran, but this will be his sixth season in Edmonton. And McDavid is comfortable with him … Almost everybody in the world named Shapiro pronounces their name Sha-peer-oh. Not Mark Shapiro, the incoming Blue Jays president. He pronounces it Sha-pie-roh. The reason: When entering the baseball business he wanted to distance himself from his father, the well-known player agent, Ron Shapiro. The only way he thought to do that: change your name … For the record, Paul Beeston is not resigning as president of the Blue Jays. It wasn’t his choice to walk away. He’s being pushed out, primarily by Ed Rogers of the ownership group … Phil Kessel trained hard this summer, ate right, lost 13 pounds, and did the Gary Roberts thing. The push behind the new Kessel: His personal embarrassment from last season and some words of wisdom from agent, Wade Arnott, that the singular Kessel finally listened to, changing his off-season regimin. Unrelated, on the short list of those who have no use for Kessel: Brendan Shanahan, Randy Carlyle, Ron Wilson and just about anyone who worked media relations for the Leafs over the past half decade … William Shakespeare wrote a play about Deflategate: He called it Much Ado About Nothing. It was a comedy. Deflategate was not. Just bad long drawn-out drama.
HEAR AND THERE
Boy is this new: Of the Maple Leafs’ seven pre-season games, six are being played opposite Blue Jays games. Should the Jays make it to the American League Division Series and Championship Series, five of the Leafs first six regular-season games will be played opposite a Jays game of significance … Lost in the dreadful season of the Detroit Tigers: Miggy Cabrera has a ridiculous on base percentage of .458 … Roberto Osuna won’t win the rookie of the year award in the American League — Carlos Correa of Houston will — but he will get a boatload of votes … The modern stats people keep telling me that RBIs are an overrated statistic: But how overrated can it be when four of the five leading RBI players in history are Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds … About to be a star: Khalil Mack, pass rusher, Oakland Raiders … The Blue Jays lost the first five starts Marco Estrada made this season. Since then, the surprising Estrada has made 17 starts and the Jays have won 12 of those games. His earned run average is 2.83 in those starts … The Jays have a 39-19 record when Justin Smoak starts at first base — that’s .672 baseball … If the Jays are in the post-season, Josh Donaldson will win in the MVP. He’s first in runs scored, RBI, and WAR in the AL, 2nd in doubles, and slugging, 3rd in home runs and fourth in OPS.
SCENE AND HEARD
Lou Lamoriello’s two closest associates in New Jersey, David Conte and his son, Chris, have left the Devils. There is no plan, as of now, to bring either to the Leafs … This is Donaldson’s fourth big league season. It should be his fourth time in the playoffs. This is Russell Martin’s 10th big league season. It should be his seventh time in the playoffs. This is David Price’s eighth big league season. It should be his sixth time in the playoffs … Does the Ricky Ray-Trevor Harris situation with the Argos remind anyone of the Drew Bledsoe-Tom Brady scenario with the New England Patriots years ago? … Tough times for the Jones Family: Arthur Jones is out for the season in Indianapolis. Younger brother Jon, the one-time MMA star, is nowhere to be found in UFC these days … I lost in my survivor pool in Week 1 of the NFL schedule a year ago. Having seen the schedule for Week 1 now, I’m pretty much convinced I’m losing Week 1 this year too … James van Riemsdyk will score 30 goals for the Leafs this season. No one else will … Still not certain if Slava Voynov will ever play in the NHL again — and it’s possible he’ll be deported. Meantime, the Los Angeles Kings made a nice signing by bringing in Christian Ehrhoff at a reasonably cheap price … The Montreal Alouettes are smart to take their time and not rush the rookie Canadian quarterback Brandon Bridge. You can ruin a young quarterback by pushing him too quickly. Bridge is worth investing in … It’s surprising that Duron Carter didn’t make the Indianapolis Colts, but not surprising that undrafted Canadian running back, Tyler Varga made the cut.
AND ANOTHER THING
Edwin Encarnacion has hit 142 home runs in the past four seasons. The brilliant Cabrera, with some injury time this season, has hit 130 … You want to feel old? Were he alive today, John Ferguson would have turned 77 on Saturday. And Lennox Lewis celebrated his 50th the other day … It’s early September and there’s no real pennant race left in the National League. All the playoff spots have been decided … No surprise here: Mike Babcock has purchased a Yorkville condo … The CIS football season has begun: Does anybody know? … The emerging Andre De Grasse turned down at least $700,000 in marketing money to leave USC for the pro track world. That’s what we call not taking the money and running … Donaldson told me in spring training: The best players rarely win in baseball. The best teams do. The latest exhibit: The Washington Nationals … According to the Buffalo News, a grand jury will determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed with a trial against Patrick Kane. There are all kinds of nervous people around this right now … Happy birthday to Stan Jonathan (60), Wendi Richter (54), Don Maloney (57), John Wall (25), Greg Rusedski (42), Jane Curtin (68) and Kevin Willie (53) … And hey, whatever became of Bill Caudill?
ARBOUR WAS ONE OF A KIND
One of my favourite Al Arbour stories begins on a winter’s night when he walked out of the Nassau Coliseum, tried to drive home, missed the exit ramp off the highway, drove 15 miles out of his way, got a little lost and worse, forgot his wife who was waiting for him back at the arena.
That was Arbour: Intense, focussed, deep thinking, and in his own words, “a bit of a screwball.” And if not the best coach in hockey history, he’s on a short list of three.
I was off when he passed away last week, but couldn’t let his passing go by without some kind of comment for the man they called “Radar.”
“I got a little carried away,” he told me in one of our many conversations years ago. “I was consumed by the job.”
It became the family business at a time when technology was hardly sophisticated. Al would coach. His wife, Claire, would tape games for him on an old fashioned reel-to-reel machine. Not only would she tape them, she would break them down into categories.
One time, Arbour was woken up in the middle of the night and told by his wife that she was in labour. Forever the coach, a barely awake Arbour told her to “relax and have a good workout.”
“I must have been dreaming or something,” he later said. Quickly, he awoke and drove her to hospital. He didn’t miss an exit ramp on that drive
SEAHAWKS WILL LOVE JACKSON
Playing eight seasons in the NFL with the same team is almost an eternity, but to do it the way Fred Jackson did it with the Buffalo Bills is straight from the museum of the hard to believe.
Jackson’s story was almost better than his game. He was an undersized backup running back in high school, not considered good enough to attract a college scholarship, later not accomplished enough to get drafted into the NFL. And all he has done for the last eight seasons in Buffalo was his job. He averaged 4.4 yards a carry on his 1,279 carries as a sometime starter (the same career number as Walter Payton and better than that of Emmitt Smith) and looked to still be in form at age 34 when the Bills stunningly let him go.
Jackson wasn’t out of work long. The should have been Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks signed Jackson to backup Marshawn Lynch. If there are two things Pete Carroll loves, it’s great football players and great stories. In Fred Jackson, he gets both in the same package. |
Businessman secures key victory in Empire State as he seeks to clinch the 1,237 delegates needed to become the Republican nominee
Donald Trump swept to victory in his home state of New York on Tuesday, reviving his hopes of winning the Republican party nomination outright.
The billionaire businessman was always expected to thrive in his home state and there was never much doubt that he would defeat Ted Cruz, the Texas senator whose brand of conservatism went down badly here, and Ohio governor John Kasich, who struggled to make an impact.
But after victory was called for Trump by the Associated Press just moments after polls closed, it became clear that he would claim most of the 95 Republican delegates up for grabs in New York, strengthening his assertion that he is the only candidate with a realistic shot at the 1,237 needed to clinch the GOP nomination.
With over 95% of the vote counted, Trump was on 60%, with Kasich on 25.2% and Cruz trailing with just 14.8%.
“It’s just incredible,” Trump told a crowd at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “I guess we’re close to 70%, and we’re gonna end at a very high level, and get a lot more delegates than anybody projected, even in their wildest imagination.”
Trump led in four of the five boroughs of New York City – but on his home turf of Manhattan, Kasich was slightly ahead, 45%-43%, after almost 100% of the vote had been counted. In Queens, where the billionaire grew up, he was firmly ahead with 67%.
Trump had 64% of the vote in Kings County, which covers Brooklyn, and in Richmond County (Staten Island) he was on 81%. In the Bronx, he had a 52-point lead over his nearest rival, Kasich.
Upstate, county after county fell to Trump as the results came in.
Donald Trump's back – and there's nothing the Republican party can do | Christopher Barron Read more
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton’s victory over Bernie Sanders was called about 45 minutes after polls closed. With over 95% of the votes tallied, Clinton led 57.7% to 42.3% and was firmly ahead in New York City.
Hillary Clinton wins decisive victory over Bernie Sanders in New York Read more
The Republican frontrunner arrived at his victory celebration in Midtown Manhattan by entering the lobby of Trump Tower to the strains of Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York, then launched a broadside at the Republican establishment.
“It’s impossible to catch us,” declared the Queens-born tycoon, surrounded by brass, marble and a big TV showing Fox News. “Nobody should take delegates and claim victory unless they get those delegates with voters and voting, and that’s what’s going to happen. And you watch because the people aren’t going to stand for it. It’s a crooked system, it’s a system that’s rigged and we’re going to go back to the old way: it’s called you vote and you win.”
He went on to compare the Republicans’ nominating process with that of the Democrats, where Sanders’ recent string of victories have made little impact on the delegate count. “Nobody can take an election away with the way they’re doing it in the Republican party. And by the way, I am no fan of Bernie, but I’ve seen Bernie win, win, win and they say he has no chance of winning. They have the superdelegates; the Republican system is worse.”
After the speech, Paul Manafort, who has in effect taken charge of Trump’s campaign, said: “He’s saying the system is rigged, and the system is rigged. It’s rigged in all 50 states where they have different rules that don’t take into account modern political presidential campaigns. We’re not complaining about the rules, we’re saying the people don’t understand that when they vote, they’re not necessarily voting for him.”
The GOP race has reached a critical stage in which every delegate counts. After Tuesday, Trump led with 845, ahead of Cruz with 559 and Kasich with 147. But after recent setbacks in Wisconsin and Wyoming, Trump’s path to an outright win has become precarious.
If he falls short of that target, he faces the prospect of a contested Republican convention in Cleveland in July, at which his delegates would be free in a second ballot to vote for a different candidate. There are already signs that he is being outmanoeuvred by Cruz when it comes to recruiting delegates. Critics say it has exposed his small and slapdash organisation.
“Trump hemorrhaging delegates all over the map,” tweeted David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. “Epic political malpractice. Just epic.”
This makes New York vital both in terms of numbers and perception, with the controversial tycoon hoping to use his victory to regain momentum and reset the narrative to one in which he can set his popular backing against the party establishment and its complicated state-by-state rules for choosing a nominee.
After voting for his father on Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr told the Guardian: “I think the Republican party has an opportunity to do something great and bring in a lot of people – and they have the opportunity to totally blow it and disenfranchise all the people that my father’s brought in and everyone else who thought the people’s voice mattered.
“It’s sort of amazing to live in this country and realise that the people’s voice doesn’t matter because that’s the way the establishment and the GOP has set it up.”
Trump himself has previously warned that there could be “riots”, “a rough July” and “a very, very angry and upset group of people at the convention”. On Tuesday, he voted at a synagogue near Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, surrounded by a throng of reporters. It was a “great honour” to be able to vote for himself, he said.
“We’re going to go into the convention, I think, as the winner,” Trump said in his Manhattan victory speech. “I wanna just thank everybody. I have great, great admiration and praise for the city of New York and the state of New York. I can think of nowhere I would rather have this victory!”
He added: “We don’t have much of a race any more, going by what I see on television. Senator Cruz … I’ve pretty much knocked the hell out of him.”
Trump spoke for 10 minutes from a lectern in the lobby of Trump Tower, near the shiny brass lifts that brought many Apprentice contestants down to earth after being fired, the escalator that Trump himself descended last June to announce that he was running for president (while notoriously referring to Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug dealers and rapists) and the marble waterfall where he has given countless TV interviews during his improbable campaign.
A giant American flag hung against a blue curtain next to a currency exchange. Luxury handbags and watches could be seen in a boutique store nearby. Suited supporters crowded in the lobby chanting: “Trump! Trump! Trump!” and “USA! USA! USA!” Media from all over the world were crammed in, with only standing room available, but the candidate did not take questions.
Trump has drawn big crowds at rallies across New York state, reiterating his promises to defeat Clinton in a general election, bring back jobs from overseas and build a wall along the Mexican border. He gained the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani, who was New York City’s mayor on the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
And he looks set to continue his once unthinkable winning streak on 26 April when Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island vote, with a combined total of 118 delegates at stake. The demographics appear to favour Trump and he is doing well in opinion polls there, but he then faces an uphill climb in states that could lean towards Cruz.
There also signs of discord and discontent in his campaign. After months relying on a shoestring campaign and free publicity, Trump is significantly expanding his staff and spending, with $20m set aside for contests in May and June. Veteran operative Manafort was hired to mastermind his delegate fight but this has led to a turf war with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, creating rival centres of power.
Trump admitted to Fox News on Tuesday: “When you bring other people in, I could see some people their feelings get a little bit hurt. But frankly, you know, we’re in a position where we’d like to see if we can close it out.”
But on Tuesday night he dismissed recent reports of disharmony. “It’s actually a team of unity, it’s evolving, but people don’t understand that. The press does understand it, they just don’t want to talk about it. That’s OK. Just keep talking, it’s very important.”
Cruz, who was not allowed to forget his derision of “New York values” earlier in the campaign, was braced for a poor showing in Tuesday’s results. He left the state long before polls closed and spent the day in Pennsylvania, which votes next week, debuting a new stump speech to a crowd of more than 100 people at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Pre-emptively dismissing Trump’s expected blowout as “a politician tonight winning his home state”, Cruz sought to reframe himself as outsider similar to Bernie Sanders. “I am an outsider, Bernie Sanders is an outsider,” he said.
“Both with the same diagnosis, but both with very different paths to healing. Millions of Americans have chosen one of these outsiders,” he said, adding: “Ronald Reagan and Jack Kennedy were outsiders.”
He also raised comparisons with Obama, introducing “yes we will” as a new slogan in contrast to the president’s “yes we can”.
“Our sitting president ran on a slogan that should have been a great first step,” said Cruz. “It promised us: yes we can.”
Cruz has long railed against “the Washington cartel” but this marked a new framing of that message with more optimistic rhetoric.
Kasich, the only other Republican left in the race, was seeking to add to his small delegate total and maintain his attempt to emerge as a viable alternative at the convention.
John Weaver, the Ohio governor’s top strategist, was confident early in the evening that his campaign would pick up some delegates in New York. He went on to note that Cruz’s collapse in the Empire State presaged what will be a rough night for him next week.
“What is happening to Cruz in New York is corresponding with what we’re seeing in the other April 26 states … He’s cast in a very narrow lane.” |
In her column lifting the lid on the film and TV industry, an Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated actor explains why nothing’s creepier than simulating sex
Having sex is fun. Having sex in front of your co-workers, with a co-worker, is the stuff of anxiety dreams to the power of 10. I once had an anxiety dream about having to do a sex scene the night before I had to do a sex scene. It was the most bizarre experience to wake up in horror, then to feel the massive wash of relief that it was just a dream only to be hit with the realization that it was about to be real. That’s some meta shit right there.
Whatever adulation/irritation you might have with certain actors/actresses, know that doing sex scenes is them having to pay the piper in full, with interest.
If there is anything creepier than simulating sex with someone you’ve a) just met or b) been friends with for a long time and whose wife and kids you’ve holidayed with, it is the way in which it is treated on a set.
The Secret Actress at the Oscars: Meryl Streep helped me dry my sweaty armpits Read more
It can go a few ways. Either, there is a hush of impending doom from the minute you are greeted by the PA: “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii, good morrrrrrrrning, biiiiiiiiiiig day today …” (insert sad face emoji on face of PA). The other way is what I like to think of as a more British stance, where everyone is brisk and bustles and looks away and makes brittle jokes that shatter immediately into awkward silence.
Saying I love you, screaming I hate you, crying, killing, dying and mourning are all things I’ve had to simulate over the course of my career. But nothing beats the intimacy of physical intimacy when it comes to impersonation. This is largely to do with the fact that your body doesn’t know that what’s happening isn’t real. The body reacts as bodies in those moments of intimacy do – they sweat, they redden, they harden. The hardening part was once skillfully addressed by an actor I was about to have crazy sex with, with a sanguine: “Forgive me if I do, forgive me if I don’t.” It gives a whole new spin on performance anxiety.
I have to say that pretending to have sex with someone you fancy is still painfully embarrassing, but pretending to have sex with someone you do not like in the slightest is downright awful. During the initial choreographing of one particular sex scene with an actor I really didn’t get along with, I volunteered the idea of him pressing me up against a wall and doing it from behind largely so I wouldn’t have to look at his smug, straining exertions.
This also worked another time when an actor had profound halitosis. I managed, on that project, to make NOT kissing him an actual theme. The director thought it added a “layer”. I say, do what you must.
I will leave you with the image of a naked girl (me) lying on her back with a rectangular sheath covering her nether regions, waiting for an actor whose dick is basically in a sock, jumping up and down trying to shake off the terrible pins and needles in his legs. The tableau is complete only when you add in a yawning boom operator and a producer on his phone, Yelping where to go for dinner. Super sexy all round.
The Secret Actress is an Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated actor who lives and works in LA today. |
NEWARK — Three fatal shootings in the last two days pushed Newark’s homicide total to 29 this year, a 71 percent jump in killings compared with the same period in 2010, as violent crime surges following police layoffs.
Between Jan. 1 and April 17, Newark has seen marked increases in homicides, shootings and thefts, while overall crime rose by 21 percent compared with the same time last year, according to Newark’s quarterly crime statistics obtained by The Star-Ledger.
Several of the most recent slayings claimed the lives of innocent bystanders, including a 49-year-old man who was shot several times outside of a chicken restaurant in the South Ward late on Easter Sunday, authorities said.
The report shows Newark has suffered steady increases in violent crime and property crime since the city laid off 167 police officers in November. Between Jan. 1 and April 17, shootings increased from 56 to 72 and robberies jumped from 418 to 462. Auto thefts saw the sharpest rise, leaping by 39 percent, from 743 in 2010 to 1,035 during the same time this year, according to the report.
A spokeswoman for the city administration, Esmeralda Diaz Cameron, said, "Our city has grown too strong in recent years to allow levels of violence to increase to where they were in 2006 and before. … We will continue to employ innovative policing measures to ensure that Newark will not accept anything less than strength, peace and security."
Police union leaders, who have frequently criticized the Booker administration since the layoffs, were quick to blame the crime spike on a lack of manpower.
"I think it just comes down to the people on the street. The bad guys know we’re not out there, and it has an effect on how they operate," said James Stewart Jr., vice president of Newark’s Fraternal Order of Police. "That’s why the shootings have increased dramatically, that’s why the homicides are up."
Stewart said the layoffs had made criminals more brazen, saying the lack of police manpower makes gang members and drug dealers more likely to carry weapons and to use them in the open.
While crime has increased, police productivity has also continued to slide. The total number of arrests made by city police officers between Jan. 1 and April 17 dipped by 22 percent compared with 2010, according to statistics, while the number of parking summonses and moving violations issued also dipped.
City police recorded 7,163 arrests between Jan. 1 and April 17 of this year, compared with 9,161 in 2010.
The trend continued a decline that started last year. Arrests and summons totals dropped in the second half of 2010, with some of the largest decreases coinciding with bitter and hostile negotiations between the unions and Booker’s administration.
Stewart said the lack of manpower leaves patrol officers on the defensive, responding to calls for help rather than actively trying to make arrests or issue summonses.
"Not that we had free time, but now you’re just going job, to job, to job," he said.
The latest killing came about 7 p.m. yesterday in the South Ward, police said. In a double shooting at Thorne Street and Evergreen Avenue, an unidentified man was shot in the face and soon died at the scene, while the second victim was expected to survive, police said.
In the same ward on Easter Sunday, two men were killed in a four-hour span. Shortly before 7 p.m., 24-year-old James Conn was shot several times in the 400 block of Clinton Avenue, less than a block from the Police Department’s newest precinct, said Thomas Fennelly, Essex County chief assistant prosecutor.
A half-mile away, Jamal Hedamy was shot outside of Crown Fried Chicken on Avon Avenue at 10:25 p.m., he said.
While a motive remains unclear in Conn’s death, Hedamy "did not appear" to be the target, said Fennelly, who said bystanders have fallen victim to violence several times in recent weeks.
The violent opening to 2011 is in stark contrast to last year, when the department enjoyed one of its most successful stretches in recent memory. Crime dropped 13 percent during the first three months of 2010 and Newark police crippled one of the city’s oldest drug havens in a massive raid at Academy Spires apartments.
Tomas Dinges contributed to this report. |
More Olympus OM-D E-M5II details have been leaked online ahead of the camera’s official announcement, which is expected to take place next week on February 5th.
According to the Japanese source, Digicame-info, the upcoming Olympus E-M5II Micro Four Thirds camera body only price will be 900 £ (around $1,400). More E-M5II images also leaked online as below.
Olympus Hong Kong started to sent out invitiations for a new Olympus OMD product announcement on Thursday February 5th.
Olympus E-M5II to be announced on February 5th
Olympus calls the next-gen Micro Four Thirds shooter is the “future of award-winning photography“. Even the name of the upcoming OM-D camera has not been mentioned in the invitation, we can easily say it refers to the so-called Olympus OM-D E-M5II.
See also : Olympus E-M5II Full Specifications Leaked
Olympus E-M5II Price Leaked
See the E-M5II pricing info in pounds. When we consider the launch prices in the past, approximate pricing in the US for E-M5II body only should be around $900.
E-M5II body: 900 £ (around $1,400)
E-M5II + 12-50mm kit: 1100 £ (around $1,700)
E-M5II + 14-150mm kit: 1250 £ (around $1,900)
E-M5II + 12-40mm Pro Kit: 1500 £ (around $2,250)
Grip HLD-8 (HLD-8G & HLD-6P): 200 £
Grip HLD-8G: 130 £
Flash FL-LM3: 70 £
14-150mm F4-5.6 II: 550 £
More Olympus E-M5II Images Leaked
Along with the E-M5 Mark II price information several new pictures of the mirrorless camera have been leaked online.
It appears that the mirrorless camera borrows its electronic viewfinder and some controls are taken from the E-M1 flagship OM-D camera.
The rear LCD monitor seems to be the vari-angle and the placement of the dial and buttons on the upper surface has changed quite significantly from the current type.
Olympus OM-D E-M5 will be replaced by E-M5 Mark II, a mirrorless camera with a new sensor shift mechanism and design. The mirrorless shooter will have the same E-M5 16-megapixel sensor without PDAF and the same 5-axis image stabilization system and proven dust-proof and splash-proof technology used on the OM-D E-M5.
The Pixel Shift mechanism found in some Hasselblad cameras, such as the H5D-200c, make it possible to capture 40MP images using the 16MP sensor inside the E-M5II by shifting the sensor and combining up to 8 shots into one.
Along with the Olympus E-M5II mft camera, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens is said to be released during the CP+ 2015 show.
via Digicame-info |
by Andy Greene - Rolling Stone
Rarely played live track makes appearance on upcoming box set
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are just three weeks away from releasing their long-awaited live collection CSNY 1974. In the past few weeks, we've debuted David Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" and Stephen Stills' "Change Partners," so it's time for a Graham Nash song. Check out an exclusive preview of "Pre-Road Downs" live from 1974 below.
The Nash-penned track first appeared on Crosby, Stills and Nash's eponymous 1969 debut album. CSN have played it a handful of times over the past few years, but it's mainly brought out on special occasions, like their 2012 gig at New York's Beacon Theater where they played the first album in sequence.
CSNY 1974 hits shelves on July 8th and was produced by Joel Bernstein and Graham Nash. "This is the most difficult project I've ever done in my recording life," Nash told Rolling Stone. "That's largely because of other people's agendas and trying to please four people at the same time. It only took us a year to actually do the physical work, but it took three or four years to get that work together."
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young haven't toured since 2006, but CSN remain a steady touring unit nearly every year. The next leg of their tour begins July 2nd in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. |
To be clear, ARCore is not the same thing as Tango, which is Google's other augmented reality project. While Tango requires specialized hardware like sensors and cameras, ARCore doesn't. Instead, much like ARKit, ARCore doesn't require anything other than your phone.
And while we're still waiting for iOS 11, and thus, ARKit, to make its public debut, ARCore is available right now. Starting today, developers can use ARCore on the Pixel and Samsung's Galaxy S8, as long as they're running Android 7.0 Nougat or above. Eventually, Google hopes for ARCore to run on millions more Android devices from manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, LG and ASUS.
Like ARKit, ARCore works with Java/OpenGL, Unity and Unreal, and it will deliver on three features: motion tracking (it uses the phone's camera to detect your position in the room), environmental understanding (so it can detect horizontal surfaces) and light estimation (so that the lighting and shadow of virtual objects match your surroundings).
Google noted in the release that it's already been building 3D tools like Blocks and Tilt Brush so that developers can create AR content, which would fit in nicely with ARCore. The company has also been working on other AR tech, like a visual positioning service for world-scale AR experiences, and AR-compatible web browsers. You can see some examples already on Google's AR Experiments showcase, and it looks like Epic Games, Niantic (the maker of Pokemon Go) and Wayfair are already on board.
When Apple released ARKit at WWDC, Senior Vice President Craig Federighi claimed that it would be the "largest AR platform in the world," because there are already so many iPhones and iPads on the market. Well, seeing as there are a lot more Android users than there are iOS users, it seems like that will no longer be the case. |
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The man responsible for making the footage of Alton Sterling shocking killing go viral was arrested barely 24 hours after his post on social media.
The 34-year-old Chris LeDay who lives in Georgia said he was arrested on Wednesday evening as he walked into his office. He was arrested and detained by 10 military officers, some of whom had assault rifles with them. LeDay further said that he was dragged to a back room, handcuffed and leg-shackled. He suspects that his superfluous arrest was an act of revenge for the video he posted.
Report by Photography Is Not a Crime (PINAC), stated that Chris was initially informed he was being arrested on charges of battery and assault. Conversely, when he was taken to the DeKalb County Jail, his arrest warrant made mention of nothing concerning assault and battery charge.
LeDay told the publication that his charges were on some traffic tickets from a couple of years ago and also they said his license was suspended. LeDay was released only after he paid his traffic fines to the tune of $1,231, US Uncut reports. He spent a total of 26 hours in police custody. The 34-year-old black man admitted to not paying the fines at the time because he didn’t have money then and he rarely drives.
LeDay, who is an employee at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia, said he believes the police chose to arrest him at work because someone in law enforcement wanted to get him fired as a revenge for posting Sterling’s video. In spite of his arrest, LeDay stressed that the negative experience will not discourage him from continuing to speak out against police brutality.
The oppressions went on the next level, now one might have been arrested for revealing the truth. The issue of the tickets, of course, was just the “official” subject; no one gets arrested by 10 militants for traffic tickets.
The police should focus on steps to take in other to prevent the recurring such horrible acts rather than witch-hunting innocent people. Finally, the truth will come up anyway; they can’t murder innocent people and believe that no one will know.
Ensure to visit this page for all exclusive news and updates. Kindly SHARE this article on any social media of your choice. |
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch announced his retirement on Twitter during the Super Bowl, but he and his contract still remain on the team's roster.
General manager John Schneider was asked Tuesday if there's a reason why Lynch is not on the retired/reserve list.
"Not really," he said. "We just haven’t received his papers yet. He’s been out of the country riding camels and stuff."
Lynch recently took a trip to Egypt with the American Football Without Barriers program, but he is now back in the country.
Marshawn Lynch's contract currently carries an $11.5 million cap hit for 2016. Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
Lynch's contract currently carries an $11.5 million cap hit for 2016. Once he retires, that hit will be cut down to $5 million.
One option the Seahawks have is to designate Lynch as a post-June 1 cut. By waiting, they could defer half of the cap hit ($2.5 million) to 2017.
"We haven’t decided that yet," Schneider said. "It would create some cap room. I’m not sure we’re at the point where we specifically need that. We just haven’t decided whether or not we’re going to wait until then to do it. But it would create some cap room."
If the Seahawks release Lynch, and he changes his mind and decides to play again, he'll be free to sign with any team in the NFL.
The indication from Schneider seemed to be that Lynch not filing his retirement papers is not an issue for the team right now. But if the team were to need the cap space to make a move (a signing or a trade), the urgency would increase and something would get done. |
A woman and her Bernese mountain dog became the unwitting stars of a furry convention this weekend after the woman mistook the gathering as an event for pets.
Cheryl Wassus of Monroe, Michigan, is a volunteer with Pets for Vets, a nonprofit that matches therapy dogs with military veterans. When Wassus learned that Motor City Furry Con in Novi, Michigan, was raising money for the organization, she assumed it must be a pet-themed convention.
Twitter/kenny wassus Link and his new furry friends.
It was a reasonable mistake. For those unaware, furries are people who enjoy dressing up in anthropomorphic animal costumes and role-playing. That’s not what Wassus or Link — who has training as a therapy dog — expected.
Wassus’ son, New York Media producer Kenny Wassus, tweeted some incredible photos of the mix-up on Saturday.
Link being a good sport pic.twitter.com/wLSnGNi82Q — kenny wassus (@kgw) April 8, 2017
ok link is starting to panic now sos pic.twitter.com/VFFmYtFOfZ — kenny wassus (@kgw) April 8, 2017
“This is just a whole subculture I wasn’t even aware existed,” Cheryl Wassus told New York magazine. “When we set up tables and do promos and educate the public and do outreach, I had no idea the outreach was going to be other human … furry people. I guess you’re never too old to learn.” (Read her full interview with NYMag, which is amazing, here.)
Wassus told Cosmopolitan that the convention’s organizers had invited her to do a presentation about Pets for Vets, and that it just never became clear what a “furry con” was.
“I usually try to do some research the night before I go to these events but the website was pretty obscure,” she said.
But the surprise worked out for the best. Wassus, Link and the furries got along famously. Link was a little confused at first, Wassus said, and did some “serious tail-sniffing” at the sight of all the two-legged animals. But it all ended up being no big deal.
“They weren’t offended, though. They just embraced him,” she told NYMag. “It was all good. Just a real interested community.”
Plus, the event was a big win for Pets for Vets ― Motor City Furry Con raised $10,000 for the group.
The media tends to associate being a furry with a sexual fetish, but most furry fans say it’s really not about that. |
New Delhi: A suspected terrorist who slipped minutes before the Delhi Police raided south Delhi’s Batla House in 2008 could be one of the five fugitives who featured in an alleged ISIS propaganda video, said a report on Tuesday.
According to the report, Mohammed Sajid alias Bada Sajid is one of the five persons who allegedly featured in the 22-minute video posted by the Islamic State recently.
It is believed that Sajid who belonged to the Azamgarh module of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) had escaped to Nepal enroute to Dubai.
Till now the NIA officials believed that Sajid had died in a US raid nearly ten months ago.
This has led to the suspicion that the ISIS video could be ten months or even more than a year old.
The report further claims that the identities of four Indian jihadists featured in the video have also been established.
While two of them are believed to be associated with the Azamgarh module of IM, the other two are said to be belonging to the Kalyan module, claims report.
The others shown in the video have been identified as Abu Rashid alias 'Danda' of Sanjarpur village in Azamgarh village in Uttar Pradesh, the third jihadist is Rehman, said to be hailing from Hyderabad and believed to have gone underground while in the US.
Rehman is shown speaking in accented English in the ISIS video and exhorting engineers and doctors to migrate to Syria.
Fahad Tanvir Sheikh hails from Maharashtra’s Thane and now uses the name Abu Amr’ al-Hindi.
Sheikh, believed to be an engineering student, left for Syria along with three others in 2014 to join the ISIS.
Jihadist groups, often suspected of having links with global terror groups, have in the past threatened to mount attacks in the country to avenge the Batla House encounter by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police.
The NIA officials are now trying to establish contacts with their families to ascertain their links with the ISIS. |
POLICE have clashed with protesters for a second time at the fenced-off City Square in Melbourne.
About 400 Occupy Melbourne demonstrators stopped at the square during a march from Trades Hall to Treasury Gardens, where a second occupation is planned.
As dog squad officers stood in the square, a mob of protesters shook the cyclone fence.
About 20 police forced themselves between the fence and the crowd, scuffling with demonstrators.
Earlier today, the protesters marched without incident up Swanston St to Trades Hall carrying pink roses and giving peace signs.
They are now making their way to Treasury Gardens to vote on whether they should occupy the gardens next Saturday.
Protesters have liaised with police about a campsite but Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has threatened to serve them with an eviction notice if they set up camp within the City of Melbourne.
Occupy Sydney protesters condemn Melbourne clashes
Activists in Sydney say they will hold a peaceful rally to mark their first week of occupation in the city.
Occupy Sydney protesters condemned police after violent clashes in Melbourne and said their occupation had been nothing but "peaceful and positive".
"We will be welcoming thousands of people into Martin Place from all walks of life to celebrate the first week of continual occupation," Occupy Sydney spokeswoman Wenny Theresia said in a statement today.
The activists have decided to stay outside the Reserve Bank's headquarters rather than picket the offices of big corporations.
About 400 people massed at Martin Place in the city centre shortly after midday (AEDT) as a contingent of more than 50 riot police stood by.
The number was far less than the 1000-strong crowd an Occupy Sydney spokeswoman had predicted on Saturday morning.
Sydney businesses have called for the protest "shanty town" to be removed from Martin Place, saying it shrinks to as few as 20 during the day but swells at night.
There are no immediate plans to move the Sydney group on, with Police Minister Mike Gallacher's spokesman saying the protest remained peaceful and would continue to be monitored.
In contrast, Victoria Police Commissioner Stephen Fontana said the protesters had had "more than ample time to make their point".
Protest chaos on Melbourne streets
About 100 people yesterday defied an order to leave the City Square camp by 9am and about 12.30pm police began dragging people away. Mr Fontana denied officers had used excessive force amid reports some had used choke holds on protesters.
"It's very difficult to move in and separate people who don't want to move," he said.
About 20 protesters and two officers suffered minor injuries and eight police cars were damaged in the clashes, which blocked major city intersections and public transport for most of the day.
Police arrested at least 50 people but had to boost their ranks to more than 400 as protest numbers swelled to about 500 as word of the plan to evict them spread.
Protesters promised more disruption today, tweeting plans to storm Flinders St Station as crowds head to the Cox Plate and threatening to target Queen Elizabeth's visit next week.
With the Daily Telegraph |
John Kerry confirms US considering Nauru, Manus Island refugee resettlement deal
Updated
United States Secretary of State John Kerry has confirmed his country has agreed to consider re-settling refugees from Nauru and Manus Island.
Key points: US would resettle detainees on Nauru and Manus Island found to be refugees
Deal would help end years of uncertainty for detainees
Australia's annual refugee intake now includes people from Central America being held in Costa Rican camps
The Turnbull Government will announce today the outcome of multi-nation negotiations aimed at clearing out its offshore detention centres.
Speaking in New Zealand, Mr Kerry described the refugee crisis as a "pressing, pressing issue".
"We, the United States, have agreed to consider referrals from UNHCR on refugees now residing in Nauru and Papua New Guinea," he said.
"We are encouraging all countries to work with UNHCR, as we are going ... to find a durable solution for these refugees.
"That was a key focus of the leaders' summit that took place in New York in September and my sense is we're reaching an understanding about how we're going to deal with it."
Mr Kerry also brought up but did not comment on the proposed changes to the Migration Act, which would ban refugees on Manus Island or Nauru from ever coming to Australia.
The ABC understands the Government has been talking with the United States, Canada, Malaysia and New Zealand about resettling the 396 detainees on Nauru and the 873 on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will today announce the United States has agreed to take some of those who have been processed and found to be refugees.
If Canada participates it would do so under the same arrangement. New Zealand has a standing offer to take 150 refugees, one Australia has repeatedly rejected because the Government believed it would provide an incentive for people smugglers.
If Malaysia is part of any arrangement it will provoke a furious response from Labor, after the Coalition scuttled a refugee-swap deal with that country brokered by the Gillard government in 2011.
The Government's key fear in reaching the settlement with the United States is that it might reboot the people smuggling route through Indonesia, with criminals claiming that landing in Australia would guarantee resettlement in America.
That explains the recent decision to legislate a lifetime visa ban on those who have tried to enter Australia illegally by boat since July 2013.
But that creates a complication with New Zealand's participation in any agreement. Prime Minister John Key has rejected the idea of having two classes of citizens in his country, those who can visit Australia and those who cannot.
The ABC has been told that the US offer to take refugees does not hinge on a "people swap", even though Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced in September that Australia would take refugees from Central America as part of its annual intake of 18,750.
It is not clear if the deal the Government has struck will cater for all of those now in off-shore detention. The ABC has been told that detainees will be offered resettlement in a third country, being returned to their homeland or staying on Nauru.
The hope is this deal will finally clear the running sore. The Government has been told there is a growing chance of more deaths and self-harm among a population that is being held in indefinite administrative detention.
Topics: refugees, immigration, foreign-affairs, federal-government, world-politics, australia, united-states, nauru
First posted |
As somebody who groped his way to school through winter smogs in Sheffield in the 1950s and 1960s, I have always been sceptical about the claims of environmental campaigners that air pollution in British cities is now reaching critical levels of toxicity. I recall playing football on pitches where neither goal was visible from the halfway line. No doubt any therapeutic benefits of exercise were outweighed by the damage to our youthful lungs.
Yet recent headlines proclaim that our children are being exposed to illegal levels of toxic air, and London mayor Sadiq Khan has declared a public health emergency in the capital. The mayor quotes epidemiological studies claiming that 9,000 Londoners are dying prematurely every year because of poor air quality. Estimates of national fatalities have increased from 40,000 to 60,000 per year. |
Prominent video game designer and Fire Pro Wrestling series creator, Masato Masuda, passed away at the age of 48, Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi "Suda51" Suda revealed today.
"He was 48 years old, still young. I genuinely pray for his happiness in the next world," Suda wrote. "He was one of the greatest creators of video games and he was my direct teacher. Thank you for giving us our favorite Fire Pro-wrestling. You are the god of it."
While at studio TRY, Masuda programmed and designed Pro Wrestling by himself with another developer creating the game's graphics. The wrestling game was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System in 1986, and launched a year later in North America and Europe for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Masuda went on to develop the Fire Pro Wrestling series across numerous platforms for Human Entertainment, formally TRY. Masuda designed, programmed, wrote and oversaw the development of numerous other titles and series, such as formula One racing game F1 Triple Battle and hex-based strategy game Vasteel.
Suda met Masuda when he joined Human Entertainment in the early ‘90s where he first worked as a scenario writer on Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Final Bout. Suda later established game development studio Grasshopper Manufacture in 1998 before Human folded in 2000. |
A gunman whose rampage killed one man and seriously wounded two women — leading to the lockdown of two election polling stations in the Los Angeles area — is dead, authorities said.
It is not clear if the gunman, who was armed with an assault rifle, killed himself or was fatally wounded during a shootout with police, according to The Associated Press.
The violence erupted near a middle school in a residential neighborhood in the town of Azusa, in Los Angeles County, after 2 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department tweeted Tuesday night that the shooting "does not appear to have any direct connection to the election/polling places," but the Times quoted a law enforcement source as saying at least one victim was heading to vote.
One of the polling locations was an elementary school. One location has since re-opened. |
Development
Conception
Architecture and design
Features
Construction and structure
Incidents
Fatalities Within 17 months of the building's official opening, a man described as "an Asian in his mid-30s" who worked at one of the companies in the tower, died by suicide on 10 May 2011 by jumping from the 147th floor. He fell 39 floors, landing on a deck on the 108th floor. Dubai police confirmed the act as a suicide, reporting that "[they] also came to know that the man decided to commit suicide as his company refused to grant leave."[120] The Daily Mail reported that on 16 November 2014, a Portuguese national who was in Dubai on a tourist visa, fell to her death from Burj Khalifa's "At the Top" observation deck on the 148th floor.[121] However, on 18 May 2015, Dubai police disputed the report made by the Daily Mail on this incident and said that this incident took place in Jumeirah Lakes Towers.[122] A Dubai coroner's report stated her body was found on the third floor of the Burj Khalifa.[123] Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information act from Portugal's embassy in the UAE also confirmed that she had committed suicide from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa.[124] Labour controversy Further information: Human rights in the United Arab Emirates The Burj Khalifa was built primarily by workers from South Asia and East Asia.[125][126] This is generally because the current generation of UAE locals prefer governmental jobs and do not have an attitude favouring private sector employment.[127][128] On 17 June 2008, there were about 7,500 skilled workers employed at the construction site.[103] Press reports indicated in 2006 that skilled carpenters at the site earned £4.34 a day, and labourers earned £2.84.[125] According to a BBC investigation and a Human Rights Watch report, the workers were housed in abysmal conditions, and worked long hours for low pay.[129][130][131] During construction, only one construction-related death was reported.[132] However, workplace injuries and fatalities in the UAE are "poorly documented", according to Human Rights Watch.[129] On 21 March 2006, about 2,500 workers, upset over buses that were delayed for the end of their shifts, protested and triggered a riot, damaging cars, offices, computers and construction equipment.[125] A Dubai Interior Ministry official said the rioters caused almost £500,000 in damage.[125] Most of the workers involved in the riot returned the following day but refused to work.[125]
Other uses
BASE jumping The building has been used by several experienced BASE jumpers for authorised and unauthorised BASE jumping: In May 2008, Hervé Le Gallou and David McDonnell, dressed as engineers, illegally infiltrated Burj Khalifa (around 650 metres (2,130 ft) at the time), and jumped off a balcony situated several floors below the 160th floor. [133] [134]
On 8 January 2010, with permission of the authorities, Nasr Al Niyadi and Omar Al Hegelan, from the Emirates Aviation Society, broke the world record for the highest BASE jump from a building after they leapt from a crane-suspended platform attached to the 160th floor at 672 m (2,205 ft). The two men descended the vertical drop at a speed of up to 220 km/h (140 mph), with enough time to open their parachutes 10 seconds into the 90-second jump. [135] [136]
On 21 April 2014, with permission of the authorities and support from several sponsors, highly experienced French BASE jumpers Vince Reffet and Fred Fugen broke the Guinness world record for the highest BASE jump from a building after they leapt from a specially designed platform, built at the very top of the pinnacle, at 828 metres (2,717 feet).[137][138][139] Climbing On 28 March 2011, Alain "Spiderman" Robert scaled the outside of Burj Khalifa. The climb to the top of the spire took six hours. To comply with UAE safety laws, Robert, who usually climbs in free solo style, used a rope and harness.[140]
In popular culture
Awards
See also |
The challenge? Bring 'Alexa', the virtual personal assistant, to life.
TORONTO, Feb. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Remember the 2013 film Her? The Oscar-winning science fiction rom-com featuring an intelligent computer operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson? This March, as part of Amazon Echo's first ever Canadian hackathon, co-hosted by Toronto's own Connected Lab, that idea will be one step closer to reality as Canada's best tech minds spend a weekend hacking the virtual personal assistant.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/336898LOGO)
Their subject will be "Alexa", the voice-based operating system behind Amazon's latest consumer electronic device, the Amazon Echo. The Echo is a small cylindrical speaker that can perform an impressive list of tasks. Users can ask Alexa to play music, read news headlines, make to-do lists, order products from Amazon.com, or even dim the lights in a room. Not yet available in Canada, the hackathon will provide designers and developers the first opportunity to explore the Amazon Echo. Their challenge? "Hack" the Echo to develop new capabilities, called "Skills", for Alexa to perform.
To bring the event to life, Amazon has partnered with Toronto tech company Connected Lab to co-host the weekend-long event. Connected Lab, whose core team spent time in Silicon Valley helping multi-billion dollar giants such as Facebook and Uber transition to mobile and connected technologies, have proven themselves to be the tech company to watch in Canada. "Voice-based technologies will soon play a big role in how we use new products and services, from inside your car to your living room," says Mike Stern, CEO, Connected Lab. "This is an amazing opportunity to explore the future of connected technology through the Amazon Echo and Alexa." Connected Lab's Co-Founder and VP Engineering, Damian McCabe, will sit on the hackathon's panel of judges alongside Amazon executives and industry leaders.
This free event will include a comprehensive workshop where participants will receive an introduction to the Amazon Echo and instructions on how to build an Alexa Skill. In addition to working one-on-one with experts from Amazon and Connected Lab, participants will also have the opportunity to win a coveted Amazon Echo, as well as paid internships with Connected Lab.
For more information or to register for the event, visit the event page.
WHAT:
Amazon "Alexa and Echo" Hackathon hosted by Connected Lab
WHEN:
Friday, March 11, 2016 - Sunday, March 13, 2016
WHERE:
Connected Lab Headquarters, 370 King St W. Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1J9
About Connected Lab
Connected Lab is North America's leading and fastest growing product development company in the 'Connected Software' space. Connected Lab helps the world's most ambitious brands build the best connected software experiences. For more information, please visit http://connectedlab.com.
Keep in touch with Connected Lab:
Twitter: @connectedlab
Blog: https://medium.com/@connectedlab
SOURCE Connected Lab |
Crude Oil Thefts Rise In Texas As Low Prices Force Job Cuts
Oil prices continue to hover near lows not seen in years. It might be surprising then to learn that the theft of oil is up. Oil companies in Texas are lobbying for higher penalties against thieves.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
People who round up and steal cattle, cattle rustlers, have long been reviled, but they've also been part of Texas mythology ever since there have been cattle on the range. Well, now the downturn in oil prices is giving rise to a new kind of criminal, oil rustlers. Mose Buchele from member station KUT takes us to South Texas.
MOSE BUCHELE, BYLINE: Mike Peters drives through the brush country of La Salle County touring the oil fields. As he steers his pickup, he says, let's play cop for a little while. Peters was on the San Antonio police force for more than 30 years, so he knows how to play cop.
MIKE PETERS: You notice the truck that was here when we pulled out?
BUCHELE: Yeah.
PETERS: I don't know the truck. It's not one of ours.
BUCHELE: So you're wondering what they're up to.
After Peters retired, he became head of security for the drilling company Lewis Energy. The truck he was following seemed to be trying to enter oil well sites.
PETERS: More than likely, he's purely legitimate. But if you don't question when you see something like that, you never catch anybody.
BUCHELE: These days, he's trying to catch oil thieves. It's become a big problem. He says people are sneaking into well sites and stealing crude oil. We'll get into how that works in a minute. But first, why? Why would anyone want to steal oil when prices are so low? For some answers, let's take a detour to the nearby city of Cotulla. In a town plaza, cars line up for an outdoor food pantry. Volunteers say the need is great. Since the oil downturn, many people are out of work. Ismael Telles put it this way.
ISMAEL TELLES: Gas goes up, the oil field goes up. Then the gas goes down, and then you go back to the house.
BUCHELE: Telles used to work the oil fields. He's been unemployed now for a couple years. He says these days, people are getting creative to make ends meet.
TELLES: Like cut grass, lawn mowers, weed eating.
BUCHELE: Odd construction jobs, ranch work, maybe even stealing.
MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ: It's all about the money. It's always about the green dollar.
BUCHELE: That's La Salle County Sheriff Miguel Rodriguez. Since the downturn, he's investigated all sorts of oil field thefts - stolen generators, stolen truck batteries, and yes, stolen oil. He says these crimes seem to be on the rise.
RODRIGUEZ: You know, you got people that they hire to work, and then for some reason, they get terminated. They get fired. And then they know the system so they know when they can go to the location where they know there's the oil, and they sell it in the black market.
BUCHELE: This eerie noise is the wind hitting the side of an empty tanker truck. It was used in an alleged oil heist last fall. Now it's in a police impound lot in Cotulla. If you know how to use a truck like this, it's easy to connect to an oil storage tank. Grab some crude. The next step is laundering it. Lewis Energy's Mike Peters says one way people do that is partner with the owner of an oil well that isn't producing.
PETERS: And all of a sudden, it becomes what we call a miracle well. It will all of a sudden start producing 25, 50 barrels a day where before it didn't produce anything.
BUCHELE: Another way is to claim the oil as salvaged, skimmed from the wastewater that's a byproduct of oil production. So how big a problem is oil theft?
PETERS: The standard answer to that, which comes out of the Energy Security Council, is that it is probably between 1 to 3 percent of all the oil produced in Texas.
BUCHELE: That could be billions of dollars. That's why oil companies in Texas are lobbying for higher penalties against thieves. Some want to fund more police just to patrol the oil fields. Remember that suspicious looking at the beginning of the story, he turned out to be a hunter. But, Mike Peters says he's glad he checked just to be on the safe side. For NPR News, I'm Mose Buchele in Austin.
Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
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Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter is appalled the Federal Government has ceased funding for mental health counselling in drought affected areas.
The day after the 2016-17 Budget was announced rural counselling service providers were notified the drought funding for mental health counselling will cease from June 30, 2016.
“While the Federal Government might plan to cease the funding, the drought shows no signs of doing the same in fact it have gotten worse, and this has in turn increased the pressures on families,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter has made representation to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Social Services, the Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs to seek assurances from the ALP and LNP to reverse the decision prior to the Federal election, or if not, to have both parties commit to funding being restored after the July 2 election.
“The 2016/17 budget has allocated $7.1 million for financial counsellors for farmers in drought-affected areas but no provision has been made for mental health counselling,” he said.
“The Federal Government has adopted a stop-start approach to renewing funding and giving advice around service continuity.
“The advice provided to service providers was that the funding is formally ending and this advice is final.”
Mr Katter said the drought continues in western Queensland and service providers’ success relies upon building trusted relationships with their clients.
“Trust and relationships take time to build and is not assisted by a stop-start approach by government to service funding.”
Centacare North Queensland director, Peter Monaghan pointed out regional areas are already under-serviced and to rip the funding out now while the drought continues, when there are no similar alternate services, will be dire for the local communities.
“The same areas continue to have a substantial over representation of family violence and separation and most definitely suicide (including a farmer near Richmond recently),” Mr Monaghan said.
“These areas are devoid of rain and feed for cattle and are now faced with the ‘dry’ season and starving cattle that do not have the condition on them to manage through the winter,” he said.
Mr Monaghan said the loss of funding will be substantial with the provider estimating that over the past two and a half years they would have received approximately $1.8 million.
He said the cuts will affect hundreds or possibly thousands of individuals in need.
“We’ve got people who are hurting out there who will no longer have the support services available.”
Mental Illness Fellowship of North Queensland CEO Jeremy Audas said he’s fearful the cuts are leaving people in distress.
He said the funding stoppage will mean that the services that link people to clinical, counselling and family well-being services will cease.
“This puts people at risk when they’re at their most vulnerable,” Mr Audas said.
“We’re now in the process of winding down these services and putting off people who we’ve employed,” he said.
“In Charters Towers for example we’ve opened an office and employed local people to carry out the work on the stations and properties.
“They’re the ones that know the issues and are already connected to the communities, but won’t have employment any further and won’t be able to deliver those services to people in need.
He said the job losses aren’t the main issue, it’s the loss of service delivery to people whose mental well being has been impacted that he’s concerned about.
“Financial counselling alone isn’t enough to cater for the needs of people living in rural communities.”
Mr Katter said he hopes common-sense will prevail with the ALP and LNP and that funding will be reinstated post-election.
The cessation funding affects 14 rural and remote councils in the electorate of Kennedy (Flinders, McKinlay, Charters Towers, Hinchinbrook, Richmond, Mareeba, Etheridge, Croydon, Carpentaria, Burke, Doomadgee, Mount Isa, Cloncurry and Boulia).
Service providers affected by the funding stoppage are the Mental Illness Fellowship of North Queensland; Centacare North Queensland; Anglicare North Queensland; Supported Options in Lifestyle and Access (SOLAS); Suncare Community Services; Relationships Australia Queensland and North West Remote Health. |
BY:
Al Qaeda is constructing its main regional base in areas of Syria where Bashar al-Assad’s regime has lost control, according to Mosaic magazine.
The group will export terrorism and radical Islam throughout the region and then to the West, according to a report from an Israeli security research institute.
The report identified the Al Nusra Front as Al Qaeda's official arm in Syria; they added that the organization is quickly entrenching itself in the north and east of Syria, where the Assad regime's rule has collapsed. […] The researchers who composed the report assessed the chances of Al Nusra realizing its goal of building a caliphate as low, due to Syria's diverse sectarian, ethnic, and religious population, and strong tradition of secular Arab nationalism. Nevertheless, they said, the group is on course to become one of the most prominent rebel entities, and will play a key role in shaping a post-Assad Syria, while using its growing presence as a springboard to launch international terrorist attacks.
The group has 6,000 to 7,000 operatives, according to the report. Its goal is to topple Assad’s regime and implement Sharia law. |
“The disabled too have sexual desire. Well, of course they do, it goes without saying, and yet most care facilities ignore the fact.”
One that doesn’t is a Niigata-based organization called White Hands. “It’s very businesslike,” writes investigative journalist Kaori Kawai in Shukan Post (Aug 20-27). “A young woman slips on a pair of disposable gloves. She removes the man’s trousers and underwear and covers him with a bath towel. She dips a cloth in warm water and rubs him down. She slips a condom on him. The woman does not remove her clothes, engages in no superfluous sexual contact, uses no erotic DVDs or books. The entire procedure lasts 5 to 10 minutes on average.”
White Hands was established in 2008. As of June 30, it had 155 clients scattered all over the country. Some 80% of them are men suffering from cerebral palsy – either singles who due to paralysis cannot masturbate, or married and unable, for the same reason, to engage in sex without assistance.
Kawai introduces us to one regular client. Akio Sudo, 54, lives in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture. The youngest of eight children, he never went to school; his father went bear-hunting with the disabled child strapped to his back. He was 20 when his father died. He went to live in an institution, vowing to get out of it someday and live independently. It took him 20 years to develop the skills and confidence, but he did it.
Being in a wheelchair hardly seemed to confine him. He made frequent train trips on his own from Joetsu to Tokyo for the sexual services there. This was before the age of barrier-free convenience. If his wheelchair got stuck or upended, observing how people reacted became part of the fun. With an attitude like that, you can go far.
But his disease progressed, his paralysis worsened. So he turned to the Internet and discovered White Hands. The charge: 3,500 yen for 15 minutes, 5,500 yen for 30 minutes, 9,500 yen for an hour – plus transportation.
“Sex, like eating, sleeping or excreting, is a basic bodily function,” says Shingo Sakatsume, White Hands’ 29-year-old director and founder. He works out of an office in his mother’s house. A graduate of Tokyo University’s literature faculty, he had little love for academics and less for the business world. As a student he had done his share of enjoying paid sexual services.
He always wondered, he tells Kawai, why both clients and service providers seemed to feel guilty about what they were doing. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life, but thought it might have something to do with “making the ero-entertainment industry more wholesome.” He seems to have taken a big step in that direction.
© Japan Today |
A major European gas distribution hub resumed operations early Wednesday after an explosion knocked it offline, cutting off gas supplies to several countries.
Gas Connect Austria said the flow of gas towards Italy, Germany and Hungary resumed from its hub at Baumgarten an der March after fire and police inspected the site.
An explosion rocked the gas distribution center outside of Vienna Tuesday morning, prompting Italy to declare a state of emergency.
One person died in the blast while a further 21 were injured, one seriously, according to officials.
Austrian authorities said the explosion was triggered by a "technical cause," without providing further details.
Located near Austria's eastern border with Slovakia, the Baumgarten gas hub carries about 10 percent of Europe gas supply from from Russia, Norway and other states.
It handles some 40 billion cubic meters per year, redistributing it around Europe, including to Germany, France, Italy, Slovakia and Croatia.
Gas prices soar
News of the explosion threw the European gas market into turmoil amid fears that supplies would be tightened during the winter months.
"With the restart of operation on the international pipeline systems, it will be possible to resume transit through Austria, thereby restoring security of supply for the affected countries," Gas Connect Austria said.
Read more: North Sea pipeline shutdown impacts supply
Italy declares state of emergency
Italy, the Baumgarten hub's biggest recipient, declared a state of emergency following the blast, with the country's industry minister warning that it was facing a "serious" energy supply problem. A state of emergency status allows the Italian government to carry out extraordinary measures to try to meet energy demands, such as allowing coal and oil power plants to fire at full blast.
Read more: Nordstream II gas pipeline in deep water
According to the Reuters news agency, the Italian wholesale day-ahead supply of natural gas rose 150 percent to €60 ($70) per megawatt-hour (MWh) — an all-time high.
The export arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom said it was working to redirect gas flows to southern Europe and to avoid any interruptions in the supply.
The extreme heat released by the pipeline blast caused several nearby cars to melt.
cw, nm, dm/se (Reuters, AP) |
Florida's Department of Corrections is being accused in a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of failing to provide medical treatment to a 22-year-old transgender woman who has been living as a female since she was 14. File Photo by f11photo/Shutterstock
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections, accusing a state men's prison of refusing to provide medical treatment to a transgender woman.
Reiyn Keohane, 22, has been living as a female since she was 14 years old and began hormone therapy at the age of 19, the ACLU of Florida said in a statement. While facing an attempted murder charge in 2013, Keohane was refused the ability to continue her hormone therapy by the Lee County Jail, the ACLU writes.
"Keohane accepted a plea deal for the charge in 2014 with the understanding that she would be allowed to return to her hormone therapy after being transferred to DOC custody. However, she has been repeatedly denied this treatment since her transfer," the ACLU said.
The ACLU said Keohane told DOC officials she needed to continue her treatment for gender dysphoria -- the treatment being both hormone therapy and the ability to groom and attire herself as female.
"She has had female clothing items confiscated. She has filed numerous grievances to restore her treatment, but has been repeatedly denied," the ACLU writes.
Keohane wrote a guest blog post for the ACLU in which she describes her past years under the care of the Florida prison system.
"In the years I have been incarcerated, I have been made to endure more cruelty by the State of Florida than I ever imagined the government could commit. I am a transgender woman -- but to the classification officers there is no such thing," Keohane writes. "I have been forced to strip with men, and been slapped and hit for telling the officers in charge of the search that the rules say I must be searched separately. I have been handcuffed, thrown to the ground, and held down so officers could shave my head. I have been called a punk, a sissy, and a [explicit]; I have been beaten while handcuffed for asking to see mental health professionals."
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The ACLU is asking the Tallahassee Division of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida to find the Florida DOC's alleged denial of treatment for Keohane's gender dysphoria as a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The lawsuit also asks the court to impose a permanent injuction that will force the DOC to allow Keohane to receive treatment.
"As a result of being denied access to female clothing and grooming standards and of being cut off from and denied hormone therapy by DOC officials ... plaintiff has suffered severe psychological distress and physical harm, including a suicide attempt and an attempt to self-castrate," the lawsuit said.
ACLU of Florida - DoC Lawsuit |
On Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden’s younger brother said Biden could “absolutely” run for president in 2020.
When SiriusXM host Michael Smerconish asked Frank Biden whether Joe Biden had one more presidential run in him, Frank Biden said “absolutely. Absolutely.”
“Why anyone would think otherwise, I don’t know,” Frank Biden added.
Biden stoked speculation about a potential 2020 run when he recently launched his “American Possibilities” political action committee.
As Breitbart News has reported, Biden may be able to win over working-class voters against Trump in a way Hillary Clinton never could. And he has explicitly criticized his fellow Democrats for not doing more to appeal to working-class voters.
But Biden is trying to have it both ways. Because the former vice president knows he must appeal to Democrats of color to win the party’s nomination, he has also used his recent commencement speeches to praise the “Black Lives Matter” movement and slam working-class voters who voted for Trump for being drawn to nationalism and “hate speech” while blaming “the other” for all of their problems.
During a recent speech at Cornell University, Biden said “there are a lot of folks out there who both are afraid and susceptible to this kind of negative appeal.”
“The immigrant, the minority, the transgender–anyone not like me became a scapegoat,” he continued. “Just build a wall. Keep Muslims from coming into the United States.”
His brother also said on Wednesday that “Joe is one of the few people in the United States that commands respect from the right and the left, based on the fact that you may not like what Joe says, but you can take to the bank whatever he says is true.”
During his unsuccessful bid for his party’s presidential nomination 1988, Biden was caught plagiarizing parts of his stump speech and was forced to withdraw from the race.
As Breitbart News has reported, Biden may have also been misleading audiences for years by claiming to have played college football at Delaware. |
It’s an age old question: the grape or the grain, vin ou biere, wine or beer. But does one really have to choose between wine and beer? Lots of people don’t think so, and choose to enjoy both. In fact, if you listen to Sam Calagione, founder and president of the renowned Dogfish Head brewery of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, you can even have both in a single glass.
Try a glass of Dogfish Head Sixty One on for size if you don’t believe me. Dogfish Head Sixty One is a new year-round brew from Dogfish Head. They claim it is the first year-round addition to their lineup since 2007. The beer was introduced in March of 2013 and is sold in 4-packs of bottles; I enjoyed it on tap at Taco Mac for a reasonable $6 a mug. The beer has an alcohol content of 6.5% by volume and 60 IBUs.
Back to the beer and wine thing. According to Dogfish head, Sam got the idea for this beer by adding a bit of red wine to a pint of his 60 Minute IPA. Hence, the following idea for the beer from the company website:
The name Sixty-One is a reminder that this beer is Dogfish Head’s best-selling 60 Minute IPA plus one new ingredient: syrah grape must from California.
So, this is really the famous 60 Minute IPA with some Syrah grape must thrown in. I wasn’t really sure what grape must was; to me it sounded like grape mush. That’s not far off the mark, as it seems. I called in a lifeline to Wikipedia:
Must (from the Latin vinum mustum, “young wine”) is freshly pressed fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit.
Sounds like mush to me. Anyway, let’s dive into the beer that patrons here at Taco Mac are starting to wonder if I will ever drink this beer.
My mug of Dogfish Head Sixty One arrived a beautiful reddish amber color with a thick creamy head and a wonderfully amount of fruit in the nose. Taking a sip, I get a little caramel malt underneath, and then the fruit hits: apricots and white grapes are what I got (sue me on the white grapes, if you want your wine grape varieties right go see the wineguru). There’s a rather flinty vinous character here, and in the finish some grassy herbal hops finish things out.
I’ll be honest, I thought this beer was OK, but not really a beer I would buy again. For what it is supposed to be its well-made. I think the fruity grapes cover up the usual citrus of the Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, though it could be that the two in combination gave me the apricot impression. I did get the grassy hop character, but that seemed to me incongruous with the fruit.
I just didn’t think that the two worked well together, and likely not a beer I would buy again.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box .
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
|
The sixth season of FX’s “American Horror Story” got off to a strong start. Wednesday’s episode easily ranked as cable’s top live+same-day performer in adults 18-49 and total viewership.
It tied NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” as Wednesday night’s #1 show – period – in adults 18-49.
According to live+same-day data posted, Wednesday’s episode drew a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating and 5.14 million total viewers. The numbers trail the 3.0 rating and 5.81 million viewer mark posted by last season’s premiere but remain impressive by any reasonable cable standard.
Given the show’s strong rapport with DVR users, the numbers should become considerably more impressive in the live+3 and live+7 reports. FX insists it values that data to a far greater extent than live+same-day.
Attention will, naturally, turn to the show’s retention in the coming weeks. The past two “American Horror Story” seasons suffered steep declines from start-to-finish, and this one presents unusual variables.
Whereas the past few “AHS” iterations premiered in October, this year’s edition started in September — a week before the true start of the television season. This week’s premiere thus faced limited opposition; will the introduction of opposition from networks like CBS and ABC accelerate the decline in the coming weeks?
There is also the potential impact of the secretive promotional strategy.
Going into Wednesday’s broadcast, the season was shrouded in mystery and known only by the subtitle “6.” We now know it will focus on the mockumentary “My Roanoke Nightmare” and be called “American Horror Story: Roanoke.”
Did the mystery drive curiosity sampling from people who will not regularly watch the show (thus suggesting a sharp decline in the coming weeks)? Or, did it hinder the promotional impact — people had less which to get excited — and thus bottleneck this week’s rating (thus suggesting less of a decline moving forward)? |
Disclaimer: The characters of Calvin and Hobbes and Harry Potter are belonging to Bill Watterson and J.K. Rowling, respectively. I have, however, taken the liberty of giving Calvin the surname of Mitchell. Anyway…
It was a quiet summer evening at the little house in England. Mr. Mitchell sat calmly in his chair; glancing over the newspaper in his lap, sipping his coffee and mostly, enjoying the quiet. Presently, he stretched and gave a content yawn. He really was enjoying the English town they were living in. Being transferred, he thought, was the best thing that has happened for a long time.
The silence was broken by the opening of the front door.
"Mom, Dad, Hobbes, I'm home!" called out the man's son.
"Hi Calvin," he turned in his chair. "How was your day?"
"It was… interesting" Calving placed his hat on the coat hanger, revealing the blonde hair that still stood up every which way. His father began excepting the fact that nothing, in all of his son's eighteen years had made him even consider changing his hairstyle. So, it was likely that nothing ever would.
"Interesting, huh?"
"Yeah, a couple of cats found their way into the blood raven cages. You can just imagine the fiasco that followed."
"Uh, sure son." He said (Though, in all honesty, he couldn't.) "Oh Calvin, before I forget, you have a visitor."
"A visitor?" Calvin asked in surprise.
Calvin found his way into the kitchen, where two brown haired women were talking over a batch of sugar cookies. The older woman was Calvin's mother, and the younger one he knew immediately as…
"Susie?"
Her hair was longer than he remembered, but sure enough, Susie Derkins was sitting in kitchen. The sight of her brought a flood of memories back to Calvin. He could clearly see himself, at the age of six, hurling pine cones at her from within his tree fort. There he was at eight, seeing her at recess, and beginning to feel his feelings of apathy for her melting away. At nine, those feelings disappeard entirely and he and Susie actually became close friends. And then, then as he was halfway through his tenth year, he remembered all the sadness of telling his new friend that his dad had been transferred, and that they were moving to England. He remembered painfully the first – and last – hug he received from her just before climbing into the car to drive to the airport. He could all too clearly see, from the back seat of their car, Susie watching them leave, quickly – too quickly – shrinking into the distance. And now, here she was sitting in his kitchen eating cookies.
"Susie, um… Hi."
"Hi Calvin." She said
"Oh Calvin, your home." His mother chimed in
"Honey… " Calvin's dad said from the doorway "Honey, could you come here for a minute? I need help straightening the pictures in the hallway."
"We just adjusted them this afternoon, Dear." His wife stated
"Well, I think they need to be fixed again." He said jerking his head in Calvin and Susie's direction.
"Oh, ooooh" She rose from her seat "You mean those pictures. Yes, why don't we?"
They left the two alone together, but Calvin hadn't even noticed.
"S-s-so Susie, what brings you up this way?" Calvin said as he helped himself to a cookie
"My parents and I are visiting my Grandma." Susie replied, smiling
"Oh, she lives out here? Cool, so how long have you been here?"
"Well, I remembered that you were living close to where Grandma lives, so this afternoon, I thought I'd drop by. But, we've been in England for a couple of weeks now. Grandma and I have done all kinds of great things, like, when we first arrived she–"
"Ooh, wait!" Calvin jumped out of his seat "Let me go find Hobbes, then you can tell us both."
"Hobbes…?" Susie said, uncertainly "You mean that stuffed tiger you always used to drag around? That Hobbes?"
"That's him." He replied. Susie hesitated before saying
"Calvin, why are you still playing with stuffed toys? Even I stopped playing with Mr. Bun after awhile."
"Well… Mr. Bun was an ordinary toy. Hobbes is… special."
"Special?… In what way?" Calvin sat completely motionless for a moment, contemplating the best thing to say.
"I'm sorry, I am not at liberty to share the information you have requested." He said finally
"Well, fine!" She started to rise, with the look one has when they're trying to hold back tears. "If you're going to be all secretive about it, then maybe I should just leave!"
"Susie no!" Calvin dashed in front of her "Susie please, don't go."
"Then, tell me what's going on with Hobbes!"
"I can't!"
"Why not?"
"I just… it's, y'know – that is… he, I… it's a funny thing it… I just can't!"
"I see." She said "Good night, Calvin."
"… Alright." Calvin said, defeated. "Alright, I'll tell you."
"You will?" Susie turned back
"Yes," He replied "but first, you have to promise me that what I'm about to tell you is going to remain between us."
"Okay, sure"
"I mean, really." Calvin said "Don't tell anyone. Not your parents, not your Grandma, not any of your friends, don't even write it in your diary. Okay?"
"Alright" She agreed
"I have your word?"
"You have my word, just please tell me what's going on."
"Okay" Calvin took a deep breath and thought of where to begin "Susie, do you believe in… magic?"
"Magic?" She asked, confused "You mean wand waving and pixie dust, 'Bibbity bobbity boo' kind of stuff? That magic?"
"Yeah," Calvin answered "that magic."
"… n, not really." She responded "Why?"
"Because… Hobbes is a magical creature. He's a tiger, but he can walk on his back legs and he can speak perfect English. Also, anyone without magical abilities can't see him that way. They can only see a toy."
"And you say you can see him this way?"
"That's right."
"But, only magical people can see him that way?"
"Yep."
"And that's because…?" She asked, not wanting to hear the answer.
"Because…" Calvin paused "because, I am… a wizard." Susie sat motionless
"A wizard?" She asked, anger beginning to bubble up within her "Calvin, it was bad enough when you wouldn't tell me, but to go and make up some stupid lie?" Calvin swallowed hard, knowing what he would have to do "I thought I knew you better than that. I'm leaving, goodnight."
Susie got up and walked to the open door, she stopped suddenly when the door swung closed without being touched. She turned around to see Calvin pointing a dark colored stick at the door
"Please don't go, Susie" He said "Here." He now pointed that stick into the air. At first, nothing happened, but then something green began to flow from the tip. It grew longer and straighter until the end began to ball up, and then it burst open revealing a bright, yellow Daffodil. Calvin picked the flower off of the wooden tip and handed it to Susie
"I know they're your favorite." He said
"Oh Calvin," Susie said "This is, I – you… that was… it… I wish this kitchen was carpeted." She then fell, unconscious. Calvin, in spite of this, smiled contently. |
A weird elephantine noise appears, the wind sweeps around your feet, and a small, old-fashioned, blue British police box appears before you. A curiously dressed person steps out of it through the creaky front doors and says: “So – all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will – where do you want to start?”
The idea of traveling through time (and space) with the man (or woman) from Gallifrey is a magical idea, and one that currently remains in the realm of science fiction and fantasy. However, a new study in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity has highlighted, once again, that it’s certainly mathematically possible.
“In this paper,” it begins, “we present geometry which has been designed to fit a layperson's description of a ‘time machine’. It is a box which allows those within it to travel backwards and forwards through time and space, as interpreted by an external observer.”
This paper mathematically describes a TARDIS. Doctor Who via YouTube
That certainly sounds like a time machine to us – and fans of Doctor Who will notice that the study’s title, “Traversable acausal retrograde domains in spacetime” can be acronymized to TARDIS, the very name of the Time Lord’s own time machine. How wonderfully geeky.
So what do the pair of mathematicians from the Universities of British Columbia and Maryland propose, then? Well, as has been suggested before, time machines will need to be able to warp the fabric of spacetime itself. In this sense, it’s best to think of spacetime as a unifying point for all three physical dimensions (width, height, depth) and time.
Special Relativity in a nutshell. Doctor Who via YouTube
Time only appears to go forwards to us thanks to a quirk of the decidedly pesky second law of thermodynamics. However, the warping of spacetime does appear to do some rather curious things to time. If you place a huge mass on it, it forms a huge gravitational well, and time does slow down considerably within this well.
Time still ticks forever onwards though – it won’t go backwards. For that to happen, you need to invoke a little bit of the theories of special and general relativity. |
The ongoing drama in Goa catches in a nutshell the difference between the BJP and Congress and adequately explains why the former's star is rising while the latter is suffering from an existential crisis. For students of Indian politics, the entire episode is also an interesting case study in the nature of Congress' internal power dynamics. It elucidates why the Congress is compelled to have a Gandhi at the helm despite the scion proving himself to be an unmitigated liability.
But we shall come to that in a bit. The central question that I wish to tackle is the Congress charge — first tweeted out by former finance minister P Chidamabaram and then reiterated by vice-president Rahul Gandhi — that BJP is 'stealing democracy' because it had the audacity to stake the claim of forming a government in Goa and Manipur where voters have thrown up a hung Assembly.
A party that comes second has no right to form the Government. BJP stealing elections in Goa and Manipur. — P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) March 13, 2017
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament on Tuesday, Rahul dismissed Congress' UP reversal as "little down" and seemed to suggest that his party has performed better than BJP by winning three states out of five, but "democracy is being undermined" in Goa and Manipur because BJP is using "financial power and money".
It can't be helped if the Congress vice-president chooses to remain in 'La La Land' but the party's charge against BJP and petition in Supreme Court that Governor Mridula Sinha 'acted in haste' should be explored from all angles. Did Sinha err in inviting BJP's chief ministerial candidate to form a government? And how accurate is the claim that a party which finishes second "has no right to form a government"? What are the political, legal and moral aspects of this charge?
Let us look at the numbers first. The Congress has 17 lawmakers. It is the single largest party. The magic number is 21 in a 40-member Assembly. The BJP finished second with 13. Among the rest, Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) have three each. Three more Independents and a legislator from NCP have also won. A day after the results, the BJP approached the governor claiming that it has the support of 21 MLs.
On Sunday, Parrikar was appointed as the chief minister and asked to prove majority within 15 days. A press note issued by governor's office read: "Shri Manohar Parrikar has submitted evidence before Honourable Governor, the support of 13 MLAs of BJP, 3 MLAs of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, 3 MLAs of Goa Forward Party, and 2 Independent MLAs, thus having a total strength of 21 MLAs in the 40-member assembly."
Goa Governor appoints Manohar Parrikar as the CM, asks to prove majority within 15 days of administration of oath of office and secrecy pic.twitter.com/dZMCbkWwFD<http://pic.twitter.com/dZMCbkWwFD> — ANI (@ANI_news) March 12, 2017
At this point, Congress saw red. It accused the BJP of "stealing democracy" and filed a petition in the Supreme Court pleading the apex court to pass an order staying the swearing-in on Tuesday and striking down the governor’s decision to appoint Parrikar as the chief minister.
The question that arises from the timeline of events is this: What was stopping the Congress, which just needed four more MLAs to have the numbers on its side, from approaching the governor and staking a claim to form the government? Why did it wait for the BJP to make its first move before crying foul?
According to IANS, it wasn't any moral conundrum that was stopping it from approaching the governor. The party wasn't "caught napping" either. What happened was that it wasted precious time in quelling a bitter internal squabble over who would be the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader. Unable to come to a conclusion, the Congress, led by its general secretary Digvijaya Singh, left the goal empty for BJP to score
According to the article, Singh and other Congress leaders were cooped up in a hotel, locked in an internal battle for power and "waiting" for smaller allies to back them.
"State president Luizinho Faleiro, former chief ministers Digambar Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane were potential candidates for the post, but each camp and their proxies rejected each other, wasting precious time. There was even a secret ballot to select the CLP leader; an exercise whose results were incidentally also kept a secret from the media and the party's junior MLAs" says the report, adding: "By evening, frustrated Congress leaders stepped out of the hotel, with Taleigao MLA Jennifer Monserrate blaming the party's 'Delhi leaders' for losing the opportunity to select a CLP leader and forge a ruling coalition."
In contrast, the BJP moved swiftly led by Goa minder Nitin Gadkari and former chief minister Parrikar. At the end of hard-nosed negotiations with other MLAs, BJP went to Raj Bhavan in the evening.
Even as Singh claimed BJP had "bought MLAs", Congress leader Vishwajit P Rane, seen as the potential chief ministerial candidate, told NDTV: "I think there was total mismanagement by the leadership". He said Congress had the mandate to form the government but lost the opportunity "because of foolishness of our leaders".
Savio Rodrigues, vice-chairman of Goa Minority Congress, blamed Singh for the botch-up. He told Times Now channel: "I completely blame Congress leadership for the failure to form the government in Goa. In fact, I blame Digvijaya Singh. What Congress wasted the time on was trying to figure out who would be the chief minister of Goa."
From all accounts, it seems fairly clear that Congress' charge against BJP was a poor attempt at hiding its own inefficiency. It tried to claim the moral high ground when it had no other option left. It is a little foolish to blame the BJP for doing what parties in a democracy are supposed to do, form a government through coalition if lacking in simple majority. The Congress charge is poor politics.
Its petition against the governor also doesn't hold legal water because there is no constitutional compulsion on Sinha to call a party with 17 legislators in a House of 40 when a rival coalition has already enlisted the required numbers. In a couple of tweets, Arun Jaitley pointed out that the governor was not acting out of her powers.
In a hung assembly, if majority of the elected MLAs form a coalition, the Governor would be constitutionally right (1/2) — Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) March 13, 2017
in inviting the leader of the majority coalition to form the government and prove their majority within a short period. (2/2) — Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) March 13, 2017
This is in consonance with former President KR Narayanan's detailed communique in March 1998 on this subject. The governor is entitled to use her discretionary powers and is not constitutionally bound to call the 'single largest party'.
The text of the press communique reads: "When no party or pre-election alliance of parties is in a clear majority, the head of State has, in India and elsewhere, given the first opportunity to the leader of the party or combination of parties that has won the largest number of seats, subject to the prime minister so appointed obtaining majority support on the floor of the House within a stipulated period of time. This procedure is not, however, an all-time formula because situations can arise when MPs not belonging to the single largest party or combination can, as a collective entity, outnumber the ''single largest'' claimant."
Little wonder that the Supreme Court, through a bench headed by CJI JS Khehar, refused to stay Parrikar's oath-taking ceremony with a caveat that the floor test must be conducted on 16 March. This throws the legal validity of Congress's charge of "stealing democracy" out of the window.
The apex court had some tough questions for Abhishek Manu Singhvi who appeared for Congress party during the hearing.
Tough questions from CJI Khehar to Dr.Singhvi. CJ asks 'did u file the names of MLAs who support u in ur representation to Guv' — Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) March 14, 2017
You are putting us the position of the Governor. These things you should have stated before the Governor: SC to Dr. Singhvi — Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) March 14, 2017
You had enough time.even full night .Night is the best time (sarcastically).There is not a single affidavit frm any member who support u:SC — Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) March 14, 2017
The final aspect of the charge is a moral one. Should the BJP have moved to stitch a coalition and staked claim when clearly it was the second-largest party? This charge rests upon a notion that parties which win most seats (though lacking in simple majority) retain the exclusive right of forming the government. Unfortunately, this, too sits heavy on Congress' shoulders.
It appears a little awkward when a party that famously grounded a chartered plane in 2005 to search for MLAs and scupper NDA's plans of forming a government in Jharkhand — NDA had 36 in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly and UPA had 27 — sermonises about such proprieties.
Few have forgotten that in Delhi, Congress, with eight seats, had sought to form a government with AAP (28 seats) to keep the BJP away which had won 31 seats. The Congress should go a little easy on these lectures. It is for the BJP to answer though why the party that claims to be "different" seems to be adopting Congress's dubious practices.
Last, the episode proves why Congress is doomed with the Gandhis and doomed without them. If it cannot solve the simple issue of who would be the chief ministerial candidate in a small state, then it doesn't require knowledge of rocket science to presume what would happen if the Gandhis were to relinquish their position.
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Russian president was the only leader to phone Erdogan as soon as he could and essentially congratulate Erdogan for fighting off the coup attempt
Russian President Vladimir Putin did on Sunday what no major western leader from the NATO member countries cared to do when he telephoned his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan to convey his sympathy, goodwill and best wishes for the latter’s success in restoring constitutional order and stability as soon as possible after the attempted coup Friday night. (Kremlin website)
The US Secretary of State John Kerry instead made an overnight air dash to Brussels to have a breakfast meeting on Monday with the EU foreign ministers to discuss a unified stance on the crisis in Turkey. The French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was in an angry mood ahead of the breakfast, saying “questions” have arisen as to whether Turkey is any longer a “viable” ally. He voiced “suspicions” over Turkey’s intentions and insisted that European backing for Erdogan against the coup was not a “blank cheque” for him to suppress his opponents.
The US has expressed displeasure regarding the Turkish allegations of an American hand in the failed coup. Indeed, Turkish allegation has no precedent in NATO’s 67-year old history – of one member plotting regime change in another member country through violent means. Clearly, US and Turkey are on a collision course over the extradition of the Islamist preacher Fetullah Gulen living in exile in Pennsylvania whom the Turkish government has named as the key plotter behind the coup. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has warned that Ankara will regard the US as an “enemy” if it harbored Gulen. The dramatic developments expose the cracks appearing in the western alliance system. (See the commentary in the Russian news agency Sputnik entitled NATO R.I.P (1949-2016): Will Turkey-US Rift Over Gulen Destroy Alliance?)
Interestingly, the senior Turkish army officials detained so far include the following:
Commander of the Incirlik air base (and 10 of his subordinates) where NATO forces are located and 90 percent of the US’ tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are stored;
Army Commander in charge of the border with Syria and Iraq;
Corps Commander who commands the NATO contingency force based in Istanbul; and,
Former military attaches in Israel and Kuwait.
Most certainly, the needle of suspicion points toward the Americans having had some knowledge of the coup beforehand. Two F-16 aircraft and two ‘tankers’ to provide mid-air refuelling for them and used in the coup attempt actually took off from Incirlik.
Of course, Ankara has been wary of the US and France establishing military bases in northern Syria with the support of local Kurdish tribes, which it suspected would be a stepping stone leading to the creation of a ‘Kurdistan’. (The advisor on foreign affairs to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Akbar Velayati, who is an influential figure in Tehran alleged on Sunday that the US is attempting to create a Kurdistan state carved out of neighboring countries with Kurdish population, which will be a “second Israel” in the Middle East to serve Washington’s regional interests.)
Today, the famous Saudi whistleblower known as ‘Mujtahid’ has come out with a sensational disclosure that the UAE played a role in the coup and had kept Saudi Arabia in the loop. Also, the deposed ruler of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani (who is a close friend of Erdogan) has alleged that the US, another Western country (presumably France) had staged the coup and that Saudi Arabia was involved in it. (here and here) Meanwhile, word has leaked to the media that in a closed-door briefing to the Iranian parliament on Sunday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif hinted at Saudi and Qatari involvement in the coup.
Putin’s phone call to Erdogan suggests the possibility that Russian and Turkish intelligence are keeping in touch. The two leaders have agreed to meet shortly.
The timing of the coup attempt – following the failure of the US push to establish a NATO presence in the Black Sea and in the wake of the Russian-Turkish rapprochement – becomes significant. Equally, the signs of shift in Turkey’s interventionist policies in Syria would have unnerved the US and its regional allies.
Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have a great deal to lose if Turkey establishes ties with Syria, which is on the cards. Thus, stopping Erdogan on his tracks has become an urgent imperative for these countries. The spectre of the Syrian government regaining control over the country’s territory haunts Israel, which has been hoping that a weakened and fragmented Syria would work to its advantage to permanently annex the occupied territories in the Golan Heights. Again, Turkey’s abandonment of the ‘regime change’ agenda in Syria means a geopolitical victory for Iran. On the contrary, a triumphant and battle-hardened Hezbollah next door means that its vast superiority in conventional military strength will be rendered even more irrelevant in countering the resistance movement. Significantly, Israel is keeping stony silence.
Will the US and its regional allies simply throw in the towel or will bide their time to make a renewed bid to depose Erdogan? That is the big question. Erdogan’s popularity is soaring sky-high today within Turkey. He can be trusted to complete the ‘vetting’ process to purge the Gulenists ensconced in the state apparatus and the armed forces. The meeting of the High Military Council due in August to decide on the retirement, promotions and transfers of the military top brass gives Erdogan the free hand to remove the Gulenists. |
Cops outside the Irving Plaza venue in Manhattan following a shooting on May 25 in New York, New York. (Xinhua/David Torres via Getty Images)
Over the past seven days, America witnessed four mass shootings that left one dead and 16 injured. The attacks bring the US mass shooting body count so far this year to 111 dead and 400 injured. Meanwhile, Europe suffered one mass shooting that left two dead and 11 injured, bringing the continent's body count in such attacks up to 20 dead and 66 injured.
The week's mass shootings in the United States were once again routine by national standards, drawing limited media attention. At about 12:30 AM Saturday, a drive-by shooting at a high school graduation party in Griffin, Georgia, killed a 16-year-old boy and injured three others. Around 7 PM on Sunday, a drive-by targeting a group of people in a car in Nashville, Tennessee, injured four. Less than three hours later, another drive-by on a group outside a nightspot in New Orleans, Louisiana, injured four more. And at about 7:30 PM Monday night, a shooting at a house littered with guns and drugs in Newark, New Jersey, left five more injured.
Meanwhile, Europe's mass shooting, which unfolded on Sunday at about 3 AM at an outdoor music festival in the small town of Nenzig, Austria, was the largest (although not the deadliest) such attack on the continent this year. After reportedly arguing with a woman in a parking lot, a 27-year-old man grabbed a long gun from his car and fired randomly into the crowd—the kind of indiscriminate shooting you don't often see in Europe. The attacker created a stampede among attendees before ultimately killing himself. An unexpected public terror rivaling the worst mass shootings of America in a usually quiet part of the world, the Nenzig attack ticked almost every box for unrelenting media coverage, generating stories throughout the week in not just European but also American outlets.
But the tail-end of the week saw attention shift towards an attack in New York City that fell below VICE's threshold for a mass shooting: At about 10 PM Wednesday, a shooting broke out in the third-floor VIP room of the city's Irving Plaza concert venue, where the rapper T.I. was gearing up to perform to a crowd of about 1,000. The details of the incident remain hazy, but police have arrested rapper Troy Ave (born Roland Collins), 30, who suffered a graze wound to his leg; police say he was a shooter. Troy Ave's bodyguard-manager Ronald "Edgar" McPhatter, 33, died of a gut shot while in the hospital. Bystanders Maggie Heckstall, 26, and Christopher Vinson, 34, were also hospitalized with bullet wounds to the leg and chest, respectively; both are now said to be in stable condition. The shooting stemmed from an earlier fistfight, but it's unclear exactly who Troy Ave allegedly shot—i.e. whether he was responsible for all of the gunshot wounds, including the graze wound to his own leg, or just some of them.
For his part, NYC Police Commissioner William J. Bratton quickly blamed the shooting on what he describes as the thuggish nature of rap culture, a problematic contention at best. But his take still gets at the key reason this shooting received the mass media attention that a previous, technically "mass" shooting in New York last month did not: it involved, if only tangentially, names like 50 Cent and TI—prominent figures in American pop culture. The distorting power of celebrity isn't particularly novel or surprising when it infiltrates events like this one. But it is depressing that the United States still seems to accord more value to the lives and injuries of those proximal to its stars than the many others coping with what has become a national epidemic of mass gun violence.
Follow Mark Hay on Twitter. |
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn speaks at the White House on Feb. 1, less than two weeks before he was ousted as the White House’s national security adviser. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Trump’s ousted national security adviser did not seek permission from the U.S. government to work as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests, U.S. defense officials said, raising the possibility that the Pentagon could dock the retirement pay of Michael T. Flynn.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the Defense Department is reviewing the issue. It arose after Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, registered retroactively this month with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for work that his company, Flynn Intel Group, carried out on behalf of Inovo BV, a Netherlands-based company. It is owned by Ekim Alptekin, a Turkish businessman who is not a part of the Turkish government, but has links to it.
The Inovo assignment centered on researching Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric whom Ankara blames for fomenting a coup attempt last summer and wants extradited from the United States, where he has lived in exile for years. That led Flynn’s company to conclude that the work “could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey,” according to a letter sent by Flynn’s attorney, Robert K. Kelner, to the Justice Department, along with the filing.
[Read: The Washington Post’s 2016 profile of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn]
Flynn Intel Group received a total of $530,000 in three payments between September and November from Inovo BV before discontinuing the arrangement after Trump was elected president, according to Flynn’s filings. It is unclear from the paperwork how much Flynn personally profited from the deal, but he is the majority owner and chief executive officer of the firm. Kelner, reached by phone Wednesday night, declined to comment on the deal.
Flynn filed the foreign agent paperwork March 7, about three weeks after being removed as national security adviser after revelations that he misled Vice President Pence about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Flynn’s company previously disclosed its role in lobbying for Inovo BV, but did not file any paperwork as a foreign agent for Turkey because it had concluded that its client was a foreign corporation, rather than a foreign government. It changed course and filed as a foreign agent to “eliminate any doubt” about the issue, Kelner wrote. Individuals who represent foreign governments must register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
[Flynn in FBI interview denied discussing sanctions with Russian ambassador]
Flynn’s work for Inovo came as he prepared an opinion piece for The Hill newspaper that appeared on Election Day and criticized the Obama administration while arguing that “from Turkey’s point of view, Washington is harboring Turkey’s Osama bin Laden.” Flynn’s new filing acknowledges that the piece used information gathered through work for Inovo, but denies that either Inovo or the Turkish government requested it or had a hand in writing it. However, Inovo did receive an advance copy of it for review, the filing said.
An Army spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson, said that the service has no record of Flynn ever requesting permission before accepting any kind of “foreign employment” — something that Defense Department guidelines, separate from the Foreign Agents Registration Act — explicitly require when former officers work for a foreign government.
The Pentagon’s guidelines were established to comply with the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which states that no individual holding any office “of profit or trust” can accept any pay or gift from a foreign government or official without the permission of the U.S. government. It applies to retired officers and enlisted service members because they are subject to recall to active duty, according to a Defense Department assessment of the issue.
Defense Department guidelines warn that the department’s top financial officer, the comptroller, “may pursue debt collection” if they do not do so. Any debt collection due to an emoluments clause violation would be capped at no more than what an individual makes in retirement pay during a period of unauthorized employment. In Flynn’s case, that is more than $35,000 for the three months of the Inovo project.
The position of Defense Department comptroller is held on an acting basis by Andrew Roth, a former Obama administration official who was held over to help with budget issues. David Norquist, who served as chief financial officer in the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, was nominated last week as his replacement.
The Defense guidelines do not specify whether representing the interests of a foreign government while paid by a private corporation is a violation of the rules. Violations of the Emoluments Clause also are rarely enforced.
“This is not something that has generally been enforced, but I do think we are at a phase where people are thinking about the remedies for this issue a lot more carefully,” said William Baude, a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago.
The issue comes as some lawmakers continue to press for information about whether Flynn violated any laws by accepting money to appear with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gala dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization. Flynn received $45,000 for the December 2015 appearance, according to documents released recently by the House Oversight Committee.
Jennifer Werner, a spokeswoman for Democrats on the committee, said the Army told committee members that it has found no documents suggesting that Flynn asked the service for permission to speak at the RT gala. But Kelner suggested that isn’t so clear-cut: Flynn briefed members of the Defense Intelligence Agency about his trip to Moscow before and afterward, Kelner said Wednesday. Asked if he sought approval through Army Human Resources Command, as the guidelines stipulate, Kelner declined to comment.
On Wednesday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), its ranking member, requested that the White House, the Defense Department, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence furnish documents related to Flynn’s foreign contacts.
Chaffetz and Cummings said in a letter that the committee is reviewing whether Flynn “fully disclosed his payments from Russian, Turkish, or other foreign sources,” specifically mentioning the RT payment without limiting the request to it.
Related on Checkpoint:
Michael Flynn discusses his dinner with Putin and why Russia Today is like CNN
Commentary: Michael Flynn’s star burns out
The fall of Michael Flynn: A timeline |
Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner has declined Kate Moss' advances after heeding some motherly advice.
The model, no stranger to dating rock musicians, met Turner at one of band's gigs in February and took his phone number. He has since regretted the meeting because, according to The Sun, she has been calling and texting him asking to meet up.
Thrown by Moss' attention, Turner apparently sought advice from his mother Penny, who naturally urged him to steer clear of the model, bearing in mind her drug abuse scandals.
A source told the newspaper: “He was home in Sheffield when the phone rang and this girl said ‘Hi, it’s Kate’. He thought it was one of the girls he used to go to school with asking for free tickets. When he asked ‘Kate who?’ he freaked out when she said it was Kate Moss.
“She asked him if he wanted to meet up and he mumbled something about being busy with the band and he’d have to see. Then she followed it up with a few texts and he panicked and told his mum Penny."
Also convincing him to ignore Moss's texts was the fact that he was going out with someone from school at the time. |
It’s a safe bet that Cardinal Raymond Burke never could’ve guessed his seat on an important Vatican committee was in jeopardy given his track record of criticizing celebrities, withholding communion from politicians, ousting feminist nuns, and being generally outspoken on conservative causes (including the persecution faced by American Christians).
But that was before Pope Francis took on the papal tiara.
Cardinal Burke, best known in America for announcing that John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi were bad Catholics “in manifest grave sin” who should avoid presenting themselves for Communion, is being replaced by Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, a moderate thinker who doesn’t consider it good pastoral practice to deny communion to anybody, and who better reflects the new attitude Francis seems to be bringing to papal politics.
The Congregation for Bishops is the Vatican department responsible for deciding who’s eligible to rise to the rank of Catholic bishop. By demoting Burke in favor of the more progressive, less intrusive Wuerl, Pope Francis is signalling a hope that the Church of the future might be less divisive and contrarian than ever before.
And unlike some of his past overtures, this inches beyond mere words. Changing the composition of the Congregation for Bishops can actually have an impact on the power structure of the Church hierarchy, allowing more liberal-thinking pastors to achieve greater power within the Church hierarchy.
Maybe.
There’s still cause to be wary; it would likely take more than just one high-profile switch to undo the impact of the previous popes’ retrograde views about women, contraception, and LGBTQ equality. And the Congregation will still be led by Canada’s Marc Ouellet, who maintains highly conservative views on same-sex marriage (“pseudo-marriage, a fiction”) and abortion (“a moral crime”). It’s not clear that replacing one fiercely conservative cardinal with a moderately liberal one will do much to change the composition of up-and-coming bishops. It’s like replacing a current Republican member of the U.S. House with a Democrat — it’s better for liberals but it really won’t change how the House acts.
Moreover, Burke will retain his position as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s version of the Supreme Court, which handles a variety of ecclesiastical law cases as well as marriage dissolutions under appeal from lower courts. (If I wanted an annulment, I can’t think of anyone I’d be less thrilled to have judging my marriage.) Maybe Francis just thinks Burke needs to cut down his workload. Maybe he’s worried about stress.
But this one switch, whether tactical or merely coincidental, hardly constitutes a progressive coup. It will take a lot more evidence to prove that Francis is really aiming for change at the core of Catholicism. |
GOP blocks Top Obama Nominee at Justice Department
Obama’s nominee to be Attorney General Eric Holder’s top deputy at the Justice Department crashed into a Republican roadblock in the U.S. Senate on Monday, garnering just 50 votes, 10 short of the number needed to break a GOP-led filibuster. Dick Lugar of Indiana was the only Republican to give his support. At the last moment, Sen Harry Reid switched his vote to no, to have the matter come up for reconsideration later on.
Veteran Washington attorney, James Cole was nominated this May, had been serving in the position since late December courtesy of a presidential recess appointment, one that expires at the end of the current session of Congress. And despite the bipartisan support of eight former attorneys general, Republicans remained steadfast in their opposition, though nothing about Monday night’s vote changes Cole’s temporary job status.
But his nomination brings concern over Cole’s tenure as an independent consultant to insurance industry giant AIG prior to the company’s near-collapse in 2008 and its subsequent government bailout, but Republicans also voiced strong concern about what they believe to be his soft-on-terrorism stance. Fox News
Republican senators repeatedly referred to an op-ed the nominee penned in 2002 in the Legal Times in which Cole referred to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as “criminal acts of terrorism against a civilian population,” and included the attacks in the same vein as “many other devastating crimes” like rape, drug trade, organized crime, and child abuse.
Fox News
At a Judiciary Committee hearing last year, Cole also said that each terrorist case should be made on a case-by-case basis, not ruling out military commissions for some. The Obama administration has since said it will try the alleged 9/11 terrorists imprisoned at the Guantanamo facility in military commissions. Sen. Charles Grassley, top Republican on the Judiciary Committee and primary opponent of the nomination, read out a laundry list Monday of his concerns about the nominee, including his AIG stint, which the senator called “troubling,” and Cole’s position on captured terrorists.
Another top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, Saxby Chambliss has also led the fight against Cole.
Still others voiced fear about what they see as a growing trend at DOJ.
“I’m not voting for another nominee, and I’m not going to vote for this one, who spent their time defending terrorists,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., proclaimed, citing “a tilt in the leadership of the department” that the senator said gives him “great concern” that the department is “getting off base.”
Fox News
Cole previously served in the Justice Department for more than a dozen years before heading into private practice in 1992. He also served on former President Bill Clinton’s transition team in 1992.
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Joe Flacco's preseason slumber is over.
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback told NFL Media's Adam Schein on Mad Dog Sports Radio that he plans to play Saturday against the Detroit Lions.
Flacco hasn't seen game action since tearing his ACL last November. The Ravens have allowed him to practice fully, though, leading the veteran to say of his knee last week, per ESPN: "I don't think about it when I'm out there."
In Flacco's absence, Ryan Mallett, Josh Johnson and Jerrod Johnson have taken all of Baltimore's preseason snaps leading up to Saturday's regular-season dress rehearsal. Mallett, especially, has been a mixed bag, leading coach John Harbaugh to hint that journeyman Josh Johnson could steal away the No. 2 job.
While Flacco might need time to find his groove, the return of the reliable Super Bowl-winning signal-caller is huge for a Ravens team that crumbled last year under endless bites from the injury bug. |
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Joseph Keller doesn’t expect he’ll live to see the end of 2013. He blames the house at 190 Avondale Avenue.
Five years ago, Keller, 10 months behind on his mortgage payments, received notice of a foreclosure judgment from JP Morgan Chase. In a few weeks, the bank said, his three-story house with gray vinyl siding in Columbus, Ohio, would be put up for auction at a sheriff’s sale.
The 58-year-old former social worker and his wife, Jennifer, packed up their home of 13 years and moved in with their daughter. Joseph thought he would never have anything to do with the house again. And for about a year, he didn’t.
Then it started to stalk him.
First, in 2010, the county sued Keller because the house, already picked clean by scavengers, was in a shambles, its hanging gutters and collapsed garage in violation of local housing code. Then the tax collector started sending Keller notices about mounting back taxes, sewer fees and bills for weed and waste removal. And last year, Chase’s debt collector began pressing Keller to pay his mortgage, which had swollen, with penalties and fees, from $62,100.27 to $84,194.69.
The worst news came last January, when the Social Security Administration rejected Keller’s application for disability benefits; the “asset” on Avondale Avenue rendered him ineligible. Keller’s medical problems include advanced liver disease, hepatitis C and inactive tuberculosis. Without disability coverage, he can’t get the liver transplant he needs to stay alive.
“I can’t make it end,” says Keller. “This house, I can’t get out.”
Keller continues to bear responsibility for the house because on December 23, 2008 - about two months after he received Chase’s notice of sale - the bank filed to dismiss the foreclosure judgment and the order of sale. Chase said it sent Keller a copy of its court filing on December 9, 2008. Keller says he never received any notification. Either way, his name remained on the property title.
WITH IMPUNITY
The Kellers are caught up in a little-known horror of the U.S. housing bust: the zombie title. Six years in, thousands of homeowners are finding themselves legally liable for houses they didn’t know they still owned after banks decided it wasn’t worth their while to complete foreclosures on them. With impunity, banks have been walking away from foreclosures much the way some homeowners walked away from their mortgages when the housing market first crashed.
“The banks are just deciding not to foreclose, even though the homeowners never caught up with their payments,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, a real-estate information company in Irvine, California.
Since 2006, 10 million homes have fallen into foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, a number that in earlier, more stable times would have taken nearly two decades to reach. Of those foreclosures, more than 2 million have never come out. Some may be occupied by owners who have been living gratis. Others have been caught up in what is now known as the robo-signing scandal, when banks spun out reams of fraudulent documents to foreclose quickly on as many homeowners as they could.
And then there are cases like the Kellers, in which homeowners moved out after receiving notice of a foreclosure sale, thinking they were leaving the house in bank hands. No national databases track zombie titles. But dozens of housing court judges, code enforcement officials, lawyers and other professionals involved in foreclosures across the country tell Reuters that these titles number in the many thousands, and that the problem is worsening.
“There are thousands of foreclosures in limbo, just hanging out there, just sitting, with nothing being done,” says Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka, whose pending court cases tied to derelict properties have doubled in the past two years, to 1,000. He says the surge is due largely to homes vacated by people who fled before an imminent foreclosure sale, only to learn later that they remain legally responsible for their house.
When people move out after receiving a notice of a planned foreclosure sale and the bank then cancels, municipalities are left to deal with the mess. Some spend public funds on securing, cleaning and stabilizing houses that generate no tax revenue. Others let the houses rot. In at least three states in recent months, houses abandoned by owners and banks alike have exploded because the gas was never shut off.
THREAT OF JAIL
Unsuspecting homeowners have had their wages garnished, their credit destroyed and their tax refunds seized. They’ve opened their mail to find bills for back taxes, graffiti-scrubbing services, demolition crews, trash removal, gutter repair, exterior cleaning and lawn clipping. At their front doors they’ve encountered bailiffs brandishing summonses to appear in court.
In some cities, people with zombie titles can be sentenced to probation - with the threat of jail if they don’t bring their houses into compliance.
“These people have become like indentured serfs, with all of the responsibilities for the properties but none of the rights,” says retired Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Professor Kermit Lind.
Banks used to almost always follow through with foreclosures, either repossessing a house outright — known in industry parlance as REO, for real estate owned — or putting it up for auction at a sheriff’s sale. The bank sent a letter notifying the homeowner of an impending foreclosure sale, the homeowner moved out, the house was sold, and the bank applied the proceeds toward the unpaid portion of the original mortgage.
That has changed since the housing crash. Financial institutions have realized that following through on sales of decaying houses in markets swamped with foreclosures may not yield anything close to what is owed on them.
By walking away, banks can at least reap the insurance, tax and accounting benefits from documenting the loss — without having to take on any of the costs and responsibilities of ownership, according to a 2010 Federal Reserve paper. A walk-away also enables them to “sell the unpaid debt to debt collectors, sometimes noting to the court that the loan has been charged off,” according to a Case Western Reserve University study released in 2011.
No regulations require that banks let homeowners know when they change their minds about a foreclosure. So they rarely do, according to housing court judges, homeowners’ lawyers and academics who study foreclosure problems. “The banks do not answer inquiries, they do not answer phone calls, they do not answer letters,” says Judge Patrick Carney of the Buffalo, New York, Housing Court. His zombie-title caseload has swollen in the past few years to well into the hundreds. “The whole situation is surreal,” he says.
CLEAN UP OR ELSE
Marlon Sheafe, a 55-year-old who drove trucks for Sara Lee Corp for 25 years, was sentenced to probation in May. The citation from the Cleveland Housing Court says that if he doesn’t fix the problems with the investment property he bought in 2005, the grandfather of three, who suffers from advanced cancer, will go to jail in May 2014.
Ocwen Financial Corp, the servicer of Sheafe’s mortgage, foreclosed on the house in 2008, when Sheafe was hospitalized with congestive heart failure and later lost his job, forcing him into default. That was the last he heard about the house until a year and a half ago, when he received a summons to appear in Cleveland Housing Court for code infractions on the property: cracked steps, shredded siding, weeds as tall as the doors. There was also a $300 lawn-mowing bill.
A few weeks later, Sheafe appeared at the drab, brown-paneled chambers of the Cleveland Housing Court, packed, as it is every Tuesday and Thursday lately, with other people in his situation. Sheafe expected his appearance that day would clear up what he thought was a big mistake. Instead he left with the order to get the house up to code.
Sheafe started visiting the tall, crooked house every week. Looters had stripped the place bare. The “dope boys” had left their sneakers on the porch and their empty cans of sausages strewn around inside. Sheafe repaired the steps and spray-painted patches of the exterior where the vinyl siding had been ripped off. He returned every week to check on the house and mow the lawn.
While Sheafe worked on the house, Judge Pianka worked on the mortgage servicer, subpoenaing Ocwen to appear in court. In February, Ocwen released its lien on the house, which Sheafe hoped would enable him to donate it to the local land bank - one of many set up by local governments in recent years to manage abandoned properties.
But Sheafe still can’t shake free of the house. The county sold his tax lien to a debt collector, which is now suing Sheafe for foreclosure. He also faces $4,185 for code violations, $185 for court costs and up to $10,000 if the city is forced to tear down the house.
“There’s no end to this,” Sheafe says. “I can’t win.”
Asked to comment, Ocwen issued a statement saying: “It is Ocwen’s policy not to disclose details about specific customers. In this case, Ocwen has attempted to work with the borrower over a four-year period. Ocwen offered to settle the account with the borrower but never received a response to the offer.”
Sheafe says he couldn’t afford the amount Ocwen proposed in its settlement offer.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency established in the wake of the financial crisis to guard against predatory lending and other abuses, declined to comment for this article.
Joe Smith is the monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement, the agreement struck a year ago between major banks and state attorneys general to, in part, address foreclosure abuses. In a statement responding to a request for comment, he said: “To my knowledge, the servicers’ behavior in the situation... is not covered by any standards in the Settlement.” He added: “However, it does sound like there are problems with this type of treatment. I recommend the borrowers contact their state’s attorney general and remember that the Settlement does not preclude borrowers from taking their own legal action.”
Patrick Madigan, Iowa’s assistant attorney general, was instrumental in crafting the National Mortgage Settlement. He said that he thought the consent decree would attempt to address the issue of foreclosure limbo, but that in the end, the language in the order was ambiguous. “It’s a very difficult situation,” Madigan said.
NO RESPONSIBILITY
Banks say that because they are not the legal owners of these homes, they aren’t required to maintain them, pay taxes on them, or take any legal responsibility for them. Homeowners legally own their properties until the day of sale. And it’s not until that day, the banks point out, that a homeowner’s name vanishes from the title.
David Volker found that out the hard way. When the housing market crashed, so did Volker’s contractor business, and he was unable to keep up with payments on his barn-like two-story house in Buffalo, New York. His mortgage servicer, HSBC, foreclosed on the home in 2009. A few months later, while he was staying with his girlfriend, he stopped by the house to find an HSBC padlock on the doorknob and bank stickers plastered across the door.
Shattered glass covered his front steps. When he crawled through a broken window, he found the place trashed - by whom, he doesn’t know. Even the toilets were gone. Hearing nothing more from the bank, he figured the house was no longer his.
The place continued to decay. Gutters tore loose from the eaves. The yard turned into a dump for balding tires. Volker’s neighbors started complaining to the Buffalo Housing Court, which eventually tracked down Volker at the rental where the 49-year-old was living and ordered him to appear in court. That’s when Judge Carney told him that he was still the owner.
“I was stunned,” Volker says. “I never for a moment thought I still owned this house.”
Volker worked with a realtor to try to get HSBC to take several short-sale offers - deals under which the bank would allow Volker to sell the house for less than the amount owed on it - but he says HSBC turned them down. Since then, he’s been asking the bank to agree to a deed in lieu, whereby he would give the house back to the bank. So far, he hasn’t been able to make that happen. He has $1,000 in water and trash bills and faces up to $30,000 in demolition fees if the city decides his house is a safety hazard and must be torn down.
HSBC declined to comment on Volker’s case, citing privacy concerns. In a statement, the bank said it “has a strong commitment to home preservation and regards foreclosure as a last resort, only after alternatives have been exhausted and the borrower is seriously delinquent.”
Cases against zombie-title holders are rising due to everything from sewer bills to tilting chimneys, and they are clogging the courts. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about 900 cases in the foreclosure process involve zombie titles. In South Bend, Indiana, the number is 1,275, up from 600 in 2006. In Memphis, Tennessee, cases have doubled in the past two years to 1,500.
In Cleveland, 15 percent of foreclosures between 2005 and 2009 stalled out in foreclosure limbo, more than a third of them involving homeowners who had fled foreclosure notices, according to the Case Western Reserve study.
STATE ACTION
State tax authorities are getting into the game, too. When IndyMac foreclosed on Richard Chavarry’s house in Victorville, California, in 2008, he had already relocated to Los Angeles to escape the 80-mile commute to his job. The renters he had initially relied on to help him keep up payments on the Victorville house were long gone, too. But he had no idea that IndyMac canceled the sale in October 2009. “They never notified me,” Chavarry said.
Nearly two years passed before Chavarry started getting citations in the mail for code violations from the city of Victorville. In February, the California Tax Board seized his $631 tax refund to pay the city back for the costs of scrubbing graffiti, removing tumbleweeds and boarding up the windows of Chavarry’s house.
In March, Chavarry filed a deed in lieu to try to get IndyMac, now owned by OneWest Bank, to take back the house. The bank rejected it. Chavarry still owes the county $5,731 in back taxes and fees for housing-code violations.
IndyMac declined to comment.
Once a bank walks away from a foreclosure, the real rot begins. Living rooms turn into meth labs. Falling shingles menace passers-by. Squatters’ cooking fires turn into infernos. The latest iteration of the trend: gas explosions.
Electric companies usually shut off the juice when homeowners tell the utility they are moving. But natural-gas companies usually don’t. In recent months, abandoned homes have exploded in Chicago, Cleveland and Bridgeport, Connecticut. In all cases, foreclosed homeowners had moved out. With no one home to smell the gas, it went undetected - until the houses blew.
“We are seeing more and more close calls,” says Mark McDonald, a former natural gas public safety worker who now runs the New England Gas Workers Association. “These houses are a formula for disaster.”
Cities are struggling to find ways to cope with growing numbers of blighted properties. Miami, Detroit and Las Vegas have created registries intended to force banks to take more responsibility for vacant houses.
The Mortgage Bankers Association has opposed these measures. Placing “unreasonable” and “onerous” requests upon servicers will only hurt the already ailing mortgage-lending business, the association says on its website.
The association did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Registry advocates say the banking industry’s opposition has helped water down some of those actions, such as a recently enacted Georgia law that requires banks to register vacant properties only after a foreclosure has been completed.
A vacant-property ordinance in Los Angeles requires banks to register a house as soon as they file a default notice. Failure to do so could result in a $1,000-a-day fee. However, “it’s not being enforced,” says Los Angeles Assistant City Attorney Tina Hess. “Part of the problem in L.A. is the building and safety departments have been cut so severely they don’t have the inspection staff to monitor these properties.”
“TO HELL AND BACK”
In Columbus, Ohio, Joseph Keller recently paid a visit to the empty house on Avondale Avenue. In the living room, the floor was littered with dirty diapers, pill bottles, condoms, sooty mattresses and soda cans. In the kitchen, squatters had hung pink curtains.
“They tore it to hell and back,” Keller said, kicking at a dirty mattress. “We never would have left the home if we weren’t told to get out.”
The Kellers live in their daughter’s dining room, where their queen-size bed leaves little room to maneuver. Joseph can’t sit, stand or sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time. He can’t take pain medication because of his diseased liver. Every few months, he makes a trip to the emergency room, where doctors drain his abdomen of excess fluid.
Last May, Chase’s debt collector, Professional Recovery Services, sent Keller a letter: “At this time,” it said, “we are able to offer you a settlement of $25,258.41 on this account to be paid within 15 days.” He lacks that kind of money, as well as the $11,759.08 he owes to the county in back taxes.
Professional Recovery Services declined to comment.
At a hearing in early December, a Social Security administrative judge told the Kellers that he would review their appeal of the original denial of benefits, a process that he said could take two months. Joseph Keller responded that he might not be around that long. Earlier this month, the judge sent the case back to the local office after it determined that the house was virtually worthless. Keller still has no benefits.
A Social Security Administration spokesperson declined to comment on the case.
“He’s dying,” says Keller’s daughter, Barbara. “He needs his name off this house.” |
8/26/09: The Executive Vice President has issued an apology to Ericka Aviance and the LGBT community
“Much of the success of The Wendy Williams Show is due to our incredibly diverse and colorful audience and we all agree that fashion is a true form of self expression. But in an attempt to explain and enforce our show’s dress code, I was not as sensitive as I could have been to Ericka, the LGBT community or drag’s long history of being a target of discrimination. And for that, I sincerely apologize as it was never my intention to offend in any way.” ~ Lonnie Burstein, Executive Vice President, Programming & Production, Debmar-Mercury (GLAAD).
While standing in line outside the studio Wednesday morning, the group was approached by a female intern who noted the fact that Aviance was a drag queen. “She took my name down, so we thought we were about to get VIP treatment,” Aviance recalls. “After another hour we got to the door, and there’s this little white man standing there giving us the eyeball. He gets in our way to prevent us from going in, and he says, ‘You’re in violation of our no-costumes dress code. We usually don’t do this, but we know you’ve been waiting out there for a while, so we’re going to let you in. But you can’t appear on camera, and if you get up for Hot Topics or try to ask Wendy a question, you’ll be removed from the building" ( Aviance says "she wore "a black baby-doll dress, heels, tights, and standard makeup — not even anything sparkly … a ponytail piece and a bang piece".While standing in line outside the studio Wednesday morning, the group was approached by a female intern who noted the fact that Aviance was a drag queen. “She took my name down, so we thought we were about to get VIP treatment,” Aviance recalls. “After another hour we got to the door, and there’s this little white man standing there giving us the eyeball. He gets in our way to prevent us from going in, and he says, ‘You’re in violation of our no-costumes dress code. We usually don’t do this, but we know you’ve been waiting out there for a while, so we’re going to let you in. But you can’t appear on camera, and if you get up for Hot Topics or try to ask Wendy a question, you’ll be removed from the building" ( Advocate ).
YES! All audience members may appear on camera. Think trendy…think stylish…think chic! Above all else, think WENDY! Bright colors look best on TV and we ask that you refrain from wearing white. Floral prints and other crazy patterns don’t look good on camera, and we know you want to look your best! Absolutely no hats, sunglasses, costumes, shirts with logos/writing, shorts, or casual tank tops will be permitted.( Is there a dress code?YES! All audience members may appear on camera. Think trendy…think stylish…think chic! Above all else, think WENDY! Bright colors look best on TV and we ask that you refrain from wearing white. Floral prints and other crazy patterns don’t look good on camera, and we know you want to look your best! Absolutely no hats, sunglasses, costumes, shirts with logos/writing, shorts, or casual tank tops will be permitted.( Wendy Show ).
8/14/09: The Wendy Williams Show is a syndicated talk show by the "shock jockette" herself who talks about a range of topics. Wendy Williams has been considered a friend to the gay community, often appearing to be a drag queen herself, and using many gay terms on the show. That's why it came as a surprise to drag singer Ericka Toure Aviance who was blocked from appearing on the show due to her outfit.What is really hypocritical is the fact that the Wendy Williams website does state this about their dress code policy:So it appears that Aviance was mistreated for being a drag queen and not based on her attire because her outfit certainly is not a costume.The Wendy Williams show does not have an official contact form, I urge you to leave a message on her blog , use the Ask Wendy on her site, or contact her via twitter to request an apology. |
If there’s one thing Republicans have been clear about for the past six years, it is that the top of their agenda includes repealing Obamacare.
But Obamacare repeal would leave an estimated 22 million Americans without coverage and wreak havoc on the individual insurance market. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Republicans can’t just repeal Obamacare — they need to replace it with something.
It turns out Republicans have a lot of choices: There are at least seven different replacement plans that Republican legislators and conservative think tanks have offered in recent years. I’ve spent the past week reading them, and what I’ve learned is this:
Yes, Republicans have replacement plans. It is true that the party has not coalesced around one plan — but there are real policy proposals coming from Republican legislators and conservative think tanks. There is a base that the party can work from in crafting a replacement plan.
It is true that the party has not coalesced around one plan — but there are real policy proposals coming from Republican legislators and conservative think tanks. There is a base that the party can work from in crafting a replacement plan. There is significant variation in what the p lans propose. On one end of the spectrum, you see plans from President-elect Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz that would repeal Obamacare and replace it with virtually nothing. On the other end of the spectrum, there are plans from conservative think tanks that go as far as to keep the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and continue to give low-income Americans the most generous insurance subsidies.
On one end of the spectrum, you see plans from President-elect Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz that would repeal Obamacare and replace it with virtually nothing. On the other end of the spectrum, there are plans from conservative think tanks that go as far as to keep the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and continue to give low-income Americans the most generous insurance subsidies. If we can say one thing about most Republican plans, it is this: T hey are better for younger, healthy people and worse for older, sicker people. In general, conservative replacement plans offer less financial help to those who would use a lot of insurance. This will make their insurance subsidies significantly less expensive than Obamacare’s.
In general, conservative replacement plans offer less financial help to those who would use a lot of insurance. This will make their insurance subsidies significantly less expensive than Obamacare’s. Economic analyses estimate that these plans reduce the number of Americans with insurance coverage. The actual amount varies significantly, from 3 million to 21 million, depending on which option Republicans pick. They will near certainly provide more coverage than Americans had before Obamacare, but also less than what exists currently under the health law.
I’ve talked to the authors of Republican replacement plans, economists who support them, and economists who oppose them. I’m focusing here on the two plans that are likeliest to be the most influential in the coming replacement debate: Better Way, from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and the Patient CARE Act, from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.
This is the universe of ideas that Republicans will draw from in coming weeks and months — and while they don’t agree on one plan right now, the goal for creating a replacement plan is that they will come to agreement soon.
"It’s true they haven’t coalesced around a plan — but it was also true Democrats didn’t coalesce around a plan until Scott Brown was elected," says former Congressional Budget Office director Doug Holtz-Eakin. "I think the GOP will, in the same way, coalesce at the point they have to. There isn’t uniform agreement now, but you’ll see the White House lay out priorities and a time table that dictates when agreement happens."
Better Way (Speaker Paul Ryan)
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his Better Way for Health Care plan on June 22, 2016, about six months after his election as House speaker. The plan is expected to be integral to the health care debate on the Hill, given that it comes out of the House speaker’s office.
Better Way would overhaul both the individual market and Medicaid. Economists with the Center for Health and Economy worked with the speaker’s office to model the effects of proposal, and estimate it would lead to 4 million Americans losing coverage.
Outside economists say these estimates might be too optimistic, and, especially because of changes to Medicaid, Better Way could leave additional millions more uninsured than the CHE numbers suggest.
Better Way restricts — but doesn’t entirely ban — use of preexisting conditions in determining coverage
Better Way, like Obamacare, requires insurance plans to offer coverage to any patient regardless of how sick they are. But to be clear: This is not a repeal of preexisting conditions altogether. Because the Better Way plan would let insurers charge sick people more if they did not maintain "continuous coverage."
This continuous coverage policy shows up in a lot of the Republican replacement plans, and is likely something we’ll hear lots of debate about in the coming months. It is a replacement for the individual mandate, meant to nudge healthy people into keeping their insurance plans even when they don’t need much medical care. Those who don’t keep coverage could ultimately face much higher premiums when they do decide to purchase coverage.
For example: If a cancer patient goes straight from insurance at work to her own policy, her insurer has to charge her a standard rate — it can’t take the cost of her condition into account.
But if she had a lapse in coverage and went to the individual market under Better Way, insurers would still have to offer her a plan — but it wouldn’t have to be affordable. And this is really different from Obamacare, which completely eliminates this type of insurance behavior. This change to the preexisting condition ban is worrisome to ACA supporters.
Better Way does have a safety net for people like this: It would invest $25 billion in a high-risk pool to cover those with preexisting conditions who are unable to afford coverage on the marketplace. There are not details about who would be eligible for this pool in Better Way, and whether it would include everyone with a preexisting condition.
Better Way makes insurance better for people who are young and healthy. It makes insurance worse for people who are old and sick.
One constant Obamacare gripe from Republicans is that the health care law mandates too big of a benefit package. This drives up premiums, they argue, and scares off some healthy and young enrollees who want to buy a skimpier plan.
There is some truth to this argument. Obamacare’s marketplaces have struggled to attract young adults at the level the White House had initially hoped (the Obama administration originally said it wanted one-third of the marketplace to be people between 18 and 34 but, right now it’s only about a quarter).
Better Way takes a lot of steps to re-regulate the individual market to make it more advantageous for healthier people. It eliminates the essential health benefits package, which mandated that all insurers cover a set of 10 different types of care including maternity services and pediatric care. Better Way would allow insurers to cut whatever benefits they no longer want to cover — a move that will likely benefit healthy people, who generally want less robust coverage.
There are other ways Better Way makes insurance better for young people too: by letting insurance plans charge them lower rates.
It does this by allowing insurers to charge their oldest enrollees five times as much as young enrollees. Right now, insurers can only charge the oldest enrollees three times as much as the youngest.
The nonpartisan RAND Corporation has modeled the effect of this switch. It found that premiums for a 24-year-old would decline from $2,800 to $2,100. But premiums for a 64-year-old would rise from $8,500 to $10,600.
Widening the age band, as this ratio is known, "increases the overall number of people with coverage, but older people end up falling out of the market as premiums rise," says Christine Eibner, the RAND economist who has studied the provision.
Premiums for a 24-year-old would decline from $2,800 to $2,100 — but premiums for a 64-year-old would rise from $8,500 to $10,600
Premiums on the individual market would likely decline under Better Way because insurers would offer slimmed-down coverage and charge lower prices to healthy young consumers.
Stephen Parente, a health economist at the University of Minnesota, worked with Speaker Ryan’s office to model the economic effects of the plan and found that premiums could drop anywhere between 9 and 35 percent over the next decade, depending on the plan.
But it’s important to keep in mind: These are not the same plans currently offered under Obamacare. Enrollees will pay less but also get less.
And while young people might have cheaper premiums and an easier ability to enroll, older Americans could struggle to purchase coverage in this market, where their costs would rise. These are people who tend to have more urgent health care needs and could be in a worse position without health care than a young adult might be.
And this worries some Obamacare supporters, who say the goal of insurance reform isn’t just expanding coverage — it’s expanding coverage to people who really need health coverage.
"If you replace a 60-year-old with a 20-year-old, that doesn’t change the number of people covered, but it changes the value of the coverage and of the program," says Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist who helped the White House model the economic effects of Obamacare. "You would see a shift in who is covered."
Better Way would provide tax credits, but they would help the older (and likely richer) more
Better Way, like Obamacare, envisions that Americans will use tax credits to purchase individual health insurance, but the structure of the tax credits is very different in an important way.
Obamacare’s tax credits are based on income, with those who earn less getting more help. Better Way’s tax credits would only be based on age, giving more help to those who are older (and who will presumably be charged higher premiums).
This means that anyone up through Bill Gates would qualify for a subsidy under Better Way, solely based on age.
18 million people would lose their Medicaid coverage under Better Way
Better Way wouldn’t fully kill Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion — but it would significantly scale back funding. The proposal also makes significant changes to how the rest of the Medicaid program would work.
Ryan has long advocated for turning Medicaid into a "block grant" program. In its simplest form, this means handing control of the program — and the funding for it — over to the states. But many Republican block grant plans include something else at the same time: a massive cut to Medicaid spending that could throw tens of millions of people off the program.
There aren’t a lot of details about how block-granting would work in Better Way, but Ryan has released more detailed plans in the past in budget proposals. The Bipartisan Policy Center analyzed his 2013 block grant plan and estimated it would reduce Medicaid spending by $160 billion by 2022 — about one-third of the program’s entire budget.
Better Way does allow states that have already expanded Medicaid to continue to run the expansion program, although the federal government would provide significantly less funding for it. Low-income Americans would be eligible to forgo Medicaid and buy private coverage through the marketplace — but given that the tax credits aren’t larger for poorer people, they might struggle to afford the premiums.
Parente estimates that Better Way would reduce Medicaid enrollment by 18 million people by 2026, but that a significant number of those people will shift into the individual market. He projects that in a decade, Better Way will leave an additional 4 million Americans without coverage compared with the Affordable Care Act.
Other economists are skeptical that coverage will remain so high, mostly arguing that many of the people who lose Medicaid won’t find coverage elsewhere.
"We find some of those people are left behind," says Eibner at RAND. "Even though they get the tax credit, our model shows fewer people than Parente’s does actually moving into the individual market."
Better Way would change employer-sponsored insurance too
Most of the changes in Better Way have to do with people who get insurance through Medicaid or on the marketplaces. But there is one important change the plan would make to employer-sponsored insurance: It would cap the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverage.
The health insurance tax break is the biggest in the federal budget; the government loses out on $260 billion annually by not taxing health benefits. And economists across the political spectrum agree that we should eliminate or at least reduce this tax break, which currently gives those with jobs a huge discount on their coverage — and an incentive to buy more coverage than they actually need.
As popular as this provision will be with economists, you can bet that the public will hate it, as it would make some health plans significantly more expensive — and face similar pushback to Obamacare’s Cadillac tax.
Better Way isn’t especially clear on how where the new threshold would be, only specifying that "our plan proposes to cap the exclusion at a level that would ensure job-based coverage continues unchanged for the vast majority of health insurance plans."
Patient CARE Act (Sen. Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Burr (R-NC), Rep. Upton (R-MI))
The Patient CARE Act comes out from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which will be heavily involved in any health care legislation in the chamber. Structurally, it is pretty similar to Ryan’s Better Way. The proposal makes similar changes to Medicaid and employer-sponsored coverage, so the sections above apply to the CARE Act too.
There are, however, key differences in some of the individual market provisions that will need to be hammered out in legislative debate.
There are two economic analyses of CARE Act available at this point. One, from the RAND Corporation, estimates that it would cause 9 million Americans to lose coverage by 2026. Another, from Parente’s Center for Health Economy, estimates that 4 million would lose insurance the same year.
Patient CARE would attempt to help maintain "continuous coverage" by having the government enroll some people in fallback plans
Like Better Way, the CARE Act would let insurers charge sick people more if they did not maintain continuous coverage. But the CARE Act gets a bit more aggressive about making sure people actually enroll in plans. It envisions the government picking a "default" health plan that those who don’t pick anything would automatically be enrolled into.
The default plans would have "premiums equal to the value of the tax credit," so that enrollees wouldn’t be forced to spend additional money. This means the premiums would need to be quite low — for 18- to 34-year-olds, for example, they’d need to be $164 per month — and likely provide pretty narrow, catastrophic coverage.
It will be interesting to watch the political debate around this provision, given all the pushback to an individual mandate — and how the idea of the government defaulting people into insurance coverage ultimately plays out.
The Patient CARE Act is different from Better Way because it gives poorer people higher subsidies
The Patient CARE Act makes many of the same changes to the individual market as Better Way does. It repeals the mandate that insurers cover an essential set of health benefits, and also moves to letting insurers charge the oldest patients five times as much as the youngest.
One significant difference between Patient CARE Act and Better Way is how they structure subsidies for the individual market. Patient CARE appears to be the one Republican replacement plan that offers more financial support to lower-income enrollees. The proposal envisions the highest tax credits — the amounts shown below — given to those who earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line. The amount of support would phase down between 200 and 300 percent of the poverty line, when it would phase out entirely.
But the CARE Act would still be better for young people than it would for the old
Still, CARE still ends up with some of the same outcomes as Better Way: namely, making insurance cheaper for young people and more expensive for old people.
Eibner has done economic modeling of the CARE Act (although not Better Way yet) and is able to show who benefits and who loses under the proposal.
She finds that under the CARE Act, only 85 percent of 21-year-olds would see their premiums either stay the same or decline compared with Obamacare. But 100 percent of 50- and 60-year-old enrollees would see their premiums increase under CARE Act.
There are at least two repeal bills introduced in Congress
Most Republican replacement plans are still white papers rather than actual legislative language. This means they leave out a lot of key details — who, for example, would qualify for a high-risk pool or how big tax credits would be. But there are at least two actual bills that legislators have introduced that get into much more granular detail of what a replacement plan might be.
These bills didn’t come up much in the conversations I had over the past week as the leading contenders for what a replacement bill would look like. But their legislative language could become important as Republicans attempt to fill in the details that the white paper repeal bills leave out.
Empowering Patients First Act (Rep. Tom Price)
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) has been working on this proposal to repeal Obamacare for a while, and it’s gone through a number of iterations. Given that Rep. Price is expected to be Trump's pick to run Health and Human Services, it is certainly one to watch.
It has some of the familiar provisions of the other proposals we’ve run through so far: the return of preexisting conditions for those who don’t keep continuous coverage, age-based tax credits, and a limit on the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverage.
Price’s bill arguably does less to protect sick people than Better Way does. It includes very little funding for the high-risk pools: $3 billion, compared with Better Way’s $25 billion. Its limit on the employer-sponsored tax exclusion is significantly lower than other proposals ($8,000 for an individual, compared with Patient CARE’s $12,000 cap). Both of these differences would make Price’s bill less expensive for the government, and might be alluring to legislators as they begin the budgetary scoring process.
You can read a fuller description of the Price bill in this story.
Health Care Choice Act (Sen. Ted Cruz)
"Every last word of Obamacare must be repealed," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said when introducing his replacement plan. But what is striking about his plan is that it doesn’t repeal all of Obamacare: Instead, it just gets rid of the law’s changes to the individual market and leaves everything else the same.
The Health Care Choice Act leaves the rest of the law — the Medicaid expansion, for example, or changes to Medicare payments — totally untouched.
The Health Care Choice Act has no individual mandate, no continuous coverage requirement, and no insurance subsidies. It is way, way further from Obamacare than the other plans. The one reform it offers is allowing insurers to sell coverage across state lines, something that shows up in other Republican plans as well.
This plan wouldn’t erode the coverage gains of the Medicaid expansion but would undoubtedly erode coverage in the individual market. There would be no requirement that insurers sell to those with preexisting conditions, returning the individual market to a state similar to before Obamacare had ever happened.
Other notable replacement plans take slightly different approaches
There are a handful of other Republican and right-leaning replacement plans out there that differ from these two congressional proposals in significant ways. Here are some of the highlights:
Improving Health and Health Care: An Agenda for Reform (American Enterprise Institute)
This plan would make a lot of the changes to the individual market that others propose — repealing the essential benefits, getting rid of the mandate. It includes the "default" plan idea, of the government signing people up for a low-cost plan if they fail to sign up for anything themselves, that shows up in the Patient CARE Act. But it would, somewhat surprisingly, allow states to maintain their Obamacare-era insurance marketplaces. These are the government-run websites that allow consumers to compare different insurance plans.
"It would be impractical to require states to roll back exchanges they have already created," the paper argues. Instead, it envisions these marketplaces sticking around to "enhance choices for consumers rather than to limit them."
Government for People Again: Health Care (President-elect Donald Trump)
Trump’s health care proposals are the most bare-bones of any plans. His transition website currently includes a three-paragraph health policy proposal. It seems quite plausible that he, like President Obama before him, will take let Congress take the lead on figuring out the nuts and bolts of health reform.
On his transition website, and previously during the campaign, Trump had proposed repealing Obamacare with a sparse set of replacement policies: Letting insurers sell across state lines, for example, is one that the president-elect mentioned numerous times during debates. He also seems to support Medicaid block-granting, noting that he wants to "enable States to experiment with innovative methods to deliver healthcare to our low-income citizens."
There is no discussion in any Trump proposal of what the individual market might look like.
Transcending Obamacare (The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity)
Avik Roy is a longtime health policy analyst, and has released multiple editions of this plan. Roy’s plan is notable in that it does continue to tether the insurance premiums to income, giving those who earn less more generous support — much like Obamacare.
Roy would increase the space between premiums for young and old enrollees even more than other Republican options, allowing insurers to charge the oldest patients six times as much as the youngest. He argues that this would drive down the cost of health insurance for both old and young people, as it would create a healthier insurance pool — so premiums for the oldest-insured people would fall by $100 and premiums for the youngest decline by $833.
Roy also has an interesting alternative to the individual mandate. He proposes only running open enrollment every two years.
"Under this system, individuals who choose to forgo coverage could do so without paying a fine," Roy writes. "However, they could not simply enter and exit the system at will."
In other words: If someone skipped open enrollment one time, they’d have to wait another two years to get back into the system.
So what happens next?
The space between the different Republican replacement plans is quite broad, and the decisions legislators make about which direction to go in will be hugely important for the people who rely on Obamacare for coverage.
There are likely to be specific flashpoints in the coming debate, such as:
How far should Republicans go to replace Obamacare? As I wrote in the beginning, the options on the table range from just letting insurers sell across state lines to building a completely new structure for subsidized health insurance. Replicating parts of Obamacare, especially Medicaid expansion and tax credits, will be expensive — especially when Republican legislators have been adamant about rolling back the taxes that Obamacare uses to raise money.
As I wrote in the beginning, the options on the table range from just letting insurers sell across state lines to building a completely new structure for subsidized health insurance. Replicating parts of Obamacare, especially Medicaid expansion and tax credits, will be expensive — especially when Republican legislators have been adamant about rolling back the taxes that Obamacare uses to raise money. Should the tax credits be more generous for the lowest-income Americans? This is one key difference between the Patient CARE Act and Better Way — with Better Way only adjusting subsidies on age and Patient CARE Act looking a bit more like Obamacare, and giving the most money to those who will struggle the most to afford coverage.
This is one key difference between the Patient CARE Act and Better Way — with Better Way only adjusting subsidies on age and Patient CARE Act looking a bit more like Obamacare, and giving the most money to those who will struggle the most to afford coverage. Will Republicans weather the political backlash to raising the costs of employer-sponsored insurance? The proposal to limit the tax exclusion for health insurance would amount to a significant price increase for those with the most generous health insurance plans. Like Obamacare’s Cadillac tax, it would almost certainly face significant political backlash.
The question right now isn’t whether Republicans have plans to repeal Obamacare. It’s which parts of which plans they’ll pick — and how quickly they’ll coalesce around one option.
Correction: An initial version of this article inaccurately described the chart from Roy’s Transcending Obamacare plan. It shows premiums for the oldest Americans going down, not up, under his plan.
There are tens of millions of Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance coverage — who aren’t quite sure what the 2016 election, and Republicans’ promises of repeal, mean for them.
We’re launching a Facebook group for those people to talk about their shared experience. We want this to be a place where Vox readers in this situation can share their stories. From time to time, we’ll ask this group questions about their experiences — some of which might lead to stories. If you’d like to request to join the community, use this link. |
ABINGDON, VA—The former police chief of the Pennington Gap, Virginia Police Department pleaded guilty this morning to felony charges related to his involvement in the distribution of prescription painkillers and the burglary of a pharmacy.
William Bryan Young, 39, of Duffield, Virginia, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and distribute oxycodone and one count of burglary of a pharmacy, related to the burglary of the Rite Aid pharmacy in Pennington Gap on September 28, 2012.
Young’s co-defendants, Kevin Andrew Young, 35, of Duffield, Virginia; and Chris Miles, 35, also of Duffield, entered guilty pleas to one count of burglary of a pharmacy.
“William Bryan Young abused his police authority and repeatedly broke the law he was sworn to uphold,” U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy said today. “By arranging a commercial burglary and engaging in numerous illegal drug transactions, Mr. Young tarnished the badge he wore and violated the trust of the people of Pennington Gap. This case demonstrates our commitment to enforce the law and hold individuals accountable, regardless of rank, position, or status.”
“When a police officer violates the trust that our citizens have placed in its law enforcement, that is something we will not tolerate. I hope this sends a clear message to those who would engage in this wanton misconduct that there will be a penalty paid,” said Richard Marianos, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Washington Field Division.
According to evidence presented at the guilty plea hearings, in the spring of 2012, the ATF began investigating William Bryan Young’s associations with known drug distributors in Lee County, Virginia. Their investigation, aided by other state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies, determined that William Bryan Young was a long-time user of controlled substances, had distributed controlled substances while employed as the police chief, and had orchestrated the burglary of the Rite Aid pharmacy in Pennington Gap to obtain prescription pain killers.
Specifically, the investigation determined that on September 28, 2012, William Bryan Young sent all other Pennington Gap police department personnel home to ensure that he would be the only police officer working the night shift. At approximately 2:50 a.m., a burglary of the Rite Aid pharmacy in Pennington Gap occurred. Just prior to the burglary, William Bryan Young, who was on-duty at the time, contacted officers with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to determine their positions relative to the location of the pharmacy. After determining that there were no law enforcement officers in close proximity to the pharmacy, William Bryan Young contacted Kevin Young, Jimmy Johnson, and Chris Miles to tell them it was clear for them to break into the Rite Aid pharmacy. Kevin Young drove himself, Johnson, and Miles to the Rite Aid. Miles broke into the Rite Aid pharmacy through the drive-thru window and stole approximately 5,000 oxycodone pills. William Bryan Young later received stolen pills from the pharmacy robbery.
On October 18, 2012, William Bryan Young, in his police department issued uniform, sold 20 oxycodone pills to a confidential informant cooperating with the ATF in their investigation. Shortly thereafter, William Bryan Young was arrested by agents with the ATF at the Lee County Courthouse in Jonesville, Virginia.
William Bryan Young admitted to being an illegal user of controlled substances for a number of years and admitted to distributing 20 Percocet pills earlier that day. William Bryan Young also admitted to distributing 20 Percocet pills the previous day and to distributing six Percocet pills the previous weekend. A search of William Bryan Young’s police cruiser located the pre-recorded U.S. currency used by the confidential informant to purchase 20 Percocet pills earlier that day. Agents also located 13 Percocet pills and one oxycodone pill in the police cruiser.
On October 18, 2012, a search warrant was executed at William Bryan Young’s residence located in Duffield by federal agents, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, and the Virginia State Police. Law enforcement officers found 548 Percocet pills and firearms in the residence. In addition, agents located empty evidence bags from the Pennington Gap police department in William Bryan Young’s personal vehicle that appeared to have previously contained controlled substances.
William Bryan Young faces a potential maximum sentence of up to 40 years in prison and a potential fine of up to $1.25 million Kevin Young faces a potential maximum sentence of up to 20 years’ imprisonment and a potential fine of up to $250,000. Chris Miles faces a potential maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a potential fine of up to $250,000.
The investigation of the case was conducted by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Virginia State Police, Southwest Virginia Drug Task Force, ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Lee is prosecuting the case for the United States. |
Appearance and function match the final product, but is made with different manufacturing methods.
Looks like the final product, but is not functional.
Demonstrates the functionality of the final product, but looks different.
A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:
These photos and videos provide a detailed look at this project’s development.
About
Imagine what goes into planning a project like a wedding or building a home. You have to deal with several different categories of documentation from financial documents like accounting and banking to operational documents like schedules and inventory.
Keeping digital copies of these files organised can be a nightmare. Creating a functional filing system that works can be just as frustrating. This is an issue Folapp.com wants to help with.
We are building a website that;
Gives free organisational templates
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Kickstarter backers can get early exclusive access to the website while we're still developing it.
The goal is to have the largest library of templates to choose from for all different scenarios.
We're currently working on the user interface and adding templates for;
Startup businesses
Wedding Planning
Home Construction
Event Planning
Project management
Home filing
Business administration
Soon you'll have templates available for several personal and business scenarios and be able to share them with colleagues, so you're all using the same organisational system.
Let us know what you think and if there are any specific templates you'd like to see added to the library.
Plant Manager Reward:
Toshiba 8GB Flashdrive
Forest Manager Reward: |
Update: After a chat with devs Monothetic, I proclaim good news: "We have every intention of bringing Beacon to every storefront we can." Huzzah!
Original: There's a risk with Roguelikes and bullet hells that they become more style and substance. If the shooting, dodging and pacing is off then flare won't save them from playing like knock-off Game Boy games from elderly relatives who didn't know any better. Still, I'd say Beacon has margin for error—this is a sci-fi Roguelike in haute couture.
In Beacon, you emerge from a cloning pod to be confronted with your own corpse, and I'll wager you'll see it a few times as you strive to set up a beacon and escape from the nightmare world on which you've found yourself.
There's a twist on the genetic mutations or traits popularised by Rogue Legacy and incorporated in the likes of Darkest Dungeon. As you slay alien scum, you hoover up DNA and get the option to splice it with your own on your next run, upping (or potentially lowering?) your odds of survival.
The trailer is positively enchanting, but go check out the website once you've watched it. Not a cut corner in sight.
Beacon doesn't have a release date yet, but it's set to make an appearance at GDC next week. Now, this is speculation, but the press release specifies Beacon will be coming to 'Windows'—Steam isn't mentioned by name, and as development is being aided by Microsoft's ID@Xbox programme, there's the potential for it to be tied to the Windows Store. Again, this is my spitballing, so I'll pop the devs an email to find out more and update you should I hear back. |
Angela Merkel's career in jeopardy as Germany's coalition talks fail
By Europe correspondent James Glenday
Updated about 2 hours ago Mon 20 Nov 2017, 10:58pm
It wasn't meant to be like this.
She was always going to have to wade through weeks of tedious cross-party talks that are the norm in post-war Germany, but most thought her quiet, soft way of seeking consensus would see her emerge triumphant with a "Jamaica Coalition"
She was pushing for a Government of three groups: Her conservative CDU/CSU bloc (black), the Greens (green) and the Free Democrats (yellow), their colours combined reflect the Jamaican flag.
The Chancellor's career now could be in jeopardy and this is undoubtedly the toughest political challenge Ms Merkel has ever faced.
Most commentators blame Christian Lindner.
The fresh-faced, selfie-taking, pro-trade leader of the Free Democrats scuttled negotiations by emerging from talks to declare, "it's better not to govern than to govern badly".
That statement sounds like a campaign slogan and it probably is.
The country's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has urged parties to "reconsider their attitudes" and come back to the table, but many think Germany now has no choice but to return to the polls.
Without "Jamaica", Ms Merkel has no other clear path to power.
In theory, she could form a minority Government with the Greens, but the Chancellor says new elections would be better.
Majority government with traditional centre-left rivals the Social Democrats is a mathematical option but after being smashed in September, that party's leader Martin Schulz has repeatedly made it clear it would rather regroup in Opposition.
As for even talking to right-wing populist group Alternative for Germany, "nein danke" has been the firm response from Ms Merkel and everyone else for that matter.
So where to now?
Germany has never been in this situation before.
For decades it's been renowned for solid, centrist coalition governments that have helped make the nation the most dominant on the continent.
Amid the uncertainty, many are now asking a few speculative questions: Will one of the parties change their mind? Could talks be salvaged if Ms Merkel resigns or is dumped by her party? And if fresh elections next year are the only way forward, who will benefit?
Many in the mainstream fear Alternative for Germany will see the biggest gains if voters are forced back to the ballot box. It is enjoying the current crisis.
Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek. Video: Alternative for Germany supporters celebrate their third-place finish (ABC News)
While across Europe, Germany's neighbours are looking on with increasing concern.
Many in the European Union had hoped a period of Franco-German cooperation would lead to much needed reform of the bloc with a newly-elected Ms Merkel working closely with the relatively fresh French President Emmanuel Macron.
But whatever happens now, Germany looks set to spend a significant period of time looking inward, solving a domestic crisis few expected or wanted. |
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprintdiff text 4.47 KB HOW TO GET MODS ON THE NEWEST FIRMWARE VERSION PREREQUISITES Xampp - https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html This strange file - https://mega.nz/#!KZpShDJD!tbx_qjYWJ0dudchDmGqFzQrde4x9AA03Lu3g3F_gEgk STEPS (PC) 1) Install Xampp (I left all the components on and I'd advise you do the same just because it's easier) 2) Extract the strange file 3) Take the two folders from inside the strange file (kernel and sdcafiine) and put them in C:\xampp\htdocs (so, for example, you'd have blarg.php at C:\xampp\htdocs\kernel\blarg.php) 4) Make sure Skype is not running, and nothing else is using port 80 (if you don't know what "nothing else is using port 80" means, you're probably fine) 5) In the Xampp control panel, click the Start button next to Apache (if you don't have the Xampp control panel open, search for it in the start menu) 6) Find your internal IP using one of the following methods WINDOWS 1) From the start menu, search for cmd and open it, this will open a terminal 2) Inside the terminal, type "ipconfig" 3) Find the set of four numbers labelled as "IPv4 Address" and write it down, this is your internal IP (for example, mine was 192.168.1.64, yours will probably look similar) MAC 1) Open your System Preferences 2) Click on the Network button 3) Your IP should be listen under the connection status. Write this IP down (for example, mine was 192.168.1.64, yours will probably look similar) LINUX I honestly don't know, but if you're on Linux you probably do. You now have a local host of everything you need to run mods. Now, you should get whatever you want to load on your SD card. Make sure your SD card is formatted to FAT32! I WANT YOUR MODPACK! 1) Download the appropriate pack from one of these links: US - https://mega.nz/#!34VkHDTQ!FHhWB14irkNyvWOR5ovmJHZgRjGkWppJau5i6Ezii6Y EU - https://mega.nz/#!S1lAmIJa!DEL7vhIpxGDb5BgRYBv1kNIOXYx8FxajKoS1iTkG-r4 JP - None yet. If there's people in this region who really want the mods, message me! 2) Extract the pack from the zip file 3) Place the folder with a lot of numbers in its name at the root of your SD card (so, for example, if you're from the US, you should have the file "SD:\0005000010144F00\patch\patchlist") I WANT CUSTOM MUSIC! 1) If you already have my mods downloaded, skip to step 3 2) On the root of your SD card, make a folder with one of the following names, depending on your region: US - 0005000010144F00 EU - 0005000010145000 JP - 0005000010110E00 3) Inside the folder with all the numbers in its name, make a folder called "sound" 4) Inside the "sound" folder, make a folder called "bgm" (so, for example, if you're from the US, you should have a folder structure of "SD:\0005000010144F00\sound\bgm") 5) Go to http://www.smashcustommusic.com/ and search for the song you want 6) On the page of the song you want, click "Download or add to template for", then choose "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U" 7) Choose the stage and music slot you want this new song to replace 8) Click "Download NUS3BANK" 9) Place the downloaded NUS3BANK file into the bgm folder on your SD card 10) You can repeat steps 5 through 9 as many times as you want to get as much music replaced as you desire. I WANT CUSTOM TEXTURES! This is a slightly more complicated process, so in the interest of getting this tutorial out fast, I'm saving that for a later date. Now that you have your SD card set up, put it into the Wii U. STEPS (Wii U) 1) Open the internet browser on the Wii U 2) Open your bookmarks 3) Edit one of the bookmarks (it doesn't matter which one) to look like this: Name: Kernel Address: http://<your internal ip from earlier>/kernel/blarg.php (so, for example, I put in http://192.168.1.64/kernel/blarg.php) 4) Edit one of the other bookmarks to look like this: Name: SDCafiine Address: http://<your internal ip from earlier>/sdcafiine/blarg.php (so, for example, I put in http://192.168.1.64/sdcafiine/blarg.php) 5) Open the bookmark called "Kernel" 6) The screen with go green and an illuminati symbol will appear, wait for the console to return to the home menu 7) Open the internet browser again and click bookmark called "SDCafiine" 8) A coffee cup will appear, press A and wait for the console to return to the home menu again 9) Press home to return to the Wii U menu 10) Boot Super Smash Bros. for Wii U You should now be playing a modded version of Smash! On future boots, you should only have to do steps 5-10 to get mods loading. Happy playing!
RAW Paste Data
HOW TO GET MODS ON THE NEWEST FIRMWARE VERSION PREREQUISITES Xampp - https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html This strange file - https://mega.nz/#!KZpShDJD!tbx_qjYWJ0dudchDmGqFzQrde4x9AA03Lu3g3F_gEgk STEPS (PC) 1) Install Xampp (I left all the components on and I'd advise you do the same just because it's easier) 2) Extract the strange file 3) Take the two folders from inside the strange file (kernel and sdcafiine) and put them in C:\xampp\htdocs (so, for example, you'd have blarg.php at C:\xampp\htdocs\kernel\blarg.php) 4) Make sure Skype is not running, and nothing else is using port 80 (if you don't know what "nothing else is using port 80" means, you're probably fine) 5) In the Xampp control panel, click the Start button next to Apache (if you don't have the Xampp control panel open, search for it in the start menu) 6) Find your internal IP using one of the following methods WINDOWS 1) From the start menu, search for cmd and open it, this will open a terminal 2) Inside the terminal, type "ipconfig" 3) Find the set of four numbers labelled as "IPv4 Address" and write it down, this is your internal IP (for example, mine was 192.168.1.64, yours will probably look similar) MAC 1) Open your System Preferences 2) Click on the Network button 3) Your IP should be listen under the connection status. Write this IP down (for example, mine was 192.168.1.64, yours will probably look similar) LINUX I honestly don't know, but if you're on Linux you probably do. You now have a local host of everything you need to run mods. Now, you should get whatever you want to load on your SD card. Make sure your SD card is formatted to FAT32! I WANT YOUR MODPACK! 1) Download the appropriate pack from one of these links: US - https://mega.nz/#!34VkHDTQ!FHhWB14irkNyvWOR5ovmJHZgRjGkWppJau5i6Ezii6Y EU - https://mega.nz/#!S1lAmIJa!DEL7vhIpxGDb5BgRYBv1kNIOXYx8FxajKoS1iTkG-r4 JP - None yet. If there's people in this region who really want the mods, message me! 2) Extract the pack from the zip file 3) Place the folder with a lot of numbers in its name at the root of your SD card (so, for example, if you're from the US, you should have the file "SD:\0005000010144F00\patch\patchlist") I WANT CUSTOM MUSIC! 1) If you already have my mods downloaded, skip to step 3 2) On the root of your SD card, make a folder with one of the following names, depending on your region: US - 0005000010144F00 EU - 0005000010145000 JP - 0005000010110E00 3) Inside the folder with all the numbers in its name, make a folder called "sound" 4) Inside the "sound" folder, make a folder called "bgm" (so, for example, if you're from the US, you should have a folder structure of "SD:\0005000010144F00\sound\bgm") 5) Go to http://www.smashcustommusic.com/ and search for the song you want 6) On the page of the song you want, click "Download or add to template for", then choose "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U" 7) Choose the stage and music slot you want this new song to replace 8) Click "Download NUS3BANK" 9) Place the downloaded NUS3BANK file into the bgm folder on your SD card 10) You can repeat steps 5 through 9 as many times as you want to get as much music replaced as you desire. I WANT CUSTOM TEXTURES! This is a slightly more complicated process, so in the interest of getting this tutorial out fast, I'm saving that for a later date. Now that you have your SD card set up, put it into the Wii U. STEPS (Wii U) 1) Open the internet browser on the Wii U 2) Open your bookmarks 3) Edit one of the bookmarks (it doesn't matter which one) to look like this: Name: Kernel Address: http://<your internal ip from earlier>/kernel/blarg.php (so, for example, I put in http://192.168.1.64/kernel/blarg.php) 4) Edit one of the other bookmarks to look like this: Name: SDCafiine Address: http://<your internal ip from earlier>/sdcafiine/blarg.php (so, for example, I put in http://192.168.1.64/sdcafiine/blarg.php) 5) Open the bookmark called "Kernel" 6) The screen with go green and an illuminati symbol will appear, wait for the console to return to the home menu 7) Open the internet browser again and click bookmark called "SDCafiine" 8) A coffee cup will appear, press A and wait for the console to return to the home menu again 9) Press home to return to the Wii U menu 10) Boot Super Smash Bros. for Wii U You should now be playing a modded version of Smash! On future boots, you should only have to do steps 5-10 to get mods loading. Happy playing! |
Every year, Mercy For Animals volunteers hit the streets in full force at LGBTQ pride parades around the country, bringing our message of social justice to the masses.
This June and July, marching behind a striking banner bearing the message “No one is free when others are oppressed,” volunteers in seven major cities, including Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, distributed more than 64,500 leaflets, urging compassionate people to act on their values of justice and equality by choosing a vegetarian diet.
Upwards of 340 people marched and distributed literature with MFA, many waving large MFA logo flags and rainbow flags.
Studies indicate that the LGBTQ community may be more likely than others to consider vegetarianism, making pride events a great place to reach out to open-minded, animal-loving people.
Since MFA's inception more than 16 years ago, the parallels between gay equality, animal rights, and other social justice movements have been an important theme in our philosophy and message. This was MFA's 11th year marching and leafleting in pride parades.
For information and tips on improving your health and helping animals by adopting a plant-based diet, visit ChooseVeg.com |
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump outlined his views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an interview published Sunday, saying he is under the impression that the overwhelming majority of Israelis really do want to make peace, but that he has doubts the Palestinians feel the same way.
He also stressed that until the Palestinians give up terror and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a peace agreement will never be reached.
Trump was coming fresh from a controversial appearance at the confab of pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, where he drew surprising cheers, including for open criticism of President Barack Obama’s treatment of Israel, despite being pilloried by other candidates for statements that he will be “neutral” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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In a lengthy New York Times interview published Saturday, he described his foreign policy as an “America first” approach that will stop the US from being systematically “ripped off.”
The phone interview was the most in-depth discussion so far on foreign policy for the Republican front-runner, who has spent his entire career in business.
During the conversation, he detailed his views on issues ranging from East Asian security to Syria, the Islamic State group and relations with allies such as Saudi Arabia.
Probed on his views of the two sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Trump said that he could see a real desire for peace from the Israelis — but not so from the Palestinians.
“I’ll tell you one thing, people that I know from Israel, many people, many, many people, and almost everybody would love to see a deal on the side of Israel,” he said. “Now with that being said, most people don’t think a deal can be made. They really want to make a deal, they want to make a good deal, they want to make a fair deal, but they do want to make a deal. Almost everybody, and I’m talking to people off the record, and off the record, they really would like to see a deal. I’m not so sure that the other side [the Palestinians] can mentally, you know, get their heads around the deal, because the hatred is so incredible.”
Asked if he supports the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump explained that while he does support the idea, he would rather see the two parties reach their own agreement than offer his own answer to the problem.
“I specifically don’t want to address the issue because I would love to see if a deal could be made,” he said, in his signature halting style. “I would love to see if a real deal could be made. Not a deal that you know, lasts for three months, and then everybody starts shooting again. And a big part of that deal, you know, has to be to end terror, we have to end terror.”
“Basically I support a two-state solution on Israel. But the Palestinian Authority has to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Have to do that. And they have to stop the terror, stop the attacks, stop the teaching of hatred, you know?”
Palestinian children are, he said, “aspiring to grow up to be terrorists.
“They are taught to grow up to be terrorists. And they have to stop. They have to stop the terror. They have to stop the stabbings and all of the things going on. And they have to recognize that Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And they have to be able to do that. And if they can’t, you’re never going to make a deal. One state, two states, it doesn’t matter: you’re never going to be able to make a deal. Because Israel would have to have that.
“Now whether or not the Palestinians can live with that? You would think they could. It shouldn’t be hard except that the ingrained hatred is tremendous.”
Turing to his position on other global issues, Trump said he was not an isolationist but described the United States as a poor debtor nation that disproportionately funds international alliances such as NATO and the United Nations.
Similarly lopsided relationships exist with allies such as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, he said.
“We have been disrespected, mocked and ripped off for many many years by people that were smarter, shrewder, tougher,” he told the Times.
“So America first, yes, we will not be ripped off anymore. We’re going to be friendly with everybody, but we’re not going to be taken advantage of by anybody,” he said.
Asked if Japan should be allowed to have nuclear weapons to protect itself from North Korea, Trump suggested that would be an acceptable situation.
“Would I rather have North Korea have them with Japan sitting there having them also? You may very well be better off if that’s the case,” he said.
Trump also said he would withdraw US troops from Japan and South Korea unless the two Asian countries significantly increased their contributions to Washington for the military presence.
“We cannot afford to be losing vast amounts of billions of dollars on all of this,” he said.
He then slammed US President Barack Obama’s administration for seeking a political exit for Syrian President Bashar Assad while simultaneously fighting the Islamic State group as “madness and idiocy.”
“I’m not saying Assad is a good man, ’cause he’s not, but our far greater problem is not Assad, it’s ISIS,” he said.
The real estate developer said he would instead target the oil that provides a significant portion of the extremist group’s funding, cracking down on underground banking channels to cut off the flow of money.
Trump, who has repeatedly called for Middle Eastern allies to contribute boots on the ground in the fight against IS, said he would “probably” stop buying oil from countries like Saudi Arabia unless they did so or reimbursed the United States for its role in the fight.
Trump added that he got most of his foreign policy information by reading various newspapers including The New York Times, which released a full transcript of the interview. |
Many of us take great pleasure in playing GM, constructing our own roster, and making calls on who stays and who goes. Now, you can do just that with our 2017 Dallas Cowboys Roster Builder.
With this tool that was developed by our very own Coty Saxman, you can whittle down the roster from 90 to 53 players, build a practice squad, change player positions and live out your GM fantasies.
For those of you who've used the Roster Builder before it will have a familiar look and feel to it.
For everybody else: Click the button below to launch the program (it will open in a new tab/window). To get started, click on 'Reset Everything' in the new window to load the most up-to-date roster into the tool. The tool will show you all the names currently on the 2017 roster. Also, you'll probably have to keep this window open for the Roster Builder to work in the other window.
At this point in the offseason, the roster is in constant flux, but we'll try to keep the Roster Builder up to date as good as we can through the turmoil of the summer roster moves. If you find any factual inaccuracies in the data, as I expect you will, please let me know so that I can correct it.
[Last Update: 8/30]
Dallas Cowboys Interactive Roster Builder
Sorry, but your browser does not support JavaScript.
As a point of reference for your roster, here's what the season-opening 53-man rosters have looked like in the past:
Years QB RB WR TE FB OL DL LB CB S Specialists 2016 3 4 5 3 2 8 8 7 5 5 3 2015 2 4 5 4 1 9 10 6 5 4 3 2014 3 3 5 3 1 9 11 7 4 4 3 2013 2 4 5 4 - - 10 10 6 4 5 3
Note: This program was written in JavaScript. If your browser does not support JavaScript, you will be informed of that below. In general, Internet Explorer is non-compatible, while Chrome and Firefox are compatible.
Practice Squad: You can put up to 10 guys on the practice squad. Unfortunately, the tool will only show eight. Also, all players with two years experience are now marked as PS eligibile, even though only a maximum of four of those guys can be added to the PS – but I trust the BTB users to be able to make that distinction. |
Maine may be Vacationland, but it’s also home to a lot of anxious people.
An analysis published Saturday in The New York Times rated Maine’s anxiety level as the highest in the country, a whopping 21 percentage points above the national average. The analysis, based on the topics of Google searches, described Presque Isle as the “epicenter of anxiety.”
Potato farms in Presque Isle. Photo by John Patriquin
That comes as a surprise to leaders in the small Aroostook County city, but mental health experts say it’s not uncommon for people in rural areas with a lower median income to deal with more anxiety.
“That’s certainly not our town motto,” City Manager Martin Puckett said with a chuckle Monday when he was told about the designation. “It does come as a surprise that we’re the epicenter of anxiety.”
Presque Isle, dubbed the Star City, boasts a population of just over 9,500 and is a service center for the northern part of Aroostook County, the state’s center of potato farming. Located 2½ hours north of Bangor, the city has two colleges, a hospital, shopping centers and a low crime rate, according to city leaders. A $7.5 million community center is under construction, and a new public pavilion hosts farmers markets and outdoor concerts.
The analysis by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, an economist and regular Times op-ed contributor, looked at the rise of anxiety-related Google search rates over the past eight years.
The analysis found that all New England states except Connecticut had anxiety levels 10 points or more above the national average. Oregon was the lowest anxiety state, at 26 points below the national average. Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Kansas and Virginia joined Oregon as the states with the lowest anxiety levels, Stephens-Davidowitz found.
He said Google searches for anxiety tend to be higher in places with lower levels of education, lower median incomes and a larger population living in rural areas. States that were deeply affected by the Great Recession saw bigger increases of anxiety. He also drew a connection between anxiety and areas with high opiate prescription rates, based on Google Correlate data that showed “panic attack” and “opiate withdrawal” were often searched together.
Brent Scobie, senior director of clinician services and analytics at Acadia Hospital in Bangor, said he can see why people are surprised by Presque Isle’s distinction as the epicenter of anxiety.
“It is surprising in the sense that we typically think of rural areas as being filled with solitude and tranquil environments and a slower pace,” he said. “We associate anxiety symptoms with busier, fast-paced urban settings.”
Scobie said he has heard from medical providers across the state – including in Aroostook County – who have seen an influx of people seeking treatment for anxiety disorders.
“Therapists in our region are feeling more and more people are feeling unsafe, uneasy and uncomfortable,” he said. “This is not something that’s specific to Aroostook County, but it’s a trend we’re seeing more in this increasingly fast-paced world.”
In general, factors such as lack of employment and financial instability can be big contributors to anxiety and have a ripple effect through the family, Scobie said. More than 20 percent of people in Presque Isle live in poverty and more than 16 percent of people are unemployed, according to U.S. Census data.
Most people who experience anxiety never reach out for help, Scobie said.
“We all experience anxiety in different ways,” he said. “It would be fascinating to learn more about the type of anxiety experience people are having up there.”
Scobie had one other theory about the high rate of Google searches about anxiety in Presque Isle: lack of access to mental health services.
“It’s an area where it can be difficult to find certain types of providers,” he said. “People who live in the northern part of the state need to resort to using online resources because they may not have an actual person they can go see, or if they are unemployed, they may not have insurance and can’t afford to see someone.”
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems – which includes Acadia Hospital in Bangor and The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle – is trying to bridge that gap in services by increasing the use of “telemedicine.” It allows patients in Presque Isle and other rural parts of the state to “meet” with doctors via a video conference no matter where the doctor is located, Scobie said.
Emily Smith, chairwoman of the Presque Isle City Council and a sixth-generation farmer in Aroostook County, wonders if the area’s agricultural focus might contribute to higher anxiety. After all, the livelihood of many farmers depends on Mother Nature, over which they have no control, she said.
Still, Smith was surprised to hear of the high anxiety levels given that “Presque Isle is laid back.”
“There’s no stress here,” she said. “But I’m sure it’s like (many) parts of the country. People are working hard and struggling to get by or keep up.”
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Aaeon launched a transportation-focused “NanoCOM-BT” COM Express Type 10 Mini module based on Atom E3800 SoCs, with optional industrial temperature support.
The Linux-friendly NanoCOM-BT supports a variety of automation, medical, ticketing, kiosk, surveillance, and communications applications, but is primarily being promoted for use in public transportation devices. The 84 x 55mm COM Express Type 10 Mini module supports the full range of Intel Atom E3800 system-on-chips, as well as two related Celeron SoCs. Other Linux-ready Type 10 Mini modules that run the E3800 include the Arbor EmNANO-i2300.
NanoCOM-BT, front and back
(click images to enlarge)
Aaeon touts the NanoCOM-BT for its “shock resistant nature,” but offers no specs to back that up except to say the board’s components are “industrial graded” and its RAM is soldered directly onto the board. The 84 x 55mm module is, however, available with optional -40 to 85°C support — but only with the E3800 SoCs, not the Celerons.
The NanoCOM-BT supports up to 2GB DDR3L RAM, and there’s optional, onboard eMMC flash memory ranging up to 16GB. An Intel gigabit Ethernet controller is also available. Dual displays are supported with the available DDI and LVDS interfaces.
NanoCOM-BT block diagram
(click image to enlarge)
The module provides one USB 3.0 and six USB 2.0 ports. Other I/O expressed via the COM Express connectors includes dual SATA, dual serial, audio I/O, and GPIO. The module provides three PCIe lanes, as well as LPC Bus and SMB expansion buses.
You can choose between the standard, wide-range 7V to 20V power supply, or an optional 5V model. Both Linux and Windows are available, and Aaeon’s Hi-Safe Software coordinates watchdog timers, digital I/O control, and system monitoring.
Specifications listed for the NanoCOM-BT include:
Processor — Intel Atom E3800 (Bay Trail-I); Intel HD Graphics: Atom E3815 (1x core # 1.46GHz, 5W TDP Atom E3825 (2x cores @ 1.33GHz, 6W TDP) Atom E3826 (2x cores @ 1.46GHz, 7W TDP) Atom E3827 (2x cores @ 1.73GHz, 8W TDP) Atom E3845 (4x cores @ 1.91GHz, 10W TDP) Celeron N2807 (2x cores @ 1.58GHz, 4.5W TDP) Celeron N9230 (4x cores @ 1.83GHz, 7.5W TDP)
RAM — 2GB DDR3L; optional eMMC flash up to 16GB
Display: DDI port (DP, HDMI) up to 2560 x 1600 LVDS 18/24 bit, single-channel, up to 1920 x 1200 Dual independent displays
Networking — gigabit Ethernet (Intel i210/i211) via PCIe with Wake-on LAN
Other I/O: USB 3.0 6x USB 2.0 2x serial TX/RX 2x SATA HD audio 8x GPIO (4x in, 4x out)
Expansion — 3x PCIe lanes; LPC Bus; SMBus
Other features – Watchdog; HW monitoring; optional heat spreader, heatsink; optional ECB-920A-A10 carrier board
Power: +7V to 20V AT/ATX Optional +5V, AT/ATX [email protected], 8.4W typical consumption with quad-core E3845
Operating temperature — -0 to 60°C; optional -40 to 85°C (not available with Celerons)
Dimensions — 84 x 55mm (COM Express Mini Type 10)
Weight – 0.2 k
Operating system – Linux; Windows 8.1
ECB-920A carrier board
An Aaeon ECB-920A [PDF] carrier board is available for the NanoCOM-BT. Coastline ports include dual USB 3.0, dual USB 2.0, dual DisplayPort, and VGA, GbE, and audio ports.
ECB-920A carrier board port detail
(click image to enlarge)
The board also provides five PCIe x1 slots, as well as PCIe x4, PCIe x16, and mini-PCIe slots. Four SATA ports, dual serial ports, an I2C interface, and a debug port are also on board.
Further information
No pricing or availability information was provided for the NanoCOM-BT module. More information may be found at Aaeon’s NanoCOM-BT product page. |
Using the Drone Survival Guide to blind the viewer, 2014.
Drone Survival Guide
Ruben Pater is, imho, one of the 10 most interesting designers to follow at the moment. You might have encountered his name already. He’s behind the Drone Survival Guide that enables anyone to spot and recognize the most commonly used drones. More interestingly, the guide also provides information on how to hack, hides from and dazzle the machines. The guide has been translated in dozens of languages and can be downloaded over here.
Pater has a mission to create visual narratives about complex political issues. He is not only interested in flying machines of death but also in disaster floods caused by global warming, Dutch sweets that evoke everyday racism, fishermen vs oil tankers, citizen journalism in countries with censorship, digital surveillance, etc. Any complex issue that grabs his attention is turned into an impeccably well-researched, elegantly designed and intelligently communicated work. His calls his projects ‘untold stories’ because of the way they weave new connections between journalism and design.
Pater studied graphic design in Breda, and later at the graphic design master programme of the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. He is exhibiting his work, lecturing internationally and is teaching at the communication department of the Design Academy in Eindhoven, at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and also at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in the Hague. I’m glad he has accepted to answer my questions:
Life after the Flood, First Dutch Flood manual. Design: Ruben Pater, 2011
Hi Ruben! You create visual narratives about complex political issues. Why do you think it is important that design approaches political topics? And why do you feel that design is an adequate medium for public discussion?
Do you think that design has a different role, audience or strength compared to art in that respect?
Discussing topics of political or public interest happens everywhere. Whether we categorize it as art, journalism, or film is not really relevant. The label of design works for me because designing visual communication means creating a dialogue beyond your immediate reach, and therefore a work can only achieve its goal when it reaches an wide audience. When addressing issues which are of public interest, this is for me an important aspect of a work. The nature of (graphic) design expects designers to be empathetic towards a diverse audience, because their clients are different all the time, and so is the receiver of the message. That skill gives designers the potency of have a more meaningful role in communicating the important issues of our time to a larger audience.
Behind the Blue Screen (English trailer), 2014
Teheran streets, December 2014. Photo: Ruben Pater
I was particularly fascinated by the project Behind the Blue Screen, an experiment in ‘sneaker journalism’ that you developed with the help of director Jaap van Heusden and the complicity of people living in Iran. What can we, as European, learn from the stories and tactics of the people who shared their stories for the project?
My ideas about Iran have definitely changed, not in the least because news coverage on Iran is so one-dimensional and hyperbolic. Through watching more than 100 video stories, my image of Iran has become much more nuanced.
It’s funny that the more you learn about another culture, the more you learn about your own. For instance with media censorship, we tend to rate Western Europe as much more ‘free’ than a country like Iran. This is true in the sense of journalists being jailed and the internet being restricted. But in Western Europe we have a different kind of self-censorship which is equally invasive. Our dominant ideology of multinational capitalism with Christian values is hardly questioned. Although it is criticized in the margins, the media reaffirms this ideology and promotes it actively through its advertisements and reporting. We do not even regard it as propaganda anymore, but as a simple fact.
The question is if it is really that much different than the way the media is controlled in a country like Iran, where there are blogs and underground media that pose opposite and alternative views.
And more generally, do you feel that we might also want to watch our back and worry about surveillance?


Always watch your back, or in this case, your browser.
Ruben Pater, Double standards (Photo installation at the graduation show of the Design Department of the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, 2012)
Ruben Pater, Double standards
Double Standards publication. Printed on newspaper stock and hand-bound with flag rings
Your page about Double Standards of Somali Piracy is a fascinating and very informative read. Could you give us more details about the work you did with the flags? Explaining the choices you made when you transformed them?
If we send warships and soldiers to protect a national maritime fleet far away, that is an act of war by a sovereign state. When this merchant fleet has sold its nationality in favor of ‘cheap’ nationalities like Panama or the Bahamas to dodge taxes and underpay its workers, this stands in stark contrast to the military sent to protect them. This paradoxical reality of global capitalism is something that I felt was best visualized by buying all these flags and cutting them up by hand. By violating these national symbols, I felt like this was more appropriate representation then when I would create new flags, or new realities.
Double Standards of Somali Piracy was developed in 2012. Do you still follow the issue? Has the situation much evolved since you last worked on it?
Recently I worked with a filmmaker on a documentary about Double Standards. That was challenging because piracy around Somalia has basically disappeared almost completely since then, and when something is not in the news, people simply lose interest. Even though Somalia still has many problems, and the illegality and problems in the shipping industry remain. I think a follow-up on the project would focus more on life of crews that work in the maritime industry, who are basically doing slave labor for super-rich shipping tycoons.
And similarly, i was wondering whether you were ‘haunted’ by the projects once you’ve finished them? Do you keep on following closely the news or do you rather dive head down into the next project and try not to be too distracted? 


A consequence of the way I work is that I have to keep track of the news happening on different topics. There are dozens of ‘sleeping topics’ that are not projects yet but are waiting for an opportunity. They could turn into a project, or not, so I need to keep collecting information on them.
You trained as a graphic designer but i noticed that you also write a lot. Each of your project is detailed in a long essay. So how do you keep the balance between text and graphic design? Do you feel that a project like Twenty-first Century Birdwatching, for example, can be fully understood without the text? Just by looking at the Guide with the bird silhouette?
18 months ago someone asked me to write an essay about the Drone Survival Guide, and I decided to do that with all my larger projects. It complements my work because it pushes me to reflect on the context beyond its immediate effect. I think during a design process many interesting things happen that are as interesting as the result, even if they are invisible in the end. I try to avoid using the essay to inflate my work, just to as an invitation to the reader in the way I work. That gives me parameters. When projects are too small for an essay format, they do not go on my website. Outside of the website, all of my works are meant to function without any additional text, especially in the case of the Drone Survival Guide. All my projects should work without explanation, although sometimes that turns out to be more difficult than others, for instance my Double Standards project which needs a bit more time from the viewer.
Negro Kiss. ‘Dutch Sweets’, Leon Dijkstra and Ruben Pater, 2011. From A Taste of Dutch Colonialism
Jew Cookie. ‘Dutch Sweets’, Leon Dijkstra and Ruben Pater, 2011. From A Taste of Dutch Colonialism
I’m from Belgium so i immediately connected with your work A Taste of Dutch Colonialism. Both our countries are quite fond of Zwarte Piet. I grew up with that figure and never thought much about it until i found myself in Eindhoven in early December and saw how shocked artists from other countries were when they met blond people dressed as Zwarte Piet in the streets. How did people reacted to your work about Dutch Sweets? Do you feel that our cultures are ready to leave behind all these traditions based on old (and embarrassing) racial stereotypes?
Currently the colonial heritage of ‘Zwart Piet‘ is heavily debated in Holland. It is shameful to see that so many people, including the Dutch prime minister, do not understand even the most rudimentary concept of racism. In general, what we need is a better understanding of our colonial past in Western European countries, and we are still far away from that. Dutch Sweets, and the book I am writing now about design in different cultures, hopefully help this discussion forward. I am hopeful for the future because there are some very brave artists, activists, and writers out there who are at the forefront of this civil rights protest and their numbers are growing. Now they are threatened, arrested, and ridiculed, but I am certain they will eventually be recognized as heroes.
You are teaching at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and will also be lecturing at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in the Hague. What are you teaching there? Does it relate to your attempts to narrate geopolitical issues? What are you teaching there? Does it relate to your attempts to narrate geopolitical issues?
As a teacher I try to ask students to think about how their work relates to the political and social realities. It is not that they have to make work about political subjects, or become politically active, I want them to realize all the choices they make are political, whether they intended it or not. With the research of my new book that is coming out next year, I am getting more into postcolonialism and designing across cultures. This element of graphic design is often overlooked. I would like students to think about hidden cultural contexts of their work and how they can communicate to different audiences, not just their peers.
I think design has the tendency to become entertainment for the elite; expensive, exclusive, and abstract. Designers will be taken more seriously if they reach a wider audience, and become more inclusive.
What are the ‘untold stories’ that you think deserve to be told at the moment?
There are so many interesting and important topics, but unfortunately my time is limited. I soon hope to start working on a project about a more humanistic representation of cyberwar, which is still not available. Even though it is talked about a lot, it is always visualized in the same visual vocabulary security nerddom and military propaganda. Another topic is the role of raw materials in our economy as an literal and metaphoric underground foundation of our capitalist system. Thirdly Data discrimination. It is already being discussed quite widely, but nonetheless a very important topic, perhaps one of the most important topics of the coming years.
Thanks Ruben! |
Image caption Despite having the same qualifications as men, recent women graduates earn less, suggests a study
Female graduates earn thousands of pounds less than their male counterparts, according to a report.
The pay gap persists even between men and women from the same types of university who studied the same subjects, suggests the study.
Researchers for the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu) analysed how much students who applied to higher education in 2006, earned last year.
Jane Artess, of Hecsu, said pay distribution was "strikingly uneven".
This was despite laws designed to ensure equal access to jobs and pay, said Ms Artess,
The researchers analysed data from a longitudinal study of 17,000 recent graduates called Futuretrack. They found that the take-home pay of more than half of female graduates ranged between £15,000 and £23,999.
Male lead
Men were more likely to take home £24,000 and above, they found.
The analysis did not include part-time workers or the unemployed.
The data, published in the Hecsu journal Graduate Market Trends, suggested men earned more than women across all degree subject areas, even if more women took those subjects than men.
"When graduate earnings are examined by subject, it is clear that women earned less than men who studied the same subject," says the article.
The authors add this is the case across all subject areas, "even where women's participation is greater than men's".
"Equal opportunity to access jobs and pay has been enshrined in legislation for 40 years, yet Futuretrack found that being female can make a difference to a graduate's earning power", said Ms Artess.
"It is difficult to see why this is, for example, female graduates of media-related subjects are no more or less numerous than their male counterparts yet their earnings are typically lower.
"Of the Futuretrack respondents, there were fewer men than women in law, yet there is an even greater male lead on earnings.
"Since it would be unlawful for employers to pay males and females doing the same job differently, something else must be happening to female graduate earnings.
"If we look at wages by sector, the male lead is persistent in the public and private sectors, in graduate workplaces and also in graduate and non-graduate job roles.
"The only area where female pay is equal to males is in the not-for-profit sector," said Ms Artess.
Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Frances O'Grady described the findings as "very alarming."
Motherhood penalty
"We know that women pay a huge motherhood penalty, but this data suggests earnings disparities may be starting earlier.
"More women are going to university and are better educated than ever before but are not getting the same reward when they leave as male graduates.
"This research shows they are getting a raw deal for their talent."
Heather Jackson, a businesswoman and author who advocates a better gender balance among senior managers, said the results were disappointing but unsurprising.
Managers should take note that "a raft of research published over the last decade has shown that gender diversity and the right balance of talent can be a contributing factor to business performance, so there is a strong business case to ensure that we nurture female talent from the very start of their careers", said Ms Jackson.
A government spokeswoman said that although the gender gap was closing, "it is still too large".
"We have already made good progress towards ending pay discrimination," she said.
"Measures in the Equality Act to make pay secrecy clauses unlawful have already been implemented.
"We are also encouraging companies to sign up to Think, Act, Report, a voluntary initiative to improve gender equality at work, including reporting on pay and other work-place issues.
"More than 70 companies have signed up, covering 1.3 million employees.
"But for all this, pay inequality remains a stubborn obstacle to real fairness in the work-place.
"We will continue to work with businesses to ensure that we do all we can to help them make the most of women's talents, and unlock their full potential."
The Futuretrack project is carried out for Hecsu by Warwick University's Institute for Employment Research. |
The growing world of smartphones and the use of instant messengers are playing a bigger role in daily life than ever before, these IM apps are connecting people with each other conveniently and freely in the digital world. Moreover, the use of instant messengers and the user’s adoption of Android devices on a larger scale is creating fear in the minds of the parents. So, the rain of instant messengers, mostly youngsters are involved in the usage of different kinds of instant messengers on the same Android device. Having said that, parents are fearful because of plenty of IM apps on their young kid’s mobile devices; it makes it difficult for parents to monitor multiple instant messengers on a particular Android device. There are a number of instant messengers but the most popular are Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Snapchat, Kik, Line, IMO, and Skype. Monitoring of a particular messenger is not really difficult but spying on multiple instant messengers on Android devices seems to be a problem. It’s because the best instant messenger’s apps work using similar methodology and the actual difference is the user interfaces and having some extra functions of every app. TheOneSpy (TOS) will let you monitor multiple IM apps on Android devices, you will be able to spy on up to 16 instant messaging application with the help of TOS monitoring app. All the instant messaging apps have very secure services; therefore to spy on multiple messengers, we have to apply some tactics to monitor multiple IMs.
How is that possible?
In order to monitor more than one instant messenger, we need rooting of our Android devices. Now the question is, how do we root the devices; It’s actually simple, we can use a software which can easily root almost any device. It’s called “KingoRoute” and is a free application. So, use this application and after the completion of the rooting of your device, you will enable to monitor multiple instant messengers with the help of TOS monitoring application.
Why is the TheOneSpy the best option for spying multiple Messengers in Android devices?
It’s because the TheOneSpy enables you to monitor multiple instant messaging applications at once, having single control panel you can monitor all of the conversation happening on multiple messengers on the single platform with complete and accurate time statistics. TOS is compatible with Android 4.0 up to Android 7.0 Nougat. TOS is reasonably priced, starting from $0.6/day. You might be able to find some discounts if you google it. Following are top 10 instant messaging applications which can be monitored on Android devices with the help of surveillance spy app.
1. WhatsApp
It needs no introduction it is one of the top most popular instant messenger app, WhatsApp has made its journey towards many types of devices whether it is Android or iOS and Windows. Millions of people are using this application having features like audio and video conversations, messages, chat group chat, text message, videos sharing, photo sharing and group discussions. It also supports free voice calling. TOS enables you to monitor all its features within minutes and has time stamps.
2. Viber
We can say it is very similar to WhatsApp Messenger but has not been able to get appreciation like WhatsApp has at the moment. It has features such as chat, group chat, video & audio conversations, stickers and instant online calling option on the internet. You can easily able to monitor all of these features with TOS spy software.
3. SnapChat
It has the largest teenage user base, having features like live videos conversations, video messages based on 10 seconds. This messenger has gotten popular within a couple of years. With TOS, you can monitor SnapChat if it’s being used on Android.
4. Line
It offers their users free voice and video calls and also have cool stickers, news feed, make fun movies and adding friends through NFC. Line chat is very famous among young children, so spy this instant messaging app through tracking spy app for android devices
5. Facebook Messenger
It allows users to make the chat with their friends, group chats, sharing media, voice calls through Wi-Fi the time when an app is linked with your Facebook friends. Users don’t have to worry about the contacts, phone numbers or a username. Now monitor this IM app with the world’s no. 1 spy app for Android devices.
6. IMO
It allows their users to use their existing accounts from one application to another and also has its own online community. It has features like free voice and video calling, instant messaging through groups and contacts and you can search your friend on IMO. If you have made your mind to monitorIMO, then TheOneSpy should be your 1st choice for Android devices.
7. Skype
This app is undoubtfully one of the world most popular video calling apps out there; its instant messaging ability is also very efficient. This instant messaging application is also very popular in the business world. You can monitor this app and all its features including conversations by using TOS for Android devices.
8. Kik
Kik is another popular IM app for Android devices, it is not dependent on phone numbers you can use it through user names and can easily do group chat having almost 50 people. It has features like text messages send and received, images, funny GIFsand memes as well. Now monitor this application with the world’s best spy application.
9. Telegram
Telegram is also great instant messaging application; it has several features like bots and integration with multiple devices, PC’s Macs, and tablets. All the conversations are stored in the cloud; it is no doubt one of the best instant messaging apps for Android devices. It’s possible to monitor Telegram with the tracking spy app.
10. Yahoo Messenger
No doubt it is one of the oldest instant messaging application in the world, rest of the apps came after many years. It has features like video and audio conversations, emotions, voice mail, chat rooms and file sharing. TOS monitoring spy app enables you to monitor this app within no time with exact time stamps.
Note: This is a sponsored guest post |
Just when it looked like things couldn't get any worse for San Diego suburban congressman/right-wing lunatic/bribe-taker Randy "Duke" Cunningham, up pops convicted felon and Cunningham "business associate" Thomas Kontogiannis. At least in this case Cunningham wasn't arranging no-bid contracts for his criminal pal to sell military equipment to the Pentagon (like in the other case he's involved with). In this case Cunningham was peddling a pardon from his pal George Bush to a crook who cheated the NYC public school system. In October, 2002 the Congressman's bud Kontogiannis (of whom Cunningham's sleazy lawyer said "Duke's business dealings with Mr. Kontogiannis have been entirely proper and any suggestion to the contrary is simply false") pleaded guilty in a bid-rigging, bribe and kickback scheme. Sounds like he and "Duke" were made for eachother. And he bought ole "Duke's" crappy old boat-- worth $200,000 tops-- for $600,000. Is that a great way to pay someone off with a $400,000 bribe or what? This seems to be ole "Duke's" modus operandi. Oh, and Kontogiannis arranged for the financing of "Duke's" $2.5 mansion. No one has indicated whether or not Bush was in on the scheme and if he was getting any of the cash in return for the upcoming pardon.
Thomas Kontogiannis and eight others are accused of using staged sales, straw buyers and inflated appraisals on two tracts of land in East New York and Queens to defraud Washington Mutual Bank and DLJ Capital, a Credit Suisse subsidiary.
The scheme unfolded between 2001 and 2003, according to a release issued by Brooklyn acting U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell.
Kontogiannis, 60, is serving an eight-year federal prison sentence for laundering bribes paid to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).
He also pleaded guilty in 2002 to being part of a bid-rigging and bribery scheme involving New York City Board of Education computer contracts in Queens.
Other defendants in Thursday's case include John Michael, Elias Apergis, Steven Martini, Nadia Konstantinadou, Stefan Delgiannis, Ted Doumazios, Edward Hogan and Jonathan Rubin.
In the late 70s I was so smitten by the energy and revolutionary zeal of punk rock that I decided to start a magazine. Some friends at Warner Bros gave me so advice. In defining ourselves-- as well as a new genre-- we'd have to not just talk up the music and artists we loved, like the Clash, Ramones, Talking Heads, Pistols and Buzzcocks but also differentiate them by blasting away at the worst of the "old wave." I picked all the easy targets: Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Kansas...Almost 3 decades later I started DownWithTyranny and I still remembered their advice. In place of Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon and Styx we had Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff and Thomas Kontogiannis. (Kansas was replaced by... well, Kansas, of course.) We eagerly reported on all their crimes and eventually all 4 were sentenced to prison, to be replaced by equally horrible characters, from Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Jerry Lewis and Mean Jean Schmidt to more recent demons like Michele Bachmann, Jeffereson Beauregard Sessions III, Virginia Foxx and Paul Ryan.Anyway, this morning I was surprised when I noticed a large number of Germans on the site, having come by way of the Germanpointing toas a place to read about Thomas Kontogiannis. I was busy with President Obama's speech in Cairo and didn't pay it much mind. At least not until this evening when I came across a Reuters story, Nine accused of $92 million U.S. mortgage fraud scheme Staring in July of 2005 we did a couple dozen posts mentioning Kontogiannis, all of them mentioning that he is a Republican criminal of the first order tied with the sleaziest politicians in our system. What first attracted me to his story was how he paid Duke Cunningham $400,000 as a middleman to buy him a presidential pardon from George W. Bush. It always amazed me that the Justice Department never followed up on that. It wasn't til a few years later that we learned exactly what the Bush Justice Department had turned into.It got worse from there and even included unproved treason allegations featuring a secretive trip to Saudi Arabia with Cunningham, another GOP crook, Ken Calvert, and Ziyad S. Abduljawad, a naturalized American of Saudi origin living in San Diego. In mid-2007 Kontogiannis pleaded guilt to some bribery charges involving Cunningham. Exactly one year ago he was sentenced to 8 years in prison and fined a million dollars. Read the 42 comments at the post announcing that.I guess we all had reason to believe that Kongtogiannis had left the national stage, right? I mean, he's in prison. But yesterday he was back in the papers, along with 8 others indicted on charges of conspiring to defraud Washington Mutual Bank and Credit Suisse in a $92 million mortgage fraud scheme. Kontogiannis was the leader of the pack The North Country Gazette has the most detailed coverage and points out that Kontogiannis could get 30 years added to his 8 year sentence. He's still got $50 million in property and that could be subject to forfeiture.
Labels: Kontogiannis |
A pub chain which recently barred people from swearing has now also banned motorcyclists.
The daft ruling emerged after a rider parked up at The Royal Oak pub at Ulley before being told that he would not be able to enter the premises because bikers were barred.
The Royal Oak is owned by Samuel Smiths brewery in North Yorkshire, who subsequently own more than 200 pubs in the North of England. The drinking houses all feature a Victorian theme and don’t have televisions or play music.
TOP STORIES
Tony Gresham, who works at The Royal Oak pub said “Mr Smith has decided that he doesn’t want bikers in this village pub. He’s holding fire with his reasoning why but it’s his business. We’re just carrying out what he wants.”
As bikers are not a protected group under the equality act, the pub chain is not technically breaking the law regarding discrimination. They are still however still quite clearly tarring all motorcyclists with the same brush.
MCN was unable to get a comment from the brewery.
It would seem that Mr Smith’s attitude towards bikers is as Victorian as the theme that runs throughout his pubs.
Looking for the perfect two-wheeled companion? Visit MCN Bikes For Sale website or use MCN's Bikes For Sale App. |
The first group stage of ASUS ROG Winter 2014 starts off on January 31st 2014 at 13:00 CET. It includes 32 high caliber players divided into eight groups of four which are played in WCS style double elimination format with all matches being best-of-5. Only the top 16 players continue to the second group stage which is played in a similar fashion right after the initial groups. The playoffs are played on the second day of the tournament on February 1st starting at 13:00 CET.
Roster changes
The first groups have now finally been drawn, but we apologise for the delay which is due to late roster changes. Unfortunately Ai.Strelok, Empire.Kas, Acer.Nerchio and Acer.Bly have cancelled their participation to the event. They have been replaced by Alliance.SortOf, Fnatic.Naama, Property.MorroW and Menace.Protosser whom we thank for being available in such a short notice.
Group Stage 1 January 31
The first matches are player 1 vs player 4 and player 2 vs player 3.
Group 1 - 13:00 CET 1. Liquid.TaeJa
2. Empire.Happy
3. Alliance.SortOf
4. Ence.Serral
Group 2 - 13:00 CET 1. EG.Jaedong
2. Ence.elfi
3. IvD.Apocalypse
4. PkDynamics.GunGFuBanda
Group 3 - 13:00 CET 1. StarTale.Life
2. NrS.Welmu
3. mYinsanity.Kane
4. Bischu
Group 4 - 13:00 CET 1. mouz.Dear
2. Liquid.Snute
3. Fnatic.Harstem
4. Core.JonnyREcco
Group 5 - 13:00 CET 1. yoeFW.San
2. mYinsanity.StarDust
3. Dignitas.Tefel
4. Menace.Protosser
Group 6 - 13:00 CET 1. Liquid.Hero
2. Ai.Patience
3. Property.MorroW
4. Fnatic.Zanster
Group 7 - 13:00 CET 1. Samsung_Galaxy.Solar
2. Axiom.Alicia
3. Millenium.BabyKnight
4. Fnatic.Naama
Group 8 - 13:00 CET 1. Alliance.NaNiwa
2. Millenium.ForGG
3. Liquid.Ret
4. NrS.KrasS
Group Stage 2 January 31
Group A - 18:30 CET 1.1
8.1
4.2
5.2
Group B - 18:30 CET 2.1
7.1
3.2
6.2
Group C - 18:30 CET 3.1
6.1
2.2
7.2
Group D - 18:30 CET 4.1
5.1
1.2
8.2 |
I happen to be a fan of the government investing money into what is commonly called infrastructure projects. I strongly believe that any reasonable businessperson, even one who works for the government, should be able to invest money at 1% interest rates and get a better than 2% return on taxpayer money. But I think its time to rethink how we spend a big chunk of that money.
If it was me spending the money, I would take 100 billion of the proposed $ 1 Trillion dollars in infrastructure investment and invest it in Robotics.
I would invest it in the companies that do R&D, software, and design for robots and every other facet of the Robotics Industry.
Unfortunately, none of the companies that actually make the robotics are based here in the USA. That’s a problem that needs to be solved. We need to help develop domestic companies much like we did the electric car and wind and solar industries. Even if it means trying to help pick winners.
We have to win the robotics race. We are not even close right now.
A new report says China is spending far more on Robotics than we are. China, Korea, EU are offering billions in credits to support their robotics industry. We spend about $100mm . That ain’t gonna work.
The good news, if there is any, is that according to the report China is only spending $ 3B dollars a year on robotics. We need to quickly pass them by.
Why is this so important ? Because technological change always accelerates. It never stagnates over time. Which means we are going to face the fact that if nothing in the States changes, we will find ourselves dependent on other countries for almost everything that can and will be manufactured in a quickly approaching future.
We have to face the fact that countries are going to lose jobs to robotics. The only question that needs to be answered is which country will create and own the best robotic technology and have the infrastructure necessary to enable it.
Right now it’s not the USA and that needs to change.
Our “infrastructure” spending should look forwards, not backwards so that we can be the robotics hub of the world. |
Water-soluble carbon nanoparticles can prevent mosquito larvae from reaching maturity
A simple synthesis for environmentally benign carbon nanoparticles that could be used to control mosquito populations has been demonstrated by scientists in India.
Mosquitoes are found across the globe, with the exception of Antarctica and Iceland. A holiday nuisance, they are also a well-known vector for many diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever and viral encephalitis. The transmission of diseases by mosquitoes is estimated to be responsible for 2 million deaths every year.
Control or eradication of the mosquito population could significantly restrict the spread of disease. Screens and nets can be used to exclude the pests, while traps or insecticides can be used to eliminate them. More permanent solutions include draining pools of stagnant water where mosquitoes like to breed, or the introduction of natural mosquito predators such as dragonflies.
Sabyasachi Sarkar and his team of inorganic chemists at the Bengal Engineering and Science University have now come across a new answer to the mosquito problem. When trying to take pictures of zebrafish, that had been fed on mosquitos treated with water-soluble carbon nanoparticles (wsCNPs) to help with the imaging, they noticed that the presence of the wsCNPs appeared to be retarding the development of the mosquito larvae.
After further investigation, Sarkar and his team were able to show that a concentration of these wsCNPs as low as 3mg/l prevents the larvae from ever reaching maturity, resulting in their death. At this concentration, the wsCNPs are otherwise harmless to the surrounding environment and can persist in stagnant pools of water for periods of several months.
The nanoparticles are made by burning wood wool in a reduced oxygen environment, washing them and then treating them with nitric acid. ‘It is an easily scalable process,’ says Sarkar, ‘the mosquito eradication programs run by different government agencies across the globe should try this method, particularly in cities with poor drainage.’
‘It's very positive that the wsCNPs exhibit a high persistence in water and the local environment, as opposed to other synthetic insecticides that can quickly degrade,’ says Pilar Mateo, a leading specialist in the control of endemic disease transmitting vectors and President of Inesfly Corporation. However, she warns that further research is needed into potential long term ecological effects, before this material can be implemented as an effective method of vector control.
Sarkar’s team will now focus on gaining a better understanding of the mechanism that prevents larvae maturation. Suppression of the hormone, ecdysone, is suspected to be a factor and this could have vast implications for further research on mosquito control. |
By By R. Francis Rubio Oct 14, 2009 in Politics Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, signaled Wednesday in a press release that she may be open to voting for Senate health care reform legislation. The $829 billion finance bill was approved on Tuesday by a vote of 14-9, with Senator Snowe (R-ME) breaking ranks with her Republican colleagues to vote for the bill. In her Sen. Collins went on to praise her fellow colleague from Maine as she made her feelings known about the previous bills put forth by the House and the Senate Health Committee. Collins said: "Due, in large measure, to the efforts of Senator Olympia Snowe, who has worked tirelessly, the legislation passed by the Senate Finance Committee represents a substantial improvement over the costly and flawed alternative approved by the Senate Health Committee as well as the House bills." It remains to be seen if either Senator will vote for a final bill due to the complex nature of the health care reform issue but with their recent statements it seems that both of the lawmakers are willing to go the extra mile to possibly reach an agreement. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) joins her fellow Senator from Maine Olympia Snowe in her support for health care reform. The Republican Senator signaled Wednesday that she may be open to voting for health care legislation this year although she believes the Finance Committee bill needs substantial improvements. The Associated Press reports that Collins said in an interview, "My hope is we that can fix the flaws in the bill and come together with a truly bipartisan bill that could garner widespread support," the Senator continued by saying "I think this bill is far superior to the ones passed by the Senate (health) committee and the three House committees, but it needs substantial additional work."The $829 billion finance bill was approved on Tuesday by a vote of 14-9, with Senator Snowe (R-ME) breaking ranks with her Republican colleagues to vote for the bill.In her official statement released Wednesday Sen. Collins said "There simply is no question that our nation’s health care system requires substantial reform. The status quo of soaring health care costs, families struggling, millions uninsured, and health care provider shortages is unacceptable. Maine families and small businesses are paying ever higher premiums, increased deductibles and greater co-pays."Sen. Collins went on to praise her fellow colleague from Maine as she made her feelings known about the previous bills put forth by the House and the Senate Health Committee. Collins said: "Due, in large measure, to the efforts of Senator Olympia Snowe, who has worked tirelessly, the legislation passed by the Senate Finance Committee represents a substantial improvement over the costly and flawed alternative approved by the Senate Health Committee as well as the House bills."It remains to be seen if either Senator will vote for a final bill due to the complex nature of the health care reform issue but with their recent statements it seems that both of the lawmakers are willing to go the extra mile to possibly reach an agreement. More about Health care reform, Sen collins, Sen snowe, Senate, Congress More news from health care reform sen collins sen snowe senate congress republicans democrats obama |
The Mathematica mailing list and internet newsgroup comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica (called MathGroup for short) have been in existence for more than twenty years now. In January 2005, we passed the 50,000-message mark. Now, in only a little more than four years, we have added another 50,000.
I want to take this opportunity to talk about the history of this effort—how it was started and what is involved in its operation. While it may sound like trials and tribulations, it is actually fun, and I have learned a lot about Mathematica and its uses and users, and about servers, the internet, and general social interactions over the years.
In the last part of the 80s, Stephen Wolfram and I both ended up at the University of Illinois in Urbana in buildings next to each other. I was a Senior Research Scientist at NCSA and he was Director of his Complex Systems center. At NCSA, one of my responsibilities was to locate and test scientific software for Sun workstations, which were an important element of our workstation network and also one of the machines Stephen was using to develop what became Mathematica. In supporting workstation software, I created an email list for NCSA’s users where they could ask about what software they might use and get information on what was new.
When Mathematica was released in 1988, the mailing list I started morphed into a small group of people talking about how they might use Mathematica to do their work. As Wolfram Research grew and there were more Mathematica users, the mailing list also grew. I left Illinois in 1990 and brought the mailing list to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I still had access to the mail server at NCSA, but eventually the cost of dial up just got too expensive and I had to find a new place. At first I did local dial up to UNC, and later Duke, which was a lot cheaper.
In 1994, it was suggested to me that creating a Usenet newsgroup would be the next step. There were enough messages per day that some readers started to complain that they wanted another way to read the posts. At the time—pre-browser, pre-Google—newsgroups were a central aspect of internet communication. I was made aware that some users in other countries had to pay for each email they got, so providing a new place to post was very important to them.
Starting a newsgroup was a tedious process that involved proposals, voting, central authority approvals, and so on. It took about six months of effort to get the newsgroup started. Perhaps the most aggravating part of it was the group name. I wanted something simple like comp.mathematica or sci.mathematica, but the powers that be said that I had to use comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica. This seemed kind of redundant, but rules were rules. The proposal was put out to the mailing list on December 1, 1994 to encourage enough yes votes. It did pass, and the newsgroup started on April 7, 1995 with message number mg660. From then on, the number of posts grew quickly due to the visibility on Usenet and the growing user base.
At this same time, I also started the sunfreeware.com project for Sun Microsystems. I had been very interested in open source software from my NCSA days and during time serving on the Sun Users Group board of directors. Running both projects very quickly overwhelmed my single server and made me less than popular at the organizations that were loaning me Internet connections. My one-person consulting company was forced to buy a fractional T1 line, which at that time cost about $1000 a month or so. It was a struggle. In the next two years, both projects grew quickly. The fractional T1 line became a full T1, then two T1s a year after that, and finally four T1s less than a year later. The phone company technical guy who installed the two final T1s watched the traffic when he turned on the circuits and saw them max out instantly. I am sure he thought I must be running a less-than-savory site by the look he gave me, but I assured him it was just software downloads and mail. Eventually, the ISP that I was using called me and said that they had to drop me from their customer list. My traffic was burdening their local system in Raleigh so much that their other current customers were complaining and they could not add new customers. I was hurting their business and they gave me two months to get off. The local phone company that owned the circuits to my office said they also could not put more bandwidth there. I was forced to move my servers to a colocation site. The rack space I rented had a 10-megabit and later a 20-megabit dedicated circuit at $4000 a month along with one T1 line back to my office and a backup cable-modem circuit. Fortunately, by this time my business had grown and I could (sort of) afford the cost.
I continued to update my Sun servers and development machines. The number of mailing list readers passed 2,000 and the number of posts per day passed 20, and that meant that roughly 40,000 emails had to go out daily. I urged readers to move to the newsgroup as much as possible to avoid delays due to mass mailing, and this did help. But outgoing emails were no longer the only concern. As we all know, spam has grown into a monumental problem. If your email address was on the web anywhere, you got spam very quickly. The amount of spam that came to the newsgroup and mailing list addresses grew from maybe 10 per day to hundreds to now about 2,000 a day, or roughly 20-50 spam messages to each authentic post. Thus, it is not just outgoing mail that my servers have to deal with, but incoming as well.
To confront this problem as it got worse, I wrote my own little spam filters, then when those failed, I used open source systems like spamassassin. But with thousands of messages to examine each day, my mail server slowed down to the point of uselessness. Finally, when Google mail came along, I forwarded all my incoming mail there to use their spam filters, which can be trained to some extent. This had a remarkable effect. The 1% or so of spam that got through the Google filters would come to my Thunderbird mail client, where its filters would clean up almost all of the rest. Periodically, I would run scripts on the spam folders to look for false positives, which, as time went on, were fewer and fewer.
One other communication issue I have to deal with is with ISPs and internet mail hosts. Comcast, AOL, and Yahoo periodically decide that posts from MathGroup are spam and my mail server gets blacklisted. Readers on the mailing list complain when all of a sudden they are not getting group mail. The hard part comes when I get a complaint email and then try to respond that mail. The response gets blocked as well. I have to go to another of my email accounts and send the message from there to say I know about the issue and will try to fix it. Eventually, after dealing with the ISPs and cable companies directly and making no progress, I have given up. Users are now told to complain to their email providers themselves or move to the newsgroup. As I write this, my logs tell me that Yahoo has decided to reject messages. There are lots of other problems, but you get the idea.
Newsgroups also present problems. When I send out the posts to the newsgroup, they have to go to news servers at my ISP and elsewhere. On occasion, these servers fail or get confused and posts don’t get out. It can, and recently did, take several days for my ISP to figure out why my posts are not going out. And, since there is no way for me to post to the newsgroup to tell people the group is not working, I start getting emails wondering about that. I think my ISP may be getting tired of middle-of-the-night tech calls about this. I am probably going to buy access to one of the commercial news server sites to act as my primary or backup to avoid this.
The bandwidth and server parts of the project turned out to be straightforward to solve compared to the actual work of running the group and other projects. As with all newsgroups and mailing lists, a set of moderation rules had to be devised. The controversy about this and the cries of “censorship” in my email box and in other newsgroups got really strident sometimes. At first, I tried to respond in a nice way, but finally decided to just ignore it all. It seemed to me the main issues revolved around two things. First, there were those folks who just loved, or had their own vested interest in, some other computer algebra system. Basically, lots of “my system is better than your system” emails that I refuse to post. Second were those people who just hated me, Mathematica, Wolfram Research, and so forth. The four-letter words directed at me, the flames hot enough to melt steel, and threats to start newsgroups to counter mine where fascinating, but eventually died off pretty much or I just ignored them.
Anyway, getting away from all of this, how does a message that comes to me get processed?
A post comes to me as email no matter how it is posted. Each post goes into a folder I call “new”. (In the last minute, three have shown up.) Once I get maybe twenty in that folder, I sort them by user to look for duplicates. You would be surprised how many times messages get mailed twice or more. I then run a script on the new folder to split them up into numbered messages—mg100000, for example. Next, I run other scripts that clean up mail headers that are not needed. I then run tests on each message looking for common problems that I need to fix. The most important of these are HTML and other attachments. One of the rules of the group is that there are no attachments and no HTML. This is for security reasons and to accommodate older email clients. It is common these days for email clients to think that emails with attachments are spam or contain viruses. I decided to reject all attachments. This requires that I edit out HTML and also contact authors to tell them that they must put their attachments somewhere else to be downloaded. I tried once to reject all emails with HTML attachments, but with thousands of users using every imaginable email client, it was fruitless and time-consuming to reject each post, so I just edit them myself.
I finally read the messages several times for content. Sometimes, I get emails asking for the price or availability of Mathematica, or some other non-technical post. These are answered by me with the appropriate pointers to the web. Other emails are just so simple I answer them myself or insist on more information. Basically, if the question might be remotely interesting to a Mathematica user, I let it through and let the many readers do the “scolding”, redirection, or “hand-holding”. Of course, there are still flames and sometimes personal comments or attacks, and I try to filter these also.
Once posts are acceptable, I run more scripts that prepare the messages for either the mailing list or the newsgroup and send them out. I send every message back to myself several ways just to make sure they are going out and if not, figure where the problem might be. The result is what everyone sees. I make mistakes of course, which I hope are not too horrible.
Needless to say, all of this is not nearly as important ultimately as the actual people who generously give their time and expertise to answer and discuss the posts. There are perhaps thirty or so readers inside and outside of Wolfram Research who, for years now, have been doing a remarkable job of helping both new and expert Mathematica, and now Wolfram|Alpha, users day in and day out. They, along with everyone who contributes, do the real work.
I was honored to be a student and friend of Bryce DeWitt, who some of you know was one of the finest theoretical physicists of the last 100 years. One of the things he told me back in the 70s was, “Make sure all your projects are useful, work that will still be valuable to others twenty years from now.”
It is with this in mind that I have tried to keep the mailing list and newsgroup running and hope to continue to do so. The goal has always been to provide a place where Mathematica users and developers can get help or discuss any technical Mathematica-related topic. I am told that many new ideas on how to improve Mathematica have been found by the software geniuses inside Wolfram Research in the posts. This is great—just what I want to see.
Thanks very much to Stephen Wolfram, everyone at Wolfram Research, and all the readers and contributors for all the support and encouragement to me and to all Mathematica users. I have sincerely appreciated the many email thank-yous I have received since message 100,000.
The current list of rules, information on how to join and use the group, and other information can be found here. Everyone who joins the mailing list gets a copy of the rules. Archives of posts back to 1989 are online too. |
Mamadou Sakho says Liverpool will do all they can to overcome the challenge of Borussia Dortmund at Anfield this evening, and promised fans: 'We will try to make you proud'.
The Frenchman will hope to return to the starting XI as Jürgen Klopp's men once again do battle with BVB in a Europa League quarter-final tie that is finely poised after a tight first leg.
The Reds hold a slight advantage on away goals after battling to a 1-1 draw in Germany, but Sakho insists there is a long way to go before a place in the last four is confirmed.
And the centre-back knows just how big a role the Anfield atmosphere could play in that dream becoming a reality.
"The fans are the 12th man," he told Liverpoolfc.com.
"They help us always and give us the courage to fight more. We will try to make them proud.
"I think we played a good game [in Dortmund] but now it will be a different challenge and the most important [thing] is to achieve our objective.
"We try to go to the next stage in this cup."
Sakho expects home advantage to play a big part in the second leg, as he believes Dortmund's confidence could be affected by their unfamiliar surroundings.
Conversely, the No.17 is convinced that he and his teammates will flourish over the course of an evening at the ground they call home.
He added: "I think it’s like when you go to eat at your friend’s house and you don’t feel the same as when you eat in your proper place! It’s a different feeling.
"It’s normal for them to feel different, it’s our stadium, our place, and we will feel more confidence because we know the stadium better than that." |
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‘Awkward’ is a great word to describe the public relationship between President Donald Trump and his beautiful wife Melania. Over the last 8 months or so, the American people have been given a front row seat into a relationship which seems to be filled with strife. After all, what marriage wouldn’t have its issues when one of the two people involved were caught on camera saying they like to grab women by the ‘pussy’, right?
We have seen Melania make faces of disgust behind her husband’s back, refuse to hold his hand on numerous occasions, and only show affection when it seems like she almost has to. With all that said, yesterday’s antics at military facility Joint Base Andrews, may take the cake for the most awkward moment yet, since Trump’s presidency began nearly eight months ago.
Melania Trump was on hand to introduce her husband to the service men and women at the base in Maryland.
“It’s my great pleasure to introduce my husband, the President of the United States, Donald Trump,” stated Melania.
As she concluded her remarks, the President slowly stepped towards her, shook her hand and then appeared to almost push or guide her off stage. Such actions would appear to be normal, had the person introducing him been another male politician or statesman, however it almost appeared as if President Trump had forgotten that this was his wife he was dealing with. A kiss, or a long hug certainly would not have been out of the ordinary in this situation.
The US First Lady introduces her husband on stage at an event at Joint Base Andrews. He thanks her with a handshake. pic.twitter.com/fPQNoMpnWa — Caitriona Perry (@CaitrionaPerry) September 15, 2017
While rumors have surfaced that Melania had prepared to divorce the President prior to him unexpectedly winning the 2016 election, the event witnessed yesterday appears to show that there is a clear lack of affection within this marriage. Let’s hear your thoughts on yet another awkward moment between these two, in the comments section below. |
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First people (up to 10) to get promoted to a Global Mod and actually create at least one category will split $100 in Mastercoins/MSC.
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The person or group who proposes the top 2 SMF designs to be used (see http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/ ) will split the next $100 in MSC.
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So this one is really simple: refer the most sign ups by the end of the month and you or your group gets $100 in MSC of course. There is a community of Mastercoiners on bitcointalk, reddit, google, fb, etc. Low hanging fruit for you to sign up.
You can use your referral link like this one below, and if you are working in a group/swarm you can add them all together to win, and distribute the $100 in MSC to your groupies.
I made an error in later posts about the payments forgetting that they should only be made in MSC, please refer to the original post, which meant to pay people in MSC not BTC, and there was no promise of dev MSC.If you wish to get MSC instead of the BTC you received, you can send back the current amount in $, and the foundation can send you MSC, as the original contract stated. Or you can use the BTC we sent you to buy the MSC you were supposed to get.Sorry about the mix up. |
Seagate tosses its hat into the solid state drive (SSD) market today with the unveiling of its Pulsar drive, a unit aimed at enterprise-level blade and server applications. The new drive stores up to 200GB of data in a 2.5-inch form factor with a SATA interface. With the Pulsar drive, Seagate lays claim to being "the first enterprise HDD vendor to deliver an enterprise-class SSD solution."
The Pulsar drive is built with single-layer-cell (SLC) technology, which Seagate says enhances the reliability and durability of the SSD. Solid state drives offer much faster data access speeds than the rotating media in conventional hard disk drives (HDDs) since there are no moving parts.
According to Seagate, the Pulsar drive achieves a peak performance of 30,000 read IOPS (input/output operations per second) and 25,000 write IOPS, which is a measure of how a drive processes small, random blocks of information. The drive is rated at up to 240 megabytes per second for sequential reads and 200 mbps for sequential writes; a measure of how it accesses large chunks of contiguous data. The drive comes with a five-year warranty and has an annualized failure rate (AFR) of 0.44 percent, according to Seagate.
"Seagate is optimistic about the enterprise SSD opportunity and views the product category as enabling expansion of the overall storage market for both SSDs and HDDs," said Dave Mosley, Seagate's executive vice president for sales, marketing, and product line management in a press release.
Solid state drives built with single layer cell technology can offer faster read/write speeds than those built with multiple layer cell technology (MLC), but MLC drives can offer more storage. The Pulsar drive, which was made available to select OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers in September, is now available to all OEMs. |
By WINIFRED ROBINSON
Last updated at 00:11 14 December 2007
So at last the biggest secret of motherhood is out. For every woman who gives birth then sinks back blissfully into the pillows, there are scores like me who sit bolt upright, eyes wide with fear and think: "Oh my God, what have I done?"
Lest you assume that I just didn't bond with my baby, let me say from the outset that I loved my son Tony from the top of his down-covered head to the tip of his tiny little toes.
I loved him before he was born, before he was even conceived.
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I loved the idea of him, and I never lost touch with that love throughout the many miserable years of infertility and the IVF treatment that finally resulted in his birth on August 20, 1999, when I was 41.
By then, as one of the doctors so tactlessly put it, I was "in the last chance saloon when it came to having kids".
But however much he was loved and wanted, my baby's arrival waved no magic wand of satisfaction over my life.
And as a study this week by the Institute for Social and Economic Research in Colchester attests, I am not so much the exception as the rule.
The survey questioned four thousand couples and discovered that children, until the age of five - the point where most start school - make mothers less satisfied with their lives.
I can sympathise with that. Indeed, I sometimes look back on my son's early years as a long dark tunnel from which I emerged blinking when he reached about four.
The irony of my situation wasn't lost on me: that after all those years of trying for a baby and finally achieving my goal, his arrival made me somehow unhappier than I had been before.
Because what no one can convey before your own little bundle arrives is just how hellishly hard it is to be a Mum - by far the most difficult challenge most of us face in life.
So why wasn't maternal love the harbinger of happiness? For me the biggest problem was a surfeit of the stuff. I was so overwhelmed with love for Tony that I was tormented with anxiety.
In my career as a BBC reporter I had the confidence to dodge pieces of flying masonry while covering riots in Northern Ireland.
But finding myself in sole charge of a tiny screaming infant, I panicked, convinced that I just wasn't up to the job of looking after my baby and petrified that he would suffer as a result.
And for the first three months of his life, suffering was what Tony did. He had colic - that mysterious belly ache which afflicts so many infants - and he screamed the place down for quite a lot of the time.
I recall a well-meaning elderly neighbour desperate to watch Coronation Street in peace, knocking on my door with the helpful suggestion that the milk I was feeding Tony could be off.
The professionals whose I advice I sought were about as helpful: the midwives suggested feeding on demand, the doctor a strictly-timed feeding regime.
Those first few months can be bewildering and utterly exhausting, when a baby sleeps for no more than about three hours at a time day and night. Then there is the effect that the arrival of a baby has on a marriage.
My husband and I had six blissful years together before Tony was born, years of intimate dinners and holidays with lots of strolling hand-in-hand down cobbled streets soaking up the culture of some delightful foreign city.
Like many childless women I know, I had made a bit of a baby of my man. I loved looking after my husband, Roger Wilkes, also a journalist, fussing over him even - and of course, when Tony was born, all that abruptly stopped. "I just haven't got time" became my mantra, and so it remained for the next few years.
And if I wasn't the kind of mother I expected to be, Roger wasn't the kind of father I'd imagined either. Like many men he turned out to be hopeless with small babies, although he is wonderful with Tony now he is eight years old.
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"He won't take this feed from me," he used to say crossly, as if an infant might be expected to down a bottle of formula milk like a yard of ale.
When I returned to work Tony was three months old and a colleague asked: "Have you reached the I Hate My Husband Because He's Useless Stage Yet?" Casting my eyes to heaven I confided that I had reached that moment several weeks before.
I can still recall precisely the moment when I stared at my husband with murder in my eyes. I was holding a screaming baby and Roger was holding a raw chicken.
At any moment my parents, travelling by train from Liverpool to visit us in London, would arrive. My husband has many talents, but cooking is not among them and he was looking at the chicken and asking what he should do with it.
A murderous mist suffused my gaze and I swear if I hadn't been holding the baby, I would have strangled him.
Tempers are not improved by sleepless nights, and they don't do much for general good health and wellbeing either. When warned about sleepless nights before Tony was born, I used glibly to reply that I would be fine because I had experienced shift work.
Motherhood in my case, though, brought thrice-nightly waking for ten whole months and regular 4am alarm calls in the three years that followed. And all without the chance to catch up on the sleep you have lost.
Perhaps worse than all this was the fact that as Tony got a little older and I returned to work, there was the sheer loneliness of looking after him.
Roger and I decided to organise our jobs so that we could care for Tony ourselves without outside help. It meant working alternate days.
On the plus side, our baby was never packed off to a nursery. On the downside, in those early years I seemed to be always entertaining Tony on my own. The modern tendency for people to move far from their families for work exacerbates this problem. It certainly did for us.
I had my mum, dad and no fewer than five sisters desperate for the chance to help me with my baby son.
But they were all in Liverpool, 200 miles away from where we lived in west London. Most afternoons I would take Tony to feed the ducks in Kew Gardens across the road. I missed my husband, I missed my mum, and I longed for adult company.
Earlier this year in another survey, 2,000 new mothers reported the year after childbirth as the loneliest time of their lives, a time when only 90 minutes a day was spent in the company of other adults.
I think this loneliness may explain the other surprise finding in the research that was published this week that mothers are significantly happier with life if they have a job, regardless of the hours involved.
Much as balancing motherhood and work is stressful, at least (as my own mother used to put it) work "gets you out", out into the grown-up world, with the chance to chat to colleagues around the water cooler.
I never even considered staying home to look after Tony full-time because our whopping mortgage made two incomes essential.
At the time I envied the mothers who didn't face the wrench of leaving a small child. But looking back, I'm not so sure that full-time motherhood would have made me happier, probably because as an older mother I was so used to the intellectual stimulation of work and was set in my ways.
And if I am honest, it was perhaps the contrast between the worlds of work and motherhood that made the task of mothering seem so monumental in those early years of Tony's life.
In my job as co-presenter of Radio 4's consumer programme You And Yours, effort pays off and can sometimes bring instant rewards. If I want a particular interview to go well, I do extra research and it usually works.
By contrast, trying hard with young children can just be pointless and frustrating, and I would guess that this must be the experience of a great many mothers who have careers.
For me, closing the door on the chaos that can be kindled by a fractious child and stepping out in my suit to the office was a welcome escape. At work I felt relaxed and in control, but at home, confronted by a toddler who clamped his jaws against all vegetables, I sometimes wanted to weep. I felt so inadequate and frustrated.
And whereas at work my tasks tended to be quickly accomplished, with Tony I discovered that the basic lessons of life, as passed on by mothers to their children, must be endlessly repeated often over years.
I blush to confess it, but I did a great deal of goal-oriented nonsense with Tony when he was a baby. There were trips to the infant music classes, where all the tiny pupils were invited to play primitive instruments and kiss the same toy monkey at the end.
I had expected to foster in Tony an early love of percussion - in the event, all he picked up were a few nasty viruses from the soggy cuddly toy.
Trips to the "Kinder Gym" piled the humiliation on as a teacher put parents and children through a routine called "Skipping along, Singing a Song" in which my boy didn't so much skip as dawdle.
In fact, Tony resolutely refused to respond to my efforts in a whole range of areas, starting with breastfeeding, which I hang my head in shame to admit we never mastered (I ended up giving up within days), through to the pureed vegetables he spat out and the potty he wore on his head rather than use.
The terrible twos went on well into his threes because from the moment he was born he seemed to have his own tastes and opinions on just about everything. And he could be stubborn to the point of cussedness, just like his mum.
But hand on heart, I can honestly say there was never a moment when I wished I wasn't a Mum. No matter how rosy the memories seemed of the days when I came home from work and relaxed with a large glass of wine, I would never have swopped my childless state for the life I now had with my boy.
And if all of this sounds like a lament, I don't mean it to be, because in the long run Tony has brought me infinitely more joy than any work project or any other relationship in my life.
There were the triumphs of his first words, his first steps, the delicious softness of his little body curled up against mine. His initial total dependence on me may have been terrifying, but it is also wonderful-to be needed so intensely, even if it is for a short time.
Which brings me on to the question of why life gradually gets more satisfying for many mothers when their children start school.
There are the obvious advantages, not least among them the 30 hours a week or so of free childcare - a big money saver if you are working, and a chance for some long-deserved 'me-time' if you are at home.
In our case - and for many other parents I know - the start of school signalled the end of the broken nights. School tires children out and even the poorest sleepers tend to settle as a result.
But for me, more importantly, Tony starting school coincided with the realisation that difficult times with young children are just phases in their development that pass. By the time he was four, I had learned to stop trying so hard. I found motherhood infinitely more rewarding as a result.
I remember in those first nightmare days with Tony, a girlfriend rang who'd had a baby a year before. "Why didn't you tell me it was like this?" I asked her.
"Because you feel so foolish saying that," came the reply.
I understood perfectly what she meant: how could I of all people, after all that effort to have a baby, admit that I was struggling to cope?
Admitting that life as the mother of a young child is less than perfect means breaking one of the last taboos - and yet it shouldn't be so hard to say it. As this week's research proves, those of us who didn't relish every moment are the not the exception, but the rule. |
The Washington Post is reporting the Washington Capitals placed 2008 first-round pick Anton Gustafsson on unconditional waivers Wednesday.Any team can claim his contract for $125; if Gustafsson goes unclaimed by noon ET on Thursday, the Post is reporting the Caps will terminate his contract.Gustafsson, 21, was taken with the 21st pick of the 2008 Entry Draft. He's played just one game in North America, with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, in 2009-10. He failed to make the Capitals' roster to start the 2010-11 season and was assigned to Hershey, which then re-assigned him to the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL. After one preseason game with South Carolina, he returned home to Sweden, and the Capitals suspended his contract.According to the Post, Gustafsson has battled injuries since being drafted. He played just 11 games last season, with Langnau in the Swiss-A league. In 2009-10 he was limited to just 34 games with Boras in Sweden.Gustafsson is the son of former Capitals star forward and IIHF Hall of Famer Bengt-Ake Gustafsson |
Got to have it now, pay for it later
Money management skills is going to be the one thing I plan to preach when raising my kids. One of the biggest problems in today’s economy is the notion that you can buy anything at any time by simply using credit.
While at a much larger scale, the NFL draft requires budgeting skills in very much the same sense. In the spur of the moment a team can throw away their future for the fallen star on the draft board. The Oakland Raiders are feeling the pain of spending too much too quickly and enter this years draft without their 1st-round pick (traded to Cincinnati), their 2nd-round pick (traded to New England), their 3rd-round pick (used in the supplemental draft) and their 4th-round pick (traded to Washington).
In other words, the Raiders could easily be at one of the tables at your local pub with you watching the draft on the 26th and 27th.
The going rate of trading into a round for future draft picks is to upgrade the pick by one round. Meaning if a team wanted to trade into the middle of the second round, the price would be a future first round pick. That’s an expensive price to place on a player that may not pan out. The history of the NFL is loaded with deals where teams sell the farm to move up or into a round where they have no picks. If the team misfires on the prospect they got-to have, it usually creates a rippling effect of hurt for years to come.
At a press conference Wednesday, Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said fans shouldn’t expect the team to trade away any of next years picks to move higher up in this years draft order.
I do not want to trade future picks especially high ones, McKenzie said, via the San Jose Mercury-News. “I am the new guy. This is my first time drafting after a legend has been drafting for the Raiders for so long. So it’s huge. But I’m excited about it and looking forward to it.”
I for one, will have to see it to believe it. The Raiders have always burned future draft picks and rarely plan for anything beyond the present date.
Not to rub it in any further, but the teams that seem to really profit from adding talent and future picks are those who see the most value in giving up their present position. If a player that does not excite you, move back, gain more wealth and re-evaluate.
On A Side Note
The Patriots and Eagles are usually front runners for making the most out of what they have on NFL draft days. We all know who the mastermind is in New England, but one of the long time hidden gems of the Eagles organization is actually no longer there. GM Tom Heckert was apart of some excellent trades for Philly in the 2000’s but now makes the call in Cleveland. I for one am looking forward to seeing what he can do with the large bounty of picks acquired in last years mega-trade with Atlanta for Julio Jones. It’s hard put a smile on the face of a Browns fan these days, currently siting with the odds least likely to win Super Bowl but still, the Browns do have a chance to set things right with the high number of quality picks in this years draft. |
World, delete percent global country
I became a big man. I started killing people. From the evil. My orders began to listen. But I'm aggressive. I could not remove my aggression when I became a great director. Aggression exists on the day it is. And you fancy. One of the greatest leaders of the city. Want war, kill people. In anger, hatred, aggression finding. It is good if the internet. And if in the workplace in the office. Hear these angry words.
Quarrel and abuse in the family. Common cause of one person. if the other person is working with the right , important people. religion it does not give the right to negotiate to remove the war to remove death. There is a chance in the church. somewhere in the beginning of the path , to be at all times. When other conduct of the war and kill thousands of people . No blame on what he wants to understand . Way of aggression. raise his voice. But in order to understand. In a peaceful environment . It is necessary to work with smart people . But they often tell you what to do in the house of aggression . Why should I be . Instantly , every second brain to speak words . Need to think about 5 minutes , and then say the word , good , clear. Why should I punish or scold . There's no single reason.
Open world director
You like. When your case, go for the better. You have millions of dollars in contracts for work. And it is easy and simple for you. You create friends, 10 people each year. And it's not a bad result. Why when you see death. You close prohibiting the subject. It's also not a bad answer, that people lived.
Upside |
Getting your security deposit returned can be a frustrating process for many renters. View Full Caption Shutterstock
NEW YORK CITY — When Kayla Napoli moved out of her Flatbush apartment in 2008, she was told to expect a check for her $1,100 security deposit about a month after leaving.
But the check never came.
"We went through whatever process we needed to go through — I think we had somebody come and inspect the apartment," she said, noting the landlord never claimed any damages, so after many months of being ignored, she headed to small claims court.
If you're lucky, you won't have to fight to get your security deposit back.
"We've never found any fool-proof way to ensure that a landlord returns a security deposit," said Catharine A. Grad, of law firm Grad & Weinraub LLP, which specializes in tenant issues.
"Unfortunately you do hear a lot of people complaining about it, and it's frustrating."
Below, you'll find a rundown of how security deposits work, and tips on how to increase the chance of getting yours back once the lease is up.
► The Basics
A security deposit is money collected by a landlord — usually the equivalent of one month's rent — that he or she could potentially use to cover damage or collect outstanding rent, if any is owed.
If neither of those is the case, the money is returned to the renter when they move out.
"It's technically just your money being held by your landlord for you," Grad explained.
Landlords are supposed to keep security deposits separate from their own personal funds, and those with six or more apartments in their buildings are required to deposit the money into a bank account that earns interest, according to the New York Attorney General's Office.
That interest belongs to the renter, minus a one percent administrative fee that the landlord gets to keep.
Housing attorney Ronald Languedoc says there's no exact date for when a landlord needs to return a security deposit — the AG's office describes it as within a "reasonable time" of the lease ending.
"The standard sort of in the industry is 30 days," Languedoc said. "People should not expect that they're going to get a refund on the spot unless that's been worked out in advance."
► Read Your Lease
The exact terms of a tenant's security deposit are usually laid out in the lease, so review yours carefully when you're getting ready to move out, Grad recommends.
"The lease is the first place to look to figure out when the landlord is going to to get it back to you, what they get to deduct for," she explained.
Look for specifics about a return date as well as what kind of damages are covered by the deposit.
► Damages
Most leases will state that the landlord can deduct from your security deposit if you owe rent, or if you damage the apartment. What constitutes "damage" can be tricky to determine, though most leases will define it as anything above "normal wear and tear."
"That's pretty specific, but it's subject to different interpretations," Languedoc said. "Very often people end up in small claims court over that type of a dispute."
"Normal wear and tear" usually means any damages that can be attributed directly to something the tenant did — not just the standard things that happen when you live in an apartment, like chipped paint or slightly scuffed floors.
"If the door is broken off the hinge and it was fine before the tenant left, then you know it's the tenants fault," said attorney Judith C. Aarons.
Something like a leaking ceiling, on the other hand, isn't usually the tenant's fault and shouldn't count against you. You also shouldn't be expected to cover the cost of the landlord repainting or cleaning for the next tenant if you left the place in good shape.
"Landlords may try to pass costs of getting the apartment ready for the re-rental that they aren't entitled to, especially painting," Languedoc said.
Though if you opted to paint your apartment bright yellow, many landlords will require that you paint it back to white or whatever color it was previously before you leave, he said.
► Talk to Your Landlord
If your landlord or property management company is responsive and easy to get in touch with, Languedoc recommends reaching out to them before you move out to discuss any potential problems or changes you made to the apartment while you lived there.
You might think the shelves or the funky light fixtures you installed made the place better, but a landlord may disagree — and he or she could charge you for the cost of removing them after you leave.
"If you had any issue with anything that happened in the apartment, or anything you changed, discuss it in advance with the landlord," Languedoc said. "Don't just assume you can keep the light fixture."
Whatever the landlord does charge you for those changes would be deducted from the security deposit, and you are still entitled to the remainder of the money.
► Try to Schedule a Walk-Through
Before you move out, see if you can have your landlord or management company come inspect the apartment with you and alert you to any problems that might mean a deduction from your security deposit.
This gives you a chance to take care of any issues before you hit the road.
► Take Pictures and Get It In Writing
If you feel like the apartment is in tip-top shape when you move out, take pictures. This will help serve as proof that any damages the landlord might try to pin on you happened after you left.
"You really need to document the conditions of the apartment before you take off," said Grad. "You can have a friend come and take a look as a witness."
It's also a good idea to get any agreements you made with your landlord in writing — if he or she says you don't need to remove the dividing wall you erected in the living room, for example, get them to say that in a letter or an email.
This is documentation you can later use in court to bolster your case, if you end up there.
► Leave a Forwarding Address
It might sound obvious, but making sure your landlord or management company knows where to send your security deposit is one small way to make sure it gets to you quicker. Send them a letter or an e-mail with your new address so they don't have to track you down when it's time to return the funds.
► Don't Assume You Can Skip the Last Month's Rent
A lot of tenants who are worried about getting their deposit back don't pay the last month's rent, figuring the security deposit they paid in the beginning can be kept in exchange for it.
"Sometimes landlords will accept that, because to try and sue the tenant for one month's rent is too costly and time consuming," Languedoc said.
But doing so could leave you vulnerable to a lawsuit.
"It's not a safe choice, necessarily," he said. "They are running the risk of being sued."
► Take it to Court
Sometimes even when a tenant does everything right — like Napoli — they find themselves fighting to get their deposit back.
There are a couple of routes a tenant can take to try and to compel their landlord to return their security deposit.
They can try filing a complaint with the New York Attorney General's Office, which helps mediate tenant-landlord conflicts and assists renters in getting their deposits back. The complaint form can be found here.
Otherwise, the renter's only other real recourse is to sue the landlord in small claims court, which handles disputes of up to $5,000 (anything more than that would need to be taken up in civil court), according to Languedoc.
In court, both the tenant and landlord will need to present proof of their argument. For a renter, that's where things like photos and e-mail documentation come in handy. A landlord might present something like receipts for repairs, or an invoice from a contractor.
The process can be overwhelming and time-consuming for tenants, experts say. Most renters head to court without a lawyer because hiring one can be more expensive than their deposit was.
"A lot of tenants, sometimes they do give up." Aarons said. "After a while if they don't get their money, they kind of walk away from it."
Napoli and a lawyer representing her old landlord met with a mediator, and the discussions eventually ended with her getting her payment. She says the whole battle took about nine months from when she started inquiring about the security deposit to when it was returned.
"It took a long time and it was annoying," she said, but added that it was worth it in the end.
"I definitely felt vindicated," she said. "It was a huge process, but I'm glad I did it." |
Syria and the pro-imperialist “leftists” of the ISO
By Bill Van Auken
29 September 2012
After more than a month-long silence on Syria, the International Socialist Organization has resumed its depiction of a bloody sectarian civil war stoked by imperialist intervention as the “Syrian Revolution.”
The ISO’s silence coincided with a heated policy debate within the US foreign policy establishment provoked by the storming of US consulate and CIA facilities in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, resulting in the death of the US ambassador and three other Americans The perpetrators of the attack appear to have been members of an Islamist militia linked to Al Qaeda, the very forces that Washington had used as proxies in the US-NATO war to overthrow the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Given that the US and its allies are backing similar forces in the attempt to bring about regime-change in Syria, the events in Benghazi were cause for alarm, provoking divisions within US ruling circles.
That such a controversy should also give pause to the ISO is entirely understandable. Its “leftism” has consisted in providing “left” justifications for the policies pursued by the Obama administration as it conducts imperialist interventions in the name of democracy and humanitarianism.
The ISO broke its silence last week with the posting on its web site of an article entitled “Syria's Revolutionary Resilience,” by Yusef Khalil.
The purpose of this piece is to re-energize the propaganda campaign waged over the last year and a half by the corporate-controlled media on behalf of the Syrian “rebels” and in support of Washington’s campaign to replace the regime of Bashar al-Assad with a more pliant puppet.
Khalil begins the article by dismissing the scattered reports that have appeared in the mass media acknowledging the crimes carried out by “rebel” forces, primarily directed at Alawite, Christian and other minorities. The veracity of these reports, however, has been bolstered by the Syrian “rebels” themselves, who have the habit of posting videos on the Internet of their own atrocities, depicting summary execution of soldiers and civilians alike, including throwing government workers off of building tops and beheadings.
He describes as “regime apologists” anyone “casting doubt on the revolutionaries’ description of events.” This “description,” however, amounts to a carefully orchestrated PR campaign aimed at hastening a direct foreign imperialist intervention along the lines of the war in Libya, which was launched on the pretext of saving lives and ended with the slaughter of some 50,000 Libyans.
In particular, the article indicts the reporting of veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk for having “wrongfully blamed the Free Syrian Army for the killing in Daraya.” This killing had been portrayed by the “rebels”—largely echoed by the mass media—as an unprovoked massacre by the pro-Assad forces. The event prompted demands from Western capitals for the immediate downfall of the Syrian regime.
Unlike most of the media, Fisk, rather than relying on the word of “rebel” spokesman, actually went to Daraya and spoke to survivors of the bloodletting. They told him that the anti-Assad militias had seized the town, holding its residents hostage and killing many of them, including off-duty conscript soldiers and a postman--because he worked for the government—as well as women and children.
Such reporting is anathema to the ISO. To sustain the illusion that the armed militias battling the Syrian regime are carrying out some kind of social revolution, it is necessary to cast the atrocities carried out by the pro-Assad forces as totally one-sided and unique, rather than acknowledging that such crimes are being carried out by both sides in what has become a bloody sectarian civil war fanned by the imperialist powers.
The other task of Khalil’s article is even more insidious—and preposterous. It is to deny that imperialism plays any role whatsoever in the Syrian conflict. Here he is forced to resort to bald-faced lies.
“For all the talk about foreign flow of weapons and support for the revolutionaries, nothing of any substance has made it to the fighters in Syria,” he writes. Moreover, he contends, regional powers--including Turkey--“cannot host such operations without risking their own internal destabilizations.”
Here the author must be counting on complete ignorance on the part of his readers. Not only is Turkey hosting operations to train and arm the Syrian “rebels,” it has sent its own army officers into Syria to direct their military operations.
The Turkish government has also allowed the CIA to set up a command-and-control center in Adana, Turkey, site of the US Incirlik Air Base, just 60 miles from Syria’s northern border. From there it coordinates the flow of arms, foreign fighters, money and supplies into Syria. It was revealed early last month that Obama had signed an “intelligence finding” authorizing a sharp escalation of the CIA intervention.
The Saudi and Qatari monarchies have put up some $300 million to pay the anti-Assad fighters and bribe members of the Syrian military to defect, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced just on Friday another $45 million in so-called non-lethal aid to the “rebels.”
US satellites, German warships and British facilities in Cyprus are all relaying intelligence to the “rebels” to help prepare their attacks on the regime’s forces.
To further dismiss any concern over imperialist designs on Syria, Khalil cites an article by the “Syrian Marxist” Salamah Kailah—published in Al Hayat, the mouthpiece of the Saudi monarchy. Kailah advances the unique argument that because the US is “in a period of deep structural economic crisis,” and because its hegemonic position is being challenged, particularly by China, it can no longer engage in militarist aggression abroad.
What a profound “Marxist” insight! Deep economic crisis and the rise of new global powers preclude war. Is that what the 20th century taught him?
It is precisely US capitalism’s historic crisis and the challenge it faces from economic rivals that constitute the driving force of the global eruption of American militarism. Spurred on by the eruption of mass working class struggles last year in Tunisia and Egypt that threatened US domination, it is pursuing the most far-ranging redivision of the Middle East since the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 so as to assert US control over the region’s energy reserves and deny it to its rivals. The attempt to topple the regime in Syria—Tehran’s principal ally in the region—is itself only a stepping stone in the already advanced preparations for a US-Israeli war on Iran itself.
For a so-called “socialist” or “Marxist” to deny these threats is nothing short of criminal.
But what the article goes on to make clear is that the ISO does not see US military intervention as a threat, but rather as a potential source of progressive change. Khalil writes that “regardless of the debates for or against intervention in Syria, it's obvious that Western powers are moved by questions of self-interest, not by lobbying efforts.”
He continues: “Those of us in the West who support the Syrian revolution—and those of us in Syria who are active in the Syrian Revolution—cannot dictate to the US the terms of its involvement…
“The point of saying this is not to place conditions on the Syrian Revolution, but because we want the revolution to succeed, and because we, along with the Syrian revolutionary left, see the strategy of betting on foreign intervention as a danger that threatens the revolution.”
What is he saying? The danger to the Syrian revolution lies not in a direct US military intervention, but rather in placing all one’s bets on that, as far as the author is concerned, desirable outcome. As much as one might hope for such an intervention “lobbying efforts” won’t help.
The ISO, he makes clear, is not about to place any “conditions on the Syrian Revolution,” i.e, that it oppose imperialism and defend Syria against US military conquest and the imposition of a puppet regime controlled by Washington. If the Syrian “revolutionaries” see this as the best means of achieving their aims, they will enjoy the full support of the pseudo-leftists of the ISO.
This misnamed organization, whose politics reflect the interests of a privileged layer of the upper-middle class, represents nothing more than the “left” flank of the conspiracy being carried out by the CIA, the State Department and the corporate media to prepare a new and far bloodier war for control of the Middle East. |
Adventurers Dave and Amy Freeman are spending a full year in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, living in the wilderness and testing gear as a part of their daily existence. In this dispatch, Dave discusses spring ice out, a tricky time for backcountry travel in the BWCA.
As spring advanced and the ice started pulling away from shore, we found ourselves in a predicament. 90% of the ice was still safe to travel on and 10% was too rotten to walk on, or had melted away completely. We could no longer effectively travel with skis and toboggans, but the lakes wouldn’t be free of ice for at least several weeks.
An elder in the Northwest Territories once explained to me that the lakes and rivers were their roads. They needed to travel to gather food, hunt and trap. They couldn’t just sit around waiting for the ice to melt, so they just kept traveling.
With his words in mind, we decided to continue traveling as the lakes transitioned from solid to liquid. Along the way we learned that with a healthy dose of skill and caution, and the proper gear, ice-out is a magical time to explore. We found these 6 pieces of gear were essential during the shoulder seasons.
Drysuit
Immersion in near freezing water can quickly lead to disaster. A drysuit and proper layers of insulation are a safety item that I would not venture onto questionable ice without.
We have floated in icy water in total comfort while testing our drysuits, but after a couple minutes in the water without a drysuit you would be in serious trouble. During the fall and spring shoulder seasons we always wear a drysuit when we walk onto the ice.
Throw rope
We always carry a throw rope in case someone falls through the ice. A good throw rope with a throw bag allows you to toss a line to someone 50 feet away. We also are careful to not walk or stand near each other on questionable ice to reduce the risk of having multiple people fall through at the same time.
Axe
The ice can be a foot thick in one place and an inch thick a few feet away. An axe, chisel, or some sort of tool for assessing the thickness and quality of the ice is extremely important. You can stand on a couple inches of clear ice, but 6 inches of rotten, candled ice may not hold you. An axe or similar tool makes it easier to test the ice and get a sense of the quality of the ice.
Ice picks
We wear ice picks around our necks during the shoulder seasons. You can buy them, but ours are made of two 3- or 4-inch pieces of dowel rod with a sharp end of a nail sticking out of each one.
They are strung on the end of a rope to wear around our necks. Since ice is slippery you need picks to pull yourself up onto the ice if you break through. This is a last resort and preventing yourself from falling through is really key. Pulling yourself up onto the ice can be very difficult. Practicing this in a controlled situation is a good idea before heading out on a trip where there is potential for falling in.
Grippers
When the ice is barely strong enough to hold our weight we use a technique that we like to call Boundary Waters bobsledding to propel ourselves across the surface. The person in the front sits in the canoe and the person in the back runs along pushing the canoe while keeping their hands and most of their weight on the gunnels. The added traction provided by grippers worn over our boots makes propelling the canoe across the icy surface much easier. We have been surprised to find no noticeable wear on the bottom of our ultralight kevlar canoe from traveling over the ice.
Sturdy Paddles
Propelling a canoe up onto ice that is thick enough to hold our weight, or push our way though thin our rotten ice requires strong paddles. Sometimes we find ourselves literally canoeing over the ice, basically pushing the canoe over the ice with our paddles. Other times we are bashing at the rotten ice with our paddles to break a path. We have found strong paddles are really important.
These are some of the special pieces of gear that have helped us travel during the shoulder seasons. However, there are real risks associated with traveling over questionable ice. Nothing scares me more than bad ice. It has taken many years of paddling and traveling over and through ice to gain the skills and experience that allow us to travel during the shoulder seasons with a level of risk we feel comfortable with. Please use extreme caution if you choose to venture out on questionable ice, cold water is a harsh teacher. |
All developments are carried out thanks to donations on Purchase of these or other devices
thank
Please do not copy files to other file shares
the project is under constant development and refinement
Root SuperSU v2.46
XPosed 2.6.1
BusyBox v30
tested
tested
tested
DISCLAIMER
SU4-21 contains specific certificate and can be unlocked with SunShine
Please do not copy files to other file shares
the project is under constant development and refinement
Root available on 4.4.4 SU6-7 Version 1.02 for Full Flash Stock SU6-7-> here https://yadi.sk/d/WDUlvQgtiQNbv/Droid/4.4.4%20SU6-7 Write Protect=This methodon Droid Mini XT1030 SU6-7 (non OTA Update)This methodon Droid MAXX XT1080m SU6-7 (non OTA Update)This methodon Droid Ultra XT1080 SU6-7 (non OTA Update)Method takes about 10-30 min, 1 steps.Author is not responsible for totally bricked devices, broken arms, legs, plane crashes and your wife's cheating.All actions taken is your own risk.You:- shouldn't be afraid of- do not change any files, pathes;- can install drivers manually;- need to installand- unzipptoyou must have firmwarereceiving is not in the form of an update (OTA) and stitched through the RSD Lite ().00 Flashfirmware01 Unzipp everything to02 Run03 After you got, install drivers manually04 Run. Parts XX of system.05 Turn device on. Now you have SU6.7 STOCK PreRootedinstalled application Xposed 2.6.1Xposed launched clicked install, reboot your phoneI see that the application is launched is set app_process 58 (pre-installed in the system) and XPosedBridge.jar 54 version (made with the application)then uploaded GravityBox [KK], a check mark, the next reboot, and everything workstested -> http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2669404 Will Sunshine be able to be used in conjunction with this to achieve an unlocked BL?No, the latest firmware which was supported unlock SU4-21Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyDnN3_hAmA |
Global warming sceptics suspected climate change scientists were hiding data. So the sceptics paid for a new study to find the real truth. The results are in! And they're identical to previous results: Humans are heating up the Earth.
University of California physics professor Richard Muller, one of the most vocal sceptics, gathered a team of 10 scientists, mostly physicists, including 2011 Nobel Physics Prize winner Saul Perlmutter, to create the Berkeley Earth Project.
Muller et al thought that data from weather stations used for previous studies may have been off because those located close to cities would record artificially warm temperatures. So the Berkeley Earth Project used new methods to re-analyse data from 40,000 weather stations. And guess what? The resulting graph looks almost exactly the same as the graphs from previous studies. They found that the earth's temperature has risen by 1C since 1950.
The sceptics went so far as to hack into climate scientists' emails in 2009, after which they claimed to have found evidence that the famous "hockey puck" chart, which showed a sharp temperature increase in recent years, wasn't accurate.
Bob Ward, policy and communications director for the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment in London, told the BBC he's ready or apologies, including one from Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, who has accused scientists of manipulating data.
"So-called 'sceptics' should now drop their thoroughly discredited claims that the increase in global average temperature could be attributed to the impact of growing cities," he said. "More broadly, this study also proves once again how false it was for 'sceptics' to allege that the e-mails hacked from UEA proved that CRU land temperature record had been doctored. "It is now time for an apology from all those, including US presidential hopeful Rick Perry, who have made false claims that the evidence for global warming has been faked by climate scientists."
Add this new study to your points on how to talk to a climate change sceptic. And maybe punctuate it with your middle finger.
[BBC] |
These Chai Spiced Energy Bites are the perfect snack this fall! This recipe is simple and with all the cozy spices of a chai tea latte–no baking required!
What is your go-to cup of cozy? Are you a coffee drinker? Tea? Hot chocolate? We all have that warm drink that the first sip we take, we are instantly warmed by a memory or a person in our past. We find comfort in food. We have memories that are instantly brought back at the hint of an aroma or scent. Our emotions can have ties to food and we don’t even realize it. What foods or drinks take you back? Who do you remember when you bite into that pie or another special family recipe?
Chai tea is definitely something I crave at the onset of fall and into the colder days. Instantly, I can feel the crunching of leaves under my feet as I drink it. A friend of mine recently put me on a mission to create a chai flavored recipe and I was certainly up for the task!
So what makes chai what it is? It’s a tea that is actually quite complex. There is a particular balance of ginger, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, and black pepper. I learned after the first trial batch that there is definitely a science to it! I had way too much cardamom the first time around.
This recipe is very similar to a Larabar but at a fraction of the cost. The bites are sweetened with dates which is one of the reasons I love Larabars so much! The first bite I took, I felt that warm cozy feeling without the chai tea latte! I hope you enjoy! |
Ron Paul supporters, progressives and the mainstream media have all discussed the potential for vote fraud.
A global internet voting company headquartered in Spain recently purchased America’s dominant election results reporting company.
The Wall Street Journal wrote in a 2008 article entitled “Will This Election Be Stolen?“:
And then there are the e-voting machines. Since early voting started recently, worried voters have reported seeing their votes flipped from Barack Obama to Mr. McCain in West Virginia and Texas.
Princeton University scientists showed how easy it is to steal elections by tampering with Diebold voting machines:
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We reported in 2006:
Indeed, the following headlines from the last two weeks hint at the magnitude of the fraud:
And spend 10 minutes at this website and you’ll realize that electronic vote fraud is not some raving conspiracy theory, but is real.
And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and leading reporter Greg Palast have shown that the emperor’s cronies intentionally spoiled, rejected, purged and otherwise refused to count enough ballots to take the election away from Kerry (not that I like Kerry). See also this article .
The non-partisan and highly-respected government agency, the Government Accountability Office, verified that the electronic voting machines used in 2004 were wide open to fraud, and that fraud likely occured in Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, and other states .
In this 2012 election, reports of electronic vote fraud are now pouring in from both liberal and conservative sources:
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“Experimental” software patches on Ohio voting machines may sway the vote.
And Steve Watson notes:
Multiple reports of electronic voting machine irregularities have begun to pour in from all over the country as Americans take to the polls today.
Voters in Hamilton County Indianapolis were forced to wait for 30 minutes to begin voting because the machines were not working when the polling station opened.
The AP reports that “cards used to clear tallies from machines before voting begins were improperly programmed,” meaning that around 500 machines had to be “reset”.
The Toledo Blade reports that some 100 voters were unable to cast ballots this morning in Bedford, Ohio, because a voting machine was not working. Officials said that a memory card had to be replaced. Long lines led to people walking away.
In Dubuque, Iowa, more voters were delayed when machines failed to operate for around 45 minutes after the polling station opened.
Reports from across North Carolina, one of the key swing states, are pouring in suggesting that voting machines are flipping votes from one candidate to the other.
In Greensboro, “a voter complained that they tried to vote for Mitt Romney three times but that the ballot cast was instead for Barack Obama. Other voters in Guilford County and in some other parts of the state said they experienced similar issues.”
In Charlotte, another voter reported the same problem.
In Rehoboth, Massachusetts problems with voting machines were also noted. The machines officials are using are 14 years old, according to the report. Problems were also reported in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
In Milford Township, Pennsylvania, three voting machines stopped working after just one hour of voting. After a technician got them working again, one of them broke down a second time, causing waiting voters to begin discussing their distrust of the machines and the potential for voter fraud.
In Crawford County, problems with machines were also reported. They had not been set to the correct time, so were unable to be used for a short period of time.
In Missouri, the Secretary of State’s office has been forced to respond after numerous voters claimed that machines were flipping votes for Romney to votes for Obama.
In Pittsburgh, voters have reported multiple problems with voting machines.
In Sandy Springs, Georgia, hundreds of people were delayed when voting machines went down at around 11 a.m.
In Nashville, Tennessee, technical issues with the machines were reported by many voters, while in Chattanooga, machines malfunctioned, meaning some voters had to put their ballots in the machine without them being scanned.
In Fredericksburg, Northern Virginia, hundreds of voters were turned away as all of the electronic voting machines at one polling station failed to operate. Polling workers only had 50 paper ballots available. Worse still, some voters who used the machines were told that their votes would not count if they had placed them before 8am.
In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, voting machines have failed to work all day and election officials have twice run out of paper ballots.
In Faulkner County, Arkansas, machines were reported inoperable.
Some areas in Virginia reported voting machine problems.
Voters in California have complained that voting machines switched their votes for Obama to Romney.
***
Last week this same problem was reported in six other states.
In Ohio, a lawsuit has been filed following the installation of software into voting machines by the state that experts say could allow “back door” vote manipulation by non-election board officials.
Green Party candidate Robert J. Fitrakis filed papers yesterday in federal court in Columbus, seeking an order blocking the use of the machines and the software in vote counting. Named as defendants in the case are Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and Omaha, Nebraska- based Election Systems & Software Inc.
As we have routinely reported during elections, electronic voting machines have caused significant problems. Many security experts are adamant that the machines can easily be hacked, and past cases have shown that vote fraud has been facilitated by the use of electronic voting machines. |
The Skoda Rapid Spaceback has been unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show, alongside plans for a host of new models.
The second variant of the Rapid will be followed by a mildly facelifted Yeti, planned for the end of the year.
Skoda says it is also working on a more sporting, Range Rover Evoque-inspired version of its upcoming seven-seat SUV. Development of the new SUV - which is based on the biggest version of the VW Group’s MQB platform - is racing ahead, but the sporty version is said to have “already come off the drawing board”. The big SUV will replace the Superb as the firm’s flagship model and is likely to bear the same name.
Next year Skoda will launch the new Fabia supermini. Despite its age, today’s Fabia is Skoda’s best-selling model in the UK. The 11,657 units sold in the first six months of 2013 were more than double the Octavia’s 5384 sales. The new Fabia is based on the smallest version of the MQB platform, so it is expected to be half a size bigger than today’s car.
The new Rapid Spaceback is all-new from the B-pillars back. Although it retains the same 2602mm wheelbase as the standard hatchback, the new model is 180mm shorter due to a reduced rear overhang.
Luggage space has been reduced from 550 to 415 litres, although Skoda claims passenger space to be the best in its class. An optional double cargo floor allows two horizontal levels of storage is offered alongside features from the Rapid hatchback, including an ice scraper in the fuel filler flap.
Skoda will offer the Rapid Spaceback with a range of customisation options in an effort to increase appeal for younger customers. Options include a full-length tinted glass roof and a “prolong” rear window which extends the tint further along the car. |
Although the form factor and actual size are still unknown, TechCrunch has independently verified that Apple is working on adding a 19-pin port, replacing the current 30-pin port, to the new iPhone. It is a move that will surely send shocks through the iPhone accessory ecosystem.
The new port, partially shown in this Mobilefun post as well as in this video, is similar in size to the Thunderbolt port available on many MacBook devices but I’ve been told by three independent manufacturers that the pin-out will be different.
Apple’s 30-pin ports have been the standard since Apple released the third generation iPod . The connectors offered structural stability when connecting to most accessories but it’s clear – especially with the introduction of the MagSafe 2 port – Apple is more concerned with space savings inside each device.
Three independent manufacturers all agreed that the 19-pin dock port is in the works and many accessory manufacturers are facing an uneasy few months as they wait for official news of the standard to be announced. |
Negotiations are underway to bring Fox News viewers a debate, or at the very least a town hall event, featuring Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump prior the June 7 California primary, network anchor Bret Baier told WMAL radio’s “Mornings on the Mall” program on Friday morning.
The “Special Report” host went on to predict the final outcome would more likely be a town hall event than an actual debate.
“We’ve been talking for the past couple of days with the Sanders campaign and the Trump campaign about a possible debate,” Baier said. “Those things are progressing, believe it or not.”
“Some event will happen before the primary, we’re kind of working out the details,” Mr. Baier added.
Asked by WMAL’s Larry O’Connor to elaborate, Mr. Baier answered, “There’s either going to be this full-blown debate, which we’re trying to get across the finish line, uh, or there may be a town hall, but I think the debate is still very much a possibility.”
Asked by WMAL’s Brian Wilson about Mr. Trump’s stipulation that a charity benefit from the event, Mr. Baier answered, “We’re working that out. It wouldn’t be from the network, but it’s, there are multiple conversations going on.”
“I want you to put a percentage on it,” Mr. Wilson, himself an alum of Fox News, prodded Mr. Baier at the end of the interview. “What do you think the percentage is that you guys at Fox are going to be able to work out something with Sanders and with Donald Trump?”
“Yeah, imagine we’re playing debate roulette,” Mr. O’Connor quipped, referring to a recurring “Candidate Casino” segment on Mr. Baier’s “Special Report” program in which pundits gave their predictions as the presidential primary season unfolded.
“So if I had $100 in chips, I would put 75 that something happens, some event that is on TV happens that includes both of those people” but only “maybe a 25 dollar chip” wagering on a traditional debate set-up, Mr. Baier answered.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
Along with off-kilter Gucci nerdiness, the fashion obsession of the moment is the post-Soviet chic envisaged by Gosha Rubchinskiy, Vetements and the new Balenciaga, styled by uber-stylist – as she has been recently dubbed by Vogue – Lotta Volkova Adam.
A bit trashy, a bit provocative, slightly exotic and spiced up with a tinge of bad taste, the new post-Soviet aesthetic attracts a cult-like following.
It’s hard to say now where the popularity of the post-Soviet style began. Maybe the story started when Gosha Rubchinskiy met Adrian Joffe of the Dover Street Market at a friend’s party, or when Demna Gvasalia showed one of his first lookbooks to stylist Lotta Volkova, or maybe when Vika Gazinskaya was asked to decorate the shop windows at Colette in the 2000s.
What is clear, though, is that the hype is on the rise with young designers from all over the world imitating the fashionable Cyrillic script and fashion bloggers rushing to St. Petersburg to capture the hot young crowd (see the @le21eme Insta). But what exactly is the contemporary Eastern European aesthetic, and what makes it so special?
The Dissolution of the Soviet Bloc
Sputnik 1985
The main point of attraction is arguably the aura of exoticism that still surrounds the post-Soviet bloc. For more than 50 years the Soviet Union remained a totally closed, isolated society, inaccessible for outsiders, mysterious and vaguely threatening. That’s why its collapse presented a sort of social conundrum to the rest of the world – in a rapidly globalizing world, the countries and cultures of the former Soviet Union were strikingly different and unfamiliar.
However, from the post-Soviet perspective, it was the outer world that seemed an exotic and unknown place. Despite the mild democratization that started in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Western art and literature, just like the home dissident and underground culture, were still hard to get one’s hands on.
It was the 1990s that put an end to censorship and created the impression of total freedom. The early 1990s, one of the most controversial times in the recent history of the former Soviet republics, was an era of powerful cultural upsurge. Art and literature that had been banned before – including so-called dissident, underground Soviet culture as well as Western culture – could now be accessed freely.
The Influx of Western Culture in the East
This created opportunities that the Soviet creative scene had never known before. The masses were fascinated by the arrival of international magazines and the newly-attained availability of Hollywood cinema that were rapidly incorporated in the popular culture. The now-iconic Titanic hoody by Vetements is also a piece inspired by the Eastern European 1990s that were literally flooded with cheap T-shirts decorated with poorly-made prints of Kate’s teary face.
At the same time, it was not only Western culture that was imported, but – following the deregulation of the economy – the principles of the Western consumerism, which was a complete novelty at the time. In the Soviet Union, goods from the West, like jeans or Coca-Cola, had had an almost mythical status and were now being imported freely.
Brands and logos were being discovered and re-invented; turning into the symbols of the new order. Gosha Rubchinskiy’s SS17 collection featuring abundant logos and brand names was reminiscent of this 1990s fascination with products and consumer goods.
The Impact on Soviet Creatives
Gosha Rubchinskiy
It’s noteworthy that most of the fashion creatives from the former Soviet Union who are now celebrated internationally are in their late 20s to early 30s, meaning that they were very young when the Soviet Union fell apart. For them, the Soviet republics are a half-mythical past, the decaying remains of which are still scattered across countries – empty buildings, crumbling monuments and grey concrete walls covered with amateur-looking tags.
This atmosphere of the post-Soviet angst permeates works by Ukrainian photographer Lesha Berezovskiy, and can be traced through the collections of the Moscow-based Sputnik 1985 or the celebrated Gosha Rubchinskiy whose fascination with the Russian skater scene and its main habitat – urban fringes – is universally known.
Trying to explore the mythical Soviet past, designers turn to the early years of the Soviet era with its utopian idealism and absolute faith in the socialist model of society.
The Rise of Constructivism
SVMoscow
The beliefs of the time were, perhaps, best articulated by the Constructivist movement. Constructivism, which was a design movement as much as it was an art movement, propagated egalitarianism and offered a new type of clothing that was supposed to suit people of the new formation – utilitarian, simple, clear-cut.
Basically, the Constructivist idea of “clothes for the future” was a uniform, and though their utopian vision of the perfect uniform society was never meant to come true, it influenced the whole history of the almost-ascetic Soviet fashion.
While the Constructivist-inspired purity of form has become one of the core principles of the still-popular normcore trend, Constuctivism itself is a constant reference point in the works by Ukrainian designer Yulia Yefimtchuk, the Moscow-based brand Nina Donis and ZDDZ by Dasha Selyanova. It’s not surprising that normcore hype emerged from Demna Gvasalia, who was born in Soviet Georgia.
Equality and Feminism
Vetements
Another aspect of Soviet culture that strikes a cord with contemporary fashion is the stance on equality and feminism.
As Lotta Volkova, the Vladivostok-born stylist who works with Demna Gvasalia for both Vetements and Balenciaga said in an interview with Vogue, growing up in post-Soviet Russia meant she was used to seeing women as strong and independent, and she now seeks to channel this attitude in her work.
For the young fashion creatives from the former Soviet Union, fashion has become a source of empowerment as well as a means to understand and reconcile the past. Hence, we see lookbooks shot on the Red Square with Lenin’s mausoleum as a background, models styled as prim heroines of the old Soviet cinema and outfits reminiscent of the retro school uniforms.
The New Post-Soviet Aesthetic
Gosha Rubchinskiy
The new post-Soviet aesthetic is the epitome of postmodern irony with its crazy, incoherent, startling mixture of allusions and motifs. The new collides with the old in quirky ways – for instance, Gosha Rubchinskiy’s works are inspired by the skater subculture and decorated with the orthodox “Cпаси и сохрани” (“Guard and save”) written in the old Cyrillic, and Demna Gvasalia’s collections oscillate between Soviet asceticism and the sexy audaciousness of the Western ’80s.
The strength of the new set of East European creatives is their ability to move freely between the global culture and the culture of the former Soviet Union, connecting East and West in a way the politics never could.
With its candor and irony, wit and simplicity of design, the new Soviet aesthetic has garnered hype for a good reason. It’s exciting to watch this style evolve as designers discover new inspirations within the Soviet cultural legacy.
For more fashion from the East, check out this month’s installment of Meanwhile, In Japan.
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Words: Ira Solomatina
Lead image: Gosha Rubchinskiy
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In October 2016, Ady Barkan — a California-based activist at the Center for Popular Democracy — was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Last year, he was going for long jogs along the Santa Barbara coast. Today, he doesn’t have the strength to cut a piece of meat at the dinner table or pick up his 30-pound toddler.
Within a few years, if the disease progresses as expected, he will be fully paralyzed and rely on technology that lets him communicate with eye movements. Between now and then, he’ll need a ventilator to breathe, a food tube, and nursing care. All of that requires the federal government’s disability program.
Despite his impairments — and, in some ways, because of them — Barkan was in the nation’s capital this week to protest against the GOP tax reform bill moving through Congress. While the media has treated the tax plan as if it has already passed, Barkan is part of a grassroots resistance that is refusing to roll over.
Because of the way the bill is written, the administration would get wide latitude to cut federal spending to deal with ensuing deficits. In fact, statutory pay-as-you-go, or PAYGO, rules would require such cuts. Office of Management and Budget chief Mick Mulvaney has made no secret of his antagonism to the government’s disability programs, and he’d be the man in charge of administering these cuts.
Although Barkan was there protesting on behalf of the entire country, the bill would have a potentially lethal impact on himself and his loved ones. “It’s pretty fucking scary to think they’re going to eliminate [disability] or reduce it in order to give Apple another $27 billion,” Barkan told The Intercept in an interview.
Barkan’s previous activism with the Fed Up project has focused on forcing the Federal Reserve to take job creation and wages into account when making monetary policy. In terms of pure effectiveness, it has been one of the most impressive economic campaigns in a generation.
Earlier this week, as part of his protest against the tax bill, he was arrested outside the office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is the richest member of Congress.
Ady Barkan, center, and other protesters stand holding placards with labor market data at the Jackson Hole economic symposium, sponsored by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, at the Jackson Lake Lodge in Moran, Wyo., on Aug. 21, 2014. Photo: Bradly Boner/Bloomberg News/Getty Images
On the way back to California, the flight routed through Phoenix. And on the way to his seat, Barkan came across none other than Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., was also on the airplane. Barkan stopped by Flake and explained his medical condition and the threat the tax bill potentially poses to people who are dependent on these programs. A member of the flight crew asked Barkan to get to his seat, but Flake agreed to come and discuss the issue with him during the flight.
About an hour later, Flake made good on his promise and came to Barkan’s seat.
Barkan had found that another activist, Liz Jaff, was also boarding his plane. The two struck up a conversation and Jaff was able to record the exchange. |
Image caption The BBC's royal charter is set to expire at the end of 2016
The government has set up an advisory panel to carry out a fundamental review of the BBC.
Culture Secretary John Whittingdale has appointed eight people to work on the renewal of the BBC's royal charter - which sets out the corporation's remit.
Dawn Airey, former boss of Channel 5, and Dame Colette Bowe, former chairwoman of Ofcom, are among the advisers.
The current BBC charter is set to expire at the end of 2016.
Ms Airey, who is an executive at Yahoo, has previously called for the licence fee to be cut and to consider charging for website output.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Former BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons: "There is no mention of how the public, who pay for the BBC, are going to be involved"
'Important issue'
Meanwhile, The Sunday Times has reported that a government green paper is due to be published on Thursday which will ask fundamental questions about the BBC's role, including whether it should stop chasing viewers and provide more public service programmes.
The green paper will look at exploring options to replace the £145.50 licence fee, with a household tax or subscription system, the paper said.
It will also suggest that the BBC website should be scaled back, question whether the corporation's news fulfils its obligation to be impartial, examine whether more of the broadcaster's output should be independently produced and consider the future of BBC Worldwide - the corporation's commercial arm - the paper reported.
The Sunday Times also said the green paper would look at replacing the BBC Trust with Ofcom.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sajid Javid: "Having changes around the licence fee is not too rare"
Mr Whittingdale said: "Each member of the independent advisory group brings individual skills, experience and expertise.
"Together they will contribute to the oversight of the government's review of the BBC royal charter. I look forward to working with them on this important issue."
Other members of the panel include: Shazam executive chairman Andrew Fisher, Arts Council England boss Darren Henley, Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield, former Shine Group chief executive Alex Mahon, digital entrepreneur Lopa Patel and journalism professor Stewart Purvis, a former editor-in-chief of ITN.
Mr Whittingdale's predecessor Sajid Javid, now business secretary, said the charter review should address what the BBC broadcasts and its "internet capabilities".
The discussion about changes to the BBC around licence fee renewal time was nothing new, he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, but bigger issues needed to be dealt with in the charter review. He refused to be drawn on whether the BBC should be smaller.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Some of the assaults which certain newspapers are leading, with the Conservative party, against the BBC is really very worrying", Labour's Tristram Hunt
Labour's shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, accused the government of an "unpatriotic" approach to the BBC which, he said, was part of the British identity and "one of our great public institutions".
Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust from 2007 to 2011 said the corporation was coming under "intense pressure" and was facing a "hand-picked panel by John Whittingdale replacing the Trust... and not even a mention of how the public, who pay for the BBC are going to be involved".
"I think this is a matter for real concern," he added.
He said there was always room for debate over what the BBC does but the government's approach "feels like the beating up of the BBC to make it more compliant, less bold and that's really not in our national interest".
Earlier this month the BBC announced, after negotiations with the government, that it would take on the £750m cost of free TV licences for people over the age of 75.
BBC director general Tony Hall said the deal gave the corporation "financial stability and the ability to plan for the future".
However writing in the Observer Lord Hall said the negotiation process should not happen again.
He writes that "...although the BBC used this pre-Budget window of opportunity to reach a fair deal, it is not a process we would have chosen and it is not a process that should be repeated.
"I believe that for future negotiations the debate about the BBC's scale and funding should be taken out of the political cycle." |
Medical marijuana supporters have filed a citizen-initiated petition to reverse the city’s ban on dispensaries.
If backers collect about 1,000 signatures, voters may be asked to decide in the November 2012 election whether to approve the Safe Access Ordinance of Imperial Beach, which would repeal the City Council’s decision last year banning the facilities.
The six-page ordinance is aimed at ensuring “that seriously ill Californians and residents of the city of Imperial Beach can obtain and use cannabis for medical purposes where that medical use has been deemed appropriate by a physician in accordance with California law,” according to the document.
The city’s June 15 ban relied on the assertion that two stores in San Diego, just outside the Imperial Beach city limits, provided patients with enough legal access to medical marijuana to comply with the Compassionate Use Act, a state law approved by voters in 1996 allowing patients to obtain marijuana with a doctor’s approval. About 56 percent of IB voters supported that legislation, according to the county registrar.
Since June, one of the stores has shuttered and the other is operating intermittently after federal prosecutors began a campaign last fall to shut down stores across the state.
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy mailed letters in October that informed local collectives that marijuana sales are illegal under federal law and landlords face criminal prosecutions and property seizures if they continue operating. San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has also filed civil complaints against collectives that have declined to shut down.
In San Diego, collectives joined forces late last year to bring forward a proposed ordinance regulating storefront operations and generating revenue through a sales tax after the renewed crackdown.
The initiative in Imperial Beach would allow patients to smoke inside a dispensary if certain requirements are met, and allow the shops to operate from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. It would also require that stores not be located within 600 feet of a school or 300 feet of another dispensary, but it doesn’t impose any special fees or revenue, besides normal business license fees and sales tax, to help offset cost of regulation as San Diego’s proposed ordinance does.
City leaders cited the effect on the city’s $17 million general fund as one of their reasons for banning the dispensaries.
Cannabis supporters filed the petition March 5, and the city has 15 days to provide a title and summary before a signature drive can begin. Advocates will have three months to collect signatures from at least 10 percent of registered voters.
Marcus Boyd, vice chairman of the San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access and an Imperial Beach business owner, has been leading the local efforts. He said watched his sister suffer from a lack of pain relief in her final days.
Boyd, who is founder of the South Bay Organic Co-Op, said the ordinance would prevent the city “from criminalizing patients and residents for adhering to state law.”
“I help patients obtain access to cannabis through a means called a collective,” Boyd said. ”I’ve been doing that since before my sister’s death, and helping sick and dying people is not something I intend to stop doing.”
City Manager Gary Brown said if enough signatures are collected and verified, the council could elect to adopt the proposed ordinance or put the question to voters.
A November ballot measure could cost about $60,000 for Imperial Beach, which has about 26,000 residents. |
Russian opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, right, shouts anti Putin slogans during an opposition protest in Moscow at the Revolution square, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. (Mikhail Metzel/AP)
Thousands of ebullient Russians stood in a nearly continuous 10-mile chain circling the center of Moscow on Sunday, warning Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that his years of undisputed rule are over even as he prepares to take the presidency in an avalanche of votes next week.
Putin has been Russia’s unchallenged master for 12 years, and the demonstrators who have been rallying persistently since December understand that there is virtually no possibility he will depart anytime soon. Winning the March 4 election will put him in office for six more years. But the demonstrators have him on notice that they are grooming themselves as involved citizens and will be heard.
And so they stood, in freezing puddles and falling snow, shoulder to shoulder along most of Moscow’s Garden Ring Road — double rows here, a sparse stretch there. With the color white as the symbol of their desire for clean elections and a clean government, they wore white ribbons, flew white balloons, brandished white scarves, and waved white roses or chrysanthemum bouquets.
The plan was to stand in silence, but cars filled with supporters cheered them on, cruising slowly before the demonstrators, saluting them, waving their own ribbons and flowers, honking their horns with exuberance.
“People are happy,” said Andrei Filozov, planted on a corner near a sea of muddy water. “They feel free.”
After years of acquiescence, they had given themselves the freedom to act. “We’re standing here, showing the changes that have gone on inside ourselves,” said Filozov, 43, a philosopher. “It’s very mystical.”
The latest poll by the independent Levada Center suggests that Putin will win 63 to 66 percent of the vote in the contest. That is no surprise, Filozov said, given the vast government resources at his disposal and the average person’s political inexperience. People need time to nurture their political awareness, and realistically their goals must be long-term, he said. But they will not turn back to the years of indifference that allowed Putin to grow so powerful.
“He will not occupy too many pages in our history books,” Filozov said. “It will be a short history, sad and dark.”
Alexander Sotin, 40, a historian, said the Muscovites standing in the cold were trying to remember what it was like to be a citizen and not a subject.
“Today this great city is like a small village as we make a community of ourselves,” he said. “I hope that year by year our Russian people will make themselves masters of their own fate.”
Police estimated that 11,000 people took part Sunday, although a rough estimate made during a trolley ride of the circuit suggested twice that number — not counting the people in the many cars that honked in solidarity.
The sentiment was against Putin and for honest elections, rather than a rally in favor of an opposition candidate. One car carried a sign in favor of honest amphorae, an allusion to a dive Putin made in the Black Sea last year, when he came to the surface clutching two obviously planted ancient Greek urns.
The exuberant drivers lifted the spirits of Maria Kokovkina, 32, a psychologist. “On my way here, I wasn’t feeling very cheerful,” she said, “but now I feel great.”
She knows the euphoria won’t last, but people have awakened from their acceptance of the status quo, and for now that is accomplishment enough, she said.
“Stability is the biggest myth of the Putin Age,” said Danik Lalin, who works in information technology. “There’s a slow but steady rotting. If you call that stability, then the best stability is in the morgue.”
Along the sidewalks, gaggles of girlfriends snapped cellphone photos, couples walked arm in arm, parents brought children.
Irina Andreyeva, 84, came to Moscow from Archangel, near the Arctic Circle. Barely 5 feet tall, she waved her white ribbon energetically at the passing cars. “I feel young and full of life here,” she said. “I feel as I did in 1991.” That was the year she demonstrated for freedom, democracy and Boris Yeltsin — and celebrated the demise of the Soviet Union.
Alexei Bolshakov, 59, came to Moscow from Almetyevsk, 660 miles to the east, because he was angry that government employees had been sent to populate a huge pro-Putin rally Thursday, and he was irritated that Putin had accused the United States and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of stirring up the opposition and financing it.
“I paid my own way,” he said. “Mrs. Clinton is not paying me.”
Late in the afternoon, several hundred activists gathered in Revolution Square, met by a large contingent of riot police as well as men dressed as Cossacks with whips and scowling young men in civilian clothes who the protesters believed to be provocateurs. One activist was attacked by a young man with a beer bottle; a fight ensued and a few arrests were made.
Overall, the day went peacefully, with demonstrators reflecting on a future without Putin in charge — a future they would like to see begin March 5, the day after the election.
Researcher Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya contributed to this report. |
When a player reports an abusive teammate in Overwatch, the most common response is rarely fear, regret, or even an apology. It’s “go ahead!” Overwatch’s reporting system is opaque, like any game’s, but word on the street is that it’s toothless.
As someone who spends roughly 10 hours a week playing Overwatch, I’ve seen toxicity increase since the game installed its new reporting system in March. As more and more players come around to the idea that Overwatch’s reporting function is ineffective, fewer apparently fear the usual repercussions of trolling.
A story: The other night on PC Overwatch, my competitive team desperately needed a tank. We were a sad mix of squishy heroes. Unless we picked up a sturdy body to absorb enemy attacks up front, preferably with a shield, we’d get mowed. I’ll do it, I said on voice chat, switching to Reinhardt. But two tanks are better than one.
That simple hero choice provoked a comment that I’ll assume was meant to be friendly: “Oh, I didn’t know girls play Reinhardt.” Well, mister, here I am. I put my mouse on the big shield dude and clicked that right click! I laughed into my headset and silently walked over to the map’s choke point. After the game started, another teammate said, “I hate women.” I laughed into my headset. After another pause, he continued: “I hate feminazis.” I laughed again. “My dad taught me to hate women.” A stream-of-consciousness of distracting trolling kept us company from the first choke point to the enemy team’s eventual victory. “And that’s how you got reported!” I concluded. He said, “Fine. Go ahead. Overwatch’s reporting system is bullshit, anyway.”
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I use Overwatch’s report function a lot. Nearly three times a week, somebody goes on some racist tangent, yells slurs at some Hanzo main, throws the game, or, on one particularly confusing occasion, scream-shouts the entirety of “All Star” by Smash Mouth in voice chat. I report them because I want to feel like I’m contributing to a better Overwatch community, and so I do my part to yank out the toxic weeds. It’s also a self-defense mechanism—somebody’s tilted me, I’m mad, I’m playing worse and leaking SR [skill rating], and so I’d prefer it if they vanished into the abyss. I tell people when I’m reporting them, too. And consistently, I hear in response: “Whatever!”
It’s a pretty lax attitude to take under the threat of account suspension or a ban; but that’s because, for a lot of Overwatch players, that threat doesn’t seem to exist. Players are pretty clueless about how Overwatch’s reporting function works. Forum posts and conversations with players indicate that a lot of people think reporting in Overwatch is more of a placebo than an management system for harassment. I’ve had rude teammates beg me to report them. And console players don’t even have a report function, although publisher Blizzard says they’re working on one.
Shortly after Overwatch’s release, game director Jeff Kaplan told Kotaku reporter Nathan Grayson that toxicity is “a big concern for us.” He added that Overwatch’s “Report” function has to be a little inscrutable so nobody exploits it. A big drama earlier this year ballooned after players started reporting teammates who wouldn’t switch off commonly-disliked heroes. A few months later, Blizzard instituted Overwatch’s new system, which lets players report each other for “spam,” “abusive chat,” “cheating,” “griefing,” “inactivity,” “bad Battletag” and “poor teamwork.”
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“Abusive chat” doesn’t have the same weight as “bad teamwork.” Having to deal with a crap Widowmaker on your team doesn’t really compare to someone making you feel unwelcome in a community you are attached to.
Because so many players are baffled by Overwatch’s “Report” system, a few rag-tag fans have been conducting experiments on it. On /r/Overwatch, player TheOverwatchInt explained how, over a period of two days, he asked teammates in 50 Quick Play games to report him for abusive chat. A few days later, he received an e-mail from Blizzard notifying him that his account would be muted for a week. TheOverwatchInt concluded that the “Report” system works and estimates that he was reported a few dozen times. In the comments under his findings, fans noted that it took too long for Blizzard to react.
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When asked by Kotaku this week how their reporting system works, Blizzard declined to explain, but added that they do have a team “that actively monitors and acts on player reporting. We are constantly working on improving the system, as we take toxicity and player reporting very seriously.” Last month, Kaplan said on the Battle.net forums that the Overwatch team was “reviewing our punishment policies with an eye towards getting more aggressive on toxicity and throwing and other bad behaviors.”
Overwatch’s reporting system is still young, but as of today it’s failed to create the one thing that it needs most: a culture of fear. When you threaten to report a teammate, his or her first reaction shouldn’t be “go ahead.” Teammates should know when a player has been kicked for “abusive chat.” People who report others should hear what happened next. That way, Overwatch won’t feel like the wild west of rude teenagers it is right now. |
To win the cold war President Ronald Reagan formed a secret ‘deception committee’ for a disinformation campaign against the USSR
On several occasions ‘disinformation’ put the world on the brink of nuclear war
The ‘Soviet’ U-boat scare that shook Sweden in the 80s was caused by US and UK subs that penetrated Swedish territorial waters disguised as Russian ones
Swedish military were fully aware of these operations but did not report to Prime Minister, Olof Palme
The number of Swedes believing in a Soviet threat increased fourfold
‘Dove’ Palme had no choice but to take anti-Soviet stance
He was assassinated the day before his trip to meet Gorbachev whom he saw as a like minded person
The 52 minutes documentary “Deception: The Methods of Reagan” by German director Dirk Pohlmann premiered last May on ‘ARTE’ the French/German highbrow channel. Broadcast late at night and early in the morning, it generated no reaction.
It has not been shown in Sweden, although it throws light on two of the most dramatic episodes in modern Swedish history – the Soviet U-boat scare of the 1980s that was suddenly repeated in 2014, and the assassination of the Swedish premier Olof Palme in 1986. This film is not a Hollywood thriller, but a sequence of stories told by people who have faces, names, titles and ranks.
Several months after this documentary aired, we are hearing that Russia plans to invade the Baltic states, that in March 2013:
“Russia's air force practiced a nuclear strike against Sweden, according to a report by NATO's secretary general.”
The US and NATO increase defense spending and start a massive build-up on Russian borders…
The Deception Committee
According to the documentary, after a period of détente in the seventies, the ‘hawk’ Ronald Reagan came to power in 1981, determined to win the cold war. The arms race gave the US military superiority and exhausted the Soviet Union. It was supplemented by a major disinformation campaign and a war of nerves aimed at sapping the will of the Soviet leadership.
To achieve this, an informal group, known as the ‘deception committee’ was formed. It answered directly to President Reagan and was headed by the director of the CIA ,William Casey. Military and intelligence officers were responsible for operational activities, deflecting responsibility from the White House in case of disclosure.
The scale of operations was impressive. Among the plots analyzed in detail in the film, the US ramped up naval activity near the Kola Peninsula, which hosts Russia’s main nuclear submarine base. Military exercises were supplemented with disinformation considerably overstating the scale of maneuvers, leading the Kremlin to believe the US was planning a nuclear strike.
US Secretary of the Navy of the time, John Leman, tells the filmmakers :
“We knew that any mistake could provoke an unintended war”.
Soviet strategic bombers were ready to counterattack in 1983 during ‘the Able Archer’ maneuvers. Only a miracle saved the world from nuclear war.
‘Soviet’ U-boats were NATO’s
The Swedish episode (see viedo) of “Deception: Methods of Reagan” begins on 27 October 1981 when the Soviet diesel-electric Whiskey-class submarine C-363 hit an underwater rock in Swedish territorial waters. The Soviet military said the submarine lost its way, the Swedes said the Russians were conducting reconnaissance. The incident made a lot of noise but was ultimately settled through diplomatic channels.
A year later, the social-democrat Olof Palme, who coined the notion 'common security’, challenging Reagan’s cold war strategy, became the Swedish Prime Minister. Two weeks later, a periscope was detected in Swedish territorial waters…
The documentary shows the unidentified object thought to be a submarine being chased. Military helicopters and warships dropped depth bombs and laid antisubmarine mines for the world’s cameras. No submarine was destroyed and nothing was found.
During Palme’s tenure, there were more than a hundred antisubmarine alerts: the media reported stories of people witnessing Soviet frogmen manipulating something near a Swedish naval base and published undersea tracks left by the mysterious submarines.
Every time, the USSR was blamed, and although it denied everything, no one believed it. From 1981 to 1983, the number of Swedes who perceived a Soviet threat increased from 27% to 83%.
Palme the peacemaker was forced to make harsh anti-Soviet statements instead of promoting his ‘common security’ concept. My father, Boris Pankin who was Soviet ambassador to Sweden in those days, said this caused Palme an almost physical suffering, but he had no choice.
Many years later it turned out there were submarines in Swedish waters, but they were American and British! They carried out maneuvers in Swedish territorial waters disguised as Soviet vessels. The Swedish military authorities were aware of this, but didn’t tell the head of government. Former US Defense Minister Caspar Weinberger and his counterpart in the Royal Navy said they were careful not to hit anything.
The point was that officially neutral and non-aligned Sweden was actually a US military ally, these maneuvers carried out with the consent of the Swedish military. There was supposed to be an ‘unsinkable aircraft-carrier’ near the Soviet border, a scheme the election of Palme disrupted, earning him the enduring hatred of American politicians, the Swedish military and conservative elites. He was a ‘fifth column’, ‘a public enemy’ and they were ready to use ‘whatever it takes’, according to Ola Tunander, professor at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo .
On 28th February 1986 Olof Palme was shot in the center of Stockholm. The murder has never been solved.
“This couldn’t have been done by a lone wolf. It was a political contract killing”, Mikhail Gorbachev tells the filmmakers.
Palme was killed the day before his visit to Moscow, where he was to meet with Gorbachev, his ‘common security’ associate.
The world was taken for a ride
… The head of the Swedish Government Commission on the Submarine Incident Investigation describes sabotage carried out by his own military:
“Sweden was taken for a ride. The Swedish parliament and Swedish government were taken for a ride as well as the Swedish media. What kind of world are we living in?”
These questions make this documentary highly topical today. Seeing it, you realize that it’s easier to understand Europe’s post cold-war history in terms of conspiracy theories rather than as it is currently presented by the ‘free’ western press. And you realize why there are no new Olof Palmes on the European political scene today. |
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