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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.- The Marion County Health Department released new information this week that the leading cause of death of people between the ages of 10 and 25 in Indianapolis are criminal homicides.
This news come as police say they are having to adapt the way they fight crime to deal with a new culture and mindset they are seeing become more prevalent among young criminals.
“It’s this adage and I’ve heard it before, the YOLO life,” IMPD Sgt. Christopher Wilburn said. “It’s this mentality that 'You Only Live Once.' So that’s the mentality that some of our youth are being encouraged to participate in and it sounds unorthodox and it sounds strange to us as adults, but this is the kind of conversation kids are having with each other.”
IMPD Police Chief Bryan Roach called the new mindset, “disturbing,” and said it’s something his officers are learning how to combat.
“The violence is a little different than it was in the past, there doesn’t seem to be a code,” Chief Roach said.
So far in 2017, 60 people under the age of 25 have died in Indianapolis as a result of a homicide, compared to 69 in 2016 and 63 in 2015.
One of the most disturbing cases happened north side at the Somerset Lake Apartments. Three Indianapolis men, two who were 25 years old and one who was just 19, were shot and killed. Five teenagers are now charged in that murder, with the youngest being 15.
“You’ve got a triple homicide occurring at the hands of youth so it really is a different mindset,” Roach said. “I don’t’ know if we as a police department understand it yet, but one of the things we do know is they converse actively on social media.”
Roach added he plans to have his officers utilize social media more in 2018 to prevent potential problems and better understand the mindset of young criminals.
He also hopes the new community councils he and the mayor announced yesterday will also contribute to a reduction of youth violence. |
YouTube Is Ready to Invest in Vevo, but the Deal Isn’t Done
YouTube is set to make another big investment in a content partner. This time around it’s Vevo, the music video site.
YouTube and its owner Google have agreed to buy a minority stake in Vevo, according to people familiar with the deal, which hasn’t been finalized.
If it happens, it will be the second time in the last year that Google has invested directly in a video company that relies on YouTube for distribution. In May, Google put money into Machinima, the Web video network aimed at gamers.
If the deal does get done, it will allow the two sides to continue with a symbiotic — and at times contentious — relationship that has gone on for three years: Vevo gets to distribute its clips on the world’s largest video site, and YouTube gets to keep showing music videos from the big labels, which account for many of its most popular clips.
I don’t know the size of the planned transaction, but I’m told it will be bigger than the $35 million funding round Google and YouTube led in Machinima last year. Like Hulu, the TV site, Vevo is a complicated joint venture between content owners — in this case Universal Music and Sony Music — and an outside investor — in this case Abu Dhabi Media.
But while both YouTube and Vevo have signed off on the investment and a renewed distribution deal that includes long-term licenses for the videos, the deal hasn’t closed and could still be derailed.
For starters, the deal is supposed to get done at the same time that YouTube signs separate agreements with Sony and Universal, which cover subjects like user-uploaded videos that incorporate music the labels own. And relationships between the two labels — and between the labels and YouTube — have been rocky at times.
That’s one of the reasons Vevo had previously explored alternate distribution deals with Facebook and Viacom’s MTV over the past year.
But it makes the most sense for YouTube and the labels to work together. The labels would like to see more money than they currently get from YouTube, but it would be hard for them to walk away from the revenue they’re already getting.
And while YouTube has worked hard to attract more “professional” content on the site — which is why it has been writing advances to video makers to create “channels” on the site — the labels’ videos remain enormously popular with its young audience.
Meanwhile, both the distribution and the investment will be crucial for Vevo, which operates a very thin-margin business.
Under both the old deal and the new one the company is set to strike, Vevo hands over about a third of its revenue to YouTube, and more than 50 percent of its revenue to the labels, which doesn’t leave it much in the way of an operating budget. Last year, Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff said his company was doing more than $150 million a year. |
Relatives of those drowned in the Aegean Sea on Friday gathered in front of the Turkish Consulate in Erbil on Saturday asking the Turkish government to allow them entry into the morgue in Izmir. Photo by Farzin Hassan/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Nearly 70 Kurdish migrants drowned when their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea on Friday. The bodies of some of the dead are still missing, an immigration official said.
Rasan Ramzi, Rudaw correspondent in the Turkish city of Izmir spoke with some of the survivors of the boat wreck that cost the lives of so many people, many of them young children.
One survivor said that he lost his wife and one daughter in the incident shortly after they set off towards Greece from Turkey at dawn.
“We sailed at 5:02 am but shortly afterwards the operator of the boat lost his way and soon we ran out of fuel,” he said, standing in front of the Izmir morgue. “Our boat was quickly filled with water and we tried hard to empty out the water but we couldn’t do anything against the big waves.”
Of a family of six only this man and three others survived.
“I think only 24 of us survived, but because we have not been given back the bodies yet we don’t know who died and who survived,” he added.
The victims of Friday’s tragedy at sea were from the Kurdistan Region, most of them from the town of Rania.
“We were on the boat for three hours but the operators didn’t know where they were going and lost the way even though they were using the GPS system,” he said.
Amanj Abdullah, an Iraqi immigration official in Erbil said that he believed a total of 85 people were on the boat and only 15 survived the incident.
Abdullah added that so far 23 of the victims have been identified all of whom hailed from the Sulaimani province.
Relatives of some of the drowned migrants flew to Izmir from the Kurdistan Region where they asked the Kurdish government for assistance to repatriate the bodies of their loved ones.
Authorities of the Izmir morgue told Rudaw that the morgue keeps the bodies at a cost and if the families do not take away the bodies or pay the cost the local municipality may bury the victims.
Eight members of a family of 10 drowned on the same boat. Only one woman and a child survived.
Speaker of the Kurdish Parliament Yousif Muhammad said Friday’s tragedy shook the entire nation.
“Once again we are shaken by the news of the death of a number of our citizens in the Aegean Sea,” he said in a statement. “This has happened numerous times that people hand themselves over to an unknown fate because of injustice, financial and other accumulated crisis.”
Some relatives and families of the victims gathered outside the Turkish consulate in Erbil on Saturday, asking for permission to enter the morgue in Izmir to identify their loved ones. |
If signed, the new law would mean that anyone convicted of raping a drunk or unconscious person would face a mandatory minimum sentence of three years.
"We know firsthand that the consequences of rape are no less damaging for a victim who is unconscious than for a victim who is not," the letter says. "We also know that mandatory minimum-term laws are a harmful, mistaken solution to our rightful anger over the Brock Turner case and the many others like it."
But the feminist groups hoping to stop the bill say that punitive sentencing is the wrong way to solve the campus rape problem.
The bill was drafted in the angry aftermath of the six-month sentence which a judge handed to Stanford student Brock Turner earlier this summer. It passed the state legislature with flying colors and not a single dissenting vote and now awaits Governor Jerry Brown's signature to become law.
A coalition of 25 feminist organizations have written a letter to California's governor urging him to veto a bill which would impose mandatory minimum sentences on those convicted of rape.
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A coalition of 25 feminist organizations have written a letter to California's governor urging him to veto a bill which would impose mandatory minimum sentences on those convicted of rape.
The bill was drafted in the angry aftermath of the six-month sentence which a judge handed to Stanford student Brock Turner earlier this summer. It passed the state legislature with flying colors and not a single dissenting vote and now awaits Governor Jerry Brown's signature to become law.
But the feminist groups hoping to stop the bill say that punitive sentencing is the wrong way to solve the campus rape problem.
"We know firsthand that the consequences of rape are no less damaging for a victim who is unconscious than for a victim who is not," the letter says. "We also know that mandatory minimum-term laws are a harmful, mistaken solution to our rightful anger over the Brock Turner case and the many others like it."
If signed, the new law would mean that anyone convicted of raping a drunk or unconscious person would face a mandatory minimum sentence of three years.
Turner was discovered sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster outside a Stanford frat party, and was sentenced to six months in jail – a steep drop from the 14 years maximum sentence he was originally facing when first convicted. Turner was released last week after serving three months because of good behavior.
The assault, subsequence sentence and early release sparked a renewed discussion about campus rape, prompted outrage over the criminal justice system's handling of rape crimes, and put a spotlight on how laws can bend according to the race and class of a defendant.
"We, the undersigned survivors and allies, support Brock Turner's victim, whose experience with the criminal legal system has hit close to home for so many of us, and ask that you veto the bill, AB 2888, that has been passed in our name," the letter says.
If Brown were to sign the bill, it would be a dramatic departure from California's efforts to address the state's overcrowded prisons by shifting away from its reliance on mandatory minimum sentences. Proposition 47 was passed by California voters in November 2014 aiming to reduce drug possession felonies to misdemeanors.
"Mandatory minimums have not worked in response to the challenges posed by drugs in our society," said Michelle Anderson, the president of Brooklyn College and a leading scholar of rape law. "Mandatory minimums have not worked in response to challenges posed by other kinds of crime. There is no reason that mandatory minimums would work as a response to the real problem of sexual assault."
"I oppose the legislation," Anderson added. "I hope he [Governor Jerry Brown] does veto it....I think we have a history in this country of overreacting and overusing the criminal justice system. Feminists have been saying for years that mandatory punishments are not the right response to sexual violence."
Anderson's concerns echoed in the letter penned by the coalition of feminist organizations, which includes the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and ACT for Women and Girls. "While some support this legislation in hopes that it will address racial biases in sentencing that worked in Turner's favor, mandatory minimums have in fact exacerbated racial and class disparities in prosecution."
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Michelle Anderson's title. She is the president of Brooklyn College. |
It’s not that Bitcoin has a bad image in Africa. It has no image at all. In that way it is a clean slate.The potential of Bitcoin in Africa is often cited. But the issues to overcome are real and routinely glossed over. The first step is clearly good PR. A solid image will form the groundwork.It’s only by supporting local organisations and fostering good causes that Bitcoin will reach its full potential in Africa. There are no preconceptions about Bitcoin. When people see the technology making a positive change they will embrace it.ice3x.com is one of only two operational exchanges on the African continent. Intimately acquainted with the intricacies of doing business locally, we made a choice to actively grow the community: the initiative “Resources” is operational.African community organisations, doing good work but struggling to survive, come to us. They are vaguely familiar with Bitcoin. They are then introduced to the potential of the technology for their operations. They become intimate with Bitcoin and its promise.ice3x.com is an exchange. Here it acts simply as a facilitator: a platform. It is the right approach - Corporate Philanthropy.Organisations are given a wallet, zero fee account and a blogging voice to inform the world of their activities, collecting donations directly. They have complete control of their accounts and direct access to global funding, at no cost: a world of possibility presents itself. It is magic.Mother of four and “animal warrior” Suzette Kotze is a local animal inspector and SPCA head. Aware of our exchange we received this email and we were moved:“Today I want to ask you on my knees, beg you actually…we are in urgent need of funds, otherwise we might close down, PLEASE !!!! What will happen to our animals if we are not here anymore...I am the only hope our animals have.”Kotze’s SPCA is the first local community group to sign-up. There are five more in progress, to be verified.In Kotze’s small town there are at least twenty-one extreme animal abuse cases each month. The images received with her plea were truly horrific. We were compelled to act.ice3x.com goes to great lengths to check the credibility of each applicant. Accountants are employed to conduct vigorous checks, which ensure the integrity of the program. Supporting not-for-profit documentation is a must.Transparency is key. Total donations are reported regularly.
ice3x.com is proud to support SPCA in this first program. This is a niche offering. But it represents a real opportunity to showcase the potential of Bitcoin to do good in Africa.
Suzette is new to Bitcoin. She is genuinely excited by the opportunity to take donations directly from all over the world at zero cost. By adapting her outlook to the digital age ice3x.com is helping her increase her reach.These are the seeds in the fertile soil from which one thousand flowers will bloom.The SPCA’s blog spot is here: https://ice3x.co.za/stilfontein-spca/ Your support is most appreciated.(Tristan Winters is an active member of the ice3x.com exchange team, proudly offering a quality exchange service in Africa and platform for corporate philanthropy). |
Police forces search an apartment in October after arresting a man plotting an imminent Islamist-motivated explosives attack against a public target in Germany | Alexander Koerner/Getty Images 5-fold surge in terror cases launched by German authorities The country’s association of judges warns the country could face a shortage of judges and prosecutors. By Kalina Oroschakoff By | 12/23/17, 1:10 PM CET | Updated 12/23/17, 1:12 PM CET
Germany’s federal public prosecutor this year launched five times as many terrorist cases than in 2016, German media Germany’s federal public prosecutor this year launched five times as many terrorist cases than in 2016, German media reported
A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said it had started around 1200 proceedings involving suspected terrorist acts. About 1000, were connected with suspected Islamic extremism. In 2016, there were about 250 cases, of which 200 involved suspected Islamic extremists.
The federal prosecutor’s office is the highest law enforcement authority in Germany.
Sven Rebehn, the head of the German association of judges, which represents judges and public prosecutors, warned that the public prosecutor’s office was heavily strained by the work load, according to German media .
The surge in new cases meant the public prosecutor had to hand over some to regional authorities, which are are now dealing with around a third of them, media reported. Authorities in Duesseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg handle the bulk of them.
The judges’ association said that law enforcement authorities urgently needed more staff. According to the group’s calculations, Germany needed around 2000 additional judges and public prosecutors.
Related stories on these topics: Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism Security
Security Terrorism
Terrorism Germany |
ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor police have issued hundreds of tickets to drivers for not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks in recent weeks, and Adrian Wylie says unfortunately he's among those ticketed.
Before the City Council voted Monday night, Sept. 18, to call for a review of the city's crosswalk ordinance, Wylie publicly shared his experience getting pulled over last week.
He said it was trash and recycling collection day and the road was lined with large blue bins, as well as orange road construction cones, creating a visual obstruction as he drove north on Platt Road.
Ann Arbor police ticket 227 motorists in latest crosswalk enforcement Ann Arbor Police have ticketed more than 200 drivers in the past two weeks in an ongoing crosswalk enforcement detail.
He said police had a dark-skinned man wearing dark clothes pose as a pedestrian and it was difficult to see him.
"The police also decided on using a crosswalk that had no flashing warning lights, and we all know how valuable these lights are to giving drivers notice that a pedestrian is up ahead and wants to cross," Wylie said, noting he's an Ann Arbor resident and aware of the city's law, which differs from state law by requiring motorists to stop not only for pedestrians in crosswalks, but also those waiting to cross.
"As I was driving north, on the corner before the crosswalk, I noticed a commotion happening on the left side of the road. There were police cars lining Sharon Drive and an officer appeared to be frantically waving at cars heading south," Wylie told council members.
"It was just then, on the opposite side of the road, that I saw the individual that the police chose to act as a pedestrian. He was standing in the three-foot gap between the curb and the sidewalk. I was going the speed limit, 35 mph, so I had a fraction of a second to decide whether I should slam on the brakes or just go through. The car immediately behind me was also doing 35 mph, so I decided to avoid a rear-end collision and proceed through, as did the car following me."
About half a block up, he said, a police officer waved him over. He was busted as part of a targeted enforcement operation.
"He let me know that I had broken the law and gave me a ticket -- a $140 ticket," Wylie said.
Wylie said he appreciates the city's attempt to increase safety for pedestrians, but his experience leaves him with questions about safety and the ethics of how police are enforcing the law.
"This police setup may be a worst-case scenario, but it is an example where attempting to follow the ordinance could result in an accident," he said. "There's also reason to question why the police chose to set up a worst-case scenario. They seemed to take every step possible to prevent drivers from being aware that there was a pedestrian up ahead."
Ann Arbor resident Adrian Wylie speaks out at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting on Sept. 18, 2017, raising concerns about the way police are enforcing the city's crosswalk ordinance.
Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, brought forward the proposal Monday night to move ahead with a review the city's crosswalk law first enacted in 2010 and revised in 2011.
"We need to have this ordinance evaluated by a professional traffic engineer," Eaton said. "We need to take a look at the experience that we've had with our enforcement efforts."
The council voted 9-2 to support Eaton's proposal, with Julie Grand and Kirk Westphal opposed.
Some council members said they support the city's ordinance, but they agree it's still worth reviewing how it's working out.
The council directed City Administrator Howard Lazarus to present the results of the review at or before the council's Dec. 18 meeting.
Council urges action to prevent suicides, falls from parking garages Ann Arbor officials say they want to see swift action taken to prevent more people from jumping or falling from the city's downtown public parking garages.
Specifically, the approved resolution calls for a review of the ordinance by a professional engineer and a review of the applicable definition of a crosswalk, as well as providing the rationale for the recent removal of several curb ramps in the city, which Eaton cited.
Council Member Zachary Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, won support for including a review of pedestrian infrastructure improvements since the adoption of the crosswalk law, including pedestrian-activated flashing signals the city began installing at crosswalks in 2011.
The resolution calls for presenting the information to the city's Transportation Commission for review and policy recommendations, with those recommendations then going to the council's Policy Agenda Committee. The resolution also "refers the task of promoting a uniform set of state laws governing pedestrian and crosswalks for all Michigan communities" to the council's Policy Agenda Committee.
Eaton said the city's targeted enforcement done in two-hour blocks results in so many citations that it should be clear to city officials that motorists in Ann Arbor just aren't aware of what's expected of them when it comes to stopping for pedestrians.
Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting on Sept. 18, 2017.
"I received an email from the former mayor of the city of Novato, California. She was recounting a visit to Ann Arbor where she and a friend from Chicago were attending a meeting at the University of Michigan, and she got caught in one of our enforcement actions," Eaton said. "And she asked me, 'How is it reasonably possible for me to be aware of your unique ordinance when I live in California and I was just visiting?' And I think this is really the fundamental question that we need to ask. How are we doing with communicating our expectations? And are the results of these sampling of enforcement actions demonstrating that we're not doing very well at all?"
Eaton emphasized his resolution doesn't seek to change the ordinance, but rather seeks a discussion and a review of the city's experience with it, and he wants to see more of a push by the city for a uniform crosswalk law throughout Michigan. He said he and Ann Arbor pedestrian safety advocate Kathy Griswold visited Lansing last week and talked to state lawmakers from both parties.
"And there really isn't opposition to the idea that we should have a uniform pedestrian law throughout the state," he said. "And so I hope that we'll work in that direction."
Debate over Ann Arbor's crosswalk law heating up again Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, said he's bringing forward a proposal at the council's next meeting to call for a review of the ordinance.
Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, said he still sees value in the city's local crosswalk law.
"I started walking my daughter and my neighbors' kids to school once a week, and sometimes we bike -- my daughter in the pull-behind bicycle trailer, my neighbors' kids on their bikes. And with the kids bicycling, we're using the sidewalks, and when we cross, the kids get off their bikes and they walk across, and that's fine. And there's a refuge island and that engineering makes it a lot safer," he said.
"But in that morning rush, there's not a gap that I can walk my bike and trailer across both lanes of traffic unless traffic stops," Warpehoski said. "I can't even go out onto the refuge island because the back of the trailer would hang into the other lane of traffic. So, every time I take that trip with those kids, I see how important it is that cars stop before we enter the street to let us enter the street."
Grand argued the city's crosswalk law already was reviewed by the city's Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force a couple years ago and the decision was to keep it.
"Our community continues to evolve much more slowly than many of us would like on pedestrian safety," she said, adding she can remember when flashing crosswalk signals known as RRFBs were first introduced and some residents complained about them.
"And now we're getting requests left and right from residents for more RRFBs in their neighborhood," she said. "Education -- it's a process that takes time. Behavior change is difficult. I wish that we could snap our fingers and everyone would stop."
Grand said she crosses at Hill and Tappan on her walk to work every morning and many drivers still don't stop for her. She said the efforts the city has underway now are aimed at changing driver behavior and she doesn't want to see the city take a step backward. |
Dr. Matthew Watson from Bristol University in the UK told the media recently that he’s “terrified” by many of the geoengineering projects currently in the works to thwart man-made climate change, a phenomenon being hawked as an excuse for weather modification programs by many in mainstream science as a ‘threat to humanity.’
Dr. Watson recently told Daily Mail UK online that he is:
“. . . terrified, because the potential for misstep is considerable.”
He is working on a $2.8 million weather manipulation project of the exact type that he says he is so afraid of. The project will inject sulfur particles into the Earth’s atmosphere with the stated goal of blocking the sun’s rays from reaching Earth, ostensibly to keep the earth from getting too warm. The project is called SPICE, and Dr. Watson leads the study.
Earth is shown here pictured from space.
Watson has already faced setbacks, since one plan to release a huge balloon into the air to release the sulfur particles was scraped over patenting disputes. He says that millions have already been spent on research though scientists are ‘decades away’ from where they want to be, and no known studies on the possible dire ramifications of aerosol spraying have been released to the public.
Dr Watson said the day may come when the use of such technologies cannot be avoided.
“We are swimming, drowning, in a sea of ignorance. This terrifies me. But doing nothing is not an option. Unless we’re very wrong about climate change or quickly change our ways, at some point we’re going to have to ‘go outside’ [with these technologies],” he said.
Many are also wary of the reasons being touted as necessary for aerosol particles are being dumped into our airways.
“Stratospheric aerosol geoengineering is a primary term for the ongoing global climate modification programs being conducted by major powers around the world. “Aerosols” is simply a term for a microscopic particle that is suspended in the air. A primary stated goal of the geoengineering programs is to provide a “solar shield” to slow “runaway climate change” by spraying tens of millions of tons of highly toxic metal nano particulates (a nanometer is 1/1,000,000,000 of a meter) into the atmosphere from jet aircraft.”
Several proposals for geoengineering have been proposed, illustrated here, But Dr Watson said resorting to these measures amounted to us admitting we could no longer save the planet by managing our global emissions – and meant we had failed to look after Earth.
Aluminum, and other toxic particles are showing up in rain tests around the world. Snow tests conducted in Mt Shasta, California were especially alarming.
I urge you to do more of your own research into this matter. If a geo-engineering scientists is ringing alarm bells, it is certainly time to listen. |
NEW DELHI: The Centre has rushed to tighten security around Gujarat CM Narendra Modi following an intelligence alert about an ISI plot to use Khalistani terrorists to eliminate BJP’s PM candidate. On October 16, Modi was targeted by Indian Mujahideen (IM), a terror outfit nurtured by Pakistan’s spy agency.Security around Modi has now been ramped up by a three-layer cordon, a special security drill and advance security liaisioning (ASL) — requiring coordination of central and state forces — made mandatory for all his public engagements.As part of the stepped up security, Modi now has three layers of protection: one group to take on any attackers, a second to provide cover and a third to get him to safety. The Gujarat CM, who has been on the hit list of several jehadi outfits such as IM that hold him responsible for the 2002 Gujarat riots, already enjoys Z plus security of National Security Guard (NSG).The ASL, added to his security detail, will make sure that each time Modi travels outside Gujarat, there is a meeting among Gujarat Police officials, an NSG representative, IB station chief, DGP of the host state and other relevant agencies to ensure foolproof security. The entire route from the VIP's arrival, meeting venue, number of people to be granted access will be discussed, scrutinized and sanitized by local police, as directed after the ASL meeting. Sources said this drill was not properly carried out during Modi’s Patna rally.The security cover now available for Modi comes close to matching the one that is in place for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi — one important difference being that he will not have the cover of the elite Special Protection Group (SPG), which is mandated to guard only PMs, serving and out of office, and their families.MHA sources said giving ASL facility is the way out to avoid amending SPG Act and yet provide upgraded peripheral security to Modi.According to IB sources, the agency has gathered intelligence on an alleged ISI plot to use Pakistan-based Khalistani holdouts to stage a hit on Modi, who has been addressing rallies across the country. Rendered ideologically orphaned following the demise of their secessionist cause and marooned in Pakistan, the Khalistani terrorists are dependent on their paymaster, the generals in the ISI, for sheer survival.Efforts to reactivate and use them for other goals of the ISI, which played a key role in stoking the insurgency in Punjab, have been on over two years, with IB and other counter-terror agencies coming across plots like one involving Khalistani outfit Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) to target the 2010 Commonwealth Games.With intelligence agencies and police heightening their surveillance on IM and other jehadi outfits, enlisting BKI may make tactical sense too.Sources in IB suspect that it was IM’s founder Riyaz Bhatkal, being sheltered by the ISI in Pakistan, who instructed outfit’s lead operative Tehsin Akhtar alias Monu to carry out the bomb attack on Modi’s rally in Patna on October 27. Monu and his associates brutally exploited the inadequacies of Bihar Police to pepper Gandhi Maidan — the venue of Modi’s rally — with 16 bombs.Imtiaz Ansari, one of the bombers arrested on the day of the blasts, told Patna Police that they had planned to set off a stampede so that a large number of people, particularly women and children, get killed in the panicked rush. Five persons were killed, but the toll could have been much higher if people, particularly those packed in the enclosures close to the dais, had panicked. Two bombs had been planted near the rostrum.The emphasis on keeping an evacuation plan is being seen in the context of the failure of Bihar Police to have one at Patna.Agencies also seem to have derived an important lesson from the absence so far of mandatory ASL for Modi. The exercise was done at Patna only at the insistence of IB.Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist Abdul Kareem Tunda, who was arrested earlier this year after having been on the run for long, had told his interrogators about the ISI’s efforts to build a nexus between LeT and BKI. He also said that he had sent a consignment of explosives as part of the plan to attack the Commonwealth Games.Last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had registered an FIR in connection with clandestine foreign funding of BKI activities and efforts to revive the outfit. The FIR had alleged that money collected in the name of welfare 1984 riots victims by certain organizations was allegedly being diverted to Khalistani militant outfits. |
The Venerable Matt Talbot, OFS (2 May 1856 – 7 June 1925) was an Irish ascetic revered by many Catholics for his piety, charity and mortification of the flesh.
Talbot was an unskilled labourer. Though he lived alone for most of his life, Talbot did live with his mother for a time.[2] His life would have gone unnoticed were it not for the cords and chains discovered on his body when he died suddenly on a Dublin street in 1925.
Though he has not been formally recognized as a saint, Talbot may be considered a patron of those struggling with alcoholism.[1][3] He is commemorated on 19 June.[4]
Early life – alcoholism [ edit ]
Talbot was born on 2 May 1856 at 13 Aldborough Court, Dublin, Ireland,[5] the second eldest of twelve children of Charles and Elizabeth Talbot, a poor family in the North Strand area. He was baptised in St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral on 5 May.[6] His father and all but the oldest of his brothers were heavy drinkers. In 1868 Matt left school at the age of twelve and went to work in a wine merchant's store. He very soon began "sampling their wares", and was considered a hopeless alcoholic by age thirteen.[7] He then went to the Port & Docks Board where he worked in the whiskey stores. He frequented pubs in the city with his brothers and friends, spending most or all of his wages and running up debts.[8] When his wages were spent, he borrowed and scrounged for money. He pawned his clothes and boots to get money for alcohol. On one occasion, he stole a fiddle from a street entertainer and sold it to buy drink.[7]
"Taking the pledge" [ edit ]
One evening in 1884 28-year old Talbot, who was penniless and out of credit, waited outside a pub in the hope that somebody would invite him in for a drink. After several friends had passed him without offering to treat him, he went home in disgust and announced to his mother that he was going to "take the pledge" (renounce drink). He went to Holy Cross College, Clonliffe where he took the pledge for three months. At the end of the three months, he took the pledge for six months, then for life.[9]
Having drunk excessively for 16 years, Talbot maintained sobriety for the following forty years of his life. There is evidence that Matt’s first seven years after taking the pledge were especially difficult.[1] He found strength in prayer, began to attend daily Mass, and read religious books and pamphlets. He repaid all his debts scrupulously. Having searched for the fiddler whose instrument he had stolen, and failed to find him, he gave the money to the church to have Mass said for him.
Working life [ edit ]
Even when his drinking was at its worst, Talbot was a hard worker. When he joined Pembertons, the building contractors, as a hod-carrier, his work-rate was such that he was put first on the line of hodmen to set the pace. Later, in Martin's timber yard, he took on the meanest and hardest jobs. He was respectful to his bosses but not obsequious, and on occasion stood up for a fellow-worker. On 22 September 1911 Talbot joined the builder's labourers branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. When the Dublin Lockout of 1913 led to sympathy strikes throughout the city, the men of Martin's, including Talbot, came out.[8] At first Talbot refused his strike pay, saying that he had not earned it. Later he accepted it but asked that it be shared out among the other strikers. After his death a rumour was put about that he was a strike-breaker in 1913, but all the evidence contradicts this.
Spirituality [ edit ]
From being an indifferent Catholic in his drinking days, Talbot became increasingly devout. He lived a life of prayer, fasting, and service, trying to model himself on the sixth century Irish monks.[7] He was guided for most of his life by Dr. Michael Hickey, Professor of Philosophy in Clonliffe College. Under Dr. Hickey's guidance Talbot's reading became wider. He read laboriously Scripture, lives of saints, The Confessions of St. Augustine, and writings of St. Francis de Sales and others. When he found a part difficult to understand, he asked a priest to clarify it.[7]
Dr. Hickey also gave him a light chain, (much like a clock chain), to wear as a form of penance.[7] He became a Third Order Franciscan in 1890 and was a member of several other associations and sodalities.[8] Talbot was a generous man. Although poor himself, he gave unstintingly to neighbours and fellow workers, to charitable institutions and the church. He ate very little. After his mother's death in 1915 he lived in a small flat with very little furniture. He slept on a plank bed with a piece of timber for a pillow. He rose at 5 a.m. every day so as to attend Mass before work. At work, whenever he had spare time, he found a quiet place to pray. He spent most of every evening on his knees. On Sundays he attended several Masses. He walked quickly, with his head down, so that he appeared to be hurrying from one Mass to another.
Death and veneration [ edit ]
Talbot was on his way to Mass on Trinity Sunday, 7 June 1925, when he collapsed and died of heart failure on Granby Lane in Dublin. Nobody at the scene was able to identify him. His body was taken to Jervis Street Hospital, where he was undressed, revealing the extent of his austerities. A chain had been wound around his waist, with more chains around an arm and a leg, and cords around the other arm and leg.[8] The chains found on his body at death were not some extreme penitential regime but a symbol of his devotion to Mary, Mother of God that he wished to give himself to her totally as a slave.[10] Talbot's story quickly filtered through the community and there were many spectators when his funeral took place at Glasnevin Cemetery on 11 June 1925. In 1972 his remains were removed to a tomb in Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Sean McDermott Street, Dublin, in the area where Matt spent his life.[10]
On 6 November 1931, Archbishop Byrne of Dublin opened a sworn inquiry into the alleged claims of holiness of the former dock worker. The Apostolic Process, the official sworn inquiry at the Vatican, began in 1947. On 3 October 1975 Pope Paul VI declared him to be Venerable Matt Talbot, which is a step on the road to his canonisation, a process which needs evidence of a physical miracle in order to be successful.[8] There is a particular devotion to Matt Talbot among some North American Roman Catholics[10] among those involved in a ministry to achieve or maintain sobriety.
Legacy [ edit ]
The Custom House and Matt Talbot Memorial Bridge from City Quay
“Never be too hard on the man who can’t give up drink. It’s as hard to give up the drink as it is to raise the dead to life again. But both are possible and even easy for Our Lord. We have only to depend on him.” – Matt Talbot[4]
As word of Matt Talbot spread he rapidly became an icon for Ireland's temperance movement, the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association. His story soon became known to the large Irish emigrant communities. Many addiction clinics, youth hostels and statues have been named after him throughout the world from Nebraska to Warsaw to Sydney. One of Dublin's main bridges is also named after him. A statue of Talbot was erected at Sir John Rogerson's Quay in 1988. Pope John Paul II, as a young man, wrote a paper on him.
Graham Linehan has stated that the character of Matty Hislop in his comedy series Father Ted was based on Talbot.[11]
Talbot's remains were removed from Glasnevin Cemetery to Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Seán McDermott Street, Dublin, in 1972. The tomb has a glass panel through which the coffin may be seen.
There is a small plaque in Granby Lane at the site of Matt Talbot's death.
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ] |
Contents
This is a work in progress. Eventually, I hope to make available in English a much larger collection of Ajaan Lee's talks to add to the collections already available: Lessons in Samadhi, Food for Thought, Inner Strength, and The Skill of Release. But for the moment, in keeping with the title of the collection, I'd like to start out small.
The passages translated here had their beginnings in talks that Ajaan Lee gave to groups of people while they were meditating. In some cases, the people were his followers; in others, total strangers. In every case, Ajaan Lee found it necessary to cover the sorts of questions that occur to people new to meditation -- Why meditate? How should I meditate? And why in that particular way? -- and in his own style he provided not only straightforward answers to these questions but also vivid analogies, to help his listeners relate their meditation to familiar activities so that they would feel less intimidated by the uncharted areas of the minds they were trying to tame.
One aspect of Ajaan Lee's teachings that might strike you as foreign is his analysis of the body into four properties: earth, fire, water, and wind. This mode of analysis dates back to the time of the Buddha, although Ajaan Lee develops it in a distinctive way. Think of this analysis, not as an attempt at biology or chemistry -- the sciences we use to analyze the body from the outside -- but as a way of analyzing how the body feels from the inside. This is an aspect of awareness that we often overlook and that, in English at least, we have a poor vocabulary for describing. As you gain through meditation a greater familiarity with this aspect of your awareness, you'll come to see how useful Ajaan Lee's method of analysis is.
The passages included here have taken a fairly circuitous route from Ajaan Lee's mouth to your eyes. One of his followers -- a nun, Mae Chii Arun Abhivanna -- took notes during the talks, from which she later worked up reconstructed versions of what Ajaan Lee had said. Ajaan Lee had a chance to review and revise the reconstructions of the talks dated prior to 1957. As for the talks made after that year, Mae Chii Arun didn't get around to making reconstructions until after Ajaan Lee's death in 1961, and so these were printed without his input.
Although the talks make for great reading, they make for even better listening. If you meditate with a group of friends, try arranging for one member of the group to read a passage while the others are meditating. In that way, you can best recreate the context for which the talks were originally intended.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
October, 1999 |
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When James Thurber wrote “You Could Look It Up” for the Post in 1941, he probably thought of it as merely a short story — a distraction from the sobering realities of a world at war. His work certainly achieved that goal (who wouldn’t be entertained by the story of a cigar smoking, beer drinking, trash-talking dwarf on a big league baseball team?)
But his story (illustrated by Norman Rockwell) might have achieved more: it probably inspired one of the most bizarre events in the history of baseball, and in doing so forever changed the rules of the game and the record books.
In 1951, St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck signed 3’7” Eddie Gaedel as an amateur free agent. The little person appeared for only one at bat, and, despite catcher Bob Swift’s futile advice for his pitcher to “keep it low,” was walked in four throws. Gaedel was replaced by a pinch runner and received a standing ovation as he returned to the dugout.
The gimmick permanently changed baseball, as it created the rule that nobody can appear in a game until the commissioner approves his contract. Gaedel also holds two Major League records that will probably never be broken: one for being the shortest player ever, the other for the highest on-base percentage (1.000).
Veeck never admitted that the Post story inspired his publicity stunt, but it’s hard to believe it was just a coincidence.
Click here to read “You Could Look It Up” |
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No no, this is not a typo, and I am not trying to trick you with a catchy title – this is happening! I am not sure who started it first and why, but mustard concoctions have been gaining popularity over the last few years. From mustard seed infusions to actual mustard as a recipe ingredient, these bright yellow and slightly spicy cocktails have been popping up on cocktail menus in bars all over the country, and I love it!
To be frank, when I first saw the words “mustard cocktail” online, I was skeptical, to say the least. And I bet you might be too? But I am a mustard fanatic, and I love trying weird things, so I handled this experiment with the same spirit as a hot dog eating contestant on Coney Island!
The idea of actual mustard in a cocktail, however, seemed a little far fetched to me as a first project, so I started with mustard infusion instead.
The herbal profile of gin seemed like the way to go, and I started with infusing 12 ounces of gin (Bombay Sapphire) with 50 grams of yellow mustard seeds I found at the local herb store.
Once the Gin had adopted a slightly mustardy flavor and golden color (about a week), it was time to strain the seeds out.
The infusion tasted surprisingly good, with slightly spicy notes and very delicate, yet notable mustard flavor.
Mustard Seed Infused Gin (Tools and Equipment)
I tried a few combinations with the infused gin with varied levels of success. But the winner was this spicy cucumber concoction that I promise will be the talk of your next party.
Made with fresh cucumber, lime juice, agave syrup and enhanced with caramelized ginger candy and toasted thyme, this is one exciting and unconventional drink, and another bar quality cocktail you can make at home!
Print Mustard Cocktail Ingredients 2 oz Mustard Seeds Infused Gin
0.75 oz Agave Syrup
0.5 oz Fresh Lime Juice
5-6 Cucumber Cubes
Thyme Sprig (for garnish)
Ginger Candy (for garnish) Instructions Cut cucumber into 1-inch cubes Add 5-6 cucumber cubes in a cocktail shaker and muddle well Add the infused gin, agave syrup, fresh lime juice, and ice Shake vigorously for about 10-15 seconds and fine strain over ice in a tall glass Using a blowtorch, caramelize a ginger candy over the cocktail and stir the browned candy into the drink to release the ginger flavor. Garnish with thyme sprig (using the blowtorch again, you can toast the thyme for a smoke effect)
SaveSave |
Flags of Canada and the United States in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park
A transboundary protected area (TBPA) is an ecological protected area that spans boundaries of more than one country or sub-national entity. Such areas are also known as transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) or peace parks.[1][2][full citation needed][non-primary source needed]
TBPAs exist in many forms around the world,[3] and are established for various reasons. The preservation of traditional animal migration patterns, ensuring sufficient food and water sources for population growth, is a critical reason for the creation of TBPAs. However, TBPAs also encourage tourism, economic development and goodwill between neighbouring countries, as well as making it easier for indigenous inhabitants of the area to travel.[4][not specific enough to verify][full citation needed]
Types of Transboundary Protected Areas [ edit ]
TBPAs exist in various types of geographic configuration, with various levels of ecological protection, and with various levels of international cooperation. Additionally, different organizations employ different definitions for TBPAs. Julia Marton-Lefevre broadly defines TBPAs as "areas that involve a degree of cooperation across one or more boundaries between (or within) countries."[5] The Southern Africa Development Community's Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement defines Transfrontier Conservation Area as "the area or the component of a large ecological region that straddles the boundaries of two or more countries, encompassing one or more protected areas, as well as multiple resources use areas."[6] The Global Transboundary Protected Areas Network (GTPAN) lists four types of "transboundary conservation areas:"
Type 1: Transboundary Protected Area;
Type 2: Transboundary Conservation Landscape and/or Seascape;
Type 3: Transboundary Conservation Migration Area; and
Special designation: Park for Peace.[7]
GTPAN defines a Transboundary Protected Area as "a clearly defined geographical space that includes protected areas that are ecologically connected across one or more international boundaries and involves some form of cooperation." GTPAN defines a Transboundary Conservation Landscape and/or Seascape as "an ecologically connected area that includes both protected areas and multiple resource use areas across one or more international boundaries and involves some form of cooperation."[7]
GTPAN defines a Transboundary Conservation Migration Area as "wildlife habitats in two or more countries that are necessary to sustain populations of migratory species and involve some form of cooperation."[7]
GTPAN defines a "Park for Peace" as "any of the three types of Transboundary Conservation Areas [that is] dedicated to the promotion, celebration and/or commemoration of peace and cooperation."
In many instances, individual TBPAs are part of broader international environmental or cultural programs. TBPAs can be World Heritage sites, Ramsar Wetlands, and/or UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.
History of Transboundary Protected Areas [ edit ]
In 1932, the governments of Canada and the United States passed legislation creating the first international peace park: Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. This action followed from a joint resolution of the Rotary Clubs of Montana and Alberta calling for the creation of the peace park.[8]
On 1 February 1997, Anton Rupert, together with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Nelson Mandela, founded the Peace Parks Foundation as a Nonprofit organisation to facilitate the establishment of transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs).[9]
A 2001 study by the World Conservation Union found "there were 166 existing transboundary protected area complexes worldwide comprising 666 individual conservation zones."[5]
In 2007, the Global Transboundary Conservation Network published a global inventory of transboundary protected areas identifying 227 transboundary protected areas.[10]
Established Transboundary Protected Areas [ edit ]
Africa [ edit ]
Transboundary World Heritage sites [ edit ]
Transboundary Ramsar Wetlands [ edit ]
Transboundary Biosphere Reserves [ edit ]
Delta du Fleuve Senegal is a transboundary UNESCO biosphere reserve crossing the border of Mauritania and Senegal. [19]
Mono is a transboundary UNESCO biosphere reserve crossing the border of Benin and Togo.[19]
Transboundary Conservation Complexes [ edit ]
Asia [ edit ]
The Danube Delta is a TBPA and home to pelicans and cormorants.
Europe [ edit ]
Transboundary World Heritage sites [ edit ]
Transboundary Ramsar Wetlands [ edit ]
Transboundary Biosphere Reserves [ edit ]
Of the world's twenty transboundary UNESCO biosphere reserves, twelve are in Europe. Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Ukraine each contribute to three reserves.
Transboundary Conservation Complexes [ edit ]
North America [ edit ]
Flags of Canada and the United States fly on the Peace Arch in Peace Arch Park
Canada and the United States [ edit ]
Canadian interprovincial Parks [ edit ]
United States interstate parks [ edit ]
Mexico and the United States [ edit ]
Central America [ edit ]
South America [ edit ]
Intercontinental TBPAs [ edit ]
Areas in the conceptual phase [ edit ]
The DMZ is a habitat for many threatened species on the Korean peninsula, including the black bear.
TBPA advocates by 2006 had identified additional sites for protection. Professor Saleem Ali of the University of Vermont noted that "numerous ecologically sensitive areas remain unprotected" and cites a 2006 "geographic information systems (GIS) study" that "found 104 transboundary wild areas involving 61 countries that are not formally part of any conservation park."[5] Specific sites for proposed TBPAs include:
As awareness of the importance of conserving the pristinity and ecology of Arctic region has increased,[according to whom?] there has been a global call to declare the Arctic region as a global sanctuary/international peace park. The Save the Arctic[89] campaign by Greenpeace, an environmental nonprofit organisation, has received online support from more than 5 million citizens from around the world.
Areas with treaty signed [ edit ]
Memorandums of agreement signed [ edit ]
Impacts on peace and conflict [ edit ]
Transboundary protected areas are also termed peace parks. They are supposed to facilitate cooperation and exchange between (adversary) countries, to improve livelihoods of local populations, to demonstrate the possibility of positive-sum interactions, and hence to support more peaceful international relations.[90] There are several cases documented in which trans-boundary conservation contributed to conflict resolution (although is was not the main driver), such as in the Virunga region between the DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda,[91] around the Trifinio region between El Salvador and Honduras,[92] and in the Cordillera del Cóndor region between Ecuador and Peru.[93] According to a statistical analysis published in 2014, states that share a trans-boundary protected area are slightly less likely to engage with militarized disputes with each other. But the question remains whether the TBPA is a driver of consequence on better interstate relations in these cases.[94] A more recent analysis triangulates data from various sources to show that international environmental cooperation (in the form of TBPAs and water treaties) increases the likelihood for reconciliation between states in conflict. The effect is, however, modest and contingent on a number of context factors such as high levels of environmental attention, internal political stability, a tradition of environmental cooperation and already ongoing processes of reconciliation.[92]
However, a number of authors criticize that peace parks have a very limited impact on formal relations between states, but can accelerate conflicts on the local level, for instance by extending (authoritarian) state control, by prioritizing business and tourism over the interests of local populations, and by excluding local people from the protected areas.[95][2][96] TBPAs can also stimulate (low-level) international conflicts, for instance about the sharing of revenues or the presence of human populations in the parks.[97]
Massive Online Open Course on Peace Park Development and Management [ edit ]
A Massive Online Open Course on Peace Park Development and Management was developed by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), its Peace and Biodiversity Dialogue Initiative in partnership with UNDP and the NBSAP Forum. This free three-week course offered in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Financial support is provided by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Peace and Biodiversity Dialogue Initiative funded by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea.
This course will:
offer a comprehensive guide on Peace Park establishment;
teach participants to make a strong case for Peace Park development;
develop the skills to effectively plan, establish and manage Peace Parks;
address the challenges associated with the creation and management of these transboundary protected areas.
The course is designed for Peace Park development practitioners and environmental peacebuilding enthusiasts but is open to everyone. Registration link: https://learningfornature.org/courses/peace-park-development-and-management/ Participants must create an account on Learning for Nature before registering for the course.
See also [ edit ] |
Updated, August 5: The GTX Titan X, powered by the GP102 Pascal GPU, is now available to buy in the UK, Europe, and US. The Titan X is currently only available through Nvidia's own online store, priced at £1,100 in the UK and €1,300 in the Eurozone. At the time of writing, the Titan X is in stock in the UK. Americans can pick a new Titan X up for a relatively cheap $1,200, though it appears to be out of stock currently.
Original story
Forget the GTX 1080: there's a new slab of graphics card hotness on the way from Nvidia, and its name is, er, the GTX Titan X. Yes, Nvidia has taken its most expensive graphics card and given it a Pascal-architecture makeover. $1200—UK price TBC, but probably £1,100—buys you 11 teraflops of FP32 performance, which is a significant 24 percent jump over the 8.9 teraflops of the GTX 1080, and just over 60 percent higher than the 6.6 teraflops of the original Titan X.
The new Titan X launches on August 2 in the US and Europe. At first it'll only be available from the Nvidia website, but it will percolate down to other retailers soon after.
The Titan X is powered by a new chip, GP102, which packs in 3584 CUDA cores. While Nvidia hasn't revealed the amount of Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), texture units, and the like, if the company uses a similar architecture to the GP104 chip (as used in the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070), expect a 40 percent boost in SMs over the GTX 1080 to 28. The chip runs at a 1417MHz base clock and 1531MHz boost clock.
Backing up GP102 is 12GB of GDDR5X memory running at an effective 10GHz and attached to a wide 382-bit bus, resulting in a 480GB/s of memory bandwidth, or a 50 percent increase over the GTX 1080. Power is provided by one 8-pin and one 6-pin PCIe connector, with a max TDP of 250W, the same as the previous Titan X. Connectivity consists of DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, and dual-link DVI. Externally, the Titan X uses the same multifaceted cooler of the GTX 1080, albeit now finished in black.
Interestingly, while the new GTX Titan X features the same number of CUDA cores as Nvidia's Tesla P100 GPU—as used in deep learning and science applications—it is using a different chip. With previous Titans, Nvidia has simply taken its biggest chip and given it a prosumer makeover, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Those hoping for a return of the stellar FP64 performance of the original Titan may be disappointed here, although Nvidia is pushing the card's 44 TOPs of INT8, a measurement for neural network inference performance.
It's also a wee bit disappointing not to see HBM2 being used and Nvidia opting for GDDR5X. Yes, HBM2 is still in its infancy (the P100 is the only GPU that uses it) and costs are high. But given this is Nvidia's flagship GPU, and it costs $1200, its inclusion would have been a pleasant surprise. It would also have given AMD a poke, especially since the company is planning to use HBM2 in its upcoming Vega architecture.
The reveal of the Titan X follows the launch of the GTX 1080, the GTX 1070, and the GTX 1060, all of which were released over the past two months. That's a fierce release schedule by anyone's standards. Quite why Nvidia is so keen to get the Titan X out of the door, particularly when it has zero competition at the top end of the market, is something of a mystery. Still, with 11 teraflops, the Titan X might finally be the card that gives us sweet 60FPS 4K gaming.
Given that the performance of Titan typically trickles down to other cards a year later, expect to be able to able to play in 4K60 for a much more reasonable price next year. |
About This Game
Streamlined Economy : Manage two resources: oil and cash, allowing you to focus on the action. Unit expenditure is up-front, meaning no more micromanaging production lines.
: Manage two resources: oil and cash, allowing you to focus on the action. Unit expenditure is up-front, meaning no more micromanaging production lines. New Base Building System : Like a traditional RTS, base building units are selectable. Build directly from the builder (or destroy your opponent’s builder!)
: Like a traditional RTS, base building units are selectable. Build directly from the builder (or destroy your opponent’s builder!) New Airstrikes : You no longer control the planes mid-flight. They go directly to their target and strike, much faster than previously.
: You no longer control the planes mid-flight. They go directly to their target and strike, much faster than previously. Huge balancing update and unit model improvements as well as UI tweaks and changes: for example, all units now accelerate and decelerate faster, with more streamlined, action packed RTS gameplay.
brings the techno-thriller RTS game Act of Aggression to a higher level. The Reboot Edition offers a full gameplay overhaul: new resource system, playable builder units, new base buildings, simplified research system, and many major mechanic improvements for smoother and more dynamic gameplay in skirmish mode against the AI and in your multiplayer battles. Either launch the original game or Reboot Edition as you see fit, and experience the new benchmark of real-time strategy games.With three global super-powers, there can be only one victory.Across three distinct factions each armed with the greatest modern and, head into some of the world’s most volatile conflict zones, building bases for mass production, establishing resource supply lines, and waging war in’ explosive RTS.the cogs of war in a return to strategic base-building, resource harvesting, and dynamic tech-trees.banks and enemy soldiers to generate cash income.units with specialization and unlock new skills. Embark on an epic single playerwith a thrilling original story, andthroughout the world on realistic environments.in visceral PVP battles and become the best commander! |
Visual artist Kevin Abosch's biggest success didn't come from a stunning picture of Johnny Depp or Yoko Ono. No, his highest-selling portrait featured a single Irish potato that reportedly sold for $1.08 million to a European businessman, who caught a glimpse of the spud at a dinner in Abosch's Parisian home.
Normally, the celebrity visual artist, known for his photography work, sells his art for $500,000 or less. But after a few glasses of wine with the businessman, his spud-tastic portrait, named "Potato #345," made him a cool million in no time.
To Abosch, a potato is far from just a potato. "I see commonalities between humans and potatoes that speak to our relationship as individuals within a collective species," Abosch told CNN. "Generally, the life of a harvested potato is violent and taken for granted. I use the potato as a proxy for the ontological study of the human experience."
You may not feel the same emotional connection that Abosch does to the vegetable, but the spud is certainly special. The picture of it is the 15th most expensive photo to ever be sold.
That's one photogenic potato!
[via CNN |
Gender systems are the social structures that establish the number of genders and their associated gender roles in every society. A gender role is "everything that a person says and does to indicate to others or to the self the degree that one is either male, female, or androgynous. This includes but is not limited to sexual and erotic arousal and response."[1]:114 Gender identity is one's own personal experience with gender role and the persistence of one's individuality as male, female, or androgynous, especially in self-awareness and behavior. Gender binary is one example of a gender system. A gender binary is the classification of sex and gender into two distinct and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine.
Gender binary [ edit ]
Gender binary is the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. Gender binary is one general type of a gender system. Sometimes in this binary model, "sex", "gender" and "sexuality" are assumed by default to align.
Non-European gender systems [ edit ]
In cultures where the gender binary is prominent and important, transgender people are a major exception to the societal norms related to gender.[citation needed] Intersex people, those who cannot be biologically determined as either male or female, are another obvious deviation. Other cultures have their own practices independent of the Western gender binary.
Native American [ edit ]
When European settlers first arrived in North America, they discovered different Native American tribes had different concepts of sex and gender. In the Native North American society "berdaches" were given that name to identify them as gender variants. The Europeans "attempted to explain the berdache from various functional perspectives...in terms of the contributions these sex/gender roles made to social structure or culture."[2]:11 The term "berdache" was deemed inappropriate and insulting as time passed and awareness increased, so a new term was coined in 1990, "Two-Spirit."[2]:13 There were many roles for male and female Two-Spirits, productive specialization, supernatural sanction and gender variation. Some widespread features of the variety of gender roles are: transvestism, cross-gender occupation, same sex (but different gender) sexuality, recruitment to different roles, special languages, ritual roles, and associations with spiritual power.[2]:14 Cross-dressing was the most visible marker but has proven a variable and less reliable indicator of status as a Two-Spirit. However the main interest is that these people are an accepted portion of their society. In some cases they were even given special respect and various honors. The roles varied greatly between tribes. For example, a male variant might have to wear male clothing during warfare, but women’s clothing any other time. These gender roles were often decided at a young age. If a boy was interested in women’s activities, or vice versa, a gender variant role would likely be undertaken in adulthood. "In some societies, same-sex sexual desire or practice did figure into the definition of one’s gender variant role, in others, it did not."[2]:19 In the case of the Navajo, there are four genders: man, woman, masculine female-bodied nádleeh, and feminine male-bodied nádleeh. Intercourse between two people of different genders, regardless of biological sex, was not stigmatized. However, any sexual relationship between two of the same one gender was considered homosexual, and was strongly disapproved of. In the majority of Native American societies however, biological sex played no part in any gender variant role.[2]:13
The Mohave Alyha [ edit ]
In Mohave society, pregnant women believed they had dreams forecasting the anatomic sex of their children. These dreams also sometimes included hints of their child’s future gender variant status. A boy who "acted strangely" before he participated in the boys’ puberty ceremonies in the Mohave tribe would be considered for the transvestite ceremony. Expressing interest in dolls, the domestic work of women, women’s gambling games, and inquiring about the female skirt were all ways a boy may be considered for the transvestite ceremony. Before the ceremony, relatives would try to dissuade him, but if the boy persists, they would assist in the preparations for the ceremony. The ceremony itself was meant to surprise the boy. It was a test of willingness. Other nearby settlements would receive word to come and watch. A circle of onlookers would sing special songs. If the boy danced like a woman, it confirmed his status as an alyha. He was then taken to a river to bathe, and was given a skirt to wear. The ceremony would permanently change his gender status within the tribe. He then took up a female name. The alyha would imitate many aspects of female life, including menstruation, puberty observations, pregnancy, and birth. The alyha were considered great healers, especially in curing sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis.[2]:21–23
Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico [ edit ]
A documentary film entitled Blossoms of Fire, produced in 2000, depicts the people of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, Mexico. It follows the daily lives of the women as they run their businesses, wear colorfully bold traditional clothing and hold their heads firmly high as they carry the weight on top. The film clearly depicts the empowered women and the tolerance of homosexuality and transgender individuals. The community exemplifies an alternative gender system unlike the gender binary that has been established throughout the world. On many occasions this community has been criticized and labeled as a matriarchy; however, the individuals who are interviewed throughout the film tend to say otherwise. They strongly believe that their community is able to function because gender roles are not placed on individuals but rather that everyone is equal—for example there is no identifiable "bread winner". Children are taken care of by whoever can help; food is cooked by anyone who is able to and drinking beer and smoking is not only okay for the "men" of the community. Gay, lesbian, and transgender people tend to feel more accepted in this alternative gender system. Juchitán's society operates under a more egalitarian gender system in which men and women have different, but not exclusive roles, and in which these roles are not necessarily expected. Due to liberal gender performance, third genders also have more prominence in Juchitán than other parts of the world.[3]
Machi (Mapuche Shamans) of Chile [ edit ]
The machi are the shamans of the Mapuche people of Chile, and are viewed to a large extent by both Mapuche and the Chilean state as keepers of Mapuche political, cultural, and spiritual tradition and power. In many ways the machi represent an alternative gender system in that homosexual acts are more accepted, gender switching occurs, and the practice of polygamy took place.[4]:322-343 However, though it appears there is more gender freedom, gender switching occurs based on different shamanic practices performed, and the gender associated with the practice is either derived from physical sex based on reproduction, etc., or from the hegemonic gender system of the nation of Chile. For example, political participation has become a masculine practice, while spiritual practices are considered feminine. While one does not have to be a physical "male" or "female" necessarily to perform these practices, they must channel that gender to perform them.
The machi were inevitably influenced by the dominant Western gender system of Chile through state sponsored evangelization, (most Mapuche today are Catholic)[4]:327–328 and by the Indigenous Law. The Indigenous Law further politicized the machi and further subjected them in national discourse to the gender norms of the Chilean state, changing the way that machi perform gender. "Machi juggle various gendered systems of knowledge and identities according to their intentions, who is present, and in what context"[4]:334
Indian Hindu [ edit ]
In Hindu India, there also exists different concepts of what is socially accepted when gender is in question. When compared to the native North Americans, the gender system is essentially binary, but the ideas themselves are quite different from Western thoughts. These ideas often come from religious contexts. Some Hindu origin myths feature androgynous or hermaphroditic ancestors. Ancient poets often showed this idea by presenting images with mixed physical attributes between the two sexes. These themes still exist in the culture, and are even still institutionalized. The most prominent group are the hijras.[2]:27,28
Hijras [ edit ]
A Hijra from India.
"The recognition of more than two sex/genders is recorded in India as early as the eighth century BCE".[2]:29 In modern India, the term hijra is most commonly meant as "eunuch" or intersexed, and is a term of sexual impotence. In the culture’s definition, a hijra is one born as a male, but adopts the clothing, behavior, and occupations of women. Their status in society is neither male nor female, neither man nor woman. When hijras are asked whether or not they are male or female, most often they respond with comments like "We hijras are like women",[1]:xxiii demonstrating their place in culture. Hijras walk, gesture, speak, and use facial expressions more common to women in India. They even take feminine names as part of their gender transformation. Becoming a Hijra however is not outside of Indian society. Being a hijra means making a commitment that gives social support and some economic security, as well as a cultural meaning, linking them to the larger world.[1]:54
"A male who is not born biologically intersexed who wishes to become a hijra must transform his sex/gender through an emasculation operation".[2]:29 This operation is a rebirth for the hijras, and contains elements of childbirth to symbolize this. The process includes castration, bloodletting, and special rituals.[2]:33 Among the hijra society there is a hierarchy of gurus, or teachers, and chelas, or disciples.[1]:42 In order for one to be accepted into the hijra society they must be sponsored by a guru, who in turn teaches them and helps them form a family.
As of November 11, 2013, the country of Bangladesh has decided to begin a third gender birth certificate.[5]
Sādhin [ edit ]
The sādhin are similar to Hijras culturally. Their development is quite different however, and their existence is much less prominent. It is a girl’s choice to become a sādhin. They wear men’s clothing and keep their hair short. They commonly keep their female name and are still treated as a female in society, although the status of sādhin, like hijra, transcends the gender labels of India. A sādhin candidate must be a virgin, and swear to celibacy.[2]:40,41
Femminielli or femmenielli (singular femminiello, cf. Standard Italian femmina, "a female", -ello, masculine diminutive suffix) is a term used to refer to a population of males with markedly feminine gender expression in traditional Neapolitan culture.[6][7] It may be hard to define this term within modern Western notions of "gay men" versus "trans women" since both these categories overlap to a degree in the case of femminielli [7] It has been noted that this term is not derogatory and does not carry stigma, with femminielli instead traditionally believed to bring luck.[6][7]
It is often considered reductive to insert the Neapolitan femminiello within the macro-category of transgender usually adopted in Anglo-Saxon and North American contexts. The femminiello, instead, could be considered as a peculiar gender expression, despite a widespread sexual binarism. The cultural roots of this phenomenon confer to the femminiello a cultural and even socially legitimized status. For the historical and symbolic coordinates of Naples, the identity construct of the femminiello is not superimposable to more common European and euro-centric transgender clusters.[8]
The femminiello in Campania may enjoy a relatively privileged position thanks to their participation in some traditional events, such as Candelora al Santuario di Montevergine (Candlemas at the Sanctuary of Montevergine) in Avellino[9] or the Tammurriata, a traditional dance performed at the feast of Madonna dell'Arco in Sant'Anastasia.[10] Generally, femminielli are considered good luck. For this reason, it is popular in the neighborhoods for a femminiello to hold a newborn baby, or participate in games such as bingo.[11] Feminielli participate in games of Tombola or Tombolata dei femminielli,[12] a popular game performed every year on the 2nd of February, as the conclusive part of the Candlemas at the Sanctuary of Montevergine. Achille della Ragione suggests that recent surveys have shown that Neapolitans have a generally negative view of what he calls "the politically correct model of homosexuality of a hypocritical do-gooder society" (implying the mainstream Western gay culture), yet he contrasts femminielli as enjoying a favorable attitude from part of Neapolitan society.[13]
Polynesia [ edit ]
In Polynesia there are many different terms for gender roles, for example in Tahiti the role is called māhū. In Samoa the male gender variant is called fa’afafine which means "like a woman." Tuva and Tonga have terms also. In Tonga the term is fakaleiti and in Tuva the term is pinapinnaine. All of these terms are used when a male engages in women's work, clothes, speech tones, and nonverbal gestures. However, in Polynesia when a man crosses genders and "acts like a woman" he is not viewed as becoming a woman, but is suspended between male and female, being neither at the same time, but having the elements of both.[2]:57–70 They tend to be effeminate and interested in women’s household tasks, but do not dress exclusively as women. They often seek oral sex with men, who may ridicule them in public, but seek them out for pleasure in private.[14]:334
Thailand [ edit ]
Kathoeys on the stage of a cabaret show in Pattaya.
Kathoey is the term used by both males and females that allows them to be alongside the normative masculine and feminine identities. Up until the 1970s hermaphrodites and cross-dressing men and women could all come under the term kathoey, however the term has been dropped for the cross-dressing masculine females who are now referred to as tom.[2]:73 As a result of the shifts, kathoey today is most commonly understood as a male transgender category. Kathoey is derived from the Buddhist myth that describes three original human sex/genders, male, female, and a biological hermaphrodite or kathoey.[2]:73 Kathoey is not defined as merely being a variant between male or female but as an independently existing third sex.
Philippines [ edit ]
The notable gender variant role in the Philippines is the bakla. Bakla are males with a feminine spirit, or core identity, who cross-dress and are assumed to take the receiving role in sex. In the Philippines, a "real man" is simply one who is not bakla. Since there are negative connotations of local terms for gender diversity, many bakla prefer to self-identify as gay, rather than a new gender. The baklas’ partners are not considered homosexual by Filipino society. Over time, baklas have tried to gain status as a third sex or gender as an attempt to normalize their nonconformity and be equal to males and females in society.<[2]:78–84
Nigeria [ edit ]
Oyewumi observes that among the Yoruba people there was no concept of gender and no gender system at all before colonialism. She argues that colonial powers used a gender system as a tool for domination and fundamentally changing social relations among the indigenous.[15]:196–198
The cultural definition of homosexuality [ edit ]
In cultures where the difference between male and female in the gender binary is masculine and feminine, it is important to look at how same-sex sexuality changes between cultures. In some cultures, like the travestí, homosexual behavior moves one from one part of a gender binary to another.
Homosexuality, and its effects on the individual’s place in society is sometimes drastically different in various other cultures. In certain Sambia people of New Guinea for example, it is believed that a boy is unable to reach puberty or maturity without first ingesting the semen, considered life-force, of an older male.[16]:9–18 In addition, these Sambian people believe that a man is unable to replenish his semen on his own, so the ritual continues until a certain time, usually marriage, when he is told of a tree that exudes a milky semen-like sap he may ingest instead.[16]:18
In Basotho society in contemporary Lesotho, girls and women may exchange long kisses, engage in cunnilingus, and even fall in love and form a marriage-like union. In this society however, sex requires penetration, and marriage requires a man as a husband. Therefore, in this context, there is no concept of lesbianism.[14]:336
The Alternative Model of Gender [ edit ]
In "The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough", Anne Fausto-Sterling explores the possibilities of the intersex and how these individuals fit into the traditional labeling of "male" and "female". Her "Alternative Model of Gender," is a proposition that allows for the inclusion of intersexual individuals into the traditional gender labeling system. Anne Fausto-Sterling proposes that a body does not necessarily have to fit into the orthodox gender binary set by a society, but rather can be categorized under the possibility of male, female, merm, ferm, and herm, which are labels given to individuals born with a variation in sex characteristics. Fausto-Sterling’s "Of Gender and Genitals" discuses the fate of the individuals born with "ambiguous" genitalia and the need to surgically correct the deviations these individuals propel into a male-female society. She explores the need for allowing the body to be labeled as is, rather than configuring it into the expectations of society, as the traditional binary gender labeling calls for. The Alternative Model allows for this type of gender labeling.[17][18]
Gendered violence [ edit ]
Gendered violence is an important worldwide issue that can take place in different forms with varying consequences. It can be similar to a hate crime in which physical violence is specifically targeting the victim's gender. Transgender people and women experience the most gender violence but anyone can be a victim. Women are particularly at risk of gender violence in intimate relationships. Women are 10 times more likely to be a victim of intimate partner violence.[19] This act of violence occurs in the public as well as the private domain and can sometimes be overlooked. Countless deaths have resulted from these severe crimes as seen in the film Two Spirits.[20] Organizations nationwide such as California Coalition Against Sexual Assault help to support and aid the Latino communities in particular to put an end to domestic violence. It is also a matter related to the dominant gender system, which often underlies the motives for gendered violence. The dominant gender system also creates structural violence.[15]:188
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ] |
CRISPR is a life-changing genetic modification technology that could potentially cure cancer and eradicate genetic conditions before a child is born. But there is a dark side to the potential of this technology.
A NEW take on a revolutionary gene-editing technology called CRISPR-Cas9 could help combat the spread of drug resistant superbugs, scientists say.
Researchers at a US university want to replicate the capability of CRISPR — which lets scientists edit human genes to remove nasty diseases — by creating a pill that does a similar thing by targeting bad bacteria, causing it to self destruct.
Specifically, the probiotic cocktail would “kill your bacteria of choice,” said food scientist Jan-Peter Van Pijkeren of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He believes the idea could be used to fight germs like Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that can cause fatal infections in hospitals and nursing homes.
According to the The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, C. difficile “has emerged as a serious worldwide public health threat, capable of causing a range of problems from mild diarrhoea to ... death.”
To understand the methodology that underpins the idea of a CRISPR pill, you need to understand the basic way CRISPR-Cas 9 works.
The name is an acronym for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” which refers to the way bacteria works to fight off infection.
Bacteria store memories of viral DNA in their own genomes and use this memory (think of it like a wanted poster) along with a DNA-slicing enzyme (molecular scissors) known as a Cas to recognise and chop up the genes of invading viruses which infect bacteria, known as bacteriophage.
The “CRISPR pill”, or probiotic bacteria drink, developed by Prof Van Pijkeren would include a bacteriophage capable of carrying a customised CRISPR message to C. difficile. The message would cause C. difficile to make lethal cuts to its own DNA, effectively killing itself.
The method could prove much more precise than using antibiotics and help address the growing problem of human resistance.
“The downside of antibiotics is they are a sledgehammer that depletes and destroys the gut microbial community,” Prof van Pijkeren said in a statement.
“You want to instead use a scalpel in order to specifically eradicate the microbe of interest.”
The innovative research is still in its infancy and hasn’t even been tested on animals yet. But with the growing problem of antibiotics overprescription and resistance, the research highlights the potential of CRISPR-related technologies in providing ways to provide alternative treatments to the customary antibiotics.
However, Peter Fineran, a microbiologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand told the MIT Technological Review that “there is still quite a long way to go before this replaces our current antibiotics.”
But if it proves successful, CRISPR could become not just the world’s most effective gene editing tool, but also the best bacteria-killing technology available.
In just four short years, scientists have refined the CRISPR-Cas9 technique in order to replicate it quickly, easily and cheaply in everything from plants to animals to human cells in a discovery that could ultimately render genetic diseases obsolete.
But it also has a dark side that could wipe out entire species or pave the way for “designer babies” which has raised huge ethical questions about its use. |
Veteran's widow questions 'cause of death' in husband's VA medical file Copyright by WPRI - All rights reserved Jo-Ann and Jerry Ward were married almost 50 years. [ + - ] Video
PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI) -- The widow of an Army Veteran who died last October is questioning the difference between the stated cause of "lung cancer" on the death certificate, and what doctors at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center told her and her husband.
Jerry Ward and his wife Jo-Ann, who now lives in Bristol, were approaching 50 years of marriage in 2013 when he was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer and given a 20 percent chance of survival.
According to a letter to Target 12 from three VAMC doctors who treated Ward, there was "a recurrence of lung cancer in October of 2015." The letter states Ward responded well to treatment, but in June "testing revealed fibrosis."
Jo-Ann Ward said she believes there were mistakes along the way, citing her husband's medical file and death certificate.
"They could've done more to help Jerry."
She said throughout 2016, she and her husband asked his doctors if the pain he was feeling could be a return of the lung cancer.
She kept notes of every appointment on a pad and in a calendar, to document what the couple was told several times.
"We were asking, are you sure the cancer is not back? [And they said] nope. No sign of cancer. It's fibrosis," Ward recalled.
In October, the Wards heard what she said was an unexpected change in his condition.
"He had a CT scan on the 7th [of October] and that's when they told us he had two weeks to live," Ward said. "He died the next day."
An additional shock came when she received the death certificate which was filled out at a local hospice facility.
"It said lung cancer," Ward said. "We couldn't believe it."
The letter to Target 12 from her husband's doctors followed a signed release to the VA from Jo-Ann Ward.
"Testing prior to his transfer [to hospice] did not indicate active lung cancer at the time," the letter states.
According to the letter, a death certificate may list a disease as the cause of death when the effects from the disease or its treatment resulted in the death.
The letter goes on to state the cancer "treatment was the cause of fibrosis, which in turn led to the patient's passing."
Ward remains skeptical, supporting her case with a document from her husband's medical file that she obtained after he died.
It's titled "Progress Notes," and under "Active Problems", it reads Carcinoma of Lung, with the date May 25, 2016 next to it, followed by the name of one of the doctors who wrote the letter to Target 12.
Her husband died five months later.
"I just don't think what they did to us was right," Ward said. "They could've done more to help Jerry. I turn around and I expect to see him. I never thought I'd live without him."
The letter offers gratitude to Mr. Ward and his family for his service, and emphasizes the doctors "believe that he received appropriate care for his conditions."
Jo-Anne Ward has forwarded her husband's medical records to an attorney and is planning a lawsuit. |
Captain Jack's favorite tool Incredibly detailed, looks like aged leather
9.5" strap, replaceable if you have big wrists
Lights up when you press the control buttons
While the TARDIS is an excellent mode of transportation, there's something elegant about Captain Jack's Vortex Manipulator. No keys, no crazy control room, no explosions, just a big wristwatch-looking gadget. All you need is a Captain Jack coat and you're ready to be the sexiest member of Torchwood.
The real Vortex Manipulator has the following functions:
Communication, message storage, listening to the radio
Holographic projection (help me Obi-Wan Doctobi!)
Track life signs
Control electronic devices
Unlocking Torchwood 3's HQ
Manipulating the time vortex (of course!)
This replica will:
Complete your Captain Jack cosplay ensemble
Lights up when you press the control buttons
Look totally awesome on your wrist
This replica is incredibly detailed for a toy! It looks like crinkled, aged leather and contains a control panel that lights up with a blue LED when you press the buttons.
Product Specifications |
Kim Jong-Un Wants Men To Perform Better In Bed, Orders 'Sex Potions' Made From Sea Urchins!
Kim Jong-Un Wants Men To Perform Better In Bed, Orders 'Sex Potions' Made From Sea Urchins!
Kim Jong-un makes headlines for the most bizarre reasons, the latest of which includes sex potions. Apparently, the Korean dictator has ordered his scientists to make 'sex potions out of sea urchins' in a bid to treat sexual dysfunction in men and help them perform better in bed.
Reuters
The liquid tonic will not only aim at increasing male libido, thereby bettering their performance in bed, but also help treat their mental and physical fatigue.
Pinterest
Another medication has been made using snake extracts - for middle-aged men - that is 'highly efficacious for treatment of psoriasis and resistant tuberculosis'.
Don't Miss 8.5 K SHARES 683 SHARES 376 SHARES 8.7 K SHARES 2.3 K SHARES
There's also a third potion created from mushrooms soaked in alcohol which is being touted as a 'fatigue-recovering, sexual function enhancing, tonic'.
Reuters
According to the Pyongyang Times, the treatments have been devised by the Korea Oriental Medicine Development Centre and 'are all made from extracts of medicinal materials and do neither addict their users nor produce side effects even if they are used for a long time'. |
The Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” when asked about challenges to her leadership, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she thought she was a “great legislator.”
Pelosi said, “The Affordable Care Act, as you know, is very important to me. And when the president became president, I saw the threat to it. I said I gotta stay to take care of the Affordable Care Act the. That’s my mission. But also, to have women, women at the table. At the leadership table.”
”I’m here to fight for our better deal,” she continued. “Better jobs. Better pay. Better future for the American people. I think that the biggest evidence for lack of experience in a job is the president of the United States. I fully intend to make on the basis of my knowledge, my legislative — I think I’m great legislator. I know the budget. Self-promotion is a terrible thing. But clearly, somebody has to do it.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN |
How to Play Guitar Chords: Tips on Getting a Good Sound
How To Make Ordinary Guitar Chords Sound Great
Picture yourself in this scenario: You’ve been learning guitar for a few months and you’re sitting in a room on a cold, bleak day holding a cheap acoustic guitar with old strings that are too high above the fretboard. It’s literally painful to play and the resulting sound is hardly inspiring. Hopefully it’s all “up” from here? It certainly can be!
In an ideal world, here’s what you can do:
Invest in a good electronic tuner and make sure the guitar is well tuned. Tuners can be bought as a standalone device from music stores, or as a smartphone app. We recommend Cleartune, by BitCount (Android/iOS). Make it a priority to keep your guitar in tune and listen carefully to it. If a string sounds even slightly out of tune, question it and double check. Invest in a better instrument. Cheap guitars and older instruments have poor intonation and will not tune well, no matter how good you are. Understandably, it is not always easy for those on a budget, however even a reasonably affordable, brand new instrument will be a worthwhile upgrade, provided it is not bought from a bargain bin, second-hand, or as part of a cheap guitar package. If your strings are too high above the fretboard (this distance is called ‘action’) then consider having your instrument adjusted professionally at a guitar repair/servicing store. This will make the guitar much more comfortable to fret notes and play.
Upgrade Your Guitar Chords Technique!
Granted, practice is a big part of what learning the guitar is about. However, if you have been playing for a few years and are still not satisfied with the sounds you’re getting then make sure you’re observing the following:
Make sure your fretting fingers are placed just behind the fret for each note of the chord. Place just enough pressure on the string to avoid buzzing. Too much pressure can cause the string to go slightly sharp and you’ll sound out of tune. Many guitarists make the mistake of not listening to every note of the chord. Play each note individually before strumming, to be sure they can be heard. The more you do this, the more your fretting hand will find the optimal position for each finger and you’ll build muscle-memory. Use a heavy pick. A heavier pick will encourage better technique, greater volume and fuller tone, since it gives more resistance against each string. This forces your strumming/ picking hand to use greater accuracy when strumming & picking. The thickness of the pick will allow for greater volume, while your tone will not sound thin or “plastic-y” as is common with light picks. Your strumming hand should use wrist-motion, not arm-motion. You’ll be able to play faster and gain greater control this way. Practice strumming the guitar quietly and loudly. When playing in general, strum moderately loud, so that you’re projecting well. Strum gently, but consistently. Smoothly brush the pick across the strings, but not too slowly. Avoid digging in and ‘crunching’ them together or creating so much movement that the strings vibrate against the fretboard. With practice, a gentle but consistent strumming motion can still generate decent volume, so don’t be concerned that it won’t be loud enough. This will ease tension on your muscles as well.
Guitar Chords to Try!
Let’s take a simple chord progression like this:
Here are a few ways to make this progression sound sweet to the ears. Use open guitar chords for this exercise.
Bar 1 – strum the G chord, observing all that was said above in the Technique section. It should be sounding bright, loud and clear. Do the same for the Em chord. When you reach C, make sure you strum only the top 5 strings. It will sound much cleaner than strumming all six strings, as the bass note of the chord will be a C (the same as the chord name) rather than an E. To help you achieve this, place your third finger (which is currently on the lowest note of the C chord) in a position where it slightly mutes the bottom string. The edge of your fingertip need only touch the bottom string to do this. Lastly play the D7 chord on the top 4 strings only, using the same root-note principle as with the C chord. It would be possible to play the 5th string as well and still have a regular D7 chord, but because the lowest note is then an A instead of D, the chord is not as clean and defined. Practice strumming only the top 4 strings.
Where To From Here?
Contrary to what you might think, the open chords (within the first 5 frets) are some of the best sounding chords you will ever learn. The famous American guitarist Chet Atkins once joked, “Don’t play above the fifth fret… there’s no money there.” The open chords do have a particularly strong sound to them and are well suited to sustained rhythm playing and fingerpicking. Here are some more ways this progression can be brought to life:
Using a pick, slowly and evenly play the lowest note of each chord (G, E, C and D respectively) followed by the top 3 strings, in the order of 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, repeated twice in each bar. For example, the first chord would be played as low G (6th string) followed by strings 3, 2, 1, 2, 3. Repeat that chord before moving to low E, followed by 3, 2, 1, 2, 3 etc. Make sure each note is loud and clear. It should create a nice arpeggio effect. Pick each note loud and clear and let them ring as long as you can before the next chord change. This can be used to add dramatic effect on ballads and fingerpicked music. Try different voicings of these chords, such as the ones suggested below. Over time you’ll learn more voicings and substitutions which can spice up a chord progression. Try the following, using the same picking pattern:
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Express News Service By
SRI NAGAR: Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has opposed Pakistan’s move to make Gilgit Baltistan (GB) one of its provinces, saying it is part of disputed Jammu and Kashmir and cannot be made a part of the neighbouring country.
“I want to make it clear to Pakistan that Gilgit-Baltistan belongs to Jammu and Kashmir,” Geelani said while speaking at a seminar titled ‘Jammu Kashmir - A Single Geographical Entity’ at his Hyderpora residence, here.
He said unless Kashmir dispute is resolved as per the United Nation resolution, Gilgit-Baltistan cannot be merged with Pakistan.
Geelani advised the Pakistani government not to take any decision that could change the disputed nature of Jammu and Kashmir.
“When we talk of Kashmir dispute, it includes all the five regions. It is not wise on part of Pakistan to take any step that can challenge the resolutions passed in the UN which is the base of our struggle for the right to self-determination,”Geelani said.
A proposal has been sent to Nawaz Sharif Government in January 2014 by Pakistan’s Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan that the regions of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan be made the fifth and sixth provinces of the country.
All the other separatist outfits in Kashmir have also raised their voice against the merger move of Gilgit Baltistan.
Moderate separatist leader and cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has already warned that Pakistan should not take any steps to undermine the disputed nature of Kashmir.
“Until Kashmir dispute is resolved, Gilgit-Baltistan should be provided all the facilities. But its future lies only with Jammu and Kashmir,” Mirwaiz had said. |
London: Bharti Airtel Ltd’s chairman Sunil Mittal said India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani is going to shake up the country’s telecommunication industry with the start of a $15 billion fourth-generation wireless service.
The impending entry of Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is set to force smaller operators to consolidate, Mittal said in an interview. Bharti Airtel—India’s top wireless carrier—has ramped up investment and is looking for opportunities to purchase spectrum from other companies, he said.
“Whatever Reliance does, it does on a scale that is always big and impactful," Mittal said on Sunday in the coastal Turkish city of Antalya. “That is exactly what Reliance is planning to do in the telecommunication sector. From what we hear the launch will be imminent in the coming 30, 60, 90 days. India has 10, 11 operators. We should have about four or five at the very most."
Bharti Airtel is investing $3.5 billion in the year through March, about $750 million more than usual, to spur the company’s 4G plans, Mittal said. Ambani’s Jio is expected to push for faster adoption of the high-speed data technology with competitive pricing. That suggests pressure on profit margins at operators such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular Ltd and Vodafone Group Plc’s Indian unit in a market of about 900 million active subscribers.
Mergers and acquisitions
Earlier this month, Reliance Communications Ltd—headed by Mukesh’s brother Anil Ambani—agreed to buy AFK Sistema’s Indian wireless unit in an all-stock deal to create a carrier with 118 million subscribers. Mukesh Ambani’s Jio is a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, which is stepping beyond its traditional oil and gas operations.
Mittal said Bharti Airtel is open to acquiring assets and spectrum.
“But given where we are today as the No. 1 operator in India, our headroom is limited because of certain competition norms and spectrum caps," he said. “There are some opportunities in the area of acquiring spectrum. That’s the only focus that we have currently."
Spectrum sharing
Mittal also said Bharti Airtel will approach the government to relax some spectrum sharing guidelines. Indian regulators recently allowed operators to trade airwaves.
“We want deeper sharing," he said. “We want network sharing, not just spectrum sharing."
Billionaire Mittal, 58, founded Bharti Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, which has interests ranging from telecommunications and retail to financial services and solar power. Bharti Airtel is the group’s flagship company.
Bharti Airtel’s shares have declined about 5% this year, compared with a drop of almost 7% in the S&P BSE Sensex index. The company’s profit of ₹ 1,520 crore in the three months ended September beat analysts’ estimates, helped by rising data traffic and a one-time gain on the sale of African tower assets.
Solar power
Through Bharti Enterprises, Mittal is part of a venture with SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son and Foxconn Technology Group’s Terry Gou to invest about $20 billion in solar power in India. The initiative aims to add 20 gigawatts of solar generating capacity.
Solar tariffs fell to a record low of ₹ 4.63 a kilowatt-hour for India in recent weeks, prompting concern that some projects won’t get built at such aggressive pricing.
Projects at ₹ 5 a kilowatt-hour were “making reasonable sense" because solar panel and infrastructure costs have declined, Mittal said.
“There will be a business case," he said. “Opportunities to develop businesses around climate change are massive. This could be trillions of dollars of new opportunities that the world today desperately needs to revive global trade." Bloomberg |
Airtel sent us a statement explaining the rationale for its net neutrality violation, wherein it started differential rates for Internet Telephony (VoIP), as opposed to other Internet services. As we explained earlier, a COAI paper mentions what the industry association refers to as ‘OTT’, which it believes eats into telecom operator revenues: VoIP, Instant Messaging (IM), Applications (Apps), Cloud Services, Internet Television, IPTV, M2M – Machine to Machine (M2M) communications, Social Networking. So, all digital services are under threat of being carved out as separate packs.
Also read: Net Neutrality, a simple explanation.
Airtel believes that what it is doing is right, so we decided to ‘fisk’ it’s statement, backed by data:
Airtel: “Over the last twenty years, we have invested over Rs. 140, 000 crores in rolling out telecommunications services in every nook and corner of the country. In addition, we have paid over Rs. 50, 000 crore in terms of government levies in just 5 years. “
MediaNama’s take:
1. On investment made in telecom: In just the last two and a half years, Airtel has earned Rs 141,545 crore in revenues, and Rs 16,211 crore in profit. Over 20 years, they’ve substantially more money, which is great return on their investment. They’ve invested for the return they’ve gotten.
2. On government fees: They were able to build their business because instead of a fixed license fee, the government reduced their initial costs by allowing them to pay a revenue share. When they earn more money, they pay more government levies. When they earn less money, they pay less levies. Nothing wrong with that: they’ve built a great business, and earned money for their shareholders, but it’s not that Airtel invested this money for philanthropy or for contributing to the government exchequer.
Airtel: “Going forward, we are committed to rolling out data networks across the country. In order to ensure this, our business must be viable and sustainable. Our voice services that are enjoyed by every one of our customers provides us the capacity to continuously invest in and upgrade our networks on an ongoing basis. We, therefore, believe that VoIP services in their current form are not tenable for us as a business. As a result, we will charge separately for VoIP services.”
MediaNama’s take:
1. Airtel or Infratel? Correct me if I’m wrong, but networks are going to be rolled out by Bharti Infratel, not Bharti Airtel. Bharti Airtel provides consumer services, while Bharti Infratel provides tower services to telecom operators, and will invest in networks. Bharti Airtel will not be directly investing in networks, so how is cost of networks a Bharti Airtel consideration?
2. VoIP is not Airtel’s business, access to the Internet is: Airtel is an access service provider, it has a Universal Access Services License. It’s business is to provide consumers with access to voice services over PSTN, and VAS, which includes content services over PSTN networks, SMS and the Internet. The Internet is an access service, for which consumers pay Airtel, and VoIP is a service that consumers use via the Internet. What is provided over the Internet should be none of Airtel’s concern, providing the Internet should be. What Airtel is doing is slicing up the Internet into types of services, and charging for those separately. Which means, and this is a privacy issue, it checks what you are doing online.
3. Data has contributed to growth in telecom revenues, not taken away from it. Last quarter, Airtel reported Rs 1,805 crore of Mobile data revenue, up 73.8% Y-o-Y in India.Data was 14.5% of Airtel’s revenues for the three month period ending September 2014, compared with 5.2% at the end of September 2012. Its data customer base has increased by 43.0% and higher usage per customer by 31.2%. Not counting accidental usage, Airtel has 40.1 mobile Internet connections active. Data consumption has increased to 40.1 billion MB from 15.87 billion MB in Q2-FY15. If you just look at 2G data rates, Airtel now charges Rs 249 per month for what it used to charge Rs 99 a couple of years ago.
So, when it comes to the Mobile Internet, users have increased, usage has increased, rates have increased and revenues have increased.
4. On eating into telecom services revenues: SMS and VAS revenue has declined, but data revenue has increased. Take Idea Cellular, for example, based on our calculations with Idea Cellular earnings data:
This is Idea Cellular, with 30.92 mobile Internet connections active by the end of September 2014 (Q2-FY15). Airtel has more data, more consumption, more revenues.
Airtel: However, in line with our philosophy of putting our customers above all else – we are committed to making VoIP services extremely affordable and attractive by ensuring adequate minutes for a very small charge on VoIP. As a result, in line with the recent announcement of our VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) pack, Airtel would like to clarify the following: · Our Customers can enjoy a superior VoIP calling experience on Airtel’s network by choosing from a range of new VoIP specific data packs that will soon be launched. For prepaid users, the VoIP exclusive pack will be priced at Rs. 75 for 75MB with a validity of 28 days. This will allow customers to make between 200 and 250 minutes of calling. Similarly, affordable VoIP plans will soon be launched for postpaid customers. There would be no other charges in respective of VoIP calls.
MediaNama’s take:
1. VoIP is becoming more expensive, not cheaper: We did the math, by taking the Rs 249 and 449 data pack rates from Airtel’s own site. VoIP calls are becoming 311% more expensive if you take the Rs 249 data pack, and 470% more expensive if you take the Rs 449 data pack (2.5 GB).
I just got an SMS from MTNL, offering 100 GB of data for Rs 5000 per year.
That is Rs 50 per GB, or Rs 0.049 per MB. Airtel VoIP is 1948% more expensive.
2. Shows how expensive regular calls are in comparison with Internet Telephony: Also note how Airtel tried to put a spin on it by comparing VoIP with actual phone calls, by changing the vocabulary from “MB’s” to minutes of usage. Imagine if you were being charged for watching YouTube on the basis of minutes of videos viewed or type of content watched. If there’s one thing this change in vocabulary indicates, it is that phone calls are actually priced exorbitantly high. Technology advancement makes calling cheaper, and Airtel is trying to make more money of it, by increasing the cost by 470%. Should we really allow the cost of outdated technology to determine the cost of newer, more efficient technology?
· The VoIP update is not applicable with immediate effect. This change will be implemented in a phased manner over the next few weeks. In all cases, our customers will proactively be informed about these VoIP charges in advance through the company’s standard communication channels like SMS, USSD pop-up, email etc. · Prepaid customers who have purchased data plans before 24th December 2014 are entitled to use all services opted-for till their packs are consumed or expire, following which, the new terms & conditions on VoIP usage will apply.
MediaNama’s Take
– Customers are not informed, consent is not taken: To this, all I have to say is that the last two times my data pack charges have been increased by Airtel, I have neither been informed, nor has my consent been taken in order to subscribe to a more expensive plan. In fact, I found out about the latest increase a couple of days ago, when I called up Airtel customer care to confirm this anti-net neutrality move. They say they sent me a message on November 7th, but I’ve never received it. Tomorrow, Airtel can increase rates by 10 times, and I would only find out via my post-paid bill. Really, the TRAI should ensure that telecom operators take customer consent before subscribing them to higher cost plans. I’ve now discontinued the data plans on Airtel altogether, and am looking to port out. |
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Virgin Media customers are to see their bills leap 4.7% this autumn in a price rise that will affect up to five million households.
The firm said the 'majority' of customers will see their bills jump in November - with increases of between £1.99 and £3.99 a month - although this will depend on the type of package you're signed up to.
Customers with Virgin broadband, phone and TV plans will see their bills rise by £3.49 to £3.99, broadband only and broadband and phone customers will see their bills go up by £1.99 to £2.99.
The announcement follows three price hikes last year - one of which included a 5.1% jump for 5.2 million customers across its plethora of services.
The new changes will take effect on 1 November 2017, although Virgin has warned that some customers could see changes to their bills as early as October 2017.
The telecoms giant told Mirror Money it's now in the process of writing to consumers to inform them of the changes.
A Virgin Media spokesperson said: "We do everything we can to balance keeping our prices competitive while investing to meet the ever-increasing appetite for broadband and content.
"Online usage increased by more than 35% in the last year and streaming now accounts for nearly 60% of the total traffic on Virgin Media’s network.
"We’re investing more in our ultrafast network to continue offering the UK’s fastest widely-available speeds.
"This all comes on top of must-see TV programming – from Virgin TV Exclusives to the only place where you can watch all of the live football action from both Sky and BT Sport in a single package."
In a statement, the network also announced the arrival of three new packages this autumn, including the 'Full House' plan that allows customers to bolt on Sky channels to their package. Prices start from £15 for Sky Cinema, £25 for Sky Sports and £35 for both.
3 ways YOU can beat the rise
(Image: Getty)
1. You have 30 days to quit penalty-free
Under Ofcom rules, if a provider hikes prices out-of-the-blue, you have the right to cancel the contract penalty-free within 30 days.
To do this you'll need confirmation of the price rise to hand - such as a letter or email - you'll also have to give them 30 days notice.
2. Or haggle for a better deal
Alternatively, use the opportunity to get a better deal.
Ewan Taylor Gibson, broadband expert at uSwitch.com, explains: “Those who want to try and find a cheaper deal with another provider now have 30 days to leave without penalty from receiving a notification of the increase from Virgin.
“But with price hikes now an annual event across all providers, it doesn’t leave many ways to turn. The best way to keep costs down is to ensure you switch whenever you get the chance, and take advantage of an introductory deal for new customers.”
Don't settle at the first offer through. Networks will always offer the lowest deal first - but keep at it until you've matched your benchmark price. If you decide to stay, don't forget to ask about any freebies you may be entitled to - like a new TV box or free broadband for a month.
3. Ditch the TV package
(Image: Moment Open)
If you rarely watch television, it might be time to reconsider your package to make sure you're not over-spending. Here are a few alternatives to consider:
The best alternative TV and broadband deals out there
(Image: Getty)
We've teamed up with MoneySupermarket to bring you the best three deals this week - have a scroll below to see what's on offer.
What's the deal? Unlimited TalkTalk TV, internet and weekend calls.
Package costs £32.45 a month for 12 months, set up and installation is free.
What's the deal? Unlimited broadband and access to Sky Entertainment channels. Free calls not included.
Package costs £24.99 a month for 12 months, set up and installation is free.
What's the deal? Unlimited TV, broadband and free evening/weekend calls. A free £75 Amazon voucher is also included.
This deal costs £32.50 month for 18 months, and includes a £7 set-up fee. |
Themed cafes are a “must-see” in Japan. The very first one I went to was a 80’s video game cafe in Shinjuku named 8bit Cafe.
How to get there (since it’s not easy at all)
The first challenger was finding this place- it’s really well hidden and I was wandering around for half an hour (smartphone with navigation in hand) trying to find the place. After a long walk in the rain I found it- it’s just next to the C5 exit from Shinjukusanchome Subway Station.
Here's a helpful movie with the area around the entrance to cafe:
Next challenge was finding the cafe when it’s open- because I haven’t thought about checking opening hours I was very surprised to find out that it’s opening at 7pm and is closed on Tuesdays. So check before going!
That's the only clue at the front door
What to do inside?
After figuring out where and when to go, the rest is pretty easy. Cafe is located (like most themed cafes I’ve been to) in a small flat. There’s only one room available, with four tables and a few seats by the counter and a lot of old games. And I mean really A LOT. They are everywhere- on the shelves, on the tables, on the counter and between chairs. Most of them are still functioning so guests can spend time playing Mario Cart or some Game Boy or Family Computer games- there’s a whole collection of them. All of them are available for use at any time. There’s a queue to Mario Cart though (can't say that I'm surprised with that).
It's all about games.
There are some grand rules in this place- not many of them, and they are all listed in English in “instruction manual” section of the menu. Here’s what it says:
There’s a cover charge of 500 yen
1 drink must be ordered every 1.5 hour
Photography is allowed but without flash or video
It’s encouraged to share a table (it’s a really small place)
Sleeping is forbidden.
Not bad right? After getting in and paying the cover fee me and my friend had to sit by the counter (no free tables available) so we’ve ordered our drinks. The menu itself is an interesting thing- each drink’s name is a reference to some game. There’s Dr. Mario (which looks really cool), Princess Peach Temptation, Puyo Pyuo, Battle Master Lv 99 and many others- each with ingredients listed next to the name.
Drink's menu
Jojo's Posing drink
The staff is really nice and friendly, so we had a pleasant chat while sitting next to the bar. It's really easy to feel comfortable in this place! After a while we were able to move to the actual table- with the game installed inside it, just next to the Mario Cart console. After playing a while we had to switch tables again- apparently this is a normal thing there- so that everyone can see everything. While at first it might seem strange, it actualy gave us opportunity to experience more of the things this place has to offer.
It's a small place, but it's full of things!
What I really enjoyed (besides playing old games, of course) was a sketchbook corner. There’s a lot of notebooks stuffed everywhere around the place, each of them full of sketches made by previous visitors. There were drawings, simple schemes, letters and short messages, all of them really interesting.
Just a few things from Sketchbook
After a while of digging, we managed to find the “present” Sketchbook- the one with empty sheets on which we could add something too.
Aren't we pretty? (Sketch by my friend)
Crucial information:
website
opening hours: 7pm-2am, Friday and Saturday 7pm-5am, closed on Tuesday.
cover charge: 500 yen, mandatory drink every 1.5 hour
drinks prices: 600-900 yen
soft drink prices: 500-600 yen
snacks prices: 500- 4000 yen (most for 500 or 1300 yen)
dessert prices: 500 yen
Classic |
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Rauch am Horizont, Blut in den Straßen. Der Künstler Yadegar Asisi hat die Schrecken der Völkerschlacht als 11 Meter breites und... Foto: Jan Woitas/dpa
Die Schlacht ist verloren, aber der Heerführer denkt nicht an Kapitulation. Er flieht. Als am 19. Oktober 1813 Preußen, Russen, Österreicher und Schweden das von Franzosen besetzte Leipzig stürmen, hat Napoleon die Stadtgrenze bereits hinter sich gelassen. Er „saß in sicherer Entfernung in der Lindenauer Mühle und hörte mit Zufriedenheit den Lärm der gewaltigen Sprengung, die er angeordnet hatte. Wenn er das Feld schon räumte, dann nicht still und leise, sondern mit einem großen Knall. Noch hundert Jahre später sollte man davon sprechen!“. So lässt die Schriftstellerin Sabine Ebert in ihrem Roman „1813 – Kriegsfeuer“ die Völkerschlacht enden – mit einer kolossalen Verpuffung.
Die Sprengung der Elsterbrücke wurde den mehr als 20 000 französischen Soldaten, die sich noch in der Stadt aufhielten, zum Verhängnis. Sie saßen in der Falle. Napoleon hatte die Brücke zerstören lassen, um die unmittelbare Verfolgung seiner geschlagenen Armee durch die alliierten Truppen zu verhindern. Aber in der Panik des überstürzten Rückzugs erfolgte die Sprengung viel zu früh. „Ein französischer General kam in dem Augenblick an die Brücke, als diese in die Luft flog“, heißt es in einer zeitgenössischen Schilderung. „Er fiel halb zerrissen mit dem Pferde und der einen Hälfte seines Körpers in die Tiefe hinab, während seine andere Körperhälfte in einen benachbarten Garten flog.“ Ein Desaster, das bei Napoleon keine Zufriedenheit ausgelöst haben dürfte.
Mit den historischen Details nimmt es Ebert nicht so genau. Ihr 930-Seiten-Roman lässt sich anstrengungsfrei lesen, weil alle Figuren so denken, sprechen und handeln, als seien sie in der Gegenwart zu Hause. Dem König von Preußen zuckt nervös das rechte Augenlid, und Napoleon herrscht einen Unterhändler an: „Mein Schwiegervater schickt mir also ein Verhandlungsangebot, hä?“
Die Völkerschlacht von Leipzig wurde bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg als Triumph eines erwachenden deutschen Nationalismus gefeiert und ist heute beinahe vergessen. Wer weiß schon noch, welche Völker genau dort aufeinandertrafen? Oder dass eine Armee der Alliierten vom schwedischen Kronprinzen Karl Johann angeführt wurde, einem Franzosen, der das Kriegshandwerk als Marschall bei Napoleon gelernt hatte? Aber als Narrativ besitzen die Napoleonischen Kriege noch immer Strahlkraft. Der historische Reißer „1813 – Kriegsfeuer“ rangiert seit Monaten auf der „Spiegel“–Bestsellerliste.
Die Völkerschlacht markiert eine Zeitenwende und einen Superlativ. Etwa hunderttausend Menschen starben in dem viertägigen, erbittert geführten Kampf. „Nie hat es in Deutschland mehr Tote in so kurzer Zeit gegeben, nicht in der Varusschlacht, nicht bei der Erstürmung Magdeburgs im Dreißigjährigen Krieg, nicht bei den Bombenangriffen auf Hamburg oder Dresden im Zweiten Weltkrieg“, schreibt Andreas Platthaus in seinem gerade erschienenen, umfassend recherchierten Buch „1813. Die Völkerschlacht und das Ende der alten Welt“. Leipzig war der Anfang vom Ende der französischen Herrschaft über Europa, eine Volksschlacht, die bereits Züge kommender, totaler Kriege trug.
Für Napoleon schien sich nach dem verlustreichen Rückzug aus Russland das Kriegsglück gewendet zu haben, doch er hatte noch einmal eine Streitmacht von fast 200 000 Mann zusammenziehen können. Ihnen standen rund 340 000 alliierte Soldaten gegenüber. Dem Kaiser der Franzosen, von Clausewitz „Kriegsgott“ genannt, eilte noch immer der Ruf voraus, in offener Schlacht unbesiegbar zu sein.
Seine Erfolge waren der besonderen Dynamik seiner militärischen Operationen geschuldet. Napoleon hatte mit der alten Regel gebrochen, den Nachschub im Tross mitzuführen, deshalb konnten die Gegner den Bewegungen seiner Truppen nur schwer folgen. Aber dieser Vorteil war dahin, die Alliierten kopierten die Taktik. Nun waren es russische Kosaken, die ihre Attacken mit der größtmöglichen Geschwindigkeit ausführten. |
The inmates at Litchfield are getting an early release — well, at least season 3 of “Orange is the New Black” is.
The third season of the dramedy, originally meant to hit Netflix at midnight on Friday, has been released a few hours earlier, debuting a little after 6 p.m. PST on Thursday. The streaming service confirmed the release on Twitter.
Attention inmates! Orange Is the New Black season 3 is out on early release. #OrangeCon — Netflix US (@netflix) June 12, 2015
Uzo Aduba, who won an Emmy for her role as Crazy Eyes/Suzanne on the show, was the first to break the news to fans on Twitter.
The surprise was announced in the midst of OrangeCon, the invitation-only fan event held in New York that includes cast members Aduba, Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Laverne Cox, Natasha Lyonne, Lea Delaria and more.
During a cast panel at the event, Aduba asked Netflix topper Reed Hastings, who was tuning in via video call, to let fans see get an early peek at season 3. Hastings smiled and then took her request to the next level, announcing the six-hour early debut.
Jenji Kohan is series creator and showrunner of “Orange Is the New Black,” based on the memoir of the same name by Piper Kerman. The show has already been renewed for season four, and starts shooting on Monday. |
His name is James Clyburn’s (D-S.C.), he’s a senior member of Speaker Pelosi’s leadership, and he’s trying to kill health care reform this year.
Clyburn, for no apparent reason, went on TV (twice) in the past few days and said we likely won’t be doing anything on health care reform this year – even though Obama has said otherwise, and it was a key promise in the campaign. You see, Clyburn says he still feels burned by the 1994 health reform fiasco, so he’d rather have us bite off a few small pieces of reform and then we can revisit the issue later. I guess “later” means the next time the Democrats hold the White House, House and Senate after winning a massive mandate. I’m sure we’ll have another Barack Obama type candidate some time in the next generation or two.
“If you take what we’ve done with [the State Children’s Health Insurance Program bill] and then you follow with [more spending] on community health centers, you would have gone a long way to building a foundation upon which to build a universal access healthcare program. “I would much rather see it done that way, incrementally, than to go out and just bite something you can’t chew. We’ve been down that road. I still remember 1994.”
Yeah, a few points. First, if Mr. Clyburn is so traumatized by events 15 years ago, he should resign his position in the House leadership and on any committees with jurisdiction over the matter. We don’t need dinosaurs in our leadership who are too afraid to address the nation’s problems because something bad happened to them nearly two decades ago.
As for Clyburn’s notion that expanding health care for children of the working poor, and increasing funding for “community health centers” – both very nice ideas that won’t do a thing for the majority of us – will somehow be a big step towards helping the rest of us, I have a modest proposal. Let Mr. Clyburn and his family go get health care at a community health center, then tell us how this proposal addresses the very real problem Americans face with their inadequate, overly expensive health care. For all intents and purposes, I have no prescription drug coverage (I have enough coverage to buy 5 months of my asthma medication a year, then nothing else for the next 7 months), even though I have the best self-employed plan that Blue Cross offers. Does Mr. Clyburn propose that I try to sell myself as a poor child, or do I hustle over to a community health center, to deal with the asthma drugs I can’t afford? And what happens if I, or any of you, come down with a catastrophic illness? Better not need any prescriptions drugs for that illness (and if your plan has a lifetime cap, you’d better not have that illness long, or you won’t have any coverage ever again).
We have a very real problem in this country, and incrementally helping poor children and community health centers, while nice, does nothing to help the majority of Americans who people like Clyburn were elected to serve and protect. At some point, Democrats need to get over their fixation with turning everything into a class issue. The poor need help, and should be helped. But the rest of us, rich and poor and everyone in between, are just as screwed if we get really sick and our insurance doesn’t cover our illness. We expect our government to help all of us, not just the rich (Republicans) and not just the poor (Democrats).
If Clyburn isn’t man enough to help President Obama take this issue on, then he shouldn’t be in our leadership. Speaker Pelosi should choose someone instead who isn’t psychologically damaged by events nearly two decades ago. |
MENDHAM — The high school teacher accused of having sex with one of her students and inappropriate relationships with two others is seeking admission into a program that would spare her criminal charges, the Daily Record reported Monday.
Nicole McDonough, 32, an English teacher who has been suspended without pay from West Morris Mendham High School, applied Monday for Morris County's Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) program, under which McDonough would have to meet a number of conditions during a probationary period. Upon successful completion of the program, charges against the Mt. Olive resident would be dismissed and she would not have a criminal record.
But Denise Arsenault, Deputy Chief of Investigations for the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, said due to the charges against her, McDonough would be "presumptively ineligible" for the program, which is reserved for first-time, non-violent offenders.
A Superior Court judge would decide on McDonough's application after hearing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Authorities have said McDonough had sexual relations with a student sometime between May 1 and June 20 of last year. She also allegedly had "improper" communications and fraternization with two other students, with one between March and June 2013 and with the other between April and June 2014.
Because all the students involved were 18 at the time, McDonough does not face any sex charges. She has, however, been indicted on second-degree official misconduct charges.
Her attorney, Timothy Smith, has described the case as "overreaching" and "legally flawed."
Paul Milo may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook. |
Let’s be honest: Becoming a vegan is not a trivial issue that you can handle on the fly. It’s a decision that could take quite a time before you make it. And even after taking this decision, you must be aware that there are still other challenges to come. I was excited to read how Matt Frazier made his vegan lifestyle work despite some opposition not denying that becoming vegan is a big deal which however is more rewarding than you might have thought when you had started your vegan journey.
“Even after I became vegetarian, I turned this question over and over in my mind. I knew that I wanted to quit eating animal products but just couldn’t imagine making it work. I had even tried a vegan diet for a month, only to learn in the process that I wasn’t ready.
The commitment to officially say “I’m vegan” was a decision I deliberated about for a long time. In the end, it took two full years before I completely cut out eggs, milk, butter, and cheese. But when the time was finally right, there was no question about it.
Two and a half years later, now that this once extreme lifestyle now feels familiar, I have just enough perspective to wish I could go back and give my pre-vegan self (or someone else in my shoes) a few pointers.
So whenever they give us the promised time machines and jetpacks and I get the chance to go back and talk to that guy, here’s how I’ll help him prepare:
1. The jokes will never stop.
So get used to them, and understand that they don’t necessarily indicate a lack of respect.
My dad’s favorite line, when he tries some of our food: “This would be great with some meatballs!” It’s a joke, of course, and the fact that he says it so often has itself become a joke.
But just about every family or friendly gathering yields a joke from someone who must think they’re the first to make it. “Want me to throw a steak on the grill for you? Oh, that’s right … hahaha!”
An uncle once presented me with a single piece of iceberg lettuce on a plate and announced, for everyone to hear, “Hey Matt, look. Dinner!” I actually smiled at that one.
Get used to the jokes. Laugh them off, or take the opportunity to explain how important your diet choices are to you. Up to you.
2. Giving up the cheese isn’t nearly as hard as it seems.
I’m not saying that losing the cheese is easy. Life without cheese takes some adjustment, especially if you rely on it as an essential part of the few vegetarian dishes you can order in “normal” restaurants.
I thought I’d miss cheese as an appetizer, with a glass of wine or a beer. But it didn’t take long to discover that when I replaced the cheese with nuts or crackers, these foods were just as satisfying for their saltiness between sips, and I felt a lot better ten minutes later.
I thought I’d miss cheese on pizza. I quickly found that cheeseless pizza wasn’t nearly as good as the real thing, but it did the job, and over time, I came to tolerate (and even like) Daiya. Now, vegan pizza is just pizza in my mind, and I haven’t lost a thing.
As it turned out the key to giving up that last bit of cheese — which I clung to for months — was simply deciding to do so.
3. Being vegan doesn’t have to be more expensive, but it will be.
If you do the math, there’s no reason eating vegetarian or vegan should be more expensive than eating meat.
At three, five, or eight dollars a pound, meat is one of the more expensive items you’ll buy in the grocery store. So if you just replace it, say, with beans that cost a dollar per pound, you’ll bank some serious coin.
And yet, I now spend one and a half times or twice as much as I used to on groceries. Why? Because being vegan has led me down the ultra-health-foodie road. I shop at farmers markets and co-ops and Whole Foods more than I ever did before I was vegan, and I pay extra for organic. Going vegan led me to learn more about food, to the point that I’m scared not to be hyper-selective and skeptical about what I buy.
I’m sure you’ve heard the adage by now: “Pay for it now, or pay for it later.” The money we spend on the healthiest food possible is an investment in our future health that will pay off down the road.” |
The presidential candidates from the Grand Old Party will face off yet again on Thursday, Jan. 28, at 9 p.m. and you can watch all of the action from the comfort of one of these New York City venues.
Some of these spots will be hosting viewing parties for the prime-time debate, so you can enjoy a round of politics with your round of drinks.
Get into the political spirit by sitting elbow to elbow with your fellow Americans at one of these watch parties.
Banter, Brooklyn No cover, huge screens, $20 pitchers, $6 snifters of Calvados. Who could ask for anything more? If you are looking to watch the Republican presidential debate in Williamsburg, simply get yourself to Banter. 132 Havemeyer St., Brooklyn, 718-599-5200, banterbrooklyn.com
12th Street Ale House, Manhattan Looking for a venue with no cover charge, discounted drinks, and prime seating to view the debate? 12th Street Ale House's motto is "have a drink on the corner," and that's just what you should do! The ale house is a friendly neighborhood hangout that has happy hour every day until 8 p.m. Most drinks (including high end liquor) will be under $4. 12th Street will have the sound on for the debate, so you won't miss a word. 12th Street Ale House, 192 Second Ave., (212) 253-2323, 12thstreetalehouse.com
The Metropolitan Republican Club, Manhattan If you're a red-blooded Republican, this club is the place for you. The organization will be having a watch party for Thursday's debate, accompanied by a guest lecture by Mark Langfan, chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel and senior fellow at the London Center. His speech is entitled "The Middle East's Black-Gold Triangle: The Real Battlefield." Tickets for the event are $10 for members, and $20 for nonmembers. To save your seat, email [email protected]. Doors open at 7. Metropolitan Republican Club, 122 E. 83rd St., (212) 288-8606, metclubnyc.org.
Raven's Head Public House, Queens Fill up on bar bites and drinks for the Republican debate at this spot in Astoria. Raven's Head will screen the debate with sound. Drink specials include $3 PBR, $4 UFO Pale Ale draft beer, $20 beer buckets, $5 Fireball shots and dinner specials along with their regular menu until midnight. Raven's Head Public House, 3804 Broadway, Astoria, (718) 777-7565, ravensheadpublichouse.com |
Nearly three-quarters of Americans, or 72 percent of those polled, say they are feeling hopeful about 2017, according to a new Morning Consult survey.
Sixty-one percent of respondents say they are feeling optimistic about the upcoming year, and 51 percent of people are feeling excited.
But half of the respondents say they are feeling anxious about the coming year, according to the poll.
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Twenty-three percent reported feeling sad and 19 percent reported feeling angry going into the new year.
Less than half of respondents say they are feeling peaceful or relaxed about the coming year, and a quarter reported feeling indifferent.
Eighty-one percent of Americans say they are concerned about the nation's political atmosphere, and 64 percent are worried about world affairs.
Still, 55 percent say they think 2017 will be a better year than 2016, with 59 percent saying they expect to do better financially in 2017.
The poll was conducted among 1,562 adults from Dec. 16 to 19. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.
A similar poll by the Associated Press–Times Square Alliance also showed that Americans were hopeful 2017 would be better than 2016. |
Researchers have analyzed variations in the DNA of hundreds of people living around the planet to see how selection affects the human genome. "The take-home message is that we continue to find a lot more genetic variation between humans than we appreciated previously," University of Washington’s Evan Eichler tells The Scientist. The findings were published in Science last week.
Structural differences called “copy number variants” (CNVs) are when large portions of DNA are duplicated or deleted. Sometimes this involves parts of the genome that contain multiple genes or important regulatory regions. Researchers think that these sorts of changes are under adaptive selection pressures; that is, they’re either surviving preferentially or they’re being eliminated. But these maintaining and eliminating forces within our genomes aren’t well understood.
Now, Eichler and a huge international team analyzed CNVs in the genomes of 236 individuals from 125 populations spanning six continents. They also compared these modern genomes to three ancient human genomes as well as two extinct lineages: Neanderthal and Denisova. This allowed the researchers to reconstruct the structure and content of the ancestral human genome before our species migrated out of Africa. Then, to identify ancestral sequences that may have been lost through deletion, they compared this to chimpanzee and orangutan genomes. The ancestral human genome, they discovered, contains 40.7 million base pairs that aren’t found in today’s human reference genome. (Base pairs are made up of those familiar letters, A, T, G, and C.) As Eichler tells Science News, that’s enough DNA to build a small chromosome.
People living in Africa today show more evidence of ancestral genome sequences. This is because non-Africans have experienced more population reductions called genetic bottlenecks, which resulted in lower levels of diversity. These same bottleneck events also resulted in fewer deletions compared to African populations.
Additionally, the team identified “admixed” genomes that resulted from interbreeding among archaic human ancestors: Populations in Oceania today (in purple, above) have retained large duplications that originated in the Denisovan lineage (in black). Their findings suggest that while DNA deletions reflect selection, duplications seem to highlight genetic subpopulations. |
CLOSE The creator of Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants," Stephen Hillenburg, says he has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. USA TODAY
Stephen Hillenburg directs Patrick and SpongeBob in a 'The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie' in November 2004. (Photo11: David Strick, Paramount Pictures)
The creator of Nickelodeon's long-running hit, SpongeBob SquarePants, says he has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.
Stephen Hillenburg told Variety that he will continue to work on the show for as long as he's able.
“I wanted people to hear directly from me that I have been diagnosed with ALS.,” Hillenburg said in a statement to the trade paper. “Anyone who knows me knows that I will continue to work on SpongeBob SquarePants and my other passions for as long as I am able. My family and I are grateful for the outpouring of love and support. We ask that our sincere request for privacy be honored during this time.”
Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.that control the muscles. It is a rare illness, with no known cure.
Screen grab of YouTube video 'SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water - Thank Gosh It's Monday.' (Photo11: YouTube/SpongeBobMovie)
The 55-year-old Hillenburg is a former marine biology teacher who created the SpongeBob series, featuring an animated sponge that lives in Bikini Bottom in a pineapple under the sea, in 1999. The endearing animation, featuring a cast of goofy characters, started as a Saturday morning cartoon, then became a primetime multibillion-dollar franchise popular with kids and adults, spawning animated and live-action movies and even a stage musical.
Hillenburg also directed 2004’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, and was the co-writer and executive producer on the 2015 sequel, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water. He stepped down as a showrunner from the series for a decade before returning in 2014 as an executive producer.
Last March, Nickelodeon renewed SpongeBob for a 10th and 11th season, which will keep the series on the air for well over 200 episodes.
Nickelodeon said in a statement to Variety that Hillenburg "is a brilliant creator who brings joy to millions of fans" and that the network's "thoughts and support" are with Hillenburg and his family.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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I first met James Lovelock in 1988 at a conference on his controversial Gaia Hypothesis that was sponsored by the American Geophysical Union. Gaia, to remind you, was the mythical Greek goddess who embodied Mother Earth. The Gaia Hypothesis is the idea that life, or Gaia, plays a critical role in maintaining Earth’s habitability, including its oxygen-rich atmosphere, the salinity of its oceans, and its relatively stable climate. In the late 1960s, Lovelock had postulated that particular control mechanisms require feedback loops to ensure stability. Indeed, Lovelock initially called his theory the “Earth feedback hypothesis,” but changed it to the more mythical title following a suggestion from the novelist William Golding, who happened to live in the same English town.
I was a young scientist then, and I had a different idea about Earth’s feedback mechanisms. Jim, like most good scientists, accepted my criticism without rancor, but we were clearly on different sides of the issue. The Gaia Hypothesis was having a powerful impact on the environmental movement by encouraging people to think of the Earth holistically, as a kind of super-organism that protects us and deserves our protection. I had to agree, though, with the scientists Ford Doolittle, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Jay Gould, that a planet or planetary ecosystem cannot evolve like an individual organism, and is unlikely to have developed in such a way as to stabilize the Earth system. As Jim’s famous hypothesis approaches its 50th anniversary, it has lasting value. But to understand Earth’s long-term climate stability, we need to look past Gaia.
Now, I said Earth’s climate is “relatively” stable. It’s important to begin with that qualifier because many geoscientists, including me, believe the oceans may have frozen completely over at least three times during Earth’s history. These so-called “Snowball Earth” events are thought to have occurred during the Late Proterozoic, around 600-800 million years ago, and also in the early Proterozoic, around 2.3 billion years ago. Life made it through these events, however, and there is good evidence that life has been continuously present on Earth’s surface since at least 3.5 billion years ago. Earth itself is more than 4.5 billion years old, having formed shortly after the formation of the sun.
Why should it be considered surprising that Earth has been inhabited for this long? What intrigued Lovelock, along with astronomer Carl Sagan, who co-wrote a paper about it back in 1972, was that the sun is thought to have increased significantly in luminosity over this time interval. To be precise, the sun was about 30 percent dimmer 4.5 billion years ago, and it has brightened more or less linearly since then. All other things being equal, this implies that Earth’s surface should have been completely frozen prior to about 2 billion years ago. But it wasn’t—the Snowball Earth glaciations were brief, and the two best-documented episodes occurred somewhat later. Although the geologic record of the early Earth is rather spotty, climate during the first half of Earth’s history appears to have been, if anything, even warmer than today.
Lovelock accepted my criticism without rancor, but we were clearly on different sides of the issue. Also in Earth Science The Secret History of the Supernova at the Bottom of the Sea By Julia Rosen In February 1987, Neil Gehrels, a young researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, boarded a military plane bound for the Australian Outback. Gehrels carried some peculiar cargo: a polyethylene space balloon and a set of radiation detectors he had...READ MORE
Keeping Earth habitable over long time periods requires that various feedback mechanisms must have been in operation. Specifically, one needs negative feedback to counter the climatic cooling induced by the faint young sun. Earth’s climate system includes numerous feedback processes, some negative and some positive. Two of the easiest climate feedbacks to understand are those involving water vapor and ice albedo. (The term “albedo” simply means reflectivity.) Water vapor is a greenhouse gas that helps to warm Earth’s surface. Its concentration in the atmosphere increases with surface temperature; hence, warmer surface temperatures lead to more water vapor, which in turn leads to warmer temperatures—a positive feedback loop. Conversely, colder surface temperatures should lead to less water vapor, and to even colder temperatures. So the water vapor feedback makes the faint young sun problem worse, not better. The same is true of ice albedo feedback: colder temperatures create more snow and ice, which reflect away more of the sun’s rays, and this leads to still colder temperatures.
Earth’s climate system must contain negative feedback loops, as well. If it didn’t, the system would be perpetually unstable. The most fundamental negative feedback loop is the link between surface temperature and the outgoing infrared radiation. As Earth’s surface heats up, it emits more infrared radiation. But emission of infrared energy cools the surface, and so this is a negative feedback. This feedback is so basic that it is often overlooked. But this is what keeps our climate stable on a day-to-day or year-to-year basis.
The infrared radiation-surface temperature feedback loop is not enough to stabilize Earth’s climate over long time scales, though, because the system is forced by long-term changes in solar luminosity, or brightness, amplified by the positive feedback loops. We need a negative feedback loop that stabilizes climate over long time scales.
Lovelock realized this back in the 1960s, and this spawned his Gaia Hypothesis. He knew that CO2, along with H2O, is a major greenhouse gas in Earth’s present-day atmosphere. He was also aware that atmospheric CO2 levels can vary with time as a consequence of imbalances in the global carbon cycle.
Lovelock focused on the organic carbon cycle, in which plants and algae use CO2 and H2O to create organic matter (CH2O) and oxygen (O2) by way of photosynthesis. This process is reversed through the process of respiration, which is carried out by both animals and plants, and by aerobic decay, which is carried out by bacteria. With this cycle in mind, Lovelock hypothesized that atmospheric CO2 levels were much higher on the early Earth, and this created additional greenhouse effect that helped to offset the faint young sun. Then, as the sun gradually brightened over time, plants and algae drew CO2 out of the atmosphere at just the right rate to counter the brightening sun. This, then, was Gaia. Earth’s biota regulated the atmospheric CO2 content over time, stabilizing the climate and ensuring their own continued existence.
As its influence spread, Lovelock’s hypothesis came under criticism. How would the biota know how fast to draw down CO 2 ? Wouldn’t this require intelligent insight into the problem? And, most tellingly, how could the process of natural selection operate on an ensemble of different organisms?
Some biologists characterized the Gaia Hypothesis as being teleological, or assigning human characteristics to inanimate objects. Lovelock attempted to counter the criticism with a parable about a fictitious planet he named “Daisyworld,” which maintained a stable surface temperature just because of the nature of the daisy growth curve, which optimizes at a certain temperature. (Lovelock owns an estate in the English countryside and has long been proud of his ability to cultivate daisies and other native plants on his farm.) He was at least partly correct: One can certainly stabilize a planet’s climate if it depends entirely on the albedo feedback provided by black or white daisies. Indeed, we use Daisyworld as a teaching tool in an introductory Earth science class that I teach at Penn State. This does not, however, necessarily imply that the biota stabilize Earth’s climate, which rests more strongly on the concentrations of various greenhouse gases than it does on surface albedo.
In fact, the carbon cycle, which controls atmospheric CO 2 concentrations over time, has several parts. Lovelock emphasized the organic carbon cycle but ignored the inorganic carbon cycle, or carbonate-silicate cycle. Most geoscientists believe that the inorganic carbon cycle is more important in controlling atmospheric CO 2 over long time scales because the organic carbon cycle controls, and is partly controlled by, atmospheric oxygen.
As its influence spread, the hypothesis came under criticism. How would the biota know how fast to draw down carbon dioxide?
Here’s how the inorganic carbon cycle works. It starts when atmospheric CO 2 dissolves in rainwater, creating carbonic acid, H 2 CO 3 . Carbonic acid is a weak acid—so weak that we consume it in carbonated beverages—but it is strong enough to dissolve silicate rocks on the continents in a process termed weathering. The byproducts of silicate weathering collect in streams and rivers and are carried down to the ocean, where they are used by certain algae to make calcium carbonate shells, a process termed carbonate precipitation. When the organisms die, they fall into the deep ocean. Most of the shells redissolve, but some of them get buried in sediments on the seafloor. The seafloor is continually moving because of plate tectonics, and at certain plate boundaries, the seafloor is subducted (carried down into the mantle), the carbonate sediments are heated up, and gaseous CO 2 is released in a process termed carbonate metamorphism. This CO 2 is then vented back into the atmosphere by volcanoes, like Mt. St. Helens or Mt. Pinatubo.
Like the climate control mechanism in the Gaia Hypothesis, the carbonate-silicate cycle contains a negative feedback loop. The process of silicate weathering is temperature-dependent: Warmer temperatures lead to more rapid weathering, and hence to faster removal of CO 2 from the atmosphere. This process is slow, so in the short term it won’t help us to deal with global warming, because humans are increasing atmospheric CO 2 faster than silicate weathering can remove it. But it can help enormously with climate stabilization on geologic time scales.
If surface temperatures in the distant past were low as a consequence of reduced solar luminosity, weathering should have been slower, and volcanic CO 2 should have accumulated in the atmosphere. Evidence that this process occurs is provided by the so-called cap carbonates that lie atop the glacial deposits in Late Proterozoic. These are thought to represent the CO 2 that built up in the atmosphere during the Snowball Earth episodes. High atmospheric CO 2 concentrations would have been further encouraged early in Earth’s history because the young Earth was hotter inside and should therefore have been more volcanically active. So there is every reason to believe that CO 2 levels could have risen high enough to offset the faint young sun and keep the early Earth from freezing, all without explicit help from the biota.
Ah, but I appear to have contradicted myself, haven’t I? Most carbonate precipitation today is performed by the biota, specifically, by calcareous algae that make their shells out of calcium carbonate. So, life is involved in the inorganic carbon cycle, as well as the organic carbon cycle. It turns out that this particular form of involvement doesn’t matter too much. Calcareous algae only evolved about 200 million years ago, and so before this time carbonate precipitation occurred by other mechanisms. The details are unimportant because the factor that controls the removal rate of CO 2 from the atmosphere is the weathering process itself. But the biota also play a role in this part of the cycle: Land plants pump up the CO 2 concentration in soils by root respiration, and release humic acids that further accelerate weathering, drawing down atmospheric CO 2 . We argue about how big this effect is, but the climate would almost certainly be warmer today if life was not present. So, the Gaia theory is at least partly correct. But this does not necessarily imply that Earth would be uninhabitable if life were not present. It merely says that an uninhabited Earth would be different, maybe a little warmer, but still habitable.
While Lovelock still believes in Gaia, he does not think she will save us from our follies.
This story has one more wrinkle, which I will mention briefly.1 Methane, CH 4 , may have been more abundant in the distant past prior to the rise of atmospheric O 2 around 2.4 billion years ago. Methane is a greenhouse gas, and it could have provided an additional 10-12 degrees (Celsius) of warming. You need about 30 degrees of warming to solve the faint young sun problem, so methane could have provided about one-third of the solution. Methane is also produced almost exclusively by the biota—specifically, by methanogenic bacteria, or methanogens, for short. There are feedback loops in this system, as well: Too much methane causes it to polymerize (form long chains) and create organic haze, like the haze that we see on Saturn’s moon, Titan—this cools the surface by creating an anti-greenhouse effect. That would kill off many of the methanogens, slowing methane production and reducing the amount of organic haze. So, this part of the climate control cycle is quite Gaian, even though it has not been emphasized by Lovelock or his followers.
In fact, it may well be that Gaia was more active prior to the rise of O 2 than she has been in more recent times. The reason is that methane was an extremely important greenhouse gas during the first half of the Earth’s history, whereas climate during the second half has been controlled mostly by CO 2 and H 2 O. I should note that methane is still an important greenhouse gas, accounting for 1-2 degrees (Celsius) of warming today, and that its concentration has also been increasing along with CO 2 as a consequence of human activities, especially natural gas leakage and agriculture. So, if humans are considered part of Gaia, then Gaia is presently destabilizing Earth’s climate. Lovelock comes to that same conclusion in his later books.
Several years after the conference where I met Lovelock, I attended another conference on the Gaia Hypothesis. This one was organized by Jim himself, and it was held at the University of Oxford in England. It was a three-day conference, and I gave my talk on the first day. I talked mostly about the carbonate-silicate cycle, giving the argument I have outlined above, that Gaia was unnecessary to explain Earth’s climate stability. But that was the last thing I said at the conference. The night following my talk, I was stricken with laryngitis, and I literally could not say a word for the next two days. I remember feeling frustrated at the time, but as the years have gone by, I’ve come to think that my inability to speak may have been a blessing in disguise.
For, in spite of our scientific differences, I’ve always admired Jim Lovelock. He was, and still is, a truly fresh thinker, and he presents his ideas eloquently, both in his talks and books. I have particularly liked his comparison of Earth to a giant redwood tree2: 99 percent of a redwood is dead, and only the thin, outside layer—the bark—is alive, and yet the tree itself is most certainly alive. Similarly, Earth is mostly inanimate rock, yet its thin layer at the surface—the biosphere—is alive, or at least filled with life. Might we not also think of the planet itself as being alive? It’s a thoughtful analogy and a good example of why the Gaia Hypothesis has attracted devoted followers, and why Jim has been a source of inspiration to environmentalism worldwide. While he still believes in Gaia, he does not think she will save us from our follies. If Gaia pushes us toward a better understanding of how we are tampering with Earth’s present climate, it will remain a very important hypothesis indeed.
James F. Kasting is a planetary scientist/geoscientist at Penn State University. His work focuses on the long-term evolution of Earth’s atmosphere and climate, and on the possibility of finding life on planets around other stars.
References
1. For more detail, see my book, How to Find a Habitable Planet Princeton University Press (2009).
2. Lovelock, J. Ages of Gaia Norton (1988). |
If you live in a small apartment or smaller designed house you might have a somewhat cramped kitchen. Many of us are all too used to such constricted conditions as an open oven door blocking the path through the kitchen, or a refrigerator door not being able to open all the way. These design flaws are commonplace and there are ways to make it work. Here are some tips on optimizing your smaller-than-ideal kitchen.
When cooking, review what appliances can get the job done. If using the oven clogs your kitchen’s walking area or overheats the room too easily try to avoid baking smaller items. Perhaps, a toaster oven could do the trick for smaller items. Most toaster ovens have bake and broil functions which work surprisingly well, if the food you intend to cook is on a smaller scale. Sautéing foods might leave you with more room to spin around to your countertop and do your cutting, preparing, etc.
Try buying large plastic containers to store pasta, cereal, and snacks that can be easily stowed away in cabinets so that boxes of each aforementioned product don’t pile up and clog what might otherwise be apt locations to place appliances or kitchen tools.
Stack the microwave on top of the refrigerator if possible, or even in a pantry. Microwaves typically don’t require a lot of space and don’t emit a lot of external heat like ovens, toasters, toaster ovens, or grill plates do. It’s safe to store it in the pantry or on top of the fridge.
If you are strapped for space on the counters and in cabinets because of the presence of pots, pans, and griddles then try hanging them from hooks on the ceilings or walls. Some people don’t have the necessary ceiling height to make this work, but for those who do it opens up much needed space and looks attractive as well.
Keep it clean! This is a virtue that goes for many rooms in the home, but especially the kitchen. Making sure that your dishes are clean and out of the sink (assuming you don’t have a dishwasher) is absolutely vital to an open and clean atmosphere in a small kitchen. Making sure you don’t leave random items out on the counter or in the path of the cooks (that’s you!). Keeping a clean space is key.
So if you have a small kitchen, don’t fret. You can make it work and cooking and entertaining can be done with ease if you follow these steps. Now, let’s talk about that countertop… |
PORTLAND, Ore. -- This promotional video by Amphibious Marine, the builders of the Vanguard Hovercraft, shows why these unique rides garner such a cult following.
William Lethlean grew up loving these vehicles, a passion passed on to him by his father.
"You have to understand that growing up in the 60s and 70s, hovercrafts were huge. This is when they first came out. It was the biggest thing ever, every little kid wanted one. My dad was just a big kid at heart," Lethlean said of why his dad loves hovercrafts so much.
His dad tried building his own over the years, with limited luck. He eventually decided to do it right, and bought an assembly kit for $18,000.
"He was so happy," Lethlean said of when his dad worked on the project. "Every time I talked to him about it he would smile and laugh about what a great time they were having doing it. He had a bunch of really good friends sitting out there having beers building this amazing thing he always wanted."
But just weeks from completion, his father's multiple sclerosis became overwhelming. He had to give up on the project. So Lethlean picked it up and got to work himself.
"I can't even tell you. I can't even tell you. It would mean the world, it would mean the world," Lethlean said of how badly he wants to take his father for one last ride.
The hovercraft was stolen on Monday. He filed a police report but no luck so far. Now he has a very clear message for the thief.
"Please bring it back. My dad would really love that, man. Please. That's all I can say," Lethlean said. "It means a lot to me. It's my dad's legacy."
The craft was last spotted headed west on Powell Boulevard. It was covered by a blue tarp and was being towed by a 1990s Chevy or Ford white truck. Call police if you have any information. |
Open any pantry in New England and chances are you’ll find at least one jar of Marshmallow Fluff. Not just any old marshmallow crème, but Fluff; the one manufactured by Durkee-Mower of Lynn, Massachusetts since 1920, and the preferred brand of the northeast. With its familiar red lid and classic blue label, it's long been a favorite guilty pleasure and a kitchen staple beloved throughout the region.
This gooey, spreadable, marshmallow-infused confection is used in countless recipes and found in a variety of baked goods—from whoopie pies and Rice Krispies Treats to chocolate fudge and beyond. And in the beyond lies perhaps the most treasured concoction of all: the Fluffernutter sandwich—a classic New England treat made with white bread, peanut butter, and, you guessed it, Fluff. No jelly required. Or wanted.
There are several claims to the origin of the sandwich. The first begins with Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere—or, not Paul exactly, but his great-great-great-grandchildren Emma and Amory Curtis of Melrose, Massachusetts. Both siblings were highly intelligent and forward-thinkers, and Amory was even accepted into MIT. But when the family couldn’t afford to send him, he founded a Boston-based company in the 1890s that specialized in soda fountain equipment.
He sold the business in 1901 and used the proceeds to buy the entire east side of Crystal Street in Melrose. Soon after he built a house and, in his basement, he created a marshmallow spread known as Snowflake Marshmallow Crème (later called SMAC), which actually predated Fluff. By the early 1910s, the Curtis Marshmallow Factory was established and Snowflake became the first commercially successful shelf-stable marshmallow crème.
Although other companies were manufacturing similar products, it was Emma who set the Curtis brand apart from the rest. She had a knack for marketing and thought up many different ways to popularize their marshmallow crème, including the creation of one-of-a-kind recipes, like sandwiches that featured nuts and marshmallow crème. She shared her culinary gems in a weekly newspaper column and radio show. By 1915, Snowflake was selling nationwide.
During World War I, when Americans were urged to sacrifice meat one day a week, Emma published a recipe for a peanut butter and marshmallow crème sandwich. She named her creation the "Liberty Sandwich," as a person could still obtain his or her daily nutrients while simultaneously supporting the wartime cause. Some have pointed to Emma’s 1918 published recipe as the earliest known example of a Fluffernutter, but the earliest recipe mental_floss can find comes from three years prior. In 1915, the confectioners trade journal Candy and Ice Cream published a list of lunch offerings that candy shops could advertise beyond hot soup. One of them was the "Mallonut Sandwich," which involved peanut butter and "marshmallow whip or mallo topping," spread on lightly toasted whole wheat bread.
Another origin story comes from Somerville, Massachusetts, home to entrepreneur Archibald Query. Query began making his own version of marshmallow crème and selling it door-to-door in 1917. Due to sugar shortages during World War I, his business began to fail. Query quickly sold the rights to his recipe to candy makers H. Allen Durkee and Fred Mower in 1920. The cost? A modest $500 for what would go on to become the Marshmallow Fluff empire.
Although the business partners promoted the sandwich treat early in the company’s history, the delicious snack wasn’t officially called the Fluffernutter until the 1960s, when Durkee-Mower hired a PR firm to help them market the sandwich, which resulted in a particularly catchy jingle explaining the recipe.
So who owns the bragging rights? While some anonymous candy shop owner was likely the first to actually put the two together, Emma Curtis created the early precursors and brought the concept to a national audience, and Durkee-Mower added the now-ubiquitous crème and catchy name. And the Fluffernutter has never lost its popularity.
In 2006, the Massachusetts state legislature spent a full week deliberating over whether or not the Fluffernutter should be named the official state sandwich. On one side, some argued that marshmallow crème and peanut butter added to the epidemic of childhood obesity. The history-bound fanatics that stood against them contended that the Fluffernutter was a proud culinary legacy. One state representative even proclaimed, "I’m going to fight to the death for Fluff." True dedication, but the bill has been stalled for more than a decade despite several revivals and subsequent petitions from loyal fans.
But Fluff lovers needn’t despair. There’s a National Fluffernutter Day (October 8) for hardcore fans, and the town of Somerville, Massachusetts still celebrates its Fluff pride with an annual What the Fluff? festival.
"Everyone feels like Fluff is part of their childhood," said self-proclaimed Fluff expert and the festival's executive director, Mimi Graney, in an interview with Boston Magazine. "Whether born in the 1940s or '50s, or '60s, or later—everyone feels nostalgic for Fluff. I think New Englanders in general have a particular fondness for it."
Today, the Fluffernutter sandwich is as much of a part of New England cuisine as baked beans or blueberry pie. While some people live and die by the traditional combination, the sandwich now comes in all shapes and sizes, with the addition of salty and savory toppings as a favorite twist. Wheat bread is as popular as white, and many like to grill their sandwiches for a touch of bistro flair. But don't ask a New Englander to swap out their favorite brand of marshmallow crème. That’s just asking too Fluffing much. |
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Were I to state that I am a Baptist because Baptists believe the Bible to be the word of God, and cordially subscribe to the doctrine of salvation by grace - justification by faith - regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and all kindred topics - some other person might say, "I belong to a different religious communion for the same reasons." It is necessary, therefore, that my reasons embrace the distinctive peculiarities of Baptists. In other words, I must show why Baptists different from other religious denominations.
Reason First
I am a Baptist then, because Baptists regard the Baptism of infants as unscriptural, and insist on the baptism of believers in Christ - and of believers alone. The commission given by the Savior to his apostles just before his ascension to heaven, furnishes no plea for infant baptism. Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 26:46-47. Surely this language of this commission is plain. Matthew informs us that teaching, or making disciples (for the verb matheteuo means make disciples) is to precede baptism - Mark established the priority of faith to baptism, and Luke connects repentance and remission of sins with the execution of the commission. No man can, in obedience to this commission, baptize an unbeliever or infant. The unbeliever is not a penitent disciple, and it is obviously impossible for the infant to repent and believe the gospel.
The household baptism recorded in the New Testament do not sustain the practice of infant baptism. It will not do to say that ordinarily there are infants in households. It must be. shown that it is universally the case. Then the household argument will avail Pedobaptists - not till then. But it can never be predicated of all households that there are infants in them. Many a Baptist minister, in the United States, has baptized more households than are referred to in the New Testament - and no infants in them.
Reason Second
I am a Baptist because Baptists consider the immersion in water, of a believer essential to baptism - so essential that there is no baptism without it. The design of baptism finishes an argument in favor of the position I am establishing. It represents the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans 6:3-5, Colossians 2:12, 1 Peter 3:21. It is clear from these passages that baptism has a commemorative reference to the burial and resurrection of Christ.
Now if these views of the design and emblematic import of baptism are correct, it follows inevitably that the immersion in water of a believer in Christ is essential to baptism - so essential that there is no baptism without it. If baptism represents the burial and resurrection of Christ, it must be immersion. Do the sprinkling and pouring of water bear any analogy to a burial and resurrection? Absolutely not. They would never suggest the idea of burial or resurrection. Immersion, however bears a striking resemblance to a burial and resurrection. We are "buried by baptism" - that is, by means of baptism. When the baptismal process is performed there is certainly a "burial." The two are inseparable; and where there this is no "burial," there is no baptism.
The places selected for the administration of baptism, and the circumstances attending its administration as referred to in the New Testament, afford an additional argument in proof of the position of Baptists. John baptized in Jordan. That the Jordan is an suitable stream for purposes of immersion is manifest from the testimony of one of the most distinguished of modern travelers and scholars - Dr. Edward Robinson, speaking of the Jordan, he says: "We estimated the breadth of the stream to be from eighty to one hundred feet. The guides supposed it to be ten or twelve feet deep. I bathed in the river without going out into the deep channel."
Reason Third
I am a Baptist because Baptists adopt the form of church government adopted in the New Testament - that is to say, the congregational form of government. Does the New Testament then inculcate the foundation-principle Congregationalism; namely that the govemmental power of a church is with the people, the members? Let us see:
In Acts 6, there is reference to the circumstances which originated the deacon's office, and also the manner in which the first deacons were appointed. It will be seen that the apostles referred the matter of grievance to the multitude of the disciples. The democracy of the whole arrangement is as clear as the sun in heaven.
In Acts 14:23, there is mention made of the ordination of elders in every church. The word in the original literally means "to stretch forth the hand," as is the custom in most Baptist churches when a vote is taken. The apostles did not thrust pastors into the church through a lordly superiority, but chose and placed them there by the voice of the assembly.
In view of all these facts, I argue that, according to the New Testament, the officers of a church are chosen by the church. No one church has the right to choose officers for another. No combination of churches has the right. Every church is as independent in its actions is if it were the only church in the world. Every church is an executive democracy, who business is to carry out the will of her Divine head.
Reason Fourth
I am a Baptist, because there is among Baptists alone, a scriptural observance of the Lord's Supper. The doctrine of Baptists has ever been, that the Lord's Supper is a Church ordinance, to be observed as a memorial of the death of Christ. The bread broken represents His body crucified - the wine poured forth represents his blood shed on Calvary. The language of the Institutor of the sacred feast, the same night in which he was betrayed, was: "This do in remembrance of me." Paul says to the Corinthians, "As oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." Here the intimation is, that the death of Christ will be commemorated till He comes the second time without sin unto salvation. We learn, also, that in the sacred Supper we do no show the birth, or burial, or resurrection, or ascension, or glorification of our Lord, but His death. If ever the tragedy of Calvary should engross the thoughts of the Christian, to the exclusion of every other topic, it is when he is at the Lord's table.
Baptists, with comparatively few exceptions, have ever considered Baptism a prerequisite to the Lord's Table. They have so regarded it, because they have recognized its indispensableness to church membership. They have reasoned in this way: The Lord's Supper is an ordinance, to be observed exclusively by the members of a visible Church of Christ. None can be members of a visible church of Christ without Baptism. Therefore, Baptism is a prerequisite to Communion at the Lord's Table. A refusal on the part of Baptists to commune with Pedobaptists, has grown out of the fact, that the latter have ever been considered by the former as unbaptized and consequently without a scriptural church membership.
========
[From the book by the same title, originally published in 1856, Baptist Publishing House, Nashville, TN. Edited for length. Reprinted for the J. H. Spencer Historical Society. Scanned by Jim Duvall.] |
Joshy.IGN Profile Joined May 2011 United States 513 Posts Last Edited: 2011-08-10 02:01:05 #1
IPL Team Arena General Discussion thread! The time has come for our first IGN Pro League Team Arena! This is a (follow closely) weekly winner's format team king of the hill showmatch series. For better clarification, check out our
Stream Link: http://www.ign.com/ipl
When: Wednesday, Aug 10 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) (we will also have a European re-broadcast as usual at Wednesday, Aug 10 4:30pm GMT (GMT+00:00) )
Prizes
The first team to defeat everyone on the opposing team's roster (5 wins, or a best of 9) will earn $500 for their team to split however they want. To make things even more interesting, we are including a $100 bounty for each victory that a team earns, for new challengers to try and claim. For example, if a team wins 3 weeks in a row, they will have earned themselves $1,500 total, and have $300 worth of bounty on them. If a new team defeats them, they will earn the $500 for winning the week, as well as claim the $300 bounty.
ReIGN is the first team to win the IPL Team Arena, and they have earned themselves $500 and a $100 bounty on their heads. Complexity Gaming is looking stronger than ever and are anxious for their chance to prove themselves this week. Here are their full rosters:
ReIGN
Spades
KiWiKaKi
Perfect
Future
SLush
Fayth
compLexity Gaming
drewbie
CatZ
Minigun
rsvp
Ryan
FireZerg
Ryze
Stalife
CrunCher
TriMaster
DongRaeGu (MVP partnership)
Genius (MVP partnership) SpadesKiWiKaKiPerfectFutureSLushFaythdrewbieCatZMinigunrsvpRyanFireZergRyzeStalifeCrunCherTriMasterDongRaeGu (MVP partnership)Genius (MVP partnership)
New teams will be invited each week to take on the previous week's winner.
First Match of the IPL Team Arena on Wednesday, Aug 10 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) (we will also have a European re-broadcast as usual at Wednesday, Aug 10 4:30pm GMT (GMT+00:00) ) IS:
RGN.Perfect vs. coL.CatZ! Theof the IPL Team Arena on(we will also have a European re-broadcast as usual at) IS:RGN.Perfect vs.coL.CatZ!
Poll: Who Will Win?!
ReIGN (89)
51%
compLexity Gaming (87)
49%
176 total votes (89)51%(87)49%176 total votes Your vote: Who Will Win?! (Vote): compLexity Gaming
(Vote): ReIGN
Results!
+ Show Spoiler [coL vs. ReIGN Results] + coL.CatZ < Metalopolis > RGN.Perfect
coL.TriMaster < Crevasse > RGN.Perfect
coL.Ryze < Xel'Naga Caverns > RGN.Perfect
coL.CrunCher < Terminus > RGN.Perfect
coL.CrunCher < Shakuras Plateau > RGN.Future
coL.CrunCher < Shattered Temple > RGN.SLush
coL.drewbie < Xel'Naga Fortress > RGN.SLush
ReIGN wins 5-2! Congratulations!
ReIGN is the first team to win the IPL Team Arena, and they have earned themselves $500 and a $100 bounty on their heads. Complexity Gaming is looking stronger than ever and are anxious for their chance to prove themselves this week. Here are their full rosters:New teams will be invited each week to take on the previous week's winner. Map List
Xel'Naga Caverns
Metalopolis
Shakuras Plateau
Crevasse
Tal Darim Altar
iCCup Testbug
Xel'Naga Fortress
Terminus
Shattered Temple
Bel’Shir Beach
The first map will be on a set rotation, and then it is loser's pick.
Casters
This week's games will be commentated by CatsPajamas and HDStarCraft!
We have already invited several teams and have more in mind, but if you would like your team to be considered for the IPL Team Arena as well, please send a letter of interest as well as a description of your team and a roster to [email protected]!
Facebook, Twitter, Stay up to date with the IPL 2 Main Event, IPL TV, and IPL Team Arena by checking our Broadcast Schedule YouTube , and [b]Justin.TV
We have already invited several teams and have more in mind, but if you would like your team to be considered for the IPL Team Arena as well, please send a letter of interest as well as a description of your team and a roster to [email protected]! IGN eSports Community Marketing Manager || http://www.ign.com/ipl
ROOTdrewbie Profile Blog Joined April 2010 Canada 1337 Posts #2 who will win? lets ask joshy www.root-gaming.com
Spades Profile Joined September 2010 United States 249 Posts #3 On August 09 2011 02:55 coL.drewbie wrote:
who will win? lets ask joshy
CatsPajamas Profile Joined October 2010 United States 337 Posts #4 On August 09 2011 03:04 Spades wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 09 2011 02:55 coL.drewbie wrote:
who will win? lets ask joshy
http://twitter.com/kevinknocke
ImmortalTofu Profile Blog Joined December 2010 United States 1124 Posts #5 loll, if CoL is allowed to use their MVP partners, Reign is screweeeedddd.... If they can't, then I'm predicting a Reign win, but IDK, CoL is a pretty strong team too! "Friendship ain't a business deal"
Dexington Profile Blog Joined January 2011 Canada 6519 Posts #6 DRG all kill if he plays. Otherwise, RGN should win I think. "Man you guys are missing out waving your stats dicks about instead of watching this pvp" - bbm
MIhata Profile Joined April 2011 Bulgaria 156 Posts #7 coL got this! "Very important caster" - MC about himself. | MC | Boxer | Grubby | Jangbi | MMA | Polt | InCa | Symbol |
kusu Profile Joined April 2010 Sweden 436 Posts Last Edited: 2011-08-08 18:27:59 #8 I voted reign, then i saw that dongraegu and genius is playing for coL...... tt
go reign! Expa bör man annars dör man! A game withouth me, is a game not worth winning!
Ownos Profile Joined July 2010 United States 2146 Posts #9 Reign's got this unless they try to snipe Kiwikaki with some PvP dice rolls lol. ...deeper and deeper into the bowels of El Diablo
SniXSniPe Profile Blog Joined March 2010 United States 1938 Posts #10 complexity seems like an overall stronger team to me (not including the Koreans)
IPA Profile Joined August 2010 United States 2998 Posts #11 On August 09 2011 04:07 SniXSniPe wrote:
complexity seems like an overall stronger team to me (not including the Koreans)
I would disagree profusely.
Looking forward to watching this. I would disagree profusely.Looking forward to watching this. Time held me green and dying though I sang in my chains like the sea.
jmbthirteen Profile Blog Joined February 2011 United States 10249 Posts #12 very interesting match up as its the two clans that the old ROOT teams became. www.superbeerbrothers.com
blahz0r Profile Joined December 2010 2536 Posts #13 On August 09 2011 03:27 kusu wrote:
I voted reign, then i saw that dongraegu and genius is playing for coL...... tt
go reign! I had similar thoughts regarding EG and PuMa last week.
Do they work a schedule so that NA, Europe and Korea players can all play? If not, I doubt we will see Koreans play in this tournament.
I had similar thoughts regarding EG and PuMa last week.Do they work a schedule so that NA, Europe and Korea players can all play? If not, I doubt we will see Koreans play in this tournament. Liquipedia
namedplayer Profile Joined June 2010 844 Posts #14 I don't think they(MVP) will play You know what I'm talking about
Joshy.IGN Profile Joined May 2011 United States 513 Posts #15 Both teams schedule their times together, so it's up to them to agree on a time that would work for Korean or European players that they might have. IGN eSports Community Marketing Manager || http://www.ign.com/ipl
Talin Profile Blog Joined September 2010 Montenegro 9071 Posts Last Edited: 2011-08-08 20:18:32 #16
Otherwise Reign should take it.
By the way, since there was some talk about Korean teams being involved on the stream last time, what happens if MVP gets invited as well, does DRG get to play on both teams? I doubt DRG will play. If he does, I can't see coL losing... ever.Otherwise Reign should take it.By the way, since there was some talk about Korean teams being involved on the stream last time, what happens if MVP gets invited as well, does DRG get to play on both teams?
mbr2321 Profile Blog Joined November 2010 United States 924 Posts #17 coL is pretty bad, but DRG = allkill. ~~Treating eSports as a social science since 2011~~ Credo: "The system is never wrong"-- Day9 Daily #400 Part 3
darlhet Profile Joined March 2011 Italy 548 Posts #18 i dont think they want to use their koreans players, first they wont probably be able to play , but also this is supposed to turn the light onto those players in the roaster that we dont see very often otherwise "i feel like im wasting your time" qxc to whitera after getting crushed 0-4
GreEny K Profile Joined February 2008 Germany 7312 Posts #19 I have a feeling that coL will take it because of their Korean players, if they do not play then I see RGN winning it. Why would you ever choose failure, when success is an option.
Mordiford Profile Joined April 2011 4174 Posts #20 On August 09 2011 05:21 mbr2321 wrote:
coL is pretty bad, but DRG = allkill.
On August 09 2011 05:30 GreEny K wrote:
I have a feeling that coL will take it because of their Korean players, if they do not play then I see RGN winning it.
I think people underestimate Complexity, the guys did earn their way into the EG Master's Cup playoffs at the end of the day, and made it 2nd place over some really good teams. I think they could take out Reign even without the help of their Korean partners, but with them, it's very unlikely that they'll lose. I think people underestimate Complexity, the guys did earn their way into the EG Master's Cup playoffs at the end of the day, and made it 2nd place over some really good teams. I think they could take out Reign even without the help of their Korean partners, but with them, it's very unlikely that they'll lose.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All |
Leading Astrobiologist, William Bains will be talking us through what we know and what we can theorise about alien life in our Milky Way.
On our Main Stage at 13.30, acclaimed Astrobiologist William Bains will be holding a talk that will be close to many of our hearts, alien life! William will be talking us through what we know and what we can theorise about alien life today.
William Bains is a leading authority in astrobiology with nearly 30 years’ experience in cutting edge life science research. William continues to be an active part of scientific research at MIT in Massachusetts, and has taught major components of two postgraduate degrees at the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick over the last two decades.
Main Stage, 13.30.
Please note that seating is limited (front row section seating will be reserved for Founder's Ticket holders), and standing space will be available in accordance with fire regulations. Make sure you are there ahead of time if you want to secure your place at the talks. |
London attacks: Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to play Wimbledon despite security concerns
Posted
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were among several tennis stars who have confirmed they will not change plans or preparations for Wimbledon next month after the terror attack in London, which left seven people dead and 48 injured.
A van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge on Sunday morning (AEST) and three attackers with knifes charged out and stabbed others nearby.
All three were shot dead by police in the Borough Market area near London Bridge within eight minutes of receiving the first emergency call.
Djokovic, a three-time winner at Wimbledon, says he is mindful of security concerns but he will not let the attacks change his mind about playing the tournament, which begins on July 3.
"I didn't get to that thought of 'Oh, should I go? Should I not go to London with myself, my family?'," said Djokovic, who is in Paris contesting the French Open.
"Because it can happen anywhere. If it happens in London, happens in Paris, Nice, it can really happen anywhere.
"If we live in fear that's not life... if it's a destiny for you to be somewhere in some place in a wrong time, it can happen to all of us, God forbid."
Djokovic says he will not alter his preparation for Wimbledon aside from ensuring the security of his family.
"Everything will progress the same in terms of my plans for Wimbledon and I will try to go there with my family," he said.
"I think it's always about being conscious of what time of the day or night you go out, where you go, but it's very unpredictable."
Rafael Nadal, who has won two Wimbledon titles, says security fears are common for professional sportspeople but he has no intention of skipping the third major of the season.
"With these kinds of things, you cannot feel 100 per cent safe," he said.
"It's tough to accept these kinds of things, but it's happening very often today and [it] is difficult to change that for the moment."
World number one Andy Murray's brother Jamie says he is confident Wimbledon organisers are across all security matters.
"I'm sure Wimbledon's on top of that stuff," he said.
"That seems to be the world that we have to live in these days, which is not much fun for anyone. But I guess you just have to trust in the authorities and the people that are in charge that they know what they're doing."
Reuters/AAP
Topics: tennis, disasters-and-accidents, emergency-incidents, terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, sport, england, united-kingdom, france |
The Barbary stag (Cervus elaphus barbarus) or Atlas deer is a subspecies of red deer that is native to North Africa.
Description [ edit ]
The Barbary stag is smaller than the typical red deer. Its body is dark brown with some white spots on its flanks and back. The antlers lack the bez (second) tine.
The Atlas deer is the only member of the deer family that is native to Africa. It thrives in dense, humid forested areas of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.[2] It had initially been hunted to extinction in the latter, but specimens from the Tunisian population were reintroduced in the 1990s.[2] One population can be found in Tazekka National Park in the Middle Atlas Mountains.[3]
Nomenclature [ edit ]
Recent genetic studies indicate that the North African red deer population is practically indistinguishable from the Sardinian and Corsican populations, generally referred to as the Corsican red deer. This strongly argues for an ancient introduction of red deer from North Africa to these Mediterranean islands by humans. Further analysis suggests that the Barbary stag, including the Corsican red deer, belongs to a separate species, and should be grouped under the name Cervus corsicanus.[2]
Predators [ edit ]
The Barbary stag has or has had predators like the Barbary lion, the Atlas bear, and the Barbary leopard, but they have either become extinct or are endangered. |
A one-time alleged hit man has lost yet another bid in his fight against the Ottawa police in what might be the final chapter in a long-running legal saga that’s seen men killed, jailed and on the run.
George Farley was twice-tried, once-convicted and once-acquitted of the killing of Earl Joe.
In May 1997, Joe, a Gloucester Hydro linesman, was gunned down at his Uplands Drive home days before he was to testify against a man accused of stabbing and beating him, Peter Chenier.
Detectives believed that Chenier hired Farley and André Boisclair to kill Joe before he could testify.
A jury convicted Chenier and Farley of first-degree murder in 2001, due in part to the testimony of Boisclair, who became a witness for the prosecution. Chenier and Farley were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
A second trial, ordered on appeal and held years later, was missing the testimony of two key Crown witnesses.
Boisclair refused to testify the second time around and was later sentenced to three years in prison for contempt of court. Another witness died in 2007.
The second trial judge called the issues facing the Crown’s case “simply overwhelming” and acquitted both Farley and Chenier.
Boisclair was stabbed to death in 2013 in an unrelated crime at a rooming house.
Upon acquittal and his release from jail, Farley sued the Ottawa police, alleging malicious prosecution, negligent investigation and breach of his Charter rights.
Earlier this year, Ontario Superior Court Justice Calum MacLeod ruled against Farley, citing no evidence of Farley’s claims, and ordered him to pay some of the force’s legal costs to the tune of $71,500.
Farley appealed that judgment, arguing that the judge “erred by weighing evidence and drawing inferences that were beyond his authority.”
Farley had claimed that police had “tunnel vision” in their investigation, though both he and Chenier had conceded in their preliminary hearings that there was enough evidence against them to go to trial.
For Farley’s lawsuit to be reinstated, he would have had to show that there weren’t reasonable and probable grounds to believe he committed the crime.
The Ontario Court of Appeal, in a decision released last week, said it ordered “a new trial after convictions had been entered at (the first) trial that was flawed by incorrect jury instructions and the admission of inadmissible hearsay evidence.”
The Crown, the appeal court said, “continued the prosecution only to fail due to evidentiary difficulties.”
In both cases, there were grounds to believe that Farley committed the crime based on the evidence in the police investigation. The appeal court dismissed Farley’s appeal and has now ordered he pay the force another $5,000 for their legal costs.
With files from Megan Gillis
[email protected]
twitter.com/shaaminiwhy |
Waters near Yanartaş
Yanartaş ( [janaɾˈtaʃ], Turkish for "flaming stone") is a geographical feature near the Olympos valley and national park in Antalya Province in southwestern Turkey. It is the site of dozens of small fires which burn constantly from vents in the rocks on the side of the mountain. Directly below the fires are the ruins of the temple of Hephaistos, the Greek god who was associated with fire through his role as the blacksmith to the gods. To see the fires and the ruins, visitors must first go to the entrance at the foot of the mountain. The site is at the top of a one kilometre climb. This is basically a rock stairway and is easily managed. Most people visit at night, when the fires are at their most spectacular.
In ancient times sailors could navigate by the flames, but today they are more often used to brew tea.
Ancient references [ edit ]
It has been suggested that the fires are the inspiration for the fire-breathing Chimera in Homer's Illiad.
The site was identified as the ancient Mount Chimaera by Sir Francis Beaufort in 1811, and described by T. A. B. Spratt in his Travels in Lycia, Milyas, and the Cibyratis, in company with the late Rev. E. T. Daniell. The discussion on the connection between the myth and the exact location of Chimera was started by Forbiger in 1844. The English archaeologist George E. Bean was of the opinion that the name was "allochthonous", meaning that it had originated somewhere else. He believed that the original location was further west, as cited by Strabo, at a location where similar fires burned.
The fires of Yanartaş at night.
Location [ edit ]
The location is 80 km southwest of Antalya, near the town of Çıralı. The area is located on a track popular with hikers and trekkers on the Lycian Way.
Fires [ edit ]
The fires are grouped over an area of 5000 m2 and are fueled by gas emissions which have been burning for at least 2500 years. These emissions seem to change seasonally: vents and flames are more vigorous in winter months. This is a common characteristic of such seeps, where gas flux is typically modulated by gas pressure build-up induced by groundwater recharge and changes in atmospheric pressure.[1][2]
Gas composition [ edit ]
The vents emit mainly methane (87%). The rest is made of hydrogen (7.5-11%), nitrogen (2-4.9 %), light alkanes (0.57%), carbon dioxide (0.01-0.07 %) and helium (80 ppmv). These proportions and the isotopic composition indicates a mix from 2 origins, in equal part:[1]
an organic thermogenic gas, related to type III kerogen occurring in Palaeozoic and Mesozoic organic-rich sedimentary rocks,
an abiogenic gas produced by low-temperature serpentinization in the Tekirova ophiolitic unit.
Source of gas [ edit ]
Abiotic methane ordinarily only forms at temperatures much higher than those that occur in the rocks at Yanartaş. However ruthenium, is present in the igneous rocks under the flames, and is believed to act as a catalyst, permitting the formation of methane at the lower temperatures (i.e., below 100 °C) that occur at Yanartaş.[2]
These vents represent the biggest emission of abiogenic methane discovered on land so far. The emissions do not have a volcanic origin, since methane is not related to mantle or magma degassing.[1]
Popular references [ edit ]
Yanartaş is also the title of a 1970 novel by the Turkish novelist Mehmet Seyda. It is not associated with this location.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
a b c Hosgormez, H.; Etiope, G.; Yalçin, M. N. (November 2008). "New evidence for a mixed inorganic and organic origin of the Olympic Chimaera fire (Turkey): a large onshore seepage of abiogenic gas". Geofluids. 8 (4): 263–273. doi:10.1111/j.1468-8123.2008.00226.x. a b Etiope, Giuseppe; Ionescu, Artur (18 Sep 2014). Manning, Craig; Person, Mark; Worden, Richard, eds. "Low-temperature catalytic CO 2 hydrogenation with geological quantities of ruthenium: a possible abiotic CH4 source in chromitite-rich serpentinized rocks". Geofluids (Journal). 15 (3): 438–452. doi:10.1111/gfl.12106. ISSN 1468-8123.
Books [ edit ]
A.M. Celal Sengör (2003). The Large Wavelength Deformations in the Lithosphere: Materials for a History of the Evolution of Thought from the Earliest Times to Plate Tectonics p. 310 Endnotes . Geological Society of America. ISBN 978-0-8137-1196-6.
George E. Bean (1978). Lycian Turkey. Ernest Benn, London. ISBN 978-0-510-03205-0.
Coordinates: |
Stopping drug smugglers on the ground is one thing. You can build a fence, send more Border Patrol agents and put up more cameras. But it's a whole other thing to stop Mexico's cartels from using tiny planes that are nearly impossible to catch.
That's why the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is spending $100 million on new sensors that can detect ultralight aircraft. The giant contract – awarded to New York defense company SRCTec earlier this month – comes as the cartels have been using more of the planes to elude Border Patrol agents. The cartels also seem to have become pretty good at it. The Air Force has chased them with jets, and the Border Patrol has pursued them with Black Hawk helicopters.
Closer to gliders than complete planes; ultralight planes are small, cheap and their engines are relatively quiet. They move slowly, but are flown low to blend in with the southwest border's rugged and hilly terrain, which the smugglers use to hide from radar. The last available data on ultralight incursions is from 2011, when the CBP detected 223 flights, double from two years prior. It stands to reason the real number is much higher, owing to the diminutive aircraft's sneakiness.
According to government's original solicitation for the ultralight detectors, the sensors are intended to counter "the high-priority threat presented by small, low-flying aircraft transiting across United States borders." They should be able to work in hills and mountains, while simultaneously tracking two dozen ultralights from as low as 33 feet above ground level out to a range of 20 kilometers. They need to be built tough to withstand extreme weather conditions, and they should be easily transported across rough terrain.
SRCTec would not comment to Danger Room about the contract. But the company has developed a sensor, called VantagePoint, that appears to fit what the CBP is looking for. According to SRCTec's product description, VantagePoint uses sensors and cameras to "detect and track people, vehicles, and low and slow aircraft, such as [unmanned aerial vehicles] and ultralights." SRCTec claims the sensor works in rough terrain, packs into a box takes only a few hours to set up. It can also communicate with operators remotely.
Which all sounds good. One problem: there's no telling how the Border Patrol plans to stop the planes once they detect them. The agency can't legally shoot down ultralight planes just for carrying weed and blow. The ultralights don't even have to land, either. Instead, the ultralights often fly low, and then drop their dope – in packages that can weigh up to 250 pounds – at a pre-planned location for an awaiting pick-up crew. Even if the government detects the aircraft, the pick-up crew on the ground is likely to be long gone by the time Border Patrol agents arrive. But if they can be tracked, then it gives agents a little more time to stop the shipment when it hits the ground.
The terrain may pose the biggest challenge, and has been a recurring problem for the Border Patrol, and not just with ultralight aircraft. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, spent $1 billion on a virtual fence of surveillance-radar towers – called SBInet – that ended up on the chopping block after the towers didn't work. Terrain interference messed with their sensors, and maintenance issues caused the towers to break down.
The ultralight sensor plan was originally underneath SBInet, and has apparently survived its collapse. It's now listed as a separate program apart from SBInet's successor, the slimmed-down and more mobile Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan, which uses truck-mounted radars instead of fixed towers. At the same time, the Arizona plan has run into similar problems.
Like the Arizona plan, the ultralight sensors are supposed to be easily transportable. According to the solicitation, the sensors should be able to operate under battery power for up to four days at a time when not plugged into the U.S. electrical grid. Also, the agency wants the sensors to send data remotely to the CBP's Air and Marine Operations Center in Riverside, California.
One reason the cartels use ultralight planes is because they're really cheap. Prices can range from as low as $3,000 for an ultralight, and the planes can be manufactured at home. For a bigger ultralight, it can set you back $30,000. Drug prices are hard to estimate, but using figures from the U.S. Department of Health, a 250-pound load of marijuana could be worth more than $400,000. A similar weight in cocaine, could be worth more than $16 million wholesale.
That means absent cocaine, the cartels could make more money on marijuana flights in one year – just using ultralight aircraft – than the government will spend on its efforts to stop them. And the cartels can always buy more planes. |
Incident Definitions
You can sort the table by Date, Location, Region, Type, Status and Level, by clicking on those headings.
Detailed definitions
Controlled Burn offs and Prescribed Burns
A Controlled Burn off is an intentionally ignited fire contained within a designated area. They are generally conducted during the cooler months to reduce fuel build-up and decrease the likelihood of serious hotter fires or reduction of stubble as part of farming practices. Controlled Burn Offs may be carried out by individuals with appropriate local council permits, Forestry SA, Department for Environment and Water (DEW), Natural Resource Management Boards and CFS.
There may be Controlled Burn Offs of which CFS is unaware. Please call the Bushfire Information Hotline on 1800 362 361 for more information. If at any time you see an unattended fire, please report it by dialling 000.
The SA Country Fire Service does not guarantee that this map is without flaw of any kind and disclaims all liability for any errors, loss or other consequence which may arise from relying on any information depicted. Roads and tracks visible on this map may contain unmarked hazards and their surface condition is variable. Exercise caution and drive to conditions on all roads. |
What Twitter Really Needs
Aziz Firat Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 29, 2016
🤔 I can’t be the only one missing this…
Dear @jack,
I love Twitter. It sits in my dock on my iPhone and it’s the first website I visit when I turn on my Mac. It’s where I read the news, see what my friends are doing and follow the latest about my favourite football club. Some days I get angry when I’m on Twitter, some days I get very happy but one thing is for sure; Twitter is how I start and end my day.
Twitter is not perfect. While you guys are coming up with some pretty neat features, you also have a hard time fixing others. But we all appreciate the hard work you put in to make the experience better.
I just have one big issue… |
Click to read the article in Turkish/Kurdish
Brazilian caricaturist Carlos Latuff has announced on his Twitter account that President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s lawyers filed a complaint to Twitter for access block.
Latuff shared the decision of access block issued by courts in Turkey upon Erdoğan’s demand.
Erdoğan'ın avukatları içinde 11 karikatürümün yer aldığı 80 içeriğin internetten kaldırılması için @Twitter'a yasal baskı yapıyor ki bu düpedüz bir sansür girişimidir.Türk demokrasisi bu mudur?Erdoğan Türklerin karikatürlerime erişmesini neden istemiyor? Erdoğan'ın korkusu nedir? pic.twitter.com/TYwHXrdqai — Carlos Latuff (@LatuffCartoons) 18 Aralık 2017
“Erdoğan’s lawyers are imposing legal pressure on Twitter for 80 themes in which 11 of my caricatures are included, which is a direct attempt of censorship. Is this what Turkish democracy? Why doesn’t Erdoğan want Turks to access my caricatures? What is Erdoğan afraid of?”, Latuff wrote.
About Carlos Latuff
Carlos Latuff (born 30 November 1968) is a Brazilian freelance political cartoonist. His works deal with an array of themes, including anti-Zionism, anti-globalization, anti-capitalism, and anti-U.S. military intervention. He is best known for his images depicting the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Arab Spring events.
In 2006, Latuff placed second for his cartoon comparing the West Bank barrier with the Nazi concentration camps, in the Iranian 'International Holocaust Cartoon Competition'.
Latuff is among the figures who harshly criticize Erdoğan. (EA/TK/LN)
This publication has been produced within the partnership with Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of media partner IPS Communication Foundation and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. |
Cartoons The Best Looney Tunes Cartoons Desertrat89 1.7k votes 238 voters 24.2k views 70 items We hope you love the products we recommend! Just so you know, Ranker may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.
This is a list of what I consider to be the very best of a collective of some of the funniest, most creative animation done, ever. In fact, in the world of 7 minutes, no one has or ever will be as good as the guys at Termite Terrace in the 40s, 50s and 60s. A list of the best Looney Tunesc cartoons is exactly as hard and subjective as it sounds, and so I open the list to the public. Add what you think is missing and vote on what you think are the best. I know it's hard. God, I know. So...much...funny.
1 90 VOTES Rabbit of Seville Video: YouTube Rabbit of Seville is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon, in a plotline reminiscent of Stage Door Cartoon, features Bugs Bunny being chased by Elmer Fudd into the stage door of the Hollywood Bowl, whereupon Bugs tricks Elmer into going onstage, and participating in a break-neck operatic production of their chase punctuated with gags and accompanied by musical arrangements by Carl Stalling, focusing on Rossini's overture to The Barber of Seville. Stalling's arrangement is remarkable in that the overture's basic structure is kept relatively intact; some repeated passages are removed ...more on Wikipedia 77 13 Is this the best? see more on Rabbit of Seville The 8 Greatest Bugs Bunny Music Gags Ever
2 80 VOTES Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century Video: YouTube Duck Dodgers in the 24½ᵗʰ Century is a Merrie Melodies cartoon created in 1952 and released on July 25, 1953, starring Daffy Duck as space hero Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin the Martian as his opponent. Marvin the Martian had been introduced as an unnamed villain in Haredevil Hare playing opposite Bugs Bunny, but this cartoon was the first of many appearances of Duck Dodgers. The cartoon is an extended parody of comic book character Buck Rogers, and especially on one collective title of his adventures in particular, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. In 1994, it was voted #4 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In 2004, it was ...more on Wikipedia 69 11 Is this the best? see more on Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century The 20 Most Sexually Aggressive Cartoon Characters
3 65 VOTES Duck Amuck Video: YouTube Duck Amuck is a surreal animated cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons. The short was released in early 1953 by The Vitaphone Corporation, the short subject division of Warner Bros. Pictures, as part of the Merrie Melodies series. It stars Daffy Duck, who is tormented by a seemingly sadistic, initially unseen animator, who constantly changes Daffy's locations, clothing, voice, physical appearance and even shape. Pandemonium reigns throughout the cartoon as Daffy attempts to steer the action back to some kind of normality, only for the animator to either ignore him or, more frequently, to over-literally interpret his increasingly frantic demands. In the end, ...more on Wikipedia 57 8 Is this the best? see more on Duck Amuck 16 Movie "In Jokes" You Probably Didn't Notice |
In ancient times, major decisions in commerce were always made with the advice of seers, oracles, and horoscopes. Possibly, because of the world economic situation in the past decade, this practice has gained even more popularity. It is a tendency that comes from wanting to make sure that business will be conducted successfully. The number of businessmen who are interested in getting business horoscopes grows daily.
Philosophical Basis of Horoscopes in Business
The application of astrology and horoscopes to business is based on the belief that planets are the source of clear and well-balanced instructions based on the laws of nature laws, which determine what people are, how they live and move. Fire, air, earth, water, animals, humans are all subject to and can be aided by the movement of the planets – movements which cannot be estranged from anything that has life in it.
Studying the influence of planets is the key to knowing what a person and his dealings on earth will be worth; and what he can do to prepare for life’s occurrences. It follows therefore that the best way to reap maximum profit out of a man’s material business is to make it conform to the astrological laws.
Applying Horoscopes to Business
Both Chinese and Hindu horoscopes devote much attention to business. Hindu business astrology for example, makes recommendations as to what business is best suited to an individual. It also indicates the good and bad times for implementing effective business decisions.
Business horoscopes address questions such as when it is auspicious to set up a business, what business a person should set up, when a businessman shall see profit, when the business should go global, how capital can be built, enjoyed and preserved. These horoscopes deal with the concern of disciplining every function of business to ensure that it becomes a successful enterprise by providing guidance on how the business can be run in cooperation with the laws of nature.
The business horoscope is basically derived from calculating business prospects from a person’s horoscope. The combinations arising out of an individual’s horoscope are the basis for deciding which businesses are appropriate to pursue. Predictions are made after studying the important houses governing success in business in relation to the person’s chart.
Lead Generation and the Chinese New Year
Singaporeans are strongly entrenched in traditions, and using horoscopes to guide them in their business undertakings is common. If you were part of the marketing industry, specifically Internet marketing, you would be glad to know that the road to lead generation for 2016 seems straight and paved, making it easier for you to dabble on your efforts to rake in more profits for your business.
The year 2016 is the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac. The monkey is said to be “smart, quick-witted, frank, optimistic, ambitious, and adventurous”. Hence, if you want to succeed in lead generation this year, you need to embody all of the previously mentioned attributes and more.
How can you apply those attributes in your business in order to generate leads?
Use Your Smarts to Analyze Data
You are probably already using analytics and data in your business. Nevertheless, for the Year of the Monkey, you’re going to have to use your smarts to analyze data in order for you to implement the best strategies in lead generation. You’ll never know when unexpected findings based on data could lead to profitable leads, so be like the monkey and use your brains in data analysis.
Be Adventurous, Cross the Mobile Chasm
Everyone’s going mobile now. It’s the most convenient and surefire way to reach people these days. If you’re bent on generating leads for your business, consider how your content works on mobile. This means reviewing your content, editing them to become shorter and more mobile-friendly.
Related: Top Tips to a Better Mobile Marketing Experience
Try boosting your events, promote better and get more customers!
Ambitiously Use Visual Storytelling Tools
If you want to generate leads, make use of virtual storytelling tools like Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube as a means to grab and keep the attention of prospective leads. Concentrate on creating more video, shorter texts, and better images to reach more potential leads. Use your quick wit to create humorous content that people would be interested in reading or watching. Don’t be afraid to venture into new territories.
Check out this post on marketing trends in Asia!
Optimism Will Help You Measure Metrics
Measuring metrics is something that’s still a source of confusion for most marketers, which is difficult considering it’s important in lead generation. However, don’t let it stop you from making use of marketing automation data flows, Google Analytics data, and SEO fluctuations to measure metrics. No matter how vague the truth about measurement is, keep a positive outlook and make do of what is available to measure the success of your lead generation efforts.
This Year of the Monkey could be promising for your lead generation efforts as long as you keep these simple tips in mind.
Try Multi Channel Marketing instead. An integration of different marketing avenues that reaches your prospects in any marketing platform. Learn how we effectively generate leads for Singapore! |
A stormy fight is brewing between Weather Channel founder John Coleman and Bill Nye the Science Guy — who bashed a new movie featuring Coleman that denies the existence of global warming.
“I have always been amazed that anyone would pay attention to Bill Nye, a pretend scientist in a bow tie,” Coleman said Friday, according to ClimateDepot.com.
The science smackdown started after Nye shunned the film “Climate Hustle,” which Coleman introduces, and warned viewers not to take it seriously.
“I think it will expose your point of view as very much in the minority and very much not in our national interest and the world’s interest,” Nye said of the movie, according to the climate change website.
But Coleman, who has been a meteorologist for 60 years, fired back that the flick is legit, saying Nye spouts junk science.
“As a man who has studied the science of meteorology for over 60 years and received the AMS (American Meteorological Society’s) ‘Meteorologist of the Year’ award, I am totally offended that Nye gets the press and media attention he does. And I am rooting for the ‘Climate Hustle’ film to become a huge hit — bigger than ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ by Al Gore,” Coleman said.
Coleman also slammed Nye for claiming earlier this month that climate change skeptics should face jail time.
“That is the most awful thing since Galileo was jailed for saying the Earth was not the center of the Universe,” Coleman said.
“In 20 or 30 years, when Nye is an old man, he will realize how wrong he was as the Earth continues to be a just a great place to live,” he said.
Coleman was the original weatherman on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
The movie hits theaters May 2 for one day only. |
About time the Boy Scouts were treated like the conservative Christian organization they really are:
The Supreme Court on Monday decided to let stand a ruling saying the Boy Scouts cannot lease city-owned parkland in San Diego because the group is a religious organization.
The high court refused to hear an appeal from San Diego-area Boy Scouts who have traditionally leased Balboa Park camp space.
U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. ruled in 2003 that San Diego acted improperly when it leased 18 acres of camp space to the Scouts because the group is a religious organization. The judge said the lease violated federal law that prohibits the government promotion of religion.
The Boy Scouts say they have no theology and only hold the position that children should “do duty to God” to become productive citizens. |
Despite years of sending the bill to an out-of-date address, San Francisco Treasurer-Tax Collector Jose Cisneros says in a new report that his office did everything by the book when it auctioned off the exclusive Presidio Terrace’s street and sidewalks for nonpayment of property taxes.
The homeowners who live in the gated enclave say they were denied due process when the street was auctioned out from under them two years ago — in large part because the city was sending the property tax bill to the address of a bookkeeper who had retired in the 1980s.
The homeowners contend that the city should have known it was the wrong address when the bills and auction notice were returned by certified mail as “undeliverable.”
Cisneros, however, said it was up to to the homeowners association to make sure the city had the right address.
“While it is regrettable that the address apparently had not been updated, the responsibility for doing so rests with the owner,” Cisneros said in a six-page letter to the Board of Supervisors. The board is set to consider revoking the auction sale later this month.
Cisneros also said state law makes it clear that property owners are responsible for paying their taxes, regardless of whether they receive a bill.
Tax collectors in San Mateo and Monterey counties told us Cisneros is right.
“We do what we can to reach our taxpayers,” said San Mateo County Treasurer-Tax Collector Sandie Arnott, president of the statewide tax collectors association. “That being said, it is the responsibility of the property owner to keep our office updated on address changes.”
Monterey County Treasurer-Tax Collector Mary Zeeb, president-elect of the same state association, told us that about half of the bills for delinquent properties auctioned off in her county are returned as undeliverable.
In San Francisco, Cisneros says, it’s worse. In 2015, the year the Presidio Terrace common areas were sold to a South Bay couple, 58 percent of auction notices came back as undeliverable.
Bottom line, according to Amanda Fried, spokeswoman for the treasurer-tax collector: While the Board of Supervisors has the authority to decide whether the homeowners were treated unjustly, state law makes it clear that a tax bill sent to an address that the homeowners association failed to update “is not a reason for the treasurer to undo the sale.” |
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Tip 167 Printable Monobook Previous Next created 2001 · complexity intermediate · author Charles E. Campbell, Jr. · version 7.1
To use Vim as a man-page viewer involves setting an environment variable and adding a line to your .vimrc file.
Add the following line to your vimrc:
let $PAGER=''
You need to do this to clear the PAGER environment variable inside of Vim. This is to handle the case where you start Vim normally and want to use Vim's "Man" function.
bash, ksh, and Bourne variants add to .bashrc, .kshrc, etc.:
export PAGER="/bin/sh -c \"unset PAGER;col -b -x | \ vim -R -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -c 'map q :q<CR>' \ -c 'map <SPACE> <C-D>' -c 'map b <C-U>' \ -c 'nmap K :Man <C-R>=expand(\\\"<cword>\\\")<CR><CR>' -\""
csh, tcsh, and C-shell variants add to .cshrc:
setenv PAGER /bin/sh\ -c\ \"unset\ PAGER\;col\ -b\ -x\ \|\ vim\ -c\ \'set\ ft=man\ nomod\ nolist\'\ -\"
fish add to .config/functions/config.fish
set -x PAGER "/bin/sh -c \"unset PAGER;col -b -x | \ vim -R -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -c 'map q :q<CR>' \ -c 'map <SPACE> <C-D>' -c 'map b <C-U>' \ -c 'nmap K :Man <C-R>=expand(\\\"<cword>\\\")<CR><CR>' -\""
The man pages will then be displayed with Vim called as "view" and will use the <man.vim> syntax highlighting. I myself use some additional highlighting which is enabled by putting the following file into <.vim/after/syntax/man.vim>. I usually use the astronaut colorscheme; those who use bright backgrounds may find the colors selected for manSubSectionStart and manSubSection something they'll want to change:
" DrChip's additional man.vim stuff syn match manSectionHeading "^\s\+[0-9]\+\.[0-9.]*\s\+[A-Z].*$" contains=manSectionNumber syn match manSectionNumber "^\s\+[0-9]\+\.[0-9]*" contained syn region manDQString start='[^a-zA-Z"]"[^", )]'lc=1 end='"' contains=manSQString syn region manSQString start="[ \t]'[^', )]"lc=1 end="'" syn region manSQString start="^'[^', )]"lc=1 end="'" syn region manBQString start="[^a-zA-Z`]`[^`, )]"lc=1 end="[`']" syn region manBQSQString start="``[^),']" end="''" syn match manBulletZone transparent "^\s\+o\s" contains=manBullet syn case match syn keyword manBullet contained o syn match manBullet contained "\[+*]" syn match manSubSectionStart "^\*" skipwhite nextgroup=manSubSection syn match manSubSection ".*$" contained hi link manSectionNumber Number hi link manDQString String hi link manSQString String hi link manBQString String hi link manBQSQString String hi link manBullet Special hi manSubSectionStart term=NONE cterm=NONE gui=NONE ctermfg=black ctermbg=black guifg=navyblue guibg=navyblue hi manSubSection term=underline cterm=underline gui=underline ctermfg=green guifg=green set ts=8
As part of the man filetype plugin delivered in Vim 6.0, the user command :Man is setup to view man pages in a similar fashion. (On Unix) I've sym-linked the man.vim filetype plugin from the distribution into the plugin directory. That was the :Man command is available whenever you need it.
runtime ftplugin/man.vim source $VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin/man.vim e? :]
I had to use PAGER variable instead of MANPAGER. Version of the man tool I use is 2.3.10. People who would like to try this may like to check tip VimTip121 too.
Some notes:
1. Some versions of sh don't support setting environment variables and exporting on the same line. In that case, you'd have to do:
> MANPAGER="col -b | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -" > export MANPAGER
2. Another comment mentioned that their man doesn't support the MANPAGER env var, so they had to use PAGER. You probably don't want to do that on a permanent basis, since PAGER is used for many other things besides man. Instead, you might create a small script in your $HOME/bin that sets it in a subshell, for example (vman.sh):
#!/bin/sh PAGER="col -b | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' - " export PAGER man $*
and then do 'vman ls' or whatever. Replace PAGER with MANPAGER if your man supports it and you want to use the script.
3. You might want to add ignorecase to the list of settings passed to Vim (view) to more closely match the searching of most man pagers (less and more).
Even simpler way
What I did was:
1) renamed my less to less.orig 2) edited the less.sh script :
if test $# = 0; then vim -c 'so $VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.vim' - elif test $* = "-is"; then less.orig $* else vim -c 'so $VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.vim' $* fi
3) symlinked $VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.sh to /usb/bin/less
So as you can see when the man is called, it just passes the parameters to less.orig.
On my Red Hat 7.2 system, view invokes vi (vim in vi compatibility mode), so extra Vim features such as syntax highlighting are not available. To use vim instead of vi for the pager, either manipulate the /bin/view link, or set substitute "vim -R" for "view".
Replace view with less.sh of Vim will maintain the same keystrokes as less. The following set the MANPAGER for sh, ksh and bash:
export MANPAGER="col -b | /usr/share/vim/vim61/macros/less.sh -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -"
There's now a while-you're-in-vim solution -- check out script#489 for <Manpageview.vim> for a new :Man command and support for the K normal-mode command.
Using MANPAGER doesn't work so well with script#489 instead, I now use a Korn shell function. Similar functions could be developed for other shells (bash, zsh), I'm sure:
# man: function man { /usr/bin/man $* | col -b | /usr/local/bin/view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' - }
I have done the following to make Vim work as my PAGER and it works really well. Like other people in this thread my man(1) doesn't use MANPAGER, it uses PAGER. I had trouble with vim's filetype autodetection picking up that it was indeed a manpage coming in over the pipe, so I've written a scripts.vim to match manpages by regex and set the filetype accordingly. Otherwise, I got no syntax highlighting. The shell I quote is tcsh-specific, but easily portable to another shell. Also, I assume you already have a ~/bin and that it is in your path and that you already have a ~/.vim. If not, you will need to do these things.
% ln -s /path/to/VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.sh ~/bin/vless % cat >> ~/.vim/scripts.vim if did_filetype() finish endif if getline(1) =~ '^\(.\+\)(\d\{1}).\+\1(\d\{1})$' set filetype=man endif ^D % cat >> .cshrc # config pager if (-X vless && -X col) then setenv PAGER 'col -b | vless' alias less vless alias more vless else if (-X less) then setenv PAGER less setenv LESS "-e" alias more less else if (-X more) then setenv PAGER more else echo "WARNING: No pager found, PAGER not set." endif ^D
Actually, here's a smarter way to do that scripts.vim (the original was taken from the Vim manual |new-filetypes-scripts|):
if did_filetype() " filetype already set.. elseif getline(1) =~ '^\(.\+\)(\d\{1}).\+\1(\d\{1})$' set filetype=man endif
The previous example works but wouldn't allow you to add anything else to your scripts.vim.
I've been using brandon's little script for a while but I modified it with the help of this little sh script:
#!/bin/bash # # timball MAN=/usr/bin/man { if [ $1 = "-k" ]; then $MAN -k $2 exit else if [ $TERM = "screen" ]; then screen $MAN -P "col -b | view -R --noplugin -u ~/lib/vim/vman.vim -" $1 exit else $MAN -P "col -b | view -R --noplugin -u ~/lib/vim/vman.vim -" $1 exit fi fi }
To avoid the problems with Vim in the PAGER or MANPAGER variable, use the following bash-function:
vman() { man $* | col -b | vim -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -; }
If you view a manpage within Vim now, the K-button will work right.
In bash, adding:
alias man='vman'
... after the vman function, in your .bashrc file, will let you use the man command again. Simply renaming the vman function to 'man' gave me a string of errors.
When using UTF-8 as your locale, bad things happen. So this is how to make it work:
function man { /usr/bin/man $* | col -bp | iconv -c | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' - }
, August 21, 2003 23:15
If MANPAGER does not work and PAGER should not be used for the aforementioned good reasons then the lucky ones with GNU man simply write (csh)
alias man '/usr/bin/man -P "col -bp | iconv -c | view -c '"'"'set ft=man nomod nolist'"'"' -" \!*' (this is tick-quotes-tick-quotes-tick in the middle) resp. (sh) alias man="/usr/bin/man -P \"col -bp | iconv -c | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -\"" and the ones without write (csh) alias man 'env PAGER="col -bp | iconv -c | view -c '"'"'set ft=man nomod nolist'"'"' -" man \!*' resp. (sh) alias man="env PAGER=\"col -bp | iconv -c | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -\" /usr/bin/man" and are done.
And with the SunOS 5 man(1) from SunOS 5 it is:
alias man 'env PAGER="( col -bp | view -c '"'"'set ft=man nomod nolist'"'"' - ) < " /usr/bin/man \!*'
(and analogously for sh) since this man(1) calls PAGER with the name of a temporary file...
If you are following Kerosin's advice above, make sure you use "/usr/bin/man" instead of just "man" so you won't get circular aliasing. That bug brought my machine to it's knees.
vman() { /usr/bin/man $* | col -b | vim -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -; } alias man='vman'
Nice. I added this little tidbit "-c 'nmap q :q<CR>'" so that I can quit with one keystroke like I did in the old days with less...
vman() { /usr/bin/man $* | col -b | vim -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -c 'nmap q :q<CR>' -; } alias man='vman'
There's probably more than one way to handle this, but instead of calling all sorts of bits'n'pieces I prefer this:
# call Vim, ensure that ftplugin/man.vim is loaded, call Man with default manpage=man if no args, make sure this is only window function vman () { vim -c "runtime ftplugin/man.vim" -c "Man ${1-man}" +"wincmd o" }
One may also use manpageview script#489 in a like manner:
function man { vim -c "Man $*" -c only }
For those who have g:manpageview_winopen="only", a preferred way to get command line man is to:
vim -c "Man $*" -c "silent! only".
Avoids a "Already only one window" message.
When using the shell function described above, you launch Vim even when there is no man pages for the words you typed. The following code will correct that:
vman() { if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then /usr/bin/man elif whatis $* ; then /usr/bin/man $* | col -b | vim -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' - fi } alias man='vman'
This does not work on Debian and Ubuntu Linux systems, but it is trivial to fix. Technically, PAGER and MANPAGER are not guaranteed to be passed to a shell, so you don't know that the pipe from 'col' to 'view' would work. On some systems PAGER is run under a shell, but on others PAGER is executed directly like any external command. The trick is to add a /bin/sh to make sure that the pipe gets interpreted. This works on almost any Linux flavor:
export PAGER="/bin/sh -c \"col -b | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist' -\""
Yet another variant. Together with manpageview script I'm using the following function for bash.
function man { /usr/bin/whatis "$@" >/dev/null if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then vim -c "Man $*" -c 'silent! only' -c 'nmap q :q<CR>' else man "$@" fi }
Note. I had to modify "whatis" script so that it sets non-zero exit status when it found nothing appropriate.
If you have a error like that ..
Reformatting man(1), please wait... col: invalid option -- c usage: col [-bfhpx] [-l nline] man: command exited with status 256: /usr/bin/zsoelim /tmp/zmanGiFFlw | /usr/bin/tbl | /usr/bin/nroff -mandoc -rLL=89n -rLT=89n -Tutf8 | col -b | view -c set ft=man nomod nolist titlestring=MANPAGE -
then the solution is ... this $PAGER definition makes the assumption that it's passed to sh -c (you use pipes and quotes). The man manpage doesn't say that $PAGER is passed to sh -c, it says it will use $PAGER as the program to display the manual page.
I suggest you use:
export PAGER="sh -c \"col -b | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist titlestring=MANPAGE' -\""
which explicitely calls sh -c to handle pipes and quotes in the expected way.
You may also use your own /usr/local/bin/pager with:
#!/bin/sh col -b | view -c 'set ft=man nomod nolist titlestring=MANPAGE' - and with PAGER=/usr/local/bin/pager.
I am reassigning to man for the man manpage to be clarified with respect to the way $PAGER is called.
copy from http://www.gatago.com/linux/debian/devel/10008053.html
On OS X 10.5, using Terminal.app, append this to your ~/.bash_profile to use vi (Vim) as your MANPAGER.
export MANPAGER='col -bx | vim -c ":set ft=man nonu nolist" -R -'
You might want to add
-c 'set nonumber'
in the export PAGER=... command in your .bashrc file. |
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Dash, a digital currency for payments, has been listed on QRYPTOS, a crypto only trading platform, and crypto-fiat exchange QUOINEX, two trading platforms launched by Japanese fintech company QUOINE.
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QUOINEX is one of the first Financial Services Authority licensed cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan, and is one of the most liquid Japanese digital asset exchanges ranked by daily trading volume. The listing means Dash will be available for trade against the Japanese Yen, Hong Kong Dollar, the Singapore Dollar, the Euro, the US Dollar, the Australian Dollar, the Indonesian Rupiah, the Indian Rupee, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum – to a growing user base predominantly located in Southeast Asia.
In addition, Dash will benefit from added market depth through integration into QUOINE’s new global liquidity platform, called LIQUID, which will allow traders across the world access to major cryptocurrency and fiat pairs using a state of the art matching engine, cross currency conversion engine, and low latency smart order routing to multiple exchanges. QUOINE will introduce a new token called QASH to power the LIQUID platform through an initial coin offering scheduled for November 6, which will fund the development and scaling of the LIQUID platform. QUOINE will soon extend QASH promotional giveaways to Dash users for new account signups to QUOINE’s various services.
CEO of Dash Core Group Ryan Taylor said:
“It’s exciting to work with a reputable and licensed trading operation in a geography where customers are rapidly realizing the benefits of Dash. Digital currency adoption is spreading rapidly in Southeast Asia, and Dash is an ideal option to provide the low cost and rapid transactions this region requires. The digital currency boom is being felt widely particularly in Japan and Southeast Asia, so it’s no surprise QRYPTOS and QUOINEX are seeing record signups.”
CEO of Quoine Mike Kayamori said:
“Asia is a fast growing market for digital currencies, as shown from the rapid adoption of digital payments in China, Japan, India, Indonesia and other parts of the world. Countries in Asia have some of the highest rates of unbanked populations in the world. This presents a massive growth market for awareness and adoption of digital currencies. For new cryptocurrency issuers such as Dash and digital exchanges such as QUOINEX and QRYPTOS, this provides us a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with regulators and other industry players to drive economic growth together in a new digital era in a way that is sustainable and inclusive.”
Dash, currently ranked 6th by total market capitalization at $2.3 billion USD, has experienced a record year in 2017, with growth in value and trading volume increasing by 38x and 17x respectively since January 1.
“We decided to support Dash on QRYPTOS and QUOINEX to meet a growing market demand for Dash in Asia. We are excited to onboard Dash, an innovative digital currency. We believe the lifeblood of any new digital economy is liquidity. Our QUOINE LIQUID platform will help provide market liquidity to facilitate the movement of Dash in underbanked and unbanked economies, so we expect to see a positive spillover effect in the increasing utility of Dash in these markets,” Kayamori said.
Taylor added:
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The discovery of the remains of Richard III is an archaeological find of the highest importance and the University of Leicester richly deserves its moment of glory. Much less deserving is the Richard III Society, who, predictably, are proclaiming the find as vindication of their long campaign to rehabilitate their hero. It is nothing of the sort.
For years the Society has protested that the idea of Richard as a hunchback with one shoulder higher than the other was pure propaganda by the Tudors. We now see that the Tudor propagandists (and indeed Sir Laurence Olivier) were entirely right: Richard had severe distortion of the spine and a shoulder markedly higher than the other. Tudors 1; Ricardians nil.
The Society has long claimed that the famous portrait of Richard III in the National Portrait Gallery is a piece of wicked Tudor propaganda designed to make him look evil. The reconstruction of Richard's face from his skull shows that the portrait is in fact a remarkably good likeness. Tudors 2; Ricardians nil.
The Society is always claiming that Richard was a popular, much-loved King. The bones cannot be expected to prove this one way or the other, but the evidence of a knife thrust into his corpse's backside does not appear to suggest that Richard's passing was mourned by those on the scene: it contrasts sharply, for example, with the reverence with which Charles I's body was treated after his execution. Not conclusive, I grant you, but judging strictly on the evidence of the bones: Tudors 3; Ricardians nil.
Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society said on seeing the face, "It doesn't look like the face of a tyrant. I'm sorry but it doesn't." Well, I'm sorry, but my first thought on seeing the face was that I have never seen such ruthlessness in a human face in my life. We'll call that one a draw.
Unsurprisingly, the Richard III Society is now keen to have a DNA test on the boys' bones discovered in the Tower in the seventeenth century and generally thought to be those of the Princes in the Tower, in order somehow to "prove" that Richard didn't kill them. Any such test would of course prove nothing of the sort, but evidence and reason never seems to trouble the Ricardians for long: their reasoning is always along the lines of, "It must have been", "He can't have done". So, let me put the counter-case in similar vein. The York family were, without exception, ambitious and ruthless. Their father rebelled against Henry VI, captured him and forced himself into the line of succession, excluding the actual heir to the throne; Richard's brother Edward overthrew Henry VI twice, humiliated him and had him murdered in the Tower; Richard moved against his own nephews and stole both the throne and the succession from them. To have had them murdered was not only the most obviously sensible course of action, but it was entirely in keeping with his own character and that of his family.
Still in one thing, the Richard III Society is entirely right: the history books will indeed have to be rewritten. We will have to treat those Tudor propagandists with renewed and much deeper respect.
Dr Sean Lang is Senior Lecturer in History at Anglia Ruskin University
From The Archive
Richard III
David Hipshon outlines the career of the most controversial king ever to have occupied the English throne. |
Updated 1:56 PM on Nov. 9 to include new comments.
After it was revealed that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office is investigating what oil giant ExxonMobil knew about climate change compared to what it told the public and investors, reaction poured in quickly. Politicians, legal and policy experts, industry analysts and environmentalists weighed in on the news and the InsideClimate News investigation that helped bring the topic to light.
The 18-page subpoena delivered by Schneiderman's staff to the oil company to hand over its climate-related documents and communications came just weeks after InsideClimate News published its investigation into Exxon's climate research as far back as the 1970s and how it eventually chose instead to sow doubt about that very science by funding denial groups. The Los Angeles Times published a separate investigation that came to the same conclusions.
Dozens of major news publications have reported on the Attorney General's actions—including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Fuel Fix, NPR, and Mashable—and the comments have piled up on social media.
Here's what people are saying about the recent developments:
Democratic presidential candidates Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley both shared their support for the probe on Twitter and urged other investigators to follow New York's lead.
Exxon knew the truth about climate change and lied to protect their profits. DOJ should follow NY's lead. #ExxonKnew https://t.co/WM5arXc646 — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 6, 2015
I applaud @AGSchneiderman for investigating #ExxonKnew. I urge other state Attorneys General to do the same. -O'M — Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) November 5, 2015
Legal experts weighed in on what the subpoena may find and what comes next:
"It is very significant," Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told Mashable. "I think the New York investigation is likely to yield a great deal of info that would be pertinent to whether the federal government" would pursue a RICO investigation, Gerrard said.
"We may be seeing the opening salvo of litigation akin to the tobacco lawsuits from the 1990s," said Kenneth Rumelt, a professor at Vermont Law School, to the Los Angeles Times. "The major difference this time is that the stakes are higher."
"What's shaping up is like the situation with the tobacco companies," Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the London School of Economics, said to New Scientist. "For many years, they knew the truth about the harm done by cigarettes. The question now is whether ExxonMobil was doing the same with its products."
"The issue with Exxon, just as it was with tobacco, is what did they know and when did they know it," James E. Tierney, who directs the national state attorneys general program at Columbia University, said to the New York Times. "If internal documents at Exxon show that they deliberately misled consumers and investors, then Exxon has potential liability ... If the documents do not exist, then Exxon has nothing to worry about."
Law professors said other energy companies will likely be drawn into the fray.
"Exxon Mobil is not alone," said Stephen Zamora, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, according to the New York Times. "This is not likely to be an isolated matter."
"My sense is this will spread, so much so to the point that companies that fail to disclose will be in trouble ... The prudent thing to do would be to disclose, to say this is a risk—it's hard to quantify—but it's a risk," said Peter Huang, a business law professor at the University of Colorado and expert in risk disclosure. Huang was interviewed by Fuel Fix.
"If [the attorneys general] are successful with one company, it could be like a domino effect and be successful with many others," said Leslie Garfield, a law professor at Pace University, to NPR.
Some industry experts expressed skepticism about the strength of the case against Exxon and whether the probe should even be happening.
"Unless they directly lied in Congress, the legal case against them is kind of thin," said Hal Harvey, chief of Energy Innovation, an energy consultancy, to the New York Times. But he added, the record shows that the companies "have walked away from being a credible spokesman on science."
"It is unfortunate that interest groups can fuel political expediency to cause investigations to occur where there should be none," Jacob Frenkel, a former SEC lawyer and partner at Shulman Rogers in Washington, said to Reuters.
Other analysts offered their take on the news.
"The context here is that climate activists have long accused Exxon—along with various other large energy companies—of seeking to influence the climate policy debate to their benefit. The claim that Exxon 'suppressed' research is part and parcel of this broader issue. Naturally, the company takes a different view of this issue," Pavel Molchanov, an oil industry analyst with Raymond James, said in a statement, according to the Washington Post.
Some writers and environmentalists have cited the influence of ICN's reporting:
"You can see the origin of this web of duplicity in stories done by the Pulitzer Prize-winning InsideClimate News and The Los Angeles Times. Kudos to both. They found that Exxon''s board of directors was fully briefed by its own scientists, decades ago, on the emerging consensus that burning oil and gas may cause sea levels to rise, glacial ice to melt and a host of other "generally negative consequences." Their reaction was to fund the kind of counter-information campaigns that Soviet-era propagandists would be proud of," wrote Timothy Egan in a New York Times opinion piece.
"'Exxon Knew' just joined the category of truly serious scandals. Just as New York's Teddy Roosevelt took on the Standard Oil Trust a century ago, New York's attorney general has shown great courage in holding to account arguably the richest and most powerful company on Earth. We hope that other state attorney generals and the federal Department of Justice, and the Securities Exchange Commission will show similar fortitude," said 350.org founder Bill McKibben. "I went to jail a few weeks ago because I was worried this great reporting from Inside Climate News and the LA Times might disappear. I'm not worried about that anymore." |
Image copyright AP Image caption The allegations against Donald Trump in the documents read like something from a bad film
Donald Trump has described as "fake news" allegations published in some media that his election team colluded with Russia - and that Russia held compromising material about his private life. The BBC's Paul Wood saw the allegations before the election, and reports on the fallout now they have come to light.
The significance of these allegations is that, if true, the president-elect of the United States would be vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians.
I understand the CIA believes it is credible that the Kremlin has such kompromat - or compromising material - on the next US commander in chief. At the same time a joint taskforce, which includes the CIA and the FBI, has been investigating allegations that the Russians may have sent money to Mr Trump's organisation or his election campaign.
Claims about a Russian blackmail tape were made in one of a series of reports written by a former British intelligence agent, understood to be Christopher Steele.
As a member of MI6, he had been posted to the UK's embassy in Moscow and now runs a consultancy giving advice on doing business in Russia. He spoke to a number of his old contacts in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, paying some of them for information.
They told him that Mr Trump had been filmed with a group of prostitutes in the presidential suite of Moscow's Ritz-Carlton hotel. I know this because the Washington political research company that commissioned his report showed it to me during the final week of the election campaign.
The BBC decided not to use it then, for the very good reason that without seeing the tape - if it exists - we could not know if the claims were true. The detail of the allegations were certainly lurid. The entire series of reports has now been posted by BuzzFeed.
Image copyright Twitter
Mr Trump's supporters say this is a politically motivated attack.
The president-elect himself, outraged, tweeted this morning: "Are we living in Nazi Germany?"
Later, at his much-awaited news conference, he was unrestrained.
"A thing like that should have never been written," he said, "and certainly should never have been released."
He said the memo was written by "sick people [who] put that crap together".
The opposition research firm that commissioned the report had worked first for an anti-Trump superpac - political action committee - during the Republican primaries.
Then during the general election, it was funded by an anonymous Democratic Party supporter. But these are not political hacks - their usual line of work is country analysis and commercial risk assessment, similar to the former MI6 agent's consultancy. He, apparently, gave his dossier to the FBI against the firm's advice.
How did Trump 'compromise' claims come to light?
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Trump was in Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant (pictured)
And the former MI6 agent is not the only source for the claim about Russian kompromat on the president-elect. Back in August, a retired spy told me he had been informed of its existence by "the head of an East European intelligence agency".
Later, I used an intermediary to pass some questions to active duty CIA officers dealing with the case file - they would not speak to me directly. I got a message back that there was "more than one tape", "audio and video", on "more than one date", in "more than one place" - in the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow and also in St Petersburg - and that the material was "of a sexual nature".
'Be very careful'
The claims of Russian kompromat on Mr Trump were "credible", the CIA believed. That is why - according to the New York Times and Washington Post - these claims ended up on President Barack Obama's desk last week, a briefing document also given to Congressional leaders and to Mr Trump himself.
Mr Trump did visit Moscow in November 2013, the date the main tape is supposed to have been made. There is TV footage of him at the Miss Universe contest. Any visitor to a grand hotel in Moscow would be wise to assume that their room comes equipped with hidden cameras and microphones as well as a mini-bar.
At his news conference, Mr Trump said he warned his staff when they travelled: "Be very careful, because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go you're going to probably have cameras." So the Russian security services have made obtaining kompromat an art form.
Anthony Zurcher: Theatre of the absurd
Image copyright AP Image caption Even President Vladimir Putin says there is "kompromat" on him - though perhaps he is joking
One Russian specialist told me that Vladimir Putin himself sometimes says there is kompromat on him - though perhaps he is joking. The specialist went on to tell me that FSB officers are prone to boasting about having tapes on public figures, and to be careful of any statements they might make.
A former CIA officer told me he had spoken by phone to a serving FSB officer who talked about the tapes. He concluded: "It's hokey as hell."
Mr Trump and his supporters are right to point out that these are unsubstantiated allegations.
But it is not just sex, it is money too. The former MI6 agent's report detailed alleged attempts by the Kremlin to offer Mr Trump lucrative "sweetheart deals" in Russia that would buy his loyalty.
Mr Trump turned these down, and indeed has done little real business in Russia. But a joint intelligence and law enforcement taskforce has been looking at allegations that the Kremlin paid money to his campaign through his associates.
Legal applications
On 15 October, the US secret intelligence court issued a warrant to investigate two Russian banks. This news was given to me by several sources and corroborated by someone I will identify only as a senior member of the US intelligence community. He would never volunteer anything - giving up classified information would be illegal - but he would confirm or deny what I had heard from other sources.
10 things we learnt from Trump press event
Trump press conference: Full transcript
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Trump says Moscow has "never tried to use leverage on me"
"I'm going to write a story that says…" I would say. "I don't have a problem with that," he would reply, if my information was accurate. He confirmed the sequence of events below.
Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was - allegedly - a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign.
It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States. The CIA cannot act domestically against American citizens so a joint counter-intelligence taskforce was created.
The taskforce included six agencies or departments of government. Dealing with the domestic, US, side of the inquiry, were the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Justice. For the foreign and intelligence aspects of the investigation, there were another three agencies: the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency, responsible for electronic spying.
Lawyers from the National Security Division in the Department of Justice then drew up an application. They took it to the secret US court that deals with intelligence, the Fisa court, named after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They wanted permission to intercept the electronic records from two Russian banks.
Their first application, in June, was rejected outright by the judge. They returned with a more narrowly drawn order in July and were rejected again. Finally, before a new judge, the order was granted, on 15 October, three weeks before election day.
Full coverage: Trump takes office
Image copyright AP Image caption Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, pictured, accused the FBI of holding back information
Neither Mr Trump nor his associates are named in the Fisa order, which would only cover foreign citizens or foreign entities - in this case the Russian banks. But ultimately, the investigation is looking for transfers of money from Russia to the United States, each one, if proved, a felony offence.
A lawyer- outside the Department of Justice but familiar with the case - told me that three of Mr Trump's associates were the subject of the inquiry. "But it's clear this is about Trump," he said.
I spoke to all three of those identified by this source. All of them emphatically denied any wrongdoing. "Hogwash," said one. "Bullshit," said another. Of the two Russian banks, one denied any wrongdoing, while the other did not respond to a request for comment.
The investigation was active going into the election. During that period, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid, wrote to the director of the FBI, accusing him of holding back "explosive information" about Mr Trump.
Mr Reid sent his letter after getting an intelligence briefing, along with other senior figures in Congress. Only eight people were present: the chairs and ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, and the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress, the "gang of eight" as they are sometimes called. Normally, senior staff attend "gang of eight" intelligence briefings, but not this time. The Congressional leaders were not even allowed to take notes.
'Puppet'
In the letter to the FBI director, James Comey, Mr Reid said: "In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and co-ordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government - a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Mr Trump praises at every opportunity.
"The public has a right to know this information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public. There is no danger to American interests from releasing it. And yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information."
The CIA, FBI, Justice and Treasury all refused to comment when I approached them after hearing about the Fisa warrant.
It is not clear what will happen to the inter-agency investigation under President Trump - or even if the taskforce is continuing its work now. The Russians have denied any attempt to influence the president-elect - with either money or a blackmail tape.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hillary Clinton referred to Mr Trump as Mr Putin's "puppet" during the debates
If a tape exists, the Russians would hardly give it up, though some hope to encourage a disloyal FSB officer who might want to make some serious money. Before the election, Larry Flynt, publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler, put up a million dollars for incriminating tape of Mr Trump. Penthouse has now followed with its own offer of a million dollars for the Ritz-Carlton tape (if it exists).
It is an extraordinary situation, 10 days before Mr Trump is sworn into office, but it was foreshadowed during the campaign.
During the final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump a "puppet" of Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin. "No puppet. No puppet," Mr Trump interjected, talking over Mrs Clinton. "You're the puppet. No, you're the puppet."
In a New York Times op-ed in August, the former director of the CIA, Michael Morell, wrote: "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr Putin had recruited Mr Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."
Agent; puppet - both terms imply some measure of influence or control by Moscow.
Michael Hayden, former head of both the CIA and the NSA, simply called Mr Trump a "polezni durak" - a useful fool.
The background to those statements was information held - at the time - within the intelligence community. Now all Americans have heard the claims. Little more than a week before his inauguration, they will have to decide if their president-elect really was being blackmailed by Moscow.
Clarification: 11 January - This article was amended to make clear that the opposition research firm which commissioned the report had first worked for an anti-Trump political action committee. |
Carol Crooks in Harlem earlier this month. J.B. Nicholas for The Village Voice
Soon after dusk fell on August 29, 1974, a group of around 200 female prisoners seized control of two buildings and a recreation yard at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison for women 45 miles north of New York City.
An 18-year-old named Cindy J. Reed, known as Sid, helped lead the women. They demanded proof that one of their own, Carol Crooks, was still alive after she had been seen dragged from her cell by an all-male prison SWAT team, thrown down a flight of concrete stairs, tied by her hands and feet to a pole, and carried away.
“The did me like a pig,” Crooks, now 69 and living in East Harlem, told the Voice. “Like a roasted pig on a stick.”
Reed, now 61 and living in Rochester, remembers, “At that point, it clicked in everyone’s mind we just gonna all have to die tonight because we just have to see what happened to her.”
Three years earlier, on September 13, 1971, prison guards and police shot to death 29 prisoners and 11 hostages, after the male prisoners at Attica Correctional Facility revolted over inhumane treatment and living conditions, took several guards and civilian prison employees captive, and issued demands for prison reform, until Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered the retaking of the prison by force.
During the retaking, authorities let loose an indiscrimate 4,500-round fusillade into the yard, shooting hostages and prisoners alike. After they regained control, guards and police tortured some survivors, and summarily executed others.
Attica is receiving renewed attention in light of the recent publication of Blood in the Water, by Heather Ann Thompson.
In contrast, the August Rebellion, as the 1974 Bedford Hills uprising has been called, has received little attention beyond sparse reports that appeared in local newspapers shortly after the incident, and in underground feminist literature. Yet the women’s revolt eventually led to prison reforms that still protect female prisoners from arbitrary and excessive segregation in solitary confinement.
Carol Crooks in DYKE. File
The story of the August Rebellion begins and ends with Crooks, who was born October 12, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York. Her father died when she was seven or eight. According to court records, Crooks “was forced to fend for herself and a younger sister,” named Shirley.
In a 1974 interview with the Patent Trader, a local newspaper in Westchester County, Crooks detailed a Dickensian childhood. At age 11, she was playing cards and shooting dice with men and stealing food to help support her mother and sister. “When I started getting in trouble,” Crooks then said, “was when people started bothering my sister.”
In 1972 Crooks was running a heroin distribution ring in Downtown Brooklyn when, she claims, a former associate tried to blackmail her. Police found the man shot to death.
Crooks was arrested for the killing, pled guilty to first degree manslaughter, and was sentenced to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for 0 to 15 years.
On Sunday morning, February 3, 1974, Crooks woke up, walked past a guard, and walked down a flight of stairs to the mess hall for a glass of milk. The guard ordered her to stop, but she ignored her. According to the female corrections officers who later testified against her, Crooks returned to her cell, took off her glasses, and attacked four guards, knocking two of them out with her fists, and striking two others with a flower pot and two table legs.
Sergeant Elizabeth Roggy tried to get to the scene to help, but was blocked by other prisoners. She said that when she finally made it through, Crooks was calmly strolling to her cell.
“I came forward, and I said to Crooks, ‘What on earth is the matter? What are you doing?’ Carol looked at me, and she said to me, ‘This woman isn’t going to fuck with me,’” Roggy testified, referring to CO Helen LaPay – who had first ordered Crooks to stop and was now bleeding from her face.
When the Voice asked Crooks about the brawl she replied, “I never attacked them. Only defend myself when they came to me. They training wasn’t all that sufficient.”
Male COs were, at the time, generally not permitted in the prison, but administrators were empowered with the discretion to allow it in extraordinary circumstances. Officials at Bedford Hills determined Crooks was an extraordinary circumstance.
A half-hour or so after the fight, Crooks said, she was sitting in her cell when several male COs came for her. They used a mattress as a shield, pushed their way into her cell, wrapped a white sheet around her neck, tackled her to the floor and used a leather harness to restrain her arms behind her back.
Then the guards dragged her across the snow-covered grounds to the solitary confinement cell-block, where they stripped her, and put her in a dank cell, with only a toilet, and a broken window. “It was very cold. I didn’t have a blanket. I didn’t have a mattress,” Crooks said.
For what happened that day, Crooks was convicted of three counts of felony assault, sentenced to an additional 2 to 4 years in prison, and condemned to solitary confinement until the expiration of her now 19-year prison sentence. In solitary, Crooks said, the male COs showed the female COs at Bedford Hills how to manage her.
“Mens was telling the women how to control me they way they would do their men in their box,” Crooks said, adding that they would gradually give her necessities like food, or blankets based on her behavior. Crooks’ comrades helped her survive.
One of them was Sid Reed, who arrived at Bedford Hills 2 years before, in 1972, when she was 16, with a 5-year sentence for robbery. Reed and Crooks became lovers.
In solitary confinement, Crooks’ cell was on the ground floor, in a building where, she said, “everyone had to walk past. And they would sneak up to the window to talk. And sneak up and stick cigarettes through a hole.” Women on the outside helped too.
Crooks was friends with Efeni Shakur, who was a Black Panther. Shakur used her connections to make Crooks’s case a Leftist cause célèbre and covered in the first issue of DYKE, which summarized Crooks’s struggle as part of a fight “against this mindfucking white male bullshit.”
Crooks and her attorney, Stephen Latimer, filed a precedent-setting civil rights lawsuit that established the right of all women at Bedford Hills to due process of law before they are sent to solitary confinement, which Crooks had been denied.
The victory got Crooks sprung from solitary confinement and sent back into general population, where she reunited with Reed. To most of the women at Bedford Hills, Crooks was their champion – she had fought their keepers, and won. But prison was still prison, and, after dinner on August 29, 1974, Crooks got into a fight with another prisoner.
An article in the Patent Trader about the riot. File
Though the fight ended quickly, and Crooks was sitting in her cell, authorities responded by sending in a squad of male COs, from a nearby prison, carrying truncheons and clad in riot gear.
In an interview last week, Reed said prison officials intentionally overreacted because they wanted to punish Crooks. They had been “looking for any excuse anyway to go after her because they thought that she was the ringleader … They wanted to eliminate her for any little thing,” she said.
As the guards approached the building, Reed remembers the collect-call pay-phones in the cell-blocks went dead, and klieg lights came on outside. The men entered the cell-block through a concrete-enclosed, fire-proof emergency stairwell in the rear of the building, went to Crooks’s cell, pulled her out, handcuffed her, threw Crooks down the stairs, and locked a steel door behind themselves.
“They came from Greenhaven,” Crooks remembers, referring to a nearby maximum-security male prison. “They didn’t come to talk, they come to stomp.”
Reed and other prisoners witnessed what had happened. Reed described it as “300-pound football players took her out the back. They drug her down the hallway, like a rag, and literally threw her down these concrete steps.”
The male “beat-up squad” threw Crooks into the back of a station-wagon, and drove away.
“Once they threw me in there,” Crooks said, “they started beating on me. Beatin’ on me until they got where they went, dropped me in seg,” referring to disciplinary segregation, a formal term for solitary confinement.
Some of the woman gathered and decided to do something, “because it could be any one of us next,” Reed said.
The women asked to speak with someone from the prison administration. Instead, guards ordered them to lock into their cells. The women refused.
An older black female CO was supervising the cell-block at the time. The CO, Reed said, “was more of a motherly type than an officer.” She threw her keys to the prisoners, then “she left. She ran. Out the other way.”
With the keys, the women moved fast. They went floor-to-floor, building-to-building, flowing through hallway gates, overwhelming guards, snatching more sets of keys, opening cell doors, gathering numbers, building momentum, spreading the word “that they killed Crooksie.”
Besides Reed, other leaders included Dollree Mapp – who has been called “the Rosa Parks of the Fourth Amendment” for refusing to let police into her apartment without a search warrant. Her case led to a 1961 Supreme Court decision in her name, Mapp v. Ohio, that requires state courts to exclude evidence from criminal prosecutions if it is seized illegally.
In the end, Reed said, 200 women acted together and seized full control of two buildings and an adjacent recreation yard, where they formed a circle. The women demanded proof that Crooks was alive. They demanded that members of the press and lawyers be brought to the prison. And they demanded that the phones be turned back on.
Prison officials stalled.
“They were saying that there was no one in command that night that could give that order. I said, ‘Well, who gave the order to turn the phones off?’” Reed said.
Meanwhile, authorities used the time to rush reinforcements to the scene – armed male guards from nearby prisons, and State Police Officers.
“We were all organized in the yard, in a circle,” Reed said, “peacefully.”
At one point, Reed said a captain “came up and said everybody to disperse and they were gonna call the National Guard.”
The women refused to move, so authorities brought out water cannon.
“They water-hosed us for quite a while, then they threatened to shoot tear-gas.”
After midnight, Reed said, “We just couldn’t take it anymore, so we just peaceably put our hands behind our heads and everybody just marched back to where they were supposed to be.”
The day after the rebellion, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections told United Press International that the women had taken seven hostages: 4 guards, 2 sergeants and a nurse. But Reed disputes that, and said that there were no hostages.
One guard, Reed said, locked herself in a closet, though. “She claimed that we locked her in a closet. But she locked herself in there.”
No one was injured, Reed recalled, “A couple people had an asthma attack.”
For a week, no one knew what happened to Crooks, until Reed and other suspected leaders were sent to solitary confinement. There, they found Crooks, Reed said, “still half-dead, moaning, groaning – I don’t even think at point she had gotten any medical attention.”
Reed and other suspected leaders were sentenced to one year each in solitary confinement. Crooks was given two years, for the fight that lead to the rebellion.
Carol Crooks J.B. Nicholas for The Village Voice
But Crooks and the women brought another landmark lawsuit, which they won, and resulted in them being released from solitary confinement in 1975.
Elizabeth Koob, a noted prisoners’ rights attorney, helped represent the women through the Women’s Prison Project at the New York University School of Law (Disclosure: Koob’s firm, but not Koob, also represented the author of this story from 1999 to 2003.)
Koob said that many of the woman at Bedford Hills “had relinquished all responsibility for their lives and how they had been conditioned by society not to speak for themselves.” Prison officials, Koob continuted, “appeared to encourage this submissiveness and passivity,” by referring to the woman as “girls,” and by teaching them “skills common to women and lowest-paid positions: sewing, typing, laundry, hairdressing.”
“Carol Crooks stood out as a leader and as a strong woman who knew her self-worth,” Koob said.
The women’s lawsuit, Powell v. Ward, ended in 1981, with a binding pledge by prison officials to conduct disciplinary proceedings fairly, to only send truly mentally-ill prisoners to psychiatric hospitals, and with an award to the women of $127,000.
The women established a committee to determine how the money should be used, so that it benefited everyone. After polling the prison, the committee decided to use the money to purchase washers and dryers, Black and Hispanic literature for the general library, and equipment for the prison law library, including word processors, typewriters and copying machines.
With the last of the money, the women of Bedford Hills threw themselves a party, with ice cream, in June 1983.
Crooks was still there. According to the New York Times, she organized the celebration, and told the paper that ”sometimes prison inmates and officials can sit down at a table and settle things without rioting.” Later that year, Crooks was released.
Reed was paroled from Bedford Hills in 1975, but returned in 1979 for a drug possession conviction, before being released again in Feburary, 1983. She was back in prison in 1990, was released in November 1993, and was back two years later. She was last released in August, 2001. Reed spoke for the record from a hospital bed.
Last week, Crooks reflected on current conditions in the prison system.
“The male officers is runnin’ wild,” Crooks said, referring to the male COs that are now assigned to regularly work inside female prisons and have been convicted of exploiting their female charges at Bedford Hills.
“It didn’t get no better, it got worse.” |
Alia al-Mahdy, the Egyptian activist known for politically exposing her naked body, did so again last month in a protest video made with members of the Russian group FEMEN. The video is a protest against the current government’s constitution, which al-Mahdy and others believes institutionalizes Islamist views on, and against, women.
Now, Islamists are petitioning the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt to strip her of her citizenship.
According to Al Arabiya, an Egyptian Islamist activist, Mahmoud Abdel Rahman, has petitioned the country’s public prosecutors, suing for them to revoke her citizenship and to put her on a watch list that would allow public officials to arrest her should she return to her homeland.
“By standing there naked,” Abel Rahman wrote in his complaint, referring to her video with FEMEN, “she tarnished the image of Egypt and derided religion.”
The hate and rage directed at al-Mahdy since she took part in the protest has not been limited to legal measures. She told the Egyptian news publication al-Watan that she’s been getting death threats.
“If I go back to Egypt, I will be put in jail and I might be killed if the current regime remains in power.”
Islamists are hardly the only group to condemn al-Mahdy, noted the online magazine Jadaliyya in an interesting essay on the implications of her protest. From her first photo in late October of 2011, liberals have screamed condemnation as loudly as any bearded, barefoot would-be mullah.
The April 6 Youth Movement, an early Facebook-based youth protest group, went so far as to shamefully accuse her of being part of a conspiracy against them. “How can we have accepted the membership of a girl who behaves like this?” they asked, in an apparent vacuum of self-awareness.
The shaky rationale for her condemnation by Egyptian liberal groups is that al-Mahdy has given Islamists a pretext for attacking those who do not want an Islamist regime.
“They have double standards,” al-Mahdy said. “They claim they believe in freedom, but they never practice what they preach.”
Another revolutionary woman, in a different place, at a different time, said something that could have been written today, and could have been written to Alia:
“I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it.”
When in doubt, always back the naked chick.
Photo by Alia al-Mahdy |
Posted by Chris Brown on October 3, 2012 – 12:37 pm
Kyle Williams got an unwanted mailing from the NFL for his attempted tackle of Tom Brady last Sunday. He was fined $15K by the league for his attempted sack of Brady in the third quarter.
It was a 2nd-and-6 play at the Bills 32 with 4:49 left in the third quarter. Williams on his pass rush disengages from his blocker Donald Thomas as Brady steps up in the pocket. He lunges toward Brady in an effort to tackle him around the ankles and makes contact with Brady’s calf with his forearm and shoulder pad. Brady was throwing the ball when contact was made. Williams was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the play, but isn’t sure what else he’s supposed to do on that play.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Other than let him throw the ball I don’t know. I could understand if I dove at him head first and hit him, or hit him behind the legs and dove at him with my shoulder. But I hit him with my arm and I get a $15 thousand-dollar fine for hitting him with the ball. I don’t get it.”
Having drawn the flag in the game, Williams surmised a league fine might soon follow.
“I figured it was (coming), but I mean at the same time I asked the official during the game, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He didn’t say anything. Of course I wasn’t exactly calm when I asked him. But I’m trying to figure out, you get blocked down, you’re going down and the guy still has the ball. I didn’t dive into the side of his leg. I didn’t spear him in the side of the leg. I hit him with my forearm in his calf and he went down. You’ve got guys up there hitting Fitz in the chest with their helmet when he’s going to down. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do.”
What likely drew the flag was the way Brady’s left knee bent awkwardly inward on the play. Knowing Brady’s status in the league and the fact that he tore his ACL on a similar play a few years ago when then Kansas City DB Bernard Pollard hit him as he was throwing, a fine was likely whether the hit was legal or not.
Posted in Inside the Bills |
Michael Gambon’s guest turn in Doctor Who special A Christmas Carol has lingered long in many fans’ memories – but it turns out the veteran actor of stage and screen was less than impressed by the finished product.
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“I wasn’t very good,” Gambon said at London Film and Comic Con yesterday, to cries of disapprobation from the crowd. “No, I wasn’t very good!”
“I tried hard, but I couldn’t quite get it,” he went on, though said the experience was still “good fun”.
Gambon guest-starred in the 2010 episode as the miserly Kazran Sardick, who refused to help a crashing spaceship land safely on an alien world. Determined to change Kazran’s mind, the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) went back in time to alter his childhood for the better as a self-styled “Ghost of Christmas past” – hence the title. The episode later came third in a RadioTimes.com poll for the best Doctor Who Christmas story.
“Oh [Matt Smith]’s a great bloke, isn’t he?” Gambon said. “I loved him. And who was that beautiful girl in it? Katherine Jenkins.”
“Ooooh, Katherine Jenkins – I tried it on with her,” the actor joked. “No, too old. No hair.”
Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore
Gambon went on to discuss one of his other high-profile roles as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, a part he took over from the late Richard Harris from 2004 onwards. But it turns out his time at Hogwarts started out with a bit of a fib – because Gambon had never seen or read any Harry Potter.
“I told them I’d seen the first two,” Gambon recounted. “They asked me what I thought of Harry Potter and JK Rowling and all that, and I said ‘Oh, it’s just breathtaking. The first two episodes I saw were just fantastic – I can’t believe I’m going to be in this.’ Liar!”
The actor also revealed that he will not be appearing in any Harry Potter spin-off projects, whether it be stage play The Cursed Child or spin-off/prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – and he was pretty sure Harry himself wouldn’t be either.
“No, none of us have been invited into the new Harry Potter,” he said. “I’d like the money!”
“But I don’t think they’d like me in it, anyway. They haven’t asked me back. Or Daniel [Radcliffe].”
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be released in 2016 |
Image caption Some two million people visit Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem each year
The UN's cultural agency, Unesco, has voted to add the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and its pilgrimage route to the list of World Heritage Sites.
The Palestinian delegation welcomed the approval of its bid to get protected status for the church, built on a site some believe was Jesus's birthplace.
Israel and the US opposed the move, saying it was politically motivated.
It was the first such approval since Palestine was controversially granted membership of Unesco last year.
Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity - originally constructed in 399 above a cave traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus and rebuilt after fire in the 6th Century - is among the holiest sites in Christianity
The decision taken now was totally political and does great damage in our opinion to the convention and its image Nimrod Barkan, Israel's permanent delegate to Unesco
The short section of the pilgrimage route from Jerusalem to Bethlehem - following the historical route believed to have been taken by Mary and Joseph - is used for the procession of the Patriarchs at Christmas.
An estimated two million people visit the two sites every year.
At a meeting in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Friday, Unesco delegates voted 13 to six in favour of giving both of them World Heritage Site status "on an emergency basis", entitling them to UN protection and funding for restoration work the Palestinians say is urgent.
Controversy
When the result of the secret ballot was announced, there were loud cheers and fist pumping from the Palestinian delegation, reports the BBC's Jon Donnison in Ramallah.
"These sites are threatened with total destruction through the Israeli occupation, through the building of the separation wall, because of all the Israeli sanctions and the measures that have been taken to stifle the Palestinian identity," permanent delegate Elias Wadih Sanbar said.
Israel's permanent delegate, Nimrod Barkan, said his country supported awarding World Heritage Site status to the Church of the Nativity under a completely different, non-emergency procedure that carried no implications for the stalled Middle East peace process.
Palestinian UN statehood bid Palestinians currently have permanent observer entity status at the UN
They are represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)
Officials now want an upgrade so a state of Palestine has full member status at the UN
They seek recognition on 1967 borders - in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza
Enhanced observer member status could be an interim option Q&A: Palestinians' UN statehood plans
"The decision taken now was totally political and does great damage in our opinion to the [UN] convention and its image," he added.
Christian denominations were also opposed to the bid, fearing Unesco would start to meddle in the affairs of the Church of the Nativity.
Our correspondent says Palestinians will see this as a small but significant victory.
Last year, Unesco became the first UN body to officially accept Palestine as a member state, despite strong opposition from the US and Israel, which said it would further remove the possibility of a permanent peace deal.
That led to Washington suspending millions of dollars of funding for the agency, which accounted for a fifth of its budget.
Last year, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas failed in his bid to gain recognition of a Palestinian state at the main body of the United Nations, although officials say they may revive that bid this year. |
Chipmaker Skyworks Solutions Inc. has agreed to buy PMC-Sierra Inc. -- another semiconductor manufacturer -- for $2 billion in cash, the companies announced Tuesday. Skyworks, which manufactures chips used in aircraft and security systems and also supplies Apple Inc., will pay PMC-Sierra shareholders $10.50 per share -- a 37 percent premium to Monday’s close of $7.69 on the Nasdaq.
“With our acquisition of PMC, Skyworks will be uniquely positioned to capitalize on the explosive demand for high performance solutions that seamlessly connect, transport and store Big Data,” David Aldrich, chairman and CEO of Skyworks, said in a statement, adding that the acquisition will broaden its consumer base.
“Specifically, we plan to leverage PMC’s innovative storage systems, flash controllers, optical switches and network infrastructure solutions,” Aldrich added.
The Sunnyvale, California-based PMC-Sierra manufactures semiconductors for telecommunications networks and storage.
“Together, we plan to develop a wider range of leading-edge solutions for our customers, target new growth vectors and enable some of the most exciting networking and storage platforms in the world, while delivering immediate value for our shareholders,” Greg Lang, president and CEO of PMC, said in the joint statement.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2016, the companies said.
In recent months, the semiconductor industry has witnessed a series of consolidations. Intel Corp., the world’s largest manufacturer of chips, announced in June that it would buy Altera Corp. for $16.7 billion. Later, in May, Avago Technologies Ltd. announced a $37 billion bid for its rival Broadcom Corp. -- one of the biggest deals in the sector.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg, a total of 39 deals valued at $83.5 billion have been announced in the sector, surpassing every full year on record since 2000. |
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Making sure your offspring know how to clean their teeth appears to be as important to monkeys as to humans.
Female monkeys in Thailand have been observed showing their young how to floss their teeth - using human hair.
Researchers from Japan said they watched seven long-tailed macaques cleaning the spaces between their teeth in the same manner as humans.
They spent double the amount of time flossing when they were being watched by their infants, the team said.
This suggests the mothers were deliberately teaching their young how to floss, Professor Nobuo Masataka of Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute said.
"I was surprised because teaching techniques on using tools properly to a third party are said to be an activity carried out only by humans," he told the AFP news agency.
He said the study, carried out in Lopburi, north of Bangkok, is still in the hypothesis stage.
"We would like to shift our focus to the baby monkeys to check whether the mothers' actions are effectively helping them learn how to clean their teeth," he added. |
This is the feeling of a generation that is frustrated by how differently you see the world from us. You, a generation led largely by conservative values. We would like to think that our differences are reconcilable, that we can work together in spite of them and that we can share the future together. But then reality hits us, and the double standards become all too evident.
If we had to name you, we might call you Billy Graham. On October 27, Mr. Graham paid to spread his message in a full-page ad on page 13 of The New York Times. The ad depicts Mr. Graham in black and white and shares his views:
As I approach my 94th birthday, I realize this election could be my last. I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles…and pray with me that America will remain one nation under God.
What Mr. Graham is asking our generation is impossible. It is impossible because our generation understands the importance of separating God from politics. Because our generation has learned that if we had always voted on biblical principles, slavery would never have been abolished.
It's asking us too much because we understand that government cannot impede our choice to pursue happiness. That’s the reason our generation supports marriage equality. We understand that to give rights to a minority, when those rights do not undermine anybody else’s rights, is not only the right thing to do, it’s constitutional.
Our generation feels frustrated because we have inherited a world that often doesn’t make sense, and it is your generation—the one with enough economical resources and power to influence policies—that will affect every aspect of our lives.
If you truly believe in biblical principles you should recognize that the “every man for himself” philosophy should no longer guide our economy and our culture. This philosophy guided Wall Street for decades and led to the greatest class disparity in this country’s history.
Our generation also acknowledges that this country was founded by immigrants, still is a country of immigrants, and as long as freedom and opportunities flourish, will always be a nation of immigrants. We don’t want to slam the door of opportunities behind us, do we? That’s why self-deportation and building walls on our borders will not solve our problems. We know we can do better than that.
Our generation feels threatened every time you say you want to reverse Roe v. Wade. Even when the economy remains the number one issue you insist on bringing back something that was decided nearly 40 years ago. We believe that by opposing contraception and making abortion illegal at the same time you are opposing one of the most powerful cures for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a primitive version of compulsory reproduction.
We believe in science and therefore believe in all scientific evidence. That’s why we know that global warming is real and that we are responsible for it. We prefer not to leave this in God’s hands but to keep pushing hard for new and cleaner sources of energy that will keep our economy moving. For us, to invest in clean energy is not only right, it is also necessary to maintain the status of an innovative country and lead the world to a sustainable future.
This is the future our generation wants: one where everybody is welcome, where we work together in collaboration, friendly with the environment and respectful with our neighbors. We also believe Jesus would approve.
Our generation doesn’t need to be told how to vote on November 6. To us, the options are very clear. To go back or to look forward.
Image (cc) flickr user felixtriller |
This article is about the animator, actor and filmmaker. For the billiards player, see Michael Judge . For the Roman Catholic priest, see Mychal Judge
Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an Ecuadorian-born American animator, cartoonist, actor, voice actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, composer, filmmaker, and former physicist.[2] Judge is the creator of the television series Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–97, 2011), and co-creator of the television series King of the Hill (1997–2010), The Goode Family (2009), Silicon Valley (2014–present), and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus (2017–present). He also wrote and directed the films Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Office Space (1999), Idiocracy (2006), and Extract (2009).
Born in Ecuador and raised in the U.S. state of New Mexico, Judge graduated from the University of California, San Diego,[3] where he studied physics.[3] After becoming uninterested in his career in science, Judge began to focus on animation and creating short films, one of which (Frog Baseball) was developed into the successful MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head, which eventually spawned a 1996 feature film as well as the spin-off series, Daria (which Judge had no involvement in).
In 1995, Judge and former Simpsons writer Greg Daniels developed King of the Hill, which debuted on Fox in 1997 and quickly became a hit with both critics and audiences; running for 13 seasons, it became one of the longest-running American animated series. During the run of the show, Judge took some time off to write and direct Office Space, Idiocracy, and Extract. As King of the Hill was coming to an end, Judge created his third show, ABC's The Goode Family, which received mixed reviews and was cancelled after 13 episodes. After a four-year hiatus, he created his fourth show, the live-action Silicon Valley for HBO, which has received critical acclaim since its premiere.[citation needed] In 2017, Judge's fourth animated series, the music-themed Tales from the Tour Bus, premiered on Cinemax, to critical and audience acclaim.
Judge has won a Primetime Emmy Award and two Annie Awards for King of the Hill and two Critics' Choice Television Awards and Satellite Awards for Silicon Valley.[citation needed]
Early life [ edit ]
Michael Craig Judge[4] was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador[4][5] on October 17, 1962, the second of three children born to American couple Margaret Yvonne (née Blue), a librarian, and William James Judge, an archeologist. At the time of his birth, his father was working for a nonprofit organization in Guayaquil and other parts of Ecuador, promoting agricultural development. Judge was raised from age seven in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he spent a small portion of his life working on a chicken farm. He attended St. Pius X High School and graduated with a BSc in physics from the University of California, San Diego in 1985.[6]
Career [ edit ]
1985–97: Early science career; musician; animation and Beavis and Butt-Head [ edit ]
After graduating from UCSD in 1985, he held several brief jobs in physics and mechanical engineering, but found himself growing bored with science.[2] In 1987, he moved to Silicon Valley to join Parallax Graphics,[7] a startup video card company with about 40 employees based in Santa Clara, California. Disliking the company's culture and his colleagues ("The people I met were like Stepford Wives. They were true believers in something, and I don't know what it was"), Judge quit after less than three months and became a bass player with a touring blues band.[8]
He was a part of Anson Funderburgh's band for two years, playing on their 1990 Black Top Records release "Rack 'Em Up",[9] while taking graduate math classes at the University of Texas at Dallas.[8] In 1989, after seeing animation cels on display in a movie theater, Judge purchased a Bolex 16 mm film camera and began creating his own animated shorts. In 1991, his short film "Office Space" (also known as the Milton series of shorts) was acquired by Comedy Central,[8] following an animation festival in Dallas. In the early 1990s, he was playing blues bass with Doyle Bramhall.[10]
In 1992, he developed Frog Baseball,[8] a short film featuring the characters Beavis and Butt-Head, to be featured on Liquid Television, a 1990s animation showcase that appeared on MTV. The short led to the creation of the Beavis and Butt-Head series on MTV, in which Judge voiced both title characters as well as the majority of supporting characters and wrote and directed the majority of the episodes. The show centers on two socially incompetent, heavy metal-loving teenage wannabe delinquents, Beavis and Butt-Head, who live in the fictional town of Highland, Texas. The two have no adult supervision, are dim-witted, sex-obsessed, uneducated, barely literate, and lack any empathy or moral scruples, even regarding each other. Over its run, Beavis and Butt-Head drew a notable amount of both positive and negative reaction from the public with its combination of lewd humor and implied criticism of society.[11]
Judge himself is highly critical of the animation and quality of earlier episodes, in particular the first two – Blood Drive/Give Blood and Door to Door – which he described as "awful, I don't know why anybody liked it ... I was burying my head in the sand."[12] The series spawned the feature-length film Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and the spin-off show Daria.[13][14]
After two decades, the series aired its new season on October 27, 2011.[15] The premiere was dubbed a ratings hit, with an audience of 3.3 million total viewers.[16] On January 10, 2014, Judge announced that there is still a chance to pitch Beavis and Butt-Head to another network and that he wouldn't mind making more episodes.[17]
1997–2009: King of the Hill, Office Space, and Idiocracy [ edit ]
In early 1995, after the successful first run of Beavis and Butt-Head on MTV, Mike Judge co-created the show King of the Hill with former The Simpsons writer Greg Daniels.[18] Judge was a former resident of Garland, Texas, upon which the fictional community of Arlen was loosely based, but as Judge stated in a later interview, the show was based more specifically on the Dallas suburb of Richardson.[19][20] Judge conceived the idea for the show, drew the main characters, and wrote the pilot script. Judge voiced characters Hank Hill and Jeff Boomhauer. The show centers on the Hills, a middle-class Methodist family in the small suburban town of Arlen, Texas. It attempts to retain a naturalistic approach, seeking humor in the conventional and mundane aspects of everyday life while dealing with issues comically. After its debut in 1997, the series became a large success for Fox and was named one of the best television series of the year by various publications, including Entertainment Weekly, Time, and TV Guide.[21]
For the 1997–98 season, the series became one of Fox's highest-rated programs and even briefly outperformed The Simpsons in ratings.[22] Although ratings remained consistent through the 10th through 12th seasons and had begun to rise in the overall Nielsen ratings (up to the 105th most watched series on television, from 118 in season 8), Fox abruptly announced in 2008 that King of the Hill had been cancelled.[23] On April 30, 2009, it was announced that Fox ordered at least two more episodes to give the show a proper finale.[24] The show's 14th season was supposed to air sometime in the 2009–10 season,[25] but Fox later announced that it would not air the episodes, opting instead for syndication;[26] as a result, the final four episodes aired in syndication in May 2010. On August 10, 2009, however, Fox released a statement that the network would air a one-hour series finale (which consisted of a regular 30-minute episode followed by a 30-minute finale) on September 13, 2009.[27]
During the panel discussion for the return of Beavis and Butt-Head at Comic-Con 2011, Mike Judge said that no current plans exist to revive King of the Hill, although he would not rule out the possibility of it returning.[28]
Judge began to develop one of his four animated short films entitled Milton, about an office drone named Milton that Judge created, which first aired on Liquid Television and Night After Night with Allan Havey, and later aired on Saturday Night Live.[29] The inspiration came from a temp job he once had that involved alphabetizing purchase orders[30] and a job he had as an engineer for three months in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1980s, "just in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful".[31] Judge sold the completed film Office Space to 20th Century Fox based on his script and a cast that included Jennifer Aniston, Ron Livingston, and David Herman.[29] Originally, the studio wanted to make a film out of the Milton character but Judge was not interested, opting instead to make more of an ensemble cast–based film.[31] The studio suggested he make a movie like Car Wash but "just set in an office".[31] Judge made the relatively painless transition from animation to live-action with the help of the film's director of photography who taught him about lenses and where to put the camera. Judge says, "I had a great crew, and it's good going into it not pretending you're an expert."[30] Studio executives were not happy with the footage Judge was getting. He remembers them telling him, "More energy! More energy! We gotta reshoot it! You're failing! You're failing!"[32] In addition, Fox did not like the gangsta rap music used in the film until a focus group approved of it. Judge hated the ending and felt that a complete rewrite of the third act was necessary.[32] In the film, he made a cameo appearance as Stan (complete with hairpiece and fake mustache), the manager of Chotchkie's, a fictionalized parody of chain restaurants like Chili's, Applebee's and TGI Friday's, and the boss of Jennifer Aniston's character, whom he continually undermines and interrogates over for her lack of sufficient enthusiasm for the job and the insufficient quantity of "flair" (buttons, ribbons, etc.) she wears on her uniform. The film released on February 19, 1999, and was well received by critics. Although not particularly successful at the box office, it sold well on VHS and DVD, and it has come to be recognized as a cult-classic.[33]
Since fall 2003, Judge and fellow animator Don Hertzfeldt have run an animation festival called "The Animation Show". "The Animation Show" tours the country every year, screening animated shorts.[citation needed] In 2005, Judge was presented with the Austin Film Festival's Outstanding Television Writer Award by Johnny Hardwick.[34]
Judge has made supporting and cameo appearances in numerous films. Judge had a voice cameo in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), the feature-length film adaptation of the popular Comedy Central series; he voiced Kenny McCormick when he was unhooded towards the end of the film. He later acted in the science-fiction family comedy franchise Spy Kids, where he played Donnagon Giggles in the first three films. His next film appearance would then be Serving Sara (2002) where he played a motel manager. He would later then appear in the comedy Jackass Number Two (2006), in which he can be seen during the closing credits. An extended version of his sequence can be seen in Jackass 2.5 (2007) which was a direct-to-video release. Judge also created a video clip of Beavis and Butt-Head ripping into Steve-O for his video Poke the Puss, where the two try imagining if they would like the video better if they were black. The clip aired as a part of Jackassworld.com: 24-Hour Takeover, a February 23, 2008, television special on MTV to coincide with the official launch of jackassworld.com. The characters appeared again in the third Jackass film, titled Jackass 3D, at the beginning of the film, telling viewers to put on their 3D glasses for the film.[citation needed]
Judge's third film, Idiocracy, a dystopian comedy starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph, was given a limited release theatrically by 20th Century Fox in September 2006, two years after production. The film's original release date was intended to be on August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge.[35]
In April 2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. The film was released without a trailer or substantial marketing campaign.[36] The film was not screened for critics beforehand as is usually done.[37] Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation that the distributor may have actively attempted to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of the AP.[38]
That speculation was followed by open criticism of the studio's lack of support from Ain't It Cool News, Time, and Esquire.[39][40][41] Time's Joel Stein wrote "the film's ads and trailers tested atrociously", but "still, abandoning Idiocracy seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox."[40] Despite the film not being screened for critics, the film received positive reviews and was a minor box-office success.[42]
In the U.S., the film was released to DVD in January 2007 and later aired on premium-television, multiplex channels Cinemax in September 2007 and HBO in January 2008. Since then, it has gained a cult following.[43]
2009–13: The Goode Family, Extract, and other projects [ edit ]
Judge's fourth directorial effort was 2009's Extract. Shortly after completing Office Space, Judge was already about 40 pages into his follow-up script, set in the world of an extract factory, when he was convinced by his representative team that he needed to shelve that and concentrate on something more commercial. Over the next several years, he focused his energy on developing Idiocracy. But years later, by the time of the film's release, audiences had decided that Office Space had struck a chord, so they were ready to see Judge return to on-the-job humor, and thus the Extract script was given new life.[44]
Seeking to keep Extract below the radar of the studio system, Judge and his producers set up a production company, Ternion Productions, and arranged private financing while partnering with Miramax for domestic distribution of the film. Judge relied heavily on his own personal knowledge of the industrial world to bring the story to life. "I actually worked in a factory a little bit myself ... I hopefully write stuff that is recognizable as the archetypes of this world," Judge stated.[44]
Keeping true to this baseline of reality, Extract was shot in a working factory, in this case a water bottling plant south of Los Angeles, in the City of Commerce.[44] He makes an uncredited appearance as Jim, a union organizer.[45] The film premiered on September 4, 2009 and received mixed to positive reviews from critics and was a minor commercial success.[46]
Judge's third television series, The Goode Family, debuted on ABC but was cancelled after one season. Comedy Central first aired the series in reruns on January 4, 2010. However, the series was pulled off of the schedule shortly thereafter. It was confirmed on The Goode Family Facebook page that Comedy Central had picked up the reruns of the series,[47] which were to be evaluated for a chance of being renewed for a second season.[48] On August 8, 2009, however, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson stated that the show, along with Surviving Suburbia, had officially been canceled due to low ratings.[49]
In 2010, reruns of The Goode Family aired Monday nights at 10 pm on Comedy Central, beginning January 4. It departed the network's primetime schedule after four weeks, returning occasionally in low-trafficked timeslots.[50]
In 2012, Judge directed the music video (animation by Titmouse) for country music group Zac Brown Band's "The Wind".[51] In 2013, Judge collaborated with Seth MacFarlane on a mashup episode of Family Guy, in which, complete with a Hill-themed opening, Judge reprises his role as Hank Hill.[52] Earlier in 2010 and 2012, Judge played cameos as Hank on two episodes of MacFarlane's The Cleveland Show.[citation needed]
2014–present: Silicon Valley and Tales from the Tour Bus [ edit ]
Judge created his fourth show, Silicon Valley with King of the Hill executive producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. The HBO comedy is a single-camera live-action sitcom set in Northern California. One of its main themes is the idea that "the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success".[53] The first season of Silicon Valley was 8 episodes long, and received critical and public acclaim. Silicon Valley would later be renewed for a second season on April 21, 2014 and a third season on April 13, 2015.[54][55] Silicon Valley aired its fourth season, which premiered on April 23, 2017.[56] The series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on March 25, 2018.[57]
On January 12, 2017, Deadline confirmed that Cinemax ordered 8 episodes of Judge's new animated series, Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus. The series premiered on September 22, 2017.[58]
Political views [ edit ]
Despite his King of the Hill protagonist Hank Hill being identifiable as a conservative[59] and his The Goode Family being essentially a satire of many liberal viewpoints, Judge avoids discussing his political leanings.
In reviewing Idiocracy, Salon stated, "Judge's gimlet eye is so ruthless that at times his politics seem to border on South Park libertarianism."[60] A writer for the libertarian magazine Reason seems to agree, comparing King of the Hill to the anti-authoritarian point of view of South Park and The Simpsons, though he calls the show more populist, noting the disdain King of the Hill seems to have for bureaucrats, professionals, and big-box chains.[61]
Still, Judge denies having political messages in his shows, saying in an IGN interview about King of the Hill:[59]
I try to not let the show get too political. To me, it's more social than political I guess you'd say, because that's funnier. I don't really like political reference humor that much. Although I liked the episode "Hank's Bully" where Hank's talking to the mailman and he says, 'Why would anyone want to lick a stamp that has Bill Clinton on it?' To me that's just like more of a character thing about Hank than it is a political joke or anything. I don't want to do a bunch of stuff about the war, particularly.
In June 2016, before the presidential election in November, Rolling Stone published an article stating that Judge would produce Idiocracy-themed campaign advertisements opposing Donald Trump's presidential campaign if given permission from Fox to do so.[62] It was later reported by Business Insider that the ads would not go forward.[63]
Filmography [ edit ]
Awards and nominations [ edit ] |
Story highlights The scene outside Albuquerque's convention center was chaotic
Trump had left before most of the action took place
(CNN) Protesters lit fires, smashed a door and threw rocks outside a Donald Trump rally Tuesday night in New Mexico -- the latest scuffle to follow the presumptive Republican nominee's campaign.
The scene outside Albuquerque's convention center was chaotic as police ushered protesters away from Trump's event and into the nearby streets.
There, anti-Trump protesters -- many critical of his positions on immigration -- loudly chanted, "F--- Donald Trump."
The protesters had broken a glass door to the convention center. Some taunted police and jumped on police vehicles as officers in riot gear and on police horses moved them away from the convention center's exits.
Trump had already left the event, by that point, but responded on Twitter Wednesday morning.
Read More |
If you’re even kind of active on reddit, you probably know of Alien Blue. As far as perusing reddit on iOS goes, it’s pretty much the undisputed champ.
It seems reddit would agree. The company has just taken Alien Blue under its wing, acquiring the project assets and hiring its sole developer.
We heard whispers of this deal going back a few weeks. While reddit isn’t disclosing terms, they’ve just confirmed to me that they’ve acquired the Alien Blue project and that its Melbourne-based developer, Jase Morrissey, will be joining their team.
Curiously, reddit seems to hesitate in calling the app their “official iOS reader” — they’re keeping the “Alien Blue” name, for example, rather than changing it to just be called “reddit” or “reddit reader” or something.
If they’re not taking Alien Blue and strapping their name on it, why buy it?
“Our whole philosphy has been to give our users choice. We’ve got the reddit AMA app, and alienblue coming out… but we really want users to use whatever they want.” says Ellen Pao, reddit’s head of Strategic Partnerships. “We think Alienblue is great, and it’s the most popular reddit app on iOS. We wanted to be able to offer it as a reddit app, and we wanted to help Jase with additional resources to do everything he wanted to do with it.”
So is reddit going to run in there and change everything and wreck the app that its users love? So far, it doesn’t seem like it. Only two things are changing at this point:
It’s getting a new icon, matching it up stylistically with reddit’s only other iOS app, the reddit AMA app.
They’re simplifying the pricing a bit. The iPad app, previously $4, is now free while they work on merging it with the iPhone app. As before, the iPhone app is free, with a $2 “Pro” upgrade to add features like multiple account support, tilt view, and filtering posts by keyword.
One thing to note: if you’ve already downloaded the app, you’ll need to download it again — a side effect of them transferring the app from Morrisey’s App Store developer account to reddit’s. That also means that if you’ve already purchased the pro upgrade, you’ll need to buy that again, too. To help take the sting off a bit there, reddit is making the Pro upgrade free for the first week after today.
“But wait!” you say. “Doesn’t that mean anyone can get the Pro features for free as long as they download it this week… even if they didn’t pay for it to begin with?”
Yes. Yes it does.
This post will be updated with App Store links as soon as the newly published app goes live. Update: Aaannd here’s the link |
The next edition of the atlas could feature revitalised languages The Cornish language has been branded "extinct" by linguistic experts, sparking protests from speakers. Thirty linguists worked on Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, compiled by United Nations group Unesco. They also said Manx Gaelic was extinct. Cornish is believed to have died out as a first language in 1777. But the Cornish Language Partnership says the number of speakers has risen in the past 20 years and there should be a section for revitalised languages. The Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, published by Unesco, the cultural section of the United Nations, features about 2,500 dialects. There are thought to be about 300 fluent speakers of Cornish. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. But Jenefer Lowe, development manager of the Cornish Language Partnership, said there were thousands who had a "smattering" of the language. "Saying Cornish is extinct implies there are no speakers and the language is dead, which it isn't," she said. "Unesco's study doesn't take into account languages which have growing numbers of speakers and in the past 20 years the revival of Cornish has really gathered momentum." Last year the partnership agreed a single written form of Cornish which brought together several different forms of the language. It is among a group of languages that turned out not to be extinct but merely sleeping
Christopher Moseley
Editor-in-chief of the atlas
UN declares Manx Gaelic 'extinct' Mrs Lowe said: "There's no category for a language that is revitalised and revived. "What they need to do is add a category. "It should be recognised that languages do revive and it's a fluid state." Christopher Moseley, an Australian linguist and editor-in-chief of the atlas, told BBC News he would consider a new classification. He said: "I have always been optimistic about Cornish and Manx. "There is a groundswell of interest in them, although the number of speakers is small. "Perhaps in the next edition we shall have a 'being revived' category. "[Cornish] is among a group of languages that turned out not to be extinct but merely sleeping."
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Should You Take a Deduction for the Business Use of Your Home?
When you run a home business, there are a number of expenses that you take on yourself. Owning a business means that you take on some expenses, such as paying for your health insurance without help from an employer, and that you pay for the facilities you use. Luckily, a number of the expenses you incur when you run your own business are tax deductible. You have the option to deduct travel and entertainment expenses related to your business, as well as deduct some of the costs of your health insurance. You also have the option to deduct the portion of your home used for your business.
Photo by newchaos via Flickr
What is a Home Office?
Before you take a tax deduction for the business use of your home, it’s a good idea to understand what the IRS considered “business use.” While the IRS isn’t as likely to flag your tax return for a an audit due to home office deductions as in the past, it’s still a good idea to make sure that you are doing everything by the book.
Your home office should be a space dedicated exclusively to business operations. You don’t actually have to devote an entire room to your home office; in fact, my home office space is actually the area that comprises my desk, printer stand, and business filing cabinet. It’s located in a room that, for lack of a better word, we call my office, but I don’t count the entire space as my business space because a large portion of it is used for storage.
That’s an important distinction. If you use the space for other activities that aren’t business-related, you can’t deduct the related expenses on your tax return. So, even though I spend some of my time doing work on my couch, I can’t deduct that space because it is often used for something other than my business functions. And, of course, the storage room that houses my office can’t all be deducted.
However, the portion of the room devoted entirely to my home business is tax deductible. And that’s the part that I deduct for tax purposes.
Figuring the Tax Deduction for the Business Use of Your Home
When you decide you want the deduction for the business use of your home, you need to determine how much you can deduct. In most cases, you can deduct a portion of what you pay in mortgage/rent costs, insurance costs, utilities and HOA fees.
First, determine the square footage of your home. This is information you should have in your homeowners insurance papers, or information that your landlord can provide you.
Next, determine how much of your home is being used exclusively for business purposes. Perhaps you have designated a 6 x 8 foot portion of your family room, comprising your desk, and a few other accouterments, for your business area. The square footage of such an area is 48 feet.
If your home’s total square footage is 1,800, you divide that 48 by 1,800 and end up with 0.0267 (or 2.67% of the home).
Now, you multiply all of your eligible expenses by 0.0267 to get the dollar amounts involved. If your mortgage payment is $1,000 a month, you can deduct $26.70 a month, or $320.40 for the year.
Follow the same formula when determining how much you can deduct for utilities like heat and electricity, and for your homeowners/renters insurance premiums, and for other fees like HOA fees. Add it all up, and you will know how much you can deduct for using a portion of your home for your business.
But Should You Take the Deduction?
There are some things to keep in mind, though. In some cases, when you deduct a portion of the depreciation of your home on your taxes, you might end up owing taxes later. You will have to add up the depreciation deductions you have taken over the years, and when you sell your home, you may owe capital gains taxes on the total amount — this only applies if you profit from the sale of your home (if you there is a loss on the sale, you don’t have to worry about it).
Also, consult with a knowledgeable tax professional about the possibility of triggering the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) in combination with your itemization. You don’t want to trigger the AMT, so make sure to consider this. It might be worth it to forgo the deduction if it will cost you more in the long run.
Finally, understand that your home office deduction is capped. You can’t deduct more in a year than your home business makes that year. Some people think that they can deduct big time losses, and shelter some of their other income. That’s not how it works. You can’t use business tax deductions as losses that amount to a tax shelter. |
Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are nervous about Newt Gingrich’s rise in the polls, with one member saying, “Newt’s hand is always six inches from the self-destruct button.”
The legislator, who served with Gingrich in the House, is one of many who are concerned the Georgia Republican will capture the 2012 presidential nomination.
The member requested anonymity to avoid finding himself crosswise with a candidate now considered to have a real shot at facing President Obama in the general election.
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Despite being in Washington for decades and leading the 1994 GOP revolution, Gingrich only has garnered six endorsements from Republican House members, and none in the Senate. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has sunk in the polls, has 13 (including from one senator) while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 46 (including from 8 senators).
Some of Gingrich’s former colleagues attribute the scarce endorsements to the former House Speaker’s leadership style.
Sen. Richard Burr Richard Mauze BurrHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid Five tantalizing questions about Mueller’s investigation MORE (R-N.C.), who served in the House from 1995 through 2004, said that sentiment is true from a certain standpoint.
“Any time you throw a thousand ideas out there, you got a great likelihood that a great majority of them are not very good,” he said.
“He was the right person to flip the U.S. House. He was not the long-term manager you needed to run the agenda,” Burr said, adding that Gingrich in the White House “might be a tough fit.”
A spokesman for Gingrich did not respond to a request for comment.
Gingrich this spring infuriated many Republicans in Congress when he blasted Rep. Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE’s (R-Wis.) Medicare reform plan.
Ryan, who has not yet backed a candidate for president, responded, “With allies like that, who needs the left?”
Sen. Pat Roberts Charles (Pat) Patrick RobertsPompeo says he's 'ruled out' 2020 Kansas Senate run GOP senators offer praise for Klobuchar: 'She’s the whole package' The Hill's Morning Report - House Dems prepare to swamp Trump with investigations MORE (R-Kan.), who served in the House from 1981 through 1996, said he always got along with Gingrich. He added that the former Speaker had an “ability to get people together and settle an issue by sheer will or intellectual dominance.”
But Roberts acknowledged Gingrich has a “very strong personality, so maybe he rubbed somebody the wrong way.”
Gingrich, who was first elected to the House in 1978 and held the post of minority whip from 1989 through 1994, had trouble keeping his own troops in line once he took over the Speaker’s gavel.
In the summer of 1997, his deputies — including former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and then-House Conference Chairman John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE (R-Ohio) — met secretly to plan a coup to replace Gingrich as Speaker.
Then-Rep. Tom Coburn Thomas (Tom) Allen CoburnThe Hill's Morning Report — Presented by PhRMA — Worries grow about political violence as midterms approach President Trump’s war on federal waste American patients face too many hurdles in regard to health-care access MORE (R-Okla.), who now serves in the Senate, was also involved in the scheme. Coburn earlier this year said he would not support Gingrich for president.
Gingrich found out about the plot and quashed it, but it damaged him politically.
He faced another internal insurrection just over a year later when then-Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), a longtime friend, announced plans to run for Speaker after House Republicans surprisingly lost five seats in the 1998 midterm elections.
Gingrich was unable to withstand the second challenge and retired.
Republicans at the time worried that Gingrich’s controversial leadership style had hurt the party’s brand. The decision to pursue impeachment proceedings against then-President Clinton had left a bad taste with voters and was credited with helping Democrats defy historical trends and pick up seats during Clinton’s second midterm election.
One instance of when Gingrich’s personality overshadowed the Republican message was in November of 1995, when Gingrich complained about Clinton banishing him to the back of Air Force One during a flight to Israel for the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
His comment prompted a strong backlash, epitomized by a New York Daily News cover, depicting Gingrich as a diapered baby throwing a tantrum.
Republicans also lamented that Clinton outmaneuvered Gingrich during the 1995-1996 government shutdowns.
Sen. Chuck Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyOvernight Health Care: Drug execs set for grilling | Washington state to sue over Trump rule targeting Planned Parenthood | Wyoming moves closer to Medicaid work requirements Senate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Lower refunds amplify calls to restore key tax deduction MORE (R-Iowa), who overlapped with Gingrich in the House for only two years in the late ’70s, said Romney is considered a more dependable candidate.
“I don’t think it should surprise you because he had just a fall in June and he’s just gradually climbing his way back and Romney has been a ‘Steady Eddie’ and people look to him as some one who isn’t going to explode and Gingrich did in June,” Grassley said of the disparity in endorsements.
Gingrich’s campaign manager and senior staff members resigned earlier this year after questioning his focus on the nuts and bolts of the race.
Grassley, meanwhile, has not endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary.
Recent polls show Gingrich leading Romney in Iowa, Florida and South Carolina.
There’s some evidence that Romney’s campaign might be getting nervous — it pressed Sen. John Thune John Randolph ThunePolls: Hiking estate tax less popular than taxing mega wealth, income Will Trump sign the border deal? Here's what we know Key GOP senator pitches Trump: Funding deal a 'down payment' on wall MORE (R-S.D.), who represents Iowa’s neighbor to the west, to announce his endorsement early. Thune said he was thinking about waiting until closer to the caucuses.
Thune, who served with Gingrich in the House in 1997 and 1998, said his endorsement of Romney was not a statement against the former Speaker.
“It wasn’t like I was deciding against anybody, I just decided for Romney,” Thune said. “My view was that at certain times in the nation’s history you need certain styles of leadership. Right now we need somebody who knows what it’s like to turn failing enterprises around. Romney’s done that in business, he did that with the Olympics.”
Thune is the only GOP leadership member in Congress who has backed a candidate in the presidential primary. |
Keep the surveillance planes flying. Fry the radar. While the sun hangs in the sky, let Libya's pilots know they're on borrowed time if they take off.
There's a lot of talk about setting up a no-fly zone over Libya – especially now that Moammar Gadhafi used his planes to take the oil refinery city of Ras Lunuf back from the rebels, and especially now that the Director of National Intelligence proclaimed that Gadhafi would eventually beat back the opposition, unless there's some serious outside support. But NATO stopped short of any such decision on Thursday. A raft of U.S. military leaders, from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Adm. Michael Mullen to Gen. James Mattis of Central Command, have warned that a no-fly zone is neither a simple or antiseptic operation.
Air Force leaders and veterans of no-fly campaigns contacted by Danger Room agree with that caution. Keeping Gadhafi's planes and helicopters out of the sky is no cakewalk, and the objectives are anything but clear. But they sketched out the following picture of what one might look like.
Blowing up Libya's surface-to-air defenses is the first wave of a no-fly campaign, as Secretary Gates noted. But to do that, there's an even more preliminary step: use the AWACS surveillance and command planes that NATO is now flying 24-7 to find Libya's radars, command and control and missile stations. "I'm absolutely certain," says retired Gen. Pete Piotrowski, a former Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, "that the intelligence community knows the location of the surface to air missiles and the radars," thanks to the AWACS.
High-speed anti-radiation missiles, or HARMs, can then take out the radars – which would render the Libyans' missiles dumb without having to take out every missile station. Bombing would take care of the Libyan command and control centers, too, once AWACS identifies them. And a blind Libyan air command can't challenge NATO aircraft. "If you take out the command and control, [the Libyans] may get lucky," says retired Maj. Gen. Irv Halter, who helped run Operation Northern Watch, the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, "but they'll be looking through a soda straw."
A trickier target will be the Libyan fleet of attack helicopters, which Marine Commandant James Amos identified as a crucial part of Gadhafi's arsenal. While it's possible that precision weaponry from the NATO aircraft thousands of feet above could take the copters out, military analyst Kori Schake of the Hoover Institution suggests using French and British carriers in the southern Mediterranean to launch helicopters of NATO's own, plus "missiles and naval gunfire" to keep the copters grounded. (There's also talk of cratering runways and helicopter staging areas, so the aircraft can't get off of the ground.)
Halter notices something significant about the Libyan MiG and Mirage jets: They're flying at about 15,000 feet, and only during the day. That tells him they're worried about shoulder-fired and truck-launched missiles from the rebels beneath them, and their own pilots aren't very accurate at night. Accordingly, that means any Combat Air Patrol to keep the Libyans out of the sky should cover the daylight hours – 14, 16 hours at most.
Piotrowski's calculation is to run four Combat Air Patrols, or CAPs, of two aircraft each during that time: F-15s, F-16s, maybe with the F/A-18s from the Navy or Marines, equipped with air-to-air missiles to shoot down Libyan planes if necessary. (Retired Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula recently wrote that NATO should use F-22 Raptors, but Halter said the Raptor's stealth capabilities weren't necessary for Libya; besides, there aren't any F-22s based in Europe.) From Irving's perspective, an open-ended mission would require about 50 fighters – F-15s and -16s, plus British Tornadoes and French Mirages – with eight planes in the air at all times during the CAPs. He also advises keeping at least 10 and up to 20 KC-135 airborne tankers in the skies to allow for refueling – meaning those tankers won't be helping planes over Afghanistan refuel.
Where would those planes fly from? In addition to keeping an aircraft carrier in the southern Mediterranean, pretty much everyone agrees that the ideal base to support a no-fly mission is Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, about 300 miles from Libya. It's got "a good runway, a good taxiway that can act as an alternate/emergency runway, reasonable amounts of parking for large and small aircraft alike, and of course housing for the operations and maintenance crews for a Northern Watch-level of resources," says retired Col. Rod Zastrow, another Northern Watch veteran.
Zastrow thinks Northern Watch, a mission that lasted over a decade, is particularly illustrative for Libya. "We would have roughly four F-15 aircraft flying what I would call 'top cover' and then a number of aircraft below or near us ready to engage any [surface-to-air missiles] that might pop up or to drop bombs on pop-up AAA [anti-aircraft artillery] or pre-approved targets as retribution for AAA fired on us on the current mission," he recalls. Add up all the AWACS, other intelligence aircraft, refuelers and fighters, and by by 1999, the U.S. had 24 planes in the air "to cover maybe a three-hour window on a roughly every-other-day schedule."
If all this seems like a large commitment, on an open-ended schedule, it should. All the debate over a no-fly zone hasn't resolved just what the goal of the mission would be. Buying time for the rebels on the ground? Eventually taking out Gadhafi's ground forces – which, after all, do the majority of the fighting? Staying until Gadhafi is overthrown? Also, what would the rules of engagement be? Anything that flies during the day dies? Just fighter aircraft, or would Libyan troop transport copters be fair game? And remember, as Irving reminds, "anything you use for this, you are choosing not to use them for something else."
Piotrowski says the no-fly zone should only be imposed if NATO is planning to do other things to tip the military balance to Gadhafi's enemies. Whether it's equipping the rebels or getting a proxy Arab force to help them on the ground – Piotrowski balks at NATO planes providing close air support to the Libyan rebels – the fact that NATO will be intervening means it needs "something leading to the overthrow of Gadhafi." All of a sudden, a no-fly zone – which, after all, is an act of war – doesn't seem so antiseptic. No wonder NATO isn't exactly jumping to set one up.
Photo: U.S. Air Force
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PUNE: Film director Madhur Bhandarkar had to cancel his press conference organised to promote his film Indu Sarkar on Saturday, after Congress demanded a clarification regarding Bhandarkar’s stand on the film. The film – which is to be released on July 28 – is set in the backdrop of the Emergency of 1975 and Congress workers were opposing its release.A large number of Congress activists had gathered at the venue of the press meet, compelling Bhandarkar to call it off.The director then headed back to his hotel, followed by city Congress chief Ramesh Bagwe and other party workers, who demanded that Bhandarkar must meet Congress workers and discuss the issue with them. “However, he refused to meet us. We wanted to request him not to defame the former Prime Minister of India,” said Bagwe in a release.Later, Bhandarkar tweeted, “Congress workers hv barged in the Hotel lobby & created a ruckus, me & team are stranded like hostages in hotel room. #pune activity cancelled.” Police said 22 Congress workers were detained for unlawful assembly. |
Construction on a massive sports training complex and performance centre in Winnipeg will begin this summer.
The Qualico Training Centre will feature a multi-use court space, an indoor running track, strength and cardio centres, and be used as a venue for the 2017 Canada Games. (Courtesy Sport Manitoba) The Qualico Training Centre will be built next to the Sport for Life Centre on Pacific Avenue in the Exchange District.
The 120,000-square-foot training centre, which will be a venue for 2017 Canada Games, will feature a multi-use court space, an indoor running track, strength and cardio centres.
The announcement was made Tuesday by Sport Manitoba president and CEO Jeff Hnatiuk.
"The Qualico Training Centre will host community programming for more than 100,000 kids, youth and adults every year," he said.
"Helping these kids to learn, grow and be active for life. It ensures everyone, from our littlest kids to our high performance athletes, can participate in sport and benefit from all that it offers — on the field and in life."
The Sport for Life Centre opened in 2010 in a renovated 100-year-old heritage building on Pacific Avenue.
That 84,000-square-foot facility includes the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame as well as a sport medicine centre, which offers a wide range of services — massage, chiropractic, physical therapy, sport psychology, nutritional counselling and others — for athletes of all levels as well as the general public.
Shortly after it opened, a fundraising campaign was launched for the training complex and performance centre.
Qualico's donation for the training centre was not made public. |
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By Date By Thread Ac1db1tch3z vs x86_64 Linux Kernel From: ac1db1tch3z () gmail com
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:08:23 -0700 (PDT)
/* Ac1dB1tch3z Vs Linux Kernel x86_64 0day Today is a sad day.. R.I.P. Tue, 29 Apr 2008 / Tue, 7 Sep 2010 a bit of history: MCAST_MSFILTER Compat mode bug found... upon commit! (2 year life on this one) author David L Stevens <dlstevens () us ibm com> Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:23:22 +0000 (03:23 -0700) committer David S. Miller <davem () davemloft net> Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:23:22 +0000 (03:23 -0700) This patch adds support for getsockopt for MCAST_MSFILTER for both IPv4 and IPv6. It depends on the previous setsockopt patch, and uses the same method. Signed-off-by: David L Stevens <dlstevens () us ibm com> Signed-off-by: YOSHIFUJI Hideaki <yoshfuji () linux-ipv6 org> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem () davemloft net> ------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks you for signing-off on this one guys. This exploit has been tested very thoroughly over the course of the past few years on many many targets. Thanks to redhat for being nice enough to backport it into early kernel versions (anything from later August 2008+) Ac1dB1tch3z would like to say FUCK YOU Ben Hawkes. You are a new hero! You saved the plan8 man. Just a bit too l8. PS: OpenVZ Payload / GRsec bypass removed for kidiots and fame whores. (same thing right ;)) */ Exploit attached. Another 0day bites the dust and goes into our public exploit pack :) Ac1dB1tch3z brings you ABftw.c - Linux Kernel x86_64 local not0dayanymore exploit. Attachment: ABftw.c
Description: _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ By Date By Thread Current thread: Ac1db1tch3z vs x86_64 Linux Kernel ac1db1tch3z (Sep 15) |
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team scored three power play goals en route to a 5-3 victory over Middlebury College in the 150th all-time meeting between the two long-time intrastate rivals on Tuesday night at Kreitzberg Arena.
Junior William Pelletier (St. Jean Chrysostome, Quebec) and senior Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) each had a goal and an assist, while freshman defenseman Dave Robertson (Boissevain, Manitoba) notched two assists to lead the Norwich offense as the Cadets improved to 8-1-2 in the last 11 meetings vs. the Panthers.
After each team tallied a goal in the first period, Norwich (11-5-0, 6-3-0 NEHC) used a three-goal third period to pull ahead 4-2 in a wild, penalty-filled middle stanza.
NU went 3-for-5 on the power play as they improved their man-advantage unit to No. 4 in Division III at 28.8 percent.
Middlebury (4-5-4, 3-1-4 NESCAC) took a 1-0 lead at the 4:05 mark of the first period with Stowe, Vt.'s Zach Haggerty scoring on the power play off assists from Max Greenwald and Kamil Tkaczuk to give the Panthers the early lead.
Norwich answered at the 12:57 mark of the first period with junior defenseman Brian Rowland (Waltham, Mass.) notching his third goal of the season with a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net to tie the game up at 1-1.
The Cadets took the lead for good at the 1:47 mark of the second period with sophomore Kevin Salvucci (Plymouth, Mass.) potting his team-leading 13th goal of the season by knocking a loose puck past Middlebury goalie Stephen Klein.
The Cadets added to their lead at the 11:37 mark of the second period with Pelletier scoring a shorthanded goal on a rebound off an assist from Niezgoda after Klein made an initial save on a breakaway.
Middlebury responded less than a minute later with Evan Neugold scoring his fourth of the season off an assist from Vincent Gisonti with a snipe of a wrist shot over the shoulder of NU goalie Braeden Ostepchuk (Lethbridge, Alberta).
NU sophomore defenseman Mitch Byrne (Onaping, Ontario) responded less than a minute later to give the Cadets a two-goal lead again with his first career goal. Byrne one-timed a slap shot from the high slot that beat Klein low-glove side off a pass from Pelletier. Robertson also picked up an assist on the goal.
Norwich increased its lead to 5-2 early in the third period at the 4:05 mark when Niezgoda tipped home a beautiful set-up from Robertson and Cody Smith (Hudson, Mass.). Pelletier won a face-off after Middlebury was whistled for a penalty back to Robertson, who went d-to-d with a pass to Smith. Smith ripped a low shot toward the net that Niezgoda deflected into the top right corner of the net leaving Klein no chance.
Middlebury closed the scoring at the 5:55 mark with Jake Charles scoring his fourth goal to cut the deficit back to 5-3. That's as close as the Panthers would get though as Norwich skated away with a 5-3 win for its second-straight big non-conference win after beating No. 2 Plattsburgh 6-3 last Friday night.
Ostepchuk made 19 saves to earn the victory, while Klein made 20 saves for Middlebury to fall to 3-4-1. Ostepchuk improved to 8-2-0 on the season.
Norwich returns to action on Friday and Saturday when it hosts Southern Maine and the University of New England in a pair of NEHC contests at Kreitzberg Arena. |
By Gipsy Safety
Ouverture
The “Bird Dog” is an indispensible part of many a game hunter’s repertoire. There are various types of Bird Dogs, including retrievers and pointeres, but perhaps the most interesting one (and certainly the most relevant to the topic at hand) is the Flusher.
A flusher (aka Flushing Dog) first finds the game and then drives it from its hiding place, flushing the game into the open where the hunter finishes it off.
The goal of the pass rush is to affect the QB and disrupt the play. Hitting the QB, disrupting his eyelines, moving his set point and forcing him to adjust his throwing position. In the best case, the pass rushers will sack him and put an end to the play entirely.
Nearly every QB is going to be at his best when he has a nice, clean pocket. Even when a violent outside rush is coming, if the pocket is clean, the QB can keep his eyes downfield, step up, and make a strong throw.
The 2016 Oakland Raiders pass rush has some very good outside rush. Both Khalil Mack and Bruce Irvin have been able to attack and defeat blockers outside, but for nearly this entire season, the interior pass rush has been lacking.
Jihad Ward, Dan Williams, Justin Ellis, Denico Autry, Stacy McGee, Darius Latham have all had a chance, but rarely have they been able to consistently compress the pocket from the inside or to beat the blockers and come clean.
In other words, the Raiders’ defense has two very good Hunters, but the team has no Flushers.
This becomes increasingly important against teams that feature the Quick Pass offense. Flashbacks to Drew Brees in Week 1, when he steps back and is able to get the ball out of his hands in about 2.5 seconds. All that Khalil and Bruce are doing is running 2.5 second wind sprints and never getting close.
Quick passing offenses feature short drops (3 or 5 steps) and ideally the QB is able make his drop, take a hitch step forward and deliver the ball. If the pass rush is able to push the middle of the pocket backwards into the QB, it begins to change everything. The QB is no longer comfortable; he no longer has clean space and may not feel able to step up; his view downfield can get obscured and his throwing lanes can get dirty.
Even better, if the interior pass rush is able to “flash color” (meaning for the opposing color jersey is able to escape from a blocker and become visible to the QB) it can disrupt the QB. If an interior pass rusher can come free, then it forces the QB to either adjust in the pocket or to scramble outright.
So what do you do if you do not have that interior pass rush and are facing a Philip Rivers-led quick passing offense?
One solution is to have Khalil Mack become an interior disruptor. Have Khalil run more counter, inside rushes rather than those outside ones. Instead of attacking Rivers and trying to sack him, attack the area of pocket about 2-3 yards in front of where his launch point is. Put a mess right in front of Rivers and force him to adjust.
When a QB moves like this, it makes things difficult for the blockers; they have their backs turned to the QB and their blocking sets and their technique is designed to protect the intended pocket. When the QB moves, the blockers may no longer be protecting the correct area of the field. Sometimes the blockers actually HELP the pass rusher get to the QB’s new position.
Since Rivers is a traditional pocket QB and not a mobile one, losing contain has little consequence (compared to someone like Alex Smith). So Mack can sell out for these types of disruptions and set the stage for someone else to finish off the play.
Here’s a look at a few plays that show this in action.
Play 1 – Flushing for Bruce, Sack 1
1. Rivers’ Drop
The Green circle shows where Rivers’ back foot will set, about the 13 yard line.
2. Pass Rush Lines
Mack jabs outside and then attacks inside. Curiously, Denico Autry also loops into that same game causing a bit of a pileup.
Notice that Mack (and Autry) rush and disrupt the pocket at about the 16-17 yardline, right in front of where Rivers wants to set up.
Bruce Irvin’s outside rush is well past Rivers’ set point. The RT does a good job of setting inside and riding Bruce around past where the expected set point is.
3. Dropping
Rivers sets.
Mack and Autry crash inside. Mack coming inside leaves the left side completely open and the disruption forces Rivers to move that way.
Bruce loops up and outside and here we see that without the interior pressure, Bruce probably just goes right on by.
4. The Scramble direction
And here we see how Rivers will escape.
5. No Chance
Rivers has a 5 yard head start but Bruce will close on him for the sack.
Play 2 – Flushing for Bruce, Sack 2
1. Rush Lines
Mack on the left will again rush inside. Darius Latham is to Mack’s right and also crashes hard inside, this draws the RG and allows Mack to attack the inside against the RT (and possibly the RB chip)
Bruce takes an outside rush and as in Play #1, his original path would take him up and around Rivers’ initial set.
2. Rush
Mack’s fake outside rush gets the RB chip to avoid him and thus leaves him with a clean 1-on-1.
Latham’s inside rush opens up the inside pass rush lane.
3. Escape
And here we see how Mack’s rush affects Rivers into running right into Bruce’s sights.
4. Disruption
“RAWR!”
Mack crashes hard right in front of Rivers and gets into his eyeline and his passing lane. Rivers drops his eyes to look at him and Mack’s arm in the air threatens to swat a ball if it’s thrown.
On the outside, Irvin is actually well-handled and the LT has set him to loop out and around Rivers… if the pocket were clean.
5. Run Away
Rivers scrambles and Bruce easily takes him down.
Play 3 – Flushing for Bruce, Final Play
This is very similar to Play #2. This time Mack makes less of a disruption and Rivers is able to adjust and re-set himself. But it still puts him right in the line of fire for Bruce Irvin and Rivers can’t make a clean, strong throw.
* * *
Now that we’ve seen some of the effective uses of Mack disrupting the pocket from the inside, here are a couple of plays that show what happens when the pass rush doesn’t quite work in sync like that.
Play 4 – Flushing for Nothing
1. Dropback
This is Rivers’ dropback from Under Center.
2. Drop + Rush
Mack will do as before and take a jab outside and then counter inside to attack the interior pocket to disrupt Rivers.
3. Rush
That’s Denico Autry on the left of the image. To the right side, Jihad Ward and Bruce Irvin are stonewalled.
Perry Riley dropping in coverage.
Malcolm Smith in the middle fakes a blitz and draws the Center. When Malcolm then drops back, the Center is just reaching for air and blocking no one.
That’s 3 1-on-1 matchups aside from Mack and the Chargers win each one.
Mack “flashes color” as he comes up the middle at Rivers.
4. Escape Route
Rivers’ escape route is to his left and fortunately for him, there are no Raiders nearby
5. Clean Pocket
After re-setting, Rivers has no one near him; he’s able to easily set, scan, and throw.
Rivers is flushed, but there’s no chase rusher to take him down.
Play 5 -No Inside Presence
1. Dropback
Rivers drops straight back.
2. Rush
This time Mack will take the outside rush
3. Chase
Rivers sets.
Mack wins his 1-on-1 with the LT with some beautiful hand-fighting (more on that later) and is able to flatten his rush to hit right on Rivers’ set point.
From this still, looks like Mack’s 9th straight game with a sack coming up.
4. Clean Interior Pocket
Rivers has a nice and relatively clean pocket in front of him. When he feels Mack closing, Rivers will calmly step up away from the danger and make the downfield throw.
Nate Allen recognizes Rivers stepping up and is rushing up the middle, but he’s way too late to make an impact on the play (more on that later).
5. Throw
A lesser QB may have been sacked here, but Rivers is able to move just enough and get the ball out quickly enough to turn a potential sack into a big gain (you can see that TJ Carrie was beaten and slips on the play).
Nate Allen
Nate Allen comes on a blitz, but then suddenly pulls up. #85 Antonio Gates is blocking, but gives an impression that he may be running a route. Allen’s first assignment is to help Perry Riley and then to rush.
When Allen recognizes that Gates is in protection, Allen is able to re-start his rush, but by then it’s too late.
In hindsight, if Allen continues to come, he may have been able to affect Rivers’ throw or his physical presence up the middle may have prevented Rivers from stepping up and allowed Mack to have the sack.
Again, we see that Ken Norton Jr recognizes the need to affect the interior pocket and that he cannot rely on the D-Line to do so. Here, he calls for the Allen blitz and it’s a great call, but just doesn’t quite get the job done.
note : I’m imagining Karl Joseph blitzing on this play and screaming up into Rivers’ face…
It is these little details that make big differences in a play from a 10 yard sack to a 20+ yard gain.
Bonus : Mack’s handfighting
Mack’s handfighting in 2016 deserves a full post on its own; he’s been doing a number of very interesting things and he’s getting very good at it so quickly.
Here’s yet another play where he’s attacking the blockers hand, wrist, or arm (in this case it is the wrist) and get free.
In a way, we should credit all non-called holds for inciting Mack to work on his handfighting. These techniques prevent the linemen from being able to hold him.
Finale
Very rarely does a team get to field an absolutely perfect group of defensive players and so the defensive gameplan has to adjust for the talents of the players that are taking the field.
The very clear weakness of this group is the interior pass rush and so an interesting adjustment against San Diego’s quick pass attack was to try to disrupt Rivers by having Mack (and sometimes other players) attack the interior pocket, flushing him and allowing for opportunities for other players.
Bruce Irvin was the most notable beneficiary and came thru with 2 sacks and multiple pressures for one of his most obviously excellent games of the season.
In these plays, Mack took on the role as the Flusher and let Bruce be the Hunter.
What makes this particularly noteworthy is that (a) it was an effective adjustment from Ken Norton Jr and (b) this interior pass rush is precisely what Mario Edwards Jr’s return promises to improve.
Perhaps the best example of this is from last year’s game v Denver
Here Brock Osweiler feels Khalil Mack to the outside and wants to step up in the pocket. Mario Edwards is crushing the pocket from the inside. Osweiler has nowhere to step up into and ends up turning right into Mack for the sack.
The Interior Pocket is crucial not just to padding Mack’s stats (thought that’s certanly nice), but for making QBs uncomfortable. Just the bodies and the physical presence of a “dirty” middle of the pocket can make QBs a little bit nervous even if no one actually gets a hit.
Last year, Malik Jackson on Denver’s DL was able to affect entire games by providing interior presence and getting into passing lanes to knock down passes. He only had 5.5 sacks last year, but 7 batted passes and was a force that really helped the outside rush of Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware, Shane Ray, and Shaq Barrett.
It’s exciting to think of Mario Edwards working his way back into game shape and being such a disruptor, but in the meantime, we also know that Ken Norton is starting to work some alternatives and this defense is able to now start attacking that interior pocket in a few different ways.
Coach Jack Del Rio speaks of Complementary Football. We can also speak of Complementary Pass Rush, where the interior and the outside presence help each other. Flushers and Hunters can switch roles and make for a brutal overall attack.
Right now, the personnel is a little lacking and the development of these players (notably Jihad Ward and Darius Latham) is just underway and not in final form.
As the injured players rejoin the team and get to full strength and as the young players grow into their full potential, we’ll see more disruptions of the QB.
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MannyToons said: Because most see it as an unfair exploit that should be removed at all costs. I personally think it actually adds an element of skill beyond "drift at this turn, drift at that turn", so I welcome it with open arms. Hell, I think it should be patched in for indrift bikes. Might as well complain about excessive wheelie-ing in MKW, imo. Click to expand...
FaultTolerance said: Because I see it as something of an exploit. You can artificially make your slideboost last longer if you avoid touching the ground. So you keep hopping and you go faster for longer. And not just a little bit longer, quite a bit longer.
That and it's only for karts, doesn't apply to inside-drifting cycles. So anyone who chooses one of those is automatically at a loss compared to someone in a kart who knows how to firehop.
It's a mechanic that I don't feel belongs in the game. Click to expand...
This is how I feel too. I think it should be embraced rather than patched out.I find a lot of accidental mechanics/exploits/bugs in games can lead to making the games more interesting and fun. Combos in Street Fighter II, strafe jumping in Quake, wave dashing in Tekken/Capcom Vs/Smash Bros were accidental techniques that added depth to their games. Sometimes unintentional parts of games can be a good thing.Mario Kart games have never had particularly great balance, so it's not surprising that specific play styles are better than others. In my opinion the better choice, as mention above, would be to let inside drifting bikes fire hop, or to buff them in a way to make their play style more rewarding. I think fire hopping is a good middle ground between standard racing and the craziness of snaking. It rewards skilful play without disrupting how the game plays as much as snaking did. |
BURGAS, Bulgaria (Reuters) - A suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed seven people in a bus transporting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the interior minister said on Thursday, and Israel said Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants were to blame.
Iran denied it was behind Wednesday’s attack at Burgas airport, a popular gateway for tourists visiting the Black Sea coast.
Video surveillance footage showed the bomber was similar in appearance to tourists arriving at the airport, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said.
The bomber had been circling around a group of buses, which were about to take Israeli tourists to a resort near Burgas, for about an hour before the explosion, the footage showed.
“We have established there was a person who was a suicide bomber in this attack. This person had a fake driving license from the United States, from the state of Michigan,” Tsvetanov told reporters at the airport.
“He looked like anyone else - a normal person with Bermuda shorts and a backpack,” he said.
The bomber was said to be 36 years old and had been in the country for between four and seven days before the attack.
Special forces had managed to obtain DNA samples from the fingers of the bomber and were now checking databases in an attempt to identify him, Tsvetanov said.
The foreign ministry said seven people were killed in the attack, including the Bulgarian bus driver and the bomber. The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed that five Israelis were killed.
The tourists had arrived in Bulgaria on a charter flight from Israel and were on the bus in the airport car park when the blast tore through the vehicle. Body parts were strewn across the ground, mangled metal hung from the double-decker bus’s ripped roof and black smoke billowed over the airport.
The U.N. Security Council on Thursday condemned the attack and said in a statement “that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.”
AIRPORT CLOSED
On Thursday, the airport in Burgas - a city of 200,000 people at the centre of a string of seaside resorts - remained closed and police prevented people from approaching.
Beyond the cordons, about 100 holidaymakers waited for their flights but had been told they would be there until midnight. Officials were setting up portable toilets and tents for stranded travelers and Bulgaria’s parliament opened with a one minute silence in memory of the bombing victims.
Relatives mourn over the coffin of Itzik Colangi, who was killed in an attack in Bulgaria, during a ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv July 20, 2012. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
“It felt like an earthquake and then I saw flying pieces of meat,” said Georgi Stoev, an airport official. “It was horrible, just like in a horror movie.”
“Yesterday’s attack in Bulgaria was perpetrated by Hezbollah, Iran’s leading terrorist proxy,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We will continue to fight against Iranian terror. It will not defeat us. We will act against it with great force.”
Israel however indicated it would not hasten into any open conflict with Iran or Hezbollah.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would “do everything possible in order to find those responsible, and those who dispatched them, and punish them” - language that appeared to suggest covert action against individuals.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev linked the arrest of a foreigner in Cyprus this month on suspicion of plotting an attack on Israeli tourists there with the Bulgaria bombing.
“The suspect who was arrested in Cyprus, in his interrogation, revealed an operational plan that is almost identical to what happened in Bulgaria. He is from Hezbollah ... this is a further indication of Hezbollah and Iran’s direct responsibility,” he told Reuters.
“BASELESS ACCUSATIONS”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman dismissed Israel’s “baseless accusations” that Tehran was involved in the bombing.
The blast occurred on the 18th anniversary of a bomb attack on Argentina’s main Jewish organization that killed 85 people. Argentina blamed Iran, which denied responsibility.
Medical officials said two badly injured Israeli tourists were taken to hospitals in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia. One woman was in intensive care with head and chest injuries and a man was in a critical state with burns covering 55 percent of his body.
About 70 Israeli tourists, including those lightly injured by the blast, left Burgas on a Bulgarian government airplane to Israel, the interior ministry said.
The European Commission and NATO condemned the attack, joining criticism from the United States, Britain, France and Germany, and the mayor of Burgas announced a day of mourning.
Israeli officials had previously said that Bulgaria, a popular destination for Israeli tourists, was vulnerable to attack by Islamist militants, who could infiltrate via Turkey.
Israeli diplomats have been targeted in several countries in recent months by bombers who Israel said struck on behalf of Iran.
Slideshow (19 Images)
Some analysts believe Iran is trying to avenge the assassinations of several scientists from its nuclear program, which Israel and Western powers fear is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists its uranium enrichment work is strictly for peaceful ends. Both Israel and the United States have not ruled out military action against Iranian nuclear facilities. |
Less than a week after the publication of a thorough report by the Cyber Threat Alliance on the CryptoWall version 3 malware family, it appears that the actors behind the malware have updated the underlying code.
Beginning on October 30, 2015, Palo Alto Networks began seeing instances of this new version of CryptoWall, which some researchers have begun calling version 4. This new version of CryptoWall includes multiple updates, such as a more streamlined network communication channel, modified ransom message, and the encryption of filenames. These changes not only make it more difficult for the victim to identify what files have been encrypted, but also may thwart security protections currently in place for the CryptoWall threat.
CryptoWall is a type of malware known as ransomware, which encrypts a victim’s files and subsequently demands payment in exchange for the decryption key. The ransom payment is typically collected using a form of crypto-currency, such as Bitcoin. Ransomware has been responsible for many millions of dollars in damages, and CryptoWall is one of the most lucrative ransomware families in use today.
CryptoWall Infections
To date, Palo Alto Networks has identified 10 unique instances of CryptoWall version 4. In total, 57 attempted infections have been witnessed.
Figure 1 CryptoWall v4 attempted infections
The samples have reportedly originated from phishing emails; however, this has yet to be confirmed. The following two URLs have been witnessed delivering this new version of CryptoWall:
http://46.30.43[.]183/syria.exe
http://46.30.45[.]110/analitics.exe
Both of the above IP addresses are located in Moscow, Russia, and are hosted by Eurobyte VPS hosting provider.
CryptoWall Modifications
The CryptoWall authors have made multiple modifications to the malware in this version. Fortunately, the majority of the code base has remained consistent with version 3. As such, reverse engineers may use structures and decryption scripts that worked on previous samples. One of the more noticeable changes in the newest revision of CryptoWall is the updated ransom notification. As we can see below, it appears that the actors behind this threat have gotten a bit snarky with their verbiage.
Figure 2 New CryptoWall ransom message (HTML)
Readers might also notice a change in the color scheme, as the actors are now using a red, yellow, and grey combination. Previously, this color scheme used blue, green, and grey. It doesn’t appear as though this change has made its way to the PNG file provided to victims, which still has the same appearance as the previous CryptoWall version. Additionally, version information was removed from these messages, as previous notices specifically called the malware ‘CryptoWall 3.0’. This revision simply calls it ‘CryptoWall’.
Figure 3 New CryptoWall ransom message (PNG)
Another noticeable change is the fact that the malware will now encrypt not only the contents of targeted files, but the names of these files as well, as we can see in the screenshot below.
Figure 4 CryptoWall v4 encryption of filenames
Encryption of the filenames makes it much more difficult for victims to identify what files exactly were encrypted.
On the network communications side, the CryptoWall authors have streamlined the process a bit to minimize the number of HTTP requests made. Network encryption appears to remain consistent with previous versions, using RC4 with a key provided in the GET request (note that the key is sorted prior to decryption). However, the outbound requests to the following URLs are no longer present:
http://ip-addr.es
http://myexternalip.com/raw
http://curlmyip.com
Additionally, the PNG file hosted by the C2 server is no longer provided in a separate response. Instead, it is included when the C2 server provides the RSA public key.
These changes limit the network-based exposure of the malware, making it more difficult for network-based security solutions to detect it.
Conclusion
As of this writing, it appears that this new version of CryptoWall is still in early use by attackers. Palo Alto Networks has witnessed 10 unique samples being used to conduct 57 attempted infections. The malware itself includes multiple modifications, including how files are encrypted as well as how network communications occur. Additionally, the content as well as the look and feel of the ransom notification have changed and appear to still be in development based on the discrepancies between the HTML files and PNG files shown to victims.
CryptoWall has been responsible for many millions of dollars in damages worldwide. The threat of ransomware has remained active for a number of years now, and shows no signs of stopping in the future. Individuals should remain vigilant about ensuring that suspicious emails are not opened and skeptical about navigating to unknown websites that are not trusted.
Palo Alto Networks WildFire customers are protected against this threat. Additionally, the latest version of CryptoWall is identified via the ‘CryptoWall’ tag in AutoFocus.
Appendix
The following SHA256 hashes of CryptoWall version 4 have been identified.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 |
An Oklahoma judge on Friday sentenced a man to death for beheading a co-worker in 2014 at a food processing plant.
Cleveland County District Judge Lori Walkley accepted a jury's recommendation of the death penalty over life in prison without parole for Alton Nolen, 33.
Jurors earlier this year convicted him of decapitating 54-year-old Colleen Hufford when he attacked her and others at the Vaughan Foods plant.
Alton Nolen is escorted from a courtroom following his formal sentencing in Norman, Oklahoma. Nolen was sentenced to death for beheading Colleen Hufford, as well assaulting several other coworkers in 2014
Colleen Hufford (left) was the victim in the Moore, Oklahoma beheading case that took place at Vaughan Foods food processing plant
Kelli Beranek, the daughter of murder victim Colleen Hufford, talks with the media following the sentencing of Alton Nolen in Norman, Oklahoma
Nolen had just been suspended from his job at the Vaughan Foods plant when he walked inside the company's administrative office and attacked his co-workers.
During the trial, prosecutors played recordings of Nolen confessing to the stabbings while he was hospitalized following the attack.
In the recordings, Nolen says he doesn't 'regret it at all' and that 'oppressors don't need to be here.'
Investigators said Nolen had just been suspended from his job at the Vaughan Foods plant when he walked inside the company's administrative office and attacked his co-workers.
His attorneys argued that he is mentally ill and that he believed he was doing the right thing because of his delusional misinterpretations of the Quran.
Traci Johnson, one of the co-workers attacked by Alton Nolen, talks with the media following his formal sentencing in Norman, Oklahoma
Investigators said Nolen had just been suspended from his job at the plant when he walked inside the company's administrative office and attacked Hufford (right) and another co-worker
But prosecutors said Nolen knew right from wrong before he attacked Hufford.
Nolen had repeatedly tried to plead guilty and asked to be executed, but Walkley declined to accept his plea.
'This was a decisive act not driven by a mental illness. I submit to you, he would do it again in a heartbeat,' Cleveland County Assistant District Attorney, Susan Caswell, said in the shocking court statement.
One of Nolen's attorneys had questioned whether his client was mentally competent to enter a guilty plea.
Cleveland County Assistant District Attorney, Susan Caswell, said in a court statement: 'This was a decisive act not driven by a mental illness. I submit to you, he would do it again in a heartbeat'
Nolen had repeatedly tried to plead guilty and asked to be executed, but Cleveland County District Judge Lori Walkley declined to accept his plea.
One of Nolen's attorneys had questioned whether his client was mentally competent to enter a guilty plea.
At a 2016 hearing, Nolen told the judge that he would only accept a death sentence, not life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.
The judge repeatedly reminded Nolen that if he pleaded guilty and waived his right to a jury trial, the decision to sentence him would be up to a judge, not him. |
Employees at a North Side lingerie shop stopped a group of suspected thieves after they ransacked part of the store and targeted multiple other businesses. NBC 5's Michelle Relerford reports. (Published Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016)
Employees at a North Side lingerie shop stopped a group of suspected thieves after they ransacked part of the store and targeted multiple other businesses.
At about 7:15 p.m. Sunday, a group of approximately six people walked into Taboo Tabou, a boutique located in the 800 block of West Belmont in the city’s Lakeview neighborhood, according to the store’s co-owner Alexis Thomas.
One employee guided the group to the lower level of the store and as one suspect distracted the employee, the others began stuffing items into bags, according to Thomas. As the group began to exit, the workers asked them to return the merchandise, but the suspects pushed passed and exited the store.
"These guys were trained professionals this wasn't just an accident," Co-Owner Mark Thomas, said.
After the two workers called police, Alexis Thomas, her husband, and Mark Thomas followed the suspects to the nearby Belmont “El” station, according to Alexis Thomas. When police arrived, an employee identified three people and they were arrested.
The suspects, Ratero Walker, 19; Aaliyah Foster, 20; Deavin Oliver, 21; were placed into custody and charged with retail theft, according to police.
"People judge us and think that they can do what they please but they don't realize what dragons we can be," Alexis Thomas said.
Alexis Thomas, who dubbed the employees as the “sex shop superheroes,” told NBC Chicago that the suspected thieves had targeted at least two other stores before hitting up Taboo Tabou. The suspects had stolen more than $600 worth of merchandise.
Taboo Tabou sells items including lingerie, erotic toys, and boudoir clothing, according to its website. |
ROOR - some of the finest quality hand-blown glass bongs and accessories in our catalog. Roor bongs are manufactured in Germany by world-renowned glass blower Martin Birzle and his team of glass-blowing experts. As an interesting fact that may or may not have been inspiration to the name. Rohr is a pipe in German and this brand is actually pronounced more like Roar. Roor could be a fun and stylish play on this word. Each Roor bong bears the signature of its creator and all Roor glass bongs and accessories are blown to perfection from the finest quality borosilicate glass. Glass wall thickness ranges from 2mm to 7mm thick. Among discerning connoisseur smokers, Roor has become a byword for elite glass smoking equipment. Like Rolex, Rolls-Royce or Swarovski, the Roor brand is widely regarded as a luxury name within its field. Here at Everyone Does It, we carry stock of hundreds of Roor glass bongs such as 250 Series Blue, Bong 100 Rasta Logo, Bong Icemaster 5mm and accessories. Browse our collection and choose your new Roor glass bong for a lifetime of smoking pleasure. |
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Those words came back to me last week not in the context of black anti-racism activism, but because President Donald Trump’s inauguration and a newly nationalist Republican Party’s control of Congress rendered progressives, liberals, constitutional conservatives, and libertarians politically marginalized to different degrees.
How should they respond?
Last weekend’s Women’s March, one of the largest protests in history, upstaged Trump’s inauguration and showed the core of his inaugural address to be nonsense. I wrote at length about the political significance of Trump’s unpopularity, his loss of the popular vote, and the millions who protested here. And protests at airports around the United States may have caused the Trump administration to reverse its decision to bar entry to green-card holders from the seven countries covered in its travel ban.
But some observers of those protests warn that they may be no more successful than the Occupy Wall Street protests if the loose coalition behind them ignores or rebels against the sorts of public relations strategies that are necessary to win coverts. As Yuval Levin put it, some activists enter this era “having managed to lose a national election to Donald Trump,” yet behave as though they are the obviously rightful voice of reason and the masses, flaunting their attributes more often than broadening their appeal. To win in a system with the Electoral College they need Red State converts.
So is this one of the occasions when “respectability politics” is essential to protecting the vulnerable? Or is there greater danger right now in the potential for its misapplication? An Atlantic reader has helped to me to think through that question.
Ronald Magee, Jr., a black medical student at Brown University, suggested an approach that taps the benefits of respectability politics without risking their misapplication. Watching the Women’s March, and writing before the airport protests over the weekend, Magee was heartened by efforts organizers made to include people of color as equals and cheered opposition to Trump and his agenda. But looking ahead, he worried that the opposition will continue to draw on protests like the Civil Rights Movement for influence without understanding why they succeeded.
“For the average white citizen (read: voter), segregation was justified on the basis that Blacks were inherently ignorant, violent, hypersexual, and a whole other litany of adjectives that became increasingly difficult to apply to the people on the television peacefully protesting in the face of water hoses and attack dogs,” he wrote. “It is difficult to convince a majority of white voters that Blacks do not love this country when thousands of them died in foxholes on the German and Pacific front. I realize this sounds a lot like respectability politics, but I think what many of us sometimes forget is that respectability was an especially radical notion back then. The notion that a Black person would have enough respect for themselves to engage in greater society on its own terms, taking full advantage of their first amendment rights in the service of demanding the rest of their rights, was sufficiently radical to warrant the most extreme resistance from all levels and facets of the State.” |
A new brain-imaging study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry suggest scientists may be able to predict how likely children are to develop depression.
“Depression is a leading cause of disease burden,” said study author Pedro Mario Pan of Universidade Federal de São Paulo. “In adolescence, consequences of depressive episodes can be serious, such as peer-victimization, self-harm, and suicide. Moreover, children and adolescents with depressive disorder may fail to accomplish important psychological developmental milestones.”
“However, we still have limited knowledge about the underlying biological brain processes that cause depression in this age range. Previous researches show that the reward system is a promising causal mechanism implicated in depression etiopathogenesis.”
The researchers used resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) to examine the brain structure of 637 children who were between 6 and 12 years old. They then conducted a follow-up survey three years later.
Pan and his colleagues found that the connectivity of the ventral striatum, a region of the brain that supports reward-processing, predicted the development of depressive disorder. Increased ventral striatum connectivity was linked to an increase in odds of depressive disorder by about 50 percent.
“We were able to show that alterations in the connectivity of brain areas previously implicated in reward processing could predict depression after 3 years. One important region where our brain integrates reward cues, the ventral striatum, played a major role in this prediction,” Pan told PsyPost.
“Importantly, we analyzed data from a large community-based longitudinal sample of unmedicated adolescents. Therefore, our findings add to previous research connecting reward circuitry and adolescent depression.”
Depression is associated with reduced motivation and reduced response to rewards. The researchers believe that hyperconnectivity within brain’s reward network may be impeding the adequate processing of rewards. However, it is too early to conclude that increased striatum connectivity directly causes depression.
“Our observational design cannot prove causality, i.e. aberrant reward processing causing depression, since we would need experimental manipulation of reward or depression to do so,” Pan explained. “Further studies are needed to explore the potential use of this altered reward circuitry connectivity as a potential biomarker for increased risk of adolescent depression.”
The study, “Ventral Striatum Functional Connectivity as a Predictor of Adolescent Depressive Disorder in a Longitudinal Community-Based Sample“, was also co-authored by João R. Sato, Giovanni A. Salum, Luis A. Rohde, Ary Gadelha, Andre Zugman, Jair Mari, Andrea Jackowski, Felipe Picon, Eurípedes C. Miguel ,Daniel S. Pine, Ellen Leibenluft, Rodrigo A. Bressan, and Argyris Stringaris. |
Juanita Broaddrick Destroys Hillary For Her Statement on Weinstein: ‘Same Behavior From Your Husband’
As previously reported, embattled Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is the subject of a devastating expose detailing decades of sexual harassment.
Weinstein is one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest donors, having raised mega bucks for the failed Democrat presidential candidate. Weinstein even threw a fundraiser for Clinton back in June, raising $1.8 million.
In the following month, Weinstein threw a concert for Clinton at the St. James Theatre.
Mr. Weinstein has also donated at least $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation, reports the Washington Times.
It took staunch feminist Hillary Clinton FIVE DAYS to speak out against Weinstein’s sexual abuse accusations.
Not only did it take five days and the conservative media pounding Hillary for her to make a statement on Weinstein’s sexual abuse accusations, the staunch feminist sent her aide, Nick Merrill to tweet it out for her.
Hillary says in her carefully crafted statement that she was “shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein”.
Juanita Broaddrick is one of Bill Clinton’s many rape accusers. She alleges former President Bill Clinton raped her twice in the late 1970’s. Broaddrick slammed Hillary Clinton on Twitter, “Hillary, you weren’t shocked or appalled. You have lived with that same behavior from your husband for decades.”
Hillary, you weren’t shocked or appalled. You have lived with that same behavior from your husband for decades. pic.twitter.com/lPzSTn9SS2 — Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) October 10, 2017
Juanita Broaddrick even told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton are ‘cut from the same cloth’. OUCH!
“Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton are cut from the same cloth,” Broaddrick charged in an interview with this reporter on Tuesday. “They are both powerful men and had the ability to protect themselves from the rumors and whispers about their well known, deviant and criminal behavior.” “Their victims were bullied into silence while most reporters and those in the ‘know’ looked the other way,” she said. Broaddrock asserted that “Hillary’s entourage waged war on Bill’s victims while Weinstein had his own army of Hollywood elite to protect him.” “It’s the same scenario over and over with these high profile sexual predators,” Broaddrick stated. “I was reluctant to come forward just like Weinstein’s victims were. Our abusers were too powerful and could destroy our livelihood and our world as we knew it.” |
Here is my recipe for a fun spring salad that was my recipe in my hungry husky column in the Daily Campus this week…
As the weather heats up, it’s time for cool, refreshing spring salads. One spring salad I particularly love features apples and caramelized walnuts. You can also add strawberries to this salad, especially good in the summer. Here are the simple instructions to making this delicious seasonal salad.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Time: 20 minutes
Here’s what you’ll need for the salad:
Lettuce of your choice
Caramelized walnuts
Cucumber
Apple
Strawberries (optional)
Here’s what you’ll need for the dressing:
Dijon mustard
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
To start, you will need to caramelize your walnuts. This takes about five minutes. It is very easy to do but adds a nice little touch to your spring salad. In a saucepan on medium high heat, add two tablespoons of brown sugar, one teaspoon of olive oil and a half cup of walnuts. When the sugar starts melting, stir it until the walnuts are coated. Then transfer the walnuts to a piece of wax paper to cool for another couple of minutes. Make sure the walnuts are separated so they do not dry and become clumps. This makes more than enough walnuts for several salads, but these keep and are nice to have if you’d like to use them as toppings on salads for another day or two.
Now you can set to work making your dressing. I always make more than necessary because you can keep this in a jar or plastic container out on the counter to use when you need it for other salads later on. Start with two tablespoons of olive oil and one teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. At this point, you can add in half a teaspoon of minced garlic. Stir, and add in a little bit of dijon mustard to thicken the dressing. Taste your dressing and adjust it to your liking. When you have it as you like it, season with salt and pepper and set aside to later put on your salad.
Now take a serving of your choice of lettuce. I chose to make this salad with a mixture of iceberg lettuce and romaine, but it would also go well with arugula or butter lettuce. Wash and cut your lettuce so you have bite-size pieces. Place the lettuce in a bowl. Now wash and cut your cucumber to include what you deem appropriate for your salad. Wash your apple. I used half of a small apple for one serving, but I did not include strawberries. You can use a quarter of an apple if you choose to use strawberries in your seasonal salad as well. Finally, throw in a couple of caramelized walnuts and add in your dressing. Mix well and serve!
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Brett Eibner played at Arkansas from 2008-10 and proved to be one of the most skilled Razorbacks to have played for Dave Van Horn. The Razorbacks and Missouri State play today for the right to go to Omaha (Neb.) for the College World Series. Eibner posted a friendly wager with former Missouri State pitcher Buddy Baumann on Twitter Sunday prior to the game starting.
So this is what I put on the line with former MSU pitcher Buddy Bauman... pic.twitter.com/VIlac36sKC — Brett Eibner (@Brett_Eibner) June 7, 2015
Eibner tied a Razorback record with three home runs in one game with his coming against Grambling State on June 4, 2010. He also tied a record that day for most extra base hits in one game that day with four. Eibner was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2010 in the second round with Pick 54. |
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović has spent her first 24 hours in New Zealand mixing with the local Croatian community.
Afte being greeted by a traditional Maori welcome at Government House in Auckland, President Grabar-Kitarović met with a number of high-profile New Zealanders of Croatian descent, including singing superstar Lorde.
Lorde, whose real name is Ella Yelich-O’Connor and claims Croatian roots on her mother’s side, posed with the Croatian president.
Later in the evening, the Croatian president attended the Croatian Cultural Society in Auckland for a special function. Hundreds turned out to meet the president as the locals, young and old, put on a display of Croatian culture, including singing and dancing for her.
“Arriving in New Zealand, Croats continued to develop fisheries, olive growing and grape growing with great success and are among the most deserving of this development in this island state. At the same time they have not forgotten their roots, and have preserved tradition, language, and customs,” President Grabar-Kitarović said.
The president will also visit Rotorua, Taupo, and Wellington on her first official state visit to New Zealand. She will also visit Simunovic’s olive grove in Bombay Hills.
It is the first visit to New Zealand by a Croatian president since 1995.
(Photos: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović/Facebook) |
Monday night's debate was filled with many GIF-able moments, but perhaps the most noteworthy was Hillary Clinton's "Woo... OKAY!" shimmy.
After Clinton was abruptly interrupted by Donald Trump, the Democratic candidate felt it would be best to literally shake off Trump's claims about his amazing judgement and winning temperament.
With a classy smile and a "Woo... OKAY!" Clinton shimmied a flashy shimmy that will live on forever as the perfect reaction GIF.
SEE ALSO: Clinton was interrupted constantly by Trump and shimmied her way through it all
Not only is Clinton's shimmy the perfect debate reaction, but the mesmerizing GIF can also be used to accurately respond to some of the most wonderful everyday occurrences.
1. When you hop on the subway seconds before the doors close
You're racing down the stairs, masterfully weaving in and out of crowds of people. Then, by some miracle, just as the closing door alert sounds, you gracefully slide between the doors into the air-conditioned car and "Woo... OKAY!"
2. When you check the time at the exact moment the clock is displaying your birth date
I wonder what time it is — OH, it's time to celebrate me! "Woo... OKAY!"
3. When you finish your fourth cup of coffee
The third jolt of caffeine was the charm... the fourth is simply, "Woo... OKAY!"
4. When you're the first one to the office and are tempted to dance
Alone in the office, you say?! "Woo... OKAY!" Time to let loose!
5. When you thought you failed a test but the curve gods were in your favor
Wait a second. You're telling me everyone got that question wrong?! "Woo... OKAY!"
6. When your ex breaks up with his new thang
Can you say, KARMA?? "Woo... OKAY!"
7. When someone says you can pet their dog
8. When your mouth is filled with peanut butter and you finally take a drink
Nothing like a nice glass of water to soothe your dry, parched mouth. "Woo... OKAY!"
9. When your Instagram post gets 11 likes
A huge shoutout to that Instagram follower who saves you from the social embarrassment of only having 10 likes on your Instagram post. The second that 11th notification pops up, you can shimmy it out like "Woo... OKAY!"
10. When you come up with the perfect comeback in the moment
You're totally filled with a feeling of "Woo... OKAY!" after seeing the look on someone's face when they did not anticipate your flawless verbal retaliation.
11. When your avocado is perfectly ripe
Slicing into the perfect avocado is the epitome of "Woo... OKAY!"
12. When your vending machine snack gets stuck on a previously stuck snack but you jiggle the machine and end up getting BOTH
Two snacks for the price of one calls for a shimmy shimmy ya shimmy "Woo... OKAY!"
13. When you get to stay in on a Friday
What says "Woo... OKAY!" more than some take-out food, pajamas and a night of Netflix?
14. When you get paid the day before pay day
You thought you were going to have to make another peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the office, but "Woo... OKAY!" you've suddenly got some cash to eat out.
15. When your Spotify Discover knows you completely
The deeply personal relationship between a girl and her playlist calls for a serious "Woo... OKAY!"
16. When you’re buying something and you’re checking out only to find that your item is ON SALE
You were totally prepared to pay full price, which makes a surprise discount even more "Woo... OKAY!"
17. When you finally get to go to the bathroom after holding it for far too long
You didn't think there was any way you could make it through that meeting wth a full bladder, but way to go, you did it. "Woo... OKAY!"
18. When the pizza delivery person rings your doorbell
After the longest 15-minute wait of your life, the delivery person arrives carrying that cheesy, steamy goodness. "Woo... OKAY!"
19. When you're getting ready to watch a montage of Trump's sniffles
Grab some tissues, because that montage can get so emotional you might run the risk of reaching peak "Woo... OKAY!" |
Caldera Mine Expanded is a mod that enhances the Caldera Mine area, making it seem as important and high-priority as quests and dialogue made it out to be. The vanilla location is dead, lifeless, and doesn't seem like one of the largest workplaces in all of Vvardenfell. Caldera Mine was impressive in vanilla Morrowind, but it didn't quite live up to the lore around it. This mod aims to fix that.
Three new Great House quests (All centered around Caldera Mine, one quest per joinable Great House).
Five new side quests centered around the Caldera Mine area.
A revamped exterior, with mining scaffolding, cranes, smelter, and many other major amenities that would be part of such a large mine. The cliff bluff itself is now more impressive than its vanilla counterpart, as well.
New NPCs.
A brand new unique weapon, accessible through any of the Great House quests in this mod (As loot, not as a reward).
Unique dialogue added to nearly every vanilla NPC at the mine, with many ordinary NPCs now serving important roles in quests.
Fixes to Caldera Mine's notes (Which contained numerous typos and a consistency error with the game world when compared to the book lore).
A lore-friendly atmosphere. We have taken pains to ensure that dialogue added to vanilla NPCs is consistent with their personality, and we've also done our best to ensure that, while expanded, Caldera Mine is still very much the Caldera Mine from vanilla, just better. You won't see 9th era battleships cruising around the mine, searching for KINMUNE or anything like that.
Hlaalu
Redoran
Telvanni
Arcimaestro Antares for Animated Morrowind.
Dongle for gate asset.
Momo for crane asset.
Morovir for cliff asset.
LondonRook for awesome mining assets (Ore vein, rope spool, smelter, workbench, mist, mine brace & pilings models)
Sachiel for spiral cliff asset.
Reizeron for quake assets.
The features of this mod include:To start theGreat House quest involving Caldera Mine, speak to Crassius Curio after completing the "Shipment of Ebony" quest. He will discuss the topic of Caldera Mine with the "business" topic.To start theGreat House quest involving Caldera Mine, you must speak to Garisa Llethri after completing "The Mad Lord of Milk" quest. Unlike the other quests, you MUST be on the stage where you are requesting Redoran Councilor support to rise in rank. If you install this mod after you've already done that, you won't be able to start the Great House quest for Redoran (This is due to the nature of House Redoran; having the quest involve Archmaster Venim and having the quest be set before the mines are shut down requires having it put in a very particular spot in the Redoran storyline).To start theGreat House quest, simply speak to Neloth anytime after you reach Spellwright rank.All other side quests may be started on-site in Caldera Mine, as given by various NPCs. If you complete the "Shut the Mines Down" quest for House Redoran, several of these quests become permanently unavailable due to the mines closing down.(For any judges who don't care to use the console to test out these Great House quests, don't fret. Use the included save files to test the Great House Quests).Ashanammu cave (A vanilla cave located in Caldera Mine) has been moved from the north side of the mine to the south side and has been expanded.Caldera Mine is fairly darker than its ultra-bright vanilla variant. Torches are recommended for traversing the darker portions of the mine (Places where the workers don't typically go). Immersive Mining : will make a quest reward pickaxe usable for mining ore! |
Vladimir Putin is minimizing his losses. Yesterday, Russia vetoed the UN resolution (proposed by the four countries that suffered the greatest loss of human life) to form a Criminal Tribunal to punish those directly and indirectly responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.
Of the 15 members of the Security Council, 11 voted for the tribunal, three Russian-friendly countries abstained, while Russia cast its veto. Russia, which officially claims to have nothing to do with the tragedy and lost no citizens, justified its veto by asserting that a UN Criminal Tribunal appointed by the UN Secretary General will turn into a “political show.” There can be no other conclusion, writes a Russian opposition figure: In its “panic” to avoid a real investigation, Russia has “admitted its guilt” with its UN veto.
If Russia were innocent (and Ukraine or the U.S. were guilty instead, as Russian propaganda claims), why would it object to a tribunal? Especially one formed by the UN where the country has its share of allies.
The Joint Investigation Team, appointed by the International Aviation Organization, should finalize its report and release it by year’s end, but leaks already point to its conclusion: MH17 was downed by a surface to air missile fired from a BUK system brought into east Ukraine from Russia and was most likely operated by a Russian crew. Under the UN resolution, this report would have been turned over to the UN Criminal Tribunal, which would open criminal proceedings. As the irate foreign minister of Australia warned: "Those responsible may believe that they can now hide behind the Russian Federation's veto,” but Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine will find an alternative prosecution mechanism.
Putin’s vetoed the UN tribunal because he knew that any real court proceeding would reveal Russia’s role in the MH17 tragedy. Connecting the dots would be easy. The tribunal would have scientific evidence, eye witness accounts and a list of suspects drawn from intercepts that lead directly to Russia.
Here is Putin’s calculation: Let the world interpret, as it should, Russia’s veto as an admission of its guilt. Through non-stop propaganda, Putin has already convinced his people that Ukraine and the United States are the guilty parties. In fact, Russians favor a UN tribunal because they are sure it will prove their country's innocence and Ukraine’s guilt.
But Putin cannot afford to let the Russian people know that it was Russian equipment and likely trained Russian experts which killed some 300 innocent victims. He must keep the MH17 investigation out of a legitimate court of law and continue to fight this as a propaganda war that he can win--at least at home where it counts.
Also on Forbes: |
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Dolphins wore their perfect season uniforms, and for at least one game in 2017, they looked the part.
Tom Brady was intercepted twice by Xavien Howard and held without a third-down conversion Monday night, and Miami snapped the New England Patriots’ eight-game winning streak with a surprising 27-20 victory.
The Dolphins (6-7) were 11-point underdogs at home, but they kept the Patriots (10-3) from clinching their ninth consecutive AFC East title — at least for another week.
“It was a bad night,” Brady said. “We’ve had a lot of good nights this year. This was a bad night.”
Brady went 24 for 43 for 233 yards and one touchdown. Miami sacked him twice and hit him five times, and held the Patriots to 25 yards rushing. New England was 0 for 11 on third down.
“Our focus every game is to hit the quarterback as hard as we can and make him uncomfortable,” defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said. “I think we did a pretty good job of it.”
The Dolphins’ Jay Cutler threw for 263 yards and three scores, including two to Jarvis Landry. Kenyan Drake had 114 yards rushing and 79 receiving.
A Brady touchdown pass cut the deficit to 10 points with 13 minutes left, but the Patriots’ next three possessions netted 5 yards. After a New England field goal, Miami sealed the victory by recovering an onside kick with 53 seconds to go.
“This gives us a boost,” Cutler said. “Winning is what keeps you in this game. The locker room after a game, there’s nothing like it.”
The Dolphins wore their 1972 uniforms, and for the first time in four prime-time appearances this season, they rose to the occasion. Miami tried to turn the game into a laugher in the third quarter when Landry caught a touchdown pass and then set the ball down in the end zone and pumped it repeatedly — a reference to the Patriots’ Deflategate scandal.
“It’s all about taking the air out of the ball,” Landry said.
Coach Adam Gase beat New England for the first time in four tries. His team snapped the Patriots’ 14-game road winning streak, second-best ever behind San Francisco’s 18 in a row from 1988-90.
Gase threw a lot of wrinkles at the Patriots early, with tight end MarQueis Gray and receivers Landry and Jakeem Grant taking turns lining up in the backfield.
“We used a lot of guys,” Cutler said. “We were mixing it up. Adam was dialing it up well.”
Cutler spun out of the grasp of blitzing safety Jordan Richards to throw a completion that kept Miami’s first touchdown drive going.
The 5-foot-7 Grant made a leaping catch against Malcolm Butler for his first career touchdown reception, a 25-yarder.
Meanwhile, the Patriots sputtered without tight end Rob Gronkowski, who served a one-game suspension for a late hit to the head of an opponent.
“We got beat in all three areas of the game,” coach Bill Belichick said.
BALL HAWK
Brady underthrew an open Brandin Cooks deep, and Howard closed for the interception and a 29-yard return to set up a touchdown. Howard also had two interceptions a week ago against Denver.
Brady came into the game with only four interceptions all season.
SLOW START
The temperature was 55 degrees at kickoff — frosty by Miami standards — and the Patriots were sluggish from the outset. They were outgained 123 yards to 2 in the first quarter, when Brady went 0 for 4 with an interception.
ANTHEM
The Dolphins’ Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas and Julius Thomas knelt in protest during the national anthem, as they’ve done for most of the season. Stills was nominated by his teammates last week for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
INJURIES
Patriots DT Alan Branch left the game with a knee injury. Starting S Patrick Chung limped off in the final minute.
UP NEXT
The Patriots visit AFC North champion Pittsburgh on Sunday in a possible playoff preview.
The Dolphins play the Bills in two of their final three games, including Sunday at Buffalo. |
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