text
stringlengths 465
100k
|
|---|
Ashley Snipes says a cup of kratom tea can ease her chronic pain enough to get her through the day, allowing her to care for her family and to work on her feet as a pharmacy technician.
"I thought it was amazing. It took away almost all of my pain, but I didn't feel jittery. I didn't feel numb like a lot of the pain medicines can make you feel," said Snipes.
Snipes says she chose to use natural kratom instead of taking up her doctor's offer to send her to a pain clinic for strong painkillers, after a genetic test indicated she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a group of connective tissue disorders. Snipes had struggled for years with pain and has had eleven surgeries.
The kratom plant is either a helpful way to cope with pain and curb addiction to prescription painkillers, or an illegal substance in Tennessee, depending on who you ask. Dosing for Snipes and others who self-medicate with it depends on information they gather in online kratom groups.
"I think the patients need to have more control over their health care," said Snipes, "and we also need to have alternatives for when the doctors fail us, like having the kratom."
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says it considers all forms of kratom illegal, even considering natural kratom to be a designer drug. The TBI says its protocol in the lab is not to test for the difference between natural and synthetic forms of kratom. The Tennessee Attorney General's office has been asked to make public a legal opinion about the state's law as it applies to kratom.
On Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018, however, Local 8 News obtained a copy of a legal opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General's office, which said having the kratom plant in its natural form is not against Tennessee law. The letter was in response to a request for legal opinion by State Senator Mark Green.
The State Attorney General clarified that synthetic forms of the substance found in the kratom plant are not legal in Tennessee.
The plant, with origins in Southeast Asia, is listed in a 2013 version of a Tennessee law outlawing other drugs. However, a lawmaker involved in adding the main ingredient, Mitragynine, to that law, said the intent was not to outlaw natural kratom.
"The problem has come with the interpretation of the law, but I'm telling you what legislative intent was. Legislative intent will stand up in court," said former 2nd District Representative Tony Shipley of Kingsport. "We did not outlaw naturally occurring kratom. Having said that, I'm not advocating kratom or not advocating kratom."
Special agent Tony Farmer with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said, "Being that it's an A misdemeanor, it's not something that's gonna be high on our radar, as something we're chasing, but it is enough to send a message that it's illegal, it can't be sold in our state, it can't be possessed in our state."
The TBI said of the 40 kratom samples sent to the organization's lab since 2012, most have been in powdered form, but some have been in liquid form. While you can find kratom-related drinks that look like energy drinks online, Local 8 News searched for these at five Knoxville-area convenience stores and found none of the beverages.
The TBI said its lab protocol is not to decipher whether kratom samples are natural or synthetic, but to simply look for its key ingredient of concern and determine its legality. Some in law enforcement told Local 8 News they think kratom is harmful, while advocates for the substance debate their evidence. Those on all sides of the debate seemed to agree the substance needs more scientific research behind it.
Christopher Miller said he once traveled to Nashville to sell kratom to a person who turned out to be an undercover officer.
"Once I drove down there, undercover cops swarmed me, and I was arrested," he told Local 8 News. "I had a plant, it's organic, it's not a synthetic opioid, it's an organic alkaloid." The case against Miller was retired for a year.
The lawmaker at the center of Tennessee's law against kratom said it's only about the synthetic version, not the plant. "The district attorney declined to prosecute because he didn't think the law applied, and he was correct," Shipley said.
Miller said his lawyer told him the plant he was trying to sell was not illegal. But Miller also said he no longer sells directly in Tennessee, and he moved across the state line into Kentucky.
Miller said he now only sells online, and he even claimed his product isn't meant for people to ingest. "I'm not selling this for human consumption, so I don't, like I said, I sell this for research purposes. So, when it comes to dosing and all that, that's not what I'm selling this for."
Follow our series on Kratom on Local 8 News. |
Getting youth involved in open source
In January 2014, Opensource.com featured a selection of articles focused on how kids and teens are using open source. We called it our Youth in Open Source week.
The reaction from our readers was amazing. They commented on stories, shared with friends and colleagues, and sent us new stories about how youth they know are involved in open source.
We decided to collect these stories, and other relevant articles previously published, as part of our Open Voices eBook series so that you can take them along with you on your favorite reader device.
In this collection, discover how to get youth interested in coding, information on the various Linux distributions for kids and educators, the best projects for kids and beginners to open source, and more. Hear how students, parents, programmers, start-ups, IT directors, and others educate, include, and involve our youth in learning about and using open technologies and open principles.
Download this free eBook
Getting youth involved in open source [ePub] | [ODT]
License
Copyright © 2014 Red Hat, Inc. All written content licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Articles in this eBook
Create your own eBook using open source tools. Just follow our eBook creation guide. |
… Including the right to a living wage, housing, and health care. More than 70 years later, Bernie Sanders says he is a “Socialist”, but he sounds a lot like Franklin Roosevelt in arguing, in effect, for a new “New Deal.”
It’s January 1944. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is nearing the end of his third term. He is just back from the Cairo and Tehran Conferences where he met with the leaders of Britain, Russia and China. The purpose of the meetings was to discuss strategies for defeating Germany and Japan and how the Allies would manage the peace once the war had come to an end.
Returning home, FDR is concerned that, once the war is over, the country may repeat the retrenchment and isolationism that followed W.W. I. He uses the occasion of his 1944 Annual Message to Congress, his first major speech after returning from the Mideast, to argue that Americans need to pull together not just to win the war, but to build a strong and robust post-war economy.
But that can’t happen, FDR believes, if large segments of the population are left behind, as they were in the Great Depression, an era of massive unemployment and poverty that marked the initial years of Roosevelt’s presidency.
To ensure that doesn’t happen again, FDR proposes an Economic Bill of Rights to supplement the political Bill of Rights handed down from the founding of the Republic. He envisions the U.S. as an economic powerhouse second to none in the world – a country in which no one lives in poverty or wants for the necessities of life, including a living wage, a decent home, quality medical care and education.
Normally Roosevelt would have delivered his speech in person before Congress. However, FDR was apparently ill with the flu and chose instead to deliver the speech by radio as a fireside chat from the White House.
The following excerpt speaks directly to Roosevelt’s call for an economic Bill of Rights:
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Today, we are experiencing some of the slowest economic growth in modern history. Wages are stagnating and people are finding it increasingly difficult to find decent jobs.
This is the type of economy, Roosevelt warned, that is “the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
Of all the candidates, Bernie Sanders in particular has been unequivocal in his call to tackle poverty and wage inequality in the tradition of FDR and the New Deal.
Sanders writes:
Let’s be clear, it is a national disgrace that 46.5 million Americans are living in poverty today, the largest number on record. It is a national disgrace that at 21.8 percent, the U.S. has the highest childhood poverty rate of any major country on earth … Here in the United States, significant progress has been made but much more needs to be done to provide dignity and opportunity to all Americans regardless of income.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt has a “Special Place in Heaven” among liberal Democrats. And from that special place, we strongly suspect that FDR is cheering Bernie on and praying that he will finish the work that FDR began more than 70 years earlier. |
In the early years of the battle over climate science, advocates and scientists went out of their way to stress how much was understood and relatively certain in the study of climate. This "science is settled" approach was a predictable response to the well-funded campaign of obscurantism launched by fossil fuel interests and their friends on the right, which cynically used uncertainty as an argument for delaying action.
Now that climate hawks are emerging a bit from their defensive crouch, however, more attention is turning to the many uncertainties that haunt climate. Consider these layers:
To begin with: How will human economic activity this century translate into greenhouse gas emissions? How much will we emit? To answer that, we need to know how much population will grow, how much the global economy will grow, what per capita emissions will look like in 2050, 2080, etc. Which leads to: How will a rise in greenhouse gases translate into a rise in global average temperature? How sensitive is climate to greenhouse gases? (In the biz, "climate sensitivity" refers to the rise in temperature that would result from a doubling in global greenhouses gases from pre-industrial levels.) Which leads to: How will a rise in global average temperature translate into climate impacts (rising sea levels, etc.)? How do systems like ocean and air currents respond to temperature? What kinds of responses will be seen in different subclimates and latitudes? Which leads to: How will the impacts of climate change translate into impacts on human lives and economies? In other words, how much will climate impacts hurt us? How much GDP growth will they thwart (or reverse)? Will future people be richer and better able to adapt, or poorer because of climate change itself?
The really funny thing? The answer to 4 depends on the answer to 3, which depends on the answer to 2, which depends on the answer to 1, which depends on ... the answer to 4.
It's a loop. An uncertainty loop!
Basically, it's difficult to predict anything, especially regarding sprawling systems like the global economy and atmosphere, because everything depends on everything else. There's no fixed point of reference.
Grappling with this kind of uncertainty turns out to be absolutely core to climate policymaking. Climate nerds have attempted to create models that include, at least in rudimentary form, all of these interacting economic and atmospheric systems. They call these integrated assessment models, or IAMs, and they are the primary tool used by governments and international bodies to gauge the threat of climate change. IAMs are how policies are compared and costs are estimated.
So it's worth asking: Do IAMs adequately account for uncertainty? Do they clearly communicate uncertainty to policymakers?
The answer to those questions is almost certainly "no." But exactly why IAMs fail at this, and what should be done about it, is the subject of much debate.
On one hand, there are people who believe that making climate policy without models and scenarios to guide us is hopeless. They think IAMs can be improved, both in their accuracy and in the way they frame and express degrees of uncertainty. On the other hand, you have people who believe that the entire exercise is futile, that the faux precision of these models only misleads policymakers, and that the attempt to predict the far future should be abandoned in favor of a more values-based, heuristic approach.
Let's run through the critiques.
Save IAMs by better capturing their uncertainties
A major new working paper was recently released that bears directly on this question. It's called "Modeling Uncertainty in Climate Change: A Multi-Model Comparison," which probably sounds boring until you hear that it's "the first multi-model analysis of parametric uncertainty in economic climate-change modeling"! Ahem. Anyway, it's by some of the leading lights in the climate economics and policy worlds, including legendary environmental economist William Nordhaus of Yale.
The paper is fairly technical, but the upshot is that the IAM community is likely underestimating uncertainty (and, therefore, misleading policymakers).
There are lots of IAMs out there, probably a dozen or so in common use. The way researchers have typically tried to assess the degree of uncertainty in climate forecasting is by comparing projections across different IAM models. The spread between the projections is used as a stand-in for the degree of uncertainty involved. This is known as the "ensemble" technique, as it makes comparisons across an ensemble of models.
The authors argue that this is a woefully misleading approach. To explain why, they distinguish two sorts of uncertainty:
Model uncertainty has to do with how various structural features and functions of the models are specified. What variables do they include, and how are the variables treated? Once the parameters are input, how are outcomes calculated?
has to do with how various structural features and functions of the models are specified. What variables do they include, and how are the variables treated? Once the parameters are input, how are outcomes calculated? Parametric uncertainty has to do with the uncertainty of the parameters themselves. There may be one central estimate for growth in greenhouse gas concentrations and another for growth in per capita productivity, but one of those estimates may be far less certain (have a wider probability distribution) than the other.
This is not exactly intuitive, so let's look at an example.
One parameter that plays a key role in every model is "equilibrium climate sensitivity," which refers to how much temperature rise would result from a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (relative to pre-industrial levels). There are varying estimates of climate sensitivity across different IAMs.
If you compare estimates of climate sensitivity across different IAMs (the ensemble technique), say the authors, all you'll uncover is model uncertainty — the way different models treat it, the different variables and calculations they use.
However, the authors say, it may just be that the models are all drawing on the same limited pool of data and research on climate sensitivity — that they are, in effect, sharing the same educated guesses. It may be that a given estimate of climate sensitivity contains more uncertainty within itself (parametric uncertainty) than there is between models (model uncertainty).
In the paper, the authors make what they believe is the first attempt to quantify parametric uncertainty in a selection of popular IAMs. It involves picking three key parameters and doing what sounds like a lot of tedious work with various modelers, attempting to standardize metrics and outcomes across models. They also develop a way to quantify the relative contributions of parametric and model uncertainty.
We'll skip to the conclusion: For most variables, model uncertainty represents less than a quarter of overall uncertainty. Most of the uncertainty in IAMs is parametric uncertainty. (The only variable for which model uncertainty is the majority is the social cost of carbon, probably because it's powerfully affected by choice of discount rate.)
The authors conclude that "relying upon ensembles as a technique for determining the uncertainty of future outcomes is (at least for the major climate change variables) highly deficient. Ensemble uncertainty tends to underestimate overall uncertainty by a significant amount." (my emphasis)
There are tons of other interesting results buried in this monster paper — for instance, out of various parameters, uncertainty about future productivity growth has by far the largest implications for outcomes, "which suggests that uncertainty in GDP growth dominates the uncertainty in emissions" — but I don't want to bore you, so let's move on.
Saving IAMs by reducing their uncertainties
One of the biggest knocks against IAMs is that many of their key variables are, to put it technically, pulled out of modelers' asses.
For instance, how much will rising temperatures impact the overall macroeconomic productivity of an economy? In other words, what is the "damage function" of rising temps? That's obviously a key question for determining outcomes, but to date, the damage functions used in IAMs have generally been produced via the rectal extraction procedure described above.
Lately, though, there's been some great empirical research on these questions. On rising temperatures, for instance, there have been a lot of actual observations, at the local or regional level, of how heat impacts productivity. So many researchers — see here for a widely hyped paper on the subject — are setting out to update IAMs with better, more empirically informed parameters and functions. They are reducing uncertainty the old-fashioned way, by closely observing the world.
These researchers are convinced that IAMs, even if misleading now, can be made useful through this sort of research. (For another such argument, see here.)
Some analysts say IAMs are so misleading they should be tossed
Consider, again, the layers of uncertainty described at the top of this post. Consider the assumptions upon assumptions upon assumptions required to squeeze all those uncertainties into specific ranges of numbers, and then the additional assumptions required to model how those various uncertain phenomena will interact with one another.
Or to put it another way: Think about how insane it is to try to predict what's going to happen in 2100.
There is a school of thought that says the whole exercise of IAMs, at least as an attempt to model how things will develop in the far future, is futile. There are so many assumptions, and the outcomes are so sensitive to those assumptions, that what they produce is little better than wild-ass guesses. And the faux-precision of the exercise, all those clean, clear lines on graphs, only serves to mislead policymakers into thinking we have a grasp on it. It makes them think we know exactly how much slack we have, how much we can push before bad things happen, when in fact we have almost no idea.
In the view of these researchers, the quest to predict what climate change (or climate change mitigation) will cost through 2100 ought to be abandoned. It is impossible, computationally intractable, and the IAMs that pretend to do it only serve to distract and confuse.
I covered that argument at some length in this post, if you want a nice, nontechnical rundown. This is another short, accessible take. See also MIT's Robert Pindyck, whose 2013 contribution has an abstract so punchy that I'm going to quote the whole thing. The paper's called "Climate Change Policy: What Do the Models Tell Us?"
Very little. A plethora of integrated assessment models (IAMs) have been constructed and used to estimate the social cost of carbon (SCC) and evaluate alternative abatement policies. These models have crucial flaws that make them close to useless as tools for policy analysis: certain inputs (e.g., the discount rate) are arbitrary, but have huge effects on the SCC estimates the models produce; the models’ descriptions of the impact of climate change are completely ad hoc, with no theoretical or empirical foundation; and the models can tell us nothing about the most important driver of the SCC, the possibility of a catastrophic climate outcome. IAM-based analyses of climate policy create a perception of knowledge and precision, but that perception is illusory and misleading.
In this telling, IAMs inherently exaggerate our certainty; they have to, to make the numbers run.
The point about "catastrophic climate outcomes" is important, and the basis for another common critique of IAMs. The charge is that IAMs can only model continuous damage functions — that is, damages that rise smoothly and continuously. They are incapable of dealing with discontinuities, with sudden, nonlinear changes. These are the "tipping points" people are always worrying about, wherein some natural or social system, subjected to continuous stress, experiences a rapid, lurching phase shift to a different state. Some argue that cost-benefit analysis — of which IAMs are an elaborate form — are intrinsically incapable of dealing with such catastrophes.
If not IAMs, then what?
Many people, even when confronted with the shortcomings of IAMs, are loath to let them go, for the simple reason that they don't see any alternative. If you don't do your best to tally up all the forces and costs involved and weigh them against one another, well, what else would you do? Just guess? Make policy on the basis of instinct and ideology? Better a flawed guide than no guide at all, right?
This is a big subject, deserving of its own post, but it's worth citing one (probably the most popular) alternative.
A Harvard climate economist named Martin Weitzman has, for several years now, been mounting a counterargument to the use of IAMs (and conventional cost-benefit generally) to assess climate policy. The best expression of the argument remains his influential 2009 paper "On Modeling and Interpreting the Economics of Catastrophic Climate Change." (See also last year's "Fat Tails and the Social Cost of Carbon" and his new book with economist Gernot Wagner, Climate Shock.)
In a nutshell, Weitzman argues that climate risks have "fat tail" distributions. In a normal bell-shaped probability curve, the sides drop off quickly — the risks of more extreme outcomes (the tails on either end) fall quickly to zero. But in a fat-tail distribution, risks fall off more slowly at the tails. There are small but non-negligible risks of very extreme outcomes.
In the case of climate change, there are small but non-negligible risks of outcomes so extreme (say, temperature rise of 8° C or more) that they threaten the continuation of advanced civilization. The cost of these extreme scenarios is, for all intents and purposes, infinite. In a cost-benefit analysis, it follows that they are worth literally anything to avoid.
That can't be right, though. It can't be that we should spend literally any amount of money to avoid the small chance of catastrophe; there are, after all, other kinds of possible catastrophes. That bill would get really big, really quick.
In other words, Weitzman argues, fat-tail risks break cost-benefit analysis. (There's a mathematical way of expressing this, but it makes my head hurt.) He thinks we need a new metaphor, a new way of approaching the problem.**
He suggests we view climate change mitigation as a kind of insurance. We pay for fire insurance for our homes, not because we think a fire is likely, but because the price of a fire would be so large if it occurred. Unlikely as it may be, it's worth the money to hedge against it. This isn't an exotic approach — market traders and analysts price risk all the time.
What would that mean for policymaking? This paper, from (the aforementioned) Frank Ackerman and colleagues, puts it pretty well:
A better approach to climate policy, drawing on recent research on the economics of uncertainty, would reframe the problem as buying insurance against catastrophic, low-probability events. Policy decisions should be based on a judgment concerning the maximum tolerable increase in temperature and/or carbon dioxide levels given the state of scientific understanding. The appropriate role for economists would then be to determine the least-cost global strategy to achieve that target. While this remains a demanding and complex problem, it is far more tractable and epistemically defensible than the cost-benefit comparisons attempted by most IAMs. [my emphasis]
This strikes me as a better use of modeling than an attempt to specify exactly what our targets should be, based on scenarios plotting out the next 50 to 100 years of industrial civilization. Such scenarios have always seemed faintly absurd to me, for reasons more commonsense than mathematical.
Scenario building makes more sense as a way of testing policies against one another, a way of navigating toward goals that have been determined the old-fashioned way: through compassionate values, empirically informed judgment, and strategic political organizing. Models are best seen as tools, not masters or oracles.
Further reading:
There's been lots of good stuff on climate policymaking in the face of uncertainty, including several past posts from yours truly. A selection:
And here's some other recent work on the subject:
"Moving beyond benefit–cost analysis of climate change" is an excellent, approachable discussion of alternate policy approaches, by Jonathan Koomey.
An entire issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society devoted to climate uncertainty.
devoted to climate uncertainty. A paper on the history of "uncertainty analysis."
The Weitzman/Wagner book Climate Shock is a great introduction and overview for lay readers.
There's no doubt much, much more out there. If you know of particularly good stuff, send it my way and I'll add it to the list.
** It's worth noting that Weitzman's work is controversial in climate wonk circles. Nordhaus wrote a comprehensive response to Weitzman; Weitzman in turn reviewed Nordhaus's book; Nordhaus in turn reviewed Weitzman's new book. There have been many more exchanges, genial but sharp, and many other wonks have weighed in as well. You are welcome to Google if you're hungry for more.
Nordhaus's main argument is that many or most climate risks do not in fact have fat tails, so Weitzman's analysis is limited. In fact, he makes that argument in the paper I cited above.
I'm not qualified to settle this dispute, obviously, but my gut says the lack of fat tails Nordhaus cites tells us more about IAMs than the risks themselves — it's an artifact of their assumptions. Either way, I think the insurance metaphor is powerful, even apart from the details of Weitzman's analysis. Your mileage may vary. |
Not everyone at a gathering has the same reaction to the sight, or should I say stink, of marijuana. Some will lick their lips in anticipation of being propelled into a delicious psychosocial gavotte. Others will frown or skitter away, fearful they’re about to find out why the word “dude” is sometimes spelled “doood.” Some will simply think, “Midnight Express.”
The etiquette of pot smoking in social settings is largely uncodified. Yet the world needs an Emily Post to hack a pathway through this fuggy thicket, particularly given pot’s increased presence in the mainstream. The recreational use of marijuana is now legal in two states, as is the medicinal use of it in 18 states and the District of Columbia. In 2010, there was the publication of “The Cannabis Closet,” a collection of testimonials from ganja-loving top executives and government employees and responsible parents, all of which had appeared on the writer Andrew Sullivan’s blog. The thicket: it grows ever thicketier.
If there are no children present, is it appropriate for a host to ask guests if they want to get high? Some people think that doing so puts the invited on the spot. “I just keep a decorative bong on a shelf in my living room,” said Rick Steves, who lives in Edmonds, Wash., and is the host of the public television show “Rick Steves’ Europe.” “If someone comments on it, then it opens up the conversation.” Asserting that liquor is better than pot for social lubrication, he added: “It’s rude to break up a party by bringing out the pot. Especially for nonsmokers, it can be awkward. If one spouse smokes and the other doesn’t, it’s like, ‘O.K., we’re not on the same wavelength, party over!’ ”
Other marijuana enthusiasts believe that Mr. Steves’s view regarding the incongruity between a THC-fueled guest and a non-THC-fueled one is overstated. Bill Maher, the host of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” said: “Alcohol is the substance where people feel the most uncomfortable when the other person isn’t also consuming it. I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me, ‘I won’t drink if you don’t.’ ” |
private Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia
Liberty University (LU) is a private evangelical[7] Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia.[8]
It is one of the largest Christian universities in the world and the largest private non-profit university in the United States, measured by student enrollment.[9][10] As of 2017 , the university enrolls more than 15,000 students at its Lynchburg campus and more than 94,000 students in online courses for a total of about 110,000 in all.[11] The school consists of 17 colleges, including a school of medicine and a school of law. It offers 297 bachelors, 319 masters, and 32 doctoral areas of study.[12] Liberty's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Liberty Flames. Their college football team is an NCAA Division I FBS Independent, while their other sports teams compete in either the Atlantic Sun Conference or Big East Conference. Liberty's athletes have won a total of six individual national championships.[5]
Studies at the school have a conservative Christian orientation, with three required Bible-studies classes in the first year for undergraduate students.[13] The school's honor code, called the "Liberty Way", prohibits premarital sex and private interactions alone between members of the opposite sex.[14][15] Described as a "bastion of the Christian right" in American politics, the university plays a prominent role in Republican politics[16] Liberty promotes the Christian right viewpoint[17] on matters such as gender roles and abortion,[18] and this also affects curriculum - for example, creationism is taught alongside the science of evolutionary biology.[7][19]
History [ edit ]
Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell and Elmer L. Towns the university began as Lynchburg Baptist College.[20] Already pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, Falwell served as the first president of the school. The name was changed to Liberty Baptist College in 1977 before settling on Liberty University in 1985. Liberty University's tax exempt status was formally recognized by the IRS in 1987. Upon the death of his father in 2007, Jerry Falwell Jr. became the university's president.[20][21]
Since 1999, Liberty has had an informal relationship with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia by way of having two members from that organization on the university board of trustees.[22][23]
In its early years, the university was held afloat financially by major donors.[24] The university was placed on probation multiple times in the 1990s by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools due to heavy debt loads.[24] In 1990, the university's debt totaled $110 million; in 1996, it totaled $40 million.[24] As of 2017 the university's endowment stands at more than $1 billion and gross assets are in excess of $2 billion.[25]
In 1985, the university began a distance learning program by mailing VHS tapes to students[24] and was the forerunner to Liberty University's current online program. When high-speed internet connections became more widespread around 2005, Liberty began to offer online courses to a larger adult population.[24]
Campus [ edit ]
DeMoss Learning Center at Liberty University
Liberty University Vines Center
Main, East and North Campuses [ edit ]
Main Campus [ edit ]
A $120 million campus expansion was announced in August 2011. The expansion includes more dorms, greener space, and more academic buildings allowing the campus to hold 20,000 resident students.[26]
The Freedom Tower was completed in February 2018. At 275 feet, it is the tallest building in Lynchburg.
Freedom Tower was completed in February 2018; it is the tallest building in Lynchburg.[27] The tower includes Liberty's replica of the Liberty Bell, which was first shown at the celebration of America's bicentennial in 1976 and Liberty's renaming from Lynchburg Baptist College to Liberty Baptist College and will be housed in the new structure along with twenty-four other bells.[28]
In Summer 2016, two new dorm buildings were completed on Main Campus.[29]
The 60,000-square-foot Liberty Athletics Center (LAC) was completed in November 2017. Designed to be the central hub for Liberty Athletics, the facility includes an Olympic sports weight room and an athletics training facility. [30]
The Montview Student Union was completed in Fall 2016.[31] It houses amenities including an eight-lane bowling alley, convenience store, a game area with billiards and various game consoles, and meeting rooms for several clubs including the Student Government Association. Dining options include Mediterranean food, burgers, Asian food, pizza, and a teahouse. It also has a large event space that seats about 700 people.[32][33] The dining facility is operated by Sodexo America.[31]
The 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) LaHaye Student Center has a lounge, cafe, multi-purpose rooms, and athletic facilities.[34] The adjacent Tilley Center has various social and recreational facilities. Other projects include a 60-mile (97 km) mountain bike trail system, a motocross facility, paintball fields, 3D archery range, intramural sports program and club sports, including lacrosse and ice hockey, which plays in an ice rink donated by Dr. Tim and Beverly LaHaye, and a new indoor soccer facility.[citation needed]
An indoor practice facility opened in mid-2017.[35] The 95,000 square-foot structure provides a full-size AstroTurf indoor football practice field, plus end zones, with a 70-foot ceiling clearance allowing for special team drills.[35]
Liberty University's Center for Music & Worship is hosts the Miss Virginia beauty competition which sends the winner of the state to represent it in the Miss America Pageant.[36][37]
East Campus [ edit ]
Liberty University's Campus East housing complex consists of 30 multi-story apartment style dormitories, the last six of which were completed in 2007. Rooms in these dormitories have their own kitchens, living room and private baths. David's Place, a clubhouse, offers a swimming pool, billiards room, game room, a private theater, and a bistro styled restaurant.[38]
Renovation of the Hydaway Outdoor Recreation Center was completed in summer 2017. Hydaway provides students with the opportunity to enjoy an array of recreational activities, such as: swimming, fishing, mountain biking, canoeing, ATV riding, zip lining, standup paddleboarding (SUP) and kayaking. Open from sunrise to sunset, Hydaway offers an 8-acre lake and a beach area. Hydaway Lake is stocked with largemouth bass, bluegill, and crappie for catch-and-release by students. Hydaway also offers a 12 site campground and a 50-mile trail system.[39]
Top of the Snowflex synthetic ski slope overlooking Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre
Construction was completed in August 2009 on the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre, a synthetic ski slope featuring Snowflex; the Centre was designed by England's Briton Engineering. It includes beginner, intermediate and advanced slopes, and is the first of its kind in the United States.[40] The Barrick-Falwell Lodge sits at the bottom of the Snowflex ski slope and offers a full-service rental shop for skiing and snowboarding equipment, as well as a concessions stand.[41]
The Observatory Center opened in the spring of 2013 next to the Equestrian Center. The dome consists of a classroom that can fit up to 20 people. It houses a 20-inch (510 mm) RC Optical Systems Truss Ritchey-Chrétien high-quality research telescope and several Celestron CPC 800 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes on pedestals, able to roll out under a roof. The observatory serves three purposes: instruction, public nights and research. Student Activities controls the use of the observatory and is open to all students.[42]
The Liberty University Equestrian Center is home to Liberty Hunter and Western Equestrian teams, as well as student boarders and Kinesiology riding classes. Three main barns hold 52 permanent horse stalls and 5 indoor wash stalls with hot water. Altogether, the Liberty Equestrian Center is nearly 500 acres with 80 stalls, about 140 acres of turnout and 72,000 square feet of high tech riding surface. Liberty's equestrian teams have also won various championships such as 2017 IHSA Regional Champion Hunter Seat Team, 2017 IHSA Regional Cacchione Cup, and 2017 Tournament of Champions Hunter Medal.[43][44][45]
It was announced in December 2016 that Liberty University will be constructing an on-campus shooting range for students to protect themselves against active shooters and terrorist attacks.[46] The new gun range, known as the Liberty Mountain Gun Club, was completed and opened in early 2018. The Liberty Mountain Gun Club has venues for all Olympic shooting sports and a new competitive shooting team was formed. The shooting range is open to students and the public, who have to first complete a free firearms safety course through the Liberty University Police Department.[47][48]
During the spring of 2007, a secondary practice facility for the Liberty volleyball program was opened as part of a new, on-campus training complex. The existing $750,000 facility on Campus East houses the volleyball coaches' offices and a team room, and serves as the team's practice facility whenever the Vines Center and Schilling Center are unavailable.[49]
North Campus [ edit ]
On September 24, 2010, Liberty opened the Tower Theater, with seating for up to 640 people. The theater includes balcony seating, an orchestra pit, catwalks, a fly tower, a box office and 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of support area.[50] The tower was originally part of a cell phone plant. BCWH Architects, which designed the adaptation of the tower as a theatre, won first place at the ASID's annual IDEAs for the Contract Institutional Category.[51]
In January 2012, the Department of Theatre Arts announced the formation of a professional theater company to occupy the Tower Theater. The Alluvion Stage Company hires professional actors, alumni, and current students to produce two shows each year.[52][53]
Libraries and museums [ edit ]
Integrated Learning Resource Center [ edit ]
The Integrated Learning Resource Center (ILRC) has three components: the Curriculum Library, Computer Labs, and Media Services. The library contains the following: around 250,000 paper volumes, over 150,000 e-books, more than 97,000 unique electronic and print periodical titles, and more than 200 electronic databases.[54] Students have access to the ILRC. Freshmen have a mandatory session in the Curriculum Library to assess basic research skills.[54] Education students can make use of textbooks and teaching material. DVDs, CDs, and videos are available for audio visual use.[55] Sixteen classroom labs contain more than 470 computers, with more than 350 computers in open spaces, and over 250 computers throughout the campus. All of these computers have a high-speed internet connection.[54] Specific tutor sessions are available and posted at the ILRC.[56] Media Services includes classroom technical support, Smart Board support, basic video duplication, and equipment for classroom projects.[57]
Liberty University students are provided academic counseling and support services through the Center for Academic Support and Advising Services (CASAS). CASAS contains new student orientation support, professional academic advising, continuing education counseling, tutoring and testing services, and career placement services.[58] A component of CASAS is the Bruckner Learning Center, which seeks to "provide University-wide academic support services for all students and faculty in general and special needs students in particular".[59] The Bruckner Learning Center offers courses in transitioning from high school to college, college learning strategies, advanced reading and vocabulary development, and developmental math to help students succeed in the college environment. Additionally, in 2010, Liberty University opened the Osborne Assistive Learning Technology Center in the A. Pierre Guillermin Library, which is a learning and testing center for special needs students. The lab works in with the Bruckner Learning Center and contains assistive software, such as text-to-speech and speech-to-text programs for visually impaired or reading disabled students.[60]
Jerry Falwell Library [ edit ]
In January 2014, Liberty University opened the new Jerry Falwell Library. The four-story, 170,000-square-foot building is located behind the Vines Center.[61] The library features a robot-assisted storage and retrieval system for over 250,000 archived items, with room for another 170,000. The robot locates requested items within a large storage room and delivers the items to the front desk. There are also 150 public computers throughout the building for electronic archive research. The library features group study rooms, writable walls, balconies, terraces and a vegetative roof. The entrance to the library is highlighted by a 24 ft media wall powered by three Microsoft Kinect units and integrated using a custom program. The media wall uses motion-sensor technology to enable visitors to scroll through university news, browse pictures contributed from students and learn about upcoming university events.[62] The $50 million library is part of a larger $500 million building and expansion plan announced by Liberty University.[63][64]
National Civil War Chaplains Museum [ edit ]
The National Civil War Chaplains Museum contains exhibits about clergy members and religious activity during the Civil War era. It is the only museum in the nation devoted to this purpose. The mission of the museum is to "educate the public about the role of chaplains, priests, and rabbis and religious organizations in the Civil War; to promote the continuing study of the many methods of dissemination of religious doctrine and moral teachings during the War; to preserve religious artifacts, and to present interpretive programs that show the influence of religion on the lives of political and military personnel."[65] A 501(c)(3) organization, the museum rents space from Liberty University's DeMoss Center. It has 10,000 square feet, with a 50-seat video theatre, archive displays, a research library, and bookstore.[citation needed]
The museum commemorates Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish chaplains (including African American chaplains), and houses publications and artifacts from both the Union and Confederate militaries. There are several areas in the museum that are given special attention including:
The role of the United States Christian Commission, which is the forerunner to today's USO and Red Cross. [66]
"The relationship of religion to political and military leaders, common soldiers, and the public in the North and South."[67]
Two new exhibits have been added to the museum as of 2012 : "a "mourning room" with period furniture and decorations (including a cross formed from the woven hair of dead Confederate soldiers), and an exhibit on Civil War sharpshooters featuring Rev. Lorenzo Barbour, chaplain to the Confederate Berdan's Sharpshooters."[68]
In September 2012, Liberty University hosted the 16th annual Civil War Seminar. Titled "1862-The Rise of Lee and Grant", the seminar featured presentations on many different Civil War issues, highlighted by lectures on Grant's Mississippi and Vicksburg Campaigns and Lee's Seven Days' Campaign. The event also featured an online simulation of the Battle of Antietam.[69]
Carter Glass Mansion [ edit ]
The Carter Glass Mansion is an historic home originally built in 1923 by U.S. Senator Carter Glass, a newspaper publisher, politician and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Woodrow Wilson as well as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and President Pro Tempore of the Senate during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[70] Also known as Montview, the mansion is part of the National Register of Historic Places and is a state landmark. The 1.7-acre (0.69 ha) estate consists of a 1 1⁄ 2 -story main building flanked by slightly smaller ells. The 18-inch (46 cm) walls are constructed of quartz fieldstone quarried from the property and the mansion is covered with a grey gambrel roof.[70] The estate was purchased by Liberty University in the late 1970s to function as the headquarters of the university administration, housing the main office of university founder Jerry Falwell. One of the many reasons for the estate's continued fame is that Falwell died at his desk at the Carter Glass Mansion on May 15, 2007; his office has been preserved in the same condition ever since. Falwell and his wife were buried on the rear lawn of the mansion and a memorial to Falwell was placed there, overlooking the rest of the campus. The estate now serves mainly as a tourist site for the historically restored mansion as well as the Falwell office, while the upstairs section of the mansion has been converted to a bed and breakfast for Liberty University guests.[71]
Academics [ edit ]
Liberty University Colleges and Schools[72] College/school Aeronautics Applied Studies and Academic Success (CASA) Arts and Sciences Behavioral Sciences Business Communication and Digital Content Divinity Education Engineering and Computational Sciences Health Sciences General Studies Government Law Music Nursing Osteopathic Medicine Visual and Performing Arts
Liberty University School of Aeronautics Cessna 172
Liberty's DeMoss Hall, the campus's main academic building exhibiting Jeffersonian architecture.
As of August 2017 , Liberty University offered over 550 total programs, 366 on campus and 289 online.[73] There are 144 graduate programs and 4 doctoral programs offered on campus.[73]
Liberty is classified as a doctoral research university with moderate research activity by the Carnegie Classification.[74]
Liberty is recognized by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education.[75][76]
College of Arts and Sciences [ edit ]
The Liberty University College of Arts and Sciences includes eight different departments that range from mathematics to ROTC. The College of Arts and Sciences offers PhD, masters, bachelors, and associate degrees.[77] The current Dean is Dr. Roger Schultz who focuses on educating students with hands-on experience.[78]
Liberty teaches young Earth creationism, a pseudoscience, alongside evolution as a science in biology and earth science classes.[79]
College of Osteopathic Medicine [ edit ]
In August 2014 Liberty University opened the college of osteopathic medicine, known as Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM).[80] The college is housed in a new 144,000-square-foot, $40 million building completed in 2014 next to Candler Mountain.[80][81] The college will feature a Christian faith-based curriculum consistent with Liberty University's mission statement in addition to the accepted curriculum expected of recognized accredited colleges of osteopathic medicine. The college received provisional accreditation from the American Osteopathic Association through the American Osteopathic Association Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation in 2013 and is eligible for full accreditation in 2018.[82] The college has secured long-term affiliations with Halifax Health, the Johnson Health Center, LifePoint, and a 30-year clinical clerkship and graduate medical education affiliation with Centra Health that includes a commitment of clinical rotations for 80 students per year.[80][83]
In July 2015 the college of osteopathic medicine opened Liberty Mountain Medical Group LLC, a primary care clinic serving the greater Lynchburg area. The clinic is staffed by licensed physicians from the college's professors as well as clinicians from Central Virginia Family Physicians. The clinic will offer a range of services such as family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and sports medicine, as well as medical labs and x-ray machines. The clinic is able to serve approximately 180 patients daily. The clinic will also provide opportunities for students of the college to gain access to and participate in the care of patients as well as shadow specialists.[84][85][86]
The school is a culmination of over 4 years of planning, starting with a $12 million grant sanctioned by the Virginia Tobacco Commission and matched by Liberty University to build a college of osteopathic medicine and expand the health sciences school.[87][88] This grant is the second largest ever authorized to a medical school by the Virginia Tobacco Commission.[87]
Helms School of Government [ edit ]
Liberty's Helms School of Government offers degrees such as Criminal Justice, Public Policy, etc. in bachelor's, master's degrees as well the terminal degree in these subjects; a Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice as well as one in Public Policy.[89]
Rawlings School of Divinity [ edit ]
The Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Divinity School) was founded in 1973 and offers various degrees for both academic and vocational endeavors. Many programs are on campus only, while others are available online.[90] The Rawlings School of Divinity is housed in the Freedom Tower, the tallest building in Lynchburg.[91]
Center for Ministry Training [ edit ]
The Center for Ministry Training is the practical experience requirement for Liberty University School of Divinity students. The requirements are much like internships for other programs with a religious aspect involved in the experience. Specifically, the CMT includes Ministry Impact and Supervised Field Ministry Experience (SFME). Ministry Impact asks a Ministry Specialist to speak on practical aspects of ministry in the world today. Additionally, "[t]he main requirement for completing SFME is completing a minimum of 40 hours of field ministry during each semester."[92][93][94]
School of Aeronautics [ edit ]
Liberty offers many degrees in Aeronautics from professional pilot to UAS [95] Liberty's School of Aeronatics currently has over 1,200 students worldwide.[96] Liberty's drone program was ranked sixth in the nation.[97] Liberty has partnered with various airlines (American Eagle, Piedmont Airlines and Wayman Aviation) to alleviate pilot shortages [98][99][100] Liberty University School of Aeronautics flight team captured the prestigious Loening Trophy awarded to the outstanding all-around collegiate aviation program in the nation at the 2017 and 2018 NIFA SAFECON National Competition. In addition, the team captured the American Airlines Safety Award for the third year in a row.[96]
School of Business [ edit ]
In 2016, Liberty announced a new 78,000-square-foot, three-story academic building. The new School of Business facility will complement the classical Jeffersonian architecture of Liberty's main campus, such as the nearby DeMoss Hall. It will feature a number of innovative spaces, including stock trading simulation rooms with ticker boards, information technology labs, networking and data centers, a 500-seat auditorium, and the 2,000 square-foot Center for Entrepreneurship, which will serve both the campus and local communities.[101]
Liberty also partnered with the Charlotte, N.C.-based Hendrick Automotive Group, the nation's largest privately held car dealership group, to establish an auto dealership management curriculum.[102]
School of Engineering [ edit ]
Liberty's School of Engineering offers degrees in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.[103] In 2017 Liberty bought The Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER) facility in Bedford, Virginia. The property was bought for $4.3 million with the goal of moving its School of Engineering to the facility. The goal is to become a major research university and for the university to work with companies in the energy sector, establishing a research-focused campus within the park that will lead to new technologies and create new business opportunities.[104]
School of Law [ edit ]
Liberty University School of Law ranks among the top 10 law schools in the United States for post-graduation unemployment at a rate of 26.3%.[105] Currently, Liberty has a School of Law student body population of 168 and is ranked 9th in the Moot Court National Ranking.[106] In January, 2009, the controversial former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline became a professor at Liberty's School of Law.[107]
Center for Law and Government [ edit ]
In 2017 Liberty announced its new Center for Law and Government will be led by former U.S. Representative Robert Hurt. It will work with both the Liberty University School of Law and the Jesse Helms School of Government. Future plans include a new building including an arena, lecture halls, and classrooms.[108]
School of Music [ edit ]
The departments of worship and music studies and of music and humanities were merged in 2012 into a school of music, itself composed of two distinct centers. The Center for Music and Performing Arts emphasizes music education and performance technique, while the Center for Music and Worship seeks to train skilled musicians as worship leaders and specialists within the Christian music industry. The school occupies a building opposite the Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center. The building includes a fine arts auditorium for university and community use, and is part of Liberty University's campus transformation initiative.[109][110][111][112]
The building also includes a recording studio for the university's label, Liberty Music Group, which includes the formerly independent label Red Tie Music. In acquiring Red Tie, LMG planned to expand the label beyond its previous church-focused market by dividing into several "sub-labels" for different markets.[113]
Technical Studies and Trades [ edit ]
Along with over 15 other associate programs, Liberty offers Vocational education with various associate degrees in Carpentry, Electrical, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC), Plumbing, and Welding. These trades are approved by the National Center for Construction Education and Research, and let graduates pursue an apprenticeship after completion.[114]
Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center [ edit ]
Liberty University offers a Bachelor of Science in Cinematic Arts Degree, which is based in the new Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center (ZGCAC).[115] Subjects include: producing, directing, screenwriting, cinematography, production design, post-production, general production, documentary, and narrative. Around $1.5 million was spent on professional equipment.[116]
In the fall semester of 2012, 40 students were accepted as the inaugural class to major in Cinematic Arts. The program has expanded to 160 students. In the first year, students write a screenplay, and produce and direct a short film.[116]
In Spring 2018, the ZGCAC collaborated with an outside studio to produce a feature film about President Donald Trump.[117][118]
Liberty University Online [ edit ]
Liberty University has an internet education component which is called LU Online, previously the Distance Learning Program (DLP). Prior to the launch of its online education component in 2009, Liberty University provided adult learning courses through the LU School of Lifelong Learning (LUSLLL) by way of its External Degree Program. The LUSLLL was Liberty University's fastest growing school at the time with Jerry Falwell forecasting in his 1997 autobiography an enrollment of 40,000 students in the early 21st Century, with the expectation of an addition 10,000 students studying on campus at the same time. Both expectations have been surpassed by current enrollment figures.[citation needed] Liberty's online component currently provides degrees from Associates level to Doctorate. The online school runs unilaterally with the semester program offered at Liberty University's campus. One difference with LU Online is that students take 16-week (full semester) classes for a few of their cataloged courses while the remainder are taken in 8-week subterms which are titled B, C, and D. These subterms provide the student with scheduling flexibility through shorter, slightly overlapping sessions. There is a separation at the 600-level and above at which courses are only offered in the B and D terms.[119] LU Online promotes teacher/student discourse through interactive online discussions and class size limits (capped at 25 students).[120] Liberty University reports that enrollment for their online program is six times greater than their residential enrollment, with about 80,000 of their 92,500 total students enrolled online.[121]
Rankings [ edit ]
Liberty University is ranked #231–300 (of 311 total) in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of "National Universities."[13] In 2017, Forbes's list of America's Top Colleges ranked Liberty University 610 of 650 overall as a "Top College", 242 as a "Research University" and 157 "in the South". Forbes also gave Liberty a "Forbes Financial Grade" of B+.[124] In 2016, Liberty University ranked above the national average graduation rate of 42%, with 50% of Liberty students graduating within 6 years. This statistic includes the over 100,000 online student population.[125]
Liberty is consistently ranked as the 'Most Conservative College in America' by Niche and various other publications.[126][127][128] Niche also ranks Liberty as the #1 best 'Online College in America' and as having the #6 best 'College Campus in America'.[129] Its college campus is ranked as one of the 10 largest college campuses in the U.S., with over 7,000 acres.[130]
Liberty University was ranked by U.S. News & World Report in several categories for 2015:
Regional Universities (South) – 80th
Best Colleges for Veterans – 37th
Best Online Bachelor's Programs – 79th
Best Online MBA Programs – 93rd
Best Online Graduate Business Programs (Excluding MBA) – 61st
Best Online Graduate Criminal Justice Programs – 18th
Best Online Graduate Education Programs – 112th
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs – 56th[131]
Liberty has also been ranked one of the ten most conservative colleges in the U.S. by Young America's Foundation.[132]
In 2005, Barron's Profiles of American Colleges ranked undergraduate admission to LU as a "competitive," its fourth-highest of six ranks.[133][134]
Accreditation [ edit ]
Liberty was founded in 1971 and received Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation in 1980,[135] which was most recently reaffirmed in 2016.[136] In addition, it was accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) in September 1984, but resigned its TRACS accreditation on November 6, 2008.[137][138] Liberty has more than 60 accredited degree granting programs.[139] The law school, which opened in August 2004, gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 2006 and was granted full accreditation in 2010.[140] The medical school, which opened in 2014, is accredited by the American Osteopathic Association Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (AOA-COCA). On December 9, 2009, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. announced that "Liberty University has received Level VI accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). This is the highest classification from SACS and is reserved for colleges and universities that offer four or more doctoral degrees.[141] Liberty is also accredited by: Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET),[142] National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE),[142] Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE),[142] Aviation Accreditation Board International (AABI),[143] National Association of Schools of Music (NASM),[144] Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE),[142] Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP),[142] Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP),[145] Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP),[146] and the Commission on Sport Management Education (COSMA)[147]
Student life [ edit ]
Demographics [ edit ]
The acceptance rate for new first-time, full-time students entering Liberty's resident program in Fall of 2014 was 20.2%.[148] Liberty's annual enrollment includes over 15,000 residential students and over 100,000 online students as of August 2016 .[149][150][151]
As for the fall of 2016 the racial make up of students on campus at Liberty was 70% White, 15% Unknown, 5% Hispanic/Latino, 5% Black, 2% Two or more races, 2% Asian, .5% American Indian/Alaskan Native.[152] Including online students, Liberty's undergrad population was 51% White, 26.5% Race/Ethnicity Unknown, 15.4% Black or African American, 2.3% Two or More Races, 1.7% Hispanic/Latino, 1.4% Non-Resident Alien, 0.9% Asian, 0.6% American Indian or Alaskan native, 0.2% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.[153] All 50 States and Washington DC are represented along with 86 countries.[154]
As of 2010 , when including online students, LU was the largest Evangelical Christian university in the world.[155] As of 2013 , LU was the largest private non-profit university in the United States.[9] In terms of combined traditional and distance learning students, Liberty University is the 7th largest four-year university, and the largest university in Virginia.[156]
Anti-LGBT stance [ edit ]
Liberty University prohibits transgender identities and prohibits sexual relations between same-sex couples (whether they are married or not).[157][158] Students at the university have criticized the university for being unwelcoming to LGBT students.[157] Campus Pride, an organization that advocates for LGBT rights on college campuses, listed Liberty University as one of the worst universities for LGBT students.[159] Falwell Jr. says the university does not have an anti-gay bias, and some gay students have defended the university.[157]
In 2015, Liberty University denied the discounted tuitions to the same-sex and trans spouses of military personnel that it offered to heterosexual military couples.[160]
In 2016, it was reported that the university made a special order for a version of a psychology textbook that omitted sections containing LGBT content.[161]
Honor code [ edit ]
The Liberty University honor code prohibits premarital sex, and attending dances.[14] Visiting members of the opposite sex alone is also prohibited.[15] Students are not allowed to consume alcohol or tobacco.[162] In 2015 Liberty revised the code to give students the freedom to watch rated "R" movies and to play video games rated "M".[163] In 2017 the curfew policy was changed to permit students age 20 and over to sign out and stay out past curfew.[164] In 2018 a bill was rejected that would have allowed off campus drinking, "foul language" and the use of tobacco.[165]
Convocation [ edit ]
Convocation at the Vines Center
Residential students at Liberty are required to attend Convocation at the Vines Center twice per week, although they have one unexcused absence per semester to use, which must be cleared with leadership.[166]
Athletics [ edit ]
Williams Stadium
Liberty's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Liberty Flames. They compete primarily in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Starting in 2018, the football team began competing in the FBS as an independent.[167] Liberty is a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference for 17 of its 20 varsity sports. Women's swimming competes in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association, and women's field hockey competes in the Big East Conference.[168] The field hockey team had been a member of the Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference before that league's demise following the 2014 season. It then competed as an independent in the 2015 season before joining the Big East Conference for the 2016 season and beyond.[169] The university regularly competes for the Sasser Cup which is the Big South's trophy for the university which has the best sports program among the member institutions. Liberty has won the Sasser Cup ten times, placing it first in cup titles in the Big South.[170] In 2012 Liberty became the first Big South school to win 5 consecutive Sasser Cups.[171][172]
Newly renovated Williams Stadium is home of the Liberty Flames football program. Started in 1973, the Liberty Flames Football team originally used Lynchburg's City Stadium as their home stadium until October 21, 1989, when the Flames played their first home game on-campus at Williams Stadium in front of 12,750 fans.[173] Recent upgrades to the stadium include increased capacity from 12,000 to 19,200 attendees, luxury suites, a Club level and a new media area. Additional phases of stadium expansion will increase seating to 30,000.[174]
Basketball [ edit ]
Liberty University is also notable for its basketball programs and its venue, the Vines Center, that can house up to 9,547 spectators for its games.[175] Several members of the Liberty men's basketball (Liberty Flames basketball) team have been recruited to the NBA.[176][177] The women's basketball team (Liberty Lady Flames basketball) was honored by the Big South "with the Top 25 'Best of the Best' moments in League history from 1983–2008, with Liberty University's 10-year women's basketball championship run from 1996–2007 being crowned the No. 1 moment in the Big South's first 25 years."[178]
Baseball [ edit ]
The Liberty Baseball Stadium, completed in June 2013 and home to Liberty Baseball, has been ranked No. 4 in best college ballpark experiences of 2015 by the Stadium Journey website.[179] The stadium includes 2,500 chairbacks, locker room, four indoor batting tunnels, four luxury suites, offices for the baseball program, a weight room, team room and a fully functional press area.[180] Several Liberty Flames baseball players were drafted during the 2015 Major League Baseball draft. With their fan base ever growing, local stations are airing select games.[181] Some games have even been chosen to air nationally on ESPNU.[182]
Hockey [ edit ]
Liberty University supports men's and women's club ice hockey teams. Men's hockey started in 1985[183] when students at Liberty self-organized a team to compete against surrounding colleges and clubs[184] but has since become a competitive club team competing against much larger schools such as University of Oklahoma, University of Delaware, and Penn State University.[185] In 2006, Liberty University opened the 3000-seat LaHaye Ice Center, which was a gift from Dr. Timothy and Beverly LaHaye.[186] Also in 2006, Liberty became the only school in the state of Virginia to host a men's Division I American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) club hockey team[184] Currently, Liberty University has Division I, II and III men's teams and Division I and II women's teams, making it the only school in the ACHA to host 5 club hockey teams.[183] The men's Division I team is coached by Kirk Handy,[184] while the women's Division I team is coached by Paul Bloomfield.[187]
Cross Country [ edit ]
The men's and women's cross country teams have long been a conference powerhouse, and Josh McDougal (2007) and Samuel Chelanga (2009-2010) won the NCAA Div I individual laurels. Chelanga took two additional gold medals and three silvers in outdoor and indoor competition in three years, still holds the collegiate 10,000 meter record set in 2010, and won All-American honors 14 times.[188]
Clubs and organizations [ edit ]
Liberty University LaHaye Student Union building
According to Liberty's website,[189] there are over 100 registered clubs on campus.
Speech and debate [ edit ]
Liberty's Inter-Collegiate policy debate program ranked first overall for their division in the Championships at the National Debate Tournament in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011.[190][191][192][193][194][195] The overall rankings include varsity, junior varsity, and novice results. In varsity rankings, Liberty finished 20th in 2005, 17th in 2006, 24th in 2007, 12th in 2008, 9th in 2009, 4th in 2010 and 4th in 2011. Through 2016, Liberty hosted the Virginia High School League's (VHSL) annual Debate State Championships every April. Subsequent to controversial remarks made by Chancellor Falwell in December 2015 following the 2015 San Bernardino attack, a number of high school students, teachers, debate coaches, and parents expressed concerns over Liberty's suitability for high school events, and some teams chose to not send students to compete at the annual State Championship in 2016.[196] VHSL discontinued using Liberty as a venue for debate competition after 2016 to ensure an "environment free from harassment, personal threat, or physical or mental harm."[197] In 2017, Liberty University's Debate Team finished atop the final rankings of all three national debate tournaments for the eighth time, sweeping the American Debate Association (ADA), the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA), and the National Debate Tournament (NDT). Liberty remains the only school in the country to finish first in all three rankings in a single year. The team has placed first in the CEDA for the last eight years, first in the NDT for seven out of the last eight years, and first in the ADA for 13 out of the last 14 years.[198]
Finances, marketing, and recruitment [ edit ]
The initials of Liberty University, on Candler Mountain, as viewed from near campus.
In May 2012, Liberty University Chancellor and President Jerry Falwell Jr. announced that the school's net assets are worth $1 billion, in part from the success of its online learning program and from accelerated facility expansion.[120][168] The valuation is a 10-fold increase since 2006.[120]
In December 2010, Liberty sold $120 million in facilities bonds, with the proceeds to be used to finance future expansion.[199] An additional $100 million in taxable bonds were sold in January 2012, with the proceeds used to help finance $225.2 million of planned capital projects around the campus over the next five years.[200] The bond offering is part of Liberty University's campus transformation plan[26] which will include several renovations and additions to academic buildings and student housing, as well as fund the new Jerry Falwell Library and formation of a medical school. The bonds received a rating of "AA" from Standard & Poor's and in 2013 received an upgraded rating of "Aa3" along with a "stable outlook" projection from Moody's Investors Services based on "...the increasing scope of the University's activity", "...its large pool of financial reserves", "...uncommonly strong operating performance", and "...discipline around building and maintaining reserves".[201][202]
In March 2017, LU's president Jerry Falwell Jr. stated that the university's endowment stands at more than $1 billion and gross assets are in excess of $2 billion. The U.S. Department of Education rated Liberty as having a 'perfect' financial responsibility score.[25]
Marketing and recruitment practices [ edit ]
In 2018, ProPublica/New York Times reported on the school's successful and lucrative online program, along with marketing and sales efforts. According to ''The New York Times'', Liberty University evaded federal scrutiny because it is classified as a nonprofit, but this also means that the university gets more federal funding. By 2017, students at the university were sixth in terms of receiving federal aid. The Times reported that most of Liberty University's revenue came from taxpayer-funded sources, and that each of the university's 300 sales people were pressured to enroll up to eight students per day. A division of 60 sales people targeted members of the military specifically, because they have greater access to federal tuition assistance. The university's salespeople are instructed to describe the costs on a per-credit basis rather than a per-course basis, which makes the university seem more affordable. The salespeople are also instructed to not inform potential students of the Christian orientation of the education; the first classes include three required Bible-studies classes. The credits for the Bible-studies classes are usually not transferable to other Universities, which disincentivizes students from leaving Liberty University for other universities.[13]
According to a former employee, the university accepts any student with a grade point average above 0.5 (equivalent to a D-minus).[13] LU's president Jerry Falwell Jr. says that this is incorrect and that the lowest GPA possible for admittance on-caution is 1.5, which is only in rare circumstances. Otherwise to be admitted in good standing a GPA of 2.0 or above is required.[203]
Federal funding [ edit ]
Student financial aid is a big part of Liberty University's business model.[204][205] The students at Liberty University received approximately $445 million in federal financial aid money in 2010, the highest total of any school in Virginia and one of the highest in the country.[206][207] The total, a 56 percent increase over the prior year, was mostly in the form of student loans, but also included some grants and other forms of aid.[206] Campus officials estimated the total received in 2013 at $775 million.[208] In 2011, Liberty University blocked campus access to a local Lynchburg newspaper, the News & Advocate, after the newspaper reported on the school's dependence on federal financial aid.[209] Falwell Jr. said that the decision to block the newspaper was unrelated to content published in the paper.[210]
Student loans and defaults [ edit ]
Liberty University students have a higher rate of defaults within three years of completing their studies than the national average or students at other nonprofit colleges.[13][162] Liberty University spends far less on instruction than traditional private universities, for-profit colleges and other nonprofit religious colleges.[13]
The New York Times reported that faculty at Liberty University acknowledge that Liberty University Online is a steep drop-off in quality relative to the traditional classes at the university.[13] Liberty denies the assertion, stating that both residential and online programs offer high-quality education opportunities.[203] The online division at the Liberty University is a big revenue driver for the university.[211]
In connection with being named to a Trump administration task force on deregulating higher education, University President Falwell alluded, as an example of regulatory overreach and "micromanagement", to Obama-era regulations that govern student loan forgiveness for students who have been cheated by fraudulent colleges.[211][212]
Politics [ edit ]
Influence [ edit ]
Liberty University has been described as a "stage of choice in Republican presidential politics",[16] and a "pilgrimage site for GOP candidates."[14] According to the Washington Post, Republican candidates are drawn to the university because it is seen as a "bastion of the Christian right".[16] Ronald Reagan's close relationship with the university gave it significant publicity in its early years.[14] In 1990, 41st U.S President George H.W. Bush was the first sitting U.S. president to speak at Liberty's commencement.[213] Republican presidential candidates Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney have visited the campus.[13][20] Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson spoke at the university.[214] In 2017, President Donald Trump gave his first college commencement speech as sitting president at Liberty University.[215]
President Donald Trump Speaks at Liberty University Commencement Ceremony
In 2009, LU stopped recognizing LU's Democratic Party student group; school officials said this was because the Democratic Party platform goes against the school's conservative Christian principles.[216] Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, and Jesse Jackson have spoken there.[14][15] In 2018, former 39th US President Jimmy Carter gave the commencement speech.[217] A number of Democratic presidential candidates and politicians have rejected invitations to speak at LU.[14]
2015 concealed handguns remarks [ edit ]
In the December 5, 2015 convocation speech, President Jerry Falwell Jr. encouraged the student body to obtain concealed handgun permits.[218] Falwell discussed the 2015 San Bernardino attack and said, "If more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in."[218] This was met with public condemnation for singling out the Muslim religion rather than the act of terrorism. Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe called the statement "repugnant". Falwell later stated that he was referring to the Muslim shooters in the San Bernandino attack, not all Muslims.[218][219]
The university leadership's uncritical support for President Donald Trump, particularly his tacit support for white nationalism,[220] has been characterised as a repudiation of Christian values.[221][222]
The leadership's support for Trump has been an issue since his candidacy: a number of students protested the university's ties with Trump during his campaign, and were critical of LU president Jerry Falwell, Jr., over his staunch support of Trump.[20][223] In 2016, a student editor said that an opinion column critical of then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump was censored by Falwell.[224][20][162][24] The column was written after lewd comments, made by Trump on an Access Hollywood tape, were made public.[224] Other articles in the student newspaper which mentioned Trump were reportedly spiked by faculty members.[225][226] Mark DeMoss, chief of staff of Falwell, was forced to resign from Liberty's board of trustees after criticizing the university's close affiliation with Trump.[227] Liberty University rescinded a speaking invitation of Jonathan Merritt, an alumnus of the school, after he criticized Liberty University. Liberty expelled Christian author Jonathan Martin from campus due to his repeated criticisms of the university's affiliation with Trump.[227][228]
Some students protested when President Trump criticized both white supremacists and counter-protesters after the August 2017 Charlottesville march.[229] Following Trump's remarks, Falwell said that he was "so proud" of Trump for his "bold truthful" statement on the tragedy.[229] A number of students returned their diplomas to Liberty University and called on the university to disavow Trump's remarks.[229][230][231] The students argued that Trump's remarks were "incompatible with Liberty University's stated values, and incompatible with a Christian witness."[229] In 2018, some Liberty students went to Washington DC to support President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.[232] Students at the university gave First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, along with several Trump cabinet officials who spoke at the university during a town hall about the drug epidemic, a standing ovation.[233][234][235]
In Spring 2018, Liberty's Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center co-produced a feature film called The Trump Prophecy. The film focuses on a retired firefighter from Florida who says God revealed to him in 2011 that Trump would one day be President. The film is scheduled to be shown in select cinemas in October 2018.[117][118]
In 2019, The Wall Street Journal and Inside Higher Education reported that CIO John Gauger accepted cash to rig online polls for Donald Trump before he became president.[236][237]
Notable alumni and associates [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Coordinates: |
During their time together, much was written about Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, and the idea of lineup protection. In theory, by having Fielder right behind him, Cabrera would get more hittable pitches and hittable fastballs. Certainly, Cabrera’s offensive game didn’t suffer, and when Fielder went away, much more was written about the idea of losing lineup protection. Would Cabrera be pitched around, with an inferior threat behind him? In the very early going in 2014, there were half-humorous observations that Cabrera’s rate of pitches in the strike zone actually went up. That is, by losing his protection, Cabrera wound up in a better spot, and therefore the idea of protection is nonsense.
But there’s something interesting there. Pitch patterns, given a good-enough sample, can reveal something about opposing scouting reports. If Cabrera had seen more strikes with Fielder on deck, perhaps that would suggest that Fielder was serving as protection. Josh Hamilton doesn’t get a lot of pitches in the strike zone, because teams know to make him chase. Marco Scutaro gets a lot of pitches in the strike zone, because teams know not to be too afraid. What if — what if — teams pitched to Miguel Cabrera as if they weren’t that afraid of him? That would be crazy, right? Wouldn’t that be crazy?
Cabrera’s zone rate, right now, is 51%. His average during the PITCHf/x era has been 46%, and last year it was 44%. Pitchers, therefore, have been a bit more aggressive with Cabrera so far in 2014. But what kind of aggressive? Using Baseball Savant, let’s check out Cabrera’s rates of in-zone fastballs:
2008: 23% of all pitches are fastballs in the zone
2009: 23%
2010: 21%
2011: 21%
2012: 25%
2013: 23%
2014: 34%
The league average has hovered right around 26% the whole time. Used to be, Cabrera was pretty steady, around 23%. Year in, year out, he’d see one of the lower rates in the league. So far this year he’s up more than ten percentage points, and he has one of baseball’s top-ten highest rates, seeing even more in-zone fastballs than the so-far helpless Billy Hamilton. Pitchers have worked with Miguel Cabrera like he’s not Miguel Cabrera. One notices his 94 wRC+, down almost a hundred points from a season ago.
If pitching aggressively to Miguel Cabrera sounds familiar, it’s because that’s what pitchers were doing last year in the playoffs, when Cabrera was hurt and nowhere near 100%. Cabrera had to change his swing to compensate, and he wound up vulnerable to heat. The Red Sox made a point of exploiting Cabrera’s sudden flaws, and though Cabrera said he was healthy this spring, and though he signed a monster contract extension, he since admitted he wasn’t quite back to himself. Parts of him are still recovering from offseason hernia surgery, and as a result, we’ve only inconsistently seen the classic, one-handed Cabrera swing follow-through. His swing mechanics have been different because his body has been different, and pitchers took little time to notice.
Here, you can see Tyson Ross tying Cabrera up with good, aggressive heat:
Above, a two-handed follow-through. Below, a one-handed follow-through. Those swings were just a few pitches apart, evidence that Cabrera’s been trying to find himself. He’s still getting stronger, and so he’s still getting used to what he is when he’s not him.
When Cabrera was playing hurt in October, pitchers took advantage by trying to blow him away, something they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to do. Out of the gate in 2014, with Cabrera recovering, pitchers kept it up and then some, figuring Cabrera had something more like breaking-ball bat speed. So I’d say the slump was more than just bad luck — pitchers had a different approach, because Cabrera was different, and that’s a thing with actual substance.
But if pitchers had a Miguel Cabrera solution, it stands to reason it would be only temporary, and now there’s evidence that Cabrera’s just about back to being the MVP candidate he’s been for so much of his career. He’s got nine hits in five games, three for extra bases, and he’s struck out just once. Eight of those hits have come against fastballs, and six have come against fastballs greater than 90 miles per hour. Here’s Cabrera catching up to speed from Maikel Cleto:
Right on it, line drive, up the middle, one-handed follow-through. The Tigers announcers responded by declaring that Cabrera was back, and though announcers are always optimistic and easily convinced, it’s hard to blame them, given that swing and given other recent swings. Lately, pitchers haven’t stopped throwing Cabrera fastballs, but Cabrera has started to hit, meaning opposing pitchers probably need to think about adjusting their adjustment, given that Cabrera has made adjustments.
I’m not saying Miguel Cabrera’s all fixed, but he’s going to be sooner or later. And then it’s going to be interesting to see the pitcher response, and it’s going to be interesting to see how quickly it’s implemented, how closely it follows Cabrera heating up. Because in the past, when he’s been himself, he didn’t get a lot of hittable fastballs. There was a reason for that. There’s going to be a reason for the same thing, down the road. To the pitchers’ credit, they solved Miguel Cabrera for a little stretch. It’s my sincere hope that they all appreciated it in the moment. |
Eventide has announced that their new UltraChannel channel strip effect in VST/AU plugin formats for Windows and Mac is available for free download until July 8th. On the negative side, an iLok user account is required in order to activate the plugin. On the positive side, the iLok dongle is not a requirement.
UltraChannel™ is Eventide’s new 64-bit native channel strip plug-in for AU, VST, and AAX64 for Mac and PC featuring micro pitch functionality from our flagship H8000, stereo delays with variable feedback paths, plus two stages of compression, gating, and five bands of parametric EQ.
The plugin will remain available as a free download from Eventide until the 8th of July. After that, the regular price of $249 will become active. There was a bit of discussion on the forums on whether the plugin will also stop working after the deadline, but users who have successfully activated their free copy of UltraChannel are reporting that the license is labeled as “does not expire”.
Judging by the demo video embedded below and the product description on the official site, this free channel strip effect looks like a blast. Based on the pieces of code from various other Eventide products, it’s the ultimate toolbox for both tracking and mastering. Some of the features include a heavy duty compressor module based on the Omnipressor effect, a soft saturation module, a transformer emulation, a 5-band parametric equalizer, a noise gate, etc.
All in all, this could easily become my go-to tool in the mixing stage, by the looks of it. I’d love to see how much CPU it uses on my machine, though. But feature-wise, this thing is definitely a rare beast in the freebie world.
So, how do you download and activate your free UltraChannel plugin? First, you’ll need to download the iLok License Manager application (links provided on the download page linked below) and install it on your computer. Run the application and register for a free iLok account. Note that you don’t need a dongle in order to do this.
Once you’ve done that, fill out the form on the page linked below. You’ll need to enter your iLok account ID and a certain access code. I’m not sure where these codes can be generated, but here are two codes which I’ve found on KVR Audio so far:
057F6CE2
01B604BE
Apparently, these access codes are free for everyone to use. Back in the day, SoundToys were giving away several free plugins in a similar manner (here’s an example of that) and the access codes were used as coupons for a giveaway. It seems though that the codes don’t have such a purpose in this case. I’ll investigate a bit further on that matter, though.
Anyways, once you’ve submitted all the required info, you should receive an email containing your free UltraChannel user license and download links. I’ll add further steps to this article once I go through the activation process myself. In the meanwhile, please leave comments with your own experiences regarding this offer. Did it go smooth, or did you run into some trouble along the way?
Many thanks to BPB readers Daniel (take a look at his Bandcamp page) and Steve for spotting this and letting me know via email. Cheers for the support guys!
Video Demo
Check out the UltraChannel demo video:
Download
UltraChannel Native Channel Strip is available for free download via Eventide (32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU/AAX plugin format for Windows & Mac). |
Prince-Desir Gouano played in the Europa League with Rio Ave last season
Bolton have signed centre-back Prince-Desir Gouano on loan from Italian side Atalanta, and have turned down a bid from QPR for defender Tim Ream.
Former France youth international Gouano, 21, started his career at Le Havre and moved to Juventus in 2011 but he failed to make an appearance.
After joining Atalanta last year he was loaned to Portuguese side Rio Ave.
Ream, 27, has been playing for the USA in the Gold Cup this summer and is contracted to Bolton until 2017.
"There is interest from QPR but it is way short of the valuation of the player and we don't want to sell him anyway," Bolton boss Neil Lennon told BBC Radio Manchester.
"He's been consistent, he's been player of the year here the last two years so he's not for sale."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. |
Portland, Maine- The Sea Dogs (36-63) scored four runs after trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth to stun the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (50-45) with a walk-off win in front of a sellout crowd at Hadlock Field on Thursday night. Tzu-Wei Lin delivered the game-winning, RBI single with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give the 'Dogs their sixth straight home win via walk-off.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Colt Hynes (L, 2-1) walked Reed Gragnani and allowed a single to Aneury Tavarez to bring the tying run to the plate. Manuel Margot then lined a base hit to center field that skipped over the head of Roemon Fields and rolled all the way to the wall in center field, allowing two runs to score and Margot to wind up at third base with a triple. Carlos Asuaje followed-up with a bloop double down the line to tie the game at three. Danny Barnes entered the game and walked two before allowing the game-winning hit to Lin.
Jorge Marban (2-0) was the winning pitcher for Portland, pitching a scoreless, hitless ninth while issuing one walk.
New Hampshire got on the board in the third inning when Martin Medina hit a solo home run to lead off the frame. The homer was the first for Medina since 2013. New Hampshire added two more runs off of Luis Diaz in the fifth inning on a sac fly by Medina and a balk by Diaz that scored Emilio Guerrero.
Diaz worked his fifth straight quality start and sixth in his last seven outings, going 6.1 innings and allowing three earned runs on five hits, walking one and striking out one.
Jeff Hoffman, making his second career Double-A start, threw 5.1 scoreless innings for New Hampshire. Hoffman walked two and struck out five.
The series continues tomorrow night at Hadlock Field, first pitch is scheduled for 7:00 PM. Mike McCarthy (5-4, 3.68) will make the start for the Sea Dogs against John Anderson (5-4, 4.09) for New Hampshire. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by phone at 207-879-9500 or online at seadogs.com. |
We are very proud to announce that we are working on an awesome new range, inspired by Saints Row.
Everyone on the Insert Coin team is a long-term fan of the franchise and we’ve spent a lot of time on the mean streets of Steelport. We’re so excited and we’re so proud to show you all the designs we have in store – expect a LOT of purple!
“Volition are thrilled that Insert Coin Clothing have added Saints inspired clobber to their range. We can’t wait to dub-test it to ensure the garments live up to the strain of saving the planet” says Jim Boone, Senior Producer, Volition.
And here’s how our initial line-up is shaping up…
Saints Flow tee
When you’re saving the world, you need the maximum amount of refreshment – and real heroes drink Saints Flow! This tee celebrates the classic taste of Saints in style…
Professor Genki tee
Genius comes in many forms, but there aren’t many that can match Professor Genki. He’s a fashionable feline too – and only this tee will give you MAXIMUM T-SHIRT ULTRA-JOY!
Gat polo
One man defines the Saints. One awesome man. This simple elegant polo celebrates the one and only Johnny Gat – the eternal figurehead for all Saints, everywhere…
Genki leggings
Everyone loves the cleverest cat in town – especially when that town is Steelport, USA! And when it comes to perfection, these Genki-infused leggings have got you covered…
Steelport Saints hoodie
Never forget where you’re coming from – not that you’d ever want to if you hail from Steelport of course! Celebrate its association with the Saints with this epic hoodie…
3rd Street Saints jacket
Steelport. Planet Earth. The Galaxy. Everyone everywhere wants to be a Saint – and now you can be part of the crew too, with this awesome varsity-style jacket…
As always, these are concepts and the final designs are still TBC, but this new range is set to land in early 2014 and we’ll have more details very soon… keep ’em peeled! |
In the 2002 biographical documentary on Jacques Derrida the director Amy Ziering Kofman asks the philosopher what he would most like to see in a film about Kant, Hegel or Heidegger. Derrida takes his time before answering. Then he responds: “their sex lives”.
Kofman is taken aback. “Why?” she asks. Derrida explains that these philosophers never speak about their own sex lives in their philosophy. They present themselves as asexual. But, he wonders, what could be more important to them and to their writing than love, those they love, and the making of love? Philosophy has a lot to say about love in general. Perhaps philosophy even began with this question: what is love? And yet, according to Derrida, individual philosophers have little to say about their own love lives, at least in their philosophical texts. Philosophy concerns the depersonalised construction of logical and universal systems of thought. Traditionally there should be no room in it for biographical introspection about one’s own love life. However, the more one looks into the canon of philosophy the more it becomes apparent that in fact philosophers have had a great deal to say about their own sexuality.
The writing of Plato and Aristotle is replete with references to Greek love. The relations between characters in these texts are not always, shall we say, Platonic. Theologian and philosopher St Augustine of Hippo founded the confessional genre in writing. He writes of his pre-celibate days as a lover of many women, asking of God: “give me chastity and continence, but not yet”. The story of the medieval scholar Peter Abelard and his equally philosophical lover, Héloïse d'Argenteuil, is well known. Their love letters are one of the great epistolary exchanges in the western canon and Abelard’s love poems were at least as influential in his lifetime as his extensive philosophical writing.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau makes reference to this in his own epistolary novel Julie, or the New Heloise. Like much of Rousseau the novel is a mix of fiction and philosophical reflection. In his own Confessions Rousseau tells us about his loves and losses, including Madame de Warrens, for whom he served as steward to her household and lover. Rousseau, like Kant after him, has a surprising amount to say about masturbation. Kant offers a treatise on conjugal rights and is quite stiff on the vice of self-love.
___
"What could be more important to philosophers and to their writing than love, those they love, and the making of love?"
___
Other prominent examples include: Soren Kierkegaard’s The Seducer’s Diary – a tale of the seduction and manipulation of young women, easily read as a reflection on his own relationship with Regine Olsen; Diderot’s erotic La Religieuse (The Nun); and Schopenhauer’s treatise, On Women, which is hard to read as anything other than a reflection on his own experiences as male philosopher divided between scholarly independence, a desire for domestic contentment and eighteenth-century misogyny. Hegel, meanwhile, has much to say, philosophical and censorial, about the Christian family, marriage, and human sexuality, if seemingly not his own. He reserves that speculation for his letters to his sister and others, some of which were destroyed by his sons to prevent “misunderstandings” concerning his fathering of an illegitimate child with his landlord’s wife.
In the twentieth century we can find Heidegger occupied with the topic of ‘Care’ in his philosophy but reserving reflection on his affair with his student Hannah Arendt for their now published correspondence, another philosophical relationship that has also been subsequently novelised. Ironically, Arendt’s thesis that she wrote ‘under Heidegger’ was on Augustine and love. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir have quite a lot to say about their own love lives and not just with each other. Like Camus, such references often take the form of fiction. Roland Barthes’ most successful publication was A Lover’s Discourse, which can be read alongside his posthumously published account of his own sexual encounters in Incidents.
But it is probably Michel Foucault who is the great philosopher of sex, writing a three-volume history of sexuality before he died of Aids in 1984. However, unlike Derrida who makes his own biographical desires and sexual experiences central to a philosophical text like The Post Card, Foucault does not reflect in his published writing on his own “philosophy of the bedroom”, to borrow a phrase from de Sade.
It is not difficult to find throughout the history of thought references to the sex lives of philosophers. The question is: how can identifying these moments help us to understand the philosophical text? I do not think that it is possible to suggest, as Niall Ferguson recently did of Maynard Keynes, that sexuality explains thought. That would be a reductive and extremely ‘un-philosophical’ thing to say. Rather, we might note that often the incidences of philosophers like Kierkegaard, de Beauvoir, or Derrida making a theme of their own sexuality occur at the borders of philosophy in the displaced form of literature.
Literature opens up philosophy and refuses to permit it to settle on what is and what is not allowable as philosophy. This is no accident, since the question of the sex lives of the philosophers is really one of what is permissible and what is not in a philosophical text. It is, in other words, the very question of what is philosophy. I do not think the issue of an author’s sexuality will provide us with an answer to this question, but it will allow us to ask it again and again, in order to affirm its complexities and contradictions as a condition of continuing to read philosophy today.
For more on love and relationships in the modern world, check out our upcoming event Love in the Time of Tinder. Hear from neuroscientists, philosophers and relationship coaches as they tackle love in the digital age. With live music and banquet dinners, don’t miss this once in a lifetime weekend in a beautiful setting. |
In 1910, a lawyer and Nobel Prize winner began a project to compile the world’s knowledge onto a series of 3 x 5 index cards. This repository, dubbed the Mundaneum, would be housed at the heart of a Utopian “world city” designed by famed architect Le Corbusier. Over the decades that followed, over 12 million cards were created and paid research inquiries were filled by mail and telegraph. Its creators wanted its contents to ultimately be accessible via a global network of “electric telescopes.” It was, in short, a steampunk-style search engine, an incredibly ambitious vision of the internet well before its time.
As strange as this project sounds, the Belgian museum housing its remnants is actually a pretty tame example of what lurks in the pages of Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders. A guidebook unlike any other, this offbeat volume is filled with gems for real-world as well as armchair explorers — like the Mundaneum, it has a little bit of everything for just about anyone.
Atlas Obscura began in 2009 as a website to collect eccentric destinations around the world — places that might not find their way into a conventional guidebook. While designed to be as much a cabinet of curiosities as a functional travel guide, the site can be a handy way to alleviate boredom along beaten paths: pull out a mobile device, plug in your location and you will find something strange and amazing nearby.
The book is a subset of what can be found on the website, featuring over 600 global curiosities. It is organized in part by continent, region and country, but with useful thematic exceptions. An entry on the Republic of Kugelmugel, for instance, expands into a section on micronations. Similarly, a piece on locally-grown root bridges branches out to encompass other works of arbortecture.
There is no single common thread to the entries aside from their aim to evoke a sense of awe and wonder. Some are long and others short. Some feature architecture or built environments while others highlight historical people and events, though always with a spatial component. Morbid museums to human deformities and world war abandonments exist alongside ancient artworks and modern festivals.
If it sounds like a lot to take in: it is. But what could have become a boring text-only encyclopedia is helpfully punctuated by relevant images and entertaining diagrams filled with facts around unlikely themes (like: a list of the world’s deepest holes or an infographic showing fictional lake monsters of the United States).
One certainly can take the Atlas Obscura book seriously as a travel guide and go out of the way to visit the entries — at least the ones that are extant and accessible (not necessarily conditions for inclusion). It can also be used as a good excuse to visit a new region or country. Alternatively, one can simply pick it up, open a page at random and be amazed that our interconnected world still holds a host of surprises. Whatever your inclination, like an intergalactic hitchhiker without a towel, you should be careful about venturing far without this book. |
High-profile incidents of police misconduct have led to widespread calls for law enforcement reform. But prior studies cast doubt on whether police commanders can control officers, and offer few policy remedies because of their focus on potentially immutable officer traits like personality. I advance an alternative, institutional perspective and demonstrate that police officers—sometimes characterized as autonomous—are highly responsive to managerial directives. Using millions of records of police-citizen interactions alongside officer interviews, I evaluate the impact of a change to the protocol for stopping criminal suspects on police performance. An interrupted time series analysis shows the directive produced an immediate increase in the rate of stops producing evidence of the suspected crime. Interviewed officers said the order signaled increased managerial scrutiny, leading them to adopt more conservative tactics. Procedural changes can quickly and dramatically alter officer behavior, suggesting a reform strategy sometimes forestalled by psychological and personality-driven accounts of police reform. |
Complaints about the personal independence payment (PIP) assessment process rose by nearly 900 per cent last year – from 142 to 1,391 – apparently corroborating the results of a year-long Disability News Service investigation.
The Department for Work and Pensions figures also show that the number of complaints about PIP assessments that were upheld rose by more than 700 per cent in the same year (from 67 in 2015-16 to 545 in 2016-17).
The figures provide probably the strongest evidence yet to support the findings of the investigation carried out by Disability News Service (DNS) into claims of widespread dishonesty at the heart of the PIP assessment process.
Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Debbie Abrahams, said the “huge increase” showed that the healthcare professionals who carry out the assessments must be held to account.
She said the figures were also “an absolute indictment of the Tories’ punitive assessments and the miserable effect they are having on people trying to access desperately needed support”.
The enormous increases in both complaints lodged and those upheld, between 2015-16 and 2016-17, come despite a rise of just 34 per cent in the number of PIP claims registered in the same period.
DNS only decided to begin its PIP investigation in November 2016 because of a steady trickle of emails and phone calls from disabled people raising concerns about the PIP assessment process, and who were insisting that the healthcare professionals who had assessed them had produced dishonest reports for DWP.
The new figures appear to suggest that whatever was causing this dishonesty in the assessment system appears to have become a significant problem during 2016-17.
DNS has now heard from more than 250 PIP claimants who say their assessment reports were dishonest.
They have told DNS that assessors working for DWP contractors Capita and Atos – many of them nurses – have repeatedly lied, ignored written evidence and dishonestly reported the results of physical examinations.
The figures on PIP assessment complaints were given last week to the Labour MP Stephen Kinnock by the minister for disabled people, Penny Mordaunt, in response to a parliamentary question.
Mordaunt told Kinnock that the number of complaints received about the PIP assessment process increased from just 142 in 2015-16 to 1,391 in 2016-17 (a rise of 880 per cent).
And she said that the number of complaints about the PIP assessment process that were upheld rose from 67 in 2015-16 to 545 in 2016-17 (an increase of 713 per cent).
Other DWP statistics and DNS calculations show that, in the same period, the number of PIP claims registered – including new claims and reassessments – only increased from 783,585 to 1,047,976, a far smaller rise of about 34 per cent.
Abrahams said: “These profit-making health assessment companies must recognise that their assessments are not fit for purpose, given the increase in complaints received and numbers overturned on tribunal.
“However, assessments are conducted by clinical professionals and we must be holding these clinical professionals to account too.
“I have personally heard of dozens and dozens of cases of assessment reports not marrying at all with the assessment and medical records that were supplied.
“The huge increase in complaints made and upheld about the PIP assessment process are an absolute indictment of the Tories’ punitive assessments and the miserable effect they are having on people trying to access desperately needed support.
“Labour is committed to scrapping these harmful assessments and replacing them with a holistic, person-centred approach, under our plans to ensure that, like the NHS, the social security system is there for us all in our time of need.”
Kinnock said the figures were “further evidence that the PIP system is not fit for purpose”, despite the assessment system being in place for more than four years.
He said: “While the scale of this is truly shocking, it is not in the least bit surprising, because week after week I hear from my constituents about how claimants are treated, how they are humiliated, belittled and denied basic human dignity.
“Government has been told by MPs, claimants and by disability experts that the system needs reviewing.
“Instead, they have carried on regardless with their ideological drive to remove the help which people so desperately need, so that they are able to manage the basic daily costs of living with a disability.”
A DWP spokesman was unable to offer any explanation for the huge rise in complaints.
But he said: “Complaints may be made for a variety of reasons and there is no evidence to suggest that there is dishonesty in the assessment system.
“The percentage increases in complaints which you have mentioned do not consider the number of complaints as a proportion of the overall number of PIP cases which we process.
“We are now clearing 81,000 claims each month compared with around 80,000 per month this time last year.
“Our latest research shows that 76 per cent of PIP claimants are satisfied with their overall experience.
“More than 2.4 million PIP decisions have been made, and of these eight per cent have been appealed and four per cent have been overturned.
“In the majority of successful appeals, decisions are overturned because people have submitted more oral or written evidence.”
PIP claimants who want to contribute to an inquiry by the Commons work and pensions committee into the effectiveness of the PIP assessment system, as well as the work capability assessment, have until 10 November to submit their evidence. They can also post evidence on the committee’s web forum |
Native Americans’ resistance to the westward expansion of Europeans took two forms. One was violence. The other was accommodation. Neither worked. Their land was stolen, their communities were decimated, their women and children were gunned down and the environment was ravaged. There was no legal recourse. There was no justice. There never is for the oppressed. And as we face similar forces of predatory, unchecked corporate power intent on ruthless exploitation and stripping us of legal and physical protection, we must confront how we will respond.
The ideologues of rapacious capitalism, like members of a primitive cult, chant the false mantra that natural resources and expansion are infinite. They dismiss calls for equitable distribution as unnecessary. They say that all will soon share in the “expanding” wealth, which in fact is swiftly diminishing. And as the whole demented project unravels, the elites flee like roaches to their sanctuaries. At the very end, it all will come down like a house of cards.
Civilizations in the final stages of decay are dominated by elites out of touch with reality. Societies strain harder and harder to sustain the decadent opulence of the ruling class, even as it destroys the foundations of productivity and wealth. Karl Marx was correct when he called unregulated capitalism “a machine for demolishing limits.” This failure to impose limits cannibalizes natural resources and human communities. This time, the difference is that when we go the whole planet will go with us. Catastrophic climate change is inevitable. Arctic ice is in terminal decline. There will soon be so much heat trapped in the atmosphere that any attempt to scale back carbon emissions will make no difference. Droughts. Floods. Heat waves. Killer hurricanes and tornados. Power outages. Freak weather. Rising sea levels. Crop destruction. Food shortages. Plagues.
ExxonMobil, BP and the coal and natural gas companies — like the colonial buffalo hunters who left thousands of carcasses rotting in the sun after stripping away the hides, and in some cases carrying away only the tongues — will never impose rational limits on themselves. They will exploit, like the hustlers before them who eliminated the animals that sustained the native peoples of the Great Plains, until there is nothing left to exploit. Collective suicide is never factored into quarterly profit reports. Forget all those virtuous words they taught you in school about our system of government. The real words to describe American power are “plunder,” “fraud,” “criminality,” “deceit,” “murder” and “repression.”
Those native communities that were most accommodating to the European colonists, such as the peaceful California tribes — the Chilulas, Chimarikos, Urebures, Nipewais and Alonas, along with a hundred other bands — were the first to be destroyed. And while I do not advocate violence, indeed will seek every way to avoid it, I have no intention of accommodating corporate power whether it hides behind the mask of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. At the same time, I have to acknowledge that resistance may ultimately be in vain. Yet to resist is to say something about us as human beings. It keeps alive the possibility of hope, even as all empirical evidence points to inevitable destruction. It makes victory, however remote, possible. And it makes life a little more difficult for the ruling class, which satisfies the very human emotion of vengeance.
“Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power,” wrote the philosopher John Locke, “they put themselves into a state of war with the people who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.”
The European colonists signed, and ignored, some 400 treaties with native tribes. They enticed the native leaders into accords, always to seize land, and then repeated the betrayal again and again and again until there was nothing left to steal. Chiefs such as Black Kettle who believed the white men did not fare much better than those who did not. Black Kettle, who outside his lodge often flew a huge American flag given to him in Washington as a sign of friendship, was shot dead by soldiers of George Armstrong Custer in November 1868 along with his wife and more than 100 other Cheyenne in his encampment on the Washita River.
The white men “made us many promises, more than I can remember,” Chief Red Cloud said in old age, “but they kept but one. They promised to take our land, and they took it.”
Native societies, in which people redistributed wealth to gain respect, and in which those who hoarded were detested, upheld a communal ethic that had to be obliterated and replaced with the greed, ceaseless exploitation and cult of the self that fuel capitalist expansion. Lewis Henry Morgan in his book “League of the Iroquois,” written in 1851 after he lived among them, noted that the Iroquois’ “whole civil policy was averse to the concentration of power in the hands of any single individual, but inclined to the opposite principle of division among a number of equals. …” This was a way of relating to each other, as well as to the natural world, that was an anathema to the European colonizers.Those who exploit do so through layers of deceit. They hire charming and eloquent interlocutors. How many more times do you want to be lied to by Barack Obama? What is this penchant for self-delusion that makes us unable to see that we are being sold into bondage? Why do we trust those who do not deserve our trust? Why are we repeatedly seduced? The promised closure of Guantanamo. The public option in health care. Reforming the Patriot Act. Environmental protection. Restoring habeas corpus. Regulating Wall Street. Ending the wars. Jobs. Defending labor rights. I could go on.
There are few resistance figures in American history as noble as Crazy Horse. He led, long after he knew that ultimate defeat was inevitable, the most effective revolt on the plains, wiping out Custer and his men on the Little BigHorn. “Even the most basic outline of his life shows how great he was,” Ian Frazier writes in his book “Great Plains,” “because he remained himself from the moment of his birth to the moment he died; because he knew exactly where he wanted to live, and never left; because he may have surrendered, but he was never defeated in battle; because, although he was killed, even the Army admitted he was never captured; because he was so free that he didn’t know what a jail looked like.” His “dislike of the oncoming civilization was prophetic,” Frazier writes. “He never met the President” and “never rode on a train, slept in a boarding house, ate at a table.” And “unlike many people all over the world, when he met white men he was not diminished by the encounter.”
Crazy Horse was bayoneted to death on Sept. 5, 1877, after being tricked into walking toward the jail at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. The moment he understood the trap he pulled out a knife and fought back. Gen. Phil Sheridan had intended to ship Crazy Horse to the Dry Tortugas, a group of small islands in the Gulf of Mexico, where a U.S. Army garrison ran a prison with cells dug out of the coral. Crazy Horse, even when dying, refused to lie on the white man’s cot. He insisted on being placed on the floor. Armed soldiers stood by until he died. And when he breathed his last, Touch the Clouds, Crazy Horse’s seven-foot-tall Miniconjou friend, pointed to the blanket that covered the chief’s body and said, “This is the lodge of Crazy Horse.” His grieving parents buried Crazy Horse in an undisclosed location. Legend says that his bones turned to rocks and his joints to flint. His ferocity of spirit remains a guiding light for all who seek lives of defiance. |
Pin 426 Shares
(ANTIMEDIA) — Societies pick and choose their outrage. What is one day considered barbaric is met with a collective yawn the next.
Unfortunately, for the innocent people of Yemen, the masses are completely uninterested in their current state of suffering. Maybe it’s because Western propaganda hasn’t sufficiently signaled in the direction of the misery and destruction facing the Yemeni people. Maybe it’s that the havoc is being carried out by Saudi Arabia and their cohorts, who are not only allies of the United States and the United Kingdom but also have the financial means to silence dissent in the West. Possibly, it’s that the U.S. and the U.K. are both backing the carnage on the ground in Yemen, not only via the providing of arms to the Saudi coalition but also providing military ground support.
Whatever the reason may be, the time has come for the world to wake up and realize there is more on planet earth than Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
Thousands upon thousands have been killed, maimed, or displaced in the Middle Eastern nation since the conflict began in 2015. Since April, 1,800 Yemenis have died from cholera and nearly 370,000 have contracted it. That figure is expected to rise to 600,000.
Below is a photographic glimpse of the anguish that has befallen the people and destroyed the country.
Read here for a more in depth review of the devastation that has ravaged Yemen: Saudi Arabia Is Destroying an Entire Country — and the US Is Helping Them Do It
You can also click here for detailed analysis and headlines surrounding the war in Yemen.
1 in 3 children in Yemen are on the brink of starving to death. This is just one of them.. pic.twitter.com/hkhaEnz97w — CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) August 14, 2017
Saudi coalition to blame for half of Yemen child casualties: draft U.N. report https://t.co/Rs61R3exOz pic.twitter.com/SGfDE777rz — Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) August 17, 2017
#Yemen hit by more airstrikes in 1st half of 2017 than in whole of 2016 – aid agencies https://t.co/DGYSQ9Nf7M pic.twitter.com/HYAQ5kdmNF — RT (@RT_com) August 17, 2017
Over half a million infected and 2000 dead.@AJInsideStory takes a closer look at the cholera outbreak in Yemen: https://t.co/lF1aU11ygy pic.twitter.com/y2Lzo4i33F — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 16, 2017
Sana'a is one of oldest 7 cities around the world , also its most important tourism place in #Yemen , it destroyed partially by Saudi raids pic.twitter.com/wTCria1qgu — محمدالحجيلي (@Mohammed_Hojily) August 8, 2017
Four soldiers, six al Qaeda militants die in Yemen attack: officialhttps://t.co/3tZws1LvHP pic.twitter.com/OY766GP8wW — The Nation (@The_Nation) August 8, 2017
Car bombing kills 3 soldiers in southern Yemen https://t.co/gPP5eEL17B pic.twitter.com/FeNo0Rj8Av — ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) August 8, 2017
The hypocritical world is lying here In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is committing the worst crimes of humanity in the world✋ pic.twitter.com/wfPNqN5ZCd — محمدمحمداحمد العماد (@alamad0080) August 8, 2017
Armed Protest in Yemen's Dhamar to Condemn Saudi War Crimes Against Prisoners #YemenExtrahttps://t.co/ntGxgRRPxQ pic.twitter.com/aoVmbNHMHy — Yemen Extra (@YemenExtra) August 7, 2017
Incredible story of a young boy in #Yemen – electrocuted and almost killed in the conflict & now battling #cholera https://t.co/a7dASXTZWF pic.twitter.com/0Z5sJ9hdrX — Joe English (@JoeEEnglish) August 15, 2017
Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo
Pin 426 Shares |
You must sign in or register to continue reading content.
EVERETT — LuLu is a world traveler and a war veteran. She was also a typical puppy.
“She was always stealing shoes. It was hilarious,” said Army Capt. Nikki Schmitz-Abeyta, an Everett native based at Fort Bragg, N.C.
LuLu’s journey from Afghanistan to Everett makes for one long shaggy-dog story. In short, the year-old dog, an 85-pound Central Asian shepherd, is happily adjusting to life in Everett with Schmitz-Abeyta’s parents.
“She’s just a great dog. She lies around the house, and she gets us out for walks,” said Debbie McCollum Schmitz, the 26-year-old Army captain’s mother.
Schmitz and her husband, Nick, agreed to keep LuLu after an Army teammate of their daughter’s in Afghanistan couldn’t care for the dog. The Everett couple, who have three other children, met LuLu last month — in Florida — and brought her home to stay.
“We flew home to Seattle. When she got to Everett, there was frost on the ground. She was licking the blades of grass,” Schmitz said. “I don’t think she had ever seen frost.”
Schmitz, a teacher at Everett’s Evergreen Middle School, brought LuLu to Edgewater Park near Mukilteo on Tuesday to tell the dog’s story.
LuLu has a sister pup, also rescued from Afghanistan. Schmitz-Abeyta and her husband, Army Capt. Adam Abeyta, have LuLu’s sister Betty at their home near Fort Bragg. They already had another dog, a husky.
In a call from Fort Bragg on Tuesday, Schmitz-Abeyta said she and her female teammate were given the tiny pups at a base in Afghanistan before being deployed with their special forces group to a more remote area. A graduate of Kamiak High School and Washington State University, Schmitz-Abeyta was on her second tour in Afghanistan.
“Most conventional bases don’t allow dogs,” she said. They were given the dogs by someone who couldn’t keep them. “They would be euthanized,” Schmitz-Abeyta said.
“They were just too cute,” she said. “The first night we got the dogs, we were Skyping with our families, showing them the puppies online.”
She and the other soldier, the only women in their group, worked in village stability operations. And the puppies?
“We took them on the Black Hawk helicopter. We put them in a little cardboard box and didn’t tell the pilots. You couldn’t hear them over the noise,” she said. They kept the pups for more than four months. Back home, Schmitz was shipping boxes of dog food to Afghanistan.
While the first group she worked with “didn’t mind them at all,” Schmitz-Abeyta said, when another team arrived, they couldn’t keep the dogs in Afghanistan.
Schmitz said her daughter so loved her canine friend, she paid almost $4,000 to the Humane Society so Betty could be sent home. Her husband, Capt. Adam Abeyta, was in training in Oklahoma, and Betty was sent there. His wife made it home in October.
The soldier who had LuLu couldn’t afford to ship her dog home, so LuLu became a “chip-in” dog, Schmitz said. LuLu’s story was posted on the Afghan Stray Animals League website. Based in the United States, the charity runs an animal shelter in Kabul and finds homes for pets befriended by U.S. troops.
“People from all over the world sent what they could to pay for LuLu to come home,” Schmitz said.
The Everett woman said both dogs traveled for two weeks, from Kabul to Pakistan, and on to New York. While Betty was sent to Oklahoma to meet Adam Abeyta before his wife returned, LuLu became a foster dog. She stayed with a retired Army officer on the East Coast. “He takes in soldiers’ pets,” Schmitz said.
Schmitz-Abeyta said another organization, the Puppy Rescue Mission, paid for LuLu’s flight from New York to North Carolina. Yet after the other female soldier was reunited with LuLu, she didn’t have the money to keep her. Schmitz said her daughter got a call from the woman saying she might have LuLu put to sleep. Her daughter wouldn’t hear of it, and brought LuLu home to Fort Bragg to be with Betty.
“It sounds like the story should end there,” Schmitz said. Instead, the Everett couple, who were planning a February trip to Orlando, Fla., got a call from their daughter. Did they want a dog?
“I had to convince Nick,” Schmitz said. They accepted, and their soldier daughter brought LuLu to Florida. “She stayed in a kennel at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort — it was like a doggie spa,” Schmitz said. There, LuLu was given an American flag kerchief. “She had a good time,” Schmitz said.
In Everett, Schmitz tells students in her English language learners class about LuLu. “They say ‘She’s an immigrant, kind of like us,’ ” Schmitz said.
Schmitz doesn’t know all that LuLu, or her daughter, experienced in the war-torn country. The dog is wary of some men, and can be territorial if someone comes to the house. LuLu attends obedience classes and is learning to be with other dogs and people.
“The thing that makes her extra special, she was with my daughter in war,” Schmitz said.
At Fort Bragg, Schmitz-Abeyta agreed that the pups brightened a tough place.
“The best thing to come out of Afghanistan is my dog,” she said. |
Instruction Download
How to use Soft-Tampons Inserting: Make sure you wash your hands before inserting or removing Original Soft Tampons!
Remove the tampon from the film.
To make it easier to insert, we recommend applying a small amount of lubricant (we recommend Original AQUAglide) to the (dry) tampon or dampening it with clean water. Squeeze out thoroughly afterwards so that it can absorb as much fluid as possible.
Squatting or sitting on the toilet is the easiest way to insert the tampon.
Place your index finger on one of the flat sides of the tampon, hold the tampon at the side between your thumb and middle finger and squeeze it together. With its new shape, reminiscent of an arrow, the Soft-Tampons have a slim tip. The two downward-facing wings form a groove on the underside in which to place a finger while pushing the tampon into position during insertion. Use your other hand to open the labia and, using your index or middle finger, push the tampon into the vagina until the tampon meets the neck of the womb (see diagram). How long can I wear it for: Change your tampon (just like any other tampon) at regular intervals. How long you wear a tampon for will depend on the heaviness of your period. You may have to change tampons more frequently at the start of your period (approx. every 3 to 5 hours). When your period is ending, duration should be around 5 to a maximum of 8 hours. However, we recommend that you change every 4 to 6 hours. You reduce the risk of infection by changing the Original Soft-Tampon after swimming or after sexual intercourse without condoms. Removal: The tampon can be easily removed using the integrated strap, by pulling on the strap with your index or middle finger.
However, if you find it difficult to remove a tampon, we recommend that you adopt a squatting position, because now the depth of the vagina is reduced from 9–10 cm down to 4–5 cm. By additional pressing, the tampon moves downwards, thus is easier to reach. Vaginal douche can be helpful as well, a soaked tampon will slide down automatically and can be grabbed easier. WARNING – USE EACH TAMPON ONLY ONCE!
Reusing tampons can lead to infection! Store Soft-Tampons in their original packaging and in a dry place away from light. Discolouration does not mean that the product is defective. And finally: Soft-Tampons are safe for the use with condoms and the contraceptive coil. If a contraceptive coil was just newly inserted, please consult your doctor before use. If a tampon cannot be removed, you must seek medical advice immediately. Don’t forget to remove the last Original Soft-Tampon at the end of your period! |
The French airline has said it is expanding its "non-flyover area around North Korea" while denying that passengers were at risk last week when one of its jets flew past the location where a North Korean missile splashed into the sea minutes later.
ADVERTISING Read more
Last Friday’s relatively close encounter between the missile and Air France Flight 293, first reported by ABC, has raised fears that North Korea’s increasingly brazen missile tests may pose a threat to airlines operating in the region.
Flight data suggests the aircraft, travelling from Tokyo to Paris with 323 people on board, passed just east of the site where the intercontinental ballistic missile splashed into the water, roughly five to 10 minutes later.
At the time of the missile’s splashdown, the Air France flight was approximately 100 kilometres further north. Had the jet taken off a few minutes late, experts warn, the trajectories could have been much closer.
Contacted by FRANCE 24, the French carrier confirmed that the available data pointed to the missile “falling into the sea at more than 100 kilometres from the plane’s trajectory”.
“Even if this distance was proven, it would not question the safety of the flight,” Air France cautioned in a written reply, adding that flight AF293 “was operated in accordance with the flight plan and without any reported incident.”
However, the company said it was expanding its no-fly zone above North Korea and the surrounding seas as a “precautionary” measure.
“In cooperation with the authorities, Air France constantly analyzes potentially dangerous flyover zones and adapts its flight plans accordingly,” it said.
“At this stage, as a precautionary measure, the company has decided to expand the non-flyover area around North Korea, a country that it does not overfly.”
The North Korean missile launched on Friday reached a peak altitude of 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) before dropping into the sea.
Under guidelines issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization, states are required to issue advisories regarding potential threats to the safety of civilian aircraft.
South Korea has repeatedly accused its northern neighbour of failing to meet such obligations when carrying out missile tests. |
Being organized is the first step in being productive and efficient. The strategies you can use in this sense vary, depending on the activity, the location and personal preferences. Together we’ll review a few of them in the hopes of helping you stay on top of your tasks in a stylish and beautiful way.
Let’s start with the office. Regardless of the type of work you do, there are things you sometimes need to write down or keep off your desk. For that, a memo board can be really useful. You can make a memo board out of wire mesh if you think the industrial look will be a good addition to the room.{found on burkatron}.
An iron mesh wall organizer is extremely easy to make and the whole project is really cheap. So visit your local hardware store and get your supplies. Bring the mesh home and, if necessary, adjust its shape and size. Display it above your desk or in the kitchen and use it as an organizer.{found on passionshake}.
Pegboard organizers are very versatile. You can basically adapt one to your needs, whatever these may be. For example, make a yarn organizer. All you need for this simple project is a piece of pegboard and some hooks. Insert the hooks in the pegboard and then arrange all your skeins of yarn on them. You can then either mount the organizer on the wall or let it lean casually.{found on dwellbeautiful}.
For the small things like reminders or small photos you want to keep close to you when you’re working, you can use a pin board. A nice idea is to craft a monogram pin board. This way you’ll also get to personalize it. The supplies needed for such a project include cork, craft wood, glue, see-through paper and a pen.{found on look-what-i-made}.
Another chic option is the mud cloth inspired organizer featured on abubblylife. To make it you need a wooden circle (although the shape can differ and then the design would change accordingly), paint, some rope, elastic cord, a staple gun and a paintbrush. First you paint the circle and now you can choose to make all sorts of designs using tape if desired. Then you attach the rope with a staple gun so you can hang the organizer and then you attach the elastic cord.
For those of you that enjoy working with washi tape, we found a simple and beautiful-looking way of storing all the rolls. The tutorial for the project can be found on thecraftedlife. You need dowel rods, copper fittings, some spray paint, a saw and pipe fitting and it will all be done in 20 minutes.
Makeup brushes can be stored in a stylish container such as the one featured on hellonatural. It all starts with a glass jar. You take some stockings and you slip the fabric around the glass. Wrap double sided tape around the rim and let the fabric stick to it. Cut off the excess fabric. |
Condoleezza Rice and the insult to international diplomacy
In the equation which makes up the odious, criminal and murderous Bush regime and its murderous, criminal and odious foreign policy, the constant factor is constituted by a teacher, promoted to positions way above her personal and intellectual station by a gullible fool of a President. This teacher, whose sheer incompetence as National Security Advisor and as Secretary of State is today so blatantly apparent, goes by the name of Condoleezza Rice.
Condoleezza Rice and the insult to international diplomacy
The fact that Rice was National Security Advisor at the time of 9/11 speaks for itself, period.
As Secretary of State, she is supposed to be responsible for her country’s diplomacy, she is supposed to be Washington’s leading diplomat. But can anyone think of a figure less qualified for the post? Starting with the face (set in a constant snarl, with a scar for a mouth, lips pursed back in a sneer, piggy eyes looking as though something evil is lunging behind them), continuing with the body language (aggressive stance, butch, defensive posture as though she is hiding something or afraid) and ending with the discourse (about as diplomatic as a raspberry and a fit of giggling at a funeral ceremony), she cuts a sorry figure.
The constant arrogance and hypocrisy of this failed female makes it that much more apparent that here is a person way out of her depth. Instead of regarding sensitive issues from a balanced viewpoint as she is supposed to do, this incompetent loud-mouthed, bad-mannered, bullshit-mongering bimbo takes one side, ignores the other and then speaks down from a holier-than-thou platform as if she were on a lecture dias.
This is not a classroom, Condoleezza Rice, and you are not a diplomat. You are a liar, a cheap, shallow, failed, wannabe actress on the diplomatic stage. This is the real world and out here, you have to be prepared to face up to your responsibilities.
For a start, you have failed to mention one single time the Georgian war crimes against 2.000 Russian civilians on the night of 7/8 August. Why have you systematically refused to admit they happened? Why have you not mentioned the devastation of Tskhinvali by your allies’ forces? Why do you continue to support the Saakashvili regime?
You therefore support war crimes? You therefore support the Georgian devastation of civilian structures? You side with Saakashvili against the 2.000 civilians murdered? Do you wish they had killed more Ossetians that night? Do you think it is right to target civilian structures with military hardware? Why have you failed to refer to a single item of these odious crimes?
Is it because you are a balanced diplomat ready to look at both sides and find a solution? Or is it because you are an incompetent frumpish hysterical female, wholly out of her depth, who instead of acting in a civilised manner as one would expect from someone in your position, instead gives lectures which are downright rude, pig-headedly arrogant and most unladylike?
So instead of mouthing off about NATO and Russia, how about you shut the hell up, put a sock in it and go back to inflict yourself on your students? Rumour has it you were pretty much hated in academic circles as well, perhaps not as much as in the area of diplomacy, which your very presence insults.
You, personally, are the reason why Washington has been divorced from the international community; you, personally are the reason why so many millions of people hate the idea of the United States and all it stands for; you, personally, are responsible for driving a wedge of sullen hatred into the hearts and mind of the international community. You have done more damage to your country, to its international standing, to the history and the noble precepts of your founding fathers than any other American in history.
And now you say you are not going to let Russia “win” in Georgia? Russia already has won! Nobody believes the lies you have spun in the western press circles. The readership of PRAVDA.Ru has never been higher, in all its language versions, since we have hundreds of thousands of readers flocking to us daily, with comments against the nonsense and lies paraded as “news” by the likes of yourself.
In a nutshell, Georgia invaded South Ossetia and slaughtered 2.000 civilians in one night. You cannot admit that because it would be admitting that Georgia’s President Saakashvili is incompetent. So the two of you stick together, hoping it will blow over if you keep repeating the same thing.
You have lost, Condoleezza Rice. Your ally Saakashvili is responsible for thousands of murders and war crimes, your military advisors, training and equipment have been proven to be wholly inferior to the Russian Armed Forces and this, the nearest we ever got to direct conflict, has proven that your forces were utterly thrashed.
So if you want to bring it on, you will find Russia saddened but by no means afraid and perfectly ready. As an alternative, get back behind a desk where you belong, you rude, insolent, bad-mannered, man-hating apology for a lady before you get your allies into trouble.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru |
US analysts knew airstrike site in Kunduz, Afghanistan was MSF hospital BelfastTelegraph.co.uk US special operations analysts knew a site in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which was hit by an airstrike that killed at least 22 people earlier this month was a hospital. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-analysts-knew-airstrike-site-in-kunduz-afghanistan-was-msf-hospital-34113648.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article31613589.ece/d4157/AUTOCROP/h342/AFGHANISTAN_18.jpg
Email
US special operations analysts knew a site in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which was hit by an airstrike that killed at least 22 people earlier this month was a hospital.
The Associated Press has learned that US special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on the facility run by medical aid group Doctors Without Borders because they suspected it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity.
It is unclear whether commanders who unleashed an AC-130 gunship on the hospital on October 3 were aware that the site was a hospital or knew about the allegations of possible enemy activity.
The Pentagon initially said the attack was to protect US troops engaged in a firefight and has since said it was a mistake.
Doctors without Borders disputes that the hospital was being used by the Taliban for military purposes.
The special operations analysts had assembled a dossier that included maps with the hospital circled, along with indications that intelligence agencies were tracking the location of the Pakistani operative and activity reports based on overhead surveillance, according to a former intelligence official.
The intelligence suggested the hospital was being used as a Taliban command and control centre and may have housed heavy weapons.
After the attack, which came amid a battle to retake the northern Afghan city of Kunduz from the Taliban, some US analysts assessed that the strike had been justified, the former officer says. They concluded that the Pakistani, believed to have been working for his country's Inter-Service Intelligence directorate, had been killed.
No evidence has surfaced publicly to support those conclusions about the Pakistani's connections or his death.
The top US officer in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, has said the strike was a mistake, but he has not explained exactly how it happened or who granted final approval. He also told Congress he was ordering all personnel in Afghanistan to be retrained on the rules governing the circumstances under which strikes are acceptable.
The new details about the military's suspicions that the hospital was being misused complicate an already murky picture and add to the unanswered questions about one of the worst civilian casualty incidents of the Afghan war. They also raise the possibility of a breakdown in intelligence sharing and communication across the military chain of command.
Pentagon officials declined to comment.
The international humanitarian agency that ran the facility, Doctors without Borders, has condemned the bombing as a war crime. The organisation says the strike killed 12 hospital staff and 10 patients, and that death toll may rise. It insists that no gunmen, weapons or ammunition were in the building.
The US and Afghan governments have launched three separate investigations. President Barack Obama has apologised, but Doctors without Borders is calling for an international probe. |
BBC Worldwide has confirmed a partnership with the National Film and Television School for a scholarship programme supporting students taking the new MA course in Game Design and Development. Their support includes both financial assistance, and placement opportunities within the BBC for course graduates. The course, which was launched in January 2012, teaches students the basics of game design, art, programming, and scripting.
“I’m truly excited and honoured that we have been given the opportunity to support and work with the games development and design stars of tomorrow,” said Robert Nashak of BBC Worldwide. “This is the first time [we’ve] supported such an initiative but given the NFTS alumni reads like a who’s-who of all that’s good and great about the British and global entertainment business, we feel very confident we’ll uncover some hidden treasure.”
Jon Weinbren, Head of Games at the NFTS, added: “We are very excited that BBC Worldwide has chosen to back the new Games Design and Development course at the NFTS with these scholarships and placement opportunities […] Engagement with an organisation as content-rich and innovation-friendly as BBC Worldwide offers a unique set of opportunities and will undoubtedly give rise to some extraordinary outputs.”
According to a report by Games Catalyst, BBC Worldwide have agreed to provide four students with scholarships, and then take on two students for placement opportunities. As the company’s focus on the games industry grows, this number may continue to expand; with the UK playing host to universities like Abertay the with prestigious games courses, we’re like to hear of more similar sponsorship programmes before long. |
PURCHASE TICKETS
El Corazon
Thursday, Apr 4 2013 - 9:00 PM ($20) 109 Eastlake Ave E
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 381-3094
http://www.elcorazonseattle.com/ Purchase Tickets Here THIS SHOW HAS PASSED
LIMITED EDITION BONUSES AND PERKS
Digital Download Package ($20)
965 OF 1000 REMAINING
Get all six of Steve's albums! Normally $60, get them all for $20 by supporting The Your Tour. Steve would sign them for you, but they're digital. Download will be provided in a separate email after purchase.
Fine Print:
If a show is cancelled for any reason and your prize is venue specific, you will receive a full refund. Albums will be available regardless of whether or not a show is cancelled. First Name: Last Name: Email:
Get the Gear ($30)
478 OF 500 REMAINING
We've got just 500 limited edition shirts for The Your Tour. Do you want one? Of course you want one.
Fine Print:
If a show is cancelled for any reason and your prize is venue specific, you will receive a full refund. Shirts will be shipped regardless of whether or not a show is cancelled. First Name: Last Name: Email:
Numbered, Signed Poster ($30)
10 OF 10 REMAINING
You can get a numbered and signed print of the show of your choosing. There will be just ten per market. You'll also receive the digital download package.
Fine Print:
If a show is cancelled for any reason and your prize is venue specific, you will receive a full refund. Prints will be signed and shipped regardless of whether or not a show is cancelled. First Name: Last Name: Email:
VIP Ticket Package ($70)
5 OF 5 REMAINING
You and a guest will be given front row seats - you'll also receive the digital download package.
Fine Print:
If a show is cancelled for any reason and your prize is venue specific, you will receive a full refund. Guests must arrive at least 20 minutes prior to showtime to claim VIP seats. First Name: Last Name: Email:
The VIPest Of Seats ($120)
1 OF 1 REMAINING
These are the ultimate VIP seats - two of you will be seated on stage during the duration of the show. You can't get any closer than that. You'll also receive the digital download package.
Fine Print:
If a show is cancelled for any reason and your prize is venue specific, you will receive a full refund. Purchaser agrees to be filmed during the show for use in all mediums. First Name: Last Name: Email:
Fine Print:
There are no refunds or exchanges. Each venue is different. To check if there is an item minimum in the showroom, an age requirement, automatic gratuity, or any questions like that, please reach out to the venue directly. Need a ride to any of our shows? If you've never taken Uber before, sign up with code UBERGETHOME and get your first ride free! |
If you have ever wondered why Americans are obsessed with conspiracy theories it's due to their culture dating back hundreds of years.
America was founded on conspiracies being hatched by politicians in London to take away liberties of people, according to Britain's leading conspiracy theory expert.
Professor Sir Richard Evans of the University of Cambridge, who is leading a research project due to be published in 2017, told the Hay Festival: "Conspiracy theories are very widespread in the United States. It seems to me that they are more widespread than in other countries.
"There is an argument that conspiracy theories are built into American culture because that is how America started. The United States was founded on conspiracy theories that the London government was conspiring to deprive America of their liberties."
His research also goes contrary to belief that the internet is the main cause for the proliferation of conspiracy theories.
He cites an array of conspiracy theories in the United States including John F Kennedy's assassination in 1963. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, a clear majority of Americans (61%) believe others besides Lee Harvey Oswald were involved. This percentage, however, has now been reduced since the rise of the internet.
"There is now a lot more scepticism," Evan said.
Other theories include the 9/11 attacks and campaigns to prove that President Obama was not American. He said that opinion polls recorded 28% of Republicans believed the President was the Antichrist, along with 6% of Democrats.
Conspiracies, he said, tended to proliferate after traumatic incidents, such as the disappearance of missing MH370 this year. The McCarthy "witch-hunts" against communist sympathisers followed the end of the Second World War and had taken on "a life of their own" were another example.
He also pointed out that while in earlier financial crises, conspiracy theories were directed at big business, during the recent crisis, anger and theories had been aimed at governments.
"In the late 19th century conspiracy theories were directed against big business and cartels", he said.
"This did not happen so much in the recent economic crisis where conspiracy theories have been targeted much more at government. Is it because governments play a much bigger role in our lives than they did a century ago?" |
Forget Sykes-Picot. It’s the Treaty of Sèvres That Explains the Modern Middle East.
Ninety-five years ago today, European diplomats gathered at a porcelain factory in the Paris suburb of Sèvres and signed a treaty to remake the Middle East from the ashes of the Ottoman empire. The plan collapsed so quickly we barely remember it anymore, but the short-lived Treaty of Sèvres, no less than the endlessly discussed Sykes-Picot agreement, had consequences that can still be seen today. We might do well to consider a few of them as the anniversary of this forgotten treaty quietly passes by.
In 1915, as British troops prepared to march on Istanbul by way of the Gallipoli peninsula, the government in London printed silk handkerchiefs heralding the end of the Ottoman empire. It was a bit premature (the battle of Gallipoli turned out to be one of the Ottomans’ few World War I victories) but by 1920 Britain’s confidence seemed justified: With allied troops occupying the Ottoman capital, representatives from the war’s victorious powers signed a treaty with the defeated Ottoman government that divided the empire’s lands into European spheres of influence. Sèvres internationalized Istanbul and the Bosphorus, while giving pieces of Anatolian territory to the Greeks, Kurds, Armenians, French, British, and Italians. Seeing how and why the first European plan for dividing up the Middle East failed, we can better understand the region’s present-day borders, as well as the contradictions of contemporary Kurdish nationalism and the political challenges facing modern Turkey.
Within a year of signing the Treaty of Sèvres, European powers began to suspect they had bitten off more than they could chew. Determined to resist foreign occupation, Ottoman officers like Mustafa Kemal Ataturk reorganized the remnants of the Ottoman army and, after several years of desperate fighting, drove out the foreign armies seeking to enforce the treaty’s terms. The result was Turkey as we recognize it today, whose new borders were officially established in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.
Sèvres has been largely forgotten in the West, but it has a potent legacy in Turkey, where it has helped fuel a form of nationalist paranoia some scholars have called the “Sèvres syndrome.” Sèvres certainly plays a role in Turkey’s sensitivity over Kurdish separatism, as well as the belief that the Armenian genocide — widely used by European diplomats to justify their plans for Anatolia in 1920 — was always an anti-Turkish conspiracy rather than a matter of historical truth. Moreover, Turkey’s foundational struggle with colonial occupation left its mark in a persistent form of anti-imperial nationalism, directed first against Britain, during the Cold War against Russia, and now, quite frequently, against the United States.
But the legacy of Sèvres extends well beyond Turkey, which is precisely why we should include this treaty alongside Sykes-Picot in our history of the Middle East. It will help us challenge the widespread notion that the region’s problems all began with Europeans drawing borders on a blank map.
There’s no doubt that Europeans were happy to create borders that conformed to their own interests whenever they could get away with it. But the failure of Sèvres proves that that sometimes they couldn’t. When European statesmen tried to redraw the map of Anatolia, their efforts were forcefully defeated. In the Middle East, by contrast, Europeans succeeded in imposing borders because they had the military power to prevail over the people resisting them. Had the Syrian nationalist Yusuf al-‘Azma, another mustachioed Ottoman army officer, replicated Ataturk’s military success and defeated the French at the Battle of Maysalun, European plans for the Levant would have gone the way of Sèvres.
Would different borders have made the Middle East more stable, or perhaps less prone to sectarian violence? Not necessarily. But looking at history through the lens of the Sèvres treaty suggests a deeper point about the cause-and-effect relationship between European-drawn borders and Middle Eastern instability: the regions that ended up with borders imposed by Europe tended to be those already too weak or disorganized to successfully resist colonial occupation. Turkey didn’t become wealthier and more democratic than Syria or Iraq because it had the good fortune to get the right borders. Rather, the factors that enabled Turkey to defy European plans and draw its own borders — including an army and economic infrastructure inherited from the Ottoman empire — were some of the same ones that enabled Turkey to build a strong, centralized, European-style nation-state.
Of course, plenty of Kurdish nationalists might claim that Turkey’s borders actually are wrong. Indeed, some cite Kurdish statelessness as a fatal flaw in the region’s post-Ottoman borders. But when European imperialists tried to create a Kurdish state at Sèvres, many Kurds fought alongside Ataturk to upend the treaty. It’s a reminder that political loyalties can and do transcend national identities in ways we would do well to realize today.
The Kurdish state envisioned in the Sèvres Treaty would, crucially, have been under British control. While this appealed to some Kurdish nationalists, others found this form of British-dominated “independence” problematic. So they joined up to fight with the Turkish national movement. Particularly among religious Kurds, continued Turkish or Ottoman rule seemed preferable to Christian colonization. Other Kurds, for more practical reasons, worried that once in charge the British would inevitably support recently dispossessed Armenians seeking to return to the region. Some subsequently regretted their decision when it became clear the state they had fought to create would be significantly more Turkish — and less religious — than anticipated. But others, under varying degrees of duress, chose instead to accept the identity the new state offered them.
Many Turkish nationalists remain frightened by the way their state was destroyed by Sèvres, while many Kurdish nationalists still imagine the state they might have achieved. At the same time, today’s Turkish government extolls the virtues of Ottoman tolerance and multiculturalism, while Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, apparently after reading the sociologist Benedict Anderson in prison, claims to have discovered that all nations are merely social constructs. The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish HDP spent much of the last decade competing to convince Kurdish voters that a vote for their party was a vote for peace — competing, that is, over which party was capable of resolving Turkey’s long-simmering conflict by creating a more stable and inclusive state. In short, as many Americans still debate the “artificial” nature of European-made states in the Middle East, Turkey is fitfully transcending a century-long obsession with proving how “real” it is.
Needless to say, the renewed violence Turkey has seen in the past several weeks threatens these fragile elements of a post-national consensus. With the AKP calling for the arrest of Kurdish political leaders and Kurdish guerrillas shooting police officers, nationalists on both sides are falling back into familiar, irreconcilable positions. For 95 years, Turkey reaped the political and economic benefits of its victory over the Treaty of Sèvres. But building on this success now requires forging a more flexible political model, one that helps render battles over borders and national identity irrelevant.
Photo credit: David Rumsey Map Collection |
"History in the making" -- that's how Al Jazeera correspondent Marko Pavlovic described today's protests in Bosnia to HuffPostLive.
Thousands of Bosnians took their discontent over unemployment and government corruption to the streets for a third day on Friday, with protest marches rocking at least three cities. The Associated Press reports that groups of furious demonstrators clashed with police and attacked local government buildings. Nearly 200 people were injured in the clashes.
Just take a look at the photos below for a glimpse into the fury of the demonstrators.
And can we blame them? Bosnia's middle class is decimated, many in the working class are living in poverty, while tycoons are flourishing.
Bosnian police clash with protesters in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Sulejman Omerbasic)
Bosnian protesters approach a local government building during a protest in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
A Bosnian protester is seen in the town of Tuzla, on Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
Protesters set fire the Tuzla canton government building during public officers' demonstration in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, 140 kms north of Sarajevo on February 7, 2014. (Photo by Mersiha Besic/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
A man walks during clashes between demonstrators and police in the capital Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on February 7, 2014. (Photo by Samir Yordamovic/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
A protester gestures toward the police cordon in front of the local government buildings in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Sulejman Omerbasic)
Bosnian police officers secure the area in front of a local government building in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, 140 kms north of Sarajevo, on Thursday, Feb. 6. 2014. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) |
Anders Vistisen said the union risks being “overshadowed and left behind” if it continues to hit out at the UK for voting to leave. The Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, took a swipe at the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Guy “Mr Brexit” Verhofstadt who called Theresa May’s pledge to deliver a new EU trade deal by 2019 “impossible”. He warned if the EU does not “appreciate and work constructively with the UK’s objectives” it risks being overcome by popular discontent and “Denmark could well be the next country to leave the bloc”.
Getty Anders Vistisen (l) has hit out at the EU for making Brexit difficult for the UK
Denmark could well be the next country to leave the bloc Anders Vistisen
Writing on Brexit Central, he said: “Dozens of countries have already been lining up to do free trade deals with Britain. “In order to avoid being overshadowed and left behind, the European Union should stop talking about Brexit in a negative and defensive way. “It is high time that it abandons its arrogance and faces the reality as it is, not as it wishes it to be.
Getty European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker has been outspoken in his anger about Brexit
“I believe that the EU has to make every effort to negotiate a good and fair trade deal with the UK. “The EU has to become fully aware of the fact that a good trade deal is beneficial – not only to the UK, but also to all EU Member States.”
The Danish People’s Party MEP added the UK will “stay part of Europe, whether the EU likes it or not” so cutting historical, military and economic ties would “simply be catastrophic for both players”. He said an ongoing battles over trade and more would have “no winners” which is why the EU needs to make “every effort” to ensure there is mutual satisfaction.
Getty Danish PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen has been a strong supporter of Theresa May
Getty EU bosses have been "arrogant" in their Brexit dealings, the Danish MEP said
The UK should be able to buy itself into schemes beneficial to both sides, such as the Erasmus student exchange programme, although he admitted the UK Government has to take that decision as well. With regards to Denmark, he said its trade relationship with the UK is “important” and the two countries are closely linked.
These are the most eurosceptic countries Fri, February 24, 2017 Rising disenchantment with the dealings of EU is not just confined to the UK. Play slideshow 1 of 8 |
(or, stop me if you've heard this one before)
A good friend of mine first wore glasses in college. He hadn't realized that the world had been blurry for 20 years until his doctor demonstrated exactly how clear the world can be.
If you visit the optometrist and get fitted for corrective lenses, the doctor will put a viewfinder over your face and fiddle with dials, asking "Better or worse". Your task is to squint and squirm and try to read the optical equivalent of lorem ipsum until everything becomes clear and you no longer have to worry about your focal depth. If you get it wrong, you'll have slight headaches for a year until you correct things again. If you get it right—well, that's a matter of preference.
After all, no one can decide your own tolerance for clarity.
Some people believe that Perl has too many operators and they ask questions like why are there separate comparison operators for strings and numbers, for example.
Better or worse?
$x eq $y $x.to_str == $y.to_str (String)$x == (String)$y
Granted, the underlying mechanism in a virtual machine might perform the same operations:
get_string %SREG(0), $x get_string %SREG(1), $y compare %SREG(0), %SREG(1)
... but people like me write lots of code so you don't have to write code like that, or even know how that code works.
Suppose the optometrist knows all about Hindley-Milner, and over a second round of delicious beverages, he asks the programming language designer about typeclasses and inference:
$x == $y
Better or worse than the previous examples?
Of course, your optometrist probably isn't even an amateur programming language designer, so it's easy to counter the argument:
Does this operator compare container equivalence or value equivalence?
If value equivalence, must the values be the same or equivalent?
If container equivalence, how deep is the container equivalence?
Must the inferred types be the same, or can they be contra/covariant?
If deep container equivalence, how does this comparison interact with laziness or infinite data structures?
If value equivalence, are coercions allowable between potentially comparable representations?
What happens if someone overloads this comparison operator for one type or another?
Better or worse?
$x == $y $x.CONTAINER == $y.CONTAINER $x.VALUE == $y.VALUE typeof $x == typeof $y <contravariant_type>$x == <contravariant_type>$y LAZY($x == $y)
... and so on.
Over a third round of drinks, the programming language designer might get the optometrist to admit that the reason some languages have so many operators is because there are so many possible operations. The question, as always, is "What's the most clear to read and to understand?" |
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/1/2015 (1503 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
World-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall will speak at the University of Winnipeg Sept. 11.
Goodall will be the second speaker in The Axworthy Distinguished Lecturer Series on Social Justice and the Public Good. Her lecture on at 7 p.m. will be free and open to the public.
Goodall’s work at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve became the foundation of contemporary primatological research, effectively redefining the relationship between humans and animals. In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports programs for research, education, community development, and conservation, U of W officials said.
She will also address the U of W community in conjunction with the Fall Institute, “Humanity, Animality, Secularity.” The Institute will offer a special three-credit hour course on ecology in a secular world. |
Jersey City plans to file a $400 million lawsuit against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, saying “outdated and unfair” tax agreements between the city and the bi-state agency have led the city to lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.
The city also alleges that the Port Authority has refused to enter into tax agreements on many of the 32 properties it owns in Jersey City, agreements that would lead to an extra $1.3 million in tax revenue for Jersey City every year.
Efforts to address the tax issue with Port Authority officials have been met with silence, according to Mayor Steve Fulop, who met with The Jersey Journal today to reveal the details of the suit.
“We’re not going to get bullied around by them,” Fulop said. “We’re going to do whatever we can to make them treat Jersey City fairly.”
The city plans to file the lawsuit as early as Thursday. The City Council on Wednesday is set to approve a no-bid contract to high-powered law firm Weiner Lesniak to represent the city in the suit, at a cost not to exceed $50,000.
This is surely just the opening salvo in what Fulop aide Brian Platt said will be a "very long, bloody" war with the powerful Port Authority.
A phone call seeking comment this afternoon from the Port Authority was not immediately returned.
The suit seeks $315 million that the city says is what it would have collected if the Port Authority had been paying traditional taxes on all its city properties, and an additional $85 million in penalties, interest and damages.
The Port Authority, which had net revenue of $4.1 billion in 2012, pays $2.1 million in taxes each year to Jersey City, where the agency owns and operates the Journal Square transportation hub, Greenville Yard and 30 other properties.
According to the city, the Port Authority, created in 1921 to ease commerce and transportation between the two states, had originally sought to pay no taxes on properties it acquired in New Jersey. Subsequent lobbying by municipalities led to payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements, with the Port Authority paying no more than the taxes that were paid by the prior owners of the properties.
This effort to prevent municipalities from losing out on tax revenue has instead created “undue economic harm,” according to Fulop.
“They’ve taken advantage of this in order to manipulate cities like Jersey City and other host cities,” he said.
Fulop’s administration points to the Journal Square PATH center as an example of how Port Authority benefits from not paying traditional taxes. The agency pays $86,729 annually thanks to its PILOT agreement on the lot, the same amount it paid when it acquired the 9.3-acre property back in 1967, city officials say.
Jersey City estimates that a private taxpayer would pay $9.6 million in taxes annually on the property today, and that the city has lost out on nearly $219 million in taxes in the 46 years the Port Authority has own the parcel.
“It’s ridiculous,” Fulop said.
City officials also contend that the Port Authority, which is required by state statute to enter into PILOT agreements with municipalities when they acquire property, don’t always do so, leaving the city losing $1.3 million annually on 24 agency-owned lots.
One example is 2 Montgomery St., which the Port Authority bought in 2010 for $26.2 million and has not paid any taxes on, city officials say.
If the agency paid traditional taxes on these 24 properties, the city would realize an extra $18 million annually, they say.
Jersey City's proposed lawsuit is not unprecedented. In 1998, Newark sued the Port Authority seeking underpaid rent. The two entities settled in 2002 (thanks to deal brokered with help from then-Gov. James McGreevey, whom Fulop hired to run the city's jobs program), with the Port Authority agreeing to hand over $100 million in tax relief to Newark, plus $12.5 million annually for capital improvement projects and $3 million in additional rent payments.
Fulop told The Jersey Journal that he had scheduled a meeting with Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni to discuss the tax issue. Baroni canceled without cause, according to the mayor. Multiple emails on the subject to Port Authority officials were ignored, as was an Oct. 29 letter from Fulop to Patrick J. Foye, the Port Authority’s executive director, the mayor said. |
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck so far hasn't come through on a promise to provide a new truck for two women injured by officers in pursuit of fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner, an attorney for the women said Monday.
Beck last month pledged to provide the truck to Margie Carranza, 47, and her mother, Emma Hernandez, 71, who were delivering newspapers in Torrance when LAPD officers riddled their blue Toyota Tacoma with bullets. Dorner was believed to be driving a gray Nissan Titan.
Hernandez was shot twice in the back, and Carranza sustained injuries from broken glass.
FULL COVERAGE: Sweeping manhunt for ex-cop
Beck called the truck shooting “a tragic misinterpretation” by officers working under "incredible tension” hours after Dorner allegedly shot police officers. He promised to provide a truck from a donor regardless of potential litigation by the women.
But Glen Jonas, an attorney for the woman, said the women are still without a truck.
"After they shot my clients ... this broken promise of a truck donation and the nonsense that followed is a slap in the face," Jonas said.
PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer
Jonas said the women were first offered a used truck, then a non-four-wheel drive Ford to replace their Toyota four-wheel drive vehicle. The women also had to agree not to sell it for a year. His clients agreed to that truck, he said.
But then the dealership and LAPD officials said the truck would be considered a prize for tax purposes, Jonas said.
"Essentially, they'd have to pay taxes like they won it on a game show," Jonas said.
WHO THEY WERE: Victims in the Dorner case |
ZURICH -- After all of the talk of using state-of-the-art air conditioning to cool stadiums at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the architect in charge of one of the venues reversed course and claimed Tuesday that a more old-fashioned solution would be cheaper and better.
Leading firm Populous, which is designing the Sports City stadium in Doha, is trying to persuade Qatari organizers to scrap plans to have air conditioning at the venue.
Populous director John Barrow said the system is too expensive and "notoriously unsustainable" for the environment when used on a large scale.
Barrow, whose firm helped draw up the prototype of an air-conditioned stadium, now believes the planned 47,000-seat Sports City arena can be kept cool by shading seats and using traditional Arabic methods for ventilation.
"I think you can be more clever. It is about air movement, moisture in the air and it is about temperature at the right time of day," Barrow told delegates at the International Football Arena conference. "If we get it right ... that is the way ahead."
The concept of air-conditioned stadiums to beat the 122-degree desert heat in June was a defining theme of Qatar's winning World Cup bid last year.
Qatar hired Populous to help its campaign, drawing on the firm's experience in building signature projects such as the new Yankee Stadium, London's 2012 Olympic Stadium and Arsenal's Emirates arena.
The firm built a small prototype of an air-conditioned stadium in Doha to help persuade a FIFA inspection team that the tiny nation's ambitious World Cup project could succeed.
"We are doing away with all the air-conditioning kit that is going to cost a fortune to run," Barrow said.
Instead, he is proposing wind towers that suck up hot air to create fan-like air movement inside the stadium.
"It is part of the building tradition in the Gulf to create wind towers, which naturally ventilate. If you have got an air movement, which keeps you cool like a fan, that makes all the difference," he said.
Qatar promised FIFA that its 12 World Cup stadiums could be regulated at about 79 degrees. Now, Barrow says spectators could be sitting in 86-degree heat during evening matches.
"Fan expectation needs to be a little more relaxed," he said.
Seating areas also need to be kept in shade during searing daytime temperatures, instead of allowing stadiums to "suck in" heat that is retained after dark.
"Suddenly you are sitting on a radiator. It is totally counter-productive," Barrow said. "The objective for me is to keep the (stadium) bowl sunscreened during the day, with natural ventilation and encouraging a vortex by using all kinds of clever tricks."
Ghana forward Asamoah Gyan, who has played for United Arab Emirates club Al Ain since September, predicted the "climate for the World Cup is going to be really, really difficult."
"They are putting air conditioning in the stadiums, and I think maybe it can help the football there because without that I don't think people can survive because it's really, really hot," Gyan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
However, Barrow compared the Doha climate with Houston, where Populous has built air-conditioned stadiums for baseball and football.
"But it is an immensely expensive thing to do," he said.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press |
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon 1840
What is Property?
An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government
Written: in French, 1840;
Original E-text: Charles Keller and David Seaman;
Source: University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/;
Translated: from the French by Benjamin R. Tucker;
First Published: by Humboldt Publishing Company c. 1890.
Preface
First Memoir. Law of the Twelve Tables
Adversus hostem aeterna auctertas esto
Against the enemy, revendication is eternal.
Chapter I. Method Pursued in this Work. The Idea of a Revolution.
Chapter II. Property Considered as a Natural Right. Occupation, and Civil Law as Efficient Bases of Property. Definitions.
Chapter III. Labor as the Efficient Cause of the Domain of Property.
Chapter IV. That Property is Impossible.
Chapter V. Psychological Exposition of the Idea of Justice and Injustice, and a Determination of the Principles of Government and of Right.
Second Memoir
Letter to M. Blanqui. Paris, April 1, 1841. |
Astronomers using ESO‘s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered the most powerful quasar outflow discovered to date – five times more energetic than the previous record holder.
Dubbed SDSS J1106+1939, the quasar outflow is at least equivalent to two million million times the power output of the Sun or 100 times higher than the total power output of the Milky Way galaxy. The newly discovered outflow lies about a thousand light-years away from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the quasar. This is a beast, make no mistake!
Quasars are the most energetic cosmic objects in the Universe, and are powerful by black holes at the center of galaxies. Gravitational stresses and intense friction outside of the event horizon of black holes causes accretion of material around them, which in term power quasars that shovels massive amounts of escaping energy into cosmos.
According to Hubble’s law the redshift shows that quasars are very distant and, because of their distance, much older than our universe.
“I’ve been looking for something like this for a decade,” says team leader Nahum Arav from Virginia Tech, “so it’s thrilling to finally find one of the monster outflows that have been predicted!”
It is believed quasars and their outflows play a vital role in the formation of galaxies. Quasars may influence how the mass of a galaxy is linked to its central black hole mass, and why there are so few large galaxies in the Universe. Still, these issues and many more, are yet to be resolved. Our understanding of quasars has come a long way in the past few decades, and it is through milestone discoveries such as that of J1106+1939 that we will further expand our knowledge.
Findings were detailed in the The Astrophysical Journal.
Enjoyed this article? Join 40,000+ subscribers to the ZME Science newsletter. Subscribe now! |
Pyrrha jogged along at an easy, loping pace, her athletic legs eating up the ground as her long red ponytail swayed behind her. She was, as expected, covered in a sheen of sweat from the early heat and humidity, even though the sun had only just risen at the start of her jog, Granted, that was an hour ago, but it would seem that today, the Saturday before the girls returned to Beacon, was going to be an especially brutal one.
She stole a quick glance over her shoulder. Blake was still doggedly keeping pace, though the bow atop her head looked to be practically wilting, and her dark tank top and shorts were as wet as if she'd been swimming in the ocean.
Which I'm sure, at this point, she'd have easily preferred…
About a quarter of a mile back, Ruby was still gamely carrying on. The petite girl was adamant when they'd started out that neither of her girlfriends should ease their pace for her, to simply keep on and she'd catch up if she fell behind. Even if it meant her using her semblance to do so.
From the looks of it, however, she had been drawing heavily on her aura just to stay within sight of the others. The petite brunette, her sleek muscles working hard, was just as drenched with sweat.
Letting out a short, amused huff, Pyrrha took note of where they were. It wasn't exactly taking it easy on them, per se, but a little shortcut in her usual route wouldn't be noticed…
She turned at the next junction, cutting through the backyard of one of her childhood friends (who no longer even lived in Mistral anymore, from what she'd heard) and into her own neighborhood once more. Only another ten more minutes saw her once again in her backyard, slowing down to a fast walk and swinging her arms about. She noticed her father watching from the kitchen window and waved to him merrily.
Blake arrived soon on her heels, halfheartedly trying to keep moving, though the Cat Faunus looked ready to collapse.
"You alright, kitty cat?" Pyrrha asked breathlessly.
The raven-haired girl merely nodded, holding up one thumb before standing still and leaning over, her hands on her knees as she gulped down great lungfuls of air.
Ruby had no such compunctions once she arrived, and after staggering into the back yard, unceremoniously collapsed into a heap on the grass.
"Ruby, sweetie…" Pyrrha laughed lightly as she crouched by the puddle of red-clad brunette. "If you don't keep moving, your muscles will lock up, you know this."
"Ruby Rose is no longer present," the petite girl panted. "There is only pain. Pain, and sweat. That's all that's left of me."
Blake let out a groan as she abandoned any pretense of dignity and flopped down next to the brunette, propped up on her elbows. "How… can you… even stand… still…?" she asked, chest still heaving.
"What, in this weather?" Pyrrha smirked ever so slightly. "It's not all that bad out this early. A relatively nice day, compared to others I've experienced."
Blake tiredly turned her head to regard the redhead, her amber eyes peering out from under the bangs matted across her face. "You will have to imagine me glaring at you. I don't have the energy to actually do so."
"But we were supposed to spar next!" Pyrrha exclaimed humorously. She knew there was no way in all of Dust-loving Remnant either girl would be up for any more training that day, but still, it was fun to tease them a little bit.
"Fluffy fox," Ruby mumbled, her face still in the grass. "I love you… but I kinda wanna hurt you right now…"
Pyrrha giggled as she sat down on her haunches. "Well, I am very sorry to hear that… I mean, if you were to hurt me, then I couldn't take you both to get ice cream…"
Both the other girls perked up at that. "I propose we hold off on any grievous injury until further notice," Blake murmured with a wry grin.
Ruby lifted her hand up slightly. "Seconded." She let it drop back again with a flop.
"Besides which," Pyrrha added. "For being such good sports, I could always… take special care of the both of you tonight."
Her brunette girlfriend finally rolled over at that, silver eyes sparkling at the notion. "I like the sound of that," she sighed dreamily.
"Mmm," Blake agreed, her own amber eyes anticipatory.
"Come on then," the redhead said with a grunt as she levered herself up. She leaned back over, her hands extended towards her lovers. "Let's go get you two treats."
"Yes, ma'am," Ruby grinned, accepting the help to her feet.
o o o
Epirus watched from the kitchen, his arms crossed, as his daughter accompanied her girlfriends down the street, presumably towards the ice cream stand just on the other side.
"You're pondering quite loudly, dear," his wife mentioned mildly from where she sat at the kitchen table, perusing a home decorating magazine.
"I'm not pondering, Lena," he replied quietly. "Just… thinking."
"Pondering."
He let out an amused huff of air as he turned from the window once his daughter was out of sight. She'd kept hold of her girlfriends' hands as they walked away.
"I'm just still struggling with the concept."
Helena smiled without looking up from her magazine. "Which one, Epi? The fact that our daughter has two girlfriends? Or that she is an adult now and able to make her own decisions?" She did glance up then, spearing her husband with a knowing look. "Or is it the... other activities that the three of them engage in behind closed doors?"
Flushing slightly, Epirus took a seat across from his wife. "I don't know how you can talk about that so casually," he grumbled.
"Because we raised our girl to be able to make her own choices, and make them wisely," Helena replied levelly, turning the page. "Ohh, this one is nice. Really, though, if our daughter is as in love with Ruby and Blake as she seems to be, who are we to question her level of intimacy?"
"We're her parents!"
"Yes, Epi, and she's an adult."
He sighed heavily, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. "As usual, you're correct."
"I know dear," she replied with a very small smirk. "But it's nice of you to admit it."
"I've had a lot of practice."
"Again, very true. So then, what is left for you to ponder over?"
Epirus sat back and crossed his arms. "Two girls, Lena?"
Sighing herself, Helena closed her magazine and regarded her husband fully. "Have you ever, in all her years, seen Pyrrha as happy as she is with both of those girls?"
"Well, no, but-"
"Are you at all concerned about her being with a girl, rather than a boy?"
"No, of course not, I just-"
"And you've seen all three of them train while they have been home. Oum, if I wasn't happily married to you, and if I were a couple decades or so younger, the little one might have caught my eye. She has quite the physique."
"Lena!" her husband barked out somewhat scandalously. She just giggled lightly and waved his protest away.
"All I am saying is that the three of them certainly haven't slacked off any with their training, or their grades for that matter as I understand it. Pyrrha has two very beautiful, talented, and caring girlfriends. How is this any different than if she were to just be with one or the other?"
Epirus tapped his fingers on the kitchen table, mulling over his wife's words. "I… suppose you are correct."
"Yes dear," Helena replied sweetly, opening her magazine back up again. "So you accept that our daughter is happy?"
"I do, yes," he sighed. "And I accept the fact that she's an adult, able to make her own decisions, even if I cannot always comprehend them."
"And in the end, that's all that matters, Epi," she stated warmly. "Would you be a dear and make me some tea?"
Epirus levered himself up from the chair, pausing to place a tender kiss on Helena's forehead. "Of course, my love."
A/N: So, that resolves our time in Mistral! Credit for the first half of the story goes to the very excellent NobleMETA who gave me the idea. And then in the second half we see Epirus has finally accepted fully the Purruby relationship. Yay! Next up: Freezerburn in Atlas! Double yay!
I'm glad folk liked the last chapter so much, for various reasons. Fuckwaffles is definitely one of my fav cuss words now, and I think it might be Ruby's as well. Alongside shitbiscuits.
Much love for my wonderful reviewers, thankfully FF finally caught up with the reviews that seemed to have not updated on the site for a whole past week. At least none seemed to have been lost. Commando2341, Imagine Exorcist, THB4, Jack Inqu, bladewolfzic, Marauderby (smol Ruby hugs), DeamonHunter, Gorsouul, ExKage, DschingisKhan, Demonic Angel C, ILikeHotDogs, Boombox94, Kalomin, Skiptrace, kaiju62, FelipeCH98, Throthgar's bane, Silver-Wolf Lord of Order, joltflier, SamuraiShippo, ScaryGirl95 (nope right there with you girl), Lemonysuperpie (thx m8), and MakaS0ul (inbred potato, lol). Love all of you guys!
Stay shiny! |
Senate candidate Roy Moore, left, and Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.). (Left: Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via Associated Press; right: Butch Dill/Associated Press)
Opinion writer
The last few polls in the GOP Senate primary runoff show alt-right hero and ousted judge Roy Moore leading Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), whom Trump campaigned for and endorsed, by double digits. The RealClearPolitics poll average shows Moore leading by more than 10 percentage points.
A loss for Strange would be a stunning rebuke to the president and to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a sign that Trump has unleashed extreme, unhinged populist sentiments that not even he can contain.
While it remains unlikely that Democrats could win the seat in a general election, a Moore victory in and of itself would spell trouble for the GOP on multiple fronts.
First, Republicans on the ballot in 2018 and beyond will be pressed to defend not only Trump’s outrageous actions and remarks but also Moore’s. Not unlike what happened with Todd Akin, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Missouri in 2012, Democrats will have a field day tying candidates to the Alabama radical. Strange made the argument himself in a Washington Examiner interview. (“There are a lot of people that think my opponent would be a Todd Akin, an anchor around the neck of the party for the next couple years. I have to say, knowing him, that’s probably a valid concern — it really is.”)
Moore, who defied court orders to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom and refused to recognize gay marriage after the Supreme Court’s June 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, also risks making contempt for courts into a mainstay of the GOP ideology. The presidential pardon of former Maricopa County (Ariz.) sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of contempt of court, would be seen as opening the floodgates for radicals such as Moore and an invitation to state and national Republicans to defy the courts. The party that used to fancy itself as defender of “constitutional conservatism” is fast becoming a dogged opponent of the rule of law.
In addition, a loss for the Trump-backed candidate would serve as enormous encouragement to former Trump senior strategist and Breitbart editor Stephen K. Bannon, who backs Moore and is threatening to run other extremists against GOP incumbents. If someone as wacky as Moore (who, for example, thinks homosexuality should be illegal) can run and win against the president’s candidate, what is to stop any alt-right novice politician from successfully challenging, say, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), not to mention vulnerable Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.).
The most serious consequence of a Strange loss would be the further diminution of Trump’s stature and ability to wield power even within the GOP. He is likely to fail on health-care reform and quite possibly tax reform. His ratings are in the cellar. (According to the latest CBS News poll, “His rating for handling health care is the lowest this poll tested — at just 29 percent. Immigration meets just 35 percent approval. His overall approval rating, also now at 35 percent, is one point lower than August, and the lowest it has reached in this poll so far.”) Having achieved no significant legislative victory and proving himself to be electorally impotent in Alabama, Trump would surely be drained of whatever political sway over congressional Republicans he had. They, in turn, will be even less likely to follow his lead and provide cover for his excesses. The result is likely to be more gridlock, more dysfunction and more political defeats. |
When it comes to our bodies, we are a nation obsessed with the quick fix. Whatever your problem the internet is filled with promises of cheap and – supposedly – painless solutions. In 2009, 1.1 million non-surgical cosmetic procedures were performed, and this March, Superdrug became the first high-street retailer to offer budget anti-wrinkle injections, derma-fillers and other treatments normally the preserve of private clinics.
Companies such as Superdrug employ doctors and dentists to run their clinics. But in a growing industry that successive governments have failed to regulate not everyone else is so responsible. According to Fazel Fatah, consultant plastic surgeon and president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons: "The notion of what people call aesthetic treatments has been developed around various injectables and non-invasive procedures. This has allowed people with no surgical medical training to establish a practice and make easy money with little if any thought as to the patients' wellbeing. The availability of drugs on the internet without prescriptions is feeding into what is actually a completely unregulated practice."
The organisation is particularly worried about backstreet procedures for men seeking genital enhancement. It says it has evidence of a number of websites promoting the use of silicone injections into scrotums and penises – unlicensed treatments performed by medically unqualified practitioners that can result in serious medical problems.
Jim Horton certainly wishes he had heard this warning earlier. The 50-year-old aircraft engineeer underwent one such procedure in 2007. "I've always had quite a tight scrotum and heard through various online chat sites that I could get it made bigger," he says. "Everyone who'd had it done seemed to say they were really happy with the results, so I emailed the guy who I was told was carrying it out and arranged to see him. He sent me details of what would happen. It all seemed very professional and above-board."
It was only when he arrived for his appointment that Jim began to worry. "I thought there'd be some kind of surgery inside – but it was nothing more than a normal house," he says. "The man I went to meet said he worked on North Sea oil rigs, but he seemed very calm and confident and he told me that he'd done this to more than 90 other men, as well as having had silicone injected into his own penis and scrotum. I trusted him and went upstairs."
But after Jim had showered and was lying on the bed, waiting to be injected, things got worse. "I noticed the silicone was kept in an open milk bottle on the side – and this guy put the syringe full of the silicone into a regular sealant gun you'd buy from a DIY store. He said he needed to apply extra pressure as the fluid was so thick, but by now I was in his hands and went along with it."
Over the next 30 minutes Jim had 60ml of silicone injected in each side of his scrotum. Afterwards, he got dressed and handed over £120. "I felt fine and my scrotum looked and felt better. I was happy with what I'd paid for," he says.
However, by Christmas he noticed that the injected areas had started to harden and become misshapen. "I called the guy who did it, asking if this was normal, and he just said 'bad luck' and hung up on me. I suddenly felt so stupid and angry for having put myself in this position. I didn't know who to turn to."
Over the next 18 months Jim's problems increased. "The pain was getting worse as the silicone hardened around my testicles, so when I stood up it felt like they were being yanked down with the weight. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't work and I felt like a freak." Finally, in February 2010, he met Marcus Drake, a consultant urologist at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, who tried to remove the silicone in an operation. "I was warned I could lose my testicles, but I was in so much pain, it seemed a risk worth taking," Jim says.
Unfortunately the operation had to be stopped when the flesh on his scrotum lost its blood supply. "I spent the next three weeks at home with a district nurse coming round every day to dress the wound and keep it clean, but the smell of rotting flesh was simply horrendous," he says.
Next, Drake performed a joint operation with Antonio Orlando, a cosmetic surgeon from nearby Frenchay Hospital, who took a skin graft from his leg to replace the skin on his scrotum. "I was told they still couldn't get the silicone out without risking cutting off vital blood supplies, but they could sort my scrotum out," he says.
However after this operation, Jim says the skin tightened, leaving him in agony. "I was finally admitted as an emergency case when the pain became too much to handle and in April this year both Drake and Orlando removed 80% of the silicon, but within a week I was readmitted to hospital with an infection and was on a drip for four days. I've healed now and am feeling almost human for the first time in almost four years. I'm just so relieved to be able to walk and function again, but owe those surgeons and the NHS a huge amount for sorting out this stupid mess I created. I just want to expose this backstreet industry and stop other men going down the same route I did." |
When we announced Magic Online Treasure Chests, we initially did not reveal the contents, in part because we wanted some people to enjoy the surprise of an opening they didn’t even know was possible, and in part because we didn’t want players who got unlucky to feel bad about this.
We changed direction somewhat after some player feedback that was given in response to the announcement (before Treasure Chests launched). Some players were opposed to not knowing exact prize contents on principle, and many had very pessimistic views about what they would receive in the treasure chests. Further the fact that they couldn’t be traded caused many players to complain they were required to accept the random chance of Treasure Chests when they did not want to do so.
For the upcoming November 16 Treasure Chest update, our goals were:
Add select cards from both Commander (2016 Edition) and Conspiracy: Take the Crown
and Make Treasure Chests tradable, and refine the design with this in mind
Cycle in and out some cards from the curated list
After Treasure Chests launched, we’ve received additional feedback from players. It’s clear that too often players feel they received nothing of use to them and when this happens their accomplishments in the league are not being rewarded in a way that makes them feel good. Naturally, this isn’t our goal, and so we’re looking to find ways to improve the design to minimize this. Due to our timelines, we weren’t able to do so for the November 16 update, but we hope to do so in a future update. All of this feedback has been helpful, and is benefiting not only Magic Online Treasure Chests, but other promotions as well.
We believe making it tradable will help mitigate some of these feelings, as players who find opening them too unappealing can trade them away instead. I’ll have an article on November 9 that will go into full details about the changes to Treasure Chests being made for the November 16 update, along with other Magic Online updates.
But we’ll be continuing to look at data about Magic Online players are behaving, both before and after this update, as well as the feedback we’ve already examined and additional feedback that the community will provide, as we not only look at the design and use of Magic Online Treasure Chests, but our other offerings as well.
- Lee |
As much as gun control advocates might wish otherwise, their attacks are running out of ammo. With private firearm ownership at an all-time high and violent crime rates plunging, none of the scary scenarios they advanced have materialized. Abuse of responsibility by armed citizens is rare, while successful defensive interventions against assaults on their lives and property are relatively commonplace.
National violent crime rates that soared for 30 years from the early 1960s began to decrease markedly since 1993. Last December the FBI reported that murder and other violent crime rates fell again by 6.4% during the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010. A Gallup poll indicates that “Americans’ preference regarding gun laws is generally that the government enforce existing laws more strictly and not pass new laws.”
Caroline Brewer of the anti-gun Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has reported that “The research we’ve seen indicates fewer and fewer people owning more and more guns.” Yet one can only wonder where they are getting that information. In reality, public support for personal gun ownership is growing. According to Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group that represents about 7,000 firearms manufacturers and related companies, in 1959 some 70% of the American public favored handgun bans, whereas today that number has flipped. This support is reflected in the marketplace. Sanetti observes that the $4.1 billion gun industry “has had nineteen months of growth in an otherwise anemic economy.”
Recognizing these positive trends, most states now issue permits allowing qualified law-abiding people to legally carry handguns outside their homes. Unprecedented numbers are becoming licensed to do so, now totaling an estimated 10 million Americans, contributing, in turn, to a dramatic growth in gun sales.
A record of more than 1.5 million background checks for customers looking to purchase a firearm were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Background Check (NICS) system last December. About one-third of these occurred during the six weeks before Christmas. They had previously recorded a 49% rise in background checks during the week before President Obama was elected in 2008 compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Brady lobby is upset that there has been no progress in leveraging tighter gun control legislation following the shooting January 8, 2010 rampage that killed 6 people and injured 13, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords. That tragic incident raised serious questions about background checks after it was determined that the accused shooter, having previously exhibited erratic behavior, legally purchased the weapon he “allegedly” used from a store.
The National Rifle Association clearly agrees that guns should not be sold to individuals found to have serious mental problems, although many states fail to provide mental health records to the federal computerized background check system. According to a November, 2011 report by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), 23 states have shown “major failures” in complying, and four (Alaska, Delaware, Idaho and Rhode Island) submit no records at all. (Although murder has been in decline in New York and other major cities for years, a Pepsi and Honda Super Bowl advertisement spot featured New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston’s Thomas Menino on a couch calling for stricter government measures to curb illegal gun sales.)
Dennis Henigan, the Brady group's acting president, told Reuters: "Really it is a national disgrace that the only piece of gun-related legislation to come to a vote since Tucson was this legislation that would have enabled dangerous concealed carriers like Jared Loughner to carry their guns across state lines." Referring to a proposed "National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011" (H.R. 822) which has passed the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate, the resolution would require states to recognize one another's concealed carry permits the same way they recognize one another's driver's licenses. The intent is to eliminate confusion and potential legal problems for traveling gun owners.
As pointed out in a recent paper titled “Tough Targets” released by the Cato Institute, “The ostensible purpose of gun control legislation is to reduce firearm deaths and injuries. But authors Clayton E. Cramer and David Burnett believe these restrictions put law-abiding citizens at a distinct disadvantage to criminals who acquire guns from underground markets since it is simply not possible for police officers to get to every scene where intervention is urgently needed. They also document large numbers of crimes…murders, assaults, robberies…that are thwarted each year by ordinary persons with guns.
A widely-known study conducted by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz in the 1990s found that there were somewhere between 830,000 and 2.45 million U.S. defensive gun uses annually. A National Crime Victimization Study (NCVS) which asked victims if they had used a gun in self-defense found that about 108,000 each year had done so. A big problem with the NCVS line of survey reasoning, however, is that it only includes those uses where a citizen kills a criminal, not when one is only wounded, is held by the intended victim until police arrive, or when brandishing a gun caused a criminal to flee.
For these reasons, the Cato researchers investigated published news reports which much more often reveal how Americans use guns in self-defense. The data set is derived from a collection of nearly 5,000 randomly selected incidents published between October 2003 and November 2011. Still, the authors also recognize limitations with this approach, since many defensive incidents are never reported by victims, or when they are, never get published. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the successful self-defense outcomes are those where the defendants’ guns are presented but never fired.
Most of the actual self-defense shootings in the Cato study didn’t involve concealed carry licenses, but more typically had to do with responses to residential invasions. Of these, 488 involved home burglaries. In addition, there were 1,227 incidents where intruders were induced to flee the scene by armed inhabitants, circumstances that might otherwise have resulted in injurious assaults including rapes and murders. There were 285 news accounts indicating that the defender had a concealed weapon license, which in the majority of these incidents took place outside a home or place of business. Pizza delivery drivers were common robbery targets.
Whereas gun control proponents often argue that having a gun put people at risk because a criminal will take it away and use it against them, it seems the reality is more often to be the reverse situation. The Cato data contains only 11 stories out of 4,699 where a criminal took a gun away from a defender, but 277 where the intended victim disarmed the bad guy, although the authors acknowledge that these event reports may be printed more frequently due to newsworthiness.
Still, it should also be remembered that the threatened party often has more motivation to fight back than a criminal hoping for an easy score. There were 25 news reports where armed rape attack victims ultimately got the upper hand, and 65 where this occurred in carjacking attempts.
Then there is the argument that more private gun ownership will lead to more accidents because the average citizen isn’t sufficiently trained to use a weapon defensively. While gun accidents do occur, the Cato study indicates that they are the most overstated risks. There were 535 accidental firearms deaths in 2006 within a population of almost 300 million people. Although every lost life is tragic, the proportion is not particularly startling.
On the other hand, Newsweek has reported that law-abiding American citizens using guns in self-defense during 2003 shot and killed two and one-half times as many criminals as police did, and with fewer than one-fifth as many incidents as police where an innocent person mistakenly identified as a criminal (2% versus 11%).
Finally, on the subject of public safety, just how well have gun bans worked in other countries? Take the number of home break-ins while residents are present as an indication. In Canada and Britain, both with tough gun-control laws, nearly half of all burglaries occur when residents are present. But in the U.S. where many households are armed, only about 13% happen when someone is home.
Doesn’t this comparison offer some indication that criminals are getting the message? Don’t you wish those bent on eliminating our Second Amendment rights would also? |
TeamViewer, an app that enables easy remote access to computers from your own computer or phone, has picked up some handy new mobile features in a recent update. Not only is Windows 10 Mobile remote access now supported, but TeamViewer now supports full mobile-to-mobile remote connections regardless of platform.
According to TeamViewer, this update makes the app the first to support remote access to Windows 10 Mobile devices from any computer. Simply fire up the app and start the connection process from your computer, and you'll be able to get things done on your Windows 10 Mobile phone from anywhere.
Likewise, mobile-to-mobile remote connections mean that you can even tap into other platforms from phone. For example, you can now remotely control and view an Android phone right from your Windows Phone.
Keep in mind that both mobile-centric features require you to be a premium user or above in order to use them. However, if you want to give the update a shot, you can grab the latest version of TeamViewer from the Windows Store now.
Thanks to Daniel H., and everyone else, for the tips!
Download TeamViewer from the Windows Store
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details. |
The administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill that some lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In their view, the Obama administration has consistently sided with the kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist plot.
“It’s stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens,” said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims’ family members pushing for the legislation.
President Obama will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with King Salman and other Saudi officials. It is unclear whether the dispute over the Sept. 11 legislation will be on the agenda for the talks.
A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Saudi officials have long denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and the 9/11 Commission found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.” But critics have noted that the commission’s narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role. Suspicions have lingered, partly because of the conclusions of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had a hand in the plot.
Those conclusions, contained in 28 pages of the report, still have not been released publicly.
The dispute comes as bipartisan criticism is growing in Congress about Washington’s alliance with Saudi Arabia, for decades a crucial American ally in the Middle East and half of a partnership that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers. Last week, two senators introduced a resolution that would put restrictions on American arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which have expanded during the Obama administration. |
The Rams are ramping up their search for a new head coach as the first week of the offseason ticks on, and they have narrowed their list of candidates to specifically NFL coordinators and assistant coaches.
In an interview with Rams insider Myles Simmons, Rams COO Kevin Demoff explained that the team is unlikely to consider any college coaches.
“I don’t see that as being an active part of our search,” Demoff said. “I think our focus right now is assistant coaches in the NFL who are likely to be head coaches.”
Related Rams among teams interested in Bills interim coach Anthony Lynn
Demoff vocalized that while there are certainly competing job openings across the league, the most important thing is finding the right fit and recognizing that there are a lot of reasons to come work for the Rams in spite of all the work that has to be done.
“What are the positives to your job,” Demoff posited. “I think that when you look at us, the first thing people look at is ownership. Stan’s commitment to Los Angeles. The project we’re doing at Hollywood Park. The fact that he’s been a patient owner in all sports… “I think the job is very attractive,” Demoff said, “but I think it’s going to take the right fit.”
As it stands, at least three of the Rams’ main candidates are expected to interview this weekend. Demoff said they could finalize a hire by the middle of this month but that he wouldn’t rule it out being earlier or later.
Top potential candidates include Falcons OC Kyle Shanahan, Patriots OC Josh McDaniels, Patriots DC Matt Patricia and Dolphins DC Vance Joseph. |
After experiencing traumatic relationships, these specially-designed classes soothe and calm battered women.
Tara Tonini slept with a shotgun. After months of being in a violent relationship, she found the strength to leave and get her own apartment, but her abuser was stalking her and threatened her life.
Sadly, Tonini’s experience isn’t unique.
In the United States, about one in four women will experience domestic violence during her life, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s extremely dangerous for a battered woman to leave an abusive partner, and those who are brave enough to do so often suffer from PTSD for years.
Tonini is now the program director of Exhale to Inhale, a nonprofit that brings free yoga classes to shelters and community centers that serve domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. It also trains volunteer instructors to lead trauma-informed yoga classes. Tonini credits yoga for where she is today.
Check out the video above and witness how the regular practice of yoga can help trauma survivors in tremendous ways.
MORE: Meet the Doctors Building an Innovative, Holistic Bridge to Healthy Living |
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry on Friday submitted a report to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) saying "no substance" was found in the allegations by a BSF jawan that poor quality rations were supplied to the security personnel in the bordering areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
In the report to the PMO, the Home Ministry said that there was no shortage of rations at any paramilitary post and "there was no widespread discontent" in the constabulary over the quality of food served to them. The Home Ministry report further said that quality checks were conducted regularly, official sources said.
The PMO had directed the Ministry to thoroughly look into the allegations made in a video by BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav who had claimed that poor quality food was being served to the jawans. The PMO had also sought a detailed report on the issue.
Earlier, the BSF has maintained that there was no shortage of rations at any post and security personnel deployed along the border had never complained about food.
The Home Ministry has also conveyed to the PMO that a directive has been issued to the paramilitary forces to take all complaints of jawans seriously and that corrective steps should be taken to improve their working conditions and food, the sources added.
In the video posted online, Yadav had claimed that while government procures essential items for them, the officers "sell them off" in an "illegal" manner in the open market and the jawans suffer as a result of this.
Yadav had also claimed that the quality of food served was very poor. |
It wouldn’t be all that surprising if you’d never heard of ASMR. Aside from being one of YouTube’s most active and ascendant subcultures, it’s also very, very quiet.
ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is an online phenomenon that finds an entire community of YouTubers employing all sorts of gentle sonic and visual cues to “trigger” a range of euphoric sensory responses, including a tingling sensation that spreads across the scalp and down the neck. In the simplest terms, they dig sounds that give them the willies.
Thousands of “whispering videos” form the foundation of ASMR content, with speakers typically hovering close to their binaural mikes, speaking in hushed tones, but really working the plosives, sibilants, and fricatives of speech for their various ear-tickling textures. (That may explain why so many ASMR posters adopt exotic accents or stick to highly consonant gibberish in their videos.)
Advertisement
But ASMR “triggers” take many forms: one listener may thrill to the scissory scrapes and crisp clips of an hourlong virtual haircut; another might crave the extra crinkly sound of newspapers from 1963; another might be all set with a 10-minute sonic immersion of some dude creepily breathing and moving around in a starchy dress shirt. One ASMR poster discovered her audience really enjoyed the word “stipple,” so she’s taken to dropping a “stipple-stipple-stipple” in every now and then. (“I always come here for stipple-stipple,” said one satisfied commenter.)
Get The Weekender in your inbox: The Globe's top picks for what to see and do each weekend, in Boston and beyond. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here
ASMR has existed online in some form since 2007 – when posts about “weird sensations” and “attention induced head orgasms” (AIHO) started spreading like goosebumps across health forums (eventually codifying as a living, heavy-breathing community with a Facebook group in 2010). A spike of recent interest in the phenomenon has generated an unlikely buzz (and an unpleasant one if you’re the type who would rather listen to a girl eat cheesecake). About 90,000 people subscribe to the dedicated ASMR subforum on Reddit, and the ASMR Requests channel on YouTube (where users can experience custom ASMR wish fulfillment) has nearly 200,000 subscribers. There’s even an International ASMR Day on April 9.
(I found out about it while watching one of the new episodes of Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld’s fantastic Vimeo series, “High Maintenance,” where the protagonist weed dealer delivers to an ASMR creator, who strokes pine cones and the bristles of hair brushes to her viewers’ delight.)
But where does it come from? There’s no real science behind ASMR, though it hasn’t stopped scientific-sounding sites from popping up on the subject, like ASMRUniversity and ASMRLab. For one thing, there’s no universal trigger; for every ASMR tingle-chaser, there are others who are wholly repulsed or even aggravated by sounds like food-chewing and nail-clipping (those people may suffer from misophonia, or hatred of particular sounds).
The late TV painter Bob Ross may have been an unintentional early ambassador of ASMR. Many of us spent years allowing his gentle voice to guide us through the creation of his tranquil landscapes, his choppy brush stamping out “happy little trees,” his paint knife gingerly scraping the surface of the canvas, his denim shirt crumpling with every motion. This is the stuff of ASMR dreams (which are apparently quite lucid). And indeed, he’s become an unofficial patron saint of the movement in the form of hundreds of archived clips.
Advertisement
If you can get past the initial weirdness of listening to the whispers of an unknown woman as she crumples a shirt, or watching 20 minutes of wordless flipping through random books and magazines, it’s possible to understand the appeal of ASMR, tucked in between many complex layers (which, I imagine, would sound amazing to peel back very slowly and deliberately).
Amidst the promotional noise and visual racket of YouTube, ASMR videos create a space that’s jarringly tranquil. As a viewer, your attention is heightened (and lengthened). You experience an illusion of direct eye contact, a sense of proximity, a deep concern with intangible details, and a pantomime of tenderness. (“Your skin is so soft, so silky smooth. Your whole face is just perfect,” says user GentleWhispering while stroking the side of the lens like your cheek.)
ASMR takes the strange, distant intimacy of the Internet and distills it down to its most basic technological, psychological, and physiological components. That so much of ASMR culture is expressed through various role plays of life’s everyday intimacies – from eye exams (where the pencil against the pad factors in like a main character) to makeup consultations (so many brushes!), to cologne shopping (which may be attempts to trigger some bonus olfactory responses) — suggests that the chill isn’t the only thrill.
It’s tempting to think of ASMR as some sort of fetish, with human closeness functioning as the taboo at its core. Perhaps ASMR is a way of reimagining our digital connectivity, a way of hacking a system that brings us together by keeping us apart, a neurophysical remedy to our fractured sense of real-life engagement with each other.
Then again, once you observe 20 minutes of ASMR playtime restricted exclusively to materials related to the sinking of the Titanic, or sit through the epic 40-minute unboxing of one man’s dinosaur excavation playset (the cardboard! the cellophane! the scraping!), it also seems possible that ASMR has a lot more to do with individual weirdness than collective comfort.
Advertisement
Despite what some may see as an insurmountable creep factor, ASMR is an example of how the Internet can assemble just about any scattered fascinations into something like a community. As Bob Ross, who kept his voice as soft as his trees, once assured his attentive pupils, “You can do anything you want to do. This is your world.”
Michael Andor Brodeur can be reached at [email protected] |
New York (MainStreet) - Student debt could cost you your job.
Robert Bowman found that out the hard way when he decided to go to law school, an expensive undertaking he didn't have the cash to cover.
Like most students, Bowman raised the money to earn his degree through student loans. He borrowed heavily to pay the tuition for undergraduate and law schools, got his J.D. and passed the bar exam. It took time but eventually Bowman got there. He was ready to be a lawyer.
Until, that is, five state judges decided that all of his efforts weren't good enough, according to the New York Times.
In layman's terms, Bowman had fallen too far behind on his student debt and therefore didn't deserve to be a lawyer. This story is unique to neither New York nor law, and it isn't even all that unusual. Several years ago student debt professionals were rocked by the news that 42 nurses in Tennessee had their licenses to practice suspended for failure to keep up with their individual mountains of debt, forcing them out of their jobs. In Montana, some graduates have reported losing their drivers license for the same reason. It's all part of a little known tactic to encourage repayment on the part of many states, but one that borrowers need to be very aware of. Fall too far behind on your student loans and you might lose your license to work, practice a profession or even drive a car.
Carrot or Stick
New research from Jobs With Justice has uncovered laws in at least 22 states that punish borrowers who fall too far behind by revoking their professional license; that's particularly grave given that some 30% of workers require professional licensure to do their job. It’s a novel approach to helping people get out of debt by taking away their ability to earn a living.
From the article:
These state laws target a wide range of professions, including attorneys, physicians and therapists – even barbers make the list. But two professions show up over and over again: nurses and teachers. In Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, nurses and health-care professionals can all be locked out from their job if they fall into default on their student loans. In Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee, laws prevent K–12 teachers from working until they begin to repay their student loans.
Debtor’s laws that suspend driver licenses for defaulted borrowers exist in three states: Montana, Iowa and Oklahoma. In addition to the personal inconvenience, the professional and financial problems caused by a lost drivers licenses are well documented. Many people simply drive anyway, choosing to accept the risk of a ticket over losing their job. The result has become a revolving-door system of court costs, warrants and arrests for people caught between the pot and the flame.
Default has become a major part of America’s catastrophic experiment with student debt. According to Forbes 13.7% of borrowers defaulted in 2014, and far more struggled to make payments. Nearly 70% of all students will borrow, and they owe an average of $33,000 by graduation. This doesn’t account for the astronomical numbers forced upon students who pursue increasingly important graduate and professional degrees.
These professional license suspension laws aren’t targeted at a reckless few. A Tennessee review of the issue lists over 2,600 suspension notices sent out in response to more than $20 million in defaulted debt statewide. In an economy of low wages and challenging employment for young people, keeping up with student loans is a major issue. Laws like this hold borrowers’ heads underwater, taking away job opportunities from those most in need of help repaying their loans.
In fact, according to Chris Hicks, the "Debt Free Future" campaign organizer for Jobs With Justice, this has nothing to do with economics or paying off debt at all. It’s about punishment.
There are two possible reasons for a law like this, Hicks said.
“The first is that a handful of states passed these laws in the early '90s, when you could declare bankruptcy on a student loan and come out from under that," he said. States may have passed these laws in order to disincentivize that outcome.
“The second reason, which I’m more in line with, is that this isn’t supposed to incentivize paying off your student loans," he said. "This is more of a punitive law. This is a ‘how dare you not pay off your student loans, how dare you prioritize groceries instead of paying off your student loans.’”
Although the 22 states involved target a wide variety of professions from barbers to doctors, the two most common are teachers and nurses, jobs which sit on the intersection of income and debt.
“They both require advanced degrees,” Hicks said. “While both of those professions are not high paying they require [a high] amount of student debt in order to do the job, which is a crazy idea.”
According to Hicks, a Tennessee hospital even once found itself understaffed when more than 40 nurses got sent home in one day after losing their licenses to practice.
Student loan consultant Jan Miller says that he hears from plenty of graduates facing just this situation, both the ones worried about losing their license and the ones who have.
“It puts them in a really bad spot,” he said, “because they’ve already lost their license so it’s kind of a double whammy. Not only do they lose their license for their job but they don’t have enough money to make their loans current.”
Recovering a lost license can be more challenging than bringing a loan current, as governments or licensing boards often require more than rehabilitation. Borrowers may often have to show a series of good faith payments before recovering their license. For professions such as law or finance, where fiduciary duty is an important concern and regulators worry about abuse of a client’s money, the journey can be even more difficult.
All of this is not to mention the difficulty of a worker getting his or her job back after losing it for failure to make student loan payments.
Unfortunately, targeting a borrower’s license to work also might be effective.
“You know those 42 nurses in Tennessee? I heard from a lot of nurses that year,” Miller said. “It was a wake up call.”
The fear nets results.
“For better or worse it did spread the word a little bit," Miller said. "You need to take this seriously, because the double-edged sword of a student loan is you have more options than any other payment in the world… but the flip side is they can put the hammer down without taking you to court. The consequences for defaulting on your student loan are so dramatic.”
It’s effective -- as long as graduates know about it, that is. Many borrowers have never heard of this tactic, no less whether or not they live in a state which enforces it. Although state legislatures are considering rollbacks of the three existing programs regarding drivers licenses, there’s no reason to believe that professional default penalties are going anywhere.
For the time being, defaulting on student loans might not just mean credit and financial troubles. It might also cost you your job.
For a list of specific state laws, see the Jobs With Justice rundown here.
--Written for MainStreet by Eric Reed, a freelance journalist who writes frequently on the subjects of career and travel. You can read more of his work at his website A Wandering Lawyer. |
Now that a demo of the map editor is complete, I can start working on a playable version of the game. That’s really what people want. Making maps is fun but if you can’t do anything with the maps, what’s the point? It’s like making a car but not having any gas to power the car. There’s only so much enjoyment you can get out of staring at a car. What you really want to do is *drive* the car.
I needed to build the map editor because it assists me greatly with the development process, but now that it’s done, I can start building the fun stuff. I’ve already completed most of the core game mechanics like pathfinding and basic unit attack AI. Although I’ve not showcased it anywhere, all of the units have attack and death animations. It needs major tweaking, but the foundation is there.
Instead of working towards the full completed version of the game, I’ve decided to aim for a smaller, easier and more realistic target first. My plan is to start working on a tower defense mini game, which I will release by mid-October. The mini-game serves a few purposes:
It will help to promote the game before the full version is released.
It greatly reduces the scope of creating a ‘playable’ version. The mini-game will not have multiplayer and all of the art assets used will be existing assets already implemented in the game. It also won’t have a lot of the components the full game needs to have, such as player coloring, tech trees, unit balancing and all the bells and whistles. Every component of the game, including core game mechanics, will be greatly simplified to reduce the scope. I want to get something playable out to you guys as soon as possible.
It serves as an introduction to core game mechanics. Believe it or not, RTS is not considered a mainstream genre. Or, if it is, It’s considerably less popular than the Tower Defense genre. This is because RTS games have a huge learning curve. By making a Tower Defense mini-game with lots of RTS mechanics mixed in, it gives non-RTS players a watered-down version to serve as an introduction to the genre. It’s RTS-light. Players can familiarize themselves with the controls and core mechanics, and when the full version is released, they won’t be so overwhelmed. They will know how to move a group of units from one location to another. They will understand the basic concept of a player economy and how to use those resources for buildings and units.
Here’s a basic outline of what the mini-game will be:
On the map, is a small town and on the opposite side of the map is a forest.
A 2-minute timer begins. You have some resources starting out and can use those resources to build walls, towers and units.
The units are spawned from buildings surrounding your village. You can change the rally points for where the units will run to after spawning.
Once the timer runs out, enemy units begin spawning out of the forest. I haven’t decided yet what these enemy units will be. Possibly goblins or zombies? I don’t know yet. But these enemy units will try to break down your walls and make their way to your villagers. It’s your job to kill as many of them as you can.
The more enemies you kill, the more resources you gain and with those resources, you can build additional defensive structures and units to defend your town.
The enemy units will come in progressive waves (sort of like nazi zombies) and once they kill all your villagers, the game is over.
That’s the basic outline. I’ll likely run contests to see who can get the best time.
So, those are my plans for the immediate future. A Tower Defense mini-game, then possibly a kickstarter, then the full version. I think it would be foolish to go straight for the full game as I am just one guy. Instead I’m breaking up the development process into tiny pieces (map editor, mini-game, beta, full release, etc) not only for my own sanity but so that I’ll have something to show for every step in the process.
If you have any questions/advice/feedback, I’m all-ears! |
When you start a low carb diet, you may think that you immediately have to give up cookies- that would be terrible! Living without cookies sounds like pure torture. While some may crave that sweetness a cookie provides, others may just like the ritual of having a cookie at night. Whatever the reason, you need a cookie! So what can you do when you really want to eat a healthy low carb diet? Try one of these recipes of course!
Perfect for everything from holiday baking to a treat in your child’s lunch box, these fifty low-carb cookie recipes cover the range of all that is good for you. From cookies made with healthy, nutty almond flour to those that are made with dates and coconut oil, you are going to find every type of cookie imaginable and, of course, they are all low carb! It’s unbelievable, I know!
The best thing is that even if you don’t eat low-carb foods on a regular basis, these low-carb sweets and snacks will tickle your taste buds. They are just that good that you won’t even realize you are eating low carb. That also makes many of these recipes perfect for making in big batches and serving to your guests. People who are not familiar with a low carb diet will most likely never even realize they are eating healthy cookies but rather they will just be reaching for seconds (or thirds!).
With a mix of flourless, gluten-free, and sugar-free recipes, you’re sure to find a simple and delectable cookie perfect for any afternoon snack, office party, or guilt-free midnight raid of the kitchen. And if you’re new to low-carb, you’ll be delighted by the variety of desserts, cookies, and other low carb snacks that are available to satisfy your cravings. You may have thought this new low carb diet would be restricting but guess again, it will actually open you up to a whole new world of cookies!
One more point that is great about this list of low carb cookies is that there is a cookie recipe for almost every level of baker. If you are a beginner in the kitchen, no problem, there are plenty of super easy cookie recipes. If you are a professional chef, you will be elated to find a few challenging recipes with some unique flavor profiles. There really is a low carb cookie for everyone!
By now, you are probably dying to eat a cookie so it’s time to really take a look at this list and make a very tough choice- what cookie to try first?! Whatever you choose, you can rest assured that it will be delicious, unique and low carb- an all around win!
Vanilla Pistachio Brittle
Warm nutty pistachios and vanilla combine to make a perfect low carb treat. These are hard to put down!
Detailed recipe and credit – iquitsugar.com
Ingredients: Roasted pistachios, vanilla powder, rice malt syrup, coconut oil.
Low-carb Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches
Detailed recipe and credit – alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Summer time heat demands a cool treat. This recipe combines low-carb peanut butter cookies with a no churn peanut butter ice cream for the ultimate in low carb desserts. Made with sugar substitute, it will still remind you of childhood but it’s better for you.
Ingredients: Almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, peanut butter, vanilla extract and coconut oil.
Carbs: 9.77g
Vegan Samoa Bars
Detailed recipe and credit – lovemefeedme.net
This version of a Girl Scout Cookie is the best ever because it’s not laden with carbs! Apple sauce is the key to keeping these cookies nice and moist.
Ingredients: Almond flour, coconut oil, baking stevia, applesauce, almond milk, dark chocolate chips and unsweetened shredded coconut.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies
Detailed recipe and credit – asweetlife.org
Soft cakey low-carb cookies surrounding a rich peanut butter filling make this one of the most heavenly low-carb snacks you’ll eat- you’ll actually forget that it is low carb! Dark chocolate gives the cookies a big flavor while remaining sugar-free and gluten-free. Ready in about fifteen minutes, they are easy enough to put together for any occasion or after school treat.
Ingredients: Almond flour, cocoa powder, coconut flour, whey protein powder, baking powder, eggs and butter.
Carbs: 9.85g
Sugar-free Mickey Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – www.lowcarblab.com
These cookies are festive and trendy way to eat low carb! Perfect for family vacations, birthdays or when you just need a Disney pick-me-up!
Ingredients: Butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, almond extract and coconut flour.
Carbs: 1g
Heavenly Chocolate Cupcakes
Detailed recipe and credit – satisfyingeats.com
If you’re looking for a nut-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free cupcake, this is the one you need to make. Versatile enough to be made into cake and whoopie pies, the cupcakes made from the recipe are perfect for a dessert or snack on a low-carb diet. With three kinds of chocolate, it will satisfy your cravings and with very select ingredients, they are perfect for anyone!
Ingredients: Coconut flour, cacao powder, baking soda, vinegar, eggs, coconut oil and vanilla extract.
Carbs: 8g
Sugar Detox Cookie
Detailed recipe and credit – theysmell.com
As the name implies, this recipe has no sugar of any kind making it truly a low-carb cookie. With yummy things like coconut, cinnamon, and pecans, you won’t miss the sugar. Crunchy and packed with protein, one of these low-carb snacks is a great sweet treat for when you’re hungry after a workout or before dinner is ready.
Ingredients: Coconut oil, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract, coconut flour, chopped pecans and coconut.
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – peaceloveandlowcarb.com
This gluten-free, low-carb cookie combines the richness of chocolate with savory, salty bacon and luscious peanut butter. Somewhat chunky in appearance, they hold together well to make a chewy dessert if allowed to cool well before serving. Not much in this world is better than chocolate and peanut butter unless it is laced with crispy bacon! These cookies really are to die for!
Ingredients: Bacon, peanut butter, sweetener, egg, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and baking soda.
Carbs: 15g
Low Carb Almond Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – the-lowcarb-diet.com
Buttery rich and melt-in-your-mouth, these bite size low-carb cookies are perfect for a tea-time treat or at the end of the day. Ricotta cheese is one of the secret ingredients here that no one will ever suspect! Drizzled with a vanilla frosting and sprinkled with sliced almonds, they are simple enough to make every day, and yet elegant enough to take to a wedding shower. No one will guess they are gluten-free.
Ingredients: Butter, sweetener, ricotta cheese, almond flour, almond extract, vanilla extract, baking powder, egg and almond milk.
Carbs: 1.3g
Almond Joy Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – ibreatheimhungry.com
If you ever crave a candy bar but don’t want to ruin your low-carb eating plan? If that sounds familiar, this sweet is for you. Combining the flavors of coconut, almonds, and dark chocolate, it can easily be adjusted to suit your level of sweetness and chocolate craving. With the familiar combination of flavors, you’ll love this cookie recipe.
Ingredients: Almond butter, coconut oil, coconut milk, eggs, baking powder, salt and almonds.
Carbs: 4g
More low-carb cookies on the next page…
Chewy Cinnamon Almond Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – nourishedandnurtured.blogspot.hu
Made with almond flour and honey, these chewy cookies are lightly sweet and full of cinnamon flavor. They spread into large cookies when baked that are moist and satisfying when eaten as is. They can also be used as the sandwich for an ice cream treat. Versatile and easy to make, these low-carb cookies are sure to become a family favorite thanks to the health tasty flavors.
Ingredients: Butter, honey, almond flour, vanilla extract, sea salt, baking soda and cinnamon.
Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – wringingoutmysponge.blogspot.hu
The trick to this cookie recipe is to chill the dough before baking to set the butter to keep them from spreading on the pan- don’t forget that as you start baking! One taste of these crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth delights and you’ll forget they are gluten-free, grain-free, and sugar-free. Chocolate gives them a richness that adds that extra something special.
Ingredients: Butter, applesauce, almond Flour , vanilla extract, cocoa powder and salt.
Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
Detailed recipe and credit – not-too-sweet.com
In the list of low-carb cookie recipes, baking doesn’t get much easier than coconut macaroons. They use a minimum number of ingredients, most measured by the tablespoon, and cook in just fifteen minutes- what more could you ask for?! Adding chocolate raises these traditional treats to a new level. Chewy and slightly sweet, they bridge the distance between cookies and candy.
Ingredients: Coconut, egg, agave, cocoa powder, butter, coconut oil, vanilla and salt.
Carbs: 4.8g
Flourless Chocolate Biscuits
Detailed recipe and credit – low-carb-support.com
These thin, crisp chocolate cookies are made without the addition of any kind of flour. Instead, they rely on cocoa powder and cream cheese to provide body and a rich deep chocolaty flavor- and it works! Prep time and cooking time combined is only twenty minutes making them perfect for a quick gluten-free low-carb snack.
Ingredients: Cocoa powder, granular sugar substitute, butter, cream cheese, eggs and vanilla extract.
Carbs: 0.8g
Peanut Butter Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – nobunplease.com
Low-carb peanut butter cookies are a snap to make with this simple recipe. Flourless and sugar-free, they fit well into any low-carb lifestyle. Just three main ingredients mean these cookies won’t break the bank either or take hours to prepare. They pair nicely with a low-carb ice cream for a cool summer treat and can be made with almond butter for a change in taste. You’ll never grow tired of these!
Ingredients: peanut butter, erythritol, stevia, egg, vanilla and sea salt.
Peanut Blossoms
Detailed recipe and credit – alldayidreamaboutfood.com
This classic Christmas cookie has been remade for a low-carb lifestyle. Creamy peanut butter and a dark chocolate center bake into a soft sweet cookie ready for any holiday celebration or late-night snack. With the added benefit of being gluten free, they will satisfy anyone’s peanut butter and chocolate cravings while sticking to a diet plan.
Ingredients: Peanut flour, almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, salt, peanut butter, eggs and vanilla.
Carbs: 7g
Homemade Thin Mints
Detailed recipe and credit – alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Who can resist crisp minty chocolatey cookies? This classic Girl Scout icon has been reborn in a homemade version that is fresher, crisper, and better for you. They are sugar-free and loaded with rich dark chocolate. The thin crunchy wafers are drenched in smooth, peppermint laced chocolate for a low-carb delight. These may take a little time to prepare but every minute is worth it!
Ingredients: Almond flour, cocoa powder, erythritol, baking powder, salt, egg, butter and vanilla extract.
Carbs: 3.2g
Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – ibreatheimhungry.com
The combination of crispy cookie and soft creamy filling make sandwich cookies a must-have item in any kitchen. These low-carb peanut butter cookies are created with a surprise ingredient to add a new twist to an old favorite- can you guess what it is?! Easy to make, they can be adapted by using other nut butters as well.
Ingredients: Water chestnuts, peanut butter, butter, stevia sweetener, coconut flour, baking powder and salt.
Carbs: 1.4g
Sane Meringue Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – marmaladeandmileposts.com
If you thought you could never eat meringues again on a low-carb menu, think again. The only trick to this three ingredient recipe is having the patience to let them dry out before devouring them. Give them the time they need to dry completely! Elegant, crispy, and sugar-free they are perfect for an addition to a holiday basket or a gorgeous dessert at the end of a dinner. No one will ever guess they are low-carb.
Ingredients: Egg whites, lemon juice and xylitol.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – fingerprickingood.com
Soft, cakey and oh so good, this version of low-carb chocolate chip cookies will delight everyone and have your kids asking for more. Made with coconut flour, they are free of nuts and sugar, perfect for diabetics or anyone eating low-carb. Packed with pumpkin they offer a high protein, high fiber snack with bites of chocolate laced throughout. Perfect for the fall pumpkin season or anytime you just need a low carb cookie!
Ingredients: Maple syrup, pumpkin, butter, vanilla, egg, coconut flour and cinnamon.
More low-carb cookie recipes on the next page…
Sugar Detox Pumpkin Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – theysmell.com
More of a pumpkin snack than a cookie, these low-carb gluten-free gems are a great treat for anyone eliminating sugar of any kind from their diet. Moist and full of cinnamon, they will satisfy your cravings for anything pumpkin. They are quick to make and so full of goodness that you could even grab a couple for breakfast on your way out the door. Slightly sweet thanks to the vanilla and coconut, they will give you just a touch of sugar to get you through the day.
Ingredients: Pumpkin puree, coconut oil, eggs, vanilla extract, coconut flour, cinnamon and coconut.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Pizza
Detailed recipe and credit – yourlighterside.com
Essentially a giant chocolate cookie smeared with rich cream cheese and a peanut butter drizzle, this low-carb recipe could be served for a birthday party or any festive occasion where you want to impress your guests. It looks like you spent hours preparing it but it takes only a few minutes to put together and bake. How can something this good be low carb?!
Ingredients: Almond flour, buttermilk powder, butter, cocoa, fruits and sweetener.
Carbs: 6.5g
Chocolate Raspberry French Macarons
Detailed recipe and credit – mariamindbodyhealth.com
These small crisp almond cookies are filled with a rich creamy chocolate raspberry filling for that perfect bite-size cookie when you feel like having a snack. Flourless and sugar-free, they take more time to make than your average cookie, but the end results will leave you wanting more. Try switching up the fillings to keep the cookies exciting.
Ingredients: Almonds, egg whites, sea salt, erythritol and cocoa powder.
Carbs: 12g
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Detailed recipe and credit – ruled.me
Pumpkin and cinnamon baked into a chewy low carb cookie? How can you ask for anything better?!? This recipe is an absolute must especially in the fall season.
Ingredients: Butter, almond flour, vanilla extract, egg and liquid stevia.
Protein Oreos
Detailed recipe and credit – proteinpow.com
Crunchy, creamy, and packed with protein, what’s not to love with this homemade low-carb, healthy version of the famous Oreo cookies? They are a bit finicky to make and require a second trip to the oven, but it’s all worth it for one bite of chocolatey delight. Made with a minimum of ingredients, they won’t overwhelm your pocket book and you’ll be obsessed with the fact that they are healthy.
Ingredients: Coconut flour, egg whites, protein powder, cocoa powder, cocoa nibs, chocolate flavdrops, oats and baking soda.
Carbs: 3.29g
Low-Carb Coconut Almond Crisps
Detailed recipe and credit – alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Yacon syrup is a new and awesome sweetener that you have to try. With much fewer carbs that regular sugar, it is perfect in any low carb cookie but truly shines in this recipe.
Ingredients: Butter, swerve sweetener, yacon syrup, vanilla extract, and xanthan gum.
Sane Sugar Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – marmaladeandmileposts.com
A sugar cookie without any sugar? Sounds crazy but it’s real and yummy. These cookies are also flourless and are made with almond flour and xylitol. They crisp up as they cool making them great for dunking in your afternoon tea or coffee. Mild in flavor, they can be drizzled with chocolate, faux-caramel, or simply eaten plain.
Ingredients: Butter, xylitol, baking powder, xanthan gum, sea salt, vanilla extract, almond milk and egg.
Buttery Walnut Toffee
Detailed recipe and credit – joyfilledeats.com
How have you eaten a low carb diet without trying these yet? Rich walnuts and dark chocolate are the perfect pair!
Ingredients: Butter, chopped walnuts, heavy cream, salt, and dark chocolate.
Cranberry Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – alldayidreamaboutfood.com
With a melt-in-your-mouth texture, these low-carb chocolate chip cookies offer more than the typical sugar-laden varieties. They are filled with tangy bits of unsweetened cranberries and crunchy walnuts which offset the chocolate chips perfectly. Make them big for a quick grab-n-go breakfast or small for a snack late in the day. They are so healthy that you can even consider them part of breakfast!
Ingredients: Almond flour, erythritol, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, egg, coconut oil, vanilla extract and walnuts.
Paula Deen’s Magical Peanut Butter Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – stockpilingmoms.com
With only four ingredients, these sugar-free, gluten-free, low-carb cookies are a snap to make and bake. Like the title says, it is like magic! For variety you can use either creamy or crunchy peanut butter. Perfect just like they are, you can drizzle them with chocolate for classic combination of flavors, as well.
Ingredients: Peanut butter, baking sugar replacement, egg and vanilla extract.
Carbs: 15g
Gingerbread Cookie
Detailed recipe and credit – mariamindbodyhealth.com
In the world of low-carb cookie recipes, this one is as versatile and full of flavor as they come. It can be made soft and chewy or, by leaving it a little longer in the oven, crispy and crunchy. Try dunking it in your cup of tea or nibbling one with your afternoon coffee for a quick sweet snack. This cookie is a Christmastime treat you need to have on your holiday table.
Ingredients: vanilla whey or egg white protein, almond flour, sea salt, coconut oil, ground ginger and cinnamon.
Carbs: 1.8g
Try these cookies recipes with these taseful Paleo ice cream recipes
More low-carb cookies on the next page…
Keto Oreos
Detailed recipe and credit – theprimitivepalate.com
Easy to make, this homemade Oreo knock-off uses basic ingredients any low-carb baker would have on hand. The cookies are a thin, crunchy, chocolate shortbread, and the filling is made with cream cheese and a little sweetener beaten until fluffy. The best part is that they are grain-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free- what more could you need? Well, for one thing, you’ll need more of these cookies!
Ingredients: Almond flour, coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and vanilla extract.
PB&J Thumbprint Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – ibreatheimhungry.com
With a minimum of ingredients and a dump and mix method of preparing, these peanut butter and jelly cookies will remind you of your childhood but without all the sugar. They can be made with either creamy or crunchy peanut butter to suit your taste and the jelly can be any flavor you please. You’ll never get tired of these little bites.
Ingredients: Peanut butter, eggs, coconut flour, vanilla extract, baking powder, sugar substitute and sugar-free strawberry preserves.
Carbs: 3g
Cookies, cookies, cookies, can we really have enough of them? For some cookie baking excitement see our unique Mickey themed sugar cookie recipe.
Crispy Cheddar Chips
Detailed recipe and credit – nobunplease.com
For anyone on a low-carb diet with a craving for cheese crackers, low-carb snacks like this one fill the gap. Crispy and crunchy, they will satisfy your need for salty goodness any time. All you need to make them is cheese and an oven. Use them as crackers or toss them with a salad for an extra crunch. One ingredient makes these the simplest recipe to follow ever.
Ingredients: Cheddar cheese.
Homemade Thin Mints
Detailed recipe and credit – alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Finnaly! You can eat a low carb diet and have these amazing cookies too! Think mints are necessary to any diet and now they cane be yours thanks to some simple ingredients.
Ingredients: Almond flour, cocoa powder, butter, vanilla extract, egg and baking powder.
Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Meringue Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – holisticallyengineered.com
The great thing about meringue cookies is that they look complicated and time-consuming, but they’re not- all you have to do is wait! Simple to make with a just few ingredients, these low-carb sweets are crunchy and satisfying. This chocolate variety adds an extra coating of rich melted chocolate. So good you’ll want to eat the whole plate.
Ingredients: Egg whites, cream of tartar, powdered sweetener, cocoa powder and vanilla extract
Carbs: 2.43g
Samoa Fudge Bombs
Detailed recipe and credit – beautyandthefoodie.com
Wow. Just Wow! How are these cookies low carb?! You will need to make a big batch because eating just one is practically impossible!
Ingredients: Butter, sweetener, cocoa powder and coconut milk.
Lemon Chia Seed Protein Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – amyshealthybaking.com
Soft and chewy with a satisfying pop from the chia seeds, these low-carb cookies are filled with so much nutritious goodness you can even eat them for breakfast without feeling guilty. Sugar-free and gluten-free, they’ll provide you with a citrus-y burst of flavor. A bonus of protein and omega -3’s are also these thanks to those teeny tiny seeds we love so much!
Ingredients: coconut flour, vanilla protein powder, xanthan gum, chia seeds, lemon zest, coconut oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice.
Carbs: 8.9g
Twix Thumbprint Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – alldayidreamaboutfood.com
You can now have a candy bar cookie while on a low carb diet thanks to this perfect recipes. These taste just like a really twix bar but without all the bad stuff- hurray for low carb creations!
Ingredients: Almond flour, baking powder, butter, vanilla extract, sweetener.
Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookie
Detailed recipe and credit – grassfedgirl.com
In less than half-an-hour you can make a chocolate chip cookie that is low-carb, paleo approved and gluten-free with no dairy or added sugar that still tastes great. Made with coconut flour, they don’t spread on the pan making these cookies rather chunky and substantial. Dunk them in your milk or coffee for a late afternoon treat. We won’t tell when you sneaky one for breakfast too!
Ingredients: Eggs, butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Carbs: 1.9g
Peanut Butter Cookie
Detailed recipe and credit – bakingoutsidethebox.com
Crispy on the outside, with a moist and dense center, these peanut butter cookies are low-carb and gluten-free. Prep and baking time combined is less than thirty minutes meaning these can be made quick any time of the week. Freeze some dough, pull it out later to bake and then you can have a fresh, hot cookie anytime! They are loaded with protein and fiber which will keep you on the right path toward eating low-carb foods.
Ingredients: Coconut flour, granulated Splenda, peanut butter, eggs, salt and vanilla extract.
Carbs: 5g
Gluten-free Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – unegaminedanslacuisine.com
The trick to this low-carb chocolate chunk cookie is to chill the dough before baking to keep them from spreading too much on the pan. Made with blanched almond flour, they start out crisp and become soft and delicate after a couple of days. But they are hearty with a rich nutty taste and so addictive, they probably won’t last that long.
Ingredients: Almond flour, salt, baking soda, butter, vanilla extract, maple syrup and dark chocolate.
Cookie Dough
Detailed recipe and credit – ketocook.com
If you love to eat cookie dough right out of the bowl, then you’ll love this low-carb, gluten-free, recipe. It’s perfect for summer when you don’t want to heat up the house. Eaten as is or chopped up into ice cream, this is a great addition to a list of no bake desserts.
Ingredients: heavy cream, butter, coconut flour, Truvia, vanilla extract, almond extract and salt.
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – beautyandthefoodie.com
A chocolate chip cookie is a staple in almost anyone’s diet and if you are eating low carb, you don’t have to give these up! Grab this recipe and start baking!
Ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, butter, sweetener and sea salt.
Snickerdoodles
Detailed recipe and credit – lowcarbinginaz.com
These cookies are crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle just like a good snickerdoodle should be. With only 2g of carbs, however, this low-carb version might just be better for you than a regular old snickerdoodle. They are quick to make and don’t require chilling before baking. Almond flour and cream cheese make them rich.
Ingredients: Cream cheese, butter, sugar substitute, egg, vanilla extract, almond flour and cinnamon.
Carbs: 2g
Read also: 50 delicious and tantalizing Paleo cracker recipes
The Best Low Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – margeauxvittoria.com
Ingredients: Almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, stevia, butter, egg, vanilla extract, unsweeted baking chocolate.
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Almond Flour
Detailed recipe and credit – ggiswheatfree.wordpress.com
Easy to stir together, this chocolate chip cookie is one recipe your whole family will enjoy. Using chocolate chips with a higher cocoa content will reduce the carb count even more. The almond flour compliments the cookie well and gives it a satisfying crumbly texture perfect for dipping in a cold beverage. Switch it up with some coconut flour for a subtle tropical flavor.
Ingredients: Almond flour, salt, baking soda, healthy oil, vanilla extract, erythritol, dark chocolate chips and walnuts.
For more innovative baking ideas see this Disney themed cakes that will surely get kids excited.
Brown Butter Coconut Cookies
Detailed recipe and credit – lowcarbyum.com
With a texture somewhat like an oatmeal cookie, this recipe uses coconut to add a familiar chewiness. Browning the butter and letting it cool takes time and patience but adds a nutty flavor that is unique and compliments the other ingredients, a technique to add flavor that you will love. Give this a try when you have an afternoon to experiment in the kitchen.
Ingredients: butter, water, sweetener, vanilla extract, eggs, coconut flour, almond flour and baking powder.
Carbs: 1.3g
No-bake Chocolate Cookie Balls
Detailed recipe and credit – thesleepytimegal.com
In this low-carb version of the ever luscious and loved no-bake cookies, you’ll find all the things you love plus extras that make this a healthy alternative. these cookies are then rolled into balls and can be eaten right away or chilled to firm up.
Ingredients: sweetener, vanilla liquid stevia, whole milk, butter, salt, cocoa powder, pecans, coconut and peanut butter.
Carbs: 2.4g
Pumpkin Protein Cookies
Flourless, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free, and sugar-free, these pumpkin cookies pack a protein punch- a cookie and protein?! Sounds perfect! Soft like a muffin, they are great as part of a healthy breakfast or for a mid-morning snack. Eat them plain or with a bit of jam or butter for a fall treat you’ll want to make year after year.
Ingredients: Flax seed, chia seeds, cinnamon, eggs, vanilla, almond milk, protein powder, baking soda and pumpkin.
Carbs: 3g
Detailed recipe and credit – simplytaralynn.com
Summary
As you can see this is an extensive list of low-carb cookie recipes. With lots of chocolate and peanut butter sprinkled with lemon, pumpkin, oatmeal, and no-sugar sugar cookies on the menu, the choices seem endless for low-carb snacks and low carb desserts. Each cookie is unique and flavorful, fun to make and low carb! Everything from additions to your children’s lunch boxes to elegant offerings fit for a wedding reception to treats for holiday gifts baskets can be made low-carb and healthier than their original versions. Most are simple and quick to make as well, without the need for special ingredients or cooking skills. Give one a try and enjoy low-carb baking.
For other dessert alternatives, you can try these sugar free or low carb cheesecake recipes as well. |
Before the onslaught of Grammy tweets that led to inevitable think-pieces, the slow news weekend did provide a tale of two medias. First there was Ezra Klein saying “peace out” to the Washington Post, and hello to Vox Media. Watching one of journalism’s bright young stars buy a plot of land in hopes that it will soon start paying back dividends isn’t much of a shock, considering that today’s “new media” will be tomorrow’s “traditional media.” As Klein told David Carr, “We are just at the beginning of how journalism should be done on the web.”
The old vs. new trainspotting has been done over and over: print is dead, print will survive as a luxury item, etc. Billionaires want to spend small fortunes to revolutionize journalism. We get more up-to-the-minute news coverage on Twitter than you do on CNN. Yet nobody seems to care much about what will happen to the letter to the editor — a format that represents the best and worst of all media — when we’re all downloading #longform stories directly into our brain, what exactly will happen to one of the best and worst of old media, the letter to the editor.
I got to thinking of that this weekend while reading venture capitalist Tom Perkins’ letter to the Wall Street Journal, “Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?” Yes, this is indeed a piece in which Perkins likens the plight of the wealthy to the plight of Jews in the years leading up to the Holocaust. “I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its ‘one percent,’ namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the ‘rich,'” he writes. This is the sort of batshit, off-the-wall manifesto that only an ostentatiously wealthy ex-husband of Danielle Steel (Perkins, it turns out, is a bad romance-novel writer in his own right) could concoct — and instead of publishing it on his Tumblr or trying to get it on Medium, he took the old-school route, and wrote a letter to the editor. He did it because Tom Perkins just wanted his voice to be heard, his thoughts to be published, and the world to understand (over two years after the heyday of the Occupy movement) that the 99 percent are basically the same as Nazis.
None of that makes sense, except for the fact that the letter actually became national news — and the crazy ideas Perkins sent to the section of the newspaper usually reserved for get-off-my-lawn rants and nitpicky corrections from academics ended up broadcast all over the place. With a little help from an old-media convention, Perkins got his incredibly stupid theory to go viral. He showed that a round of old-school trolling could still get traction.
I’m a fan of letters to the editor. My late grandfather (mostly unsuccessfully) wrote them to newspapers such as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and the Jewish Daily Forward, just as soon as the crossword was finished. It was his ritual to regularly inform editors that their publication got it wrong, and those editors’ ritual to sift through them so that only two or three actually ended up in print.
But now that internet comments sections are the new letters to the editor and publications have started lumping 30-second reactions in with the thoughtful if misguided missives of people like my grandfather, these shining examples of crankiness are a dying art. To write a noteworthy letter to the editor, and get it published, used to be a worthwhile achievement. Online, these contributions are too often obscured by dozens of lewd, sexist, racist, or just plain stupid one-liners. Whether it’s constructive criticism, important corrections, or even just — as in the case of Perkins’ letter — tellingly warped theories from maddeningly successful crackpots, letters to the editor gave us something comments sections rarely provide. And that’s why I, for one, will miss them when they finally fade into the darkness for good. |
Nick Fetty | March 3, 2015
An Iowa Senate subcommittee has approved a bill it hopes will improve water quality by tightening manure application laws.
Sen. Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City) from the Natural Resources and Environment Subcommittee introduced the bill last month. If passed, the bill would bar farmers from applying fertilizer when (1) the ground is frozen or snow-covered; (2) the ground is water-saturated; (3) the 24-hour weather forecast calls for a half-inch of rain or more; or (4) the ground is sloped at 20 percent or greater. The currently law – which was added to the Iowa Code in 2010 – states that farmers cannot apply fertilizer to their soil between December 21 and April 1.
The proposed bill is also supported by the non-profit Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. ICCI organizer Jess Mazour believes the proposed bill will be more effective at cleaning up Iowa’s waterways compared to the current voluntary system.
“It is very much needed because voluntary compliance is not working,” Mazour said in an interview with WNAX. “And if we just leave it up to farmers to pick and choose what they think is safe it’s showing us that our water is just going to keep getting dirtier. We have to be very specific about what we want.”
An identical bill was also introduced to the Iowa House by Rep. Dan Kelly (D-Newton). These proposals come on the heels of a recent measure drafted by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which allows the DNR to inspect manure-handling practices by farmers and to issue fines for those not in compliance with current codes.
Approximately 76 manure spills were reported in 2013. In 2014, a dairy farm was fined $160,000 after improper manure disposal killed hundreds of thousands of fish. |
Introduction to NetWorkSpaces
Installation
Server installation
Create a directory for your Python modules, say ~/myInstalls/python . Download the tgz or zip archive from the class web site and unpack it in a temporary directory (best not to use your module directory). cd nws/python/open_server python setup.py install --prefix= --home=~/myInstalls/python Test in a different directory, say /tmp . Let Python know where to find the nws module: export PYTHONPATH=~/myInstalls/python/lib/python then, let 'er rip: twistd -noy twistd -noy ~/myInstalls/python/nws.tac 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] Log opened. 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] twistd 2.1.0 (/usr/bin/python 2.4.2) starting up 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] reactor class: twisted.internet.selectreactor.SelectReactor 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] Loading /home/accts/njc2/myInstalls/python/nws.tac... 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] clientCode served from directory clientCode 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] clientCode directory doesn't exist 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] Loaded. 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] nwss.server.NwsFactory starting on 8765 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] Starting factory 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] twisted.web.server.Site starting on 8766 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] Starting factory 2007/02/03 14:30 EST [-] using temp directory /tmp ... Start firefox (or other browser) on the same machine and enter the url localhost:8766 . You should see something similar to:
Client Installation
In a new window, and back at your temporary install directory, execute: cd nws/python/open_client python setup.py install --prefix= --home=~/myInstalls/python Then start the babelfish translator: python ~/myInstalls/python/lib/python/nws/babelfish.py & As before, test in a different directory and let Python know where to find the nws module: export PYTHONPATH=~/myInstalls/python/lib/python Now try it: $ python Python 2.4.2 (#1, Oct 13 2006, 17:11:24) [GCC 4.1.0 (SUSE Linux)] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import nws.client as nwsC >>> ws = nwsC.NetWorkSpace('testing ...') >>> ws.store('v', range(3)) >>> ws.fetch('v') [0, 1, 2] >>> ws.store('xyz', 123.456) >>> ws.store('zyx', {'cat': 'dog', 'mouse': 'click'}) Refresh the browser, you should now see your workspace. Clicking on the workspace should list the variables in it. Clicking on a variable should list the values bound to it.
serverPort=XXXX
serverHost=foo.bar.baz
localhost
babelfish.py
-p XXXX
-h foo.bar.baz
Use
x = y
y
y
x
x
y
NWS is designed to be a coordination facility that is language neutral. NWS clients exists for a variety of languages, including MATLAB, Perl, Python, R, and Ruby. This neutrality offers advantages, chief among them: i) NWS coordination patterns and idioms can be applied to any of these, ii) by using the quasi-lingua franca of ASCII strings to encode data, NWS can be used to coordinate heterogeneous ensembles of these.
It also implies certain costs, in particular it cannot (always) be as seamlessly integrated as native bindings.
Toss up: NWS names can be any ASCII string.
Thus, the above rendered in NWS-ese:
ws.store('x', ws.fetch('y'))
fetch
x
store
ws
In many languages it is possible to neaten this up — the introductory lectures demonstrated a “cleaner” API for Python:
sv.x = sv.y
sv
Coordinated Binding Behavior
x = y
y
y
But in an ensemble setting, somebody very well might do just that. In other words, in the context of coordination, an unbound name has a perfectly valid (and useful) interpretation: “Please hold.” It doesn't have to have this interpretation, but it seems to make sense, so let's run with it.
Now consider:
x = 123 x = 456
But in an ensemble setting, lot's of other processes may be interested in the sequence of values bound to x . If so, how do we know a particular value of x has been put to good use? Enter generative communication: some coordination events generate data that exist independent of any process, others consume such data. Let's interpret the binding of a value to a name as the addition of that value to a list of values mapped to that name rather than the (possible) overwriting of a single associated value. Let's further stipulate that we do so by maintaining a FIFO queue of values. But how do we ever shed values? To complete the picture: retrieval of a value bound to a name removes one value from the queue. Again, it doesn't have to have this interpretation, but arguably this is a reasonable one.
In sum: an assignment records a value of interest, a retrieval consumes one value, an empty list of values triggers 'Please Hold' for a retrieval.
Let's see how well these play together. In one or more Python sessions, run the following:
import nws def f(x): return x*x*x ws = nws.client.NetWorkSpace('table test') while 1: ws.store('r', f(ws.fetch('x')))
import nws ws = nws.client.NetWorkSpace('table test') for x in range(10): ws.store('x', x) for x in range(10): print 'f(%d) = %d'%(x, ws.fetch('r'))
Worker pre- (and post-) start. Number or workers variable. Value ordering — for a two-body ensemble.
Variations
Consider maintaining a global maximum. Suppose many processes are cooperating in a search to find a value, x max , that will maximize a function, F, and that knowing that F's maximum is at least F+, we can rule out some candidate x's. Further, let's assume F is expensive to evaluate, but the winnowing check is cheap.
We would like to do something like:
for x in MyCandidateList: currentMax = ws.fetch('max') if noGo(currentMax, x): continue y = f(x) if y > currentMax: ws.store('max', y)
fetch consumes a value that may not be replaced.
find
for x in MyCandidateList: currentMax = ws.find('max') if noGo(currentMax, x): continue y = f(x) if y > currentMax: ws.store('max', y)
Are we maintaining a single 'max'?
Is currentMax really current?
for x in MyCandidateList: currentMax = ws.find('max') if noGo(currentMax, x): continue y = f(x) currentMax = ws.fetch('max') if y > currentMax: currentMax = y ws.store('max', currentMax)
There are other uses for find , the most common being “write-once” variables: various data that are established at the beginning of a computation, or are independent of any one computation and that are needed by two or more ensemble members.
find alters the way the value queue is referenced, but what about variations in the queue itself? NWS supports four “types” (aka “modes”):
FIFO: the default
LIFO: because you cannot have one without the other
Non-deterministic: Back to our Linda roots
Single: Not uncommon just to want the “last one”. Works well with find . Good for status values — simplifies monitors that read them.
ws.declare()
Managing Workspaces
So if multiple processes each execute:
ws = nws.client.NetWorkSpace('snake pit', host='python.zoo.cs.yale.edu')
But who would own it? And why would that matter?
Answers: By default, the process that first mentions the workspace to the server owns it. We need to clean up, and traditional gc doesn't really apply.
Workspaces, like tuplespaces, can be persistent. In practice this can quickly lead to a mess, so they are by default transitory: when the process that owns them exits, they exit. This can make staging an ensemble a bit of a pain, even if the general idea is right. So “use” vs “open”. |
I was there when “lifehacking” was born. It was the 11th of February, 2004, at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, held in a giant conference hotel in San Diego. I was on the committee for ETech (as we called it) and I had lobbied hard for the inclusion of a talk called “Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks” by Danny O’Brien, a technology columnist and former standup comedian who is also a good friend (I am now godfather to his daughter, Ada). I’d watched Danny compiling his research for the talk and I knew it would be a great one.
I liveblogged his presentation, because this was before lifehacking, but after liveblogging (if only barely). Danny described a research project in which he interviewed “overprolific” tech workers who had a reputation for doing a lot of things at once, and reported on their commonalities. My notes on the talk are still live at <www.craphound.com/lifehacksetcon04.txt>, but the long and short of them was that all of these super-nerds were really good at one or two flexible tools (ranging from Excel spreadsheets to the programming language Python), and they used those tools to automate many of the processes in their life. They also all used some kind of master, monster to-do list and file-of-useful-pasted-snippets.
I recognized some of my own working habits in the description, and, more importantly, acquired some useful tips. After all, I was one of those really techie people who did a lot of different things at the same time: writing novels, working for an activist group, editing a blog, sometimes even having a life. One intriguing takeaway from the talk was a recommendation to read David Allen’s 2001 book Getting Things Done, an instant classic in the “personal productivity” genre (this was after the productivity genre, but still before lifehacking).
Allen’s book is a fantastic and inspiring read. The core of his philosophy is to recognize that there are more things in the world that you want to do than you could do, and that, in the absence of a deliberate approach to this conundrum, you are likely to default to doing things that are easy to scratch off your to-do list, which are also the most trivial. After a lifetime of this, you’ll have accomplished a lot of very little.
Allen counsels deliberate, mindful prioritization of this list, jettisoning things on the basis that they are less satisfying or important than the other things you’d like to do – even if those other things are harder, more time consuming and less likely to result in a satisfying chance to scratch an item off the list.
This resonated with me and, by 2004, I’d bought and given away half a dozen copies of Getting Things Done and put its method in place. I even had a chance to sit down with Allen in 2007 and talk about how the web fit into his method.
It’s been more than a decade since I took up Allen’s method and started lifehacking (as the kids say), and I have a report from the field.
The past 14 years have regularly featured junctures where I had to get rid of something I liked doing so I could do something I liked doing more. Some of that was low-hanging fruit (I haven’t watched TV regularly in more than a decade), but after getting rid of the empty calories in my activity diet, I had to start making hard choices.
In retrospect, I observe that the biggest predictor of whether an activity surviving winnowing is whether it paid off in two or more of the aspects of my life and career. If something made me a better blogger – but not a better novelist and activist – it went. The more parts of my life were implicated in an activity, the more likely I was to keep the activity in my daily round.
Some of these choices were tough. I have all but given up on re-reading books, despite the undeniable pleasure and value to understanding the authors’ craft, which is easier to unpick on subsequent readings. But I have more than 20 linear feet of books I’ve promised to read for blurbs and reviews, and reading those books also teaches me something about the craft, also brings me pleasure, also makes me a better reviewer, and also makes me a better citizen of science fiction, who contributes to the success of worthy new books.
Some social media tools – like Facebook – make for fun (if problematic) socializing, and all social media pays some dividend to authors who are hoping to sell books and activists who are hoping to win support, but Twitter also teaches me to be a better writer by making me think about brevity and sentence structure in very rigorous ways (and from an activist perspective, Twitter is a better choice because it, unlike Facebook, doesn’t want the web to die and be replaced by its walled garden) – so Twitter is in, and Facebook is out.
There are some unexpected outcomes from this process, albeit ones that are obvious in hindsight.
The first is that it has gotten progressively harder to tease apart the different kinds of work I do. People often ask, “How much of your day do you spend writing, and how much being an activist, and how much on journalism?” The answer has always been that it’s hard to cleanly separate these activities, because they overlap – writing a blog post is a way to think through and track an idea that might show up in a story, and also a way to raise alarm at a political affair.
But today, thanks to a vicious Darwinian winnowing process, the only activities left in my day serve double- and triple-duty. There is virtually no moment in my working day that can cleanly be billed to only one ledger.
The corollary of this is that it gets much, much harder to winnow out activities over time. Anything I remove from the Jenga stack of my day disturbs the whole tower.
And that means that undertaking new things, speculative things that have no proven value to any of the domains where I work (let alone all of them) has gotten progressively harder, even as I’ve grown more productive. Optimization is a form of calcification.
That presents a paradox: if the purpose of lifehacking is to mindfully choose your priorities, what can you do when that process leads you to a position where no more choices are possible?
I’ll let you know if I figure it out. In the meantime, let this be a warning to anyone who wants to do it all. |
The Film Doctor team send our love to the family, friends and spirit of Kit West, the Oscar-winning special effects supervisor of classic movies such as ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi’, ‘Dune’ and ‘Universal Soldier’.
Kit won his Oscar for his work ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and was further nominated for ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Dragonheart’. He won the Best Special Effects BAFTA for his work on ‘Return of the Jedi’.
The legend passed away at his home in London on Saturday, aged 80, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
or TWITTER Join us on FACEBOOK orand sign up to our emails on the right hand side for articles straight to your inbox. Any questions/thoughts/experiences of your own??? Leave a comment below! Have a great week!
Check out our previous CASE STUDIES SERVICES Check out our
Like this: Like Loading... |
FILE - At left, in a Sept. 11, 2016, file photo, Los Angeles Galaxy's Landon Donovan acknowledges fans after the team's MLS soccer match against Orlando City, in Carson, Calif. At right, in an Oct. 4, 2010, file photo, U.S. men's soccer player Stuart Holden runs drills in Bridgeview, Ill. Fox plans to go all-American with its top broadcast crew for next year's World Cup, pairing play-by-play man John Strong in the booth with former U.S. national team players Landon Donovan and Stuart Holden. (AP Photo/File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox plans to go all-American with its top broadcast crew for next year’s World Cup, pairing play-by-play man John Strong in the booth with former U.S. national team players Landon Donovan and Stuart Holden.
“Soccer in our country is at a point now where I think we’re ready to do that, and we have announcers and talent that are capable of bringing educated options,” Holden said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “I think it’s time. I think it’s time that we embrace the American voices.”
They will broadcast Thursday night’s World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Trinidad and Tobago in Colorado. Strong and Holden will call Sunday’s qualifier at Mexico and will be the primary announce team for the Confederations Cup in Russia starting June 17. Donovan will skip the Confederations Cup while awaiting the birth of a child.
“They’re American voices, diverse American voices,” said David Neal, executive producer of Fox’s World Cup coverage. “Soccer is truly becoming a mainstream sport. I think it’s in the top four already. I think it’s supplanted the NHL.”
Fox announced its Confederations Cup coverage Wednesday, and Neal said the three-man booth with Strong, Donovan and Holden was likely to be the network’s top World Cup team.
“At this moment, that’s where we’re looking. Obviously, we’ve got 13 months before have to lock it in,” he said. “Stu is effervescent, and Landon is probably a little more laconic. It really is a perfect pair of personalities that can help each other.”
ESPN broadcast the World Cup in the U.S. from 1994 through 2014, and at the last two tournaments it relied heavily on British play-by-play men led by Martin Tyler, Ian Darke and Jon Champion. Fox experimented in 2013-14 with using Gus Johnson, best known for his calls of college basketball and the NFL, as its lead soccer announcer.
Strong, 31, started broadcasting matches of Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers. He called MLS for NBC in 2013-14, then switched to Fox when it reacquired the league’s rights in 2015.
“You have this generation of people in their 30s and younger that is really driving the growth of the sport in this country,” Strong said, citing the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., the launch of MLS two years later and international coverage on Fox Soccer Channel as “formative building blocks of what the American soccer culture is now.”
“Soccer became a part of your life at a much younger age than previous generations of Americans,” he said. “I have as an announcer influences that absolutely come from the American sports announcers I grew up on, guys like Al Michaels and Keith Jackson and Pat Summerall. But also, too, the influences of the English soccer announcers, John Motson on the FIFA video games, Martin Tyler calling games that I would watch on Fox Sports World, as well as the influence of Andres Cantor and the style of announcing you would hear on Univision or Telemundo.”
Fox’s other two broadcast teams for the Confederations Cup will call matches from the network’s studio in Los Angeles: JP Dellacamera and Brad Friedel, and Jorge Perez-Navarro and Cobi Jones.
Kate Abdo hosts studio coverage from Russia, where Fox will be based in St. Petersburg, and analysts include Lothar Matthaeus, Guus Hiddink and Eric Wynalda.
Rob Stone anchors the Los Angeles studio, where Alexi Lalas, Arne Friedrich, Fernando Fiore, Aly Wagner and Mariano Trujillo are the analysts.
Donovan, 35, starred for the U.S. at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cup and set the American record for international goals with 57. He was controversially cut by coach Jurgen Klinsmann from the 2014 roster.
Holden, 31, was born in Scotland and grew up in Texas. He had a breakout season with Bolton in 2010-11 and scored three goals in 25 appearances for the U.S. national team. But he was unable to recover from injuries that started when his right leg was broken by Nigel de Jong’s tackle during the Americans’ exhibition game at the Netherlands in March 2010. His left knee was injured by Manchester United defender Jonny Evans in March 2011, and Holden never was the same player.
“We had a quick, probably 10-second exchange on the phone after it was announced on TV how long I was going to be out for. He just reached out briefly, said was a really bad tackle by him, he was really sorry and good luck. It was like a one-word thank you from me,” Holden recalled this week. “I wasn’t in a good place at that time. I was very frustrated because my career was kind of hitting peak.
“I don’t harbor many hard feels towards that. It is what it is now. I will say when I do see him play in the Premier League on Saturday mornings, I’m not always rooting for his team.” |
missmisandry:
I’ve always been chubby. Always.
When I was about seven, I started getting these episodes where my heart would race and I would get light headed and even faint. My mom would call the pediatrician and he’d tell us to come in, but by the time we got there my heart had slowed down and, according to him, he had no way to check what it was.
He advised my mom to put me on a healthier diet and make me exercise more because it was probably my weight, even though I wasn’t that much overweight and I practiced softball for an hour a day.
So my mom did as he said and I didn’t really lose any weight. Also, the episodes continued to happen. They always ended before we could get to the doctor’s office. The doctor never ordered any kind of tests on my heart, though he did test my thyroid and scold my mom for apparently not trying hard enough to get me to lose weight.
This went on for five years. I’d be laying in bed and suddenly my heart would start beating so hard, my shirt would move. I’d stand up out of the bathtub and black out, causing me to fall out of the tub. I’d be playing softball or in gym class or just playing with my friends and suddenly I’d get light headed or my heart would race.
There would be several fruitless calls or visits to my doctor, who would insist that it was complications due to my weight and they would continue until I was a normal size. My mom was scolded. I was body shamed. I had blood drawn twice a year to test my thyroid. And yet the episodes continued.
Then, the week of my 12th birthday—also, the week I started my very first period— I didn’t want to go to school because the day before, a girl who had seen me in the bathroom had told everybody that I had started my period. In 6th grade, being chubby with frizzy hair and huge teeth, that was pretty much a social death sentence and I was mocked mercilessly for it.
So the next morning I woke up and begged my mom not to let me go to school. I cried and begged and she still insisted I go. So I went to change when suddenly, I felt an attack hit and I blacked out and fell, knocking things off of my desk. My mother heard the noise and found me dazed on the floor. I told her I could feel my heart beating hard again. You could see my shirt moving over my chest from how hard and fast my heart was beating.
My mom loaded me up in the car and took me to the pediatrician. This time, my heart continued to race and I remained light headed. They had to bring out a wheel chair to get me into the doctors office because I was too dizzy and weak to walk.
Once there, I was ushered into an examination room and I just laid down on the table. I couldn’t even sit up. They took my blood pressure and of course it was high, but they took it as a sign that my mother was feeding me salty, fatty foods instead of fruits and vegetables. they made me wait on the table for like two hours until an EKG machine was available in the office. I fell asleep for like half an hour because I was EXHAUSTED. Eventually, they sent us to the ER.
At the ER, they ushered me into a small little room with an EKG machine. They hooked it up and like fifteen seconds later, the nurse flipped shit. She called a “code blue” and about fifteen nurses rushed into this tiny room and then they raced me to another part of the ER. Didn’t tell my mom what was going on, just left her there and took off with me in the bed. They hooked me up to a ton of IVs and monitors and gave me medication to slow my heart that caused me to vomit everywhere.
Then they did a bunch of x-rays and EKG tests and kept me overnight. They found out that I had WPW, which is a tiny hole in the walls of the chambers of the heart, which caused my heart to beat so rapidly. They explained to my parents that this hadn’t happened as an effect of diet or habit, but that I had been born with this hole.
They also told her that me playing softball and being active with this condition was incredibly dangerous, because this is the condition that causes athletes to die on the field for seemingly no reason. The heart starts beating fast through exertion, the signals that cause the heart to beat get all scrambled and the heart beats so fast that it just gives out.
And the reason this particular attack had lasted so long was because it had come dangerously close to causing my heart to give out, which would have killed me. I ended up having to have heart surgery, something that should have been done 5 years earlier when I first started having the attacks.
But, because I was overweight, my doctor was more concerned with thinning me down than providing me with the treatment I needed to live a healthy life. |
Jessica Mauboy at Sydney’s Mardi Gras. Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images.
Telstra is under fire today for backing away from its previous support for same sex marriage, following reports that it was under pressure from the Catholic church, which threatened to change telcos over the issue.
Now Telstra is facing a backlash from customers who do support same sex marriage, and one got it touch to cancel his account, the response wasn’t exactly what he was expecting when the telco’s rep said he was “sorry to hear that Telstra did not support you in your ideology”.
An @Telstra Rep is sorry that Telstra doesn't support my "Ideology"
Mate this is my life not a belief, I live this! pic.twitter.com/oBRlwYLDlU — Morgan Archer (@mrgnarchr) April 13, 2016
Business Insider Emails & Alerts Site highlights each day to your inbox. Email Address Join
Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. |
SAN BERNARDINO, California — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Nestlé can continue to bottle water from drought-stricken Southern California, even though the permit which allows the company to pipe water from the San Bernardino National Forest expired in 1988.
Federal Court Denies Request to Turn Off Nestlé Spigot Despite Decades of Water-taking in San Bernardino Nati… https://t.co/rzY46NRAOm — Center for Bio Div (@CenterForBioDiv) September 21, 2016
Despite a devastating, five-year drought in California, Nestlé piped about 36 million gallons from the forest last year. That water is transported to Canada for bottling, and the end product appears in stores under the Arrowhead brand. Under the current agreement, Nestlé pays the U.S. Forest Service an annual permitting fee of $524 to run its pipeline.
U.S. District Court Judge Jesus G. Bernal ruled that although the permit expired 28 years ago, Nestlé can keep bottling water because corporate executives attempted to renew the permit in May 1987, but did not hear back from the Forest Service.
“Plaintiffs do not identify and the Court cannot find any authority holding that an agency’s failure to act within a reasonable time can invalidate before it is finally determined by the agency,” Judge Bernal wrote.
In other words, since Nestlé attempted to renew the permit, it remains in effect until the Forest Service tells the corporation it is invalid. The expiration date is irrelevant.
“We are disappointed – very disappointed – in the ruling,” said Michael O’Heaney, executive director of The Story of Stuff Project, a movement to raise awareness about the dangers of consumerism, and one of three co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit, in a Sept. 21 interview with The Desert Sun’s Brett Kelman.
O’Heaney launched the lawsuit against the Forest Service in October 2015, along with Courage Campaign Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity.
“The idea that 28 years in inaction on the Forest Service’s part is considered reasonable, and perfectly fine with the court, is outrageous,” O’Heaney continued.
In a Sept. 21 press release, Eddie Kurtz, executive director of Courage Campaign Institute, echoed O’Heaney’s disappointment at the ruling. Kurtz said:
“The court has just confirmed what many Americans fear, massive corporations play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. Nestlé has been pulling a fast one for nearly 30 years, taking a public resource, depriving plants and animals of life-sustaining water, and selling that water at an obscene profit without the right to do so, but apparently our justice system is OK with that.”
Bottling water during a drought is having serious effects on the local ecosystem, according to Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, also quoted in the press release. “[T]he real tragedy lies in the fact that Strawberry Creek is drying up, dooming the plants, fish and animals that have relied on it for tens of thousands of years.”
The lawsuit did prompt the Forest Service and the state water board to reexamine the issue of Nestlé’s water usage, but the proposed solution is unlikely to ease environmentalists’ concerns about the ongoing impacts of piping water from a national forest.
“The agency has proposed to issue a permit that would allow Nestle to continue operating its wells and water pipelines in the forest for five years, and the permit process is to include environmental studies,” Kelman noted.
The new permit would not be issued until an environmental study is completed, a process that could take up to two years, and Judge Bernal’s ruling means it’s likely that water will continue to be bottled during that time.
Environmentalists in Canada are also fighting Nestlé’s water bottling in their region. Last month, The Globe and Mail reported that Wellington Water Watchers was urging the government not to renew permits allowing the company to bottled water from Aberfoyle in southwestern Ontario. Nestlé Water’s permit, set to expire on July 31, was instead granted an automatic extension.
Watch Bottling water from the national forest from the Desert Sun: |
REPLIK.
I en omdiskuterad intervju med tjeckisk tv berättar Katarina Janouch att hon håller på att lära sig skjuta. Hon har gått med i en vapenklubb, och hon räknar med att efter ett år kunna skaffa sig ett eget vapen. Enligt svensk lag finns endast tre ändamål som ger privatpersoner tillstånd att ha ett vapen. De är enligt vapenlagen (1996:67) jakt, målskytte och vapensamling.
Men Janouch är inte intresserad av att jaga, idrotta eller samla vapen. Hon talar om att skjuta på människor. Hon säger ”Jag känner mig inte säker. Allt fler svenskar lär sig att skjuta”.
Vi talar alltså om en person som på allvar förbereder sig för att använda ett vapen mot andra människor. Som helt emot vad lagen säger anser att det är hennes rätt, enbart på grund av hur hon "känner sig."
LÄS MER: Åsiktskorridorens övervakare ger inte fri lejd
Flera etablerade statsvetare och journalister finner inget anmärkningsvärt i detta, tvärtom. Statsvetaren Stig-Björn Ljunggren kallar de som haft invändningar mot Janouchs åsikter för "en flock grinollar". Han menar att hon "utmanar" och "har uttryckt starka åsikter om flyktingfrågan" och därför borde försvaras. (Expressen 16/1) Han har själv blivit avrådd att skriva en bok om miljörörelsen för 27 år sedan, så han förstår hur det känns. I likhet med Lotta Gröning, som anser att Janouch har "valt att ta steget och bestämt sig för att våga säga vad (hon) tycker." (SVT Opinion 18/1) Detta är modigt menar Gröning, då hon själv mött motstånd på 90-talet vad gäller frågan om inlandsbanan.
Menar de allvar? Är de så självfixerade att de inte kan lyfta blicken från sina egna gamla vendettor?
Det här är något helt annat än att ha åsikter. Det står varje människa fritt att tycka vad som helst om regeringens flyktingpolitik, polisens arbete, segregering och annat. Man behöver inte vara rasist för att delta i debatten, precis som man har all rätt att kalla någon för rasist - det är yttrandefrihet. Men att förbereda sig för att skjuta och att hylla fascistiska gatugäng som går ut för att misshandla ungdomar, vilket Janouch gjort tidigare, är inte yttrandefrihet. Det är att uppmana till pogromer.
Som statsvetare borde Ljunggren känna till pogromernas och lynchmobbarnas historia. Alla ingredienser till upptakten finns i intervjun med Janouch: det exalterade och domedagsliknande tonläget, utpekandet av en viss grupp - i detta fall afghanska ungdomar - påståenden om att laglöshet skulle råda: "kriminella straffas inte alls", våldtäktens centrala roll samt drömmen om en stark ledare med hårda händer.
Historiker med pogromer och lynchmobbar som specialitet, som Hans Rogger och John Klier, pekar också på intellektuellas roll som utlösare: då uppburna personer säger att det är dags att ta till vapen, finns ofta någon som går ut och gör just det.
Finns den typen av person bland de "allt fler svenskar" som enligt Janouch nu sökt medlemskap i skytteklubbar? Är det inte dags för en ordentlig översyn av motiv och lämplighet hos de som går med? Vi vet att både Breivik och Mangs fått sina vapenlicenser den vägen, och de hade heller ingen avsikt att jaga eller idrotta. Men den kopplingen gör inte Ljunggren - viktigare är att få upprättelse för att någon förolämpat honom för 27 år sedan.
Så ser banaliseringen av den fascistiska lynchmobben ut, när den tar vägen genom narcissism.
Kajsa Ekis Ekman
Journalist och författare |
Predicting how a season is going to pan out is always a difficult task. There are a ton of factors that can go into how a NFL season will unwind: injuries, trades, breakout performances, etc., so let’s look at this a little differently. Let’s take out all of those factors, look at the roster as they are now, and predict how a healthy Detroit Lions team does in the 2017 NFL season.
Week 1
Arizona Cardinals
Lions open up with a pretty tough match-up. This outcome relies on which Carson Palmer decides to show up for the Cardinals this year and it’s going to be the bad one. Carson’s age started catching up with him last year and it’s not going to get any better in 2017.
Score: Lions 24 (1-0), Cardinals 13
Week 2
At New York Giants
Playing the Giants at the Meadowlands is never easy and with the addition of Brandon Marshall, to complement Odell Beckham Jr., it will be tough day for the Detroit secondary. This game is going to come down to the fourth-quarter and Matthew Stafford is better in crunch time than Eli Manning.
Score: Lions 27 (2-0), Giants 24
Week 3
Atlanta Falcons
Most teams suffer from a Super Bowl hangover, but the Falcons will break the mold. With Vic Beasley coming off the edge without Taylor Decker and the trio of Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman, it will prove to be too much for the Lions to overcome.
Score: Lions 17 (2-1), Falcons 28
Week 4
At Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings had a hot start to the 2016 season, but towards the end of the year the team showed its true colors. The Vikings, without running back Adrian Peterson and potentially quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, will struggle. Lions coast to a victory.
Score: Lions, 27 (3-1), Vikings 10
Week 5
Carolina Panthers
The Panthers struggled last year coming off of a Super Bowl loss, but the team will rebound in 2017. Will they be good enough to knock off the Lions? Doubtful. Lions defense is able to contain Cam Newton, and go on to another victory.
Score: Lions 21 (4-1), Panthers 17
Week 6
At New Orleans Saints
This will be an absolute shootout. Drew Brees has always seemed to play well against the Lions, but the Saints lack a defense. Stafford is able to out-duel Brees in a high-scoring affair.
Score: Lions 37 (5-1), Saints 30
Week 7
BYE
Week 8
Pittsburgh Steelers
Coming off a Bye Week the Lions should be at an advantage. Much like the Falcons, though, the triple-headed monster of Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown will be too much of a force. Not to mention that the Steelers have a stout defense.
Score: Lions 17 (5-2), Steelers 28
Week 9
At Green Bay Packers
This match-up will likely be a battle for first place in the NFC North. Playing at Lambeau Field is always a disadvantage and given the stage the Packers will thrive. It will be close, but the Packers will come out on top. Lions drop two straight.
Lions 17 (5-3), Packers 24
Week 10
Cleveland Browns
While the Browns are finally starting to turn things around, the team is still a few years from being relevant. The Lions, playing at Ford Field, will cruise past them.
Score: Lions 28 (6-3), Browns 10
Week 11
At Chicago Bears
There is just something about playing the Bears in Chicago. Stafford struggles and the Bears bring their A-game and pull off the upset.
Score: Lions 17 (6-4), Bears 20
Week 12
Minnesota Vikings
The Lions pulled out the win against the Vikings in Minnesota earlier in the season and will have a better outing while playing in Detroit. Stafford will start to get in a groove and power the team to the victory.
Score: Lions 27 (7-4), Vikings 12
Week 13
At Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens are a very intriguing team this year. It’s hard to gauge exactly how well the team will do, but much of that weight will fall onto the shoulders of newly acquired receiver Jeremy Maclin. Darius Slay will be able to lock him down and be the main factor in, yet another, Lions victory.
Score: Lions 24 (8-4), Ravens 17
Week 14
At Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers are an up and coming team starting to find its bearings. DeSean Jackson and Mike Evans will be too much of a handful for the Lions secondary, leading to a Buccaneers victory.
Score: Lions 24 (8-5), Buccaneers 28
Week 15
Chicago Bears
Much like last season the Lions will be looking to avenge the upset against the Bears. While the Bears will keep it close, Stafford will be the key factor to leading the team to a “W”.
Score: Lions 24 (9-5), Bears 21
Week 16
At Cincinnati Bengals
Getting into crunch time the Lions will have two tough games to finish off the year. The Bengals always seem to be in playoff contention and Andy Dalton and A.J. Green will be looking to clinch a playoff berth, but will ultimately fall a little short.
Score: Lions 27 (10-5), Bengals 24
Week 17
Green Bay Packers
The most important game of the season for the Lions. The team will be in a win-or-go-home situation. Luckily for the Lions, this game is in Detroit. The Lions will feed off the crowd and get a second straight playoff berth.
Score: Lions 31 (11-5), Packers 28
Another seasons of close games and fourth-quarter comebacks from Stafford. Many people are underestimating the Lions and predicting them to miss the playoffs, but with a cool 11-5 record the team will have a shot at getting its second playoff win in franchise history.
If you would like to receive an email each time a new Detroit Lions article is published, fill out our email notification form. |
Media playback is not supported on this device Kris Boyd and Michael Stewart
Some of the uncapped players called up by Scotland are a "laughing stock", according to former international striker Kris Boyd.
Scotland face the Netherlands in a friendly at Pittodrie on Thursday, with Malky Mackay the interim coach.
Kilmarnock captain Boyd told BBC Scotland that the Aberdeen contingent are involved "to sell tickets".
And the 34-year-old questioned the inclusion of Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack.
"He's had more red cards than good games for Rangers this season," said Boyd, who won 18 caps for Scotland, scoring seven goals.
Jack, 25, has been sent off three times since his summer move to Ibrox from Aberdeen, with two of those red cards later rescinded.
Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie is joined in Mackay's squad by club-mates Kenny McLean and Ryan Christie, who is on loan from Celtic.
McLean, 25, was capped once by former manager Gordon Strachan, who called up Shinnie once before but did not select him.
"Not good enough," was Boyd's blunt assessment of Shinnie, 26, who spends most of his time in central midfield for the Dons, having shone at left-back for previous club Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
"He's not going to play at left-back because even Barry Douglas, who's at the top of the Championship [with Wolves] can't get in," said Boyd, who made himself unavailable for Scotland duty during the reign of manager George Burley.
"He doesn't even play at left-back for Aberdeen and Scotland's best two players are left-backs [Kieran Tierney and Andrew Robertson].
"As for central midfield; I watched [Celtic trio] Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong and Callum McGregor run all over the top of him last week."
Boyd made the last of his Scotland appearances in 2010
Boyd then suggested the selection of Shinnie, McLean and Christie had more to do with boosting the crowd.
"We've got [Hibernian duo] Paul Hanlon and John McGinn in the squad and had this game been at Easter Road, we might have seen Dylan McGeouch and Simon Murray [also of Hibs] called up too.
"It's for the SFA and Malky to appease the fans and media who didn't like Gordon and then there's the key thing - to sell tickets. That's why they're all in the squad.
"It's gone back to the days of Berti Vogts, giving players caps for nothing."
Former World Cup winner Vogts was Scotland manager from January 2002 to November 2004, handing international debuts to 40 players. |
TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japan’s bold strike to weaken its currency on Wednesday sent the yen tumbling more than 3.0 percent against the U.S. dollar, but unsettled allies who feared the unilateral move may complicate efforts to restore balanced global economic growth.
A foreign exchange broker watches a television (bottom) showing the Japanese yen's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar before the Finance Ministry intervened in the currency market while the current rate flashes above him in Tokyo September 15, 2010. Japan intervened in the currency market on Wednesday for the first time in six years, selling yen to stem a rise in the currency that is threatening a fragile economic recovery. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
Japan unleashed waves of yen selling, estimated at more than $20 billion, which spread from Tokyo through New York trading. The sales, conducted alone without help from its Group of Seven partners, are expected to continue in the days ahead, Japanese news agency Nikkei reported.
Japan’s first intervention in global currency markets in six years was not a complete surprise given that officials had tried to talk down the currency in recent weeks after it hit a 15-year high against the dollar.
But the timing and go-it-alone approach drew criticism. A top European official said coordinated action was a more effective means of adjusting exchange rates. And as the U.S. Congress began hearings on China’s currency policy, a U.S. lawmaker called Japan’s move “deeply disturbing.”
DOUBTS REMAIN
Doubts remained though about how effective Japan’s unilateral yen selling spree might be. A 15-month solo effort by Switzerland which ended earlier this year did little to tame the Swiss franc.
Like Japan, most advanced economies are grappling with slow growth at home, making exports an economic imperative. Japan’s move heightened concerns that countries would launch a round of competitive devaluations to give their own exporters an edge.
U.S. lawmaker Sander Levin, who chairs the congressional committee examining China’s currency policy, blamed Beijing for Japan’s “deeply disturbing” intervention. Levin and many other U.S. lawmakers say China keeps the yuan artificially low, boosting its exports at the expense of U.S. companies.
“What’s happening is that China’s actions have affected Japan, and now Japan’s actions affect us,” he said.
Andrew Busch, global currency strategist at BMO Capital Markets in Chicago, said Japan’s move would make it more difficult for Congress to get its message through to China.
“How can the Japanese get a pass to intervene when the Chinese are being criticized for essentially the same activity?” he said.
Some emerging markets were also wary of losing out in a beggar-thy-neighbor round of devaluations. Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said he would not sit on the sidelines “watching the game” while other countries weakened their currencies at the expense of Brazil.
“We’re going to take appropriate measures to stop the real from appreciating,” Mantega said in Rio de Janeiro.
FLYING SOLO
The EU offered some sympathy for Tokyo’s plight, saying too rapid yen appreciation could threaten economic recovery, but a top official said coordinated action would have been better.
“Unilateral actions are not the appropriate way to deal with global imbalances,” Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of euro-zone finance ministers, said when asked about Japan’s intervention.
U.S. officials at the Federal Reserve, White House and Treasury declined to comment.
After this week’s victory in a party leadership contest, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan appeared to be stepping up efforts to wrench the country out of deflation by targeting the yen’s strength which has weighed on stock prices and corporate profits.
The Japanese Prime Minister told reporters that Wednesday’s intervention had some effect but the government was watching foreign exchange moves with a sense of urgency.
Aside from apparently acting alone, Japan faces the stiff task of trying to weaken the yen while other major central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve mull more steps to ease monetary policy, which could weigh on their currencies.
The dollar rose to 85.72 yen from its 15-year low beneath 83 yen, its biggest daily gain in nearly two years. It was last up 3.1 percent at 85.60 yen.
MAKING FRIENDS
The Japanese currency’s rise had brought it closer to its record peak of 79.75 per dollar set in 1995, squeezing exporters’ profits, but Wednesday’s yen drop helped push Tokyo stock market’s Nikkei average up 2.3 percent.
It also pleased Japanese exporters, many of whom had expected the yen to average 90 per dollar this fiscal year.
“We applaud the move by the government and the Bank of Japan to correct the yen’s strength,” Japan’s No. 2 automaker Honda Motor Co said in a statement.
Honda has penciled in 87 yen per dollar in its estimates for the fiscal year to March 2011.
Billionaire financier George Soros said Japan was right to act to bring down the value of the yen.
“Certainly, they are hurting because the currency is too strong so I think they are right to intervene,” Soros said at a Reuters Newsmaker event.
Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who will reportedly keep his post after a cabinet reshuffle, indicated Tokyo acted alone. Noda said he was in contact with authorities overseas, and analysts expected Japan to be spared international criticism.
Unlike previous forays, the Bank of Japan will not drain the money flowing into the economy as a result of the yen selling, sources familiar with the matter said.
That indicated the central bank plans to use the sold yen as a monetary tool to boost liquidity and support the economy.
Authorities that sell their own currencies to weaken them often issue bills to “sterilize” the funds and keep the excess money from becoming inflationary. In Japan’s case, it wants to promote inflation since the economy has been dogged by deflation for much of the past decade. |
Humanizing China - Part 2 (Relationships)
1. A pair of lovers lie under the sun on the green grass
2. A family on the Shanghai Bund
3. An unfinished building in Hainan became the construction workers' outdoor bathroom
4. A horsedrawn cart, a truck and an airplane
5. A special VIP visits the Forbidden Palace with a phalanx of bodyguards
6. A soon-to-be completed commercial building and the still quiet old alleyway
7. A judge heads for a remote mountain village to take on a case;
the horse is used to carry the national emblem
8. The street cleaners in front of the National People's Congress building in Tienanmen Square
9. The cadres visit the village to explain the law, and are treated to a work meal of potatoes
10. The mobile law court holds a session on the mountain road
11. A neighborhood patrol of retirees
12. Out-of-towners without resident permits are detained in Hainan;
the lucky escapees are searching for their detained friends and relatives
13. Neighorhood women keep an eye on strange visitors
14. A neighborhood watch group chats away
15. Two young girls read the placard of a beggar
16. Watching soldiers train from a close distance
17. A city girl checks out her foot
18. Modern garbage
19. Elementary school children sent out to direct traffic
20. A tired passenger in the subway
21. A self-assured village cadre
22. Female workers dormitory at a handbag factory
23. Streetside cobbler in the early days of the mobile phone
24. A car had just died on the road but nobody wants to help
25. Villagers looking at wedding photos
26. A peasant village couple in a traditional wedding
27. The 27-year-old resident committee chairwoman tries to mediate a family dispute
28. Increasingly westernized weddings in the city
29. Chatting with an admirer on the other side of the barbed wire fence of the factory
30. Child plays at the courtroom while parents bid for a divorce
31. Students on a Beijing street
32. An elevated female
33. Kissing lovers on Wangjingfu Street, Beijing
34. Border military officer and his family
35. Handicapped couple goes to town
36. Expectant mother of quadruplets
37. Returning to her parents' home
38. Four brothers look at tall Shanghai buildings
39. Four brothers take a bath in summer
40. Unwilling kindergarten child was 'invited' to enter by the teacher
41. Mother accomapnies son to study on a summer's night
42. A peasant is about to transplant his kidney to his diabetic son
43. A parent disciplines the child
44. A vegetable vendor plays with his son
45. A military officer says goodbye to his visiting wife and son
46. The commune wash room in an apartment building
47. Old neighbors
48. An art student lives alone in a rented house
49. Children play in the narrow alleyway
50. A man applies hair oil for his wife
51. The neigborhood bridal party prepares for the wedding
52. A son plays a bamboo flute for his mother
53. A homemade table tennis game
54. Elementary school children doing handstands
55. A Tibetan girl chews bubble gum before the storm arrives
56. A teacher rears 40 cats in a 20 square meter apartment
57. A death row inmate uses the bathroom
这本摄影集起源于广东美术馆2003-2004举办的《中国人本－纪实在当代》摄影作品展(2004年在上海美术馆也展出过)，收录了250多位摄影家的 600多幅作品，是当代中国最大的一次人本摄影展。这些作品分布的年代集中在1980-2001年这个中国解冻的20年，也有少量1950-1980的作品。这些作品基本上涵盖了中国所有地域的所有阶层， 还原了中国人生存情态的本真，是人类学标本的摄影学。 |
In an official blog post the Visually VP of Marketing Ural Cebeci confirmed that Visually has published a brand new logo for the company.
Visually first launched back in 2011 with the branding “Visual.ly” as a community for data visualization and infographics. Over the past 5 years the company has grown into a larger marketbase with features geared towards premium content.
To celebrate this growth and transformation the Visually team decided to redesign their official logo. The change is slight but definitely noticeable.
Here’s the old logo followed by the new logo for comparison:
The update moves towards an origami style with the triangular logo. It gives the appearance of layers and feels much more dynamic compared to the original hourglass shape.
I personally like both of them and had a fond connection to the original logo. But change is often good and in this case it’s definitely befitting.
Plus at least Visually’s logo design is enticing unlike the release of Verizon’s new checkmark.
Read more about Visually’s logo redesign from their blog and you can see it in action on their homepage. |
Get the latest from TODAY Sign up for our newsletter
Jan. 2, 2015, 2:07 PM GMT By Keith Wagstaff
My great-grandfather was Popeye. I discovered that from old photographs my father found in his childhood home.
They were stored with a newspaper article from 1938 describing how Jonathan Wagstaff was inspired to become a Popeye impersonator after winning the title of "Homeliest Man in California" at a male bathing beauty contest in Venice Beach.
Jonathan Wagstaff, the author's great-grandfather, in Popeye and regular attire. Today
These days, it's hard to imagine documents like that being stored in a box. The photos might be kept on a hard drive or posted on Facebook. Instead of a printed article, you might save a link to a story online.
The problem? Hard drives can be unreliable and Internet companies sometimes fail — taking your memories with them.
Hard drives, hard times
"The question of, ‘How long does data live on a hard drive?' is a tricky one," Ahmed Amer, an associate professor of computer engineering at Santa Clara University, told TODAY.
Digital family photos should be just fine for a few years. But when you start talking decades — like the 76 years my great-grandfather's photos lasted — things get complicated. Your typical hard drive uses magnets to write information. With older hard drives, that can be a problem.
"Just like a credit card, you don't want to put it next to a magnet, because what you have on the magstripe will be erased," he said.
It's not only magnets that you have to worry about. Heat, a spilled cup of coffee and other environmental factors can degrade the information on a hard drive.
Newer hard drives are less susceptible to those factors, according to Ethan Miller, the Symantec presidential chair in storage and security at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In fact, the data on them should be fine for decades. The actual hard drive, however, will probably break before then.
"A hard drive is a physical device," Miller told NBC News. "Things like the lubricant and bearings will degrade over time."
Like a car, it's a good idea to take stored hard drives out for a spin every so often. Stored unused in a closet or attic, the mechanical parts in a hard drive can break down over the course of a year or two. At most, hard drives are built to last around five to seven years, Miller said.
Another option is saving documents on a CD or Blu-ray Disc, preferably in a cool, dry area. (Anyone who has left a favorite CD on their dashboard knows why). But those break down over time as well.
Burning a CD or DVD involves heating up a layer of dye with a laser. As it does with photographs and clothing, dye on a DVD fades, causing those cherished photos to degrade.
"There are plenty of CDs and DVDs that were burned 10 to 15 years ago that are already bad," Miller said.
The tech, it is a-changin'
"A lot of people, when they think of data storage, they think, 'Will it survive?'" Amer said. "That's really just a small part of it."
Hard drives are vulnerable. So are CDs. But even if you carefully store your data on a disc that can withstand time, there is the chance that, in five years, nobody will be able to access that data.
"If I gave you a LaserDisc today and told you there was a lot of cool stuff on it, what would you do?" Miller said.
It was only 20 years ago that people could go to the store and buy a LaserDisc player. These days, you can pretty much only find them on eBay. Floppy discs, VHS tapes and eight-track cartridges are just a few example of other defunct technologies. Chances are that the computer cables you used 15 years ago don't work with hard drives today.
Ultimately, Amer said, rapidly evolving technology could pose a bigger threat to your data than a failing hard drive.
Living on a cloud
For many, a good solution is the cloud. Facebook has a team of professionals ensuring that the servers storing your photos are kept in tip-top shape. Their business depends on it, after all. They are a lot safer there than on DVDs in a box in your closet.
There are a lot of other options for people who want to store their photos online, including Dropbox, Google Drive and Flickr. While disk drives and computer cables might change, it's a good bet that the Internet will be around in 50 years.
That doesn't mean your data is safe. Remember Friendster? Kodak Gallery? Yeah, you aren't getting your photos back from them anytime soon. And transferring information from a dying website to a new one isn't always easy. If you store your photos online, make sure to check those sites often.
Cloud services that charge for online storage are usually a good bet, Miller said, because they can just charge more if costs go up, instead of discontinuing a free product that is no longer profitable.
Doing things the old way
There are some radical solutions that the next generation might use to make sure their memories last hundreds of years. In New Mexico, Norsam Technologies etches data onto nickel plates on a microscopic scale — almost like creating incredibly tiny, dense music records. It's called Rosetta-HD.
It might be cool, but there is no telling whether it will catch on. Right now, technology doesn't have an easy solution for long-term storage. Digitally storing photos is no guarantee that your grandchildren or even your children will be able to look at them.
As for photos of my great-grandfather, my family keeps them on a hard drive, cloud service and in a good, old-fashioned box. Apparently, that is the smart thing to do.
"Going with a diversity of approaches is really the way to go," Miller said. "It sounds really weird as a computer scientist saying this, but if they're photos you really, really want your grandchildren to see, print them out."
Keith Wagstaff writes about technology for NBC News. He previously covered technology for TIME's Techland and wrote about politics as a staff writer at TheWeek.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @kwagstaff and reach him by email at: [email protected] |
Oakland Joins Exclusive List Alongside Detroit and Washington DC — The Bold Italic — San Francisco
The Bold Italic Editors Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 16, 2015
By Jeremy Lybarger
Oakland doesn’t get much love from the national press. Journalists often describe it as either San Francisco’s gritty hipster sibling (“Brooklyn by the Bay,” to quote the New York Times), or as a segregated city wracked by crime. Of course, it’s hard to argue with either of these representations: Parts of Oakland are hipster enclaves, and its crime stats are high (86 homicides in 2014 and more robberies than any other big city in 2013, although crime overall is decreasing), but Oakland is also more than the clichés that typify it.
Business Insider wants to remind everyone that Oakland is actually a pretty vibrant place. The website named Oakland one of 2015’s “hottest American cities,” evaluating it in terms of job growth, population growth, affordability, livability, and the health and well-being of residents, along with the all-important but elusive “cool” factor. Other cities that made the cut include Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Detroit, Washington DC, and Nashville.
In terms of Oakland, BI praised the city for its “vegan restaurants, coffee shops, and trendy clothing stores,” singling out Temescal Alley as a “hipster hotspot.” Granted, these are all enjoyable but fairly superficial markers of a city’s quality of life — I never moved anywhere because of trendy clothing stores — but the spirit of the point is valid. Oakland is an interesting, quirky, lively city in its own right, distinct from the immense gravitational pull of San Francisco.
Unfortunately, it’s not exempt from SF-style rents. As The Bold Italic noted last month, Oakland saw the second highest rent increase nationally: 12.1 percent between January 2014 and January 2015. As San Francisco continues to price out renters, the narrative goes, they flock to Oakland in search of relief. They’re transforming the city, for both good and ill, and the rest of the country is taking notice.
[via Business Insider; photo courtesy of Brian Jackson/Flickr]
Got a tip for The Bold Italic? Email [email protected]. |
Mar 28, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers guard Jordan McRae (52) controls the ball against Michigan Wolverines guard Caris LeVert (23) in the second half in the semifinals of the midwest regional of the 2014 NCAA Mens Basketball Championship tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
With Jordan McRae’s season in Austrailia now completed, there were quite a few questions regarding his immediate future. Would the former Tennessee guard be offered a contract by the Sixers, or would there be another route?
According to McRae himself, he plans to head to the NBA D-League since he just returned to the United States a few days ago.
Melbourne has officially released @JordyMac52 to play NBA D-League. Thanks for being United JMac! http://t.co/0ksh1LXzKz #WeAreMelbourne — CTI Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) February 27, 2015
By all accounts, Jordan McRae had a solid season in Australia. The 6’6″ guard finished the season averaging 18.8 points and five rebounds per game. His 18.8 points was second in all of the NBL in Australia.
So, expect Jordan McRae to sign a contract with the Delaware 87ers and go into their program for the remainder of the season. He won’t be called up by anyone, because the Sixers have his draft rights. The only team that could bring him up are the Sixers and they would have to sign him to a deal, not just a 10-day contract.
Nevertheless, it will be positive to see one of the Sixers’ draftee playing basketball in the states. |
Rising star Craig Roberts has been cast in Fox Searchlight and Chernin Entertainment’s biopic “Tolkien.” Roberts made his breakthrough as the protagonist in Richard Ayoade’s indie movie “Submarine,” and is currently starring in the third and final season of Amazon Studios’ “Red Oaks,” reprising the lead role of David Myers in the Steven Soderbergh and David Gordon Green production.
“Tolkien,” directed by Dome Karukoski, and written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford, focuses on the early life of the author J.R.R. Tolkien as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school. Roberts plays Sam, with whom Tolkien serves during World War I, the horrors of which threaten to tear the “fellowship” apart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUT4GtS9_ns
As well as “Red Oaks,” whose first season premiered in 2015, Roberts has starred, alongside Paul Rudd, in Netflix’s “The Fundamentals of Caring,” directed by Rob Burnett. Roberts’ other notable credits include “Kill Your Friends,” “22 Jump Street,” “Bad Neighbors,” “The Double,” “Comes a Bright Day,” “Jane Eyre,” “Skins” and “Being Human.” He will next be seen in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s historical drama “The Current War.”
Roberts, who co-founded production company Cliff Edge Pictures, is also a director, writer and producer. His directorial debut, British comedy “Just Jim,” which he also wrote, starred Roberts opposite Emile Hirsch. The film, which had its theatrical release in 2015, stars Roberts as a lonely Welsh teenager who is given the chance to increase his popularity when a cool American moves in next door. He is working on his second directorial feature, “Eternal Beauty,” which will go in to production early next year.
Share this...
Linkedin
We hope you're enjoying BRWC. You should check us out on our socal channels, subscribe to our newsletter, and tell your friends. BRWC is short for battleroyalewithcheese.
Trending on BRWC:
Cool Posts From Around the Web: |
Aside from an update by Lord Kitchener to the House of Lords ( pages 9 and 10 ) and more on the Russian victory in the Caucasus ( page 9 ) there was little of note to report from the war, and so the floods hitting the Thames valley and elsewhere again formed a substantial part of the news coverage – pages 7 and 9 contain multiple reports from the affected areas and again they form the main part of the pictures on page 12
- A latter from “Patriot” on page 4 calls for conscription – “it is up to our Government to shove them (men between the ages of 19 and 35) in”
- Manchester plans an art exhibition of British and French naval and military works from the Elizabethan era onward, which might be somewhat ironic given how many of the wars in that period saw the two counties pitched against each other – page 6
- E. Ashmead-Bartlett writes about the Christmas truce, giving the German soldiers credit for instigating it and looking at previous historical precedents – page 7
- A Belgian Cardinal Archbishop is arrested by the Germans over the contents of his New Year pastoral letter – pages 8 and 10
- King George V and Pope Benedict XV exchange telegrams over the letter’s suggestion of exchanging prisoners who are recognised as no longer fit for military service – page 9
- An explosion in New York’s subway system has conflicting reports over fatalities – page 10
- A week after news of the death of one of Garibaldi’s grandsons comes news of the death of another – page 11 |
UPDATE : On the PBE for testing as of the
At long last the Yorick champion update is here! Check out Yorick, the Sheperd of Lost Souls! : On the PBE for testing as of the 8/23 PBE Update! At long last thechampion update is here! Check out
"Yorick has always been a practical man. He knew he'd need strength to destroy the Black Mists that corrupted the Blessed Isles, even if it meant fighting evil with evil."
YORICK, THE SHEPHERD OF LOST SOULS
"Yorick has always been a practical man. He knew he'd need strength to destroy the Black Mist that corrupted the Blessed Isles, even if it meant fighting evil with evil. So he harnessed a whole world of evil in the cape that now clings to his shoulders; in the unknowable depths of the cloak swirls the essence of a thousand damned souls. When the Shepherd summons forth a being from that seething miasma of lost spirits, only he hears the wretched assembly's great wailing and gnashing of teeth—this is his burden, and the source of his power. In his quest to free these souls, he'll use them (and they'll use him) to crush anything in their way.
ABILITIES
PASSIVE: SHEPHERD OF SOULS
Yorick can have up to four Mist Walkers in his service at once. Mist Walkers decay if they move too far from either Yorick or the Maiden of the Mist. Agrave is occasionally created when enemy minions or neutral monsters die near Yorick, and all enemy champions that die near him leave a grave.
Q: LAST RITES AND AWAKENING
Yorick's next basic attack deals bonus damage and restores some health. IfLast Rites kills a target, it creates a grave. If there are at least three gravesnearby and Last Rites is on cooldown, Yorick can instead cast Awakening to raise Mist Walkers from the graves.
W: DARK PROCESSION
Yorick summons a destructible wall of corpses that encircles a target area for a few seconds.
E: MOURNING MIST
Yorick hurls a globule of Mist that deals magic damage, applies a slow, and marks a target. Yorick and Mist Walkers get a movement bonus when heading toward marked targets.
R: EULOGY OF THE ISLES
Yorick summons the Maiden of the Mist (at higher ranks, she'll bring some Mist Walkers with her). The Maiden moves and attacks on her own. When Yorick attacks the Maiden's target, he'll deal bonus magic damage based on the enemy's maximum health.
LANING AND MID-GAME
Yorick has lived longer than most men, and he's built up a hell of a lot of patience over the years. The Shepherd of Lost Souls is never happier than when he's able to quietly farm in lane, shovelling out a whole necropolis of graves as he prepares to lay siege to any structures or unlucky souls in his path.
Mist Walkers are great for sieges, but they're just not that smart. Once yanked from the relative safety of the spirit-goop cape on Yorick's back, they mostly want to hurl themselves (screaming and clawing all the way) straight down lanes. They're fragile, so Yorick has a short window to enter a skirmish at full strength after he's summoned a pile of Walkers. With his ghoulish army in tow, The Shepherd can encircle his lane opponent with a Dark Procession, then splatter them with some Mourning Mist as he closes the gap to deliver the trapped opponents their Last Rites.
Yorick's true potential as a splitpushing demon emerges when he gains access to his ult, Eulogy of the Isles. Even without a decent-sized minion wave, Yorick and the Maiden can form a nigh-unstoppable army of Mist Walkers that'll keep turrets occupied for ages while the Shepherd-Maiden duo pick apart the structure. Each Mist Walker can tank a tower shot, and the Maiden takes more than a few blasts of her own before giving up the ghost. Leave Yorick alone in lane for too long, and pretty soon you'll have an army swarming your Nexus.
Yorick's passive and ult give his team a unique way to press kill advantages in the midgame—with defeated opponents reborn as Mist Walkers, Yorick's team will have a massive pile of friends to help quickly push down turrets.
TEAMFIGHTING AND LATE-GAME
The Shepherd of Lost Souls just isn't very good at engaging fights due to his slow, shuffling movespeed and complete lack of gap-closing ability. And if he doesn't last-hit a few minions to prep some graves before the fight, he won't be at full strength when the souls and spells start colliding.
Once he's in the fray, though, Yorick generally works like a juggernaut. He'll want to build sustainability so he can survive teamfights long enough for his passive to kick in. With enemies falling all around him, he'll have plenty of ghoul fuel to convert into more Mist Walkers.
Yorick's pretty good at peeling and zoning thanks to his W, Dark Procession. The writhing band of corpses is great for keeping enemy juggernauts from making it to the backline, or for zoning the other team's carry out of the fight entirely. But it feels best when you use it to trap an enemy mage or ADC. Unless the victim can quickly escape by destroying the wall with autos, your team gets to play a rousing game of ring-around-the-squishies.
"The Maiden sticks around until her health is depleted, so if Yorick tanks for her, she'll serve for long stretches as his own personal backline."
Throughout teamfights, Yorick has to pay close attention to the Maiden of the Mist. If she's hitting a target alone, she won't deal much damage, but there’s a multiplier effect when the Shepherd and the Maiden focus someone together. She'll stick around until her health gets depleted, so if Yorick tanks for her, she'll serve for long stretches as his own personal backline—his basic attacks are melee, but hers are ranged.
When both side lanes are unoccupied, the Shepherd has a chance to show off the most unusual ability in his kit: splitpushing two lanes at once. It works like this: the Maiden of the Mist is fairly intelligent by AI-companion standards, and she'll continue to push a lane even if Yorick is no longer there. He can plop the Maiden into top lane, then TP down south to splitpush bot lane on his own. With adequate distance between the two, both are free to raise their own armies of Mist Walkers, up to four each, and push down two lanes at once (so long as the rest of your team can just hold mid for one minute). Of course, Yorick's a lot weaker without his ghoulish sidekick, so split wisely.
CHAMPION INSIGHTS
Yorick is not a popular champion. We'll admit it! Out of the 131 champions in League, the bedraggled green guy has almost always been the least-played, least-loved champ on the list. But why? Sure, he's a not-quite-meta, hard-to-balance champ, but we think the biggest reason for Yorick's unpopularity is simple: Nobody wants to be a gravedigger.
If you aren't caught up on the latest Shadow Isles lore, here's a quick summary: Long ago, the Ruined King travelled to a place then known as the Blessed Isles; He wanted to use the Isles's eternal waters to bring his wife back to life. But the waters were never meant to reverse death, and when the King lowered her corpse into the magic waters, they became corrupted. The resulting Black Mist that emerged from the pool caused a magical cataclysm that morphed the Blessed Isles into the Shadow Isles—a place where the dead find no resting place. Yorick, a former monk on the Isles, is more-or-less a good guy, but he's being slowly corrupted by the mist, which clings to his back in the form of a cape comprised of thousands of agonized souls.
Think about it. What image popped into your mind when you read the word "gravedigger?" Probably some hunched-over, half-dead lunatic who's always shuffling around in the rain, only ever stopping long enough to wave a crooked finger and holler at trespassing children. And that's pretty much who Yorick was. He was the modern stereotype of a cemetery attendant (a perfectly respectable job that, if we're being honest, few kids actually aspire to have when they grow up).
But every culture, throughout time, has needed people to tend to the dead. And in some cultures, these custodians of the afterlife had to take great pride and go to extreme lengths to help lost souls get to the great beyond—or wherever it was they were supposed to go.
In ancient China, for example, travelling Buddhist monks would often bring along a Moon Tooth Spade: a double-sided weapon with a shovel-like scoop on one end and a crescent-shaped blade on the other. The tool had multiple uses: If the monk happened upon a corpse on the road, he could properly bury it and deliver all the necessary Buddhist rites. And, if he encountered bandits or wild animals, he could bust out the crescent blade to beat the holy hell out of his attackers.
It was here, in the story behind the Moon Tooth Spade, that we began to see our opportunity for Yorick. What if he was more like that older style of gravedigger—one who cares for the dead with one hand, but isn't afraid to bring death with his other? Narrative writer John "JohnODyin" O'Bryan began to outline a new, way more heavy metal vision for Yorick's backstory. "He isn't just a gravedigger," says JohnODyin. "He's a custodian of life and death. Whenever someone is close to death, Yorick can decide to bring them back using a vial of holy water around his neck, or he can send them on their way to death." He’s a twisted combination of Death himself and a guardian angel, bringing judgment from above.
With his new backstory, we'd turned the Gravedigger into the Shepherd of Lost Souls. But then came the tough part: translating that into the game.
SCOOP SOME GOOP FROM THE GHOUL JACUZZI
Despite longstanding issues with Yorick's design, we felt we had a pretty clear idea of exactly how his kit and visual thematics needed to change. He needed to remain a necromancer, so we knew he'd be summoning some sort of wraiths or ghouls. The new story about the cape of souls on his back gave us the perfect explanation for his ability to bring forth Mist Walkers into the world—he just reaches into the mist and yanks out a handful of ghoulies.
The Mist Walkers, once raised, aren't necessarily the soul of any particular dead person, because when Yorick adds a soul to the soupy miasma of his cape, it works sort of like pouring a cup of water into a swimming pool. When Yorick performs Awakening in-game, he's actually just filling the corpses of his enemies with a cupful of the black mist, scooped fresh from the ghoul jacuzzi on his back. The mist animates the body, creating a Mist Walker.
The monk spade gave us a starting point for Yorick's visual update, but it wasn't hard to find other areas to improve. For one, Yorick's new role as the Shepherd of Lost Souls implies that he should probably be dressing in some sort of ceremonial garb, not just a gnarly pile of rags. "Most of his new getup is made out of stone, sort of like something a weight-training monk would use," explains concept artist Gem "Lonewingy" Lim. "It’s decorative, but it’s also indicative of how disciplined this guy is."
When viewed from the back, the Shepherd's rocky costume also makes him look a bit like a tombstone shuffling around on the Rift. This was intentional, partly because it fits so well with his persistent, deliberate gameplay pattern. When he sets his eyes on a goal, he gets tunnel vision—he wants to just push down a lane with his army. Slowly. Certainly.
"He’s ultimately a character that tests your ability to adapt to predictable AI actions," says Solcrushed. "Mist Walkers are a pretty simple AI. It’s like you're a shepherd leading sheep."
The slow-and-steady approach to his animations and design worked particularly well since we'd always wanted to capture the feeling that, as Yorick, you're moving an army. This, says champion designer Sol "Solcrushed" Kim, means Yorick's update had to retain his A.I. horde. "He’s ultimately a character that tests your ability to adapt to predictable AI actions," says Solcrushed. "Mist Walkers are a pretty simple AI. It’s like you're a shepherd leading sheep."
The biggest game design challenge when building Yorick, says Solcrushed, was figuring out how the ghoul raising process works. At first, any minion who was given their Last Rites immediately turned into a Mist Walker. Yorick raised a walker, his enemy killed a walker, rinse, repeat. The system was pretty unsatisfying from everyone, because Yorick never gained a real army, and his enemy had a constant, obnoxious workload to deal with.
At another point in the design process, the Shepherd's ult gave him global ghoul raising. He'd blanket the whole map in darkness, turning everything that died during the cold night into a ghoul. The ghoul army would push every lane at once, and the reanimated corpses of freshly farmed monsters would come streaming out of the jungle. "It was pretty cool, but it was also batshit insane and totally unpredictable, so we cut it," says Solcrushed.
The ultimate goal for Yorick's rework, Solcrushed says, was pretty simple: "I just want players to feel like they finally have a necromancer that’s actually cool.""
Continue reading for more information, including a look atupdated look, kits, and skins!Here's a 1920 x 1080 of Yorick's updated base splash art: |
North Korean affiliated media outlet Uriminzokkiri has allowed users to share its contents via South Korean mobile messenger application Kakao Talk.
As of March, users can share Uriminzokkiri’s contents via Kakao Talk, and the share function only can be seen on its mobile website.
Kakao Talk was released in 2010 by Kakao Corp, is one of the most influential mobile messengers in Asia, with around 140 million users, comprising 93% of the continent’s smartphone user base, according to Lee Seok-woo, co-representative of Kakao Corp.
Uriminzokkiri first allowed its users to share the contents via SNS in 2011. Users are also able to share the North Korean news service’s content via various social network services such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Cyworld, me2day, Yozum and Evernote.
“It is not clear when Uriminzokkiri added a ‘share button’ on Kakao Talk,” Kang Jin-gyu, a reporter at the Digital Times who has been closely monitoring the propaganda website told NK News. “But it is obvious that the website is trying to strengthen its propaganda work toward South Korea by using an influential messenger application like Kakao Talk.”
He added that the propaganda website’s work might bring unexpected results to people in the DPRK.
“Uriminzokkiri’s recent move gives the North Korean people a chance to get to learn what Kakao Talk is. At least, North Korean staff members at the website will learn what Kakao Talk is and how it works. I think it might a bring positive influence to the North Korean people in some way,” Kang told NK News.
Uriminzokkiri is one part of the North Korean propaganda apparatus, and is notable for its role on social media, which includes Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube accounts.
Above image: Screenshot of share button from Uriminzokkiri.
Featured image: Eric Lafforgue |
A new Gallup poll on public opinion about evolution suggests that the rate of acceptance of evolution in the United States is "essentially unchanged" over the years. Asked in May 2012 "[w]hich of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings," 32% of the respondents accepted "Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process," 15% accepted "Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process," and 46% accepted "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so."
The same question has been used by Gallup to poll about evolution since 1982. "Although the percentages choosing each view have varied from survey to survey, the 46% who today choose the creationist explanation is virtually the same as the 45% average over that period — and very similar to the 44% who chose that explanation in 1982. The 32% who choose the 'theistic evolution' view that humans evolved under God's guidance is slightly below the 30-year average of 37%, while the 15% choosing the secular evolution view is slightly higher (12%)." As usual, acceptance of the creationist option was associated with a lower degree of education, a higher rate of church attendance, and affiliation with the Republican party. |
DirkhezOPPosts: 3563(8/6/03 1:36 pm)------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: The following paper was submitted by a TSMB reader who prefers to remain anonymous. Eventually it became part of the "Tinnitus Overview" thread.===========================Sleeping With Tinnitus[author's name withheld]IntroductionIntrusive tinnitus and sleep problems seem to go hand-in-hand. Whether the tinnitus is a mild ringing or a jet engine roar, the quietness of night seems to magnify the intrusiveness of T. Consequently, the incessant nature of T very often leads to problems in falling asleep and staying asleep.This paper is an attempt to help those T sufferers who have sleep problems. It is by no means a literary work of art. Instead, it?s a collection of thoughts and ideas that I have written down based on my twenty-plus years of sleeping with T.As a T counselor told me over 20 years ago, when it comes to sleep, seemingly small changes can make a big difference in one's sleep pattern. Thus, it is hoped that some of the ideas presented in this paper may make a positive difference in the reader's sleep pattern. In fact, if I can help even one reader sleep a little better, then this paper has been well worth the effort.Who will this paper help?The following people will benefit most:1) New T sufferers who have trouble sleeping2) T sufferers who have mild to moderate intrusive T.I'm calling a person with a "mild" case of intrusive T someone who doesn't notice his T during the daytime, but hears it when he goes to bed. I'm calling a person with a "moderate" case of intrusive T someone who notices his T during the day, but can normally ignore it or block it out. This person can function during the day doing normal activities, but still has problems with sleep.Note: For those T sufferers who have difficulty ignoring their T both during the daytime and at bed time, I would suggest seeing a doctor about getting the proper medications. These people will, hopefully, still find this paper of value. However, it is my opinion that most of these people will need some form of medication in order to restore their sleep pattern.Author's Tinnitus HistoryI have had T for over twenty years. When I initially got T from swimming (yes, from swimming!), my T was in the form of a constant ringing, mostly in the left ear, but also some in the right. I was fortunate to be living near San Francisco, so I was able to get some T counseling from the SF Hearing & Speech Center. The Hearing & Speech Center was great at providing morale support and providing guidelines for living. However, regarding sleep, much was left to trial and error. Some of the suggestions made by my counselor are mentioned in this paper. Eventually, after a 4-6-month bout with sleep problems, I was able to return to a normal sleep pattern without the use of medication.After 15 years of relatively stable T, I had a major flareup about five years ago. Again my sleep pattern was shattered and I had to resolve sleep problems that were much more serious than those of 15 years earlier. My T was much louder, more intrusive, and my anxiety level was much higher. In some ways, I felt as if I had to relearn how to sleep. After nine months of battling sleep problems, I took early retirement from my job. The elimination of work-related stress allowed me to regain a normal sleep pattern fairly quickly.About 3 years ago I had another major flareup in my T. Being retired, a lot of stress had been eliminated so most of my sleep problems were related to the intrusiveness of my now-louder T. It was at this time that I discovered the existence of anti-anxiety medication. With the help of both an antidepressant and an anti-anxiety medication, I was able, once again, to re-establish a stable sleep pattern.With the twenty-plus years of T and the major flareups of the past 5 years, I have gained a lot of experience in sleeping with T. This paper is my endeavor to use my experience to document the ideas and thoughts that have helped me to sleep.Do I still have some problems with sleep? Yes, of course I do. However, my totally sleepless nights are rare (something that was very common years ago) and the number of "bad sleep" nights has been dramatically reduced. For the most part, I consider myself to have a fairly normal sleep pattern.The Vicious CircleTinnitus -> Sleep Problems -> Anxiety -> Tinnitus -> Sleep Problems -> Anxiety -> Tinn...Yes, Tinnitus Sleep Problems Anxiety is a vicious circle. Intrusive T can, by itself, cause sleep problems. The noise is never-ending, annoying, frustrating and can make falling asleep very difficult. In addition, the incessant nature of T can greatly increase anxiety. Just as noise pollution has been proven to affect people adversely (it's been proved that divorce rates are higher in noisier neighborhoods), T affects people adversely. I believe that the very sound of T induces anxiety.Sleep problems can affect T levels. Many T sufferers experience increased loudness in their T when they don't sleep well. Sleep problems also affect anxiety. Poor sleep induces depression, negative thoughts and a resultant higher level of anxiety.Anxiety is considered one of the major influences on T. Anxiety seems to make T sufferers more aware of their T and may actually increase the volume of their T. Anxiety also cause sleep problems. Even those without T find it more difficult to sleep when they have problems weighing on their minds.So how do we break this vicious circle? It is hoped that the following paragraphs will aid in doing just that.General Comments and Hints- "No one has ever died from a lack of sleep". When I first got T twenty years ago, this was the first thing my T counselor told me. I was so relieved! He told me that your body ALWAYS gets as much sleep as it NEEDS. You may feel rotten, you may feel more tired than you have ever felt before, but you are not dying (it just feels that way!). So put this worry out of your mind.- You can't MAKE yourself sleep; you can only LET yourself sleep. This may sound obvious, but it took me months to figure this out (I'm a slow learner!). The harder you try to sleep, the less successful you will be. So relax! Getting your mind and body relaxed is the key to falling asleep.- Make your sleep environment as comfortable as possible. Remember that most people spend about one third of their life in bed so it's worth it to make it comfortable. Down pillows can be molded to support your neck. Down comforters are light weight and are very warm. "Pillow top" mattresses add a bit of cushion to the mattress. If you are sensitive to light, block off any incoming light. Do anything that makes your sleep environment more comfortable and pleasurable.- Don't listen to your T! I know that this is easier said than done, especially if T is new to you or you are experiencing a change in its volume or form. However, focusing on the sound of your T will impede sleep. (Note: I once read about a clever woman whose T sounded like cicadas. When she got into bed she pretended to be living in the country, listening to the natural sound of the cicadas. She found this very relaxing and was able to sleep. This is the only person whom I've read about who can listen to their T and still sleep.)- One way to distract your mind from the T is to think about something else. Think about a beautiful place you have visited or a pleasant trip you have taken. Think about as many details as you can. Relive the experience in your mind. By taking this approach you accomplish several things. You take your mind off of the T, you calm your mind by reliving a pleasant experience, and you make the process of trying to fall asleep a pleasant one. The reason this approach works is based on the fact that your mind is "single-threaded", meaning that it can only process one thought at a time. If your mind is occupied thinking about a pleasant experience, it is not thinking about your T. Note: avoid thinking about overly stimulating experiences (e.g. sexually arousing thoughts); they may be pleasurable, but they won't help you to fall asleep!- Establish a pre-bedtime routine. Whatever you like to do before getting into bed, it's a good idea to have a pre-bedtime routine. For example, you may like to eat a snack, read for 20 minutes, brush your teeth, do relaxation exercise, and say your prayers. Whatever your routine, the very act of following it prepares your mind and your body for sleep.- The role of diet. Several foods increase the volume of T for some people. Caffeine, salt, sugar and alcohol are commonly cited examples of these. Obviously, you have to find out which foods, if any, affect your T and minimize your intake of these.Some foods can make you sleepy. For me, spicy foods and foods made with soy sauce make me sleepy. Thus, if I need to get a good night's sleep, I will intentionally chose to eat a food that will aid in my sleep. So determine if there are certain foods that make you sleepy (without increasing your T) and take advantage of these.- Clock watching. When you can't sleep, clock watching almost always induces additional anxiety. Thus, it may be a good idea to turn your clock at an angle such that you can read it when you focus on it, but not when you just glance at it. If you get up during the night, make it a habit not to glance at the clock on your way back to bed.- Limiting fluid intake. If you frequently wake up during the night because you have to urinate, you may want to limit your intake of fluids during and after dinner.- A bedtime snack. Because I have been dealing with sleep problems for several years, I often experience a little bit of anxiety before going to bed. I have found that a snack tends to settle my stomach. Also, I often wake up during the night. If I am hungry, I find it very difficult to fall back to sleep. A bedtime snack usually eliminates the hunger. (Obviously, a bedtime snack is not good for the waistline so you will have to determine if it's of overall benefit to you)- Try to maintain the same sleep schedule on the weekends as you do during the week. If you sleep in late on Saturday or Sunday mornings, it will be more difficult for you to get back on schedule Sunday night.- The "Critical Instant". Time and again the following scenario has happened to me: I'm tired and sleepy and ready for bed. On the surface, my T seems normal, so I don't expect to have any problems falling asleep. I go through my normal bedtime routine and I get into bed. As I am in the midst of trying to fall asleep, I notice something in my T. Either it's slightly louder than I originally thought or perhaps there is a small change in it. For whatever reason, now I am thinking about my T. Worse yet, I keep it in my focus and am now beginning to get anxious about it. Well, there goes my chances for a good night's sleep!So, what should I have done? In that "critical instant" that I first catch myself focusing on the T, I need to divert my thoughts. As suggested above, I starting thinking of a pleasurable experience. I purposely get my mind off of the T and keep it off. Then, instead of lying awake focusing on my T, I eventually drift off to sleep. By using this one diversionary tactic, I have saved myself from numerous "bad sleep" nights.- When you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep. I tend to wake up at least once every night and often several times. Fortunately, I am used to this and, surprisingly, it doesn't affect how I feel in the morning too much because I normally don't have much trouble falling back to sleep. On occasion, however, I do have this problem. When this occurs, I use the following technique: I use the time to write "mental letters". These are letters that I compose to people who are significant in my life. I write these "mental letters" to friends, family members, co-workers, and even celebrities that I admire. Since these "letters" will probably never become reality (i.e. get written down on paper), I can be as open and honest as I care to be. For some reason, writing these "mental letters" relaxes me and helps me to fall back to sleep. A side benefit is that I find myself appreciating the people around me more.General Approaches to Falling Asleep- The most commonly used approach to sleeping is going to bed at a certain fixed time and getting up at a fixed time. If you don't fall sleep, you rest in bed. The theory is that whether you sleep or not, at least you get some "rest". This is a good approach if you get a good night's sleep each night. However, if you have difficulty in falling asleep as many T sufferers do, this approach can lead to a lot of tossing and turning and an inconsistent sleep pattern. Some nights you sleep well and other nights you get little or no sleep.You can modify this approach. If you don't fall asleep in 25-30 minutes, you can get up and read or do some other relaxing activity. You return to bed when you get sleepy. The main problem with doing this is that the time you spend out of bed takes away from your "rest" time.- In this approach you again go to sleep at a certain fixed time and get up at a fixed time. However, you adjust your sleep schedule. For example, let's say you sleep 8 hours per night, but your sleep pattern is not very consistent. You intentionally cut your sleep time to 7 1/2 hours per night. By doing this, you won't sleep as much each night, but, hopefully, you will eliminate the bad-sleep nights. If after a couple of weeks you still have trouble consistently falling asleep, you cut your sleep time down to 7 hours per night. You will keep cutting down your nightly sleep hours until you are able to fall asleep consistently. Once you reach a stable sleep pattern, you will probably feel a bit tired for a couple of weeks, but eventually your body will adjust to less sleep and you will feel "normal" again. (Using this approach, I was able to resolve my sleep problems 20 years ago without the use of any medication.) If you use this approach, try not to nap.- Another approach is to go to bed only when you are sleepy. Note I said "sleepy" and if you aren't sleepy, read a book or do whatever relaxes you. If you get into bed and realize that you aren't sleepy, get up out of bed. If you use this approach, you will minimize the time that you "toss and minimize the time that you "toss and turn". However, it may mean that there will be less consistency in the amount of sleep that you get.Note: the last two approaches are NOT mutually exclusive; that is, you can combine the two. In this case, you would cut back on your nightly sleep time AND you would go to sleep only when you are sleepy.Sleep Aids: Background noise generatorsThere are many different types of background noise generators. These are all used to help "mask" the sound of T. Some of them are mentioned below:- Radio static. Tune a radio between stations to achieve a "static" sound. This is an inexpensive form of white noise. You can adjust the volume to appropriately mask your T.- Fans. Fans can produce a steady background noise that can mask the sound of T. Obviously, the use of a fan on a cold Winter night may cause other problems.- Sound-generating machines. There are a number of commercially available sound-generating machines. Conair and Sharper Image are two companies that make them. I understand that Kmart also sells one for under $20. These machines typically produce between 6 and 12 different sounds and have a volume adjustment. You can choose the sound that best masks your T.- CDs. There are several commercially-produced CD?s that produce sounds to mask T. Petroff Audio Technologies is one producer of these CDs. (see www.tinnitushelp.com - Sound Pillows. These can be purchased from HearUSA. These have a padded speaker imbedded in a pillow and the speaker can be connected to an external electronic device such as a CD player or radio. The choice of the masking sound is up to you. The speaker puts the sound next to your ear and it won?t disturb your sleeping partner. (see www.hearUSA.com - White Noise Generators (WNGs). Several models of WNGs are available from audiologists. They fit around the ear with a custom-made earpiece. WNGs are an integral part of Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT).So which one should you use? It's all a matter of personal choice and trial and error. Since T sounds vary from person to person, you have to choose what works best for you. Generally speaking, you should choose a device that produces a sound that closely mimics the sound of your T, thus, masking it. Notes: if you do a lot of traveling, you may want to choose a device that is portable. Also note that a few T sufferers (including me) tend to notice their T MORE when background noise is present. If you are one of these people, background noise generators may not help you to sleep.Sleep Aids: MedicationsThere are several types of medications that are prescribed to help T sufferers to sleep. Unfortunately, since each person's body is different, what works well for one person may not work well for another. Thus, to a great extent, the right drug(s) is a matter of trial and error.- Sleeping Pills. Whether over-the-counter or prescribed (e.g. Ambien), I would not advocate their use for most T sufferers. Sleeping pills may induce sleep, but they don't promote the most restful form of sleep, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. This is one reason why people taking sleeping pills feel groggy and not fully rested in the morning. Note: any sleep, however, is probably better than no sleep!- Anti-depressants. There are a number of anti-depressants prescribed to T sufferers. Elavil, Paxil, Pamelor and Trazedone are some examples. Since a prolonged lack of sleep very often causes depression, anti-depressants contain ingredients that induce sleep. All of the doctors I have seen for my sleep problems have recommended anti-depressants for sleep rather than sleeping pills.- Anti-anxiety medications. Many people who suffer from the severe anxiety that commonly accompanies T are prescribed anti-anxiety medications. Xanax and Klonopin are examples of these. For these T sufferers, it's often their anxiety that keeps them from falling asleep. Anxiety symptoms may include increased heartbeat, shortness of breath, sweating, panic attacks, frequent urination and sometimes a "knot" in the stomach. Because these drugs reduce anxiety, they have the effect of inducing sleep.Personal note: when I had a major flareup in my T three years ago, I was prescribed Trazedone (an anti-depressant). The Trazedone did help me to sleep, but my sleep was still not consistent because of my anxiety. The additional prescription of Klonopin (an anti-anxiety medication) restored my sleep pattern in a matter of days.Cautionary note: Benzodiazapenes (aka "benzos") such as Xanax and Klonopin are considered by many doctors to be "addictive". Some people on the TSMB disagree and do not consider them physically addictive. However, there may not be much disagreement that these drugs may generate an "emotional" or "psychological" dependency. Thus, anyone considering the use of these drugs must weigh the potential benefits against the potential risks.Personal comment: sleep is SO important. I feel that it is the foundation for feeling healthy. Thus, I would rather get a good night's sleep every night with drugs than to have a poor sleep pattern and be drug-free. To me, living with a poor sleep pattern is not really "living"; it's more like "existing".Sleep Aids: Relaxation Techniques- Audiotapes. Audiotapes can be useful in reducing anxiety and promoting sleep. A variety of inexpensive tapes are available and cover such topics as improving sleep, overcoming anxiety, deep relaxation, and increasing self-confidence. Typically, these tapes run about 30 minutes and seem to help with relaxation and calming anxiety. I tried them and it was not unusual for me to fall asleep while listening to them.- Relaxation exercises. Several audio tapes and books advocate the use of physical exercises to relax the body and mind. Generally, the pattern is "tighten the muscle"; then "relax the muscle." You start at your feet, proceed to the mid-parts of your body, and then finish with your eyes and forehead. I found these exercises relaxing, but not particularly helpful in aiding sleep.- Self-hypnosis. I took a six night course in self-hypnosis. One exercise I have found helpful was a relaxation exercise. Unlike the physical exercises mentioned above, these exercises are strictly mental. As with the physical exercises, you start with your feet and proceed upward. Basically, the script is mentally saying to yourself "my feet and ankles, I want you to relax" and a confirmation statement "my feet and ankles are relaxed". You then move up to your calves, then thighs, etc. On whatever part of the body I am focusing, I usually feel a slight tingling sensation. When done with the body, I then say "my mind I want you to relax". I picture my mind blanking out all thoughts. (It is at this point that I can introduce behavior modification suggestions if I desire) My final step is to say "after I leave this trance, I will sleep well, dream pleasant dreams, and will wake up refreshed". Sometimes as I am going through the relaxation steps I get so relaxed that I fall asleep.Note: there are a number of different relaxation techniques such as cognitive therapy that I have not mentioned. They may be very helpful with relaxation. I have just not tried them myself.Sleep Aids: Dealing with Anxiety and Panic- Panic and panic attacks. I doubt that there is anyone who has had many sleepless nights because of T who has not experienced some form of panic or panic attack. Sometimes the panic is expressed by increased heartbeat and a "Why me?". A more severe panic attack may include increased heartbeat, shortness of breath, breaking out in a cold sweat, and an immediate impulse to jump out of bed and pace around. How can these panic situations be handled? Here are some ideas:1) Try to catch yourself before the panic hits. With experience, you will know when panic is starting to set in, so try to catch yourself before it even starts.2) If panic has already set in, remind yourself that:a) Panic happens to all T sufferers at one time or another. You are not "different" or alone.b) Panicking does not helpc) Panic can actually aggravate your T or prolong a "spike"d) The best thing to do is calm down, relax, and think to yourself "I've been through this before" (most likely you have). "I will be okay".- (for men only) Frequent urination. One of the symptoms of anxiety is frequent urination. Over the years many of the times that I had difficulty falling asleep my problem was the feeling of a "need to pee" only minutes after relieving myself. I discovered a technique to minimize this feeling. You will need a "lumbar roll". A lumbar roll is a foam pillow about two feet long and 5 inches in diameter. The foam is enclosed in a cloth cover. They are available from medical supply stores and some pharmacies. If you place the lumbar roll with one end inserted between your legs (assuming you sleep on your side) and the other end putting slight pressure on your crotch, the feeling of a "need to pee" will be greatly diminished. Notes: putting one end of the lumbar roll between your legs is also good for your back. The anti-anxiety medication Klonopin also addresses this symptom.- A "knot" in the stomach. When I have severe anxiety, I have often felt a "knot" in my stomach just a few inches below my rib cage. The following technique does not always work, but it is worth a try. Roll up a towel so that it is about 9-10 inches long and about 5 inches in diameter. A couple of rubber bands can be used to hold it together. Place the towel against the knot in your stomach and hold it in place with your arm. Sometimes the slight pressure of the towel on the knot makes it feel better. Note: Klonopin also addresses this anxiety symptom. |
When Tsutaya Bookstores partnered with the City of Takeo Library, the result was a stunning building that the librarians only enough money to stock it with cast off books.
By Kay Ohara
TOKYO: A local public library in the southern island of Kyushu teamed up with a large bookstore chain to spruce up a branch, and it seems the efforts have backfired.
When the city of Takeo (population: 50,000) in Saga Prefecture announced three years ago that it nominated as a private sector partner Tsutaya Bookstores, known for its sleek, beautiful bookstore complex in the trendy neighborhood of Daikanyama, Tokyo, and video/DVD rental shops with 1,500 locations nationwide, people took notice.
The original plan was to expand the library’s collection to 200,000 titles, open 24/7, with a Tsutaya video/book store and a Starbucks cafe within the facility. When it reopened in April 2013, curious library goers and the press flocked to the new branch to the tune of 920,000 visitors and spent 2 billion yen in the inaugural year, the city boasted.
In a recession economy, Japanese libraries have seen their budgets and services slashed over the years, and it’s not rare that some of the institutions turned to private companies and non-profit organizations for support since the 2003 deregulation in which public libraries are allowed to nominate outside partners for renovation and maintenance. Takeo/Tsutaya case was groundbreaking because Tsutaya had no previous experience with libraries, but plenty of commercial data savvy and a customer reward program called T points.
When the new Takeo Library opened, it wowed the crowd with the ceiling-high bookshelves gleaming in plenty of natural light. Once the visitors looked at what’s on those shelves, however, the collection of supposedly newly purchased books contained some unlikely selections for a local library, such as a ramen shop guide in a faraway city of Saitama, or out-of-date CPA study guides.
After a relentless public demand for the detailed information on the title selection process, Takeo local government authorities revealed that the towering bookshelves required additional structural support to withstand possible future earthquakes (which, as you’ve heard, a common occurrence in this volcanic archipelago island nation), for which the budget for book purchase was cut, and evidently 10,000 titles were supplied by NetOff, an online used book service Tsutaya’s parent company once held a 30% stake.
With criticisms growing, Tsutaya’s parent company CCC (Cultural Convenience Club) released a statement admitting that some of the titles have never been in circulation at Takeo Library and CCC provided more titles at no additional cost.
Saga Shimbun, a local newspaper, reports that a group of concerned citizens have filed a lawsuit against the city seeking to recover 180,000,000 yen in taxpayer’s money spent on the project. Meanwhile, former Takeo mayor Keisuke Hiwatashi, who originally pushed for the Tsutaya alliance, quit mid-term last December to run for Saga gubernatorial election and lost. He is now CEO of another CCC entity.
Reporter for Huffington Post and author of an investigative non-fiction book titled, “Libraries Connect,” Chika Igaya points out that the ground floor was mostly occupied by a commercial bookstore and a Starbucks cafe, while the library space took the back seat. “It was criticized for being a publicly funded, commercially run splashy book cafe. I don’t necessarily think it’s bad that a library strives to attract as many customers as possible, but then the title selection was amiss and it didn’t bode well.”
Other local governments with a collaborative library project with CCC underway, such as Komaki in Aichi Prefecture, Ebina in Kanagawa, and Tagajo in Miyagi, are either reviewing the project or the residents will be asked vote on the go-ahead in upcoming weeks.
Takao’s mishap could have been avoided with more transparency and oversight, Igaya points out. “We shouldn’t deny the libraries ways to bring economic boost, as long as the libraries don’t lose sight of their mission as a public service provider. Perhaps it’s time that we reevaluate how a public library should operate, including searching new paths for fundraising.” |
We’ve all experienced the game graphics they put on the back of the box. Usually the images will have a disclaimer underneath stating “graphics may vary by platform” or specifically listing which platform the screenshots were captured from. Publishers always choose the best one, of course.
But anyone picking up Dark Souls II this week on PS3 or Xbox 360 may feel mislead by developer From Software and publisher Bandai Namco. That’s because the graphics shown off in preview videos over the last year look nothing like the final game. And by that I mean they look much, much better than what has been delivered in the final game.
Proof of that can be seen by comparing the two images above as well as the video and images below, which compares the lighting and graphics in preview footage from April 2013 with the just released game on PS3.
As you can see, there’s a huge difference. Clearly what Bandai Namco has been showing publicly is the PC build of the game, which is not due out until April 25.
Gamers have already started complaining, with the hashtags #DarkSoulsDowngrade and #YOULIED being popular associations. Complaints are also being made directly to the US and UK offices of Bandai Namco, as well as advertising standards agencies.
The game won’t change on PS3 or Xbox 360 unless a graphics tweak patch is in development, but that seems unlikely. The worst that could happen is Bandai Namco gets its hands slapped for false advertising and that sales suffer because of the negative press. |
Santa Claws Update content
Vehicles' critical damage repair by supply units.
Remastered damage & critical hit system.
Increased Short/Mid range precision.
Adjusted vehicle offroad speed: this change will affect about 80% of the vehicles in the game (and NOT the Hellcat!).
Active Pause, the game will now be pausable with the "P" key in Single Player (campaign, skirmish...), while still allowing you to give orders.
Private "Breakthrough" game.
Moddable DLC content for DLC owners.
Light AT (up to 57mm) being able to enter the buildings: while generally appreciated (gives more tactical possibilities, makes light units more important...), this needs some work, especially to avoid hopping and breaking the LoS.
Vehicles can now go through forests & hedgerows: again, the feature itself was pretty much appreciated (allowing more tactical freedom, flanking, making the game more dynamic), but we need to work on restrictions and to adjust the way our AI & pathfinding work with this new feature to make it fully enjoyable.
Decreased plane resistance/Increased AA efficiency: this change has been reverted. AA is perceived as strong enough right now. The only adjustments made in the future will be for individual balance purposes.
Hello everyone,Following the "Santa Claws" open beta, we have compiled the survey's results, as well as your feedback in the forums, social channels, reddit, etc. Again, big warm thanks to everyone. Most of the comments were highly instructive and helped us to make decisions about what feature will and won't be in this update, available on December 21st alongside the Christmas event and the ranked leaderboard's reboot The survey was completed by 148 people, 69.9% declaring Steel Division: Normandy 44 was their favorite game against 21.2% for Wargame: Red Dragon. When filtering results by fanbase, it appeared that the comments and ratings were basically the same.The global feedback is that the changes offer more tactical opportunities, more freedom, and make the game generally more dynamic. Some features received an overwhelmingly positive response (critical hit repair is your #1), others concepts (like the AT in the buildings and the hedgerow/forest's crossing) were appreciated but need more work, and only one feature, the unfortunate AA improvement, was -very slightly- considered as worst than before.We only have removed 3 answers from the original 148, 2 of them were sent 2 minutes after the release of the beta (and declared having played the beta more than 10 hours...), and the last one was basically trolling on... I don't know... my mom? Can't remember.So, here's what we'll do:(with slight adjustments compared to the beta)The update will also feature some minor fixes.These features are being reworked at the moment, and might be included in a future update's open beta (so yes: that will mean another survey, yay!).Stay tuned, next week's gonna be exciting! |
SACRAMENTO (KPIX 5) — A top Democrat in Sacramento is losing support as scrutiny over sexual assault allegations from his past has state lawmakers taking a serious look at his future.
State legislators are feeling the heat to take action after one of their own was accused of groping a colleague nearly a decade ago.
Raul Bocanegra is one of the top Democrats in the California State Assembly, serving as the majority whip. He represents the 39th district, which includes the northeastern San Fernando Valley in Southern California.
Just three years before he was elected to the assembly, Bocanegra worked as a staffer at the capitol. He was ordered to stay away from a female staffer after she claimed he followed her at a work event and grabbed her breast.
Bocanegra went on to be elected to the assembly.
South Bay Congressman Ro Khanna told KPIX 5 Assemblyman Bocanegra has got to go, adding that groping a person is assault.
“He broke the law. And he needs to resign,” said Khanna. “These are crimes. It’s not just a faux pas. And we ought to treat them as crimes.”
Assemblywoman Christina Garcia has made her feelings clear, tweeting, “I refuse to work with @AsmBocanegra and anyone who takes part in harassment or assault. #IStandWithElise.”
State Senator Jerry Hill of San Mateo said Bocanegra has to make his own decision about whether to stay in the assembly, but he may find that he can’t do his job
“So I think this is a decision he has to make,” said Hill. “I think it’s becoming more clear that it will be difficult to be effective in the legislature, especially if members are not willing to work with him and not willing to talk with him.”
Bocanegra isn’t just an Assemblyman. He’s also a Democratic Party leader. As the majority whip in the Assembly, it’s his job to make sure democrats vote the party line.
“I think it would be difficult to be in a position of leadership within the house,” said Hill. “That will put some pressure on him and really affect the ability for the house and for the leadership to move forward.”
Assemblyman Kevin Mullin of South San Francisco is also a member of the party leadership. He said Bocanegra’s position is being reconsidered.
“The speaker of the assembly, Anthony Rendon, I know, is reviewing the situation and will be looking at the matter,” said Mullin.
Mullin also says the Democratic Party that endorsed and elevated Bocanegra needs to do some soul searching too.
“We collectively — as a body, particularly as a Democratic Caucus — need to take a hard look at what have been some deficiencies in the process to this point,” said Mullin.
Congressman Khanna agrees the party has to investigate potential harassment issues when vetting candidates
“If someone has had that past, I don’t think they ought to be endorsed by the Democratic Party,” said Khanna.
And Khanna said he would go even further.
“If someone commits sexual harassment and I had endorsed them and it comes out, I would withdraw my endorsement,” he explained.
And that may be already happening.
In September, Bocanegra’s re-election website had tabs for news and a list of endorsements.
On Monday, KPIX 5 found both of those sections were gone.
KPIX 5 reached out to Bocanegra’s campaign, which provided a statement that read in part, “This unfortunate experience I was involved in as a staffer nearly 10 years ago was something I regret and learned from.” |
Questioning authority is a suspicious activity
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
A man and his wife were treated as potential terrorists and kicked off a Delta Airlines flight over a satirical T-shirt because it made passengers and employees feel “very uncomfortable”.
Writing on his blog, Arijit Guha describes how he was flying out of Buffalo-Niagara Airport after attending his wife’s grandfather’s funeral. Having passed through security without a problem, Guha was approached by a Delta agent who informed him that his attire was making passengers nervous.
The t-shirt features a TSA logo along with text that satirizes the agency’s paranoid and overbearing approach to airport security.
“I was then questioned by TSA about the significance and meaning of the shirt,” writes Guha. “I politely explained that it was “mocking the security theater charade and over-reactions to terrorism by the general public — both of which we’re seeing right now, ironically.” The agents inquired as to the meaning of the term “ZOMG” and who it was that I thought was “gonna kill us all.” As best I could tell, they seemed to find my explanation that I didn’t think anyone would be killing us all and that I was poking fun at overwrought, irrational fears exhibited by certain members of the flying public to be satisfactory. And moreover, they clearly deemed my shirt to be no legitimate threat.”
Having been told by Delta agents that him and his wife could take the flight only if they submitted to another search of their belongings and if he removed the t-shirt, Guha agreed, but as he was boarding the plane he was pulled aside yet again by a Delta supervisor accompanied by three TSA agents as well as multiple Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority transit police.
“I was questioned some more and my wife was also pulled out of line for additional questioning and screening. Our bags were searched, my shirt was photographed, we were asked multiple questions about the cause of our visit, how often we make it to western NY, and our drivers’ license numbers were taken and radioed in for what seemed to be a quick background check,” writes Guha.
Despite having their belongings screened numerous times, Guha and his wife were still eventually barred from taking the flight after the pilot insisted their presence would cause consternation amongst other passengers.
Incredulous, Guha demanded to know why he was not allowed to take the flight, to which a Delta official responded, “Just use your imagination.”
Guha writes that his actions in being willing to “question authority” led officials to make the leap of logic in surmising that he was a potential terrorist.
“Why even bother with the bloated security apparatus — since Delta pilots have discretion to kick off passengers who’ve passed multiple checks, after all?” asks Guha.
After being booted from the flight, Guha and his wife were subjected to even more intense interrogation, with transit police demanding to know where Guha’s brother lived because he had originally purchased the t-shirt as a gift.
“You had to think about that one. How come?,” she asked. I explained he recently moved. “Where’d he move from?” “Michigan,” I respond. “Michigan, what’s that?,” she says. At this point, the main TSA agent who’d questioned me earlier interjected: “He said ‘Michigan’.” Unable to withhold my snark, I responded with an eye-rolling sneer: “You’ve never heard of Michigan?” “This response did not please her partner, a transit cop named Mark. Mark grabbed his walkie-talkie and alerted his supervisor and proceeded to request that he be granted permission to question me further in a private room. His justification?: “First he hesitated, then he gave a stupid answer.” Michigan, my friends, is a stupid answer.”
Guha also states that the reason given by a Buffalo-Niagara transit police officer for subjecting him to extra interrogation was because “He looks foreign.”
According to the police, it was also suspicious that Guha’s wife did not share his surname.
“And she’s your wife? How long have you been married? And she refused to take your name? “WHY wouldn’t she?” the cops asked Guha.
After being searched yet again, this time with the aid of a drug-sniffing dog, Guha was told by cops that another reason for him being treated as a potential terrorist was the fact that he opted out of a naked body scan.
Guha was eventually told he would be put on a flight at 7am the next morning and was left to find his own accommodation.
“But the larger question remains: why’d this happen? Clearly, the problem originates with the paranoid minds of my fellow passengers who misconstrued a shirt mocking the overwrought security process as a terrorist threat,” writes Guha.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News. |
When I first saw the MUPPETS trailer, I wondered allowed (to no one in particular) whether they were able to get legendary puppeteer Frank Oz back in the fold. Listening to Miss Piggy (his most famous work), it certainly didn't sound like it. As it turns out, Oz declined the opportunity to return for THE MUPPETS and he joins a number of Jim Henson-era puppeteers in expressing displeasure with the upcoming film.
Regarding his choice to stay away from THE MUPPETS, Oz told British newspaper The Metro, "I wasn't happy with the script...I don't think they respected the characters.
To add insult to injury, Steve Whitmire, the only puppeteer to work and voice Kermit since the death of Henson, actually considered taking his name off the final film. Whitmire, and a handful of other original Muppets staff, only relented because they eventually realized, "[Disney] wouldn't care."
At particular issue for some Muppet veterans were jokes, like the one you see in the trailer with Fozzie and his farting shoes, that were harming the integrity of the characters. They also took umbrage with the fact that Kermit, now wealthy and living in a mansion, was resented by his fellow Muppets.
What's particularly interesting is that the Jim Henson Legacy seems to have little to no input on the film. The Executive Director of his legacy, who designed and built the original Miss Piggy, hasn't even seen the film and she admits she's nervous. "I'm hoping the standard of excellence that Jim set is maintained," she said rather diplomatically.
To his credit, actor and co-writer Jason Segel is a huge Muppets fan and would not knowingly go ahead with the project he felt was compromising the integrity of the Muppets. But what will this mean for the film itself? If people familiar with the old school Muppets we know and love aren't happy with the film (including people who worked on it), will we suffer the same fate? |
The first mission to put a man on the moon came to a celebratory end when on July 24, 1969, Apollo 11's command module Columbia splashed into the Pacific Ocean with astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins safely packed inside. Nearly five decades later, Columbia is undergoing significant conservation efforts for the first time ever. Along with numerous objects that were part of the Apollo 11 mission, it will be traveling the U.S. in four-city tour in the exhibit " Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission."
As the only portion of the famed spacecraft to return to Earth, Columbia is the most important artifact in humanity's space-faring history. The cramped dimensions of the module served as the astronauts' living quarters for a majority of the eight-day mission, and it also withstood the fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere.
"When Apollo 11 landed on the moon and humans first stepped on another celestial body, it changed the way we saw ourselves," said Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution David Skorton at the press conference.
Eric Long / Smithsonian Institution
After splashdown, Columbia became a source of national pride and was almost immediately sent on a two-year, 50-state tour before arriving back in the nation's capital and becoming the featured item at the National Air and Space Museum, opening seven years after Columbia's famous flight. Now, after 40 years, Columbia is getting a much-needed restoration and then finally leaving the building.
All Hail the Heat Shield
Although the project will commence within a few weeks, the Smithsonian staff has already spent months analyzing what needs to be done. The first step was identifying which parts of Columbia would degrade quickest. Malcolm Collum, Engen Conservation Chair at the National Air and Space Museum, says the heat shield needs the most attention.
As the Columbia raced towards Earth at speeds that eclipsed 36,000 feet per second , the heat shield experienced temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit . While it did its job incredibly well and the astronauts survived the fiery ordeal, the heat shield sustained immense charring and burning. "It's literally like a briquette," says Collum, "Once you touch it, it will start to slough off."
"When Apollo 11 landed on the moon and humans first stepped on another celestial body, it changed the way we saw ourselves."
To protect the heat shield from further degradation, Smithsonian conservators needed to know how aerospace manufacturer North American Rockwell and AVCO made the heat shield for NASA. Using a portable FTIR (fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), which determines the organic bonding and compounds within a particular material, the team discovered silica and a phenolic resin component .
"That's really important for us to know," says Lisa Young, object conservator at the National Air and Space Museum, "so we can determine how to stabilize it."
Although the heat shield shouldered most of the wear and tear, Columbia's interior was also showing some age. When the module splashed down, the module's floor filled up with seawater, causing fluoride contamination . In addition, there was a concern ( and there still is ) that potentially harmful space microbes could've hitched a ride to Earth onboard Columbia.
So, Columbia went through a decontamination and a sterilization process, leaving a residue that might have quickened the pace of degradation of the paint, textiles, and plastics. Both Collum and Young noted that flaking paint and material off-gassing, like Neil Armstrong's gloves and helmet , is something conservators will need to keep an eye on.
Works of Art
Other fascinating Apollo 11 artifacts will also travel across the country with Columbia, including one piece that's never been on public display. In 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos privately financed an expedition that found and recovered Apollo 11's long-lost F-1 rocket engines from the bottom of the ocean. Following their recovery, NASA worked with Bezos in transferring a number of the components to museums across the country . The injector plate from Apollo 11's Saturn V first-stage engine found a home at the National Air and Space Museum.
Saturn V injector plate. Smithsonian Institution
The museum's Senior Curator Michael Neufeld says the injector plate is one of the most critical components because it regulated the kerosene and oxygen entering the engine. If it malfunctioned, it could cause the entire engine to potentially blow-up. The injector plate is still being restored at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, but Collum was able to get a glimpse.
"They are works of art," says Collum, "They are absolutely beautiful."
Eric Long / Smithsonian Institution
Other space artifacts that will be touring include Buzz Aldrin's iconic visor , a star chart for navigation, and a medical kit containing bandages, sleeping aids, antibiotics and antidiarrheals There is also a survival kit. This was in case of an emergency landing somewhere on Earth and contains a radio beacon, sunglasses, seawater desalter kit, and a machete.
The first stop for "Destination Moon" will be at Space Center Houston where it will be on display until March 2018. Then, it will travel to the St. Louis Science Center , Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, and the Museum of Flight in Seattle before becoming part of a permanent exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum in 2020. Along with these artifacts, there will be an interactive 3D tour created from high-res scans of the Columbia that were taken last spring. This will give a chance for the public to digitally go inside the module that once housed America's greatest space explorers. |
Despite reports indicating that he is dealing with two fractured transverse process (vertebrae), Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo will travel with the team to London and prepare as if he's playing, according to team owner Jerry Jones.
Jones sounded optimistic about Romo's chances for playing in Week 10 following Sunday's 28-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
“We’re betting on him playing,” said Jones, as reported by CBS DFW. “If we didn’t think he could play, he wouldn’t be on that long plane ride.”
Dallas will play Jacksonville at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday, followed by a Week 11 bye.
Brandon Weeden completed 18-of-33 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions in Romo's place Sunday. Dustin Vaughan, an undrafted rookie out of West Texas A&M, is the team's third quarterback. |
While hundreds of apps for the Apple Watch have been announced and detailed, screenshots of most of the major applications have yet to be revealed, until now. Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has created a tool to view screenshots of Apple Watch applications by pasting in the link to the existing iPhone application. Below, we’ve put together several galleries of several notable Apple Watch applications, including Twitter, Instagram, Uber, Starbucks, and Apple’s own Keynote presentation remote. We’ll be updating this post live as more application screenshots are discovered. WatchAware is also showcasing more interactive previews of over 2000 Apple Watch apps.
Twitter:
Instagram:
Apple Keynote Remote:
Microsoft PowerPoint:
NBA GameTime:
ESPN:
Uber:
Hotel Tonight:
RunKeeper:
Flipboard:
Pandora:
Chipotle:
Mint:
Shazam:
Slack:
Hipchat:
JetBlue:
1Password:
Things:
Calcbot:
Yahoo Weather:
Clear:
Twitterrific:
Microsoft OneNote:
Microsoft OneDrive:
American Airlines:
Delta:
Breaking News:
CNN:
AP Mobile:
Digg:
Robinhood: |
Solid food—who needs it? Chewing is so 2012, at least according to the founders of Soylent, the meal replacement drink packed with hard-to-pronounce ingredients that are all supposedly good for you. Some swear by the product, others think it's the end of all that is good in this world (food). If you haven't tried any of Soylent's products for yourself yet, this weekend might be your chance: from Friday to Sunday, the pop-up coffee shop Coffiest Cafe will be open to the public, offering Soylent's new Coffiest beverage along with Soylent bars.
DJs will be playing throughout the weekend, and on Sunday from 4-5pm, there will be a conversation on the melding of art and food. The pop-up will also serve as a space for sculptor Arik Levy's Rock Growth 350, along with an '80s-style arcade game that visitors can play for free. Inspired by Pacman, each player is an astronaut that races through a maze to collect Soylent products. Who knows if the astronaut is actually full at the end.
But more on Coffiest, which will be available for free (as will the Soylent bars). Billed as breakfast and coffee in one bottle, the plant-based formula is comprised of soy protein, algal oil, coffee and the amino acid l-theanine, which is supposed to counteract the jittery effect some people get from coffee. Does it taste better than a stack of pancakes? Probably not, but there are some who might argue otherwise.
Coffiest Cafe will be open Friday through Sunday from 10am-6pm at 2010 E 7th St in Downtown Los Angeles.
Want more? Sign up here to stay in the know. |
AMBITIONS for a rail link between between Glasgow Airport and the city have been dealt another blow amid claims it has been deliberately left out of plans to enhance Scotland's trains network.
Council leaders in the west of the country have reignited the political row over the long-running plans for the route, claiming Network Rail's decision to omit it from future proposals was "mind-boggling".
The local authority-led body responsible for distributing the £1.13 billion City Deal, announced by the UK and Scottish Governments in 2014 and earmarked to fund the link, has written to the rail infrastructure operator expressing concern over the snub.
It has also challenged Scottish ministers, who are at best lukewarm on the scheme, to come out and support it.
But Network Rail has said the council leaders are misunderstanding the remit of its 'Scotland Route Study', claiming it is not about the creation of new railways but enhancing the current one.
Meanwhile, the SNP Government said that ministers were supportive of the City Deal, but it was up to councils to develop plans on how it should be spent.
Plans for a link from Glasgow Central to the airport originally secured the support of the Scottish Parliament in 2006.
But with spiralling costs, concern about management of the project and its business case and the fears over the impact of the squeeze on public finances, the SNP scrapped the plan in 2009.
It was resurrected as a plan by eight councils in 2014 after the announcement of the City Deal, a cash pot to boost infrastructure over the next 20 years, but is still the subject of some debate as to its merits.
A tram-train hybrid was recommended by consultants in February 2014 as the best way to improve surface access to Scotland's second busiest airport, which can currently only be reached by road.
This would see tramcars run on the heavy rail network between Glasgow and Paisley Gilmour Street, before switching onto a newly-constructed light rail line between Paisley and the airport entrance.
But Network Rail's study into future 'things to do' does not mention the link.
Frank McAveety, chair of the Clyde Valley City Deal Cabinet and leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “The project doesn’t need new lines to be included in this study, it needs enhancements to the existing network, and given that Network Rail has known about it for more than a year, the fact there is no reference to it in the route study is mind boggling.
“We would welcome early talks with Network Rail about how the planned works can be aligned to the City Deal investment in the airport rail link.
“However, this study has been written to meet the aspirations of Scottish Government ministers, who have their hands on the money associated with this plan, and what we crucially need is a demonstration of support from them.”
A Network Rail spokesman said: “The Scotland route study is designed to consider how to best utilise and enhance our existing infrastructure, rather than the creation of new railways. That doesn’t preclude the development of proposals for new lines or stations, however, the route study is primarily about looking at what’s possible within the existing assets.
“Network Rail currently has no plans for a Glasgow Airport rail link, but we are always open to discussing proposals to expand Scotland’s rail network and have been working with the City Deal partners as they develop their business case.”
A Government spokesman said: "We remain fully supportive of the City Deal and our officials continue to engage with the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Partnership to ensure the Deal's success.
"The feasibility study which was presented to the Client Group highlights some challenges to the delivery of any rail link. Glasgow City Council and Renfrewshire Council are now taking this work forward, including discussions with Network Rail.” |
After four decades of performances around the globe, the Canadian rock band Rush in 2015 staged a final major tour. Although the power trio of Alex Lifeson, 63; Geddy Lee, 63; and Neil Peart, 64, was leaving life on the road behind, the philanthropy that marked the group’s touring years continues.
On April 20, Rush will receive the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award for its social activism and support of humanitarian causes, as well as for recognition of its remarkable music career. The award will be presented during the annual Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Awards gala dinner in Toronto, an event during Canadian Music Week.
"They're giving us an award for doing what everyone should do," Geddy Lee tells Billboard. "It should be a part of everyone's upbringing and routine of life: You share when you've been blessed with good fortune. The world needs a lot of work, and there are not enough workers. We try to help where we can."
“My father, Allan Slaight, believes that giving back to one’s community is something we should all strive to do, and the members of Rush have made a point of this throughout their career,” says Slaight Communications president/CEO Gary Slaight.
The honor comes with a $40,000 endowment that Rush will donate in a sign that its commitment to causes endures, even as the band has ceased touring. The beneficiary of the gift will be the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research at Sunnybrook, which studies treatments for incurable brain cancers. The fund is named after fellow Canadian and Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, who announced in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
“Lots of people are generous and do things like this, and it’s the right thing, I think, when you’re in a position to help those who are needy or less fortunate,” said Rush guitarist Lifeson in a Billboard interview in 2015, when the band received the Allan Water Humanitarian Award at Canada’s Juno Awards. “Then it’s kind of our duty as human beings to do that, and it’s not a big deal.”
For Rush, which most recently released the documentary Time Stand Still, touring and philanthropy have gone hand in hand since the beginning of its impressive career. From its self-titled debut album released in 1974, the trio has gained legions of fans with its inventive progressive rock. The band estimates it has sold 40 million albums worldwide. (Rush has sold 15.6 million albums in the United States since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991). The band reached a commercial peak in the early ’80s with six consecutive albums reaching the top 10 of the Billboard 200.
Since Billboard Boxscore began tracking concert sales data in 1990, Rush has grossed $252.7 million from sales of more than 5.5 million tickets and has performed 539 shows.
Leveraging the loyalty of its fans to help others, the band’s concerts at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens were food drives for the Toronto Food Bank. The group also did benefit shows at the arena for The United Way and amFAR.
In 2008, the trio donated $100,000 to the Make It Right Foundation to help New Orleans rebuild after Hurricane Katrina and sponsor construction of a Lower Ninth Ward residence that was dubbed “the house that Rush built.” That year, Rush also gave $100,000 from a Winnipeg concert to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
When floods hit southern Alberta in 2013, the band again stepped up to help with a benefit show that raised $575,000. (The concert, originally scheduled for the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, was moved to the Enmax Centrium two hours north after the Saddledome itself was flooded.)
Beginning with its 2010 Time Machine Tour, Rush has donated $1 from every concert ticket to various organizations, including Doctors Without Borders.
The band doesn’t publicize how much it has contributed to charity overall, but according to Canadian Music Week, funds collected from its concerts for all causes have approached $2 million during the past five years.
“It’s like paying it forward,” said Lifeson of earmarking a portion of sales for charity. “We’re so fortunate in so many ways, and if you can just help out, in any way you can, that’s a great way to do it.”
This article originally appeared in the April 15 issue of Billboard. |
Image copyright PA Image caption President Obama said he had "more faith in the Europeans...being invested in the follow-up"
David Cameron became "distracted" after the 2011 intervention in Libya, US President Barack Obama has said.
Speaking to the Atlantic magazine, he said the operation went as well as he had hoped, but Libya was now "a mess".
The article also said he had warned the PM the UK would have to pay its "fair share" and spend 2% of GDP on defence.
In response, Number 10 said there were "many difficult challenges" in Libya, while the White House said it deeply valued the UK's contributions.
Downing Street did not comment on President Obama's remark to the PM about defence spending, reportedly made before Chancellor George Osborne said the government would fulfil a Nato pledge to spend 2% of national income on defence last year.
In response to the interview, a spokesman for the US National Security Council said Mr Cameron had been "as close a partner as the president has had" adding that "we deeply value the UK's contributions on our shared national security and foreign policy objectives".
BBC North America editor Jon Sopel said the unsolicited statement put out by the White House suggested Downing Street had reacted angrily to the article.
"It's like we've seen a curtain drawn back on the unspun thoughts of President Obama, complete with frustration as well, and what we've seen tonight is the White House trying to close the curtain as quickly as it can," he added.
'Casualties averted'
The toppling of the Gaddafi regime in Libya - following UN-backed air strikes designed to protect civilians - led to a power vacuum and instability, with no authority in full control.
The intervention was led by the UK and France - and in his interview, Mr Obama reflects on "what went wrong", saying: "There's room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans, given Libya's proximity, being invested in the follow-up."
Mr Cameron, he said, became "distracted by a range of other things". He also criticised former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying he had tried to claim the spotlight.
The former French president, he said, "wanted to trumpet the flights he was taking in the air campaign, despite the fact that we had wiped out all the air defences and essentially set up the entire infrastructure" for the intervention.
President Obama said the intervention "averted large-scale civilian casualties (and) prevented what almost surely would have been a prolonged and bloody civil conflict". But he added: "And despite all that, Libya is a mess."
He also criticised what he called "free riders" in the interview, saying European and Gulf countries were calling for action against Gaddafi, adding: "But what has been a habit over the last several decades in these circumstances is people pushing us to act but then showing an unwillingness to put any skin in the game."
'Like rats'
Despite efforts to support Libya's National Transitional Council, and the first elections in the country for decades, it rapidly descended into violence, with two rival governments and the formation of hundreds of militias, some allied to so-called Islamic State.
In January, Mr Cameron told MPs the "Libyan people were given the opportunity" to build a stable democracy - and it was a matter of "huge regret" they had not taken it.
He stressed that - unlike in Iraq - the post-conflict planning was locally driven.
"Gaddafi was bearing down on people in Benghazi and threatening to shoot his own people like rats," he said. "An international coalition came together to protect those people and to help the Libyan people, who then got rid of Gaddafi.
"And they had an opportunity to build what they said they wanted."
Responding to President Obama's interview, Downing Street said "coming to the aid of innocent civilians who were being tortured and killed by their leader was the right thing to do".
The government has tried to support stability in Libya and is "working hard to support the UN-led process to establish a stable and inclusive government that will allow them to build a peaceful future", a spokesman said.
"But ultimately a positive outcome for Libya is not just up to the international community - this process needs to be led by the Libyan people," he added.
The US National Security Council spokesman added: "With respect to Libya, the president has long said that all of us - including the United States - could have done more in the aftermath of the Libyan intervention."
He said the UK had "stepped up on a range of issues" including meeting the 2% commitment and pressing other Nato members to do the same.
Former Conservative Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said it was "a bit rich" for the US president to single out the UK and France, as they had carried out more air operations in the Libya campaign than any other country.
Libya timeline
Image copyright Reuters Image caption RAF Typhoons wait to be serviced after their first mission over Libya in March 2011
15 February 2011 - Protests against Colonel Gaddafi's regime erupt in Libya
20 February - Anti-Gaddafi rebels seize control of Libya's second city Benghazi
21 February - David Cameron, on a tour of the Middle East, condemns violence by the Gaddafi regime. Over the next few days he faces criticism over the government's handling of the evacuation of Britons from Libya
28 February: Mr Cameron asks the Ministry of Defence to "work with our allies on plans for a military no-fly zone" over Libya
2 March: Mr Cameron is forced to defend the no-fly zone plan after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates dismisses the idea as "loose talk"
14 March: Mr Cameron insists it is "perfectly deliverable" - and denies he is having trouble convincing other EU leaders, with the exception of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, of the need for one
17 March: The UN Security Council votes to impose a no-fly zone over Libya
19 March: The RAF begins bombing raids alongside French and US jets, with logistical support from several Arab nations
21 March: MPs vote to authorise UK military action, which is backed by then Labour leader Ed Miliband
21 August: Rebel fighters enter Tripoli. Mr Cameron cuts short his summer holiday in Cornwall to hold a meeting of the National Security Council and makes a statement outside Downing Street saying: "Gaddafi must stop fighting - without conditions - and clearly show that he has given up any claim to control Libya."
1 September: Libya's interim rulers meet world leaders in Paris to discuss reshaping Libya, as Gaddafi urges his supporters to fight on
15 September: Speaking in Benghazi's Tahrir square, Mr Cameron praises the way Libya's interim authority has taken charge but warns the "hardest part" is still to come
20 October: Gaddafi is captured and killed by rebel fighters in the city of Sirte |
An undercover police officer tricked a teenager with autism into buying pot for him, a lawsuit filed by the boy's parents alleges.
The 17-year-old, who isn't named in the lawsuit, was arrested with 21 other high school students on drug-dealing charges as part of a sting operation last December at Chaparral High School in Temecula, Calif., and neighboring schools. His parents, Catherine and Doug Snodgrass, on Wednesday announced a lawsuit in state Superior Court that seeks unspecified damages from the Temecula Valley School District, alleging negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
"Certain parts of my son have been damaged in ways that I think will be permanent," Doug Snodgrass told The Huffington Post.
According to the Snodgrasses, a police officer pretended to be their son's friend, which pleased them because he has trouble making friends. When the couple suggested inviting this new friend home, the friend "would always have an excuse, saying he couldn't or he was grounded," Catherine Snodgrass said. The parents said they later learned the "friend" was Deputy Daniel Zipperstein of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, who was posing as a student named Daniel Briggs for several months at their son's school.
Zipperstein hounded their son to sell him marijuana or his prescription medication, the parents said they later learned.
The teen couldn't access his prescription medication because his parents keep it locked. After more than three weeks of pestering, the teen bought a half-joint from a homeless man and gave it to the officer, who had given him $20 weeks earlier, according to the Snodgrasses. The teen did this once more before refusing to continue, prompting the deputy to end the supposed friendship, the parents said.
The couple said their son was arrested soon after that. He was taken to the police station and was not allowed to see his parents until his court date two days later, the parents said.
Once they were able to see him, Catherine Snodgrass said in the below video, taken at a community meeting the parents helped organize in August, she found her son traumatized. "The look in his eyes will forever haunt us," she said. The parents have started a legal fund to help pay for the lawsuit.
Since his arrest, the teen has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which has included insomnia, panic attacks, depression, paranoia and infliction of self-injury, his parents said. Before the arrest, in addition to autism, their son had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Tourette syndrome and anxiety disorders.
The drug sting resulted in the arrests of 15 students from Temecula Valley High School, five from Chaparral High School and two from Rancho Vista Continuation High School. Authorities seized heroin, LSD, ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines and illegal prescription drugs.
Critics of undercover drug stings argue it's unfair to target teenagers, who are often emotionally vulnerable. “Sending police and informants to entrap high school students is sick,” Tony Newman, director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement. “We see cops seducing 18-year-olds to fall in love with them or befriending lonely kids and then tricking them into getting them small amounts of marijuana so they can stick them with felonies.”
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department declined to speak with HuffPost, but said in a statement that the department "followed all pertinent laws and the case was reviewed by the DA's Office. Had there been entrapment issues, the DA's Office would not have filed the case."
Temecula Valley School District said in a statement to HuffPost that it did not initiate the investigation, but cooperated when approached by the sheriff's department. Chaparrel High School declined to comment.
A 2007 Department of Justice report found that drug stings can have favorable results in the short term, but can force dealers underground and have not demonstrated long-term success.
Drug stings have become an annual occurrence in Riverside County, which includes Temecula. In 2011, deputies posing as students spent four months at high schools in Moreno Valley and Wildomar, arresting 24 students on drug-dealing charges. In 2010, 14 students were arrested in an undercover sting at Palm Desert High School.
Diane Goldstein of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a coalition of former police officers dedicated to opposing drug war policies, told HuffPost she met the Snodgrass' son.
"Within two minutes, you can tell this kid does not have the capacity to understand what he's doing," Goldstein said. "It's abhorrent that an undercover officer would continue to try to get him to sell drugs. |
The rampant drug war violence in Mexico has caused men's life expectancy in the country to drop.
According to the study published by the journal Health Affairs on Tuesday, male life expectancy rates plummeted in all of Mexico's 31 states as violence related to drug war escalated between 2005 and 2010, a period when the government implemented a militarized crackdown on organized crime, The Guardian reported.
Life expectancy for Mexican men is now slightly lower than 72 years, six months lower than in 2005, the news outlet added. This has downplayed a decade of public health improvements in the country.
Life expectancy dropped by as much as three years in the state of Chihuahua, which includes Ciudad Juárez, an area once regarded as the world's murder capital, The Guardian wrote. Oaxaca and Tlaxcala, states not greatly affected by violence, also saw falling life expectancies of six months.
In 2006, then-president Felipe Calderón decided to deploy federal forces to apprehend traffickers. Two authors of the study told The Guardian that falling life expectancy was not a coincidence and is directly connected to the surge of homicide rates after the drug war began.
"After 2005, that's when life expectancy goes down in all the states. That is what made me think that it is homicide that is having a big impact," said Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, the study's lead researcher and a professor of community health studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, as quoted in The Guardian's report.
Beltrán-Sánchez said that from 2000 to 2005, "homicides were going down," but "went up, very much across the board" after 2005, "when the whole thing exploded and military operations began moving through the country," according to The Guardian.
Mexico's drug war has resulted to the deaths of more than 100,000 individuals and caused the homicide rate from nine murders per 100,000 persons in 2005 to 22 murders per 100,000 in 2010, the news outlet noted. However, the country's homicide rate is still lower than in other Latin American nations, especially those in Central America.
Over the past six decades, Mexico has moved forward in life expectancy as public health and living standards advanced and more Mexicans gained access to health services. Beltrán-Sánchez was expecting a rise of "three or four years" in life expectancy during the last 10 years, but found a reduction of 0.6 years for men and nearly no change for women, The Guardian added.
Researchers said that Seguro Popular, the federal government's program to provide universal healthcare coverage for millions of poor Mexicans, should have increased life expectancies, The Guardian wrote.
© 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. |
Playing the long game
Information + Resources
Official Site
Roadmap
Wiki
News sources
Social Media
Wallets
Description
DigiByte is an older Bitcoin alternative, beginning in 2014, that aims to bring security and scalability to the blockchain. It has a high number of units but is looking into the 2030s and beyond for its stake in the market, meaning what’s now worth a couple cents per token could later be worth a few dollars. DigiByte has worked for years on its technology and shows much promise as it tries to integrate with the gaming community by offering DigiByte rewards, perhaps to become a general use micro-transaction token (as are popular in video games these days), as well as recently being selected as a finalist in Citi’s Tech 4 Integrity financial technology challenge.
This coin is currently seeing a lot of attention and enthusiasm. Digibyte is in for the long haul so you can be sure it has a lot of time to grow… and fall… and maybe grow again. This is one to watch in the coming months, though it faces a lot of competition. On June 9th this year, DigiByte presented to Microsoft, Facebook, and other major companies because of their finalist position in the CitiT4IChallenge. They made contacts with MasterCard according to the creator of DigiByte, Jared Tate.
Future: SegWit, Smart Contracts, Cross-chain support
// Written May 30, ’17. Price at the time: $0.017 / DGB
// Edited June 18, ’17. Price at the time: $0.028 / DGB
// Edited Sept 27, ’17. Price at the time: $0.015 / DGB |
Compatible Web Design IE NetRenderer allows you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 or 5.5, as seen from a high speed internet location. Just type in a URL in the field above and try it out - it's free! Unlike other screenshot services, we are able to process a large number of capturing jobs in parallel and in realtime, making it the fastest and most popular online tool of its kind in the internet. This online tool is ideally suited for web designers working on Apple Mac and Linux. It allows to verify web designs natively on all popular Internet Explorer versions without the need to have several Windows PCs. More... About Originally intended as a technology demonstration for our Hosted Virtual Server offering, there was so much positive feedback that we decided to make this service publicly available. This tool is completely free but the advertisement revenue barely covers our hosting costs. If you like IE NetRender and want to help keeping it up and running, please consider a donation. More... Related Websites IT Support and Outsourcing Service in Berlin (Germany)
Hosted VMware Server
Clearly the best IP- and Domain Checker
Howto Select an Internet Explorer version of your choice at the upper left side, enter the URL of an arbitrary website into the "http..." field above and press the "Render" button. After a few seconds you will get a snapshot of your webpage as seen from a high speed datacenter located in Germany. Normally the snapshot shows the upmost part of your webpage. If you want to see how the page looks further down, simply enter a vertical pixel offset in the box to the right of the URL field and press "Render" again. If the sceenshot is empty or looks incomplete, your webpage may contain scripts or objects that need more time to complete. Mark the checkbox beneath the render button in this case to allow some extra rendering time. Enjoy! More... Community
Did you notice the new checkbox beneath the "Render" button that we added today? Checking it will add some extra... Posted by IE NetRenderer on Mittwoch, 1. Juli 2015
NetRender now fully supports Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) such as: http://Правда.рф/ or http://山东大学.中国/ You may... Posted by IE NetRenderer on Montag, 29. Juni 2015 |
The SUV is the favourite villan of the ecologically aware motorist, until now. Phoenix Motorcars is set to begin shipping the above SUT/SUV a little later this year, Phoenix has been through some rough times with chapter 11 being filed in mid-2009, an angel investor has stepped in and saved the company though and we are assured that the first SUT’s are on the way for a 2010 delivery.
Both the SUT and SUV are said to feature a 100-plus mile range, litium-titanate battery systems (the same basic system that will be used in the Lightning GT) that feature a 10 minute recharge time if you have access to an industrial -grade power socket. Phoenix is currently working on a 250 mile version to suit the longer range market and perhaps dip it’s toe into the towing-capable market. With both an SUT and an SUV available it will be interesting to watch this space and see how Phoenix progress. It is refreshing to see an EV manufacturer that focusses on keeping their head down and turning out vehicles instead of turning out renderings and chasing venture capital.
Specifications
Propulsion system: liquid-cooled, 100 kW PowerPhase 100 electric traction motor
Top Speed: 120 mph
Zero-to-60: 10 seconds
MPG: NA
Vehicle range: 100 miles
Fuel(s): Electricity
Battery system: : Lithium titanate NanoSafe™ battery (off-board recharge: 10 minutes; on-board, 6 hours)
Tailpipe emissions: None |
When photographer Robert van Waarden heard about Transcanada’s Energy East project—a tar sands pipeline that, if built, would be the longest such pipeline in the world and would exceed the capacity of Keystone XL by about 30 percent—he did what he knew how to do: he took pictures.
Along the Pipeline can be seen as an attempt to bring excluded voices back into the debate.
Over the course of several months, van Waarden drove all 2,800 miles of the proposed pipeline route across Canada, from Hardisty, Alberta, to the eastern terminus at St. John, New Brunswick. Using an old 4x5 film camera from the early ’70s—the kind where you put a cloth over your head—he made portraits of the people he met on the way, and recorded their words. The result was Along the Pipeline, a collective portrait of more than 70 indigenous people, farmers, fishermen, artists, and business owners. He wanted to know how they felt about the pipeline, the environment, and Canada’s economic future. He spent time in their homes, camped in their backyards, cooked with them in their kitchens.
His printed portraits are life-sized, like they’re right in the room with you, like you could look them in the eye. That’s part of the point. In 2012 the Canadian government passed Bill C-38, which removes key environmental protections, expedites the pipeline approval process, and limits who can testify in public pipeline hearings—and what they can say. The forum for public input on industrial projects is now considerably smaller.
“It’s rigged in favor of the industry,” van Waarden says. Along the Pipeline can be seen, then, as an attempt to bring those excluded voices back into the debate, to keep open the space for public dialogue on fossil fuels—one that’s become contentious on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.
Last year, in a document leaked to Greenpeace, Transcanada’s former public relations firm singled out van Waarden’s project as a potential threat to Energy East under the heading “Opposition Tactic 2: Emotional Appeal.”
A second strategy establishes an emotional resonance with the general public through visual storytelling. When properly executed, this is a tremendously effective strategy as it can create an emotional response with the general public that can override logic and reasoning.
“I don’t know if I should be shocked or honoured,” van Waarden wrote on his blog.
Maybe both? I spoke with van Waarden after seeing Along the Pipeline in Montreal. We talked about the people he met on his journey, the pipeline-resistance movement in Canada, and the role of storytelling in social change.
This interview has been lightly edited.
Serge Simon, Mohawk Chief: “TransCanada says Energy East will bring lots of money and money will pour into my community, along with the oil. Bullshit. I don’t believe that. And even if it were true, I wouldn't want their dirty money because I couldn't live with myself thinking that I had something to do with the eventual frying of this planet.”
Kristin Moe: What was the initial idea for the project?
Robert van Waarden: I’ve always thought that that Canadians are pretty smart, that they’re not necessarily buying into the industry line or the government line, and that they’re looking for something more. So it was an opportunity to use a narrative that was thrown down in front of us—in a line—and to find out not just what they thought about the Energy East project, but what they thought about where we should be going as a nation, or a group of nations, and what that future looks like.
Moe: What were some of the conversations you had that left the biggest impression?
van Waarden: What was amazing, throughout the whole project, was the generosity that was given to me—to stay with people, to eat with them, to spend hours with us, often out of the blue.
Fawn Wapioke, Chief Iskatewizaagegan: “I believe in our future. I believe as an Anishinaabekwe my responsibility is to ensure that there is a future for my
children that are playing around here, for their children, for their great great great grandchildren. How do we do that?”
One indigenous woman I met was Fawn Wapioke, the chief of Shoal Lake 39 near the small city Kenora in Ontario. We were sitting in her living room talking to her. Something I heard a lot across the country was the need to make decisions based on future generations. This idea of, “What sort of a place are we leaving?” You hear that a lot.
The difference here was that Fawn’s two twins were playing in the room at our feet. As someone who doesn’t have kids, it sort of hit me—like, hang on a sec. I get this. I understand. We’re not even talking about these two kids, we’re talking about their grandkids.
Henry Harris, fisherman: “I quit school when I was 14 and started fishing. I've pretty well been aboard a lobster boat ever since. There is good money it in and it is a good lifestyle. I knew I wasn’t smart enough to be in school ‘cause I had problems in school, so
I figured fishing would be my lifestyle. Right now lobster fishing is the only thing that keeps this island going. I’d never want to see something bad like an oil spill here ‘cause it would affect everyone.”
All the way east, you get into New Brunswick, and there’s a little island called Grand Manan Island, and it runs entirely on lobster fishing. Not everybody’s a lobster fisherman, but between that and the tourism, you’re attached to it somehow.
I got to spend some time with a couple of the fishermen there, and one of the guys, he’s not an outspoken person, but he had quite a face and quite a character. His name is Henry Harris. We spent all day lobster fishing and I got really seasick. It was 14 hours on a little boat in the middle of the Bay of Fundy. And for him, quite simply, if an oil spill were to happen, he doesn’t know what would happen to Grand Manan Island, but you could basically write it off. There are some direct parallels with the Gulf in that sense. So the question is, how many jobs does Energy East create, versus how many could potentially be lost from an oil spill? Or an island community damaged beyond repair?
Moe: Is there a narrative thread that ties these different stories together?
van Waarden: From talking to people, it became apparent that the more people knew about the project, the more they were against it. In pretty much every conversation we had was the recognition of the need for Canada to move toward renewable energy. That was true even in places like rural Saskatchewan, even talking to people who were strongly supportive of the [Energy East] project.
One guy in particular already had a pipeline on his land. He’s never had a problem, believes that we need the oil—at the same time, you ask him, “What about the wind farm up the road?” And he says, “Yeah, I really like it. We should be doing more of it.”
Mike Gerbrandt, farmer and rancher: “I’m pro-pipeline. It brings good tax revenue for the municipality and TransCanada has always supported our community through donations. I trust what they are doing. I don’t believe we will see the end of oil and gas in my lifetime.”
Moe: It seems like pipelines were in some ways a gift to the climate movement. They link all these different communities that wouldn’t otherwise have a reason to talk to one another, they’re very specific, and they’re either built or they’re not. So it gives people something tangible to organize around other than climate change, which is more amorphous.
van Waarden: Yeah, that’s absolutely right. That’s what happened around Keystone. From the very first conversations I started having around the pipeline, people were saying, “This is a mistake, from the industry’s perspective.” Because what you’ve just done is given most of Canada, which hasn’t had an issue to organize around before, you’ve just given them a present.
Bunty and Roy Swanson, retired teachers: “Every day, our group puts on hazmat suits and gas masks and goes downtown ... We just sit on rocks downtown in a park and wave at the pedestrians and cars. We have leaflets and people can sign and join us. We really want to preserve the purity of this place, especially the water. We need to be going right off fossil fuels. This won't happen in my generation, but it might happen in yours.”
Moe: Tell me about your camera. Why did you choose it? How did it affect the relationships with the people you were photographing?
van Waarden: Sure. It’s an old 4x5 view camera. It was an attempt to slow down the process and to make it a bit more serious. We only took two photographs of each person, because film costs money.
It changes your thought process. You have to know before you press the shutter whether you have the image that you want. When you put that dark cape over your head, the subjects go, “Oh, OK, this is a little more important, a little more serious than pulling out a point-and-shoot camera.” As a result, they were a little more willing to take their time and have conversations and spend 45 minutes or an hour making an image. And that trickles throughout the whole project. It’s a new way to shoot for me, and it was well worth it.
We’re making a portrait at that point. It’s not “taking,” so much.
Evening Star, “Cree Woman Warrior:” “I consider myself a Cree woman warrior. It came into my spirit that I am willing to go all the way: I’m willing to get arrested, I’m willing to lock myself down to some machinery, I’m even willing to put my life on the line if it comes.”
down to that, because this pipeline is going through sacred territories of our ancestors. I've got to take a stand, because if I don't, who else will? I'm hoping there'll be more warriors out there that will 'warrior up'.
Moe: That’s what it is. I think a lot about how journalism and documentary work is sort of extractive in nature—as you said, it’s taking something. And it makes the dynamic a little uncomfortable, at least for me. It seems important to find ways to do it that are collaborative, so it’s more focused on the relationship with the subject rather than taking something from them.
van Waarden: To “take” an image sometimes has a very negative connotation. But I’m asking for the subject’s direct involvement and their time. And they realize that, and there’s more depth behind it.
Zoe Gould, rancher and student: “I guess I didn’t really notice the oil industry growing up. Now I notice it more. It is really prevalent here, it is big
money and jobs. It is sort of a conflict of interest depending on where your focus is. The agriculture? Or getting as much oil out of the land as possible? I don’t have any solutions, but I do see problems.”
Moe: Let’s talk about storytelling. It seems like your work is focused on bringing out the humanity that can often get lost in the narratives that have large entities as the actors—corporations, governments, natural phenomena. And often individuals get drowned out in that.
van Waarden: There’s a quote that comes from an indigenous writer called Thomas King that says, “If you want to change the world, tell a different story.” The thing is, people react to personal stories. We have to humanize, we have to make things personal, to a level that people can identify with.
That’s the main reasoning behind doing this. We are stories. And if we’re going to push things forward — not only stop stuff, but if we’re going to create a different world, we’re going to have to tell some different stories. And I think that’s something that the climate change movement is starting to figure out. |
Because there’s a delicious new way to enjoy the pleasure of your own company.
Eating out tends to be synonymous with socializing, whether it’s with family, friends or work colleagues. So dining alone is often perceived as a sad and lonely affair.
In Amsterdam, however, two design agencies, Van Goor and Vandejong, have teamed up to eliminate this culinary stigma by creating Eenmaal, the world’s first restaurant for parties of one.
In our society, there is actually no room for being alone in public spaces.
The small pop-up venue with 10 tables — each for a single diner — is the brainchild of Marina van Goor, a designer focused on projects with social impact, who wants to make solo dining culturally acceptable and cool.
“We wanted to break the very recognizable taboo of eating out alone. I noticed that in our society, there is actually no room for being alone in public spaces,” she explains. “Being a pop-up allows us to give a wider audience the chance to try it.”
Eenmaal — a Dutch word meaning both “one time” and ”one meal” — moves locations but always sets up in unused shop spaces with large front windows and little decoration, to avoid distractions. The walls are bare, the music plays softly and, before you ask, no, there is no Wi-Fi. Customers are asked to refrain from using their smartphones and encouraged to read a book or magazine instead.
Eenmaal’s clientele ranges from millennial hipsters in search of a trendy venue to misanthropic foodies looking to enjoy a four-course meal without having to engage in idle chitchat. The menu costs $50, including drinks, and is crafted by chef Leslie Dronker, who favors fresh tastes and organic, locally sourced ingredients.
This place transforms an awkward situation into something comfortable.
Judging by the serene atmosphere in which diners dig into their parsley rye bread, pork belly with pickle, and Lapsang ice cream, eating alone can be a truly pleasurable experience. “This place transforms an awkward situation into something comfortable,” says Peik Suyling, a client and fan. “It’s relaxed and exciting at the same time.”
Since it debuted last summer, Eenmaal’s success has surpassed its founders’ expectations. The temporary eatery is already in its sixth location, changing venue every month or so — info is provided on its website — and later this year it’s going to start popping up internationally, in London, Berlin and New York.
Van Goor is even flirting with the idea of opening permanent locations. “We could create a franchise, because I am convinced it will work anywhere, and there is a need for it,” she says.
For now, Eenmaal is expanding its brand by creating products for the “one-person market.” Their first item, a 375-ml bottle of “not for sharing” champagne, named Eenmaal Bauchet, is already available to enjoy with the meals, and chocolate and tea products will soon follow.
Eating with friends and relatives will always be a popular pastime. But in today’s hyperconnected world, Eenaal gives its clients the rare opportunity to turn down the volume and focus on themselves before modern life takes over again.
So if you fancy a party for one, check out Eenmaal. But keep in mind that when the bill comes, you’ll have no choice but to go Dutch. |
Since the launch of Google+, Google has been putting a lot of muscle behind promoting and integrating the service into its core products. Fire up a new Android 4.0 device, and you’ll be prompted to create a Google+ account if you haven’t already. They’ve given it TV ads, not to mention a priceless promotion on its homepage.
And today, Google is launching an update to its core search engine at Google.com that continues this trend — and then some. They’re calling it ‘Search plus Your World’.
The short version is that Google search results are going to be automatically personalized (to a greater degree than they were already) for each user, with signals drawn from your Google+ Circles being used to highlight things your friends — or you, yourself — have shared. Any of these personalized matches will appear alongside ‘normal’ search results. And Google will also pull in photos shared on Picasa or Google+ (they’ll even show up if you’ve marked them private, but they’ll still only be visible to you).
This is probably easiest to understand with an example, so here goes. Say I was to run a query for the term ‘Harry Potter’, as I am wont to do.
For most people, this would probably pull up links to the books, the films, and a variety of fansites. For this intrepid reporter, though, the results would also include my Picasa album shot at a Harry Potter premiere a few years back (and labeled as such). These images would pop up both in the main search results page, and in Google Images results. Likewise, any blog posts my friends had shared on Google+ about the boy wizard would show up in my results too.
This may not sound like a huge deal, but it’s foreshadowing a bigger change to come: Google is going to increasingly become a search engine for all of your stuff.
It’s starting small, with Google+ and Picasa integration. But over time we’ll likely see results from Google Docs, Gmail, Contacts, Music, Voice, Wallet, and so on. You’ll go to Google.com, type in whatever it is you’re looking for, and you’ll see both your own content alongside web results. It’ll be an Omnibox for everything, and if it figures out a way to incorporate third-party data as well (be it through partnerships or APIs), it could be very powerful.
Of course, Google isn’t confirming any of that yet (they don’t comment on future releases, etc.). But when I posed the scenario to Jack Menzel, Product Management Director of Search at Google, he seemed to indicate that I was on the right track.
Anyway, that broader search functionality is still likely a ways off. So let’s get back to the things that are being introduced now.
Today’s launch also uses Google+ data for another purpose: helping you search for information about people whose names typically make that a difficult task. Say you wanted to run a query for someone named Roger Smith on Google. This would typically be pretty tough, as there are a bunch of people named Roger Smith. But with this launch, Google is making things potentially easier.
Type in a name in the new version of Google, and an autocomplete box will pop down that includes results from Google+. You may see several Roger Smiths, but you’ll also see their profile photo, current city, and a link to their Google+ profile. Click the one you’re looking for, and Google will try to serve up results pertaining to that particular Roger Smith.
Which is both cool, and, to some people, potentially frustrating. There are plenty of people who, for whatever reason, have photos or blog posts online that they’d rather not have other people find. Some of them are fortunate enough to have a common name (or to share a name with a celebrity) that ensures these stories don’t get surfaced very often. This could change that.
Google is also going to start promoting certain Google+ users within search results. Search for ‘music’, for example, and you may see a handful of prominent musicians on Google+ (say, Britney Spears), along with some handy ‘Add to Circles’ buttons. This could be interesting as a sort of topic-specific suggested user feature (particularly if it works on niche topics), and it’s also obviously a way to promote Google+ to users who have yet to sign up or have stopped visiting.
Finally, the launch includes a few options for managing the new features. A new tab will let you select either the ‘Search plus Your World’ results, or you can toggle back to the old-fashioned, unpersonalized results. There’s also an option in Google settings that will let you opt out of the experience entirely. Google also points out that SSL is now turned on by default for all signed-in users, which is even more important now that it’s personalizing results.
To be clear, this is far from the first time Google has personalized results. It’s been doing so for years, with products like its ‘Social Circles’. Even the now-defunct Google Desktop Search would incorporate files stored on your hard drive into your web-based search results. And the idea of integration social with search isn’t unique to Google, either — Bing has had a longstanding partnership to use Facebook data in its results, and it will also serve up posts your friends have shared alongside its search results.
The key, Menzel says, is that Google is getting a lot better at figuring out when to incorporate this socially relevant data. They’re focusing on showing content not simply because your friend shared it — but because it might actually be helpful. And, as I said earlier, this is really just a taste of things to come. Expect to see Google+ integration go even deeper soon, and for more of Google’s other services to be accessible via one single, universal search. |
Grading an NFL Draft class immediately after its selection is a ridiculous endeavor. But people read plenty of ridiculous things about the draft, so ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. eagerly spits out grades right after the draft is complete.
PLUS: How Jets' Buster Skrine prepared for free agency riches by interning on Wall Street
It typically takes three seasons to accurately determine how a draft class worked out (or didn't). And here's how we graded the Jets' 2013 draft class after three seasons.
On Wednesday, Kiper took another stab at his 2015 draft class grades. What did he think of the Jets' class?
Well, he upgraded the class from an A-minus (his immediate post-draft grade) to an A. This isn't exactly scientific stuff, folks, but here's how Kiper explained himself:
The last sentence in my draft grades write-up was this: "And remember: I factor Brandon Marshall into this draft." Well, for a sixth-rounder [in a trade with the Bears], all Marshall did was deliver an All-Pro-caliber season (in my book) with 109 catches, 1,502 yards and 14 touchdowns. Not too shabby. The Jets also have my defensive rookie of the year in Leonard Williams, whom they got at No. 6 even though he was No. 1 on my Big Board. Lorenzo Mauldin really came on down the stretch, and Devin Smith had flashes before he got hurt, though he looked raw. Something worth noting: Plenty of Jets fans wanted them to grab Kevin White of West Virginia at No. 6. They went with Williams. White didn't play a down this season and Marshall was a star. The front office deserves a lot of credit.
Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan, a rookie in that job last year, has repeatedly said that drafting Williams at No. 6 was a no-brainer pick -- in keeping with Maccagnan's "draft the best player available" philosophy.
The Jets already had Marshall and Eric Decker when they drafted last spring, so they didn't really need to use the No. 6 pick on another receiver, White, whom the Bears took at No. 7. Maccagnan was pleasantly surprised when Williams fell into his lap at No. 6. It was an easy decision for Maccagnan to pick the defensive end.
As it turned out, the Jets did just fine with Marshall and Decker carrying their passing offense in 2015, with minimal help from other receivers, including Smith, the second-round pick who played in 10 games and caught nine passes.
Grading Jets' 2013 draft class, 3 years in
If you want to check out more draft grades, here's how our Dom Cosentino graded the Jets' 2015 draft, after the season.
Darryl Slater may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook. |
CLOSE Parkway RB E.J. Williams had a big night in win
Scott Smith, superintendent of Bossier Parish Schools. (Photo: Bossier Parish Schools)
Six national organizations now accuse Bossier Parish schools and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association of violating the First Amendment over prayer and student protests during the national anthem at school events.
The organizations — American Atheists, Center for Inquiry, Freedom from Religion Foundation, American Humanist Association, Secular Student Alliance and Secular Coalition for America — sent letters Oct. 5 asserting the violations.
The letters were sent to Bossier Schools Superintendent Scott Smith and Eddie Bonine, executive director of the LHSAA.
"Our organizations represent the atheist, agnostic, humanist, and other non-believer communities in the United States," the letter states. "We stand for the protection of the freedom of speech of the students concerned, as well as the need for the preservation of the wall of separation between church and state — two cornerstones of our freedoms."
The LHSAA said it has not, and cannot, violate the First Amendment because it does not have authority over school districts' policy and procedures.
The Bossier schools superintendent had not officially responded to the organizations as of Thursday. But Scott did issue a statement saying the district would not bend to outsiders trying to establish secular approaches for Bossier Parish.
The letters were prompted by events in late September surrounding potential national anthem protests in Bossier Parish.
Smith said in a Sept. 27 statement tied to national anthem protests by National Football League players that Bossier athletes would stand during the anthem before games or face consequences.
"Freedom is not free," Smith said in that statement.
Any punishment for protesting, Smith said then, would be left to individual schools. The next day, Parkway High Principal Waylon Bates sent a letter to athletes and parents saying that players who failed to stand during the national anthem would lose playing time and may be removed from teams.
Louisiana schools are on notice: Forcing students to stand during the national anthem or punishing those who #TakeAKnee would violate students’ First Amendment rights. pic.twitter.com/ehmYszr5LX — ACLU (@ACLU) September 28, 2017
The groups asserted in the letters to Bossier Schools and the LHSAA assert that Smith's approach undermines a student's right to expressive speech.
"The right of an individual, child or adult, to speak his or her mind on matters of public concern is unassailable, whether in the classroom or on the athletic field," the letter reads.
The potential for students to be punished for their speech also drew the groups' ire.
The group argues that the Bossier Parish School District, the LHSAA and the Louisiana School Board Association, which also advised that punishment was up to school districts, have a responsibility to honor students' right to protest.
"Retribution against an individual for peacefully exercising that right in a non-disruptive manner strikes at one of the fundamental pillars of a free society," the letter reads. "Punishing students for speaking their minds runs counter to one of the main objectives of our public schools: training our children to become active participants in a free society."
Also at issue is a student-led Christian prayer before the Sept. 29 game between Parkway and Airline high schools. In the prayer, the student thanked Jesus at the end of her message, according to The Washington Post.
"The Supreme Court has been clear that religious activities like this ... constitute an endorsement of religion which violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," the letter reads, citing a case where the U.S. Supreme Court barred a public high school in New Mexico from holding student-led, student-initiated invocations at football games.
"We therefore request that you send us a copy of the school district's policy regarding prayers at school events, including athletic contests," the letter reads. "If the district has no such policy, it is imperative that one be developed which respects both the United States Constitution and the rights and dignities of all students, including atheist, agnostic, other non-believing, and minority-faith-holding ones."
The organizations made three requests: Any policies infringing on a student's right to peacefully protest be rescinded; student athletic contests not have religious ceremonies; and governing bodies like the LHSAA implement policy that protects students' constitutional rights instead of allowing schools to make individual decisions.
The LHSAA responded Oct. 9 in a letter by Mark Boyer of the law firm Boyer, Hebert, Abels & Angelle, saying the organization did nothing to violate the First Amendment.
"The LHSAA exercises no authority over ... individual school district's policies and procedures," the LHSAA said in its response.The groups are reviewing the LHSAA's response and intend to follow up, said Sam Grover, associate counsel with Freedom from Religion Foundation.
While Bossier schools have not responded formally to the groups, Smith, the superintendent, said in a statement this week to The Times that the district would not change its stance on prayer and the national anthem.
"The letter from the American Atheists and its co-signers has been forwarded to our attorneys for review," he said. "However, until we are instructed by a higher authority to reverse our district's stance, we stand firm.
"A letter from groups whose goal is to establish a secular society void of traditional values does not come close to reflecting the ideals held in Bossier Parish and will not affect our stance whatsoever."
Bossier Schools has drawn the attention of First Amendment hawks before on church-state separation issues.
In the fall of 2015, Bossier schools faced complaints from the American Civil Liberties Union over a student group's plan to place "prayer boxes" at Airline High School.
And Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote to the district Sept. 1 to object to student-led prayers at Benton High's May 20 graduation. The district has issued a formal response to Americans Untied, according to Americans United staff attorney Ian Smith.
Staff writer Roy Lang III contributed to this report.
CLOSE Meet the Reporter - Nick Wooten (Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)
Read or Share this story: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2017/10/12/6-groups-take-aim-bossier-schools-over-student-protests/754522001/ |
Left-lane laggards, this bill’s for you.
Gov. Christie on Wednesday signed into law a bill that could double fines for motorists who fail to stay to the right on New Jersey highways.
Lane hogs who clog the left or center lanes instead of using them to pass another vehicle will see fines increase from between $50 and $200 now, to between $100 and $300. The measure calls for $50 from each violation going toward signs reminding motorists who enter New Jersey about the state’s keep-right law.
New Jersey has one of the stricter stay-right laws, but the rules vary across America.
One state over, for example, Pennsylvania allows motorists traveling at a speed greater than the traffic flow to remain in the left lane.
Motorist Tom Van Nostrand, who carpools daily on the New Jersey Turnpike, sees other vehicles, particularly buses, acting like they own the left lane.
"This aggravates a lot of drivers and forces them to pass on the right — and the situation becomes very dangerous," he said.
Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth), a co-sponsor of the legislation, said that besides drinking and driving, failure to stay right is perhaps the most hazardous action on roadways — and also a trigger for road rage.
"It’s extremely frustrating to be stuck behind someone who is not practicing proper lane discipline, keeping to the right," said O’Scanlon, who co-sponsored the measure with Assemblyman Gilbert "Whip" Wilson (D-Camden). "If you are not passing, you should not be in the left lanes of any highway. If you drive on the (Garden State) Parkway for longer than 5 or 10 minutes, you see people just blatantly ignoring this most decent principle of highway driving."
There were 4,233 tickets written last year for violations of New Jersey’s stay-right law, according to the state judiciary. It is a 2-point violation.
O’Scanlon said he recently drove in Ireland, where there were generally two lanes of travel in each direction, but drivers know how to practice lane discipline.
"Traffic there, despite a lot of traffic and despite fewer lanes, moves much more efficiently and safely than it does on many of our highways," he said. "That shouldn’t be the case."
State Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), who originated the bill in the Senate, runs across "completely oblivious" left-lane bandits during his frequent trips on the Atlantic City Expressway. State Police told him drivers usually aren’t cited for failure to keep right unless they hang out in the lane for 3 miles, he said.
O’Scanlon said that for him, the education of drivers regarding New Jersey’s keep-right law is more important than the increased fines.
"It might seem like it’s not that big of a deal, but it is," he said. "It’s a safety issue. It’s a highway efficiency issue. This is not brain surgery. If you’re on the highway, you know the right place to be when you see it."
FOLLOW THE STAR-LEDGER: TWITTER | FACEBOOK
RELATED COVERAGE
• Fines may increase for left-lane campers on N.J. highways
• Left-lane highway hogs could see fines double for failure to move over |
An Icelandic swimming pool has been forced to put up signs forbidding men from using hair dryers on their privates.
The notice was put up by managers at the Sundhollin pool, in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, after they received complaints from swimmers.
One disgruntled visitor Haraldur Jónasson decided to do something about it and wrote an article for a local paper under the title 'This is not a scrotum dryer.'
An Icelandic swimming pool has put up a sign (pictured) forbidding men from using hair dryers on their privates
The article denounced this misuse of the blow-dryers as an example of inconsiderate and offensive behaviour at swimming pools and gyms.
This prompted the management at the pool to impose official rules at the pool complex.
Under Rule number 1 it says: 'Don't dry your scrotum or your behind with the communal hairdryer in the swimming pool or the gym.
The notice was put up by managers at the Sundhollin pool (pictured), in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, after they received complaints from swimmers
'Bald older gentlemen with hairy torsos must either bring their own blow-dryers or just buy a more absorbent towel.'
Sources told Iceland Magazine, that the rules were posted last year.
Icelanders are notorious for the significance they attach to swimming pool etiquette and adhering to the rules. |
It is becoming a well-known fact, in the dog community, that early spay and neuter can lead to many health problems later in life.
But a new study out of Oregon State University is shining a light on the procedure itself and the inherent dangers associated with traditional sterilization.
Gonadectomy is the process of removing the testes or ovaries, and for our purposes(and the study’s), will be used to refer both to spay and neuter. The paper explains that, in a normal adult mammal, the gonads function as a regulatory hub for the hormone testosterone, in males, and estrogen, in females. But in an adult mammal, that has been sterilized via gonadectomy, this process is interrupted, leading to a 30 fold increased concentration of Luteinizing hormone(LH), a pivotal component of the system of regulation.
The authors go on to show that, while most LH receptors are in the reproductive system, there are many that exist outside of it and the increased concentrations resulting from sterilization in this manner may cause increased risk for various health and behavioral issues.
The researchers discuss the adverse effects of gonadectomy, such as increased obesity, development of urinary calculi(solid particles), increased risk of diabetes development, urinary incontinence, increased risk for cranial cruciate ligament rupture, hip dysplasia, and a host of other physiological issues.
All of these conditions are shown to be, at least somewhat, reliant on the LH hormone.
One of the most interesting conclusions of this study is the effect that gonadectomy and the subsequent super concentration of LH have on the behavior of the dog.
The study concedes that the research on this subject has come down on both sides of the fence. Some seem to find that behavior problems improve while others find that sterilization causes an increase or worsening problematic behavior.
They cite the specific example of “reproductive-related behavior” such as mounting, marking, etc being reduced in dogs that have been sterilized. But go on to feature a host of problems related to gonadectomy, which include increased aggression and fear.
The behavior that is mentioned as becoming more problematic both find their origins in the part of the brain called the hippocampus and hypothalamus which have an abundant amount of non-reproductive system LH receptors. The authors posit that the changes in the fear and aggression levels in dogs, post-sterilization, may be the result of the increased concentrations of LH in these parts of the brain.
The study concludes that “canine gonads are no merely reproductive organs but critical to endocrine, musculoskeletal, behavior, and anti-neoplastic health” and, as a result, “a surgical sterilization method that enables the dog to keep gonads intact while still preventing reproduction is likely to prolong its health” |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.