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Erik Voorhees is among the top-recognised serial entrepreneurs in Bitcoin, which he views as one of the most important inventions ever created. Erik has been at the centre of the Bitcoin movement since April 2011. He is well known for his vocal advocacy of the “separation of Money and State”.
It seems one of the greatest challenges facing Bitcoin is not technical, but educational.
The world is having a hard time coping with its new discovery. Economist and professor Peter Morici, writing for Fox News on 3rd March, has written one of the worst bitcoin articles of the year, and it must be addressed.
Gleefully simmering in our fabricated despair, Morici betrays his agenda immediately:
“Bitcoin believers were shaken to their digital souls when Mt. Gox, the world’s largest exchange, defaulted… and closed.”
In his very first sentence, facts are disregarded. Mt. Gox was barely the third largest by the time of its demise. But it’s not facts upon which Morici’s argument fails, it’s theory and philosophy.
Quantifying value
“Money,” Morici says, “provides a secure place to keep your wealth.”
Incorrect, sir. Money is a measurement of value. It is not a place, and it is not in itself “secure” any more than inches and yards are a secure location to store one’s measurements, or than minutes themselves might be entrusted to secure one’s time. He continues:
“Bitcoin traded for $1,117 on December 4, and now commands only about half that amount.”
Morici’s willingness to ignore bitcoin’s long-term track record (one of appreciation unmatched by any other asset class, anywhere) reveals the extent to which he has blinded himself.
“[Bitcoin is no place for your children’s college fund or retirement savings.” With this I must agree, but then neither is fiat, which in its best case, over a period of twenty years will scarcely measure half of its original.
“The earliest currencies were coins …” he says (wrong again, professor, but that’s not my true gripe), “often with the face of the sovereign stamped on gold or silver to instill confidence.”
Here is where petty disagreement changes to serious contention. Gold and silver needed no sovereigns stamped on them to “instill confidence.” It was the metal itself, valuable as a commodity, which made the coins desirable. Caesar’s visage was little more than marketing for the tyrant.
The fraud of fiat
Morici writes, “The Chinese issued paper money more than 2,000 years ago.”
Yes, and the vast majority of them collapsed in hyperinflation, as have over two dozen fiat currencies in only the past hundred years. That the fraud of fiat is as old as time does not mean we should continue falling victim.
[post-quote]
And to matters of inflation, “Bitcoin advocates are riveted by the temptation of government to print too much and destroy its value through inflation.”
True, we tend to prefer money without perpetual debasement, which seems to put us at odds with professors (who, upon achieving tenure, have difficulty determining why their raise feels inadequate).
“However, inflation is hardly a problem in the United States, Europe and Japan, and central banks in other countries hold dollars, euro, and yen to back up their currencies.”
Okay professor, just as it would be hardly a problem if I took but a few percent of your assets each year for my own, indeed you may not even notice.
Morisi laments that “There is no ‘Bitland’ where a government has declared the Bitcoin legal tender to buy goods and pay taxes.” Are we in such a dismal state that even trade itself must be ordained by a king for legitimacy, professor?
Might I be permitted to breathe without a license or speak without permission of your preferred politicians? Why not then may I trade without their approval?
What anointed property is bestowed upon “dollars” which, being absent from bitcoins, precludes their usefulness? If you would not even eat your supper without the government first giving you its blessing, then I feel sad for you, for you are truly under a dismal spell and, and suffer a strange kind of man-in-the-sky worship.
Issues of privacy
Here though I must admire Morici, at least briefly, for not condemning the privacy of Bitcoin as a sign of reclusive and improper behaviour. But, it seems he resists the temptation to vilify privacy by claiming that Bitcoin simply offers none of it.
“Transactions can be spied by hackers or government security agencies through its fairly open payments system, the government can subpoena your Bitcoin records or those of your exchange when it needs.”
Professor, is it not a welcome improvement in human decency that a government must now subpoena for records, instead of calling upon its Orwellian spy arsenal – the NSA?
And while an individual, once named, can certainly have guns drawn upon him by Government, have you ever tried obtaining the name belonging to a Bitcoin account? Such a feat is not so easy, and thank goodness that at least several more barriers have been placed between the people and their rulers.
Though this is so far shallow, for the above is Morici’s basic pretense for his real thesis, displayed so eloquently at the end.
“Detractors of paper money have always been fixated by the absence of gold to back it up, but they fail to recognize what really makes a currency accepted and secure – the government guarantee and the good sense of the sovereign not to abuse its franchise.”
And he finishes with grand vision, “It’s not the gold but the face of Caesar – the promise his image carries – that makes a coin money.”
With this final beautiful prose, despite my stubborn resistance, Morici may have ultimately convinced me of his opinion.
And this is why, from this day forward, I shall with diligence stamp the face of Caesar into each slice of my bread, and carve it delicately upon my door, so that my food may always be rich and sustaining, and my home may be guaranteed its utility forever.
Bitcoin may fail for a great many reasons, Mr Morici. But if it does, it will not be for want of a tyrant’s face behind it.
Roman Coin image via Shutterstock |
More often than not, you end up needing to reduce word count in your academic writing. This can be a painful task, because you don’t want to lose the substance of your writing, but you’ve got no choice if you want to hand the piece in as required.
There are one or two things you can do to reduce word count without affecting the substance of the writing, though. One thing to remember is that reducing word count actually means reducing the number of spaces (i.e. word delimiters) in the text. It’s not about making it faster to read, necessarily.
Also, make the following quick checks that might let you cut out a lot of word count without making any changes:
Does the bibliography count?
Do footnotes count?
Does the abstract count?
Quite often those can take at least a thousand words off on their own.
Reduce word count by simplifying your style
The goal here is to reduce your writing down to its bear bones, leaving little else behind. This may make your writing less pleasant to read, but realistically you can’t be marked down for that. This isn’t a literature contest - it’s about getting your ideas down on paper in the least amount of words possible.
Also remember that the person reviewing your work and giving you credit is most likely going to scan through it at high speed. They may not even notice your prose style particularly, instead looking for the important content to follow the thread of your argument. In that case, you’re actually making the experience more pleasant for them by cutting out the extras in your writing.
Delete adverbs
Adverbs are usually very deletable in academic writing. At the very least, adverb-verb pairs can be converted into a better chosen verb on its own. For example, “dropped rapidly” could be replaced with “plummeted”.
Tip: using ctrl + f to search through your document for “ly” is a quick way to find a lot of adverbs.
Delete adjectives
Whilst adjectives make your writing livelier and more interesting to read, you can nearly always sacrifice them to reduce word count in academic writing. You probably won’t lose credit for duller writing, but you will for exceeding the word count.
Instead of using adjectives, try to keep your prose clear and straightforward, and get straight to the point. Avoid detailed descriptions unless they are absolutely necessary for following your argument and you are sure that the reader needs the detail.
Delete connectives
This is another tip that will reduce the flow of the text but is effective in reducing word count. Rather than having longer sentences linked with “and” or “but”, just delete those connectives and have two separate sentences. This will reduce the word count.
Again, remember that your reader will most likely be scanning your text at high speed, not reading it in close detail. Keeping everything clear and simple will make this process easier for them.
Delete prepositions
This tactic is a little harder to explain. The idea is to convert chunks of text that use a lot of prepositions (thus adding spaces and increasing your word count) into rephrased, shorter versions without prepositions.
For example, you could replace “tea from China” with “Chinese tea”. It’s only one word, but this adds up if done consistently over a long document.
“Of” is frequently a good candidate for deletion. You can often avoid using “of” just by changing the word order. For example, “writer of fiction” could just as well be “fiction writer”.
Delete auxiliary verbs
As with adjectives and adverbs above, auxiliary verbs might make your sentences more aesthetic if read in close detail, but that shouldn’t be your goal with academic writing. As always, keep it concise and to the point.
The auxiliary verbs you might want to remove in academic writing are ones like “could”, “may”, “might” and so on. These can be useful to express tentativeness, which is often a good thing in academic writing, but sometimes it’s just not necessary. Say what you mean directly and drop the extra verbs wherever you can.
Replace phrases with words
There are certain phrases in English that have become fixed and are used repeatedly in the same form. You can often replace these with single words to reduce your word count.
Again, there isn’t a set rule for identifying these, but go through your text looking for phrases of several words that seem to be expressing one concept. Whenever you spot one, use a thesaurus to identify one word which conveys the same idea.
Eliminate redundancy
You’re likely to have achieved this in steps above, but there may still be some redundancy in your writing that’s increasing the word count unnecessarily. Definitely delete sequences of descriptive or explanatory words and replace them with one word that summarises the list, even if you lose some of the nuance.
Beyond that, eliminating redundancy is about finding parts of your writing that inadvertently say the same thing twice. You can test sentences by deleting various words and seeing if the meaning actually stays pretty much the same. In those cases, always stick with the deletion.
Reduce word count by rearranging your content
Beyond the word and phrase level tricks above, you can achieve some big reductions in word count by making some structural edits to your work.
Reduce the introduction and conclusion
The introduction and conclusion are hugely important parts of a piece of academic writing. Remember, though, that their main function is really to summarise. Give a very concise explanation of your work in the introduction, and reaffirm and back-up your reasoning for it all in the conclusion.
Beyond that, you’re probably wasting word count. There’s no need to go into a lot of detail in these sections - that’s what the main body is for. These sections are all about summarising and condensing. Also remember that you should not include new information in the conclusion - keep it all in the main body.
Cut out repetitive chapter-linking sections
Another habit that a lot of people have in academic writing is to ‘tie off’ each section with a mini-summary and then ‘refresh’ the reader again in the beginning of the next one. This is redundant and wastes a lot of word count.
Try to keep section closings extremely concise and short. The reader has just read the content in that section and shouldn’t need anything beyond a short summary of key points to keep things clear.
You can probably delete the ‘refresher’ at the beginning of sections entirely. Just get right into what that section is about. Leave it up to the reader to follow your argument, and make sure that the main content enables them to do so.
Got any more tips for reducing word count in academic writing? Please share them in the comments below!
Other resources for reducing your word count |
NEW DELHI: The latest tiger census results showing a 30% increase in Big Cat numbers in four years throws up a crucial question for conservationists and policy-makers : how many tigers can India's forests hold without large scale man-animal conflicts coming into play?Experts say although more than 5,000 tigers can be accommodated across Indian forests through effective protection, a manageable number would be between 3,000 and 3,500. However, they add that sustaining even the current tiger population requires an economic agenda that's sensitive to conservation."Another 1,000-1,500 tigers would be manageable," said Yadvendra Jhala, wildlife biologist at Dehradun's Wildlife Institute of India and one of the men behind the tiger census. "But we require infrastructure development to be smart and green."Jhala said the biggest conservation challenge was to strengthen forest corridors to enable movement of tigers across forests — migrations that add genetic diversity to local tiger populations and are key to their long-term survival."Most forest corridors today are degraded. Yet, studies have shown they are still being used by tigers to move from one protected forest to another. But any further degradation and they would become barriers," Jhala said.Veteran tiger biologist K Ullas Karanth, director for science-Asia at Wildlife Conservation Society, felt tiger numbers could multiply manifold if more forest areas are brought under protection."Total area under forests that can support tigers exceeds 2,00,000 sq km. Less than 25% of that is well protected at the moment. We can have 5,000-10,000 tigers if we can increase the area under effective protection," Karanth said.However, that remains a distant dream. The 2010 tiger census had shown an alarming drop in tiger numbers outside protected areas, implying that these forests had become too degraded to support tigers, mainly due to pressure of human population and development.With development and growth being a prime focus of the NDA government, wildlife activists fear forests would become a casualty and human-animal conflicts would rise."The tiger is a symbol of our entire forests. What we need is smart infrastructure development that's sensitive to forests and wildlife. For instance, if there's a road being built through a green area, it should have overpasses and underpasses that enable movement of animals," said Jhala.Other experts wanted the momentum of increased tiger numbers to be sustained through higher budgetary support for conservation."I hope governments will increase budget allocations to employ more forest guards and proper training," said Hemendra Kothari, chairman of Wildlife Conservation Trust."Around 600 of India's rivers either originate or are fed by tiger forests. Their protection is not only for the tiger but also for water security and protection of the environment," he added. |
It has been an interesting week for the Bank of England. On the one hand the main footstool of its monetary policy saw a major reverse last night as the Forward Guidance promises of Janet Yellen and the US Federal Reserve turned to dust yet again. how long before everybody realises that this particular Emperor or Empress has no clothes? Also those who took Governor Mark Carney’s advice to remortgage will not be smiling if the fall in gilt yields – the 5 year has fallen 0.1% to 1.28% – leads to lower mortgage rates rather than the higher ones his Forward Guidance predicted.
Mind you the Quantitative Easing (QE) bond buyers of the Bank of England may be popping the champagne corks as the Gilt market surges and the £8.4 billion they bought earlier this week and last turns quite a profit. Thanks Janet! Oh and let me set a type of brainteaser which is that if you take a Richard Murphy ( architect of Corbynomics) view of QE can you ever have a profit on the Gilts? It gets harder if you think that the sellers of the Gilts do have an opportunity cost loss.
Also if you take my view that the Bank of England does not actually want to raise interest-rates then it will welcome the 3 cent or so rise in the UK Pound £ which has taken place since the middle of this week. A new rate above US $1.56 tightens policy again and reminds me that the period since March 2013 has been the equivalent of a 3.5% rise in Bank Rate.
The Bank Underground
No not the place which was my commuting stop for many years! There is a Bank of England blog with some interesting things to say on debt and its human lifecycle. So before it gets redacted let us sing along with the Jam and take a look.
But I want nothing this society’s got
I’m going underground (going underground)
Well, let the brass bands play and feet start to pound
Going underground (going underground).
The lifecycle of debt in the UK
Firstly we get a confirmation of my theme that house price rises are inflation for first time buyers and indeed any buyer of net housing equity.
They (most young Britons) may tell you about their struggle to get on the ladder, or how they’ve had to make ever larger concessions such as moving to the fringes of town.
Then we get a confession about one of the campaigns in the war of the generations which is that the young face “debt,debt,debt” as they look forwards.
This post empirically underpins what has been anecdotally obvious for some time: that the burden of debt is disproportionately falling on the young, and much more so than any other time in the last 20 years.
Let us take a look at the pattern of debt over time.
What does this tell us?
Let’s start with debt. First, the difference between each cohort and its immediate predecessor is widening. There is hardly any difference between the 1941 and 1931 cohorts, but the differences between the 1951, 1961, and 1971 cohorts are staggering.
Let me ram this home and the emphasis is mine.
It seems that secured debt is rising super-fast for the young.
At this point it feels that the author is trolling Max Keiser does it not? But there is more to the analysis and again the emphasis is mine.
The younger cohorts have much more distinctive inverted-U humps than older cohorts which remain elevated for much longer. It is possible to imagine a world where younger households will reach 65 and still have debt.
So we have them with debt and if I may make a sweeping generalisation the older generation with housing equity wealth gains. This leaves us with the thought that in overall terms the debt of the young is paying for the wealth effects of the older generation.
What about incomes?
The affordability of debt depends to a large extent on incomes so if everybody was earning more then the situation would look different. Regular readers of this blog who follow my analysis of real wage trends will be fearing the worst and this point and wondering if or maybe how the Bank of England will sugar this pill.
Turning to income, the differences across cohorts are much more subdued…….Taking the charts together, one can conclude that income growth has been unable to keep up with the pace of house price inflation.
Also it is willing to point out that this appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon.
In fact, the 1981-1990 cohort are practically earning the same as those born between 1971-1980
This has a consequence.
This spectacular divergence between income and debt for younger groups is worrying.
Will we see intergenerational mortgages in another outbreak of the Turning Japanese influence of these times?
Superficially, the charts suggest that it might become routine for younger cohorts to retire with mortgages—something unprecedented for the UK.
What about the wealth effects?
Central bankers love wealth effects as frankly they are one of the few areas where they can even try to claim success in the credit crunch era. In a way the chart below illustrates that but the real issue is the shape of the curve.
Whilst the young have the debt it is the older generation who have the wealth. If we note that the data was based on 20 years of a survey from 1992 to 2102 and that since 2012 there has been a house price boom we can conclude that it has got worse! Some of the young will have got on the housing ladder in time to gain but existing home owners have got something of a free lunch. Many others will have missed out.
Excellent stuff and i will forgive the lapse into central banker speak where we get a very Orwellian style of “debt is good” below.
Or is that a reflection of a world where the lucky few have incredibly high levels of debt while the unlucky young have no debt at all?
Central bankers do live in one of the alternate universes that physicists speculate about don’t they? Indeed physicists may get some support for their theories view this route.
Comment
I welcome this very much and note that if we widen the debate it seems that the younger generation faces a housing market which is ever more expensive however they try to play it. This is from Your Move today.
On an annual basis rents are now 5.5% higher than in August 2014
Actually that is better than the 6.8% of July but is way ahead of even the new improved wage rises levels that I analysed on Wednesday. So if they try to avoid an apparent lifetime of debt slavery it gets ever more expensive too. If we think of other debt we know that student loan debt is surging too and we wonder if perhaps the young are behind the rise in unsecured debt too. That may be the reason why more recently there has been a turn in the level of mortgage debt for the younger generation which may be for the simple reason that it is out of reach.
In some ways to read this in a Bank of England blog is pure dynamite.
It seems that the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots isn’t just across income or socioeconomic categories—as some have been (correctly) arguing —but also across generations.
It seems that even official bodies may be trolling us on here now. But much more importantly the younger generation will be singing along with Jay-Z and the musical Annie and maybe for a very long time.
It’s the hard knock life (uh-huh) for us
It’s the hard knock life, for us!!
Steada treated, we get tricked
Steada kisses, we get kicked
It’s the hard knock life!!
Oh and I do hope that the author of the blog May Rostom is not posted to a dark airless room which the Bank of England tea trolley never reaches.
Now how much of this has the Bank of England and its central planners caused?
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Pair claim that party will go further than ‘the vow’ made during referendum campaign promising more powers for Scottish parliament
Jim Murphy and Gordon Brown will on Monday pledge that a Labour government would radically extend Scotland’s powers over welfare, following speculation that Brown is to take a prominent role in his party’s general election campaign in the hope of repeating the success of his last-minute intervention in the independence referendum.
Murphy, the new Scottish Labour leader, and Brown will share a platform in Edinburgh to announce a “distinctive Labour change”. This, they say, goes further than “the vow” of more powers to the Scottish parliament, brokered by Brown and signed by all three party leaders in the days before the referendum vote, as well as the all-party Smith commission which fast-tracked agreement on those powers.
While Smith recommended devolving £3bn of welfare powers, including the housing elements of universal credit, and the power to create new benefits in devolved areas, and top up UK payments where affordable, Murphy and Brown will pledge to extend these powers to benefits in non-devolved areas, including child benefit and state pensions, as well as fully devolving housing benefit, worth £1.8bn.
Brown will say: “We will go further by ensuring that the final say on benefit levels remains in Scotland by giving the Scottish parliament a wider power to top up UK benefits. This will ensure that Scotland is protected from Tory welfare cuts – there could never be another bedroom tax in Scotland – and from benefit cuts caused by a fall in Scottish funding due to, for example, the collapse in the oil price, the inevitable consequence of the nationalists plans for full fiscal autonomy.”
Describing the delivery of the vow as “a starting point not an end point” for Scottish Labour, Murphy will add: “A Labour approach to powers, and to the use of powers, will reflect our different values and different ambitions for Scotland. We have different values from the Tories on welfare and different values from the nationalists on redistribution.”
He will also say that Labour plans a separate Scottish manifesto.
Brown is standing down from his seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath but has promised to “do everything I can” to secure Ed Miliband’s election as prime minister. With Labour trailing the SNP in the polls.
Some believe Brown could reach out to disaffected Labour voters in the same way he did last September, when he was credited with winning back wavering no voters. |
A car has hit a number of pedestrians in Islington, north London, leaving four people injured.
The collision took place on Essex Road near the Queen's Head pub on Saturday night at around 10.55pm.
Four males aged between 17 and 19 have been arrested on suspicion of a variety of offences including GBH with intent and possession of points and blades and all remain in custody.
Two knives were recovered from the scene, one inside the car, the other close to it.
Police said the incident "is not being treated as terrorist related".
Some roads in the area have been closed.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "Police were called at approximately 22:55hrs on Saturday, 25 March to reports of a car in collision with a number of people in Essex Road, N1.
"Officers and London Ambulance Service attended the scene; initial reports state four people are suffering injuries - their condition awaits.
"The occupants decamped from the car and fled the scene on foot. One male has been arrested; enquiries continue.
"While enquiries into the circumstances continue, this is not being treated as terrorist related. Officers from Islington investigate."
Read more from SkyNews.com. |
A Calm, Measured Response to the Concern Trolling Regarding Clinton's Alleged Poor Health
By Courtney Enlow | Politics | August 19, 2016 |
Oh SHUT THE FUCK UP. Like you actually care.
Oh, sadface, is the nasty email lady too frail and deathly to be president? BECAUSE THE ORANGE HUMAN HEART ATTACK IS THE PICTURE OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS AND SANITY?
Let’s side aside for a quick sec how immensely ablist it is, because YOU KNOW you don’t actually give a fuck about either ableism or the woman’s health in any way, and focus on how misogynist it is. THIS WHOLE THING IS DESIGNED TO REMIND US THAT A WOMAN IS TOO WEAK FOR THIS POSITION.
Because SURE, all presidents have been super healthy to the max. Just a bunch of strapping Joe Manganiellos running around doing leg presses in the Oval Office. JK I AM TELLING SILLY LAUGHY JOKES HERE’S A WHOLE LIST.
This whole thing is the infuriating Doctor Who moment where the Doctor ruined Harriet Jones (Prime Minister) by telling one guy she looks tired. THAT WAS BULLSHIT, TOO. FUCK YOU AND FUCK RUSSELL T. DAVIES FOR THAT ONE. YOU GAVE US FARTING ALIENS YOU MONSTER. I MAY BE GETTING OFF TRACK.
Anyway, quit faking like you actually give a solid Trump steak of a shit about Hillary Clinton’s health. Don’t even try it. DON’T. And, hey, Dr. Drew, just in general at all times ever?
← Don't Ask Women Questions About Their Bodies If You're Not Ready For a VERY Detailed Answer
5 Shows After Dark: The Night Of The Sunk Cost Fallacy → |
The White House on Tuesday dismissed a two-years-old public petition asking for a pardon of former fugitive leaker Edward Snowden, saying in its response that the former National Security Agency contractor’s disclosures were “dangerous” and had “had severe consequences for the security of our country.”
The response to the “We the People” petition, which has accrued more than 167,000 signatures since it began in the days after Snowden’s initial batch of leaks surfaced in June 2013, reinforces the Obama administration’s public stance that Snowden is deserving of little leniency. The White House typically responds to “We the People” petitions that earn more than 100,000 signatures.
“Instead of constructively addressing these issues, Mr. Snowden’s dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it,” Lisa Monaco, the White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, said in the written response.
Snowden has earned a cult following among civil-liberties advocates, who have long argued that his leaks were an act of conscience that should be celebrated, not condemned. But the administration and nearly all lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to insist Snowden’s actions were unlawful, may have jeopardized national security, and that he could have sought internal means within the NSA to express his grievances about the scope of the government’s surveillance apparatus.
“If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: Challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and — importantly — accept the consequences of his actions,” Monaco said in Tuesday’s response. “He should come home to the United States and be judged by a jury of his peers — not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime. Right now, he’s running away from the consequences of his actions.”
Earlier this month, former Attorney General Eric Holder suggested in an interview with Yahoo News that a “possibility exists” that Snowden could come home and face some sort of reduced sentence. But many politicians, especially Republicans, have said Snowden’s actions were treasonous. Donald Trump, currently leading the GOP field in presidential polls, once suggested the computer analyst should be executed.
In her response, Monaco made reference to President Obama’s efforts to expand civil liberties while maintaining security. Earlier this year, Obama signed into law the USA Freedom Act, which will effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. call data — the first and most controversial of the programs exposed by Snowden — in favor of a more limited regime.
“We live in a dangerous world,” Monaco said. “We continue to face grave security threats like terrorism, cyberattacks, and nuclear proliferation that our intelligence community must have all the lawful tools it needs to address. The balance between our security and the civil liberties that our ideals and our Constitution require deserves robust debate and those who are willing to engage in it here at home.”
Snowden currently lives under asylum in Moscow, where he has been since fleeing Hong Kong following the first wave of revelations about the NSA’s domestic and international surveillance powers. He faces charges under the Espionage Act and has insisted he would not earn a fair trial if he returned to the United States — though he has expressed a desire to come home at some point.
The Obama administration has brought charges against more people under the Espionage Act than all previous presidencies combined. |
IDEAS Luscombe is an editor-at-large at TIME.
There’s a scene early in the criminally underrated Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz romcom Knight and Day in which Cruise’s character, an ebullient rogue agent, tells Cameron Diaz’s character that if anybody tells her that she is being taken somewhere for her “safety” or “security,” she should run.
If Ahmed Mohamed was not, at 14, likely too young to have seen that movie, it might have echoed in his head when he was taken in handcuffs from MacArthur High School by police in Irving, Texas, “for his safety,” as a police statement later put it.
Ahmed, in case you’ve been in a coma and missed this story, brought a clock he had made to school using a circuit board and spot welder. One of his teachers thought the wiry beeping contraption looked suspiciously like a bomb—speaking of cheesy spy movies—and called the principal, who called the cops, because you can never be too careful. The cops asked Ahmed some questions, found him insufficiently forthcoming, cuffed him and took him out of the school, because, you know, safety first.
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This would all come under the title of Comic Misunderstanding, until we get to the part with the handcuffs. How does a skinny eighth grader with no prior history of misbehavior end up in that terrifying situation? Why not call on some local knowledge from, say, the engineering teacher who reportedly had already seen the clock and deemed it cool? As a ninth grader, Ahmed was new to MacArthur High, but could officials find no friends, middle school classmates or relatives who could have been called upon to speak for him?
But no, because the grownups had to think of safety above all costs. Ahmed’s clock is just an extreme example of overreaction by school officials to any behavior they deem threatening. In November, a deputy in Kentucky handcuffed an elementary school child for misbehaving in class. Last year, a kid was suspended from an Ohio elementary school for making a gun shape with his fingers. In March 2014, a young kid was suspended for shaving her head in sympathy with a friend who had cancer.
School officials say they thought Ahmed might have made a hoax bomb to freak people out and generally cause mischief, and that’s why they suspended him. Even if that’s true, it’s unlikely he would have been treated the same way if his name were Arnold instead of Ahmed. And if it were true, the first port of call should have been his parents and not the police. Then Ahmed’s safety would have been assured, as well as that of everybody else.
The teenager’s treatment struck a chord on the internet, where the #IStandWithAhmed hashtag trended widely and Ahmed was addressed by luminaries including Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and President Obama, whose invitation to bring a clock to the White House might have brightened the 14-year-old’s day:
It’s difficult for anyone involved to take anything else positive from this incident. Among the many regrettable things about the way this was handled, one of the saddest is that the story’s wide dispersal will further erode the trust between schools and parents. Both groups have the welfare of the kids in their care at heart, but the two often seem to be at odds. Parents are terrified that schools aren’t safe, so they demand strict rules. Schools complain they can’t get co-operation from parents on discipline, so they have to be inflexible. Throw in a few school shootings and some xenophobic fear-mongering and Ahmed ends up in cuffs.
“Zebra” is an informal medical term for an exotic diagnosis that ignores a much more likely condition. It comes from the expression coined by an old medical professor: “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” Perhaps education professors need to come up with something similar for teachers: “When you hear ticking, think clocks, not bombs.” It’s safer that way.
This story has been corrected to reflect Ahmed’s school year; he is in ninth grade, not eighth.
Contact us at [email protected]. |
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Elizabeth Warren, corporate-welfare queen
The so-called cromnibus bill funding the federal government through this fiscal year was passed over the objections of (some) House conservatives and (some) self-proclaimed progressives, for familiar reasons: Conservatives, eager that the Republicans should begin governing like they have a majority in Congress before they actually have a majority in Congress, argued that the bill locked in long-term support for too many of Barack Obama’s priorities — to hell with an amnesty fight in February or gutting Obamacare after the new majority is seated, they cannot wait to start scrapping. The Democrats’ left flank, led by Nancy Pelosi right up until the White House did Republicans the favor of steamrolling her for them, complained of many things, as is the Democratic habit: In this case, the litany of woe included abominable measures that would allow larger individual donations to political parties and repeal part of the destructive Dodd-Frank financial-“reform” law, the “swaps push-out” rule that requires banks to exile some derivatives trading to separate corporate entities not insured by the FDIC.
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Senator Elizabeth Warren, the millionaire Massachusetts class warrior who has made the vilification of Wall Street bankers her second-favorite pastime (right behind prospering on the largesse of Wall Street lawyers, the gentlemen and scholars who funded her very generously compensated position at Harvard and fill her campaign coffers) did not exactly make the issue her hill to die on, but the fight did provide her an excellent opportunity for grandstanding.
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No doubt aware that 99 percent of those who look to her for guidance on financial regulation could not explain what a derivative is, Senator Warren did her usual dishonest shtick, engaging in her habitual demagoguery without ever making an attempt to actually explain the issue, which is a slightly complicated and technical one, to the rubes who make up the Democrats’ base. Angrily insisting that the reform is about nothing more than ensuring that “the biggest financial institutions in this country can make more money” is cheap, and it’s easier than trying to explain why many midsized banks believe that the rule puts them at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis the big Wall Street firms, to say nothing of exploring the convoluted question of why agricultural swaps are covered by the rule while interest-rate and foreign-exchange swaps are not. This led Maggie Haberman of Politico to admire Senator Warren’s “authenticity,” the choice of precisely that word being the cherry on this sundae of asininity. Senator Warren is as much an authentic champion of ordinary working people as she is an authentic Cherokee princess — and Mel Brooks and those Yiddish-speaking Indians from Blazing Saddles were more convincing in that role.
Bailout politics is still very much with us: People resent — rightly — what was done and how it was done. Many on the Tea Party right and the Occupy left intuit that there exists a dysfunctional relationship between Wall Street and Washington, though Senator Warren et al. maddeningly believe that the way to ameliorate this is to invest Washington with even greater powers, enabling even worse misbehavior and even more remorseless rent-seeking. And those who bother to keep up with such things know that neither Dodd-Frank nor anything else that has happened in Washington since the financial crisis has in fact eliminated, or even reduced, the phenomenon of financial institutions’ being considered — inevitable phrase — “too big to fail.”
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#page#Here’s how the New York Times relates the cromnibus skirmish to bailout politics: “The liberal base of the Democratic Party, led by Ms. Warren, also found itself in an unlikely alliance with the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. Both opposed the Wall Street bailout of 2008 and feared that the spending measure would not only provide a bounty for big banks but would also help cause another economic crisis.”
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Both opposed the Wall Street bailout of 2008?
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One wonders which of these famous progressives the New York Times has in mind when it states — as uncontested fact — that “the liberal base of the Democratic party” “opposed the Wall Street bailout of 2008.” Elizabeth Warren did not oppose the bailout per se, though she was critical of the way the Treasury Department implemented it. The bailouts were enabled by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which enjoyed the support and votes of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senator Charles Schumer of New York, Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Representative Jesse Jackson of Illinois, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, etc. The people who actually opposed bailouts by voting against bailouts were not in the main progressives, but were disproportionately conservative Republicans: Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Representative Michael Burgess of Texas, Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, etc.
The Left, predictably, is captive to the hipster impulse: “I opposed bailouts before it was cool” is the Democrats’ version of “I saw Hüsker Dü at Jay’s Longhorn Bar.” Show me the ticket stubs.
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The Tea Party came into being as a reaction to Republican complicity in bailouts of all sorts: of Wall Street firms, and of irresponsible mortgage borrowers. Occupy, and the potty-trained version of that movement led by Elizabeth Warren, demands more bailouts: of people who borrowed money for college or to buy a home, of fashionable corporations that do not want to pay market rates for financing, etc. Senator Warren is an energetic proponent of corporate welfare for Boeing, General Electric Bechtel, Caterpillar, and other such poor, defenseless little mom-and-pop operations.
If you are looking for actual rather than theoretical opposition to bailouts and corporate welfare, then your choices include Senator Rand Paul and Senator Ted Cruz, but practically nobody who might be called a progressive.
Nobody ever says he’s in favor of more bailouts or more handouts to business interests, but every time you hear a politician trotting out federal loan guarantees for certain businesses or targeted tax breaks for others, that is what he is talking about. Senator Warren may dismiss the revision to Dodd-Frank as a sop to big business, but she does not oppose sops to big business —she only opposes the ones not originating on her side of the aisle.
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— Kevin D. Williamson is roving correspondent for National Review. |
[See also [AuthorName]'s coda to this article: "More on the Expatriation Tax."]
In the past, the government was forced to show a modicum of restraint with respect to levying taxes for fear that citizens would simply leave the country and move to a more favorable location. In fact, the threat of the citizenry emigrating en masse is arguably one of the most important checks on government power. The American Jobs Creation Act, passed by a Republican House, Senate, and president, effectively removed this fear.
Republican politicians have adopted the role of loyal opposition and are feigning contempt for Obama's proposed tax increases. If they truly wanted to limit Obama's power, they would restore the right of Americans to vote with their feet and their tax dollars. The people's mere ability to leave and take their tax dollars with them would be a major deterrent to tax increases, regardless of the number of people who actually elect to leave.
The American Jobs Creation act of 2004, passed by the Republican-controlled government, amended section 877 of the Internal Revenue Code. Under the new law, any individual who has a net worth of $2 million or an average income-tax liability of $127,000 who renounces his or her citizenship and leaves the country is automatically assumed to have done so for tax avoidance reasons and is subject to some rather unbelievable tax laws.
Any individual who is declared to have expatriated for tax reasons is forced to pay US income taxes on all US based income for 10 years following expatriation, regardless of the country in which the individual resides. Additionally, in the 10 years following expatriation, if a qualifying individual spends 30 days in the United States during any year, he or she is taxed as a US citizen on all income derived from any place in the world. To make matters worse, if an individual happens to die in a year in which he or she spent at least 30 days in the United States, the entire estate is subject to US income tax law.
Consider this scenario. Mr. Smith's net worth (including his house) is $2 million. He decides that he is going to move to Naples, Italy because of an excellent job offer. He officially expatriates on January 1, 2009. During 2009, Mr. Smith spends only 10 days in the United States. He receives income from US sources totaling $80,000 in 2009. Mr. Smith must pay income taxes on that $80,000 but not on any money earned in Naples. However, in 2010, Mr. Smith's mother is very sick and he visits her for a total of 30 days spread throughout the year. Now Mr. Smith is forced to pay US taxes on all the money derived from the United States and from his job in Naples. In 2019, Mr. Smith returns to the United States for heart surgery after having already spent 30 days in the country. Unfortunately, Mr. Smith dies during surgery. Under the current law, Mr. Smith's entire estate from both the United States and the rest of the world is subject to US tax law in 2019.
Many of the people with whom I have discussed this rather dastardly legislation have not found it nearly as appalling as I do. This utterly baffles me. The actions taken by the government in this legislation are merely coercion, extortion, and theft writ large. Consider if private companies were to begin to behave in a similar manner; I doubt that the reaction would be as quiescent.
Consider if customers were to rent a car under the agreement that there would be a fixed charge per day. Each day the individual uses the car, he or she incurs an agreed-upon daily rental fee.
Now suppose that the rental-car company is in a difficult financial position due to the CEO's incompetence and excessive spending. In order to stave off bankruptcy, the CEO decides to raise the daily rental rate for all of the luxury models. After all, since customers who rent luxury models make more money, it is only fair that they pay more. Additionally, the rental-car company decides to institute a new policy that requires all renters to continue to pay the daily rental fee for 10 days after they return their automobiles.
Since renters are effectively forced to continue to rent from the company, the CEO is now free to raise rates with impunity. The fear of losing existing customers is destroyed. The existing customer base is now essentially captive. Word would soon spread that people who rent luxury cars from this company would be trapped indefinitely. This would encourage new customers who desire to rent luxury cars to go to the company's competitors.
With the rental-car company's competitors getting all the new luxury-model customers, its revenues would grow far slower than its peers'. This would lead to an endless spiral of increasing rates on customers of different levels until all of the company's renters are paying far more than customers of other companies and are receiving far less in return.
If Americans are unwilling to tolerate this type of behavior from corporations, why are we so willing to tolerate it from our government?
Over the last eight years, the Republican Party has lost the public's confidence and faith. They now have an opportunity to regain a shred of credibility and attempt to restore their image as something more than a self-interested political machine, willing to do anything to obtain and maintain their power. If Republicans truly have any genuine desire to limit the administration's power in any way whatsoever, they will promptly demand the repeal of the American Jobs Creation Act.
The oft-used cliché in response to harsh criticisms of the country or its government is "If you don't like it, you can leave." Republicans made it much more difficult for disgruntled citizens to follow this advice; it is time to repeal this profligate legislation. |
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Jurgen Klopp admits he regrets the decision not to include Jon Flanagan in Liverpool’s Europa League squad.
The popular full-back isn’t eligible to face Manchester United in the last 16 next Thursday because he was overlooked when the Reds re-submitted their list prior to the knockout stages getting underway last month.
Liverpool were permitted to make three changes and Klopp opted to bring in Steven Caulker, Joao Carlos Teixeira and Danny Ward for Joe Gomez, Danny Ings and Adam Bogdan.
The inclusion of Caulker rather than Flanagan, who had just returned to action after a long-term knee injury, was questioned at the time. Klopp insisted at the time that with Martin Skrtel having suffered a setback, he needed on-loan Caulker as defensive cover.
However, with Skrtel having since proved his fitness and Dejan Lovren back from a hamstring problem, Liverpool find themselves with five fit centre-backs but with Flanagan, who shone in this week’s 3-0 rout of Manchester City, unavailable.
“Now we have too many centre-halves,” admitted Klopp.
“The day before we put the squad list in we didn’t have any. Now we have too many and you think: ‘My God what have we done?’
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“That was the thing we had to do at that time. Now we have to get into the next round with the players we have available.”
Flanagan is desperate to keep his place for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Crystal Palace but Klopp says he must take advice from club medical staff.
He’s wary about demanding too much too soon from Flanagan, who made his comeback in January after an 18-month injury battle, and may recall Alberto Moreno with Nathaniel Clyne reverting to right-back.
“He hasn’t played two games in four days so I am not sure that we should,” Klopp added.
“We are always in talks with Andy Massey (doctor) and Chris Morgan (physio). If you ask Flanno? (thumbs up). But that’s not the best advice!
“We just have to stay smart. It was brilliant that he was back the other night but at the end there were missed passes, losing challenges, things like this.
“He’s not at 100% but I do not expect him to be. How could he be? We will judge the intensity. We look at him and say yes, no or perhaps.” |
In a chat with Eric Heisserer, co-writer of the upcoming VAN HELSING movie, HitFix learned an interesting tidbit about the inspiration behind the character:
I can only say that early on, our inspiration for his behavior and his mannerisms was all in MAD MAX.
I highly doubt that VAN HELSING could possibly match the high-octane, non-stop power drive that was FURY ROAD, but the fact that they're even attempting to go there means that - if they get it half right - it will at least be fully awesome. I can totally see Van Helsing as a bedraggled, wandering hero.
On the upcoming Universal monsters shared universe, which will premiere with THE MUMMY, starring Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe, on June 9th, 2017, he said:
It’s early days right now. I can say that the decision that a lot of us made was to go and just write the best movie we could in our own corner and make sure it's good on its own...and didn't necessarily need to link arm-in arm-with anybody else. And to be tonally different from the other films. One may be a little bit more comedic, action-adventure-y, one can be very much a traditional horror piece. That kind of thing. And then we'll see what happens as the projects evolve and we all get a chance to convene and talk, and make sure the movies feel like they're all in the same world.
If this is how it really pans out, this series will be even closer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe than we thought. While those movies share a similar tone, their genres are widely disparate (ANT-MAN is a heist movie, THOR a fish-out-of-water comedy, WINTER SOLDIER a paranoid thriller, and so on). If that's the game they're playing, this might be more interesting than we thought.
VAN HELSING is being co-written by Heisserer and Jon Spaihts. Tom Cruise was briefly attached to the film, but certainly won't be featured in the same capacity now that he's starring in THE MUMMY. |
The impact humans have on the environment has grown substantially in the last 16 years—so much so that a new study concludes three-quarters of Earth’s land surface is under pressure from human activity. But the research also shows that humanity’s footprint on the planet hasn’t grown as fast as the overall population, and that may give conservationists cause for hope.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, is based on analysis of satellite imagery and other data from 1993 and 2009. Researchers sought to rigorously map our impact on the global environment—called the human footprint—and how it has changed. They found that while the human footprint has not grown in direct proportion to population or the economy, some of the most intense pressure is being felt in places with the highest diversity of plant and animal life.
It’s become clear that humans are modifying the planet on a very large geological scale, says the study’s lead author, forest conservation scientist Oscar Venter of the University of Northern British Columbia. “We thought the timing was right to get a better understanding of where the last wild places on the planet are and how those places have contracted over the last two decades and how the footprint has expanded into them,” he says.
View Images This map shows where humans' impact on the environment increased or decreased from 1993 to 2009. Courtesy Oscar Venter
The new study is part of a growing research trend that capitalizes on improvements in satellite technology to map and monitor human activities such as deforestation, oil drilling, and movement of refugees. A recent study in Science used satellite data to map poverty. And as sensors become more sensitive, resolution improves. That, combined with more comprehensive satellite coverage, means scientists are able to map how all of these things change on finer and shorter scales, which is what Venter’s team did with the human footprint.
Building on the first comprehensive human footprint analysis published by the Wildlife Conservation Society in 2002, Venter and his colleagues used various kinds of satellite data to analyze eight different categories of human impacts, including the extent of built environments, cropland and pasture land, population density, nighttime lights, roads, railways, and navigable waterways. They also used census data for population density and the gROADS project to track roads.
For every square kilometer of land on Earth (excluding Antarctica), each category was scored according to its impact on the environment relative to the other categories. The researchers then combined these scores for each square kilometer for 1993 and 2009, and looked at how things changed.
Much of what they found was predictably depressing. For example, in 1993, just 27 percent of the land had no measurable human footprint. By 2009, that had grown by 9.3 percent, or 23 million square kilometers. Most of the remaining footprint-free land was in places that aren’t good for agriculture or cities, such as the Sahara, Gobi, and Australian deserts, the most remote portions of tropical rainforests in the Amazon and Congo, and the tundra. (You can explore the results online with interactive footprint maps, and the maps and data are all publicly available.) The upside of the findings is that while population increased by 23 percent, the average score for the human footprint increased by just 9 percent. Even more promising is the fact that during that same 16-year period, the global economy has grown 153 percent, 16 times the rate of footprint growth.
This is encouraging and potentially very important, says research ecologist Samuel Cushman of the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station. “We are in an age of extinction, but the difference between a truly mass extinction and just broad-scale extinction could hinge on this linkage between how fast the human footprint grows and if it is less than population growth or more than population growth.”
But the news is not uniformly good. Human pressure on the environment is distributed unevenly, and while some wealthier regions are showing a modest decrease in human impact, other parts of the world have experienced increasingly intense pressure. The footprint more than doubled in areas such as the New Guinea mangroves and the Purus Varzea rain forest in the Amazon, and it jumped more than 1,000 percent in the Baffin coastal tundra. The Torngat Mountain tundra saw an increase of more than 10,000 percent.
Many of these areas experiencing the most pressure are also among the most biodiverse places on Earth. Among the hardest hit are areas with more than 1,500 plant species and areas with a at least 14 vertebrate species that are classified as threatened.
“When we looked at the most species-rich parts of the planet, the biodiversity hotspots, previously we thought about 15 percent of [their extent] was still natural. But our map of the human footprint showed actually only 3 percent of biodiversity hotspots are still natural,” Venter says. “This is really important because this is the most biologically valuable real estate on the planet. This is where we have unusually high concentrations of species that you just don't see anywhere else.”
Things look a little better for areas with the highest concentration of bird, mammal, and amphibian species, such as the Amazon Basin, which is still largely free from human impact. However, the researchers found that footprint-free territory within these biodiverse areas has rapidly declined since 1993.
These results suggest that the best conservation strategy may be to focus protection efforts on these species-rich areas and on remaining swaths of wilderness. |
FEB 16 2013 BY CLARKSON COTE
There’s been a great deal of speculation and interest around an SUV variant of the Chevrolet Volt.
A recent story on Truth About Cars discussed a guidebook produced by Morgan Stanley that details upcoming product offerings of various auto manufacturers, including GM. The little gem that may interest the readership here comes at the end of their writeup about Chevrolet branded vehicles (emphasis added):
For 2013, the Orlando will apparently debut, though we’ve seen no movement on this so far. A “small SUV”, possibly the Trax, is set for 2014, while the Volt CUV is back on for 2015.
The Orlando, set for production in 2013, was the basis for the Voltec MPV5 concept shown here. Recently, we wrote about an extension GM was granted for the trademark “CrossVolt” and speculated that GM may eventually release a Voltec CUV marketed with this name.
All of these tidbits may be pointing to an implementation of Voltec technology that soccer moms and other SUV-loving customers have been waiting for.
Do you think GM will deliver a crossover utility vehicle with a Voltec propulsion system? Perhaps more importantly, will a 2015 entry be too late? |
2011 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport – Click above for high-res image gallery
Ah, to be in college again. The enlightenment. The drinking. The promiscuity. The million-dollar supercars . Wait, what?That's right. Bugatti is looking for a student intern at their office in Herndon, Virginia, to help coordinate their marketing and press relations activities. Like any internship, most of the job will probably come down to making coffee for and giving back rubs to your superiors. But in this case, the position entails scheduling – and crucially, transporting – the Bugatti press fleet, organizing events and the like.You'll need to be a college student to apply, and since the listing specifies they'll be testing for drugs, that may narrow down the field considerably. That, and you'll need to be located near Herndon, Virginia, which is fortunately just half an hour out of DC. So if you're studying at Georgetown, GW, American U or any of the other campuses in or near the nation's capital, keep your nose clean and like being around seven-figure exotics, click through the link below to apply. |
Dragon at the doorstep Myanmar’s changing ties with China
Myanmar construction workers build a wall in front of Chinese shipping containers at the Yangon port on May 9, 2014. (Photo: AP)
Four years ago, Myanmar was an isolated state ruled with an iron fist by a group of generals with no tolerance for dissent over rampant corruption and poverty.
China, along with North Korea, were among the closest the rogue state had to allies.
The junta ruled directly until 2011, when a new civilian government came to power after landmark elections, and the country slowly began to implement reforms.
Today, iced lattes are sold in Yangon’s trendy cafés, brand-new cars congest the city and cellphones are ubiquitous. As the generals have eased their grip on power, repression has faded.
Meanwhile, Chinese oil and gas pipelines and infrastructure projects have brought much-needed investment to the impoverished nation. Chinese traders have provided jobs. Cheap Chinese cellphones, taxis and motorbikes have spurred unprecedented communication and trade.
Oil and gas pipelines Kyaukpyu Ruili Kunming China India Laos Thailand Yangon Mandalay Monywa Myitkyina
But Beijing’s ties with the former military junta haunt its current dealings. Few have forgotten that China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, vetoed a resolution calling for an end to repression in Myanmar in 2007.
Grass roots campaigns threaten to upset multibillion-dollar projects and the rising Chinese middle class in Myanmar feels the resentment of a wider population left behind by a real estate boom.
As the 60 million-strong Myanmese population readies for what is next year expected to be the first free elections since 1988, relations with its neighbouring superpower become more significant – a subject that neither the generals turned civilian politicians, nor the opposition, have come to terms with.
The South China Morning Post revisits the Southeast Asian nation, investigating the enduring links between Myanmar and the giant next door.
Busy traffic in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, bordering China
Flourishing trade How ethnic Chinese traders are benefiting from Myanmar's new economic freedom At Mandalay’s jade market, Yang Lipei scrolled through photos on her iPhone of jade necklaces she recently sold worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. The precious stones are set in worthless copper necklaces as a precaution. "It makes it harder to steal them when clients look at them," she said. The market in Myanmar’s second-largest city is a trading hub for jade sold to Chinese traders. Chinese traders sat along rows of tables, under signs written in Chinese and Myanmar language, examining pieces of polished jade with magnifying glasses and LED flashlights. The sellers were locals. Most buyers were ethnic Chinese. And almost all of the gemstones would end up smuggled to China. Jade market in Mandalay As Myanmar’s former military regime has relaxed its grip on power, legal and illegal trade are booming along the porous border with the country’s largest trading partner, China. The market’s traders like Yang are profiting from the economic strategy more than native Myanmese. Their ability to talk with Chinese buyers in their native tongue helped Yang and her family become part of the trade network that spirits resources including gems, rice and timber from Myanmar to China – trade that bypasses border guards and health and safety inspectors. Myanmar’s economic reforms have allowed Yang’s family to rise from destitute refugees to middle class in a half decade, thanks mostly to her lawless trade. As she scrolled through photos of her jade stones, she answered her iPhone. Her husband had called from a remote mine in Tanai near the Chinese border. He was buying amber to sell to Chinese buyers. Traders move gems through multiple points along Myanmar’s 2,200-kilometre border with China, which stretches from the Himalayas to the verdant heart of the Golden Triangle. The border is so long, and has so few official customs check points, that smuggling is rampant. The Southeast Asian nation legally imported US$3.5 billion in goods from China last year and exported US$2.9 billion, according to Myanmar customs. Overall, trade grew by 31.8 per cent from the previous year. But research shows that illegal trade by far exceeded declared trade. Myanmar exported jade worth US$6 to US$9 billion in 2011 – more than twice the country’s reported exports to China last year, according to a study released last year by the Harvard University Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation in the United States. Most of the illegal jade went to China. Myanmar customs recorded just US$34 million in jade exports in 2011, about 0.5 per cent of actual exports. Jade shops in Yangon and a trader inspecting jade in Mandalay Yunnan province’s booming economy has created a ripe market for Myanmar’s natural riches. The illegal transport of logs, teak and redwood to Yunnan has boomed in recent years, said Yun Sun, a scholar of Sino-Myanmese relations at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Despite a Sino-Myanmar agreement to halt the illegal timber trade, 2 million cubic metres of logs were shipped through Ruili – China’s main border crossing – during the first 10 months of 2013, according to data she collected from traders. An estimated three-quarters of Myanmar’s timber exports – worth about US$5.7 billion – have gone undeclared since 2000, according to the Washington DC-based environmental protection advocacy group, Environmental Investigation Agency. The group said up to 70 per cent of that timber crossed the Chinese border illegally. On April 1, Myanmar banned raw timber exports, but “the assistance of China will be needed to stem the flow of logs across the land border,” said Julian Newman, EIA’s campaigns director. “The likelihood of this happening seems remote, based on past experience.” Rice is another commodity that flows illegally across the border. Traders can make up 28 per cent more per kilo of rice if they sell to Chinese traders, who smuggle the food into Yunnan, the Myanmar Times reported in February. Between 3,000 and 3,500 tonnes of rice cross the border illegally each day, the paper reported. Chicken smugglers at the China-Myanmar border in Muse. Photo: SCMP Goods getting smuggled across the Shweli River, that separates Myanmar and China just outside Ruili. Photo: Sinopix From top left: Chicken smugglers at the China-Myanmar border in Muse. Photo: SCMP; Goods getting smuggled across the Shweli River, that separates Myanmar and China just outside Ruili. Photo: Sinopix; A trader looks at jade stones in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw. Photo: Reuters; A woman slips through an opening in the fence separating China from Myanmar. Photo: SCMP A trader looks at jade stones in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw. Photo: Reuters A woman slips through an opening in the fence separating China from Myanmar. Photo: SCMP Chinese officials responsible for border trade have said on condition of anonymity that they are aware of the problems created by a porous border, including smuggling and unregulated migration. The officials said they have pushed the Myanmese border police to improve surveillance. Myanmar's police have made efforts to fight illegal cross-border trade. "Our government is determined to fight transnational organised crime to promote development, growth and peace," the Deputy Chief of Police Brigadier General Zaw Win said in a statement last year. Over the last few months, the government has worked on deploying a newly minted forestry police force tasked with fighting the illegal logging and smuggling of timber and wildlife. Some 10,000 illegal loggers were detained between December and March alone, a Ministry of the Environment official told The Irrawaddy magazine. Yang’s off-the-books trade in jade is not merely a more profitable choice than legal exports. It’s the way business is done in Myanmar, she said. “If someone doesn’t pay, it’s not like I can go to the police here” Yang Lipei, jade trader For three years, Yang has legally imported cloth from China’s southern trade hub of Guangdong and shipped it to Yangon. Lorry drivers travel 700 kilometres to Mandalay where seamstresses make longyis, Myanmar’s traditional skirts. If she has any problems in her legal business, she has no recourse in Myanmar. “If someone doesn’t pay, it’s not like I can go to the police here,” she said. The rule of law is largely non-existent. Despite political changes since 2011, Myanmar remains one of the most corrupt countries in Southeast Asia. Only Cambodia is more crooked, according to Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index in 2013. That graft has allowed many Chinese migrants to settle in the country, where citizenship is still difficult to obtain, as immigration officials have been eager to sell residence permits and even citizenship to enterprising migrants. Mandalay’s Chinese community was well-established before the arrival of British colonialists in the early 19th century. An old community hall now with LED-lit dragons attests to the community’s long-time presence. The majority of Chinese migrants to the city, though, arrived during the last two decades. The old community has been replenished by tens of thousands of migrants who previously lived in relative poverty in the mountainous border areas. The Chinese descend from migrants who fled the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949, the great famines of the 1960s, and the Cultural Revolution. Yang’s grandfather, a landowner, evaded persecution in Yunnan during the Cultural Revolution. For three generations, the family lived in the lawless border areas, working for militia groups dominated by ethnic Chinese warlords. Over the last two decades, these warlords have signed ceasefire agreements with the Myanmar armed forces, allowing traders like Yang to move more freely across the country. Yang bought her citizenship two years ago. She declined to say how much she had paid. Another ethnic Chinese resident said an immigration official asked him to pay 300,000 kyat (HK$2,300) for an identity document. “You might even have to pay for beers, food and entertainment” as well, he said. When the then-military regime undertook its last census in 1983, it counted 234,000 ethnic Chinese in the entire country. Mandalay-based staffers with the Ministry of Immigration and Population declined to say how many Chinese residents or citizens live in the country. The Yunnan ancestral hall in Mandalay Zhao Zhenheng, the secretary of the Canton Kongsi, or community hall for ethnic Chinese of Guangdong descent in the former capital Yangon, estimated that about four million ethnic Chinese live in Myanmar. About half a million live in Yangon and another half a million in Mandalay, with the others mostly spread throughout the border areas, he said. “Most are citizens by now,” he said. But more Chinese are coming in. "People from Yunnan come and open cellphone stores, motorbike garages and try their luck in real estate,” said Yang as she steered her air-conditioned SUV through the streets of congested Mandalay past scooters and pick-up trucks overcrowded with passengers. The presence of nouveau riche Chinese affects all aspects of Myanmese society – from education to real estate, said Fan Hongwei, an assistant professor of Southeast Asian studies at Xiamen University in Fujian province, who has written extensively on the community. “This has created the impression that Chinese dominate the country’s economy” Fan Hongwei, Southeast Asia scholar, Xiamen University The cost of living has “escalated and some poor locals are being forced out of the city”, said Fan, who conducted field studies last year. “Traders have benefited most from Myanmar’s reforms and ethnic Chinese dominate trade. “This has created the impression that Chinese dominate the country’s economy,” he said, adding that anti-Chinese sentiment is already on the rise. “Chinese are more visible in the agrarian country, because they move into towns, set up shops,” he said. Locals in Mandalay said they have adapted to the influx of rich Chinese. Pyo Pyo, a local English teacher, whose richest students are ethnic Chinese, said she was learning Putonghua to speak with her new clientele. "Now the Chinese own the city," she said. "Downtown is Chinatown." Several locals said they resented working for the wealthy Chinese migrants, for their showy cars and downtown apartments. Over lunch at an upscale Sichuan hotpot restaurant, Yang said she was puzzled by such attitudes. Traders bring business to the country, she said. “We get along well. They are just intimidated by our bargaining skills.” She now owns a downtown house in Mandalay. A driver ferries her two children to private kindergartens, one to learn Myanmese and another to learn Putonghua. She is planning her first trip abroad. After a first gambling vacation near the Chinese border last year, she wants her next journey to take her to gamble in Singapore, she said.
Need for power How a Chinese company lobbies for the construction of Myanmar's largest dam Play video | 4:06 Social worker Dau Nyoi sat next to her scooter under a tree at the Myitkyina’s Manau Park, where a breeze from the mighty Irrawaddy River plain brought relief from northeastern Myanmar’s midday heat. For years, the 37-year-old social worker has campaigned against the construction of a massive dam by Chinese Power Investment, a Chinese state-owned company, just a few miles upriver from the park. Next year, she fears, construction could restart. A shot of the monument at Manau Park in Myitkyina Children playing soccer at the Manau Park Anti-dam poster in Myitkyina Motorcycle on the riverbank of the Irrawaddy Social worker Dau Nyoi A shot of the monument at Manau Park in Myitkyina; children playing soccer at the Manau Park; anti-dam poster in Myitkyina; motorcycle on the riverbank of the Irrawaddy; social worker Dau Nyoi Recalling a recent meeting with the company’s lobbyists, she said she just couldn’t believe what they told her when they praised the dam. "It’s their job to convince us," she said. "It’s not their land they are talking about." The US$3.6 billion dam could be Myanmar’s largest, if production resumes next year. With a capacity of 6,000 megawatts of electricity, it would be the largest of six dams in the area to be built by a CPI majority-owned joint venture, and the largest in the Southeast Asian nation. The Myitsone Dam would flood an area the size of Singapore, displacing an estimated 15,000 people, to provide electricity to China’s energy-hungry southwestern Yunnan province. Once built, transmission lines would take 90 per cent of the electricity generated by the mega-dam and six smaller dams upstream across the border to China. Ten per cent of the electricity generated would stay in Myanmar. Opponents say the dam project has become a symbol of Chinese exploitation of the country’s natural resources by means of murky deals with the military-dominated government and its cronies. Supporters say it will bring tourists to Myanmar’s rural northeast and much needed electricity to the country where power outages have deterred much-needed investment. Construction began half a decade ago, shortly before the joint venture agreement was signed during a visit by then vice-president Xi Jinping in December 2009 to the still isolated military regime. Twenty-one months later, on September 30, 2011, the dam construction was suspended by President Thein Sein, a former general who had just taken off his uniform to serve as a civilian president. It was the first time Myanmar’s former military regime caved to public pressure in decades, allowing opposition groups to organise nationwide protests, heeding their demands. Justifying the suspension, the former general said his administration "must pay attention to the will of the people". The move angered China in the first public rift between Myanmar and its largest trading partner and military ally. Hong Lei, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Myanmar to "protect the legal and legitimate rights of Chinese companies". Three years on, Myanmar’s government has not been able to solve the dilemma of either adhering to signed agreements or listening to its people. Groups of people fiddled with Myanmar flags as they were waiting for a motorcade in Myitkyina a day before the South China Morning Post met up with social worker Dau Nyoi in Manau Park. Trucks with soldiers rattled through the city as others armed with rifles watched from rooftops. Now in his last year in office, the president made the surprise visit to lessen the simmering ethnic tensions at the border province. But people who attended meetings with the former general said the dam, the one topic on everyone’s minds, was not addressed in the closed-door events. “They've invested so much money in [the dam], they’re not going to give up on it” China Power Investment staffer in Myitkyina "He didn’t want to hear any tough questions," said Ja Seng Hkawn, a local activist, who has met with the president in the past. "That’s why they didn’t allow any at the town hall meeting." Another leading local dignitary who had a private conversation with the president said Thein Sein did not react to his plea to not allow the construction of the dam. Meanwhile, China Power Investment, continues to push for its resumption. "They’ve invested so much money in it, they’re not going to give up on it," said one staffer in Myitkyina. The company is losing about HK$400 million per year over the stalled project, project manager Li Guanghua said at an event in the capital, Naypyidaw, in December. A part of these expenses goes to staffers from the company’s local office lobbying local priests, businessmen and social workers to change their minds and approve the project. Their now years-long presence in Myitkyina has attracted a Chinese restaurant, hair salon and massage parlour next to the CPI local headquarters. Boxes full of brochures and posters on the benefits of hydropower fill its entrance hall. But the Chinese lobbyists are facing an uphill battle as distrust is widespread. A street-corner away, past a billboard-sized poster against the dam, is the de facto representative office of the local militia group, the Kachin Independence Army. In 2010, a series of 10 bombs struck the dam’s construction site, killing one Chinese worker. The KIA, while blamed by the government, has not admitted responsibility. Colonel Hkun Nawng, an elderly representative of the Kachin Independence Army with their Myitkyina office told the Post that the construction of the damn was simply not negotiable. "We are not the only ones rejecting the dam, it’s the entire population of Burma," he said, using the country’s colonial name. The lobbyists have also tried to reach the local population with handout donations. Many people wear CPI baseball hats in the sleepy city and the villages, where residents displaced by the dam construction have been provided with housing. Calendars featuring the Hoover and Three Gorges dams hang at teahouses and in these CPI-sponsored homes. Aung Ban, 55, says he harbours no goodwill towards those who gave him his CPI hat and house. He used to be a rice farmer, he said. For generations, his family lived in a home made of straw and wood, working their rice paddy in the lush green hills on the western shore of the Irrawaddy River. He was one of the first to move from his home when construction started. One day in 2011, his children’s school was bulldozed. Then, he had to yield his paddy to gold miners, who were granted the right to dredge his ancestral land for the precious metal by the government before it ultimately would disappear in the dam’s artificial lake. Aung Ban and his village He was offered a new home in a "model village" built by CPI’s local contractor, Asia World Company, run by Steven Law, the son of the drug lord and militia leader Lo Hsing-han, who died last year. The company built two model villages for the first villagers to be displaced by the dam. Residents of eight villages were uprooted and moved to the two settlements. Aung Min Thar village, Aung Ban's new home, has a suburban feel with its dozen rows of identical two-storey houses featuring a brick-built kitchen ground floor and a wooden upper floor lining a valley 10 miles away from the construction site. Since 2011, the company regularly delivers bags of rice to households that don’t speak out against the dam. Electricity is free for all, provided by a CPI-built dam upriver. Despite the free rice and electricity, Aung Ban said he regretted leaving the old village. "We can’t plant crops here, the land is infertile," he said. The father of seven said he had to farm on nearby hills, but rocky soil and lack of irrigation made it almost impossible. He said he now relied on rice deliveries from CPI. “We are bogged down in destitution.” Tu Hkawng, Baptist minister of Aung Min Thar village Three villages have been moved to Aung Min Thar, said Tu Hkawng, the local Baptist minister, including his own former parish, the 2,000 people of Tang Hpre village. He said his village’s residents had no choice but to move to the model village. "We are bogged down in destitution,"he said. "Here we don’t have land for raising cattle. Nothing can grow here.” Tu Hkawng said CPI employees have repeatedly visited him, three times last year, to convince him of the benefits of the dam, but he remained adamant. "We don’t get any benefit from their electricity," he said. "Most benefits will go to the Chinese. We will lose our lands, thousands of acres will be flooded and thousands of Chinese workers will come here." His office desk features yet another calendar, sponsored by CPI, advertising the benefits of dams. "The sufficient water and electric power from the Hoover Dam has led to the creation of Las Vegas, a shining star in the desert," it reads. Gliding past three unmanned watchtowers, the wooden fishing boat was only spotted by buffaloes bathing in the Irrawaddy on its journey to the construction site, the now unthinkable site of another Myanmese equivalent of the Hoover Dam. Four massive pillars and an office building are without any sign of activity, but fishermen still don’t dare to approach it. The construction site is a restricted area, protected by private security guards, they say. Half an hour’s boat ride upstream, where the Mayka and Malika Rivers merge to become the mighty Irrawaddy, "Go away, CPI" signs hang on trees under which families seek shade to picnic. The Myitsone confluence is one of the mythological original settlements of the Kachin people. It is also where Roman Catholic and Baptist missionaries set up first churches to convert the now majority Christian ethnic group, which is living in a majority Myanmese country. For the Kachin, the last ethnic group to reject a ceasefire with Myanmar’s government in a civil war that has lasted half a century, the place is sacred. The same is true for the country’s majority Buddhist Bamar population living in Myanmar’s heartland, where the river is vital to rice farming. In March, hundreds of marchers left Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, starting a 1,200-kilometre journey along the Irrawaddy’s shore. They plan to rally local residents along the route against the dam. Kachin pharmacist Ko Gyi Kyaw was one of those picnicking at the confluence. The 28-year-old was drinking Sapi, a pungent, purple alcoholic drink made of fermented rice. He had gone there to show the confluence to a Bamar high-school friend visiting from central Myanmar. “We want to keep this view forever,” said the 29-year old, pointing to the river. “The Chinese want to take everything: our woods, our stones, our rivers,” he said, his voice trembling. "But this is our heritage. They can’t buy it."
Fractured unity How a Chinese copper mine has split Myanmar's opposition Play video | 2:39 Pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi are virtually everywhere in Myanmar. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate who defied the country’s military junta for two decades adorns walls, car dashboards and key chains, reflecting universal pride in her defiance of the former military regime and in the country’s newfound political freedom. One poster of the daughter of the nation’s founding father, General Aung San, hangs in a farmer’s home where long-time political activist Maung Maung Latt is hiding. The 45-year-old is wanted by police for rallying people against the expansion of Myanmar’s largest copper mine – a project endorsed by Aung San Suu Kyi – once the undisputed hero to the opposition – in a move that has split their ranks. In the farmhouse for the last four months, Maung Maung Latt has risked his freedom to organise protests against the mine. "Aung San Suu Kyi is the hope of all in Myanmar," he said, visibly uncomfortable with the clichéd praise for the opposition leader. He turned silent. The awkwardness reflects the new cracks in the once-united front that fought for decades against the military regime that ruled the country for two decades with brutal force. Long-time political activist Maung Maung Latt Workers in the village where he is currently in hiding Long-time political activist Maung Maung Latt and workers in the village where he is currently in hiding To people like Maung Maung Latt, expanding the Monywa copper mine in Myanmar’s Sagaing Division – a Chinese-backed project – embodies the ruthless cronyism of the former military regime. Aung San Suu Kyi has said that the agricultural country was in dire need of foreign investment and had to respect the billion-dollar mining contract Myanmar’s former military regime had signed. Maung Maung Latt tells his fellow countrymen that Myanmar should not respect deals struck by the former regime that has made him spend 11 of the last 20 years in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison. He is now wanted on eight charges for inciting unrest. "They still don’t tell the public what they are doing, how much of the benefit goes to the government, the companies and the people," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "We want the project cancelled and to give the land back to farmers." The mine is jointly operated by Wanbao, a subsidiary of Chinese arms manufacturer Norinco, and the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings. Tycoon Tay Za – who made his fortune in timber, construction and tourism, thanks to ties to long-time dictator Senior General Than Shwe – brokered the deal, according to US embassy cables divulged by WikiLeaks. Shortly before Myanmar’s military eased its grip on power in 2011, officials allowed the mine to expand into nearby Letpadaung hills. As the military eased restrictions on protests, local residents, who once had no recourse when the government snatched their land, began to protest. Some demonstrators clashed with police. A protesters' encampment burns at the copper mine on November 29, 2012. Photo: AP Picture taken on December 3, 2012 shows a Buddhist monk who was injured in the crackdown. Photo: AFP Aung San Suu Kyi talks with crying villagers during a visit to Tone village. Photo: AP Police officers stand guard at the entrance to the Letpadaung mine. Photo: AP From top left: A protesters' encampment burns at the copper mine on November 29, 2012. Photo: AP; Picture taken on December 3, 2012 shows a Buddhist monk who was injured in the crackdown. Photo: AFP; Aung San Suu Kyi talks with crying villagers during a visit to Tone village. Photo: AP; Police officers stand guard at the entrance to the Letpadaung mine. Photo: AP In 2012, a parliamentary commission headed by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi negotiated a new contract with the Chinese miners on behalf of the government, raising compensation payments for dispossessed farmers. “China might think that our country cannot be trusted on the economy” Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar opposition leader To the dismay of locals facing the loss of their land and many opposition activists like Maung Maung Latt, Aung San Suu Kyi endorsed the mine’s expansion. China "might think that our country cannot be trusted on the economy," Aung San Suu Kyi told demonstrators near Monywa last year. "We have to get along with the neighbouring country, whether we like it or not." The protests continued. Farmer Tin Zaw from Ton village, unbuttoned his shirt to reveal bullet scars in his arm and chest. The 42-year-old said police shot him with plastic bullets last April after he joined hundreds of fellow villagers who clashed with authorities when police tried to forcefully claim their land. A year later, Maung Maung Latt is one of six activists left organising protests against the mine expansion. He hides in some of the 26 villages facing land grabs. The Chinese miners promise guaranteed jobs for every household that yields land, as well as health care and education. But activists have also said they do not trust the miner's promises. “The locals lose their land, but they won’t get the benefits,” said Myint Aung, a Mandalay-based activist. Naw Ohn Hla, a prominent campaigner against land grabs, said too that the compromise Aung San Suu Kyi negotiated had not added credibility to the miner's promises. Once a month, hundreds of activists and local farmers join a protest march to the mining company’s offices. They pass posters praising the mine’s benefits, until barbed wire outside the mine stops their path. “There is an invisible hand behind them. Why are they there? Who supports them?” Nyan Win, senior opposition leader Several leading members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy, showed no sympathy with those refusing to accept the compromise their party leader had negotiated. “There is an invisible hand behind them,” said Nyan Win, a senior party member and close confidante of Aung San Suu Kyi, referring to local activists. “Why are they there? Who supports them?” In next year’s general elections, the party will for the first time in two decades back a serious challenge to the ruling Union and Solidarity Party, a civilian offshoot of the former military regime. For Nyan Win, the opposition needed unity to bring about a change in government. Recalling a recent visit to Shanghai, he pointed to the benefits of economic development. Continuing to oppose the mine was irresponsible, he said. "We are a bordering country [to China]. We need their friendship," he said. About an hour’s drive north from the village where Maung Maung Latt is hiding, the prosperity of Don Taw village is a testament to the progress that Nyan Win envisioned. Fist-sized nuggets of copper cooled in the centre of the village, which otherwise resembled a moonscape. Greenish copper powder coloured the grey, cracked soil. Plastic garbage piled up next to the road near a row of parked motorbikes. A television blared in one of its dozens of bamboo huts. A 29-year-old farmer, Thida Win and her three children, have used the free clinic sponsored by the Chinese miners. The mine has given villagers steady jobs as drivers, miners and guards to about 30 local residents, she said. The workers’ daily salary of 3,000 kyat (HK$23.3) is higher, and more regular, than her husband’s wages, she said. He drives lorries delivering betel nuts to a nearby market. She said she’d like to see him get a job at the mine. Those like Thida Win left behind in the settlement of 300 households have dedicated themselves to reprocessing – by hand – the mine’s residue soil in search of copper. The mineral now accounts for nearly half the village’s income. In a 20-day process, Thida Win and fellow villagers extract it out of the mine’s leftover soil. That modernity had no appeal to farmer Tin Zaw. After he was shot, he refused treatment by the medical team sponsored by the Chinese miners. He sought treatment at the public hospital, and returned to farm his seven acres of land. He said he would get 12.6 million kyat (HK$97,700) for his land under the deal negotiated by the parliamentary commission. This equals seven years of income for the father of two. Holding on to the land, "is a guarantee for me that I don’t have to worry," he said. "If I take the compensation, the money will be gone after a while, but I can farm until I die." |
The Jungle Book hasn’t been released in theaters yet, but director Jon Favreau is already being recognized for his latest film: PETA has just given Favreau its Innovation In Film Award for managing to make a movie set in the jungle that didn’t involve using any jungle animals. The film’s animal characters—which include a Bengal tiger, black panther, python, and plenty of wolves—are all CGI creations, making that American Humane Association disclaimer especially applicable in this case. And so, Favreau has been acknowledged by PETA for his efforts in creating a “realistic yet mythical world filled with larger-than-life, anthropomorphic animals” that somehow have the voices of Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Bill Murray (who sings!), and Scarlett Johansson. Now Favreau is just waiting for the Wild West History Association or Saturn Awards to retroactively recognize his achievements in Cowboys & Aliens.
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Don't Let Washington Cut Medicare Benefits!
by: AARP
recipient: Congress and President Obama
Right now, some politicians in Washington are trying to cram changes to Medicare benefits into a last-minute budget deal before the end of the year. This change would raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67, shifting thousands of dollars in costs to seniors and making Medicare premiums more expensive.
Washington should be having an open discussion about how to strengthen Medicare, not cutting the benefits millions rely on as part of a short-sighted budget deal.
Tell Congress and President Obama: Don't raise the Medicare eligibility age as part of a last-minute budget deal!
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[Your comment will be added here]
Raising the Medicare eligibility age would shift thousands of dollars in costs to seniors, drive up premium costs, and even make insurance more expensive for businesses and the private market.
We deserve an open, thoughtful public discussion about how to strengthen Medicare, and I am opposed to a short-sighted deal that cuts Medicare benefits to reduce the deficit.
As your constituent, I urge you to reject cuts raising the eligibility age as part of a last-minute deal to reduce the deficit.
Sincerely,
[Your name] Millions of seniors rely on Medicare to access affordable healthcare, and short-sighted decisions made to push through a last-minute budget deal will harm today's seniors, and their children and grandchildren.[Your comment will be added here]Raising the Medicare eligibility age would shift thousands of dollars in costs to seniors, drive up premium costs, and even make insurance more expensive for businesses and the private market.We deserve an open, thoughtful public discussion about how to strengthen Medicare, and I am opposed to a short-sighted deal that cuts Medicare benefits to reduce the deficit.As your constituent, I urge you to reject cuts raising the eligibility age as part of a last-minute deal to reduce the deficit.Sincerely,[Your name] |
The story behind the picture:
I would have been able to see the Milky Way many years earlier when I grew up in this region. In this picture you can see the Rapperswil Castle, which is almost 800 years old and the bright bridge to Pfäffikon. Imagine how this photo would have looked like when the castle was built in 1220. Luckily the city of Rapperswil is not able to outshine our home galaxy.
The idea for this photo I had in mind for a while now. But there's just one spot between Stäfa and Rapperswil without any disturbing lights. Just in April the Milky Way is aligned as wanted. Therefore, I had to wait for almost a year for this moment.
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Share Popular capitalism can save the Arab world
Among all major religions, Islam is the only one founded by a trader. According to the holy Quran (dictated by God himself to this prophet), profit is good as long the wealthy merchant redistributes a modest part of his acquired wealth to the poor.
No idealization of poverty can be found in Islam, which makes it a much more pro-business faith than Christianity. When at the peak of their political and cultural influence around the Mediterranean sea, Arabs dominated global commerce, benefiting from the intersection of the Silk Road and the Fertile Crescent. The reason they were supplanted by Italian merchants, around the thirteenth century, had nothing to do with their respective creed. Traders in Genoa had invented better accounting techniques and initiated business contracts through civil covenants, while economic relations in the Arab world remained confined within the family.
From the Middle Ages until the twentieth century however, trade and popular capitalism never vanished from the Arab world. Since the 1950s, independence leaders have imported anti-capitalist concepts, such as central planning and state ownership, into the Arab Muslim world. In Egypt, all remnants of popular capitalism were destroyed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was President from 1956 to 1970. The Ba’ath Party in Syria and Iraq – Saddam Hussein among its leaders – acted much the same when it seized power in the region. The same happened in Turkey in the 1920s and 1930s, after Mustapha Kemal, praised as the founder of modern Turkey, proved much inspired by fascist and Soviet economic models from Europe. The Turkish economic renaissance started only recently when the Justice Party rejected Kemalism and rehabilitated popular capitalism along with a religious renaissance. Anti-capitalist dictators happen to be anti-Muslim, pushing Islamic organizations into clandestine and later violent resistance.
So far, the Arabs have not been as lucky as the Turks, except for the tiny sliver of the population who happens to be sitting on huge gas and oil reserves.
Then the Arab Spring took place, in 2011, whose true origins should never be forgotten: the economic frustration of the people. The hero of the uprising was a young Tunisian student by the name of Mohamed Bouazizi who tried to start a modest business by selling fruits and vegetables on a street cart. After he was arrested by police for not showing the right bureaucratic authorisation, Bouazizi committed suicide by setting himself on fire.
Spontaneously identifying themselves with Bouazizi, young Arabs by the millions took to the streets all over the Arab world. The revolt was most acute in Egypt where, not by coincidence, popular capitalism happened to be the most severely repressed under Hosni Mubarak. A survey by the noted Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, before the Arab Spring, revealed how opening a modest bakery in Cairo required two and a half years in order to obtain all the necessary legal documents, most of them delivered by petty and corrupt state bureaucrats. The creation of a larger business which might have a chance of competing with a state monopoly proved to be forbidden in Egypt. With varying degrees, this remains the prevalent situation in all Arab countries.
The civil wars between sects and tribes in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon – or ready to explode in Algeria or Morocco – would certainly not have erupted in an environment of economic prosperity. The Islamist parties which seized power in Egypt and Tunisia, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, proved no better than the dictators they had replaced, as they did not understand that economics was the people’s priority. Facilitating popular capitalism would have been the way to go. Mohammad Morsi, for example, was dismissed by his own supporters after demonstrating his administration’s incapacity to tame food inflation and spur inclusive and balanced growth.
Peace will never return to the Middle East as long the economic ambitions of the would-be entrepreneurs remain repressed. So far, Turkey is the only positive, if imperfect, demonstration of what the combination of Muslim faith with local entrepreneurial spirits can achieve. Will this so called Turkish model ever emerge in the Arab world? The Arab people are torn apart between statist autocrats and radical Muslims. Moderate pro-market Muslim remain silent or crushed.
Popular capitalism is the only way out of misery and chaos. Enlightened Arabs should proclaim it, not by imitating the West or importing Western values, but by rediscovering their own faith and history. Adam Smith is not needed in the Arab world. Muhammad’s life is enough of a reliable model to rekindle economic growth and opportunities for the people.
Guy Sorman is an economist at the University of Paris and author of many books on classic liberalism including: The American Heart, In Praise of Giving, 2014. He is also publisher of France Amerique ( based in New York ) and Founder of Action against Hunger.
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THERE’S SOMETHING ALMOST non-descript about the title of Nathan Ballingrud’s excellent new collection of stories, North American Lake Monsters. It’s as if we’re being presented with a field guide — albeit, an eccentric one — rather than a selection of powerful and moving horror stories. And yet, unassuming as the title is, its naturalist overtones point to one of the book’s principal influences, the broad American tradition of fiction that flows from Hemingway and Faulkner down to Raymond Carver, Larry Brown, and Daniel Woodrell. At the heart of this tradition is a meticulous portrayal of men and women attempting to meet the challenges of living in an opaque, even hostile world, their struggles frequently engendered as much by their own shortcomings as by the recalcitrance of their environment. Such a characters’ fight to resist the world, even when it is doomed to failure, has provided the engine for a wide array of American novels ranging from The Sun Also Rises (1926) to Winter’s Bone (2007).
Thematically, this genealogy also lies within hailing distance of the horror narratives of writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, whose characters also contest overwhelming forces, exterior and interior. While this convergence has received little critical attention, it has been recognized and exploited by writers in the horror field ranging from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King. Their narratives lavish as much attention on character and setting as they do on the threat to them, creating, as it were, an imaginary werewolf in a real subdivision. The result of this is twofold. At the level of narrative action, the horrific elements gain in credibility and effect. At the level of narrative resonance, the real-world trials the characters face intersect the symbolic implications of the horrific elements, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Thus, in a novel such as Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) the adolescent anxieties besetting Bradbury’s teenaged protagonists manifest in outsize fashion in the monstrous carnival that descends on Green Town, Illinois. Similarly, the protean monster that stalks the pages of It (1986) mirrors the plethora of fears that afflict King’s characters, first as children and then as adults.
What Nathan Ballingrud does in North American Lake Monsters is to reinvigorate the horror tradition in which he participates by returning to that Hemingway-Faulkner source. Though it would be glib to describe the stories in this collection as Stephen King by way of Raymond Carver, Ballingrud’s portrayal of women and men clinging to the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder rings as true as any of Carver’s efforts, and gives his work an impressive heft.
The protagonist of the book’s opening story, the blistering “You Go Where It Takes You,” is a case in point. The single mother of a three-year-old daughter, waiting tables during the morning shift at the local diner, Toni is living a life that is gradually coming apart at the seams. Abandoned by her child’s father, pursued by a social worker questioning the child’s psychological well-being, her daily existence has become a puzzle she cannot solve. When a large but friendly customer offers to take her out, she accepts not out of any expectation of a Cinderella-style rescue from her circumstances, but because it will be something different to do, a break in the routine that is grinding her down. Yet when this man reveals a fantastic and gruesome secret to her, Toni reacts, not with fear, but with jealousy and desire, seizing the revelation as a chance for her to escape from her life. Her response, and the action it subsequently engenders, closes the story on a devastating note. This showcases one of Ballingrud’s strengths as a writer, his ability to inhabit the emotional lives of his characters in a way that feels utterly authentic.
That ability is on display throughout the rest of the stories in this book. In “Wild Acre,” a remarkable werewolf story, the beast is glimpsed only briefly during the story’s opening pages, but the psychological damage it inflicts on Jeremy, the sole survivor of its attack, poisons his life. Within the narrative, it is possible to recognize the outline of one of the more familiar werewolf stories, that of the man unwittingly infected by the monster’s curse. But Ballingrud uses that structure to frame a story about the ways in which violence warps the lives of all who encounter it. He offers no satisfying confrontation with the monster, no climactic dispatch of the beast and exorcism of its evil. The werewolf devotes no more attention to its victims than does any of the other forces arrayed against them, from an economy in recession to a social milieu in which they are not welcome. For the monster, its victims are food, worth no more attention than a lunchtime hamburger. Confronted by such circumstances, Jeremy is subject to the very real and alluring temptation to become like the beast, to embrace the violence that has granted it so much sway over his life. It is a compelling anatomy of the effects and the attractions of brutality
“Wild Acre” brings its monster onstage momentarily, and at a distance. Not all the stories in this collection, however, play as coy. The brilliant “Sunbleached” portrays a situation by now familiar to readers of vampire fiction: the disaffected youth who longs for a vampire to confer on him the gift of its condition. From Anne Rice to Stephanie Meyer, this plot has been treated in quasi-romantic terms. Ballingrud shifts the scenario to the Freudian family romance, giving us Joshua, a fifteen-year-old boy living with his mother and younger brother. Wounded by his father’s abandonment, jealous of his young mother’s boyfriend, Joshua looks to the vampire who becomes trapped under his house as a means to take control first of his own life, then of his family.. Yet the state of the vampire with whom Joshua is attempting to negotiate gives a clue that the situation is far, far worse than he realizes. Charred by a brief exposure to the rising sun, this is no handsome prince of the undead. Rather, it is sharp teeth and an appetite. We can hardly be blamed for guessing that the story will not turn out happily; when that guess is confirmed, however, it is in a scene shot through with a pathos even more devastating than the horror it accompanies.
Joshua is like many of the protagonists in Ballingrud’s stories: emotionally scarred; uncomfortable in his own skin; desperate for some kind of change, no matter good or bad. The vampire embodies one of the collection’s recurrent motifs, that of consumption. Sometimes it is the monsters who do the eating, sometimes the human characters, but the world of this book is one of hunger real and figurative, in which everyone is riven by a fundamental lack. Indeed, it may well be the manner in which a character responds to this radical insufficiency that defines him or her as monstrous or human. The monsters embrace and indulge their hungers unabashedly. The humans wrestle with their deficits, and although that struggle may lead them to terrible decisions, there is still the sense of their choices as stays against the abyss. Of course, this results in an irony that pervades the collection. But it is not a cheap irony, the knee-jerk response of the amateur cynic. Rather, it is the earned response of a writer who has watched men and women try to escape the traps of their lives by constructing bigger and more elaborate traps for themselves.
Among aficionados of horror fiction, it has become something of a commonplace to say that we are living in a new golden age of the field. Given the work of writers such as Laird Barron, Glen Hirshberg, Victor Lavalle, and Livia Llewellyn, this is not an unreasonable view to take. Certainly, the innovative and exciting fiction currently being produced in the horror field calls to mind the mid-1980s, when Clive Barker, T.E.D. Klein, Stephen King, and Peter Straub were demonstrating the potential of the horror story to serve as a vehicle for serious and sustained literary expression. Like the work of those earlier writers, that of Barron, Hirshberg, Lavalle, Llewellyn — and of Nathan Ballingrud — is built to last. Today, we might reach for a book such as Barker’s The Damnation Game (1985) or Klein’s Dark Gods (1985) as an example of work that has weathered the last few decades and promises to survive into those ahead. North American Lake Monsters is such a book. |
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Angie Gomez, 19, was a phenomenal fundraiser. She quickly raised $17,000 for her foundation, Achieve the Dream Foundation, to benefit children with leukemia. She created the foundation to help children suffering from the same disease that she was reportedly suffering from.
Angie began the foundation after she told friends and classmates that she had had leukemia as a child and the cancer had returned. In January of 2011, she told classmates that doctors only gave her 6 months to live.
Angie’s school, Horizon High School in Horizon City, Texas, rallied behind her and helped her with fundraising. KVIA in El Paso also adds that Angie’s school set up a dream prom for her since she missed hers due to a hospital stay. Rallying more support, she was asked to speak at other schools.
Even the local media latched onto Angie’s story. The Digital Texan reports that Angie had become a fixture in local media and was featured in a special “Inspiration For You” segment on KDBC in El Paso.
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The problem–Angie did not have cancer. The El Paso Times reports that last June, people began to wonder why Angie never appeared to be ill. Then, the Horizon City police opened an investigation on June 2, 2011 and found no evidence that Angie ever had cancer.
Angie was arrested on Friday evening. She has been charged with theft by deception according to The El Paso Times. Bond has been set at $50,000.
Sheldon Myers, Angie’s attorney, told KVIA that Angie was genuinely concerned about children with leukemia and had good intentions with the money.
He explained, “She has a real soft spot for people that suffer from those types of diseases, and that’s why she was trying to get money for them.”
He further stated that even though she had access to the money, she never used it. |
Where's the fun in that? iPhone cheats crack Britain's biggest hedge maze in minutes
Visitors to one of Britain's biggest mazes are finding their way out in record times - by cheating on their iPhones.
Adventure seekers usually spend anything up to 90 minutes getting lost in the Hedge Maze at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, before finding the exit.
But staff at the attraction have noticed people are working their way round the labyrinth of two miles of pathways and 16,000 yew trees in just a matter of minutes.
Technology has finally caught up with the giant yew maze at Longleat house in Wiltshire - as visitors turn to their iPhones and BlackBerrys to download maps and find their way out in record time
And they discovered that many are using iPhones and BlackBerrys to look up an aerial view of the maze on Google Earth.
The hand-held devices use GPS technology to pinpoint the exact location of the holder who then follows the online map to find the quickest route out.
Tim Bentley, attractions manager at Longleat said: 'The maze, whilst hugely popular, is also hugely frustrating as with all true mazes, it has been designed to confuse.
'I couldn't count the number of mobile phone calls we've had over the last few years from visitors who thought they'd never get out!
'But just recently we noticed more and more people were finding the exit a lot quicker than before but I didn't realise why until I went in there with my brother-in-law recently.
The maze features a labyrinth of two miles of pathways and 16,000 yew trees
'After about ten minutes of getting lost, he just said "I'm fed up with this'" and pulled out his iPhone which told him where he was and where he needed to go.
'We were out in next to no time.
'So I started to observe people going in the maze, especially younger ones, and noticed it was a bit of a trend.
'Although the hedges are 7ft tall, you quite often see people holding their phones aloft while looking for a signal or them standing on one of the six bridges with them.
'It's fascinating to see how mobile technology has come on and to learn that visitors are now using Google Earth to extract themselves from the maze.
A visitor turns to her iPhone to access Google Earth - and an escape route out of the maze
'I'm not sure what we can do. It might not be in the spirit of the maze but we can't very well tell our customers to turn their phones off when they go in.
'I guess that if they aren't spending as much time in the maze they have more time to enjoy the rest of the estate.'
More than 400,000 people get lost in the Longleat maze every year.
Visitor Paul Roberts, 29, a mechanic from Bristol, said: 'I came here six years ago and spent more than an hour trying to find my way out.
'It was so frustrating that at one point I called a friend in London to see if he could look at a map of the maze online and direct me out but that didn't work.
'So I made sure that my iPhone was fully charged when I went in there this time round.
'I gave myself 15 minutes to try and find my way out by myself but after that I gave in and turned to my iPhone - it worked a treat.'
Longleat House is now home to the 7th Marquess of Bath and is widely regarded as one of the best examples of high Elizabethan architecture in Britain |
Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
The lower house of Spain’s parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to recognize “Palestine” as a state.
“I want to express my satisfaction that all (political parties) have decided to vote for this declaration,” said Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Garcia-Margallo.
He added that just as Spanish politicians must arrive at accords in the parliament, “so too we have to arrive at accords in the European Union if we want a foreign policy that’s common and truly continental.”The position of the Spanish government has been to seek recognition of Palestinian statehood as the end result of bilateral negotiations, rather than unilaterally recognizing it outside such a process.Spain’s position takes on a magnified importance heading into 2015, when it will assume a temporary position on the United Nations Security Council, a body whose support is necessary for Palestinians to become a UN member state.Margallo said Monday before the vote “the worst service we can give to the cause of peace in the Middle East is for each country to continue advancing national, isolated solutions and not a joint solution." At a conference of European Union foreign ministers Monday, EU policy chief Federica Mogherini said that creating a Palestinian state was more important than recognizing one.“What we need is not just recognition [of a Palestinian state]. We need the building of a Palestinian state that can live next to the Israeli one in peace and security,” she said.The bill’s main proponent, former foreign minster Trinidad Jimenez, opened Tuesday’s legislative session by restating her “conviction that the solution to the conflict in the Middle East depends on the coexistence of two states.”She said because “negotiations have been cut off again and again,” it is necessary to “take another step forward” towards Palestinian statehood and regional peace.“It’s not against Israel, and it’s not against Palestine,” she said Monday in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. “It’s only to push parties to negotiate, to sit down.”Speaking Sunday with Germany’s foreign minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called similar resolutions that passed the British and Irish parliaments this fall counterproductive, saying the “the calls… to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state pushed peace backwards.”“They don’t tell the Palestinians that they have to make their peace with a nation-state for the Jewish people,” he said. They just give the Palestinians a nation-state.”Spain’s Congress of Deputies passed the motion after the largest opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, led by Jimenez, rejected an amendment from other opposition groups to fix a timeline for the recognition of “Palestine,” Spanish newspaper El País reported.But the more significant compromise was between the opposition and the ruling Popular Party, which added a paragraph promoting an international solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that “takes fully into account the legitimate worries, interests and aspirations of the State of Israel,” the newspaper reported.The motion passed with 319 votes in favor, two opposed and a single abstention.Some in the opposition took positions during Tuesday’s session that went further than the resolution.Basque politician Rafael Larreina took the podium wearing a red, white and green scarf that said “Palestine” in English. He condemned the recent violence in Israel, including a terrorist attack that killed four in Jerusalem and the hanging death of a Palestinian bus driver that Israeli police ruled a suicide, saying those events “lead to the conclusion that it’s urgent” to recognize a Palestinian state.Addressing a gallery of diplomats from the Arab world, Communist politician Joan Josep Noep said Israel, “invades Palestinian land and kills its people,” and called for the urgent recognition of a Palestinian state with “a capital that is called Jerusalem.”Though Noep had been in favor of an amendment recognizing “the historic city” as the Palestinian capital, his party withdrew it and he praised the measure as a clear statement of purpose.Referring to the French parliament’s Nov. 28 vote on Palestinian statehood, he said “the news tomorrow will be that we urge the government of Spain to recognize the state of Palestine, like Sweden has done as well, just like France will do next week, and how other European countries will possibly do following our example.”Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.
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Good morning. The supreme court will rule this morning on whether Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. The WikiLeaks founder denies the accusations.
The judgment will be announced at 9.15am. Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the president of the supreme court, will give a summary of the point of law raised by the case, the court's decision, and a brief explanation of why it has reached that decision.
Today's ruling does not deal with the substance of the accusations – which relate to a trip Assange took to Sweden in 2010, after which he was accused by two women with whom he had had sex of four offences of unlawful coercion and sexual misconduct including rape.
Instead it relates to one specific question: can a prosecutor rather than a judge legally order someone's extradition?
In Britain generally only judges can approve arrest warrants. But the warrant for Assange was issued by Sweden's public prosecutor, as is normal there.
Assange's lawyers argue that the Swedish system is unfair because it puts the power to issue arrest warrants in the hands of the same prosecutors who are trying to put the accused person in jail.
After a court ruled in February 2011 that Assange should be sent to Sweden to answer the accusations against him, the WikiLeaks founder appealed, lost, and then took the case to the supreme court. This February the supreme court heard two days of dense legal argument about whether a Swedish prosecutor constitutes a judicial authority under the European arrest warrant framework and the Extradition Act 2003, which incorporates it into British law, along with discussions of the history of the European arrest warrant framework going back to the 1957 European convention on extradition. (I live-blogged those two sessions in exhaustive detail here and here.)
Assange's QC, Dinah Rose, argued that the European arrest warrant's use of the term "judicial authorities" was meant to mean a judge or magistrate, and not a prosecutor, who is not independent. For Sweden, Clare Montgomery QC argued that the term "judicial authorities" was always meant to encompass prosecutors in some EU countries, and there was no requirement for the figure issuing the warrant to be independent.
If Assange loses today he can appeal to the European court of human rights. The ECHR will then respond within 14 days.
If it decides to take the case, it can also order "interim measures" to stay Assange's extradition until the case is heard.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service says that if the ECHR agrees to take the case it will not extradite him until the case has been heard, with or without interim measures: "If the ECHR takes the case then his current bail conditions would remain in force and he would remain in the UK until the proceedings at the ECHR have concluded." That could be months away.
However, it seems unlikely that the ECHR would agree to take the case. Barrister Carl Gardner of the Head of Legal blog told the Guardian that such an application would be a "steeply uphill" struggle for Assange:
His argument could only be that extradition (an application against the UK would have to be about the extradition itself) would breach article six [of the European convention on human rights – the right to a fair trial] indirectly, because a trial in Sweden would be a "flagrant denial of justice" - more than just an ordinary unfair trial. The only time I think the ECHR has ever said extradition/deportation/removal on these grounds would be in breach is I think Abu Qatada's case this year, in which it said the risk of use of evidence gained by torture would be a flagrant denial of justice. Assange's complaint would be much less powerful than that.
Assange may choose not to appeal to the ECHR. A source close to the WikiLeaks founder told the Guardian during February's supreme court hearings that he was unlikely to do so.
If the ECHR refuses to take the case Assange will be extradited to Sweden "as soon as arrangements can be made", the CPS says. Once in Sweden, Assange would probably be kept in custody - bail does not exist there - and if he is charged a trial might begin in a few months.
If Assange wins, however, he will not be extradited, and the system of European arrest warrants will be thrown into doubt, because many European countries have a system similar to Sweden's.
You can read more about the background to the case here.
Footage of the proceedings will be streamed live here. My colleagues Owen Bowcott and Esther Addley will be tweeting live from court, and we will be covering everything live here on this blog.
Karen Todner of Kaim Todner Solicitors, which has fought many extradition cases, has told the Associated Press she thinks Assange's prospects of success have increased:
When he first started out, I thought: "He hasn't gotten much of a chance," but now I'm much more hopeful. I would say that in the last few months there has definitely been a swing in favor of defendants in relation to extradition.
But she suggested that if Assange wins Sweden could reissue the extradition warrant through a judge.
And a spokewoman for Sweden's prosecutors told Reuters that if he wins the Swedish arrest warrant will still be valid in any other European country bar Britain.
In Stockholm, former senior prosecutor Sven-Erik Alhem expressed frustration with the delays, saying that European arrest warrants "should work efficiently and rapidly" and that he was surprised that the legal wrangling in Britain had dragged on for a year and a half. "If I were in his shoes, I would have been going to Sweden at once to get rid of this horrible situation where an investigation has been going on for so long," Alhem said.
Esther Addley tweets from the supreme court:
Team #Assange - Vaughan Smith, Gavin McFadyen, John Pilger, Kristin Hrafnsson - arrive at court. I haven't seen JA tho assume he's here — esther addley (@estheraddley) May 30, 2012
Owen Bowcott tweets from the supreme court:
More cameras than pro-Assange demonstrators outside. Usual Rolls Royce service inside supreme ct as machinery of justice glides into place. — Owen Bowcott (@owenbowcott) May 30, 2012
Esther Addley tweets from court:
20-30 journalists in court, all on laptops, iPads, smartphones. Similar scene on public benches too, obv. #Assange — esther addley (@estheraddley) May 30, 2012
The live feed from the supreme court has begun. You can watch it here.
BBC News is showing pictures of pro-Assange supporters outside the supreme court, carrying placards backing the WikiLeaks founder.
Dinah Rose QC and Assange's legal team are taking their seats.
All rise as the justices enter the court.
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the president of the supreme court, begins speaking.
He says the Swedish extradition request has raised a point of law for the court to address. That has nothing to do with the actual accusations against Assange, he says.
Phillips runs through the brief recent history of the European arrest warrant system.
This introduced a new rule whereby the state requesting extradition no longer had to prove the case to the other state.
Phillips says the point of law - does a prosecutor have the right to order extradition or must that be done by a judge - had not been simple to resolve and the decision on the supreme court was 5-2.
In French the words judicial authority can be used to mean a public prosecutor, Phillips says. Many countries use public prosecutors. The majority of justices agree that this means a public prosecutor is included in the Extradition Act.
Lady Hale and Lord Mance did not agree, he says.
That means Julian Assange has lost his case.
The Swedish public prosecutor is a judicial authority. The request for Assange's extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal has been dismissed, Phillips says.
Dinah Rose QC, for Julian Assange, says she has not had time to study the decision properly yet but she says it means that a majority of members of this court have made their decision based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties - but that was never brought up at the time, she says.
She is considering an application to argue that this matter should be "reopened", Rose says.
Lord Phillips gives her two weeks to make an application to reopen this case.
Rose asks if the extradition can be stayed for two weeks too. Phillips says that is a reasonable request and grants that.
Assange was not in court today.
The supreme court has just sent its full judgment. The press statement reads:
The issue is whether an European arrest warrant ("EAW") issued by a public prosecutor is a valid Part 1 EAW issued by a "judicial authority" for the purpose and within the meaning of sections 2 and 66 of the Extradition Act 2003. By a majority the court has concluded that the Swedish public prosecutor was a "judicial authority" within the meaning of both the framework decision and the Extradition Act. It follows that the request for Mr Assange's extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal against extradition is accordingly dismissed.
It adds:
The supreme court by a majority of five to two (Lady Hale and Lord Mance dissenting) dismisses the appeal and holds that an EAW issued by a public prosecutor is a valid Part 1 warrant issued by a judicial authority within the meaning of section 2(2) and 66 of the 2003 Act.
Here are the supreme court's reasons for its judgment:
Article 34 (2)(b) of the Treaty on European Union provides that framework decisions are binding on member states as to the result to be achieved but that national authorities may choose the form and method of achieving this. For the reasons given by Lord Mance in his judgment the supreme court is not bound as a matter of European law to interpret Part 1 of the 2003 [Extradition] Act in a manner which accords with the framework decision, but the majority held that the court should do so in this case. The immediate objective of the framework decision was to create a single system for achieving the surrender of those accused or convicted of serious criminal offences and this required a uniform interpretation of the phrase "judicial authority". There was a strong domestic presumption in favour of interpreting a statute in a way which did not place the United Kingdom in breach of its international obligations. An earlier draft of the framework decision would have put the question in this appeal beyond doubt, because it stated expressly that a prosecutor was a judicial authority. That statement had been removed in the final version. In considering the background to this change, the majority concluded that the intention had not been to restrict the meaning of judicial authority to a judge. They relied, as an aid to interpretation, on the subsequent practice in the application of the treaty which established the agreement of the parties. Some 11 member states had designated public prosecutors as the competent judicial authority authorised to issue EAWs. Subsequent reviews of the working of the EAW submitted to the European council reported on the issue of the EAWs by prosecutors without adverse comment and on occasion with express approval. Lord Phillips felt that this conclusion was supported by a number of additional reasons: (1) that the intention to make a radical change to restrict the power to issue EAWs to a judge would have been made express, (2) that the significant safeguard against the improper use of EAWs lay in the preceding process of the issue of the domestic warrant which formed the basis for the EAW, (3) that the reason for the change was rather to widen the scope to cover some existing procedures in member states which did not involve judges or prosecutors and that the draft referred to "competent judicial authority" which envisaged different types of judicial authority involved in the process of executing the warrant. Lord Dyson preferred not to infer the reasons for the change and did not find the additional reasons persuasive. Lord Walker and Lord Brown also found these reasons less compelling. Lord Kerr relied on the fact that public prosecutors in many of the member states had traditionally issued arrest warrants to secure extradition and a substantial adjustment to administrative practices would have been required. Parliamentary material relating to the debates before the enactment of the 2003 Act were held by the majority to be inadmissible as an aid to construction under the rule in Pepper v Hart [1993] AC 593, given the need to ensure that the phrase "judicial authority" had the same meaning as it had in the framework decision. Lord Kerr remarked that that it would be astonishing if parliament had intended radically to limit the new arrangements (thereby debarring extradition from a number of member states) by use of precisely the same term as that employed in the framework decision. Lord Mance, dissenting, held that the common law presumption that parliament intends to give effect to the UK's international obligations was always subject to the will of parliament as expressed in the language of the statute. In this case, the correct interpretation of "judicial authority" in the framework decision, a question of EU law, was far from certain. Thus if parliament had intended to restrict the power to issue EAWs to judges or courts, that would not have required a deliberate intention to legislate inconsistently with the framework decision. As the words in the statute were ambiguous, it was appropriate to have regard to ministerial statements, and those statements showed that repeated assurances were given that an issuing judicial authority would have to be a court, judge or magistrate. Lady Hale agreed with Lord Mance that the meaning of the framework decision was unclear and that the supreme court should not construe a UK statute contrary both to its natural meaning and to the evidence of what parliament thought it was doing at the time.
Here is the judgment in full (pdf).
Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg was just on BBC News talking about the request by Julian Assange's QC, Dinah Rose, for two weeks to decide whether to ask the supreme court to reopen the case. He said:
This is a very unusual thing. It's not happened since this court was set up. It happened in the Pinochet case in the House of Lords. Very unusual, and means there's everything left to play for still.
He said that since Assange was not in court his lawyers had not been able to take instructions from him yet regarding what he wanted them to do. "We're waiting to see what he says. In the meantime he can stay in this country for at least two weeks, while they consider making this unprecedented application to reopen the case on the basis that it was decided on a point of law in the Vienna Convention on the Interpretation of Treaties that was simply not argued by either side and which the court gave no notice to either the Crown Prosecution Service, representing the Swedish authorities, or Mr Assange's lawyers, that they were considering taking into account."
Rozenberg added:
It would be very embarrassing if the supreme court felt the need to reopen the case and it's extraordinary, isn't it, that they might have considered something which they gave the parties no opportunity to argue. From time to time judges do their research and they add points, minor points, that have not been considered, but it appears that the decisive point in this case was one that wasn't argued, and that's something which is pretty unusual, and that's what prompted this unexpected intervention from Dinah Rose which took Lord Phillips so much by surprise that he mixed her up with the other counsel, Clare Montgomery.
Here is a summary of this morning's events:
• Julian Assange has lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden at the supreme court. By a majority of five to two, the justices decided that a public prosecutor was a "judicial authority" and that his arrest warrant therefore had been lawfully issued.
• But lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder were given two weeks to decide whether to challenge one of the points made in the judgment, and Assange's extradition will be stayed at least until then. Dinah Rose QC, for Assange, said that the justices had made their decision based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties - but the provisions of that convention had not been raised during the hearing.
• Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg said this meant there was "everything to play for still", and it would be "very embarrassing" if the supreme court had to reopen the case on the basis that "they might have considered something which they gave the parties no opportunity to argue".
• In brief, the judges ruled that the the UK had signed up to the European framework on extradition in order to help create a single system for surrendering accused people, and that it was always intended that the 11 EU member states that allow prosecutors to issue extradition orders – as Sweden, but not the UK, does – would be able to continue doing so.
• Lord Mance, one of two dissenting justices, said the wording of the framework decision was ambiguous and so it was appropriate to consider what ministers said at the time, which was that it would be a judge, court or magistrate that issued the order.
• Assange was not in court. His solicitor, Gareth Peirce, told the Guardian's Owen Bowcott that he was stuck in traffic.
My colleague Esther Addley has been speaking to Gareth Peirce, Julian Assange's lawyer.
Peirce said that Assange's team will ask the supreme court to reopen the case based on the fact that the justices made their decision based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which was not discussed in court.
If that fails, Assange's supporter John Pilger, the Australian journalist, told Esther that his team would appeal to the European court of human rights.
Peirce told her it was premature to say that before domestic legal routes had been exhausted. "It's fair to say that the mood within the Assange camp is to take this as far as they can," Esther said.
The supreme court has just put out this statement:
Following this morning's judgment by the supreme court of the United Kingdom in Assange v The Swedish Prosecution Authority, Ms Rose (counsel for the appellant, Mr Assange) has indicated that she may make an application to reopen the court's decision. Ms Rose suggested that the majority of the court appear to have based their decision on the interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, on which no argument was heard and no opportunity of making submission was given. The supreme court has granted Ms Rose fourteen (14) days to make such an application. If she decides to do so, the justices will then decide whether to reopen the appeal and accept further submissions (either verbally through a further hearing, or on paper) on the matter. We will keep you updated on progress with this application and the justices' consideration of any such application. With the agreement of the respondent, the required period for extradition shall not commence until 13 June 2012, the 14th day after judgment in accordance with section 36(3)(b) of the Extradition Act 2003.
The full judgment makes several references to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (to recap, Assange's team plan to ask the supreme court to reopen the case now because this convention was not discussed during the supreme court hearing in February). The convention was adopted in 1969 and codifies the principles of international treaties.
• On page 25 of today's judgment, Lord Phillips, the president of the supreme court, notes that the convention allows judges to consider how a treaty has been implemented in practice in order to interpret its intentions. He uses this principle to point out that EU member states, the European commission and European council have all acted as if the extradition agreement allowed prosecutors to issue extradition orders.
• On page 49, Lord Walker says he finds the above point "determinative" in his rejection of Assange's case. On page 53, Lord Kerr also uses the Vienna convention as evidence in rejecting Assange's case. Lord Dyson does the same on page 61.
• However, on page 77, Lady Hale, one of the dissenting justices, makes some points which may be similar to any case Assange's team may make if the case is reopened. Hale notes:
Article 31.3(b) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides that there shall be taken into account, along with the context, "any subsequent practice in the application of the treaty which establishes the agreement of the parties regarding its interpretation". While the practice need not be that of all the parties to the treaty (as in this case it obviously is not) the practice has to be such as to establish the agreement of all the parties as to its interpretation. Given the lack of common or concordant practice between the parties, is the failure to date of those countries which do not authorise prosecutors and other bodies to object to those who do sufficient to establish their agreement? Nobody in this country seems to have addressed their mind to the issue until it arose in this case. Failure to address minds to an issue is not the same as acquiescence in a particular state of affairs. Subsequent practice does not give support to the respondent's extreme position and there has been no consideration of the principles which might distinguish some prosecutors from others. This seems to me to be a rather flimsy basis on which to hold that we are obliged to construe a United Kingdom statute contrary both to its natural meaning and to the clear evidence of what parliament thought that it was doing at the time.
• And on page 94 Lord Mance claims "suspect practice consisting of the use and nomination of executive authorities by a few states cannot come near establishing 'the agreement of the parties regarding [the] interpretation of the Framework Decision' within the meaning of article 31.3 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties."
So it seems there is plenty of scope for legal argument on this point should the case now be reopened.
Jago Russell of campaign group Fair Trials International has attacked Sweden over its use of pre-trial detention. Russell said: "Although Sweden is rightly proud of its justice system, its overuse of pre-trial detention means that, if extradited, he is likely to be imprisoned and placed under extremely restrictive conditions."
The charity also summarised what would happen to Assange if he is extradited:
Mr Assange will be arrested on his arrival in Sweden and taken to a Swedish police station. Within 96 hours of being detained he will be brought to court, for a decision as to whether he should be remanded in custody until trial … This hearing is normally in private, unlike in many other countries, including the UK, where such hearings are normally in open court. As soon as the investigation is over, a decision will be taken about whether to formally charge him. Swedish law requires a person to be physically present before charges can be laid, so this can only happen once Mr Assange is on Swedish territory. Alternatively, prosecutors may decide not to charge Mr Assange and to release him.
Fair Trials International is calling for reform of the European arrest warrant system to guard against its "abuse and overuse" and wants the EU to legislate "to require all EU countries to respect basic fair trial rights and ensure people are not kept in pre-trial detention for excessive periods".
Here is a clip from this morning's hearing.
A Liberal Democrat peer and MEP has attacked the length of Julian Assange's court case.
Lady (Sarah) Ludford, MEP for London, says that one of the positive aspects of the European arrest warrant is its "making extradition to trial quicker and less bureaucratic." But:
Lengthy court proceedings like this on procedural issues however defeat the objective, with justice delayed being justice denied. It might therefore be helpful if EU legislation was clearer on definitions such as "judicial authority", although it is difficult to do so without encroaching on national competence for criminal justice systems.
She says she is going to ask her fellow MEPs to raise the judgment with the European commission and the European council.
Here is the Guardian's interactive history of the supreme court.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson has blamed Washington for today's ruling. "This is not the final outcome. What we have here is retribution from the US," he said, according to Reuters.
Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer who represents the two Swedish women who accuse Assange of sex crimes, dismissed such claims in comments to the Associated Press. "He is not at a greater risk of being handed over from Sweden than from Britain," Borgstrom said.
Per Samuelson, one of Assange's two Swedish lawyers, said he was confident his client would be cleared if he had to go to Sweden. "I feel a strong conviction that he will, in Sweden, in due time, one way or another, be vindicated - he will be exculpated and acquitted ... I look forward to this with confidence," he told Reuters.
My colleague Owen Bowcott reports that Assange's lawyers can begin appealing against the judgment to the European court of human rights at the same time as requesting the supreme court reopen the case.
Joshua Rozenberg has the inside story on how Dinah Rose's "quick legal footwork" ensured Julian Assange a two-week stay of extradition this morning.
The judges had been warned that Dinah Rose QC, his fearless counsel, wanted to address the court. But they were not prepared for what she had to say. That was largely their own fault. Normally, draft judgments are circulated to counsel up to a week before delivery. That enables the lawyers to point out minor errors: a name mistyped, a date wrong and so on. It's something of a safeguard for the judges. But since it was the WikiLeaks man whose appeal they were hearing, the supreme court justices were taking no chances. To avoid leaks, lawyers were not shown the judgments until 8.30 this morning. That was just enough time for Rose to work out that the court had based its reasoning on a point that had never been argued at the two-day hearing in February. Assange, who didn't turn up for the judgment, knew nothing of what was being done on his behalf.
He also gives a rough summary of what might happen when Assange's team asks the supreme court to reopen the case:
In the end, the judges may decide that they were entitled to take the Vienna convention into account. In that event, they would presumably confirm the decision they delivered today. But given two weeks to prepare her case, Rose could well come up with other arguments. In the meantime, Assange can stay in the UK.
Julian Assange's lawyer Gareth Peirce is quoted in this story by Owen Bowcott and Esther Addley:
The majority of the judges believe that parliament was seriously misled when it approved the European arrest warrant system. Parliament thought a "judicial authority" meant a judge or court but the majority of supreme court judges based their decision on what is the practice in Europe and decided it on the basis of the Vienna convention, which was never argued before the court.
Veteran Australian journalist John Pilger, a supporter of Assange's, was also quoted. He was putting a brave face on today's events:
I don't think this judgment is a blow. We are disappointed but it came so close. Three of the judges [who found against Assange] were tipping in our favour. There was a consensus [on the bench] that parliament had been misled on this law. The court has now agreed to allow Julian Assange's legal team to go back and reconsider this. This case moves in mysterious ways and we are about to move into another mysterious stage of this whole unnecessary process.
.
With that I'm going to draw this blog to a close. Many thanks for all your comments. See you next time.
One final post. Here Julian Assange's supporters and his lawyer react to today's verdict. |
UPDATE: Late Thursday afternoon, five days after launch, Apple Maps had been updated to reflect the new King Street Pilot Project.
Toronto motorists and transit users may want to double check the routes and transit stops in their smartphone’s GPS apps on Sunday as they look to navigate the confusion of the city’s major King Street transit pilot project once it launches.
The busy street within the downtown core of Canada’s largest city is getting a transit- and cyclist-focused overhaul across 18 intersections from Bathurst to Jarvis Sts, which will severely change how people move around the area. The city has reported that 20,000 vehicles use King St. per day, while the TTC says 60,000 people use its King streetcar each weekday.
While city planners have publicly said that it will take time for people to adjust to the new rules — which includes moving the location of transit stops and significantly rerouting traffic — people hoping for navigational assistance from their smartphone will want to first make sure the street changes have been adjusted in their favourite apps before using them as some of the companies behind them have yet to confirm exact timing for updates.
Despite the new transit pilot project being approved back in summer and made a priority by the city, ensuring seamless integration of the new routes into the popular map platforms seemed to be an afterthought for many of the companies until pressed by the Financial Post, as it took some a full business day to confirm the changes will be integrated while it’s still unclear if other app services will be ready for day one.
Once asked, Google Canada told the Financial Post that engineers are putting a fix in for the route changes.
“Google Maps users will see the changes… updated as of Sunday Nov. 12, 2017 at 12:01am when the King Street Pilot Project goes live,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Microsoft’s Bing said it is taking the appropriate actions to reflect the pilot. Apple was unable to comment at the time of publishing.
Other apps are also looking to reflect the road changes.
“Uber supports the objectives of this pilot project – making public transit and shared journeys more attractive – and has been working closely with the City to support them with its implementation,” Susie Heath, Uber Canada spokesperson, told the Post in a statement. “We are actively working to make the rider and driver experience on King Street West seamless, and continue to make changes to the app related to the pilot to improve pick-ups and drop-offs for both Uber and UberEATS.”
Uber has yet to respond to a follow-up question about whether this means the company’s apps will be ready from the moment of the pilot project’s launch on Sunday.
Popular navigational apps such as Google Maps and Apple Maps are regularly updated and improved over time as the need arises to reflect road closures or street changes. The challenge would be to get the apps ready as soon as the changes are implemented on Sunday, or will the drivers be left in the lurch.
King Street, which cuts straight through the heart of the city’s financial district, is already expected to be a frenzy during the project’s early days as motorists and transit users learn its ropes. With a ramped up police presence during the initial weeks of launch, the last thing the tens of thousands of motorists will want is to be told by their phone to illegally travel through a major intersection under the watchful eyes of enforcement.
The City of Toronto approved the one-year transit pilot project back in July that will prevent motorists from driving straight through most intersections from Bathurst to Jarvis Sts along King St., forcing them to turn right at each stop light to make way for more streetcars and cyclists in an area otherwise filled with one-way and side streets.
The $1.5-million project — which is a push by Toronto to reduce traffic congestion — will also remove on-street parking and replace them with public spaces, taxi stands and loading zone.
The Toronto Transit Commission has been doing a marketing blitz to help raise awareness of the major changes, which includes billboards, broadcast advertisements and newspaper ads. Whether or not the efforts work will be seen.
A report on the transit pilot project’s effectiveness will be presented to Toronto city council in late 2018.
This article will be updated if and when further comment is received from the tech companies.
Financial Post
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Twitter.com/JoshMcConnell |
Mortality due to substance abuse has increased in Appalachia by more than 1,000 percent since 1980. Deaths from diabetes, blood and endocrine diseases also increased in most counties in the United States during that time.
That’s according to a new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examining the mortality rates for 21 leading causes of death. The study also found that the death rate from cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of mortality in the U.S., is down in most parts of the country. And the research highlights numerous disparities between counties. For example, a newborn is nearly 10 times more likely to die from a neonatal disorder if she is born in Humphreys County, Mississippi, which has the highest neonatal mortality rate in the country, than if she is born in Marin County, a wealthy area north of San Francisco, which has the lowest rate.
The study also looked at how mortality from the 21 causes of death has changed over time, from 1980 through 2014. For example, neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s were the third leading cause of death in 2014 and were prevalent across the country. But they have become more common in much of the South, while decreasing in the West.
The study diverges from previous work on mortality by accounting for “garbage codes” — vague causes of death that can be listed when doctors have no reason or resources to find a more specific cause. For example, death certificates frequently list generic causes of death like “unspecified heart disease” or “unspecified stroke.” It’s also difficult to estimate mortality for relatively rare causes of death in counties with small populations. Using death records from the National Vital Statistics System, the authors found that of the 80.4 million deaths that occurred from 1980 through 2014 in the United States, a full quarter, 19.4 million, were assigned garbage codes. After applying a combination of statistical methods that took into account previously published literature, demographics, and estimates of diseases’ prevalence and severity, the authors assigned more specific causes of death to records with garbage codes. What results is a geographical look at mortality rates for leading causes of death and how those rates have changed over time.
Lead author Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, says she hopes the data can be useful to local health workers and the public. “If you go to any state health coordinator, they probably know what was recorded on the death certificates. But it can be really difficult to interpret them,” she said. She hopes that collapsing the various causes of death down to 21, rather than looking at everything that can kill a person, will make it easier to target regional problems.
The institute makes the data available to the public, along with its previous work on life expectancy and other health outcomes. There’s a lot of information worth exploring, but here are a few trends that emerged from Tuesday’s report:
Cancer and cardiovascular disease hit Appalachia and the lower Mississippi River region hard
The rate of death from cardiovascular disease has gone down all over the country in the last 35 years. It has decreased less, however, in the areas that already had the highest death rates for cardiovascular disease — counties surrounding the lower Mississippi River and the heart of Appalachia. Meanwhile, cancer is responsible for the largest number of “years of life lost,” a measure of the number of years a person likely would have lived if she hadn’t died of a given cause. While deaths from cancer have decreased in southern Florida, the California coast and parts of New England by as much as 58 percent since 1980, they have increased in Kentucky and the western side of West Virginia. Both diseases contribute to a growing disparity in mortality that separates Appalachia and the lower Mississippi from the rest of the country.
These two areas glow red on many of the mortality maps, and both regions have for decades had a lower life expectancy than much of the country. There are some differences, however. Deaths from substance abuse have skyrocketed in rural, white Appalachia, but they remain relatively rare in the predominantly African-American counties of the Deep South, adding to evidence that an epidemic of opioid use has led to an increase in death rates among middle-aged whites.
Infrastructure and access can be an issue in rural areas
While transportation-related deaths went down 50 percent or more in most of New England and California, much of the central United States saw much more modest declines. Troublingly, vehicle-related deaths increased by as much as 45 percent in rural areas of Appalachia and the South. Those increases have previously been shown to be linked to the infrastructure of rural areas. Country roads are less likely to be divided, making head-on collisions more common. A trend of rural hospital closings may also make it harder for crash victims to get treatment in time to save their lives.
Meanwhile, many of those same areas have seen an increase in deaths from diarrhea, pneumonia and other infectious diseases. More than a quarter of counties, 28.3 percent, saw increased mortality from infectious disease from 1980 through 2014, diseases that are largely preventable and may reflect a lack of access to medical care.
Self-harm is a growing problem in Western states
Although several of the maps for leading causes of death, such as heart disease, parallel maps of life expectancy, a handful show very different trends. Among them is the map showing deaths from suicide and interpersonal violence, which highlights the epidemic of suicide in the West that we wrote about earlier this year. While that trend is well-documented in other research, the county-based analysis used in this paper can mask the effect of violence in places like Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago, where the population is large and violence is concentrated in specific neighborhoods. |
Watching a preview of next week’s BBC series Who Needs Fathers?, I felt ashamed to be a woman. The men on the programme appeared to be loving, attentive fathers – not extremists in Batman costumes. All they wanted was to play their part in the upbringing of their children. But, at every turn, it seemed, vengeful, short-sighted women were selfishly trying to thwart them.
These mothers cancelled contact arrangements, scuppered telephone calls, made false allegations of abuse, and prevented the men taking their children on holiday. “Honestly, I feel like throwing in the towel,” said one tearful father, who sat in his car outside his ex’s front door, waiting in vain for the children to come out. Only an emergency court order won him the day.
Not only did these women want total control of the children – believing their love was enough – they also expected their exes to keep them in the style to which they had become accustomed, while the men lived in cramped bedsits. When one man finally manages to remortgage his own home to keep a working mother in hers, her response is: “OK, so I can book a holiday.”
The programmes not only seek to explain why 40 per cent of fathers lose touch with their children within two years of divorce – the figure is likely to be even higher when unmarried parents separate – but also why this matters. Looking at the confused faces of children being fought over by parents like favourite toys, it was not difficult to imagine what might happen when they grew into teenagers, unsure about their loyalties and identities. Indeed, in the third programme, we see fatherless teenagers behaving appallingly.
The prospects for children who don’t see their fathers are bleak, according to a Unicef report in 2007. Educationally, they do less well. They are more likely to get in trouble with the police, and to abuse drugs and alcohol. They also find it more difficult to form relationships. If Broken Britain – that over-used moral call to arms – has roots, they lie in broken homes.
A third of children are now growing up without parents living under the same roof. Each of the 150,000 to 200,000 separations per year is a source of sadness for the children involved, children who yearn – however unrealistically – for mummy and daddy to live together happily ever after. But those partings can be handled more or less well. “The emotionally healthy 18 year-olds,” says Judge Nicholas Crichton, who works in the family courts, “are those who can say, 'Whatever happened between my parents, I knew I was loved and that I was free to love both parents without feeling guilty.’?”
Too few children are growing up with that balance. Ninety three per cent of children live with their mother after a separation, and half then lose touch with the non-resident parent. That’s a tragedy not only for the fathers, but for the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who would otherwise provide a support network for those children.
Acrimony is unavoidable when relationships end, but some couples, such as Chris and Angela in the first programme, succeed in suppressing their irritation with one another for the sake of their children. Why then do so many children lose a parent to this game of bitterness and revenge?
“Henry” (not his real name), who is seen in the second programme, tells me he blames a court system that is biased against fathers, as well as being expensive, slow and ineffectual. When his daughter was born, Henry wanted to be involved, even though he had subsequently married. In return for maintenance, he saw his daughter alternate weekends and took her on holiday. “She was a massive part of my life,” he says. “Then her mother decided to live abroad.”
He fought the move but, as in 99 per cent of cases, the mother won in court. “All a woman has to say is that refusal will psychologically damage her. There’s a view that whatever is in the mother’s interests is also in the child’s interests, even though nine out of 10 non-resident parents then lose touch.”
Henry did not wish to be one of them, but despite a “mirror order” giving him visiting rights and regular contact, he has had to fight for every glimpse and chat, at a cost of £70,000, putting considerable strain on his marriage. “When we meet it’s wonderful, but it’s hard to slot into a role if you haven’t seen a child regularly.”
During the whole court process he felt “like the puppet in the hands of a puppeteer”. He says: “I can understand why mothers use whatever power is at their disposal, but there was an imbalance.” Many fathers feel the same. “In order to be considered equal, you have to be twice as good,” says Simon Ramet, who has fought for half his child’s time.
“The courts are still stuck in a 1950s paradigm of mothers doing the caring, and fathers doing the earning,” says John Davies, chief executive of Families Need Fathers.
Women are also more likely to get legal aid than fathers, who have to weigh up the cost of pursuing a case against the fear that the longer they go without seeing a child, the weaker their case for maintaining contact becomes. “As few parents with young children can afford it, access to the law often depends on having wealthy parents. It tends to be a middle-class privilege,” says Sara Feilden, producer for Films of Record, who made the BBC series.
Despite fears that speaking out will harm participants’ contact arrangements, Fielden is glad to have found the brief window of opportunity in which to tell their stories. Last year, it became legal to report on the family courts, but a Bill is going through Parliament that would make it impossible, once again, to film people who have been involved in family legal disputes. “It’s unlikely that we would ever again be able to make a programme about this important issue,” she says.
The men filmed are eager to highlight the shortcomings of an overburdened legal system. Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service), which appoints guardians to represent the child’s interests, is so stretched that it can take nine months to produce a report. When allegations of misconduct are made, contact is rightly refused until they have been investigated. But sometimes they are purely vexatious.
Families Need Fathers is fighting for a number of changes on behalf of all non-resident parents, mothers as well as fathers. These include publication of judgments so parents know what to expect (and may therefore avoid court), sanctions for those who make false allegations, and financial recognition that non-resident parents also have to maintain a home suitable for their children to visit.
The current system finds favour with few, least of all those whose lives are dominated by endless hearings and court orders. “You should be reasonable when splitting up,” says Juliette Thomas, who was brave enough to defend on air her reluctance to allow Alex, her ex, his share of their four sons’ time: she claimed lack of clarity in his plans. Unable to agree, the court process has made the gulf between them wider and Alex resentful.
Family breakdown is not unique to the UK, but some countries seem to handle it better. In Australia, an assumption of shared parenting was introduced four years ago, backed up by family centres where separating couples could be given information and counselling on sharing their children. More children are now staying in contact with both parents as a result.
Dr Mandy Bryon, chief psychologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, tells parents: “Whether you like it or not, you will remain in a relationship with one another as parents of your children.” To prepare for that, she believes couples need to acknowledge the errors in thinking that occur when people are angry and upset, and to anticipate the problems that cause flare- ups – late delivery back, changes of plans, and so on.
“If parents are living together and a child comes back from a visit to the park with the father in tears, the mother will try to reassure both parties. If they are separated she will say, 'Never again.’ The father might ask the child not to tell Mummy. Then, when the child blurts out what Daddy said, the mother thinks something sinister is going on.”
Judge Crichton already sends many parents on courses to learn about sharing. If we adopted a system similar to the Australian one, that would be compulsory before a couple go to court. “A good thing too,” he says, “as the courts are not the best place to sort these matters out.”
Both the Labour and Conservative parties have reviewed the family-law system. Henry Bellingham, shadow justice minister, talks of introducing automatic shared contact, if the Conservatives are elected, and using Sue Start centres for counselling. Looking at the worried eyes of children caught up in disputes that they don’t understand, change can’t come too soon.
'Who Needs Fathers’ starts on BBC Two at 9pm next Wednesday. |
Share. Devilish. Devilish.
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It’s been a long, devil-free few months That’s all over now though, thanks to the return of Lucifer. After the end of the second season found Lucifer himself (Tom Ellis) mysteriously regaining his angel wings, there’s no telling how it will impact his relationship with Chloe (Lauren German) or his place on earth. One thing we do know for sure though is that the show's cast is expanding for Season 3.
Exit Theatre Mode
Smallville alum Tom Welling makes his return to TV in Lucifer’s third season, joining the cast as Lieutenant Marcus Pierce, who will be going out of his way to antagonize the devil. While that normally wouldn’t seem like a great idea, since this is Lucifer Morningstar we’re talking about, this isn't much better than rattling this devil’s cage.
Lucifer returns to the air on Monday, Oct 2 on FOX. But what if you want to catch it online instead? In the every-changing TV landscape, there are a number of ways to keep up with the show. To keep things as easy as possible, check out the complete guide to all the ways you can watch and stream Lucifer below.
Watch Lucifer on TV
Lucifer airs Mondays at 8:00 on FOX. Additionally, episodes are available on demand the day after they air. Always remember you can use a cheap to get free HD local channels any time.
Stream Lucifer Season 3 Online Live
If you want to watch Lucifer live but don’t have traditional cable service and an antenna isn’t an option for you, you can consider streaming live TV via the internet. FOX broadcasts live on streaming services Sling, Hulu Live, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now. Episodes will also be available for on demand streaming the next day.
At $25 per month, Sling's Blue package is the cheapest option and includes 44 additional channels beyond FOX.
Stream Lucifer Season 7 On Demand
FOXNOW App and FOX.com
What if you have a TV subscription but miss an episode and forgot to DVR it? Luckily, the devil has your back. You can stream episodes the next day on FOX’s website and through the FOXNOW app. You’ll have to sit through commercials, but by logging in with your TV provider information, you’ll have access to episodes the day after they air on TV.
Hulu
If you don’t have a cable subscription of any kind, Hulu might be your best bet. Episodes will stream on the service the day after they air on FOX. You will, however, need a Hulu membership. With plans starting at $5.99 a month, it’s one of the cheaper options.
Both FOX.com and Hulu can be accessed through laptops and desktop computers via your browser. Meanwhile, the apps for both are available on a number of devices. You can access them through your iPhone, iPad or Android devices. Beyond that, the service can also be used via Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Google Chromecast or Roku Streaming Stick devices -- all of which connect to your TV through an HDMI port.
Each device has its strengths. Apple TV connects to your library of music and movies purchased through your Apple devices, while Google Chromecast allows you to stream content from your smartphone, tablet or computer to the TV. Amazon Fire TV Stick gives users access to the Amazon Prime video library, should they be Prime members, and the Roku Streaming Stick offers access to many streaming service you may already be signed up for.
The app is also available on select Samsung Smart TVs, both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 gaming consoles, as well as through Windows 8.1 or newer devices.
A complete list of devices for the FOXNOW and Hulu apps:
Catch Up on Previous Lucifer Seasons
The FOXNOW App and FOX.com offer up the five previous episodes of Lucifer to stream for free, but reminder you’ll need to input your cable credentials. Hulu carries all previous seasons of the DC Comics Vertigo series for streaming with your subscription for a devilishly good time.
If you would rather purchase previous episodes from older seasons, that can be done digitally through iTunes, Amazon Video, YouTube, Vudu, Fandango Now, Microsoft and Google Play for offline use on your laptop and various devices. The seasons can also be purchased on DVD.
Stream Lucifer Internationally
Outside of the United States, there are still ways to watch Lucifer. The series can be purchased for streaming on Amazon Video in various countries. In Canada, current season episodes can be streamed on CityTV’s website, the network that airs the series in that country.
Lucifer isn't the only hit show based on a comic series - check out our list of shows based on comic books. |
Here we go again, hon.
Almost three years after the controversy over trademarks on the word “hon” was resolved during an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, somebody has decided to stir up that kettle of fish.
On Sept. 9, the U.S Patent and Trademark Office published for opposition a trademark for a HON-based design and word.
Baltimore designer Thaddeus Stamps filed a registration for a trademark on Nov. 1, 2012, about three months after records indicate that he first used the design commercially.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Stamps is a freelance designer for Defiant AD, a Baltimore-based online design and apparel company.
At press time, the Defiant AD site was experiencing database problems and many pages were not accessible. Some pages, including the company’s about page and online store can be viewed.
Defiant AD sells a “hOn hat” featuring a stylized script lettering for $25, and a $20 “Baltimore hOn” t-shirt.
The “O” and the inclining “Baltimore” lettering on the t-shirt are similar to designs on merchandise sold by the Baltimore Orioles. When contacted by WTBH, a representative of the Orioles organization declined to comment on the record.
Attempts to contact Stamps and the principals of Defiant AD have not been successful.
The Sept. 9 publication by the USPTO begins a 30-day period during which any party who may be damaged by registration of the trademark to file either an opposition to registration or request an extension of the deadline to oppose. If no oppositions are filed or are unsuccessful, the trademark owner is sent a certificate of registration.
According to a source familiar with the matter, a party already plans on filing an opposition to the trademark.
In December of 2010, a “hontroversy” erupted when Baltimoreans learned that Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting had registered HON trademarks for a variety of printed products such as bumper stickers and coffee mugs. After a year of protests and boycotts that drove Cafe Hon to the brink of failure, Whiting relinquished claims on the trademarks.
Whiting declined to comment on this story.
“After everything that happened, I can’t imagine anyone willing to jeopardize their business by trademarking that word,” said Charlene Osborne, a former “Baltimore’s Best Hon” winner who works as a professional hon under the name of Blaze Char and published a book, My Year as Baltimore’s Best Hon.
“I suggest whoever these people are make a date with Denise Whiting at Cafe Hon and ask her how that worked out,” said Baltimore author and WTBH contributor Rafael Alvarez. “This news will be widely disseminated, and the controversy will rage anew. It won’t be worth the few dollars they make off the symbol.” |
The world’s first floating city is soon to become a reality. The $10 billion Freedom Ship will be big enough to fit 50,000 residents, 30,000 visitors, schools, a hospital, parks and even an airport. Since the vessel will be too large to enter any port, it will simply sail from country to country in two-year cycles.
The mile-long floating city is nearing start of construction, according to Florida-based Freedom Ship International Inc. It will boast 25 floors of activities, schools, hospitals, art galleries, shops, parks, casinos, an aquarium and a small airport on the roof with a runway for smaller private and commercial aircrafts.
The company is currently trying to raise the $10 billion needed to make this huge project a reality. The company’s vice-president said that they are just $1 million short of the amount necessary for construction to start.
Once completed, the ship will be 4,500 feet long-four times longer than the famous Queen Mary II. The large floating structure would be powered by solar panels and aeolic energy while navigating international waters. The city would spend most of the year-around 70 percent of the time-anchored off major cities.
+ Freedom Ship
Via Daily Mail |
Description
The First Folio is the first collected edition of William Shakespeare's plays, collated and published in 1623, seven years after his death. Folio editions were large and expensive books that were seen as prestige items.
Shakespeare wrote around 37 plays, 36 of which are contained in the First Folio. Most of these plays were performed in the Globe, an open-air playhouse in London built on the south bank of the Thames in 1599. As none of Shakespeare's original manuscripts survive (except, possibly, Sir Thomas More, which Shakespeare is believed to have revised a part of) we only know his work from printed editions.
Why is the First Folio so important?
Of the 36 plays in the First Folio, 17 were printed in Shakespeare's lifetime in various good and bad smaller quarto editions, one was printed after his death and 18 had not yet been printed at all. It is this fact that makes the First Folio so important; without it, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays, including Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and The Tempest, might never have survived.
The text was collated by two of Shakespeare's fellow actors and friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, who edited it and supervised the printing. They appear in a list of the 'Principall Actors' who performed in Shakespeare's plays, alongside Richard Burbage, Will Kemp and Shakespeare himself.
Heminge and Condell divided the plays into comedies, tragedies and histories, an editorial decision that has come to shape our idea of the Shakespearean canon. In order to produce as authoritative a text as possible, they compiled it from the good quartos and from manuscripts (now lost) such as prompt books, authorial fair copy, and foul papers (working drafts). The First Folio offered a corrective to what are now called bad quartos – spurious and corrupt pirate editions, likely based on memorial reconstruction.
What did Shakespeare look like?
The portrait of Shakespeare on the title page was engraved by Martin Droeshout and is one of only two portraits with any claim to authenticity. As Droeshout would have only been 15 when Shakespeare died it is unlikely that they actually met. Instead his picture was probably drawn from the memory of others, or from an earlier portrait. In his admiring verse ‘To the Reader’ at the start of the First Folio, the writer Ben Jonson declares that the engraver achieved a good likeness – he ‘hit’ or captured Shakespeare’s face well.
The 'wonder of our stage'
Jonson also wrote a poem ‘To the memory’ of Shakespeare, which presents him as the 'Soul of the Age’, ‘the wonder of our stage’. Jonson generously compares Shakespeare to other playwrights including Christopher Marlowe, who was well-known for the ‘mighty line’ in his powerful blank verse plays. At the same time, Jonson makes the famous claim that Shakespeare had ‘small Latine, and lesse Greeke ’, suggesting that he was not a good classical scholar.
What’s special about this copy?
This copy is one of only four surviving which contain the engraving in the first state, before Droeshout made improvements to the engraved plate to enhance the appearance of Shakespeare’s forehead and chin, and to add shading. In this version, Shakespeare’s head appears to be floating above his ruff. Because the portrait in this copy is the early version, we know that it was one of the first copies to be printed.
It is estimated that around 750 First Folios were printed, of which 233 are currently known to survive worldwide. The British Library owns five. |
No, you won’t see chocolate pudding cups next time you swim in the sea. These “snack packets” are microscopic carbon-filled parcels, or vesicles, released by marine bacteria.
Vesicles are organlike structures usually found inside cells that serve as a place to store materials or isolate chemical reactions, such as during metabolism. Now postdoc Steven Biller and researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have learned that all sorts of marine bacteria produce extracellular vesicles containing carbon, nutrients, chemicals and genetic material, which other oceanic organisms eat.
Why marine microbes would give up vesicles comprising one sixth of their body weight is not clearly understood—perhaps to eliminate toxic chemical waste or spread their genetic material to other organisms or distract attacking viruses. Whatever the reasons, the vesicles play a big role in the marine food chain.
Marine water contains a huge number of such extracellular vesicles, the researchers found. One genus, Prochlorococcus, secretes about a billion billion billion vesicles into the ocean every day. Vesicles have been found in throughout the world’s oceans, from rich waters such as those off the New England coast to nutrient-poor areas like the Sargasso Sea. The vesicles add a substantial supply of carbon and nutrients to the sea, which helps keep the food chain functioning.
—Annie Sneed |
The federal budget deficit narrowed to $17.7 billion at the end of December, the finance department reported Friday, prompting increased speculation the country's books could be back in surplus a year earlier than forecast.
The deficit as of December — which includes the first nine months of the fiscal year — was $9.7 billion smaller than it was for the same period in the previous fiscal year.
The government in its November economic update estimated it would have an annual deficit of $31 billion by the end of the current fiscal year on March 31st.
But TD economist Sonya Gulati predicted Ottawa will project a shortfall of between $26 billion and $27 billion for 2011-2012 in next month’s budget.
The date for the budget hasn’t been announced yet.
If the government does lower its projection, Gulati said, "we expect the upcoming budget to lay out the government’s cards as to how and where expenditure restraint will be secured."
On Thursday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the budget will take a moderate approach to cost-cutting and will not be "draconian" in its spending restraint.
"As a result and all else equal, it looks like the government could squeeze out a surplus in 2014-15, one year earlier than the current plan," Gulati said.
The department said the deficit in the month December was $353 million. The deficit was $1.35 billion in the same month a year earlier.
Debt costs rise
The Finance Department said the deficit shrank because revenue growth substantially outpaced a more modest rise in program spending.
Budgetary revenues in December rose by $1.4 billion, or 6.8 per cent, compared with the same month a year earlier. Revenue for the first nine months of the fiscal year was up $7.1 billion, or 4.2 per cent, to $174.2 billion.
December program spending rose by 2.7 per cent, or $504 million, on higher transfer payments to persons and other levels of government.
So far in the fiscal year, program expenses are down by $3.0 billion, or 1.8 per cent, at $168.34 billion.
The costs of servicing the debt over the last nine months rose by $405 million to $23.6 billion. |
The price of carbon has hit new lows as power generators and industrial companies continue to cash in credits under the emissions trading scheme (ETS) to bolster their balance sheets.
The price of European Union allowances under the second phase of the ETS has plunged to €10.15 (£8.8) per tonne compared with highs of more than €30 in July last year.
Analysts at Barclays Capital warned the price could fall further to €9 while Utilyx, the carbon information provider, said: "There seems to be no bottom to carbon prices at the moment."
Market experts blame the decline on profit taking and a collapse in manufacturing, which has reached its lowest levels since 1981 in Britain.
Power generators and industrial firms are selling their credits to raise cash during the credit crunch but also because they are confident they will not need as many pollution permits at a time of falling demand for their products.
The decline in emissions is good for global warming. But it also means reductions are being made in "offset" projects, where western companies can invest in green schemes in places such as China to counter the impact of their carbon production at home.
The slump in the price of credits under the ETS will revive criticisms that the cap and trade scheme has just turned carbon into another volatile market commodity used by speculators to make money.
Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of EDF Energy, told the Guardian last week that the operations of the ETS needed to be reviewed by Brussels before carbon was turned into a "sub-prime tool" by unscrupulous companies, instead of doing the job it was set up for: reducing CO2 emissions as a way of tackling global warming.
EDF, the power company 85% owned by the French state, admitted it had sold some of its own carbon credits on the market – in very small numbers – with the rest being transferred for use around the group's other overseas businesses.
A research paper published by the environmental group WWF in collaboration with the Point Carbon consultancy last spring claimed windfall profits of up to $70bn could be made by the power groups in the course of phase two of the ETS, which runs from 2008 to 2012. They pointed out that there would have to be a high carbon price to achieve those particular financial gains.
Sanjeev Kumar, the emissions trading scheme coordinator at the WWF, said: "The way the national allocations plans are set up is a disaster. Handing free permits to power companies is like handing them a cash bonus. Cheap profits for doing nothing is scandalous."
Deutsche Bank and others predict carbon prices will rise again as industrial production picks up and the EU tightens the regulation on allowances, especially for phase three of the scheme, which will run until 2020.
But analysts have been consistently wrong about the direction of carbon prices; 12 months ago they predicted they would double from €22 per tonne to more than €40.
The new US administration of Barack Obama is considering whether or not to set up its own federal carbon emissions trading scheme. Such a move would help push the world towards a global trading scheme, but critics say all these projects should be halted. |
This Valentine’s Day, we’re letting you in on a little secret: The sweetest gestures don’t always require a trip down the candy aisle. From a heart-shaped Chicken Biscuit to a Chick-fil-A Nugget and Waffle Potato Fry bouquet, there’s are plenty of ways to make someone feel special with Chick-fil-A.
You don’t have to break your “calorie bank” every time your stomach rumbles – Chick-fil-A offers plenty of tasty, calorie-conscious snacks. From fresh to pure “fuel food,” check out these four treats under 200 calories.
It’s that time of year again. People all across the country are working to keep up with their resoultions to make good food choices and stay on track with their workout routines. And, while these lifestyle changes may have some worried about missing out on their favorite food, Chick-fil-A has something to satisfy most dietary preferences – from Paleo to Keto to Mediterranean. (Hint: Grilled chicken plays a delicious role in all of these options!)
Featured Lifestyle |
Last Chance for Animals, meanwhile, said its goal is not to shut down Marineland, though it does believe "wild animals should be left in the wild."
The group wants "to free the animals that are exploited for entertainment and suffer cruel confinement in unnatural enclosures," said spokesperson Adam Wilson, who submitted the complaint to the OSPCA.
"Marineland could thrive as a theme park without animals focusing on other forms of nonexploitative entertainment," Wilson said.
Since it opened in 1963, Marineland has grown into a large amusement park with one killer whale, beluga whales, dolphins, walruses, seals, sea lions and other animals such as deer, bears, birds and fish. It also has rides.
The former employee worked there for a month over the summer, but said he grew dismayed after two weeks and reached out to the animal rights group because he believed management would not help.
Every day, on average, the man — who worked with the park's land animals, including deer, bears, bison and birds — picked up carcasses of dead animals, he said in an interview. Some of those deaths would have been preventable, he said.
The worst incident, he said, came when he and a supervisor came across a fawn lying in the dirt in a back lot.
"There was a hole near its umbilical cord, but the umbilical cord was still attached and the baby deer looked over at us," he said.
"We didn't treat the baby deer and it was very hot out and it was not in the shade and my supervisor said 'We'll just pick it up tomorrow,' meaning when it was dead. And I picked it up the next day."
The complaint filed with the OSPCA said Marineland should have treated the fawn or euthanized it to comply with animal welfare laws.
Marineland said it has rules about reporting animals in need of care and does not "leave sick deer to die unattended."
The company added it only euthanizes deer when animal care staff and senior management deem that it is the only humane option.
"This happens very infrequently and only when it is in the deer's best interest," it said.
The animal rights group raises concerns about how fallow deer are kept and bred at Marineland, describing the facility as a deer "factory" where up to 400 deer are held and allowed to reproduce on a lot away from public sight.
"The witness reportedly discovered at least two dead land animals every shift, and often more," according to the complaint. "Not only is this a highly unusual amount of deaths for a zoo, but Marineland's failure to conduct any examination into the circumstances of the deaths of their deer, elk, or fowl, is also an uncommon practice."
"By allowing these animals to breed indiscriminately, not maintaining birth or death records, and by failing to inquire into the causes of death, Marineland operates like a factory without regard to the welfare of the individual animals."
Marineland said it provides appropriate care to its animals every day of the week.
"If the mortality rate suggested by this comment were true, Marineland would find itself without land animals in short order," Marineland said.
The complaint also alleges several red deer at Marineland are "injured, underweight, missing large patches of hair," and that the company didn't provide adequate medical care.
Marineland said it has a herd of about 200 red deer and none were in distress.
"They were found to have an acceptable body condition overall during their most recent veterinary examination, with only three requiring to be culled due to advanced age or health reasons," Marineland said.
The complaint also sheds light on what led to the OSPCA investigation that resulted in charges, describing in detail the alleged mistreatment of bears and a peacock at the theme park.
Marineland faces one count of permitting a peacock to be in distress, one count of failing to comply with the prescribed standards of care for a peacock and two counts for failing to comply with the prescribed standards of care for guinea hens.
The facility also faces one count for failing to comply with the prescribed standards of care for about 35 American black bears, including failing to provide adequate and appropriate food and water for them.
According to the complaint, the peacock's eye was "bulging and covered with a white membrane," an infection for which it was never treated.
But Marineland said it was nothing but a "harmless growth" and that "at all times the peacock was eating well, behaving normally and otherwise healthy" and "was not in distress or pain."
Though a veterinarian initially recommended euthanasia, Marineland's vet later decided to remove the mass instead, believing the animal could be saved, the company said.
As a result, Marineland said, "Petey" the peacock will "lead a healthy long life" and posted a photograph on its blog it said was taken earlier this week that "attest to his health."
The bears, meanwhile, allegedly suffer from chronic diarrhea because they are fed a mixture of "expired and often mouldy produce (with stickers still attached.)"
"The majority of the food, including previously frozen fish, is stored in an unrefrigerated area, in unwashed and unsanitized containers," the complaint read.
An attached video shows a bear defecating what appears to be loose stool. Other footage shows boxes of produce with flies buzzing, and bags of dog food in a freezer next to piles of dead deer, a bison and birds.
"The condition is pervasive and the bears' fecal matter is the consistency of water," the complaint reads. "No medical treatment was provided to the bears for this condition."
Marineland denied any bears suffered from chronic ailments, suggesting that any case of diarrhea would be temporary. It also defended the food given to the animals as high-quality and stressed all expired items are removed and its only fault is leaving the odd sticker on food.
"Marineland does not feed bears mouldy food, despite their natural inclination to eat virtually anything remotely edible, including rotting flesh in the wild and plastic garbage bags at dumps," Marineland said.
Marineland also says "it has been our findings that bears are less concerned about how crunchy their lettuce is than Caesar salad aficionados."
It also denied storing food next to animal carcasses, saying the dog food is not for the bears and was meant for disposal. The dead animals are only stored in a freezer as they await burial, Marineland said.
"The way in which we dispose of our animals remains is respectful, humane and in accordance with the law," Marineland said. "No member of the public has access to the freezer facility."
In regards to the charges laid Nov. 25 against Marineland, an OSPCA official said it is believed to be the first time the organization has laid charges against the attraction, although its records don't stretch back to the 1960s and 1970s.
Alison Cross, a spokesperson with the OSPCA, said Marineland has received "several correction letters" over the past three years and the Niagara Falls company has complied with all of them.
The OSPCA also issued orders, but didn't lay charges, after an investigation in 2012 when former employees went public with allegations of animal abuse among both its marine and land animals.
The Canadian Press |
MONTREAL – The questions surrounding Bernardo Corradi’s future have been answered.
The Montreal Impact announced on Thursday that they had come to a verbal agreement with Corradi, who will now stay until the end of the 2012 season. It appears Corradi will put his signature at the bottom of a new contract after his brother comes from Italy to double-check the agreement.
The arrangement came about earlier this week, when the Italian striker had a chat with Impact president Joey Saputo and sporting director Nick De Santis. Having already had a discussion with head coach Jesse Marsch about extending his association with the club, Corradi came into the meeting settled on the soccer side of things. Having also managed his family situation – the player's wife, who still works in Italy, will now make slightly longer trips to Montreal with their young son – Corradi knew that all that was missing was a formal discussion and a handshake.
“My wish was always the same: it was to stay here,” Corradi told reporters after training on Thursday. “After that 50-minute chat in Joey's office, I walked out with a smile on my face.”
Marsch now has the possibility of re-creating the Corradi-Marco Di Vaio front line, which was an occasional sight at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium back in 2004-05. The Montreal boss was thrilled with the news, as he feels Corradi is one of the greatest assets he can rely on.
“On the field, he brings an intelligence, an awareness, a savvyness around the goal, a confidence," Marsch said. "He’s good in the air, he slows the game down for us. His experience and his qualities make us better. He’s different from other pieces we have. You look at some of our attacking players, and I'm lucky, as a coach, to have a lot of different talents to pick from.”
Incidentally, Corradi does admit the prospect of playing with Di Vaio made the decision to stay with the Impact easier.
“Marco is one of my best friends, so I was happy that he signed for this club,” Corradi said. “We were chatting on the phone for two months. He asked me everything about the club, the atmosphere. I think he's lucky, because he will be able to play in the new stadium, so he’s going to live the best part of the season.”
Follow@olitremblay |
Joy Williams is one of America's greatest living writers. Her career stretches back to the 1970s, when legendary editor Gordon Lish published some of her earliest stories and George Plimpton published her debut novel, State of Grace (1973), under the Paris Review's book imprint. That novel became a finalist for the National Book Award, while her most recent novel, The Quick and the Dead (2000), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Last year, Random House published The Visiting Privilege, a collection of new and selected stories that span her lengthy career. This year sees the publication of Ninety-Nine Stories of God, a collection of short stories and fables that was previously only available in e-book form.
Despite its title, Ninety-Nine Stories of God is not a religious book—at least not in any traditional sense. These one- to two-page stories mix purely fictional tales with borrowed anecdotes and quotes from newspaper headlines and the lives of such disparate figures as Franz Kafka, Ted Kaczynski, and OJ Simpson. When God does appear, he is more often than not portrayed as a bumbling entity that has forgotten why exactly he did the whole creation business in the first place. He might be seen trying to adopt a turtle or participating in a demolition derby, to the existential horror of the car he chooses. At one point, a pack of wolves tell him how hard their lives are, yet still thank him "for inviting us to participate in your plan anyway." God keeps a straight face, but wonders, "what was the plan his sons were referring to exactly?"
In order to set up this interview, Williams, who famously eschews the internet and other modern technology, sent me a postcard of a barn in Oklahoma with her phone number. Eventually we settled on her finishing the questions and mailing them to me, which she did on hand-typed paper.
VICE: Your fiction frequently deals with animals and the animal world. Critics often talk about literature's ability to increase empathy for other people, but what about the natural world? Can fiction bring us closer to understanding animals, or are they ultimately unknowable for us?
Joy Williams: It's human beings who are unknowable—who can fathom or explain their cruelties and narcissism and nihilism? I used to rather like the word "empathy." Now I feel it's not nearly strong enough. Nor is sympathy hard enough. We need a radical shift in consciousness, a more generous conception of the whole, which is far more inclusive than we prefer to believe. I wrote a little piece about trophy hunters. The magazine that was supposed to take it did not. I maintained in the piece that trophy hunters are psychopaths. This is a dangerous sentiment, I guess, and one not universally accepted.
The stories in Ninety-Nine Stories of God were partly inspired by Thomas Bernhard's similarly hilarious, philosophical, and dark collection The Voice Imitator. Can you talk about the influence of that "cranky genius of Austrian literature" on your writing?
William Gaddis introduced me to the works of Bernhard. I first thought he said an Australian writer, and I said, "Oh, like Patrick White, I really like Patrick..." "God, no," Mr. Gaddis said, "Austrian..." I never understood how Bernhard could be a successful playwright when he disapproved so of engagement with people. Anyway, he's marvelous, delicious, his work can't be broken down. His little book The Voice Imitator certainly inspired me. A few of the early ones were rather in his voice—"#32" and "#82," for instance. I'm not sure where I found my own voice for this venture. Perhaps it was "#2" or "#70." I'm most pleased when God makes a thorough appearance—when he's hanging with the bats or a demolition derby or at the pharmacy, but I resisted this being the primary approach. Many different tones are struck in Ninety-Nine Stories of God. He's everywhere at once of course, but he must get tired of showing up all the time.
Postcard from Joy Williams. Courtesy of Lincoln Michel
Many of the stories seem to be based on excerpts from newspapers or other real-world texts. Do you collect striking anecdotes or interesting snippets of text to use in fiction?
I keep notebooks. "#54" came directly from a newspaper headline. "CANCER DOESN'T STOP HUNTER, 86, WHO KILLS MOOSE FROM HIS RECLINER." There's everything in my notebooks, from the advice in James Cain's Mildred Pierce—"Never sell the beach house" to the photo of the adoptable dog Filo who "is well-behaved while out and about and is interested in a home where he'll get moderate attention."
Why did you decide to put the titles at the end of the stories in Ninety-Nine Stories of God?
I was writing these tiny pieces. They didn't seem grand enough for names of their own. Then I realized it was important that they have their own signs. Some of them descend more deeply into the story or the placement manages to enlarge the thought. Never did I begin with the title. I don't know! Some are more colloquial, funny. For "#89," for instance, it seems the only way out.
"Writing gives me no happiness, I've said this before." —Joy Williams
Your stories are filled with biting humor, and are some of the funniest works I've read. The humor often comes from the syntax and language itself. Do you edit and revise toward humor, or does it arise more organically in the writing?
I don't revise much. I work too slowly. Am I funny? Writing gives me no happiness, I've said this before, but once I told a group that a sentence I wrote in a story called "Hammer" made me laugh. A man had a pet beaver who lived in his house in its own little house made of twigs. "When you broke bread with my friend you broke bread with that beaver." There was silence.
Is humor appreciated enough by critics and readers?
Overly desired, I believe.
There's an anecdote I always remember from your interview in the Paris Review. You talk about showing your brilliant story "Taking Care" to a fellow writer at a writing residency. They like the story, but want you to cut the final line, "Together they enter the shining rooms." You say you are dismayed and will not cut the line because, "It carries the story into the celestial, where it longs to go." Is there an inherent relationship between fiction and the celestial?
When it's art, I believe so. Certainly not fiction in general.
Although that incident took place at Yaddo, not in a classroom, I'm curious how you feel about creative writing classes as someone who has both taken and taught them.
They've become too corporate now, like everything. But writers have to get out of the room sometimes. I hate talking about process or craft. Well I don't, I can't. There's the wonderful story in Bernhard about the dancer and the dance. Can't be too aware of what you're doing.
Typewritten page from '8 Essential Attributes of the Short Story (and one way it differs from a novel)' by Joy Williams. Courtesy of Lincoln Michel
Your work has a lot of stylistic variety, from the dense gothic prose of State of Grace to the more minimalist philosophical prose of Ninety-Nine Stories of God. Do you see your style as evolving, or does each work create its own style?
Each work creates its own path to being told. I don't know how I was doing what I did in State of Grace , but having done it, I wouldn't know how to do it again. Paul Bowles told Jane that she should utilize "the hammer and nails" available to the fiction writer, the tricks and tools of narrative construction. But she had to make her own hammer and nails each time before should could begin.
Despite a lot of talk about how short stories should be a natural fit for today's short attention spans, it seems like short stories are continuing to lose prominence in the literary world. Do you think that's correct? What is it about short stories that readers can't relate to these days?
That's awful! I don't know why the reader can't relate to short stories. Maybe they're not told well enough, maybe they don't engage the reader at the most mysterious level. And that's what they should specialize in after all.
Perhaps inspired by this final question, Williams included a small slip of paper with her list of "8 Essential Attributes of the Short Story (and one way it differs from a novel)." I've reproduced it below:
1) There should be a clean clear surface with much disturbance below
2) An anagogical level
3) Sentences that can stand strikingly alone
4) An animal within to give its blessing
5) Interior voices which are or become wildly erratically exterior
6) Control throughout is absolutely necessary
7) The story's effect should transcend the naturalness and accessibility of its situation and language
8) A certain coldness is required in execution. It is not a form that gives itself to consolation but if consolation is offered it should come from an unexpected quarter.
A novel wants to befriend you, a short story almost never.
Follow Lincoln Michel on Twitter.
Ninety-Nine Stories of God by Joy Williams is out from Tin House in bookstores and available online. |
* YouTube will pay Turkish tax - minister
* Says will be easier to block offending videos
* Turkey criticised over web restrictions
By Ozge Ozbilgin
ANKARA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Turkey said on Tuesday it had won a long-running battle to persuade the video-sharing website YouTube to operate under a Turkish web domain, giving Ankara a tighter rein over the site’s content and requiring the firm to pay Turkish taxes.
Turkey, which banned the popular website for more than two years in 2008, has long come under international criticism for its restrictive internet laws and over the EU-candidate’s record on freedom of expression.
“This is an important development. For a long time we have made a call to internet firms in Turkey: ‘you are operating in this country, you must be resident here’,” Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim said.
“Finally, this sharing site (YouTube) has decided to reside in Turkey. It is now operating under ‘com.tr’,” he told reporters, referring to Turkey’s internet domain initials.
YouTube released a brief statement on Monday saying it had launched its Turkish website, which would give users a “Turkish-language experience with great, locally relevant content”. It made no mention of any dispute with the Turkish government.
But Yildirim, using a common Turkish expression, said YouTube, a subsidiary of the world’s No. 1 internet search engine Google Inc, had agreed to set up its Turkish operation after it had “felt the pressure”.
“It will now be in a binding and critical position to implement court decisions and remove any objectionable publications,” Yildirim said. “Further more it will also pay taxes on its operations.”
A YouTube spokeswoman said internet users browsing on a Turkish IP address would automatically be redirected to the ‘youtube.com.tr’ domain. If Turkey had a valid court order banning a particular video, access to that content would also be blocked on the main ‘youtube.com’ address.
Last week, a Turkish court issued an order allowing authorities to block access to an amateurish online video “The Innocence of Muslims”, which sparked a wave of deadly riots in the Muslim world.
Yildirim, who initiated the court order, said removing such videos in the past had been problematic because of the need to contact organisations outside Turkey. But officials would be able to move much quicker, now that YouTube was registered in Turkey, he added.
“Now, as soon as the court makes its decision, all the demands will be carried out immediately,” Yildirim said.
In May 2008, the government blocked access to YouTube for 30 months after users posted videos Turkey deemed insulting to the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Media watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) in 2010 placed Turkey on its list of “countries under surveillance” and urged the government to guarantee online free expression in Turkey, where several thousand sites are banned.
Rights groups have long pressed Turkey to reform its harsh internet laws and analysts have criticised the ease with which citizens and politicians can apply under Turkish law to have a site banned.
Turkey cites offences including child pornography and insulting Ataturk to justify blocking websites. But Turkish users have been able to circumvent bans by using proxy websites. |
Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date. This has been well-established in the suicidology literature. A literature review (Owens 2002) summarized 90 studies that have followed over time people who have made suicide attempts that resulted in medical care. Approximately 7% (range: 5-11%) of attempters eventually died by suicide, approximately 23% reattempted nonfatally, and 70% had no further attempts.
Even studies that focused on medically serious attempts–such as people who jumped in front of a train (O’Donnell 1994)–and studies that followed attempters for many decades found similarly low suicide completion rates. At least one study, published after the 90-study review, found a slightly higher completion rate. This was a 37-year follow-up of self-poisoners in Finland that found an eventual completion rate of 13% (Suominen 2004).
This relatively good long-term survival rate is consistent with the observation that suicidal crises are often short-lived, even if there may be underylying, more chronic risk factors present that give rise to these crises.
The relationship between suicide attempts and completions is a complex one.
Most people who die by suicide in the U.S. did not make a previous attempt . Prevention efforts that focus only on those who attempt suicide will miss the majority of completers. An international review of psychological autopsy studies found that approximately 40% of those dying by suicide had previously attempted (Cavanagh 2003). The proportion was lower (25-33%) among studies of youth suicide in the U.S. (Brent 1993, Shaffer 1996). A history of previous attempts is lower among those dying by firearm suicide and higher among those dying by overdose (NVISS data).
. Prevention efforts that focus only on those who attempt suicide will miss the majority of completers. An international review of psychological autopsy studies found that approximately 40% of those dying by suicide had previously attempted (Cavanagh 2003). The proportion was lower (25-33%) among studies of youth suicide in the U.S. (Brent 1993, Shaffer 1996). A history of previous attempts is lower among those dying by firearm suicide and higher among those dying by overdose (NVISS data). Most people who attempt suicide will not go on to complete suicide .
. Still, history of suicide attempt is one of the strongest risk factors for suicide . 5% to 11% of hospital-treated attempters do go on to complete suicide, a far higher proportion than among the general public where annual suicide rates are about 1 in 10,000.
Brent D, Perper J, Moritz G, et. al. Psychiatric risk factors for adolescent suicide: a case-control study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 1993;32(3):521-529.
Cavanagh J, Carson A, Sharpe M, and Lawrie S. Psychological autopsy studies of suicide: a systematic review. Psychological Medicine. 2003;33:395-405.
Owens D, Horrocks J, and House A. Fatal and non-fatal repetition of self-harm: systematic review. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2002;181:193-199.
O’Donnell I, Arthur A, Farmer R. A follow-up study of attempted railway suicides. Social Science and Medicine, 1994; 38:437-42.
Shaffer D, Gould M, Fisher P, et. al. Psychiatric diagnosis inchild and adolescent suicide. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1996;53(4):339-348.
Suominen K, Isometsä E, Suokas J, et al. Completed suicide after a suicide attempt: a 37-year follow-up study. Am J Psychiatry. 2004; 161:563-564.
Other studies (Longterm Survival among Nonfatal Suicide Attempters) |
September 27 marks the anniversary of the publication of the first of the Antifederalist Papers in 1789. The Antifederalists were opponents of ratifying the US Constitution. They feared that it would create an overbearing central government, while the Constitution’s proponents promised that this would not happen. As the losers in that debate, they are largely overlooked today. But that does not mean they were wrong or that we are not indebted to them.
In many ways, the group has been misnamed. Federalism refers to the system of decentralized government. This group defended states rights the very essence of federalism against the Federalists, who would have been more accurately described as Nationalists. Nonetheless, what the so-called Antifederalists predicted would be the results of the Constitution turned out to be true in most every respect.
The Antifederalists warned us that the cost Americans would bear in both liberty and resources for the government that would evolve under the Constitution would rise sharply. That is why their objections led to the Bill of Rights, to limit that tendency (though with far too little success that has survived to the present).
Antifederalists opposed the Constitution on the grounds that its checks on federal power would be undermined by expansive interpretations of promoting the "general welfare" (which would be claimed for every law) and the "all laws necessary and proper" clause (which would be used to override limits on delegated federal powers), creating a federal government with unwarranted and undelegated powers that were bound to be abused.
One could quibble with the mechanisms the Antifederalists predicted would lead to constitutional tyranny. For instance, they did not foresee that the Commerce Clause would come to be called "the everything clause" in law schools, used by centralizers to justify almost any conceivable federal intervention. The 20th-century distortion of the clause’s original meaning was so great even the vigilant Antifederalists could never have imagined the government getting away with it.
And they could not have foreseen how the Fourteenth Amendment and its interpretation would extend federal domination over the states after the Civil War. But it is very difficult to argue with their conclusions from the current reach of our government, not just to forcibly intrude upon, but often to overwhelm Americans today.
Therefore, it merits remembering the Antifederalists’ prescient arguments and how unfortunate is the virtual absence of modern Americans who share their concerns.
One of the most insightful of the Antifederalists was Robert Yates, a New York judge who, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, withdrew because the convention was exceeding its instructions. Yates wrote as Brutus in the debates over the Constitution. Given his experience as a judge, his claim that the Supreme Court would become a source of almost unlimited federal over-reaching was particularly insightful.
Brutus asserted that the Supreme Court envisioned under the Constitution would become a source of massive abuse because they were beyond the control "both of the people and the legislature," and not subject to being "corrected by any power above them." As a result, he objected to the fact that its provisions justifying the removal of judges didn’t include making rulings that went beyond their constitutional authority, which would lead to judicial tyranny.
Brutus argued that when constitutional grounds for making rulings were absent, the Court would create grounds "by their own decisions." He thought that the power it would command would be so irresistible that the judiciary would use it to make law, manipulating the meanings of arguably vague clauses to justify it.
The Supreme Court would interpret the Constitution according to its alleged "spirit," rather than being restricted to just the "letter" of its written words (as the doctrine of enumerated rights, spelled out in the Tenth Amendment, would require).
Further, rulings derived from whatever the court decided its spirit was would effectively "have the force of law," due to the absence of constitutional means to "control their adjudications" and "correct their errors." This constitutional failing would compound over time in a "silent and imperceptible manner," through precedents that built on one another.
Expanded judicial power would empower justices to shape the federal government however they desired, because the Supreme Court’s constitutional interpretations would control the effective power vested in government and its different branches. That would hand the Supreme Court ever-increasing power, in direct contradiction to Alexander Hamilton’s argument in Federalist 78 that the Supreme Court would be "the least dangerous branch."
Brutus predicted that the Supreme Court would adopt "very liberal" principles of interpreting the Constitution. He argued that there had never in history been a court with such power and with so few checks upon it, giving the Supreme Court "immense powers" that were not only unprecedented, but perilous for a nation founded on the principle of consent of the governed. Given the extent to which citizens’ power to effectively withhold their consent from federal actions has been eviscerated, it is hard to argue with Brutus’s conclusion.
He further warned that the new government would not be restricted in its taxing power, and that the legislature’s war power was highly dangerous: "the power in the federal legislative, to raise and support armies at pleasure, as well in peace as in war, and their controul over the militia, tend, not only to a consolidation of the government, but the destruction of liberty."
He also objected to the very notion that a republican form of government can work well over such a vast territory, even the relatively small terrority as compared with today’s US:
History furnishes no example of a free republic, anything like the extent of the United States. The Grecian republics were of small extent; so also was that of the Romans. Both of these, it is true, in process of time, extended their conquests over large territories of country; and the consequence was, that their governments were changed from that of free governments to those of the most tyrannical that ever existed in the world. $22 $19
What you think you know might not be true
Brutus accurately described both the cause (the absence of sufficient enforceable restraints on the size and scope of the federal government) and the consequences (expanding burdens and increasing invasions of liberty) of what would become the expansive federal powers we now see all around us.
But today, Brutus would conclude that he had been far too optimistic. The federal government has grown orders of magnitudes larger than he could ever have imagined (in part because he was writing when only indirect taxes and the small federal government they could finance were possible, before the 16th Amendment opened the way for a federal income tax in 1913), far exceeding its constitutionally enumerated powers, despite the constraints of the Bill of Rights. The result burdens citizens beyond his worst nightmare.
The judicial tyranny that was accurately and unambiguously predicted by Brutus and other Antifederalists shows that in essential ways, they were right and that modern Americans still have a lot to learn from them. We need to understand their arguments and take them seriously now, if there is to be any hope of restraining the federal government to the limited powers it was actually granted in the Constitution, or even anything close to them, given its current tendency to accelerate its growth beyond them.
July 15, 2009
The Best of Gary Galles |
Kimberly Winston highlights a disturbing trend of atheists trying to be generous only to have various groups reject the efforts:
Dale McGowan, executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a humanist nonprofit, said his group’s grants have been rejected at least eight times. The foundation, which has given away $1.4 million, does not proselytize for nonbelief and requires that its beneficiaries — some with religious roots — do the same.
It starts with a “Gosh, thanks,” he said, and ends a few days later with “Thanks, but we can’t accept that.” McGowan thinks those who reject FBB’s grants — usually $10,000 each — worry about the perception of being associated with atheists.
And that, he said, is a mistake. “I don’t think most religious people give for the glory of God or because scripture tells them to. I think they give because they are good-hearted people and they feel empathy for others, and that is really no different for those with a nonreligious world view.” |
LOS ANGELES — We first met Kamala Khan a year and a half ago, when Marvel Comics debuted Ms. Marvel, introducing a new superhero who possessed incredible powers, pluck and teenage street smarts.
Now, she has a voice, too.
SEE ALSO: Marvel Comics' reboot will bring all-new characters, No. 1s across the board
Marvel's hugely popular new character is also its first published title to be adapted into an audiobook, making her origin story available to commuters, road trippers, people on the treadmill and the visually impaired. The first edition, which includes Ms. Marvel Nos. 1-5, will be available Monday on GraphicAudio.net.
Marvel and GraphicAudio put together this exclusive preview for Mashable, which also includes the voice of Captain Marvel herself (and the former Ms. Marvel) Carol Danvers:
The "no-narrator" format uses sound effects, a full voice cast and cinematic music to recreate the books scene by scene.
Though Marvel and GraphicAudio have teamed on past titles, Ms. Marvel — the first American Muslim superhero (and new member of the Avengers) — is the first adapted directly from the source material.
Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel. Image: Marvel.com
Marvel and GraphicAudio previously released a trailer for the audio book:
"The fact that this character is expanding beyond the comics page just goes to show how much she has resonated with a larger audience," said Sana Amanat, Marvel’s director of content and character development. "Whether you’re a fan of the series or new to the comic, you will fall in love with this adaptation of Ms. Marvel as her vivid world is brought to life for the first time as a GraphicAudio production."
Ms. Marvel No. 1 is the publisher's first audio-book adapted straight from the comics. Image: Marvel
The Ms. Marvel audio version, mixed in stereo 5.1 Surround Sound DTS, is available online, via the GraphicAudio Access app and CD formats.
Have something to say about this story? Share it in the comments. |
American astronaut Sally K. Ride, mission specialist on STS-7, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the flight deck of the Challenger.
Astronauts Scott Kelly, left, and Kjell Lindgren talk to actors from the movie ''Martian'' from aboard the International Space Station,
Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics
At least three years of related professional experience and/or an advanced degree
Ability to pass space physical (including vision that can be corrected to 20/20 and a height between 58 1/2 and 76 inches)
Astronaut Edwin ''Buzz'' Aldrin walks by the footpad of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, July 1969.
Help wanted. Must love space.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is seeking candidates for its next class of astronauts. It needs people with a wide variety of backgrounds to join its missions: everyone from pilots and engineers to scientists and medical doctors.Those who are chosen may get to fly on one of four spacecrafts, including the International Space Station and NASA's Orion. The missions will help NASA in its ultimate goal of reaching Mars, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden explained."This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet," he said in the announcement.So what does NASA look for in an astronaut? Besides a deep love of deep space, you should have a relevant degree and experience. Here are the exact requirements:Does it sound like there should be more requirements? That's because there are a lot of misconceptions about what you must have in order to be an astronaut. As NASA pointed out in a blog post , you don't have to earn an advanced degree, have military experience or even be a pilot in order to apply. And don't let your age hold you back, either; any age is eligible.If you've ever dreamed of making space exploration history, NASA hopes you'll apply, said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston."This is an exciting time to be a part of America's human space flight program," he said.You don't have to tell us twice. The application period will last from mid-December until mid-February, and the future astronauts will be announced in 2017. |
Sometimes you don’t realize how #bawse somebody is, until you make it into a gif.
So after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smacked down the Senate and the House yesterday, it occurred to me that what made it magical is that it is an instructional video on how to deal with a mansplainer. And of course, any good tutorial needs to be broken down into gifs for emphasis.
Ladies and gentlemen, “How to deal with a mansplainer starring Hillary Clinton.”
Step 1: Raise your hands up like, “Whoa you guys you can’t be serious.”
Step 2: Make sure to emphasize your points by counting with your hands so that simple tea party Senator mansplainer understands. Mansplainers like visuals.
Step 3: No, seriously. Fuck this guy.
Step 4: Raise your hands up like, “What’s your point?” and clown the mansplainer for not having an actual relevant point.
Step 5: When Senator John McCain calls you combative and proceeds to rant endlessly, nod with a sly smile.
Step 6: Take the time McCain spends ranting to reorganize the pages in your binder.
Step 7: Rearrange all of the random crap on your desk. You can never be too organized when getting grilled by angry white dudes.
Step 8: When the rant continues on and on look at the mansplainer with a *blank stare* and put your hand on your chin like, “Are you still talking?”
Step 9: Go home and do this. |
Ken Adelman is a lifelong conservative Republican. Campaigned for Goldwater, was hired by Rumsfeld at the Office of Economic Opportunity under Nixon, was assistant to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld under Ford, served as Reagan’s director of arms control, and joined the Defense Policy Board for Rumsfeld’s second go-round at the Pentagon, in 2001. Adelman’s friendship with Rumsfeld, Cheney, and their wives goes back to the sixties, and he introduced Cheney to Paul Wolfowitz at a Washington brunch the day Reagan was sworn in.
In recent years, Adelman and his friends Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz fell out over his criticisms of the botching of the Iraq War. Still, he remains a bona-fide hawk (“not really a neo-con but a con-con”) who has never supported a Democrat for President in his life. Two weeks from now that’s going to change: Ken Adelman intends to vote for Barack Obama. He can hardly believe it himself.
Adelman and I exchanged e-mails today about his decision. He asked rhetorically, |
A group of Japanese engineers are aiming to launch the world's smallest flying car, the Skydrive, in time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Designed by Cartivator, a Tokyo- and Toyota City-based non-profit run by a team of 30 volunteers, the three-wheeled Skydrive car is powered by four rotors and uses drone technology. The car aims to deliver a seamless transition from driving to flight.
The team's "first target" is to build the flying car and use it to light the Olympic flame at Tokyo's 2020 Summer Olympics.
Skydrive has a projected top speed of 93 miles (150 kilometres) per hour on land, and 62 miles (100 kilometres) per hour when airborne. It should fly at an altitude of up to 10 metres (33 feet).
While a number of other flying car models are also under development – by firms such as Uber, Ehang and Airbus, to name just a few – Cartivator claims that its Skydive model will be the world's smallest at just 2.9 metres (9.5 feet) by 1.3 metres (4.3 feet).
The firm envisions that Skydrive will be an infrastructure-free mode of transportation, able to take off and land anywhere. The team also hope that it will be accessible to all through the use of ride-sharing.
"By 2050 we aim to create a world where anyone can fly in the sky anytime and anywhere,” said Cartivator. "To realise our vision, a compact flying car is necessary with a vertical takeoff and landing technology, which do not need roads and runways to lift off."
Launched in 2012, after project leader Tsubasa Nakamura and his team won first prize at business award KoreaRata for a flying car design, Cartivator is a non-profit organisation that relies on donations and volunteers, who work on the project in their spare time.
The Cartivator team began developing Skydrive in 2014, when the first scale model prototype model was made.
In May of this year, it was announced that the project had received a massive boost in the form of a donation of 40 million yen (£274, 000) from Japanese carmaker Toyota.
Related story Creators of the AeroMobil flying car propose moving road traffic to the skies
Last month, the Associated Press reported that a test flight of the car in Toyota City saw the prototype "get up as high as eye level for several seconds before tilting and falling to the ground", damaging the propellers in the process.
The team is using the money from Toyota to improve the design. It is aiming to launch the first manned flight by 2019 – a year before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where the team hopes the flying car will be used to light the Olympic flame.
The first commercial Skydrive model is expected to arrive just five years later, in 2025.
The flying car project is not the only ambitious transportation venture currently underway in Japan.
A proposal unveiled at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show by Foster + Partners and Nissan envisioned a "smart street" that can charge electric vehicles using wireless induction technology.
Meanwhile, at this year's edition of CES in Las Vegas, Japanese company Honda revealed a prototype for a motorcycle that can move without being controlled by the rider and that won't fall over, while Toyota showcased a concept car equipped with an artificial intelligence system that picks up on the habits and emotions of the driver. |
REUTERS/ Thierry Roge Google's acquisition of Nest was monumental for the hardware community. Not only did it represent a major company seeing value in a startup, it cemented that startup's place in Google's ecosystem, which is no small feat.
Hardware is one of the most exciting startup frontiers, but at the same time is notorious for causing investors to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Considered the double black diamond of startups, hardware is just plain hard business for entrepreneurs.
One of the things that makes it so challenging is a lack of consistent acquisitions. Hardware startups are often forced to become standalone businesses, winning capital from a handful of investors just to compete against multi-billion dollar conglomerates. Makerbot and Nest now have the opportunity to change this, but it won't come without a fight. Here are a few startups who could turn things around for hardware makers--and why Google might have an eye on them.
Fitbit With a simple wristband, this startup made tracking health fun. And by targeting users outside the tech scene, Fitbit found a way to connect with people like suburban moms, thanks to its suite of products that provide actionable results all day. From sleeping to exercising, Fitbit has built an experienced team that Google might find rather useful.
DropCam DropCam makes networked video look easy, even though it's anything but. A software company, it just happen to make a connected video camera that can serve a variety of applications, including watching your house, pets, and/or children. Dropcam could help Google improve its video products, especially as it tries to make Hangouts a staple at work.
Electric Imp Tony Fadell knows Electric Imp's team well, as it was founded by some of the best Apple engineers. Its focus on making Wi-Fi more accessible could also be valuable to Google as the latter moves further into the wearable tech space.
3D Robotics If drones are the future, then 3D Robotics is the next Makerbot. Its drones are ubiquitous, while its rich developer community is helping them become the Android OS of drones. If the startup succeeds as the clear market leader, it could help Google build up its momentum in robotics innovation.
Thalmic Labs Gesture technology is the future and this team is leading the way. Without personally knowing how deep its engineering and design teams are, Google may want a team to re-imagine gesture technology for all of the hardware products it is building.
GoPro This startup owns action video/image capture, which has turned out to be a huge market. Its demographic is also technical and boasts a devoted user base that Google probably can't get enough of. GoPro's marketing prowess could also help Google sell people on the idea of Google Glass as a gadget that's cool, not incredibly dorky. |
A Sacramento pastor is pleading with his congregants to return to church this Sunday after a recent encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sparked fears of deportations.
In a series of videos posted this week to the church’s Facebook account, Pastor Alex Vaiz sought to calm his parishioners worries.
“One of your rights is going to church,” he said. “Immigration cannot in any way enter a church and disturb the peace in any way and arrest anyone .… Don’t be afraid to come and return again to your church. You have the right to be here.”
Whether his flock shows up to the Vida Church Sacramento this weekend remains to be seen. But until then, Vaiz is demanding that immigration officials stay off the church’s property.
The sight of immigration officials on May 14 triggered concerns among worshipers who had gathered for a Mother’s Day service at the small Vida Church Sacramento on Del Paso Boulevard.
According to Vaiz, a congregant spotted ICE agents in a parking lot used by the church and notified church leaders. The agents “were very armed with three vehicles wanting to intimidate the community, specifically immigrant parishioners of the church,” he said in the video.
After seeing the vehicles, Vaiz approached the ICE agents to explain that he was a pastor and that they were parked in a church parking lot. Vaiz’s actions seemed to help defuse the situation, because the agents left. But they later returned and remained outside the church for a while.
Vaiz told KTXL-TV that 60% of his congregation does not have legal immigration status.
James Schwab, a spokesman for ICE in San Francisco, said officers with the agency’s Enforcement Removal Operations were conducting surveillance that day “in conjunction with a targeted enforcement action.”
“The officers, who were parked in a lot marked by a sign for a major bank, were unaware the property is used by a congregation that holds Sunday services in an office building across the street,” he said in a statement.
Enforcement actions at sensitive locations such as schools and churches require prior approval from a supervisory official, or can be made under “exigent circumstances necessitating immediate action,” Schwab said. Otherwise, schools and churches should generally be avoided, he said.
The Department of Homeland Security is “committed to ensuring that people seeking to participate in activities or utilize services provided at any sensitive location are free to do so without fear or hesitation,” Schwab said.
In his recorded appeal to parishioners, Vaiz insisted that the church did not give the agents permission to use the parking lot. “We had nothing to do with them,” he said.
“I know that some of you were worried and possibly some were very frightened about what they might have planned to do,” he said.
But the pastor urged his congregants to not be afraid.
“This is a time that we should demonstrate our valiance,” he said. “No one can take away or rob our faith.”
His church has been working with Sacramento Area Congregations Together, or Sacramento ACT, to train its security team and parking attendants. He has also been calling his district’s congressional representatives, local consular offices and ICE officials. A video with advice for immigrants on what to do if ICE agents visit in their neighborhoods was also posted on the church’s Facebook account.
“We want to assure you that we are doing everything because of what happened last Sunday,” he said. “They are not going to return to our parking lot.” |
Nike just announced it is creating its first athletic-wear hijab, called the "Nike Pro Hijab."
The company has been working on the product for more than a year, meeting with top-flight athletes like United Arab Emirates' Amna Al Haddad, Nike+ Run Club Coach Manal Rostom, and Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari to determine how to make a functional head covering that meets the cultural requirements of some female Muslim athletes.
Nike+ Run Club Coach Manal Rostom models Nike’s new product. Courtesy of Nike
To make the product both breathable and opaque, it's created with a single layer of lightweight polyester mesh. It will debut in black, vast grey, and obsidian with the signature white Nike swoosh above the ear.
The Nike Pro Hijab is both breathable and opaque. Courtesy of Nike
"I was thrilled and a bit emotional to see Nike prototyping a Hijab," Lari said in a statement to CNN. "I've tried so many different hijabs for performance, and ... so few of them actually work for me. But once I put it on and took it for a spin on the ice, I was blown away by the fit and the light weight."
Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari tested the Nike Pro Hijab. Courtesy of Nike
The news follows the brand's "What Will They Say About You" campaign, which was launched in the Middle East last month, and a new Arabic option for their Nike+ Training Club App.
While activewear companies like Asiya cater to Muslim women, this is the first time a major American athletic brand has created a sportswear hijab. The Nike Pro Hijab will be available early next year. |
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In today’s installment of the “NFL 101” series, former NFL defensive back Matt Bowen breaks down the core route combinations at the pro level to give you a better understanding of the game.
Click here for a breakdown of the NFL route tree.
Click here for a breakdown of the 3-4 defensive front.
Click here for a breakdown of the 4-3 defensive front.
Last week in the “NFL 101” series, we talked about the basic route tree with a focus on alignments, wide receiver splits, releases and the initial stem off the line of scrimmage.
Today, let’s take this a step further and look at specific route combinations that give quarterbacks multiple reads (primary, secondary, checkdown, etc.) within the play versus both zone and man coverage.
Using the All-22 coaches tape, here is a rundown of the route-combination groupings we will break down:
Three-Step
Hi-Lo Series
Boot/Sprint Action
Five-to-Seven Step
Three-Step Combinations
The three-step route combinations require the quarterback to make quick decisions and deliver the football on time. These combinations show up often versus man-coverage/pressure defenses and in third-down situations.
Tare Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– NFL offenses will use the Tare route out of multiple personnel groupings, but the one constant is the alignment: a 3x1 formation with the backside X receiver in a “plus” split (two to three yards on top of the numbers).
– To the closed (strong) side of the formation, the No. 1 receiver (count outside-in) runs a clear-out 9 (fade) route (occupy the cornerback) to create space inside/underneath for No. 2/No. 3 to run the flat-stick (quick out) combination. This gives the quarterback a quick, two-level read inside.
– No. 3 can sit down (quick curl/hitch) versus zone coverage when No. 2 bursts to the flat.
– Backside of a 3x1 formation in the NFL is a high alert to the slant (X receiver). In this situation, Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon beats Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib on the slant (gains leverage on the release) to produce an 80-yard touchdown versus Cover 0 (blitz-man with no safety help).
Spacing/Zone Pass
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The spacing route (or zone pass) is run out of a bunch formation (three receivers close together) from a 3x1 alignment with the backside X receiver in a “plus” split.
– To the closed side, No. 1 and No. 2 run quick curl/stick routes with No. 3 working to the flat. A concept that will eat up soft zone coverage, look for this combination to show up in 3rd-and-2-to-6 situations versus both Cover 2 and Cover 3.
– Again, the backside X receiver (3x1 formation) runs the slant route from a “plus” split alignment as we see here from the Chiefs versus the Cowboys.
Slant-Flat
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The slant-flat combination is run from a 2x2 “Doubles” formation with both No. 1 wide receivers aligned in “plus” splits to create room inside on the slant.
– With Posse/11 personnel (3WR-1TE-1RB) in the game for the Packers, the tight end (No. 2 to the closed side) and slot receiver (No. 2 to the open side) run the flat routes with the running back checking down in the middle of the field.
– A route combination that shows up in multiple down-and-distance situations, this is an easy three-step concept that allows the quarterback to read the safety alignment pre-snap (single-high/two-deep) and deliver the ball quickly to the proper matchup.
2122
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– Very similar to the slant-flat combination, the 2122 (2=Slant, 1=Flat) is run from a 2x2 “Doubles” formation, giving the quarterback a slant-flat option to the closed side and a double-slant look to the open side.
– Here, the Chiefs remove the tight end from the core of the formation (called an “orange” alignment) versus the Jaguars to form a 2x2 spread look. To the closed side, the tight end runs the flat with No. 1 (from a “plus” alignment) on the slant. To the open side, both receivers (No. 1, No. 2) run slant routes.
– Given the Jaguars are showing press alignments—and a single high safety in the middle of the field—quarterback Alex Smith can identify man coverage, get the ball out quickly and find the best matchup based on personnel.
Hi-Lo Series
The Hi-Lo is a two-level read (inside the numbers) run out of a stack alignment that allows offenses to create natural “pick” situations versus man-coverage schemes. A core concept in West Coast systems, here are four combinations within the Hi-Lo series that we see across the league.
Hi-Lo
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– Anytime you see receivers in a stack look (two receivers close together), either by alignment or motion, it should be an alert to a Hi-Lo concept. That’s what we see here from the Chiefs versus the Cowboys, with the tight end (removed from the core of the formation) and the slot receiver.
– In the Hi-Lo, the tight end (or No. 3) runs the intermediate dig route (can convert to the seam) with the slot receiver (or No. 2) coming underneath on the drive route (shallow crosser).
– This gives quarterback Alex Smith a two-level read inside the numbers (dig, drive) and allows the slot receiver to use the release of the tight end (vertical stem) as a pick versus man coverage.
Hi-Lo Crossers
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– In this Hi-Lo combination, we add on the term “crossers” because of the two drive routes crossing in the middle of the field.
– The Browns are running a similar Hi-Lo combination from a stack alignment to the closed side of the formation (No. 2, No. 3). However, with Josh Gordon in a reduced split (tight to the core of the formation) to the open side, Cleveland can work both the slot receiver and Gordon underneath.
– Hi-Lo Crossers is an excellent combination versus man coverage, as it forces defenders (playing from an outside leverage position) to chase from a trail position and bubble over the traffic inside.
Hi-Lo Triple-In Flood
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– This West Coast classic has been in Andy Reid’s playbook for over a decade (I saw this same concept when playing versus the Eagles back in the early 2000s). Look for three inside breaking routes, with a running back working to the closed side of the formation to give the offense a “four strong” look (four receivers to one side of the formation).
– Run from a bunch alignment, we see the same Hi-Lo action inside, with the tight end on the dig and the No. 1 wide receiver working underneath on the drive route. However, with the Chiefs sending a receiver in motion to run the angle route (triple-in) and the running back on the swing route (flood), Kansas City has overloaded one side of the formation.
– Why the angle route plus the swing out of the backfield? This combination, when paired with the Hi-Lo, will widen defenses (swing) and also create leverage back to the inside (angle). This works versus zone/man coverage while putting stress on defenses inside the deep red zone (plus-10-yard line).
Hi-Lo Mesh (Wheel)
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– A top route combination for Chip Kelly’s Eagles in 2013, the Hi-Lo Mesh presents multiple matchup issues versus man-coverage schemes because of the inside crossing routes and the running back releasing on the wheel route.
– The Eagles align in a bunch to the closed side of the formation to run Hi-Lo Crossers. That creates traffic inside and forces the linebacker (matched up versus the running back) to bubble over the crossing routes. This allows the running back to separate down the field with the linebacker now in a trail position.
Boot/Sprint Action
With the boot game, plus the sprint action, offenses are working to move the pocket and get the quarterback to the edge. And the wide receiver splits (plus the backfield alignments) tell you the story before the ball is even snapped. Here’s a look at three “movement passes.”
Boot
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The boot game in the NFL is often run out of Regular/21 (2WR-1TE-2RB) and Ace/12 (2WR-2TE-1RB) personnel, with the quarterback using play action to sell the run fake. This opens up throwing lanes as the run action forces second-level defenders to play with poor eye discipline.
– In this example, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson sells the run fake (open-side stretch/zone) and boots back to the closed side of the formation with a two-level read (flat and corner).
– Look at the splits of the No. 1 wide receivers. To the closed side, the No. 1 is in a “plus” split with the open-side No. 1 in a reduced split. That should be an automatic alert to the boot, with the closed-side receiver widening his split to clear out room for the flat-7 and the open-side receiver reducing his split to the run the over route.
Swap Boot
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The “swap” boot is different from the standard boot action, as the offense brings a receiver underneath the line of scrimmage away from the run fake. A concept we saw often from the Redskins under Mike Shanahan, the swap boot gives the quarterback two immediate options in the flat, along with the deep over route.
– Here, the Packers (with Regular/21 personnel on the field) bring the fullback underneath the line of scrimmage (off the run fake) to the flat and release the tight end on the delay (block down, release to the flat). This gives quarterback Aaron Rodgers two reads underneath, with the X receiver on the deep over and the Z receiver (Jordy Nelson) on the comeback, post or 9 (fade).
– Again, look at the splits of the No. 1 wide receivers. The Z receiver is in a reduced split, while Nelson is a “plus” split (ball on the far hash). Another pre-snap key for the over/clear-out combo.
Sprint: Smash-7
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– In the NFL, you will see two combinations off the sprint action: flat-curl and smash-7. Here, we get the smash-7 from the 49ers out of slot formation, with a two-back Pistol alignment in the backfield.
– Check out the alignment of the fullback/H-back—this is called a "chowed" alignment (outside leg of the tackle). That’s is an automatic alert for the sprint to the slot side with the ball on the far hash. The fullback/H-back widens his alignment to seal the edge and to allow quarterback Colin Kaepernick to extend the pocket on the sprint action.
– There are two reads to the open side of the formation, with Anquan Boldin (slot) on the 7 cut and the No. 1 receiver running the hitch. Tight end Vernon Davis will work back across the field on the over route to give Kaepernick another option off the sprint action.
Five- to Seven-Step Combinations
This is where we get into the main course of the NFL’s top route combinations. Following is a rundown of 15 concepts that require the timing/depth of a five- or seven-step drop.
Flat-7
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– One of the top Cover 2 beaters in the NFL, the flat-7 (corner) puts stress on the cornerbacks to play with technique and discipline versus the bait underneath.
– Using the Lions as an example, you can see the hard inside stems from the No. 1 wide receivers out of “plus” spits. This is done to create enough room to run the 7 cut (stem to the bottom of the numbers) with the No. 2 receivers (slot, tight end) bursting to the flat.
– Why does it put stress on the Cover 2 shell? The safeties won’t make this play versus the 7 route unless the cornerback sinks and cushions the deep hole. The cornerbacks have to sink hard at the snap and protect the safety, forcing the quarterback to dump the ball underneath (flat route). Play deep to short and give the safety a chance versus a receiver such as Calvin Johnson running the corner route.
Sucker Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– Another Cover 2 beater, the Sucker route uses the inside vertical seam to occupy the Mike ‘backer and deep-half safety while setting the bait underneath with the curl/hitch to open up a throwing lane for the deep dig.
– Going back to the Ravens' win over the Lions in 2013, quarterback Joe Flacco hit receiver Jacoby Jones on a key third-down play late in the game on the Sucker combination.
– By running off the Mike ‘backer with the tight end (forces the safety to stay over the top) and setting the bait with the slot receiver, the Ravens forced the nickel defender to sit hard on the curl. That opened up a soft hole in the zone coverage for Jones to run the dig and move the sticks.
Dagger Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The Dagger route carries some of the same principles as the Sucker, with a clear-out seam from No. 2 and a deep dig from No. 1. This is paired with a shallow drive route and either a 7 or deep curl.
– A combination that beats Cover 2 (clear-out Mike’ backer) and Cover 1/Cover 3 (occupy free safety in middle of the field), the Dagger allows the No. 1 receiver to stem hard inside on the release, work vertically and break back to the middle of the field at a depth of 12 to 15 yards.
– In this example, the Eagles clear out the middle of the field with the seam route and target receiver Riley Cooper on the deep dig versus a single-high look from the Cowboys.
Pin Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The Pin route is a Cover 4 (or quarters) beater, as it sets the bait for the safety while opening up the middle of the field to create a one-on-one matchup versus the cornerback with the deep post.
– Using an example from Peyton Manning and the Broncos, focus on the strong safety in this diagram. With the tight end breaking on the dig underneath, the safety jumps the route. That leaves the cornerback (in quarters technique) playing the post route from an outside leverage position—with no help inside.
– Notice the “Dino” stem? That’s when the receiver (Eric Decker) stems to the corner and then breaks back to the post. This is done to force the cornerback to widen on the initial stem, creating even more separation on the break inside.
– The Pin route (a favorite of Steve Spurrier) is also one of the top concepts we see inside the red zone versus Cover 4 teams. Remove the safety and go to work on the cornerback—that’s the goal.
Scissors
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– Another Cover 4 beater, the Scissors route puts stress on both the cornerback and safety with No. 1 running the post and No. 2 on the 7 (corner) to create a deep crossing combination.
– The Eagles move Cooper inside to the slot and run the 7 cut with a hard inside stem (force safety to overplay the break) to pair with the deep post. Off play action, the running back bursts to the flat (checkdown option) with DeSean Jackson on the dig route to the closed side of the formation.
– With the safety removed and the cornerback playing from an outside leverage position, the scissors combination is tough on Cover 4 unless the defense makes a “Zorro” call. This allows the cornerback and safety to pass off the post/corner combination.
Four Verticals
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– Four verticals are all “go” routes (9/seam) that can convert outside the numbers versus three-deep coverage (comebacks). As shown here, Manning and the Broncos are running four verticals versus the Jaguars' Cover 2 shell.
– Versus Cover 2, the stress falls on the Mike ‘backer and two deep-half safeties (have to split both verticals), with the corners sinking underneath (or trailing) to cushion the outside 9 routes.
– Versus Cover 3, the No. 1 wide receivers can convert the 9 routes to comebacks (break at a depth of 12 to 15 yards) with the two inside seam routes attacking the free safety in the deep middle of the field.
– One of the top concepts in every NFL playbook, four verticals is also a route we see in the high red zone (15- to 25-yard line) versus Cover 2 defenses to attack the Mike’ backer with the inside seam routes.
999 Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The “999” route is four verticals run from a 3x1 “Doubles Slot” formation with the tight end (or No. 3) working back across the field on the deep over route.
– In this example, the Panthers run three verticals down the field, with tight end Greg Olsen running the deep over route to the open side of the formation.
– An ideal route to use versus Cover 2 defenses, the 9 route from the No. 1 receiver (outside release) to the open side of the formation will widen the deep-half safety. That creates a throwing window to target the tight end on the deep over route.
Spot Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The “spot” route will vary from three to five steps depending on field position, down and distance, but the combination stays the same: a curl-7-flat combo run out of a bunch look.
– Offenses will align in a bunch or use “divide” motion (motion to the core of the formation) to form the set out of multiple personnel groupings/alignments (Packers ran the “spot” route in 2012 with four tight ends on the field).
– The primary target is the curl (or the “spot”), with the 7 (corner) running off the top of the secondary and the flat route widening the underneath defenders.
– Manning and the Broncos use the “spot” combination for an obvious reason: to set a pick inside for Wes Welker to burst to the flat versus the Eagles' Cover 0 pressure. However, look for the “spot” route to show up in third-down situations to give the quarterback a clear target on a high-percentage throw when looking up the curl.
Pump-Seam
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The pump-seam will consistently challenge single-high safety defenses if the free safety fails to stay square or play with eye discipline in the middle of the field off the “pump” action.
– Here, the Bears and quarterback Josh McCown will “pump” to the open-side “sluggo” (slant and go) to draw the free safety out of the middle of the field. And with the free safety leaning to the open-side hash, McCown will have an opportunity to come back to the seam (Alshon Jeffery) while the No. 1 receiver (Brandon Marshall) occupies the cornerback on the hitch.
– The goal is to create a one-on-one matchup out of the slot and to target the seam route without the free safety overlapping the throw. And to do that, the quarterback has to sell the pump fake before coming back to target the seam.
Sail Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The sail route or OVS (outside vertical stretch) is a three-level combination (9-7-flat) that targets Cover 3 by removing the cornerback to create a throwing lane to the hit the 7 route.
– In Cover 3, the cornerback has to carry/match the 9 (fade). That puts stress on the curl-flat defender (strong safety) to sink with enough depth to play the 7 while reacting to the flat. And if the curl-flat defender sits short, there is a clear hole in the zone for the quarterback to target the 7 cut.
– As we see here from the Chargers, the No. 1 receiver runs the clear-out 9 (or post) with the two tight ends working the flat-7 combination versus three-deep coverage.
Levels
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– If you’ve studied Manning’s top concepts (in both Indianapolis and Denver), then you’ve seen the Levels combination before. It's a two-level read with a “plus” split as a pre-snap key out of 2x2 “Doubles” formation.
– Using the Chargers and wide receiver Keenan Allen as an example, look at the pre-snap splits. Allen is three yards on top of the numbers, with the ball on the far hash. That’s as wide as it gets for a wide receiver. And it’s meant to provide space for Allen to run the smash (five-yard square-in).
– Inside, the No. 2 receiver (tight end on this play removed from core of the formation) runs an intermediate dig route with the seam and 9/comeback to the open side. This combination works versus multiple defensive coverages if the No. 1 receiver (Allen) wins inside on the release.
NCAA Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– The NCAA route is a classic, old-school combination (post-dig-drive) that targets the depth of the free safety in the middle of the field in Cover 1 and Cover 3.
– The Jets window-dress this concept with the bunch look to the closed side of the formation, but we still see the NCAA combo, with No. 1 widening his stem on the post, the tight end running the drive and the open-side No. 1 on the dig.
– This combination gives quarterback Geno Smith short (drive), intermediate (dig) and deep-ball (post) options.
Smash-Divide
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– Run from the 3x1 “Doubles Slot” formation, the smash-divide showed up around the league on tape this past season because of the ability to target both Cover 2 and single-high looks.
– In this concept (as we see here from the 49ers), No. 1 runs the smash (from a “plus” split), with No. 2 on the 7 (corner) route and No. 3 on the seam/deep over.
– This is a tough route to defend when the free safety is occupied by the seam/deep over in the middle of the field, as it prevents him from breaking/overlapping the 7 cut.
Yankee Route
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
– This is a deep two-man route (with seven-man protection) that uses play action and window dressing (wide receiver splits) to target the deep over route for an explosive gain.
– With both wide receivers aligned inside the numbers (false run key) and hard play action out of an "I" backfield set, the offense is looking to test the top of the secondary.
– The Redskins will run off the top of the defense with No. 1 to the open side. The receiver takes a hard inside stem to the middle of the field before breaking back to the 7 route. This occupies the deep-half safety in Cover 2 and both the free safety and cornerback in Cover 3. And with the top of the defense now removed, the No. 1 receiver to the closed side of the formation can run the deep over route to expose the coverage.
Seven-year NFL veteran Matt Bowen is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report.
Follow @MattBowen41 |
Citi BIke NYC will offer free bikes to those who want to participate in Brooklyn Public Library's Bike the Branches. Photo: Gregg Richard
Citi Bike pitched a five-borough expansion – at no direct cost to taxpayers – to New York City, a source said.
Motivate, Citi Bike’s parent company, proposed adding 6,000 bikes, with two-thirds of them going to areas that currently lack docking stations, like the Bronx and Staten Island.
The company will foot the cost of the expansion, but is asking the city for some quid pro quo:
- Expanded advertisement space on docks.
- Reaffirmation of the exclusivity agreement with the city, continuing Citi Bike's reign as New York City's only bike sharing service.
- Flexibility with pricing to allow pricing schedules that would benefit both residents and tourists.
- No more fines and recoupment fees.
Citi Bike docks take up space that could be metered parking, and the company reimburses the city for revenue lost. Motivate is asking the city to wave the reimbursement requirements. The source, who was briefed on the plan, would not specify how much the city gets with current ridership or stands to lose after the expansion.
A spokesman for the city said Motivate will owe $2 million by the end of June for the parking loss.
The source said that Citi Bike is the biggest bike sharing system in the country and the only one that operates without public funding.
After saying that the plan wasn’t in play three days ago, the source clarified that it is part of ongoing talks with Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said he has always wanted to expand the bike share program.
"We are focused right now on an ambitious expansion plan this coming season, but we are always discussing with Motivate ways to improve the system," a spokesman for the city said.
Motivate did not comment on the plan.
Proposed locations for expanded Citi Bike services can be found online.
May is Bike Month
To celebrate Bike Month, Citi Bike is offering a few deals during the month of May and there is still time to take advantage.
Visit Citi Bike’s homepage to get $25 off an annual membership, which typically costs $163 per year.
The Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation is hosting bi-weekly rides for Bed Stuy residents on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Free Citi Bike bikes will be available. Find out more at www.restorationplaza.org.
Citi Bike staff will be stationed at Grand Army Plaza and Central Park South from 10am to 6pm every day to answer questions about Citi Bike and biking in general.
May 19 - Transportation Alternative’s fifth annual “Bike Home from Work” party starts at the Pearl Street Triangle in DUMBO, and will include a beer garden, food trucks, interactive exhibitions, a DJ and a tattoo shop.
May 20 - Ride a Citi Bike for free as part of Bike the Branches, Brooklyn Public Library’s annual fundraiser ride. There are pre-planned tours bikers can follow or head off on your own adventure around BPL’s 60 branches. Participants must be 16 or older to receive a free Citi Bike 24-Hour Access Pass to use on Saturday.
May 25 – Citi Bike, Bike New York and Councilmember Ben Kallos will host their first Citi Bike Streets Skills class of the season. The class will cover bike share basics, and riding tips to promote a comfortable and safe bike share experience. |
I have been discussing population for the last few posts, and on my last installment in this series, I wanted to discuss the psychology behind why many of my readers still have difficulty grasping the message.
I don't mean this in a disrespectful manner. In fact, there is now an entire branch of psychology that deals with this sort of problem.
It emerged in 1982, when Professor of Human Ecology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, the late Paul Shepard, extended James Lovelock's Gaia (developed while Lovelock was working for NASA, the idea earth is a giant interconnected superorganism) and Arne Naess' Deep Ecology (essentially the philosophical outgrowth of Gaia, sometimes called biotic egalitarianism) into the realm of the psychological, proposing in his book Nature and Madness that if there are profound and innate links between the planet and the human beings, those links extend to the human mind-and that by wantonly destroying the former we are simultaneously ravaging the latter-quite literally driving ourselves mad one clear cut forest at a time.
Shepard's arrived at this conclusion by thinking about how evolution shaped the human brain to shrink complexity by categorization. Our brains slot everything into small boxes. Part of this is our primate ancestry where divisions between ‘us' and 'them' were often critical to survival and part came about during the development of language, when the act of giving names to things required us to first put them in categories. Since those categories were based on what we saw around us, early language acted as our bridge to the natural world. The letter "A" comes from the Hebrew world "aleph" which means, among other things, oxen. Which is why, when you'll you turn an "A" upside down, you get a pictograph of an oxen head.
Overall, Shepard's work dealt with this process of categorization and how it affected the development of human . He realized it wasn't just that language was based on a connection to natural world, it was nearly everything else as well. Humans spent 99 percent of their existence as hunter-gatherers, which means the entire architecture of the higher cortex has been built atop the scaffolding of the great outdoors. When Shepard talks about humans being driven mad by environmental devastation, he's actually concerned with what happens when the very things that taught us how to think disappear.
Since publication, these ideas have been authenticated and expanded and now form the foundation of the multidisciplinary field of ecopsychology. Blending ecology, , sociology, psychology, environmental science- to name a few-ecopsychology concerns itself with everything from reestablishing our connection to the natural world to the emotional problem of confronting what Harvard psychiatrist and founder of the Center for Psychological and Social Change, John Mack, once called "the agonizing murder of the life systems on Earth."
Experimental validation for ecopsychology can now be found everywhere. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, according to research conducted by the Hurricane Katrina Advisory Group, the rates of severe mental illness jumped from 6.1 percent to 11.3 percent among those who lived in the area. Mild-to-moderate mental illness also doubled, from 9.7 to 19.9 percent.
But it's not only reactions to environmental disaster triggering such emotions. Most eco-psychologists have come to feel that the nearly 10 percent of adult Americans who suffer from mood disorders do so because of a lack of contact with wilderness. One of the studies backing this up appeared in the October 2008 in the journal Nature, when researchers at the University of Illinois found a 20 minute walk in the woods out-performed all the currently on the market for the treatment of Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children.
But if there are profound links between ourselves and our eco-systems, one of the difficult questions for eco-psychology to answer is why aren't more of us insane. After all, as James Gustav Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry, recently pointed out: "Half of the world's tropical and temperate forests are now gone. The rate of deforestation in the tropics continues at an acre a second, and has for decades. Half of the planet's wetlands are gone. An estimated 90 percent of large predator fish are gone, and 75 percent of marine fisheries are now overfished or fished to capacity. Almost half the corals are gone or are seriously threatened. Species are disappearing at rates 1,000 times faster than normal. The planet has not seen such a spasm of extinction in 65 million years, since the dinosaurs disappeared."
The answer seems to be that we are all slightly insane, only not perceptive enough to notice. This happens because of the familiar trait: denial. In her essay The Skill of Ecological Perception, the visual psychologist Laura Sewall examines this denial, which she calls our "psychic numbing," a sort of collective defense mechanism that "shields us from fully experiencing the latest reports on ozone depletion, increasing pollution, toxicity, poverty, illness, and the death of species." Not surprisingly, this condition has been repeatedly linked to the pathology -which is both a case of massive self-aggrandizement and an inability to understand that the boundaries of self frequently extend beyond the confines of skin.
One of the ways this denial has been found to work is in our evaluation of gradual change, like the kind produced by . Humans and frogs are not too different in that if you put either of species in the proverbial pot, and bring it to boil slowly enough, because the brain is so well-designed to notice rapid and sudden changes in its surroundings, it often fails to notice gradual increases in danger until it's mostly too late.
Recently, the magazine New Scientist asked British biochemist James Lovelock, both the man who created the Gaia Hypothesis and the man whose work on atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons led to the global CFC ban that saved us, literally, from ozone layer depletion, if there was any hope for humanity now.
"I'm an optimistic ," said Lovelock. "I think it's wrong to assume we'll survive a 2 degree warming: there are already too many people on earth. At 4 degrees we could not survive with one-tenth the current population. The reason is we would not find enough food (for every one degree the globe warms rice, corn and grain yields will drop by 10 percent), unless we synthesized it. Because of this, the cull during this century is going to be huge, up to 90 percent. The number of people remaining at the end of the century will probably be a billion or less. It's happened before: between ice ages there were bottlenecks where there were only 2000 people left. It's happening again."
Ecopsychologists believe to heal ourselves, we simultaneously need to heal the planet. The first step of this, as Sewall examines in a great essay called The Skill of Environmental Perception, is in to pay to the natural world. We have to start to notice the tiny details, so we can start to notice the awesome danger those details are adding towards.
So we can act.
For the past four blogs, I've been proposing a Five Year Ban-a voluntary, grassroots-based, worldwide five year moratorium on childbirth. Five years lowers the earth's population by a billion people. It means the food that we're going to run out of will go a lot farther. It means the carbon we're pumping into the earth's atmosphere will be pumped slightly slower-maybe even giving us time to figure out how to slow it down further, or perhaps reverse the effects. Five years to buy us some time.
Why do we need such a radical solution? because Lovelock's not alone out there. One of the main reasons I decided to put forth the idea of a five year ban is because I'm not like most of my fellow PT bloggers. They are primarily academics and clinicians. I am a science writer and environmental reporter. I spend most of my day talking to academics, clinicians and researchers-all scientists at the top of the fields. For the past five years, in talking to these people-and I talk to as many ecologists as I do weapons designers so my inquiries cut across all political lines-researchers familiar with the facts have nearly unanimously echoed Lovelock's concerns.
In proposing a Five-Year Ban what I'm asking is for people to make a . Do we want to lower our current population numbers voluntarily, or do we want nature to do it for us?
And I've been asking this because really, there's no other choice. |
We’re back on Kickstarter!
Last year, you supported our vision to create the world’s strongest umbrellas with the most advanced technology. Together, we brought to life something really new—a “smart” umbrella that you could sync to your phone. Once connected, the umbrella would send you a reminder if you accidentally left it behind. Sleek, strong—and never lost. We called it the Davek Alert umbrella.
2 New Alert Umbrellas
And now we are back—with two new models: The ALERT MINI & ALERT GRANDE.
Alert Mini: An unbelievably small version of the original Alert model, the Alert Mini will fit in literally any compartment, from a handbag, clutch or pants pocket. Measures only 7 inches when closed. The Loss Alert technology is embedded into the handle.
With 5 colors to choose from:
Alert Grande: The original Alert’s big brother—the Alert Grande features a massive 55” arc-diameter canopy when open, offers the ultimate coverage in a storm. It's REALLY big. Like the original Alert, the corrosion resistant frame is incredibly strong and built to endure nature’s worst.
Loss Alert technology: How it works
Hidden in the handle of each sleek umbrella is a tiny “beacon chip." This chip broadcasts a silent signal, read by your smart phone. By connecting the chip to your phone, we’re able to build an invisible leash between your umbrella—and you.
Once activated, the umbrella will automatically connect to your phone within seconds when you pick up the umbrella. Now, if the distance between the chip and your phone exceeds a certain distance—30 ft or so—the umbrella would send a reminder to your phone. Never forget your umbrella again!
The beacon chip is powered from a plain coin cell battery, easily available at any hardware or drugstore. It's designed to go into sleep mode when not in use, so a single battery will last 1+ years (depending on use). The battery is easily replaceable.
Set up
Setting it up is easy. Download our free app on your phone (via Apple App store or Google Play). Simply hold the umbrella near the phone for 10 seconds. The umbrella will automatically connect. You can easily turn the alert off or pause it for the day.
A New App Feature: “Last Known Location”
Can’t remember where you last left your umbrella? Activate the new “Last Known Location” feature on the app—it will be happy to show you where you left it last. Never lose your umbrella again!
Built to Endure
The secret of a Davek umbrella's strength lies in its unique frame construction and uncommon combination of steel, fiberglass and aircraft-grade aluminum. Each frame system features a unique balance between rigidity and flexibility which we call the 90/10 flex ratio: the rigidity to resist 90% of all natural wind and the flexibility to revert back unharmed for the rest.
Specs
Timeline
A SHOUT-OUT to these 3 talented guys:
Main video production: Michael Hammond (www.storyboardgroup.com)
Video consulting, copywriting: Bruce Luchsinger ([email protected])
Photography: Simon Jutras ([email protected]) |
An “Alaska Back to Russia” petition, sponsored by “S.V. of Anchorage” has popped up on the White House website and has garnered more than 33,000 signatures.
“Vote for succession of Alaska from the United States and join Russia,” it urges.
The 49th state has experienced unrest with the “lower 48,” even once creating a state commission to reflect on the costs and benefits of statehood.
An Alaska Independence Party has been on the ballot more than 20 years, its most famous member “first dude” Todd Palin, spouse of the former governor.
But rejoining Russia is a new idea.
The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for a price of $7.2 million, a treaty decried as “Seward’s Folly” after Secretary of State William Seward. Critics argued that the U.S. was getting a vast, worthless expanse of snow and ice.
Alaska became a state in 1959, with the Anchorage Times joyously proclaiming across its front page: “WE’RE IN.”
Despite periodic grousing about federal policies — the state’s Big Oil-aligned politicians have fought to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — Alaska has done well on the deal. Alaska ranks No. 1 in the nation in per capita receipt of federal benefits.
Statehood brought the grant of more than 110 million acres (out of 375 million) to the state. Alaska picked well, including lands on which the Prudhoe Bay oil field sits.
Yet, there are ties to Russia: Aboriginal peoples crossed the Bering land bridge in pre-historic times. Russian explorers in the 18th and 19th century slaughtered marine mammals to the point of extinction. The Russian Orthodox Church is still a presence, especially in rural villages.
And, as Sarah Palin pointed out, you can actually see Russian from Alaska. Big Diomede Island, on the Russian side of the Bering Strait, is visible from Little Diomede Island, at least when the fog lifts. Saint Lawrence Island is close enough that Siberia can be spotted.
During the Cold War, the United States built gigantic installations — notably the CLEAR radar complex — to spot Russian bombers or missiles winging over the North Pole.
The end of the Cold War brought a crazy proposal from sometime Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel that the U.S. and Russia build a tunnel under the Bering Strait, aiming to connect with Russia’s rail system. Wally dreamed of riding from Anchorage to Moscow.
The White House website, under President Obama, has set up a formula: If a petition collects 100,000 signatures within 30 days, the White House will respond.
A 2012 petition, calling on Texas to secede, actually crossed the 100,000-signature threshold. A White House spokesman said:
“Our states remain united. Our Founding Fathers established the Constitution of the United State is order to form a more perfect union — they did not provide a right to walk away from it.” |
Repetition is death.
Stop and think about it. How much time a day do you spend eating? How much of your day is spent cooking, or finding the ingredients that will make up your next meal?
How can we continue to mindlessly eat the same things, day after day? Eating is such a huge and essential part of our lives. We need to begin examining our eating choices. Are we expanding ourselves and exploring the culinary world around us? Or is every meal a repeat of one of 5 easy to prepare ‘favored meals’ that you already know you enjoy?
This post is about veganism.
The last thing anyone needs is to read another stale blog post about reasons you should be vegan . Frankly, we’ve heard it already.
Throughout all of the dialogue about health, environmental impact , and animal activism, there is a crucial component missing from the conversation.
Why am I vegan? I am vegan because it is fun.
Let me give you a little background. I can clearly remember the day in the 7th grade when I decided that I would no longer eat meat. Sitting in the middle school cafeteria, amidst the chatter and the buzz of prepubescent feeding, I cradled a school hamburger between my hands that looked at felt like some combination of cardboard and charred putty. It felt disgusting.
My stomach churned and I felt an intense longing to eat something…. fresh.
Since then, I have spent my life eating either vegetarian or vegan (with a brief phase with pescetarianism, but that didn’t last long) diets. I have noticed plenty of benefits, including extra energy, weight loss, and a certain tongue-in-cheek moral self righteousness (“You sure you need an extra helping of those cheese curds, bro?”).
However, the greatest benefit brought on by this comparatively restrictive diet is entirely mental. I’m talking about how much fun it is to always be trying new things.
By forcing yourself to restrict your choices, it allows you to experiment with what things you already have. It adds a creative dimension to your cooking that extends and enriches your life.
Whether it is soy hot dogs chopped up and placed in impromptu bean and corn burritos, or disastrous attempts to boil quinua in a pan of dark beer, I have to improvise with food combinations to find new flavors, or be forever damned to a hell of bland salads and peanut butter foldovers.
Change your diet, even just for a little while. You will immediately notice how it changes other, seemingly unrelated aspects of your life. By getting creative in one area and opening yourself to new things and ideas, you will find other areas in your life open up and be enriched by the same voracity for new experiences.
Practice learning. Live without dead time.
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Amirah Droudis found guilty of murdering ex-wife of Man Haron Monis
Updated
The girlfriend of Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis has been found guilty of murdering his ex-wife.
Amirah Droudis stood trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court accused of killing the woman at a unit block in Werrington in April 2013.
The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was stabbed 18 times before being doused in petrol and set alight.
Monis was charged with being an accessory to murder and was out on bail when he was killed at the end of the Lindt cafe siege in December 2014.
Following a judge-only trial, Justice Peter Johnson said he was satisfied that Monis planned the murder and Droudis carried it out.
Justice Johnson rejected suggestions Monis may have paid someone else to kill his ex-wife, saying he did not have the financial means and that it was a "hot-blooded" murder likely to have been carried out by an amateur killer.
"The killing involved a frenzied knife attack with multiple stab wounds being inflicted to the body of the victim, followed by the gratuitous use of fire," Judge Johnson said.
"This crime had the hallmarks of a frenzied attack by an angry amateur killer."
Justice Johnson also said while Monis had previously asked members of the Rebels bikie gang to murder his ex-wife, his requests were not taken seriously and he did not have the money to pay for a professional killing.
Droudis 'enthralled' by Monis, court hears
The court was told Droudis and Monis met after Droudis' mother made an appointment to see Monis as a spiritual healer in 2003.
Droudis later converted to Islam and changed her name from Anastasia to Amirah in July 2008.
She appeared in 11 videos, some of which were posted online, in which she praised Osama bin Laden and expressed happiness about the September 11 terror attacks, the Bali bombings and the Holocaust.
She and Monis were also charged with contacting and causing offence to the families of Australian soldiers killed while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Justice Johnson said Droudis was "enthralled" by Monis and "adopted uncritically Monis' view of the world with its extreme and perverse features".
"Monis took advantage of [Droudis'] willingness to act at his behest," Justice Johnson said.
A friend of the victim, asked to be known only as Sonia, said she had tears of joy when the guilty verdict was announced and thanked everyone involved.
"The day that she died, everyone's life changed forever," Sonia said.
"I was not expecting something like this to happen.
"I want her to get the death penalty, if we ever had one in this country."
She also said that it was like Monis had "gotten away with murder".
Topics: courts-and-trials, murder-and-manslaughter, sydney-2000
First posted |
You can't really control the lighting or background in pictures, but you can to an extent control other things. It's generally accepted that the color blue looks best on people in pictures or on TV, so wearing that color for your special occasions can make you look optimal. I'm assuming shades of blue, and colors similar to it, such as green or purple have the same effect. Is that to say that colors such as yellow or red don't look good in pictures? Not necessarily, but they're definitely harder to pull off. It really depends on skin tone, and wearing any color that's too close to your skin can have a negative impact on your overall look for a picture.
The angle of your face is also very important. Should you turn your head a little? Tilt your chin in a certain direction? Look straight at the camera? Above all, only the person taking the actual picture can tell you this for each of the pictures. If they have the patience, they can tell you what looks best, granted they have some sort of an aesthetic sense. For Facebook photos though, you shouldn't really worry about this too much. The most you can do is "study" how you look in all of your pictures, and what angles you were facing and such. See what looks the best, and apply it in future photos.
Hopefully now you've learned a thing or two about how to look photogenic in photos for men, and for women. |
Polymer Tips & Tricks 1
This is the first in a series of posts about the various problems I have tackled while using Polymer.
Over the last several months, I have been working hard on a Polymer-based iOS app, using Cordova. I have met many, many bumps in the road along the way and this will be essentially a log of my solutions to the problems I encountered.
Sorting/Filtering an iron-list
Have you ever tried to sort or filter an iron-list? Not such a simple thing to do, and most solutions are rather inefficient.
In my app, I have a large list of cards which are filtered based on the category they should appear for and sorted based on date. This means I can hold one single array of all cards in memory (from Firebase) and simply filter it when the user changes category.
Easy in dom-repeat :
<template is= "dom-repeat" items= "{{cards}}" sort= "_sortFn" filter= "_filterFn" > <my-card item= "{{item}}" ></my-card> </template>
However, this is horribly inefficient and resulted in my app using ~300MB of memory on an iPad. Why? Because all cards exist in view at once (even if below the fold) and must have their layout re-calculated on several occasions when actions elsewhere occur.
Anyhow, the clear solution is to use an iron-list:
<iron-list items= "{{cards}}" > <my-card item= "{{item}}" ></my-card> </iron-list>
But, we have no way to filter or sort the cards like in a dom-repeat (there is an issue open for this).
The solution most people, including myself, seem to come up with is a computed binding:
<iron-list items= "{{_sortAndFilter(cards)}}" >
Where _sortAndFilter returns the sorted and filtered array. Here is a list of each binding I tried and why it was a bad idea:
_sortAndFilter(cards) : It is computed only when the entire array changes. Splices and sub-property changes don’t propagate.
: It is computed only when the entire array changes. Splices and sub-property changes don’t propagate. _sortAndFilter(cards.splices) : Sub-property changes don’t propagate. Array is fully recomputed each time a child is moved/removed/added.
: Sub-property changes don’t propagate. Array is fully recomputed each time a child is moved/removed/added. _sortAndFilter(cards.*) : Array is fully recomputed each time any change occurs.
In all these cases, the array is fully recomputed on any change, so iron-list is forced to do a full refresh. This means you’ll likely lose your scroll position, too, a horrible experience for users.
Solution
My solution to this, which you can find here, is an element which essentially holds a copy of the initial array with any sorts and filters applied.
<array-filter items= "{{cards}}" filtered= "{{_cards}}" filter= "_filterFn" sort= "_sortFn" ></array-filter> <iron-list items= "{{_cards}}"
The way this works internally is:
Observe items.*
Use linkPaths to link each item’s change paths in source and filtered array, so sub-property changes propagate
to link each item’s change paths in source and filtered array, so sub-property changes propagate Sort/filter splices and splice them into the filtered array in order, rather than recomputing the whole array
dom-if inside an iron-list
Before I explain this, I do not recommend using a dom-if to filter out iron-list items. Please use the solution in the previous section.
<iron-list items= "{{items}}" > <template is= "dom-if" if= "[[item.enabled]]" > <div> [[item.id]] </div> </template> </iron-list>
Many of you have tried the above before and, soon enough, found that it doesn’t work and causes iron-list to flip.
The reason for this is because iron-list will assume the template elements are children, it will try position them like any other child. To solve this, wrap it like so:
<iron-list items= "{{items}}" > <div> <template is= "dom-if" if= "[[item.enabled]]" > <div> [[item.id]] </div> </template> </div> </iron-list>
This also has its issues though. If item.enabled changes at some point or simply isn’t immediately available, the size of your item will change and confuse iron-list. So you must have something like:
<template is= "dom-if" if= "[[item.enabled]]" on-dom-change= "_onDomIfChange" >
Inside _onDomIfChange , simply do something like:
_onDomIfChange : function ( e ) { var item = this . $ . list . modelForElement ( e . currentTarget . parentElement ). item ; this . $ . list . updateSizeForItem ( item ); }
Preventing duplicate iron-a11y-keys events
When using iron-a11y-keys with multiple key combinations, it is possible that one combination may contain the other:
<iron-a11y-keys keys= "shift+enter enter" ... ></iron-a11y-keys>
If you listen for the keys-pressed event, you’ll soon find that when you press shift+enter , you get 2 events: one for shift+enter , one for enter .
To stop any further events firing, it turns out you must preventDefault() on the keyboardEvent, not on the event you are given:
_onKeysPressed : function ( e ) { e . detail . keyboardEvent . preventDefault (); // works e . preventDefault (); // does not work }
You can see this in a demo here.
Thanks to ergo for finding this. |
Image caption Baroness Ashton said the EU would now speak with a "clearer voice" at the UN
The European Union has won the right to speak at the United Nations on behalf of its 27 member states.
The largely symbolic change means the EU can address UN meetings through its own officials, rather than the country holding its rotating presidency, but does not give it voting rights.
The decision comes after years of lobbying by the European bloc.
Some smaller UN member states have expressed concern their voices will be marginalised by the move.
The EU has wanted to upgrade its status at the UN since its member states approved the Lisbon Treaty in 2007.
The treaty streamlined the bloc's foreign policy processes and created its own permanent diplomatic service.
The UN motion was passed by 180 votes to none. Zimbabwe and Syria abstained and 10 countries did not vote.
Baroness Ashton, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, used her new rights to tell the General Assembly they would now hear "a clearer voice" from the EU but that it would be "extremely and absolutely respectful" of the body's institutions.
Diplomats say the decision opens the door for other blocs such as the Arab League and African Union to seek similar enhanced status.
Last year, the Caribbean regional group Caricom persuaded the UN to delay a decision on the EU's status over concerns it would make the bloc too influential.
Responding to Tuesday's vote, Bahamas ambassador Paulette Bethel, speaking for Caricom, said their concern had been the motion would create "a new category of non-state observer with a unique complement of rights and privileges", reports the AFP news agency.
Nauru envoy Lara Otto said the changes was "granting the EU a 28th voice in the general debate" and could lead to "the erosion of equality of voice of member states". |
If you hate reading, found this through google and just want an answer to this question: DON’T LEASE!
For everyone else:
Over the years, I’ve seen numerous blog posts and webpages asking the age old question, “Should I Buy or Lease a Car?” One thing that I haven’t seen is the long-term analysis of this question. Usually the tools focus on a singular decision, but the reality is that life is about a long-term string of choices. Below serves as a guide for a long-term scenario to this common question.
The Scenario:
In our fictional scenario, we will assume we are sitting in the magical year of 2016. We just graduated from college at 22 years old, got a spankin’ brand new job, and we need a car to make that hour long commute in. Three options are presented to us for acquiring said car. We can:
Buy Car (Cash) Buy Car (Loan Financing) Lease Car
Because we are looking at the long-term implications of this decision, we will also assume that once we go down one of the 3 yellow brick roads, we stick with the same acquisition method for the next 48 years (until we are 70 years old). Obviously, our method of obtaining a car could change over time, but in effort for a meaningful comparison, we will stick with this simple assumption. Below are some of our additional base assumptions:
Purchase Price of Car in 2016: $33,560 (this is average – people are cray cray…)
Annual Depreciation Rate: 17%
Inflation Rate: 2.5%
Interest Rate: 4.5%
Both Buying Methods: New Car every 7 years
Lease Method: New Car every 3 years
So just a couple of notes on these assumptions. I know cars don’t straight line depreciate, but this gets us down to about 57% of purchase price after 3 years. This is probably pretty realistic for most cars. You may be thinking the interest rate assumption is too high, but remember we are looking at a long-term case here. Though car loans today are lower than 4.5% for prime borrowers, they will likely increase over time (since we are in a historically low interest rate environment). I believe this assumption is actually quite conservative, as over the next 50 years I would expect this average rate to be more in the mid-to-high single digits (I don’t know why I typed this – no one knows where interest rates will be 50 years from today).
For both buying methods, we will assume that we get a new car every 7 years and also that we will take out a 6 year loan on the car for the financing method (DAYUM – that’s a long time). Not unrealistic, since amazingly the average car loan is up to a whooping 67 months. Crazy. At the end of the 7 years, we will also assume we use all the proceeds from the sale of our current vehicle towards the purchase of our next vehicle.
On the leasing side, it was interesting to research all the pieces of the math puzzle that make up a lease. If you’re not familiar with a car lease, here is usually how it works:
You make a down payment on the car (usually 10% of purchase price). The remaining value is something called the capitalized cost. At the end of the lease (3 years in this case) you have an assumed residual value based on depreciation rates (remember this is 17% annual depr. rate). The other important piece of information in this calculation is this weird term called “the money factor”. It sounds like a fun game show, but later you’ll see how this kills you slowly over time and is not a fun game show.
Money Factor = Interest Rate / 2400 or in our case 4.5/2400 = .001875
So with this information we can now see our total cash outflows on each 3 year car lease:
10% down payment of car price Monthly Depreciation Cost (we are paying for the depreciation that is used up in our 3 year lease) Monthly Interest Cost (which equals [(Capitalized Cost + Residual Value) x Money Factor]/12) Monthly Sales Tax Cost (assume 7% because the seller has to pay taxes & stuff)
Now the craziest part of this whole calculation is #3 because you are paying interest on not only the capitalized cost, or the 90% value of the car you haven’t paid for upfront but also the residual value of the car after 3 years, remember this was 57% based on our assumptions from above. So think about that with me – you are paying interest based on: 147% (90% + 57%) of the value of the car, even though you are also paying 10% downpayment. Ouch.
Now for the results:
A lot of numbers to decipher through, but not surprisingly buying your cars for the next 48 years in cash is the cheapest method in terms of total cash spent. The only difference between the financing vs. cash method is the interest that you pay. Since we are financing each of our cars over 6 years, instead of paying for them up front in cash, the bank wants to be compensated via a healthy interest cost. Okay, makes sense.
But let’s now turn our focus on the total cash spent in the lease column. This column consists of three portions of cost. 1) the principal cost (10% down payments every 3 years) 2) the interest cost (remember that high multiple of car value you are paying – 147%) and 3) depreciation / other cost (the value of the car you use up in your lease + local sales tax). Hopefully you notice the total cash spent in the column is significantly higher. But I think it’s hard to quantify or really see the simplified meaning of this comparison in the above table. So consider the following:
Over the next 48 years, in each buy method you will drive 7 total cars for 7 years each (7x cars driven multiple). In the lease method, since you are leasing a new car every 3 years you will drive a total of 16 cars (16x). But when we look at the cost of each method in something called the equivalent cars paid multiple – the results are STAGGERING. Over the same 48 year method, we are paying for an additional 5.7 cars or an additional $180K total cash spent by leasing cars vs. buying our vehicles in cash. By the way, we aren’t leasing anything that’s a nicer car, the base assumption was with the same purchase price!
So what’s the point & why the difference?
Some others disagree, but I still would argue it’s best to buy vehicles in cash (and for way less than $33,560 – by the way), but the point is even over a 48 year timeframe financing your cars isn’t too big of a deal (especially in a low interest environment). You are basically paying for an extra car over your lifetime (7.9x vs. 7.0x). Not ideal, but not a life-changer either, and not everyone has the circumstances to buy cars in cash. But by consistently leasing a car, you are committing financial suicide. It hurts big time because in a car lease you are paying for the depreciation of a car but you don’t get any of the benefit (because you don’t own it!) and you are paying massive interest costs (though they disguise it well).
On my local radio, when I hear a leasing commercial that says, “Lease your car, but drive it like you own it” it makes me want to punch my radio dial in the face. Ha, yeah right. Don’t do it. Don’t lease. |
WikiLeaks supporters declare arrests as 'declaration of war', as the FBI issues 40 search warrants in the US
The five people arrested in the UK in connection with a spate of online attacks in support of WikiLeaks were today released on police bail, while in the US the FBI has issued search warrants as part of its investigation into online group Anonymous.
The FBI yesterday issued more than 40 search warrants across the US as part of its Anonymous probe, where the distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks the group carried out on the websites of companies including MasterCard and Visa are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Last night Anonymous issued a statement branding the UK arrests "a serious declaration of war" against the group of internet "hacktivists".
Yesterday's arrests are the first in the Metropolitan police's central e-crime unit investigation in the UK.
Three teenagers, aged 15, 16 and 19, were held along with two others in a series of raids in the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey and London early yesterday. The teenagers have to return to their local police station on 13 April and the two men the following day.
Chris Wood, the 20-year-old Anonymous member who spoke extensively to the Guardian under his online alias Coldblood last month, is understood to be one of those arrested in yesterday's raids.
Police are said to have seized Wood's computers, mobile phones, hard drives and other storage devices in the arrest, and did not disclose when they would be returned.
The five were arrested in connection with the thousand-strong group known as Anonymous, which last month launched a series of crippling attacks on the websites of companies that had withdrawn support for WikiLeaks, along with a number of government sites in Tunisia and Egypt.
DDoS attacks, which bring down sites by bombarding them with repeated requests to load webpages, are illegal in the UK under the Computer Misuse Act and carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a £5,000 fine.
"You can easily arrest individuals, but you cannot arrest an ideology. We are united by a common objective and we can and will cross any borders to achieve that," Anonymous said in its statement.
"So our advice to you, the UK government, is to take this statement as a serious warning from the citizens of the world. We will not rest until our fellow anon protesters have been released."
A Europe-wide investigation being carried out in conjunction with Scotland Yard has so far led to two Dutch suspects being arrested and subsequently released.
Anonymous was catapulted into public spotlight last month when it managed to bring down the websites of some of the world's most powerful financial institutions, including Visa and MasterCard. The group targeted these companies after they cut off ties with WikiLeaks, following the whistleblowers' site's release of confidential US diplomatic cables.
The group is understood to have grown significantly in number and firepower since its support of WikiLeaks, with the overwhelming majority of users simply volunteering their computer to be used in the attacks. Most of those involved in Anonymous operations do not disguise their internet protocol (IP) address, meaning they can be easily identified by police authorities. |
WASHINGTON – Only 15 percent of homes have flood insurance in Harris County. In Brazoria County, where a levee breach sent floodwaters raging through Houston's southern suburbs, it's only 26 percent.
Across those coastal areas of Texas hit by Hurricane Harvey's record setting rainfall, vast numbers of homeowners are facing a long and costly rehabilitation process without flood insurance in place, according to data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"There's areas flooding now that never flooded before. This could be a thousand year flood," said Rep. Al Green, D-Houston. "This is off the charts in terms of its damage and destruction."
RELATED: Harvey stalls Houston commerce, could cost $50 billion in damage and economic activity
Nationwide, the vast majority of homeowners that maintain flood insurance do so because they are required to by their mortgage companies, the result of their homes being located in a FEMA-designated floodplain.
The extent of the flooding in Houston and coastal Texas is still being assessed. But when it comes to the largest and most powerful storms, like Harvey, flooding will extend far beyond the neighborhoods FEMA designates as floodplain – defined as having a one in a hundred chance of flooding in any given year, experts say.
"A lot of the Houston area is not an identified flood area by FEMA," said Larry Larson, a senior policy advisor at the Association of State Floodplain Managers. "But they got hammered anyway."
More than 95 percent of flood insurance sold in the United States is backed by the federal National Flood Insurance Program, to provide coverage for a calamity private insurance companies have long avoided. Those insured are entitled to up to $250,000 to help them rebuild their homes after flooding and another $100,000 to replace their personal possessions.
RELATED: As Harvey eases, Houston gets back to work slowly
But among the 18 Texas counties included in President Donald Trump's disaster declaration, only 16 percent of the households there have insurance through the flood insurance program, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.
"The people in Houston who have flood insurance, that's your first line of defense," said Laura Lightbody, director of Pew's Flood-Prepared Communities project.
Those without flood insurance whose homes are uninhabitable can apply for a grant from FEMA. But those grants top out at $33,000, nowhere near enough to repair severely flooded homes.
"What they say is an inch of water costs you 10 percent of the home's value in repairs. A foot causes 40 to 50 percent, and 3 feet it's almost pushing 100 percent," Larson said.
There are also grants extended through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was able to get for his residents after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
When Congress returns to Washington next week, lining up funding for disaster relief is expected to be at the top of the agenda. Green said he would push for $9 to $10 billion in funding to start.
"We have a duty that we take care of the people of Houston the same way we took care of people after Katrina and Sandy," he said. |
A general view of Ice Cube Curling Center in Olympic Park prior to 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. (Photo: Kevin Liles, USA TODAY Sports) Story Highlights Hungary's Olympic Committee confirmed receiving an email threat
NBC News reported Italy and Germany also were sent threats
The International Olympic Committee said it "takes security very seriously"
The U.S. Olympic Committee and several other countries have received emails regarding security threats at the Sochi Winter Games, further raising concerns about safety.
USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement Wednesday that the message has been forwarded to the authorities.
"The safety and security of Team USA is our top priority. As is always the case, we are working with the U.S. Department of State, the local organizers and the relevant law enforcement agencies in an effort to ensure that our delegation and other Americans traveling to Sochi are safe," Blackmun said in the statement.
NBC News reported Wednesday that the emails were threats, and that Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia also received emails.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams, however, told USA Today Sports that the email was not a threat.
He said that the email was sent by an individual, expressing "his view of security in the region." Adams added that the email had "no credibility as far as we can see. It was not from a terrorist group."
Experts on counterterrorism and Russian policy have said more new potential threats, and perhaps some hoaxes, will likely surface in the coming days. Terrorist groups might try to "enhance or increase the sense of insecurity around the Games," said Andrew Kuchins, director of the Russian and Eurasia Program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In Sochi, Rep. Michael McCaul says Russia has deployed 100,000 security personnel, including special forces and the military. McCaul, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, was in Sochi this week and was interviewed on CNN on Wednesday.
"I do believe this ring of steel is effectively in place," McCaul said of the Olympic security plan. "The problem is how many of these 'black widows', if you will, came into the area before the ring of steel came up. And we also know that one of these 'black widows' actually was able to penetrate this ring and enter the Sochi area."
Security concerns have been raised following two bombings last month in Volgograd that killed 34 people.
Despite the increased concerns and discussion about security, U.S. athletes have said they are not worried about their personal safety or their families.
"My family never hesitated about going," American luger Erin Hamlin said Tuesday. "Even with things heating up a little in that general area, they're not concerned at all. They've now traveled quite a few places to watch me race.They're excited to see a new country and see something different. They're obviously well aware of the concerns they should have, but they're fine with it."
Added ice dancer Evan Bates on Wednesday: "This is the most special time in our lives as athletes, and we want nothing but the most positive things to be coming our way. Not that we're ignoring the reality of the real world. But we're so focused on our performance and our training, our preparation, and our families will be traveling with us. And it's really a special moment for them as well. ... We have trust in the Olympic organizing committee and the Russian government.
"I mean it would be energy wasted to lose sleep over things like that."
Bence Szabo, secretary general of the Hungarian Olympic committee, told the sports daily Nemzeti Sport on Wednesday that the message also urged the Hungarian delegation to stay away from the Winter Games, which run from Feb. 7-23.
Committee President Zsolt Borkai told the state news wire MTI that other countries' Olympic committees had also received similar messages and that the IOC, Sochi organizers and Hungarian security forces had been informed.
MORE TO COME: Experts expect new threats before Olympics
BLACK WIDOWS: Russia searching for women that may disrupt Olympics
The IOC repeated its stance that it "takes security very seriously."
"(We will) pass on any credible information to the relevant security services," the IOC said in a statement. "However, in this case it seems like the email sent to the Hungarian Olympic Committee contains no threat and appears to be a random message from a member of the public."
A spokeswoman for the Switzerland's Olympic committee said similar threats were "normal" so close to the Winter Games and that athletes and officials would base their travel plans on the assessment of security and diplomatic officials.
SECURITY TALKS: Obama, Putin discuss plans for Sochi
"This is kind of an everyday mail. This is normal before every Olympics," Martina Gasner told the AP by telephone. "We work with the federal offices for police and foreign relations."
"If they say you can go to Sochi, we will go, and if one day they will say it is too dangerous and we command you not to go then we will change our plans," she said.
Gary Mihoces and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption An eyewitness to the Cambrils shooting described what happened to Radio 4's Today programme
A lone police officer shot dead four of the five suspects who were in a car that was driven into pedestrians in the Spanish seaside town of Cambrils, it has emerged.
The occupants of the car had been wearing fake suicide vests and had knives and an axe, officials said.
Seven people were injured in the attack, one of whom later died.
It came hours after a van was driven into crowds in Barcelona, leaving 13 people dead and scores injured.
Police say the van driver, who fled the scene, could be among those killed in Cambrils, but this has not yet been confirmed.
"The investigation points in this direction," said Catalonian police official Josep Lluis Trapero, but there was no "concrete proof".
He added that, despite police training, it was "not easy" for the officer who had shot dead four of the five suspects.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The car used in the Cambrils attack overturned
The attack in Cambrils unfolded when an Audi A3 was driven at people walking along the seafront in the early hours of Friday.
The car overturned and those inside then attacked people with knives. Police said four were shot dead at the scene and the fifth was killed a few hundred metres away.
Waiter Joan Marc Serra Salinas heard the shots that rang out on Cambrils promenade.
"It was bang, bang, bang. Shouting, more shouting. I threw myself on to the ground on the beach," he said.
The Mayor of Cambrils, Cami Mendoza, praised the "speed and efficiency" of the police response. |
Advanced cloud-based analytics solution will integrate with the Magento platform as Magento Analytics to help merchants better understand their customers, sell smarter, and increase ROI
Campbell, Calif. (Aug. 1, 2016) – Magento Commerce, the worldwide leader in cloud digital commerce innovation, today announced that it has acquired RJMetrics, a cloud-based analytics platform tuned for digital commerce business intelligence. In addition to the valuable analytics extensions already built for Magento, the Magento core platform will now include a powerful native solution enabling merchants to better understand and optimize their commerce business based on actionable data and insights into customers, merchandising, channels, and more.
The new solution will be marketed as Magento Analytics and, unlike other analytics platforms that often require IT support and considerable time to configure, Magento Analytics will allow non-technical business users to quickly and easily integrate with enterprise-grade data sets across a broad array of applications in order to consolidate and analyze data for effective multi-brand, cross-channel reporting.
According to a recent Forrester Research report, most firms only use one-third of the data that they collect. Worse, only 29% say they are good at translating the result of data and analytics into measurable business outcomes.
“Big data and analytics are now table stakes for merchants who want to find new customers, increase order value, and enhance loyalty.” said Mark Lavelle, CEO of Magento Commerce. “The combination of RJMetrics and our global ecosystem of Solution Partners will provide our joint customers, such as Signature Hardware, Draper James and Bucketfeet, and the diverse portfolio of Magento merchants with cutting-edge analytics that keep them ahead of the competition.”
“We have seen first-hand the power of combining rich product and customer data from Magento with the business insights that RJMetrics provides,” said Sean Fisher, Director of eCommerce at Signature Hardware. “We’re excited to see how both of these innovative partners combine to help merchants like us gain a better understanding of our customers and drive data-focused decision-making.”
Key capabilities Magento Analytics will enable for B2B and B2C merchants include:
Advanced Customer Insights: Customer lifetime value, repurchase rates, inactive customers, churn, cohort analysis, and other deep analytics to truly understand customers.
Customer lifetime value, repurchase rates, inactive customers, churn, cohort analysis, and other deep analytics to truly understand customers. Marketing Campaign ROI : Insights into campaign performance to continuously tune and optimize campaigns and allocate marketing spend.
: Insights into campaign performance to continuously tune and optimize campaigns and allocate marketing spend. Improved Segmentation and Personalization: Customer insights allow for more targeted promotions and merchandising, allowing Magento merchants to sell more.
Customer insights allow for more targeted promotions and merchandising, allowing Magento merchants to sell more. Better Merchandising and Shopping Experience: Insights into item, page, placement, promotion, and channel performance will enable merchants to continuously optimize digital shopping experience and performance to increase sales and gross margin.
Insights into item, page, placement, promotion, and channel performance will enable merchants to continuously optimize digital shopping experience and performance to increase sales and gross margin. Multi-Brand, Cross-Border Analytics: Simple but powerful insights will allow smaller merchants to compete against bigger competitors.
Simple but powerful insights will allow smaller merchants to compete against bigger competitors. Intelligent Sourcing and Inventory Optimization: Integration to the Magento Commerce Order Management solution will improve sales and margins due to improved cross-channel fulfillment and inventory balancing resulting in fewer in-store stockouts & costly markdowns.
“At RJMetrics, we're on a mission to help commerce businesses make smarter decisions using their data. When combined with Magento’s commitment to facilitating commerce innovation through flexibility and openness, the opportunity to fulfill that mission is larger than ever,” said Robert Moore, CEO, RJMetrics. “The blending of our platforms will open up a world of possibilities for our customers to define the future of commerce analytics, and I’m proud to be combining forces to usher in the new era.”
The transaction closed in Magento’s third fiscal quarter. RJMetrics’ second product, an ETL service, is spinning off into its own company and brand, Stitch. Union Square Advisors served as financial advisors. |
Look, we’re big fans of Riverdale, the CW’s dark, sexy reinvention of the Archie universe, but all that murder, skin, and intrigue left little room for the series’ true star: a hot, juicy beef patty with all the fixin’s. That’s Jughead Jones’ favorite food, yet it took until the season finale to see our crowned friend tear into one. If you haven’t already, you’ll be able to see it for yourself when the series shows up on Netflix this Thursday, but the streaming service thought it wise to tide you over with this little appetizer.
That’s actor Cole Sprouse not just eating a burger, but making love to the damn thing. Dude’s kissing, nuzzling, and sniffing this burger—the sesame seed bun is a nice touch—in between winks and closeups of his mouth chowing that beef back into the pink slime from which it came. Kudos also to that obscene soundtrack.
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Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has teased “civil war” for the next season. That sounds cool and all, but the writers might want to use this fresh start to start serving up a different kind of beef.
[via Facebook] |
In response to my article calulatin’ and speculatin’ on the 2016 STAR WARS film ROGUE ONE, I got one of the coolest emails I’ve ever received. It was from John Knoll, the Executive Producer and Visual Effects Supervisor on Rogue One. John Knoll!! He’s a household name in my house. As an ILM superstar, he’s overseen the visual effects on tons of movies we all love. He and his brother invented friggin’ Photoshop. And of course, relevant to this story, he had the idea for ROGUE ONE.
Here’s the first part of his email…
I read your AICN article with a great deal of amusement. Thank you for that. In the article, you write: “It is entirely possible some artists at ILM just came up with what we saw in the teaser for the “wow” factor, and didn’t put a lot of thought into it. And of course STAR WARS has always been space fantasy. But I hope the powers that be have thought it through.” I assure you we did discuss the magnitude of the cheat at some length. I'm from a family of scientists and engineers, so I assure you this kind of thing doesn't happen by accident, at least not on work I'm supervising. Some of us at ILM consider our unofficial slogan "We overthink it so you don't have to”.
He then walked me through some of the previsualization renderings they used in the teaser. They started with the Death Star orbiting a planet the size of Earth. The top view is what the camera sees, and the bottom is a side view. The planet started out as 8000 miles in diameter, and the Death Star 100 miles. The problem is that the Death Star intersects the planet.
So to get around that, in Mr. Knoll’s own words they, “cheated a bit.” Indeed, as I deduced from the math, it was a moon and not a planet. They made it the size of Ceres, about 590 miles in diameter. Ceres is the largest asteroid in our solar system, and in fact we have a spaceship visiting it right now! NASA’s Dawn mission went into orbit around it, and is using its ion engines (just like in TIE fighters) to edge ever-closer. As I pointed out in my Science of STAR WARS article — we are living a real-life version of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK — we have an ion-engine driven spacecraft, with giant solar-panel wings, exploring the asteroid belt! And while it hasn’t found any space slugs, it has found some mysterious white spots. You can see one of them in this majestic image (or follow this link for a cool animated gif).
For that ROGUE ONE teaser shot, there is one big problem with using a moon instead of a planet, which Mr. Knoll conceded, “I'm aware that a moon this small would have to be ultra dense to have a surface gravity sufficient to hold an atmosphere as depicted, and that's probably the biggest cheat we did.”
The second thing they did was to assume they were using a long lens. Indeed, I had basically assumed the same thing in my guess at the angular size of the Death Star. I didn’t write that into my original article, because it was already running long, but I did point it out in the talkbacks. A long focal length magnifies the subject and decreases the field of view, which makes the distant thing you are shooting look bigger. You can see the effect in this photo of the moon by photographer Craig Silltoe.
For the teaser they gave the camera a 17 degree field of view. When you add the effects of the long lens and the moon-sized body together, you get this:
Great, now the Death Star is no longer inside the planet. But how far away is it? Back to Knoll:
In your discussion about orbits, you mention how much drag there would be if the Deathstar were that low. Indeed you are correct, but we're saying the Deathstar is not in orbit. It's well established in the Star Wars universe that "repulsorlifts" (the antigravity suspensors that let Luke's speeder hover) are low power consumption devices (since Luke parks it hovering) and inexpensive (since they use repulsorlifts in all kinds of things). The Deathstar is hovering over this moon.
What he’s referring to here is that if you have two celestial bodies side-by-side, they will just smash into each other due to gravitational attraction, unless one is in orbit around the other. But in this case they are using artificial means to keep them apart (as I guessed, since they have force fields and tractor beams). That’s actually kind of cool, and well thought out, even if repulsorlifts give you a little too much of a “get out of physics jail free” card for my taste. I know, I know, these movies have wizards and machines that can destroy a planet. Shut up, we’re nerding out here.
But what about tidal forces? Knoll adds…
We're aware that tidal forces could do a real number on the Deathstar (and our moon for that matter), but the Deathstar has artificial gravity and is made from very strong materials. The Empire may not be worrying too much about ecosystem damage from that close pass.
In trying to picture this in my head, I think he means that the moon is rotating under the Death Star (hence the pass), but the repulsors are on the Death Star itself. I just love the fact that a bunch of ILM people are having these kinds of conversations and thinking through the consequences!
There was a great deal of discussion about these cheats, but ultimately we decided that this teaser can be thought of like an animated movie poster and we could cheat for dramatic purposes, the kind of artistic license often taken on movie posters. Anyway, yes, the powers that be have indeed thought this through and we cheated deliberately. You caught us!
That’s the sentiment I express frequently in these articles. Do what you need to do to tell the best story. But think it through, and follow through on the consequences.
Another purpose of these articles is to use movies as a jumping off point to tell cool stories about real science. So let’s see if our ROGUE ONE moon really could have an atmosphere. Yes, I’m aware the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK already has an asteroid with an atmosphere when it shouldn’t have one, and a slug on a spaceship diet to boot. Don’t care. Ridiculousness like that does not get grandfathered in! This is something we can calculate, and I love things we can calculate!
Of the nearly 200 moons in our solar system, only one has an atmosphere — Titan. Titan has a mass of about 1023 kg, or 2% that of Earth. Let’s call that the minimum mass we need to retain an atmosphere. Using the volume of a sphere with the radius of Ceres we can calculate the density the ROGUE ONE moon would have to be to retain an atmosphere: about 29,000 kg / m3. Compare that to the density of Earth, 5,500 kg / m3, or even iron: 7,800 kg / m3. Even a pure uranium planet wouldn’t be quite dense enough: 19,000 kg / m3. No element on the periodic table under normal conditions is dense enough.
It is even worse than that, because the other variables controlling the retention of an atmosphere are temperature, and the atomic weight of the gasses in the atmosphere. Titan can only keep its atmosphere because it is cold out at the orbit of Saturn. These factors are why the small, rocky, inner planets have either no atmosphere, or only ones made out of relatively heavy molecules. They can’t retain light gasses like hydrogen or helium, because at high temperatures these gasses can move near the escape velocity. But the gas giants can keep them, because they are cold (making gas speeds low), and massive (making escape velocity high).
But our solar system is only one of billions (in our galaxy alone). For all of human history, it was all we knew. But the last couple of decades has seen the discovery of hundreds of new worlds.
And in just the last few years we’ve gotten a glimpse at just how much the universe is a spectacularly freaky place.
One of my favorites of these new worlds is a planet around the pulsar PSR J1719-1438. It has a density of more than 23,000 kg / m3, so it could approach the densities we need! But it is just crazy-insane. If you know anything about astronomy, right now you are probably thinking: what.. the.. hell. Pulsars are neutron stars — what you get after a star goes supernova if it wasn’t quite massive enough to collapse to a black hole. Neutron stars are several times the mass of the sun, but packed into about a fifteen-mile diameter — the size of a city. How could a planet survive a supernova, but also become denser than anything on the periodic table?
The current thinking is that the planet actually started off as a star itself! First the primary star in the system went supernova and became a neutron star. Then the secondary star became a red giant, but then lost its outer hydrogen layers, leaving leaving a bare core of carbon and oxygen called a white dwarf. This is our sun’s fate in about 5 billion years. White dwarf stars are made of very dense degenerate matter, denser than anything on Earth. They are the mass of the Sun packed into the size of the Earth. But the white dwarf in the PSR J1719-1438 system was in a hellish environment — next to a neutron star. The neutron star alternately sucked matter from the white dwarf and blew some of it away until what was left was something only a few times the mass of Jupiter. Because of the low mass and the fact that fusion has stopped, it is now called a planet. It is probably made of crystalline carbon — like diamond but much denser. There is nothing like it on Earth.
I doubt the pulsar diamond planet could explain our moon in ROGUE ONE. At least I hope it isn’t next to a neutron star. But it does go to show you that the universe can be even crazier than science fiction has dared to be.
With the twin suns, gas giants, asteroid belts, and cloud cities, the STAR WARS universe the the gateway drug to astronomy for hundreds of millions of people. But now we know orders of magnitude more about other solar systems than we did even just a few years ago in the prequel era. And because of technological limitations, the Earth has usually had to stand in for other places in the STAR WARS films. But now we can render entire worlds on the computer and even change gravity. I hope this new era of STAR WARS pushes the bounds of the fantastic out to the edges of our new expanded frontiers of scientific understanding.
Thanks again to John Knoll for geeking out with me about Star Wars, and by allowing me to share it with you, geeking out with all of us!
Copernicus (aka Andy Howell). Email me or follow me on Twitter. |
Twenty years ago this year, I earned my Eagle Scout. A loyal Scout from an early age, earning the Eagle Scout Award was the pinnacle of my twelve-year Scouting career. I had been luckier than most: a strong Troop with both adult and youth leaders that valued outdoor programs, parents that supported and participated alongside me, and the means to indulge in adventure.
Through the years, Scouting took me to different parks, states, and countries, allowing me to log over 500 nights in a tent — that’s better than frequent flier miles. Scouting caused me to meet people from every walk of life, and to embrace, appreciate, and celebrate our differences as humans. Scouting gave me a true reverence for nature and the outdoors. Heading out into the wilderness, carrying all of your supplies on your back gives new meaning to sustainable living. Because of Scouting, I am committed to the ideology of a greener planet, protecting the environment, and leaving every place better than I found it.
Over time, I gave more and more of myself to the program. Following the lead of those who helped me, I helped those who came after me. Eventually, I instructed more than 150 individual merit badge classes, helping nearly 2,000 Scouts to learn core Scouting Skills like swimming, pioneering, and orienteering. I served seven years on Summer Camp Staff, two as a Camp Director. Even today, I can tie all of the BSA’s Forty Knots behind my back or blindfolded. And of course, I had fun along the way.
Recently, a friend asked about my current involvement. I was embarrassed to admit that I had been inactive the past few years, allowing both my Resident Camp Director certification and BSA membership to lapse. My own words stopped me in my tracks and caused a moment of reflection. Eventually, I took solace knowing that while I had left Scouting as of late, Scouting will never leave me.
Of all the lessons learned, one has continued to resonate with me every single day. Twelve simple adjectives that make up the Scout Law have become my life’s mantra. Twelve qualities that I admire and encourage in others. Twelve character traits to influence my behavior and attitude. “A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.”
Trustworthy
Always tell the truth. Keep your promises. Remain honest and ethical in the face of corruption. Be dependable.
Loyal
Stay true to family and friends. Proudly pledge alliance to community and nation. Give firm and constant support.
Helpful
Be concerned about other people. Willingly give assistance without pay or reward. Make your actions useful and supporting.
Friendly
Seek to understand others. Respect ideas, customs, and beliefs other than your own. Stay good natured, hospitable, and affable.
Courteous
Manners make the Man. Be polite to everyone, regardless of age, rank, or social status. Be appreciative of others.
Kind
Exhibit strength through gentleness. Be affectionate and show compassion. Treat others as you want to be treated.
Obedient
Remain law abiding, dutiful, and disciplined. Obey the laws of community and country. If you disagree, put forth effort to reform rather than disobey.
Cheerful
Look for the bright side of things. Stay happy and optimistic when faced with adversity. Try to make others happy.
Thrifty
Use time, money, and property carefully. Pay your own way. Be prudent and avoid wastefulness. Conserve natural resources.
Brave
Show courage by doing things that scare you. Always stand up for what you think is right. Be ready to face danger. Protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Clean
Keep mind and body fit and healthy. Stay morally uncontaminated. Keep home, community, and environment free from pollutants.
Reverent
Show deep and solemn respect for the things that matter. Respect the beliefs of others. Permit yourself to be grateful. |
Netflix’s Bojack Horseman is its best and most acclaimed show, delivering a heartbreaking new season about family, love and loss that might be its best yet…
Spoiler alert for the entire first four seasons of Bojack Horseman.
There’s a good reason why this review reads more like that of a drama than of a comedy.
There’s something that feels very different about the fourth season of Bojack Horseman. This has always been a series where show business and Hollywood satire consume everything, wrapping up every personal story into public consequence, and that’s still true of most of Season Four. Just not of the show’s main protagonist. The question ‘Where’s Bojack?’ may only be literally applicable to the opening few episodes but it resonates throughout the course of all twelve.
The defining arc of the first three seasons of Bojack was the pre-production, production and resulting awards race for ‘Secretariat’. Creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg referred to last year’s finale as the ‘end for a certain chapter’, and this year feels like the beginning of a new more positive one for Bojack, signalled by the arrival of his ‘daughter’ Hollyhock. The show devotes so much of the season to this incorrect assumption of Bojack and Hollyhock’s relationship, and it means that the writers are able to delve back into Bojack’s relationship with his own mother Beatrice, and to finally afford her the narrative time to highlight and colour her motivations.
Beatrice Sugarman has always been an important but absent presence in the series, following most notably in the footsteps of notorious bad mother Livia Soprano. Unlike Livia though, Beatrice is finally given the opportunity to transform from trauma into tragic figure, exploring the reasons that she treated Bojack as badly as she did. She loses her mother to a lobotomy, suffers the cold impassivity of her uncaring father and ultimately elopes to marry a husband who is forced to sell out his dream to provide for their family. To Beatrice her son becomes a substitute for the life she never lived – which is why she believes she is doing Henrietta a favour when she forces her to give up her child. In the past, Bojack and Henrietta become inextricably linked in Beatrice’s mind.
Father, Daughter and Sister
In the present day, Bojack and Hollyhock’s dynamic couldn’t be further away from that of Beatrice and Bojack. Hollyhock arrives at a time when Bojack is trying to do better, beginning with what is seemingly just a throwaway gag about his compulsive lying to her. But by the end of the brilliant ‘Stupid Piece of Sh*t’ there are alarming signs that Hollyhock may have inherited the self-loathing depression that Bojack struggles with, and ‘lovin that cali lifestyle!!’ plays with the idea that it may be manifesting as an eating disorder. But in the first of a series of revelations, Beatrice is revealed to be responsible for Hollyhock’s fainting, and it’s unclear to what extent her dementia may be the cause. This event drags back up all of their old drama.
So though we may sympathise with Bojack when Hollyhock’s eight dads appear to take her home, they have a very valid point about responsibility. Up until her departure Bojack never views Hollyhock as an independent entity, but rather increasingly as an extension and continuation of himself. When Bojack lies to Hollyhock about the voices in her head going away in an attempt to save her emotional pain, it’s because he wishes he could believe that himself. It’s a moment parallel to Beatrice’s attempts to save Henrietta from the pain she perceives the child will inflict upon her, and to Princess Carolyn’s self-deception through the imagined ‘Ruthie’.
All of this serves to set up the moment in which the truth emerges, and Hollyhock can address Bojack not as her father but as her brother. Up until this point the various revelations about Hollyhock have been upsetting and uncomfortable, but Bojack’s extensive work to hunt down the truth of Hollyhock’s parentage has an entirely different effect – when Hollyhock addresses him as brother she absolves him of all of his perceived guilt and re-frames them as equals. Bojack has still done something wrong, but as a result of his attempts to make amends he is forgiven. It’s a wonderful positive note for the show, made all the greater by its rarity.
A Show That’s Become About Its Ensemble
This theme of family, responsibility and deception resonates throughout every main character in the show this season, even if many of their arcs take place in more familiar Hollywoo territory. Princess Carolyn struggles with the possibility of a new life with boyfriend Ralph. Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter’s marriage is challenged by the latter’s campaign for governor. And Todd tries to find the independence from the unreasonable demands placed upon him to begin building a life for himself.
Todd and Diane in particular both take big painful steps towards accepting that they want more from life than what they’ve been given. When the triangle doesn’t ring at the end of ‘Hooray! Todd Episode!’ it’s symbolic of Todd learning to accept the fact that sometimes he has to do something that will make himself happy, even if it costs someone else. And when Diane tells Mr. Peanutbutter that she’s ‘so tired of squinting’, she’s finally admitting that she’s been lying to herself about their relationship all this time.
Mr. Peanutbutter is the epitome of the turning a blind eye mantra – he’s able to be happy and positive of his own accord and doesn’t need to talk about it. But Diane needs someone who is able to understand and sympathise with her, not just accept her in spite of her flaws. Just as Mr. Peanutbutter was unable to talk about the fact that Diane was no longer in Cordovia back in the second season, or about Diane’s pregnancy in the third season, he once again fails to take her feelings into account and listen to her. And it seems as though this time might be the last. There’s a reason that Bojack and Diane work so much better together – it’s because they’ve reached a point where they can be honest with each other.
The Bad Habits of Princess Carolyn
It’s the reason why Princess Carolyn is so drawn to Bojack as well. This season she’s the most hard hit out of any character, losing everything in the wake of her miscarriage and falling into alcoholism. Princess Carolyn is a lot like Mr. Peanutbutter, hurtling through life and remaining busy in an attempt to avoid any kind of personal confrontation, but after last season’s ‘Best Thing That Ever Happened’ and this season’s ‘Ruthie’ it all proves too much for her. She pushes the two most important men in her life away (Ralph and Judah) and returns to the only guy who she sees as as broken as she is – Bojack Horseman himself.
This is some real bad decision making by Princess Carolyn, least of all because it doesn’t address her newfound drinking problem and her ongoing addiction to her work. She’s always had a knack for finding dysfunctional relationships – Vincent Adultman was a projection of her idealised match while Rutabaga and Bojack were mean-spirited extensions of her work – but Ralph’s loss stings because he was her first genuinely loving partner. By the finale Princess Carolyn’s severed all ties to any kind of personal life, one that also used to exist in sweet little interactions with Judah, and it’ll be interesting to see how she interacts with the new more progressive Bojack in the upcoming fifth season.
If this analysis has largely so far been an in-depth psychological reading and re-evaluation of the characters of Bojack Horseman, it’s because that’s what this season set out to accomplish as a whole, more so than ever before. There were an increased number of episodes focusing on a single character (2, 3, 6, 9, 11) and the premiere marked the first ever absence of Bojack for an entire episode. Where the third season doubled down on Bojack himself, the fourth followed the wider ensemble and brought big changes about across the board. ‘Where’s Bojack?’ is appropriate – he has the fewest number of episodes where he is the A-story in any season yet.
The Verdict
But as our main character starts to take steps towards being a better person (horseperson?), and with a half-sister facing not dissimilar issues alongside, he remains a compelling part of a show with a wider scope. I’m always hesitant to group Bojack Horseman in with the emerging scene of the serious drama ‘comedy’ on television (Shameless, Transparent, You’re the Worst etc.) and that’s partly because its characters never allow themselves to become too bogged down for too long. Each of the seasons so far have ended on increasingly positive notes – and each devastating revelation has become as much a step forwards as anything.
For Beatrice Sugarman closure may never come, and Bojack’s lie to her about where she is in the concluding moments of ‘Time’s Arrow’ is a heartbreaking mercy to a woman who lived a miserable life. But there’s a silver lining – we know how meaningful it is to see Bojack perform a kind deed for the woman who gave her life up for him, as miserable as she has made him feel. The wild world of Hollywood has always served as the hilarious touch to make this show so entertaining, but by now we’ve become so invested in these characters that the role can often be filled by meaningful interaction. It’s for this reason that the fourth season is the best and most mature we’ve ever seen this show, without compromising on any of what makes it great.
‘Time’s Arrow Marches Forward’ is used by Joseph Sugarman as a dismissal of addressing any real issue, a pre-iteration of Mr. Peanutbutter and Princess Carolyn’s inability to make real change happen in their lives. This year we saw how damaging looking the other way can be – sometimes a lie is useful, but it can also be a poor painful substitute for the truth. The level of detail results in one hell of a season of Bojack Horseman – this is one hell of a show in general. Someone lie to me and tell me that we don’t have to wait a whole year to see where they go next.
Score: It’s un-Biel-lievable
Written by Tom Besley
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1951 Finnish board game
Afrikan tähti original box art Designer(s) Kari Mannerla Publisher(s) Peliko Players 2–6 Setup time 1–5 minutes Playing time 16–60 minutes Random chance High (dice rolling, luck)
Afrikan tähti ( [ˈɑfrikɑn ˈtæhti]; Finnish: Star of Africa), known in Swedish as Den försvunna diamanten (The Missing Diamond) or Afrikas stjärna[1] meaning "the star of Africa", is a Finnish board game designed by Kari Mannerla originally in 1951. It has been one of the most popular board games in the Nordic countries for decades.[2]
The board game was first published year 1951 in Helsinki, Finland. Stories of the world's largest diamond – the Star of Africa – had inspired the imagination of young Kari Mannerla. He managed to get a hold of a map of Africa in the English language and picked exotic sounding places. He then drafted land, sea and air routes arbitrarily across and around the continent. During his design process, an important innovation was that players could pick their route of choice, instead of following a pre-set course. A further revelation was the tokens that are shuffled before each game and placed randomly throughout the board. None of the players know which surprise is hidden under each token. The robbers and horseshoes were considered to add to the excitement of the game.
Afrikan tähti was the last of Kari Mannerla's games. He was then already an ‘experienced’ 19-year-old game designer and he intuitively sensed that this one was unique. He offered it to the large book publishing company Tilgmann. Price negotiations took a few years and finally he accepted a modest compensation for 10,000 printed games. His condition to the publisher was that any further prints would be negotiated separately. This was not an issue to the publisher because board games typically didn't get printed again. This time it was different. Already the following year another 10,000 were printed and after that every year more and more. Over 100,000 games were sold in seven years, which is a record amount even today.
Afrikan tähti has remained one of the most sold board games in Finland for 65 years. During this time it has been translated to over 16 languages. It is most popular in the Nordic countries, where it became widely marketed in Sweden, Norway and Denmark in 1960. In Sweden the game is called Den Försvunna Diamanten, in Norway Den Forsvunne Diamanten (both meaning "The Lost [or, Vanished] Diamond") and in Denmark Afrikas Stjerne (Star of Africa). In Finland over two million games have been sold, in Sweden and Norway almost one million and in Denmark half a million. There are over 4.5 million sold games internationally. During his retirement years Kari Mannerla revived one of his old creations Inkan Aarre in a completely modified version. Inkan Aarre has sold over 100,000 in Finland.
Both games are nowadays directly copyrighted to Kari Mannerla's five daughters.
Rules [ edit ]
Afrikan tähti is a race between several players. The minimum is two players, and the maximum is theoretically unlimited, although with more than five or six players the game starts to become unplayable, due to long gaming turns and insufficient resources.
The board covers the continent of Africa, with famous cities marked as big red circles, and with routes consisting of small black circles connecting them. Players can start from either Cairo, Egypt or from Tangiers, Morocco, whichever they want.
The game uses a dice and play money. Notes in the values £100, £500 and £1,000 are supplied (referred to as "dollars" in the English language instructions).
Also included is a series of circular tokens, one token for each city. The tokens are not matched with specific cities, only their number is the same. Tokens include:
Blank tokens.
Gemstones. There are three different gems: rubies (red), emeralds (green) and topazes (yellow).
Robbers.
Horseshoes.
The star of Africa itself. This is the only unique token in the game.
Game start [ edit ]
At the start of the game, all tokens are turned face down and shuffled, then distributed randomly at the cities, with one token at each city. At this point, no player knows which token is in which city.
Each player is given £300 as starting money and their character is placed in Cairo or Tangiers according to their preference.
Game rounds [ edit ]
On their turn, each player throws the die, and moves the given number of steps along the routes. If they reach a city with its token still present, they have three options:
Continue as normal.
Buy the token. This costs £100.
Stay in the city. On the following turns, the player may try to win the token by throwing the die, instead of moving normally. On a 4, 5 or 6, the token is won.
Stopping short at a city is allowed.
If the player buys or wins the token, it is flipped over, the player acts according to the revealed token as follows:
Blank token: Nothing happens.
Gemstone: The gemstone is immediately sold for cash. Rubies are worth £1000, emeralds £500 and topazes £300.
Robber: The player immediately loses all their money.
Horseshoe: Acts as a substitute for the star of Africa, but only after the star has been found.
Star of Africa: Finding this is the goal of the game. Taking it back to either Cairo or Tangiers wins the game.
Before the star of Africa has been found, horseshoes are useless and are discarded. After the famous diamond has been found, however, they become effective substitutes for it. Taking a horseshoe to Cairo or Tangiers when another player has the star of Africa wins the game.
Travel [ edit ]
There are three different forms of travel available:
On foot. This moves on the regular routes and is free of charge.
By aeroplane. Aeroplane routes connect some of the cities directly with each other. Travelling by aeroplane costs £300 and takes the player directly to the adjacent city.
By ship. Ship routes are effectively similar to foot routes, but they are on the sea. Boarding a ship costs £100, after which the player may throw the die to determine how many steps they can take on the sea-route. Unlike traveling by foot, players can not choose to pass by cities. If a player touches a city they have to end their turn and pay another £100 to take the boat back. According to the 2005 rule revision players with no money can also travel by sea but only a maximum of two steps at a time. The islands Madagascar and St. Helena are only reachable by aeroplane or ship. Canary Islands are only reachable by ship.
Special places [ edit ]
Some cities or other places on the board have special rules.
In Slave Coast, getting a blank token causes the player to be enslaved and sold at the slave market. They may only proceed after three turns have passed without their participation.
In Gold Coast, the value of gemstones is doubled.
The first player to reach Cape Town is awarded £500.
There is one step in Sahara where the player is ambushed by beduins and can only proceed after rolling 1 or 2.
There are two steps in the sea near the island of St. Helena where the player's ship will be raided by pirates and the player can only proceed after rolling 1 or 2.
Expansion [ edit ]
In 2014, an expansion for the game called Retkikunnat ("The expeditions") was published, making the game more complex. In the expanded game, each player must choose a character and build an expedition from cards found on the table. There are now two tokens stacked on top of each other in every city, and the Star of Africa is found on a token on the bottom. Characters give different properties to the players: for example, the Banker character starts off with more money. The expansion also includes danger and event cards, affecting the game play. When visiting a city, a player draws an event card, which can for example result in fear of flight or sea sickness. As a new feature, it is now also possible to steal the Star of Africa from the player who found it. According to a review on the Lautapeliopas site, the new features increase the randomness and luck factor, and there is no notable effect on the skill involved.[3]
Video game version [ edit ]
Afrikan tähti was made into a video game for the Commodore 64 in 1985 by Otso Pakarinen and Jari Heikkinen who were given permission to make the game from Kari Mannerla.[4] The game was published by Amersoft and produced by Jouko Riikonen. Programming the game took roughly two months. It was made with help of some PROMAL source code which the creators got from Amersoft.
In other countries [ edit ]
The game was launched in Sweden in the 1970s by Alga, under the name "Den försvunna diamanten" ("The lost diamond"). In Denmark a variant of the game is marketed by BRIO. In Norway the game has been sold under the name "Den forsvunne diamanten" ("The lost diamond") for a few decades, and is currently marketed by Egmont. All publishing rights are directly copyrighted to Kari Mannerla's five daughters.
Notes [ edit ]
A quirk in the rules can cause the game to become unwinnable. The islands of Madagascar, St. Helena and Canary Islands contain cities, and it is possible that the Star of Africa ends up being there. In such a case, if no player has £200 left (to get to the island and back again), the Star of Africa can not be transported to Cairo or Tangiers, and the game can not be won. To resolve this quirk, the rules were amended in 2005: If a player has no money left, they can travel on sea for free, but only up to two spaces per turn. Despite this amendment, some players still play by the old rules. |
Gen Con 2016 starts on Thursday. Take This won’t be there, but you can still pick up a Box of Hope thanks to our friends at Wyrmwood.
If you’re planning to visit the longest-running gaming convention in the world, you’ll find Wyrmwood at booth 2463 in the Exhibit Hall, near Entrepreneur’s Alley. They’ll also have their gorgeous selection of natural, unique gaming accessories available for sale.
If you haven’t heard of the Box of Hope, here’s a bit of its history:
Eric Dupuis, co-owner of Wyrmwood, reached out to our co-founder, Russ Pitts, earlier this year. Eric had recently suffered a tragic loss in his own gaming community and wanted to find a way to further support our mission. “One of the most important decisions anyone can make is to face their mental health struggles with support,” he explained. “As a child, I witnessed first hand how these struggles affect everyone in a home, not just the sufferer. From my immediate and extended family, I witnessed two paths – how things can get better with support and how the cycle of suffering continues when action is not taken.” The Box of Hope is one way to show support. In Russ’s words, “Too often we see people who are suffering, or people we know in our daily lives who could use a measure of support, and we just don’t know how to start that conversation. The Box of Hope can be a conversation starter. And a concrete gesture of love and support.”
Each box contains one Hope Shield, crafted by Wyrmwood in one of many varieties of wood. The shields are sold in sealed boxes, so you won’t know exactly what you’re getting – but if you’re very lucky, you’ll find a legendary shield, carved from gabon ebony and finished with rare inlays. Proceeds from the Box of Hope go to supporting our mission.
If you won’t be at Gen Con, we’ll have Boxes of Hope available at future events. You can also buy them online through Wyrmwood while supplies last. |
As we announced last week, the next NXT Closed Beta Weekend starts at 12:00 UTC on the 18th of March.
We're pleased to announce that we're upping the number of players we're letting in this time around. Now, everyone who meets one of the following criteria will be able to try out the NXT client over the Beta Weekend:
Gold Premier Club members
Anyone who's had consecutive membership since 1st January 2014 , with a break of no greater than 14 days
, with a break of no greater than 14 days Anyone whose account was created before 1st March 2006 and had membership on that account at any point between 00:00 UTC on 1st January 2016 and 23:59 UTC on 17th March 2016
and had membership on that account at any point between and Holders of the Gamebreaker title
We're excited to give even more of you a hands-on experience with the NXT client, and to get your feedback in the run-up to release.
You'll be able to download the client from the RuneScape website at 10:00 UTC on the 18th. See you then!
The RuneScape Team |
FOND DU LAC, WIS.—A retired prison guard ate his 25,000th Big Mac on Tuesday, 39 years to the day after eating his first . . . nine. Don Gorske was honoured after reaching the meaty milestone during a ceremony at a McDonald’s in his hometown of Fond du Lac. Surely McDonald’s most loyal customer, Guinness World Records recognized Gorske’s feat three years and 2,000 Big Macs ago, and the 57-year-old says he has no desire to stop.
Don Gorske, 59, a retired prison guard, eats his 25,000th Big Mac on Tuesday, May, 17, 2011, at a McDonald’s in his hometown of Fond du La, Wis. Guinness World Records recognized Gorske's feat three years and 2,000 Big Macs ago, but Gorske says he has no desire to stop. (May 17, 2011) ( Patrick Flood / AP )
“I plan on eating Big Macs until I die,” he said. “I have no intention of changing. It’s still my favourite food. Nothing has changed in 39 years. I look forward to it every day.” Gorske, who appeared in the 2004 documentary “Super Size Me,” which examined the fast food industry, looks nothing like one might expect of a fast food junkie. He’s trim and walks regularly for exercise, and he attributes his build to being “hyperactive.” He said he was recently given a clean bill of health and that his cholesterol is low.
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Gorske’s obsession with the burger — two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun, for those not familiar with the once-ubiquitous ads — started May 17, 1972, when he bought three Big Macs to celebrate the purchase of a new car. He was hooked, and went back to McDonald’s twice more that day, eating nine before they closed. He’s only gone eight days since without a Big Mac, and most days he eats two. Among the reasons he skipped a day was to grant his mother a dying wish. His last Big Mac-less day was Thanksgiving 2000, when he forgot to stock up and the restaurant was closed for the traditional American harvest holiday. Gorske said he loves numbers and counting things and was inspired to start counting his burgers because McDonald’s noted how many hamburgers were served on their sign.
He said he probably has an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and that he likes repetition and doesn’t like change. He said he’s kept many of the Big Mac boxes and receipts over the years, and has noted his purchases in calendars he has kept. McDonald’s says there are 540 calories in a Big Mac, which is more than a quarter of the calories a person on a 2,000-calorie diet would consume. The burger also contains 29 grams of fat and 1,040 grams of sodium, which are both more than 40 per cent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s daily recommended value for a 2,000-calorie diet.
Article Continued Below
Tara Gidus, a registered dietitian in Florida, said she wouldn’t recommend Gorske’s Big Mac diet, and that he’s likely stayed relatively healthy because of good genetics and because he doesn’t order a lot of extras, such as fries and sodas. She said the Big Mac provides protein and grains, which the body needs, and that she would be “less concerned about the bad stuff in the Big Mac and more concerned about the good stuff he’s missing,” such as fruits and vegetables. Gorske said he likes other foods, including bratwurst and lobsters, but that he loves Big Macs and his wife Mary, a nurse, never has to worry about making him a meal. “I really do enjoy every Big Mac,” he said. He said his wife jokes about ending his streak. “She says . . . when she has to put them in a blender, it’s over,” he said. |
FRANKLIN, Ohio – An officer in Ohio went above and beyond after finding a 7-year-old boy wandering alone, trying to sell his teddy bear for food, WLWT reports.
Officer Steve Dunham saw the boy wandering around a busy area in downtown Franklin all by himself.
“It broke my heart. He told me he was trying to sell his stuffed animal to get money for food because he hadn’t eaten in several days,” Dunham told WLWT.
Dunham bought the child some food from Subway and took him to the Franklin police Department.
Police began investigating the boy’s situation and discovered he lived with his four brothers in a home full of garbage, cat urine, and liquor bottles. His parents were charged with 10 counts of child endangering.
“(Police) treated them like their own kids, and that’s exactly what law enforcement does in situations like this. How would we want someone to treat our kids? Hopefully, these officers’ actions change these kids’ lives and maybe change the lives of the parents to become better parents,” said Franklin Police Chief Russ Whitman.
According to police, the boy and his four brothers are now staying with family members, and their parents have been ordered to have no contact with them. |
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sarah Fisher finally found an engine deal for her IndyCar team, signing Friday with Honda for the 2012 season.
Fisher's team will field a car for rookie Josef Newgarden, last year's Indy Lights champion. He's scheduled to be on the grid for the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 25.
Fisher thanked fellow team owner Bobby Rahal for helping the deal come together. Rahal originally had the rights to two Honda engine lease agreements this season, but does not plan to get his second team onto the grid until the Indianapolis 500. That opened the door for Fisher's team to resolve its uncertain engine situation.
"Bobby once again personified the definition of a gentleman and sportsman, remembering how we helped his son Graham," said Fisher, who allowed Rahal's son to run four races in her car in 2010.
"This is a wonderful example of paying it forward."
A spokesman for Rahal's team confirmed the team owner is still working to add a second car by Indianapolis, the fifth race of the season.
"When Bobby kindly offered to forego his second full season lease in order to ensure that Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing could be on the grid from the start of the season, we were happy to be able to help facilitate the matter," said Steve Eriksen, vice president of Honda Performance Development.
"We're pleased to be able to continue our relationship with Sarah Fisher and her new team and look forward to a successful rookie year from Josef following on the heels of his 2011 Indy Lights championship." |
We can burn 565 more gigatons of carbon and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The problem is, the fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons in their reserves, five times the safe amount. And they’re planning to burn it all, because the industry thinks that their bottom line is worth more than a livable planet like the one we grew up with.
All of the climate catastrophes we witnessed this summer — the nation’s breadbasket drying out, the historic Arctic melting, and fires sweeping the West — are the product of that calculation by the fossil fuel industry.
This November, Bill McKibben and 350.org are embarking on a nationwide trek — the Do the Math Tour — that will explain the scary math of climate change, and lay out the plan to take on the fossil fuel industry before they trade away our future for a quick buck.
On December 2nd, Bill McKibben, and 350.org will be in Boulder — and we want you to be there with us. The energy is already running high (a few of the other tour dates are beginning to sell out) — in the future, you’ll look back to this night. You’ll remember it as the moment things really kicked into high gear, when we laid the groundwork for the epic fight ahead of us.
Can you join Bill in Boulder? Click here to RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/event/4507249304
This will be a different kind of event. For one, it’s not just Bill talking — we’ll have music and special guests both in person and via video, plus all of the best climate organizers we can find in and around Colorado.
It’s also the springboard to the next phase of climate change organizing in the US. All across the country people are planning new campaigns targeting the fossil fuel industry’s financial might, using divestment, civil disobedience and strategic pressure campaigns. It’s quite a task — and if we expect to have a shot at success, we’ll need everyone we can find to be working together.
I hope that you’ll be with us. Click here to RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/event/4507249304 |
Philadelphia-area Jews woke to a brutal sight on Sunday morning: tombstones overturned at the Mount Carmel Cemetery.
Andrew Mallin was on his way to his father’s grave when he stumbled upon the vandalism. “It's just very disheartening that such a thing would take place,” he told a local ABC affiliate. “It’s just very heartbreaking.” Mallin’s find was not contained within a single area; tombstones were overturned throughout the cemetery, a vista of violation.
The desecration of the Philadelphia cemetery isn’t an isolated event. During the weekend of February 18, nearly 200 Jewish graves were vandalized outside St. Louis, and on February 1, 55 gravestones were overturned at a Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jewish cemetery.
All three incidents come at a moment of heightened anxiety for American Jews: The cemetery violations appear to be the latest disturbing trend in anti-Semitic acts across the country, coming after weeks of bomb threats to Jewish community centers (JCCs) across the country. Since 2017 began, there have been some 70 bomb threats called in to JCCs and schools. And on February 22, the offices of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also received a threat.
Adding to Jewish anxiety as this wave of anti-Semitic threats seemed to increase was a strangely quiet White House.
President Donald Trump was asked repeatedly about his response to the uptick in anti-Semitic activity and threats. Each time, he offered either no response or vague comments that failed to address the problem.
He had two opportunities to condemn the threats at press conferences in the second week of February; in both instances, he appeared to dodge the question.
At a press conference held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 15, when asked by Israeli journalist Moav Vardi about “a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents,” Trump pivoted immediately to talking about his Electoral College win, and then vaguely promised there would be a “lot of love” in his administration. During his rambling, 77-minute press conference the following day, he was asked directly about the bomb threats. He appeared to misunderstand the question, seeing it as a reflection on himself, and defensively answered he was the “least anti-Semitic person.” He did not, then, condemn the anti-Semitic incidents.
In fact, he failed to deliver a strong, specific message about anti-Semitism until the morning of February 22, when he finally acknowledged the bomb threats were “horrible and painful.”
Many in the Jewish community felt the message was too little, too late, especially coming from a White House that had previously failed to mention Jews in its message commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence made a stronger gesture than the president, traveling to St. Louis on February 22 to help clean up the vandalized cemetery there.
But the problem is not one of messaging. It is that each bomb threat — and each overturned tombstone — makes American Jews feel less safe, and less at home, in their own country. Every threatening call signals the spread of a new, vigorous and virulent anti-Semitism that is haunting Jews from Missouri to Alabama to New Jersey.
“I have never seen anything like this,” Ryan Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center recently told Vox, in response to the latest string of bomb threats. “This is a very unique trend in threat communications coming at the end of a very unique rise in hate and extremism across the United States.”
Lenz was referring to the 2016 presidential campaign itself. As my colleague Yochi Dreazen wrote back in October, then-candidate Trump “revived some of the ugliest of anti-Semitic stereotypes” in speeches and advertisements that recalled historical canards about Jews controlling the global levers of power and money. There was also an increase in anti-Semitic activity on Twitter midway through the campaign, including attacks on Jewish journalists. In a special report, the ADL found that some 800 journalists had been harassed.
Now it seems the wave of anti-Semitism has spread from threats against JCCs and the preschool kids who spend their days there to dishonoring the dead. |
The Big Issue celebrates 20 years of helping Australia's disadvantaged
Updated
The Big Issue, the magazine known for its slogan "a hand up, not a hand out", is celebrating 20 years of helping people across Australia.
The magazine — which gives homeless and disadvantaged people a chance to help themselves by working as vendors — was first sold on the steps of Melbourne's Flinders Street Station on June 16, 1996.
In the two decades since then, the organisation has spread across Australia, with more than 500 vendors now working to distribute the magazine every fortnight.
The Big Issue is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month with a bumper special edition and celebrations around the country.
Russell has been selling The Big Issue for 16 years. He currently sells the magazine on the streets of Melbourne, but he has previously worked in Brisbane and Sydney.
He said the extra income and the social aspects of the job meant a lot to him.
"It's meant a massive amount. It's mostly that it gives me that extra money," he said.
"I've been broke: it's no fun. When you're selling The Big Issue, when you've got $20 or $30 in your pocket, you're not broke."
Some of Russell's customers have been buying the magazine from him for years.
"Most of my customers ... they know what I've been up to the previous couple of weeks," he said.
"I've watched my customers' kids grow up ... they're teaching their kids respect as well."
Russell recently met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and told him the magazine "gives so many vendors so much confidence".
The magazine has come a long way since its launch, which was supported by The Body Shop and its Australian owner, Graeme Wise.
The first edition featured a busker in front of Melbourne's Art Centre on the cover and sold for $2.
About 6,500 people in need have sold more than 10 million copies of the magazine since then, collectively earning $23 million.
Circulation has increased nearly four-fold — from 7,000 in 1996 to 26,500 currently — and a magazine now costs $7.
About 400,000 subscription issues have been packed by homeless and disadvantaged women taking part in the magazine's Women's Subscription Enterprise program.
Sally Hines, The Big Issue's national manager, said the magazine was still going strong despite headwinds for print publications.
"We certainly haven't seen a decline in our circulation. Indeed, it continues to grow," she said.
"Vendors continue to earn more money each year which is fabulous."
The magazine's anniversary edition features photographs by former editor Alan Attwood capturing memories of his time at the magazine.
Mayors in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Darwin will work alongside vendors to sell the magazine on Friday.
Topics: homelessness, community-and-society, charities, charities-and-community-organisations, melbourne-3000, darwin-0800, sydney-2000, adelaide-5000, brisbane-4000, australia
First posted |
(Picture: Saving Chase)
This is four-year-old Chase.
The little boy, from West Palm Beach, Florida, is due to have his foreskin removed today against the wishes of both himself and his mother Heather Hironimus.
Circumcision Removal of the foreskin to expose the tip of the penis is usually done within 10 days of birth.
When Chase was a baby in 2011, his mother signed a legal agreement for the operation to take place, as per the wishes of his father Dennis Nebus.
But four years later the surgery has not happened and now Chase, a healthy school age child, has said he does not want to be circumcised.
Surgery will be risky and painful and a paediatric urologist called Dr Charles Flack said removing his foreskin is not medically necessary.
His supporters said:
Heather Hironimus realised over the years that removing Chase’s foreskin was unnecessary. She argues that the parenting plan circumcision agreement no longer applies to a now older, and more aware, boy. Pediatric urologist Dr. Charles Flack testified to the court that circumcision is not medically necessary after examining the boy. Genital autonomy advocates believe Chase’s physical and mental health are at risk. He is aware of his body and does not want to have surgery on his genitals. Amputating a healthy, functional body part is a violation of basic human rights and medical ethics.
The problem is, due to the legal document, a court ruled in November last year that the decision stands.
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Especially since Chase’s father still wants him to undergo the operation.
In a last ditch effort, his mother and a group of activists launched a battle to save him on social media under the hashtag #savingchase. A website savingchase.org was also created with a fund for raising awareness of the issue.
Chase’s mother and father, who had a six month long relationship, are no longer together.
Most were appalled that doctors can circumcise the boy.
Help save a boy from his father's vanity to have his son circumcised. #savingchase — My Synaptic Spasm (@922114_) February 24, 2015
Some just wanted to stop the operation from happening.
Other want to raise awareness so this never happens again.
#savingchase please make your profile pic to stand up for his rights! pic.twitter.com/644vBPgTGq — BFickling#GG8860 (@bfickling11) February 24, 2015
The final decision will be made later today.
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It's looking more and more like Kevin Love is playing out his last games as a Cleveland Cavalier.
According to Real GM (via Matt Moore of CBS Sports), Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge met with Love's agent Jeff Schwartz to revisit whether or not a trade involving Love could be worked out.
For those that have forgotten, the Celtics were in talks with the Cavaliers before the trade deadline in February to acquire the three-time All-Star. However, Boston's offer wasn't strong enough for Cleveland's tastes.
Although the Cavaliers have won the past two games in the Finals to force a Game 7, Love has played almost no role in it. After scoring just two points in Game 5, the 27-year-old forward notched three fouls in his first three minutes of playing time in Game 6. Despite starting for the first time in four games, he played just 12 minutes on Thursday night due to foul trouble. He finished the night with just seven points on 1-of-3 shooting.
With it becoming abundantly clear that he doesn't fit into Cleveland's offense playing alongside LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, the Cavaliers will likely trade Love this offseason—regardless of whether they win the Finals or not. |
Well as everyone knows who listened to our Rebel Live radio show, Â we are having the most epic contest ever! THQ and Metro: Last Light have some pretty epic swag for us to give away, not only have they given us Tshirts and posters for Metro: Last Light that we have given away on previous Rebel Live shows, but now they give us genuine gas masks! These gas masks are the real deal! They come with their own carry case with the Metro logo as well, check them out below!
What do you need to do to get your hands on a Metro: Last Light gas mask? Make a youtube video! really, thats it! Make sure your inspiration comes from this mini movie by THQ for Metro: Last Light;
Here are the official rules:
Video cannot be more then 5 minutes long
Video has to be longer then 1 minute
All videos must be uploaded to youtube
Subject for youtube submission must have in it = Rebel Gaming Enter The Metro Contest (can have anything before or after)
All video must be submitted before August 5th midnight eastern. No submissions will be allowed after
All videos submitted will be able to be showed by Rebel Gaming at any time
There will be more then one winner!
You do not have to be in the video itself
No nudity (or content there of) you will be disqualified
No hurting of animals or humans (see above)
Entry links must be emailed to [email protected] before midnight, subject line must say CONTEST with link to video, your first and last name (only first name will be posted on site) and any social media links you wish (twitter, facebook etc)
There will be more then one winner!
Entrants youtube and other social media links will be displayed on a post on Rebel Gaming
You can submit another video after your initial video, but we will remove the first one, you have a month to get this video right! If you feel you have made a better one after the first we will change it.
Be creative! This is what we want to see. Use your imagination and really bring it! Here are some ideas to help inspire you;
Flash mob
Use your family
Use pictures and Que cards
Do a drama
Do a comedy
Do a dramatic poem
Use your local town/city
Props are good
Use claymation
make a cartoon
interview the characters in game
These are just some ideas of what you can do to get creative and win these gas masks! Remember all submissions must be in before August 5th midnight eastern, this contest is open USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland and Mexico
Any questions? Ask below! |
There are many reasons for the Wisconsin Badgers and their fans to be excited for the class of 2016 commits. Their No. 25 ranking according to Scout.com is the one of the highest a UW recruiting class has finished since recruiting services started.
Four-star commits Cole Van Lanen and Garrett Rand have the talent and potential to make a significant impact in their Wisconsin careers and could find themselves in playing early on. The UW secondary replenished its numbers, and if injuries pop up, cornerbacks like Caesar Williams and Ke'Shan Pennamon may step up into the two-deep or certain defensive packages during the 2017
The most exciting piece in this class that could make the biggest splash early on and in his career, may just be A.J. Taylor, the versatile athlete from Kansas City, Mo.
Taylor is ranked a four-star recruit by 247Sports' composite rankings. A first-team all-state selection by Missouri Football Coaches Association and Missouri media as a senior last season, he rushed for 1,721 yards and 16 touchdowns while also contributing 338 receiving yards and five touchdown receptions.
That was as a running back, however. At Wisconsin, he's projected to play wide receiver, but that hasn't stopped many from thinking Taylor has the ability to see playing time on the field as a true freshman -- including his new position coach.
"He's a young man that possesses a lot of abilities," UW wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore said on Wednesday. "He can do a lot of things for you, whether if that's as a returner, whether that's as a running back or as a receiver. He's a guy who's really good in his hands. He's a really intelligent man on the field, off the field. He gets it. He sees the big picture.
"In saying that, I think that will give him a chance to play as a freshman."
That's high praise for Taylor, who was a second-team all-state selection as a junior after gaining 864 yards on the ground with 11 touchdowns.
He showcased his skills at the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl in January after his senior season alongside fellow 2016 commits Dallas Jeanty and Noah Burks. Recruiting analysts in attendance during the week's worth of practices noted Taylor's playmaking abilities. Wisconsin offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph believes the multi-faceted athlete can come in and contribute as a freshman.
"A.J. has the type of skillset where he may be able to come in right away (and play)," Rudolph said. "You just watch him play, he's so dynamic."
Running backs coach John Settle did concede Taylor would start at wide receiver, but noted Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst likes to use players where they'll be most effective.
Gilmore believes Taylor can handle the mental aspects of UW's pro-style offense coming into the college game as a true freshman. There were no concerns from the veteran position coach on Taylor adjusting from a physical aspect, as the 6'0, 190-pound standout should be able to hold up at the next level.
That should bode well for Taylor being utilized not just in different positions of the offense, but within the different assignments and looks as a wide receiver. That benefits Wisconsin, as they lose seniors Alex Erickson and Jordan Fredrick due to exhausting their eligibility.
"I think that he can play on the outside lane and in the slot. I really do feel that way. Obviously, where the running back piece is concerned -- I told Coach Settle to stay away. I made that very clear," Gilmore joked with a laugh.
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B5Q's Curt Hogg contributed to this article. |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Thursday threw its weight behind a proposal that it says could cut the average prison sentence for a federal drug defendant by 11 months, a change designed to help reduce the massive U.S. prison population.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder arrives for a television taping of "In Performance at the White House: Women of Soul" in Washington March 6, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Attorney General Eric Holder endorsed the idea in testimony before the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a government body in Washington that guides federal judges on how long they should sentence people convicted of crimes.
The United States keeps a larger proportion of its population behind bars than any other country except for the Seychelles, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies in London.
The proposed changes would occur within detailed tables that indicate how many months or years a defendant should get. Holder’s office says the impact could be wide, affecting about 70 percent of federal drug trafficking defendants in future cases if the commission adopts the proposal.
“Certain types of cases result in too many Americans going to prison for too long, and at times for no truly good law enforcement reason,” Holder, the top U.S. law enforcement official, told the commission.
One in 28 U.S. children has a parent behind bars, Holder said. “This focused reliance on incarceration is not just financially unsustainable. It comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate,” he said.
Federal judges have some discretion to sentence defendants as they see fit, but they are given a 590-page manual for advice.
According to the current manual, someone convicted of a crime involving 500 grams (18 ounces) of powder cocaine might be expected to get a prison sentence between 63 and 78 months depending on additional factors. Under the proposal, the expected sentence for that person would drop to a range of 51 to 63 months.
The average sentence imposed on federal drug offenders would fall to 51 months from 62, a reduction of 18 percent, according to an estimate provided by the Justice Department.
The federal prison population would fall by about 6,550 inmates over five years, the department said. There are about 216,000 federal inmates.
VOTE POSSIBLE IN APRIL
The seven-member Sentencing Commission could vote on the proposal as soon as April after it finishes receiving public comments. The proposal, if adopted, would not affect past cases.
Congress, which passed mandatory minimum sentences and related laws in the 1980s and 1990s, has the authority to block the commission proposal, but political support for lengthy prison terms has weakened lately.
Members of the Sentencing Commission quizzed Holder about the impact that shorter prison terms would have.
In response to a question from U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, the commission chairwoman, Holder said that an earlier change that eased sentences for crack cocaine offenses had not reduced the willingness of drug defendants to cooperate with investigators.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer asked whether some of the savings from imprisoning fewer people could be directed to help the transition of inmates back into society.
“That’s precisely what we want to do,” Holder responded. “The savings that we will reap will allow us to do all of those things. In addition, it will allow us to hire greater numbers of prosecutors, greater numbers of agents.”
Dabney Friedrich, a commissioner and former lawyer in the George W. Bush White House, said she was concerned that, in a broader way, the Justice Department was not doing enough to ensure uniformity in sentences nationwide.
“I’d like to hear what specific steps, if any, you are taking to ensure that prosecutors across the country get consistent supervisory guidance,” she said.
Holder, a former judge, said that although the system has never been perfect, the department has training and supervision in place.
Uniformity is not always desirable, he added. “What I’m looking for is an individualized determination, to see what is it that is just,” he said. “I understand that that necessarily means that we’re putting a human element into this.”
BIPARTISAN BILL
In a reflection of growing bipartisan interest in shorter sentences, Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Mike Lee of Utah are co-sponsoring legislation in the Senate that would cut some mandatory minimum sentences in half.
Holder, a senior member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, has for months pushed lawmakers and his own prosecutors to rethink long, mandatory prison terms, which he argues lead to spiraling prison costs and damaged families.
According to data kept by the International Centre for Prison Studies, 707 of every 100,000 Americans are in prison or in jail awaiting trial. That compares with 472 in Russia, 284 in Iran, 274 in Brazil, 210 in Mexico, 149 in England and Wales, 124 in China, 118 in Canada, 100 in France and 77 in Germany.
Only the Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago, tops the United States at 709. |
One of the coolest things I saw at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo in Australia last week was the design for La Marzocco’s Academia Project.
Tom Beaumont, who is the general manager of La Marzocco Australia, was excited to show it to me when I stopped by the booth. As there always is, no matter the trade show, there was a thick crowd of people gathered at the La Marzocco booth checking out the exploding espresso machine, the electric blue Linea, and also the plans for the Academia Project.
Tom told me the project is in the works right now: It is a companion building to the company’s gorgeous Scarperia factory in Italy, almost exactly the same size, and joined to the original building via a skybridge. Marta Kokosar, who is a marketing project manager for La Marzocco in Italy, came up with this fascinating model of all that the Academia will include.
I went back to La Marzocco’s stand at MICE on Saturday to talk to La Marzocco’s managing director, Guido Bernardinelli, about the project. He excitedly pointed out the area where Kent Bakke’s famous collection of vintage espresso machines will be showcased, as well as the rest of the La Marzocco museum space. Classrooms and workshop spaces are dotted throughout the building, which Guido told me will be used for classes and technical trainings for coffee professionals from all over the world.
Another focus of the Academia will be on Songwa, the coffee estate that has been operated by La Marzocco, Mahlkönig, and Probat since 2008 in Tanzania. The Songwa project was developed as an educational resource to connect the dots for coffee professionals from the farm and the coffee producer all the way to the espresso machine and the barista. At the Academia, a room will be devoted to Songwa and will include a screen displaying a live feed from the Tanzanian farm 24/7. (To read more about Songwa, go HERE)
Another really cool thing about the Academia space will be the Café of the Future and the Café of the Past. The Café of the Future ”a concept that was introduced at the La Marzocco Out of the Box event in October ”will be constantly changing according to input from leaders in creative fields. The Café of the Past, however, will be an amazing time capsule. Did you know that La Marzocco used to manufacture actual espresso bars, i.e. furniture? Well, Guido, Marta, and the team have found some of these relics and are refurbishing them to be on display as part of the Café of the Past.
Of course, the spectacular La Marzocco van will be on display at the Academia. That thing’s so cool it wouldn’t surprise me if the whole idea for the Academia came about as a way to showcase the van. Read all about it HERE.
The Academia Project is a natural extension for a company as creative and liberal about education as La Marzocco. It feels like the concept behind Out of the Box brought to life. I couldn’t get a firm answer on when the building of the Academia Project will be complete, but Guido says it will definitely be finished in time for Out of the Box and HOST Milan in the fall of 2015. |
The post below is sponsored by TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants. All opinions expressed belong to me.
As we head back to school, many families lives will get a tad bit busier. With dance lessons and soccer matches squeezed into the time that kids aren’t in school, there’s little time left to eat dinner, let alone make it.
Some days, it’s just easier to eat on the road. But as I’ve learned, eating out with kids is SO expensive.
Thankfully, many restaurants cater to hungry families and offer discounted items, and even free meals. Woohoo!
One such restaurant group is TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants, which operates 66 Applebee’s restaurants and five MOD Pizza locations throughout Michigan. {Check out my review of MOD if you’ve never been. It’s delicious!}
Applebee’s will offer kid’s meals for just 99 cents every Tuesday in September and October {meaning a family of four can eat a meal for as low as $30…score}!
Here are some other places you can easily grab an {inexpensive} bite. I stuck to restaurants with more than one location to best serve my readers. Feel free to add more in the comments!
*Call your location to ensure they participate. It can vary greatly, depending on the franchisee.*
Places For Free or Cheap Meals for Kids:
Where are your favorite spots for an inexpensive dinner out with the kids? |
Which players do you think had the top air and ground performances this week? FedEx Delivery ManagerSM is putting the options in your hands and letting you be in control. Read up on this week's nominees and then cast your vote for the FedEx Air & Ground® NFL Players of the Week.
FEDEX AIR -- QUARTERBACK NOMINEES
Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals Dalton passed for 372 yards and threw three touchdowns for a 135.9 passer rating as the Bengals defeated the Detroit Lions, 27-24.
Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons Ryan threw for 273 yards and three touchdowns in the Falcons' 31-23 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Robert Griffin III, Washington Redskins RG3 completed 18 passes for 298 yards and two touchdowns as the Redskins defeated the Chicago Bears, 45-41. |
30th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
This morning, Wednesday 30th October, as children made their way to school Israeli soldiers burst from an alleyway firing stun grenades and detained two 10-year-old boys. In a separate incident nearby, a Palestinian was detained and taken to a military base for unknown reasons.
This morning international activists were monitoring checkpoint 29 where many children pass through on their way to school, when approximately 6 Israeli soldiers ran from an alley, firing stun grenades directly at a group of children. The soldiers immediately grabbed one child (10-year-old) Nor and another (10-year-old) Mohammed, before firing another stun grenade towards the rest of the school children causing them to flee in panic.
Israeli soldiers marched the two young children to a nearby police station, refusing to answer why they were being taken when questioned by international activists. When a relative attempted to communicate with the boys, Israeli soldiers forcibly pushed him away and refused to answer his questions.
The children were detained inside the police station for approximately 45 minutes before being transferred to the Palestinian District Coordination Office (DCO) at 9:30.
Shortly after the young children were released, a Palestinian was questioned at a checkpoint on his way to work when he was aggressively pushed, handcuffed and taken to Tel Rumeida military base. No reason was given for this detention and the Palestinian was released shortly after.
Children in Khalil are routinely harassed on their way to school in this way; arrests and stun grenades are commonly used against them. Palestinians living under occupation experience regular detentions and arrests which are executed without just cause or reason. |
A Bright Green 1969 De Tomaso Mangusta Reading time: about 3 minutes. Cars
Design
Italian
Retro
The De Tomaso Mangusta is said to have been named “Mangusta” (meaning “Mongoose”) after a deal fell through with Carroll Shelby to build the next generation Shelby Cobra under the De Tomaso roof in Italy. The mongoose is the only animal that eats cobras in the wild, they’re known as fearless and agile animals with the added bonus of built in acetylcholine receptors which render them immune to snake venom – I’m sure the subtlety of the name wasn’t lost on Carroll.
Despite the agreement falling through the two men are said to have remained good friends and rumours abound that the first few engines used in the early Mangustas were actually built by Shelby’s engineers in the USA.
The Mangusta was released to the public in 1967 as a replacement for the De Tomaso Vallelunga, a car that had been plagued with issues resulting in less than 60 being made. The all-new Mangusta was conceived to battle it out with other mid-engined Italian cars of the era and so it was fitted with a fire-breathing American V8 (either a 289 or 302 depending on the shipment location) coupled to a ZF 5-speed transaxle and clothed in a stunning body designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
De Tomaso sold approximately 10 times more Mangustas than they had Vallelunga, making the car relatively successful for the small-scale manufacturer. The design of the car and its American heart led to it being successful in the USA where 251 of the 401 chassis were sold, the ease of maintenance and cheapness of engine parts made it a hugely popular exotic car – it’s been estimated that the Mangusta would have maintenance costs approximately 80% lower than a comparable Lamborghini or Ferrari from the same era.
The Manugusta did face a small number of challenges, probably most importantly its weight distribution of 32/68 (front/rear) led to it being a little tail happy when driven with gusto. The chassis was also not particularly rigid and the ground clearance was so low it could almost be used as a boat during heavy downpours. These drawbacks don’t phase true connoisseurs of classic De Tomasos, these are men with a penchant for young women and old cologne who don’t believe you’re really driving until the rear wheels are overtaking the front bumper and the tires are producing enough smoke to cause PTSD to manifest in the residents of Pompeii.
With a total weight of 1322 kilograms (or 2914lbs) the Mangusta stood only 3 inches taller than the Ford GT40, the classic Giugiaro wedge looks utterly stunning from any angle, the gullwing doors over the engine bay offer a wonderfully unsubtle way of showing off the V8 and the gated shifter is something that all cars should be fitted with as a matter of course.
If you’d like to roll the Mangusta you see pictured here into your garage you’ll need to attend the Monaco 2014 Sales held by RM Auctions on the 10th of May and make sure you pack your chequebook as it’s likely to sell for well over $200,000 USD.
Photo Credits: Tim Scott ©2014 Courtesy of RM Auctions |
(here are part 1 and part 3)
Last post I discussed what we can learn from the Milgram experiments about obedience and authority, specifically about how authority can affect our moral decision making. I’m going to briefly summarize the experiment again, focusing on a few of the dozens of variations of the experiment. The “Experimenter” is the person running the experiment and giving commands to the “Teacher.” The “Teacher” is the actual subject of the study. The Teacher gives shocks of increasingly higher voltages to the “Learner” every time the Learner answers a question incorrectly. The Experimenter tells the Teacher when to do this. The Learner in the main experiment was in a different room and the Teacher could hear the screams of pain as the shocks reached higher and higher voltages. There were 20-40 different variants of this experiment. When Milgram set out to do this experiment, he assumed that maybe 1% of the subjects would shock the Learner to the point of unconsciousness, or death. In the baseline experiment (the famous one), 65% of people obey all the way to the point of the Learner’s unconsciousness/death. When the Teacher and Learner were in the same room (so they saw the person they were hurting) those who were ‘obedient all the way’ dropped to 40%. When the Teacher had to hold the Learner’s hand on the shock plate, those who were obedient all the way dropped to 30%.
I think there are some specific lessons we Mormons can learn from this. I’d like to focus on one of them, namely the importance of proximity to others. Simply seeing the learner suffering dropped the percentage of people willing to “obey all the way” from 65% of participants down to 40% and holding the Learner’s hand to the plate dropped it to 30%. Proximity increased the chances that the Teacher would assert their moral agency to stop the harm they were causing to others. While in the experiment this meant stopping the harm they caused despite pressure from the authority, I think it is analogous to us stopping the harm we cause despite the pressure from our own psychology and social norms.
Do we try to communicate with and understand those with whom we disagree?
Human nature, or the natural man, is inclined to vilify those with whom we disagree. We are most likely to jump to an “us” vs. “them” mentality in which one group is the intelligent, caring, good group, and the other group is something less than human. We see this a lot in life, but perhaps especially when it comes to politics and religion. It requires a lot more effort to try and understand something from another’s point of view than to just assume they’re stupid or evil. It also requires that we actually interact with them.
If you rarely communicate with people you ardently disagree with, it is easier to assume the worst about them. For example, let’s say that a group is striving to have their concerns heard by their leaders. The leaders don’t see things from that group’s point of view. Perhaps some might even assume that the group is making non-negotiable demands for things which some believe can’t possibly be accepted. Maybe some label them as extreme because of the worst assumptions about a subset of members of their group. However, if they had to hear them and speak with them face to face there is a much greater chance, statistically speaking, that they would feel some empathy for them. If they choose to avoid interacting with them and instead opt to only talk to groups that already agree with them and see things the same way, they are more likely to continue their indifference to other views and concerns. Proximity and interaction do something powerful. They force us to see how others are being affected, and perhaps see how our own actions and decisions can impact others for good or bad. This seems to be connected with the very concept of empathy. If we don’t see others, how can we fully empathize with them?
Do we see and interact with the poor and needy?
The 4th purpose of the church is to “care for the poor and needy.” When was the last time you had a ward or stake meeting focused on this purpose of the church? When was the last time you physically went to the homes of the poor and needy? I don’t mean the poor college student in your ward, or the family in your ward between jobs. I mean homeless, destitute people, especially those outside of our ward and church. When was the last time you actually had physical contact with them (a handshake, a hug, etc.)? The answers to those questions could be indicators of how likely you are to feel true empathy and concern for those less fortunate. I thought that this quote from Mormonism in Transition was interesting regarding how Mormons viewed community service.
As long as the society in which Mormons lived and the Latter-day Saint community were coextensive, members generally perceived service in the society as building the kingdom. Increasingly, however, the Latter-day Saints came to view their community as something apart from the larger society. Under these circumstances, some members became dubious about the legitimacy of accounting compassionate and social service outside wards and stakes as service in the Lord’s kingdom. Some, more concerned with personal morality than social service, believed welfare activities diluted religious experience.
Does this still apply to us today? I’m curious to know how much of our free time is taken up by service to our own Mormon community. Sunday is spent at church and, if your ward is anything like the last few wards I’ve lived in, Sundays are often also the days we have other meetings and when virtually all home and visiting teaching occurs. After work hours during the week, we have family home evening on Mondays. On either Tuesday or Wednesday, the youth have their activities at the church. Just with those basics, we’ve already taken up half of our free-time outside of work with activities related to our own Mormon community. This also left out many other meetings which happen on weeknights and weekends. We need to actively try to go engage more with the less fortunate who aren’t lucky enough to be involved in our community.
Fasting can go a long way to helping us gain empathy for the poor and needy, but it can’t do it all. I think Isaiah was pretty clear about this:
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors. (4) Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. (5) Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? (6) Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (7) Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
The true purpose of fasting is not to make extra special prayers to get blessings we want (“we have afflicted our soul and been very hungry, so why haven’t you noticed God?”). The purpose of a fast is not “to make [our] voice to be heard on high.” It is very specifically an exercise in helping us have more empathy for and give more aid to the poor and needy. Not only that, but it gets at this whole empathy-through-proximity idea that we see in the Milgram experiments: “that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh.” The poor and the needy are our siblings. They are our “own flesh.” Yet all to often we hide ourselves from them. Out of sight out of mind. Fasting forces us to feel the hunger that the poor and needy regularly experience. Hopefully feeling that hunger will give us more empathy for those who feel that involuntarily. Hopefully it will drive us to stop hiding ourselves from them.
Maybe we can say that fasting and giving fast offerings is like having the Teacher in the room with the Learner; if so, then how do we take the next step to make physical contact with the Learner? Do we think that fast offerings are sufficient to do our “duty” to the poor? Fast offerings are way, way down church-wide currently. Not only that, but even when they were doing better than today, fast offerings almost exclusively help our own church members and do nothing for the outside community. Do we really want to discount the poor who aren’t Mormons? The church has said that since 1985 it has spent $1.1 Billion on humanitarian aid. The average number of church members from 1985 until now was roughly 10 Million members (we’re now at over 14 Million). This means that on average (including all of our less-active members) we’ve spent an average of $4 per member per year on humanitarian aid. I’m not even going to mention several big ticket items the church and/or church owned businesses have spent money on during this time frame. Frankly, even if the church was spending vastly more to help the poor and needy globally, I think we as members would still need to get out into the community more among the poor and needy to fully gain the empathy necessary to sufficiently sacrifice for and serve them.
If you look at any maps that show the income levels of the population, it’s very clear that we geographically divide ourselves by $. Typically the more money we have, the more significantly we separate ourselves from the poor. The wealthy build gated communities to keep the poor away. If we can just avoid seeing them, it’s like they don’t exist. Then when we don’t have to interact with them, we can convince ourselves that they are just lazy and entitled. If we interacted with them more, it would become a lot more difficult to justify that mentality.
the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it. –Isaiah 14:32, 2nd Nephi 24:32
the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them. –Moses 7:18
It might be easier and involve less effort to just continue on and avoid doing more to help the poor and needy, or to avoid striving for unity and to become one with those who disagree with us. It is easier, but I don’t believe that achieving Zion was ever supposed to be a simple task. Hugh Nibley also indicated that achieving Zion was not easy, and he laid out several ideas and methods for Approaching Zion. Our faith tenets explicitly state that we believe that we must literally establish Zion. I personally need to do a lot to improve in these areas. It is my hope and prayer that we reach out to others, especially those in need and those who think/believe differently than we. I hope that we will no longer hide ourselves from our own flesh and cease our current path of Avoiding Zion.
As a footnote, it was brought to my attention that some people seem to have internalized an idea that it is wrong to ever say “no” or “I can’t” to a request from the church for more service. If you are someone like this, be sure to not unnecessarily damage your health and close relationships in your efforts to better serve those in need. |
Prince William, father of two, published a letter on Father’s Day championing mental health for the campaign Heads Together — a UK mental health advocacy organization. In his open letter on their website, he opened up about the challenges of fatherhood and voiced the importance of mental health awareness.
“Today I celebrate my third Father’s Day as a father. For me it is a day not just to celebrate how fortunate I am for my young family, but to reflect on just how much I’ve learned about fatherhood and the issues facing fathers in all walks of life,” he wrote. “In particular, it is a time to reflect on my responsibility to look after not just the physical health of my two children, but to treat their mental needs as just as important a priority.”
William helped launch Heads Together just last month with the help of his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and his brother Prince Harry, with the aim to focus on mental health and remove the stigma it comes with. In the letter, Prince William focused on the importance of both parents and society becoming more accepting.
“While the circumstances of any one situation are unique, it is clear that many families could have been helped if they had found it easier to talk openly about mental health challenges in the home,” he wrote. “And, I have been really disheartened to learn that even with all the progress made in recent years, many parents would still be ashamed if their children had a mental health problem.”
According to his letter, recent surveys have shown that one third of parents would feel like failures if their child had a mental health problem, and over half of parents have never openly discussed mental health with their children. Prince William chose Father’s Day specifically to speak to all the fathers on this subject.
“We know that fathers find asking for help harder than mothers,” he wrote. “Less than a third of fathers say they believe that the emotional needs of their children is a fundamental priority. It is often said that fathers can often find it hard to talk about their own feelings so there’s no wonder they struggle to speak to their son or daughter about the topic.”
A recent survey by the CDC estimates that 13 – 20 percent of children will deal with a mental health disorder in a given year. The Prince ended his letter challenging fathers to open up and make their child’s mental health just as a high of a priority as his or her physical health.
“So on this Father’s Day, I encourage all fathers to take a moment to ask their children how they are doing. Take the opportunity to discuss how you are coping with life and fatherhood with your wife, partner or with your friends. And know that if your son or daughter ever needs help, they need their father’s guidance and support just as much as they need their mother’s.”
Read the full letter here. |
Moneycontrol News
Bus ticket booking platform Abhibus is offering 10,000 seats at a discounted price of Rs 10 per seat under its 10th anniversary celebration, this week.
The company has also introduced a new 'movies on board' service which will allow each passenger to watch movies on their personal devices.
Passengers can watch the content via an app which will run on a WiFi network provided by the company, sparing the customer of any data charges while accessing the service onboard a bus.
Commenting on the new service, Abhibus CEO Sudhakar Reddy said, "passengers (in India) get limited onboard entertainment choice currently. Abhimovies will fill this gap. Travellers (now) don’t need to spend their internet data pack to watch these movies.”
The product will be available via a cloud-based software for operators to manage inventory, bus tracking facility and detailed reports to take greater over business control.
The company is backed by e-commerce major Paytm.
It competes with companies such as TicketGoose, which has about USD 5 million, so far. The leader in the online bus ticketing space redBus, had raised close to USD 10 million before getting acquired by IbiboGroup in 2013 for USD 135 million.
“At present, Abhibus has an inventory of 14 lakh seats that includes private and public sector bus operators, to choose from on any given day. We have also introduced travel now and pay later option that allows travellers to pay Abhibus after they have availed the service,” Reddy said. |
Chief tennis writer faces action after admitting to lifting copy to be used in three annuals for Wimbledon tournaments
The Times has suspended its chief tennis correspondent, Neil Harman, after he had confessed to plagiarising copy written by other tennis writers when compiling Wimbledon yearbooks.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper said he had been suspended "pending an investigation into allegations of plagiarism" (surely "admissions" of plagiarism).
The Times ran two articles under Harman's byline on Thursday: a back-page lead about Andy Murray and a piece about the county cup.
Prior to that, Harman had resigned from the International Tennis Writers' Association. It followed his being fired by the Wimbledon authorities after they were informed about plagiarism in three annuals written under Harman's name.
Harman has been chief tennis correspondent at The Times since 2002. His journalistic career stretches back 40 years. He was formerly chief football writer with the Daily Mail.
Further examples of Harman's plagiarism have been posted by Slate here. There is no suggestion that Harman has been guilty of plagiarism in his articles for The Times. |
A private American delegation visited North Korea last month — two weeks after the country’s most recent nuclear bomb test — in a low-key humanitarian mission carried out with the Obama administration’s support, the organizer and the White House said Friday.
The visit appeared to be the first face-to-face contact in North Korea between such an American delegation and North Korean officials in nearly two years.
Although the visitors were not acting in any American governmental capacity, North Korea’s agreement to receive them suggested that both sides might be seeking an opening, however small, for more engagement — despite tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile development that have left the country severely isolated.
The Sept. 24-27 visit was organized by the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a nonprofit group led by Bill Richardson, a former New Mexico governor and United Nations ambassador, who has served as an intermediary between North Korea and the United States for many years. |
Hamilton officials won't charge user fees for rope rescues at its waterfalls after its fire chief warned it would deter people from calling for help.
I don't want to reach a point where I'm legislating behaviour, and I'm resisting that as much as I possibly can. - Coun . Tom Jackson
Chief David Cunliffe told city council's emergency and community services committee that he has "significant concerns" with charging for rope rescues. People who fall and need help may not call because of the fee, he said. And their friends might try to help instead, endangering more lives.
"A user fee may deter someone in trouble from making a phone call," he said Monday. And if their friends help, it raises the risk of more people dying.
City councillors accepted that and didn't act on the idea. Instead, they'll look into making a map of trouble spots on the Niagara Escarpment.
Coun. Tom Jackson of Ward 6 also has a group of emergency and communications people who will look at ways to make waterfalls safer. That group will meet again in the spring, and consider the map option.
That group is looking at signs, public education and even long-term capital projects like tunnels under waterfalls.
"I don't want to reach a point where I'm legislating behaviour, and I'm resisting that as much as I possibly can," Jackson said.
Terry Whitehead, Ward 8 councillor, said user fees don't seem like a bad idea in cases where people are clearly being reckless. At Chedoke Falls, for example, people have cut through fences. Taxpayers shouldn't pay for that, he said.
We have people making very poor choices and there's no deterrent for those poor choices. - Coun. Terry Whitehead
"We have people making very poor choices and there's no deterrent for those poor choices."
The department reviewed the idea of user fees after local fire crews answered 25 rope rescue at the city's waterfalls – the largest number in at least seven years.
The majority of the calls were to rescue Hamilton residents. In 2016, 73 per cent of people rescued lived here, compared to 27 per cent non-residents.
That's roughly in line with other years. In 2014, for example, 64 per cent of people were residents compared to 36 per cent non-residents.
Most current locations of rescue calls:
Tews Falls: 11.
Webster's Falls: 10.
Albion Falls: 17.
Devil's Punch Bowl: 10.
Felker's Falls: 3.
Some of the calls also happened on other escarpment locations, such as Mountain Brow, the Kenilworth Stairs and the Garth Stairs. |
Some in the health industry name indigenous health as the top area worthy of investment. Credit:Michael Amendolia The growing cost of health - powered by an ageing population and more expensive technology - presents an ongoing challenge to the federal government, but there is no shortage of people willing to offer Health Minister Sussan Ley some unsolicited advice on how to better spend her portion of the budget. If the $160 million was diverted to health, here is where some health advocates believe it could be better invested, in no particular order. 1. Preventative health The latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report showed the proportion of health expenditure devoted to prevention had decreased to 1.4 per cent in 2013-14, down from 2.2 per cent in 2007-2008.
Although much of the preventative health dollar in that peak year went towards introducing the HPV vaccine, other evidence suggests a disinvestment in preventative health, including the termination of funding to the Australian National Preventative Health Agency [ANPHA]. Some unsolicited advice on health spending for the Health Minister Sussan Ley. Credit:Andrew Meares Michael Moore said the re-opening of that agency and all the programs that it ran would be one good use of the funds, or campaigns on the harms associated with tobacco, alcohol or obesity. "You could easily spend all of the money on this as we cannot hope to compete with industry bombardment," he said. Plebiscite money could be better spent, argue health experts. Credit:Jessica Shapiro
The Heart Foundation has called for $35 million to be spent annually on addressing physical inactivity, which is estimated to cause 14,000 deaths every year. General manager advocacy Rohan Greenland said Australia was in the bottom third of OECD nations in terms of the amount it spent on preventative health. "While we are doing well on tobacco control, we should be putting the same, sustained effort into preventing obesity, tackling physical inactivity and addressing poor nutrition," Mr Greenland said. A Department of Health spokeswoman said the activities of ANPHA had been taken over by the department. Preventative programs included projects centred on chronic conditions, a National Asthma Strategy, a National Diabetes Strategy, activities addressing healthy eating, physical activity, obesity, tobacco, alcohol, research, immunisation, mental health initiatives and cancer screening, she said.
2. Aged care Nurses nominate aged care as the sector in most dire requirement of funding. Aged care providers have long been predicting a shortage of places and qualified nurses as baby boomers move into their dotage, with lack of staffing blamed on an increase in violent incidents. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Lee Thomas said $160 million could replace some of the money that has been taken out of the sector in recent years. "Currently, there is a shortage of 20,000 nurses in aged care," Ms Thomas said.
"This needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency, given Australia's rapidly ageing population. "The restoration of funding for the health sector would also go toward supporting public hospitals in the states and Territories and allowing more graduate nurses to be employed." 3. Indigenous health Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association chief executive Alison Verhoeven has a wishlist that lasts pages ("Oh there's so much you could do") but indigenous health tops her list. As a start, the money could be invested in closing the gap in diseases such as rheumatic heart disease and trachoma or addressing the high rates of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse.
"We could be looking beyond that at things like how we incorporate investment in safe housing and safe food supplies and ensure that kids growing up in indigenous, particularly remote and rural, communities actually get a good start in life," Ms Verhoeven said. 4. Chronic disease The Heart Foundation has argued that there is an economic and social argument to address chronic disease, which cause 90 per cent of all deaths and 85 per cent of the burden of disease. "The health minister has rightly said that chronic disease is our greatest health challenge," Mr Greenland said. "We need to be better at early detection of those at risk of having heart attacks, strokes or developing diabetes and kidney disease."
The federal government unveiled in March a trial of "Health Care Homes", whereby people with chronic disease would have all their care managed from a single GP practice, but Ms Verhoeven says the $21 million package would only cover education and training. "It's not enough to make a real change across Australia in the way we deliver primary care." A Department of Health spokeswoman said the $21 million was in addition to $93 million that would be redirected from the Medicare Benefits Schedule in 2017-18 and 2018-19 to support the management of patients with chronic conditions. 5. Mental health Many in the health sector are concerned that the angst caused by the plebiscite could actually contribute to its overall cost. |
OFFICIAL: Cassano retires again
By Football Italia staff
Former Italy attacker Antonio Cassano has announced his retirement from professional football a second time in the space of a week.
On a whirlwind day that saw reports of Cassano’s retirement followed up by Verona confirming his exit and an admission that he would be leaving but still play football, the 35-year-old has now claimed he will be hanging up his boots once and for all.
“Contrary to what appeared on my wife’s official profiles on social media, I would like to clarify the following,” began a second announcement he had penned on the Twitter account belonging to his wife, Carolina Marcialis.
“Carolina was wrong. After thinking and reflecting, in the end I decided: Antonio Cassano will not play football anymore.
“I apologise to the city of Verona, all the fans, President Maurizio Setti, sporting director Filippo Fusco and the Coach, plus the medical and technical staff.
“At the moment, my priority is to be with my children and wife.”
The ex-Roma and Sampdoria forward had only joined Verona on July 10 yet stated he would retire six days later, before going back on his word.
You can read a timeline of his biggest meltdowns by clicking here. |
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